A Work in Progress, Finished

Okay, I know it’s been a while but I’m back and I’ve got something to share. One of my most favorite things to do is bar-b-que. As a matter of fact I own a Big Green Egg.

Then there’s the fact that I love all things pork. I’ve yet to meet a pig I didn’t like especially pork shoulder. To me pulled pork is the most incredible thing to eat with its perfect texture and incredible flavor. Put on a vinegar based North Carolina style BBQ sauce and I’m in pig heaven. Of course, all of this has to start with a good quality meat. I was fortunate to locate a butcher in Vancouver, WA called Butcher Boys and their meat quality is absolutely amazing –they even produce their own sausages. Heaven!

I started off with the following recipe, which I discarded:

• 2 tablespoons salt
• 1 tablespoon coarsely ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon (packed) golden brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons garlic powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch
• 1 1/2 teaspoons onion powder
• 1 teaspoon lemon-pepper seasoning with garlic and onion
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

After tweaking it a bit, I came up with this (still not the finished product):

• 2 tbsp. coarse sea salt
• 2 tbsp. Spanish Paprika
• 1 tbsp. fresh ground black pepper
• 2 tbsp. packed brown sugar
• 1 tbsp. garlic powder
• 1 1/2 tsp. cornstarch
• 2 tsp. cajun seasoning

The recipe was really quite good but a bit too salty so with a little more tweaking I ended up with this…the finished product:

• 2 tbsp. coarse sea salt
• 2 tbsp. Spanish paprika
• 4 tbsp. packed brown sugar
• 2 tbsp. garlic powder
• 1 1/2 tsp. cornstarch
• 2 tsp. cajun seasoning
• 2 tsp. cayenne
• 4 lb pork shoulder, trussed

Set your temperature to 275 degrees Fahrenheit and cook for about 3 hours  or until above 150 degrees Fahrenheit internal temperature. To accurately measure internal temperature just pick up a meat thermometer. Y0u can get one at the grocery store or the best idea is to go to your local restaurant supply house. You can use this recipe either in your oven or your BBQ grill.

This ended up being the perfect blend of salt, savory, sweet and spicy. I can’t wait to try this on a chicken or ribs.

 

Me, hate?

I knew that I’d have to defend my opinions once in a while but I didn’t think it would be so soon. Maybe some readers missed the point of my last post (Charles, yes you). As a professional chef with more than 14 years working the line then working as a sous chef then as an executive chef, I do know that it takes more than food cost to run a restaurant. The “magic formula” is a 18-22% food cost, a labor cost of 25-30% and a facilities cost of another 30-35% but the only number that actually reflects on the menu is food cost.  Charles, the monthly costs of labor and facilities are factored in on a monthly basis with the chef’s profit/loss report. If these expenses were reflected on the menu, the prices would  be outrageous.

Ultimately, Charles, you’ve misunderstood what I was saying in my previous entry. I was not comparing cooking at home to eating out in restaurants. Obviously, as a professional chef, I want people to eat out. Of course I prefer that they support local, individually owned restaurants, too. The small businesses struggle but more often than not provide a better meal. Also, in my early days working in kitchens I’ve worked in corporate settings and I know how their food differs.

Sasha and I don’t live in an area with a lot of choices outside of corporate dining, the nearest large city to our house is 35 miles away, but we have still managed to find a few places for eating out that are not corporate. There are excellent resources to find these places that you can use without leaving the comfort of the computer chair. In fact, yesterday I used Yelp.com to find an excellent, inexpensive restaurant we could go to after the movie. Our meal bill was under 20 dollars for dinner for two. Yelp.com has user reviews of the restaurants to minimize finding a dude of a restaurant, too!

I digress, again. In my previous entry the point I was actually trying to make was that it is more economical and healthier for the HOME cook to buy fresh, wholesome raw product rather than buying processed prepackaged product. Whether it’s mac and cheese, chili, eggs etc, you can cook from scratch and have enough leftover to freeze or store in the fridge for a meal the next day therefore saving time, too. Sure you can go and buy a frozen breakfast sandwich and be eating it in less that a minute but have you read the nutritional information on that? It’s hard to find anything natural in it. As for the nutritional info for my mac and cheese. One serving is 110 calories and has 1/10th the sodium of the Kraft brand and tastes a thousand times better.

As for my “hate” of Rachael Ray I don’t actually hate her. To quote one of my favorite food movies, Dinner Rush, “hate implies passion, something this leaves me sadly lacking”. But I do dislike her and what she does. When I have had the displeasure of watching her, I see a lot can opening and if the use of frozen chopped onion isn’t horrifying, what is? That’s not cooking from scratch. You want a TV cook that does that? Watch Martha Stewart or even better watch the old reruns of Julia Child. Julia Child was especially extraordinary. She was an ordinary woman who learned how to cook rather late in life, and not only did she learn but she brought real cooking techniques into the home kitchen in a way unprecedented in her time.

I don’t want to beat the quote thing to death but when Anthony Bourdain, formerly of Les Halles and host of the Travel channel’s No Reservations, was asked what he thinks of Rachel Ray he said:

“She can take it. She’s incredibly powerful and far more loved than I am. But she genuinely offends me. Julia Child, for example, raised people’s expectations of food. When Rachael tells you that it’s perfectly O.K. to buy prechopped onion from the supermarket… I mean, how hard is it to chop an onion? The takeaway is, I could cook, but [instead] I’ll finish this bag of Cheetos and that gallon of Diet Pepsi before dying of diabetes”.

Going back to Charles and his comment yesterday, first of all, you’re dead wrong. The homemade mac and cheese does not have more sodium and if your boxed crap has less fat it’s because you’re eating a ghoulish orange powder and not a natural cheese. Now let’s see, do I want real cheese with some fat or do I want orange chemical sludge? I think that’s a no-brainer. Also, Charles, why would I put a minimum wage price on home cooking? I’m not giving my wife a bill at the end of the meal and expecting a 20% tip. I’m cooking at home. Cooking at home is not only economical but it’s also supposed to be a pleasure, not a business.

Charles, said “there is so much more to cooking than costs and tastes. We all have different tastes, means and tradeoffs. There is no simplistic, universal solution”.

Well, Charles, this makes no sense because I wasn’t offering a “simplistic universal” solution but I am offering A solution based on my experiences. I am addressing the many people who have been complaining about the economy and the cost of food in the supermarket. I know that there are people who want to save money in the kitchen and my entry is for them. If crap is the tradeoff you enjoy and can afford the extra expense then knock yourself out and have at it. Enjoy your Rachel Ray and Soylent Orange in a box. No one is telling you not to but millions of people all over the world in all kinds of living situations are doing what I advocate. It’s simple, peasant cooking, getting back to basics. Nothing elite or outrageous.

I’m just offering an alternative. Take it or leave it but don’t get defensive. There’s plenty of room for everyone!

And Charles, for further reference I highly recommend you read Lisa’s comment in response to yours.

 

What is food cost?

With all the doom and gloom about the economy and all the media reporting that the U.S. is sinking faster than the Lusitania. It’s (hopefully) obvious that more people are going to be eating at home but what’s really disturbing to me  is that more and more people are falling back on processed foods! Mainly because in their perception processed foods are cheaper. The only thing processed food is, is far less healthy and in fact more expensive. All the chemicals, sodium and fat in processed foods are reason enough to not use them so often in spite of the convenience. I’m absolutely disgusted at what people will put into their systems.  Look at the proliferation of corporate restaurants and fast food. Fast food aside, I doubt if most people know how corporate kitchens are run and the amount of pre-prepared, frozen food they serve. I hope the founders of corporate nightmares like Applebees, Chili’s, TGIFriday’s and especially Red Lobster rot in the 9th circle of hell for what they’ve done to the American public. Of course throw that abomination Rachael Ray on top of that garbage heap. Her abuse of canned and frozen products in the kitchen are crippling home cooks across the nation!

But I digress, I want to give you a tool you can use to help you save money and that is figuring out your food cost per portion.

One of the most important skills a chef has is determining food cost. This is that magic number that can make or break a restaurant. So then what is it? Food cost is the calculation of the price of each ingredient used to prepare foods. That means that a chef needs to figure out how much everything that goes on to a plate will cost him. For example, a plate of 2 eggs, 3 pieces of bacon, 4 ounces of hash browns and 2 pieces of bread for toast. Yes, we figure out the individual price of each of those ingredients, which really isn’t that difficult and I’d like to explain why.

Sasha and I normally shop at Safeway for our staples. So I’ll use our latest trip. The 18 count carton of eggs were on sale for buy one get one free at a cost of $3.49 which works out to about .09 cents an egg. I divided the total cost of the eggs, $3.49 by the number of eggs purchased which was 36. It’s really that easy so what’s my point?

Well, the point is that if you take the time to figure it out you would eventually realize that by buying fresh, whole products you end up saving a lot of money. Instead of buying a family size box of macaroni and cheese that costs $1.29 per box and may feed 3 people once with 260 calories and 600mg of sodium per serving.  Consider buying a block of cheese, milk and a bag of macaroni and making it fresh. Consider that a large block of cheese will serve for more meals than the initial macaroni and cheese meal. Slice it for burgers or sandwiches, grate it for tacos, burritos or omelets.

What’s the better deal? $6.99 for a 2 lb. block of quality cheddar (for example, we prefer Tillamook), $1.29 for a half gallon of milk and $.99 for a bag of macaroni, all of which I can use for more than one thing except for the macaroni. Your homemade macaroni and cheese will serve six to eight large portions at $.60 per person with little to no added sodium and all fresh ingredients. Serve it with an inexpensive salad and you’re set.

I guarantee you your  mac and cheese will blow that boxed chemical crap out of the water.

In future entries I’d like to talk about some tried and true ways to save some money and feed you and your family wonderful meals that are fantastic and are a damned sight more healthy. I’m talking about real cooking, not the misguided worship of Rachael Ray who teaches opening a can of crap, adding that to more crap and then heating up crap to serve a hot plate of crap. I’m talking about something real and nourishing like buying a bag of dried beans, adding a beautiful inexpensive hamhock, some herbs and broth, simmering on a low flame for a few hours and creating heaven in your kitchen. Doing what cooks and the poor have been doing for millennium, taking inexpensive, basic and raw products and transforming them into amazingly edible  dishes!

Cooking has always been about taking something that may not be of the best quality and making it taste great. Braising, basting, searing, blanching, etc. These are all techniques that chefs and cooks  use to make the most out of food. I’ll tell you more about these easy techniques in the future, too.

And the most important thing is that it’s going to save you money. Money that you then can use to go out and stimulate the economy.

 

A Quick Note…

Just a quick note to let everyone that I’m still alive and I’ll be going on vacation in 11 meal periods. I’ll be posting quite a bit next month.

As a matter of fact, my next entry is going to be incredibly important. I’m going to talk about something very near and dear to my heart…

Food safety and food borne illness so stay tuned.

 

What is a chef?

From Dictionary.com, ‘chef -noun 1. the chief cook, esp. in a restaurant or hotel, usually responsible for planning menus, ordering foodstuffs, overseeing food preparation, and supervising the kitchen staff.  2. any cook’

Is that all a chef is? Is the chef that person in the starched white jacket making their way through the restaurant greeting guests and asking how the meal is? Are they slumped over a 6 or 8 burner stove screaming out orders and obscenities?

Interesting questions. What do I consider a chef to be? A chef to me isn’t simply the person in charge of the back of the house but the driving force behind the entire restaurant. You can tell, the minute you walk in to a restaurant, whether or not they have a good or even great chef. There’s a feeling, an atmosphere, a spirit in the place. If the restaurant is empty, or if the host or hostess looks a little ragged. If the servers look like they’ve been kicked in the gut one to many times, more than likely it’s because of the back of the house. Everything stems from there.

Anthony Bourdain refers to the chef as a pirate or U-boat captain and that’s not far from the truth. It takes a certain type of person to want to give up weekends, holidays and work 12+ hours a day. Trying to make a profit with materials that go bad in a couple of days, maintain cleanliness and make sure that each plate is as good as the last one you put in the pass*. Dealing with vegans, vegetarians and every other dietary demand, you have no idea how annoying and rough it is in the middle of a Friday night rush when a vegan nazi wants the Fettuccine Alfredo without cream, butter and Parmesan cheese.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not whining about my job. Quite the opposite. I love my job and I love what I do but there are times when I would love to head out to the dining room with my 10″ chef’s knife in hand and start slicing people. I do what I do because I love it and the camaraderie of the kitchen is the closest I’ve ever been to the camaraderie that I felt serving on an Abrams tank crew during Desert Storm.

So then what is a chef? A chef is many things. They’re the humble greasy spoon diner guy to the 5 star chef. They’re the heart and soul of a restaurant operation. The person who does the mundane paperwork, managing the kitchen team and is accountable for all the food and labor costs. In my case, working in a kitchen the size of a postage stamp with 3 other people. They’re also the people who create the heavenly dish that you’ll remember for the rest of your life.

Now we have celebrity chefs. Chefs like Gordon Ramsay, Emerill Lagasse, Anthony Bourdain, Cat Cora and Gabrielle Hamilton have made it glamorous to put on that starched jacket and toque. It doesn’t change what we are but it does make us look a little better. We’ll always be a little off center and you know what?

We’re proud of that.

* The pass is the area in the kitchen where the prepared food is passed from the kitchen line to the servers and then out to the guests.

 

Allow Myself to Introduce Myself…

I’m a professional Chef and have been same for 14 years. I’ve been very happily married for the last 8 years and we currently reside in the culinary wasteland of the Pacific Northwest (not all of it, mind you). Moving from Southern California to here, although good for job security, was not good for the eating.

We’ve found a few really bright rays of food sunshine, though they’ve been few and far between.

What will this blog be about?  For a start this blog will be about; cooking, eating, the Slow Food Movement, movies, music and television. I’ll talk about cookbooks and recipes, answer questions and ultimately shine a light into the dark recesses of the culinary world and, even worse, of my mind.

I love to cook and with that simple statement sums up most of my life. Even in my earliest days, experimenting with chicken and ramen noodles, at 6 years of age I invented Chicken ala Travis. It was nothing more than a grilled chicken breast on a bed of ramen but for a 6 year old, what more do you want? From studying in Monterey, working for the Ritz-Carlton in Pasadena to opening a restaurant in Downtown Los Angeles and everything in between, food and cooking has been a huge part of my life.

So grab your favorite drink, sit back and relax. The journey’s just begun!