Archives Under "Ten 01" (RSS)
Out Standing In A Field And Cooking…Again.
3 September 2008 | Ten 01, delicious | No Responses
We did it again, faithful readers. We rolled up into a vineyard and cooked a bad-assed meal. At Adelsheim Vineyards in Oregon wine country Chef and I cooked up a 5 course plated dinner for some lucky people. They had hor de oeuvres at the winery while we set up our food and the service staff set up the table. Nestled between rows of grape vines sat our al fresco kitchen, which was equipped with two low propane burners (the kind used for outdoor turkey frying,) a large charcoal grill, and ample plating space. The guests were enjoying Gazpacho shots, arugula pesto prawns, and hamachi tartare while I drank beer and spit cusses at the grill. I had one hell of a time getting that thing lit. It took a side towel soaked in lighter fluid, but I got that fire rolling. The guests strolled up in the waning evening light as the charcoal sputtered and spat to life. Spring Lamb Chops marinated. Chef seared scallops as the girls plated the first course. I scurried about, feeding chef clean pans and regulating fires and helping plate. The servers bussed and poured and ran the plates when each course came up. When it was time for the duck tits, the sheet pan flat top was again created, and the sizzling fat filled the air with a delicious smell. They were sliced and hit the plate with a scrumptous plop. The fading light mingled with the gasps of gastronomic pleasure, the breeze wafted sweet smelling smoke and aounds of merriment across the vineyard. The lamb chops hit the grill with a satisfying sound, that fucker was hot. Chef kicked me off grill duty as I blackened some of the chops. Fucking pastry chefs trying to grill, shit…
Ouch.
31 August 2008 | Ten 01, news | No Responses
Scalding hot lamb fat..That’ll Getcha…Sorry Chef!!
Caramel Mousse Cake.
27 August 2008 | Ten 01, creative presentation of the week, custard, delicious, plated dessert | No Responses
I ran this dessert as a special last weekend and it sold pretty well. With milk chocolate sauce and hazelnut praline, it looked sharp and tasted delicious. The chocolate base is Tony’s truffle sponge, almost a brownie but with egg whites folded in. The central crunchy layer was a caramel candy filling, which I augmented with a little milk chocolate and feuilletine. The mousse was a new recipe, one I found on Cuisine French. The recipe caught my eye because it assumed a certain level of knowledge and technique. For example, step three in the recipe states “prepare a custard with the milk, sugar, constarch, and egg yolks.” That’s my kind of recipe. The praline garnish, I’m embarrassed to say, is isomalt. This synthetic sugar always makes me feel like a cheater, a corner-cutter and a hack. It is a beautiful garnish however, so I guess it’s OK. I learned how to make those over ten years ago now. Hmph….I’m getting old. Meanwhile, it’s business as usual at the restaurant, things have been picking up. The Oregoinian released an excellent review of us last week, and we’ve been seeing increasing numbers. I couldn’t find the review online…even without mention of the desserts-it was a good one. 
Hamburger Heaven.
13 August 2008 | eating, Ten 01, creative presentation of the week, delicious, food | No Responses
It’s a Chorizo burger, actually. People who don’t enjoy this are stupid. Tomato bacon jam, pickled shallots and fried hen egg. The Chorizo sausage has a good spice, and egg yolk melting all over everything is a fucking mouthgasm. Easily takes this month’s Creative Presentation of the Week. Created one night for staff by line cook Mark, we knew it was a keeper. Sitting tall on the bar menu this burger is the best thing you ever tasted. I recommend dipping each bite into srirachanaise, and washing it all down with cold whiskey. Man, we’ve been putting out good food. Peep this Squab. Seared and served with crab-zucchini salad and Hollandaise? Yes, Please! How about an english pea crepe to sop up that sauce? Delicious!!
Now That’s a Cake.
10 August 2008 | cake, Ten 01, dessert | 2 Responses
I’ve been mentally putting this cake together for two months. When I finally attached the last rose, and stepped back, taking it all in…I was quite pleased with myself. After 12 or so hours total prep time over 4 days, the thing looked pretty damn sharp. I could hardly remember all the baking and prepping of the fillings and the 6 a.m. rolling of the fondant. It all seemed like a dream now. At service time, I pulled off the lace so the newlyweds could get the first slice. It felt like foreplay as the thin black fabric fell away. Watching the bride and groom grin and cut into it and stuff each-others faces, I knew I had a silly smile, too. I waited in the the crowd with a sharp blade. Foreplay was almost over. And you know what that means. This was the first cake that I’ve made that I also got to cut and serve, and while intimidating at first was easy and fun to do so. There was a certain bent appeal to spending so much time to get this perfect, then just wheeling over and hacking it apart. In spite of the fondant, I knew also this cake tasted great. Two of the layers were Grand Marnier soaked chocolate sponge with chocolate mousse. One was lemon pound cake with lemon pastry cream, and finally a vanilla sponge with vanilla pastry cream. With sticky hands I plopped piece after piece onto to an endless line of plates being rotated in front of me. As I cut it, the servers ran pre-sliced chocolate truffle cakes from the back. 200 people were caked in about fifteen minutes. The rest of the food we put out for the party was really nice as well. From sushi to prime rib, they ate it all. It was a good day. Days like this remind me why I love this business, why I have no problem with the long-hours and sometimes less than ideal conditions. We came, we cooked, and it was good. That’s F&B, baby.
The Latest Dessert Menu.
30 July 2008 | Ten 01, delicious, plated dessert, dessert | 3 Responses
So I took the chocolate flour-less cake recipe that I used for Chocolate Whiskey Cake, and I piped and swirled some NY Cheesecake batter into it and I’m calling it Marble Cheesecake. I discovered this process by mistake at Carlyle, where I had the two batters ready at the same time. Funny how stuff comes together sometimes. I learned one recipe from Tony, and one from Mark, it’s as if I delivered their bastard child. The creaminess of the cheesecake flirts with the fudge-like chocolate, blackberry coulis and delicate horseshoe chocolate garnish sells it. Pretty cool looking I thought, and hell of decadent. I used this cake for a recent off-site event, and it was well received. Some people even want it for their birthday. Right now Bramble-type berries are so good in Oregon, and these blackberries are no exception. Viridian farms delivers, and the berries don’t disappoint. Take for example their blueberries, which are an integral part of the Lemon Blueberry Tart, below. This is an extremely simple dessert, pate sucre, lemon curd, the blueberries and coulis, a bit of chantilly. It’s selling well. I didn’t know how it was going to work until I had it on the plate. Simple and delicious. I’m also using their raspberries for the new Bread Pudding set, with raspberry caramel ice cream, a different but delicious frozen treat. Also new this menu is Funnel Cakes. I wanted to try these again to see if I could actually produce them, instead of just piping a few like I originally did. I can. I can also serve it with roasted banana anglaise and call it a day.
Eating Again.
27 July 2008 | eating, Ten 01, food | 2 Responses
I eat good at work. At about nine-thirty, or ten o’clock, I’m about to get fed. One night Perez made me this slider, it had foie torchon and a fried quail egg. I practically inhaled it. Arturo loves to cook for everybody. One morning when we were all hungover he cooked up some rib tacos with black bean sauce. Perfect hangover food. One night, at the end of service, he brought me this tasty pork loin dish, it had this great spicy salad on it. Niell also cooks for me sometimes, like stuffed chicken breast and bacon shallot mashies. I asked him what he could throw together for me real quick and he shows up with a perfectly seared, feta stuffed goodness with smooshy taters. It made my night. He made me a big fat steak one night, too. Still another night, Tony 2 Fingers had a duck tit mac-e-chee for me, with stinky blue cheese. He’s always got some project going for me to taste, like a bacon wrapped terrine. One night I ate this delicious duck confit, Perez made that one, too. But you know, I get hungry. Doing what I do, you can catch an appetite. The kind of appetite that requires a healthy portion of mayonnaise, butter, duck fat or cheese. I wonder what my cholesterol looks like these days. I imagine a delicious looking sludge pumping through my veins, a river of fetid creaminess that would make a good sauce were I to mount some butter. Ah, gluttony…GIMME A RIB!!
Oustanding in the Field
21 July 2008 | Ten 01, delicious, food | 4 Responses
We cooked at the Outstanding in the Field event at Domaine Serene Winery. The bus rolled up and set up the table in the middle of the vineyard, then we showed up and cooked on the hillside. Adam and Chef shucked over 200 oysters while the rest of us cut up melons. Soon after I cut my finger opening a bottle of truffle oil for the confit garlic and mushrooms. The sun baked us as the guests toured the vineyard and the servers scurried to ready the wines. The scene was set for an epic five course, including great food, wine pairings, and good company. As always we came prepared. We served up herbed melon salad with goat cheese and prosciutto. We heated the duck confit and cherry farro in a nearby oven, everything else was precariously perched on screaming hot grills. Chef seared of the duck tits and I grilled the pork loins. Our farmer from Sweet Briar Farms double fisted the meat as it was sliced up, gleefully telling all it was one of her pigs they were about to eat. It was as sweetly serene service, I drank chilled red wine and nibbled on everything. After the pork and lyonnaise potatoes we chatted and drank. People came up and clapped us on the backs and cheersed us as we watched the sun settle low on the trees. One guest was quoted “…fucking fantastic,” she would travel the country for three more Outstanding meals. A sepia coated everything as Chef told me to start the dessert. Everybody quickly plopped the cheesecakes on the plate while I mixed the berries and balsamic reduction. People ate, the elation was audible. 
Cooking and Eating and Such.
26 June 2008 | ramblin', Ten 01, delicious | 2 Responses
I made a bunch of pastries for an off-site event a few weeks back. Eight hundred some-odd tarts, cakes and candies. I felt like I was back in the hotel for a minute. Boo-YA!! Summer is in full swing and I think it’s aiming for my head. Busy nights, multiple parties, off-site events, wedding cakes…all that jazz. The restaurant launched a new website this week. We had a professional photographer come in and shoot some pics of the food. He had this crazy light/pup-tent set up in the private dining room. His Mac instantly showed the photos so he could adjust and tweak the food and equipment. The detail his images captured was amazing. I wanted to lick his monitor….Jeezusss. Anyhoo…still eating pretty good. Check out this dinner Arturo made me the other night. I’ve got it pretty good.
Rival Flavors to Waltz, No Intermission
19 June 2008 | eating, Ten 01, creative presentation of the week, food | No Responses
Another Spirit dinner hosted by Kelley Swenson and Timothy Davey. The two passionate mixologists poured Italian bitters, and Jack and Anthony were cooking in the street. The sun sunk low in the sky and filled The Cleaners with an ethereal light. At the door we were handed a tall orange cocktail which refreshed us thoroughly. We sat at he head of one side of the large L shaped table. Godfather footage was being projected onto the wall. The Chefs laid down some sweet courses and the bartenders offered educational interludes with the drinks. A bright and fresh tuna tartare with rhubarb and pine nuts, a tea smoked duck breast that I can still taste if I think about it. A Compari cocktail that I knew Tony 2 Fingers was drinking in the back. Jaybill and I enjoyed the food and cocktail pairings, the conversation at the table was nerdy, and laughing, we sipped our drinks. Third course was a trio of scallops, Foie, and pork belly paired with three shots. This was a really fun dish. The richness of each of the items washed down with a syrupy spirit. The infused herbs and vegetables in the bitters trumped us. My head was buzzing with delight. I felt an elation that would last the rest of the night. As our lamb T-bone floated over, I floated in my seat. Elbows hit the table, and the tiny bones were chewed clean without looking up. I almost forgot my drink as I took a breath. Delicious!! A weird sensation coursed through me as I thought about my day so far. Getting to work and spinning ice cream and baking cookies, I picked mint as Jack and Tony prepped. I helped Jack set up the Foie mousse, and when my brother met me at the restaurant I carried it down the street. A few months ago I was thinking about getting out of this business, and now I’m carrying little votives of pureed Foie Gras across Burnside. Attending a nerdy white tablecloth foodie dinner where I actually know a few people. Chef introducing me to the crowd as I sit there half-drunk, waving. “That’s right…I make the cookies!” Jack waved me over to verify mint plouche placement. We fell into a methodical rhythm of plating. I smiled as Chef scooped, and Tony and I sandwiched the cookies onto the plates. I returned to my seat and gulped at my mini Fernet cocktail. I took a bite of the ice cream sandwich. I slowly nodded my head. Then we peaced.
