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J'aimerais faire l'objet d'une expérience, qui est :

Faire un service avec moi même.

Je m'explique : je voudrais accomplir une journée de travail ( mise en place, service, fermeture de la cuisine, et la petite bière aussi ) avec moi même.

Un ¨moi ¨ au garde-manger, un ¨moi ¨ au poste d'entremetts, un¨moi ¨ comme sous-chef, un ¨¨moi ¨ plongeur, et un dernier ¨moi ¨ comme serveur, j'ai oublié un ¨moi ¨ pâtissier.

Le but de l'expérience, subventionnée par emploi Québec tout de même, est de me voir comme personne au milieu du travail, comment je supporte le stress, analyser mes gestes, sentir mon odeur, voir mes assiettes, mon regards.

L'idée de cette expérience vient du faite que la plupart des gens avec qui j'ai travaillé me reprochent mon intensité, mon arrogance, et mon côté ¨ mody ¨.

Je ne doute pas de leurs jugements, mais la cuisine est intense, doit être arrogante, et sûrement ¨ mody ¨, alors : Allez tous chie.....

NB : désoler pour tous les ¨moi ¨, c'est le café, les cigarettes, et l'ego.
NB2 : l'animal utilisé pour cette expérience, est un animal bio et consentant.

images des cons servent ACT II

images des cons servent

Recent finds

Two books I found on a recent visit to value village , The first is a small booklet on raising rabbits, from cages, to food and breeding and is a very concise little book that's got a lot of interesting info, this could come in handy for future projects.

The other is the Second book by Rose Gray and Ruth Rogers of London's River Café, I first heard about this restaurant because of it's connection to Jamie Oliver and I have seen the books in stores and always been impressed by the simplicity of recipes, the River Cafe is one of those places that rests on the strength of the produce it uses and lets them shine through. No mind boggling techniques just good, smartly cooked food and it was a steal at 5$ .

GENEROSITY

When you work in food service you come to the somewhat perverse realisation that ultimately we derive pleasure by giving pleasure, you are happy making food that will make people happy. This why I love canning not only for it's tradition of gathering people , preserving for the lean months and the self sufficiency one derives from it. In the end we always make more than we can consume because I like to share, there's always someone you can uplift with a little bit of homemade love in a jar. I never really expect anything in return except the comments ( the good and the bad, because I like to get a different perspective so I can improve my craft) and the jars back when possible (the smart ones know that by giving the jars back they're likely to get more goodies in return). Every so often you get a surprise and find someone else who likes to pass the good Karma around and today was one of those days. I had recently finished a batch of marmalade and passed a jar to a co-worker not thinking too much of it and this morning when I showed up I found 2 jars of the most beautiful tomatoes at my desk this just brightened up my day. When I got home I immediately put a jar of these beauties to work, I scoured the garden for watercress and small dandelion greens, with the help of some cabbage, Borlotti beans and pasta made the most soul satisfying Ribollita I have had in a long time, thanks Angie .

je veux voir la trappe à graisse de LAURENT GRAS

Tout le monde en parle ( non l'émission ), du nouveau resto de Laurent Gras : c'est le nouveau Alinea revisité en plus gras, pardon en plus gros :).

Sincérement, à chaque jour je consulte le blog de Mr. Laurent, et je me pose toujours la même question : comment pourrait être l'éxperience de manger dans cet endroit, puisque c'est pas juste la nourriture, le service, ... tous, et surtout qu'on connait avec quel genre de matériel il travail, il n'a pas le droit à aucune erreure, aucune.

Je pense aussi que cette façon de voir la gastronomie est un peu trop pour moi, à ce stade, c'est la proffession qui nous intéresse, c'est pas de cuisiner pour tout le monde, puisque tu cible une genre de clientéle bien precise, qui ont les moyens de ce payer cette éxperience ( peut-être que c'est par jalousie que je pense comme cela).

Mais, aprés bonne réflexion, je pense qu'un chef est un artisan, et qui doit rester prés de son produit et de client le plus banal.

NB : mais je suis ouvert à une invitation, pour aller manger : Patron Stelio, un petit voyage ça vous dis!!!!!

SPRING FORWARD

The last of the snow and the return of spring is very much like rebirth around my house, it seems like the last few years winter's tail end is always accompanied by a bit of gloominess, we escaped that a bit this year with our NY trip but man we're we ever glad to see the last of the snow melt away. Spring weather and thaw also means the appearance of perennials, The mighty bronze fennel is back , I love the copper color of the leaves at this stage , it's too bad they lose it to a more greenish cast. Rhubarb is as faithful as ever, Lovage is also as true, Lemon thyme survived splendidly where the season prior it had not.

The best surprise of all is ramps!!, I ended up planting a few bulbs of what we had bought last year not hoping for much but low and behold among the garlic planted in the fall, the familiar leaves popped up, since there are only a couple I will let them propagate on their own and see if I can repeat the experience this year. I love this stage of the season, cleaning out the yard, pulling weeds, planting seeds, I feel like I just woke up from a deep slumber. I am anxious to get started on the garden this year, the last few years I have just been trying to grow a bunch of different things depending on my humour but this year we are really going to focus. Along with heirloom tomatoes and beans, there will be Poblano peppers, a type of Jalapeno that has little heat , Cavolo Nero, cucumbers for pickling, rainbow chard, New Zealand spinach and lettuces of all kinds. I hope to take our preserving to the next step as well in the hopes to become somewhat self-sufficient. Man it's good to be back!!

SUPERSIZE ME

My mother returned from her annual trip back home to Dominica , she's always good for a couple of surprises and this year she did not disappoint. She brought back the usual, passion fruit concentrate, guava jam, a bottle of a rum and these, the ace up her sleeve. These are not Pomelo, or another type of citrus, it's the real deal, they are limes, just Ginormous (I borrowed that one from Chloe) . She says she knows of only two trees that have this fruit, they we're planted by an old lady many years ago. We couldn't wait to try one and couldn't think of a better way that have a couple of Mojito's , they cells of the fruits a big like a grapefruits you can practically separate each one and the juice and zest are very fragrant , very tart but not too acidic. Even if you don't have these monstrous limes you can still make an absolutely refreshing and hot the spot Mojito with regular old limes.

Véro's Mojito's

-1 part brown rhum

-3 parts soda or perrier

-1 lime

-10 or so mint leaves
-2 tbsp brown sugar

-A dash of Angostura bitter's

In a tall glass place the sugar, mint leaves and squeeze half the lime into the glass then muddle with a pestle or the back of a spoon. Add the angostura, rhum and then top with soda to your taste, stir add some ice and some lime wedges and enjoy!

WD-50

After a nap and a shower we headed to WD-50, upon arrival I was struck by the room it's really nice, the different materials used work really well and while the design uses an Asian feel it's not kitschy. On the way there we had toyed with the idea of asking the kitchen to cook for us , but seeing has how the place was pretty full our confidence took a blow and we did not want to a pain in the ass. We got a banquette between 2 other couples, on the left coffee and mignardises on the table on the right , they we're in the midst of a tasting menu. After perusing the menu's we inquired about the best course of action, because we could not decided we wanted to do tasting but the dishes on the carte looked to good to pass up, our server Chris suggested that we order 1 app each, then have a main split between the 2 of us and finally 1 main each, that way we could taste as many plates as possible, before going off he gave us specifications on the menu along the lines of "pork belly is the same cut as bacon" and "sea trout is similar to salmon" , the downside of the recent review might be an influx of clients with little prior knowledge of the place or some the cuts they use, we reassured him and mentioned we are both cooks and it's all good. We had wines by the glass for each savoury course.



Amuse: Cured fish (cannot remember for the life of me what) with sauerkraut purée, scallions and currants and diced broccoli stems. The plating was nice, while the fish was fairly mild, the sauerkraut purée intense a good match with the currants and fish, a good start.


Apps followed, Véro went with popcorn soup. A buttery, nutty, rich popcorn soup almost a purée, with some sliced shrimp sausage (Activa at work here) and Jicama that's cooked in tamarind, popcorn powder, shiso oil and micro shiso. The individual parts are nice, the soup rich decadent, strange, the jicama sour and tasting almost of water chestnuts and the shrimp sausage brilliant but the sum of all these together has an immense impact, the sourness cutting through the richness of the soup. It sounds like something wacky but this is really a solid plate.



I received smoked eel with salsify purée , sliced cooked salsify, guava and puffed yuzu. This intriguing mix the guava in caviar like pearls, bright and fruity was a nice balance to the smoky eel and silky salsify purée . The dish was excellent but felt like it was missing something to really make it pop.

We then got surprised by a plate sent from the kitchen, Eggs Benedict done WD style. Creamy yolks cooked in a cylinder shape, crunchy bacon chips (Canadian bacon) just enough chive points and of course the fried hollandaise cubes (made with English muffin breadcrumbs). A true ode to egg lovers, Chloe would love this dish she always leaves the whites when I make hard boiled eggs and she can't get enough bacon.

Turbot was next, the presentation was beautiful, the fish was rolled and glued into a cylinder and cooked SV I assume. The play of textures was real strong on this dish, the turbot was perfectly cooked but retained a nice firmness, toothsome lentils, smooth purée and the crunchy cauliflower chips. You'd think that something like BBQ lentils would overpower the other elements of this dish. When eaten with the other elements it blended really well , the apricots we're another surprise the jamminess of them worked well with the cauliflower a real surprise. This dish was ace.


Mains: Vero had lamb loin with pretzel consommé, potato noodles, wilted mustard greens and mustard cake. Nice... Beautifully cooked lamb (again I believe SV) it had the most intense mineral like flavour, don't know if it's from the cooking method or the sourcing. The pretzel consommé was again another winner, the taste spot on with the potato "noodles"and mustard greens it was almost like some intense surreal pho' like experience. Vero did not like the mustard cake much but I thought it was awesome.
Wagyu Flatiron for moi, the cippolini onions was magnificently charred, a good pairing with the steak and toothsome coffee gnocchi . The coconut foam was like shaving cream in texture, light but powerful , very nice against the silky, beefy flavor of the wagyu flatiron.
By this time the place was moving and shaking but the kitchen did not look to be missing a beat. The couple doing the tasting on the right we're not enjoying themselves but to me it seems like they would not be a place we're they could be happy, the girl endlessly checking her Iphone for SMS while she refused to try things and when she did complained about the taste, the guy agreeing with her every word , would gobble down his plate?? oh well. The other table (on the left) we're the complete opposite, not their first time at WD-50 and having a blast and they weren't young either.


We opted for the 3-course dessert tasting

Amuse was a wintergreen parfait, chartreuse gel, avocado purée and candied walnuts . Like toothpaste this is not negative comment, the amuse served it's purpose exactly, the parfait was cool, fresh and still managed to be creamy and sweet but just so.

Then came this amazing passion fruit tart, w/liquid crust, passion fruits purée, argan oil, almond nougatine, black sesame paste and powder. Powerfull, fresh, nutty, sour and intense. The hit of the almond like character of the argan oil against the sour like hit of the creamy passion fruits filling. The sesame bringing in the bass note that reaches the argan oil, the nougatine powder adding crunch. Unapologetic in your face but really ...wow. The elements being what they are, not forcing you to find out why they work together, they just do. I love the little burnt meringue drops ...A1 my fave

Then Soft white chocolate, white beer ice cream, wheat beer gel, malt powder malt vinegar caramel painted on the plate. Not a big fan of white chocolate but this was really cool, the ice cream was intense and pure, it tasted like the foam on top of the beer. again all these different elements end up reaching together effortlessly. Veronique really dug this plate.

We got another kitchen treat with Cherry covered chocolate. a cherry gel covering a soft chocolate ganache, chopped dried sour cherry clumps, brownie bits, a cherry flavoured molasses painted on plate, molasses yogurt and some fresh lime zest to boost everything up. Vero's eye had caught this on the menu and it was like they read our mind when we got this . We had both wondered what it was like and out of nowhere we received this. I loved the metallic , sour sweet quality of the molasses when combined with the little cherry covered chocolate. the texture of the cherry gel was a bit brittle like you get with agar but it was not too unpleasant. The zest was a great addition, you'd almost think it would not work but it ties in well with the yogurt .
we got to swing by the kitchen after our meal and M. Dufresne was very kind, we we're both too full of good food and booze to be very interesting, everyone was extremely courteous, Chris (our Server) was the man, courteous, his wine pairings spot-on, not pushy at all. True professionals and we got treated like kings.

New York, New York part II

Day two was probably the best one of the lot for many reasons, we slept in a bit and then headed out to the Staten Island Ferry Terminal, since Véro had never been to NY before she wanted to soak in some touristic sites so we compromised the lady liberty view by taking the Staten island ferry rather than going out to liberty island which i remember being a pain in the butt and not being all that great. The Ferry terminal was fairly packed , lots of tourists from all over, it's a nice ride with a nice view of the Brooklyn bridge, the weather was beautiful, sun was out and it was not too chilly.

Once back we took the subway and made the first of our Holy trinity of cooks dream store Korin, I initially wanted to bring in a couple of my knives to be sharpened in house but found out before our trip that their knife master would not be in during the month of March so we settled for just shopping (as if we weren't totally stoked about that). The Korin showroom is a nice space fairly small but with the knives prominently on display, there we're some people in house already so we quietly checked things and and then ended up getting some really friendly help from William one of the sales reps, he not only made some great recommendations on knives but we also ended up chatting about where we we're going to dine during our stay and we showed him pictures of how much damn snow we got in our neck of the woods. A Misono Sujihiki for Véro and a Togiharu Petty for me, a bag of Bincho Tan, some smoke sticks (a great discovery of last year, excellent for cold smoking) and a bunch of other things, we left with wallets lighter but spirits quite high.

We walked down Canal st and into Chinatown, I love the open air fishmongers as well as the stalls selling veg and all manners of snacks. We browsed through some stores, bought a few things (ready-made Milo in a can for my brother) and decided we need a break for sustenance. Thanks to the kind folks at AEB we got a good tip about #1 dumpling on Eldridge St. WE stopped in and amid the crowd of kids snacking after school ordered 2 sesame pancakes with roast beef and a couple of orders of different dumplings, while waiting for our order I got to scope out their operations they have these wonderful custom burners that will boil or fry a bunch of dumplings at once. The sesame pancake is the perfect snack , the dough is a bit thick but a nice foil for the fresh veg and roasted beef, the dumplings we're tasty the fillings well seasoned (pork and scallions) , Véro was hooked, she tried finding ways we could bring back a bag of their frozen dumplings but that would be for another time.

Il Laboratorio Del Gelato was next , I had heard much about his place and was anxious to try it, I was a bit underwhelmed by their selection of flavours i was expecting some more way out stuff but , the selection was still very cool. I settled on a split of Olive oil Gelato and Red bean, the olive oil was really smooth, with a nice peppery olive oil kick at the end, I found it brought out the bitterness a bit too much but the sweetness was in check, Red bean was nice, again not too sweat, really creamy mouth feel. Véro had Amaretti crunch and Ginger, Ameretti crunch was the clear winner, with little amaretti bits scattered throughout a bitter almond base . The ginger was a surprise, really intense pungent gingery taste, not a candied ginger either, it tasted as if they had infused sliced fresh ginger into their gelato base, surprising but I came to like it. We headed back to our hotel for nap and refresh ourselves for our main event we had dinner booked at WD-50

New York, New York part 1

My boss dropped the news that I had some vacation time available , I seized the occasion and took a week off at the end of March and Véronique and I finally got to take a real vacation together. Because we don't have an unlimited budget and with such last minute notice for booking we decided on New York, we had both been talking about going, Véro had never been and I had not been since my teens so the timing was perfect. We booked a hotel in Queens and figured we'd park the car and then use the subway since New York's subway system is top notch putting our own Métro to shame. We arrived on Monday evening tired from being in the car all afternoon and anxious to walk around. We took our first of many trips on the E train and figured we'd get off near the Time-Warner center and see if we could get a spot at Yakitori Totto since it is open late. We quickly ducked in to the Time-Warner center to see if we could get a peek at the Bouchon bakery display, I then remembered that this is the home of a huge Whole foods market , i have heard much of Whole Foods good and bad, but we we're both impressed by the variety and quality of the goods available, plus the amount of people 40 cashier stations and a line up going halfway through the store 8pm on a Monday night! We then toured Williams Sonoma, nice gear , nice store but some of the stuff they sell is horribly overpriced but they had some really nice unique items (of various levels of usefulness). A small knife used specifically to peel chestnuts, the smallest silicone spatulas we've ever seen (we ended up getting these on a later visit), A set of 3 vanilla extracts from different origins (Tahiti, Mexico, Madagascar). By the time we hit Bouchon they we're wrapping up, we vowed to return and then headed to Yakityori Totto

They we're full but we gave our names, took a walk, returned 20 mins later and ended up waiting 10 minutes or so to get our table. Some nice cold beers in hand we we're reay to order, unfortunately due to the lateness of the hour , all specials we're out but we soldiered on. We ordered several skewers , on the side we got, the mixed pickle plate which was nice it had, small onions, umeboshi, a kind of seaweed that tasted a bit of tobacco and licorice ,carrots and pickled eggplant (which surprised by their crunch and flavour). Also had the cucumber and whole bean miso (another discovery). Then came the procession of skewers, Heart: expertly grilled, the right bite, not chewy at all, i was blown away by those 3 tiny morsels on a stick. We then had chicken thighs and scallions, nice char and still slightly bloody with the crispy exterior and slight bite of the scallions. Berkshire pork with lemon and mustard, nicely grilled slices of Berkshire pork belly, on a plate with a wedge of lemon and a dab of intense mustard in the corner, the combination of both is the perfect balance to the fatty crispy pork belly, tangy and through the nose heat. Then the same pork belly slices but this time garnished with ponzu and scallions, was also quite nice. We then had Liver: ok but kind of flat, Skin: which is an eye rolling pleasure bomb,I don't think I need to explain why this was good. Enoki with bacon: amazing, crispy and then exploding inside with the toothsome enokis, Véro was not too sweet on this one but i loved it finally we had another round of heart. The place is really nice, tiny but the food is top notch, I am not an expert on the style but seeing how many Japanese customers we're in attendance I assume authentic, the staff friendly I just wished we had this kind of place in Montreal, I'm sure it would work quite well. We slid out of there , took a brisk walk on Broadway and called it a night.

whirlwind

mmmm. pretty much speachless after a mind melting meal at WD-50...more to come.

TARTARE DE PHOTO 2

what i've been up to

JOYEUSE ST-VALENTIN !!

Ok je suis un tout petit peu en retard, mais faute de fièvre intense (tellement que j'ai ai eu des hallucinations) les 3 dernier jours je n'ai pas pu l'afficher plus tôt. J'ai fait pas mal d'heures supp. la semaine dernière et en blaguant j'ai mentionné a Véro que pour la saint-valentin j'aimerais avoir un gateau en forme de coeur, style forêt noire et surprise jeudi je suis arrivé un peu en retard mais il y avait ce beau spécimen qui m'attendait.

Tartare de Photos

Oui Chef!!! act 2

Bonne année ( oui je suis un peu en retard, décallage horaire).

Frank avait déja parlé d'Alex du Rosalie, je suis assez d'accord avec ses propos, mais sur le côté humain ou de la gestion Alex était bien mais pas top :).

J'ai du mal a oublier notre derniére soirée moi et Frank, ou bien engager un sous-chef comme John, ou bien crier sur Graham, et la minute d'aprés lui lancer des citron.

Mais qui suis-je pour critiquer les gens, puisque je suis pas bien ni top sur le côté humain :).

Disant que j'ai travaillé pour plusieurs chefs, tous ils m'ont appris, dirigé, fais confiance, même certais m'ont corrigé avec une spatule ( merci Franck baudry ). Mais je peux vous dire que le premier Chef qui m'a vraiment marquer, est un Tony, son vrai nom est Koumar, un gars qui vient du Bangladesh, c'etait pas un chef, c'était un montor. Il était le Chef d'un resto grecque, sur prince Arthure, la bouffe c'était vraiment grecque....... :)).

Tony ( Koumar ), m'as marqué, par sa rapidité, son caractére, sa generosité, il pouvait servir, 500 personne, il faisait les viandes, les homards, les accompagnements, je le sais, c'était pas de la gastronmoie, ni de la bistronomie, c'etait de la bonne bouffe, qui goutait bon, les cuisson etait bonne, bien assaissonée.

Tony ( Koumar ), pouvait gérer son grill de 3 métres, gérer le pass, caller les commandes écrites a la main, il faisait 120h semaine, et pouvait te lever et netoyer 10 saumaon entier en 18min, j'ai parié avec lui et j'ai perdu, je devais netoyer 5 sacs de 50lb de pomme-terre.

Tony ( Koumar), était hindou, toute la cuisine était bangali hindou, sauf moi un marocain musulman et un indien, le pére de Koumar a était tué par des bangalis muslumans, alors vous imaginer les présentiments que ca peut engendrer, mais au contraire, ils nous protégés. Il m'a fais confiance, m'as appris a parler bangali, et m'as mis deuxiéme de cuisine, parce que j'étais passionné par la cuisine.

Sur ce, comment on peut definir un Chef, pars ses techniques, sa rapidité, sa gestion sur tous les niveaux, sa passion.

Pour moi un Chef, c'est un être humain qui aime la cuisine, un artisan, et qui défend sa brigade, qui partage son savoir, qui remts les gens a leurs places quand IL LE FAUT.

2008

Happy New year to everyone, I think many had a bit of a bumpy ride in 2007 but I'm pretty sure we're headed somewhere interesting over the next one. Many thanks to all who helped push back the boundaries of mediocrity in the last year. Much love to Ali (thanks for being there, your self assurance is always a source of inspiration), Véro (thanks for putting up with me), Andrew ( good conversations, good salume), Stelio (good discussions about food, good food too), Aki and Alex (much inspiration, you never cease the get the little gears in my head turning), Shola (you are the man, if I can remain half as organised and dedicated I would be happy), Fabio (for showing me that good managers still exist), Lauren (thanks for the laughs)

2007 année merdique !!!!!!!

Le monde de la restauration montréalaise a connu certains coups durs durant cette année.

Un petit rappel chronologique :

- janvier : fermeture des Chèvres,
- janvier : fermeture de l'Aquatera, Carissima et le Cru,
- février : Laloux se fait macsacrée par la critique,
- mars : fermeture de Anis,
- octobre: fermeture de Halte urbaine,
- novembre : fermeture de la Brunoise,
- Novembre : fermeture du Vasco de gama.

Il faut souligner que toutes ses fermetures se sont passées de façon complètement absurde pour le personnel, qui ne s'attendait pas a perdre son travail du jour au lendemain.

Cela m'amène a me poser des questions sur la qualité de service et de produits que Montréal offre dans le domaine de la gastronomie, le bistro, le fast food, la junk, tous ces Astis de mots qui ne veulent rien dire,surtout a Montréal.

Je m'explique, parce que une table comme le cinquième péche qui est considéré par la clientèle comme bistro de quartier, et qui s'attendent a payer comme tel, ne remarquent pas les détails dans les assiettes, que c'est pas la bouffe bistro, c'est pas une putain de bavette frite qui se vend 28 $ sur saint-laurent ou bien au Holder. Alors les gens s'attendent a plus et ne veulent pas payer pour.

Prenant Les Cons Servent, Stelio proclame que c'est bistro, simple, bien fait, mais BISTRO et en plus le prix vient avec. Mais les cons- somateurs soulignent que c'est pas comme les Chèvres: merci pour la critique, mais est-ce que vous avez remarquez que c'est pas les mêmes prix ni les produits.

Je m'excuse pour cette petite montée de lait, il est 5h39 de matin, c'est l'insomnie qui me fait dire des choses pas biennnnnnnnn :).

Je souligne aussi, que 2007 a eu de beaux moments comme :

- demande de mariage de vero, lucky francky.
- la résurrection du Laloux.
- L'ouverture des Cons servent.

QUEL CON, MADAME VOTRE FILS!

Ok so round 2 @ les cons servent a few nights back , here's how it went down .We started with le plateau des cons servent which that night consisted of Rosette de lyon pefectly sliced, pickled beets, a garlicky saucissons poached in red wine, a salad of mussels and diced celery, skate wing terrine and a soy stained quail egg. the whole thing was well balanced, w/out being bogged down by oversalting or too many acidic and pickled flavours fighting together. The highlights we're the red wine poached saucissons, a plain old garlic polish type cured sausage taken to new hights after a bath in red wine...really good. i'm not a fan of branch celery but here it made the mussels pop, it was really clean, fresh and adding a bit of crunch. Skate wing terrine was a nice surprise, meaty and with a nice zing from the lemon zest . This a nic eplate to share or if you want to just have a quick bite w/a glass of wine. I think it's just missing another condiment to help push it forward and after speaking with Stelio he said he ahd thought of adding maybe a kimchi of sorts. Mains we're bavette for me and cornish hen for véro . Bavette was a solid execution a little austere in the presentation, but well grilled bavette, a big ass quenelle of carrot and rutabaga puree and a couple of rapini w/a grainy mustard sauce. The chicken was the winner though, first let's just say that mofo' was juicy , already a good quality in any chicken dish , it came surrounded by gnocchi of the smallest stature and glzed carrots, smothered in the sauce. What a sauce too, zingy, buttery, the chicken infused with the flavours of the verjus, bright, controlled acidity, tender meat and just enough of a sear on it. To end it all Pumpkin cheesecake (light and tasty w/a spicy crumb) I had the valbert with duck ham and radishes. Again quite good but by then we we're both full and tired.

I see dead tomatoes! or ketchup

A bit late in posting but still valid about 3 weeks ago I checked on the green tomatoes I picked off the vines before uprooting the garden for winter expecting to have to make jam or chutney with them and lo and behold most of them had ripened to a point where they we're tasty enough to cook with but not too exciting for eating raw. After a bit of thought I decided to turn them into ketchup I ended up making 2 batches with slight variations, the first one done in a crock pot was good but I think the quick cooking is best as it yields a fresher flavour. I figured I can included one of my non recipes as I played it all by ear and it's all still and experiment but here goes

For about a 12-15 nice ripe tomatoes

-2-3 red onions(any color is fine) chopped

-5-6 garlic cloves peeled and lightly smashed

-1 bottle passata (crushed tomatoes could work but passata is better)

-4-5 tbsp coriander seeds

-3-4 tbsp fennel seeds

-5-6 cloves

- a couple sprigs of thyme

- crushed pepper flakes or fresh chili (set to your tolerance)

- 1 cup red wine vinegar (depending on how acidic everything is already)

- 4-5 tbsp Worcestershire sauce (more or less according to taste)

- 1 cup brown sugar

- salt/pepper

OK basic method, Chop your tomatoes roughly, grind coriander,fennel, pepper flakes and cloves in a mill. Sweat onions and garlic on medium heat, after a few minutes add spice mix and thyme leaves, keep sweating, then deglaze with vinegar and worster sauce and then add tomatoes, passata and brown sugar and season with salt and pepper, bring to a boil and then turn down to a simmer for about 20min or so and then blitz in the blender and push through a sieve, adjust seasonings and voila.

Following that here is a list of things I've thrown in or will next time around.
-Soy sauce , just a little really helps boost the flavours -Glucose this is the secret to the the commercial ketchup texture my second batch has a nicer consistency because of this. -A blend of different vinegars( apple cider, red wine and a dash of balsamic) -MSG I smacked my head after everything was canned and thought to myself that just a little bit would have taken the flavours over the top.

WEEKNIGHT SUPPER

Since I have a bit more free time I've been trying to keep out of mischief and avoid watching too much TV. I swung by Slovenia after work this week to buy some beef cheeks to make stew for Chloe's lunches and also a smoked pork hock so that Véro and I can make Bouilli (that comforting Quebecois classic). After getting home I decided to get down to work on my braise right away I have to say these are the biggest mutha@#$%?ing cheeks I have ever seen, We used to get beef cheeks weekly at Rosalie's and I never came across mastodons like the these, I trimmed them down and seared them in the pan and then built my braise with sweated aromatics and used some Merlot and a combination of beef stock and coffee, I had to end up letting them cook most of the night since they we're so big but the result was excellent, I can never get over how succulent the meat becomes.

After getting the braise going i had built up quite and appetite and didn't feel like cooking much, after a quick look through the fridge I found some boudin noir (my latest obsession), leftover squash and some caramelised onions. I put together a quick little parmentier for one and when that sucker came out of the oven the smell was just crazy, It took all my will to finish my washing up before tucking into it. I have been dreaming about boudin dishes lately and I ate the boudin crèpe at Les Cons Servent(I will talk more about the meal later) and that was a really good start, this parmentier was really good I thought the squash would be too sweet but it turns out the potiron variety used is really nutty and not too sweet when cooked and the aged cheddar on top helped tie it all together. Next up I'm working on an idea for a boudin tarte fine, I might try that next week.

Forbidden fruit

I'm late posting this but had a great time apple picking this season, we managed to get our asses in gear this year and we went early, the colder weather of late has made the cold storage room perfect temp for keeping our beauty's for a longer time. A couple of apple projects also on the horizon, want to try making apple butter, sorbet and there's a recipe for a yeasted apple cake in the Paul Bertolli book that I have been ogling for a while i think I will give that a try too. I 'd love to find a place that has some different varieties than the norm of Spartan, Cortland, Macintosh and co. does anyone have any leads out there?

AKA BLACK MAMBA

un clin d'oeil pour toi Franck, pour te dire que j'appuis ta decision, qui est de quitter le domaine si saint et serein de la cuisine ( sarcasme ), pour une raison aussi noble que Cloé.

au plaisir de cuisiner avec toi, de rucher avec toi, de chialer, de rire, et faire de gnocchi.

merci pour ta passion, tes techniques, et d'être Franck.

Ali.

Oui Chef!!!

To some of us in the life a variant of the following discussion has surely occurred. Upon finding out that you cook for a living , people then refer to you as a "chef" , you then go on to explain that you aren't the chef (unless of course you are) at which point the person gets confused and you have to explain the kitchen hierarchy to them and explain what the "chef" does. There lies an interesting question what defines a chef. The easy answer is that the chef leads the cooks, but that' s just the basic principal, from there there,s so many things that defines or makes a chef. To some it's the pinnacle position one can achieve in the kitchen, to other's a chef's got to have a set of moves unmatched or maybe it's the person who tells them what to do but doesn't do any work in the kitchen himself. Yet for some their chef has to be the example have the skills, knowledge and organisation to make sure everything gets done& yet to some the chef could be a tormentor, the very bane of their existence.. while the title may be easily thrown around and oft coveted by many cooks, it's not possible for everyone to answer the call. No two are quite alike and more so than most other types of jobs, no two follows the same set of rules and it goes without saying that everyone is quite sure their techniques are the best. The Chef who has had a pretty deep influence on a me and other's I've worked with is Alex Rolland at that time the chef de cuisine at Rosalie. Alex has cooked pretty much around the world, cooked in some really good kitchens and while he didn't talk much about all that and was sometimes infuriating, one thing you could not deny where his skills. He's a technician, when he did work the line watching him prep was amazing, he was fast, all moves efficient, precise, purposeful a vast knowledge of food and preparations and always ready to tell what you did wrong but also able to take the time to show you how to fix it. He did have peculiar habits like wilfully putting his guys in the shits by doing strange things like telling the Garde-Manger to pass on his beautiful soup to the fish station so they could use it on a special, forcing said GM to scramble to make a new soup 30 minutes or so before beginning of service. He could be