NARRATOR: Major funding for "Dook Chase: A Chef's Journey" was provided by the Melvin S. Cohen Foundation Incorporated.

Additional support by Zatarain's, bringing the flavors of New Orleans home for over 125 years.

Zatarain's, born and raised in New Orleans.

From the spice of jambalaya to the flavors of a classic crab boil, it's a taste of New Orleans made at home.

And by Camellia Beans, rooted in New Orleans since 1923.

A family business with a devotion to beans spanning four generations.

Camellia Beans, a taste of home.

DOOK: Today on "A Chef's Journey," we're in Mid-City to visit an Italian sweet shop established over 120 years ago in New Orleans.

Angelo Brocato's Bakery on Carrollton Avenue uses techniques and recipes from Sicily that have been handed down from generation to generation.

So let's go meet Arthur Brocato, the grandson of the founder, to sample some of Italy's traditional treats.

♪ (theme music playing) ♪ DOOK: So we're here in the kitchen with Arthur Brocato at Brocato's.

Tell us a little bit of what's going on here.

ARTHUR: Well, today we're making the Italian fig cookies, the cuccidati, and it's probably one of the most labor-intense products that we make, next to cannoli.

It's a two-day process.

First of all, we have to make the fig mixture, then we have to roll out to make the dough, roll the dough out, roll the figs out, place it on the, on the dough, roll it up, roll it, cut it.

So I shape it.

We make different shapes, so we'll make some different shapes.

DOOK: So looking at these beautiful fig cookies, tell me, the shape, the roll, the significance of that.

ARTHUR: These are the instant individual cuts.

So those are just kind of for everyday eating.

But then we're going to make some different shapes that we do, especially for holidays, Christmas, St.

Joseph's Day, Easter.

DOOK: When you get to St.

Joseph, and I'm thinking of the St.

Joseph altars... ARTHUR: Okay, that's right.

DOOK: And you're getting creative with the display... ARTHUR: Right.

DOOK: ...this is where you start to bring out that, that celebration... ARTHUR: So... DOOK: ...in a different kind of shape.

ARTHUR: That's exactly right.

DOOK: This is beautiful.

ARTHUR: Exactly right.

This is a traditional ring shape.

And then, of course, you have the little canes, like for St.

Joseph, you know, St.

Joseph with his shepherd's staff.

DOOK: And that's the key, is celebrating culture, keeping tradition, so the... ARTHUR: Correct.

DOOK: ...next generation understands why we make these shapes in the first place.

ARTHUR: Right.

DOOK: This is a family environment.

What was that like growing up?

ARTHUR: It was you know, it was very special, really.

And, and when you're, you're really young, you don't realize it because you're just living it.

And you know, we lived in the French Quarter.

The shop was only two and a half blocks away.

When we were kids, we had to work in the shop on the weekends and for a few hours in, in the summer, that was your job.

We grew up with family around us all the time.

So it was really um, special, where the family was close and, and they, you know, they all worked together.

They came to New Orleans originally around 1878, but my grandfather was only about three years old.

And then his dad died of yellow fever epidemic.

DOOK: Okay.

ARTHUR: So, my great-grandmother had no family here, so she took the kids back to Italy.

So when he, he and his brother were about 12 years old, they moved and went to Palermo and worked in the pasticcerias and gelaterias in Palermo, and learned the trade as an apprentice till he was a journeyman, and then a master of that trade.

DOOK: This has been great.

Let's go out in the parlor and taste some of these delicious cookies.

ARTHUR: All right, let's do it.

DOOK: So not only did it smell great in the kitchen... ARTHUR: Thank you.

DOOK: ...but the display here is just beautiful.

What do we have here?

ARTHUR: These two dishes are different biscotti.

Biscotti is biscuit in Italian, the general name for cookies.

DOOK: Mm-hmm.

ARTHUR: It also means twice-baked, which some of the, some of the cookies are twice-baked.

For example, the anise toast and the almond toast.

Same thing with the different assorted biscotti, the different colors.

DOOK: Mm.

ARTHUR: These are the chocolate and vanilla, or a spice, the clove and cinnamon.

Of course, the primary cookie, or the sesame cookie, the biscotti regina, biscuits of the queen.

The old people would take these, especially when they're warm, and dip them in a little glass of wine, a little Marsala.

DOOK: Being twice-baked, it has that texture, that crunch.

Dipping it in a glass of wine, beautiful.

ARTHUR: Right, it's not going to get all soggy.

DOOK: And I have to ask you about these.

ARTHUR: Oh, the cannoli.

Well, cannoli is a Sicilian pastry.

It's a pastry shell which is fried, and then its filling is with ricotta cheese, sweetened ricotta cheese.

In the cheese, we have pieces of chocolate chips and candied fruit.

And our cannoli are probably different than anybody else's, and it's something that my, my grandfather learned when he was in Sicily.

One end is made with the vanilla.

DOOK: Uh-huh.

ARTHUR: ...and the other end is flavored chocolate.

DOOK: Your grandfather knew to make everybody happy, I'm going to give you the best of both.

ARTHUR: Best of both ones.

DOOK: I have to dive in and taste this.

ARTHUR: I got some minis.

Hear they crunch.

DOOK: Mm.

ARTHUR: Sicily was like New Orleans, in the influence of so many peoples.

We had the, the Normans, the Greeks, the Romans, and the North Africans.

All these cultures came together and made a cuisine which is like none other in Italy.

DOOK: Your grandfather was from Cefalu?

ARTHUR: From Cefalu.

DOOK: Okay.

ARTHUR: Cefalu is right on the Tyrrhenian Sea in the northern coast of Sicily.

He came here to, to New Orleans in 1901... DOOK: Okay.

ARTHUR: ...him and his brother, and they worked in the sugarcane plantations in Donaldsonville for a short time.

He accumulated some money to bring his wife and, and son over, and then he and his brother opened a tiny shop in French Quarter.

And they were together for a while, and then... DOOK: Yeah.

ARTHUR: ...each had their own shop after.

DOOK: Okay.

ARTHUR: The location in the French Quarter on Ursuline Street, 615, 617, my grandfather had that place completely tiled.

DOOK: Oh wow.

ARTHUR: Ceramic tile.

And that place represented the type of parlors that they had in Sicily at the time.

We moved from the French Quarter in 1979.

We opened here on North Carrollton Avenue.

We wanted to have that old world feel when you came in here.

You stepped out of today's world, and you were in something special, a special environment.

DOOK: When you walk through these doors, you're transported back into a Sicily parlor.

I feel like I'm in Sicily right now, tasting your culture, tasting your tradition, and then I'm looking outside and realizing I'm on Carrollton Avenue in New Orleans.

DOOK: Well, you have certainly given me a step inside your history and culture.

I love what you're doing here.

Welcome to my kitchen, where inspiration and creation come together in a celebration of culture.

We just left Angelo Brocato's, talking with Arthur Brocato, and I have a sweet tooth, so I'm going to give you one of my favorites.

It's a chocolate mousse with an almond citrus crisp.

We'll start by melting our chocolate chips here.

I have a water bath going, or a bain-marie.

We're going to add those in.

And the reason why you want to do this in a double boiler is to make sure that the chocolate doesn't stick, it doesn't burn, it doesn't start to scorch at the bottom as it touches this heat.

Now, I have a half a stick of dark chocolate, so we'll break it up just about the same size as those chips to help the process.

Now, while that's going, we'll start to give that a little stir around, and you can see it's already starting to melt.

You're on a low heat here.

Now, while that's going, we're going to focus on our eggs.

You have to separate the egg yolks and the egg white.

You go egg white, crack, be careful.

Egg white is the first thing up.

Use a cup full.

Let that come down.

And egg yolk.

You want three egg yolks to five egg whites.

So, this is a part where you really have to be careful, right?

You don't want to get any egg yolk in this white.

Flip it, flip it boom.

Come back to your chocolate, just give it a stir, move it around, help that process go.

Now, so what I have here is a little bit of milk.

Just warming it up.

A dab of sugar.

Just about a fourth of a cup here.

We're going to take our orange and we're going to zest just a little bit in there.

You can start to whisk in your egg yolks.

And then we're just going to add just a little sugar.

Not all of this sugar goes in the egg yolks.

See how it gets thicker as I add the sugar?

That's the consistency that you're looking for.

We'll set this to the side.

Then now we'll start to focus on our egg whites.

Now, the key is you want to start slow, right?

Start slow, let it start to work, and then you pick up a little speed, let it work.

Do not add sugar at this point.

You only add sugar when you start to notice peaks.

The sugar helps stiffen and emphasize the peaks.

They don't help it make peaks.

We can remove this one from the heat and let that cool.

The sugar has dissolved in the milk.

We're taking that off the heat.

So you can see, as air gets into it, it starts to get fluffy.

And just a little sugar.

And just a little sugar.

Nothing too much.

And I want to show you.

This is what they taught me in school.

If you can hold this over your head and it doesn't fall on you, you got a stiff peak.

So we'll set this to the side.

Then we're going to add the milk to our chocolate, just slowly coming in.

We're just incorporating, and you'll see how it comes together as you mix it, right?

That's what you're looking for as we mix this together.

So, we'll just temper a little bit here.

I always like to bring in just a little on my spoon and work it here, knowing that I'm eventually coming from here to here, and then we start to work it in.

And when you're working mousse, you're going to learn the technique of just folding everything in.

Now this is ready for our egg whites.

We're not adding all of it at once.

We're taking just a little, and we're going to go right on in, and you fold.

And as that is incorporated, you go back, get a little more.

Now, one of the key tips that you can do when you're making a mousse and egg whites is you want to keep every bowl as cold as possible.

You want to keep as much air in it as possible.

We'll bring a little more in, make sure we get all those egg whites coming in.

If there's a certain bowl that you want to present this in, a coupe, a glass, a ramekin, you go ahead on and transfer this mousse at this stage into that bowl, and then put it in a refrigerator and let it sit.

We're going to cover this with plastic wrap.

You go into your refrigerator for one and a half, two hours.

I like to let mine rest in a refrigerator for four.

Let's get this in.

So while the mousse is in a refrigerator resting, this is the perfect time to make the almond citrus crisp.

This is a simple recipe.

We have powdered sugar.

To that, we have about a fourth of a cup of flour.

You start to mix that in, just mix it, incorporate them together.

Make a little well.

I like to add a little bit of orange juice and melted butter.

And now we work that in.

Start this process here, and then we'll fold in our almonds.

And this is the consistency you're looking for.

It's almost pasty.

I have my oven preheated at 350.

I have a sheet pan that I lined with foil.

I also sprayed it.

And you're coming right on top.

We'll put one here, and as this bakes, it's going to spread out.

This goes into a 350-degree oven for 15 minutes.

Now, while that's doing the 15 minutes, I'll clean this up.

I'll go to the refrigerator and spot-check my mousse, and if it's ready, we're going to start plating.

So we have our chocolate mousse out the refrigerator, and you can see it's set good.

It's airy.

Now we want to fill our glass coupes.

And just look how airy that is.

Oh, man.

Now, when your crisp comes out that oven, you have to let it rest.

You have to allow it to cool because that's when it gets that texture that you're looking for.

And we'll just start to plate.

You hear that?

Use it as a spoon, take a little bit of mousse.

We finished our first dish inspired by Brocato's, but wait till you see what's coming next.

You're going to love this.

This next dish is one of my grandmother's favorites.

She used to send us to Brocato's for the Italian ice, and now we're doing a traditional spin on the granita limone, an Italian lemon ice that they have in Sicily.

It's a summer treat, but I'll show you how to make it.

Going to start off with a little water here, and this is really, really easy.

You have to do this at home.

That's water.

We have lemon juice.

We have sugar.

You get it.

It all goes in the pot together.

Now, of course, we're going to add just a little twist to it.

I'm going to add some mint leaves in there.

I want to infuse this lemon ice with a little hint of mint, but you're going to let those mint leaves steep.

As that sugar starts to incorporate and dissolve, you come into a simmer, that's when you know it's ready.

My grandmother would serve this as a palate cleanser, right?

So we would serve a five-to seven-course meal, and right after the fish course, before the meat course, we would serve this Italian ice.

She would serve it in a frosted glass.

The spoon would be frosted.

This is coming to a simmer.

This is right where you want it to be.

You know that sugar has dissolved.

That mint is steeped in there, so it's picking up that mint flavor along with that lemon.

We're going to remove these mint leaves here, and you're going right into this pan.

You're going to let this sit for 10 minutes.

After it sits, put it in your freezer for one hour.

After that hour, you pull it out, and I'll show you exactly what to do with it.

After your first hour, this is what it's going to look like, right?

You come in with the fork, and then you start to come away, right?

You see that liquid at the bottom?

That is perfect.

You do not want this to be totally frozen.

You just want to break it up.

Any bigger chunks you see, break it down, move it over with the fork.

This is what you're looking for, this consistency.

This will then go back into your freezer for one more hour.

Then you come back, and you repeat this process.

Now, when you come back the next time, it'll be just a little different consistency than this, but close.

This is the last stage.

This is the third round, and again, you want to pull it with the fork on that second round, and you're going right back into the freezer for another hour.

This takes three hours.

After that third hour, you're going to get this consistency, right?

We're looking at snow.

That's when you know it's ready to plate.

In honor of my grandmother, I froze some lemon cups.

Anytime we served this, it was coming out with the frozen glass.

And just to let you know, there is some mint in this lemon ice.

We're going to top that.

But when you're thinking of a summer treat, you're thinking of a palate cleanser, this is a dish that's always going to please.

The last dish we're going to do today, as we were in the kitchen at Brocato's, we saw the fig cookies.

So this is going to be my spin on it.

We're going to start by making a crust.

I have almond flour going in.

We have a little brown sugar, and we're going to work that in before we add our melted butter.

Just mix those together.

We're going to make a fig bar.

First, we're going to start by making our crust.

Then we make a little well here and work in our melted butter.

And you mix this until a dough starts to form, or the consistency of a dough that you're looking for, and I'll show you exactly what we're doing.

Make sure you get to the bottom, mixing it all in.

I have my oven set at 350.

It's preheating.

And from there, we're going right into this pan.

I lined this with foil because it's going to help me at the end of the process, as I want to remove this from this pan.

Go right in.

And then you just want to spread it around evenly.

And we're getting it closer, and right as we get closer, just to make sure I got it where I need it to be, I'm going to dive in with my hands and make sure I have it at every edge that I want and it's even.

And then we just come and press.

I'm pressing gently with my fingertips, and you can see I'm just spreading it as I press down.

We have it evenly here.

This is ready to go in the oven for six minutes at 350 degrees.

Now, while that's in the oven, it's going to allow us time to make our fig spread.

So we'll get started with that.

So what we have here, we have some sliced dried figs that you can get from your store.

If you have fresh figs, and it's in season, you can certainly get those.

You want to add some brown sugar.

At this stage, you would add in your fresh figs.

So as the brown sugar's starting to heat, we're going to add our fig preserve.

That's going to make it easier for us to spread.

And you're just working it around, right?

We just want to loosen it up.

This is right where we want it to be.

To that, I'll add in our figs.

And just mix them in pretty good.

And this doesn't have to go on the heat any longer.

You can allow this to cool, but this is the consistency that you want.

We're roughly at about six minutes.

I'm going to go ahead on and take that pie crust out the oven, and I'll show you what you're looking for.

This is exactly it.

You don't want it overcooked, you just want it to set, because this has to go back in the oven for 25 more minutes.

But while this is cooling just a tad, we'll start to work on our crumble.

So here we have some almond flour.

A little brown sugar.

Some soft butter, cubed.

And we'll start to work that in just a little.

We'll add just a pinch of cinnamon.

Then we'll bring in our pecans.

And then we'll fold in our oats.

This is going to give that crisp texture that you're looking for, that crumble that we know and love.

Mix it in pretty good here.

And then this is where we set the spoon aside, and we dive right on in.

And you're just giving that butter a pinch, and a pinch and release.

And this is what we're looking for.

You have coating of butter, you have that brown sugar, that almond flour, those oats, those pecans.

So we have our crumble done.

Now it's time to put it together.

We'll bring in our fig spread.

And you just want to layer it right on in.

As this bakes, it's just going to ooze out, and it's going to spread even further.

It's almost like building a pizza.

To that, we'll add our crumble.

You go right on top.

Now, this is going to go in your oven for 25 minutes.

Now, as it comes out of that oven after 25 minutes, you have to allow it to cool, to come to room temperature, so everything stiffens up, the crisp gets the texture that you want it, the crust, the bottom gets to a texture that you want it.

And I have one right here that I want to show you, that we allowed to come to room temperature.

The reason why we put this foil lining in there, it's going to help you when you want to lift it.

It has to be room temperature so it can release on the bottom.

And then you want to come right up.

Move that to the side, and I want you to see.

Look how beautiful that looks.

And then you can just come right on in, and you're cutting a piece.

You heard that crunch?

That's what you're looking for.

Make sure we get underneath here, and we're going to come right underneath.

And that crunch, that texture, the layers that you have here.

Look how great this looks.

You're going to dive into that fig jam, and then you're going to get that crust at the end.

So thanks for joining me as we explore the food traditions of New Orleans and the reason why we cook what we cook.

I'll see you next time on the next chapter of "A Chef's Journey."

NARRATOR: In his new cookbook, Chef Dook Chase explores the legendary dishes and unique food traditions of New Orleans.

This companion to "A Chef's Journey," with all the recipes from the series and more than 125 color photos, is available for $32.99 plus shipping.

To order, call 1-800-815-3153 or purchase online at wyes.org.

DOOK: We'll see.

It's just starting.

We'll see.

We got, we got what, seven more to go?

Five more to go?

It can go downhill fairly quickly.

WAYNE: Some of the finest oysters you got on the Gulf Coast right here.

Locally homegrown.

That's our headers right there.

It don't get better than that.

DOOK: Oh, you can't taste anything... WAYNE: With a cup of coffee.

DOOK: With a cup of coffee, I love it.

Breakfast of champions, all local.

This is one way to get your day going, highlighting that seafood.

Oysters are perfect.

That saltiness coming through.

Man, you just started my day.

CLEO: We just got critters everywhere.

We got duck, rabbits, quail, pheasant.

She said, "Go get that gumbo pot."

I said, "Oh, no way in the world."

She said, "That's it."

And she threw everything in and she said, I said, "Now what do we call this?"

She said, "Critter gumbo."

VINCE: At the end of the day, a good farmer always puts his tractor up.

DOOK: Okay, well, I'm going to get on this tractor, and I'm taking it all the way to the kitchen.

NARRATOR: For more information about "Dook Chase: A Chef's Journey," visit wyes.org.

NARRATOR: Major funding for "Dook Chase: A Chef's Journey" was provided by the Melvin S. Cohen Foundation Incorporated.

Additional support by Zatarain's, bringing the flavors of New Orleans home.

Rooted in the city's rich culinary traditions, Zatarain's is born and raised in New Orleans.

From rice mixes to frozen meals, it's an authentic taste of New Orleans.

And by Camellia Beans.

You shouldn't rush a red bean.

Let it cook, then you can gather around with family and share in its distinct culture.

Camellia Beans, a taste of home.

♪ ♪