Kevin O'Leary's Last Meal Would Be Luxurious And Very French - Exclusive
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"Shark Tank" judge and wildly successful businessman Kevin O'Leary has wide-ranging taste in food, in part because of his globe-trotting childhood — though born in Canada, O'Leary lived in Cambodia for a time, and he's of half-Irish, half-Lebanese descent. The self-proclaimed "Chef Wonderful" picked up cooking ideas from all of these influences, and he enjoys spending his time at home working in the kitchen. His love of food is also evident in the projects he likes to invest in on "Shark Tank," like Bertello pizza ovens and the Turbo Trusser.
In an exclusive interview with Tasting Table, O'Leary discussed what he'd like to eat for his last meal. Unsurprisingly, he said he'd want to eat his own cooking: "It'd be my greatest dishes. My escargot is the best in the world. Nobody can beat me on that. I start with that. I would make a filet mignon, steak au poivre with my sauce using a Burgundian base." He noted that the meat would be accompanied by fairly plain sides — steamed carrots, broccolini, and white rice — and all of that would set up the final pièce de résistance: crepes flambéed with Grand Marnier and orange zest.
While the menu undoubtedly leans French, O'Leary told us, "I learned those dishes in Cambodia." Since Cambodia had been a French colony, he learned a variation of French-style cooking while he lived there.
Mr. Wonderful puts his own spin on the recipes for his last meal
There's a reason Kevin O'Leary would want to eat his own food for his last meal: He has very specific ideas about how to prepare these dishes, and he thinks other cooks often do them wrong. Take escargot, for example — he insisted to us that they must be made with snails raised in France and served in their own shells, not on a ceramic escargot dish. He's particular about seasoning, too. "Everybody puts way too much garlic in their escargot. Even classic restaurants here in New York use way too much garlic," he said. "You don't need that much, because you kill the flavor and the texture of the snail." When he cooks escargot, he flavors it with butter, parsley, and a small amount of garlic (sometimes mixed with minced shallots).
He practices the same restraint with his crepes flambé. He doesn't use too much of any of the toppings and insists that the crepes must be incredibly thin, producing a delicate, light dessert. "It's a very small portion. So many people eat two or three of them, but my crepes are super thin," he said. O'Leary is confident that he can beat anybody else's attempts at escargot and crepes flambé, so why wouldn't he choose to cook for himself on his final day on Earth?
You can find the Turbo Trusser and Bertello on Amazon. New episodes of "Shark Tank" air Fridays at 8 p.m. ET (7 p.m. CT) on ABC.