Book Review of Yes Chef by Marcus Samuelsson

October 31, 2015 by 2 Comments

For October the book club selected reading is Yes, Chef: A Memoir by Marcus Samuelsson and Veronica Chambers (chosen by Amanda of Omar Niode Foundation).

I found this Chef memoir surprisingly different in that Marcus from the start had such a unique perspective. His journey starts with the circumstances of becoming an orphan in Ethiopia to his adoption and warmth of his family in Sweden to his journey in joining the culinary kitchen world through Europe and then his immigration to the US via his entry point of New York City.

His viewpoint is different from other chefs in that he doesn’t come off as a work hard party hard type of person, even as a young man. He does hang out with friends and there are mistakes –  including life changing ones. He humbly works hard –  he’s extremely driven all his life to strive to be the best – and pays his dues as he learns and strives. You often will find yourself more frustrated for some of what he goes through in obstacles then it seems he does  –  from the screaming chefs above him to paying his life savings to own his name again.

His start as an aspiring athlete in his youth keeps him off of drugs and gives him an incredible discipline and ethic I don’t often see in Chef memoir –  maybe because he can remember more clearly than others. At the same time, Marcus has always during his life been aware of his outsider status –  both railing against it and discrimination against his skin while also accepting and embracing it.

Marcus is great in particular in being able to step outside a situation to see the why behind the actions of people, good and bad. As he travels and explores new cities and new kitchens, he is always observant of the patterns and connections.  He does talk about food, but even more so he shows how food is a connector to all people and it echoes his own desires to communicate himself and cultures of people through the food he creates.


My only minus is that the book seemed to putter out at the end –  maybe the events are too recent and fresh to have gotten as much reflection as earlier in the book. He spends a lot more detail about people from his earlier days than those in his current such as the surprising lack of story of falling in love with his wife versus during kitchen peers during his apprenticeships in his youth.

But overall, my book review of Yes Chef cam be summarized as that his stories of his struggles and efforts –  the journey to success when he became his own man after Top Chef and opened his own restaurant –  are a worthwhile stories to know about finding your place in the world and perseverance.

If you are interested in the online book club the Kitchen Reader, the gist of our casual club is there is a new book selected for every month, each book is related to food, and members write a review on their blog during the last week of that month.

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Book Club: Anything That Moves: Renegade Chefs, Fearless Eaters, and the Making of a New American Food Culture

October 31, 2014 by 3 Comments

For October the selected book subject for my online book club, The Kitchen Reader, was Anything That Moves: Renegade Chefs, Fearless Eaters, and the Making of a New American Food Culture by Dana Goodyear.
Anything That Moves: Renegade Chefs, Fearless Eaters, and the Making of a New American Food Culture by Dana Goodyear

I really enjoyed this book. First of all, it really worked out in terms of timing, as I cracked the book open in the airport. The first chapter, Scavenger, which was my favorite chapter of the book, highlights immigrant food and how interesting cuisine comes out of poverty and necessity eating. At the same time, the food of the poor people is now the food being seeked out by the New American gourmet for pleasure.

This chapter focuses a lot on Jonathan Gold (of the LA Times… their food section with their large gorgeous photos sadly has no comparison in Portland, despite all the foodiness we offer) and also Javier Cabral (of the blog The Glutster). Both Gold and Cabral food coverage stomping grounds are nooks and crannies of the very city my plane was heading towards as I read this book: one of the ultimate immigrant cities in the United States, Los Angeles.

I looked longingly out the window of the car after landing as we drove by Brooklyn Bagel Bakery (mentioned by Gold as the “single source of every good bagel in Los Angeles”) but reminded myself my sister DOES live here and I had time to visit again. In fact, while reading this book in LA, I ended up visiting two of Gold’s 101 Best Restaurants during my stay, Newport Seafood (a family favorite that I previously showed off their famous house lobster) and also Son of a Gun Restaurant (in this post here).

The San Gabriel Valley area of LA, referred to casually as SGV often in the book, is covered extensively in this same chapter of the book, highlighting the specialized Asian food in the area because regional cuisines remain intact, traceable almost to the villages of origin of the restaurant owners. The SGV is also referred to in other chapters of the book. Other Asian foods, particularly the wonder of Thai Town and all it has to offer, are also mentioned in this chapter and I enjoyed hearing the love for this authentic home-cooking.

Stewed Pork Hocks: I love it, and very common in Thai food. Would you eat it? Next, Kai Jiew Kai Mod – A Thai dish of egg omelette with ant eggs. Would you eat it?
Kai Jiew Kai Mod - a Thai dish of egg omelette with ant eggs at Sticky Rice, Chicago. Would you eat it?

I’m not actually that much a fan of LA as the traffic scares me and everything is so spread out, but the food, oh the food… It is worth coming to LA for a food vacation alone, despite the distance and traffic. Gold, who the book reports drives twenty thousand miles a year in search of food, himself admits it in the book: “I go into a fugue state, like the Aboriginal dreamtime, when you go on long aimless walks in the outback,” he says, “That’s how I feel driving on the endless streets of Los Angeles County.”

I took some notes on my phone as I was reading the book of places I might check out in the future. You might find yourself doing the same thing.

In so many ways, this book really is a love letter to the food in LA, which is refreshing since so often the focus ends up in New York City. The book does cover New York (in the second chapter, Grub, about purveyors of specialty food in the gourmet industry, particularly exotic animals and insects), and also Las Vegas (in chapter 3, Backdoor Men, about the suppliers of the outrageous and obscure ingredients from truffles to caviar to foie gras and the storytelling or conning that may be involved).

Inevitably though, the book always returns to LA and California (and also Gold, who is mentioned often in the book).

Foie Gras and Caviar and Truffles, oh my
Poutine foie gras from Au Pied de Cochon Tru's famous caviar staircase/ In the caviar staircase, only four of the steps were actually caviar, the rest are accompaniants like egg whites, egg yolk, capers, and chopped onion. My brioche toast had a little bowl of crème fraîche along with. French Laundry- Carnaroli Risotto Biologico, with Castelmagno cheese and shaved white truffles from Alba. The foam you see around the risotto is truffle oil, and after the white truffle was added it was finished with melted Vermont butter.

The book also presents interesting political and ethical questions. Chapter 4 (The Rawesome Three, covering those who want raw unprocessed food, particularly dairy) and Chapter 5 (Double Dare, questioning the FDA and food regulation and how that creates conformity, and the role of corporate farms in the need for rules and regulation versus small farms) makes book readers to think about the line of government’s need to protect versus consumer freedom of choice.

There are also questions about our cultural sensibilities and environmental and animal rights stands of what is ok to eat. Chapter 7, Guts, centers around offal and the many parts of animal that are wasted in the American meat industry, including profiling one the Offal Prince himself, Chef Chris Cosentino.

Sweetbreads with Glazed Bacon/White Polenta/Shiitake Mushrooms / PDC, or Fried Pig’s Foot (Pied Cochon) with vegetables, mashed potatoes, stuffed with foie gras inside after deboning and then topped with foie gras. Would you eat these?
Sweetbreads with Glazed Bacon/White Polenta/Shiitake Mushrooms Au Pied De Cochon - PDC, The namesake dish of the restaurant, fried pig’s foot (Pied Cochon), vegetables, mashed potatoes, stuffed with foie gras inside after deboning and then topped with foie gras

On one hand, I side with this mission to honor the sacrifice of life and use whole animal. On the other hand, this chapter is where I was disgusted at some of the extreme food concoctions that clearly are challenges for a dining as sport and bragging rights. I can admire pig snout with escargot and watercress because pigs in nature like to eat snails and vegetation near streams. But, raw venison heart on a brioche made with pig skin, and mention of a goose intestine soup Consentino called “anal-tini” is a culinary dare that crosses to way too much for me.

The much more tame meat plate of Ox‘s Asado Argentino for 2 includes Grilled Short Rib, House Chorizo & Morcilla Sausages, Skirt Steak, Sweetbreads, or Roasted Marrow Bones appetizer at Little Bird Bistro
The much more tame meat plate of Ox's Asado Argentino for 2: includes Grilled Short Rib, House Chorizo & Morcilla Sausages, Skirt Steak, Sweetbreads Roasted Marrow Bones at Little Bird Bistro

Chapter 8, Off Menu, continues that line of thought of what is ok to eat and what is not, and what defines that line, as it tells the tale of investigating a restaurant serving whale meat and horse meat.  This was the most off putting chapter for me. Also mentioned in the book is eating dog, or live octopus. But, it did make me think about how casually, particularly in Portland, we eat pork… pigs are smart animals too. There are people who keep pigs as pet. Why is it acceptable to still eat them? I have to admit sometimes that line can be arbitrary… but at the same time, I can’t shake that line.

Meanwhile, Chapter 6, Haute Cuisine, is just wicked fun (and my second favorite chapter in the book) as it covers the wild wild west feel of food culture in exploring modernist cuisine and experimenting with food utilizing marijuana as an ingredient (with several hilarious tidbits and tales). Author Dana Goodyear observes, “Food, in the foodie movement, is often treated like a controlled substance”.

No, I have no photo of any food with pot in it. All I have is this playful dish by Homaru Cantu of “Roadkill of Fowl” which is a braised duck with beets. Notice the yellow dotted lines of the road and rice krispy maggots… Actually this was a really tasty dish.
Homaru Cantu dish of Roadkill of Fowl which is a braised duck with beets. Notice the yellow dotted lines of the road and rice krispy maggots Homaru Cantu dish of Roadkill of Fowl which is a braised duck with beets. Notice the yellow dotted lines of the road and rice krispy maggots

Overall, author Dana Goodyear has a very engaging voice and keen eye. In bringing her research/observational ride-alongs throughout the book, she describes the way people look and act in a way that succinctly embodies them. She tells specific side stories and uses metaphors and similes to really bring any subject or the way food looks and smells and feels to life in a way the reader can understand.

I already liked her when in the introduction, she described herself with this short story while simultaneously providing the credentials of why she was the right writer for this book: “My relationship to food is that of an acrophobe to a bridge: unease masks a desire to jump. A well-fed child with the imagination of a scrounger, I remember holing up in the back of the station wagon eating the dog’s Milk-Bones, which were tastier than you might expect.”

Dana’s writing includes profiles of  everyone,  both big and small in this adventurous eating world. The critics, the famous chefs and staff of famous restaurants or local pop-ups, the food suppliers both grand and small (from those in suits with exquisite butters and saffron to the tweakers who may forage your mushrooms), the food bloggers, other dining guest foodies eating with her, federal investigators… all are included in her scope of view.

Because of that diverse scope of anyone in the food scene is part of the story, the food culture that Dana depicts is rich with so many real characters that as a reader, you feel that the food world described seems very accurate in parting the curtain that a normal consumer does not know.

In observing the food scene, in particular some of the more extreme food combinations, Dana functions as our eyes and ears and grounds everything more in reality. She will admit when she leaves a pop-up still hungry and need to stop to get a hot dog, or that she’s impressed, or alternately that she is afraid for her health because of a dish.

In one example in the book, she explains “that dish –  quiver on quiver on quiver – epitomized the convergence of the disgusting and the sublime typical of so much foodie food. It was almost impossible to swallow it, thinking ruined it, and submission to its alien texture rewarded you with a bracing, briny, primal rush”

I waited 2.5 hours to eat at Sushi Dai in Tokyo. The one to the right, the clam, was still moving when the chef put it down.
Sushi Dai sashimi, Sushi Dai, Tokyo, Japan, Tsukiji Fish Market Sushi Dai

I shared a lot of photos of various foods that I thought tried to illustrate some of what was talked about in the book… are there any that you would eat?

Have you visited the food scene of LA, and did you know that the San Gabriel Valley of CA was such a hotspot for food?

What do you think of how Jonathan Gold, as noted in the book, subscribes to the following translation of the county health inspection ratings which are posted by law in every restaurant: “A stands for American Chinese, B is for Better Chinese, and C is for Chinese food for Chinese”?

And if insects were presented in some of the ways written in the book from the cooking competition at the Natural History’s Museums annual bug fair (most of the judges are children because of their openness to new foods):

  • bee patties for Bee L T sandwiches,
  • tailless whip scorpions in a tempura with spicy mayo,
  • fried wild caught dragonflies with sauteed mushrooms with Dijon soy butter,
  • Ugandan katydid and grilled cheese sandwiches,
  • a spider roll with rose haired tarantula (hair burned off, don’t worry – usually spider rolls are made with bottom feeding crab while spiders eat crickets that only eat grass- one young girl declared “It’s sushi. With spiders. It’s awesome”)

would you try it?

And, because I can’t think of any other time I could use these photos (which come from an exhibit on insects at the Seattle Pacific Science Center called Insect Village)… ha. The eating cookies with insects isn’t as far-fetched as you think. In my local paper, they just ran an article about kids pondering a mealworm chocolate chip.
Pacific Science Center in Seattle, Insect Village exhibit Pacific Science Center in Seattle, Insect Village exhibit Pacific Science Center in Seattle, Insect Village exhibit Pacific Science Center in Seattle, Insect Village exhibit Pacific Science Center in Seattle, Insect Village exhibit Pacific Science Center in Seattle, Insect Village exhibit Pacific Science Center in Seattle, Insect Village exhibit Pacific Science Center in Seattle, Insect Village exhibit

I hope this has been an interesting recap/review of the book for you. For next month, the November book for the book club is Born Round: A Story of Family, Food and a Ferocious Appetite by Frank Bruni.

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Book Club Review From Scratch: Inside the Food Network

April 29, 2014 by 4 Comments

I took a break in March but am back in April, especially since the book was one I had recommended, From Scratch: Inside the Food Network  by Allen Salkin. I read this book and am writing this Book Review From Scratch: Inside the Food Network as part of the online book club the Kitchen Reader.

I first found out about this book during Feast, at the Feast Cookbook Social event where I met Allen Salkin and we chatted for a bit, and when I ordered the book he promised to autograph for me (which he did!).  The description of the book promises “Big personalities, high drama—the extraordinary behind-the-scenes story of the Food Network, now about to celebrate its twentieth anniversary: the business, media, and cultural juggernaut that changed the way America thinks about food.”

“In October 1993, a tiny start-up called the Food Network debuted to little notice. Twenty years later, it is in 100 million homes, approaches a billion dollars a year in revenue, and features a galaxy of stars whose faces and names are as familiar to us as our own family’s.

But what we don’t know about them, and the people behind them, could fill a book.

Based upon extensive inside access, documents, and interviews with hundreds of executives, stars, and employees all up and down the ladder, Allen Salkin’s book is an exhilarating roller-coaster ride from chaos to conquest (and sometimes back). “

The first thing you have to keep in mind is that this is not a book about food. It is a book about the Food Network. Based on that premise, it is going to focus a lot more on the business that is Food Network, and not about necessarily loving food or the Food Network stars.

Those elements are scattered in there as there certainly are Food Network stars that are the face of Food Network to the public, and there are drivers there at the network that do love food. But ultimately, both for better and for worse, the network rolls up into an entity that is more than its individuals and has it’s own identity and story.

This book is definitely focused on the story of the Food Network as a corporation. The book also is strongly about history – with a few interesting stories scattered in. This historical reporting does end up with areas that can be very dry or confusing in trying to track some of the behind the scenes players without stronger narratives to impress all the involved people into a reader’s memory. It is a bit like a documentary series that still needed a little more editing and organizing because it forgot that it was airing in episodes over a season and not all at one sitting.

I did learn a lot though. I never will look at Food Network or the Cooking Channel the same now. As much as they advertise themselves about being about food and loving food, the truth I took away from the book is that they are at its core middlemen peddlers. They are a business that showcases and sells to those who love food, but they are a business. It’s those in the trenches who are making the food on the shows that are the food lovers with passion, working their butt off to know food and educate and entertain. But, these same food lovers are also tasked to know and work the corporate game that is the modern Food Network.

In many ways the Food Network seemed like destiny. It did a lot of stumbling into itself and success often backwards and through luck and the perseverance of a few people at the right place at the right time who didn’t give up on Food Network despite its fumbling around.

Back at its founding (some of the stories of the immature programming seemed literally and amusingly skunkswork garage level), and the book argues even now (with most shows under a theme of undercover/fixing reality show or competition and many of its original and classic stars now “graduated” away) , the Food Network highest level management had/has a surprising lack of insightful vision. The book seems to imply that this is due to not understanding its audience and its own food experts or the current culinary scene because of a conservative parent company and somehow finding presidents that are business experts with no pulse line themselves to the food culture.

The book walks through in detail the shift over time from less and less education and more entertainment and marketing. Food Network had ridden the rising food culture wave from food and cooking being a chore hopefully outsourced to kitchen staff to dining and cooking being a leisure activity actively pursued. By being the window into the wave at the beginning, Food Network has even participated in influencing and forming the current culinary scene. However, as more players have now since been born from that wave,  it’s unclear where Food Network is going next and if is now in the falling action part of the story or about to rise, redefined, again.

This was a very interesting read,  but I would say the big personalities and high drama promised are not a strong thread to make this the engaging reading you may think it is. Set your expectations that this is more history book that has a few sidebar stories, and that you will learn more and be entertained less than the book description markets.

In honor of reading this book, I decided to try one of the top 30 most highly ranked recipes on the Food Network site. In my next cooking post tomorrow, I will be doing a Food Network chef guacamole bar with 3 guacamole, 1 recipe each from classic celebrity chefs Alton Brown, Bobby Flay, and Rick Bayless.

This recipe I thought was a perfect example of what this book was pointing out. This recipe is from Aarti Sequeira, who won the 2010/Season 6 series The Next Food Network Star. This recipe is one of the fan favorites, with more than 600 comments from fans, and is simple, approachable, but yet opens up a whole new world of flavor – kale is a relatively recent ingredient to home kitchens, as before it was most used as a decorative element at Pizza Hut salad bars! If her name isn’t familiar… well now you understand the dilemma of Food Network in nurturing and developing the next generation and planning programming.

Aarti Sequeira’s Massaged Kale Salad

Ingredients:

  • 1 bunch kale (black kale is especially good), stalks removed and discarded, leaves thinly sliced
  • 1 lemon, juiced
  • 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
  • Kosher salt
  • 2 teaspoons honey
  • Freshly ground black pepper
  • 1 mango, diced small (about 1 cup)
  • Small handful toasted pepitas ( pumpkin seeds), about 2 rounded tablespoons

Directions:

  1. In large serving bowl, add the kale, half of lemon juice, a drizzle of oil and a little kosher salt. Massage until the kale starts to soften and wilt, 2 to 3 minutes. Set aside while you make the dressing.
  2. In a small bowl, whisk remaining lemon juice with the honey and lots of freshly ground black pepper. Stream in the 1/4 cup of oil while whisking until a dressing forms, and you like how it tastes.
  3. Pour the dressing over the kale, and add the mango and pepitas. Toss and serve.

For May the Kitchen Reader book club selected reading is A History of the World in 6 Glasses by Tom Standage. For our casual online club there is a new book selected for every month, each book is related to food, and members write a review on their blog during the last week of that month. If you are interested in joining, check out the website.

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Book Review: The Flavor Thesaurus Review, and Cumin Smashed Potatoes

January 31, 2014 by 10 Comments

For February, the book club selection is The Flavor Thesaurus: A Compendium of Pairings, Recipes and Ideas. My The Flavor Thesaurus review, at a high level,  is that you should go in with the expectation that this is a reference book, not a cookbook.

Inside its covers, the London author Niki Segent, has compiled a list of 99 main flavors, which then translate into 99 chapters. In each chapter she explores how the chapters titular ingredient might play with the other 98. For each pair, the exploration is usually in a few sentences to perhaps a tangential story or referring to a general recipe guideline that might be 1/3 of a page.

Based on this, the book is not one you really can sit down and read. Instead, it is one you pick up to uncover some inspiration for some interesting flavor combinations.

For example, her highlight of chicken going with walnut was inspiring to me. She references the kormas of northern India which I have experienced before in thick luxurious sauces, but she also introduced the Turkish dish of Circassian chicken with shredded poached chicken at room temperature with a sauce of onions, garlic, ground walnuts, soaked bread and maybe ground coriander and cinnamon.

She also mentions satsivi from Georgia, with its walnut and spices sauces that is supplemented with sour flavorings like vinegar or pomegranate juice! I had never heard of these before, and it sounds incredibly interesting.

Other ah hahs included beef and cinnamon (citing a Elizabeth David recipe for pasticcio with beef ragu flavored with orange zest and cinnamon), blue cheese topping some mashed avocado on toasted brioche, cumin and potatoes or anchovy and potatoes (the latter exemplified by a dish called Jansson’s Temptation, a Swedish variation on potato dauphinoise), watercress with blue cheese (like with Stilton) and walnuts (say a walnut bread, and/or walnut oil), and the list goes on and on.

This is an excellent book to quickly look up when you have an ingredient you want to use and are looking to experiment with a little twist from what you know. There are not many recipes, and any that are listed are more very casually written like it is part of a conversation you are having- folded right into conversation of the paragraph summation of two flavors together.

So you will probably finding yourself searching online for more after an inspiration, as I’ll be doing with some of the examples I gave above, or just experimenting on your own. The book is definitely not showing you what or how to do anything, only offering ideas for you to grow for yourself with a few guiding hints to start your quest. If you are looking at this book as a start of thinking about what to make, and not to give you an actual meal, than the book will work for you.

I tried out one of the flavor combinations that was suggested- cumin and potatoes. The suggestion was simple- boil some potatoes, and then afterwards I roasted it in an olive oil with cumin. I used 4 medium sized potatoes, which can serve 2-4.

Flavor Inspiration: Crispy Cumin Smashed Potatoes

Smashed potatoes with olive oil and cumin Smashed potatoes with olive oil and cumin
Ingredients:

  • 4 medium sized potatoes, though you can also use half a dozen baby potatoes or a dozen fingerling
  • 6 tablespoons of Olive Oil
  • Ground Cumin – 3/4 tablespoon, divided into 1/2 and 1/4
  • Salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

Directions:

  1. Boil the potatoes- your choice on whether you want to peel them or not, depending on the type of potato. I like them with the skin on, and in this case I was using gold potatoes. Start with cold water and the potatoes in a pot with enough water to just cover the potatoes and a bit of salt, and then bring to boil with no lid. You know they are done when you poke them with a fork and there is no resistance.
  2. In a pan, heat the oil until it is hot but not smoking. Add 1/2 tablespoon of cumin and cook until fragrant, about one minute. If you’d like here, you can also add garlic
    olive oil and cumin, preparing to put on boiled potatoes
  3. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. On a baking pan covered with aluminum foil, take the potatoes and using another pan or pot or other cutting board, smash the potato down to flatten it so it is maybe an inch tall. Now pour the cumin oil over the potatoes. Using a spatula, lift the bottom of each potato and tilt the pan so the oil coats both side. Because of the size of my potatoes, I used about 1 1/2 tablespoon for the top and bottom for each potato, but you may be able to make do with less depending on your potatoes if they are smaller. Sprinkle a little more cumin on top, as well as the salt. Do a few turns of the freshly ground pepper- you don’t want to use too much as you want the cumin to stand out.
    Smashed potatoes with olive oil and cumin
  4. Roast in the oven at 450 degrees F for 35 minutes or so until browned and crispy at various edges. Serve with your choice of protein- be it as breakfast potatoes with sunny side eggs to kickstart your morning, or at dinner with your protein and veggies.
    Smashed potatoes with olive oil and cumin Smashed potatoes with olive oil and cumin

I read this book as part of the online book club the Kitchen Reader. For our casual online club there is a new book selected for every month, each book is related to food, and members write a review on their blog during the last week of that month. If you are interested in joining, check out the website.

For February the book club selected reading is Below Stairs: The Classic Kitchen Maid’s Story that Inspired Upstairs, Downstairs and Downton Abbey by Margaret Powell.

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