Again 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.
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.
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.
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Zweifel Farms
A 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.
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.
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 http://www.zfarms.org/, thanks for reading.
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.
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 http://www.zfarms.org/, thanks for reading.
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Fire
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.
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
NY-3
Understandably 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
NY-2
On 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Monday, October 24, 2011
NY- 1
I 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.
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.
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.
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Vege.....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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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