Chef/Writer Spencer
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Posts posted by Chef/Writer Spencer
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Not to nit pick here, but don't you mean dried herbs?
absolutely...my bad...herbs....
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Excuse my ignorance, but how could you make a dry spice rub for something without dry spices? BBQ would never be the same again...
Good French chefs wouldn't be caught dead using spice rubs. They leave that up to B. Flay.
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Sharpen your spears and lock the children away. There's going to be some shock and awe.
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Go ask Eric Ripert if he uses any dry herbs in his kitchen and more than likely he's going to bounce your tawdry head of the swinging door. Thomas K. will probably just change the subject to the growing patterns of fava beans being the non-confrontationalist he is. Even fat boy E eschews them on his pro-wrestling meets the Arsenio Hall show. Does this mean that we should forego them? I say these guys are mirror primping for the Paul Bocuse late night hour. I love me some dry thyme from the Colorado Spice Co, they also have kick ass thai, indian and asian blends--my favorite being the all-purpose Chang Mai and Ras el Hanout. Let's jump on the dry spice bandwagon...anybody got any favs.....
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All hail the vapor trail.
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All I have to say is "LONG LIVE THE TALENTED AND DISINFRANCHISED."
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Fourme d'Ambert (always)
Cypress Grove's Humbolt Fog or Midnight Moon (of late)
Queseria Michoacan's queso fresco (of late)
Michoacan. Cool. My sous chef is from there. Apparently only quality exports come from there.....
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Goat, sheep and cow. The next one is a very distant fourth.
Yak?
Polarbear.
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Business dinner at Daniel, my boss (the owner) hosting. Party of 5 with LOTS of wine - $3,000
I still dream about it.
$3,000 each?
Hey, who's your boss, Donald Trump?
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Aged Manchego purchased in Spain from reputable cheesemakers. (Forever)
Forme D'ambert/Roquefort Tie. (Forever)
Drunken Goat/Velo Dry Jack Tie (This month)
Yeah, ok that's 5...
St. Andre, Parm. Reg., Tallegio/preferably with some taint on it, Reblochon.
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Aged Manchego purchased in Spain from reputable cheesemakers. (Forever)
Forme D'ambert/Roquefort Tie. (Forever)
Drunken Goat/Velo Dry Jack Tie (This month)
Yeah, ok that's 5...
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Utilities and rent are the same for a fancy restaurant as they are for McDonalds. So where does the money go?
tablecloths cost money.
Rent and utlilities the same at a fine dining restaurant as they are at McDonald's. I'm going to work under the assumption that you've never run a restaurant smarm. First of all, you can't make that statement with any degree of accuracy because fancy restaurants vary in shape, size and location.
are you referring to my comment?
ediot: upon review, i can't imagine that you are, although you've shocked me before.
No,not at all Tommy. Sorry I didn't catch that question. From what I've deduced you're one of us.
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Creates lots of carcinogens.
Then again, so does barbequing or smoking meat. Or effectively cooking anything to the point of creating a char crust or grill marks.
Hell, mastubating causes cancer. Breathing while you're asleep causes cancer. If you closed yourself off in a bubble for the rest of your life, drinking only spring water from artisan wells and scarfing down garden burgers made by an anal retentive rabbi there would still be something lingering around your lurch that caused this dispicable virus to find its way into your miserable life. So I say fuck it, eat smoke.
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Hmmm... Spencer, I don't know where you are but possibly, just possibly, the only boiled shrimp you have encountered may have been long frozen before you got them boiled. If you ever ran across hard to peel shrimp, I am sure you would complain. This is a clue. I am beginning to wonder if the "fresh off the boat" shrimp (which we usually buy) might not BE the problem.
Put me in my place why don't ya. You're right though....the only shrimp we get here in the center of the country are IQF. I have had blue prawns on occassion but I wouldn't fertilize my enemies graves with their meat. Another reason I'm bitter.
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Perhaps the most difficult food for me so far was durian, because of the need to overcome the smell, but the fruit itself is very tasty.
This sort of statement is completely incomprehensible to me. I can't ignore the smell of a food if it's bad; the smell is inextricable from the taste.
This statement is borne of ignorance...if you walked up to a durian (not that it would let you get that close to begin with) and took in the whole olfactory experience you'd certainly turn and run. It must have been a masochistic fool that cracked into one but, once you pull your nads out of throat and cut yourself a slab you'd be amazed. You've got to try everything in this life if you call yourself a culinarian I think--unless there are odds on your quick demise. Like I'd roast Rover long before I broke my good knee on a blowfish.
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Anyone this passionate about boiled shrimp deserves an answer. Unfortunately, peeling shrimp--the good bad and the ugly--hasn't ever been an issue for me. I've never sat there perplexed about that question. I just peel em and go, to me they're easy to peel regardless. I do know that the proper way to boil shrimp without overcooking is to put them in water that's rolling hard and when they first float you remove.
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it's sunday.
as usual i skipped breakfast and immediately started planning lunch when i arose from my hungover stuper at 10.30 am. after seeing Bittman's bit on lamb burgers in the NYT last week, please oh please click me, and then glacing through Food & Wine to see another version, i decided that it must be time.
mixed the lamb with onion, parsley, mint, rosemary, and garlic. grilled and served on an onion brioche with raita, sliced red onion, and lettuce. every breakfast should be like this.
That bastard (like I don't think the guy's brilliant)...I've been making lamb burgers for years. Ground lamb (80-20), lemon juice, feta, thyme, caramelized onion, egg and-----a touch of soy----. Served with braised vidalia onion broth and grilled vidalia onion slice. Woah...
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Damn Spenc, that sauce sounds gorgeous.
I have no choice but to try it. Mmm. We need a drooling emoticon.
While I'd love to take credit for it I had nothing to do with it. My idiot savant ex-pastry chef/baker (Andy--Most Likely to never be sober--Masters) was fucking around on the garde manger one day and chucked a bunch of mis en place up into demi and stuffed the sauce into one of his epitard. Of course, like any chef worth a shit, I took credit for it when it was deemed "sublime" in the rags. But it's really something you need to try. If veal demi is too time consuming, take some chicken stock and reduce that to a demi.
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Spencer, do you strain out the ham, shallots, and confit?
Absolutely not. No Jinmyo, if you dice the tasso up to super brunoise you'll be good to go. If you only rough chop or reg. brunoise you'll be leaving tough little bits in the sauce. Tasso is pork butt that hasn't been cooked long enough to render it tender. Render it tender....hmmmm....Anyways, tasso is best eaten in small slivers or minced. But by God you'd be doing your self a disservice to get all French with that sauce and triple Thomas Keller strain it. The textural enticements are half the allure.
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I specifically stated "fine dining". To me, street food in Thailand doesn't fit that criteria. So, I agree entirely with you Jonathan.
Wholehearted agreement with my good friend pixel. However, if we use the word fine to describe well-conceived and properly executed delicious food--personally I'd option for the Thai food. I cook fine dining, I sure don't long for it when I've hit full-on stoned. Ok, so I missed the point again.
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Isn't that dishonest?
Elyse, in general, though every restaurant has their own annoying little idiosyncratic policies, the percentage you pay, or should pay is based on your total bill. I'm sure some customers only tip on the food...but here in the states the unspoken rule is the total bill. Wine service, for some waiters, is a nerve wracking thing. For me, I freeze up, choked with premonitions of broken corks, and all eyes on my hands as they shake the cork free. So, I always feel obliged as a customer to consider that.
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Onglet (hangersteak), pounded out, allowed to "marinate" in chopped thyme, minced garlic, and olive oil till gets that oxydized look (at least overnight). The best sauce for hangersteak that I've made........plain veal demi simmered with K-Paul's tasso ham, rough chopped shallot and finish with tomato confit. I'm telling you, and please heed my words, get some good tasso and infused that flavor into a GOOD demi (not Knorr's for whores) and you're going to elect me president of the congress of flavor.
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Good question Smarmotron. Rat control?
Excellent Nick, add fucking pest control to the list.
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Utilities and rent are the same for a fancy restaurant as they are for McDonalds. So where does the money go?
tablecloths cost money.
Rent and utlilities the same at a fine dining restaurant as they are at McDonald's. I'm going to work under the assumption that you've never run a restaurant smarm. First of all, you can't make that statement with any degree of accuracy because fancy restaurants vary in shape, size and location. The overhead of running let's say Gary Danko is going to put any McDonald's to shame.
Things that influence the bottom line in a fine dining restaurant:
Rent
Utilities
Higher Food Costs
Higher Labor Costs (it doesn't take a master chef to squirt some mayo on a warmed over bun and create the burger napoleon)
Flowers
Linen
Stemware
China
Liquor Taxes, Property Taxes,
Liquor Licenses
Advertising
Repairs
Contract Labor
Comps
Vent Cleaning
Ansul System Maintenance
Dish Chemicals, Routine Maintenance
I could go on and on into minute detail boring the socks out of everyone. But I won't. McDonald's usually gravitate toward low rent locales, fine dining in higher ones. The money slips away. You think you're going to make a mint because Drew Nieporent is. The guy's one in a million. Most upscale restaurants open up with a latent purpose of self-destruction. Give a neophyte a taste of the spoils and the next thing you know he's Slim Pickens riding the big one into the annals of restaurant mega failure. Food costs and labor costs alone need to be managed so goddamn closely that, if done properly, would leave a chef/owner little time to create food. Chef/owners and owners in general better get a tried and true system in place immediately upon opening or, like air through a slashed tire, the profits will disappear unaccountably.
Emeril inks five year deal
in Food Media & Arts
Posted · Edited by Chef/Writer Spencer (log)
Ok agreed, the guy writes a good recipe. Does that excuse the band away, the kung-fu, the "You're gonna wanna stir it like such's?" Does that excuse Emerilware? The Black Hole Sun, I've seen the holyland glaze of his audience? I think a future chef can ascertain his potential within the career by how much he likes Emeril. It all comes down to do you want to bark like a coked out seal or cook real food for stoics and real folks.. If my customer base acted like that in my presence I'd be doing stand up--because they certainly wouldn't be in my kitchen. Food as a dog and pony show is as annoying if not more so than the graphics Fox News used for The Iraq War. Coming soon...The Bamming of Basra Have we learned anything from killing babies. Story at 11:00. Food is fire, flame, magic not five year deals and designer tupperfuckingware. If anyone wants to start a petition against five more years of this I'll sign it personally.
I can see this thread being merged with the 14 others.....