Good news/Bad news

God news:  We are moving forward on the second location...I will keep you up to date on the progress.

Bad news:  My wife is going out of town for a wedding this weekend and we have a few large parties booked, including one where we may end up serving upwards of 80 people.  I miss her already...

Deux part deux

We finally went to look at the other possible location today. The location is good but the price is much higher than the last place. Now we need to make the appropriate adjustments to our financial predictions and estimates, re-crunch the numbers and see if it is a venture we want to make. We feel we do the numbers well and knowing we are making a well calculated and professional decision when it comes to such a risky proposition is, to say the least, very important to us...

Underwater

The outlook isn't too good for our fall crops this year. All the post storm news from the farms has been tainted with words like "flooded" and "lost crops" and even "canoe threw the fields". Somehow, through all the dismay, the farmers seem to ok with it all. Maybe not ok but at the least understanding. They understand that they can only provide what Mother Nature allows them and in the end it is up to her. I thought it took a special person to farm before, now I think special is hardly enough...

Sunday recap

This week I learned that hurricanes...

are like mini stimulus packages for a lot of businesses, but definitely not for restaurants.

don't affect western mass, even when they are supposed to.

are a good excuse to get some canning done, at least for my staff to get some canning done.

along with earthquakes and tornadoes are not good signs...

"Come on Irene"

The song "Come on Eileene" has been ringing in my head all day, except the lyrics have changed to "Come on Irene."  This storm has caused us night of decent business (the city announced that West St. will be closed as of this morning resulting in all of our customers being surprised we were open and leaving us to assume many didn't come because of the "closure") as well as a hard to come by appointment to see a new space.  I really can't complain if these are my only complaints, this storm has caused real damage to others already.  We wish the best to all who have lost loved ones and to those whose homes and property have been left with damage.  Good luck tomorrow New England...

Another Try

We have an appointment to go look at another space tomorrow.  I am already familiar with the space so as long as the landlord doesn't price us out of contention, we may have a second chance on our second concept.  Our fingers are crossed but this time we are keeping our excitement and hopes in check...

An old joke

This is an old French vs. Italian joke...

The trouble with eating Italian food is that five or six days later you're hungry again.

Locavore Dinner

With our 3rd annual Locavore Wine Dinner is on the horizon it's time to start planning a menu.  This is probably the most challenging wine dinner we put on, at least as far as the kitchen goes.  Each dish takes days of planning.

Can I get all the ingredients I need?  I need to be sure, with all the restrictions in being a locavore menu one change can snowball into many.

Can I get balance in the dish?  Balance is probably the hardest thing to deal with with this menu.  I love using acid in cooking and with the only pure acidity available being cider vinegar, I really have to carefully put together each dish.  I really have to look for natural acidity in ingredients and make sure I don't prepare them in such a manner that changes, alters or loses that acidity.

What are the steps needed to prepare each dish?  When you lose the use of cooking oils, especially the neutral ones, you need to be careful in how you decide to prepare each dish.  If am to cook chicken for example, I need to decide if our churned butter will be to overpowering for the desired outcome.  Maybe I need to render some chicken fat instead, maybe some lard.  Maybe all of the fats I have available are too strong and I need to change the method use to prepare the chicken.  What dish is next?  What dish came before?  More importantly, what fats am I to use in the dishes before and after?  If I use all lard to cook with, the menu items will all start tasting a touch similar.

Now I need to think about putting them together in a harmonious and pleasant order as to not overpower any of the dishes.  I need to make sure there are palate cleansing dishes and that no heavy dish precedes a subtle one.

Then we have to pair wines with them, which carries its own list of concerns.

Sometimes planning these menus comes together effortlessly, sometimes they are rewritten a dozen times.  Let's hope for the former...

CISA Local Hero Restaurant Days

Tonight is the first of  two nights that we are celebrating  CISA's Local Hero Restaurant Days.  It's an event designed to show the important tie between  restaurants and the farmers.  The goal is that everyone taking part will design a dish based on some local ingredients.  We call ours, well, our menu.  It is a great idea for the restaurants who aren't accustomed to using local ingredients, but when your cuisine is as dedicated to local as ours is, it can somehow seem less special.  Last year we offered a three-course prix fixe menu as well as our regular menu.  Only two customers ordered off the "special menu", and neither of them came because of the event.  The rest were dining as if a normal night.  This year CISA did a more effective job of promoting on a their tight budget and it showed.  Of course, the fact that we were on the radio with the director of CISA and told the Valley that we were going to offer our entire menu as a $25 prix fixe didn't hurt.  Kind of like a restaurant week but with a cause.  I am happy to say it was an excellent turn out tonight, maybe next year we will do it for a week and forget about restaurant week...

A Good Time

Well, we had our staff trip to the city and it was a ton of fun. We did what restaurant people do best, we ate. It was nice to spend time with the staff outside of work in a place we could kick back and get some inspiration. Now it's back to the daily grind with a fresh mind...

Tomato Provencal

This is one of those dishes that is very classic French, very delicious, and very easy...but for some reason here in the states we choose to make French dishes that are rich, time consuming and technical like Coq au Vin and Cassoulet (yes, also so very delicious) instead.  Here is one of my favorite "tomato season" meals...

Tomate á la Provencal au Beurre Noisette

“Heirloom Tomato Provencal with Brown Butter and Fresh Herbs”

Serves 4

2 ripe heirloom tomatoes

4 T butter, cubed and chilled

2 T extra virgin olive oil, Provencal if you have it

¼ C toasted breadcrumbs

¼ Fresh picked herbs, whatever you like

1.    -Remove top of tomatoes (part with stem) and slice tomatoes into ½ inch rounds.  Season with salt and pepper.

2.    -Heat nonstick pan (or stainless, if you are good) over medium-high heat and add olive oil.  Once oil is hot (test by adding small pinch of butter, if butter foams the pan is ready) add tomatoes and sear until caramelized but not soft, about 3 minutes.  Turn tomatoes over and cook for another 2 minutes until warm in the center.  Cook in batches if necessary.

3.    -While tomatoes are cooking, roll herbs together and “chiffonade” or thinly slice, being careful not to crush and bruise the herbs.

4.   -Transfer tomatoes to plates and top with herbs then breadcrumbs and a pinch of fleur de sel (optional).

5.   -While pan is still hot add cold butter and cook until it is frothy and turns a light nut brown.  It is important to remove from heat at this stage because the butter continues to cook of the heat and will burn if taken to dark.  Spoon the foamy butter onto the tomatoes and enjoy as an accompaniment to a meat course or with a nice salad for a light summer meal.

That's Two

It's time

Tonight was an average summer night, a slow start with a late, busy finish.  Tonight though we saw the wear on our staff's faces.  When you have a small business it means that you have a small staff.  It also means that your small staff works a lot when it's needed.  Early this summer we had some turnover, and turnover for us means our core staff works a touch too often and a little too hard.  That is why we appreciate them as much as we do.  Sometimes the hardest shifts are when you can see the light at the end of the tunnel.  You know, like when you have a vacation coming up and the few days before your sweet, delicious break are the longest, most exhausting days you have ever worked before.  We are taking our staff to NYC to thank them for the long summer thus far, but we are at that point right now.  We can all see the light, just a few more days...

A Simple Thank You

The past few day's events have allowed me to reflect a little on the growing season thus far.  A few days ago I spoke with one of my meat producers and he is struggling to stay afloat.  Yesterday at the farmer's market there was an air of discontent as many of the farmers murmured that this year is deeming more difficult than the last.  Today I was doing a radio spot with Phil Korman of CISA and Monte at WRSI when we found ourselves in a disheartening conversation of the economy and the effect it may or may not be having on small farms and small businesses this year.  Then tonight, a farm we have carried close and long (as long as we have been open at least) relationship with, brought their staff in for a staff party of sorts and hinted at the fact that life was a bit stressful right now.  All of these people and businesses are lifelines to my business and to me, it is difficult to see them in such a state.  I know that times are hard for us all but no matter how hard it is we can all afford to say thank you to our farmers.  Next time you're at the market share a thanks, it might be just what they need...

Local Popcorn

Just when I thought that no more culinary surprises could come from the farmer's market, another one "pops" up. Today Park Hill Orchard had popcorn dried and still on the ear. Like a five year old kid with a new toy, I proudly carried the ears around with me as I finished my marketing, bragging about my new treat To my surprise, almost all the farmers treated it like old news while nearly all the marketers were as excited as I was. This is one of those items that most of farmers are probably growing but keeping for themselves because they assume that it won't sell. Who doesn't love popcorn? I will let you know if it is worth the excitement...

Summertime Fall Dish

We ran a special tonight of slow-roasted pork loin with oyster mushrooms and artichokes over a pommes mousseline.  Yup, the pork is local.  So are the oyster mushrooms, dropped off by a friend on Friday.  The artichokes are grown right here in the Valley and so are the potatoes.  All these ingredients are being foraged and farmed right now, in the beginning of August.  Why does the dish seem so fall like?  Maybe because we are taught that certain things are summer foods, certain things are fall foods and so on and so on but the reality is that it depends on your climate.  Fallish or not, it was the perfect dish to be serving on a cool, rainy Monday night...

Sunday Recap

What did I learn this week...

It doesn't matter what you do and how well you do it, you can always get better...

Canning season has begun and it is always best to get going early...

That you should always have extra batteries around, all kinds in fact...

That sometimes I feel like Doogie Howser writing these Sunday recaps...

That it is best not to find your wedding ring in your chef pants, pull it out and say "Oh, I didn't even realize I lost it" in front of your wife after mentioning to her this morning that you "love that pair of chef pants"  and "haven't worn them in like a month"...

That if you do find yourself in a similar "wedding ring incident" it is best to feed your wife ribs slathered in barbecue sauce and have plenty of wine around...

Best Broccoli...Period.

During a quick trip through the farmer's market this morning, I got my hands on some broccoli.  I love broccoli but as my staff can tell you (one of my very vocal pet peeves), I won't put broccoli on a menu and I it bothers me incredibly when I get broccoli served at a restaurant...unless it is an Asian restaurant.  There are very few things that our country as whole knows how to (or can) cook, and broccoli is one of them.  In case you are looking for a new and exciting way to prepare America's vegetable, here is my favorite method.  You can thank Chef Blumenthal for turning me on to this one, but you have to trust us both and follow the recipe...

-one head brocolli, cut into small bite size pieces...yes, the stem too.
-3T olive oil
-1 tab butter
-1 T water
-salt and pepper

1.  Heat heavy bottomed pot over high heat.  Add oil and when the oil starts to smoke, add broccoli and cover.
2.  Do not open or touch the pot for two whole minutes.
3.  Once you patiently and anxiously awaited two whole minutes, uncover the pot, shake well to "stir" broccoli and and add butter.  Cover immediately and don't touch for another 2 minutes.
4.  Uncover and add water, cover again and wait one minute.
5.  Remove from heat, season and enjoy...you might want to let it cool for a minute first.

Dishwasher Blues

I don't have much to say tonight, I think we blew out our dishwasher. Unfortunately for us a commercial dishwasher is the most expensive piece of equipment in the restaurant. Oh well, at least before it happened my wife and I had a wonderful meal at the restaurant...

Melons

Aparently it is supposed to be an epic melon season this year. Melons are something I don't work with a lot but love to eat. A juicy, fresh melon is one of those perfect summer desserts. It is a goal of mine to use melons in something savory and sweet this year, hopefully we have some fun and put together a good dish...

A New Plan

I finally admitted that I need more than just few hours off each week. I hired another cook and will move forward for the first time with a "full" staff. By no means does this mean that I am going to be one of those "chefs" that only pops in to their kitchen once in a while to say hello. It just means I can focus on making the restaurant better as a whole. It also means I will be able to devote a little more attention to the blog. I am going to format the blog a little, much like the weekly "Sunday Recap", I will also include a weekly recipe/ demonstration. While I am not looking forward to giving up some kitchen time, I am looking forward to what lies ahead...

Five Ingredients

I have five ingredients for you; dark chocolate, popcorn, sea salt, chimayo chili powder, Marcona almonds...

Mushrooms

It's odd sometimes to think of mushrooms as being a summer product.  In New England, once the rain actually falls, summer produces quite an abundance of beautiful mushrooms.  Over the past few days I have had maitakes, oysters, chanterelles and chicken of the woods mushrooms dropped off.  What do you do when you have a mountain of beautiful, fresh mushrooms?  You make something as simple as you can.  When mushrooms are this fresh they are bursting with flavor so it is best to let them do all the talking in the dish.   Last night we had an exceptional dinner of fresh pasta with wild mushrooms and a shrimp and zucchini blossom salad, very summery, very easy, and very delicious...

Sunday Recap

This week I learned:

to keep my hopes high but not too high.

that I need to be able to take time off (I should look back and see how many times I have written something similar).

if you are making changes to the staff it is important to bring them together outside of work.

that mushrooms on the East Coast mean summer just as much as mushrooms on the West Coast mean fall.

after reviewing my weeks in posts, it would probably be more fun to include more recipes and such.  I am excited that I have hired an addition to the kitchen staff and it should lead to a more interesting blog...

A Good Rain

Sometimes we all need a good rain. Things that need to grow can grow and people that need to sleep can sleep. A win-win for a restaurant owner. There is absolutely nothing more refreshing after working a summer night in the kitchen than to sit out in the rain after the shift. Too bad my dogs like the rain as much as I do, after I'm done listenin to the rain I have to clean the house...

Promising

We are looking at another space for restaurant number two next week.  I am not getting my hopes up as high as last time because both Beth and I took it pretty hard when things fell apart.  That's part of business that two passionate people like us are not good at.  This time I am going to keep my fingers crossed and my hopes in check...

Salmon Recipe

This has been quite a hot topic lately.  I have had roughly 25 requests for my butter-basted salmon recipe.  I had it on the menu for a while as well as featured it in one of my cooking classes.  Here is the recipe for the class...

Butter-basted Wild Salmon with Fennel Marmalade and 

Fork Mashed Potatoes with Olive Oil, Parsley and Sel Gris

1 lb Wild Salmon fillet

3 heads fennel

1 anchovy, rinsed and cleaned

2 T capers, rinsed

1 clove garlic, minced

4 servings new crop (baby) potatoes

8 oz cold cubed butter

1 lemon

3 sprigs thyme

2 T parsley, minced

Sel gris

Extra virgin olive oil

Fennel Marmalade

1.     Using a mandoline, shave fennel into a small pot. Reserve fronds for salmon.

2.     Mince anchovy, garlic, capers and 1 t thyme leaves and add to fennel pot.

3.     Add 2 T olive oil and put over low heat.  Cover and cook until fennel is melted, about 45 minutes. Stir occasionally.  If needed, add water 1 T at a time to prevent burning

Potatoes

1.     Put potatoes in large pot and add enough cold water to cover potatoes by 3 inches.  Add remaining thyme and season with salt.  Put over high heat until pot comes to boil, turn down to simmer and cook until potatoes are very tender. 

2.     Remove from water, fork mash and sprinkle with parsley, sel gris and really nice olive oil.

Salmon

1.     Preheat oven (or grill) to 375 F.

2.     In small sauce pan over medium-low heat add 1 T water and juice from lemon.  Whisk in butter a few cubes at a time, if mixture starts to boil (or break) lower heat.  You want the butter to emulsify and stay creamy, not to separate.  When all butter has been emulsified toss in reserved fennel fronds and remove from heat.

3.     Liberally season salmon with salt and fresh pepper.  Brush roasting pan with emulsified butter and add salmon skin side down.  Brush salmon with emulsified butter and put in oven.  Continue to baste with the butter every ten minutes or so until fish is cooked to your liking.  Insert a knife into the middle of the fish, if the knife comes out just warm the fish is MR, if the knife is very warm, almost hot the fish is M-MW, and for well done the knife needs to come out HOT and you need to order take-out.

4.     Serve along side marmalade and potatoes.

 

Class

Tonight I taught another class at Different Drummer's Kitchen.  It was a "Farmer's Market" class where I stressed how wonderful it is to live in an area where we have such an amazing bounty and how easy it is to prepare a wonderful meal using solely what is grown here in the Valley.  This is a class that is near and dear to my heart and therefore near and dear to BLG.  I think this was probably my favorite class yet...

Cooks and Tattoos

Why do cooks seem to be so obsessed with tattoos?  I personally love them, have a few and often get asked this question but do not have a good answer for you.  I started getting tattoos before I was a cook but being in the kitchen definitely led to a few more.  I feel tattoos have recently become socially acceptable in America as long as they can be hidden.  I could of course go on and on about how tattooing is an ancient art and is considered a thing of beauty by many other cultures...but the culture we are talking about is ours.  I first ventured into the sacred region of the forearms because of a few burn scars I had.  I was honestly self conscious and I wanted them covered up.  Now, personally I love tattoos.  I love tattoos that are truly significant to a person and the story that goes along with it.  I love the art that lies in the permanence of mile-stoning your life.  Once I knew I wanted them covered, the decision was easy.   So why are cooks so comfortable bearing visible ink?   Well, one of my theory's is the uniform.  When you have to wear a uniform, especially a plain white one, the only way to express yourself is through the visible parts.  Some do ink, some do hair and so on and so on.  There is definitely a wide array of wild hairstyles running through the kitchens of America, running though the kitchens with wild tattoos.

Another theory of mine is the type of people that work in kitchens.  For a lot of people, working is restaurants starts as a moonlighting.  They are aspiring writers, musicians, actors, painters or artists looking to earn extra money to help support their lifestyle.  What you end up with is an extremely passionate person who finds they love (or need) the restaurant industry.  Expression is part of their lives and tattoos are a wearable expression of feeling and life.

My last theory is pain.  We work long, strenuous hours in a steamy kitchen over hot flame all while constantly burning and cutting ourselves to put out dishes we are proud of.  Pain and discomfort is a part of our job and sometimes the only way comfort ourselves away from work is to endure more pain.  We'll let the psychologists deal with the rest of that theory.

As I mentioned before, I love tattoos.  I love the art and the story.  I only have artists tattoo me and I let them take liberty in my tattoo, I involve their creativity so it becomes art.  I don't think you should put something on your body that you wouldn't want every one to see (in reason),  would you hide that painting in your dining room every time you have your boss over?  I have tattoos for my own reasons and I love to look at them, they are a story of my life.  Tattoos are for some, not for others.  Some people paint, some people garden, I collect art and the canvas is...me....

It's August

Summer is flying by. This is the time of year when the restaurant business in Northampton nose dives, everyone is taking last minute vacations and weekend beach trips. It's kind of too bad because this is such a great time to eat in the Valley, this is the time of year when the farms are pumping out summertime veggies.

Tonight was definitely a Monday in August. It was a bit on the slow side, at least it left me with plenty of time to do some paperwork, pay some bills and get thing in line for my cooking class on Wednesday...