Taste of a Nation

Once a year, the hospitality industry gets together to "give back" to our community. We gather at the Fairmont Hotel to celebrate Taste of a Nation.  SOS events happen around the world but I am priveleged to be part of our event in Winnipeg.  SOS events are great because all the money raised goes to the charity.  They are also great because we chefs get to see each other and hang out.

We arrive at the loading docks with our carts and coolers and bus bins laden with sauces and salts and tongs and frying pans.  Immediately there is a camaraderie. We trash talk while setting up our chafing pans; we laugh while lining up our ingredients; and we joke while waiting for the health inspector.

Then the doors open. 450 people swarm into the ballroom. "Thai mussels, yes green curry, lemon grass, ginger...would you like to try our snout salad?" I repeat, and repeat, 450 times. Some people know us, have been to our place, and for others we are new. "South Osborne, you know, just down from the park theatre..."  Some people stay and chat, others come back for seconds.

Then it starts to slow down. Danielle and I get to leave the booth, and explore and shmooze. Many of the chefs are wandering around trying each others tastes. We have some great wine, shiraz-malbec for me, chardonnay-riesling for Danielle.  We start the quest for foie-gras. Scott from gusto did a kickass duck 3 way Italian style (I've done a three-way Italian style, but it didn't involve a duck), 529 had my favourite prime rib yorkshire bites, The chocolate shop was innovative with their bannock cups filled with tasty bison; Lobster corndogs from the current, golden caviar and pink champagne shooters from Beujena's. For dessert we had tasty cookies from Pineridge Hollow and fantastic red beet filled chocolates from Constance Popp.  But for Foie Gras we had to visit our friends at Oui. Foie Gras Torchons with sauternes gelee. Is it rude to ask for seconds? We washed it all down with tasty vodka, ukrainian beer and some ice wine.

A good night all around.

Then we pack up. As the caravan of carts and coolers winds its way back to the loading dock, we resort to the basest of kitchen humour.  It is amazing how often "that's what she said" can form the punchline to a good off-colour joke.

We return to the restaurant to unload and have a night cap. Sure we worked hard, spent our own money, raised money for a good cause, but taste of a nation is one of the highlights of the year. The night when the hosiptality crowd gets together for a good time.

Spring Cocktails

Try these refreshing, light, spring cocktails

Watermelon Strawberry Martini

1 1/4 oz vodka

1/4 oz chambord

1 1/2 oz watermelon strawberry juice

ice

fresh strawberries and watermelon cubes to garnish

combine juice, vodka and juice in shaker with ice, shake and strain into a chilled martini glass.

ganish with strawberry and watermelon

Honeydew Cucumber Mojito (makes 4 cocktails)

1/2 cup diced honeydew

1/2 cup diced cucumber (seeded)

4 or 5 mint leaves sprig of mint

1 tbsp honey

1/2 tsp grated fresh ginger

6 oz white rum

mint and cucmber to garnish

in blender, puree melon, cucumber, mint, ginger and honey.

mix in rum, pour over ice in highball glasses

garnish with mint, a cucumber slice and a straw.

Lemonade Martini

2 oz lemonade

1 1/2 oz vodka

1/2 oz triple sec

sqeeze of fresh lemon

ice

a spalsh of soda

lemon zest to garnish

combine lemonade, vodka and triple sec and sqeeze of fresh lemon in shaker with ice. Shake vigorously, strain into martini glasses. top with a spash of soda, garnish with lemon zest.

Enjoy!

pungent vs stinky

In George Orwell's essay, Politics in the English Language in a section on "pretentious diction" he says "Bad writers ... are nearly always haunted by the notion that Latin or Greek words are grander than Saxon ones"

In the most recent Flavours issue I had an article (www.flavoursmagazine.ca) about crusts. Yummy ways to add crispy crusts to dishes. I submitted a recipe for "stinky mac and cheese"  I make a dish at the restaurant in which I use all the ends and scraps from the cheeses we use for our cheese board.  This makes a wonderfully rich and stinky version of the classic mac and cheese.  When Brandon Boone, a man who I respect and admire, edited the article, he changed my word "stinky" to "pungent."

"Pungent Mac and Cheese"  

Mr. Boone thought that sounded better.  I think it sounds gross. 

When people talk about cheese, we often refer to the sharper cheeses as "stinky". We rarely use the word pungent to describe food. The only time I might use the word pungent would be to say something like "the chicken that we forgot at the back of the fridge, was particularly pungent"

So, now it is up to you, gentle blog-followers, to settle this matter once and for all. 

Is "pungent" a better word than "stinky". Does "Pungent Mac and Cheese" sound tastier than "Stinky Mac and Cheese".  Join in on this online poll. Comment on this post with your preferences or arguments. Is there a better word than either of these two?

Let the games begin.

Alex

check out the whole essay at www.orwell.ru/library/essays/politics/english/e_polit  It is a great essay which seems even more relevant today than when it was written over 60 years ago.

Photo of Mac and Cheese from Flavours Magazine, taken by Brian Gould

sorry

recently, I was given heck for not posting on my Blog in a long time. Sorry.

Turns out last time I posted was december. I was working on my winter menu. We have started our spring menu, and I am looking ahead to summer.

I actually didn't know you cared.  I put these word out there in the "blogisphere" and never know if people read them or even notice. It is nice to hear that people check my blogs, although it gives me more of a sense of obligation to post regularly.

I also wonder what types of things I should post. I like writing, and have lots to say. But what kinds of things are you, the gentle reader, interested in hearing from me. Do you want recipes, do you want updates about the restaurant, do you want seasonal food things?

As a chef, people assume that I am so passionately devoted to food that food is all i think about. But ask my staff, I have an opinion about everything, and my opinions change daily. Nothing I like more than a good rant. I have an archive of stock rants that I pull out when needed, and I am always willing to create a new one to suit the occaision. (how do you spell that?) should I stick to food topics, or can I rant about politics, art, religion, rent-a-nerds, or what ever bee happens to be inhabiting my bonnet at any given moment. I wrestle with this question, but maybe I just need to relax and write about whatever is in my head.

Anyway, thanks for reading these posts, I have a few new posts that i am going to fire off in rapid succession, and then I will try to remember to post regularly. Please feel free to comment on these posts, I welcome the interaction. Or you can always email me at chef@sevenandaquarter.ca

Thanks, 

Alexander

p.s. i have just discovered twitter. Check it out at www.twitter.com/chefalex

Writing the Winter Menu

As soon as I finish one menu, I start thinking of the next one. Ideas spin around my head for the next two months. I talk to Danielle, Clint, all my staff about ideas I have. I look at books and magazines, play around, try things out, run things as specials. By the time I get to actually writing the thing I have a fairly clear picture about what I want to do.

Then I sit down to write it. I set aside a chunk of time, usually pour myself a glass of wine or port, and start writing. The picture I though I had is never as clear as I thought it was. And it is always a lot more work than I think it should be.

I like to have a fairly solid first draft before I show anyone. Then I will sit down with Danielle, and we will tear it apart. I will tell her the things I really like, and what areas I am struggling with. We will look thorugh books, remember meals we have enjoyed in the past, toss ideas back and forth. Danielle is a great cook, and also has a good idea of what types of things our customers love. Sometimes I overthink things, and Danielle will call me on that. We are driven by the idea of Luxurious Comfort Food, but mostly, we cook food we would like to eat. Hopefully, there are enough of you out there who like the same things we do.

So far, this is what I am thinking of:
I want to re-invent our burgers, I want to use pork belly in more ways, I want to do more weird fifth-quarter off cut stuff (We going to do a snout salad with pig snout cooked two ways), I want a luscious duck dish people go crazy for...
... then the question is always "what stays?" the livers and short ribs for sure, but what about the hammer chop? It feels kind of fall to me, but is is a fabulous dish and kind of unique to us. Do I keep the salmon the way it is? What new mussels will I do? What are my three small salads, what are my dips? Do we continue with the fennel maramalade?

So any way, time to start. I am using this blog to stall, so I am going to start writing. I will update this blog as I work on the menu. If you have any suggestions, feel free to send them to me with a comment. We can all be part of the process!

Alex

Grilled Cheese and fresh cracked pepper

Merry Christmas Everyone!

I just wanted to post the links to a couple of good foodie blogs.

For the grilled cheese lover, there is the grilled cheese manifesto at

http://tobemrsmarv.com/2008/11/30/grilled-cheese-manifesto/

Another great foodie blog with fabulous food photos is

http://www.freshcrackedpepper.wordpress.com/.

Please let me know of any other good food blogs that I can add to this list.

My chef friend marnie just gave me a great link to a cheese website, with a Canadian cheese podcast. 

www.allyouneedischeese.ca/passionates/audionewsletter/microsite )

Thanks,

Chef Alex

The Longest Day

While my fellow Canadians are celebrating the shortest day of the year, I find myself living the longest day.  December is always busy in our bistro. It's busy every where, but Friday seemed a little extreme.  At 4 O'clock our bistro was still full of lunch customers. Our first dinner guests sat down at the bar at 4:30.

My day usually begins at 11:30 when we switch on the open sign and unlock the front door.  (others on my crew start their day at 5am) But this last friday, by the time we opened we had already fed 25 ppl. We had a catered out a holiday luncheon to Concordia hospital.  Salmon with grilled vegetables, chicken and mushroom fusilli, fig and prosciutto sandwiches and a tray of Christmas dainties provided by Chocolate Zen Bakery (www.chocolatezen.com).

Lunch started promptly at 11:30 and by noon the restaurant was full.  We had a really great lunch special of cocoa chili fettucinni (nature's pasta) with chorizo and shrimp.  This sold like crazy, we went through an entire case of noodles!  In addition to the pasta we dished out a silly amount of mussels, chicken sandwiches and croque madames. By 1:15 the first of our large groups celebrating christmas parties was beginning to arrive. I quickly ran down stairs to place a wine order. Although I had received what I thought was more than enough wine the day before, we had run out  of a number of labels. (I would have to do yet another order the next day.) Soon, the bistro was filled again with long tables of merry revellers. Back on the line, me and Ruben slammed out one table of 10 after another.  In the background, my nighttime cooks were scurrying around like santa's elves, trying to stay out of my way, yet needing to be ready for dinner. 

At 4:30, as I am sitting down for a brief pause, Clint comes down to tell me "it's started."

"are you ready?"

"no"

"so", I reply grudgingly, "I guess you need me to do these orders?" So I found myself back on the line, clean jacket and apron, ready to go all over again.

The restaurant fills up quickly. We kick it into high gear and pop out a dizzying amount of food in what felt like record time. At 8:15, everyone is fed and we are waiting to clear the back half for the Christmas party that has already started to arrive.  With a momemtary pause in the barrage of orders coming in, I grab clint and ruben and my wife and we run across the street for a much deserved, and hastily quaffed, pint from Luxalune.

Then we are back into it. Appetizers and mussels for the big party, apps followed by dinners for the rest of the restaurant, salads and soups for the big party, more new tables up front, mains for the big party, a few more tables turn up front...

Clint looks at the clock, "it's 11:30". We laugh, I am geared up for one more turn, but sadly, the longest day is done.

Cocoa Chili Fettucinni with shrimp and chorizo.

1 lb cocoa chili fettucini from Natures' Farm (or any other fettucinni)

1 tbsp oil

1/2 lb peeled and deveined shrimp

2 chorizo sausages (or other hot sausage), sliced

1 onion diced

1 red pepper diced

1 clove garlic, crushed

a pinch (to taste) of dried chilies

1 cup chicken stock

1 cup heavy cream

salt and pepper to taste

1 tomato diced

1/2 cup grated sharp cheddar

1. boil pasta

2. saute onions and peppers in oil, add chorizo.

3. add shrimp, garlic and chilied and saute until shrimp is opaque.

4. add stock and bring to a boil

5. add cream, check for seasoning. Toss pasta in sauce. Toss in diced tomato. 

6. serve topped with grated cheddar

Enjoy!