Luckylies

I hate to throw another monkey wrench into the discussion, but it's been mentioned already: Shola, like Samuelsson, is an immigrant. I think that increased immigration of sub-Saharan Africans to America is going to muddy the discussion of race in ways both welcome and unwelcome in the years to come. Unencumbered as they are by the cultural baggage African-Americans carry, they could wind up as sticks that the truly bigoted use to beat American blacks over the head with again, much as black immigrants from the Caribbean were in danger of becoming before In Living Color defused the subject with sharp humor. Yet if they, as Samuelsson did with this article, claim kinship with their American brethren, then that danger is probably nonexistent. ← I don't understand this. Could you please explain, I might be a bit young for this reference.

It happens. In the world in general, sometimes just working hard isn't enough. I had one job, where I was cooking where the sous-chef was supposed to, I was supervising the night shift, heck I was the guy cooking for all the cameras and food critics (the restaurant in question was highly rated, many awards). I was logging more hours than the sous, and I was the one going to the farmers' market with the executive chef to pick out produce. I was also doing the most technical pastries and specials every night (I also had to train our pastry 'chef', who couldn't even make decent ganache). But guess what? I was barely making more than the dishwasher, and was payed lower than all of the people I trained and supervised... Why? Because I was just a kid living in the housing projects, who couldn't afford to get my papers - and despite the chef's best attempts, the owner refused to pay me what I was worth. Now I'm confused. In one post you imply that you've been passed over for a promotion because you're black, and in another post you say you've never felt uncomfortable due to your privileged upbringing? ← My point was that I'm not in a state of emotional upheaval every day about my position in the world, I'm not constantly faced with an overwhelming feeling of racial discomfort. That of course, does not mean that I have never examined my path and place in this world. As I stated before, I can mostly shake off any bad vibes or any bad taste in my mouth but, that certainly has not effected my memory at all. Also, I will never know if I was passed over becuase of my race, it could have been anything...thant's why this subject is so sensitive..so much of this is about vibes and feelings.

Yeah, whatever, all the same right... So all Blacks, Hispanics, whatever just want to work and get more money, not fame, promotion, fortune, celebrity etc? What gives you this impression? Yeah, professional kitchens are the picture of fairness and equal oppertunity. No really, If in YOUR PERCEPTION Blacks and Hispanics, and whatever, just wanted to go in and get the job done for more money, why would hard work, skill and dilligence matter at all- if THEY didn't want to move foreward. Saying someone works hard, but seems more than happy to pass on a promotion (other than more money. say) seems a bit nearsighted, no? Uh, my experience in the industry. Where do you draw your conclusions from? Why are hardworking people being passed up for promotions? Rascism exists! Sometimes stepping up to the plate is just not enough- someones got to throw you a pitch. ← Uh, my experience in the industry. Where do you draw your conclusions from?Ok, so we should promote on quotas, to fill niches, how about you bank rolling this establishment? As a exec and head chef, I promote on the ability to perform and the willingness to accept the responsibilities. Again I say, not every cook wants this responsibility. Why is this so hard to believe? Its prevalent in every other industry. If I had a majority of blacks applying for positions in my kitchens, then I would have a majority of blacks working in them, or any other race. But in my house, the cooking is technical, so there must be a base level of technical proficiency to step in at a cooking level. I promote from within, my dishwasher will soon move up to a cook position, but will he be head chef soon , no. Its a craft and take years to learn, will he have the patience to learn, who knows? Maybe you can give him a pep talk. Brazilians make up most of the kitchen crews in my area, some are motivated to ascend the ladder, and they do, others just want reliabilty and consistency with out the weight of resposibilty of leadership. They come in do their job great, and leave. Whats wrong with that? A great idea; Go out and ask these folks their opinions, everyone seems to be speaking for them instead. ← yeah. I AM one of them. Me a Black cook, yup, me. Culinary school, line cooking, editorial food...me. I know how I feel and my experiances, and guess what? they are totally valid and 100% the subject at hand. I am what we are discussing, so pehaps I should go give myself a pep talk after I get ignored for a promotion, or totally underpaid. It SUCKS to watch people with the exact same credentials or less move foreward or right past you. After a little while you stop making excuses for your loving bosses and try to examine what's really going on. hmm...maybe it's because I'm a woman?

totto new to me but now my favorite.

the site says that all of the tiles and blocks are processd in as food-safe manner. Also try looking at different salt candle sites some of them sell things that might make nice serving pieces.

Adria while intersting was so utterly consumed with trying to get the audience to understand his way of thinking about the world, (he mused over a glass of water for five minutes) and explain the way we MUST think about food in order to create...and how we must consider his body of work etc. It was all a bit much really, I wanted him to cut to what he was doing or had done a bit faster, perhaps I was a bit impatient as the day was wearing on. ← If anyone can speak to the way we must think about food in order to create it would be Adria. One may or may not agree with his stance, but I would think it would be very interesting and illuminating to hear his views on the matter. But then I may be biased as I admire his creativity very, very much. ← yeah I know, I find it hard to believe that I found him a bit boring. I just wanted him to be so much more. He reminded me of of those very excitable new teachers who just wanted to get the kids to like them and to see the simplicty behind the magic of science...I just didn't feel like he came to us on a very professional level. Most of know what he's been doing for the past year, so to introduce it like we'd have never seen it was a bit prosumptious.

Adria while intersting was so utterly consumed with trying to get the audience to understand his way of thinking about the world, (he mused over a glass of water for five minutes) and explain the way we MUST think about food in order to create...and how we must consider his body of work etc. It was all a bit much really, I wanted him to cut to what he was doing or had done a bit faster, perhaps I was a bit impatient as the day was wearing on.

Wear a hat. It keeps your hair from falling in the food. Just because you're the boss does not make you immune from getting you hair places. It's the law in New york but I'm not sure where else. Get over looking likea dink, and just do it. I worked in an open kitchen and there was no question about it at all. Though of course nobody likes them.

okay I did a little online homework try this. http://www.hubpak.com/salttiles.htm

Teres a woman who sells them at the union square greenmarket. She's not a food seller sh's a candle lady and she says she can order an size. she's usually across the street from about 15th st on the west side, right near the dog run. She also sells other stuff so make sure you keep you eyes peeled, she usually has a rainbow flag flying too. Allow me to brainstorm, as I saw them somewhere else too (a tibetan store?) I'll think and get back to you.

See my first post (#6) and the link to Michael Ruhlman's article (NTY, April 2006), first mentioned by Russ Parsons and linked by Bethala. Here's a critical early paragraph: I cannot over-emphasize how much Haute Cuisine and the culture of restaurants raises ambivalence for anyone whose family history or identity is tied to class. Let's say you are African-American and you achieve stature as a chef, earning a reputation for intelligent creativity and enough to purchase a vacation home and contribute as much as your spouse to sending your three children to top-ranking colleges. You may no longer be lifting heavy carcasses to butcher or sweating in a busy, hot kitchen, but you are providing a service to an elite clientele including many who dine out at restaurants as expensive as yours on a regular basis. Some of the doctors among them continue to work long, physically demanding hours as does the NBA star, or ballerina dating Tobey Maguire who tells her just how uncomfortable that Spiderman costume was. Yet most have not performed hard manual labor in their professional lives. When you sit down with your staff, you are not all dressed like your restaurant's patrons when they attend board meetings. If your own parents fulfilled the American Dream, your career would simply be one more success story to add to the annual Christmas Letter. However, if a rise in social standing retains a powerful hold on living memory, or if there are distinguishing degrees of educational, professional and/or financial status within your family and circle of friends, then there may be tension, especially if they cannot afford to dine at your restaurant. By virtue of your success, you identify with your patrons. However, you also identify with your family, the people you grew up with, and perhaps the members of your staff who may lack your ambition, training and talent, but just like their jobs. It's too soon for the situation to be any different only four decades after the Civil Rights Act and, what, only a decade or so after being a chef started to become sexy in American popular culture. It was not an arbitrary decision to make Cliff Huxtable an OB/GYN and Clair, a lawyer. ← My god this is so well put it makes my head spin. I identify strongly with this statement. I grew up privileged and bi-racial. I have never had any discofort or insecurity due to my socioeconimic standing- there was never any need. My mothers side of the family is not as well off (though, totally just fine, upper middle class) and African- American. All of my cousins are going into law or business, secure, well respected arts. I think they aspire to be even bigger than the kitchen, not to prove a point necessarily, but because why not be the best you can be? In Richmond, Va (where they're from) There a few haute cuise restaurants, so the glamorous picture of chefdom had not been painted for them. Besides, doctors and lawers are respected in society why not choose a professional route which garners instant respect and social security? Like I said, I grew up with an imbued sence of security (thanks mom and dad) i'm an overprivileged brat, so, of course I feel as if the grime from the kitchen just washes right off me after my shift. I don't need to feel owned by my chef, thus I don't feel uncomfortable. Had I grown up under different circumstances, the constant grinding and milataristic repremands may have highlighted a more historic hegemony Another thing is this; If you were somehow uncomfortable with you social standing would you take a job where you willingly enslave yourself to a (usually white man?) "yes Chef" can easily sound and feel very close to saying "yes master" and Black people in America may not see the value of that realtionship by any means. There is no glamor in this kind of relationship in the Black community, it seems, except by those so privileged (or dissconected to their roots) that it can be over looked.

farfalle glace lillet

Where are you located? there are some places in NY I could reccomend.

The demonstations yesterday were insane. Though alot of the things show were a bit dated to the in-the-know culinary professional (spherefication, noodles, lechathin etc.) it was still quite the experiance to see the masters at work. the spanish chefs have a completely different plating aesthetic, which we just never see here. ever. even the people who are using the different techniques are not approximating the cohesion and whimsy that the Spanish chefs acheive. The Spanish plate is really an unabahed masterpiece, there is not concern about gilding the lily both in the actual culinary contend of the dishes and the visual representations of these concepts, it's really something to behold. The translaters were a bit ditzy, I wish they had had a crash course in molecular food words. It was a very long day with the festivities starting at 8 or 9 and going until, I believe 7 or 8, I ducked out after Chef Adria, as I'm a bit under the weather. There was a "Spanish Marketplace" which was really a bunch of Spanish food purveyors who had set up boots in order to represent their wares, mostly wine and the like. I could have lived without this segment, they were not really relevent products to this demo series, except the Texturas people. Though I did sample (over, and over again) some serious kickass morcilla from DeSpana (sp?) I'll be picking some up later today if this cold doen't hold me down. Anyhow, I got to meet some nice Egulleters Nina C, and Gerald! (the polka dots work) and Jayson Perlow..which was nice. My biggest problem? The food didn't represent a single demo. I know, it was Spanish (the food) and I know the demos represented a really difficult style of cooking that would have been quite trying to replicate... but they could've tried? It was nice to see all of my Chefs from FCI, too. Those who missed, missed out I hope they come back next year. Another thing, I found Adria to be the least interesting and the most dogmatic of the lot. He went on and on about how he's not a culinary god, and how he couldn't do it without blah blah blah. I just wanted him to show us what made people consider him to be such a wizard. he kept repeating "see this is so easy, you could do this if you had the technology and know-how" um, duh. Not rocket science. I guess he so used to being treated like a god, that he has forgotten, that in the grand scheme of things...

Heinz. That's it. As a kid, when we traveled to foreign countries my twin and I made my mom bring ketchup with us. Culinary brats.... I can't believe I hadn't thought of that until now...

http://www.alhockey.com/, http://www.beijinghockey.com/ http://www.hockeynightinasia.com/ Anyway, Mikeb19 why do your four black friends represent the African American Zeitgeist? Nobody's focing affirmative action, some people just want EQUAL OPPERTUNITY. like, people not making assumptions of the entire African diaspora-because they know this one guy who wan't really that serious about his success...

Ummm. How about Discovery Life which has been showing "Inner Chef" for about 6 months. Also shown there is License to Grill, hosted by Rob Rainford (sp?). Interesting that a channel tha shows only 5 or 6 cooking shows has two hosted by African-Americans, while Food Network has how many???? Oh yeah. NONE ← Al Roker Sandra Pinkney also the Food Network long ago often featured the late (and great) Chef Patrick Clark. there's also another host on currently whose name escapes me as well as a number of others who have appeared on the Food Network over the years. The truth is less nefarious than some might believe but a couple of posters have touched upon it. How many African Americans have graduated one of the cooking schools that seem to turn out most of our successful chefs today? How many have decided on a career path to being an executive chef? How many are currently executive chef's How many of those currently executive chefs have the personality and the originality to be featured on TV? I believe they'll get there as the numbers increase. By the way, how come not many Asians seem to be playing professional ice hockey these days? It is nice to note as one poster does--that there are more and more African Americans enrolled in cooking school today--one would expect to see more running kitchens and eventually appearing in the media. It is also nice to see someone like Marcus Samuelson (who lived next door to me not long ago) becoming a role model and taking a leadership role. So let's think before we start bashing the Food Network or America or Europe or anyone. Things are getting better all the time! ← Executive chefs?? On the Food Network?? um, right. there are like three real chefs, and 1,000,000 personalities. Also, I don't believe that culinary schools have turned out our most successful chefs today, they will've in the future, but for now, kitchen trained cooks certainly seem to be in the lead in terms of sucess (European schools aside)

HRH Feigenbaum will be in polka dots.

Chinatwon for dimsum on saturday or sunday Koreatown for korean bbq! Katz's Barney Greengrass for New York smoked salmon and bagels.

Yeah, whatever, all the same right... So all Blacks, Hispanics, whatever just want to work and get more money, not fame, promotion, fortune, celebrity etc? What gives you this impression? Yeah, professional kitchens are the picture of fairness and equal oppertunity. No really, If in YOUR PERCEPTION Blacks and Hispanics, and whatever, just wanted to go in and get the job done for more money, why would hard work, skill and dilligence matter at all- if THEY didn't want to move foreward. Saying someone works hard, but seems more than happy to pass on a promotion (other than more money. say) seems a bit nearsighted, no? Why are hardworking people being passed up for promotions? Rascism exists! Sometimes stepping up to the plate is just not enough- someones got to throw you a pitch.

good traditional spanish food.

REally, Nova from Russ and Daughters Pastrami Dim sum Jamaican beef patties Bahn mi Pizza Buffolo Mozz Cubanos Cannoli's from Rocco

well as soon as we legalize gambling....

good point, I'll wear a dress.

Wait nobody else is going? I'll be so lonely....