Cuisine

Ivan Orkin, the brash, white, Jewish guy from New York who made his name as one of the best ramen makers on the planet has an unorthodox story. That means no tweezer food, plenty of swear words, no slow shots of the chef communing with nature. He was a problem child, fell in love with Japan, fell in love with cooking, suffered personal tragedy, and found his reason for being and his ultimate success in Tokyo.

Chef's Table goes inside the lives and kitchens of six of the world's most renowned international chefs. Each episode focuses on a single chef and their unique look at their lives, talents and passion from their piece of culinary heaven.
Jeong Kwan is a not your regular defined chef. She's living as a monk in Korea. She is connected to the spiritual side of food. Instead of trying to be the best in the world, any sense of ego is stripped from her mind and she cooks from the soul. This episode follows the daily life of Jeong Kwan, as she lovingly prepares vegan 'temple food', using ages old recipes and natural ingredients. She is a humble genius. Inspirational and meditative, gorgeously shot. She is a tiny, calm, firebrand.

The demands of a celebrity chef, especially one that runs three vibrant restaurants and a fried chicken franchise, are rigorous. The daily upkeep to ensure quality and consistency in his establishments keep him busy enough, but add to that the photo shoots, TV appearances, interviews and a constant online presence, and the tasks become herculean.
When Ludo Lefebvre needs to escape the chaos, he heads to the lilting and poetic world of Paris in the spring, where the emphasis is placed on the joy and fun of life.

La mer means, simply, 'the sea.' Ludo came up under mentors like Alain Passard and Mark Meneau, chefs with an almost pathological obsession with ingredients. His eyes light up when he describes the Lobsters of Brittany, the Oysters from Cancale, and the myriad of other extraordinary culinary jewels.
In this episode, we explore how the oceanic bounty of France is some of the best anywhere by profiling the ingredients that can be pulled from it.

Trading in the animal world for the vegetable one, the garden is a place where ingredients for some of Ludo’s favorite dishes are cultured, grown and harvested. Today’s chef reveres his gardener as much as his butcher.
In this episode, Ludo explores the vegetables, gardens, and memories he uses to cook some of his dishes. We also explore how terroir is as much a place as a taste.

Standing on the shoulders of giants. Everyone knows that it takes a great chef to make a great chef, and this episode of The Mind of a Chef is all about paying homage to the greatest culinary minds in the world.
Fergus Henderson, Eric Ripert, Pascal Barbot and more spend some quality time cooking with our Mind of a Chef alumni.