Nick DiGiovanni - I Cooked Against My Brothers

Episode Date: September 30, 2025

I cooked against my three younger brothers in an intense, one-hour cooking challenge.

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Play-O-Jo! 18-10 and plus, 1-Depos only depose on Ontario. 50 tours on the machine-a-B-Bass Bonanza. DePo Minimimimmonimmonin of 10 dollars. Beye, I'm going to face off against my three brothers in a one-verses-three cooking challenge.

While Cam, Pete and Will will be on a team, I'll be alone, but both teams will be responsible for cooking a three-course meal in just one hour. Behind us is a widespread of ingredients, and we can cook whatever we'd like with the ingredients at hand. And today, you'll be the judges. I'm done letting my cameraman judge. The winner of today's cook-off goes to Coosh and the Golden Ball. Yeah.

I think I have to go with Team Lego. Yeah. Pack your legners and get the fias. Yeah. Let us know in the comments below who wins and why. Let's get one hour on the clock and our time starts now. Today I'm gonna be breaking down a whole king salmon to make salmon over rice with a little extra flare. Right here we got a fresh king salmon.

I've never played a salmon before, but I figured I'd do it on Nick. Do what? I'm gonna come up the back side here, feeling along the backbone. And I did this on a porky last weekend, but there's a lot of sweet. Obviously I'm responsible for all three portions of this whole meal, so I'm starting with my appetizer. I figured I'm pickling quick and easy, so I'm going to make some hot honey wings, but of course, you know I have to start with some buttermilk and pickle juice. Definitely not the most traditional way to make wings. But I think it gives the most flavor of any brine I've ever tried.

Since there's three of us and just one of him, we each took one course. So I'm doing the appetizer. So I'm doing type of pasta that's made with onions, sausage, and a smaller type of yonk because of the no meat. because Naceti Saris. Cam just spent a while in Italy and pretty much all my brothers are fluent in Italian except for me. It's really a cratino that not really what we're saying. Forso it's the other but it's more stupid. Into my wings, I'm going to do my buttermilk and again this is going to be a dish that does all the work for me.

Since I'm responsible for all three courses I need to be smart about this. See ya, let's do you do. Give me the camera. So today I was still with dessert, so I'm making a honey-vanelle ice cream all by some lace cookies. by some lace cookies and caramel sauce. I've never done any of those before, so I hope it worked out. So I got my big filet off here, and now I'm gonna go ahead and remove the pin bones

by perking them up a little bit here. I've seen Nick do this before. I need the tool for it, but. It's like a grabber thing? Do you have one of those? A grabber? Do I have a grabber? I'm currently whisking eggs,

and I don't know exactly what it's supposed to look like. I'm pretty sure when you whisk eggs it gets white. I don't know if I was supposed to use yolks because it's staying yellow, but we're gonna keep going. So I just found that Will back here, I just notice is on all recipes.com making ice cream. This was there my goddew. This is unprecedented.

I don't think anyone's ever done this. Many, is this ground for disqualification? It might be, it's a special day. I'll let it fly. My second course will be these beautiful scallops here. I am keeping them on ice. They are nice, large scallops. And I want to teach you today about how to cook scallop

because most people I know cook them incorrectly and they end up tough and gummy. We'll get to these in just a moment. But first, we're gonna make some brown butter as I'll be making these lemon brown butter ritz scallops. So I'll go into my pan with the stick of butter. And once this melts, In with some milk powder to get more of those brown milk solids.

So far I've added the honey, the vanilla, and the eggs, and I keep whisking. I'm going to add the heavy cream now, the milk, and get as fast as I can in the ice cream maker. You can tell he's using real vanilla if you look carefully at this because you've got all those nice black speckles and that is going to be the mark of a good vanilla ice cream. Assuming it holds together in the ice cream maker. Okay, so now we've added the sausage, we've added the onions. We see the sausage is brown, so we're going to add some of this tomato sauce and then let it simmer for a little while. So I split them into portions.

We have two beautiful flameters. Beautiful Flays that I'm gonna cook up. Beautiful Flays. I spent the last year in Geneva and they talk a lot about Misan Place. So I've got my salmon over here and now I can start prepping my other ingredients. Let's get some plus. What in the f*** happened to this salmon? This reminds me of when I gave Manny a long Chateau-Bri-On,

probably a $400 piece of American Wagyu beef to make a beef Wellington with. When we did our cooking challenge against each other and he did something like this. I'm not going to cook this entire thing. That wouldn't make sense. Just cut into the meat like immediately I knew Nick was gonna be critical the matter what I did but I think it's pretty good So once it's simmer for a bit the last ingredient is to add a bag How do you call a sack of a sashay? Oh, what do you mean? Sack cold

Sack bundle? Whatever some saffron So I finished the base for the ice cream and I'm gonna get it in here as fast as I can and then it sounds like the brothers will might help Hopefully it finishes in time. I'm hoping around 30 minutes and I hope it sets Now I'm gonna start with oatmeal lace cookies all it is opium This is about a couple of ingredients. So we'll be just take that on. So here's next butter first dish.

We're just going to rip up the heat a ton and see if we can get it to burn. Alright, what the f*** happened over here? What did you do, Manny? Nothing. I don't know. Did you touch it? Alright, get out. So when you make brown butter, those milk solids are what actually become the brown bits.

So by adding in a bunch of this dry milk powder, I'm going to get even more milk solids. And as you can see, the butter here has turned much foamyer and much thicker. And if I just carefully continue stirring, it should get a nice, perfect golden brown. There is tons. and tons of flavor in here. Once my butter is perfect golden brown, I'll pour it out immediately so it doesn't burn. It'll continue cooking once off the heat,

but this right here is perfect. Let me get this out of here. Oh my God. What was that? So we wanted to get a little bit of sugar in the rice, so it's a little sweeter. It's all. It's salt.

Pick it up. So I'm all over the place right now. I'm going to start my dessert, and for my dessert, I'm doing something kind of unique, and I randomly thought of it. I'm essentially making some combination of a baked Alaska and berry dessert.

Trying to use whatever's in season right now. So into my pan I'm gonna start with some raspberries and to finish a few of these small main blueberries and once those are in I'll hit him with just a little bit of water and then a nice pinch of sugar. So now that my ice cream is in the maker, I'm gonna try and make a caramel sauce because I've never done before. First attempt, I'm just gonna do sugar. I think it might be burning and I've never done this before but it looks like caramel why is it chunky? It'll melt. It'll melt. Why is it spicy? All right that's 30 minutes gone. You have half an hour left. This is your dishes. I've washed my rice just like Uncle

Roger likes and now I'm ready to start. 30 minutes later he's ready to start cooking and he only has one dish to do the base of what's hopefully going to be a beautiful dessert for me is coming together over here but i'll be honest i'm starting to get a little bit nervous because i do also have to cook those wings cook the scallops make my meringue and then bring everything together in less than 30 minutes i don't know what the hell is going on on this side of everything it looks burned oh you can smell so like we originally planned this is a burnt caramel i think it'll add some texture to the ice cream that is also definitely working So I finished the base of my berry Alaska.

I think that's what I'm gonna call it. I'll set this off to the side and let it cool. It is deliciously sweet and fresh. And look at that color. So what I'm gonna try and do now is I'm gonna oil off a bowl. I'm just gonna really lightly layered over this plate and hope it sets. It could work. Well, it could work.

So I've got my caramel setting in the freezer. I've got an ice cream setting in the maker and I've just put the cookies in the oven. Will, is this not enough salt? No, you . Yes, chef. Sorry, chef. Are you f*** stupid? Waiting for my oil to heat up, I'm gonna start cooking my wings because we only have 20 minutes left.

My scallops, I want to cook and hit the plate at the last second. These should be the freshest thing of my entire meal, though the entree after all. So what are you doing? Uh... Alright, so the pasta should be almost done. Yeah, perfect. So I'm gonna string this now. Behind you keep.

Yep. You don't stay behind one more time. I'm gonna... We are now putting the coconut and the rice together, two parts coconut water, one part rice. What are you doing to the cutting board? cutting board just stop messing everything up over here I didn't want to say anything but I noticed this burner has been running mani for the last five minutes major fire hazard cam just left it and went away my wings have been brining

for almost 45 minutes now so I'm actually gonna toss the why is the burner still on the burner still on it even if I talked about it so I'm gonna toss in a paper towel and actually dry these off just a little bit here and I'm gonna fry them just as they are no breading today just coatings afterwards that'll make for a super crispy wing with that buttermilk. and pickle juice flavor and they're gonna be delicious I've handed over the rice to Will so he's gonna handle that and I'm gonna start moving forward with the salmon So I've stirred in the pasta now we're gonna take it off the heat and just load it all combined the sauce has been simmering for a while now So it should have absorbed all that flavor from the sausage and at the very end we're gonna add our saffron

William get over here I said rolling boil it's rolling over the edge You know many I can't believe I'm saying this but I feel like they can use your help right now I think so too well yeah 15 minutes on the clock okay okay okay See you guys start the cloth Nick, come on. Come on, come in. Ow! Oh!

I'm checking on the ice cream. I don't know what it's supposed to look like, but I got 10 more minutes left on it, so hopefully within that time it'll be good. I'm doing two things at once now to try to finish this all off. Here, I have my oil heating up to fry off those wings. And on this other side, I am making my meringue. It's hard to explain the dish I have in mind,

but eventually this meringue will rest over the top of the berries. Toss very lightly in the berry jam. And I think it'll be this really simple, beautiful, refreshing dish. Mani, you know how to make a meringue? Make a meringue? Once you... Nope. So there's not...

They're gonna be way too much stuff for you over here. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm obviously the NEP. This is coconut from pizza. It's not my ball. It's not. They're fighting. They're all fighting.

They're fighting. They're all fighting. You have this narrative in your mind. I'm not saying that you don't. No, no, no. I will literally fuck you up. So I'm ready to put the fish on. I'm cooking with coconut oil

because the rice is also in coconut milk, and I want to keep all the ingredients wrapping together. One thing I do like what pizza with the salmon as he pressed it down right away to make sure it's not bowing up on the pan, which is very important when cooking salmon to get that even crispy bottom. So what we're going for here is a crispy skin before we add the butter. Gonna be burr. Let me retrace. It's already burned. The flame only has one setting. It's a little bit too. No, it doesn't. It has a lot of setting.

It's a burner. It's a burner. It's a burner. Into my pot of oil, I'm going with my wings. And I'm going to let these fry until they are nice and crispy, but not so long that the meat starts drying out. I'm just trying to continue storing them so they get that nice even cook and coat throughout. Nick, did you want to fry one of these? One of what? I got to hit you now. Another knob of butter and then some bay leaves for that extra flavor. I've turned down the heat of it and I'm confident we're going to get that golden brown crispy skin. So there are different settings on the butter. There are in fact different settings on the so we got that perfect golden brown skin and now we're going in with a little bit of a butter

poach. Butter based? Yeah. What is that? What are you doing? Give me the cannon, Manny. Seriously. My wings are done. I like them just this nice darker golden color, but I need to work fast because I still have to cook all my scallops and do that meringue.

Quick little toss in hot honey, and I can set these aside. With just seven minutes left, it's time to make my meringue. To which I will add just a tiny squeeze of lemon juice, which is acidic and will help to build up that meringue the same way cream of tartar would. Yeah. Not now, manny. Get out of here, Manny.

Not now. It is finally come time to cook my scallops and here is my trick. I'm going to open up my bag of scallops here, which have been sitting on ice and are nice and fresh. Pick out the biggest, most plump looking ones. And then, while most people will go ahead and season their scallops long before they actually cook them, I'm going to salt them literally seconds before I sear. Because salting too early draws out all that moisture and gets them all gummy, which you don't want. And then into my pan with just a little bit of oil, perhaps a bit more than you might normally use. But I'm looking for a crust on one side. I only sear my scallops

on one side and one side only. And I'll show you why. Into my pan, I go until they've got a nice golden brown crust. Flipping them over, in my opinion, over. cooked stemmed cams filling our rice pyramid which is going to be kind of on the side of the plate as a nice bed of rice to go with the salmon the moment of truth Beautiful we're now gonna pick one of our salmon and plate it which is gonna be difficult because they're both cooked perfectly We're gonna use our sauce to make a lovely splat So I taught Nick many years ago. We'll then go on with our beautiful piece of salmon With just three minutes left. I don't know how next gonna plate in time now that my scallops are golden brown in the bottom but still raw on the top I'm gonna go ahead and drop in half a stick of butter and let the scallops cook very

lightly throughout and just cook a few more seconds before going on to my plate. As you can see that foam is going to wash right over the top of those scallops to give that last kiss of heat before we plate them. We sprinkle a few signs on top and we're going to top it with a nice crown of salmon caviar and lime pulp. All right, it's come down to the last few minutes. It is time to plate. I'm starting with my appetizer, which are of course these beautiful honey wings. What you want when you plate food is high and tight.

Make sure that they stand up on the plate and look appetizing to the person that is about to dive in. I'll finish with one last little drizzle of honey and just a touch of lemon zest. those right there are complete. I'm just going to finish plating right now by putting a little bit of Parmesan on. And then I'm selecting the nice slime here and like I always say, high and tight. To finish off, I'm going to do a dusting of lime zest, and I'm hoping this will just tie it all together. All right, so for these lemon writh scallops, I like to plate in odd numbers. Something just looks off when they're even numbers when you're plating.

As you can see, each of these scallops has that perfect golden brown top half, but I'm not finished yet. Next up, I've got this beautiful, perfect brown butter here with those extra milk solids. And I'll drizzle a little bit of that next to each scallop to make sure we have all. that flavor. Then to finish things off, I'm going to lightly crumble some rich crackers over the edge of each scallop, which while I know it might look a bit rustic, taste genuinely fantastic when you bring it all together. And I'll finish this dish once again with just a little touch of lemon zest over each scallop for that acidic pop that we desperately need to balance out all the fat. Can't forget just a few green onions to make that color pop.

So I'm trying to get the ice cream down before it melts and then I'm going to grab the cookies and go in with each one. Looks good Willie. And then I'm going to grab some pieces of caramel. I'm just going to layer them in here. And I'm just going to steal some of Nick Sparries and put them in here as well. And I now have less than 30 30 seconds to assemble and torch this entire dish. I'll go down with just a little bit of my berry compote, which I want to keep really tight in the middle of the dish so I can layer the meringue over the whole top. Then I'll go on with my berries and make just a little light pile of berries over the top

of this whole thing, just so that once you break into that meringue, you get that nice little berry medley inside. And to finish, I'll go over the top of the entire thing with my meringue, which once again should sit around all those berries just the way you see with the baked Alaska. That leaves me just a few seconds to torch this entire thing here, which finally after one hour will bring me to all three dishes, an appetizer, entree, and a nice. dessert. Five, spoon, spoon, spoon. Four, three, two, one. That's it. Time's up.

For appetizer, we have Nyoket with sausage, onion, and saffron. For our entree, we have scallion lime rice. No, that's not the, is that the main part of your entree? Say salmon. Okay. For our entree, we have a sage-based salmon with flancho coconut lime rice. For our dessert, we have a homemade honey vanilla ice cream topped with caramel, homemade, oatmeal lace cookies, and fresh berries.

I have a plate of hot honey wings that were dredged in buttermilk and pickle juice, top with a bit of hot honey, lemon, and green onions. For my entree, I have lemon writs scallops with brown butter, writs crumbles, and a bit of lemon zest. And to finish, I have what I call a berry Alaska. A little berry combo with a bunch of fresh berries on top, all tucked under a nice light meringue. Go vote in the comments below. Who gets the win? If I'm being honest, like, I would give you guys a win. Don't tell me, though, all right? It's just like, f***.