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International Chefs Day Recipes

Meet the LifeSpice Chefs!

At LifeSpice, our chefs play a critical role. They work right alongside our food scientists to develop custom blends, and they put those blends to work, testing them in real applications to see how they actually perform. It’s one of the most important steps in getting a seasoning right, and the reason it is so important to have both food scientists and chefs working on seasonings. They’re also the ones dreaming up the ways to show off what our seasonings can do, crafting delicious dishes in our test kitchen every day.

To celebrate them on International Chefs Day, we asked chefs Natallia, Alex, and Jorge to cook something a little more personal: a dish that means something to them. Meet our chefs and the foods they love!

Meet Natallia
Meet Alex
Meet Jorge

Chef Natallia

Natallia’s experience in foodservice spans nearly a decade, beginning when she received her L’Art de la Patisserie certification from The French Pastry School in Chicago. Her extensive background includes foodservice production management, work for multiple bakeries, and recently culinary innovation for food manufacturers. She’s been working with LifeSpice for the past three years.

Natallia is sharing her recipe for Belyashi, a Eastern European handheld meat pastry. This is a very nostalgic and comforting recipe for Natallia, as it was the dish she would ask her mom to make every time she visited home.

Belyashi

Recipe: Natallia Nice

Ingredients

Pastry Dough

  • 500 g (4 cups) all-purpose flour
  • 250 ml (1 cup) warm milk
  • 7 g (1 packet) active dry yeast
  • 1 Tbsp sugar
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 egg
  • 2 Tbsp vegetable oil or melted butter

Pastry Filling

  • 500 g (1 lb) ground beef or beef-and-pork blend
  • 1 medium onion, finely minced or grated
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp black pepper
  • 2 to 3 Tbsp cold water or milk
  • Awesome Anything seasoning, to taste

For Frying

  • Vegetable oil, approximately 1 to 2.5 cm (1/2 to 1 inch) deep

Method

Pastry Dough

  1. Combine the warm milk, sugar, and yeast. Let stand for 5 to 10 minutes, until foamy.
  2. Add the egg, oil or melted butter, and salt. Mix well.
  3. Gradually add the flour, then knead for 8 to 10 minutes, until the dough is smooth and elastic.
  4. Place in a lightly oiled bowl, cover, and let rise for about 1 hour, or until doubled in size.

Pastry Filling

  1. Combine the ground meat, onion, salt, and pepper.
  2. Add the cold water or milk and mix thoroughly. The filling should be juicy but not overly wet.

Shaping and frying

  1. Divide the dough into 12 to 14 portions.
  2. Roll each portion into a 10 to 12 cm (4 to 5 inch) circle. Place 2 to 3 Tbsp of filling in the center.
  3. Gather the edges toward the center, leaving a small opening at the top.
  4. Heat the oil to 325°F.
  5. Fry the belyashi opening side down first, 3 to 4 minutes per side, until golden brown and fully cooked.
  6. Transfer to paper towels to drain.

Chef Alex

Alex brings years of upscale culinary expertise from renowned Chicago kitchens, including Spiaggia, Avec, Chef Special, and Café Cancale, along with experience as a private chef and culinary instructor at The Chopping Block. A 2024 winner of America’s Test Kitchen: The Next Generation, Alex has been recognized nationally for his culinary creativity and skill. He’s been with the LifeSpice team for just over a year.

Alex loves to make pasta – and is very skilled at making a variety of types. He’s sharing his recipe for Butternut Squash Agnolotti, a stuffed pasta from northern Italy filled with roasted butternut squash.

Butternut Squash Agnolotti

Recipe: Alex Heugel

Ingredients

Pasta Dough

  • 1 cup Tipo “00” flour
  • 5 room temperature egg yolks (91% of the weight of flour)

Pasta Filling

  • 1/2 large butternut squash
  • 1/4 cup whole milk ricotta
  • 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
  • 1/2 tsp grated nutmeg
  • 1 tsp salt, plus more to taste
  • 1 egg yolk
  • 1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Sauce & Garnishes

  • 1/2 stick butter
  • 1 tsp lemon juice
  • 3 Tbsp hazelnuts, chopped and toasted
  • 3 Tbsp grated Parmesan cheese
  • 1 sprig fresh thyme
  • 1/4 cup pasta water

Method

Pasta Dough

  1. Add the flour to a food processor or a stand mixer with the hook attachment. With the machine running, stream in the egg yolks until a rough dough forms.
  2. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead for 6 to 8 minutes, until smooth and elastic.
  3. Wrap in plastic and rest for at least 30 minutes or up to 24 hours. For a 30-minute rest, leave it at room temperature. If it’s in the fridge, pull it out at least 30 minutes before rolling.

pasta Filling

  1. Preheat the oven to 425°F.
  2. Cut the squash in half lengthwise and scoop the seeds out of one half.
  3. Place the squash skin side down on a sheet pan. Rub the flesh evenly with the olive oil and 1 tsp salt.
  4. Roast for 30 to 40 minutes, until a paring knife slides in with no resistance.
  5. Cover with foil for 10 minutes to steam. Uncover and cool completely, about 25 minutes.
  6. Scoop the flesh into a food processor, leaving the skin behind, and blend for 30 seconds.
  7. Add the remaining ingredients except the egg yolk and blend until completely smooth. Taste and adjust the seasoning.
  8. Transfer the filling to a piping bag and chill.

Method (Continued)

Forming Pasta

  1. Divide the dough into 4 even pieces. Keep any pieces you aren’t rolling wrapped in plastic. Run one piece through the pasta machine, going thinner with each setting and adding flour as needed. Stop once it’s long enough that, folded into thirds and turned 90 degrees, it fits the width of the machine.
  2. Fold the dough into thirds like a tri-fold brochure. Turn it 90 degrees and roll it again, starting at the thickest setting. Roll until very thin, usually the third-thinnest setting.
  3. Pipe a 1/4-inch line of filling across the full length of the sheet, 1 inch up from the bottom edge. Fold the 1-inch lip of dough over the filling. Press along it with your thumb or finger to seal.
  4. Working left to right, pinch the filling into 1-inch sections with your thumbs and index fingers. Start each pinch where the last one ended.
  5. Use a fluted pastry wheel to cut the filled strip away from the sheet. Then cut between the pinches to make individual agnolotti.
  6. Move the agnolotti to a floured sheet pan. On the rest of the sheet, repeat everything from piping the filling through this step. Then repeat all the steps with the remaining 3 pieces of dough.

Finishing Pasta

  1. Bring a pot of water to a boil and salt it heavily. Put the butter and thyme in a sauté pan over medium heat. Swirl the butter until it’s brown and nutty, then immediately pour the butter and thyme into a heat-safe bowl.
  2. Working quickly, ladle 2 oz of pasta water into the pan to loosen the milk solids stuck to the bottom. Take the thyme out of the butter, pour the butter back into the pan, and turn off the heat.
  3. Cook the agnolotti in the boiling water for 1 minute, or until they float. Lift them out with a spider instead of draining in a colander, and add them straight to the pan.
  4. Return the pan to medium heat. Boil the sauce with the pasta for about 1 minute, until it emulsifies. If the sauce breaks, add a splash of pasta water.
  5. Take the pan off the heat. Add the lemon juice and check the seasoning. Garnish with the Parmesan and hazelnuts and serve immediately.

Chef Jorge

Jorge has experience in a wide range of culinary traditions, including Greek cuisine at Avli Estatorio, Mexican concepts at Bar Chido, Japanese-inspired programming at Hiro Izakaya, and globally influenced menus at Beatnik Chicago. He just joined the LifeSpice team this year!

Jorge grew up in Chicago, and his parents made sure the family’s Jalisco roots ran deep. Every Sunday, the house filled with the smell of smoky bacon, fresh tortillas, and a simmering pot of carne en su jugo. Today, Jorge shares a version of the dish that he has elevated with the skills he has learned as a chef while still paying homage to his family’s heritage.

Carne en su Jugo

Recipe: Jorge Angulo | makes 16 servings

Ingredients

For the beans and meat

  • 4 cups dried pinto beans
  • 16 cups water
  • Salt, to taste
  • 20 strips bacon
  • 5 lb skirt steak

for the salsa verde

  • 2 lb tomatillos, husked and rinsed
  • 12 cloves garlic
  • 2 bunches cilantro
  • 3 jalapeños

Garnishes

  • Onion, diced
  • Cilantro
  • Avocado
  • Radish
  • Grilled knob onions

Method

  1. Cook the beans. Combine the pinto beans and water in their own pot and simmer until tender but not split. Season to taste. Keep the bean water, you’ll need it later.
  2. Make the salsa verde. Blend the tomatillos, garlic, cilantro, and jalapeños until smooth.
  3. Prep the protein. Dice the bacon and the skirt steak.
  4. Build the pot. Cook the bacon first, then add the steak and cook until golden brown. Add the salsa verde and cook until it turns from bright green to army green. Stir in the cooked beans and their bean water.
  5. Serve. Ladle into bowls and garnish with onion, cilantro, avocado, radish, and grilled knob onions.