ArtEpicure Cooking School

Only The Very Best

2009-04-06T13:48:00.010-04:00

How is this chicken stock better?

I started reading the latest issue of Food Arts magazine this morning. It is a magazine devoted to fine dining, but, because it is free for foodservice professionals, it contains advertising that appeals to all segments of the industry. A few pages in, the ad for Knorr’s Ultimate Roasted Chicken Base caught my eye, so I read the smaller print. What I found interesting was the following claim:
“Master Chef Steve Jilleba insists on working with only the very best products. So the fact that he believes Knorr Ultimate® Roasted Chicken Base delivers the ultimate in rich, roasted chicken flavor notes is definitely worth thinking about.”
I wondered, who is this “Master” Chef and what is in this product. Well, it turns out that Steve Jilleba really is a Master Chef. Not a self proclaimed one, or recipient of a title bestowed upon him by a corporate entity, for advertising sake, but an American Culinary Federation Certified Master Chef (CMC), one of only 61, that involves passing a grueling week long exam, a Certified Culinary Educator (CCE), and a member of the American Academy of Chefs (AAC). He was recently the recipient of the Chair’s Medal Award during a formal ceremony and dinner at the 2008 ACF National Convention, presented annually to an AAC Fellow who has demonstrated exemplary dedication and made outstanding contributions to the culinary profession while maintaining the highest standards and ideals and working to ensure excellence among future culinarians. He has competed and won numerous gold medals in the International “culinary Olympics.” Jilleba is the National Culinary Committee Chairman, Team manager for the 2008 ACF Culinary Youth Team USA, graduate of The Culinary Institute of America, ACF Central Region Chef of the Year in 2000, ACF Central Region Chef Professionalism Award in 1999 and he was named his chapter’s Chef of the Year and Member of the Year in 1999. Jilleba was also honored as one of Johnson & Wales University’s Distinguished Visiting Chefs, and the list goes on.

He obviously knows how to cook and what quality food is all about. So then, what is a talented chef, who no doubt, is a stand up guy, that has dedicated his life to the culinary arts, doing flogging processed chicken base on a national platform? It turns out that Chef Jilleba is the Corporate Executive Chef for Unilever, a 50 Billion dollar per year multi-national company that is no stranger to controversy. How could a job such as that, for someone who likes cooking fine food, at the highest level, be satisfying?

I used to be a member of the American Culinary Federation and was a charter member and officer for one of their chapters. When you are a member you get the chance to enter a good number of ACF sanctioned food competitions throughout the course of the year. Think part science fair, part Beauty pageant, part art show, part Iron Chef. For a chef they are exhilarating, highly competitive and an opportunity to show your peers “what you got” Most of the large food companies have corporate chefs. They run the test kitchens and come up with new products. Stan Frankenthaler, once considered one of the best chefs in the Boston Area, left the restaurant business in 2005, to become the corporate executive chef for Dunkin Donuts. There’s the rub, forgoing the thrill of running your own restaurant, serving your own creations, for a better lifestyle with normal hours and a lucrative paycheck. So you get your jollies competing for medals at these various sanctioned competitions.

So just what is Knorr’s Ultimate Roasted Chicken Base? It’s basically boullion cubes in paste form, in a tub. Here are the list of ingredients:

ROASTED AND COOKED CHICKEN MEAT
SALT
SUGAR
HYDROLYZED PROTEIN (CORN, WHEAT GLUTEN, SOY)
CHICKEN FAT
AUTOLYZED YEAST EXTRACT
POTASSIUM CHLORIDE
MALTODEXTRIN
NATURAL FLAVORS
CONCENTRATED CHICKEN BROTH
DISODIUM INOSINATE
DISODIUM GUANYLATE
TURMERIC

Unilever claims that the product contains “No added MSG” so let’s analyze the ingredients.
ROASTED AND COOKED CHICKEN MEAT
SALT
SUGAR
We know what these are. But, do we really need sugar in chicken stock?
HYDROLYZED PROTEIN (CORN, WHEAT GLUTEN, SOY),
Hydrolyzed protein is protein that has been hydrolyzed or broken down into its component amino acids. While there are many means of achieving this, two of the most common are prolonged boiling in a strong acid or strong base or using an enzyme such as the pancreatic protease enzyme to stimulate the naturally-occurring hydrolytic process. According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, hydrolyzed protein is used to enhance flavor and contains monosodium glutamate (MSG). When added this way, the labels are not required to list MSG as an ingredient.
CHICKEN FAT
Hard to avoid when making chicken stock.
AUTOLYZED YEAST EXTRACT,
Autolyzed yeast extract consists of concentrations of yeast cells that are allowed to die and break up, so that the yeasts' digestive enzymes break their proteins down into simpler compounds.Yeast autolysates are used in Vegemite (Australia), Marmite, Promite, Oxo (New Zealand, South Africa, United Kingdom, and Republic of Ireland), and Cenovis (Switzerland). Bovril (The United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland) switched from beef extract to yeast extract for 2005 and most of 2006, but later switched back. Autolyzed yeast extract is also the primary source of monosodium glutamate for the food industry.
POTASSIUM CHLORIDE,
The chemical compound potassium chloride (KCl) is a metal halide salt composed of potassium and chlorine. In its pure state it is odorless. It has a white or colorless vitreous crystal, with a crystal structure that cleaves easily in three directions. Potassium chloride crystals are face-centered cubic. Potassium chloride is occasionally known as "muriate of potash," particularly when used as a fertilizer. Potash varies in color from pink or red to white depending on the mining and recovery process used. White potash, sometimes referred to as soluble potash, is usually higher in analysis and is used primarily for making liquid starter fertilizers. KCl is used in medicine, scientific applications, food processing and in judicial execution through lethal injection. It occurs naturally as the mineral sylvite and in combination with sodium chloride as sylvinite.
MALTODEXTRIN,
Maltodextrin is a polysaccharide that is used as a food additive. It is produced from starch and is usually found as a creamy-white hygroscopic powder. Maltodextrin is easily digestible, being absorbed as rapidly as glucose, and might either be moderately sweet or might have hardly any flavor at all. There have been recent reports of coeliac reaction to maltodextrin in the United States. This might be a consequence of the shift of corn to ethanol production and its replacement with wheat in the formulation. Wendy's, the fast food chain footnotes maltodextrin in its list of gluten-free foods, which may be a sign of their receiving reports of these.
Maltodextrin may contain monosodium glutamate or create MSG during processing.
NATURAL FLAVORS,
The exact definition of natural flavorings & flavors from Title 21, Section 101, part 22 of the Code of Federal Regulations is as follows:
"The term natural flavor or natural flavoring means the essential oil, oleoresin, essence or extractive, protein hydrolysate, distillate, or any product of roasting, heating or enzymolysis, which contains the flavoring constituents derived from a spice, fruit or fruit juice, vegetable or vegetable juice, edible yeast, herb, bark, bud, root, leaf or similar plant material, meat, seafood, poultry, eggs, dairy products, or fermentation products thereof, whose significant function in food is flavoring rather than nutritional."
In other words, natural flavors can be pretty much anything approved for use in food.
CONCENTRATED CHICKEN BROTH,
This comes from the boiling of chicken necks and parts, from questionably reared chickens, on a massive scale and concentrating the liquid via a vacuum evaporator.
DISODIUM INOSINATE,
DISODIUM GUANYLATE,
Disodium 5'-ribonucleotides, E number E635, are flavor enhancers which are synergistic with glutamates in creating the taste of umami. It is a mixture of disodium inosinate (IMP) and disodium guanylate (GMP) and is often used where a food already contains natural glutamates (as in meat extract) or added monosodium glutamate. It is primarily used in flavored noodles, snack foods, chips, crackers, sauces and fast foods. It is produced by combining the sodium salts of guanylic acid (E626) and inosinic acid
A mixture of 98% monosodium glutamate and 2% E635 has four times the flavor enhancing power of monosodium glutamate alone. ingestion of disodium ribonucleotides has been linked with skin rash (ranging from mild to severe) up to 30 hours after ingestion.[citation needed] It is recommended that no food containing disodium ribonucleotides should be consumed by gout and asthma sufferers or people with an allergic reaction to aspirin.
TURMERIC
A spice used for coloring the broth. It’s about the healthiest ingredient here.

Here’s what goes into homemade roasted chicken stock:
2 Roasted chicken carcasses (skin, bones, fond, meat scraps, etc.)
4 carrots, cut into 2" pieces
4 stalks celery, cut into 2" pieces, including the leaves
3 medium onion, quartered
1 medium leek, cut into 2" pieces, then sliced lengthwise and cleaned thoroughly
About 10-15 whole peppercorns
A couple of stems each of Italian (flat-leaf) parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme
Enough water to cover the ingredients in the pot

Better eating through chemistry? In this case, I think not.
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Burn Your Cookbooks

2009-04-03T14:15:00.010-04:00

The Anti Recipe Movement is Coming!

This was a new one on me. I was having my morning coffee, which I consume while checking email, wire services and blogs, when I came across a post on the Boston localvores site. It’s a great resource for those of us in the Boston area for sourcing out locally produced, minimally processed foodstuffs. Which I am all for. I appreciate their commitment and support their effort to spread information regarding our local suppliers. Many of these small producers and suppliers need our support in order to keep their businesses viable.

What caught my eye was their most recent post, causing a “What the @#%&" to escape my lips. It was these two phrases “Mark my words, the anti-recipe movement is coming.” and “Recipes are a kind of conformity and fear.” I understand the gist of the post, people are too dependent on following set recipes, which can stifle creativity and create a need to run to the store for a missing ingredient, rather than rely on what’s in the pantry.

“Recipes, especially for savory things, should simply be a quick description/how-to.” I can agree with that statement, in certain instances. Here is a good example where it does not apply. Not that Lark cookery is still popular, but you see what I mean.

When I was a fledging restaurant cook, in an establishment that served classical haute cuisine, we used books such as Herings Dictionary of Classical and Modern Cookery,The Escoffier Cookbook and Guide to the Fine Art of Cookery and Ma Gastronomie. They had quick descriptions, like the ones above. Simple if you had spent thousands of hours learning technique. These were books written by chefs, for chefs. The authors assumed that you knew technique, or you wouldn’t be cooking from tomes as complicated as these to begin with.

Marc Matsumoto’s excellent blog, “No Recipes” (he does have recipes) is technique driven. His philosophy on cooking is that it’s 50% technique, 40% inspiration and 10% ingredients. He believes that if you’re armed with some basic techniques and a little inspiration, you can make a tasty meal from even the most derelict pantry.

Technique is important but recipes are indispensable for most home cooks. A new book from Michael Ruhlman, Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking is a good example. You may know how to make a roux with butter and flour. And you may know that if you add that to hot milk, and boil it, you get a Béchamel sauce. How much flour, to how much butter, to how much milk? Cook for how long? Go ahead, take a guess. Do you like wallpaper paste?

What about the need for recipes in order to achieve authenticity? A few nights ago I made a traditional Thai dish, Jungle Curry with Prawns.
It had 16 ingredients, all in exact measurements. It was the first time I made this, and I wanted to get the flavors as authentic as possible. There are quite a few Thai dishes that I have mastered, but I always follow the recipe the first few times so I get the flavor profile down. Then I can improvise and improve.

Yes, people should be more creative. People should experiment. Maybe for some, cooking strictly from the recipe does have something to do with fear and security. But, should we take away sheet music from musicians and patterns from clothing designers? Following the recipe verbatim can appear dogmatic, promoting a movement against recipes is dogmatic too, and highly absurd.

Adrift in the O.C.

2009-03-24T14:25:00.030-04:00

Looking beyond the Stereotypes

In Late February our friends Dawn and Ed had us transported from the New England winter doldrums to Orange County California, the O.C., the place that many only know from a mediocre nighttime soap, and a reality show that centers on vapid, whiney, tasteless, harpies and their equally clueless, credit card grubbing, over-privileged, brood. I did not meet any of these types. I spotted some but felt safer viewing them at a distance. I did meet many good, genuine people. Cockroaches and butterflies can coexist. I had a interesting discussion with a man on the beach, who happened to be a Lakers fan, regarding the stereotypes that he, and myself, (a Celtics fan) have come to fall back on when perceiving the opposition. We got on quite well. The weather was near perfect, upper 60’s, lower 70’s. It came close to overshadowing the fresh produce.

Living In New England one comes to expect a short supply of anything locally grown throughout the course of the long winter season. You learn quick enough to avoid the cardboard textured peaches from Peru, the truck ripened water bomb tomatoes from Florida and the soulless strawberries from Mexico. To spend the morning prowling a southern California farmers market in February was my equivalent of a die-hard Elvis fan eating his lunch on Elvis’ commode at Graceland. And, because we were staying with friends, rather than a hotel, I got to cook all that we procured.

In addition to some superb meals prepared and shared with friends, we had some wonderful experiences dining out. I am only going to write about one though, my favorite of the trip, a breakfast on our first morning there.
We went just a few blocks from our friends home in Laguna Hills, by car of course, to an unassuming little strip-mall, in the middle of which, sat a small café called
“The Break of Dawn”.

The café, open for only breakfast and lunch, has a tactfully refreshing Pan-Asian, natural wood themed décor and a small terrace, where we chose to sit. In America breakfast tends to be more or less straight forward, based upon meat and eggs, usually varying in regards to the quality of the meat and eggs used. I am as guilty as the next person of being totally content with 2 eggs, sausage, home fries, toast and coffee. The cuisine at the Break of Dawn might best be categorized as Global Fusion meets Hybrid American Comfort Food. Although our friend Ed, who prefers American standards when it comes to breakfast, had pancakes, the rest of us dined on items unique to the establishment. We had:

Cinnamon Sticky Bun
Baked in Cast Iron Pan, Coffee Syrup and Almond Glaze,
Whipped Cream

Sausage and Rice
Portuguese-Hawaiian Sausage, Green Papaya and
Sesame Salad, Scallion Puree, Two Fried Eggs

Smoked Salmon
Coriander Cured, Oatmeal Galette, Herb Poached Egg,
Marinated Tomato, Preserved Lemon-Caper Emulsion

Barbeque Pork
Pulled Pork, Jalapeno Corn Cake, Tropical Slaw and
Egg Tempura, Essence of Five Spices

Dee Nguyen, the owner and Chef, waited on us. He is not just a little over qualified for running a moderately priced breakfast and lunch joint. A graduate of the San Francisco-based California Culinary Academy and former Executive Sous Chef at the Ritz-Carlton, Laguna Niguel, Dee was on a fast track to Culinary success when tragedy struck. Dee’s wife Lihn, who he first met as a child, on a refugee boat fleeing Vietnam, was 18 weeks pregnant when doctors discovered their unborn son had Eagle-Barrett syndrome, in which his urinary tract and abdominal muscles were malformed, causing severe damage to his internal organs. After a series of operations during his first two years, their son, Berlin, underwent a procedure to repair the damage to his stomach. During the surgery, his breathing tube was mistakenly blocked, causing him to go without oxygen for over ten minutes. He was in a coma for a month. That was in 2003, today Berlin is slowly making progress but it is a high level of adversity to battle day after day. This is what motivated Dee to abandon his dream, owning his own fine dining restaurant, and devote his life to the care and upbringing of his son. Linh, a full time Pharmacist handles the administrative duties at the restaurant, Dee's father, once a professional studio photographer in Vietnam, busses tables and the rest of his extended family help out where they can. Laguna Hills is a tough place for a creative Chef to ply his trade. Socially conservative, it could be viewed as the vanilla in Southern Cal’s ice cream chest. Olive Garden and TGIF are local faves. Despite the fact that Dee would prefer a Frisco audience, he has carved a niche for himself in the community and has garnered much praise in the regional press, most recently being named O.C. Chef of the Year. When a highly creative person has to scale back the artistic output they thrive upon, it isn’t easy. What Dee has managed to accomplish with the Break of Dawn demonstrates much about his passion and ability as a chef. It speaks volumes about his integrity, character and soul.

Revisiting Gourmet Magazine

2009-03-16T17:34:00.005-04:00

The first time that I looked at a food magazine was in 1977. I was 22 and had spent the better part of my time, up until then, learning how to cook traditional American home cooking. My repertoire of ethnic fare included Swedish Meatballs, Turkey Tetrazzini, Beef Stroganoff and Chicken Florentine. The actual ethnicity of these dishes was dubious, at best. I had just gotten hired as an apprentice Garde Manger at the now defunct Petroleum Club, in Evansville Indiana. The kitchen, and the club, in regards to the style of food and service, was completely old school Continental. The waiters wore tuxedos with white gloves, there were at least 10 items on the menu that were flambéed tableside and much of what we prepared was straight out of Escoffier’s “le Guide Culinaire”. My introduction to Gourmet magazine coincided with my induction into the kitchens of Haute Cuisine and helped to place me decidedly in the camp of those who live to eat.

I can’t say when the last time was that I read a current issue of Gourmet. I have been on their website on occasion, and have watched the show “Diary of a Foodie”, but I haven’t really read the print copy in years. I browsed through one at a bookstore recently and decided to pass on it based on the fact that the sheer volume of advertisements was staggering. It had the same feel as GQ, or Cosmo, where one has to plow through page after page of ads in order to stumble upon a couple of narrow columns of text. I am sure this is due to an ever-increasing reliance on that ad revenue. The Gourmet of old, at $8.00 per year subscription rate, had that as a major source of income. Considering today’s printing costs, the present rate of $12.00 per year could hardly cover production expenses.

My thoughts for this post were formed the other day when I received 6 issues of Gourmet, from 1975, that I had purchased on ebay for $10.00 including shipping. I had been rereading Patrick Kuh’s “The last Days of Haute Cuisine” and David Kamp’s “The United States of Arugula” and noticed how they both gave special emphasis to the October 1975 review of Chez Panisse by Caroline Bates. The fact that this review put Chez Panisse on the map is beside my point. It was reporting like this, that young cooks, such as myself, needed to move beyond the restraints of the classical kitchen and keep abreast of the contemporary restaurant scene in America.

The travel writing of gourmet was also an important aspect of the publication. We all take the Internet for granted when seeking new information. Need a recipe for Chicken Tika Masala? No problem, Want to watch a video demonstrating hydrocolloid sphere making procedure? You can pretty much find cooking information from the exotic to the pedestrian. My first forays into Portuguese, Brazilian and Spanish cuisines, in the seventies, were due to reading Gourmet. Access to decent ethnic cookbooks at that time was near nonexistent.

Today, most chefs look upon Gourmet and other cooking publications as being geared more towards the home cook and view them as more than just a little condescending. However, I do owe Gourmet a debt of gratitude for planting a seed, fanning a flame and ultimately assisting me in my choice of careers. Maybe I will buy another issue.

A Poison Pen

2009-02-12T13:45:00.008-05:00

When food journalism turns bitter

During a conversation regarding food journalism I had with a friend recently, the name Gina Mallet came up. Gina Mallet is an Anglo-American who grew up in post-war rural England, moved to the United States and now lives in Toronto, where she is a food writer, restaurant critic and a James Beard award winner for her book “LAST CHANCE TO EAT, The Fate of Taste in a Fast Food World” A tome dedicated to the dying art of Haute Cuisine and the taste experience missing from so much food today. Part memoir, part rant. Mallet reminisces fondly of dishes such as Coquille St. Jacques, Sole Veronique and a host of other Escoffieresque concoctions, and takes great pains in bemoaning the fate of our culinary resources. All well and good. However, why are some of her other writings so blatantly contradictory towards many of the sentiments put forth in her book? In an article published in Food Arts Magazine in May 2008 titled “Beware the Neo-Puritans!” she criticizes Michael Pollan for being a political writer who is just one of the critics that is making food a surrogate for everything they find rotten in our way of life, but claims in her book that cookery is being killed by industrialized food production. She also criticizes Alice Waters for making people think that organic food’s real mission is to protest the evils of industrial food, inorganic chemicals, toxins, genetically modified ingredients, which are a devil-driven shortcut to increasing our food supply. She believes that the treatment of animals, factory farmed chicken etc. comes second to taste, poking fun at Jamie Oliver and his campaign to improve the conditions in the chicken industry. Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s River Cottage Meat Book is one of her favorites. Is it just the recipes and not the philosophy behind HFW’s take on meat production? A huge proponent of genetically engineered foods, synthetic pesticides and McDonalds, she also insists that farmed salmon farmed salmon is consistently better than wild. On one hand she states"I don't want to eat strawberries in January. I'd like to go back to the time when the seasons meant something", then gushes over this statement by her culinary idol:

“Hear, hear added the Queen, Delia Smith, Britain’s Julia Child, told the BBC that the taste of food mattered more than whether it was organic or environmentally friendly. She couldn’t get into the politics of food. The poor and pensioners needed cheap battery chicken. She was skeptical about food miles. She loved fresh shelled peas from Kenya in the winter".

On her blog, she recently took issue with a column by the N.Y. Times food writer Mark Bittman. Here it is Verbatim:

Stocking your kitchen may be controversial....
by Gina Mallet on Thu 08 Jan 2009 02:42 PM EST | Permanent Link | Cosmos
Mark Bittman of the NYT blogged his list of how to stock your kitchen!

He must have a very large kitchen and soooo much time and no weight problem....

Most egregious:

Use only dry beans. He claims they're more economical and better tasting.... Couldn't disagree more. Dry beans take time to cook and are rarely as reliably cooked and goodtasting than when canned. Tiny green Flageolets, chick peas, red beans, black beans.... and of course the cans are easy to keep.

Bittman nixes bouillon cubes. So easy to make your own bouillon, if you have the time. Fact is that chefs use bouillon cubes at home regularly.

OUT: Canned peas (and most other canned vegetables, come to think of it). Obviously Bittman has never tasted the great Cassegrain canned petit pois which is better than any fresh or frozen pea. Canned peaches are a lifesaver and better than fresh peaches picked unripe, their usual state.

OUT Minute Rice or boil-in-a-bag grains. Bittman says stores as many types of grains as you can - who has the space? The bagged mixed grains are a godsend, offering variety on a small and storable scale.

Canned Coconut milk? True it's good in v. small amounts. Unfortunately North Americans don't sell small cans that you find in British supermarkets. Canned coconut milk is very fattening and the lo-cal can tastes of milk of magnesia.

WALNUTS And/or other nuts: but how old are they? Once dried nuts do have a shelf life but you rarely know how old the nuts are when you buy them.

DRIED FRUIT For snacking!!! The drying process removes most of the useful vitamins and nutrients and leaves sugar and calories. Because dried fruit is condensed moreover, it also contains MORE sugar, calories and carbs per gram that its hydrated counterpart! For example, 100 grams of dried apricots contains 238 calories and 53 carbs, while 100 grams of fresh apricots weighs in at just 56 calories and 13 carbs.

Frozen shrimp is "incredibly" convenient. Tasteless too.

Why all the Snarkiness towards Mr. Bittman? Is it because Mr. Bittman, today, is perhaps one of the most respected and well-liked food writers in the business? After reading Mallet’s response to his article, one cannot help but feel a sense of jealousy on her part. She states that “Fact is that chefs use bouillon cubes at home regularly”. This statement is not a fact but comes second hand from a N.Y. Times article that she read. I found this in one of her blog posts from 2007:

“A few years ago, the NYT had a funny article - which of course I can't find now - about how many chefs make their own stock in the restaurant but at home use stock cubes. I picked up a tip - I toss a cube into the water in which I cook pasta and into the water of the vegetable steamer”.
The Irony of this is that it is an article from 1999 by, of all people, Mr. Bittman. ( It is obvious that he has changed his opinion regarding bouillon cubes and, most likely will tell you so.)

In her book she states:

“unless consumers stick up for taste, there won’t be any” (p. 218).

If she genuinely believes that, why be an an advocate for canned foods, bouillon cubes and a host of other dubious crap and bad practices? Why lash out at some of the people who do truly seem to care about taste? And why does the writing, viewpoint and attitude of this person turn my pen poisonous and my writing bitter?

Valentines Day Wine and Food Pairing Dinner

2009-02-04T00:19:00.007-05:00

We are now offering wine and food pairing dinners at the Boston Winery. The next one is on Valentines Day this coming February 14th. As opposed to a Valentines day restaurant setting, with cramped tables of 2, serviced by harried, overworked waitstaff, the dinner will be held in a rustic winery tasting room where participants will sit at tables of 10, enjoying the conviviality of friends and wine loving strangers alike. The dinner will begin at 7:00 PM and consist of 4 courses paired with 4 of Boston Winery’s handcrafted wines. During each course Scott Dahill, the Winery’s Sommelier, will give a detailed presentation on each wine served and Chef Mark DesLauriers will explain the food and the reason why it was paired with the accompanying wine.
The menu for this dinner will consist of the following courses and wines:

Mole Poblano Soup, Turkey Tortilla Dumplings
Barbera Syrah Blend

Roasted Beet and Goat Cheese Terrine,
Pistachio Gelée
Unfiltered Sauvignon Blanc Prosecco

Raspberry Scented Roast Cornish Game Hen, Wild Rice Pecan Pancakes, Winter Greens with Bacon
Super Tuscan

Warm Chocolate Crepe, Chocolate Mousse,
Strawberry Rum Sauce
Moscotto Canelli

The cost of the dinner is $95.00 per person and includes tax and gratuity.

We are really excited about doing ArtEpicure Cooking School events with this winery. Housed in a pre Civil War stone and brick building, a former nail factory, the Boston winery is a state of the art wine making facility that, in addition to making and bottling their own wines, offers the wine enthusiast the opportunity to create their own fine wine in an authentic winemaking facility. Individuals or groups can sign on to make a barrel of wine and go through the wine making process from start to finish with award winning wine makers from California and Italy. Also, you can just select the grape varieties, participate as little or as much as you would like, or even let them do all the work. The winery offers the choice of American or French oak barrels and a wide variety of premium grapes from Napa and Sonoma.
This is what happens:

Crushing / De-stemming: Scheduled in September and October, you will learn to crush and de-stem your grapes. This is the first step in the start of fermentation.

· Pressing: Following fermentation, you will press your “crush” onsite at the Winery. Prepare and fill your barrels. Your barrels are then stored in their climate controlled cellar.

· Racking: Generally scheduled in January or February, you will learn to remove the lees (sediment), clean the barrels, and top them off.

· Finalization: The final step is usually scheduled in August. It is the filtering, bottling, corking, and labeling. The automated bottling and corking equipment makes this step simple. You will then place your personalized labels on your bottles in this final step.

Please contact the winery for pricing for the wine making program. It does vary depending on the varietal and origin of the fruit. Wines are also available by the case at the winery. To book tickets for the Valentine’s dinner please click here.

Bean Cookery

2009-02-03T15:36:00.008-05:00

To soak or not to soak?
That is the question

While having my Sunday morning coffee I was looking through Diana Kennedy’s book “From My Mexican Kitchen, Techniques and Ingredients” and read her instructions for basic bean preparation:

“I do not agree with soaking beans over night, whether you discard the soaking water or not. To my taste the skins always develop an unpleasant flavor.”

I have always soaked dried beans overnight, so I went to the pantry and grabbed a bag of pinto beans, then followed her instructions. As always, pick through the beans for any stones or shriveled specimens. Then cover with cold water to clean and pick out any chaff. Drain and place the beans in your cooking vessel. She recommends a ceramic bean pot but any thick bottomed pot will do, I used a Le Creuset Dutch oven. Cover with hot water, making sure that it is at least 3 inches above the level of the beans. At this stage she states that some cooks like to add a little lard or maybe onion or garlic. I added nothing at this point. Bring to a boil, lower the heat and cover. Simmer for anywhere from 2 1/2 to 4 hours. Age is a factor, the older the beans, the longer the cooking time, so, with store bought beans you can’t really be sure how long they are going to take. Add water as needed during the cooking process. When the beans are just tender add salt to taste and continue cooking until done. There is controversy as to the addition of salt at the start of cooking. Some people believe that it causes the beans to be tough and emphatically avoid early salting. Others disagree and find no difference in tenderness but insist that the beans are more flavorful. Ms. Kennedy waits to add the salt because that is the traditionally preferred method in Mexican cooking but does not find any difference in texture. I have to agree with her. One observation of note that I made during the cooking process was that the unsoaked beans did not produce the gigantic layer of white foamy scum on top that one has to skim off. I emailed Harold McGee and asked him what was up with that? He replied that during the soaking process proteins are dissolved out of the beans and then coagulated during the cooking. This leads me to believe that unsoaked beans would contain more protein and therefore be more nutritious. I haven’t found an answer to that question yet; can anyone reading this provide any information? The finished beans came out with an incredibly smooth and creamy texture and seemed significantly more tender than usual. I will have to try a side by side cooking test, soaked vs. unsoaked to get an accurate opinion. However, I have been sold on the unsoaked method and will not be soaking my beans prior to cooking.

Legumes, (the family of plants which beans belong to) are the third largest family of plants in the world (behind orchids and daisies) and second only to grains in importance to the human diet. Culturally they are perhaps the most significant, as they are the backbone of so many of the heavy hitters of cuisine in nearly every gastronomic region.
Cassoulet, Frijoles Negro, Gigantes Elephantes, Boston Baked Beans, Pasta Fagioli, Bohneneintopf, Hummus, Succotash, etc. When you think about these dishes a distinct, timeless cultural identity, associated with each, comes to mind. It is possible to even buy the correct legumes to prepare these various cultural culinary icons authentically. Localvore it is not, but there is no comparison for the taste and texture of Castelluccio or Puy lentils, Giant Lima beans from Kastoria or French Tarbais beans. If you can’t get them in a local shop many online suppliers have the right bean for the right job and you can expand your global legume repertoire.

So what did I do with my beans once they were cooked? I simmered chopped leeks and garlic in a skillet, in 3 cups of olive oil with fresh thyme and rosemary. I added this to the beans, but only with a half cup of the olive oil. Leaving the remaining 2 1/2 cups in the skillet. I then finished seasoning the beans with a healthy dose of Pimenton de la Vera, chopped flat leaf parsley and a final adjustment of salt and pepper. Next I simmered peas in 2 cups of chicken stock for 1 minute, added butter, olive oil, orange zest, chopped scallions, salt, pepper and 2 cups of whole wheat couscous, stirring, covering and then set aside. I reheated the olive oil remaining in the skillet to 150 ˚ F and placed salmon fillets in the oil, poaching until medium rare to medium, about 3 or 4 minutes per side. I brushed the salmon with Citrus Beurre Blanc and squeezed on a few drops of fresh basil oil. Plate rustically, serve and enjoy. Oh, and the wine? We had this with a 100% Petit Verdot 2006 from Boston Winery, made in Boston with premium Sonoma fruit.

Nouvelle Cuisine

2009-01-20T16:21:00.006-05:00

Why it is still relevant

How many of you know what Nouvelle Cuisine is, or for that matter have a first hand familiarity with it? Recently in an interview that the British food journalist Jay Rayner conducted with Ferran Adria, the topic of Nouvelle Cuisine briefly came up. Chef Adria stated, “In 1987 we were trying to create a Spanish version of Nouvelle Cuisine.” Mr. Rayner’s response was “Not all Nouvelle Cuisine was popular, it had its critics.” To that, Chef Adria’s response was,” Anything that’s new always has its critics.” When it comes to food, art, music or architecture that statement could arguably be considered an absolute. In general, the majority of people are not comfortable with radical change. In 1987, In Spain, 12 years after the death of Franco, Chefs such as Mr. Adria could look back at the generation of Chefs in France, who were proponents of Nouvelle Cuisine, and feel an affinity towards their revolutionary philosophy and work. At the time when these Chefs in France started their experimentation, French people ate French food, period. People desired and consumed good food, but it was a food whose main focus emphasized the stable, consistent, and homogeneous sides of the relationship between eating practices and identity. Classic Haute Cuisine had been around for a long time. Its offerings of the exotic concerned themselves more with the addition of seasonings, as herbs and spices did not predominate in any way. For instance, á la Indienne meant the addition of curry, á la Chinois referred to the addition of ginger, etc. Nouvelle Cuisine was the first style of food preparation that incorporated actual fusion cooking. People were not used to having dining experiences where everything became strange and familiar at the same time and the boundary between that strangeness and familiarity was thrown out the window. This shocked and frightened some people in the same way that the art of the Impressionists did when they burst upon the scene in the 1860’s.

In 1968 France experienced tumultuous times that, all things considered, was more of a revolution than an accident. Although law and order had been restored, new ideas were flying across Europe and parts of the world. Cinema, which was a French invention, was a part of that revolution. Young directors, specifically Jean Luc Godard, François Truffaut, Louis Malle, and Alain Resnais, had begun to shake the celluloid establishment with incendiary articles in the infamous journal Cahiers du Cinema. With their new cinematic style, known as "La Nouvelle Vague" (the new wave) they turned their back on the conventional cinema style, heavy equipment and stock scenarios, and instead focused on imagination and ingenuity. Handheld cameras were employed cinema verité style and new techniques created a more lively and realistic style of film. Cinema changed forever. The gastronomic world was soon to follow.

The term Nouvelle Cuisine has been used many times in the history of French cuisine. In the 1740s for example, the work of Vincent La Chapelle, François Marin and Menon was described as Nouvelle Cuisine, and in the 1880s and 1890s, even the cooking of Georges Auguste Escoffier was described with the term. The label “Nouvelle Cuisine” just as the label “Impressionist” was created by the press and not by its practitioners.
The modern usage can be attributed to authors Henri Gault and Christian Millau, to describe the cooking of Paul Bocuse, Alain Chapel, Jean and Pierre Troisgros, Michel Guérard, Roger Vergé, Louis Outhier and Raymond Oliver, many of who were apprentices of Fernand Point.
Point created his own spin on Haute Cuisine transporting classic French Cuisine into a style that was lighter and more individualized. He did not agree that the classical cooking of Escoffier must be followed without deviation if it did not satisfy his and his clientele’s taste. Point believed that great cuisine should not be static and that a chef cannot live in the past and not go further. One should work from the fundamental building blocks of cooking and then modify and refine upon them to suit changing tastes in changing times. By creating a new style of cuisine he broke new ground for his fellow chefs. Before Point, the chef stayed in the kitchen, but that was about to change. He came into the dining room to talk to his clients, sounded out their likes and dislikes and composed their dinner with them, creating dishes to their tastes. This style was to be adopted by the young cooks working under him who later became founders of a new cooking movement and the first “Star Chefs” in the public arena.

In March 1969 Henry Gault, Christian Millau and André Gayot founded Le Nouveau Guide, a monthly magazine devoted to food and wine, the first of its kind in France, which also included an alternative rating system to the famed Michelin guide. In 1973, in number fifty-four of their guide, Gault and Millau published the ten commandants of Nouvelle Cuisine, among which they advocated that:
One should reduce cooking time
Use best quality and fresh from the market products
Offer a shorter menu
Keep open to new developments
Do away with marinades and game hanging
Cook sauces that were less rich
Respect dietary rules
Use a simple estheticism
Be creative
Friendship
Nouvelle cuisine became all the rage in the fine dining establishments of France. It was everywhere, on television, on the radio, in the newspapers; people talked about it and held controversial discussions. The chefs who started this movement were the first rock star chefs. They became rich enough to purchase their own restaurants and become their own masters. However, this inspired many less talented chefs to follow suit. Unfortunately for several of them, what ought to have been simple, original, or healthy food became ridiculous, epitomized by bad fusion and over priced, parsimonious portions. The writers and critics, who had praised the best chefs, now did the same with the wannabees, and gave their seal of approval to gastronomic mutations. As a result, by the 1980s, Nouvelle Cuisine had lost its appeal.

Today, when one reflects upon the 10 commandments of Nouvelle Cuisine, it is not difficult to see the correlation between the cooking of those chefs our contemporary kitchen. Cooking time is reduced in regards to taste and texture. Methods such as sous vide lengthen the time but produce better results. This has much to do with embracing new developments. Top quality products, purveyed from the local marketplace, have become the norm. Although lengthy, small portion, seasonal prix fixe menus have become routine for better restaurants, they no longer offer 12 page ala carte ones. Marinades are still used but the time involved is much shorter especially when used under vacuum. For the most part, starch based thickeners have all but disappeared, replace by sauces thickened with vegetable and fruit purees and hydrocolloids.
Dietary rules are much more scrutinized as chefs strive to create a balance on the plate. Today’s cuisine is esthetically pleasing while shying away from pretentious ornamentation. Food has never been more creative than it is today. And the last of these rules, friendship has never been so apparent in the culinary arts as it is today with chefs from all over the world collaborating and joining together to support various causes.

Yes, Nouvelle Cuisine had it’s critics with a fair portion of the criticism duly deserved, However, for many of us who were around at the time of it’s inception, the beauty, brilliance and freedom it offered was breathtaking. It is these precise attributes that have so affected the modern kitchen and helped thrust it into the 21st century.

Chef Endorsements

2009-01-07T17:04:00.007-05:00

Is There a Responsibility?

A statement I had made concerning “Iron Chef” Cat Cora, contained in a comment on a blog article by Bret Thorn of Nations Restaurant News, drew this response from him:

“I’m not sure why you and anonymous commenter #2 feel a need to pick on Cat Cora, who has many years’ experience working in restaurants and who told me she was working with Simplot on Upsides because she likes the product line. I think she’s doing well enough for herself that she doesn’t need to work with things she doesn’t believe in, and at any rate I don’t see a need to doubt her word out-of-hand.
And she’s enough of a celebrity that my nine-year-old nephew knows who she is. That’s pretty good.”

In my comment I had stated:
“Many, like myself, are dedicated to quality food rather than celebrity, especially if the price of fame and money means flogging processed institutional crap like Cat Cora is doing with Simplot.”

This got me thinking about chefs endorsing products. Guy Fieri and Applebee’s, why not? He has a show called Diners, drive-ins and dives, it’s not as if he’s being contradictory, and it’s not as though he’s a chef associated with quality food. But, on the other hand, it’s endorsements like his, along with Rachel Ray shilling for Dunkin’ Donuts, that send the wrong message to children in this country, who are more susceptible to obesity and diabetes than ever, that the TV Chef that Mommy likes says it’s okay to eat this stuff. Yum-o!!!

I started looking at the History of Chef endorsements and the one of the earliest I could find, with real chefs, was a book titled “How Famous Chefs Use Marshmallows” from 1930. It is produced by the Campfire Marshmallow Company in order to illustrate how diverse their product is and how these professional Chefs, all of them European, use them to create wonderful gourmet haute cuisine. Life probably wasn’t that much simpler then when it came to getting by but I think that back then, people were less concerned with any of the moral and ethical quandaries concerning their daily bread.

I have no beef with Cat Cora and didn’t mean to come across as “picking on her”. She’s not breaking any laws, stealing from the poor or drowning kittens. I am sure she has worked hard to get where she is, and does do a lot of good through the philanthropic organizations that she works with. I do think though, that someone, who is touted as an “Iron Chef”, lauded by the media, looked upon by the general public as one of the leading Chefs in the country, might try to be more representative of the ideals and ethics of the Chefs who she proudly lists on her website as her mentors. Simplot, one of the world’s largest agribusinesses, inventor of the McDonald’s frozen French fry, operator of a 50 million dollar per year cattle feedlot business, manufacturer of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, every type of processed food product imaginable, is not the type of company that one of her mentors, Larry Forgione, the father of the farm-to-table restaurant movement would care to be associated with.

Through the writing and reporting from journalists such as Eric Schlosser, Michael Pollan and Michael Ruhlman, people have formed more succinct opinions regarding huge conglomerates like Simplot. Most Chefs really don’t care all that much if their peers like them, or care if some 9 year old knows who they are. However, they generally do care whether or not their food and cooking is respected.

Butter Poached Lobster

2009-01-02T17:51:00.006-05:00

A cooking method that has become trendy with lobster, as of late, is butter poaching. Although neither new nor groundbreaking, thanks to Thomas Keller, and numerous write-ups of his butter poached lobster at the French Laundry, this technique has become the preference of many chefs. It involves killing the lobster, breaking it down, making stock then sauce from the shells, cooking the tails, claws and knuckles, removing that meat from it’s shells, vacuum sealing the meat with butter (a zip lock bag will suffice) and reheating the meat sous vide style while the accompanying side dishes are prepared. I recently taught a class showcasing this and decided to prepare the same dish for my New Year’s Eve dinner.

Butter Poached Lobster With Butternut Squash Risotto

Using a knife, pierce the lobster’s head and split it to kill it. Tear the tail from the body and wrap it in plastic film, keeping it shaped in a ball. Tear the arms off the body leaving the claws attached to them. Place the tail and claws in a pot of simmering water. Cook the claws for 4 minutes then remove. Allow the tails to simmer for 2 more minutes, remove and allow them to cool. Using kitchen shears extract the meat from the shells, leaving the tails and claws whole, and vacuum seal or enclose in a zip lock bag, squeezing as much air out as possible, with 1 ounce butter for each portion (1 lobster per person) and set aside in the fridge. Meanwhile make the sauce.

Spiced Lobster Sauce

4 T vegetable oil
Head and shells from 6 lobsters
1 fennel bulb chopped
3 cloves garlic chopped
4 shallots chopped
8 knobs ginger sliced
4 dried red chilies
10 Tarragon leaves
4 T tomato paste
10 dried shrimp
1 star anise
2 T lemongrass paste
1 c Dry white wine
8 cups water
4 Kaffir lime leaves
8 cilantro sprigs
3 cups diced butternut squash

In a large pan cook the shells with the oil on medium high for 5 minutes. Add the other ingredients except the water, squash, coconut milk cilantro and lime leaves. Mix well, cooking for 5 more minutes, then add the water.
Bring to a boil and simmer for 15 minutes. Remove from the heat and let sit 10 minutes more and strain through a fine mesh strainer lined with cheesecloth. Add the remaining ingredients and simmer 20 minutes. Puree in a blender or with a wand mixer, pass through a fine mesh strainer, adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper and set aside, keeping warm.

Heat a large pot of water to 145˚ F (63˚ C) and place the bags of lobster meat in the water as you start preparing the risotto.

Butternut Squash Risotto

6-8 cups chicken broth (use vegetable broth for vegetarian option)
8 T unsalted butter, divided into 2 Tbsp and 6 Tbsp
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 cups butternut squash, peeled, and finely diced
2 cups Arborio rice
1 cup dry white wine
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
Salt and pepper to taste

Heat broth in medium sized saucepan and keep warm over low heat. Melt 2 Tbsp of butter in a large saucepan; add onion and butternut squash. Cook over medium heat until onion is translucent, about 5 minutes.
Add rice to onion and squash. Cook 1 to 2 minutes. Add wine. Cook, stirring constantly until wine has been absorbed by the rice or evaporated. Add a few ladles of broth; just enough to barely cover rice. Cook over medium heat until broth has been absorbed. Continue cooking and stirring rice, adding a little bit of broth at a time, cooking and stirring until it is absorbed, until the rice is tender, but still firm to the bite, about 15 to 20 minutes.
During the last minute of cooking, add remaining butter and Parmesan. At this point the rice should have a creamy consistency. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Plating and Garnish

Chive Oil
1/2 cup chopped chives
1/2 cup vegetable oil

Place ingredients in a blender and puree until smooth then pass through a fine mesh strainer. Have this made ahead and ready to serve. Use a squeeze bottle to dispense.

Watercress Salad
4 ounces watercress
2 T olive oil
2 tsp rice wine vinegar
Salt and pepper to taste

Mix together right before plating

Radish Sprouts

Remove the bags of lobster from the waterbath, cut off the tops and slide the meat into a pre-warmed bowl or pan. Place a serving spoon of risotto in the center of the plate, using a ring mold if you prefer a more symmetrical presentation. Surround this with sauce. Place a lobster tail in the center of the risotto and put the claws on each side with the knuckle meat around each claw. Drizzle chive oil in little pools onto the sauce. Place a small pile of the watercress salad on one side of the lobster tail and a clutch of radish sprouts alongside the other, then serve.

The Wine? Since it was New Year’s Eve, we wanted something bubbly and served this with a Blason de Bourgogne, Cremant Rosé, A sparkling wine from Chablis in the Burgundy region, made with Chardonnay and Pinot Noir grapes, using the Champagne method. However, this dish would pair really well with an Alsatian Gewürztraminer or Riesling.

This might seem like a lot of work but it really isn’t much more trouble than preparing lasagna. This cooking method for the lobster will insure that the texture, moisture and flavor will not be diminished and your guests will remark that it’s the best lobster they have ever had.

The Chef Debate

2008-12-12T12:49:00.007-05:00

Chefs, Celebrity Chefs, Top Chef and Public perception.

My father was a Chef. As a young child it was a minor source of social discomfort and embarrassment for me. Growing up in the early 1960's my friend's fathers all had professions that us kids were familiar with. Either through day to day interaction or portrayed in countless television shows and movies. The only time you would see a male chef on television was occasionally on the 3 Stooges, not a good example. The experience my peers had with people who cooked for a living was limited to contact with school cafeteria ladies or the women at the Woolworth's lunch counter. If children did get to go with their parents out to a fancy restaurant, the kitchen was a place of mystery behind closed doors. Women cooked, men barbecued. I knew different, I had been in my father's kitchen and visited his chef friends at work. There were certain days during the school year when a friend's father might come into our class and describe to us his profession. I was always relieved that my father was too busy to participate. Today, with the abundance of high profile male chefs, celebrated in every form of mass media, a child would feel different.

"If you got into this business to be the next Emeril, you should apologize to your parents for wasting their money." Tom Colicchio

Bret Thorn, the Editor at Nation's Restaurant News, a trade publication, recently penned an article on his blog titled: "When is a Celebrity Chef too Much of a Celebrity?" The article was, in essence, more of a diatribe against the television show Top Chef than a dialogue regarding the role of celebrity Chefs today. Back in my father's time Chefs weren't really respected other than being in the kitchen. You rarely saw them in the dining room interacting with people. Now all of a sudden, people have started looking at chefs and saying, "Wow! That person really is a craftsman, is really a business person, they can do publicity, they can act". Some people do begrudge celebrity chefs their fame though. One major complaint is that some have too many restaurants and other ventures going on, so how can they be cooking for you? Even a Chef who is running a single restaurant, and is present every night, in most instances, will not be touching your food. If you bought a Karl Lagerfeld dress do you think that the great designer himself was hunched over the sewing machine making sure your seams were straight? In the majority of better restaurants the Executive Chef spends the brunt of his time administrating and hires well qualified people to execute, under his guidance and direction, the cuisine that he creates. Even then, it's still a life of long hours of hard work. So it should not be difficult to see why someone, who has spent many years working that hard, would want to trade kitchen time for P.R. work and travel, promoting themselves and their craft.

As for Top Chef, Mr. Thorn's beef was more with the fans of the show and the worry that it promotes egomania, fosters unrealistic expectations in culinary students and aspiring chefs and is detremental to the industry in general. He does admit that he doesn't watch the show though and his opinion is based on buzz and hype. In a New York Times article Frank Bruni commented that perhaps Mr. Thorn was being a little too grumpy. I have to agree. Rising to fame and fortune via reality TV is as likely as stumbling across a sack of money by the side of the road. I believe that most graduating culinary students are aware of that and have chosen culinary arts because they genuinely like food and cooking, even though some of them don't have the natural talent or aptitude to ever cook professionally. Yes, Top Chef does have some participants that are not likable, but that is no different than any other pursuit we might find ourselves in. What I like about the show is that it makes me think, as a chef, about the food and the cooking that is going on. What would I make in that challenge? What menu would I create with those given ingredients? What would I do to win any particular challenge? How could they screw that up? I wouldn't care to be on the show, but it does make me think as a contestant when I watch it. Mr Thorn, who I do respect as a writer, and someone who has a passion and love for the culinary arts, should give the show a chance and perhaps look at it as though he were a chef.

Nigerian Scam email for Chefs

2008-12-12T09:28:00.004-05:00

I received this today. I have had a couple of Nigerian scam emails (I say Nigerian but this could be from anywhere, it's just that the Nigerians were the ones that made this style of scamming famous) in the past but never one that is Chef oriented. It does have the obligatory typos and charming coloquial English usage. What fun!

Hello There,
How are you doing today?.Thank you for your interest concerning our job position.We're opening a new resturant & kitchen in your location very soon & we cannot disclose the name for now due to some privacy issue.The resturant & kitchen will be open by january 2009,and i hope you can ACT very well and be one of our grate chef.You will be working 3 to 4 hrs a day 3 times a week,you will have to choose any days of the week and time that will be comfortable for you and without disturbing your full time job if you have any.We have our own cooking details and prescription for each kind of dishes that is to be prepare.Concerning your pay,you will be getting $500 per week.Your first week salary will be given to you as upfront to secure your service legitimately and to get yourself prepare and ready for the job.

You're going to receive a certified check for the payment,kindly go ahead and deposit it with your bank for verification so that the check can clear your account.Deduct your own fee for 2 weeks which is $1000 and you're going to send the rest to the interior decorator that will be furnishing the resturant.The reason why you're getting paid now is because we don't want any delay when the resturant is ready and understand that this is a help by sending the rest of the funds to the interior agent. So if you are interested in this position,kindly get back to me with the following details in order to facilitate the payment.

*YOUR FULL NAME
*YOUR HOME ADDRESS
*MOBILE PHONE NUMBER
*HOME PHONE NUMBER
*YOUR AGE
*YOUR PICTURE

Thank you for your co-operation and i will be looking forward hearing back from you as soon as possible
Best Regards.
James Williams.

Does this sound too good to be true? I'll bet it is!

From the Wonders of the Exotic to the Locavore Revolution

2008-12-02T12:29:00.015-05:00

From the Wonders of the Exotic to
the Locavore Revolution

In 2007 the Oxford English Dictionary declared Locavore as word of the year. It came as no surprise to anyone who chooses cooking and dining as one of life’s grand pursuits. Books such as the Omnivores Dilemma, by Michael Pollen, Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and the 100 Mile Diet from Alisa Smith and J. B. MacKinnon inspired many a foodie to babble the terms “carbon footprint” and “sustainability” any time the conversation turned culinary. The history of food trade and transport is as interesting as it is long. Throughout history foreign trade has helped, by way of shaping our diet, to define us both culturally and ethnically. A new moral thinking regarding the environment and animal welfare, combined with fears of a future Blade Runner-esque dystopia, and a societal shift towards a greener lifestyle, has people shying away from foodstuffs from afar. Call it hippy light. Call it what you want. It’s what all the cool kids are doing.

Back in the day, if you were a chef, to be cutting edge meant getting the goods from as absolutely far away as possible. I recently listened to some archival recordings from the Canadian Broadcasting Company and found this piece about a luncheon given in Montreal in 1947 by the aviation wing of the Canadian Board of Trade to promote the air transportation of food. It’s ironic to hear the gleeful pride in the broadcasters voice as she reports the air miles traveled and number of airlines employed for the transport of each and every item. The grand total for this one meal, 92,271 miles. As a chef in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s I remember how thrilling it was to get exotic foodstuffs from around the globe. Carbon footprints? Global warming? We had yet to grapple with these issues. It wasn’t as though you were chucking an empty soda can out of the car window. I did buy pigs and cured hams from a local farmer, Catfish and turtle from a man who ran a boat on the Wabash River and local produce when I could get it. However, as a chef, I really wanted to work with the foods that I had, up till then, only read about. Along came Walter Martin and Andrew Udelson, 2 young entrepreneurs, with a revolutionary startup called Flying Foods International. They flew virtually everywhere for items that a lot of us chefs never had the opportunity to work with before. Real langoustines from the Mediterranean, roe scallops from the Isle of Man, haricot vert from Tahiti, passion fruit from New Zealand, Belon oysters from Brittany, fresh truffles from the Perigord, the list goes on. You have to remember at that time, produce such as haricot vert and passion fruit were not grown domestically. Can you imagine, in 1983 dollars, paying five dollars for one passion fruit or five dollars per pound for imported green beans? Today chefs generate the same emotion by having products produced in their own back yard as they did thirty years ago with something from halfway around the world.

The experiments that some are conducting by only eating items produced in close proximity are interesting if anything. But how far can one go? Forge one’s own cutlery? Tan your own leather from road kill? We should consume more locally when possible but realize that, Époisses only comes from Burgundy, real balsamic vinegar from Reggio Emilia and Jamon Iberico from Spain. Terroir and tradition cannot be duplicated nor should it. We can't pick peppercorns or harvest cinnamon bark in Massachusetts but if you can find a good pair of shoes or shirt made locally go for it. And if you can get hand made pasta from a little village in Tuscany, go for that too.

America's First Ethnic Food

2008-11-10T01:03:00.005-05:00

Isn’t it interesting how the current economic crisis has fueled more than a little interest in the great Depression? A topic that one is most certain to discuss when pondering the hardships of that time is how and what people ate. In the early 1930’s the average American family, unless they were immigrants, usually subsisted on a diet of seasonal fruits and vegetables, meat, dairy, legumes and dry good groceries, nearly all of it unprocessed because processed foods, especially canned vegetables, were too expensive for many. Today, in stark comparison, those who are struggling financially subsist on a diet composed primarily of processed foods as the cost of fresh produce has skyrocketed.

One foodstuff that became a staple during those tough times was America’s first mass consumed ethnic food, spaghetti. During prohibition many of the boarding houses in the Italian section of New York City, who had recently had their supply of boarders cut off by immigrant restrictions, morphed into informal restaurants in order to make ends meet. These Italian immigrants, mainly from the southern part of Italy, where pasta and tomatoes were the backbone of their diet, finding the prohibition laws ludicrous, and contrary to their culture, served homemade wine and beer and moonshine grappa to their fellow Italian clientele. It was not long before Americans, seeking drink, started frequenting these establishments. By the 1930’s there were over 600 Italian restaurants in New York City.

Many other ethnic eateries opened their doors and flourished before the spaghetti houses in Greenwich Village attracted their first American customers. In 1828 the Delmonico brothers opened up a European confectionary shop and, 2 years later, added hot food, prepared in the French manner to their menu. French cuisine was so normal to the American cook that it wasn’t even looked upon as foreign but instead viewed merely as high class. The Chinese that arrived in San Francisco during the gold rush opened eateries, and with the building of the Transcontinental Railroad, moved East and set up restaurants in New York’s Chinatown before the turn of the 20th century. Jewish, German, Russian and Armenian immigrants all opened restaurants before or around the same time as the Italians.

Despite all the different cuisines made available to the public, Spaghetti was the county’s first true ethnic food because it was the first one that the average housewife accepted, cooked at home and fed to her family. The depression was made to order for the popularization of spaghetti. In the early1930’s The Macaroni Manufacturers Association spent over 1 million dollars on a campaign promoting the nutritional and economic benefits of pasta. The food editors from newspapers and women’s magazines touted spaghetti as the ideal food and, when combined with tomato sauce and grated cheese, the most nutritiously balanced meal for it’s cost.

Unfortunately, when reading recipes from the cookbooks of that time, one comes away with the feeling that most of them would be an affront to today’s palate. Al dente was not a term familiar to Americans for some time yet. It was advised that spaghetti be cooked until soft and tender. These cookbook versions bore no resemblance to the Italian version, except the tomatoes and, in some instances, even that was bastardized. A typical sauce recipe would be tomatoes cooked with salt and sugar, however, it was not unusual to see a recipe calling for canned tomato soup seasoned with Worcestershire or a recommendation in an army cookbook of that time to substitute ketchup for tomato pulp. Thomas Jefferson had the first pasta machine in America in 1789 but it took the Great Depression to turn what was once an ethnic oddity into what is one of today’s most popular dishes.

From the Can to the Pan: part 1

2008-11-07T09:14:00.004-05:00

The canning process dates back to the late 18th century in France when the Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, concerned about keeping his armies fed, offered a cash prize of 12000 Francs to whomever could develop a reliable method of food preservation. Nicholas Appert conceived the idea of preserving food in bottles, like wine. After 15 years of experimentation, he realized that if food is sufficiently heated and sealed in an airtight container, it will not spoil. An Englishman, Peter Durand, took the process one step farther and developed a method of sealing food into unbreakable tin containers, which was perfected by Bryan Dorkin and John Hall, who set up the first commercial canning factory in England in 1813. As more and more of the world was explored, and as provisioning armies took on greater importance, the demand for canned foods grew. Thomas Kensett, who emigrated to the United States, established the first U.S. canning facility for oysters, meats, fruits and vegetables in New York in 1812. More than 50 years later, Louis Pasteur provided the explanation for canning's effectiveness when he was able to demonstrate that the growth of microorganisms is the cause of food spoilage.

Last night I opened a gift that I received, a can of Cassoulet au Canard (a duck, bean and sausage stew) from France. It actually tasted homemade. Upon looking at the ingredient list the reason was quite evident.

Lingot beans 35%
Grilled pork sausage 33%
Containing: pork, pork liver, water, salt, pepper.
Duck 20%
Sauce
Containing: water, tomato, duck fat, garlic, salt, pepper

Pretty basic, right? Why then are the majority of canned foods that we get here loaded with products that, up until 25 years ago, did not exist.? Why are preservatives used in a process that doesn’t require any? My parents used to talk about cooking during the depression and substituting oats for half of the meat when making chipped beef. Today the food processors, thanks to the corn and soy based farm industry, have cut costs by incorporating fillers that serve no nutritional or flavor purpose. I thought that it would be interesting if I could find a domestic equivalent. Or, maybe it’s best to can my own main course meals. Canning isn’t just for jams, relishes and vegetables. Part 2 of this article will be a report chronicling my search and part 3 will have the details and recipes of my own entrée canning project.

Alinea the Book

2008-11-03T11:17:00.010-05:00

With the release of Grant Achatz's new Alinea cookbook, and the companion website Mosaic, a great service has been done for those wishing to gain an understanding of Postmodernist cuisine.

Achatz and his business partner, Nick Kokonas, self published and by doing so, have achieved a level of control and freedom that is unprecedented in the annals of book publishing. And it is that freedom and control that is allowing them to utilize the internet as they see fit to create an online Alinea community. Also by publishing in this manner, they have been able to keep the price at $50.00 or under, no small feat when contemporary chef/restaurant books of this quality and scope sell in the $200.00 plus range.

To quote Kokonas, "What we are trying to do here is much more than publishing a book, because with the website, we're going to be adding to the book continuously after the publication date. What we're most excited about is the chance to build an Alinea community. We've already started to do that with the restaurant, and now with the book and the website, we can take that community to a whole new level."

For many the book will serve primarily as a portal into a genre of cuisine practiced by Achatz and other chefs such as Heston Blumenthal, Wylie Dufresne and Homero Cantu, not to mention Feran Adria, whose El Bulli books are mind blowing in there owm right.
The New York Times writer Julia Moskin recently pointed out in an article titled "Some Heavy Reading, Recipes Included." covering several new cookbooks, that attempting to prepare many of the recipes from this book is a daunting task. Some recipes have over 20 sub recipes that require completion before assembling the final product. But there are also quite a few simpler recipes with easy to follow instructions, and on the Mosaic website, video tutorials. I hope that even if one does not attempt many of the recipes, a better understanding of creativity and craftsmanship and an inspiration to explore will be obtained.

Pumpkin Time

2008-09-23T15:59:00.006-04:00

Prior to grocery shopping last weekend I was looking through Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstalls River Cottage Cookbook and came upon a stuffed pumpkin dish that I knew I had to try. This is pure, rustic, autumn country cooking at it's finest. He had hollowed out a medium sized pumpkin, filled it with Gruyere cheese and cream, then baked it until the pumpkin flesh was cooked through and the inside molten. Pretty simple.
I found miniature pumpkins at the market and decided to localize the ingredients by using aged Vermont Cheddar and dried cranberries but then then threw the whole localvore gimmick out the window with the addition of Parmigiano Reggiano and Pecorino Tartufo.

I used 3 parts Cheddar, 1 part Parmigiano and 1 part Pecorino. I mixed in grated nutmeg, black pepper and a little salt with the cheese.
After deseeding the pumpkins I put a layer of dried cranberries in the bottom, filled them with the cheese mixture to the top, added cream, also to the top. placed the lids back on and baked at 375 degrees for about 45 minutes until the flesh pierced easily with a fork. As I said, this is about as easy as it gets to obtain something that tastes so good.

Inspiration for Oysters

2008-09-07T12:27:00.005-04:00

A few days ago I purchased the book The Oysters Of Locmariaquer by Eleanor Clark.

Though first written in 1964 it is a book that I had not read before. I purchased a 2006 softcover edition with an introduction by Mark Kurlansky whose book, The Big Oyster, History On The Half Shell, is a more recent tome dedicated to humanity's favorite bivalve.
Written at a time closer to World War Two than present day, this book does much to capture an era and cultural lifestyle in Brittany that has come to pass.
The prose are in a style similar to that of M.F.K. Fisher sans the self importance and sense of entitlement. After reading this particular passage, quoted below, I was compelled to head over to my local fishmonger, New Deal Fish Market, and purchase a couple of dozen.

"It is briny first of all, and not in the sense of brine in a barrel, for the preservation of something; there is a shock of freshness to it. Intimations of the ages of man, some piercing intuition of the sea and all its weeds and breezes shiver you a split second from that little stimulus on the palate. You are eating the sea, that's it, only the sensation of a gulp of sea water has been wafted out of it by some sorcery, and are on the verge of remembering you don't know what, mermaids or the sudden smell of kelp on the ebb tide or a poem you read once, something connected with the flavor of life itself..."

The author is writing about the Amoricaine or Belon oyster, the flat one, the most prized and arguably best oyster in the world, the one which most Americans have never experienced. I knew that I couldn't get those but New Deal happened to have Island Creek Oysters of Duxbury Massachusetts on hand, a briny, buttery variety that garners much praise and attention from oyster aficionados.
I returned home with the idea of doing oysters several different ways. raw, roasted poached and fried but opted instead for the simplest most direct method for the ultimate in oyster enjoyment; on the half shell with a mignonette.

Ponzu pickled ginger mignonette
3/4 C seasoned rice wine vinegar
1/4 C ponzu
3 T minced shallots
1/4 C minced pickled ginger
black pepper to taste
2 dozen oysters

I hadn't had oysters in a couple of months, a negligent oversight on my part for which I have no excuse. Whether it's been 2 days, 2 weeks, 2 months or 2 years the effect of a freshly shucked oyster on the palate is an unrivaled taste sensation that I never grow tired of.