chadzilla

comfortable

Autumn always opens many doors.  The cycle keeps turning.  We recently received letters with our paychecks stating that our hotel will no longer be run by our present management company as of 1 April 2008.  It doesn't seem that far away, but in a way it is.  There's a whole season of craziness in between now and then.  Some of us are worried about it.  Some of us are taking it with a grain of salt.  It's the way things are in this business... and not exactly like the restaurant industry exclusively... with hotels come bigger companies, bigger money, bigger layers, bigger responsibilities, bigger benefits, bigger structure.  Still at one point, you are left with less.  When management releases their contract with the owners and licensers, it will be 2 months shy of 10 years for me with this company... both in New Orleans and here in Florida (that's a long time for me).  On April Fool's day, there are obviously a few things that can happen.  On one extreme, business as usual with the same players and the same game, but with a different signature on the paycheck.  On the other extreme, adios todos.  Our current team of chefs have been working and hanging together for about 10 years now.  We have pushed each other, and learned from each other, and pissed each other off, and realized each other's triumphs and failures.  There is not one of us who would be in the exact same place without the others.  One comment from Chris, however, has pushed me to think in a new way.  He said that it's too bad you work for a company for so long, get comfortable, then everything changes.  The word comfortable was the one that got me.  Is that where I am now?  Is that where we as chefs are?  Is it somewhere that we even want to be?  I've come to think as comfortable as being the grill man who basically has a set schedule, and walks into the same scenario every day.  It's the 30 year fish cook who would be in a homeless shelter or rehab if he didn't step up from dish washer to line cook many years ago.  Maybe it's even the department head who works mostly M-F 9-5 with little or no deviation.  Whatever it is, it's not supposed to be me.  Am I getting comfortable taking my paycheck every 2 weeks.  If so, then that means that this is a good thing.  I can look back over the past years and feel bitterness or anger (and there are some whom would make my blood boil still today if I came across them/him/her).  That's pointless.  My focus now (aside from looking back at the great stuff, the growth, and the opportunity I've had) is completely on what happens on April Fool's day.  Paycheck or not, a line has been drawn and what's on the other side is not clear yet... but I cannot wait.  Perhaps some discomfort is in order.

sushi poco-cocido

We did an Argentinian FAM trip this week.  These are when a group of travel agents or travel journalists from a certain country are invited to travel our area in an organized tour that takes them to visit and dine at places organizing the trip.  We do them often depending on the season.

For a special appetizer course to be served to the group, I wanted to expose them to the technique, flavor, and texture of sous-vide salmon.  This way, I could design the plate flavors to work with the almost raw, though cooked, texture of salmon prepared this way.  The salmon was cooked at 52C which should have actually been done at 50C.  It would have had a more vibrant orange color at 50.  I use 52 at a boundary after reading about Bruno Goussault's statement that many of the proteins in the fish begin to denature at 52C.  The pseudo-raw texture was the reasoning for the spanish name which translates to 'sushi slow-cooked' (at least it does in my gringo lingo).

The salmon was brined for 25 minutes before bagging and cooking.  It sits on top of lemon coriander jasmine rice (cooked jasmine folded with a cilantro lemon zest puree).  Braised baby bok choi (in ginger and dashi broth), sesame nori furikake, and micro cilantro complete it.  2 sauces are added... soja sauce and a lemongrass syrup that I made after failing to create lemongrass jelly by not adding enough pectin to it.

I want to spend a lot more time working on my plate presentations and creating elements that will set them off.  This one is not bad, but element portions definitely should have been estimated better ahead of time.  Applying the sauces with more controllable bottles instead of spoons would have also improved the vision.  Although there is much room for improvement, I like the organic flow of it.  Still thinking.

controlling umami through temperature

I wrote about an umami-intensifying oven made by Hitachi over a year ago.  A recent web search shows no new information about this appliance being made available in the United States.  It pains me to know that after so much time (over a century now), we have not embraced this concept in our western world country.  So many of us frequent drive-thru's to get processed nourishment that food scientist lace with special ingredients to increase our satiation for certain flavors, yet we don't apply that technology to any sort of real food or real cuisine.  The science for pushing natural umami producing amino acids in food is already commonplace in other parts of the world, but not for us.  It's simply a matter of knowing what amino acids are inherent in the ingredients you are using, and then knowing what way to coax them out to the forefront of flavor.  Umami cravings are ancient in all of us.  They have directed our mouths to nourishment long before civilization ever existed... long before we had any reference as to what classified as food and what did not.  Those umami receptors are still very plentiful on our tongues, and knowing how to satisfy them can make good food into great food... if we only take the time to learn and accept umami as a taste sensation.  It's not just about MSG, so drop the old school stereotypes if you have them.  Umami (brought to us by glutamic acid, inosinic acid, and guanylic acid) is a natural component of many of the foods we eat on planet Earth.

Hope shines through!  At the March of Dimes event in Miami that we participated in recently, I was able to break away from our cocoa butter poached shrimp and our glass tower of basil bubbles to check out some of the other food.  There was the usual array of dishes common to these events.  My excitement peaked when I saw the booth for David Bouley's Evolution restaurant from the South Beach Ritz Carlton.  Chef Pierre explained the homemade tofu and dashi dish (similar to the one Bouley did at the ICC in New York) and how the kombu and bonito flakes were added and removed at different temperatures as the broth cooked.  This is similar to the traditional Japanese way that dashi broth is made.  In the classic method, the kombu is placed in cold water, and the fire brings the temp up to almost simmering (that happens around 180F), and the bonito flakes are dropped in.  Why?

Here are some facts to explain why this works.  Dashi broth is made of 2 main components (not including the water)...  kombu seaweed which is rich in glutamic acid and shaved bonito which is rich in inosinic acid.  Glutamate increases tremendously when cooked at temperatures below 80C (176F) and inosinic acid decreases tremendously at temperatures below 50C (122F).  This means that the seaweed and fish flakes are not happy at equal temperatures in the broth.  These temperatures are mapped out in the explaination of the Hitachi oven.

In essence, the kombu may be added in the initial heating.  The broth must never be brought above 80C.  The bonito should be added once the broth crosses the 50C point, which is right before simmering.  Bringing dashi up to a boil will either prevent umami from developing or destroy it.  That's why the Japanese do not boil the dashi.  By staying within the proper temperature ranges, the broth will be remarkably more savoury.  This is a traditional Japanese method.  Did the Japanese chefs who discovered this many years ago have access to amino acid measuring equipment to test the 'waters' of their broths, or did they just rely on their tongues and make interesting observations?  I vote for answer number 2.

Now if the concept being pushed at Bouley's restaurants spreads into American household kitchens, then maybe we can finally eventually buy an umami oven.  I still want one.  Kampai!

chef professional websites

I started to do a post a couple of weeks ago on the professional websites of chefs I admire.  The focus was going to be websites used mostly to promote the chef or provide a professional reference for the chef and his portfolio.  It was not going to include restaurant websites or blog-type sites.

One of the sites I had found (which was incomplete at the time) is now up and in full amazing swing.  That site is the professional website of Chef Paul Liebrandt.  It's an interesting design which gives understanding as to why it took some time to get it completed.  The navigation can be done 2 ways... by hitting the small arrow each time to progress to the next feature, or by clicking the PL icon to get the menu (which comes up different each time depending on the page, and is a blend of organic and mechanical appendages sprouting out like a branch when clicked... very cool).  The pictures in the gallery are amazing to say the least and, of course, as would be expected from such a great chef.  It's almost like a study in tuiles at times.  There are presentations that, although not explained, provoke deep thought for the culinary-minded.  The influence of Pierre Gagnaire is definitely felt in style and ambiguity.

Here are a few other great chef websites, so bookmark them in a special folder in your favorites...

• Sam Mason has a very cool self-promotional website outside of his restaurant's site.  Nice quote on the home page.

• Pierre Gagnaire's site is a strange swirl of his ideas, restaurants, and whatever else Pierre Gagnaire wants to do.  The only drawback is that I can't seem to get it in English... awesome website in any language.

• Grant Achatz has a (most certainly) ground-breaking book set to release in fall 2008.  He is attempting to create a 'living' cookbook which (instead of a CDROM) will allow access to internet sites that will be updated constantly, providing new information and ideas.  The book seems to be a kaiseki-style seasonal approach (meaning more of a seasonal philosophy than an ingredient focus).  Preordering allows the purchaser early access to the web material (Alinea Mosaic) as soon as Spring 2008.  I know this doesn't exactly fit into the guidelines I laid out for the chef website, but it's incredible uniqueness force me to include it.

• Johnny Iuzzini, of Jeans Georges, has a (to say the least) very interesting personal site with an equally strange home page.  Some parts or incomplete at this time, but it does mention a cookbook (Dessert 4 Play) to be released in fall 2008.

• Todd English uses his as a base link to his many restaurants as well as a platform to launch his modelling career (just kidding).

• Jose Andres needs a website just to provide a directory to all of the things his boundless energy has him involved in.  We were going through the digital camcorder footage of him at the ICC the other day, and we realized that he is actually a culinary evangelist.  It's difficult to watch him without getting caught up in his energy vortex and shouting out 'Amen, brother's at the end of each exclamation.

These are examples and by no means any form of a complete listing... although I would very much like to put one together.  Since I really do not have time to bounce around the internet all day (although I do my share), I'm sure there are countless websites of chefs known and unknown and every degree in between that I do not know of.  If you know a good one, send it to me.  Clip it in the comments or email it to me.  Remember though, these are not to be blogs or restaurant sites... or else WD~50 would be the first.  I'll update it periodically.

march of dimes 2007

The March of Dimes annual event was held once more in the Miami Hotel Intercontinental.  This is one of the hugest charity events of the area, and there is representation from restaurants, caterers, and hotels all over the Miami area.  We went through our usual outside agenda... start with a main savoury idea, then finish with pastries.  This one was divided more in half this time, finishing the evening with the Mugaritz-style tower of basil bubbles to top a sweet caprese dish.

The first offering was a shrimp that was poached slowly in cocoa butter and spices.  I simmered the butter with canela bark, clove, pink peppercorn, bay leaf, and cardamom pods then cooked shrimp in it.  The heat was kept to that of the pilot (which stayed around 140 to 150F).

We combined the soft-textured shrimp with chewy kalamata raisins and smoked vanilla sea salt.  The salt was Maldon tossed with vanilla powder and smoked over maple wood.  I vacuum sealed a couple of Cobra vanilla beans in with the salt afterwards to infuse the vanilla aroma over it.

We added a saffron emulsion to give the shrimp some creaminess.  It's a pretty funky combination of things, but it worked in many ways.  To eat it all together you get the intensity of the shrimp while the sugar and salt fight with each other with vanilla and spice overtones and the entire thing ends with sweet olive flavor as you find yourself still chewing the kalamata raisin for a few seconds afterwards.

When most other restaurants were finishing up or running out of food, we switched over to the sweet caprese.  The basil bubbles were building throughout the first half of the night stirring the curiosity of a few guests.  Fabian made the dessert version of the Italian classic with a sweet mozzarells parfait, topped with a tomato marmalade, a few drops of 25 year Modena, and of course, the basil bubbles.

The bubbles were smaller and cleaner this time as Fabian had slightly increased the xanthan and egg white powder.  He also strained it a bit more which probably did just as much for the great results as the added stabilizers.

Smooth event.  Cool chefs.  Good times.

serrano crystals

I noticed small white 'bloomed' spots in a piece of Iglesias serrano while slicing some a couple of days ago.  The texture was harder than the meat surrounding it.  Honestly, we had no idea what it was but I ate a piece just to make sure no one else would die, puke, or end up with a worm growing within their muscle tissue.  That's just the sort of dedication us chefs have for our guests (as long as it doesn't become dead-ication).

Well honestly, I was pretty sure it was safe, but just to make sure I sent the above picture (crystal is shown directly in the center) to Jorge Ruiz Carrascal from La Margarita Seagita in Spain.  He is an expert of all things that are both flesh and cured.  He assured me that this was actually a sign of quality... or basically proof of good long term curing process of the pork.

His explanation was...

They are tyrosine crystals. Tyrosine is an amino acid presents in meat
proteins (proteins are formed by amino acids). After the whole ripening
process there is a considerable amount of free tyrosine due to the action
of muscle proteases (muscle proteolytic enzymes which remain active during
the ripening; they break down proteins releasing amino acids and
peptides). At the same time, there is a dehydration process, which means
that there is a high amount of tyrosine in a not too high amount of water
(at least, not as high amount of water is in raw meat). Tyrosine is not
very soluble in water, which means that when the amount of tyrosine in the
ham reaches a certain level, tyrosine precipitates forming tyrosine
crystals. In fact, in Iberian dry cured ham the presence of these crystals
is a signal of a long processing and it is not considered a drawback at
all. And of course, there is no danger in eating as much as you want.

Well, maybe a little danger of a heart attack if I really ate as much serrano as I would like to.  A little web hopping revealed that these are the same crystals found in hard aged cheeses like asiago and parmesan (good guess, Chef K).  It's great for chefs to know this stuff so that we can sound like geniuses when a guest or waiter asks us about such things. 

Thank you, Jorge, for your expertise.

Now we know... and knowing is half the battle.  GI Joe!

chef blogging vs. food blogging

Shuna Lydon at eggbeater emailed me a couple of days ago with a mention to check out Michael Ruhlman's blog on Wednesday (24 Oct 2007).  Now I understand her controlled excitement.  Ruhlman has generously given up his soapbox for a day to lend amplification to a great (as well as prolific) voice in chef blogging.

Lydon's piece on the subject signals part of an evolution.  There are many many food blogs out there, and well... some are good, and some are not.  If you could assign specific gravity to these blogs and load them all up on a scale, they would tip over a 12 burner Viking stove with 4 convection ovens.  The main point of the article (well at least on my front) is to differentiate this multitude of blogsites from the minority (though growing) element in the food blogging world.  That is the chef's blog.

The chef's blog is different because it focuses within instead of without.  It does not attempt to harm, but to share instead.  It's an open letter to others just like us all over the globe.  It is a glimpse into the world in which we live.  I do say that we live there because we spend far more time at our cutting boards and stoves than we do at home, in our beds, and with our spouses and families.  It's a strange life, but (mostly out of a need to vent or release brain farts) some of us have also added 'time at the keyboard' to that list of assigned spaces we occupy throughout the day.  But there is another reason for this.

Although many different people from many different worlds check out our words and pictures from time to time (like mis-guided youth who actually think you can get drunk off of Torreblanca's vodka pills), our blogs are mostly for those out there who perform the same duties that we do everyday.  It is for the chefs.  There is a new commraderie in the world kitchen.  It is where organizations like the ACF have failed, and congregations like the ICC have succeeded.  The chef in this new world kitchen does not hang his medals on his double-breasted spotless ironed whites or attach an alphabet of anacronyms behind his embroidered name.  He/she only wishes to learn and grow.  It's finally all about the food again!  That is why I began this blog almost a year and a half ago, and why it gleams a spark of symbolism as this is my 200th post ever on Chadzilla.  I was hungry for information, and while the internet at the time was the next best thing after $200 plus cookbooks from Spain, the information was definitely limited.  I found hope in a blog called Ideas in Food and that hope lead to inspiration.  There were other bits and pieces of information out there, but they required assembly like some giant incomplete jigsaw puzzle.  I began to put the pieces together.  My next step was to start my own blog.  I pounded out ideas, thoughts, failures, non-sense, and praises on my computer... sometimes daily, and sometimes weekly.  It started out simple, but grew as I did.  I only wanted to put information (sometimes recycled) out there to make it a little bit easier for the next chef to find what he was looking for.

That lead me to the greatest thing that could have ever come from the chef's blog (and one that Lydon stresses in her article).  What I speak of is the new commraderie.  Chef's and others from around the world began to email me, and I emailed back.  I have learned much through them and even met some of them face to face.  I received emails from cooks in Singapore, from a food scientist/instructor in Spain, from a techno-foodie in Europe, and from many many others just like me all across the US and beyond.  The bond, although based on something so virtually unreal as the internet, is very real.  I have even gained an opportunity to stage for a couple of days in Orlando with Chris Windus at Bluezoo as well as meeting up with Ed Bilicki again.  The stagier system is resurrected.  This is only the beginning.  We plan to do so much more and learn as much as we can through the opportunities we have been blessed with... and also to reciprocate and offer that knowledge to others.

That, to me, is the biggest difference between the chef's blog and the food blog.  It's mostly about intentions.  Join the revolution!

olives & bubbles

We were working on a couple of things for an upcoming outside event for the March of Dimes.  We did this event last year and it was eggs.  So far this year, it's olives and bubbles.  Well, those are only components of the food.  We will be presenting cocoa butter poached shrimp with kalamata raisins and smoked vanilla powder along with a sweet caprese composed of tomato marmalade, mozzarella cream, and basil bubbles.

We are, however, borrowing a couple of ideas from the many before us.

The kalamata raisins are based upon Johnny Iuzzini's candied black olives.  First, they are simmered in simple syrup.

Then laid out to dry with an extra coating of granulated sugar.  These went into an Alto Shaam at 120F for 2 solid days of dehydration.

I don't have an 'after' picture of these, but they ended up looking like tiny dates.  I thought about calling them kraisins, but I think I'll stick to kalamata raisins.

The other component that required some beforehand trial and error are the basil bubbles.  Fabian had mapped out a recipe based on Andoni Aduriz's beet bubble recipe in the last Food Arts. 

We started out with some blanched basil leaves, mineral water, powdered egg whites, and xanthan.

The entire mix was blended together...

Then strained and poured into a huge glass vase (that Fabian jacked from the Banquet's department... good job!)...

An aquarium air pump (about $25 - $30) is attached to the vase beforehand by stretching its air hoses down to the bottom of the inside and held in place with the suction cups that came with it.  After changing the air flow regulators on the air pump to find out the optimum amount of air that should flow in, we wait patiently...

The bubbles slowly formed after setting to the higher air flow (which on an aquarium air pump is not that much pressre).

We were excited until we hit the overflow point and the bubbles were not stable enough to rise...

Oh well, we have one more day to tweak it before the event.  Our plan is to do the shrimp dish until we run out of mise en place, then convert to the caprese... while the entire time before, the basil bubbles grow in the background arousing the curiosity of the attendees.

back to brining and sous-vide

I have thoughts about the pending sous-vide ban for restaurant use by Health Departments almost daily now.  There is no known legislature that I have seen that attempts to regulate the use of it instead of blindly and ignorantly forbidding its use.  The end result of all of this will probably fall on chefs who choose self-regulation in hopes that the government will copy European protocol on the issue.

I was cleaning papers off my desk (there were quite a bit) and came across a short article by Heston Blumenthal in the Guardian that talks about brining.  The article dates back to 2005.  When posting about brining salmon for sous-vide a week ago, I also had a thread of thought that somehow a brine could be used to create a semi-sterile environment for meats and fish that were going to be vacuum sealed... thereby reducing or eliminating the threat of anaerobic bacteria.  The two ideas merged through destiny when I came across the printed article.  Blumenthal writes very briefly about brining here, but states that they have been using saltpetre in their brines for 2 or 3 years.  He says that saltpetre is 'the only substance known to prevent botulism.'  If this is true, then I am wondering how much saltpetre is needed by percentage in a salt solution to prevent botulism from happening?  Also, is this amount of saltpetre enough to greatly effect the appearance or texture of the meat?  Chef Heston states that they commonly use it in their brines... so if not for the bacterial fighting qualities, then maybe for some other advantage... more vibrantly colored meat?

Does anyone else out there have information on this?  Is there a miniscule amount of saltpetre that could be used in a brine for meat, so that the meat could be vacuum sealed, cooked sous-vide, and served without the threat of botulism ever being present?  Also, does this method work for other anaerobic bacteria like listeria or clostridium perfringens? 

This could be the loophole!

bizarre foods

I do not want to turn into one of these excessive linking people on the internet, but it is the weekend... and I have nothing else to post.  Maybe posting nothing would be a better alternative to this.

The 5 most terrifying foods in the world.  This is from Cracked magazine's website (I used to love that as a kid) and was found through 'grow a brain.'

The strange thing about this is that I've actually eaten the Vietnamese version of #1 twice already in my life.  The duck fetus wasn't as completely formed, but there was a body and there were feathers.  I had it once in Boston and once in New Orleans.  The 2nd time was to make sure that I was as truly as disgusted over it as my reaction revealed on the 1st try.  Now I know that this food truly disgusts me, and I know better than to ever eat it again.  The Vietnamese usually eat it (so I was told) by cracking the shell open, sprinkling some salt on it, eating it in one gulp, then chasing it down with ice cold Heineken (the Vietnamese love Heineken).  Anyway, I can think of better ways to merit the reward of a cold beer than eating an unborn baby duck.  Andrew Zimmerman and Anthony Bourdain have nothing on me.  I had pretty the much the same reaction as Bourdain in the clip.  It wasn't so much the texture or the concept of it that was disgusting... there is something really wrong and disturbing about the flavor... which I have no reference point to even begin to describe.