A Non-food Post cont.

Creamy Corn Sauce

We use this sauce with corn ravioli at the restaurant, it's aroma and complexity grows with a few drops of truffle oil at the end.

6 ears Corn, cleaned, kernals only

2 yellow Onions, small dice

2 cloves Garlic

1 quart Chicken Stock

1 quart Heavy cream

Salt Pepper, Tabasco

Cook the onions and garlic untill brown, carmalized and sweet, then add the corn, cook untill all the liquid the corn gives up has reduced. Add the Chicken stock, reduce heat to low and reduce by half allowing corn and onions to cook through. Finally, add cream and warm up gently, puree half this mixture in a blender, this will thicken the sauce appropriatly. Season with salt, pepper, and tabasco, go heavy if you want more heat, and lastly truffle oil if desired.

Spring Menu Changes

Baked Lobster Cavatelli





Sea Scallops topped with Brie Cream and Bacon, Mushroom-artichoke ragout, Chef's Garden Watercress







Seared Alaskan Halibut, Yukon Gold Potato Puree, Hearts of Palm Slaw in a Basil-Lime Cream







Grilled Flat Iron Steak over Blue Cheese and Fingerling Potato Hash, Topped with Seared Foie Gras, Port Syrup

Grilled Lamb Loin, Spring Vegetagle Panzanella, Greek Vinagraitte

What's wrong with truffle oil???

In this weeks edition of The New York Times De Gustibus Daniel Patterson of Coi restaurant in San Francisco examine the use of truffle oil in an article titled, "Hocus-Pocus, and a Beaker of Truffles" With pictures of standard chemistry glassware in tow a first glance of the piece would give you the impression that The Times was bestowing great praise once again on the most un-approachable cuisines in the likes of el bulli, moto, or Aliena. Quite on the contrary, this essay goes on to mark the true fresh truffle as a supreme elitist food, and any product that has similar effects on the olfactories of diners as frauds, and the chef’s who use them as perpetrators of and evil plot.

It is very interesting to note that the quality press and interest that molecular gastronomy has garnered in the past few years has gone a long way to change peoples perspectives on how things should taste, look, and feel, as these are the exact qualities that most MG chefs manipulate in order to shock dinners. For instance at moto, the menu is edible, and in theory has flavors relative to the items described. Quite a shock to anyone who thought they came in for a sheet of seaweed wrapped around rice with raw fish inside. After considering instances like this I don’t think the average dinner who is aware of such gastronomic anomalies will be at the least troubled with the chemical make up of truffle oil.

Truffle oil has come a long way, not necessarily the product itself, but the way chefs have used it. Remember that one cold Christmas in the late 80's where every little girl on the planet wanted a Cabbage Patch Kid Doll, well, by the mid 90's chef’s had the same type of affinity toward truffle oil. We put it on everything, and lots of it, and we told everyone where we put it proudly. Some chef’s actually mixed expensive fresh truffles with the oil, or tried to pass off oil alone mixed with other fresh mushrooms as truffles, as noted in the De Gustibus piece. While I was fresh in the kitchen at this time, I followed directions and went through a lot of truffle oil before I ever so much as laid eyes on a fresh truffle. The first time I handled a fresh truffle I had a good 4 years of truffle oil experience under my belt, and I was very unimpressed with the $150 a pound dirtball that arrived in a brown paper bag lined with rice. It was at this point that someone explained to me the exclusiveness of the truffle, why it was so special, all the truffle products that are available, and what truffle oil was. In total agreement with the facts put forth by Daniel Patterson, truffle oil is a chemical compound and oil that has the aroma of truffles.

It is only with the past 3 or 4 years that I’ve grown into a chef who is experienced enough to have a light hand with the truffle oil. I find a few drops here or there go a long way in any dish, and the aroma is much more pleasant when it shares the spotlight with another ingredient, most obviously other mushrooms. I’ve come to use it so sparingly, except in a Vinaigrette, that I rarely feel the need to even mention it’s use. That said, I think it is a wonderful product and the use of it should not be admonished on the bases of it’s chemical nature. Everything is chemicals you see, that is what molecular gastronomy is teaching us, this is something Daniel Patterson seem to be forgetting. This chemical with the aroma of truffles is harmless health wise, even economicly it has not in any way replaced the use of fresh truffles as every year the prize truffles are more and more expensive. Once again, if we can infuse paper to taste like a maki roll, then how is it that truffle oil is fake and evil.

The expense of truffles pre truffle oil lead it to be a local, highly prized delicacy as pointed out by Daniel Patterson. Only the finest restaurant with the highest priced plates could afford to import truffles to the states for discerning dinners here. "Truffle oil has simultaneously democratized and cheapened the truffle experience," this statement is taken directly from the text of the De Gustibus piece. This seems to be quite the elitist foodie statement. I don’t think there is anything wrong with making high priced ingredient more accessible to a majority of dinners. Even if the experience of these ingredients might suffer in authenticity, I think this makes the real thing even that much more special. Let’s examine a parallel situation where name brand Tylenol is a fresh truffle, and CVS brand acetaminophen is truffle oil. I ask you this, is the experience of pain relief "democratized and cheapened" by the fact a generic brand is available at a fraction of the cost??? In this light I think it is ridiculous to challenge any chef who is honest and knowledgeable with regards to the use of truffle oil

Pizza Dough

I have recently started making pizza dough by hand at the restaurant. It takes two batches on the week-end, and that's alot of elbow grease. Due to the batch size, and heavy duty mixer usually implemented to do this type of task it never occured that I might share this recipie. After a few weeks going it the old school way, I'm realizing that everyone should give it a try. This recipie is directly scaled down from my 12 pound batch size, so if things are loose don't hold back in tossing in more flour.

6 cups AP Flour

2 cups warm Water

1/2 oz Yeast

1/2 oz Honey

1 tblsp Salt

1 tblsp EVOO

Disolve honey in warm water then add yeast, letting this mixture rest for 10 minutes. Measure out the rest of the ingrediants into a bowl and incorperate the water mixture. Using your hands mix this mass untill a fluid ball forms, then turn this dough out onto a table. Kneed the dough for about 10 minutes, I usually measure this by 3 songs on the radio. When you first start to kneed the dough will break and pull apart, after some time the dough will streach, and pull back on itself, this is what we want. Take the kneeded dough and place it in a oiled bowl and top this with a cloth soaked with warm water. The dough will grow, and when it is about doubled in size it is ready to portion. For a thin crust divide the dough into 6 pieces, for a thicker crust try only 4 portions. Take each divided piece, and using your hand as a cage, roll the dough ball around on the table top where the dough becomes tight, and uniformly round. At this point let the dough rest under a wet towl for another 10 minutes. At that point we can roll it out flat, top it with cheese and call it a pizza.

Weekly Specials

App: Chef's Garden Local Green Asparagus baked in a Morel Mushroom Omlette, topped with Morel Cream, and Gryere Cheese

Salad: Oven Dried Strawberries, Pickled Red Onions, Buttermilk Blue Cheese, Roast Garlic Crouton, Chef's Garden Watercress in a White Balsamic Vinagraitte

Entree: Alaskan Halibut, Seared with Parslied Day Boat Bay Scallops and Parisian Potatoes, Baked Cucumber and Chorizo wrapped with Bacon

Side Dish: Chef's Garden Local Green Asparagus with Foraged Mushrooms.

Desserts: Sweet Potato and Butterscotch Nepoleon, Strawberry-vanilla emulsion, Pineapple-Mint garnish.....layers of Sweet Potatoe Brioche, Sweet Potato-Coconut Mousse, and Butterscotch Pudding

Visiting Velocity Bistro

On my day off today I stopped in at the crisp, newly re-opened Velocity Bistro. A fire shut down operations last year after a strong opening. Fortunately a lot of familiar faces, and menu items remain unchanged. The patio is quite nice, there is just enough traffic, just far enough away that there is a feeling of energy, yet you feel like you left rush hour behind. The biggest difference at first site is that the smaller side room has been brightened up, and looks like an equally inviting place to dine, where in the past it’s been something of cast off room isolated from the action.

I had a wonderful Mojito. I was craving one, and this version was straight forward and honest. For a started I tasted the Lobster Potato Skins. While the whole thing came out piping hot, only the smaller potatoes where cooked through, and lobster could have spent a few less minutes in the oven. The imagination of the dish saved it, along with the strong bacon-goat cheese flavors. Next I indulged in the Fried Bologna Stromboli, with fried egg, caramelized onion, and borsin sauce. The whole thing just felt dirty.....in a good way. The dough was nicely developed and plump with a crisp crust. The meat was flavorful, and the sauce added up to a meal that put’s my Bologna and mustard sandwich to shame.

The staff was very friendly, yet professional. Some servers seems drastically more polished than others, but at least everyone was pleasant. I watched the patio fill up right around 6pm, which is very promising for a first day back.

Weekly Specials

Soup: Carrot-Tangerine Bisque, Peekytoe Crab and Sweet Potato Brioche Panzanella

App: Artichoke and English Pea tart, Meyer Lemon curd, Shotzie's garden fresh Lemon Balm Sprigs



Salad: Chef’s Garden Asparagus Salad, Red Cipollini Onions, Frizee, Ricotta, Balsamic-Bacon Vinaigrette

Entree: Lake Erie Walleye, Curry-Cauliflower Cous-Cous, Green Peas, Raisons, Fried Capers, Baby Fennel, Frescobaldi EVOO

Creative Time

The pace at the restaurant has allowed for some creative culinary creations and time to photo them. Two intersting dishes this week are pictured here. I found the recipie for the Meyer lemon skillet cake at www.tastingmenu.com, if you haven't visited this blog, you should. It is one of my favorites.

To finish we offered this Meyer lemon skillet cake with Meyer lemon curd, grilled Strawberrys with truffle honey, garnish with Chef's Garden Mico Citrus Herbs, and Vanilla infused Sea Salt.

As a traditional amuse it was a Grilled Lamb Loin with Curry Cauliflower Fregola Sarda Cous-Cous, English Peas, Raisons, and Fried Capers drizzled with Chervil Oil and Fleur de Sel.The cous-cous worked out well, I warmed the pre-cooked cous-cous with butter, puree of cauliflower that already had curry madras, english peas, and our house blend pizza cheese. The texture was suprisingly light, yet had great cauliflower flavor with sublte curry background. The addition of raisons and capers seemed almost cliche, but worked well.

A Foie Gras Dilemma

The Ancient Egyptians began domesticating geese as documented in tombs build around 2390 B.C. The practice of gavage was most likely implemented at this time to produce a fattier bird. With the exception of the affluent Western world of the twentieth century, every culture has treasured clean animal fats due to their high caloric ratio, digestibility, and vitamins. A goose can turn corn, and grains with a low caloric ratio, and low digestibility into fat with much more success than people can. For this reason it made both culinary, economic, and health sense to breed, and fatten geese.

The Jews of Rome became maybe the most dedicated and dependant culture to be associated with fattened geese. One of the first documented cases where the practice of gavage and fattening of geese is chastised occurred in a parable by Rabbi Bar-Bar Hannah in a third-century parable. After describing a morbid fattened goose the rabbi comments that, "The Israelites will eventually have to account for their conduct before justice" For the past 1700 years the debate over force feeding geese in order to produce a fattier end product has raged. At times the demand for high calorie animal fat has far overshadowed the somewhat cruel practice of gavage. During other times farmers have intentionally tried to alleviate the cruelty involved, for instance in the 13-century German-Jewish farmers began force feeding the geese a dough instead of raw grains which had the potential to harm the geese throat.

The idea of eliminating the cruelty in foie gras production continues to this day. While the geese are now ducks in the United States, and the farms are large standardized productions, the idea is the same. A duck must be force feed with a tube for the last 15 days of it’s life in order to produce a liver fat enough to be considered foie gras. With the prospect of foie gras being declared illegal by the government, farmers are scrambling to convince the public that a humane foie gras is possible. The New York Times story by Juliet Glass recounts some advancements that one has to assume are a direct result of current pressure.

The economics of foie gras play an important role in the desire to obtain a cruelty free product. I believe there is a way to obtain a fattened duck liver using a modified duck feed, and habitat manipulation relieving most of what is considered to be cruel by todays critiques. While in the past it has been advantageous to use a goose as a vehicle to change the chemical make up of a whole lot of difficult to digest grains into a relatively small amount of calorie and vitamin packed animal fat, this is no longer the case. Unfortunately the whole lot of grains are very inexpensive, and when used to feed ducks to produce foie gras the monetary return is good. For example, a pound of course ground corn meal cost me around a dollar. Top of the line fresh domestic foie gras cost about $30 a pound, and the rest of the bird is available for sale as well. When will the foie gras farmers be willing to face up to the fact their product margins in the future can either decrease or disappear.

I think Duck feed can be the cure for the problem. The market for modified foods available to the human consumer is amazing. A visit to GNC will produce protein powder, carb drinks, vitamin capsules, dissolvable fiber all at a price above what it would cost to get those same nutrients from raw food. The lesson here is that high quality, high calorie, easily digestible feed can very well be produced, but it’s going to get expensive. Consumers have shown they are willing to pay high prices for luxury ingredients, as well as homey organic small batch products. I’m betting that consumers would welcome a high priced less-cruel foie gras.

The idea that today ducks are treated in a cruel way can be contested in and of itself. The life cycle of ducks, geese and other migratory birds involves a period where the animal over feeds itself during periods where food is available. Fat is the most efficient storage medium for all animals, and ducks have developed a way for their livers to store fat at a rate and quantity that would be unhealthy to most other animals. The fact that farmers have capitalized on this natural occurrence in conjunction with the birds extremely strong digestion system, specifically it’s esophagus, creates a gateway to the idea that ducks are in fact quite happy gourging themselves for 2 weeks.

It is my opinion that the ducks farmed for foie gras are not treated as cruel or more cruel than any other animal used for human consumption. For examples of how some farms treat animals visit, http://www.factoryfarming.com./ The idea that foie gras was once a useful tool in harvesting animal fats from vegetables makes any discomfort to the animal in some ways acceptable. This is no longer the case, and foie gras is purely a moment of indulgence, and for this reason I think it is important to investigate the humane treatment of these animals. I will continue to purchase, prepare and eat foie gras as often as possible. I believe that the treatment of these animals is acceptable, but can be improved, and without my support future advancements would be more difficult for the farmer.

English Pea Bread Sticks

What I created here is a general twist on the basic Pate Choux recipie. I've always felt the impulse to use a liquid other that water/milk in the recipie. Reduced apple cider, and orange juice both work well, as does English Pea juice.

3 cups English Pea juice
3 cups AP flour
8 oz butter
10 eggs
1 cup Parmasean
10 dashes Tabasco
Salt and Pepper

For the English Pea juice add just enough water to a blender full of raw english peas for them to blend, then strain through a chinois.

For the Pate Choux brown the butter, then cover with the pea juice, as soon as it comes to a boil dump in the flour and stir untill a tight ball forms. It's easiest to transfer this mixture to a Kitchen Aid, but in any case add the cheese and seasonings while the mixture is still hot, then incorperate the eggs one at a time.

This mixture is quite versitile, using a piping bag it's easy to make sticks as pictured above, or profiteroles, or an eclair shape. This mix can also be dropped into boiling water to make a dumpling. To make sticks just pipe them out, about 4 inches makes for a stable end product. Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 10-12 minutes.

Weekly Specials

Soup: Classic Lobster Bisque with Fresh chopped Maine Lobster

App: Hand picked Peeky-toe Crab Fresh from Maine, with a Meyer Lemon-Jicama relish, Spicy Saffron Pancakes, Pineapple-Basil Emulsion, Fleur de Sel, and Chef's Garden Micro Citrus Herbs

Entree: First of the Year Wild Caught King Salmon, pan seared, with English Pea-Potato Pancakes, Asparagus, White Grape Sweet and Sour Sauce

Proscutto Broth

Proscutto is rather expensive, especially when you purchase a whole leg and slice it down. There is a rather difficult pound of prosutto to slice, at the top, but it costs us the same as the rest, so we have to find a use. The best use I've come up with is to make a proscutto broth. It's best to grind the proscutto, but dicing it up does the same job over time. Throw in some mire-poix, cover with chicken stock, and in an hour or so.....liquid proscutto. pictured here as part of a daily foie gras presentation.

Lettuce

If you have never examined the lettuce that make up your salad, then you are missing out. Of course we all know iceberg, romain, and that everchanging spring/mesculan mix. I was able to pick specific lettuce varieties for a special salad this past week. The Chef's Garden has an eye poping quantity of lettuces and greens in a variety of sizes making it very easy to come up with something unique. This unique blend of greens was dressed in a very simple, sweetened, red wine vinagraitte, with pickled Chef's Garden baby carrots, and Coulrouge soft ripened cows milk cheese from Moucol artisianal creamery in Colorado.

Cryatal Verde Lettuce has a very succulant leaf that holds an amazing amount of moisture for it's size. It's flavor is very mild, and green. Due to this extream succulance this lettuce seems to have a shorter shelf life than most other.

Red Komatsuna lettuce is a wonderful bi-colored leaf lettuce that has a sweet flavor with hardy leaves. The eye appeal of deep purplish red, and bright green all in one leaf is a great asset to this mildly flavored lettuce.

This Ruffled Red Mustard brought a whole lot to the salad. It's branching leaves added alot of volume to the salad, and the tangy flavor was a plesant contrast with the milder greens. This Lettuce showed the best shelf life as we used it as a garnish 4 days after it arrived

Sweet Dandelion Greens are a far streach from the bitingly bitter mature dandelion greens most of us think of. At this stage of their growth the leaves are plesantly tender all the way down the stalk. Out of the four this was my overall favorite.

Smoked Tomato BBQ

32 oz OJ
8 oz Sirachi
8 oz Molasses
8 oz strong coffee
2oz red wine vin.
4 tblsp roast garlic
1 perf pan worth of Smoked tomatoes (8 minutes) about 20 roma tomato
2 red onions
2tblsp sugar

Caramelize onions with sugar, combine rest of ingredient, cook for 10 minutes. Vita-prep, no need to strain.

Vita-prep is an industrial kitchen blender, Hamilton Beach should work as well
This sauce is rather spicy, if you like things milder adjust the sirachi, but be careful because the less heat means more smokiness.

2,500 Miles Worth of Diesel Fuel, Fair Trade, Wal-Mart, and How to Act at the Market

I recently read a very interesting article, Local is the New Organic, by Brita Belli. There are some very interesting points brought up, many of them I’ve considered in the past, some are relatively new ideas, and some are hopelessly romantic. In the end though, I’m only 3 weeks away from going to my first farmers market of the year.

In her article Belli claims that a parcel of food is likely to travel up to 2,500 miles before it is sold. Not only does this put an unnecessary pressure on the environment in the wake of refrigerated diesel trucks rolling rampant on our highways, but you have to consider the price the farmer is paid if his product is bought at as low a price as possible to enable this great expenditure of transportation cost, all to meet the same price point of a local product with low travel expenses. How is it possible that a Fiji Apple from New Zealand costs the same as a Cortland Apple from Ashtabula, Ohio. What is the benefit of importing apples, or any specific fruit or vegetable when it can be produced, processed, and sold locally. Living in Ohio, we can’t sustain a long growing season, but I don’t understand why in September I can go to the grocery store and purchase tomatoes from Florida. Why are they even available, and how is it that they are cheaper than what I pay when I’m putting cash money in the hands of the people who actually grow them. When I bought my last pound of ‘fair trade’ coffee beans I thought this exact situation is what that organization was lobbying against.

"That organic label told consumers their food was safer, fresher and more likely to have come from a small, reliable farm than a mega-farm-factory. Then, last year, Wal-Mart started selling organic products. Suddenly, organic didn’t seem so special" This is the opening statement of Belli in her article, and I think it is a short and concise summery of this dismal situation. Basically factory farming and corporate giants are able to manipulate the government and it’s regulations in a way that makes the priority of wholesome individuals null and void. I think I’m at liberty to say that when Chez Panise opened, their definition of ‘organic’ is far from what we understand it as today. In the same way the word, "local" will be twisted and jaded in the future. In the food industry words like, ‘fresh’, ‘frozen’, ‘wild’, and ‘pre-washed’ all have different meanings than they do to the regular public. It’s only a matter of time before Wal-Mart offers local produce, produced where, who knows. The only hope is that they keep it separated into their stores and don’t pull their semi-truck up at my local farmers market.


"The story of your food" should be the title of a pamphlet that is handed out at every suburban farmers market nation wide. Unlike the grocery store where most fruit and vegetables are washed, waxed, and sealed in packaging, the farmers market presents some real life dangers that mass producers have overcome.

First, fruit and vegetables grow in dirt. Dirt is dirty. Wild animals, birds, and bugs all defecate in the dirt where fruits and vegetables are grown. So wash your fruit and vegetables.

Second, be polite to the farmers, and the people helping them at the farmers market. So many times I’ve been bullied or interrupted by some old lady who wants to spend 15 cents on half a bunch of parsley, or a loud mouth tempting the farmer with a, "it better be the best corn I’ve ever had" kind of irrational rant. Why can’t people just act civil, save the yelling and the pushing for Wal-Mart, November 16th.

Third, and most challenging, know your produce. While it is fun to interact with the farmers, and other market goers, know some background. Know what is in season, that is how you know what is best to buy, it should be obvious once your there. Know which farmer specializes in what. Don’t buy garlic from the corn/apple farmer, buy it from the garlic farmer, he is there, just look around. Keep and eye out for your special situation. Basically if you have an allergy, or new born babies, you should be careful at the market. Know what you need to know about your situation with regards to fresh produce. For instance there are some beans that are toxic to young children when eaten raw, this is the customers responsibility to know. Unless each and every market going customer enriches their lives with these guidlines, sooner or later; Good-by farmers, good-by farmers market, good-by ability to make educated choices about the food we eat and where is comes from.

Weekly Specials

Soup: White asparagus bisque, truffled potato and pea croquette

App: Seared Sea Scallop, bacon wrapped white asparagus, foie gras moussse, candied citrus zest

Salad: Chef's Garden Cutting Edge greens salad, red wine vinagraitte, Chef's Garden baby carrots, coularouge cheese

Entree: Line caught Swordfish, coconut-lime black rice, lobster broth, citrus marinated boc choy

Dessert: Lychee tart, blackberry relish, lemon-white chocolate crisps

Nam Prik

I've never claimed to have a sly hand when it comes to Asian cookery. When I do feel an itch to whip of something exotic I usually find a reliable recipie, and stick with what comes from common sense. Unfortunatly for me this past friday I forgot that little piece of paper with the Nam Prik recipie. On the upside, what I did produce was a very tasty condiment, and after finding the original recipie, well, my memory wasn't all that accurate. Let me share with you my bastardized Nam Prik recipie.

6 Jalapeno, charred, skin and seeds removed

1 each red and yellow bell peppers

1 cup worth of shallots

1 bunch cilantro

3 limes zest

1/2 cup lime juice

1/2 cup Fish Sauce

1/4 cup roasted garlic oil

I rough chopped everything and pulsed it in the food processor leaving it just a bit chunky.

As you can see in the photo this sauce accompanied a raw vegetable summer roll.

Cheese Plate

It is almost alway my pleasure to indulge wanting customer with a amusing assortment of cheeses upon their request. I personally am very fond of artisianal crafted cheeses. The unfortunate fact is that these cheeses specificly have a relativly short shelf life. I guess this is what makes them so special. Here is a plate that includes from left to right, Soft ripened Lake Erie Creamery Aged Goat Milk Cheese with white grape gelee, 6 year old Carr Valley Chedder with candy cashew, Cabrales Spanish Blue with roasted bell peppers, 6 month old Manchego with aged Balsamic, Honey glazed Lake Erie Creamery Goats Milk Chevre, and finally a Barrel aged Feta from Cyprus topped with a sundried tomato relish.
I was lucky enough to snap off a few interesting shots of this cheese plate, for this reason I thought I would share it.

Weekly Specials

Soup: Eggdrop Soup, Marinated-Chilled Clams

App: PEI Mussels in Shitake-curry broth, Japanese Eggplant, baby boc choy

Salad: Marinated grilled vegetable salad, grilled Hallomi, baby greens, tuffled-soy vinaigrette

Entree: Sauteed Thai Snapper, Coconut flavored Black Rice, Raw Vegetable Summer Roll, Nam Prik dipping sauce

Mushroom-Goat Cheese Crustilliant

1 sheet prepared Puff Pastry

3 cups mushrooms sauteed with diced onion and garlic, portabella, button....

4 ounces Fresh, soft Goat Cheese

1 egg yolk

Sautee mushrooms till very dry. Mushroom mixture should be a fine chop, use the food processor, or chop by hand and chill. Mix chilled mushrooms with goats cheese and egg. Spread this mixture over the puff pastry, the mixture should be evenly distributed, but not necessarily a complete layer. Roll the pastry up so it's as long as possible. Try to roll as tight as possible without sqeezing the filling out. Put this log in the freezer for about 15 minutes. When the log is chilled solid, slice into 1/4 inch rounds, place on a silpat, parhment paper, or non-sick cookie sheet. If your non-stick device is reliable, press the rounds, smashing them flat, if you non-stick device is questionable, press them between the palms of your hands then lay them on your quesitonable device. Bake at 350, check after 8 minutes, if one side browns much faster than the other it is necessary to flip them over and cook another 3-4 minutes.

Small Plates Fail, conclusion

While the 1980's and 90's brought a vast array of culinary trends that both came and went within a short time, there are some basic ideas that stuck for all future culinarians. Healthy and/or organic, and now sustainable food has a definite niche. Ethnic cuisines are boundless and anyone has licence to interpret, and mix different cuisines even in most the horrible and dishonorable ways. The number of courses in a meal is a direct correlation to the quality of a meal, and the most realistic way to accomplish this is to make things very small while applying the optical allusion that things stacked high look bigger than they really are.

The Spanish culture has an interesting, but not isolated idea that eating small plates of food while drinking and socializing is a good thing. By the late 90's this idea collided with the crashing popularity of Haute Cuisines 25 course tasting menu and with in a few short years we have the most popular trend in American dinning, tapa. Follow this slippery slope, and suddenly, any Filipino, Korean, and Creole dribble or roll-up is a tapa. Unless it’s a meze (Turkish) or cichetti (as in Venice). With the absolute rage of Asian fusion in the air, many American restaurants who didn’t want to get cornered into roasted red pepper and olive tapa, renamed the whole concept as, "Small Plates" and that brings us up to 2007.

There are many question that need to be addressed at this point. More directly there are questions about how this idea of small plate, that we are going to define soon, will interact with the Cleveland working mans idea of meat and potatoes as a solid meal, something no one can deny. Who’s to profit most when you look at the economics of the small plates phenomenon? Finally, how long can it possibly last.

What is a ‘small plate’? There are many components to this question, such has the absolute size of the dish, and the food set upon it? The composition of the dish, is protein necessary, how about a sauce? Is the dish intended to be shared? How many plates would constitute a meal? How much does a plate cost? Then how much is this meal?

I’ve done some research and I’ve not found definite answers to these questions. I’ve reviewed a few dozen menus, mostly identical, and I’ve come up with the following conclusions based on this research and my experiences this past month dining out. A small plate is anything you purchase before dessert that is intended to be part of a multi course meal, including bread, butter, olives, chips or dip. The composition of small plates just like on a traditional menu can be divided up by common sense even when the words that describe them are not spaced accordingly. There are ‘salad’ small plates, ‘appetizer’ small plates for instance a plate of olives, and there are ‘main course’ small plates that contain a protein, starch, vegetable and a sauce. By no means are small plates miniature main courses, while the protein portion is usually a direct correlation, the rest of the dish is drastically reduced. This is to say a main course might contain 8 ounces of protein and 10 oz of starch and vegetables. A corresponding small plate would most likely have a half portion of protein, 4 ounces, accompanied by only 2 ounces of vegetable and starch. This seems to be a perceived value issue, since it is economially more efficient for the restaurant to load a plate with vegetables and starch. As for the overall size of the small plate I think that 3-4 ounces of protein is a good estimate. I’ve read that small plates are not at all intended to be shared, and should constitute only a few bites. The pricing of small plates is this, 5 courses at Muse, with 4 ounce wine pairing, $95, 65 without wine, 5 courses at Light Bistro cost $55, small plates at the Flying Fig are $9 each. At Light Bistro the range of prices went from $2 for a plate of olives, up to $12 for Shortribs, and at Muse the all small plate menu topped out with a $17 Lamb chop, and just to throw it in, Lolita happy hour pricing is $5 for half portions of some of there popular dishes, finally we can compare this to the Baricelli Inn grand tasting of 7 courses during the early 00's included a foie gras course, cheese course, intermetzo, fish, meat and dessert course which all cost around $110.

Small plates in Cleveland is challenging most pointingly due to the fact that most people are more than happy eating the same meat and potato dish they had last time, save nothing has changed with it, and finishing this off with a huge slice of cheesecake, and it has got to be a slice, not a miniature, and if you call it ‘NY style’ this is even better. There are many honest people out there making a secure living and raising their children based on restaurants with this exact plan, and god bless them. Then there are others who want diversity, and changes, and I applaud there efforts, except when they rip me off ‘as a customer’ with this small plates scam. I spent the past 10 minutes clicking away to find the website of some of my favorite restaurants, just to compare pricing. I think I found a nice group of restaurants, Lola, the biggest restaurant opening in the Midwest this past year, Blackbird in Chicago, Three Birds in Lakewood, and Fahrenheit. I picked 5 courses, 2 apps, a soup/salad, entree, and dessert, and the prices rang up in dollars as, 72, 70, 65, and 53 respectively.

At this point the best deal is Muse 5 courses with wine pairing, after that the small plates are a wash. Consider it cost less to have 5 full size courses at Fahrenheit as it does to have 5 ill prepared small plates at Light Bistro. If you concede that small plates are approximable half the size of traditional portions, then to get the same amount of food at Muse as you would at Lola it would cost you $58 more!?!?!?!? So why is the customer paying the restaurant more money for smaller portions!?

From what I’ve seen ‘small plate’ are not in fact small plates. The menu is written in one continuous column, the food per plate is halved, and the price is only reduced by 1/3rd. Customers are encouraged to graze on 3 or more courses, which is a realistic goal for any traditional menu styled restaurant. Unfortunately for the customer, 3 small plates is not really a full meal. For instance, I had the scallop small plate at the Flying Fig, it was one scallop a tablespoon of celery root puree, and some citrus oil. I know that the scallop cost only $1.20 but this dish cost $9. The average scallop entree has 4 scallops, so 4 of these small plates would cost $36!!! I’ve yet to see a $36 scallop entree anywhere.

Where do we go from here??? Well, I think the idea of small plates needs to be re-examined by these restaurants and they should truly challenge themselves by restructuring the pricing and sizing of what constitutes a meal to be more in the range of 8 to 10 plates, here plates are in the $3 to $8 range. This would encourage customers to try something new, or add on a plate just for fun. The mathematics here say that 10 plates with an average price of $5.50 would come to a grand total of $55, well within the price range of our sampled traditional style restaurants, but this time the customer has twice as many courses.

The circumstance for the restaurant is daunting, they need to have a lot of variety, and a staff prepared to cook and sell any and all of it. It is also twice as distant from a 5 course to a 10 course meal when dealing with customers who have only had to make 3 choices in the past. I think the prospects of a successful small plates restaurant in Cleveland is realistic only when it is not necessary for each and every customer to take in a full 10 courses in order for the restaurant to be financially successful. It was never my understanding that any Spanish gastro-pub intended it’s patrons to sign on for 10 tapas and 6 sangria before they move on. When the time comes for a culinary rich area of Cleveland to rise, where restaurant don’t compete for customers, they compete for pride, then and only then will a daring and honest small plates restaurant succeed in the eyes of discerning customers.

Muse, Light Bistro and how Small Plates Fail, Part one

With in the past month I’ve visited two new restaurants in Cleveland. Muse in the Ritz Carlton on Public Square, and Light Bistro in Ohio City occupying the former nationally acclaimed Parker’s Bistro. Both restaurants claim to follow in the fresh laid tracks of the new ‘small plates’ trend, and for this reason I was not all together happy with my experiences at either. Fortunately the precise execution of culinary tasks made my visit to Muse a success, while the kitchen at Light Bistro tripped, stumbled, and fell flat on it’s face.

Light Bistro did not miss the mark in all cases, one ray of light that I thoroughly enjoyed was the lack of flatware, glassware, candles or flowers on the table. It was quite pleasant not having to rearrange the tabletop before finding a comfortable area to dine. The menu at Light Bistro is encased in an impressive leather bound book including both the food menu, and a restrained and limited wine menu. The 3 distinct rooms at Light Bistro all stick to a dark wood and exposed brick theme with sparingly arranged paintings, and lighting. On the other hand the room containing Muse is as grand as one would expect after shuttling up to the third floor in the Persian Carpeted elevator at the Ritz Carlton. The recess lighting hid behind dark wood sectioned the Muse ceiling into a pleasing grid of wood and light. The room centered around a large fire place, and successfully conveyed the idea of warmth and comfort in the brightly colored artwork and lighting that made such colorful work pop off the wall in a very entertaining way. We ate diner at the Muse Bar, a very small 5 seat area. I found the table top, and the seat of the chairs to be a little to close for my comfort.

The food....I’ll withhold the pricing structure as it supports my decree of the failure of small plates better than it explains the condition of the culinary talents at either restaurant. I visited Muse first, and I thought the menu was rather straight forward, with a lack of creativity or emotion. The execution was top notch though. Everything we had was cooked to perfection, the chicken was moist, the scallops caramelized, shortribs where fork tender, beef tornedos where medium rare as requested, squab was rosey red and the foie gras with it was fat and juicy. All the sides, and garnishes where at proper temperature, and delicately placed.. The most recent visit was to Light Bistro where the menu looked exciting and adventurous, unfortunately the execution was poor at best. I over heard that the ‘Chef’ was not in the kitchen this night, but that is no excuse. The eggplant flan was pleasantly textured, and interestingly flavored less the creme anglaise it called company on the plate. Pickled shrimp where small and butterflied which didn’t help with the fact that they where tough and rubbery from the pickle. I’ve marinated shrimp in the past and when they cook up as rubbery as these, I’ve put them straight in the trash. I was very interested in a Killbruck Valley Farms mushroom salad with a red wine poached egg. Once again my mouth watered, but for the wrong reason, the flavor of vinegar made the salad almost un-eatable, and the small dice and overcooking of the mushrooms was very sad. A shrimp and crab cake was good, the texture pleasantly firm due to the shrimp. I’ve never, ever, and hope I never again am forced to send a piece of foie gras back on my plate destined for the trash can, but this is where this foie gras belonged along with the resume of the cook who destroyed it. Even more disappointing was that this burnt foie gras topped a fried rice in which the rice was fried in burnt foie gras fat, it brings tears to my eyes such a disappointment. Pork belly was flavorful, and the sparing use of ultra spicy chipotle cous cous was on spot. Unfortunately, the complete destruction of a luxury ingredient ended our meal. Kobe beef in both cases, sate was cut way to thick making it almost un-chewable, and the vinegar must have spilled into the greens with the sate.

The braised Kobe was cooked nicely but accompanied by an egg omelette that had been cooked till caramelized and brown on the bottom. I’m not a fan a absolute culinary rules, but eggs, or omelettes for sure shouldn’t be browned.. That being said, I think the word ‘disappointment’ brings a summary to the food I ate at Light Bistro

It is my intention to use my experience at both these restaurant to examine the execution of the ‘small plates’ theme as it is currently available in the Cleveland area. In an effort to distance this discussion from the unfortunate events that occurred at both places, I am beginning this discussion as a new post.

Truffled Potato Profiteroles

Ingredients/ Method
8 oz Butter
3 cups water
3cups flour AP
10 whole eggs
Salt, tabasco, 1 cup grated Parmasean

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Boil water, butter, and salt . Add flour and remove from heat. Work mixture together and return to heat. Continue working the mixture until all flour is incorporated and dough forms a ball. Transfer mixture into bowl of a standing mixer and let cool for 3 or 4 minutes. With mixer on stir or lowest speed add eggs, 1 at a time, making sure the first egg is completely incorporated before continuing. Once all eggs have been added and the mixture is smooth put dough into piping bag fitted with a round tip. Pipe immediately into golfball-size shapes, 2 inches apart onto parchment lined sheet pans. Cook for 10 minutes, then turn the oven down to 350 degrees F and bake for 10 more minutes or until golden brown.

5 pounds Yukon gold potatoes, boiled in salted water until done.
2 tbsp. Truffle pate
1# butter
5 egg yolks
Salt and Pepper

Whip potatoes with butter and truffles, season. Wrap in plastic wrap small enough to fit into pastry bag with star tip.

For service cut profiterole in halve, pipe hot potatoes onto base of profiterole, warm base, potatoes and top in 400 degree oven for 4-5 minutes. Finally drizzle with white truffle honey and a dusting of chopped thyme and parsley.

Weekly Specials

Soup: Seafood Chowder; Scallops, Shrimp, Squid, and Grouper in a Lobster-Saffron broth.








App: Crispy Veal Sweetbreads, Artichoke Puree, Smoked Walnut Pesto, Kumquat Marmalade









Entree: Sautee Rainbow Trout, Chick-pea Fritter, Garlic-White Bean Puree, Pickled Spring Vegetables.

Recipe de jour

The First comment I recieved from my six month review post revolved around more recipies, and for that i'm greatfull because i'm full of quality recipies.

Gelatin
10 sheets to a liter

This seems all to simple, but very effective. What ever it is you want to gelatinize, this is the ratio. Bill Cosby eat your heart out, we figured it out. From jello shots, to tomato aspic, you now have the know how. Soften 10 sheets of gelatin in cold water, while warming a cup of liquid from the liter batch. When the gelatin is soft, and the liquid warm combine, mix into the master batch, and mold. The concoctions are endless, like a pomagranite, orange, carrot, leek, apple, cabbage, bannana jello!!!

On a more relative idea, I've used white grape gelle and brie together for an amuse, and Makers Mark Aspic with a Foie Gras Terrine was somewhat popular.

Six Month Review

It seems like only yesterday that I non-chalantly chose a template and color scheme for this blog, and proceeded to become ever more engulfed in sharing my personal daily experiences, thoughts, and pictures. I’ve been diligent with recording of ‘Weekly Specials’ which I’m quite proud of. I had in theory intended for this blog to be an accessory to my resume in this way. I’ve not had much feedback, or comments, but I have been very happy with the comments I have received, and I’ve been quick to reply in most cases. As of today some 243 people have reviewed my profile, and as far as I know that’s about 240 people I would have never communicated with in any way, and for this I’m very happy with my blog.

I’ve learned quite a few tricks over the past six months, but I’m very willing and wanting to learn more about taking my blog to as many people as possible. I’ve learned that ‘Links’ are a wonderful thing, and in fact I come to my own blog to click a link to a webpage I’m searching for. For this reason I’m intending to add between 5 and 10 new links over the next few weeks. I don’t intend to fill the ‘links’ column for pure self serving satisfaction, rather worthwhile, informative webpages.

Photos, photos, photos. For the past 10 years I’ve had a desire to further my interest in photography that began in high school. This blog has provided such an outlet. I’m using Picasa, and I’ve created an album of misfit photos I’ve taken over the past six months that relate to this blog, but have yet to warrant posting. It wasn’t until my ‘spring plates’ post that I realized if you click on any photo it blows up to a full frame photo with impossibly comprehendible detail. I’ve also gone though 3 digital cameras. I’m now using an Olympus FE-210, which quite pleasingly has a ‘cuisine’ scene setting as well as a super-macro setting allowing me to get as close as 2 inches to a subject.

Lastly, it is my intention to incorporate more recipes, especially recipes with photos into the blog. In this case, I’ve never claimed to be a good home cook. So I wouldn’t be good at writing a recipe for 2 cups of soup, rather 2 gallons. In this respect, I consider it the recipe readers responsibility to scale or otherwise interpret my recipes for what they are, guidelines.