A Day in the Life of a Chef

New position, new school, new list of bloggable projects ;)

2011-11-25T14:35:00.001-05:00

So, as you may already know, I started this new job with a private day high-school back a few weeks ago. I'm really looking forward to sharing my knowledge and passion for food with everyone. My new staff is just awesome and I recieved a very warm welcome from all the faculty and students.

Just so happens, this month is Native American Indian Heritage Month. It's a great way to, not only, introduce the students to a fun and exciting new food, but also a great chance to educate them about a topic they may not know much about.

So, that being said, I decided to set up a little Fry Bread Taco station in the corner of the servery, put up some nice educational posters, make an authentic recipe given to us from the Rose Bud Tribe that a teacher just happen to have laying around and start handing food out. The schools percussion section of the music department put together an AWESOME tribal drum demonstration in the middle of both lunch periods. Wow, was that fun! It was a learning experience for all involved.

Pics below...

Been a long time, lots of changes for the better...

2011-09-05T20:13:00.000-05:00

Sorry for the delay in blog updating these past few (cough) months. Well, to say the least, a lot has happened in my life and to make a very long story a lot shorter, I'm back home. After 16 years in North Carolina, Manchester or bust! I've had some great times and have met some great people. I will miss a few of the people that I have met and am looking forward to my new life back home in Manchester where I was born and raised. I need to thank the good and, especially, the not-so-good people that I have met along the way while I was down there. Good or bad, you have enhanced my life in one way or another. You have helped me be a better person and showed me how NOT to act and for that, I am truly grateful.

Charlotte, NC (The Queen City)

Anyway, I'm settling in to my new life, one day at a time, and it's great to be back. I missed everyone so much, I missed this old city from which I was brought up. I missed all the old mill buildings, the river and the food. I must admit, not being plugged into the local food scene like I was in Charlotte is kind of a drag, but I just got back and this town could use my help, for sure.

Manchester, NH (The Queen City)

I must admit, though, Manchester, NHs local food scene has come a long way since I left almost 16 years ago. At one time, the best place to eat here was the local diner, but now, there are many locally owned places that take advantage of the local/ seasonal fair in this area. I'm amazed on how many farmers markets and farm stands there are around here! So many to chose from. Makes me very happy to know that I can drive within 15 miles and find a half dozen places over flowing with produce and locally made products.

I'll miss the friends I met in the Charlotte area, I'll miss the amazing food and the southern hospitality and charm, but BOY its great to be back. I'm looking forward to our first snow storm, growing old with my amazing girlfriend, landing my dream job and making a difference. Thank you Charlotte for helping me become who I am today and thank you Manchester for such a wonderful welcome home.

Stay tuned for more fun and excitement :)

Radio interview at Basil magazine...

2011-02-21T01:59:00.006-05:00

In another attempt to spread the word about local and seasonal foods, I had asked Basil Magazine to allow me a few minutes to discuss this on their online radio show. The Hostess Chef Jennifer Booker interviewed me this evening, asking questions pertaining to what projects I am working on, where I work, the challenges of writing a seasonal menu and more.

It was awesome to be able to chat with Chef Booker. What a perfect medium to get the word out! In addition to plugging my employer, we discussed lowering our carbon footprint by buying local, the nutritional value of foods that are very fresh as well as the excitement of using products that are fresh and grown or made with passion. Of course, we discussed the two schools I'm currently working with with the "Chefs Move to Schools" program.

Check out the interview here. Thank you for listening!

Winter Cooking Demo at Pinewood Elementary

2011-02-18T00:18:00.007-05:00

As we are slowly making our way out of winter and into spring, I've been asked to return to Pinewood Elementary and talk to a few 4th grade classes today about eating locally and seasonally.

For this demonstration, I brought a farm box from Barbee Farms that had the items that they have in season right now that I can make a salad with.

The demo began with a review of what we learned last time. It was awesome to see hands fly up to discuss Basil Pesto and Pasta. Most of the students even remembered my full name! Was great.

As we progressed, I opened my box of goodies and discussed the lettuces and vegetables I brought. Red and green leaf lettuces, arugula, mesclun mix, carrots and more. I brought some citrus and some balsamic vinaigrette to make a seasonal dressing and, of course, a few cool gadgets to show off.

We discussed the nutritional value of eating fresher, local foods that are in season. Also, informing that, once the vegetables are picked, they lose vitamins and minerals and the sooner they are eaten, the better. This is one good reason to eat from your area farms as the stuff is coming out of the ground.

A film crew from the local health department was there to film my demo as well as a photographer taking pictures. They submitted their film to a government web site and sent me a DVD of the video and all the pictures. Very cool, helping to spread the word!

Before we all left, the film crew and I visited the 4th graders garden sites where the new spring garden will be going in a few short weeks. We are all very excited to grow stuff and I'm SUPER excited to show the students how to create healthy meals with their new food items.

Coming up, we will tour a local farm and I will create a healthy dish using those ingredients grown at the farm.

Check out the video below!

Garden planning at Davidson...

2011-01-31T09:54:00.003-05:00

Moving right along with the "Chefs Move to School" program with an area school in Davidson, NC.

We are in the beginning stages of the garden planning for this Spring. We will be planting a small garden in front of the school for the next semester and today we pulled weeds, marked off the garden plot with stakes and twine, discussed what we will be planting and so on.

The students decided to grow snap peas, carrots, radishes and more. I will be showing them how to create healthy meals and snacks using these ingredients and to help them make smart choices when eating.

It was great to see everyone get excited about the garden. I think I'm more excited to show students how to make the food than they are of planting it, lol.

Stay tuned for more fun!

My "nose-to-tail" pig project...

2011-01-31T01:21:00.015-05:00

I've always been in to pushing the boundaries of the day-to-day. I think this is why I am so attracted to the restaurant business. Never a dull moment and you never know what each day will bring.

A fellow chef and good friend texted me asking me for ideas on what to do with a whole pig he recently purchased. My mind was racing with great things one could do with such a divine creature; guanciale, bacon, smoked trotters and hocks, head cheese, chicharrón, the sky's the limit! I was inspired by my friends quest and so I did something about it. (Thanks Bryan!)

Someone showed me this pic and asked me if I could really eat such a cute creature? (Umm...YES!)

So, I've decided that, since I've never broken down an entire animal before, I'd do just that. I bought a whole 60 pound suckling pig decided to create as many items as I could with that beast. Kind of like showing respect to the animal. Besides, will be great practice for my butchery and charcuterie skills. :)

Cut in thirds...

My piggy came in frozen solid and needed a few days to thaw. After a good "chill" in the cooler, I plopped her out onto the prep table and began. Armed with a hack saw and a couple sharp knives, I began my duties.

Dispatched...

Even though this was a small pig, I still had to put two cutting boards together to have enough work space to butcher this bad boy. After a good rinse, I began by removing the head. I put this aside for head cheese I plan to put on our charcuterie plate at a later time. Besides, I've always wanted to taste head cheese over a nice local salad.

Burning off the hair for the head cheese.

Simmering away in wine, garlic and herbs for about 5 hours.

The finished product, pretty yummy!

Next, I removed the hams and then the buts with my boning knife and under sized hack saw (next time I do this, I will be sure to buy a real butcher-style hack saw and not a small house-hold one from my neighborhood hardware store, lol). It took some doing, but worked out perfectly.

I removed the skin for pork rinds, the trotters to add to the head cheese and the hocks for smoking (think I'll put those in some local collard greens, yum), then saved the butts to make American style hams. The hams came out amazing, but, sadly, I didn't get a picture of the pork rinds before we ate them all! Yes, they were insanely good.

Perfect ham with Dijon brown sugar glaze.

Smoked ham hocks for collard greens? Maybe soup?

Now, I split the saddle down the middle. I removed the bellies of both sides. One of them will be stresa (a flat pancetta) and the other half will be traditional belly bacon (or streaky bacon).

Hack saw. Splitting the saddle in half.

Future bacon.

With the loins, I sawed one into chops (I marinated those with jerk seasoning and grilled them!) and the other, I broke down into loin/ tender loin feeding the ribs to my cooks for our dinner. (they simmered them in a spicy jalapeno salsa and we ate them over rice with tortillas, yes, it was good.) The other loin, I made into Canadian bacon for eggs Benedict ;) .

My finished Canadian bacon came out perfect!

Tiny loin chops!

I love tasso ham, so I de-boned the shoulders, cured them, packed them with spices and smoked them over hickory. Salty, hammy goodness :)

Any scraps left over were set aside for meatballs. I will sear them and serve them Swedish style over home-made egg noodles.

So, head cheese, tasso ham, American style ham, pork rinds/ chicharrón, bacon, stresa, Canadian bacon, smoked hocks and meatballs. This little piggy definitely went to market and a tasty market at that! Next time, I will source a larger animal and get some better tools. But, this was a great experience for sure and I really learned a lot!

(more pics to follow!)

Chefs Move to School, continued...

2011-01-24T14:58:00.004-05:00

This week at Davidson Middle School, another day with the Chefs Move to School Program, we discussed how to make salad dressing and dipping sauces using the emulsion technique. I brought along my handy stick blender and a container with a screw-on-lid discussing that you don't need a fancy gadget to make an emulsion. The students chopped garlic and grated ginger while I discussed different oils and vinegars that one could make a dressing with. A couple students cleaned sugar snap peas for later.

Afterwords, the students went to visit a local farm in Concord, NC to discuss eating local and to see where there food comes from. They toured the farm, picked lettuces and discussed the importance of local farms in the area.

They then came back and ate what they bought from the farm using our emulsions and their dipping sauces. A fun time was had by all! If you hadn't had a chance to work with kids about the importance of good food choices, eating healthy and using seasonal ingredients, you should try it, its great!

Deep Plate Challenge...planning, plating and eating!

2011-01-19T01:20:00.016-05:00

Wow, this is gonna be great! I'm doing this sweet challenge with another chef for the upcoming Deep Plate Exercise. In case you hadn't been following along, this plate company sends out a plate to you (if you are a professional chef or culinary student) each month, you plate up your food on it and send them pictures. They then post the pics with descriptions on their web site and facebook page.

Since I really shouldn't post this blog until the contest officially starts, you'll be reading this after that day. Makes things a little more fair, eh?

The chefs name that I will be challenging is Richard Taitt. I don't know this person, but I'm looking forward to doing this with him. Should be a blast.

After a little planning and scheming, we have to do 5 courses to consist of an amuse, an appetizer, a salad, a main and a dessert.

For my amuse, I've come up with something small, two bites, that reflects the season:

Butternut squash and wild mushroom filled ravioli with fried shallots, chili oil and micro basil and radish. Soft fresh pasta filled with local butternut squash, some wild mushrooms and a little ricotta. Combine that with the crisp fresh micro greens and fried shallot, a perfect bite.

For the appetizer, something a little more substantial but light:

Pan-seared scallops over pesto with micro radish salad and extra virgin olive oil. Seared on a hot pan and placed on a fresh pesto sauce, great combo. Of course, we need a little crunch, so its topped with strips of radish and local micro radish greens. And, for some color and nuttiness, topped with some amazing Greek olive oil. A nice app to set you up for the next course.

Salad, fennel, frisee and radicchio salad with toasted hazelnut vinaigrette. Crisp and delicious. The bitterness of the radicchio and frisee together with the sweetness of the fennel and leaf lettuces go great with the nuttiness of the toasted hazelnuts. Perfect combo.

Main, pan seared loin of beef over creamy polenta and topped with roasted mushrooms and pearl onions topped with local micro greens. A heartier course but not too heavy. Even though it is beef, the portion size is perfect. Soft polenta goes great with the roasted mushrooms and onions. The mushrooms have a unique crispness that just blow your mind!

And, finally for dessert, double chocolate cherry cheese cake topped with bourbon cherries and micro mint. A chocolate blast! Dark, semi sweet chocolate, bitter sweet cocoa and bourbon soaked cherries go great with that punch of micro mint and crunch from the Oreo crust. You may have to keep yourself from licking the plate!

I got the hook up on the micro greens from Lucky Leaf Gardens, thanks Kate!

Each of the above pictures, along with the other chefs pics, are judged by our peers on Deep Plate's blog. Not sure if there is a prize, but bragging rights to the winner is good enough for me!

Check out the link and cast your votes! :)

[edit] Thank you to all who voted, I won by over 50% of the votes! Cool stuff :)

New menu, first month and it's highlights...

2010-12-31T05:15:00.007-05:00

If you've been following along, you will no doubt remember that I was rolling out a new menu incorporating local and seasonal ingredients at the restaurant I work for, The Galway Hooker Irish Pub. When the new web site is up, I'll post a link. Well, having just past week four of this great project, it's time for a little reflection.

It took a few days of bumps and grinds, and continues to somewhat, to prefect it, but it's coming along nicely.

If I'm honest, rolling out a new menu of this magnitude for the first time in almost three years of this place during the busiest month of the year was probably not one of my finest choices culinarily, but I digress. My mentality was "Maximum Exposure" and I sure got it, lol. If I had waited a few weeks and rolled it out in January, I would have had less than half of the exposure and, besides, what fun would it be to roll out a menu during the SLOWEST month of the year, lol, I have to keep my boss on his toes, right? (Sorry Chris, didn't mean to stress you out, lol).

Week one was a little crazy. We had a celebrity comedian working the comedy zone upstairs and, well, it was a bit of a nightmare. Ticket times were horrible and, well, a few people were pissed off, including my staff and I. The only thing to do was to learn from it, prep more and be READY! And by the end of the week, we were. Nothing like a little embarrassment to get you motivated.

The next week went a lot smoother. As any decent chef would agree, it's all about mise en place or having your things in their place.

Fast-forward a couple weeks and my guys have a much stronger grasp on things. Shoot, some of these guys never saw a micro-green before in their life before they met me! lol. Aside from having to gently remind the boys how I want the plates to look, I think we've made huge head way in getting the new menu out.

This past week, we've been busier than I expected and the menu is getting rave reviews from just about everyone. Of course, there's always the one or two that just cant be satisfied no matter what (makes you wonder why they even leave the house, really) but I take them to a grain of salt and just try again when they come back.

I'll post a few pictures when I get them.

Romantic dinner for two via Basil Magazine

2010-12-31T05:10:00.004-05:00

For a little over a year now, I've been writing an article for the online publication "Basil Magazine". They hide my articles deep inside their website, so good luck finding them, lol. If you have enough patience to find said articles, check out my latest one in the upcoming February edition. I've been asked to do a product review for my choice of cooking vessels by doing a romantic dinner for two.

Being the corny romantic I've been known for, I decided to test this out on one of my biggest fans; my wife.

The item I chose was this ceramic wok from Emile Henry. What a beauty! Bright red, ceramic, held heat like a champ and easy to clean!

In keeping with the Asian influences of said cooking vessel, I decided to go with a menu inspired by such cuisine.

A quick trip to the Asian market inspired me to take on this:

Deep Fried Crab Balls with Water Chestnuts - Served these puppies with a sambal ranch :)

Beef Chow Mein

Crab balls before eating...

About to eat this bad boy!

Chocolate covered lychees, yeah!

I love that wok man! I never thought you could ever get a great experience in cooking with a ceramic wok. I mean, all my life, I've had to learn how to use a metal one; keep it clean and dry, well seasoned and suffer a horrible cleaning disaster. With this, all I have to do is toss it in the dish washer! Very cool. Since I didn't have to pay for it, I could say for sure that it is worth every bit of the $200.00 they wanted for it!

Sous Vide Demo for my local ACF Chapter

2010-12-31T04:55:00.010-05:00

Having fell in love with the Poly Science sous vide machine carried by Williams-Sonoma, I've offered to demo the benefits of sous vide at the Charlotte chapter of the American Culinary Federation (ACF).

It has been a learning experience for my two helpers and myself, for sure. We all discovered that 12 ounces of marinade is enough to flavor over 40 pounds of meat! Pretty awesome. Also, I discovered a way to make amazing fried chicken to order without having to store raw chicken under my line cooks station and its probably the best fried chicken we ever ate!

Short ribs, well, I shouldn't have to tell you how good they are when you cook them low and slow for two days! No waste, no mess, wow.

During setup, I took a few pictures.

This small 12 ounce bottle was enough marinade to do 40 pounds of chicken legs, very impressive.

Hands-free cryo, nice to have when taking pictures, lol

Almost 50 pounds of short ribs, two cans of this great rub from Williams-Sonoma, seared, cryo'd and they took a 140F water bath for over 48 hours. We almost wept a little when we ate them. They even made their own jus, conveniently, which I mounted with some local butter, yummers.

Carrots that don't suck? Oh yes, I figured out a way and yeah, they were awesome. Maple and local butter glazed. They stayed bright orange and tasted like love. I swear, they were the best damned carrots we ever ate! Again, this small bottle of maple syrup was enough for all of this 25 pound batch of carrot bats. Yes, those are nobs of that local butter I keep yapping about.

We had a blast setting up for this event. We cryo'd almost 100 pounds of protein and over 50 pounds of carrots and local potatoes. That's a lot of bags. We used two vacuum machines and my poor little house model cryo machine kept over heating, lol, which slowed things down a little. Only took about 6 hours to rub, sear, pour, season and suck, lol.

[edit] just got the weather forecast, this demo was canceled until further notice. Sad to say, I was really looking forward to this. Well, I'll keep you posted!

"Big Boss" of Raleigh, NC local cuisine beer dinner...

2010-12-09T00:30:00.003-05:00

Great night tonight. We recently rolled out a new dinner menu using local and seasonal produce, cheeses and such and it's going well. People seem to be very receptive to our new and improved menu and ideas, which is a relief, to be honest. My ideas of great food is not always in keeping with OTHER peoples ideas of great food. To me, there's nothing like an unctuous pork belly sandwich or a rare steak simply seasoned with salt and pepper. Most folks, sadly, eat to live and have the palate of a small child.

Anyway, people are excited about our new dinner menu, which makes me excited.

In addition to our dinner crowd enjoying our new offerings, we ran an intimate beer dinner in our private banquet hall upstairs. Big Boss Brewers offered the beers and I came up with a menu based mostly on locally produced goods. My kinda food. Its easy to pair food with beer if you have access to the best of each.

My morning started off picking up some local micro greens at Lucky Leaf Gardens and then a load of locally grown produce at Barbee Farms. Earlier in the week Ashe County Cheese delivered some of their yummy-ness and a farm in Rutherfordton, NC sent us some quail eggs and mache. Awesome.

Menu was this:

Starter

Spicy Sage and Fennel Local Scotch Quail Egg with House-Made Whole Grain Mustard (passed)
Paired with: Blanco Diablo (Belgian Style Wit)

Soup

Roasted local pumpkin and toasted black pepper bisque topped with local pumpkin sprouts and pan-fried coriander pumpkin seeds
Paired with: Hell’s Belle (Belgian Style Ale)

Salad

Honey Cider Poached Local Apple, Baby Arugula; Ashe-County Crumbled Blue Cheese, Sweet Spicy Local Chestnuts, White Balsamic and IPA Vinaigrette, Parmesan Curls
Paired with: High Roller IPA

Main Course

Slow Braised Local Pork Belly with Roasted Local Root Vegetables, Wilted Local Greens and Bad Penny Pork Jus
Paired with: Bad Penny Brown Ale

Dessert

Dark Chocolate and Roasted Apple Crème Brulee with Caramel and Apple Chip
Paired with: Aces and Ates (Coffee Stout)

Needless to say, everyone was a little drunk when they left but they all had a blast. Unfortunately, no one had the fore-site to take pictures and I just didn't think to. You'll just have to make sure you come to the next one to see how things look! :)

Chef's to School Program and my journey with Davidson Schools, continued...

2010-12-05T04:05:00.003-05:00

Today during our current "Chefs move to schools" project, we discussed healthy alternative ingredients in baked goods. The 8 students picked out three baked items and I replaced or added an ingredient in the food with a healthy alternative.

Chocolate Chip Blondies where I added sweet potatoes, apple crumble where I used whole wheat flour and oats in the crumb topping and corn bread where I added a little butternut squash. All were yummy and a little healthier than their alternatives.

A great time was, again, had by all. We all enjoyed eating our subject material the best, I think.

Another demo at Williams Sanoma Birkdale...

2010-11-15T23:35:00.005-05:00

This new sous vide machine is just amazing. I got to play with the Polyscience Sous Vide Professional Immersion Circulator for a few days then do a small demo for about 12 people at my local Willams Sanoma. People loved it so much, someone actually bought one! That same person is having me over to teach them how to use it, joy.

We showed the crowd how to sous vide a bone-in turkey breast then deep fry it, yum. Tender, juicy and delicious! We also pushed the new "Smoking Gun" made by the same people who make the Immersion Circulator to smoke some of the cooked turkey. Fantastic. There were a couple more toys I got to play with; cryovac machine, a couple sweet knives, and more. I love being a chef. After it was all said and done, I went down the road and had a meal with my wife and relaxed at home, not bad for my "day off".

As a result of this last class, a customer had asked me to come to their beautiful home and show them a few ways to use the immersion circulator. We had a blast.

We did salmon with a simple orange vinaigrette, acorn squash with butter, brown sugar and cinnamon and 48 hour short ribs (which are cooking right now). Here are a couple pictures I took.

New menu preparation, Day 2

2010-10-29T12:29:00.006-05:00

Day two of the practice run for the new menu. Knocking out some yummy stuff, as usual.

Sweet potato bacon hash with granny smith apples.

Bringin' back onion soup!

Pan-seared tuna slider with pickled ginger, fresh spinach and soy mustard.

Angus slider with pimento cheese and fried onion strings.

New chicken Philly (will be tweaking this a little)

The last three sliders; crab cake with baby arugula and lemon caper tartar sauce, pork belly with caramelized onion marmelade and pickles and corned beef with braised cabage, Swiss cheese and remoulade sauce.

Onion jam for the new Arancini (fried risotto balls)

More to come. Come check us out when the new menu rolls out in November.

New menu practice run Day 1

2010-10-28T09:05:00.009-05:00

Our new menu rolls out in a few days and we're doing a practice run starting today.

So far, rubbed some "Fred Flintstone" sized beef short ribs and pork belly on the braise :) Yum...

Pork belly scored before cooking.

Enormous beef short ribs before being rubbed with spices. :)

Nice hot sear on these bad boys.

Bacon pimento cheese spread. In this pic it's hot, not too happy with the way it looks, but the flavor is awesome. Will have to work on presentation.

Lobster baked penne, eh, yummy but lobster was over-cooked, will revisit this again.

McNcheese, yum! A winner.

Braised pork belly, need I say more? Will make a slider out of this when the new bread comes in the morning.

Club steak (our new house steak). 12 ounce bone- in NY strip steak, just awesome.

Braised beef short ribs, OMG! Delicious.

The "local seasonal" salad. Everything grown within 20 miles and picked within 2 days.

More later!

Our stay at The Mast Farm Inn in Valley Crucis, NC

2010-10-18T23:36:00.010-05:00

My wife and I feel pretty refreshed. We both lead pretty busy lives and spend most every moment, that we are not working, together. Most of the time we just hang out on the couch watching TV or walk around the neighborhood. Occasionally we'll even make it out to the local mall which is about as exciting as it gets here in rural North Carolina.

More often than not, though, we venture out and check out this amazing state in the ever-loving search for great food, attractions and lodging to match. We try to find places where the views, food and lodging are all perfect and occasionally we land the tri-fecta of greatness.

Unlike a few recent trips to say, Blowing Rock, NC where it was very over priced, the food was very mediocre but the lodging and views were AWESOME. Or Nashville where the food was cheap(er) and great, the views were good only in certain area parks and the lodging was dodgy, we ended up having a great time more or less just because we were with each other, lol. Or that trip to Washington DC where everything was over priced, the views were mind blowing and the food was awesome, this most recent trip to Valley Crucis, NC had the mother-load. The food was cheap AND awesome, the views took our breaths away and the lodging at The Mast Farm Inn made us speechless.

The views from the wrap-around porch made us feel small. The colors were the best thing we've seen since Franconia Notch, NH! Every shade of yellow, red and orange you could think of, wow.

Every detail was thought of. They left us a personalized welcome note on our bed complete with our names and a 10th anniversary congrats! They knew what our coffee preferences were, left us flowers for the occasion, remembered our names, just awesome. With that sort of eye for detail, it saddened me to see the dead flowers on all the breakfast tables the next morning. I met the cook, who bragged about using "local organic produce" but, during the peak of apple season, didn't use any! As a matter of fact, the only fruit we encountered at the inn was the orange juice. :(

I'm not going to hold that against them because, seriously, they hit every other nail on the head. This place, with its multiple cottages on the many acres, organic garden, honey bees (they have great house-honey), reflecting pond, views and just great service, I can let a couple minor things slide. :)

They have a horse and donkey that really enjoy carrots, lol. My wife almost lost a finger in this shot! They were little sweeties those two.

The logo'd soaps and bathroom items was a nice touch and the huge claw foot tub was a nice place to chill after a long day.

We really loved the gas-fired wood stove in our room, it was toasty and warm on a cold autumn night.

There were no TVs in the rooms in the main house, our cell phone signals were pretty marginal and the creaky old wood floors put us back in time where you had to entertain yourself without all the "luxuries" we have today.

While we were there, we visited a couple apple stands, ate boiled peanuts and drank hot cider. The Woolly Worm Festival in neighboring Banner Elk was in its final day and I had my first fire roasted chestnuts I've ever had in my life and BOY, were they good! The other fair food (hand-breaded chicken tenders and hand-cut fries) we had was delicious, especially with the regional Blue Grass music plucking away in the background. Great time.

If you live in the area and need to get away for the day or weekend, check them out. There's lots to do and see in that area and you wont regret it.

My cooking demo for a local schools science class

2010-10-13T01:26:00.012-05:00

Wow, what fun! Today was a blast. A mutual friend gave a local science teacher my contact information because she heard I had done some cooking related stuff with a few students in the past.

I've always had a personal interest in teaching kids how to make healthy choices with their food and to educate the parents of said children on the importance of eating healthy, local and seasonally whenever possible. It just makes more sense. We have a lot of obese kids in the world because of the combination of video games, parents working two jobs to make ends meet and sedentary lives based on laziness and convenience. What happened to the old days when we played out side and had to be in by the time the street lights were on!? Eh, moving on...

The morning started off pretty early, around 8:00 am, at a Charlotte neighborhood public school's cafeteria. There were about 80 students, their teachers and a nutritionist from the local health department there, cameras in hand, to learn the difference between scratch made items and store bought.

I decided to keep it simple and show them how easy it is to make pasta and pesto sauce from scratch. It was fun to see the kids faces when I passed around a little ball of dough for them to feel. A basil leaf was passed around for them to smell. We discussed the reason pesto is green (a lot of kids didn't know what fresh basil looked like, which kinda solidifies my point of how important it is to educate kids about food!) and made three types of pasta with my pasta machine. Rolling ravioli sheets and stuffing them with goat and ricotta cheeses, caramelized onions and Parmesan made a few kids say "ewww", lol.

Fettuccine and angel hair were rolled out too, got a lot of "WOW"s for that. One kid yelled out that it looked like play dough, lol. At the end, I boiled the pastas up in salted boiling water and tossed them all lightly in the fresh pesto sauce. I sent it off to each of the classes and am not too sure on the kids reaction to the new food, but I can only be optimistic.

Off the kids went back to class, I cleaned up, had a chat with a few of the cafeteria workers and off I went. Funny thing, I was looking around in the kitchen at some of the food they were preparing for the students and it didn't really surprise me. Pre-formed breaded chicken patties thawing out on a speed rack, a worker was filling up cereal bowls with salty tortilla chips, another was cutting open boxes of chicken nuggets. I didn't see a vegetable or a fruit anywhere, sadly, but I can only hope they were just sitting in the walk-in coolers for later. On my way out the door, the cafeteria manager made an announcement over the intercom about a pizza special that week, which I can bet wasn't hand-tossed on wheat crust!

We, as chefs, really need to educate our local schools and show them how easy it is to create scratch made locally produced meals. I know that not only would the students enjoy it, but I know the cooks would have a lot more fun working with the freshest ingredients instead of opening so many cans or slacking frozen chicken. Sorry, that's my rant for today :)

They've asked me to come back in the winter and do another cooking demo and I'm really looking forward to it! We are also going to be working together on a garden in the spring, can't wait!

Also, at yet another school, we are making strides towards educating some of the local neighborhood kids about gardening, eating local and the importance of a balanced diet with a school in Davidson, NC. We met with a few of the faculty and plan to begin moving forward mid-November. This winter I will be discussing healthy eating, menu and recipe creation, kitchen tours, charity dinners and much more. It's going to be a blast! In the spring, we will be planting gardens and eating the bounty upon harvest turning this into a huge educational experience for everyone involved. I cant wait!

Promises to be a busy time, but SO worth it. Anything I can do to educate is always worth it.

Stay tuned, more fun to come!

(images courtesy of Alison Mignery)

Chef's to School Program and my journey with Davidson Schools...

2010-10-13T01:24:00.006-05:00

A chef has to have passion. If one does not, than one will burn out fast. It's important to me to make sure that I leave behind a legacy. What better place to do this than with children?

My employer and I are going full force with a couple area schools with a program and criteria inspired by the new "Chef's Move to School" program.

We have set up an 8 week class with the middle school. Last week we discussed different types of salts, the health benefits and problems regarding salt and the origin of all types. This week I taught the students about knives and kitchen small-wares in a professional kitchen as well as in the home. Of course, safety was discussed in length.

For the next six weeks, we will be learning how to cook a couple healthy snacks, get a "behind the scenes" look at the kitchen I work in, discuss certain reading materials and much more. Should be a blast. Stay tuned for more.

Here are a couple pictures taken this week;

The road to my ACE certification began today...

2010-10-13T00:51:00.007-05:00

A little over a year ago, I got my Certified Executive Chef certification. Been a fun journey before and since! Having the need to constantly grow and better myself, it's time to add a few more letters to the end of my name (and a good excuse to buy new chef coats, lol).

With a little help from a good friend and fellow colleague of mine, I began my journey towards yet another certification, my Approved Culinary Evaluator or ACE certification.

For those not sure what I'm talking about, according to the American Culinary Federation (ACF) national home page, ACE certification is described as:

Approved Certification Evaluators (ACE) are an integral part of any ACF Practical Exam. Levels of ACE status: Approved Certification Evaluators proctor practical exams, Lead Evaluators coach and supervise apprentices and Regional ACE Trainers facilitate trainings and refreshers. As an ACE you can extend your professional experience to fellow chefs while earning continuing education hours. To maintain your ACE status, you agree to attend an ACE refresher course and evaluate at least one practical each calendar year.

I spent the day, which began at about 8:30 am, with five other chefs which were showing me the ropes. I had a great time watching and learning and drinking tons of coffee, lol.

There were 10 chefs going for different levels of certification. From CSC or Certified Sous Chef to CEPC or Certified Executive Pastry Chef to CEC or Certified Executive Chef. It's amazing and exciting to be on the other side of the fence. Not being evaluated, but being the evaluator. When someone is nervous, I can tell and I feel their pain! When someone makes a mistake, I want to cry out to help them, "NOOO!!!!", but I cannot and should not.

To most, certification is HUGE. Its a milestone in our careers as chefs. We spend all our lives busting ass, killing ourselves to make it in this crazy business. To be better than the person next to us, to maybe make a little bit more money and be recognized for not sucking! Sharing this with fellow chefs is an amazing honor and I'm grateful to be a part of it.

Here are some pics of food and some action I was a witness to.

CPCC Culinary Arts Spotlight...

2010-10-13T00:45:00.002-05:00

A wise man once said, "Everyone gets their five minutes of fame", lol, well, today I discovered 1:23 seconds of that fame at the web site of the culinary school I graduated from, Central Piedmont Community College.

They came to my my current place of employment and filmed me for about 20 minutes and aired just over 1 minute of that. Very strange to see oneself on TV.

Who knows, maybe this is my way in to my own cooking show or just a blip in my bad-ass career :) Time will tell.

Home-arama 2010

2010-10-06T23:13:00.007-05:00

This week, I had the pleasure of participating in the Charlotte HomeArama at The Preserve at Robbins Park, in Cornelius, North Carolina. It was basically a huge open house for homes worth over half a million bucks and an excuse to showcase everything home-related you could think of. From interior design to counter tops to pools, it was there, waiting for you to drool over like a juicy cheeseburger.

There were five styles chosen and five chefs (well, three chefs and two line cooks, to be perfectly honest) were asked to cook in each of the amazingly state-of-the-art kitchens. From 11:00 to 2:00, we were asked to showcase our talents and feed the 300+ passers by that paid the ticket price to join us.

My dish consisted of a local/ seasonal dish of a trinity of ravioli; Fresh thyme pasta filled with wild mushrooms and ricotta, carrot tomato pasta filled with duck confit and spinach pasta filled with spinach and cheese. Each of the three mini hand-made raviolis (900 to be exact!) were placed on a small puddle of butternut squash soup (you know, the award winner I posted about a few blogs back?) and topped with toasted butternut squash seeds, local micro greens and a really nice extra virgin olive oil. Very clean, colorful and autumnal. I, and everyone who ate it, was impressed and loved every bite of it.

My buddy in the house near me made his own blue corn tortillas and stuffed them with the peoples choice of beef, fish or chicken and topped them each with a slew of condiments, pretty delicious. So good, in fact, I was pretty concerned that his would win the little contest we were all trying to overcome. There was a gas grill on the line for the chef that had the most votes for "Best Dish". As far as everyone could tell, I was a show-in.

I spent the previous three days preparing for this "event". Hand-rolling 900 mini raviolis and pureeing 5 gallons of butternut squash soup. Unfortunately, that doesn't just happen in an afternoon. Especially when you're the chef for a busy caterer and restaurant.

Unfortunately, at the end of it all, the winning dish was not mine. The chef that won was a super nice guy, but his scallop was WAAYYY over cooked, which really annoyed me to lose to that sort of cooking 101 stuff.

But, at the end of it all I had a great time. I bumped into a couple folks from a private catering I did a few months ago and got to support a couple local farmers, all was good in the end.

We chalked the winning dish up to politics and since I know a few influential people read this blog, I'll leave it at that.

Anyway, at least the chef was a nice guy, would have made it that much worse if he was a dick, lol.

More pics to come, but check these out:

New "Irish Gastro-Pub" menu

2010-09-28T03:57:00.006-05:00

I've been with this new job for over 3 months now. In these short three months, I've knocked out acres of catering from 10 to 500+, baby sat a small but hard working staff of 5 and, sadly, had to cook another chefs menu. No offense to my predecessor, but its time for a change. I've had to witness more brown food than I should have for far too long, lol.

The owner and I have agreed, its time for a change. After a little coercion, I finally got them to see eye-to-eye with me and move towards an Irish Gastro-Pub concept. We'd use local and seasonal food whenever possible, keep it simple and exciting and give the entire food concept and well deserved face-lift.

I started off getting some plate samples. Its hard to put new food on old plates. These, for instance, are well past their usefulness and are badly scratched and tarnished. Reminds me of Greek diner plates you'd see at your local greasy spoon, not those of an up-and-coming gastro pub.

The food? Well, I wrote the menu based on what I know is seasonal, as I always love to do. The farmers I use are ready and willing to deliver upon my request. Gonna be awesome!

Stay tuned for pictures and other info! Meanwhile, here's a teaser of whats to come:

Bacon and Pimento Cheese Dip - with Irish soda bread crisps
Arancini (fried risotto balls) - Cheese and bacon filled risotto balls, breaded and deep fried, served with pesto ranch and lemon jam
Poutine - Hand-cut fries topped with melted “Ashe County” cheese curd, diced Irish Bangers and house-made brown sauce (a Canadian classic with an Irish twist)
Charcuterie Plate – Locally produced cheeses sausages and pates served with an array of condiments and toppers, a perfect platter for snacking
Lobster and Shrimp Cheese Baked Penne - Penne pasta with three kinds of cheese and chunks of shrimp and Maine lobster simmered to order and...
Oreo Cheesecake – Made in-house, best in town!
Irish “McN’Cheese” - Buttery Irish cheddar and Guinness cheese sauce, chunks of crispy fried local potatoes tossed together with...

More to come!!!!

Music City Challenge K1 Competition

2010-09-28T03:12:00.011-05:00

Back home after yet another competition and another medal. I didn't get the medal I hoped for, but had a great time and, most importantly, learned a lot. I did get fourth overall in points, which is nice, lol.

This one was in Nashville, TN, just about 7 hours from home down I-40. After working an 11 hour day the day we left, it was an above average long trip, to say the least.

Our visit/ hangout sessions

We arrived to our hotel around 2:00 am local time and slept like rocks for a few hours. My wife and I wanted to enjoy a day together in Nashville before the competition that next morning at 7:45 am. What a nice town! They recently had a huge flood a few weeks back. A few of the tourist attractions were still closed after all these weeks later. The Grand Ol' Opry hadn't been re-opened yet and a huge mall was still under water in some areas, apparently, and may never re-open. Was sad.

But, that didn't stop us from have a great time and finding a couple cool things to do. We started our morning off by grabbing some breakfast. We were told by a few locals that "The Pancake Pantry" was the place to be. We, literally, stood in line for an hour for a table. They offered hot coffee while we waited and everyone there was courteous. After, finally, sitting down, we were quickly looked after with more hot coffee and menus. Of course, we had to have pancakes! They were light and fluffy and just perfect. We indulged in some of the usual breakfast fare to include sausages, eggs and toast. Me, well, I had to have the "Grill Medley" of perfectly cooked hash-browns smothered in thin strips of ham, peppers, onions, two kinds of cheese and two fried eggs, lol, topped with a blob of picante sauce, which is a pretty popular food topper in that area.

The dining room was this cavernous place with the typical smells and sounds you'd expect from a place turning tables every 20 minutes. I've never seen so much whipped butter before in my life! This one woman's job was to scrape a big spatula full of this stuff on the edges of everyone's plates before they went to the tables. My kinda place, lol.

After rolling out of there, we waddled across the street to an eclectic old book store where I found a REALLY old copy of Larousse Gastronomique. For those of you that don't know, its one of the leading encyclopedias on French Cooking. Pretty great find!

Off we went further down town to Centennial Park where we strolled around an art fare, which was amazing. Checked out the Parthenon and the little ponds and sitting areas the park had to offer. What an amazing place to hang out. We even saw this dog being pushed around by this old woman, too cute! The weather was perfect in every way too. Was a great day to be alive. Especially for later that evening when we went to dinner!

On our way to a local cigar shop, we stumbled upon a donut shop that sold the best day-old donuts we ever had, lol. Well, they probably weren't "Day Old" but we caught them at the tail end of a long day, they may have just been left over from the morning, who knows, but they were still yummy.

I enjoyed one of my favorite pass times and had the new "Gordo" by CAO. A behemoth 60+ ring, 6.6 inch long beast of a cigar at "Uptown's Cigar Shop". It was almost too much for me, lol, but just amazing. Now time for dinner:

As with most places we visit, if you want to know about the local restaurant scene and what's good, most of the time the local cigar shops tend to send us in the right direction. I mean, its their job to sit on their asses, smoke cigars, watch football and eat out a lot, right? SO, what better people to ask than that? :) They sent us to a place called "Table 3" up the road a bit. This place offers "French Comfort Food" and try to use as many local products as they can, according to a server that greeted us at the door. (I ain't buying it, lol, but whatever).

This place, apparently, just reopened a few short weeks before to this new concept. Unfortunately, I was so hungry and ate so fast, I didn't click any pictures. :(

We started off with an amazing french onion soup. The base was this unctuous veal stock with piles of deeply caramelized onions topped with gooey, stringy cheeses and a crostini, perfect. We split the charcuterie plate that had 3 types of house made pates, pickled veggies and mustard's strewn about on this huge square plate. Sadly, the grilled artisan bread was stale. After asking our server for more, "fresh" crostini, she apologized and brought us yet MORE of the same stale bread. Kinda sucked and made this otherwise perfect noshing situation a little but annoying.

Anyway, moving on...I had the perfect steak tartare topped with a bright golden farm egg yolk (accompanied by yet more stale crostini to spread it over!) and then the main course. My wife enjoyed a hand-formed house-ground burger with house-cut frites, me, well, I gorged myself on the perfect salmon fillet. I asked for it medium rare and it was perfect. Served over a bed of beluga lentils and a roasted tomato hollandaise sauce, yeah, it tasted as good as it sounds.

Dessert? There was no room man, sorry. BUT!! There was a Starbucks and we had a bag of semi-stale donuts from earlier that day. We grabbed a couple hot teas and headed back to our hotel room where we enjoyed a donut and some tea before crashing to bed like a couple of old people at 9:30 pm, lol. I had to get up at 5:30 that next morning so I could listen to a bunch of overly self important Chef/ Judges tell me how much they know about what they know.

The Competition

I've been awake for 10 minutes when the alarm clock went off. I was really excited to get started. We showered and ate a nutritious continental breakfast of stale cereal and cocaine-laced rocket fuel coffee. My wife made a fool of herself trying to make a Belgian waffle, poor thing. We had a good laugh and were off. She was my groupie for the day, taking pictures and cheering me on in her mind.

We arrived an hour early, unpacked my wares and looked on while my fellow competitors jammed out some incredible food. From "Chicken Bacon" to "Maque Choux", there was some amazing stuff going on.

For those of you that dont know, the category I entered was the "K1" which is defined as:

K-1—Rock Cornish Game Hen, Chicken or Duck
Fabricate and cook a 1-1½ lb Rock Cornish game hen, a 2-2½ lb chicken or a 5-6 lb duck,
using the whole or part of the bird.

At 7:45, I began to setup my station and by 8:00 a.m., I was rocking. My dinner item was:

Sous Vide Duck Breast over Local Greens Fricassee topped with Autumnal Crisps

I had my ducks in a row (no pun intended, lol), worked clean, tidy and organized. Got the sous vide machine fired up to 140.9F and cooked the duck for 25 minutes. Let them rest for 10 minutes, seared them to render out the duck skin, making it crisp and yummy. Thinly sliced butternut squash, beets and turnips on my Japanese mandolin, deep fried and salted them, set them aside. I chopped my arugula and mustard greens, sweat some shallots and garlic, caramelized some torn oyster mushrooms, deglazed with white wine, added some cream, reduced it, seasoned it and wilted my greens into this delicious reduction.

Clean, hot plates of course. I was to do 4 plates of this course. One plate for display and 3 for the judges. Laid down my fricassee while my duck rested off the pan, sliced it thin on a bias, placed it gently over that and topped with my crisps, easy peasy! At the last minute, I sprinkled some local red chilis on everything, judges didn't care for that much. It seemed like a good idea at the time, lol. I drizzled some extra virgin olive oil over it for color as well.

So, after it was all said and done, the judges spoke their verdicts. They loved most of everything but nit-picked like mother hens. Most of us over produced, they couldn't figure out why I sous vide my duck, they bitched about the chili strands but liked my dish overall. Flavor was great and my duck was perfectly cooked (because of the sous vide machine, most likely). One of the judges even said I took advantage of the rules by using sous vide. Douche. I followed the rules to the letter, give me a break.

As I've said before in past blogs, the judges, although are great competitors and have an eye for detail, most of them hadn't stepped foot in a real kitchen in years, kills me some of the shit they complain about. You do one thing that a judge hates, being sure not to do it again next time, then during the next competition, the next judge suggests I try (enter complaint from previous judge here). So, one never knows what to expect.

I just compete for myself. Sure, the medals are nice, bragging rights at best, but the competitions make me a better chef. They keep me on my toes and break up the mundane and boring things we have to do every day for 80 hours a week. We also get to meet some great people who kill themselves for this fine business just like I do.

Thanks for reading!

My experience with the new Polyscience Sous Vide Professional Immersion Circulator from Williams Sanoma

2010-09-06T08:48:00.009-05:00

As you may already know, I've had an ongoing relationship with Williams Sanoma. They've had me teach a few cooking and equipment demos in the past and its been a blast!

Recently, they asked me to demo their new Polyscience Sous Vide Professional Immersion Circulator for the home cook. I will be teaching a class geared towards chefs and restaurant owners alike. Before the class begins, I get to play with it for a few days and its just amazing!

So far we've done chicken breast "Greek-style". Simply cryo-vac'd with a little EVOO, kalamata olives, feta cheese and pepperoncini peppers.

I did duck confit, which I eventually stuffed into a ravioli with ricotta, Parmesan and goats cheeses, yum. It took about 8 hours but it was well worth the wait.

A friend and fellow chef did 48 hour braised beef short ribs which were insane inside a house-made corn tortilla topped with a fiery salsa and lime.

Salmon, with a short 20 minute simmer, was just perfect. Tender, juicy and full of flavor.

I even took that bad boy to a competition in Nashville , TN where I did duck breast marinated in olive oil, fresh herbs and orange zest. After crisping that skin up, it was the best duck breast Ive ever noshed!

It's just great machine. If you are a home cook that just loves to cook sous vide, than this is for you! If you are a professional chef and want to save over 400 bucks on an immersion circulator, this is a MUST HAVE!!!

Check out their site for more info and go get one :)

Behind the Scenes at Barbee Farms...

2010-07-27T22:31:00.007-05:00

You know I'm a huge fan and proponent of eating local and supporting the local food producers the best I can and whenever possible, right? And, if you've read a few blog posts back, you'll remember when I visited Barbee Farms earlier this year for a private tour. Brent Barbee showed me around before things started coming out of the ground. The grounds were empty, cleaned and ready for planting. An amazing site to see.

Fast forward to yesterday and things on the farm look MUCH different now. The once cleaned and dormant grounds are now bustling with corn, squash, melons, beans, okra, peach trees, and so on! It's mind blowing to think how much work these people have to go through to fill these acres with all this great stuff! They make their living on this, which puts it in perspective for sure.

I asked to help out back during my first tour and, of course, they were more than happy to take the free labor, lol. It excited me to be able to see another "behind the scenes" look of what goes on at a local family-owned farm.

My day started off at about 9 am at the Barbee's farm stand they have on the farm itself. The stand is open Monday through Saturdays at 1o am. People can come visit to pick up fresh picked produce, just minutes old in most cases, and enjoy food grown with love and hard work, the way it should be. Seems a lot of us have gotten away from that sort of eating, which is a shame. Anyway, moving along...

I was then taken to a green house where the seeds begin their journey in planters. We planted a couple kinds of squash and some lettuces. These will be planted later this year for the fall season. After they were watered in, we were off to the next project.

On our way to harvest some giant sweet musk melons, passing by the 7 foot corns stalks, an ear of corn called my name! I asked them to pull over and ripped a corn cob off, peeled it and revealed this bright white sweet corn. It's always been said that corn right off the stalk is really sweet and can be eaten raw. Well, I bit down and...wow...it was like eating corn-flavored-sugar. So good. I munched on that for a few minutes and started picking some melons. The taste of sweet corn stayed on my palette for a long time, yum. Later that night I roasted some whole cobs in the oven for dinner, but that's for another blog, lol.

Picking melons was a lot of fun. Someone drove the four-wheeler that puled this 20 year old trailer that's been patched together a million times, lol, but hung in there while we piled a few hundred pounds of cantaloupes on top of it. Three of us picked the nice sun-warmed, vine-ripened orbs and threw them like 10 pound footballs at our catchers who gently placed them into the trailer. As we walked the length of the rows of melon plants, the four-wheeler, trailer and catchers followed along with their eyes on us, waiting for the next beast to come flying. Occasionally someone would toss a rotten one and get the catcher full of rotting melon goo, pretty funny.

I could've have stayed their all day and helped out, but I had to get going to finish a few projects around the house. It's amazing what goes into running a small family farm. From planning to planting, to crop rotation to feeding, watering, picking, selling...hours and hours of back breaking work just to make a living. It makes more sense to me now why local food generally costs just a little bit more than the flavorless hockey pucks we get shipped from California!

Next time you visit a farmers market and buy from a vendor that actually grows, harvests and brings the food to market, just remember what it takes to get that ear of sugary white corn to the stand. How much sweat it takes to grow that heirloom tomato or white peach should be worth at least a few more cents a pound.

The very short time I helped out can't compare to the hours, days in and days out of back breaking labor it takes to support a farm. I had a great time though and I hope to do it again!

Seems sad to think that we as Americans have become more focused on saving a few cents at the grocery store to buy mass-produced flavorless foods or meats that are full of chemicals or from badly treated animals. I think we should revisit the "old days" and get back to out roots. Buy local and meet a farmer, it could change your life.

Do a comparison for yourself. Buy a tomato from the grocery store and buy a tomato from a local farmer. Cut them open and taste the difference, you may see what I mean. Words cant describe the difference.

Check out these pics:

Pick/ tossing cantaloupes

Corn fields

Taking a bite out of the sweet white corn! (yum)

Watering in the seeds

Week-old broccoli, cuties :)

Watering in more seeds...

Holes ready for seed receival (is that a word?)

Seeds are falling!

The monster we call "catering"!

2010-07-22T22:43:00.006-05:00

Since I began this great new job as Chef for a crazy busy restaurant/ catering company , my HEAD'S been spinning with the numbers of people we've been feeding out of this little catering kitchen! With a tiny staff, we're knocking out numbers upwards of 500 people and boy are people talking!

I've never thought that I would be sitting here telling you, my loyal reader, about my crazy life in catering I've had these past two months. The owners tell me this is their "slow month" lol. Wow.

If there could be one word to describe the catering business as a whole, unpredictable would be that word. You prepare for 500 people and only 350 come so you're left with oodles of food left over. Or, worse case, you prep for 25 people and they eat like 50 and you run OUT of food, pissing everyone off in the process. Sucks. One thing I've learned in the short time I've been working for this company is that it's better to lean towards making too much food than not enough (at the same time, trying to keep food cost to a minimum, either way, its tough to please everyone).

Believe it or not, throughout all this crazy circus, I am working on a new restaurant menu to be used in both the main restaurant and the ever crazy comedy club. The new plate samples arrived, experiments have been done and its a great work in progress. In order to take full advantage of some great feedback, my target date for the tentative menu completion is August 8th. I will then spend the following 3 weeks tweaking and costing for a new-menu-roll out date of the week after labor day in September. Its pretty exciting and I'm blessed to have this fantastic job.

Sad thing is, though, I'm finding out how terribly out of shape I am physically. I hurt all over, especially my hips, back and arms (specifically my right arm where I do most of my knife work). Goody's Powder is getting me though this, lol.

Keep in touch for more fun and excitement here in my world.

Improvising my own "Dinner Impossible"...

2010-06-29T23:11:00.002-05:00

Wow, I hadn't blogged in a while, sorry follower, lol.

Main reason I hadn't done so is this new adventure I've taken on. I left my cushy country club job and took on this incredibly insane rodeo of a job running the food service for a very successful restaurant management group. They own a catering company, a restaurant and a comedy club, all of which are busy all the time, it's crazy, in a good way. To say there's never a dull moment would be an understatement.

Just to give you an understanding of what sort of crazy things we do, let's discuss, shall we?

To start off, my first month was dotted with multiple small on and off-site caterings. From a couple dozen people fed on-site in our banquet hall to over a hundred people fed off-site. On party boats, in million dollar homes, at racing team garages, bars owned by Nascar drivers, and so on. All this while trying to learn the ins and outs of a crazy Irish pub and comedy club that could seat as many as 200 people a night (and has!).

The biggy was about three weeks into my time with them when we did a HUGE catering for over 450 people off-site! 8 food stations and raising money for charity during an auction. I saw stuff signed by everybody! From Fleetwood Mac and Grateful Dead guitars to every famous NFL jersey you could imagine, all in front of me, what a trip! We cooked some things ahead in the tiny restaurant kitchen, but most of the food was cooked there, under a 10 x 10 beer tent with a rented fryer, double decker convection over, a couple butane burners and a few 8 foot tables, just crazy. Somehow, though, between cutting sushi, building fruit and cheese displays and carving prime rib, we pulled it off, almost perfectly. Only a couple people were stressed out as they were wondering if the new guys could pull it off, lol. (sorry, looks like you all stressed out for nothing, lol).

Fast forward to tonight...I just got back from a catering where we fed over 150 people off-site in a place that had no kitchen. We cooked and reheated everything in nothing but a toaster over, electric flat top griddle and three butane burners. We did it all in a cramped back hallway without a hitch. Talk about dinner impossible, eh?

Also, you should see all the famous people that come through this place, blows me away. Apparently, one of the owners is good friends with just about everyone that drives a stock car over 180 MPH as well as 90% of the NFL. So, we could be getting our asses handed to us one night and all of a sudden AJ Almondinger will pop his head in the kitchen and yell something hilarious to all of us. Or, suddenly all 5 feet of Rob Schneider will walk through the kitchen with his entourage, just crazy (I got to make his meal one night, how awesome!). I fed Coolio and Kirk Busch one week, Lord knows who else! Just crazy.

Yeah, I have a lot to learn still, its no country club! The great thing about this place is, in addition to a great couple of guys that own the place, my all Mexican staff and fantastic fellow managers, its just a cool place to be a part of. I'm putting together some great new specials, rolling out some awesome ideas and will have a menu with great local food starting soon. New food, new plates, new exciting things in store.

My original skepticism and fear has now turned into excitement and joy, at least for now, lol.

Stay tuned!

Cooking demo at William Sanoma with Barbee Farms

2010-05-15T16:25:00.004-05:00

To help spread the word about local farms and supporting area farmers markets, I invited Brent Barbee from Barbee Farms in Concord, NC to join me during a cooking demo. If you've been following along, you will remember that I've done a few cooking demos at William Sanoma. It's been a great platform for self promotion and to meet some great people.

This morning, Brent picked some seasonal produce from their 25 acre farm and met me at the "WS". He explained his family's farm, what they offer and where they sell their goods. I can only hope that everyone will take advantage of being able to buy some of his great produce before the season is done!

Check out a few pictures:

Update...garden and moving on...

2010-05-14T21:28:00.005-05:00

So, as you can see below, the garden is doing extremely well. The jersey cows in Marshville where I buy the best duck eggs and goats milk are happy as can be eating their spring grasses.

Although I'll see the cows again, I won't be seeing the garden I planted unless my old sous chef takes pictures and sends them to my phone, lol.

Since writing my last blog, I took an amazing new job for a management group that runs a successful business. My immediate boss [actually] supports his manager(s) directly and puts in an honest days work. So, for instance, if I have to work 60+ hours, he'll be their at least that much, and not hitting the door to leave me hanging. Kinda cool, if you ask me. Its my opinion that you should work together as a management team. This is the secret to a long and happy career for you and your fellows. For the ones that like to work half days or 20 hours a week less than every other salaried manager, I feel sorry for those kinda people because those kind of people live a charade that will eventually catch up to them (one would hope).

A friend said to me recently that life is all about the journey. Lord knows I've been enjoying an amazing journey. Since those early days of washing dishes in a little diner to feeding 1500 kids twice a day to multi-course fine dining to changing lives of a few red-necks with my famous meatloaf, life continues to be just awesome and amazing every day I am blessed to wake up!

If someone stresses you out, just smile and wave. If you cant imagine working one more minute longer because your hips, back and joints are killing you, just remember that you are doing this because you love it and this is what you signed up for! Besides, you can sleep in when you meet your maker, right?

Hard to believe I am moving on to a new chapter in my career novel. Those of us that stuck it out, we accomplished a lot and I will miss (most) those that walked the chapter with me. Good luck sous chef! I've SO MUCH enjoyed working with you, you've been a rock and I wish you well.

Peace to the good ones.

Organic garden update...

2010-04-22T22:01:00.004-05:00

New gardens coming along nicely. We set up a pretty ingenious irrigation system in and around the three rows with a little sprinkler set from Target and a spider style sprinkler tied to a stack of Pepsi racks to water the potatoes (we have tons of these damn things stacked all over. Apparently the Pepsi guy's too lazy to take them with him.) I foresee them hitting the dumpster before too long, lol.

This week, the rest of our plants will be arriving. Tomatoes, peppers, more herbs, etc. are going in the ground very soon. As you can see by the picture, a few of our babies are coming up pretty well. The grounds keepers put in a nice fence for me to keep the deer and other hungry critters away from our upcoming bounty.

Today, we were able to take advantage of some amazing cilantro and parsley strait from the plants. I topped our Veal Osso Bucco with a fresh Gremolata and garnished a nice Asian chicken dish with green, fluffy cilantro leaves! Nice stuff.

My sous chef and I get great pleasure out of weeding the garden. Very Zen Like, lol.

Stay tuned for more updates later on this season.

Upcoming plans for the season

2010-04-01T08:58:00.004-05:00

Wow, heads are spinning around here with all the great and exciting things we have in store this Spring season;

The garden is 90% planted and starting to sprout, the rest is going in in about a week, we've built a compost bin for the food scraps to make compost for next years garden, I have my farmers and local producers lined up to buy from and just began working with a company to get our local seafood! All is working well and I'm looking forward to sharing this great food with our diners.

Easter brunch has come and gone, fed 300 + people on a skeleton crew and everything went over without a hitch. The end of the Easter holiday makes me excited to know that spring is officially here and the warmer months too. With this comes new and exciting plans.

Upon the discovery of a source for local goats milk and raw cows milk, I ordered cheese making supplies so we can make our own farm cheddar and chevre goats cheeses. I might even dabble in a couple other types of cheeses, who knows. Having never made cheese before (other than ricotta, which I wouldn't really count that as "making cheese" compared to the complexity of creating a cheddar or something), I'll just play with two types for now and see how it goes. If all works well, all sorts of possibilities could come to fruition.

Currently, I'm creating a huge smoker out of an old hot box that's not being used. I plan to roll out a smoked meats list to take advantage of the local pork and beef around here. In addition to meats like sausage and brisket, I think I'll mess around with smoking that cheese we plan to make and some of that great seafood coming off of the Carolina coasts. :)

Yeah, just when you thought I couldn't possibly fit anything else into this crazy schedule, I've been inspired by one of my favorite TV celebrities and am going to make our own tandoor so we can make our own Naan bread. Just imagine, local tandoori lamb kabobs served with fresh/ hot flat breads, yum!!

We have two interns starting this summer, so that should be fun. They get to work with us and, hopefully, learn something fun and exciting. At the end of the day, I hope they learn that opening cans and using all frozen stuff is just not the same as shaking the hands of a local farmers and making your own stuff from scratch with love and respect for the ingredients.

New spring menus are finally complete and will roll out next week. There's a little bit of everything on the upcoming menus. From appetizers, to salads, to steaks and fish, the new menus, both lunch and dinner, will take full advantage of our local products, house-made specialties and, of course, the garden. Wow, so exciting!

I'll keep you all updated so stay tuned!

So, lots going on, but its gonna be great!

My visit to Creekside Acres Farm

2010-03-22T22:16:00.003-05:00

So, in my hunt for chicks, bunnies and/ or ducklings for the kids to pet during our upcoming Easter Egg Hunt, a friend told me about Creekside Acres Farm in New Salem, NC. Though they didn't have any animals for me to borrow, they did mention on their web site that they sell duck eggs! Curious, I've never had one nor have I ever cooked with them. I just had to buy some!

Being a short 30 minute drive, deep into the country from my house, I was greeted by two HUGE, gorgeous Labrador Retrievers doing their jobs and barking at me, wondering what the deal was! They were sweet hearts. A perfect addition to the clucking red chickens roaming all over, the lovely Jersey Cows, the farm cats and, of course, the ducks. There were a few baby goats (kids) roaming around too, just an amazing place. So peaceful and charming.

I was greeted by Kathy and John, down to earth and hard working folks that were just really into what they were doing. I mean, they seem to be living the dream. I was a little envious, to be honest, lol.

So, I scooped up a few dozen duck eggs, a few of those awesome jumbo chicken eggs, some lamb and I was on my way. I plan to play around with the eggs, maybe put a few on special this week, make a dessert, or whatever. Whatever I end up doing with them, I hope the diners will love them.

A couple pictures for your enjoyment;

A few Jersey Cows, beautiful girls!

The chickens run wild! :)

The little store that sells the food. They even have an old out-house around the back like in the old days, lol, awesome.

Organic garden project

2010-03-14T17:38:00.004-05:00

For those of you that may or may not know this, I'm a huge fan of fresh produce. This year, in addition to buying from a few local farmers in the area, I've decided to plant a small organic garden here at the back door of the kitchen. Since I don't have the time or patience to grow everything from seed, I've decided to buy from an organic farmer who sells the seedlings you can plant right in the ground. Mary Roberts at Windcrest Farm in Monroe, NC has everything I need.

After spending two long hours pulling up old herb growth, weeds and sticks, one of the greens and grounds guys tilled in some worm castings into the already pretty loamy, dark, rich soil. The other day, I planted the early crops. Broccoli, cauliflower, cilantro, chives and parsley are in. Soon, there will be a good bit more. I will keep you informed of my progress.

Here are a few pics to get you started:

Another successful wine dinner using local ingredients

2010-03-14T13:21:00.007-05:00

Last night we had an intimate wine dinner for 12 lucky club members. The majority of the food came from local sources including Barbee Farms and a few other farmers from North Carolina. (Burnesville, Rutherfordton, and the like).

I turned it into a "Good Bye to the Cold Months of Fall/ Winter and Hello to the Warmer Months of Spring and Summer" themed menu. From fresh Ahi tuna to root vegetables to pork, I think it went off well, especially with all the wines that were matched with the food.

We started the evening off with a tiny amuse bouche of seared Ahi Tuna. My new sous-chef discovered a cool trick to keep the tuna very rare without over-searing such a small piece of protein. He took our propane torch (you know, the one's used for toasting creme brulee and lighting stubborn gas burners, lol) and lightly browned the outsides of the fish. The results were a nice rare center with cooked color around the edges. Check out the pics below.

We served the lightly seasoned tuna on tiny plates over a ponzu vinaigrette and garnished with local micro-mesclun mix. Less than two bites, was perfect.

Next course, the Starter, was a giant U-10 dry packed scallop wrapped in a really high quality prosciutto ham, scored and seared on a rocket-hot pan and finished to medium/ medium rare. That was served on an orange marmalade beurre blanc made with my moms home-made marmalade, whoa! Too good. The combination of that slightly bitter-sweet marmalade with the butter and meaty saltiness of the scallops and ham were a perfect combination.

Next course, the Soup course, was a trinity of root vegetable purees. We simmered beets, carrots and parsnips in separate batches until tender, seasoned them slightly and pureed them until very smooth (or smoot if your last name begins with "La" or "Le" and you have a French Canadian accent, lol). We then poured each puree on top of each other forming a bulls eye shape, garnished it with fresh herbs and more micro greens. A splash of truffle oil and... yeah, it was awesome.

The "Intermezzo" course was a white fig/ apple butter on warm baguette. I sous-vide some dried white figs in a little port, some fresh thyme, orange zest, a pinch of salt and some local honey for a few hours until they just fell apart into their own jam consistency. I took that and some fig reduction and blended them up into a paste and whipped them into some unsalted butter. Served that with an amazing baguette. What can I say, I'm a sucker for bread and butter :).

Salad course was a simple local greens and garden veg salad with a whole-citrus vinaigrette inspired by one the few FN chefs I admire, Michael Chiarelli.

Main course; Pork-Three-Ways. Crisp/ fatty pork belly (slow cooked for hours and seared until the skin was crispy, like a bad-ass pork rind), pulled pork lumpia and pepper crusted pork tenderloin. Each pork item had its own accompanying sauce. I think I gave everyone high blood pressure, lol.

Dessert course; Chocolate Pot De Creme with a cinnamon chip I made using bagels (spritz of clarified butter, sprinkled with cinnamon and powdered sugar, baked in between two sil-pats for about 8 minutes at 350F), topped with whipped cream and house-made caramel sauce.

The entire meal went off perfectly. Everyone was stuffed and happily buzzed when they left. Feels good to make people so happy with our food.

Check out the pictures and the official menu complete with wine pairings.

Amuse Bouche Course

Starter Course

Soup Course

Salad Course

Main Course

Amuse Bouche
Pan-seared Ahi Tuna with Ponzu Vinaigrette and Micro Greens
Paired with: Tangley Oaks Chardonnay

Starter
Pan-seared Diver Scallop wrapped in Prosciutto Ham with an
Orange Marmalade Beurre Blanc
Paired with: Sean Minor Pinot Noir

Soup
Root Vegetable Trinity with Fresh Herbs and Truffle oil
Paired with: Acre Cabernet Sauvignon

Salad
Barbee Farms Local greens with garden vegetables and Citrus Vinaigrette
Paired with: Acre Cabernet Sauvignon

Main Course
Pork 3-ways: Crisp Belly with Cola Gastrique, Hawaiian Pulled Pork
Lumpia with Eastern-style Vinaigrette, Marinated Tenderloin Au-poivre with Apple Reduction
Paired with: Murphy Goode Liars’Dice Zinfandel

Dessert
Pot de Crème with Caramel Sauce and Cinnamon Chip
Paired with: Capasaldo Prosecco

Spring is coming! Getting excited about the season...

2010-03-07T00:16:00.003-05:00

As some of you may know, I'm a huge fan of using local produce and supporting local farmers. When at all possible, and during the seasons, I try to cook with food items from within just a few miles from here. Not only does it support the local economy, but it puts a face on the food I buy as well as insures the diners get nothing but the freshest food possible! It blows me away to see how excited people get when they find out they are eating a radish from 10 miles away!

Before planning this springs menu, I got a private tour from a local farmer we use quite a bit. Brent from Barbee Farms in Concord, NC drove me around in his golf cart through the 25 plus acres of farmland. We discussed what they are going to plant this year and giving me tips on the small garden we are planting at the club in a few weeks. (Actually, broccoli, cauliflower and cilantro is going in the ground next week!! I'M PUMPED! More on that later...)

Their web site reads: "The farm currently consists of approximately 25 acres of fresh vegetables, approximately three acres of fruit trees, and 40 additional acres in corn, barley, and soybeans for rotational purposes." Needless to say, we have plenty to chose from this season. I have big plans for the new menu and I cant wait to share this wonderful stuff with the members and my staff! I know they will all be excited to play around with it.

In addition to working with the Barbee family, I will also continue to work with Denise Smart with Nise's Herbs out of Locust, NC. She and her family are just a few miles up the road. She sells some of the best heirloom tomatoes, white figs and hot peppers I've ever had!

Moving forward, we just received our first small order from the Farmers Fresh Market run by the Foothills Connect Project. According to their web site, they are "a virtual "Farmers Market" linking growers, chefs, and individual buyers. Once orders are placed online, local growers process them, and we deliver them - picked and shipped within 24 hours!" It's pretty amazing. With my busy schedule, it saves me from having to make any extra trips to the farmers markets. Although, I still will on occasion, just dont have to so often.

Wow, between the garden we are planting on premises and the tons of access I'll have to local farmers and producers, our new menus are gonna ROCK (more than usual, lol).

Stay tuned...

Tomatoes getting ready for the upcoming season. This pic was taken Friday. Looks like they'll have tomatoes mid-April! :)

Strawberries in the winter? (evil grin) can't wait to grab some of these soon. I ate one, yes, they are good. :)

The visit to the Grove Park Inn in Asheville, NC

2010-02-17T21:24:00.004-05:00

This past Tuesday, my main grocery provider sales rep invited my lovely wife and I to the famous Grove Park Inn in Asheville, NC where there was an annual food show and restaurant speaker event going on.

We arrived late Monday morning to enjoy the sites and maybe do some shopping. If you've not had the chance to visit the Grove Park Inn or even Asheville in Western North Carolina, you're missing out on an amazing treat.

Our stay began with a flawless check in and our gasps when we saw the views from our room. Snow-cap-covered Blue Ridge Mountains, an amazing golf course and light flurries of snow falling. The room alone was amazing. Closest to the most amazing bed we've ever slept in! (not as good as the Westin Hotel Beds, but I concur, lol).

The food was insanely good, albeit pricey, but it's worth it for a treat like this. We explored all these nooks and crannies all around this old place. Tons of pictures of past presidents and other famous people hanging on the walls, so much history, just awesome.

We went downtown and visited a couple places for lunch. A mediocre muffaletta at Mayfel's followed by an incredible chocolate cafe called "French Broad Chocolate Lounge" where we had a couple truffles (cayenne, dark chocolate truffle and a fennel olive oil ganache truffle), a pot de creme (which is like the best pudding you'll ever eat), wife had a real hot chocolate made with ganache and I had the best espresso I've drank since this Italian espresso cart at the Hethrow airport in London, England. I mean, this entire dessert experience was an awesome relief from the bitter windy 20 degree cold outside.

Enjoy a few pics.

Cayenne pepper and fennel truffles, whoa.

Pot de creme and the best espresso to wash it down :)

The golf course covered in a flurry of snow

View of the Blue Ridge Mountains from the balcany

Grove park facade

View from our room

Fireplace you can stand in! They kept this thing blazing the entire time.

This mornings latest food competition at Myrtle Beach

2010-02-10T22:40:00.005-05:00

I arrived late yesterday afternoon to drop off a very full speed rack worth of stuff to the Myrtle Beach Convention Center. You see, this morning, I had the pleasure of, once again, competing with my fellow chefs at the Us Food Service Food Show. It was a modified F3 (or W - Wild card) where you had access to a common pantry and didn't know what your protein would be until your start time. For me, I was given Red Snapper (not the freshest, mind you, but good enough for the local ACF chapter to offer, apparently, lol).

I'd like to back up a little for a minute and whine about my horrible hotel first. I got on the web and googled "hotels near the Myrtle Beach Convention Center" and The Boardwalk Beach Resort came up on one of the travelocity web sites. First of all, it was ON the ocean and cost under 80 bucks a night, which should have been a red flag. Second, its about as much a "resort" as the single wide trailer my neighbors live in. I asked for a non-smoking room and they put me in one that kinda smelled like my old bachelor pad first thing in the morning after a really rough night. The elevators smelled like vomit and french fries and the hot water took about 10 minutes to make it up to my shower. The place was rotting around itself in the "kitchen" and the drain was so clogged, the water filled up to mid-shin by the time I finished my cold, eventually scalding, shower. A couple homeless dudes were living in the lobby and doing their laundry in the guests washers, and so on...BUT!!! if you can get past the cigarette smell, butt burns on the furniture and the sticky alarm clock (eww), the room did have a really nice view of the ocean (its saving grace, apparently). This has GOT to be the only reason this shit hole is still open. Partying college kids on spring break could care less about a clogged tub drain or smelly elevator, they just need a place to puke and sleep in.

After further review (I should have done is BEFORE I booked, but live and learn...) Here are a ton of negative reviews I found on their web site.

Anyway, the receptionist was nice, lol...

Back to the competition. After a restful 4 hours sleep in my smelly hotel room, I did stumble upon a God-Send Starbucks a block away from my hotel. I ventured out in the 30 degree/ 40 mph wind gusty streets to grab my hot Venti Bold that gave me hope.

Arriving at the convention center about 30 minutes early gave me time to acclimate myself to my surroundings. I got to meet a couple of my fellow competitors, shake a few hands and enjoy my coffee breakfast.

At 6:45, I set up my station to my specifications. You know, knives in pans on a side towel, my cooking utensils like so, sanitizer buckets filled with a ton of side towels, and so on. Once I got organized, slugged down the last gulp of my coffee, I was in my element. Organization and a slight humming in my head from caffeine always makes me feel sane, lol.

The protein was handed to me at 7:00 am, I wrote my menu which was a bit like this:

Pan-seared red snapper with roasted mushroom risotto, root vegetable medley and basil pistou

I handed that to the floor manager and she rushed it off to the judges and in like 5 minutes, returned with a nice fresh printed version of my menu for my records. At 7:15, I was off!!!

Blink-blink-blink, my one hour flew by and it was time to plate up at 8:15 sharp. 7 minutes later, my hot plates with hot food on them were whisked off to the picky-ass judges that (ok, get ready for another rant... lol)...

I've been to about 10 of these mind numbing events and every time there are different judges and every time they want something different based, mostly, on preference. The fat ones usually complain about not having enough sauce. Doesn't matter what it is. Could be freshly made marinara, chocolate syrup or cough medicine. If the judge weighs more than 300 pounds, he, or she, will ALWAYS complain about not having enough sauce. If the judges are from anywhere near Europe, they will judge you and your food based on "standards" that no one has practiced since the Brady Bunch drove that huge brown station wagon. Mainly because of their lack of practicability or American palate. The EU folks always expect you to have the Escoffier book memorized and if you don't, you suck, end of story. If they're in any branch of the military, or were at one time, they complain about the fact that you can't make 500 of whatever it is you are trying to show off to them. It never fails. Every judge is just that, a judge. Most of them hadn't stood a foot in their own kitchen or held a knife for a living since Nixon but have all the answers, covering them up with acts of mentor-dom (is that a word?). I would pay double the price of a ppv event to watch these old coots compete under the stresses and so-called "competition standards" they put us through. Shit, their damn hips would pop out of joint, most likely.

Wow, tangent, lol, back to the competition. I rant like that, mainly, because I'm still smarting from the crap these dudes complained about this morning. The double standards. I look at the food that they consider gold medal worthy and I think, "Yeah, looks good, but not better than mine!" lol.

I have hope and faith that, one day, I'll have the perfect combination of working clean, hot plates, properly cut veg and the right amount of sauce to appease the masses and WILL get that damn gold medal. I've been chasing that stupid thing for over 10 competitions so far! With entry fees and cost of food and travel, that's a lot of money invested just to hear Mr. Saur Kraut from Belgium whine about how much risotto I should put on my damn plate!

Anyway, I did, however, have a great time (believe it or not). At the end of the day, it's all about the creation of food. If I can learn something along the way and win a medal while I'm at it, its that much better. I just cant wait to finally please these dudes, lol.

Thanks to the program chair person and my apprentice for helping me through all this! Thanks to my employer for shelling out the entire $100.00 for sign up fees all on their own, lol. Thanks to all the free coffee samples (does anyone really like that "coffee on demand stuff?" just curious). Thank you, Father, for getting me there safe through the crazy rain and back home through the even CRAZIER wind (was like a hurricane man!).

There's another competition coming up in April, think I'll pass on that one, I need a break...

Pics-

My winning soup recipe...

2010-02-10T22:38:00.004-05:00

Not sure what happened, but I completely forgot to blog about winning a recipe contest for a local TV show/ foodie web site called "The Chefs Wife". Its a "cooking" show where the wife of a chef asks her chef husband what he's doing and why he's doing it so that the average home cook could understand what he's doing. Great concept.

Well, no big deal, really, me and a couple others sent in random recipes that were based on our birth month and the top three "best" won. First prize was $250 bucks, second and third, I think, won chef coats.

Kinda funny, I just randomly sent in a recipe for a soup I make quite often with roasted butternut squash. It's based on my birth month of November in which butternut squash is in season. Kinda reminds me of the cold winter days growing up in NH and the comforting effects of hot soup!

After being chosen as the winner, they came by my place and took a few pictures, ate some soup and left. Nothing too exciting. The free money was nice, paid for a few gallons of gas for my thirsty truck, lol.

Here are a few pics they took. Learn more about the contest here.

My adventure with Sous Vide

2010-02-01T00:49:00.003-05:00

Up until just about a year ago, I've never really had any interest or knew too much about cooking sous vide (French for "under vacuum", it's a method of cooking that is intended to maintain the integrity of ingredients by heating them for an extended period at relatively low temperatures. More info on that here.)

A few months ago, a chef I worked for bought two immersion circulators to start cooking this way and adding these food items to his menu. Each unit cost about $800 bucks! That made absolutely no sense to me, but I was intrigued. They were shiny and had red flickering lights, a couple knobs and just cool looking in general.

Eventually, we started experimenting with it and had a blast. We put chicken breast and marinade into a bag, cryovac'd it and cooked them at a low temperature for a few minutes. We did that same thing with steaks and duck breasts and the results were incredible! Of course, before serving, we had to sear them on a hot pan to create a nice crust and to crisp up the skin. Wow! Tender and juicy and just insane.

Fast forward about a year and now and I'm in the position where I want to use this process but don't want to blow all that money. Knowing for certain that I just CAN'T be the only frugal chef out there that would like to sous vide, I went on a quest to find a cheap(er) alternative to this amazing cooking process.

Well, after a good bit of searching, I found the answer to my dilemma and all for the low price of around 40 bucks!

I found the "PRESTO KITCHEN KETTLE MULTI-COOKER/STEAMER FRYER" on eBay for 30 bucks (after shipping) as the heat source. Apparently, they are known for their ability to stay at a constant low temperature consistently. In order to keep the water "circulating", I grabbed an 8 dollar fish tank bubbler at Walmart and 2 bucks for an instant read thermometer to keep an eye on the temperature. Total investment, right at $40.00!

As soon as it arrived in the mail, I took it to work and we started to experiment. Since I am pretty new to this, I went to my favorite online book store and bought a couple books on the subject; Under Pressure by Thomas Keller and Cooking Sous Vide by Jason Logsdon. Upon a little reading, I found some really useful info on this interesting cooking technique and went on my way.

On our first run, we've done the following:

Two types of duck breast (one marinated in ponzu sauce, garlic, sesame oil, fresh herbs and honey, the second in green tea leaves, olive oil, pink and black pepper corns, bay leaves and herbs)

A piece of hickory smoked salmon (smoked in house), marinated in roasted garlic, fig puree, olive oil, soy sauce and herbs.

All of the above was done at 140F for about 20 minutes for the salmon, 30 minutes for the duck breasts. With a nice hot pan-sear to achieve a crust and a crispy skin (yum), everything was perfect! The salmon texture was soft and perfectly medium in the middle and the duck breast had a perfect medium rare center and an amazing mouth-feel behind that crispy duck fat.

Next, we did fingerling potatoes marinated in veal stock, roasted garlic, shallots and butter and baby artichoke hearts in the same marinade. Both went for about an hour at 185F and cooled over night in the cryo-bags. I hadn't had a chance to eat either yet, but I can only imagine how yummy they're going to be.

SO, I guess this experiment proved one thing; that one does not really need to spend 1000 bucks for a sous vide experience. I spent forty. Granted, I can only do like 3 pouches of food at one time (which is not much in a restaurant, but plenty for the house). I do plan, however, to create a larger sous vide bath so that I can make enough portions for a dinner special a couple nights a week, which will entail a giant crock pot and a temperature control device (total cost should run me about 125 bucks +/-). More on that later!

A sucessful beer dinner with Highland Brewery

2010-01-28T23:28:00.006-05:00

This past weekend, we pulled off a 5 course beer dinner using a Carolina favorite brewery from Asheville, North Carolina. Highland Brewery sold us 6 types of their beers (listed below) and a local sales rep and I discussed the food and beer courses to almost 50 hungry and eager diners.

Being as I dont drink, I had my good friend Chef Dominic from Red Rocks Cafe help me match their beers to my food with great success! Rave reviews were had by all.

Right after we layed out the last course, I had to run to catch a plane to fly to NH for a family emergency. Its SO GREAT to have a staff that I can trust to take care of things during my times of need. No matter what.

Check out the menu and a few pictures below;

Included a complimentary glass of Black Mountain Bitter

Starter

Sage and fennel Scotch quail egg with house-made whole grain mustard on local mesclun greens
Paired with: St. Terese's Pale Ale

Soup

Beer cheddar soup with curds, house-cured hickory smoked bacon, caramelized
pearl onions and crispy fried potato hay, finished with truffle oil
Paired with: Oatmeal Porter

Salad

Honey stout poached pears, arugula, crumbled Maytag blue cheese,
sweet spicy walnuts, balsamic vinaigrette, parmesan curls
Paired with: Kashmir IPA

Main Course

Braised beef short ribs, roasted fingerling potatoes, sautéed French green beans and house-made demi-glace
Paired with: Gaelic Ale

Dessert

Molten chocolate cake with blackberry sauce and house-made
vanilla bean frozen custard, short bread cookie garni
Paired with: Black Mocha Stout

Hickory Smoked Braised Beef Short Ribs (famous three step process)

Molten Chocolate Cake with Porter Stout Vanilla Ice Cream and Short Bread Cookie Garnish (yum!!!)

Beer Cheddar Soup with Cheese Curds, Pearl Onions, Bacon and Potato Hay

Building the arugula salads!

Recent chili cookoff

2010-01-18T00:15:00.004-05:00

A couple days ago, I had the pleasure of being asked to guest judge a local chili cook off in Statesville, NC. It was for the CASI - Chili Appreciation Society. They have competitions nation wide to raise money for charity.

According to their web site, "The Chili Appreciation Society International, Inc.'s mission is to promote chili and raise money for charity. We are involved in over 500 chili cook offs per year and raise over $1,000,000.00 annually for local charities."

My buddy Kevin of Tar Heel Catering invited me. We hung out, talked about food and met some awesome people. I learned some really cool tricks and, at the end of it all, judged 3 types of salsas, 3 types of beans and 28 types of chili! Needless to say, we were pretty full, but it was for a good cause. Loads of money was raised for charity and I met a few new friends. (not too mention a free sample of Kevin's pulled pork BBQ and a bottle of his secret BBQ sauce, lol).

A family that came all the way from Texas won, which was great as they had my favorite.

Check out these pictures;

My new column at Basil Magazine

2010-01-07T00:30:00.003-05:00

Recently, I began writing a column for a great online magazine called "Basil Magazine". Being a huge proponent for eating local and supporting the local economy, I thought I'd run with this theme and start a column based on my passions. For some reason, the editors at this magazine thought it necessary to edit it a little bit. I suppose they didn't have enough space on the page or what. Visit monthly at basilmagazine.com and look under the "Live" heading.

For those of you that are following along, here is an "exclusive" look at my original first column;

Seasonality and eating local
Chef Bradley Labarre CEC

As a first time contributor to this fine digital media publication, I would like to take a brief moment to introduce myself. For me, I like to know a little bit about the person who wrote what I am engrossed in, it helps me paint the vivid picture in my minds eye.

Well, lets start at the beginning, shall we? I was born at a very early age 38 years ago of two food loving parents and the time of 12 channels, UHF and the clicker. Of “Dinner is served promptly at 5:30” together with the entire family. Of Atari 2600 video games, rotary dial phones with no call waiting, no cell phones and going OUTSIDE to play until the street lights came on. Boy, have times changed since then!

Seems like yesterday I was standing on a kitchen chair rolling cookie dough with my mom while Julia Child was playing on public TV in the background! I knew I wanted to be a chef since as far back as I can remember. When I was twelve, while delivering the morning paper (yes, I'm also from a time when work ethics started early), there was this small diner in the neighborhood that was making greasy spoon stuff at 5:00 am for the blue collar mill workers. The smell of bacon and eggs frying inside that little place that wafted up my nose used to make my mouth water! I used to watch the grill cook through the frosty window working his fingers to the bone in there making stuff so fast it would make my head spin! It was very impressive to me and I knew that, one day, I would do that for a living, just like Martin Yan and Julia on TV! Well, when I turned 13, I walked in and asked if I could have a job. The owner, Lorette, filter-less cigarette in her wrinkled lips, said with a raspy voice, “Are you old enough to work?” Well, not knowing how old that was supposed to be and thinking about the 3 paper routes I just finished delivering, I said confidently, “Yes, of course”. Well, by the weekend, I was scrubbing pots and pans and cutting french fries downstairs in the dank basement of this place thinking, “I have arrived!” That moment set off a chain of events that brings me here to you, my eager reader. 25 years of flipping burgers, 18 hour days, country clubs, a few bad decisions, fine dining restaurants, alcoholism and the corporate chef scene, I survived to tell the tale. Currently, I am the executive chef at a country club in the Charlotte, North Carolina area. My menus consist of mainly locally produced items and seasonality. My column will consist of that with recipes and some helpful information that I hope you will be able to use.

Now that we are slightly acquainted, lets talk about food! That's why you're here, right?

So, as I sit here at my laptop, it's raining and cold outside. Nasty weather. Days like this make me think of warm comfy things. Beef stew in the family crock pot, a cup of black coffee, “Hot Now” donuts from Krispy Kream, apple cider, my fat cat and most of all, soup. During this time of year with all this great stuff out there in season at the farmers market, I find myself leaning towards hard squashes, greens, apples and venison. All of this stuff makes great soup! Good thing about that is that you can make a lot in advance and freeze it to enjoy until spring.

If you hadn't had the pleasure of visiting your local farmers market, please do. It's a treat. You get to meet the people that actually picked the stuff out of the ground or raised the pigs, beef or chicken. Putting a face to what we buy is a great thing. Buying local is not only more nutritious and better tasting, but it's great for the local economy and the environment. Think about how much fuel it takes to get a crappy hockey-puck tomato from across the country of from another continent. It's crazy to think. To make matters worse, in most cases, the items we are buying out of season from other places have been genetically altered to withstand travel and resist disease so they can increase production. Out of season produce is more like luggage than food, if you think about it! Eat an heirloom tomato right off the vine in the summer and you will know exactly what I mean.

I'm not saying I don't buy maple syrup or avocados because I live in a state that doesn't produce those things, I'm just saying that, when creating menus, writing recipes or feeding the family, I try to use things from where I know the story and from as close to home as possible. For me, I don't eat strawberries in December or put apples on my menus in May. They don't taste that great, to begin with, and they would have to come from a third world country to boot! It just doesn't make much sense to me.

As we progress further in our reader/ columnist relationship, my plans are to share with you seasonal recipes as well as tips and tricks to take advantage of your farmers market bounty year round. I will visit my local farmers markets and share with you my findings and what's in season in my area. Also, since I love to travel so much to learn more about what everyone else is doing in the industry, there will be some stories about that as well. I'll dabble in a little bit of everything and, hopefully, you will return for more fun-filled information in the future.

A couple sweet projects...

2009-12-21T23:31:00.005-05:00

I love being a chef, as I'm sure most of you already know this about me. Not only do I get to create some great food, hang-out with some cool people (yes, even a few lazy over paid ones, lol) and eat, I get to play a little once and a while. It's not all work all the time, right? RIGHT? :)

The holiday season is upon us and, as you know, people eat more than of necessity, but out of the need to be with friends and family. Eating together is probably one of the oldest holiday rituals in the world.

This holiday season, my small and hard working team and I were able to pull off two huge buffets with loads of choices including many many entree items, desserts, omelet bars, pancake bars and carving stations. This last one, I decided it'd be a great idea to make a gingerbread house. After a couple nay-sayers thought it would be a waste of money, I convinced them it was for the children, and after a good eye roll, they also agreed it would be fun.

Check out these pics:

A wide angel shot of the entire thing, complete with reindeer and a sleigh.

Side angle...

We made our own play-dough and hand formed these eerie creatures, complete with frill-pick antlers, lol. The legs are tooth pics wrapped in said play-dough and the eyes and noses are "Nerds" candy, lol. James thought it would be funny to give them sharpie marker eye-balls.

Gummy worm and m&m chimney, 100 calorie Oreo roof shingles, and Christmas lights from a doll house store to set things off.

A good friend of mine gave me the idea to create stained glass windows with Jolly Rancher candies! Awesome.

In addition to the crazy schedule of parties, meetings, gift buying and so on, I found time to submit two more settings to the deep plate exercise on this months plate. I smoked a ton of Carolina trout filet's and decided to put a few of them to good use.

Creamy shiitake mushroom and butternut risotto, hickory smoked
Carolina trout and sauce vierge garnished with Italian parsley, tomato
chip and fried farm-fresh egg.

"All-local" fall salad of mesclun greens, pan roasted root vegetables,
charred grape tomato vinaigrette with Hickory smoked Carolina trout
and toasted pumpkin seeds.

Squeezed in two private caterings (sorry, don't have any pictures to post yet). One for 12 people, heavy appetizers and the other for 13, a three course luncheon at a doctors office. More details on that one later.

I'm looking forward to spending time with family soon and eating some more great grub. That's what its all about, right? ;)

Roasted pumpkin soup

2009-11-28T00:05:00.003-05:00

With the cold weather creeping in and all these old pumpkins laying around from Halloween, I came up with this simple soup that will warm your bones and get rid of that door stopper gourd you have laying around. This recipe makes a ton and can be frozen to be eaten all winter long!

Roasted Pumpkin Soup

Yield:

Makes about 1.5 gallons

Ingredients:

1 medium pumpkin (about a 5 pounder)

1 stalk of celery, rough chopped

4 medium onions, rough chopped

3 large carrots, rough chopped

6 bay leaves

1 T dried thyme

1 T dried basil

1 T dried oregano

1 T crushed red pepper flakes

¼ cup olive oil (plus more for roasting pumpkin)

1/2 cup of white wine

1 quart of heavy cream

2 quarts of chicken or vegetable stock

Kosher salt and pepper

Method:

Split pumpkin in half, scoop out seeds and reserve. Cut the pumpkin into large chunks, about 4-6 inches in size, leaving skin attached. Rub the pieces down lightly with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast in a 350F oven until tender and golden brown (about 30 minutes). Cool enough to touch and peel off skin.
Rinse and dry seeds and saute in olive oil and butter until golden brown, season with salt and pepper, set aside on a paper towel for later.
Sweat your celery, carrots, onions and dried herbs and spices until lightly caramelized.
Deglaze with wine and reduce by half.
Add pumpkin and cover with cream and stock, stir well.
Bring to a boil and simmer for about 20 minutes to build flavors.
Remove bay leaves and puree entire mixture with a stick blender until very smooth.
Strain, check seasoning and serve, sprinkle with toasted pumpkin seeds.
Alternatively place caramelized pearl onions, diced roasted pumpkin pieces, pumpernickel croutons and fresh herbs in the bottom of a soup bowl and pour hot soup liquid over the top right before serving (see image), adding garnishes of choice (Suggestion is sour cream or crème fraiche).

A great weekend with friends, family and food :)

2009-11-26T20:46:00.004-05:00

With the thanksgiving holiday coming to an end, we reflect on all the things we are grateful for, well, at least we supposed to, lol. Unfortunately, there are people out there that can never be satisfied and therefore can never be grateful, but let's save that for another blog!

Before feeding the masses all day, as many chefs do on thanksgiving, my wife and I flew up to sunny New Hampshire for a few days. We went up to spend time with my family and, thanks to facebook, with some buddies I hadn't seen in at least 20 years! As with most family visits, in addition to hugging, laughing and site seeing, our trips are mostly based around food one way or another. When you do what you love, you have to love what you do, right? Well, I love to eat ;)

Here is a run-down of our weekend;

Our weekend started off with a pretty uneventful flight into Logan Airport followed by a "mind numbing" ride in a shuttle van that should have taken 45 minutes but took over 2 hours! (thanks for that, we'll get a rental next time, lesson learned).

Upon arrival and a quick settle-in, we headed to my buddy Chads house for a mini high-school reunion. I came up with a menu a few days earlier that consisted of rib-eye steaks, grilled local veggies, a couple steak toppers and a simple arugula salad. One of my friends brought not one, not two, but THREE kinds of cheese cake with 4 different toppings. It was a great meal! I brought some cigars to enjoy while we watched the bon-fire and had a few laughs.

That next morning, we met with MORE old friends for a huge breakfast at a local Portuguese breakfast hot spot where we enjoyed yet MORE laughs and an interesting take on eggs Benedict with sausage instead of Canadian bacon, yum, washed down with a few cups of coffee.

Saturday night, yes, even MORE friends at my brothers place of employment for a lovely "2 for 20" dinner special. Laughs out the door. I almost peed :)

Sunday, well, that was thanksgiving lite just for us. My mom, as usual, created an amazing meal full of love and yum-yums. Turkey, corn bread stuffing, mashed sweet potatoes, roasted brussel sprouts (which I made, recipe below), salad, and so on, followed by two of the best desserts I've ever eaten that only the one who bore me could make, apple pie and pumpkin pie (burp**). Awesome! (whipped cream optional, but recommended).

More cigars, more laughs (laughing rocks), more friends, quality time with my family and, yes, more food. (moo).

Monday, we decided to take a road trip with my little mother, thought she might like to get out of the house. I heard about this smokehouse in Canterbury, NH that smokes local meats with Hickory and sells to the public through a small retail area. This is where I discovered smoked cashews and rhubarb soda. I don't know what to say except, please buy some NOW!

Wow, and they make this smoked pepper jack cheese that would make you lie and write bad checks! We made panini sammiches with that stuff later that afternoon and cried a little.

Well, we made it though that and decided to go to a planetarium (yawn) we all acted like we were a little interested, pushing buttons and watching videos (yawn). No food was involved, maybe that's why we didn't enjoy ourselves, lol. I must admit though, we saw a space shuttle tire, THAT was cool. They're smaller than I thought, but HEAVY!!!

On our way home, we stopped by a local chain called The Common Man restaurant where we enjoyed a mediocre sandwich and a really good diet root-beer. What stuck out most, besides the service, was this cheese and cracker station where you make yourself a plate of Vermont cheddar cheese, spreads and crackers plate while you wait for your meal. It's great if you're "wicked stahvin' ", which we were.

Well, after we got back home, relaxed and chatted a little about our day, my brother (who is an up and comer in the restaurant world, invited me to his place for his famous "Philly Cheese steak Nachos". Just when I thought I had seen it all (and ate it all), this is something I had never heard of but couldn't wait to try. It's a great bar app that you just cant pass up. Yum.

After a wonderful trip, we get home and I was back to work the next day to get ready to feed almost 200 people. My small and able staff and I cranked out the food and made everyone happy (even the ungrateful ones, I'm sure). While it's great to get away, its best to be home.

Happy thanksgiving everyone!

Oh, and here's my recipe for roasted brussel sprouts:

1 pound brussel sprouts (stems trimmed off, cut in half)
3 strips of bacon (cut into small dice)
1/2 medium onion (minced)
2 cloves of garlic (smashed into a paste)
salt and pepper to taste
splash of white wine
splash of chicken stock

Render the bacon until lightly crispy
Add onion and garlic, sweat until translucent.
deglaze with wine and stock
add sprouts and cover, bring to a boil and then simmer, stirring occasionally, until just knife tender
remove lid and evaporate all liquid until almost dry
brown brussel sprouts until golden brown
check seasoning, remove from heat and mount with about a tablespoon of butter.
eat and grunt while doing so.

My favorite indulgences...

2009-11-16T22:43:00.004-05:00

People ask me, on a regular basis, what sort of food I like to cook on my days off and what my favorite foods are. I tell you, those are tough questions that cannot be answered off the cuff. I would have to say, with a little thought, I like to cook many things on my days off and have MANY favorite foods.

Oddly, the word "Favorite" is defined as; something regarded with special favor or liking. So, I guess, technically, I should only have ONE favorite food. Hmm, wow, impossible. I'm obsessed with the whole food category and anything that falls into it, what am I to do! Guess I'll have to create a new and improved definition and start a list, lol.

My earliest memory of putting a food item into the "favorite" category has to be moms mac-n-cheese, ooey, gooey, white-cheddary with that crunchy butter cracker crust, golden brown and delicious. All these years later, I still get giddy when I smell that creamy bubbly concoction doing its thing in the oven during holiday visits! Adding onto that list would have to be, at the very least, moms meatloaf, dads porcupine meatballs (meatballs with rice mixed into the ground beef simmered in a Campbell's tomato soup based sauce, yum!), moms fresh baked white bread with real butter, dad's American chop suey, moms Boston baked beans, etc., etc.!!! Yes, the list could go on for a while. My childhoods filled with favorite foods.

Fast forward over 30 years later and, wow, my favorite foods list has grown to a humongous level!!! I just need to share these things with you so you, yourselves, can get your foodie fingers on these great things too. I'll have to list a few recipes later, stay tuned for that!

In order to make our lives easier (and to keep this blog to a manageable length), I've come up with a top 10 favorite food list for you to check out. To be fair, I've not listed my family childhood favorites (yawn, right?).

10. Steak and Cheese Grinder - Bob Nadeus Subs = 776 Mast Road Manchester, NH

These guys started out pretty much out their garage when I was a kid. Famous for this steak and cheese grinder on awesome bread! They marinate chuck steak for a few days, cook it on this flat top grill with mushrooms, peppers and a shitload of cheese (with hots, of course). I mean, this sub is AMAZING!!! In my opinion, the best grinder in Manchester. Ive been eating them for 20 years and every time I go up to visit, I make it a point to grab at least one while I'm there.

9. Kane's Donuts - Saugus, Mass. After a 20 minute wait, grab yourself two or three and a cup of that amazing coffee and enjoy. You may remember this listed in a previous blog. My mouth is currently watering upon reflection.

8. A well made Reuben.

I don't care where I get a Reuben, just as long as its on thick sliced rye or pumpernickel, with THINLY sliced corned beef, 2 sliced of Swiss cheese and sour kraut with plenty of scratch made 1000 island dressing, toasted on a buttered grill . Unlike this sorry piece of crap they tried pawning off on us at O'Malleys On Main in Waynesville, NC a few weeks ago. I've seen better sandwiches in public school! What a joke of a restaurant! But, that's another blog. I hate a bad restaurant, especially the ones that are seemibgly doing great business! DON'T PEOPLE KNOW!

7. Egg Food Young. If you don't know what that is, Google it then go order some :)

6. Braised beef cheeks. See, well, its part of the face of the cow, braised slowly forever in a flavorful stock and red wine, need I say more? I just had some the other night at The Liberty restaurant in Charlotte, NC and it was ridiculously great!

5. Fried pork rinds. They pop in your mouth like pop-rocks!

4. Five guys burgers. If you have one in your area, GO NOW!!! And, please don't order a large fry if you are alone, you might cry.

3. Bacon. (needs no introduction!)

2. Double stuffed Oreos :)

1. Fois Gras on a really good baguette and sea salt.

Ok, I have MANY more favorites that would probably take days and pages worth of blog space to list and, we all know you wouldn't read it all, lol, but I think the above is enough to get you to run out to your local neighborhood restaurant or fresh market to indulge.

If you have any favorites you'd like to add, feel free to let me know for the world to see!

My recent F1 competition

2009-11-09T11:11:00.003-05:00

This past Saturday, I had the honor to be a part of an F1 mystery basket competition up in Woodbridge, VA. For those of you not sure what that is, it's an "Iron Chef Style" competition where the judges give you 3-5 mystery proteins and access to a well stocked pantry of staples and 4 hours to setup, create a menu on the fly, cook, plate up 12 plates and clean up. You go through this not only for the experience, but to learn how to be better for the NEXT competition, maybe win some money and/ or a medal along the way. I love doing these to keep me sharp and to meet other chefs as well as pick up some new ideas.

My mystery items were...

Proteins:

Bone-in leg of lamb
A whole red snapper
Frog legs
Chevre (soft fresh goat cheese)

Produce:

Red bell peppers
Asparagus
Crimini mushrooms
Pink striped beets

My menu was...

1st course:

Crispy fried frog legs with fresh marinara over house made pasta and thyme
(critiques were something like this; pasta was perfectly made, impressed that you made it from scratch but needed more sauce. Frog legs were perfectly cooked but not brown enough, suggest adding paprika or soy sauce to your flour in the future. Marinara was delicious, but would have liked to have had more. The fresh thyme leaves needed to be chopped and added no flavor to the dish at all, unless you physically put them on your fork, overall, great job!)

2nd course:

Pan-seared red snapper, roasted beets over rice salad with bibb lettuce and Italian parsley with roasted red pepper vinaigrette.
(critiques; Snapper was perfectly cooked, skin was nice and crispy but got soggy with the dressing. This is not a vinaigrette, its a dressing. A vinaigrette is clear; oil, vinegar and seasoning, that's it! We shouldn't mis-use terminology like that, its a sign that we've become lazy as chefs (ouch). The rice salad should have been served at room temp, not cold and a few grains of wild rice weren't quite done, otherwise, delicious. )

3rd course:

Roasted leg of lamb with garlic and rosemary over cous-cous, grilled asparagus and lamb demi.
(critiques; Lamb was perfectly cooked, tasted delicious, but sliced too thick. Cous cous was perfect but a little dry, needed more sauce. Lamb demi was delicious, but needed more.)

4th course:

Pear tart with bitter caramel, pear chip and maple goat cheese Chantilly cream
(critiques; Pastry didn't puff up enough but impressed that I made my own 3-2-1 dough. Pear tasted good but needed to be poached a little longer. Chantilly cream wasn't fluffy enough but tasted delicious, could have used more goat cheese flavor, great idea in using the goat cheese. Caramel was delicious, but needed more.)

Overall critiques:

Needed more sauce on every plate (I'm going to make sure I bring a bag full of gravy boats to the next competition!), everything was seasoned perfectly and tasted great but there was too much food. I shouldn't have used starch/ protein in all of the first three courses. Great job!

I silvered this one and, apparently, missed the 3rd prize $500.00 prize by a lousy point! SHIT!

As usual, I had a great time. As slow and boring as it's been at work these past few weeks, it was REALLY nice to have a little stress under my collar and cook!

I need to thank them for giving me a great intern to assist in setting up and cleaning up as well as lending me everything I needed to cook! I was under the impression, according to the rules, that I was only supposed to bring my knives! Boy, what a shocker when they told me I had to bring all of my own equipment! YIKES! But, it was in a culinary school and they had more than what I needed, it all worked out in the end.

February at Myrtle Beach is my next competition adventure, cant wait! Another F category and a GOLD THIS TIME!!!

Check out a couple pics of the event below:

Filleting a beautiful red snapper

Rolling and tying a leg of lamb that I boned out a little earlier

Plate-up of course #3

Making pasta from scratch (angel hair)

Checking to make sure my sauces are OK!

Thanksgiving turkey class at William Sanoma

2009-11-09T00:41:00.003-05:00

The other day, I was asked to teach a few neighborhood foodies a few basics on how to brine, truss, season, roast and carve a turkey, what fun!

Brining the turkey

Trussing the turkey

Roasting the turkey

Carving the turkey

We also discussed a few side items that WS sells there; cranberry relish, herb paste to rub under the skin of the huge-mongous holiday bird, carving sets, trussing needles, roasting pans and butchers twine dispensers, to name a few!

No pictures were taken, but you can check out their very informative web site for more information.

We had a great time, as usual, and I got rid of another 15 business cards! (no, still no calls), I think people like the IDEA of hiring a chef for private parties and not actually the commitment, jeesh. Maybe I should be careful what I wish for, eh?

Happy thanksgiving!

Mega blog update, all-in-one post for your convenience! :)

2009-11-02T22:57:00.004-05:00

Well all, I've been a little bit of a slacker when its come to keeping this blog updated. I could say its because I've been too busy, but I'd be lying a little as lately, I have NOT been very busy (well, at least the way I'm used to!). I've had just enough to do to keep me from going batty but not so much that I couldn't find time to sleep 8+ hours a night or update my blog for you, my one and only reader :)

First, I'd like to take a moment and show this to you: I almost died of laughter when my son mms'd this to me the other day. Needed to share this with you. It's based loosely on an old movie from the 80s, youtube it, lol.

OK, so, for your convenience and reading pleasure, I've decided to get up-to-date all in one big blog post! Just this once, ok? :) You can read it in "6 easy installments", kinda like buying a shitty over priced curling iron from QVC, if you'd prefer.

First thing that is worth writing about since you last read was, well, Rob H. called me trying to apologize for walking in 1.5 hours late into his shift and quitting on me (long story), (2 months after the event occurred). I wasn't in the mood to deal with him or his bull****, so I didn't give him the time of day. I, with almost gritted teeth, told him I didn't want to talk and had to go. Well, that was a couple weeks ago. Ive been taught that I have to forgive those who have wronged me. And, well, after further thought and meditation on the subject, I forgive you Rob. You're not worth being angry over as you just hurt yourself. We are doing great/ better without you and I wish you luck. (you're still a douche bag though, but a forgiven one at that). Thanks to those who have asked about my little "P.S." at the bottom of my blog about being an asshole.

Next thing, well, this is kinda cool. A good friend of mine turned me onto this site called Deep Plate. From what I understand, its a blog where this plate company guy posts pictures from around the country of chefs plate-up submissions. See, if you sign up to become a part of this monthly "project", he will send you a plate to play with. The only catch is that you have to be a professional chef working in an actual kitchen and you are required to plate something onto that plate, take pictures and send them off to him. He will then post them on his blog and facebook page for the world to see. You get free advertisement and so does he (and his gorgeous plates!). Its like a win-win. I've seen challenges between other chefs, some judging is involved, very cool site and great guy to deal with. Check out his site and tell me what you think.

Here are my submissions for this months projects. I need to work on the colors a little bit as my camera is in need of a replacement. You get the point.

Mini egg rolls with duck confit, dried cranberries and black currants (plumped with bourbon), siracha, ponzu, fish sauce, etc., Asian slaw and there are a pile of ginger fried wonton strips for crunch. After taking this image, I decided to make the next batch with shredded cabbage and carrots INSIDE the eggroll and the result was a much better product. The ones pictured were pretty yumm-alicious, but the next batch was a LOT better. (how bad can house-made duck confit taste anyway!?)

Local venison three ways. I roasted a rack wrapped in bacon, cut a chop, made sausage and made a boned, rolled and tied roast leg of venison. Each served with its on condiment; peach apple compote, venison demi and red onion jam respectfully.

Top Chef season 7 is taking audition videos for the next season of the best food show on TV. This is my second attempt at this show, so I tried to make it the best one yet. Once the envelope hit the mailbox, I turned it over to God. I just want to make it fun and not fret over whether or not they pick me out of 30000000000000 other contestants. If its meant to be, its meant to be, right? Here's a sneak peak of what I sent in:

"Back by popular demand", the members requested that I do another cigar dinner this month. The menu was some of my best work! Fall themed, manly food, cigars and good liquor. Perfect time of year to sit outside, enjoy the amazing views of the golf course and leaves changing color behind us, just AWESOME!! Well, sadly, None of the other members seemed to share in my excitement for a great night out on the veranda, lol, we had 2 sign up and we had to cancel the dinner. Shame. If you're curious, here's the menu.

Work's been SLOOOOOWWWW these past few weeks. I think the economy is hitting the area country clubs a bit harder than other food service establishments. Sucks. So, I decided to get off my ass and do an F1 competition coming up this weekend. Pretty excited. I'll keep you posted!

When I was writing this, it was my birthday. Yes, folks, I'm 38 today! Wow, hurts to type that. Seems like yesterday I was hitting the bong on my way to, er um, after class and growing out my hair to the official "metal" length! What a fantastic 38 years its been! (minus about 10 I don't really care to remember, but they were necessary, for sure).

To treat myself on this special day, I decided to surround myself with people I love and respect. My buddy Dan and I enjoyed a strong ass cup of coffee this morning discussing all things techie. From PS3s to the new Windows 7 OS that recently hit the streets to our cell phones (a friendly discussion about the pros and cons of my iPhone versus his Blackberry). You know, stuff that the wife only glazes over about when I try to tell her. Great stuff bro :)

After that, good and jacked up, I went off to enjoy an amazing lunch at Eddies Place in Ballentyne. I scarfed down a half muffulatta sammich and a cup of she crab soup (was a chilly day today, great day for soup).

Then, off to a nearby cigar shop to enjoy a Camacho Triple Maduro beast of a cigar! Wow, it was awesome. It tasted like love, man, 100%!

My good friend Brian sharing a laugh and a great cigar. Great time.

Look at that ASH! :) Retarded.

And, to end a great day, my lovely wife and I had a fantastic meal at this new sushi place called Enso in downtown Charlotte. I ate 6 kinds of sushi (toro tuna, uni, wagu beef, yellow tail, etc.) and a huge bowl full of edamame, washing that down with a quart of pelligrino, umph, I am still a little full. The wife had a fillet and a fancy-version of crab Rangoon, yummy!!! It really is one of the best sushi places Ive ever been to! Its a must go for that special occasion. After a little sticker shock with our dinner check, we waddled off to the house to digest.

Was truly a great day and I think I have you all caught up with things so far. Keep checking back and I'm sure Ill have something for you sooner than later.

My really cool job is what cooking is all about for me....today!

2009-10-19T00:24:00.000-05:00

I know most of you have been following along with my career these past few years. If you were an earlier reader, you no doubt will remember my original blog titled "Day in the Life of Corporate Chef" followed by "Day in the Life of a Private Chef", coming to the current title you read above. Before my life as a "semi-pro food blogger", I did everything from diners to fast food joints to nursing homes to country clubs. To say I've had an interesting career in the many facets of running a kitchen is an understatement!

We chefs that have been around awhile may try to look back at all the great and not-so-great things we've had to endure along the way and roll our eyes a little. To think of all the HUNDREDS or THOUSANDS of hours we spent on our feet, slamming pans, scrubbing pots and cutting shallots, it makes our heads spin!

Crazy, looking back, I remember thinking while cutting french fries on the dank basement of Lenny's Lunch when I was 13 that, if this is cooking, I don't want ANYTHING to do with it!!! A few years/ jobs later, while flipping square burgers at the local fast food chain, that "If THIS is cooking, I don't want anything to do with it!". And yes, a few years/ jobs later, while frying bellied clams, cleaning the hoods and boiling out the fryers that "If THIS is cooking, I don't want ANYTHING TO DO WITH IT, AHHHH!!!".

And now, a few years/ jobs later, here I am, typing to you, I think I finally made it over the hump. All that bullshit, griping, whining and stuff lead me to this day. Wow, crazy.

I heard a couple new guys I have working for me complaining about peeling snap peas, dicing a few shallots and washing some dishes and I remember those same complaints my fellow grunts used to endure from ME and laugh a little.

I wonder how long it takes for us "lifers" to stop complaining and become overwhelmed with joy that we are chefs? I have NO idea. Its like this imaginary line that we cross one day in our careers where washing dishes, peeling carrots and chopping onions just becomes part of our soul and we are given the ability to pass that shit on to others, thanking God in a small way that we don't have to do that medial crap anymore, lol

See, I love cooking, and all the creative processes that lead up to a finished dish. I think, however, I like to mentor others into doing it for me better. Leading a team, I've finally figured, is what cooking is all about. It's like becoming a doctor or a classical pianists, you bitch and moan about the years of commitment, the practice, the books, the practice, the lack of sleep, whining along the way to, finally, get your lab coat or to lead an orchestra. You think, "Wow", I get it now!!! Well, that's where I'm at, finally.

I returned to the country club scene after a 4.5 year stint with the corporate food world. Let's just say it was one of the more enduring times of my career. I loved the work but didn't care for many of the people above my pay scale, to be honest. Aside from a few "real" people that I loved and respected dearly, everyone else that worked for that company that I had to answer to was a bunch of shallow, arrogant douche bags that deserve each other. Although I appreciate the experience at the time, they are NOT what cooking is all about, truly. If you need a carrot dangled in front of your face to keep you motivated, then the corporate food service scene is for you. (Well, the hours were great and I got to meet some famous people, lol, that was cool :) )

Anyway, back to the country club. It's a blast. We get to make some amazing food that most members appreciate. I get to share my vision with the team and we put it out with smiles, fun. Since I began about 4 1/2 months ago, we cleaned that shit hole up, re-organized the staff, brought the food quality up to par, made some members happy and began a great relationship with a few local farmers. I'm having the time of my life man! And, to make it even better, I'm 10 minutes from home. Finally, no commute! I've had to drive for 45 minutes each way for years.

So, if you're starting out in this crazy biz and are committed to it 100% and feel that you JUST can't pop another fava bean or that you are going to kill the sous chef for burning the sauce in the bottom of the pot AGAIN!!!, breath. Just BREATH and hang in there. A few years from now, you'll have some cool stories, a few scars, a bad back and varicose veins to share with that dude that says "this sucks" under his breath next to you every 10 minutes. (and, hey, remember, chicks dig a dude that can cook! :) )

3 days and 2 nights of fresh air, great food and awe inspiring views...

2009-10-02T09:19:00.002-05:00

It was time to just to get away and hang out without any distractions. We were blessed with the ability to visit Western, NC for three days and two nights. We saw some jaw dropping views, ate some pretty awesome food and met some great people! And, most importantly, got some much needed rest.

Our trip began with a 3 hour drive (two pee stops) to Waynesville, NC where we stayed at the gorgeous Waynesville Inn. It was one of the best views we've ever sipped our morning coffee to and, for the money, one of the nicest places to stay. The service was great and, aside from the weeds growing out of the gutters and a couple mold spots on the ceiling in our room, the place was impeccable. (I know, I'm such a pain in the ass noticing the details, but hey, that's what chefs do! :) )

We had a great meal there our first night at the "Cork and Cleaver Restaurant" on premises. The wife enjoyed the filet mignon, cooked medium, served with au gratin potatoes. I, even though noticing their "Niman Ranch" meat logo, opted for their 12 ounce veal porter house, cooked very rare served with awesome stone-ground aged-Gouda grits. I think there was a salad involved in all this, but I don't quite remember. That veal erased my memory. Everything was amazing (well, the cook needs to learn how to cook a filet medium, he sent it out mid-rare, but our server had that fixed, thanks!). Dessert, we split the chefs special "Apple Fritters with Vanilla Ice Cream", yum, basically an apple compote filled won-ton wrapper, deep fried and tossed in cinnamon sugar, delicious and warm.

After an amazing nights sleep in this huge king sized bed (weird, we never touched once in this cavernous thing!), we enjoyed a complimentary breakfast (great coffee!) and a ride into Bryson City, NC where we rode the Great Smokey Mountain Railroad through the beautifully historic smokey mountains. It was a 4.5 hour round trip train ride with a stop half way for a quick lunch on the Nantahala river. (nothing worth writing about, we just had hot dogs, chips, coke and ice cream bars, lol). The temperature was a cool 68 degrees, perfect early fall weather! To say that that area was beautifully breath taking is a HUGE understatement. The pictures I took do not do it justice.

On our way back to the Inn, we decided to take the long way and drive into Cherokee, NC. Which is basically a place where it's legal to gamble and is marketed solely to tourists. It wasn't what we expected. It kinda reminded us of Myrtle Beach, SC but without the ocean. Was a shame, really. I hear there are really nice places to see there, but I guess we didn't drive down the right side street or something.

After stopping into about 3 t-shirt shops, we heading on our way taking a short cut through the Blue Ridge Parkway. We've talked about driving through there for years but never got around to it. Wow, words cannot describe how amazing it is. You drive through these winding roads with breath taking views around every bend. Just crazy pretty. Please go if you get the chance, whether you just drive it for a few minutes or try to travel the entire 400plus miles of it, its a "must see before you die" kinda place.

We finally got back to our room with empty bellies and off we went to find nourishment. One of the guys that ran one of the t-shirt shacks we went to suggested the "Sweet Onion" restaurant in downtown Waynesville. This is my kinda place. Great ambiance, great smells, open kitchen and great food! We really stuffed ourselves at this place, wasn't hard, everything on the menu looked great! We started off splitting two appetizers; Stuffed Fried Risotto (gooey filed risotto, breaded and deep fried served with an awesome red sauce) and the Ahi Tuna Sashimi (perfectly pan-seared sesame crusted ahi tuna served simply with soy sauce and wasabi, perfect). Our main courses were fettuccine Alfredo for the wife and, (not sure what I was thinking) a gut bomb of a bacon wrapped meatloaf served with mac and cheese and a crisp cucumber salad. Aside from the meatloaf being a little dry, the meal was perfect for both of us! No, no dessert, we didn't dare try. It would have been kinda like that guy on the Monty Python skit with the "thin way-fare" and we surely would have exploded all over the place, could have been messy.

After a nice walk down town, and a stop in a bookstore, we headed back for a long nights sleep, heading home the next day.

That next morning, after check out, I discovered a great cigar shop and just had to stop by. The wife thought it would be a good idea to go shopping well I stunk up myself. I met some great guys and look forward to seeing them in the future. Smoked a great CAO CX2 cigar as well, which topped off a great trip perfectly!

If you live in the Carolinas and just want to get away for a quick weekend trip, check out Western, NC, there's tons to do and, compared to the big city, is like another planet!

Got some pics below, enjoy.

Half-eaten rare veal port house, whoa!

In Cherokee, NC in front of one of many "1/2 off Moccasins" shops

After taking a golf cart out onto the 18 hole course located in front of our bedroom at the Waynesville Inn, I discovered a wild apple tree and ate my weight in crisp, tart apples! I put some in Aprils purse for later, lol.

Nice :)

Perfect Ahi Tuna

Lunch on the Nantahala, what a great place to enjoy a hot dog, lol

The Blue Ridge Parkway, God's county, just awesome.

Amazing train ride, just amazing!

Multi-course wine dinner

2009-09-24T20:43:00.002-05:00

Tonight was a pretty cool night. We did a 6 course wine dinner for a few of the members. A lot of fun, eating and drinking was had by all! We tried to stick with the local food as much as possible and, with the exception of a few things, we did pretty well. Supporting local farmers makes the food taste better, if you ask me!

Check out the menu and wines used below (Thanks Tim for the question!):

Amuse Bouche

Goat Cheese and pistachio covered grape with blackberry gastrique

Paired with: Childress Vineyards Trio

Starter

Pan-seared fois gras torchon with butter poached red currents and micro green salad

Paired with: Childress Vineyards Late Harvest Viognier

Soup

Celeriac bisque with roasted root vegetables and parsley

Paired with: Childress Vineyards Chardonnay

Salad

Local bitter greens and fresh herbs with Yuzu vinaigrette

Paired with: Childress Vineyards Pinnacle

Main Course

Bone-in Pork loin chop with Nise’s local apple jam and thyme Jus

Paired with: Childress Vineyards Cabernet Francrt

Dessert

Mocha gelato chocolate chip tuile and espresso foam

Paired with: Childress Vineyards Starbound

Fatty Mcfatster (and his lovely wife) at the cholesterol festival

2009-09-16T23:30:00.000-05:00

I feel dirty. Yeah, it's true. I feel dirtier than Mike Roe dipped in rabid dog ball pimple puss (too graphic? sorry, lol)

So, every year in our town, the Cabarrus County Fair comes around. In our opinion, its the best in the area and we look forward to going. Of course, being the foodie that I am, I use [any] fair as an excuse to scope out the typical and a-typical snacks that are offered, followed, usually, by the anti-gravity slams of some of the rides.(ever ride the "Tilt-a-wirl" after eating fried dough? Priceless!)

After watching a few in-bred redneck "women" with halter tops eat cotton candy (you should see some of their kids! Reminds me of that monster on "The Goonies" who liked the Baby Ruth candy bar, remember him?), we scoped out the standard food favorites like the infamous Kielbasa Sub with onions and peppers (makes me fart just typing those words). And, the spawn of Satan Foot-Long Corn Dog. After eating those gut-bombs, we hunted for our dessert. Last year, we had our first fried Oreo cookies dusted with powdered sugar. No, I can't tell you how good they were with words, you'll just have to figure it out.

This year, we revisited the site of said fried treats to find that they were now offering every major candy bar on the market dipped in funnel cake batter and deep fried to artery clogging goodness. Yes folks, it's true. You can now get Snickers, 3-Musketeers, Milky Way and a few others battered and deep fried! I've heard about this blasphomy on TV but never could imagine I would be in the presence of such greatness! (Hope my doctor, mom or health insurance agent are not reading this, lol).

Well, we got the Oreos again and I had to try the Snickers Bar. Wow. Simply stated. I mean, Snickers Bars have always caused me great guilty pleasure in the past, but eating it this way was just retarded. It was crispy and light on the outside and warm, gooey and crunchy on the inside. Just insane! The Oreos, yeah, they pretty much rocked too. Its hard to mess up an Oreo no matter how you treat it.

Problem with that meal was just this, I'm getting to old to carry that sort of calerie collection around in my body. I felt like total shit the rest of the night and into the next morning up until I took my morning pooh. (Dont ask, it wasnt pretty). I've learned my lesson and will never eat that stuff again! (chuckle, until next time).

Atitude of gratitude and my inner a**hole

2009-09-16T22:52:00.002-05:00

A good and long time friend of mine wrote an interesting post on his blog recently and asked himself an interesting question into the Google search engine, "How do I stop being an asshole?" and the result was an interesting quote from a dude that slept with his friends wife and was beating himself up about it and other things he has, apparently, done. A part of the quote read like this, "...I can blame it on depression, or a shitty childhood, but really, I have to blame it on myself. I have had so many incredible opportunities, squandered most of them, bitterly, and been a shitty person dressed up as a funny man." Hmm, interesting question with a deep meaning. It got me thinking, as I type this at 3 am, my wife snoring her ass off in the other room, if I, myself, am an asshole?

Well, my very first thought was, "Yeah, I can be some times", and can't we all? How many times have you watched or listened to someone and thought, "This dude is an ASSHOLE!" lol.

I spent the majority of my life surrounded by a man who, for the most part, was a complete and utter asshole, drunk all the time, cheated on his wife, smoked too much, talked down to his entire family and beat his kids whenever possible. This sort of person was full of fear, I'm convinced, and made others around him feel less-than and not-as-good-as because he, himself, felt that way.

When I started coming of age, I was, for the most part, an angry person. I felt no one liked me, I felt I didn't fit in, I felt fearful and insecure beyond belief! Being this skinny long haired freak with my two front teeth chipped, my self esteem was a little low.

Thankfully, on hind-site, no one tried to fix this for me. I was forced, in my own way, to deal with those feelings of self worthlessness and self loathing. I tried fixing it with booze and drugs and it only acted as an amplifier of my true inner feelings and pushed friends and family away from me, which started the vicious circle. I'm not loved, I should drink, people hate me, so I should try to fit in by getting high with them, and the more I do this, the more my inner feelings come out and the more people couldn't stand to be around me (or so I thought), so on and so on. Eventually, I ended up completely alone, on that ugly blue shag carpet in a two room apartment with no furniture with nothing and everything I thought I needed to make me feel whole, was gone. I have never felt so empty and sole-less in my entire life.

That same day I began a journey to get better. It took me a long time to feel worthy by loving myself and not concerning myself with what others thought of me. By not comparing my insides by peoples outsides. By mending these fences in my life that have shut me off from love and personal growth. Today, I am far from perfect and will most likely never posess personal peace within 100%, but I have the greatest thing anyone could ask for in life, a reason. A reason to get out of bed in the morning, a reason to want to do well in life, a reason to want to be nice to others (most of the time, lol). That reason, bottom line, is gratitude.

For me, I must be grateful for what God has given me. I must remember where I came from as I could go back there in a second! I must be thankful for the lessons learned in my life, especially how NOT to treat others. If I'm treating people like shit, I must have something going on in my head that needs to be looked at. Some conflict of sorts that needs to be addressed. Most of my inner conflicts revolve around perceptions. and, its amazing how my perceptions can change based on many factors. If I hadn't gotten enough sleep, for instance, or hadn't prayed or sought spiritual growth in some way, or if I hadn't eaten in a while of whatever, my perception changes and my inner asshole comes out 10 fold. But, even if Ive gotten 12 hours sleep the night before, had a healthy breakfast of tree bark and love, even if I just came floating out of church, well, my perception still has a way, sometimes, to be a little skewed.

Who knows why, really, people are assholes to each other some times and why others are so nice you want to puke. Its hard to figure out why some people only need to lose everything once and learn their lesson or that some people need to lose everything like once every 6 months and still blame others for their mis-givings, laying out the "poor-me's". Who knows, really.

Well, one thing I have learned in these past 37 years, that we are all human with feelings and expectations and, when you are as complicated as most of us are, you tend to want to punch one of them in the face sometimes, no matter what the bible says, right? For me, my only goal is to, perhaps selfishly, feel fulfilled. I want to make sure I gave those around me the love and respect they are owed. Not only in a self centered way, but feel like Ive accomplished a good life and when the day comes when I will meet my maker, can only hope that I wasn't too much of an asshole that at least a few of you will come to my funeral, lol.

Eh, life is crazy, fun and exciting as long as I keep my mind out of it, lol.

*Edit - Oh, and since we're on the topic of being an asshole, Rob H., if you're still following my blog, you should grow up and learn a few things about burning bridges with your employer(s) and keeping your dick out of places they don't belong. God bless you dude, you deserve whatever heart-felt-pain you receive. Douche Bag.

OMG, this might be the best sandwich I've ever eaten!

2009-09-02T23:24:00.005-05:00

Wow man, I think we found the place that makes the best sandwich I ever ate and it's right in my back yard!

We drove by "Havana Carolina" a few days ago and I mentioned to my better half that I'd like to check them out one day. As a matter of fact, they sell one of my favorite sandwiches on the planet which inspired me to put one on my menu at work (which sells very well I might add).

It's this little Cuban sandwich store that came to town about a year ago, I think, and has gotten pretty great reviews from the locals.

Anyway, a few days go by and we ended up there for a quick dinner a couple nights ago before seeing a movie. We walked into this simple little joint with palm trees and ocean painted on the walls, tacky table cloths and place mats and Spanish guitar plucking from a boom box in the corner, pretty cool little place. This little Cuban dude behind the counter welcomes us with a huge grin and broken English. When I saw the panini press and the hand written menus, I knew we were in for a treat.

I look up and point to the "Cuban Sandwich" written on the wall, the wife goes safe and gets a pressed club sandwich (yes, she's a big fan) and a couple beef and chicken empanadas. Our new found Cuban buddy suggests a couple authentic Latin-esqe soft drinks to go with it and, within a few short minutes, we were crunching down on our heavenly prizes.

The empanadas were hand made and filled with spicy flavorful beef and shredded chicken. I dashed a few drops of habanaro hot sauce and we were in heaven! Perfectly made with love, I'm sure.

Now, when I tell you this Cuban sandwich was the best I've ever eaten, well, there's no need for too much proof. I've had some others made by very reputable sources (including my own kitchen!) and none of them can even hold a candle to this bad boy.

He put this slow roasted pulled pork on it that must have been made by someones loving mother or something, thin slices of smoked ham, slices of pickles, Swiss cheese a little mustard and some mayo and it was pressed between a press made especially for this task. Perfectly crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside with juicy pork fat oozing out along with mayo-ey (is that a word) cheese glistening out the sides, JEESH MAN!!! And yes, even my wife's Cuban-style club sandwich was pressed to utter goodness.

We washed our meals down with "Iron Beer Cola", a fruity version of coke, and "Malta", an alcohol free malty cola that reminded me of malt balls or something, perfect.

Of course, one can't visit a Cuban joint and not get an espresso! They are a bit different than the espressos you may be used to as they add sugar during the pressing and are served in really tiny cups, smaller than your average demi-tasse.

Needless to say, it's on the top of my list of best meals and definitely nailed the best sammy award! Check it out if you're in the area.

Some pics for you:

Cute neighborhood joint, eh?

Iron Beer? Yes, it's yummy.

Yea, the burps make your eyes water, lol

Chicken empanadas with firey habanaro sauce.

The beef empanadas were our favorite and we liked the green sauce a little better, too.

If anyone asks, my wife does NOT like espresso! :) (she hates this picture!)

A burger with a fried egg? And, BACON?

2009-08-25T21:06:00.003-05:00

So, I had a really long week at work last week and my wife went out of town to watch the Bristol race with her family. We hadn't seen each other in a few days so I thought it would be nice to take her to lunch on my day off, this past Monday during her lunch break.

We go to this place in Charlotte called Brazwells. They don't seem to even have a web page yet as they're pretty new. It was the old Press Box for years (a shitty, dirty hole in the wall that has been around for decades. I was afraid to piss in their bathrooms back then) and has really gotten a face lift!

It's clean and new and full of life. The dining room/ bar area is pretty typical for a current American style sports bar acting as a "pub" with wide screens and HD sports playing on every screen. Hotty bartenders and server chicks running around with really tight "give me a bigger tip" jeans on. This is what I was told as, being as my WIFE was with me, and I'm a VERY happily married man, I didn't even THINK of looking for myself! (ahem)

Anyway, the great thing about this place is this huge patio bar area in the back. Full of seats under really nice tree cover and ESPN playing silently on the walls and this "music" playing in the background (new wave garbage, I must be getting old, lol) and ceiling fans.

We open our menus and start looking through. The wife orders her usual, a Club sammich with nothing but mayo, cheese and meat on white bread (toasted, of course) and me, I was in the mood for a burger, a good old fashioned Carolina burger with chili, slaw, mustard and onions, yum. They offered hand cut fries too, YAY!! We were in like Flynn (wtf does that mean!?)

Our server, taking our order by memory as most new restaurants do these days (side rant; why is it that suddenly its considered more "efficient" or "proper" for the servers to take our orders by memory lately?! I mean, my entire life up until a few years ago, when we went to a restaurant, the waiters or waitresses (got to call them all "servers" now) wrote down our orders on little pads and, magically, our orders came to us EXACTLY how we ordered them. If I wanted an extra lime for my steak, BAM, 2 wedges of lime. If someone wanted to dip their fries in Ranch dressing (yes, Ranch ain't just good with raw broccoli florets and carrot sticks) we'd get a side of ranch. Now, they like to take it by memory and ALWAYS (yes, ALWAYS) forget some little detail. And, if the poor bastard has more than two tables in their section, forget about getting that extra pickle or stack of napkins with your ribs you requested! (rant over).

Any who, I order that burger, you know, the one with chili and slaw and stuff? 20 minutes later, she lays down this perfect club with these amazing fries in front of my very pleased wife. And then, she lays down this big ass 1/2 pounder with fries and this yellow love sack stares back at me.

Is this a FRIED EGG!???

Proving my point that taking an order by memory is a bad idea, she gives me this "sunrise" burger with bacon and a fried egg on top instead of the "southern" burger I ordered just a few short minutes ago. As she walked away, I realized that there was no chili, slaw OR mustard anywhere near my burger. But, but, there was a fried egg on it man!! I ate it anyway and it was divine. The burger meat was a little tough and flavorless, but with a few shakes of salt and pepper, a great burger. The fries rocked too (sprinkled with Greek seasoning I think)

Thing of beauty, eh?

Cigars, tiny veal, small batch liquors and BIG ASS SKRIMP!

2009-08-20T23:04:00.005-05:00

Well, yea, another great night. We did something really fun and exciting; a cigar dinner for the members and it went really well. I wrote a 5 course tapas-style dinner using the freshest ingredients cooked over oak charcoal and, yes, everything was YUMMY!!!

Menu looked a little something like this;

1st course, 4-7 sized prawns (gigantic), grilled over oak on a chunky avocado cocktail sauce

2nd was asparagus wrapped in prosciutto over lemon garlic aioli (after this course, Charlies Cigars on Johnson Road gave the members one of two cigars to start off with followed by a small batch liqour to gulp down, let the fun begin)

Intermezzo of local musk melon and mint sorbet

3rd, petite veal lolly pops with caramelized onion demi

4th was (my favorite) hickory smoked duck breast (which was then
rendered crispy on a saute pan and finished to mid rare on oak coals,
baby arugula (tossed in Olive oil, rice wine vinegar and s+p) then
drizzled with an orange reduction sweetened and garnished with fried
capers. (another shot of small batch booze to lube them up a little more)

5th, dessert, mini assortment of cannoli, raspberry truffle rolled in
brownie crumbs and a mini eclair. (second cigar and a shot of Port to bring it all together!)

Everything was done from scratch from smoking the duck, to making the sorbet and the mini desserts to pulling the teeny weeny baby cow from its mothers womb!! (yes, I was kidding).

Check out the pics below.

Oven dried tomatoes done right...

2009-08-18T11:01:00.008-05:00

My neighbor/ fishing buddy/ story teller and friend stopped by the other day and gave me a huge bag full of, what looked like, baby Roma tomatoes fresh from his garden. Coming to the end of the local tomato season, which has been very rainy this year, there are an abundance of hanger-on tomatoes staying on the vines for all to enjoy. Problem with that is, what to do with them all! You can only make so much marinara sauce, right?

I came up with this simple recipe on how to use up some of your tomatoes before you run to the store and buy more canning jars!

These are oven dried tomatoes and are great for salads, making pesto, tossed in pasta or just snacking on.

First, cut the tomatoes in half and toss them in a bowl. Make a simple vinaigrette with 2 parts olive oil, 1 part white balsamic vinegar, a little crushed red pepper flakes, dried thyme, oregano, basil, granulate garlic, onion powder and salt and pepper. Toss everything together well with your hands and let sit for a few minutes to marinate while you wait for your oven to preheat to 300F.

Lay them out cut-side-up on a roasting rack, drizzling any left over marinade over the top and put in the oven until lightly dried out and still a little plump.

This will take 3-5 hours, depending on the size and moisture content of the tomatoes. About 2 hours into the drying process, start taking the smaller ones out of the oven as they became dry and let the larger ones finish up for a little longer. Total time for my tomatoes, just under 3 1/2 hours.

Let them cool completely and store them in an air tight container with a paper towel in the bottom in your fridge for a few days and enjoy.

William Sanoma cooking demos continued

2009-08-18T09:34:00.008-05:00

For those of you following along, I've had the great pleasure to do cooking demos at one of the best cooking gadget stores in THE WORLD (albeit, a bit over priced, but, they're great people anyway).

These last two demos I've done have been bridal showers with a brunch theme. I showed everyone how to use this great stuffed pancake pan that made these cute round filled pancakes.

First, you just heat up this special pan, add a little butter, pour enough pancake batter in the bottom of these round cups to fill them about 1/3 full or so. Then add your favorite pancake filling. In this case, we used mascarpone flavored with cinnamon, orange zest and vanilla and apples that I cooked in butter, yum, and top them off with a little more batter until the cups were about 3/4 full. They cooked up, were flipped over with these special chop-stick-looking-things and finished until they were golden brown and a little crispy on the outside and soft in the middle, jeesh. Too good!

This last one, we did crepes filled with certain things. I revisited the same mascarpone filling used in the stuffed pancakes, macerated strawberries, apples, Dulce de leche and fresh made whipped cream out of one of my favorite gadgets, the nitrous oxide whipped cream maker! Yes, I had to have one, so now I do ;)

We had such a blast! I love hanging out with strangers, showing them how to cook and hamming it up the best I can :) Another one coming up in a few days, I'll keep you posted.

23 years to become a CEC

2009-08-11T14:17:00.003-05:00

Back when I was 13, I started working (illegally, I'm sure) for a small diner in New Hampshire for a crazy French Canadian woman named "Lorette" as a dish washer. She ALWAYS smoked Pall Mall filter-less cigarettes. Whether she was rolling out a pie dough or cooking bacon on the grill, her ash never fell. Weird and mysterious, lol. She had me doing all sorts of fun stuff! Cutting fries in the dank, dark basement, washing pots and pans, pouring coffee, buttering toast and frying bacon. I didn't know that the work sucked back then, I just knew I was COOKING! Like my idols on TV were doing all those years earlier. I can still smell the coffee/ cigarettes/ fried bacon smells of that place. I can still hear Lorette's growling/ raspy voice from behind her griddle screaming at me to "Hurry up and wash those coffee cups, we're almost out!", WOW, what a trip.

Fast forward 23 years and here I am. 1000 miles away from that nasty diner and that crazy woman. God knows I've been through a lot but here I am! Alive and kicking! After all that work and a lot of help along the way, it arrived. The document that separates the men from the boys (OK, or the girls from the woman :) ) And I have just one word to describe it:

"Beautiful." It's as beautiful as any piece of paper could ever be. It showed up in a filthy white card board envelope a couple days ago, kinda anti-climactic, to be honest. I was more excited to get the two cookbooks I ordered from Amazon.com that arrived at the same time than I was to open my "prize" from the ACF.

Was it worth the bullshit to get it? Well, maybe. Was it worth the money? Well, for what I spent, I kinda expected more than just a laminated card and a pretty piece of paper, maybe a bag of cookies or something? Could you guys have, perhaps, made the certificate from parchment like they do when you graduate high school? No kidding, my GED is printed on better quality stock than my CEC certificate and it was a LOT easier to achieve and shit tons less expensive than the latter as well. Ah, but it's still gorgeous :)

After it sank in for a couple days and after I stared at it a few times, the overwhelming desire to scream, "I DID IT!" came over me at least twice. Aside from the lack of pomp and circumstance the ACF puts forward for you, it's still pretty awesome to know that, after 23 years in this business, I can finally tell people I'm a chef and it mean something to both parties.

A good friend of mine, before we became good friends, told me once over the phone while I was sitting in the parking lot of a local Starbucks that I would never become anything in my life or career besides a "lousy sous chef". Oddly enough, at the time I was HIS sous chef!

Not sure what brought that up at the time besides his need for an ego boost, but it pissed me right off. Up to that point I defined myself by my work and WHO I worked for instead of WHY I worked and how I could better myself and MY OWN CAREER!

That statement brought me back to my senses a little. Instead of people pleasing for a bunch of self centered, self righteous wanna-be chefs, I began to focus on me and how I could become the best chef ever. I'm still working on that to this day but not for someone else, for me. It also made me realize how important a good team is for a chef to become successful. Those dudes, all into themselves and the "look what I can do" attitudes rarely mention who got them there. If it wasn't for my team and the people that have helped me through out my career to become successful, I would be, still, just a "lousy sous chef". Thanks for saying that to me that day bud, I guess I needed to hear it!

Now, the day has finally come where, oddly enough, I'm a CEC and the guys that have pissed on me along the way are either still working their same dead end jobs, have gone backwards in their careers or are dead. I have them all to thank for this great day! If I hadn't had my ass kicked by you all, well, my life would be very different, for sure.

Now I'm at the "now what" stage in my career. I reached this goal, now what? I guess I'll have to pray about it and wait for guidance. God is good and will always lead the way. He put people into my life knowing that I am only motivated by the people/ things in my life that try to get in the way. You know who you, lol.

Stay tuned for my next adventure!

Visit to Poplar Ridge Farm

2009-08-04T19:07:00.004-05:00

In search for another local produce farm to feed the needs of my new menu, I found Poplar Ridge Farms during a Google search. Search engines are a wonderful thing man :)

Even though I'm currently using two local producers, Barbee farms in Concord and Nise's Herbs who has an amazing farm stand at the Charlotte Regional Farmers Market, there's always room for one more. Is too much awesome locally grown produce a bad thing?!

After driving for about 45 minutes from the club, I arrived at this amazingly beautiful farm in Union County. It's out in the middle of nowhere and man, talk about a mini paradise! As I drove into the gravel drive and up into the farm, a sense of peace combined with a child like excitement came over me. I saw all this food growing all over the place. For a chef, it's like ground zero. All I needed was a salt and pepper shaker and my knives.

Any who, I met with one of the owners, the beautiful Marianne Battistone and the farm manager Tony Phillips as they gave me a full tour of their farm. Tony showed me some amazing heirloom variety cucumbers, tomatoes and this red okra I wanted to fry up right on the spot! Asparagus plants, beans, corn, oh my! Shook hands with a couple of the farm employees, great guys. Everyone seemed happy, fulfilled and proud of what they do.

Marianne showed me around the other side of the farm where they grow herbs, lettuces, flowers and the like. We peaked around in the cooling house where there were tons of garlic, potatoes and butter nut squash curing and waiting to be eaten (by me, hopefully).

The entire property was like a serene garden of Eden fully equipped with horses, iron gates, a cooking class-room and a pool that would put anyone into an envious state (especially today, it was HOT out!).

As we were walking around discussing doing business together, all I could think about was what sort of things I could make with all those items coming out of the ground. "Yeah, I could roast those with a Duroc pork chop, wilt that tossed in a citrus vinaigrette, saute this, poach that!!!" Good thing I had to leave or I just may have had to run to the grocery store, buy a tent and start cooking! But, I digress.

Of course, there were samples! We nibbled on sweet 100 tomatoes and baby head sized heirlooms that had to be seen to be believed.

Also, if you ever want to eat some of the best local produce in the area, check out their CSA info here. I'll post some menu pics and blog about the new menu soon enough, stay tuned.

Our family Wilmington trip

2009-07-23T09:39:00.009-05:00

My family came to town to visit us for a few days this week from New Hampshire. My entire family has had an affinity with both the sea coast and, of course, food so a two day trip to Wilmington, NC seemed like a great idea to appease both appetites. But, unfortunately, none of them share my love for a good cigar :)

We saw some amazing sites. The Battleship North Carolina is an amazing thing to see. You could spend HOURS on that ship and still not see it all, just awesome. It's one of the highest awarded ships from world war 2 and permanently docked there in Wilmington on the Cape Fear river.

We walked the "River Walk" while gorging ourselves on home made ice cream stuffed in fresh made waffle cones. The smells sucked us in and it was really hard to resist eating at least 2 a day. Every moment the Kilwins Ice Cream shop was opened, there was a line of at least 30 people running out the door. The ice cream shop across the street could only look on with amazement as we all ate our frozen desserts, wondering why said ice cream shop had no customers. Maybe its because they aren't making their own cones. The smell of a house made waffle cone would bring most people to their knees!

We took a horse drawn wagon tour pulled by Ned and Bobby, two rescued horses, around one of the historic neighborhoods in the area. Some of the houses on the tour were built in the late 1700s and still in tact. Its really impressive to see all the amazing homes that look like they did back in the day. Some of the streets are still covered in cobblestone and caused the wagon to bounce us all over the place, lol, funny.

We couldn't be in a great port town without visiting a few great restaurants. There were some really amazing places to eat during our stay. We started off with a great fried fish platter and bar apps at the Surf's Bar and Grille, yum.

One night we ate on the river walk at a place called The Pilot House where I had a really good carpaccio appetizer followed by an awesome tuna main course (I ordered it very rare, of course :) ) mom had a maple glazed salmon, sis had the fillet Mignon and wifey had the crab cakes. We all split a few shrimp cocktail and the girls split a bottle of wine, great night of noshing.

For a quick light lunch, we stopped by a place that makes their own beer, The Front Street Brewery (FST for short). The place was PACKED!!! I mean, there must have been like hundreds of people eating great food and drinking the local brew. There were these HUGE brass beer brewers (no idea what they're called, lol, I'm a chef and I don't drink!). We chowed down on one of the best pulled pork sammiches I've ever had, sweet potato fries, burgers and check out the picture of Frogmore Stew, a local favorite. :)

If you're ever in Wilmington, North Carolina, I think you'd agree it's a great destination to get away for a couple days and hang out by the water. You're really close to some great beaches too. We hung out at Wrightsville Beach and collected shells and put our toes in the sand. That's my idea of relaxation man. Toes-in-sand and the sounds of the ocean is all I need.

And, lets not forget the scenic walks through the local neighborhoods checking out the amazing churches, T-shirt shopping at Wing's, the aquarium and last, but not least, the laughs in the hotel. Wow, good thing we have a sense of humor, eh? Gotta love it.

Cooking demo series begins at William Sanoma

2009-07-18T22:40:00.002-05:00

This morning, I began a series of cooking demonstrations for a local William-Sanoma. We began the series with a summer menu based on local and seasonally available produce taking advantage of their incredible selection of gadgets! The demo started at 11 am and went for a couple hours. We also had a local gardener discuss his business and the importance of organic gardening. He brought me some of his victory garden produce which was perfect for the three recipes I demod for the crowd of about 25 people.

More to come so stop by again in a few days!

Check out the pictures:

I started off with a roasted corn and grape tomato salad. The "picked that morning" local corn was rubbed in olive oil, grilled on a table top electric grill and put into this amazingly fresh salad.

This dish was a cold and refreshing cucumber soup. These cucumbers were so fresh and flavorful that when I grated them, people way in the back of the room could smell them, awesome.

Here is a zucchini and tomato dish using really fresh veggies and herbs. Drizzled with some amazingly fruity extra virgin olive oil and maldon sea salt, it was amazing!

The above recipes can be found on their web site.

Farmers market food demos are fun!

2009-07-12T22:57:00.004-05:00

I had the pleasure to demo at two local farmers markets in the area these past few weeks. Kinda odd how I got roped into doing that, but was really fun. One of them was a neighborhood farmers market right smack dab in the middle of an eclectic artsy district in downtown Charlotte. I met some of the nicest and down-to-earth people Ive had the pleasure to meet.

I was setup under a small tent in front of the vendors. It was a wicked hot summer day, about 98F and the humidity was close to that as well, yuk! :) With my thick Egyptian cotton chef coat and black pants, I wasn't very comfortable, to say the least, lol. But, when you love what you do, what's a little sweat, ah?

After gathering some generous samples from a few vendors, my demo started. Armed with my wares of a propane burner, salad spinner and cutting board, I did grilled ostrich loin simply seasoned with salt and pepper and local herb infused olive oil, yum, on top of a simple garden salad tossed in a white wine vinaigrette. The entire thing was quick, easy and light almost in a refreshing way. A few visitors gathered around to try the samples and learn a few tricks. I'm such a ham, lol.

The other market was on the other side of the planet, seemingly, in Concord. It's located in a small park in the middle of a tiny rural area in the middle of nowhere. There are some incredible salt of the earth farmers and producers that just rock. They were glad to give me a few samples to cook with, such nice people.

Most vendors at farmers markets are just awesome to be around. They're mostly always happy and love to talk about what they grow or produce. From the health benefits of buying them to where the seeds come from, the breeds, to what soil they use to tons of preparation suggestions. And, when they find out you're a chef, they become almost GIDDY! We both click and realize that their produce, meats or cheeses are going to get a great final resting place.

At the second market, I took my tonnage of samples and, armed with my tiny Weber charcoal grill, hard woods and my favorite boos cutting board, began the creation process. I grilled a marinated skirt steak, sliced it thin, slapped it into a grilled fresh corn tortilla (yes, I made those too, lol) and topped it with their choice of two types of salsas; one made with local peaches, grilled and tossed with sweet onions and hot peppers, the other was a 4-chili and heirloom tomato salsa. Yeah, the 30+ samples went very fast, to say the least.

One vendor gave me like 3 pounds of really fresh okra that I had no idea what to do with. Having grown up in New Hampshire where I've never even HEARD of the stuff, let alone ate it, and, having only ate it in stews and fried in cornmeal after I moved here to North Carolina, I really hated the stuff, to be honest. Its slimy and tastes like it feels, lol. BUT, I had all this left over charcoal heat that was a shame to waste and just tossed some of the okra straight on the grill grate hoping for the best. Wow! It was charred and crisp with no slime! It tasted like the hard woods it was cooked over with a slightly grassy sweet taste, yum! After the cautious okra lovers looked at me like I had 3 heads, I made a few believers out of them. Wow, a healthy way to eat that stuff!? It was a proud moment :)

Cooking, in my opinion, is so much more than just applying heat to food and putting it in your mouth. It's about the creation and thought processes, the gathering of ingredients and information, the teaching and mentoring and the gratification you get from doing all those things. That's what cooking is, its like an all-in-one rush that you cant get from any other profession. Just seeing the look on someones face when they love your food or the excitement they get when they learned how to make something from nothing is what its all about.

I signed up to do a few cooking demos at a local William Sanoma these next 2 months. I'll keep you posted and I'm looking forward to these demos as well!

Last day of the road to my CEC

2009-07-08T21:10:00.002-05:00

Yes folks, it's over. I took both tests (cooking and written practicals), blew way more money than I thought the whole ordeal was worth and sent in my paperwork this afternoon for my CEC. I should receive my Executive Chef Certificate in the mail in a few days. I think Ill hang it in my office in a pretty frame. :) More to come about that soon, I just had to share my excitement NOW!

Thanks for following along.

New job, new staff, new menu, new challenges

2009-07-03T07:03:00.002-05:00

Wow, what a ride it's been these last 6 weeks. For those of you following along, I started this new chef job at a local country club about a month and a half ago. I was out of work for a good while before that due to lay-offs. We had tons of people praying for us which has truly paid off. Thank you everyone.

Also, I am truly blessed as I know there are many people out there out of work struggling to make ends meet. I thank God that he provided us with this incredible opportunity in my career.

So, I start this job and, to make the biggest understatement of the year, the kitchen was filthy. The equipment had been abused and left in its own grime for a couple years or so. The ice machines weren't fit for healthy ice consumption. There was more black mold on the inside of those things than I care to share. Stuff stuck to the shelves because they weren't cleaned since Regan was in office, lol. You seriously had to pry stuff off of them to use anything. Crazy stuff. To be honest, I'm surprised noone got sick from eating there in the past. So, I held a "cleaning party" on a Monday (clubs closed then) and most of the staff volunteered to help out and we tore the place apart. Now, it's all about maintaining the cleanliness levels.

The kitchen was WAY understaffed. We were like 3 people short or so which effected everything from cleanliness to ticket times to poor moral. It's hard to believe anything got done there at all with the skeleton crew they had back there. I was able to hire a few people who have some great experience which has helped a lot. We have a pretty strong crew now, which is exciting.

The old menu? Um, it's not worth discussing :) Needless to say, I redesigned it from the ground up. We had a new menu tasting last night for the board of directors and it went over perfectly. They loved everything which was a relief. It was a multi-course sampler of most of the menu. From local lettuces, vegetables and fruits to domestic lamb and day boat coastal fish to local made desserts, I was proud of what my guys put out last night.

Tonight, we roll out the new menu unofficially. I decided to run half of the menu tonight and half over the weekend. With the 4th of July weekend upon us, I think that would be a little easier for everyone to handle. Next week we run the entire menu and out with the old menu completely. (thank goodness)

Well, I'll keep you posted with the new job and exciting things that are planned ahead. Cigar and wine dinners are in the works. Chef cooking classes for the members and the like are coming soon. Gonna be awesome :)

On the road to my CEC, part 2

2009-06-19T18:39:00.007-05:00

Wow, what a journey! I'm half way to the goal of making it to my CEC (Certified Executive Chef) status. Today I had the pleasure of doing the cooking practical half of a two part testing session. Next week I will begin practicing and studying for the written part of the test. God willing, I pass, I should be certified officially by the middle of August, SAAAWEET! :)

This leg of the journey began two nights ago at the club where I had one of my associates help me pack up all the TONS of stuff I needed to bring with me. There's a picture below to show you what I mean. It's a great idea to stay organized when doing this test as it will be your downfall if your not.

I arrived in the afternoon yesterday in a town called Jamestown, NC, near Greensboro around 4:00, right before the night students arrived. I kinda had the place to myself. I dropped off and staged all my food and equipment at the test location kitchen at Guilford Technical College campus' Hospitality department. I was still missing a key ingredient though.

I decided not to buy lobsters, which is one of the required items for this test, until I arrived in town. I wanted to avoid killing them during the ride down (and, I live in a back woods red-neck infested town that wouldn't know what a live fresh lobster was if it jumped off the sign at that chain place everyone visits for the cheese biscuits!) Anyway, I would have much rather done that myself with my own knife (evil grimace). So, after calling no less than 8 stores, Super Wal-Mart prevails! (once again). So, off I went to get them. It was on the way to my hotel and not too far away, easy cheesy, right? (hmmph)

Well, after getting a parking ticket from the over achieving rent-a-cop/ campus security dude for parking at the loading dock and near a fire hydrant, losing my car keys and having the entire classroom and faculty hunting for them, only to find them in a students pocket! (long story but he thought they were his as he has a similar remote door lock, apparently), getting lost twice because google maps decided to suck that night, I arrived at this HUGE super Wal-mart and bought my victims with the help of a cute little Jamaican girl named "Welcome to Wal-mart" (her name tag was blank and she didn't seem to remember he own name, lol, sweet little Jamaicans, eh?).

ANYWAY!!! 45 dollars later (for two!), it was time to find my hotel. I ask an employee where so and so hotel was and he gave me PERFECT directions! Nope, too easy, I had to not trust this guy and start reading my Google maps sheet again (WTF?). To make a long story short, I ended up 20 miles out of my way and finally had to ask a trooper for directions. He got me back to the exact spot and with the exact directions as my Walmart buddy had told me in the first place, wow.

I check in to one of my favorite chain hotels, STARVING! All this stuff I just went through made me hungrier than a (insert stupid Larry the Cable Guy joke here). The dude behind the counter suggested I try this "Italian" place next door. "Here, have a coupon for a free appetizer." he said with glee. "Sure", I thought, I can walk next door, eat a decent meal and go to bed fuller than a tick :) Yeah!

Having forgot that I was VERRYY chafed from my long day and no corn starch in site, I John-Wayne walked my hungry ass to Villa Rosa. 4 cars in the parking lot (3 were employees), Frankie playing lightly on the outside speaker system and fake flowers all over the place, nice. I get my seat, the host was a cool dude. I decided on the calamari as my app (decent) and a chicken dish for dinner. After eating my wilted house salad with thinned out bleu cheese dressing, stale garlic bread and tough capon chicken breast covered in mop water and canned black nacho olives, I took my to go water and left. hey, it only cost me like 15 bucks with tip. Rachael would have been proud.

After a horrible nights sleep (I think all that worrying combined with the 3 red bulls and 2 venti Starbucks I had the day caught up to me, lol), I arrive at GTCC at around 7 am where they gave us an awesome continental style breakfast, nice. The chef gave out our competition times (mine was 11:30!) and we were off to the races. I'm kinda glad my time was 4 hours from then because I was a basket case with nerves and needed about that much time to calm down!

I watched my fellow chefs sweat through their paper hats, listened to the sizzles and the pan banging, smelled the smells of stress, was weird to be watching. I felt like I need to grab a pair of tongs and help out, or expedite or something! Ah, old habits die hard, eh?

Finally! My turn. Luckily, I was organized and mentally ready. I started on time and ended about 20 minutes early. Aside from a few minor infractions, I did really well. I felt like I was on my game! A nice redemption for falling on my face during my last two competitions! (for you few that are following along). I had the opportunity to practice these dishes three times before and it really paid off! I only used one chef hat! (Which means I didn't seat too much. Most of the time you could go through at least 3 during that amount of time).

Check out these pictures and WISH ME LUCK for the written test. I'll keep you posted.

ROB!

"SOMEBODY'S WAAATCHING YOOUUU!"

My Mise! This doesn't include the 3 sheet pans full of food that was in the cooler!

Healthy cooking demo at Pregel USA in Charlotte, NC

2009-06-13T20:00:00.003-05:00

Another grand event offered by yours truly. I was asked to do a healthy cooking demonstration for a group of folks that work for a company (Pregel America) that makes the ingredients for the best gelato I've ever had the pleasure of eating! I mean, when I say the best, I mean, you will never eat anything so incredibly sensational in your life (unless you travel to Italy or something, but this has GOT to be at least as great as that). This plant is HUGE and very state of the art. It was very impressive to see this place and some of the stuff they are creating over there. Truly awesome.

Weekday Gourmet approached me with a need to teach this group how to make a couple healthy side items to accompany one of their "build your own" entrees. Check out their web site for more information.

We started off with a simple hummus with crispy baked wheat pita chips followed by a crispy locally organic vegetable side dish using REALLY fresh green beans and white/ red baby new potatoes. I tossed all that in a sherry vinaigrette and some fresh herbs for color contrast. The recipe is listed below along with a couple pictures of the event.

After my demo, one of the company chefs made this unbelievable strawberry rhubarb crumble that reminded me of New Hampshire in the spring time. It was a perfect end to a great night.

Check it out;

Warm Green Bean and Potato Salad

Serves: 4 to 6 servings

Ingredients

* 2 whole red peppers
* 1 1/2 pound assorted red and white new potatoes
* 3/4 pounds green beans, trimmed and halved
* 1 bunch scallions, sliced
* 1/2 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
* 2 cloves garlic, minced
* 2 tablespoons chopped oregano leaves
* 1 lemon, zested and juiced
* 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
* 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Directions

Preheat the broiler. Place the red peppers on a foil lined baking sheet.
Place the red peppers under the boiler. Turning every 2 to 3 minutes cook the peppers until the
skin is blistered, about 8 to 9 minutes total. Place the blistered peppers in a plastic bag. Seal the
bag and allow the peppers to sit for 10 minutes to allow the skin to separate and to let cool.

Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the potatoes and cook
until tender, about 10 to 12 minutes. Remove the potatoes to a cutting board. Add the green
beans to the pot. Cook the green beans until tender, about 3 minutes. Remove the green beans
to a large bowl. Slice the potatoes in half while still warm and combine them with the green beans
in the large bowl. Remove the peppers from the plastic bag. Peel off the skin from the peppers.
Slice the pepper flesh into wide strips and remove the seeds and veins. Place them in the bowl
with the potatoes. Add the scallions, parsley, and garlic and toss to combine.

In a small bowl combine the oregano, lemon juice and zest, and white wine vinegar. Whisk in the
olive oil. Stir in the salt and pepper. Toss the warm vegetables with the herb vinaigrette. Serve
immediately.

Private multi-course dinner for 8

2009-06-13T19:28:00.003-05:00

Last night I had the opportunity to cook 4 out of 5 courses for a group of eight clients/ friends celebrating their neighbors 40th birthday.

What a great time! Not only did I have a blast cooking for these folks, but everyone seemed to have had a great time, which is always nice :)

The guests arrived at around 7:30 and were greeted by an artisan fruit and cheese platter with whole grain lavash, flat breads, crackers and spreads. Since it was such a beautiful night, the host insisted everyone eat outside on their heavily candle-lit veranda which just added ambiance to the evening. As they munched on the awesome array of fruit, cheese and crackers, I began the evening with course number one while explaining everything to everyone. The night progressed with another course, intermezzo, main course and, finally, dessert. I was full just watching everyone eat!

All ingredients were either local, organic or sustainable in one way or another. As most of you may know, I like to keep that in mind when planning my menus. It just makes things better, if you ask me.

Check out the menu and a few pictures below;

1st course – Salad

Local greens with butter poached lobster tossed in a white wine and citrus vinaigrette.

2nd course – Appetizer

Nectarine and mascarpone cheese purses with bourbon vidalia onion jam.

3rd course – Inter Mezzo

Chunky gazpacho shooter with Absolut vodka.

4th course – Main Course

Pan-seared salmon with local summer vegetables, creamy mashed Yukon gold potatoes and classic beurre blanc.

5^th course – Dessert

Apple cobbler with vanilla ice cream provided by the hostess.

--------------

Nectarine and Mascarpone Purse with Bourbon Vidalia Onion Jam.

Chunky gazpacho shooters with Absolut vodka served over ice.

Pan-seared salmon with local summer vegetables, creamy mashed Yukon gold potatoes and classic beurre blanc.

My upcoming Certified Executive Chef (CEC) test

2009-05-28T22:05:00.008-05:00

Wow, been a little while since I posted last. I apologize to the one viewer that reads my blog for not having new and exciting material to get you through your week :)

So, as a few of you may already know, I am a Certified Chef de Cuisine. I earned that certification back in 2007 after gathering a list of work related experience points and just plain busting my ass for years to gather enough experience to become what the American Culinary Federation (ACF) deems as "certified".

If you ask me, it's a money making scam facilitated by a few ornery retired chefs running the food world, but I digress. (personal rant about to start, wait for it, wait for it...GO!!!) See, not only do you have to work upwards of 60-80 hours a week, 12-16 hours a day, endure hours and hours of heat, stress and the scum of the earth, get screamed at by the Gordan Ramsey's of the world, catch a VD once in a while, become an alcoholic (or at least be able to hold your weight in stolen liquor), screw a few bar tenders and waitresses, cut and burn yourself a few hundred times, fall a few hundred times, work countless holidays and weekends away from family and friends, get criticized by your peers and all the other bull shit that comes with the food service industry, then there's yet more!

You do all that, THEN, you have to prove it by getting your old bosses that most likely wouldn't piss on you if you were on fire, to sign a paper stating that they put up with your crap for "X amount" of time, copy all those pieces of worthless paper you spent God knows how much time and money earning (serv-safe, GED, COLLEGE DEGREE!!, etc., etc.), take a written test that is full of trick questions about shit that never happens in a real kitchen, cook a multi course meal with all your heart and soul just to have it picked over, sneered at and ridiculed by people that, if the tables were turned, would make the same food you did (maybe smaller, lol).

After ALL THAT! Yes, THERE'S MORE!!! They make you pay for it! WTF!? Check this out; over $100.00 for the food you need, the gas it takes to drive 4 hours out of town because the town you live in is 20 years behind a proper culinary city (in my truck at 17 MPG, that's a lot of loot, 150 bucks or so), hotel stay (another 100 bucks), about $100.00 to take the ridiculous cooking test and about $100.00 to take the even more ridiculous and unrealistic written test in a closet at a testing center hidden at a regional airport on 15 year old computers next to a guy taking a plumbers exam. Grand total to become a "Certified Chef de Cuisine" or "CCC", about $550.00!!! That's two car payments for most people! We do this to make note of our personal achievements, so people will notice us for our hard work, maybe pay us more, maybe get that "dream job" before the "young and hungry" culinary graduate gets it for a few grand a year less. We do it for the pride of the business, to prove our love for it and to get a sense of achievement. But, most people don't even understand what the "de" means or how to spell quiseen! ;) Most people wonder why we have those three little letters after our names on our chef coats, the often asked "what's CCC mean" rings through kitchens all over the world, surly. (rant complete, thanks for reading!)

But, aside from all that crap they make us go through, all the hours and money we spend getting ready and completing the tests, all the hours and time away from a social life, when you see your name on that fancy piece of paper, when people look forward to eating the food you spent years perfecting, all that crap is WELL worth it. Going for those certifications keeps us focused on the ultimate goal, to be the best chef they ever had and pass it on to others. Kinda funny how that works. We collect, earn, burn and create just to give it all back to the next generation. Full circle stuff at it's finest.

I write all that to tell you this; I'm doing it all AGAIN!! MWAHAHAHAAA!! "CHEF BRADLEY, YOU MUST BE CRAZY!!!", well, perhaps, but this upcoming certification has been in my sights long before my current one. I've wanted those three letters, "CEC" by my name since I saw them on the jacket of the first chef I ever worked for over 15 years ago. The three letters that define a good chef from a great one (in most cases), the ones that stand for "Certified Executive Chef", see, more people KNOW what that means and that feels well worth it in the end. Employers know what that means too and are willing to pay accordingly. And, before you get your panties in a wad, its NOT all about the money, its about making a living and there's more to a living than just a paycheck. But, if I can get more, should I turn it down? HELL NO!!! :)

Here are a few pictures I took of my practice cooking practical earlier this week. The real test is on June 19th. The requirements are listed as well. Enjoy...

Requirements

1 each 10 ounce Salmon filet
2 each 1.25 pound live Maine Lobster
2 each Whole chickens, 2.5 – 3.5 pounds each (fabricate to your menus specifications during the exam)
2 ounces smoked bacon
1 pound fresh spinach
2 heads Boston lettuce
1 piece Belgian endive
1 pound Carrots
3 each Russet or Yukon potatoes
2 each Globe Artichokes
2 each Bartlett pears or Granny Smith apples
1 pint Grape Tomatoes

The three courses shall include:

Fish course (including both seafood items): appetizer size
Salad course (tossed, with extra dressing served on the side): as part of a 3 course meal
Main course (with two or more accompanying vegetables and starch): approximately 6-7 ounces protein

The three courses shall include:

4 classical vegetable cuts (i.e. Julienne, Tournee, Brunoise, Alumette, Small dice, Paysanne, and Batonette)

4 different cooking methods must be shown (i.e., fry, broil, sauté, roast, boil, poach, steam or grill)
Appropriate vegetable and starch accompaniment for the main course (may bring in additional ingredients and prepare them for plate accompaniments) prepared and presented during the exam.

An emulsified vinaigrette (ingredients must be brought in)
2 different sauces using different methods (i.e., roux based, reduction, or butter)