Parental Discretion Advised

On 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Duck, Duck, Goose

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.

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.

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.

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.

Halibut, Halibut, Snapper-

1st- cornmeal crusted local snapper over braised greens with toasted hazelnuts, topped with flying fish roe
2nd- Seared halibut over a "scratch" risotto, with a anchovy, caper, and brown butter sauce
3rd- Corn sugar bruleed halibut over a savory bread pudding with herb sauteed pears, marscapone butter sauce, and dehydrated corn garnish.

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.

The Tomahawk

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.

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.

Prostart

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.

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.

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.

The menu-

1st- Tomato bisque soup- grilled cheese sandwich
2nd- Herb beggars purse with warm crab filling, cous cous, crab leg garnish, and vegetables
3rd- Banana Coconut frittter with brown sugar caramel and ziploc bag ice cream

Pinot Painted Salmon

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Rhode Island Red

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.

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.

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.
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.

ServSafe

Servsafe 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.

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.

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.

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.