Is The History Of Food & Cooking Endangered Like The Rest Of History?

How’s this for opening Pandora’s box? Here in the States, we seem to be dumbing down when it comes to history in general. Not having a grasp of history leads us all into repeating the mistakes of the past. Books are being re-written, key actual facts omitted when retelling events of years gone by. The youth of Japan mostly has no knowledge of the Rape of Nanking because their history books make no mention of it. Here in the States in Texas (and a few other states) there is a push to rewrite evolution and make it creationism to be taught in public schools.
As we are, above ground and breathing the current generation of chefs is it not incumbent on us to keep the historical evolution of food preparation, manufacture, storage, distribution, nutrition, production, influences, etc before the general public where/when practicable?

I can only speak for myself. Among the programs I currently conduct are classes involving meals consumed here in the States during The Great Depression, The American Civil War, Chuck Wagon Meals from the Bozeman Trail and I am adding a Medieval Cooking Class for summer youth programs. Within Health Department guidelines I try to emulate our predecessors attempts to feed themselves. I find the general public has great interest and a surprising lack of initial understanding of these particular time periods I have broached. As my classes evolve and I become more familiar and learned on the particular topics it becomes a bit more clear how important this is, in general. If we don’t know where we came from, how do we know where we are going? How do we really get there? Just a thought…….

THE CANCER OF EXAGGERATION.

As a Food Mercenary occasionally I find myself in need of waging war.

Many years back I began to make efforts to snuff out the cancer of exaggeration amongst my staff and management. Way too many times the simple comment goes unnoticed because of repetition and I guess to a degree a general indifference. Initially, I corrected any individual making a gross exaggeration when communicating. Common place example: A server returns to the kitchen with an entree claiming it is freezing cold and the customer cannot eat it as a result. We all know it is not frozen. But what just happened? The server insulted the entire kitchen staff and any fellow servers involved with bringing the meal to the table, management, ownership, and completely ruined their credibility with the staff. Now they are unhappy and ready to drop a hot spoon in the server’s apron to send a message!:)

Or, the cook claims they have been waiting all day for a server to pick up their table. The restaurant has been open an hour, this cannot be the case.
I would literally force the staff to eat the words, any of them including managers & owners. I then had them then explain what they really needed or what was actually in need of fixing. Regardless how busy they claimed to be. After going a few rounds with a few of the hard core exaggerators everyone eventually fell in line, and, after being put in a position of realizing how much exaggeration really does distract everyone from producing efficiently, they killed it off themselves. All of the sections of the restaurant staff benefited with better communication. Servers would now ask for an entree to be heated a bit more, Cooks would ask that tables leave sooner to prevent back-ups in the pickup area. Way less tension was the result.
It was not easy. The first few times I was met with an obstinate attitude by some. But, having certain influences affecting me directly like growing up (still debated by my family members to this day) a South Sider in Chicago, quality drugs during my formative rock & roll youth & several concussions on the freestyle tour the staff soon found I was waaaay more obstinate than they were:) Some viewed what I was doing as unnecessary. But each time I stayed calm and clear, “Tell me what you really need and it will be done, do not exaggerate to me”. When the message sunk in, the end result was supreme confidence for both front & back of the house staffing with each other. It was a bit difficult, but well worth it.

“Its A Secret!”

How I wish we could make slapping any chef that utters this answer when someone asks a question about something they made  legal.  Or at least a pay per view event.  But if its a pay per view they have to wear tights and and carry flags from countrys no one can identify.  I can only come up with two scenarios in that foggy region I refer to as my brain to explain this borderline thinking.

#1:  Legalities.  Maybe it is not their recipe/blend/whatever.  Maybe the individual is under contract.  Maybe there is a no compete/non-disclosure deal lurking somewhere close.  Maybe  is more than likely all of those reasons are Bull Feathers.

#2: More than likely the individual who now thinks their social security number is 007 has a serious insecurity issue.  Realistically, the word secret and recipes are non existent.  Anything can be replicated if someone really wants to do it, and has the resources to go through step by step process of elimination.  From Coca Cola to McDonalds everyone’s recipe is subject to modern technology and there are now and have not been for a long time these mythical secrets.

SHAME on any chef (in this situation I use the term for reference, not respect) that does not show their staff EVERYTHING they know, WILLINGLY!  A well trained, well informed staff is an efficient and productive staff.  Those two assets do lead directly to a staff’s morale on a day to day basis.  That makes three positives.  All by not acting the part of a Major Schnook.  Then again I hear rank has its privileges.   But, there is not much that is more rank than this stupid perpetuated attitude.  I cannot be harsh enough with my criticism of these individuals.  Today’s sous chef could very well be a supervisor down the road at another venue.  My advice to these Culinary Clewsou’s is “Smarten up and help the next generation whenever practicable”

One of the great pleasures in my career is to see former staff members I supervised move on to bigger and better things.  I always made it a professional goal to make this happen as often as possible.  If anyone is in fear of their job because they trained someone “too well”, their employer is a joke and you should not spend any more of your life there, or you need to quickly tidy up the execution of your duties in that company.

When customers, family, friends, clients, business associates or other food service professionals ask me questions about anything I am doing, 99% of the time they get exact answers.  The other 1% is going into 2 cookbooks I am writing:)  I need to wet my beak!  My family’s gotta Eat bro!  I do consider those questions flattering.  Not invasive.  More than a few customers during my career have been literally stunned when I came to their table, handed them a copy of the recipe in question and went over it with them so I knew they understood the directions while answering any questions they may have had.  If my cooks wanted to copy a recipe for whatever reason they were welcome to do so.

This leads to another mini rant:  If ANY Chef starts at  ANY business, with fully developed recipes before they walk in the door, those recipes BELONG TO THE CHEF!  When the chef leaves for any reason, the chef is completely justified in removing them when they leave.  Just because you borrow your neighbors lawn mower and keep it all winter does not mean you now own it and are free to do with it whatever you wish.  Same holds true for recipes and shifty restaurant owners, of which, unfortunately, there are too many.  On the other hand, if you are paid by anyone, and, while on their time you develop an idea or product, guess what sweetie, it belongs to the company unless you have it in writing that it is not.

So remember, if you find yourself needing to smack a chef when they utter “Its A Secret” to you, always connect with that right hook above the hairline so no one can see the welt you just left:)  The upside is if the welt is on the top of their noggin it will help keep that STUPID PAPER HAT in place they no doubt wear!  Sorta like a cone head.  Then again, you may break your hand on that coconut of a skull many chefs have.  In that case, just fill their shoes with sour cream.  They won’t notice, sad but true.

What is Your Specialty and other questionable questions.

This is such an annoying question.  Its 99.9% not a willful act by the person asking.  Its a product of short sighted answers by others in food service that set the person up to ask a pointless question.  If I had one specialty I would not be much of a chef.  One thing done well qualifies no one to call themselves chef.  And no, I do not have a favorite food or dish.  There are too many great foods and dishes to even make that argument legitimate in my world.  My next least favorite question is Q“Where are you a chef?”  My response is always the same: A“Everywhere I go”.  As I am not active in the restaurant world anymore sometimes people have this irrational notion that I accordingly lost all my knowledge and skill sets and can no longer be a chef.  WTF!  Regardless where I am or when I am there, I am still and always will be a CHEF!  A real Chef.  Old school values with new age skill sets & attitude.  Yes – I Got Game!

QWhat should I call you?   A“ANYTHING BUT STICKY, ITCHY OR OVERPAID WILL BE OK WITH ME!”
While on the freestyle jet ski tour many on the circuit called me Chef, because I was the only chef on the circuit, anywhere on the planet.  It was easy for riders unfamiliar with me to remember me, and it was their choice, not mine.  I was good with the reasoning behind it and it was never intended with malice.  In my kitchens, I preferred my staff call me Michael.  That is my name, not CHEF!   If they called me chef it was their choice, never my request or want.  That poor choice of tradition was not born to respect the chef.  It was the chef making sure other staff members cowed down to them.  By doing this the Chef established distance and rank from the rest of the staff.  What happened to leading by example?  Many times I have heard tales of staff members unable to address a chef until spoken to.  Why can’t I ever meet these nut balls when I have a few spare tomatoes with me?
We need to highlight cool chefs and discard the screaming arrogant schmucks.  For years, whenever I yelled it was directed to a well deserving human.  Had I known to yell at my cookware I would have done that and been famous long ago.  Or, I would still be locked up and sedated.  That actually has an odd appeal on some days.

Since you brought up the subject……………………….
I have no need, ever, to be IRON CHEF, Top Chef, Master Chef, Grand Pooba Chef Immortal or any other attention starved title.  If I absolutely had to have an adjective attached to the word chef to describe me, I would request it be  “THE COOL CHEF”. I would be good with that.  Make sure that is spelled with a “C” not an “F”.   Seeyabye!

When will an honest discussion and concerted action take place banning aluminum cookware in this country?

Aluminum: Great for airframes and cars, terrible to cook with or store food in. As a 19 year old student at the Washburne Trade School in 1976 I was told this: Don’t scrap the sides of the sauce pan with your whip when making a cream sauce as it will turn the sauce gray. WTF! Are you kidding me? Why would you use anything like that to cook with? EVER?!! Aluminum is soft and each use of such a pan removes a layer of metal into the food prepared with it. Alzheimer victims usually have significant trace amounts of aluminum lodged in areas of their brain. Bottling companies over the past two decades continue to start lining their aluminum beverage cans with a film of plastic for reasons varying from protecting the flavor to keeping it colder longer. REALLY?  One more time, WTF!  Do the words class action law suit mean anything to the suits on retainer?  Nowhere on any GNC chart is the need for Aluminum Supplements. If there was they would be selling it long ago.
My day of reckoning on this subject manifested when I opened La Grillade.   I was watching the pot washer scrubbing a stock pot-aluminum.  He had a green nylon scrubbing sponge and soapy water-clear starting his task.  The pot was used to simmer a chicken consumme` and only had a thin layer of residue from the consumme` in it.  After just a few swipes around the inside of the pot the water turned black.  He dumped the water and did it again, and again.  Each time the result was the same.  The water turned black.  He finally gave up not knowing why the pot was washing out black with nothing in it.  I explained to him what was happening at that point. I then made the switch to stainless steel cookware and never looked back. Showing the owner of the restaurant Dale why we were switching was an easy sale at that point.  That was in 1983. Many other countries have already made this move into law. Why does it seem we (In the USA) are again late to the party? As we are professional chefs and responsible to a reasonable degree for the customers welfare while serving them should this very real health menace continue to be ignored?

What criteria represents the qualities to make a chef?

What I learned, and believe the word chef means is a reference to an individual who can, at least competently execute or have command of food costing, menu planning, first aid, kitchen design, creating menu concepts, creating specials, payroll control, teaching skills, food sanitation, contract negotiation knowledge, interviewing skills, equipment maintenance knowledge, staff scheduling, basic knowledge of ventilation, fire prevention, knowledge of wines, beer, alcohol, menu design, marketing, customer service, baking, pastries, sauces, garde manger, breakfast menus, lunch menus, dinner menus, meat cutting, fish filleting, utensil selection & purchase, inventory control, portion control, storeroom organization, kitchen organization, food production, food storage, nutrition, account management, supports the community, has catering organizational skills, has knowledge and command of multiple cuisines, command of all basic cooking methods and techniques, has thorough knowledge of seasoning and spice combination’s and applications, computer literacy, an eye for detail, an open ear, a kind heart, a sense of humor, loyalty to his staff, always looks out for the welfare of his employees, business and customers, does not play politics and never chooses sides before he hears both sides of the story.

The FoodMercenary’s TV Appearance Tips

Over the course of the last near 20 years I have learned a few fast and hard truths when dealing with publicity.  Let me start with Televised media.

Call first then FAX your idea with the name of the person you contacted.  This puts it in the hands of a staff member immediately.  Emailing ideas is a great way to never be heard from again.  Stations get bombed with emails.  Yours may be filtered out as spam and never reach its intended destination.  Have an interesting idea to present.  Interesting to someone else you don’t know.  Not only interesting to YOU!  If you cannot meet this basic criteria, do not bother.  Send in ideas only intermittently.  Don’t wear out your welcome.  Over exposure is sometimes worse than no exposure.

First, there is an 8 second rule.  Be very mindful of this in advance.  The average person at home will switch stations in 8 seconds after encountering anything the feel they do not want to be bothered with.  This means YOU!  Make SURE you are completely presentable, hair, make-up, attire are all in fine order.  Your chef jacket should not look like an accordion.  Do not wear anything that presents you in a poor light.  Nothing frayed, faded or stained, anywhere (HIGH DEFINITION SCREENS in homes show everything including nose hair!)  Choose your wardrobe smartly.  Lose the tall paper hat and medals.  Both are pompous and present distance between you and the audience at home.  Be approachable by starting with your appearance.  Arrive early, and be prepared for ANYTHING!  Like going on the air earlier than pre-arranged, longer or shorter time slots.  Lose any semblance of an attitude even if things go wrong.  You only get one chance for a first impression. If you make a mistake laugh it off and move on.  Think before you talk.  Don’t move your lips without purpose.  Speak clearly and concisely.  Don’t fidget with anything, keep your presentation area clear, clean and organized at all times.  Use nice cookware, nothing beat-up.  Likewise with utensils or your cutting board or service ware.  be smart and strategically locate brand names if needed/possible on your presentation area (Seasoning labels, etc)

ANSWER the question asked of you.  Answers need be short & sweet.  tell a short funny story or antidote only if it is actually funny!  Not just to you!  Go over in general,  bullet points with the interviewer just before airtime if practicable.  Even give them a few short, clear,  easy to fire off questions to make them look sharper and more informed.  This will in turn make you look sharper.  They are not experts in your field.  Do not assume they are.  Bring back ups of everything including wardrobe.  Bring ONLY what you actually need.  Pre portion everything in a ready to use condition so shorten prep time before air time.  Drink a warm liquid to keep your vocal chords in best shape possible.  Wear your logo somewhere on you or on your work surface if permissible.  Don’t play the fool by plugging anything not relevant (or repeatedly) making a nice piece into an awkward moment everyone remembers.  Know what those ground rules are before you even arrive for the shot.  If you are new to the game, practice at least once what you are going to do so your timing is smoother.  Ask for equipment details if you are doing an in studio or on location shot you are not familiar with.  Prepare for travel delays so you don’t blow it by assuming.  Check weather, and traffic news to make sure you are not surprised with no way to solve your new found problem.  Can’t mention this enough-  NO ATTITUDE ABOUT ANYTHING. The studio will refer to you as not feeling well and chop or cut your airtime if they deem fit.  Bring extra stuff for the staff and interviewers.  Schmooze baby schmooze!  Line up your camera angles for your own comfort level.  Know where they are so the cameraman can get good views & close-ups when needed.  get plenty of sleep the night before.  Hydrate-drink liquids just like you would before a work-out.  Listen to some up-tempo tunes on the way there.  Get your blood pumping and have some fun.  One more time, HAVE FUN!  I like a few slices of Joe Satriani myself:).   Laughter is a great weapon in the arsenal of communication.  My approach to this has garnered hundreds of appearances without need of any publicity agent.

How Rouxed Are You?

When I first started cooking, I found out the reality of my profession, circa 1976.  The instructors at the Washburne Trade School, one of only 2 choices to attend in the country at the time, had a few issues.  The 1st phase teacher was young, sharp, and green.  The following 4 instructors were smart, well traveled, well schooled, but already behind the real world cooking curve that was incubating here in Chicago.   Had I implemented the thought process behind the methods shown to me then, I would have been fired from my regular jobs I held in that span.  I was trained on the job in the idea of French Nouvelle Cuisine(pure, natural, healthy cooking), in 1976 by some of the finest young chefs Chicago had going at the time.  Which, by the way were very few to begin with.  One of those lines in the sand was the use of a roux to thicken, anything really.  NONE of the chefs I worked for even allowed a roux to be made in the restaurants they ran.  This is a good thing.  Here is why:

A roux will break when enough heat is applied for a long enough b period of time(like during service in a steam table).  A roux will break if not properly made.  Right there, two great reasons not to ever use a roux.  But lets continue.  The combination of flour and oil/butter is extremely hard for your body to digest.  Not a bad reason to lose a roux either.  Also, using a roux prevents you from tasting the ingredients of anything you thicken with a roux, clearly.  The combination of flour & oil paste clogs the pores of your tongue.  This is a natural impediment to tasting anything else in the same dish or sauce.  If you have any doubts on this issue, take a small, very, very small amount of roux and rub it on your tongue.  Then taste something.  Clean your pallet and do it again without rubbing a roux on your tongue.  End of example, end of arguement.

Now there will be a few die hard slow learners screaming its essential to Creole cooking.  It is not.  Many moons ago before we were alive the settlers that established trading posts in the delta(Dutch, Spanish, French, English) had a choice to survive.  Either cook with swamp water, or salt water from the sea.  There were no other options, Ice Mountain did not deliver bottled water then.  Of course they chose swamp water.  They had just as much common sense as us(probably more).  But who wants to eat anything that tastes like swamp water?  So how do you mask this awful flavor embedded into the latest kill in the stew?  1st, how about picking some of these hot peppers that grow all over the place and dump them in?  Then maybe, thicken the cauldron with, A ROUX!  Why?  BECAUSE it helped kill the flavor of the swamp water!  How hard is this to figure out?

Far as I can tell, we now have bottled water and filtration plants that remove the need to use Swamp water to cook with!  “But its always done like this! Its tradition!”  There was a tradition of cavemen eating their freshly killed beast by pulling off the limbs and chewing on it raw in the cave they sat in.  Then, came a day when another caveman suggested that they toss the beast in this new thing called FIRE.  I’ll bet any money the elder cavemen screamed that its always chewed raw like this, its tradition dammit!  That’s about the time the clubs started swinging.

Then what to do?  How do I thicken my soup?  Try using the best method, puree.  Or reductions, emulsions, cornstarch, potato starch, tapioca flour, or the pricey and bitter after taste of arrow root.

Now, if you want to argue that you like the FLAVOR a roux adds to a recipe, that’s a matter of personal taste, go for it.   If you want to argue that a roux is a necessary or relevant thickening method, refer to the caveman episode, and make sure you are on the receiving end of a club.  There have been entire 1 hour episodes wasted on the merits of using roux’s on the Food Channel and Bravo.  I do mean wasted.

In my entire career, I never once allowed a roux to be used for any reason in any kitchen I was in charge of, ever.  The last time I made a roux was in 1976 at the Washburne Trade School.  I had to in order to pass the 1st phase.  Otherwise, I would have not done it.  For the record, the end result was correct.

DEVALUING THE CHEF

DEVALUING THE CHEF

Somewhere along the way in the last few years, any knucklehead that can make his uncles favorite beer can chicken or rice a roni wienie beanie casserole is a chef.  Any dope wearing a tall paper hat can assume he is now a chef.  Any brainwashed newly graduated student is now the end all for cuisine as we know it.
As for TV chefs, lets get this straight.  ANY EDUCATED COOK can take a bag of groceries and make a few dishes out of the contents.  That does not make you a TOP CHEF or any CHEF.  If you can make a dinner for four for some family in a suburb or urban area on a daily basis, it does not make you a chef.  AND, using the word personal in front of CHEF will not justify your argument.  Its personal all right.  Its personal when I see so many individuals take as many short cuts as possible to attain a goal/or standing, that takes dedication and hard work to attain.  An achievement that takes many talented hard working dedicated professionals much sweat and sacrifice to become.  It is too often made out to be easy to do, which it is not.  Not if you are any good that is.

What I learned, and believe the word chef means is a reference to an individual who can, at least competently execute or have command of food costing, menu planning, first aid, kitchen design, creating menu concepts, creating specials, payroll control, teaching skills, food sanitation, contract negotiation knowledge, interviewing skills, equipment maintenance knowledge, staff scheduling, basic knowledge of ventilation, fire prevention, knowledge of wines, beer, alcohol, menu design, marketing, customer service, baking, pastries, sauces, garde manger, breakfast menus, lunch menus, dinner menus, meat cutting, fish filleting, utensil selection & purchase, inventory control, portion control, storeroom organization, kitchen organization, food production, food storage, nutrition, account management, supports the community, has catering organizational skills, has knowledge and command of multiple cuisines, command of all basic cooking methods and techniques, has command of seasoning and spice combination’s and applications, computer literacy, an eye for detail, an open ear, a kind heart, a sense of humor, loyalty to his staff, always looks out for the welfare of his employees, business and customers, does not play politics and never chooses sides before he hears both sides of the story.
In my book, if you can do the above list anywhere from good to better than average, the word chef probably applies to you.  If you can handle multiple cuisines, and themes like fine dining, casual, fast food, ethnic, banquet, catering, restaurant, hotel, country club, bistro, cafe, bakery, and even cafeteria we are getting somewhere.  If you’ve opened and or designed multiple food service operations, kudos.

The first chef I worked for was a major league dope as it turned out.  I was lucky in that I worked for a family owned restaurant where everything was made in house.  Even the meat was cut start to finish in the restaurant.  As time went on I became more of a personal clean up boy to this slob than the prep cook I was hired to be.  I quit.  I had no respect for the man, and gave no notice.  He told me I did not have the chops to make it in this business, and should find gainful work as something else.  I responded that I would not forget that line anytime soon.  Some years later I was overhauling a hotel kitchen in Chicago’s southwestern suburbs as a consulting chef.  I had an ad in the local paper for a sous chef (2nd in charge) for the newly organized kitchen.  Lo and behold, guess who came to dinner.  or at least to fill out an application.  Yep, it was John, the first chef I worked for.  He never knew I was in the kitchen looking at his application as he waited in the dining room.  The manager had accepted the application initially and brought it to me.  I had two choices as I saw it.  Go out and meet him and let the situation alone crush him.  Or, send the manager back out to him informing him the position was filled earlier in the day and that we would keep his application on file.  I chose the latter of the two, because its still a great story:)

How did you order that steak?

“Lots o hoofin goin on here”. As a chef of 33 years experience and growing, I ask a simple question in my cooking programs that shock, initially most patrons. How do you eat/cook your meat to temperature? Rare? Bloody? Charred? All bad answers.
Lets take a page out of the eastern European handbook on the subject. Generally speaking, its well done, cooked thoroughly. The incidence of colon cancer, cholesterol and digestive problems does not really matter in percentages its so small amongst that section of the planets population. Why?
Cooking your meat medium well to well done does not mean dry and destroyed. It means, that it is easier for you to digest. It means the muscle fibers are broken down. The cholesterol levels are, after reasonable trimming, close to none existent. As the meat is further cooked, the protein count jumps way up, making it even healthier. If you are eating well done meat that is blown away, the chef or cook needs re-training. If you are eating rare meat because its cool, its not. If you are eating rare meat because you think it tastes better, you might want to think that over. The cost of doing this can be very steep over a lifetime. If you eat your meat charred, remember as you dig in, the burnt part is actually a carcinogen at that point. Usually, individuals eating charred meat have their eating habit molded after their pallet. Meaning, their pallet, by genetics usually has disproportionate types of taste buds. A person eating charred steaks usually is a smoker and/or a heavy coffee drinker, and most likely has very few bitter taste buds on their tongue. Since the other more populous taste buds do not come into play when eating a charred steak, the diner is unaware of why it does not over power them.
SOOOOO, next time you flesh eating carnivores point at the well done steak eater and scoff at their culinary IQ, put a sock in it. And, for all meat eaters on the planet, be nice to vegetarians. remember, they are poor hunters and need our help:)
Thefoodmercenary