Who am I?

[Skeleton]

I was just now hit with a culinary lightning bolt.

It came in the form of a question- a question that I think I know the answer to. The question is- Who am I?

The answer is that I am what I have learned. This naturally leads to the question: What have I learned?

I went to cooking school from September 1999 until May 2000. However, I am fond of telling people that I spent from February 2001 until April 2001 at a restaurant called Piccolo Mondo unlearning everything they taught me in cooking school, and from then until some time in 2004 re-learning all the basics, only Italian.

While it is impossible to list what I learned from that experience, the first thing that pops into my head is pasta. Pasta with fresh tomato sauce, in particular.

Sure I learned an advanced forcemeat done with braised cornish hens and prosciutto to be stuffed into Canelloni. I learned the ways of meat sauce, fish preparation, and 40 different ways to prepare veal scallopine. But in some ways, the most essential thing I learned was Spaghettini al Pomodoro Fresco.

Have you ever worked with an Italian chef? When it comes to pasta, it has to be perfect. Claudio was an absolute fanatic for pasta al dente. "To the tooth" which in his world means crunchy. Is pasta so uncooked in Italy? One can only assume. I have read that one should never let a french, german or swiss chef cook your pasta. I've worked with french and german trained chefs, and I can understand why. I have been taught to cook my pasta less than any cook or chef I know. And you know what? I LIKE it that way.

Use heavily salted water. Not the "ocean" of Thomas Keller, but you should be able to just taste the salt if you dip your finger in it.

Never. Ever. EVER. Rinse your pasta in cold running water. Guess what- in this unfortunate city almost everybody does. What they don't know is that is doubly wrong. You are rinsing off starch from the pasta which not only helps sauce to adhere, but also tastes good. Most chefs don't seem to realise that pasta has a taste of its own- when it is cooked properly, this taste is not only delicious, but a tribute to your skill as a chef.

Use good olive oil. Always. Not just for salad dressing (although some "chefs" in this city use crap pomace oil even for raw applications, i don't understand how they aren't out of business) The usual argument goes- "if i heat the oil, it loses its fragile, fragrant components, therefore if I start with a cheap blended olive oil it won't make a difference." WRONG! This is a case of GIGO - Garbage in, Garbage out. If you start with crap olive oil it actually gets worse, whereas if you start with something nice, the flavour of the oil shines through the entire process. So please, piss off with your Carapelli, your Bertolli, ESPECIALLY fucking Colavita- UGH! Lets all do better, shall we?

Anyway, my revelation is that I want to see if I can incorporate some of the techinques and recipes that I learned at piccolo mondo into a more advanced tasting menu. In particular, I thought that it would be nice to present one bite each of three different preparations of spaghettini al pomodoro fresco. Here's the basic technique:

1 tbsp brunoise garlic clove

1/4 tsp crushed red chili flakes

1 oz EVOO

The size of the garlic clove is very very important. Any smaller than brunoise will make it impossible to get the appropriate flavour. Sautee these ingredients on medium high until the garlic is a deep golden colour- well roasted, almost burned, then immediately add

3-4 oz tomato chopped in 1/2" dice

It is important to keep the seeds, juice, skin and all the innards of the tomato in as well. It is good to season your sauce now. Allow this to fry for about 20 seconds, and then add

4 oz broth

6-8 leaves of fresh basil, roughly torn

use a light chicken stock, or else vegetable broth. Allow this to reduce until a suitable thickness. Now toss in freshly cooked pasta, or pre-cooked pasta that you have heated up in a salted 200 degree water bath. Add shaved Parmigiano reggiano and you're done.

Ooh I almost forgot- make sure that you have a warmed, stainless steel bowl to combine the pasta and sauce. Never use the pan you've made the sauce in.

This sounds like SUCH a simple dish because it really really is. But is the exact specicifity of how you have to produce it that makes it really stick in my mind. To me, it is not anymore a test of my ability- but that it is a test of those that I prepare it for.

I have prepared this dish for chefs and gourmets, and the response I get is curious. A small percentage of the people I serve this for actually recognise the perfection, the art that it is. Unfortunately, the majority seems to eat without even pausing to taste. Pausing to identify the harmony and balance of tastes, of textures. To appreciate the tradition that it represents.

Done correctly, this dish is the best.

Now, how can we improve on perfection? Well, the answer is, I also learned about 30 other tomato sauces from Claudio, including one very curious one that relies on an interesting property of tomatoes that doesn't seem to be mentioned in my McGee.

Since I left Piccolo Mondo in the fall of 2004, I have wandered from kitchen to kitchen, and really bootstrapped in a lot of ways. In the past two years, I've worked for the two most advanced restaurants in Halifax - Fid under Dennis Johnston, and the Prince George under Ray Bear, and have discovered a whole new world of cuisine outside my very sheltered mediterranean training. This has been a very confusing time for me. It has been a real struggle to try and learn new techniques, new ingredients, and basically try and fill in the pieces that have been missing from my training.

Along the way, I've had to ask myself- why was my education at Piccolo Mondo so incomplete?

Reading the foodblog gastroville has been helpful. I think that the author of that blog shares with my former chef much of the same sensibility. Just as a test, a few weeks ago I asked Claudio what he thought of San Remo shrimps. Clearly he agrees with Gastroville of their value.

But why didn't he teach me this sort of thing?

I think that the answer is unfortunate, for me, for him, and for Halifax. This is a man who is defeated. Maybe he tried to have a truely fine dining restaurant away from the mediteranean once before and failed, or who knows? But the result is that he doesn't even try any more. Sure, he taught me the proper way to do some things, but why bother teach me how to identify San Remo shrimps when the only shrimps available come frozen in blocks from thailand or vietnam? In a city where the most expensive restaurant charges only 30-35 canadian for its most expensive dishes, then no wonder I didn't find out when white truffle season was until very recently. I've still only ever seen one, working at the Prince George.

So now I find myself with half (if that much) a mediterranean education, an aborted french training, a thirst for knowledge about the newest techniques (methocel? transglutaminase? what!) and a just-paying-the-bills job at a restaurant that is only about one notch past stale.

I've been at it for 6 years now. I need an identity. I wonder if it is time to stage...

[bleudauvergne]

Are you going to go to Italy?

[ghostrider]

...including one very curious one that relies on an interesting property of tomatoes that doesn't seem to be mentioned in my McGee.

You certainly piqued my curiosity. Would you care to expand on that, if you don't consider it a trade secret?

[martinwa]

Just had spaghetti vongole by the beach in Liguria in NW Italy. It's 20 degrees and the sky is blue. No chillies in the dish here just superb oil, a bit of white wine, parsley at the end then the whole thing swirled into perfectly cooked pasta.

Get here!

[highchef]

I think it's time for you to be a private chef.

While it is impossible to list what I learned from that experience, the first thing that pops into my head is pasta. Pasta with fresh tomato sauce, in particular.

and do it for people who appreciate it and pay well.

[Skeleton]

...including one very curious one that relies on an interesting property of tomatoes that doesn't seem to be mentioned in my McGee.

You certainly piqued my curiosity. Would you care to expand on that, if you don't consider it a trade secret?

←

Unfortunately, I have been sworn to secrecy on this one. I will tell you that it involves careful control of temperature and the effect is to dramatically reduce the acidity (or at least the acid taste) of the sauce. I was instructed to keep this one to the grave.

[ChefCrash]

Have you ever worked with an Italian chef? When it comes to pasta, it has to be perfect. Claudio was an absolute fanatic for pasta al dente. "To the tooth" which in his world means crunchy. Is pasta so uncooked in Italy? One can only assume. I have read that one should never let a french, german or swiss chef cook your pasta. I've worked with french and german trained chefs, and I can understand why. I have been taught to cook my pasta less than any cook or chef I know. And you know what? I LIKE it that way.

.......

←

The procedure you describe for the sauce is a whole lot of perfection. Unfortunately wasted, on crunchy pasta.

How does one get crunchy spaghettini from fresh pasta?

What does "to the tooth" mean? Is there a quantitative definition?

Mario Batali served "al dente" pasta on his last Iron Chef. All three judges hated it.

As for Who You Are? Sorry, we were sworn to secrecy on this one.

Edited November 17, 2006 by ChefCrash (log)

[Skeleton]

I think it's time for you to be a private chef.

and do it for people who appreciate it and pay well.

←

This seems like a neat idea. How on earth would you get such a gig? I can't think of a single person I know who employs a private chef....

[Skeleton]

The procedure you describe for the sauce is a whole lot of perfection. Unfortunately wasted, on crunchy pasta.

How does one get crunchy spaghettini from fresh pasta?

What does "to the tooth" mean? Is there a quantitative definition?

Mario Batali served "al dente" pasta on his last Iron Chef. All three judges hated it.

How does one get crunchy spaghettini from fresh pasta? Simple! Dry it first!

As for Who You Are? Sorry, we were sworn to secrecy on this one.

←

But are you prepared to take that secret to the grave?

Seriously though, I feel a bit dumb now. But haven't there always been secrets?

How about this, if I ever read a recipe that uses a similar technique I will post that recipe without hesitation. ... I can't seem to come up with a google search that is useful either. Sorry, but I promised.

Edited November 17, 2006 by Skeleton (log)

[Sunny Simmons Steincamp]

The procedure you describe for the sauce is a whole lot of perfection. Unfortunately wasted, on crunchy pasta. **snip** Mario Batali served "al dente" pasta on his last Iron Chef. All three judges hated it.

←

Wow, this makes me feel better... I have always abhorred al dente pasta, and felt inferior and/or unsophisticated because of it.

How does one get crunchy spaghettini from fresh pasta?  Simple!  Dry it first!

I was wondering this, myself... but... I'm still confused. Maybe in restaurants that make fresh pasta, it is dried for much longer than I've ever done at home, but there's no way I could get my homemade pasta truly "al dente" (not that I'd want to). I *do* like it starchy, and don't rinse it (unless it's going into a pasta salad, that is.) I thought that was pretty much general knowledge, though.

[nakji]

I *do* like it starchy, and don't rinse it (unless it's going into a pasta salad, that is.) I thought that was pretty much general knowledge, though.

Not in Halifax, where most people consider East Side Mario's the height of Italian.

I kid, I kid. I kid Halifax because I love Halifax. Especially since I left.

Edited November 17, 2006 by nakji (log)

[highchef]

I think it's time for you to be a private chef.

and do it for people who appreciate it and pay well.

←

This seems like a neat idea. How on earth would you get such a gig? I can't think of a single person I know who employs a private chef....

←

I know a few hired 'cooks' for some of the old families here..old rich families I should say. Actually, I know several lawyers who made it big on tobacco money who have full time cooks as well. But that's not the type gig I'm talking about. Every celeb has their own chef, or most of them do. My guess is that they're hired via agents or hired away from a resturant that the 'star' went to and like the food.

Didn't food tv do a show on Sting's chef??

[Dave Hatfield]

The answer is that I am what I have learned.

no, you aren't. You are the sum of your genetic heritage + all of have learned so far in your life and not just what you've learned in cooking school.

I agree with whoever it was who posted the reply since deleted probably for being too to the point. What are we talking about here?

Cooking pasta al dente? Well so? Define al dente please. Not exactly a new topic to most of the eGullet community.

A 'secret' way to do something with tomatoes? Well great, but if its a secret why mention it in the first place? Makes me mad to see that. Either keep shut about whatever OR reveal the secret. Don't do this silly dance.

If you would really like some help from the incredibly generorus eGulley community then give us something more to work with. On the basis of your post I just don't know how to be of a positive influence.

Sorry if this is too strong & harsh, but I can't see any other way of getting my point across. I've mentored an awful lot of young careers in my time & have never found that being 'nice' as opposed to honest worked.

[Luckylies]

The answer is that I am what I have learned.

no, you aren't. You are the sum of your genetic heritage + all of have learned so far in your life and not just what you've learned in cooking school.

I agree with whoever it was who posted the reply since deleted probably for being too to the point. What are we talking about here?

Cooking pasta al dente? Well so? Define al dente please. Not exactly a new topic to most of the eGullet community.

A 'secret' way to do something with tomatoes? Well great, but if its a secret why mention it in the first place? Makes me mad to see that. Either keep shut about whatever OR reveal the secret. Don't do this silly dance.

If you would really like some help from the incredibly generorus eGulley community then give us something more to work with. On the basis of your post I just don't know how to be of a positive influence.

Sorry if this is too strong & harsh, but I can't see any other way of getting my point across. I've mentored an awful lot of young careers in my time & have never found that being 'nice' as opposed to honest worked.

←

Bravo!

I'd like some sharing and information, not bragging and esoteric culinary mysticism.

I like my paste al dente. But when some goober cooks it raw and thinks I'm going to eat it...because they don't know better, I'd rather risk looking like a rube to the restaurant that suffer silently.

I've heard al dente called

al dante

so many times recently (and by the most pretentious people)

The greatest thing i've learned about food is that eating alot and careful study of food are two very different things. Both are important to culinary scholarship. They must be married well or not at all..otherwise you just look like a big fat ass.

[MarketStEl]

...including one very curious one that relies on an interesting property of tomatoes that doesn't seem to be mentioned in my McGee.

You certainly piqued my curiosity. Would you care to expand on that, if you don't consider it a trade secret?

←

Unfortunately, I have been sworn to secrecy on this one. I will tell you that it involves careful control of temperature and the effect is to dramatically reduce the acidity (or at least the acid taste) of the sauce. I was instructed to keep this one to the grave.

←

Please break that promise by making sure the technique survives you.

That doesn't necessarily mean posting it here. It means passing it on to someone who you believe will respect it--and you--the way the person who passed it on to you did.

Edited November 21, 2006 by MarketStEl (log)

[MarketStEl]

Having read the rest of this thread after posting that reply, I must confess I don't quite get his point either.

If I understand him right, then I'm at least one-third Chinese, for I enjoy making stir-fries -- they're quick, delicious and very nutritious.

Yet nothing about the rest of me would lead one to conclude that I'm in any way Chinese, or any other Asian ethnic group for that matter.

So: Are we talking about identity here, or striking poses?