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My name is Ching-He Huang, and I'm known for making Chinese food easy.
So now we're gonna what?
Barbeque sauce, suen jeung.
(Ching) Now I'm on a mission to help struggling restaurants
think outside the takeout box to turn their business around.
Out with the old, in with the new.
Your new signature dish.
(Ching) This is Restaurant Redemption.
I'm in Maywood, New Jersey,
and I've come to help a failing restaurateur.
His name is Joe, and he owns a restaurant called Session Bistro.
We're about 15, 20 minutes outside of New York.
We are in suburbia.
There's lots of little businesses around here,
certainly enough clientele to build up a fan base.
Thank you for calling Session Bistro.
(Ching) Two years ago, Joe quit his job in HR to fulfill
a lifelong dream of owning a restaurant.
This is my life, and people always say, "Are you married?"
Yes, I am-- I'm married to Session Bistro.
(Ching) His hope was to create a space that paid homage to his island roots.
The inspiration of our cuisine... it comes from Hawaii.
Growing up in Hawaii, we always had "fusion" food,
which is a mixture of American and Asian spices.
(Ching) But after investing $200,000
of his own money, he's barely breaking even.
I'm as poor as a rat.
Every day, I'm always scared if I'm gonna lose the business.
(Ching) If things don't turn around soon,
Joe could be waving goodbye to his dream.
Session Bistro...
New American Eclectic Cuisine-- I don't even know what that is.
Hi, nice to meet you.
Sure, follow me back this way.
So tell me, what's going on?
Well, we've been in business for two years and a half now,
and we have very good food, but it seems that
I'm having a problem bringing the people in.
If we don't make it this year, I'm gonna lose everything.
And what's going on? No one's coming?
People say we don't have the identity.
They know we serve American eclectic and Asian food.
We have good food.
We started with fusion, but we're trying to fusionize fusion...
that's why we created New American Eclectic Cuisine.
(Ching) Trying to "fusionize fusion"... I'm already confused,
and it sounds like Joe's food is, too.
Jeff, how long have you been an Exec Chef?
Four months?
I started off as a dishwasher.
Dishwasher?
Yeah.
but can you cook?
(Ching) Joe's team isn't really inspiring confidence in the food,
but chefs often start out
as dishwashers and backup house workers,
so the true test will be how the food tastes.
While they prepare some dishes for me,
I'm going to visit the patio with Joe.
We actually just renovated. [laughs]
You just renovated? It does not look like it's been renovated.
Yeah, this is new.
It's not really an inviting place.
Yeah, I think I'll sit inside.
(Ching) The patio definitely needs an overhaul, and the inside needs a bump up, too.
A wall of clocks doesn't exactly spell a cohesive design plan.
Clocks symbolize death in Chinese culture,
so it's not the best omen for this place,
but none of the decor issues will really matter if the food is good.
Okay, so on this menu, there are influences
from India, Malaysia, America, Japan,
Korea, Italy...virtually every country in the whole world,
and it just spells confusion.
Let's see how it delivers on taste.
So here we have the Korean steak tacos
and the pulled pork tempura.
(Ching) Tempura is a deep-fried dish from Japan
that's light, crisp, and usually a seafood or a vegetable.
This batter is so thick, and it's mushy.
There's grease oozing.
It just tastes of oil.
The sauce is far too vinegary...it's sickly.
We're not off to a great start.
These are the Korean tacos.
(Ching) Korean food features a lot of flavorful marinades
and spicy, pickled vegetables.
I'm not sure that there is anything Korean about steak
topped with salad and a mayo-y dressing.
It's just a thick, creamy, bland sauce.
It's inedible.
This is the Malaysian Flirtation.
The Malaysian Flirtation-- it's their signature dish.
Malaysian cuisine is all about a generous use of spices,
but I have no idea of what
a Malaysian Flirtation is supposed to taste like.
The chicken is overcooked, it's too tough.
I just can't dig into it, and...oh, my god.
It's far too sweet,
and that sauce just kills it.
(Ching) Joe thinks his food is his restaurant's selling point.
I'm not convinced.
Here's the thing-- none of these dishes taste good.
The food is just all over the place, it's confused.
Now come on, you're from an Asian background,
but here's the thing, Asian fusion cuisine,
it's about lightness, freshness, and how to make
those ingredients sing,
not to cover them in a bland sauce.
A lot of people always love this food.
This sauce was overly sweet.
I guess the food critic
who gave a very good review about this
has a different opinion then, so...
My customers call us a hidden gem.
I get good reviews, I get four stars.
That's right.
Well, I'm sorry to say, but they can't be that popular.
There's no one around.
Who created that dish?
This dish was created when the old chef was here.
I had an executive chef there,
but food was not going out as fast as it should.
When was the last time you actually tasted that sauce?
Consistency is very important, and I haven't
tasted the sauce lately, so...every week.
You need to taste it every day.
You have that inexperienced chef in the kitchen.
He has potential... with more leadership,
and that person should be you.
My view is to completely overhaul this menu.
(Joe) When she says that the food is not good at all,
of course it offends me.
I would like to keep some of my food.
A little bump up?
I think you need more than just a little bump up.
There's a lot of work to do, and all these dishes
are really all over the place.
There are just too many conflicting influences
in each dish.
You need to realize, this is the food we make.
He seems to be mentally, actually, holding on to the food,
and I have to break him of that if we're going to get anything fixed around here.
This is my dream, and I invested every single cent here.
You've spent $200,000.
I don't know what you're spending your money on, but it's certainly not the food.
To insult my food, it really hurts.
Your current menu is making your ship sink
faster than you can hold on to it.
(Ching) I'm at Session Bistro in Maywood, New Jersey,
to help Joe Troy turn his struggling restaurant into a successful business,
but in order to save this sinking ship,
I've had to bring to light some hardships.
The food is just all over the place, it's confused.
(Ching) It's been a tough pill for Joe to swallow.
To insult my food really hurts.
Your current menu is making your ship sink
faster than you can hold on to it.
Your business is in a desperate situation.
It's obviously not working, it hasn't been working for two years,
and I can't turn this place around without your help.
This is it.
By hook or by crook, I'm willing to change
or go with whatever, but this is it.
We're gonna go back to the basics,
and we're gonna close down the restaurant.
We're gonna work on the food and on the decor.
We're gonna turn this around, okay?
Okay, let's go.
(Ching) With plans for a grand reopening just two days away,
we have no time to waste.
(Jeff) Yesterday.
Yeah.
I never went to culinary school, so I still don't know
fully all the rules, you know?
(Ching) The food isn't being labeled properly,
and if we don't know when it's been prepared, we don't know if it's fresh.
This is basic stuff.
My job is to do a menu makeover, I'm not the food inspector,
and if there's a question mark of the food, it's all got to go in the bin.
You need to throw that out.
(Joe) It's hard, because every steak,
every sauce, every tortilla...
that counts.
That will cost me about, like, how many?
Ten tables to cover that garbage?
It's a lot.
(Ching) With this much old food in the kitchen,
we have another problem.
They have flies all over their kitchen, and it's gross.
We need to disinfect this whole kitchen.
(Ching) This is not a great start to the day.
Instead of getting on with the menu makeover,
I'm having to swat flies and throw away food in the bin.
It really pisses me off.
(Ching) We've wasted valuable time and money
throwing away all those ingredients.
It's clear to me Joe didn't teach his team the basics of food safety.
Now, let's hope I can teach them the basics of cooking.
The menu is just far too long.
It's far too confusing, you have too many ingredients.
We're going to really focus
so that you are a hundred percent confident
on a very, very small menu.
(Ching) I'm showing them two simple dishes
that will anchor a new, pared-down menu
that will really speak to
the Asian fusion identity of Session Bistro.
The first dish will take the place of
Joe's sickly-sweet Malaysian Flirtation.
A Malaysian classic-- a spicy chicken satay.
It's so simple that a chef of any experience can make it.
This is the main crux of Asian cookery, all right?
Garlic, chile, ginger...
and then some shallots.
Two lemongrass.
This is gonna give you the most wonderful chicken,
and it's got a great story,
and the great story is this Asian fusion of flavors.
All those ingredients... they came from all over the world,
and you yourself are this amazing, exotic blend.
This is your heritage-- do you know what I mean?
(Joe) That is very hard, the change she's telling me,
because that's fighting what I feel.
My feeling says I need to be loyal to my food.
Right now, I'm not convinced.
I don't know whether they can deliver the results,
and, you know, only time's gonna tell.
Guys, it's time to cook.
(Ching) Our chicken satay skewers won't take long.
You wanna get the grill lines.
Light, simple, easy.
What do you think, Jeff?
Happy?
I like the taste and everything, but I was also thinking...
we need an identity, and three blocks,
four blocks away from here, they could find that.
Then, I'm the same thing.
First of all, I'm still hearing a resistance
to changing the menu.
You say that your menu is different
and that people will drive five, ten miles to come here,
but they're not coming.
My accountant said, my lawyer said,
"This sales you have right now is the sales on the third year."
Here's the thing,
your accountant and your lawyers don't know anything, I'm sorry.
The menu is like here, there, and everywhere.
You can't cope with it, because there's just too much.
There's over 20 items on that menu.
Okay, you know what...?
Everything is sickly sweet...
it's confused fusion cuisine, but it's certainly not Asian.
The food we have...this is what they come for every week.
Definitely...definitely, definitely, definitely.
Everything on that menu goes.
(Ching) Tonight is Session Bistro's grand reopening,
and owner Joe Troy is still fighting me about the menu.
Three blocks, four blocks away from here, they could find that.
Then, I'm the same thing.
(Ching) I need him to understand that all these changes are necessary
if he hopes to save his restaurant.
It's the hardest part to start all over again.
It's not about how clever you are.
It's not about how much money you have.
It's none of that.
It starts from simplifying your menu
and then going out there and being very, very focused.
You have to lead this sinking ship
out of the storm.
What are you going to do?
Yes.
Everybody's depending on me in this business.
Finally, there's a little bit of hope,
there's a little more light in his eyes.
This next dish I wanna show you has belly pork.
We always eat pork belly in Hawaii.
Exactly, well that's exactly what I thought.
[chuckles]
(Ching) The final dish we're replacing is Joe's tired pulled pork tempura.
Instead, I'm making a crispy, slow-roasted pork belly
with fresh pineapple and mango salsa.
We start by flavoring the meat with a combination
of citron pepper, clove, fennel, cinnamon, and star anise.
How are you feeling about the pork?
I am excited about the pork.
He still sometimes has a glazed, blank expression of uncertainty.
(Ching) Maybe he just needs some food therapy.
Out with the old, in with the new.
I want you to exorcise all your demons.
A lot of this food are based on my heritage,
whatever we have in Hawaii,
so now I am excited that we have a new recipe which is a pork.
We're just going to add in water.
That little bit of water is gonna heat up
and create some steam while the skin at the top crackles.
(Ching) While the pork cooks, we've got some time to address
the other issue with Joe's restaurant-- it's always empty.
With no money left in the bank to pay for advertising,
we're hitting the streets to drum up some business ourselves.
We have a new restaurant opening.
We're gonna have music, food.
Thank you.
Okay.
(Ching) I really need Joe to step up and be a leader.
If you're running a restaurant, you need to be comfortable talking to people.
I'm just getting the hang of it.
No.
This is our ship, I'm the captain of the ship, and I want to sail it right.
We're having a party this Thursday,
and we have live music, and we have new food.
He's great, he's got it.
Thank you.
(Ching) Hopefully, we've enticed enough people to come to the grand reopening
and to give Session a second chance.
But for now, we need to head back to the kitchen.
Our pork has been cooking for four hours,
so it should be tender, with a crispy, spiced skin.
Yes.
Thank you.
With a bit of the meat.
It is very tasty.
(Joe) I do understand what Ching is saying now.
With a pork and the sauce of different fruits from a tropical island,
which I am from, it created Asian fusion.
I am excited with the new recipe.
Simple, easy, Asian fusion.
It's got the wow factor, it delivers on taste.
Just the one mainstay can transform your restaurant.
I know!
Good.
(Ching) With a new menu in place and Joe finally on board with it,
it's time to put the finishing touches on the decor.
We cleared out the floor, got rid of those horrible, dingy tables.
We sand-blasted it and then replaced them with these, like,
garden deck chairs, which is just so much smarter,
and from the road, people are gonna feel invited to come to this restaurant,
just because the outside looks presentable.
It's a lot to do still.
The old decor was an odd mix of clocks and empty wine bottles.
We've cleaned up the place, given it a fresh coat of paint,
and added some Asian touches, like bamboo.
Bamboo, in Chinese symbolism, is...it means wealth
and that you rise the ranks, because bamboo grows in these nodules,
it's awfully strong, and that's exactly what Joe needs.
He needs strength, he needs direction,
and he needs to go up, up, and up.
(Ching) The restaurant is in great shape.
Now it's time to bring Joe in and see what he thinks.
Okay.
Okay, Joe, you're embracing your heritage.
It's all about Asian fusion.
This is a new beginning... open your eyes.
(Ching) It's been two days since I first arrived to make over Session Bistro
in Maywood, New Jersey.
The grand reopening is moments away,
but first it's time to show Joe his newly redesigned restaurant.
Okay.
Okay, Joe, you're embracing your heritage.
It's all about Asian fusion.
This is a new beginning... open your eyes.
How do you feel?
I like the bamboos... this is very nice.
Oh, my god, look at that... and the plants!
I know!
because the clocks, in Chinese symbolism, means death.
The restaurant is clean and simple.
This is exactly what the cuisine is about.
This will be very cozy, very intimate,
Yes.
Yes.
So even more reason to take you to the patio.
Okay, open your eyes.
Wow.
I love the patio.
Oh, my god, this is it! This is very beautiful.
You ready?
Ready for service?
Yes, I'm ready for service, and I'm ready to meet and greet my customers.
Let's go.
(Ching) And Joe will have plenty of customers to greet.
Our marketing tactics worked like a charm,
and the restaurant is packed.
So now the question is, can the kitchen keep up?
They just need to get more organized and in control of the kitchen.
I'll do the veggies, why?
Speak to each other!
Good, good, get it out.
Halfway through this process, I actually thought,
you know, it's too late, I was ready to walk out.
The blank expressions, the lack of enthusiasm
and just general life that was missing from Joe.
And now...I mean, look at him.
You can feel the energy, you can feel the buzz.
That fire's there.
Delicious.
Oh, really?
I love the little sour, the mango, the sweet
and the little crunchy, and it goes with it.
What did you think about the food?
It's really great now, I like the color,
the outside tables.
We've never been here before, but the ambience is just beautiful.
Just one word, just "awesome".
I'm very excited with the grand reopening.
People are enjoying the food, they're enjoying the design inside.
I cannot wait to pack this place.
How do you feel? You've come a really, really long way.
When I first walked in here, you were confused.
Now, do you feel much more confident?
I am more confident.
This is my ship, I'm the captain of the ship,
and I have all the crew.
All the ingredients are here to make a good restaurant.
What a journey, not knowing whether this restaurant
was going to really sink or rise to the occasion,
and now there's some hope.
People are happy, Joe's happy, he's now the captain of this ship,
and only time will tell if he's going to sink
or sail into the horizon.
I hope it's sailing into the horizon.
My job is done.