No Recipes Or Celebrity Chefs? Is Michael Booth Crazy?
Maybe, maybe not.
In an article appearing in today’s Belfast Telegraph journalist Michael Booth warns us not to follow recipes or listen to celebrity chefs.
His assertion is that “recipes don’t work”. His credentials? A year of cooking school. What’s he selling? A book that has recipes in it.
By his own admission before Michael went to cooking school his food was terrible, his soufflés imploded, his sauces tasted like creosote. Why? Well he blames the recipes and the chefs that wrote them.
Sigh . . .
This is a lot like blaming the instructions for rebuilding my car’s engine for my inability to rebuild it. The real problem is that I don’t know enough about car engines to accomplish this high level task. The instructions are not intended to teach the fundamentals of engine repair.
In short, don’t blame Jaime Olivers, Gordon Ramsay or the Fat Ladies and their recipes if you don’t have the cooking experience to follow them. I expect if you were to meet Gordon at a party and ask him why your effort to make one of his sauces ended up tasting like creosote he’d say something like “@#$@#, do you even know how to make a bloody sauce in the first place?”.
Which brings us to the crux of the problem. You can’t expect to just follow in a line by line manner complex recipes and expect great results. At some point you’re going to have to learn how to cook. Recipes are instructions on the what, not an education on the how. When a recipe indicates chop, slice or reduce the expectation is that you know how to do that.
And if you don’t, your food will taste like creosote.
So while we can hardly agree with blaming the recipe for what is ultimately a dearth of cooking knowledge and experience, as it turns out the further you read into his article ultimately Michael hits the nail on the head. LEARN THE BASICS.
My point is just don’t blame the recipes before you do.
Michael Booth’s book is called Sacré Cordon Bleu. While I don’t agree with notion of blaming the recipes for poor cooking skills (I’ll bet he has no trouble following recipes now) Michael’s book seems more about his experience in Paris and at the highly regarded Le Cordon Bleu culinary school. It’s brand new and I have not read it yet but his book sounds very interesting, I am especially interested in his first hand account of a novice attending such a high end school. I do not believe its available yet in the U.S but you can read more about it and purchase it here (NO affiliation with Kitchen Warfare).
Popularity: 18% [?]
USDA Issues Largest Beef Recall In U.S History
The U.S. Department of Agriculture today issued a recall for 143 million pounds of beef that came from a slaughterhouse that was already under investigation for cruelty to animals.
I highly recommend you follow this recall closely through the mainstream media until the facts become clear. This evening there still seems to be some confusion as to how dangerous and what products are affected.
UPDATE 1:
A USDA spokesman said:
“There is a remote probability of any serious health concern . . . but we are taking this action because of our regulations” and in abundance of caution, he said of the recall.
Popularity: 16% [?]
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!
Greetings, I hope your holidays are going as well as ours. Foodwise the gloves are off today, which is just as well considering we hit our daily allotment of calories and fat at breakfast (especially satisfying because we’ve made everything ourselves).
So we’re off to watch our annual marathon of holiday classic films.
Until next time, here’s a little Christmas humor.
THE FOUR STAGES OF LIFE:
1) You believe in Santa Claus.
2) You don’t believe in Santa Claus.
3) You are Santa Claus.
4) You look like Santa Claus.
peace . . .
Popularity: 16% [?]
Roasted Chestnuts and Hot Buttered Rum
Two Christmas ‘standards’ we’ve tried.
Chestnuts Roasted On An Open Fire Oven
I have to admit I approached the chestnuts project with great anticipation. I love the concept of the ‘old fashioned not quite so glitzy’ Christmas and roasted chestnuts sounded like something right out of Dickens. As it turned out tho this was a huge waste of time. I roasted them in a oven and I thought they were quite tasty. However we served them at a party of about 30 people and almost no one was interested in trying them. Some folks like myself genuinely liked them but they had no where near the nostalgic appeal I thought they would.
Now I have absolutely no doubt that there are folks who have roasted chestnuts their entire lives and receive rave reviews from their circle of enlightened friends and family but if you think as a first timer you’re going to get a sack of chestnuts at the grocery store and light up the party with your creativity . . . well lets just say I suggest you give it a test run first.
Hot Buttered Rum
Hot Buttered Rum (or just a plain ‘Hot Buttered’) on the other hand worked out really well. Its novel and delicious and best of all it’s stupid easy to make. You can also be sure that you’ll be the only one showing up to the party with it so you’ll get cool points for being creative. The core of this drink is the butter/cream batter which is a lot like ice cream so other than having to be kept cold (its winter!) it VERY portable. All you need to do is show up with your container of batter and a bottle of rum, to serve it all you need is boiling water.
Popularity: 18% [?]
Viewer Mail - Key West Mollete? It’s the Picadillo!
I was curious if being familiar with the keys you might know about a place we got stuffed cuban bread from when I was very young…maybe about 1974-1976? It was filled with some kind of a ground beef mixture that was out of this world, the place was very small and had maybe two booths. I wish I had the name of it. I have looked for recipes, tried to recreate it myself in vain, any pointers?
Hi Francie,
I’ve not spent a lot of time in the Keys (Cedar Key is off northwest FL) but I’m pretty sure what you’re remembering is a Key West area favorite locally called a mollete. The word mollete actually means a kind of bread to the Spanish or a sort of pizza in Mexico (an oversimplification to be sure) but in Key West a mollete is a portion of Cuban bread stuffed with picadillo (traditional Cuban spicy ground beef hash) then breaded and deep fried.
Popularity: 7% [?]
Kitchen Warfare’s Cuban Bread (Tampa Style)
Background
The problem is I am addicted to Cuban bread. Blame that on the fact that I was born, raised and lived in Tampa, FL for 40 years. My grandfather’s house was in old Ybor City on 26th Ave, just down from Tampa’s premier Cuban bread producer, La Segunda Central Bakery and as a product of Latin heritage I was raised on a steady diet of Tampa style Cuban and Spanish food. But a few years back a professional opportunity took me from the Sunshine State to hill country. Now there is some real good chow here and I’ve learned a lot of new things but no Pan Cubano. There are a lot other things I miss, like empanadas, guava pastelitos, stuffed potatoes and a few other favorites. But with the accessibility of key ingredients from online Latin groceries I’ve gotten pretty good at making a lot of these foods right here at home. But Cuban Bread itself has been elusive.
The Challenge with Cuban Bread
In my opinion the problem with some of the baked goods like Cuban bread is that very few people made it at home so the bakery versions are what people consider ‘the standard’ and its what they are most familiar with. For example if we think of Apple Pie we may think of our grandmother’s pie as THE apple pie. Her recipe, her style of crust. But in Tampa when people think of Cuban Bread they think of what the bakeries in Tampa have been producing for over 100 years. The reason I’m guessing is that Cuban bread has always been made fresh daily and without preservatives. Its a locally produced bakery fresh product available in nearly every grocery store and its always been reasonably priced. A high quality product and a reasonable cost and easily accessible. It just doesn’t seem many people had reason to make it at home.
The result? Almost no recipes for Tampa style Cuban bread for the home baker.
Popularity: 7% [?]
On The Road With Kitchen Warfare (Day 8)
This was mostly a really boring driving day, once again on the dreaded I-75. We got a few chores done before leaving town for our 13 hour drive home and I doubt I would have even mentioned today if the nicest thing hadn’t happened.
We ran out of gas (us, not the car) in Georgia between Atlanta and Marietta, at exit 261 (Delk Rd) to be exact. We found a motel and by the time we got settled it was just after 10pm which without a lot of hunting around surely means a dose of fast food.
But it was not to be. I popped open the trusty laptop and got the # for a place called Chinese Wok (same name as on day one!) just down the road from our room. It was about 10:15 and I was fairly sure they’d be closed. And sure enough, the friendly voice said they’d just closed but when I asked if he could recommend something other than fast food still open he offered to take our order as long as we’d get there in 15 minutes. We found it easily and ended up having a really nice conversation with the other employees who where closing the place for the evening. While we waited and chatted we noticed they had won several awards for quality food. Truly our good fortune. After thanking them at least 1000 times for their kindness we hunkered down in our motel room for a wonderful meal that we really appreciated.
Nothing like a little good karma to make your food taste great.
BTW we’ll finish the drive home tomorrow, next post should be from our home base @ Kitchen Warfare Central.
China Wok
2555 Delk Rd Se # A11
Marietta, GA 30067
(770) 984-0599
Recommended? Yes their food is great and they’re the nicest people ever!
Popularity: 3% [?]
On The Road With Kitchen Warfare (Day 7)
Today we’re back in Old Town and its our last full day before heading back home. Mostly we ran errands and got the property mowed but we left time to try two local eateries that had been on our list since we got into town.
The first was the Homestead Restaurant, a locally owned spot in Fanning Springs that wasn’t here the last time I was in town. We drove past this place a dozen times and it was always packed with locals. We already had our dinner planned so we decided to try the Homestead’s Breakfast Buffet. As anticipated it was quite good, a real cut above the low quality breakfast buffets often found at institutional restaurants.
The 2nd spot on our list was Ralph’s Burger House which has been in Chiefland ever since I can remember which goes back at least 20 years to when we first bought our property. Chiefland itself has changed almost beyond recognition but Ralph’s still remains, undaunted by the surrounding glitzy fast food franchises that have moved into town. Just don’t be late because closing time on weeknights is 9pm. Arriving just in the nick of time (take out only) we indulged ourselves with classic onion rings, giant milkshakes and burgers to die for. I’ve always enjoyed a good quality burger and when on the road always try to sample the local favorites. There are some most excellent grease bombs to be found along our highways and byways and you can be sure that Ralph’s Burger House ranks right up there among them.
In fairness to Ralph, you get a lot more onion rings than this, we ate quite a few before thinking to take a picture.
Homestead Restaurant
17313 NW Highway 19
Fanning Springs, FL
(352) 463-0040
Recommended? Yep!
Ralph’s Burger House
15 Rodgers Blvd
Chiefland, FL
Recommended? Yep!
Popularity: 3% [?]
On The Road With Kitchen Warfare (Day 6)
After a few days of visiting family in Kissimmee and eating great Cuban food in Tampa we headed back towards Old Town, FL to spend a few more days working on our property before heading back to our present day home in the hills of Can-Tuc-kee. On the way out of town we stopped at La Segunda yet again for a stock of bread to take back home and a hot loaf to enjoy on the way out of town.
This time our route took us up the west cost of the state and at the insistance of our 14 year old Bichon we took advantage of this and stopped at Honeymoon Island State Park to spend a little time on their Pet Beach. This little beach is one of the few public beaches that allow dogs on the west coast of FL. Unfortunately mid summer its entirely too hot (100F+) so we didn’t spend too much time.
After a few hour drive we arrived back at our home away from home and ate yet another Cuban sandwich from our ‘supply’ from Tampa topped off with a guava pastelito. I’m telling you this food is addictive to me, suffice to say I’d eat my own hand if it was between two slices of this bread.
A Leisurely Day On The Pet Beach
Recommended? Arf! Arf!
Popularity: 3% [?]
On The Road With Kitchen Warfare (Day 5)
There’s nothing quite like visiting your home town after being away for awhile. In my case I hadn’t been back to Tampa in 12 years. Its always amazing how many things have changed yet how so many others remain the same. We visited the old neighborhood and knocked on the door of an old friend I hadn’t seen in 30 years. Another really great day.
One thing we haven’t really talked about is how much we Floridians love to eat. The sheer number of locally owned ‘one off’ restaurants is staggering. Of course all the chains you’ve heard of are well represented nearly everywhere you go (except Cedar Key!) but the number of unique and different eateries often inspired by Florida’s extremely diverse ethnic culture is mind boggling esp. after having spent so much time in the far less diverse Midwest. I’m of Spanish heritage, my grandfather emigrated from Spain to Tampa in the early 1900’s as did many Spaniards and Cubans over the years. In Tampa the fusion of food from these different ethnicities is very special to those of us raised there and there are many foods, ingredients and dishes that are hard and often impossible to find anywhere else. There are many traditional dishes but among my favorites are what is often called ‘street food’. In Tampa that’s Cuban sandwiches, deviled crabs (a very different Tampa style), stuffed potatoes, guava pastelitos, empanada’s and a host of other local favorites. I’ve gotten pretty good at replicating some of these great local delicacies but many have proven to be quite challenging. When I am able to visit my home town I usually spend a small fortune and go through a great deal of effort to get some of this great food back home. Not only to eat but to have reference samples as I try and ‘up my game’ on some of my Tampa style efforts.
And this is exactly what we did. First stop was the famous La Segunda Central Bakery for a fresh out of the oven loaf of Cuban bread (and many more loaves and other bakery goods to take back home). My grandfather’s house was just down the road in old Ybor City and this is where my father was born. In my house growing up a day was not complete without a loaf of Pan Cubano. While you may believe you’ve had Cuban bread before if you haven’t had it from a Tampa or Miami bakery it is almost an absolute certainty you’ve never had it at all. There is a lot of Tampa v Miami nonsense as to who first ‘invented’ the style of Cuban bread we find here in Florida and even a bigger scrap as to who ‘invented’ the Cuban sandwich (BTW it was in Tampa :)). In case your curious the debate centers on whether an authentic Cuban sandwich contains genoa salami. Both sides can point to evidence that supports their claim but at the end of the day is doesn’t really matter. Both the Tampa and Miami area’s produce great Americanized Cuban style food they’re just different. Their bread is fatter with more rise, ours is longer, thinner and tastes quite different. Which you prefer is a matter of personal preference BUT when someone tells they’ve had both and can’t tell a difference they’re either a tourist, a short timer (non-native) or possibly just have no sense of taste. In any case, simply do not believe them.
Popularity: 4% [?]
