IndyRob

As far as I can tell, Ruth Reichl (American food writer) began tweeting food related haikus. Anthony Bourdain saw them and liked them and began reading them as a segment of a weekly satellite radio show (Turn and Burn) he did earlier this year with Eric Ripert. Ruth Riechl surprised them by turning up on-air. I'm not sure about this, but I imagine that a listener had an idea to tweet versions of her tweets in what he(?) imagined would be the style of Bourdain. Bourdain found these and liked them (in a disturbing way), and Reichl and Bourdain talked about them on the radio show. Bourdain even had Ripert read one of Ruth Bourdain's off-color tweets. I think the true identity of Ruth Bourdain remains a mystery. It would be great to find out it was Mario Batali or someone, but I suspect it's just a shlub like me. [ETA] Might as well embed...

Out of curiosity, I hit the job boards and looked for butcher jobs. I realize you're not looking to just to find a job as a meat cutter, but it would seem to define the requirements for entry. From what I found, the trade seems to value experience over education. But the one thing that jumped out at me on one posting was a requirement of a firm understanding of HAACP. I think this will be a big deal especially as you get into sausages. I don't know what certifications may be available, or what they take, but that would be one part of the puzzle to focus intensely on.

My basic question arises out of observations in several offices large and small. It appears that proper ovens and burners are strictly verboten. Even while touring the newly built headquarters a large, rather stylish corporation, I noticed this. They had a large lunch/break area with an area that had the appearance of a commercial kitchen. But no ovens or burners. Or really, anything that could be used to cook. I have seen toasters, toaster ovens, microwaves, popcorn makers and, of course, coffee makers. Sometimes, a grill out in the back parking lot seems to be okay for a special occasion. But what are the actual/general rules? Any HR/Legal types out there? But more generally, what about the community's trials and triumphs of office cuisine. This post has been in my head for a while, but this link brought it to the forefront.... Cutting Pasta Using a Paper Shredder

If I might add on a related question, I've often wondered why supermarket hard boiled eggs are always bad? Sure, a refrigerated hard boiled egg will never be as good as one freshly cooked and cooled to room temp. But when I do refrigerate a hard boiled egg, it isn't the disaster that I find in a supermarket hard cooked egg. I don't think it's just old product - although Porthos may have a point in this regard because they're invariably - peeled, but it's not like sometimes I get good ones, and other times I get bad ones. They are consistently bad.

I really thought there wouldn't be a 'truck stop' in the finale. But then Tyler stuck his face in there again. Well, okay, a straight up comparison of the products wouldn't be bad....Oh, wait, no it's not.... Luckily, NomNom's 'truck stop' win only confirmed the magnitude of Grill'em All's win in the final challenge. But we're apparently left in the dark regarding how NomNom's truck was gone as the Grill'em All truck went by their previous location. Apparently, it came down to the Great Food Truck Parking and Vertigo Race.

Those are interesting stats but I think they are of limited value considering the variations in the competition and challenges. When Collichio states outright that these were the best finale dishes of any season (even with the stricter limitations on what could be cooked), I think we might be may be missing something (or a lot). Part of it might be in production or editing, but it also could be gamesmanship, or even quiet professionalism. When the season began, I remarked that the level of the entrants seemed to keep going up. All but three of the originals this season were either executive chefs or chef/owners. Kevin was not flamboyant like a Voltaggio, but he was intimately familiar with what they (or at least one of them) did day-to-day. He had also worked with Hung. C'mon, if you've worked with not one, but two previous Top Chef's, you know a thing or two.

I agree, the first two episodes were outliers. I think they tried to fit too much in. But it got better as it went along. You just have to a develop a mental filter for Fox's penchant for the over dramatic. Having watched Kitchen Nightmares on Fox, I had a head start. Perhaps the three chefs should explain the concept of 'less is more' to the Fox producers.

Or anywhere else an eGulleteer might reside?

I liked it. It looks like we have a lot of personalities. Personally, it looks like I will have some problems at times as a chocolate purist. No citrus with my chocolate please. I hope the challenge that "pastry chefs can do savory better than savory cooks can do pastry" will be taken up at some point, in some form. I really get a first season Top Chef feel about this.

If you believe Bourdain, Collichio will speak his mind (to producers or anyone else). And that seems like what got him on the show. Regarding having the proteins preselected, Collichio used an unattributed quote regarding the Academy Awards; "If you want to find out who the best actor is, have them all play Hamlet" There is some sense there. I like GordonCooks' idea to award cumulative points. But it could lead something weird like someone locking it up with three episodes to go. And again, from Collichio, remember it's a game. If he really wanted to determine who was the best he would just go to their restaurants.

Perhaps they should make the quickfires less quick, and less silly, but keep the high stakes prizes. That would encourage people to swing for the fence more often. With an elimination challenge it's clearly in one's best interest to be conservative. So unless they go to a tournament style competition or something, that won't change.

Holy crap. That's some serious food porn. It looks like butter with some meat in it. Anyway, regarding Keller's book, the thing I found after I got it is that he's maddeningly specific about ingredients. If you're not willing or able to get your radishes from "Jermaine, under the 146th street bridge, between the hours of 2:00PM and 4:00PM on Wednesday or Thursday" then all bets are off. Yes, that's an exaggeration. But not far off. I learned a couple of valuable facts (primarily that you can overcook sous vide) and some interesting techniques, but won't be cooking through it.

Using the same logic, if Keller poaches lobster in a beurre monte, why does the rest of the world boil or steam their lobsters? There are different ways to do things.

With the key word 'accessible' from your original post, I thought about what I might want to cook through. The Good Housekeeping Illustrated Cookbook came to mind. No, no, not for the quality of the recipes (though I find them reliable), but for the breadth. It's not as big as, say, The Joy of Cooking. 100 pages of it are just picture of the dishes. But at 8 per page, that's still around 800. I suppose I could opt to ignore beverages, desserts, breads, or whatever. My main thought is that if I were to commit to such a thing, I'd like to come out of it with a large repertoire - not necessarily of individual dishes - but of techniques and combinations and experiences - and generally a larger food vocabulary. I might look for a similar but smaller book. I think I'd want some diversity. American Cuisine is generally safe for me but some might want to choose, say, Mediterranean or Asian cuisines. I think Julie and Julia is an example of this with French cuisine (but not just one, but two volumes - yikes).

This topic caused me to wonder what accounts for the red color and in my search I stumbled on a large list of graded 'Irish Red Ales' (including one by Michelob, of all companies).

We are talking at cross purposes because Mssr. Maillard doesn't enter into this because the question is not about flavor. I did suggest the possibility that the meat was killed instantly, but I don't buy that given that it was taken to a lesser degree of browness than from the pan in previous iterations. The fact that it would then take a longer cooking period logically follows. We both brought up high browning temps because we can. But even my power burner on my expensive stove can't produce much more than 400 degrees in a pan (my grill can kill that). But there are a lot more good stews created on a daily basis in this country than people with high BTU capability. Bottom line: stews don't need great heat. Stews often need more time.

Because you have smaller pieces. As you say - "The point is to brown the outside without cooking the inside" The stew meat at my supermarket comes in at about 1 inch in the longest direction, A proper steak at the same place has a minimum dimension of 1.75 inches and is far more tender a cut. You simply cannot look at any piece of meat and think "that plus Maillard = good". It doesn't work like that.

A link or two to those would be interesting. Thanks. Cool. I do that too. My fillets sear at around 765 degrees. But that has nothing to do with stew meat. In my estimation, you'll ruin the stew meat in less that 30 seconds.

I'm put in an awkward position of disagreeing with Chris while he was agreeing with me (at least on one point). But fond development is not at issue (if it were, I would agree with Chris on this point). Flavor was not part of the original problem. It was texture/toughness. I would find it plausible that deep frying the meat might cause a resistance to braising by either sealing out the braising liquid, or by just absolutely murdering the meat in the first place. But cbread said the meat was browned less than usual. I think that regardless of the wisdom of using that much oil, the browning was clearly not as much as previously experienced by other methods. And there is no better heat transfer medium than deep fat. Far better than a pan. No pan could ever introduce 375 degrees on every square millimeter of a morsel. Frankly, this might be an innovation (if not wasteful of oil). A fond can come off a braised meat just as it might leave a pan. I'm more convinced than ever that cbread's last sentence in the original post is absolutely correct. Just gave up on it too soon.

Isn't stew, by its very definition, one of those peasant dishes that exists in order to provide a use for inferior cuts? Isn't the designation of 'stew meat' meant to describe cuts that aren't good enough to be used for anything else?

I'm guessing it wasn't cooked long enough. Since you didn't brown it as much, this may have added to the work the braise needed to do. I did a random survey of some stew recipes and the shortest time I found was 1 3/4 - 2 hours. I know I've done more than one pot roast that stubbornly refused to obey the clock.

Can we throw some cheese in the car's gas tank if we run out? Care to elaborate for us uneducated how this is petroleum based food? No, I don't believe you could run a car on it. But if it were to be heated, it might stand a better chance of working than petroleum jelly. Yet, with enough cheese powder, petroleum jelly could be equally unworthy of the name 'cheese'. But the Kraft Cheese-like stuff is a requirement for a classic American diner style grilled cheese.

Click on 'found it' at the end of the second paragraph of the first post.

The pasta part of it is priceless (beginning at around 20:00). After Martha 'helps' Eric freaking Ripert with his pasta rolling, she brings the rolled pasta over to Tony for cutting. As soon as he begins to handle the dough she says "No, don't mess that up." Tony brushes that aside as deftly as he rolls and cuts the pasta. Martha then swoops in with another admonition and whisks the pasta away. At this point Tony is clearly at his limit. He looks behind Martha at Ripert but he's not looking back. Then he looks to the audience who clearly get it.

A brief soak and it should rub right off. I think you'd need to see the immense ease with which the dried dough comes off a plastic bowl. No brief soak. No soak of any sort. No rubbing whatsoever. Just an upending, maybe a smack, and a rinse.