Inside the world of Celebrity Chefs

We all have our little fantasies and slightly guilty obsessions; mine are mostly centered on celebrity chefs. No dirty smirks, please, I am in it only for the food. As uncool as the Food Network has become to the really ‘Serious Foodies” (I hate that word), I am still a sucker for the likes of Alton Brown, the Iron Chef Series and Chopped. Basically my interest borders on masochism because I am reasonably sure that I will never get to taste any of the food these chefs make, mostly because their restaurants are impossible to get into and not to mention expensive.

I think I can consider myself a pretty dedicated fan, I mean I try their recipes, I cheer for the folks, I watch the Next Iron chef competitions with my kids with an enthusiasm of a World Series… I deserve to at least once, once, try what the hype is all about. This was pretty much the argument I gave my husband, when he had an immediate allergic reaction to the price of the ticket to the kick-off of the Next Iron Chef at the NYC Food and Wine festival. Then I pleated and whined and offered to go alone, and as he asphyxiated more and more, I went in for the kill “But we get to eat the food!”, and he reluctantly agreed, because secretly he is as much of a sucker for all the hype as me.

In reality, I had no idea if we were in fact going to eat anything, as the on-line blurb about the event was rather vague. Something about the un-named Iron Chefs or Iron Chef Hopefuls and Alton Brown hosting something. I figured for over $200 dollars a pop, they need to entertain us somehow. I tried keeping my expectations low, hoping against hope that it will not be so bad that my husband will never agree to attend something similar with me in the future, and that they will indeed feed us something, anything….

Apparently I was not the only one completely confused about the format of this thing, as what seemed like half the city was lining up by the strange looking warehouse type structure in the Meat Packing district, wondering murmurs could be heard through the crowd. And then the doors opened and the crowd spilled into a massive brick-faced space adorned by the light projected Food Network logos and most exiting, an open bar and booths manned by the celebrity chefs themselves. Each participating chef has prepared a byte and was serving it out to each guest, personally, interacting with a crowd. I wasn’t sure of what the rest of the agenda entailed so I felt like I did at the Arab spice market, rushing to see and taste all, before this magical opportunity is taken away. Gobbling up byte after byte, without tasting just for the bragging rights of having had it, snapping pictures and not talking to the chefs because they looked pretty damn busy. I was also star-struck and intimidated like a little girl at the Back-street Boys concert. After some time, once we realized that no one is taking the food and drinks away, we were able to relax and re-taste some of the better offerings and actually interact with all of these famous folks. So here are some highlights.

First of all, let me tell you, that if I had as much help as these folks do, I could probably rule the world. Each chef had at least 3 sous chefs with them, and at the most the chef did nothing but to hand the ready plates out or just garnish them. Michael Symon did a wonderful job tossing a few mint leaves on his plates. Some just interacted with the crowd and posed for pictures, except Morimoto who was all business the first hour, head down actually cooking.

Some of the food was exceptionally memorable and some was surprisingly mediocre. Knowing all of these chefs from the past completions, I was actually bias, but my bias was now confirmed. Having an actual taste in my mouth and an actual personal interaction to put together with TV face was the best part of the experience.

So for the food, the most memorable dish of the evening was Nate Appleman’s spicy meatball. It was done is some sort of green curry sauce and was served with a pickled vegetable salad which provided a great contrast in texture and cooled your palate. I am not a fan of Nate Appleman’s but had to admit, this was the best dish.

Some other great tastes were from Alex Guarnaschelli, who served two dishes, a steak crostini with a horseradish mayo and a wonderful sponge cake with chocolate mouse and wined figs, it was like a deconstructed yule log and screamed of fall flavors ( I am totally stealing both… sorry, Alex). As good as her food was, she could have been friendlier and taken a page from Amanda Fraitag’s book, who was like your best friend. You just wanted to keep on chatting with her and go out for drinks after.

Amanda served a spicy meatball with Greek yogurt sauce, which was good, but not as good as Nate, I am still totally rooting for her to be the next Iron Chef.

Spike’s sweetbreads and Marcel Vigneron's braised beef cheeks were great, but celebrated Mehta’s Indian street burger was a mushy, tasteless mess with too much brioche.

Elizabeth Falkner looks and acts even more fake in person than she does on TV. I think she may be made out of plstic. Sorry for the bad quality of the picture but it kind of matches the quality of her dish, this was mushy and fairly flavorless pasta. Just to think that both Chef Mehta and Chef Falkner were the last runner up in the completion. Eric Greenspan, despite having the quirkier personality didn’t really put any love into his grilled cheese sandwich. I think he may understand Russian as within his earshot that hobby makes better sandwiches, I think he got offended. Oh well, I still think he is hugely entertaining and keeps the other chefs on their toes if not with his cooking, than with his jokes.

The Iron Chef’s stations were separated into another area of the space and were much more pompous than the “Wanna be Iron Chef’s” booths. The same room also hosted a huge line of folks being allowed to the sacred body of Alton Brown who was heavily guarded by a few guys the size of King Kong. One guy was literally large enough so that he could eat Alton Brown in case of emergency.

But Alton himself was nice and accommodating, no wonder he is the most beloved personality on the FN. He wrote a personal message for my daughter, who told me not to bother coming home without his autograph.

The Iron Chefs were everything an Iron Chef should be, serving great food and lots and lots of personality. I so admire these folks, not only are they good cooks (a lot of folks are) but they have made entertainment empires out of a very un-glamorous profession and a hellish industry.

Marc Forgione was serving an everything bagel profiteroles with gravlax ( until they run out of lax, so on the second passing we just got the bagels). It was beautifully garnished with some kind of pickled greens and was wildly creative if only marginally delicious.

Geoffrey Zakarian was serving a perfectly composed byte of glazed pork belly with slaw type salad. It was delicious and I pretty confident I can re-create it.

Chef Garces did a very homey soup with hominy and although it lacked the beautiful presentation of some of the other dishes, was truly delicious.

Chef Masaharu Morimoto C (who, according to Alton Brown, left his mother’s womb as a fully formed Iron Chef) served a yellow tail sashimi slider with white truffles on a soft Korean bun. It was as confusing as it was delicious, paring truffles and raw fish would not be my first expectation but it worked beautifully.

I really wanted to love Mike Symon’s food, after all he is my favorite, but his duck liver terrine was overpowered by the spicy mustard it was served with. He made up by taking this lovely picture with me.

By the end of the evening we were stuffed (all those one-bytes really add up), liquored up (did I mention the never ending open bar with the good stuff) and feeling like the entry price was worth after all. Having a bit of the obsessive fan experience and taking pictures and getting autographs were fun. Eating was even more fun and now watching the next Iron Chef season will be more exciting than ever, because now I am actually permitted to have biases and dislikes.

I also carried out a lot of confidence in my own food; I can and will re-create most dishes we sampled. I can guess what was in them and I can do just as well, provided I am outfitted with a dozen helpers… It would be nice to throw on a bit of parsley and just had out the ready plate.

Posted with Blogsy

An Asian Spicy noodle dish that breaks with tradition.

I am breaking all the rules here… First I am breaking the rule of ending the Yom Kippur fast with mounds of family and a traditional Jewish menu. Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with the likes of Gefilte Fish ( rings more like “GUILT” to me, you know the thick kind, the kind only a Jewish Mother can land on your mashugana head), or matzo ball soup ( I think this stuff should be bottled and sold as a substance capable of curing all ailments). There is nothing wrong with the traditional anything; it is just not for me. Not that I dislike it or have something against it, I just didn’t want to do it this year. I wanted things to be peaceful and quiet and I wanted to end the fast as far from my roots as possible, so to rationalize my rebellious behavior ( there is that “GUILT”), I thought of something New York Jews used to do ever since the … well, everything Jews do comes from long, long, ago”…

Back in the day, when there were virtually no good Kosher restaurants in New York, there were these Kosher Chinese places… To this day, if you Google Kosher restaurants in Brooklyn, you will find a staggering amount of Chinese and Asian places claiming (with various degrees of success) to be Kosher. Jews would flock to these places for various reasons, house too small to accommodate all guest, the cook is feeling lazy today or just for an opportunity to go out and enjoy eating out just like the rest of the gents. So, I thought Chinese food… and here is where I broke the rest of the rules…

Asian food is all about balance, salty, spicy, sweet, sour and umami, are the five pillars and must not only complement each other but keep each other in check. Instead of sticking with one Asian culture, I sort of rounded up all the Asian ingredients in my house, Chinese, Indonesian, Japanese, dumped them in one pot ( figuratively speaking) and kept on tasting as things progressed along. If the dish was coming out too sweet, I would add sour, too sour – add salty, too bland- here comes the hot pepper. You get my drift, absolutely no method to this madness, so you can imagine my surprise when at the end it was delicious, deeply savory with lots of umami flavors and in perfect balance. The only hard part was to re-create the recipe for the blog…

I don’t know how many sacred Asian cooking rules I broke, all I know is that as we ate this untraditional Yom Kippur dinner, we talked about our own family and what is right for us. We talked about what is right for us, for how we don’t need the confines of old rituals to dominate our beliefs and how we are free to build our own traditions and beliefs… One problem though, it is very hard to eat the matzo ball soup with chopsticks…

Spicy Asian chicken noodle:

Note: This dish can be made with any protein or vegetarian. A lot of the ingredients are also very flexible and can be substituted for others based on your likes.

Chicken Marinade:

1.5 lbs of chicken thighs ( you can use breasts or a combination) cubed

1 inch knob of ginger

3 garlic cloves

1 small jalapeno pepper minced

1 tbs of light miso paste

1 tbs of peanut butter

½ tsp dried kefir lime leaves (optional)

1 tbs of honey

Zest and juice of 1 lemon

½ tbs of sirracha sauce

2 tbs of sesame oil

2 tbs of sesame seeds (white or black)

¼ cup minced scallions

¼ cup of soy sauce

½ cup of dry white wine or water

Stir fry oil

 

Spicy noodles with vegetables

2 small carrots julienned into small strips

1 small red bell pepper julienned into small strips

1 zucchini julienned into small strips

½ cup cooked and shelled edamame beans

½ inch knob og ginger minced fine

4 cloves of garlic minced fin

¾ cup raw cashew nuts (optional or can be substituted with peanuts)

1 large package of thin stir fried noodles (you can get these at the frozen section of any Asian market)

1 cup Sichuan spicy noodle sauce (Yes, I know it is sort of cheating, but this is the only prepared condiment that I swear by)

1 tbs soy sauce

½ tbs toasted sesame oilStir fry oil

Salt to taste

 

Marinade the chicken, combine all the ingredients (except the chicken, the stir fry oil and the wine) in a food processor and pulse until smooth. Cover the chicken with the marinade, massaging it into the meat. Cover and refrigerate for at least an hour and up to 24 hrs.

Once ready to cook, make sure all your ingredients are cut up and prepared in advance, things move quickly when cooking at a high temperature, so you don’t want to be looking for things last minute.

Heat the stir fry oil in a wok or a large skillet until almost smoking. Add the chicken and cook tossing often until it get a nice brown crust. Reduce the heat to medium and add wine. When the wine is almost evaporated, check if the chicken is cooked through and cook it a few minutes if needed, otherwise set it aside.

In the same skillet add 2 tbs of stir fry oil and the sesame oil and heat on high. Add the cashews, cook, and tossing quickly 1 min or until they begin to brown, add the carrots, cook 20 seconds, add the peppers and the zucchini and the edamame beans and cook another 20 – 30 seconds before adding the garlic and the ginger and soy sauce. Cook a few more seconds (you want the vegies to stay as crisp as possible), than set aside.

In the same skillet, gently heat the spicy noodle sauce. In the meantime, bring a large pot of water to a boil, salt it generously. Cook the noodles in the water for no more than 1 min, you just want to heat them through and hydrate them. Drain and toss with the sauce, cook the noodles with the sauce for a few more minutes than toss everything together, the meat, the vegetables and the noodles. To with chopped scallions and serve hot.

 

 

Posted with Blogsy

Travels and Tastes of Spain ( Part 4)

Barcelona

(has anyone ever noticed that Columbus is actually pointing to Africa)

 



Before we got to Barcelona we had to endure the pleasures of riding in the sleeper compartment of an overnight train.  If you have any inclinations in including this type of transport in your future, do yourself a favor – DON’T.  I had somewhat romanticized memories of a Soviet sleeper trains from my childhood, with delicious home packed snacks and glasses of scalding tea with little cubes of sugar. The thrill of being allowed to sleep on the upper bunk… This was nothing like that, either I grew up and my memories are flawed or this was the shitiest train in the world… I prefer the later.   This ride was an experience I would rather forget, although the rest of my family embraced it as an adventure and even enjoyed it.  The only decent part of the trip was having breakfast in the dining car sitting at a well-served table with tablecloth and glasses of fresh juice, riding along the sparkly Mediterranean beaches and villas of Costa Del Sol. 

 

After cities like Seville and Granada, Barcelona hits you over the head with the sheer amount of people, activity and the bustle of city life.  Masses of tourists seem to overtake every walking space of the city.  Barcelona is a marvel, with seemingly endless things to do; it was a great shame that we had less than two days to explore it. 

View from Palace Majestic onto the city of Barcelona

and the port

 

Just like the great city of New York is not representative of United States and stands on its own, Barcelona is not Spain.  It is separate living and breathing creature, a magically beautiful and whimsical city where the new and the old seem to intertwine in perfect harmony.  Barcelona is like a breathtakingly beautiful woman, you cannot take your eyes off her, captivated, enchanted by her spell.

Barcelona as it stands today, was build out of great devastation of the War… and when the city was rebuild it was designed around people’s lives and perceptions.  It was meant for you to not want to leave the streets, to wrap you around like the most luxuriously beautiful blanket and never leave you wanting more….  Gaudi’s genius is felt throughout the city.  From the magnificent Sagrada Familia Cathedral, (where you can spend hours just talking about the intricacies of the façade, until you finally get inside and see the full wizardry at work), to the houses and streets designed by him.  There were far better writers than me trying to describe Gaudi’s work, so I am not even going to try… I cannot do it justice.  All I am going to say is that experiencing it is like going through a rabbit’s whole and emerging in Alice in Wonderland’s world, mesmerizingly reminiscent of nature, wonderfully whimsical and paradoxically functional at the same time.   The inside of La Sagrada Familia leaves you standing in the middle of a forest where each ray of light coming through the stained glass windows has its purpose ant it’s note to play in a great architectural symphony.  Casa Batllo could have been an inspiration for Nautilus or the other way around, breathtakingly weird, functional, beautiful, entrancing, brilliantly thought out and in tuned with nature.  Gaudi has once said that his greatest inspiration is a tree growing outside his workshop, his work reflects not just a love of nature, but a deep understanding and emotional connection to it.  And that will be all I am going to say on Gaudi, because it should be seen and not talked about….

A part of Sagrda Familia facade

Inside the magical forest

where the light is enchanted and everything has it's place

 

The night view of casa Batlo

A play on light and perception

 

Are you inside some giant sea creature or a house?

 

All though our trip, we were trying to see a Flamenco show, but kept walking as either the time or the price didn’t feel right… I am so glad we waited.  Here, in Barcelona, we got to experience Flamenco like I never imagined.  The stage was settled in the pretty 13^th century building’s courtyard.  The sounds these boys coaxed out of their simple instruments were out of this world.  The drummer’s hands moving as fast as Calibri’s wings, the dancer’s feet following suit, the tragedy, the expression….it spoke of it all, the great love and passion, the conquests in the name of your beloved, the heartbreak, the triumph….it left us feeling absolutely speechless and thankful we didn’t partake in the previously offered shows, which seemed touristy and uninspiring…

The tastes of Barcelona deserve a full paragraph of their own starting with Boqueria Market.  Of course we got there way too late, a good half of the place was closed, including all of the great fish market.  Of course, when we got their my son was theatrically “STARVING!”, which has pretty much been a theme to the whole trip… Of course, as I tried to get any pictures and tastes of true goodies that can be found only at this world famous market, my family ate New York style pizza at one of the stalls…. I can’t even convey the hatred that I felt for them at the time…  Nevertheless I did find the most gorgeous dry harissa mix, the most ridiculously tasting marconna almonds and the taste of my childhood, the fragoli (tiny wild strawberries).  The taste brought me right back to being 10 years old and spending hours in the forest with my grandfather so that by the end of the day, there would be just one delicious palm full, that he generously let me gulp down….

 

We finally ate at a traditional tapas place where they count the toothpicks on your plate at the end of the night… it was strange and kind of fun sharing a snack meant for drinking at the bar counter with my kids…. God knows, they embrace these eating experiences and I hope it expands not only their palates but their world.



The sea food was crazy delicious, straight from the Mediterranean, sweet like butter king prawns, huge langoustines as big as my forearm,  muscles with red juice succulent flesh…. I swear, having eaten them once I will hardly ever look at the North East famed variety the same again…. 

 

 I had to stay away from oysters as I am still getting over the New Orleans disaster but eating this gorgeous sea food right outside the Barcelona marina, marveling at the very expensive and grand sail yachts ( that my children were attempting to steal and sail back to the States..), I couldn’t help but imagine myself a bit richer… a bit famous… a bit…being able to do this more often.  

 

 

One of the highlights of my tastes in Barcelona was the Valencian Fideua, which is like a paella but made with tiny vermicelli noodles.  It was not laden with sea food, just tiny clams, no bigger than my thumbnail.  It was the most addictive dish I ever had; I can eat this every day for the rest of my life (preferably in Barcelona) and not get tired… This is an absolute must to re-create at home….

Delicius Fideua

 

This is what Barcelona feels like

 

All in all, Spain left me with unforgettable experiences, sites and tastes….but…I always leave a bit of my heart in places I go…This time, I left a bit of my heart in Barcelona, and I hope I get to come back to my make my heart whole again…..

Travels and Tastes of Spain (part 3) - Olive oil tour

 

I finally got to do something very foody and see a bit of countryside in the process.  On the last day in Granada we decided to pass the afternoon with an olive oil tour promising great views, tastes and treats.  For a bit more money, we were told we could even try some of the local wines… how could I pass that up.

We were driven to a tiny village sitting at the foot of the original Sierra Nevada Mountains.  Got a bit of an interesting facts about olive and almond trees, how they grow, how this village irrigates the fields with the spring water coming off the mountains with an irrigation system build in the 14^th century and still working and practical today.  Olive trees can live virtually forever and the most optimally producing olive tree should be at least 50 years old, it is said that with age, olive trees produce better quality olives even though the crop is less.  So we got to touch and marvel at olive trees that are hundreds of years old.  Appreciate almonds and pomegranates growing in between the olive trees (it is believed that if you plant an almond or pomegranate tree near an olive tree, the olive fruit will absorb some of the scent from the almond or pomegranate flowers).  In the village we got to drink from a public fountain with water coming straight off the mountains, the water is believed to restore youth.  I wanted to bathe in it but an obnoxiously pretty young French woman beat me to it.
We got to see the old olive oil mill, built in 14^th century and astonishingly operated in almost exact same way until 1920’s. 

14th century olive oil mill

 

As we sat down to an olive oil tasting, I was a bit anxious if I would be able to pick out the differences or recognize good oil.  After all, I have never been to an olive oil tasting, I am not sure how it is done and what I am supposed to be looking for.  However, I do know what kind of olive oil I prefer, so I was going to approach this experience with the same aplomb as a novice wine drinker defends his likes and dislikes.

The tasting was very well narrated, so not only did we learn how you should be tasting olive oil, but a bit about the type of oil you were tasting, about the production process and what notes and properties we should be looking for in each oil.  I did learn a few new things and will be re-reading the back labels on all my olive oils the minute I get home, as it seems that what is being sold as good olive oil on many occasion is a blend of many oils including refined ones. 

What fascinated me most is that how little the actual process of making olive oil has changed from the ancient times to the present, even with the use of industrial machinery, the basics are exactly the same.

Blind donkeys were used to for the job of making olive paste...I think my husband just revolutionized the process

But back to the tasting, the way to taste olive oil is not by mopping it up with a piece of bread as commonly thought.  First you smell the oil as you would wine, judging the aromas as perhaps, fruity, nutty, grassy, citrusy…etc… As the tasting cup is warmed in your hand you judge how the aromas might have changed, it very similar to waiting for the wine to “open up” by aerating it or swirling the glass.  Than you take a little sip, just enough to coat your tongue, the sides of your mouth and the roof.  You may feel a bit or a lot of tingling in the back of your throat, it is normal and is a good way to judge whether the olive oil is fresh.  (By the way, the oil only keeps for 4 month after it open, at that is for filtered oils, unfiltered have even shorter shelf life. So you should not hoard your oils, use them while they are optimally fresh and good for you).  After that first initial taste, you can take a little piece of bread and soak it with olive oil.  This second taste with food can give you a good idea of what the oil will be like at your dinner table.  By the way, all the oils we tasted are Extra Virgin Oils, which are different from Virgin oils, which should mostly be used for cooking.  Extra Virgin olive oil of good quality is generally used for finishing dishes, for salad dressing and for dipping.

 

The palate is cleansed with a piece of apple and we move on to the next oil to taste.  I was very impressed with how easy it was to distinguish what I liked and what I didn’t like.  Although to tell the truth, all the oils offered for tasting were exceptional.

From the whole group of olive oil tasters only two people opted to do the wine tasting, me and my husband… what a surprise.  Having done so many tastings in the US I was wondering how the Spanish conduct it.  For starters we were given a tapa of iberico ham cured on the tallest peak of the Sierras right over the village we were in; the plate also included some local manchego like cheese, which was mild and very pleasant.  All wines we tasted were produced locally.  The white was very pleasantly dry, even though it contained a Muscat grape.  Spanish Muscat is picked earlier, before the sugar sets in, therefore if you prefer drier whites, do not bypass Muscat Spanish wines, they are delicious especially with sea food. 

 

The red was a blend of several grapes, crafted by a retired gentleman in this same village.  He makes wine as hobby and only bottles a few hundred cases a year, which makes this wine exceptionally interesting to try as you would not be able to taste it anywhere else in the world.  We got a lesson on Spanish Sherries, which range in spectrum from a dry white to syrupy like very sweet dark sherry.  I personally did not care for the dry sherry, it tasted more like medicine to me, but upon hearing how our guide uses it in cooking, I may try it, if I can find it.  The sweet dark sherry is a delight if you like port or if you like the sweeter glazes for game meats or reductions to compliment both savory and sweet dishes.

And why was I never given ham and cheese at a wine tasting in the US?

All four of us thought the olive oil tour was great fun and provided a great break from walking cobblestone streets and looking at old buildings.  With a little bit of a different perspective on the olive tree and Spanish country side we boarded an overnight train to the final stop - Barcelona.

To be continued….