Big Weekend

I am very proud and excited to report we closed on our house this past Monday and picked up the keys tonight. We are moving to Milford which is about 25 minutes East on 275 from where we are living now in Mason. I will add some photos as we start the moving process.

Been Too Long

It is has been far too long since I have posted anything on this blog. Truth is since getting moved back to Ohio and finding a new job I have been very busy. For anyone who doesn’t know I am now working at the Cincinnati Marriott Northeast in Mason, OH. My current role is Sous Chef of the hotel which has 302 rooms a large amount of banquet space and a three meal a day restaurant. Out of our kitchen we produce all banquet, restaurant and room service food for the hotel. It has been a great transition for my career and an opportunity to gain more business and management experience.  Even though I am not working with the same high dollar ingredients I am used to we are still producing high quality food with the same amount of care and effort as before. As we produce more new promotions I will add some pics from the restaurant and post new menus as they roll out. I hope to stay up to date a little better for the people who actually read this.

Rue Dumaine

Last Friday Grandma Edna and I had a chance to go out to lunch at Rue Dumaine in Centerville. The restaurant opened while I was living in Phoenix and I have been wanting to get there and try it ever since. On Friday’s they open for lunch and run a special limited menu with some nice options. It is nice to see someone from the same area as myself who has been successful come back and add a nice establishment to the area which desperately needs a break from all the overpriced chain restaurants. Chef Anne Kearney made her name in New Orleans at her restaurant, Peristyle, and has brought that feel to Rue Dumaine. Google her name to get some more background info on her and her inspiring story and what she truly means to the Culinary world.

Now on to the food. As I was saying Friday is the only day they are open for lunch and I believe our menu had either 6 or 7 choices total. Between the two of us we sampled most of the menu and I would definitely go back again for dinner and enjoy some wine with my meal.

To start we had some bread and cold butter. The bread was nice but the cold butter is impossible to spread so that was a little disappointing.

For the first course Grandma made the wise decision and went with the white bean soup with crispy chorizo and greens. It was served smoking hot and had a very nice flavor with the house made chorizo which was fantastic.

I went for the boiled potato salad with hard boiled eggs, gherkins, celery, cherry tomatoes, chickpeas and a light vinaigrette which was drizzled over the dish. To me it was under seasoned but the flavor was balanced and light.

 Once again Grandma made the right choice and went with the house made Chorizo sandwich with caramelized onion and saffron aioli. This was the best thing I tasted all day. Soft toasted bun with a great sausage in between is pretty hard to beat.

I opted for the Skate served with haricot vert, sliced almond, orange segments and an orange vinaigrette of sorts. Once again I felt the dish was under seasoned but I have a high tolerance and need for salt. The skate itself was not that great and the dish needed another fatty element for my taste. The haricot were nicely cooked and helped to add good texture to the plate.

For dessert we both had the flan with caramel sauce and to me it appeared to have been scrambled. The caramel sauce was perfect.

The interior of the restaurant is very nice and comforting without being stuffy and pretentious which I enjoyed. Kitchen is open for everyone to see into and Chef Kearney was there cooking lunch while we were there. The bar area was very nice looking and I would love to check it out more whenever I go back. You would never realize you were in a strip mall once you were inside this space. On the way to the restrooms there is a huge mural of Chef Kearney for one of her awards which is really nice and I believe you can see a picture of this on the website.

http://ruedumainerestaurant.com

Alive and Well

Been quite a long while since my last post and I realize I have been slacking but I have been very busy so there is a lot of catching up to do. First off Nicole and I are finally settled in our new apartment in Mason, OH. It was a hectic three span getting moved up here with her starting her new job as Executive Chef of TPC River’s Bend Golf Course in Maineville, OH. We both spent a week living in a hotel at separate times and it is nice to finally be settled in. She has been working a lot of hours and is really enjoying this new change in her career.

As you can probably guess I am no longer working at The Oakroom as last Saturday was my last day there. Derby week was a very successful challenge although not as busy as we had hoped. I will include some photos from the week at the end of this post. Although I did not spend as much time at The Oakroom as I anticipated it was time to move on and I wish those people still associated with the restaurant best of luck.

Now I am on the hunt for a new position and challenge in my career not just a job. I have spoken with a few people in the area, interviewed a couple of time and plan on making sure I find the right fit for both myself and the next restaurant I move on to. This Saturday I am volunteering to help the team at Nada put on a lunch for around 5,000 volunteers coming to help clean up Over The Rhine in Cincinnati. Alot of the noted Chefs in Cincinnati will be there so it will be a nice networking opportunity as well as a chance to help out for a good cause. Hope to get some pics while there.

With my time off this week I am baking some bread and working on making homemade ginger ale as we speak. The ginger ale is really a simple process which I picked up from watching Alton Brown last night. He might be a little strange but the man is full of good information and provides some nice ideas for do it yourself items at home. Took a trip to Jungle Jim’s today which is always a treat. I could spend a lifetime, and a fortune, in the store and still not see or try everything I want. Figure on making at least a trip a month over there to pick up some specialty items and browse their wine and beer selection, very impressive.

Not too much else to report from here but I plan on staying a little more current on this blog now that everything has settled down. Pictures to follow are from the past couple months.

What Does It Mean?

I have noticed a common bond which Chefs cooking avant garde style food seem to always fall back on and quite honestly I am growing tired of it. Everyone seems to think they are “misunderstood” or “people just don’t get it.” Seems to me this is just a crutch to lean on when you are producing food people just don’t want or can’t afford to eat these days. Chefs and cooks, myself included, often blame the guest for not coming to dinner or just ordering a steak and not trying something different but who are we to judge someone else’s likes and dislikes or their level of culinary exploration. Although we would not choose to dine like them it doesn’t mean they aren’t having the meal of their dreams when they choose to dine. It can be frustrating of course when you work to design a menu and the same 3 items get ordered night in and night out but we are in the business of providing a service and a great dining experience however we can. This can mean making an adjustment to the current menu on the fly to please someone but that is what we do.

I have strayed from my original point a little so let me return to this matter or being misunderstood. Why is it every time someone puts together a dish or a menu which people are not interested in they assume people don’t understand? Do people ever think maybe the guests do understand and they just do not want to eat that food. Chefs are ego maniacs no question about that but at what point do you continue to push for “your style” of cooking in the absence of business. I liken it to the question of the tree falling in the woods and no one being there to hear it, does it make a sound? So if you have the most amazing menu, in your opinion, and you have no guests to serve is the menu truly that great? With the tough economic times we are faced with right now it can be easy to be discouraged by low business levels, we are dealing with this daily, but to blame the dining public I do not feel is the answer. I would love to dine out and be able to spend money on the finest restaurants but the reality is I cannot afford it, even in a strong economy, on the wage of a cook. Who are Chefs and cooks to look down on people for not dining with them when many of us scrape by just to live each day?

I understand the push to get your passion and creativity across in your food I really do but feeling sorry for yourself and watching business decrease is not the answer. Maybe business is still ok and your menu is going over decent but people have their issues with some items no big deal you can never please everyone. Just please quit talking about how people don’t understand what you are doing because the bottom line is it really doesn’t matter. All that matters is cooking great food everyday and working your ass off to give the people the balance of what they want to eat and what you want to serve.

Tired Menu Items

Just pick that up off the ground, wash it off and garnish the plate with it.

I must say Chef Todd beat me to the punch on this one:

http://cheftoddrichards.blogspot.com/

Last week I was working on a list of stuff I am just tired of seeing on menus and although Chef got his out first I now feel even more obligated to post mine. Although this list could be much longer and will be amended I am sure this is what is really pissing me off right now.

Honorable Mention: Chicken Salad in the Winter, Tomatoes in the Winter, Yeah anything that isn’t in season for another 5 months, Generic Quesadillas, Fake Pico de Gallo and Sweet Scallop Dishes

Top Five With a Tie at the Top Spot 

5. Grilled or Seared Salmon- There truly are a lot of fish in the sea, find another one and give it a try.

4. Chicken Breast- Roast the whole thing or give me a thigh or a leg and if I am going to eat it I want it coated in seasoned flour and fried so I can enjoy that part atleast.

3. Beef Tenderloin- Let me get this straight it is the most expensive and least flavorful? Wrap some bacon around that if you are going to subject your guests to eating it.

2. Field Greens- Pick out some greens that actually have a flavor profile of their own instead of something that comes in a 3 # bag made for a wedding of 300.

1. It is a tie between Crab Cakes and Seared Ahi Tuna- One more crab cake and I am afraid I going to dunk my head in the deep fryer. If I want tuna I want it fresh and raw please quit searing it and serving it with a bunch of shit around it, like a field green salad.

Let me know what you are tired of seeing and we can compare notes. After this I am sure the list will continue to grow.

Pig Head

We got a pig’s head in last Friday from a local farm and had the chance to work with it the past few days. Saturday night he went into a brine of apples, cider, corriander, peppercorns, anise, thyme and a few other spices and herbs. Tuesday night I pulled the head out and got in into a pot ready to start cooking and put it back on the stove yesterday morning about 7 am. About 3 I took the head out of the pot, unwrapped the cheesecloth and start to pull it apart and separate specific pieces such as the cheeks and tongue. After reducing the cooking liquid I filled a terrine mold with the meat and placed the split tongue down the center before layering in the reduced liquid to help bind everything. Today we will see how it came out and more pics to follow.

Media Photos

We had the chance to do some a photo shoot yesterday for some external and internal advertising for The Oakroom. Snapped a few pics of the plates before they went out. It is truly amazing what a professional camera and photographer can do, makes me jealous, and I thought I had a nice camera.

Evolution Of The Doughnut

After the initial rise of the dough it is then gently punched down and rolled into a layer about 1/8 inch thick. Next rounds are cut out of the dough and allowed once again to rise until doubled. Following the second rise the doughnuts take a trip to a 350 degree fryer until golden brown. During service they are stored warm above the pass and upon order will be filled with braised oxtail using a pair of tweezer tongs. The doughnuts are topped with romano cheese powder and served with an espresso cup filled with the reduced braising liquid from the oxtail topped with an onion froth. Coffee and doughnuts Oakroom style.

Desserts First Tonight

Come visit Chef de Cuisine Nicole Walker and Pastry Chef Sarah McGregor of The Oakroom tonight at Desserts First at the Louisville Marriott Downtown. This is a benefit for Girl Scouts of Kentuckiana featuring restaurants from around town using Girl Scout cookies to provide both hot and cold culinary works of art. Stop by, say hello and help support a great organization.