The Finale of Private Chefs of Beverly Hills Season Two: Time for Schmaltz and Honey

Wow. It seems like only yesterday we gathered at Smashbox to shoot these promo shots.

It was a warm February day and I put on Beyonce and Lady Gaga's "Video Phone" to get us all in the mood. Memories.

Tonight, the finale of Private Chefs of Beverly Hills season two airs on Food Network. Is it the last episode ever or just the last episode of the season? Only time will tell. But I'm left feeling wistful and nostalgic this afternoon, thinking back to the days when PCoBH was just starting; like when Chef Brian and I had just forged Team Awesome..

Or when we catered our own premiere party on the rooftop of the Thompson Hotel in Beverly Hills...

And all the people the audience never saw who made the show possible and kept us looking and sounding good...

It's been an amazing journey. Thank you to everyone who came along for the ride!

And, finally, a few recipes from tonight's show. How fitting that we would end on a schmaltzy note.

“What am I…” Chopped Liver with Schmaltz Fried Onions
make 12-16 servings

Reserved skin from 1 chicken, about 1 cup
1 onion, thinly sliced
1 lb chicken livers, trimmed and rinsed well
2 eggs, boiled and finely minced
matzo, broken into bite-sized shards
kosher salt and freshly cracked pepper to taste

In a skillet over medium heat, sauté chicken skin until it releases its fat and the fat begins to turn golden brown, about 20 minutes. Remove chicken skin and pour off half of render fat, or schmaltz. Add onions to pan with remaining chicken fat and cook until onions are translucent, tender and caramelized, about 10 minutes. Season with salt to taste.

Remove half of onions from pan and set aside. Raise heat to medium-high and add reserved chicken fat and chicken livers to remaining onions.

Saute livers, turning once, until cooked on the outside but still lightly pink inside, about five minutes. Roughly chop chicken livers by hand and season with salt and cracked black pepper.

Spoon chopped liver onto matzo and top with minced egg and reserved schmaltz fried onions.

“Land of Milk and Honey” Carrot Milkshakes with Saffron Ice Cream and Nutmeg and Cinnamon Cotton Candy
makes 10-12 servings

Saffron “Land of Milk and Honey” Ice Cream:
2 cups cream
2/3 cup half and half
½ cup superfine sugar
½ cup honey
2 large eggs
20-30 strands saffron (about a tablespoon, loosely packed)

3 cups fresh carrot juice
1 cup whole milk
2 cups cotton candy, preferably white or orange
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon cinnamon
edible gold for garnish (optional)

In a small saucepan over medium-low heat, stir together cream, half and half, sugar, honey, eggs and two-thirds of saffron. Bring to a simmer and slowly cook, stirring constantly, until cream mixture turns a gentle yellow color, about 5 minutes.

Remove from heat and allow to steep as it cools, about 30 minutes.

Strain and pour into an ice cream maker. Add remaining strands of saffron and process according to manufacturer’s instructions, then freeze until ready to use.

In a blender, combine half of ice cream with carrot juice and whole milk. Blend until thick and creamy. Pour into serving glasses and top with a scoop of saffron ice cream.

Garnish with cotton candy dusted with nutmeg, cinnamon and edible gold (if using). Serve immediately.

"Burlesque" Stars Cher and Christina Aguilera Talk "Gay Fantasia," and Flaming Bananas Foster with Sea Salt Peanuts

When she walks into a suite at the Four Seasons hotel on a Sunday afternoon in November, a black sweater studded with gold sequins wilting off her milky shoulder and skin tight black pants revealing the body of a 20-year-old, the entire press corps takes a collective breath and sighs lovingly, “Cher.”

Ladies and gentlemen; we are in the presence of greatness.

Considering this is the woman who played God on Will & Grace, it makes sense that she’d be taking a break from her blockbuster Las Vegas show in order to promote Burlesque, her return to the big screen after a six-year absence, a film her co-star Stanley Tucci calls, “Gay Fantasia.”

Directed by Steven Antin, brother of Pussycat Dolls founder Robin Antin, Cher co-headlines Burlesque with Christina Aguilera, who makes her big-screen debut as Ali, a small town girl with a big time voice who moves to Los Angeles in hopes of becoming a star. Taking a page from the Coyote Ugly playbook, Ali gets a job as a cocktail waitress at the Burlesque Lounge, a once resplendent nightclub that’s now ailing, and falls under the tutelage of the owner, Tess (Cher), and her rapier witted stage manager (Tucci, who could read the phone book and be compelling) once they discover her incredible abilities. It’s a lush, beautifully photographed movie musical filled with show-stopping song-and-dance numbers, that call to mind films like Gypsy, Chicago, Flashdance, La Cage aux Folles and just a splash of Showgirls (in the funny, campy way minus the sleaze).

Asked why she stepped away from an acting career that earned her wide critical acclaim for iconic roles in films like The Witches of Eastwick, Mask, Silkwood and her Oscar-winning turn in Moonstruck, Cher takes a pull from a Big Glup-sized iced coffee, shrugs and says simply, “I forgot. Nothing came to me that I liked, except a part in Mamma Mia, which I was on the road and couldn’t do. I’ve been busy, it’s not like I've been a shut-in, but I forgot that I like acting so much.”

Effortless and charming, Cher’s performance is also a reminder of just how talented she is. According to Aguilera, Cher’s professionalism and level of performance were the best on-set learning tools she could have asked for on her first film.

“Cher; what a better person to learn from?” Aguilera smiles. “And she is just as good, if not better, in her off-camera moments. She really pushes the other person’s buttons to make them react and make them even better than what the dialogue calls for. She makes it easier for the other [actor].”


In response, Cher praises her co-star’s transition from singing superstar to actress. “She was nervous but she held herself well. I’d be frightened too to walk onto a set where you’re starring in a movie and you don’t know what to expect. I think she did a great job of not being so nervous that it diminished her performance.”

Aguilera admits that she wasn’t always confident and assured. After years of being asked to appear in different films, she says she waited for right project came along because she “wasn’t going to do a movie just to say I did it. I wanted to really believe in something and feel passionate about it.”

First approached by the studio, she liked the idea of a burlesque movie but wanted to see changes made to the character. “It just wasn’t something for me,” Aguilera explains. “[Ali had] no backbone, no bite. She had to have more drive, more passion. They rewrote her and I think they made her into more of a fighter for me,” she says, unwittingly name-checking her own 2003 hit single. Meeting with director Antin, who used things like Caravaggio paintings and Ellen von Unwerth photography to convey the visual world he planned on creating, sealed the deal.

“Burlesque can be presented in many different ways,” Aguilera continues. “He’s a big Fosse fan, he was inspired by Cabaret [and] Liza Minnelli; I knew Steven would do it in a classy, elegant way.”

Asked if Burlesque will be her big screen swansong or just the beginning of another long string of exceptional performances, Cher shares a bit of her life philosophy. “I don’t believe the word No,” she says. “No is a bullshit word that someone made up. I think if you’re an artist, you just don’t care. And if you’re a regular person, you try to care less.”

Burlesque is currently in theaters

What else could you make for Gay Fantasia than...

Flaming Bananas Foster with Vanilla Ice Cream and Honey-Sea Salt Peanuts
Serves 6-8

1 cup roasted unsalted peanuts
1 cup honey
sea salt to taste
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
6 firm bananas, sliced
4 tablespoons dark rum, preferably Myer’s (Can also be used to make a Dark and Stormy to accompany the dish. The drink is equal parts Myer’s Rum and Reed’s Ginger Beer served over ice.)
6-8 scoops good quality vanilla ice cream, frozen yogurt or, if you can find it, Laloo's Goat Milk Ice Cream (delish beyond words)

Combine peanuts and honey and season with salt to taste. Set aside.

In a large skillet, over medium heat, melt butter and add sugar, stirring to combine until sugar melt, about 3 minutes.

Add bananas and sauté another 3-5 minutes, until a thick caramel coats the bananas and they begin to soften.

Spoon honey nuts over ice cream and top with a light sprinkle of sea salt.

Add rum and carefully ignite with a torch lighter, match, or by gently tipping pan into burner flame. Shake pan until flames subside.

Spoon bananas over ice cream and peanuts and serve.

Getting "Tangled" with Mandy Moore and Zachary Levi, and Brothers Grimm Cherry-Chocolate Mousse

Rapunzel, the tale of a long locked princess trapped in a tower, began as a Grimm fairytale but has gone on to infiltrate culture on all levels, from bedtime stories to Beastie Boy lyrics to the classic farce, Airplane! In the new film, Tangled, the tale is rewoven once again.

Renamed because Disney felt The Princess and the Frog would have fared better had it not had the word “Princess” in the title to alienate male ticket buyers, Tangled infuses the classic story with a strong feminist streak, dazzling beauty that actually justifies it’s 3D projection, and Alan Menken music, one of the touchstones of Disney’s great late 20th century films like Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and The Little Mermaid. Featuring the vocal stylings of Mandy Moore (actress, singer, designer, well adjusted former teen star) and Zachary Levi (Chuck’s Chuck), Rapunzel’s golden locks are fitting considering the film is the fiftieth released by Disney.

Sitting down with the actors at Disneyland, where the night before they’d met their character counterparts in the park, neither had fully absorbed the enormity of what it meant to be part of the Disney legacy.

“You can’t get more classic than being part of a Disney animated film,” Moore beams, tucking a stand of shiny brown hair behind her ear with a nail painted a sparkly nude. “For me, that’s something I’ll have in my back pocket for the rest of my life and I feel so honored, so lucky, to think this film will be around long after I’m gone.”

“Some people have been working on [this movie] for seven years,” Levi points out. “It’s pretty incredible how long it takes to make an animated movie.”

Asked what excited them most about their parts, beyond being plucked from a field of about 500 actors, all jockeying to be the next Disney prince and princess, Moore says, “I loved having the opportunity to portray a young woman who is so fearless. She’s not a victim, she’s not naïve; she’s open and warm, engaged and spirited and ready to embrace the unknown, whatever comes her way. What I knew about Rapunzel was the sort of damsel in distress who lets down her hair so the prince can save her and our story kind of flips that on its head.”

“I consider myself to be a walking cartoon anyway,” Levi blurts, gesticulating wildly and beaming like he just got a new set of Star Wars bed sheets. “I kind of felt at home doing it. A little bit.”

“I love musical theater and I’m a huge Alan Menken fan,” Moore continues, “To be a Disney princess in a Disney film, it has been a total dream come true, but it wasn’t until I got until the studio that I realized, ‘Oh my gosh, how am I gonna do this? How am I going to get through this?’”

For both actors, stepping into the recording booth had unexpected challenges and they relied on directors Nathan Greno and Byron Howard to shepherd them through the process. The directing duo came up through the ranks at Disney, beginning as interns and first worked together in the animation department on Mulan in 1998.

“They balance each other out and finish each other’s sentences,” Moore points out. “Bryon was really good at picking up where Nathan left off. They’re really good partners because they worked in tandem. And they were just as excited to be there as we were.”

Now that Tangled is completed, their place in the Disney pantheon secured, Levi admits watching the film can be a bit cringe-inducing. You know the answering machine phenomenon, where you hear your voice and think, “I sound like that?” I asked Levi if voicing an animated character is the ultimate version of that.

“Yeah, it is, totally! One hundred percent,” he nods. “Mandy keeps saying, ‘Oh, I heard it and my voice sounds so shrill but Zach’s got this classic Disney hero voice,’ and I’m like, ‘What are you, cra—I sound like Seinfeld. I sound just nasally.’ I don’t feel like I sound good and I feel like she sounds fantastic.”

Tangled is currently in theaters

In honor of Rupunzel's German roots (ohhh, the puns are just too easy today!), a dessert befitting a Bavarian princess:

Chocolate Mousse with Wine-Soaked Cherries and Whipped Cream
Serves 6

Mousse-
6 oz. good quality semi-sweet chocolate, chopped, plus extra for shaving
4 eggs
1 cup heavy cream
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Wine-Soaked Cherries-
1/2 cup red wine
1/2 cup granulated sugar
zest of one lemon
3/4 pound cherries, pitted

Whipped Cream-
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
2 teaspoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Melt chocolate in a double boiler.

While chocolate is melting, separate eggs.

Beat yolks with 2 tablespoons sugar until they become light yellow and creamy.

Temper yolks with a few tablespoons of melted chocolate before adding the rest of the chocolate, stirring until well combined. Set aside.

Beat whites with remaining tablespoon of sugar until stiff peaks form. Set aside.

In a large, cold bowl, beat cream until stiff peaks form.

Gently fold both egg whites and cream into chocolate-egg mixture. Spoon mousse into individual serving bowls or one large bowl. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

To prepare cherries, combine wine, sugar and lemon zest in a large saucepan. Bring to a boil and add cherries. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer until slightly reduced, about 10 minutes. Cool.

To serve, whip cream with sugar and vanilla. Top mousse with cherries and whipped cream.