Richard Hamilton

Champe is a great chef. Give his place a try. I cannot wait to try before I leave Rhode Island. I am a fellow chef and know great food and his always delivers. Champe bring em in and make them weep with your great food. Best Richard

Having known Champe and being a fellow chef I would recommend his food and certainly cannot wait to eat his food here before I leave Rhode Island. Hes a good man and a great chef. Good luck Champe. Bring em in and make them weep with your great food. Richard

We both fish together. He likes to fish except when it cold. we also use worms but live mainly and we also have used stink bait. As far as prep, he likes his with cornmeal and i like mine sauteed till crisp, because i like the skin very crisp. He likes tartare sauce and I like just a bit of lemon or even a mixture of soy wassabi

Walleye comes form the great lakes of Michigan and up around canada. we have a hotel up there. I go and fish in that area and fell in love with this fish. Its great this time of year.

Bux, Thank you. It was my pleasure to be here and I hope I helped or enlightened you in some way. Good luck and thank you for your time here. Take care

Well first, mymneu is large. Let me see if I can post it here PACIFIC SUN FISH ON ASIAN VEGETABLES WITH GINGER-MUSHROOM CONSOMMÉ AND CRISPY GARLIC OR PUMPKIN VELOUTE WITH PINE MUSHROOMS, POACHED QUAIL EGG, ZUCCHINI PUREE AND BROWNED BUTTER OR SNAKE RIVER FARMS KOBE HANGAR STEAK WITH FINGERLING POTATO SALAD, SWEET SLAW AND BARBECUE VINAIGRETTE OR KUROBOUTA PORK TENDERLOIN WITH OKINAWA SWEET POTATO, GRILLED MIXED ONIONS, APPLE JELLY AND BRAISED APPLES OR MAINE LOBSTER SOUS VIDE, MELTED SAVOY CABBAGE, SALSIFY AND SERRANO HAM VINAIGRETTE ******************************************************************************* LOCAL TAUTAUG GRILLED ON MIXED SQUASHES WITH TINY TOMATO CONFIT AND FRESH RADISHES OR BAGADEUCE RIVER OYSTER CHOWDER WITH BACON, FENNEL, GREENS AND OTHERS OR ORGANIC RABBIT LOIN ON BLACK EYED PEAS WITH RABBIT CONFIT RAGOUT, FALL PLUMS AND GARLIC-HOISEN SAUCE OR FOIE GRAS ON SEPTEMBER PEACHES POACHED IN ICE WINE, VANILLA AND SPICES WITH PICKLED MUSHROOMS OR FOUR STORY HILLS SQUAB ROTISSERIE ON MUSHROOM TART WITH BABY LEEKS, TOMATOES AND CHINESE SPICY ORANGE SAUCE ******************************************************************************* “CALOTTE” OF SNAKE RIVER FARMS KOBE WITH BRAISED PEARL ONIONS, NUGGET POTATOES, CHANTERELLES AND BORDELAISE SAUCE OR NEW YORK PHEASANT WITH MUSHROOM DUXELLE, GLAZED CHIPPOLI ONIONS AND PICKLED HUCKLEBERRY JUS OR ELYSIAN FIELDS LAMB LOIN ON CASSOLETTE WITH SHAVED TRUFFLES AND TRUFFLE JUS OR WALLEYE PIKE ON PAD THAI NOODLES WITH CRAB SPRING ROLL AND SWEET THAI SAUCE OR HAWAIIAN AHI TUNA SERVED RARE ON GREEN LENTILS AND SHAVED VEGETABLES WITH FOIE GRAS AND MADEIRA REDUCTION ******************************************************************************* CHEESE COURSE ENGLISH STILTON WITH PRUNES, WALNUTS AND PORT OR EPOISSES WITH ORGANIC BEETS, TRUFFLE VINAIGRETTE AND BRIOCHE does this help? we also do a 8 course tasting and a 12 course chefs table Also when something doesnt sell, I redo the menu the next day anyway so I just change the preperation or set for it. It has been my pleasure to be here. Thank you alot, all of you for being so kind with the questions. All the best

Jason, Its been my pleasure. Good luck

You are correct. I dont jump up everyday excited. Most days im very tired as like today. Its dreary, we are very busy, I left here at 12:30 am and I have been here since 8. So I am just like you. For me though, I love comfort foods and when it rains or is could, I find great joy cooking these items. So it almost always perks me up. Plus when food gets like this, I can make it a bit spicier and use more root vegetables and squashes, which I love. Also, white truffles are arriving and they are so sensual, it makes the day go very fast. Also, its almost Black Truffle season. I cant wait. ← Weather everywhere seems to have been odd around the US this summer. For us it is still too much summer. I am longing for the luxury of heating up the kitchen with comfort foods -- braising, roasting, stewing, souping my way through the week. Even baking the bread I have been craving is not the comfort I want it to be when the heat and humidity just go on and on. Enough of my interminable summer whine! What I want to know, considering this is Halloween weekend and the lovelies are on my mind, do you make much use of pumpkin in your daily menus at this time of year? In soups, other savory dishes? Sweets? ← I enjoy pumpkin alot. Soups, gnocchi, under foie gras with lamb as a sauce, foie panna cotta with prawn salad etc. Its a very versatile item and can be used many ways

You are correct. I dont jump up everyday excited. Most days im very tired as like today. Its dreary, we are very busy, I left here at 12:30 am and I have been here since 8. So I am just like you. For me though, I love comfort foods and when it rains or is could, I find great joy cooking these items. So it almost always perks me up. Plus when food gets like this, I can make it a bit spicier and use more root vegetables and squashes, which I love. Also, white truffles are arriving and they are so sensual, it makes the day go very fast. Also, its almost Black Truffle season. I cant wait.

Well at my restaurant no one, including sous chefs, participates in the creation of dishes. I keep a very tight reign on the food and actually create all dishes myself. Its the only way I can guaranty that the food follows my vision and my style. In the early days of creating a restaurant and building a team( about 3 or 4 year) chefs almost always do it like this to get on course and build sous chefs repetoire of food. (did i spell that right?) Its not a dis on the sous chefs or other staff, its just about getting and staying on track. All chefs eventually have their day when the get to be creative in their restaurant. It just takes a while. As far as asking for money, you know its never a good time to ask. Seriously, I couldnt say one way or another. If you bring and invaluable service to the table, are under payed, they cant like without you, and its been awhile...maybe its time. Dont say I said so.

I will stand corrected if I'm wrong here, but to cook la plancha is on a griddle over high heat, i.e. hot coals. Fire up your grill -- hot -- set your griddle (or large cast iron pan) to heat. Cook. When I do this I seldom need anything in or on the griddle as the heat releases fats from fish or meat. Very quick method. I'm sure Chef Hamilton would have a better explanation for you. ← Yes you are mostly correct. Actually "la plancha" is an iron cook surface. My bonnet has one built in that gets very hot and has sides that drop off into a well where the fat can drain into a container or a drawer in the stove. Its brillian and I love it. Makes things very crisp (i.e. scallops, fish, skin etc).

Well usually what seperates them is a good p.r. firm, timing and that just right review at the right time. Also a job where you can succeed. A boss that will allow you to be great, in a town where you can be great and customers who think your great. Talent isnt all they look for. It takes flar, charisma and that just right umph in your food they have been looking for and you filled. Its alot of things.

Thank you also. Let me know if I may be additional help. Good luck! Best Richard ← I can't resist asking this. Without telling tales out of the kitchen . . . Could you, please, elaborate on your method for preparing your potato crusted scallops? ← Well....that is a kind of, I dont want to say secret, but it is something I do that alot of people would love to know how to do. I hope you dont feel this is disrespectful. Its not the intention. THank you for asking about it though.

I get asked this question alot. People generally try and define cooking by French, Italian, Asian, etc.. I try not to be limited to those boundaries. My career has taken me many places and I have seen many styles of food. I truly try and cook for the moment, based on the ingredieants and to what my whim of the day is. On any given day you will see many phylosophies of food. Did I spell that right? Anyway, Asian, Italian, Southern, New England, French, Creole, American will all be on the menu. My technique is based on French but I love all types of food. I define it as Seasonal International cuisine. The seasons are the most important thing in my cooking. We wont search out ingredients that are not in season in my region, or at least in america...except truffles and the like. I know its vague. Its always a challenge to define and it may always be that way. Hope this helps ← I can't understand you better for your words similarly resonate like mine too.. Though undoubtedly people refer to home cooking, as mine refers to cooking for home, as being too dissimilar to professional, it is too true that one only reflects the other in a true way.. I've known housewives cooking in general for a crowd of 23-30 on those days before when we were kids and many do today too in many traditions in many cultures even today.. so I'm not surprised that I have inherited this ability and sense of it too.. Definitely as professionals Chefs must borrow some from their long ago families too which as time goes by we have ingnored.. Love to hear from you since on a day to day basis I prepare meals at home some times for friends but occasionally.. and I experience the same spur of the moment cooking and I'd call it a challenge too but none the less enjoyable experience to create for others based on the ingredients at hand and letting your emotions and inspiration do the rest for you.. it is easy then very easy and you 'll do it cause you enjoy doing it thus and anyother forced manipulations are those of planning for hours before for ingredients.. I know it is a departure and people desist from doing this sort of thigs but then nothing new can happen before you really let go of our inhibitions to true creative potential in us all of us together.. really to enjoy the creativity is to encourage so all of you who praise the potential in you are understandably doing a greater service than anything else for you and all others in this place for us With Regards to all participation in this revealing process of ingenuity Geetha ← Geetha, Thats very nice. Your words are true. We all, in our own way, search for inspiration in our daily activities. Chefs, housewives and the like are all very similar. It helps to realize this. All the best in your craft. Take care

Sometimes people have no realistic idea of what's involved in working in any profession or industry until they actually start working, or at lest until they go to school. At other times people have a very real idea about what they are already doing, yet have an epiphany that radically changes the core of their thinking. You grew up in restaurants. Did you ever cook in those restaurants? Had you ever thought of taking over that restaurant? Did you study and work in France before working in other kitchens or had you already had some kitchen experience by the time you studied in France? You've said that your views on food, and even your life changed dramatically as a result of going to France. Can you go into more detail on that? ← Big Question. I did work in my families restaurant, though not as a head or even sous chef. My mother finally sold her restaurants before I was old enogh to assume the lead. But quite frankly, I dont think I would have ever tried to take them over. It wasnt my style of food, as I later learned, and it is impossible to work with and for family. At least my family anyway. I went to France much later in my career. I had worked in many mid level restaurants as was quite good. But nothing really super high end. When I was 16 I worked with Paul Prudhomme in New Orleans and my family used to travel to N.O alot and I would visit the kitchen of Commanders Palace when Paul was there and later Emeril. So I started likeing more of the fine dineing world. When I got married we decided to go to France. This was my early 20's by then. What changed me in France was that I learned there was a deeper meaning to food. It was not a craft but a passion that needed to be fed and there was a whole world of food I had never dreamed of, even with all my travels and experience before. Sitting on the Champs on a Sunday, sipping wine with chef friends and eating fresh bread and people watching, really changed me. Working in 3 star kitchens and seeing the discipline and talent it took made me realize there was more to being a chef. When I was younger, I used to believ being a chef wa alomst a bad thing or what you did with no educational almost. Like it was frowned upon. All that changed during my time in France and I grew to deeply respect chefs, their craft and ability and want it could and would mean for me to be a chef of that high callibur.