Chef at Home

Archive for September, 2010

We almost always roast our chicken on a bed of vegetables. Usually we roast 7 pound birds, butterflied and resting on the bed. It looks like a chicken sitting on its nest. Recently we had an abundance of radishes from daikon to purple and we decided to roast our bird on them. We added some leeks and carrots, ginger and kimchee and roasted away. The chicken juices blended with the roasting vegetables. We enjoyed the dinner but there were plenty of roasted radishes and juices left over. We put the vegetables and their juices into a bowl and let them cool overnight. The following morning we decided to not just reheat the vegetables in their original form. Instead we put the vegetables and the congealed juices through a food mill. The result was an incredible sugo of roasted radishes. This result was not only delicious but it started an avalanche of ideas for creating flavored roasted vegetables: from lobster bodies roasted on white miripoix to bacon on a bed of onions. The blending of fond and roasted vegetables is delicious and a wonderful platform to build dishes and sauces upon.

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When we were in Cabo last winter everybody rhapsodized about the freshly fried tortilla chips. They were at almost every meal, accompanied by salsa and guacamole, still warm from the fryer. Or so we thought. Of course when you're in the business you notice things, you can't help yourself. And one afternoon I watched as the cooks behind the line opened bag after bag of tortila chips, poured them into hotel pans and parked them under the heat lamps to warm up. It was enlightening to say the least.

The chips on the left have been toasted in a toaster oven while those on the right are straight from the bag.

Once home I tried the technique using our toaster oven and baked tortilla chips. People gushed. They were blown away that I fried my own tortilla chips and somehow managed to avoid making the entire house smell of oil. That is one of the biggest benefits of this technique, the taste of freshly fried chips without the lingering scent of oil. Since tortilla chips were so good it only made sense to try it with potato chips. We used Kettle chips with sea salt. They were fantastic. You have to let them cool a bit to maximize crispiness. But frankly you could serve them with a variety of dips before dinner and no one would complain because they are that good. Try it and you'll never serve them straight from the bag again.

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Ceviche is one of the dishes I experienced for the first time 20 years ago in Iquitos, Peru. The fish was thinly sliced, then marinated raw in it’s own juices. Ceviche is usually fish or shellfish that is “cooked” by the acid in lime juice, with salt, herbs and condiments. It was delicious and I still remember it. I like the sharpness of these types of preparations that do not overpower the the fish. 

At this time of the year, the tomatoes are really good, meaning sweet, red and very flavorful. The natural water of the tomato combined with toasted chili and burned tomato (split tomato burned like an onion on the flat top of the stove) gives a more intense flavor. It looks like a beef consomme with an amber color. 

The lobster is steamed rare. This allows the flesh to easily be removed from the shell. The meat is finely sliced and marinated with salt and lime juice. In the plate the lobster is combined with Jalapeno, papaya, red onions, mint and shiso. The tomato water is poured over the top with few drop of mustard oil as a last touch.

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we learn from each other. we learn from those who speak the same language as us. we like to see new toys, we like to play, we like to gawk and star fuck and snack. we network, we stand back, we jump in, we press our jackets and we show up late. we meet & greet. we are awkward and full of hubris. we think we're above it all and we know we're so so        small.       we know we have so much to learn.                   we think we know it all. we think tv has made us. we want tv to make us.                                          we toil away quietly. we blend into the crowd and we wear patten leather clogs. we spike our hair and get new ink and we have disdain for all that shit.         we use hydrocolloids and make excuses and we just cook. we get our hands dirty and we haven't picked up a saute pan in years. we only sharpen our own knives on a stone and we use electric knives.

we.

we. cannot be contained by one definition.

chef.

what does it mean anyway.

but what i do know is this.

i found my calling. the first time i put on a chef's white double buttoned jacket i was home. and i didn't even know what home was. not ever. but i knew.

and that doesn't mean i don't doubt. that i don't falter and get lost and lose it. to be inspired is a grace, not a guarantee.

love does not promise.

life has no clock.

who you meet, what you see, what you taste, who you taste, words you read, music you hear, fruit you pick, who you watch, who learns you, who you thank, who thanks you, what press you get, what fame you have to live up to, what you chase, who you chase, contracts you sign, how you struggle, what you lose, who you lose

all of this is fleeting. memory. rememory d.

*

a few nibbles from my live tweets~

"Cuisine
is dynamic. Anything that uses the vagaries of ingredients, and that
those ingredients change, fuel innovation." David Kinch

Dan
Barber called out the concept of "trend-ifying" professional
cooking/cheffing by talking shut about our "Media Climate." nice. Word.

"Food
is ephemeral. It becomes a memory after you eat it. It should provokes
thought & make you learn something." David Kinch

"It
doesn't matter how good it looks on the beautiful porcelain plate/wood/
metal. If it doesn't taste really really good…" Thomas Keller

Next
dessert is about spring. We don't have rhubarb because winter is very
long. So we thought green. Green is the colour of spring. Patrice Demers

Instead of using sugar in apple sorbet we use the ice apple juice." Patrice Demers

What does a chef do? He cooks. And cooking is a craft. Cooking is repetition. And one must learn the craft. ~Thomas Keller

"it's the chef's responsibility to nurture." Thomas Keller

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when we go to these conferences we rate ourselves, compare. we see who we aspire to be and those who we would rather die than become. we say we'll never sell out or we look for better ways to sign our soul off.

i went to learn what i know already. that i love my people. that i despise and desire the industry and i will forever be beholden to the craft. that the media is a hungry machine with no teeth and taste buds. it swallows whole like the cyclops, never satiated.

but in the fight to leap into its eyeless clutches or to pry ourselves from its grasp, we, if we open our eyes and hearts and minds, can see and feel and taste and smell and learn so

much.

we hear our words in the mouths of others. we laugh and we are understood. 

we learn from each other. we learn from those who speak the same language as us. whether the alphabet or the intonations are the same, or not. we speak the same language. when we pick up a knife or taste an apple or whisk a warm cream or build a story with disparate textures.

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a lot of people these past days thanked me for writing eggbeater. it is an honor. thank you for working the line every night, and the ovens every day. thank you for upholding this craft i love with all my heart.

thank you for riding the storm with me. sfl

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We would not feel comfortable serving,  a slice of foie gras in our sashimi section of the menu without the compliment of seafood. It turns out that rare cooked lobster, with its natural sweetness and chewiness, works very well with the richness of foie gras, so the dish has worked around this combination. The foie gras is seasoned with salt, black pepper and cocoa powder, then rolled in a torchon and slowly cooked to medium rare. Once it is completely chilled, it is simply sliced. The lobster cocktail is a sliced lobster, cooked only for few minutes, rolled in a cocktail sauce (mayonnaise, cooked tomato and a smoked passilla chili paste). As a we have pickled baked cherry tomato served warm and tomato noodles made out of tomato water.

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