eG Foodblog: TheFoodTutor - The Man Behind the Curtain.

[TheFoodTutor]

Which one is the Kershaw, please?

The 10" Kershaw is the one on the far left, and there's another Kershaw paring knife second from the right. I like them, because they're very lightweight for their size, and I'm fairly small, so I don't like heavy blades.

Some pictures from work last night:

This restaurant where I work has 5 walk-in coolers, which is something I'd find really amazing, if it weren't for how much volume we do. This is the meat cooler, where you can see whole ribeyes, cuts of salmon (for grilling and smoking), grouper filets, marinating steaks and chicken breasts, and a cambro or two of diced bacon.

The Hobart machine on the left grinds whole chuck for burger patties, and we put the meat through twice, and then we form the patties in the machine on the right. A prep cook actually comes into this cooler every morning to grind the meat and make the burgers. And the burgers are really, really good. Because of this process, I feel good about having my burger cooked anyway I like it, but this night, I didn't have a burger for dinner.

This is the H-Rib, or Hawaiian Ribeye, marinated in soy sauce, pineapple juice and ginger. I don't usually have a dinner that extravagant, but it's nice to take advantage of my employee discount once in a while. The plate presentation would look a little more balanced if I'd gotten a side of fries, but I really wanted the vine ripes instead. Speaking of fries. . .

One of my co-workers had an order of fries for her dinner. That was all she had, partly because she's a vegetarian, and partly because we have really good fries. The two silver bullets there contain our house-made ketchup.

That's the co-worker in question. While all of my friends at work pronounced me to be Profoundly Weird when I explained that I was taking pictures of everything I ate for a week, she actually volunteered to be pictured. She's pretty cute, isn't she? I think she's pointing at the fries to make sure we know that they'll be ending up in her stomach soon.

And, of the 5 walk-in coolers, this one is dedicated entirely to french fries, which is part of why they're so good. I think it's great that we go to the trouble of blanching fries properly, so they'll be just exactly as crisp as they should be.

Oh, and please be a little understanding if parts of this restaurant seem a little worn around the edges. It opened in 1977, and it remains one of the busiest restaurants in Atlanta to this day, which is pretty outstanding. It's fairly hard to maintain every bit of a building for that long, under those conditions.

[TheFoodTutor]

Before I left for work, this bowl was filled with duck cracklings. Somehow, the cracklings mysteriously disappeared in my absence, coincidentally during the same evening that lambfries returned from Buffalo. I guess I'll either have to make more, or I'll just scrap whatever it was that I was planning on doing with them.

Well, at least he made me breakfast. An omelette with white cheddar and tomatoes. I guess you can tell that I like tomatoes a lot, huh?

Today I'll be working lunch, and when I return, I can plunge into creative cooking in earnest. We'll probably be going to a market or two, possibly visiting the new IKEA store in Atlanta, and I'll be adding some pics of the small kitchen where we do all the prep for food classes. My home is on the 13th floor of a condominium complex in the Buckhead area of Atlanta, and while the view is lovely, the space is certainly limited. I do have a fairly efficient kitchen with a gas stove, and I arrange my appliances and workspace in such a way that I can prepare a good deal of food here.

I have the next two days off, even! That's a lot of time for cooking.

Edited July 6, 2005 by TheFoodTutor (log)

[jsolomon]

Oh, and please be a little understanding if parts of this restaurant seem a little worn around the edges. It opened in 1977, and it remains one of the busiest restaurants in Atlanta to this day, which is pretty outstanding. It's fairly hard to maintain every bit of a building for that long, under those conditions.

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I believe the term is "careworn". It adds coze and dignity to a site.

[Gifted Gourmet]

I also want to know about your business and both of you can answer that.  How many "students" do you work with at a time?  Do they know each other or do you just gather a collection of strangers who can meet on a particular evening?  What do you charge? 

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For more answers to these and other questions, check out Julia and Bruce's beautifully designed and highly informative website: The Food Tutor

[therese]

For more answers to these and other questions, check out Julia and Bruce's beautifully designed and highly informative website:  The Food Tutor

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A cool site, but TheFoodTutor needs to update her photograph. lambfries looks just the same as always.

[Abra]

This is going to be cool! I'm just giving my first tasting menu dinner party class tomorrow, so I'm hoping to pick up some great tips before then.

A whole walkin for fries? Is that the Varsity?

[therese]

A whole walkin for fries?  Is that the Varsity?

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Okay, TheFoodTutor has clearly been kidnapped, or maybe she's just hanging out gawping at IKEA. Anyway, I'm going to go ahead and say that the walk-in in question is most definitely not the Varsity's: they likely use a frozen product, and I'm furthermore guessing that they actually get their fries delivered in dump trucks. The real tip off is that the Varsity most likely doesn't grind its hamburger meat on site.

[TheFoodTutor]

A whole walkin for fries?  Is that the Varsity?

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Okay, TheFoodTutor has clearly been kidnapped, or maybe she's just hanging out gawping at IKEA. Anyway, I'm going to go ahead and say that the walk-in in question is most definitely not the Varsity's: they likely use a frozen product, and I'm furthermore guessing that they actually get their fries delivered in dump trucks. The real tip off is that the Varsity most likely doesn't grind its hamburger meat on site.

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Not kidnapped, just at work. Sorry. I'll be around for a while now, since I've got the evening off, plus tomorrow and Friday to prep for the party, though I will step out from time to time to go marketing, and there will be a lot of other things to be done. I must say, photographing everything I eat has turned out to be a big project, if I'm to try to get photos anywhere near as nice as the ones I've seen here.

I would have answered the same way. The Varsity does sell a lot of fries, and I'm certain they're frozen, probably crinkle-cut. I've only had the onion rings, and I can't say I was impressed. The Varsity is more of an "atmosphere" form of the Man Behind the Curtain, only in that particular case, the curtain doesn't cover up much of the reality.

The place where I work serves something on the cusp of burgers and fries meets prime rib and steaks, with really just a lot of honest good food preparation. I can only say that we have a whole walk-in just for fries simply because they're really good, and so we sell a lot of them. And the ingredients are: Potatoes, vegetable oil, salt and pepper. Nothing hidden but the essentials of technique. Hand cut the fries, soak them in water, spin them dry, blanch at 300 degrees F, chill, then finish them in the fryer at 375 to order.

It's amazing how easy it is to screw that up.

[TheFoodTutor]

Insert gratuitous pet photo number 1:

That's Nancy. She would have liked to smile and pose for the photo, but she was too busy finishing my breakfast.

Edited July 6, 2005 by TheFoodTutor (log)

[TheFoodTutor]

Went out for dinner tonight, though I know I shouldn't have. Plenty of work to do, and I shouldn't splurge so much on dining, but it is nice to try restaurant dishes from places where I don't work, to get an idea of what's trendy right now. Tonight we stopped at a place neither of us have tried before now, Eclipse di Sol.

Cute place in the Poncey-Highland area, with nice patio space.

Cocktails before dinner: A mojito for lambfries and a sangria for me.

Appetizers of a mushroom turnover in very buttery pastry, and cured salmon with pink peppercorns, tapenade, cucumbers, pita and sour cream. The pink peppercorns were a bit much.

Cold, sliced lamb sandwich with cucumber and radish for me, pancetta stuffed trout with white bean ragout for lambfries. Very good stuff.

Giganto-java cup for lambfries.

Cheese plate with a nice blue, a Spanish style, semi hard cheese, and some great cheddar.

Possibly one of the least remarkable glasses of port I've had. Not a bad meal overall, though.

It's kind of hard to think about cooking now, but the ingredients in the kitchen are calling to me.

Edit to clear up confusion of which restaurant I meant, as there is an Eclipse di Luna and an Eclipse di Sol. And the area is actually Poncey-Highland, which the sangria caused me to forget. Oops.

Edited July 7, 2005 by TheFoodTutor (log)

[jackieg]

Love the blog so far, love the cat licking the plate. Nice to know that there are pampered/spoiled felines elsewhere.

[TheFoodTutor]

Cooking in the middle of the night. I don't recommend this, for non-crazy people out there. Restaurant people tend to keep odd hours, nap, and then get up to do some more weird stuff.

This is my spice rack. I like it, because it doesn't take a damned bit of room on my counter.

Some industry "secrets." Immersion blender, squeeze bottle, foamer, ring molds (actually a set of cookie cutters), microgreens bought at Dekalb Farmer's Market, and the spoon, which is a very important part of all the presentation.

Carnaroli, the unbeatable rice for risotto.

Sauteed guanciale, draining, of course.

Filleted halibut.

Edited July 7, 2005 by TheFoodTutor (log)

[TheFoodTutor]

Stock for the risotto:

Corn risotto.

And the Money Shot:

[therese]

And the Money Shot:

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Oh dear. I'm feeling a little faint.

[Tess]

Me too, therese. That meal is gorgeous.

[Pam R]

Fantastic blog so far - can't wait for more!

One question: Your 'spice rack' - it's hard to tell from the picture... are they.... magnetic?? Are they on your fridge? Or is the picture just playing tricks on me?

[TheFoodTutor]

For breakfast, I had the leftover lamb sandwich from last night's dinner, and lambfries not only insisted on getting a Mrs. Winner's cinnamon swirl, but he insisted on taking a photo, and showing exactly how food porn is done.

The untouched photo of the swirl, which actually does taste pretty good as is.

The Hugh Hefner airbrush version.

Oh, and thank you for all the compliments. Please feel free to ask questions about anything. We'll be heading out to do more shopping in a bit, and we'll be back with lots more stuff for the party.

[TheFoodTutor]

One question: Your 'spice rack' - it's hard to tell from the picture... are they.... magnetic?? Are they on your fridge?  Or is the picture just playing tricks on me?

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Good job! That's exactly what they are!

They sell those containers with a metal rack as well, but when I realized I could just stick them to the side of my fridge, I thought it would be wonderful to save space that way, and I returned the platform part in exchange for more containers. I have about enough room for more than the number of spices I need.

[TheFoodTutor]

Notice the reflection in the background of this picture. I have a mirrored backsplash that goes all around the counter of my kitchen, and even behind the stove. I hate it, frankly, as it can look dirty pretty quickly, and I'll be taking it out and replacing the surface with tile when I get a round tuit.

I know some people have talked about installing one of these, and I really can't think of a benefit of having it, unless one really likes looking at one's midsection while cooking most of the time. It does give the effect of making the room look bigger than it is, though.

[therese]

What software do you use to create the Hugh Hefner airbrushed food porn? Do you have a set sequence of changes that you typically make? I use Photoshop for my work-related pictures, and generally have two steps: make the whites true white (thereby correcting both brightness and color balance) and then "unsharpen mask" (which I basically don't understand at all, I just know that it makes thing look much nicer, though of course not airbrushed).

[Gifted Gourmet]

What software do you use to create the Hugh Hefner airbrushed food porn?

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(fanning self and stepping into a cold shower simultaneously) ... those pictures sure made the world move for me, Food Tutor!

Are your cats checking in to a health spa anytime soon?

[therese]

Do we get to see the rest of the tattoo on lambfries' right forearm?

[Genny]

So where do you buy your spices? Online, bulk natural foods? Are they labelled? (I'd use my handy P-Touch labeller!) I love the idea of the magnetic spice rack but would be afraid of the lid coming off and having spice all over my floor. How secure are the lids? Twist on or snap on? My guess is that your fridge is pretty close to your stove? I'd have to walk 10 steps to my fridge to get to the spices, which are currently in the drawer on the stove island to my right. It's a messy drawer though and I am constantly seeking A Better Way. Maybe these little jars would be better in the drawer than the jars on their sides.

Do you and lambfries work together outside of "TFT" business as well?

[Pam R]

They sell those containers with a metal rack as well, but when I realized I could just stick them to the side of my fridge, I thought it would be wonderful to save space that way, and I returned the platform part in exchange for more containers. I have about enough room for more than the number of spices I need.

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That's brilliant. Any chance you could tell me where you got them .... and do they have a website?

[therese]

Do we get to see the rest of the tattoo on lambfries' right forearm?

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I'm going to answer my own query by pointing out that you can see this tattoo by looking at lambfries' profile.