Revisiting our day with the forager...

So, a friend of mine from the local slow foods chapter was one of the people I went mushroom foraging with the other day. Come to find out, he's an awesome photographer! I saw some of the photos he took on his flickr page. Made me a little jealous of my photographer abilities as well as a little pissed that I spent so much on my camera thinking it was top of the line! Eh, live, learn, laugh is what I (almost) always say.

Anywho, here are a couple pictures I downloaded from his page, check it out to see the rest.

Cooking Class: Grilled Pizza Night!

I had the great opportunity to teach a cooking class at a couples house in Charlotte. The theme was "Grilled Pizza Night" to be grilled outside. I thought it would be a good reason to hang out outside and show people that pizza doesn't always have to be cooked on a stone, ordered in or zapped in a microwave!

The weather didn't cooperate though and it rained all night. But, luckily I had a grill pan laying around that we were able to use. We did it inside and all was well! Everyone loved it.

We went through a simple crust recipe and then made three different grilled pizzas that everyone loved. Here's the menu:

Pizza #1

Tiny Pizza “Bruschetta” w/ Sun Dried Tomatoes, Fresh Made Pesto Sauce and Pecorino Cheese (Choose your favorite Red wine here)
• With our fresh made pizza dough, we’ll make crackers and top them with some fresh ingredients to make some great bruschetta with a twist.

Pizza #2

Piadine w/ Italian Grilled Chicken and Spinach Salad w/ a whole citrus dressing (Choose your favorite White wine here)
• This salad “thin pizza” is a great fresh salad with a grilled crispy base drizzled with a fantastic citrus vinaigrette.

Pizza #3 (dessert)

Apple and Goat Cheese Dessert Pizza w/ Brown Sugar Caramel. (Dessert Wine Here)

Check out some pics:

Foraging for wild shrooms!!!

Another great time was had by all :)

Yesterday, I had the great opportunity to forage for mushroom with a few people from the local "slow foods" community. We went to a local park with a forager named Reed. We must have walked over 5 miles and went WAY off the beaten path. I don't think we saw a trail for 3 miles, lol. I must say though, what a beautiful and enjoyable way to see nature. Not one bit of trash anywhere. The streams we saw were flawlessly clear with healthy fish swimming all around. Boulders un-touched since they made their way there so many years before. I kept having to remind myself that we were only a couple miles from the bustling city. Makes you appreciate how awesome the world can be without cars, cell phones and HD TVs.

Anyway, enough of my tree hugging rant, check out some pictures:

Brown Sugar and Cinnamon Gala Apple Tart

Apple season is upon us, rejoice!!! Got me a fresh picked bag of Gala apples and ate raw apples until my eyes popped out! Just when I thought I couldnt eat another damned raw apple, I took a sheet of puff pastry and put this baby together. Oozing sugary goodness with vanilla ice cream melting on top! YEAH!!! That's the spirit :)

Drag Race Day at the Zmax Dragway at Lowes Motor Speedway!!!

Holy CRAP we had a great time. We just got back from an entire day (9 hours) of drag racing at the new Zmax Dragway at the Lowe's Motor Speed. Funny, there's so much crap going on about the place with the owner, the local government and the neighbors that live within earshot that we were suprised that it didn't effect the attendance! Oddly enough, today was a sold out event! Guess noone gave a shit, lol. Check out this article for more info...

Anywho, since this is supposed to be a food related blog, let me tell you about the best place to get an affordable lunch. Let me tell you, it's not at the race track! But, if you want to get an 8 dollar shitty "pulled pork sammich", a 5 dollar corn dog or a 3 dollar bottled water, then the race track is your thing. But, if you're like most of us and the price of gas, food and the 120 bucks it takes to get INTO the race has left you a bit strapped, try packing a picnic like we did :) Besides, its kinda romantic, right?


TRADER JOE'S WOOPEE PIE?? Oh Yes :)


So, we got there around 11:00 this morning not really knowing what to expect as we've never been to a drag race. We waded through the thick traffic, found a parking spot (with help from some minimum wage, self important, bleach blond, over weight, sweaty, tobacco chewing, inbred, toothless whore of a parking attendant with too much power and a matching orange vest and flag), waded through the thousands of people, through a long tunnel, up a million stairs and to our seat and sat with a deep sigh, lol. After we settled in, we saw two fast looking cars called "Top Fuel" pull up to the line. They heated up the tires, burning out huge plumes of thick white smoke to make them stick to the track. We thought, "Wow, that was kinda loud!" but that was NOTHING!!! Both cars backed up to the starting line while their crews fiddled with the engines and stuff to get the cars ready to race, was kinda cool looking to see it all, I was amazed. Then, the starting lights went from yellow to green and.....let me tell you. Those cars were SO FUCKING LOUD that we thought there was something wrong. The literal ROAR from the engines pierced our ear drums so bad that it forced us to shove our fingers in our ears!!! Needless to say, we shoved ear plugs in our holes post haste :) .

They rumbled by us so much that we felt it in our bones!!! My empty plastic water bottle shook with the engines vibrations. "Unreal" is the only way to describe it!!! The smell, the heat of the engine, the rumble and the sound is truly an amazing experience. We saw right away why this was a sold out event.

The track was really impressive too, state of the art man. A must see if you're ever in the Charlotte area.





To help put it into perspective, here are a couple videos;

We were about 14 rows from the ground, at least 200 feet away and the rumble of the cars jiggled my bottle!!!

Great questions for chefs and restaurant owners...

Was reading a fantastic blog from a pair of great chefs and they brought up some interesting questions:

"What exactly is the responsibility of the chef? The basic answer is creating and executing great food and all that entails, the more complicated answer encompasses education, responsible sourcing, staffing, and safety. So what do you think? What is the responsibility of a chef or a restauranteur in these modern times?"

Check out the entire post here:

http://www.ideasinfood.com/ideas_in_food/2008/09/fried-brains-and-viscous-thoughts.html

My new gig at Weekday Gourmet!

As if I didn't have enough going on in my busy life, I just had to take on one more project (no, I'm not complaining, I'm excited!!!). Over at Weekday Gourmet here in Charlotte, they were in need of a couple Chef/ Instructors to offer cooking classes to their customers. The three of us currently offer a monthly class focusing on certain food creations. Its a blast! Some of the most fun Ive ever had. Check out the write-up;

Chef Bradley’s training began in Manchester, New Hampshire at the age of 13 at a local diner. That’s when his passion for food became his main motivation in building his career. He graduated with honors from Central Piedmont Community College in Charlotte, North Carolina in May of 2000 and has recently earned his Certified Chef De Cuisine certification in 2007.

While in Charlotte, Chef Bradley trained under great chefs at some of the most prestigious country clubs in the Carolinas. After over 6 years with the Carmel Country Club and then Myers Park Country Club, he took his new found knowledge to the VanLandingham Estate Inn and Conference Center. He then went to The Point Lake and Golf Club where he was the Sous Chef until moving up to the Executive Chef position for Providence Day School in Charlotte for Flik Independent Schools, a Compass Company. He currently offers a private chef and consultation service in Charlotte and the surrounding areas.

You can learn more about him at his web site: http://cheflabarre.com

Weird to see myself written about by someone else :)

Check out there web site for more information. I'll be adding pictures and blogging about these calsses as they progress so stay tuned!

Upcoming competition arrives in October...

So, getting ready for the upcoming F3 competition down in Atlanta on October 15th! Very excited and going for the gold! Will keep ya' posted as the days progress.

"A special evening fund-raiser for the Community Culinary School of Charlotte"

BISTRO!

A special evening fund-raiser for the Community Culinary School of Charlotte

Aug. 21, 2008

What a great night we had last night! I was fortunate enough to have been a part of a fund raiser last night at the "Community Culinary School of Charlotte". Chef Ron had invited some influential people from the Charlotte area to come by and take part in this grand event. There was a ton of food and raffled prizes as well as a cooking competition at which I was one of the guest judges. Very cool.

That culinary school is "a private not-for-profit organization that provides training and job search assistance in the food service industry for people who are chronically unemployed or underemployed."

My buddy Randy and Chef Ron are doing some great stuff down there. Here are some pictures that we taken last night.

House made Sambal and a Hard Boiled Egg!?

Yum! Dude, if you hadn't tried it, you must. If you are a fan of spicy food then you will love this. See, Im a big fan of sambal and Ming Tsai so I decided to do my version of his recipe using Latin American chilies instead of Asian chilies.



Just check out Mings version and replace his chilies with 50/50 arbol and anaheims. After that, slather some of that shit on a fresh hard boiled egg and enjoy. Share it with your friends as I did making a morning ritual for everyone in the kitchen. Its like an addiction!

Fresh Fig Tart...

So, my mom came to visit us this past week. She brought my son and sister along too, so it was a full-house. I took everyone to the local farmers market where we all went babbly for the local fare. I bumped into a couple old friends and they showed us around a bit. Was a nice time.

I bumped into this dude that was selling fresh picked local white figs. They were awesome and I had to have some! So, I bought two quarts and off we went. After we had our fill of fresh figs au natural, we decided to make the rest of them into a tart. Mom made the best crust known to man and I took care of the filling. Old school hard knocks cooking meets formally trained chef. The end result was one of the best fruit tarts we've ever had! Check it out:




I must say, it was yummy. Flaky crust, filling had just a little raw sugar, orange zest, tapioca, a pinch of salt and a little cinnamon. The figs took the show, for sure. Add a little vanilla bean ice cream and you're off to the races!!!

Jessie and Robs Wedding Reception...

Well, just pulled off my first official wedding reception as a private chef. I had a buddy help me out, check out his blog here.

So, it took like a week to set up for it. Our gracious host took care of all the non-food related details (tent, rental ware, linen, etc.) and the ceremony was held at the grooms house in their back yard. They have a HUGE yard, a rare find in the Charlotte area.

I was told there would be 50 people there and, after counting heads, there were no less than 70 people there! Luckily I made enough food (I have this fear of running out sometimes, so I planned for the worse, good habit to have man.)

So, food for 50, (actually 70+), a brunch setup, live music, beautiful ceremony and the nicest weather we could have imagined at 86F and low humidity, sweet.

Here's the menu:

Wedding Reception Menu

Garden Style Theme

Passed Appetizers for first half hour

Asian Beef on Crisp Wonton Chip

House-Made Lox on Parmesan Bagel Crisps

Pulled Pork on Carolina Grit Cake

Carving Station

Top Round

Condiments

Assorted Rolls and Breads

Lunch Station (to accompany the carving station)

Ambrosia Salad (per brides request)

Herb Roasted Red Bliss Potatoes

Seasonal Fresh Vegetable

Breakfast Station

Assorted Muffins and Breakfast Breads

Italian “Margarita Style” Frittata

French Toast w/ Assorted Toppings

Drink Station

Coffee, Tea and assorted accompaniments

Fresh Squeezed Orange Juice

Non-Alcoholic Fruit Beverage Cocktail.

Please note the the dates are incorrect on the images because I didnt set the dat up correctly :)

Carving station:

Brunch-Style menu:

Fresh Baked Rolls from Novas Bakery:

The happy couple? :)

The Perfect Gravy....

Gravy, what a word. I've grown up knowing no other sauce. Everything usually had a gravy. If it was beef, beef gravy. If it was chicken, chicken gravy. If it was pork, you guessed it, PORK gravy (mmm, gorton! Growing up in NH was so awesome, lol).

Now that I've been in the business for so many years and learned the five mother sauces, there are no limits on how many sauce that can be created. I mean, there must be like thousands, eh?

I was making a simple roasted chicken the other night for the wife and I. I took some lime chili butter and spread it under the skin, stuffed the cavity with citrus, onions, garlic and a shit load of fresh herbs, olive oiled and salt and peppered the hell out of it all around. At the bottom of the roasting pan I put a pile of large diced mire poix to use as a "roasting rack". Roasted it in a 475 over for 30 minutes, finished it in a 350 oven and let it rest for about 20 minutes. The result was a bad ass crispy skin, juicy moist meat and a lot of really flavorful fond at the bottom of the pan.

So, now that I know the basics of a good sauce. Now that I know how to layer flavors and create flavor from flavor, that color and fat are flavor. That using a fat organic chicken instead of some little pullet they sell at the local grocery store. You know, the basics! Knowing all that, I thought, "How can I make the baddest gravy in the land?!

Sorry folks, I didnt take any pictures at all. I was just inspired to write about this after the wife and I just talked about that gravy. I mean, it was days ago and were still talking about it, lol. I promise, the next food related blog will have pics.

Anywho, so I look down at all this lovely goodness and remember watching the women in my life make gravy in the past. They would skim off all the fat, take all the lumps and goodies out and toss them, then thicken the remaining liquid with a corn starch slurry, maybe a little salt and pepper and poured into a gravy boat.

I wanted my gravy to be the baddest in the land, remember? So, I decided that it would be a shame to toss all those goodies and, of course, all that stuff still has great flavor, right? So, I took a little chiken stock, brought the roasting pan and all its goodness to a boil. Turned off the heat and pureed the entire thing with my stick blender until very smooth. Oddly enough, the vegetables acted like a natural thickener and I didn't even need to use slurry! (or a roux, which would have been preferred to make a proper sauce, in my opinion.)

I strained the puree, mounted it with a little whole butter, adjusted the seasoning and wham-o, the baddest gravy in the land :)

Yeah, the chicken came out so juicy, I barely needed gravy, but whatever. I put it on anyway along with everything else, Im such a fatty, lol.

Hells Kitchen...in Britain?

So, I've been reading Marco Pierre Whites current book, "The Devil in the Kitchen". Great book. I thank the good friend of mine that loaned it to me to read! Anyway, so I'm reading this book about this dude that was/ is a bad ass Chef in the kitchen. He's won Michelin Stars, mentored some of todays greatest Chefs and owns/ manages numerous amazing restaurants, but I've never heard of him before seeing him on Bourdain's "No Reservations" TV show!!! (bad ass show, btw, real TV for a change!)


So, reading about this dude kinda peaked my interest to do some research. I found a 45 minute interview from "Authors@Google" on YouTube. They were asking all sorts of questions about his new book, questions about his life in and out of the business, etc. He didn't seem like the dick that his reputation preceded.

Someone had asked him a question about the British version of Hells Kitchen that he'd been asked to host (kinda ironic as he used to make Ramsey cry like a bitch back in his mentoring days, lol.). As he was answering the question, he had mentioned that he turned them down 3 years previously because he didn't want to be on TV. Finally, they sent him DVDs of the US version of Hells Kitchen to maybe help convince him to host the show. He was kinda shocked that Ramsey just stood their at the pass and screamed and cussed at everyone. He also mentioned that there was no FOOD!!! (Shit, this guy sees that show a little like me.)

The thing that struck me as strange, and VERY TRUE, was that White was seemingly concerned that Ramsey is making the business look bad. That a show like that would NOT encourage people to join "the industry". That Marco would inspire people and not belittle them. What made me laugh and shake my head the most was when he said that "That Individual" has done more damage to the industry than good. Wow, so its not JUST ME!!

Anyway, was a GREAT interview. Check it out for yourself:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bjQy0S6Un4

Saw another famous dude...

So, a friend of mine and I sat down with a couple awesome dudes this afternoon looking for some advice on how we can start our own cooking show (something like no other, like the exact oposite of all the crap I bitch about so much, right? We need that!!!)...

Anywho, so after that, we went down to enjoy an espresso and puff on a couple awesome CAO maduro cigars (stout beast, one of their best!!!) and, after bashing some of todays terrible reality food TV shows for a few minutes, we see Lou Patrozza from Hells Kitchen! It was like a sign from God or something! I mean, we were JUST discussing our dream of a TV future when along comes a recent veteran of the beast itself! Kinda cool, I thought.

We chatted for a few minutes, small talk mostly. Hes a great dude, very approchable and easy to talk to. Seems fame may not go to this dudes head (at least yet, lol).

My second Hells Kitchen dude so far.

Here's a pic:

Farm Dinner at "Grateful Growers Farm" in Denver, NC.

So, Cassie, a good friend of mine, recently asked me to help out with her latest farm dinner she held at her farm in Denver, NC. She raises hormone free chickens and pigs. I've had both and ,lemme tell you, they're doing something great there! I've NEVER tasted anything quite like it in my life. Her animals are treated right and you can tell when you eat them! I was able to take a tour of their farm to check out the animals, they live pretty good, if you ask me!

Any who, a few fellow chefs and I did some awesome food to raise money and awareness for the local farming community as well as help the edible school yard project that is going under way at a local public school. You can feel the energy and excitement as we prepared and serve this unbelievable food from local farmers. A good bit of it came directly from Grateful Growers, but there were tons of other things that came from other farmers as well. Sorry, but I dont know the names as of yet. Enjoy the pics and BUY LOCAL!

By the way, all these pics were taken with my phone, believe it or not! I forgot my SD card that day for the nice camera I usually use, but luckily, these pics came out awesome.

Scored local duck breast ready for rendering!


Couple hottys makin' bread! Man, everything they made was incredible!


Dessert from JWU. They did stuff with goat cheese and goats milk, awesome. Those little shot glasses with straws coming out of them were smoothies made with local goats milk, YUM!


Chef Mike from Carmel cookin' up something delicious.


We were plating the first course, a local spring mix salad with berry vinaigrette. This is a storage shed at the farm, no A/C. It was hot a pretty miserable. I took this pic cuz she reminded me of one of those poor people you see on the C.A.R.E. commercials squatting in one of their make shift huts. This hut, however, is full of SALAD!!


Li'l chicks! They were so cute chirping away under the heat lamps, lol.


The best pork, hangin' out in the sun, joy.


Chickens, doing the same, chillin' in their condo, lol


An app course with fresh picked arugula and baby golden beets (picked literally moments before this pic was taken by yours truly ;) ) topped with some of the best smoked turkey Ive ever had!


I kinda had something for this one, she was such a sexy honey! (Yes, I'm married and love my wife dearly, but I'm sorry, she was HOT!) I don't even have ill feelings towards her because she works for the enemy, lol.


Organic cooking at its BEST, lol


Saute'ed local root veggies.


Lookit all the people! There were over 200 people to be fed!


Behind the scenes in one of the cooking areas.


Behind the scenes in one of the cooking areas.