My culinary anti-heros

a couple months back i listed some true culinary legends that inspired me to go to culinary school and overall wonderful role models (amoung them, Julia Child, Ruth Riechl). These people had true success in their field, but most importantly, they had true heart. Lately, i've read about a bunch of people that bluntly, piss me off! They have no respect for food, no compassion, and probably were given a plethora of bad meals. heres the list:


Karl Largerlfeld: he recently stated: "I hate the smell of cooking. Some people love it, but I don't care for it. I don't eat sweet things. I don't eat greasy things. And I like fish better than meat. In fact, I hate meat. My doctor calls me to eat meat twice a week, as apparently we are cannibals. There used to be a Nobu here in Paris but it was very bad; it was horrible". Not to mention, he stated in the same article that he hates fat people. I know he must be a very talented fashion designer, but I think he needs to wise up, realize the world doesn't revolve around him and eat trans-fat laden fried twinkie for god's sake!

Robert Irvine: I never liked his show (dinner: impossible) because it was totally staged, aparently so was his resume. he lied about his resume including cooking at the White House, knighthood, a university degree and making Lady Diana's wedding cake. I hate nothing more than people who name names to further their career. He may be nice, but a chef should set a good example (it does mean "cheif" in french).

Natsuko "Gal" Sone : The leading Japanese competitve eater, i give her props because she's unconventional (being a female in a male dominated "sport") but i put her on my list because i think competetive eating degrades the purpose of food. Food is pleasure, nourishment, art, but i dont think you can really get that by shoving X amount of hotdogs, cakes, or wings. this just kind of makes me sick and i want people to taste food, not force it down.

Healthy sushi choices!

adress the comment from my previous post, i'll give you my little guide to health sushi navigation. First of all, let me just say that every sushi place will vary a little bit so ask when your unsure. Some places sneak in mayo into basic rolls like cucumber and spicy tuna rolls. ask if they do this. Nigiri is ok because there usually is no chance of mayo getting in there. Tuna, Salmon, yellow tail, shrimp, and crab are the good choices for seafood. mackrel is great but fairly high in fat so if your watching that, just be aware. Eel is sometimes fried but some places bake them so agian, ask. sushi rice does actually have sugar in it so don't load up on the rice, unless theres a marathon tomorrow, then by all means carbo load. Miso soup, edemmae and seaweed salads are great starters. Soy sauce has A LOT of sodium so try tamari which is what soy sauce is based out of only it has about 1/3 less salt (and its good if you gluten intolerant, soy sauce has wheat). Wasabi and ginger are also harmless condiments. Tempra anything is battered and fried, its like the KFC of sushi. some crazy specialty sushi's like those "rainbow" or "spider" rolls are usually slathered in may somewhere. go for simple rolls and go easy on the rice. and bring a case of emergency fork if your like me and are a complete chop stick novice! (ps, i didn't make the top roll with the avocado on top, i did the inside out one next to it)

Sushi Buffet!

This is from friday's sushi buffet. I must say sushi is overrated and over priced. Our chef explained to us it one of the oldest tricks to milk money our of consummers. Many people put huge price tags on sushi when you really only get a little bit of fish or seafood and a lot of veggies or rice. I never loved sushi, i like fish, i am not crazy about rice (i am more of a bread lover when it comes to starches) and i have never left a sushi resturant very full. I usually load up on miso soup, edammae, and maybe tuna and salmon rolls when got to sushi bars. But in general, sushi is not my all time favorite food. I came home with so much sushi that night!

The Asian Appetizer Buffet!

Here's our cold asian appetizer buffet. I was in the group with all the asian students in the class (ironic?). I am the one staring to the distance and not at the camera on the far left (and obviously, the only one thats not Asian.

Welcome to Garde Manger!

Wow, so the new term started and boy i am i in for a whirlwind. first of all, my apologize for not posting sooner, this class is major busy! Its actually infamous around the school as being the toughest because A LOT of material is covered in a very short period of time. As i explained in earlier posts, Garde Manger is a lot about cold food and buffets. Presentations are a big chunk of the class as well. On Monday, we had a long lecture about preservation methods like curing and confit. I am sure if you watch top chef (review of this weeks top chef to come soon!), you may have heard that phrase such as "duck confit" or "tuna confit". Well let me tell you, if your watching your weight or fat grams, stay away from anything confit. Confit means preserved and cooked in its own fat. So we made duck condif this week. Duck has a thick skin (which equals fat) and so we rubbed a curing mixture and let it cure in the fridge overnight, rubbed off the mixture the next day to let it form whats called a "pellicle" which happens when you let stuff air dry. Then we cooked it in the rendered duck fat and cooled it in the duck fat. We are going to use the duck probably next week, and guess whats going to keep it nice and fresh until then, yep the fat. We began to make smoked salmon, gravlax, bacon, turkey, corned beef, and sauerkraut. You see, we are doing a whole week of sandwiches week 3 so this stuff needs to cure. It amazing how long it takes to make things like turkey and bacon, I mean its there ready to eat at your local grocery store. So the first few days we worked on stuff for next week and the week after. We did do a few cold appetizers because we had an Asian appetizer buffet (pics to be uploaded soon!). It was actually very delicious we made tea smoked duck (smoking using tea is genius!), fragrant chicken, five spice beef, chui-sui pork (i dont think that means anything, but maybe they though chui sui is some word in Chinese of whatever), spring rolls (very fun to make! a great idea to for a dyi dinner party, its like a step above dyi burritos and tacos, and probably healthier as well!). We also learned how to carve since its all about presentation in this class. So i had bring in 5 radish roses Tuesday for homework and a "kissing swans" melon carvings. I got home tuesday night and began to work on my melons, when i woke up the nest day, my dad's girlfriend's daughter decided to have one of my swans for breakfast! it was so embarrassing to tell the chef, "um, this little brat ate my homework!".

Top Chef Chicago overview!

I remember when the first season of top chef ran back in 05 when i was living in the college dorms. I thought it was ok, but I really fell in love with the show during the second season (and totally had a crush on the winner, Ilan). Now i am addicted. the Miami season wrapped just when i was beginning culinary school and now that the Chicago one premiered, i haven't realized how i view the show in a completely different light now. Before, i did have an interest in their food, but more into the drama (which i am sure is semi-staged, as with all reality shows). So i thought each week, I'd give a quick overview and my thoughts of the weeks episode. I dont know if any of my readers care or even watch the show, but maybe if you just listen to my ramblings about it, you won't even need to watch. Now i know i am sort of jumping into this kind of late in the game since its already had three episodes for the new Chicago season but I'll briefly fill you in. Right now, theres a lesbian couple who new each other from before the show (Jennifer and Zoi), a quirky new Zealand (Marc), a kinda cute wise crack (I have a crush on on of the chefs in EVERY season, last season it was CJ, this time its Spike, the token Latina (Antonia), the other cute but kinda dumb guy (Ryan), a know it all gastronomy whiz (Richard), the token Asian (cause every top chef season needs one or they would be prejudice, Dale), the quiet ladies (Valerie, who was voted off, Lisa and Stephanie), the token black girl (they always need someone black, in this case it was nimma, voted off the first episode), the scary tattoo dawning guy (Erik, voted off last week for soggy corn dogs), the pretty girl with little culinary knowledge (they always need some really pretty girl, usually shes just eye candy for producers, she wont win, but will be around for beauty's sake, its sad but its a pattern I've noticed, anyway, this season its Nikki), the comic relief (Andrew), and the quiet guy (Manuel, who was voted off this past episode). I think they cast strategically, as with all reality shows, but i love the show for the fun culinary creations and challenges, not for the "diverse" cast. I like that Ted Allen is one of the judges this season, joining Padma Lakshmi (Salman Rushdie's ex wife) and Tom Collichio (a very good chef i might ad, just opened Craft in LA and it got three stars in the times which is very rare). I wont go over the first two episodes because that could take a while, but I just loved this past one. They had to do a dish with a partner based or inspired by a movie with film critic, Richard Roeper, and kick-ass actress, Aisha Tyler, as guest judges. One team did Vietnamese Spring rolls for the film, "Good Morning Vietnam" and Padma commented that she though they chose the film because they want to make Vietnamese food, when it should have been the other way around. I agreed with her, and if it were me I might make something like twist on chili and corn bread (a la one of my favorite films, "Blazing Saddles")or some southern inspired dish (a la "Gone with the Wind", don't make fun, i still cry when i watch it!). What would your film/dish be? imagine if someone chose Silence of the Lambs! what would they serve, their partner's kidneys or liver with fava beans and a nice Chianti!?