Alinea The Cook Book

When Grant Achatz stated at the StarChefs.com congress that his book would be out by early October, everyone was very excited. It was mentioned many times during the three day event. It was explained that the shipment was being unloaded as we sat and listened to him speak.
He also explained to the ones that pre-ordered over a year ago that they may see copies on shelves or on the internet , but those who had the patience would be rewarded on October 13th with Signed copies of the book.
I've waited over a year, I just opened it today and I haven't really looked at it yet. I've waited this long, I can wait until I have enough time to sit down and read the whole thing. I know that starting it will turn into getting no sleep.

Audi Coast to Coast

We mostly do weddings.

There's nothing wrong with that, except that I come from former jobs that cater to the rich.

So, I'm used to the week and a half of feeding the NY Knicks, the Week when the Jeep Liberty was introduced, The Spoleto Festival , you know, these type of things.

But, for the past two years (that's right, friday the 10th will be my second year here at the restaurant and in PA) I've been mainly doing weddings.

It was such a nice change to think that other people know we exist. Sure they were all speaking German and where here for the free buffet on their way to their free dinner in Cleveland, but it felt like we had a chance to reach out to another group. People that would in no way have imagined they would have been pulling off at that one red light in a town that has only one red light off of one of the oldest highways in America and eating in our restaurant.

I'm ashamed to say it, but I know in my heart it's true, I put more into this little buffet of theirs...I cared more. But, I think they cared more. There was no one women in that one hugely expencive gowns their for her perfect night that her family put themselves into debt for. There was no drunken grandmother of the groom that wanted to bitch about her prime rib being bloody. No shit faced best man trying to give a speach while eveyone's food is getting cold.

No, just 1.7 million dollars worth of Audi out my kitchen back door.

The Daily American

In finishing up the "Come to Where Fresh Is" dinner,
I get my chickens from a local farm, Myers Poultry , Diane is awesome at getting me birds pretty much any time of year and any time of day really. On the current menu I have some southern roots remnants with fried chicken and collards. For this evenings dinner I did Diane's chicken two ways, I took my favorite part of the thigh (the larger mussel from the outer side) and gave it a traditional buttermilk, egg, and hot sauce brine over night then breaded it with our own breading mixture. Nothing special really, but who doesn't love fried chicken? Especially if you're like me and a thigh man. I served the fried thigh over my favorite collards. The recipe for the collards is a combination of what Jeff and I used to make at Charleston Chops and what Chef Bob Wagonner used to make at Charleston Grill.
There's a swipe of smoked acorn squash puree (I can't tell you how amazing this puree smells, like smoked buttered popcorn on steroids).
I slow poached the breast in some brewed tea, sliced and served on top of the chocolate ancho sausage.
When trying to utilize local farmers, I finally got in contact with a local bison farm....only too late for the dinner. But, I have them on hand to use in the future. In doing these ribs, I wanted so bad to have the resources of other chefs, it's hard not to want all the latest gadgets to do these amazing things you read about with amazingly expensive pieces of equipment. But...then I realized, I have what some may remember...an alto-sham. A very familiar oven for cooking and holding prime ribs for steak houses or banquet facilities. Well, these ribs where braised at a constant 180 degrees for 22 hours in birch beer. The braising liquid was then turned into a fig bbq, the plate finished with smoked cauliflower, raisins and brussel sprouts. You can't see it here but there's a caramel spoon bread under the rib.
The last course was a bitch.
It came down to crunch time (we also had about 800 ppl in banquets before this dinner was to take place, time to play and experiment was extremely limited) and still no dessert. I wanted to do two, but damn we didn't even have enough plates to do everything I wanted to do. This was going to be an introduction to fall, Pumpkin Pie Noodles with Spiced Apple Gelee and vanilla ice cream from a local supply. Valley Dairy honestly has some of the best ice cream I've ever had and their original factory is about five minutes from my house.


Another hard part about this dish was something coming from the Starchefs congress in NY last month. Watching Heston Blumenthal pour scented liquid over dry ice for the whole audience to enjoy got the idea just stuck in my head. It's such an easy and fun addition, except for finding the dry ice that is. Ed, my sales rep from Reinhart always comes through...60 pounds worth through.
So, dry ice was placed in the outer bowl and in front of every diner was a "light bulb" with our logo on it filled with Chai tea and other spices. It was placed there prior to them ever sitting down, so as the last dish was served I was explaining to the room what to do with their party favor.
It worked out pretty well. It's hard to fit dinners like this into a tight schedule and small staff, but damn if doesn't feel good when it all comes together. It's a rewarding life to feed others.

A recap of the evening can be read here: http://www.dailyamerican.com/articles/2008/10/05/news/news/news221.txt

Wascilly Wabbit

The Third course for the "come to where fresh is" dinner came from a conversation with Carrie while channel surfing and stopping on the Cartoon Network. I can't help but think about watching Woody Wood Pecker and Bugs Bunny on the wall of my Mom's parents house on Reel to reel with no sound, just cartoons and their nemisis.

So, when I thought of this dish, I had Bugs Bunny on my mind and Elmer Fudd.

This is Rabbit Tenderloin wrapped in cabbage (rabbits eat cabbage), Bugs Bunny always had a carrot in his mouth....so, carrot reduction (painted on the plate), Potatoes cooked in carrot juice (fresh carrot juice), carrots cooked in carrot juice,........the Hassenpheffer was an issue.(Elmer Fudd always wanted to make it.)...it was pretty strong.

I took White, Black and Pink Peppercorns and pressure cooked them in Brandy, veal stock and cream then pureed it.

The finished dish got two dots of this puree.

Hot Guacamole

The second course for the "Come to Where Fresh is" dinner was focused on salsa. When I think of a true example of what "fresh" is, I think about salsa. I remember the first time I had fresh salsa, it was at a fellow cooks house during a party he was throwing.

I may have been a little behind when it came to trying new foods when I was younger. I grew up like most kids, eating a lot of foods out of cans, boxes, freezers and nearby pizza shops.

My dad had a garden from time to time and it produced fresh produce, but we didn't know about cilantro or cumin.

So, now, when I think about freshness I can't help but go back to picking up a familiar tortilla chip and scooping up what was "salsa" (not like the salsa I was used to from a jar), and just being completely blown away. Something as simple as salsa had me completely lost for words and feeling very ignorant to what I was being exposed to. When I asked Bill (I think that's what his name is) where he got the salsa, he said "from my back yard". It was the freshest of anything at that point that I had every tasted. It was amazing, like it was just mixed minutes before hand with all the flavors at their absolute peak.

My interpretation is a little different.

There's a hot Guacamole cube on top of a fresh slice of Lambert Farms heirloom tomato, topped with whipped clear salsa and a dehydrated heirloom tomato, along with a "tortilla chip" (toasted tortilla mixed with Isomalt) and some cilantro puree.



The flavors are there and familiar to mostly everyone, hopefully by now, but the textures are different and altered to give the brain a new reference when thinking about the familiar.

Some may think this silly and completely unnecessary, and I've been battling myself to these same reasons and thoughts, but I do think it's important to connect with diners on new levels. To introduce new ways of thinking about things. What limits do we put on ourselves forever if we don't alter what has always just been accepted?

I personally like to think that a dish, any dish, can be ripped apart to it's core ingredients, textures, techniques, flavors and put back together to represent an option a new approach.

Beet Consomme

So, alot of people know this one by now.








I just thought the after picture looked like a crime scene.
After adding gelatin to the beet stock, letting it freeze and then thawing it over a cheese cloth trampoline the stock is






(not as clear as this one)












The stock oxidized pretty quickly. But still tasted really good, so I put some beet noodles and goat cheese noodles.

Holy Smoker!

So, I got a smoker.
I like it a lot.
The bad thing about it, is the restraint that I need to put forth to not smoke everything on the menu.
I've been smoking the home made chocolate and ancho sausages for 5 to 7 hours and they are awesome.

Chocolate Ancho Beef Sausage. Recipe.

Sometimes...you just want to, make something.
Regardless of what you know about the subject or cooking style.
I feel like I haven't given enough attention to the art of charcutirie and know it's do to intimidation and the constant urge to just jump right in.
Patience is not a characteristic of mine.
For instence, I didn't want to spend $100 on a sausage stuffer so that I can learn more about making sausage. Instead, I melted down the size of a plastic attachement ($10 Gander Mountain ) and attached it to our existing Hobart mixer. It worked.......kinda. It seemed to puree the sausage too much as it was trying to force it through the tube.

The sausage came out pretty good though for a second attempt

8# Beef chain, cleaned of silverskin and cut down
3# Beef fat
2 Ancho Chilis, Cleaned of seeds
.5 ounce Curing Salt
1 Tbs Chili Powder
.5 Tbs Curry Powder
.5 Tbs Ground Cumin
.25 tsp Ground Nutmeg
.25 cup Coco Powder
.25 Chocolate Chips
.25 cup Brown sugar
.25 Cup Salt
1 Tbsp Black Pepper
1 Small Onion, chopped
5 cloves garlic, crushed
These items are mixed together and covered allowed to marinate over night.
Ground through medium dye, fed into natural pork casings, poached at 72 degrees C then pan seared.
Ironically, the texture given to the sausage from the make shift stuffer was almost perfect, pate like, but the time given to force it through the extruder is unforgiving.
I purchased a real sausage attachment for a smaller kitchen aid and have also purchased an upright smoker.
So, many things will be smoked from now on.
Like everything maybe.

Korin Knives

I've written before about purchasing a new knife, how there are very few things as great as a new knife. Things like: clean sheets day, new car smell, new socks, that kind of stuff.
Well,....nothing compares to this knife. For so long, so long, I've wanted a real sashimi knife, a knife that would slice with 2% effort from me, a knife that wants to give perfection in it's movements, a knife that has it's own goal and purpose already built into it.
Wilson had a Misono knife last time he was in my kitchen and we talked about how important a good knife is, I mean a really good knife. He told me about a store in NY that had an old man that sat on a plank of wood with another plank in front of him and wells of water around him, in these wells where sharpening stones that he would use to personally put an edge on your knife.
Korin is the name of that store.
"The oldest known Japanese chef knife is over 1200 years old. However, even 1200 years ago, individual knives and special cutting techniques were employed for cutting different types of food. Today’s Japanese chef knives are fashioned by techniques that were originally developed for making katana or traditional samurai swords. The shift from sword-crafting to knife-crafting began in the mid-nineteenth century in response to Commodore Perry’s forced opening of Japan’s borders to Western trade. After World War II, General MacArthur totally banned Japanese sword-making, which forced large numbers of highly skilled craftsmen to turn their skills and attention to the fashioning of kitchen knives. So, for inspiration, the dedicated sword craftsmen began to look to the ambitious creations of creative chefs. In this way, they soon elevated Japanese knives to a state of universal renown. Many centuries later, the "unforgettable sharpness" of the katana is still the distinguishing mark of the Japanese knife." (source: korin.com)

New York, New Life

We got back from www.starchefs.com congress on Wednesday night. The whole experience is just amazing and completely reinvigorating.
I'm still having huge problems with my computer and have no time to fix them, I've given up on trying to fix it myself and am taking it to a shop on Monday.
One of the seminars I went to was on Food Blogging. I really want to make this site work and get some traffic through it. I've been slaking really bad over the past couple months, but I am going to work harder at this once my home computer is fixed. I even have plans to buy a better camera to help with the over aesthetics of the page.
So, stay with me a little longer and hopefully this will become a great source of information sharing, with feedback and an openness for all things food to evolve with everyone involved.

"Come To Where Fresh Is"

We hired a new PR company about three months ago. It's a good thing I'm sure. It's just hard when someone else starts making the ideas for you. It's hard to be given an idea to finish or to be redefined by someone that really doesn't know you. It's a blow to the ego. I know that's not the intention, but they don't know me and how I perceive things and how I conceive things. Ideas from my mind are hard enough to get to the bottom of and get onto a plate and into someones mouth with wondrous enjoyment.
I tend to take a lot of time, a lot of time, coming up with what I want to serve. So much time, due to research and learning about new ideas and new approaches, time to establish what could go wrong and what could go better. But, there never seems to be enough time (nor space) to get it perfect. Perfection can be so far away sometimes it hurts.
When that feeling comes on, it's really hard to get and stay motivated. It seems to be a vicious cycle I fall into, when I think that this career will kill me, drive me mad, or keep me from a life of family and time to spend with them I start looking at my options. "What else can I do?" "What else can I make a living at that will allow me the life I want?"
I always come back to cooking, it called to me at a young age and even though I'm getting older and may never reach the fame that so many people associate with it now, I still love to cook and get my ass handed to me on a busy night.
The creative aspect to it is what can drive me crazy and reward me at the same time. I walked around for a week (that's all the notice and time I was given) with a little light bulb in my pocket, looking at everything food oriented around me and trying to figure how to get it inside the bulb and how this item would stand up to being mailed out to 20 or so members of the local media. And, how to represent our new tag "Come To Where Fresh Is" in a vessel that absolutely requires a 2-3 day shelf life.

It's a marketing Ad Lib.

Basil and Banana Bubble Gum.
That's all I could come up with. Nothing else was clicking. Not that I'm unhappy with the gum, I'm just a little worried that nothing else (nothing) was coming to mind. Nothing that I thought I could complete and package within one week.

If you received this gum, I hope you enjoy it. It was fun to make and I think it taste pretty damn good. The Basil and Banana thing's been on my mind for months now.
And as far as what else I can do to make a living? I think I'm ready to start thinking about owning my own place. It's a process, one that can put me into debt for my grandchildren to pay off.
But, the Basil and Banana will have a place on the menu, I'm thinking "Smashed Banana, Basil, Bacon and Peanut Butter Paninnis".

Dead Computer

So, in the process of trying to install a new security program, my computer was completely corrupted. To the point that (I think this is connected) my bank account was hacked into and my Internet is not working at all.
I can't even install the security program now, it just freezes up and I can't get online help with it unless I'm on thee infected computer.
Non of my pictures are available on my work computer, so the blogging may be stalled for a while.
Thank you to everyone for reading and your comments.