The SECRET Behind The World's Best Lobster Roll | Chef Wonderful

Where can you get the best slops on earth? Right here in Nantucket, and there's one place you come. How long have you been open here? 45 years. 45 years! This is my new gig from now on. You're gonna find me here.

Hey, chef, wonderful here! Where am I? You know, I track the world trying to find the very best of everything for you. Then, with the lobster man himself, Eric Hogan. You know him as a foodie; he is a traditional chef in New England, and what he does is cook lobster.

Now this is a time-proven method of boiling them alive, and there's a lot of controversy. Where can you get the best lobster on earth? Right here in Nantucket, and there's one place you come. It's called 167 Raw, and people come from all across the island to get their lobsters here. Why? The best on earth!

Tonight we're having... What are we having? We're having the best lobster roll on the planet! So what happens is a lobster goes into a trap; one way it gets stuck in the trap, and then we take the lobsters here, we put them in a big pot of water, and we steam them and boil them.

There's two ways you can kill a lobster. One is you can put a knife straight through its head, yes. Or the other one is to hypnotize the lobster before you throw it in. Which do you prefer? I prefer the hypnotism. I learned it from a famous chef, Lucian Adrian, one of the top chefs in the world, and he—that's what he preferred. So then you hypnotize the lobster, and then it plunges and it dies.

Your claim to fame really is that lobster does not suffer, and it makes a fantastic Nantucket classic New England dish, which we'll be having tonight. I mean, this is—doesn't it get any better than that? So why don't we go inside and claim our order? Let's go!

[Music]

Maria runs the show; she's the top queen boss, and she sells the best lobster on earth. Is that true? Very true! How long have you been open here? 45 years! 45 years! You want to talk about success? 45 years! You made money all that time? Yes, that's incredible! That's a very successful.

What do you sell most of? What is our best seller? Yeah, swordfish! Swordfish! Where do you catch them? It's local; it was cut 60 miles offshore. Really? And you know the fishermen that do that? No, I personally don't. Where do you buy the swordfish from? Not from our back door, like it used to be back in the days. So you have to have contracts with this? Yeah, exactly! Great!

There you have it! So we're learning something here in Nantucket. Maria is the king—queen bee! This is the best place to buy seafood on Nantucket, right? Yes, correct! I rest my case. This guy makes his living killing lobsters; is that true? Yeah. And how do you cook it? Well, you don't kill them before you cook them. You put them right in the pot.

You cook them for depending on the weight. Do you think they're suffering? Well, sometimes they scream a little bit. They scream? Do you sleep at night? Okay, yeah, I do. You have no problem with it? Yeah, no problem! You want to go see this pot, please? Yeah, let's go! Absolutely.

I've actually got some more going, so let's go! Here we go! Where's my setup? Back here! Check it out! Look at this! Yeah! Officers that you ordered, we steamed them for 13 minutes! 13 minutes! So there you have it! 13 minutes in this pot! A steak two-pounder is the most popular, right?

We usually get more one-and-a-half-pound orders. Actually, these are where they're living right now. Oh no, that's our—we keep the halibut and the tuna on there. Okay, but our lobster lives back here in this tank over there, so they're just waiting to enjoy their time in the cooker! Yep, wow! There you have it!

Okay, can we look inside here? Whoa! They don't look that happy. They're not happy; they're not having a good time in there. But they're no longer with us, are they? They're not! So this is live from the scene? Yeah, yeah! Let's don't cut yourself, right? Yeah! Alright, so this is live, but this is actually a live oyster, so we're gonna eat a live oyster once again.

Yeah, there seems to be a lot of death in this place. Like, fish are dying here, right? Yeah, fish are getting whacked, you know? But you know, it keeps us alive, and we call that sustenance. Yeah, traditionally, we have that. We're gonna leave that right there.

Oh wow! There we go! I'm gonna check into it, these are actually pokemons! Right, right? Right here from Nantucket! So, yeah! So, Kevin, try this! This is live from the sea. Yeah, this is—it’s actually still alive, right? Still alive! Still alive right now! Here we go! Ready? Just shucked bottoms fresh!

Itchy! Is that ever fantastic? Oh my goodness! You've never heard that? That's live from the seat! That's amazing! Right now, the ceviche we just saw being made—the cilantro, everything we just saw in the back room! Alright, get a shot of that! Okay, ceviche with fresh cilantro! Okay, who made the ceviche?

Our friend Edmar, chef Edmar on the back! Edmar! Like that fresh halibut? Yeah, I saw! Orange, lemon, lime juice! Look at that! Tomato, cilantro! Okay, let's give it a shot! Unbelievable! And we make our house-made tortilla chips in-house! Okay, here we go! What do you think? Wow! Wow!

Hey, how's it going? We're just sneaking me here for a second! Sure! Okay, chef’s wonderful coming in! Look at this! Okay, this! Okay! So we got the whole crew back here! Okay, right inside the fruits! Right? And that is just roasting hot! It's 100 degrees in here!

What are we cooking there? That's a tuna burger! Tuna! Sear it lightly on both sides! Little guac, pickled bread onions! Wow! It's really, really fantastic—tuna burger! Tuna burger, right! This is great! No unhealthy!

This is my new gig from now on! You're gonna find me here! We have nine two-pound lobsters, two town claws, fresh from Maine! We're gonna rip their tail off! Yeah, okay, take the meat out of the tail! Take the meat out of what they call the knuckle and the claw—the knuckle and the claw! And we're going to make lobster rolls!

The most important thing you need is hot dog rolls, but the hot dog rolls have to be stale and not so—enough lower quality! Really? Yeah, that's the tricky part! Lower quality! Stale rolls at the end of their shelf life! Got it! And it makes them more absorbent of the butter, and it makes them steam in the middle!

The most controversial part of making a lobster roll is the amount of mayonnaise. Way too many people have too much mayonnaise! So that's the problem! That's the problem! And number two is they don't take dehydrate the lobster meat! That's critical! And it has to be chilled!

So you want the lobster meat dehydrated because you have wet lobster meat with too much mayonnaise; it tastes weird! Yeah! So you're going to take out a claw! Oh, there! There it goes! Oh! Oh, stop the me! Oh, the twist! That's how it's done!

And that's a woman! How do you know that those are eggs? Oh, okay, okay! Do we have any guys in this group? We do! You can tell the difference between a male and a female by the legs that are down here. And what's going on—is that a male or female?

Double check, make sure our math is right! And that's a male! Oh, so the legs were in a certain way? Yeah, so the legs have the extra last little fluttery legs! Makes it male! The best part of a lobster? Yeah! Is the most work, and most people don't do it! It's right here! That little spot right there!

Kidding? Yep! It's a lot of work! You gotta really dig in there and together that meat right there! Okay, so we have nine two-pound lobsters! And we're going to keep working through the night to get these ready! I think they'll be ready about one o'clock in the morning! This is all just for one lobster roll!

The key thing—the world's best obstacle—is the right amount of mayo, dehydrating lobster meat! Big mistake! A lot of people make! Okay, and they don't dehydrate! They don't dehydrate the lobster, and then it's the butt—it's the bun! You need a snail bun! Stale, really low quality, stale, old wealthy stale bun!

You would not know this about lobster rolls unless I traveled the world! I'm on the island of Nantucket to find the best lobster roll on earth! I think we're watching it being made! But who knew about the stale bread story? Nobody knows that! Now you do too!

Wait! It's white flour; it's not good for you! And it's stale, but the master says that's what you need! All those lobsters are down to that! That's all! Yeah! And we're gonna—we're gonna dehydrate it now! That's our next step—is to clean and dehydrate! So that is 18 pounds of lobster is what you get out of that!

Okay, that's your gold! So what exactly is going on here? We're taking all the water out of the lobster! We want no water left on the lobster! Kathy, is that right? And that's exactly what I would do! Then the flavor comes out of the lobster! Lobster! It is incredible! We need some of your stuff!

Oh, look at that! A big piece fell out! Oh no! [Music] We're buttering buns! Inside—outside! Grilled inside with melted butter! It's just easier to do when it's melted, and you get an even distribution! And you know the way I like my lobster rolls? A BLT lobster roll! It'll make you throw rocks at your granny! It's that good!

What are we talking about here? We have some fresh flat-leaf parsley, which has a lot of flavor, more than the curly parsley! Two types of potato chips! Salt and vinegar and plain! Going in the roll! No, it's your side to the lobster! You need the crumbs!

And look at this! Finely minced! About one large shallot! Finely, finely minced! And then we're going to do a little bit of lemon, I believe, inside as well! We've watched the whole process tonight of making lobster rolls! And Kathy, Eric, we've been everywhere to get the essence of the roll itself.

We've experienced what happens with lobsters, how they're cooked, the amount of work to create this—bringing them, dehydrating them in the freezer, the elixir, all this stuff—the butter! You saw Kathy buttering the rolls just so right! And Eric talking about all this stuff about the stale rolls and all this stuff!

This is the essence of the New England lobster roll! You can go anywhere else on earth, and you'll get a discount roll! This is the elsa primo mega roll! Okay, fresh lemon juice—the juice, the juice! Oh, stop the madness! Okay, yikes!

So, when do you know when enough is enough, Eric? That's it! That's it! Just a sprinkling—a tease—a new walls! And now this is the moment where really the roll is created! It's malt and salt from Davis! [Music]

Look at that! We have the right amount of mayonnaise! We've got lobsters that want us to give their lives up for this roll! We have these stale, really crappy lobster roll with white—no, it’s no bread! [Music]

Classic Nantucket lobster roll lumber! If you like that video, wait! Did you see my next one? Don't forget to click right over here and subscribe!