Chef Gabriel 'Gator' Guilbeau is a seasoned veteran on the set of Yellowstone. As the on-set & behind the scenes chef for the hit TV show, he knows all of the cast & crew favorites. This corn maque choux is definitely at the top of his list.
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00:00 Taylor Sheridan always really likes me to swear on TV, apparently.
00:03 I'll say "damn" instead of whatever.
00:05 He'll say, "Hey Gator, what does the script say?"
00:10 "Well, it says the F word."
00:12 And he goes, "Read the script, Gator."
00:14 I said, "My grandparents watched this show. How could I—"
00:17 "You're gonna make me swear?"
00:19 Hey everybody, Gator here.
00:21 Character and real-life chef from the hit TV show Yellowstone.
00:25 Gator, what the f*** is that?
00:29 Grilled octopus.
00:30 Today I'm gonna be preparing corn mok choo.
00:32 Very special dish that I've been making for many years, feeding the cast and crew.
00:37 And that me and my family have been making for generations as well.
00:40 I love making this for the cast and crew of Yellowstone
00:42 because it's a great way to put out a nice vegetarian dish
00:45 that's still extra spicy and flavor-forward.
00:49 Most important rule of mok choo,
00:55 fresh corn.
00:56 I can't stress this enough.
00:58 You can do it with frozen corn, you can do it with canned corn,
01:02 but it will never be as good.
01:03 So, step one, get you some good, fresh, local corn.
01:06 For those of you who haven't shucked fresh corn before,
01:09 don't be afraid of the corn.
01:11 Just get in there. It's gonna be messy.
01:12 We're gonna clean up later.
01:14 Get you a nice bowl, a good-sized one,
01:16 because there's gonna be a considerable amount of mess and debris here.
01:20 I recommend finding you a nice cleanup person.
01:22 We have a rule in kitchens,
01:24 always cut towards your body, not your body.
01:26 But we're gonna break that rule today.
01:27 You're gonna cut towards yourself.
01:29 You're gonna get your thumb right here on the corn to give you a guide,
01:32 and then you're gonna just draw your knife back on that cob of corn.
01:35 If you're not comfortable with this,
01:37 you can always put it on a cutting board and do a downward motion.
01:41 But I promise you, if you're comfortable with a knife,
01:43 this will be faster and it will be better.
01:46 You can see the mess.
01:47 You can see there's kernels going everywhere and juice going everywhere.
01:50 You're gonna wanna hose down your kitchen afterwards.
01:53 And then you're gonna take the back of your knife
01:55 and you're gonna scrape the cob of the corn.
01:58 You can skip this step if you want,
02:00 but I promise you it will not be as good.
02:03 You're gonna want, you see that little bit of,
02:06 we call that the milk of the corn,
02:07 and it's just basically corn juice,
02:10 and it's what adds all your sugar to your dish.
02:13 And the sugar's gonna be important here
02:15 for the Maillard reaction and for the caramelization of the corn.
02:18 What's it like on the set of Yellowstone?
02:22 Let's start with saying that it's hard.
02:24 We're out in the elements.
02:26 We're in Montana, we're in Texas, we're in Utah.
02:29 We're doing things the hard way every day.
02:31 I've been there for almost six years now
02:33 where it's been an absolute pleasure,
02:34 but don't think it was for free.
02:36 It was a ton of work.
02:39 So we've made a sufficient mess now.
02:41 You can clean up now, or you can make a little bit more mess,
02:44 then clean up later.
02:45 We're gonna clean up just a little bit now
02:46 so we get all this sticky corn juice off of everything.
02:49 Now, when you get close to finishing your corn,
02:52 I recommend you get your pan or pot nice and hot
02:55 because you're gonna need a super hot skillet to do this.
02:58 I like something with a little depth to it
03:00 so that you don't make more mess,
03:03 which we're still gonna do, so don't worry.
03:05 Nice medium-high heat.
03:06 We get that nice and hot.
03:09 We'll get your oil in.
03:10 And you're gonna want a good amount of oil here
03:13 'cause it needs to coat all the corn.
03:14 The corn will soak up a lot of that oil,
03:16 so don't be generous.
03:18 I've got me a good-cooked wooden spoon here,
03:20 and you're gonna need this
03:21 because you're gonna need to scrape
03:23 the bottom of this pot a lot.
03:24 Get ready.
03:25 You're gonna get your corn in,
03:27 and you're gonna want it to sizzle like that.
03:29 We're essentially pan-frying this corn.
03:32 You're gonna wanna give it a nice stir right away
03:34 to get all your corn coated with your oil
03:36 to get that caramelization you're gonna need on this corn.
03:39 Just let it sit.
03:40 Stir it every few minutes for about 45 minutes.
03:42 Do I have a favorite character on Yellowstone?
03:44 Well, obviously, I have one absolute favorite character,
03:47 and it's myself.
03:50 Gator.
03:51 Where the (beep) is that?
03:52 Grilled octopus.
03:53 Everybody on our show's a complete pleasure to work with.
03:56 Rip and I have always been really close.
03:58 I know he seems like a hard-ass,
03:59 but he's actually a sweetheart in the end.
04:02 And me and Luke Grimes, who plays Casey,
04:04 we're good friends, and he's moved up to Montana,
04:07 which is always nice for me 'cause I'm up there a lot
04:09 and I get to go see him.
04:10 And truly, it's been a real pleasure
04:12 working with everybody on the show.
04:13 Everybody's real nice, and we all have our diva moments,
04:16 but we try to keep them pretty under control most of the time.
04:20 So our corn's coming along nicely here,
04:22 and what you're gonna wanna do,
04:23 especially once you get to this stage,
04:25 you'll notice you get a lot of corn start sticking
04:28 to the sides and the bottom of the pan,
04:31 and you're gonna wanna scrape that into your dish.
04:33 When you have those little bits
04:34 that stick to the bottom of the pan,
04:36 down in South Louisiana, we call that the gradu,
04:38 and it's the little crispy, crackly bits.
04:42 So our corn's coming along nicely.
04:44 It's about a third of the way done now,
04:45 so we're gonna start prepping our veggies.
04:47 We're gonna do our onions, our red peppers, our jalapenos.
04:50 We have a big one today,
04:51 but you can add as many as you want,
04:53 as hot as you want your dish.
04:54 Just know that the more you add,
04:56 the more you're gonna sweat.
04:57 So glad I sharpened my knife.
04:59 And we're just gonna nice, rough chop on everything.
05:04 Everything's gonna saute in that pan really hard,
05:06 so you don't have to be exact with your chops on this one,
05:10 but a nice, uniform chop on everything, rough diced.
05:14 How many people do I cook for on Yellowstone?
05:17 Well, that's a loaded question.
05:20 I remember back in the very beginning,
05:23 the good old days, if you will, of Yellowstone,
05:25 when we just had a small crew of 100 or 150 people,
05:29 but as we've grown as a more and more popular show,
05:32 our crew can grow upwards of 300 people,
05:35 and I've seen bigger numbers of upwards of 500
05:39 and 600 people on Yellowstone,
05:41 and when it gets to be those numbers,
05:43 it gets real exciting in my kitchen, I promise.
05:47 We gotta bust out the big pot.
05:49 I know a lot about onions.
05:50 I cook onions in everything I make, almost.
05:53 I have cried my eyes out a million times.
05:55 The best thing I can tell you
05:56 is just get your knife super wicked sharp,
05:58 but if you do want some cheats and hacks for onions,
06:02 they are out there.
06:04 The best one I can ever tell you is
06:06 if you really suffer with your onions,
06:10 one, fresher the better.
06:13 An older onion will make you cry more.
06:15 It's got a lot more acid in it.
06:16 You can get goggles.
06:17 I've done that.
06:18 I mean, I've chopped five million pounds of onions,
06:21 more than you could ever imagine,
06:23 truckloads and truckloads of onions,
06:25 so goggles help if you need 'em.
06:27 You can throw your onions in the fridge or the freezer
06:30 for a few minutes before you cook 'em,
06:32 and a cold onion will not make you cry.
06:34 You can try all those old wives' tales,
06:35 matchstick in the mouth or whatever you wanna do.
06:39 None of them work.
06:40 It's cooking.
06:41 There's gonna be some tears sometimes, you know?
06:44 I think I go through, on average day,
06:49 40 to 50 pounds of onions a day.
06:52 On a big day, it's 40 to 50 pounds per dish.
06:55 You always wanna make sure you keep the seeds
06:58 out of your dishes when you're using
07:00 fresh peppers like this.
07:01 Some people will leave them in.
07:02 It adds way too much heat,
07:04 and you're gonna hurt somebody,
07:05 so always take your seeds out.
07:06 So our corn is getting really nice and brown now.
07:10 You're starting to hear the crackle,
07:12 almost like a popcorn.
07:13 That is what we want.
07:14 Okay, onions, peppers, jalapeno, and tomatoes going in now.
07:19 And we've just got a few more ingredients
07:21 to add after this, and then we're there.
07:23 Growing up in South Louisiana,
07:25 this is when you can always tell
07:26 somebody was cooking something nice.
07:27 You can walk down the street,
07:29 and if you smelled onions cooking,
07:30 you knew you were going to the right house.
07:32 So this is when your friends start showing up.
07:34 All your aromatics are coming in.
07:36 We're not gonna add a bunch of herbs or anything to this dish.
07:39 It's real simple, but it's real good.
07:42 We're gonna cook this until the onions
07:44 are completely transparent.
07:45 Last thing, we're gonna add about a quarter
07:49 to a half cup of sun-dried tomatoes.
07:52 It gives this dish a nice little bright acid flavor.
07:55 Get those a nice rough chop.
07:56 Straight in.
07:58 Okay, sun-dried tomatoes are in.
08:02 We're gonna add a nice big pinch of salt.
08:04 I always use kosher.
08:06 And we're gonna add a second pinch of salt,
08:08 because why not, right?
08:10 In with your Cajun seasoning.
08:11 And since it's Gator, and it's today,
08:15 we're gonna add double Cajun seasoning.
08:17 We're gonna do double Cajun seasoning
08:18 because the last thing you'd ever want
08:20 is for your makchang to not be spicy.
08:22 It is supposed to be a spicy dish.
08:24 There's nothing to absorb that heat
08:25 from the jalapenos and your cayenne other than corn,
08:28 so it really comes out one of my spicier dishes that I make.
08:31 And a lot of people really, really love it,
08:34 especially my big spice eaters.
08:37 I've had a lot of good stories on Yellowstone.
08:39 I've been there so long, and it's been my whole life.
08:41 We've had some pretty wild nights and wild days.
08:46 I remember drinking a whole fridge full of beers
08:49 in Rip's cabin one night and then getting tattoos
08:52 and then showing up the next day to go to work
08:54 and make biscuits on national television.
08:57 That was probably one of my craziest stories.
08:59 My only tattoo I've got,
09:01 and I got it right before I did my big biscuit scene,
09:03 and swore in front of my whole family
09:05 and the entire nation on TV.
09:07 It's great because Taylor Sheridan
09:10 always really likes me to swear on TV, apparently.
09:13 That's how you make a (beep) biscuit.
09:18 And I'll always go and do these scenes,
09:20 and I'll go and I'll say "damn" instead of whatever.
09:24 And he'll say, "Hey, Gator, what does the script say?"
09:29 Well, it says the F word, and he goes,
09:33 "Read the script, Gator."
09:34 I said, "My grandparents watched this show.
09:37 "How could I, you're gonna make me swear?"
09:40 All right, our mâché is looking really beautiful.
09:43 It's got a beautiful little red and brown color.
09:46 Don't ever forget, it's time to add the butter
09:49 because, well, you know, it's butter.
09:52 And that's gonna give you your nice final touch
09:55 for your mâché.
09:56 It'll bring everything together.
09:58 And as you see, it starts to dry out a little bit.
10:01 You lose a lot of the moisture from the sauteing.
10:03 So that butter's just gonna really kind of
10:06 blend everything together
10:07 and give you a nice little lather in your pot.
10:09 All right, our mâché is done.
10:11 We're about 40 minutes in, maybe 45.
10:14 Now all that's left to do is plate it up
10:16 and bring it to the dinner or lunch table.
10:18 All right, now it is time to eat our mâché.
10:24 I hope that you brought extra
10:26 'cause this is just enough for me.
10:28 Such a simple thing.
10:33 You get the acidity from the sun-dried tomatoes
10:35 that really brightens it up.
10:36 You get the real spiciness from the Cajun seasoning.
10:38 And of course, that good, sweet, fresh, local corn.
10:41 One of my favorite things to eat, totally.
10:45 This has been delicious, guys.
10:47 And I think I might go cool down
10:49 with a Beth Dutton smoothie.
10:51 The classic two scoops and three shots.
10:53 - Gator? - Yeah?
10:54 - Would you mind making me a smoothie, please?
10:57 - What kind of smoothie?
10:58 - Two scoops of ice cream, three shots of vodka.
11:03 - For smoothie, Miss Beth.
11:04 - Bless you.
11:07 - Find this recipe and many, many more
11:09 in the new official Yellowstone Dutton Ranch Cookbook.
11:13 You can get this on delish.com.
11:15 Thanks, everyone.
11:16 I hope you have a good time eating.
11:18 (gentle music)
11:21 [BLANK_AUDIO]