slkinsey
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Posts posted by slkinsey
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Here's another perspective on Di Fara from David Rosengarten...
http://www.davidrosengarten.com/content.as...pe=ezine&id=131
I gotta tell ya—as if I have to—I was really scarred by my Di Fara experience. Usually, the food's the thing as far as I'm concerned. But the level of sheer managerial incompetence here was mind-boggling.This was perhaps the worst restaurant operation I've ever stepped into—including a lot of huts and shacks from southeast Georgia to southeast Asia.
I have nothing against the old guy; he seemed kind of pleasant when I met him five years ago. And there's no questioning his talent as a pizza-maker. But how much hubris do you have to have to ignore the fact that people are waiting an hour-and-a-half for a slice of pizza.....and sometimes not getting it? Hire a few people! Hire one person! Fix this!
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I am not planning to go back to Di Fara anytime soon. And that's coming from me—the one who has made a career favoring funk over fashion.
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I've used something like this from time to time. It tends to get gummed-up with ice after around 2 cubes or so, and doesn't work any better than doing it by hand.
To be clear, what George is suggesting is that bartenders bring out a Lewis bag and mallet every time they need to crack some ice.
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The thermodynamic reasons for using cracked ice in the preparation of certain drinks are well understood, and explained in sufficient detail here and elsewhere. So, I gather that you are not questioning the use of cracked ice so much as the way the cracked ice is produced. I don't believe that "bartenders are breaking ice cubes up in their hands believing it to be an 'authentic' way of preparing cocktails" so much as they are doing it because there is an advantage to using cracked ice, and this is the most efficient way of getting cracked ice.
Please elucidate as to a more practical way to get cracked ice. It's not as though each bar is starting the evening with a few gigantic blocks of ice which are broken down with ice picks. How do you get cracked ice?
Certainly things like the Tap-Icer have been around for a long time (50+ years), and my grandfather (born 1897 and a lifelong cocktailian) used to crack ice cubes in his hand using the back of a spoon. So it's certainly not a modern invention. I'd guess that ice cubes have been cracked by hand going back at least until the end of prohibition, when mixology largely transferred to the home and electric freezers became ubiquitous. More to the point, this would coincide with ice being mostly in cube rather than block form. Prior to that time, ice was likely delivered in blocks and broken down... well... by hand (albeit using a pick and other instruments).
Vermiere and others don't mention breaking down ice cubes by hand because they didn't have ice cubes. Whatever "lumps" of ice they had to work with would have been broken off the block, and when you're doing that there is no reason why you shouldn't break off smaller pieces if that is what you would like to use.
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You're really grasping at straws now, Florida. I'm not going to bother responding to the bit about vegetarianism or Hinduism, because people change dietary and religious habits all the time without betraying their principles.
This whole thing fails because you take the position that it is impossible for someone who is a "food expert" to appreciate or promote a fast food burger without betraying his principles. This is simply a nonsensical position with no basis in reality. Why can't Padma Lakshmi like high cuisine and low cuisine and anything in between? And why can't she offer opinion or support about anything in this range so long as doing so does not betray her principles? You have made no convincing argument why this should be so. All you have done is argue from the position that people you associate with high cuisine should remain within that ivory tower and never venture outside. In the case of Padma Lakshmi your position is even further weakened by the fact that you have associated her with high cuisine apparently solely on the basis of her work on Top Chef. Padma Lakshmi herself, I should point out, has made no effort to position herself as a spokesperson for high cuisine nor as a moral arbiter on the subject of food. You're the one who calls her a "food expert" or "knowledgeable food critic" (I would not call her, nor does she appear to call herself any kind of "critic"). I am merely pointing out why even these things are not incompatible with an appreciation of low cuisine.
Meanwhile, let's look around at who else appreciates low cuisine. . .
Thomas Keller: ". . . once in a while you might see me at In and Out Burger; they make the best fast food hamburgers around."
Eric Ripert says: ". . . in developing [my] burger, my research took me to a couple of places that might seem unexpected: McDonald’s and Burger King."
Tom Colicchio has appeared on a commercial for Diet Coke.
Jeffrey Steingarten: "Popeyes [fried chicken] is totally awesome, extremely crisp, not greasy, and with an inoffensive-even desirable-deep-fried taste."
David Rosengarten has written extensively about things like hamburgers and pizza.
Alan Richman: "The hamburger is a symbol of everything that makes America great."
I could go on. But, needless to say, plenty of people who actually are in the position of being spokespeople for high cuisine and arbiters as to what is good in food are on the record expressing their fondness for low cuisine, including... yes, the humble hamburger. I guess there just aren't too many people who can live up to your high moral standards on this one. And thank goodness for that! It would be terrible if all our culinary figures were dour moralizers like Charlie Trotter.
I don't know that it's possible to say more on the subject of Lakshmi's alleged "selling out" in doing this commercial except to say that appearing in a commercial for a product that you are on the record as liking, when neither the product nor appearing in commercials goes against any of your stated principles, cannot by definition be "selling out."
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Where do you get this idea that because she's leveraging her assets she can't be a sellout? She has every right to sell whatever she wants. She can earn a living. But when what she is selling (hardee's) is in contrast to what she is selling ("knowledgeable food critic"), I'm going to say the two don't match. And, yes, many chefs eat this crap, but I don't see lot's of chefs selling it.
Merriam Webster says that selling out is "to betray one's cause or associates especially for personal gain."
The American Heritage Dictionary says that a sellout is "one who has betrayed one's principles or an espoused cause."
Wiktionary says that selling out is "an action in which principles are compromised for financial gain" and that a sellout is "a person who compromises their principles for financial gain."
Note that none of these things have anything to do with one person's various public personae matching as to all aspects. Indeed, it would seem that the major qualifying criterion for selling out is to do something that betrays or compromises one's principles in exchange for money. Now, when Rick Bayless appeared in a commercial for Burger King, this could reasonably be characterized as selling out because Burger King as a corporate entity does things that go against many of Bayless' (loudly and copiously) stated principles. However, in the case of Padma Lakshmi, you have not made the case that appearing in a Hardee's commercial would in any way be a violation of her principles. Indeed, it appears that (i) she hasn't taken any public positions that would be contradicted by taking commercial work from Hardee's; (ii) convincing evidence has been presented this thread to the effect that she, in fact, does appreciate this kind of food; and (iii) there is nothing in her career as a media and entertainment figure that suggests she would or should automatically have principles that mitigated against Hardee's, Hardee's food or fast food in general.
What we have, as far as I can tell is that you think Hardee's food is bad, that you feel liking Hardee's food is incongruous with being a "food expert" or "knowledgeable food critic" and that, due to these conclusions of yours, you feel any person who presents the persona of being a "food expert" or "knowledgeable food critic" must therefore be betraying his principles in promoting Hardee's in exchange for money. Well, other than the common thread that these are all things you think and principles you have assigned to another person based on no evidence (and then accused that person of breaking), none of this applies to anyone else but you. All you're telling us is that for you, if you were a "food expert" in the media, then appearing in a commercial for Hardee's would be a sellout for you. That's all very interesting, I'm sure, but it doesn't have much to do with the price of a hamburger, if you get my meaning. Just because two aspects of Padma Lakshmi's commercial work don't seem to fit together in your mind, doesn't make her a sellout anymore than it would for a professor of literature to enjoy or promote comic books.
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Apparently if you vacuum-pack fresh favas, then freeze and thaw, it allows them to be easily peeled and tenderizes them just enough while still retaining the delicious raw fava-ness.
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I think you miss the point. The various cook/entertainers I mentioned were to make examples from the larger "food world," not as direct points of comparison with Padma Lakshmi (although I should hasten to point out that it seems unlikely Bourdain's talents as a cook would have got him to the position where we know his name were it not for his career as an entertainer -- and similar things could be said about many of the rest).
Padma Lakshmi may not have leveraged her talent as a cook into the career position she currently enjoys, but make no mistake: she is talented. If she weren't talented, she wouldn't be where she is. Don't make the mistake of confusing a lack of talent you can understand for a lack of talent. It's like the "incompetent boss syndrome." Everyone in a large business knows at least one person who seems to continually move up the corporate ladder despite the fact that he doesn't seem to be very good as his job. And maybe he isn't. But this is not a lack of talent. It's quite clear that the guy is very talented at doing whatever it is that he needs to do to get promoted.
It just so happens that whatever talents and attributes Padma Lakshmi has, she has combined with hard work to build a career as a media and entertainment personality who is currently primarily associated with the food world. Paris Hilton has also used whatever talents and attributes she has, together with hard work, to build a career as a different kind of media personality. They both have taken opportunities to leverage the public personas they worked to build to make money by appearing in commercials.
Yes, I think it is a bit ridiculous to compare Lakshmi to Colicchio when one is speaking of "selling out" by making a food-focused commercial because Lakshmi has always, in my opinion, been about being an entertainer and media personality and this is one way entertainers and media personalities make money (indeed, it is one of the rewards of achieving a certain level as an entertainer and media personality). But don't make the mistake of thinking that Colicchio is doing Top Chef and the other things he does out of some kind of artistic impulse or altruistic desire to spread the gospel of great cuisine. He's doing it because he's well-compensated for doing so, and also because increasing the ubiquity of his public image helps drive customers to his restaurants and any other commercial ventures with which he may associate his name either now or in the future. In other words, he had the opportunity to become an entertainer and media personality, and how he is doing what entertainers and media personalities do: he is leveraging the talent and hard work that got him there to make money off of his media personality, just like Lakshmi and all the others. All the cook/entertainers I mentioned are, to one extent or another, leveraging their media personalities to make money.
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Apparently no one is capable of being a sellout as long as you believe in the product you're selling.
Yeah commercialism!!
You seem to believe that people who spend a career growing their public image shouldn't be able to make money off of this work. Well, I hate to tell you this, but that is how show business works. This is one of the various ways entertainers make money. And make no mistake, 90% of cookbook authors and television food show hosts are primarily entertainers. Julia Child may have done her show so she could evangelize to the masses, but Tom Colicchio, Tony Bourdain, Alton Brown, Emeril Legasse, Nigella Lawson, Jamie Oliver, Martha Stewart, etc, etc, etc. . . they wrote their books and did their shows to make money. It's just like people who accuse an athlete of "selling out" when he switches teams to get a fat contract. Meanwhile, all the athletes know that it's always been all about maximizing their earnings while they can still play. Why do you think they fought for free agency? It's the fans who don't get it.
This is something that people don't often understand about this kind of business. As an opera singer, lots of people believe that everything my colleagues and I do is "ivory tower art stuff." And, sure, there is some of that. But 90% of what we do is business. It's no different for a writer or a restaurateur or an actor or a playwright or an artist or an athlete -- at least that's true for the ones who are successful. You think Picasso wasn't motivated by business concerns? Sure there are some rarified few who have attained such a high level of achievement, influence and demand that they are able to dictate terms and be "more artistic" (or whatever) in what they do. But they made their way into that position by leveraging their talent and hard work with lots and lots of business savvy.
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There are also, and perhaps more commonly, called sciadune ("sha-doo-neh") (e.g., this page of recipes from nearby Morrone del Sannio).
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The "chadoons" or "chadonnes" pronunciation strikes me as a bit of the same Italian-American transmutation of Italian or dialect that gives us "gabbagool" for coppacolla and similar.
Does your family by chance go back to Campobasso in the Molise region of Italy? It sounds like you're talking about sciadone di carnivale (sciadone = "sha-doe-neh"). Sounds like soppresata is the traditional filling in Campobasso, along with eggs, fresh cow cheese and aged cow cheese, and that the dough is made with wine. Of course, there are lots of "easter pie" traditions in Italy, but this one seems to be at least where the word you're using comes from.
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Deviled eggs. Whip the filling so it's nice and airy.
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The problem is that Hardee's isn't good.
My fast food burger-eating experience is extremely slim over the past decade or more. You won't find me in one of those places unless it's in an airport or I'm in the middle of a long drive.
That said, I recently ate in a Hardee's while driving from Kansas City to Manhattan (Kansas) and was quite favorably impressed within the context of fast food burgers. It certainly blew away any Burger King, McDonald's or Wendy's burger I've had in living memory.
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My point remains:
If she was served this on Top Chef, would she react the same?
Who gives a crap? Come on! It's a reality TV show!!! Does anyone really think that Padma freakin' Lakshmi is some kind of arbiter as to what is and isn't good in food? Is it possible... now bear with me here... is it just maybe possible that she got cast in that show because she's media-friendly and could serve as eye-candy?
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Are you kidding?! We're not talking about Alice Waters here. Padma Lakshmi is a model-turned-actress-turned-cookbook writer-turned television personality. What does she have to "sell out"? I mean, I'm not saying she's a horrible person or whatever. But she makes her living as a media figure. Period. Meanwhile, reminding everyone that she's super-hot is not a bad strategic move. I can't say that I believe she eats a lot of gigantic bacon cheeseburgers and keeps that figure, but that's another subject.
I guess Paris Hilton is selling out too.
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While I don't think this would be great for sous vide cooking (which is to say, food sealed in purged bags)... couldn't this "incubator" be used for low/slow baking like Heston Blumenthal does (e.g., prime rib blowtorched on the outside and then baked 18 hours at 50C)?
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Personally I wouldn't spend that kind of money on plated cast iron. And, I wouldn't want to ingest too much of the stuff anyway. Nickel is one of those things that is essential in minute quantities but can be very bad in larger quantities. Too much nickel can lead to increased rick of lung cancer, nose cancer, larynx cancer and prostate cancer, allergic reactions, dermatitis and other nasty things. I'm not sure these things would happen from occasional use of a nickel cooking surface, but I'll say this: I won't be buying one.
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I should probably amend what I wrote earlier. I don't get the impression MB necessarily has distribution within the US issues. Rather, they have distribution to the US issues.
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Lest we think these are special Italian techniques and/or risotto-specific terms, we should understand that they're completely mundane kitchen words that just happen to be in Italian. Another way of saying all this is:
(1) slowly softening the vegetable base (soffritto = "slowly fried");
(2) toasting the rice (tostatura = "toasting");
(3) cooking the rice (cottura = "cooking");
(4) resting (which I suppose could be called la riposatura if one were so inclined); and
(5) whipping fat and cheese into the cooked rice mixture (mantecatura = "whipping").
As to #5, I'd say it's pretty rare to whip olive oil into the risotto at the end, although I'm sure some people do it. I've only ever seen it with seafood-based risotto (in which case neither butter not parmigiano is used).
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The "cat's eye" (occhi di gatto in Italian) thing sounds like an explanation from a cooking show or an affectation of some cooking show chef. It's an interesting and perhaps useful explanation, but I've never heard anyone use this expression.
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Keller does cuttlefish 10 hours at 64C. He cuts them into ribbons and combines with ribbons of heart of palm in a cold preparation.
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Where did you order the quinine? Most likely it is not quinine, but rather "quinine bark" a.k.a. cinchona bark. If you can get actual refined quinine, I'd love to know about it. But I doubt you can, since it is apparently fairly tightly controlled (it's used to cut illegal drugs).
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Brizard has had on-and-off distribution issues in the US for almost as long as I have been aware of their products. Not sure why.
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I have heard this process called tostare il riso which simply means "to toast the rice." Never heard anything more fanciful than that.
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You think? I don't know of any bars that use pasteurized egg whites.
Breaking Ice in the Hands -- Why?
in Spirits & Cocktails
Posted
Interesting test, Feste. Interesting because I've done the test many times myself and have always got a colder drink using cracked ice.
Some questions:
1. Did they use the same number of cubes, or did they use different numbers of cubes? One advantage of using cracked ice is that you can fit a greater mass of ice into the mixing vessel.
2. How full did they fill the mixing vessel with ice? And what was the ratio of ice to liquid?
3. Why stir for the same period of time? And why stir for such a long time? Who stirs a cocktail for 60 seconds?
I would propose a test like this:
Take two large mixing tins. Fill one with whole Kold-Draft cubes. Fill the other with hand-cracked Kold-Draft cubes. Fill them all the way to the top with however many cubes that might take for each. Drop in two ounces ounces of cheap 100 proof whiskey and one ounce of vermouth. Stir until each one seems to have reached the proper amount of dilution for a Manhattan (tasting to determine, if necessary), however long that may take for each. Strain and immediately test for temperature. Measure volume. It is probably best not to do these simultaneously, so that one bartender can give his full attention to the dilution (and who presumably has one idea about the proper level of dilution).