Red Meat: Warren Brown

Posted by Warren Rojas / Tuesday, July 5th, 2011

It’s been a decade since local cheflebrity Warren Brown dropped the legal briefs and picked up a rolling pin:

(Image: Joshua Cogan)

He’s since opened several bakeries/cafes, helped pioneer the reality cooking show/travelogue concept and has penned a few cookbooks (with at least one more already in the works for next spring).

WR: Butter. Sugar. What other culinary elements could you not live without?

WB: It’s equipment for me. My mixer. My stainless steel skillets (always skip the non-stick). My coffee grinder – to mill spices and whole grains.

WR: What’s the very first dish you ever mastered? How long did it take? Do you still make it today?

WB: Sweet & Sour Chicken. Haven’t made it in years, but first did it in high school. I remember feeling especially proud when I got the recipe right and successfully fried the chicken strips, and when I tasted the sauce and liked it!

WR: What seasonal ingredient(s) get your creative juices flowing?

WB: Stone fruits

WR: My latest cookbook obsession is …

WB: Moro–kinda old, by Sam and Sam Clark, published in England. Love the foods they share.

WR: What’s the most challenging dish you’ve ever attempted? Would you make it again?

WB: Timpano – after the main dish from the movie Big Night. I’ve made it twice, both times was years ago. It was an all day affair and making the sheet of pasta was a real work out!

WR: If I could the spend the day working alongside any local chef, I’d love to collaborate with …

WB: Darren Norris @ Kushi.

WR: What’s the easiest/quickest–but still wholly satisfying–meal you make for yourself?

WB: Tough one. I like scones in the morning with scrambled eggs. Scones with oats and raisins and multi-grain.

Nothing is measured so I don’t really know measurements, but roughly speaking:

WR: In the next six months you won’t want to miss my …

WB: New line of cupcakes we’re test running this summer in our Summer Loving freestyle cupcake-a-thon. Strawberry cheesecake, Key Lime pie are just two early eye catchers.

WR: It’s quitting time. I’m pouring myself …

WB: This summer, a Peak Organic pale ale, or a cold glass of white wine.

————————————————————————————————————————————————

Key Lime pie cupcakes sound like a little slice of heaven. Can’t wait to try one…

Come back next Tuesday for another helping of Red Meat.

–Warren

Repasts Gone Wrong

Posted by The Editorial Desk / Monday, March 2nd, 2009

Nothing like a snow day to bring this area to a grinding halt, huh? (We know, Obama. We should toughen up).

Good thing it takes more than a few inches of scattered flakes to topple the interweb, or else we wouldn’t have been able to launch the latest Northern Virginia Magazine blog: Gut Check.

For our inaugural post, we decided to tackle the subject of food in film.

Confidence is high that many gastronauts are already foaming at the mouth in anticipation of this year’s “Julie & Julia” adaptation, an homage to that cackling culinarian Julia Child by amateur cook and pioneering gastro-blogger, Julie Powell.

And while most foodies love to clog chat boards with ebullient tributes to the fantasy dining depicted in flicks like “Big Night,” “Like Water for Chocolate,” and “Babette’s Feast” (random musings here, here and here), we’re infinitely more fascinated by those times cinema baits us with the meal-time equivalent of a Sunday drive (“Move along. Nothing to see here”) then straps us in for an emotional/psychological roller coaster that’s about to go off the rails.

Here, in no particular order, are a handful of dining sequences that illustrate what happens when the simple act of breaking bread breaks really, really bad:

1) The Untouchables: Deniro’s Al Capone espouses the virtues of America’s pastime while sending an indelible message to the weak links in his organization.

2) The War of the Roses: perhaps entertaining guests whilst actively pursuing the dissolution of one’s marriage is not the best idea. Skipping the fish course, on the other hand, projects sound judgment.

3) Alien: already paranoid space jockeys think they’re out of the woods following a harrowing scrape with a previously unknown species. At least until their parasitic antagonist makes the grandest of entrances by eviscerating John Hurt mid-celebratory meal.

4) The Whoopee Boys: Paul Rodriquez poses perhaps one of the greatest existential quandaries (“Do fish have balls?”) and defiles a Cornish game hen while channeling Eddie Murphy, all before dessert.

5) Parenthood: Nothing like having your battery-operated skeletons dragged out of the closet-or nightstand, as the case may be-in the middle of a big family gathering.

6) The Nutty Professor (remake): From grandma’s libidinous tendencies to rampant flatulence, Sherman Klump endures perhaps the most mortifying first date ever courtesy of his wildly dysfunctional family.

7) Donnie Darko: the candid exposition of sibling rivalry, distaste for all things Dukakis and ersatz expletives flying round the Darko table ensures you won’t catch this modern fairytale on Nick at Nite anytime soon.

Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life: the real tragedy is that the ill-fated Mr. Creosote arrives too late to enjoy Eric Idle’s jolly dinner ditty.

9) Rushmore: I’ll have the pathos with a side order of sexual frustration

10) Borat: Because sometimes breaking the ice involves stepping on toes.

Did we miss any of your favorite epicurean train wrecks?

–Warren Rojas