Share Our Strength

               Those of you that have been on the front lines, helping to feed the hungry at your neighborhood food bank or in one of the many soup kitchens located around the country, know the initials SOS.  For over twenty years, the organization Share Our Strength (SOS for short) has been a leading proponent of getting the word out to the masses that there is a real need for everyone to reach out and help.  In many cases, it is the neighbor down the street that is struggling and just needs a little boost each week to see them through.  One out of every five families in America right now struggles to put food on the table at least once a week.

                Other than watching your children grow, I don’t know of a greater feeling that brings as much joy to the heart and satisfaction to the spirit than volunteering for a cause dear to your soul.  To give something of yourself without thought of recompense is the single greatest achievement mankind can do for one another.     

                As we enter the fall season, thoughts turn to the holidays and all the stresses that accompany this time of year.  I urge each and every one of you to plan one day this season to help out wherever you can, to give something back to the community. I guarantee you will feel rejuvenated and you will give thanks for what you have in your life.  This is the best holiday elixir available to alleviate the stresses and impatience of others during the holidays and beyond. 

                We are holding a benefit dinner here at the Mileta Creek Restaurant on Sunday, November 4th for the Vashon Maury Community Food Bank.  Andrew Oldham, chef at The Hardware Store Restaurant, and I have designed a four course wine dinner with a "locovore" menu featuring donations from island purveyors, gardeners, and foodies. 

                 A $40.00 suggested donation is appreciated.  100% of the proceeds collected will go to the Food Bank, where their buying power will afford them the opportunity to buy in bulk some much needed food products for island residents.

                I wish all a happy holiday season and one that offers you the opportunity to look to your neighbor and know we all live on this island because it is a place very special and rare.   

Chris 

Fourth of July Celebration

It's well known around these parts that summer really doesn't start until mid July, and even then you're taking a chance planning anything outside.  Days leading up to the 4th of July I kept my eye on the weather and my speed dial ready to call my vendors hoping to score on some great products to celebrate the Fourth.
As soon as the sun made an extended appearance we were out firing up the grill and cooking al fresco.
We brought in wild Alaskan salmon, grilled some corn and chilled bottles of Sauvignon Blanc.  Somehow, food just tastes better when simply prepared and shared with friends on the patio under shade umbrellas.
The Stray Dogs, a bluegrass band made up of a few islanders and all long time friends played as the sun moved behind the Olympics.  Night began to settle in and people spread out blankets and children ran the fairways waiting for the show.

 Cooking on the grill.

 One of the night's entree options: grilled salmon with corn on the cob, 

potato salad, and caesar salad. 

 Members of  The Stray Dog Bluegrass Band perform. 

 Diners enjoying good food and good conversation on the patio.

Artichoke and Lobster Spring Roll

Serves 4

Spring Rolls

3/4C fresh goat cheese, without a rind

1/3 C mashed potatoes

1/4C Parmesan cheese, grated

1 C cooked lobster meat, small dice

1/2C coarsely chopped cooked baby artichokes

1/2 tsp chopped fresh basil

pinch of salt and pepper

2 tsp cornstarch

1 egg white

8 spring roll wrappers

In a large bowl combine all the spring roll ingredients and blend well.  In another small bowl, combine the egg white and cornstarch and whisk until well blended.

Divide the filling between the 8 spring roll wrappers and roll to form a cylinder.

Brush the sides and tip as you roll and place the finished rolls, seam side down on a baking sheet.  Cover with a towel and finish the remaining rolls

Bring 3 C of vegetable oil to 360 degrees in a large deep pot and gently fry off the rolls, a few at a tie to avoid overcrowding the pot.  As they turn brown and become crispy, remove them to another baking sheet and keep them warm in a 250 degree oven as you finish the remaining rolls.

Serve with mustard vinaigrette, a spicy Thai flavored dipping sauce or a sweet and sour dipping sauce

Asparagus with Eggs and Pecorino Romano

*1 to 1 ½ lbs medium asparagus, trimmed and peeled

salt and black pepper to taste

*6 T unsalted butter

*4 large farmstead eggs, washed and at room temperature

*12 to 16 paper thin slices of Pecorino Romano

Poach or steam the asparagus until it is bright green and tender

Remove and divide among 4 warm plates in a single layer, tips pointed in the same direction

Meanwhile heat the butter in a large non stick pan over moderate heat and let it brown a little

Crack each egg into the pan and season with salt and pepper and adjust the heat to cook the whites firm and the yolks are just set

Gently place one egg on top of each plate of asparagus and drizzle the browned butter over and around the eggs and asparagus

Place the thin slices of cheese on top of the eggs and asparagus and serve immediately

Tips

Peel the asparagus from just below the tip all the way to the end of the spear with a vegetable peeler

Use the same vegetable peeler to shave nice thin slices off a hunk of Pecorino Romano.

You can substitute Parmesan

Flourishes

Drizzle a little white truffle oil over all. In this case back off the butter by 2 tablespoons

Cooking Can Be Fun

Since we have introduced the monthly Five Course Wine Maker Dinners, it gives me a chance to flex my culinary muscles and make some food that is fun, interesting and technique driven. After thirty years of cooking I have a large recipe database from which to draw. Perusing my recipes notebooks brings back great memories and most of the time I can remember exactly how that particular recipe tasted, smelled and looked, even though I haven’t made it some time. Granted, my memory fades a bit more each year that passes, but there are times when it all comes flooding back. I remember what the chef told me, showed me and how to execute it the same way each time it was ordered.

I remember these recipes because of the chef and the kitchen environment. Some chef’s taught by intimidation and their philosophy was “My way or the highway”. You were allowed to mess up once or twice. After that you were usually let go to make room for someone that “really had the dedication” to learn. Other chef’s taught you the recipe by actually showing you and letting you make mistakes. Of course these mistakes never made it to the customer and you rushed to do the order over again, but there is something to be said about getting it right the first time. And after you have “perfected” the recipe and made it about a hundred times; and just when you begin to feel that, yes, I am actually a cook, the chef up and changes the menu! How dare they. Now I have to learn a bunch of new recipes and new techniques. So the cycle continues, mostly going unnoticed, until years later you find you have collected a number of great recipes, and more importantly, you have the technique and the confidence to begin to try original recipes thought up by the years of experience.

This is when cooking really becomes fun. You begin to think of classic recipes and “tweak” them to show your culinary influences, style and philosophy. It usually takes a number of adaptations before you have something that you are proud of, is cost effective and can be pulled off by inexperienced cooks.

Now the hard part begins. How am I going to teach the new generation of culinarians. Am I going to be that hardass chef that teaches by fear and intimidation or one who guides and has the patience and confidence to let mistakes happen. The latter is much more difficult to pull off, because it tests both the student and the teacher. It takes more time, energy and the costs in both ingredients and wages is much higher. But in the long run you end up with a cook that begins to trust their confidence level, their dedication to this practice and they begin to see what working in a real kitchen is all about.

My culinary hero is Eric Ripert, chef and owner of Le Bernardin in New York City. His career path has lead him to work in some of the finest and most respected restaurants of our generation. Now the culinary leader at what most critics say is the finest seafood driven restaurant in the world, Chef Ripert is the type of chef I want to most emulate. I urge you to visit his on line cooking show “Avec Eric”. Watch his technique with eyes wide open. Don’t think "I could never do that”. Instead, say to yourself, “I want to make that”, and know the first couple of times it won’t be the same. In time, with patience, dedication and a few tears, you will have something that is pretty close. And in life, that is all we should expect.

First Corner

A new dawn is beginning to break for me and I am trying to embrace all the different facets that it will entail. After spending the better part of thirty years in kitchens, somewhat sheltered from the everyday world, strapped to a work station with a mountain of prep work ahead of me, time constantly ticking away, stress eating small holes into my stomach and annealing my emotions against anything a chef could throw at me; finally I am becoming aware that there are indeed other ways in which to impart your knowledge, other than banging someone over the head with it.

I am trying to have a more open and honest relationship with myself and not be so set in the old, tried and true ways. We are a decade into the twenty first century and I am still very resistant to most computer related work. If I can read my e-mails and send my response back to the sender without either erasing the message or shutting down the program for some stupid f____reason,then I am happy. This stems from not understanding all the social media frenzy that a lot people can’t live without. I have a cell phone but have a hard time making a call because I can’t figure out how to turn the damn thing on. And I constantly ask my fifteen year old daughter how to navigate the Web or bring something up on Google.

As the Operations Manager for the Vashon Golf & Swim Club I should have a cellphone, I should be able to send out e-mail blasts with attachments and I should be a little more fluent on Excel, but I am not. Now I am being asked to write a blog. Again I had to ask my daughter what a blog was or its purpose. I still don’t understand the relevancy of this but I am trying to see beyond the “tried and true’ and get out of my comfort zone. So here goes and bear with me if you dare.

When I started cooking in the early seventies, the industry was still personified by Chef Boyardee and Julia Child. It was an industry that was not well respected, understood or even deemed worthy of formal training. At least here in the States. Of course overseas, cooking is a lifestyle for most people and an integral part of their day. People start their culinary apprenticeships at fourteen and spend years working through the kitchen hierarchy, literally getting their butts kicked. Finally after years of training they strike out and began to run kitchens of their own. Bringing all their culinary training and vision, they also brought along the old world teaching methods and all the heartache and disfunctionality inherent with these methods. I was immersed in this and through osmosis I too propagated this practice and thought it the only way to impart knowledge. It is militaristic in its very nature. To break someone down and rebuild them into what you need and demand, through intimidation, peer pressure and the constant challenge of perfection. Don’t get me wrong. There are a lot of very fine restaurants that operate under this management style and I am proud of the chefs I had a chance to work with/under. But…..

My first inkling to another way of management style came some seventeen years ago when I had the opportunity to return to the Napa Valley and cook at one of the finest restaurants I would ever know. I got an invitation to interview for a position and because the chef had a world class pedigree I re-read Escoffier’s le Guide Culinaire, went through all my notes from cooking school and sharpened my knives, for what I thought was going to be the stagé of my life. A stagé is the opportunity to work in a kitchen to show your culinary skills, to see if you gel with the rest of the crew and if you have the work ethics of a world class kitchen. I drove six hours just to get to the interview on time, had my whites on, wife kissed me for good luck and I headed into the restaurant. The chef met me, resume in hand and we started to talk. He tossed aside my resume and asked one question. Just one!

“Do you have a good attitude?” was all he asked of me. I didn’t understand the question.

“A good attitude”? “I guess so” I said, not sure if I was answering correctly or honestly. This was the first time a chef was concerned about my attitude.

“No guess so, either you think you have a good attitude or you don’t” he stated calmly.

“Yes, if you mean will I work hard, get along with the crew and not complain, then yes I have a good attitude” I said very proudly.

“Good” he said, pushing back his chair, indicating the interview was over. “You start in two weeks”

I stood there, mouth open, wondering what the hell had just taken place.

“Don’t you want me to stagé tonight”? I asked sheepishly. He turned, walked back and shook my hand. “I can teach a monkey how to cook food, what I cannot teach is attitude. See you in two weeks”.

Of course, the rest is history as they say. It was the thrill of a lifetime and placed me back on the path to where I am today. But somewhere along the way I lost that philosophy, the understanding the it takes a team of individuals to make a restaurant successful. A team that respects one another, that likes coming to work,not because they are paid well or they get great benefits. They come together because not to would be letting the team down.

When I took this position I came in guns blazing, full of energy and high hopes and I admit, a lot of EGO and a lot of old baggage. Last Friday we had a meltdown of sorts between a few restaurant staff, harsh words were thrown around and people walked out in disgust with how I was trying to change the direction and focus. They were mad because I was not acknowledging the hard work, commitment and good attitude they’d shown. All I was focused on was what they were not doing. The old axiom of “My way or the highway”. Hard to teach an old dog new tricks.

I work with a staff that is very green and untested. They tend to be a little unfocused and at times get themselves into a frenzied state. But the nine of them are the foundation of the restaurant, the core from which we will begin to rebuild the reputation and attract new diners. I have had the opportunity to work with some of the best chefs and crews throughout my career but I wouldn’t trade anyone here. Why, because they have a great, can do attitude and they believe in something greater than themselves.

My first success.