anything not to be in the projects. i grew up in one of the roughest neighborhoods in washington, d.c. now i m a master sommelier. one of less than 300 in the world, but i do it my way there is a lot in the wine industry to take seriously. the wine is one of them, i think. even though most kids like me don t have much of a chance, i got out. moved away to culinary school and left my old life behind me. this is my chefs table moment. but i wanted to come back to d.c. so this is like a very d.c. thing. that s what makes it delicious. to reconnect with my family. how many more eggs do you need? topaz mccoy, annoying me for 39 years. and seek out a side of the city just below its surface. that smell, huh? nothing like it in the world. i haven t been on this street in over ten years. this is nuts. am i the only person here from d.c., born and raised? it s a journey, man. i m excited how excited you are. i love eating great food. it s like a good old time. i m rea
everything has to overlap. i know. so here is the first part that you failed. okay, you had too much salad dressing. i know. it s loose. da da da! my first chef s table moment. don t fall in love with it. we have to do a little. oh, exactly. the push. beautiful. look at that. and are you ready to taste? yes. are you going to be honest? yes. okay. remember, if it s not 100 points, don t give him 100 points. all right. all right. this is a little diced vegetable salad. you have got bell pepper, cucumbers, really finely minced red onion, all wrapped in a lovely english cucumber shelter. how does that sound? it sounds real good. it sounds real good? yes. beautiful. just like this?
stop, stop, stop, stop, stop. stop! dude, you re jacking up. come on. come over here, come on. this is chef ian barkley. he is the man who taught me about kitchen culture. today i m cooking him dinner. even it up. he has requested the same salad that won me the scholarship to the culinary institute of america. you re so full of it. i cut you some slack. i forgot, do you use the skin in the dice? and you know he is checking to see if i still have chops in the kitchen. come on, let s make the dressing. what s the ratio? is it two to one? it s two to one. i don t think i ever asked you. your fist impression when we meet. i look who is this goofball? i m like this kid ain t serious. but then five minutes into the conversation, i m okay, this is something i can work with. your passion, your drive, it was evident from day one. i tell you, when i hear carlton
option. at the time, it was the worst school, the lowest graduation rates, lowest gpas. this is night and day. they renovate everything in this school. just seeing these books here to me is a big deal. romeo and juliet. i don t think i ever actually read that. when i came to this school, the ultimate goal was get carlton through high school. get him to graduate from high school. so i sat down with this lady and she said well, you need to take some elective classes. and i looked at her, man, the only thing i can do is cook. and there is a home expo class. i signed up for that. there was maybe two guys, three guys in it. it was here that i met chef ian barkley. he was one of the first black pastry chefs in america. at the time he was volunteering for a program in d.c. that gave inner city kids an opportunity to develop a year in the culinary arts. it all started here.
like every other sommelier. that was my first wine certification. no one was stuffy, uncomfortable, judgy. that s not what sommeliers are anymore. in hindsight, wow, we had it pretty sweet. okay. i know we cover a lot of topics in this series. how a place is changing, who s changing it, but sometimes you have to just sit down and let a truly great once-in-a-lifetime meal wash over you. that s why we re here. and this guy is cooking for us. eric see ziebol was a chef at the french laundry. spent he s career refining his techniques and integrated with regional ingredients. i worked with him at restaurant in new york city for about four years. eric may be potentially the most underrated chef in america. i also feel like the people who know him would go yeah, probably. yeah. our first course exemplifies