Life on the Line #3

     We've all had those days at work where something goes wrong.  They all start the same way where something small happens and before you know it, you have this massive snowball that's formed and the time in between was so short that it all stands as a blur. 
     We were in the middle of lunch service.  The day was going well.  Everyone on the line was in good spirits, business had increased over the last month or so and having a little extra money in a restaurant is always a good thing, especially for the guys creating the menus.  It was around 12:30 when the dining room and patio were nearly full and we started to smell gas, not just the staff but the customers as well.  We started to look around the kitchen trying to figure out where this was coming from.
     It was really strange.  The smell was the strongest in the men's bathroom, in the employee bathroom in the kitchen and near the office.  It was getting stronger and to be honest, we were starting to worry a little.  We decided to close the doors to any additional business but finished serving the guests that were already seated.  There were too many people in the restaurant, we sure as hell didnt want to lose them.  Then water starts dripping through the roof in one place, then two, then five and then all hell breaks loose.
     Water starts coming down like a waterfall and then the fire alarm goes off.  When leading a kitchen, you have to show calm in front of your staff even when may be freaking out a little.  I immediately tell everyone to get out.  I make my way down the line to make sure everything is off, cover all of the food and make my way out to wait for the fire department.  When they get to the restaurant, it took a few minutes to find out that the water is coming from the spa above.  The main water pipe ruptured and of course, it drains all over our kitchen.  The reason for the smell of gas was that the hot water hit a gas line that created the smell and in turn, set off the alarm.  It took the other two sous chef's and I nearly seven hours to clean everything up.  We had to pull almost all of the equipment, clean up the water, take out the ceiling tiles that were destroyed and put it all back together.  To top it all off, the spa fought us every step of the way on having to reimburse us for business lost and damage to our equipment and product. 
    This is an example of the issues that can happen when owning a restaurant.  There are things that are worse than this but I'll save that for a different time.  Rolling with the punches is an important aspect of the job and over time, it becomes second nature.

Pork & Black Bean Chili, for the meat lovers

     I've made this chili for a little while and I've always tweaked the ingredients until I was able to reach the flavor profile that I wanted.  Today, I finally got to that point.  It takes about two hours from start to finish but most of that time is for simmering.  Very crucial if you want your chili to taste awesome. 

     It starts with a nice Andouille Sausage and Ground Beef.  I like to use the 80/20 ratio of beef to get that extra fat...delicious.  I start the pot on medium low heat and add a small amount of canola oil, about the size of a quarter.  I then add the beef and let it cook and firm up so that it stays in the ball form.  After the beef is almost finished, I then add the sausage and let that render.

      After the meat is almost fully cooked, I turn the heat up to medium-high to get a little color.  I like to deglaze the pan with a small amount of red wine to get those tasty bits off the bottom of the pan.  Now I add what you see below.  Onions, Garlic, Brown Sugar, Bell Peppers, Fresh Jalapenos, Diced Tomatoes with their juices, fully cooked Black Beans, Paprika, Ancho Chile Powder, Salt, Black Pepper, Oregano, Cumin, Cinnamon, and Cayenne Pepper. 

     Add some Beef Stock and bring the chili to a simmer and reduce the heat to medium low or until you reach a very slow simmer.  You want a few bubbles coming up but not too much.  When you see all of that steam coming out of the pan, that's flavor, we definitely want to get as much of that as possible.

      This is the end result after an hour of simmering.  DO NOT EAT RIGHT AWAY!!!!  Let it sit overnight, you'll be surprised how much the flavor develops.  Top with a little Sour Cream, Shredded Cheese of your choice and Cilantro.  Enjoy!!!

Life on the Line #2

     When first starting in a restaurant, especially a fine dining restaurant, the overwhelming sense of being in way over your head can, and more than likely will set in.  Some people will run their average day through their mind over and over to make sure that when they get back to work the next day, they would hope to be just a little more prepared.  Depending on the person, getting used to the hectic life of working in a restaurant will eventually happen.  For the most part, it becomes routine with the occasional curve balls thrown in the mix.
     The last restaurant that I worked at followed this path.  The day would start around 8 am and the very first thing that my fellow Sous Chef and I would do is brew some coffee.  With a sixteen hour day ahead of us, we needed some sort of jump start.  While drinking our coffee, we would take a look at the days reservations and the prep list that was left from the night before.  We were typically the guys that closed the night before which meant that we were the ones that wrote that prep list.  We are creatures of habit after all.
     Next, we would start putting the stations together and take a mental inventory of what items took priority on that prep list and start building up for the incoming lunch crowd.  It was always beneficial to keep in mind the dinner shift and plan your day out accordingly.  At the same time, we had to think of a special for the day.  Not only for the lunch service, but dinner as well.  It could be exciting coming up with specials but when your boss doesn't give you much of a budget to work with, it can turn into a troublesome, challenging task at times.  On top of prep, mental inventories, and coming up with specials, we also had to ensure that all of our orders came in the door correctly and at times, make a trip to the restaurant depot.  Then service starts.
     You scramble to get that last little bit of prep completed and in comes the first order of the day.  You do your best to pump yourself up and get this started and just as you get that first burger on the grill and your shallots in the pan for a pasta dish, the next order arrives.  Before you know it, within the first 30 minutes of service you're staring down at fifteen to twenty lunch tickets and then time starts to lose its meaning.  The next thing you know, the doors are closing to incoming guests and we need to hurry up and finish the last few checks so we can take a quick fifteen minute break outside and start it all over again for dinner. 
      Dinner service was always a little more difficult since your guests are coming out and spending good money for an experience.  Your typical lunch crowd just wants something good, fast, and easy.  Getting through a flawless dinner service can sound easy enough, even for the most experienced staff but you still have that sense of urgency that anything can happen so we have to be perfect no matter what.  Within a few hours, dinner service is over, we clean the kitchen, write the prep list, place the orders that we need for the next day, lock it up, go home and get about five-six hours of sleep and start it all over again.  Before you know it, you've fallen into that routine that was previously a concern and you begin to operate as if you've done this your whole life.
     Sounds a little crazy?  That's because it usually is.

Find Your Farmer

     In honor of food day, I want to ask everyone to make a concerted effort to find and utilize your local farmers and ranchers.  This is a movement that is similar to the going green movement where groups are trying to encourage the world to reduce, reuse, and recycle.  Going green will definitely cut down on the extremely high amount of resources that are used but so will buying local.
     We all know that gasoline prices are out of control and we've all heard about resourceful ways to decrease the use of gasoline but what I think that most people forget about is the gasoline that's used to transport and supply all of the food that we find in the stores.  Going local will not eliminate the usage of gasoline but it will decrease it considerably.  For example, my wife and I went to a wedding in Crested Butte, Coloardo a few months ago and while there, we decided to visit a local farmers market.  We bought local honey, goat cheese, and lemon cucumbers.  These items were not only cheap, they were delicious.
     What's also exciting is that you can typically purchase items from local suppliers, farmers markets, or artisan markets that you wouldn't readily find in the local grocery store.  How often do you see lemon cucumbers in the local grocery store?  On top of that, the items in the grocery store only wish to have the same flavor.  Take apples for example, when going to your local grocery store, these apples look great.  They're large and plump and they have this great shine to them.  Did you know that naturally, or organically grown apples generally are not supposed to be that big?  Did you also know that the shine of those apples is wax?  None of this will harm you but why eat something like that if you have the option of getting something local thats much more delicious. 
     While not all produce is locally available, there will be plenty of options to choose from.  Consider the season and try and make the effort to use something local and support the locals that work so hard to bring something delicious to your table.

Life on the Line

     It's been nearly a year since I've left the restaurant business and it didn't feel real until recently.  After fifteen years in the food & beverage business, I started to believe that my work life would only be defined by what I did everyday in those kitchens.  It controls almost every aspect of who you are and it starts to become difficult to have a life outside of it.  For some, this lifestyle works and they live and breathe restaurants, I just can't anymore. 
     While I absolutely love everything about the food & beverage business, enough to write this blog, I really needed a life instead.  I know that some of my chef friends that read this will criticize my decision but to each his own.  October 5th, 2010 is when I started to work for Whole Foods.  I was definitely anxious, nervous, and basically unsure when I started with this company on whether or not it was for me.  It was so ingrained in my head that if I call myself a chef, I would have to work in the nicest restaurants and build my reputation up so that I could one day open my own restaurant.  While I believe that I could definitely have a successful restaurant, I would never be happy with the lack of time that I could spend with my wife and future kids.
     Having the job I have now, and having the free time in my life that I have, it has inspired something inside of me to speak of my Life on the Line.  This will be a series of blog entries that will talk about the typical day that we would have and some of the fires that come up (not literally) that we have to be creative enough to put out.  It's a stressful, chaotic, intense, and addictive career choice if you find that it's in your blood.  To those that are contemplating this lifestyle, choose wisely.  While it can be a very rewarding side of the Food & Beverage business, it can also make you miss some important milestones in one's life.  Here we go.

National Coffee Day

     Today is September 29th, National Coffee Day.  It's a little known day where coffee lovers of the world can enjoy their unobserved "holiday".  There are numerous shops throughout the country that are giving away free coffee in observance of coffee day, what could be better than morning coffee, free coffee.  There are approximately 111 million coffee lovers worldwide and it's projected that nearly 440 billion cups of coffee are sold and consumed each year.  Those are amazing numbers.  This is exactly why coffee is one of the most profitable import/export businesses in the world.

     When researching National Coffee Day, there isn't much information out there about how or when it was started.  What we do know is that it was started within the last decade and more than likely by the large coffee retailers to help with marketing.  Regardless, I think it's about time.  There is a designated day for so many things out there, why not coffee.

     Get out there and have some coffee.  Try some of those weird, off-the-wall beverages that we hear about but never want to try.  One in particular is Kopi Luwak.  This is a coffee bean where an Asian Palm Civet eats the berries and passes it.  Then it's collected, cleaned, and roasted.  When brewed, this bean produces a cup of coffee with a much more mellow flavor than most.  As long as it's roasted properly, the bitterness should be significantly lower than what we're used to.  There appears to be one negative aspect to this coffee though.  Supposedly, it averages between $155-$160 per pound.  I'm TOTALLY trying this coffee!!

    

Simplicity

     This is a post that could go on forever.  There are so many unbelievable transformations that can happen with food using ingredients that are not often seen in a kitchen.  For instance, have you ever heard of a carbonated blackberry?  What about caramel salt, not salted caramel?  Ever had Brie that was blown-up and resembled sea foam or how about an Edible Photograph? 

     There are so many more amazing transformations that can take place that I wouldn't even know where to begin.  Molecular Gastronomy is the term that most people would apply to food preparations like this but for some chefs, such as Grant Achatz of Alinea, he would actually tell you that he hates this terminology.  While Chef Achatz needs to understand the science of his food, he doesn't like to call it "science".

     I've met so many people over the years that are on either side of the fence when it comes to cooking.  Classical French cuisine still intrigues people that are much younger than me, even though the new trend is to fuse cuisines together and/or manipulate the same product with chemicals to create impressive, edible showpieces.

     While I am interested in the food that chefs like Richard Blais, Wylie Dufresne, and Grant Achatz create, it's just something that I've never really tried to do.  No matter what style that I've tried over the years, I just can't seem to break away from what I like, simplicity.  After thinking over the menus that I've created in my career, they have always been straight forward and simple.  I never liked to add so much to a plate that it's hard to decipher what you're eating.  Here's an example.

     I was one of the Sous Chef's at the last restaurant that I worked at and we had to create a special tasting menu every Saturday night.  We tried to make something different every weekend and after a few months, it became increasingly difficult since the money we were given to spend was rather limited.  Because of this, we typically kept our menus light, yet interesting.  One particular menu went as follows:

Fried Oyster Martini

Stone Ground Mustard Cream Sauce, Jalapeno Aioli

Seared Scallops

Sweet Corn & Bacon Risotto, Chimichurri, Shaved Parmesan

Chocolate Lavender Pot de Creme

Grand Mariner Chantilly