bluechef: March 2011

It's been a while since my last post so I'm going to ramble. We got crushed in February. Literally. Chef Patrick Sheerin(@chefintheory) joined us during this time, quite possibly on one of our busiest nites. Had to be the night I scheduled myself to expo 2 lines at the same time but as we all know this is how it works. S hits the fan at light speed when it is least expected. Patrick is a great chef from the Signature Room on the 95th floor at the John Hancock Building, Chicago. Not to mention bro of former Blackbird Chef Mike Sheerin who is pursuing his own venture. Of course I gave him the I'll hook it up nod via twitter and managed to be so busy I didn't even pick my phone up the whole day to check and see it was the day he was coming. It was in the back of my mind but just escaped me in the chaos. That's not ok in this world, my apologies to Pat and his family but I hope we made up for it. I did eventually get a chance to talk to him at the end of the night. What a great down to earth person who knows his stuff. Great to see you Pat, wish I could of joined you guys in Charleston.

Now on to LA.

Let's see, I have the opportunity to go to LA, leave at 7:30am my time, arrive 10am LA time, hang out for 12 or so hours, do some business, and haul ass back to Orlando on the red eye, arrive back home at 5:50am the next day, pass out for four hours, and head to work. OK, I'll do it. After attending Star Chefs where else would I go but Red Medicine. Jordan Kahn's presentation was ridiculous. In my opinion, Antoinette should of let him walk off the stage, saying nothing, and pretty much letting everyone in the armory know that he was a badass. That would of been the ultimate response but I know Antoinette's motives, she wants him to talk and tell his story to everyone. I would have been more enamored with him if he would have said nothing and left. His demo was that good. At the end I could feel that all he wanted to do was leave and not talk but I guess if Star Chefs asks you to do a demo you are obligated to talk about yourself. Finally after his OCD via TK was satisfied and his station was clean, he came back and talked to Antoinette about Red Medicine.

I called Red Medicine the night before at 4am eastern, not able to sleep in anticipation of my flight. It was 1am LA time, the hostess answered but I could barely hear her. It sounded like a giant party, awesome!

After arrival and a crappy rent a car, I made my way around The Beverly Center and found myself walking by Bazaar, Jose Andres place at the SLS Hotel in Beverly Hills. There were a ton of restaurants, all well known, all in this little area. Santa Monica seafood was delivering to Matsuhisa, I got a glimpse of some of their pristine product and it looked awesome. I wish I had more time!

I managed to go for lunch, not the busiest time, everyone was pretty relaxed but with a sense of intensity, ready to jump on my table with anything I might need. I hit my server up for a homemade squirt, they make all their own sodas in house. Bread is provided by Bouchon, coffee by intelligentsia. You can't go wrong.

After interrogating my server I ordered the green papaya salad, pickled roots, crispy tarro, tree nuts, nuac cham

It was pretty damn good

The server said the pork belly bahn mi was her favorite so I got that. It was good, I thought the pork belly could have had little more presence but it was good. The house made siracha is dangerous.

After lunch it was all business for a couple of hours then off to the 'ole In-N-Out burger. I don't understand how they have 20 cooks making hamburgers and fries when I have 7 on at a time making some ridiculous stuff. Doesn't make sense but it is good and quick. Go animal style on your burger. It's not on the menu, just ask for it.