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♪
Mena: For a storied city
that's Constitution this, Liberty Bell that;
the Historic Birthplace of the United States of America;
and Rocky Balboa's hometown;
you'd think it's culinary rep might precede it--
but who says,
"Philadelphia, what a food city!""
Well, let me tell you,
the City of Brotherly Love surprises the hell out of me
with its hyper-creative vegan restos
and virtuoso live-fire chefs.
Straight-up, the food here absolutely kicks.
Wedged between Washington and New York,
Philly can fly under the radar.
It's known as a blue-collar town
that loves its meat and potatoes,
but it's somehow become a hub
of vegan energy in the last decade--
powered by independent thinkers,
punk rock entrepreneurs,
community, and yes, the Philly Cheese Steak.
♪
And they're all cooking up Northeastern comfort food
that's the surprise underdog of the season.
Wow! This is phenomenal!
Philly punches above its weight class.
Time to get in the ring and eat.
(Street din)
♪
I'm Mena Massoud.
I'm travelling across the world
and eating my way through some of the coolest cities
to show you how beautiful meals,
talented chefs and restaurateurs
are making plant-based living delicious and attainable.
So join me as I show you
how the world is evolving vegan.
♪
(Dynamic instrumental music)
♪
What better way to get the tea on Philly
than visiting Philadelphia food royalty?
That's the story of Miss Rachel's Pantry,
an exclusive prix fixe, one-seating-a-night,
resto-come-supper-club
run by Rachel Klein.
She's on a quest to re-create her grandmother's
1950's luncheonette, but vegan.
Rachel's one of the women putting
Philly's vegan food scene on the map,
and served notice in '22
when she slayed Bobby Flay on national TV.
Today, we're getting the inside scoop
on how she makes her knock-out pasta
with delicious yet surprising fillings,
alongside her partner, Chef Rodger.
What kind of pasta are we making?
We're gonna make cappellacci.
Cappellacci. Cappellacci?
Which is a, it's a ravioli, essentially,
but it's like a little more elegante.
Rachel: Elegante.
Rodger: That's how you say it, right?
Mena: That's Philly ravioli.
Philly for elegant, yeah.
Mena: Cappellacci-hails from
Ferrerra, Italy and translates to little hats,
said to resemble local's headgear.
What kind of flour do we have here?
We're using just basic double-zero flour.
We're gonna make a little well here
and we're gonna start with some Schuylkill Punch
Rachel: Water. AKA Philly tap water.
(Laughing)
Yeah.
Have little olive oil in the well, too.
Yes.
Rodger: And then, we're going with one finger
'cause it's a little easier to work with.
You don't stick your whole mitt in there, essentially.
Okay.
Rachel: And it's also always good
to start with less water... Right.
'Cause you can always add it...
Both: But you can't take it away...
Yet!
I'm glad we're on the same page.
We are. I see you.
Mena: It's really not that many ingredients.
Rodger: Yep. It's not.
Mena: So people could definitely do this at home.
Absolutely. Rodger: Very easily.
So I'll have you kneed it.
Okay.
So what we do is fold it in half towards yourself and then
take your palm and stretch it forward like that.
Mena: What we're doing right now
is essentially just getting all those gluten proteins
to kind of work themselves in and get a little firmer.
Rachel: Yeah. Rodger: Exactly.
Wow, this is a lot of work, man.
Yeah, I know.
Rachel: You're doing great.
Okay, how much longer are we doing this for?
(Laughing)
Rodger: So we'll just get this thin.
Mena: You guys do a multi-course
service every night. Rachel: We do. Every night.
Right, it's not a la carte?
Nope. It's a prix fixe menu.
It is, yeah. And there's always pasta
which means Rodger's always touching dough.
Mena: Rodger's always here.
His-- when Rog gets cranky, as we like to say.
(Cranking)
Mena: Nice.
This is getting longer and longer,
thinner and thinner there.
Rodger: Longer and longer.
Mena: Can I get a pass?
Rodger: Sure.
You can just pull it very gently as you go.
Rachel: Oh, you're doing it. Look at you.
Rodger: Easy does it. Incredible job.
Mena: Look at that. See, I didn't mess it up for you.
Incredible job, perfect.
Rachel: I know, everything's wonderful.
Mena: That's so fun! Rachel: Isn't it?
Rodger: We're going to use this wolverine looking contraption.
Wow-za!
Rodger: Press real hard all the way across.
Alright.
♪
Yay!
Bravo.
Rachel: You're doing good.
♪
You've got, like, apples and figs and dates.
This is all going in the pasta?
Rachel: It is.
We make a cashew chevre and it all blends in and that's where
you're going to shine; you're going to pipe it.
Well let's pipe it.
♪
Alright, how am I doing here?
You're doing great, super good, yeah.
♪
Alright, well Rodger we're going to fold 'em up here.
Yes we are.
I'll show you what the shape is going to look like.
♪
Mena: Oh.
And then we'll do a couple, so.
Mena: That is very cute.
Rodger: That's how we do our Cappellicci here.
♪
So we'll go end to end.
Mena: End to end.
Rodger: Triangle to triangle.
Mena: Yup.
Rodger: And then you just gently seal it.
Spin it around and create a little dimple on both sides.
Mena: Okay, I think I'm ready.
There's your first one. Thank you very much.
Alright.
So up and around...
some dimples...
♪
...Okay.
Not a-- I's going to get-- it's getting there.
This is the comparison.
This is Rodger's after years and this is my attempt at one.
Rachel: Super good, yeah.
Okay, so we have our beautiful, little Cappellicci's here.
Alright, here we go, slide them in.
Beautiful, yay!
The Cappellacci boils for only a few minutes, then bathes
in a creamy sauce packed with herbs, apples and coconut milk!
So what do we got, we got the fried sage?
Yeah, we have fried sage.
We'll crumble some so that every bite gets one.
We've got what looks like Parmesan cheese.
Yes, we've got some vegan Parmesan to make it,
like, a little stinky.
Mena: Very nice... oh, look at that.
And then the fun part are these candied pecans.
Mena: Okay.
You want to do a little zhuzhy on there?
That's a technical term.
Beautiful, I cannot wait to dig into that.
Rachel: Awesome.
Mena: Joining us for dinner is one of Philadelphia's
most storied food writers...
Pleasure.
Mena: Hey, nice to meet you.
Mena: He's also known as Rachel's Dad, Michael.
He comes from a long line of Philly foodies.
I feel like I'm sitting with Philadelphia food royalty.
And speaking of that, I am going to dig into this pasta we made.
Rachel: Yeah, we should probably eat some pasta.
Mena: Look at this.
Beautiful, fresh pasta.
That beautiful fig, apple, cashew filling, and that sage
on the top there, Parmesan.
Rachel: Yeah.
Michael: and I didn't even have to make a reservation.
(Chuckling)
Wow...
♪
Michael: That's great. Mena: Mm-hmm.
Nice and al dente, got some firmness there,
and the sweetness is very subtle. It's delicious.
And so, Michael, you've been a food writer in Philly
for 30 years.
How has it changed over the years?
It's really diversified, I'll tell you that.
I mean we used to have steakhouses and seafood houses,
a couple of Chinese restaurants,
but now it's like the city evolved.
Would you say that your average Joe is more open to plant-based
eating now more than before when you first started?
I think people realize now, and this is your average Joe,
as you called it, are starting to understand that
there's health benefits to it,
the ecological benefits are enormous.
And I think people are starting to accept it.
Speaking of trying new things, I want to try this,
what looks like a mushroom tart here.
Rachel: So you have chicken of the woods mushrooms
and hen of the woods.
There's some Chanterelle's hiding underneath,
a little bit of a rutabaga puree.
And the gravy on the bottom?
Rachel: It's a Shitake gravy.
I guess we just got to pick this up and dig in.
Oh, you're doing it, okay.
Okay, like a taco.
♪
Mmm.
Your food is very comforting.
Thank you.
The tart is perfectly flaky.
Kind of reminds me almost like a phyllo dough, almost.
Cool, yeah.
It's really, really buttery which is so good
and then you get the different textures of
all the different mushrooms and the gravy is stupid good.
Thank you.
She's a trailblazer, this kid, and remember, her food is vegan,
but it's not one cuisine.
Predominantly Italian, but it crosses all kinds of boundaries.
It's just happens to be plant-based.
Just over half of our customers are vegan or vegetarian,
but the rest are just people wanting to come out for dinner
and I love that.
I don't think there's barriers to entry.
You don't have to be a Vietnamese person to eat
Vietnamese food.
Yeah, and you don't have to be a vegan to eat vegan food.
Rachel: Yeah.
Mena: And that's one of the things
that I hear all the time, too.
"If I could eat like this I would eat vegan all the time."
Look at that, wow, beautiful.
This would be the last course in your prix-fix menu, correct?
Yes.
We have flourless chocolate cake here which has a layer
of ganache on top of it and whipped raspberry,
almost like a buttercream.
♪
The cake actually has black beans in it
which is a fun surprise.
Mena: So rich and decadent.
Beautiful on the raspberry just helps, kind of,
ease that richness of it.
Rachel: Yeah.
They go nicely together.
You should be very proud of her, she took a massive risk.
I could not be prouder of her.
She has done incredible work, not only for herself,
but for the city and the community.
She has a really special place in the city and as a parent
I could not be prouder of her.
Awh.
You're going to make me cry now.
Rachel: I'm going to cry now too.
Mena: We're all going to cry.
Well before we start crying, cheers.
Raspberry brownie cheers.
Thanks so much for having me.
Cheers. Cheers.
♪
♪ Turn it ♪
♪ Two, three, four! ♪
♪
Mena: I'm kinda addicted to taking non-vegan pals to
test their palates on plant-based fare.
My friend Maz Jobrani, a stand-up comic and actor,
is in town for a comedy gig, and since he starred in a TV series
set in a donut shop, I figured he'd appreciate a trip to
Philly's wildly popular Dottie's Donuts,
co-owned by restaurateur and bassist Jeff Poleon.
Jeff: What's up guys?
Mena: Hey, Jeff.
Thanks for coming by.
I brought a donut expert here.
Jeff: Perfect.
He actually did a show called Superior Donut.
Jeff: That's sick.
Mena: Donut expert, I'm telling you man.
On-screen, and I got the off-screen
so we're good to go, yeah.
Mena: Dottie's Donuts started out as a cult-fave
wholesaler ten years ago,
and got so popular, they've got 3 locations across Philly.
What's cool about this joint:
they don't promote they're vegan.
And nobody seems to notice...
or care.
You're a musician, you're also a chef.
Yeah.
A lot of people, when they think vegans,
they don't think of people that look like you.
Like, you're tatted-- Jeff: Oh yeah, yeah.
I come from, like, punk and hardcore music,
so there's, like, a whole section when I was really young
that I was really into, which was like
vegan straight edge.
There's a whole punk vegan scene?
Jeff: Yeah.
We all know each other, we're all...
kind of work for each other at one point or another
and it's all pretty much coming straight from punk music.
The vegan scene does tend to be like that.
I mean, the restaurant scene really is, like--
Jeff: Totally.
Every restaurateur knows each other,
they all help each other out.
For sure.
It's like, "Yo, give me your, like, bagel recipe."
Absolutely, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Some insider dealing.
Mena: Are comedians like that?
Yeah, "Give me a punch line, bro."
No, we-- no, it's actually the opposite.
Comedians are like, "Yo, don't watch my set.
I don't want you stealing my material, man."
Yeah, yeah. Mena: Yeah, right.
Can we make some donuts, man?
Jeff: Let's get you guys in the kitchen.
I'll introduce you to our head chef, Liz.
She makes most of the crazy creations that we have,
and she'll show you kind of step-by-step what we do.
Mena: Alright.
Let's do this, man. Let's do it!
This is the moment I join you guys and I'm going
to be in your band too, bro.
Jeff: Perfect, let's do it.
Mena: Dottie's pastry chef, Liz,
is another punk musician turned confectioner.
We have some dough all ready to go over here for you.
Mena: Dottie's dough is all made in house,
on site, and fresh each morning.
Liz mixes up plant-based milk and vegan butter
with flour, yeast and sugar to create their dough,
which rises for an hour before the fun begins.
Very, very nice.
Can we-- can I touch the dough?
You want to touch it?
Maz: I just, I always love to...
Oh, it's so soft.
Try it. Try it?
It's like a pillow. Oh yeah, it's so nice.
And what makes it different than like a pizza dough
or a bread dough?
Liz: Well, it's similar
to pizza dough but it's sweeter, I'd say.
Okay, so you get that rolled out?
Get it going.
Start this.
Mena: Look at this! Maz: Whoa.
Mena: What time do you usually
have to get in here to, like, start this process?
We open pretty early.
We get here at 4:30.
Mena: 4:30 in the morning?
What are you, a stock broker?
Mena: At least when she's up early
to watch the dough rise she also gets to oversee
this mesmerizing donut cutter work its magic.
That is so cool!
They're tiny!
Liz: Yeah, I know.
They get a lot bigger as they proof up.
Maz: Where do the scraps go?
We roll them back up and then we make more dough.
Make more donuts.
Mo' dough! Liz: Mo' dough.
Maz: Whoa, look.
Liz: Take all the little--
Can I help you? Yeah, help me out, yeah.
Mena: Help you.
Now this is fun.
After cutting, these babies go through a proofing stage
where they double in size,
before they go for a quick dip in hot oil.
Liz: So, we just drop it in here.
Mena: Oh, that's way gentler than I thought.
So, they're going to fry on each side
for maybe 30, 45 seconds.
Okay.
What are those?!
These are the donut sticks.
Those are giant chopsticks is what those are, Liz.
Liz: Pretty much, yeah.
Mena: Look at this. Maz: So fun!
Mena: Donut master.
Liz: It is fun.
Did you learn any of this on Superior Donuts?
I didn't learn anything!
They just cast me.
We're actors, we don't do any of that real stuff.
Mena: Don't believe this guy.
We do all our own food stunts on this show.
I can't wait to try the donut sticks,
and Liz somehow trusts us
just enough to give it a shot.
Maz: Careful, Mena! Look out!
We don't have donuts in the Middle East.
(Laughing)
Maz: In the Middle East, your parents just say,
"do-not do this, do-not do that"
but that's it.
Mena: Like myself,
Maz emigrated from overseas as a kid.
He was born in Iran and settled in Cali,
where he later dove into comedy
and blew up on NPR and Stephen Colbert.
(Italian accent) You're gonna flippa the donut,
you're gonna flippa the donut.
Look it-- oh my god, these two donuts were getting together.
That was a little too much for this show.
They're getting frisky.
Maz: I give you...
the well done-- look at that, and you can play--
this one's, oh, that's harder.
You can even play drums on them.
Liz: Yeah, they double as drumsticks.
Mena: There you go.
(Smooth, mid-tempo music)
As the donuts cool, we get ready to glaze and garnish.
These puffed-up beauties are canvases and we the artistes.
We're going to make the toaster pastry donut?
Yes.
So, need these mini mixed berry jam toaster pastries
and we have some blueberry glaze and some vanilla glaze.
Okay.
And I usually do two--
Mena: You dip 'em! Maz: Whoa.
Wow, I don't know why I thought you were gonna, like, sprinkle.
(Laughing)
Maz: That's what I thought.
Mena: Makes no sense.
Liz does it effortlessly, showing off a little dip,
some drizzle, before the big pastry needle drop.
Okay, here we go.
Here we go.
♪
Liz: That was, like, awesome.
That's cool, look at you, man!
Mena: Look at that. Liz: Very, very nice.
♪
Mena: Okay, I'm no Liz but not bad.
Let's see if Maz got the goods.
Maz: Alright. You want to get in here?
My turn? Yeah, let me do this.
Let's do this. Alright, guys, okay.
Mena and Maz: Here we go.
You're going to go like this,
and you're going to go like that.
You're going to bring--
Mena: Dude, what the hell is that?
Liz: You got to stir it.
Oh, I forgot about the stirring.
I did that so everybody can learn.
In making donuts, your first move, you want to stir.
You see what happened?
You don't stir, you don't get nothing!
(Liz laughing)
Maz: So, now we're going to stir it.
You go like this, you're going to go like that,
you're going to go, (Exclaims in other language)
Oh!
Mena: There you go.
Look at that.
Hey, mix and a match.
Okay, here we go and look at that.
Mena: Look at that.
Maz: One hand up like this, right?
Like it's salsa.
Da, da, da, da, da, da-da.
(Laughing)
Mena: There you go, there you go.
Maz: Definitely the ugliest donuts are mine.
Mena: There we go, there we go.
No look, boom.
Oh!
You got it. Ah, look at that.
Liz: Great job. Mena: Good job, man!
We gotta-- we got to try the donuts.
We got to try the donuts.
Maz: Alright.
Holy moly.
Mena: These donuts are good enough to put Maz on mute.
But just for a minute.
That's great. There you go.
Wow. Great job.
Mena: It is so good. Maz: Wow.
You're a genius.
Thank you.
Mena: One of Dottie's trademarks
is its ever-changing menu.
Half these creations are daily specials.
And I'm curious to find out what my non-vegan pal
thinks of all these donuts.
Maz: Yummy, yummy, yummy.
In Persian, when you eat, you go "nushe jan."
"Nusha jan."
"Nusha jan" which means, like, enjoy and live long.
What do you guys say?
Like, what's your "buon appetite?"
"Sahetek."
Maz: "Sahetek." Yeah.
Alright, let's go for it.
Mena: "Nusha jan." "Nusha jan, sahetek."
Mena: There you go.
Maz: Mmm. Oh, that's good.
You got to try this one.
By the way, this has apple in it,
so it's actually healthy for you.
Mena: Mmm. Mm-hmm.
Do you think that after this experience...
that you would try to eat more vegan?
I would like to.
The truth is I would like to.
I went to my doctor, I had a slight--
I had slightly high cholesterol
and she said plant-based diet will help
lower the cholesterol.
And I thought okay, I would like to attempt more and more.
Mena: Okay. Yeah.
Well, cheers to that, man, cheers to that.
Thank you for helping me make some donuts, bro.
And thank you for saying, "no to beef!"
No, thank you for having me, man.
♪
(Upbeat rock music)
Mena: After eating our weight
in punk rock donuts,
Maz invites me down to his show.
I never pass up a chance to see a friend's act,
so I swing by the Punch Line before showtime.
Maz: Hey. Hey, yo!
How are ya, man?
Mena: What's going on, man?
What's happening?
Both: Look at you.
What are you having, grapes and blueberries?
What is this?
In honour of you, it's all vegan, alright?
Mena: I love it. Maz: Yeah.
How long you been doing live shows now?
I've been doing standup since 25 years ago
25 years.
Yeah, and is crazy because I was just saying.
I just went and saw Sting in concert,
And I think I've seen Sting,
like, I don't know, 15 times or something.
Right. And musicians can play the old stuff
And we want to hear it.
Right.
But comedians, you better come up with new stuff.
It's challenging but, you know, we gotta keep going, brother.
Yeah, man, all right. Well, good luck tonight.
Man, I look forward to seeing it.
Thank you, brother.
Thank you, feeling good.
It's that vegan food.
The vegan food, yeah, man. It's in me.
It's just giving you power.
I'm ready to go.
Good luck, man. Yolo. Take care, man.
♪
Announcer: Philadelphia, put your hands together
for the one and only Maz Jobrani!
(Audience cheering)
Hello, Philadelphia. How are you, Philadelphia?
Hello, Philadelphia
Hello, Phil-- Hey, hey, hey!
We haven't done Philly in a while.
I'm so happy to be in Philly.
You know, Rocky was the first movie-- I was born in Iran.
I saw-- the first movie I ever saw,
I think I was, like, five years old.
They took me to Rocky.
I don't even know if it was appropriate or not.
Our parents didn't care about that (Bleep), right?
They took me to The Exorcist.
They thought it was a movie about exercising.
(Audience laughing)
♪
In the Philadelphia neighbourhood
called Northern Liberties,
where historic architecture
blends with indie boutiques and eateries,
is a statement: Pietramala,
which won the title of one of
the Best New Restaurants in America
within a year of opening.
These incredible dishes are created by Chef Ian,
who's cooking with fire.
Everything he does is focused on shaping
peak-season veg with live fire
and fermentation, and man, does it slap.
Hey, chef Ian. Nice to meet you.
Thanks for coming.
All the way to Philly. I'm loving it here.
This is a great city. My first time here.
It's a good vegan town.
Yeah. This looks beautiful. What do we have here?
♪
Chef Ian: This is our barn cat salad.
We call it the barn cat salad because
we make a dressing out of this cave-aged
cashew cheese called barn cat cheese.
We have treviso, which is the red radicchio, then we have
escarole, which is the pale green.
And castelfranco radicchio, which is red and green one.
There is also shaved fennel and watermelon radish, and then,
over the top, we have some puffed brown rice,
emmer and rye.
There's a local mill that we get these grains from.
And then we have some fermented tofu,
We make in-house, that we grate it over the top.
Mena: Honestly, the salad is less of a salad.
It's more a piece of art...
Wow.
...delicious edible art.
Mmm!
I'm getting some citrus in there.
Ian: Yep. Fresh lemon.
Mena: Wow. That's delicious.
The way that you've used
Three or four different kinds of radicchio in here.
Ian: we always try to use as many
Of a single vegetable as we can.
Mena: Fantastic.
And so creamy.
It's kind of your take maybe on the Caesar salad.
Yeah, definitely the inspiration here is from
blue cheese salad, Caesar salad.
We don't want to call these things
something that they're not.
We call it what it is,
which is the barn cat salad.
Mena: you spent a lot of time in New York, originally, right?
Yeah, I'm from New York City.
Uh, I worked a lot of nice restaurants there.
I also worked on a lot of nice vegan restaurants as well.
But I wanted to work in restaurants that were
more exciting, and used whole foods.
I didn't move to Philly to open a restaurant.
That just kind of happened on its own.
You were pretty quickly voted one of the best new restaurants
in all of the U.S.
That's correct.
Which is a huge feat for a vegan restaurant,
But especially a vegan restaurant
that is vegetable forward.
You don't do any vegan substitutes.
You really put vegetables at the forefront
of what you do here at Pietramala.
Absolutely.
Everything we use here,
we use from as close as possible,
as fresh as possible.
And I think it's important
to really add things that vegan food
is typically missing, which is a depth of umami flavour.
So we really try to lean on lacto fermented vegetables,
Smoke and fire, to really build that flavour.
And those are the things that people miss,
And they associate it with meat, but it's not
necessarily just coming from meat.
So we incorporate the flavours into vegetables
People are really, like, oh, does this have bacon in it?
It's like, no, it's just smoke.
Speaking of that, I'm ready for my next dish or two.
I'm gonna continue to eat the salad.
No one's taking this away from me, but I'm ready
to see what you got.
Ian: This is roasted peppers and peaches.
Wow! Look at this. This is incredible.
Ian: So we have three types of peppers
that we roasted over the fire from nearby farms.
We have Jimmy Nardello peppers.
We have some Italian frying peppers.
And we have shishitos.
On the bottom, we have some
house-made cashew ricotta.
Some fresh peach.
Then you have some black walnut dukkah,
which is like a Middle Eastern spiced nut seasoning.
Wow.
And the black walnuts are the quintessential Pennsylvania nut.
That's one of the only nuts we really
have access to in this region.
Wow, America meets the Middle East in it dish.
I love it.
♪
And I can just smell the peppers.
I love, like, a fire roasted pepper.
Mmm!
(Chuckling)
There was a little bit of a symphony there.
That's incredible!
That fire flavour
really comes across in this dish.
The peppers are so juicy.
The peaches are juicy.
A little bit of that creaminess from the ricotta.
I mean, wow, this is phenomenal, chef.
♪
You use seasonal vegetables.
It's so complex and beautiful.
How do you stay inspired to innovate like this?
Well, I'm really drawing on all the experience I have.
That's experience in the kitchen,
and experience just with vegetables and what's in season.
And the saying, if it grows together, it goes together.
How long does a dish last on the menu?
Uh, well, this one in particular.
Peppers came into season around mid-August,
and Peaches came into season a bit earlier, but we had to wait
Both: ...until peppers.
And then, not for them to just come into the season,
but for them to come into peak season.
So this is only been on the menu
for about a month and that's it.
Oh, wow, just one month.
Come on, peppers, we were waiting for you!
The peaches were waiting for you.
Chef Ian was waiting for you.
I've been waiting for you my whole life.
And I've been waiting for our last dish,
a brainy house specialty
that combines both fire
And fermentation.
Ian: This is the grilled cabbage
with celery root and horseradish.
You have a Savoy cabbage.
It's a little sweeter than the normal green cabbage
that you get, and we brine that overnight,
and then we throw that into the fire, right over the coals,
get that charred flavour, and then, over the top,
You have a sauce that we made from celery root.
And you have an oil made from mustard greens.
It really adds some more spice to the dish,
as well as the freshly grated horseradish.
Then you have lots of herbs
and a little more chili.
♪
Mmm.
This is incredible. I mean, it's exceptional.
Yeah, it's really good.
(Mena laughing)
I love it. Hey, you gotta be confident in your own food.
You got that fire flavour.
An insane amount of creaminess.
I haven't tasted cabbage like this,
where it almost melts in your mouth.
I mean, it still got that leafy texture to it,
but it's so creamy with this cream on top
and that mustard seed oil that you put on there.
It's just-- look at this.
Wow. Look at that.
What really stands out here is
that you're treating these ingredients like you would meat.
And it really comes across, Chef.
I mean, kudos to you,
I can tell why you were voted
one of the new best restaurants in America
because you killed it.
I mean, you killed it, Chef, seriously.
Everybody needs to come
and try your restaurant, for real, man.
Thank you.
Mena: Ian shifts the paradigm
with his devoted focus on vegetables, at their peak
and with superb technique.
He also reverses the flow-- that is, from New York City.
His decision to set down roots,
and evolve in Philadelphia is a triumph.
♪
(Upbeat instrumental music)
Mena: Philadelphia's a working class town
with a working class appetite for meaty, cheesy grab
and go grub and it's most famous
in the culinary world
for inventing its own signature sandwich,
the Philly Cheese Steak.
It's an international comfort-food classic,
and locals take great pride
in it, which is why you can find it advertised
on nearly every block.
ALGORITHM's one of the local spots
that have taken up the challenge
of creating a plant-based version
of the iconic sandwich for the tough-to-impress locals.
Chef Cody, what's going on?
Nice to meet you.
We are making the classic
of all Philly classics today.
The Philly Cheese Steak.
Yeah.
And it's vegan? It is.
Mena: The original Philly Cheese Steak
was first made at Pat's Hot Dog Stand,
a beloved local institution.
Two brothers wanted
to offer their customers more than just dogs,
so they cooked up a shaved beef sandwich
that could be made quickly on a small grill.
A taxi driver bought one,
told his friends, and the rest is Philly history.
We use seitan.
We shave it down,
so it kind of emulates that kind of shaved steak
type of thing.
We spice it.
And then it goes on a cheese steak
with mushrooms and onions.
Yeah, baby, got some browning on there.
Cody: Yeah, a little bit crispy.
Yes, yes.
Oh, and the cheese is going on the griddle.
Delicious.
Plot twist!
What is that made of?
So, we take a vegan cheese spread
and we add Calabrian chilies
which is this vibrant Italian pepper.
Mena: So, that's adding
a ton of flavour in there too.
Cody: For sure.
Mena: Damn!
That looks good.
Cody: And we just fill it in like this.
Oh, yeah.
Get that in there.
Cody: Make sure you can see some mushrooms
on top, it's important.
Wow. Look at that.
It's just oozing, let me get that.
Mm. Wow!
Glad you liked it. Thank you, yeah.
Alright, so I've seen you do it now,
I'm going to get in there and make my own.
Cody: Yeah, yeah.
Because how can I come to Philly
and not make Philly Cheese Steak.
I can't. I can't have it.
I got to make one.
Alright, so first step, get this on the griddle.
A little bit of mushrooms in here.
Yes, just a little pinch of each.
I like my mushrooms.
So I'm going to get a little bit more than you put on yours.
Cody: Okay.
And a little bit of onion.
Mm-hmm.
Alright, look at that.
Gorgeous, grab a little bit of oil two.
There we go.
Beautiful. Give her a toss.
And you kind of thinned it out
so that everything got a nice colour on it, really.
Yes.
Okay, you want to make sure
that all the surfaces are touching.
Yeah, exactly.
And the Philly Cheese Steak was created in Philly in the 1930s,
that's really when it started.
Cody: Yeah.
Before they even added cheese to it.
Cody: Yeah, and now it's the world-famous dish.
Okay, so the cheese spread it goes on now.
Cody: Yeah.
Beautiful. Right there.
Okay, and you can actually see the pieces of the pepper
in there which is amazing.
Just swimming in flavour now.
Cody: The heat really brings out
a lot of the Italian pepper flavour too.
Here we go.
This is-- this is-- oh.
Oh, yeah, look at that.
Cody: Yeah.
Look at that.
(Chuckles) Just load that in there.
You're a natural.
Thank you.
Cody: Beautiful.
That looks magnificent.
Would you serve this?
I would. You're hired.
Thank you very much.
I'm going to serve it to myself in a second.
I'm off to crush my hand-made Philly Cheese Steak
with Algorithm's owner, Matthew Rafferty,
a recent vegan convert who went sans hog
he bought a food truck,
and started a full-on plant-based restaurant.
Hey, hey, Matt.
Chef.
I know, right? I'm chef for today,
but I'm making your specialty here.
Matt: Yes.
I mean, this is amazing this is as Philly
as it gets I feel like.
It is, man.
Picnic table and everything.
Alright.
Both: Cheers.
(Munching)
Mm.
Yeah, that's very good.
I love the mushrooms
in there and the spice really makes the sandwich.
The cheese spread that you guys make in-house.
Yeah.
Fantastic.
And the texture is great.
And the roll as you guys say just spot
on absorbs all that flavour.
How did you conjure up the will
to make a vegan Philly Cheese Steak?
The cheese steak that's been around for almost 100 years.
Man, well, the reality of it is we missed the food
that we used to eat, like I missed cheese steak,
I missed Rubens.
I missed Nashville Hots.
So, let's veganize them and make them pretty bad ass.
Taking it on, though, in the city of cheese steak's
and in the land of the experts that do it is daunting.
It was a big undertaking.
It started out as a pretty clunky sandwich,
a little bit,
but we learned to like shave the seitan down pretty
finely enough so it comes like chopped cheese.
And, shortly after you opened,
you got voted best food truck in Philadelphia.
Matt: Yeah.
Which is a huge, you know, huge win.
Yeah, within the first year of us being open,
Philadelphia Magazine voted us best food truck,
not just best vegan food truck.
Exactly.
But best food truck in the city.
There's probably 150 different licensees
in the city, I mean-- That's huge.
I teared up when I read that.
It's huge.
So, the reception has been pretty powerful.
Philadelphia is in a spot now
where you're not afraid
to put vegan the name of the place.
Philadelphia is embracing plant-based food.
When did this happen?
It's been a culmination of a lot of years of work.
Probably decades.
But the vegan community here is pretty large
and pretty vibrant now.
The restaurant community is very tight knit
and what we've really done in the land of cheese steaks,
you know, everybody is vying for a place for like,
to be like, you know what?
We make a damn good cheese steak.
We'd like to think that we are one
of the top five of vegan cheese steaks in the city.
I don't think we're ever going to like, break into the like,
carnivorous market of being like
a top 10 cheese steak
or a top 20 cheese steak in the city.
It would be awesome
to be able to do that, but it's tough.
It's hard to, but we like to think
that we're the better ones out there that make a good version.
You see me.
I'm going back, I'm going back
in there even just with a fork
because the cheese steak is-- it's fire.
I just want more.
Matt: Yeah.
Philly is the city of brotherly love
and I'm feeling that every time I walk around.
Like, everybody is so nice,
you know, people say hi to you out of the blue.
Yes.
And I'm just like, I'm surprised how loving it is here.
Sure.
And I can see that translating
to the community whether it's the vegan community,
the restaurant community and I feel like
that encourages everybody to support each other.
Big time. Big time.
We're all friends,
we're all family and everybody tries
to take care of each other.
In the actual core of everything that we do,
we just want to keep taking good care of guests,
making delicious food
and slinging good cheese steaks.
Mena: As long as you're slinging them, I'll keep eating them.
♪
(Dynamic hip-hop beat)
♪
Mena: On an anonymous street
in Center City, Philadelphia,
lies a nightmarish plant-based bar and eatery known as...
Monster Vegan.
(Scary music)
Okay, it's not that scary,
but as a guy who just filmed his first horror flick last year,
I gotta try the spot that boasts
vegan comfort food with a side of terror.
This calls for a drink at a bar and eatery that's anything
but frightening.
This space is always horror themed year-round, right?
Yes.
Mena: Like, this never changes?
Year-round.
Mena: Hey, I'm game, and ready to
try my hand at witchy mixology.
We are going to make a Manhattan today.
Okay. Alright,
and if I wanted to grab this on the menu here
at Monster Vegan, what's it called?
This is the Jason Takes Manhattan,
after the film, of course.
The Jason takes-- Of course, of course. Alright.
It's going to be a smoked Manhattan,
rye whiskey, orange liqueur.
Love it.
Matthew: One whole ounce
of sweet vermouth.
Everything has alcohol in that.
Matthew: It's a stiff drink.
Mena: Alright. And we're not done yet.
This is just the base.
We are not done.
We are going to smoke this cocktail.
It really smells like a campfire.
We're going to let it kind of cling to the glass.
That orange peel, it'll all come together.
Let's do the reveal.
Mena: Okay.
Oh yeah. Look at that.
Matthew: Just like that.
Alright, well, cheers, Matt.
Thank you very much.
Matthew: Absolutely.
Wow!
That is a nice stiff drink, but I'm getting a lot of orange
in there and that smokiness.
The ride just kind of acts as like a beautiful canvas
to carry all of that flavour.
Absolutely. Well put.
Mena: With a creepy cocktail in hand,
I'm ready to dig into some grub.
Oh wow, look at that. That is incredible.
Front and centre we have our peach ricotta made with
grilled jersey peaches,
drizzled with aged balsamic reduction
and, of course, some sour bread toast.
Mena: Mm, a tantalizing plate.
And I gotta give a hand to how
the chef sliced them peaches and toast.
When you have something like this beautiful sourdough bread
and this ricotta, you should always find a way to
get into the mood and the theme.
Matthew: Yes, sir.
You know?
(Clink)
(Munching)
(Laughter)
Who knew this can bring so much joy?
They're goofy, but if you're gonna go to Monster,
you gotta get into character.
The food is monster as well, I can see.
Absolutely.
This is what I call honkers, that's a honker of a sandwich.
Matthew: My personal favourite, The BAVA.
It's our take on a meatball sub named after Mario Bava,
classic Italian horror film director.
It is layered with our vegan ricotta and then
our grilled house-made meatballs.
We have comfit tomato and house-made pesto.
You know it's a good honker of the sandwich when you have to
strategize how to, how are you going to get in there.
Are you going to get in there from the side, on the top?
I like to go top to bottom.
Like this?
Matthew: Yeah!
Alright, here we go.
Wow!
That's how you do it.
Mena: This is what you want,
like, classic comfort food, the tomatoes, the garlic.
And then I got caramelized onions in there too?
Matthew: Yeah, absolutely.
Very, very nice.
It is vegan food for carnivores.
When Monster Vegan was first conceived,
it was made to fill a niche.
A lot of vegan restaurants at the time kind of focused on
the more serious aspect of dining.
And also the smaller portions.
So, we like to do big at Monster Vegan.
You don't shy away here, obviously,
from the meat substitutes.
Right.
Ten, 15 years ago, vegan food was a lot of,
like, vegetable forward.
And then as we started getting
these meat substitutes coming on the market,
you can still eat your favourites and not have to
sacrifice anything, but you can do it vegan.
I think it really comes down
to just people's love for comfort food.
Cheers to that.
Cheers. Cheers to honkers.
Alright, here we go.
Cheers to honkin' good food.
♪
(Upbeat hip-hip beat)
♪
Mena: Time for one last pit-stop
before the main event.
So I'm dropping by 20th Street Pizza,
one of the best vegan pizzerias in Philly.
♪
Here at 20th Street Pizza, you do all vegan pies.
It's a hard thing to find vegan pizzas by the slice.
Mark: Yeah, totally.
You know, I think it's important that vegan food to be
as accessible as possible.
So, doing a slice shop, I think, is the best way to do it.
You know, it's cheap, it's quick,
it's really the best food there is, I think.
Yeah, I love pizza, man. It's my favourite food.
And what's on the Balboa here? What do we got?
Mark: On Balboa, we got cashew cheese,
there's roasted cherry tomato, some vegan meatballs,
some pistachio pesto and arugula on top.
♪
Mena: Sounds like the perfect slice
to fuel up before hitting those famous steps.
♪
Mm.
♪
Mm.
We've got an incredible amount of cheese here, which is good.
It's a cashew cheese, really nice.
We got pesto in there
and I see some of that meatball right here.
Oh yeah. Oh yeah.
♪
Perfect pizza.
Fuelling up with the Balboa to go Balboa style.
(Triumphant music)
One of Philadelphia's most iconic sites commemorates
the greatest fictional underdog of all time: Rocky Balboa.
And I can't leave the city without retracing
the Champ's steps up to the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Philly, I gotta say. You punch way above your weight.
You completely surprised me, hitting hard with your intricate
vegan turns on everything from cheesesteaks to live-fire veg.
The food was an absolute knockout!
(Panting)
Philadelphia, for a history town, you got a bright,
sunny food future ahead of ya.
I brotherly love ya.
♪
(Dynamic theme)
♪
♪ ♪
♪
(Whirring, clicking)
(Musical flourish)