Hubert Keller spends a lot of time on the food tube, most prominently with the Top Chef triumvirate, and those reality-based shows sometimes overshadow that he actually has his own PBS cooking series. We had a quick chat with Keller to find out what he's got cooking for the third season of Secrets of a Chef, which will air in April 2011, and discovered that some of the secrets he plans on revealing are recipes from his restaurants Fleur De Lys, Burger Bar and the soon-to-open Fleur by Hubert Keller in Las Vegas.
Have you finished filming the new season yet?
No, we've finished about a good third of it and we'll be back filming in the third and fourth week of January. This time it will be in a studio at PBS in Las Vegas. As we speak, they're building my own set there, which is pretty exciting.
Did you get to design it?
Oh yes, I got to design it and it got built in Chicago and PBS was really, really kind enough since they just opened up their new facility to give us a space so we can occupy one of the studios. Now we're entering the third season and I am excited because I will have my own set. I guess it's doing well! [laughs]
Do you take any influence from your colleages and predecessors on PBS such as Jacques Pepin when it comes to your series?
Jacques, we know each other very well and are good friends. Out of all the cooking shows that were ever on TV, I really like Jacques because he is a real chef. It's not that the other ones are not chefs, but you can tell that Jacques has technique when he slices an onion, when he cooks an artichoke, you can tell that's what he did for a living. I really love that part and I feel like there's so much going on with the Food Network and all these cooking reality shows that we really feel there is room for just a cooking show that is sharing recipes, techniques, and things that Jacques was doing also, in a sense. A cooking show where there's actually cooking going on!
In the new season, I think there's going to be some great stuff coming up. I will bring back some classic French, cool dishes to entertain at home. I will also share some things from the Burger Bar, some cool recipes. And then we'll go to the new concept [restaurant] that I am opening in Las Vegas in December, which is Fleur by Hubert Keller: Cuisine from around the world, with small plates and small bites. We will show what we're really doing in the kitchen, how new dishes are coming up, and then I will give them the version that they can actually do at home. We have a combination of recipes from Fleur De Lys, Burger Bar, home kitchen, and Fleur.
[The Feast]
