Dogs, I'm so
high I don't even know.
You know,
I get high all the time,
but now that I'm
on the west coast
I'm smoking that hard
core OG, straight up, sh.
Well, I'm out here
in beautiful sunny
Los Angeles shooting
the video for Baby Blue.
Now that the album's out,
we're trying to get
together a beautiful
little display of
visual art
presented in food
form to go along with
the musical presentation.
So I asked three of my
favorite chefs to help me
out on this endeavor.
I played them
a couple of songs and
they just cooked
what they felt.
And now that I'm
back in L.A.
we finally got a chance
to catch up with
Chef Michael Voltaggio,
from Ink cuz I
wasn't able to last
time I was here.
When I was at Ink,
man the food was so
good it was crazy.
It was one of the most
memorable desserts I've
ever had in my life.
The smoked ice cream and
the apple pie pieces and
so, it was crazy.
We grew up listening to
you since before you blew
up, we were,
we were already fans.
I remember you hitting
me up on Twitter once,
maybe like three
years ago.
And I asked Cole, I'm
like, man, this guy is,
this guy just hit
me up on Twitter.
He's a hip hop artist.
And I think he
used to cook.
I was-.
I was hype, man.
I just remember like
reading, and I'm like,
holy shit, this dude's
tweeting at me right now.
You captivated
me on Top Chef.
I'm, so
you think I'm joking?
I watched just for you.
I'm not bull shitting.
Thank you.
This is a free style
dish for tonight.
Just for,
just for action.
We literally just free
styled this dish.
We gathered all
the ingredients.
These guys threw a bunch
of stuff in front of us.
All right, Dray,
can you fry these?
Like, four of them.
Don't break them.
This is like
a Shawarma spice so
we'll do like and octopus
and cauliflower Shawarma.
My lord.
We cooked
the octopus already.
Holy shit.
We cooked it Sous Vide,
or cooked it under vacuum
in our steam oven.
Sous Vide what
does it do?
Does it tenderize
it more?
Is it a better technique
for cooking this?
I think it is,
I mean we manage to like
come up with the perfect.
So the thing with
the corks and
putting corks in the shit
and then pounding it.
That all works.
Yeah,
I mean that works in
Spain and Greece.
In L.A.
we vacuum pack it.
Throw it into a steam
oven and you cook it for
four hours.
Let it bathe for
a little bit.
It's already cooked, so
now we're just gonna
get it nice and seared,
get it nice and crunchy.
That's, that's a crisp.
That's a nice
hard crunch.
You know what the best
piece of equipment
is in the kitchen?
The microwave.
Ha.
Take this, put
it in that microwave
until it gets hot.
Everyone's like why do
you have a microwave in
your kitchen?
It's the most under
used technology.
This is modern cooking
the best piece of
equipment, the microwave.
And one of the most
primitive ones,
the carousel because
you don't need all
the settings and buttons.
You just need to
press it and go.
It's gone.
It's not hot?
This just got turned up.
Man, you did a great
job on this.
Thank you, man.
It's perfect.
I've microwaved a lot
of things in my life.
Yeah?
Yeah.
It shows, this is like,
I mean the perfect
temperature.
What exactly is
the the spice that you're
putting on there?
It's a Shoreman's spice.
is garlic, coriander.
Fennel, star anise,
smoked paprika.
Smells like my favorite
Indian vegetable dish
Alugobi.
How long have you
guys been here
at this location?
We've opened Ink,
it will be four
years in September.
So, we're almost
four years old.
What do you think so far?
It's looking beautiful.
It's simple.
We use the fried puffed
cauliflower as our bread.
These are raisins that
have been hydrated in
grape juice.
We cook the grape juice
and separate it, so
it's clear.
And then we plump
raisins in it.
Octopus shwarma.
Man.
With cauliflower
puree and
puffed cauliflower
branches pretending to be
the toasted lafta bread
or pita, I guess.
You know me so well man.
Man this is so crazy.
Wow.
Is it okay?
Oh, man, that
cauliflower puree is so.
It's almost like a humus.
Beautifully smooth
texture.
The octopus is so
soft but
so crispy with the
raisins in this stuff and
I mean it's very
Moroccan Afghani.
It's like a bieriani.
A bieriani.
Yeah.
This is stupid.
Oh my fucking God.
We try and think about
every ingredient is by
itself, but what is,
what's it gonna be like
when you put it all
together into your mouth.
I think octopus Action
Bronson Schwarma might
be the next
new menu item.
This is divine.
Like this is no joke.
This was just
created like,
with fucking around,
but this is, is,
it works so beautifully.
It's perfect.
I love it.
Beef cheeks or
lamb belly.
Lamb belly.
Lamb belly.
This is basically
like a beet,
a beet sauce with soy,
beet juice, some vinegar.
Oh man,
incredible fucking idea.
So, we'll turn
a lamb belly into a,
a lamb belly charsew.
Man, that's pretty.
I didn't even know it was
called charsew pork or
beef or, I just know
it as red meat.
Flavor for us is the most
important thing.
We start with that and
then we build
everything after.
And I think if you
have enough beautiful
ingredients, and
beautiful flavors,
when you put it together,
the dish is gonna
be beautiful.
The different colors, the
deepness of the reds and
the thickness of this
syrupy sauce that's
going on.
And then the extra virgin
olive oil, the color is,
it's a beautiful art.
This is dried
beef powder.
Kinda like a sweet and
sour type of deal.
Sweet and
sour lamb belly.
Oh, reminds me of that
good old Chinese food
from the corner in
the most delicate
possible way.
For us, like, we actually
take the, the criticisms
more seriously than we
take the compliments,
because the compliments,
you don't know if
they're real, but
you know every time
somebody criticizes you,
you know, that's real.
At least that's
really how they feel.
Oh, you want to
get critical?
One thing I would do
is just take a little
bit of the juice.
Sweeten it up
a little bit.
Sweeten it up
a little bit so
you have the,
we have the vinegar and
the salty, just hit it
with a little juice.
Getting cooking
lessons right now.
Are we.
And you as an artist,
when people criticize
your music it's like-
I hate it!
I say, get the fuck
out of my face!
Don't tell me what
I know what to do.
Get out of here.
But do you think
about it later?
Of course.
Because I'm, I always,
you know, damn,
maybe he's right.
Hot.
Yeah.
That was it right there.
You cooked before too.
Like, you know, you said
add a little bit of
sweetness to this because
the acid in the salt
was pretty up there,
you know?
Exactly.
And it's like, I could
be like you know what,
fuck you I'm not gonna
add any sweetness.
Like, what do you know,
you know?
Or I could be like, yeah.
It works.
When you add a little bit
of sugar to it, it makes
the whole dish come
together a little
bit better.
And that's
how we create the food
in the restaurant.
We go to the other chefs
in the restaurant.
Dravion used to be
an intern with us, but
there's no reason why
Dray can't eat the food,
too, you know, and
tell us what he thinks.
I think it's awesome as
everything else you do,
Chef.
See, this is why we keep
Dravion around, too.
That's right.
He's there for,
he's there for
moral support too.
I like it.
You're the man.
Thank you for
your help, my bro.
No problem.
And you're gonna be big.
You're gonna make it far.
Cooking is an art, but
also at the end of
the day we're cooking for
people and it's important
that you understand
what people want.
And so for us it's like
we're in the hospitality
industry.
We're here to take care
of people, and that's
what I want to do when I
come to work every day.
It's very honorable.
It's the right way.
You truly are a fucking
legend my friend.
Thanks for coming,
appreciate it.
Thanks, thank you for
everything.
Best of luck with the new
album and everything too.
And best of luck
with your new show.
Thank you.
New restaurants,
new endeavors,
everything.
Thank you.
And I will be you know,
we'll be seeing
each other more.
