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This is weird and funny and sorta cool. The last restaurant I where I worked, Huckleberry Cafe and Bakery was just listed as one of the Top 10 Best Places for Fried Chicken by Andrew Knowlton of Bon Appetit magazine. It's a nationwide list, and Huck is the only restaurant in LA that is mentioned. I helped develop that recipe! Congratulations to Zoe and Josh.

Here's another article where we got some recognition for the chicken. There's a photo if you scroll down a bit. Top Fried Chicken in Los Angeles on FoodGPS.com Thanks, Josh!

These lists are fraught with problems, but I'll save the modesty for another time. It's just a cool thing to have happen. Woohoo!!

*ZZ Top reference

Posted by Tad at 12:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In a restaurant, one cook is often designated or assigned to cook family meal, the name of the meal for the staff - including cooks, managers, servers, etc. It's often a thankless job, and is in addition to the normal duties of setting up the station, prep work, etc. Sometimes it's assigned in rotation, changing from day to day from cook to cook. Often there won't be much to work with, maybe some trimmings from meat butchering, or maybe two whole chickens to feed 15 people. And that cook gets to hear all the complaining: "Can't we have something other than chicken/pasta/eggs/rice?" "Can't we have some fresh vegetables? Why is family meal always deep fried? Isn't this leftovers from the other night? Why is there always bacon in everything?" Some cooks dread it or even hate it.

I guess I'm an oddball, but I actually enjoy making family meal.

It can be a means to gain respect in the kitchen. If you can take a few bits of meat, two links of sausage and a handful of shrimp and make a decent paella, you earn a few points. If you can cook up a nice pasta dish for the staff, it might help you get promoted to working the pasta station.

One of the things I enjoy about the process is that there is a hidden vocabulary in food. Cooks usually understand better than most people how to build flavors and how certain dishes are put together. If you can put together a tasty version of risotto while still setting up your station and not babysitting the risotto, you earn a few points. Or say if you work in a French restaurant, but can make something other than French food, you may earn a few points by demonstrating some versatility. In LA especially, if you can pull off some decent Mexican or other Latin food, you'll earn a few points from the Latino cooks, but also from the staff, who generally know and love Latin food, too. Getting compliments like that from people who really know food is very satisfying to me.

Similar to comedians that rarely laugh at another comedian's act and simply say, "That's funny," cooks are often short with praise, just saying, "That's good." If they come up for a second helping, that's a compliment. If they ask you to describe how you made something, that's probably the highest compliment you'll get.

Sometimes, family meal is actually better than the food that's going out to guests because someone put a little thought into it, paid attention to it, and put some love in it. Some of the best family meals I've ever had: an extra lamb leg made into a Roman-style lamb stew enriched with egg in the sauce, braised beef cheeks in a sweet-sour sauce, chicken in mole negro, couscous with pine nuts, currants, apricots and spices, chilaquiles (tortilla chips tossed with an enchilada type sauce and eggs), and enfrijoladas (corn tortillas dipped in refried black beans).

Here are a few guidelines for impressing the other cooks with your family meal prowess:

-Plan ahead a little. If you know it's your turn to cook family tomorrow, have an idea in mind so that it seems like it was a no-brainer for you. Just like for customers, have a protein, a vegetable of some kind, and a starch. Maybe something crispy or crunchy if it needs textural contrast.

-Think simple preparations, think family style, think comfort food. If possible, choose dishes that can be started and left to cook unattended. Good candidates are rice dishes, pasta dishes, roasted or braised dishes. Or stir-fry dishes, but do it in a way where you don't spend a ton of time cutting vegetables and such.

-Keep the garlic and onions on the side or in minimal amounts. And definitely cooked rather than raw. FOH staff can't deal with guests properly if they have dragon breath.

-Maybe spend a few bucks of your own money to buy a few dozen tortillas or a good curry powder blend. Just something to set it apart. Since most cooks only use what's on hand, all meals start from the same ingredients, and they all start to taste the same. It's like having a secret weapon.

-Use inexpensive ingredients as the core of your family meal. Your chef doesn't want to see the staff eating steak. Plus, part of the ethos is transforming something inexpensive into something tasty.

-Just like for customers, it's worth the 30 seconds it takes to arrange the food a little bit, sprinkle a little parsley on on it, and pretty it up a little. Maybe not to the same degree, but something a little better than dumped out onto a sheet pan.

Posted by Tad at 12:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We've been really busy at the catering company, which definitely says good things because few caterers and restaurants are busy these days. Even with two extra sets of hands last night, it was a 13 hour day - 5pm to 6am. Hopefully some circumstances will change soon and we'll be back to more normal hours.

But compared to January where I didn't really work at all, I'll take this abundance of work while it's here. Although it's showing no signs of slowing for us. Knock on wood.

Also, at this job, there's definitely a relationship between workload and rewards, so it's good to receive a bit more for my efforts. When I've been on salary, it's virtually impossible to keep morale up when there's more to do, more hours needed, and the same paycheck.

Posted by Tad at 02:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I was thinking about the posts I've made here and was reminded that I haven't posted enough pictures in general. Additionally, I talk about cooking and such, but haven't really shown food that I have made. So here's something to start with. It's not something I would normally make - it was an assignment in class the other week.

Plum Tart with Chambord Creme de Beurre Noisette.

The crust is pate brisee, a classic French pie or tart dough. This dough is quite forgiving - easy to patch or re-roll. No greasing or blind baking is needed in this case. I worked in a bakery, but I didn't make the baked goods, so this was still outside my comfort zone. General pastry rules apply: keep the butter in visible bits or pieces, and handle the dough as little as possible to prevent gluten formation and melting/blending of the butter into the dough.

Plums from Chile - they weren't the best, but I love plums and they were the most interesting of the fruits available. Also, everyone else made pears, so I wanted to switch it up a little.

It was my first time making creme de beurre noisette, which is a filling used by bakers consisting of eggs, flour, brown butter, and sugar. When it's baked, it reminds me of baked frangipane, but it's not made with nuts. The brown butter brings a nutty flavor, so that's probably what made me think of it. I flavored this one with Chambord, which is a cassis (black currant) liqeur. It's one of those components that is actually better to eat before it gets baked, like cookie dough or pastry cream. I could eat a bowl of it like pudding! I think next time I would put a layer of the filling across the bottom of the tart, use a tiny bit less fruit, and make the crust a bit thinner. Plum and Chambord is a good combination. I would just increase the proportion of creme de beurre noisette by any means necessary.

I'd definitely make this again.

Posted by Tad at 10:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's a short month, but I'm gonna get two posts in, dang it.

The first prong of the new plan of attack is I'm working for a caterer. I'm learning the catering business because I think my skills and temperament may be better suited to that than restaurants. It's still cooking, it's still a solid days work (when there are catering gigs), but it's more project oriented in approach, organization, and timeline. Quite a bit different than a restaurant, where they goal is to be ready for anything on the menu, and make it 75 times, exactly right and exactly the same, every night. Catering is more like make it exactly right ONCE, for 75 people.

There's an interesting stigma amongst restaurant line cooks that cooks that can't hack the restaurant kitchen do catering. But catering usually is better money, shorter hours, more creativity, and less wear and tear on the body and soul.

I'll take it!

The only downside so far is that it's usually not as steady as a restaurant gig. But I'm cutting down on my monthly overhead, so that should take a little of the pressure off during the occasional slow week. And I definitely can use a little more flexibility in my schedule than when I was working 75-80 hours a week at the restaurant.

So far, so good. Today we had a good chat about how to proceed from here. We're going to push ahead with plans to keep us busy during the gaps. Gotta keep bringing the pain.

Posted by Tad at 11:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's been too long. Much has happened since my last post. As it turns out, Las Vegas wasn't for me. Or at least for the time being. I didn't much enjoy the corporate/casino work situation. I actually was enjoying living in LV - it snowed while I was there, and I drove through the Asiatown twice a day. I still hadn't found a Mexican restaurant that I loved, but new opportunities came calling.

I moved back to LA almost exactly a year ago. I served as a sous chef at a new cafe and bakery, which was one of the most engrossing, demanding, and challenging things I've ever done. I worked hard, did the best I could, and learned a ton. We were fortunate to be very busy, even during hard times for most restaurants. Most of the time, it was just a race to keep up with all the food we were selling. I had a great team of cooks, we figured out a lot of things as they were happening, and the guests seemed to enjoy it. Good times.

At one point, it seemed like I had found a home where I could be for a long time - indefinitely, even. There were some areas of difference of opinion, difference of style, and difference of priorities. At first, it seemed like those differences could be complementary. Ultimately, I decided, it wasn't the right fit for me. I wish them continued success and every happiness.

I spent most of January sitting in my bedroom thinking about all the things I coulda/woulda/shoulda done, but more importantly, all the things I wanna/hafta/will do next.

One of those things is writing more regularly. Perhaps the cliche'd blogger resolution. But there's a multi-pronged plan in the works. More on that as it develops. Thanks for reading.

Posted by Tad at 07:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

It's pledge time at KCRW, and here's a message from Evan Kleinman. Both she and the show are a great source of information for all things food, definitely worthy of any support you can offer.

~Tad

Posted by Tad at 07:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)