January 26th Private Catering for 30+!

Yowzers, what a night! Over 30 people and BOY WERE THEY HUNGRY! I'm not sure if they drank more than they ate, but everyone loved everything, so there :P







The menu for the evening:

Theme: Steak Night

• Starter Courses (3)
• Jumbo Shrimp w/ Grilled Avocado Cocktail Sauce
• Assorted Cheese Display with Crackers
• Pan-Seared Diver Scallops w/ Chunky Mediterranean Tapenade
  
  
• Salad Course
• Crisp Caesar Salad w/ Crumbled Bleu Cheese, Anchovies and House Made Dressing

• Main Course
• Pan-Seared Tenderloin of Beef w/ Caramelized Onion and Wild Mushroom Ragout

• Dessert Course
• Cranberry Orange Crème Brulee

January 19th Adult Cooking Class for 12...

Yes, another fun filled evening with Chef B! This weekend, I taught some adults how to cook a few simple dishes. 5 hours later, the wine all gone and the bellies full, I was able to make it safely home.











Here was the menu for the evening:

Theme: Steak Night

• Starter Course
• Fried Calamari w/ Three Chili Butter (Great course for a sweet white)
  
  
• Salad Course
• Grilled Romaine Caesar Salad w/ Crumbled Bleu Cheese, Anchovies and Home Made Dressing

• Soup Course
• Roasted Butternut Squash Soup w/ Toasted Pumpkin Seeds and Honey Sour Cream

• Refresher Course
• Orange and Pomegranate Sorbet

• Main Course
• NC Locally Grown Grilled NY Strip of Beef w/ Carmelized Onion and Wild Mushroom Ragout

• Dessert Course
• Cranberry Crème Brulee

Compass Day at JWU Charlotte, NC

What fun today! I was invited to talk about my sector with some JWU students today to promote the Independent School career choice. Some students aren't really sure the direction that they want to go after graduation, or were not aware that we offer co-op internships every semester. This was a great opportunity to share info about what I do as well as hang out with future chefs of America! Was a blast. Here are a couple pics I took today:


Got to meet the Lee Brothers in person today, was a suprise!


Busy for lunch:


Dipping Sauce for Lumpias:


How to cook rice in a cooker:


Rolling Lumpia:

A great event to help raise awareness/ money for eating disorders...

Was at Danial Stowe's Botanical Garden tonight helping out with a charity event to help raise money towards fighting eating disorders. Was a great time. Worked a little last night and all day (13 hours) today. Met some more great chefs, some more celeb chefs as well as ate some great grubbage. I'm sure they raised gobs of money too as the rich looking ones were there tonight :)

Sustainable Agriculture Conference

"Changing the Face of Local Foods" was the theme for this three day event that I've attended. Tons of local food producers, chefs, hot granola chicks, tree huggers, hippies, you name it were there. I met some fantastic people that are working incredibly hard to change the way we consume food and treat the land.

Sustainability was the word of the day around there! It impresses me to no end of what it takes to change the world we live in. Seems to me that in order to help stop the abundance of fossil fuels and the stripping of our land, we as chefs really have some work to do.

My first thought after speaking to the farmers was the cost. How are we supposed to afford to offer all these great local things to our customers if it costs sometimes more than 3 times that of something we can get from California or Chili!? The answer I hear a lot is, "HOW CAN WE NOT AFFORD IT!?" If we keep up what we are doing now with buying from the lowest bidder, we'll run out of gas, land and water before the end of our lives! It takes more energy to ship that stuff here from California than it does to grow it here! Think about our children! We've pissed away everything to feed us gluttons and this is where we've ended up. Now, we're scrambling around trying to "fix" our mess.

Check out the pics of my trip. A few garden tours and some still life, good stuff :) Seems this sort of thing is being brought to me often lately. Were moving forward at work to start an edible garden, will keep you informed.

Another great cooking class for charity...

Here are some pics I took of the evening:





Welp, another great chef auction event landed me another sweet cooking class this past Saturday.

I set it up similarly to the last one. This time, 5 courses instead of 6.

We broke up into 3/ 3 person groups. I showed everyone how to use a knife, saute and make a vinaigrette and let the guys grill up the shrimp and steaks (all guys know how to do that already, right?!)

Here's the menu:

Theme: Steak Night

Let’s make some MEAT! A 5 course steak dinner in appetizer size portions for everyone to enjoy.

Starter Course

Lime Curry Marinated Grilled Shrimp “Cocktail” w/ Chunky Avocado Cocktail Sauce (Great course for a sweet white)

Salad Course

Grilled Fresh Artichoke Salad w/ Spring Mix and Toasted Pine Nuts Topped with a Fresh Ginger Orange Vinaigrette (Light red here)

Refresher Course

Pomegranate Sorbet w/ Chambord Drizzle

Main Course

Simple NY Strip Steak Topped w/ a Caramelized Sweet Onion and Basil Relish (Small batch medium/ dark beer here)

Dessert Course

Key Lime “Pie” on Toasted Hazelnut Crumble Served in a Wine Glass (Dessert wine here)

Another successful night! More to come soon!

Charlotte Shout 2007

Yet another Charlotte Shout under my belt. Always a good time for all. I was the only FIS chef representn' :) It was a blast! Got to meet a few celebs (pics below) and make some great food. Seems I'm lined up for 2 more charity events this year and two more are in the works right now. Ill keep ya posted.

Greensboro Culinary Salon 9/11/07

Well, went out and finally did it, entered my first cold food competition on the 11th! Was awesome and fun. Lots of work, but well worth it. A good buddy of mine helped me out, we both invested about 50 hours on it. Here are the pics. Yes, I won, a BRONZE MEDAL!! WOOHOO!!!

Here is the official menu I went with:

• Seafood Sausage w/ Roasted Fingerling Potato Terrine and Sauce Andalouse.
• Canapés Assortment: Sun-Dried Tomato and Goat Cheese Tartlet, Prosciutto and Melon Canapé and Roasted Yellow Pepper Mousse Profiterole.
• Pate de Campagne w/ Tart Apple Compote and Bosc Pear Crisp.
• Duck Galantine w/ Pistachios and Dried Cherries, Wood Fired Ginger Fig Tart and Balsamic Reduction.
• Rabbit Pie in Parmesan Prosciutto Crust, Tri-Colored Baby Beets and Beet Foam Essence.
• Trilogy of Salmon: Salmon Mousse w/ Sauce Gribiche, Gravlax w/ Dill Caper Aioli and Cedar Roasted Salmon w/ Red Onion Marmalade.

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=14427342

check out mah shit!