fishmansam

Shrimp and Scallop flan with Lobster sauce. And some very good champagne. There had been a full dinner menu planned, but the next meal was breakfast. As a restaurant chef i had certain resources available to me most of you can't lay hands on. But there's something about a custard.... it always "worked" and i saw customers swoon over each other, too.

Jeez. I've been in the rest.biz for most of the last 32 years (25 of em in NYC) and hence claim a certain amount of expertise in the field. About the only thing truly realistic is the "types" who popultate my industry. The drama quotiest, clearly scripted by the way, would never be tolerated. By the same token, the notion of a waitron being canned for taking a drink with a customer is rqually ludicrous. Alchohol is the lubricant that keeps the restaurant engine turning. Having your aging mom sweating it out in the basement making meatballs everyday??? For that alone Rocco should burn. The most genuine moments have come recently, when Rocco gets squeezed by his backers. (My favorite episode hands down!!!) What i'm wondering is "How did Culinary Institue of America get conned into letting this evil little ewok do a commencement adress???" Has america gone so reality TV crazy that they'd rather watch dinner than eat it???

as an 30 year plus professional chef and allpurpose food guy expat new york/NJ now living in "The Valley" of LA, i gotta tell you there's nothing like NYC style pizza by the slice. preferably a "reheat." they don't even come close out here. anything cooked in Ft. Lee or Englewood is great. i was a regular at both the Ft. Lee and Plaza diners circa early 70's and still swear they had the best rice pudding ever !!! ---Chef Sam----

It ain't gonna happen, dude. Born in NYC. lived there most of 50 years. Lifelong ProChefGuy. I live in LA now, and just fugghetaboutit. You fold have neither the skills nor the water to do it. Yeast is a living thing, viz SF Sourdough bread. You cant replicate it anywhere else. I'm as much of a Pizza expert as you'd wanna meet, i learned to it professionally from the very best. Cally cooks oughta just do something else. And for the record, bad as your pizza is, the bagels are much,much, worse!!!

Weird as it was, the OLD version of the "ProChef" was one of the 'gotta have its' for all of us restaurant and catering chefs. like any good good book you just had to know its limitations and perspective. yes, the recipes made everything too thick, too well done, too sweet and too commercial. but they were SUPPOSED to. but where else could a seat of the pants 24 year old in his first chefs job in NYC learn how many egg yolks you needed for a mayo, roux for a huge pot of Mornay, whites to clarify a stock, the right amount of fat for a pate, etc. all in one book? i wish i still had mine, i actually wore it out. the new one is like politically correct "new american cuisine" lite. on the more cerebral plane, this whole idea of an emerging New American Food is a laugher to me. its been emerging since the Pilgrims looked cockeyed at corn. we may no longer be a "melting pot" here in the USA, but rather what NY Mayor David Dinkins called "a beautiful mosaic." what would be so wrong with going back to the classics of american food modernized rather than going off in search of a menu featuring minted pea shoot puree with alaska fiddle heard fern frizzle and stone ground Minnesota Wild "Rice" dumplings et al. Eat Italian on tuesday, BBQ wednesday, NY Deli on Thursday, Chinese Take Out and Pizza on Friday, a great French meal on Saturday, and cook at home for chrissake on Sunday. If anythings truly wrong with modern american eating its that its take out based and stands idly by as the family unit disintergrates for lack of a good meal with everyone in attendance. at least thats what i think. i told you not to get me started.

Thanks still again for your support. Its a Sally Fields at the Oscars thing for me: "They LIKE me !! They REALLY LIKE me." Viz my first meal: I was released from the Federal Building in Phoenix, and there's a Hyatt virtually across the street. (I could've gone back to CCA/CADC FLorence to pick up my stuff and spend another night, but the decision was a no brainer). I had a couple of club sodas at the bar, and checked in. Lay down on a very comfy bed that didn't have a bunk above me, looked out a window more than four inches wide for the first time in months, and called room service. Had a beautiful 2" thick pork chop with mashed potatoes and fresh vegetables (what a treat those veggies were!!!). a salad with watercress and mesclun and great olive oil and lemon, fresh pepper and roquefort. In schmoozing the guy on the phone i mentioned that i was a chef, and the room service guys sent me a big dessert dealy and a basket of fresh fruit (also unknown in prison, its too easily turned into alchohol.) I ate very slowly. About an hour later i started REALLY ordering some food. Sam

Hello. I am currently a free man, living in the "Valley" in LA. I'd like to thank all of you for your support and kind words while i was incarcerated. Additionally, i'd like to thank my lifelong friend Anthony Bourdain and his lovely wife Nancy for reading my babbling letters, taking my complaining phone calls, and getting me "published." I'd like to answer several questions that were posed by readers, and with luck my possesions and notebooks left behind in prison will eventually find me. Just for the record, prison sucks. The food is just the tip of a large iceberg of suck-dom. At age 49, i was locked up for the first time in my life, once is more than enough. I didn't rob or cheat or hurt anyone, nor were drugs involved. Suffice to say i hurt only myself, and i say with some confidence that i learned my lesson. Thanks again. Stay tuned. Chef Sam