(Music plays) If there's one thing I've learned about shrimp over the years it's that if you put it on the menu that dish is going to sell.

Fried shrimp, pickled shrimp, shrimp burger, shrimp and grits, shrimp stew...

I can't do that.

I cannot be Bubba Gump.

(Theme music plays) I'm Vivian and I'm a chef.

My husband, Ben and I were working for some of the best chefs in New York City when my parents offered to help us open our own restaurant.

Of course, there was a catch.

We had to open this restaurant in Eastern North Carolina, where I grew up and said I would never return.

(theme music) (theme music) So this is my life.

Raising twins, living in the house I grew up in, and exploring the south, one ingredient at a time.

Previously on A Chef's Life.

We were approached about opening another restaurant in town.

I'm just... hoping this all comes together, you know?

I know what you're saying.

It is extremely stressful to me and at moments I wonder, how long I can actually do this?

(Music plays) (Kids yelling) (Music plays) Every summer my family rents a beach house for one week and we spend every single moment around each other.

We do not go out to dinner.

We do not invite friends over, socializing, even talking on the phone is discouraged.

Basically, it's family time, all the time.

(Water running) What?

So then why are you coming in here telling me how to do it?

I've got like everybody telling me what to do.

I don't....

I've never made that so I don't know.

She doesn't want any fat in it.

I was gonna put a pound of butter in the broth to make it richer.

Go take your cholesterol pill.

So how many pounds of sausage did you get?

Each of these is.... about four pounds so I've got 12 pounds.

How many pounds of shrimp did you get?

I got 13.

Are they large or extra large?

Um, they're large.

The first time we ever made Frogmoore Stew actually I had a boyfriend and I went to stay with his family at the beach and they made it and I took it back to our family and we've made it every summer since.

Sometime along the way Lorraine started doing it.

She obviously thinks hers is better than mine.

It was the last time she made it.

She put lemons in it and it took away the spice flavor.

It took way the Old Bay seasoning flavor.

I'm the youngest of four girls.

That means I'm the baby and my oldest sister, Lorraine kind of always thinks she can do things a little bit better than I can.

This is basically um, a crab boil.

It has all kinds of spices.

I see a lot of coriander.

There's definitely something hot in here because I touched it and then I touched my face and now it's all up in my nose haha.

So we're gonna add this first and let it cook about 10 to 15 minutes.

Lorraine, do you put any salt in there?

No.

We're you going to?

I'm going to at some point.

Why?

It tastes like it needs salt sometimes when you make it.

I often do that.

Not that I've ever made it.

Free advice (Laughter) That's what happens with all these women.

(Music plays) These are grey shrimp.

They're the first shrimp of the season.

This shrimp season is just starting in North Carolina.

So I'm gonna add the sausage.

Look at dad.

(Laughter) Oh my god.

You sure you're gonna be able to put potatoes and corn in there?

Yes, yes.

Everybody's telling me what to do.

Just relax.

For a guy from Chicago you really have adapted to southern ways.

You're a great fit for Vivian because you both love food.

We love food.

(Music plays) Oh my god!

Have some.

Go ask Aunt Lorraine for the Old Bay.

It's no secret that I like to, you know, play around with these traditions, add my own spin to them and you know, it just did not work in the case of Frogmoore Stew.

And truth be told everybody liked Lorraine's version better.

The ants are gonna eat the shrimp.

(Laughter) The ants are gonna eat the shrimp.

(Music plays) Today is Tuesday.

Um, we're closed Sunday and Monday so when people come in on Tuesday we're starting from total scratch.

Everyone is also additionally on edge because we're getting ready to open the Boiler Room.

This is really our last week with some of these folks in our kitchen over here so I think it makes everybody a little nervous.

It makes me nervous as hell.

Yeah?

No.

Why?

He's just attaching it now.

You can see it from both sides.

Ok, ok, ok that's what... sorry.

I'm like, oh my god!

We are, per usual when you're dealing with construction, waiting on everybody else.

We are waiting on the actual shucking bar to be installed.

It was supposed to be ready by Friday and today I was told that Monday or Tuesday.

All the equipment is in.

It's gonna go through the rigors.

Probably on Friday we'll test all that.

Make sure everything works.

Are you gonna do the burgers with the buns?

I'm doing that right now.

Okay, great.

So in here I have some shells.

I have some heads.

And I'm going to add some fat to a rondo or a large flat bottomed pan and I'm gonna roast my shells.

Roasting my shells will intensify their flavor.

It will create some fond on the bottom of the pan which is additional flavor.

There are times when we just simply sautee shrimp or put it on top of something or fold it into something else but when we're looking for that really super shrimpy flavor we make a stock with the shells and the heads and you end up with something that is the essence of shrimp.

It's super shrimpy.

Did I say shrimp a lot?

I'll stir them and you'll see that they're turning really pink.

I'm gonna add a little tomato paste just to give this broth or this stock some additional depth and I'm also gonna kind of roast it over dry heat.

So I'm going to add mirepoix.

Mirepoix is a combination of onions, celery, and carrots and it's really one of the major building blocks to cooking in general.

Lots of times when you're making a shrimp or fish stock you'll add some kind of white wine or acidic element and I'm gonna start my stock with that.

We kind of let it cook down for three or four minutes just to cook out some of that wineyness.

So now I'm going to add some corn stock.

It's a flavorful sweet liquid.

It's gonna work great with the robust shrimp flavor of my stock.

This will help sweeten it and balance it.

(Music plays) It's going to simmer for about 45 minutes.

I didn't know you were waiting on it?

Is he doing them now?

Let me go make sure...

He's doing them now.

So which, oh you've got these, which buns do you have?

Regular.

That's our bun.

Our bun.

Ok. Their bun.

Ok. At Chef and The Farmer we make every single thing from scratch but the Boiler Room is set up to be, uh how do you say... easier and profitable.

So I want to still maintain a really quality product.

We're going to grind our own beef.

We're gonna make all our own condiments.

We're gonna cut our own fries, but I do not want to make our burger buns.

Ben is about to try two burgers side-by-side.

We're really not trying it for the burger.

We're trying it for the bun.

It's gonna put a tremendous strain on our pastry department, which consists of two people, if we make the buns so I'm trying to find a bun that pleases everyone.

Is that?

That's their bun?

That's our bun?

That's the potato bun, yes.

And that's our bun?

Right.

Strike one.

What do you mean?

I mean, strike one already.

It's falling apart.

Because the patties are too big.

How big are the patties?

3.5 And they're not cooked all the way through.

3.5.

If we're going to serve a single burger and you serve it smaller than 3.5, that's a tough sell.

This bun blows that bun out of the water.

It holds up.

It soaks up the juice.

I don't like that bun as much as the bun we're serving right now.

If you want to serve that bun, that's fine.

I'm sure we will because you want to anyway.

I don't think that...

I would much rather order them than like, put the strain on these guys to knock so many of them out.

If you're going to take that route then why grind your beef fresh everyday?

I think that's completely not even the same argument.

There's so many burger places that grind their own beef and do not make their own buns.

You're talking about apples and oranges.

We have two people who work in pastry at any given time, okay?

We're asking them to go from making 12 burger buns a day to a minimum of 50.

We're also asking them to make a dessert for the Boiler Room.

We're not hiring anyone new to work in pastry.

Why don't you just hire, hire someone to be the third person over there, work the weekend?

I mean, I thought the goal was to make money over there?

I don't think, I don't think we have to compromise by serving a burger bun.

Maybe you don't like this one.

If you're trying to serve a burger that I think would be on the cover of Bon Appetit, if we served our burger right now I think it could be.

That bun will get in the way.

Alright well then the challenge is you guys find a bun that I'm happy with and we'll use one of those.

And when are y'all trying to open?

Next week.

(Music plays) Okay, so it's a shrimp and clam pan roast.

We have taken the shells and the heads from the shrimp and made a really flavorful broth and mounted that broth with our succotash.

So we do this succotash every summer and we incorporate it into a lot of things.

Succotash is a combination of butter beans and tomatoes.

Ours also has corn in it.

So this is a really shrimpy, tomatoey broth that has shrimp, clams, basil, tarragon, and some nice big fat buttery croutons to soak up the broth.

So, I'll pass this around.

(Music plays) How are you?

Ordering one pork belly, one salsa, followed by a pan roast and a tomato pie.

Alright, so you're dropping one shrimp pan roast, right?

One of my biggest fears about opening the Boiler Room is how it will affect Chef and The Farmer.

You know, it's already happening and we haven't even opened yet.

There's so much excitement from our staff over here that just before the soft opening everyone is at the Boiler Room trying the food, checking out the space, getting excited about the newness of it all and I hope things get back to normal eventually so that we can have a sense of equilibrium in our world.

(Music plays) Are there really alligators?

So we're here at the fish house, Kenny Pittman's Seafood, and um, it turns out we're here on the wrong day to see a lot of shrimp.

Today's a Monday and the trollers go out during the the week and come in on Thursdays and Fridays.

So hopefully we'll see some shrimp today um but, that's just what happens when you don't know what you're doing.

(Music plays) So they all look about the same size?

Is that... is that because all of the shrimp traveling together are about the same age?

Stupid question probably.

That's the size of shrimp they pick up.

And these would be like 21/25s or smaller?

26/30s.

I'm using a little bit of lingo.

Can you tell them what that means?

26/30s?

26 to 30 shrimp in a pound, per pound.

Yeah, mainly we get three species.

The spotted shrimp which is pink shrimp.

Summer shrimp which is the brown shrimp which is what these are.

And a little later on in the fall we get the white shrimp.

(Music plays) You go out for days at a time or?

Yeah, days at a time.

I normally work on freezer boats.

This is my first time working on ice boats, really.

And so that means you catch the shrimp and put them on ice?

Versus catch the shrimp and freezing them right there?

Freezing them right there.

Yeah.

And y'all will go out for how long?

On this boat we're normally three to four days.

Freezer boat it depends.

15, 20, 30 days.

Wow, do you have a family?

Yes.

I haven't been home.

I'm going to stay here for a month and then I'm going home.

Because this is the busiest time?

Yeah.

This is when you can make some money.

It seems like it could be a tough life?

It is.

It is sometimes.

I've seen boats go down.

Sink.

We take the people off the boat and let the boat go.

We are opening an oyster bar next door to our restaurant and I'm looking for some paraphernalia.

Oh, that is perfect!

Awesome!

I did find little knick knacks and nautical stuff to decorate the Boiler Room.

They look authentic.

That's awesome!

Cool!

Thank you very much!

(Car zooms by) I think every beach town has that place that you go to year after year and El's Drive-In is that place for me.

We go there every summer, get a shrimp burger, get fries.

There's something fun about El's Drive-In and I think they make one of the best shrimp burgers around.

Hey!

What can I get ya?

Um, I want the shrimp burger.

The big one or the small one?

Uh, big.

And what comes on it?

Slaw and ketchup.

Okay I want both of those.

Thank you.

I have.

I grew up coming here.

Do you get the big one or the small one?

The small one is usually enough for me.

I just got the big one.

I'm showing off.

It's full of shrimp.

I can tell you that.

So all year long y'all do this out in the parking lot?

Yep.

Rain...

Rain, snow.

It doesn't really snow.

You get a hurricane and you're out here in the wind so you're gonna to have to deal with it for a little while.

Yeah, I mean, this place is famous.

Thank you very much!

Enjoy.

See.

Shrimp burger.

This bun is definitely steamed and so it's really soft and squishy and then the shrimp are crunchy, the slaw is crunchy and the ketchup mingles really nicely with all of it.

It's actually even better than I remember.

And I'm glad I got the big one.

(Sirens blare) Today we are one day away from opening the Boiler Room, theoretically and we're going to do a two o'clock tasting with the staff and then at 6:30 we're going to do a friends and family.

I guess we're in pretty good shape.

I never want to do this again.

(Music plays) Hey Ben, we are about to eat in five ten minutes.

Are you going to be ready to be over here or do you need us to hold off?

You start.

Don't wait on me.

These are bigger than before.

Adam, these are bigger.

You know we can use these this weekend but he needs to know that we got the wrong buns.

I'll let him know when I order... Why you mad bro?

I'm not mad.

I have so much anxiety running through me right now I could push a car.

Alright Paige, can you give everybody five minutes and have them sitting down?

Yes ma'am.

Alright so let me um, talk to y'all.

The whole aesthetic of this place is like throwback to another time.

So that's the whole idea behind these wooden bowls.

I would get a smaller wooden bowl unless we're going to fill it up.

I think that's really filled... Feel how heavy that is.

No, I understand it but I just... if that's the portion size I'm fine with it, but I would like to get a smaller wooden bowl.

I think they make a smaller one.

Okay well I don't think that looks skimpy in any way.

I don't think if there was any more in there you'd be able to eat it without making a mess.

So we're offering peel and eat shrimp.

Basically these are North Carolina shrimp.

21/25 so they are a medium to large sized shrimp.

Once they come out we toss them with our version of like an Old Bay.

This is your Carolina burger.

So these buns are not the size that we're gonna be serving, okay?

Um, these are bigger.

Yes.

All three of the cases that came in were the wrong size and when Adam got ready to plate the burgers today I said, those are the wrong burgers.

And he said, no they're not and I sent Justin over there to get the right size and these are a half inch bigger so these are just bigger buns.

The burger will be the same size, the bun will be smaller so we may have to just take this off for tonight.

Um, so nevermind.

(Music plays) Can you do me a quick favor?

Yeah.

There's the online menu.

Take the pork chop off because we're verballing that.

Okay.

Same price?

Yes.

Now that we have two restaurants and I'm kind of in between, someone over here is going to have to really step up and kind of run the kitchen.

Just make sure you have that top on real good before you do it.

Justise has proven to me for several years now that I can trust her and she's a creative cook so I think it's gonna be her.

The stress level is way higher here.

Everybody's on edge.

I think everybody's nervous about the place opening up.

I know Chef and Ben are.

I said something to Vivian earlier and I was like, okay I'm coming back over here.

You guys are going to have to run this show and I don't want to be in the way.

We are a little bit behind.

'Cus people are going to order a bunch of things at one time... We should open next week.

We can't.

So we're a little behind so I feel like I need to watch.

Ben was a little tense this afternoon.

We didn't know if we actually were going to have friends and family night but we are.

Chef has got her stuff together.

She took our critique pretty good.

Our tasting with the staff, you know we've had this whole burger bun scenario and then the buns that we got were bigger so now we're making our burger bigger.

I mean, it's just like... very frustrating.

I am extremely nervous right now.

We're gonna be fine but right now we don't know anything until the first customers come in and sit down.

Leave it out there!

Be a redneck.

High five!

(Music plays) Hey!

Welcome to the Boiler Room boo.

How you doing?

Good!

Ready Mike?

Just now.

How you guys doing?

Good to see you.

Whenever you guys are ready to order just let us know.

We figured we'd get some apps.

You can and then like get other stuff as well.

You ready to eat some oysters?

We're ready.

Shrimp is up.

Where's the poutine?

Right here.

Putting gravy on it now.

Oooooh look at that poutine.

Here comes the big one.

Oh yeah!

It's a totally different experience.

What did you have?

We had some of all of it.

We had uhhh, poutine?

(Laughter) Is it poutine?

Is it any good?

Poutine?

Is that it?

No.

Okay poutine.

Poutine.

Poutine, okay.

(Laughter) I think I underestimated the skill it takes to cook a great burger or to steam a perfect oyster so we've had to really kind of scurry and get our grounding on these basic cooking skills but I feel as if we're gonna be ok. Hey Adam, how do you think it went tonight in the kitchen?

How did y'all do?

Oh, I had fun up here.

I get to be loud up here.

I think everything looked like from this side that it went really good.

This soft opening certainly went a lot smoother than our soft opening when we reopened Chef and The Farmer so I'm feeling pretty good.

I almost am worried.

I feel like I should pinch myself that something terrible is gonna go wrong because I think we are ready to open it.

(Music plays) For more information on A Chef's Life visit PBS.org/food A Chef's Life is available on DVD.

To order visit PBS.org or call us at 1-800-PLAY-PBS