Our 12th Annual Operation Frontline benefit was a huge success, the food was kickin, we had fun and raised over 9K to fight hunger!!!

I’m off to Nantucket on Wednesday for the Nantucket Food and Wine Festival, then Chicago for the Food Arts Share Our Strength BBQ competition. Both should a blast and I’ll try to blog (I know I am the worst at getting stuff up, I’m trying though)

Here’s some pics form the Benefit

PLating Deborah's dish; Black Risotto, super yummy. Taberna de HAro

Josh Ziskin of La Morra, me, and lotsa volunteers

lots of guests.....

Part of being a chef is being a teacher and I love to teach. This past Thursday I did a demo for about 25 people at Yale Appliance. Pictures and recipes below.

I had helpers from the guests making 'fresh' rolls

signing 'The Fearless Chef'

Chicken Chicharrones with Fresh Oregano
From “The Fearless Chef” by Andy Husbands and Joe Yonan.

These little nuggets of crispy-moist chicken are best eaten scooped up in a
warm tortilla and drizzled with Limed Sour Cream. The secret to the
texture lies in the high heat; the meat comes awfully close to burning, so be
prepared to act quickly.

Serves 4 as an appetizer or 2 as an entrée

1/4 cup olive oil
1 1/2 pounds skinless, boneless chicken thighs, cut into 3-inch squares
Kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper, to taste
1/4 cup peeled and minced garlic
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 tablespoon cumin seeds, toasted and ground
1 tablespoon coriander seeds, toasted and ground
1 tablespoon roughly chopped fresh oregano
1/3 cup white vinegar
1/2 lime, cut into wedges

1. In a heavy-bottomed skillet over medium-high heat, heat oil until it
is hot but not smoking.
2. Season the chicken with salt and pepper, and add it to the skillet.
Cook until it turns golden brown and starts to fall apart, 7 to 10
minutes, stirring occasionally and scraping as it sticks to the bottom
of the pan.
3. Add the garlic and cook 2 more minutes, stirring constantly so the
garlic doesn’t burn. Add the chili powder, cumin, coriander, and
oregano; cook for 1 minute. Stir in the vinegar and cook until the
chicken is glazed, about 1 minute more. Remove from heat. Season
with salt and pepper.
4. Squeeze the fresh lime over the chicken and serve hot with warm
tortillas, Salsa 101 (page 24), and Limed sour Cream (page 22).

Limed Sour Cream
From “The Fearless Chef” by Andy Husbands and Joe Yonan.

A classic condiment made muy picante (that’s “very spicy”, for the
English-only crowd) by the addition of cumin, chipotle, and, of course, lime.
Serve straight up with chips and salsa, or with grilled or roasted chicken,
grilled shrimp, or any Latin-style dish, such as Chicken Chicharrones with
Fresh Oregano

Makes about 1/2 cup

1/2 cup sour cream
Juice of 1 lime (about 2 tablespoons)
1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds, toasted and ground
1 dried chipotle pepper, rehydrated and minced (or squeezed of extra
liquid if canned)
Salt and freshly cracked black pepper, to taste

Combine all the ingredients in a small mixing bowl and stir thoroughly.
Will keep for about 1 week refrigerated in an airtight container.

Salsa 101
From “The Fearless Chef” by Andy Husbands and Joe Yonan.

Makes about 2 cups

1 large ripe tomato, cut into 1/4-inch dice
1/2 cup minced red onion
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
1 jalipeno, seeded and minced
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice (about 1 lime)
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

In a medium-size mixing bowl, combine all the ingredients. The salsa will
keep for up to 1 week refrigerated.

too many chefs in the kitchen? I say not.

When Tremont 647 opened twelve
years ago I decided to focus on two main charities (or areas) to greatest
impact our donated dollar; these are Aids and Hunger Relief. Though we participate in many events
and charities throughout the year, these two issues remain a central focus to
our charitable resources.

For the Past 12 years Tremont 647
has hosted Share Our Strength’s Operation Frontline (OFL) benefit (actually, we’ve
hosted 11 out of those 12 years-last year La Morra generously hosted the event,
thanks to Jenn and Josh Ziskin).
OFL is a direct service program of Share Our Strength where chefs like
myself teach low income families, and children at risk of hunger, how to eat
nutritiously on a budget, and how to shop for inexpensive and nutritious ingredients. These events have raised over $100K in
the past 12 years and we are in need this year, more than ever, of raising funds. I hope you’ll come this amazing event
this Monday, May 4th…..

12th Annual Operation Frontline Dinner
May 4th, 2009, 6:00pm

-5 Amazing Guest Chefs !!!

-Champagne Reception
with Passed Hors d’oeuvres
by 647 Chefs Izzy Sarto & Jura Abragimovich

-6 Course Dinner
paired with fine wines

Jason Santos of Gargoyles on the Square
Modern Beet Salad
smoked goat cheese,
brown butter powder, fennel pipette

Andy Husbands of Tremont 647
Spiced Spoon Bread Soufflé
spring vegetable ragout

Josh Ziskin of La Morra
Stinging Nettle Agnolotti
mushrooms & thyme gremolata

Deborah Hansen of Taberna de Haro
Arroz Negro
“black paella”

Will Gilson of Garden at the Cellar
Grilled Pork Tenderloin
belly and crispy confit
grilled scallions, oyster mushrooms,
romesco and charmoula

Lee Napoli of ChocoLee
Frozen Chocolate Moussicle

Kat Craddock of Tremont 647
Carrot Almond Cake
cheesecake custard, cassis-soaked strawberries,
honey ginger syrup

Proceeds to Benefit Share Our Strength’s
Operation Frontline

$100/person, including tax and gratuity
Tickets must be purchased in advance by calling
Tremont 647 at (617) 266-4600

Tremont 647
647 Tremont Street
South End, Boston, MA 02118
(617) 266-4600
www.tremont647.com

For the last three years I’ve made a pilgrimage to New Orleans for JazzFest, this year is no different.
the music is incredible, people wonderful, and then there’s the food….

Here’s a video from last year

When I drive to NYC, this is a must stop for me, here’s why:

10. Makes the drive to NYC much more palatable

6. “The New Englander” Sauerkraut, Bacon, Mustard, Sweet Relish, Raw Onion

5. Boylan Beverages!

4. The t-shirts

3. Independent Operator

2. Quick

1. Super Duper Weenie. ‘nuf said.

And here’s a my latest Tattoo….

Spring is here! Well, sorta… March 21st was the first day of spring, but it still cold: no soft green blossoms on the trees and certainly vegetables aren’t coming from the farms - yet. New England chefs get so excited for the change in availability for what we can (self imposed rules) use on our menus. Of course, we could use asparagus all year round, California will gladly ship it to us, anytime. But somehow asparagus in January doesn’t seem right, and honestly, maybe it’s me but it doesn’t taste as good, a little woody and tough.

Favas

I love springtime for cooking. It’s almost as good as late summer, which is my favorite. To me, spring dishes are light and crisp - with a teaspoon of winter and heaviness. They are green and pink, with light butter and lavender. The flavors scream “hey, I’m fresh, eat me now!” or “wake up because we have a long road a head of us!” I love spring.

We’ve just plowed through two packed restaurant weeks and now it’s time to focus on spring and change the menu. Diners will see some spring ingredients now and as the growing season gets better and better, we’ll add more favorites. A friend asked me ‘do chefs really just think about ingredients and what they will do with them’? I’m here to tell you the truth: it’s actually a fantasy scenario, seriously: ‘First, I’m going to do this, and that… and then I’ll do this’… We generally have ingredients swirling around in our heads like notes for a symphony, they come in and out and we try to fit them together so they are coherent, groovy and tasty - all along paying attention to how long the dish takes to prepare so we can get it out of the kitchen in a timely manner. And once that dish is complete and we are satisfied with its outcome, we switch our focus to another configuration and the notes start again with a new tune and we hear the song of summer…

morels

Some of the new spring menu items

Cream of English pea soup
Jamon Serrano, olive oil cruton
Mint and chervil Crème fraiche

Tremont Tostada Salad
Veggie spring bean chili, radish, avocado,
Queso fresco

Wood grilled Lamb Skewers
Cucumber Tatziki salad, Lemon, dry chili oregano crust

Crispy- Creamy Spring Polenta
With Apragus, parmesan, Smoked tomato
Fresh Jumbo Lump Crab

Fishermans Risotto Paella
fennel, spring peas, parsley, saffron Lobster Broth

Here are some spring ingredients I am thinking about

Asparagus
Morels
English peas
Fava beans
Runner beans
Pea tendrils
Fresh garbanzo
Spring onions
Spring garlic
Rhubarb
Soft shells
Lamb
Duck
RABBIT
Fiddleheads
Ramps
Crones
Scape
Leeks
Vidalia onions
Walla Walla onions

As a chef, one of the questions I get asked all the time is, “where do I eat” when I go out. My usual response is, I dine where my friends are. When you work all day, it’s hard to see your friends, except the late night drink of course, and we have many of those. So I say you’ll see me at Pigalle, Dante, Sage, Eastern Standard, Bambara, Toro, and the list goes on. And it’s true I do go to these places often. I love seeing what my friends are cooking, and hopefully we have some time to chat.

But these are not the only places I go. I am a fiend for good Chinese, sushi, Mexican, pho. I love the big flavors and subtle nuances, and head down Dot Ave and hit Pho So 1 or Pho 2000 for pho, where the dark hints of cinnamon and coriander enhance the bold and bright lemongrass and kaffir lime leaf. When I’m eating this, I feel I can live on it forever; there isn’t another meal I want. More pho, please. For sushi, I hit Gari on Harvard Street in Brookline. It has maybe 30 seats. I suggest you sit at the sushi bar and ask Gary to just cook for you. His creativity is fun, the fish is ocean-fresh, and the price is perfect. Lately I’ve been finding sushi places are charging so much - up to $9 a bite - and though that has its place, it’s not how I’m going to dine on a rainy Wednesday. If you’re looking for good Mexican, head off to East Boston, to Angela’s. The moles take me back to Oaxaca- warm, creamy, smoky spices, mellow yet hot chilis arousing the taste buds, just-ground chocolate and spices giving them a rich undertone followed by granular sweet and toasty ground nuts. Damn, I love a good mole.

For Chinese I have two favorites, for specific reasons. When I’m heading home and looking for some comfort food and want those dishes I just crave, I always go to Chef Chow’s in Brookline - nothing fancy, nothing off the beaten path, just good, consistent, American-style Chinese food. A quick call, and I am there. For my special occasion, it’s the Chinatown Café, 262 Harrison Ave. I know when people think of special occasion we think celebratory dinners followed by a big check; this is not that place. It’s not really on my way going anywhere, so I make a special trip there for some of the best Chinese food around. It’s well priced and more of a cafeteria than a sit-down, white napkin restaurant. My friend chef John Delpha turned me on to this place a few years back and I think it is just the best. I have a thing for bacon and if you go here it is the one thing you MUST have. You’ll see it hanging in the window as you walk in, alongside the roasted ducks; maybe get both, they are sooo good. Crunchy, sweet, rich, yet tender with a tablespoon of soy and ginger.

I love bacon!!!

Here are some of my greatest hits from there, but I also suggest ordering something you’ve never had before. It’s all good and worth the trip.

Wonton Congee
Roasted Duck Egg Noodle Soup
Salt & Pepper Squid
Spicy Tofu With Pork
Beef with Bitter Melon
Mixed Vegetable Chow Foon

yum

San Pelligrino Almost Famous Chef Competition DAY 2

one of the students explaining his dish

Went to the “meet and greet” last night, it was what you call a ‘dine around’- chefs serving stationary appetizers and people pouring wine. It was fun, but a little over crowded. I met Michael Logan of Dovetail Wines, who lived in Boston for a while so we chatted about the food scene, and also about his wines, which were wonderful.

I met the other judges and then a few of us went to Ad Hoc for dinner. It’s an interesting concept: 1 menu with 4 courses- appetizer, entrée, cheese course, and dessert. That’s it, no choices. Sure makes ordering easy, and all of it was fresh and super tasty.

Then off to Pancha’s for late night drinks and shooting pool! We stayed out too late, drank too much Fernet, and had a blast. 8:30 a.m. came early….

Today the judges were bussed to the C.I.A. Graystone Campus to judge the competition. “Mystery Basket” was today’s task for the students. The ingredients were Sturgeon, Bay Leaf, Mushrooms and Bacon, and there was also a ‘pantry’ with excellent vegetables, stocks and seasonings they could use, though most did not!? They had to use all of the mystery ingredients and prepare ten identical plates each. Every fifteen minutes, a different student was up, to serve their creation to the judges.

Through the competition I kept thinking, “what would a 20 year old Andy do?” Would I have done as well? I’m not sure. Overall they were pretty good, some missteps, a lot of under seasoning. The one common theme was they all played it safe and cooked somewhat ‘classical’ style cuisines, no “world” flavors- I truly wished one of them would have busted out the soy and ginger.

What I was noticing the most was the judges and their passion for food. Just the other day, I heard that it takes about 10,000 hours to be an expert in something. I think there was well over half a million hours combined in that room. All the judges had interesting comments and insights. I felt that we all wanted to jump in the kitchen with them and help them/show them- by nature a chef is a teacher.

At the end we had an opportunity to talk to them one-on-one. We were very real and honest with them (at some points brutally honest), but I hope they know we care about our industry and want them all to shine. Tomorrow is the “signature dish” competition and I’m pumped to see it!

2 dinners planned tonight, some wine of course, and probably a little more Fernet…….

prepping the sturgeon

Chef Richard help out

Judges table, Ralph from Season one Hell's Kitchen is second from the right

Villagio Inn & Spa

Today I am in Napa Valley for the San Pellegrino Almost Famous Chef Competition, a competition of culinary students from top schools across the US and Canada. My dear friend Elli O’Keefe, who works for S. Pellegrino, asked me if I was interested in judging again, as I had judged the North East finals a few years back, and it sounded like fun. Plus, who can say no to a trip to Napa in March? Certainly, not I.

It’s always a blast when a bunch of chefs get together for some work and wine (or in the case of Iceland, Brenavin, but that is another story). It can be a little like herding cats , but in the end the work gets done and the wine gets drunk.

I’ve just arrived at the Villagio Inn and Spa and it’s spectacular: trickling fountains, heated pools, lush green landscaped walkways. Maybe I’ll get a chance to come back here during harvest season, it’s a little chilly this time of year (but still warmer than Boston).

Tonight is the reception dinner and I am looking forward to meeting the rest of the judges.

Here is the list of my fellow Judges:

Chef Wade Wiestling
Chef John Tesar
Chef Gerardo D’Amore
Chef Guillermo Pernot
Chef Michele White
Chef Nick Stellino
Chef Ralph Pagano
Chef Rick Moonen
Chef Robert Wysong
Chef Christoph Leu
Chef Michel Richard
Chef Lars Kronmark
Chef Bill Briwa
Chef Tucker Bunch
Gail Simmons of Food & Wine Magazine
Kay Chun of Gourmet Magazine
Sophie Gayot of Gayot
Margeret Swaine of National Post

I will be blogging about the whole weekend: Saturday is mystery basket and Sunday is signature dish……

Making of a Tasting Menu………

A few months back I thought it would be fun to make February a tribute to pork. And here we are on Valentine’s Day and halfway thru Pork Month; I’m loving it. This week it was my turn to come up with the prix fixe for the week. And for me, it’s a fun process to think how will each course be different, yet go together and have pork as the focus.

I started to think about the main course, running through my head cuts of pork and how I wanted to cook them; double chops, loins, tenderloin, shoulder… maybe I’d bring in a suckling pig, or perhaps stuffed trotters (pied de cochon anyone? Um yum!). I decided on pork shoulder. It’s such an under-utilized cut (except for BBQ), and I absolutely love it. I still didn’t know what I was going to make for the appetizer and dessert, but the shoulder is my jump-off point.

On Tuesday I made a cure of Kosher salt, fresh thyme, black pepper and juniper berries. I cut the shoulder in 10-ounce pieces, trimmed some of the fat off and lightly sprinkled my cure over each piece. Layered on sheet pans between parchment paper and stacked sheet pan on top of sheet pan and placed them in the walk-in and weighed them down, pressing them slightly. This sat for two days, then I confited them. After I was done processing the shoulders, I had a fair amount of shoulder ‘scraps’ left. I stared at them for a few minutes thinking what to do with them; momos jumped to my mind, but I want to try use it for the tasting menu.

I knew that I was making a lacquered (whole grain mustard, white wine reduction, apple cider reduction) pork confit. I was feeling a southern vibe and honey custard spoon bread, black eyed pea gravy, and glazed baby carrots felt right for the entrée. Entrée complete, and since I was thinking now a southern dish, boudin would be perfect with the pork scraps. We had chicken livers, so I simmer them with the pork scraps, green peppers, onions and scallion, ground it up, mixed with rice, creole seasonings and wrapped in caul fat. I made some pickled shallot and remoulade and now I had the appetizer.

The dessert is slight difficult with pork month. My friend Mindy Segal of Hot Chocolate in Chicago makes awesome bacon chocolate chip cookies and I could ask her for the recipe but it wasn’t going along with my southern vibe. Pork goes real well with apples and then of course I thought bourbon would go well with both of those. It like a jigsaw puzzle, moving each piece in my mind until they fit. My mind wandered, almost dreaming, about this dessert and then all of a sudden I had it: bourbon-caramel-apple tart with candied bacon.

Candied Bacon rocks! All you have to do is dice some slab bacon and cook in a heavy bottom pan over medium high heat until brown and crispy (stirring occasionally), strain the fat out and dust liberally with sugar in the raw and continue to cook over medium high heat, stirring frequently, until the sugar has melted. Place immediately on a Silpat or parchment on a sheet pan and cool… this is yummy on its own or in an apple bourbon tart…

And that is how I came about with this week’s Pork Prix Fixe. Next week I’m thinking Malaysian, or maybe Greek…