More Dinner Details...

Ok, so dinner is looking like this:

We will probably seat about 30, depending on the location.  All locations will be at various legitimate restaurants.  Menu will change nightly.

Ala carte pricing will be from about $8-$16.  Most likely figure about $30 per person, to have a nice time, maybe more.

Communal table price will be a flat $50 per person.  Most likely seat 12.  Dinner will consist of lots of dishes, all served family style.  Essentially "all you can eat" without being insane.  Again, guests are encouraged to bring yummy things and or hop up and help.  Very interactive.

Booze: Will depend on the liquor license of the space.  It will either be BYOB or normal wine/beer service.  I am not going to get arrested again, so I will err on the side of caution.  If it is BYOB, there will be a $5/bottle service charge.  This will cover the costs of renting the glasses.

Tip: Normal tip rules apply.

Make sense?  Writing menus now and securing spaces.  For reservations, please email me.

Dinner Dates-Come and Join us!!

Bringing people together around the table is what I love.  Eating, drinking, singing, loving, these are the things that make life worth living.  I can't stay away...

A new concept:

Alchemy Dinners 

Alchemy Dinners are a completely new style of Dinner Series/Omakase/Pop-up Restaurant.  A roving feast, moving from location to location.  Both singular tables for a traditional ala carte style experience with exciting inexpensive dishes, newly created for the evening.  And featuring a large communal table where the food is served family style and guest participation is requested.  Guests are encouraged to bring yummy things to share, maybe an awesome cheese, a bag of greens from the market, this or that... And communal table guests can get up and help cook.  The Table's meal will continue to be chef's choice until everyone is full. 

The spirit of Alchemy Dinners will be that of fun and experimentation.  New ideas will flow and frequently be attempted on the spot.  Embrace Change.  

Join us for the kick off dinner: Saturday, October 9!!!  email to get your name on the list, this will sell out quickly.

Other nights on the books: 

• Sunday Oct 10
• Saturday Oct 30
• Saturday Nov 6
• Sunday Nov 21
• Sunday Nov 28   

New dates will be added as locations manifest... know a place with a legal kitchen that isn't being utilized all the time?  Call me! 206.551.2598

Announcing a new kind of Dinner!

Manifesto of a Non Restaurant

We live in a day where we measure ourselves not by the quality of the friends we have, the times we share, or even the content of our personality, but by the efficiency of our work habits and the money we make. 

This is going to change.

The revolution is coming. Not a revolution of guns and politics, but a revolution of spirit; of ideals. Like all true revolutions, this one will start humbly. This one starts with the stomach, the table, and the fork.

We spend our days in our cubicles staring at the screen. We go home in ones and twos. Family is synonymous with a long-distance phone call- no longer with a 6’oclock supper.  Instead we get our sustenance from “gourmet” microwave meals. To break the monotony we go to a crowded restaurant to eat alone. 

Not anymore.

The winds of change are blowing. Soon, very soon, we will sit down to eat with perfect strangers and get up as friends—as family, a new kind of family.  We will eat from the same pot, drink from the same bottles, sing the same songs, and together wash away the isolation. 

This is the beginning of the paradigm shift we have been waiting for. 

The Revolution of the Table!

For what the heck that just meant, and for announcements of dinner dates, read on!!!!

A bit of sexy food writing

So not to change the nature of this blog, but to introduce an element that was always meant to be here.  Food is good.  It is yummy.  It has the ability to change people, to inspire them, to shake them to their cores.  It is also frackin sexy as hell.

Let's all be honest,  show me the person who never used their culinary powers to seduce the girl/boy and I will show you either a liar or someone who doesn't deserve to cook.

Just reread this in Julie&Julia ( I know, we have all read it, but damn, the girl can really write):

         "Now, this is going to be a stretch for some people, but I believe that calves' liver is the single sexiest food that there is.  This is a conclusion I've come to relatively recently, because like almost everyone else on the planet, I've spent most of my life hating and despising liver.  The reason people despise liver is that to eat it you must submit to it-- just like you must submit to a really stratospheric fuck.  Remember when you were nineteen and you went at it like it was a sporting event?  Well liver is the opposite of that.  With liver you've got to will yourself to slow down. You've got to give yourself over to everything that's a little repulsive, a little scary, a little just TOO MUCH about it.
When you buy it from the butcher, when you cook it in a pan, when you eat it, slowly, you never can get away from the feral fleshiness of it.  Liver forces you to access taste buds you didn't know you had, and it's hard to open yourself to it.  Just like really good sex. "

So this is what is on my mind.  Now I just need to meet someone who agrees!!!

Paella Party on the Deck

So I have a new "secret" fantasy... I am going to become "Gabe, the Paella Guy".  Yes, you heard it here, I am going to go from being a one-trick-bacon-pony to a one-trick-paella-pony.  Cause, Paella is more fun than bacon.  I mean really, bacon touches more of a nerve and has semi-orgasmic properties but Paella is very cool and really brings people together.  Case in point:

A week or so ago, I was invited to help a dear friend have a Paella party for 50 people for his birthday.  Alan has done this every year for 3 years now, but this year he decided/was told that he needed to spend more time with the guests.  A party for 50 in your home is not an insignificant amount of work, not counting the food.

I love Paella.  We used to do it all the time at CC and also as an in home class.  Usually I would do it with several different Tapas options to start, we would drink Sangria and we would all pitch in.  One time we had one in Provence with one of the groups and it was awesome, all though they put white beans in it (coco beans) which was odd.  (They just had to be all French on it!).  Still it was great.

There is something about tending the paella that also gets everybody pumped.  It is really actually quite boring, you don't even stir the damn thing.  But it inspires people to gather around and offer opinions and swap stories and lies and drink wine.  Perfect, yes?

Alan's brick oven

So, at Alan's I was in charge of doing all of the prep for the dinner, plus actually cooking it.  We also added on a mustard crusted prime rib done in the wood fired oven... just cause. Alan traditionally uses a recipe from Bobby Flay, but he said I didn't have to follow it. Which was good, because anyone who knows me, knows I am not much of a recipe follower.

Here is the vaguest approximation of the recipe I did do: Then below are pics and variations.

Gabe's Classic Paella serves 10

sofrito

2 # Chicken, cut in small pieces                             1# onion chopped

4 cloves garlic, minced                                           4 T Olive oil     

1 ea red, green pepper, small dice                          1 T paprika

Broth

6 C hot chicken stock                                             large pinch saffron

1 T Kosher salt

Rice                                                                                                          

2 C Spanish rice (Bomba)                                       8 oz tomato concassé

8 oz Chorizo, thinly sliced                                      1 sprig rosemary

Seafood garnish

20 clams, cleaned                                                  20 ea mussels, cleaned

20 shrimp, peeled, deveined                                 4 oz garden peas

Kosher salt and pepper to taste                            ¼ C sliced scallions

                                         

Heat Broth: Heat the chicken stock up with the saffron and the salt.  The broth should be very well flavored.  Keep hot.

browning the chicken

Make sofrito: Sauté the Chicken pieces in the olive oil until nicely browned.  Add the garlic, onions, peppers, and paprika.  Sauté for about 5 minutes.

parching the rice

Parch the rice: Add the rice and a pinch of salt.  Stir until the rice is well coated with oil.   Sauté 2 minutes to parch. 

Add liquid: Add the tomatoes, stock, chorizo, and rosemary.  Cover and bring to a boil for 8-10 minutes. 

adding the liquid

Garnish and simmer: Add the seafood and peas to the top of the rice.  Do not stir.  Cover and turn down heat and simmer 10 minutes or until rice is tender, seafood is cooked, and liquid is absorbed.  Keep covered and allow to rest for 10 minutes.  Garnish with scallions and lemon wedges.  Serve

Kitchen Notes: 

So the nice part was we were doing it up sexy-tempo for this party.  Alan got 2 live Maine lobsters, live spots, wild caught gulf prawns, clams, squid, halibut, chicken, chorizo, and andouille.  


First things first: Good Stock: Because of all of these goodies I got to really make a good stock.  If you think about it, the stock is really the most important part.  A good Spanish rice like Valencia or better yet, Bomba, will absorb 4:1 in the case of Valencia or 5:1 in the case of Bomba.  Now why is this important you ask?  If the rice is done when it absorbs 3:1, why waste the stock?  Cause stock is where all of the flavor is.  If you create a bomb-diggity stock and then use Bomba, OMG it is stunning.  But it will require a lot of liquid.  

So I started with 1 gallon of homemade chicken stock, very rich and gelatinous.  Then I added all of the heads of the live spots, the shells of everybody, the lobster bodies and all of the shells and coral, the halibut skin, and 2 TABLESPOONS of Saffron.  


Understanding solubility:  so a little science is important here.  Ever had saffron oil?  It sucks.  big waste of money.  Why? Most foods are either fat-soluble or water-soluble not both.  Paprika for instance if very firmly fat-soluble, not water.  This is why most Americans think of paprika as food coloring.  We keep adding it after we have added a liquid component.  Paprika MUST be fried in oil at the beginning of the cooking in order to bring out the flavor, otherwise it is just red.  (the whole capiscum family is like this, try sauteing cayenne)


Saffron on the other hand is water-soluble not fat.  If we fry it in the beginning of the sofrito, it doesn't do anything.  You need to add it to the stock and let it simmer a long time to get the maximum flavor.  


Side not about saffron: it is unfortunate that we don't like Iran right now.  They have some amazing stuff.  Saffron originally came from Persia and went to Spain with the Moors.  The only good stuff comes from either Spain or Iran.  the difference is the price.  Spain has quite a marketing team driving up that price.  Iran on the other hand... umm... let's just say it is cheaper.  The thing is, I feel the Iranian stuff is better.  Spanish stuff taste metallic if you use to much, where Persian saffron tastes great no matter what.  Go to Pars market in Bellevue by the Skateking and pick up a dime bag of Saffron.  Literally like a quarter cup for $10!!!!

sauteeing the sofrito

What is a sofrito? Every culture has its basic way to start a dish.  We are very french focused, so we all know our Mirepoix.  Carrots, onions, and celery.  However, the other cuisines have their own.  Sofrito is the Spanish version.  It is onions, garlic, tomato/pepper, and a lot of extra virgin olive oil.  Saute, add salt, and now proceed with your dish.  This when translated through the lens of the bayou has become Sofregit (Trinity) onions, green bell, and celery.  


So once you have all of your ingredients prepped and you have a very full flavored, heavily seasoned stock (Rice doesn't like to take salt at the end of the cooking, make sure to over season your stock), it is time to cook.


So Alan has a toy that I want for Christmas sooooooooo bad!  It is from Spanish Table and it is a 35person Paella pan with a 3 burner ring that is run by independent valves off of one propane tank.  So if it is cooking to fast on the rim of the pan you can turn it down, etc.  I was like a kid in the candy store!!  Only like $250!  Anyway, super fun event, and I can't wait to do it again.  I will come to your house! Just make sure to have lots of wine for me.  and perhaps a band?

They were good!!!

What I learned/taught from JMB and Michael Ruhlman

9:45AM
I call Roy.  This conversation is going to suck.  I really hate disappointing people in general, but especially like this.
I forgot how mellow and California he is. "No problem, the event isn't for 2 hours and we have lots of tomatoes here.  Come on down, we have staff who can help you.  It's all good..."

Subtext: "Cooks get there".

Yes we do.  I forgot.  FUCKING HELL.  yup.  Be there soon.

So... simple is good yes?  How about Panzanella?  My favorite thing of the summer. That is easy.

Roll in at 10:15.  Just my apron and one bavarian so we can all see how much of a tool I am.

Roy's Kitchen/Chef Mark's kitchen is a mellow place filled with happy confident people.  They make me glad I took the time to shave.  This isn't a disaster morning, just merely a new culinary opportunity.

Diced tomatoes, toasted bread, pickled red onions, herbs etc

So, Alan (cook, nice guy) and I start making a panzanella.  Easy stuff. We get the whole thing done in around an hour, leaving me plenty of time to mingle.

Everybody loves panzanella.  Toasted ciabatta, large dice heirloom tomatoes, arugula, thinly sliced onions (in this case lightly pickled), EVOO, herbs, salt. Thats pretty much it.  a touch of vinegar to balance.  The tomatoes need to be the stars.  And they are.  The dish was fantastically successful and no one called me an idiot (at least not to my face ;)

Many people came back for 3rds, even fourths!!!

finished product

So what did I learn today?  hmmm?

• Cooks get there
• Simple really is better
• you need a powerful kitchen to pull of complex garde manger for a crowd
• Jello does suck.   

The Next Morning: AKA Why French Chefs occasionally kill themselves

Sunday Morning: 7am.  Day of the TomatoFest

After all that drama and tedium of last night, I permit myself to sleep in a bit.  While probably not my best work, the bavarians are done.  Just going to go there, unmold the the little bastards and call it a day. I stumble downstairs and happily notice that they are all set.  Yay!!! Time for a shower and coffee.

Upon getting out of the shower, it occurs to me to unmold one and give it a taste.  Also to see how they will come out of the mold.  Since they are plastic, I can't use the blow torch, which is a heck of a lot easier to work with.  I will have to carefully set the mold in hot water and hope that it will all melt just right, enough to free them, but not enough to melt them all together.

ummmm...

OH DEAR GOD! While yes, they do slip effortlessly out of their molds, slipping easily onto the plate, they do it not as a sexy French seductress with a green thumb, but more akin to a teenager who just threw up on herself and doesn't know it.  That thing on the plate is the ugliest thing I have ever made.  I have for sure seen that before after a night of lasagna and drinking.  YUCK!!!

And now for the big realization... I don't have a back up plan.  It is now 9:15.  The event for 200 people at Cedarbrook starts in 2hours and 45 minutes.  Did I mention how nice Cedarbrook is?  How much I respect Roy?  and how a very large number of Big Kid Chefs will be there?  I can not serve this vomit on a plate.  

yeah... not gonna happen

So what do you do? In a normal restaurant, we create a back up plan.  We have other ingredients, other staff to bust out something while maybe not as amazing, still servable.  I have nothing here.  

So options: 

1. Pull a Vatel.  (Historical French Chef, killed himself when the seafood didn't arrive for the King's banquet.  It arrived shortly thereafter).  A bit icky, but desperate to save face.  
2. Call Roy and act sick.  I hate this option.  While the easiest, and technically "no one can fault you if you are sick"... yes they can.  Cooks don't get sick.  It has bitten me in the ass enough times when I actually was VERY sick and still they don't forgive me.  Arghhh.
3. Invent a death in the family... I feel like I am in high school suddenly.  
4. Or tell the truth.  I have been really working hard in 2010 on telling the truth.  As anyone who has read the press lately, my interviews have been disturbingly truthful.  I really don't like the idea of backsliding into bullshit.  So option 4 it is.  This is going to suck and I will not be invited back, that is for damn sure.