Transcription
This is Chef Gilberto. He thinks today is just me filming his restaurant. He has no idea I made him a knife. I'm at Hall Bosch in LA at the best seafood in the city. And I'm going to play my part filming before I reveal who I am and why I'm here. I have something for you. Okay. I'm not just a videographer. I'm a knife maker. 3 2 1.
As a chef, purpose changes over time. And currently, where are you in your goals and aspirations?
>> Purpose does definitely change over time. Um, uh, real quick timeline, learning the craft and falling in love with it and combining my other passion which was seafood. Um, there we started a journey of really learning the craft of seafood which is very specific. It requires a lot of training and error and I didn't I don't have formal training uh other than traditional Yucatan style cooking I learned from my dad. So it was really a process of trial and error. I think that's where we are right now in this evolution and then the next step is who is going to take over and how are we going to make this continue.
>> So when you talk about succession, >> does that mean this is kind of like the end chapters of where you're at?
>> For me, yes. Um uh I've been doing this for 25 years and it takes a toll you know and um there are other things I would love to do spend more time with family. I think the next stage for us is going to be you know exploring new adventures in other places. I am excited for my team. I I would love for them to continue to take over to make it an expression of who they are and where they come from.
>> I then asked him what brings him the most joy. One of the things that brings me the most satisfaction is somebody from Los Angeles to bring their out of town guests in and say, "Hey, we had to bring them here because we think is what LA is all about."
>> Seeing people coming in to eat with their suitcases that just arrived from LAX before they go to their hotel, that says a lot to me. Um, so yeah, being a part of this food community is very significant. I'm very proud of it. My last question to him is how would he describe himself?
>> I am an Angelino. Before that I was Mexican, born a Mexican. Uh my heritage, my roots and then in between that uh I was an immigrant. I am still an immigrant. all of those things, being Mexican, uh, sharing a journey and struggles that, you know, a huge part of my community goes through and and surpassing those struggles and and and living pretty much a dream right now. Being able to share the story openly that has completely shaped how I cook, why I do it, and how I build a team. I I would try to introduce myself that way. Uh maybe in less words.
>> No, this is great. This is an epic intro. That was epic. I was already imagining the B-roll as he was saying.
>> Now, before I show you his first reaction and when he uses the knife, let me take you back to how I planned this. This is going to be a very different project compared to the other ones before because I am guessing what knife I'm going to make him. I don't know the knives that he owns. So, we're gonna have to do a little bit of investigation to the drawing room. With a little bit of investigation and finesse, I've got to look if there's any footage of him and his knives to see his preferences and style. Unfortunately, not so much. I've got to dig deeper. After some time, I've managed to stumble across this. A Deba and a Yanagiba. Not bad. Let's look further.
>> The head slice down middle. I have it. We are going to make a bunka. Where the Sanku has a more elegant design, soft curves from the spine to the tip, and the right amount of curvature. The bunka, on the other hand, has sharp facets, steep points from the spine to the tip, a little bit more aggressive. Let's do this. Now, here's the thing. I could have made him a knife for fish, but what he had looked like something he was very used to. So, going for an allrounder might be the best approach. I've realized over the last year that most chefs, even though they can appreciate high carbon steel, don't really want to deal with the blade oxidizing and tainting food. Most of the time in the restaurants, chefs prefer stainless knives. And that's why dam steel will always be my preferred choice. What control I have is how I heat treat. And of course, the most important process of any knife, be it forged or stock material, is the grinding. I think I always have to explain that I'm coating the stainless to protect the knife during heat treat. Most stainless steel, unlike highcarbons, requires a different type of quench. It's not old school dropping in oil with flames. The steel is pressed between bars to cool down rapidly and retain its new metal structure of hardens.
These are the main ingredients for the build. We've got copper, gemstone, African blackwood being one of the hardest and most dense woods on the planet, and this blank piece of wood for tracing. I'm going to try and do an inlay of a fish on the sia, the knife sheath. Not really sure if I'm going to get this right on the first try, but we're going to do it anyway. The blank piece of cheap wood is going to be my guide for tracing the knife so I can route the side properly for tight fitting and also draw out little tabs to create pins to hold everything in place. It keeps everything aligned and prevents issues when gluing up. There's a first time for everything. I'm using my fiber laser to mark where I'm going to saw out pieces for the inlay for this segment. Sit back and relax and also possibly hear my personal challenges. Ah, I should have thought about that. To mitigate the issue of flying fish, tape is all I needed. Now that the pieces are done, I use leather as the interior to cushion the blade as well as creating the floor for the inlay so it stops from going entirely through. The gemstone is set and flattened out. And now for the copper pieces. Oh, this is looking so good. Oh man, look at I'm clean it up. Yeah, that looks pretty good. We are using African Blackwood for the Sia, which means we're going to stick with the same species of wood for the handle material. Now, this simple piece of wood is going to be turned into something I've never done before by using the fiber laser once more. Let's find out.
Now that I've met my target of thickness for the wood, we sanded down progressively from 220 grit to 400. And then a high 800 and a buff to polish. This is truly all experimental, but it kind of makes sense. I use the fiber laser once more and burn deep enough so I can put resin in the channels of the wood. Crossing my fingers here. The epoxy is dry after a day. And now we see if it worked. Voila. We have a winner. The final thing I'd like to do is add a little copper on the butt of the handle. Just a nice touch to add something more than just wood. The effort I put into grinding really is the determining factor on making this knife functional. I grind the bevels slowly and with focus. Unfortunately, there will always be mistakes. Damn it. Okay, I messed up. You see that chippiness right over there? Yeah. Yeah. Luckily, it's not that big of a deal. Takes about 10 minutes to fix. Still though, big pet peeve.
This knife is polished and primed to be etched. But beforehand, as always, we're going to check its performance. Seven years ago, I took a break as a chef and walked across the streets of Beverly Hills and entered into a Japanese cutlery store. It was then at that point that it was like the catalyst into me being curious about knife making. I got a couple pieces and I was a very happy customer. If I knew then what I know now about knives, I would look for one very important thing among all other things besides edge curvature, the handle, how it looks, I would look for minimal resistance. The knife maker community will call this thinness behind the edge. And of course, an axe can be very sharp and it can shave off the hairs off of your arm, but it's not going to be very functional when brunwiring an onion, right? You're going to get a lot of wedging. Wedging is like an example of if I cut through an onion, cuts nice and smooth. But if the knife is too thick and I cut through a denser product like butternut squash and it wedges and it gets stuck, it means it was too thick, not enough thinness behind the end. All right, let's just get to the test cuts. I always test on a carrot because it tells me how thin the edge is. We're going to see if I hear any cracks. Smooth. I mean, look at that. Nothing. Yeah, that'll definitely do. Let's do the beak. I'm not even Yeah. Okay. I don't need to cut anything else.
At this stage of etching and finishing the blade, it is where I am most excited. I've done all the hard parts, and now I get to see all the pieces come together. Now, I'm just going to cover it with a little bit of mineral oil. Let's see if there's a difference. Make sure it's I mean that makes such a big difference. Now you can definitely see the polish much more. And on top of that, even though I'm missing one last component for the handle, this is how it would look like. Look at that. Let's call it a day.
In all the episodes prior to this one, all the chefs knew I was making them a knife. They didn't know what I was going to make them, which kept it exciting. But in this one, Chef Gilberto has no idea there's a knife involved. That brings up a different type of surprise element, which I'm excited for. And I thought that would alleviate some pressure on my back, but it's quite the opposite. Without further ado, let me show you the knife. I am so happy with how this turned out. And it's got this it's got this cool click to it. Little things like that. Now, we take it out. So to recap, he has no idea that I get Oh, no. Cut. Gotcha. I'm not just a videographer. I'm a knife maker.
>> Okay.
>> For the past few weeks, I have been looking at the way that you cook and I wanted to make a knife based off of your style, the theme of your restaurant, and uh yeah.
>> Okay.
>> So, I think what we should just do is go straight to it and do a countdown from three. Okay.
>> You want to do this?
>> Let's do this.
>> Okay.
>> Huh?
>> 3 2 1.
>> Wait. You You made this.
>> Yeah.
>> Handle everything.
>> Everything. Everything.
>> May I?
>> Yes.
>> Holy
>> Oh my god. That is gorgeous.
>> You're welcome. Let's go try it out. All right. Hurry. Spin. Wow. All right. I'm super excited about this.
>> Oh, that's smooth, man.
>> How does it feel?
>> That was beautiful. That was silky smooth. This is so nice. Right. So, we'll go with the onion first.
>> All right. So far, so good. That was smooth, man. Dear lord,
>> okay.
>> that was nice.
>> All right, let's get this tomato. Oh my god, I didn't even feel that.
>> Oh my god. I just I just crushed this onion. It was beautiful. The time I had with Chef Gilberto was short, but enough to have shared just the surface of who he is. It is now time to part ways and on to the next ship of the Magic Chronicles.