dreams of kitchens

Leaving The Jones

2008-08-13T14:51:00.000-07:00

I put in my notice at The Jones. My last day will be in mid September. I'll begin the search for a new job soon, probably in a big hotel downtown. I made this decision because after 2.5 years working more or less the same station I've started to resent many of the things like chopping romaine, making crustini, making Caesar dressing, slicing tomatoes, and making fritter batter that I find myself doing almost every day. I realize that endless, often mindless repetition is a major portion of being a professional cook but I need a new set of prep jobs that I have to do all the time corresponding with a new set of dishes on a new station so as to broaden my skills and such. That can really only happen at a different restaurant. What's more, the chef who has taught me virtually everything I know is leaving at the end of the week and the kitchen will simply never be the same without him.

It occured to me yesterday that I've been working at The Jones for about a 10th of my life. which is weird.

Free Cake!

2008-08-05T13:07:00.000-07:00

One of the best perks of my job is getting to take home cosmetically damaged or barely unserveable deserts. Just the other day Joe made the ganache for his Boston cream pie too thick so he had to spread it on rather than pour it so instead of being perfectly smooth and glossy like it is supposed to it was full of rippples and matte. Basically it looked like a cake that someone's mother had made rather than a cake produced by a professional kitchen. That is very important. Jason made a new one the next day and I got to take home the ugly one.

When you make a chocolate ganache for a cake be sure to make sure that when you put it on it is just thin/warm enough so that you can pour it over the top of the cake and it will fall over the edges but still cling to the sides. Ugly things just never taste quite as good as beautiful ones.

Elemental

2008-07-25T13:45:00.000-07:00

My favorite restaurant I've eaten at in the past year or so is Elemental at Gasworks. Its tiny (five tables), hidden at the end of a dead end residential street, open five days a week, and the menu is different every week. It is better however if you don't bother to look at the menu and simply place your self in the capable hands of the husband and wife duo of owners. They will bring you a parade of simple yet flawlessly crafted dishes and unsolicited wine pairings with each course, multiple pairings for some courses. When I ate there we left stuffed and drunk for right around 60 dollars total per person. Which is a fabulous deal. Also there's no tipping at elemental. Since only 3 people work there they make the cost of service included in the food prices. I think that's a pretty awesome idea.

Overall best foods ever

2008-07-25T13:19:00.000-07:00

The 10 most delicious things in the world:

foie gras
braised pork belly
duck confit
braised short ribs
morels
seviche
tuna
tongue
oysters
truffles

As near as I can figure, those are the most delicious things in the world. I won't bore you with the details of the sophisticated algorithm I devised to whittle it down to those 10, but rest assured, it exists.

Poaching

2008-07-18T14:03:00.000-07:00

Former Jones sous chef and current Sazerac sous chef Jeremy called me a couple days ago and asked me if I wanted to be a breakfast cook at Tulio. It was pretty tempting since my time on the line seems to have shrunk from 5 days a week to 2 days on the new schedule to accommodate the training of the 2 new cooks hired ahead of me plus Scott the owner also working in the kitchen. I'd have to wake up within an hour or so of when I'd normally go to bed though. I told him I was not open to ditching The Jones in the middle of this delicate transitional period but he should give me a call in mid September. In the restaurant industry this is called poaching. Like I'm a threatened species with a fashionable hide or something. Its flattering none the less.

A New Era

2008-07-10T11:51:00.000-07:00

I hope I didn't mislead everyone to badly when I said that I am the sous chef. What I was trying to get across is that I'm really the interim sous chef by default. That period is coming to an end. Like, today. Beginning this afternoon it's seems I'm going to become the 4th-5th most experienced person in the kitchen as new senior talent trickles in to fortify things against the potential disaster of chef Jason's resignation in a little over a month. I think the kitchen will be pretty overstaffed between then and now. The next few days will see 2 new cooks in the kitchen and a new host. We haven't really had a new person in the kitchen in over a year and the front of the house crew has been relatively static as well. Now everyone has to establish or reestablish their place. With Joe only working 3 days a week, Kyle the dishwasher's impending "poached" status, and 2 new, more experienced cooks, plus Scott the owner joining the kitchen I'm concerned that I'll end up doing more dishes than I'm comfortable with. I'll be pretty upset if that happens.

Oh, and apparently we're bringing those goddamn fritters back too.

Mexican Restaurants and Guacamole

2008-07-06T22:45:00.000-07:00

At The Jones, our primary purveyor is Food Services of America who distribute to a large portion of the restaurants in the area. We buy most of our meat, produce, dry goods and other basic restaurant necessities from them. They charge us 12 dollars for a box of 10-13 avocados so they cost a little more than a dollar each. Restaurants that do higher a higher volume of business tend to get slightly better rates on things they go through cases and cases of every week i.e. Mexican restaurants and avocados. So maybe I'm way off base here but I'm assuming that in general they get better rates than we do on them. So one would think that a 4 dollar side of guac should yield you a serving size of 2/3rds of a cup or so especially since the bastards always bulk it out with a bunch of sour cream, and yet there has not been a single time in my life when I have ordered a side of guacamole at a Mexican restaurant and not been disappointed by the portion size. I bet the more corporate leaning chains like Azteca and such don't even make their's in house so its even cheaper. WTF Mexican restaurants? I find it really hard to believe that you are all costing your guac at an honest 25%.

Chantrelle and Gruyere Corn Fritters with Cayenne Honey Butter

2008-07-01T14:04:00.001-07:00

Those were one of the original items on the happy hour menu when we started it about a year ago. They were popular but eventually discontinued for a number of reason including but not limited to corn going out of season, they had to be made almost every day and when they didn't sell we'd throw a lot of batter out, when the fryer oil was getting old they came out looking like little black pieces of shit, and they caused me to get burned by fryer oil all the time. That being said, they were really tasty and several people have inquired as to whether or not they are going to come back. Hopefully they never will. Those things were a huge pain in my ass. But for all those people here's the recipe as best I can remember it.

1 cup dried chantrelle mushrooms soaked in water and chopped
3 eggs
3 large ears of corn
2 tsp baking powder
2 tbl salt
3 cups shredded gruyere
all purpose flour as needed

oil for frying

Honey
Butter
Cayenne
s/p

Cut the corn off the cob and add it to a blender with the eggs and puree. Pass the mixture though a fine strainer, preferably a china cap, into a large bowl pressing through as much liquid as you can. Add the gruyere, baking powder, salt, mushrooms and just enough flour so that the mixture is thick enough that you can make heaping spoon fulls without it dripping too much.

At The Jones we made very large batches of cayenne honey butter, a half gallon or so at a time. You probably won't want to do that. We use 2 pounds of butter to 5 pounds of honey so 2 parts butter to 5 parts honey and as much cayenne as you're prepared accept and a little salt and black pepper. Heat it all together whisking occasionally until all the butter is fully melted. Cool the mixture in an ice bath whisking every couple minutes until the mixture is cool. If you don't cool it in this way the mixture will separate.

Heat about 1/2 inch to 1 inch of vegetable oil to 325 degrees and carefully drop roughly tablespoon sized globs of the batter into the oil and fry them until lightly golden brown on all sides. Drizzle with cayenne honey butter and if you're feeling extra showy garnish them with some chives.

Sous chef

2008-06-29T23:30:00.000-07:00

As some of you might know, The Jones' sous chef left for greener pastures at the end of April and ever since the chef has been working an average of 6.75 days a week. I, as the only other full time kitchen employee, have also been working an extra 6-8 hours a week more than I was before. About 3-4 of which are over time. I was working about 37 hours a week before, but I digress. Whenever I talk to friends or family about the sous chef leaving they invariably ask if I'm going to be promoted to sous chef. I suppose that's a reasonable question for a lay person to ask but the fact is, sous chef in a kitchen like The Jones' is a position for someone with at least 4 years good cooking experience in the right sorts of places. I just don't have that. But guess what? Now I'm sous chef anyway. [doing my best Stephen Colbert impression...] "WHOOOOO, We did it! [spinning around in my chair as balloons fall from the ceiling]. Chef said so, and hey if you look at every restaurant kitchen as definitely having a chef and a sous chef than I'm totally sous chef by default anyway. So from now on when people ask me what my job is I'm going to say "Oh, I'm sous chef over at The Jones." which is awesome.

Fuckin' sous chef yo! Hooray for me!

Sauteing Again

2008-06-23T12:16:00.000-07:00

Last night I worked the saute station for the 3rd or 4th time. It went ok, certainly better than last time. Some of my risottos were a little tight and on the whole I'm sure I was working much to slow but I avoided any major catastrophes. A couple came in that was getting engaged at some point during the evening and ordered two tagliatas which I made and I was told they loved. It was a really special feeling knowing that I made something that they will both remember for the rest of their lives.

Free Bacon!

2008-06-20T23:08:00.000-07:00

Today a woman demanded that she not be charged for the bacon on her burger because "one piece was warm and one piece was cold." Everyone agreed that was a new one and she was totally full of shit. Both pieces were definitely warm and the same temperature. The bacon plate sits above the very warm range in the 90 degree kitchen all day. Then it gets briefly tossed on the grill to order. Then we place it on top of the also warm burger patty. THEN it sits under a heat lamp for 0-1.5 minutes before its run to a table. Its pretty much the same every time someone orders a bacon burger. This order was early in the day before we were very busy and so it probably went out pretty quick.

People who try to get free things at restaurants by making up bullshit problems with the food: You can usually get away with it because we have to be polite, avoid a scene, et cetera, but we know when you're lying, exaggerating, or whatever, and we hate you. We (well, me at least) hope you choke on your free bacon and realize the karmic irony just before you lose consciousness. Good thing I don't deal with customers, huh?

Speaking of the bacon plate, it sits at eye level right next to my station all day and this results in me eating 10-16 pieces of bacon per week.

I hope reading this entry made you want some bacon!

Bacon bacon bacon bacon bacon bacon bacon bacon.

Do Not Order Your Salad Dressing "On The Side"

2008-06-19T12:37:00.000-07:00

Dressing a salad is a fairly simple task. I do it everyday. Usually many times a day. It's my job. Sure you could probably train a monkey to do it, but I like to think I'm pretty good at it anyway. Some people don't trust me to put dressing on their salads though. They come to the restaurant were I work to get some dinner, sit down at their table, look over the menu and decide that a crisp, refreshing pile of various lettuces is just the thing to knock off the dust of the day. "But wait" they say to themselves "The menu says that salad comes with dressing. What do I know about the person who might be preparing my salad? Can he be trusted to figure the proper dressing lettuce ratio? No, its too risky. I need that dressing on the side." If you don't trust the kitchen staff to not fuck up the dressing on your salad than why did you go to eat there at all? How can you trust them to prepare more complicated dishes? Requests for light or heavy dressing, while still annoying, are at least not insulting.

Furthermore when dining out you should always keep in mind that every time you make a special order you are making someones job more difficult. Unless you have problems with food allergies you really shouldn't make special orders at all. Order what's on the menu and stop being so goddamn picky. Picky eaters suck.

2006-12-20T14:40:00.000-08:00

Now they're giving giada de laurwhatever her own formulaic travel show. I think they've crossed the line into negative shame. Somehow.

Road Tasted

2006-12-06T19:51:00.000-08:00

The Food Network never stops trying to cause me pain. Have you ever watched Road Tasted? It's a show hosted by two brothers who's chief credential is that they are Paula Deen's sons. Undoubtedly the show was born when one day some Food Network V.P. said to himself, "People seem to like Paula Deen. Maybe that means giving her completely personality-less sons a show where they travel around in pastel polo shirts acting like complete douche bags in restaurants around the country is an idea that will make money." Seems like he was right. Normally I don't watch the Food Network shows I hate but every once in a while I'll watch a show like "30 minute meals" or "Semi homemade" just to remind myself why I hate them. I can't get through 5 minutes of Road Tasted. It's just too irritating. They travel around visiting restaurants, bakeries, specialty food stores, etc. They try the food and talk to the proprietors. It could be a decent show with the right hosts but the old problem of the food network only marketing to idiot housewives just won't ever go away. I seriously need to stop letting The Food Network get to me or I am going to go insane.

2006-12-01T00:10:00.000-08:00

I'm finished at Nell's for now. In the future I'll probably end up filling in from time to time. On my last day whenever we cleared the board we'd go to the back and shotgun beers. Almost killed me.
James gets lazier every day. I think his days might be numbered.
The prep and storage areas at The Jones have been totally rearranged for the better. I'll get my first full weekend in over a month beginning Tuesday. Pretty happy about that.

A Small Victory

2006-11-20T22:23:00.000-08:00

We're doing a different Ravioli now. Celery root and black truffles. We made a small batch to test out the filling. I thought it needed more truffles and salt. Scott who was also tasting the ravioli said that it was supposed to be subtle, like you're not supposed to be "hit over the head" with the truffles. Then I said that I could only taste the truffles when I really focused on them. To which he replied, "Its ok, you're still developing your palate". That pissed me off. There really were not enough truffles. The next day Jason showed me how to make the new filling. By the time we were finished with the first full batch of filling Jason had drastically increased amount of truffles and truffle oil in proportion to the test batch with no encouragement from me to do so.

Truffles are one of the best things in the world.

2006-11-16T03:13:00.000-08:00

At Nell's the prep lists are written on the backs of spare menus. Yesterday when I was taking out the trash I noticed one discarded right on top. I kept it. Now I've decided that I'm going to take and save menus from everywhere I can. Maybe I'll keep them in a binder. Only the disposable ones though. I'm certainly not going to steal menus that actually have value.

Today was the 14th consecutive day I've worked. Tomorrow I will break my personal record set last summer when I was a house painter.

My Iron Chef Journal

2006-11-13T00:05:00.000-08:00

Rachel Ray and Mario Batali vs. Giada De Laurentiis and Bobby Flay. I've been waiting for weeks. I can't decide who I want to win. On one hand I hate Rachel Ray far more than Giada De Laurentiis but I don't hate Mario Batali at all and I strongly dislike Bobby Flay. So the question is does my combined, moderate hatred of Bobby and Giada cancel out my intense hatred for Rachel? I guess I just won't root for anyone.

12:00: I'm praying that the secret ingredient is something random and really difficult like sorrel or eel or something. I'm bound to be disappointed.

12:02: My roommate Paul remarks at the size of Giada's forehead. It is really big.

12:06: The ingredient is cranberries. Lot's of potential for hilariously awful Rachel Ray food there. Sadly I don't think Mario will let that happen.

12:15: Time out to watch Morel Orel. I wish I had TiVo

12:21: Totally worth it.

12:27: I'm disappointed that neither Ted Allen nor Jeffrey Steingarten are judges for this battle. I was hoping for some trash talk.

12:31: Its really hard to blog in real time.

12:34: Bobby Flay is using canned cranberry sauce.

12:35: Bobby Flay uses toast in every battle. I hate him.

12:35: Mario Batali takes some cranberry cocktails to the judges table. Huge surprise, the chairman decides to allow it. Just once I'd like to see him not allow something. Unfortunately that will never happen because he's clearly on all kinds of drugs in every episode.

12:45: Mario Batali is adding real, tasteless, smelless, paper thin gold to something. I don't know how I feel about this.

12:47: I've just noticed that this episode is going a half hour longer than normal. Kick ass.

12:55: The way that Bobby Flay disguises his complete lack of creativity with over elaborate plating is really transparent.

1:02 Rachel Ray's cranberry glazed pancetta wrapped sage stuffed jumbo prawns actually look pretty good.

1:04: The battle is over. Everyone finished with about 20 seconds to spare. I'm calling it for Mario and Rachel pre-judgement. I'm not sure how confident in that pick I am.

1:07: Judging begins.

1:10: Giada seems really nervous. She is not handling criticism from the flamboyantly gay judge very well. Ted Allen, your spirit lives on.

1:11: Why the hell is Mo Rocca a judge on this show so often? OMG he just said that Giada and Bobby "kind of look like Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie so I'm going to call this dish cranngelina". Mo, I'm sorry I questioned you.

1:17: Rachel Ray is soooooooo not funny

1:25: Judging is finished and I think Bobby Flay and Giada have a slight edge. Should be close though.

1:27 The winner is: Mario and Rachel. I should have known better than to pick Bobby Flay over Mario Batali even if he's partnered with Rachel Ray. Giada looks really pissed. In a perfect world the winning team would be challenged by Sandra Lee and Morimoto. Sigh. I think it's interesting that they didn't show the scores like after most battles. Maybe it wasn't so close after all?

Nell's

2006-11-11T00:42:00.000-08:00

First off it felt very strange to not be the dishwasher. When I heard dishes being washed my first instinct was to go wash them. I kind of felt guilty that someone else was washing the dishes and I had to tell myself over and over again "The dishes are not your responsibility. The dishes are not your responsibility."

They mostly had me doing the boring prep jobs. Chopping vegetables, picking and chif-ing herbs, etc. I didn't really mind. Those are actually the things I rarely do at The Jones because Ravioli and Timbale take up so much of my time. It gave me a chance to work on those knife skills. The only thing I really didn't like was prepping plates for the beet carpaccio. That involved slicing beets ultra thin with the deli slicer then carefully laying them out around the edges of the plates so that they look pretty. That one was kind of a pain in the ass.

There were four people working the line. A 6'5" 275# man named Elwood and I worked the pantry station. We were responsible for starters and desserts. Almost all the orders we got were from the 25 for 25 menu. After all, the main reason they need me is the bump in volume that the 25 for 25 promotion gives them. There were 4 starters and 3 desserts. The starters were an arugula salad, a mixed green salad, kohlrabi soup, and beet carpaccio with scallop sashimi. They were all pretty straight forward. The most difficult part was keeping what bowl went with what dressing straight. All 4 of the starters required at least one bowl and the carpaccio needed 2. Next week I think I'll label them. The desserts were a brownie with ice cream, some kind of crisp, and a brulee. I did a few Brulees but for the most part Elwood took care of the desserts.

Nervous for Nell's

2006-11-07T00:51:00.000-08:00

I bought a whetstone and steel today along with my very own copy of "The Joy of Cooking". The first two in large part because I'm as sure as hell not showing up at Nell's without my own knife and a dull one one would be almost as bad as no knife at all. It looks like I'll be working there Tuesdays and Wednesdays for the rest of November. That means my next day off will likely be Thanksgiving. Working long periods of time with no days off is something most cooks have to do at some point in their careers, some more than others.

I'm not saying I have to do this. I don't. However there are multiple reasons I want to. Nell's is a very nice restaurant where lots of people who could potentially benefit my career work. Jason told me, "Phil [the chef] knows a lot of people" and I believe him. Second, at Nell's the food is pretty. Not that it isn't at The Jones, but I've mostly only worked the pantry station (and about 35 minutes on the grill spread out over 3 days) and the plating for the food is comparatively inexact and I still manage to fuck things up more often than I should. I think I'll learn a good bit. Third, I'm feeling the need to test my stamina. Oh, I heart money as well.

The reason Nell's needs me is because they're part of something called the "25 for 25" promotion. Apparently there are 25 restaurants in Seattle that offer a $25 dollar 3 course menu during the month of November. This causes them to do a lot more volume than what's normal for them this month. And I think they might have lost a few people. You can see a complete list of the restaurants here. When I was told about it I really wanted to try a couple but now I've realized that will be impossible. Oh well.

Sad Things and Happy Things

2006-11-03T12:10:00.000-08:00

We got a new dish washer and I hate it. It doesn't fit the stock pots, it doesn't start automatically, it will only fit one sheet pan at a time, and it doesn't even clean much better than the old one. So that sucks.

Some good news however. Jason used to work at Nell's. A pretty fancy place. He got a call from them the other day asking if he had anyone that could pick up a couple shifts there. Looks like both Joe and I are going to do it. I wasn't sure I was ready for line work at a place like that but Jason assured me that I was. He also expressed serious concern that they would try to steal one or both of us. That was very flattering. Also it's plunged me into internal conflict over whether I would allow myself to be stolen. The menu on their web page looks pretty incredible. I'll leave it at that.

2006-11-01T18:05:00.000-08:00

I said to myself today, "Why not treat yourself to a new cookbook? You're awesome. You deserve it. Its an investment anyway". So I log onto Amazon and search for "cookbooks" figuring that would be a good place to start. 6 of the first 10 results were cookbooks by Food Network personalities that I hate, including 2 by Rachel Ray. I really should have seen that coming. But still, someone shoot me.

Health Inspection, Other Things

2006-10-29T23:44:00.000-08:00

Its been far far too long.

I survived my first health inspection. The inspector was a short, middle aged, soccer mom looking woman with a clipboard and a fanny pack. She walked into the kitchen around 6 on a Friday night. At the time I was filling Timbale with generous, gloveless, handfuls of basil infused ricotta which is technically not a violation but she was looking at me in a way that communicated very clearly her distaste for my technique. Unable to lecture me, she instead approached James who was not wearing gloves when he shoulda, and sternly instructed him to stop what he was doing immediately.

I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before but James is a pretty intimidating figure if you don't know him. He's about 6' 200lbs. with a shaved head, a prominent neck tattoo and at the time he was holding a big knife. This woman, all of 5'4" 130, walks into his kitchen and starts berating him. For a second I was impressed with the ballsyness of what she was doing then I realized that that's the exact same thing she does all day and she must totally get off on it. Probably moonlights as a dom.

Today I broke my personal record for consecutive days making Ravioli, Timbale or both with 5 work days in a row. Sadly I won't make it to 6 this time.

We got new hotel pans, strainers, ladles, sheet pans, half sheets pans, nine pans, six pans, third pans, tongs, measuring cups, a pastry bag, a cooling rack, and probably more things that I'm forgetting. All of them make everything much easier.

2006-10-15T12:58:00.000-07:00

I haven't cut or burned myself in over a month and at this rate my forearms will never look like Jason's. Fortunately I get to work grill for the first time tonight. That means I'll be making burgers, chicken sandwiches, flank steak sandwiches, Ravioli, and maybe timbale. Not completely sure about that. It also should provide many more opportunities for being burned. Exciting.

2006-10-04T02:04:00.000-07:00

I've been spending waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much money on cheese.

2006-10-01T04:14:00.000-07:00

Out of nowhere Ravioli have become the most popular entree on the menu so I have to make them almost everyday. I've made Ravioli the past 4 days in a row. Two of those days I did nothing but ravioli, timbale, and dishes. Not complaining. Timbale is new on the menu. It's hamburger sauce (similar consistency to sloppy Joe filling), Italian sausage in bechemel, and basil infused ricotta layered and wrapped in pasta. Its kind of halfway between lasagna and ravioli. When Joe and I worked as a team it took us 6-7 hours combined to make 20. I've been going back and forth on whether or not I like to make them. They're kind of a huge pain in the ass.

Food Network Rant #2

2006-09-27T18:02:00.000-07:00

I love Italian food. Everyone loves Italian food. The food network has 3 Italian cooking shows that run almost every day, "Everyday Italian", "Molto Mario", and "Easy Entertaining". Then a fourth show that isn't on as often, also starring Mario Batali. That's great. The problem is that they don't have a single cooking show that focuses on French, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese, or Indian cuisine. For that matter they don't have Moroccan, Portuguese, Mexican, Philippino, Greek, Korean, Thai, German, English, Scandinavian, or Jewish shows either. But 3 Italian shows everyday? And what else is there? Nu Southern American with Paula Deen, BBQ and Southwestern with Bobby Flay, Cajun with Emeril, and that's about it as far as shows that focus on any specific culinary background. There's no show specifically about wine, cheese, seafood, bread, or any other specific type of food like that either except dessert. If you add everything up it comes (roughly) to Italian: 4, different varieties of the American South: 4, Dessert: 1. Everything else: 0. All the rest of the cooking shows have no real central style (not counting diet food shows), which isn't necessarily a bad thing but on the Food Network this is the category where Rachel Ray and her ilk rear their ugly heads. Sandra Lee is probably the worst offender. But that's a different rant.

The Food Network

2006-09-20T01:40:00.000-07:00

For most of my life I never had cable TV. That's ok. There are many worse things to be deprived of. Now that I have cable TV and way to much free time I'm developing a very masochistic obsession with the food network. I realize that they are in the business to make money and therefore it makes far more sense for them to market to bored housewives than poor, pretentious, aspiring chefs, but do they have to show 4 and a half hours of god damn Rachael Ray making "Spaghetti and meatball 'stoup'"("thicker than soup, thinner than stew!") every day? On any given day up to 21% of all programming on the food network is Rachael Ray centered. She has like 5 shows now! Can I cook better than her? Do I know more about food than her? Probably not (yet) so maybe I have no right to call her an obnoxious hack, but I'm going to anyway. Rachael Ray is a cancer on American cuisine. Emeril (who is also an obnoxious hack), Alton Brown, and her take up almost half of the Food Network air time. I don't mind Alton Brown so much. His "Good Eats" program has taught me many valuable things, but this imbalance is still completely unacceptable. These figures are based on the schedule for one day of programming but from what I've been observing this is about the norm. It's complete bullshit.

Many more rants about the Food Network and ways it could be better to come. I realize I have a very poor track record when making promises about updating this blog but this time I'm serious. Seriously. I promise.

A few pictures from the kitchen

2006-09-18T21:09:00.000-07:00

I took these with my cell phone over the past few months. I like them.

The first one is a picture of some meat loaf that Jason made for staff meal after he started making burger patties but didn't get a chance to finish. By the next day all the ground beef he'd opened but hadn't used had oxidized. When ground beef oxidizes it turns brown so that you can't cook it to temperature properly. Yes, it is shaped like a cock and balls, and yes it has fries for pubes.This is cheesecake base with huckleberry puree that has just been pressed through the chinoise on top.
This is avocado that has just been pressed though a sieve. I thought it was really cool how it stayed in perfect little squares as it stuck to the bottom. The white stuff on top is a little bit of the whipped cream that the mashed avocado is about to be folded into to make avocado mousse.

Victory Passive Aggression

2006-09-17T22:43:00.000-07:00

The servers put dishes on the cart in the hallway by the window. I carry them to the dish pit and wash them. Up until a week or so ago they brought their water pitchers straight to the pit towards the end of the night or whenever they were done with them. At some point someone made the executive decision to start leaving them on the cart with the dishes and at least a few others followed suit. That bothered me. This situation was far too minor to complain to someone about but far too much of an affront to just deal with(maybe not but who wants to be mature?). I decided to just let the pitchers pile up there and pretend like I didn't see them. Don't get me wrong I'm all about making the servers lives easier whenever I can, but there it absolutely no practical reason they can't carry the damn pitchers to the pit themselves. Its like, seven extra steps. They have to walk by it all the time anyway. If they had always put them on the cart I would never have given carrying them a second thought, but to arbitrarily change the system to make more work for me? Fuck that. It seems the message was received because tonight they started putting them in the pit again. When I noticed this I smiled for a solid minute and began outlining this entry in my mind.

This has never happened before

2006-09-03T01:08:00.000-07:00

Tonight was the first night since I've been working at The Jones that I didn't carry a single stack of dishes in to the kitchen from the dish cart. I was able to accomplish this feet in part because it was a slow night, so there weren't many dishes to do early, thanks to Bumbershoot/labor day weekend and in part because of the fact that I started making Ravioli around 6. Ravioli making, start to finish takes over 3 hours. By the time I finished around 9:20 the line had started breaking down and of course I was way behind on the dishes. Normally I'm the first one done at the end of the night by 10-20 minutes unless there are a bunch of late orders, then I'm even more ahead. But every once in a while, for whatever reason, I get way behind and the line finishes well before me. When that happens someone usually helps me out by doing things like carrying the dishes in, organizing the silverware, etc.. They can't leave until I'm done anyway. I couldn't believe it when Jeremy asked me to make them. I made 13 some orders yesterday but I guess they sold them all. I suspect the only reason that Jeremy asked me to do them is because I'm taking tomorrow off to go to Bumbershoot (The New Pornographers, Spoon, The Emergency, Blue Scholars, Kanye West!) and everyone else hates making them. That's fine with me. The apparent popularity of the Ravioli fills me with pride.

2006-08-30T14:49:00.000-07:00

When I first started at The Jones, Jeremy used to make a point of asking me "Are you sure you want to be a cook?" at moments of stress or inconvenience. Like when 5 new tickets came up and the board was already full or when I returned from a some random task to find the dish pit piled really high. It always made me laugh. This went on once or twice a week for the first month or so then trailed off. He few days ago he asked me for the first time since May. When I asked him, why the sudden resurgence? He said "well, 10 years from now I just want you to remember that I gave you plenty of chances to back out." This made me very happy. Jeremy, the motorcycle riding, houseboat living, offensive lineman resembling, stoic, veteran "chef's chef" implied that I might have what it takes to do what he does.

In other news, when I was clocking out the other day, the server who clocked out before me forgot to click continue so her hours and tips were still right there on the screen when I sat down. I couldn't help but notice that in the past week she made significantly more than me in tips alone. I was well warned before my first day in the business of the realities of making way less than servers and thus was not shocked. Oh well, at least a cooks wage earning potential has a much higher ceiling.

Food Handler Permit

2006-08-18T12:37:00.000-07:00

Jason, Jeremy, Joe and I all went to get our food handler permits on Wednesday. I assumed we were going to some random government appointed testing center, but we drove out to Woodinville to take it at The Herbfarm where Jason used to work and his wife Anne still works. The Herbfarm is probably the most well decorated restaurant I have ever been in.

Getting a food handler permit is just about the stupidest thing I've ever had to do. There was a 1.5 hour class which basically amounted to "wash your hands after handling raw meat.", a 15 minute beyond easy test, and a 15 dollar fee. I spent most of the time focused on the Herbfarm's unbelievably hot sommelier. I think being a sommelier bumps any woman up a notch or two on any scale designed to rate their beauty. I did enjoy being in the same group of 15 some people being lectured by some smug asshole with a community college certificate as Jerry Traunfeld. What an equalizer. I will have to go through this bullshit once every two years for as long as I handle food in Washington state. Write your legislator.

Front vs. Back

2006-08-14T11:53:00.000-07:00

I've heard a lot about front of the house/back of the house conflicts and tensions. Apparently they are common in many restaurants. I've never really understood why/how that could happen. Last night, while I was working on the line(!) was the first time I've ever become annoyed with a server. It was very insignificant but now I can see how these things get started. I'm not sure I should go into specifics because I have no idea who reads this thing and it has been requested that I not say negative things about the restaurant (this isn't a negative thing about the restaurant is it?). But I will say this: I am confident that it is the front's fault 9 times out of 10. Am I biased? Yes, very.

In other news the schedule has been tweaked giving me two days when I'm likely to get to work on the line rather than just one. hooray

On the Radar

2006-08-07T13:09:00.000-07:00

Saturday night none other than celebrity chef Tom Douglas came and ate at The Jones. I left early that night because things were extremely slow. Apparently they got a late rush and weren't able to leave until 11:30. He ordered the scallops and the tagliatta. Said he was too full for desert. Not sure what the others in his party ordered.

Blog Turning Point (BTP for short)

2006-08-05T01:42:00.000-07:00

In the nwsource.com "People's Picks" annual survey The Jones won both best winebar/bistro, and best new restaurant. The Jones was also listed as being one of the top vote getters in the burger, French fries, outdoor dining, romantic, bar happy hour chow, and dessert spot categories. So it seems like we have, at the very least, a handful of regulars devoted enough to stuff the ballot box on our behalf. Nothing wrong with that though. Who actually votes in the nwsource.com "people's picks" survey anyway? Apparently people who eat at The Jones. How convenient.

As I approached the bar for my 5 o'clock Shirley Temple today the most regular of all the regulars (in terms of patronage, and not necessarily personality or digestive health) whose name escapes me right now (People's Pick voter?)looked at me and said "Nice blog". I knew my superiors would find out about this eventually and it seems that day has come at last. It's one of the first 10 links that show up when you google "The Jones Bistro" anyway. The question is, how long until everyone knows? I'm hoping no one is interested enough to check it out. I guess we'll see soon. Either way I can't talk mad shit about my co-workers anymore. I've just deleted all the really offensive/vulgar stuff. I hope no one got a chance to read it. (edit: that was a joke. I haven't been saying mean things about people.)

Watermelon Salad

2006-07-31T00:03:00.000-07:00

This recipe came from some old issue of Bon Apetit, I think. Made it today for a luncheon with my grandparents. Its the perfect thing to bring on a picnic or to a barbecue.

a big watermelon, cut into 3/4 inch pieces or balled
fresh mint, a little more than a handful, chopped
1-2 handfuls pine nuts, lightly toasted
1/4-1/2 lb ricotta salata cut into small pieces
olive oil

Toss it all together. It's really good. I promise.

Julian's Baby Back Rib Chili

2006-07-24T19:44:00.000-07:00

I posted this recipe on my livejournal some months back before this blog existed so some of you might already be familiar with it. It's one of my all time favorite things to cook and to eat. It has been heavily adapted over the course of 15-20 tries over the past 4 years from a recipe found in an issue of GQ (my parents bought me a subscription sophomore year). I don't give measurements for most of the seasonings because I found them to be wildly inconsistent. I recommend being liberal and tasting often. This stuff is very difficult to over season.

1/4 cup olive oil
2 large yellow onions, peeled, chopped
1 bunch of celery, chopped
28 oz. tomato sauce
28 oz. diced tomatos
50-60 oz. kidney beans, drained, pureed
1 handful cocoa powder
chili powder
salt
pepper
cinnamon
Worcestershire sauce
3 slabs baby back ribs
30 oz. canned corn, drained

Preheat oven to 425 F. Arrange ribs in a broiler pan and sprinkle with 1/2 tbs. each salt and pepper. Bake ribs for 30-40 minutes. Meanwhile in a large pot heat olive oil over medium heat. Saute onions and celery for 7-10 minutes or until they begin to become translucent. Stir in tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, and kidney beans. Reduce heat to low and add cocoa powder, chili powder,salt and pepper, cinnamon, and Worcestershire sauce. Remove ribs from the oven and allow to rest for a few minutes. Cut slabs into 2 rib sections and add the to the pot. Allow to simmer for 2-3 hours, stirring occasionally. When stirring try to scrape up any bits that get stuck to the bottom. The burned bits on the bottom are the best part. When the meat has simmered long enough it will begin to fall off the bone easily. Using tongs and a fork or whatever works best for you, remove all the bones. That part can kind of be a pain in the ass sometimes. I've found that it helps not to be impatient and try to take out the bones before they are fully ready. Stir in corn and allow to simmer for another half hour to 2 hours.

A Partial Tour of the Kitchen

2006-07-24T00:09:00.000-07:00

Starting at the entrance to the line: There is a huge double decker brick oven both sections of which go at 450 degrees all day. Then there's the deep frier which of course is basically a big bucket of very hot oil. Next to that is the "low boy". A "low boy" is a device about a 1'6" high that has 2 very large gas burners. It's mainly used for simmering large pots of stock. To the right of that there is a roughly 5x3 grill for cooking burgers, steaks etc.. Then comes 8 eight gas burners that are far more powerful than the kind you might have in your home. They sit above 2 more ovens. Then finally there's something I don't know the name of but is basically a solid flat piece of metal that gets really hot, sort of a hole free grill. At the other end of the kitchen is the dishwasher which emits large quantities of steam. All of these things are turned on all day. Usually its not so bad but when it gets as hot as has the past few days the kitchen can be a very uncomfortable place. The temptation to linger in the walk-in refrigerator longer than necessary is great.

2006-07-23T00:56:00.000-07:00

I think we set a new record for people saying the words "as soon as you get a chance..." to me tonight.

Important information about spicy peppers

2006-07-22T00:29:00.000-07:00

Today I learned a valuable lesson. I made Pico de Gallo today. It consists of tomatoes, red onions, cilantro, jalepeno peppers, lime juice, oil, salt, and pepper. I've done this many times before with no problems. I guess in the past I've always washed my hands soon after chopping the jalepenos. Never really gave much thought to it. About a half hour after I was done my hands started to tingle a little. Then a burning sensation developed. This sensation lingered without diminishing for a few hours before I finally asked Jeremy wtf is up with my hands. He said that the spicy chemical seeps into your skin and onto your nerves. It was as if my hands had eaten something too spicy. Apparently this "spicy chemical" is a base so I tried washing my hands with lemon juice and then vinegar. Both Dawn and bleach had already failed to have any effect. Unfortunately it seems I was past the point at which lemon juice and vinegar would do any good. Jason told me that "ball sweat" was the best thing to remedy this problem but I think that would have just made the situation much worse. My hands still burn, although it's been weakening over the past hour or so. Next time I chop jalepenos I'm going to wear gloves. I would encourage you to do the same, or at least wash your hands promptly because it really sucks when your hands burn for 8 hours.

Something I just realized: if you need to get back at someone REALLY bad, try rubbing some halved spicy peppers in their underwear. But please, only if they REALLY deserve it.

2006-07-16T12:56:00.000-07:00

The other day Joe tells me that Scott (one of the owners) wants to talk to me. I was a little bit nervous but he basically just wanted to tell me about how awesome I am and then he gave me a bonus. He mentioned in our conversation that they didn't have any spare money although business was good. This coupled with the fact that Joe recently got a raise leads me to suspect that the bonus was sort of a "give him something because he's not getting the raise he deserves right now" sort of thing. Oh well.

The Chef's Knife

2006-07-11T21:05:00.000-07:00

I know at least several people who may or may not read this poor excuse for a blog are in college. These are people who are unlikely to have many kitchen tools of their own. Unless they're like me, which is unlikely, they don't need them. But probably within the next couple years they will. Everyone does eventually. This is one thing that has been said many times, and many times better before but I want to do my part to make sure that everyone knows.

The most important thing to have in any kitchen is a good quality chef's knife. Resist the temptation to buy one of those knife sets that comes with 15 knifes and cost $40-$120 at Target. Every single one of those knives is a worthless piece of shit. Those knives will become dull instantly are at best difficult and at worst dangerous to cut with. You are much better off spending $80-$100 on one knife. That knife should be a 6-10 inch chef's knife such as this one or this one. Knives like these will probably last you the rest of your life. I can't think of a better investment.

What I Know About Ice Cream

2006-07-10T12:57:00.000-07:00

The first step in making the Ice Cream at the Jones is separate 48 egg yolks. Next you take 4 cups of sugar and caramelize it dry. The only thing in the pan is sugar, no water. Once the caramel has reached even consistency you add cream and milk to stop the caramelization. Then you cook the mixture until all of the caramel is dissolved and the mixture reaches a boil. While this is happening place the bowl of egg yolks on the pot with the caramel mixture and whisk it constantly. The egg yolks have to be warm so that when you add the boiling cream mixture they don't scramble. Be very careful not to let the yolks get to hot to fast because they might scramble. Scrambling is all around bad. When that happens you've wasted 48 eggs and have to separate another 48. Its a bad feeling. They only need to be just a little warmer than room temperature. Once they eggs are warm and the cream boiling you, with the help of a friend add the boiling cream to the eggs. One person pours, very slowly at first, the other whisks furiously. Pass the mixture through a chinoise(Every kitchen should have one. Seriously, this is one of those secret gadgets that separates restaurant food from home cooking. edit: don't buy this one though. Reviews make reasons clear.). Then it sits in an ice bath for a few hours before it's ready to be spun in the ice cream making machine.
At The Jones we use a half gallon of milk, a half gallon of cream, and four cups of sugar, but you can pretty easily use your long division skills for more reasonable batch sizes. To make something besides caramel ice cream simply don't caramelize the sugar and just boil it with the cream and milk straight them you can flavor it however you feel like.

I'm concerned about escalation.

2006-06-17T23:38:00.000-07:00

Jeremy tried to throw an egg at me through the window today, but I got out of the way. Then later Jason threw an egg at Joe and it hit him and splattered all over the front of the deck oven. It took him about 20 minutes to clean because its very hot and the egg was cooked onto it instantly. Jason insisted that it was worth it. After that Joe dumped cold water on Jason's back. It makes me alittle nervous about tomorrow.

Jason made quail eggs benedict today and they were delicious. This was the first time I've ever had quail eggs.

J consolidation

2006-06-15T12:43:00.000-07:00

The part time, non-J kitchen staff at The Jones have gradually been cut loose over the past couple weeks. Now the original 4 J's(Jason, Jeremy, Joe, Julian) remain joined by a neck tattooed but still very nice gentleman named James. My line cooking education is finally getting into gear now that the part time line cooks are gone. I expect to work on the line about three nights a week now. Very exciting. Joe tells me that I'm already better than Chris who I suspect got fired rather than just released like I'm sure Mirana and Clive were. I think he was drinking on the job and abusing his post shift bar privileges. And he fucked stuff up a lot. But enough about him.

I've now worked three shifts on the line. My pizzas are starting to look a little better. One of the pizzas, the Napoli, which had pepperoni, sausage, bell peppers, and mushrooms is no longer on the menu. To my delight that has made the Chevre much more popular. The Napoli was lame anyway. Stretching pizza dough is by far the most difficult single task I have to perform. Its given me much greater respect for people who work in pizzerias.

Burger King vs. Quiche

2006-05-25T22:55:00.000-07:00

You've probably seen the new Burger King commercial promoting the Texas Jalepeno Whopper or whatever its called. You know, the one where some guy is sitting in a snobby looking restaurant with his girlfriend when he is served a large plate with 3 or 4 small splotches of frou-frou looking food on it. He proceeds to break into a song about how this "chick food" is not sufficient to satisfy his man sized hunger. He leaves the restaurant where he's joined by a crowd of other men who share his frustration with such food and desire something more hearty, more flame broiled. Naturally they head to Burger King for a big ol' Texas Jalepeno Whopper. Over all it's a pretty normal commercial. But one thing about it has been making me angrier and angrier every time I see it. Just as the undernourished guy is joined by the chorus of other men as he's leaving the restaurant they sing "oh yes, I'm a guy. I'll admit I've been fed quiche." As if quiche was in some way unmanly. For anyone who might not know, quiche is basically egg pie with other stuff in it. One popular type is Quiche Lorraine which is filled with crumbled bacon, sauted onions and grated cheese. Does that sound in any way unmanly? That shit has like 300 calories per square inch. What this tells me is that Burger King's target demographic is not one which actually knows what quiche is. Kinda sad.

Crustless Zucchini Quiche

This recipe is based on the recipe from my Grandfather's self published cookbook which is in turn based on a recipe in a book called "Quick Meals" published by Sunset Books in 1963. It was a favorite of mine when I was living in the Evergreen State College dorms because I was often to lazy (read: stoned) to make a proper crust. Crusts are hard. Especially in a drastically limited kitchen.

Butter a 9 inch glass pie pan heavily. Add 1/4 cup wheat germ or matzo meal, tilting the pan so that the wheat germ or meal sticks evenly to all sides. Discard any excess.

Filling:
bottom layer: 1/2 cup shredded Swiss or Jack cheese
Next Layer: 1/4 cup chopped green onion
3rd layer: 2 small Zucchini, usually less. Don't try to pack it all in if it doesn't fit naturally.
4th layer: 1-3 cloves garlic, finely minced
top layer: 1 cup shredded Jack cheese

all this should fill the pan roughly to the top. If it's over the brim remove some of the cheese and zucchini. Whisk together:

7-9 eggs
1/4 cup milk

Pour egg mixture over filling. Sprinkle with grated Parmesan cheese. Bake at 350 for 30 to 40 minutes. Cool on a rack for 10 minutes before serving.

It should be obvious that you can put just about whatever you want in there. To make Quiche Lorraine simply substitute the things listed above for the filling. I would recommend either Swiss or cheddar for this variation. My grandpa also recommends adding a tablespoon of tomato paste to the eggs and filling it with cooked shrimp and sauted onions. Briefly cook the shrimp with the onions and a little white wine of dry vermouth.

Knife Law

2006-05-22T15:34:00.000-07:00

I'm beginning to suspect that there is a somewhat complicated set of unwritten, unspoken rules regarding knives in the kitchen. Some of the knives, possibly all of the good knives seem to belong to one of the cooks, not the restaurant. No one has ever told me that I can't use this knife or that knife, and no one has ever asked me to give them a knife I was using. Nor has anyone told me that I should bring in my own. There are plenty to go around. Its really just a vibe that I can't explain that gives me this feeling. Maybe in less laid back kitchens there are more pronounced rules about knife use and I'm just feeling an echo. Maybe its all as simple as "don't take other people's knives". Or maybe its just all in my head.

Preserving the butter chunks

2006-05-14T22:44:00.000-07:00

I haven't been updating much because I've had little new to say. Kitchen work in a restaurant is very repetitive, at least for me. I'm not complaining. I still love it but the past couple weeks have led to few insights.

I did learn something that I've decided is worth sharing today however. Jason taught me the proper way to make a shortbread crust. It was for the lemon tart but it's not in any way specific to it. It's just about as basic as it can get, consisting of flour, sugar, butter and water. I'm accustomed to simply pressing the dough into the pan with my fingers when making tarts at home. Instead, Jason told me to put the dough between two sheets of plastic wrap and roll it out so that it's about and inch wider than the pan at every point, flipping the dough over as needed. Once the dough is rolled, carefully remove the top layer of plastic wrap and turn it into the pan before removing the other layer. Carefully fold over the overhanging dough and press it to the sides so that its even all the way around. This method preserves the large chunks of butter which give the crust its tender flakiness.

Larry's Market is soon to be no more

2006-05-09T19:12:00.000-07:00

My love of food extends from cooking and eating into grocery shopping. Going to the grocery store is one of my favorite things to do. Especially since I've managed to delay complete adulthood and independence for a few more months by living with my parents, meaning that I don't have to actually pay for any of it myself. Today is a sad day for grocery stores. This article was on the front page of the Seattle Times today. That's right, Larry's Market is soon to be no more. To many people this might not make much difference. But Larry's Market is/was a special place to me. A place that in a way inspired many meals. And all you people who didn't support when you had the chance should be ashamed, deeply.

2006-05-05T02:06:00.000-07:00

In the "dish pit" at the end of the night, the removable basin thing where excess chunks of food collect, is filled with a soggy and odd smelling sludge. Today said sludge was rich with bright and vibrant colors.

Line cooking is scary and hard. Goat cheese is awesome

2006-04-25T12:37:00.000-07:00

Sunday night I made my first serious attempt at line cooking. Mostly pizzas but some salads, chicken strips, and "queso crispas" thrown in the mix too. It was very exciting and I can't wait to learn more.

There are four pizzas on the menu at The Jones:

Napoli: Pepperoni, Italian sausage, sauteed mushrooms and red and green peppers on tomato sauce with mozzarella. $13

Bianca: Sauced in roasted shallots and garlic , then topped lightly with mozzarella, parmesan, tomatoes and parsley. $12

Chevre: Prosciutto, goat cheese and scallions over bechamel and light mozzarella. $14

Caprese: Tomato sauce topped with fresh basil, roma tomatoes, mozzarella and a sweet balsamic drizzle. $12

Now of these four choices in my opinion the Napoli and Caprese seem pretty standard and boring save for the balsmic drizzle on the Caprese. The Bianca is slightly more intersting if only because it features an alternative to tomato sauce, but I'd say it still lacks personality. The Chevre on the other hand is awesome. You can never go wrong with goat cheese and to pair it with prosciutto, scallions and what's more bechamel instead of tomato sauce? That's a pizza you don't see everyday. If I was walking into the jones for the first time and I decided to order a pizza it wouldn't even be a difficult decision for me to pick the Chevre. However when I was making pizzas on Sunday we got orders for at least three or four each of all the other varieties but not a single one for Chevre. I can't think of a single time I've even seen someone else making one either. They must get orders for it every once in a while othewise it wouldn't stay on the menu, but it really should be the most popular. Maybe the bechamel scares some people off. That's the only potential reason for its lack of popularity I can think of.

Chevre and pesto are now on my very slowly growing list of foods that can be flung on anything to make them both delicious and resectable.

I finally have a real full fledged callous

2006-04-23T01:17:00.000-07:00

To my dismay ravioli has been temporarily discontinued due to problems with the pasta maker. I.e. the piece of shit broke after 3 weeks. So my favorite job is no more for the time being. Jason promises there will be a new ravioli recipe and production method soon though. However I've been learning how to do lots of new things to fill that void since I got back from vacation after a relative lull during the week beforehand. My skill set now includes making Pico de Gallo, vanilla ice cream, and lemon tart filling. Ice cream at The Jones contains 48 egg yolks per gallon. Plus I learned how to "French" rack of lamb today.

I think it was for a special but I have an ominous feeling that rack of lamb might find its way onto the menu. I say this because "frenching" rack of lamb is a real pain in the ass. You have to painstakingly scrape a thin layer of something that doesn't seem to be meat or fat off of every bone. Each bone takes about 2 minutes and each rack has roughly 8 bones. The entire process takes about 20 minutes per rack. I guess I'll just have to get better at it. I cut myself twice scraping lamb rack stuff today. Once deep enough that it bled.

edit: rack of lamb is now on the menu

Fine dining in New York

2006-04-22T10:49:00.000-07:00

Aaaaaaaand I'm back. New York, for those I haven't talked to, was incredible. Went to some very fine restaurants such as Nobu 57 and The Tasting Room. Highlights from Nobu include rock shrimp tempura, which was perfectly cooked so that it was just barely crispy with a creamy, spicy sauce. Then there was the rock lobster sashimi with caviar. That one might have been a little bit over priced but when you order off menu, rare clawless lobster with caviar that's the risk you take. I had real, fresh wasabi. Tried Kobe beef and bluefin tuna both for the first time. Both were unspeakably delicious but for all the hype I don't think that the bluefin had to steep an advantage over plain old yellowfin. The same is not true of the Kobe beef. The wild ocean trout was probably my favorite of the sashimi we had. The black cod with miso sauce deserves a mention too. Of the deserts we tried my favorite was the roasted rice pudding with ice cream which was served in a small metal pot over an open flame. I've decided that that meal is tied with my dinner at Rover's a couple years ago for my favorite ever.

The Tasting room was almost as good and not quite as memorable as Nobu. It is located in a tiny space (about 8 cramped tables) in a slightly grimy corner of lower Manhattan, within walking distance of where I was staying. They had best clam chowder I've ever tasted. It was light and not to salty or weighed down with potatoes so I could really taste the clams. The fish and beef courses we had were absolutely exquisite too but my memory of the details is a little bit hazy. We had a few deserts there, most notable in my opinion was the champagne and marzipan soup. It was completely unlike anything I have ever tasted. It was a soup, slightly warm slightly fizzy with the distinct and vaguely sweet flavors of (obviously) champagne and marzipan.

Boycott Caesar Salads

2006-04-09T23:14:00.000-07:00

I am never going to order a Caesar salad at restaurant ever again and neither should you. These are the reasons:
I am going to spend
1. There are slight variations and different levels of quality, but for the most part if you've had a Caesar salad at 3-5 places you've had them all.
the rest of my life
2. They are on the menu at almost every restaurant in the world. Its lazy and unimaginative.
fantasizing about waitresses
3. There are infinite possibilities for new, interesting, and delicious salads, many of which will never be realized because people just want to wolf down romaine and croutons all the time. Looking back on all the salads I've eaten at restaurants at least 3/4 of them have been Caesar in nature. That's awfully depressing.
I don't have a chance with.
If I'm a guest at someone's house and they serve Caesar salad obviously I'm not going to be rude and refuse to eat it. I'm still going to have to make Caesar dressing, make croutons, and chop romaine at work. Not much I can do about that. but still...

Sure they're good, but its time for everyone to give something else a chance. Hopefully lots of other things.

The Jones has a website

2006-04-06T01:48:00.000-07:00

Can't believe I didn't find it sooner. Had to hear about it from my dad. Thejonesbistro.com. Not the best website ever, but once again far better than the one for Roxy's. It's only slightly out of date. Mainly just when it comes to the deserts.

In other news the "non-commercial" Kitchen Aid all purpose mixing machine couldn't handle the stress of being used about 30 times more than it would be in a typical household. It has been replaced with a huge hulking "intended for commercial use" machine that doesn't have attachments for kneading pasta dough or grating cheese. Now I have to use a hand crank to make pasta, which is lame. I didn't have to grate any cheese tonight but I'm worried its going to become a very unpleasant task. The cheese grating attachment on the kitchen aid could do about 5 pounds of cheese in about 2 minutes. Maybe doing that every other night is what broke it.

I think "DJ Kitchen Aid, the all purpose mixing machine" would be a great name for a DJ.

New server, bartender, chef, and hostess tonight. The chef's name is Veronica , which doesn't start with a J. That has me pretty pissed off. She seems nice though.

The birthday cake I made myself

2006-04-03T18:19:00.000-07:00

It's a called a black forest torte. It turned out exceedingly rich.

Business is booming

2006-04-03T17:10:00.000-07:00

Friday and Saturday at The Jones were every bit as busy as expected given the reviews. Friday night when my parents came in they had to wait in the bar a half hour for a table. Its an incredible thing to watch when a skilled chef is working quickly. It makes doing the dishes ever so slightly inspiring knowing that everyone of the dirty plates had a work of art on them a few minutes ago. More so when I come across plates with remnants of dishes that I had a hand in somewhere along the line. The Ravioli in particular gives me a good feeling.

My hours have been expanded yet again! I'm now working 5 days a week. That means full time and maybe even some overtime. And I'll actually get paid extra for overtime. Not like with those fucking crooks at college pro painters. If you ever need your house painted, don't hire College Pro. Their business revolves around taking advantage of college kids who just need jobs, paying them about 1/3rd the hourly rate of professional painters. I could go on and on.

Reviews of The Jones in both Daily Seattle newspapers today!

2006-03-31T13:36:00.000-08:00

There are reviews of The Jones in the Seattle PI and the Seattle Times today. Both are overwhelmingly positive. The times article is a little bit kinder and shorter though. The PI review predicts that Maple Leaf will be the new Ballard and places The Jones on the forefront of the revolution. Fuck yeah. It turns out that Jason is a more accomplished chef than I realized. He has worked at the Herb Farm and Nell's. For those that don't know, both are extremely high quality establishments. Especially The Herb Farm, that's one of those $100(edit: actually its more like $179) a person type places. In fact I think it's pretty famous. Jeremy's credentials are nothing to scoff at either. I am soooo lucky.

Tonight is going to be very busy.

Is it ok to post recipes from work here?

2006-03-30T23:54:00.000-08:00

I made pine nut biscotti at work today. I think its going to be dipped in chocolate and served as an accompaniment to a desert. I've been pondering the ethics of posting recipes from work here. I really have no idea if that would acceptable.

I begin every sentence with "I". That's cool.

My repertoire is expanding rapidly. I've learned how to make pasta, ravioli, ravioli filling, Caesar dressing, blue cheese and carmelized onion sandwiches, and roasted garlic aoli. Making burger patties, grating cheese, chopping romaine lettuce, making pizza dough, and making chicken strips have become almost as much a part of my routine as washing dishes. A rainbow of other menial prep jobs also find their way into the mix.

Yesterday I made my first, however brief, foray onto the line to learn how to make ravioli filling. Today I made myself a pizza. It had watercress pesto, marinara sauce, mozzarella, and chicken. It turned out pretty good but it could have been a lot better.

My hours have been expanded. I work from 3 until close rather than 4 until close. Thanks in part to that, I actually worked over 40 hours last week! That's something they never let me come close to at Roxy's. Usually it was more like 25, 30 when I was lucky. Maybe I'll be able to move out of my parents house someday after all.

Cutting things up really fast

2006-03-25T00:43:00.001-08:00

Several new knicks on my fingers today. I make chicken strip batter and pizza dough without looking at the recipes now.

I feel like my knife skills are much better than they were in January. However every time I think I'm chopping quickly and efficiently I see another of the J-crew (as I've decided to call us) chopping something far quicker. The ability to cut things up really fast is one of the skills I'm looking forward to developing most, even though it won't distinguish me from any other chef in the world. After all, who (besides people that can do it) isn't instantly impressed when they see someone on TV slice a clove of garlic into paper thin slices in 5 seconds? No one, that's who.

John's Birthday Cheesecake!

2006-03-24T09:54:00.000-08:00

Cake
1 1/2 pounds cream cheese, at room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup golden brown sugar
3 large eggs
2/3 cup pecans
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
2 1/2 tablespoons bourbon

crust
3/4 cup graham crackers
3/4 cup pecans
1/4 cup sugar
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
6 tablespoons butter, melted

For Crust
Preheat oven to 350 F.. Combine first 4 ingredients in a food processor and pulse until finely ground. Stir in butter. Using your fingers spread mixture evenly over the bottom of a greased 9 inch springform pan. Bake until the crust is lightly browned and firm to the touch, about 10-15 minutes. Cool completely.

For filling
In a medium bowl beat cream cheese until smooth. Gradually beat in sugar and vanilla. Beat in eggs one at a time. In a food processor combine remaining 4 ingredients and pulse until nuts are finely chopped. Fold into the cream cheese mixture.

Scrape batter onto crust and smooth the top. Bake at 350 F. until the center just barely jiggles when tapped, about 45-55 minutes. Let cool completely on a rack before unmolding, at least 3 hours.

This recipe is based on the basic "Cheesecake Cockaigne" recipe in the Joy of Cooking. The experience of making this cheese cake has taught me that it's very easy to make up different kinds of cheesecake. All you have to do is start with 1 1/2 pounds cream cheese, a cup of sugar, and 3 eggs and you can go any direction. And I didn't even make a topping for this one.

I have complete control of the kitchen CD player now

2006-03-19T23:53:00.000-08:00

Last night I had the Tagliata, which is grilled and sliced beef tenderloin with sauteed shallots and cherry tomato halves over barley risotto in a white wine and rosemary reduction. Tonight I had pan seared duck breast and confit thigh, glazed with local hive mind honey and served with root vegetables and watercress.(I stole a menu)
Attractive Waitress: Wow, did you know you look exactly like James Blunt?
I'm starting to worry that fancy food won't feel special anymore.
Me: um... no. Who's James Blunt?
I can make things I've made before when they tell me to make them now. Someone just says we need more pizza dough I just go right ahead and make more pizza dough. It feels incredible. At Roxy's I rarely actually learned how to make anything like that. Mainly I just chopped, sliced, and portioned things.
Attractive Waitress: He sings that song "you're beautiful"
Me: oh, I hate that song... but um, thanks

My first shift at The Jones

2006-03-17T23:03:00.000-08:00

There will be four of us working in the kitchen, Jason, Joe, Jeremy and Julian. That alone is pretty gosh darn cool. The first thing they told me when I walked into the kitchen is that I should feel free to bring in CDs to play in the kitchen. Of course I'm going to have to because their taste in music leaves much to be corrected.
The dishwashing process was similar to that at Roxy's so I was able to pretty much jump right in. Dishes are a lot easier at The Jones though. I'm still trying to understand how that's possible.
The responsibility of training me fell mainly upon Joe. He taught me how to make chicken strips, properly butcher chickens, make burger patties, and make pizza dough. Jason said that in a few weeks I'll be doing more cooking than dishwashing. The vaguely tough beginnings of my leather-to-be hands are already on their way back, but only barely.
Shift meals just got like, 10 times better.

After weeks in limbo...

2006-03-16T20:29:00.000-08:00

I am now an employee of "The Jones", a restaurant on 88th and Roosevelt (Seattle, WA). That's only an 8 minute walk from my house! In addition to the commute, this new job's benefits include a share of the tips, a better hourly wage, more hours, and The Jones is a more upscale place than Roxy's. And unlike Roxy's they make everything in house. They bake all their own bread and nothing is frozen. I expect more frequent opportunities for learning than were afforded at Roxy's.

They have entrees based on a staple main ingredients from each major category ranging in price from 12-23. There are affordabley priced appetizers, burgers, sandwiches, and fancy Pizza too. The place is mood-lit and done mostly in dark woods and warm colors. There's a large bar area complete with a long line of beer taps and a few wall mounted TVs. I start tomorrow.

The only problem is that I might not be able to take that sorority job (if I get it). That could have been pretty gosh darn cool.

More frequent updates to come.

I made a cake today

2006-03-06T23:53:00.000-08:00

I made this cake today. The layers are flavored with lemon and ginger. Between them there is lemon mouse and blackberry preserves. What you see on top is a mixture of white chocolate, candied ginger, and pistachios. I won't post the recipe because its very long and I don't want to type it. If you really want it, its available in the April 06 issue of bon appetit; probably on newsstands now. Though not 100% present in the final product, 5 sticks of butter, 19 eggs, and 5 lemons went into the making of this cake.

The fact that I'm posting this picture has nothing to do with the fact that I mentioned this blog in the interests section of my resume.

Pesto will always boldly save love

2006-03-01T21:39:00.000-08:00

Last Friday I found myself with a short period of time before guests arrived when I had nothing to do. I used that time to make this appetizer. Its very simple and unoriginal but it got enough compliments that I have decided to post it anyway.

you will need:

basil pesto
mayonnaise
deli sliced smoked turkey breast
any sort of white bread, lightly toasted, crusts trimmed, cut into triangles
watercress, stems trimmed

I'm not giving exact amounts with this recipe because its so easy to make exactly as much as you might need.

In a small bowl combine pesto and mayonnaise in roughly equal portions. Put a some turkey breast on each bread triangle followed by a little dollop of pesto-mayonnaise and then stick 1 or 2 watercress leaves on top.

I said it was simple.

I recently decided that pesto is the single most effective tool for deceptively easy cooking. You can take almost anything, load it up with pesto, and it will taste good, and people will respect it.

Upside-down Butterscotch Apple Sour Cream Cake

2006-02-25T17:12:00.000-08:00

Had a large-ish family party last night. I made two desserts among other things. One was a poached pear and caramelized pistachio tart, the other was an upside-down butterscotch apple sour cream cake. Both turned out delicious. The tart had a little trouble holding together though. The Pastry cream wasn't quite thick enough and the crust was a little bit brittle. The upside-down cake turned out just about perfect. It was a lot simpler to make too. It was so easy and delicious I decided to make another one today. The recipe comes from the march 2006 issue of Bon appetit magazine.

Upside-Down Butterscotch Apple Sour Cream Cake

Cake

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsps baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, room temperature
2/3 cup bakers sugar (superfine sugar) or regular sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 Golden delicious apple, peeled, cored, finely chopped

Butterscotch caramel apples

6 tbsp unsalted butter
1/3 cup (packed) dark brown sugar
1/3 cup butterscotch morsels
2 golden delicious apples, peeled, cored, cut into 1/4 inch thick slices

For cake

Preheat oven to 375 F. Mix flour, baking powder, and salt in medium bowl. Using electric mixer, beat butter in a large bowl until smooth. Gradually add sugar and beat until well blended. Add eggs and vanilla; beat until well blended. Beat in flour mixture, then sour cream. Stir in chopped apple. Set aside while preparing butterscotch caramel apples.

For butterscotch caramel apples

Melt butter in 10 inch diameter nonstick skillet with an ovenproof skillet over medium heat. Add brown sugar and butterscotch morsels and stir until melted and smooth and mixture is still bubbling, about 2 minutes. Add slices to skillet and cook until golden, about 3 minutes per side (there will be lots of liquid in the skillet. Remove from heat and let cool for 3 minutes. Using tongs arrange apple slices in skillet into concentric circles or other pattern.

carefully spoon cake batter in small dollops atop apples in skillet. Using offset spatula, gently spread batter evenly to edges of skillet (batter will seem to float on top of apples and pan juices). Bake until cake is golden brown and tester comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Cool in skillet 10 minutes. Run knife edges of cake to loosen. Place large platter atop skillet. Using oven Mits or potholders, hold platter and skillet firmly together and invert, allowing cake to settle onto platter. Serve Warm.

To come: my improvized appetizer that everyone loved.

I feel adrift again

2006-02-18T16:12:00.000-08:00

Little to report right now. I made cookies the other day. The recipe called for 20 minutes at 350 F.. They burned between when I checked them at 10 and 17. I've gotten sub standard results from The Colossal Cookie Cookbook several times before. Now I've decided that those instances might not be completely my fault. The people that reviewed it on Amazon seem to like it though. It does have lots of pretty pictures. My dad told me later that all cookie recipes call for to high a temperature but I'm not sure if I believe him.

I started working on my resume. The job hunt begins next week when I get home from a mini road trip to Portland.

Setback #1

2006-02-15T16:18:00.000-08:00

I lost my job today. Things at Roxy's have been very slow in the evenings since they opened for dinner. I was hired mainly to work evenings. I guess that's just how life goes. At least mow I have a positive relevant reference. So I'll be looking for a new job immediately hopefully in a restaurant somewhere. If there happen to be any greater Seattle area, restaurant managers, owners, etc. who need an ambitious, enthusiastic, and hard working dishwasher/busboy/whatever reading this, it would be super if you contacted me.

edit: Peter did say that if business picks up enough to warrant, he would hire me back if I was available at that point. So that late night cooking job might still be a possibility in the future.

Sigh, forbidden waitress fruit

2006-02-12T01:29:00.000-08:00

The shift meal is one of the most beautiful and dangerous things ever invented. Every time I work I get a free meal. I can order anything on the menu, or stuff that's not on the menu, strange foods, secret foods, high calorie foods. Last week I tried this: You can have any sandwich as a wrap. Reuben spring rolls is one of the appetizers. I had a Reuben wrap, with Reuben spring rolls inside as well. It was pretty good, but I've just now realized that I have barely scratched the surface of what could be done. Next time I work (Wednesday, sad face) I'm going to take it to the next level. I'm going to get a pastrami melt, as a wrap, with potato and cheese pirogi inside. Next that wrap will be dipped in beer batter and deep fried. This is still only the beginning.

After a couple weeks of "Steely Dan's greatest hits" on repeat, I decided to start burning mix CD's to play in the dining room. I currently have 9 stashed in the huge 300 disc changer. That sort of thing is very typical of me. Lots of people ask about and compliment the music. Once someone asked that it be turned up. Those moments fill me with more pride than they should. I have nothing against Steely Dan.

I promise to update regularly

2006-02-09T22:15:00.000-08:00

First my internet connection was down, then I went to Olympia for a couple days, then I was lazy, but I'm back. I've decided to scrap the "food of the week" idea for now. I don't want to post any recipes that I haven't tried before. So rather than try to find foods for which I already have several tried recipes close at hand, I'm just going to post recipes as I try them and deem them worthy.

Roxy's just opened for dinner a few weeks ago and at last there are appetizer, dinner, desert, and cocktail menus. So far it been pretty slow in the evenings but Peter (owner) has hired a P.R. person and he says it will probably take a couple months for word to sufficiently circulate. When that happens our hours will be extended from 10 pm to 2 am. I get to be the cook! It will be a limited menu, that is five or six staple items. The only ones I know for sure are the hot pastrami sandwich, the hot corned beef sandwich, and fries. I'm very excited about this.

Deli Slicers

2006-02-02T00:57:00.000-08:00

It took me until I got home to notice that I have four new cuts on my hands today. The way my hands feel at the end of a shift is the more rewarding than anything else. I don't have any real caluses yet but my tolerance for handling hot things has increased slightly.

The deli slicer is a vicious machine, in case that wasn't already obvious to you. In essence its a large round razor blade that spins really fast. To clean it one has to remove the shielding from the blade and the sliding, food holding part. The removable parts can be cleaned separately in the dishwasher but the base and blade have to be thoroughly wiped down with a rag. This task requires intense focus in much the same way as that game where you put your hand on a table and stab the gaps between your fingers with a knife. Except if your lose at cleaning the deli slicer you need even more stitches. Today while I was cleaning it after slicing 30 pounds or so of corned beef, the tip of my fingernail grazed the motionless blade ever so slightly and it went straight through like it was nothing. A few millimeters farther and it would have gone straight through my finger. I know the loss of that shard of fingernail is very unimpressive but it could just as easily been any other part of my hand. Shut up, it was scary to me. 3 of the people working with me have gotten cuts requiring stitches, and that's 100% of the people I was talking about it with. It seems like everyone has grizzly stories about the things.

Food of the Week: Watercress

2006-01-31T01:19:00.000-08:00

Watercress is a great alternative to the monotony of lettuce for salads and sandwiches. It has a crisp, spicy flavor that I love. This is the first of a few recipes that involve watercress I'll post over the course of this week. This is one I made a couple years ago. It turned out well. I'm not sure where the original recipe came from but it was good enough that I wrote it down.

Grilled Potato Salad with Blue Cheese Vinaigrette

1/4 cup sherry wine vinegar, white or red wine vinegar should be fine if that's what you have on hand
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1/2 cup and some extra olive oil
1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese
12 medium red potatoes
2 bunches watercress, stems trimmed
2 green onions chopped
salt and pepper

combine vinegar, mustard, 1/2 cup oil, and cheese in a small bowl. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Gently boil potatoes in a large pot of salted water until almost tender, about 13 minutes. Remove potatoes from water and allow to cool for at least a half hour. Cut potatoes into 1/4-1/2 inch round slices. Coat slices with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Grill potatoes over medium high heat until they're golden brown, about 2 minutes per side. Toss potatoes with watercress dressing and onions.

I realize that it is January and grilling is a bit out of season. Rather than boiling, cooling, and grilling the potatoes, it will work fine to cut the raw potatoes into slices coat them olive oil, season them with salt and pepper, and roast them in the oven at about 400 degrees until they are tender and lightly golden brown. Turn them over half way through cooking.

Genesis

2006-01-30T01:27:00.000-08:00

My name is Julian. I am a 19 year old recent college dropout with hopes of breaking into the world of proffesional food preparation. I am currently employed as a dishwasher/busboy/prepcook (in that order) at Roxy's Deli, (the website is very, very out of date. Today Roxy's looks nothing like the photos and the menu is vastly different too) a Jewish, New York style restaurant in the trendy Fremont neighborhood of Seattle, Washington. We serve great blintzes and the reuban is second to none. I have ambitions of climbing high in the culinary world and this blog will chronical my ascent from lowly dishwasher onward through prep and line cooking, culinary school, and beyond. You can also expect frequent postings of recipes, restaurant reviews depending on how often I'm lucky enough to eat out, and other food related musings.