“. . . Just want to be a cook”

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“I just want to be a normal person, hell, screw normal people, I really just want to be a cook.”

Anthony Bourdain
“Out of the Fire and into the Pan” Travel Channel

Being a cook is truly a unique lifestyle. The lifestyle Anthony talks about in his book Kitchen Confidential is one full of alcohol, drugs and hard living. His almost comic descriptions of the lifestyle do represent some of the lives encountered while working in a professional kitchen.

Last week one of my students asked me how it felt to be the only lady of the bunch, referring to the all male faculty where I teach culinary school. My response was, “It has always been that way, I really don’t think of myself as the only female, but as part of a team.” Culinary folks are a tight bunch; competitive, but close to their teammates.

Tony describes the drinking games and goading between so-called rival  kitchens that take place in the wee hours of the morning. Certainly these must contribute to some kind of bonding between workers. Cooking is a tough job, you feel it through your bones, your entire being gets caught up in the work of serious cooking. If that doesn’t happen for you while you cook, you are not in the right place.

It becomes like a dance between cooks, reaching, passing, plating, presenting; you know what your neighboring cook is going to do next by movements and you’ve seen each dish played out a thousand times. You know how to move in a hot, noisy, very busy kitchen, observation tells you most of what you need to know while you listen carefully for the next “Order In! or “Pick Up!” call to see if it is for your station or not. Cooking like this is a bonding experience all in itself. The line-cook cowboys.

The fire, the steam, the sizzle, the splatter, the heat, the aromas all become addicting. Like every other addiction, it can also destroy you. Obesity, alcoholism, drug addictions, divorce, gambling. . .wicked vices you have to be aware of and smarter than in order to survive.

People can talk about how good a chef/cook they are but in reality it is about what you can do. Male or female. Females are at a disadvantage , always have been. A female really needs to know what she is doing and be strong enough to carry it through. There will always be  male pigs around, the industry attracts them like flies. So as a female, you learn real fast how to take care of yourself. And how be really, really good at what you do, not to whine or cry or get tired. At least in front of them.

Because of the lack of “bar bonding” with the crews I worked with, present co-workers included, there is a parameter where our relationships end. That for me is once I am in the car, I am on my own time and do not need to prove myself at any “thirsty Thursday” events.

My bones can feel the work, the long hours on concrete floors over hot ranges and ovens. Being a line cook is for younger people. It is great fun for a while, but not forever. The food industry has so many other things you can do and still play with food. You just don’t have to sweat as much or work at a constant break-neck speed. I did that once and do not have to prove my ability anymore. Frankly, I’m too old for that. As I mentioned earlier, line cooking is for the younger generation, that cowboy/pirate breed with good knife skills.

I see so many young kids come into my office and say “I want to be a chef” and be so timid, shy and unsure of themselves. There is not a chance in hell they will ever make it in any kitchen. Not all of them have the capability of becoming a chef. Some are only cut out to be cooks at best. But who am I to squash a dream?

So I train them, test them and send them out into the world armed with the safe knowledge and experiences from culinary school. Some have been part of a competition team or competed on their own.  They get overblown egos from those kind of experiences. The world eats them alive once the get out there and then again, some survive. And a few end up doing very well.

A cooks life is not for everyone. To survive, you need to be aware of and stronger than the temptations and vices laid out before you in irresistible ways. Food is a temptation, it is seductive, it is addicting. You have to know that going in and perhaps most of all this is what draws us to food in the first place. The temptations, the seductiveness and the addictions; the challenge is far from being a normal person.

That’s the last thing I would call Anthony Bourdain.

Carpe Diem, Charlotte, NC

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I had to fast yesterday due to the annual physical. The appointment was at 2 PM so fasting from 6AM until then was for the most part, pretty easy. I did drink a cup of coffee with agave and half and half, only one, and then drank water the rest of the day.

The hardest part of fasting was doing lesson plans, reviewing recipes, and writing lecture notes all about food and not being able to have any.

So when the coast was clear after the physical, my friend June and I decided to go out to a restaurant we had never been to before.

We chose Carpe Diem in the Elizabeth area of Charlotte. While passing the restaurant nearly every day, I had never been in to eat. I met some friends there once for a glass of wine and actually it is surprising how long it took me to get back to try the food.

Carpe Diem is quite charming.

The decor is art nouveau style with mahogany doors and window frames, pristine marble floors and copper lighting features. The staff is knowledgeable, friendly, enthusiastic and are well trained professionals.  The restaurant itself is clean, charming, well located and the food is downright outrageously good.

We each ordered a glass of wine, the water glasses were kept full, and even though we came in at 5 PM (I was starving!) we weren’t the only early birds there. The Elizabeth neighborhood actually had lots of people strolling, walking through various shops, eating ice cream from Elizabeth Creamery (another post… also well worth blowing your diet for), it was all very engaging.

Fresh warm ciabatta bread was brought to the table. Crispy, chewy, if only the butter had been softer. Perhaps it would have been had we come later. I have often wondered why restaurants serve cold, hard butter with delicate warm bread. Isn’t it easy enough to remove the butter from the refrigerator about 1/2 hour before it goes to the table?

We did get a second piece and by that time the butter was soft and perfect.

We shared a house salad with Dijon Balsamic dressing. I knew I wouldn’t eat the whole thing and an entree too so June and I split the salad. Paige, our server, was great in that she had the split done in the kitchen. As you can see, even the split is a generous portion.

The tender greens were accented with a surprise of shaved fennel, sweet grape tomatoes, crisp cucumber, carrots, and beets lightly and perfectly dressed in the vinaigrette.

Our entrees were the Mushroom Bolognese over Tagliatelle Pasta. This is a vegetarian dish. Traditional bolognese sauce is made using diced wild mushrooms instead of meat. The pasta is hand made, cooked al-dente and more delicious than I can ever describe. On the side of the dish were three crispy slices of grilled bread.

Mushroom Bolognese

The smokey grilled flavor only deepened the richness of the mushrooms and tomatoes. Absolutely wonderful with the Malbec chosen to drink with the rich, deep comforting flavors.

Buttermilk Fried Chicken Breasts with Shallot Black Pepper Cream, Mashed Potatoes and Sauteed Spinach was the second dish we ordered. Talk about comfort food! Just reading it on the menu made me feel like sitting on mom’s lap helping shell peas on the porch.

Buttermilk Fried Chicken

Two golden brown, crispy on the outside, juicy on the inside, chicken breasts set on top of a bed of fluffy mashed potatoes, nestled next to brightly green sauteed baby spinach. This dish was also very well done and satisfied every taste receptor known to humankind.

The potatoes were creamy, light and fluffy and actually tasted like potatoes; the spinach freshly cooked, tender and not a stem in sight. Taking a fork of each separately, tasting the flavors of each single item, then filling the fork with every combination of the creamy, crispy goodness for each bite allows the diner to experience the dish from many angles. From simple to complex, your taste-buds will be delighted in the play time they get from eating this dish. Believe me when I say buttermilk does magic things to chicken.

Dessert temptations were vast, from white chocolate pound cake with lemon curd and fresh berries, peach and cherry cobbler, vanilla bean creme brulee to chocolate ganache in a toasted pecan crust with raspberry coulis and spicy caramel sauce. We couldn’t resist the chocolate and ordered two more half glasses of wine.

Carpe Diem has half glasses of wine!

Chocolate Ganache in Toasted Pecan Crust

You must have red wine with chocolate like this. Rich, smooth dark chocolate, crunchy toasted pecans, the counter of the slight bitter-sweetness of the raspberries takes your tongue on another journey that makes your eyes roll back in your head.

We started out wanting to just go get something to eat but ended up with a wonderful, amazing culinary adventure at a terrific restaurant on 1535 Elizabeth Avenue in Charlotte, North Carolina.

The menu features several vegetarian options, fish, poultry (chicken and duck) and beef items on the menu. Each and every one sound very good. It was hard to choose which is a good thing since it means I will be back, and soon.

If you want a light snack or linger over wine in the lounge, they offer appetizers, salads, lighter fare and a cheese platter which I was tempted to order just because I wanted to see it. Sometime soon, I’ll find a reason to meet some people in the bar for a glass of wine and share that cheese platter. It sounds too good to wait very long.

The prices are quite reasonable so don’t let the fine dining appearance keep you away. If you like food, you owe it to yourself to get there sometime real soon.

Carpe Diem, simply stated, GO! Don’t miss it.

Here’s their website: http://www.carpediemrestaurant.com/

I almost forgot, between courses we were treated to an amuse bouche of passion fruit sorbet.

Served in a frozen glass dish as a palette cleanser (this will be discussed another time), the flavor exploded in your mouth. It was so good I forgot to take a picture of it.

Happy Eating!

Salt

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Salt is one of the most used seasonings in the world, yet most people don’t even realize there are many kinds of salt.

The salt most people are familiar with is the simple table salt. Finely ground, iodine added, it is meant to be used as a table seasoning, not for cooking. The iodine adds a bitter flavor that most recipes don’t need. This salt is commonly mined from the ground.

We will leave the concept of table salt behind for this discussion.

My favorite salt for finishing dishes is French Fleur de Sel from the coast of Brittany. It adds a delightful crunch to anything from crisp fresh radishes to scallions and baked potatoes. Various SaltsIts appearance is slightly off pure white and has the appearance of being slightly damp. Being a damp salt, it does not dissolve as quickly as a drier salt would. This is why it is used as a finishing salt. The irregular size of the crystals contributes to different melting times thereby lending a salting flavor on many different levels.

The Fleur de Sel forms when the wind blows across the coast of Brittany where workers hand collect the salt formation off of the top before it sinks into the collecting pans below. Being a hand collected salt, Fleur de Sel is one of the most expensive salts, but well worth it. The absolute best comes from towns of Guérande (Fleur de Sel de Guérande)

Here’s a link by one of the worlds foremost experts on salt, Mark Bitterman. He has authored  “Salted: A Manifesto on the World’s Most Essential Mineral, with Recipes” available on Amazon.

Face it, you won’t be salting your pasta water with Fleur de Sel so go ahead and splurge on some. Personally, I like to sprinkle the top of chocolate chip cookies with Fleur de Sel before they go into the oven. As my hair stylist would say,”OMG!”.

French grey salt is similar to Fleur de Sel and is used the same way. It gets the grey from being harvested deeper than just the very top like Fleur de Sel. Still on the pricy side, but should not cost quite as much as Fleur de Sel.

Sea salts are ocean sourced and are dried. You can find crystal sizes from coarse to fine. As an inexpensive salt, it can be used in any application.

Mined salts are cut from the earth. One of the largest salt mines is in Pakistan. From this mine you find Himalayan rock salt which is pink in color from the iron oxide content. Shades vary from light pink to dark reddish hues. Being very hard, the salt can be found shaped into trays, platters, bowls, cooking slabs, lamps, and candle holders in addition to being finely ground for kitchen use.

Himalayan salt

You can use the smaller fragments in a salt grinder just as you would a pepper grinder or use a rasp like a nutmeg rasp or a micro-plane.

I like this salt on popcorn.

Serving food on the slabs is quite interesting. The moist foods will become lightly salted and dry foods do not pick up salt flavors at all.

Salt is not fat soluble so if you oil the slab or serve fatty foods on it they will not pick up large amounts of salt thereby over-salting the food.

If using the slabs for cooking, the slab must get to 600 degrees Fahrenheit so the juices evaporate rather than hanging around melting the salt slab and over-salting the food. Heat the slab slowly. The salt slab will become translucent as it heats.

Salt bowls? I’m thinking ice cream!

If you use a smoker, wrap some coarse crystals of sea salt in multiple layers of cheese cloth or muslin and place it in the smoker. You will get a greyish smoked salt as a result. The trace of smoke flavor is really nice on a piece of fish.

The intention of this post is to simply increase your awareness of salt. If you explore the subject, you will find there are some amazing salt products out there. Try some.

Expanding your salt repertoire can be fun.

Keep your special salts for finishing dishes.

Kosher salt is the staple salt I keep in the kitchen. Great for pasta water, and general all around seasoning. It’s not expensive and available everywhere.

Use this salt to create your own seasoning salts.

Seasoning Salts

Combine herbs, spices, garlic, onion to create your own special blend.

Use a knife or a spice grinder to finely chop the herbs and flavorings you choose. Combine the mix with kosher salt; stir so it gets all mixed up.

Store in glass jars or plastic containers. Use it for finishing vegetables, pasta, potatoes, to season whatever you cook instead of plain salt.

Typically, kosher salt as that is what I have on hand. However you can use whatever kind of salt you want- just don’t use iodized table salt.

If you have health concerns and don’t use salt, get in the habit of using herbs, spices and citrus zest to enhance the flavors of your food. More about that in another post.

Explore something new, have fun and happy cooking!

Chef Pamela

Make Vanilla Extract

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I love vanilla.

The smell, the aroma, and the fact that a vanilla bean comes from an orchid makes the most common flavoring actually quite exotic.

Having your own perpetual vanilla extract on hand is a simple thing to do and the rich, full flavor of this extract is well worth the six months you have to wait for it to develop.

You will need:

  • Supplies for making vanilla extract

  • Cutting board for cutting the vanilla beans open
  • Sharp paring knife
  • 3-4 fresh vanilla beans
  • A clean, sterile bottle to fit the vanilla beans
  • A funnel to fill the bottle easily
  • Plain, unflavored vodka (Does not need to be a premium vodka)
  • A stopper for the bottle that fits well enough to shake the bottle vigorously

The procedure is quite simple. Slice the beans open lengthwise, leaving about 1/2 to 1 inch at the top of the bean still attached. Scrape the tiny seeds from inside the pods, then place the beans and seeds into a glass bottle. Place the funnel on the top of the bottle and fill with the vodka.

Cut the beans open and scrape the seeds

Put the stopper on the bottle and shake vigorously. Make a small label for the bottle (a piece of tape will do) and write the date you made the extract on it.

Here’s the hard part; store in a cool dark place for at least six months. Shake the bottle from time to time to loosen the seeds.

The color will go from pale to  warm brown. As you use other vanilla beans in your cooking, add the remaining pods (even if the seeds have been used) to the bottle to fortify the vanilla flavor.

Different stages of extract development

After six months you can begin to use the extract. As you use it, refill with vodka as needed. You will have a lifetime supply of wonderful premium vanilla extract. If you want the vanilla specs in your cooking, shake and measure. If you want just the extract with no specs, don’t shake it.

Hint: Make 2 bottles so as you refill one, use the other so the flavor can continue to develop and become richer as time goes by.

I don’t get it…

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Talking about this blog to my friend June the other day revealed an assumption I had made.

“I don’t get it, I can’t relate to the title,” she said. “Spoon Feast, what is it about?”

“Try using more spoons” was my suggestion. Follow these directions:

Start using more spoons.

Notice when you use a spoon, what are you doing with it?
Do you:

  • Spoons
  • Stir with it?
  • Taste from it?
  • Slurp from it?
  • Lick it?
  • Eat from it?
  • Scrape with it?
  • Feed someone?
  • Serve from it?

Spoon are often found with delicious morsels cradled in the using end.
Spoons can be elegant
Spoons can useful
Spoons can be convenient
Spoons go disappearing (So always buy twice as many as you think you need)
Spoons made of shell or horn are used with caviar

What is your favorite thing at the end of a spoon?

A spoonful of homemade chicken soup with a bit of everything, chocolate sorbet with fresh raspberries, Nutella and banana or strawberry or both.

Nutella and Raspberry

Share your favorites!

You are not alone!

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The best laid plans, complete with diagrams and good intentions, do not guarantee successful outcomes.

I had a massage scheduled, and we were going to have a roasted whole chicken for dinner; a mid-summer grilled favorite.

Since it takes upwards of two hours, the plan was made to put the  fully marinated and dry rubbed bird on the grill before I got home. During the massage I thought how nice it would be to come home to dinner nearly done and the aroma of grilling chicken filling the air.

When I walked through the back gate and spied the thermostat lower than 200 degrees F; I immediately realized something was wrong.

Burnt Chicken

Lifting the lid of the grill, this is what I saw:

Robert’s eyes were huge, “oops” he said, “I thought I was doing so good!”

He had turned off the burners on one side of the grill, but instead of placing the bird on the turned off side, he had placed it directly over the three burners left on High.

He had come out to check on the progress after the bird had been on the grill for 45 minutes. At first he said” I was so proud our grill was getting to 650-700 degrees F…
until I opened the lid and saw the burning chicken.”

The meat was fully cooked so we peeled it off the bones

Smoked Chicken Tacos

and made smoked chicken tacos.

Then our friend June shared her culinary expertise with Robert

Burned Hard Boiled Eggs

Know you are not alone!

Disasters do happen. Deal with it.

Deal with it with a sense of humor and look at it as an opportunity to go get Chinese food.

Why Spoon Feast?

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“One of the very nicest things about life is the way we must regularly stop whatever it is we are doing and devote our attention to eating.”

~Luciano Pavarotti and William Wright, Pavarotti, My Own Story

Hammered Spoons

Spoons! The first utensil we learn to eat with is my favorite way to taste and eat. A spoon cradles the food, carries the sauce and tips into your mouth with an elegance a fork misses.

Spoons are collected, neglected and are inspired into many uses. Use the back as a mirror, clap them together to make music and conjure silliness by hanging them off the end of your nose.

A spoon is the best for digging into a bowl of ice cream in the summer or a nice warm comforting bowl of soup in the winter.

On Spoon Feast you will find ways to improve your techniques and skills, discover interesting recipes, some simple and some challenging.

Discover flavors and textures, what they are and how to use them.

Find out how to grow your own herbs so you always have an abundance of fresh herbs for cooking and wonderful recipes to use fresh herbs from your garden.

Eating locally and globally will be explored both for the home cook and the foodies who like to eat out on the town.

Let the adventures begin! Get your spoons ready, we’ve got a lot of tasting to do.

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