Prix Fixe

On The Fly: 02/28/10

So meant to get this out yesterday, but an unfortunate external hard drive crash - a loss of a lot of data (read: almost all of my radio related things: demo's, production parts, etc.) and we arrive at no post yesterday which is when I normally do it, and being thrown off schedule drives me nuts.

So, on with the show:

It would seem that Whoopie Pies are making a comeback(?), and are now a hip thing to serve as part of the dessert course. According to the Baltimore Sun the re-emergence of said pies is rooted in Baltimore. As a side note, just a week before stumbling on this article, we did a Whoopie Pie special.

The Portland Monthly last ran a food-centric issue last fall when they did a Portland Top Restaurant's issue, a issue that brought Carlyle to my attention - and thus setting things in motion to do my externship there. They've finally put out another issue this time "Food Lovers Guide To Portland". 

Ladies, Gentleman, Daniel - I present to you: Cooking Robots.

From cooking robots to Pizza Cones, yes you read that right - Pizza in cone form. For some reason I feel that this is just 10,000 ways of wrong. Or is it just me?

Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream is once again out in front of the pack, and has announced that all their ice cream flavors will be Fair Trade Certified by 2013. 

FF: Zest-o-rama

 

Cooks Without Knives

Just like every baseball player needs a glove, every cook/chef needs his knives. Recently a fire swept through the kitchen of one of Spain's top restaurants. 

Here's the details from John Sconzo over @ Docsonz:

Early on Monday February 15th, fire severely damaged the kitchens at Mugaritz, the world-famous restaurant in Spain's Basque Country. Luckily, no-one was hurt. For the management and staff of Mugaritz, the destruction of their workplace was a tragedy. But for three other young people, this was also a calamity. 

Stagières are unpaid apprentices, usually young, without whom no top restaurant can function. Driven by a common passion to learn from the world's best chefs, they travel from all corners of the globe to train at world-class restaurants. When the dust settled on Mugaritz after last Monday's inflagration, Mattias from Sweden, Diego from Guatemala and Greg from the US found themselves without their most valued possessions. Their precious knife sets, not covered by the restaurant's insurance, had been incinerated.

John has taken the lead and set up a fund to help the young stages with replacing there knives. More information can be found here about donating to a well worth it cause and help these guys out. I can tell you, I treasure my knives and would be lost without them - I'm betting these guys feel the same way.

You can also click on the widget in the side bar of this here blog to donate as well.

NFTL: I look like a nerdy hillbilly!

There are so many things happening at break neck speeds - it's enough to give you whiplash.. All kinds of exciting stuff is about to drop, but in fear of jinxing myself (I have a tendency to do that..), I'm just going to keep my mouth shut...for now. 

Notes From The Line....

"Oui, Chef"

Hand washing crystal martini glasses in one word: blows.

Why? Well I'm glad you asked.

Last week chef purchased brand new martini glasses (we only had like four, and it apparent that the rank and file of Lake Oswego lurve their martini's) up until that point we only had like four in house. Heavy duty ones too, that barely fit into the glass rack for the dishwasher. Not mention at the time there wasn't much of a need as we have a lot of wine, and started with a sparse liquor bar. 

These new ones, while aesthetically pleasing, they're a pain in the ass. Leave it to me to be the one that culled the herd, becuase well lets face it sometimes I can be a bit dim. Call it overconfidence to the point of reverting IQ point's and failing ones dex roll didn't help.

At first it didn't look like the new glasses would fit into the glass racks.

Chef: Doesn't look like they'll fit..
Me: Oh they'll fit alright. Just like the old ones.[carefully placing said glasses in rack]

This is where I should have said "Oui, Chef" and washed those crystal bastards by hand. But, nooooo I had to act like I knew what I was doing, slid the rack into the dishwasher and let her rip. Did I mention that these bastards are friggin light? Or that our re-vamped and tuned up dishwasher now has more water pressure than Old Faithful?

It was the moment of truth. The dishes were done.

The journey, not the arrival matters.

...todays title brought to you by T.S. Elliot. 

One of the things I learned while making my way up and down the radio dial (WKRP, anyone?), is that you can never not network. If you don't, you're not going to last long. Suffice it to say, this (as I've found out, but really shouldn't have been much of a surprise to me..) is the same in the world of professional cooks. 

The more you connect with others in the industry, the better. 

Over last summer I started writing for the Food & Wine section of ThePortlander.com, my first idea and supposed regular column (it's not that I've been slacking, that's for sure) "Back Of The House" where I would interview a local chef and take the readers 'behind the curtain" - kind of like "Behind the Music" only not.

The first interview I did was with a chef I had been stalking following on Twitter, who at the time went by the handle of @BellyTimberPDX (that has since changed, more on that in a minute.). Chef David Seigl of Belly Timber, with the magic of aforementioned twitter I asked if he'd be my first (get your minds out of the gutter folks..)  he was more than happy to oblige. 

If you're interested in reading the interview click here: "Back Of The House: Chef David Seigl". 

Recently he (read: last week) left his post as executive chef of Belly Timber, and hit the road. He's decided it was time to get out roam, and as my understanding is - headed to Europe. He's charting his travels over at Executive Dishwasher, which I fully urge you to add to your RSS reader of choice. You can also follow him on Twitter under the same name as the blog: @ExecutiveDishwasher.

"A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving". - Lao-Tzu

Mother...

Every loaf of bread that comes out of the oven at Scratch comes from Mom. She's a spry 4 months old and this fine lady is starting to turn out some very tasty offspring. 

Nothing like producing bread in house. It's not regular practice by any means but we have been known to sell a loaf now and then to customers who really like it.

The Full Mountain Monty...

Inspiration comes in many forms, as we've discussed before. Snapped this on my way to work Friday afternoon, just up the road from the St. Josef's Winery. It's sights like this that remind me of why I love it here and would never want to move anywhere else.

...OK so that's a semi-lie, there are a couple other places I wouldn't mind . But right now, I'm happy as a clam living and working in Western Oregon.

And if you're wondering, it's Mt. Hood.

Sometimes you just need to step outside the kitchen doors and take a look around. 

Commenting.

I don't mention this stuff, and really the only problem here was TypePad eating comments. So to make it as simple as possible - while you do have to be logged in to comment. You can log into Twitter, Facebook etc. etc. to be able to leave a comment.

I love comments, questions and the like.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled program. 

On The Fly: 02/20/10

The only thing I've watched for any length of time on TV since last Friday has been the Olympic's. I'm a hockey fan, played the game too - so looking forward to tomorrow's USA vs Canada tilt.

elBulli-gate is still going full tilt, Ferran Adria made it clear that while elBulli will still serve meals - it's only going to be 60 meals a year. You thought it was hard to get into now, just wait in 2014 it will impossible. According to the article it's going to be turned into what amounts to a culinary think-tank. 

Speaking of Adria and elBulli, chef Grant Achatz of Alinea fame; spent time there as a stage. In this piece from the New York Times - Achatz recall's being in the kitchen of the famed restaurant.

It's been well documented on twitter that I have a unhealthy obsession with Top Chef Judge and Canadian goddess Gail Simmons. I'm pretty sure I'm close to having a restraining order stapled to my forehead. Anyways, here's a great article from the Toronto Star on Gail.

Anyone that knows me, knows that I love salt. At current count, I have 10 different salts residing in my pantry. Everything from plain old Diamond Crystal kosher salt, to a truffle salt that I pick up at the Portland State University's Farmers market. Here, Chef's tell you what to look for and what kind of 'finishing' salt (a salt to finish a dish as opposed to actually using it to cook with). 

Just recently (as in a couple days ago) the James Beard Award Nominations were announced. A slue of Oregon/Portland chefs are up for Best Chef Northwest. Not to mention Chef Andy Ricker is not only up for Best Chef Northwest but his restaurant Ping is up for Best New Restaurant as well.

FF: In which Eric Ripert surrenders...

....his AUTOGRAPH. Jeez people what were you thinking??

The more I thought it about it, the more it was bugging me, though I was deeply enjoying taking a trip to the geeky side. While todays first Foto Friday post was cool and all it dawned on me (or maybe the caffeine had finally taken hold of my non-caffinated non-awake self..) it really wasn't a picture (more like a screen cap if you're scoring at home.). 

So; as you may or may not recall, my friend Jen who is the woman behind the curtain over at The Daily Blender - went to the Cayman Cookout this year. I'm not one to ask much, but I emailed her to see if I could give her my copy of "On The Line" by Eric Ripert to have him sign as he would be one of the many chefs in attendance.

She wasn't sure about the book, but would see what she could do. After she returned from said cookout she came out to the restaurant and gave me this:

He even spelled my name right! Though she told me that she made sure, which is even cooler because we haven't known each other all that long - and she got my name right. I still have friends that can't spell my first name, it's not that hard really - just add an extra "M" at the end.