Ten Things Celeb Chefs Won’t Tell You

Posted by Jennifer Heigl

Hot on the trail of my celebrity chef weekend extravaganza at the 2009 Vegas Uncork’d festival, SmartMoney.com has a great list of  Ten Things Celebrity Chefs Won’t Tell You.

While I’ll be the first to tell you how fun it is to get to know ‘celeb’ chefs, it’s long been a complaint of mine that most ‘celeb chefs’ really aren’t chefs at all. Sure, they’re nice and friendly, and they’re familiar with the kitchen to a certain extent, but most fans would be surprised at how few really have experience in a restaurant kitchen.

“It’s not necessary that there are professional chefs on the Food Network,” says Anthony Bourdain, Kitchen Confidential author and a celebrity chef in his own right. “But what they really need are good cooks, and they have precious few of those.”

Perhaps it’s my experience in catering that makes me a bit of a stickler with that regard, but I’m always more interested in the chefs who actually put in the hours in the kitchen – the Bartolottas, the Bourdains, the Buscaglias – vs. the Rays, if you will. I’ve noticed that even some of the more local celeb chefs aren’t always working the line. Nonetheless, the list of ten is certainly interesting to peruse.

Experienced Chefs Wanted for Part-Time Work

Don’t call it a recession?  After a year of squeezing by the elephant on the way to the bathroom, we can officially state we are in a recession.

For those cloaked in denial, the truth is behind the pushcarts.  The NY Times shed some harsh light onto the slimming job market that has impacted several industries over the last few months.  In this particular case, it was out of work cooks and chefs who were desperate for employment and willing to take a part-time job at a hot dog stand.

Note the hot dog stand, Let’s Be Frank, is a well known supplier of street side weenies on the west coast, with focused attention to organic and gourmet practices, but it still took owners, Larry Bain and Sue Moore, by surprise when their post for part-time help on Craigslist turned up some overqualified inquiries.

Most of the applicants noted years of kitchen experience whether in hotels, restaurants or cruise ships.  Some had even worked as corporate and executive chefs.

And almost all of them had expensive culinary degrees from places like the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y., or Le Cordon Bleu at the Orlando Culinary Academy.

Larry Bain responded in an email to the Times, “Oh man, hard to pay off your C.I.A. tuition loans with a part-time shift at the cart.”

Unfortunately Mr. Bain, you should probably anticipate further resumes.

Chefs Offer Insight at JBA

Amidst the clinking champagne glasses and photo ops of Sunday night’s James Beard Awards, WSJ took the opportunity to gather a few thoughts on how chefs are adjusting to soaring food costs.

Chef Michael Psilakis of Anthos, which was nominated for Best New Restaurant, offered:

“The key is to find multiple uses and to use every last thing that there is.  It’s really a test of a true chef to take something that may not be the best part of an animal and make something beautiful with it. 

While chef Masaharu Marimoto emphasized energy conservation by cooking in large batches and freezing leftovers, “Bigger is better.  Cook one time.  Save gas, save energy.”

David Chang, who received Best Chef in New York City honors, was more optimistic about the state of the food market:

“As prices rise, maybe people will appreciate food more. We’ll have a better food culture.  Just because [food is] more expensive, don’t compromise and buy an inferior product.” 

The theme of Sunday’s ceremony was “Artisnal America”, emphasizing the importance of local and fresh ingredients. 

Boo-hoo for Nobu?

During our trip to Las Vegas a few years back, my husband and I had to make a stop at Nobu Las Vegas for dinner. While my semi-claustrophobic husband was unamused by the packed house, I was happy with my five inches of personal space and warm sake. The food? Marvelous. The vibe? Close and comfortable. And the beautiful tea cups – modern green china without handle, emblazoned with a gold Nobu logo. It was everything I had imagined it would be.

But has Nobu, helmed by celebrity chef and restaurateur Nobu Matsuhisa, seen the last of it’s revered reputation? In a recent LA Times review of Nobu Los Angeles, the famed restaurant seemed to have missed the menu mark, delivering un-inspired meals at best. Times Restaurant Critic S. Irene Virbila could only pass along a dismal rating of one star. She noted:

None of it’s brilliant, but OK…Nobu L.A. is just another Nobu.

Ouch. Read the rest of Virbila’s review here. Looks like Nobu Hong Kong didn’t fare much better in 2007.

Fines For Non-Local Ingredients?

Juliette Rossant of Superchefblog.com posted this week about the recent bruhaha surrounding celebrity chef, Gordon Ramsay. Apparently, Ramsay is making a huff about restaurants that utilize non-local produce, relying mainly on foodstuffs carted in from all over the world. In fact, he suggested that restaurants should be fined for their national and international ingredients.

In this article from the UK’s Telegraph, Ramsay comments:

“Chefs should be fined if they haven’t got ingredients in season on their menu,” he said. “I don’t want to see asparagus in the middle of December, I don’t want to see strawberries from Kenya in the middle of March. “I want to see it home grown. There should be stringent laws, fines and licensing laws to make sure produce is only used in season. If we get this legislation pushed through Parliament then the more unique this country will become,” he told the BBC.

However, as pointed out by other well-known chefs, Chef Ramsay may be facing fines of his own.

Anthony Worrall Thompson, a television chef, was also circumspect: “I trawled through his menus from Claridges and Maze and there were at least 15 items that would have warranted a fine,” he said. “The principle is right but as for fining, I think it is a bit of a nonsense – he likes to keep in the limelight.”

I think it’s a great idea to offer fines for not utilizing local ingredients, but with the change in the food climate across the world, it won’t be much longer until local items are all that restaurants and cafes can afford.

Amuse Bouche

The restaurant industry is heavy on ego and for a few of us who discuss the current events there is sometimes the compelling notion that flexing our muscles against our subjects will bring civility to the land.

Yesterday was a variant of that day.  With a saturation that would make Chang’s pork buns consider a sauna bath, the blogs were sweating of Gael Greene, Tom Dobrowski and New York’s favorite temperamental chef, David Chang himself.

Following a week of ongoing “did he or didn’t he cancel his reservation?” at the recently borderline-infamous, Momofuku Ko, the lady of leisure finally spoke on the fiasco.  What did Gael Greene say of her experience and most dubious encounter with Momofuku Ko?  Well, you can find it here at her site, or on any other blog out there. 

What struck me, with all this hoopla and chatter, on what will turn out to be a nonsensical and unforeseen PR ploy, was that I found myself looking for something to cleanse my palate from all the dirt.

Luckily, there was another story circulating, coming to us from The New Yorker, who a month ago conducted the profile on Mr. Chang that instigated a swarm of press coverage when it unveiled him as a surly and paranoid craftsman.

This month The New Yorker profiled a chef with every right to those aforementioned adjectives, but has succumbed to neither.  Grant Achatz is the chef of Alinea in Chicago.  Noted for his methods of molecular gastronomy, his dishes are deemed as playful as they are challenging. 

But for a chef preparing such complex and nuanced flavors, Grant Achatz is at turmoil because his ability to taste those flavors is wanly.  Chef Achatz was diagnosed with oral cancer a year ago.  It was a year ago that the doctors told him they’d have to remove his tongue.  A year later, Chef Achatz, is still working, still creating, and still tasting with his tongue, even if only slightly.

Dependent on his smell and his sous-chefs, Chef Achatz continues to take his menu beyond the bounds of imagination.  In reference to his work and one time mentor, Thomas Keller, and his signature dish, he said:

“Thomas has his Oysters and Pearls.  We just don’t do that.  We develop dishes that we feel are great and that eventually replace them.”

At the time of the profile Achatz and his chefs were working on a cylindrical dessert composing the flavors of strawberries, Nicoise olives and violet.  He was trying to capture the essence of spring using his sense of smell.

“The idea that, in certain red wines, people often smell strawberries with ‘purple flowers’ and olives.  The flavors are put together on the assumption that if they smell good together they will taste good together.”

To read the complete essay of Chef Grant Achatz and his plans for the future follow this link. 

The Culinary World is Shrinking… Or Growing

Image courtesy of Odbitki

The nature of a recipe is predisposed to fluidity.  What one chef creates another may come along and change.  There are times when change is for better.  There are times when change is for worse.

In search of Rome’s best carbonara last month, restaurant and wine reviewer, Gambero Rosso, found two chefs with superior executions. 

The irony, however: neither chef was Italian.

The runner up was Indian and the winner was Tunisian.  Nabil Hadj Hassen, who migrated to Italy at seventeen, prepared the noteworthy carbonara dish at Antico Forno Roscioli.

As covered in yesterday’s New York Times, the emergence of immigrant chefs in respected Italian restaurants has evoked apprehension with some native Italian restaurateurs and patrons.  The recent tide of immigration, mostly Moroccans, Tunisians, Romanians, and Bangladeshis, has altered the image of Italian kitchens.  Anyone who has ever worked in a restaurant in the U.S. or in Europe realizes the situation of immigrants in kitchens.  The underpaid, grueling jobs are more appealing to those who have no other choice. 

This has become truth in Italy.  Immigrants have taken those jobs.  They have also taken the opportunity to learn the techniques and the methods that may afford them to one day become, a head chef.

The issue is, as the article highlights:

            “…Italians take their food very seriously, not just as nourishment and pleasure but also as the chief component of national and regional identity…Will Italy’s food change—and if so, for the worse or, even more disconcertingly, for the better?”

Is the changing landscape, pride aside, harmful to the purity of the cuisine?  The culinary arts maintain a great deal of tradition, and simultaneously, with equal significance, a capacity for innovation.  Does a cook’s cultural familiarity with the cuisine outweigh the execution?

Dining in New York City, or in any other metropolitan city, you’re bound to find a chef preparing a dish that is completely foreign to his or her own national background.  The importance here, as they would insist, is their skill and passion for the food.

With the culinary world shrinking… or growing, it leaves much to be seen for the future of Italian cuisine. 

 

Twenty Years of America’s Best and Brightest Chefs

Today Food and Wine Magazine celebrated its 20^th anniversary of calling out America’s most promising culinary talent.

What does it mean to make this exclusive list and how much bearing does it have on the culinary world?  Twenty years ago culinary icons Thomas Keller and Daniel Boulud were among the names to grace the list.  Other notables such as, Daniel Bouley, Terrence Brennan, Nobu Matsuhisa and Dave Chang have followed over the years.

2008’s roll call includes two women chefs and a chef of a vegetarian restaurant. 

Oh, and the lists have their share of celebrity chefs as well.  Rocco Dispirito was named one of FNW’s best new chefs in 1999.  Refer yesterday’s post What You Really Don’t Know About Celebrity Chefs to see some insight to the inner workings of a celebrity chef.

Food and Wine Magazine’s Best New Chefs in America of 2008:

Jim Burke, James, Philadelphia, PA

Gerard Craft, Niche, St. Louis, MO

Tim Cushman, O Ya, Boston, MA

Jeremy Fox, Ubuntu, Napa, CA

Koren Grieveson, Avec, Chicago, IL

Michael Psilakis, Anthos, New York, NY

Ethan Stowell, Union, Seattle, WA

Giuseppe Tentori, Boka, Chicago, IL

Eric Warnstedt, Hen of the Wood, Waterbury, VT

Sue Zemanick, Gautreau’s, New Orleans, LA