Perfect (and simple) Summer Evening (or anytime) Drink

My good friend (and wine rep...those are good friends to have) Tim Grenier recently shared a simple, delicious summer drink that he picked up from Pete Seghesio of Seghesio Family Vineyards in the Alexander Valley of Sonoma County, CA.

Pour yourself (and a friend or lover preferably) a glass of a nice Zinfandel (no, not White Zinfandel...), and place four or five slices of a nice ripe peach in it.  Let it macerate (soak) in the wine for ten or fifteen minutes, drink the wine, eat the wine-soaked peach slices, and repeat as desired.

Do this outside, on a patio, and enjoy a late-summer evening for maximum effect.

My Favorite Cookbooks

I've seen a few of my favorite chefs come up with a list of their favorite cookbooks recently, and it's always fun to see what they're really in to, and maybe you share an love of a particular book with them.  I'm a cookbook junkie, so when I'm not physically cooking, often I'm reading cookbooks - constructing the dishes in my head, thinking about the techniques, forming new associations that I may not have considered before...and marveling at the pictures (food porn...mmmmmm).

So here's a handful that I keep going back to and what I love about them.  They're all pretty different, but the common thread that ties them all together is that they succeed in being much more than just a cookbook, or a story book with recipes and pretty pictures.  They're books that successfully communicate the philosophy that drives the chef and/or restaurant, and the risk and obsessive determination that goes in to making a world-class restaurant.

Back in Minnesota

Considering I've really only updated this blog when my career has taken a sudden change of direction, I probably sound like a human ping-pong ball.  And in a way, I was.

My time with Cirque du Soleil has come to an end, and I've returned to the Twin Cities.  In the year or so that I was on tour with Dralion, I found myself in somewhere around 35 different cities across North America.  It was the most amazing, eye-opening, exhausting experience of my life, and I'm grateful to have had the opportunity, but also a little relieved that it's over.

I love dearly the people I was cooking for, and they will forever be family to me.  Catering, especially mobile catering working 80+ hours a week, living out of a couple suitcases, in a different city every week, I discovered is not for me.  I belong in restaurants.  And so I returned to the Twin Cities about a month ago and dove right in.

After email-bombing the restaurants of the Twin Cities with my resumé, I was fortunate enough to land at Tilia -  the always-packed dynamo-of-a-restaurant owned by local super-Chef Steven Brown.  Turning the numbers that they do, I guarantee it is one of the three busiest restaurants in the Twin Cities.  Having not been on the line in any way for almost a year, it's been one of the most painful - but fun - experiences of my life.  I'm still a little rusty, but it's like getting back on a bike; some wobbles at first, but things quickly smooth out and I feel like I can think, rather than just try to keep up.  I have endless respect for the crew there, working at such a frantic pace constantly, and turning out food of such a consistently high quality.  They are evil pirate knife-wielding badasses in the most professional, talented, awesome way possible.

Another opportunity quickly came along, and thankfully with Steven's blessings and encouragement, I've also taken a position as line cook opening the upcoming Dayton brothers restaurant "The Bachelor Farmer."  I'll still be at Tilia, but in a more limited capacity, likely day prep, rather than night grill cook.  I've never had the opportunity to help get a restaurant off the ground, and with a concept so unique to the Twin Cities (and close to my heart, as a person of Scandinavian heritage), I couldn't resist.  The kitchen is gorgeous (designed by Alex Roberts of Restaurant Alma and Brasa), the space is fantastic and fun, and we have a rooftop garden!  I predict a lot of really cool food coming out of the kitchen.  We have a young crew of chefs and cooks with some really varied areas of experience and expertise that should prove to be a pretty fertile ideas generator.

Despite my obvious negligence in writing here, I have been writing.  I came up with what, I think, is a pretty solid idea for a book, so I've been writing that in fits and spurts for a few months now.  As a pretty undisciplined writer, it's been a struggle, but as I get further into it and things start coming together it's gotten a lot easier.  A select few have seen some excerpts and I've gotten some good feedback, so I soldier on.  I'm definitely going to try to be more diligent in updating the blog, but I've said that before.  Thankfully writing the book has gotten me thinking about food/career/life a lot more, so the floodgates are opening, albeit slowly.

More to come...hopefully soon.

My First Interview

I was recently interviewed by Rebecca Powers of Hour Detroit magazine.  Nothing too exciting, but it's my first interview, so I had to share.  Here it is.

Gumbo in New Orleans!

As I type this, the "Dralion" catering crew and I are driving through Chattanooga, Tennessee en route to Charlottesville, Virginia. We started at 7:00am from Houston, Texas, and anticipate arriving just before 6:00am tomorrow. We timed our arrival perfectly, though unintentionally, to stop for lunch in New Orleans. We met a friend of Brian's at a little hole in the wall called the Convention Bar & Gril, and I had a killer bowl of gumbo.  Since Patrick and Jena had never been to NOLA before, we drove around the French Quarter for a bit after lunch.  Showed them Bourbon Street and Jackson Square, then hit the road.  

The last time I was in New Orleans was pre-Katrina, and from the looks of it, the French Quarter, downtown, and other high traffic areas have recovered completely.  The outlying areas are a different story.  I remember them looking pretty rough before the storm, but a lot of it looks like the hurricane hit last week.  There are still partially-collapsed buildings and houses where you can see the high-water line standing as a silent but glaring monument to a total catastrophe.  It's really sad.

...so I ran away and joined the circus.

Much has transpired since I last posted.

From May through mid-August I was back up at Stout's Island Lodge, this time as Executive Chef & General Manager. It was definitely a valuable experience, but the two positions were definitely too much for one person to do and do well. My biggest lesson - don't bite off more than you can chew. Thankfully, my kitchen crew up there was fantastic and could hold their own if I needed to elsewhere, or if I was standing in the corner with my head spinning. It was great being in control of my own menu, testing ideas, getting feedback from diners.

In mid-August, I was contacted (via Facebook no less, turns out it serve a purpose for more than just wasting time) by an acquaintance from High School about a job opportunity. The catering company that feeds the Cirque du Soleil arena tours was looking for an Executive Chef to head up a new tour (Dralion). Brian, my friend, was promoted to Catering Manager for the upcoming tour, and I was apparently the first person that came to mind when he set about hiring his staff.

So now here I am, in Houston, TX, preparing for the tour to kick off on October 7th. One doesn't quite comprehend the amount of planning and logistic involved in running a traveling kitchen, much less an entire touring group, until you're in the midst of it. I still haven't completely wrapped my mind around it. Coming from a background of small fine dining menus, having to write a unique menu (lunch, dinner, post-show snack) every day is quite a shock to the system. Bring in to consideration that you're cooking for world class athletes with caloric and dietary needs and it set my head spinning for a couple days. I was fortunate enough to travel with the "Alegria" tour for a few weeks to learn the ropes. It's going to be an incredible adventure. I'll keep you posted!

Social Media & the Independent Restaurant

The restaurant industry and social media platforms have always had a tenuous relationship.  With the advent of the message board and blog, suddenly the phrase “everyone’s a (restaurant) critic” became excruciatingly true.  Next time you’re going to go out to eat, hop on your computer and Google the restaurant you’ve chosen.  No matter where you’re going, - a rural truck stop diner or Jean-Georges, I guarantee there will at least be a couple dozen (if not hundreds) reviews.

I’ve heard a number of friends and peers in the industry lament the fact that “any hack with a blog” can smear a restaurant (deservedly or not) and damage its credibility, but fail to acknowledge or fully understand the enormous potential that free web-based platforms offer the restaurant industry – especially the independent operation.