Saturday, August 23, 2008

Specials, in photo


This is the Bistro steak 'philly' style.


Chicken Bolonese topped with basil and parmasean.


Our Flatbread; roasted garlic white sauce, bacon, black olives and motz.
This presentation was preped by Ian, and reminds me of the classic French Pissaladière sans anchovies.


Obviously not a full dish, but a very close view of what was our daily vegetable;
sautee Ohio sweetcorn, peppers, onions, and black beans.
Click on this pic for full effect! So big and shiny I can almost taste it.


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4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dude, WTF makes that beef Philly Style ??
Have you ever worked in a Philly steak sandwich shop ??
Have you ever been to Philly ??
Why in Ohio do you guys refer to a steak with cheese and peppers Philly style ??
As a chef from Philly, and now working in Ohio, I am begging Ohio's chefs, don't call anything Philly unless you can pull off the real thing.
Is that white schmegma a cheese sauce with rue balls because it wasn't strained ??
It looks like Peter North had his way with the dish.

Hey I'm just saying .............

Michael Walsh said...

Dear Mr. Philly Chef,

I in fact have been to philly, and have had a philly steak sandwich there, althought i did not work there, you are correct. I had a sandwich that was 75% bread, some thinly sliced beef, a few sautee vegetables, and some white schmegma, so dude, wtf, i thought i was making an improvement here.

we sold 20 of the dishes in one night, sold out! so while your uber philly chef style might not appreciate this dish, us down home steriotyping ohio'ins understand that the words 'steak' and 'philly' imply getting cheating on the steak end, with some limp ass vegetagbles, white shmegma, and a whole mouth full of bread. That is why a few people appreciated this dish.

thank you for your opinion.

ps. we also ate at Morimoto, Brasarie Perriere, and striped bass.

Anonymous said...

Dude, apologies for bagging on your stuff. I just get very defensive with things termed Philly and look nothing like it came from Philly.
If you were going to attempt an up scale version of the dish, why not try stuffing the tenderloin with a cheese and porcini mixture, (don't cut the tenderloin, but rather, take a clean sharpening steel and ream an opening that you can pipe the cheese mixture into) crust the outside with onions, roast it and serve on a roasted garlic ciabatta half drizzled w/ olive oil, that you then char grill, instead of the ceramic boat. Top the sliced tenderloin with carmelized piquello peppers and oven dried tomatoes.
Get rid of the doily on the plate because this is the 21st century and we are far removed from the 1970's. And being a respectable chef you won't want the grease from the fries left behind staring at your customers.
If you are the same chef that I read about on Cleveland foodie blog, I would certainly expect updated plate presentations from you.

Michael Walsh said...

Dear Uber Philly Chef,

Thanks for your suggestions. Sound like an interesting dish. I'm sure we could push the limits Wylie Dufresne and do a provolone sphere with sous vide peppers, and onion foam with shaved nitrogen frozen rib-eye, but it would fail to translate to my customer base.

The reason we go to work is to make money, that is why the restaurant exist, that is why the dishwasher shows up, that is why your manager puts on a tie, and why you can drive your car to you house. No matter where or when the time is, as a chef you have to addapt to your surroundings. Sometimes that means stepping it up a notch and grabbing the liquid nitrogen, other times it means that the customer is not offended by paper doilies and it's perfectly acceptable to use them in conjunction with the other tablewares that are available.

The opinions of this dish may change, but the facts are in black and white, 20 pieces purchased, 20 pieces sold, $400 revenu for the restaurant, and not one unhappy customer. I'm sucessfully adapting to my situation.

Sounds like a more ideal situation than sitting on 15 provolon spheres and 8 pounds of -40 degree ribeye.

Thanks for the chat!