chadzilla

simmering

Apologies for the long gaps in posts, but just utilizing the time for other purposes.  It has mostly come down to questions over what has been post-worthy lately... showing the same basic things over and over or rethinking all aspects of what we are doing.  Cooking is the combination of many acts (and thinking processes), and sometimes it's necessary to rotate the pots around the burners and let certain things autopilot on simmer.  Life isn't all about the quickfire.

We've been keeping ourselves busy in the kitchen, but haven't done any Paradigm dinners for awhile.  These were purposefully put on hold due to the slow season, each one of us taking extra days off, and well... also simply because we've been doing Paradigm for just over a year now so a mental break to adjust our ideas and thoughts seems in order.  There's no shortage of 'other tasks' to focus on in our kitchen, so don't think we haven't been pushing ourselves for better efficiency... just adjusting our operation to a different economy.  This isn't a trend.  It's just reality.  When you're Thomas Keller, you can afford to continue on with the same menu and prices.  When you're a 2nd floor restaurant in a hotel trying to achieve a decent capture rate and generate a finicky local following as well, adjusting is sometimes in order (this was long overdue anyway).  We have been very diligent and creative with seeking ways to achieve what we want.

We've also been persistent in doing wine dinners every few weeks to a month in conjunction with our local Cellars Wine organization.  Last night, we welcomed our friend, Sean Bernal (executive chef of the Miami Oceanaire restaurant), for a seafood-biased dinner for New Zealand Maude wines (some photos and dishes should get posted soon).  This and our push for a regular brunch crowd for our new Sunday afternoons on the beach have been showing very promising results.  Everything is a stepping stone to something else.

Travelling soon also... this Saturday Chef K, Fabian, and myself will be flying to New York for the StarChefs ICC (their 4th year, my 3rd).  Shortly after our return, Chef K and I are headed towards Valencia, Venezuela again to participate in the Trilogia en Fusion culinary congress.  We had a great time last year, and look forward to some good times.

Aside from business, my wife and I are getting closer to getting a house here in the area (so I can finally become an area man).  The market has really been crazy... especially in this real estate-driven market.  True, there are some great prices and it's a golden opportunity, but the processes of actually getting the keys in your hand are the most bizarre anyone in realty has seen in their lifetime.

Of course, my time (what sadly is left of it) is consumed by my baby girl who is 7 1/2 months now.  She's growing fast, and I don't want to miss any great daddy moments.  My priorities are definitely in place.

So, just need to put some of those juices set to 80ºC and let them simmer for a minute.

turkey jive

When writing the menu for our Terraspania wine dinner, we opted for turkey as a first course.  This was partly because of the perception of turkey as a holiday or Thanksgiving dish (of course, not counting the ever-popular turkey sandwich... but is this really what turkey should be most represented as).  We were also frustrated over the fact that we could not locate any sources for heritage breed turkeys.  These would be anything but the Broad Breasted White which has been embraced by the corporate turkey guys.  There were a few websites up for growers boasting Bourbon Reds, Royal Palms, Narragansetts, Jersey Blues, Bronze, Spanish Black, and Slate, but all of them listed the breeds as 'out of stock.'  Frustrating!  

We ended up having to settle for Whites which were grown and raised under more humane conditions than your average Butterball... but, still the same breed as a Butterball.  It's time for a turkey revolution!  Let's start demanding ancestral breeds of the bird that Benjamin Franklin wanted on our dollars instead of the Bald Eagle.  The turkey deserves a place of respect on our menus.  The Spanish Black had it's moment of fame on the European continent.  Mexicans commonly serve theirs with mole in Oaxaca.  Should our most famous turkey dish be the club sandwich (which bacon steals all of the glory anyway)?

turkey confit

We chose to feature turkey in a confit preparation for this menu.  The poaching fat we have is now a beautiful mixture of duck, chicken, turkey, and bacon fat.  Turkey confit sure sold me.  When you think about it... turkey confit is really just a slow-fried turkey and since we have roots in New Orleans, this is totally appropriate.  Put that on your sandwich.

corn... where do you stand?

It used to be all so simple and innocent...

Remember when you really loved corn?  Do you still love it?

I recall being very young and in school when a teacher told us that people in other countries looked at corn as only being fit for pigs.  Then I remember thinking (in my child mind) "Screw those Frenchies, they don't know what they're missing."  Well, that was a long time ago and little did I know then that corn was slowly taking over the world.  Perhaps the joke was on us.

I've always really loved the flavor of corn.  Even canned corn heated up with some butter and salt was a joy to eat back in the day.  Has corn become so evil that we can no longer enjoy it with blind innocence?

I occasionally read of other chefs integrating corn into dishes in a way that exhalts it.  I can also vaguely recall of chefs (such as Sean Brock or Dan Barber) revitalizing supposedly 'lost' varieties of American corn and saving them from oblivion.  Then I have also read opinions such as Daniel Patterson's who has moved away from using corn entirely due to what it has become... of better yet, ceased to remain.  Gourmet recently posted a string of email banter on the corn quandry.

Where's the line here?  I am truly torn over corn.  I mean, I really love good corn.  I realize that the American Industrial Food Machine has turned it into a bastardation of it's former self, but does that mean I should steer away from all corn?  Is corn truly lost forever?

Just wondering where the rest of you stand.  We truely are a cornbread nation, so is this a blessing or a curse?

rethinking

We've spent quite a bit of time lately pushing our ideas in different ways.  Our restaurant has long been in desparate need of... an identity.  It's interesting to see how things pan out.  It's also interesting to look at things through the eyes of fresh perspective with the added clarity of retrospect.  Take a brief look at the history of our building...

Our 3 building complex was built (more than 5, but less than 10) years ago by a local contractor who forged a partnership with Trump and was to be managed by a 3rd entity.  The entire complex consists of a hotel condo and 2 larger condos lined up right on the beach on Florida's beautiful Atlantic coast.  To this day, the 3rd building is still being constructed.  Their were obviously many hands in the design of this beginning project and each set may or may not have had a vision of what was to finally be.  In the time that followed, a brand was developed by the outside management company.  

During those years of change, many key management positions saw new faces... one of those being our executive chef, Chef K.  Later on I came on the scene, then later the management company backed out and a new company was formed by our current GM (another new face) and the building's contractor.  We also ended up with a new F&B.  In the span of this time, many ideas were thrown on tables, there were multitudes of flips and flops.  Our restaurant (one of several f&b outlets within our jurisdiction) was named after the owner's daughter.  It unfortunately has the word 'grill' in the title which is very misleading.  The restaurant serves as a 3 meal a day service to our guests.  We have also (many times) tried to woo the local crowd into our establishment.  This is difficult for many reasons including the fact that many locals do not know we exist... the restaurant is located on the 2nd floor, has no enticing entranceway, and has no exterior signage to alert passerby's.

A lot of times we must question whether it is easier to begin a brand from scratch or recreate one in an existing operation?

In the span of the last 3 or so years (my time here), all ideas from contemporary Floribbean, to steak house, to Italian, to whatever-you-name-it have been thrown around.  In order for any of these to work, both the passion to push it plus the hard-core diligence involved with actually making it a reality are required.  As a side note, we started doing Paradigm dinners as a venue to keep us learning and playing as well as to generate buzz for our property.  This has worked out quite well, but it does not help out the actual restaurant.  Perhaps the big attraction to it initially was to create something new without having to re-create what was already there.

Today, we have an assembled team of very food-focused locals who have been asked to help us regenerate (or generate) a restaurant theme.  The areas looked at include menu, ambiance, service, space, marketing, etc.  The ideas already thrown on the table are very interesting.  Looking at things through the eyes of others is refreshing.  Part of the idea behind this is that we get a group of locals to help us redesign our vision, they also in turn feel ownership of this new vision, and we make some readjustments, people start to flock in, and (in our F&B director, Steven's words) we are busy thereafter.  Our restaurant cannot be Paradigm.  That will not work.  (Many people assume that's our identity because it generates buzz and that's what they see represented on this blog, but our positions entail so so much more...)  It must appeal to the flow of people that chance upon it... the group business, the families with children, the local savy food lovers, the drunk guy who lured his friends in from the pool bar.  We must be able to deliver what we agree to with consistency and quality.  There are many restrictions built in to our framework.  This is where I give a lot of credit to Steven.  He is constantly demanding of ideas.  No matter how crazy or out there, everyone needs to bring something to the table... it's a mental pot luck dinner.

So... how does this really work.  How do you build a brand where there is none?  How do you do it in existing space?  How do you make it work over a large demographic?  This has been a huge part of our excitement lately.  Some would see this challenge as a nightmare, but a nightmare is still a dream, a dream is an opportunity.  Change must be physical and mental to have real effect.

pie & peanut butter

This dish was actually first inspired by the movie "Mall Cop."  There's a scene in the movie (one of the few which do not involve a Segway) where Paul Blart puts peanut butter over a hot slice of pie before eating it.  I'd never seen or heard of this before, but the combination seems to make perfect sense... isn't it just like warm peanut butter and jelly with pie crust thrown in for texture?

Well, that's how it started.  Banana as a choice of pie seemed logical to us.  To give the banana some added dimension green chiles and liquid malt were mixed in.  The terrine block is one that Chef K has been exploring for some time.  The peanut butter is homemade with some clementines added (why aren't there gourmet flavored peanut butters on the market?  Not the pb&j varieties but peanut butter with flavor essences).  A simple gastrique made from the clementine juice and red wine vinegar finishes it.

foie avocado terrine, banana green chile pie, clementine peanut butter, clementine gastrique

 

This course was used as a segway (not the gyroscope variety) between our savory courses and Fabian's 2 finishing dessert courses.  We used to put a big booming entré plate here, but these transitional dishes make much more sense to us now.  Foie is easy to incorporate into the flavor themes.

Aren't Clementines great, by the way.  They're like little BK burger shots (except for the nasty fast food flavor).  Instead of eating one big orange, you can scarf down 3 or 4 clementines.

the gray areas

not a rant, but more of an observation of sorts...

This is in reference to temperatures.  There exists an entire spectrum of ideal temperatures beyond the adjectives 'hot' and 'cold.'  I have been reflecting on this much lately.  Obviously, the ideal state for any edible object requires a more accurate description than these 2 defining words.

Our entire staff has been reviewing our Mobil standards lately.  Many of the point system factors are centered around outdated concepts of food.  A lot of them are Euro-centric and imply that stepping out of this parameter will prevent your rating of excellence (all the way down to the cheese course specifications).  Hot soups must be boiling hot... should they really?  Cold foods must be kept cold... how cold exactly?  Sure, we've all had the adage of 'hot food hot plate/cold food cold plate' drilled into out brain matter as cooks, but shouldn't we get more specific about things.

This was also sparked by last seasons Top Chef when Collichio ripped up one of the European guys for 'freezing' his fresh fish in order to cut it nice and thin (I'm still confused over that remark).  There is a difference between freezing something and allowing it to firm up in the freezer.  Obviously the longer is stays in there, the more it will descend to the temperature of the enclosure (eventually destoying the texture) until the entire mass of food is one equal temperature (like controlled cooking in reverse).  All food can be tempered... not just butter and chocolate.

We utilize our freezer many many times during prep to firm up set foods just enough to pop them out of molds without jeapordizing the integrity of the texture or to faciliate some other purpose.  The same concepts apply to heat.  How will this plate component be best appreciated... room temp?  body temp?  slightly hotter than a hot day in Florida?  These are the gray areas.  It's a juggling act.

A more recent example is the latest Top Chef Masters episode where Wylie's food is labelled as sci-fi simply because of the way he cooked his egg (yeah, yeah the sous-vide chicken too, but it's the same argument).  They must have edited in some different plate shots because I didn't notice anything utilizing Martian technology.  He did cook an egg properly instead of dropping it into boiling hot water and overcooking it (and the egg was not sous-vide... there was no vacuum involved).  Is that sci-fi?  Is perfection futuristic to the point where it's alien to us?  All I noticed was a chef creating a damn fine plate of food and trying to get each ingredient to exist in it's optimum state... isn't that what all chefs do (or at least they should)?

The last Paradigm dinner we did was 2 Fridays ago, and we were hit by a freakish tropical storm (rendering some places in South Beach without a roof or even flooded).  Our damage was having water blown into our hood system motors which shut the entire ventilation system down for the night.  As temperatures in the kitchen rose, we struggled with many plate components.  Such delicate foods require specific conditions and losing our control over this one area made for a very frustrating evening.

Hopefully all is well tonight and all of our gray areas remain their proper hue.

chef (slash) writer

Those in the Twitter world already get tipped off to articles that are posted on various sites in the cyber-sphere.  Although Twitter 'suggests' not tweeting a link to your latest blog post (everyone out there is doing it), it can be a quick way to shout a head's up to your followers when something new comes 'flying off the presses.'

Many of us blog today.  There used to be many food blogs, and very little chef blogs.  That has changed dramatically.  During my daily blogroll reading over a cup of coffee, I seldom ever have the time to scroll through all of the information out there (some good, some very very good, some 'well not so' good).  That's the beauty and the horror of it.

Aside from blogging, there are a small handful of chefs out there who put pen in hand by actually authoring informative and opinionated articles.  Two of these great chefs come to mind immediately.  If you follow them on Twitter, you will get 'tipped off' right when the articles are released.

Grant Achatz has (in my mind) pioneered an environment of openness into his kitchen, mind, and personality (and he really does not have to, but he does... that warrants immediate respect).  Putting out the best cookbook of all time (well, for sure the best of last year) was not enough.  Grant created an online forum where he and his remarkable team answer questions and interact with readers.  As if that weren't enough, he started to Twitter... in effect opening more of himself up to both admirers and critics.  A more formal example of his thought processes come out in his regular musings for The Atlantic.  You can keep up with his releases here in the Back of the House section.

Daniel Patterson is as prolific as a chef can hope to be.  He is a veritable wordsmith.  Whether fully agreeing with his opinions or not, they are well worth reading (i. e. his thoughts on Alice Waters whose popularity and position of reverence escapes me... honestly, my childhood eating was more influenced by Muddy Waters than Alice Waters).  He writes for real publications, and links the articles to the Coi website here.

I was going to end it there, but how can I leave out Alex and Aki's well drafted informative writings for Popular Science.  Once again, treading new waters... damn there I go on Waters again.

food party

"Hello friends and lovers."

I may be slightly behind on this, but I had an email from John McCartney at Attention USA a week ago with a tip off for this new television show on IFC.  I banked the email for a couple of days before opening it, but was surprised (and confused) by what I saw afterwards.  When searching for a photo for this post, I was even more surprised to see 'Food Party' covered in the most recent NY Times and also right here in the Gothamist.  Is this thing about to snowball or what?

After watching some short clips here (or just get a glimpse at sample video, Green Screen Cookies), I felt strangely compelled to see more... so I searched You Tube for these show segments.  As suggested by the 'Food Party' name, the show is centered on food... food with puppets and strange B-movie effects and weird characters.  Just start watching to see what I am talking about.  It is the brainchild of Thu Tran (who is apparently 27 despite looking like 12), and now I'm convinced that her parents must have had access to some really good Vietnamese crack back in the day.  For every short section of the show that seems to rest on normalcy, the vibe is shattered by quick doses of... well, I really can't come with other words for strange.  I could just type out 'strange' about a hundred and one or fifty-six or seven thousand times and the strangeness would not be fully expressed to the fullest amount of strangeness I am trying to type out right now for expressing the strangeness of the show.

Either way... I find myself addicted to seeing every second of Food Party footage, and I am seriously bummed that my cable package does not include IFC.  If all this confuses you, then just watch a little.  It will all make sense.

reference

Although the resemblance is striking, these are not urine samples... although they could eventually become so indirectly.

 

Chef K and I tasted a variety of Scotch whisky(s) to line out an upcoming Scotch dinner (scheduled for 25 June).  These 5 are our current selection and we poured some out for aroma and taste reference to accompany our notes (actually Chef K's notes... he does a much better job of documenting things although this blog may mislead you into believing that I'm sort of organized or something).  The 5 pictured here from top to bottom are...

• Laphroaig 7 year
• Glenlivet 21 year
• Tullibardine 1993
• Strathisla 1993
• Atholl Scotch liqueur

The color differences are pretty amazing when you view them this way.  Menu to come out soon (hopefully) if we don't procrastinate too much.

what if...

What if I wasn't a chef... would I still be a foodie?

I've asked myself that recently for some reason.  The sad yet truthful answer would probably have to be 'no.'  Here are my reasons for it.

• Chefs have access to great food, ingredients, and sometimes make connections to enjoy eating at nice places without the nice food price (and this is not a frequent occurrence).  I probably could not afford such an appetite if these things weren't freely accessible to me.
• I was an extremely picky and close-minded eater as a child.  My mom will testify to it.  Although we lived in an area with unique food culture, I was open only to those foods around us just as most of my family there remains today (my mom is horrified by cilantro).  I could scoop the fat out of a crawfish head and eat it along with the poop line from the tail, but you probably couldn't get me to look at a quiche or something else so widely accepted on the national dinner table.  I nearly gagged the first time I tried sushi (in my twenties).  Things have really changed... from repulsion to addiction.
• I have an incredible energy for streamlining my focus.  If it wasn't 24 hours a day of food thought, it would be something else and food would be thrown to the way side.  Maybe I'd still be trying to play guitar in a rock band and eating marshmallows and Cheerios for lunch.  I'm sure I'd be McLovin it as well.
• I probably would have married a girl from my hometown to insure that I would never have to eat 'strange foods' instead of marrying someone from the opposite side of the Earth.  Yes, food has guided many of my past relationships.
• Like most American red blooded youth, I went through a fast food phase during high school and beyond when my mom started working (Patio burritos from the freezer to the microwave were my daily nutrition).  Working in kitchens soon afterwards opened my eyes to a new world of food, plus it taught me how to cook.
• I did enter the culinary field by accident.  I needed to earn money while trying to be a rock star and the kitchen seemed a little more appealling than my previous job of cutting grass (especially cutting grass for people with dogs that don't clean up after them... ever hit a pile of dog doo on a hot Louisiana summer day with a high speed lawnmower blade... not a good smell).  The enticing aroma of an Italian restaurant kitchen seemed much less nauseating to my stomach.

I'm sure there are more reasons.  Not sure if it's worth taking the time to ponder.  Thank God I'm a chef.  Who knows how drab life would be without a culinary career or what other path I could have accidentally gone down... maybe an animal surgeon?

Was chefness your first goal?