Some Inspiration from a Great!

From being a self taught chef I've had many people that have inspired and influenced my styles of cooking. From where I'm standing in terms of the culinary arts this is still the beginning. The deeper that I explore food preparation the more that I see that its an endless endeavor. Cooking will never have one method and the styles are endless! The more that I learn about the history of food and what types of methods developed its presents in our society, the more that I see that food is TRUE CULTURE.

Julia Child is one of the most revolutionary and influential authors and chef's in the last 100 years. When she published the Mastering of the Art of French Cooking in 1961, it was and is the one of the most relevant progressions in culinary arts to date. My very lovely, beautiful wife bought me this book several years back (so that I may cook her some great French cuisine), and I've learned a tremendous amount about the preparation of food and technique's! Here is a traditional recipe that I've used and manipulated to what ever dish being created at the moment.

Sauce Béchamel and Velouté
These White Sauce's are quick to make and can be changed in any direction of flavor you can imagine.
2Tb Butter                  
3Tb Flour
Method: In sauce pan melt butter and add flour cooking together for 2 minutes without coloring making a roux.
2 Cup Milk
or
2 Cups White Stock
1/4 tsp salt
Method: Bring Milk or White Stock to a boil adding the salt. With the Roux still worm pour the boiling liquid over top and with a wire whip stir vigorously. Place back on low heat still stirring and bring back to a boil. Remove from heat and let stand for 1 minute.
Salt and Pepper to tast to finish.
Now take this sauce and lets turn it into a Mornay (Cheese Sauce).
1/2 Cup grated Swiss Cheese
Pinch of Nutmeg
Pinch of Cayenne
Method: While the Béchamel is till boiling remove from heat and stir in cheese until its completely blended with the rest of the sauce. Add your nutmeg and cayenne.
I loved this sauce served with Cajun style scallops. The salty and spicy scallops with a rich cheese sauce is a fun combination.
But the Béchamel or Velouté are so diverse you can do just about anything with them. Add tomato purée and your sauce is now a Aurore Sauce. Add herbs and white wine and you have a Chivery Sauce. Have fun and get creative, thats what its all about.

The Great Fail

                                                               First camp sight!

Our epic hunting trip was indeed awesome, but we came up empty handed.  Three elk licenses, four days hunting, and we only saw one elk!  I had the one and only chance to shoot a cow elk, but it became aware of me and took off running through the thick woods.  It didn't feel right trying to shoot an animal that may have only ended up injured.  For one, tracking an 800 + pound elk that can potentially run for hours just didn't seem realistic.  Making an elk suffer more than it already would is unethical.

My buddies and I had some mild weather in the 60'F during the days and then damn near freezing nights, to be exact 10'F at night. Its hard to get motivated at 4:30am when its cold, but we were up at the crack of dawn everyday we were up and ready to go when the DOW timetable for legal hunting hours began.  

This kind of trip seems borderline crazy, considering that this was my first time hunting.  But it seems to me that if you don't go out into the deep woods to hunt, then its not worth it.  The first spot that we camped at was miles back by Aspen, Colorado and amazing.  My father-in-law, brother-in-law, buddy and I hiked all over the woods trying to find some evidence that elk were in the area. We all worked hard, but with no luck. By the end of the trip I can say that I hiked between 20 to 30 miles!

These photos were taken by my brother-in-law, Kyle Georgic

For a first time out hunting I can say that it was still worth every minute.  The spots that we camped were gorgeous and I would have never known about these areas had I not gone on this trip.  I learned how to track and identify all the animals in the surrounding area.  I got back some stamina from the long trying hours we spent looking for this beautiful animal. It looks like I'm going to be using the grocery store for sometime more.  In the end, I had a great time with my family and good friend, so the great fail wasn't all that bad!

Prop 37 in California

                

Here is a great debate about the labeling of GMO foods! We need to push this proposition and get it passed so that we can make the corporations that control our food production accountable for what they do. On Democracy Now Stacy Malkan, a longtime advocate for environmental health and spokesperson for the Yes on 37 California Right to Know campaign, and David Zilberman, professor of agricultural and resource economics at University of California, Berkeley, and director of the Center for Sustainable Resource Development talk about this issue on the October 24, 2012 news exclusive. This is the first time here in the United States that a law like this has been seriously considered. I love food and care about where it came from and what methods are being used to grow it. If you live in California I suggest that you look into this very important issue. Vote yes on Prop 37!

THE HUNT IS ON!

Tomorrow will be my first time out hunting. Supper stoked for this because I think this is the most honest- to- goodness way to get your meat, aside from raising your own. I go against my own voices in my head telling me not to buy that grocery store meat (probably because of my vegan and vegetarian years.) But I do any ways because it tastes so good, and is so dam convenient. After this trip there will be no more... for a while.

It was awesome that my brother could come out just before the trip. I need as much practice as I can get right now, so we went out to Great Guns Sporting gun clubs ranges.  The range that we went to was great with all types of trap games for shot guns, and plenty of rifel and hand gun ranges to choose from. Of course it's a mission to get there but Nunn Colorado needs all the help they can get. After a good shooting we need a good meal and what better then some home cooking with the family! Try Tip, Hash Potatoes, Cribbage (the best card game of all time), and PBR, cuz its American made and owned.                                                                                   

Emulsions and Gastriques

The latest special took my ideas into its own direction.  I started with a quick concept of throwing together the ever so fresh and delicious Ahi over some slow roasted veggies.  Not a great start because that's as far as I'd gotten.  But then when I pulled the veggies from the 300' oven (consisting of leek, fennel bulb, carrots, green beans, and tomatoes) the juices sitting in the bottom of my tray were ready for use.  It's now emulsion time!  With a blend of soy bean oil and sesame oil as not to over power the sauce with just sesame. It became incredibly buttery and rich without any dairy products! The gastrique was made from pickled ginger to contrast the buttery with sweet vinegary flavor. I then crusted the Ahi with some panko and sesame seeds, pan sear it. Needless to say ready to EAT!

Craft Punkin Ale

This beer is the shit! If your love pumpkin pie with all the delicious rich spices then get up and go down to the liquor store and find this beer. Its DogFish Head's Punkin Ale. The only other pumpkin beer (in my opinion) that has challenged their title as the "best" is UpSlope's Pumpkin Ale. Both company's use real pumpkin and spices. That is why these beers kill it compared to all of these synthetic tasting beers that try to pull these flavors off!

Get out there and support your local and or any micro brewery you can.  Go get your hands on some craft beers. Its worth it, Doffish has proven it with their great product like this here!

Burgers and Beer

I was down in Denver meeting up with the family so what could we all do better than go to a restaurant and eat burgers with some beer.  Denver's has a lot of these old car shops that have been gutted out and revamped into little restaurants and bars. They can be pretty cool and the food pretty decent.  The spot we chose was in the Highlands called the Tap and Burger, as it was close to my brother in laws home.  You can get your sports fix, because there are a million TV's (if you give a shit) and enjoy some welcoming ambiance.  I liked the beer selection they are supporting in their establishment.  I ended up with the Up Slope Double IPA crafted here in Colorado. They make some great beer!  One of our buddies that works at Tap and Burger sent us out a little hummus appetizer and who doesn't like free food!

For dinner I got the fat Tap Burger.  It was toped with root beer pulled pork, onion rings, American cheese, cheddar cheese (you got to have them cheeses) and a fried egg! Damn! I don't get out to eat offten so its fun to gorge out on some burgers from time to time.

Right to Know

I would feel like a hypocrite if I never brought up and talked about the the politics that surround the food we eat.  There is an increasing number of people here in the United States that know about multinational corporations like Monsanto.  These companies have a huge strangle hold on our markets.  They make huge profits by controlling the herbicide, pesticide, and seed markets.  Last year alone Monsanto made profits of 680 million dollars which gives them the upper hand in any situation against smaller family owned and operated farms.  Monsanto spent 6.37 million dollars on lobbying in Washington last year,  influencing the regulations to there best interest.
Organic farmers have to pay the government and other organizations to prove that there Organic which many can't truly afford and yet Monsanto can get away with spraying our food with chemicals known to cause cancer, birth defects and cause many other health problems.  They don't even have to label foods that are genetically altered or even meats that have been cloned! I think that this is absolutely outrageous!
If you know nothing about these issues you should check out web site that fight for small farmers and our right for freedom of information about our food like such as: http://www.fooddemocracynow.org/.

The lawyers and scientists (in above link) work hard to get us this information, and this is a great gateway to more information through this web site.
Here is just one of their campaigns to help us all have better food and live healthier lives:
http://action.fooddemocracynow.org/sign/stop_agent_orange_soy/?akid=613.85765.0TqxJw&rd=1&t=2

AHI

Its starting to get cold out here in the good old Colorado so I made a dish from the ocean that will worm you up a bit. The Ahi is way to gorgeous cook any more than 

a quick pan sear that goes perfect with a hot Asian inspired Au Jus lightly flavored with roasted nori.

This was the first time that I design an Au Jus for something that

wasn't worm blooded. There were great reviews for the sauce and dish from the staff and customers which was exciting to get for a new recipe.

With the blending of sesame sautéed green beans atop of a candied tricolored carrots with ginger, cinnamon, cardamon, and allspice.

And to finish we have a little mushroom salad, with cinnamon cap, oyster, and shiitake mushrooms. 

These were tossed up in a light dressing and sautéed lightly 

to soften the mushrooms so to enhance the strong natural flavors of these delicious fungi.

Inspiration for the late summer deliciousness

We had some beautiful heirloom grape tomatoes curtsy of Native Hill Farm in the restaurant tonight. So what could go better with it then a simple reduction and delicious infused oil. This is my pan seared diver scallops with a port wine, balsamic reduction and basil oil. With the heirloom tomatoes, basil inside an asiago cup, drizzled in basil oil.  To finish, goat cheese and parsley wiped pomme.  This was a good one to put together because it looked so good on a plate. Plating is one of the most difficult thing I find because what you see on the plate is the first impression of what your about to eat. So don't mess that shit up!

Step 1

This is my first attempt to create a work in progress public journal about my development as a chef.  I have been working as a line cook in restaurants for about five or six years.  It was a great thing how I kind of fell into the trade when the Executive Chef Scott Steel hired me for a restaurant in South Lake Tahoe CA called Elevation.  
A punk kid that just happened to were a jacket that had a Minor Threat patch on its back, I was IN. Elevation 6310 lake level and address.  This was a great introduction to the industry because of the product that we carried, always high quality.  Full of organic produce from San Francisco, to the choice meat we carried for our entrees, and the infused drinks we made for the bar from fresh fruits and vegetables.  But because the owner was a peace of shit and the location being "out of reach" we went out of business.  We had a lot of fun, we worked hard but I was glad to move on to new things.

Im currently a sauté chef at Jays Bistro in Fort Collins CO. I have learned much over the last two and a half years at this restaurant.  I'm trying to learn more and grow as a chef so here it goes. Your in for the start of this!