Posts Tagged ‘Thomas Keller’
Cookology’s Cookbook Club Helps Decipher Thomas Keller
Posted by The Editorial Desk / Thursday, August 11th, 2011
(Image: Cookology Recreational Culinary School)
Most people tend to collect cookbooks rather than use them. Sometimes it can be because a chef gives shoddy directions or sometimes it’s because he or she constantly doles out over-complicated jargon or obscure kitchen tools that can be intimidating to the casual cook.
Chef Brad Spates hopes to change that habit. As Executive Chef at the Cookology Recreational Culinary School in Dulles Town Center, Spates leads all of the school’s adult cooking classes, up to 15 a week, which includes a relatively new course that’s part book club, part cooking class: the Cookology Cookbook Club.
“So many people buy cookbooks, they’ll look through the recipes, they’ll flip through and they’ll pick two or three recipes and then the rest of the book really goes unused,” Spates told Gut Check. “So the idea here is to show people how to really read a cookbook and how to be able to utilize all of the recipes in the book.”
The class is held every other month, and so far the school has held two sessions, both covering one of Alton Brown’s popular cookbooks. For August’s meeting, which will be held Tuesday, Aug. 30, the club will tackle Thomas Keller’s Ad Hoc at Home, the French Laundry and Per Se chef’s most accessible cookbook.
“It’s one I wanted to do,” Spates explained, “Thomas Keller is more of a chef’s cookbook, Ad Hoc is, so I thought it would be fun, I know a lot of people have read this book and sometimes the recipes are slightly over people’s heads because they’re very in depth… The goal is to show that Ad Hoc reads complicated, but it’s really not that much harder, that much different.”
Spates explained that while Ad Hoc has its complicated moments, the book is far more accessible than its more advanced sisters. “There’s a huge leap in difference [between Keller's cookbooks]. Ad Hoc is by far his most simplified cookbook, The French Laundry one is decently complicated (except the gazpacho!), then he has Under Pressure which is all sous vide, and that one is just, you know, phenomenal book, but unless you’re serious about food, it’s very, very complicated.”
The session starts like any good class should, with hors d’oeuvres prepared by Spates and a glass of wine. Then Spates allows for attendees to go through the book, and share their input and experiences working with the text. Then after an hour or so, Spates leads the class through a few recipes in the Cookology kitchen, defining terms and showing the class tricks that can cut down on some of Keller’s notoriously long preparation times.
“Some of these recipes are six, seven hour recipes,” said Spates, “and I’ll put a different spin on it, and show how you can take the same concept and reduce it down to something much more simplified… The idea here is to show people how to really read a cookbook and how to be able to utilize all of the recipes in the book.”
As for what he’ll be preparing out of Keller’s tome? “I really don’t know,” he laughed. “I love so many of the recipes in there, I honestly haven’t even thought about it yet. Probably the morning of, I’ll flip through it and see what I want to do.”
Spates isn’t certain what book his Cookology book club will tackle next (Gut Check’s suggestion), as he largely leaves it up to participants to choose. One area he would like to explore is self-published cookbooks from local chefs. “We’re starting a program now for self-published cookbook authors, which is something that I really like. I just think it’s amazing how many people put the time and effort into publishing a cookbook and they put their heart and soul into it and even though the recipes might not be as fanciful as complicated as regular cookbooks.”
Anyone can come by to participate, and the class cost $15 per person, which covers the food, the booze and the knowledge.
Cookology
21100 Dulles Town Circle
Sterling, VA, 20166
703-433-1909
- Kris King
Posted by The Editorial Desk / Friday, July 22nd, 2011
So my air conditioner is broken, and today’s forecast? “Super awful.”
Great.
Thinking that it might help lower my internal body temperature, I decided to take advantage of one of those suburban, children infested pools that pepper the Northern Virginia landscape, but jumping in the water was like hopping into a tub full of lukewarm sweat. Basically, what I’m saying is that it is hot out today.
Considering my house feels like a Turkish prison, I decided that I should try to make something cold to keep my blood from steaming out of my pores. So I decided to tackle another V8 challenge and use two cans from the half-full case of V8 I once received as an unwanted gift to make everyone’s favorite ice cold tomato soup, gazpacho!
Okay, okay, I don’t like gazpacho either, but I’ve got to do something with this stuff. I need the shelf space, and since there’s no cooking involved with gazpacho, which means there’s no hot stove to contend with. That, and fishing for the needed vegetables gave me a pretty good excuse to stand in front of an open refrigerator for a few minutes. Wasteful? Yes. Refreshing? Also, yes.
Thumbing through my cook book collection, the only recipe for gazpacho that I could find was in my most comically highfalutin entry: Thomas Keller’s French Laundry Cookbook. The French Laundry is likely the best restaurant in the country, if not the world. It sits in the heart of California wine country, boasts three Michelin Stars and has won more prestigious awards than I can count. The prix fixe menu costs $175, which means it’s safe to say that I am never, ever going to eat there. Considering the restaurant’s pedigree, preparing one of these dishes with two cans of V8 instead of, I don’t know, homemade tomato juice sourced from a personal organic garden seems a little disrespectful.
But my air conditioning is broken, so to hell with it.
The recipe is filed under "H' for "Heresy." Also "Hot Out" (Image Kris King/Northern Virginia Magazine)
It’s also probably the easiest dish to prepare in Keller’s otherwise advanced cookbook. There’s no complicated dicing involved, and no need to slave over the stove for three hours in order to make one tablespoon of lobster concentrate. It’s just some rough chopping and then dumping it all into blender. My kind of cooking.
(Image: Kris King/Northern Virginia Magazine)
Basically, you take 1 cup of chopped red onions, green bell peppers, cucumber and peeled tomatoes (that’s one cup of each, by the way), and then combine 1 ½ teaspoons of chopped garlic, 1 ½ teaspoons of kosher salt, ¼ teaspoon of cayenne (I used ground chipotle, because I was out of cayenne. They aren’t really interchangeable, but, again, and I can’t stress this enough: broken air conditioner, don’t care), 1 tablespoon of white wine vinegar, ¼ cup plus two tablespoons of extra virgin, 1 tablespoon of lemon juice and three cups of tomato juice–or rather, two cans of V8.
After that, it needs to sit in the fridge over night. While gazpacho isn’t cooked, it does needs some time to let the flavors mambo together.
The results? Pretty good! It’s got a nice, smooth texture with the flavor of the cucumber and onion right at the forefront, and when it’s served cold as the dickens, it is really refreshing in this intense swamp heat. Keller recommends straining the soup and then blitzing it again to make it extra smooth—which I did not do, and probably should have, considering the occasional chunk of pepper and onion that I’ll crunch into.
Gazpacho aficionados (if they exist, they probably do) will likely notice the use of V8 instead of tomato juice. It has a lot of the same ingredients that go into gazpacho already, but it introduces trace elements of carrot, celery, beets and a few other veggies that a more sensitive palate than mine could likely pick out. Still, with this recipe, that vile sour tomato-vomit taste that I associate with V8 is mellowed out by the olive oil and the fresh vegetables. Honestly though, once the gazpacho starts to warm up, it becomes noticeably less appetizing.
Still, that’s two more cans of V8 down, and by my count there are only five left. Maybe next time I will make a roast or a stew with some V8 when it’s not 150 degrees in my kitchen, or maybe I’ll just let the stuff sit in my basement a little longer.
Unblizted Results (Image: Kris King/Northern Virginia Magazine)
UPDATE (2:18 p.m.): SO THIRSTY
- Kris King
Posted by Warren Rojas / Tuesday, February 22nd, 2011
Local Girl Does Good Great:
(Image: Meshelle Armstrong)
That would be a perfectly fitting headline for any profile of toque Shannon Overmiller, the spunky hometown gal who’s helped lead The Majestic back to its former glory AND re/introduced folks to the Rockwellian notion of sitting down together for at least one wholesome meal per week with her much-lauded “Nana’s Sunday Dinner” program. Turns out, she’s as obsessed with weekend suppers as we are with her regionally-inspired cooking…
WR: Salt. Pepper. What other spices/herbs could you not live without?
SO: I love cumin/cayenne as a spice. I also love rosemary and sage, but in moderation.
WR: What’s the very first dish you ever mastered? How long did it take? Do you still make it today?
SO: My cream of crab soup. It took me 3-4 times to master it. I cooked it for my boyfriend who is a chef as well for his first cooked dinner because I knew it was right on. Since he is a chef, I knew I better get it right. I still make it today, for every Thanksgiving! I do it at certain events like ZooFari as one of my staples.
WR: What seasonal ingredient(s) get your creative juices flowing?
SO: Summer: tomatoes, crabs, corn. Spring: peas, asparagus, Meyer lemons, ramps. Fall: chestnuts, butternut squash, apples (of course). Winter: stews and braises.
WR: My latest cookbook obsession is …
SO: Sunday Suppers at Luques by Suzanne Goin or Bouchon by Thomas Keller
WR: What’s the most challenging dish you’ve ever attempted? Would you make it again?
SO: Foie terrine or torchon in puff pastry. I would make them again because they came out superb (as long as you follow instructions carefully). These are technical dishes that require following an exact method.
WR: If I could the spend the day working alongside any local chef, I’d love to collaborate with …
SO: Scott Drewno of The Source. He is such a good person and very talented. He is also very up and coming in the area. Another would be Fabio Trabocchi–I can’t wait to see his bistro food shine with his new restaurant, and I have a very Italian style with a lot of my cooking.
WR: What’s the easiest/quickest–but still wholly satisfying–meal you make for yourself?
SO: Bacon and eggs or sausage or scrapple and eggs. Your typical breakfast, served with buttered toast, coffee and o.j. Breakfast is really special, especially when you cook it for you and your honey on your day off –or even just yourself.
WR: In the next six months you won’t want to miss my …
SO: Our restaurant group opening our new expanding projects/restaurants!!! Coming in spring/summer this year.
WR: It’s quitting time. I’m pouring myself …
SO: onto the couch! With a glass of Pinot Grigio or any nice cool, crisp white wine.
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Many of Overmiller’s favorite ingredients mirror my own. Suppose I should frequent the Majestic more often to take full advantage …
Come back next Tuesday for another helping of Red Meat.
–Warren
Posted by The Editorial Desk / Tuesday, July 6th, 2010
According to my most recent casual survey at the farmer’s market, beets are in season in the spring, and we only have between two to three weeks left to buy them fresh and local. With the summer heating up, why not try to use those beets in a cool sorbet?
(image: Charmaine Pastry)
Okay. You may have just mentally balked and answered with five reasons why one should not try to make dessert out of vegetables. But without such innovative thinking, we might not have pumpkin pie or carrot cake – so lower your skeptical eyebrows and pick up your spoons, my friends.
Thomas Keller offers a great beet ice cream recipe with candied walnuts or you can try a less complicated approach with refreshing apple undertones. I recommend leaving out the cider and adding a mint leaf for garnish. With a lusty shade of red, beet sorbet makes a dramatic dessert and may just change the way you think about vegetables.
Not convinced? It could be much worse – lobster ice cream makes these beet sweets look tame. If you still want to steer closer to home (or if you don’t own an ice cream maker), beet soup with feta could be a winner for dinner.
Don’t take too long to work up your courage. These beets are going, going…
-Jamel Daugherty
Home Sous Vide Gets Chilly Reception
Posted by The Editorial Desk / Monday, October 26th, 2009
(Image: SousVide Supreme)
Kitchen gadget collectors got served up a doozy on Friday with the release of the SousVide Supreme–a home water bath being marketed by “Protein Power” proponents Drs. Michael and Mary Dan Eades.
The high-tech oven was designed to introduce home cooks to the health benefits of sous vide, a commercial cooking technique that involves preparing vacuum-sealed foodstuffs in meticulously regulated tanks of water. The practice originated in industrial kitchens (our own Cuisine Solutions remains a global powerhouse), but has gained much greater traction with celebrity chefs (Heston Blumenthal is on the current promotional tour) in the past decade.
But is Suzie Homemaker ready to take the immersion cooking plunge?
Cookbook devourer cum techno-prep wiz Carol Blymire, she who battled her way through every French Laundry creation and parlayed her ongoing Alinea project into a spot on Grant Achatz’s line, hopes the SousVide Supreme instruction manual has been more carefully researched than the web site.
“The biggest thing that seemed off, or misguided, is the notion that you don’t have to worry about time when cooking … that you can just walk away and let the food sit in there as long as you want, which isn’t the case,” she warned. “With meats especially, you can leave it in there too long … the color of the meat won’t change, but the the texture will, which will alter taste and texture when you eat it–it’ll look rare, but will taste overcooked.”
Meanwhile, food blogger Melissa McCart imagines the space age appliance would just collect dust on the average cook’s countertop.
“I think it’s like a sausage maker: for the technical geeks, for super committed cooks. But really, a whole lot of work for someone who still buys chicken stock,” she posited.
At press time, Eades Appliance Technology had not responded to inquiries about when the Sous Vide Supreme pre-order price ($399) would expire.
–Warren
