October 2011 – Food Woolf

Mushroom, Squash and Sweet Potato Quinoa

overhead quinoa salad — Mushroom, Butternut Squash and Sweet Potato Quinoa

I’m not used to leaving town for my job. Unless you own numerous restaurants or work in a cross-country chain, most people in my business tend to stay in one locale for a long time. Restaurants may be a high turnover business, but most professionals tend to stay at one address for as long as they possibly can. So, it’s not every day in the life of this restaurant consultant where I pack my bags and head out of town for several weeks for a restaurant gig. And yet, here I am, packing my bags and organizing my life before I join the talented team of restaurant professionals who will soon open their vibe-dining establishment in Rancho Cucamonga.

I may not have as many posts between now and the end of this month. But I promise to cook up a bunch of great stories while I’m gone and be back in time for Thanksgiving. In the meantime, I leave you with this simple and homey side dish inspired by a photo in this month’s Food and Wine. This simple version of a Fall quinoa features butternut squash, sweet potatoes and trumpet mushrooms.

This salad is great as a side dish, a main course, and–if you’re looking to turn things up a notch–even breakfast if you fry up an egg and put it on top!

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Mushrooms, Squash and Sweet Potatoes Quinoa

One large butternut squash, peeled, halved, de-seeded, and quartered
2 tablespoons of Olive Oil
4 tablespoons butter
2 large shallots, 1 1/2 sliced across; the remaining half, minced
4 thyme sprigs
3 1/2 cups water
2 cups quinoa, rinsed
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1/2 pound oyster mushrooms, cut into 1-inch chunks
1 large sweet potato, roasted
1 tablespoon maple syrup
1/2 cup chopped parsley

Roasting the squash and sweet potato. Preheat the oven to 350. Either on the cooking sheet or in a bowl, drizzle the quartered butternut squash pieces with olive oil, toss. Arrange on a baking sheet. Place the sweet potato on the same sheet tray. Roast for about 20-30 minutes and then flip the squash and roast for another 20-30 minutes. The squash should be golden and tender (not mushy). The sweet potato should be soft in the center (test with a knife through the center of it).
In a medium saucepan, melt 2 tablespoons of butter. Add the minced shallot and cook over moderate heat until softened. Add the thyme and the water, season with salt and pepper, and then bring to a boil. Add the quinoa. Cover and cook over moderately low heat until the water cooks down and becomes completely incorporated, about 15 minutes.
In a large skillet melt two tablespoons of butter and a tablespoon of olive oil. Add the sliced scallion and mushrooms. Sauté until soft and browned, about 4-6 minutes. Add the maple syrup. Taste for seasoning. Add the quinoa, squash, sweet potato, and parsley. Serve immediately.

October 23

Service 101: Awareness

“Awareness is the birthplace of possibility. Everything you want to achieve begins here.”–Deepak Chopra

As a Service Coach, I observe restaurant teams in action and coach them how to win the game of earning customers for life. I take groups of service professionals from being average–and sometimes minor–players to being highly coveted members of an award-winning team. I help shape natural talent into something special.

Most owners understand the basic business proposition of giving their customers a consistent product. But what many people in business fail to identify and grow in their staff is the importance of making customers feel as if their needs were exceeded. Again and again and again. Businesses that take the time to help their staff be aware, listen, and foster an intuitive sense about what customers want, tend to be the winners in the game of making customers for life.

I am lucky to be a restaurant consultant who has the great fortune of working with smart and insightful people who understand the value of hospitality. These visionary business owners see the long road ahead of them, recognize the need to invest in customer service programs, and bring me on to help improve their game. Like most great leaders, my clients understand the value of getting assistance to sure up their weaknesses–way before a weaknesses become a failure.

The first step in successful coaching starts with observing. I can tell a lot about a restaurant within the first few minutes of watching them in action. Give me a corner seat, a handful of minutes during a busy service, and I can give you an accurate assessment of a restaurant team’s potential, problems, and requirements.

Following my initial observations, I show clients what I’ve learned from watching their dining room. I offer them information on how keeping a constant eye on specific areas of their dining room can result in obtaining key information about their diners and how to better deliver what they need. Even in some of the best restaurants, leaders may fail to identify key areas for improvement. I notice dropped napkins while staff members walk over them. I identify neglected customers and lost sales opportunities where staff members walk past in a rush to get another task done. In some especially hurting businesses when owners can only see business losses, I may find unlocked beer coolers and liquor storage areas, menus with confusing descriptions, managers with lacking leadership skills, and dining rooms with a personality disorder.

Awareness may be something we’re born with. Our modern lives drain us of the impulse to stay aware. Lately, it seems, most Americans don’t seem all that comfortable with awareness.

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October 14October 14

Lemon Garlic Chicken from Made In America

roasted whole chicken — iPhone photo of Lemon-Garlic Chicken from Chef Michel Richard

When people ask me if I’m available for a dinner date or event, I often have to tell them this: I don’t know. Maybe? It’s not that I’m trying to hedge my bets or play hard to get, but the truth is I never really know. I’m building my business as the Service Coach and I don’t have a set schedule. Because when you’re a consultant, or are in the business of being of service to people, you really have to be available for your clients–new, current, or recurring–all the time.

So when Lucy Lean asked me to participate in a virtual dinner party to celebrate the release of her gorgeous, must have book MADE IN AMERICA a few weeks back, I knew I was going to be in the thick of working with one of my clients. So rather than bow out, I asked if I could be a virtual late arrival. And so I am.

I chose to cook this Lemon Garlic Roasted Chicken from chef Michel Richard for a handful of different reasons. 1) I wanted to check out a cooking technique for chicken (a modified low and slow method?) 2) It looked the easiest recipe for me to make under tight timing constraints and 3) I admire Chef Michel Richard.

The recipe is quite simple but it does require a bit more time than my usual Zuni chicken method. I liked the results and I can’t wait to cook more from Lucy’s gorgeous book.

Congratulations to Lucy Lean. And thank you so much for welcoming me, even though I’m more than fashionably late!

lemon garlic chicken — Lemon garlic chicken from Made in America

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Made in America Lemon-Garlic Roasted Chicken
Give yourself 2 hours for prep and cooking and you’ll be happy with the moist and delicately flavored bird. Though Lucy doesn’t say to, I recommend using the lemon-infused onions and garlic cloves as a garnish for the chicken.

2 onions, sliced
20 cloves of garlic, unpeeled
one free-range chicken (about 4 lbs)
2 lemons cut in half, plus an additional 1/2 lemon
1 branch of fresh thyme
4 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons chopped, fresh flat-leaf parsley
S&P

Place a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 300°F.
Cover the bottom of a roasting pan with the onion slices and garlic cloves.
Rinse the chicken under cold water inside and out. Drain and thoroughly pat dry with paper towels. Lightly season the cavity with salt and pepper. Stuff with thyme and four of the lemon halves. Place the chicken in the roasting pan, season with salt and pepper, and sprinkle with olive oil.
Roast in the middle of the oven for 1 hour. After an hour, remove the chicken from the oven and increase the heat to 450°F. When this temperature is reached, return the chicken to the oven and roast until golden and crisp. [NOTE: This may take more than 30 minutes, depending on the size of your bird]. The chicken is cooked when a fork inserted into the thigh releases clear juices [or the internal temperature of the bird reaches 165°F.].
Remove the chicken from the oven and let it rest for 10 minutes. Remove the lemon halves from the cavity.
Slice up the chicken to serve. Squeeze the juice of the uncooked, remaining lemon over the chicken and sprinkle with chopped parsley.
Transfer the onion, garlic, and liquid from the roasting pan to a sauté pan and bring to a boil. Add half a cup of water to the pan, mix well, and return to a boil. Strain and serve the liquid as a gravy with the chicken.

October 8October 8

The Meaning of Words

“You know what I can’t stand?” a food writer recently said over dinner. “How many people feel the need to say they’re honored and humbled whenever they write about all the great things that happen to them.”

The table of creative types groaned and rolled their eyes in agreement. I sat in stunned silence. What’s so wrong about the words honored and humbled?

Another friend added, “I understand if you’ve got lots of great things going on in your life. But don’t waste our time with honored and humbled when a simple thank you would suffice.” Conversation faded to the background. My mind spun. What about these two words could be so offensive?

The more I thought about it, I realized what my friends were really saying wasn’t that the words honored and humbled are bad. Not at all. What they were complaining about was how those words had become trite. But why had so many people (even people like me) used “honored and humbled” so much? Those questions got me thinking about what might really be going on.

What’s the big deal?

It seems that whenever the words honored and humbled appear online, they tend to be followed by a brief announcement of some personal success. If you’ve ever followed @humblebrag on Twitter, you’ll see my friends aren’t alone in noticing a trend in how people communicate good news online. Some people honestly mean what they say, while others use words like honored, humbled to subjugate a self-congratulatory agenda. Unfortunately, for those who use this phrase often, the predictability of the combination of words has become so clichéd, honored and humbled hold no truth within them any more.

The struggle between balancing core values and a public persona has many of us bloggers scrambling for words that will protect our sense of identity. But the thing is, no matter how humble we may be, the instant transfer of important and mundane details of our daily lives to hundreds, thousands, or millions of followers on Twitter automatically qualifies us as social media show offs. No matter what words we use to try to ease our discomfort in our situation, the truth of the matter remains, our relationship with social media has many of us experiencing an identity crisis.

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October 2October 2

Finding My Salon

Algonquin Table by Al Hirschfeld (Algrt.jpg‎)

Going on a summer vacation isn’t a unique concept. But a group of food bloggers vacationing together? It’s a somewhat unusual idea, considering how our friendships all began.

We started as strangers with a common bond. We got to know each other over website pages. We forged friendships over Twitter and the occasional get together. Press trips and conferences followed. But rare are the times when we food professionals come together without an conference or PR event to motivate long periods of time together. Unfamiliar are moments that aren’t devoted to networking, talking technology, and sharing food stories.

We’ve perfected the art of eating together. But a vacation?

The plan was simple. A small group of food blogging friends–Matt Armendariz, Adam Pearson, Maggy Keet, and Gaby Dalkin–would gather together at a retro-house in Palm Springs for a mini-vacation. There would be no agenda and no to-do list. We would be without PR wranglers and our time together would be devoid of “break out sessions”. The only objective was to spend time together and relax by the pool.

Later, I would find out there would be wigs. But more on that later.

#PSSalon

I’ve spent my entire artistic career quietly dreaming of a day when I would be invited to sit at a table with great thinkers, writers, artists and confidantes. I never could find my fellows in the performing world. I failed to locate true collaborators in film school. Was my dreamy ideal of a 17th century salon–a place where great thinkers and artists would come together to inspire, critique, and develop their craft–a pipe dream?

Truth be told, it wasn’t until I joined the food blogging community almost four years ago, that I began to experience a modern academy. How we food bloggers influence, encourage, and drive each other to achieve great things through our online work and social media maneuvering is something to behold. It is exactly what I had been yearning for all these years.

It wasn’t until I took my place at that gaping-holed dining room table in Palm Springs with the likes of Matt Armendariz, award winning photographer and designer; Adam Pearson, a professional food stylist; Gaby Dalkin, a personal chef, driven business woman, and online personality; Maggy Keet, a writer, visionary, and co-founder of the non-profit Bloggers without Borders–that I realized that the hashtag #PSSalon was a true representation of what was happening. We didn’t push. We didn’t schedule. We just let things happen. We coaxed each other to investigate our motives and our professional opinions. We explored hard topics, engaged in witty banter, and artistic criticism.

Palm Springs Salon became a 2011 version of the 1920’s Algonquin Table.

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