Brad Miller – Amazing Food Trucks!

Chef Brad Miller is currently the Chef and Co-Owner at Inn of the Seventh Ray restaurant. He is also the corporate chef and tastemaker for Five Star Senior Living, one of the country’s most prestigious retirement companies. Brad is a much sought-after television personality, appearing on such channels as VH1, NBC, FOX, Food Network, Cooking Channel, PBS, Tasted Channel and Hallmark Channel. Brad currently stars in Food Truck Nation on Cooking Channel, airing now. What we covered in this episode with chef Brad Miller Chef Brad Miller grew up in his Dad’s butcher shop outside of Chicago.He discovered that he liked cooking in a class at school.Chef Brad Miller went to culinary school in Arizona and cooked in various resorts. He then moved to L.A and staged at a few places.He is the executive Chef and partner at the Inn of the Seven Ray in Topenga, CA, next to Malibu.The restaurant was voted the most romantic restaurant in LA and the 7th in the country.The cuisine style is contemporary American leveraging both luxury ingredients and ingredients from local farms.Chef Brad Miller says that his creative process is the same than with every chef. It starts with the produce.Already having cooked from food memories, now his creative process starts at the market, from tasting on site.Amazing to me these food truck. The level of cooking is amazing.Chef Brad Miller shares his experience of being on the Season 3 of Hell’s Kitchen with Chef Gordon Ramsey.He is the host and producer on the Cooking Channel of Food Truck Nation.They picked these food trucks for the show from around the country because they are the best of the best.For him the top 6 cities for Food Trucks in the country are Portland, Austin, L.A., Charlotte, Denver, MinneapolisThe mission of the show is to demonstrate that people are really good cooks and they're doing it off a food truck.Chef Brad Miller expresses his opinion about people writing reviews on social media platforms.He got inspired by culture and why they eat that food. And figure out different techniques and method I can apply and use to keep it different and fun.Science play a huge part in his cooking and when he is with someone filming.Truffles and persimmons are his latest obsession.Fake hustle is Chef Brad Miller top Pet Peeves in the kitchen.Link to the podcast episode on Apple Podcasts http://bit.ly/Chef_Brad_Miller Links to other episodes in Los Angeles area Chef Alison Trent - Ysabel Links to other podcast episodes with chefs who competed in food TV shows Conversation with Chef Brad Miller in episode #40 – Amazing Food Trucks!Episode #64 with Chef Silvia Barban – Her Lifelong Italian Culinary InfluencesConversation with Chef Elizabeth Falkner in episode #63 – Elizabeth Falkner Continues to Challenge the Status QuoEpisode #56 with Chef Lamar Moore – Striving for GreatnessConversation with Chef Tim Hollingsworth in episode #51 – Celebrating Luxury and Mundane FoodEpisode #52 with Chef Brian Duffy – A Gigantic Appetite for Casual RestaurantsConversation with Chef Edward Lee in episode #21 – The Marco Polo of American Cuisine #gallery-3 { margin: auto; } #gallery-3 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 25%; } #gallery-3 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-3 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */ Yellowfin Tuna Crudo by chef Brad Miller Crispy Brussels Sprouts Chef Brad Miller and @flavorsunknown Inn of the Seventh Ray in Topanga Canyon Submitted questions from podcast listeners What are the top three elements that make a food truck successful?Having a cool food truck wrapped in fancy colorsFocusing on one type of food and becoming great at it.Serving hand held food that you can walk around with.Chef Brad Miller's burger recipeIt's not something that you're going to do all the time, but it's definitely a mix that's like really great and makes it like, very umami, it makes your burger kind of taste meatier and kind of things of that nature has like a it's basically a couple of ingredients. It's take your burger meat. I would do a chuck steak and short rib. I do a 50 50 chuck and short rib grind, cut into cubes. Don't freeze it, but I get really cold and then grind it and then mix in smoked paprika, onion powder, garlic powder, and here's the kicker, a little bit of miso powder. Like when you're gonna make miso soup with these little packets, just a little bit of each. Not too much. You don't want to overpower the flavor. And salt, of course. But these little ingredients really bring out the flavor of the piece. It tastes really beefy. The smokiness of the paprika almost makes it taste aged a little bit. For a pound of burger meat, I would say, a sprinkle of smoked paprika, a sprinkling of all these things, you know, like more than a sprinkle, I'd say like two sprinkles. But it really brings out the beefiness of your meat and it makes you have so much flavor and also have the salt in there. It will make a juicy, really juicy burger. You get a really good bite and it doesn't matter what you put on top of that. You can just put cheese in a bun and it's gonna be delicious. I would say Kewpie mayonnaise, Japanese mayo. That is the best mayonnaise in the world. I consider that and Duke's. Duke's mayonnaise and Kewpie Mayo. I would say just that burger, medium-rare, two pieces of American cheese. Not cheddar, American cheese. Just because for me, even though cheddar has more flavor, American cheese just gives you that gooeyness, that old school memory of cheese. So I would do two pieces of American cheese, the burger, just brioche buns if you want, just mayonnaise, and about three pickles.Chef Brad Miller recipe with persimmonsI take the persimmons that I quarter them and I take the middle out and then I put them in a sous-vide bag with really good olive oil and a little bit of salt. And then I compress them and I let them sit overnight. They go on a plate with whipped ricotta. More really nice olive oil. We have a pomegranate gel. Fresh pomegranate seeds. And then a little bit of shiso. So we've got a little shiso all over it. Toasted Marcana almonds. A couple drops of lemon oil and then Maldon salt. And it's one of those things that when you serve it, you will, think it's gonna be a dessert. But it's like a starter and it's just so tasty. And when you bite into those persimmons, they melt in your mouth and you got that pomegranate gel with them. And it just really is an amazing dish. Click to tweet By nature, cooks and chefs are just curious. I am just curious what other chefs are doing and why they're doing it, and what is their purpose for doing it Click To Tweet Being a chef is putting the guests first and really putting something out there that you're really proud of. And it's going to go and nurture people's children. Click To Tweet I've learned one thing trying to produce TV is that every idea has already been thought of. There are no original ideas. Click To Tweet The great thing about food trucks is that it's a great soundboard to trial your food before you open a brick and mortar restaurant. Click To Tweet You don't have to be a classically trained chef to have a food truck. Click To Tweet In 50 years from now, cooking is going to be so different because all the health laws. Click To Tweet Nobody wants to be a Chef anymore. Cooks don’t want to be Chefs and kids don’t want to be cooks. Everybody kind of just wants to have the fame of it and the funny thing is they absolutely can do that nowadays. Click To Tweet Social media Chef Brad Miller Instagram Facebook Links mentioned in this episode Bradley Miller WebsiteInn of the Seventh RayBrown Butter ProductionFood Truck Nation Show