A burger with a fried egg? And, BACON?

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!

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...

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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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.