tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-70231182244894828242024-03-13T20:30:26.886-07:00Salt and HeatA simple account of my day to day cooking- a constant pursuit for the perfect application of botharchibald.joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03148456713992069676noreply@blogger.comBlogger138125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7023118224489482824.post-1248842290183375502012-12-21T11:35:00.000-08:002012-12-21T11:35:44.888-08:00401 K<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The majority of my staff has some issues. It is well known that people that cook or serve for that matter lead a different life then those that work in offices. The job is hard, hot, fast paced, has weird hours, is loud, and technical. In this environment it is easy to see those that cant hack it. In no way am I saying that you have to be smart though- but it helps, we have a server who is a crack up and has an approach with his customers that I have never seen before and no one else could get away with who has a PHD in mental health (honestly I think he bought it online somewhere). It just takes a certain type of person. I couldn't wait tables. Not a chance. It would take me only a few seconds to absolutely lose it with a customer, and that would be the end of me. The questions, the complaints (I had a woman so mad a few weeks ago because her soup was served too HOT) the assumption of some customers that you are far inferior as a human then themselves, etc would all push me over the edge. For the most part I try to stay out of the dining room. My cooking staff has issues as well though, most of them work two jobs all summer long, some work three. I have one guy who is a fantastic cook that I bet works 90 hours a week through the summer, and if he is late to work I walk out to the parking lot to wake him up as he fell asleep in his car during the ten minute break he gives himself between punching out on job 1 and punching in for job 2. As the summer creeps on, and even as a single grueling day creeps on the fuses can get short.<br />
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For the most part they all consume energy drinks, and I absolutely hate it when they walk across the street to the nearest convenience store and load up. Guys disappear for 10 minutes, and I hate it when people are in uniform outside of the restaurant. They are a reflection still of our restaurant, and therefore what they are doing is still my prerogative, but technically they are still on their own time. Whether they are taking a break, having a cigarette (we have far fewer smokers then we used to), talking loudly on their cell phone, or whatever it can reflect poorly on the restaurant. I totally respect their time..... but. Telling a guy who is doing you a favor by pulling a double that he can take ten minutes and then telling him what he can and cant do during that ten minutes is not the best for our employee relations. Since they were closely linked, and I was in awe at the amount of energy drinks a total staff of about 50 people could consume on a daily basis, Will and I acquired a small fridge, got a money bag, and bought $150 dollars worth (personal money) of stuff we have seem them drink. While it started as a bit of a joke and I was convinced our HR people would kill us, it was actually well received. When it was brought under question it was sold to our top brass as a cheaper, more convenient, colder, option for our staff, who never had to leave the building to get it. They ate it up, and our staff bit. We named it 401K enterprises and while we wont retire anytime soon it has been very successful, and fun for our entire staff. Waiting to watch the service staff stress until the perfect moment and then laying on a nice "ice cold red bull", or "man you are dragging, you might need a pick me up" will work almost every time. A server who was treated especially well by a customer may come back to the kitchen and drop $30 bucks on a "round for the cooks". We expanded slightly to even match the needs of our staff, tracking down a few purveyors to get the highly desired Starbucks "double shots" and Monster absolute zero. There is also red bull, sugar free red bull, original monster, rock star, and even orange soda. If we had more room I would love to add a few more items, but space is tight, and the restaurant hasn't exactly billed us for the electricity to keep this stuff cold, or mentioned that Will or I will drop just about any task at any time to make a sale. We wait as the 4pm shift change starts to happen, and hit the leaving people headed to another job, and then capitalize on the people coming in the door as well. It is fun and while the price never changes for anyone, we still love to come up with ways to make it sound like a deal. "two drinks for 5 and a fanta is free for the next hour" is actually 2 bucks a piece for the drinks and a dollar for the fanta, which is the price we charge but I have tricked more then one person on it. "five for ten" is another great one, as is "buy two for six...get one free". The staff enjoys the banter, and the production is up for sure. We are able to talk franchising as well.....just sayin. Thanks for reading. archibald.joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03148456713992069676noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7023118224489482824.post-12985021121944423622012-12-12T16:12:00.004-08:002012-12-12T16:12:50.079-08:00CCA- take 3The CCA is the Clatsop Community Action food bank. It is our counties Oregon food bank subsidiary, and it feeds the Astoria, Seaside, and Cannon Beach food banks. It also does "meal on wheels" and loaves and fishes. Last year they provided 959,000 meals in Clastop County. Of the people that need there help 41% are children, and 20% are elderly and on a limited income. In recent years they have built a new location and are capable of processing fish, and meats and even have some land and are slowly but surely working towards being able to grow products that they can distribute. I have been to the warehouse a few times and seen first hand the amazing things they can do. Their process is streamlined and there is only a few people that are actual on staff there. Almost all of the work is done on volunteer basis, and for those reasons they are able to really put money into food and get it on the plates of those in need. I am disgusted at some of the bigger non profit groups and the amounts of hands in the pot when it comes to putting donated money to good use. The CCA has no such problem. Couple that with the knowledge that so many in my community are in need of help especially this time of year, when these guys ask me to jump I usually reply "how high". <br />
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Honestly I had some reserve about doing this event again. In the past we have invited some other chefs from around the community to each take a course of food, they would show up and we would all plate it together. We have had a lot of success though and it has become the largest fundraiser of the year for the CCA. The dinner is held at our hotel so regardless I am knee deep before we even leave the gate. This year one other chef and I decided against involving other chefs. We have had a tough time with a clean flow throughout the courses, and on a personal level I haven't been very excited about some of the courses in the past. So we wrote a four course menu together and then put together shopping lists and asked purveyors in the area to pony up for the ingredients. They all ended up coming through in a big way. The things that we couldn't get donated were sold at cost and of all the ingredients needed to do a dinner on this scale I think that total for the invoices that needed to be paid for food were about $1200. We easily were gifted over $4000 in food for the event. <br />
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Balancing what we want to cook vs what we can get donated vs what we can serve in the time frame allotted vs what the customers will find to have value is a really tough task, perhaps harder then the execution of the event. The dinner was an invite only event and we ended with 155 people at $150 a person. My very first employer, my insurance agent, senators, the governors wife, local doctors, local business owners, and family friends were all present, and it made me grateful to live in this small tight knit community and have the opportunity to support these businesses with my own dollars when they in return are supporting good causes with their dollars. <br />
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Due to the way we constructed the event the effort required on my part was daunting. I worked on almost nothing but the organization of this meal for at least 2 weeks, and the two big prep days leading up to it were absolute warfare. I leaned on Will for a lot of it, at one time he and I out prepping 15 volunteers and the other chef that were all at work at his restaurant. To add even a bit more value the guests were able to take home a recipe book of all the items we cooked which meant when it came time to execute the food I had to read recipes and actual do some math and cook from them, and I hate doing that. I like to cook by feel and taste and common sense, and recipes really throw a wrench in my style. <br />
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When it came down to it the event went almost flawlessly. I was happy with the menu, it was very well received, and while we had a small hiccup in the execution (still kicking myself a bit) all in all it was a great showing. The crowd was sold out and at the end of the evening $59,920 (after expenses)was raised to help support the CCA. I am almost speechless about that and so grateful I could be involved. Grateful that my company still sent me home with a paycheck knowing full well that I hadn't done much of anything for the restaurant in the days leading up to the event, and that we could do this for the people in need in our community, people that sometimes are friends, employees, and family. <br />
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While of course my intent was to take pictures of everything as it left the kitchen, that was slapped down in no time. The kitchen was an absolute whirlwind of action and one of the most stressful nights of my life. Their was however a photographer in the kitchen everytime I turned around so I am sure there are some pictures that will circulate in the coming days. Should I get my hands on them I will post them. The menu, at least, follows as much for my sake as yours. Thanks for reading.... and Happy Holidays. <br />
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Apps-<br />
Stationary-<br />
Smoked salmon with pickled veggies and fried capers<br />
Willamette cheese company cheeses, grissini bread sticks, sourdough bread<br />
Passed-<br />
Shucked local oysters- preserved lemon mignonette<br />
Beef Tartar- egg garni<br />
Butternut squash beignets- brown butter and maple crema<br />
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1st- Andalucian risotto cake, confit of squid, marinated pork loin, tomato jam, cilantro garnish<br />
2nd- Napolean of halibut stuffed with a dungeness crab and scallop mousse over julienne vegetables, pesto, rouge cream<br />
3rd- winter salad of radicchio and escarole, goat cheese crotin, toasted walnuts, roasted black grapes, Saba<br />
4th-spiced apple cake, pecan praline, whipped cream, raspberries, mint. <br />
5th- assorted chocolates, Sleepy Monk coffee<br />
archibald.joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03148456713992069676noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7023118224489482824.post-75321000096405856812012-11-15T13:42:00.001-08:002012-11-15T13:42:41.531-08:00Iron Chef Goes Coastal Annually we compete in a local Iron Chef challenge that incorporates restaurants from all over the NW Oregon coast and the SW Washington coasts. It is a fundraiser for the Clatsop County United Way and has been a successful event for them for 4 yrs. The way it is set-up can be a little hard to comprehend so I am going to attempt to simplify that. 8-10 restaurants from around the area show up with a bite of food for about 400 people. Ticket buyers have the chance to try all of the different samples and interact with the chefs from the various restaurants. Chefs answer the same questions about 388 times, and describe the dish that they have composed what seems like a trillion times. While it may be easy to assume that a chef can make anything he wants to wow these ticket buying guests it isn't the case. On paper, yes, but in all actuality the food any given restaurant shows up with has to be able to be held (or the extremely risky attempt at cooking table side), easily presented, easily eaten, and because the restaurants themselves are picking up the bill for the ingredients there are many factors that can dock your creativity. In this particular event the paying ticket customers are also given a form and able to cast a vote for the table they deem has the best tasting offering of the evening. From a cooks perspective working events like this can be tough, but for me they are always a nice break from normal kitchen life. Putting on your best chef coat, seeing peers, and friends from the community and really having the chance to promote you and/or your restaurant is always great, and there are always networking connections to be made. A new oyster guy, produce guy, or chef in town all deserve face time, and the opportunity to eat bites from all these different restaurants doesn't happen very often.<br />
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At the same time, or even surprisingly before, there is another competition going on in the same format for desserts. Cakes, panna cottas, cookies, and tarts are the norm. Obviously a few less restaurants have the ability to do that so the field is usually around 5 qualified restaurants. The same customers have a chance to rate the dessert offerings and cast there vote for top treat. <br />
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As the customers make their rounds of the room trying up bites of things, sipping wine, and catching up with friends the main stage activity is where the whole show comes together. 4 chefs from around the area are staging to do a "Iron Chef" style battle. They will draw knives to find a team mate, then be presented with a secret ingredient, then have a few minutes to talk with each other and formulate a plan, then one hour to cook a 3 course meal, with 3 plates of each course using the secret ingredient cooking on only a few sucky portable butane burners. There is a pantry with all the basic flavorants, stocks, produce, as well as minimal kitchen equipment. Chefs are welcome to bring things they may want, but if you bring ingredients you must bring enough for the other team to use if they desire. As they cook things are auctioned off, people are interviewed, and thanks are given to all who attended. There food is judged by local "celebrities" in the past who have included the mayor, senator, business tycoon, football coach, out of town guest chefs, etc. Votes are tallied and a winning team is selected. The award for the best dessert bite is given, and then the award to the top 2 restaurants in the savory category are handed out. Those two winning chefs will compete in the "Iron Chef" portion of the program the following year against the two winning chef's from this years actual cookoff- although the teams may be a bit different as they aren't decided until moments before the event. A good time is had by all, and it is a huge fundraiser for the local United Way, which directly feeds money into many other worthwhile causes in the area. <br />
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Will Leroux has owned this event for the last three years and last nights was no different. Partly to alleviate the stress of actually competing, and also because they are already included in the event, the four chefs who are cooking do not also bring a dish for people to try. The first year we took a dish, it was long ago and I have no idea what it was anymore, and we won the peoples choice part of the competition. Then Will kept winning, even as I was promoted to Executive chef it was decided that since he never left the company he would continue to compete....and apparently win. We haven't had to bring savory food to this event since that first year. Then a few years ago we were asked to man the newly formatted dessert booth and since I am fortunate to have a pastry chef that is a genius that seemed like a no brainer. She would develop and execute all the food, and I would transport it and talk to every one at the event as she is not very interested in that end of it. We were out for blood, and last year we won the dessert category by a landslide. It was repeated again this year with a taste of "smore" a mini graham cracker crumb, then a milk chocolate and marscapone mousse, then an espresso ganache, finished with a meringue which we toasted table side with a small butane torch. It was an attempt to transport people to a campfire on the beach, and when we toasted the meringue it really worked, and worked really well. <br />
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One of the other chef's who was competing either with or against Will is another chef from the company (Aaron) whom I have the upmost respect for. We are both around the same age and both have been trying to cut it in the kitchen for a very long time. He is the only guy in the entire company that works more hours then I do, and has a wealth of knowledge that I telephone him and tap into whenever I am in need of another opinion. On top of that The MC of the event was yet another chef from the company, along with a news reporter from Portland, and he is in charge of organizing the event, getting the food donations, and giving the audience an idea of what the chef's are doing during the hour of cooking. <br />
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So to recap. My restaurant wins the dessert competition for the second year running. Will gets paired with Aaron instead of against him and they proceeded to bring the pain to the other team. The 4th member of our Executive chef team as a company is there announcing the whole event. We didn't just have a good night, we absolutely dominated the entire night. Our three restaurants weren't beat. Winning everything we had attempted for the evening. If ever there was a moment to be proud of our team this was it. As a team we are an amazingly well rounded group of cooks, all of whom bring their own talents to the table, working together lending ingredients, encouragement, and opinions whenever needed. I have never been so proud of an achievement professionally. Four hundred people to see that we mean business, and on that night we all brought our A game. Showing the rest of our restaurant community that we are setting the bar and pushing it higher, and fortunately have the resources to make it happen. <br />
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Then in perhaps the biggest news.... after Will (the corporate chef/my mentor) is awarded Iron Chef champ for the fourth year in a row, I am unknowingly called to the front, and since it has been deemed by the organizers that he can't be beat, he is retiring on top and it is announced that he is passing the torch to me, who will cook in his spot next year in the Iron Chef portion of the competition. A nice idea from someone that I wish I was a touch better prepared to hear. Perhaps with Aaron, or against him, with a few other very well qualified chefs from around the area. I have about 363 days to train. Thanks for reading. archibald.joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03148456713992069676noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7023118224489482824.post-55638270843739000842012-11-06T14:15:00.000-08:002012-11-06T14:15:45.715-08:00Endless SummerOn a busy night in the end of July we did it. The computer at the restaurant counts entrees rang in from the dining room then printed as tickets for the kitchen to execute. Not all restaurants are the same. Some count total butts in seats, plates fabricated by the kitchen (apps, salads, entrees, desserts, split orders, etc) total revenue, and more. Our computer counts entrees. There is some issue there, in that it may not be totally accurate. It may not count a salad with a fillet of salmon as a entree, because it isn't on the menu, but is ordered fairly often. When I first started there we had a cook who swore up and down that it didn't count a whole list of things, so he would say things like "I did 60 covers by myself in an hour and that didn't even count- then name off thirty other items". Long after his departure it is still a joke around the restaurant. Now when I said it isn't accurate, that is true, but it is also totally accurate. It may not count everything, but it does count it the same way it has since the dawn of time. We had a manager who wanted to fix it not too long ago and I pled with him not to. If we fixed it we lose years of past info, because the counts would be different, and different is rarely good in my line of work. So as argumentative as the system is, it is still the system and is perfectly accurate for what it is. It is uber-important to keep track of these things for past years for staffing and ordering purposes. As I sit to pen a schedule I look at the last two years worth of cover counts for the week in question as well as notes about past weather and groups that were in house, available to me in the cabinet is 10 more years worth of history should I be so inclined to check. In June we finally finished up our staffing push and really had a great group of cooks put together. With the addition of a few in particular and the added skills of a winter of "craft honing" with some of our others, as well as a few weeds pulled and discarded I felt like we were ready to tackle the challenges that awaited us. Maybe the argument that the economy is coming back carries some weight, or that that same rough economy knocked out at least one restaurant in town down, and another was horribly consumed by a fire in the beginning of the season. I would like to hope that it was mainly due to us making a effort on all levels to be better at service and better at food everyday, whatever the reason we were busy. As early as late May we were rocking past year numbers for covers and revenue. That led us to June on the same trail and through the summer. Even as we entered October the weather has held and when it stays good the business levels do as well. <br />
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In my 6 plus years we have never done 300 dinner covers in a single nights dinner service. We have been so close, so many times. It is rumored to have happened in the past a few times, but never recently. Dinner service count begins at 4:30 and to do 300, we need a full deck all night, and a customer in every seat of the restaurant and bar until we close at 10pm. Those stars don't line up often. The weather has to be great, and after sunset the temperature has to hold warm enough to enjoy outside dining, the reservation systems needs to capitalize on the not only perfect timing but perfect party size. Anything over 10 people will usually slow down a service enough to not get there. A dining room full of 2/4/ and 6 person tables is required. The service staff has to be on their game as well. Courses have to be timed out perfectly to minimize the amount of time a customers spends in any given seat before it can be sold again. The kitchen has to prepped for war, and cooks have to be focused and communicating constantly. Refires and botched table service will slow us down just enough to make the difference of 290 and 310. So on that day in late July we got it. 306. Then a few weeks later it was 320, and a day after that it was close to 340. Couple those numbers with a absurd breakfast service, then a punishing lunch and happy hour service, adding a few 150 person banquets to the work load and you are looking at a customer count of near 1000 ppl a day. Not once but multiple days through the summer. We did a 317 on a Tuesday in the middle of August. Revenue numbers broke records for the entire history of the restaurant, and budgets were crushed. There was a Friday, Saturday, and Sunday where we did more revenue then we did in all of January of the same year.<br />
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While it presented a massive work load for our staff they all fought like champions. Double shifts became the norm for anyone that was available, and we even pulled (my absolute favorite) "No One Goes Home Until We Are Caught Up On The Prep Load" on more then one night. Everyone stays, and sometimes it takes us hours to just get us to the point of being ready for the breakfast service that begins in just a few hours. Fighting into the wee hours of the morning in an attempt to just get the basics caught up. Dressings made, soups prepped, greens washed, etc. It became the norm to process 80#'s of halibut as it came off of the truck, and hope it rode until the truck showed up again. Instead of breaking 1 case of chickens, lets do 4 cases, then we probably wont have to prep chicken again until the day after tomorrow. Purveyors came through in a better way then they ever have, delivering better products, with better consistency then ever before. It all came together and for that I am grateful. With the investment of time and effort into the restaurant the validation comes in a 10 minute financial meeting with our CFO, who simply says "Everything looks great", which doesn't happen very often. Those conversations are better then a pat on the back, and as our management team walks away we all seem to relish in those success for just a brief second before we head back into the fire. Thanks for reading. <br />
<br />archibald.joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03148456713992069676noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7023118224489482824.post-28154312894611617532012-10-05T19:38:00.002-07:002012-10-05T19:38:27.195-07:00I'm Skinny NowI remember as a kid that when my Mom and I went school clothes shopping we always needed to find clothes in the "husky" section of the department store. Being big has always been an issue of mine. While I have a gigantic frame "from the factory" and that is a blessing in itself, I like so many other people have always had an excessive amount of weight on that frame. Maybe due to my body size or my age it has never really bothered me.....I thought. As a chef exercise outside of the restaurant is hard to do. Late nights, early mornings, and long shifts made it almost impossible to cram in any sort of regular exercise routine. Not to mention the consumption of food is totally different for me then it is for most. I never ate on any sort of schedule, sometimes putting a huge dinner away at 10pm on my way out the door. Tasting as I work, build flavors, and season different things can easily be a consumption of 1000 calories a day depending on what I am working on. As I get older the days got harder, and while I wasn't scaling myself in the bathroom every morning, I knew I was slowly growing. Regardless of my career choice, I am still a father to two amazing young boys, and a husband to what I am convinced is the most perfect woman in the world, and suddenly I started feeling much more responsible for my own health, not only for me but for them. Cooking professionally had been an excuse for my weight (which is the ONLY reason I feel confident about my ability to talk about it here) for too long and I needed to fix it. <br />
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On January 6th Melissa and I, along with a few others joined in the local parks and rec "Biggest Loser" as a team. The competition was fairly new, and required a few dollars payment, then a weekly weigh in at your choice of five to seven different locations around the area. The winners would be the person, or in our case, team that lost the highest percentage of body weight over the course of 8 weeks. Weekly prizes would also be awarded, as well as updates of the leaders and their loss. From January to the end of March I hit it hard. We easily won the team side of the competition and while in hindsight my eating plan may not have been doctor approved, I was doing well. Stationary bike workouts, walks, etc, were done 5-6 days a week for at least a half an hour. I even dabbled in lap swims at our local pool. Melissa found us a ever so slightly used high end elliptical for about a third of what we would've paid for it, and I hit that hard too. While I had lost a pretty good amount of weight and people had began to notice I stayed on it fairly hard and continued to lose through the spring and into the summer. And while the pounds quit flying off, I felt better, looked better, and was seeing some overall positive results. Another biggest loser event for the parks and rec, coupled with one for our company that I was asked to help put together got many of my coworkers involved as well. While I knew with what I had lost my chances at winning were slim to none when I went up against some very driven guys that were just beginning a weight loss routine, it was nice to have the help from other people. Making each other lunch and trash talking became the norm, and it helped take some of the pressure off of a grueling summer push. I did pull down an individual win for single week weight loss, but stayed right about where I thought I would've in the standings. In the meantime I hit the mountain bike hard, doing rides almost daily of up to 20 miles or so through the beginning of the summer. Still on the elliptical as well, I tried some hikes, walk with the boys on their bikes and just about anything else you can think of that would get me moving. While the stationary bicycle and the elliptical are great workouts, they are exactly that. When I could do it I was very happy on the bicycle, less of a workout- more fun.<br />
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I am down a total of 90 pounds since the beginning of the year. Now still trying to keep it coming down, but really working towards keeping it off. I have as regular an exercise routine as my job allows, and even bought a new road bike and have been riding to work at least a few times a week. I am doing a KM century ride in Ellinsberg WA next week for a grueling 61.6 miles, and while the training for that has left me consuming more calories then I normally would have been, I still am losing belt notches and feel like I am building muscle mass faster then I have since I began. After the club ride next week I guess I will return focus to loss, as I ideally want to lose another 30 pounds. While that puts me far from skinny, I think it is a good goal for now. I am back to cooking at home, which is what I missed more then anything. Even on days off rather then waking and cooking, I woke and worked out, and that changed the way I approached food for the entire day. Meals became quick go to salads, and turkey sandwiches, rather then the long drawn out processes I loved of before. Now in an attempt to balance the amounts I eat and what I eat with still making fun foods for the family to sit down together and enjoy, I am pushing to be more healthy, which is new to me and is going to take some getting used to. The bicycle riding gives me a bit of an excuse to indulge once in a while as I can easily burn 1k calories an hour and I am doing 2-3 hr rides on a fairly regular basis and having a blast while I do it. <br />
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Part of the reason that I haven't published here for so long is that I have been working so hard on this, that I haven't really been cooking at home so much. I needed to focus on the weight loss, and when you are trying your damnedest to not think about food, I had a really hard time coming home and writing about it, or even talking about it. In the down time where I used to read food books, I work out now, and given that I cant change how many hours are in a day, that is the way it has to be for now. In an effort to be more healthy, I had to give up on one of the things I love the most, and am really still adjusting to the changes that are necessary to make both work. Since you hear people talk about their weight struggle and their desire to eat good food constantly, for me it was twice that hard. Cooking, learning, and talking about food is in the foundation of who I am as a person. My whole life revolves around it, my ability to do it is my best personal trait. That balance and the decisions to put them on the back burner were way harder then passing on dessert. I knew if any one could understand that it would be my loyal followers. Thanks for your patience and for reading. archibald.joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03148456713992069676noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7023118224489482824.post-56800750936837293692012-09-28T08:27:00.002-07:002012-09-28T08:27:42.658-07:00Private Chef GigCindy is a local real estate agent, she also was the agent that helped us buy our home (a gross understatement), she also is a server at the restaurant, and she also employees my wonderful wife to do some of the maintenance of her listings on various websites, she also is the newly elected president of the realtor's association in our fine county. She is a busy lady and is one of those people that gets more done by 10am then most of us do all day. A few months back she mentioned wanting to auction off the private chef services of Will and I at a benefit dinner for the realtor association. To say the least we were hesitant. While I have wanted to wade into the realm of this, and have even begun to gather the service ware things I would need to do this sort of thing on a regular basis I have been very, very precarious as it can cause the absolute largest headache you can possibly fathom. Crappy ovens, horrid tools, no work space, drunk guests, dietary restrictions, and more can all wreck havoc on a meal like this. It is also almost impossible to understand the expectation of the guest. The appealing part of it for me is that it would give me the opportunity to really push the boundaries of new and different things. Things much different then what I can get away with in the restaurant, or with small children even my own home for that matter. Not knowing the expectation of a guest, or fully understand what they are willing to eat makes me double hesitate as it means potentially that they will not be totally blown away by the whole experience, a risk that you cant afford to take. In a perfect world I would invite 12 strangers over to my home, and serve them whatever I wanted and try to make enough money to cover the food and beverages, and maybe a new piece of equipment now and then. The meal wouldn't need to be overtly formal or fussy, and I could take a ton of liberty with not just the food, but the way it was plated and served. <br />
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We couldn't tell Cindy no. Clatsop county 300 time Iron chef winner Will took the main billing and I much less real estate on the flyer. I didn't mind a bit. It was then decided that the item would go to the verbal auction rather then the silent one as a bit of buzz could be created about it. Cindy asked me a few times what the value was and we assumed it was easily worth $400. The dinner was supposed to be for a total of 4 people at their home. If they desired we would cook the food at their house and even do some dishes that we could talk and teach them about, or we could show up with already prepped food and be silent. Either way we refused to commit to an actual menu. While Melissa and I were invited to the auction dinner we had a few obstacles that prevented us from attending. The item went up for auction and was sold for $650, which surprised me. In the back of my head I still thought that we would never actually have to cook it. The purchaser made contact with Will and invited us over to check out the kitchen and chat. Oddly enough a week or two before I had the opportunity to cook a all vegan three course meal for an author who was a guest speaker at the local elementary schools and serve him lunch at the restaurant., this purchaser who was accompanying him, and I had that chance to meet as I talked about the food I had done for them. As a combination mothers day, birthday present her and her husband bought the dinner, and happily they had a very nice kitchen and lived only a block or so from the restaurant. She wanted a total of 6 people to attend and for the price she paid we weren't about to say no. We started throwing out dates that worked for us that were a month or so away and she says "what about next Thursday?" After checking our phones we couldn't think of a reason that wouldn't work so we agreed to it. It immediately put us in cram mode. They assured us there would be absolutely no dietary restrictions, and they would eat anything we deemed fit for consumption. They also were not that interested in our interaction with them. They were more worried about making this easy on us. There was also two ovens, and we didn't want her to stress anything we told her we would even supply all of the service ware, so we didn't leave her with a sink full of dishes. <br />
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As the days flipped by Will and I went back and forth on conception ideas, because of the money involved we decided it needed to be at least semi-formal and decided to go with a multi course offerings. An app and at least five courses was the goal. Wine/cocktail pairings seemed almost required for that amount of money as well. We also, thankfully, were able to enlist the help of Cindy to serve the dinner and our fantastically talented pasty chef to handle dessert, and even the horrid task of cleaning up after Will and I during the actual event. We have learned that it is always nice to have a woman's perspective for setting and table design. She is much better at it then Will and I combined then multiplied by 5. We streamlined our thoughts and split the work load, the preceding days I was off so Will took most of the load upon himself. <br />
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On the day of, we went back and forth on flatware, glassware, and plate ware, pulling from the restaurant, and both of our own personal stashes. Product was pulled from personal stash as well, things that we grew, eggs, etc came from our own homes. Pairings were formatted, prep was done, and the trucks were loaded. These people had no idea what was going to hit them. We set up, and I think if anything made the purchaser uncomfortable it was three chefs and a professional server in her kitchen while she chatted with her husband and had a glass of wine. Glassware polished and her guests began to arrive.<br />
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App- Salt block cooked gulf prawn tacos<br />
Taking our block of Himalayan sea salt we heated the whole block in her oven at 500 for an hour or so before service, we had made some 4 inch tortillas, and we paired it with avocado, black beans, onions and cilantro. The block was pulled from the oven and set on the island in the kitchen and then the raw prawns were set on top of it to cook to the desired doneness and release all of those aromas into the air, then they made their own. With that we served a Gruet sparkling wine, and they mingled, introduced themselves to each other and met us. Then they sat. It was at this point we were instructed that one of our guests didn't eat meat. Fish yes, meat no. We were able to make it work through the problem courses.<br />
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1- Velvet Corn Bisque with seared lobster<br />
A super classic nod to the old school New England chef that Will is. An absolute velvety textured soup, with a lobster tail garnish. for the pairing we stuck with the sparkling. <br />
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2- Candied bacon brussel sprouts, pecan cake-<br />
Maple syrup lacquered bacon (cooked and basted on low heat for hours) sauteed brussel sprouts, and a cake made from pecans, eggs, fresh herbs and some cheese that we seared and placed on top.<br />
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3- Apple brined wild boar chops, soubise potatoes, green apple demi glace-<br />
The wild boar is helicopter shot out of Texas and was brined with apple juice and apple puree. the racks were roasted in a really hot oven and then cut into chops for service. The potatoes were local fingerlings that were cooked and then crushed and topped with a caramelized onion sauce. the demi was a veal stock reduction mounted with butter and had a green apple puree cut into it at the last minute. Brickhouse gamay noir (the first and only certified biodynamic Oregon wine I have seen)<br />
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4- Asparagus salad, poached egg, Columbia River sea salt, effervescent vinaigrette-<br />
Grilled asparagus tips and greens tossed with a lemon vinaigrette that we passed through my soda siphon, with my poached eggs, finished with Columbia River slough sea salt that one of my cooks makes in his spare time- more brickhouse<br />
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5- Cheese course-<br />
Served on a cedar plank with some raspberries, Beachers flagship Reserve white cheddar, Rogue Creamery Echo Mountain bleu, marcona almonds, Will's honey. <br />
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6- Black Forest Cake- toshino cherries- Moonshine toshino cherry cocktail<br />
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7- Caramel sea salt truffles, sleepy monk coffee <br />
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It was a crazy flurry of activity in the kitchen, but in the end they were extremely satisfied. It is hard to explain how many different plates, sauces, garnishes, etc that we needed to get to the house to pull this off. For a while I had a oven warming plates, the other oven at 500 degrees, and all five burners on the ceramic cook top on full whack. We packed up as quietly as we could, wiped and swept, and left the kitchen, allowing them to enjoy the rest of their evening without us. We returned the next morning to pick up the last of our stuff and they assured us that a good time was had by all, and they already wanted to do it again at some point.<br />
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It was a great experience and while we were a few minor hiccups from flawless, I think that is to be expected. It was fun to write a menu that had no sort of underlying theme, and bounced around all over the place. That was an idea that Will and I came up with as it is the anti-menu that we are always working towards in our restaurants. This was relief from the constant push te be more streamlined, more local, more focused. Thanks for reading. <br />
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A note- I have been slacking on this lately. This post was originally penned a few months ago, but not finished or edited until now. Sorry for the delay. An attempt to justify with be with you shortly. archibald.joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03148456713992069676noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7023118224489482824.post-8638433912542010352012-05-03T09:50:00.000-07:002012-05-03T09:50:22.090-07:00Parental Discretion AdvisedOn a balmy late winter night off early from work and on my way home the call came. "Let's do this, come over in a half hour" the voice explained. The call was Will, and the doing it referred to the slaughter of 4 of his chickens that had been raised for consuption (different then the egg chickens he has as well) that he had been harrasing me about for some time. It is hard for the two of us to hook up outside the restaurant sometimes as if I am not there, most likely he is. The chickens were to be slaughtered at 6 weeks and we were in week 8 almost. He had promised me a few, but I was required to do the harvest myself. I didnt grow up in a household that went hunting. I have only been fishing once or twice in my life and have never caught anything. As I thought about it in the preceeding days I couldn't think of one thing I have ever killed, other then a few small rodents. Since that makes me a touch hypocritical, in that I often argue that if you cant stand the sight/smell/or feel of raw meat/blood/inards then you shouldn't eat meat. I take serious issue to faceless meat. Am I anti-killing animals for food? Definately not. I love the idea, I just had never done it. This is especially important in our home as it is something that we have tried to teach the boys from a very early age. Of all the food things we could push on them this is the one we really have tried to hone in on. They understand that our food is animal, that it had a mom and dad, and that by being a consumer of it on any given night meant that we asked for that animal to be harvested. By buying it at a certain price we even promoted the quality of life and death or lack thereof that it had. Often they say things like "dad- we should get a pig so we can make bacon" and it cracks me up. I arrived at Will's house around dusk and we went over the plan. I am fortunate that he had done this a few times in the precceding days and many times as a child so he had a plan. We went over it, then went over it again. We wore overalls. I was nervous. We picked out the larger two of the birds (1 each) and went around the corner of the coop to the edge of the workshop. Out of site. Will went first, the tool of choice being a huge and extremely sharp 12" chef's knife that was long ago named Thurman at the restaurant. <br />
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Chickens are amazing animals, and I have so enjoyed watching my Rhode Islands here at the house. They are social, relaxed, and have an amazing natural (no pun intended) pecking order. We are getting an egg a day from each of our birds now and we have a large enough surplus that we are able to give them away to family, friends, and neighbors on a fairly regular basis. Maybe it is because of the relationship, with them as providers for our family, that I have with the chickens now makes me respect them more, or maybe because I don't think on any level the life of an animal is something to mess around with. Point blank I reiterate that animals die because we buy them. It is simple supply and demand. If you didnt buy that chicken breast at the megamart, it would still be alive. It would be one less that was harvested on any given day anywhere in our fine country. If ever there was something to be reverant and respectful about this was it. <br />
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The chicken while laid on his side (or upside down for that matter) becomes hypnotized. the body goes relaxed and with a strong, well placed blow by Thurman while perched on a wood bench the head was removed with one stroke. Without getting into to gory of details all that you have a heard a chicken will do with out its head is true. Will had been having trouble with a problem I have seen before where the bird will actually break a wing joint due to the excess flapping after this step. I held my hand on the bird gently to keep him in place for a few minutes. We set them aside and returned to the coop for the other half of our harvest. We repeated the same steps but both birds were a touch more on edge this time. While we tried to work as clean and quickly as possible this wasn"t a clean job, and I am positive the second round of birds knew from the silence involved, or the smells involved what was going on. We set the second set on the ground near the first, and quickly grabbed the feet of the first and dunked them in warm water. The water temperature has to be warm enough to penetrate the feather layer, but too hot will put heat into the meat and for obvious reasons that is to be avoided as much as possible. If I had to guess I would say the water temp was near the perfect poaching temperature of about 160-170 degrees. A quick blanch, then remove, then again, remove, and then again, each time swirling the bird around in the water a bit. There was much blood involved. <br />
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We set the blanched birds on a makeshift table and begining at the bottom began to pull the wet feathers. I grossely underestimated the time it would take to do this part and it seemed like even a true veteran like Will took about 15 mintues per bird or so. Removing as much as possible we discarded the feathers. It may have been that one of my killshots was a touch misplaced or maybe not as clean as I wouldve liked, but I had a bird that was making an almost wheezing sound as I pluked, and I will be honest it was more then a bit unnerving. <br />
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With the birds in tow we went inside to the kitchen and under the assistance of the back of a paring knife, some running water, and the aide of some artificial light we removed all of the remaining feathers. This again took some time and Will was insitent that this was how to do this correctly. I buy and process hundreds of chickens every month and I see firsthand how this job is done in even small facilities. As basic discipline we took the time to do the job to the best of our abilities. Every joint, crack, and crevice was cleaned. The feet were removed at the knee joint and frozen for what will be a stock packed with gelatin at my house at some point in the very near future. Probably close to a half hour for each bird leaned over the sink, while we quitely shot the breeze. <br />
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This is were it gets a bit tougher. While I cant remember the exact steps involved, incisions were made on both the top and bottom, then the process of removing the tube that went from the head into the cavity of the animal. While I had surprisingly less issues with the whole process until this point then I was expecting to have, the smells and feeling involved at this point were rough. The smell of the inside of the bird is impossible to put into words, and it lingers on your skin. As is the feeling of putting your hand into the cavity of the still warm animal to remove the gizzards, lungs, testicles, intestines, everything. Things were lossened and then removed gently as a break in the intestines could easily cause seepage of waste onto the skin or meat, a step that is extremely important not to do. At the tail end a small oil gland is also removed, it is somehow inovled in how the bird keeps its feathers from falling out. The empty cavities were packed with ice and the birds were placed in five gallon buckets packed with ice and water to drop the temperature as quickly as possible. The inards were sorted and while I toyed with the idea of using the livers at my own house I knew that would go over very well with my family so we added them to Will's growing collection that he sears and purees for one of his dogs that has some dietary restictions. After about another hour the birds were properly chilled, patted dry, and bagged. Not until after they were weighed and tagged with a date. The weight of the final product is recorded and then the math of what the bird consumed in feed, and scratch can easily be figured and subsequentially costed accurately. <br />
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I thank Will and left and still concerened a tad about the temperature of the bird I placed them i my freezer at the house. My gardening clogs were covered in blood, my overalls were dirty and I still smelled like the inside of a chicken. I showered and tried to sleep but was so enamored with the whole process I played it over and over again in my head. While their are hundreds of wives tales about the harvest of poulty this was the way we did it. I know a few people that have an approach that is much different then this one. In all the whole process probably took just under an hour for each bird. Much harder then driving them to a small slaughter house and picking them up a few hours later when they were cool, clean, and dry. Again though it was a great thing for me to experience and I am undoubtely a better cook for doing it. In a pinch I could easily do it again, or do it here at the house. A thought that I have been playing over and over as my chickens while not edible at that point, won't lay forever, which makes you make the tough decision of continuing to feed them without production, or replacing them. It isnt like their is a farm in the country that takes used up old hens. <br />
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I went back and forth on cooking techniques for the bird and even more then usual, out of repect for the animal wanted total utilization. I went with a whole roasted approach. While I have talked aobut how the whole roasted chicken from a technical standpoint makes absolutely no sense to me here before I still thought it was a nice way to showcase the bird. Since the idea doesnt seem to be getting any less popular (have you seen the amount of chickens on the rotiessirie at Costco in the late afternoon/evening) I have been working the technique a bit more often around here. The boys love drumsticks and thighs and it seems to be the perfect meal for a family of our size. Like turkeys chickens have white and dark meat and when you get to raw technique they require two different temperatures and even cooking applications to be cooked to their optimal doneness. their are some tricks that can be used to help you to not overcook the breast while getting the thighs to get the temperature you need. The chicken was brined on the day before, then allowed to totally dry. It was brought to room temperature for at least an hour, then trussed, then seasoned liberally inside and out at the last minute and started in a hot oven. It tasted as amazing as you are imagining right now, but I am a bit spoiled. I have cooked chickens raised in this manner before, I have cooked these same chickens before, just a different batch, and even a few turkeys raised in the exact same manner. The breast to dark ratio is much different then a factory farmed animal, thighs are larger, breasts smaller, and the hue or tint of the meat is different, also these were obviously expertley cleaned, and didnt have a trace of feather folicle (I tried, but need some practice). After dinner any remaining meat and the bones were to make a quick stock, again something I wouldnt normally do (their are many chefs who argue that once the bones have been roasted for that long they lose the ability to give up flavor, nutrients, and gelatin into water) but the stock turned out great. The feet are still in Will's freezer as I continually forget to get them from him. It was interesting to explain, in much less detail, the process to the boys, and while they made a few jokes about it, they still ate (I wasnt sure that they would) and enjoyed it. the next batch of one day old chicks should be on the way here in just a few days, in time to harvest so that turkeys can be started in time for a pre Thanksgiving harvest. I am curious to know how many have you done this yourselves before. So many people in the generation older then I seem to have grown up doing this with their uncle, grandpa, or parents and it is just the norm for them. Others my generation and younger seem absurdly detached from the whole process. While it may be the natural transfer of the way we live in this nation, I find it fascinating. All of the effort, skill (lack of on my part), time, and money, it took to do this was paid for more then ten fold when I pulled this bad boy out of the oven, and again when we ate. I know this was a bit grafic, and I apologize for that, but I felt obligated to get it recorded for referance in an accurate way. Thanks for reading.archibald.joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03148456713992069676noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7023118224489482824.post-12152098315989381082012-04-29T21:00:00.001-07:002012-05-04T15:03:59.404-07:00Duck, Duck, Goose<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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A few months ago for the first time in a long time I was given a homework assignment. Beginning on May 4, Cannon Beach artists showcase their newest material in the annual Spring Art Unveiling weekend. It was decided that some of the chefs from around the city would be paired with local artists and create an entire meal, or just a single course inspired by a piece of artwork that was to be showcased for the weekend. Those meals would be offered in the restaurants, the thought being that it would help create buzz for the annual festival which seems to be rapidly gaining popularity. In a meeting with the other two line level chefs in our company the assignments were given. While I go back and forth on the "food is art" argument, what I am positive of is that some very good chef's out there need to lighten up. I am all for serious and professional in the kitchen, but I still like to have the underlying whimsy in my day to day food, and more then anything I absolutely hate food that looks better then it tastes, or the effort involved to make food look amazing, but the lack of effort to season it, or cook it correctly. I also think that if I can get someone to recal an experience, or even taste or flavor while they eat from an earlier point in their life, I am totally fulfilled. Art or not, it doesnt bother me either way. While I had hoped we would arm wrestle, or at least draw straws for the different galleries it had been already predetermined. One chef was assigned a glass blowing gallery that does some magnificent glass work in a vast array of vibrant colors, the other a bronze type sculpture gallery. Both were given the opportunity to have pieces specifically made for the event. I already knew my assignment. <br />
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David Jonathon Marshal along with his wife own Modern Villa Gallery in Cannon Beach. His original artwork hangs in every room, and the lobby of the resort that we own. Until our remodel a year or so ago at the restaurant (where we went with a more traditional decor) his artwork also decorated our fine restaurant walls. I encourage you to check out his work on the Modern Villa gallery website. While we have never met he is in the restaurant with his wife fairly often. His reputation for being a tad on the eclectic side preceded him. I was nervous, mostly due to my lack of confidence that I could make this work. I have never considered myself to be creative. In fact for a long time it was something that I really stressed out about earlier on in my cooking career. I don't think on my feet as fast as I would like to. My best creative process happens as I fall asleep at night, not on the fly in a loud kitchen. Most of the time dishes in the kitchen are just a combination of things that I need to sell, in a format that my customers will buy. It is that easy. When people ask me what my thought process was to create a dish I always smirk a bit. Chances are I walked into the walk in and saw three things that needed to go and I put them together using only a background of technique and experience. It seems to work well for me now and while I still stress the lack of my own creativity I don't stress it nearly as much as I used to. The artist on the other hand is an amazingly creative person. His work in beach scenes, pears (in many of his paintings-as they resemble the shape of the body of a gorgeous woman) musical instruments, and much more are all fantastic. He also seems to be one of the more successful artists in the city, and has the ability to sell his work at a price that is out of the reach of a chef's salary. <br />
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I immediately called the gallery and asked his amazingly polite wife if there was as certain piece that the artist wanted to showcase in particular. My way of not having to chose. There was, and she quickly emailed it to me. The title of the painting is Duck, Duck, Goose. I was bewildered. Luckily the artist has a back story with most, if not all of his work and I was able to read a bit about the story behind the painting. Also I emailed him back asking some basic cheat type questions about his own food preferences, foods he considered inspirational, and his own eating habits- especially while he worked. The painting was huge, and with a price tag of over 17k it is also expensive. I thought and researched all day for a week. It was the only thing I thought about while I fell asleep for more then a week. The print made it's way to my locker door, the inside of the kitchen door at the restaurant, and even the desktop of the computer in the office. The artist, the presumed pressure from our own top brass, and the ability to help showcase all of the local artists in our fair city made me dig pretty deep. I needed to hit this out of the park. <br />
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The very short version of the story goes that the elderly man (Edison) boarded the craft in Menlo Park en route to Detroit to pitch his idea of this winged green transport to Henry Ford, but rather Mr. Ford and Edison created the game duck, duck, goose. I really latched on to the fowl and while I would've loved to do a duck liver mousse, a duck terrine, and some seared fois gras (goose liver) I knew I couldn't be that literal about it. It made sense for me to present the dish in some sort of 3, whether a tasting of three preparations, or as three courses. Eventually I became fixated on what the fowl would have to eat to make this journey. I researched heavily what birds in a domesticated or wild setting would eat, and worked through what foods I could showcase of those that still held true to my own cooking style and the style of the restaurant. <br />
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Halibut, Halibut, Snapper-<br />
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1st- cornmeal crusted local snapper over braised greens with toasted hazelnuts, topped with flying fish roe<br />
2nd- Seared halibut over a "scratch" risotto, with a anchovy, caper, and brown butter sauce<br />
3rd- Corn sugar bruleed halibut over a savory bread pudding with herb sauteed pears, marscapone butter sauce, and dehydrated corn garnish. <br />
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It will be presented all on one elongated plate at one time. I was super stoked with the final product as I was able to work some really great undertones in there, and just as important I think it is fairly coy and whimsical. I am only showcasing things that these fowl would eat, the final attempt to really be in a manner that you wouldn't notice unless I told you. You are eating what these fowl would consider a feast. Also I was able to hit a few underlying issues. I was able to showcase corn in every manner possible without ever giving the customer straight corn, also hopefully showcasing that in general we feed the animals that we consume far, far to much corn. I also got a bit of a glutenous feeling to the whole thing hopefully touching on the hot button term "gavage" which is the process of force feeding both ducks and geese for fois gras production. Those arguments are better left for a post all of their own. The hazelnuts appear as do the pears as they are popular finishes for animals for consumption, usually pigs for prosciutto. The "scratch" risotto is actually the scratch that I feed my own chickens here at the house. It is different from their food, but a small handful every morning and they will dig and scratch at it all day. It is corn based and we are pretty sure it is totally edible. The last offering allowed me to play with sweet vs savory and that is rapidly becoming one of my favorite things to do. Savory foods walking the slim line of almost desserty. The menu bounced around a bit but was pretty much accepted as it sat, and after seeing a few of the other chef's pairings from around the city I am grateful I did invest the time and effort on it. It is available beginning tonight and going through until Sunday evening for the cool price of 26.99. Thanks for reading.archibald.joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03148456713992069676noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7023118224489482824.post-50449327325280187592012-03-01T13:21:00.000-08:002012-03-01T13:21:31.386-08:00The Tomahawk<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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We have talked about my infinite love for the rib-eye steak before. The tomahawk or sometimes the "cowboy" rib-eye is an extremely expensive version of the rib-eye. Usually cut to to an uber extrapulous weight, with the bone still in, still attached to the rib that leads down the begining of the rib cage on the animal. It is not often you see one, and when you do prices can hit the ceiling quickly. For valentines day this week, I had a few relatively brief conversations with my meat purveyor (an absolute genius) about their availability from him and he said he had just the rib I was looking for. I called and left a message to order them on last sunday, and they showed on monday. I had no idea what kind of price we were talking, and wasnt really too worried about it. We also received a two case allocation of a new Orin Swift cabernet a few weeks ago and it hasnt made it to the wine menu yet, so they morphed together into a perfect dinner for two. The allocation for the state of Oregon was three cases of this wine and somehow we were able to weasle two of those cases into the wine storage at the restaurant. Wine geeks love that stuff, the ability to try something no one else has, or you cant get anywhere else. <br />
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The tomahawks came and I saw. Dry aged since the begining of December they had never seen any sort of cryovacked packaging. They were weighed to 32oz each, and had been stamped "Prime" grade by a USDA inspector for thier network of marbeling, color, and overall quality. We opted to sell them with some locally foaraged mushrooms on top, and then piled high with tobacco onions (a dish that originally did contain shredded tobacco leaves, but obviously we couldn't do that, so it now consists of shaved onions that take a marinate in club soda, then a cornstarch/flour dredge then a quick ride in the fryer. Think of it as funions.....on steroids) with some roasted local potatoes and an optional pairing of this new wine. Price tag was easily double the next most expensive thing on my menu, but still a steal for a steak you couldnt beat in the nicest steak houses in the country, and on a day when people tend to splurge for a meal. Especially a meal that is designed from the get go to be shared between two people. We did a pretty serious stand up, or explanation with the staff, and even formulated a plan to reward the person who could sell the most. We ended up only selling a few but that doesnt bother me. Sometimes in the kitchen chef's do things just to be a tad on the arrogant side, ballsy things to do are my specialty. I have been known to overpay for the first of any of the ubercool seasonal products that abound in Oregon, just to be able to say we are the first to have it. We are the first people to put this on the menu this season is a treat for my staff to sell and cook, and for me to prepare. I am fortuanate that I am able to do it. The steak falls in that same realm, no one and I mean with in hundreds of miles could pull that off. Maybe my customers bought, maybe they didnt, but at least they heard I was doing it. Not to mention the buzz it creates with my staff, even the maintenance guys from the hotel stopped by to see the rumored two pound steak. With the excess steaks we will sell to my staff for cost (cooks first, then service staff), so it really doesn't cost us much, if any money, and we had no problem sparking their interest in them. The holy grail of steaks is pictured above during the middle of dinner service next to a filet mignon that is on my menu. The filet is cut to 7.5 oz so is extremely big by standard filet sizing. Also the bone is wrapped in foil to protect it from burning, the foil is removed after cooking and the bone will remain stark white. That is a really good trick for lamb loins as well. Thanks for reading.archibald.joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03148456713992069676noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7023118224489482824.post-23429729632700696272012-03-01T12:31:00.000-08:002012-03-01T13:18:30.024-08:00Prostart<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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We have officially finished another year with our "Prostart" program at good old Seaside High School. The program is the baby of the Oregon Restaurant and Lodging Association, and the National Restuarant Association, and it gives a syllabus, and then the chance to compeat for students that are interested in the hospitaltiy business. We had a new instructor this year and were very fortunate that we were able to have the class this year as their was little to no funding available as well as a lack of a Qualified instructor when we discussed it late last summer. The local community college was able to step in and offer the class at the high school, and the school was able to free up the money ($300) per student in scholarship form to keep in under their roof. The instructor was woman who actually lives in Portland but would make the trip down three days a week to instruct this cornecopia of different students. The 5 that qualified to make the team were a great bunch of kids, and we really had fun with them. For the first year ever we had a total of 4 hispanics on the team, two of which spoke little to no english which in turn tested my fluency skills. Almost all of my spanish speaking ability is kitchen related, so in comparison to what these kids hear adults speaking it is a bit vague, slang, and crude, but we made it work. Will and I take on the mentoring duties and he takes the lead on the development and paperwork side of it. One of us goes to the high school every school day starting in early January through the end of February. PAcking with us from the restaurant the ingredients we need to practice that day as the school has no sort of viable budget for the program food stuff. The rest of the students not on the team are taking an advanced food class and my students get a bit of a pass on the pratical side of that class to be able to compeat on the team. The goal is to write a 3 course menu that will be cooked and plated by 4 of them (1 is an alternate) in one hour on nothing more then two protable butane burners, without the use of any sort of electronic gadgets. There is also testing on knife skills and the students ability to break down a whole chicken into it's various pieces. In total we estimate for budgeting purposes that the program costs the restuarant about 7k in our time away from the kitchen, travel, ingredients, and various odds and ends that we need to supply the team with. Aside from monetary costs it is a huge time commitment for me. Leaving for three hours to drive 13 miles up the road to the school and then go over these things over and over with these students and then go back to the restaurant and find myself 3 hours behind on the work I need to get done before I call it a day is tough. Gettin the kids to understand that is even harder. The kids were great and part of our effort here is potentially justified by the fact that we could pick up a few great employees into the company, and I think we have found a few in particular who are real gems and we would be honored to have them with us even for a summer or two. <br />
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Every year we go rounds about the menu in an attempt to balance the techniqes we beleive these kids need to walk away knowing, with the fact that our goal is to create a "fine dining" type of meal. Again access to heat is extremely limited so we always struggle to be original with dessert, and we refuse to have these students execute something that is just for show. Spinning sugar is a cool technique, but it is a technique that I have only done once ( at culinary school) and will never be put on a plate in any restaurant that I am in. It just doesnt have a long term purpose in the kitchen, so I am not going to spend months teaching the students how to do it correctly, when the chances are so high they will never need to do it again. Instead we really try to instal flexible techniqes that make the students better cooks.<br />
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After four years of mentoring this team we have really been pushing for a podium finish. The winner is sent on an all expense paid trip to compete at the Washington DC nation wide competition. I personally have a hard time with this huge investment without a bar to measure we are getting closer. Our closest finish thus far has been 7th place (based on a statewide competition that doesnt account for school size it isnt horrible by any means) but we are more then capable of doing this and it is a struggle for us every year. That is hugely frustrating for me. This year rather then closed door, judging took place in front of the team, and Will, as well as their instructor (someone has to run the restaurant). That was a huge blessing as we were able to hear first hand their issues. As usual we were hit pretty hard on the fact that the menu wasnt hard enough to execute, but the techniqes used were perfectly executed. We also scored in the top few for knife cuts and the poultry test. The overall scores including the execution of the dishes, the costing and recipes of the dishes, the knife skills, the sanitation, the poulty, communication are all tallied, and at the awards ceremony we were not in the top five in the state, and await our final standings as the top five are all that are announced on the day of the competition. We hope to be in the same seat next year with some return students (we havent had that yet) as well as an instructor that knows a bit more about the program. My hope is always that the students will really take something away from this. In an odd turn of events they have been asked to cook this menu for a thank you dinner for some work that I was invovled in for the local communtiy food bank so they will cook the dinner for both Will (my guest) and I, as well as about seven of the other top chefs in our community. I am excited to be on the other side of that. Thanks for reading. Update- scoring was released yesterday and we took a solid 6th place overall finish. It is really good progress for the program and we are pretty happy about that finish. <br />
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The menu-<br />
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1st- Tomato bisque soup- grilled cheese sandwich<br />
2nd- Herb beggars purse with warm crab filling, cous cous, crab leg garnish, and vegetables<br />
3rd- Banana Coconut frittter with brown sugar caramel and ziploc bag ice creamarchibald.joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03148456713992069676noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7023118224489482824.post-26560420493418261592012-02-10T16:05:00.000-08:002012-02-10T16:05:15.325-08:00Pinot Painted Salmon<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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This time of year we are always working to freshen up the menu at the restaurant for the coming season. While conceptually things will stay pretty much the same, a few minor tweaks that are all in the effort to sell more food, or bring focus to some different items. For a long time I have been unhappy with the salmon preparation that is on the menu. In an effort to create what I conceived as the quintessential Oregon meal I really wanted to incorporate some sort of pinot noir glaze over a piece of cedar planked salmon. Nothing sums up Oregon better then those two items. It would make a perfect wine pairing on the menu. From conception I knew exactly what I wanted it to look like, but the follow through proved to be quite a struggle. The salmon would be seared, then placed on a cedar plank and fired in the 500 degree oven for a few minutes, then glazed with the sauce, and cooked a few more minutes until it really started to caramelize and then plated and served on the cedar giving a really cool aromatic touch that wafts through the dining room 30-50 times on a busy night. I really wanted to use a nice Oregon pinot noir and wanted it to be able to shine on its own. Adding too much sugar was out as it would take away from the already relatively sweet salmon. Adding the veal stock that I already take so much pride in making to the wine brought a consistency that was almost perfect but brought in too many other flavors. The veal stock while packed with gelatin in the most amazing natural transformation of water, time, and love brings in too many deep dark flavors and I felt it took away from the salmon. I wanted whatever the glaze was to really retain some of the earthiness from the wine and to not take anything from the salmon but instead give to it. I didn't need it to be powerful but rather barely noticeable. A straight wine reduction wasn't the answer either. I didn't get the texture I wanted and it pains me to reduce a good bottle of wine by 2/3 or 3/4 as you lose everything that made it a good bottle of wine in the first place. <br />
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Third attempt was a blond pork stock. Blond is a term for a stock where the bones have not been roasted. In the veal stock realm of things you wouldn't roast the bones before hand to prevent that aggressive flavor that roasting imposes. You don't see blond stock very often, at the restaurant and even at home I always roast even chicken bones before I turn them in a pot. I like the flavor that it imparts, and while some would argue you lose out on optimal gelatin extraction in that process, I still think it is worth it and I have never struggled to get a stock to the thickness I am looking for. Nobody makes pork stock. I always wondered why so a year or so ago I made a roasted pork trotter stock here at the house and while totally packed with gelatin it tasted like water. Pork bones for the most part are not your best bet for flavor extraction, and they can even give you a greasy mouth feel even with a perfect text book process. I did a blond pork stock with about 3 whole pork trotters and then cooled and reduced it the following day. The consistency was very good, but the flavor wasn't where I wanted it to be. Had it worked I figured I could easily just cut the wine into it, and still keep that viscosity I really was after. <br />
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Fourth try was a blond veal stock in almost the same process thinking that the stock would carry a better but still very simple flavor, and again maximum extraction. It did work a little bit better but an animal stock still was going to be a bad idea. In the restaurant world you cant hide things like pork trotter stock on a piece of fish. Off the top of my head that could really offend at least two groups of people with food restrictions. <br />
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Cornstarch left a horrible texture when reheated on the salmon way to similar to snot to be acceptable as did arrowroot and potato starch. Gelatin sheets would've been ideal as they would thicken the wine without any heat but still that horrid snotty texture. I researched pectin a touch, but while pectin (the fruit equivalent of animal derived gelatin- used mostly to make jam and jelly) is amazing it is also really finicky. It needs lots and lots of sugar to set up. A chutney could get me there but is already over used and brought too many other flavors. I really wanted to showcase the salmon here, and the fact that I buy the nicest Oregon salmon available at any given moment. We even looked at a powdered pinot noir product. Basically dehydrated pinot noir grape juice. While a cool idea, it wasn't from Oregon grapes and i couldn't get a very good description of what it would actually look like or taste like. It seems that some people take it as a part of a vitamin regime in TB or pill form on a daily basis. <br />
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After a pretty serious struggle and all manner of research and experimenting, I was getting pretty flustered. Almost all of my ideas had been really close but the picture of the end product still was too vivid in my mind to avoid. At last a break though. One of my cooks had the solution and I was an idiot for not thinking of it before. She simply mentioned that we should try a gastrique. In its most basic form a gastrique is a sauce that is made from the caramelzation of sugar, then mounted with vinegar. You see them more and more often and are even seeing a trend in people calling them an "agrodulce" or sour and sweet. In all actuality it can be made from anything sweet and we started with some honey and got it really hot until is began reducing. We added shallots, lemon zest, and some black peppercorns, and then added a touch of red wine vinegar and some red wine and then brought the whole thing down. While in my head I was really worried about the added sugar and acidity, the end product was strained and cooled and I fired another test piece of fish. It worked perfectly. The consistency was good and the sweet/sour flavor really did exactly what I wanted it to do for the fish from a flavor standpoint, and gave me almost the exact shellacking I needed, being able to be painted on the salmon with a brush and then finished at a high temp for just a few more minutes. Hopefully we can get a really thorough recipe written this week, then some costing on it, and then throw it to the company boffins for approval. It is struggles like this that keep me cooking. The satisfaction of solving a problem like this is hard to explain. I know a fair amount about food, all of that coupled with tons of textbook research, and a few other opinions and we got exactly what I was looking for. It keeps me coming back for more every time. Thanks for reading.archibald.joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03148456713992069676noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7023118224489482824.post-68266850626350978512012-02-01T16:34:00.000-08:002012-02-01T16:34:07.083-08:00Rhode Island Red<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Will is the corporate chef for the company I work for. Before that he was the Executive chef at the restaurant I work for, and I was his sous chef. He is a middle aged, balding, white guy who has been cooking since I was wearing diapers. We get along really well, and I am forever indebted to him. His philosophies have been installed into me, and has a huge hand in sculpting what my own food philosophy and style has become. I know him as well as I know my wife, and can tell what he is thinking from his facial expressions. We have been in the crap together, and on top together. He likes to say he is getting old, and he hopes someday to have a farm where he can grow everything he wants, and have a tractor. For his birthday last fall Melissa and I gave him a gift certificate to a work wear supply store up the coast for the sole intent to buy himself some farmer overalls, and he almost cried. He is getting close to those goals. He presents the harvest from his own garden in armloads to me, as well as food he has preserved, turkeys and chickens he has raised, and eggs from his other chickens. For Christmas 5 or so years ago he gave me a brand new kitchen aid mixer. While I would've bought one for myself at some point since, it got me jump started on making my own bread. It was his curtails I rode to the James Beard House in NY. In return, I show up to work and bust it. I keep up to date of food books, menus, and restaurants for him. I try to keep him up to date with technology, clean up after him, organize, and keep him from losing his temper. It works good for us.<br />
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The Rhode Island red is a great all purpose chicken. While usually sought after for their egg production, they are also desired for their meat production by small farms as well. While there are some pretty fancy egg birds out there who will lay green and purple eggs, I wanted something that would lay a brown egg, a good sized one, and lay them often. The Rhode Island red will do that, laying 5 or so a week, and it does well in cold and hot enviornments. They will do good in confinement, have a generally docile manner, and are relatively low maintenance. Everything I am looking for in an egg bird. The name comes obviously from the state where it is the state bird, and they are available in white or red, but the red is the variation you will see most often. The red is for their feather color which is closer to a vibrant brown with some red hues.<br />
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For Christmas and my birthday this year Will decide it was time to do this, and about 3 months ago ordered the hatchlings with my yard in mind. Six were ordered and then started in his set-up to get them going. They were received at just a day or two old so take some special care in the first weeks of life, and he had some experience with that stuff, and due to the timely slaughter of his turkey collection, he had the room as well. Then he would come over on his day's off and build me the Rolls Royce of chicken coops, and has been on that project for a few weeks now. On Monday I came home from work and the chicken coop while not totally finished on the exterior looked absolutely amazing and was full of six beautiful Rhode island red hens. Equipped with a spot for them to roost, lay, eat and drink safely indoors, and then a door for them to get outside to the elements totally caged to protect them from wildlife, with doors for me to access them outside or in. Ideally I can shoe them out to clean up inside, and shovel them back inside to clean up outside. The boys, Melissa and I are all over the moon about it, and while we are still most likely about 2 months away from when they will begin laying, both boys like to check the egg box "just in case". Once early spring rolls around, with the right food, and weather, we should be seeing well over two dozen eggs a week from them. Plenty to give to neighbors, family, and friends. <br />I think the plan is to actually side the coop with hardi plank so that it can be color matched to the house color, as if this isn't enough. So it sits in the pouring down rain, in the corner of my totally fenced big back yard, with a new puppy that came from Santa Claus for the boys, at the house we only have to pay on for 29.5 more years. Life is good. Thanks for reading.archibald.joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03148456713992069676noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7023118224489482824.post-7212208884507600962012-01-18T09:50:00.000-08:002012-01-18T09:50:04.261-08:00ServSafeServsafe is a food safety program and certificate put together by the National Restaurant and Lodging Association. It super cedes the required local food handler card for all food service employees and is valid in all 50 states for five years. When you begin culinary school in almost any program food safety, along with stocks are the first thing that you learn. They are both the most basic of kitchen fundamentals, and almost everything else you do in a kitchen is built on those principles. It also helps to weed out the week ones early on. While there are some other food safety programs and certifications, Servsafe seems to be the industry leader, recognized in more places. As far as I am concerned every business in the industry should have one manager who has the certification. The local food handlers card is a good start but it is a 20 question test that allows you to miss up to six questions and you take it "proctored" in the office after hours with all of the answers already written down. Part of my education at Oregon Culinary Institute was getting my certificate to Servsafe. The focus of our classroom instruction for nearly 4 weeks, I breezed through the test. While it isn't necessarily rocket science, and so much of it is common sense, it is important stuff. Dull, but important. A few months ago my certificate expired and so I began tossing around the idea of taking the course again. In the past we had some top brass who wanted one of the chefs from each kitchen to have the certification, and while he left us for a different pie in the hospitality sky I wanted to hold true to his wish. The course is offered by varying companies, mostly some of my larger food purveyor corporations. I sent an email to all the chefs in the company telling them my plan and booked the event on the restaurants dollar, or hundred dollars. Two other chefs joined in and last week we made the 5:30am departure to Wilsonville, which is just south of Portland. The class we booked was a 4 hour refresher course taught on the basis that we had received our textbooks and had read them at least once, then the test with a two hour time limit. While I don't usually stress about this from the time I booked it was in the back of my mind, a bit overwhelmed with the holidays and all of the other stuff going on I didn't crack the book until the week before the test. <br />
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Food safety is a tough one for me. While we are directly overseen by our local health inspector, the state of Oregon rules are different then the national rules, and while they are very similar the small variances in holding temperatures, always send me for a loop. Often at inspection time I find myself borderline arguing with the inspector about the order which the proteins in the walk-in are stacked, or other things that I honestly feel I am right about. A few months ago I attended a meat curing seminar with representatives from the FDA, US department of Agriculture, USDA, and our local county health officials, and you know what....... not one of the knew what they were talking about. None of them communicate with each other. It seems to be the only business model in the world where rules can be changed and there is no system to alert those effected, and then to hold them accountable for their knowledge. I have a servsafe certification, a local food handler card, a mother in the industry, have been doing this for more then a decade, and work for one of the biggest companies on the N. coast of Oregon, and they are telling me things I have never heard of. It doesn't help at all that not one of them understands the industry, or are even motivated to be "foodies". I imagine them all sitting around together eating low calorie dressing marinated, then microwaved chicken breasts. Given the opportunity I would make sure I attended any sort of seminar there overworked selves could put together but nothing is ever offered. No emails, or letters are sent, and the website is useless. Furthermore the new rules are ridiculous. Calling for special paperwork and testing on foods that use the most basic preservation methods that humanity has been practicing since the beginning of time. That would all be fine but a local chef I know is waiting on a call back from a question the last week of November from our inspector. <br />
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I didn't really want to spend a day in the city learning about shellfish intoxication, norovirus, bacillus cereus, or cinguatera fish poisoning, but I am not naive enough to ignore its importance. This is important stuff and no good chef takes it lightly. So much food borne illness can be prevented by buying from reputable suppliers, practicing good hygiene and cooking it to the minimum required temperatures. Our food system passes through so many hands, and issues can be had at any point along the journey. The rules are strict because in a restaurant we are the last stop. Food that has gone from field to truck, to warehouse, to truck, to distributor, to truck, to back dock, to walk in, to prep table, back to walk in, and finally for service could've been contaminated in any of those steps. It even couldve been contaminated before it was pulled out of the water or soil. My kitchen is the last stop before someone consumes it and pays to do that. The contamination that happened in all of that process has to end, things need to be clean, cooked effectively, held, etc on my end or I take the blame for food borne illness, even if it was contaminated somewhere else. No restaurateur wants their name up in lights for those reasons. Even in instances where the restaurant is cleared of any wrong doing ( a process that takes months) it is old news by then, and no one remembers those things.<br />
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The class went well, the instructor did a great job, we had muffins and danish, then Subway catered lunch ( a touch ironic in that we were in the same building as the main food distribution warehouse of one of the largest food purveyors in the state..... had they asked I would've been happy to throw some stuff together) and I felt like we covered everything we needed to ease my nerves. The test was ninety questions and most of it was common sense stuff for someone that has been around as much of this as I have. I will have my score back in a few weeks. The hope is that I pass, and it gives me some collateral to argue with my inspector should the need present itself. Thanks for reading.archibald.joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03148456713992069676noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7023118224489482824.post-27842585960476446042011-12-13T10:12:00.000-08:002012-01-12T15:57:28.703-08:00CCA dinner take 2Again a few months ago we were asked to host a benefit dinner at the hotel that my restaurant is attached to for the Clatsop Community Action Food Bank. Our regional food bank backed by the Oregon Food Bank. If you remember it was a dinner that I was deeply involved with last year, and was a great experience for me. The hustle and organization to pull off a dinner like this is mind blowing. Weeks of meetings, emails, phone calls, research, more meetings, and more emails consumed my daily routine in the restaurant and from home. While my staff is more then capable of pulling a dinner like this off, we again reached out to other local chefs for support. It spreads the financial burden across a plane of other restaurants and in turn other purveyors and in turn is a less expensive event for the CCA to put together, which in turn helps them raise more money, which ideally feeds more people, during a time of year when those in need- need even more. Another year of experience under my belt, and a new title to prove, I went all in. The dinner itself was a huge success last year raising over 40K for the CCA, so the bar was set pretty high. We talked about the service and really got serious about the small things that we needed to deliver for a dinner that was invite only with a ticket price of $150, and while almost anyone who bought a ticket obviously had some sort of pre-existing relationship with the CCA, and was buying a ticket just to be in support of them, and we could've served them almost anything and they would've left happy with the giving they did, we couldn't let that happen. Copious discussions about flatware, glassware, silver, table arrangements, linens, uniforms, and more as we led up to the dinner. If you have ever seen an empty room decorated for a multi course dinner you understand that in the arrangements of the place settings you can actually create a mood, or a flow. Four wine glasses, coffee cups, water glasses, and four courses worth of silver ware on a table makes a statement. A statement that needs to be made when you are working a dinner that people paid this much money for. <br />
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Some of the same chefs from last year were invited to help with the food as well as some new restaurants and chefs. Some of the chefs politely declined with previous commitments, and others were disrespectful in their lack of effort to even return a call or email. All in all we assembled a team that I felt really good about. There is a bit of presumption by "outsiders" that all the chef's in a town or city all hang out together as well, and while there is a few chefs outside my company that I speak with on a regular basis, nothing could be further from the truth. The only time I talk with other chefs is when we are volunteering an event together. Or I actually go to their place for dinner, or they come to mine. None of which happen all that often. Furthermore there is always some drama involved when you get that much ego in the same room. Again it was decided that menu/bio/recipe packets were going to be handed out to guests, allowing them if they desire, to replicate the items they had throughout the evening at home. The chefs gathered, the volunteers- mostly again from my Prostart class at the local high school arrived, wine corks were popped, and guests arrived. Cutting a touch from last year we passed two appetizers for half an hour during a sparkling wine reception. Ideally this is important because it gives people a chance to mingle and chat and show off their outfits. If they can do this when I need them to, they won't or at least shouldn't be chatty during service, hence we stay on time. App passed from my Seaside restaurant chef team was a potato and blue cheese gratin topped with confit of pork belly, topped with micro green beats and pear balsamic. My appetizer was a brown sugar and citrus cured salmon with a horseradish aioli on a toasted baguette. We got those rolled out, guests were seated, grace was offered (again in an effort to absolutely control the pace and timing here the priest was given a 2 minute time limit- one of the funniest and most awkward conversations I imagine he had ever had) and we were off to the races. 160 plates in 10 minutes was the goal, break down, re-set the kitchen, repeat for a total of 4 times. An Astoria restaurant was up first with a "true cod" (oddly not really a cod) dish over a carrot puree with marinated fennel and a butter sauce. Second came the beef course of filet mignon, over truffled root vegetables, duck fat baked fingerling potatoes, topped with foie gras butter and oyster mushrooms. Third was a vegetarian dish of a curried squash simosa and a roasted cauliflower sauce. Dessert again was my cohort and myself- a flourless chocolate souffle cake with cinnamon ice cream, hazelnut toffee, and whipped cream. Our purveyors really stepped up and donated almost all of the food involved, and I heard that the meat course food bill was upwards of $1500 dollars alone. For a local company to bite that bullet was amazing. <br />
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All in all it was great. Money was raised, people were happy, and I left feeling good about the night. We learned a few things about what to do differently next year, and some of those things become a really fine line of personal preference vs another chefs preference. I was also so impressed with my service staff and their leader, and while we get to do dinners like this once or twice a year, this event is more people then usual and with the addition of outside chef's and help always a bit more stressful. In an odd turn of events the director of the CCA is also my neighbor now so that can't hurt at all. Not bad for a days work. Thanks for reading. <br />
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<br />archibald.joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03148456713992069676noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7023118224489482824.post-60841326219433711542011-11-30T09:42:00.001-08:002011-11-30T10:44:03.648-08:00Zweifel FarmsA gentleman entered up the back dock a few weeks back, but this was no ordinary man. Larry Zweifel along with his wife Pam, have been in the Tillamook Oregon area for years doing exactly what people do in Tillamook.....dairy cattle. Tillamook is about an hour south of the restaurant and is the home of the Tillamook creamery. Everyone in Tillamook is a farmer, grower, rancher, or is employed by the creamery in some sort. The whole town smells like cow poo. Fairly often we trek down with the boys to take the creamery tour and come home packed with cheese curds, jerky, and Cheddar, full of ice cream. It is a fun little trip for us and Tillamook reminds me of the true dying breed of small farm towns throughout middle America. Larry has been a dairy man for over thirty years and since "the dairy farm is finally paid for" he figured that he would get back to a true passion of his... EGGS. He and his wife have decided that they will build an egg farm where eggs are produced the way Larry thinks it should be done, cause "no one else can do it right". Truly brown eggs, that really are free- range, from chickens without fake light, cages, or hormones. <br />
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The thing that really struck me with Larry is his splitting resemblance to my own Grandfather. After a life of farming my grandpa "Buzz" was taken earlier then he should of been due to some complications from a stroke. My oldest son was born only a few weeks before his death, and they never got to meet. In remembrance both of the boys bear my grandfathers names as middle names. Buzz was a no bull kind of guy. He knew everything there was to know about the weather, dirt, crop, tractors, and livestock, but made no bones about the fact that was all he knew. He was one of the smartest men I have ever encountered, but at the same time dropped out of school at an early age to run the family farm. His work ethic was uncompared by any standards. The life of the small farmer is almost impossible. Whole crops can be wiped out, bad years happen far more often then good years. Buzz like Larry, assumable, didn't farm because he decided he wanted to be a farmer, he didn't farm like 80% of the small, organic, farmers market people do now as an excuse to smoke pot, and take 6 months a year off. He farmed because he needed to. I imagine there was never an option for him not to go till a field. I don't know if he loved it or hated it..... he did it, and did it really well because that is what guys his age did. Then it was how he fed and provided for his family. I rekon that as men and their wives of this age get older and land is sold for housing developments, and our pricing structure continues until it is absolutely impossible to be profitable for these guys, we lose a huge part of our country. We lose years of experience, we lose a backbone of the rural development of our country. Trading off for bigger machines, and scientist farming. Buzz like Larry didn't need a weather report cause he could tell what the weather was going to do before it knew. He didn't need soil test because he got down on his knees and felt it. He could tell by looking at it. And it doesn't matter if you grew wheat, hay, tomatoes, corn, Christmas trees, or beets. These guys are getting older, I read the other day that the average age of the American farmer was 62. Like people that can and preserve food, this is another bracket of American people headed by the wayside. The subjects of an OPB special 25 years from now. <br />
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Larry is a crack up. He doesn't use the computer "cause honestly I don't spell really well". He is left handed and pointed out that I am as well, and so is Obama, "but I am not a huge fan of him". Larry you are a white male that lives in Tillmook, and is a dairy/egg farmer. You don't have to tell me you don't like our president. I knew when you walked in the back door. I bet you drive a ford too. "I have five pickups four are Fords, and one is a Dodge". "After owning nothing but Fords for 40 years I was ready for a change". I bought 10 dozen eggs from Larry and I could see him sweat, maybe five will be fine for now, "I am not in the cold storage business and my chickens don't lay that many". The eggs needless to say are absolutely amazing, and I already serve a brown cage free egg at the restaurant and his are much brighter and taste way better. Problem is my egg consumption at the restaurant is near 120 dozen a week right now, so Larry's eggs won't be the only egg I can use for quite some time if ever. For now we flipped for it and my pastry chef gets all the eggs Larry can bring. It was a meeting and relationship that really struck home with me on a very personal level. Larry explained he may need to up the price of the eggs at some point as if I wasn't going to buy them any more after I saw that. By all means Larry do everything you gotta do to be profitable. More then anything in the world I want guys like Larry to succeed. As for my grandpa, I so wish that my boys would have the opportunity to get up early and have a farmers breakfast, and hit the field with him in the back of his blue Ford tractor. Perched on top of the little built in cooler right behind the drivers seat, drinking an orange Sunkist soda that grandma Mona packed up for them. Some of the best times of my life where in that chair and I miss him dearly. I am a better person for knowing him, and it brings me to tears that they will never have the chance to do that with him. For now I will continue to buy as many eggs from Zweifel farms as they can produce, and crack up at Larry's words of wisdom. If you have a chance check them out at <a href="http://www.zfarms.org/">http://www.zfarms.org/</a>, thanks for reading.archibald.joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03148456713992069676noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7023118224489482824.post-70184857887614715962011-10-26T09:42:00.000-07:002011-11-20T21:47:25.639-08:00Fire<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The threat of fire caused in a kitchen both commercially and at home is a serious matter. In a restaurant my hot line is somewhat protected by what is called and Ansel system that is inspected every 6 months or so along with my fire extinguishers. The system has heads over various equipment and senses an excess of heat or smoke and when triggered, either automatically or manually, will release a very fine powdered chemical over my entire line. While I have never triggered one, it will create a nightmare of a cleanup issue, as well as a loss of product. The professionals tell me at least 4 or 5 hours to reload goods and wipe and hose everything down. That will ruin a day of service for any restaurant. While the safety of the people involved is much less of a worry then it is in a home setting because, well no one is sleeping when something in a kitchen will catch fire, the layout is so much different, as is the equipment. It is still a worry. Small burns happen almost daily in kitchen. Saute pans, five hundred degree ovens, hot pans, and boiling liquids can scorch you pretty good. The classic chef jacket is actually double breasted, and the buttons are made how they are, so that if your shirt was to catch on fire it can be ripped off of you in one fluid motion. At work the risk of fire is always there, it doesn't bother me, but we still need to be prepared. Of the most horrid kitchen accidents your hear about they are rarely the slicer, or a knife. They are always the heat of the grill, fryer, or stockpot of boiling water.<br />
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Home fires are a whole other story. Even what begins as a small manageable fire in your home kitchen can be devastating. Kitchen hoods aren't able to manage as much smoke as industrial ones, and the tools we have in a restaurant are much different then the ones in most homes. From my home I push my kitchen equipment to the brink. I will leave a cast iron pan on full whack for ten minutes to get a good sear on something. I get my Weber grill so hot sometimes you can't stand within three feet of it. My ovens are on 500 degrees more often then not. At some point earlier this year a family I know well was affected by a devastating fire, and while thankfully no one was injured, the house and all of their belongings were gone. This shook me up and made me look at the way I am cooking in my own home. While I had always had a pee-wee Costco type extinguisher, I knew that in a bad fire with a hot grease accelerent it wouldn't be able to do the job. So the next time the Ansel system service guy came by I started asking some questions. How big a fire extinguisher do you need in a home, how many should you have, where do most home fires start, etc. He was happy to sell me a refurbished extinguisher capable of putting out almost any fire that one could create doing the things I do at home. He sold it to me for $30. Which was about a third of what I thought I would spend on a fire extinguisher that would be effective. I feel safer with it in the house, and even Skyler and Abe learned how to use it in case of a real emergency. While it seems a bit silly to be preaching it, I think it is important. After a few conversations with some friends and some staff almost no one has a capable extinguisher in their own kitchen at home. A simple investment that can protect your family, and potentially save your home, or life for less then $50. It is a no brainer for everyone, but especially if you find yourself pushing your equipment and talent to the limit in the kitchen.archibald.joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03148456713992069676noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7023118224489482824.post-83148942237987115702011-10-25T19:37:00.000-07:002011-10-25T19:37:48.950-07:00NY-3Understandably so at this point I was beat. Thinking we could sleep in on Thursday we put up the do not disturb sign and had the uppermost intentions of not leaving the room until the afternoon on Thursday. Again the city beckoned to us and we were up pretty early. We hooked up with two more in our group and rode the green line subway to little Italy. We were eating cannolis by 10:30 or so. We wandered slowly through little Italy, stopping to eat, and enjoy the scenery. We walked into a small deli and bought bruschetta, soppressata, cheeses, and even an arancini (a ball of risotto that has been breaded and fried). I was so taken by all the things just this one small part of the city had to offer from a culinary standpoint. You could literally walk down the street and buy any sort of gelato, cured meats, aged cheese, and knock-off cologne. As we wandered we crossed into Chinatown and again were absolutely stunned by the options. We walked by a seafood market that had 9 different types of salmon for sale. NINE. From all over the world. Another market with geoduck clams and live Dungeness crab. Geoducks are a Washington coast specialty and if I called my best seafood purveyor I would struggle to get a few in the next four or five days and here they were. I never see live Dungeness crab unless I am cooking them for a friend who caged his limit. So many types of fish I have never seen, Chinese meat markets with duck feet and tongues, veal liver, fresh veal bones, and all other sorts of things I cant even begin to explain. 7 different types of prawns live and dead, all different sizes, wild and farmed, sitting on ice in the corner of this shop. I couldn't help but think of how much more I could push myself in my own kitchen at home, or even at work if I could stop and pick up a bag of cockscomb on my way home. With all this product available there would be no excuse to not push the boundaries. I struggle to find anything in my town. If I want a protein I usually have one choice, not nine. If I want fish I usually buy it from the restaurant and pack it home. To have this access is such a blessing to so many people that I am sure don't either realize or appreciate it. We decided to eat at small noodle shop, and had an authentic ramen style noodle dish that was really amazing. Not that we were hungry though, more because we needed to sit down for a few minutes. Melissa even found a small purse shop, that in hindsight I am sure was less then Kosher in some of it's dealings. We rode the subway back towards the hotel still in awe about the amazing size and hustle of the city, and the availability of anything, anytime of day or night. On a promise to the boys we marched back to Times Square and got pictures and souvenirs from the Lego store and Nintendo store in Times Square. It was getting late and we needed to pack. We snagged another "normal" pizza from a place just down from the hotel, and called it a night at a modest midnight or so. <br />
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We were up early on Friday as our flight was gone from JFK at 11am. We got our first really cliche ride in a horribly smelly cab, or rather with a horribly smelly Russian cabby, but it all added to the experience. With the time change were back on the ground at Sea-tac by 2pm, and I was in the kitchen at work by 6:30 pm that night. <br />
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All of it was amazing. It was awesome to spend that much time with Melissa, even if I worked and she fended for herself for a few days. It was great to have her there to share this with me. We saw maybe 1/10th of the things we wanted to see, and I feel almost guilty about not seeing the World Trade Center Memorial, or The Statue of Liberty, Brooklyn, or even anything around Central Park. We stayed in motion the whole trip to return back to some sort of normalcy on little to no sleep, and still couldn't absorb everything that happened. Being able to make this trip was truly an honor, being able to make it with such a great group of friends and team of chefs with so much talent was awesome. Being able to take our food, and tell our story thousands of miles away from our restaurants was an inspiration beyond words. Coming home to our staff and family and telling the stories over and over, and the show of support the community offered up for us were in no way expected. The event, the city, the pace, was awe inspiring. I almost wanted to go apartment shopping..... I can't wait to go back.archibald.joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03148456713992069676noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7023118224489482824.post-13333405800797818942011-10-25T09:34:00.000-07:002011-10-26T09:35:17.898-07:00NY-2On Tuesday we awoke early and scored some Dunkin Doughnuts, one of which was conveniently located about 50 steps form the hotel lobby. Then set out on foot for the James Beard house which is in the Chelsea neighborhood. Four chefs, knives, chef jackets, and no idea where we were going. In hindsight we probably should've taken a cab but again the allure of the things you see on the street and wanting to get the full NY experience led us in the other direction. We found the James Beard house fairly easily, and if you were looking for a big banner we would still be searching for it. A very small, barely marked entryway was all that was there. We rang the bell and were promptly greeted by the staff at the house. Most of our goods were yet to arrive, but our wine made the trip and was checked in, as well as some of the other small things we needed, that weren't sent overnight but rather two day air. The house was amazing. A true brownstone that has been transformed into what is a very capable kitchen space on the ground floor, and then the second floor is the dining room. The third floor contains some offices and a small part of the James Beard Foundation library (the rest is at NYU) where we were actually able to sit and chat, and read while we waited on our lamb braise to finish later that afternoon. We were greeted by a daytime kitchen manager and his assistant, and to say they were eager to help would be a drastic understatement. Both of them were amazing. At one point I whisked together a vinaigrette, and dumped it into a smaller pan to store overnight, by the time I turned around the bowl and whisk were gone and already being washed. They had answers to every question, and even advice on equipment, and the nearest grocery stores. We needed to make ice cream and so we asked them for the machine, they went and got it, and then broke it down and washed it, then tested to make sure it was working correctly and then said "machine is ready chef....would you like me to help you get it started?" we started the machine and I was assured he would keep and eye on it, and sure enough after about 30 minutes the machine was done, he removed the ice cream, broke down the machine, cleaned it again and said "the machine is ready for the second batch now if you are....chef." The professionalism and true hospitality was something I have never experienced on that level. Most of the time chefs are forced to do this dinner from scratch the day of, and I knew we were lucky to get access the day before but it wasn't until later that I realized how lucky we were. The day was great, we sent two of our team shopping for basic things that we opted out of sending- cream, lemons, butter, eggs, etc. I worked on getting our lamb shanks seared, then built a braising liquid, and then got them into the oven for their four hour ride. The kitchen while very small was extremely capable of anything you could ever ask of it. It was very organized, and very clean. We started receiving most of our goods around 10 am or so, and everything looked to be in really good shape except some fall raspberries and the greens for our salad, neither one traveled well, due assumable to the fact that it looked like the box had been thrown out of the plane rather then being unloaded. We found a produce shop that sold to restaurants and they had the things we needed to replace them, and while it wasn't from the Oregon coast as the items we lost were, it still got the course to the table without any drastic changes. After a pretty full day of relaxed prep work we finished the big ticket items on the prep list and thanked the staff profusely and hopped in a cab for the ride back to the hotel. <br />
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As a group all 17 of us employees, family members, friends, etc had been invited out to dinner by our owner at Otto, a Mario Batali restaurant. Melissa and I went for a quick walk to take advantage of a few minutes to add to the stockpile of goods we planed to pack home for the boys and ourselves. We changed and I put on a pair of slacks for the first time in probably 5 years. The dinner was an amazing arsenal of flavors and never ending plates. Our owner, who if you haven't noticed takes pretty good care of us, had talked to the restaurant before hand so we never saw a menu, but rather just had a steady stream of food placed in front of us. First it was house cured meats and cheese, then olives, more meats, pickled veggies, lentils, etc. Promptly followed by what must have been 20 pizzas and pastas, followed by a gelato tasting, all of it served family style passed from person to person. It was hard for me to hang through the whole thing. We thoroughly enjoyed our night and into the wee hours of the morning. After our trip back to the hotel, I remember being in the hotel lobby and asking Will what time we needed to start in the morning and he said we needed to meet in the lobby at 7:30. No big deal until I looked at my phone and it was near 3AM. <br />
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We hit the lobby perfectly on time and got a cab back to the house, the prep load from the day before had taken almost all of the pressure off of us as we banged out the day of prep list. Canapes were prepped, polenta was made, risotto cakes were stamped out and seared, braising liquids were reduced, vegetables were prepped, cut, and counted. Garnishes of all sorts were prepped, inspected, labeled, tagged, and organized. I had been told by a few chefs that I know that the service staff will push you pretty hard if you aren't moving fast enough. While I have done quite a few multi-course dinners with this many customers I have never had a server tell me that my pace wasn't quick enough, as usually it goes the other way. I was a bit intimated by it, and really tried to focus on making sure we had everything we needed for each course including equipment and seasonings together. The day flew by and with our lack of sleep we ran on mostly adrenaline for what would prove to be about 16 hours in the kitchen. The same staff members were there to help during the day, as well as a few interns from Culinary schools in the city. All of which proved to be huge assets. I trekked down to the produce market and picked up the things we needed, as well as a few basics to make breakfast for the lot of us. As dinner approached our interns left and were replaced with a new one, who did an amazing job for us. The intern gig is a tough one in that you never no what you will get. You could get a well educated 50 yr old woman, or a over privileged punk 18 yr old. Issues almost always arise, but we were extremely lucky in that we were given a super capable hand who proved to be a huge asset in the assembly of our plates, and execution of dishes. We have exchanged emails a few times now, and I hope and I can talk her into coming out west for an internship/employment next summer with the company. The service staff showed up near 4:30 and our daytime kitchen staff was replaced by a night time staff. Probably 8 servers, 2 maitre d's, 3 dishwashers, and a nigh time kitchen manager. All of which were extremely professional. The service staff rolled in bantering between themselves, and goofing off, and then changed clothes and instantly were transformed into the most professional staff I have ever seen. Every piece of stemware was polished, every utensil shined, linens were pressed and set, tables organized, seating and flow charts made, it was truly amazing to watch it take place. The kitchen manager lined us out on the time frame he wanted to stick to, and lined out our plates to be heated or cooled depending on the course. At about 6:30 family and friends started to show up, and in order to get to the dining room are walked through the kitchen. This is where things could get ugly. If you were in trouble, or in the weeds, at this point it would be obvious to everyone in the building. People want to come by and chat, take pictures, shake hands, talk about the menu, etc. We were more then able to do that thanks to some serious work in the prior few days, but if things went wrong at that point it would be pretty, and I wonder how many chefs get themselves into something nasty at that point. Passed apps began at 7 and then people were encouraged to take their seats at 7:45. First course was out perfectly on time. The maitre d split was so that one was in the kitchen to expedite food from me to the servers, and the other was to expedite food from the servers to the dining room. They were so organized and professional it blew my mind. We had a few dietary restrictions which we were prepared for and they knew exactly who they were and when I needed to plate the plates so that the flow was never interrupted. In all appetizers and then five plated courses were executed as well as we possibly could've to almost 80 ppl. We were never pushed by the staff, a sign of us being on the ball, even at one point as I watched our candy cap mushroom ice cream melting I was hustling them. We felt like we were on fire, the emotions and adrenaline were mind boggling. We went to the dinning room meet and great and were presented with a bag of goodies from the foundation as a thank you for our hard work. Everyone was happy, and in the limited amount of time I was able to chat with some pretty amazing people from the foundation, NY, writers, and foodies. The kitchen staff began to break down and clean all of the equipment and we sent our wonderful intern home with a huge armload of things as we weren't going to pack them home. Photos were taken, hands were shook, many thank yous were said and we left the house, famished, at near 11. <br />
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As a person in the hospitality business I notice more and more when people are treated with the manner of service that is over the top and truly a representation of hospitality. By so many people at the foundation we saw this, and it was a lesson of a well trained staff that really enjoys what they do. While I can't be sure what kind of money the staff makes, one of the dishwashers told me "I don't need to work another job, they pay me very adequately" That coupled with the fact that they ate very well that night, and on an almost nightly basis they get to see some of the best chefs in the world cooking food from all over world, I cant imagine a better gig, and they know it. They are seriously down to business, and make no jokes that what they are doing is of the uppermost importance. At one point the kitchen manager said something that was vaguely inappropriate about one of the dishwashers work ethic in Spanish, and both Will and I understood, and made a quip remark in Spanish in return. The manager turned bright red, even after we tried starting up a conversation in said language (my hope being I could bring back some sort of crude slang word to my kitchen staff) and he shot us down and then continued to address the dishwasher in French. Part of this hospitality that is so satisfying to me is being part of the giving end. Our company takes this extremely seriously, and that is true in Cannon Beach as well as New York. As if the effort of getting all of us, and our stuff across the country wasn't enough, our top brass decided to really up the ante. The chefs were measured and Egyptian cotton jackets were embroidered with a fantastic logo celebrating Oregon harvest, named, and labeled with the company logo. A jacket I most likely will never wear again, that was so beautiful, and felt so nice I almost cried. Each of the guests were presented with a take home bag containing a book about NY travel written by the travel writer for the Oregonian, that has done some great work on us in the past, as well as a bag of the locally roasted coffee that we served as the pairing for dessert, and a small jar with a really cool label of Will's backyard honey, which was one of the accompaniments to the cheese course. The menus were printed on our end with a gorgeous painting of the James Beard house, but were printed in a small enough format that the guest could easily tuck them in a purse or pocket and have them to remember the night. I know that many chef's make this pilgrimage to do the exact same thing, but none of them do it with this sort of over the top effort. It makes me so proud to work for a company that takes this stuff seriously. <br />
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We jetted back to the hotel and I showered and put on a pair of shorts and sandals, and after the few days we had had I have never been so amped. We met at a small dive down a few blocks from the hotel, and toasted our success, and had a burger. The work part of the trip was done with success, and a huge load of pressure and months of anticipation was gone. We stayed there talking, and reminiscing for hours before we headed back to the hotel. It was near 4am. I didn't even feel tired.archibald.joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03148456713992069676noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7023118224489482824.post-38677288825133185182011-10-24T20:38:00.000-07:002011-10-24T20:38:14.640-07:00NY- 1I am home from our trip across the country to the James Beard house in NY. An almost surreal week of eating, walking, getting lost, and sleeplessness. Too many things to touch about in one post so I will continue to gather my thoughts and photos in an effort to break the trip up in a few different sections. Melissa and I flew out from Sea Tac airport on Sunday the 9th of October. Our trip in was really uneventful and upon landing we were greeted by what our cab driver said was abnormally hot weather in the mid 90's. With little to no effort on my part we were checked into our hotel room at the Affinia Dumont on 34th and Lexington. It was getting late, and the time change made it feel even later and we were both starving so upon a recommendation from my sister we headed out to find a small pizza shop named Grimmaldis. Originally under the Brooklyn bridge we were not feeling like we were ready to make that trip yet so we found another location and started out on foot. Wearing flip flops. Both proved to be bad ideas. I had always heard about the excessive walking, and had better shoes packed. A few hours later we still had no idea where we were going and I was having an almost impossible time trying to figure out my bearings. Are the streets counting up or down, and why do some have numbers and some have names? We were both getting blisters and after walking by the same buildings more then a few times decided to give up on the cell phone GPS and use the map our concierge had given us. Finally we made it to a small standing room only pizza joint. We patiently waited for a table and were sat within a foot of another couple already enjoying their pizza. No names were taken, barely any English was spoken, and we loved every minute of it. It could be partially due to our famished state at this time but the trek was far worth the prize, and easily one of the best, if not the best pizza I have ever had. Simply ordering "normal" in NY will give you a pizza with a super thin crust, fresh mozzarella, torn basil leaves, and less of a sauce but rather simply crushed tomatoes. Apparently it is the NY original, the same pie we call the margherita in every other part of the country. The cheese was hand pulled on site, and Grimmaldis really sends it over the top pushing what they call the only "coal" fired pie around. Was interested in that, and am going to try to do some research because I just assumed it was charcoal fired, but at some point was led to believe otherwise. We finished our entire pizza, some assorted salamis, and with a touch better idea of where we were going we headed back to the hotel. <br />
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Monday morning we we awoke and quickly got going. Every time I sat in my hotel room I felt like I was wasting such a great experience that I immediately got up and figured out what to do next. If I want to sit in a hotel room I will go to Pittsburgh or something, not New York City. Still alone as most of the others in our group were flying at various times on Monday we walked to the Empire State Building on our way to Times Square and Rockefeller center. I was beginning to get the hang of how the city blocks were aligned. Almost a full day later we returned to the hotel and hooked up with a few of the other chefs in the group and decided that a trip to East Harlem was in order. We bought subway passes and rode uptown in hopes of getting a table at a Marcus Samuelson restaurant called "The Red Rooster". Upon arriving it was near 8pm and we were told that the wait would be near an hour. We set out again wandering the Harlem streets recalling all of the things my mother taught me about not wearing my hat backwards, or making eye contact with strange people. It proved to be perfectly fine and we returned for our table right on time and ordered a vast plethora of the menu. The restaurant specializes in American comfort/soul food and it didn't disappoint. Marcus Samuelson (top chef master fame) is Ethiopian by birth, then raised in Stockholm and now lives in NY. So you see touches of all of those things on the menu. Lingonberry jam for example came out with our bread, the Swedish staple that you can find in Ikea stores. Everything that we had was amazing, and we sat outside on the patio watching the Harlem traffic pass us by. It was about 10 pm and a perfect 70 degrees. We found the subway again, and even saw a few huge subway rats, and were able to get home without any issues at all. We quickly discussed our meeting time to venture to the James Beard house for our day before prep, and the much anticipated receiving of the overnighted goods from the restaurant here, to the kitchen there. All in all about 7 boxes were entrusted to the fine people at FedEx containing every piece of equipment and every ounce of product we needed to pull the dinner off. The heaviness of that was doubled by the fact that just a few weeks before another local chef had made this exact journey and 80#'s of frenched lamb racks (about $20/#) had mysteriously not made the journey. A nightmare for him to track down the lamb (his entree course) in a place where you don't know anyone, and are already under pretty serious pressure to pull the rest of your meal off. It was decided that we needed to be awake and dressed, ready to hit the kitchen and in the lobby by 7AM.archibald.joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03148456713992069676noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7023118224489482824.post-81849074431946104252011-09-14T11:28:00.000-07:002011-09-14T11:28:21.749-07:00Vege.....WHAT?In my line of work I deal with what seems to be the oddest request from diners sometimes. I had a gluten free woman the other day for lunch and we stopped the whole kitchen to make her the dish she had to have because none of the existing things without gluten were "satisfying" enough for her. While she ate this gluten free dish, she helped herself to a full baguette worth of bread. This stuff is happening more and more often as well. If you don't like garlic, just say that...... don't tell your server you are allergic to it. It is bad karma. <br />
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I remember a day when people who were vegetarians were just that. Now I see an increase of vegans, pescatarians (we eat things like tillapia still) and raw food something or others, and it is hard for me to keep them all straight. Then I see a whole line of people who don't eat pork, because they are dirty animals, but will eat chicken (have you seen how meat birds are raised) it doesn't make any sense. The same people who hate on veal, when in all reality veal is more sustainable then a full size cow. We aren't using them to breed anyway. Younger steer means it lived less, which in turn means it consumed less, releasing less gas into our atmosphere in waste, and was easier, and cheaper to harvest and transport. <br />
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If you have health or religious eating restrictions that is fine. If you feel very firmly that we shouldn't be killing off animals for food, while I couldn't disagree more, that is fine as well. If you don't eat meat for sustainability reasons that is also fine. The problem is those people are so grossly misinformed I can't help but get pissed. I know a pescatarian- a person who doesn't eat meat, but does eat fish, who thinks that meat is too un-sustainable to consume. The same person though consumes some of the most unsustainable fish available. Farmed salmon, tillapia, halibut, farmed prawns, dredge scallops, etc. All of which are the least sustainable things that come from water, not even the ocean mind you, but water.<br />
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Vegans are another one that is tough for me. I have tried multiple times to get a solid vegan dish on the menu, and regardless of what it is, I can never sell it. So vegans proudly walk into restaurants all over, during the crunch of service and demand a special meal. I don't really have a problem doing this, I have a problem with the time frame though. With even an hour of heads up I have the opportunity to really get creative, time to cook a real starch, marinate, etc. On the spot I only have a few things I can do, and I never feel as good about them as I would like. If you are a vegan- call ahead. This time of year I have so much cool stuff in my walk-in that I want to show off to you, if you just give me a few minutes I can really serve you an amazing dish, that is a great reflection of the restaurant and my own style. Due to the changing seasons, and peak business, I don't always have the same things available to create for you, so it is hard for me to say: here is the stand by vegan dish. Instead it turns into-here is the standard vegan dish, unless it is after ten, during breakfast, figs are out of season, and you are looking at 15 other tickets hanging. <br />
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The other thing I have always wondered is where most vegetarians and or vegans draw the line. Where is close to meat too close for comfort. Liquid smoke is a smoke flavorant that is made by collecting smoke extracts from smoke houses. Smoke houses usually smoke bacon, on an industrial scale at least, so does the fact that your barbecue sauce smoke flavorant that was yielded by air permeating around a slab of pork belly make you not eat anything with liquid smoke. And if you do, then a simple stock is just the exact same thing, but instead of flavor being transferred by air it is transferred by water. Stock is just a meat infusion. It doesn't contain any meat per se. So in my head if you eat liquid smoke, then you should eat stock, and if you eat both of those then why not eat a steak. If you are a vegan what about honey. It is an animal by product so you would think no, but I have know some who do. If you are a vegetarian because you don't eat meat for sustainability issues, and you were gifted the nicest pork chop around. Raised by a guy who treated the animal well, harvested with decency, and then cooked perfectly- would you eat it? If you only eat raw foods (an idea that could put me out of a job) then do you eat cured things, or what about things that have been cooked by citrus or vinegar. Is it the application of heat that makes something not raw, or can it be a combination of salt and time as it has been for thousands of years? Where did you come up with your own boundaries, and when. Are you just a vegetarian for a few months, or for a while in college, or have you done your own research and made your own decision, not just the decision that was trendy. Did someone tell you once that "eating animals is bad....mmmkay" and you bought it. I am all for eating more vegetables I am even all for eating proteins in smaller sizes. I am really hardcore about eating more sustainable proteins, but also am not naive enough to believe everything out there. I have read everything I can get my hands on, on both sides of the argument and have had to form my own opinion. The things I take away from that are different then what you take away from them. Even if you love eating meat, it is worth your time to do some investigation. As a consumer you need to be aware of the scams that are out there. Free range on a chicken egg doesn't mean that they get to run around happily on a small farm somewhere. Organic labels on all meat can be a load of bull, natural can mean they weren't fed antibiotics "excessively" but it still can mean they were treated and harvested in a horrible manner. Becoming a vegetarian is a life changing choice, do some research and become one for your own reasons, not someone else. And if you are in a spot where you are saying to a server that you are "allergic" to something when really you don't like it, just be honest about it. The increase in food allergies is worrisome to all good chefs and cooks. Kids and adults with tree nut allergies are a serious thing. People who have a serious reaction to gluten, can still be getting side effects from its consumption a month later, and we take that very seriously. That is way different then someone saying they are allergic to corn because they don't like it. Every time that happens, it softens the seriousness of the underlying real allergy issues. That isn't fair to the people who cook food, and can be tragic to those who consume it. <br />
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<br />archibald.joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03148456713992069676noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7023118224489482824.post-83390830695711641972011-08-31T08:33:00.000-07:002011-08-31T08:33:53.130-07:00Hot August NightsThe restaurant runs on a very seasonal schedule and that means August is a big month for us. People flock to the coast line of Oregon to escape the heat of the cities and to experience beach life for a day, or a week before kids head back to school and a sense of normalcy returns to most peoples routines. Our city streets become swollen with traffic, bicycles, and entitled pedestrians. The restaurant buzzes with more customers, and staff then any other time of year. The amounts of food I purchase, store, prep, and cook arrive to the back dock in what seems like a constant stream. Sometimes I feel like I am barely holding my head above water. While the capacity of holding food, and equipment to heat and cool food remains the same, the increase of needed things always presents some logistics issues. My walk-in is so full most days that you can hardly move inside it, and I am forced to schedule staff through the night to help keep the kitchen clean, and prepped. It is an easy time to allow our customer service and food quality to dip, and I fight everyday to preserve it. Corner cutting becomes the norm of some of my most seasoned staff, attitudes get negative, people get overwhelmed, and the kitchen gets hot. On Friday we received, then portioned 100#'s of halibut before it even made it to the walk-in, and bought and cut more on Saturday. Even with the amounts I purchase I still pay $14.99/# for it. Everyone is working hard, many of my cooks work multiple jobs, spending upwards of 15 hours a day on their feet over hot ovens, grills, dish machines and pans. I come home smelling like food, and nothing will take it off of my skin. The great news is that I have a strong staff, and while we get frustrated with each other, everyone is doing a stellar job and we will fight through it. Financially it is an extremely important time for us as we need this harvest to survive the upcoming slower months. September is always a fantastic month for us, assuming we can get some decent weather, and October is great as well. The pace becomes much more manageable but still sufficient, and without as many children it becomes more relaxed. Our guests are able to enjoy the experience we are struggling to offer, rather then just a meal for a hungry belly.<br />
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Last week, and again this week I have lost a few key members of my staff to different ventures for varying reasons. Both were huge assets to me, but one will be particularly missed for his wise opinions of almost any question, and his ability to be both stern but fair with his staff. His input, and always standing offer to hop in and help, as well as his funny demeanor will be a loss for our restaurant and my career. I wouldn't have what I have now without his guidance. This means we will be hiring staff, and I was able to interview a very qualified candidate just yesterday. It was nice to be able to fully disclose my goals as the Executive chef for the first time to someone I will work closely with, and to get some feedback that this gentlemen was looking towards working those same type of goals. A person who understands and appreciates the level of food and service we are trying to offer, and wants to be employed at a place that is striving to offer these things, rather then just saying they are working at it.<br />
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Melissa, Skyler, Abe and I are all moved into the new house, and while I feel like I haven't spent much time here I am so happy about it I could scream. I look forward to coming home and pulling in my own driveway, and walking into my own home. We have a few things we are working on around the house already, and struggling to make it a reflection of our identities. It is a bit late in the season to worry about a garden, but I have grass growing in the back yard and all winter to try to figure out a landscaping plan for the back. I love getting at in the kitchen, and we even scored a second full fridge for the garage. The appliances are all stainless, and the work surfaces are all granite and I couldn't ask for more. Two ovens, and a gas stove, and plenty of gorgeous cabinets. We are so fortunate. I still look around sometimes and think I might be dreaming. The colors and finishes that Melissa picked out fit perfectly, and while she wont be too quick to admit it, I know she loves arranging furniture, buying things, painting and staining old things, etc. Almost everyday I come home to something new she has moved, bought, or changed and I love it. I am so lucky to have her to support me.<br />
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We are getting down to crunch time with the James Beard Foundation dinner in New York on October 12th, and I am really looking forward to that trip. This is a link to our profile page with the foundation and the menu is listed on the right of the page if any of you are interested in the food we will be showcasing, as well as ticket information if any of you are interested in attending- <a href="http://www.jamesbeard.org/index.php?q=events_beardhouse_101211">http://www.jamesbeard.org/index.php?q=events_beardhouse_101211</a> . We will also be cooking a preview dinner of that exact same menu as a benefit for the Make a Wish Foundation on October 5th in Cannon Beach so I will keep you all posted on the details for that, if any of you are interested in attending.<br />
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I also recently was interviewed by the marketing person for Oregon Culinary Institute, and as a alumni of that fantastic program I was flattered to spend the afternoon talking about the restaurant, me as a chef, and my experiences at OCI with him. The video of the interview was recently posted- <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQb_CXXkpxg">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQb_CXXkpxg</a> and I am excited about a continued relationship working with them, as I truly believe they are doing the right things with their students, and I am proud of the time and effort I put in to be able to say I graduated from that school. archibald.joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03148456713992069676noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7023118224489482824.post-20439661643597676862011-08-24T10:57:00.000-07:002011-08-24T14:58:23.760-07:00Albacore<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzASdUQehPDK8ygCzs6U72SjRnMlaDmwkTij0mfYaPNchJzlFh7JkGMmaVbdf_97PyJgs2Wx1zBS9C5mhtriM9HL2TPMlTWMQpbnZ57_QXa7BPlRK9uJRS5QS9S350IAHffDfzhlVTAcs/s1600/tuna.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="180" width="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzASdUQehPDK8ygCzs6U72SjRnMlaDmwkTij0mfYaPNchJzlFh7JkGMmaVbdf_97PyJgs2Wx1zBS9C5mhtriM9HL2TPMlTWMQpbnZ57_QXa7BPlRK9uJRS5QS9S350IAHffDfzhlVTAcs/s320/tuna.jpg" /></a></div>
At one time or another you have had Albacore tuna, I would further wage that you have had Albacore caught from my local waters at some point. Not one but two of the big tuna companies used to be based in Astoria Oregon, just a few miles north of my house. Albacore is the tuna that we see packed in tins on shelves at the grocery store. It is the only species of tuna that can be sold as "white meat". It is an amazing fish that is better then it is given credit for. To properly can a fish you have to cook it to death. I have read recipes that call for boiling the tuna itself for 45 mintues, then shredding it, and then jarring it up and pressure cooking it at 15 #'s for 90 minutes. For those of you not familiar with the pressure cooker I can cook black beans from raw to finished in 15 minutes at 15#'s of pressure. It is a horribly destructive amount of heat, but it is absolutely neccesary to kill off the threat of botulism both at home and on your grocery store shelf, and of all the food borne ilnesses people stress about, botulism is one you dont want to mess with. It wont make you sick.... it will just kill you. The canning then subsequent eating of those meats should be approached by only those people that are very highly expreinced. Because of all of this, and the fact that there are many more prized types of tuna in the seas the Albacore has gotten a pretty bad wrap. Fear not though, there are a few talented chefs I know that are trying to bring it back, and I am going to ride their curtails. Albacore is good, sustainable, and cheap. My efforts are working towards only local seafoods on the menu at the restaurant, and if I am only going to showcase local seafoods at the restaurant, then you wont see any Ahi or Bluefinn tuna on my menu, because they don't swim in water this cold. Sure I can get it, I can buy it from a guy in Hawaii today and it will be on my back dock in a super cool chrome cardboard box by tommorow by 2pm, and if I buy 20#'s he will even ship it for free, and I can sell it. It just has always seemed silly to me to do that, as my customers sit in the dining room they can see the ocean, it seems pretty basic to me to serve only food that came from that water, the same water they are seeing. You wont find lobster on my menu, ever, if you want lobster I can pull a string or two, but I am trying to put foods from Oregon and the Northwest at the forefront. There are no lobster on my coast...... sorry. So to give the customer the tuna they want I have to feed them albacore, but they have to be educated on the differences or the meal wont exceed their expectation. Most people are so used to the sight and flavor of fully cooked Albacore that they are off-put by a piece of rare seared Albacore, even though a piece of Ahi cooked identically would be perfectly acceptable, even though the Albacore has had the same sashimi grading process and treatment. On top of all of this- Albacore gets the wrath of the high mercury level frenzy as well. Warnings against expecting mothers, children, etc are rampant on some types of fish, and tuna is always involved. Any time you eat an animal that has lived for over a few years you run the risk of ingesting some of the things it has ingested. The solutions are very involved but the fix is simple- limit your large fish consumption to once or twice a week and a healthy body will take care, naturally, of any mercury that you ingest.<br />
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Albacore is an amazing looking fish, they swim fast and like most other tuna they are shaped like a cartoon rendition of a bomb that would be dropped from an airplane. Very streamlied head into a fat round body, tapering into a slim and efficient tail. In whole fish form they are much heavier then they look and the rounded seams and shapes are a perfect example of a animal that has evolved out of neccesity. I will also add that I despise grilling almost all fish especially salmon, and halibut. I dont think that it is the proper technique for the texture of the meat. Grilling is an abrassive technique that requires very high heat, and the flesh of most fish is too soft to properly move around the grates of a grill. Albacore is one of the few fish that I will gladly grill, as it will easily stand up to the heat and is firm enough that I can move it, spin it, turn it, and remove it without destroying its flesh. It only needs to be seared but again to meet expectation I will usually go into medium type temps for service purposes. It is great in a sashimi format as well, raw with some oil and flavorings. Cooked and cooled it can easily be shredded into a tuna sandwich or over a simple salad. It can also be caught for recreation but they tend to be 20 -30 miles off the coast so you need a big boat. If you can get there it is rumored that there isn't a limit on take home, and that if you can get on a school of them it is as simple as drop a baited line and pull one up... then repeat. While much of the canned Albacore tuna was at one time caught off of the Oregon and Washington coasts it was overfished, but local populations are coming back now. The best news is that Oregon Albacore tuna no matter how it was caught is always "dolphin safe". archibald.joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03148456713992069676noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7023118224489482824.post-75630402648503109512011-08-24T10:52:00.000-07:002011-08-24T10:52:54.613-07:00CitrusAs my palette develops to taste more and more nuances throughout different foods, I find myself in a continuing struggle to perfectly balance flavors in any given dish. The balance of acidity in food is an important one, and often underestimated by great home and professional chefs. The addition of vinegar (a worthwhile post on its own) or citrus juices is of the up most importance to round the flavors of more dishes then you assume. Now while citrus is a great addition to many things, and I feel naked if my home fridge doesn't have a few lemons and limes sometimes when trying to balance flavor vinegar is a much better bet. That being said the freshness that happens while finishing a dish with the juice of a lemon or lime is unmatched by any other product. I find that it will brighten the overall flavor in almost anything, rounding and highlighting everything else involved. It offers a crisp, clean, refreshing boost to soup, sauce, starches, salad greens, and even proteins. The acidic content of lemons and limes (limes have a higher acidity then lemons, and the highest of any natural ingredient available) can also cook a protein. Ceviche is a dish that is popular in many cuisines especially ones that are dependent on seafood. Usually raw prawns (squid, scallops, lobster, halibut, clams, and many more can be used) are chopped fine with a blend of peppers, onions, aromatics and salt and then allowed to soak in the lime or lemon juice. Depending on the size of the protein involved as little as a few minutes the acidity will begin to denature the protein structure. A quick warning, even though the risk of food borne illness is pretty slim here, it is important to buy good fish, from a trusted source, or when ordering at a restaurant use common sense. If you walk into a fake Mexican restaurant that looks like it hasn't had a customer in two months then I would stay away from shellfish in any form especially raw. Classically in Mexico ceviche it is almost always served with saltine crackers and a sort of spicy cocktail sauce condiment.<br />
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While we assume that citrus is a winter crop (I still get oranges every year in my Christmas stocking from my parents) citrus is a rotating crop and comes from all over South America, Mexico, Florida, and California as the seasons change. This helps them <span style="background-color: yellow;">to</span> have fairly stable pricing throughout the year and helps them to always be available. The availability of tangerines, mandarins, kumquats, and others is always late fall into spring. I am a big fan of lemons, but love a meyer lemon as well if you can get your hands on them, a bit sweeter and less aggressive. Blood oranges are another one that seem to have faded in and out of popularity a few times. They are a variety of orange that has orange skin speckled with red, and a magenta or maroon flesh depending on the variety. They aren't as sweet as most oranges but the juice and segments are an amazing color to offset color and add flavor to all sorts of things. Look for both of them January and February...ish. <br />
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My favorite thing in the world is to buy arugula and dress it with some really good olive oil, salt, and then just the juice of some lemon. Again showcasing the simplicity of seasoning and allowing the products to showcase themselves. Anytime I am cooking any sort of bean or taco dish I will small dice an onion and some cilantro and toss them with some salt and then toss it all with the juice of a lime. I always try to get it to meld for at least an hour or so, but the lime juice will take away most of the harshness from the raw onions, and you will end up with macerated deliciousness that you can eat with a spoon, as a condiment, or as a garnish for soups or beans. Almost any time I am going to serve a raw onion (sandwiches, salads, etc) I try to do this to soften the blow that can be the raw onion, making it easier to digest, and easier on your breath afterward. Lemons and limes can help your efforts to create cleaner flavors, don't overlook their importance or underestimate their abilities. archibald.joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03148456713992069676noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7023118224489482824.post-12439377960192915812011-06-30T20:12:00.000-07:002011-06-30T20:12:00.137-07:00Sturgeon<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCJHDGf8RGV0a_DKUMWCmati4ELM50g-zr3HOgPKRT2rtg46ux4OdkIkqDaGmWvzaUxs9L-pwGFG7VXotCGsnNlx_lCu7UDQs0JXawiMHmU-6BtVH0cxmRtdWHjGdQzu4SN_lAOtPYwSk/s1600/fish.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="180" width="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCJHDGf8RGV0a_DKUMWCmati4ELM50g-zr3HOgPKRT2rtg46ux4OdkIkqDaGmWvzaUxs9L-pwGFG7VXotCGsnNlx_lCu7UDQs0JXawiMHmU-6BtVH0cxmRtdWHjGdQzu4SN_lAOtPYwSk/s320/fish.jpeg" /></a></div><br />
While business increases at work, and I am on the end of a really long straight run at work, and due to a link posted on a facebook page somewhere I have an uber-upgraded amount of views in the last week, I really wanted to get a technical post together. On my dinner menu at the restaurant I have a bracket that reads "off the boat" a direct shot at the classic fish house. There is no price listed, no description, and no wine pairing. Seeking out cool stuff to sell for that part of my menu, and educating my staff on how to cook and describe them is one of the coolest parts of my job. Since this menu debuted I have had the opportunity to work with seafood I would have never been able to encounter otherwise. The only boundaries are that the product is fresh, and is local as well. Ideally it gives us an opportunity to sell things that pop-up for a few weeks a year, or even by-product catches that are only available for about 15 minutes before they are passed to the next eager chef in line. That scenario has skyrocketed me to the top of the call list when cool stuff is coming out of my local waters. My fish purveyors know that I only want the stuff no one else has, and because the price is flexible on the menu I can pay a lot, or just a little. Black cod, ling cod, spot prawns, oysters, whole Dungeness crabs, Springer salmon, Albacore tuna, perch, sea bass, red snapper, petrale and dover sole and more have all taken their run on the menu, usually lasting no more than three to five days. Then I am on to something new. The gambling on how much of each item we will sell over a weekend is a game every week for me, and provides a shear satisfaction when I am successful with my hypothesis. <br />
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Of all of them sturgeon is one of my favorite to eat. An amazingly ugly prehistoric creature that locally in our Columbia River is rumored to reach over 16 ft long and weigh close to 1000 lbs. Locally they can swim in fresh and salt water, and can live to be 100 or so years old, not even reaching sexual maturity until they are around the age of 20 yrs. Sturgeon eggs are also the only egg that can be technically called caviar. While we see other fish eggs as garnishes in dishes it has to be called "roe". Early this century the desire for caviar led the sturgeon to be so highly prized for its eggs that its meat was often ignored, and like the stories of the American buffalo it was almost driven into extinction in parts of the world for our glutenous approach to it. Thankfully stocks for the most part have returned, and the sturgeon I buy (Columbia River White) is almost always a by-product catch of the local salmon fisheries. Recreational the season opened in mid April and I had the chance to go out on a charter with some friends, and while we didn't catch anything, and I am not much a fisherman, I still had a blast. The days tag cost me only about $17, and in the right conditions you can catch them off the some of the piers and jetties in the area. If you have a hankering to get your hands on some then get a tag and a pole, as it will be almost impossible to find even at a very good fish mongers. <br />
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The flesh of a sturgeon is very fatty, and the fat tastes like dirt. It all has to be removed, sometimes even having a yellowish hue to it, the skin side is even worse, laced with a redish purple fat and a cartilage line carrying down through the middle of the skin side. Often I will trim almost 30% of the side off to get to the perfect flesh. This is the inside (bone side) side of sturgeon I was working with a few days ago. When I work on my cutting board with high end beef the marbling throughout the cut will begin to render with the heat of my hands and the friction of the knife. It leaves a thin film of fat on my hands, board, scale, and knife, and sturgeon does the exact same thing. Making for a slippery and sharp situation. It also has a different smell to it, not necessarily bad, but different. Really fresh salmon, or halibut for that mater doesn't really have a smell, or maybe just a slight aroma of oceanic brine, but sturgeon is very aggressive comparatively. <br />
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The magic of sturgeon is the taste. The texture of the meat itself is much "meatier" then any other fin fish I have had. Often on my menu I try to play with that- pairing it on the menu with a preparation that is much more classically done with a steak of some sort. It is the only fish that can stand up to those aggressive flavors and techniques. I find a piece of trim salted and seared to medium to be one of the best things I could possibly be eating anywhere at that given moment. It always boggles my mind when a creature that ugly, with spines, and whiskers, that lives that long could be good for anything but crab bait. But I will bend over backwards to get it, cook it, or eat it. It is always received very well in my dinning room as well, and when that happens it always makes me happy to know that my customers are appreciative of this fantastic creature that due to its age, size, and time as a species on planet earth deserves nothing but the uppermost respect. archibald.joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03148456713992069676noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7023118224489482824.post-48415446894264875302011-06-29T00:24:00.000-07:002011-06-29T00:24:10.821-07:00BenefitsThe best way to raise money for a charitable cause is usually to feed people well. Sure raffles, auctions, and other stunts will attract "customers" but the idea of eating is appealing to everyone. As a chef I am lucky to be involved in so many different fundraisers throughout the year. Some I do on the curtails of the company, while others are personal decisions, done on my own time. Cannon Beach children's center, Clatsop County Food Bank, Clatsop County United Way, Seaside Heights Elementary, Seaside High Prostart, Oregon Restaurant and Lodging Association, Oregon Zoo, and the Make a Wish Foundation are all causes that I have executed food for in the last year. While the swaray of the actual events isn't always attended by me personally, my food or the restaurant's food is often called upon to help these causes. As chefs the requests can get frustrating. As a company we have to have some boundaries, some causes that we focus on, and others horribly we have to decline. At the end of the day food isn't free, or even cheap, and neither is the labor of those individuals involved. Add to that the removal of one or more of your key staff members for an evening, transportation, rooms to stay in the city as needed, etc and you have a huge financial obligation for a business that operates on an extremely slim profit margin in the best case scenario. We simply can't be involved in every event we are invited to. <br />
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Tomorrow I am cooking a benefit dinner solo, off the company clock at Broadway Middle School in Seaside for a 13 yr old girl who just had a brain tumor removed, and is now on a chemotherapy schedule that will last until she is out of high school. She is the sister of one of my best friends, and I can't help but to get emotional thinking about the road to recovery she will have to endure for years to come. As a parent, the thought of having a child in that situation is sickening, and my thoughts go out to any of you who have had to endure the loss, or extended recovery of a loved one. Anything I can do to help this family is still not enough. We talked earlier this month about the logistics of making an event like this happen, and I agreed to call in some big favors. The kitchen at Broadway was donated as she is a student there, a kitchen that I hadn't seen until this afternoon, and we are expecting about 240ppl. The menu will be as simple as we could pull off. A choice of roasted prime rib, or roasted chicken, potatoes, asparagus, and a dinner roll all for the cool price of $20/ per person. While the menu doesn't push any sort of culinary boundaries it is extremely important in situations like this to appeal to the general public. A time to execute the food perfectly, not a time to show off my ego.<br />
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Graciously I had a few purveyors that ponied up big to help me with this. Local potatoes, and local asparagus were donated, and Prime rib was sold to me for cost, and two each of the ten ribs I bought were donated. Chicken was sold at cost as well. I am fortunate to have these people on my side, who at the drop of a hat will blow my mind with generosity. Purveyors who stear me in the right direction anytime I go looking for some crazy off the wall cut of meat or piece of produce. Purveyors whom I have been crafting a relationship with for years now. When you are in charge of purchasing what I purchase, and require it to be received in the shape I demand, these relationships are worth their weight in gold.<br />
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Often in the past I have thought that my career would take me anywhere I wanted to go. Melissa and I have always been precarious about owning a home or anything else that would really strap us down in this community, as my work options, if not for the company I am with now, are extremely limited here in our little corner of Oregon. More and more though I come to the realization that I am here for a reason. Like my purveyors, my relationships in the community run very deep. I am flattered and honored to be asked to execute this event for this girl and family that are in such need. I am grateful that I get to cook the meal in a kitchen, in the same school that I attended as a 7th and 8th grader. I feel more gratification readying and executing a meal like this than I do doing almost any other type of event in my line of work. I am proud to be part of this community, and proud that I can help those in need with the talents that everyone presumes I have. Now I just have to not screw it up. Thanks for reading. archibald.joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03148456713992069676noreply@blogger.com0