05.19.08
Posted in 1. The Story at 11:49 am by Chef Matt
Can you believe it my loyal readers? It has been a year since my first day at Rustico. (Actually the anniversary was yesterday, but give me a break, I had to work that day…)
As I mentioned before, when I took this job, it was my third restaurant in one year. I was worried about the implications of how I could possibly be perceived as a “jumper” who could not commit to a restaurant for any serious period of time. In short, while I was gaining experience, I was turning myself into someone who was undesirable as a hire. Thankfully, I’ve now proved to all the naysayers - and to myself - that this is not the case.
And that being said, I’m hardly looking for a new place. Hell, I worked for WWF for 8 years, so it is of course possible for me to stick around in a place I enjoy working. And such is the case for me at Rustico.
I have NEVER understood why Kevin Costner posed like that for this movie poster… |
I look back over the past year, and there is so much I have learned. Before this, I was much more in the “Field of Dreams” state of mind with respect to restaurant entrepreneurship: “If you cook it, they will come.” I thought that the only thing that really mattered was the food - if that was good, everything else would fall into place. But after a year of doing the purchasing (and making sure we meet our necessary food cost), employee scheduling, hiring, discipling and even letting a person or two go, it has taught me that the cooking is hardly the whole story.
But that’s not to say I haven’t learned a ton of new cooking tricks and recipes as well! Brewpops not withstanding, I have learned more about pickling different foods than I ever thought I would need to know. (I swear, these guys would pickle a brick if they could…) From making homemade sausage, to learning how to brew root beer, to butchering whole pigs, to making prefect roulades and terrines, my time in the Rustico kitchen has been a non-stop learning experience for me.
And now, with summertime approaching once again, I’m looking forward to long days and weeks of filling in for my staff as they all get to go on vacation while I stay behind and fill in the gaps. I’m not going to lie to you, it’s rough work running a restaurant. But each day I learn a little more, and am preparing myself that much more for the day when I take the ultimate jump.
So, in honor of one year at Rustico, here are some links to some of my favorite stories of what has happened in the past year:
- New Pants - The first time I had you all vote to guide my actions.
- Heavy is the Head… - One of my first experiences where I realized I really was in charge and had to solve all the problems of the kitchen myself.
- The Recipe for a Rough Day - It was a hell of a Sunday then, but I read it now and laugh seeing as how this the case for pretty much every Sunday now…
- Making Root Beer - What a fun learning experience this was - even though I spent more time inventing the recipe than we spent selling it.
- Yet More Kitchen Humor - One of the all-time great food pranks.
- The Real Use for the Pig Heads… - A pig’s head and a reciprocating saw. Awesomeness ensues.
- A New Pizza for Autumn - By far my most successful menu addition.
- Death in the Kitchen - Some of my beloved equipment shuffles off this mortal coil.
- A Surprise Field Trip - A pack of kindergardeners is about to descend on my restaurant. Anyone wanna give me a heads up?
- My Very Own “Big Night” Moment - Not necessarily about Rustico, but still an amazing internal dilemma that strikes at the core of my becoming a chef.
- Don’t Fear the Nettles - I think the discovery of how to use new ingredients is one of my favorite aspects of being a chef.
Here’s hoping the next year will be as good as the last!
Chef Matt
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05.13.08
Posted in 5. Rants and Raves at 9:49 am by Chef Matt
The show on the Discovery Channel about crab fishermen in the Bering Sea, The Deadliest Catch, is a wonderful reality drama, and brings some perspective to what some people have to endure just so we can have whatever food we want whenever we want it. But being a resident of the DC area, there is another type of crab that we focus on around here - the Maryland Blue Crab.
And simply put, they are not doing so well.
The harvest numbers have been declining year after year in the Chesapeake Bay as they are over-fished year after year for crab cakes, crab bisque, crab boils, crab dip and so many other wonderful crab creations. As a child growing up here, I remember the days when a bushel of these crabs were plentiful and cost only about $20. This year, I have seen the cost as high as $220 for a single bushel. But these incredible costs - like our addiction to gasoline - do not seem to be deterring customers. Simply put, we are running this resource into the ground and fishing them out until there is nothing left.
Sure, over-harvesting is not the only factor effecting these crabs. Water pollution - namely agricultural run-off - is killing lots of these crabs as well. But pulling crabs out as soon as they are able to reproduce surely keeps the population down as there is no chance for the current generation to create a next one.
In response, the governors of Maryland and Virginia have listened to this crisis and made the difficult, but correct, decision this year to cut the female blue crab harvest by 34%. Drastic situations have gotten us to the point where we need drastic measures. Yes, some fishermen will lose their jobs. But simply put, having some crab fishermen lose their jobs is better than having ALL the crab fishermen lose their jobs, (and all the crabs lose their lives…) which is the direction we are headed if we keep full steam ahead with our harvesting. Just ask any North Atlantic Cod fishermen what happened up there…
We want a future for these beauties, so let’s control our present… |
But as consumers, we have to take some action as well. We have to cut down our consumption of blue crabs as well. Make no mistake, the fuel on this fire is the fact that we eat these crabs in huge numbers, and thus sustain this $125 billion industry. Cut down the demand, and the harvest will decrease as well. The crabs will have a chance to recover, and then hopefully we can re-establish a more sustainable fishery for the animals. And this will of course only happen with the fishermen themselves understand and cooperate with the regulations that make the fishery sustainable. We have a long way to go here, but it will all be well-worth the effort.
And if you think that’s just wishful thinking, I ask you to take a look at what happened with Maine lobsters.
Chef Matt
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05.05.08
Posted in 3. Recipes, 7. Other Fun at 9:15 am by Chef Matt
Cold, lime-flavored, salt-rimmed glass… as God intended. |
There is nothing that says “Today is Cinco de Mayo,” to me as much as a nice, ice cold margarita. I prefer them on the rocks - to put that debate to bed early - though I will have one frozen too if that is all that is available. But as for flavor, I am all about the traditional lime. I mean really, what else is supposed to go with tequila but lime?
But until recently, a great margarita was something that was only available for me at Mexican restaurants and upscale bars. And even those were frequently disappointing. I’ve tried to make margaritas myself for several years now, and the road has been one fraught with many terrible attempts and nights that (thankfully) I’ll never remember. But with 9 years of persistence and a blending of so many recipes and techniques that I’ve come across, I have finally created what I consider to be the perfect margarita. So great, that I would even dare to call it a “Matt-arita”.
The first margarita I made was two parts tequila, one part triple sec, one part Rose’s sweetened lime juice and ice put into a cuisinart (I didn’t have a blender then…) blended into a bitter, nasty slush of thick chunks of ice with untempered tequila. It was about the worst thing I had ever created drink-wise, and this is coming from someone who has mixed Rumplemintz with Mr. Pibb…
But I was not defeated. I was determined to make my own perfect margarita. So much so that I bought my own giant vat of margarita salt and a set of decorative margarita glasses from a wine festival. Buying items like this when you have no ability to make a decent margarita is optimism in the highest form. Or perhaps it was motivation…
One thing I noticed as I was questing to see how others made margaritas was how other countries seem to use lemons instead of limes with tequila. In Australia - where I did a lot of drinking - it was impossible to purchase a shot of tequila with anything but a lemon wedge. But if you got a margarita, it was made with lime-flavored mix. There is not a large Mexican population in Australia, so we can forgive their lack of understanding on this point. Another country lacking in Mexican immigrants is Ukraine. I was there with a friend, and he said that we just HAD to try this “Mexican” restaurant there. The building was even topped with a glass “dome” shaped like a sombrero. The food was an interesting take on Mexican cuisine, so I had to see their take on a margarita as well. I went to the bar and ordered one, and was sure to watch him make it. Crushed ice, tequila, Cointreau, and the straight juice of a lemon.
Me (left) and my friend Shane in the Kiev Mexican restaurant. I am holding the worst margarita in the world, and I’m not smiling. I’m cringing. |
“Oh dear,” I thought to myself as I watched it being made.
“Oh dear GOD!” I said aloud after tasting it.
My earlier attempts at margarita making seemed delicious and professional compared to this foul slush I was trying to swallow. This was the worst margarita in creation. It also taught me a valuable lesson in approaching a margarita: lemon is not a bad flavor with tequila, but limes are vital.
I will save you all from the millions of iterations of margaritas that I went through before arriving at the perfect recipe, but it was the lack of lime flavor that was always killing me. Most of the recipes I encountered had just Rose’s sweetened lime juice in there for all the lime flavor, and this was just not cutting it. Sure, the Rose’s was important for the sugar to help cut the sharpness of the tequila, but it was definitely a background player.
It wasn’t until I added the juice of a lemon to my margarita that I noticed a boost in flavors that really took me in the right direction. And I decided to really boost it up by zesting the lemon as well as adding the lemon juice. One sip, and I knew I was on the right track. It was all a question of balancing flavors from this point on, and of course, it was the lime flavoring that won out in the end.
So without forcing you to wait any longer, here is the recipe for what I consider to be the perfect margarita. Please give one a try. They’re involved and take a little while to make - as do most of my recipes - but I promise you the results are well worth the effort. I make one, thinking that’s all I want, and I usually end up making 2 or 3 more. Yes, they’re that good.
A perfect Matt-arita. In one of my special margarita glasses, rimmed with my optimistic margarita salt. |
Matt’s Perfect Margarita - a.k.a. the “Matt-arita”
(makes one margarita)
one lemon
one lime
1.5 shots Rose’s Sweetened
Lime Juice
1 shot Triple Sec
2 shots Tequila
(I prefer silver tequila for a
margarita)
ice cubes
Cocktail shaker
two bowls
fine mesh strainer
margarita glass rimmed with
salt
- Zest the lime (only the lime - I have tried it with the lemon too, not as good…) into one bowl.
- Juice the lemon and the lime into the bowl. It’s okay to get seeds and pulp in there, they will be strained out later.
- Add the Rose’s, Triple Sec and tequila to the bowl.
- Give the mixture a stir, and let the mixture steep in the fridge for at least 10 minutes, up to an hour (as if you could wait that long…)
- Strain the mixture through the fine mesh strainer into the other bowl (press the solids to get all the flavor out.)
- Pour into shaker, add four or five ice cubes.
- Shake thoroughly and pour (use shaker’s strainer to keep ice out) into margarita glass.
I’m sure you will be pleasantly surprised with the results - especially with summer’s heat approaching. I can only hope that this recipe goes global - it would be nice to see something like this in other countries some day as well…
Chef Matt
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