01x05 - The Oyster Dish

[bunniefuu]

(suspenseful music)

(glasses clink)

(inspiring piano music)

- [Narrator 1] Welcome to Sparklers,

part cooking competition and travel show,

featuring some of the

world's best sparkling wines.

Each week, the contestants

have specific ingredients

they must pair with a sparkling wine.

- [Narrator 2] There are two

challenges for each wine,

a perfect bite and a main dish.

- [Narrator 1] With each challenge,

three points are on the

table for the winners.

- [Narrator 2] At stake is

an all-expense trip paid

to Limoux, France, the

birthplace of sparkling wine,

to visit Faire La Fete

Sparkling Wine House.

- [Meg] Last week, I won

the Perfect Bite Challenge.

And as a judge, declared

George and Claire the winners

of the Main Dish Challenge.

- [Woman] Whoa!

- What?

Oh, my God.

- [George] Wow.

- Congratulations, guys.

- [Meg] So, as it stands,

here's the leaderboard.

George is winning with six points,

while the rest of us

are all tied for second,

with three points each.

This week, everyone is on their own again,

pairing a perfect oyster bite

with Italian sparkling wine

from Villa Sparina.

(bright acoustic music)

- It's your birthday.

- I am so excited for today.

- [Meg] A new day.

- I can drink whenever I want?

- [Meg] It's your birthday.

- It's my birthday!

- It's your birthday!

- Happy birthday!

- I brought you some

wine for your birthday.

- Oh, wine, what is that?

- Let's do it.

- [Meg] Some Villa Sparina.

- Yes, today, Villa Sparina.

All right, so this wine is coming to us,

of course, from Italy.

They are based in Gavi,

which is in Piedmont.

- Piedmont.

Piedmont.

- And the wine is made

from the Cortese grape.

- Oh!

- It's really different from

what we've actually been doing.

- We've been doing Pinots and

Chardonnays, and traditional.

- Birthday girl?

- Oh, please, thank you.

- So 30 months on the lees.

- It's traditional method, as well.

- Yes, exactly.

- That's great.

(playful string music)

- [Claire] This is a region called Gavi.

It's located in Italy, as well.

- This is where we get truffles.

We get vitello tonnato.

We get the most incredible pastas.

You can't escape the

food and wine pairing.

- [Narrator 2] Sparkling

wine from Piedmont

is becoming more important.

- And they are producing sparkling wines

also using the traditional

method, similar to Franciacorta.

- [Narrator 2] It's actually

the only sparkling wine

we're talking about not made

from the traditional Champenois varieties,

Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, especially.

- [Claire] They're

focusing in on the area's

indigenous grape varieties,

which really gives the

wine a sense of place,

a sense of terroir.

It makes it a little more

distinct and a little more special

at the end of the day.

- To have a sparkling wine

made of Cortese, sets it apart.

It's in a league all its own.

- This week, the guest judge

for the perfect bite challenge

is Ben Jacobsen from

Jacobsen Salt Company.

- I'm excited to hear

what we get to work with.

I think we can go a lot of

different directions with it.

There's always something.

- It's so versatile.

- You can pair a lot of things with this.

- It could be something rich.

It could be something fresh and light.

- So many different ways.

- Hey, everybody.

- Hi!

- Hey, how are you?

- How are you all?

- Good.

- Good to see you all.

Welcome.

I'm Ben Jacobsen.

I started Jacobsen Salt

about 10 years ago.

We're based like 85 miles west of here,

and I'm on the water on

Netarts Bay quite a lot.

In that bay, tens of millions

of oysters are farmed.

Over the course of 10 years

of spending a lot of time

in and around the water,

I've gotten to know

oysters relatively well.

So I think the challenge

today is going to be

to do your best oyster preparation

or the oyster preparation of your choice

with five or fewer ingredients,

and then pair them up with

this, which is delicious.

Any questions?

- What don't you like?

(laughing)

- To avoid.

- Take some notes.

- Not a big fan of mayo, personally.

And I know that a lot of

people will think I'm an idiot

for that reason, but

I'm okay with that, too.

But, other than that, anything

goes, for me, at least.

But you should make what you all like

and what you know is best

for your preparation.

Today's winner of the competition will win

two cases of Villa Sparina.

(glasses clink)

Nice to build up your cellar bubbles.

We're also gonna hook you up

with a bunch of Jacobsen salt.

- Nice!

- Delicious!

- So good for the kitchen.

- Also, the winner of the

perfect bite challenge will

be the judge and the host,

which could be good or bad, I guess.

(laughing)

Cheers.

- Cheers.

- See you soon, for sure.

- Thank you.

(exciting music)

- Anybody got good ideas?

- Who wants to go?

- Who's feelin' strong?

- I got nerves, not first.

(squeals)

- You get to say if you want.

- I'll go second.

- Second.

- I'll go third.

- Third?

(laughing)

- I'll go first.

(glasses clink)

Not 'cause I have an idea,

but because I want to get it over with.

- I'll go second to last.

- Okay, I'll take last.

- There you go.

- I'll take last.

(glasses clink)

(suspenseful music)

- First up is Maryam,

the winner of the perfect

bite challenge from week one.

- I'm really excited about this challenge.

We have beautiful Kumamoto oysters,

which actually are the

perfect oyster for this wine.

I love the brininess and

the freshness of a Kumamoto,

but they have some cream too,

which will play really

nicely with the wine.

Unlike some of the other

wines we've paired with,

there's opportunity to really

bring some bright acidity

into the dish that I want to create.

I'm not confident enough

in my cooking skills

to grill an oyster.

I've never done that before,

but I do want to bring an

element of grilling into my dish.

So I'm going to go ahead

and use one of the leeks.

Just wash it off real quick.

I'm going to put this right on the grill.

I'm going to use some oil,

pretty judiciously,

because I'm going straight

onto a nice hot grill.

I don't have a lot of time to grill this,

but I just want the char,

because I think the char will

be really nice with this wine.

(suspenseful music)

I'm not going to season this.

I don't have enough wiggle

room with ingredients.

So it's just going on

the grill with olive oil.

I'm going to give it about

30 seconds on each side.

I just want to go for

the flavor of the char.

All right, checking.

I'm not getting as much

color as I would hope.

I'm literally like searching

for the hottest part.

It's a really hot grill.

I just don't want to run out of time.

Thank God.

I have color on the leek.

So, my next plan is

I'm actually just going

to pre-squeeze the lime.

Once I get my lime ready

and my fennel ready,

I'm literally just gonna garnish,

and I'm gonna drizzle a

little bit of what is dripping

from the honeycomb.

I'm really excited to feature

the honey in this dish.

Probably a lot of people are like,

what are you talking

about, honey with oyster,

but I'm willing to take a risk today.

Now comes the really scary part,

shucking the oysters.

I've shucked oysters,

but usually it's like on the beach

and there's the confidence

of three glasses of rosé

and there's not cameras around.

I don't want to stab myself.

I can tell anyone who's

ever opened an oyster

is probably sitting at home

wondering what in God's name I'm doing.

I'm asking myself the same

question, so don't worry.

There it is.

Cut.

One down, two to go.

Wow, this is going to be bad.

I'm gonna run out of time.

I can just imagine how I might

have done that differently,

but we're going to move on.

Very quickly, I'm just going

to chop my little leek up here.

What matters more to me is the flavors

work well with the wine.

Then, going straight for that lime.

I do like the traditional use of lemon,

but this is just a fun take on it.

Then, I'm gonna just play a

little bit with this honey.

Could be interesting,

could also be really bad.

I've learned from these competitors.

If you're not willing to take risks,

you're gonna just end up in last place.

I just love this green element

that I'm trying to bring to the wine.

I think the wine can really withstand.

I don't really need the lime

zest in the oyster itself.

I just want it to look

pretty and delicate.

Oh, Jesus.

Look out.

That was my beautiful bite, too.

Lime didn't want to play with me,

but I do have this really

pretty grilled leek.

Best to get out of my own

way and say I'm finished.

Hi, Ben.

- Hey, Maryam, how's it goin'?

- Welcome.

It's good, thank you so much.

Thanks for coming to my kitchen.

- Of course, it's beautiful.

- Please, enjoy an oyster.

- Excellent.

- Oh, I'm sorry if

there's a shell in there.

I'm a little out of practice.

- It's really nice.

- Thank you.

- Yeah, it does go really well together.

- Thank you.

- I like it a lot.

I love the leek in there, for sure.

That's a nice charred complexity to it.

- Thank you so much.

I'm glad you liked it.

- Good luck.

Cheers.

- Thank you.

- Thanks for the sip

of wine and the oyster.

- Of course, thank you.

I'm really pleased with Ben's feedback.

I'm also surprised.

I feel like toward the end

there I was falling apart.

When we're talking about

a challenge like this,

it's either take risks or

completely leave the oyster alone,

which I was tempted to do honestly.

Fingers crossed.

We'll see how it goes today.

- Alrighty, oysters.

I have shucked an oyster before,

but actually I'm not going

to start with shucking.

I lied.

I'm going to do that last.

I'm going to do apples, chives,

and some red wine vinegar.

I'm going to have like a nice little shave

of cucumber on there.

Just keeping it really nice and fresh.

Then, I'm actually going to top it

with a little bit of this smelt roe.

Gives it a little

salinity and a little pop,

along with the apple.

I really, really hope that he likes this.

I'm going to get started

here with my apple.

I clearly don't know what I'm doing.

I mean, it's fun.

It's not fun.

I don't want to ruin the beautiful oyster.

I just want to knock this out

of the way so it can absorb.

'Cause normally you want these to sit,

to absorb the flavor and

to chill in the fridge.

But I obviously don't have

a lot of time to do that.

I wonder how Maryam did.

Maryam always goes into

this just being like,

I have no idea what I'm going to do,

and then she makes something ridiculous.

So, I'm sure she k*lled it.

This is a little sweetness to it, though.

I like that.

And, especially with this

wine, like really zesty citrus.

Alrighty, red wine vinegar.

I'm going to put some chives, as well.

The challenge for me in this

is the five ingredients,

'cause I'd love to have this

be a champagne vinegarette

and put some of the wine in it,

but I can't do that

cause I can only do up

to five more ingredients.

Oh, well.

That's the challenge, right?

I'm left-handed, so this should be fun.

I'm just gonna get into the joint

and I'm going to start

kind of wiggling in.

Please, God, don't let

me k*ll myself today

with the shucking.

Then, I'm gonna twist it.

There it is.

Oh, thank God.

Thank you for your

sacrifice, little oyster.

Three oysters shucked.

I should have minced the

apples maybe a little bit more.

And then I'm going to do cucumber

and then the smelt on top.

Eh, done.

I'm done.

(laughing)

I'm done.

- Hey, Claire.

- Hi, Ben, how are you doing?

- Good, happy birthday.

- Oh, thank you, appreciate it.

- Cheers.

- I got a fun challenge for my birthday.

- It's beautiful.

- Oh, thanks!

I love, I mean, everybody

loves Kumamoto oysters.

I think they're one of the most

popular varieties of oyster

and they're so sweet and

so fresh and so pretty.

And these are like really

juicy, nice oysters.

- Good job shucking these.

I can see.

- Really?

- I think so.

- That was the most stressful part.

I hope it tastes as good as it looks.

- You're going to have one, as well?

- Okay.

Cheers.

Cheers.

Oh, I didn't even get a oyster.

(laughing)

- Truly nice.

The apple and the cucumber, really nice.

That reminds me of a spa.

- Thank you.

- Cheers.

- Happy birthday.

- Thanks, man.

See you in a little bit.

I think maybe the smelt got

a little bit lost for me.

I actually didn't get that,

'cause the apples were

so crunchy and bright,

but I like the spa comment.

I'm pretty happy with it.

See how it goes.

- Hey, hey!

I am excited to shuck some oysters.

I don't have too much experience doing it,

so we'll see how it goes.

I'm excited, because I love oysters.

I love them a lot.

This will be pretty interesting

to see how we get it.

I've got half of it.

There's one.

She does not want to.

There she is.

I got it.

(upbeat electronic music)

She looks nice.

Perfect.

I'm gonna try to do kind of

like a foam or a lemon foam,

because I want it to be light,

but still have some character.

You want these egg whites.

(beater whirring)

I think that looks good.

I think that looks good.

Next, for my second ingredient,

I'm going to use a

little bit of lemon zest,

just to give it some

brightness and some freshness.

Now that that's done,

for my third ingredient,

some chopped chives.

Nothing too crazy.

So we have egg, we have

lemon, we have chive.

I think I'm going to finish it off

with just a little bit of caviar.

For my final ingredient,

what I'm gonna do is I'm

gonna do some mustard flower.

I believe we're good.

(hands clapping)

- Hey, George.

- Hey, how are you?

- Good, how are you?

- Cheers.

- Good to see you, cheers.

- Likewise, likewise.

So, I prepared some oysters for you.

- It's really pretty.

- I hope you enjoy it.

Awesome.

- Thank you.

May I?

- Yeah, please.

- I'm going to take the center

one if that's all right.

- Awesome, yeah.

- It looks great to me.

Wow, that foam is crazy.

- Right on.

- It's really good.

- Oh, wow.

Thank you so much.

- It's totally surprising.

(laughing)

- That's really nice.

- Oh, wow, thank you.

- It works really well with the wine.

The foam, especially,

kind of brings out the

creaminess of the oyster.

I think it's awesome.

I've never had foam.

Is that meringue or lemon

meringue but egg foam?

- Yeah, it's a play on a meringue.

Exactly.

- Really, really good.

- Thank you so much.

- Have a good rest of your day.

- You too, take care.

- Thanks.

- Cheers.

Feel really good about it.

This was really fun.

Outside of my box, comfort zone,

'cause I usually don't shuck oysters,

but I hope he enjoyed it.

It sounds like he did.

Awesome.

(laughing)

- All right,

I am nervous.

The oyster perfect bite

challenge is going to get me.

Let's go.

I am going to do a very simple

mignonette, quick mignonette,

with shallots and with cilantro,

a little take on what

we would normally do.

I'm not going to have a lot of time

to get it set for flavor,

so we're just going to go

and get the best we can.

We're going to use the micro b*llet

to get all the texture together.

That is just how we're

going to roll today.

(suspenseful music)

I love shallot.

I love texture.

I love the flavor.

I love vinegar,

and cilantro is something

that's not traditional

for this use.

I kind of like that.

White wine vinegar in a bowl.

This is important.

I need to have some acid

to go into this dish.

Get this quickly on and ready to rock.

(blender whirring)

That's going to be a

little thicker than normal,

but, in the interest of

time, I'm going for flavor.

'Cause I got to shuck those

oysters at some point.

And one thing I haven't mentioned yet,

I've never shucked an oyster in my life.

So, Bob's your uncle there.

Next, I'm gonna cut jalapeno.

Also a risk I'm willing to take.

This is going to be fun.

I want as thin as I can possibly

get these cross-sections.

I want the flavor and the look,

but I don't want too much heat.

I'm gonna help it with

some acid from this.

I'm really actually very excited

about how this is gonna go.

Let's try these oysters out.

I've never done this before.

Wish me luck, America.

I've seen a lot of videos.

I've eaten a lot of oysters.

I've just never had the chance to really

get in there myself.

I know there's a muscle

I got to cut at the top,

get a separation, keep the licker intact,

underneath this guy,

so that way there can be a

beautiful bite for our judge.

Oh, that's beautiful.

Kumamotos.

Wow, they are sexy.

(forceful exhale)

Take a deep breath.

It's gonna be okay.

I love eating oysters.

That's the first time I've ever done that.

That's insane.

Thank you, guys.

No seeds, get the acid.

(forced exhale)

Oyster time.

(deep inhale)

Glove's coming off.

It's time for judgment.

- Hey, Matthew.

- Good to see you.

- Good to see you.

(glasses clink)

- I wanted to put

together something simple,

but also something a little bit daring.

I know you eat a lot of oysters.

I know you have great access here.

So, to be true to the oyster,

but also for this wine pairing,

which I'm so passionate about pairing.

May I ask you to taste the

one closest to you, please?

- Absolutely.

Join me here.

- Cheers.

- Cheers.

- To the fruits of our labor.

- It's really good, to

the fruits of your labor.

I just got to taste.

It's excellent.

I really like the jalapeno in there.

Nice job.

- Cheers.

- Cheers.

- Appreciate that.

- Thank you.

- I think that went well.

My bite was good.

I hope his bite was equally good.

I'm a bold kind of guy.

I got to go bold.

So we'll see.

- I am pretty sure that

everyone shucked their oysters

and that took a long time

and there's only 12 minutes

and everyone looked really stressed.

So I have the advantage of seeing that.

I'm gonna throw these on the grill

and hope that they open up

on there, fingers crossed.

Definitely never done this before.

This is a huge risk, but I

think that's what this is about.

Whoa!

Oh, dear God.

I'm gonna do butter.

Haven't completely decided

exactly what I'm doing yet,

so I'm gonna give myself some

options while that cooks.

(upbeat music)

Not quite done, I don't think.

This is the part that might screw me.

(laughing)

This is t*rture.

They're big enough.

They're not gonna fall through.

I'm just gonna put them

right on the grill.

I'm gonna take a drink of sparkling.

I don't have much time left.

Oh, it's open.

Yes.

Look.

That actually looks really nice.

Oyster doesn't count.

I have butter, shallot.

That's it so far.

No.

Oh, no.

They're getting ready.

They're not quite there.

I need the other oysters to open.

Lime.

I only have one, but that's

all I need for the judge.

If I can make this happen in 30 seconds,

we're good to go.

The others didn't open,

which means I can't taste it.

That's not ideal.

I have no idea how this is

gonna pair with the wine

or taste, for that matter.

For the judge I'm done,

but I do need to go grab those

other oysters off the grill.

- Hey, Meghan.

- Hi, Ben.

- How's it going?

- Oh, man.

I only have one for you,

because the others didn't open in time.

So I haven't been able to try it,

but I really hope it

pairs well with the wine.

- It looks really good.

I have to say my favorite

way of eating oysters

is barbecued with butter.

That was my favorite way

walking into this day,

so I think it's a pretty good start.

It's really good.

Mm.

It's really good.

Can I offer a little bit of?

- Yeah, go ahead.

- I think the acid could

have been pared back,

because you have both acid

from the lime and the Tabasco,

but overall, it's delicious.

Good luck.

- Thank you.

- Could you round up everybody

and we'll do the official judging?

- Absolutely, yep.

- Awesome, cool.

Thank you.

- Thanks, Ben.

That was nerve wracking.

The time constraint got me,

I definitely took a chance

trying something new,

and I got one done.

That's better than zero.

So at least Ben got to try it.

- Guys, they have all our dishes out here.

I want to see what we did.

Oh!

- Oh, my.

- [Claire] Oh, that's so pretty.

- Wow, that's beautiful.

- [Claire] Oh, look at the plating.

- Wow, wow.

- Oh, wow, this looks gorgeous.

- Oh, damn.

- I still have two on the grill.

(laughing)

- We're almost a half dozen.

- Hey.

- [Claire] It's time, it's time.

- So how do you think it went?

- It was kinda rough.

- [Meg] I'm still nervous.

- It's so different.

- Just cooking oysters.

(laughing)

- I'm proud of us.

I think we did a great job.

- Really cool.

- Did you have a chance

to try each other's?

- No.

- No.

- [Matthew] Just visuals.

- [Ben] Just visuals?

I thought everybody's was really good.

Everybody's definitely

had a different idea

and different approach to it,

which I thought was great.

Meghan, your grilled oyster.

If I had to take kind of

all judginess out of it,

that's how I would normally eat oysters.

You chefed it up a little bit

with a little Tabasco sauce.

Claire, your oyster was so good.

Really, really enjoyed it,

especially with the roe on top.

Matthew, I think you were the only one

that used any little bit

of heat or chile kind of in

its most pure form.

I thought that was really smart.

I love really thinly-sliced

jalapenos, personally.

Great job, everybody.

I think I'm gonna pick the first loser,

also second place, right now.

The second place, in my opinion,

but I'm only me, is

George.

- Wow.

- [Claire] It's so pretty.

- George, you had chives,

lemon, whipped egg,

sturgeon caviar, and mustard flower.

I thought it was exceptional.

I've never had foam or meringue

of any sort on an oyster

and I thought that was

really, really smart.

- Man, thank you so much.

- I thought it was delicious.

It's nice to have every

ingredient there that counts,

that does something.

Great job.

- Thank you so much.

- Thank you.

So for me, the dish that was the best,

that stood above the rest

was Maryam's dish.

(gasping)

- What?

- Damn, girl.

- For me, Maryam, obviously.

Grilled leek, which I thought

was really, really smart.

The leek actually really

shined through for me.

I tasted a lot of that char

and I love char flavor.

For me, that leek

and the charred flavor

really counterbalanced

the sweet brininess of the oyster.

- Wow.

This was a really cool challenge to win.

I really wasn't expecting it.

But, if I look around

at what everybody made,

one of the things I noticed

that I learned about in the caviar edition

of this perfect bite was that

I needed to make sure that

the main ingredient shines.

So, I didn't do much to the oyster

and just put a few things to the side

that I thought might make it better.

And I guess what that means

is I learned something,

at the very least, through this process.

- This means Maryam,

that you're judge of the next competition.

(laughing)

- I'm not making any

friends here right now, Ben.

Thanks so much for picking me.

- I had no idea.

- No, I'm not a villain,

but here we go again, America.

I find myself in this chair

and I know everyone's gonna be upset,

and I'm already nervous.

I am guaranteed to upset someone.

I guess that's the name of the game.

- Now, I leave you all to pick the teams.

George, I think you're

up for picking your team,

so, go for it.

- This is a hard decision, too.

All of you all are so talented

and I don't want to pick.

I'm going to do this.

I'm going to pick who I

have not worked with yet

and I'm very excited to work with.

So, Meg, let's do it.

- [Matthew] Team LA.

- Yeah!

- Napa VLA.

- [Claire] It's NorCal versus SoCal.

- I love it, I love it.

- Let's do it.

- Let's get it done.

- I'm ready.

- I want to be more ready.

(suspenseful music)

- It's going to come down

to whoever makes the dish

that pairs best with this wine.

- Let's do this.

- Let's do this.

- Risotto challenge.

- Who's in the house?

- Who's in the house?

- I'll be fine,

as long as Maryam doesn't screw me again.

- Put some butter in there, too.

- That's perfect.

That's good.

- Go one, stop.

And then go two.

- The winner of the Villa

Sparina challenge is.

(suspenseful music)

(glasses clink)