paul o' vendange

Thanks everybody, some great suggestions. Plattetude, thanks for the cheesemaking suggestion. Funny you mention it - this is something she's expressed an interest in for some time. While I will be working my butt off in Paris next year, she will be doing some...er...."sensory evaluation" on her end of the kitchen door, in French wine and cheese. Much appreciated, Paul

Hi all, My wife has an upcoming trip and she'll be staying at the New Yorker. She's looking for a nice mid-range prixe fixe option for dinner mid-week. Any suggestions? Additionally, she's looking for a good cheese shop to scour. Thoughts here would be great as well. Thanks, Paul

I like to use mirin, especially to balance out salty character. I will also tweak things with refined sugar as a remedial measure if the natural sugar that "should" be in something - like a less than optimal roma - is missing, and I'm out of luck for a better choice (as happened in the hinterland from time to time). I also use it in things like a fennel poach, with the fennel intended for marriage with "sweet" meats like shellfish.

I understand, Chris. However, I can tell you that at our place, it was a big part of our joy (our, meaning mine and my wife's, the crew, and our guests) that everything we did was about giving over the experience...whether it was me to welcome people coming for the first time, to see them puzzling over a wine selection (and if I happened to be there, to offer some suggestions), or to answer "how did you make this prosciutto out of duck?" In other words, a communal thing. Sure, it was an ego stroke as well to hear from people very much enjoying their experience. But at the heart of it, the desire to share. Can't know whether that sounds saccharine or not, but it is sincerely what drove everything we did. More, we tried to end the distinction between the front of house and the back of house - service staff needed to know the details of everything that came out of the kitchen; they needed to know not only what everything was, what went into it (and why), and how it was made; but they needed to know their own thoughts about everything as they had learned by regularly tasting our food and wine. Back of house needed to understand that absent satisfying service needs, our food was nothing. I don't think it's appropriate for the Chef to parade, "love-boat" style. But motivated by sincere intentions, and the desire to augment the guest's experience, I think it's a rather nice thing.

I love Culinary Artistry, for just this reason. I have depended on it a good deal, both as a reference and a launching point. I have not read it, but have heard wonderful things about The Elements of Taste. Reminds me - its on my Amazon cart...

Yes, and off the top of my head I don't know that I know any truly "self-taught" cooks. Although "molecular gastronomy" certainly throws a kink in the (I think it was Andre Soltner's) notion "there is no new food," I think this is largely true - whether from formal study, vicarious study, or direct work with "one who proceeded before," new food rests on old food. Thomas Keller, for instance, spent time with Roland Henin and staged at Taillevent, Guy Savoy and Le Pré Catalan. (I knew the first two stages, didn't know the latter).

I'm of the philosophy that if they are coming in and paying their money, the table's theirs for as long as they want it. They are there to enjoy themselves, at their pace, not mine. On the rare (actually, I can only think of one time) instance where this truly is a problem, I'm afraid it's the restaurant's problem, not the guest's.

Sleep. Nurse the pain in my joints. Then try to pretend I'm still an athletic young buck for my little boy, who needs dad to play "pirate swordfight."

Yes, definitely, which is why I go with parchment.

Interesting discussion. One thing I would be curious about is the relative holding power of essential v. infused (flavored) oils. I regularly made several herb (thyme, rosemary, basil, fennel) oils, as well as shellfish oils and butters (i.e., coral butter, lobster oil). The herb oils, while beautifully, deeply green and intensely flavored, had a very poor shelf life - while their color remained vibrant for some time, and were a nice component on the plate, their deep, intensive flavor (and aroma) were very short lived. I'd be curious on some of the science behind this, when compared to the essential oils as described above.

I have Braise and have to say it is really good. I like the fact that it is more world cuisine than just French. Btw Paul Bocuse has a new cookbook out in March. Check the link to Barnes and Noble I have included. I should also add that I love my copy of Larousse Gastronomique, a very handy guide. If you want a cookbook with a smart ass attitude ( and just consider who the author is.) Les Halles Cookbook is really good too. You just can't own this cookbook though if you are easily offended by the colorful language. It is described as more of a field mannual and it does not disappoint. Le Bernardin Cookbook is really good too if you want a cookbook that just specializes in seafood. Barnes and Noble ← I will check out those books, thanks! ← Just a note - but I love the Les Halles book. But then, I love all things Bourdain. He has a comment there on a customer ordering ribeye (a comment which I will leave out on this august forum) which is priceless. Actually, too close to home...we actually had that very thing happen once. Customer ate 2/3 of the plate, then wanted money back as the ribeye "had fat in it" - not even that it was "too fatty," but, verbatim, "it had fat in it." The one time I refused to comp. Ah, Sir Bourdain, how well you know this peculiar corner of the world...

Ludja - the book by Jane Sigal sounds great. Just grabbed it off of Amazon, many thanks.

Old thread, to which I have little to add; beginning 30+ years ago, as a kid, I relied on M. Pepin's La Technique, and it has stood me in good stead over the years; Madeleine Kamman's Making of a Cook and LaRousse have been among the weightier tomes I've used as well. Many, many others as well, most of them having already been brought up. With the technique books, I've always sought out information on French regional cooking. Paula Wolfert's Cooking of Southwest France, Mme. Kamman's Savoie Cooking, M. Bocuse's Regional Cooking (an old friend, now - uh, the book, not the Chef!), and, well and often, Waverly Root's The Food of France. Not a technique or recipe book in any sense of the word, rather (in my mind, at least), a wonderfully crafted tale of French culinary and cultural history - why French food is what it is, from a regional point of view. Perhaps my favorite read (well, when I am not enjoying Bourdain, or wistfully musing on a time I will never be part of, reading Zola).

Paul, not in my experience. I gave them a try several times - white truffles. Absolutely without character in my experience, and I'm not exaggerating. literally, no flavor and almost no aroma. I might have had a run of bad luck, but given the extraordinary wealth among the other Oregon mountain mushrooms I shipped in regularly, I found these wholly wanting. (By the way - no relationship, but if any want a good Oregon source, I enjoyed working with Ottoboni Mushrooms very much).

Paul, thanks for that recipe. Outstanding. I've had this before and not known the name. ← You bet, Johnny. Any chance I have to deal with a good Alsacian Riesling, I take it! By the way, off topic, but some friends of mine recently returned from a trip to Alsace and had a great time chez Marc Tempé. An impromptu road trip yielded a tasting of over 30 bottles, with the winemaker himself.

Well, I love a classic matelote, freshwater fish stew. Mixed with other freshwater fishes, Alsacian style, with riesling or pinot gris, egg yolks and creme fraiche. I first make a quick fumet with fish heads, bones, mirepoix (white and light green leek, onion, carrot - no celery), bouquet garni, and riesling or pinot gris; about 1 1/2 pounds fish heads/bones, 2 cups each water and wine to about 5 ounces onion, 3 ounces each leeks and carrots; bouquet also contains a small fennel frond, 1 ounce or so). 30 minute simmer, strain. Add fishes, about 4 lbs total, into gently simmering fumet, in small batches - ensuring the simmer does not cool down unduly. Cook till done, about 20 minutes. Remove fish and keep warm, reduce fumet by 1/2, beat 3 egg yolks together with 1/2 cup creme fraiche (or cream), temper with simmering fumet, and whisk back into fumet, at very low heat; stir until thickened, toss fish in to heat through, salt, pepper, serve. I also love freshwater fishes with green sauce - a ravigote, or vinaigrettes.

Your dinner sounds wonderful. Because Muscovy does not have the fat cap that moulard does, I treat it fairly gingerly. With either breed, though, I score the skin in cross-hatch pattern, being careful not to pierce all the way to the breast meat. I cook it slowly, skin side down, so as to ensure fat renders off without too deeply caramelizing the skin. I pour the fat off as it accumulates (one of the rare times I sadly lose rendered fat - the salt and pepper, I don't use). For moulard, I may take up to 12-15 minutes to accomplish this skin-side rendering, muscovy, less. I shoot to render most of the fat off about the time the skin caramelizes. I then "kiss" the flesh side, and toss it in an oven to finish pan roasting. I pull either breed at rare to medium rare (depending on my guests' likes), tent the magret, and allow it to finish coming to temp under foil. Serving suggestions...in general, nothing beats the taste of an immaculate, deeply cared for duck stock reduction as a mother (or only) sauce for duck breast, in my opinion. The roast, sweet flavors marry perfectly with the breast such that nothing else is really needed, save for a crystal or two of fleur de sel at serving. More specifically: in these winter months, I tend to go with braised cabbages, squashes, root vegetables, especially sweet potatoes; and if you can marry the breasts with leg confit, all the better, for a textural and flavor contrast. I often enjoy playing with at least a light bit of smoking, esp. in the cold months - I often grill leg confit over a moistwood fire, but think a nice tea smoke, with asian flavors, would be also nice. Some favorites include: Magret Prosciutto - spice and salt cured, air dried for 2 weeks Morels (or any great, flavored mushroom) and confit (a dish I always enjoy making - some play of risotto with mushrooms and leg confit, with pan-roasted breasts as the centerpiece and a squash - I used delicata more than anything else - as another component) sage and sour cherry sauce, corn crepes, rainbow chard Dried black mission figs are wonderful too. I would often just do a sauce made from duck stock, dried figs, a touch of port, and some black pepper. In many duck dishes, I use good balsamic as a component - adding sour, but under reduction, adding some caramelized sugar into the mix. Such is the case with the sage/sour cherry sauce above, and I add this to the braising liquid when doing legs. I don't want to take up too much bandwidth - if interested, please pm for recipes, etc. I love duck. Oh - nearly forgot. Madeleine Kamman offers a really nice recipe from her "Making of a Cook" tome. In my edition, p. 736, "Grilled Canton Duck Cutlets with Orange Bourbon Sauce." I haven't made the dish in many years, but have a very fond memory.

I think that's true. Up here, in da U.P., venison tastes like gin. So everyone masks it utterly by making sausage. I won't hunt it.

I think you hit it on the head, mom. From what I have seen, more generally, folks just don't go out. Most restaurants up here are struggling; although it is true that by the time I introduced essentially another line to our work - "Foods from the Hearth - Bistro Classics" (braised pork shank, trout grenobloise, steak frites (ribeye cap from the ribeye), roast chicken "grand mere" (a whole roast poussin, lemon, thyme, garlic brined and scented under the skin), etc., for $19, we were already "the fancy place." Even though our bistro plates were within shooting range (a few bucks) of the brewpub down the street, it was likely too late. And though we shot for warmth and accessibility, I think to many, we were just the French place. We did have a good bar, great and skilled tenders, and a glass atrium/lounge that was exposed to the sky and beautiful at all times of year. But there is no doubt we saw wine and food in unbreakable marriage, and were not really a bar scene separate from the cuisine. Likely a major flaw for the area. Nope, mom, lessons learned in terms of this area. After a lifetime of self-directed pursuit of French cooking, my family and I are heading to France next fall, so that I may begin study at the ESCF-Ferrandi, if accepted into the program; and she may further her study of French viticulture (if I may speak my pride in her a bit, she is the winner of the WCF International Pinot Noir Celebration Fellowship - flying to Willamette Valley, Oregon, this next summer, to, well, drink a ton of pinot, and eat at some wonderful places).

One of my favorites? Sukiyaki with the titular (raw) egg. I love being an absolutely self-congratulatory idiot, speaking in my badly-informed Japanese, I'm sure (my late teacher, Fumio Toyoda Shihan, once murmured to me, "Paul - not everyone in Japan is Toshiro Mifune...relax..."), asking for an egg with the sukiyaki, oh so proud to be "an insider." I will also never give up runny eggs, ketchup and tabasco.

Hi Mom - We were located in Marquette. Many reasons we chose here; a large hospital system (over 500 physicians), many folks with a high degree of disposable income that live here by choice, with no outlet for business or true pleasure dining; a bidco, bank and other funding entities indicating the time was overripe for this kind of place, as it had been sought for so many years, who put together a funding package without blinking. Not the least, my wife and I had wanted to find a way to bring our family (little boy) here, away from the city, and she has generations living here locally. Of all the places in this region, we felt Marquette was the economic hub that could support such a thing, and, being the singular place to satisfy this (apparent) long-held demand, we felt we were well founded. Despite being told by the bidco that our pro-formas were "conservative" and that we "were going to blow those numbers out of the water," we blew it on due diligence. We opened to great fanfare, sold out totally for the first few months - press and television coverage was quite effusive and kind, and lasted quite a while, as something like this had never been done this way (oddly enough, Michael Sneed of the Sun Times, for one, wrote a nice little blurb, and we were regularly, positively reviewed in travel sites, blogs, etc.) - but we quickly (though not quickly enough) saw the culture just wasn't ready for such a thing, at least not now. Coupled with a heavy debt load, an exogenously strained economy, and first year op, well, you know the end of that story. Bottom line, my wife and I should have listened more to our better instincts. With Waterstone we really sought to bring an experience not seen this way (local, seasonal menu based on relation with known farmers and ranchers; everything in house, to include charcuterie, pastry, butchery, etc.; an experiential, teaching kitchen and front of house, down the line), and give over something we have always cherished, something we felt was of worth. But we failed to reach people and let them know that they needn't be intimidated by a "French" experience, that what we sought - flatly, an evening by the fire, among friends - was as homey as any experience they normally enjoy, just accompanied by profound care and the desire to deliver a deeply memorable experience. Too late, we discovered we were not reaching folks. We own the mistakes we made. Lessons learned. ps: Great username - opening with "Hi mom" brings a smile.

I agree with you, Paul. Not only an overreduced stock, but the rate at which it reduces matters, in my book - too fast a reduction, and the localized heating is too radical - the stock tastes harsher than is obtained when a simmering reduction is more gently pursued. Depending on what I am doing, I may do a double stock (never done a triple, for cost reasons, as you mention), or even a classic sauce from espagnole. I have found the remouillage method I've adopted from Thomas Keller's technique yields a wonderful, velvety, impeccable mother stock for many applcations.

Scott, that would be an interesting experiment. I do wonder, though, if it would be hard to detect any differences between a dilute demi-glace and non-reduced stock - whether it would or wouldn't exceed a sensory threshold. It would be interesting to send it to a lab and compare molecular weights. All I speak from is my experience. My demi-glace was made over the course of 3 days - strong stock, day 1, remouillage, and final reduction/clarification; a total of 14 hours or so of simmering. If the gelatin was that heat labile, I would expect that on day 3 - when bones are no longer present, and collagen extraction was no longer taking place - the stock would thin, rather than thicken; I am not extracting any collagen any longer, but merely reducing. Even though we are evaporating water, if the gelatin was broken down, all we should end up with is less, thin stock, not a viscous demi or glace. Additionally, since collagen is preferentially labile when compared to gelatin, its breakdown product, I also wouldn't think it would remain in favor of that breakdown product. I did find some interesting info in this regard: Gelatine Use in the Dairy Industry Among other things, what they write squares with my understanding: (denatured from collagen). From what I have read, it is true that gelatin undergoes thermo-labile destruction at temps higher than boiling (actually, from what I've read, high temps induce reformation to helical, collagen-like structure - not dissolution to simpler forms), such as are obtained under pressure; but at normal boiling, no such destruction occurs. See Stanford Study - Properties of Gelatin -A very interesting study on the chemical properties of gelatin, from the point of view of many stressors and conditions. Among other things, I think a concluding comment is relevant: In the range of normal simmering, in particular, gelatin is shown to exhibit reversible properties: (In other words, at least as I read it, changes are not structural in nature - the coil structure is maintained - but rather due to water desorption; and even this change is completely reversible). The article is a bit to go through, but it does square with my experience in the kitchen (again - I can only speak from my experience). Intuitively, the idea that gelatin is destroyed by prolonged simmering just doesn't intuitively register with me - the gummy "lip smack" of a glace, for instance, obtained after only truly prolonged simmering, tells me otherwise.

I read the thread, but I'm afraid I can't agree. Gelatin is a breakdown product of collagen, but from what I know, gelatin itself is not heat labile; it survives heating quite nicely. If it didn't, glace would not be as thick as it is... Looking through McGee on the subject: - i.e., classic espagnole based sauces would be aided by starch, and the imperfect proteins found in flour. But today's reduced stocks are almost entirely thickened by the gelatin present; even moreso, for true glace.

Second Russ' comment...moro's are beautiful, but I found them lacking in sugar more often than not, unless buying them in their seasonal prime (deep winter, January into February). The color, though, outstanding. Tarocco's are consistently, wonderfully flavored, though I find the color is not as consistently deep.