Chef Roberto Donna creates pizza margherita and panino di pizza, and demonstrates his techniques for making pizza dough -- gently kneading, petting, patting and tossing the dough to avoid disturbing the yeast. He also suggests tearing basil leaves to get the best flavor.
Chef Jasper White creates a New England fish chowder and his special pan-roasted lobster. He also demonstrates his trick for getting all the meat out of a lobster claw.
Lynne Rossetto Kasper creates a "Renaissance-style" roast leg of lamb inspired by Italian cooking of the 16th century. She also prepares a sumptuous side dish of green beans with fresh mortadella, savoring the tastes of her Italian heritage.
Chef Jimmy Sneed cooks soft-shell crabs with fresh pasta and cole slaw. He demonstrates how anyone can make fresh pasta at home, and how to clean a soft-shell crab before cooking it.
Cookbook author and teacher Madhur Jaffrey creates two southern Indian dishes: shrimp in spicy coconut sauce and basmati rice with dill. Using blends of Indian spices, Jaffrey demonstrates ways to intensify or change flavors and aromas in Indian cooking.
Chef Daniel Boulud prepares a dish of roasted veal chops and sweetbreads. Boulud uses various techniques and an array of vegetables to add touches of sweet and sour flavoring to this dish.
Master baker and teacher Jim Dodge creates a chocolate buttermilk fudge cake, offering tips on how to make the cake moist and the frosting smooth. He also demonstrates the best way to frost and decorate cakes, as well as techniques for preparing crystallized rose petals.
Chef Charlie Trotter prepares one of his innovative main dishes, Seared Scallops With Curried Carrot Broth, and follows this entree with a modern fruit dessert, Warm Peach Soup With a Trio of Sorbets-- blackberry, yogurt, and watermelon.
Chef Leah Chase cooks up her famous fried chicken, baking-powder biscuits and sweet potato pie on a pecan crust, giving viewers a taste of her New Orleans fare. Chase provides some "no-nonsense" steps for preparing down-home cooking.
Chef Christopher Gross creates alder-smoked loin of beef with red wine and shallot sauce, and a Middle Eastern grain dish -- farecki, paired with harissa. He also shows viewers how to make thin "411" potato chips (so-called because of the ratio of ingredients).
Chef Jody Adams Cambridge, Massachusetts, creates a braised, stuffed breast of veal over a bed of polenta. As she cooks, Adams offers numerous tips for the home cook, including the benefit of using whole garlic in sauces to thicken without fat, and the potential dangers of swallowing bay leaves.
Zarela Martinez creates a Mexican dish, tamales with mole verde, using such authentic ingredients as corn flour, lard, corn husks, herbs and tomatillos. The program closes with Martinez providing the recipe for the margaritas she and Julia sip as the final credits roll.
Jean-Georges Vongerichten creates a three-course Thai meal of crab spring rolls, Thai marinated beef with rice noodles, and marinated fruit with white peppercorn ice cream and candied rose petals. His style of cooking uses very little fat.
Rick Bayless prepares two Mexican dishes: chile-glazed country ribs and a rustic jicama salad. Bayless demonstrates how to deflame onions through blanching, as well as techniques for cooking each dish and presenting the plate.
Gordon Hamersley creates a roast chicken with garlic and lemon. As a side dish, he roasts onions in their skins; for dessert, he prepares warm peach tarts.
Dean Fearing prepares shrimp diablo with caesar salad and corn tamales. He offers advice about working with hot peppers.
Reed Hearon prepares frito misto with aioli. He provides cooking hints and recommendations, and demonstrates how to make iron-skillet mussels and salt-encrusted cod.
Husband and wife George Germon and Johanne Killeen, originally trained as artists, taught themselves how to cook. They create a triple citrus meringue tart, stressing the importance of keeping all the crust ingredients cold when using a food processor.
Author, teacher and baker Carol Field prepares grissini (bread sticks) and rustic country bread with which she makes bruschetta. Field offers a number of tips and hints, such as using wet hands when dealing with wet dough.
Chef Michael Lomonaco marinates quail and venison, then creates boar bacon and rabbit sausage to form a mixed game grill. Using indirect heating with the coals on one side, Lomonaco cooks these dishes together outside on the grill. Back in the kitchen, he creates a berry relish and home-fried potatoes.
Chef Monique Barbeau prepares tequila cured gravlax with savory dill pancakes. Using fresh salmon (with skin), she cures the fish in tequila and spices, and then makes a creme fraiche with tomatoes to use as a sauce over the gravlax. Next she prepares dill pancakes without eggs. Finally, Barbeau puts all the elements together to form a small sandwich that's topped with fried capers.
Jacques Torres creates a chocolate presentation with pralines. First he demonstrates his technique for tempering dark and white chocolate. Then, once the chocolates have been melted, Torres applies the melted chocolate to florist-style plastic wrap, bubble wrap and molds. When the chocolate sets, he cuts and designs the chocolate in an artistic presentation; then he creates non-brittle pralines using a wide assortment of nuts.
Alfred Portale creates duck soup with foie gras ravioli and black truffles. He demonstrates how to bone a duck and offers hints for its preparation. Portale also provides a great deal of information about the wild and fresh vegetables he uses in the soup.
Chef Mark Militello creates a hearts of palm salad to complement his Jamaican-style yellowtail red snapper. He uses hot peppers in his salad and recommends coating your fingers with oil to protect from the heat. Militello also offers other tips, such as scoring the fish to prevent it from curling up and shrinking, and flipping the fish away from oneself when frying so that the oil or butter doesn't splash back.
Julian Serrano creates a lobster and chicken paella for a main course and creme fraiche ice cream with almond roasted figs and honey lime peaches for dessert. When making the paella, Serrano uses a paellero -- a shallow, wide pan -- to make the paella.
Joachim Splichal creates braised lamb shank on barley risotto. He recommends lightly flouring the lamb shanks so that they will brown easier and also help thicken the sauce.
Lynne Rossetto Kasper, an expert on Italian foods, creates a Sunday night pasta with balsamic vinegar, cooking the garlic very slowly until it's sweet and mellow. Chef Roberto Donna creates homemade pasta with pesto sauce with a chestnut flour and demonstrates how to hand-roll each piece.
Jimmy Sneed creates a stuffed turkey leg, using shitake mushrooms and Virginia smoked ham in the stuffing. Chef Sneed demonstrates how to debone the turkey. As an accompaniment, he prepares grits and asparagus.
Rick Bayless, known for his skills in cooking Mexican food, creates a black bean tortilla casserole and refried beans. He offers a number of tips for his dish, such as using an herb called episote to add taste to (and remove gas from) beans; and buying tortillas produced locally and without preservatives, if possible.
Johanne Killeen and George Germon create a main course, and Christopher Gross makes the dessert. Using the outdoor grill, Killeen and Germon cook up their own dirty steak with hot fanny sauce. Accompanying the steak is a side dish of silky red peppers and mashed potatoes. Gross presents an elaborately designed chocolate tower with fresh berries.
Daniel Boulud, using four kinds of peas, creates a chilled green pea soup with rosemary. Gordon Hamersley prepares "perfect" tossed salad, noting the importance of tossing the salad correctly.
International cookbook author and teacher Madhur Jaffrey creates minty sweet and sour eggplant, a dish that can be served as a first course or as a side dish for lamb. Reed Hearon creates two dishes: iron skillet mussels and sand dabs a la plancha. Both dishes are made with very little sauce, using much of the natural flavor of the seafoods.
Dean Fearing, executive chef at The Mansion on Turtle Creek in Dallas, creates a molasses-glazed duck salad. Fearing recommends buying a fresh, not frozen, duck. He removes as much fat as possible from the duck and bastes it in a molasses and tabasco sauce glaze. As a side dish, Fearing prepares mashed sweet potatoes and roasts carrots and parsnips.
Vermont, Jim Dodge creates an all-American apple pie--the Harvest Apple Pie. To get a flaky crust, Dodge makes sure to use cold butter. He also suggests using Empire and Golden Delicious apples rather than Granny Smith or Red Delicious.
Executive chef of Rialto at the Charles Hotel in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Jody Adams, and chef/owner of Patina in Los Angeles, Joachim Splichal, visit Julia Child in her kitchen. For a light first course, Adams creates Carta Musica--a flat bread with a tossed salad. Splichal prepares a Mushroom Potato Lasagna, using chanterelles as the filler between potato slices with a butter and vegetable sauce.
Chef/owner of Mark's Place in North Miami, Mark Militello creates Grilled Pork Tenderloin With Jamaican Spices. Militello demonstrates how to toast the spices; this practice, typical to Indian cooking, allows for more flavor to be released. As a side dish, Militello prepares rice with pumpkin.
Chef/owner of Zarela's in New York, Zarela Martinez, and chef/owner of Jasper's in Boston, Jasper White, visit Julia Child in her kitchen. In this episode, White creates Sweet Corn Fritters, and Martinez prepares Poblanos Chiles Rellenos. Demonstrating the influence of North Africa on Spanish/Mexican cooking, Martinez stuffs the chiles with a combination of pork, dried fruits, and olives.
Alfred Portale, chef/owner of Gotham Bar and Grill in New York, prepares Muscovy Duck Breast With Chinese Spices. Portale introduces the viewer to the wide assortment of ducks available and demonstrates how to bone a duck. This meal balances both sweet and strong flavors. Portale presents the duck and vegetables in an attractive and decorative fashion.
Chef Monique Barbeau from Fullers in Seattle and pastry chef Jacques Torres from Le Cirque in New York visit Julia Child in her kitchen. Barbeau creates Eggplant Falafel With Tahini Dressing. Torres prepares a baked chocolate soup with meringue--a dessert that contains bananas soaked in rum and is then covered with caramelized sugar.