a contumacious chef's culinary curmudgeonry
An easy dish to make in your dutch oven, adapted from a 1848 recipe for trail soup. Something to hold on to while sitting outside and waiting for the steaks to finish. Chop or fine dice bacon, one onion per four diners. Add to hot dutch oven and render, stirring occasionally. Medium dice your potatoes, I [...]
With apologies for the REALLY bad photo above. I had about a minute, a cellphone, and no lighting. I’ll take some nicer photos soon and replace this one. Friend Gail called me this morning, asking for a quick and “idiot proof” dessert she could do for tonight’s Memorial Day Weekend dinner at her house. Gail’s [...]
A few weeks ago, we purchased a few boxes of dry-aged, organic, grass-fed, never frozen, prime, porterhouse steaks. The raw material cost was way too prohibitive to have this on our regular menu, so we made a special from it. A day later, we sold out. Such emboldened, we added it to the menu. And [...]
When it comes to Sauerkraut, most diners can be easily divided into two camps – those who love it, and those who had Polish sauerkraut in NYC and hated it. The recipe and tips below are for German Sauerkraut, a modest and much tastier variation of the stuff you get on your hot dog, and [...]
E., the new girl works out well. A former stone mason, seeking new opportunities after the housing bubble went away and took jobs with it, she only took a few classes at El Centro, food safety and basic kitchen techniques, that stuff. Looking to see if she really liked working in a kitchen, she applied [...]
I love Italian food, the subtle differences between Roman and Venetian cuisine, the gradual removal of dairy and introduction of citrus and tomato flavors as one ventures south along the coastal and mountainous regions. Few cuisines gave and owe so much to their neighbors and almost-neighbors, from Turkish and Greek influences in the south to [...]
This Bad Boy is all Business. Weighing in at 1/3 lbs of ground Buffalo sirloin, only a serious Bun can hold this Beast. Best served with a dark Beer and topped with red and green onion marmalades, the Mr. B is a Bite to Behold. Ok, you can come back now. I just wanted to know [...]
It doesn’t take a genius to see when stuff isn’t working. But then, no one ever accused me of being bright. With chezGeek moving to mirepoix.org, my readership took a predictable hit. Links, including the Wall Street Journal’s and the various cooking related sources, main suppliers of a steady stream of 2,000 or so daily [...]
When is it appropriate to yell in a kitchen? At your employees? Never, so the overwhelming consensus on this issue, ranging from YumSugar to Ruhlman. YumSugar goes so far to ask the question and then answer it right away: Blame foodTV. Again. Shows, series, and reports have done such a good job of shining a bright light [...]
Inspiration for this post comes from Serious Eats. Over there, Nikki Goldstein introduces us to a “Spaetzle Maker” and states boldly: “You can’t make Spaetzle without using a Spaetzle Maker”. Au contraire, my dear Nikki, you can and should make Spaetzle without a Spaetzle Maker. Let me count the ways: Traditionally, Spaetzle are made from [...]
Regular readers (all three of you) know, that I don’t eat or serve veal. Unless, that is, it’s raised with its mother instead of being nailed into a box and fed ProViMi (a mix of – you guessed it – Proteins, Vitamins, and Minerals). This is where your veal should come from: Taken at the [...]
Gordon Ramsay is wrong. No, not about that “head chef” myth Fox and he are spreading despite the fact that not one winner in six seasons was made head chef (and, seeing the quality of cooks, I can’t say I am surprised). And, no, not about calling amateur cooks “Master Chef” after six weeks of [...]
My name isn’t exactly common. In most cases I am able to get jluster as my username. There’s one other Jonas Luster in the world, and he’s 87 and in Sweden. Yet, gmail, oh faithful mail delivery and reading tool of mine, regularly reminds me that there are some others out there who share that [...]
