I Am All in again Luke's Diner with Scott Patterson, an iHeartRadio podcast, Hey Everybody, Scott Patterson, I Am All and Podcast one eleven productions, iHeartRadio, iHeart Media, iHeart Podcast. Welcome to Episode two of Luke's Diner with my very very special guests Alex Trim. Let me tell you a little bit about Alex. He is a chef. He's originally from London. He grew up in it with a deep rooted passion for food. Thanks to his mother's French culinary
background and his father's hospitality expertise. He traveled across Europe doing richest appreciation for fine dining, moved to the US and his teens. He eventually settled in Chai Town, Chicago, working at Michelin Starred Alnia and as a sous chef at True. Later with Let Us Entertain You, Let Us l E t t Ucee Entertain You, he helped launch a new restaurant concept for pivoting to private dining in
twenty and twenty one. Today, Alex shares high end Michelin Star recipes online, becoming a go to expert for fine dining content on Instagram and TikTok. Alex made a beautiful version of strawberry shortcake called Victorias Sponge on his TikTok page. We're going to dive into that later, but first, Gilmour Girls a shortcake in season one, episode three, Kill Me. Now we're back in the kitchen, Alex, Hello, welcome, thank you for joining us. We're thrilled to have you. Let's
get into Suki's kitchen and she's always frazzled. Jackson's making up one of his produce deliveries that are always appears to be not accurate or incorrect, and they talk about replacing strawberries since he has bad strawberries, and she rejects them. Wants, uh blueberry, he wants. He's trying to push blueberries. I want to make a blueberry shortcake. Is that even in the realm of possibility?
Alex, Yeah, I mean that's That's one of the beautiful things about food, right, is that you know, we're you know, there's there's the classics, right, and it's it's what everyone knows, neveryone loves, you know, strawberry shortcake is a is a piece of classic Americana. But but the really cool thing about food is it really has no bounds. You can you can kind of do what you want. I mean,
there there are vague sidelines. A lot of people say, like no cheese with fish and things like that, but at the end of the day, if something tastes good, then there's really no reason not to being a chef. One of the cool things is is uh and the way that I cook a lot of it's about season now, you know I in the episode and he says that the strawberries are not good, but the blueberries are looking great. You know, as a chef, you kind of learn how
to pivot with these things. And rather than rather than being upset, like oh, I can't make my strawbery shortcake, now, it's like, okay, great, now I get to make a beautiful bloobery shortcake. It's just something different and you get to play around like that. It's it's more of an opportunity right now.
Laura l I ends up bringing the leftover blueberry shortcake that Suki made as dessert to the Friday night dinner. The debut Friday Night dinner of the Shell at the Gilmour House. Emily calls it use desserts. What are your thoughts on that. Would you be horrified if somebody did that?
No, not at all, definitely not. I can tell you that, especially working in restaurants for private parties and events and weddings, you always make more than you need. It's the only way to make sure that you know, running out is the worst thing you want to do. You never want to say were out of something. So there's there's always tons left over, and you know, at the end of the day, it's just who's going to turn down fresh desserts? You know what I mean? Right right?
When did you first discover, Alex your affinity for making food?
I guess I was basically born into it. You know, my mother is a classically trained chef. She grew up in Her parents owned a pub in England, so she grew up in a pub. So I mean I I then grew up deeply rooted in the hospitality industry with my father, and you know, I was cooking. I remember cooking before I could even reach the counter. I had this little cream store that I would stand on and it would it would come up so only my eyes would go over the counter and things. So it's something
I've always always, really really enjoyed. You know, the school that I went to when I was when I was young, they actually had like a culinary like a kid's culinary program, so I was involved with that. It's something that I've definitely always been interested in. Actually, I have Crohn's disease.
It's inflammatory about whatever. When I was ten years old, I had some major surgeries done and I wasn't able to eat any solid food for multiple months, and then I was having these based like a juice box with predigestive food, like not nice. When I could start eating again, I think that's when I really really delved into it and kind of realized what I'd been missing and how important in my life food was. Looking back at it now, like so many of my happy and important memories are
based around food and travel. I think it's one of those things that is just it really brings people together. I always wanted to be a chef, kind of went through the notion of, you know, cooks and chefs don't make a whole ton of money, so I was going to do other things and trying to get a degree and stuff like that, but you know, I always ended up coming back in the kitchen, and it just you know, it takes a special person to work in restaurants because
of the and how unsociable it is. But the people that do do it, the people that do do it, you just love it. And it's it's it's just who I am. You know.
It's a very special feeling preparing food for people and then sharing it and seeing the looks on their faces, and it's just it's a very joyful experience, very very deep, deeply routed, and it's a one I cook for my family as often as I can because I just it really relaxes me. I love preparing food for them when I'm home. It's just my favorite part of the day. You know, five o'clock hits and I start prepping and I just really really enjoy it. And I do not
want any help. By the way, Are you are you?
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You particular about that too? When you're in your kitchen and you're preparing, you know some some special dishes do you you have to have and it's all about timing and and and and coordination, and you know exactly the moves you're gonna make when they need to be made. It's all very complex, and so do you have an assistant with you. And if there are other people there that don't really know the drill, do you kick them out of the kitchen you can clear it out.
I think. I think back in the day when I was working in Mission Star restaurants, I was a little bit different than I am now. One of the really nice things about working in social media is that it has afforded me the opportunity to essentially I cook for those that I love and I put it online and that's and that's what I do, which is I mean, it's the best job in the world. I mean cooking.
Like you said, cook cooking is an act of love, you know, we we do it for the people that we love, and I'm happy that I now get to do that as my full time job is just to cook the people that I do love. I think back working in Mission Star restaurants, you know that I was. It's a lot more intense. It's a lot more you know, you have a goal, you have a set timing and things like that. Now have dinner partodies and you know, you know things when things come out, they come out.
And at the end of the day, it's more about the experience and the fun. My my mother does does Christmas dinner every year and invites tons of people over, and she she every ten minutes she has something. She she plans out two days worth a prep and and
timing and things. And I will always say like, I'll come and help you, and then I end up showing up and the whole time plan goes out and we're too busy talking with people and having a martini and a chicken or whatever's in the oven, and we're forgetting about it. But it's it's it's it's more fun when when when you treat it like that. And I think that I think that's one of those things a lot of people are afraid of when they're learning to cook,
is that it can be intimidating. But as long as you're doing it for fun and as a as a passion rather than a career, it's it's worth just trying to trying to make the most of it and enjoy it as much as possible.
Mm hmmm, Yeah, I'm gonna we're planning on going to Europe and doing some some cooking glasses in traveling throughout France and Italy.
Cooking awesome. Yeah, that's awesome.
I'm really looking forward to it. Since you moved to the United States from London in your teens, did this influence your recipes and you're cooking overall?
Definitely, you know, so I moved to North Carolina when I first moved here at fourteen, which was in the middle of North Carolina. From London. Is definitely a slight change.
It's a little you know, it's a a throttle down on the gear shift. It's a little slower, yeah, laid back, yeah yeah.
Through that, I definitely gained a huge love for Southern food. I think that Southern food is just some of the best food in the world because it's that same thing. It's not about harsh deadlines and timing. It's about love and it's about enjoyment, and that's what food really is
rooted in. It's funny you say that you going to go do the cooking classes in Italy and France, And that's one of the other really exciting and cool things about food is you can learn so much about someone's culture by what they put on the plate, right, And it's the same thing with Southern food, like you can really feel that like Southern hospitality coming through in the food and Mexican food is one of my absolute favorite foods in the world. My wife was born in Mexico.
Being able to learn about Mexican culture and history through their foods, I think is just fascinating because food is an act of love. It really people put so much of themselves into it and you can feel that, and that's what makes it really cool.
Yeah, you have made a delicious looking dessert called a Victoria sponge and it looks, yeah, a little bit different from your traditional strawberry shirt cake. Tell us what makes it different?
So Victoria's sponge is a classic English strawberry dessert. You know, It's a slightly more dense cake, whereas a strawberry shortcake is more of a biscuit base. Victoria Sponge is just a very classic English strawberry caked dessert. I would say that Victoria Sponge is the English equivalent. Not in terms of the flavor profile, yes, but not in terms of like construction, but in terms of American like Americana strawberry shortcake is the thing Victoria sponge is like. The English
dessert that features strawberries. Shortcake is an interesting one. Shortcake is actually rooted in English food as well. The base of it is scones. In England, we have scones or scones with clotted cream, which is a heavy cream that's basically been cooked overnight at a low temperature. It really thickens up. It's like a almost like mask, a pone. She spread that on like a nice fresh sco with strawberries. It's essentially what then became a strawberry shortcake, because shortcake
isn't really cake in general. It is more of a biscuit. When when you're referring to something as short in cooking, it implies something that's been like crisped up or as crunch heath because of the use of a lot of fat. So you have like short bread, short cake, short crossed pastry. They all include a very high percentage of either butter or traditionally lard. So yeah, short shortcake is it's more of a biscuit that then becomes crispy on the outside
because of the amount of butter in it. But no, the Victoria sponge was just an example. It's it's kind of you know, it's it's as English as it get when it comes to strawberry deserts.
Any other fruit you could pair the shortcake with that you've.
Peaches. Peaches go, I mean, peaches go great. It's it's I think if you think of anything that you would have have a biscuit with a breakfast and then just add cream to it and it's going to be delicious. You know, Like spiced apples this time of year would be fantastic. The blueberries again is great. It's seasonality, when things are in season that they will always they will
always taste good. The other thing a lot of people don't realize is that when you buy seasonal like produce and vegetables and fruit, it's actually cheaper because it's in such abundance. So cooking seasonally, not only are you getting the best tasting products, you're actually saving money. Yeah. I you know. Another great one would be rhubob in the spring doing doing rubarb on on on shortcake would be
would be delicious. That kind of contrast of super sound super sweet would be would be really delicious.
Right, do you prefer using biscuits, sponge cake, or any other different type of base for your shortcake?
If I'm doing doing shortcake, I like to do that like the real traditional make it make it very much like a biscuit, like it's a it's a very home style dessert, you know, it's it's comforting, it's supposed to be something that's that's very familiar. I think that if you do want to, if you want to switch it, switch it up, I would do that through a use of a different fruit as opposed to changing the actual structural because then at that point it would become almost an entirely different dish.
And And do you have your own spin on a traditional strawberry shortcake or I do?
Actually? Funny enough, I was. I've been meaning to cook that and film that and put it on my social media for a while, so I'll have to. I'll have to get to that fairly soon. I did. I did, actually did a really great strawberry jam a few months ago, and I used a ton of like whole vanilla beans in the strawberry jams. It like a strawberry vanilla jam, and it was just absolutely delicious. And I think that that that inside of the shortcake would be be really excellent.
M might seem like an obvious answer here, but I'm going to ask it anyway. Why victorious sponge.
Yeah, it's it's it's you know, it's it's part of who I am. You know, it's my English heritage. I think that as as I as I get older and further in my my cooking career. You know, I've moved here as a as a teenager, so I wasn't really as inundated in what English cooking and English food it was and is at the time. And now that I've been here for so long, I'm kind of trying to really pull that part of my heritage back and really focus on what is English food? I think what is
English food? It is one of those things a lot of people might be hearing and thinking, yeah, not that great. We don't have the greatest track record for the most interesting food in the world. But English food now is very much rooted in seasonality. It's rooted in like the whole farm the table concept. Being such a small country, you know, the ability to get beautiful produce across the entire country all the time is always a thing. So yeah, it's just heritage.
Basically, as we see in your work in your TikTok videos, presentation is so key to it. Any special ways to plate strawberry shortcake to give it that high end restaurant feel.
Yeah, I'm a really big fan of what I call grandma plates. You know, the kind of china that you would have seen in your grandma's house that at one point you thought was like the most gaudy thing in the world. I think that almost is coming back in style to an extent. I think when you do something, if you do something traditional but make it like very clean and simplified, and then put it on something like grandma plate, I think it actually really elevates. It looks interesting.
I do a lot of my content I do on some vintage go Oran Bosh plate where that I think really really elevates the food and it it kind of adds. It adds a layer of interest without detracting from the dish that's actually on the plate.
Mm hmmmm. And what do you what kind of beverage are you pairing? Strawberry shortcake?
Give me your top, Okay, madeira, a glass of madeira, a glass of port, or a glass of sort ton some some sort of like sweet. I mean, some people might think it's too sweet, but I have I have an insation for sweet tooth. So you give me, give me some sort of fortified sweet wine. And I'm I'm I'm a I'm a happy boy with with the shortcake.
You have an amazing TikTok page really really is. It's filled with resumes. Everybody should go watch a master and his realm. What have been some of your favorite sweet and savory dishes to make.
It's funny. It goes back to heritage things again. I'm really enjoying doing things like shepherd's pie and cottage pie and kind of there are things that people everyone knows everyone, it's familiar to everyone, but then to kind of scale it up a notch and add that kind of fine dining flare, even things as simple as enriching the potato on top with egg yolks and then using a piping tip and broiling it so you get this beautiful pattern
on top. As for desserts, there's actually another English English strawberry dessert that is one of my favorites. It's called eaten Mess and it's it's meringues crushed up with heavy cream, whipped cream and strawberries, and it's just it's it's light but flavorful, and it's it's perfect for the warm weather, which thankfully, being in Florida, we're still having. But I know, I know not everyone is getting right now, but no
eaten mess is another great one. I did a full English breakfast one time, and that was one of my favorite things. I posted. It just it's it's it's homey things that I don't get to see as much in this country, so I'm happy to have a chance to kind of bring them more to the to the American audience.
Mm hmm. Are you making dinner every night in the house?
Surprisingly not? Actually, yeah, you.
Do it all day and then you need a break.
Yeah. I try and post seven days a week, so I need to shoot at least seven seven different dishes a week. I typically will cook all day long for three days. I'll do a breakfast at lunch and a dinner. So those three days we eat like we eat like kings and then and then four days a week, it's just like live off whatever scraps we can find a little left over, right right? Yeah? No, I mean I try and cook when I can, But yeah, it's surprisingly your social media is a I mean it's more than
a four time job. I'm doing easily forty plus hours a week just in cooking and filming and then editing and all the other stuff that goes into it. Way, yes, I thought that I thought that doing social media would would afford me a bit more free time than working in restaurants, and it's actually turned out to be about the same.
So yes, it's it's quite a job for sure. What's if you were to come into Luke's Diner, okay as a character on the show, what would you order and where would you sit? Would you sit at the counter? Would you sit at the table? Come up to the counter. What are you asking me to you? What are you shouting at me over the din?
That's a tough one. Anything anything breakfast. I'm just I'm an absolute sucker for anything breakfast. Yeah, to be honest, you give me a massive plate like the full on American breakfast, scrambled eggs, bacon, was friends toast any of that, I'm very happy.
That's pretty good stuff. Thank you for coming on everybody. Alex Trim an amazing chef. Check check him out at chef Alex Trim, great chef. And there's nothing better than beautifully prepared food to make your day, to improve your day, to make you happy, and all so made with love. Thank you so much for sharing some of your time with us, Alex. We know you're busy and uh now you're going to get back to it, aren't you.
Of course, that's it. Thank you so much. I really appreciate you having me on.
All Right, Alex all the best, all Right talks and thanks. Take care by hey everybody, and don't forget Follow us on Instagram at I Am all In Podcast and email us at Gilmore at iHeartRadio dot com