Original subtitles

[narrator] This is Myrtle Beach, South Carolina

Sixty miles of beautiful sunny beaches,

attractions and more than 2,000 restaurants.

With amazing culinary option

the beach has become a true foodie destination.

Our host, Chef Amanda Freita loves southern hospitality,

great food and healthy competition.

So she's here to set up a Chef Swap challenge.

I'm Amanda Freitag and welcome to Chef Swap at the Beach.

[narrator] Today, Amanda will take two local chefs out of their comfort zones

-and swap them into each other's kitchens. -What?

[Amanda] On each episode our chefs will have no idea where they're going,

or what food they'll cook.

Maybe an appetizer, an entre or a dessert.

[narrator] They'll grab only one ingredient to bring with them.

And they'll have just 60 minutes to make Chef Amanda

and local culinary experts, Dylan and Johanna,

a dish that might earn them their very own Chef Swap k

and major bragging rights.

[Amanda] It's time for Chef Swap.

Today on Chef Swap at the Beach,

I'm gonna swap two very different chefs.

Eugen and Greg.

Family is everything in life.

You know, family is the most important thing, of course.

Order in, scallops.

I'm from Albania originally

Growing up, we were very poo

So my parents both wanted a better life for me and my brother.

After the Communist system collapsed, they moved from Albania.

They went to Greece and they worked really hard day and night.

And sometimes me and my brother would cook something at home to eat.

My parents would have very few ingredients.

That's how my passion started with cooking.

To be creative and do something new with the same ingredients all the time.

I lived in Canada and I met my wife when she was in Ohio

We came here, we saw ocean, people, sun.

Just to find this perfect heaven, we're right here in Myrtle Beach.

This is Claudia, my better half.

Most of the time. [laughing]

All the time.

[Eugen] She means everything to me.

She means the world.

-A ki-- -Yeah.

-We get to kiss now? -[both chuckle]

So, I come from Moldova.

It's from eastern Europe.

Between Ukraine and Romania

They call us, like, a wine country.

I like to cook with wine, I mean...

[chuckles] this flavor stays on my palate since I was ten.

[laughing] So I gotta use it you know?

My mom, she was a chef.

And she trained me the basics, you know.

But anyway, it was easy to me to pick up.

Cooking is an art, same as for painter, you know?

I don't have any culinary school, so everything I taught mysel

I picked up from restaurants

I prefer more, like, simple dishes

than having something strict, fine dining.

It's delicious but kinda like, "Ah, you're boring."

I wanna have fun, you know?

Order up, tuna power bowl.

I'm very quiet, timid person

I don't talk a lot but beginning, nobody believed in me.

And they were wrong. [chuckles]

[Amanda] Our chefs are about to get a big surprise.

-Chef Eugen. -Oh, hi.

-Hi. -How're you doing?

-Amanda. Wow. -How are you? Good to see you.

I have something for you.

-What do you got? -It's time for a Chef Swap.

So in this envelope, it tells you where you're going,

-the chef who you'll be swapping with. -Okay.

And what you're gonna make.

-So, can I open it now? -Not yet.

Before you open it to find out what you're cooking,

you have to pick one ingredient that you're gonna take with you.

-One? -One thing only.

Okay, that's a tough one.

-Homemade chicken stock? -Homemade chicken stock.

-Think I'll get shio koji. -What?

It's like a liquid rice condiment.

-Shio koji. -Yes.

It's kinda close to soy sauce, little bit fish sauce.

-It's a mix. -Okay.

I hope you're not making dessert.

-Easy to open. Oh, Drift. -All right, open it up.

Chef Greg. All right.

Oh, Ciao.

Oh, Chef Eugen. I know him.

-You're gonna make lunch over there. -I can do that.

-You know how to make lunch, right? -No.

[both laughing]

-Sounds great. -Yeah?

It's a good challenge, I'll take it.

-I'm gonna steal you from the restaurant. -No.

Chef Swap starts now.

-Really? Let's go. -Yes, let's go.

-Now, you're serious? -Yes, let's go.

All right, let's do it.

[Amanda] Our chefs bring one ingredient and have 60 minutes to swap restaurants

and create a dish that will be a star on that menu

Judged on taste, integratio and creativity.

Hey, chef. How're you doing?

How you doing? How are you?

Welcome to Drift, man. Good to see you.

-Hello. -How are you?

-Nice. Oh. -I'm a hugger. Good to see you.

-Are you excited? -Uh, yes.

-Welcome to Ciao. -I am so excited.

I'm Carlos. I'm gonna show you a little bit around for your dishes.

You can use everything we have.

All right, so here we got all our spices.

So we got some white truffle oil.

-Um, risotto and things. Yes, sir. -Oh, risotto? Okay, cool.

Our shellfish and our seafood is right here.

You got fresh clams, mussels, crab meat, scallop, shrimp.

We got a door here full of fresh chicken,

some octopus ready to grill.

-We got a flat top stove for you in case you need a grill. -Cool.

-And the fryer, okay? -All right.

-Good luck, chef. Let us know if you need anything. -All right.

Thank you.

-This is your show. Go for it, good luck. -Thank you so much.

All right, let's fire up this time, guys.

[Amanda] Eugen!

You made it.

-All right. -All right, so you got your challenge.

-You're gonna make lunch. -All right.

What do you think you're gonna make?

I will make a risotto with some halibut and some salad on top.

-You know you only have an hour, right? -I got it.

[Greg] What you cooking, Tito?

Meatballs? Very nice.

Okay, I'm gonna steal some basil from you, my friend.

Hey, Greg. How're you feeling?

Good, good, good. Excited.

Yeah? You brought your ingredient that you chose.

Shio koji.

-Can I taste it? -Um, yeah, sure.

That's an Asian condiment, it's made from fermented rice.

Any umami flavor is good.

-As long... -Whoa!

-What do you think? -Wow.

That is funky, salty.

-You're a bold man. -Let's do it.

Okay, so you're making a lunch entree.

Yeah, I saw they have a lot of vegetables, so I think I'll go with ratatouille.

Ratatouille!

Yes, so now I'll make the easy sauce from butter like a beurre blanc.

And I might use shrimps or scallops.

-Shrimp or scallop over ratatouille. -I'm gonna do... yes.

-In one hour. -Uh, yeah.

I'd love to have that.

-Oh. Uh... -And guess what else?

Your time starts right now. Go.

-No. -Yes! Go!

[Greg] All right, what do we got?

Tito, I'm going to the fridge.

[Amanda] Our chefs can use anything they want from each other's shelves.

If they can find it.

Thyme and basil. Do you have more thyme and basil?

Let's go.

A little garlic, onions.

Oh, yes. Gotta do that first.

Oops.

I'm all thumbs today.

Gotta put the chicken stock to warm up.

Coming through, guys. Sorry.

[Greg] All right, so we making ratatouille.

I'm gonna dice these vegetables, medium small

'cause I need them to cook fast.

And one thing that I found is fennel.

It's another traditional ingredient in ratatouille.

But it's gonna be...

something the judges don't expect.

-Hey, Greg. Ten minutes have passed, how're you feeling? -Hey.

-It looks like you got all your ingredients. -Yeah.

-Basil, shio koji. -Are you gonna use all this butter?

Not everything.

-So this is gonna be... -A nice healthy lunch right there.

[Amanda] Okay, so, ratatouille is working.

-A lot of vegetable cuts. -Yes.

You know your timing? Are you thinking about it in your head?

That's the thing. Ratatouille, the longer you cook it the better.

Yeah, so I have a really, um, fond

feeling about ratatouille. Do you have the same?

Like, it's a memory, it's a taste sensation.

It's a movie.

It's a dish from my childhood my mom used to cook for me every summer.

-Really? -Yes.

These flavors just got on my palate.

So this crazy stuff.

This crazy juice, where's it going?

That's gonna enhance the ratatouille

and it's gonna go inside the beurre blanc sauce.

-I don't think your mom would have used this, by the way. -No.

-[Amanda laughing] -I don't think you can find that in Europe actually.

[Eugen] Grab a knife for the fish.

Just gonna make sure this is... Oh, this is nice, okay.

I can work with this.

Two.

I like using my imagination and my creativity.

We make everything in-house We have a lot of fresh whol fish, like a branzino.

I do for appetizers, and I do use a lot of scallops.

Keep this cold over here.

And also beets. Beet salad, people love beets.

And also a lot of pasta dish like carbonaras,

vodkas and stuff like that.

Leeks.

Pepper.

Wooden spoon.

All right, let's go.

[Greg] All right, almost there.

I like doing eclectic kind of food.

I like mixing stuff.

Looks like that pan nice and hot.

At Drift, we have poke bowls.

Spanish, it has Spanish octopus.

Also English, benedict.

Starting from classic Benedicts and going pork belly, duck confit.

Anybody who come, they should find something in this menu.

There's no way you won't find what you like.

So I think that would be enough of zucchini.

It's good.

Oh, nice pans.

[Amanda] Drift is an extreme busy kitchen.

[Eugen] Gonna leave that there.

Ooh, gotta run around today.

[Amanda] Part of Eugen's challenge is navigating around those other cooks.

[Eugen] Fennel.

[Greg] I've got three more vegetables to finish.

And we can start to saute them.

It's very important to start with very hot pan.

I don't have much time left.

I'll go back to my risotto now.

[Greg] Fennel cooking is nice.

Oh, time to put some rice.

You gotta keep on stirring this thing, that's the problem.

Chicken stock.

Adding in the fish.

Chef, what do you got going on?

I got halibut, just went in.

I'm gonna brown some leeks for the risotto.

And I'm gonna make a salad and some asparagus on the side.

I love seeing those leeks on the griddle.

Yeah, I thought it would give it some char.

-I love that. -Thank you, thank you.

-Are you watching that risotto? -Yeah.

-All the focus here. -[Amanda laughing]

[Greg] Still?

Always keep your eyes...

on the food.

'Cause it can burn any time.

So I'm gonna make a beurre blanc sauce.

Wine, wine, wine, wine, wine, wine, wine, wine, wine, wine.

Chardonnay, yes. Great.

-Hey! -Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. You're cooking for me.

-I'm just tasting. -Take a taste.

I can't wait to taste the shio koji in here.

Tastes great in there.

So you said the ratatouille is your mom's, and where did you grow up?

I grew up in eastern Europe, it's a small country, Moldova.

And do you bring a lot of that into your food?

-Yes, small stuff. -Yes?

Our country's famous for soil.

So we grew up on vegetables.

Yeah, so you're really vegetable focused, which I love.

[Greg] Home is where your family are.

And, unfortunately, my mom and my brother passed away.

Back home, yeah. And I couldn't go at the time.

That's why every time I cook, it's in memory of my mom.

You know, it's tough. [chuckles]

That's why I cook ratatouille.

I need more sweetness to it.

Looks like you've got some honey.

Ratatouille right now has too much acidity.

I wanna sweeten it up and balance the flavor a little bit.

I don't know why I was thinking of making this risotto.

Under pressure.

Do you have any butter?

Butter, butter, butter, butter.

Oh, thank you, sir.

Can I get a dish, dish something? Ooh-hoo.

[Amanda] Eugen is nervous.

He's gotta let that go and find his groove if he's gonna succeed today

[Eugen] So the risotto is working, gotta flip this fish. Make it look nice.

It's getting hot in here.

It's going back in the oven.

It needs, like, six more minutes.

It's very al dente right now, it needs time.

You need a little more stock in here, let's go.

-Give it more love, yes. -Come on, chef.

Thanks for helping me, I didn't know you're helping.

[Amanda laughing] I'm not supposed to help.

-I just wanna be in the kitchen with you. -Oh, yeah?

How's that fish?

[Eugen] The fish is almost done and I need to go make the salad.

[Greg] Scallops here.

Season them from both sides.

The fire on high.

All right, I gotta chop this thing up. Sorry, coming through.

Hot, hot. Hot!

I don't want the risotto overcook.

All right. Ready, guys.

I just want things to be perfect every time.

And my motto is, if it's not perfect, don't tak it out of the kitchen.

I'm a very simple person.

I love cooking and I don't know how to do anything else, you know.

I cannot even put a nail in the wall if you ask me to

but I can cook you basicall anything you can imagine.

I'm just gonna finish this in the oven a little bit, too.

Gonna put some of my chicken stock in this.

More butter the merrier.

Right, I need to do my salad and we're plating.

-Chef. What do you got? You're finishing up? -Yes.

I just have to make a salad.

Oh, so nice of you. Thank you.

-Thank you. -You're sweating.

-I know, right? -Are you under pressure?

-Absolutely. -What's going on, man?

I wanna take my time and make it perfect, right?

-I want it to be perfect. -All right, exactly.

So you gotta hustle.

All right, I'm trying to!

[narrator] Learn more about the chefs and restaurants featured in this show

at chefswap.com.

I need my asparagus and I need to plate, all right.

Little al dente, but perfect.

Well, let's check on scallops.

Yeah, that's what you want.

This is ready.

So when you see when they crack like this in the middle.

It's a sign that they're ready.

You don't want to overcook them either.

What's happening?

The sauce is ready, this is ready.

And my scallops are almost ready.

Today I'm gonna add some twist to the dish if I have time.

[Amanda] That looks amazing.

All right, pressure is on.

I gotta put the fish on top.

Little bit salad on top.

Chef, you're plating.

-Little bit salad. [chuckles] -You wanna tell me the dish title?

Uh, seasoned halibut. I don't know.

-Halibut with... Leek. -With a grilled leek risotto.

-And? -And...

-Fennel salad with carrots and a limoncello vinaigrette. -Done.

I'll see you at the table.

Maybe a little bit more, maybe some more color you think or no?

[Amanda] I can't tell you.

-You can't tell me? Come on! That's not fair. -[loudly] I can't tell you!

-I would tell you. -[Amanda laughing]

[Eugen] The last task is for fennel on top.

So fennel like this, maybe.

Looks nice. That's as fancy as I get, guys. I don't get too fancy.

Boom. I'm done.

All on there. One, two, three.

I wish I had more time to cook the food a little longer.

Cooking is all about balance of the flavors.

Same with presentation, you gotta balance everything

So, it's the playing with shapes, composition.

So I'm trying to make, like, a personal potato right now.

Just gonna cook them in a little bit of butter.

All right, listen. What are you doing?

-I thought you were done. -I'm going a little bit extra. No, I know.

-I've got time, I've gotta add something. -You've got four minutes.

-How much time is left? Four minutes. -Four minutes?

-That's a lot of time. -Yeah, oh.

Look at you flexing your muscles.

We're all seated. We're ready to go, we're ready to eat.

Beautiful.

I just want this potato to get this garlicky flavor in there.

Dill? Yes.

I'm adding a little green peas gonna give some color.

'Cause I've got a lot of yellow in.

I don't want to add parsley, parsley's very strong herb.

And I think we're done.

-You have 30 seconds left. -I can make four more dishes.

[Amanda] No, you can't make any more dishes.

[Amanda] It's time to taste Eugen's lunch entree

with our culinary experts, Johanna and Dylan.

Thank you.

[Amanda] We will be judging each dish on taste, integration and creativity.

Mmm.

The dish is...

surprising.

In a good way.

I've not had leeks in a long time, last I had leeks was in a soup.

To have it with the halibut is refreshing.

-It's great. -What was the secret ingredient?

He brought chicken stock as his chosen ingredient.

-That makes sense. -Okay.

So he probably put the risotto and the chicken stock together.

-Of course. -Of course he did.

I think it was a bold choice for the risotto.

That can be a little hairy, especially on a tight time crunch.

The risotto is nice, nice and creamy.

The asparagus has a nice crunch to it.

I really love the freshness of it.

I love that he did the fennel and carrot on top of the halibut.

Gave it some acid.

For me, the cook on the halibut is, I wish he'd seared it.

-I would like a nice crust. -Right?

I would've liked a little bit more crunch on the fish.

If you saw this on the menu,

do you think it fits?

It's a little big for a lunch portion, dinner would definitely work.

It does fit on this menu at Drift.

It's very relaxing.

We're a seaside eatery.

-It sets me adrift. -I love that.

-It sends you adrift? Okay. -Yes.

[Amanda] Now, let's taste Chef Greg's lunch.

[Johanna] All right.

Mmm.

So, first off. Presentation, I think it's great.

Very clean, different color and textures for sure.

Aesthetically, really pleasing to the eye.

So I wanna dig in for more.

The ratatouille is fantastic.

The scallops are nice and tender.

I'm finding the scallops are so sweet.

There's definitely a hint of sweetness, I don't know what he did there.

-But maybe some honey? Yeah. -I like it.

-Yeah, it's good. -I love the sauce.

It's a little, it's a little thin for me.

I would want it to sort of coat the scallops a little more.

Some of the scallop is slightly salty, just a tad salty.

But other than that, perfection.

What ingredient did Chef Greg incorporate into this dish?

He used shio koji.

It's like a rice vinegar but it's funky, sour and sweet.

-Hmm. It's interesting. -Right?

It's summer time, it's hot.

-Yes. -And you want lunch.

Would this be suitable?

For me it fits on the menu,

but for me for a lunch, and the hot weather that we have here at the beach,

it's a little heavy.

I have to pleasantly disagree.

-Ooh. -I think that zucchini, squash,

bell pepper, this is summer vegetables you get from a farmstead.

So I think this is wonderful farm to table kind of summer lunch for me.

How was that?

It was stressful, you know. But I had fun.

I was very out of my comfort zone,

but I'm glad I did it.

So you were working so fast.

Your dish had almost 30 ingredients in it total. [laughing]

You knew you had one hour,

but you were so ambitious anyway.

Yeah, I mean, I just tried. Why not? I gave it a shot.

So I can't wait and see what judges think about my dish.

And critique, tell me mistakes.

See if I have some, 'cause that's gonna make me better as a cook.

-I love that. -Yeah.

How'd it go?

It went pretty well overall. A little bit tight in there.

I think you did really well in that kitchen.

-Busy kitchen, too, so that I... Yes. -Middle of lunch service.

But I kind of like, focused on my own dish.

-You were laser focused. -All right.

-You're bold and brave. -Yeah.

To make risotto in a...

-Yeah, I know. -...concentrated time frame.

I had to go back and forth, like, the whole time.

You got better taste and so.

-Yeah. -I love the challenge.

But I wish I had a grill, actually I wanted to grill the halibut.

Oh, okay.

You gotta do what you gotta do.

That's the whole idea. We want you to be

-out of your... -That's why it kind of worked out, you know.

-I thought the dish looked beautiful. -Thank you.

-Well, I tried to impress you, I don't know if I did. -You did.

-All right. Thank you. -Congrats, you did it.

[Amanda] Both chefs brought their A game.

Let's see who will get our Chef Swap knife.

-Hi, Chef Eugen. Chef Greg. -Hey, how you doing?

Okay, chefs. We gave you a challenge to make a lunch entree.

-Yes. -I loved watching you in that kitchen.

And you were working with the team at Drift.

-It was a busy lunch, too. -Yeah.

Carlos was helping you out.

And then, I love seeing you in the kitchen with Tito.

-Yup, he helped me a lot actually. Yeah. -[Amanda] He did help you.

Chef Eugen, you gave us that beautiful halibut dish.

And I loved the leeks in there, I think that was one of my favorite thing

along with that fresh salad on top.

-And the risotto. -I definitely gave it 100%.

Chef Greg.

You brought your shio koji to the kitchen, which is an incredible ingredient.

And you made a ratatouille with those beautiful scallop

His menu inspired me to start with ratatouille,

they've got a lot of fresh vegetables in there.

Chef Eugen, Chef Greg.

The Chef Swap knife goes to.

-Chef Greg. -[applause]

Congratulations. Well done.

-It was close, man. -Thank you.

How do you feel about that?

That means a lot to me.

It's gonna push me forward to achieve more.

And I wanna say thank you to you, Amanda and the judges.

Your opinion matters to me a lot.

[Amanda] Greg's attention to detail and depth of flavo really put him over the top

I'm Amanda Freitag, join me next time

as we put two more amazing Myrtle Beach chefs

to the test on Chef Swap at the Beach.

For more on the chefs and restaurants featured in this episode,

visit chefswap.com