David Ross

My adventure into days of eating frozen foods started this past week on Monday night--the night before I had knee surgery. I'd been wanting to try these new Safeway brand frozen entrees for sometime. I'm a sucker for decent food photography, so I should have known better. Did I really think that the staged color photo of tender chunks of chicken portrayed on the front of the box was what I'd find inside? Well, yes I did. I chose these "Greek Brand" chicken skewers because they were different. I assumed they were pre-grilled and might have a bit of decent grill flavor and a bit of lemon and oregano seasoning- There were four frozen chicken skewers in the package. It actually looked like frozen chicken popsicles- The instructions call for placing the skewers on a cookie sheet and baking in a hot oven- After 25 min., all I could see was a compressed mass of chicken meat, no individual "kebabs," no grill marks, nothing close to the photo on the front of the box. I turned on the broiler to get some color on the chicken to at least make it look sort of appealing on my plate. It's not surprising to report that the chicken was terribly dry and stringy. What may have originally been cubes of white chicken meat had been compressed into one solid mass. There was a whiff of some type of seasoning, I suspect the "Greek" element of dried oregano had at some point brushed up against the chicken. A sprinkle of sea salt and fresh ground black pepper couldn't rescue this mess- There should be some consumer protection laws that guarantee the photo on the front of the box must closely mirror what is inside the box. That wasn't the case with this dreadful meal. Safeway should be embarassed. They should serve this stuff at a Board of Directors Meeting and compare what's on their plate to the illustration on the front of the box. This certainly wasn't a case of truth in advertising. Grade: F for the duping the consumer into thinking this was a chicken "shish kebab." D- for taste.

I asked a couple of my friends who live in Las Vegas, John Curtas and Al Mancini, what they thought about the Las Vegas Grille. John and Al are two of the three most recognized and talented Food Writers in Las Vegas. (Their eponymous guide to dining in Las Vegas-"Eating Las Vegas 2013," just hit the newstands. Co-authored with the opinionated Max Jacobsen). Al wrote me back with this critique of Las Vegas Grill "I really like the barbecue there. Or allow me to clarify-it's extremely good barbecue by Las Vegas standards, but that bar is very low. If you're coming to town with a background in great barbecue, you may not be extremely impressed. In fact you may want to avoid barbecue in Las Vegas altogher. But the stuff is done well and casual barbecue fans will mostly love it. It's probably the best I've found in Las Vegas and is on par with good barbecue I've had in more serious barbecue cities." Hope this helps make your decision about whether or not you want to dine there. It's really tragic that such a large city in the desert Southwest can't put forth more great barbecue restaurants. If I get a link to Al's formal review on Las Vegas Grill that he did for a local Vegas magazine I'll post it. And I'll post a link to their book, "Eating Las Vegas 2013."

Another good point and another good reason why a visible person like Martha shouldn't have pronounced she had Salmonella and claimed it came from handling so many different turkeys. I think Martha's the turkey on this one.

I did have to laugh when they brought out truffled popcorn and made it sound like it was founded by a merchant at Pike Place Market. Yeah right. It was a rip-off of a rip-off of somebody elses idea and the guy got the money to sell it at a booth at the market. What a culinary revelation.

That's what one of my friends said. He added I shouldn't be surprised. Pity and PR. The two P's.

So on Saturday I'm watching the weekend derivation of the Today Show and they do a segment about poor little Martha Stewart's wretched illness that was suffered over the Thanksgiving Holiday. They go on to say that Martha was afflicted with an acute case of "salmonella," quoting the lifestyle maven as catching the deadly disease but it was "an undiagnosed" case. They followed with a statement from Martha saying she was the only one who got sick that ate all the same dishes. She attributes her stupor to the ill effects of handling so many raw turkeys on television. Really? My first thought was that Martha was asking for pity. The way the information was presented was in a sort of "woe is me, I mis-handled a raw turkey, but I'm America's television cooking teacher. Pity me." My next thought was amazement at the statement, "I got salmonella, but a Doctor didn't diagnose it." I was chided by one of my scholarly friends on Facebook for not knowing my food handling curriculum. By the way, I carry my card with pride). He said that it's hard to "diagnose" salmonella. That was the exact point I was trying to get across. If Martha wasn't formally diagnosed with salmonella, she had no way of truthfully being able to state it was from mis-handling a turkey or not chilling the cream for the pumpkin pie. I took it as a dangerous statement that left the Today Show, the viewers and no less the poor turkey producers in a huge state of potential liability. The on-air personalities went on to talk about food safety during the Holidays, but it felt shallow. Shouldn't Martha have gone over that during the segment? (Which I don't recall she did). It seemed too little too late. Knowing Martha is so visible in the public conciousness, I thought a more appropriate statement would have been along the lines of "Martha got a potential case of food poisioning over the Holidays and it brings to our attention the serious matter of food handling safety......." Wretching your Thanksgiving Dinner certainly isn't pleasant, but what do you think of this dust-up? When a food personality gets sick from mis-handling food, how do you think it should be dealt with?

I would have coated the pickles with cornmeal and fried them. Then I would have made a sauce of parsley and pickle. Then I would have served the whole lot with crispy fried frogs legs. Then I would have.....

Good for Tom for pulling the $10K off the table for the latest challenge. If you get past the touristy aspects of flying fish, Pike Place Market in Seattle is fabulous. It's literally a seasonal smorgasboard of local ingredients and hand-crafted products. Any one of us would have come up with more creative dishes than what we saw. I can always spot it ten miles away-Cheftestants with attitude and inflated egos, coupled with any sense of manners and treating other people with a whit of respect are the Chefs who often stumble along the way. Cookery skills are supposedly the primary trait that garners a win on Top Chef, but that can only take you so far, especially when you are paired on a team or in a group. CJ was just the most recent example. His "I'm the best Chef" in this competition attitude obviously cast a haze over rational thinking. In his mind, a ground pork burger on a crumpet garnished with a fried pickle would easily reward him with a win and a culinary medal. He's more of a joke than that joke of a burger. And then there was his teamate Tyler. He suffered the indignity of being paired with an egotistical ass who didn't craft a good burger, but Tyler trumped CJ because he left with grace, class and professionalism. Of course, knowing the dramady that Bravo pushes on us, I won't be surprised when they announce CJ won in the Last Chance Kitchen and raises his ugly head back in the competition.

Stouffer's roast turkey dinner isn't bad either, but like a lot of this stuff, it's chuck full of salt. The turkey has decent flavor and the stuffing is pretty good. The mashed potatoes are really creamy. The gravy? Meh. When you sit at a desk in front of a computer and basically don't get up for 9 hours, sometimes a passable frozen dinner really isn't too bad.

Wow, that's quite a selection and probably better than mass-produced stuff that may sit in the freezer case at Walmart for months.

Well, this topic has given me an opportunity. I'm having knee surgery on Tuesday and for the past week I've bought tons of frozen stuff to chew on while I'm unable to cook. I'm probably not going to even put a pan on the stove for at least 10 days. I'll give everyone a sort of running commentary of the different items I try.

I buy Stouffer's lasagna regularly in the cold months. It's really quite good and far better and less time consuming over any lasagna I've ever made. Whenever I vary and go with another brand, I always go back to Stouffer's lasagna.

Like so many of the Top Cheftants that have come and gone, (and are in the game this year), fame seemingly goes to their head. They lose all sense of what got them to the point of even being a strong candidate for Top Chef at the video submission stage-the ability to cook. CJ is a perfect example. Last week during the Canlis "Classics of the 50's" challenge, he put out a tepid dish of Shish Kebab over rice. From the looks of the dish, (and the comments of the judges), the rice was tasteless, as was the lamb. No seasoning, no spice, no heat, na-da. I'm old enough to have dined at a number of "Continental" rooms in the 60's and 70's and Shish Kebab was always an exotic treat. In all honesty, my Father probably let me order it because it was cheaper than the filet mignon. That didn't matter to me, I thought it was a fabulous dish, often paraded into the dining room spiked on swords with a stunning trail of flame. Apparently CJ not only forgot the seasoning but also forgot to review his history books. Had he traipsed into Canlis with flaming Shish Kebab, he probably would've scored a few more style points with the judges.

Black Cod is like gold in my view. I can get it out of Alaska or sometimes off the WA Coast. I think the Canadians call it Sablefish. For those of you who haven't had it, it's silky, oily, soft, rich and kind of like a regal filet of Halibut. How do you make the Uni Potatoes?

That sounds both decadent AND delicious. Call next time you're making it! I'll make sure I let you know what time on Saturday I'm curing the next batch!

I agree, it appears that we're in for a more focused season with more emphasis on real-life cooking challenges. That, for me, is a great relief over years of insane challenges cooking with ingredients out of the local 7-11 or catered affairs for debutante coming of age parties. I'm sensing that since were this far into the show, I don't think we'll go down the ludicrous path of past seasons. While Seattle is best-known for seafood, I'm hoping they venture out a little and taste some of the other wonderful products the region has to offer.

An annual staple that I make every year when it gets cold-Duck Confit. Now this year I made a twist in the preparation and it worked quite well. After the confit has cured in the fat, warm the pot up in the oven to slowly melt the fat. After about 30 minutes, gently pull the confit out of the pot. Then to get a really crisp skin, deep-fry the confit in 375 oil for about 4 minutes. You can also roast the confit and crisp the skin in a hot oven, but the deep-fry is so decadent and results in a very crispy skin. Delicious.

The holiday gift-giving season is underway and while it is no longer chi-chi or politically correct to do so, in my workplace we still exchange food gifts between employees. Last week, one of my employees brought me some delicious goose jerky that he and his hunting partner cured. It had a sweet flavor which was surprising. I think the flavor came partly from the brine and the smoke, but also from the meat of the Canadian goose breast. It was actually not what I was expecting since wild goose is so lean. This morning I'm taking him a hindquarter of my duck confit. It's from a domestic duck so it will probably not be a taste or texture he's experienced before. I'm not sure wild ducks like Mallards or Teals have enough fat on them to make a decent confit, but I'm sure the French found a way to do it hundreds of years ago. Next week we're having a cookie exchange during a local company meeting. I'm thinking I'll take some almond-maraschino-oatmeal cookies that I tried last week. Anybody else in the spirit of giving or receiving food gifts from employees, clients or vendors this year?

Looks delicious and I love sweetbreads. Can you give us some more details about the recipes/techniques?

There is a deli at the MGM Grand named the "Stage" Deli-but I doubt it has any relationship to the New York store. It's been there for years and was once a pretty good place to get a decent corned beef sandwich. Now it's turned into basically a fast-food shop serving unpassable stuff that they pawn off as original.

Don't tell me that a "Top Chef" can't properly roast a squab. If you can't, you don't deserve to stay Carla. I know one highly regarded Italian Chef in Las Vegas who is noted for his delicious treatment of game birds. Carla's inference that an Italian Chef wouldn't know how to cook a squab was laughable.

D Magazine gave him that dubious title in cover story. I suppose he is most noted for taking over at the Mansion On Turtle Creek after Dean Fearing left, totally revamped the place, and won rave reviews. (he left RM Seafood in Las Vegas to take the gig). That didn't last long. But I think most of the hate comes from other chefs, cooks, waiters, etc. and restaurant owners, and probably less from the general public (though I suppose some hated that he changed the Mansion in a major way). He even gets mentioned by Anthony Bourdain in 'Kitchen Confidential'. Anyway... whole story is here. http://www.dmagazine...in_Dallas.aspx? After watching that deplorable effort on Tesar's part to act as the expediter in the pass I'm now not suprised that his contemporaries in Dallas say nasty things about him. He'll probably get far in this competition just based on his cooking talents, but in the end I predict his disregard for others and ignorance of the negative vibe he sends off will catch him and that will trump him up.

Exactly. Whenever I've been around Carla when I'm in Las Vegas I always leave sort of shaking my head. Very talented but also, I sense, incredibly insecure. I think that's why she over-compensates with her intentional "psychosis" and a craving for attention. The insecurity clouds her ability to understand that if she just cooked the great Italian dishes she grew up with, people would laud her for that--not for the fact she's injected her lips with Botox and she wears heels in the kitchen. I think there's a shard of truth here that she realizes. You could see it in her face when they told her to pack her knives and go. I sort of felt bad for her. It was like the pretty girl at the party being told that nobody liked her--and she knew it. She just opened a new meatball restaurant in a mall in Las Vegas, (the venture at the Tropicana suddenly closed this Fall), so hopefully someday she will realize a better balance between her cooking and her "image."

So Jeff, being from Dallas, did the local community really once call Tesar the most-hated Chef in Dallas? And what could the guy have done that was so egregious that it earned him that woeful title?

Great report Jeff. Did you notice if they offered Kobe or Wagyu and how they graded it?