>> ANTHONY BOURDAIN: In 1996, at the age of 25, speaking barely a word of English, a fiery and brilliant French chef stepped off a flight from Paris and into the giant sprawl that is Los Angeles.

Ludo Lefebvre had spent the previous 11 years completely consumed by the rigors of the most demanding kitchens of France.

In L.A., a door opened, and Ludo waded into a sea of new flavors, cultures, and sensations.

Out of this, one particular passion emerged and rose above others: fried chicken.

Enter: the Mind of a Chef.

Cooking's not just a recipe, it's instinct.

No need to use caviar; fried chicken is cool, too.

Mama will be proud of me.

♪ ♪ (sniffs) >> LEFEBVRE: I'm born in Burgundy, 1971.

I was a bad kid, lost, and do all the time stupid things.

I was 14, my dad had enough one day and said, "You don't want to learn, so you have three choices: "you can be a hairdresser, you can be a mechanic, or you can be a cook."

You know what, I'm going to be a cook.

♪ ♪ My life was very simple in France.

It was just cooking, cooking, cooking, cooking, cooking.

No stop, no break.

So I decided to come to Los Angeles.

I always want to come here.

I take my suitcase, $200 cash, and that's it.

And I don't regret anything.

When I move here, I discover all these ingredients.

It was like freedom.

I didn't know anything about the Asian culture.

Never eat a wonton, ramen soup, or noodles, all these things.

Korean food, same thing.

You know, I love kimchi.

Mexican food, I never have a taco before in my life.

And then I discovered fried chicken.

It was an explosion of flavor for me.

>> Would you like mashed potatoes?

>> You bet.

>> Would you like to go large for $1.50?

What kind of side would you like?

>> LEFEBVRE: Pretty amazing.

That's all about what's supposed to be a chicken: moist and crispy.

I still remember my first fried chicken 20 years ago.

It was a night on Sunset Boulevard.

And trust me, at that time, I was eating just fast food.

I was just, you know, a little sad about home and be away from my country, and you know, I did chicken.

Wow, it's like when you have your first time sex.

If you really have good sex, you don't forget about that, guys, you know.

The skin crackling in your mouth, I think it's romantic that, you know.

Same thing.

People they're happy, look at this.

(indistinct chatter) Fried chicken and roasted chicken, it's the same deal: crispy skin, and it needs to be moist, and that's not easy to do that.

That's so technical.

Here we have a poulet de Bresse, it's a very specific chicken.

The feather is white, the comb is red, and the feet are blue.

That's the French flag color.

Poulet de Bresse we don't find in America.

That's sad.

Please, next president, do something about that.

Doing a roasted chicken, really the memory of my grandma.

I like to stay classic, like Grandma.

Well, in France, butter, so voilà.

It's going to steam inside, give some flavor to the breast.

Take a string, and cross like this.

(inhales sharply): There we go.

This position, it's so proud.

I learned to tie the chicken like this when I was working with my mentor, Mr. Passard.

I worked with him for three years, I was 19 years old, a little punk.

Voilà.

I'm going to start to cook the chicken at a very, very, very high temperature to make the skin crispy first.

And after, I'm going to lower the temperature to cook the meat.

(bubbling, sizzling) Never, never leave alone the chicken in the oven.

Don't go somewhere else, watch TV.

No, you stay with your bird.

(sizzling) I never use a timer, never.

I know when the chicken is ready.

We can hear I know the butter is singing now, the chicken calling me now.

(sizzling loudly) Oh, it smells so good.

Rest the chicken five to ten minutes.

Here is all my flavor.

I'm going to make a very, very classic jus.

It just smells so good, you know?

All the butter flavor, all the fat.

I feel like I'm back in Grandma's kitchen.

So that here, that is the oyster of the chicken.

Only a fool leaves it, that's what we say in France.

I put one here, people can fight for this one, and I get this one for me.

So excited now.

I still remember this flavor of the chicken roasting in the oven.

It's really the smell of my childhood; simple, but this flavor, I will never forget about that.

You need to eat that before you die.

I'm not this kind of chef just want to cook for my ego and just have three-star Michelin restaurants.

I don't want to do that.

So I decided to do fried chicken, fast food for everybody.

LudoBird, it's a fried chicken restaurant in Staples Center.

I was the first chef to be in the stadium.

It's fried chicken, but guess what, if you do the perfect fried chicken, you can give joy to people.

I take that very, very, very seriously.

It's a different approach how to cook for 20,000 people.

But I care the same way I care to cook for 50 people.

It's so difficult to do fresh chicken for volume.

No way I want frozen food, and no way I want the chicken to be cooked an hour before and stay in the hot box for an hour.

No, we need to find a system how to have this chicken fresh.

The chicken is brined overnight, then flour and spice.

The buttermilk with a mix of herbes de Provence.

You want the chicken to be very flaky, so the key just take a little bit of buttermilk and put in the flour.

See?

It will create lumps like this.

It took us a long process to figure out how to do that.

Now really press the flour in the chicken.

That's what's going to make your chicken very, very crispy and very light, too.

(sizzling) Golden brown, crispy, and not greasy.

Seasoning everywhere: salt, herbes de Provence.

Coleslaw, decide to use my French roots to use a vinaigrette.

Boom, that's it, you know.

Be gentle, and it smells so good, look at this.

I love it.

Brioche bun, toasted.

I put my secret Thousand Island sauce, special Ludo sauce.

Two pieces of chicken, then after, we put our slaw.

Okay, so we give some volume to the sandwich.

Some pickles.

Before I move in this country I love cornichons, those little French pickles.

But when I move here, I mean American people are good with pickles, man, amazing.

Five pieces, not four, five.

And then after our bun here.

Voilà.

That's a fried chicken sandwich.

A painter is alone in front of this canvas.

He's going to get the perfect color, the perfect texture.

It's just this hand on the canvas, just him.

So it's pretty consistent.

But in my restaurant, sometimes you have 20 hands touching your food.

It's not just me.

I'm very proud of my sandwich.

I think I executed something good.

But it's very difficult to be consistent.

Some people never work in a restaurant, and I need to teach them A to Z.

But that's my job.

As a chef, my first job is to teach people how to cook.

Chicken brined, perfect.

I'm going to show you how to bread the chicken, okay?

You know the trick?

>> Yes.

>> LEFEBVRE: Then you shake, you see?

>> Oh, yes, beautiful.

>> LEFEBVRE: That's what makes the crust.

It's hard to find good people to work in the fast food restaurant, you know.

The difference between a chef who is passionate and wants to learn, and some chef who's just paying the bills.

Press it, voilà, turn it.

Imagine you're giving it a massage, perfect.

That's good.

See?

You know?

>> I know now, I'm going to start frying my chicken like this.

>> LEFEBVRE: I'm not American, but I know.

I know, guys, you know.

(sizzling) Season your chicken, and then put them in the box over there.

The mistake I see the most with my cooks: they don't know how to season the food.

They think it's just... Ah, ah, ah!

Like this.

Take your time, okay?

The movement of the hand is very particular.

Just like that, okay?

>> Yes.

>> LEFEBVRE: You need to taste the food, guys, okay?

Cooking is not just about recipe, huh?

It's about tasting.

I want to see you taste, okay, guys?

Okay, let's go.

I want to teach people to fall in love with cooking, to be proud of what they're doing.

I just want people to care.

I know we're in a fast food restaurant, but food is food.

Beautiful, guys, good job.

>> We're making "fast food."

But it's not just a hot dog, no.

There's something really exciting to me about it because no one thinks that a French chef is going to be making hot dogs.

And I'm having fun with it, so... >> LEFEBVRE: Josiah Citrin is a friend of mine.

He's a chef in L.A.

He has a restaurant called Melisse.

His restaurant is known all around the world.

And also have a hot dog concept in Staples.

Josiah trained in France, too, and I just love the way he thinks about food.

I love the way he cooks.

>> Right now we're doing like four or six hot dogs, and later we'll be doing 354 will go.

>> LEFEBVRE: You get in the weeds sometimes, yeah?

>> Oh yeah, it gets in the weeds.

Especially building them gets really messy.

We really want to toast the bun, have a really beautiful golden flavor.

And I try to get it that they don't get too far ahead of themselves.

This sits here ten minutes, and it's not the same hot dog bun anymore.

It's dried out on top, and when you bite into it, it's greasy.

>> LEFEBVRE: What's inside the hot dog?

>> This is an all-beef hot dog.

The guests can do whatever they want with it, but here we don't believe in ketchup.

Right amount of relish, you know, we don't want to have a ton of it.

We really want the taste of that bun, the hot dog, and these condiments all together to make that perfect bite.

This is our Dave's classic dog.

The next one is the Calornia dog.

We have some chili here.

We don't want it to be too loose or too thick.

It shouldn't clump because we don't want to eat it and it just falls out on your shoes.

The third hot dog we'll do now is a mac and cheese dog.

And I'm not going to sugar-coat it, this is made with frozen macaroni and cheese.

I mixed it with fresh parmesan and fresh cheddar.

All these recipes can be made without me around, and it's going to be good, it's going to be the same thing every time.

Crispy bacon bits.

And the last one: mustard and sauerkraut, right?

Choucroute.

>> LEFEBVRE: Really good, bro.

>> Very good, they're really good.

It gets messy, and we get busy here.

>> LEFEBVRE: Yeah, execution, too, fast, huh?

>> Yeah, it's fast, it's got to go fast.

I'd be fired going this slow today.

Go, Kings, go.

>> LEFEBVRE: Go, Kings, go.

It's not easy to cook good food for the masses.

They think it's a hot dog, but it's good ingredients, good technique, and it's fresh.

>> It has to be right.

It's not just okay just to do it halfway.

We're selling to 20,000, 22,000 people.

>> LEFEBVRE: It's a big restaurant.

>> And we're entrusting other people to do our stuff.

>> LEFEBVRE: That's why it's a more difficult thing, you're right.

>> I remember your first year of sending back the chicken, it's not right in the beginning.

>> LEFEBVRE: Oh my God, yeah.

>> It's like okay, you've got a line of 150 people that need to get to their seats, and you're like, "I don't care, I want the chicken right."

It's a challenge.

We're also giving opportunity for people to enjoy simple things, done better.

Freedom is great, but the responsibility is big, and I think that's why not everybody owns their own restaurant.

>> LEFEBVRE: Some chefs open a restaurant, they have the money, but they don't pay attention about these little details.

>> Yeah, and some are amazing cooks, and delicious food.

>> LEFEBVRE: Yeah, but they're not businessmen.

>> No, it's a business.

>> LEFEBVRE: It's a business.

To be successful in life as a chef, you know, it's not just to have your face in the newspaper.

I think it's to make sure you make money.

And you know, I have two kids, I need to pay for school, life is expensive.

Doing a business like LudoBird and to make money.

>> It's a concept.

You could put this everywhere.

It's like McDonald's.

It started out as actually somebody trying to open a good burger shop.

That was the reality of what it was.

Hopefully one day a big company comes and goes, "You know what, I want to buy you," and then it's all done.

>> Chef, right here.

>> LEFEBVRE: Before I was in Los Angeles, I was always working in the fancy restaurants, but I did not become famous for my terrine de foie gras.

No, I become famous for my fried chicken.

Jonathan Gold is really the number one critic in L.A., and maybe the number one critic in California.

Every chef knows Jonathan Gold.

So one night, it was 10:30 at LudoBites.

My wife Krissy was working with me on the floor.

Jonathan Gold came to the restaurant with three guests, but the kitchen was closed.

Krissy realized our waiter sent away Jonathan Gold, so she ran to him and said, "Come, come, come, we'll take you."

I was in the kitchen.

Oh, God, I don't have that much food left.

But I was testing a recipe we never tried before.

I decided to fry chicken legs in duck fat.

And Jonathan Gold loved it.

The review came out, Jonathan Gold said it was amazing.

That was the story of my fried chicken with the duck fat.

(squawks) I use it all the time, duck fat, I love it.

The recipe I did was to adapt the French technique of the duck confit with the American technique and culture.

>> So do you still fry it at a fairly low temperature?

>> LEFEBVRE: Fried chicken you can, you know, 360, 370, but this one is not more than 320.

It's pretty low for frying.

As you know, the more you fry low, the more your chicken is going to be greasy.

>> Yeah.

>> LEFEBVRE: But I want it a little bit greasy.

What's your favorite fried chicken, Jon?

You have a style you like?

>> The exciting stuff is the Asian fried chicken now.

I love Indonesian fried chicken.

They steam it before they fry it.

>> LEFEBVRE: Ah, they steam it.

>> In order to render the fat and get the skin perfectly crisp.

I should make my fried chicken for you sometime.

>> LEFEBVRE: Chopped garlic.

Ginger, I love ginger.

>> A lot of French people don't like ginger at all.

>> LEFEBVRE: Yeah, my mama, she hates ginger.

Soy sauce, sesame oil.

Nothing very fancy, no.

>> The best fried chicken, there's technique to it, but it's plain.

It should have the flavor of the chicken overall, and the flavor of the fat that's been used for it.

The marinades are nice, but they're just basically to break down the flesh a little bit.

Oh, just cornstarch?

>> LEFEBVRE: Yeah, that's it.

A lot of restaurants have a fried chicken sandwich now.

A lot of people.

>> The fried chicken sandwich is becoming big.

In the 1930s in Los Angeles, big fried chicken restaurants, everywhere because there were so many people that came from the Midwest.

Some of the chicken restaurants were built to look like Gone With the Wind with the big columns and the big Southern thing.

Which is one of the great things about Los Angeles is that you can be whatever you want to be.

You can build a building and have it look like Versailles, or you can build a building and make it look like a Tudor mansion.

And they can all be next to each other, and they all make sense.

I guess it's that way with fried chicken, too.

It's like definitely coming back now.

(sizzling) >> LEFEBVRE: Well, the chicken is frying now.

I've got a little bit of herbes de Provence.

>> Oh, that's interesting, you flavor the oil instead of flavoring the chicken.

>> LEFEBVRE: That's why I don't want the oil to be too hot, Jonathan, because I don't want to burn it.

>> Why do you decide to deep-fry instead of the pan-fry?

>> LEFEBVRE: For me, it's funny because when I think about pan-fry, for me it's not really fried.

For me, I don't know.

For me, frying is to have a big pot, something like this.

Maybe I'm too French, I don't know.

>> Because it seems too much like a braise?

>> LEFEBVRE: Yeah, something like this.

You really think you can taste the difference, Jonathan?

>> Well, I think that pan-fry is, most of the heat comes from the bottom, you have to turn it more.

>> LEFEBVRE: You're right, uh-huh.

>> But because it's closer to the bottom of the pan, you get like a little bit of that caramelization.

>> LEFEBVRE: Caramelization, yeah, yeah.

You've been to LudoBird yet?

>> I have not.

I need to come.

Do you like the chicken, does it make you happy?

>> LEFEBVRE: Yeah, yeah, I'm happy.

I'm 45 years old, I finally, finally know what I want to cook, and I finally find myself.

When I was a chef, I did a lot of mistakes, Jonathan.

Like I was not tasting enough my food, it was more about cooking for food critic, and I understand more now to focus on the ingredients and make sure it's good.

>> One of the things I was thinking about in terms of your cooking, in order to do something superlative and to do something new, you have to give yourself the freedom to fail every so often.

>> LEFEBVRE: Yeah, you're going to fail sometimes, it's not always going to be good.

To be a chef is really about to please people, and we forgot about that, chefs, sometimes.

>> Yeah, because it's something.

You have something that you made, something that's yours.

>> LEFEBVRE: Yeah, I have a passion for fried chicken.

I really love fried chicken.

My God.

When I come here in '96, I have no idea what to expect.

I'm here for 20 years, and I think finally, you know, I made it.

I don't think I will be successful like this in New York.

I love New York, don't get me wrong, you know, but the restaurants are more fancy, you know.

30 years ago, I would never think I will be in L.A. and open some fried chicken restaurant.

But I changed, you know, just stupid people don't change.

Un, deux, trois.

I don't want to be that chef where you feel like you need to say thank you to be in the restaurant.

I grew up like this, and I grew up to really give them the best, be nice with them, take care of the guests.

It's a great chicken sandwich.

You need to be proud of your food.

Yes, I'm doing fast food.

It's fast, good.

You pay $10 or you pay $100, quality is quality, detail, detail.

Here we go, voilà.

I'm very happy with that, but we see if they can all be like this, today's sandwich, and... (sighs) It's fun for me as a chef, you know.

I just don't want to cook all the time the same style of food.

No need to use caviar to give joy to people.

Fried chicken is cool, too.

(sniffs) ANNOUNCER: For more information on The Mind of a Chef, go to pbs.org/themindofachef.

The Mind of a Chef is available on DVD.

To order, visit shopPBS.org or call 1-800-PLAY-PBS.