How to Cook Lobster

Ray Hayes: Hello, my name is Ray Hayes. I have been an Executive Chef or a cook and chef for last 35 years. I currently work for McCormick & Schmick's fresh Seafood Restaurant in Burbank, California. So today we are going to talk about lobsters. We are going to show you three different ways to cook lobsters. The first way is going to be boiled, poached, we are going to show you how to cook the lobster, how to tell when it is finished and then we are going to show you how to crack it and take it out of the shell and how to eat it there afterwards. We are going to take another lobster and poach it, we are going to split it in half and we are going to make a little crab shrimp and dill stuffing with a little mayonnaise mix in there and we are going to stuff that in to the cavity of the lobster, then we are going to bake that in the oven. We will take the other half of the baked lobster and we will take that and brush it with a little seasoned butter and put it on the grill. So we are going to cook it on the grill, so you have an idea maybe so you can cook outside or barbecue.

So we are going to do the lobsters today and some of the things you will need to have to prepare the lobsters will be a French knife to be able to split the lobster with, you are going to need your large pot to put the hot water in to boil the lobster. Then the stuffing that we make is very, very simple -- small block of Brie cheese, some bay shrimp and little bit of crab and little bit of mayonnaise, fresh dill, that you can all mix in a bowl, so you will need a bowl and a spoon for that.

After that you need some lemons with drawn butter and little parsley just to show off the green and that is it, very, very simple, very easy to do, not many tools, everything is really good. The only safety things I got to tell you about these is everything is hot or sharp. So the lobster itself is going to be hot when you cook it, it has a little spines on it, they are going to be sharp. So please be careful when you are working with this particular species.

I have been in the hospitality industry as a chef for about 30 years now. I have worked everywhere from steakhouses and truck stops, all the way up to this fine establishment that I am in now in McCormick and Schmick's Seafood Restaurant in Burbank, California. I have always worked in the kitchen. It has been my one and only job for my whole life. I have never done anything else but work in the kitchen. So here we go, we are going to talk lobster.