Original subtitles

- Hey, guys, it's Selena.

People who know me know that I love to cook...

You guys ready?

Except I have no idea

what to do or how to do it.

[dogs bark]

Oh, wait.

Why do I have a litter of dogs?

Okay, groceries.

So I've asked some of the best chefs to school me.

Ooh.

They're at home, I'm at home.

And we're gonna make a meal together, apart.

"Selena + Chef" last episode, take one.

Here we go.

♪ I'm tryin', I'm tryin', I'm tryin', I'm tryin' ♪

♪ Oh, tryin', I'm tryin' ♪

♪ I'm tryin', my feelings on fire ♪

- Hey, Selena.

- Hi, Nyesha. Thank you so much

for letting us into your kitchen today.

- It's my absolute pleasure.

- Today, I'm joined by

renowned chef Nyesha Arrington.

She's an L.A. native who's worked in

some of the best Michelin star restaurants in the city.

and started two acclaimed restaurants of her own.

Can you explain to us what we're making?

- Today I'm going to show you how to fillet a fish.

We're going to work with branzino,

which is a good all-purpose fish.

And then we're also gonna make this sauce that I cook at home

because I love making sauces, and I think that

they're really simple ways to elevate dishes.

And we're gonna make dog biscuits today

for the doggie babies.

- Yay! How many do you have?

- I have one baby girl. She is four years old.

Her name's Blue Ginger.

She's my best little buddy. I love her so much.

- That's so sweet.

I have two of my own:

Winnie, and the other one is called Daisy.

And then we are babysitting a puppy, and his name is Snoop.

[laughs]

Okay, so what should I get out?

- Because the biscuits will take some time to bake,

I think we should start with those.

- Should I preheat the oven?

- Yeah. Let's preheat it to 350.

For the dog biscuits,

we're gonna use two types of flour,

an oat flour and gluten-free flour.

- Yup.

- And then we'll take pureed pumpkin,

peanut butter, coconut oil,

and some baking soda as well.

- Okay. - And then eggs.

- How many eggs?

- Let's do two eggs, please.

And grab some fresh ginger.

There you go.

We also need a large bowl, kinda like this size.

- Okay. - And a whisk.

[bowls clatter]

- Sorry, I'm not dainty in the kitchen.

- It's all good.

For the first ingredient,

1 cup pumpkin puree.

- Wow, this smells like baby food.

- Yeah, totally.

And then 1/2 cup of creamy peanut butter.

- Uh-huh, they better love me after this.

- I know, right?

The peanut butter and the coconut's

such an amazing aroma together.

We can crack the two eggs into the bowl as well.

And then for the coconut oil,

is it liquidy? - Let's see.

- If not, we should melt it a little bit.

- Okay, so should I put this in the microwave?

- Perfect, yeah. - Okay.

[dogs barking]

Whoa. - [laughs]

Noises. All the doggies are barking.

- Snoop.

I can't. - [laughs]

- He thinks he's gonna, like, attack someone.

- Yeah, Ginger does the same thing.

She's particularly passionate about gardeners and mailmen.

[laughter]

- So how much of that?

- 1/4 cup. - Mmm.

- Do you have a microplane?

- I have this.

- Okay. - Huh.

- Or, like, a box grater will work too.

[light music]

- Let's see. Oh.

Duh. Sorry. - Nice.

- Here we go. - All good.

- Hey, Sel, just had a little coffee delivery.

I was thinking, should I put it in a cup for you if you want?

- Oh, sure. - Okay.

- This is Raquelle, my best friend.

- Oh, hi, best friend Raquelle. - Hi!

How are you? It's so nice to meet you.

- How amazing it is that you guys

get to hang out together during this time.

- It's been such a blessing, and I can't wait

to try your amazing food.

- Oh, Raquelle, you're so sweet.

- Okay. - So we're just gonna grate

some fresh ginger. You don't need to peel it.

Just grate it over the top. Exactly.

About 1 teaspoon, roughly.

It's really good for their digestion,

and it happens to be my doggy's name.

- Aww.

- Coming in hot. - All right.

Here's my other roomie, Liz. - Hi, I'm Liz.

- Hey, Liz.

- Nice to meet you. You're so pretty.

- Aww, you too. Thanks!

- Here you go. - Thanks, babe.

They're gonna help out today.

We were gonna have a little girls' day.

- Oh, I love it.

We'll whisk all of those ingredients together.

- Okay.

So who have you been quarantining with?

- My doggie and my eight-week-old kitten.

- Aww. - Yeah.

I've been, like, cooking, doing the Zoom thing.

- My sister is six years old, and she finished school,

and my friend Raquelle was like,

"So did you have your last day of school?"

And she goes, "Yeah, it was my last day of Zoom."

And I was like, "Oh, my gosh."

- Cool. That looks perfect.

- Okay.

- So for the gluten-free flour

it'll be 1 cup, plus 1/4 cup.

- All right. - 3/4 cup oat flour.

1 teaspoon of baking soda.

And then we mix everything together.

- Okay.

Oh, my gosh, my whisk.

- Yeah, we can probably switch to a rubber spatula now.

- Here we go. - Cool.

So any ingredients that we've already used can go away.

- You got it. - We'll need a rolling pin.

- Okay. - Gluten-free flour to dust.

I should've sent you some dog cutters.

- [gasps] Cute!

- Oh, yes! - Oh, my gosh.

They are adorable.

- We'll need a tray to bake our biscuits on.

[pans clatter]

- Man down! - Man down!

- Okay.

- Then we'll just cut some parchment paper to fit.

We'll put a little bit of flour on our work surface.

- Okay.

- What you wanna do is kinda create a sheet.

Beautiful.

- I love using my hands when I cook.

- Same.

Pour the batter onto there.

- Mmm.

- Now we are going to just dust the top.

And then roll it out about 1/2 inch thick.

And then for the cookie cutters,

just make sure that the thinner side is going down.

What we're gonna do is cut them all first

and they can stay right there

until we have them all stamped out.

- This is so cute.

- So cute.

[mellow music]

- And we can get these babies in the oven.

We'll drop those guys in 15 minutes.

- Okie dokie. So I--I'm cleaning up.

- Yeah, I'll do the same.

On to the sauce for the humans.

- Okay.

- So as we build the sauce,

what we're doing is kinda just layering flavor.

This is not, like, a "classic sauce,"

I just made it up 'cause it tastes good.

In the stuff that I sent you,

there should be coconut milk.

It might be in a can in the bag, potentially.

- You're right. - Okay, cool.

And then a few spices. Cumin and coriander seeds.

Yup.

Cayenne pepper, paprika, saffron threads.

Now we're cooking.

Fresh turmeric, ginger.

Excellent.

We'll need extra virgin olive oil and some coconut oil,

three cloves of garlic.

- Here it goes.

- Last but not least, tomato paste.

[upbeat music]

I'm gonna pull my biscuits out,

because I can smell them,

and I think they're done.

- Okay.

Does this look right?

- They look amazing!

What do you think, Blue Ginger?

Do not eat these. They're very hot.

And then we will measure out 1 teaspoon of the coriander.

And 1 tablespoon of the cumin.

And then we're just gonna lightly toast our seeds

so they become fragrant.

You wanna smell that? - [sniffs]

- It takes, like, two minutes.

And then we're gonna toss them

into our mortar and pestle straightaway.

Just dump it right into the mortar and pestle.

Then we just take out a little aggression and smash them up.

- Great.

[lively music]

♪ ♪

- Nice. That looks excellent.

Okay, so we'll just leave that guy to the side.

We should chop our ginger and our turmeric and our garlic.

We'll need 2 teaspoons of the fresh ginger.

Excellent.

Do you have a favorite food?

- I love anything with flavor. So, like,

I love Mexican and Asian food. - Yeah.

- My dad's side, I grew up with

tons of, like, culture and Mexican food.

And on my mom's side, it was very Southern,

'cause I'm from Texas.

So we did a lot of casseroles and stuff like that.

- Yum. - What about you?

- Grew up in L.A.,

so for sure Mexican and for sure Asian.

I mean, my grandmother's a Korean immigrant.

And she was, like, the first person to teach me how to cook.

- Amazing. - Yeah.

And so I love Asian flavors. Like, that's my jam.

- Yup.

I love food, and I love eating,

and I want to be able to entertain people.

It's my favorite thing. - Me too.

I'm happy to do this with you, Selena.

- Thank you. - Yeah.

- How's that? - That looks perfect.

- Okay.

- We're gonna need 1 teaspoon of fresh turmeric.

It's almost like carrot, I feel like.

- Yeah.

[light music]

- That's looking great.

Let's smash our cloves of garlic,

and then chop it down a little bit more.

And then we'll set that aside.

Now we will add our coconut oil to the pan.

3 tablespoons. - Okay.

- As our oil's heating,

add 2 teaspoons of the paprika into that bowl.

And then 1/2 teaspoon of cayenne pepper.

Do you like spicy food?

- I love spicy. - Great.

- So now I'm gonna add a little saffron.

- What is this?

- Oh, my gosh. It's the best.

Just, like, grab a small pinch.

Yup, that looks good.

How aromatic is that?

- Very. - Very, right?

So it's, like, the pistil

or, like, the middle of a flower, actually.

But they say it's, like, the most expensive spice

by weight because it's very light.

It makes the sauce such a beautiful color.

You'll see how fragrant it becomes.

Okay, so we're going to add our seeds first.

Then we'll add all of our aromatics,

so our garlic, our turmeric, and our ginger.

Perfect.

- Selena, Raquelle wants to try a dog treat.

- I do not.

- You guys can come over.

I don't know what y'all are doing.

- Wow.

- What's this, toothpaste? - So cute.

- No. Tomato paste.

- Oh, so this is no longer the dog treats?

- No, that's the dog treats. - Take a bite.

- It's literally peanut butter. - What's in it?

- Tell me what's in it. - Peanut butter, coconut oil.

Pumpkin. - Just taste it.

- A little bit of canned dog food.

- [laughs] - No?

- It's good. - Are you lying?

- It's bland.

♪ ♪

- Oh, yeah. - Yeah.

- All right, that means the dogs will love it.

- Fair.

- Isn't that cool?

That's apparently one of the most expensive spices.

- Oh, my gosh. - Smells incredible.

- And it just comes like that. - How much?

- I don't know. How much is it?

- I don't know how much it is a pound, but...

- It says saffron rates range from $500 to $5,000...

- It's insane. - Per pound.

Lucky us. - Yeah.

- Eat--dining with saffron.

- I mean, this is, like, a pinkies-out lunch

for the dogs and for us.

- Wow, it's beautiful.

- Okay, so let's add our ground spices.

[soft percussive music]

And then we'll add the tomato paste.

So squeeze a quarter of the tube in that pan.

♪ ♪

I think you should add a tiny splash of coconut oil to it.

- Okay. - Papa, we made some cookies.

Wanna try one? - I guess.

- The big ones are the human ones,

so these are the human version.

Mmm.

Like it?

- Mm-hmm.

- [laughs]

- It's a dog treat. - I knew it.

Aw, you got me, okay.

- I feel like you would kinda like that with some coffee.

- Dip it in the coff--

- Oh, my gosh. - I already tried it.

I was like, "Uh-uh.

- We can add our can of coconut milk to that

and some salt to taste.

♪ ♪

Then we're gonna mix those ingredients together

and turn up the heat a little bit

and let that simmer down.

- Oh, my gosh.

This is, like, the best thing I've ever had.

- Oh, my gosh. I love it!

- Doesn't it smell great? - Mmm!

And I love the coconut.

- Right? - Whoo!

- So we're gonna let our sauce simmer,

and then we'll get cracking on our fish.

- Okie dokie. - Okie dokie, fish time.

Oh, my God, I'm so excited for you to,

like, break down a whole fish.

- I know, me too.

I've been wanting to. - [laughs]

[lively music]

♪ ♪

- That is beautiful! Wow!

- Hold it, Raquelle. - No!

- Kiss it, Raquelle. - Are you crazy?

- Let's put some paper towels in the, like,

cavity of the fish

and then dry off the fish with the paper towels.

- I'm sorry, what's the cavity? The mouth?

- The belly. - Oh.

I'm gonna get a picture of you and that fish, girl.

Try to hold it so I can see the eyes.

♪ ♪

Cute.

This is every Tinder profile guy's photo.

[laughter]

- Now we're almost to the fun part.

Look and see where the collarbone is.

Cut behind that at an angle.

And it should cut just till you start to feel bone.

[light dramatic music]

♪ ♪

- Oh, my God, the noise. - Like that?

- Yeah. Great.

That's our first cut.

Then I'm going to cut on the tail.

A small incision.

Just until you start to feel bone.

- Okay.

- Great.

And then do the same exact thing on the other side.

♪ ♪

- Okay.

- Great, Selena.

Now we're just gonna cut it on a diagonal,

just behind the head.

Nice. You are a natural.

- Look at that.

- So our next cuts are gonna be down the back,

just separating the meat from the spine.

[upbeat music]

We're just running the knife

along the vertebrae of the fish.

♪ ♪

That looks freaking fantastic.

- Thanks.

- So I'm gonna turn it over

and I'm gonna do the same exact thing.

- Okay.

- Now you're just gonna cut here

just to connect it to the belly.

This is my favorite part of filleting the fish.

Watch your thumb. There you go.

- Thanks, Papa.

- Killing it, girl. So now, let me show you.

If you hold the fillet,

pull this way, and pull the knife this way.

Um, but the actual fillet. Like this, watch.

Selena. - Okay.

- It's, like, that motion.

Pull one direction and the other direction.

- And then you go like this. - And cut the--

- Yeah, girl, you did it. Okay, cool.

Now, other side.

- This is fascinating, actually.

- Seriously.

- It--it actually is, like, a study of anatomy.

- It really is.

- Hmm.

- It's just gonna be a skinny amount.

- Yeah.

- This one's gonna be more like a fish stick.

- That's it. Can I throw this away?

- Yes. - Ugh.

- Not too bad for the first time.

- [laughs] - Wow.

- Okay, so the other bones that are in the actual fish,

we're gonna pull out with tweezers.

- It's like I'm playing doctor. - Mm-hmm.

I-I was just gonna say it reminded me of that.

Remember that game, doctor-- - "Operation."

- "Operation." You had to take the pieces out.

- Oh, my God, this feels impossible.

We may just have to tell the guests,

if you taste one, spit it out--chew gently.

- I think that's what we're gonna have to do.

That's gonna be my word of advice for this.

- How we feeling?

- We're feeling good. - We did it!

- Whoo! - Good job!

- [laughs] That was not easy.

- I know, that was a little stressful.

Now what we're gonna do is transfer the fillets

and then we'll start cooking our fish.

We are going to get our mise en place for the plating.

- Okay. - So that when the fish is

done, we can just go straightaway and plate.

We'll need limes, basil, mint, and cilantro.

- All righty.

- I'm gonna cut my fish in half.

[cheerful music]

♪ ♪

- Okay.

- Put a little bit of salt on our fish, both sides.

Turn our pan to, like, a medium heat.

A little bit of olive oil in the pan.

We'll drop the fish in skin side down.

- Okay.

- Perfect. - Oh, yeah.

That's a good noise, right? - That's a great noise.

Yeah, keep that on medium,

and then we'll do our glaze for the biscuits.

- Okie dokie. - ♪ Doggie biscuits ♪

So 3 tablespoons of coconut oil.

And then 1/4 cup of peanut butter.

And we're just gonna heat the coconut oil

and peanut butter together,

which we can totally do in the microwave.

30 seconds. - Okay.

[grunts]

[microwaves beeps]

- So we'll just, like, drizzle over the biscuits.

[lively bass music]

And then sprinkle the bacon on.

And then we're looking good.

- Wow. Spoiled little dogs.

- I know, right?

How's your fish looking, Selena?

- It looks incredible.

- When we plate, we're just gonna flip it over,

and just what we call in the industry, just--

you're gonna kiss the pan.

- Ooh, a kiss.

I love that.

- Now we are ready to plate.

And then we can get someone to pick some herbs.

- I feel like if we get this down,

we can cater some weddings.

- [laughs] - Totally.

Okay, so for the herbs,

just break off, like, a small bunch of the cilantro.

Perfect. Same with the basil.

And same with the mint.

Okay, so we can pull the fish and kiss the side.

Just gonna flip it and then take it out.

- That's called a kiss. - Oh.

I love that I'm learning all these words.

[soft upbeat music]

- But the other side of the fish that's not cooked,

you want that to touch the heat.

That's the kissing part.

So it should flip it.

Yeah, you feel me.

- My bad.

- And then straight out.

Just a light, little peck.

And then, yeah, just pull--perfect.

- It's, like, should we start a restaurant or, like, what?

- We got super confident.

- It's like, are we ready? No.

- [laughs]

- Okay, now what do I do?

- We're gonna drizzle the sauce,

kind of on the fish and around.

[cheerful music]

Then we just garnish with a little bit of herbs,

very delicately and gently.

I call it a rustic elegance.

- Ooh. - Rustic elegance.

- So I'm laughing, 'cause we're like,

"We're opening a restaurant!"

I hadn't looked at how her-- beautiful hers were.

I looked over the on the TV.

- It's, like, ours would maybe be, like, $6,

and yours would be 60.

- [laughs]

Aw, but I'm sure they taste amazing.

Then I like to serve it with a lime wedge,

'cause I love bright, acidy flavors with my fish.

- Love that. - Yes.

- So do we try it? - Yeah, let's do it.

[bright music]

- Perfect.

- Bon appétit, ladies.

- All right. Just remember, gentle chews.

- [laughs]

- There may not be a bone.

- Wow.

- Oh, my God.

This might be my favorite thing you've made

in all ten episodes.

- Thanks.

- Chef Selena! [laughs]

- This is so unique. - Wow.

- I'm so happy with this.

- This is unbelievable.

- Oh, I'm so proud.

- So rate it from one to five.

- Five.

- I say a four. - Okay, okay.

- I feel like we just gotta leave a little bit of room

for improvement, you know?

- Right. It's time for the pups.

- Those look cute, girl.

- Daisy, Winnie, Snoop-Snoop!

Hi, babies. Come here.

[dogs bark]

Come here! See if you like that.

- Oh, they're loving it.

- Good doggie.

- Sit. Yeah.

- So, Nyesha, we would like to know

a little bit about the charity you support.

- I chose the NAACP. - That's right.

- Given the recent state of the world,

I think they're really doing great work,

and I think that would be really fantastic,

and I'm so appreciative.

- To thank Nyesha for the beautiful lesson today,

we're donating $10,000 on her behalf to the NAACP.

For more ways to support,

you should check out NAACP.org.

This was so much fun. - This was so great.

- We wanted to thank you so much

for taking time out of your schedule,

and for us to get to meet your little puppy.

- Yeah. Thank you.

- Bye. - Bye, Selena.

- Take care.

- Bye! - Bye!

[laughter]

- Cute. That was cute.

- Whoo! - Whoo-hoo!

- Eh. ♪ Diamonds on my wrist ♪

♪ So they call me ice cream ♪ [cork pops]

♪ You can double dip ♪ [all cheering]

♪ 'Cause I know you like me ♪

- All right! - Yeah, Papa.

- ♪ I know that my heart can be so cold ♪

- Mm. Stop. ♪ But I'm sweet for you ♪

♪ Come put me in a cone ♪

All right. - Thank you.

The real question is,

are you still gonna make food for us?

- Of course I am. - Okay, good.

- I want the meatballs first.

- Mmm. - I want the...

- Okay, guys, let's put this-- - No, we're--

People are putting in requests now?

- Monday, we're doing... - I want the fried--

- We're gonna put you to work, girl.

- Okay. - Now that you know how.

- It's been so fun. - I'm proud of you.

You did a great job. - Thank you.

- I just hope I didn't

embarrass you or anything, but--

- Papa, there's no embarrassing me anymore.

- Yeah. [chuckles]

- Honestly, you did way better

than I thought you were gonna do, so...

- Thanks. - Yeah.

- To "Selena + Chef" season one.

all: Cheers!

- Whoo! - Yay!

- Whoo! - We're deleting Postmates.