Yo. We had a busy but very smooth service over in Brooklyn tonight. Nights like tonight remind me why I’m still in one of the world’s most deranged professions. I hate the life I live sometimes. I sometimes ask myself why didn’t I decide to work in an office in the city, and work normal [...]
I served this cured duck hors d’oeuvre at my recent dinner party. Everything on my menu that night had some type of relevance to me. This dish represents the beginning of my professional career here in New York City. The duck pastrami was one of the things I learned to do at the first serious [...]
I served these skewers as one of the hors d’oeuvres at my recent dinner party. Basically I wanted to only serve food that held some type of meaning to me. I spent two months in China studying in 2005, so I wanted something to represent this experience. I was into Sichuan cooking for a while. [...]
I served a “beet salad” on a tasting spoon as an hors d’oeuvre at my recent dinner party. This hors d’oeuvre was a symbol of working in New York City. I don’t know what it is, but it seems New Yorkers love beats. I’ve worked at 6 restaurants so far in NY, and 5 of [...]
These corn fritters were one of the hors d’oeuvres I served at my recent dinner party. I shaped the batter into little circles with a ring mold, and popped them off onto a sheet pan, to wait to be fried. A short time in the fridge will firm up the batter a little, so they [...]
As March comes to an end, we’re getting through the last of the cold days here in New York City. That means, a lot of good things will be coming into season soon. The Union Square Greenmarket will fill up again, and bring to us city cooks and chefs its supply of ramps (wild leeks), [...]
I had a box of Umbrian lentils in my cabinet, and as I’ve never been a big lentil-eater, I wasn’t sure what to use them for. So I went to the basics: lentil soup. Lentils are a staple in some parts of Italy, and lentil soup is a very common, nourishing, country dish. This version [...]
Tonight the sous chef threw me onto the middle station, which puts out spaetzle, vegetable side dishes with nice sauces, soups, German sausages, and a bone marrow dish. It’s a fun station, because I can have a lot of pans going at once. I very much prefer working saute pans to grilling. Not sure why, [...]
Wow. I left my house to go to work at 1:30 pm on Wednesday, and got back home a day and a half later, 4 am Thursday night. Now it’s 5 AM and I’m lying in bed, listening to music, texting trash talk in Spanish with a Mexican guy I used to work with, and [...]
Pasta is often at its very best when tossed with a simple sauce of just a few flavors, and finished with a quality olive oil and grated cheese. This vodka sauce is a good example. It begins as a butter, infused with the flavors of salty prosciutto, sweet tomato paste, and fresh parsley. When the [...]
