It's Not About You

“It’s not about you.”

Four words that I wish someone would have said to me very early in my career.

It’s not about you.

Those words have been rolling around in my head for a little over a year now.  I’ve been fixated on understanding what hospitality means and how to better exemplify it and I’ve distilled it down to those four words. 

Cook's Day Off - Operation "Omelette Farcie"

Well, it's been quite a while since I've had the motivation to post anything here, but my Mom gave me a pretty solid idea.  I've been spending most of my days off cooking for myself lately, little experiments with dishes/techniques I've wanted to try, so why not document them?

For kicks, I'll include what I was listening to while cooking.  A big part of cooking (for me anyways) is having the right sountrack while you're working.  It's completely subjective, but I think it's as essential as pairing the right wine or beer with a meal.  Today I chose The Clash's "Combat Rock" album.  Mostly because it's a classic and has a great tempo for cooking, but also "Straight to Hell" will be playing right around the time it could all fall apart.

No guarantees, but I'll try to be disciplined enough to document them here on regular "Cook's Day Off" posts.  To kick things off, I decided to start with one of the many great absurdities in classical French cooking, and a pro-level egg cookery maneuver.  

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.

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.

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.

World's Best Banana Bread in the Universe Ever In History!

Is that title over-doing it?  I don't think so.

Pimp My Grill - Part 1 - Charmoula

As summer approaches, the grills begin to come out in force (unless you're like some of my friends who grill even if there are 3 foot snowbanks surrounding it).  I thought I'd share grill season favorites, as well as anything I end up creating myself.

What's Your Favorite Thing To Cook?!

The question that makes every professional cook want to jump off the nearest tall building.

Why I Cook

Taking my cue from Michael Ruhlman, whom I greatly admire and who has done a great deal of work demystifying a number of aspects of the culinary universe, I wanted to share the reasons why I cook - personally and professionally. To anybody out there reading this - why do you cook? Leave a comment or shoot me an e-mail, I'd love to hear about it.

RIP Uptown Bar & Café

This is a little belated, but I just wanted to share that subject of my "Comfort Food" post, the Uptown Bar & Café was closed and demolished late last year to make room for some big shiny corporate clothing store. The Uptown was a Twin Cities landmark - damn near ALL of my favorite bands played there early in their careers. Nirvana, Wilco, Uncle Tupelo, The Replacements, The Flaming Lips, Hüsker Dü, and the list goes on. It's a shame and a sin, but it's life.

Surviving Culinary School

Lately I've fielded a number of questions from friends, readers of my blog (which is admittedly not that many people), and members of Chef's Blade about what to expect in culinary school classes. I realized that my earlier post - "Things Every Culinary Student Should Know" - was slightly jaded, cautionary, and not very constructive or proactive, so I decided to come up with some strategies for actually successfully making it through culinary school. I can't think of many fields of work that are more fun, dynamic, and fascinating than the culinary work, so I certainly don't want to scare anyone away.

On Internships

No amount of schooling will leave you even remotely prepared for any sort of leadership position in a professional kitchen; only experience can give you that. After spending more time working at restaurants as a cook than studying for class, I knew that the culinary world is where I wanted to be. I did want formal culinary training, though, so a week after dropping out of St. Olaf College after spending three years procrastinating and changing majors, I was living in Minneapolis and starting classes at Le Cordon Bleu.

Comfort Food

As summer passes, I'm really starting to miss being in Uptown Minneapolis on a daily basis. I miss gutterpunks, transvestites, businesspeople, suburban yuppies, and hippies, all wandering around the same couple square miles. Coming from a small town in southeastern Minnesota, Uptown always seemed like another planet, and still kind of does. I miss all the weirdness and eccentricity of the place. Especially since I'm spending the summer in the only place in the lower 48 that is whiter than my hometown - northwoods Wisconsin.

A weekly ritual of mine during my time in Uptown was to go to the Uptown Bar & Cafe every Tuesday for a cheeseburger I had fallen in love with - the Farmer's Glory. This enormous pile of euphoria consists of - burger, ham, bacon, cheese, egg (over easy in my case), lettuce, tomato, and lots of hot sauce (Cholula preferably). I've probably shortened my life by at least a decade for eating it so frequently, but what the hell, you only live once right? Since I haven't had an evening (much less a whole day) off in roughly three weeks, and won't be having one for what looks like at least two more, I decided to make my own Farmer's Glory for lunch today. I used seared braised pork belly as a substitute for the bacon, which only made it better, and some good Louisiana Hot Sauce, since Cholula is a little hard to come by.

What's your favorite comfort food? Why?

Gardening

There is something intensely satisfying about growing your own produce. As a child, my mom and stepdad would get a little plot in a community garden every summer in my hometown, and along with my sister, we'd grow green beans, corn, tomatos, sunflowers, etc. Though I was too young to really appreciate the quality of freshly grown vegetables free of pesticides, I remember having a good time weeding, planting, tending to the plants, and harvesting when the time came.

Here on the island we've planted a garden to provide some of the produce we use on our menu, so these memories have come flooding back to me. We got it started kind of late, so the productivity hasn't been exactly what we've hoped for, but what we have gotten out of it has been fantastic. We've got swiss chard, a dozen varities of heirloom tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, patty pan squash, mints, basils, fennel, greens, kale, purple cabbage, sweet peppers, hot peppers, and more.

In the beginning -

August 4th 2009 -

The squash in the foreground are struggling a little, but the purple cabbage and kale are massive, and the tomatoes are just about ready to go.

The difference between the produce we pull out of the garden versus what we get from our produce vendor is really startling. Basil has been the most notable. Running down to the garden for a big heap of basil when pesto is on the prep list absolutely fills the kitchen with its scent, and not just subtly, it's almost overpowering. Pulling basil out of the walk-in (when we've temporarily decimated our garden supply) is a total let-down after that experience. The leaves are flimsier, the scent is weak - even when chopping it, and the color of the pesto isn't nearly as vibrant.

I always thought the idea of what Dan Barber does at Blue Hill Farm was really cool and unique. Having a restaurant on a farm where all produce and protein is grown on-site definitely creates its own niche, but after my experiences with our little garden, I really understand what the driving force behind it is. Buying organic/local/fresh produce is wonderful, and I encourage everyone to do it as much as possible, but the flavors and aromas and textures of something harvested that very day is absolutely un-matchable.

This is starting to get perilously long, but consider this last appeal. If you want organic, don't go to Whole Foods or Trader Joe's, go to your local farmer's market. Those of you in the Twin Cities area are spoiled in that regard. The St. Paul Farmer's Market is recognized as one of the best in the country (all product is from within something like an 80-mile radius, I believe), and the Mill City Farmer's Market is also fantastic. Support your local farmers and growers who provide a number of different products, not the mono-culture industrial-organic giants that supply new-age supermarkets like Whole Foods (think of the carbon footprint on the Peruvian organic asparagus you buy in the dead of winter).

Buy local.
Support the small growers.
Enjoy.

The place I call home this summer...

Things Every Culinary Student Should Know

In my infinite wisdom, I have decided to provide you, my adoring fans, with a number of things I believe culinary school either doesn't tell you, or misleads you (whether intentionally or otherwise).

Suddenly Sous...or...The Summer I Lost My Mind

Dec. 19th 2008: Final day of my internship at Fugaise under the tutelage of Chef Don Saunders and Sous Chef David Hara. I have completed all requirements for graduation from Le Cordon Bleu Minneapolis/St. Paul.

March 14th 2009: Closing night at Fugaise. Don tells me of his future plans and offers me the sous position if David declines.

July 23rd 2009 (today): David chose to move on, and I've officially been sous chef at Stout's Island Lodge in Birchwood, WI since May 1st.

I feel incredibly fortunate that my career has taken such an unusual trajectory (more on this in a later post), since I was not really qualified (resumé-wise) for a position like this. But, when a guy who was rated in the top 25 chefs in the Midwest offers an opportunity like this, you just trust that he thinks you're capable of the task, and be very grateful.

On the flip-side, I sometimes worry that I may lose my mind out here. I came into this position well aware that I would be working roughly 16 hours a day, 7 days a week, with a day or two off a month, and was perfectly fine with that. I viewed this, and still do, as a sort of chef summer camp. In a relatively controlled environment (though not without its unexpected moments), I've been given the opportunity to learn ordering, menu planning, and all the fun stuff that goes along with title of "Chef." By the end of the summer I should have a firm grasp on these, and roll into our next project (and possibly my own solo project), The Commodore, in St. Paul. What I was not prepared for, and neither was Don for that matter, was the relative isolation of this place. Since the two of us make up the executive staff of the island, and we're both based out of the Twin Cities, we are the only two staff members who live on the island. At the longest point, I went three weeks without setting foot on shore. It's become a sort of endurance test, much more so than I had imagined, but despite the stress and the exhaustion, it has also been a hell of a lot of fun.