Today, Bon Appétit joins Chef Sam Yoo, owner of NYC’s Golden Diner, to make pancakes. Golden Diner is an Asian/American diner, and with up to 3-hour queues, it’s one of NYC’s most popular brunch spots. Join Yoo as he demonstrates how to make the perfect plate of pancakes—worth queuing 3 hours for!
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00♪♪
00:06Hey, guys. My name is Sam Yu.
00:08I'm the chef-owner of Golden Diner here in New York City.
00:11We're here today to make what I think
00:13is the best version of pancakes.
00:16♪♪
00:19Golden Diner is an Asian-American diner
00:22located in Chinatown, Manhattan.
00:24When we first opened, we were nominated
00:26for Best New Restaurant in the Country
00:28by the James Beard Awards,
00:29also Food & Wine Best New Restaurant.
00:31The wait can balloon up to 3, 3 1⁄2 hours.
00:35Every table pretty much gets a pancake.
00:37First thing we're gonna do is make the batter.
00:39♪♪
00:41To start, we're gonna get our wet together
00:44and bloom out the yeast.
00:47We're gonna take 60 grams of water,
00:50buttermilk, primarily for flavor,
00:51acidity to help with the balance
00:53of all these heavy flavors,
00:55and also because it's classic.
00:57The yeast helps form the air pockets in the pancake.
01:00Adds, like, sour acidity, and it acts as a leavening agent.
01:03We'll just make it feel lighter and fluffier.
01:05Mix this first part of flour,
01:07and this is sort of like a poolish
01:09when you're making bread,
01:11and so we're gonna let this sit and ferment first.
01:14I don't have to go too crazy
01:15to try to get all these lumps out.
01:17Sort of looks like cottage cheese,
01:19but this is where I would stop
01:21because I don't want to overwork it
01:22because then you're gonna have more of a gummy texture.
01:24You do want to cover this up
01:25so there's no skin that forms on top of the batter.
01:28This is one way to incorporate more flavor.
01:31Like, the yeast, the flour, the water,
01:35start to develop that sort of, like,
01:37sour bread flavor notes.
01:38Here, I'm just gonna put it in a warm place,
01:41not too hot, because I don't want to kill the yeast.
01:43A warm environment helps the yeast activate more.
01:47And let this chill for about an hour so it proofs.
01:49♪♪
01:52Start with the dry, achy flour.
01:55Salt, and it's important to add the salt here
01:58because salt can potentially kill yeast sugar.
02:01We want the pancake to be sweet, obviously,
02:03but for my palate and I think most people's palates,
02:06like, you don't want anything to be too cloyingly sweet.
02:08For these extreme light powders,
02:10we weigh them out with a micro scale,
02:12which is just more accurate.
02:13So we're gonna get five grams of baking soda here.
02:15Just acts as a leavening agent,
02:17also to help with the fluffiness of the pancake.
02:20Gonna mix everything together,
02:22make it as homogenous as possible.
02:26Now we'll do our wet mix.
02:28Two eggs, vegetable oil,
02:31because it helps with the even browning.
02:34So all these ingredients you'll see
02:35when you're making a chocolate cake or a birthday cake.
02:38Pancakes are essentially cakes.
02:40We really wanted to emulate, like, the fluffiness,
02:42but also have it just be aesthetically in pancake form.
02:45The way we cook it is gonna be what makes it a pancake.
02:48Here you can see bubbles starting to form.
02:51I could see the yeast actively working.
02:53This looks great.
02:54It also feels a little bit warm to the touch on the bottom,
02:56which is another good sign.
02:57I'm gonna mix all this together now.
02:59I'm gonna mix the wet first.
03:00I wanna work the flour the least.
03:02I don't wanna overwork it
03:03because you don't want it to be gummy.
03:05You don't see any yellow streaks in there.
03:07I'm gonna add the flour.
03:10When you are mixing it,
03:11it's like sort of growing and moving,
03:13and you see the bubbles popping.
03:15It's a live thing.
03:16The levity of the bubbles will translate
03:19in terms of the lightness of the pancake.
03:20Again, just gently incorporating.
03:23Lumps are okay.
03:25When you're getting all the excess stuff off your whisk,
03:27just make sure you don't have any dry bits of flour
03:30because that will come out in your final pancake.
03:33The aroma that comes off of this
03:35is not what you'll get in a typical pancake batter
03:39due to the yeast.
03:40You're gonna get a slight sour note
03:42that when you cut a fresh piece of sourdough.
03:45It's not gonna come off as off-putting.
03:47This is good to go.
03:48It'll probably stay for up to two days,
03:50but I'm gonna put it aside for now
03:52and just jump into some toppings.
03:55Our maple honey syrup.
03:56I think this is one of the best parts of the dish.
03:59I'm actually gonna use this pot just to measure the butter.
04:01So we're gonna get a half pound over here.
04:04This butter, we're just gonna melt it very gently.
04:06I don't want it to brown or get any color on it.
04:09Just want it to liquefy.
04:10You could also throw it in the microwave.
04:12And then we'll get to the rest of the ingredients.
04:14Honey, flavor of honey.
04:17I like to think that this sort of tastes
04:18like a Werther's original kind of sauce,
04:20which sort of just happened.
04:22Soy, just to add a little bit of salty notes
04:25and also bring a little bit of those base notes
04:27that soy brings to the party.
04:29It has a darker, deeper flavor
04:30and almost can act like a molasses when you add these two.
04:34Maple syrup.
04:36Salt in here is really important
04:37because it's gonna help balance out the sweet.
04:39I'm gonna mix this together.
04:41I want it to be just more homogenized, just one color.
04:45We also have some xanthan gum, which you don't really need,
04:47but it's something that we use to help stabilize the sauce
04:51so it doesn't break where the fat and the water separate.
04:54This is more of a restaurant thing,
04:55just to help things be more consistent.
04:57We have fully liquefied butter.
05:00There's no water that's been cooked out of it.
05:02Truly just liquefied.
05:03And then I'm gonna add our honey soy mixture
05:06that we've made straight into the pot.
05:11Add a touch of water.
05:14And you see it starting to come together a bit.
05:16It's turning more into one color.
05:19And now you sort of have one nice sauce.
05:22Finally, we're gonna add the xanthan gum.
05:23This stage is really important that you're whisking.
05:25If you don't, you can get clumps of xanthan,
05:28which is really not nice.
05:31But yeah.
05:32When I eat this with a pancake, you get the sour pancake,
05:35this slightly sweet, slightly salty sauce.
05:38It just acts as a really nice bathing agent
05:41for our pancakes.
05:45Our honey maple butter here.
05:46It's one of the few toppings that we put on the dish.
05:49It's the fat of the dish that makes it
05:51so luxurious and delicious.
05:53This is really important and how we make it is important.
05:55So I'm gonna show you how to do that.
05:57It's a half pound of butter.
05:59I'm gonna do this by hand,
06:00but you can do this in a KitchenAid
06:02and that helps make everything so light and fluffy.
06:04This is tempered butter at room temperature.
06:07It's really malleable, easy to work with.
06:09That will help get the air into the butter.
06:12It's sort of like whipping cream.
06:13One thing that you'll be able to notice
06:15is that the butter itself is actually
06:17getting lighter in color.
06:19You can see it has more air whipped into it than that,
06:22which is a little bit more yellow.
06:23The flavorings in here are very similar to our syrup.
06:26The butter flavor is also important,
06:28just as butter by itself versus in a wet sauce.
06:32We have one more thing to get ready for our pancakes.
06:39So we're making a berry compote right now
06:40with blueberries and strawberries.
06:43We try to keep the strawberries and the blueberries
06:45the same size so they cook evenly.
06:47So essentially we're making blueberry-sized strawberries.
06:51I'm gonna add sugar and cornstarch to help thicken
06:54so it has a nice consistency
06:55versus it being just too wet.
06:57And then sugar.
06:58You just need a little bit of sugar
06:59just to bring it up a bit.
07:00This here is macerating the berries
07:03where the sugar is gonna start breaking down the cells.
07:06It brings out the oils.
07:07It's almost like marinating a meat in a way.
07:10Once you see it start getting wet and glazy
07:13and not so white and powdery,
07:15that's when you know it's sort of ready.
07:18So we're gonna let this sit, let it chill, do its thing,
07:19and then we're gonna go cook it down.
07:21I don't wanna cook this for too long.
07:23I'm just trying to cook it until the cornstarch
07:26cooks out and thickens.
07:28We still wanna maintain a lot of the freshness
07:30from the fruit.
07:31To help prevent that, I'm also gonna shock the sauce
07:34over an ice bath, which will be here.
07:38When you cook this, it's immediately going to sear
07:41and release more liquid, but it's also gonna tighten
07:44due to the cornstarch.
07:47So you can hear that violent,
07:51and you see this very explosive sort of thing happening.
07:55You see the sugar's caramelizing,
07:58and this is gonna be done in a minute or two.
08:01Everything is sort of starting to turn very saucy,
08:04and now it's limp.
08:05This is where I wanna be.
08:08Anytime you're cooking berries,
08:09you want to make sure you're not mashing them.
08:12That's why we cut them so perfectly
08:14and try to make everything in one nice homogenous shape.
08:18Now we got all our components ready,
08:20we're gonna start cooking some pancakes.
08:25This is exactly how we make our pancakes at the diner.
08:27When you pour pancakes over a griddle,
08:30they don't have any edges to enclose the pancakes,
08:33so they'll just spread out as far as gravity will let them,
08:36whereas if you cook them in a pan,
08:38they obviously don't have a place to go,
08:39which will allow for more height and body
08:42and also fluffiness.
08:44These pans have been sitting on the plancha
08:46for a good five minutes.
08:48We cook the pancakes over a griddle
08:50because there's even heat distribution,
08:52which is important when you want
08:54a beautiful, evenly colored pancake.
08:57The sound is also key.
08:59When you're cooking, you always wanna be
09:01using all your senses, not only just your eyes,
09:05but your ears, your nose, smelling,
09:07because that's how you know it's cooking,
09:09and you know it's not just going into a cold pan,
09:12which is important because you want it to be hot
09:15so the pancake rises as quickly as possible.
09:19You can sort of see the bubbles working,
09:22the edges right here,
09:24that's like a nice, beautiful brown color,
09:26and so I'm gonna actually put it to a cooler side
09:28because I don't want any more color than that.
09:30Keep that around 30 seconds or so,
09:32and then we're gonna throw them up in the sally.
09:34So this is another part of why I think
09:36our pancakes are great.
09:38We actually never touch the other side of the pancake,
09:43it never sees any direct heat,
09:44so that helps with the fluffy texture.
09:46So this is a salamander.
09:48It's basically a radiant heat that comes from up top
09:51when you make croutons or mac and cheese,
09:54anything where you want that color on top,
09:56that's what this does.
09:58First thing that I check for, for doneness,
09:59is if you shake it a bit, you see how there's
10:02that little part that's jiggling,
10:05in a way that seems raw and probably wet batter.
10:08That's how I know that part's not ready.
10:10But eventually, I'll just take a little peek
10:12and just make sure that the inside is fully done.
10:14Now that I see some color in the pancakes,
10:16I could gently cut into it to see if it's done.
10:19I can see that there's no raw batter,
10:20so that pretty much is good for me.
10:22I'm just gonna flip it.
10:26That, to me, is a beautifully golden, crisp pancake
10:30that I would cook for anyone that I love.
10:33This is ideally what you wanna go for.
10:34I promise you, just because of all the balancing
10:36that we've done, this is not gonna taste burnt
10:38or bitter by the end.
10:40Every order is two.
10:42A berry compote on there.
10:47Now I'm just cannelling our maple honey butter,
10:51so it has a nice shape.
10:58And then finish with our syrup.
11:01And it's important that you add a little more syrup
11:04than one might think is enough,
11:05just because you want both cakes to be drenched
11:08and wet in syrup.
11:10And the most important part, I think,
11:12that just brightens everything up
11:13is the lemon zest at the end.
11:15We always thought honey, maple, butter, lemon
11:19all make sense together, and we're not shy about it, so.
11:23That's it.
11:24This is our honey butter pancakes at Golden Diner.
11:27It's fluffy, it's got a lot of different colour,
11:30golden brown pancake, bright red strawberries,
11:33deep dark purple blueberries.
11:35All those color contrasts, I think,
11:37make the dish just stand out.
11:39Very aesthetically pleasing.
11:40Let's get into it.
11:47Awesome.
11:49First thing that hits is that lemony sort of floral zest,
11:54which is just lovely.
11:56And then I get the texture of the berries,
11:59and then finally I get the softness of the pancakes,
12:01which is really just nice.
12:03A restaurant-style pancake is achievable,
12:05especially a Golden Diner-style pancake.
12:07And I like to think that, you know,
12:09we've achieved one of the best in the world.
12:15Yes, absolutely, you should use
12:17pre-mixed boxed pancake batters.
12:20Food scientists have recipe tested those things for decades,
12:24and there's a reason why they're so prominent in our culture
12:28and I use them all the time
12:30when I'm cooking for my nieces and nephews.
12:33I like to zhuzh them up a bit
12:34when they say just add water, I add milk.
12:37When they say, I don't know, canola,
12:40I'll use sour cream as a fat or buttermilk or something else.