chefzadi

Why female chefs? Just curious, not trying to intrusive. I can PM you some possible contacts.

I found this French language site with photos of touareg and the landscape. Some of the tourist shots are lame. But the site has some beautiful landscape scenes.

isnt everybody korean? ← I'm half Korean.

My first name is Farid and with my dark North African looks the scene you suggest will probably bring in a lot of viewers. I assume the audience will be sharp enough to not jump to conclusions since the victims won't be in orange jumpsuits. (I don't know which emoticon to use, I am kidding). I think my wife said that. I suppose if one lacks substance one needs a gimmick. Seriously though, real kitchens aren't short of compelling characters. It's not one or the other, total hype or a total yawn.

Looks to me like the tomato sauce was prepared ahead of time, since you won't get a long-simmered flavor in the time it takes to bake a fish. The seared tomato pastelike consistency can be achieved by baking the fish uncovered in a very hot oven, but this could cause it too dry out if one is not careful about the time, which is intuitive for experienced professional cooks but tends to be more challenging for less experienced cooks. Or there are possibly two layers of tomato sauce. A base of more liquid sauce and a smearing of tomato paste on top. In the Magrheb we make fresh tomato paste or jam. It is completely different in flavor from tin canned paste. The restaurant is Egyptian, btw. Moroccans tend to refer to dishes as tagines, Algerians and Tunisians do not. Traditionally anyway. But nowadays we use the word when we are speaking English or French. I hear in Libya restaurants serve tagines as well and call them "Moroccan or Tunisian" clearly for tourists. Because the country has it's own tradition of couscous and 'tagines'. I've never heard of Egyptian tagines, although Egyptian fish preparations could resemble any number of Magrhebi fish dishes, it's not all that complicated. Anyway, sorry to ramble but an Egyptian restaurant refering to a dish as tagine is to ring some bells of familiarity for the consumer. Which is fine by me.

I was chosen at random to recieve the book through the first look program. The copy arrived a few days ago. If your father treated even the bathroom mopper as an intellectual equal he's a fine example of a parent, teacher, a human being. Look forward to finishing the book.

Diva what you say is heresy! A sous chef or a master chef can't be 'created', 'molded' in 8 weeks or whatever time period these shows have. The professionals involved know that. If an argument can be made for a culinary student, a housewife with 6 kids, a corporate headhunter who have little or no proffessional cooking experience taking this leap in such a short amount of time let's hear it. Yes, it's only TV, but for a celebrity chef to say "I can make anyone a masterchef" yeah, well, sort of... Master chefs are created in two ways: God given gift plus a shitload of hard work or an investor with deep pockets who can hire a sous chef who has this God given gift and will do the shitload of work. (btw, investors often make the biggest fools of chefs. Take my picture for a playing card.) As for the type of show you propose. Realistically I see a functioning kitchen line in the time frame allotted for these types of shows and the attention span of the audience. I can do it with homecooks or would be professionals. ← Great! I am definitely a home cook who could be a would be professional, so I guess I qualify. Now then, just two more questions, chefzadi, 1) How do I sign up for your course to make ME America's next superstar chef/restaurant mogul/multi-millionaire? and 2) once I complete the course, can we increase the budget for my free new restaurant from $2 million to $5 million since in DC $2 million will barely pay for a McDonald's franchise--that is unless my free new restaurant is a McDonald's franchise. ← Sadly Diva, it doesn't quite work that way on my show. Basically after 8 weeks you will be a functioning line cook for a particular station for a specific menu. I'd probably choose a French Bistro or Bouchon menu, maybe at the end do a more upscale menu for fun. But hey, aim high Diva!

C As for the kitchen ballet. I'd rather comment on that in another thread because I'm not up for watching the show. In LA two shows were shown back to back, I saw parts of the first and was not interested in seeing the next one. My wife and I hardly ever watch TV. EDIT: A TV show on how the kitchen line works might attract a good sized audience. There seems to be a lot of interest and misunderstanding. I hope they pick a chef who has alot of experience organizing them and would not benefit from making it seem more convoluted and mysterious then it actually is.

In "real life" (which this show certainly is not) Ramsay is actually quite well known for being a good mentor to up-and-coming female chefs, Angela Hartnett being a good example. I heard an interview with him recently where he talked about how he would love to see more women in the kitchens of fine dining restaurants. ← Yes he is, apparently he is involved in scholarship programs as well. I like his menus alot. He's a purist. His plating is simple, nothing extraneous. As for his behaviour on TV shows, I just don't get it. I have no comments about it either. He's doing well for himself with the persona. Maybe since his food is not about novelty like some other Michelin star chefs, his personality is to keep up public interest. Dunno.

For a fine example of informative and entertaining I suggest reading Mr Busboy's thread on dining in Athens. The way he describes the physical aspects of eating, the pleasures of the landscape, the people... Why isn't he writing more about this elsewhere??? He's funny too, laugh out loud funny!

Diva what you say is heresy! A sous chef or a master chef can't be 'created', 'molded' in 8 weeks or whatever time period these shows have. The professionals involved know that. If an argument can be made for a culinary student, a housewife with 6 kids, a corporate headhunter who have little or no proffessional cooking experience taking this leap in such a short amount of time let's hear it. Yes, it's only TV, but for a celebrity chef to say "I can make anyone a masterchef" yeah, well, sort of... Master chefs are created in two ways: God given gift plus a shitload of hard work or an investor with deep pockets who can hire a sous chef who has this God given gift and will do the shitload of work. (btw, investors often make the biggest fools of chefs. Take my picture for a playing card.) As for the type of show you propose. Realistically I see a functioning kitchen line in the time frame allotted for these types of shows and the attention span of the audience. I can do it with homecooks or would be professionals.

While I'm at it. Food personalities who talk about a range of cuisines. I saw one show in which a chef was teaching a woman how to make a Moroccan tagine just like the one she had in Morocco. He precedes to toast the spices for "that authentic flavor". There is nothing authentic in toasting spices for Moroccan. Maghrebi cuisine doesn't toast or roast spices. We just don't do it. There is nothing wrong with it, but there is nothing authentic about it. Better for him to have said that toasting the spices would produce a more intense bouquet of spices rather than claiming deeper knowledge of a cuisine. After the woman tastes the dish, she proclaims, "YES, that's it. That is the flavor of Morocco!" (or something like that). I think she is confusing a trip to India.

I find this to be more true with fine dining reviews, especially in regards to French fine dining by French and American writers. Sometimes it's like reading a review by an aristocratic philosopher or rather a philosopher who fancies him/herself to be an aristocrat. I'm often left with the burning question, "So what did you eat?" It gets worse for me when I read a writer's description of French techniques, to be sure I'm not the average reader in this regard. But perhaps writer's spread themselves or get spread too thin by the demands of having to write about a range of cuisines authoritatively. There is a local writer, not the paper you write for who covers a range of so-called ethnic cuisine. He is very popular, but has been criticised for making definitive statements about cuisines he does not have in depth knowledge. I've met him, he's avery nice man. Certainly didn't give me the impression that he is knower of all things ethnic in terms of cuisine. He just sometimes writes that way or is read that way. It would be refreshing to read occassionally "I don't really know, this is my understanding of it so far. I am trying and willing to learn more." my 2 cents.

Adam- Your photos made my day.

Beautiful report Zeitoun. Enjoy such trips before you have kids! Glad you enjoyed the couscous. Speaking of, Clifford Wright in The Mediterranean Feast writes that Jean-Jacques Bouchard wrote in 1630 of eating courcoussou (couscous) in Toulon. Seems like it's been in France for a long time. Also Charles de Clairambault a naval commissioner writes in a letter dated 1699 that the Moroccan Ambassador brought their own flour and made couscoussou with dates for Ramadan in Brittany. No doubt they were there to talk a little business about the spice trade. This book is must reading for anyone serious about food writing. I rarely say things like that and can't stand when people say things like that. But Mr Wright's book has a wealth of valuable information that contemporary food writing would do well to be informed by. my tuppence. Now back to Zeitouns trip. Thank you for posting!

Thank you, chop, well said and done. I saw Ramsey yesterday on 'Charlie Rose' and he really told it like it is. He's not doing anything to anybody that truly wasn't done to him when he was an apprentice at Robuchon (sp) or anywhere else he trained and he believes (rightfully,imo) that that kind of training turned him into a right old CU.., I mean, a Michelin starred chef. He told a great story about Robuchon throwing a plate of scallops and it's accompaniments at him and putting him in charge of staff meal the next day for a considerable time. Said he made the best staff meals ever, the staff loved him for how he made their food as good as he could, because he cared. He said now that when he gets a NFG he gives them "the trimmings" and if that person turns out something decent, he feels like he's looking at some talent. He was pretty good at handing out compliments to the people who deserved them, genuinely impressed him who surprisedly WEREN'T any of the cook/chefs in the cast. The worst thing to do is tell someone like him "I'm an executive chef". Fucking better cook your ass off then, champ!!! It's all a bit Survivorish to me too but, I LOVE this guy, as Bourdain said, I think, "he's a chefs chef", and I could watch all of the shows in a row. My wife and I laughed our asses off, she wants me to try to get on the next season!!! I've worked for some CRAZY people in my life, could be a laugh. I kind of miss the screamers, it all has gotten a bit PC now. In French run kitchens, I've seen people get decked, thrown down, fistfights ( i was in one), and of course, a lot of full bore yelling Forgive me if someone else posted about the Charlie Rose show, I haven't read the whole thread. Have to add this: Sorry to say, I watched 'Cooking Under Fire' the other night and was truly offended by it. I used to depend on PBS for decent cooking shows like 'Great Chefs of...', indeed, that's what got me to consider cooking for a living in the first place, and now, you have three great guys, one of the best food writers on the planet, two more then talented chefs, handing out saute pans and "86ing" these cooks??? For using too much salt or something? Talk about Survivor! This is what would make it much more amusing or entertaining to me, would get it on Fox, where it too belongs, and really elevate it to the truly great trashy TV genre that is all of the "hallmark" reality TV shows like 'Big Brother' and the like. When they're "86ing" the offending cook, light the saute pan up like a gong, Motley Crue style, with a decent cognac, used for deglazing some wonderful lobster dish, something like that, and bang the cook over the head with it! ← I worked under a chef who had worked under Robuchon for 5-6 years if I recall correctly. Patrick was always kind, goes to show that not everyone walks away from similiar experiences with similiar attitudes. Patrick very kindly told the kitchen staff to teach me everything. True the things described happen in French kitchens, but there is a sensationalistic element to some of the descriptions. As if they are cool and happen more often than they actually do. What is that saying? Something like the further away from the source a story gets, the taller the story? When I started at 14 I was a full grown man, 6 feet tall and 185 pounds. I'm skinnier now. No chef ever gave me shit. The attitude I had back then was the same I have now. I tell my students all the time be humble. I see no need to humiliate people into humility with knee jerk reactions and plate throwing. I'm not exactly soft-spoken and passive either with staff and students. I've never found a need to be more that simply stern. Maybe I'll write a book about it one of these days. If my wife didn't read the boards I have some stories to tell about all the French girlfriends I had. The story of legendary Moors are all true by the way...

Looks like a fragrant mixture. All the components are there. Lovely photo.

Forgotten Algeria in English. Short answer, no one has written about the cuisine in English. Clifford Wright touched on the intricacies of Algerian cuisine in his book The Mediterranean Feast. He also touches on the countries internal instabilities, which has made it very difficult for foreigners to travel too. Lack of English language writing on the country and lack of tourism. It was a bit of a shock to me when I came to the States. Very few people know much about the country. Algeria/Nigeria? Wha wha what? People from Africa look like you? French is spoken there? The opposite is true in France where Algeria is central to the understanding of the Magrheb. Even in the States I meet alot of Algerian pied noirs, French people who are of mixed Algerian and French or other Euorpean heritage. I think there is more of a North African community in San Francisco as opposed to LA. Algerians are also a big part of the youth subculture. Musically think of hip hop and Rai music, sometimes combined. I'm a bit old fashioned so the hip hop language grates in me a bit. But there you have it. The Algerian boys from 'the hood' are the role models (not that's a good thing ) for coolness. Young Moroccans and Tunisians in France like to say they are Algerian. Fundamentally though we are Magrhebis. All this is to say in France it's Algeria this, Algerian that... Fou de Basan's MIL waxing poetic about the food and the people after 50 years is not uncommon. When I read things like which I find ALL the time, I wonder if the writer stopped to look at a map. That website is informative overall by the way. As a side note, the last Moroccan cooking class I taught two Moroccan people had enrolled. They took it knowing that I was North African by my name and were pleasantly surprised to find out that I was Algerian. We became instant friends.

Sounds more like a French company capitalizing on the name ras el hanout as an exotic spice mixture. For me ras el hanout should have some floral notes such as dried rose buds or lavender. And a greater range of spices. Sweet: cinnamon, nutmeg or mace. A little heat from ginger or galangal. No garlic, oninon or salt, I don't think I would add herbs to it either. I've never seen this. Of course I have yet to live long enough to see everything.

or if you live in Algeria, Tunisia or France... More and more I'm thinking of Maghrebi cuisine as just that, Maghrebi and not along national markers. I prefer regional to a certain extent. I've been talking about this with Rachid (Moroccan) and Anis (Tunisian, attend culinary school there and teaches with me in LA), as well others from North Africa. We are obviously more traveled than a Magrebi who has never left his village, but we really don't see many differences. Maybe a few dozen pages (more or less) can be written about the differences between the countries and then we can be done with it. I might be a little flippant with that remark, but hey I'm a native. Ras el hanout includes a range of flavors from different spices. Sweet, hot, earthy, peppery spices as well as floral notes. As for Baharat, I have some words on this as well. But I will leave it to the resident ME's, they can answer the question better than I can, especially in regards to how it is used within specific cuisines. The formulations for baharat I've seen are distinctive from ras el hanout, but not from other Maghrebi spice mixes. As I write this I suspect someone, somewhere will put out THE MOTHER of all Baharat spice mixes as one that is only found in the Mashriq. As for the uses regarding specific mixtures, cook to please your palate. It's not like there are official rules about this in the Maghreb. Although individual cooks like to argue about this sometimes.

I think it's worse to deny or pretend that an animal did not live and die to become food. The interesting consensus at the gathering I mentioned was that "I want my meat from the market, packaged and clean. This talk of animal killing is uncivilized." I pointed out a chicken on a small farm in France is freerange and the death at the hands of a farmer is very swift. (I don't think Elie was trying to make a hasty generalization about hard-heartedness, btw)

I thought he was very pretty! ← So does my wife. But she tends to prefer darker men. That's why she married a brownie. Back on topic. How about that Yannick?

Ras el hanout is a North African blend of spices. It is found in Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia. I would hesitate to say that there is a typical Algerian version that varies from the other countries. Afterall it is a special house blend of spices. In terms of how spices are used overall there is a saying that is something like this "Morocco is the lion, Algeria is the man, Tunisia is the woman" meaning that Moroccan cooking overall employs a greater range of spices in more dishes than Tunisians. Algeria is the intermediary, where one will find elements of Tunisian and Moroccan cooking along with the countries own idiosyncrasies. The addition of Spanish fly in some mixes is the reason behind it's purported aphrodisiac qualities. I'm not sure if there is a direct question or answer on how to use it. I use it like other spice blends for the most part. But ras el hanout is highly aromatic and complex. Specifically for me it works more for marqas/tagines that have elements of fruit, nuts, sour flavors. Or on a more simple grilled meat or substantial fish served with simpler sides.

Golly, Mr. Ruhlman, are you the "pretty boy graduate from an overpriced trade school"? ← I don't know. Didn't Bourdain graduate from CIA or something? And the girls seem to think he's pretty hot. Michael has wholesome good looks. As for pretty, is there a doubt who the prettiest is? I'm tempted to say Chef Fabio, but I respect Michael's request to stop taking cheap shots. Cmon it's a TV show. First season. Some things could be better, but it's not the end of the world. Mostly I wish it were longer. I hope for a second season.

With Paris one of the most pet-laden cities I've ever seen in my life, I would say this is inexact. The French love their animals like anyone else and more than some. In normal situations, butchery stock is not disrespected. In all rural life, all over the world, if you want meat, you have to kill animals. That's all. This has nothing to do with the affection they may feel for them, individually or collectively, though nobody kills pets for food, of course. I shoud add that the attitude of French cuisine implies some mysterious respect to the animal (or plant! plants are murdered too) that was sacrified for the purpose. Indeed this is at the root of great cuisine, wherever from, and I believe the French and Italians have inherited a very ancient tradition. I once did hear a gastronome say that bad cooking meant total disrespect for the lives that had to be suppressed. I like that idea a lot. ← Maybe inexact, but it has an element of truth. I was raised in Lebanon and Africa and visited a few countries in Europe including France and Spain recently. It is true that everyone loves their "pets", but other than dogs and cats (mostly) everything else is regarded as "food". No one gives names to their rabbits, ducks and chickens, they are food. In the US rabbits = bugs bunny and they are "cute", so can we just eat the chicken or vegetables please ! This reminds me of a very funny account in J. Pepin's "The Apprentice", when Jacque and his brother stop at a place selling live ducks in upstate NY I believe. As soon as the brother grabs the first duck (they paid for two live ducks) he twists the neck and throws it in the trunk. The lady who sold the birds to them basically goes berserk and kicks them out shouting and screaming. I guess the duck was supposed to be Donald.... Elie ← The first time I took my wife to France to visit my family I made rabbit with mustard sauce which my then 5 year old niece ate with delight. My wife was really surprised that a 5 year old girl wasn't charmed by the cuteness of bunnies into not thinking of them as food. At a get together with some friends, mostly French and some of the men had American girlfriends/wives we started remninscing about France (what else do we do?) and being in the country. The life, the farm, the cooking. The topic of killing chickens came up. And an American woman asked, "how do you do it?" We all said, "break it's neck." She says, "how?" We say, "you grab the bird, twist and snap." She as if we were chicken murderers. Us, "The chicken had a better life than the supermarket stuff you buy and it's quick." It got even funnier with larger animals.