05.05.08
Posted in 3. Recipes, 7. Other Fun at 9:15 am by Chef Matt
Cold, lime-flavored, salt-rimmed glass… as God intended. |
There is nothing that says “Today is Cinco de Mayo,” to me as much as a nice, ice cold margarita. I prefer them on the rocks - to put that debate to bed early - though I will have one frozen too if that is all that is available. But as for flavor, I am all about the traditional lime. I mean really, what else is supposed to go with tequila but lime?
But until recently, a great margarita was something that was only available for me at Mexican restaurants and upscale bars. And even those were frequently disappointing. I’ve tried to make margaritas myself for several years now, and the road has been one fraught with many terrible attempts and nights that (thankfully) I’ll never remember. But with 9 years of persistence and a blending of so many recipes and techniques that I’ve come across, I have finally created what I consider to be the perfect margarita. So great, that I would even dare to call it a “Matt-arita”.
The first margarita I made was two parts tequila, one part triple sec, one part Rose’s sweetened lime juice and ice put into a cuisinart (I didn’t have a blender then…) blended into a bitter, nasty slush of thick chunks of ice with untempered tequila. It was about the worst thing I had ever created drink-wise, and this is coming from someone who has mixed Rumplemintz with Mr. Pibb…
But I was not defeated. I was determined to make my own perfect margarita. So much so that I bought my own giant vat of margarita salt and a set of decorative margarita glasses from a wine festival. Buying items like this when you have no ability to make a decent margarita is optimism in the highest form. Or perhaps it was motivation…
One thing I noticed as I was questing to see how others made margaritas was how other countries seem to use lemons instead of limes with tequila. In Australia - where I did a lot of drinking - it was impossible to purchase a shot of tequila with anything but a lemon wedge. But if you got a margarita, it was made with lime-flavored mix. There is not a large Mexican population in Australia, so we can forgive their lack of understanding on this point. Another country lacking in Mexican immigrants is Ukraine. I was there with a friend, and he said that we just HAD to try this “Mexican” restaurant there. The building was even topped with a glass “dome” shaped like a sombrero. The food was an interesting take on Mexican cuisine, so I had to see their take on a margarita as well. I went to the bar and ordered one, and was sure to watch him make it. Crushed ice, tequila, Cointreau, and the straight juice of a lemon.
Me (left) and my friend Shane in the Kiev Mexican restaurant. I am holding the worst margarita in the world, and I’m not smiling. I’m cringing. |
“Oh dear,” I thought to myself as I watched it being made.
“Oh dear GOD!” I said aloud after tasting it.
My earlier attempts at margarita making seemed delicious and professional compared to this foul slush I was trying to swallow. This was the worst margarita in creation. It also taught me a valuable lesson in approaching a margarita: lemon is not a bad flavor with tequila, but limes are vital.
I will save you all from the millions of iterations of margaritas that I went through before arriving at the perfect recipe, but it was the lack of lime flavor that was always killing me. Most of the recipes I encountered had just Rose’s sweetened lime juice in there for all the lime flavor, and this was just not cutting it. Sure, the Rose’s was important for the sugar to help cut the sharpness of the tequila, but it was definitely a background player.
It wasn’t until I added the juice of a lemon to my margarita that I noticed a boost in flavors that really took me in the right direction. And I decided to really boost it up by zesting the lemon as well as adding the lemon juice. One sip, and I knew I was on the right track. It was all a question of balancing flavors from this point on, and of course, it was the lime flavoring that won out in the end.
So without forcing you to wait any longer, here is the recipe for what I consider to be the perfect margarita. Please give one a try. They’re involved and take a little while to make - as do most of my recipes - but I promise you the results are well worth the effort. I make one, thinking that’s all I want, and I usually end up making 2 or 3 more. Yes, they’re that good.
A perfect Matt-arita. In one of my special margarita glasses, rimmed with my optimistic margarita salt. |
Matt’s Perfect Margarita - a.k.a. the “Matt-arita”
(makes one margarita)
one lemon
one lime
1.5 shots Rose’s Sweetened
Lime Juice
1 shot Triple Sec
2 shots Tequila
(I prefer silver tequila for a
margarita)
ice cubes
Cocktail shaker
two bowls
fine mesh strainer
margarita glass rimmed with
salt
- Zest the lime (only the lime - I have tried it with the lemon too, not as good…) into one bowl.
- Juice the lemon and the lime into the bowl. It’s okay to get seeds and pulp in there, they will be strained out later.
- Add the Rose’s, Triple Sec and tequila to the bowl.
- Give the mixture a stir, and let the mixture steep in the fridge for at least 10 minutes, up to an hour (as if you could wait that long…)
- Strain the mixture through the fine mesh strainer into the other bowl (press the solids to get all the flavor out.)
- Pour into shaker, add four or five ice cubes.
- Shake thoroughly and pour (use shaker’s strainer to keep ice out) into margarita glass.
I’m sure you will be pleasantly surprised with the results - especially with summer’s heat approaching. I can only hope that this recipe goes global - it would be nice to see something like this in other countries some day as well…
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04.23.08
Posted in 5. Rants and Raves at 11:48 pm by Chef Matt
It seems that the consistent need for a “bad guy” in American public has extended itself to the world of food. Just like we need a “Public Enemy #1″ to be scared of when we walk down the streets, we need a “health enemy #1″ to avoid like the plague (pun not intended) to check for on labels.
“I’ve come for you… and I’ve brought Crisco!” |
And of course, our enemy du jour is: trans fat! (Dramatic chord.)
Yes, this is the root of all evil in food. If you eat any trans fat, you will surely die a quick, yet horrible death. So check those labels for trans fat people. If there are none in there, then it is good for you!
What a load of crap. I mean, doesn’t it seem like just yesterday that avoiding carbs was the ultimate solution to preventing a miserable death by tastiness? And before that, all we had to check for on labels was the cholesterol content. Before that, it was just the calorie level that caused the most concern. (”Just for the taste of it… One Calorie!… Diet Coke! ” Never mind what aspartame does to you…)
There are two things wrong with this kind of thinking when it comes to nutrition.
How odd that their circle seems to “cross out” both “saturated fat” and “cholesterol”…. |
First, as I alluded to earlier, this approach puts blinders on us when we look at nutrition labels. I was taste-testing a pack of Gorton’s Shrimp Temptations (final verdict - pretty good, but not worth $9/box…) and the box said that I could “indulge myself all I wanted” since there were no trans fats! Indeed, take a look at the nutrition label to the right. This is how they present it on their website, and the nutrition label does indeed back up this claim - the trans fat count per serving is indeed 0g. But the overall fat count in a serving is 12 grams, and let’s not neglect the 670mg of sodium. If you were to eat this entire box - which is not an unreasonable meal size - that would be 81% of you total daily sodium intake!
Yes, they were yummy, but I would hardly say it was safe to “indulge all I wanted”. But if I was only paying attention to the trans fat though, I just might have believed that.
The other problem with this narrow-focused thinking with respect to healthy eating is that it does not recognize that nutrition science is a very new science. We are still a long way from knowing everything there is to know. So much so that for quite a long time there, the recommended replacement for butter to keep cholesterol down was margarine. For those who don’t know, margarine contains trans fat. To put it more accurately, margarine IS trans fat. A big stick of it. This is what doctors were suggesting their patients with heart problems eat to reduce their cholesterol intake.
Almost as good an idea as those cigarettes that had asbestos filters, huh?…
The flip side of this is also that there usually seems to be one “magic bullet” cure-all good-for-you food that you should be getting as much of as possible. Right now, that seems to be whole grains. Which are indeed good for you, and you should get as much of them as you can. But let’s not forget when green leafy vegetables were the best thing going. Or anti-oxidants. Or tofu and bean sprouts…
The trick to healthy eating of course is to have as much of these beneficial foods as possible, and limit that which we know is bad for us. Oh yeah, and get up, get outside and stop reading this drivel while you’re at it too!
But before you go, allow me to share with you my guess for the next “bad guy” in the dietary world. I think it is going to be “refined sugars”. There is already some rumblings in this court, and I don’t think the “anti-carb faction” has been totally silenced - they are licking their wounds (which probably taste like bacon) and refining their message. Also, riding the wave of how whole grains are “good carbs”, the “bad carb” will soon have to come into some sort of prominence.
Makes my teeth hurt to look at this. |
So yes, “raw” sugar (or will they call it “whole cane”?) may become the next “good” thing for you as the flip side of this coin when refined sugars are burned at the stake. Please don’t fall for it.
A Snickers bar by any other name would taste just as sweet. And will make you fat.
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04.21.08
Posted in 1. The Story at 2:44 pm by Chef Matt
The fun thing about being a professional chef is the ability to work with ingredients that are not only hard to find, but in many cases are ones I have never heard of. It’s the collaboration with those who are more experienced than me that make my career into a daily learning experience. Sure, I can’t wait for the day to come when I’m the one with all the answers and experience, but in the meantime, I’m of course enjoying the chance to learn everything I can so I’ll be ready.
Pretty soon, every garden in Northern Virginia will look like this… |
Springtime is upon us here in DC, and with the return of greenery on the trees and flowers on the azaleas comes a resurgence of fresh vegetables that are once again available. Even in this modern age we are subject to some degree of seasonality with respect to what ingredients we have to surrender in the winter months.
As I squeezed into our management office (read: closet) to begin my daily paperwork a few days back, chef stopped me and told me the latest ingredient he wanted me to hunt down.
“I want some stinging nettles, Matt,” he said.
Since he had not prefaced this as I did for you that this was an ingredient request, this sentence at first seemed a tad odd to me. The somewhat blank look on my face probably conveyed this. But his follow-up statement didn’t help much either.
“I want to make spaetzle.”
The only thought in my mind was, “Well, OK, then go make some…” but I opted for the less recalcitrant position. “Sure chef, I’ll see what I can track down.”
So much more than just a garden nuisance. But really, who’s the first guy who tried to eat this thing?… |
A few weeks later (when they became available) I had a bag of stinging nettles in house. The bag was full of serrated dark green leaves and everywhere I looked on the plants, there were tiny needles pointing right back at me. All of them standing strictly at attention in a pose that was screaming, “lawsuit!” in my ears. Still, I had been able to order these through a food purveyor, so I was guessing they were edible, but they sure didn’t look it.
When chef and Andrew arrived later that day, I showed them the bag - thinking that I was going to be laughed at for ordering something so obviously inedible. Instead they got right to work, taking the leaves off the stems (while wearing gloves of course) and then blanching them in boiling water to make them tender - including the pointy barbs.
“Here, give this a try,” Andrew offered me as he held out what could have easily been a piece of cooked spinach. It was nothing short of delicious. Andrew then went on to explain a lot of the different uses for them which was all really quite fascinating. But true to chef’s word, we worked them into a batch of spaetzle that night which was served with a pork chop special. Even with the description of a “stinging nettle spaetzle” accompanying the chops, this dish sold out in almost no time flat.
It’s funny how something so simple can turn into a really interesting learning experience. And I think I learned quite a bit. For example, I learned:
- Stinging nettles (Urtica dioica) are not only delicious, but they can be used in a bunch of ways and are quite nutritious as well.
- Just because something both looks and sounds dangerous, doesn’t mean it is inedible (but that is still the way to bet…)
- Trusting in the experience of others can lead to some amazing discoveries in the world of food.
- Customers are willing to be more adventurous than you may expect when ordering a special off the menu.
and finally:
- “Stinging Nettle Spaetzle” is an awesome band name.
Chef Matt
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04.15.08
Posted in 7. Other Fun at 11:00 pm by Chef Matt
So many of you have been asking, and I’m happy to finally reveal the gift my wife received from me with the “found” $500.
You all voted. I then tallied the votes. And I was too stupid to rig the results. |
First of all, my wife would like to thank all of you, the random readers of this blog who were kind enough to vote for her in the run-off vote which she won handily. (I, of course, am pissed at you all for not voting for me to get a new set of knives…)
What do get my wife wasn’t actually all that hard for me to decide. My wife is a huge fan of jewelry. I knew it would have to be something “sparkley.” However, there was only one catch: while I do know how to cook, I’m not renowned for my taste in jewelry. So as much as I wanted this to be a surprise, I figured why not let her get something she really liked.
After visiting several stores while jewelry shopping with my wife (I didn’t know I would be paying like this as well…) she finally headed off on her own (I had to work) to the Torpedo Factory - a collection of studios of local artisans - and bought herself this fabulous necklace and pendant:
Lovely necklace on my lovely wife. |
The stone is blue topaz and the chain of white gold has a few small diamonds in it as well. The total cost? $500 on the nose.
So this story comes to a close. Again, my wife thanks you all heartily for voting for her.
And I would just like to say: You all owe me a new set of knives.
Chef Matt
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04.08.08
Posted in 1. The Story, 4. Teaching Classes at 10:13 am by Chef Matt
As I mentioned a few weeks back when describing my vinegar class to you all, the class was such a success, that we decided to re-run it. Well, time keeps marching on and yesterday was the day when the “re-run” became simply “the run”. And yes, the class went just fine. (Something about having done a class before just makes the whole process easier to handle…)
My proposed guest speaker for the class… |
In addition to this, I have my next class topic already set-up. It’s going to be on how to cook with different types of salt. LifeStyle has an amazing selection of salts, and I have wanted to run a class covering different ways to use them for some time now. So while poking around with ideas and recipes, here is the tentative menu I’ve come up with for that upcoming class:
- Focaccia with caramelized onions, sage and salt
- Spicy salt squid
- Cauliflower and potato frittata with truffle salt
- Farfalle pasta with asparagus, hazelnut and mascarpone with smoked salt
- Salt-rubbed pork loin with apricots
- Fresh strawberries covered with a salted dark chocolate ganache
What do you all think? Comments are welcome! Personally, I’m happy with the balance of foods and I think that everyone will learn there is a lot more to salt than just seasoning your food at the dinner table. That class is in two weeks, so now all I have to do is come up with recipes for all these dishes!
Which reminds me of something. In case you all haven’t seen it in the “Main Menu” to the right, I’m now offering my cooking teaching services to the general public. I’ve really enjoyed coming back into the world of culinary instruction, and so I would love the chance to share it with you.
So if you are looking for your own personal class, drop me a line, and let’s see what we can cook up together. But if not, I hope you can make it to Bedford, PA for my class on salt in two weeks. See you all there!
Chef Matt
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04.05.08
Posted in 1. The Story, 6. Reviews at 8:48 pm by Chef Matt
I know that the main reason that most of you read this blog is for the food-related content and how the story of my career into the culinary world is continuing to evolve day by day. And I promise that eventually this post will get to that interesting stuff. In fact, if you want to skip this main story, feel free to use this handy jump link to skip straight to the food stuff.
How can you not trust a face like that? |
As I have mentioned several times before here and there in this blog, my guilty TV pleasure is watching The Maury Show. Like a train wreck in Darwin’s wading pool, I just can’t take my eyes off of watching that moment when a man learns that he is now going to have to spend the next 18 years of his life raising a kid that until just a few seconds before he was denying. Or the corollary, watching a woman become humiliated since the man she was “one thousand percent sure” turned out not to be the father. It is the lowest of the low form of entertainment in our society, but for some reason I love it so.
For these past few days, I have been up in New York, taking in some sights, hanging out with friends, even attending an art show opening (where I rubbed shoulders – literally – with David Burns (sic - “Byrne” - sorry!) of the Talking Heads) and of course enjoying some great food. (No, this isn’t the part where we get to the food stuff. Be patient.)
But when I knew I was coming up to New York for these other reasons, I was quickly on the phone to the good people who offer tickets for Maury, and I reserved a pair of seats for my friend, Niki, and me. The line began at about 7:00AM, and Maury himself came by and said hi to us all before he was ushered off to make-up. We were led in groups upstairs past “security” which was just a metal detector and some people who patted my pockets. Then we sat in a holding pen for about 20 minutes where they treated us to watching – what else? – today’s episode of Maury, before being ushered into the studio itself.
A pantheon of lights screamed down upon the collective masses assembled for the taping. More lights than I thought existed in the entire country in fact. Perhaps like God’s flashlight pointing down at all of us as if to say, “Why are you watching this?” But it was not too long before we knew why. The crowd was getting more and more psyched as time went by, and soon the stage manager was out there teaching us how to react to different situations on the show.
The Maury audience entering the studio. |
“Let me hear you all react to hearing some really surprising news.”
“GASP!” we all replied.
“Now let me see what you think of some cheating boyfriend coming out onto the stage.”
“BOOO!!!” We all yelled while jumping to our feet.
“We are such sheep,” said Niki.
“Baa!” I replied.
Maury himself was really great. At no time did he seem uncomfortable with the masses who were gathered there to see him. He genuinely enjoyed these fans, and took the time to take photos with them and interact with everyone who wanted to say hi. I personally am not the type of person to bother a man at work, so I didn’t rush up there myself, but it was nice to see him be so happy with all those who did.
“You only watch good TV shows.”
“True.”
BEEP!
“That answer was…. false.” |
The show they taped was of the “Lie Detector Tests Revealed” variety, and while I’m not going to go into the details before it airs, let’s just say that it was pretty obvious to all of us in the audience that these guys were not being 100% truthful as soon as they opened their mouths.
And we dutifully let them know what we felt about them when they came onto the stage.
I’ll keep my eyes out on YouTube for any clips of this show, and especially if I’m in them so you can see me responding in all my “wind-up monkey” glory. I’m not proud, but damn if it wasn’t fun.
So now for the food. (Thanks for waiting for those of you who read all of this. For those of you who used the jump link, I’ll try to be brief since you obviously have very little time on your hands.)
I made sure to ask for some food recommendations before I headed up to New York, and I wrote down the names of the places that seemed best. I compared those to where I was staying, and I found that a nice French restaurant, Fleur de Sel was only about 10 blocks away from our hotel. So Niki and I headed out to a very nice dinner where she had frog’s legs and I enjoyed seared foie gras (almost as good as mine… ha ha) for a first course, and she had a fabulous veal breast and I a wonderful lamb rack for our second course. Washing it all down with a nice Cote du Rhone, the meal was nothing short of exquisite.
This is yuzu, and it is delicious! |
But dessert is where this restaurant really shined. I had a roasted baby pineapple half seasoned with some firey Szechuan peppercorns and accompanied with an ultra-sweet yuzu sorbet. Niki had a delectable carrot cake, and in an apology from them for making us wait so long for our main courses to come out (it wasn’t all that long…) they gave us a free chocolate cake dessert that came with the darkest chocolate ice cream I have ever had the pleasure of tasting. It is also apparently standard practice for them to offer some homemade truffles and other candies for dessert for all customers, so our table was absolutely covered with sugary delights for this final course of our meal.
But wait, there’s more… As we waddled out of the restaurant, happy with all the collective dessert euphoria we had found ourselves immersed in, the maitre d’ handed us a small cake wrapped in plastic as a sort of “consolation dessert” for the evening.
“Is this just in case I need more dessert on my walk home?” I asked. The maitre d’s smile was all that was needed for me to know that I wasn’t the first person to ask this question.
The other food highlight comes at the other end of the culinary spectrum. As many of you know, I am a huge fan of great dives – which is something New York has plenty of – and on this trip I had to try the Venezuelan treat of “arepas” that Niki had been telling me about ever since her last trip to the Big Apple. For our last lunch, we headed over to Caracas to sample these tiny sandwiches.
Small but delicious. This photo is from their website, so this really is what they look like. I highly recommend giving them a shot. |
Made fresh to order with a cornmeal exterior and awesome spiced meat interiors, these juicy handfuls are such a step ahead of any quick bite that McDonald’s has to offer. I can’t imagine how the McDonald’s around the street manages to stay in business in fact with such a better option available just a few steps away. But since that might have meant some compromise to the quality of my lunch, I was happy to have this place be a little more of a secret. Well, as much of a secret as it can be considering it recently expanded its business to the space next door to keep up with demand…
All in all, a great trip to New York. Great food, awesome museums, fabulous art show (and art show opening after party – a first for me) and of course, Maury. I had been needing some time away from the restaurant to recharge my batteries for some time now, and I think this trip was a great way to do it.
If only I now wasn’t so darn tired from all this recharging…
Chef Matt
P.S. Please don’t bother to point out how I rant against some TV being terrible, and then turn around and watch Maury. I’m already aware of the conflict there…
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03.25.08
Posted in 3. Recipes at 5:44 pm by Chef Matt
This is a recipe I just transcribed from my recipe file for a friend. It is from somewhere in New Orleans, but I don’t know where (if anyone does, I would love to credit it properly). Anyway, it is about the best soufflé I have ever had, so I wanted to share it with you all. No special reason, just a little something to share with you all.
Bread Pudding Soufflé
For the bread pudding:
10 cups stale French bread cubes
3 egg yolks
3 whole eggs
1 ¾ cups sugar
4 ½ Tbsp vanilla
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
½ cup butter, softened
4 cups milk
½ cup raisins, soaked in water
-Toast the bread crumbs in the oven, place in an ungreased 13X9 pan
-Beat the eggs and egg yolks together in separate bowl
-Add the sugar, vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg – stir to combine
-Add the butter, beat in
-Stir in the milk
-Sprinkle raisins over the bread crumbs, then pour the egg/milk mixture over all that.
-Bake at 350 for about 40 minutes until browned and puffed. Let cool – will sink some as it cools.
For the Soufflé:
½ cup sugar
6 egg yolks
2 ½ cups bread pudding (not all of it, you will have some left over to enjoy)
6 egg whites
½ cup confectioner’s sugar
-Over a double-boiler, mix/warm sugar and egg yolks GENTLY so as to combine thoroughly, but DON’T cook the egg yolks.
-If you have not scrambled your eggs, add the bread pudding and stir to combine, again, being gentle with the heat, but combining thoroughly.
-In a separate (copper if you have it) bowl, whip the egg whites and sugar together to stiff peaks.
-Fold in the bread pudding mixture and bake the soufflé for 35-40 minutes at 375.
For the Bourbon Sauce:
1 cup sugar
1 cup whipping cream
Dash cinnamon
1 Tbsp butter
1 ½ - 2 tsp cornstarch
1/2 cup water
1 Tbsp bourbon or rum
-In saucepan, combine sugar, cream, cinnamon and butter. Bring to boil
-Mix the cornstarch and water together in a separate bowl, then whip into boiling sauce. Sauce should thicken pretty quicky.
-Remove from heat, stir in booze and use while warm on top of the soufflé.
Nothing short of awesome! I hope you all enjoy, and if anyone makes it and wants to send me a photo, I’ll post it!
Chef Matt
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03.24.08
Posted in 1. The Story at 1:22 pm by Chef Matt
Last Monday, I filled in for a fellow sous chef, which actually was my paying in advance for a day he will be covering for me. (I guess the easy way of saying that is, “We switched days.”) This was the first Monday I have worked at Rustico since my very first week of working there. Back then, I was still learning where everything was located, so I didn’t really have a sense of what was going on. Now, 10 months into the job, I found the Monday experience to be a completely different one.
This is pretty much the only nudity my blog will have, so enjoy it while you can. |
What’s so different about Monday? Well, Monday is the one day that Rustico is not open for lunch. On a normal day, I find myself running trying to prep as much food as I can before we open at 11:30. But instead, on this day, I have all day with almost nobody in the kitchen to get in my way to prep everything for the restaurant.
It was peaceful, relaxed, quiet, and downright wonderful. On the one hand, I had nobody breathing down my neck with questions or commands as to what I had to do next. And even better than that, I didn’t have to take a break every 3 minutes to deal with another customer’s order. I was just cooking, plain and simple. It was the (perhaps misguided) hope of days like these that is why I took the plunge into this industry in the first place. I had almost forgotten how pleasurable it is to cook a recipe from start to finish without stress or interruption.
The problem is; this was wonderful Monday was the only one I have had a chance to work on, and the only one on which I will be able to work in the future. Here it is, another Monday, and I’m at home on a day off. Now don’t get me wrong; I love days off, I need days off. I’ve been putting in some seriously long days, so this chance to rest is something I have been looking forward to for quite a while.
But all the same, I now know how great it is to work on Mondays, and I’m stuck working on the other days.
I’ve taken a bite of the forbidden fruit.
And I want another taste…
Chef Matt
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03.10.08
Posted in 1. The Story, 2. Greatest Hits, 3. Recipes, 4. Teaching Classes at 11:28 am by Chef Matt
A fabulous film, and of course it doesn’t hurt that it’s about Italians… |
For those of you who don’t understand, “Big Night” is simply the best film ever made about what it is to be a chef. (Yes, even better than “Ratatouille”) Perhaps I am slightly biased in that it has to deal with Italian chefs, but regardless, it is still amazing. (Definitely better than “No Reservations”.) If you haven’t seen it yet, and have any interest in the culinary world, you must go rent it now. It is exactly what all chefs have to go through several times in their career.
To briefly explain for the poor souls out there who have not seen this film, it is about two brothers, one who is a fantastic chef who is unwilling to alter his cooking styles to match public tastes, and the other who wants to be a success with the public - even if it means making compromises on the food to sell people what they want. Simply put, it is about artistic integrity vs. selling out - from a culinary point of view.
At least I had been presented with the reality that this dichotomy existed before I was recently presented with it. I guess it helped me prepare for it on some level, but still it was amazing how it tore me in two directions so strongly.
Another cooking class up in Bedford, PA was coming up at LifeStyle and I knew exactly what I wanted to do. With the approach of spring, I wanted to teach a class on “Springtime in Tuscany”. It was going to feature lamb chops and grilled asparagus and a whole host of wonderful dishes prepared with the simple, straightforward style of Tuscan cooking. But the owners wrote back to me saying that while the class sounded great, they didn’t like how it used so few products from their store. Simply put, if they were going to pay me to teach a class in their store, I had to involve (read: “sell”) more of their merchandise.
So here it was, the integrity of my recipes and vision versus the need to follow the requests of those footing the bill. I was torn. On the one hand, it hurts to have a menu rejected like that. On the other hand, they had every right to make such a reasonable request of me since it is, after all, their store. I was not sure what I was going to do. Give up and tell them to find some trained monkey to hock their wares? Or maybe I should be more flexible in my menu seeing as how this is a great gig, and I don’t want to lose it just for the sake of my stubborn pride.
Cooking in the class with generous amounts of vinegar. As you can see, it makes me happy.
Photo by Ken Sepeda |
Suddenly it hit me. I have always been a big fan of their selection of olive oils and vinegars, so I decided to alter my menu just a little bit, and turn the class into a lesson on how to cook with different vinegars. My menu was changed only slightly in the long run (lamb chops and asparagus remained) but now the owners were very happy that I was showing the class how to use so many of their products. Compromise wins again!
The class was an enormous success as the food was awesome and my students loved it all. It was such a hit, we have decided to re-run the class again later next month. Here is the menu of dishes I presented (and the vinegars I used):
- Marinated Artichoke Hearts with Hazelnut Gastrique (white wine vinegar with cinnamon and nutmeg)
- Italian Bean and Tuna Salad with White Balsamic Vinegar (white balsamic vinegar obviously)
- Asparagus Vinaigrette (orange balsamic)
- Candied Cranberries (red wine vinegar) (These were placed on the asparagus vinaigrette)
- Lamb Chops Aceto (marinated in white wine vinegar with mint and lime, drizzled with fig balsamic after cooking)
- Strawberries in Balsamic (chocolate balsamic vinegar)
It all turned out fabulously, and every dish had at least one person decree as the best on the list, which to me is the sign of a successful class. (And to tell the truth, I was more than a bit worried about the first one since it was my most avant-garde attempt by a long shot.) But because it turned out so well, I will share the recipe with you here:
Artichokes with Hazelnut Gastrique
What may at first seem like an odd combination, this dish works well as an appetizer to surprise your friends and family with. The sweetness of the gastrique plays well with the tartness of the artichokes and the vinegar flavors blend in with the naturally good flavor pairing of hazelnut and artichokes.
- 2 Tbsp water
- 2 Tbsp sugar
- ½ cup sherry
- ½ cup sherry or flavored wine vinegar
- ½ cup halved hazelnuts
- ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1 can marinated artichoke hearts - drained
- 1 loaf Italian bread - optional
- Combine water and sugar, and boil until sugar begins to take on an amber hue.
- Add sherry, reduce until almost all liquid has evaporated.
- Add vinegar, reduce by a little more than half
- Pour mixture over hazelnuts, stir to cool.
- Whisk in olive oil to form emulsion with liquid in bowl.
- Pour mixture over artichoke hearts, serve on thinly sliced bread if you like.
Chef Matt
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02.26.08
Posted in 1. The Story at 3:48 pm by Chef Matt
Coming in on Wednesday mornings is always tough since it is my version of a Monday morning. Last Wednesday though I was greeted to an unfamiliar sight, as there was a long table set up in the middle of the dining room complete with little aprons tied to each of the chairs - all with names on them. I stared at this odd site for a minute, trying to process this oddity through the haze of my early morning sleepiness, but soon gave up as I was sure someone would explain it to me soon enough.
I went about the rest of my normal morning set-up duties, dodging the questions from the rest of my line staff who all wanted to know what was up with the weird table set up in the middle of the restaurant. I just kept responding with, “I have no idea,” until they stopped asking me the same question over and over.
They’re coming… Be ready! |
Eventually the AM manager showed up and explained that a field trip of kindergarteners was coming to the restaurant at 10AM, and they would be done by 11 or so - hopefully giving us time to clean up before we began service. I looked at my watch, it was 9:30.
“So they’re coming in half an hour?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“Is there anything I need to do to set up?”
“I have no idea.”
Recognizing this tell-tale response of, “Stop bothering me,” I let the issue drop, which was just as well since as if on cue, Chef walked in at that exact moment.
“So we’re all set to have the kids come in?” he asked as he went back to the walk-in to check on things.
“Well, the table is set up, but this is really the first I am hearing of all this, Chef…”
“Oh no, I told you about it last weekend before you left.”
“I DID tell you about these kids coming, and you WILL clean out the latrine!” |
Allow me to break into this conversation right here and inform all the uninitiated that the conversation track that naturally follows, otherwise known as the “Did Not, Did Too,” is extremely unproductive form of argument to engage in with your chef. It makes about as much sense as correcting your drill sergeant. Keep that in mind as you hear my eloquent handling of this obvious miscommunication between us.
“No, you didn’t chef.” (I knew that was a mistake as soon as I said it, but it was a reflex, I couldn’t help it.)
The back and forth that followed was unproductive, and of course I lost, but that’s just how things go. Basically we realized this was wasting time we didn’t have, and we worked together quickly to set up the stations so all the kids could make little pizzas when they arrived.
Come, my young brethren! We must storm Rustico and liberate them from all of their pepperoni!
Who’s with me?!? |
And arrive they did. Like a day care tidal wave, the kids came pouring into the restaurant at a clip that would have successfully reclaimed the Holy Land had this been the Children’s Crusade. They attacked their pizza making project with gusto and enthusiasm that can only be described as a “mozzarella tornado”, and soon we were feeding their pizza-esque creations into our waiting oven.
My job was to stand by on the pizza station, and any kids’ pizzas that didn’t survive the baking process due to being overloaded or whatnot, I would quickly remake so as to make the kid think all was well. For the record, two of the pizzas didn’t make it out of the oven alive, but their makers didn’t seem to notice the difference…
And then, just as quickly as it came on, the storm was over. They disappeared into the suburbs of Virginia like a modern-day John Mosby. All that was left was a wind-swept table of cheese, flour and assorted pizza toppings for us to clean up before the first customers arrived. By the time we started serving lunch, it was as if the whole event had never happened.
All the same, I have to admit, the kids seemed to have a lot of fun. And who knows? Maybe somewhere in that group is the next youngster who wants to pursue a career as a chef based on this experience. Well maybe that’s what he wants to do for now, at least until they all take a trip to the fire house next week…
Chef Matt
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