Notes from a Kitchen

I've been reading Notes from a Kitchen, a journey inside culinary obsession, a highly acclaimed two volume set by Jeff Scott and Blake Beshore. They focus on the ideation of food rather than recipes. These are some great books that ignite the imagination rather than direct it.

"Notes From a Kitchen: A Journey Inside Culinary Obsession: is the first book of its kind to accurately portray the daily creative life of a world-renowned chef in a visceral, cinematic format. Never before has a cookbook focused more intently on who a chef is as a person and why they place their culinary passion and obsession before almost everything else in their lives."

As I was digging through some notebooks of mine I found some interesting drawings like the one below. I have 1000's of these interpretive sketches. I would rather draw out ideas than put them into writing. Drawing helps me visualize the idea or record a dish I've just eaten. You may ask, "why don't you just take a picture?" well, I do plenty of that but taking pictures is not nearly as engaging as drawing, plus if it's just an idea there isn't anything to photograph.

As I look at this drawing from about 8 years ago I remember it vividly. I was at the Ana Mandara restaurant in San Francisco, the first notes refer to a crispy Vietnamese roll with crab and shrimp served with lettuce to wrap them in, I can still taste the roll and the uncomplicated Vietnamese sweet & sour sauce it was served with. The sketch is depicting a dungeness crab cake that was baked in a split piece of green bamboo on top of banana leaves with radish sprouts, the crab cake was moist with a very slight scent of mint....Food memories are powerful! I will work on publishing some of my culinary sketches in the near future.

Piles of sketches, notes, and preliminary formulations......

Food or Faces?

The fact that you are viewing this website may indicate you have a problem, at least according to these articles. Are you guilty of taking pictures of food instead of people while eating out? I'm siding with food writer Josh Ozersky who stands up for it. According to the Huffington Post It's actually a trend called "Foodstagramming", which has some restaurants upset.

Two of my favorite sites for food images are Foodspotting and TasteSpotting. Food or faces? your choice, I guess that's why Facebook exists.  I don't mean any disrespect to the people I eat out with, you are all far more interesting than crispy pig ears and artisan salami.

Huffington Post
Instagramming Your Food May Signal Bigger Problem Researcher Says

"The concern becomes when all they do is send pictures of food," Taylor told HuffPost. "We take pictures of things that are important to us, and for some people, the food itself becomes central and the rest -– the venue, the company, et cetera -- is background."

CBC News, British Columbia
Posting pictures of meals online? You may have health problems

"You don't take pictures of who you're with, you take pictures of what you're eating,"

Eater
Expert: Photographing Food May Be Sign Of Mental Illness

"In the pro-food corner, food writer Josh Ozersky defends food photography in this week's Eat Like a Man column. "Anybody that has any objection to the use of smartphones and their cameras, for any reason, needs to pipe down right now," he writes. He suggests that taking pictures of food might even be a sign of mental strength. "If anything, shooting food pictures is an act of impulse control, delayed gratification, and long-term planning. It would be a lot easier to just gobble that food up..."

Seasonal Denial

Although the end of summer officially occurred several weeks ago, according to the calendar, it just ended this week for me as I tore out the garden after the first hard frost set in. Last week I picked 50-60 green tomatoes ahead of the frost. That last trip to the garden also yielded jalapenos, rhubarb and sage. I didn’t pick the sage because it continues to grow in harsh conditions.

Although I thoroughly enjoy the hearty fare and cooking styles of the winter, and I’m sure I’ll become emotionally attached to it also, I will miss the spontaneity of the summer.

As I look back over our summer posts I have a few favorites that make me long for the return of this abundant season. First off, the farmers markets, Soulard farmers market, local markets and the roadside peach orchard. Next we had the first garden pictures of the summer, followed by two cooking from the garden articles, “So little is so much”, and “Home dinner – cooking from the garden”. And last but not least, the ongoing battle with vegetable consuming insects that prey on organic gardens.

The only thing that really turns me off about the winter is the uniform transformation of all the cooking magazines……there’s a big damn turkey on the front cover! Seriously, do we really need this much info about cooking a bird? It’s a perennial rerun. I just got Bon Appetit, Gourmet and Food & Wine…..turkey, turkey, turkey – Apricot glazed, shallot-dijon gravy, black truffle butter, white wine gravy………The only turkey article I care to see is Alton Brown's Turkey Derrik Blue Prints.

Hello Winter, good bye summer, I’ll see you right after the March equinox.

Another Rough Day At The Office

Those beverage guy's must have a motto, "Leave No Stone Unturned, Leave No Wine Uncorked". It's actually all about the math, One thousand bottles of wine + 1000 glasses = 1000 reasons to taste wine.

R&D Before Digital Cameras

I was looking at some old R&D notes the other day and realized how digital cameras have become an indispensable tool. This is how R&D was done before the digital era. I have mountains of notes that only I can read, undecipherable scribbling.