12.28.06
Posted in 7. Other Fun at 3:30 pm by Chef Matt
I took a trip in the woods. It was kinda cold. But the food was good and the wine flowing.
Writing to you all up here from Bedford, PA - where my parents have their own house in the woods. Now that I am done celebrating Christmas with my wife’s family in Albuquerque, it is time to spend it with my family in the woods. Mountainous desert to temperate deciduous forest - quite the change in biomes. But family is family no matter where you are, and the fact that I get to extend the celebration this way means I am truly blessed.
The secret ingredient kids, is booze! |
So what does a chef get for Christmas? Well, besides “drunk”, your guess of “stuff for the kitchen” would be pretty accurate. I of course asked for many cooking-related items, and I was not disappointed in what I received. First off there are the things I needed around the kitchen that I asked for - little things like tongs and a carving board. The little things that I have needed for too long that I have been too lazy or cheap to get for myself.
Then there are the cookbooks. I have many cookbooks already of course, but I could always use some more. As a side note, a common question I am often asked is, “What is the best cookbook?” I find the answer to this question is the same as “What is the best adult diaper?”
What is it you are trying to make? If you are looking for the best
French cookbook, then my suggesting
China, The Beautiful Cookbook will not help you, now will it?
I believe all kitchens should have a copy of Joy of Cooking, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking. But are any of these the best cookbook? No, I would say not. My personal favorite cookbook is Culinary Artistry. It has almost no recipes in it though. Just extensive listings of flavor combinations and ideas of dishes from great chefs around the world. It is an invaluable tool for anyone who would prefer to just plain invent when they are in the kitchen. To me, this is the best cookbook, but it is not right for everyone.
But I digress… Anyway, since I already have all these books. Here are the ones I asked for and received this year:
Arabesque: A Taste of Morocco, Turkey, and Lebanon by Claudia Roden
This is a fascinating read so far, and a cuisine that I have really been fascinated with as of late. The problem being that all the recipes I have are from random magazines that aren’t dedicated to food from this part of the world, so I am not sure how “authentic” my cooking is. But I love the flavors and stews that I have been making, so I figured it was time to take it ot the next level. She is a well-respected cook, and the photos are just fabulous - and the techniques and flavor combinations are all new to me. This will be a fabulous learning resource for me in addition to being the source of many awesome dinners.
 |
Jamie’s Italy by Jamie Oliver
Well it is no secret that I love Italian food, and I love Italian cooking as well. I have several books on the subject, but I have to say that Jamie’s book here caught my eye both for the aesthetic look of the book, as well as the clever and well-thought-out recipes within. Jamie is one of the few personalities on Food Network that I can stand to watch for more than 10 minutes, and I think it’s because he’s not “phoning in” his performance. He is thinking up new and exciting things that I would not have come up with, and this book is no exception. Again, I think there is a lot to be learned from this book, and I look forward to diving in as soon as I get back to civilization.
Time to see how many bags of flour I can fit in here at once! |
And finally, there was the gift I didn’t ask for, but one that was really a very nice and generous surprise from my parents, a KitchenAid stand mixer. I have wanted one for a long time, and I think I just might have room to store this big-ass thing now. So to return the favor of this incredible generosity, I am already making a loaf of fresh bread for everyone here using it. My brother is making chili, so I am making a loaf of bread with cornmeal and caraway seeds. Would like to have added some rye flour to it as well if we had some, but hey, I am stuck out here in the woods, what can I do?…
Anyway, this is the long way of me wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, and I hope you all got everything you wanted as well! Happy cooking!
Matt
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12.22.06
Posted in 1. The Story at 4:07 am by Chef Matt
Well, it’s finally over. The rush of parties, the incredible 13 hour shifts, and the arriving at work and being greeted by my boss saying, “Hey Matt, we got a party for 130 people going out the door in 2 hours - you gotta bust ass right now man!”. I put in my day today, and they don’t need me for tomorrow AM, and I am off to Albuquerque tomorrow afternoon to celebrate Christmas with my in-laws, and of course, my lovely wife.
No chef left behind. |
I just want to say that part of me is a but sad to be leaving work a bit early. I feel like a soldier leaving his post early, or a Navy Seal leaving a man behind. It just doesn’t seem wrong for me to be working when my fellow chefs are busting their humps. All I know is, the list of parties is finally down to one last party, and I helped make some of the food for that party well. And might I say, the shrimp salad was damn good.
But the thing I want to talk about is the Christmas party that we had this past Monday night. It was a day off for most of the employees there, but I actually had to come in that day. Yes, it has been THAT busy. I swept and mopped the whole restaurant (the health inspector was coming - we passed) and then started to trim and marinate a bunch of chicken breasts and flank steaks for another party. I cleaned up, and headed home to get changed to come back to the party later.
I came back to the party later with Caroline, and was immediately impressed by the spread. Lots of great food and beer to chose from. We had the party catered, which at first seemed almost counter-intuitive. I mean, having the party of a catering group being catered almost seems like a dentist getting somebody else to floss his teeth for him. But when you thin about it, it makes a lot of sense. For us to cook for our own party is sort-of against the spirit of what a holiday party should be all about. I mean, how does this sound as a set-up:
“Happy Holidays! We really appreciate all you have done for us this year! Now get cooking, everyone else is starving!”
“OK, gimme the bath salts!”
“Then you give me the scented candle collection!” |
Fortunately we were spared from having to cook for our own party, and the Thai food was really quite good. This was followed by a white elephant gift exchange, which is always entertaining. As a suggestion for you all, next time you have to do one of these - lottery tickets are a great gift to give. People will fight for them, and they could be worth a ton, or nothing. (The $20 in lottery tix I brought turned out to be worth $5 for the person who ended up with them.) At first, nobody was stealing anything, it seemed to be a pretty lame white elephant, but then the exchanges started going fast and furious. It was like a Turkish Bazaar on crack. I eventually ended up using my pick to help Caroline get some great coffee gift, but that’s the kind of great hubby I am. Caroline herself was holding on to a Starbucks gift card she was really stoked about, but that was stolen at the last minute by Amy, our pastry chef. I later learned that Amy doesn’t even like coffee, and is going to re-gift it as well. I am sure Caroline will be pissed when she learns that. Thank God she never reads this blog! 
We then received gift bags from the owners which included a bottle of wine and a really nice Restaurant Vero sweatshirt. I think it says a lot about a place you work for to be so nice to its employees like that. It was obvious from how they treated us all to this fabulous party that they really mean it when they say they appreciate all we do for them. I have to say, I was more impressed with this holiday party than I ever was at any of the several I attended at WWF. The love was there, and even though I have only been there a short time, I really felt like part of the family.
But now it is off to Albuquerque. I am sure I won’t be adding anything to the blog for a while, if only because I won’t be working, so there will be nothing to write about. So have a Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year, and all that jazz. Talk back at ya soon!
Matt
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12.18.06
Posted in 6. Reviews, 5. Rants and Raves at 6:33 pm by Chef Matt
The world of odd kitchen gadgetry continues to produce things that I just cannot explain. I love that they keep doing this though, since it makes life so much more interesting. To be an inventor, one must think up one of two things:
1. Come up with an idea for something that doesn’t exist, but that everyone needs. (Example: Invisibility Cloak)
2. Take something that already exists, and improve it in a way that makes it substantially better (Example: Remote Controls for your TV)
Alexander Graham Bell
If he’s so smart, how come he’s dead?… |
The first of these is incredibly difficult. I mean, how do you come up with an idea for something that doesn’t exist? And then, once you have come up with that idea, how do you make it? I mean really, the concept of Alexander Graham Bell’s inventing of the telephone is really something amazing when you think of it. Good work there Mr. Bell! (He also helped invent the hydrofoil, which makes him one of the cooler dead people around.)
But the second form of invention is where the really strange things begin to happen. Sure, there are some great inventions in this second category, like the way Band-Aids are now opened. Remember back in the day with the little red string in there? What the hell was that? Someone actually took the time to invent a better way to package the things, and thus improved them forever.
However, in the world of kitchen gadgets, the real improvements are few and far between, but that doesn’t stop people from trying all the time! Oxo Good Grips for example put out a carrot peeler for people with arthritis, and it turned out to be so great, that they made a whole line of items based on the Good Grips concept. And I think most of their stuff is really great.
But the attempts to improve on the gadetry that already exists in the kitchen took a step too far recently. I just cannot get on board with this:
That, my dear readers, is a motorized pepper grinder with a light.
Yes, you will no longer have to worry about grinding pepper in the dark, this handy contraption will help you see that yes, it is in fact a salad that you are grinding pepper onto, and yes, that is in fact pepper coming out of your pepper grinder!
I mean really, how did the thought process for this go? Was the inventor not happy with all the work involved in grinding pepper (I myself am usually exhausted after a good three twists of a pepper mill myself) and so decided to not only throw in a motor, but while he was at it, also run a light off the batteries so as to drain them even faster? Or was the inventor perhaps not pleased with the way his flashlight was only putting out light into the room, and perhaps wanted a little more seasoning to accompany it?
Either way, this is a truly stupid combination of items. Though I do have to admit, the thought of someone using one of these during a power outage which results in a mass sneezing fit in the dark makes me laugh quite a bit…
And just so we can get them out of our system, here are some other truly ridiculous kitchen gadget combinations that we don’t need that I have thought up, so please don’t anybody invent them:
- A spatula with a clock-radio
- The pedal-powered shrimp deveiner
- A stand-up mixer/garage door opener
- Cheese grating pet brush (be sure to use the right side for brushing your cat!)
- A walkie-talkie garlic press
- A candy thermometer/plumber’s snake
- The hair-trimming… well, anything you’d cook with - blech!
In all fairness though, if for some reason you think you need a pepper mill that shines light on your food,
here’s where you can get one.
So have a Merry Christmas people, and remember, when you are thinking of getting gifts for that special someone in your life, try getting them a cool invention. Like a telephone, or even better, a hydrofoil.
(God, I hope my wife is reading this… a hydrofoil would rule!)
Matt
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12.16.06
Posted in 1. The Story, 3. Recipes at 4:25 am by Chef Matt
For those of you who have been following this blog, you know that I almost had my first addition to the menu at Tirolo in the form of butternut squash soup. I planned it out, and even researched different preparation methods to better suit the equipment we had available to us at Tirolo. I give and I give. But alas, that was never to be, as I had to leave Tirolo before I was able to make that addition simply because I was not being taken all that seriously as a chef there, and so I headed to the greener pastures of Vero.
So imagine my surprise when I arrived at Vero yesterday and Edwin - the line cook who gets it all done - told me that if I had the time, he would love for me to make the soup for the next few days. Wow - what a shock! I mean, this was my free reign to make whatever I felt like, and offer it up to the public. And I had planned nothing. Hell, I was still in the middle of cutting 200 jerk chicken skewers for a corporate Christmas party. What to do?
They are great sautéed, and they make great soup too! |
Well, there was no butternut squash in house, so that was out. The next thought was to think of what was in season. Well, the fall squashes we have had recently looked good, so I decided to make a cream of zucchini soup, basically working form a recipe tat I had learned at Tirolo. (Once again, this was a recipe that they refused to teach me, I learned it by watching. I am sure they would be mad to know I actually learned when they weren’t paying attention…) Anyway, I set about cutting the vegetables and preparing the pan.
All was going well. I was making the right progress, and I was still making inroads into preparing the fruit and cheese platters for the many upcoming catering events as well. Multitasking at its best! But as the soup boiled, I noticed that something was missing. There was a thinness to the soup, and I was having trouble filling it. No need to worry, this is where a little touch of stock helps out every time. If you just add water to soup, it can taste, well, watery. If you add some stock though, there is a richness and depth of flavor that really helps boost the soup to the levels of fantastic that make you want to curl up in front of a fire with a good book and forget about everything else. So no problem, just reach for the stock and…
Uh oh.
For reasons that could not be explained short of a most unfortunate planet misalignment, there was no stock in the kitchen. Here I was with my first real attempt to show these people how I could cook and create on my own, and the most basic soup ingredient was missing from my arsenal.
The “oh shit” alarm began to sound itself at some very high frequencies in my brain.
“Your soup should be green! GREEN dammit!” |
Fortunately, the doctor was in, and I was doing everything I knew how to do to make the soup richer, and thicker - pureed potatoes, more salt, some cream, anything to richen the flavor, but all were just not giving it that “oomph” I needed. But the increased boiling time involved in all this doctoring now meant the greens were discoloring, and the green soup was turning quite brown. However, I could solve that one too: blanch some spinach, puree it, and add it to the soup for a boost in chlorophyll which makes everything more green. The overall doctoring process was taking so long though, I needed to do this color boost THREE times, just to keep my soup green while I stitched my soup creation together like some liquid version of Frankenstein’s monster.
I then hit upon the idea of kicking up the flavor it with some form of a bastardized stock. We were cooking some bacon (bacon makes everything better!) on the side, and so using some of the bacon fat I was able to give some sense of a front taste to the soup. But now my soup was tasting a little too “bacony” (as if there were such an ailment…). So I changed the soup’s direction in my mind. Now it was a “roasted zucchini and bacon” soup.
Yeah - it sounds weird to me too.
I needed to make the whole thing come together more. It was time to break out the garnish. I sliced some zucchini on the mandolin, roasted them in the oven, and crisped some bacon in the oven as well. I also chopped up some parsley, basically to add some green to the whole affair, which couldn’t hurt given my soup’s proclivity for turning brown on me. I finally had the soup where I wanted it. I figured it was good enough for the other cooks to taste.
Who knew these would make a great stock substitute? I will have to remember this trick… |
They liked it, but were hardly turning hand-springs over it. Quite frankly, I wasn’t either. It was still that front note that was bothering us all. It took the tastings of everyone, and the great input of Joy - one of the owners - to come up with the idea to caramelize some onions, puree and add them in with some sour cream to help fill out the front notes of the soup.
Back to work, and away I went on this. The soup was now entering it’s third hour of making, but it was now ready for service. I had a pretty garnish together, and the soup was at the place where I would be happy to have my name attached to it. I asked the servers to push it, and one of the first orders was for the soup “Roasted Zucchini Cream with Crisp Bacon” - yummy sounding, huh?…
I plated the soup myself for the first bowl - I wanted to make sure it was as good as could be for this first customer. With much anticipation, I awaited the server to return to the kitchen. She finally came back for her entree order, and I immediately asked, “So what did they think of the soup?”
“They RAVED about it,” she replied. “They want the recipe!”
Vindication. I would be able to keep my job for another week. 
The recipe would have been easy enough to provide - if I could have remembered the 12,000 steps I put into makin
