(dramatic music) - If you think of our world or our universe as something that's always deterministic, you're wrong.

On the subatomic level, there is always an inherent uncertainty in everything that happens, and that leads to the many worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics.

What that means very simply is that things might happen exactly the way we perceive them or they might have happened in a different way that you can't perceive.

At every given moment in time, events split off, timelines are created, perhaps an infinite number.

That means that one person's experience might actually not just be limited to their birth, their life, and their death, but there might be many different lives.

(upbeat music) You could wind up being just one of an infinite number of yous.

(upbeat music) If the many worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics is correct, we have to ask ourselves, is anything real?

The answer is yes.

What we experience is real, but it may be no less real or no more real than an infinite number of other realities being experienced right now.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music) Whatever you've decided, there's always another side to the story.

There is another decision you could have made and you'll never know what other yous have done.

All you know is what you've experienced.

(dramatic music) - Up until a few years ago, there was never an idea of what if, past, present, or future.

Had I have settled for whatever success I had like living at home in Oklahoma, I wouldn't be here now and I would be very unhappy not being where I'm at now, 'cause where I'm at now is great.

(dramatic music) I do think about what life would be like now there.

I realize this lifelong dream of going somewhere and doing it.

Imagine like it's just, I was just displaced for 26 years.

I was in this whole nother life.

What would I have done?

(dramatic music) I'm gonna be a chef.

That's easy to say.

That sounds good.

(dramatic music) No, I'm gonna be in a band.

If someone were to be like, what if, what would your life look like?

(dramatic music) Then Abercrombie and Fitch.

(people muttering) (dramatic music) I can't even begin to imagine what that would look like.

I have no idea.

(dramatic music) (light music) (intense music) (silverware clattering) I'm making this pork, we make a sauce with a fish sauce caramel.

Really sweet, savory.

Something I think kids would like.

I could have been in a very similar situation, you know what I mean?

Had I not have been adopted, and I think that cooking has brought me here.

Today, I definitely made sure that the food that I've made would be appealing to kids, hopefully.

I didn't put Sichuan peppercorn on the cucumbers, although I wanted to.

The beef jerky, fried rice, and the pork, the peanuts, the cucumbers are versions of them that are more children-friendly or child-friendly.

I don't know if a 4-year-old really wants to get rocked with a bunch of numbing Sichuan pepper.

So not too fatty, not too salty.

Something that's really nourishing and making it really as beautiful as it can be.

(dramatic music) All the kids come down at once, so I have to have 30-plus plates ready to go when they get here.

So, these are really great.

So this is like kabocha squash that I roasted off and marinated this with miso syrup.

I'm not really that great at making a lot of desserts and I'd like to see what they think.

I'm sure I'll hear what they think.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (dramatic music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (light music) The idea of the Chinese bakery has not really been rethought or expanded upon.

It's a perfect mix of like savory and sweet.

We'll do like mapo tofu inside of a steam bun.

It makes sense, right?

- It totally makes sense.

(upbeat music) - My first like introduction to Tartine was like baked stuff.

I mean the bread is amazing and everyone seems to be talking about the bread.

The thing that I love there is the pastry.

That's why I was like, we gotta do this with Liz.

- I was really nervous, I was thinking about it all night, like just the right way to do it.

- A lot of Chinese pastry is just like lard and flour.

- It's very lame.

- [Danny] It's like eating white bread.

Brioche is butter and egg, right?

Basically?

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- So this is a sort of interesting cross between the two.

Well, a lot of the red bean fillings are pureed, but I like the idea of just that bite.

The sugar is gonna make the outer part of the bean firmer.

- Yeah.

- Technically speaking.

We'll see if it actually works.

- Yeah, it'll be fine, it'll be perfect.

(upbeat music) So, it all is kind of fast.

It's all in the beginning really.

You add the lemon juice.

- Yeah, - The sugar, everything goes in at the beginning.

- The copper conducts the heat super fast.

- It's such a smart idea.

It's ingenious actually, because like you think of like red bean filling, it's always just red bean and sugar.

It's amazing like using the fruit to optimize or enhance what that already is.

(light music) - We're at a perfect point now.

Look at that color.

The color is just so gorgeous.

I'm very happy, very happy right now.

- It looks like cranberry sauce.

(light music) - So this is just young coconut.

Some will get toasty.

We're gonna make a little well, put that in.

Don't try to be too perfect.

It's like when- - It's all gonna bake down.

- The juice bubbles out of a pie.

- Uh-huh.

- It just makes it look so much more enticing.

- Yours are a lot prettier than mine.

- Well, it's a controlled mess.

(alarm ringing) - It's weird how I've never really seen like squid swimming.

(light music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) You've been working here 16 years, before that your dad was doing this, before that his dad was doing it.

So, there's a lot of tradition, but it feels very personal.

Like it's like like your house, you know what I mean?

But, is that how you feel about what you're doing here?

(Eddie speaking Korean) (light music) (Eddie speaking Korean) - I came into this today and I was like, you know, there definitely was some rookie mistakes that you're not supposed to make, but it's good.

There's a very huge sense of accomplishment.

- Oh, thank you.

- Oh, no problem.

(light music) I think the exciting thing that excites me about Eddie's food is that it is very, it's very personal.

It's not just steeped only in tradition.

It's a lot of stuff that he's like making off the cuff.

(Eddie speaking Korean) You know, he's definitely like running the family of business.

He wants to like make sure that he lives up to the standard that his parents have set, but he also is like having fun.

(Eddie speaking Korean) Inside, oh wow.

- Inside, surprise, surprise.

- Wow, surprise.

- Yeah.

- That's what's inspiring about this.

(light music) (music humming) (classical music) People know these wings.

(classical music) I wanted to kind of- (dish dropping) Sorry.

I wanted to kind of...

I wanted to kind of mimic that crackling buttermilk skin and I was like, well I think beef tripe.

I'm gonna fry the chicken wings.

(oil sizzling) So, the wings are done now.

You don't wanna drain all the oil off these because the oil is really gonna be what helps make the chili powder stick.

(light music) (bowl slamming) (bowl rattling) (light music) (dramatic music) They started adding a little bit of lime to this too, just because you taste more of the sweet spices over the sour.

We add the chilies as a garnish.

That's the most OG dish that we have.

I always tell people the best part of like these little pieces here, like like the tripe.

(dramatic music) (intense music) (Danny chewing) It's like really hot, hot, hot, hot, hot, hot, hot, hot, hot, hot, hot, hot, hot, hot, hot, hot.

(Danny collapsing) (upbeat music) (audience clapping) (radio static) - [Woman] This place, it's like you walk through that door and you enter a time warp, hours pass, the clock doesn't move.

- [Radio] Good morning, all.

♪ Seven and ♪ - Thank you, going up.

- Bridger.

♪ Gotta keep on ♪ (radio static) - San Francisco.

- Very impressive.

- Music to my ears.

(upbeat music) - There's an element of food for me that was always like escapism.

I remember as a kid in Oklahoma, I would get really bored and I would just like go to the grocery store.

Vividly I remember getting like frozen peas and corn.

It's really fun like finding stuff.

This grocery store is gonna have that.

This one's gonna have that.

It's kind of like meditating for me.

I'm in my own like environment.

(upbeat music) Rainbow Grocery is completely vegetarian.

Some of the most beautiful produce you'll see in California, I would get that in like a kombucha and then walk to work and feel a lot better about myself.

There's like so many things that I just have no idea what they are, which is like always a good thing.

It's always good to like kind of be overwhelmed with newness.

(upbeat music) I've also just come here and only come here and gone to the bulk section then left 'cause it was just like, I spent so much time.

It's kinda like going to Amoeba in a way.

Your favorite record store.

This is my favorite grocery store.

It's like picking out music.

You're finding something that appeals to you and for me that that's how it is.

To kind of push myself out of my creative comfort zone.

(upbeat music) I mean, my main objective now is like to figure out a way to get this on the menu.

I mean, I don't really know how easy it is to sell.

You know all those documentaries of like "Jiro Dreams of Sushi" and all these chefs that have been like working their whole lives just doing this.

I have a lot of respect for that.

I'd love to tell you the reason I started working at sushi bars is 'cause I love sushi, but it was really because I really despised these line cooks I worked with and I would just get tortured for my poor line cooking skills.

(upbeat music) That was one of the things I knew if I could break fish down properly and proficiently and quickly I could walk into most kitchens.

Cutting fish is all about like listening for certain sounds and feelings.

You wanna stay as close to the bones as you can.

So, you hear this noise like this, like rippling kind of.

You feel it on your knife and that means you're right on the bone.

At like 8:00 in the morning in a restaurant that's empty and you can really just connect to this and feel it and hear it and get really good at it.

We always would just deep fry the bones.

I love sending these out as a garnish.

You just wanna season this pretty aggressively.

This is gonna get rinsed off when you drop in the vinegar.

You always would put your mackerel like this with the tail hanging off because if you put it the other way, like this, all of the cure runs down the fish, all the salt runs down and this piece down here gets too salty and over cured.

You know, every day before lunch at the sushi bar, if I was responsible for making Saba, I would have this all ready to go, grab my lunch really quickly, have it sitting out on the sushi bar, like curing in the sink, and then eat my food really fast and then go back and finish this.

This one's been about 30 minutes or so.

Whole skin, it's like a lot shinier.

The salt is kind of melted into the skin.

If the pin bones are sticking out, then the fish is pretty much ready to go.

(upbeat music) Cutting it thicker than I would usually cut sashimi just 'cause I want it to be pretty mediate and it's really the main component of this dish is just this like hot rice with this cured seafood.

So, I like it to be a little bit more of a bite.

Alright, that's good.

So, the idea with this is that we would just get a few of these leaves, a little bit of barley rice.

Ideally it's warm, I mean I like the idea of hot and cold a lot.

I love that contrast of hot and cold.

And then I wanna do a fresh shiso leaf here, a little bit of umeboshi paste.

I love the fact that this looks like nothing and it's gonna be extremely, extremely flavorful.

Oh, and then let's not forget about the bones, right?

And then while this is hot, I'm gonna just give it like a little salt and pepper.

You'd be amazed how much you learn about yourself just sitting and doing something in complete silence for a few hours every day and you're like breaking down fish in a hot restaurant in the morning and you're kind of like, man, what will it be like someday to like have a girlfriend or have a kid, or get married, you know?

(light music) (film clicking) ♪ Long ago I dreamed ♪ ♪ Would you walk a mile ♪ ♪ That your love will stay ♪ ♪ You must improvise ♪ ♪ On a honeymoon ♪ ♪ Let the silver shine ♪ ♪ Up and down the ♪ (alarm buzzing) (whimsical music) - It's fun to watch you cook here.

It's just like so much moving around.

What are you thinking about?

(Eddie speaking Korean) - Girlfriend.

(both laughing) (Eddie speaking Korean) - Oh my gosh.

(light music) - Ooh - Wow.

Oh my gosh.

(Eddie speaking Korean) Oh man, it smells so good.

You can kind of smell the shrimp.

It's amazing.

So this is very popular here?

Is this on the menu all the time or no, this changes?

(Eddie speaking Korean) (man speaking Korean) (man speaking Korean continues) (man speaking Korean continues) - It's really interesting to see that like passed on.

It's a very difficult trade.

It's a very tough profession.

To think about that food can be that powerful, that like a restaurant, a business, a family business can still bring so much joy to other people's lives.

(light music) It's a very exciting time to be a cook and a chef.

(knife chopping) So, is this something that your dad makes really well?

(Eddie speaking Korean) (stew sizzling) (light music) - So what is this called in Korean?

What is the name for this?

(Eddie speaking Korean) - Oh, I see.

- Yeah.

(Eddie speaking Korean) (light music) (Eddie speaking Korean) - There's a lot that you can get from just watching and also asking too.

(Eddie speaking Korean) (knife chopping) It's weird how like, like yeah, seafood's my favorite thing to eat and something I've dedicated a lot of time and energy to like learning about.

As far as having one specific teacher or mentor, I don't have that.

- Are you feeling salty?

- [Danny] Oh, it's so good change.

- [Eddie] Try.

- Mm, yeah, now that, oh wow.

Pretty cool.

This guy is mentoring me right now and his dad is.

(bell jingling) Oh, your dad's here.

- [Eddie] Everything's done, almost done.

(Eddie speaking Korean) (light music) (Eddie speaking Korean) Thank you.

(light music) - [Eddie] Yeah, it's done.

- [Danny] Maybe your dad should taste it.

(Eddie speaking Korean) (light music) (light music continues) (dad speaking Korean) - Ah.

- Ah, that's good.

Phew.

- Oh.

- My gosh, I'm so nervous.

(all laughing) - [Eddie] Thank you, poppy.

- So, where, is this for New York or San Francisco or where is this for?

- Wherever it makes the most sense.

You know, I'm gonna convince you to help me open Mission Chinese Bakery.

Plenty to talk about.

(Liz laughing) - [Liz] Everybody expects creativity from you and I love that marriage of classic with a creative take on something.

- At this point, I just always wanna keep pushing myself.

(light music) Am I happy now that I've arrived here?

The Mission Chinese experience, at this point, it's just doing what I wanna do.

This is too good to be true.

In my life when things seem too good to be true, usually they are.

What was Mission Chinese?

What is Mission Chinese?

What does it mean?

(intense music) Oh my God, nailed it.

- Love it when that happens.

- Thank you, cheers.

- Cheers.

(upbeat music) - I think you can connect with a lot of people through food and even finding yourself through food.

I always knew that like that that was my thing.

It was like what kind of brought people together.

It gave me that familial feeling.

(upbeat music) It's funny, it's like four and a half hours of prep for four minutes of eating.

(upbeat music) Literally.

my job is to make people happy.

Hopefully people like the food that I make.

(upbeat music) Wanting to be accepted has led me to this part of my life.

Which is in the food industry, it's really crazy as like an adult now to know that there's a reason why you do things.

So happy you guys are here.

It's all coming full circle.

You know, being here and understanding that these decisions I made earlier in life, no matter what, this is my destiny.

(upbeat music) (logo rattling)