Ted Siegel - Chef-Instructor, Culinary Arts

The Complexity of Simple Cooking

aday — Mon, 20 May 2019 13:28:55 +0000

The Complexity of Simple Cooking aday Mon, 05/20/2019 - 09:28 /sites/default/files/styles/width_1440/public/content/blog-article/header-image/sole%20meuniere%20header.jpg.webp?itok=MhWtZ4AF Culinary Arts Chef-Instructor Ted Siegel makes a case for mastering terroir, techniques and methodology. May 21, 2019

By Ted Siegel - Chef-Instructor, Culinary Arts

Much has been written about the radical changes in the development of cuisine and gastronomy over the last 35 years, particularly on the discussion about the “virtues” of molecular gastronomy or modernist cuisine (or any other term employed by the food media). This trend in cooking has its roots in neo-Catalan cuisine, and Ferrand and Albert Adria initially developed the principles at Restaurant El Bulli in Spain.

The best way to describe this style of cooking is an effort to deconstruct classic and modern French cuisine, utilizing the principles of Spanish regional cuisine along with techniques and ingredients from the industrial food processing industry, which incidentally brings up the legitimacy and safety of these techniques. The point was to create preparations that were completely unrecognizable to the diner to evoke new emotional experiences in eating. I am not going to argue the virtues or the limitations of this trend in cooking. I agree with the citizens of one of the great food cities of the world, Rome, that have described these modern cooking trends as “all smoke and no roast.” This is a trend that all new cooks want to mimic when starting out with careers in the food industry. Many questions are begging for an answer regarding this and the primary one, paraphrasing Julia Child (when she was asked about these modern trends), is why would anybody want to deconstruct food to the point where it is so over-processed that it becomes completely unrecognizable?

I am revisiting one of the most iconic cookbooks of the 1970's: “Simple French Food” by Richard Olney, which is referenced in previous posts. The preface of this book should be required reading by any serious cook or gastronome, professional or amateur. The author states that simple cooking has many subtleties and complexities. This starts with mastering the understanding of methodology, ratios and formulas. I always tell my students that to become a good cook, one needs to master and completely understand all of the 12 to 15 basic cooking methods, the relationship between the ingredients in a preparation, why the ingredients have a particular sequence during the method of preparation, and their ratio to each other. For example: Why is a particular quantity of egg whites utilized in a specific ratio of lean ground protein and aromatics when clarifying a specific quantity of stock to prepare a consommé?

Another equally important consideration is the influence that terroir has on the outcome of a preparation. The influences of climate and seasonality, topography and geology, the microbiological eco-system of a particular environment, production, harvesting and processing techniques, husbandry and slaughtering techniques, and cultural and historical influences all determine the production of raw ingredients. An example of this would be how two dairy cows of the same breed raised in two different geographic locations can produce milk, and the products from that milk have completely different flavor profiles, fat contents, colors and textures. Without these and other considerations, blindly following a recipe will almost never yield the results one is looking for.

The term simple cooking is an oxymoron. Cooking requires a certain level of skill and knowledge and a deep level of intuition, the latter being unteachable and none of it easily acquired. Cooks often say that the most difficult dishes to prepare are the ones that appear to be the most simple and uncomplicated ⎯ a perfect roast chicken, sole meuniere, fried egg over easy or a French omelette, for example. A cook can't hide behind fancy sauces, garnishes or complicated food processing techniques with these recipes. An equally important idea or corollary to this would be that a good cook cannot hide behind poor or mediocre knife skills ⎯ a discussion for another point in time.

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Salt: The Great Transformer

aday — Fri, 10 Aug 2018 19:03:36 +0000

Salt: The Great Transformer aday Fri, 08/10/2018 - 15:03 /sites/default/files/styles/width_1440/public/content/blog-article/header-image/prosciutto%20header.jpg.webp?itok=IB4z-TXT ICE Chef-Instructor Ted Siegel demonstrates the power of salt with a duck prosciutto recipe. August 16, 2018

By Ted Siegel - Chef-Instructor, Culinary Arts

I have always been fascinated by the process in which salt transforms proteins into preparations that have the appearance of being cooked, but are truly not — and yet, are safe to consume. How does this happen? It is a very simple process that dates back thousands of years in human history when meat, poultry and fish had to be stored without any type of refrigeration as we know it today.

The process is simply applying a dry rub, cure or brine in which the main component is salt (kosher or sea salt) with the possible addition of other aromatics like black pepper, garlic, fresh or dried herbs, spices or sugar. With a brine, add a dry rub or cure to a liquid base, such as water, stock or broth bouillon with optional fruit juices, cider or alcohol.

The primary phase of curing and preserving is coating the protein with the salt cure and allowing it to sit for a specific amount of time, which is determined by a temperature, weight and size relationship. A brine functions as a marinade when the protein is submerged in it. Salt is the primary flavor enhancer, but it is critically pulling moisture out of the muscle fibers and dehydrating them. This process will prevent pathogens from contaminating the meat, which would make it unsafe to consume. Once the protein has been cured for the appropriate amount of time, it is removed from the dry rub cure and lightly washed with wine or water to remove excess rub, dried, then hung to start the aging process. This is again based on temperature, time, weight and size, with humidity factored into the equation.

During the aging process, the protein starts developing its specific flavor profile. While it's hanging and air drying, a fermentation process is occurring, in which acids (particularly lactic acid produced by lactobacillus bacteria) are cooking the muscle fibers, breaking down connective tissue for tenderization, and fighting off pathogenic micro-organisms that do not like acid, such as clostridium botulinum bacteria that cause the foodborne illness, botulism. Even though the process is simple in concept, there is a complicated science that drives it and an intuitive aspect, which cannot simply be defined by sight, touch, smell or taste.

Another important factor in flavor development is terroir, which can be affected by:

breed or variety of animals or livestock
diet of the animal-specific types of fatty acids concentrated in body fat and muscle fibers
air animals breathe
water animals drink
pharmaceuticals (steroids, growth hormones, antibiotics)
micro-organisms in the soil of the crops that the animals feed on
conventional vs. organic crops
use of GMOs
how much the animals exercise
whether the animals are raised humanely or cruelly
how the animals are slaughtered
how the carcasses are handled after slaughtering
micro-organisms in the environment where the meat is aged

A very simple preparation to start out with, particularly for those intimidated by this process, is a "prosciutto" (usually dry cured ham) of duck or goose. It does not require a lot of time, ingredients or space to accomplish this. Normally, the breasts are simply cured with salt and aromatics for a day or two depending on the size. The breast of a Moularde duck is ideal — a hybrid of a female Pekin and male Muscovy duck, the breed is used primarily for the production of foie gras in North America and Europe, and it is larger and more flavorful than a Pekin duck breast.

Duck and goose prosciutto is a specialty of a few regions of Northern Italy, such as Alto-Adige (the Italian Tyrol), the Aosta Valley, and the Alpine zones of Piedmonte, Lombardy and Friuli-Venezia Guilia. Ducks and geese are basic staples here, where duck fat and goose fat are important cooking mediums. In fact, both cook with virtually no olive oil in Alto-Adige, because of the cold, temperate Alpine climate.

As previously pointed out, the salt is not just providing flavor but has a preservation effect and tenderizing effect by breaking down and gelatinizing the proteins in the muscle fibers, which has the same function as “cooking” the protein. The prosciutto does not need fancy garnishes or sauces that would detract from the subtle flavors or silky textures of the finished product. Here's a recipe to see the salt effect.

1 whole goose or Moularde duck breast, boneless and split, tenderloins and sinew removed
Kosher salt, as needed
8 juniper berries, crushed
12 black peppercorns, crushed
1 teaspoon fresh thyme, chopped
1 teaspoon fresh rosemary, chopped
1/2 teaspoon sodium nitrate (curing salt)
5 cloves garlic, minced

Combine the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl and blend thoroughly.
Add two pounds of salt to the dry ingredients and evenly combine until everything is thoroughly blended.
Place one half of the cure in the bottom of a deep, non-reactive pan (either stainless steel or a glass baking dish).
Place the breasts skin-side down in the cure and top with the remaining cure. The breasts must be completely covered with the cure.
Cover the pan and refrigerate the curing breasts for 24 to 48 hours, depending on the size.
Once cured, remove the breasts from the pan and wipe off excess cure. Lightly rinse under cold water and dry thoroughly.
Wrap each breast in three to four layers of cheese cloth. Truss with string and hang in the refrigerator for 10 to 12 days.
When ready to serve the breasts, unwrap and thinly slice.

Note: the prosciutto is best served with a simple mixed-green salad tossed with a vinaigrette dressing flavored with hazelnut oil and toasted, chopped hazelnuts.

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capocola and prosciuttto

Submitted by gerard gumble on August 21, 2018 4:17pm

Thank you, never thought of duck breast,make mine with pork .can not wait to tryit. Gerard Gumble

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This Chef Defies the Myth that Modern French Cuisine Is Dead

ohoadmin — Wed, 27 Sep 2017 11:30:35 +0000

This Chef Defies the Myth that Modern French Cuisine Is Dead ohoadmin Wed, 09/27/2017 - 07:30 /sites/default/files/styles/width_1440/public/content/blog-article/header-image/photo-nic-co-uk-nic-224375-unsplash.jpg.webp?itok=TLUfj7_H September 27, 2017

By Ted Siegel - Chef-Instructor, Culinary Arts

Yannick Alléno may not be a household name in culinary circles in the United States, but he is a chef on the cutting edge of avant garde contemporary sauce-making techniques. He’s the president and founder of Groupe Yannick Alléno, but more importantly, he is the chef-proprietor of Le Pavillon Ledoyen restaurant in Paris, which has been rated as one of the top restaurants in the world in numerous guides and received its first three-star rating in the 2015 Michelin Guide for France.

Chef Alléno’s work makes an important contribution to modern French cooking.

Photo courtesy of Four Magazine

I recently came upon two of Chef Alléno’s books: the encyclopedic Ma Cuisine Française, and his smaller, ground-breaking volume Sauces: Reflections of a Chef. Both works introduce his theories and practical work on the subject of sauces.

He states that, “Sauce is the verb of French cuisine…it is the only thing able to harmoniously bring together two totally different products to form a coherent dish,” and further, that his “goal is to put sauce in the heart of the debate…it was demonized by the health-based offensive that made us believe that sauces were too fatty and starchy and bad for our health.” Chef Alléno continues that, “If the collective subconscious is convinced of this today it is because sauces were poorly made for years.”

To me, this pretty much sums up the four to five hundred years of the history of French sauces, bringing us to the status quo today. Alléno speaks of the three distinct historical phases in classic and modern sauce-making.

First, the classical or grand cuisine era, based on the principles of the “mother sauces” that were finally codified by Marie-Antoine Carême in the early 19^th century. Second, the period of refinement of the “mother sauces” and their compound derivatives in the latter part of the 19^th century and into the early 20^th century, as embodied in the work of Auguste Escoffier. The third phase was the “nouvelle cuisine” of the late 1960s through the early 1980s, the principles of which were laid down by chefs like Fernand Point, Paul Bocuse, Alain Chapel, the Troisgros brothers, Roger Vergé and Michel Guérard.

These sauces were prepared with no starch. Rather, the thickening occurs through natural reduction, emulsification, and binding and thickening through the incorporation of final liaisons such as butter, purée of foie gras, animal blood, egg yolks or cream, among many other possible ingredients.

Chef Alléno has spent the better part of his career reinterpreting, for contemporary palates, what he considers to be the four most important sauces: tomato sauce, Hollandaise/Béarnaise sauce, jus de veau (the nouvelle cuisine version of a classic French demi-glace sauce) and chicken extraction.

The techniques that Chef Alléno uses are based on the principles of sous vide cooking: utilizing the process of slow infusion or extraction over very low heat, with temperatures ranging from 84 to 88 degrees Fahrenheit based on the texture and molecular composition of the ingredient, whether it be a vegetable like celery root, Jerusalem artichokes or mushrooms, or a protein like fish bones, chicken carcass or crustacean shells.

Once the sauce base has been created, the next stage is a technique known as cryo-concentration. The extracted liquid is placed in a centrifuge, which in turn freezes the liquid. The frozen liquid is then slowly defrosted to extract all the concentrated flavors of the base with minimal water content, which rises to the top during freezing.

The remaining liquid with higher water content can then be cryo-concentrated as well. Each individual extraction can be utilized as a “mother sauce” and combined with other extractions to create an unlimited number of variations — for example, lobster and mushroom. The evaporation stage can be done two to three times. This also has the effect of creating sauce bases with a much higher level of clarity as well as more intensely flavored.

The cryo-concentration technique is not a recent innovation. It has been a technique used for hundreds of years to produce “ice” ciders and wines, as well as certain types of beers, particularly lager-style beers. Chef Alléno’s genius is that he has adapted these age-old techniques for the preparation of modern sauces. In Sauces, he lays out the technique for making a modern variation of a classic sauce Poulette — traditionally, a starch-thickened fish velouté finished with a liaison of egg yolks and cream.

His method calls for cooking fish carcasses sous vide and as soon as all the albumin is extracted from the bones, use that albumin to make the sauce. This yields a sauce with a very intense, ocean-like flavor, and one that isn’t diminished by the addition of too much starch or fat. The sauce is finished with a liaison of judicious amounts of butter.

Chef Yannick Alléno’s work is just one example of a current culinary approach that defies and dispels the myth that modern French cuisine is dead. The way I see it, it’s still vibrant, organic and constantly evolving.

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Two Ideas for Finger-Licking Turkey This Thanksgiving

ohoadmin — Fri, 18 Nov 2016 21:45:38 +0000

Two Ideas for Finger-Licking Turkey This Thanksgiving ohoadmin Fri, 11/18/2016 - 16:45 /sites/default/files/styles/width_1440/public/content/blog-article/header-image/fried-turkey-edited_0.jpg.webp?itok=kW4_EXWc November 18, 2016

By Ted Siegel - Chef-Instructor, Culinary Arts

On Thanksgiving, turkey is always in style. A juicy bird with salty, crunchy skin is the pièce de résistance of this highly anticipated meal. But if you’re looking to shake up your usual turkey prep method — add some spice or brine to the table — ICE Chef Instructor Ted Siegel has some ideas for you.

Below, Chef Ted shares two different methods for preparing your turkey when it’s time to give thanks this year, plus his expert roasting tips.

A Caribbean kick: try a Jamaican jerk turkey marinade.

Marinating delivers the double benefit of infusing meat with flavor and keeping it tender.

Ingredients:

6 scallions
6 habanero or scotch bonnet chiles
2 medium onions
6 cloves garlic
1 tablespoon tamarind paste
½ cup Worcestershire sauce
½ cup fish sauce
1 cup fresh lime juice
1 cup fresh orange juice
¼ cup olive oil
¼ cup brown sugar
1 bunch dried thyme leaves, minced
1 bunch dried oregano leaves, minced
1 bunch fresh cilantro leaves and stems, minced
½ cup butter

Directions:

For the marinade, finely chop and combine: scallions, habanero or scotch bonnet chiles, onions and garlic. Add tamarind paste, Worcestershire sauce, fish sauce, fresh lime juice, fresh orange juice, olive oil, brown sugar, dried thyme leaves, dried oregano leaves and fresh cilantro leaves and stems.
Prepare the marinade, dividing into two halves: 1/2 for the turkey and 1/2 to make a compound butter. Marinate the turkey for two to four days, depending on its weight (two days for an 8-12 pound turkey, three to four days for a 13-30 pound turkey). Remove turkey from marinade. Make the compound butter by mixing remaining marinade with butter. Separate the skin from the breast and thighs and gently rub the compound butter onto the flesh without ripping the skin. Roast immediately.

Brine time: give your turkey a multiday brine bath.

Like marinating, brining will add flavor to your turkey, and make it exceptionally juicy and tender. Here’s how to brine.

Ingredients:

1 pound kosher salt
2/3 pounds sugar (granulated, brown, molasses, maple syrup, agave syrup, honey or any other kind of solid sugar or syrup will work)
2-3 gallons water
25 juniper berries
1 teaspoon dried rosemary
1 teaspoon dried parsley
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
1 teaspoon white peppercorns
1 teaspoon star anise pods
2 tablespoons dried thyme
½ cup liquid smoke (which you can find at most grocery stores)

Directions:

To make the brine, combine kosher salt, sugar, water. Add the juniper berries, dried herbs and liquid smoke.
Brine your turkey for two to four days by either submerging the entire bird or injecting it with brine. If you choose the latter, do not brine the turkey for more than two days.

Roasting tips

For roasting, I always begin by browning the turkey. In an oven preheated to 450°F, cook the turkey for about half an hour or until golden brown. Then, turn the heat down to 325°F and roast about 18-20 minutes per pound until the internal temperature reaches 160°F.

Want to sharpen your culinary skills with Chef Ted? Click here to learn more about ICE’s Culinary Arts program.

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A Chef’s Tour: Montreal

ohoadmin — Fri, 26 Aug 2016 13:00:28 +0000

A Chef’s Tour: Montreal ohoadmin Fri, 08/26/2016 - 09:00 /sites/default/files/styles/width_1440/public/content/blog-article/header-image/Montreal-Market-fish.jpg.webp?itok=HCfN15iq August 26, 2016

By Ted Siegel - Chef-Instructor, Culinary Arts

Recently my wife Cheryl and I had the good fortune to spend a few days in La Belle Province (Quebec) and visit one of our favorite culinary destinations: the beautiful city of Montreal.

We arrived, exhausted, late on a Sunday night at a time when most restaurants are closed. We knew that we could rely on one excellent spot to be open, so we made the fifteen minute walk from our hotel to dine at one of the most popular bistros in the city — Restaurant L’Express, open until 3 a.m. seven days a week.

L’Express has a reputation for serving consistently solid, traditional French bistro fare. Though the menu does not change often, there are nightly off-the-menu specials. Upon placing your order, the server brings a canning jar of cornichons and a crock of Dijon mustard, both left on the table as condiments throughout the meal.

We started with one of their famous dishes, octopus and lentil salad: thin slices of perfectly poached octopus dressed with lemon and olive oil arranged in a ring mold around an earthy lentil salad, deftly seasoned with a shallot vinaigrette. Once the mold is removed, the presentation is similar to a savory charlotte. We also ordered pork rillettes, which were impeccably prepared with the right ratio of shredded lean pork and fat, my only critique being that they would have been better served at room temperature rather than chilled.

Octopus and Lentil Salad

Given my love for organ meats, I always order offal if it’s on a menu. Cheryl and I shared an order of crisp veal sweetbreads with chanterelle mushrooms, garden peas and pea tendrils under a cloud of Parmesan foam. Continuing in the “offal” mode, I had rosy slices of quickly seared and sautéed calf’s liver in a light tarragon pan sauce reduction. Cheryl had a creditable hanger steak with pommes frites.

Perhaps we should have stopped after the entrees but decided to indulge in an order of ouefs al neige — a giant quenelle of French meringue gently poached in sweetened milk, the milk then bound with egg yolks, flavored with vanilla beans and turned into a silky crème anglaise, garnished with toasted almonds and threads of spun sugar. After a dinner like that, we needed that walk back to our hotel room.

The following day, after taking a riverboat tour of the St. Lawrence River around the island of Montreal, we had lunch at one of our favorite ethnic restaurants in North America: Stash Café, which specializes in homestyle Polish cooking. The tripe soup, pierogies (of any kind) and the perfectly executed pork schnitzel are well worth the visit.

While researching the Montreal dining scene before our trip, one newcomer intrigued me: Le Comptoir Charcuteries et Vin, a restaurant of 40-50 seats serving a contemporary French-Canadian menu of small tasting plates and an extensive list of charcuterie and house-cured meats. It’s a neighborhood establishment where the service transcends warm, friendly and gracious. However, it was the food that left us speechless.

We loved our first meal there so much that we cancelled a dinner reservation at another restaurant and returned three nights later. It is hard to find superlatives adequate enough to do justice to the chef and his execution of a very labor-intensive menu.

The kitchen opens directly into the dining room and there are only three people working on the line including Chef Ségué Lepage. I highly recommend virtually every dish, as we sampled almost the entire menu during our two visits — easily the best two meals we’ve had in 2016 (and quite possibly in 2015 as well).

Though all dishes were memorable, here are my favorites: house-cured porchetta di testa served with goat cheese fritters and ribbons of pickled zucchini; lobster tart on a savory sablé with tomato confit, tarragon crème fraîche, roquette and gently stewed white onions; tataki of seared veal loin with a purée of sage, Marsala wine reduction, fried sweetbreads and marinated radish salad; and wild blue pleurote mushrooms from Ontario with crab mayonnaise, landjäger sausage, wild garlic and dill. Go to Le Comptoir and you will not be disappointed!

No trip to Montreal would be complete without paying visits to Joe Beef and Au Pied Cochon. Fred Morin, owner and chef of Joe Beef, and Martin Picard, mastermind of Au Pied de Cochon, have in common both their connection to famed Québécois chef Normand Laprise — the “godfather” of modern French-Canadian cuisine — and their decadent, over-the-top approach to cuisine, gastronomy and life in general — an approach which I fully subscribe to and worship.

Stuffed Pig's Foot

Joe Beef promotes itself as a seafood-centric restaurant but it’s really about meat as well. The portions are large, so go with an empty stomach. Prepare to be well fed in a relaxed atmosphere by an approachable staff.

The must-tries on the current menu are the appetizer of crispy calf’s head fritters served with sauce gribiche; salade gourmande — a large, thick round of country-style terrine topped with a salad of apples and haricots verts and served with a tranche of grilled peasant bread slathered with an unctuous foie gras parfait; roast quail stuffed with lobster sausage in a light jus of the roasting juices; and the lobster spaghetti, which is why anybody goes to Joe Beef in the first place. Chunks of lobster seared in the shell, then stewed with bacon, cream, Parmesan and fresh herbs, and served atop house-made fresh spaghetti with the texture of satin.

We also had a perfectly roasted halibut filet with smoked tomato butter. At this point, we moved on to dessert, but should not have, as they were somewhat of a disappointment. Regardless, Joe Beef is a restaurant that deserves at least one if not numerous visits.

Joe Beef

Finally, there is Au Pied de Cochon, which is consistently rated as one of the top restaurants in North America. We’ve dined there in the past and feel like a trip to Montreal would be incomplete without a visit to Martin Picard’s “temple” of all things duck, foie gras and pork.

Be warned: the portions defy any notion of restraint and are not for the “squeamish” — which is a good thing for me! On our most recent visit we began with three off-the-menu specials: perfectly fried zucchini blossoms with a caper aioli, a totally hedonistic foie gras pizza with prosciutto and cheese curds, baked in a wood-burning oven with just the right amount of char to the crust, and a disappointing yellowfin tuna belly glazed with soy and maple that sounded great on paper but was horribly overcooked.

For our entrees, Cheryl and I had their two most iconic menu items: “Duck in a Can” and the Stuffed Pig’s Foot “APC”. The former is a magret de canard (also known as Moulard duck breast), duck leg confit and foie gras preserved in a tin can with cabbage and vegetables, presented and opened out of the can at the table.

The latter is a braised pig’s foot stuffed with foie gras and gratinéed with bread crumbs, served on a bed of a silken potato purée whipped with cheese curds, a variation of the famous aligote from the Auvergne region of France, and a sauce prepared from the braising jus. The pig’s foot was big enough to serve two to four people. It was an “I can’t believe I ate the whole thing” moment!

Also not to be missed: the two central food markets in the city, Atwater market in Little Burgundy and Jean-Talon market in Little Italy. You can sample the best produce, cheeses, meats, seafood and prepared foods that this lush and fertile agricultural region has to offer.

At the Jean-Talon market, be sure to visit the tiny but well-stocked culinary bookstore, Librairie Gourmande, most notably for their selection of cookbooks from top Québécois chefs. We enjoyed a surprisingly great lunch at La Crêperie du Marché in the Jean-Talon market, which specializes in the famous galettes de sarrasin — traditional savory buckwheat crêpes of Brittany, France.

We savored a crêpe layered with béchamel sauce, Gruyère cheese and mushrooms as well as one with ham, cheese, spinach and a fried sunny side-up egg. I’ll be going to Quebec City soon, so keep an eye out for my next (hungry) chef’s tour.

Chef Ted’s Montreal Hit List

Restaurant L’Express 3927 Rue Saint-Denis

Stash Café 200 Rue St. Paul O

Le Comptoir Charcuteries et Vins 4807 Boul St-Laurent

Joe Beef 2491 Rue Notre-Dame O

Au Pied de Cochon 536 Duluth Est

Atwater Market 138 Atwater Avenue

Jean-Talon Market 7070 Henri-Julien Avenue

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Culture

Books That Matter: California Cuisine

ohoadmin — Thu, 17 Sep 2015 18:54:17 +0000

Books That Matter: California Cuisine ohoadmin Thu, 09/17/2015 - 14:54 /sites/default/files/styles/width_1440/public/content/blog-article/header-image/ICE-plated-dishes-and-bonus-shots-039-72dpi.jpg.webp?itok=dQk01fpm September 17, 2015

By Ted Siegel - Chef-Instructor, Culinary Arts

In today’s food culture, ingredient-focused or “farm-to-table” cuisine has become so commonplace that many young chefs can’t remember a time before it existed. Before the dawn of Instagram, food blogs and YouTube videos, a generation of chefs willed this movement into existence through a series of earth-shattering cookbooks.

Those books — most importantly, "Cooking the Nouvelle Cuisine in America" and the "Chez Panisse Menu Cookbook" — reshaped the culinary landscape and have since paved the way for such famous chefs as Thomas Keller and Mark Ladner.

In the late 1960s, the nouvelle cuisine revolution shook French cuisine and culture to its core. As more and more Americans began to travel abroad after the war, it was inevitable that this movement — characterized by fresh ingredient-focused cooking and artistic presentation — would have a profound impact on modern American cuisine.

The result was an equally innovative shift on American soil: a regional cooking revolution that began with what the media dubbed "California cuisine." In 1979, two young American cooks, Michèle Urvater and David Liederman, published a text called "Cooking the Nouvelle Cuisine in America". This book was one of the first cookbooks available in the U.S. that comprehensively explained the principles and techniques of nouvelle cuisine and made them accessible to American cooks.

As a young chef, I had more than one epiphany while reading this book, and today my copy is quite dog-eared after many re-readings. In "Cooking the Nouvelle Cuisine," Urvater and Liederman spoke eloquently about how the culinary principles codified by such French chefs as Ferdinand Point had turned the classical cuisine of Escoffier and Carême on its proverbial head.

In short, Point realized that, after the war, the old school style of cooking no longer fit into the lifestyle of contemporary French people. He preached that chefs should be more creative with their menus and that their dishes should reflect what was immediately available in the marketplace. Within the guidelines of nouvelle cuisine, menus also became smaller and more manageable, reflecting the need to change with the seasons and the ability to work with smaller kitchen "brigades."

From a technical perspective, Point preached eliminating starch thickeners from sauces. Instead, chefs could create sauces of a much lighter quality based on a series of reductions (a technique called "stratification" based on the work of Andre Guillot). To complement this change, Point recommended that chefs emphasize lighter and quicker cooking techniques such as sautéing, steaming and poaching. He recommended simpler plated presentations to highlight the natural integrity of the ingredients. If you’ve eaten at an upscale restaurant in New York City recently, you’ll have seen all of these principles in action.

A few years later, a second nouvelle cuisine-minded text furthered this movement: the "Chez Panisse Menu Cookbook" by Alice Waters. I could write a whole doctoral thesis on the significance of Waters’ impact on the history of American cooking. Together with other leaders of the California cuisine movement, Waters radically altered the manner in which culinary professionals produce, grow, prepare and present food — both on the plate and on a menu.

In addition to the principles of nouvelle cuisine, Waters was profoundly influenced by the ancient principles of Japanese cooking. Benefitting from the abundance of agricultural resources in California, the staff at Chez Panisse captured the imagination of a whole generation of American cooks and chefs. What the Declaration of Independence was to colonial Americans in the 1700s, the introductory chapter of the "Chez Panisse Menu Cookbook" was to 1980s American chefs.

Called “What I Believe 51�Թ� Cooking,” it was truly a culinary "shot heard 'round the world." Waters explained how alienated and alienating our experience with food and cooking had become since World War II. In particular, Waters’ greatest contribution was in the idea that, “No cook, however creative and capable, can produce a dish of a quality any higher than that of the raw ingredients.”

Produce at the San Francisco farmer's market

I was lucky enough to work under Waters at Chez Panisse. One of my most endearing food memories includes the first time that I smelled fresh, earthy, piney chanterelle mushrooms from the Pacific Northwest. Or when I tasted Waters’ famous baked goat cheese salad with baby lettuces that were locally grown in the Berkeley Hills. Each week, the kitchen staff would anxiously await the printing of the next week’s menu — a so-called "gazetteer" that featured small, local producers.

Other chefs may name other books as the ones that defined their careers, but for the students who ask about my formation as a cook, I always recommend they read these two texts. While it’s important to stay up-to-date on modern trends in food, learning about the roots of contemporary American cooking can both further young chefs’ understanding of current kitchen culture and spark their personal creativity.

Further reading:

"Modern French Cooking for the American Kitchen," Wolfgang Puck
"New American Classics," Jeremiah Tower
"California Dish," Jeremiah Tower

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The French Revolution — A Cuisine for the People

ohoadmin — Thu, 10 Jul 2014 21:00:20 +0000

The French Revolution — A Cuisine for the People ohoadmin Thu, 07/10/2014 - 17:00 /sites/default/files/styles/width_1440/public/content/blog-article/header-image/The%20French%20Revolution%E2%80%94A%20Cuisine%20for%20the%20People_1400x680%20copy.jpg.webp?itok=m6urJG46 July 10, 2014

By Ted Siegel - Chef-Instructor, Culinary Arts

At least once every decade some culinary pundit or self-appointed expert on cuisine and gastronomy makes a grand pronouncement declaring the "death of French cuisine". This has been an ongoing trend in culinary journalism since as far back as the late 19th century. Whether it was the fall of the classical grande cuisine of Carême, Escoffier and Du Bois or end of the nouvelle cuisine revolution that shook France after from the 1950s to the 1980s, the state of French cuisine has always been ripe for debate.

Fresh seafood at a French market

Yet there seemed to be a significant shift somewhere around 2003, when the New York Times ran a front-page story in its Sunday Magazine declaring — once and for all — the death of French cuisine. The piece went on to anoint Spanish chef Ferran Adria as the "pope" of contemporary gastronomy (called molecular or modernist, depending on who you asked). However, upon a recent trip to Paris, it was apparent that the death notices (as usual) are premature.

The wild card in the whole discussion is the profound influence — encoded in the DNA of the French people — of the cuisine bourgeoise: the cooking of French housewives and grandmothers, rooted in the terroir of local ingredients and traditions. In the context of restaurants, this cuisine has transformed itself into a movement labeled bistronomie, a trend that snubs the grande luxe dining palaces with their fine china, sterling silver place settings, starched linens and snooty waiters, maitre'ds, and sommeliers (who act as if the customer is there to serve them, not the other way around).

Here the cuisine of grandmère and maman rears its beautiful head — in simple preparations based on a market-driven cuisine with an emphasis on seasonality, solid culinary technique, unpretentious presentations and friendly, relaxed knowledgeable service.

Traditional French cuisine relies on products unique to the region's terroir.

Like any so-called revolution, politics, and economics are among the underlying forces that have dictated this change in French cuisine, gastronomy and food culture. With the volatility of the "euro" and the global economic crisis, it is now more cost-prohibitive than ever for a business owner to sustain luxury operations in the long-term. It has become economic suicide to maintain a brigade of forty to fifty chefs, cooks and other staff (in the back of the house alone), uphold a large inventory of grand cru wines, and support the various other elements of leasing or owning a space that would fit the traditional Michelin definition of three stars.

Lunchtime at a French cafe

Complementing this transformation in the kitchen is a social and literary movement, one that has rallied in particular behind France's modern response to the long-reigning Michelin Dining Guides. Founded in 2000 by Alexandre Cammas, "Le Fooding" springs from a curious mix of anti-corporate left wing politics and social libertarianism, and it poses a direct challenge to the moribund culture of Michelin and its dominance over French cuisine for more than 100 years.

The first "Le Fooding" guidebook was published in 2006, and the movement has since jumped the Atlantic, holding annual events in New York City — incidentally, taking place this weekend in the Rockaways. It's particularly fitting that "Le Fooding" should also celebrate NYC's dining culture, as many of the restaurants that my wife Cheryl and I visited in Paris would fit in very comfortably (thank you) in neighborhoods such as the Lower East Side, Williamsburg or Long Island City. Below are some of the best examples of this "new/old" cooking that we discovered — fusing la cuisine bourgeoise with chef-level consistency and innovation.

Sea scallops poached in champagne with a nage of black truffles and melted leeks

L'ASSIETTE — Rue du Chateau in the 14th arr.

Chef/owner David Rathgeber's cuisine is deeply rooted in culture of his homeland of the Landes region of Southwest France, but his technique was honed for 10 years under the renowned Chef Alain Ducasse. On the night we dined at this restored 1930's boucherie, we savored his house-cured country ham with homemade farm bread and beurre demi-sel, foie gras terrine with a conserve of figs, and rillettes of suckling pig and foie gras. There was warm, poached asparagus with an incredibly silky sauce mousseline; sea scallops poached in champagne with a nage of black truffles and melted leeks; stuffed calves head, sauce ravigote and what could only be described as the most ethereal sea salt crème caramel one could possibly taste.

CASA OLYMPE — Rue St. George's in the 9th arr.

Olympe Versini is an icon among female chefs in Paris, receiving her first Michelin stars when she was only in her twenties. She is considered to be "the godmother" of this new trend in French dining, as when she opened Casa Olympe in 1993, she asked the Michelin inspectors to stay away and not review the restaurant. Her food is profoundly influenced by her Corsican ancestry and the Mediterranean basin. If available, try her blood sausage croustillants on mesclun greens; warm salad of seared scallops, house-cured foie gras, avocados, and mâche; daurade roasted on the bone with tomatoes, lemon, potatoes, herbs and olive oil; perfectly roasted squab with Asian spices and Thai red rice-coconut milk pilaf.

Smoked pork belly, braised slowly and served with reduction of braising jus and a nicoise olive-potato purée

LE COMPTOIR DE RELAIS — Place d'Odeon in the 6th arr.

Chef Yves Camdeborde has been the leader and vanguard of bistronomie for the past 20 years in Paris. He worked for many years with his mentor Christian Constant at the Hotel de Crillon, where they elevated the cuisine of the Restaurant les Ambassadeurs to two Michelin stars. His extensive menu is available at lunch, but be forewarned — no reservations are accepted and the restaurant fills up by 12:30 p.m. It is virtually impossible to get reservations at dinner when the menu becomes a prix fixe of fifteen courses. Dishes that I can highly suggest are the unusual warm terrine of boudin noir with a refreshing salad of celery root, apples and sucrine lettuce; salade gourmande of salt-cured foie gras, green beans, artichokes and potatoes; smoked pork belly, braised slowly and served with a reduction of the braising jus and a nicoise olive-potato purée; pan-fried stuffed pigs feet and a warm individual apple tarte with vanilla ice cream and salted caramel.

LES COCOTTES — Rue St. Dominique in the 7th arr.

Christian Constant, mentioned above, left the Hotel de Crillon years ago to establish his own restaurant group, which includes Les Cocottes. The restaurant is known for its casual counter seating, large menu of wines by the glass and hot menu items — all of which are served in deep cast iron cocottes produced in Alsace. Our starters included Spanish jamón ibérico simply served with pickled piquillo peppers; an outstanding ravioli of langoustine with artichoke purée and shellfish coulis (that resembled a shellfish cappuccino more than a classic sauce); impeccably seared scallops on parmesan polenta with a light reduction of jus d'opulent roti; and wood pigeon roasted with a ragoût of spring onions, honey mushrooms and chestnuts, simply sauced with a reduction of the roasting juices. One quick note about the wines we drank: one does not have to break the bank to drink reasonably well in Paris. Stick to the regional wines with A.O.C. certification and you can enjoy excellent wines for less than thirty Euros a bottle.

Craving more culinary travel stories? Check out Chef Ted's guide to Rome.

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A Chef's Guide to Rome

ohoadmin — Fri, 09 May 2014 15:33:50 +0000

A Chef's Guide to Rome ohoadmin Fri, 05/09/2014 - 11:33 /sites/default/files/styles/width_1440/public/content/blog-article/header-image/A%20Chef%E2%80%99s%20Guide%20to%20Rome1400x680.jpg.webp?itok=yFdMP2hM May 9, 2014

By Ted Siegel - Chef-Instructor, Culinary Arts

In 2005, The New York Times published an article by Frank Bruni (then restaurant critic and editor of the Dining In/Dining Out section) about Roman cuisine. The article's overall message was: “nothing new is going on in Roman cuisine!”. After a recent trip to Rome, my wife, Cheryl, and I are happy to report that this is still true.

This might be a slight overgeneralization; there are a handful of Roman restaurants doing “modernist cuisine-molecular gastronomic” spins on traditional Roman cooking. However, most Romans find the modernist trend oxymoronic, referring to this type of cooking as “all smoke and no roast!". Fortunately, Roman cooking and the culinary traditions of Lazio (best described as a rustic and pastoral cuisine based on meat and vegetables) has not changed too much since Etruscan sheep herders occupied the banks and mud flats of the Tiber river, as far back as 800-750 B.C. Hallelujah for that!

Seafood risotto

During our trip to Rome, Cheryl and I thoroughly immersed ourselves in its cuisine, enjoying the glories of traditional "cucina alla Romana". Below is a recount of some of our more noteworthy meals, as well as a list of restaurants that one should not miss if traveling to the “Eternal City”:

HOSTERIA da FORTUNATO (12 Via Pellegrino)

A very tiny neighborhood trattoria serving traditional Roman home cooking that is popular with locals. If you go, you will likely see a group of women sitting at a corner table hand-rolling, cutting and shaping all the sublime house made pastas. Their iconic Roman fritti misti of vegetables and meatballs in a delicate batter is a must-have dish.

As for the pasta, try any number of the variations of strangolapreti (“priest stranglers”), a very traditional hand rolled pasta dumpling that is particular to the central Italian regions of Tuscany, Umbria and Lazio. The story of how this pasta got its name goes back to the middle ages. Roman catholic prelates would gorge themselves on this simple pasta made water and durham flour until they choked, hence the name. The variations on strangolapreti that we found deeply satisfying were caccio e peppe, carciofi e gunaciale (artichokes and smoked pork cheeks- both basic staples of the Roman kitchen) and alla carbonnara. The house-made sheep’s milk ricotta ravioli in a luscious butter and sage sauce ("burro e salvia") is also a must-try.

HOSTARIA COSTANZA (63 Piazza del Paradiso)

This beautiful restaurant is actually built into the cellar of an ancient Roman amphitheater that dates back to the height of the “glory days” of the Roman Empire. The walls of the restaurant are still the original brick work from this archeological masterpiece. Our dinner began with a perfectly-executed classic: carciofi alla Romana (large globe artichokes simmered in a broth of white wine, olive oil and herbs).

The pastas were also fabulous. Worth a return visit were the tonnarelle con bottarga e seppie (square-cut spaghetti made on-premises served in a sauce of baby calamari indigenous to the Mediterranean and bottarga, which is the salt-cured roe of grey mullet); a simple grilled branzino (Mediterranean sea bass); and finally, trippa alla Romana (tripe braised in tomatoes and mint with pecorino alla Romana, a dish that pays homage to the marcelleria - the butchers of the Roman slaughterhouses whose cuisine has dominated the Roman culinary landscape since ancient times.

They cooked with a strong emphasis on offal, because that was all they could afford). Fortunately for us, we arrived in Rome just as puntarelle - a variety of wild dandelion greens - started appearing in the Roman vegetable markets (puntarelle has a very short season from late winter to early spring). Puntarelle is traditionally served with a dressing of red onions, anchovies, lemon and olive oil. Needless to say, we enjoyed the version we had at Costanza.

RISTORANTE La SCALA (58-61 Piazza della ‘Scala)

Ristorante la Scala is located in Trastavere, a very quiet, residential neighborhood southeast of Vatican city. We stumbled into La Scala serendipitously after a day of touring the Vatican. We were so fond of this local restaurant that we dined there twice. Weather permitting, sitting outside in the outdoor dining area affords one an authentic experience with a view of the beautiful church of Santa Maria della ‘Scala.

Being in Rome at the height of truffle season gave us an opportunity to indulge in the truffle menu of La Scala: burrata di bufala with black truffles and rughetta (wild arugula); light as air potato gnocchi with scarmorza (smoked mozzarella) and black truffles; fried artichokes with black truffles, fonduta and guanciale; and finally, sheep’s milk ricotta ravioli in an unctuous butter sauce showered with truffles.

Other dishes worth not missing are the tonnarelle pasta with zucchini flowers and cherry tomatoes, as well as the carciofi alla guidea (artichokes simmered and fried in olive oil), one of the truly great dishes born out of Rome's Jewish “ghetto”, dating back 2500 years. For dessert, try the crema di zabaglione con fragola (sabayon cream with wild strawberries).

HOSTERIA GRAPPOLO d’ORO (80-84 Piazza Cancelleria)

This is another favorite where we had two wonderful meals. This restaurant has a clientele of largely local regulars and would fit right in in a New York City neighborhood. While the décor is modern, the cooking is in keeping with traditional Roman gastronomy. The delicious house antipasti tasting plate features a modern take on a molded panzanella salad, mille-foglia con burrata e alici (a very light pastry layered with buffalo milk burrata and marinaded white anchovies), pan fried oxtail meatballs with salsa verde, a croquette of baccala and potatoes and an eggplant-ricotta polpette.

The orechiette pasta with broccoli and potatoes was not the usual mess of broccoli flowers and potatoes swimming in olive oil. The vegetables had been cooked down to form an incredibly light, yet slightly coarse puree, bound by a light broth emulsified with a little olive oil. The execution of this dish showed the true skill of the kitchen. Further, d'Oro's rigatoni all' amatriciana with a copious garnish of crisp guanciale was one of the better versions of this classic Roman pasta preparation we had during our trip (pasta all' amatriciana, carbonara and caccio e pepe make up the “holy trinity” of Roman pasta preparations).

For the second course, we sampled stinco di maiale (pork shank braised with chestnuts and beer), guancia di bue brasato (beef cheeks braised in red wine and carrots) and abacchio scottadito alla griglia (the Roman classic of grilled baby lamb marinated with herbs, garlic and olive oil — whose title implies that when you pick up the grilled cuts of lamb, you burn your fingers while eating them!).

CENTRALISSMO “WINE BAR” (15-17 Via Santa Maria in Via)

This wine bar and restaurant near the Pantheon gets mixed reviews. However, we had an excellent platter of fried zucchini blossoms stuffed with anchovies and mozzarella, as well as a memorable plate of fried olives. For the primi we enjoyed a very creditable spaghetti caccio e pepe and bucatini all 'amatriciana. Given the fact that Centralismo is a wine bar, we drank one of the more unusual wines on our trip: Lambrusco, a sparkling red wine from the Emilia Romagna region.

Potato gnocchi with scamorza (smoked mozzarella) and black truffles

PIAZZA CAMPO di FIORE

I would be remiss not to mention the Piazza Campo di Fiore, which is one of the truly great food markets in Europe with a wonderful salumeria. Worth visiting is Antica Norcineria Viola. If you are passionate about Italian salume - such as cured hams, salami and anything else that pays homage to pigs - this establishment is a must visit. If you find yourself fortunate enough to wander in there, try the testa, which has a beautifully silky and refined texture.

WINE

The wines we drank were too numerous to mention, but a few were truly memorable:

Barolo chinato: A late harvest Barolo made from the Nebbiolo grape in the region of Piedmonte.
Merlino: A wine from Trentino-Alto Adige which is produced from the Lagrein grape variety that is grown in the region's Vigneti delle Dolomiti wine district and is classified as a fortified wine
Viscola Querciantica: A wine from the Marchese region in Southern Italy that is pressed from the juice of sour cherries.

GENERAL TIPS

As far as Roman hospitality, we found the service in all the restaurants mentioned above to be warm and welcoming. Most of the Italians we met spoke English as a second language (some more fluent than others) or at least made an attempt to communicate in English. Be aware that unlike in other places, restaurants in Rome will charge extra for bread, which is automatically brought to the table and is generally of poor quality. (You will not be asked if you want it or not, so don’t be surprised by the surcharge when you get the bill. If you decide not to have bread, inform the wait staff when they bring it to the table.)

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