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Archive for the ‘eric ripert’ Category
Tuesday, April 23rd, 2013
My husband was away for a week on business. This happens regularly, it’s not unusual. My son and I have crazy busy schedules…well, he does…and the week flies by. One thing that is really different though is I cook less for that week. We’ll go out or I’ll make some simple pasta. Nothing that I consider real cooking. By Thursday I was depressed. I didn’t want to do anything. I had lots of things I could do, but I sat online, glassy-eyed, as my twitter feed rolled by. I tried retail therapy: got a really cute skirt on eBay for $10. I went to the thrift store and bought a big bag of things to rip apart and make new, cuter things out of. But still, I was just blah.
Then I realized what I was missing. Cooking! It’s my happy place. It’s what I do well and it makes me feel good about myself–as well as eating well which helps physically. Saturday night my husband got home but my neighbor and I were out seeing Eric Ripert and Tony Bourdain. I was inspired.
I invited the neighbors over for a fancy dinner on Sunday. I pulled out Eric’s A Return to Cooking and started flipping through. His are the only recipes I follow at all. I love them. Of course I still modify and cut some corners ;-)
I picked out Crab Salad with Chilled Gazpacho Sauce, Grilled Rack of Lamb and Cucumber Salad, and Pan-Seared Skirt Steak with Herbed-Butter Frites and Bitter Greens. I hit the store to stock up for the meal and they had no crab. They have had crab every day that I’ve gone in there until Sunday. They even had it when I went in two days ago. I had to go off script and decided to make my Green Curry Ceviche. The fish I bought was weird…possibly with parasites. First time I’ve ever gotten bad fish at my market…they refunded my money, no questions asked. I took that as a sign that I was trying to cook too much food.
I concentrated on the other two dishes. My husband took on dessert: Flourless Chocolate Cake with Coffee Liqueur. It was inspired by the coffee infusion that he made about three months ago. We hadn’t tried it yet. It was a pound of Panama Gesha in Hangar One vodka. It better be good (it is!).
I also wanted to play with my Porthole infuser so put some ginger, lime and cardamom pods in there with some Oxley gin and let it sit. The plan was to mix up little drinks to go with the first course. Hubby took over that project when I was up to my elbows in lamb.
I cut the racks of lamb into chops and covered them in herbs and olive oil and set them aside. I put the skirt steak in the soy-based marinade from Eric’s book and set those aside. I sliced the potatoes into thin fry-sizes and put those in cold water. I made salad dressing. I washed the greens…I used regular lettuce, not bitter greens. I had a ton in my fridge from my CSA. I thinly sliced cucumber.
I tapped hubby for the infuser drinks. He muddled some cucumber, added lime juice, simple syrup and the gin and it was really good! The infusion was pretty strong even though it only sat for a couple of hours. The design of the Porthole works really well.
Then I started searing the lamb. I had to do it in two batches, the pan was too small. But that gave the first batch time to rest while I seared the second and the second batch time to rest while I plated the first! I sliced the lamb off the bone, tossed it with the dressing and piled it atop a nice little circle of cucumbers.
I had already par-fried (is that a word?) the fries and set them aside. So I fired up the oil again to bring it to 450° to crisp them up. I seared the skirt steak and set it to rest before slicing. I then sliced up the steak, tossed the salad with dressing and plated them. This was the best skirt steak I’ve ever, ever had. Eric is THE MAN. Yes, I cooked the food but the marinade was not my recipe.
The fries were also amazing, tossed with herbed butter and crispy as can be. I didn’t get a picture of those. I was too busy getting them on the plate and eaten while still crispy to take a photo!
The cake also ended up being rich and so incredibly good. Who needs flour when you have butter and chocolate?!
Needless to say, I was in a much better mood after 5 hours of intense prepping and cooking. Not many people would say that but I’ve always been odd.
Posted in beef, chocolate, dinner, eric ripert, flavor, food, recipe, self pleasuring, wine | No Comments »
Thursday, April 18th, 2013
You know how I feel about Eric Ripert. He’s probably mentioned more on this site than any other chef. He and Anthony Bourdain came to San Jose on their Good vs. Evil tour and of course I had to go. Even though I had a feeling I’d already seen a lot of the material at the two Cayman Cookouts, I didn’t care. My neighbor said she’d go with me so we decided to grab a bite to eat before the event. I pinged Jeff Bareilles, Beverage Director at Manresa, and found out we could get some food at the bar so we popped in there.
We sat and talked with the bartender, whose name I did not get! D’oh! He was a lot of fun. Jeff recommended my perfect cocktail. It’s one he developed called the Lemon Zest. He was spot on, it was sooooo good. My friend got the Manresa Bordeaux blend wine that Jeff blended. Also, soooo good.
The food didn’t disappoint either. A Belon oyster with a citrus granita started everything off. If you didn’t say it was an oyster and I blind tasted it, I’m not sure I would be able to tell you what it was. It was ridiculously good. Don’t get me wrong, I love oysters…my friend does not and she loved it too…but this wasn’t like any oyster I’d ever had. The Arpege egg came out and I, once again, had to tell the L’Arpege/food poisoning story. I however wasn’t poisoned so I ate the egg. I like that concoction until the end where all I have left is yolk—unfortunately, runny yolk is not my thing.
The remaining courses were awesome: chicken with potato mousseline (not Mussolini, no dictators in my dinner please). And dessert was a goat milk ice…thingy. It was ice cream with an ice on top and goat with goat. Yeah, I didn’t write it down :P The final plate had macarons that tasted like the best damn nutter butter you could ever imagine and crunchy little chocolates pieces.
We headed out of Los Gatos and headed to the San Jose Center for Performing Arts. Last time I was there was with this same friend and we sat front row, center for Tori Amos. Amazing night. We weren’t that close for Eric and Tony, those seats were crazy-expensive!
I have to say, I find it pretty amazing that these two chefs…well, one chef and one former chef now traveling gourmet…can fill this huge theatre. I mean, I love Eric and I find Tony very entertaining but I’m usually an anomaly. I’m the weird one. I’m the one who squeals like a ’60s Beatles fan when my favorite chef walks in a room….I mean, who does that?!
We had a moment of hometown and just-eaten-there pride when Eric listed David Kinch as one of the 3 chefs he’d want to have cook for him if stranded on a desert island (the other two: Suzanne Goin and Joel Rubuchon). Tony was really, exceptionally brutal towards Eric. I’m amazed they can do this night after night and remain friends. I was right, I had seen a lot of the stories in the Caymans, but there was plenty I hadn’t heard. In particular the story of Eric, in a restaurant in France, telling a woman she was mal baisé then punching her husband! ERIC RIPERT! Practicing buddhist, proponent of calm, encouraging surroundings….PUNCHED a guy in the nose. Not saying the guy didn’t deserve it or that he wouldn’t have clocked Eric but…OMG! That story was worth the (significant) price of admission alone!
I’m also amazed that they can talk for 2 hours every night of this tour and either continue to come up with new material or, when it’s rehashed, continue to look so authentically surprised and/or embarrassed. All in all we had a lovely food-centric evening. Food at Manresa, hilarity with Eric and Tony.
Posted in amuse bouche, celebrities, chicken, chocolate, dinner, eric ripert, flavor, food, Michelin star, photos, restaurant, seasonal menu, self pleasuring, table dance, tasting menu, Uncategorized | No Comments »
Tuesday, February 12th, 2013
Sleeping in on Sunday morning was a welcome treat. We were on vacation, I didn’t want an alarm but on Saturday we had to catch the catamaran at 9am so we had to drag our butts out of bed (very worth it!!). Brunch on Sunday didn’t start until noon though so no alarm was necessary and we had a leisurely morning. We dropped our son off with every other kid affiliated with the cookout at the Kids’ Brunch where they’d make their own food and be maniacs. We headed to drink champagne and eat oysters. Sure, there was a lot of other food there….I did exactly what I did last year and hit the oyster bar at least 5 times (the plates are small!!).
   
I grazed at a few other tables too of course: sushi, charcuterie, oysters…oh, I said that already.
While all this is going on there’s real cooking happening on stage. Emceed by Spike Mendehlson and the same blonde who didn’t do a good job last year, the contestants cook with local ingredients and the curveball of pomegranate thrown in at the last minute. The judges sit in front heckling Spike and putting up with fangirls like me asking for photos.
  
They’re all so incredibly nice. Even Anthony Bourdain but don’t tell anyone.
Mo, who competed last year but got 2nd, won it this year. Her son is her sous chef. It was a feel-good moment.
Sunday is the laziest of the cookout days building up to the most stressful event which is the Gala Dinner. My husband attended, I bowed out this year. I can’t deal with the pressure and I’m not even cooking! He owes me a report, the menu looked amazing and it was printed on WOOD! Not even paper but WOOD! Crazy.
While he was Gala-ing, my son and I went to Periwinkle and ate in beach chairs while watching Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. Much more relaxing.
Posted in celebrities, decadence, eric ripert, flavor, food | No Comments »
Tuesday, January 29th, 2013
Vertigo runs in my family. I’ve always been prone to motion sickness but about six years ago I went on a ferry in Sydney and my head thought it was still on the ferry for about 5 days. I’d be standing in the kitchen pouring a cup of tea and the whole room would spin. Since then I can’t swing on swings, jump on trampolines or, I thought, go on boats. I’d never in my life been on a sail boat. Why would I do such a thing when I’d just spend the whole time heaving over the side?
Well, before we left for this trip, I got transderm scopolamine from my doctor. That’s the little patch that goes behind your ear and sucks all the water out of your inner ear so there’s no sloshing happening. I’m very sloshy. I had no idea if this thing would work or if I’d have side effects or anything. I just stuck it behind my ear, washed my hands really well so I wouldn’t touch my eyes and dry them up, and then headed to the dock. I’ll end the suspense…the patch worked! The water wasn’t smooth by any means, we were up and down and all around but I didn’t feel a single worble. I can go on boats!!! I also wasn’t worbly when I got back on land. Maybe I should wear these patches all the time ;-)
So, we got on this catamaran along with a couple of dozen other people and sailed about 45 minutes out to Stingray City. I can honestly say I’ve never experienced anything like this. I’ve petted the manta rays at the Monterey Bay Aquarium but they’re small, don’t have stingers and half the time are huddled in the pool away from people. Stingray City was a whole other kettle of fish (*groan*). My son and I were the first down the ladder (well, he was first and I followed) and then he was the first to stop  and get scared to jump down. The water was choppy and he wasn’t going to be tall enough to touch the bottom. So I passed him and jumped down first, tried to convince him to jump to me and then got doused by a wave and got about a quart of salt water up my nose. That’s a great start. But I recovered, got him down and then we were surrounded by stingrays! It was unsettling at first, and then really, really cool. They feel soft and a little slimy and have spent their whole lives at the sandbar where people come and feed them so they are really friendly…almost too friendly. We all had them swim up to either side and slap our legs looking for squid. It was CRAZY!
We spent about 30 minutes in the water with them then headed back up to the boat for some tequila drinks, lots of water, and a sail to Rum Point for some burgers. Since my husband’s foot is still healing from his accident in September, we always had to search out a place to sit first. We camped out in some beach chairs right next to the water, the margarita stand, and Eric Ripert’s station.
Sweeet. I had to pass on Spike Mendelsohn’s burger because it was lamb and I know how I am about lamb. I love rack of lamb. Let it grow up and it’s too lamby for me (I can’t overthink the baby-eating part of that). So I just wandered on and got one of Eric’s snapper sliders with spicy aioli. I actually got  one for myself and my hubby and my son got one without the aioli. Then I went back and got another, and I’m pretty sure another. I scoped out the other burgers and taste-tested a few but always went back to Eric. To quote my son, “How does he make food taste so good?!”
Eric wasn’t overly busy, this was a small event, so I went up to attempt a conversation. I was doing really well! I was asking about the capers and the peppers on the fish from the Barefoot BBQ the night before. He said the capers were brined Spanish capers (they were amazing and unlike any caper I’d ever had) and the peppers were a local island pepper that he didn’t  know the name of. I was commenting that I was surprised I liked them because they weren’t hot but they didn’t have the flavor of bell pepper at all which was great. See? Going well right?! Then I spilled champagne down my shirt. *sigh* It wasn’t sexy with me in a bikini, splashing champagne on myself in a hair-flipping, buxom, margarita-fueled craze (I was not in a bikini, nor am I buxom). I basically drooled. Someday I will manage to not look like a fool.
We had to finish up and catch the first catamaran back to get our son to his snorkeling camp before we went to see Eric and Tony Bourdain do their demo and talk. So we waltzed back to the catamaran and had a lovely sail back to the resort.
It’s always fun to listen to Eric and Tony razz each other. They didn’t do the Good vs. Evil routine (they’ll be on tour with that this spring) but they did a basics of cooking demo and Q&A session. They addressed things that people regularly screw up in the kitchen. First up, the omelet. Tony made  a simple omelet, Eric acted shocked that Tony could cook. Their kids taste tested it and got the thumbs up :) Eric talked about how Tony has taken up meditation. Tony looked quite shocked and confused by this idea. And then of course Eric throws the punchline out which is a stack of photos he has taken, and I’ve seen him post them on twitter, of Tony sleeping on airplanes.  This bromance can get catty!!
Eric then showed how to property tie up a chicken for cooking to keep its shape and juices in. He made scrambled eggs which were to die for! They passed them out in little egg shells. He cooks them through then whips in creme fraiche and chives. I am going to try this technique.  Then they started going through the list of things people do not do right in the kitchen. First up, grill a steak. I was happy to hear them go through the list of do’s and don’ts and know that I was doing it all right! Let the steaks come up to room temp, salt them right before putting them on a not-too-hot grill (or you get raw inside, charcoal outside), DON’T touch them. Flip the steaks only once, don’t cut or poke them, leave them the hell alone. Then let them rest for about 8 minutes before serving. Yup, I do all that! For pasta: lots and lots of water, tons and tons of salt and don’t put oil in the water. It does nothing to keep the pasta from sticking. Oil and water don’t mix.
The funniest bit was when Sandra, Eric’s amazingly awesome, beautiful, funny wife, asked what they make when they cook romantic dinners for their wives. Eric replied with, “I’m not married.” Ouch! And then said they go out to eat. Poor girl’s never going to get a romantic home-cooked meal! That’s what you get for marrying a chef.
After it was over I got Tony to sign my Get Jiro! book and then we went and got our son from snorkeling and, yet again, spent the rest of the day in the ocean, on the beach or in the hot tub. It’s hard to be back home now!
Read about Thursday and Friday!
Posted in beef, celebrities, celebrity, eric ripert, flavor, food, pasta, snapper | No Comments »
Monday, January 28th, 2013
Friday began just as it did last year. With the highly anticipated arrival of Jose Andres to his cooking demonstration at 10am. We just had a few bites of fruit for breakfast knowing we would be eating for hours. This may have been a slight mistake since the first thing Jose served was a drink. I’m getting ahead of myself again though.
Everyone gathered around the demonstration tent speculating on how Jose would arrive. Last year he emerged from the ocean in scuba gear holding two live lobsters. He had to outdo himself this year. He did! He came in on a water jetpack….a toy seemingly straight out of Hammacher Schlemmer magazine. Completely useless and ridiculous but futuristically awesome.
  
He shed the helmet and gear and put on a chef’s coat over his wet clothes and got to work! There was a freak storm that came through Grand Cayman on Friday that brought higher than usual tides so the surf was coming right up to the tents. They set the paella pans up on fires under the tents rather than out in the sun further down the beach. That worked out, I was sweltering last year and I thought the sous chefs were going to collapse from the heat!
  
He got the paella started with a lot of olive oil and chicken, browned all that up nicely, added squid, green beans, mushrooms (chanterelles!), chicken stock, saffron and most importantly SPANISH rice.
  
While he’s got his sous chefs manning the fires along with help from an audience volunteer, Jose gets to work on a cocktail. This one has wine and whiskey….it’s 10am!! To be more precise it has lemon juice, simple syrup, brown sugar, whisky and ice in a shaker. That goes into a glass and then you pour red wine in over a spoon so that it layers. It was quite tasty! And made for a bit of a blurry morning.
  
He keeps running around like a maniac barking orders for MORE OIL! MORE LIQUID! LESS FIRE! MOVE THIS! DO THAT! It was hectic and fun but I would not want to be his sous chef!
  
The end result was fantastic though. The key? Put the rice in, even it out in a completely level pan and then Don’t Touch! Sixteen minutes of staring at the bubbling pan. It had a roasty-toasty flavor that was so rich. The chanterelles were incredibly flavorful.
  
We grabbed our paella and ran off to catch our shuttle to eat with David Kinch of our local Manresa fame. Yes, we traveled half way around the world to eat food from a chef that lives in our hometown. Don’t judge!
  
We hopped in the shuttle bus and drove the 20 minutes to The Brasserie where David was taking over the kitchen for the afternoon. We chatted with David a bit when we got there but of course he had a few things to do! So we went out into the garden and sipped some lovely Justin Vineyards Sauv Blanc and began enjoying the appetizers.
First to waltz by us was the Garden Callaloo and Cucumber soup with Grated Coconut. A little shooter of refreshing yum. The next was a rich bite of Braised Oxtail with Java Apple and Marcona Almond on a Blue Corn Pancake. Not light, not refreshing, just rich, lick-your-fingers goodness.
  
We had a simple bite of a local tomato with basil and sea salt. A wonderful treat to get in January! I had to skip the Tuna Crudo with Pepper Escabeche and Garden Ackee. The peppers were right out for me but hubby said it was great! The dish we had to guiltily confess to eating to our son was the Cayman Turtle Stew on a Garden Breadfruit Chip. I’ve never eaten turtle. They have turtle farms in the Caymans just like we have trout or oyster farms. They are raised for food. And DAMN they’re good! It tasted like slow braised pork. I got over the guilt pretty quickly!
  
We were instructed to mosey inside and find a seat for the next round of food. David came out and told everyone about his experience with the local fare and also about Manresa and what it’s like with its partnership with Love Apple Farms. He stepped up and gave a great representation of his food and talent, that’s for sure. I think he’ll be getting people from this lunch coming out to Las Gatos. We sat at the same table as Joe, the owner of the wineries being featured at lunch, Justin and Landmark Vineyards. He got up and described their style and location (Paso Robles and Sonoma) and we continue on to the first sit-down course: Island Gungo Peas with Snapper and an emulsion of Seville orange, pimento and lime leaf. I didn’t leave a speck of anything on my plate. It was wonderful. The gungo peas aren’t like sweet peas, they’re, well, not sweet. They’re more bean-like in flavor but they’re round. It was really interesting to try all these new island flavors.
  
The Wahoo and Conch marinated with fennel and tangerine was another plate licked clean. I can’t get enough of the caribbean wahoo. I know it’s technically the same fish as Ono but it’s not even close in texture and flavor. Wahoo is worlds better! I was worried about the dessert because it was a coconut cate with passionfruit and guava sorbet. Surprisingly, the coconut cake was not coconut-y. I loved it! The guava sorbet on the other hand I couldn’t eat. On our honeymoon in 1999 we went hiking in Hawaii just after guava season which meant there were rotting guavas everywhere. It’s been over 13 years and I still can’t stand guava. Scarred for life. The rest of the dessert was spot on though.
I’m really glad David was asked to the Cookout. He really showed off his talent beautifully and I hope people fly out to Manresa to try it out. I know he worked like mad down there to make sure everything came out the way he wanted it and it showed.
We shuttled back to the hotel to pick our son up from the afternoon camp and spent the rest of the day in the ocean! Rough life.
Read about Thursday and Saturday!
Posted in chanterelles, decadence, eric ripert, flavor, food, gardening, photos, restaurant, seasonal menu, snapper, table dance, tasting menu, tomatoes, wine | No Comments »
Saturday, January 26th, 2013
Last year’s epic Cayman Cookout adventure was supposed to be a once in a lifetime, blowout, crazy-idea event. That quickly changed after the 2012 event to trying to figure out how we could do this every year. Not only is the food fantastic, we have a blast as a family doing all sorts of wonderful warm-water activities: snorkeling, swimming, petting stingrays! But I’m getting ahead of myself.
We arrived on Wednesday and after 17 hours of travel (it is *not* easy to get here from the west coast!!) we just rolled into the hotel, checked in, showered and headed to a sushi dinner at Taikun. Just like last year, the wahoo sashimi was the hands down winner.
That’s really Day 0. Day 1 was Thursday. We didn’t attend the wine auction dinner that was the kickoff of the Cookout but we did eat out at Blue. There were two tasting menus to choose from, the Blue menu and Eric Ripert’s. Given how much of a fangirl I am, you can guess what I picked. My husband and I had Eric’s menu and added his signature Tuna and Foie Gras dish. Our eight year old son had oysters, raw wahoo and slow-roasted pork belly. I raised him right.
The dinner was flawless. It just added to the awe I already had for Eric. We started with the amuse bouche which was a seared yellowfin with basil oil and ginger. The first course was Yellowtail with wasabi jam and shiso with a crunchy rice. The crunch was a wonderful addition and I couldn’t find anything wrong with the dish. It was paired with a 2010 Vouvrey Sec Champelou that I am pretty sure we have in our cellar. Beautiful combination.
Next up was the King Crab Salad with avocado and green apple. The first time we had the crab-apple combo was at the French Laundry in 2003. I promptly went home and made a dish with that combination. It works so well. This was sour and really well balanced with the sweet, sour and creamy. It doesn’t come close to growing together but it sure does go together.
The Langoustine with truffle, hon shimeji (mushrooms) and aged balsamic was really creamy so paired with a beautiful white burgundy. The halibut (poached wtih black trffle and pot au feu), which I never ever order because no one can cook halibut right aside from Eric Ripert, was perfect. If I blind tasted it I would never have said it was halibut. It was moist and, even though it was covered in truffle, was not over-truffled. I am not a fan of truffle oil in dishes because that is all you taste but that wasn’t the case with these shaved truffles.
The evening involved a lot of wine so things start getting fuzzy. The dover sole with almond pistashio brown butter was fantastic. The bread crusted striped bass with parsnip puree was crispy and awesome with a really strong rum hibiscus (the hibiscus was the strong flavor!). The desert was a praline with gianduja mousse with torta caprese and praline sorbet. The 2009 Chateau Roumieu sauternes was full of pear and stonefruit with a hint of caramel.
  
I was absolutely obliterated with flavor and perfection. I couldn’t find a flaw in the meal just adding to my fangirl awe.
Read about Friday and Saturday!
Posted in ahi, celebrities, decadence, dinner, eric ripert, food, Le Bernardin, restaurant, tasting menu | 2 Comments »
Friday, January 11th, 2013
In just a few days we’ll be flying back to the Cayman Cookout for year two of the once-in-a-lifetime culinary extravaganza. We justified it last year by it falling on my actual birthday and Eric Ripert being my favorite chef, blah blah blah. This year we found more organs to sell and justified it again by David Kinch (our local boy representing!) being a chef at the cookout. We asked Eric about having David there when we got our cookbook signed last year so I want to take at least a little credit! ;-)
So, I’ve mentioned this before but something strange happens to me when put in the presence of Chef Eric Ripert. I lose the ability to form coherent sentences. It is highly unusual. I pride myself on starting conversations with people I want to meet and setting up interviews, or at least potential interviews, with them for this site. Neil Gaiman was the first, we remain in touch to this day, 12 years later. Then there was Jason Webley, Sxip Shirey, Kim Boekbinder, Alan Anton, Mark Van Name….all people I admire and consider “celebrities” and none of them have the effect on me that Eric does.
This is why: Neil, Kim, Alan, Mark….even Tori Amos and Amanda Palmer….I’ve spoken with them all and I am in awe of all their talents but I don’t want to do what they do. I’m not a singer, I’m not a fiction writer, I love to cook and talk about food. I love listening to music but producing it isn’t my passion. Cooking is.
My husband is convinced I have a crush on Eric. It’s not that. I’ve been able to have coherent, intelligent conversations with “boys” I’ve had crushes on since I was 15. This is different. Eric has perfected something that I can only dream of doing. He has skills with seafood that I aspire to have.
Oddly, this is not something I want to do for a living. I don’t have the stamina to be a chef in my own restaurant, on my feet from 5am when the suppliers roll in until 2am when the last diners straggle out. I just want to cook the best food I can possibly cook in my kitchen. Eric not only does this with perfection but is a nice guy who is mellow, nice and Buddhist to boot! Every article I read or interview I watch with him makes me more giddy and awkward.
I’ve met his wife and she’s awesome, sweet, beautiful and smart. My son and his son were inseparable at last year’s cookout. All these things would make you think that I would be able to talk to Eric. Yeah…No. Maybe this year?
Grant me the strength and vocabulary to not be a bumbling fool. Give me the wisdom to form a sentence. Or at least not sound like a Brian Regan routine, “Yeah…take luck!!!”…argh!!
Posted in celebrity, eric ripert, interview | No Comments »
Sunday, February 5th, 2012
If she weighed the same as a duck… she’s made of wood. And therefore… A witch!
My first duck attempt was, well, it was edible. I overcooked it a bit. I tried whole roasted duck. I just went for it. It could have been witch…nearly wood…ok, not that bad. But not what I was going for. My son liked it, my husband and I ate it. I was ready to try that again.
For some reason, I followed an online recipe for my first attempt rather than going with my inspiration for this whole project, Eric Ripert. I know, I seem to be obsessed at this point, but he really cooks how I want to cook and the recipes work!
So, I didn’t make the sauce or any of the accompaniments. I just wanted the duck preparation from him. It was like making a steak: pan sear then finish in the oven. So simple. So perfectly cooked.
I cut the wings and legs off the duck and put them in the freezer for another time. I cut the breast off, leaving the bones attached. I seared the breasts skin-side down in a hot pan, on high heat, for about 6 minutes. I drained off the fat, turned the breasts over and put it in a 400° oven for 9 minutes. Took it out, let it rest for 8 minutes. Carved it off the bone, sliced it and served it over israeli couscous with pine nuts and parsley.
Now, full disclosure here…I have a cold. I can’t taste a damn thing. This is killing me. However, texture is everything right now. The texture of the duck was *PERFECT*. I will do this again when my sense of taste and smell returns (god, I hope that’s soon!). I do need to figure out how to render out the fat though, there was too much between the perfectly crispy skin and the meat. This duck challenge is fun.
Posted in eric ripert, recipe, recipes, self pleasuring | No Comments »
Tuesday, January 24th, 2012
The morning started with sleep! We didn’t have a 10am event, our son didn’t have a 9:30 camp. We got to wake when we woke, slowly get going then walk our son down to the Les Chefs Petits brunch. This was supposed to be the kids making their own brunch in the Seven kitchen. This was bad planning on someone’s part since the Seven kitchen has their regular Sunday brunch happening and they couldn’t pile 30 kids into the kitchen! So they set them up out at one of the event tents on the beach instead. I’m sure this was better for the kids anyway, they got to have great food and still be maniacs.
Meanwhile we headed in to the ballroom for an incredible Champagne brunch. I never have high expectations for brunches. Even the one at the Waldorf in New York City failed to impress me. This one however…WOW. The champagne never stopped flowing, I wouldn’t be surprised if I consumed an entire bottle over the course of the morning. The level in my glass never dropped even though I was sipping the whole time. I piled my plate high with every seafood bit I could find. I don’t think I’d recovered from the meat-heavy Friday night BBQ so sushi, oysters, caviar, they all sounded wonderful and rejuvenating and they were. I basically just kept hitting the oyster bar until the brunch was over!
  
As we are all joyfully noshing away, there is an intense competition happening on stage, Top Chef style. The two finalists from the Cayman Cookoff, Maureen Cubbon and Eric St. Cyr, are frantically putting together a dish and a drink (the twist added to the competition by Richard Blais) for an intense table of judges: Eric Ripert, Anthony Bourdain, Jose Andres, Dana Cowin and the Governor of Cayman. I think I’d pass out from the stress! They are better prepared than me however and they completed their dishes and drinks and thoroughly impressed the judges.  Eric St. Cyr came out on top and after the winner was announced, the crazy judge crew got on stage with bottles of Moet and a huge saber! Luckily, no blood was drawn, champagne just sprayed anyone in the vicinity. All we needed were some umbrella girls…the MotoGP of food celebrations.
We hung out on the beach with our son for some of the afternoon, perused the artisan market, picked up some cookbooks and got them signed by Eric and Tony, then had some time to relax before the Gala Dinner. Unfortunately, the evening didn’t go as planned. I gave my “Food Aversions” card to the restaurant manager. I knew this was going to be an intense, stressful evening for the kitchen and the waitstaff. I thought the card would make things easier for all involved, I mean, that’s why I have them. What it did was make them fuss over every course of mine and over me which I don’t deal with well at all. I did get to enjoy a little before I went into panic mode though.
The first course was Wahoo Sashimi, Ume, Garlic and Shiso by Laurent Gras. Wahoo is just the best fish around. I could have eaten nothing but this. The fish paired with Laurent’s grace was a perfect dish. This is actually where the stress began. They didn’t bring me this, they brought me some sort of veggie salad instead. I didn’t want to be a problem but I wanted the wahoo! I saw them take the dish back to the kitchen…the kitchen activity is being broadcast to the whole dining room…I saw Eric talk to my waiter, look at the card, eventually the wahoo came out. I was humiliated. It was exactly what I was trying to avoid. I was truly bummed that my chef-idol was being inconvenienced by me.
I ran into Eric’s wife Sandra in the restroom after this. She is so incredibly awesome, I love that woman (hell, she babysat my kid!!). Anyway, I told her what happened and she joked with me about it and I felt much better. Then the next course came out and I had a substitute where I should have. The dish was Foie Gras Mulligatawny and I don’t like Foie. I got a gazpacho-like dish just bursting with flavor. We were temporarily back on track.
Then the waiter kept coming up and checking on me, making sure everything was fine, over and over. The service was so incredible, I had an anxiety attack. I took my fabulous glass of wine and sat outside for the next two courses. I couldn’t deal. I was completely blowing an amazing dinner. Then I found out my son was having a meltdown upstairs with his babysitter. I guess it was in the air. This gave me an out. I switched from foodie-mode to mother-lion mode and went to my kid. I said goodbye to Sandra grabbed my wine and headed up to the room.
My husband stayed and said Eric’s Venison was the highlight of the evening and he doesn’t even like venison. I’m sorry I missed it but something wasn’t meant to be. It was too fancy and uptight and stressful for me. I loved that we could be sitting around the table with people we’d never normally associate with. They were from different generations, different occupations and very different political worlds than us but we found common ground in the food. Food can bring us all together. It is a leveling ground.
I wish I could have experienced the full Gala Dinner but I truly enjoyed the courses I had. If we make it back to the Cookout next year, I know the Gala isn’t for me. It was icing on an already sweet weekend, truly not needed to complete the adventure. It was a non-stop bacchanalian escapade. I really hope we can do this again!
Read about Day 1, Day 2 and Day 3!
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Friday, January 20th, 2012
The first event of Saturday morning was one I was really looking forward to. Good vs. Evil – Ripert and Bourdain in conversation. I didn’t realize they had a schtick. They interrogate each other in quite the hilarious way. Tony started on Eric, trying to find his weaknesses…trying to embarrass him. Eric seems to blush quite easily but he’s prepared, it’s all in good fun. Then Eric went at Tony but was still the good cop of the two.
The interesting point in the conversation was when they ended their performance and took questions from the audience. There was a lot of talk about the Food Network chefs. About how Paula Deen is the evilest of them all, I’m sure you’ve heard in the press, because she promotes ridiculously unhealthy food, was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes three years ago but kept showcasing crap food and is going to be endorsing diabetes pharmeceuticals now. Evil and wrong. This got Tony going more than anything. Until someone brought up Gordon Ramsey. I’ve never seen Eric get upset. He’s usually completely diplomatic about everything. He hates the way Gordon abuses his chefs and not only that, how the show is preloaded with people set up to fail. It is wrong, immoral and damaging to the cooking world.
They also were asked how to get Americans to change their view on food. I completely agree with what Tony said. We have to take the low road. We have to brainwash the kids. Eric’s son thinks that Ronald McDonald kidnaps kids and sometimes they end up in the burgers. That is brilliant. Our son thinks McDonalds is just a bathroom on road trips. You need to make the kids think they’ll be weird or shunned if they eat fast food. If the majority of kids thinks that, it will spread like wildfire. I’ve seen it myself with my kid and his friends. I’ve heard him lecture a friend for going to Burger King. About how awful it is and how it’s not really food. I just hung back and listened, I had nothing to add. To change the world, we have to change the next generation’s thought process.
I briefly gushed at Eric afterward…I cannot talk to that man without praising him endlessly. It’s embarrassing. I have to stop! This time it was about McDonald’s. I love that idea.
  
We made our way to the other side of the resort to Periwinkle for lunch by Laurent Gras. I was really looking forward to this one. After the ceviche on Friday, I knew I’d like what he was doing. I have to admit, I had no idea who he was before he was booked for the Cookout. For being such an avid foodie, I don’t follow the restaurant scene and news all that much unless I’m going somewhere and need somewhere to eat. I missed all the Laurent drama. I was kind of glad for that actually, I came in with a clean slate. He is a genius with freshness and lightness. I left his lunch full but not exhausted and weighed down. We had Conch ceviche with caviar, parsley and lime; Caribbean Lobster with dark rum and lettuce; Wahoo with tomato, ginger and cilantro; and Melon consomme with lemon ginger sorbet.
Our tablemates were marvelous. A woman named Rosemary who makes it a point of getting cookbooks signed everywhere she goes. She has over 500 signed books now in just a few years. A couple from Calgary who are food critics for that area, they were lovely. And Richard Morais, a writer for Barrons and a published author. I just bought his book, The Hundred-Foot Journey and will start reading it soon. It looks fantastic.
For the whole weekend, my husband and I were in the same demos and events except for one. He wanted to drink wine with Aldo Sohm (Le Bernardin’s AMAZING sommelier), I wanted to go see Richard Blais. We both made the right choice and both wished we could be in two places at once. He had wines that were rare and to die for. He snuck me a white burgundy that I savored for as long as I could. Blais was hilarious! He was entertaining, knowledgeable, enthusiastic and so much fun. He made “Oysters and Pearls,” his homage to Thomas Keller but a completely different dish. He took oysters, topped them with a mignonette that had minced cilantro stem in it along with dill, shallots and, of course, vinegar. Then he  topped them with the pearls which were horseradish-creme fraiche frozen in liquid nitgrogen. This session made me want to head to the welding shop and buy myself a container of liquid nitrogen. He also made frozen margaritas by putting the tequila and lime in the mixer and whisking in liquid nitrogen until it became like a sorbet. Genius.
The last demo before dinner was from Eric Ripert himself. Cocktails and Ceviche on the beach. He demonstrated a ceviche and a tartare. Both delicious of course. All the while the sun is turning golden behind him. Our son was playing in the waves with Eric’s son (they had a blast together and Sandra is an utterly sweet and wonderful woman). And we were sipping Moet Chandon and eating Eric’s fish. Life was perfect right then.
Dinner was off-site at Michaels Genuine Food and Drink. We were bussed to the event, given champagne and hors d’euvres and then led to our tables. We had Wahoo crudo, slow roasted pork shoulder, rabbit crepes and lamb scottacdito. None of which I got pictures of because it was too dark but from what we heard the next day, Michael’s was the best dinner of the evening. It was really fantastic.
 After the meal we quickly rushed through the dessert tables, grabbed some absolutely wonderful treats and then had to rush back to get our son from camp again. The disadvantage of having our son with us was having to dart out of things early, the advantage was…well, everything else. He had such an amazing time and when we picked him up that just meant we weren’t hanging around events too late, getting too tired and too drunk. I think it worked out well for all of us.
Only one more day to go. Everything flew by so fast.
Read about Day 1 and Day 2 and Day 4!
Posted in celebrities, celebrity, decadence, dinner, eric ripert, flavor, food, Le Bernardin, table dance, tasting menu, tuna tartare, wine | No Comments »
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