Scallops

Squared and tied with Honey Basil puree, Danish Blue, Radish Sprouts.

"Dr. 15904"

Turkey breast enhancement.








Venison sausage stuffing.

This years Christmas turkey was that much better with this addition plus a long brine, an accidental longer-slow roast, and being shared with actual family members. Nothing against work family of course.

Prime Rib Poached NY Strip

One of the most anticipated things in my life was Prime Rib at the revolving dining room in the sky at age 8 on a family vacation to Niagra Falls.

The way I remember it, there was more build up to "prime rib" from my Dad then there was to the falls....I was not disappointed. The Prime Rib I had that night set forth a craving for slow roasted fatty laden proteins smothered in Horseradish that would last forever.

Whenever we cook off a prime rib for a banquet, I still gorge myself on the lip. The tender, filthy, salt collected, disgustingly eye rolling back in the head, fat absorbing, stringy pieces of meat at the bottom of a roasted prime rib that (usually) gets trimmed off due to excess fat surrounding it, and usually makes the whole cut to big for the plate.

I don't like NY Strip or Filet Mignon. Two over priced pieces of a cow that I will gladly cover with A1 sauce or let the rest of society pay more for to keep the price of ribeye down.

But what to do with all those drippings (fat) from the prime rib? Smell so good, so unhealthy though, smells so good, smells like a slow roasted-herb-salt-pepper-horseradish smothered piece of ribeye should smell after some time in a slow oven. "Save it, I really want to use it for something." I've been saving all fats lately.

This one is gold though.

Zach's Dinner

Hot Dog Sushi with soy ketchup, wasabi mustard and soy drizzle.

Rice Crispy fried shimp salad with pop rocks to make it talk.
Third course (not pictured) was StarBurst Candy Cane dusted Scallops on Old Bay risotto with Creamy Cream soda foam.
Prime Rib Poached strip steak with Goat Cheese creamed cous cous.


Fried and BBQd Venison stuffed chicken (Sweet Baby Rays)
Blue Cheese brownie with Thyme Chocolate and Grenadine.

It's always fun to cook for your employees. When there's time to really have fun with what they're going to be eating that night. You get to insert some of their favorite
food items in some not so familiar ways.

Hot Dog Sushi

Oh yeah, I love hotdogs.
Fried up in tempura cornmeal batter and served with Soy Ketchup and Wasabi yellow mustard.

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Basil Panna Cotta

With Pumpernickle french toast and honey caramel.

Antelope Enchiladas

Perrin from Broken Arrow Ranch persuaded me into a whole antelope leg from thier Texas ranch.
Here it is served with Cranberry Tapenade puree, Braised leg meat mixed with fig mole, and a couple slices of sous vide loin.

Pumpkin Pie Salad....

.....Just another picture of it.

Pork Tenderloin....

....vanilla and honey poached.

Creamy Cous Cous, Chard-Lady Apple-Sage, Goat Cheese fritters.

Vodka-Sechuan peppercorn syrup.

Duck and confit, true love.

Orange Duck, confit pad thai, sake and pineapple cucumbers, and pinacolada sheet.

Scallop Lasagna

Activa!
Wonderful thing.



Puree scallops, bind scallops, spread scallops, cut scallops


sear "scallops"

Stack scallops with crab, apple, truffle, sauerkraut syrup, and basil xanthan.

German/Alsace Wine Dinner

Pumpkin Pie Salad.



Finally, after a little asking and nagging towards TerraSpice they got some Gellan.



Combined with pumpkin paper and cinnamon watercress salad and soy molasses.



And I'm going this direction with wine tastings...up....
The progress will proceed upwards.
Usually 5 to 9 courses.

Feast Or Famine

I don't imagine that I have many followers on this Blog. I pretty much put this together for two reasons.
1. I wanted my parents to be able to see what my life is like in a kitchen. To see what kind of food I enjoy making and why I spend so much time working. To try and let them (and others) understand why I love what I do for a living.
2. For my own personal collection of "Ideas, thoughts, mis-hearings and random spouts of my brain." Something I can direct others to, wether employers, employees, family members, or the curious.

I've been slacking on producing anything of any intrest lately. I realize that. And in some disturbingly sad way, I've actually worried about it.
In the sense that....I haven't been inspired. Inspiration comes and inspiration goes.
After ten months without the two sous chef positions I had filled when I moved here, after three months with only two line cooks (both in thier teens), after a summer/theatre/into fall season doing everyone in 4... thirty minute increments twice a day, as banquets/ordering/blah blah blah everything work/working saute shit goes on..........Now we're pretty much dead.
Sure, the one or two "big" Christmas parties a week are happening, but it's not enough. Not here. Not what it could be. Nothing is ever what it could be.
I find myself taking as much time off as possible. Not really a bad thing....but when you love to work and your work is your love, it has an effect on you. On top of that, still having to be at work when nothing is going on. The only person in the kitchen. No reservations, maybe just driving in to do ordering....KILLS motivation. Being the guy that takes gas money (I was gonna say rent money, but everyone of my employees lives with thier parents, except one and her son works for me to) from them with no hours.
In addition to my excuses, my camera has been broken. BUT, I just got it back yesterday. Thanks to two friends that helped me out. (It's hard to get packages delivered to your house when your never there).
SO! On with new pictures and posts.
Look above.

Soy Ketchup

Beef Chain Confit

Pretty much all profit.

Truffle Pickled Green beans, Arugula Salad, Crispy onions.

Spiced Gin Tablets

Almost perfect.

Beef Chain Confit

These will make a triumphant return to life on Thanksgiving.

MY KITCHEN?

I neither have the patience nor the time to go back and see if I've....,,,,sorry .., nor the memory, of whether or not I've posted the past year of construction. Never ending...construction...but, by my own ideas for the most part. Recently, it was brought to my attention that there was a large cooler up for auction....we acquired it.

It sat in the very back doorway to the place. In the dry storage room, for several days.

Very hard to move around back there.

Wouldntjano? The cooler doesn't fit through any doorways into the kitchen.

Ratchet Man, Jimmy. Just cuts this place to shreds whenever. He's been maintaining for his entire life I'm sure. Who am I to interject?

Click on the pictures to understand what needed to be done just to get a cooler into the kitchen. It was taken in through the banquet entrance then through two dinning rooms, some railings and walls had to be removed...then the rest of the doors where cut off..along with some wall and a support beam.

These pictures go through a year of movements.

Understand, this was a house that was forced to be a sandwich shack 80 some years ago and is now being "used" as a fine dining experience in Pennsylvania. We make do, and I'm proud of what it's been turning into. It may not have the latest cooking equipment, it may not have the latest cooking equipment by 1980's standards, but trust me, a lot of cooking happens here. And the challenge in that alone would stop most people.

Tristan Cam

A former employee of mine, that knows how much I love and miss Charleston sent me this link
http://tristandining.com/introNEW.htm
I've never eaten at Tristan, but I worked at least two blocks away from it for years.
A former employee worked there doing pastries for a while, her brother told me about the "Veal Sorbet" he had while he was there, and an old friend was the bar manager there....may still be.

I've talked for years (literally) about a web cam in the kitchen.
Pros: 1.The so called "Reality" TV shows about kitchens are bullshit, a real kitchen cam would prove way more entertaining.
2. The entertainment value is untapped.
3. The spin-offs would be unstoppable.
4. The expressions of true love and passion concerning food might actually be understood by the rest of the world, not passed off as a learned "trade skill".
5. The home cook can put away his or her dreams of owning and operating their own Restaurant, once they see what it takes to work in one.
6. Ideas and techniques can be shared properly with great detail.
7. Want to talk about Drama? Try ER meets Passions. (I've never seen "Passions" but I think it's a soap opera and that's a lot like a kitchen at times.) (Any soap opera will do.)
8. I've already got the T-Shirts in mind. $$$$$$
Cons: 1. The general population will know what goes on in a restaurant kitchen, possibly YOUR restaurant kitchen.
2. The amount of money it would take to pay someone to work the "Bleep" button would put you way over on labor costs. So, he would be fired. And Sailors watching everywhere would blush.
3. Who knew the twisted things you can re-in act with chicken carcasses?
4. The recorded story of the "Potato People Vs. Baked Potato Bar-Man", may or may not be a success story.
5. You'd get to meet someone like John W. Grube, neither pro nor con I guess.
6. And, maybe no one wants to know. What it takes out of the people that feed you.

We just say "Enjoy".
And that's all we want. Is for You to enjoy what we put together for you....and for us. We enjoy when you do.

Christopher Shay

I am an uncle again.
Christopher Shay, born 10:10PM November 15 2007.
I can't wait to meet him.
Maybe someday I'll have my own.

Table Magazine

http://www.tablemagazine.com/

Brief article in the latest issue.
"East of Pittsburgh"

FOUND!

Sometimes when you find the perfect spatula it becomes harder to find.

I've been buying the same spatula for several years now. Not even the Good Grips website carriers this spatula anymore.

So, when found at the "In The Kitchen" store on the Strip in Pittsburgh, I pretty much bought all they had. Should last me a couple years.

Things to work on

Winter Projects
BBQ Ice Cream
Cigar Smoked
Truffles and Root Beer
Soda Brines / Marinades
Root beer Poached Pears
Wasabi Poached
Beets Cooked In Coconut Milk
Isomalt
Deep Dish Pizza Pot Pie
Smoked Ice Cream Pops
Poached Egg Timbale
Vodka Candies
Tuna Melt
Muhammara
Pate Satay
Dissolvable foods
"Ice Cream Soda"
Smoke Bubbles
Avocado Cheese Cakes

Puffs
Seafood (scallop) Crème Brulee
Lemonade dessert
Egg less desserts with Xanthan
Old Bay Cotton Candy
Chicken Chorizo
Turtle dessert
Coffee Caramel
Tobacco Teas
Grape Cider
Alcohol Pickle
Pancake dessert, Baked Casserole
Cherries and Truffles
Mayonnaise Ice Cream
BLT
“Banana Bread”
Orange Julius
Chili Chocolate Rice Pudding
Apple Mustard
Soy Ketchup
Curry Cheesecake
S’more Bomb
Mint Julip pate
Japanese Tea Garden
Stripes

Pear Strips

New Scallop App.

Curry Pears and Raisins with Cipollinis, Pine nut Relish, Spice Cake and Orange Julius Foam

Last Course, Levendi Wine Dinner

Pear and Peanut Butter Tart with Marshmallow Ice Cream.

served with a Late Harvest Chardonnay.

When your produce company sends you way to many Asian Pears, some courses just decide themselves.

Lamb Parfait

5th Course: Lamb Parfait (Bottom to Top: Brie Mashed potatoes, Braised Leg of Lamb, Brie Mash, Chocolate-Cabernet Sauce, Toasted Macadamia

Not the prettiest dish of the evening, but full of flavors.

the leg of lamb was pressure cooked with cherry juice, Pepsi, oranges, herbs and espresso beans. Finished with stock and peanut butter. Very rich.

Wilson's Duck Rosti

4th Course: Crispy Duck Breast, Potato Rosti, Arugula, Pomegranate-Truffle
The arugula was quickly sauteed with shallots and carrots. POM pomegranate juice was reduced down and mounted with Truffle butter.
This was served with Symphonia Cabernet. Great flavor combinations.

Braised Pumpkin

3rd Course: BBQ Beef stuffed Baby Pumpkin with Cinnamon Green Beans and Pomme Frites. Served with Sweet water Cabernet
I first started braising pumpkins about 5 years ago, they make a great vehicle to deliver a starter, soup, or dessert. The guest get a big kick out of it to, especially in October.
I confited beef tenderloin chains like you would duck confit. Cured and slow cooked in rendered beef fat. The BBQ sauce is based off of the pumpkin braising liquid with a molasses background to it. This course went over very well.
The entire dinner is on my top five list easily.





Matt Baer made a Jack-o-latern to show how tiny these guys are.