My Last Hurrah

Next week I’m off to Germany to be part of the culinary Olympics in an official capacity of chair of the ACFEF. Imagine the many years I’ve spent in competition and I still have the passion to compete at whatever level I choose.  The dedication I see in many a competitor‘s is the desire to perfect one’s craft and it’s not about bragging rights or medals it’s about the desire to learn and grow. The greatest critics of perfecting  one’s skills for competitions is the desire to extend the envelope as much they can so one is always critical of one’s work and it should be that way. The Monday quarterbacks who sits around and brag what they can do and never compete are those who are lost in mediocrity bemoaning the amount of money one spends on building the team and get it to the Olympics or the World Cup or to any other international competition.  I believe it’s just pure selfishness and not seeing the whole picture that a chef must reach out to become successful.
I honestly believe that to be a chef and I mean a chef is a person who is willing to be able to identify new challenges during their career to make themselves more successful.  As we are all in the entertainment business and if we really believe that’s we can compare ourselves with the great entertainers of the world who are those individuals who are in constant change to perfect their craft continually. You really think that Escoffier sats on his butt and did nothing more after he became the   "father of modern culinary arts." Chef once told me that he worked continually even after he retired from the kitchen to promote the craft of cooking and the craft of being an excellent chef. I’ve been blessed in my life to be surrounded by chefs like this and it always amazes me that I still hear people moaning and groaning how hard they have to work about the long hours and their lack of self-esteem which is normally transferred to all the other for cooks and kitchen people within their businesses.
Yes I’m proud to be a chef and I’ll always be one but I still fall back on the great saying by Chef Escoffier  “the world’s greatest chefs are the world’s greatest cooks and Sir I am a great cook who was lucky enough to become and be recognized as a leading chef in my lifetime”
So the ready for some nice photographs and the experiences I’ve will have at the Olympics.
But there is another part of me that needs fulfilling and I intend to visit Buchenwald concentration camp which is near where the competition is going on. I have visited two other camps like this in my lifetime and as two my cousins were adopted by one of my uncles after the second world war from one of those camps I need to be reminded of the evil that’s in this world and the evil that was perpetrators against the 13 million peoples of all nations religious faiths and illnesses.
So I’ll keep in touch what I’m in Europe on till I get back I’ll be safe and I hope and pray that you will all be to.
Chef

Can anyone roast meat anymore?

For the past two months I’ve been seeking a restaurant that knows how to roast meat properly. I’ve been to all the major so-called steakhouses and not one of them proven to me they know how to roast meat. I believe it’s because they slow roast their lip on ribeye slow roasters probably cooking them overnight.  There is no carmelization on the beef and because of the slow cooking the connective tissue melts away leaving the meat tough. In reality, most meats that are going to be roasted should remain on the bone. During my career we always used 109 rib roasts with the deckle attached.  By cooking at this way you would have a perfectly cooked whole prime rib with the well-done pieces on the outside and the very rare in the center. I have always order them 18 to 21s and up so I could get 18 good 10 ounce pieces of beef per rib roast. Using the deckle made my roast beef hash for my brunch or breakfast menu item. Adding the bones to an enriched stock and then making the roast gravy utilize the whole cut of meat. Serving the beef with the great horseradish sauce, roast gravy, and old-fashioned English roasted potatoes you will create one of the finest dinners you find in the world.

Even when the roast leg of Lamb which should be served in season spring and fall we get the most flavor out of that roast. Just removing the pelvic bone trimming off the shin meat and roasting it to a perfect 40° and having the skills to carve the leg around the bone and getting 12 nice lunch or dinner portions from a 7 pound leg. Taking the shin meat and roasting it with the leg to ensure a great gravy. Today the average weight of a leg of lamb is around 12 to 15 pounds which is really mutton and has that awful strong flavor which turns our diners off from selecting it from the menu. Beef and lamb are best cooked for 15 minutes for each pound. Starting at 350° caramelize and then reducing the temperature to 325° and cook for the rest of the weight time. Most of us were trained to add an extra 15 minutes at the end of the cooking process and then rest the lease after removal from the oven for another 15 minutes prior to serving. Again the meat will be beautifully cooked and juicy with a great flavor. Serving the lamb with the great mint sauce and baby new potatoes and fresh garden peas is a delightful dinner

Pork is quite different and I again believe that’s a great pork roast must come from the leg with the pevlic bone removed where the skin or rind is scored the pelvic bone removed and cook for 20 minutes the pound and an extra 20 minutes for the total weight. In Europe the skin becomes very crisp and crunchy and it is served with the roast and in England it is called crackling allowing that extra 20 minutes for the whole piece and serving fresh applesauce, beautifully matched in cream potatoes, my favorite broccoli Mornay. Again when we think of pork we see on the menu boneless pork chops which there is nothing in the world that meets that description. The chop refers to meet on the bone which is normally grilled.

When it comes to cooking veal is a roast traditionally in Europe the whole leg was roasted and served with smoked ham and a rich reduced veal glaze. This was the original steamship round which was served to the royal families in Europe and when it came to the United States and the whole beef round became steamship round which was served on the steamboats traveled rivers in the past century. I don’t see many restaurants and hotels offering this dish anymore but is nice to remember that these with the skills that the chefs my era learnt because our guests demanded them.

Finally, I believe that everything needs to be tied that is going to be roasted so that as the cooking process moves forward and assist the connective tissue to breakdown and combine the meat together.  This Sunday for my birthday I’m going to buy a primal rib and butcher and tie it and have it from my great Sunday dinner. And as I carved the meat I showed trap all the juices and added to the gravy to enhance even greater flavor and pleasure for my guests. To take your long-term process cookers they don’t work because they don’t really roast meat to just slow cook it so that there is less loss during the roasting process but there is no flavor when it is done. This old-timer believes that getting back to basics would give me many diners a real dining pleasure truly properly roasted meats.