Prix Fixe

NFTL: Wylie Dufresne droppin' knowledge.

If there is one video you watch today, make it this one.

Wylie is firing on all cylinders and tackles a lot of subjects, he's well informed - great speaker. This is well worth the time investment, it will take you watch this.

 

I think one of my favorite parts, is his take on "Farm To Table"..and to that all I have to say is - A-Frakkin'-Men brotha - go preach it on the mountain.

NEW RESTAURANT OF THE YEAR...."SCRATCH" ON A STREET IN LAKE OSWEGO

This is a special restaurant created by one of the most talented chefs in the country. Patrick Lee Warner has worked in some of the finest eateries from east to west coast, and lucky for us decided to open his own restaurant in the heart of Lake Oswego. The name says it all...every dish, dessert even the french press coffee is made from "Scratch" ...Everything about this small romantic restaurant is a total winner. Scratch separates the minor league start ups with the majors and Warner's concept is a grand slam world series homer. It was my wife, two great friends and myself having one of the best dinners in ages. Not only is every dish totally delicious with vibrant flavors and a wonderful presentation, it's their staff who makes every bite taste better. You must try this restaurant soon! Look for Chef Warner going up against Bobby Flay on the Food Network this fall as he will be flown to New York for a showdown. 5 STARS from this critical judge of service- food quality & presentation. 

via stumptownblogger.typepad.com

I missed Mr.Stump by a few minutes. Not only is he a great blogger, but to me one of the icons of PDX Radio. Being a former radio guy myself, I wish I would have stayed to talk both radio and food.

24: Alinea

You wont find Jack Bauer in this video, but what you will get is 24 hours at Alinea in roughly 3 minutes. For those industry types, check how many times during the day they stop and clean from top to bottom. Everyone chips in at cleaning time - the faster  you get it done, the faster you can move on to other important things.

RIP Belly Timber

Another Portland restaurant to close it's doors. Never got a chance to get out there, but when Chef David Seigl left to travel the world, I had no desire to go out there.

This comes via their website (h/t Eater PDX).

Belly Timber served it's last meal May 16, 2010. There are many reasons we closed the restaurant, the primary reason being we as owners were stretched too thin between two restaurants. While the closing of Belly Timber is very sad it is also an exciting opportunity to focus all of our energy on our other restaurant, Equinox, to make it even more successful. 

We have brought our entire Belly Timber staff, including chef Paul Hyman, over to Equinox and will be starting a new lunch program this week in the hot Mississippi district in north Portland. Paul will also be revamping our dinner and happy hour menus at Equinox over the course of the next three weeks. We want to thank all of our loyal patrons and media who have supported us over the two years and invite you to join us at Equinox as we introduce Paul's cooking to North Portland's food scene.

Chef David was my first "Back Of The House" interview over at ThePortlander.com. Just hate to see another restaurant close, but with every one that closes there's another one that opens up. It's an interesting culinary landscape in Portland.

A throw down of a different sort.

This is embarrassing and cringe inducing to say the least. 

For those a bit lazy that don't feel like following the link, that's cool. I got your back on the this one, just kick back with a favorite beverage whilst I spin an interesting yarn...

..or I just give you a run down thanks to Willamette Week.

On Sunday the Cochon 555 event took place. 5 Pigs 5 Chefs 5 Wine Makers, the winning Chef is crown "Prince of Porc". It was a who's who of James Beard nominee's, Chef's Gabe Rucker (Le Pigeon), Naomi Pomeroy (Beast), Andy Ricker (Pok Pok) and Cathy Whims (Nostrana). 

If you're counting along at home, that's only 4 - the fifth chef was Jason Barwikowski from Olympic Provisions, who turned turned out to be the night's winner. For which I say, congrats! I worked with one of his sous chefs when I was going about my externship at Carlyle (this day I hear Trevor in the back of me head at times, whenever I've wasted steps and what not). 

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Chefs + Alcohol = Nothing good.

Things didn't get interesting until the after party (natch, but cliche to say the least which included a stop at The Magic Garden, why not right? So now we've got Chefs + Alcohol + Strippers = still, nothing good can come from this equation.  

Oh, but wait! There's more! That's right folks, the winning heritage porcine wasn't a Oregon pig, but from Iowa.

Not that big of a deal right?

For chef Eric Bechard of Thistle, it was that big of a deal. 

But, before I get to that, let me just say why it's not that big of a deal that an Iowa pig was used at the event, and was the eventual winner. If you've read this blog for any amount of time (we're coming up on our first birthday soon..) you know I support farm to table, and the slow food movement. 

But I'm going to err on the side of Barwikowski , maybe he couldn't find a porcine to his liking in Oregon.

So if you're still doing the math (don't blame you if you weren't), it's now Chefs + Alcohol + Strippers + Out of State Pig = Whew..!

Either way, nothing to get violent over. Or one would think...

Next

From the mind of Chef Grant Achatz and the gang at Crucial Detail.

 The man is a evil genius. Just sayin'. 

Chef Jose Andres on 60 Minutes

Last Sunday on 60 Minutes, Anderson Cooper did a piece of Chef Jose Andres. He's the Chef and owner of 6 restaurants including The Bazaar by Jose Andres - if the name of that particular restaurant rings a bell, it should if you're a Top Chef Fan. Season 7 winner Micheal Voltaggio is his chef de cuisine.

Chef Andres is know for his avant garde approach to food. He's a lot like his fellow Spaniard Ferran Adria, so much in fact they will both be teaching "Culinary Physics" at Harvard. It'll be a 13 week course, though I hate the title of the article the Washington Post did on it "Foam 101?".

Maybe some other time we'll talk about molecular gastronomy, misconceptions and the like. Lets just that "Foam" really does get a bad rap, and I do understand why.

Again, for another time. For now, enjoy this 60 Minutes piece on Chef Andres.    

Chef's Gone Wild?

Really quickly I'd like to say congrats to the 3 Portland Chef's that were nominated for James Beard Awards (though PDX was shut out of the JBF's last night.). The 3 chefs were, Naomi Pomeroy (Chef/Proprietor of Beast), Andy Ricker (Chef/Proprietor of Pok Pok) and Kathy Whims (Executive Chef of Nostrana). 

What was really fun, well fun if you're at home and really had nothing better to do, was to follow the #jbfa hash tag on Twitter. While the live tweeting of the awards was fun and all, what happened at the after parties - that's where all the fun was to be had my friends. No, really. 

This was a recipe for fun: chefs + alcohol + NYC = what could go wrong?

Well nothing went wrong (technically) though from the sounds of it, it was turning into "Chefs Gone Wild" ( I could be on to something there...) the biggest part of the night from what I had gathered over Twitter is that Chef Daniel Boulud sprayed after-party goers with champagne.

Those among the ones getting sprayed? 

The crew from Beast.

So if you really want to be entertained, even the day after as hangovers ensue look up the #jbfa hash tag. Trust me, you wont be sorry you did, things get really rolling after the awards (natch).

I guess this is the part where I go off into some sort of rant about Portland cuisine, being over looked and of course the always present (guess this isn't just a sports thing either) east coast bias. I'm not going to take anything away from the award winners from last night as all of them were/are deserving.

But where's the Portland love?

...I have a feeling I'm preaching to the choir.

NFTL: A different line, a different time.

If you're fairly recent to this blog, then you might not know that when I served my exernship for school, I did it at the now shuttered Carlyle, under the direction of Chef Jake Martin. He's moved on to Fenouil now as the Executive Chef, where he's been for like a month now (I think?).Anyways, long story short - he made a TV appearance - which I thought was a bit out of character. 

Why? Well when he had to fill out my final eval for my externship, there was space to write a summary if he so chose.

Jake: Do I need to actually write something here?

Me: Well you don't have to, if you don't want to.

Jake: Yeah, I'm not good with words.

So imagine my surprise when Jake shows up on "Keeling It Local", the same show that my current Chef was on as well. At one point in the following video he mentions that he's particular about his shallots, something that will stick with me for ever. I'm pretty OCD when it comes to bruniose of shallot.

Below is the video please, by all means enjoy.

Bourdain Meets His Match...

I laughed pretty good at this one, Anthony Bourdain gets schooled by a 10 year-old.