Get inside a restaurant kitchen....

[dbortnick]

Board? Take a trip to the "Neighborhood of Make Believe"....

The proposition: You can spend one week in a restaurant kitchen, hangin with the chef, learnin some new tricks, and gettin the inside scoop.

The question: Where would you choose? Whom would you like most to hang with? and most importantly, Why?

(For the sake of not excluding too many chefs and breaking their hearts, post your top three)

[robert40]

1.Maestro

2.Maestro

3.Maestro

[Gifted Gourmet]

Thomas Keller, NYC and Yountville, Cal. .. why? who else knows food so intimately??so brilliantly!

Gary Danko, San Francisco ....sophisticated cuisine personified the beauty and taste of his meals is extraordinary, a perfectionist

Susan Spicer, New Orleans .... irresistable!

her creativity and energy, innovative techniques

Edited June 3, 2004 by Gifted Gourmet (log)

[hathor]

Any large Hong Kong dim sum restaurant.

An Italian trattoria that makes all of its own pasta

A good tapas bar

[bilrus]

Here are two -

1 - Jose Andres at all of his places - the variety of the different dishes intrigues me and the creativity from Minibar might rub off on me.

2 - The chef at my favorite, departed neighborhood Chinese restaurant, Chinatown in Reston, because they are closed, and I want their recipes so I can recreate my favorite dishes from there.

And if we are going outside of DC - Alice Waters. I'd like to learn more about getting good ingredients and using them simply to get the most out of them.

Edited June 3, 2004 by bilrus (log)

[robert40]

If were talking outside of the D.C. area then it's Keller without any doubt.

[sara]

1. CA pik: Alice Waters

2. NY pik: Mario Batali

3. DC pik: Jamie B.

[dbortnick]

There are no limitations here. Let your imaginations run free. I was thinking for one of mine...

Chef, from southpark...so I could pick up some of his game. That man is one big pimp.

[JPW]

Rick Bayliss, so I can learn how to "consult" on a new fast food sandwich and get PAID!

[mktye]

Zaytinya. To learn to make their wonderful pita.

[Miguelito]

I might go with Nobu Matsuhisa. My first meal at Matsuhisa in LA -- eight or nine years ago now -- was transformative, the first time I ever thought of food as art.

[rose and antojitos]

Marco Pier White for the entertainment value.

[bilrus]

Zaytinya. To learn to make their wonderful pita.

You might be able to pick that one up at a class at Lebanese Taverna. I am pretty sure that the Pitas and Hummus at Zaytinya are based on the Lebanese Taverna recipe (Steve, can you confirm that?).

I took a class at Taverna last month and got their hummus recipe (In addition to Shawarma and Garlic Sauce) and it is even better at home than in the restaurant. I'm on the lookout for the pitas.

[HOOLIGAN]

Marco Pier White for the entertainment value.

Maybe back in the Harvey's days when Gordon Ramsay and J.C. Novelli were starting out there. The only thing you'd learn now is how to lose money hand over fist.

[laniloa]

I took a class at Taverna last month and got their hummus recipe (In addition to Shawarma and Garlic Sauce) and it is even better at home than in the restaurant. I'm on the lookout for the pitas.

I believe that if you can get enough people to fill a class (8 or 10), they will let you pick the menu. I'd totally be up for a class that included the pitas.

[Artichoke]

St. John Restaurant in London with Fergus Henderson

[mktye]

You might be able to pick that one up at a class at Lebanese Taverna.  I am pretty sure that the Pitas and Hummus at Zaytinya are based on the Lebanese Taverna recipe (Steve, can you confirm that?).

I took a class at Taverna last month and got their hummus recipe (In addition to Shawarma and Garlic Sauce) and it is even better at home than in the restaurant.  I'm on the lookout for the pitas.

Thanks. I've read where Steve wrote that, but in tasting the two, I found them different. Zaytinya's have a much more fermented/yeasty taste very similar to my favorite yeasted waffle recipe (yes, waffles... strange, but true). Zaytinya's are also thinner and crispier than Lebanese Taverna's.

I'd totally be up for a class that included the pitas.

Me too!

I've ended up with pita very close to Lebanese Taverna's in my attempts at copying Zaytinya's pitas (PM me if you'd like the recipe), but could certainly use more ideas and input in my quest for the perfect pita.

[Steve Klc]

I forget what I wrote before but I don't think I'd be revealing any secret information here: when Zaytinya opened Jose turned to the Abi-Najms for pita consultation, and as we got ready to open Dany was often in the kitchen, he's one of the amazingly talented Abi-najm brothers and sisters, and oversaw the Z. bread team because we installed their "system"--and demand quickly outstripped what one oven could handle and it became a double-decker conveyor belt installation. Jose has a way of putting his stamp on everything he does--tinkering with ingredients, timing, effect, efficiency--whatever he does it is very personal so it isn't surprising the two pitas are very different mktye. Back then Jose also sought out a very talented Lebanese Taverna chef named Abdul, and it was Abdul who taught us his family's traditional method of making phyllo by hand so we could make phyllo by hand, he also helped Jose achieve the falafel mixtures and spreads that after much trial and error with Jorge Chicas and the chefs pleased Jose and ended up being on the menu--and they weren't what Abdul was doing at LT. Abdul now works in the Zaytinya kitchen and is named on the menu by the way, so is the woman who taught Jose the technique to make the "monti" by hand--those great little boiled pasta meat pockets which come out sprinkled with sumac--and who used to nudge me and my Pacojet out of the way when her monti-making crew got in high gear.

So the only way you could learn how to do the "Zaytinya pita" would be to work in the back as Daniel initially proposed on this thread, become a waiter or runner so you could conveniently hang back by the oven or talk Jose, Jorge and Abdul into teaching a class about it "in situ." (When I last taught a guest chef class at LT, Abdul was teaching most of the classes in their Lee Highway Market classroom, but I heard they're teaching at the Annapolis location now as well. Bilrus--do you remember the name of your instructor recently--was it Abdul or someone else?)

[laniloa]

talk Jose, Jorge and Abdul into teaching a class about it "in situ."

Is that your way of offering to help us make this happen!

[mktye]

Thanks for the info. Steve.

So the only way you could learn how to do the "Zaytinya pita" would be to work in the back, as Daniel initially proposed on this thread, become a waiter or runner so you could conveniently hang back by the oven or talk Jose, Jorge and Abdul into teaching a class about it "in situ."

These very thoughts have definitely crossed my mind!

And, of course, I imagine it is near impossible to copy it exactly with a home oven.

[Steve Klc]

Oh no, that space is too cramped and too busy to actually teach a class, I was just lending an air of optimism to these wishful proceedings. There's a narrow 10 square foot strip of space which the bread team shares with the pastry prep team and it's busy all day long. Though maybe early some Sunday morning...oops, there I go with that optimism again...

[DonRocks]

Who needs to be inside a restaurant kitchen when you can just go over to Monica's place?

And at the bottom of the webpage, this enticing little blurb:

"Join Monica Bhide and Chef Jonathan Krinn of 2941 for an exciting class on French techniques and Indian passion"

French techniques and Indian passion. What, exactly, is this class about?

[JennyUptown]

1.Maestro

2.Maestro

3.Maestro

Oooh, Joe H is going to be STEAMED. You stole his answer!

[babka]

1) cafe atlantico while they're playing with new minibar conceits

2) palena any time and all the time, though esp. to steal the chicken recipe

3) full kee

and on the bakery front:

3) amernick, to get yelled at by a master.

[Monica Bhide]

Who needs to be inside a restaurant kitchen when you can just go over to Monica's place?

And at the bottom of the webpage, this enticing little blurb:

"Join Monica Bhide and Chef Jonathan Krinn of 2941 for an exciting class on French techniques and Indian passion"

French techniques and Indian passion. What, exactly, is this class about?

Don - we are just in the finishing stages of menu planning for this. So far this class has --

Appetizers

Lemon Cilantro Ceviche of Scallops

Tamarind Consomme

Entrée

Cornish Game hens with spicy lentil ragout

Side

Corn compote in a pappadam bowl

Dessert

Cardamom Crème Brulee

I think it has come together well.. Jonathan and I enjoy the richness of each others talents and knoweldge and I hope that the class will reflect this.

The other classes are focued on Indian only -- low carb Indian, Indian style tapas etc... they are in my kitchen.. so if you all want a peek in my kitchen.. that is the way to do it... or call me and come home for lunch