A Day Making the Most Popular Pancakes in NYC

As a Sous Chef, it's my job to teach the people

to make sure every single recipe is really consistent

and the texture is good.

I love being a chef.

My heart is in here.

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I was working in construction in Mexico.

When I get in this country,

I saw people cooking,

and I said, oh, I wanna be like those guys.

My first job was a festival.

Chez Ma Tante is very, very popular for brunch.

We have the best pancake in New York.

We sell over 400 pancakes per day.

Today is Friday, we have a big weekend ahead.

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Hi, my name is Fernando,

I'm a Sous Chef at Chez Ma Tante.

Come inside please.

This is our dining room.

We can see just a hundred people in this dining room.

Chez Ma Tante is an American restaurant,

but it's more European style cooking.

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[speaks Spanish]

And this is my list.

So tomorrow I gotta be ready for 300 covers.

[speaking Spanish]

Okay, so now I gotta do a pancake, with extra love.

Every single pancake in here.

That's just my secret.

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So we sell around 400 pancakes per day,

just for one brunch.

I wanna start doing this first.

So, I have sugar.

Sugar, it helps to make it crispy, caramelized.

Okay, so I wanna do so many lemons in here for flavor.

And the pancakes is different from the other places

because we do lemon zest in there.

I think it's a secret part.

We use just exactly the lemon zest.

Just the yellow one.

If we use a white part, it's more a bitter,

so that's not good.

That's not the flavor that I'm looking for.

I have my eggs in here.

Half part are normal eggs

and half part are yolk.

We need a some egg whites to bring proof,

but not that over.

So that's why we level with yolks.

So they don't get over, over proofed.

Just like that, with one hand, and open it.

See?

Easy.

We use 32 egg yolks.

The egg whites we separate,

and we use if people ask for egg white scrambled eggs.

So we don't waste any in here.

So I have the eggs ready

and now it's got go into the mixer machine.

I drop the eggs first.

Now I drop in all this sugar.

[mixer motor whirring]

I am from Mexico, I got here 16 years ago.

My first job was in pastry

and then I moved to a line cook.

But now I love this job,

and I love this place,

because I do everything.

I can do pastries, I can do pancakes,

I can cook and I can prep.

So okay guys, you can see now the mix is already proofed.

The egg whites, yolks, and the sugar.

All this mix comes together.

The color is changed.

So now we're adding the milk in here, so slowly.

So I want to pour half now, right. . .

So now it's ready to add in the flour.

I got to do cup by cup in here,

and mix it in slowly.

But it's gotta fit.

All this flour's gotta absorb up the liquid.

So you can see now.

It's reducing right now,

there's is a little space

Because also it's gotta fit all this milk too.

Trust me, it's magic, technically.

The pancakes I made in Mexico are the ones we buy

that are in a powder and already mixed,

that my mom has cooked for me.

I can cook for her now.

This is one of my favorite dishes in here.

All my love is in here.

Now I gotta add this clarified butter in here.

Clarified butter, it helps the pancakes

to make it nice and crispy.

Because remember, we bake over 400 pancakes a day.

So this will help a little bit, to get fast cooked.

So you see we have enough space now.

This mix is ready to go.

And I wanna test one out and that's it.

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This is for the size of the pancakes.

It is easy to drop on the plancha.

Always, we test a couple of pieces,

to make sure it's nice.

We press it like two times.

The oil we use is clarified butter.

So this is help to get nice and crispy.

It's almost there.

We know the moment to flip it,

because the bubbles is on top.

I make sure on the bottom it's nice and brown

because we're looking for that crispy part.

So we flip it.

So always I flip it to that side

because the oil can spill on my arms.

So you see guys now it's nice and browned,

this is the kind of pancake we need in here.

It's really, really perfect pancakes.

So, and the maple syrup, I gotta put it

right after we take it off of the plancha,

because this syrup, I want it going inside the pancakes.

When it's hot, that's the best moment to absorb up

all this syrup inside.

So I wanna make sure the flavor is in there.

Hmm, that's delicious, crunchy on top.

But when you bite, it's soft in the middle.

The texture is very well,

and it's ready for the customers.

Very good.

Okay guys, 10 o'clock.

So now we're gonna do Pigs Head Terrine.

So I gotta grab all the condiments.

Okay, let's go.

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I just gotta grab the pig head from the oven.

It's too hot.

Gotta take out, gotta be careful because, so much hot.

So let's see it, how is it?

We run it for two days.

We use salt, water, putting salt in here.

We cook it with regular water.

So this has been there for two hours

and now it's already cooked.

This dish we've had since we opened this restaurant.

This pig head, we are slicing it.

So we serve it with sunny-side eggs,

we serve it with parsley, onions, lemon zest, lemon juice,

and a couple piparras.

Pig Head Terrine is an English and French style of dish.

But at Chez Ma Tante, we do our own style.

But that's really, really a simple recipe

and delicious dish.

Sometimes when the people know about this pig head,

they get a little scared.

But with this meat, it's very delicious

because it's fatty, nice and soft.

And the flavor is different than the rest of the pork

because the brain, because the eyes, the tongue,

every single part is different flavor.

But when we mix together, we get just one flavor.

So most people throw away this part of pork,

this pig head.

We use the whole thing.

It's one of those favorite dishes in here.

I don't need these one.

Put that with the garbage.

Yeah, see this is the nose here.

A little [speaks Spanish].

We use everything, we use the brain, we use the nose,

we use tongue, we use the eyes.

See here?

That's the eyes.

We use the eyes too.

So this pig head is split in half.

And then I take out all the meat.

So this is the tongue.

I take it apart, put in my bowl.

This here, the [speaks Spanish].

It's a little [speaks Spanish].

This dish for me is kind of,

I remember my country,

because it's like [speaks Spanish].

With this dish, I remember that.

So that's why I'm happy to serve it.

I wanna make sure there's not any bones in there.

So I'm gonna feel it, part by part.

A little [speaks Spanish] here.

You see?

I find one bone, so that's why I'm making sure

with my hands.

Now it's ready to get the condiments inside here.

We use juniper.

Juniper is so strong.

So we started with a little.

Now I do four spices here.

This is the mustard, the mustard Dijon.

Gonna do like one full spoon.

I use sherry vinegar too.

Sherry is more acid, it's a little strong,

but for this pig head, because it's salted,

this balances.

I gotta mix this.

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This knife right here is perfect for chopping this.

It's traditional for chop-chop.

So one way, so I go to the other way.

[knife chops]

I gotta put it back in the bowl.

[speaking Spanish]

One more opinion.

This is the moment to fix it if something is missing.

So. . .

A little more Dijon.

So Hermo says it needs more Dijon.

I'm gonna do half a spoon.

And that's it.

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Now I'm gonna put all this meat in here.

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Now this mold is ready to go to the freezer,

and it's ready to slice in the next two hours.

So almost 11.

I gotta get in a meeting with my CDC.

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Here's Oscar, our CDC from Chez Ma Tante.

How is everything going?

It's good.

[speaks Spanish]

This is a meeting for making sure

what has happened last night

and what is happening this morning.

So we double check the prep list

and then we made sure what about for the next day delivery?

[speaks Spanish]

[speaks Spanish]

[speaks Spanish]

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Now I'm making falafels.

It's really simple recipe, nice and crispy.

We serve it with hummus

and green tahini sauce with a little cucumber salad.

So I just want to strain it first,

the chickpeas.

Chickpeas we soak in water for one overnight.

The reason is because we need them soft

and easy to grind.

Then we pour all these jalapenos in here.

Onions, cilantro.

So this is for flavor too, so it helps to get nice

and green parsley.

So now I gotta drop this on the grounding machine.

The meat grinder, it helps to get nice texture

and a nice size.

You can see it is like, almost a kind of dough.

If we do it on the Robot-Coupe, it's too mushy,

and sometimes makes it like a puree.

This is vegan, it's just vegetables,

and it's a gluten-free.

It's a perfect dish.

It's very, very delicious.

I love it because jalapenos in here.

See nice and green?

This is all the juices coming.

This is the flavor, this is the best part of this.

I'm gonna turn off a little bit, this machine.

Now I gotta add all the spices, the salt.

That's chickpea flour, cumin,

the coriander.

Mix together.

I think that's all ready to go.

I just want taste one piece.

That's it.

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So we use this this scoop.

We use peanut oil.

So this is the moment.

[timer beeps]

So now we have perfect balls.

So you can see inside it's really nice

and hot and cooked.

Hmm, it's hot.

I gotta wait a little bit.

I burnt my tongue.

But it's nice.

Oscar, can you taste this?

[speaks Spanish]

Does it need more salt, or no?

[indistinct]

[speaks Spanish]

So this is falafels.

That's already done.

It's ready to service.

Now it's the time we're gonna do fennel sausage.

Let's follow me.

I gotta do that.

It's my time.

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It's time to make the sausage.

This kind is a Fennel sausage.

It comes with butter beans,

kale and also we do butter.

This is two kilos of meat.

This is the top of the pork shoulder.

This piece of meat is perfect for sausage.

This is a trim from the pork

shoulder we have from the dinner.

And now we gotta ground it in the machine.

I drop on the freezer like for one hour.

We don't need it really, really frozen but we need it hard.

And this part of the pork shoulder is enough fat

for we're looking for.

I got to add it on the mixer machine.

Right here.

So right here is fennel pollen, chili flake,

croton de chile, black pepper and fennel seeds.

Gotta make sure this,

I never forget this.

This is maple syrup.

This is for flavor because the flavor we're looking at,

we are looking at something spicy and sweet.

This maple syrup makes it balanced.

When this comes together,

you can see it's like almost one ball.

So this is what I'm looking for.

A ball.

See?

So now I gotta case it.

This is the machine that I use for casing.

So now I gotta put all the meat inside here.

Put right here.

You can see where there's the meat,

because all this part, because it's frozen.

This is [speaks Spanish].

First of all, the water just helps to bring out the salt,

and helps to get nice and soft,

and easier to put in this stuff in here.

So we got to soak in water like 20 minutes before we use it.

I gotta cut it here.

We are ready for casing,

so I got to start it really slowly.

I'm just making sure with my hands it's nice and tight.

We do the sausage because we have a lot of meat

off the pork shoulders.

We don't waste meat, So we use all that in here.

After this I want to portion it.

So you see all this meat that's inside?

So I gotta make sure all the. . .

all the bubbles that are in here.

So I pinch it with this.

We sear on the grill, and the grill is really hot.

It's over 400 degrees,

and I don't want them exploding in there.

So this is the size we're looking for.

I do one for in front, and one for back,

because if I do them the same way,

the sausage will never get tight.

This is my first round.

Now I'm going to the next round,

because this is not enough for service.

I gotta do over 40 sausages.

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So it's 3:00pm, so now it's time to make Trout Rillette.

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So this is confit trout.

We confit with olive oil and lemon zest.

I've got to strain it, because I use this oil for mayo.

This is a steelhead trout, it's a very delicious fish.

We serve it with crackers.

The crackers are gluten-free.

It comes with chives, pickled red onions,

and also we use roe on top.

So now I making mayo for the Trout Rillette.

I use six jugs of this,

and a little cava vinegar.

So I use the same oil from the confit.

I'm going slowly.

See if I drop it fast, it's broken.

We don't have any more oil with this flavor.

If we broke this mayo, we can't do anymore for today.

So we'd have to wait for the next day to make mayo.

Ready to go.

We use a smoked salmon on this recipe,

just 20 grams.

I gonna chop a little bit.

The reason we use a salmon is we need a smoked flavor

from the smoked salmon.

Now this, throw it all in here.

Making sure every meat is in there.

Nice and fresh in here.

For a kilo of the rillette, I use half a cup of mayo.

This rillette is popular on the menu

so we have it brunch and dinner.

So that's why I gotta taste with Oscar,

he's doing PM's.

We're making sure the flavor is

exactly what we're looking for.

Oscar, [speaks Spanish].

Just let me know how this tastes,

and can I add more mayo, or salt, or acid.

A little more acid I think, right?

Yeah, a little more cava maybe.

It's super nice.

I'm gonna add a little more cava vinegar in here,

and it's gonna be ready.

And that's it, it's already done.

Now it's four o'clock.

I gotta double check the prep list is done.

And I gotta start with my orders.

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So check the amount of the butter,

and things for the pancakes

for the weekend. Okay, all right.

Check the amount of the fish for the weekend.

Okay.

And that will be it.

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I gotta go double check the walk-in,

for what else I need there.

So the walk-in is down here.

Hi, Hermo.

[speaks Spanish]

It's a really, really small walk-in,

so that's why we got keep it really nice and organized.

We don't have enough space,

so that's why we're ordering every day.

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Okay, my job is done.

Thank you for following us.

[speaks Spanish]

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