Marco Pierre White and Hell’s Kitchen (file under that telling glare)

Is anyone watching this legend? Is anyone watching the pansies he has to deal with and yet they manage to get out 76 dinners of three courses. At least they have so far. The real reason I am writing this though relates to the fact that when I read Chef White’s “The Devil in the Kitchen” I immediately recognized some of the qualities that you have to have in order to get to the elevated strata and rarified position that he did.

Now I turn on the PVR and watch with glee as he both elevates and denigrates these show biz wannabe’s. These people who of their own accord have done something with their lives but decided for whatever reason to jump into his kitchen.

I watch astounded as Chef White marches around the kitchen. As he explains a dish or a concept to them. I feel comfortable watching it as I go through this everyday. I have also watched with glee as the less than amazing kid (so unimportant I don’t even remember his name) who is a cry baby is beat up by his own lack of and force of will. CLEARLY NOT KITCHEN MATERIAL.

The glare. The stare. The voice. The shaken reserve. The steady resolve. I can see them when I watch Chef White work the kitchen. Work this rag tag crew. And I admire him for it. Because it really is, ultimately his ass on the line, and while the producers would not let it fail, I think what is more important and telling is that HE won’t let them fail. And that to me is heart warming and endearing.

At any rate, if none of you have watched Marco Pierre White’s Hell’s Kitchen I strongly recommend it.

Marco Pierre White once said; " Looking back, I realize that it was my love of nature which gave me the understanding of natural ingredients. Mother Nature [sic] is the true artist, and the chef is merely the technician. " I hope to be a great technician.

Are you dreaming big and inspired?

A la prochaine

SDM

How to “funkify” a corn dog? (file under Executive Chef’s Special Projects)

So due to a strange yet wonderful confluence of events, time and space creating some kitchen vacuum, I have had the luxury of three days off in a row. And let me say that I needed these three days just to bring myself back to normal. My body was worn out, tired. Both hands are calloused and worn, dry and cracked with little nicks and cuts all over them. My feet are balled up and sore from standing on my feet for endless hours each day. My back is in a ludicrous amount of pain. BUT I WOULDN’T CHANGE IT FOR THE WORLD. I love what I do. And the price I have to pay is just that… the price… And as Bob Barker and friends would say the price is right… for me.

So I must say that I was a little surprised yesterday when I got a facebook message from Executive Chef saying that he had a down and dirty project which was time sensitive and asking whether or not I would like to collaborate on it. OUI CHEF my only response. Both because I was glad to be asked to help AND because it is Chef!

He is working on a project relating to carnival food and how to make it a little “jazzier,” or funkier. Specifically as it relates to corndogs. How do you funkify a corndog. After all a corndog is something that is rather pedestrian and familiar to anyone who has ever seen the worn out rides and faces of the carnie phenomenon. But that’s another post in itself.

A corn dog is (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corn_dog ) quite simply a hotdog coated in a simple batter and deep fried on a stick. The first thing that went through my mind was just how far can we take this. I worked on it for several hours yesterday and today before finally sending Executive Chef and email asking him that very question. His response was prompt and what I had hoped for, something to the effect of; “Go as far as you’d like. That’s how we work things like this out.”

Armed with vim and vigour and a head full of fantastical ideas of carnie grandeur I set out to considering what it was for and how I could somehow twist it into something special. Of course there is the obvious, lets shoot for lobster. Everyone immediately goes to lobster, I’m not sure quite why. But then I started thinking to myself, if someone else can get there I don’t want to do it. I want to come up with something original. I want to put this head of mine to good use and possibly create something so cool that even Executive Chef says; “WOW, that’s a great idea.” That to me would be like wining the F1 Championship beating out Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher at the same time. Or like winning the Stanley Cup or like knocking out Mike Tyson in his prime. In my world, in what I do, those are the only equivalents I can think of that are so grand.

A corn dog? But funkified?

So I started to consider things that would not normally be considered tubular. After all one would expect a corndog to be tubular. Thus my first consideration was to think about things that might be a good juxtaposition. Not just for the sake of juxtaposition either because I’ve watched with great horror and dismay over the last few years as what appear to be kitchen idiot savants and dilettantes did things differently, just for the sake of well, different. That is not enough to satisfy my culinary wonder. And not nearly enough to satisfy my thirst to create something amazing.

I started assembling a list of things that I might want to use in the creation of this dish. I started, most naturally, with the protein. What proteins could I use that would be wonderful. But also considering mouth feel and texture. As such the list of proteins I came up with in no particular order are;

Chorizo Sausage
Crawfish
Foie Gras
Duck
Bison
Caribou
Eel
Sea Urchin
Venison
Rabbit
Wild Boar
Emu
Caviar
Moose
Squab

And my one non protein possibility ICE CREAM!

After assembling the list of proteins that I wanted to use I started to visualize the dish. How it would look. In this case I have the basic format already. It is a corndog so I do have a basic outline of what it should look like or at least resemble. This makes my job a little bit easier.

Now I start dreaming of all the fantastic combinations that I can assemble with my desired proteins. I start thinking of classic combinations but instead decide to start scouring my collected knowledge, cookbooks and the Internet for possible combinations that would be good to my mind. The beauty of this project for me is that it is conceptual. I need to first identify the concept and then break it down into various elements that make sense to me.

So now armed with the proteins that I want to use or rather could use and the knowledge that I can step outside (hopefully comfortably) the classical combinations I fancifully start imagining and searching out ideas.

The ideas currently are really conceptual and at this moment as I write this I am trying to figure out how to take them from that to the recipe stage.

The following are the ideas;
Bison Sausage with a cherry ketchup and black apricot relish

Rabbit Sausage with port reduction ketchup and sweet onion relish

Smoked Wild Boar Sausage with apple chutney and spiced ketchup

Duck Sausage with a pinot noir blueberry mustard and Foie Gras relish

Eel with a Wasabi Dijon and ginger relish

Maple Caribou sausage with juniper mustard

Corned Moose with a smoked relish

Emu sausage with teriyaki ketchup

Caviar with a champagne brioche crust

Squab with a roasted garlic relish

Sea Urchin with a tempura crust and Wasabi salsa

Ice cream with a crushed praline crust, strawberry puree ketchup and mango relish

Now I need to work the ideas and see how I would execute them. I will be back with another post shortly, once I have figured out how to make these workable, and short of that, refining the ideas to make them better and workable.

Ralph Waldo Emerson once said; “All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better.”

Are you experimenting? Are you dreaming and inspired?

A la prochaine

SDM

Bringing Loved Ones into the Fold

This past Saturday after a long day I sat down with all my colleagues and waited for C to be done at the bar. As so often happens it is a rag tag group of mainly Chefs and cooks with a few servers interlaced. This week Executive Chef’s girlfriend was also with us and we struck up a conversation about my blog and excellence. S is an interesting woman. She is our event lead and very capable.

As we spoke we started with my introducing C to the family and how that may or may not have been a good idea. We both agreed that in this case it probably was a good idea because it would give her a greater insight into what I am going through on a daily basis. Introduce her to the realities of the life that I have chosen for my own selfish reasons and possibly produce some understanding and compassion. All things that I agree with. I try to explain to C what it is like to go through the transformation that I am going through and the journey that I am on. I think, for anyone, not just her, it would be near impossible to understand the complexities of the kitchen without having actually been in the environment yourself. But to C’s credit, she is working to understand what I go through. Not just because she loves me, but I think, almost as importantly, it is an interesting life that we chose to live. Although sometimes, especially recently, I have been feeling that the life, “this thing of ours,” as Anthony Bourdain says, chooses us.

At any rate, S and I then started talking about my blog. She told me how much she appreciated it, as it gives everyone that reads it a greater window into our vagabond lifestyles. The fearless. The free. The misfits of society that purge their souls to make your plates the delicious feasts that they are. All the while remaining hidden behind the iron curtain of sizzling pans and moaning convection ovens.

As we spoke S and I both expressed our desire that a server, a bartender, hell, even a dishwasher do the same thing that I am. As from that there would emerge the most accurate representation of the industry.

I told her that I was going to include, however briefly, this conversation.

Another interesting thing happened on Sunday which also relates to this topic. There was an issue, which I will not be specific about, between some members of the kitchen staff. There is a breakwater between the front of house and back of house. In fact it is one that is never breached. The front of house deals with the front of house and the back of house deals with the back of house. There is no overlay and no reason for interaction in the affairs of the other. Especially as relates to working relationships. At any rate A and Pastry Chef J had come by the grill after watching the Jays lose. I made them a late lunch and they decided once the rain started that they would wait for me and we all would go for a drink.

Finished my duties I punched out and A and I were waiting for Pastry Chef J. For some reason one of the kitchen staff was crying. Of course I know the reason but I am being somewhat diplomatic here. First mistake… CRYING in the KITCHEN! What are you thinking? So of course the event got a little blown out of proportion when one of the hostesses decided to get involved and came and started speaking to A and I like she might someone in the front of the house. I casually reminded her, through her raving, that it was not a good idea for her to get involved in what clearly involved the “culture” in the back of house. She continued. Well needless to say the event became a multitude of issues all rolled into one.

The first was the initiator of the event by crying. To those of us that are older we recognize the negative attention seeking involved with the crying incident which was the result of a comment that in the kitchen should not make anyone cry. The second was the hostess feeling that it was okay for her to get involved.

The result was that Pastry Chef J had to deal with the initiator and A and I had to go for a drink before she could come. Of course in the end everything worked out for the better but it really got me to thinking about the disconnect between the front of house and the back. How the breakwater has to exist. How there can not be some incestuous relationship between the two as it would degrade the working culture of the kitchen.

In the end when C was hearing “us,” the back of house creatures that we are discuss the event she was not impressed. I tried to explain to her that that is how the kitchen operates and it is not likely to change. As long as there are cooks. As long as there is food to be cooked by misfits, miscreants and me, it would appear the kitchen dynamic will remain explosive. BUT IT WORKS! At any rate, when C and I spoke about it, she was none to impressed and I tried to explain as best I could. In the end she understood what I was saying but not the culture aspect of it. I know that as time goes by she will and so will the rest of you.

Oliver Wendell Holmes once wrote; “A moment's insight is sometimes worth a life's experience.” HOW TRUE!

Are you dreaming big and inspired? Did you do something today that was new? Frightening? Are you ready to live? TODAY?

A la prochaine

SDM

MFK Fisher (file under Smoked Wolf?)

MFK Fisher (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M._F._K._Fisher ) is an absolutely brilliant writer. While reading her book “How to Cook a Wolf” I found myself considering things that I hadn’t before. It was written during World War II and offers dazzling insights into wartime mentality, what was on the tables and the triumph of will over shortage.

Her witty writing challenges the reader to consider the world. In my case, with an understanding of time and place but now also a culinary understanding that far exceeds where I was this time last year. Interspersed with her fabulous prose are recipes that any home cook can attempt. Some of which I myself intend to try.

I picked up “How to Cook a Wolf” to explore whether or not I liked MFK Fisher. As I walked through the book store I considered buying the anthology of most of her writings but was not sure that I would find her either compelling or informative. Much to my delight I have found in her a voice that I admire for its simplicity and yet deep and rich complexity. If such a dichotomy can be understood.

To illustrate this point I give you a few quotes;

“What the chefs would say now, if they could, can never be known. The young girls and men who ate grilled steak in their sport clothes at the Café de Paris are as much a secret as the Café de Paris itself. Ghosts of the great restaurants and their cooks may cry that lack of spirit and finesse betrayed the old as well as the unborn; ghosts of the young may answer that richness and subtlety were but a kind of phosphorescence on the decayed culture that Careme and Vatel and all the other masters left to them.”

“Of course there are many other ways to eat the flesh of animals than in its simplest states, raw or roasted or broiled or braised. According to some people, including the mournful ghosts of those masters who once ruled Paris kitchens and wrote letters to the Times, they are the only ways, since barbarians alone can stomach the sweet bloody savour of rare meat.”

“Why is it worse, in the end, to see an animal’s head cooked and prepared for our pleasure than a thigh or a tail or a rib? If we are going to live on other inhabitants of this world we must not bind ourselves with illogical prejudices, but savour to the fullest the beasts that we have killed.”

Fisher through her eloquence has caused me (as well as my experience in the last eight months) to look at food differently. And I appreciate her for that. You should too. Go out and get any book by MFK Fisher today as you will come to see that there is much more to food than the utter simplicity of putting it on a plate in front of you. There are other, more worldly considerations, that you must at the very least consider as someone who lives in this time of gross excess.

Voltaire once said; “Use, do not abuse; neither abstinence nor excess ever renders man happy.”

Dreaming? Inspired? BIG?

A la prochaine

SDM

Alice Waters, The Mother of an American Culinary Awakening (file under incredible role model)

Alice Waters (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_Waters ) is one of those people that makes you wonder how a visionary becomes a visionary. Yet while pondering how one becomes a visionary Alice revealed to me the qualities that I aspire to when it comes to my restaurant. Her culinary love affair began with a trip to Europe in her formative years. From that trip Alice’s love affair with food was charged with the force of ten atomic explosions and the birth of California Cuisine was the result. Cause and effect in its most delicious form. Alice’s Chez Panisse (http://www.chezpanisse.com/ ) is arguably the most important and influential restaurant in the United States and the result of her vision and approach is felt, seen, smelled and tasted in countless well appointed restaurant dining rooms and homes alike.

Reading Thomas McNamee’s “Alice Waters and Chez Panisse” I found myself thrilled. Enthralled really. By the clarity of her vision and the prowess of her execution. In the foreword R. W. Apple, Jr states; “Before Chez Panisse, even the grandest American restaurants relied on imported, often canned or frozen products; today, the Waters credo – fresh, local seasonal, and where possible organic ingredients – is followed by hundreds of farmers’ markets, thousands of restaurants, and millions of home cooks.” In the very next paragraph he tells the tale of Alice showing up at Manoir aux Quat’ Saisons for a meeting of the greatest chefs in the world with nothing more than a few Meyer lemons and proceeded to shock and awe the collected wisdom of the assembled chefs. I immediately admired her chutzpah. That took balls. Big balls. And she has them in spades.

McNamee’s tale takes us through the various stages of both Alice and Chez Panisse’s development. From the first moment that it opened its doors to the many successes and failures it has had over the years. If you can even call them failures. To my mind, Alice’s credo, her desire to make food that tasted like food, looked like food, smelled like food doomed Panisse to the status of non money making venture. BUT, and this is a big but, Alice KNEW, intrinsically, that if she stuck to her credo, money (the last of her concerns) would eventually follow. It is as I have always said, follow your passion and the rest will fall into place.

The success of Alice Waters and Chez Panisse is the story of dedication, truthfulness and integrity. It is the result of a vision maintained in spite of challenges and obstacles. It is also the story of a confluence of events and people at just the right time to make the right impact to reshape the culinary world. Of course I don’t need to explain to anyone here what Berkeley was like in the early 70’s but it should be obvious that it was the heartland of an American revival of sorts. It was a collection of hippies and student protestors. It was an assortment of societal “misfits” that had a purpose and a dream. And in that spirit Alice was able to attract like a tractor beam the right people to make her vision reality and Chez Panisse a success.

Alice’s spirit was the driver and Chez Panisse became the magnet to attract greatness. From those that designed special menus. To purveyors. To cooks with no experience. Chefs with massive experiences. Front of House staff. Everything in the universe conspired to make it a success. But also Alice’s unrelenting maintaining her original vision. NO MATTER THE COST! The result of that vision saw Alice develop lifelong relationships with a veritable who’s who of the United States but more importantly with children through her Chez Panisse Foundation (http://www.chezpanissefoundation.org/ ).

Rather than me blithering on about Alice, I think I would prefer to have you understand her from the way that she cooks;

“I usually stand at my kitchen table. I may pull a bunch of thyme from my pocket and lay it on the table; then I wander about the kitchen gathering up all the wonderfully fresh ingredients I can find. I look at each foodstuff carefully, examining it with a critical eye and concentrating in such a way that I begin to make associations… Sometimes I wander through the garden looking for something appealing, absorbing the bouquet of the earth and the scent of the fresh herbs. Sometimes I butterfly my way through cookbooks, quickly flipping the pages and absorbing a myriad of ideas about a particular food or concept.”

I think that this quote best characterizes Alice. What she does and how she does it. And as I said before it gives me something to aspire to. Alice was not taught how to cook. She cooked. Alice the mother of an American food revolution believes that slow food is good food and that it takes time.

I could go on for much longer about how important Alice is to the North American culinary esthetic but I think I would prefer to have you discover for yourself. I will however leave you with this quote from Alice;

“I’m completely dedicating this decade to public education…There are small things like writing a book and whatnot, but my immediate big hope is that we will have rolled out an organic lunch program in all seventeen schools in Berkeley. And that we will have integrated curriculums of the grammar schools and the middle schools and the high schools with the lunch program, and that ten thousand kids will be eating lunch as part of the academic day. And that we will be supporting any number of farmers and ranches and dairies that are within a couple hours of the school district. And that we will have documented everything that has gone on. And that children will have actually changed their eating habits, and that we will have stemmed the tide of obesity in Berkeley. That we will have our first graduates out, and it will be so compelling and so delicious that the state of California will be contemplating a statewide program, and that they will be ready to take over the funding of the Berkeley program. For Slow Food, my hope is that in ten years it will really be a vibrant force for change in every country in the world.”

This is why Alice Waters should be a household name. Vision. Passion. Execution and Deliciousness.

Are you dreaming big and inspired?

A la prochaine

SDM