March 2009 – Food Woolf

A Beet Recipe for My Mother

I became mortal last week. One phone call and one letter took away that lingering innocence of youth and reminded me that no one, not even myself, can live forever. Here, in the center of my being, is the undeniable understanding that every moment we have is precious; every morsel of food is important; and nothing is to be overlooked.

The phone call was from my mother. She just got the news that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer. Then, in what felt like seconds later, I received a letter from my doctor. My blood tests came back abnormal. I have high cholesterol.

The news effected me in unexpected ways. When I spoke with my mother, I found zen-like calm, hope and positivity for my mother’s recovery. I felt oddly at peace, without fear and satisfied with the idea that we will find a treatment that will heal her. And then, in the privacy of my own home, I openly mourned the loss of bacon in my life.

Goodbye Guanciale

My off-the chart 250 cholesterol number on the doctor’s letter read like a foodie death sentence. The letter suggested in detail I “replace butter with olive and canola oil…Replace red meat with fish, poultry and tofu…Limit foods with high cholesterol.”

I started freaking out. No more fearless consumption of fennel sausage pizza at midnight? No more bacon draped hamburgers for lunch? No chicken liver bruschettas as a quick mid-day snack? What about those yolk-dripping bacon and egg sandwiches I love so much? No more gobbling up the frosting-heavy corner piece of birthday cake?

I paced my apartment. I was a vegetarian once. I could do it again, right? But now that I know what I know, how could I turn my fork away from all those great foods I’ve come to love and build my whole life around?

The cure for cancer

It’s been days since we received her first diagnosis. There’s still so much we need to find out. But in the meantime my mother and our collective family have been doing our share of internet research. My mother doesn’t care much for “traditional” medicine. She fears the mainstream medical line of thinking and clings to the old ways of healing.

My mother says she can cure herself of cancer with the power of raw food. She says that with lots of whole grains, flax seed oil and raw fruits and vegetables she can bring healing to her body without the use of chemo. There are other people—beautiful young and thriving people like Kris Carr of crazy sexy life–who say such things are possible.

The idea of clean living through a wholesome, locally sourced diet of fresh fruit and vegetables makes sense to me. I’ve seen the awesome power of food. The farmers’ market is my church. But what I don’t understand is HOW raw food can heal cancer. Is the cancer that my mother has responsive to such dietary changes? Will she need other helping factors to make the cancer go away? Will she need estrogen therapy? Chemo?

These are questions that will take time to answer. There’s still so much to learn. In the meantime, I offer this recipe for my mother. Because it’s her favorite dish from when she visited Pizzeria Mozza. And she asked for it.

Mom: I know this isn’t a raw dish. But I did find a way to incorporate some flax seed oil and the flavors of the beets make me feel so alive. I know it will do good things–for both of us.

[print_link]
Beets in Horseradish
Inspired by a dish at Pizzeria Mozza
Makes 2 servings

1 small bunch of baby beets (golf ball sized)
1 tbsp flax seed oil
1 tbsp fresh horseradish
2 tsp white wine or champagne vinegar
1 tsp Dijon or whole grain mustard
Salt to taste

Preheat oven to 425º. Rinse beets well, dry. Place on a sheet pan and tent with tin foil. Roast in oven for 30-40 minutes, or until a knife easily slices through the beets’ center. Let beets cool.

When cool enough to touch, slip the skins off with your hands. Roughly chop the beats into small chunks. Should be about 1 ½ – 2 cups. Put beets in a mixing bowl and drizzle with the flax seed oil. Toss to lightly coat the beets. Using a wooden spoon, gently mix in horseradish, vinegar and mustard. The beets should have a slightly creamy look to them. Taste. Add salt, if needed. Adjust for taste.

Serve cold or room temperature. Perfect as a side dish (literally), since beets have a way of coloring everything they touch!

March 21October 14

Zuni Café Whole Chicken and Bread Salad Recipe

zuni roasted chicken recipe — Zuni Roasted Chicken

Perfect Sunday Supper–Best Whole Roasted Chicken recipe

Great restaurants are beguiling, addictive places that create dishes so captivating that guests are rendered awestruck and wanting more. Great chefs—people like Keller, Achatz, Goin, Adria, Batali, Waters–can turn ordinary diners into devotees with just one astonishing, well-made morsel. Transformed diners are rendered helpless and willing to do anything to recreate those first orgiastic moments of consumption. Sometimes, these dish-craving regulars beg the chef for the recipe. Or, if the guest happens to frequent an especially popular restaurant, they buy the cookbook and pray that their skills are up to the task of recreating the dish of their obsession.

Then there are other times, when diners come to know a great chef via their cookbook first. In lean times such as these, cookbooks are a food lover’s best tool to getting to know the style and flavors of our world’s best chefs from the comfort of their own home.

Zuni Café Cookbook

Though I have never been to Zuni Café in San Francisco, I consider myself a fan. Not only are Chef Judy Rodger’s recipes easy to follow and well constructed, her cookbook is written to teach the reader how to think like a chef. Her words are clear, direct and always informative. Reading a Judy Rodger’s recipe is like going to cooking school, one recipe at a time.

Continue For the Zuni Café Whole Roasted Chicken Recipe »

March 20November 14

Wine Review with Wine Woolf

Thanks to all of my years working in great wine-friendly Los Angeles and Boston restaurants, I take wine drinking very seriously. Wine can elevate a meal. A well made wine can highlight the subtle nuances of an herb or delicate ingredient. Searing acidity can cut through the fat of a juicy piece of meat and clean the palate for the next incredible bite. One sip of an extraordinary little known wine or a well aged investment bottle and your tastebuds are on a journey to a distant locale; great wine can lift you out of your comfort zone and put you in a place you’ve never been to before. Wine can relax, blur reality and show you life in a whole new way.

Not content with the question “can I have a glass of white wine?”, I often push my restaurant customers to define what it is they like about wine so that I can expose them to something new and different. When someone tells me “I only like a buttery Chardonnay,” I hear a challenge to offer a new way of seeing wine. Perhaps they like residual sweetness. Maybe they like clean flavors. Perhaps they just need to be talked to with kindness and shown the way into a whole new world of flavor.

Vino Time

Vino time is a very special moment in the household of Food Woolf. Usually enjoyed late at night at the end of a long day of waiting tables or during dinner to elevate the flavors of a home cooked or restaurant meal, Vino time is when we clear away the mental clutter of the day to focus on the enticing flavors and aromas of what’s in our glass. In hopes of bringing some great wine values and amazing finds, my husband Hans and I have decided to start Wine Woolf to share with you what great wines (or beer) that we have found at local stores or discovered at the restaurants we work at.

If you only like chardonnay or big reds from California, our wine picks will most likely be unfamiliar or seem esoteric. Perhaps they are. But the wines we seek out are high in complexity, deliciously easy drinking and always AFFORDABLE.

Great reds for steak

This week we fired up some tasty grass-fed steaks from La Cense Beef and tried them along side our hand-picked adult beverages.

New School

Tablas Creek Vineyard, Syrah, 2006 ($20)

Just the fourth national release of Syrah for Tablas Creek, a Paso Robles vineyard, this wine is definitely a keeper. Though located in the heart of juicy wine territory in Paso Robles, these talented wine makers craft their wines with European techniques–making most, if not all their wines, beautifully nuanced. We’ve been fans since the beginning and have the scars to prove it.

Nose: Crushed stones, black cherries. Finishes with a touch of anise. This syrah was drinking well in the tasting room so we absconded with half a case of the stuff without breaking the bank.

Taste: Savor the black fruit, white pepper, and pork fat. That’s right. We said it! Pork fat! And that fat played real nice with our Montana cut of beef.

**We’ll be writing more about Tablas in the future, for sure, but in the meantime, if you come across a bottle of Tablas’ Counoise anywhere, buy it! Throw a bottle or two in the fridge and save it for a perfect wine moment.

Old School

(we didn’t take a picture of this bottle, but here’s a photo of our wine making friend Chris Keller to entertain you!)

Bandol, La Bastide Blanche, 2006 ($26)

From one of the best appellations in Provence comes this deep, blackberry laden, bitter chocolate-dripping Mourvedre. The vines are grown traditionally in stony soils using organic fertilization. Grapes are all hand-picked.

Nose: Blueberries and mocha. Elegant and classy.

Taste: Juicy on the tongue and structured like your grandmother’s armoire. This wine plumps up with a little fat (say a great, marbled steak). This beautiful Bandol also loved the marbling on the rib-eye we sampled. Top notch wine paring for steak!

Cantina Zaccagnini, Il Vino “Dal Tralcetto”, Montepulciano d’Abruzzo, 2005 ($16)

We coaxed this bad boy off of a shelf at Corktree Cellars Wine Bar and Bistro in Carpenteria. Maybe it was the wine twig hanging on the label that caught our eye, or maybe it was the approachable grape of Montepulciano d’Abruzzo that made this wine hard to resist.

Nose: Bright fruit with crushed herbs. Rustic.

Taste: Nice balance of jam to tannin ratio. Raisinated, but smooth. Deep color. We loved the fact this wine was extremely affordable. Great choice for Top Sirloin.

March 17March 14

Cafecito Organico: a Q&A

Whenever I go to the Hollywood Farmers’ Market, one of the first stops on my trip is to go see Angel for a perfectly brewed cup of coffee from Cafecito Organico. Though carrying produce is always more difficult with a cup of coffee in hand, the flavor of Cafecito’s racy elixir is always worth the juggling.

An interview with Angel Orozco, Founder, Cafecito Organico

Continue To Read My Interview with Angel Orozco »

March 13

Dinner with Infinite Fress

In my rule book, the sign of a great dinner party is a sink full of dirty plates and a table covered in empty wine glasses. Our dinner last night with Marisa and Steve, the lovely couple behind the erudite food blog Infinite Fress, was that kind of a party.

Self-admitted restaurant regulars (The chefs at Hatfield’s and Jitlada know them by name), Steve and Marisa know good food and aren’t afraid to criticize. Cooking for them would not only need to be good, but also needed to show them who I am as a fellow food blogger via my kitchen.

On their blog Infinite Fress, Steve and Marisa craft their true life food adventure stories and restaurant reviews with the care of a fiction writers. The food blog, built as an amusement for themselves and friends, has begun to collect something of a small cult following of hard-core Los Angeles food bloggers. Despite themselves, Infinite Fress is starting to get noticed.

I read a fair amount blogs (maybe too many, my husband would whisper) so it was rather surprising to realize that Infinite Fress may be one of the few (if only) food blogs out there that 1) doesn’t rely on food porn (or any photography for that matter) 2) has me reaching for a dictionary every few sentences. Infinite Fress may be text heavy, but I never want to miss the meaning of any of Steve and Marissa’s well-chosen words.

Dinner Menu

Using a favorite Dan Barber cauliflower recipe as a starting point for the evening’s meal, I found complementary ingredients that helped me create a meal that showcased my talents in the kitchen. To start would be a simple salad of fennel*, wild spinach and mixed grapefruit and nutty cow’s milk cheese. For dinner would be black cod, sauteed oyster mushrooms and cauliflower two ways. For dessert I would follow a Cafe Zuni recipe for chocolate pots de creme and put them in antique tea cups. My husband Hans visited the Wine Hotel for some inspired wine collections (thanks Dan! Thanks Paul!) and Steve and Marisa came bearing examples of two of their favorite wines.

The dinner, for the most part (I mistakenly shorted the dessert two egg yolks—creating a low fat and slightly milky pudding) came together without a hitch. The cauliflower steaks and the pot de crème were a big hit, but by far the most winning element of the night was the company. Steve’s hysterical food adventure stories had the four of us weeping in our wine glasses.

I enclose the following two recipes:

[print_link]

Cauliflower Steaks with Cauliflower Puree Recipe

Adapted from a Dan Barber recipe
originally published in Bon Appetit February 2008

Makes 4 servings

The key to this recipe is to heating a heavy skillet on high heat and properly caramelizing the cauliflower. This is a recipe that is easily doubled when having a big dinner party.

Ingredients:
2 large heads of cauliflower
3 cups water
2 cups whole milk
4 tablespoons vegetable oil
1-2 tablespoons olive oil for brushing
fresh whole nutmeg, for seasoning
sea salt and white pepper

Preheat the oven to 250˚F. Trim the base of the cauliflower to remove the green leaves and part of the base of the cauliflower. Place the cauliflower root-side down onto the cutting board. Using a sharp knife, make two vertical cuts to cut away two one-inch steaks (cut from top to stem). Put steaks aside.

Cut the remaining fall-away florets into golf-ball sized pieces; this should measure about 6 cups worth. Combine florets, water and milk in a sauce pan large enough to fit the mixture. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil and cook the mixture until the florets are very tender, about 10-15 minutes. Strain, reserving 2 cups of the cooking liquid. Spread the drained florets onto a large rimmed baking sheet. Bake ten minutes until slightly dry. Transfer florets to a blender in batches. Add about a half of cup of warm milk mixture to the blender and blend until smooth. Continue until all of the soft florets are blended to a smooth texture. Return puree to same saucepan. Taste for seasoning. If desired, add a fine grating of nutmeg to the puree for an additional flavor boost.

Increase oven temperature to 350˚. Heat 4 tablespoons of vegetable oil in a heavy, ovenproof skillet over medium high heat. Brush the cauliflower steaks with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place the cauliflower steaks in the heated skillet and cook until each side is golden brown, about 2 minutes on each side. Transfer skillet to oven and bake until cauliflower steaks are tender, about 10 minutes.

Divide puree equally and top each serving with a cauliflower steak.

*This recipe can be made in advance of meal. Re-warm puree over medium heat.

[print_link]

Chocolate Pots (Tea Cups) de Crème Recipe
Recipe adapted from The Zuni Cafe Cookbook

Makes four servings

3 ounces bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped (save the extra for a garnish!)
1 half pint of heavy cream, ¾ cup for pot au crème the rest for whipping
¾ cup whole milk
2 tablespoons sugar
4 egg yolks
A good bourbon (or Calvados, Frangelico or Cointreau) (Optional)

Preheat the oven to 300˚

Melt the chocolate with ½ cup of the cream in a double boiler (a small metal bowl over a pot of simmering water). Stir occasionally, until the chocolate is melted. Remove from heat and set aside.

Warm the remaining ¼ cup cream, the milk and sugar in a small saucepan. Stir over low heat until the sugar has dissolved. Remove from heat.

In a medium bowl, whisk the yolk, then slowly stir in the warm milk mixture. Pour the mixture (through a sieve) into the melted chocolate. Stir to combine. Stir in a splash of your flavoring liquor of your choice.

Pour the mixture into four china tea cups and place them at least an inch apart in a baking pan or rectangular casserole dish large enough to hold the cups. If you don’t have tea cups use 4- to 5-ounce ramekins or custard cups. Add hot water into the baking dish (be careful not to splash water into the cups!) trying to get the water as high up as possible, without the water overflowing the baking dish. The hot water should come to almost an inch below the top of the tea cups.

Bake until custard is just set at the edges, but still quite soft in the center, about 45 minutes. To check, lift a tea cup and tilt it: the center should bulge. The eggs will continue to cook after you pull the custards out of the oven. The chocolate will harden as it cools. If the custard is already firm when you first check it, then remove the tea cups from the oven and set the cups in shallow bath of salted ice water to stop the cooking.

Cool, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate. (They will keep for several days but are best eaten within a few hours of cooking!)

When ready to serve, whip the cream (do by hand with a whisk for a great arm work out or a blender for speed) until soft peaks form. Add a splash of bourbon to taste.

Before serving, sprinkle a pinch of Maldon sea salt onto the top of the pudding (believe me, you’re going to love it!), a hearty dollop of whipped cream and a fine grating of chocolate over the top. Enjoy!

*Marisa claims that this dish converted her from being a fennel hater.

March 11January 3

A Homemade Life

The thing about Molly Wizenberg’s blog Orangette and food memoir, A Homemade Life, is that her words are so charming and engaging they have the power to remind us that the simplest moments are worth cherishing (and in her case, documenting). For her, the way the light comes in through an open window; the texture of a great pudding; the crunch of a homemade granola; the smile on a loved one’s face–all of it requires description and care. Through her stories and treasured recipes, Molly shows us again and again that the things that make life special are great meals and the people you share them with.

Life changers in the shape of humans

There are people that change the course of your life within minutes of meeting them. These influential people–life long contributors and brief characters that flutter in and out of your life–have had the power to shake everything up and leave you changed forever.

There is a special kind of individual–the hero–that has the ability to change lives forever through the sheer power of their influence, words or deeds. These Great People–presidents, thinkers, poets, musicians, artists–inspire and inform without any knowledge of their influence on others.

My life changing heroes are artists. Countless writers, storytellers, filmmakers, painters, illustrators, musicians that have entered my life, scrambled my brain and left me forever changed by their art. One such stranger—a hero that has spread whole crops of inspiration—is Molly Wizenberg.

Long and winding road (and story)

Like many Internet searches that lead to an unexpected path of information, I stumbled across Molly’s blog while looking for inspiration for my wedding. Once there, I was captivated by Orangette’s style and voice. I found Molly’s passion for food and delightful stories that were not only entertaining but often inspired me to head to the kitchen with one of her recipes and start cooking. The more I read Orangette, the more I wanted to explore food.

Flash forward a year. I was newly married and in Italy for my honeymoon. While in a beloved chef’s home kitchen in Panicale, I decided I would put my screenplay writing on hold and start my own food blog.

Like the world needs another food blogger

As I cooked bistecca on an open hearth, I imagined what my blog would look like. My posts would be inspired by food and driven by stories. I would tell people what it was like to love food and work in restaurants. I would be honest about my need to learn more and I would chart my culinary adventures on the page. “I’ll be like Orangette,” I said to myself. “Only different.” My blog would be my special place–A Room of One’s Own, if you will—where I could create fearlessly about food. Within my first week of returning home to the states, I started Food Woolf, naming it after Virginia Woolf, a great female writer that championed the need for a feminine perspective in the literary world.

Like an awkward teenager trying out some new dance moves, writing in my blog was strange at first. I both hoped no one would notice my fledgling pages and quietly longed for encouragement. I went to Orangette for inspiration, found wonderful recipes that sent me on my own journeys and over the next several months I began creating a blog that started to resemble the thing I envisioned many months before.

But I became more confident, I started to feel protective of my process. I stopped reading Orangette for fear of adopting a mimicking tone and style to Molly’s. As students and disciples before me, I felt the need to break away from the person that first inspired me, in order create without feeling her influence on my work.

I occasionally stopped by Orangette to keep abreast of important moments in her life. These posts I read—sort of stolen glances across the Internet—told me of exiting new developments in her writing life. There was to be a regular column in Bon Appetit! Hints of book deal! These triumphant moments in any young writer’s life elicited pride and jealousy in me, almost simultaneously.

After less than twenty hours after Molly’s book hit the book stores, I purchased a copy of the three-hundred page book. Once I had the book in my hands, I felt like I had been reunited with a best friend. Lovely, charming, honest and always true to herself, Molly Wizenberg’s food memoir reminded me all over again why I fell in love with her and her blog in the first place.

Without a stitch of bravado, Molly takes readers on a personal journey through her life, one meal at a time. Tales of her childhood are charming and insightful, not at all self-indulgent. Her honesty in describing her relationship with her parents and the unexpected and sudden loss of her father touched me to the core. Using delightful anecdotes and corresponding recipes, Molly shows us what how love and food can transform a life so completely.

Short chapters quickly unfolded in a page turning style that had me polishing off the book in two brief sittings. To overuse a food metaphor, I gobbled the thing up and cried because it was so beautiful. For someone so new to the food writing world, the girl has chops.

Though this isn’t much of a book review, it is a kind of lengthy thank you note to a food writing hero. It’s open letter of thanks to a person I have never met but has inspired me to follow my passion as a writer.

Thank you, Molly and thank you to all the people (known and unknown) who have inspired me to keep on writing.

March 10

What's to love about LA (on Sunday)?

Sundays in Los Angeles are special. Almost always beautiful, Sundays in the City of Angels is the most relaxed day of the week. Gone are the power suits, the high-heels and tight dresses; the uniform of choice is a mixture of well-worn jeans, ironic tee shirts, comfortable shoes (flip flops, Uggs and sneakers), hat (baseball or a hipster 50’s lid) and sunglasses.

I always see great art on Sunday.

Sunday is my jam. If Sunday was music, it would play like an old copy of Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue. Sundays are quiet as the Sunday paper; cozy as a nap on the couch; delectable as a leisurely brunch; meditative as a walk through the farmers’ market.

The food on Sunday is always better.

Sundays are for a freshly made cocktail made with hand picked things selected with care. Sundays are for a cold beer in a pint glass or a crisp white with oysters.

Sundays are for seeing old friends and family and meeting new characters.

May your next Sundays be soft and gentle, like kisses…

Images from Los Angeles Art Museum, Hungry Cat, Los Angeles, Hollywood Farmers Market, Terroni Los Angeles

March 6November 14

Food Blogging News: March 6

Welcome to the first ever Food Woolf weekly round up, where I feature some of the week’s greatest culinary stories and compelling food news.

1. Depression Cooking with Clare

Karen, my high-school best friend and avid food blog reader tipped me off to a series of heart warming cooking videos that feature a 93-year old cook and great grandmother. Clare, the host and historian of the cooking series, cooks resourceful Depression-era dishes and recounts her memories from the 30’s and early 40’s.

With budgets tight and many families facing lean times, Clare’s recipes are not only timely but offer great insights into making the most when times are tight.

2. Fired up about tipping
I work in a restaurant, so I take tipping very seriously. Surprisingly, so does food writer and NY Times food critic Frank Bruni. His insightful piece about tipping has gotten more than a few feathers ruffled and has inspired many other NY Columnists to chime in.

3. Food Woolf featured on Public Kitchen Radio
Here we go with the shameless self promotion: my feature on Boston’s Daily Catch Restaurant and Restaurant Week is featured on WBUR’s Public Radio Kitchen, Boston’s National Public Radio station.

4. SK’s Donuts Revisited:
A recent trip back to SK’s Donuts reveals that the classics (glazed and sugar raised) are remarkable expressions of fried dough. If you live in the Hollywood/Fairfax area of Los Angeles you have GOT to check out these donuts. They’re open 24 hours a day, so you have no excuse.

5. Bauer Seconds sale
If you live in the LA area and love great pottery, be sure to stop by Bauer Pottery this weekend for their annual Seconds Sale.

3051 Rosslyn Street
Los Angeles, CA 90065
Saturday & Sunday
March 7 & 8
10am – 5pm

March 4March 14

Five-Spice Chicken Banh Mi Recipe

All it took was one bite of Vietnamese food to turn me into a hungry student of the cuisine. That first mouthful inspired me with its hot, sweet, and spicy. Rice paper was a revelation. Fish sauce was a pungent wake up call. The perfume of a fresh kaffir lime leaf and lemongrass enchanted me and filled me with a desire to learn.

My first encounter with the cuisine of Vietnam was in the kitchen of a rocket scientist who lived in the neighboring town of Cambridge, Massachusetts. My friend Mark was a smart guy who loved to travel the world for science and food. The aromas emanating from Mark’s kitchen were unfamiliar. The pot on the stove—the source of all that I smelled—was covered to hide its contents. There a book-marked copy of Mai Pham’s “The best of Vietnamese and Thai Cooking” perched on the nearby counter.

I was in my mid 20’s, living just a short drive from my small town, and knew almost nothing about Asian food cultures. My knowledge went as far as what to order at the local sushi restaurant and Chinese take out spot.

“Close your eyes,” Mark said. He spooned a bit of the soupy broth from the splattered stove top. “Taste.”

The high-note spices, the sweet aromatics, and the delicate textures left me speechless. What was that flavor? Pumpkin? Coconut? I was in the thick of a culinary awakening.

Soon after this experience, I got the news I was accepted into film school. I packed my bags for Los Angeles, but just before I left, Mark gave me my very own copy of Mai Pham’s cookbook. That cookbook became my passport to food exploration and, eventually, a bridge to cherished friends. My copy is colored with more than a decade’s worth of experimenting.

My Five-spice Chicken Banh Mi is truly is happiness on bread.

Continue for my Five-spice Chicken Banh Mi Recipe »

March 4November 14

Chef's tips on kitchen tools and gadgets

I’ve worked in the restaurant business off and on since I was 16-years old. Granted there were whole years I did my best trying to get away from the sharp knives, angry guests, dangerous flames, greasy floors, empty ketchup bottles, pressed linen, heavy wine crates and demanding hours–but one thing that’s remained constant in my working life is my love of food and my undeniable appreciation of restaurant industry. A restaurant workers’ life may be a pirate’s life, but I love it.

I met my husband while serving at a wine restaurant. That might have something to do with my appreciation of the food/service industry. But beyond true love, restaurants have given me valuable information about food and real skills in the kitchen.

Hoping to save you from long hours and low pay, here are a handful of tips my chef friends have taught me along the way.

Kitchen secrets:

1. Make the most of a small counter space. Use plastic dining trays as a cutting board

After watching me prep dinner in my tiny kitchen, my chef friend Brian suggested I buy myself a set of cafeteria trays. A perfect solution for a small kitchen, these plastic trays can be can be swapped out in seconds, whereas cleaning a counter top can take minutes.

Plastic cafeteria trays like this one can be found at restaurant supply stores. I found mine at Surfas.

2. Stay organized with a mise-en-place

French for put everything in its place, the Mise-en-place (or “mise” for short) are the uncooked/prepared elements of a recipe. Ingredients like chopped onions, minced garlic and skinned chicken may eventually all end up in the same pan, but individually the ingredients couldn’t be more different in flavor and preparation.

Though a thorough mise may require extra dish washing at the end of the meal, it will keep a chef organized and focused on cooking. This is especially important when an extra minute of cooking can make the difference between a dish being burned or browned.

3. Use prep containers to prepare food and store items in one container

When preparing ingredients in advance of a meal, a to-go container is perfect way to maximize a single container for both preparation and storage. Using an immersion blender, you can prepare a creamy dressing or puree a soup in batches in one of these tall plastic prep containers. Pop a lid onto the container and the ingredients are ready to be stored for future use.

4. Reuse to-go containers for left-overs.

Though this may seem obvious in a green-conscious time, I’m always amazed when I see people throw away their to-go containers. Watch a chef in his kitchen or walk-in, and you’ll see ingenious uses for to go containers.

I’ve been amazed at how resourceful some chefs can be with to-go containers. I’ve seen cookies, cheese rinds, melted butter, left over bacon grease, bones for making soup and tons of other items stored (separately!) in to-go containers. Easy to stack and clean, a reused to-go container minimizes waste and reduces plastic wrap or aluminum foil usage. Do as the chefs do and label your to-go containers with masking tape and Sharpie so you know when you have a clear “use by” date.

5. Reuse to-go and prep containers for compact freezer storage.

Used in the freezer, to-go prep container can hold soup stock and left-over vegetable scraps to be made into future vegetable stock.

6. Use sheet trays for prep and cooking

Stronger than the traditional cookie sheet, the sheet tray is a durable and easy to clean metal cooking sheet. Perfect for baking, think of sheet trays as another work surface. Toss vegetables in olive oil and seasonings on the tray and put directly into the oven. Line a sheet tray with parchment paper and bake perfectly browned cookies.

7. Use squeeze bottles for frequently used oils and sauces

Like a mise-en-place, chefs need to have sauces and oils nearby and in a container that’s easy to access for multiple uses throughout service. Using a squeeze bottle (like the kind usually used for serving ketchup or mustard) is an ingenious way to avoid opening caps or bottles and get access to a frequently used liquid ingredient in mere seconds.

I use my squeeze bottle for olive oil I cook with and have a back up bottle for finishing oil if I’m cooking for more a large party.

8. Have finishing salt and cooking salts in individual dishes nearby

Though technically this is part of any mise-en-place, I like to think of my salt collection as a permanent installation for my kitchen. My sea salt collection (Maldon, Kosher and a fine sea salt) are always on the counter or on the stove for easy access and fast finishing of a plate.

March 3January 4

(Italian) Restaurant week in Boston

With plane ticket fares through the roof it’s impossible to hop a plane to Italy every time you get a craving for pizza or homemade pasta. And thanks to lean times, even eating a slice or a plate of pasta locally can seem impossible. But thanks to restaurant week, dining establishments across the country are offering deep savings to budget conscious diners to entice them to eat out.

No matter what kind of food you are craving, if you are lucky enough to live in Boston you can take part in this year’s restaurant week. From March 15-20th and March 22-27th Boston restaurant week participants will offer great money saving meals (multi-course meals for just $20.09 for lunch and dinners for $33.09) to cash strapped foodies looking to step out.

Participating in this year’s restaurant week is one of my new favorite North End restaurants, Daily Catch. Located in the nation’s oldest Italian neighborhoods, The Daily Catch is a family restaurant that has been in business since the early 70’s. This tiny, twenty-seat Italian restaurant specializes in fresh-off-the-pier seafood. Known primarily for calamari and Sicilian pastas served in the sauté pans they were cooked in, the Daily Catch offers hand-made specialties to Hanover Street regulars and visitors alike.

What you’ll find at the Daily Catch

Squeeze into a table and you’ll be just inches from the closet-sized open kitchen. No matter where your table is you will have a front row view of the hard working chef as he prepares every dish while he harangues the knowledgeable (albeit harried) server. But not to worry, a steaming pan full of perfectly cooked pasta topped with fresh clams or calamari is enough to distract you from the restaurant employees’ drama.

Start the meal with a Moretti beer or a crisp Italian vermentino and an appetizer portion of fried calamari. A touch of lemon is the only condiment needed to season the perfectly tender and lightly breaded squid. Though the Daily Catch has a very nice Italian beer and wine selection for its minuscule size, don’t expect the server to pull a pair of wine glasses from a non-existent shelf. In what must be a space and dish-washing saving measure, all beverages are poured into plastic cups.

All dishes are made to order and served in the pan they were cooked in–which practically guarantees the pasta is prepared for every diner with extra care. Seafood at the Daily Catch isn’t overworked or overly dressed up. Every bite is full of briny flavor.

Standout favorites are the fresh fish of the day, linguine and clams in olive oil and garlic and squid ink pasta Aglio Olio made with a flavorful seafood ragu made with ground calamari.

The Daily Catch
323 Hanover Street
(between Prince and Richmond)
617.523.8567

If you’re craving dessert

If you’re looking for an authentic Italian pastry, stop by The Modern for a freshly-piped ricotta cannoli and a frothy cappuccino.

Beautiful Wine, Amazing Selection

And speaking of deals, while you’re in the North End be sure to visit the city’s oldest wine shop V. Cirace & Son, Inc.. Since 1906, the Cirace family have sold an extensive collection of imported wines, spirits and culinary delicacies. Homey and welcoming, this family wine store features Italian wines, liqueurs and digestives.

Maybe even more impressive than their Italian wine selection, however, is Cirace’s free Italian reference guides that present customers brief write ups that include regional insights and maps, varietals and culinary specialties for each of Italy’s wine diverse wine regions. A perfect resource for any wine drinker looking to save some money, V. Cirace’s wine resource guides are not only free but are the invaluable crib sheets for learning Italy’s complex wine regions and grapes.

V. Cirace & Son, Inc.
173 North Street
Boston, MA 02109
Tel: (617) 227-3193
Fax: (617) 227-6941

Month: March 2009