The Wonton Don | Donnie Does
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00:00 Hey, how are you? Welcome back to Gooned Up. Today we have a very special guest.
00:04 He's the head chef at Rosemary and Boulevard Steakhouse in Chicago. Some of
00:09 the best restaurants in the city and he also won Top Chef Season 15. Welcome Joe
00:15 Flam. What's up, bud? Hey, how are you, buddy?
00:19 I ate at his restaurant, Rosemary. Brought the parents there. They were very
00:25 impressed. It's a Croatian restaurant. You win Top Chef. How did you choose to go
00:30 Croatian food? My background is more Italian, but my wife's family is Croatian.
00:35 And then when I traveled there, it was kind of like all the food made a ton of
00:38 sense to me. And a huge part of Croatian cooking is like cooking over, you know,
00:42 live fire over charcoal. And, you know, being like, you know, from the Midwest,
00:45 like that really spoke to me. You know what I mean? It's just like, it was
00:48 like that smell of like running around the neighborhood in July where it's like
00:52 you're smelling all the webers heat up. Yeah, yeah. That's what, you know, split
00:55 smelled like to me. I spent some time in the Balkans, filmed the travel series
00:59 there. Check it out. They love their meatlogs. Yeah, they are meatlog
01:03 fanatics. Chivapi is what they call them, right? Yeah, yeah. And I tried some at
01:08 Rosemary. Went to Hvar as well. Have you ever been there? Yeah, I've been to Hvar. That's a
01:11 fucking wild place. They talk about clubs. Yeah, they got a club and it's on an
01:15 island off the coast of this other island. They take you there at midnight
01:20 and they don't pick you up till 6 in the morning. Yeah. You're just stranded on an
01:23 island with a bunch of people on Mali. Dude, the last time I saw you, you had a shirt on. What's going on?
01:30 So something you told me when I was at Rosemary is that you spent some time in Shanghai?
01:35 Yeah, so this was 2011 I think I went and it was, I mean, unreal. You know, I think
01:41 it's one of those places where you can't fathom until you go like how big it is,
01:45 how many people there are. The culture shock, it was nuts man. Yeah, in 2011 is
01:50 when Shanghai had like zero rules. I'm not proud of this but I used to just
01:55 smoke joints on the way home in taxi cabs because you were allowed to smoke
01:59 cigarettes in taxi cabs. Yeah. Sometimes the taxi driver would be like, "Oh, what's that you're
02:03 smoking?" and I would just be like, "American cigarette." And they'd be like, "Oh, okay. That makes
02:07 perfect sense." Yeah, it makes total sense. So what are you gonna cook up in the goon
02:12 lab for us today? Alright, we started this conversation talking about chivap, so
02:15 we're gonna do chivap ragout. Holy shit! This is a mixture of beef and lamb, lots
02:21 of garlic, lots of paprika. That's what gives it that beautiful kind of red
02:24 color to it. And then the kajmak is a clotted cream that we mix in feta, herbs,
02:30 lemon to kind of make like a beautiful sauce. And then the aivar, we blended this
02:36 one smooth for sexiness, but aivar is roasted peppers, eggplants, onion, and
02:42 garlic. And it's probably the most popular Balkan condiment. Now I like, I've
02:46 been making goons for a while. I've never used a piping bag. Do you mind if I do
02:50 the piping? Yeah, pipe away. Alright, so. Hold on, let me clip your tip here.
02:54 Circumcise the pipe bag. There we go. Now are you mixing this in with the meat? No, because this is raw.
03:01 So we're raw-dogging it. Sweet. I think this might be my first raw goon. When you make
03:06 dumplings, like you know, like in Shanghai, you know, you go to those places where
03:10 they're just like making dumplings out the front door. And that meat's always
03:13 raw? That's always raw. Okay. That's why like those dumplings are so fucking
03:17 juicy, is because it's a raw meat. It's kind of like we get a pizza, if you go to
03:21 a pizza place where they cook the sausage, it fucking sucks. Yeah. You know what I mean?
03:24 So it's like that sausage just gotta go on raw so you get all the juices. So we're
03:27 going for a juicy goon. Maybe we can make one that's still raw and feed it to
03:31 White Sox Dave or something. I mean it's beef and lamb, so you can eat it raw. I'm
03:35 not gonna go home and just shit myself for hours. But if you do, it's probably
03:38 unrelated. Damn. That's good shit. Right? I mean if this is good raw, I think we're
03:45 in for a treat today. Now I do want to measure your GPM, goons per minute. So
03:50 I'm just gonna quickly show you how I wrap one. Alright. It does look like a
03:53 little turd, but a delicious little turd. What is your favorite pasta to make? I
03:58 like making tortellinis a lot. That's one of those ones where I spent a ton of
04:02 time doing it, so it's just kind of, it's a jam for me. I'm the Wonton Don. This
04:06 dude's the tortellini genie. Speaking of delicious little turds. Hey, maybe we can
04:11 see what this guy's GPM is. Oh my god. GP hours. GP hours? I've never made a goon
04:18 before. Alright, I'm not gonna teach you. We're just gonna let you fly. Alright.
04:22 One, two, three, go.
04:25 [Music]
04:39 How much time we got? Ooh, I like this. I like this technique. Just hit 40 seconds.
04:45 In? No, 20 seconds in. So you still have 35 to go. Wrap and stack. I like the
04:54 technique of wetting the wrappers first. Okay. Alright. Yep. There's no wrong way to
05:02 wrap a wonton, so if he just wants to go straight triangle, that works. As long as
05:06 they're sealed. I was gonna do the tortellini technique. You stole it from me
05:11 already. I stole this from you, Dave? You absolutely did.
05:17 Have you ever made a tortellini? Yeah, I've made tortellini. When have you made fucking tortellini?
05:23 I've made possibly 40. Four in a splash. Well the thing is, if this is sealed, it's not quite... I'll give you five and a half. Alright, I'll take it. Yep. That's not a GPM to scoff at. Would you like to try, Dave? I'll give it a shot. What kind of goons we making? Chevapi. Chevapi? I don't even know what that is. I didn't expect you to know. One, two, three, go. Go, go, go, go, go, go, go. Pinch it. Pinch it. Pinch it. Pinch the turd. Pinch the turd. Now, I don't want to
05:53 call this stuff turd because it's so delicious. Turds of the gods. Yeah.
06:00 Oh my god, Dave. Oh my god. Holy fuck, Dave. Dude, hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry. Come on, come on, hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry. Don't make me nervous.
06:10 You're gonna get one. You're gonna get one. Push it down, Dave. Fucking seal it, man.
06:15 Seal the fucking deal, kid. You have a chance to be a legend.
06:21 What do I add? It's all in your mind, Dave. It's all in your mind. 15 seconds left. 15 seconds left. Get the fork. Get the fork. Get the fork. Get the fork. Oh, he's not gonna do it. Oh, he fucking fumbled the fucking, the piping bag. He fumbled the bag.
06:41 Literally fumbled the fucking bag over here. He fumbled the bag. Three and a half. Three and a half, Dave. Lowest score on the show so far, but hey, I only had four.
06:50 Now, Dave, me and Joe are gonna go over there, drink some beers. Do you mind just wrapping up the rest of this? Just finishing off the goons? Yeah, we got plenty of wrappers right here. I got you, Don.
07:01 All right. I gotta be back by service. I've got four hours to wait for Dave to make 20 right now. Okay, all right.
07:06 Turds of the gods. Turds of the gods. What was the dish that won you Top Chef? Well, it's the finale. It's like you do a menu, right?
07:16 And we had to cook it on top of a mountain in Aspen. Would you say winning that show changed your life? Yeah, I didn't know Dave before then, so it really helped.
07:25 Dave wouldn't have cared about you at all if you didn't win. He's kind of a clout chaser. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I've heard that about him.
07:31 Did winning that show give people the confidence to make you the head chef of your own place? Yeah, I mean, I was the chef of a place before that, but I think it gave me the confidence that it was time to do my own thing.
07:44 I've only worked at one restaurant in my life. It was the Kung Fu Cantina in Clemson, South Carolina, while I was trying to start a failed suit jacket, sports jersey, hybrid clothing company.
07:57 Suzy. Half suit, half jersey, all class. I started off working in the kitchen. I loved it, but apparently I was just eating too much of the food back there and not cooking fast enough.
08:08 So then he moved me to the bar, and when I got to the bar, apparently I was drinking too much of the booze and not making drinks fast enough.
08:15 So yeah, I love being in the kitchen. I love cooking. I guess I'm just not great at doing it under pressure, but I can be trained.
08:24 There is a thrill with those few days where we were just swamped and it's just ticket, ticket, ticket. Oh yeah, it's like riding the lightning.
08:32 The very cool thing about Rosemary is it's an open kitchen, so everybody cooking the food can also see all the people eating it, and the people eating it can watch you cook.
08:42 Does that add a lot of pressure? No, I love it because it just adds to the energy. You get to see the chaos.
08:49 While you're just sitting there, you're chilling, you're having dinner, you're relaxing, and you look up and you're like, "Holy shit, they're just fucking banging pans back there going."
09:00 Hey Dave, thanks for wrapping some goons. Could you maybe just leave? I'm waiting for those.
09:06 I can wait on camera though. Oh yeah, let's just go wait on camera. That'd be great. Suck my meat tube.
09:12 This is a sick goon spoon. You can clear an entire pan filled with boiling goons in one scoop.
09:25 The key to good goons is sometimes just a fucking massive goon spoon.
09:28 I think these are good.
09:31 So our kymac flattened cream, then we whip feta into it, a little bit of chives, parsley, chervil.
09:44 Okay, first off, I think this might be the best plating of any goons I've had in my life.
09:55 Normally, it's just goons and then a side sauce. I like the idea of turning it into a full-on dish.
10:00 We have a full, composed dish on this. Yeah, it's kind of like you're serving nachos, where there's layers to it.
10:08 Shall we do the honors? Let's get it. All right, so I'm gonna definitely try to do a little schmear.
10:14 I'm gonna try to wipe it up with it. Holy shit.
10:21 That's cooked perfectly, actually. This is unlike any goon I've had before.
10:25 Oh yeah, it did. Dave, you want one? You can come back on camera now.
10:33 It's a 10 out of 10 goon. Do you think this fully encapsulates the chivapi flavor in rangoon form?
10:45 I think it does. I think you get the chivap experience with the crunchy little texture.
10:48 I'm into it. I'll make a second plate. I think we're gonna need a second plate for these ones.
10:53 The Balkans in a bite, baby. Hey Max, you want to try a goon? You look like you want a goon.
10:59 You're in a chivapi. A what? Chila? Chila? A chivapi. Chivapi? Yeah.
11:06 Yeah, like a chivapi puppy, you know? I mean, to explain this in Max's terms, it's kind of like a meatball rangoon.
11:14 That was not what I was expecting. It's delicious. Can I finish it? Yeah, yeah. No, you could only have half the rangoon.
11:20 Give the other half to somebody. That's unbelievable. I'm not very well traveled in goons.
11:26 But that was the best goon I've ever had. That was the best goon I've ever had. Yeah, this is top notch.
11:31 It was top notch goon. Also, if you're watching at home, the Balkans, great place to visit. It's cheap,
11:36 it's beautiful, and they got chivapi for days. Growing up, all you would hear about the Balkans
11:42 is like, "Oh, a war here, another war here." It was always bad news, but they've made a big comeback.
11:47 A big way. Not that they ever left. The Balkans are back. The Balkans are back. Yeah. Well, thank you so much.
11:55 Thanks for bringing a taste of Croatia to Barstool HQ. Yeah, man. I called you the tortellini genie earlier.
12:02 It turns out you're the chivapi puppy. Cheers. Chivali. Chivali.
12:06 [Music]