Chef Bradley Video Cooking Series - Soups Episode 1 - Roasted Butternut Squash Soup

Here is the first of the "Soup" series. It's a roasted butternut squash soup that people request every winter holiday season. Very easy and inexpensive to create. When my web site is back online, you can visit it to get the recipe.

Highlights:

1. Use local ingredients whenever possible.
2. Use a vegetable peeler to peel your squash, its safer and you will waste less squash.
3. Cube the squash to about the same size to insure even roasting.
4. When roasting your squash and sweating your mire poix, do not add too much color so that the soup color will be true.
5. Garnish soup with pre-cooked diced butternut squash, toasted butternut squash seeds, and/ or cinnamon sour cream for an extra yum.

Chef Bradley Video Cooking Series - Main Course Episode 1 - Grill/ Roasted Chicken with Herb Butter

I've decided to start a video learning series on how to create simple dishes like a chef from your own home. Since I teach a lot of cooking classes, why not take it to the web! When my web site is back up, I will post these there as well along with the recipes.

Highlights:

1. Free Range and Anti-Biotic Free Chicken (local if you can get it).
2. Use a sharp knife! A dull knife is more dangerous than a sharp one!
3. Pat the bird dry with paper towel to ensure a nice even crust.
4. Use unsalted butter for your herb butter so you can control the salt.
5. Make sure the chicken is cooked to an internal temp. of at least 165F!

Mike's Pastry Shop at the North End, Boston

During a recent visit to Boston this past holiday season, we took a walk up to the North End to check out the famous Hanover Street. There you will find some of the best authentic Italian food in the country. We were told about Mike's Pastry Shop by more than a few people and just HAD to check it out.

Well, as with other famous eateries we've been to, it was PACKED!!! We opened the heavy door to the site of at least a few dozen people just ordering and eating and drinking cappuccinos and eating and, well, generally stuffing themselves, lol. I had my family find a seat while I ordered about four randoms treats. Two kinds of Canolis, a slab of Oreo cake and a yellow custard tartlette. As we all sampled each snack with a fork and napkin, washing them down with Starbucks (which, had I known they served great espresso, I wouldn't have been so stupid and disrespectful by bringing in a chain coffee, but live and learn, eh?). Each bite was better than the last. Everything was made from scratch. The best pastry cream I've had since working for Myers Park Country Club so many years before, lol. Such a great attention to detail, very impressive. And, let's not forget the service, fantastic and very nice people! I guess when you're raking in the money like they were, I'd be very nice too! :)

To quote another blog that I like to frequent, SeriousEats.com

"Upon entering, anyone with a sweet tooth will feel like a kid in a candy shop—the variety of biscotti, butter cookies, rum cakes, cream puffs, and other Italian pastries boggles the mind.
Mike’s doesn’t do anything in moderation, and the cannoli are no exception—lined up on the top shelf, their flavors start with yellow and chocolate cream, proceeding to chocolate mousse, New York cheesecake, nutty Florentine cannoli, and more. But real pastry skill comes out in the classics, so my order was simple: one ricotta cannolo.
Big and hefty, filled to the brim, Mike’s cannoli are a sight to behold. This one had a substantial crispy shell that was fried to a satisfying crunch, and held its shape until the very last bite. The filling was wonderfully sweet and almost silky in texture. Generously sized as it was, it was nearly impossible not to finish—a pastry that would make any Sicilian proud. "

If you're ever in the area, check it out :)

Mom's Mac-N-Cheese

Part of the reason I fell in love with food and, coincidentally, became a chef for a living, is that I was surrounded by great food as a kid. From the best meatballs you could ever imagine to pork pie with gravy to meatloaf, I was a lucky kid. But, the food that sticks out as a personal favorite has GOT to be my moms mac and cheese.

I recently visited my family where I grew up in New Hampshire over the holidays. As with most visits, there's always a request for a childhood favorite and mac and cheese seems to be the most popular. I mean, can you blame anyone? With all the sharp white cheddar goodness one could hope to ask for, why not!?

She starts with cooked macaroni (or, penne if she feels like it) and tosses that in a white cheddar bechamel sauce. Usually there's some ham chunks involved and the whole thing is topped with crumbled Ritz Crackers. It's baked for about an hour and we always eat too much! I had three helpings, ouch.

As much as I try, I just cannot seem to replicate the goodness of the dish. I came close a couple times but, just not enough. She wrote down a detailed recipe so maybe I'll give it a try again. Sounds like a future blog to be, eh?

Kane's Donuts in Saugus, Mass.

With our recent trip to NH to see friends and family for the holidays, we decided to take a road trip down to Saugus Massachusetts to have donuts and coffee and the "World Famous Kane's Donuts". Man, were we in for a treat!

We had heard about them on a TV show featuring the top 10 best fried foods on the Travel Channel and agreed that we HAD to go the next time we were in the area.

What a great atmosphere. The place is pretty small inside with about 4 tables and 6 bar stools at the counter. To say that the place was busy would be an understatement. Here is was mid-morning on a Monday and it was standing room only. We were lucky enough to grab a seat at the counter! We were there about 30 minutes and it was non-stop donut and coffee selling. Everyone had a huge smile on there face (the customers and the workers). It was just a nice friendly place to be while we gorged ourselves on donuts. Their prices are decent too. All around, a great deal.

They kept passing fresh donuts through the window and brewing fresh New England brand Sumatran whole bean coffee. You should have smelled the place!

So, we find our seat and order a donut each. My sister and I ordered Boston cream donuts, my son ordered a chocolate honey glazed and my wife got a chocolate frosted. As we took a bite of our poofy morsels, we said nothing and looked over at each other with an agreeing nod of approval thinking one thing, "YUUUUUUMMMMMMMMMMM!!!". DAMN was that good!

I sipped my coffee and was very surprised at how great it was. I'm a bit of a coffee snob and never have very high expectations when it comes to coffee, especially at a donut shop. But, yeah, it was amazing man. I looked around to investigate the coffee situation and noticed that they were using New England Sumatran whole bean coffee and grinding them to order. No pot stayed on the machine longer than about 2 minutes so we knew the coffee was fresh.

We chatted with the folks behind the counter and they were all very friendly. Apparently its run by the Kane family, and everyone that worked there (except the Latino girl in the back) were related some how.

We planned to take the train into Boston to find more good munchies to chew on. This man next to me, Jim was his name, drew out a very detailed map to the train station on a napkin for me and we had a great conversation about the place and the area. He told me that they make everything fresh every day and are famous for this huuuuge coffee roll (he pointed to a fresh basket of them as they walked by in one of the owners arms). I think they weighed like 2.5 pounds or something!

We got to the train and headed into Boston. We were in for a few more great treats! More on that later.

Hey look, it's Miss Massachusetts 2007! Cool, eh? :) She works for a donut shop, who knew?

A match made in heaven :)

Porn? Oh, yea.

Happy faces, soon to be bloated, lol

My visit with Family in NH

So, we just got back from our yearly trip to visit family in sunny New Hampshire. When we've been up in the past we've been met by bitter cold weather followed by snow and/ or ice. But, I guess we took some nice weather with us because the temp stayed between 40 and 60 about every day! But, as soon as we left, they had a snow storm which dumped over 6 inches, lol. Wow, we lucked out.

We got to see close family and old friends, visit some very cool places and eat some AWESOME food. I'll post more later, just teasing right now, lol.

The gang!

My son and his 95 year old great grand mother.

My crazy sister who's been through a lot with me. It was great to see her after almost 3 years!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Been a little while since I blogged last. I apologize to the 2 people that are currently reading my blog on a regular basis :)

Back on December 12th, I helped Family Catering Service in Huntersville, NC with a catering in Fort Mill, SC. After fighting with my GPS and getting there an hour later than expected, we pulled off a decent event. There were like 150 people there and enough food to feed 300 plus, lol. It was a cold night but everyone was warm inside with the cases of wine and beer they consumed.

An ex-chef-turned-food-salesman and I ran the pasta station which consisted of spinach and cheese filled ravioli, a choice of marinara or Alfredo sauces and 5 toppings heated to order. There was a mishap with the burner fuel and we barely had enough butane to make it but, through some sort of miracle, we made it to the last plate with no problems.

They also had a carving station, a fondue station and a dessert table. I must say, they are doing some mean business. Looks like they could use a professional chef to work out the kinks, but over all, they do good stuff.

They stay very busy every day out of there basement professional kitchen. I've never seen anything like it in my life! The home-owners gutted out their basement and installed a fully functional, health department approved kitchen fully equipped with a 6 burner range, two double decker ovens, hot boxes, coolers, freezers and a huge hood system which they picked up at an auction for only a few hundred bucks. Very impressive man.

I wasn't able to click too many pictures but, you can check out what I did get:

The crowd was rockin'!

This portly little dude has a bit of an ego. He tried to throw me under the bus with the caterer, but whatever. If that's what it takes to make yourself feel honorable and hide the fact that you cant cook, have at it. :)

The past six months, friends made and lessons learned...

Before reading ahead, I would like to qualify by stating that this particular blog is just a vent session and is not meant to disrespect anyone I consider friends. If you get offended then it looks like the blog is working cuz the truth hurts, lol.

These past 6 months of my career have been an interesting bump in the road, to say the least. I left my Executive Chef position at a corporate food service company to, let's say, "pursue my private chef business". Very shortly after that, I picked up a line cook job at a local city club to bring in some extra coin. To say that I learned a lot there would be an understatement.

Let's sum up what I mean by "learned a lot". I couldn't POSSIBLY list them all, so let's start with 5 for now:

1. How much I love and appreciate a clean kitchen, the Latino community and hot interns.
   


2. What it means to be under qualified for your position (no, I'm not talking about myself, lol).
   


3. That it's very easy to get sucked into an angry persons negative way of thinking when you least expect it. (shit, you start to believe it's true!).
   


4. That everyone is an expert on food but no one wants to be a Chef.
   


5. Servers are either culinary grads that are too lazy or too stupid to work in the kitchen or...not.
   

I've seen some ugly and disgusting things working for this place. I mean, the health department would have a FIELD day if they had the chance to just snoop around the ice machine!!!

Ladles stored in uncovered containers, a regular site. (lets not forget the whipped cream stored in the piping bag too! YUM)

This slicer was cleaned 3 days before and not very well. 5 people used it since then. This is what it looked like before I had to clean it to use it.

This corner is what I like to call the dust bunny cage. It's right near the ice machine, 3 feet from the chefs office, nice, eh?

Without a doubt, I've done some great things and some not so great things in my life and career. I've worked along side some of the best in the industry and some of the worst. Each of the chapters in my life have bore great and valuable lessons that I've been able to take with me. My last employer is, certainly, not an exception.

Double standards? It would KILL me to watch someone count scallops to make sure that they were ACTUAL U-10s to assure himself that he wasn't getting screwed on price while, just a few feet away, another department head would throw away about 20 pounds of bread, muffins, scones and desserts twice a week because that person either wasn't getting the proper leadership or just didn't give a shit (I would have to lean towards the latter, I'm afraid).

Another example, the Executive Sous would be literally PUKING into the trash can in front of the Chef and still be allowed to work, around food! WTF is that all about!?

When cross contamination has too many syllables to worry anyone, it just gets to be scary to eat there. Smelly fish, old biscuits, rotten bok choy, etc., etc.

When you have over 900 pounds of potatoes, 20 cases of cream, 6 cases of eggs, 150 pounds of onions in house and you do like 50 covers a day, its time to look at yourself! Shit, when your fruit flies are as big as birds, take a look at your HOUSE!!! Jeesh man.

I dont know, I could go on and on but I wont bore you.

You know the old saying, if you hang around a barber shop long enough, chances are that you are going to get a hair cut. Well, same thing goes with working for a place with little to no standards. Whether it be cleanliness and sanitation, low self esteem, lack of focus and a system or anything that goes against what you've been trained to do, be or say in the food service industry. It IS possible, eventually, that if you allow yourself to be lead by someone or something that believes something that goes against what you know is wrong, then you will begin to believe that the wrong way is the correct way. Fucking scary. The moral to THAT epiphany is to stick with the winners!

I'm not going to sit here, typing in the dark, and act all miserable and hateful towards my former employer. We left on good terms and I met some AWESOME people. I think I met more good people in these past six months than I have in a really long time. Yes, I've met some dicks too, but we could write another blog just about them! And, I'm grateful for the extra income we REALLY needed (though, I was getting paid like a dishwasher, but I digress). I'm just blown away at the things I saw. For a place that is supposed to be one of the best private clubs in town, it sure has a nasty back stage man.

The following pictures are a to offset the ugliness I wrote above. Like I had said earlier, I met some great people and they deserve to be featured. Eh, I threw in a couple random pics too :)

Lunch Special created by the new sous chef. He hadn't been corrupted by them yet. I like the way this looks.

The best condiment created :)

My boy Mike, great dude.

My last few moments before I left were celebrated by a pie in the face and REALLY cold ice-coffee poured down the back of my chef jacket. I was a MESS!! lol. It was pretty funny and I was touched by the gesture. Made me feel loved.

Thanks for the chance to work there, it opened my eyes to some great stuff! And, not-so-great stuff. I'll miss a few of you.

Cooking Class for Auction Winners at the American Red Cross

So, as many of you may know, I love Charity's. Well, worthwhile Charity's. Charity's that I know and feel in my heart that are making a difference in the community. In my opinion, the American Red Cross is one of those Charity's and I try to do what I can to give of myself for that (and many other) great causes.

The host and hostess of the evening won a few hours of my time during an auction that raised money for the red cross. So, as with most charity events, I taught a cooking class with a theme. Tonight's theme was "Pasta Night". We made a 5 course pasta dinner where scratch made pasta and raviolis were created. We stuffed them with a choice of three fillings and served them simply with butter, fresh thyme, lemon zest and extra virgin olive oil. Yum!

Here's the menu:

Theme: Italian Pasta Night

Starter Course
Bruschetta w/ Ricotta and Fresh Made Pesto Sauce.

Salad Course
Smoked Chili Shrimp w/ a Citrus Spinach Salad.

Soup Course
Roasted Butternut Squash Soup w/ Cinnamon Cardamom Sour Cream

Main Course
Home Made Ravioli w/ your choice of 3 fillings

Spinach Ricotta, Three Cheese or Sweet Italian Sausage

Dessert Course
Classic Tiramisu

And, as usual, some pics taken of this fine event:

Cooking Class with the Junior League

Last night was a great evening of food and fun hosted by Weekday Gourmet. I had a great pleasure of being asked to teach a group of about 15 members of the local Junior League. The theme was appetizers. Yes, they're very popular this time of year! Three great stand-bys that everyone loves:

- Goat Cheese Filled Parmesan Cups with Bacon
- Vegetarian Thai Summer Rolls with Sweet Chili Dip
- Crisp Mini Pizzas with Grilled Vegetables, Basil and Olive Oil

First, I demonstrated the Parmesan cups and then broke the group up into two teams to create the others under my tutelage. As the wine flowed, food was chomped and laughs were chuckled, the event went smooth without any hitches.

Thank you to Weekday Gourmet and the Junior League for having me. It was a blast and I'm looking forward to more events like that soon.

Check out the pics:

Private Chef Suprise Birthday Party

I had the fortunate opportunity to cook an amazing "buffet-style" multi-course birthday meal for twin brothers and a few of their closest friends and relatives the other night. It was a suprise 50th birthday party and ,boy, were they suprised! After all was said and done, looked like there were about 35 people there. All believers and very nice people!

The house-hosts kitchen was an enviable site, to say the least. It was a fun challenging evening that was a night to remeber by all. After spending most of the previous day preparing the food with my lovely wife and good friend (thanks a ton to both of you!!!), I spent the 2 hours leading up to the event preparing the food in front of everyone.

The hostess(es) and I came up with this menu:

Menu: November 9th B-Day party Event

Appetizers:

Goat Cheese Filled Parmesan Cups w/ Crispy Bacon

Smoked Salmon Platter with Assorted Accompaniments

Fruit and Cheese Platter

Vegetable Platter (aka Crudites)

Spinach/ Artichoke Dip w/ Chili Spiced Tortilla Chips

Main Course:

Herb and Garlic Roasted Beef Tenderloin w/ Green Peppercorn Sauce

Grilled Marinated Chicken w/ Mushroom Cream Sauce

Rice Pilaf Creamy Risotto

Sauteed Green Beans

Maple Glazed Carrots w/ Candied Pecans

Desserts:

Traditional Creme Brulee

Heath Bar Trifle w/ Vanilla Bean Ice Cream

Beverages:

Decaf Coffee and Soft Drinks

Here are a couple pictures I clicked off during this event:

Adult Cooking Class for Caring Hearts Foundation Charity

Being that the holidays are arriving, there are lots of opportunities to offer myself up for charity. As with years past, I've offered myself on the bidding block at a local charity called "Caring Hearts Foundation". Read more about them on their web site. They do some great stuff.

Any who, the winner had me over their house to show them how to create a party meal for about 1o of their friends. That night we did appetizers and the theme was "Entertaining on a Budget". What a great time!

There was a mixed crowd of cooks and a few folks that may have not stepped foot in a kitchen in a good long time. At the end of the night, no fingers were lost and they/ we ate some great grub! Lots of laughs (yeah, I'm a pretty funny guy, lol) and even more eating. Let's not forget the 12 bottles of wine they put away!

By the ooohs and ahhhs, I say they were pretty satisfied by the event.

Here are a couple pics to show you what went down:

And here's the menu of items we prepared together:

November 1st Appetizer Menu Recipes/ Chef Bradley Cooking Class

Entertaining on a Budget

Goat Cheese Filled Parmesan Cups with Crispy Bacon

Mini Stuffed Potatoes w/ Mushrooms and Carmelized Onions

Thai Summer Rolls w/ Veggies, Chicken and a Spicy Chili Sauce Dip

Chili Cook-Off Judge for American Heart Association Charity Event

A good friend of mine asked a newspaper food columnist and myself to judge a chili cook-off at a local law office. 12 employees offered their delicious chili concoctions for us to taste. The top three winners would be awarded ribbons, first place would get a trophy.

Although it was VERY difficult to reach a verdict (no pun intended, lol), we agreed upon the best top three.

There were 2 that were tied for 3rd, but after a quick review, we found our official second place winner.

After the judging, people from the company were encouraged to buy the chili and the money would go to the charity. They apparently raised about 300.00! Very cool.

Thank you Carla (and Dan) for having me as your guest judge, was a blast!

If you ever have a twinky or ice cream cook-off, lemme know :)

Some pics:

The winners

First Place Winner

The Entries

Buckhead Beef Food Competition, Atlanta October 2008

Just recently gained access to the pictures I took while at my latest food competition. See, I was in a huge rush to get home (4.5 hour drive after a 10 hour day!) that I accidentally left my bad ass camera in the competition kitchen! Luckily, there are a few honest people left in the world and one of the chefs mailed it back to me. I just got it today, hence the fact that I now have access to said pictures!

Ok, so, this was an F3 category/ mystery basket food competition hosted at the "Le Cordon Bleu" Culinary School in Atlanta, GA and sponsored by "Buckhead Beef". There were only 25 competitors (I was number 23) which made it nice and intimate. We had access to a common pantry of many popular and well known common items and the protein was revealed to us right before we were to begin.

Our allotted time consisted of 10 minutes to bring in our tools and set up our stations, 30 minutes to write a menu based on our newly discovered protein (which was one of five items; Red Footed Chicken, Free Range Lamb, Milk Fed Veal, Sustainable Alaskan Halibut or Wagu Flat Iron Beef Steaks, all top quality all the best there was to offer.) and the previously mentioned common pantry items, 1 hour to cook 4 servings of 1 course, 10 minutes to plate up and 10 minutes to clean up. And, believe me, it was the fastest 2 hours of my life! WHAT A BLAST MAN!!!

I got to show my stuff a little and won a silver, not too shabby. Not too happy with the way the pictures of the food looked, especially since I wasn't able to take any pics until about 20 minutes after completion. So, the sauces look a little messy and the meat a little dry, but you'll get the gist of things!

I did, however, make kudos from the judges for working very clean and organized as well as making my own pasta. I was surprised no one else attempted it, not even ravioli! Slackers, lol.

My menu was:

Roasted Asparagus with Thyme Citrus Hand-Made Tagliatelle, Pan Seared Lamb Loin, Pan Jus and Basil Oil.

The judges mentioned that they would have liked to see the meat sliced thinner, so I got a silver instead of a Gold. Better luck next time :/

Competition Kitchen

My dish (dried out from the lights, lol)

Another view of the competion kitchen


A close up of that wicked pasta :D

Judgement :o