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JACI BADZIN: Please welcome to Google New York, Chef Paul
Liebrandt.
[APPLAUSE]
PAUL LIEBRANDT: Thank you.
JACI BADZIN: We're so glad you're here.
PAUL LIEBRANDT: Thank you very much.
JACI BADZIN: It's an honor.
PAUL LIEBRANDT: Pleasure to be here.
JACI BADZIN: So we're going to start at the beginning.
So when and how did your interest in food start?
PAUL LIEBRANDT: When and how.
I would say in my early teens.
I didn't grow up from a food background at all.
So I had no family in the business, as a lot of chefs do.
It's something that they're born into .
So it just happened, growing up in the central London,
I grew mostly at Chinatown, so I guess maybe
that had some connection to food there.
But I would say 12, 13, 14, around that age.
JACI BADZIN: And your first job was
at New York, New York in London.
So besides that being a sign of what was to come--
PAUL LIEBRANDT: Kind of telling, yeah.
JACI BADZIN: Yeah.
What was the biggest challenge of your early years?
PAUL LIEBRANDT: At working in New York, New York?
JACI BADZIN: Yeah.
PAUL LIEBRANDT: When I was a dishwasher--
JACI BADZIN: That's--
PAUL LIEBRANDT: --working illegally,
at 14 years old, because you're supposed to be 16, so I lied.
I'm a tall guy, so they believed me.
But the challenges?
It wasn't really a challenge.
It was fun.
I mean, I was 14 years old, and it was fun.
It's just fun.
JACI BADZIN: That's interesting.
My first job was in a kitchen.
It was actually-- was a waitress.
I don't remember it being that fun.
But I'm glad that you had fun with it.
It's probably why you're this amazing chef.
So you mentioned that you started
working in kitchens at 14.
And you spent a lot of your teenage years
in these restaurant kitchens.
What are some of the biggest ways
that shaped who you are today?
PAUL LIEBRANDT: Well, I think anybody
that works in the kitchen, in a professional kitchen,
will tell you that it really sharpens you up, especially
in early age when you're surrounded
in a very high pressure, highly detailed environment,
it tends to mature you very quick.
So you tend to see that chefs in general around the globe, when
you meet them they're very sharp.
It's just the nature of the business.
You have to be.
So it matured me very quick, quicker
than I would have done if I had gone the traditional route
of going to college, et cetera, et cetera.
So professionally, I started at 15 and went from there, really.
Didn't stop.
JACI BADZIN: So talking about your teenage years,
not only do you have a passion for food,
but you also have a passion for music.
PAUL LIEBRANDT: Hmm!
Absolutely.
JACI BADZIN: And something that I found very interesting
was that this passion that you'd become a DJ at illegal
raves in the early '90s.
PAUL LIEBRANDT: Yes.
JACI BADZIN: Yes.
Very fun time.
PAUL LIEBRANDT: That was fun, yes.
JACI BADZIN: Do you see any similarities
for how you mixed music back then and how you create food?
PAUL LIEBRANDT: Well, the process
of DJing an illegal rave is you'd find a space,
break in illegally, phone a number on a Friday night
and everybody would just show up.
So restaurants aren't quite-- well, maybe they are the same,
but restaurants are a little more organized than that.
The mixing part of it, to me it's about taking two things
and creating something new and different
from two things which already existed.
So whether we take a carrot and a parsnip,
and we make something out of it or we
take a rhythm of one track or another,
and we mix them into creating something
else-- the technique and the feel and the sensibility
is the same.
And it's about using your senses and your intuition
with what's there in front of you
and creating your own personal twist on it.
So for me, yeah, there's a lot of similarity
in that aspect of it, yes.
Not the illegal aspect, just the food part of it.
JACI BADZIN: Well, I bet you would
have an amazing underground food dining restaurant.
PAUL LIEBRANDT: Damn, it was fun though.
Yeah.
JACI BADZIN: It was a fun time.
And yes, I am old enough to remember that.
Many of you here aren't.
But it was a pretty fun time.
If you could go back to your early years,
is there a restaurant or location
that you would train at?
PAUL LIEBRANDT: Yes.
There was a very, very famous chef in France
called Alain Chapel, who passed away far too early,
in his early '50s in Mionnay, in the middle of France.
It was before my time.
But that was one of those great, great chefs who really turned
classical French cooking and put his creative spin on it
in a way which nobody had really seen.
I mean, Ducasse trained with him.
This was the gentlemen that really redefined what today--
our generation and the generation
before us really do with food, the creative aspect.
So for me, that is the one gentleman that I would have
loved to-- I would have actually just eaten at his restaurant
while he was still there, but I was far too
young to obviously do it.
But yes, that would be the gentleman.
JACI BADZIN: That's amazing.
So talking about the book for a bit-- so you
say that this book isn't quite a memoir.
And it's not a cookbook.
But you call it a literary tasting menu.
PAUL LIEBRANDT: It's correct.
JACI BADZIN: It's very cool.
Can you tell us what that means?
PAUL LIEBRANDT: Well, a literary tasting menu.
As with a tasting menu, as with anything
where there are multiple scenes or there
are multiple choruses or rhythms or whatever to it,
it tells a story.
And that's the most important part of it.
A tasting menu, when you have a great tasting menu,
There should be a beginning, a middle, and an end.
And there's ebb and flow to the whole thing,
much the same way as when you go and see an opera or something
similar.
So the book, we wanted to have the same feel to it.
It's not a memoir, because I'm simply not
old enough to have that.
It's a story.
It's not a cookbook, because I didn't
want to do 100 recipes in pictures like a textbook.
So it's something which tells a story in a narrative that
is something that you could follow through
like a tasting menu and arrive at the end
and make your own mind up on whether you enjoyed it or not.
JACI BADZIN: Well, I think it's definitely--
PAUL LIEBRANDT: It's definitely isn't one or the other.
It's something which we tried to do which would--
I wouldn't say break the mold, but I
would say do something different, not do the same.
JACI BADZIN: It's definitely different.
It's definitely-- reading the book,
I hadn't experienced something like that with it's your story,
but then you have these beautiful photos.
And then there's recipes that are ingrained,
but they don't overpower the book,
I think your story definitely shines.
And the images are amazing.
It's a really beautiful book.
There's great imagery, between the food that you create
and these great shots that are taken in the kitchen.
PAUL LIEBRANDT: We had Evan Song,
who's a genius photographer, do the beautiful, beautiful
photographs.
And I said that he makes my job easy,
because he makes it look far better than I think it actually
is.
JACI BADZIN: How long did you work on the book?
PAUL LIEBRANDT: About three years, start to finish.
JACI BADZIN: That actually seems pretty
quick for a book of that size.
PAUL LIEBRANDT: We work quick.
JACI BADZIN: Yes, you do.
Another point in your book, which I thought was interesting
is you reference food as "the food."
Can you describe what that difference
is for you between food and the food?
PAUL LIEBRANDT: I would say it harks back to maybe a more
classic kind of approach, where for me what I do for a living--
I still feel this I will [INAUDIBLE]--
it's there's a reference for what I do.
The food.
The vocational act of the profession
that I've chosen is to nourish, is to feed people.
It's very basic.
It's a basic thing.
But there's something which is very reverent about it.
And for me, the food, I feel honored
to be able to do this for a living.
So when I say the food, I say it in a very respectful
and very almost-- I would say religious term
of it's something which I do to please other people.
It's not just a job.
It's not food.
It's something I hold much higher.
JACI BADZIN: An art.
PAUL LIEBRANDT: No, not an art.
It's a craft.
JACI BADZIN: I was going to say and then I felt art.
PAUL LIEBRANDT: Yes, there's artistic.
Of course there is.
The aesthetic is--
JACI BADZIN: The food on the plate is artwork.
PAUL LIEBRANDT: But this is a craft.
As an artist, I can come in one day and cook a great meal
and then not come back the next day and not have to do it.
Because that's art.
As a craftsman, which I view myself
as a craftsman, albeit maybe an artistic craftsman, every day
I have to come in and deliver to the same level.
Because that's where the consistency and that's where
the expectation for the guest comes in.
So for me that's really what it's about.
And it's a long process.
And it takes decades and decades.
But it's that continual just chipping away.
As somebody who's a sculptor, just everything they do
is just they're chipping away to get the perfect form.
Or a painter.
It doesn't happen overnight.
So for me, the reverence, the rigor, all of that, the food.
JACI BADZIN: The food.
You do it very well.
PAUL LIEBRANDT: We try hard.
JACI BADZIN: You succeed.
So the book guides us through some
of the most famed restaurant kitchens in the world.
Are there any crazy stories that you excluded from the book
that you can share with us now?
PAUL LIEBRANDT: Many, many, many, many.
Yes.
JACI BADZIN: Can you share one of your favorites with us now?
PAUL LIEBRANDT: But this is going on YouTube,
so there'll be like children and stuff watching this,
so I shouldn't really say anything
that might get me in trouble.
JACI BADZIN: Not to get you in trouble.
Maybe one of your favorite stories
from when you were younger?
PAUL LIEBRANDT: When I was younger.
Gosh, those were the days.
So when I was working back in London, one that I do
remember-- and you know, the great British actors--
they have a very-- there's a quirkiness about them
if you ever meet any of the great British ones.
Richard Harris, who played Dumbledore in the first "Harry
Potter" films was one of those guys.
And I worked at a restaurant called L'Escargot
in London, still there-- beautiful place,
been there since 1927.
Grand, classical-- but a very small one.
Almost like a big townhouse.
So I was in the top restaurant, very small.
And there were only three of us in the kitchen.
And Richard Harris comes in one night
and-- this is obviously before "Harry Potter" films--
and came into the kitchen and proceeded to take his shirt off
and asked everybody if he could bum a cigarette off everybody.
I don't even smoke, so I couldn't help him there.
But took his shirt off-- and I think
he was kind of drunk-- took his shirt off-- it was summer.
He said he was hot-- and when he said can I have a cigarette,
in the middle of us cooking his dinner,
and then walked out of the restaurant, down the street,
asking everybody on the street apparently, so I was told,
and the maitre d' had to chase after him and lead him back
to the restaurant and--
JACI BADZIN: That's amazing.
PAUL LIEBRANDT: --take him upstairs.
But he's no longer with us.
God bless him, so I can say that one.
But there are a lot more but, again, children
might watch this, so I don't want to offend any parents.
JACI BADZIN: That's a great one.
And it's a great "Harry Potter" reference [INAUDIBLE]
do for the kids.
PAUL LIEBRANDT: Yeah, I mean, "Harry Potter," it's all true.
It's all true.
You know, that was my childhood growing up in London.
JACI BADZIN: That's so great.
Something else in the book you talk about
is your experience at a "Star Wars" marathon
when you were a kid.
PAUL LIEBRANDT: Oh yeah.
JACI BADZIN: And how you were drawn to Darth Vader.
And I thought it was an interesting story
to find in a chef's book.
So many Googlers here, I'm sure you know,
are "Star Wars" fans, so I have to ask
why does that moment stand out for you?
PAUL LIEBRANDT: Because it was a "Star Wars" marathon.
This is what? '83 when "Return of the Jedi"
came out, so I was seven years old.
And it was my birthday.
And my father-- there was an old theatre called the Dominion
Theatre, a very famous theatre at the beginning of Tottenham
Court Road.
And they had the trilogy on.
And they had all three films.
And it had been timed with the release
of "Return of the Jedi."
And my brother said, right, we're
going to go watch a movie.
And I went, great, OK.
So then we went for eight hours or whatever it was,
of just watching all three in a row.
And it was memorable.
Oh yeah.
JACI BADZIN: I can imagine.
PAUL LIEBRANDT: I wouldn't says I
was drawn to Darth Vader in particular,
just the whole vision of the whole thing I think
is quite stunning, quite stunning.
JACI BADZIN: Are you still a fan of the "Star Wars."
PAUL LIEBRANDT: I can't wait for next year or 2016
or whenever it is when they do the new one.
Oh, JJ Abrams's doing it.
I'm very excited about that.
JACI BADZIN: I actually didn't know that.
Did anybody here know that JJ Abrams was doing the--
PAUL LIEBRANDT: JJ is of course--
JACI BADZIN: Yeah, of course, who am I kidding?
Everybody's like yes.
You're in good company here.
So what was your favorite discovery writing this book?
PAUL LIEBRANDT: It's kind of funny.
It's like when we did the movie.
We filmed the movie over 10 years, 9 and 1/2 years.
So when you talk about your past and then you compile it over
time, and then when you look back on it,
you learn something about yourself.
So whether it be from a narrative point of view
with the book, where I'm talking about things that I hadn't
thought about in years, but for the purposes of this story
that we were compiling here, we were
talking about it, and memories and things.
And the same thing with the movie.
When you look at yourself from a decade
ago-- when you kind of cringe and go oof,
really-- you learn a lot.
Some good, some bad, some things which
inspire you for the future.
My love of Chinese food, I guess,
I know where it comes from now.
JACI BADZIN: Yeah.
PAUL LIEBRANDT: Yeah.
JACI BADZIN: Growing up near Chinatown.
PAUL LIEBRANDT: Yeah, directly opposite.
JACI BADZIN: Yeah.
It's very cool.
What is one cookbook, besides your own,
that people should have?
Well, actually, yours is a literary tasting menu,
but besides that book, what is in a book about food
or a cookbook that people should own?
PAUL LIEBRANDT: One of the first cookbooks
I ever bought, and again, I wouldn't call it
a necessary cookbook, but for me,
what sold me on the profession of what I do now
was "White Heat" by Marco Pierre White, which again,
the visual aspect of it-- because cooking, by nature,
is a repetitive act.
You come every day.
You do the same thing.
And that's good, because that's the nature of the business.
You get better by doing that.
But a cookbook is the same thing.
If it's 100 pages and 100 recipes and 100 pictures,
and you flip through, it can look good
and you can reference something.
But generally you put it back.
You put it back on the shelf.
And it sits in a lovely collection.
"White Heat," at least for me, and I
think for a few other people, was the first book
where it wasn't like that.
There was stunning food shots and stunning recipes,
but Bob Carlos Clarke's beautiful photography
of really capturing what it's like to be
in a professional kitchen.
The sweat, the blood, the tears, the tension,
you see it in the photographs.
It was the first thing for me that
really said I want to do that.
That's what I want to do.
I want to make my life in the kitchen.
And most people would look at it and go "oof,"
because it's gruesome.
I mean, it's grueling.
It looks grueling.
No.
I was enveloped by it.
So for me, I think that is the book
that any young cook should look at.
And it's a very, very realistic view
of what it's like to work in a professional kitchen.
JACI BADZIN: It is.
People say that it was one of-- like you're saying,
it's a first.
PAUL LIEBRANDT: Iconic.
JACI BADZIN: Yeah.
PAUL LIEBRANDT: It's iconic, yeah.
It broke the mold.
It did.
Before that, it was the sort of typical portly French chef
with the giant white hat, standing there like this,
with a cockerel under his arm.
And that's wonderful.
But that's not real.
The realisms are it's sweaty, it's hot, you're tired,
you're undernourished, you have wet hands all the time.
You cut yourself.
People scream at you.
That's the kitchen.
It is what it is.
I mean, that's the nature of the business that we're in.
Thank God it's gotten better than
when I first started over 20 years ago.
But I still think that it's important to understand
the building blocks of why we do what we do.
We're there to cook for people.
JACI BADZIN: Did you see in kitchens and kitchens style,
kitchen etiquette, between London and Europe and New York?
PAUL LIEBRANDT: Very much so.
I think Europe has more-- just simply because Europe
has more of an older lineage when
it comes to culinary history that this country does, just
by the nature of it's Europe.
I mean, you see that the French brigade system is still
very much ingrained.
And the whole reason for me coming to this country,
and to New York specifically, was
I wanted to get away from that.
It's like growing up in the class system in England.
Your place in life and you'll never get any higher,
because you're not born into a certain kind of hierarchy.
It's changed now because, you know, the world changes.
But kitchens-- the difference is very
much like that in a kitchen.
You work for the right people.
And then you've got the totem pole.
Here, the refreshing thing is it really
is-- you make it on your own work for the most part.
But there's a big difference there.
Europe.
I think it's changing more now, in regards
to more young chefs doing their own personal style, which
is great.
And the world is obviously a much bigger place
in terms of that.
There's more options now.
So kitchens have definitely changed a lot, for the better.
JACI BADZIN: What about when you came to New York?
What was one of the biggest surprises or biggest challenges
that you faced as a non-American in a New York kitchen?
PAUL LIEBRANDT: Well, A, my accent.
And vice-- and I talk about this in the book-- vice versa.
Me understanding the American terminology,
especially working with people from California
who would have this very sort of bro-speak kind of way, which
I had no idea what they were saying.
I remember there's a gentleman that I worked at Poulet
and he was working on this side of the stove.
I was working on this side of the stove.
And he would look at me and say, hey, guy, can I take my guy,
and write it in your guy?
When I [STAMMERING]-- like what?
That translated into can I take this piece of lamb
and braise it in the choux that you're making?
I didn't know that, because everyone else seemed to, but I
didn't.
True story.
JACI BADZIN: Wow.
PAUL LIEBRANDT: Yeah.
But little things like that.
And my terminology-- so that actually sounds silly,
but when you're in a kitchen, it's quick.
Like this.
All the time.
And you've got to be very sharp and on the ball.
And a lot of it is sensibility, like I say,
where you have a good team of guys and girls in the kitchen.
And there's that look.
It's that sensibility.
It's a nod.
And you know, if there's course adjustments--
service is like going to war.
You plan, but as soon as you go into it, things change.
You have to adapt.
So I think that was actually, for me, a big one.
And also people eat very quickly here,
as opposed to Europe, because in Europe, you
go to a fine restaurant, you're there for the night.
Right?
Three, four hours-- normal.
And that's part decor.
Here, it's hour and a half, ***.
You want to go.
And the volume aspect.
Fine dining in Europe-- you go to a beautiful restaurant.
It's 30 covers, 30 people, 40 people.
That's it.
Here, it was like 100 plus people.
I'm like, how do you do it?
Organization.
That's how you do it.
So I think that was a big one, big one for me.
JACI BADZIN: That's really interesting thing
about that differentiation and then also-- I mean, it is true.
I forget how fast we eat.
Sometimes in New York, a little bit slower, maybe.
But yeah, it is a definite different experience,
which translates to the kitchen in such
a completely different way, in terms of covers.
PAUL LIEBRANDT: You have to work in a very different way.
JACI BADZIN: So kind of talking more about present,
do you feel that dining in general is being repositioned?
PAUL LIEBRANDT: As far as--
JACI BADZIN: Fine dining, more of casual dining.
Do you think that there's still a place for fine dining?
PAUL LIEBRANDT: Of course.
Absolutely.
JACI BADZIN: And if so, how is it being redefined though.
PAUL LIEBRANDT: You know, this is the thing.
In any form, there's a building block.
So art, there's a building block of fine art.
Music, same thing.
Winemaking, the folks at Petrus make Petrus wine
the same way that they did 100 years ago.
Is it going to go out of fashion 50 years from now?
I don't think so.
I think it's going to be harder for them with the climate.
But I think it's not going to go out of fashion.
The way I look upon it is like any great art form,
let's say, like opera, for example.
100 years ago, people went to the opera.
When they went to the opera, they
wore top hat, white gloves, tails, cane,
because that's what you did when you went to the opera.
You go to the same opera here that was playing 100 years ago,
people don't want wear gloves and a top hat.
But they'll put on a suit and they'll enjoy it.
But they still want the same feel, the sensibility.
They want the same idea that they're
going to see something which is classic and beautiful.
Fine dining is the same.
I think there will always be room
for well prepared, good ingredients
and expertly crafted product, like a sports car,
like anything.
There's room for it.
But how people approach it and how they want to experience
it is different.
You talk about fine dining.
I think it's very interesting that you look at now,
the younger people experience fine dining at an earlier age
now than they did, let's say, 40 years ago,
where if you went to a fine dining restaurant,
of like a Michelin three-star, you
would look at the dining room and it
would be a certain age group.
It would be an older clientele, because that
was what could afford it.
And that was what was deemed as like that's what you do.
Nowadays, the dynamic's changed.
Younger people have more money in their pocket
than they do 50 years ago.
They can afford it.
And people want to experience that.
And so the way that you change your new rhythm of how
you do a restaurant of the style that we do
is you got to make it seem attractive to a younger
clientele, to a more worldly clientele, because people
travel around the world now solely
for gastronomic experiences.
You go on holiday.
You have eating experiences.
So if you go to Hong Kong or Asia-- I mean, I do it too.
You make a list of the restaurants you want to go to,
as opposed to maybe 50 years ago, it was sites or a museum.
Do you understand?
JACI BADZIN: It's very true.
That's so true.
PAUL LIEBRANDT: So the dynamic of how
we produce what we produce, how we do it, the setting the feel,
the tone, the touch, all of it, we have to move with the times.
And I think there's nothing wrong with that.
That's normal.
So it's not a question of that fine dining's dying.
It's not a question that people don't want it.
It's a question of how you approach it,
how you deliver it.
A nicely cooked piece of fish is still a nicely cooked piece
of fish that people can enjoy.
It's a question that a lot of people
would probably disagree with me.
But that's the way I see it.
And it's a good thing.
It's a relevant thing.
You know, it's forward thinking.
JACI BADZIN: Do you see this more--
do you see it being redefined on a global scale
or do you think that it's going to be national,
that what we could see in New York
is going to be vastly different than what we'd see in London?
PAUL LIEBRANDT: Oh, no, no, no.
It's a global.
It's a global.
If you travel around the world and you eat,
you see that what people do in London
is echoing of what we do here in New York, and vice versa.
And you go to Hong Kong, you see restaurants
that are echoing what is happening in Spain or France.
And it's a global thing.
It's not one particular part of the world or city.
What I think is very interesting is
different cultures and different ways of eating
and the sort of cross pollination
when it comes to a style of cuisine blending
with a French-style cuisine.
For example, Ferran Adria with elBulli
and the whole Spanish movement of very molecular, very
technique-driven, very almost pastry-driven style
of cooking, redefining the entire way that we organize
our kitchens ourselves and how we approach food
and taking away the dogmatic view
of a French-style of eating.
Now it's morphed into a Nordic kind of thing.
And the next one is going to be South America.
And that brings a new world to us as chefs
and to customers, because that makes ingredients, for example,
in the Amazonian basin, which it is becoming
and will be the next big global trend available to people
globally, which people had no idea.
I doubt most people-- I mean, maybe
you have, but have had fresh cashew nut pulp.
JACI BADZIN: I haven't.
Anybody here?
PAUL LIEBRANDT: It's unlike-- you can't describe it.
It doesn't taste anything like the nut.
But it's one thing which is very, very specific
to that part of the world.
Things like this, which-- it's great.
It's a good thing.
It's how we learn.
It's how food evolves.
And I think it's a really exciting time.
JACI BADZIN: That's very, very true.
I want to try that, for sure.
Think we can get it here at Google?
PAUL LIEBRANDT: I'm sure Google can source it.
JACI BADZIN: [LAUGHS] I bet Google can source it.
So in this digital age, how do you
see technology changing the way you cook
and how you approach food?
Do you see it having any effects on how
the kitchen is run concurrently?
PAUL LIEBRANDT: Absolutely.
Technology has always gone hand in hand with cooking,
whether it be the hard equipment that we use in the kitchen
or whether it be the precision elements like sous vides,
for example.
The apparatus to get good consistent results
is now more affordable.
It's easy to use.
| I think that right there is technology working
for the betterment of us as chefs.
And then we pass our results on to the consumer.
So they have experience in the hands of a skilled chef.
I think what is very interesting is the sensory aspect of dining
and technology and how that translates to the future,
and how it will translate to the future.
Andoni just at Madrid Fusion presented on this app
that you can smell.
JACI BADZIN: Wow.
PAUL LIEBRANDT: Like scratch and sniff kind of thing
on your phone.
JACI BADZIN: No way.
PAUL LIEBRANDT: Yeah.
That you can plug it in, and you can scratch it and it will give
you smells like when you're reading a book.
I'm not saying that we're all going to do that,
but I think at least it's an interesting idea, that
can morph into something else.
I think if you look at, let's say, the espuma kind of stuff,
a siphon, like a cream dispenser.
20 years ago, Ferran was the first guy really
to really utilize that.
A whipped cream dispenser with a cartridge which you put in,
which was used for whipped cream, and flavor it, and then
doing hot and cold and different things.
It's a whip cream dispenser.
Nowadays, any modern kitchen globally has one.
Because it's the same as a pot or a pan.
You have to have one, because it's
become part of that necessary apparatus.
So I think that was technology right there,
and how it led into.
Sous vide is becoming or has become, in every modern kitchen
around the globe, the same thing.
So it's very, very important.
We use it, always have done.
I think it's important.
But ultimately, the best technology is what's in here.
And what--
JACI BADZIN: What's there and here.
PAUL LIEBRANDT: Yes.
Exactly.
JACI BADZIN: So along the lines of technology,
not so much technically speaking,
but this film-- I want to bring up the film that you did.
And the documentary that was made about you
and the current day and age, how everything is so real time,
and everyone wants to be on TV or film,
or have that kind of fame after you, if you will, celebrity.
What would you tell them about your experience
of being in an HBO documentary?
Did it have any effect on your life as a chef, on your career?
Was there parts of it that you wish would not have been--
PAUL LIEBRANDT: First, let me explain,
because we did this documentary but A, when we started
filming-- the director, Sally, started filming,
it was never meant to be a documentary.
It was simply she's a documentary maker,
and she just wanted to film.
It wasn't a grand scheme of compiling everything and making
a movie.
She just was interested in-- she didn't really know.
And it went on for years and years.
And I mean like five years into it,
I forgot that we're even doing something.
I was just-- that's Sally.
She's filming.
One day she'll do something with the 500 hours of footage
she has.
Ava and her classmates talk about the fives years
compiled it into a movie.
And HBO saw it as a pre-screening
and bought it and sold it.
So we didn't start out-- and there
was no plan to say this is going to be on TV,
and we want to be famous or none of that,
which is very different from Food TV, so you speak.
And I don't strive for that personally.
So I think there's a balance there.
There's a difference.
Again, we made a movie, and it was really
a story about a young person in a big city--
and it could be someone who's in any industry, especially
any creative industry, artist or musician or actor or whatever--
and the trials and tribulations of just living life and that
was it.
And so it was like in a narrative.
I thought they did a fantastic job on it.
And I think that it-- I wouldn't say changed my life at all.
We get recognized a lot, which is sometimes fun
and sometimes not.
But I think more than that, I'm happy to share
my life and my story with other people
out there in the world who, as when we put the movie out,
I find are very similar.
There's a lot of people out there globally.
And we toured with the movie-- Europe
and South America and Australia.
And there's a lot of symbiotic things with other people
other cultures, other profession.
They can say, hey, I thought it was just me.
I'm in that position now.
How do you, and looking at the film,
help them give them inspiration to-- maybe, I don't know,
go through the door that they were not willing to go through.
So for me, that's the most important part of it.
And a young chef that's saw it and said,
you've inspired me to want to do this and really
do it for a living.
I was having second thoughts.
It's a hard business, that kind of thing.
And if anything, I think that is the bigger payoff for me,
personally.
I think that's nice, giving back, you know.
JACI BADZIN: So you have done a movie, written a book.
You've been working in restaurants
since you were 14, 15.
You were a DJ.
What could possibly be next?
What is next?
PAUL LIEBRANDT: Well, I'm training
to be an amateur barber, actually.
JACI BADZIN: Really.
PAUL LIEBRANDT: No, I'm [INAUDIBLE].
I'm just joking.
JACI BADZIN: I was like, naturally.
And you're going to spin the music in your barber shop too.
PAUL LIEBRANDT: I know, whilst frying some eggs.
You know, look, ultimately, I'm a chef.
I'm a cook is the way I view myself.
I get a thrill every day when I-- and I have
my guys here and my girls there, and they'll tell you,
I get that thrill of walking in and standing next
to them, and the touch, the taste, the feel and cooking
and in seeing the plate go out and looking at the customer
and seeing their reaction and the emotion in that first taste
and the smell and the smile, and that kind of sit back
and they think.
And then you see it.
You see it when you feed someone and the joy you can bring.
That is my goal is to continue doing that,
because that's the business that I'm in.
If the barber thing takes off, I don't know.
But I think ultimately, I'm a cook at heart.
I'm just a cook.
JACI BADZIN: Well, a very skilled and amazing
artistically-crafted cook at that.
So I've just got a couple more questions here.
And we're going to open it up for Q&A just a couple minutes,
and there's mics in the audience.
Anybody have any questions?
So I like to wrap up these interviews
with a "finish this sentence" style of approach.
So I've got a couple here for you.
PAUL LIEBRANDT: Please.
JACI BADZIN: Today is Abraham Lincoln's birthday.
If you were to cook him a birthday dinner,
what would it be?
PAUL LIEBRANDT: Well, it would have to be something British,
wouldn't it?
Maybe like a revolutionary hot pot or somebody like that.
JACI BADZIN: I like that.
PAUL LIEBRANDT: A red coat hot pot.
JACI BADZIN: A red coat hot pot.
PAUL LIEBRANDT: Yeah.
JACI BADZIN: I think you should do it.
The bank or music that best represents your food is?
PAUL LIEBRANDT: Two.
Nine Inch Nails, The Cure.
JACI BADZIN: Nice.
Your favorite American food is?
PAUL LIEBRANDT: Lobster roll.
JACI BADZIN: Oh, that's a good one.
PAUL LIEBRANDT: Oh yeah.
A warm lobster roll?
JACI BADZIN: You like the warm?
PAUL LIEBRANDT: Oh, yeah.
JACI BADZIN: I like them both.
PAUL LIEBRANDT: Slightly toasted, little bit of butter,
soft bun, sweet, slightly briny lobster fresh out of the ocean,
little bit of mayo-- oh!
JACI BADZIN: You're really making
me want a lobster roll right now.
PAUL LIEBRANDT: I'm leaving, I'm leaving.
That's it.
JACI BADZIN: Let's book over to Chelsea Market.
PAUL LIEBRANDT: I'm going to go to that lobster
place in Chelsea Market.
JACI BADZIN: Exactly.
Your favorite DJ is?
PAUL LIEBRANDT: Carl ***, DJ Hype, two of them.
JACI BADZIN: Yes, so good.
PAUL LIEBRANDT: That's like very old school British DJs.
JACI BADZIN: So good.
PAUL LIEBRANDT: Very good.
JACI BADZIN: Your favorite type of cuisine to eat?
PAUL LIEBRANDT: Japanese food.
JACI BADZIN: What is your favorite restaurant
that people should know about?
PAUL LIEBRANDT: That people should know about.
JACI BADZIN: That you're willing to let people in on.
PAUL LIEBRANDT: Hmm.
Anywhere globally or just--?
JACI BADZIN: Sure.
PAUL LIEBRANDT: Globally.
JACI BADZIN: Globally.
If it's going to be on YouTube, let's let people know.
PAUL LIEBRANDT: I see.
OK, well, I think personally, because it
has such a big impact with me, Pierre Gagnaire in Paris.
JACI BADZIN: Gagnaire.
PAUL LIEBRANDT: Pierre-- thank you-- Pierre Gagnaire
because that man redefined the way I think about what I do.
So I would say for me that's closest to my heart.
Magic, real magic.
JACI BADZIN: Is there a specific dish
that people should get there?
PAUL LIEBRANDT: No, it changes all the time.
JACI BADZIN: OK.
I'm adding that to my list of places to eat when I got.
PAUL LIEBRANDT: Please.
JACI BADZIN: And the last question is let's say,
you've just finished a grueling day.
You're tired, you're exhausted.
What do you eat at the end of the shift?
And what do you drink more importantly?
PAUL LIEBRANDT: Drink water.
JACI BADZIN: Water?
PAUL LIEBRANDT: Water.
And I would say to eat, I like sushi.
Yeah, sashimi and sushi at 1 o'clock in the morning
is the perfect time.
It really is.
JACI BADZIN: That's good to know.
Well, thank you so much.
If anybody has any questions, we're going to open it.
I think you're up.
AUDIENCE: Hi.
First I want to say thank you.
The Elm was somewhere in my top four favor meals of last year.
It's really difficult to actually order those,
but it was absolutely wonderful, and I hope to come back soon.
PAUL LIEBRANDT: Thank you very much.
AUDIENCE: And normally, every chef that comes here,
I ask them whether or not they consider
themselves a craftsman or an artist?
But you've already took that.
So my back-up question is what is your favorite ingredient
that you don't get to use often, either
whether it's because the general public dislikes it,
it's scarce, it's too expensive?
PAUL LIEBRANDT: Personally speaking, I think,
shellfish and fish for me are my favorite ingredients
to work with.
And of that, I would say there's a species of lobster called
a cigar de mer, which is not a very widely used lobster, which
you get from the Mediterranean.
And it's a known as a slipper lobster.
It's very expensive, very seasonal.
I only ever used it in France at Pierre Gagnaire.
And it's a very rare item, but the flavor
is like eating vanilla.
It's stunning.
So that would be one of them.
Yes.
JACI BADZIN: Nice.
Well, thank you so much, Chef, for coming in.
PAUL LIEBRANDT: My pleasure.
JACI BADZIN: It was such a pleasure to have you here.
PAUL LIEBRANDT: Thank you.
JACI BADZIN: And I want to--
[APPLAUSE]
JACI BADZIN: Chef has agreed to sign some books at the end.
So you guys are welcome to come up,
and we'll conclude the speech.
PAUL LIEBRANDT: Thank you very much.