Prix Fixe

#preplistproject: The beginning.

I live and die by my prep list. 
Usually I do the list up the night before after we close it down. Sit at the bar regale in the nights events and to form a battle plan for the next days service. I'm also facinated with them, and other peoples..(sounds a bit creepy now that I read that line back to myself.) any way the point is - if you have one show me. 
I want to see other peoples preplist's it's always fun to see how they're written up. So if you're in the industry or not, I would love for you to send me a pic of you're preplist, and I'll post them here as part of the #preplistproject. 
So send me an email at preplistproj [at] prixfixe-online [dot] com.

Links for 01/30/10

It's been a pretty busy week for me, but I still do have some tasty links for your Saturday. I should have my FF:365 up at some point in the next day or two just haven't had the time (and I'm thinking of going a bit of a different route with it). 

The restaurant is blown' up at this point, and needless to say most of my time and energy has gone into that.

• "Eight Ways In-Vitro Meat will change our lives"
  I'm speechless really. It was tough getting through the whole article, but worth the read. This really scares the crap out of me, and I guess P.E.T.A. backs this (ugh..) and don't get me started on P.E.T.A.

•  "Blogs With Bite"
  A listing of some great food blogs you may not be reading.

• "The Role Of Calcium In Taste Perception"
  An interesting read on how calcium works with taste. The gang over at Ideas In Food posted the link on twitter. Something to keep tabs on for sure.

• "Menu Pricing's Theory Of Relativity"
  I've taken a bit of a shine to menu psychology, but like always more research is necessary. 

• "Top 5 Chef Skills"
  AZ Central polled some Chef's in Arizona on what they think are the top skills need to be a chef/cook in a professional atmosphere. You'll notice there is a theme to the lists.

In regards to elBulli

Yesterday at the Madrid Fusion conference Chef Ferran Adria made the announcement that elBulli would close it's doors to the public. No the restaurant isn't closing down for good, but Chef Adria has decided that he needs to take a step back as it were, look at where elBulli has been and where it's going moving forward. The restaurant itself is working on it's 50th year in operation -  Adria has been at the helm for 30 of those years.

According to the presser we could get a elBulli encyclopedia, which would be the first ever complete 'bible' of avant garde cuisine from Adria. He's released several books, but this would be even bigger (bigger than the Fat Duck Cookbook - that Heston Blumenthal put out) which is many levels of kick ass.

My first thought was "Good for him", time to take stock in where he's been and where he wants the restaurant to go. Not many chefs can close down their restaurant for two years and get away with it - Adria can. Guys like Heston Blumenthal and Grant Achatz both did stages under Adria. 

NFTL: Dancing Monkeys

Notes From The Line...

• As I mentioned we ran out of wine glasses twice. What a great night though, the fact we couldn't seat  people by 8p was just amazing.

• I've come to realize just like cooks, servers have their own system of doing things. With only two servers it's pretty easy, though there can always be a monkey wrench thrown into the works. Our flow is great, it's just I'm starting to pick up things - I hadn't noticed (or maybe just didn't pay enough attention at first).

• It wasn't until Saturday Night how well Chef and I can move in the kitchen. The place is a shoe box, and I bet it looks like two giant monkeys dancing to the untrained eye. I really noticed during the first rush, we didn't need to say a word, or even make eye contact to know where each other was going.

• Chef is going to quite smoking. This should be fun.....

• We're gearing up for the next menu change. With the menu changing monthly - it keeps us all on our toes. While some dishes may make it to the next menu, 95% of it will be new.

Meyer Lemons

Culinary Zen Garden

The humble beginnings of chicken stock, or to be more specific rock hen stock.

In which we run out of wine glasses (twice..)

Talk about crazy.

Here's a quick conversation that took place about 8p last night.

Daniel: I need wine glasses!
Me: (looks around the kitchen) Umm..I don't see any...
Chef/Daniel: Wha?

And I was right, we'd run out a second time it was at that point, Chef pulled out his cell phone hit speed dial and ordered us two more cases of wine glasses set to be delivered on Tuesday. If you're wondering, that was a first - which was to seem to be the theme of the night.

It started out innocent enough, Jen from Daily Blender came in to regale (or maybe rub it in) about her three days in the Cayman Island's hanging out with people like Chef Eric Ripert - who she got me a autograph from for yours truly (so really I owe her big time). What's even more impressive, is that he spelled my name right. Even my boss on occasion can't spell my first name correctly, and he has to be reminded.

In case you're wondering, my name has two M's. I've even been asked from time to time to produce ID that proves that my name has two M's in it. There's a part of me that gets a kick out of it every time it happens. But that's not what we're talking about here, though she (Jen) did rub it in by showing me a pic of her and Gail Simmons (whom she knows I have an unhealthy obsession with.). 

At one point I came out to deliver a seafood fritter to the pantry station, looked up and we had a couple tables filled plus some bar seats. I disappeared back into the kitchen, only to make another run back to the pantry station this time delivering garbanzo bean cakes to the pantry station again. I heard noise but really didn't pay all that much attention I was more focused on getting the cakes out so Fox could plate it and send it on it's way.

That's when I glanced up.

We were packed to the gills, and had people waiting in the tiny lounge area for a seat. That's how it went for the rest of the night, at one point we couldn't take any more seatings. Oh, and lets not forget that we almost sold out the entire menu as well.

I love nights like that. 

Do you know what the great thing is?

...We're just getting started.

Links for 01/23/10

• "The 2010 Cayman Cookout" Day 1, Day 2, Day 3
  Friend and Colleague Jennifer Heigl of Daily Blender got the opportunity to get out of the wet Oregon weather and hob knob with likes of Chef 's David Chang, Eric Ripert, Grant Achatz, Anthony Bourdain and the movers and shakers of the Food Industry. Including Gail Simmons with whom I've got an unhealthy obsession.

• "Composure"
  If you're not reading Richie's blog, you should really start. Yes it say's line cook, but he's actually a Sous Chef at Nopa in San Fran. He's a great writer and is always making you think - especially if you're in the industry. One of my fav reads.

• "More Salt: The Debate Continues"
  The fact the state of New York thinks that this is possibly a good idea is beyond me. People are already pissed about having everything regulated for their "safety". How about this Mayor Bloomberg , good or bad or indifferent let the people make the choice not you or the government.

• "Salt. Is it good or bad?"
  Speaking of Salt one of my favorite food writers Micheal Ruhlman chimes in.

• "The Cornucopia: MIT's 3D food printer patiently awaits 'the future'"
  From the "What will they think of next" file comes this dandy, a 3D Food Printer. I feel no need to comment further, instead I'll let you go ahead - click the link and perhaps drool?

As always you can access these links and more at my Delicious page, via the sidebar. I'm always updating my Delicious page - so there will always be as fresh content as I can get it. Also you can find me on Google Reader as well.

FF: 365 : Days 8 through 14

Foto Friday: 365

Still working out a few kinks with the camera, I'm really beginning to believe that it just wants to mess with me on a daily basis. Click the pantry station to access the gallery, you can also access the FF: 365 gallery in the side bar on the right, you can't miss it. I've also been messing around with the lens conversion settings as well. 

Team Oregon. The Video.

More messing around with Animoto. Now I'm able to do full length videos, so as I'm sure you've guessed there will be a lot more video going on around here.