I'm Back!!

Oh my `it has been quite sme time since I posted on here. Well the BBQ shop I was working at shut down and I moved into the kitchen at the Drake Hotel. It was a big change but a very welcome one. Working as part of a team including Chef Anthony Rose was a fantastic experience. There was definitely a lot to learn and absord in that kitchen. After spending five months at the Drake I moved to Kitchener and starting working at the Bauer Kitchen. This was a big step both in my personal and professional life. Moving from a top restaurant in a big city to a higher end restaurant in a medium sized city has its challenges. I'm not saying that one is better than the other but it's two different worlds. At Bauer I'm working a lot more and feel like I'm really honing my skills. We run a pretty tight ship and most cooks on the line are in good sync with eachother. I'm really hoping that my time here will help me grow professionally and help me learn as much as I can.

Corned beef

Working in a smoke house I have a very good source of meat. A couple of weeks ago I brought home a 7.5lb brisket with intentions of making some corned beef. I've never brined anything for this long and was a little worried that it would start growing some sort of furry layer before I finished. On the first day I got my brine prepared with salt, sugar, pickling spices and garlic. Once that was ready I sunk the beef and put it in the back of the fridge. 9 days later it was time to check in and see how it all went. Thankfully I didn't have a furry piece of beef sitting in my water, it looked good and smelled pretty good as well. After draining the brine I steamed the beef for about 4 hours and sunk my teeth into it. I do think I over steamed it and next time will cut the time down to about 3 hours. Either way it was good, sweet, salty and fantastic piled high with some grainy mustard. In the next week or so I'm going to start another brining process and once that's done off to the smoker for some pastrami. Hopefully it turns out nice and tasty!

Good Food

I was recently introduced to someone who works at a facility that provides children with fresh made, nutritional meals. Seems like a very logical idea right? Now this is something that we all want for our kids but very few of us follow through with. If any of you have set foot in a high school cafeteria you know what I'm talking about. We are giving our kids the choice of fries, burgers, poutine or hot dogs for lunch. Why is it that we all talk about helping our children grow up right, teach them how to eat properly and take care of their bodies but fill them with this crap at lunch. When I was in school I was very fortunate (though I didn't know it at the time) to have parents that cared enough to send me off to school with a fairly balanced lunch. At least one piece of fresh fruit or some veggies, a sandwich always on whole wheat bread and some juice. My lunch pail never saw the likes of snack cakes, pop, or white bread.

I think that we are at a critical point in time with childhood obesity, diabetes and so many other health problems with our youth. This is why things need more programs in place to help our youth grow up to be knowledgeable and health conscious adults. I think that schools need to step up and make fresh healthy meals available to the students. Kids spend a lot of time in schools and besides home it is a key player on having them develop their lifelong food habits. I have strong doubts that most school cafeterias have seen food that did not come in pre packaged, fried or otherwise processed. Lets change this, lets do everything we can to have our kids grow up healthy and make good decisions when it comes to the food they eat.

Rub Me...

Oh hey blog, I've ben neglecting you but not to wory, I always come back. So I've been working at a BBQ shack in town and have been playing arnd with some ideas for different dry rubs. I like to rub my meat down and let it set for at least 24 hours before I even think about throwing it on the smoker.  There are so many different ways f doing dry rubs, the possibilities are endless and I'm just really beginning to understand the full spectrum of what I can do with them. Do you want to use a sweet or salty rub, one that is heavily spiced or something that will tickle your tastebuds a little more gently.

I think a lot of determining what goes into a good rub depends on (obviously) the meat being used but also the sauce that it will be finished with. I don't want to use a heavily seasoned strong rub if the sauce is going to be super sweet or sper strong tasting as well. Of course the sauce flavour will be more pronounced in the end but don'tlet that fool you into thinking that the rub is not going to impact the taste of the meat as wll. Generlly with the rubs  I use I go for a more subtle hint of flavour rather than something that will jump out and grab your tastebuds off the start. Like a good chili I like the flavour to be there but not overtake the other flavours.

In the end each person will come up witha unique blend of spices for their own rub and I'm sure many of them will be better than the oes I'm currently trying to put together. If you have any suggestions for rubs pleae let me know!

Nom

Every so often (ok like 4 times a week), I get a craving to eat something super greasy and completely bad for me. Today while out for lunch with my girlfriend Amanda and my buddy Chris I saw a sign at the diner stating that they have a 3lb hamburger. Who in their right mind would try and eat something that big? It can't be a last minute dare as theyh require 24 hours notice. People willingly go into this place with the sole intent of eating 3lbs of ground beef not to mention all the toppings and the massive bun this beast must come on. The meat alone would pack (approx) 3696 calories, 236.8g of fat, 1232mg of sodium. Maybe it's the prize that convinces people to do this. Hey we could all use another t-shirt and our picture taken and taped onto a wall.

As I've started to grow older I've come to realize why fine food is served in much smaller portions. If the food is good, the meal balanced, you don't need pound after pound of it to be satisfied. A couple bites of this and that can satisfy the mind and body if it is the correct combination of ingredients. I look forward to working in establishments where this idea is made true and there are no competitions for who can eat the most.

On another note I start a new job at a BBQ joint downtown this week. I look forward to slingin' pulled pork and brisket to the masses (in modest 5oz portions) well into the night. I spent all summer working by the grill and I'm stoked to be able to carry this on through the winter months. I'm happy working around food but not much compares to lifting the lid on that smoker and seeing the meat that has been slow cooking for more than half a day. On that note I think I"m going to head upstairs and get me some dinner.

Time For a Rant

I always have my eyes open for job possibilities, even when I'm happily employed my eyes stay open for a new opportunity. There is the odd employer that realizes how much work and time those in the culinary industry put into their passion but the mass majority seem clueless. Why is it that people are posting jobs saying that you must have your Red Seal, formally trained with 5+ years of experience yet they are only willing to pay minimum wage or a tiny bit more than that? Do they not realize that culinary school is expensive? That most trained chefs have thousands of dollars of knives and other tools? How can anyone expect someone with all this training and these tools to work for minimum? Honestly if I want to work for minimum wage I'll go work at Burger King and get paid the same to make Whoppers all day long. Why should I waste my time and money to get paid the same as a high school kid flipping burgers.

One thing that sticks in my mind is an ad I saw a couple months back. The person was offering $700 to cook 3 meals a day for 10 people for 7 days. That works out to about $3.34 per person per meal. How is anyone supposed to even get supplies for that cheap let alone the cost of my time and skills.

I think a lot of people take cooks and chefs for granted, thinking we are all willing to work for pennies and don't have bills to pay. I guess what I'm trying to say is if you want good food be prepared to pay for it, not just for the ingredients but for the person in the kitchen taking time to make you a meal to remember.

Don't get me wrong, I love what I do and the industry I'm in but sometimes it can be a little frustrating to see all these underpaying job postings. I hope you all have a happy new year and all that stuff.

Gobble Gobble

So that time of year has come and gone once again. Smelling the turkey cooking all day, making the stuffing, the mashed potatoes, the yams, cranberry sauce, rolls and gravy. Christmas dinner, almost as exciting as waking up in the morning and opening presents. But why turkey? What did these awful looking birds ever do to deserve to be the focus of our gluttony on this holiday? Well in the Americas the answer is fairly simple. Back in the day wild turkeys roamed just as seagulls and pigeons do today. THey were everywhere so why not kill the things, stuff them and eat them? In Europe however there is a slightly different story. A few hundred years ago turkey was seen as an exotic bird and was therefore only placed on the tables of the well to do. As times changed and the birds became more accesible people continued to place turkeys on their tables as a sign that they were doing well themselves.

Now how about the size of the birds we place on our tables these days. Have you ever seen one of these mosters walking around? They look completely ridiculous. Since many people only like the white breast meat these birds have been bred to have gigantic breasts, so large in fact that they can no longer mate naturally. Commercial turkeys are now bred by artificial insemination. That signals a problem to me. Whatever happened to eating things as they naturally were? All these growth hormones injected into these birds and we are to expect no ill side effects? I'm starting to wonder if there is some corrolation between all these extra hormones we are ingesting and the growing average size of us. Something to think about for sure, but I'll save that for another entry.

To be quite honest I'm sick of turkey and turkey talk so I'll leave it alone until Easter, the next time I plan on thinking of one of these birds.

Don't forget to tell everyone you know, I'm starting to push my personal catering business "Dinner By Dan" and could use the help spreading the word. Big or small, I'll cook it all!