zilla369
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Posts posted by zilla369
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TIp toes and a soft pillowcase!
Heh.
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This looks good. I'm planning on using it as a side for a dinner party next month.
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Harry, try this recipe: Pork chops in Guiness Stout Gravy. You won't be sorry. You can easily add rice on the side.
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Seems like some folks may not know about eG's already extensive coverage of Chef Adria and El Bulli from a couple years back. You can start here, the intro to a Q&A with Adria from 2004. That thread has embedded links from other Adria threads on eG, as well.
And now ... back to No Reservations! I noticed Miami is tomorrow night's repeat. I didn't see that one before.
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I found this mention in a search of Mrs. Lincoln's Boston Cookbook (Mrs. D.A. Lincoln, 1884)
And this mention in a work of fiction (Dr. Zay, Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, 1882):
But that poor little editor, Mr. Yorke, I wish you could have made his acquaintance. The table-girl at the Sherman House told my girl hen' lost his appetite to that pass he wouldn't eat a thing but shoo-fly potatoes. Think," added Mrs. Butterwell, with a gravity which deepened to solemnity, "of supporting an honorable and unrequited affection on shoo-fly potatoes!"So, it looks like it was a real dish, however briefly. From Mrs. Lincoln's description, it sounds like fried julienne of potatoes.
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I guess it can't hurt to tell now - I made it through three rounds of interviews for this season of Hell's Kitchen. Why they discarded me in the end, I'm not sure (they sure didn't tell me).
I had thought it was because I had to truthfully answer that I had once been arrested (long story, missed traffic court because of my mom's funeral, picked up on a bench warrant sweep). At least I know now that that wasn't the reason (in light of Mr. Bad Check Prison Chef).
I'm starting to think that they discarded me because - even if I had been totally BY MYSELF in one of those kitchens last night - I would certainly have served somebody an entree before 3 hours had passed.
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I bought some beautiful heirloom garlic at the farmer's market yesterday morning. I roasted four heads (small heads, varietal = "Music") lovingly in very expensive EVOO in a terra cotta roaster. This was supposed to be used on baguette slices with my stuffed lasagna.
Well, we nibbled so much during cooking and had such big salads (microgreens, endive, goat cheese, candied pecans - YUM!) that we decided to forgo the bread. And somehow I totally spaced and left the garlic sitting on the counter in it's roaster all night. I've just discovered it and put it into the fridge, but... I'm worried.
I know there's some danger of botulism from room-temp garlic-and-oil preparations. I believe I remember from school that the danger is from storing raw garlic in oil without refrigeration or benefit of adding acid to the mixture.
Keeping in mind that mine is cooked rather than raw - should I throw it out? It'll break my heart, but I don't want to accidentally give myself a botox treatment, either.
It was probably at room temperature about 13 hours.
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Ladies Love Mint Juleps.
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Congratulations! If you're thinking of Nashville, also think of Louisville, a couple hours north. Mint juleps and country ham. Colonel Sanders. Hot Browns. Benedictine. Large Asian, African American and Latino communities.
But mostly - how exciting for you!
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For me, there's a big distinction between taking jars that are sent up with room service (perfectly fine) and jars that are set out on a buffet (maybe not so much.) The premium price of room service and the unlikelihood that the jars would make it back to the kitchen later is the justification in the first scenario.
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Moderator's note: I removed some posts from this thread that were off-topic. Let's keep to the subject at hand: High-end and other grilling equipment.
Carry on!
Marsha
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I love cheese, even faux-cheese, but, yes - the cheese is the deal killer in the Famous Bowl. It just seems so wrong.
I actually dig the Taco Bell Border Bowl, though.
Obviously I have no shame or taste.
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I don't want to see the staff's personal beverages or food in sight of the guests. If the hostess has a glass of iced tea under the podium, I don't want to be able to see it from behind when I'm walking outside to take a phone call. If the busboy is eating a burger, let him eat it in the break area, or out back - I don't want to see him eating it in the server's station when I'm on my way to the restroom.
And servers - please, please don't wear cologne of any kind. And if you think that splash of CK1 is covering up the beer sweating out of your pores, you're sadly mistaken.
Someone else mentioned burnt out lightbulbs - classic telltale that someone doesn't care.
Serve from the LEFT. Pick up from the RIGHT. And, when logistically possible, ladies first, and older ladies before younger ladies. It's so simple.
And keep your thumb off the rim of my plate, buddy. And if you can't manage a full tray, get somebody to follow you or even bring two plates and go back for the other two - don't haphazardly balance our plates on a big tray you can barely carry and cause all the entrees to slide to one side of the plates.
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I always knew Stephen was a human being. And I love that while everyone else got all gussied up for the reunion show, he wore a t-shirt and jeans.
Man, was Lisa drunk or what? How long do the producers at Bravo leave them in a room with a full bar before they start filming? Same thing happened during the last Project Runway reunion show.
Tiffani's remorse or nausea or whatever seemed completely contrived. I'm not even sure if she knew which one she was trying to fake.
And I'm with Grub on the sauce-tasting thing. We never, ever, did hear Chef Keller say they actually re-made the sauce. Ken Lee seems like an asshole in the first degree, but he sort of had a point in that finger-tasting goes on in high-end kitchens a LOT. Besides, if you watch carefully (well, as much as editing will allow), he tasted with his finger but did not put the finger back in. Which is why you never heard the chef confirm that the sauce was thrown out. It was practically entrapment! He told him to taste the sauce!
I'm bummed about the finale now that LeAnn is gone. Harold, while he has skills, is one of those snooty line cooks that thinks they're above anything mundane. "I don't cook for kids." "I don't do gas station food." Well, you sure as hell signed up for a reality show! Whiner.
I suspect Tiffani of turning off burners and turning down ovens. I noticed she didn't protest too loudly when she was backhandedly accused of it - my theory is that she was afraid there was footage in existence of her doing exactly that. I hope one of the other two mans up and turns her fire off or oven down during the final. I'd laugh so hard.
Dave seems like a nice guy, but he obviously has next to zero experience working in a kitchen with a lot of other people. He moves too frenetically, he expends so much energy walking in circles and talking to himself. He'd never be able to lead a kitchen full of cooks.
I hope they bring back LeeAnn or Stephen as a surprise in the finals - but I'm probably not going to get my wish.
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Does anyone remember a poem from childhood that went "To bed, to bed, says sleepy head"?
My US Appalachian coal-mining grandparents called the mid-day meal "dinner" - the coal miners carried it to work with them in their "dinner bucket" (lunchbox) - a metal box that flipped open and had a tin cup attached to drink water out of - later versions (circa 1950 plus) had a thermos full of coffee clipped to the inside of the top lid. The evening meal was "supper".
My parents still called the evening meal "supper" but the mid-day meal was called "lunch".
These days I use "lunch" and "dinner" for the second and third meals of the day. "Tea" sounds fancy and nice, though. 'Course, in the south, we drink our tea over ice with sugar in it. None of that hoity-toity Earl Grey or Darjeeling for us. Just good old Orange Pekoe.
I know, I know. Philistines.
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Psst....rich:
Dill, not parsley. Parsley benedictine just tastes like tatziki sauce. The iron-clad traditional recipe 'round here is cream cheese, cucumber, grated onion (squeeze the moisture out of the grated onion before adding) dill, splashes of hot sauce and worchestershire sauce, salt, pepper and lemon juice.
And good on ya for eschewing the green dye. Some folks say it ain't benedictine without it - actually my own catering manager bugs me about putting it in all the time, but, so far, I've remained steadfast.
Benedictine was invented in the early 1920's by Jennie Benedict, a very successful Louisville restaurateur and caterer that had attended Fanny Farmer's cooking school in Boston. Legend has it that she invented it when she made a batch of cream cheese from milk that had come from cows that had been munching on a patch of wild onions in their field (so it was onion-y tasting from the start) - but I don't have any confirmation of that. Sounds a little pat - this year is the first time I heard that part of the story.
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That having been said, does it really work? Kinda hard to tell from the bogus little animation............
Yeah, I can't tell what's going on there. Looks like a tiny amusement park ride for shrimp.
Wheeeeeeee!
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Article in today's Wall Street Journal (free registration may be required). Includes some recipes.
It's Kentucky Derby week, by the way.
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I would tell your brother that most kitchens would hire anyone, experience or not, if they're willing to work the right hours for the right (read: cheap) pay.
A lot of chefs would rather take a completely green person and train them the way they want than to take a culinary school graduate that thinks a lot of themselves, believe me. And if he's going to go beyond that and represent himself as someone with a LOT of experience, well - as others have said - he'll be found out within a couple hours, anyway.
I always ask potential cook hires what steps they would take, in order, if I asked them to boil a dozen eggs. You can laugh if you want to, but there are tons of cooks, even celebrated ones, good ones, that can execute unbelievably complex dishes - but they don't know how to boil an egg properly. Also I'm looking for stuff like "well, first I would wash my hands, then I would ask where the aprons are and where the eggs are kept...."
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Sanitation concerns aside, I don't think it's uncommon to despise all the food on the menu where you work. You just get tired of smelling it, preparing it, tasting it, day in and day out. I could have seabass every day if I wanted it, but I'd rather have a hot dog or a taco.
My current job has ruined rosemary for me - hopefully not forever. Maybe some day I'll actually voluntarily put rosemary in something I'm making at home, but that day is years away.
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I once ordered "truffled potatoes" and they tasted nothing of truffles or even truffle oil. I asked the waiter about it, and he said that it was just a method of making mashed potatoes, it didn't have anything to do with actual truffles. Okay...
And don't you love it when the 19 year old waiter looks at you like you're a complete idiot when you ask questions?
I laughed so hard when I read this.
To his defense, I guess a lot of people would have swallowed that explanation.
What makes me mad is when they try to pass off one kind of fish as another. I don't often order seafood in restaurants, but I've seen many a dining companion being served a different kind of fish than what they ordered.
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I had one Saturday. Now, I don't drink coffee except very rarely, so probably my opinion should be taken with a grain of salt.
It was the weirdest beverage experience - first sip, I thought hey, that's good! Second sip I thought yuck!. Picked it back up a few minutes later and thought hmmm....now it tastes better, but not as good as the first sip.
I didn't finish it though. And I felt pretty queasy for an hour or so after I stopped drinking it.
I concur with the jellybean analogy upthread - and I don't care for jellybeans at all.
Sorry, Coke Blak - but I think it's over between us before it even began.
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I guess I don't understand all the love Dave is getting, from Choad-a-row and others. I mean, the man can't even remember to season food with salt and pepper. And he'd never last in a busy kitchen - he's waaaaaaay too sensitive.
I'm not saying he doesn't have something to contribute to the world as a cook. But I can't believe people are talking about him being in the top three of this group. He seems like a really nice guy, somebody I'd probably have fun hanging out with or even cooking a dinner party with, but "Top Chef" of these 12? No way.
My buddy Stephen dropped the ball this week (although they should have waited for him to fire the food - all line cooks, no matter how much they disapprove of the server or the pace in the FOH, have to wait for the server - or expediter, at least - to fire courses). I predict that after this week he gets the message that people don't care to be "educated" in a way that makes them feel inferior. After all, in his comments on his website, he had this to say about the monkfish episode:
I must admit the whole "gaufrette" thing was over the top. Why I felt compelled to speak French to children, I haven't the slightest.But my all-time favorite Stephen quote has to be his response to someone (? I think Miguel) asking him how he managed to get something completed so quickly (this was in episode 2 or 3, I think):
"That's because I'm the man, brother."We now quote it to each other around my house at least two or three times a day. Bwahaha!
All that being said, I would never pick Stephen as a line cook in my restaurant. Harold, LeAnne - yes. Tiffani, probably not. Too much attitude.
LeAnne should have scaled that fish better, and she knew it. Yeah, Miguel shouldn't have bought it scales-on, but she should have cleaned it better, period, end of sentence.
Steven Shaw
in Announcements
Posted
My condolences to his family and huge circle of friends, associates and mentees. I know he will be greatly missed.