Original subtitles

- Hey, guys, it's Selena.

People who know me know that I love to cook

except I have no idea what to do or how to do it.

Honestly, I'm not confident enough.

So while I've been stuck at home

these past few months, I thought,

"What better time to improve

my skills in the kitchen?"

So I've asked some of the best chefs

to school me.

Oh, man. This is a lot.

They're at home, I'm at home,

and we're gonna see if we can make a meal together...

Check, check, one, two.

Apart.

I don't have the script.

- Oh, it's so awkward.

Selena and Antonia, take one.

- So let's try this.

Oh, I'm getting nervous.

Hey, Antonia? Ah!

I finally see you.

- Hi, Selena.

How are you?

- I'm so good.

How are you?

- This is my first television show

being filmed via nobody near me.

- Today, I will be cooking with Chef Antonia Lofaso.

She is the executive chef and partner

of three fantastic restaurants here in LA

and a cookbook author.

This is a very weird thing to do,

but I'm very, very happy

and grateful that you decided to do it.

- Oh, my goodness. Absolutely.

I mean, what are we gonna say, no to Selena Gomez

in my kitchen? -

- That being said, I actually have my best friend,

who I have been quarantined with during this,

who I've been friends with

since junior high.

This is her, right here. - Hi!

- How's it goin'?

I've actually quarantined here

with my friends Liz and Raquelle.

- Hey, girl.

- Aww, it's, like, best friend and best friend.

- Whoo! - Yas!

Friends! - Whoo!

All right, what are you gonna teach me to cook?

- So I thought making a seafood tostada would be a lot of fun.

It's a recipe from Dama,

which is my third restaurant in Los Angeles.

It's Latin-inspired. But don't get nervous.

We're gonna deal with whole, raw octopus.

Oh, gosh.

- I think I'll have one of my friends grab that.

- I'm excited to show you how to cook this.

So we've got a pot for boiling water on the stove.

- I have a few pots in here. - That's perfect!

So go ahead and fill that pot with water.

My style of cooking is very, very straightforward.

Everything done well, incredible ingredients,

something that resonates with people.

Something that just makes you feel good.

Now in the other pot that you just had,

you're gonna pour roughly 8 cups of olive oil.

This might take me a minute.

- You're gonna just have to be patient with me, I guess.

- Take your time. Don't worry.

Mine's already on the stove.

- Oh, well, didn't you just beat me to it?

As a chef, we always have our mise en place

ready to go.

- What's the word again?

- So it's actually three words.

It's "mise en place."

- "Meese and floss."

- Roughly translates to

"everything in its place."

- Love that.

- You're gonna get that on the stove,

and you're going to put

the temperature thermometer

in the pot.

And we want the oil to read

no more than 120 degrees.

- This is it? - Oh, yeah.

Okay, so throw that in there.

- You can leave it in there as long as it sits.

If not, we can put it in and out.

Or we can just bring it

in there later.

- Okay, I'm gonna maybe do that.

- Okay, so grab a clove of garlic

and, like, a... A couple of sprigs of cilantro.

And I can show you...

Wow, she... she left... She... she's gone.

- I'm right here. I'm right here, I'm right here.

She's got her groceries.

- Okay, garlic. - Take a small knife.

- Okay. - And then you're gonna

put the knife on top of the garlic,

and then hit it with the base of your hand.

- Harder.

Actually hit it.

You're, like, punching the top of your knife.

Yes.

Yes, yes, yes, yes. - Perfect.

- Okay, so throw that inside the oil, and then the cilantro,

to season a little bit

of that oil. - Oh.

- So it's three different kinds

of seafood in the tostada.

We're basically olive oil poaching

the calamari and the shrimp,

and then we're going to just do a quick

braise to the octopus.

You look like a real cook now

with all your ingredients laid out like that.

- I know! Thank you.

- You ready for octopus time? It's octopus time, lady.

Just take a deep breath.

Think about it. Breathe it in.

Swirl it around your mouth for, like...

No! That made it worse.

- Raquelle! - What is happening?

- This is my friend Raquelle,

who I've been quarantining with.

- Hi, hello! - Hi, Raquelle.

- Hi! - Hi.

- Nice to meet you. - You go get it.

- Oh, my gosh, I'm scared. Where is it?

It's in the fridge.

- I'm coming in hot, watching you, Raquelle.

Oh, my God.

- Ew. - Oh, my gosh.

- Here you go.

- Ew.

- So I would take it out and put it in a bowl

so that we can play with it.

- Why would we wanna play with it?

- Wow. - So, Selena, watch.

You're gonna just do this.

Like, get the water off

with your hand.

- Yeah, the body. There you go.

Yes.

Now put that on the cutting board... excellent.

- She can't even look at it.

- You're doing great, you're doing great.

You're holding its head in your right hand.

You wanna cut its head off.

All right, put the head back in the bowl.

We're not gonna use it. You're doing great.

- Thank you.

- Now, Selena,

see these long pieces in the end?

We don't need these.

You're just gonna trim those

off so it looks like this.

- What do I do? - There you go.

Just cut them off. - With scissors?

- Scissors are fine. There you go.

- Perfect, so now,

you're gonna remove

these pieces, just like that.

- Oh, my gosh.

You got it.

- The gagging is my favorite part of this.

- Oof. Okay, now what?

- Okay.

Put all of your octopus legs

inside of a Ziploc bag. - You got it.

- Once they're all inside of a Ziploc bag,

you're gonna peel the lemon like an apple.

And then those are gonna go inside the bag.

Cilantro and another clove of smashed garlic.

So you see how all the flavors

are kind of echoing each other?

Chefs like to call this an echo.

So later when you're eating this, you're gonna be like,

"Oh, my God, do you taste the echo?"

- "Do you taste the echo?" I'm gonna use that.

- So now take as much air out as you can.

You're gonna actually put this

inside of your water on the stove.

- Right.

- Okay, so you see how you're pushing it down?

- Yeah. - Take a cloth,

and you're gonna put that inside the pot.

So now I'm telling you to put things

that you've probably never put inside of a pot before.

- Wait.

- Get something to push it down.

Put it all in, push it all in.

- Are you sure? - Not with your fingers.

Selena... with a stick. - What? Oh.

- You can do it. - With a stick.

- Selena, look at me. - There you go.

- Okay. - Put all the ends in.

There you go, there you go.

- What the heck?

- Wait, so what do the towels do?

- It's weighing the octopus bag down

so it's fully submerged.

Perfect, and it's boiling.

Put the cover on and lower it to medium.

- That was stressful.

- I'm not gonna lie, I was watching that,

and I started sweating a little bit.

And now I'm just gonna, like,

fan myself off with my spatula.

- You're doing great.

- Oh, my God, look how beautiful her knife set is!

- You really like my knife?

- I do, it's like... It's like a Coachella knife.

Oh, my God.

Who knew these knives were gonna be the star of the show?

- Honestly.

- So why don't you grab your calamari

out of the fridge?

- Okay. - And your shrimp.

- You got a lot of eggs in there.

- I got to learn how to make

a soufflé with cheese

and a French omelet. - Oh.

Those are two very classic

but probably some of the hardest techniques there are.

- Yeah, I don't know why we decided to do that.

- All right, calamari is separated

into tubes and tentacles.

Basically, then tentacle, okay, is a mini octopus, okay?

So you're going to trim this,

and then you're gonna trim this.

So that you're just kinda left with a little body.

- Like this? - Yeah.

So squeeze the top, make sure it feels

kind of nice and soft. - Yeah.

- There's no cartilage... Perfect.

- Selena, make sure you're cutting all the cartilage off.

If I taste a little bit of cartilage, I will puke.

- Tough audience you got over there.

- Oh, yeah. - Wait.

Who taught you how to make soufflé?

- Ludo. - Oh, Ludo!

- Yeah, and he kept screaming at me.

- Ludo yelled at me on a plane once.

It was pretty funny. -

- We were going to Pebble Beach Food & Wine,

and I was the smarter chef who brought all of my food

in coolers and was in the plane.

And the stewardess got on, she was, like,

"Due to overweight luggage, we're gonna have to ask

"three people from the front

to move to the back of the plane."

And Ludo jumps up and is, like,

"Antonia and her avocados..."

- Oh, my gosh! - "Are making me move!"

I was, like, "Get to the back of the plane

with us and sit down." - Love that.

- But Ludo's the best.

- Okay, I got it.

- So the tubes sometimes look like

they have these little, like, wings on them.

- I don't have what you're holding.

- Look inside your fridge again.

You have to have these. - Okay.

- You're, like, I found it in the fridge.

- Oh, oh, oh! - Oh, the pot's overflowing!

- Okay, well, go... go help me. - Oh, my God.

- Get the fire extinguisher! - Oh, my gosh.

- Is there a fire? - Take it down.

Take it off, take it off, take it off.

- No, don't... take it off. - Oh, my God, oh, my God.

Oh, my God! both: Take it off!

- You guys are scaring me. - Got it, got it, got it.

Oof!

That was so scary.

- The octopus okay, first?

I just wanna make sure that

all the water hasn't evaporated,

and that the plastic isn't burning your pot,

and then we set your house on fire.

- No, we're good. - Okay, cool.

- Okay.

- Can we just talk about the fact

that your friends, like, ran in there like firefighters?

Girl, we're good teammates.

- So good. Good, good, good.

You found your tubes? - Yes.

- You see they look like they have, like, little wings?

- Yes. - We don't want those.

Pull them off. - Cool them?

- Pull them, with your hands. - Oh... oh.

I like this part.

- You look like a pro, Sel.

Chef Selly. - Hey.

- You're going to cut them into little rings,

1/2 inch thick.

Now this is what they taught in culinary school.

It's almost like a little bear claw

so your hand is protected.

But you want to saw.

Push down and pull back.

Exactly. - Cool.

- And you're gonna place them

into the oil.

- Okay. - As that's cooking,

we're gonna clean the shrimp,

and then I think it would be fun

if we have, like, a little

shrimp cleaning contest.

- I used to go to Hooters all the time with my dad.

- Yes!

- Because all the pretty girls would be, like,

"Aww, look at her," 'cause I was so young.

But anyway, they had this peel-and-eat shrimp.

That's my absolute favorite, and they have, like,

butter and this Cajun, like, seasoning on top, but it's so...

- Yeah, you had, like, a peel-and-eat shrimp.

- Oh, wait, I'm supposed... Supposed to wait for you.

- No, no, you're good. You're doing it 100% right.

Should we set a clock? - Liz?

- I got it, I got it. Siri, start the stopwatch.

All right, go.

- We're, like, so serious.

We're, like, "I'ma beat her!"

- How many more do you have? - I don't even know!

- Go, go!

- I don't even know how many more shrimp... I lost count!

- It's been a minute. - Oh, I'm sweating.

- I'm sweating too.

How many did you do? - 9, 10... 14.

- 14.

- Did we just tie? - Yes, ma'am.

- You learned a lot at Hooters,

'cause you peeled that shrimp really fast.

- So true. Hooters worked out for you.

- Check your calamari,

'cause the calamari cooks pretty quickly.

If the calamari starts to look nice and white,

that's what we want. - I think these are done.

- Yes, they look great. - Okay.

- We are three quarters of the way there with the seafood,

'cause the octopus is cooking, the calamari's done,

and now we're gonna do the shrimp.

And you're gonna leave that oil

because we're gonna basically

do this same exact thing to the shrimp.

- Okay, cool.

- You... are your shrimp in the oil?

- Yup. - Okay, nice.

So we all know when shrimp is ready

when it starts to turn a beautiful pink.

And then I always like say it, like,

curls up like a little snail. - Cute.

- Shrimp when it's raw, is, like, "I'm in the sun."

And then all of a sudden, when it's cooked,

it's, like, "I'm freezing."

That's funny.

That's pretty great.

I love that you're using the thermometer

as, like, a spike now.

- I know, I'm sorry. - No, I love it.

- It's legit. - How's your shrimp?

Are they all nestled and cold yet?

Mine are actually already done.

- Okay, what about this?

- Let me see. - How's that?

- Yeah, it's cooked all the way.

Take a little nibble.

- Oh, my gosh. - Is it good?

- Yeah. - It's good?

- 'Cause it has all that oil. - Yes!

- So now go ahead and take your shrimp out,

put it on the same calamari pan,

and then you'll put that whole thing in the fridge.

- I'm hungry.

Oh, my gosh.

It's unbelievable!

Selena, you're a chef!

Whoo!

Yeah, olive oil poached seafood is the best.

- That's the best shrimp I've ever had.

- Can I clean my cutting board? - Uh...

Oh... oh, I have an idea, watch this.

Flip it over.

- Ooh! - Wow.

- Goodbye, and hello.

Oh, wait. There's a tag.

- Take it off, take it off, take it off.

- You should always be able to use

both sides of your cutting board.

- Okay, good to know.

- I mean, we can do it later.

- How about I just use a new cutting board?

- Okay, use the new cutting board.

But next time, get the tag off

and flip it over. - Okay.

- We are going to fry tostadas,

and then we're gonna do a hot pickle to these fresnos.

And then we'll build the salad.

Do you have, like, a...

Something to fry in? Like, a pan to fry in?

Like, a Dutch oven? - What's that?

- That's, like, a Dutch oven back there.

Your little blue pot. - Yeah?

- Let me see. Ooh, let's fry in there.

- Okay.

- So you need, like, a canola oil

or a vegetable oil.

You just pour it in there.

I'll eye it with you. Keep going, keep going.

Keep going, keep going, keep going, and stop.

Intuitive cooking.

Now put that on, like, a low-medium.

And then you're gonna get another pot, a small one,

'cause we're only gonna heat up a little bit of white vinegar.

- Something like this? - Oh, that'll work, yeah.

Just put, like, a cup of white vinegar in there,

a teaspoon of sugar,

and some cilantro. - Okay.

- We just wanna bring it to a boil, and then it's done.

And then... So while it's boiling,

you're gonna take your knife, and you wanna shave

the fresno chilies as thin as you can get them.

Yup, back and forth.

Like, saw it, saw it.

You always wanna saw. - Oh, okay.

- Rock and saw, rock and saw. - Rock and saw.

- Every chef works a little differently.

- Uh-oh, uh-oh.

- She said, "Uh-oh."

- Honestly, I've only worked with Ludo,

so I don't even think he understood or saw

what I was doing, so.

So once you have all the chilies cut,

you're gonna put them into a bowl,

and then your hot vinegar should be ready.

You're just gonna pour that

right over the top. - Oh.

- Selena, you're gonna see the salad

at the end of this, you're gonna be like,

"All of this went into

just a freaking salad?"

- Let's fry some tostadas, so before we start to fry them,

get another sheet tray and put some paper towels down on it.

- I used to do this with my grandma

on my dad's side. - Aww.

- So now get your thermometer and check the oil.

- 160.

- No, it needs to go higher.

Turn it up. - Whoa.

- We want the fry oil to be, like,

close to 300 degrees.

- Okay. - So turn it all the way up.

Okay, so while that's turning up,

we can take the octopus out.

- Hang on, I think I had it on Celsius.

- Oh, my God. Get the fire extinguisher.

No.

I feel like Liz really wants to use the fire extinguisher.

- Honestly, Antonia, it's my number one dream.

Did you switch to Fahrenheit? - I switched it.

- It's hard work. - It is hard work.

- So what is it on Fahrenheit? - 325.

- Oh, perfect. Throw some tortillas in.

So when you start to see

the little bubbles dissipate

after, like, the high frying happens,

that's kinda, like, when you know that they're done.

And you can flip them back and forth.

Selena, what's your favorite thing to cook?

- Actually, since we're frying tortillas,

I do the same thing.

I fry some tortillas to make huevos rancheros.

Ooh!

My dad, when I was younger,

would make the tortillas like this,

and then using the same oil, pop an egg in,

so that you kind of splash the oil over it.

Oh, I think I did that right!

- An oil-basted egg is my favorite way to cook it.

- I love that, okay.

- Okay, what's your favorite restaurant in LA?

- Um... - It's okay.

You don't have to say mine.

- No, but the thing is, is like,

I don't really know.

- Really? - Yeah.

The reason why I was really excited about

doing this show is 'cause I actually want to know,

like, the good spots to go.

- I got a list for you. - Please, I would love that.

- Do you have your tortillas?

Salt them as soon as they come out.

I have a little bit of Himalayan salt on mine.

So then it's gonna be

octopus reveal time.

- Okay.

- We're going back to the beginning, girl.

- All right. - Okay.

You wanna pick up the plastic bag out of the water,

very carefully, 'cause there's a lot of water.

There you go. Let me see.

Yup, yours looks like mine. That's a good sign.

You're gonna take the octopus out of the plastic bag

and put it onto the tray,

sans all the water.

Now I'm talking like Ludo. No water.

- That smells good.

- That didn't sound very convincing.

- No, it does.

It just doesn't look that great.

You're gonna love it, I promise.

- Okay.

- Wow. - Oh, my God.

- Does that look okay? - It's tiny!

- You did it! - Whoo!

- Stick that in the fridge. - Amazing.

- We're almost home.

All right, so now you need sort of, like, a large mixing bowl.

Red onion, cucumber, radish, corn, cilantro, avocado.

- Great. - Whoa.

Wait, wait, wait, wait.

Here, Selena. Here, watch me.

- Okay. - You scared me.

- I almost, like...

- Put it flat on your cutting board.

- Got it. - Okay?

And then you're gonna cut it like you're slicing bread.

There you go.

You, like, sabered...

You know, like, when... When they saber, like,

a bottle of champagne? You're, like, "Whoosh, whoosh."

- I did.

- I was, like, "Oh, my God, oh, my God!"

- Sorry. - You don't need to say it.

You're doing great.

- Will you tell me a little bit

about your charity organization?

- The donation is going to go to Beit T'Shuvah,

which is a drug and rehab facility

here in Los Angeles.

I've had family members with substance abuse

who basically have been given back to me

through rehabilitation.

And I know that there's always an opportunity

for people to find their way back home

when there's help that's readily available to them.

- Right.

First off, I think that's incredible.

I also have bipolar,

so I deal with a lot of mental health issues,

and some of my family members are also addicts.

So, you know, it's something that

I'm extremely passionate about as well.

I think that there is a lot of shame and guilt in it.

And then there's also this pressure of, you know,

wanting to feel like you're a part of the crowd,

if you do this and do that, and...

- Of course. - I'm very grateful that

I know that that's something you do,

and people can check it out. - Absolutely.

And first, just thank you for opening up

and the donation, 'cause it's unbelievable.

- 'Course. - All right.

Back to seafood tostada. - Okay.

- Corn.

- I love corn.

- We're not gonna cook it.

I'm into raw corn

any chance I can,

only in the summer. - Amazing.

- I want you to take a clean towel

and line your cutting board

with the towel.

So what this is gonna do

is actually keep the corn

on your cutting board, 'cause it's gonna collect it.

You're gonna then use the napkin almost like...

This is how I explain it, 'cause I'm a freaking weirdo.

I don't know if you ever told your parents

you were running away when you were a kid, and, like,

you packed up all your stuff in a sheet,

and you, like, rolled your sheet up.

- Yeah.

- So you're gonna do with the napkin...

- I have definitely done that.

- I was, like, "I'm running away from home.

All I'm taking is this satchel of corn with me."

- Bringing a phone charger, and that's it.

- Sounds like 2020 running away.

- Yeah, seriously. "I'm gonna get an Airbnb."

- I'm gonna... Hmm.

- And then you're gonna just pour it into the bowl.

- Yum. - Yes.

- Yummers. - Okay.

The calamari tubes and tentacles can just go

right into the salad 'cause they're already cut.

But the shrimp, you have to cut.

- Beautiful. - My mouth is watering.

- So you have your shrimp. You can see that... it...

On the cutting board here? - Yes.

- So this is a bias. Cut at kind of like an angle,

so it's a little bit thinner. Yeah, exactly.

Have you been working at all during quarantine?

- I am doing a cosmetics line that I've been working on.

- Oh, congratulations. That's amazing.

- Thank you so much.

And yeah, a little bit of producing stuff.

I've been reading a lot of scripts

and obviously learning to cook.

- You're, like, "Oh, during quarantine

"I learned how to cook, I shot a television show,

I finished my cosmetic line, and I've read 17 scripts."

That's amazing. - Yes, she has a... yeah.

- Oh, my gosh.

Sorry, do you wanna help me? - Yeah.

- You're, like, four steps away from being finished.

- All right, what's the key? Hang to the side?

- Yeah, like that. - Okay.

- Love a good ang. - Love a good angle.

- Selena and I abbreviate everything.

- Everything. - And it's my favorite thing

to abbreviate it so much that she has no idea

what I'm talking about, but you always seem to get it.

- I get it. - Yeah.

- That's just called friendship.

- Yeah, that's just called "us."

- Yeah. - Yeah.

- Okay, shrimp goes into your bowl.

- Voilà. - Okay, octopus.

- Okie-dokie.

And they're very hard.

- Oh, no. - Aww.

They are, a little.

But you're gonna cut them so small.

I promise you, it's gonna be delicious.

You gotta cut it smaller.

This is gonna take a while too. - All right, yeah.

Let's take it down to a small size.

I'm so glad you're here to help.

Can I just maybe use this much

for me and my friends? - Yes, that's fine.

- Yeah, I think just, like, a low amount for us is enough.

- Okay, then you guys are gonna pour

the fresno chilies inside as well.

- Okay. - Nice.

- Add some salt to this as well.

- Ooh! - Ooh.

- And then you're gonna squeeze two whole lemons in that.

- Oh, wow, this looks so good.

- And then I like to get two big spoons

and go at it from top to bottom.

- Okay. Wow.

- I'm so impressed.

- I'm gonna have my girls try it.

- Okay, have this in the center

with a little bit of the tostadas on the side.

And everyone can kinda dig in

and make their own little tostada there.

- We're getting very excited.

- Oh, it smells so good.

- Okay, cheers, ladies. - Cheers!

Cheers! Whoo!

- Ready? - Yeah, okay, go.

Mmm. - Oh, my God.

- Wow, mmm-mmm. - Incredible.

- It's really amazing. - You killed it.

- Five, this gets a five. - Yeah.

- This is unbelievable. - You guys taste the echo?

- I do. - It's echo.

- Oh, yes! - I came for the echo!

That was actually amazing, oh, my gosh!

- One of the best salads I've ever had.

- Antonia!

- I didn't make it, Selena made it.

I didn't... I had nothing to do with it.

- You're a chef! - Thanks!

- That's our girl.

- You can cook for me all the time.

- Oh, boy. - Please.

- Every cooking competition I've ever been on,

when I get really nervous, I sing.

- That's amazing.

- So if you ever wanna share maybe, like,

a secret on, like, how to become, like,

at least just a moderately okay singer

in, like, 20 minutes, like, I'd be down for that.

- I do a little, like, olive oil in the throat.

There's a lot of, like...

Did she just leave?

Did she just walk away?

- No. - She's gone.

- She was, like, goodbye.

- Well, how about this? You come over,

and we'll do a little singing by my piano, okay?

- Guys. - Sorry.

- Girl, thank you so much.

Me and my friends had so much fun.

- I loved today. Thank you guys.

- Me too. Bye, guys!

Bye! Bye!

- Bye.

- In honor of Antonia,

we are donating $10,000

to Beit T'Shuvah,

which is an addiction treatment center

here in Los Angeles.

For more ways to support,

please go to beittshuvah.org.

- This is phenomenal. - I know, it's great.

- I mean, I just can't believe how good it tasted.

Like, it was so much better than I could've imagined.

- Thanks-ah.

- We got a little extra of these goops.

- Ooh, a little extra-extra? - No, no, no.

Subtitles Diego Moraes(oakislandtk) www.opensubtitles.org