harlanturk

Any word on Sascha Lyon's (formerly of Pastis) new namesake restaurant, SASCHA?

Marc Meyer's COOKSHOP and Five Points Restaurant are both worth a gander. Hard to get into but, worth the effort.

Sixpoint Craft Ales Brownstone is tops. Based in Brooklyn (Red Hook).

Look for my "Back of the House" series on pp. 79-83 in the current Winter 2006 issue of GASTRONOMICA. If it doesn't show up yet, then you can find it through HARLANTURK blog. Thank you all for your interest and support.

Thanks Megan. Been to Cake Man Raven. Did a photoshoot with him. It's good, real good, but it's not that navigable a location. I'd rather be able to go out for a glass of wine and beer afterwards. Are there any Southern/Soul places that might serve? Like the Pink Tea Cup, or R.U.B.?

Thanks, but I forgot to mention that it has to be closer to the Soho, E/W Village, Meat Packing, maybe Lower East Side area. (Particullarly on the F Train). I've been wanting to go to Sylvia's for a while. Love her spices, but don't know much about the restaurant. What dishes are best?

Does anyone know a good place in NYC (or Brooklyn) for RED VELVET CAKE? Need a suggestion ASAP (for Valentine's Day), as Mary on Jane's supposedly closed. THANKS!

Took some backstage shots of the Chocolate Fashion Show, the Thursday prior to the public event. CHOCOLATE FASHION SHOW (coverage on WpN) If you don't see it, you can either write "Chocolate Fashion Show" or "TURKELL" in the search.

Actually worked in kitchens (from chef to dishwasher) for the past 7 years, so I've learned the "footwork" which allowed me to stay out of the way (and wrath) of many a chefs / servers. I only take photographs that the restaurants are comfortable with. Some establishments are more lenient that others, put most trust the imagery I've attempted to illuminate, since I do have a repore with the industry. Thanks for the look-see on the website. Please share it with other "foodies" and "food venues" that might want to participate, as I am always looking for more subjects.

UPDATED WEBSITE: WWW.HARLANTURK.COM extended portfolio. all prints for sale. hot diggity dog.

i've been picked up. World Picture News (WpN)

what restaurants would you like to see next? and does anyone have connections to such requests?

it's hot out. frozen custard sounds about right. SHAKE SHACK from another "behind the scenes" article i shot for craveny.com.

BLUE HILL @ STONE BARNS I must say I do enjoy brunch, possibly the best pseudo-combo-meal since, well, I don't know if there is anything quite like brunch. What a way to revel in the weekend (the greatest part of the week, of which I've only found out since leaving the restaurant schedule and becoming a freelance photographer). There is sausage and eggs at a diner, but then there are farm fresh eggs and house-made sausage at Blue Hill and Stone Barns. Having met Michael Anthony (the executive chef at Stone Barns) at "The Gathering of the Chefs" at Time Warner, a cookbook signing for Alan "Battman" Batt, may have been more than providence. Stone Barns is a prosperous event in it of itself, but then to have what I might, nay, "will" call the best total culinary experience of my life, has canonized a restaurant that can be sustainable and absolute in it's endeavors. Michael met us outside prior to our reservation, emanating not just congenial warmth, but carried the sincerity of true food. My mother later commented that he also “smelled great,” of all the fresh herbs and pleasantries of the kitchen. After the meal, he invited us into kitchen (during service), of where I met Dan Barber, proudly displaying a bowl of fresh picked greens. Either of us knew each other, but his joy of cooking was counterpart to his cordiality as well. Rather than go into detail of the meal (which included a bread basket of which surpassed many primary bakeries, a garden fresh green gazpacho with yogurt sorbet that tasted like waking up to the cool morning sun, and an attention to detail and decorum in service that made us feel like our last name was Rockefeller, or Martha Stewart, who was actually eating outside on the patio). Please, make it an effort to go. Not just to eat, but to see the earth of which is toiled. It’s obvious care and presentation gives eat plate a sense of time. You can walk around the grounds for a humbling sense of place, experiencing again the unmitigated raw ingredients. I hope to spend a week there photographing and in some way project their efforts in most honest and earnest imagery.

thank you to whomever posted the project on CURBED.COM. "press" it like a panini. in other words, post the "BACK OF THE HOUSE" around internet, for all foodies to feed on.

from a "behind the scenes" shoot for the opening of Laurent Tourondel's BLT FISH in New York, for CRAVE New York Magazine. BLT FISH CRAVE NY

if anyone is interested in assisting the "BACK OF THE HOUSE" project, feel free to contact me via my website. HARLANTURK.COM i am looking to organize a floating show that will premier new and old images alike in the "front of the house" of restaurants, in aims of publishing the work as a whole. i am also selling prints to fund such photographic (ad)venture.

did i mention the foie?

will do. i used to work with him at salts restaurant in cambridge, ma. SALTS also did the photography for the website.

one of Feury's many impressive dishes. chilled thinly sliced squab, roasted foie gras, panade grape and branch creek farms red mustard greens with cross creek farms fall honey and white grape caramel glaze.

I am inspired by photographers like: Garry Winogrand (for his undying devotion) Martin Parr (for his kitschy vision) James Natchwey (for his ability to culturally assimilate) and Josef Koudelka (for his nomadic ways). There are many more, but I think that's an attributed short list. The ducks are from Excelsior in Boston, when Lydia Shire was running the kitchen. Yes, hung and dried for a crispy skin when roasted. Here is a recent photo from CRU (New York), of their stock labels. Last night I attended the James Beard House for a dinner with Patrick Feury of Nectar (Berwyn, PA). Highly recommended. NECTAR

There's something to be said on the fever of summer cooking (outside of BBQing). New York's added humidity gives little relief to shift breaks and the first moments in the night air after breakdown. I had photographed at CRU in New York a couple of weeks ago, and even with top of the line ventilation, the kitchen stayed sweltering. I had to retreat the pastry station near the walk-ins, and constantly re-hydrate like I was back on the line. The contrast of a cuisine’s temperature to climate is conversely proportionate, even though most restaurants are regulated by air conditioning. An influx of spicy foods soothes a summer soul rather than the winter’s hearth of hot soup. Ovens are set “slow and low,” and contemporary equipment like immersion circulators, hold-o-mats, and cold plates, have propagated many restaurants, not only by the advancement of scientific gastronomy, but to sate the seasonal palate through a reflect of technique. If you can’t stand the heat, eat out(side) of the kitchen.

Here's last weeks menu (for 50 people, done out of my apartment), that brought me back: PIZZA: (white and whole wheat crust) yellow tomato, picholine olive, ricotta salada, fresh basil crimini mushroom, herbed goat cheese, rosemary jus sage sausage, sweet pepper prosciutto, black mission fig, wilted beet green MEAT / FISH: (on potato bun) lamb burger, herbed goat cheese scallop cerviche mousse, applewood smoked bacon SALAD / STARCH: mirepox orecchiette pasta salad (carrot, celery, red onion, sprouts, bitter orange vinaigrette) baked polenta, heirloom tomato bruschetta puree truffle cheese risotto cake scape roasted potato VEGETABLE: red and yellow beet, toasted hazelnut, grapefruit baked zucchini and squash corn on the cob, cayenne butter, grated parmesan, lime juice FRUIT: melons, grapes DESSERT: chipped chocolate molasses cookie pluot and minted mascarpone puff pastry vin santo stewed cherry tart, toasted almond crust orange capri tart anise chocolate tart

APPLEWOOD (11st between 7th and 8th ave) in park slope, though I know the chef, and think he might not want me to just promote brunch, but it's a weekend hot spot. Haven't had dinner, but love their drinks, of which I've partaken in a few libations. Newer is TOST, also in park slope (7th Ave between 14th/15th st). It's a secret, well, now it's not. Top shelf paninis, $2 bruschetta, salad, dessert, and a kickin' (yes I did drop the "g" and add an apostrophe) wine list to boot. For realz. COCOTTE on 5th ave and 5th st i believe, of which used to be a stuffy, almost antiquated, rustic french bistro, will be revived this upcoming week (when they change the menu). My friend Adam has just become the head chef, and I have much faith in his ability. In time, I'm sure it will be on many lists. Good lists.

It's mid-summer, I believe the first in the last six years out of the kitchen, and I miss the heat. Yes, I miss sweating behind a burner. It’s better than any diet or exercise. Why? An old professor, having a show at the MOMA, yes, the MOMA, contacted me for catering services (of which I did often when living in Boston). Yes he was my photo teacher, but he asked me to cook. It's happening again, food over photo, so I remind myself of the niche I've hit. I've amalgamated the two and am happy doing so. Now it's time to radiate such warmth, not unlike the comforting heat of the kitchen, and so I'd like to begin the "BACK OF THE HOUSE" project, www.harlanturk.com, on EGullet, if you'll have me? Photographs and writings on food and restaurants, a kind of "Keorauc in the Kitchen" as donned. Hungry? ... Michael Harlan Turkell began his award winning "Back of the House" project four years ago as a way of photographically assimilating into lives within the culinary community. Working in kitchens for seven years while also pursuing his BFA in photography, (under the tutelage of Guggenheim Fellowship photographer Frank Gohlke), Michael was moved to show an unseen version of the restaurant world. Camera in hand, Michael has followed some of the top chefs in the United States, like Barbara Lynch of No. 9 Park, Ken Oringer of Clio, Lydia Shire of Locke-Ober, and Laurent Torondel of BLT Fish in their renowned kitchens. He has been published in numerous magazines including Crave New York, The James Beard Foundation Magazine, and Slammed Magazine, as well as archived on various websites, such as SauteWednesday.com and TheStrongBuzz.com. In 2004, Michael was a Photo District News Photo Annual Winner, and had a solo exhibition of his work at the James Beard House in New York City. He presently resides in New York, further exploring the "Back of the House" while working to publish a book of his photographs and food writings, and is a co-founding collaborator of HungryDesign.net, a design website for food professionals by food professionals. His collection of black-and-white photographs are a study of restaurants’ often-unrecognized subculture. They present the pressure of consistency, promptness and precision, while portraying the passion required to delight patrons, without the always receiving personal accolades for one’s work. These photos reveal internal issues among staff members, confines of hierarchy, and the candor found in their camaraderie throughout the chaos. There is more presented on a plate than just food.