Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Saturday October 3rd. Cal vs. USC

Cheese and Crackers

Chips and Salsa

Texas Brisket

Homemade BBQ Sauce
(I know that is a sin, but I will let others do it. Better my home made sauce than some corn syrup laden abomination from a bottle)

Blue Cheese Bread Pudding

Potato Salad
Roasted and Grilled Veggies
With Romesco Sauce

Pignoli Cookies

Assorted Desserts

Wine

Margaritas

Beer

Sodas

Monday, August 17, 2009

Healthy? What gives you the right to tell *me* what is healthy?

So why is it that people seem to think that their one metric for "healthy" is the only standard by which all other people must live by? For example. If you are an office manager or a purchasing manager, or the global director of food service and you are in charge of stocking the break room, snack shelf, or 300 micro kitchens at your company think about what healthy means for everyone, not just what it means to you.

In this day and age of tailored dieting, what you think of as healthy is subjective. If you tried to eliminate EVERYTHING that was excluded from any one diet, you would have NOTHING left in the cupboards. Some people just look at calories. Some look for "organic." Some have cut out HFCS (High Fructose Corn Syrup.) Some are Vegan. Well now, you can not make sure everything in the kitchen is edible to everyone, however, you can try to make sure there are a few things for each possible diet. I am not saying you need 600 items to make everyone happy, but you all need to think outside of your own definitions of "healthy."

Don't just eliminate things that have a high sugar content, or a high calorie count. Poll your co-workers, and see what peoples' needs are. Beverage selections need to also be varied. Flavored waters, sparkling waters like San Pellegrino, AND a sodium free carbonated water beverage are examples of this. People will always want Coke, and Pepsi and other mass-market sodas, but you should add additional things like import sodas, not instead of. Even if you think it is better for people in the office to have an organic cola with no HFCS, some people will revolt if you take away their Pepsi. If cost is an issue, be realistic about that and let your employees know that something was removed because they are just too expensive, don't tell them it was because that beef jerky has too much sodium. Everyone is their own arbiter of health. If you want to make a difference, don't take away snacks that you deem to be unhealthy. Educate them by adding signs, or maybe a column in the company newsletter.

Snacks and drinks, when they are provided by the company are there as a perk to improve the work environment for all employees. If employees begin to feel that some outside force is trying to control their eating habits, then how do you think that perk, meant to improve morale is going to effect morale?

In closing, we all have different definitions of "healthy" and we need to respect those choices made by others. Food is a pleasure and a gift. Allow others to enjoy it as they want to.

Sunday, August 16, 2009

Julie and Julia

So, I went and saw Julie and Julia tonight.

The food was divine, and the story more-so. I have not read the book, but now I want to. I also want to meet Julie and talk to her. I started blogging recently, (before I knew anything about the Julie and Julia story) and was amazed at the way I identified with the connection to food as an escape. I am a chef professionally, and yet, I still use food as a escape. Figure that one out.

I very much love the way Julia was portrayed. I was lucky enough to meet Julia Child, and she struck me in real life the same way she struck me in the film. The writing, the acting and even the cinematography were awesome. I am not going to go on and on, gushing about this film. Let's just say I loved it.

About the food. I have used Julia's recipe for Beef Bourguignon and loved it; however, I did not find that it needed salt. I think when this movie comes out on DVD I am going to have to get it, and have a dinner party, much like the one at the end of the film. Though because I do not have an amazing film location scouting crew, I will not have the rooftop patio to use.

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

It's all about the food.

So here it is, the first post. Are you as nervous as I am? Of course you aren't. You are just reading, *I* am the one putting myself on the [blog]spot for all the world to see. Well I guess I should start off talking a little about me, though I do realize I am not food, I am a chef, so that is vaguely about food, right?

I am Joshua, a chef by trade with about 17 years of experience in the food industry. At some point I will post a bio about me, but that can wait until there are enough of you that seem to care. That will give me a good long time to avoid writing it. SO now, on to the food.

I made a simple enough dinner tonight. An arugula salad, with shallots, toasted walnuts, assorted cherry tomatoes and seared yellow fin tuna. I had about 30 minutes until my wife would be ready for dinner, so I started by making the dressing. I used one part blended (5050 EVOO and canola) one part champagne vinegar added to the blender with a spoonful of mustard to create the emulsion. Once I had that I added some salt, pepper, parsley, shallot, and oregano. Simple enough right? Then I went on to the tuna. My spice cupboard is almost bare and I did not have any of the things I normally use to crust fish, so I got out the other half of the shallot from the dressing, some more oregano, and parsley and started mincing it all together. Once it was super fine, I added a handful of kosher salt (yes a handful, do you have a problem with that?) and continued mincing the herb mixture with the salt. I dried this mixture out in the toaster oven a little, but would prefer to do that on the counter over night if I had the time. I put a stainless pan on HIGH heat and then went back to the salt. I crusted my fish with the herb and shallot salt and then only once that was done and the pan was VERY hot, I dropped a few tablespoons of canola oil in the pan and added the fish before my oil could scorch. after only about 30 seconds on each side, I removed the fish to a cooling rack and slipped it in the freezer.

I cleaned up the pan, as well as the cutting board and the plate I crusted my fish on. Then I went on to the other salad stuffs. I halved a few cherry tomatoes and toasted a handful of walnuts. As the walnuts cooled I very VERY thinly sliced up another shallot and tossed it in a bowl with some baby arugula, and a small amount of the dressing and mixed that all up thoroughly. I plated that on a chilled dinner plate, topped with the tomatoes, walnuts and 5 or 6 ounces of tuna, also thinly sliced. I drizzled some of the dressing along the tuna for show, and then to the table.

During dinner I decided that I wanted to start blogging about food. Not just the huge dinners at fancy restaurants, but the dinners at home, the recipe parties, the cook-book-club meetings, fast food, my thoughts on food stamps, and just anything I have to say on food. Then I realized I should have taken pictures of my salad. Maybe next time.

That's it for now. My goal is to blog once a week, my dream is once a day, reality might be once a month. We will see.


-Joshua
Enjoy your food, no matter what it is, be thankful for it, and share it with others.