Smoked Salmon Emulsion!

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Hard to blog with no computer and 15 hour work days

Keller Steven Pickren

Georgia/Florida weekend's coming up. Mike I challenge you to a pumpkin carving contest

Amenities


More amentites

Omni Hotels' logo

So for the past 3 months or so I've been the Garde Manger Chef for the Plantation. Trying to find the medium between refinement and feeding the masses. A little overwhelmed but enthusiastic about my new position. I'm starting to understand why chef's I had worked for always told me to enjoy being a cook while you can. Just come in and enjoy working with the food with a clear head and no fires to put out. No personalities to try and understand and figure out how to manage all while inspiring them to actually care about what they do(garde manger being one of the hardest things to get people to care about. Now I walk in the door ready to be greeted with a slew of problems. I'm starting to understand how to balance it all though. Back to back 15 hour days for weeks at a time take their toll but oddly enough you start to get used it and adjust. I guess chefs build up an immunity to long hours overtime. Sometimes I don't know how Dale's still standing at the end of the day when he hasn't taken a day off in two weeks, came in an hour before I did and left two hours later every night. The guy's a machine. I'm enjoying my new position and all hours, responsibilities and pressures that come along with it and feel like I'm already becoming a better chef from it. I'm excited that the Plantation was bought by a company with such high standards and the resources to truly build the it up to it's full potential. The sky's the limit now, expect big things to happen at the Plantation. To add on to all of the pressures and changes at work, I'm over joyed and a little frightened to say that I'm also going to be a dad in less than two months. Talk about motivation to push myself even harder. There's a new meaning to life now.

TIme to Catch up

Amelia Island Plantation Logo
Roasted pig from the great southern tailgate cookoff

Honeydew swan

another weird carving

Plated salads for 300

Alinea - Chicago, IL

This video has been up forever on youtube..........just rewatched it...........it helps me to be unsatisfied.......

Cooking for Geeks

Mike's last post gives me a chance to kill two birds with one stone with this post. About a month ago Brennan and I were in south Florida and were fortunate enough to be in town the same time that Jeff Potter was doing a Q & A about his new book, Cooking for Geeks. We had the chance to meet and talk with him about his new book and I just received my signed copy in the mail this week. The book is great, it takes a strait forward, logical approach to explaining the chemistry, process and magic of cooking. I have only scratched the surface of this book, but it has a much different feel to it as opposed to other books written by long time professional chefs(maybe chefs get a little to emotional about their food sometimes). Either way, I would definitely recommend that cooks stop what they are doing right now and run out and get this book.

Now, to answer Mike's question, what I know about Tapioca Maltodextrin is that it is considered a transformational hydrocolloid. Meaning that it transforms fats or oils into powders. It is water soluble so milk would not work because it has water content. Maltodextrin, however, is incredibly useful in conveying flavors in a "nonlipid form" as Jeff says in his book. I made powder from duck confit oil last week and the flavor is beautiful. If I could, I would just "cut and paste" all of Jeff's words on the subject but that might deter you from getting the book. Its a must have. Use about a 60-40 ratio of fat to maltodextrin for best results, and pass your powder through a sieve to fluff it up.

Cooking is a close relative of chemistry. Cooks will benefit by simply accepting it, sure, some cooks over do it, but when you can understand how things work results become more gratifying. Till next time..............

Jedi Training

So I don't know jack nothing about molecular gastronomy. I have dodged it and dogged it to no end in my typical style. But Pyk made a hazelnut powder that has rolled endlessly in some hampster cage deep in the recesses of my mind. Teach me, tell me your wisdom Jedi or at least give me some tips Pyk and perhaps enlighten myself and yonder reader.
Tapioca maltodextrin. Fats into powders. So, would milk work? It has fat in it. Or say a pureed coconut? Or does it have to be a complete fat or something w/ little to no moisture?
Inquiring minds want to know.......
Till next time.

Poulet Rouge aka Naked Neck Chicken

Most of the time spent in my car on the way to work is spent thinking about what I'm going to cook for specials. It allows me to develop a game plan for when I walk in the door, sometimes though its a little depressing when you've been trying to save money and not order exciting expensive ingredients. So, I was walking into the kitchen thinking I was about to put together a rustic pasta special, instead, I walk into a case of poulet rouge that the resort Exec Chef ordered for us. Reinvigorated and ready to work with a new product I took a knife to a steal, slapped on my armor(apron, I'm a bit of a sci-fi dork), and got to work. I immediately noticed that the birds have long slender looking bodies, the limbs especially, it kind of reminded me of duck.

Certainly I was not going to 8 piece it and fry it up, I decided to take the long route with the old school galantine technique. After I took all the skin off and made a farce out of the meat I rolled them up and poached them in a soft simmer for 15 mins. Now, I will say this is one of those moments that I get slightly aggravated that the resorts best equipment (cryovac, circulator, activa, etc.) are reserved for the hotel and The Atlantic Room, I think I could have been a little happier with the end result with some of those resources, maybe in next years budget we'll see.

After shocking them in an ice batch I cut portions and set the line up to produce the dish. I knew I was going to use polenta and king trumpet shrooms. That's about as Italian as took this, I stretch those boundaries as much as I can.

In a pan with medium heat I crisp the skin by constantly turning the chicken, this also finishes the cooking process because they were only about 70% of the way there.....

The flavor of the poulet rouge is truly fantastic, I would definitely say richer and deeper than normal chicken. I think everyday folks are so used to tasting mass produced, KFC style mutant chicken Frankensteins that sometime true poultry flavor is forgotten. Believe me, you can taste the difference. I used stock from the bones and foie gras butter to make the sauce and put it over the top, garnish with grilled onions and lemon verbena foam......delicious......

So sunday came and I woke alone and relatively bored. Becca and Courtney were at a girl thing. A wedding shower. Brennan was on his way over and I had a plan. After lunch, beautifully heart clogging burgers, Golden Tee, and beers..off to Myre Asian Market...

I just heard an amazingly fitting quote by Roger Daultrey of the Who. "I was born with a plastic spoon in my mouth."

It actually makes quite a remarkable bit of sense to my attraction to food. I was pumped to wander the isles of this particular asian grocery w/ Brennan. Let's say the 1st time I went in such an establishment I knew or was familiar with 1% of the product.....7 plus years later I'd up it to maybe 4%. These seemingly plastic spoon/chopstick cuisines hold more depth than the worth of our country's collective knowledge. What I mean exactly is that thousands of years has produced some seemingly bizarre food strategies. Some amazing leaps of faith. Some brilliant discoveries based on geography, flora/fauna, and a sheer luck of intellect. Nothing else could explain some of the products one might find.

So after an hour, Brennan and I had some things we wanted to mess with. We went home to cook. Based on poor planning and a dare to myself I went for 3 tastes of the Asian realm no soy sauce. We had little and being me, (PBR's deep) I found it a revelation to cook with no soy sauce.

Brennan did a fantastic seared tuna avocado dish. Next was a summer roll by me. Then a chicken sausage, Napa cabbage, okra dish from Brennan. Then Laab Salad and room temp Pho.

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The heart of my last trek to the asian grocery was for toasted rice powder. If you have never had Laab salad, please try it. It encompasses so many intriguing elements of taste in one plate that.....that's it. A perfect plate of food. Lastly was a plate of rice sticks, cilantro, Thia basil, pickled vegg, and strip/filet marinated in Vietnamese salt and lime. The broth I made was little to cover the four bowls. It made the composed dish cold if not luke warm. But I was in heaven. I rarely eat if enjoy my own plates but had a revelation by eating my own in a state I had not intended. Vietnamese cappaccio I guess? The meat was incredibly delicate, all the other elements sang. Brennan or Ruby please disagree.....justified but somewhere in some province of some Asian state...this dish rings home and with smiles I swear......Till next time.

Autumn Scallop

Seared Scallop, Butternut Squash Noodle, Cinnamon Marscarpone Cream, Hazelnut Powder

So this dish tasted like cinnamon toast crunch, mostly just the cream with the Hazelnut Powder. That took me back to a good place but the real point was trying to play with the noodles and see what works best. The noodle is not actually a noodle in the classic sense of the word, it's butternut squash puree gelled with agar and molded in a tube. Just eating them by themselves isn't really that inspiring in my opinion, the texture is very soft and unexpected, but not neccessarily good. However they work very well to accent the rest of the dish with the warm sauce and savory scallop, a complete fork full is the only way to go. Fall is pretty much here now so its good to come back to these rich, sweet flavors to get my mind headed in the right direction......

Butternut Squash Noodles

I've seen this technique everywhere on the culinary Blogosphere but have never used it, they taste great, gonna sleep on whatever they will garnish tomorrow......

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Time to make the doughnuts......

Tasting Menu
September 20th 2010

1st Course
Banh Mi
crispy pork belly, pickled vegetable, jalapeno tomato jam, baguette

2nd Course
fried chicken
buttermilk chicken ravioli, southern biscuit, blackberry honey, Frank’s Red Hot butter

3rd Course
braised beef cheek, blue corn crepe, habanero mole, queso fresco

4th Course
meat and potatoes
roasted duck breast, pommes de Robouchon, wilted arugula

5th Course
roasted garlic ice cream, sweet corn cake, jalapeno crema

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Well....I wish I had been more into this than I was. Making excuses sucks, I suck, but I kinda phoned parts of this in. I had every intention of producing a great meal for my cooks. Three guys who bust their butts, put up with me, and really seem to want to see food. I slept on a menu till last night, bumbled my way through it.....I don't know. I do suck sometimes. Brennan helped but actually got to sit down and eat and I was nervous and mildly embarrassed. I think I had good ideas, at least one saving grace/element on each plate, but flopped overall. Woe is me, I know, the last of my self pity is here and now. Let me get over myself and tell those who were not there what it all was.

I made truffled orange zest spaghetti @ the restaurant w/ duck confit, candied blood orange peel, pecan, jalapeno, butternut squash, rendered crisp skin, and Pecorino. That's the 1st picture. It made me quite content. Not sure why but my bones said it worked. The tasting is as written. I will say that the Banh Mi made me feel content too. It worked from brain to plate. Maybe a couple tweaks but I was happy and it was as pretty as I could have ever wished for. I love moles. I love that there are literally hundreds of possible combinations. Please right here and now look up a real mole recipe if you never have. More ingredients than any other cuisine's sauces go into these and more techniques of roasting, blistering, etc. They are full works of art.. That's it I guess.....till next time.

Mystery Meat Part 2

Taking a page from Chef Thurston and seeing who can guess what this is?

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A day off in Mexico

After misery in the form of the Jags vs. Tebow in 80,000 degree heat and some redneck 4 year old spraying me in the face with his mist fan for half the game, I decided to take today off. No yard work, no cleaning, just food. Mexican at that.


A trip to Publix had me wandering the produce isles. After some internal deliberation, I opted for a chile tasting.

1st course Arugula, pickled cucumber and red onion, roasted jalapeno salsa, pomegranate, queso fresco

2nd course Braised short rib, blue corn tamale, habanero mole, Mexican crema, sauteed chayote

3rd course Duroc pork tacos, queso fresco, braised baby back tips, serrano and roasted tomato ragu

Not all of which were successful. Blue corn tamale would have worked better off as a crepe. I found out my tortilla press is not suited for flour tortillas. Way to thick no matter how I tried. Better off sticking to what I read and using a rolling pin.
It was awesome to taste the differences of the three chilies while cooking but some of those differences got muddled in the plated dishes. Too much heat or simmering for too long and the simple act of time on fresh, bold flavors crushes their impact on the senses. Cilantro does not get better with time. Rick Bayless actually recommends rinsing raw onion before incorporating into some fresh salsas to minimize their corruption or overpowering nature.
What was successful? Pomegranate and salt and heat. Mexican crema on anything, even an old ass Birkenstock would taste fantastic. Chayote..well, the thin skinned, cucumberlike texture of the ones I got is good raw, slightly off tasting but fantastic sauteed in olive oil and salt. 3 successes I guess cause I got to try somethings new, get closer to that which so few in the broad culinary populous deem important or intriguing, and treat the one who matters above all and always most to me, to some experimentation. She's honest and ruthless and my best judge. Anyways...a successful day.
Till next time......

A breath of fresh air and some change on the horizon me thinks...

Does anyone else feel like slapping Gail whatever from Top Chef? No.....I do not in any sense of the word advocate violence towards women, dogs, cats, orangutanes, holy hand grenades, jaguar's earlobes, etc. Just checking to see if you were actually reading this and maybe a little wishful thinking.

Last weekend our plans to lay by a pool for 3 days fell through. What an unbelievable blessing in disguise. Becca and I in no better words, dropped in on Chris and Kristen up in Charleston. I found my new favorite hole in the wall bar, ate a truly great meal @ Chris' restaurant, slept/planted on a couch almost a whole day in recovery/doing nothing, and finished out our time wandering downtown with Kristen in search of great food and drink.

Charleston has a great vibe. It felt very focused on local, sustainable, farm to table, twisted up southern cooking. It made a lot of sense. It was refreshing.

I'm not one to blow too much smoke but I was truly proud to eat at Chris' place. We have been friends a long time. Since humble....who am I kidding....ridiculously cocky line cooks. We've always had each other's backs, pushed each other, and it was awesome to see and taste all of Chris' talent and diligence in the dishes he sent out. Potato croquette w/ crisp prosciutto and gorgonzola, seared scallop and gnudi, this wildly complex salad of chocolate tomato, marinated red onion, peaches, and hazelnut powder, a wreckfish meatball and risotto, yes I said wreckfish meatball, it was fantastic really and truly, compressed braised pork w/ foccacia, pickled cuc. and garden peppers, veal marsala w/ ravioli, a dessert assortment not pictured including a great hazelnut gelato, and house made lemoncello. It was very well thought out. Cook on Chris....

Lastly was Glen's or Beck's or something in the "G"ish word. A great bar a hop, skip, or jump from their apartment. Free shuffleboard, pool, darts, like 100 plus beers, and board games. We ate, we drank PBR on tap for her and Labatt bottles for me, and played Connect 4 for and hour and a half. Great trip!

While I'm here and still in the writing mood, I'd like to suggest any and all to watch Bourdains No Reservations on Paris. The new one. He touches on some very intriguing and important subjects. Things are changing in food everywhere. A famous Paris chef boasting of coming to the states, to NYC early in his career to train at Gramercy Tavern. A concept laughable 20 plus years ago. A huge movement away from Michelin. The stuffy, 3 1/2 hour, formal, starchy 30 piece suit, chair for your purse, 8 staff per table, noses scraping the ceiling feel for casual. What a stupid word. Casual. Formal. Relax, at ease. Best behavior, mind your manners, sit up straight. I get both. Both have their place. But what about the best food without any regard for if the flower on the table matches the pattern on the wall matches the trim on the waiters trousers matches the mink/fox feet broach on the woman's blouse at table two....go change your pants you fool. Bottom line, watch Robouchon talk. Watch Ripert literally squirm at a barrage of new comers challenging things. It's not good or bad. I love all that the french are. I love tradition and reverence for such. But I also love chaos and change and pushing the limit of acceptance.

What do you think?

Till next time.............

Naked Neck Chicken.....

Stay Tuned.....

Tonight's Amuse

Rosemary Infused Potato, Gorgonzola, Proscuitto Chip...

When the wall comes down...

Inevitably it will, with some luck anyways. The thing that really boggled my mind was that I could still see food, dishes, tastes, but through a hazy cover like old timey, hand drawn looking window pane. It was there, kinda complete but blurry in all the right spots.


I had painted a picture of an Indian dish in my mind's eye. Nothing in particular but the flavor profiles, a swatch of color for me to work from. After sushi came the ride home and the therapy of music I had been neglecting. I had been seeing a carrot/ginger/curry puree for days. Add green lentils. Add a tuscan technique I had been messing around with for roasting cauliflower. I almost had a dish. Lastly was Naan. It was all I really wanted out of it all. I love Naan. Never made it. Never got close enough to a tandori oven to even think about it. But I had to have it.



So I did what has worked since I got familiar with baking. I read 3 or 4 recipes, checked the variation, and made one up. The honest beauty of trying something for the 1st time is the 2nd time. You initially try with your gut, your base of experience, then work out the rest with repetition and logic. Some times it works, sometimes not. Great thing about Naan, I had about 10 tries to shape and fry it right. The second go is like having the best teacher imaginable giving you some pointers no strings attached. If you cannot learn the most from your own errors... why keep going?



Naan....a flatbread of sorts with clarified butter and yogurt/I used sour cream incorporated into the dough that on this occasion had minced garlic folded into the dough after the 1st proof then is pan fried......amazing. Truly. It got me out of a hole. It built a giant wrecking ball to smash through the mental wall I had inadvertently created. I have since built a second special around it, an app. of grilled lamb meatballs w/ a greek olive tomato ragu and reggie parm, and working on more. Lamb meatballs.......saw some dude on the "best thing I ever ate" blab about them and a light went on made of Naan. It's rustic, I mean a bowl of meatballs and flatbread but damn if it's not tasty...simplicity warms the heart and resonates in the soul of things past but never soon forgot.



My quest, scratch that, my challenge I put before you the reader is to try something new but old in the next week. Something you have tasted, read about, dreamed about that is centuries old but never by your own two hands. Make something to sooth the soul and connect back in time. It's how I got my groove back or what have you.



I am a lucky man. I have been places that forever changed me. I am blessed to shutter at the word "rustic" with fond nostalgia. I relish in the smell of a cheese or cured meat that reconnects with damp earth cellars lined with wine or my personal favorite, the basement of a castle.



I take all of these thoughts and try to bridge the gap of why mental walls still come up. Honestly, after all is said and done, all the stresses of the job,etc......I think I forget what is simple, what got me here, what tastes and flavors helped cement me into my shoes. Take comfort in the old, the tried and true, and create.

Till next time my peoples.....

Mystery Meat

Who can guess what this is....?

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Brick Walls....

I don't find it happening that often but walls do sometimes appear out of thin air. Today I couldn't produce anything. So....veal stock, clean hood screens, and the largely neglected dishpit floor drains. It's glamorous to be the boss, the "chef" sometimes, of a small privately owned operation! But it was all I could force out. It made sense. Monday I went to a food show with all of my staff, had a great time, and kept the weekend going one more day. Tuesday, I was exhausted inside and out so I worked a half day hoping to recover my mind and body but to no avail. Wednesday came in welcomed, bright eyed. I neglected my normal musical solitude in favor of talk radio on the 1/2 hour drive to the restaurant. As soon as the monotony of waking the kitchen equipment up for lunch service ended, I had no idea where to begin. Vegetarian special, papillote special, flatbread special, hints at weekend specials....nothing....an utter void swept over me. The produce guy sent a case of scallions instead of 4 bunches, one of my guys used 4 pieces of leek instead of 4 bunches in a recipe, and I looked at this mass of oniony beauty and saw nothing. So I tried to force it out. Clean and grill the lot....make a broth for a vegetarian dish. Everything seemed flat.
The normal elation at walking around the kitchen eyes searching, to find one specific flavor or color, to lay the foundation of a dish, wouldn't work.
So I did what had been neglected. What felt right. I started cleaning. Deep, deep cleaning. Pulling strips of grease out of hood screens the professsional's power washers never got out. 3 years of grime coming clean. Sounds gross, I know. It's amazing what looks super clean on the surface.
The best part of this whole story is that today did not seem metaphorical until about 5 minutes ago. I had a block. A huge one. You may have had one or two before too. I saw one a few weeks ago on Top Chef w/ the italian looking dude. Don't remember the name....smug guy, hot shot who had a bad day in the kitchen and fell apart making the lamest excuse for a spun up, disguised beef wellington ever. I know where he was. I felt it today. Regardless of other's criticisms, sometimes you actually prevent your own being from tapping into yourself and the flow of your soul that is creativity. Sometimes you just got too much grease or dirt in the works. Stuff you didn't even know was there. Hopefully a deep clean will get things back on track.
I started mine by putting down my knife, teaching someone how to make veal demi, and going for sushi with my wife.
Sushi, for me anyways, from a trusted source, is one of the few opportunities without the help of libations, when I can simply eat, shut up, and enjoy. Other than the sheer experience of scouting for the best and freshest possible, it is not a form of cuisine I would claim to have in my repertoire. Which makes it great. It is a recharge to simply indulge when you have no bias and eat willingly...even though you will spend a fortune and be hungry and hour later. Even if you eat the clever love boat for two....Brennan.
I don't have any ending for this folks. I had a block. I actually worked it out by writing I think, I hope, I am shooting real hard for. People are hungry. Sushi is good. Never eat it in Mexico though....I'm still working back to full strength after 3 plus years.....nighty night and until next time.....

Another Big Catch From CherryPoint...

Its taken a little while to get accustomed to the way farmers just show up in your kitchen and say "Hey here is this Suckling Pig, 6 boxes of tomatoes, giant bags of sweet onions, have fun....." That didn't happen a whole lot in Jville. Its fun though, not complaining. Well it kind of works the same way with fish.

Almost on a weekly basis, one or two of the chefs here at Kiawah will go out to Cherrypoint and just pick out fish right off of the boat. It worked out great today when one of our chefs called me in the early afternoon, right after I had sent back some Halibut because it was from the Atlantic. I says "Hello"....he says "What would you like, wreckfish or barrelfish?" I chose wreckfish, one of my new favorite things to eat. The dish sold well:

Pan-seared Wreckfish, Hand-Rolled Crab Agnolotti, Prosecco Tempura Asparagus and Warm Dijon Cream.....really enjoyed snacking on the Prosecco Tempura Asparagus...........