Tips and Techniques – Food Woolf

Restaurant Unstoppable

Finding good resources for inspiration or direct support within the food and beverage industry can be difficult. There are websites and food publications like Saveur, Lucky Peach, and Bon Appetit that may have helpful ideas you can use. Restaurant books , chef memoirs, and exposés on the service industry can give perspective and ideas. Reality television shows like Restaurant Impossible, Top Chef, and Kitchen Nightmares can entertain and teach by example.

But it is face-to-face conversations with restaurant professionals that many in the food and beverage business lack the most. Thanks to the restaurant industry’s long hours, pace of business, and fierce competition restaurant leaders can easily get isolated from each other. Many restaurant pros rarely see fellow comrades, unless they run into each other at the same late night noodle shop or bar. And even then, we are frequently too exhausted to share quality resources or ideas.

Restaurant Unstoppable: The Pod Cast

Last week I was approached by Eric Cacciatore, creator of Restaurant Unstoppable, to be a guest on his weekly podcast. Restaurant Unstoppable is a weekly radio show that features industry professionals’ insights and tips on what it takes to succeed in the food and beverage industry. I had to admit I hadn’t heard of Eric’s show, but I was intrigued by his enthusiasm and dedication to growing an online resource for restaurant professionals.

Restaurant Unstoppable is a place where restaurant people can share insights and ideas that can be accessed at any time of the day. Bravo! I like what Eric is trying to do, so I agreed to be interviewed. Who doesn’t want to be part of building something cool?

Eric sent me a rather detailed questionnaire before our interview. His questions about what it’s like being a hospitality consultant got me thinking about simple solutions I could share with people in the restaurant business.

Here are a few hiring tips I shared:

Smile when you interview applicants. If the applicant is unable to smile, don’t hire them if they are applying for a front of the house position.
Have open interviews once a month, even if you don’t need people. It lets your current staff know how important doing great work is and it keeps you open to finding extraordinary people.
Pay great people more. When you find great people, pay them a little bit more than average if you can afford it. Even $.50 more an hour can go a long way in making a difference in the choices of barista or counter person. Paying more encourage great people not to go elsewhere.
Feed your team. Once you get a great team, make sure they’re fed. Offering a great staff meal can go a long way in making your food workers happy and perform well.

Continue reading “Restaurant Unstoppable”

June 5June 5

Service 101: Beyond Profit, How to Open a Juice bar

If you’ve even played around with the idea of opening a juice bar, you’re not alone. Lots of people–about one in ten new restaurant owners today–want to invest time and money into turning fruits and vegetables into liquid gold. I work as a restaurant consultant in the city of Los Angeles and in a few city blocks there are at least one or two juice bars and there are more on their way. Fresh juice bars are a $5 billion dollar business that’s projected to grow from 4% to 8% a year.

So why is a fresh juice bar such a popular idea? Well, if you think running a juice bar is easy, think again. There is no such thing as easy in the business of food.

Search the internet for suggestions of how to start your own juice bar, and you’ll find advice that suggests that location is the most important thing to figure out first. After that, they say, come up with a business plan, and then come up with a concept.

As someone who has worked in the restaurant industry for over two decades, I humbly suggest you consider something else first: is running a juice bar something you want to do for the next five years?

Freshly pressed juices are the newest food fad. Lots of people want to get in on a business that promotes a healthy, on-the-go lifestyle for health conscious people who want to take care of their bodies in a fast and efficient way.

Juice, my friends, is the new cupcake. Continue reading “Service 101: Beyond Profit, How to Open a Juice bar”

March 29March 28

Restaurant Stock

I may have started working in restaurants when I was 16 years old, but it wasn’t until much later that I began to learn culinary techniques I could use at home. I can’t blame my lack of development on anything more than circumstance. I started in a small town in Massachusetts where the best seafood was fried or boiled, every restaurant kitchen had a microwave, hamburgers were unpacked as frozen beef patties, and iceburg was the only lettuce we knew.

Graduating from country club catering and seafood shacks, I began working in restaurants where the people in the kitchen weren’t summer help, the stainless steel counters were clean, knives were sharp, and saute pans and gas ranges cooked every dish to order.

The greatest lessons I’ve learned from the men and women of Los Angeles’ best restaurants is to pay attention to the little things. Simple fundamentals—cooking techniques, tools, and ingredients–create memorable food and extraordinary dining experiences.

One recent discovery came from my restaurant’s former chef, Evan Funke. I was inquiring about the minestrone soup we were serving. The flavors of the broth were so round and full of flavor, I was having a hard time believing the soup was vegetarian.

Chef Evan assured me that the minestrone was one hundred percent vegetarian. “The trick to the flavor,” he said, “is from sweating down onion and garlic, and adding Parmesan rinds to the stock.”

Soon after I decided to try out chef Evan’s trick. Rather than staying with a fully vegetarian stock I used left over vegetable scraps, a chicken carcass, and a tupperware filled with handful of leftover Parmesan ends. What resulted was the most flavorful, golden broth I have ever had the pleasure of making in my kitchen.

What kinds of tricks have you learned along the way that have made all the difference?

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Easy stock
I always make stock the day after I roast a chicken. Now that I’m adding Parmesan rinds to the base of the broth, things are really getting tasty. You don’t need to use chicken or any meat (for that matter) to make tasty stock. The key to making a flavorful stock super is to collect your vegetable scraps over a week’s time, keep them in the freezer in an airtight container, and add as many rinds of hard cheese as you have!

Frozen vegetable stems, tops, skins (carrots, kale, potato, etc.)
Chicken carcass and bones*
Hardened Parmesan rinds

Place the chicken bones and vegetable stems in a pot. Fill the pot with cold water, just until the chicken and most of the vegetable scraps are covered. Do not fill the pot to the top with water. The less water you use, the more flavorful the stock. Turn to high heat. When the stock comes to a boil, immediately turn down to a simmer. Simmer for at least 45 minutes to an hour. Taste. Season with salt and pepper. Strain and pour into small containers. Let cool. Freeze what you can not use within 3 days.

*Chicken carcass and bones are optional! Remove for a fully vegetarian stock!

September 24January 3

Stretch Your Dollar, Foodbuzz 24×24

Homemade granola — One of Three money saving recipes that will help you stretch your dollar!

Nowadays, most people’s budgets don’t have much room for the extras, especially big luxury items. If you have things in your life that you want to save your pennies for–a new car, a big piece of furniture, a trip to a food blogging conference, or even fattening up your savings account–stretching your dollars in the kitchen is important. Since eating out seems like an impossible indulgence with your hard earned bucks, you need to get crafty with the way you approach your daily costs.

Being frugal doesn’t mean you have to stop enjoying yourself in the kitchen. As a matter of fact, I look at budgetary limitations as a formalized culinary challenge. I pretend I’m a participant on Iron Chef with the featured ingredient of NO MONEY! and see just how far I can stretch my menu with basic pantry items. I’ve found what works best for my budget menu planning is to keep two things in mind: 1) cook meals that can be eaten at any time of the day and 2) use simple pantry items as the base ingredients for dishes. When I cook a meal that can double as breakfast, lunch, or dinner, less time is spent in the kitchen and more time can be spent doing the things that need to get done.

Thanks to the great people at Foodbuzz.com, I’ve been given the opportunity to share with you a handful of easy recipes in this month’s Foodbuzz 24×24. My goal: help you save money so you can afford to do the things you want to do–like attend this year’s Food Buzz Conference in San Francisco. What’s even better, these three recipes make perfect road trip or airplane snacks so you can save your dollars at the airport when you’re flying (to San Francisco).

inexpensive granola recipe — Homemade granola

Oats

Oats are a perfect inexpensive pantry item that can double as a main ingredient for several meals during the day. Oatmeal for breakfast, granola for a midday snack, or even as the crumble for a dessert fruit crisp.

This granola recipe is an equally tasty but less expensive version of a previous granola I posted on this site several months ago. This is my favorite version of this recipe because it costs less and leaves me room to spend money elsewhere. I eat this granola dry, as a snack, and sprinkle a handful over Athena’s Greek Yogurt for a decadent breakfast, lunch or dinner. Oh, and the granola is great over ice cream, too!

Chef’s tip: Use the left over oats to make oatmeal for breakfast the rest of the week.

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Apricot and Coconut Granola

Adapted from a recipe from Deliciously Organic

1 cup whole cane sugar (I used Trader Joe’s organic evaporated cane sugar)

3 oz organic maple syrup

3 oz organic agave syrup

4 cups rolled oats

1 ½ cups coconut, unsweetened

1 cup dried apricots, chopped

1/2 cup dried cranberries (or other dried fruit)

Optional: generous pinch of salt

Preheat your oven to 350º. Adjust the top rack to the middle of the oven. Whisk sugar, syrups, and a pinch of salt in a small saucepan over medium heat until almost smooth. In a large bowl pour syrup over the oats and coconut*. Stir gently with a wood spoon until it is completely mixed throughout. Pour mixture onto a sheet tray covered with parchment paper. Bake in the oven for twenty minutes, or until almost golden. Remove from oven. Let cool. Add dried fruit after you break up the granola into loose bits and large pieces. Enjoy immediately or store for later use.

Can be stored in an air-tight container for several weeks.

*if you don’t want your granola to be too sweet use less of the sugar/syrup mixture.

Egg and potato Frittata recipe — Potato and Egg Frittata aka Spanish Tortilla

Eggs

I don’t know if you’ll agree with me on this, but having breakfast for dinner is just downright fun. So when I asked Adam C. Pearson, my rock star food stylist friend, what kind of egg dish he would recommend I make for this budget post, he suggested I make a Spanish Tortilla. Turns out this dish–which took some explaining for me to understand that a Spanish Tortilla is basically an egg and potato frittata that’s served room temperature and sliced like a pie–is a perfect any time meal. This simple dish is a perfect thing to slice up, drop into a zip-lock bag and take to the office (or to the airport).

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Potato and Egg Frittata aka Spanish Tortilla

Contrary to the sound of it, a Spanish Tortilla doesn’t actually have any tortillas in it whatsoever–just eggs, potato and any other tasty ingredients you care to add.

6 medium potatoes, diced

1 large onions, thinly sliced

*1/4 cup diced ham (or 2 slices of thickly cut bacon, diced)

1/4 cup milk

8 eggs

Salt and Pepper to taste

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

Directions

In a large bowl, mix the potatoes and onions with a pinch of salt. Heat 2 tablespoons of butter in a large non-stick frying pan. Fry the potatoes and onions on low heat. Cover with a lid for 5-10 minutes to let them soften. Turn up the heat for another 5 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove from the stove.

Meanwhile, break the eggs into a medium bowl. Add a pinch of salt and milk. Whisk until frothy. Add the potatoes and onion mixture to the eggs and mix well. Using a clean frying pan, heat the oil on a high heat. Pour in the egg mixture, move it around in the pan to help the eggs to rise. Fry until the bottom begins to brown. Being careful not to burn yourself, place a large plate over the top of the sauté pan so that you can flip the frittata. Slide the uncooked side back into the pan to cook the entire tortilla for another minute or two. Turn off the heat and let set in the pan for a few minutes. Serve sliced with green salad.

Chef’s tip: The extra 2 eggs can be used with a previous scheduled meal. Add a fried egg to a pizza, a hamburger, or a bowl of fried rice and suddenly you’re eating a luxury meal. Drop an egg into a bowl of simple chicken stock and you’re eating like an Italian Grandma.

*This dish is simply wonderful without the pork, but it certainly gives this dish plenty of great flavor. If you can’t find an affordable ham steak at your butcher’s counter, you can substitute the ham with diced bacon, which can be cut to order into two thick slices (so you don’t have to buy an entire package of sliced bacon) and kept at a reasonable cost.

Pasta

Pasta is one of the main bargain meal staples in most homes. No matter what you’re upbringing, you probably have a pretty good idea how inexpensive pasta can be when creating a satisfying meal. You don’t need to resort to jarred sauces or powdered cheese to create an inexpensive pasta dish, though. As a matter of fact, some of the most delicious pasta dishes can be made with just three ingredients.

This pasta dish’s unique ingredients makes for an exceptional meal that won’t taste like a re-hashed meal or yesterday’s leftovers.

Chef’s Tip: This dish is great warm or served cold. Transform any leftover lettuce you have on hand into a salad.

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Pasta with Leeks and Turkey Sausage

Modified from a recipe from Martha Stewart

1 box of pasta (shells or twists work best)

1 lb of turkey sausage

3-4 leeks, white and light-green parts only, halved lengthwise, cut into 1/4-inch slices, rinsed well, and drained

1/4 cup dry white wine

2 tablespoons butter

1 head of butter (bibb) lettuce, washed and torn into pieces.

Course salt and Pepper to taste

Grated Parmesan, for serving

*Reserve one cup of pasta water

Directions

Bring to a boil a large pot of salted water for pasta.

Meanwhile, in a large skillet, cook turkey sausage over medium-high heat. Break up the meat with a wooden spoon until browned, about 5 minutes. Add leeks to the skillet and cook until softened, 5 minutes. Add wine and cook, stirring frequently, until mostly evaporated, 2 minutes. Stir in butter and season to taste with salt and pepper.

When pasta water is at a rolling boil, cook pasta according to package instructions. Reserve 1 cup pasta water. Drain pasta and return to pot. Add the sausage and leek mixture. Toss gently to combine. Add the torn lettuce (use no more than 3-4 cups of torn lettuce) to the pasta with enough pasta water to create a “light sauce” that coats the pasta. Toss. Serve with Parmesan on the side.

I hope you’ve found some inspiration and useful advice that can help you use a handful of basic pantry items to stretch your budget, please your palate, and make you feel like you’re not skimping.

October 2February 25

Impromptu Ramen Bowl Party, Project Food Blog Challenge #3

Having a night off from work is a luxury for most restaurant professionals. Since bars and restaurants earn most of their income after the sun goes down, most food industry employees keep vampire hours. We punch in after dusk, work when most people are relaxing (or sleeping), and are left to spend time with friends after the witching hour. I’d even venture to say that if you were to chart the hours of chefs, sommeliers, waiters and bartenders you’d think you were looking at Vampire Bill’s stats.

So when I got the exciting news that readers had voted me through to the third round of Project Food Blog*, I knew I didn’t have much time to prepare. Luckily, I’ve held plenty of impromptu dinner parties in my adult life, so I knew just what to do. I would throw a party where all my friends could get creative and eat some delicious Asian-inspired comfort food.

Party Tip: Throwing a great dinner party doesn’t have to mean spending hours and hours getting ready. Stay focused. Stick with a theme.

Make-Your-Own-Ramen Party

Since my dinner party would be held during after hours, I would need to serve dishes that were simple and straightforward, and would have to be easy enough to accommodate everyone’s post-restaurant/food writing schedules. I decided to offer two courses that would give guests a fresh new look on two of Asia’s most convenient comfort foods–Vietnamese spring rolls and instant ramen.

fish balls at the market — Fish balls at Thai Town Market *insert giggle*

Keeping in mind the advice from chef friends–cook what you know—I purchased fresh ingredients at the local Asian market in Hollywood’s Thai Town. I kept my eyes open and my creativity sharp in order to find unique ingredients for my dinner party spread. I sought out complimenting items that could add texture and interesting flavors to Vietnamese hand-rolls (my take on a wrapper-less spring roll) and bowls of instant ramen. I grabbed fresh Thai basil, jalapeno, bean sprouts, pressed/fried tofu, Sriracha, and for fun, I took a chance and added to my cart a package labeled “fish balls” (a kind of rounded fish cake).

Party Tip: If you don’t live near an Asian market, you can find many great ingredients on line. You can even order an exoti assortment of ramen through RamenBox (a Los Angeles-based company that specializes in selling some of the world’s tastiest instant ramen noodles via the internet)

Continue For More Tips and Tricks for Throwing Your Own Ramen Party »

September 13January 3

Vietnamese Cocktail

Some chefs will tell you that there is not such thing as leftovers in a well run restaurant. Everything that isn’t used should be reused for something else. Scraps of vegetables and chicken bones become stock. Left over meat from a special might become that day’s staff meal. And so it is with cocktail making. Whenever I come up with a cocktail—whether it’s for myself at home or for the restaurant I work at–I try to limit my ingredients to those on hand and don’t require an extra purchase or visit to the market.

My recent culinary foray into Vietnamese cuisine and Banh Mi making had me with several extra ingredients that begged for repurposing. The result: a refreshing Vietnamese cocktail made with complimentary ingredients of muddled mint, sweet tangerines, bittersweet Vietnamese caramel (Nuoc Mau), Plymouth Gin, and a splash of rice wine vinegar for balanced acidity. This is a show stopping cocktail for any dinner party or Asian-inspired meal.

Continue for the details on my Vietnamese Cocktail!»

March 5

Raw Fish Revolution: A Recipe

The Italians call raw fish crudo and the Japanese, sashimi; even the Spanish have a word for their citrus soaked raw fish preparation, ceviche. But what is the word for the dishes that American chefs create with uncooked fish? Naked fish? Raw appetizers?

Here in LA, a broad range of award-winning chefs serve raw fish on their menus every night. There’s a a raw fish trend spreading through fine dining American restaurants, Baltimore fish joints, Cal-Euro bistros, and even Cal-Mex-Spanish fusion eateries. What’s so appealing about eating a barely adorned piece of raw fish? Simple. The fresh flavors of the sea mixed with oil, citrus, herbs, or salt is a wonderful way to engage the palate and awaken the appetite.

Though one must be careful when consuming raw or undercooked fish, a thinly sliced piece of fresh-from-the-sea fish prepared with a handful of ingredients is—without a doubt—an understated show stopper. I’ve sampled Chef Quinn Hatfield’s of Hatfield’s Restaurant’s version of crudo: fresh fluke that’s marinated in beet juice and finished with sea salt, oil, and micro-greens. I’ve gorged on raw fish at Hungry Cat with Chef David Lentz’s raw snapper on a puree of edamame with blood orange supremes and shiso leaves. The flavors of raw fish mixed with citrus, flavored oil, and salt results in delicate, poetic starters that leave me hungry (and inspired) for more.

Continue For an Easy To Make Crudo Recipe »

February 24January 3

Cook Like a Chef, Even if You Don’t Know One

cookbook cover — Knowing where to look for culinary answers is key to cooking a great meal

Not every food lover has the opportunity to turn to a celebrated chef for help whenever they have a food question. That’s why I treasure the fact that my job as a server and bartender puts me in the proximity of some of the most chefs in Los Angeles.

Though I may not cook like an award-winning chef, I certainly want to. For that reason alone, I never take the blur of activity in the restaurant’s kitchen for granted. As I pass by the busy stoves on my way to the dining room, I snatch mental snapshots of the day’s prep: the way a prep cook measures out a perfect portion of pasta with a scale, how another slides his sharp knife through the belly of a fish, and the way a pastry cook zests a lemon with confident strokes.

Whether or not the brigade in chefs’ whites is aware, these men and women are my culinary mentors. When a recipe stumps me or a particular ingredient poses too much of a challenge, I bring my culinary conundrums to the people I trust the most. Because chefs know how dough should feel, the way to combine simple flavors and make them sing, just which spice will make a dish come alive, or how to thicken a sauce so it clings to a protein like a mist rolling over a hill.

Unfortunately, it seems like the moments when I truly need a chef’s expertise is when I’m alone at my home stove or at the farmers’ market with a head full of uncertainties. Though I work for Nancy Silverton, I’m not about to call the busy chef with a question about lamb shanks*. So how does a home cook find their way in the kitchen? Here are five simple ideas to get you closer to cooking like a chef.

Continue For Five Tips to Get You Cooking Like a Chef »

January 29

Chef’s Eating Tour: Central Texas and Hill County Barbecue

Author’s Note: Today’s inaugural guest post is from Chef Erik Black, of Osteria Mozza. We look forward to sharing with you his five-day eating tour of BBQ through Central Texas and Hill County. So save your pennies and start working out, because this is one eating tour that you will most certainly want to commit your belly to. Completely.

Continue For Erik Black’s Complete Chef’s BBQ Eating Tour of Central Texas and Hill County Barbecue »

January 28

Guest Post: Chef Erik Black of Osteria Mozza

I am very excited to announce the first-ever guest post here at Food Woolf. Next up, a Chef’s Eating Tour from Chef Erik Black of Osteria Mozza!

Chef Erik Black may call himself a humble student of meat, but as far as I’m concerned, the guy is a master. During his long days in the kitchen of Osteria Mozza, the former Massachusetts native coaxes subtle and robust flavors from diverse cuts of meat. He braises beef until it’s fall-off-the-bone tender and creates delicacies from a massive pig’s head or its much-neglected trotters. He cures sides of pork until it becomes silky and soft and tastes like a prayer. He slow cooks oxtail to the point that the chocolate brown meat becomes as soft as oatmeal and tastes of the earth. He crafts succulent sausages from rabbit loin and fresh herbs.

In my world, Erik is an authority. He is the one to talk to when making pork, testa, braised beef, short ribs, barbecue ribs, rabbit sausage, and smoked meats—because he knows how to celebrate the life of every animal he cooks. Erik is a soft-spoken master that rarely steps out of the kitchen. But come into Mozza on any given night, and you will see unmistakable signs of Erik’s talents—there’s his Copa, testa, mortadella, lardo, and barbeque ribs–peppered throughout the menu.

So when I heard Erik say he was planning to take a tour of Texas Barbeque joints, I made a point of asking for lots and lots of details. Lucky for us, Erik went one step farther, and decided to give us a five-day guide for an ultimate Texas Barbeque Tour.

Coming soon, Chef Erik’s Eating Tour of Central Texas and Hill County!

January 4November 14

Classic Cocktails Revamped: The Ward 2010

I got my start in the restaurant business as a bartender. I wasn’t an arm-garter wearing mixologist with killer technique. I was a girl behind the bar, the person in charge of the party, a smart ass and a fast thinker that could pour hundreds of pints of beer in an hour.

Fifteen years ago, tending bar in Boston was less about technique and more about work ethic. Back then, it was unheard of to squeeze fresh juice for a sour. The idea of muddling a sprig of thyme into a cocktail would have gotten me more than a dirty look–it would have gotten me fired. Back in the day, what made me a great bartender was the fact that I could remember people’s names and their drinks, pour shots and pints fast, and knew how much all the drinks cost without ever touching the manual cash register.

Thanks to a renaissance in speakeasy’s and classic drink making, I’m learning lots of new techniques, turn of the century bartending tricks, and classic drinks. To be a bartender in 2010—you must have knowledge of the classics, excitement about new and ancient ingredients, great technique, be creative, and—though many ‘bar chefs’ would disagree—be really fast.

Now that I’ve been bartending again, I’m building a small bar of my own at home. This way, I can take what I’ve learned at work and apply my craft to a post shift drink–a refreshing cocktail that’s equal parts reward and research.

My newest cocktail is the Ward 2010, a drink that celebrates the past, the future, and California’s citrus season.

Continue Reading for a Delicious Ward 2010 Cocktail »

December 31

Goodbye to the 'Naughts

This first decade of the new century has been a doozy. In just ten years, life stories have been written and re-written by time, chance, good fortune, and circumstance. These first ten years have been marked wonderful little moments, joyful surprises, and gut wrenching incidents. There have been great meals, new flavors, old recipes, new techniques, and great innovations for the kitchen.

In this decade I have photographed more food than faces.

Continue to Read More New Year’s Wishes, Find Hangover Cures and Chef Resolutions »

December 28November 14

New Year’s Culinary Tradition: Caviar

Culinary traditions are handed down, borrowed and created. I bake my grandmother’s Finnish Nisu (cardamom sweet bread) at Easter and Christmas. Favorite chefs and images like Norman Rockwell’s Thanksgiving influence my Thanksgiving day spread. Now that I’m married and living thousands of miles from my bi-coastal family, I find I need to create new culinary traditions to celebrate my life with the man I love.

Since New Years is a working holiday for most restaurant industry folk, I’ll be saving my celebrating for the next morning. As many in Los Angeles wake with new-decade hangovers, my husband and I will be enjoying a celebratory morning with caviar and a bottle of bubbly.

Continue Reading for a Simple New Years Recipe for Caviar! »

December 21January 3

Delicata Squash with Browned Butter and Sage Recipe

One of the best things about being a gastronome and a restaurant professional at an award winning restaurant is that my work environment is a constant source of inspiration. Some of the dishes we serve at the Osteria are incredibly complicated and require hours to prepare. Other menu items are based on grandmother’s traditional recipes. The simple, classic dishes that haunt me the most. They compel me to tear off my waiter’s uniform, get into my home kitchen, and cook.

A new contorni (that’s Italian for side dish) went onto the menu last week. Ever since that first pre-shift bite of the buttery sweet squash with browned butter and sage, I’ve been obsessed with the need to figure out how to duplicate those warm, sweet flavors.

Lucky for me and my culinary obsessions, the Delicata squash contorni is a rather simple one to make, and requires only basic cooking techniques.

Continue Reading for a Delicious Delicata Squash with Browned Butter and Sage Recipe! »

December 10

No Drip Vietnamese Spring Rolls: Gourmet Airplane Food

It’s December, the month of holiday travel, and I’m here to tell you that before you step foot onto a plane (or car for a long road trip), you really ought to take a few minutes to plan what you’re going to eat while your traveling.

Because, bottom line, you love good food and the stuff they serve on airplanes is terrible. What’s worse, they make you pay a handful of dollars for food you would otherwise walk right past–had you not been stuck in your seat with no food options. Even if you took the time out to buy a snack from the airport terminal, the food is downright overpriced and unhealthy.

So why aren’t more people obsessing over packing their own meal for their trip? Maybe the new baggage requirements have something to do with why travelers aren’t packing their own airplane meal; but planning a simple meal for your flight doesn’t have to be difficult. As a matter of fact, packing a lunch for a trip can be downright fun.

Granted, menu planning at 3 a.m. before leaving to catch an early flight isn’t ideal. So I recommend putting together your snack the night before while you’re making dinner. That way you can get all of your prep and clean up done in advance of any bleary-eyed wake up call.

Continue for a Terrific, No-Drip Spring Roll Recipe! »

October 27

Cold Cure Cocktail

It’s cold season and everyone I know is suffering. The most recent flu bug—a nasty twist on a head cold with a sore throat, congestion, and undeniable exhaustion—is taking down the best of ’em. Even earnest, hand washing me.

I shouldn’t be surprised by my recent bout with a cold. When you work in a business that requires close contact with hundreds of people a day, it’s no wonder I’ve gotten sick. The flu shot and lots of hand washing helps, but sometimes the viruses that topple the ranks of fellow restaurant employees, wins.

So besides getting lots of rest, drinking plenty of fluids*, and eating chicken soup, my sick body has been craving another kind of cold cure. Bourbon, fresh lemon juice, and spicy peppers work its magic on burning away the final traces of a sore throat. Fill a tea pot with hot water, add freshly squeezed lemon juice, a shot of Buffalo Trace bourbon (or your favorite brown stuff) and sweeten the mix with a Jalapeño simple syrup. The drink’s warmth and fiery spice is the perfect late night answer to a cold cure. I’ve been feeling great ever since.

Continue Reading for my Cold Cure Cocktail »

August 31

Art of the Bar

I recently stumbled across a full-page spread in the August Bon Appetit devoted to a former friend from my days of bartending in Boston.

from Bon Appetit Magazine

I knew Misty as a hard working, spunky brunette that worked long hours at Toad, the Cambridge restaurant/music club we both worked at. Back in the day, when I wasn’t writing screenplays and she wasn’t attending classes at Harvard’s Divinity school, we would commiserate over late night Manhattans and talk about what our lives would look like once we got out from behind the bar. They were hopeful days filled with big ideas and limitless possibilities.

Photo, circa 1997. My last night working in Boston. Celebrating with Misty, and all of my Toad friends

In the years since I came to Los Angeles, Misty decided to put her Divinity schooling behind her and dedicate herself to the art of the bar. Her devotions went from the teachings of God(s) to a new kind of religion: celebrating classic cocktails, via the Boston based chapter she founded called the Ladies United for the Preservation of Endangered Cocktails. Now she runs the bar program at Drink. The Bon Appetit article reminded me just how influential those early years in restaurants really were for people like Misty and myself.

And that’s when it hit me. We restaurant people really are a different from most people. We don’t share the same wiring of the nine-to-five, business suit wearing set. We work odd hours, dream in cocktails and recipes, and share a secret language that is truly unique. For many of us, making it in the business of food and drink isn’t about the money. Success is being able to create truly great product–drinks and food and service–and do it night after night. Success is consistently great product that people from all over the world stop and take notice of. Success, for many of us in the restaurant business, is about getting street cred.

Street cred may not pay the rent, but it certainly does has its benefits. Respect from restaurant brethren equals a table at a busy restaurant, a spot at the front of the line at the bar, a dish on the house, or a handshake from the person in charge. Witness a restaurant pro with a lot of street cred walk into a restaurant and you will see something akin to the way Italian restaurants cater to the Mafia. It’s a beautiful thing. A full page spread in a food magazine is, without a doubt, the print version of street cred.

The Nomad, The Bartender and The Writer

I belong to the service branch of the restaurant business. Servers, bartenders, runners, bussers are the mercenaries and carnival people that make up the front of the house–or service unit–of restaurants. We are a nomadic group with a touch of the performer in us. We rely on a toolbox of skills and a range of talents that are always required because every day is filled with a flurry of difficult and trying situations.

Bartenders are a small subsection of the service branch. Equal part technician and server, bartenders offer a level of service very different from waiters. Not only do they act as a liaison between the guest and the kitchen, but bartenders must be able to create cocktails in the manner that a chef creates food—they must be consistent, have good technical skills and understand their ingredients. Despite the fact that bartenders often offer the same services as the waiters, life behind the bar is a very different place than on the floor.

Which is part of the reason why I am so excited to start work behind the bar again. For just a few nights a week, I will step behind the bar at Osteria Mozza to bartend, serve and fine tune the technical skills to create amazing drinks on the fly. Bartending is an aspect of the restaurant business I have missed greatly—ever since the good old days when Misty and I were just starting out in Cambridge and finding our way in the world—via restaurants.

In order to give more time to my freelance work as a frequent contributor to Squid Ink, LA Weekly’s food blog, I have made the difficult decision to leave my full time job at Tavern Restaurant.

Now I must sadly say goodbye to Suzanne Goin, Caroline Styne, and the inspiring team of people I had become a part of. The dedication, tenacity, fearlessness and attention to detail of Goin and Styne was a constant inspiration that made me want to be better at what I do. They are, without a doubt, two incredible women that deserve every bit of their enormous street cred.

August 5

Expert advice on essential pantry herbs

Every home cook has basic items they always stock in their kitchen’s pantry. Requirements slide up and down a varying scale of basic essentials to gourmet necessities. While some gourmands require jars of caviar, blocks of chocolate and imported espresso beans, I like to keep things simple in my little kitchen. My cabinets stocked with cans of tuna, sardines, plum tomatoes, chicken stock and bags of pasta, granola, cereal and nuts. Nothing too complicated.

As for spices, I avoid the dried stuff in jars. As New York Times’ food writer Mark Bittman suggests my spice shelf should be dedicated to items that don’t go bad quickly. I stock dried red peppers, whole nutmeg, large sticks of Vietnamese Cinnamon (thanks White on Rice!), dried oregano from Italy, cardamom pods and a tube of harissa.

I have to admit that when it comes to buying fresh herbs, however, I am utterly uncertain what should be considered essential. Unless I have a specific recipe in mind, I’m often left wondering what I should or shouldn’t be buying at the farmers market herb stand. And sometimes, the thought of tossing another bunch of wilted (and yes, I admit it, moldy) basil into the garbage keeps me from buying anything at all.

But now, thanks to Lily Baltazar—the daughter of an herb grower and the person in charge of overseeing the family’s herb stands at farmers markets across southern California—I think I have a much better understanding of what an essential herb really is.

I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Lily for my weekly column in the LA Weekly’s food blog, Squid Ink. Lily thrives on educating customers and teaching them how use herbs. After learning tons of great ideas on how to use leftover herbs (read the full story here), I decided to ask Lily what herbs she couldn’t live without. Here is what she had to say:

If you could only have a handful of herbs in your pantry, what would they be?

I would certainly pick Italian parsley, basil, thyme, arugula and cilantro. I like to think that we are all “home chefs” and although our flavor palates are different, these herbs provide an array of flavors.

I love Italian Parsley too! I think that may be the once thing I always buy at your herb stand with confidence. I chop it up and throw it in sauces, toss with bread crumbs and add to salads (especially my radish and sardine salad). Why is Italian Parsley one of your essential herbs?

It sparks up any meal, whether you are making tabouli, putting a soup stock together, or adding it to a carton of store bought soup, it will enhance the look of the dish, as well as the flavor.

And Basil?

Basil is another herb that works well with any dish. I want to get customers to think past Italian pesto. This beautiful herb can be used for so much more. Just add extra leaves to a sandwich, to top a pizza and add to salads. Chop up basil and add last minute to soups, use it in spring rolls. Or just add it in the place of cilantro.

Suzanne Goin likes to use muddle basil stems to flavor her vinaigrettes. That’s an ingenious use of leftovers, I have to say. And speaking of Suzanne, thyme seems to be the number one herb used in most of her dishes at Tavern. Why is thyme so important to you?

Thyme is the versatile herb that can be used in just about anything. Use it for marinades and meat rubs for grilling. Chop and use for mushroom dishes. Thyme is a must for salad dressing. This beautiful herb is now being used to flavor and garnish for drinks.

And what about arugula? Is it really an herb?

The nutty spicy green is gaining in popularity. Its nutty, peppery leaves go well with fish, sushi, spring rolls, chicken, beef. I like to use this green in combination with sweets. Try an arugula salad with fresh dates from the farmers market or fresh, ripe fruit like apples, pears, candied nuts…The list goes on. For extra flavor, add cheese to an arugula salad.

Sometimes when I run out of spinach I like to use any arugula I have and sauté it. I recently used it in an egg white omelet and loved how it gave the simple egg preparation such a nice peppery note…Why is cilantro on your list of essential herbs?

I like to chop it up and sprinkle it on just about anything. I like it for salsa, chutney, salads, sandwiches, burritos, quesadillas.

How do you suggest storing fresh herbs? Is there a way to prolong their freshness?

Keep pantry herbs all together in a plastic bag or in a plastic tub. I like to bring out all of my herbs together, to inspire experimentation and new uses. The only exception to this is basil. Basil is special and does not like cold temps. Wrap your basil in a dry paper towel and place in a separate bag. Put the bag in the cheese bin or the warmest part of your fridge. All my pantry herbs (except for basil) will last about a week in the fridge.

Lily Baltazar’s family business, ABC Rhubarb is based in Fillmore, California. I visit her every week at the Hollywood Farmers Market.

July 29

An improvised recipe for Maryland Crab soup

(Photo credit: from Diane at White on Rice)

There’s something really beautiful about having the confidence and skill to improvise. Musicians do it when they see beyond the black notes on a chart and close their eyes to jam. It’s the same with creating something impromptu in the kitchen; it comes when the cook understands more than just the basic chemistry of cooking and ratios and starts to feel their way into a never-before-created dish.

Like a musician that can hear a tune unwind in their head, a chef must be able to cook and taste a dish before ever slicing into product or turning on the stove. The day I cooked crab soup from beginning to end without ever boiling a pot of water, was the day I realized I had started to think like a chef.

Take me to the bridge!

I have my friend Chef Brian—sous chef of Hatfield’s restaurant–to thank for my recent transformation. Over the past year he’s taken me under his wing, described the way he creates dishes and has talked me through the way prepares every ingredient. Thanks to his willingness to share culinary secrets, he’s given me information that can only learned by spending thousands of hours in the kitchen.

I recently invited a handful of my very best culinary friends to our Los Angeles apartment for a night of eating. I couldn’t think of a better way to celebrate our love of food than with a casual dinner that celebrated the bounty of California’s farmers’ market featuring freshly caught Santa Barbara crab. With the Hungry Cat Crab Fest–one of my favorite LA dining events–as inspiration, I began to put together my menu.

Standing in the Hollywood Farmer’s Market I saw it all so clearly. I would serve a multi course dinner, starting with a cucumber and lime cocktail. I’d begin with a savory fruit salad (Suzanne Goin style), follow it with a Maryland-style crab soup and corn bread, and finale with a huge Santa Barbara rock crab, mallets and plenty of corn on the cob. I felt confident about the salad and the simple boiling of the crab and ears of corn–but the soup was a different matter completely.

I didn’t have a recipe, nor any hope of finding one. I asked my boss (Suzanne Goin herself) if she had a copy of her husband—Chef David Lentz‘s—soup recipe but she didn’t. Oddly confident I thought, I can figure this out.

I began to doubt my abilities the moment after I had navigated through the crowded Hollywood Farmers Market with bags stuffed full of fresh produce and angry Santa Barbara crabs. Suddenly my mind was flooded with an imagined future of disappointed food bloggers politely eating a watery crab soup.

Just as I was at my lowest low, the culinary gods smiled upon me as I stumbled across the path of smiling Chef Brian—a Maryland native and crab expert.

“My god,” I gasped. “Can you tell me how to make crab soup?”

With my hands occupied with heavy sacks, he ran down the basic procedures of preparing a Maryland crab soup. Unable to take notes, I visualized the cooking of the crab, the messy job of pulling out the crustacean’s sweet meat, the sautéing of the shells and cooking the bodies down with mirepoix to create a rich stock. I saw it all as I repeated the steps all over again at the stove. Thanks to Brian’s advice and my newfound confidence, the soup was a huge success.

Like a family recipe that is shared through generations, this soup is created by feel and instinct. I offer you the recipe here, as it was described to me at the Hollywood Farmer’s market.

[print_link]
An Improvised Maryland Crab Soup
As shared by Brian Best, Hatfield’s Restaurant

4 large Santa Barbara Crabs
1 large bunch of carrots, peeled and chopped
1 large bunch of celery, chopped
3 large onions, chopped
6 ears of corn
fingerling potatoes (1-2 pounds), peeled and chopped into small pieces
2 small cans of tomato paste
2 dried ancho chili
2-3 tbl Harissa from a tube
Vegetable oil for cooking
Olive oil for cooking
enough water to cover the crabs
left over vegetable scraps or herbs

Crabs should be alive before you cook them. Leave crabs in the coolest section of the refrigerator until you are ready to cook them. Putting them in the freezer for 10 minutes before you cook them will make the cooking process less difficult for the crabs (and you).

Fill a large pot with water. Bring the water to a boil. Add the crab one at a time to make sure they are fully submerged in the water. Cook separately if necessary. Depending on the size of the crab, cook for 12-15 minutes but no more. Remove the crab from the water, let cool. Reserve the cooking liquid if possible.

Cover your worktable with newspapers. This is going to be messy. Using a mallet, hammer, or crackers, break the claws to reveal meat. Using chopsticks or picks, remove the meat. Put crab meat in one bowl and the shells in another. Rinse crab’s top shell of the dark internal liquid, as this juice will make the soup bitter. Break down the top shell with a hammer.

Using the same large pot, heat pot over high heat with a little vegetable oil. Add an acho chili or two, the crab shells and pieces. Stir crab shells frequently, making sure to heat all the shells evenly. The crab shells should start to smell of the sea, about 10-15 minutes.

In a separate pan, add half of chopped onion, carrot and celery to a hot pan with olive oil. Sautee down until the mirepoix ingredients begin to soften. Add to the sautéing crab shells. Add herbs and any vegetable scraps you may have. Add cooking liquid or water to the crab shells, being careful to add just enough to cover the shells. Simmer on stove for an hour. Taste. Drain the crab stock with the finest sieve you have. Cook down the stock for 30 minutes to an hour.

In your sautee pan, cook down the remaining mirepoix ingredients until soft. Add softened mirepoix and potatoes to stock. Remove the corn from the cob and add to stock. Add tomato paste, stir to dissolve. Add crab meat. Cook down for 30-60 minutes. Taste for seasoning. Add Harrissa if you desire more spice. Serve immediately or freeze.

Serve with cornbread.

June 19January 4

The Rosetta Shallot

Sometimes it’s the smallest lessons that have the power to change every aspect of the way you think. Some people call that life changing moment a “shift”. Oprah branded the concept and named it the “Aha” moment.

If I were an influential branding agent, I think I would find a word to signify the transitional moment in the kitchen when cooking is forever changed by a single lesson. Maybe I’d call it “the cast iron moment”, or maybe I’d go with something quite simple, like “shallots.”

My culinary brain was irrevocably rewired the day I understood shallots. Not long ago, while dining for the first time at the Chez Panisse Café, I found myself marveling at the tiny outbursts of sweet and crunchy acidity hidden between leafy mixed greens. I pulled the plate closer to discover the delicious source of the complex flavors. My charming waiter, Daniel, stepped up to the table as I inspected the perfect, tiny cubes of purple and white hiding underneath the wild arugula on my plate.

“What is that amazing flavor?” I asked him with awe. “Onion?”

Daniel smiled politely. Without a bit of judgment he blew my mind with these three words: “They are shallots.” Well drop a pin in my map of culinary time and mark it “shallots”. My salads and mignonettes have never been the same since.

Pre-Shallots (PS)

Before I truly understood the subtle power of the shallot (the 12th century crusaders called the shallot “valuable treasure”), I mistakenly thought them to be a smaller, more expensive version of the onion. Though shallots may have a similar structure to onions —concentric rings and a papery skin—they are a different species altogether.

Rosetta shallot

Now that comprehend the role shallots play in simple salads and gorgeous mignonettes, I can, so to speak, understand their language. Now whenever I go to the farmers’ market, I’m sure to pick up a couple of tight, heavy shallots (I prefer the smaller ones for their mild flavor and sweetness) for my week’s menu.

At home, I transform the shallots into a pile of tiny, mignonette squares, drizzle them with red wine vinegar, cover the stuff, and leave the precious mix in the refrigerator. Having this shallot mise-en-place on hand saves time and creates the most incredible salads in just seconds.

Shallots can be found year round, but the prime time for them is from April through August. When choosing shallots, look for firm ones that are heavy for their size. Avoid shallots with soft spots or are sprouting.

[print_link]Simple Salad with Shallot Vinaigrette
One of the best parts about learning basic technique, is that you don’t need to have recipes. Salad making is one of the best places to learn how to create by feel and with your taste buds. Allow this to be a simple guide.

Two big handfuls of greens (washed and dried)
2-3 fresh radish (or another lovely market vegetable), thinly sliced
great olive oil like Oleificio Chianti extra virgin olive oil (Alice Water’s olive oil of choice)
Salt
Pepper
1 shallot, cubed uniformly
good red wine vinegar

Toss the cubed shallot into a small bowl and drizzle with red wine vinegar. Let sit for at least 15-20 minutes. Fill a salad bowl with enough mixed greens for the number of people you are serving. Season with salt and pepper. Drizzle lightly with olive oil. Gently toss with clean hands. Take a generous pinch of the wine soaked shallots and add to salad. Toss and taste for balance. Drizzle more vinegar if needed. Add some of the sliced radish and toss again. Taste and then plate the salad onto cold plates. Add the final amounts of radish to the plate for color and serve.