paul o' vendange
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Posts posted by paul o' vendange
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Not here yet, but really looking forward to it arriving - Eduoard Nignon's Eloges de la Cuisine Française. I suspect it will be a fantastic read. I'm intrigued especially by what I read somewhere (might have been in James Peterson's Sauces) - Nignon's approach to stock and sauce making; in some ways, anticipating today's reduction and gelatin-centric cuisine.
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Personally, I do dry heat, then add oil, then watch for a kind of shimmer. There is a point just before smoking, or the tiniest whisp, before going ahead. If concerned, a blend of high-smoke point oil with olive oil or butter works, at least for me. I also use clarified butter.
My entire line is Sitram Profisserie. Has stood me fine for years and years. I also use black steel, for pan-roasted meats and fish.
A bit confused by your polymer comment, Paul. It's polymerization on things like cast iron and black steel that allows for seasoning and non-stick character. Can you go into it a bit more, what you mean?
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8 hours ago, &roid said:
I think I've cracked it! Thanks for all the tips on this thread, I was a lot more careful with the shaping this time, only allowing minimal flour on the top of the boule. It came out perfectly and is probably the best bread I've made in a long time.
Thanks again!
Whoops, sorry all, I see I missed a ton of posts - see you cracked it. Looks wonderful!
BTW - loved that Boddingtons when we had the wonderful chance to do a bit of a brewery tour throughout England, back in the late '90's!
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On 5/1/2016 at 10:14 AM, cyalexa said:
When I get large holes like that I chalk it up to poor shaping.
This was what I was thinking as well. I don't know the method, but do you actually tauten and form the boule, prior to proofing?
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Depending on the species, some molds (or actually species that exhibit both fungal and mold characteristics) can be quite salt tolerant, if it's a portion left in the air for any time. The very essence of some washed cheeses and rind-ripened cheeses, actually.
Was the mold long and thread-like, scaly, or a kind of chalky, powdery, low-lying mold?
Edit: Should also have said, cured meats - geotrichum candidum and related coat both sausages and many cheese styles.
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On 3/24/2016 at 3:07 AM, Thanks for the Crepes said:
I have had TJ's employees comment on my purchases too, but it has always seemed genuine to me. Maybe I am just socially naive, but I have always enjoyed my engagements with TJ's employees in my local store much, much more than anywhere else I shop.....
Absolutely my experience as well, Crepes. We love our TJ's and especially the folks who work there - on a first name basis with many of them and there is not one whiff I get about upselling, etc. Just the nicest folks, and my wife knows going in that we'll take longer with me.....because I love talking with them. I've never seen anyone there who wasn't just a sincere, happy person.
I worked for WF, for awhile. Totally different culture, and I hated it. I suspect there's something magic in the TJ's culture, unless we just lucked out and found the best place in the world to buy a good many products from. I've written in to their corporate people many times, commending various folks for what they do at our store.
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I love his Sauces book as well, rotuts. I'm completely with you, too - in fact, if I were to start over, I'd imagine I'd be deeply content to be a saucier, over any other station. What an infinite world, yes?!
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Have hated it whenever I've done it, hate throwing the flesh from a once living thing out as so much garbage due to carelessness on my part, but absolutely hold to the creed "when in doubt, throw it out."
I'm already very tetchy about using anything from the industrial - sorry, what Joel Salatin aptly if uncomfortingly refers to as "fecal soup" of factory hell zones - and this has only increased over the last several years, esp. since farming locally, drinking raw milk, making aged abondance-style cheeses and so forth. Add to it the idea of leaving factory meat out overnight, no - in the bin it would go, if it were me.
I find ammonia a different indicator than muskiness, which is what I get in male pigs and goats (esp. the latter), anyway. Ammonia, to me, always indicates breakdown, spoilage. And it's dangerous. You were very lucky.
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I've got quite a few bedside, and the "rotation" is always changing. Currently, Gourmet's Tour of France, Larousse, Great Chefs of France, Guy Savoy's La Cuisine de Mes Bistrots, Parts I and II of Jacques Pepin's The Art of Cooking (If any have read his La Technique, read these - all in beautiful color photographs, with much more of a seamless marriage between techniques and recipes), Escoffier's Guide Culinaire, two by Tom Colicchio, Craig Claibourne's Classic French Cooking, The Table Comes First: Family, France and the Meaning of Food by Adam Gopnik (what an incredible read), McGee, Paul Bocuse's French Cooking, Richard Olney's French Menu Cookbook, James Peterson's Sauces, TFL, The Nouvelle Cuisine of Jean and Pierre Trosgrois, Alain Chapel's La Cuisine: C'est Beaucoup Plus Que des Recettes. Oh, and just recently placed bedside, for the umpteenth time, Kitchen Confidential.
These books provide comfort on a kind of fervent quest - quest to reinvestigate early passions, roots, and here, to rediscover the basic brown stock, sauce. Have always defaulted to veal, TK's non-roasting method, and reduction; but it's been decades since making Espagnole and I am going back to "the beginning," to include the use of beef as well as veal, along with the other components of a classic estouffade, espagnole, demi-glace. Will make true essences, and "sacrificial meats," as Bernard Loiseau liked to call the process. And will go back to the kind of food sumptuously described and photographed in Claibourne's book, whole joints served with now arcane garnishes, and all the rest.
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Bet it was wonderful, Orbit.
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Just made something from Thomas Keller's "deconstructed chowder" - cod cakes with littleneck clams. Reduction from the clam liquor, cream, reduce. Parsley oil:
Or cod, with a nice shellfish saffron sauce - this type of combo is something I like a lot (here, it's Mediterranean sea bass):
Alain Ducasse has a phenomenal, but incredibly involved, recipe from his Flavors of France. Basically a surf and turf with several stocks, red wine, cod, wild mushrooms, clams, beans. Maybe more, haven't made it in a long time.
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Former Shakespearean actor. Fantastic thread!
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Hey all -
I'm sure this has been talked about but as I've been awhile for quite a long time, I thought I'd ask anew in case anyone knows of current sources.
I live in Madison, WI. Having a difficult time getting veal for stock, at least anything more than bones, and those, at $4.00 per pound. Could be I've been away so long, I haven't known of a price rise in veal.
Metcalfe's can order in breast, but that is only slightly less, $3.79. I tried to get them to work with me as I have used them quite a bit since coming back to cooking, but though they pay wildly different wholesale prices for their shanks and breasts, so they tell me, and it would make sense given that that the cost of breast to me would be much less, they say it's a loss for them at these prices anyway, and they just try to get rid of them.
Outside of our local Metcalfe's, can't source any veal, not even from farmers I know. I'd be willing to make a sojourn to Chicago on an occasional basis for a quantity buy. Andy's deli used to be a wonderful source for all kinds of bones, esp. lamb, at ridiculous prices - memory is something like $0.50 per pound, something like that. But they no longer do it. Calling up Paulina Meat Market, they come in at $3.99 for breast.
Any recommendations? Many thanks.
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Hello everyone -
I would like to say thank you for everything, and Deryn, absolutely not harsh in any way whatsoever - I hear you and yes, you're right. I can perseverate and that is just something I've been dealing with for awhile now as well. Getting up and cooking has been the thing that's brought some joy back to myself and people I care about deeply, family and friends, so I agree - just important to get up and do.
I feel I've taken up far too much bandwidth with this personal issue, and would like to ask the mods to close the thread, with gratitude to them and to everyone here, in the interest of returning attention to this great site's focus and its wealth, which includes its people. Nice to see you all again.
Paul
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I wanted to thank EVERYONE here for your generosity of spirit and thoughts. I'm taking it all in and I do appreciate you taking the time to lend your help. My pain will always be with me, it puts a "used" to be mirror of a chef, athlete (marathon , 20K Meters per day swimmer, martial artist, etc.), but I've learned it doesn't define me. Major depression and serious depressive swings may also be with me the rest of my life, have always been prone to them but it's been more of a serious issue more often since developing this condition. But I've learned to fight back. I've got a beautiful wife and son, good health providers, and as of a couple of weeks ago, a beautiful new pup, Murphy, who makes for paroxysms of laughter daily.
I wanted to keep it brief, because I've taken up a lot of bandwidth already. I don't want to make this seem terse, after all you've given, but I can ramble so I'll list a few things.
- My entire cooking life, the heart of why, has indeed been love, Linda. The best mirror I can probably put up would be Babette's Feast. The greatest pleasure I've known in life has been to feed people, and to do it as well as I can, to share foods and ways to treat them that may be new, but always, will give pleasure.
- I've been cooking, I think, since probably 7 or so. Started with my mom's books, incl. some series (I think it might have been time life?) that covered foods internationally with each volume, and it was the height of my week to do weekly "international nights" for the family. Ranged from Jewish, Japanese, French, right of memory now.
- By 13 or so, my mom gave me Jacques Pépin's La Technique, and I went nuts. I heard him, when he said, learn technique, and you gain freedom. I worked the book cover to cover, over and over. I couldn't believe the world inside those pages, couldn't believe a kid from suburban southern California was doing this...true French cooking. Background, French blooded, had the fleur de lys above my bed by 5 or so, and was fairly fluent by the time I was 11 or so - by 14, thanks to the good graces of Mme. Lewis, whom I still love and still thank for giving me freedom in this language and culture.
- So, probably since then and since hearing Chef Pépin's creed, I probably have been very technique driven. I have to watch it, because I know I can make a religion out of it and forget that technique is a means to an end - freedom to express the heart inside - and not an end in itself. On the other hand, it's always been my strong desire to learn technique, so that I'm never hampered by what I'm longing for inside, by the inability to manifest that kernel or idea or passion, by a lack of technique. May have mentioned it years earlier here, another in this driving line, starting in my mid-30's became uchideshi or direct, live in apprentice to a Japanese martial and zen master, in order to "capture his mind," a Japanese thing, seeking then, seeking always - to master kihon waza; fundamental technique. (Unfortunately, it's also here where I damaged my CNS with chronic injury, leading to the condition I now have. You can't go back, c'est la vie).
- So, I hope this provides some context to probably what is driving this thread - a thread I hope people have found somehow, if only a little, interesting or useful, and not merely self-indulgent on my part. Just a guy who feels he has lost his fundamentals, the ground. The love passed sometime ago, the longer after the restaurant loss and the subsequent development of this condition. But it's recently come alive again, some kind of absolute clearing, sun, after years of absolute darkness respecting the kitchen. Yet I still long to come home, to fundamentals.
- And haven't known where a guy in my state can turn, to find it. I know it may seem ridiculously unnecessary, or a wrong course (Matty - thank you so much. I do hear you, and have been considering your thoughts since you posted), but I've thought of these two courses - go back to the modern beginning, really - Escoffier - and move forward. The same way a young teen fell in love with Jacques and his work, to find that again in this line of masters (I neglected to include Madeleine Kamman, to my great regret. I have two of her books, love them both, feel she is a master among the rest) from Escoffier forward.
- Or, Anna, once again, your post is deeply appreciated. In seeking - whatever - I can so easily fly everywhere. I'm sure that's apparent here, and I apologize for the length and wandering nature of the posts. So, why not start with Chef Keller, treat his book as I did La Technique and Methode; exhaust what I can.
I have no idea where this leaves everything, everyone, and I'm truly sorry if I wasted anyone's time. Love is the heart of it all, the best way I've known to do that is to give it over, whether by providing food, or teaching, whether it be French cuisine or martial arts. The greatest fulfillment I've had as a chef was to take a small family, as they became, of young men and women in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, who knew nothing whatsoever about traditional French cuisine, teach them rigorously but with true affection, and know they can go anywhere they choose, and stand tall in a professional kitchen. I take that experience with me, always, and I know they do, too.
Thank you everyone. I hope this has been of use to some of you.
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2 hours ago, Anna N said:
The structure I found [and I am working my way back from severe health problems] came from the advice of one of my medical team. Each day you must have a list of what you will accomplish. This must be very specific tasks not vague ideas of "make some pastry" but "make one dozen croissants". Specific to my condition was scheduled rest periods and these must be as closely adhered to as the tasks. The point is to have structure that is measurable. As you accomplish each thing including the rest, if required, then you check it off. This has been the best tool to get me back into the swing of things of all the rehab stuff I was given.
Anna, thanks for this, it's a wonderful idea. I tend to do a daily prep list, trying as much as possible to once again be a "chef" by emulating the life, to the extent I can, alone at home, providing dinners of a certain quality to my family and, occasionally, friends. Trouble is, and this I'm sure is a struggle you've dealt with and may still be dealing with - I sense your spirit is strong, and vibrant, and resting isn't easy for you? - a good part of the days I do things, I pay badly for several days, if not weeks, afterwards. So what you write above is a wonderful idea, and one I would like to put in play.
If the dream, mournful for a long time now, is to one day find my way back into my own, humble, kitchen somewhere in a beautiful, rural relais, it's been suggested to me by my psychologist (I have a good team of providers, and feel very fortunate) and others, that I consider just doing intimate dinners for 2-4 people, on an occasional basis. Whatever happens, your idea above is well taken, important and implementable, and I want to say thanks. And I hope you heal and cope with a very sad event in your life, as well as nature will allow.
Paul
Edit: Anna, I'm sorry, I initially confused you with Lisa - part of my condition is a fog-state a good part of the time and I can space really easily if I am not careful, so again, I'm sorry.
I am saddened to know you, too, suffer from health problems. Thank you for your good thoughts and blessings to you on your journey back, I hope, to good health.
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Everyone -
I can't tell you in words, properly, how grateful I am for your kindness in posting these thoughts. I'm extremely grateful and soaking it in. I'm also very saddened to hear of your own sufferings, Lisa and Liuzhou. Going through this daily, I feel your fight keenly, and empathize with how difficult it is. I'm a cook, a member of a community who cares, and just want you to know I'm with you, too, as you have been with me here. Probably a good first step back for me was to become part of my hospital system's pain clinic, and there, among other things, they offered a mindfulness program, basically a cognitive approach to mindfulness and putting pain at the center. Honestly - I don't know about you guys - but though it also saddened me deeply to see others suffering so, it also showed me I'm not alone in this, I'm not crazy with my spinning thoughts, my lost mental functioning accompanying my physical decline, etc. Just to know, others go through it too. May sound weird or even selfish, but I got so insular - curtains drawn, inside solely - I lost all sense of a world outside, and lives going on.
At any rate, don't want to go too long, taken enough bandwidth already. But I'm with you guys, I'm grateful for this website and its people, and I'm grateful for your thoughts here.
Anna, thank you. I've always been so keenly drawn to Chef Keller's work; I see it almost a distillation of all that is French to the purest drop, a focus of technique and artistry that is probably as perfect as I can see being accomplished. What I've sought for, well, I guess as long as I've been cognizant I wanted to cook in this lineage, which crudely began over 40 years ago now. So it's a great suggestion.
Interestingly - and your caution on getting scattered is also well taken, because this is forever my downfall - some time ago I was looking for what Chef Keller thought of the relevance of Escoffier for today's cooks, and came across this:
QuoteHow relevant is Escoffier to the contemporary chef?
Escoffier remains as important today as he has been in the past. You need a strong foundation of the classics before you start creating your own. It reminds me of learning to play the piano: You need to practice constantly and study the classical composers before you begin composing your own music.-so this really started me on this notion of going all the way back, to Escoffier; then on to Point; then to his disciples; then their progeny; all the way back to a person I've tried to work from, Thomas Keller.
So, Linda, you're point's also well taken. I think you and Lisa have touched something, which is probably the daunting task of going back to doing things I - I say this humbly, and without certainty - already know; to go back and work Escoffier's house of sauces, etc., when I know this world pretty well, might be "starting over" in an extreme and perhaps less than useful way. Keeping what I know while trying something unknown. Interestingly, I began my cooking life in pastry, those 40 some years ago...Christmas for 12 with Jacques Pepin's cream puff swans, Christmas log, spun sugar, other goodies, come only vaguely to mind.
I tried to keep this short and failed here, too, sorry guys. Past experience has at least taught me, it probably doesn't ultimately matter what road is taken - whether starting with Escoffier forward, Keller backwards, picking and choosing among any of this line of masters, whatever - it's all learning. But my crushing need for structure, I guess, also raises its ugly head and I probably need to at least outline an intended course of study.
Sorry for the ruminations again. You've given so much to think on and your kindnesses are deeply appreciated, all. Words can be so paltry; sincerely, thank you.
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Everyone,
I don't really even know if this is the appropriate sub-forum to place such a post; if so, I apologize mods and please feel free to do what you would like with the post.
I've been away a long, long time. The last several years have been extremely difficult. Lost a restaurant, and for close to a decade, developed a permanent, systemic neuro condition that is disabling and a daily challenge. It wasn't until just a couple months ago that I seriously picked a knife up after so, so long away.
I lost all love for cooking. I've lost my way.
Since coming back as a means to fight back against some pretty severe depression of many years, an outgrowth of a lot of things but mostly, the constant, severe pain I experience, I find myself basically aping Thomas Keller or Alain Ducasse and/or his disciples, to try to regain lost technique, sense of taste, sense of what works. First pic below is inspired out of Ducasse's Atelier book. "Taken," is probably more honest. Sauce is mine, but components and plating is basically an amalgam of Keller and one of Ducasse's students, from the book. Braised lamb and tomato tartellette tatin, from Tom Collichio. Cured salmon with garnishes. No big deal any of them, and none of them, mine.
I could use some help; I don't even know what I'm asking help for, as it's almost impossible I'll ever be able to cook professionally again. But somewhere in the back of my mind is some dream of a relais, something in the country, something less body and mind-busting as a city, competitive kitchen.
Basically, I'm asking for an opinion for a lineage apprenticeship, a self-appointed, self-directed desire to lean on masters of French cooking to bring me back to a sense of strength in this tradition. I know this all seems pretty ludicrous - I'm 54, had a restaurant, etc. But I'm being sincere when I say, I feel like a child again, wanting to learn as a child-apprentice, in the French tradition. It will have to come via cookbooks.
I have Escoffier, Point, Chapel, Bocuse, Vergé, Troisgros, Guérard, Blanc, Boulud, Ducasse, Keller, Waters, so many others.
I know this has been beat to death. My bent is to start at the modern beginning - Escoffier, and the above order is pretty close to the lineage I have in mind - as I did when young, when I worked Pepin to death, work all these works to death, to find a sense of strength, a needed strength, again. Admitting roux is "never done anymore," and the host of antiquated preparations in Escoffier's work - start there anyway, and start as a child starts, without prejudice and only the desire for mastery.
On the other hand, I feel ridiculous. And there's a part that says, no finer modern "teachers" than Keller or Ducasse, for example. Say, simply work TFL until I can say, it would pass the pass.
I know this is all disjointed and long. Just reaching out, everyone. I appreciate your thoughts.
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FWIW, I use a cooling paddle.
Yep, great tool. I used those too, for all our stocks.
First time back in years, long story. Now devoted to making hard French alpine cheeses (Abondance form, really), but nice to be cooking again - it's been seriously a long time since I've done any - and checking in with this community. Thank you from my very humble heart, all, for keeping it going so strong.
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This probably falls afoul of "should" to "would be nice." There's so much I miss from my pro kitchen that it would essentially be a replication of an average checklist, but priorities would be a second oven, blastable range heat (e.g., that can adequately handle my 80 qt.), a more expansive reefer, a lowboy of some sort, additional cellar space (for wines, charcuterie, and the various cheeses made at home), additional rack/hook space for the tons of pots and pans currently stacked in ugly and cumbersome fashion, and ... my gelato-baby, a stainless, weighty beauty, missed very much.
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I'd like Chambord.
As in Chateau de. With all the environs, to include what the land hath wrought, and a grand kitchen to work them in.
Short of that, I suppose a hovel in Burgundy will have to do.
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Thanks all, Yes the Saba perfectly describes it.
LOL - "Sauce Veronique derivative" he muses....
Not that I have a French bias or anything...
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Sounds like a variation on Sauce Veronique, to me, which traditionally used muscat grapes, though usually peeled and left whole.
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I'd like to see Thomas Keller face off against Grant Achatz. The whole teacher vs. student thing would be fun.
I thought the matchups were limited to mortals only?
French Food Culture
in Food Traditions & Culture
Posted · Edited by paul o' vendange (log)
I too don't want to go astray. but I just wanted to hold this post up for special recognition; I feel it is one of the best statements of the problem that we have, and it's everywhere. Unless and until we refuse to see the earth as inert, dead material to stick things into to merely hold them up while they grow by false economies and long term devastation, we'll continue to see the world's living capacity shrink, all to cries of "we need to optimize more, and so....intensify production, pay them to do it!" - and agribusiness is only too happy to reap the false-market reward.
There's a ton more, but that is definitely the subject for another thread. I live in a very farm-to-table community, with a strong farmers' market; but I will say, in agreement with IndyRob, small and local does not mean it's of necessity going to be top quality. There's a reason Point, Bocuse et al roamed the stalls to pick out the best for their respective place, because although they were all local, some produced better asparagus better than the others. I find it's the same here.
In general, I think, the French have an appreciation for good food built into their collective unconscious; it's simply a happy marriage of land and history, and whether a chicken tastes like chicken actually mattered is different there than a good many places on the planet. But I also think that sadly, it's giving way to the same forces that have long shaped our world here in the U.S., and it all comes down to whether one works to create a living earth making living things that taste distinctive and good, or whether agribusiness, in collusion with regulatory personnel, continue to propagate the myth of concentration, "optimization" with modern fertilizers and their ilk; continue their literal stranglehold over production.