Twitter Kills

How many blogs has twitter killed besides this one? Sorry for the lack of posts but if you want the daily updates follow me on twiter.

What the F Happened to Feb? & A Day in LA

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.



I will admit I did animal style on the fries and it was too much.



Recap- animal style burger good, animal style fries- too far. Lesson learned.

Pasture Prime Farms

We have a crazy week coming up so while it was slow we took the crew out to Torm Siverson's Pasture Prime Farm for a little field trip. I took a couple of videos so check it out see what we were up to. I will warn there is some graphic nature to these videos, we don't show any animal being killed but pretty much everything right after that point in on the video. If you have a problem with this then don't watch it. Chicken doesn't just fall out of the sky and land on your plate, someone has to do this.
With this in mind Torm goes above and beyond to provide a comfortable and caring environment while the animals are with us. He has a great pyrenees that was raised with chickens. He now lives with Torm's red ranger and poulet rouge breeds to watch over them and protect agaisnt any predators until they are big enough to fend for themselves. The chickens are rotated like crops from field to field, fertilizing the land to help with grass growth come spring. The grass in turn will feed the 140 head of Wagyu cattle that also inhabit the 400 plus acres here in Summerfield, Florida. There will be more videos to come about Pasture Prime Farms

Sushi Pop

Check our blog roll and you will see a new site that has just "POP'd" up. Sushi Pop has opened in Oviedo,Fl. One of my former sous chefs, Michael Gleason, is back in town teaming with resident sushi mastermind Chau delivering some really great food. A small operation presenting old school sushi and main courses with a twist. Japanese pop culture is the overall theme complete with anime playing on flatscreens, creative server attire, bonsai trees galore and a cool ass check presenter, oh yeah and the food is good to boot. Modern equipment and technique are in place. Check them out as this budding restaurant makes a name for itself, Oviedo finally has a restaurant that is not corporate, bland B.S. Congrats Mike and Chau, we will be back.

In the works

2011 so far has been filled with some great opportunities and products that have come our way. Tomorrow we will be in the kitchen prepping for a photo shoot with chef's garden products. Last week we put together some great dishes to shoot but with our resident photographer out on medical leave. With insufficient lighting due to poor weather we lost the natural light that shines throughout our private dining room and really makes the colors pop. We got some good photos but not great so we have one more opportunity to get it right. We hired outside help so in the end we should have some sweet, cleaned up photos of the food that will hopefully make it into the chef's garden mailings and email blasts. Be on the lookout for some bluezoo/Chef's garden inspired dishes headed your way in the near future.

Tuesday, January 18th we are making another homage to Torm Siverson's Pasture Prime Farm with the bluezoo crew. I have also invited some chef friends from around the area to join us on our excursion. We will be touring the farm, checking in on our favorite mangalitsa pigs, some new berkshires, red ranger and poulet rouge chickens that we will be processing on site, as well as the grass fed wagyu cattle that made pasture prime what it is today. I should have a nice post up on it later next week. What's not to enjoy, farm tour, lunch at the farm, some serious education on how farm life really is, history, and of course we Florida boys and girls love our firearms so some target practice and accuracy side bets may come into play. That should fill up just enough time to haul ass back to the restaurant and feel inspired to create some exciting dishes.
We did this last year in April and since then we have a lot of new faces in the front and back of the house. Many of them have never seen how a family run local farm works and hopefully this will provide a much needed break from the monotony as well as invaluable information that will result in higher sales of Torm's product, a story to tell the guests, and ultimately an increased level of respect for our products.

NYE

The busiest day of the year is hear again, armed with a new video camera I will hopefully be able to share some of the happenings if I can figure out how to post it. The final tasting menu will not be printed until sometime tomorrow afternoon but this is what we have so far

Hamachi....truffle aioli, mangalitsa lardo

From the "chef's garden"....seasonal assortment of organic vegetables in various forms

Monchong....glazed turnip, turnip greens, black trumpet

Duck 3 ways....breast, pressed leg and thigh, sous vide foie, cranberry

Wagyu short rib....jalapeño honey glazed sweet potato, baby collards, sweet dumpling squash

Brilliat savarin....Salted acacia brûlée

Dessert trio....Laurent branlard custom dessert

Our guests have the option of a 5 or 7 course tasting, the full a la carte menu will be available as well. This has been a challenging year for us, lots of new faces in the kitchen still learning and training but doing well. 580 on the books, 1 chef, 1 chef de cuisine, 9 line chefs, 1 butcher, and 2 prep chefs so that only leaves 41.4 covers per person we have worry about. Roughly 2000 plates, it's going to be fun.

the bluezoo boat

Bill Rovillo and his family loved the restaurant so much they named their boat after us. This happens to be the bluezoo 2, since they sold the original bluezoo boat and upgraded. I thought it was awesome and had to have them send me a picture of it. Here it is.



Those are some loyal guests.



Thanks Bill and family. Come see us again soon.

Charred Mizuna

It's been a while since my last post but it's been crazy around here. Charlie at hammock Hollows sent us a nice mixed bag of mizuna, spicy and mild. We ended up charring it lightly over the grill. The mizuna mixture seasoned, oiled, and spread over resting racks to get an even char. The we spread it out in the dehydrator and ended up with some great tasting crunchy garnishes.



We used it on our serrano ham wrapped monkfish that was part of our tasting.

Mangalitsa Demo

Our annual food and wine dinner is approaching and the days are getting long so this will be short and sweet. View Torm's blog for some info about our recent mangalitsa demo at the Epcot Food and Wine Festival.

Andrea Robinson, pairing

We had the pleasure of Andrea dining with us tonight. She is one of 14 women who have been awarded the title of Master Sommelier. It was an interesting dining experience for both of us. She sent back a glass of some awesome wine for me to taste and left it up to me to make the pairing for her. I chewed the wine for a moment and was hit by a refined earthiness, hint of sweetness, not over the top acid, smooth and a well balanced mouth feel. The next step was pin pointing the elements of that taste to highlight the wine. No pressure, just a master somm leaving her several hundred dollar bottle of wine in your hands. I hit her with some halibut. It's a neutral fish that can support many flavors. Here is the dish.



Halibut, parsley root and coulis, chanterelle, heirloom carrot, braised radish, truffle vinaigrette and air, foie mousse. According to her it was a perfect pairing. I couldn't ask for anything more than that coming from someone of her caliber. She is doing a demo at Epcot Food and Wine tomorrow, be sure to check her out.

Seattle and it's Coffee

Let's just start off saying these people take their coffee seriously. One of our days in Seattle consisted of hanging with our Orlando tranplant friend Brad and he brought us up to speed on the Seattle coffee scene among other things. On our tour of the city we stopped by Victrola. According to Brad, their are two places to get great coffee in the US, Intelligenstia out of L.A. and Victrola! Stumptown still seems to be a favorite to some in Seattle, but not Brad. Acording to our knowledgable friend stumptown is expanding and the quality has suffered slightly. I can't comment on this considering I did not try stumptown coffee when it was only local. OF course compared to most Fl coffee I would consider Stumptown superior.
I am an espresso advocate but as true with most restaurants/coffee proprietors/and general businesses I base a lot on the simplest thing on the menu or the simplest service that they provide and how well they do it. Can you produce and excellent burger or simple entree, can you make a perfect drip, is your most basic product the best it can be? This usually answers a lot of questions for me in terms of how a company views it's products and how they treat most customers.
I can tell you right now people in Seattle care about their food, wine, beer, and coffee. The level of quality and thought behind what they are willing to intake is right up there with the top cities in the country.
We visited Pegasus, the oldest coffee house in Bainbridge, not a bad showing. The only people going to Starbucks seem to be tourists. Having several coarse ground french presses from various purveyers, Victrola seemed to be superior. Of course taste is subjective, and people have their routines of visiting the same place every day depending on where they are in they are in the city. Some make the extra effort to go to Victrola, some do not. Granted I can't name a place in Orlando that roasts their own beans everyday, has a visible roasting room with a giant black and gold roaster the size of a half ton truck, 100lb canvas sacks of raw beans from all over the world with a staff dedicated to just roasting the coffee beans perfectly. That just doensn't happen here. We have small organic coffee/tea houses that don't come close to the level of what we are talking about. On the Orlando scale they are good, but it's hard to compare. I hear Portland has a good showing with Albina and I'm sure there are many more around the country that do as well but I can't comment on them if I haven't been there.
Coffee is as complex as wine, spirits or food. I'm sure this i why coffee, tea and spirits are part of the Court of Master Sommelier's program. As an introductory level sommelier we focused mainly on wine, beer and sprirts in our training classes. Wine and service of wine above all. The certified somm test incorporates more, as does advanced somm, then of course the master somm goes even further. After talking to one of our master somm instructors who spent a year on tea service, flavor and varieties it was clear that this profession is never ending. Their is never a point where anyone can say "I know Everything". Coffee plays a role in so many individual's everyday lives, whether it's a caffine boost to get you going or the pure enjoyment of a perfect brew. Cupping Coffee is it's own craft. I guess you have to decide what you prefer and nothng else matters.

Buyout Dinner

This is a post about a dinner we did on 9-23-10. Fresh off a plane from star chefs I had a couple hours to get my self together then walk into this 125pp buyout dinner in bluezoo. These were mostly meeting planner from around the country who come to the resort then we wine and dine them into sending future business the hotel's way. Not a bad gig being a CMP(certified meeting planner).
We started off with some menu training for the evening. The servers got the low down from our Executive Sous Chef Arnaud Violtat on the platings and components.



Every execution starts with mise en place.



Amuse for the night was a crispy oyster with "rockefeller flavors"



Of course we plan for the occasional shelfish dislike or allergy with a vegetarian amuse option



1st Course hawaiian tuna, dashi noodles, avocado, sesame



Poussin and lobster terrine followed



3rd is Loup de mer, artichoke barigoule, chanterelle duxelle



4thd course was veal tenderloin, veal tail croquette, porcini



Here we are getting ready to plate the amuse



We lined the halls with our standard plating set up for VIP events



The FOH had a huge set up. Once our guests had finished dining in the restaurant the we directed to our version of a speakeasy. Here is Adam Bagwell in the weeds prepping for the speak easy bar.



The guest were led through a series of back, underbelly hallways of the hotel that had some deliberate grafitti art, trash, and street perfomrers about. The came to a door, knock, small peep hole opens, give the password, and enter a kitchen converted into a faux chinese laundry. Pastry Chef Wes Mayton was setting up his display of desserts in black light cooler.



Here is the bar that was set up behind the laundry entrance.



The first thing the guest sees when entering into the speak easy. This was staffed with some of our asian associates.



Shot of the sign.



As the guests ventured further into the speakeasy there is a bar and high top tables to belly up to. Some jazz musicians playing very low toned sets.



Setting up the bar was no simple task.



Something fun for all of us to be a part of.

Sante, Vitamix

It's been a crazy last couple of weeks around here and it's not slowing down. We're marching into season with a new menu and tons of special events lined up. I attended Star Chefs ICC this year with a little more on my mind than usual. I competed in the VitaMix Challenge this year and we took home 2nd place. Not a bad showing. Here is a picture of our dish that was presented. Loup de mer steamed in the blender. I poured in a hot aromatic fume using the bones of the fish into the base of the blender, then suspended the fish at the rim of the blender top using plastic wrap, poked a couple holes, oiled the surface, placed the lid on top and wrapped the top in plastic wrap. Turned on the blender and let it work it's magic forcing hot steam up through the holes cooking the fish. Later I added some peeled baby tomatoes, touch of xanthan, and mounted the sauce with some house cured lardo. Other components consisted of carrot and espellete noodles, pickled squash, anise hyssop blossoms, compressed malabar spinach two ways, purslane, carrot powder and various herb garnishes and flowers that tied into my theme of summer and fall coming together.



I don't like losing so much but I had to step back and look at it as a learning experience and in the end I did learn a thing or two as well as had the opportunity to cook with some great chefs. I missed the announcement of the winners as I was gathering all my equipment and getting ready to hop on a plane home. Just before I left the armory I got a call letting me know the outcome. I don't enter many competitions but this was a way for me to be a part of star chefs after learning and networking with great chefs in the past years of attendance. I felt obligated to at least enter and maybe provide some level of entertainment and participation after what they have done for me. A big thanks goes out to the staff at Star Chefs, VitaMix, multivac, and my bros Tony, Kevin and Mac from Olives for letting me ship a bunch of stuff to their NYC kitchen and taking care of it until I got their.

On to the next bit of exciting news we received today. Sante Magazine awarded bluezoo with a award in Culinary Innovation representing the Southeast US. This award really belongs to all the cooks at bluezoo. Throwing out ideas and plating techniques for our menu changes and daily chef's tasting. I can write menus all day and tell people what to do but that's not how I like this place to run. We are a group of young cooks in the business with a passion for what we do and hats off to my guys and gals for their hard work to make this happen. Bluezoo would be nothing without our dedicated culinary professionals.

Seattle and Bainbridge

Seattle is awesome! I love the west coast laid back approach. After spending 4 years in Flagstaff, Az studying forestry at NAU I have been hooked ever since. This was my summer/fall vacation that I needed. We are headed into some really busy times and this little getaway helped me get my head straight and I brought a slew of ideas back with me for future dishes. Immediately we hit Garagiste and filled the back of my cousin's truck with cases of wine. Next off to the tourist capitol of Seattle, Public Market. This is where the fish are thrown, not saying I want my fish thrown but this is where it happens with tons of people taking pictures and enjoying the super fresh seafood fare. Dungeness crab as far as the eye can see, salmon, shellfish, butcher counters, Beecher's cheese shop, bakeries, you name it and it's here.



We were brought to Matt's in the Market for lunch. Lamb burger with a Bear Republic Racer 5 IPA did me right.



Gas Works park with a stunning view of Seattle followed.



Our friend Brad, an Orlando transplant, took us over to Capital Hill where he lives and showed us around. Literally across the street from his apartment was a restaurant called Monsoon. Heath Putnam of Wooly Pigs told me we should check this place out and see what they are doing with the mangalitsa that he provides. It was a great lunch and a small world we live in that a random recommendation and our original path landed us in the same place. Heath was their with his crew just the day before and I wish I could have caught up with him but it just didn't work out. We did however enjoy some conversation with our server and she knew well of him. Next time HP. We hit Elysian Brewery afterwards for an Immortal IPA that was awesome, what can I say, can't refuse a good IPA. Also toured around The Comet where Nirvana played before they were big. Lots of history here.



Jason, one of my line chefs knew I was in Seattle and text me to check out the Maximus and Minimus pig shaped food truck but it was closed as we went by. Next time for sure. Salumi was on the list as well, but every time we went by it was a 2 hour wait so Salumi will have to wait but I did score some Salumi bacon at Pegasus Coffee in Bainbridge that was part of one of their breakfast sandwiches.



Next we headed over to Bainbridge where my cousin lives off of Agate Point. The ferry ride over showed off some of the views.



Can't beat this driveway to their house if you tried.



Here is a picture of their house from the beach of the Puget Sound. Yes, I'm jealous.



Views from their property. Relaxing and beautiful, don't really need any other words to describe the view.



Getting the canoe ready for some "sound" exploration.



Here is our canoe access point, doesn't suck.



We had the awesome opportunity to visit the local CSA(community supported agriculture) at Butter Bean Farms. Our cousin provides an initial donation that is spread amongst several farms in the area that helps with seed and feed money. The farms then grow and produce their products. At certain times during their harvest goods are available here in Butter Bean Farms garage. It's an honor system, drive up their property, go in the garage, pick what you want, write it down and it is subtracted from your initial investment. Awesome to say the least.



Onions hanging from the rafters are just one thing on hand this visit.



Here is only part of the vegetable layout for todays harvest. Local wine, pickles, fresh eggs, pork sausage, meats of all kinds grown locally.



Back to the house and hit up the wood fired hot tub.



Some hammocks near the canoe landing to chill in.



Taking in the local plant life.



Wild berries growing everywhere.



Grand firs and cedars rule this area. This is a second or third growth grand fir, hard to tell. Most of Bainbridge was clear cut at the turn of the century and before to support San Francisco's growth. A natural area to harvest with it's sea faring ports. Now is a different story and preservation is key.



Wild flowers were popping everywhere just before the winter sets in.



This our pre-canoeing debacle in the sound picture. Yes, it's fuzzy. As is our memory at the time. What doesn't sound good about hauling a canoe across the tide flats at 1am and taking a ride to play glow in the dark bocee ball somewhere we shouldn't be. Needless to say we lost some wine, cava, and various other equipment, saved the bourbon though. Let's just say it was a good idea at the time, bad in retrospect, and walked away with a story to tell. You just won't hear it here.



Off to Poulsbo, a unique Norwegian fishing community just minutes north of Agate Point. The norwegians settled here because it reminded them of the fjords in Norway and I can see why.



The Central Market in Poulsbo is ridiculous! The most intense shopping experience period. Live dungeness in river like flowing tanks, huge oysters from hood canal and totten inlet harvested just minutes away. This is a shot of the produce section that set me back a minute. Everything is perfect! They really take care of their products. An in house bakery, butcher, cooking demos, cooked to order take away, you name it this is the greatest grocery store I've ever seen. It's hard to come back to Florida and compare what we have to this place.



When I say they have everything I mean it. Fresh cactus, aloe branches, you name it.



For our last endevour we headed off to Tilth, the 95% organic restaurant on the out skirts of Seattle. 95% only because the wild foraged foods they use are not regulated by the FDA so it's pretty safe to say that everything they use is organic. We had an awesome meal and met with Sous Chef Jason afterwards and exchanged some stories. They are doing great things here and if you are ever in Seattle you should take some time out to witness it.