Sunday, April 29, 2012

Ecclesiastes 3:1

From the passing of Queen Elizabeth I of England in 1603, the Bible was rewritten by a league of scholars and learned men in England of the early 17th century.  It was created in order to become a work 'for the common people'.  In 1611 it debuted as the King James Bible evoking great literary and heavenly passion through the subsequent years.  From it's pages have come a litany of phrases that we use everyday, at least in the English language.  Having been vastly used and copied they and are now in our every day jargon.  The most used and quoted phrase is from Ezekiel 4:10, 'From time to time'

The one which reasonates to me and is, in part, the tell tale for things agricultural and cooking is from Ecclesiastes 3:1, 'To every thing there is a season'.  If you stop to let those seven words come full circle in your mind you can understand it's power.  The small, the grandiose, the subtle, the vague and the immaculate are all seasonal.  The Edelweiss which grows in Austrian and Swiss alpine meadows has a season in which it blooms and grows....the raging torrents of the Colorado River, gouging and scarring the walls of the Grand Canyon, had a season until the Glen Canyon Dam halted it's seasonal fury in 1964....the furled fern fronds that peek their crooked necks out of the ground in March and April in New England have their seasonality as they grow into a complete fern soon after their early springtime arrival....The Winter of our Discontent is John Steinbeck's last novel (written and published in 1961, which is a story of fortune lost and a life forlorn) and the title is a reference to the first two lines of William Shakespeare's Richard III, Act I, Scene 1-

'Now is the winter of our discontent
Made glorious summer by this sun/son of York'.

Most obvious are the four seasons of the year that drive our climate and relegate us to riders on the blue planet, necessitating our adaptive natures.  They are what we notably confront everyday when we wake and set ourselves to our daily tasks.  Rainy April mornings and blustry October afternoons are interrupted, thankfully by sun-ripened summer days.  Our northern-latitude calender year ends and begins with the snowy and bitter cold of December and January.  Farmers live within and because of the seasons.  Roaming herds of Lapland Reindeer and East African Wildebeests live, eat and die within the confines of the geographic seasons.  Anandromous and Catadromous fish are born to migrate and eventually, like the Pacific Chinook, Coho and Sockeye Salmon, miraculously return to their birthplace to spawn and die - all within their own seasonality.  We have likened our own human existence to the Spring of young life, the Summer of love and possibilities, the Autumn of marriage and our life work to the Winter of old age and death...

I have always maintained that there are 12 seasons.  I am not a farmer but, as a cook and chef, I wish to use the abundant seasonality of spring, summer, autumn and winter bounty.  Hence, my company's name is 12Seasons...  All these seasonal events help to tie us together for what we are.  We are the human animal, and how we have adapted to the far ranging seasonal elements on the earth has helped to define us culturally, socially, politically, spirtually and, at last, gastronomically...  We are what we eat and what we eat, eats - and when, depending on the season, we may or can or SHOULD eat what we have sown and reaped.  My hope is that we can somehow, and I do not have the answer to this question - only the question, find the way, in any season, to continue to partake of the bounty of what the earth brings forth.  The seaons are more powerful than us.  When we try to circumvent the seaonality of food, we get dangerous results.  We must learn to live in the harmony of all seasons.  Peace.


'Adopt the pace of nature.  Her secret is patience.'  - Ralph Waldo Emerson
~R

Saturday, April 28, 2012

Polyface Farm, Shenendoah Valley, Virginia

I wish this was my work, it is not.  It speaks to what I believe in, however.  This is Polyface Farm in the Shenendoah Valley, Virginia - I wish I could do this...  Peace.

Feeding the Future


Nestled in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, the Salatin family’s Polyface Farm encompasses 550 acres of woodland and pasture. A working farm, it has also become a mecca for the local foods movement. (All photos © Erica Bleeg.)

By Erica Bleeg
Walking through cow pastures and hog paddocks is part of my research. I teach two university courses on writing about food, and have a keen interest in where it’s sourced. Spring is the time to see a farm’s operations in full swing, so I recently headed over to Polyface, a Swoope, Va. farm that thrives without using chemical fertilizers, herbicides, hormones, or antibiotics.
Once known predominantly among readers of the trade journal Stockman Grass Farmer, Polyface’s owner, Joel Salatin, has gained a broader audience through trumpeting his humane and ecologically sound approach to agriculture. The 55-year-old Salatin has also made a mission of cultivating new farmers. For every farmer under 35, there are six over 65, and the USDA predicts that within the next 20 years a quarter of all farmers will retire. “There’s a brain-drain of knowledge about agriculture,” said Salatin.
Beginning wasn’t easy for Salatin. After a stint as a newspaper reporter, he returned to the family farm in 1982. “It was nip and tuck,” he remembered. “We lived on $300 a month.” Now Polyface brings in about eight summer interns in their teens and twenties to help with the season’s blaze of production, and two full-time apprentices work year-round. Salatin’s son, Daniel, lives on the farm with his wife and three children and manages the operation, often directing Salatin the Elder on chores.
Polyface rents an additional 1,200 acres where younger farmers live and work as independent contractors, borrowing equipment and raising livestock that feed Polyface’s business. “They can begin with zero capital,” said Salatin. Two such contractors have since successfully launched their own businesses. “In the end,” said Salatin, “This germinates new young farmers.”


Joel Salatin encourages visiting college students to smell the mix of manure and wood chips lifted from a hog paddock. The hogs aerate it while rooting with their snouts, transforming what could be toxic waste into rich, nearly odorless fertilizer.


Just two to three months old, pigs huddle together for warmth on a brisk April morning. At nine months and weighing about 300 pounds, they’ll be “ready to go,” says 26-year-old apprentice Noah Beyeler, farm talk for “ready for slaughter.” Polyface sells about 50 percent of all pig shoulders and hams to nearby Chipotle restaurants.


With the aid of a forklift, apprentice manager Eric Barth, 26, moves a 308-pound hog feeder toward the barn paddock. Expensive equipment contributes to steep upfront costs for new farmers. According to a survey conducted by the National Young Farmers’ Coalition, 78 percent of farmers cite lack of capital as the biggest challenge to beginners, followed by access to land and credit.


Eric Barth, Daniel Salatin, and Noah Beyeler select pigs whose post-slaughter weight appears to be less than 100 pounds, typical for barbeque. These would fill orders from the British Embassy in Washington, D.C. and an Arlington, Va. restaurant. Polyface also sells its meat and eggs in an on-site store. Seeing these men capture pigs recalls a Ralph Waldo Emerson observation Michael Pollan cites in The Omnivore’s Dilemma: “You have just dined, and however scrupulously the slaughterhouse is concealed in the graceful distance of miles, there is complicity.”


Homemade pens keep broiler chickens on grass and safe from predators. The broilers go out on pasture at three weeks of age; they’ll grow for about five more weeks before reaching processing weight. Here Daniel Salatin refills their water supply. In the last three weeks of life the broilers grow over an ounce a day, he says, and “if any stress—like not enough water or feed—interrupts that growth process, you can’t get that back.”


Barred Plymouth Rock hens roam the pasture that cattle grazed only the day before. The hens follow the cattle, picking protein-rich grubs from cow patties, aerating the soil as they peck, and fertilizing it with their own nitrogen-dense droppings. In the backdrop is one of Joel Salatin’s inventions, the portable eggmobile where hens lay eggs in interior cubbyholes.


Unlike cattle finished on manure-laden feedlots, and fed a potentially poisonous mix of corn and antibiotics, the cattle at Polyface feed on grass, their natural diet.


“What you never, ever want to do is violate the law of the second bite,” Joel Salatin once advised Michael Pollan. A single bite at the top of the grass is optimal for stimulating regrowth. To prevent overgrazing, the cattle at Polyface are moved almost daily to fresh pasture, a process that takes Daniel less than five minutes.


Daniel points to two cattle bringing up the back: “See how the mother cow walks a little and then she’ll stop, waiting for her calf to catch up?”


Of continuing the work of his father’s business, “I’ve never thought of doing anything different,” Daniel says. The chore he most enjoyed as a child was herding cattle. Here, his two sons lend a hand.


Joel Salatin, a Christian, considers his work “a ministry in every sense of the word, except we’re for profit. We are in the healing business: healing the land, healing the food, healing the culture. Ultimately, if our work is not healing, it’s not worth doing.”


COMMENTS:
Joel is in every way a hero. He has stepped forward to show how our earth and it's inhabitants can live in a harmonious way. He honors the stewardship given to man by God. He doesn't rape the land and pillage the animals like CAFO's (concentrated animal feeding operations), and he proves it can be profitable, as well as infinitely more healthy, to be wise, humane, and forward thinking. In Michigan, the government is killing pigs like Joel's. I wonder what he will do if his state government brings these communist tactics to his front door? An excerpt from Kelly the Kitchen Kop blog: The other day I was helping our son with social studies homework and came across this line in his chapter about China:“In a Communist system, the government owns most businesses and land and controls all areas of life. China’s new Communist government began by taking over control of the economy. The government seized all private farms and organized them into large, state-run farms.” Keep honoring God, Joel, and keep fighting the good fight. Never give up. You are doing a great good and the word is spreading like wildfire.

Spring & Summer - 2012


Good Beautiful, Crisp, Clean, Sring Day, World!

So - The Boulder Country Dinner.  The Wisonsin Cheese Tour & Tasting.  Chicago - Alinea.  NYC - WD~50, Restaurant Daniel, Le Bernardin.  Virginia - The Inn @ Little Washington.  Honolulu - Chef Mavro.  What do all these places, restaurants and people have in common...?  Correct!  This is what I will be experiencing this spring and summer - all in the name of food education; to learn more about the people, chefs and food that make up the bushels of Gastronomy in America.  Ultimately, this helps my current students @ Johnson & Wales, my former students @ The Art Institute, my friends & guests at the table in the country @ The Boulder Country Dinner (next dinner is up and coming on the 12th of May, y'all...) and quintessentially, myself - how I see the world through food, kitchens, gardens, farms, dining rooms and saute pans... 

Call me @ 303.667.3768 to make a reservation for The Boulder Country Dinner.  See you in The Country.  Peace.
~R

‘A Spring Tasting Menu…’

Herb * Potato * Asparagus * Fresh Hen's Egg * Rabbit * Grass-Fed Beef * Sheep's Milk * Garden Peas * Ricotta * Chevre * Chickens * Spring Lamb * Frais de Bois * Strawberry * Lobster * Suckling Pig * Mint * Ham * Foie Gras * Poussin * Veal * Rhubarb * Chocolate

…with a French accent!



Suprises & Treats on the Deck

with a Special-Cocktail-of-the-Evening…

Canape
'12Seasons Chevre, Parsley, Colorado Honeycomb, Backyard Greens'
Soupe
'Pea Porridge, Pea Consomme, Mirepoix, Pea Butter Crouton, Fresh Hen's Egg'

Poisson
'Lobster Ragout, Asparagus Salad, Potato Truffle Mille Feuille'

Entrée
'Spring Leg of Lamb, Wild Lettuces, Triple-Fried Potato, Morels, Mustard Flowers'

Intermede
Salade
'Suckling Pig, Spinach, Acorns, Walnuts'

Dessert
'Pickled Rhubarb, Sheep's Milk Yogurt Sorbet, Salted Caramel'

Wine pairings to follow… Let me know if you have any specific food allergies or dislikes… Call me for additional information @ 303.667.3768. Send your remittance/check to:

Chef Robert N. Corey dba The French Manner & 12Seasons
P.O. Box 270487
Louisville, Colorado 80027

Upon receipt of payment, I will send you confirmation of your reservation and directions to the ‘Country House’. See you in the country!

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Wine, Port, Cheese & Chocolate Tasting Notes - Vail 2012


Wine, Port, Cheese & Chocolate Tasting Notes – Vail 2012

Chef Robert N. Corey, C.E.C.


The Taste of Vail April 5 - 8, 2012

'Got E = mc2 ?' (one of these two figures has a high IQ...the other one wears a red cap!)

The Cliff Notes version of the tastings...: Food changes wine – wine rarely changes the food.  The moral of the story is to pair food to taste (your taste) and to the wine style, not necessarily the varietal. 

The following are my notes compiled from lectures and tastings at The Taste of Vail in Vail, Colorado – April 5-8, 2012.  Remember that personal subjectivity is crucial when pairing food with wine.  Wine is certainly the most difficult of the alcohols to pair with food.  Acidity, oak, leather, green bean, vanillan, malic acid, etc...  When pairing food and beer simply mirror the flavor and taste profiles, and the same with spirits and food.  With wine one must recognize the style of the wine, the taste and flavors of the food and work from there… Pairing food and wine can be the hardest as acid and bitterness are prevalent.  Sour food is very wine friendly.  So, that's easy!  Select and adapt accordingly. 



1.      Classifying Wine: Taste.  Profile.  Style.

A.     Fruity & sweet (includes dessert wines).
B:  Dry white wines, w/o oak or very little oak influence (includes most sparkling wines).
C:  Dry white wines with oak and/or light, fruity red wines.
D:  Strong red wines with tannins.

Within each of these categories, there are several levels, corresponding to the intensity of the characteristics, such as oak, tannin, sweetness, etc. 

2.      Classifying Food

Any specific dish, or cheese, will contain one or more of the five basic tastes:  sweet, sour, salty, bitter and protein/umami.  These dominant tastes in the food will have a profound effect on the taste of the wine. 

A.     Sweet & protein/umami dominated foods reduce wine aromas and make wine textures (acidity, bitterness, astringency, and tannins) stronger.
B.     Sour and salt dominated foods make wine textures milder (richer, smoother, sweeter) and can accentuate aromas.
C.     When the tastes in the food are balanced, with no one taste dominating another, the wine will remain relatively unchanged, just as the winemaker intended.  This is the standard objective in food and wine pairing.

3.      Cheese

Cheese is commonly classified by its style or firmness, type of milk, country of origin and by its age.  When pairing cheese with wine the most important thing to think about is its taste profile.  Every cheese contains varying levels of sweetness, protein/umami, acidity and salt.  By evaluating the sweetness/umami versus salt/acidity in the cheese and grouping them into categories based on taste profile, you can pair the appropriate wine to any cheese.

A.     Fresh, Creamy Cheeses; Protein/Umami and Sweet Dominant (lack of salt & acidity)
Examples: fresh Mozzarella, Ricotta, young Brie, Camembert.
Reaction: The protein and sweetness will make wine taste stronger and accentuate bitterness and tannins.
Solution: Lighter-style wines with soft tannins and crisp, fresh flavors.
Suggested Wines: Low-Oak wines such as Chenin-Blanc, Gerwurtztraminer, Viognier, Sauvignon and Chardonnay to light reds such as White Zinfandel, Beaujolais, Pinot Noir and lighter-style Merlots.
             B.  Young, Tangy Cheeses; Acidity & Protein/Umami Dominant (no distinct acidic bite).  Examples: Chevre/fresh Goat Cheese, Crescenza, Tomini.
            Reaction: These cheeses soften high acid and low-astringency wines but will strengthen full tannin, high stringency wines.
Solution: Crisp to high acidity wines, with low to moderate oak, and low tannins.
            Suggested Wines: Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Grigio, Dry Reisling, Chablis-Style Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, lighter Chianti, Zinfandel and Shiraz.

             C.  Young, tangy and salty Cheeses; Acidity & Protein/Umami Balanced (most universal category of cheeses – will taste good with the widest variety of wines).
Examples: Young Cheddar, Gruyere, Cambozola, Blue Castello, triple-crème Pierre Robert, aged goat Crottin, low-salt Feta.
            Reaction: The balance of flavors will have a virtually neutral effect on the wines or may soften the astringency/tannins in wine and accentuate fruit flavors. 
            Solution: Because of the universal quality of the cheese, play with your favorite wines.
            Suggested Wines: Riesling, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Merlot, Shiraz, Zinfandel, Cabernet Sauvignon. 

D.     Aged, Salty Cheeses; Salt & Protein/Umami Dominant (highest amount of salt and concentrated flavor).
Examples: Roquefort, Stilton, Parmesan, Asiago, aged Sharp Cheddar, Feta.
            Reaction: Salt dominance has an initial reaction of softening the wines with a secondary strengthening of astringency  and tannins from the high protein. 
            Solution: Theses cheeses need softy, sweet wines or dessert wines, or strong, rich, but soft tannin wines.
            Suggested Wines: Theses cheeses traditionally served with sweet and fortified wines such as Port, (with Stilton) or Sauternes (with Roquefort) since the cheese make the wines milder and richer.  Try Late-harvest wines, Vin Santo, Ice Wine, sweet Sherry, Madeira, Amarone, Zinfandel, or Shiraz.

In general serve soft cheeses with soft wines and hard cheeses with hard wine.  Either way, enjoy. 

Peace. ~R

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

At Play in the Culinary Sandbox

One of the pleasures of teaching at a culinary institute is the ability to play with toys - equipment that is usually not available to the average Joe.  Here are pictures of various purees spun @ 8,000 RPM.  The duration is 30 minutes to 120 minutes.  Playing in the culinary sandbox...  

 Cantaloupe, Butternut Squash & Beet (above)
 Blueberry, Pea & Butternut Squash (above)
 Butternut Squash, Blueberry & Pea (above)
 The Centrifuge Settings
 Beet - probably my favorite...
 Cooking the beets in a water bath @ 85 degrees C.
 A loaded centrifuge - a beautiful thing...
 Mise en place #1
Mise en Place #2


See and taste the finalized products to be used in the Boulder Country Dinner.  Peace.

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Updated Menus - 12 May 2012


‘A Spring Tasting Menu…’

Herb * Potato * Asparagus * Fresh Hen's Egg * Rabbit * Grass-Fed Beef * Sheep's Milk * Garden Peas * Ricotta * Chevre * Chickens * Spring Lamb * Frais de Bois * Strawberry * Lobster * Suckling Pig * Mint * Ham * Foie Gras * Poussin * Veal * Rhubarb * Chocolate

…with a French accent!



Suprises & Treats on the Deck

with a Special-Cocktail-of-the-Evening…
                                                                                 
Canape
'12Seasons Chevre, Parsley, Colorado Honeycomb, Backyard Greens'
                                                                              
                                                                                                  Soupe
'Pea Porridge, Pea Consomme, Mirepoix, Pea Butter Crouton, Fresh Hen's Egg'

                                                                                                  Poisson
                                                               'Lobster Ragout, Asparagus Salad, Potato Truffle Mille Feuille'

                                                                                                    Entrée
                                                  'Spring Leg of Lamb, Wild Lettuces, Triple-Fried Potato, Morels, Mustard Flowers'

                                                                          Intermede
                                
                                                                                                     Salade
                                                                                   'Suckling Pig, Spinach, Acorns, Walnuts'

                                                                                                     Dessert
                                                                    'Pickled Rhubarb, Sheep's Milk Yogurt Sorbet, Salted Caramel'

Wine pairings to follow…  Let me know if you have any specific food allergies or dislikes…  Call me for additional information @ 303.667.3768.  Send your remittance/check to:

                                                            Chef Robert N. Corey dba The French Manner & 12Seasons
                                                                                               P.O. Box 270487
                                                                                      Louisville, Colorado 80027

Upon receipt of payment, I will send you confirmation of your reservation and directions to the ‘Country House’.  See you in the country!

                                                       12Seasons is a member of: SLOW FOOD USA

Peace.









Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Your Invitiation...


  The Boulder Country Dinner – 12th of May, 2012


‘The devil is in the details! Chef Robert Corey¹s Boulder Country Dinner series is the equivalent of having your bucket list meal – and best of all you get to repeat the experience every month!  Guitarists call Hendrix a guitar player's guitarist.  Chefs call Robert Corey a Chef's Chef! What else can be said about gourmet cuisine, wine and fellowship in this bucolic country setting? Jump on it, you will be happy you did!’

~Christopher J. Davies, Co-Founder, Editor & Publisher - Wine Country International® Magazine & VinoTasting



The Boulder Country Dinner series continues with a Food & Wine pairing on Saturday, the 12th of May, 2012 at 6:00 p.m.  Once again we will be at the ‘Country House’ in Niwot, Colorado.  I invite you to come to our table to dine with us in the country!!!



We will set a table for 20 guests.  Seated together you will dine communally, outdoors or indoors as the weather permits.  The fashionable concepts of a Seasonal Menu a la Slow Food, Farm-to-Table, Local and Organic, are integrated within one vision – my food is carefully and caringly sourced, prepared and served to you, usually with a French accent. 



The Dinner will be composed of seven-courses of my ‘Nouvelle Classics’ paired with wines – all with seasonal tones.  My impetus comes from Springtime produce from Munson Farms in Boulder, Colorado.  Some of my dishes have progeny from The French Laundry in Napa Valley and Eleven Madison Park in NYC.  The wine service will be a tasting of novel and boutique wineries that deserve our attention.  My plates and bowls are small, multiple course creations - it will not be fine dining, but the dining will be fine.  Please advise us of any special seating needs or dietary requirements.  The cost is $100.00 per person (including wine service), paid in advance to secure your place at the table.  So…Guess who’s coming to dinner?



                                                     ‘A Spring Tasting Menu…’

What's in Season? Herb * Potato * Asparagus * Fresh Hen's Egg * Rabbit * Grass-Fed Beef * Sheep's Milk * Garden Peas * Ricotta * Chevre * Chickens * Spring Lamb * Frais de Bois * Strawberry * Lobster * Suckling Pig * Mint * Ham * Foie Gras * Poussin * Veal * Rhubarb * Chocolate

…with a French accent!

Canape

'12Seasons Chevre, Parsley, Colorado Honeycomb, Backyard Greens'


Soupe

'Pea Porridge, Pea Consomme, Mirepoix, Pea Butter Crouton, Fresh Hen's Egg'


Poisson

'Lobster Ragout, Asparagus Salad, Potato Truffle Mille Feuille'


Entrée

'Spring Leg of Lamb, Wild Lettuces, Farro Rizotto, Morels, Mustard Flowers'


Intermede


Salade

'Suckling Pig, Spinach, Acorns, Walnuts'


Dessert

'Pickled Rhubarb, Sheep's Milk Yogurt Sorbet, Salted Caramel'



Wine pairings to follow…  Let me know if you have any specific food allergies or dislikes…  Call me for additional information @ 303.667.3768.  Send your remittance/check to:



Chef Robert N. Corey dba The French Manner & 12Seasons

P.O. Box 270487

Louisville, Colorado 80027



Upon receipt of payment, I will send you confirmation of your reservation and directions to the ‘Country House’.  See you in the country!  -R

Sunday, April 1, 2012

American Cuisine Today


American Cuisine Today

Chef Robert N. Corey, B.A., A.O.S., C.E.C.




An Introduction to American Cuisine Today

Chef Robert N. Corey, B.A., A.O.S., C.E.C.

Spring 2012



“Revolution & Evolution’



The sheer size of our country, the multitude of cultures within our borders and the breadth of products we produce make qualifying a ‘definitive American food culture’ extremely difficult.  Perhaps that difficulty actually defines us.  We are a conglomerate of Food Cultures, a Culture of Cultures.  America is geographically diverse, topographically challenged, immigrantic, 50-stated and food opinionated! 



America is ethnic and global.  We are what we eat, eats as Michael pollan has stated.  Our roots are European, mostly Spanish and English and, now, Asian.  Our oldest restaurants are standard European in design and cuisine.  Yet, we are more than restaurants.  We are street food and Farmer’s Markets and Food Trucks.  European food is the blending of flavors and Asian cuisines are the street parties in our mouths. 



The great ethnic food cultures of the biggest immigrant cities in America are in LA, NYC, Chicago and Miami.  Great food happens here but it can be found in the smallest hamlets and villages in the country, too.  Travel to the upper Midwest lake communities and to smoky valleys of Appalachia where there are cultural food offerings on every table.  the same is true on the beaches of Puritan Cape Cod to the Navajo hogans of our native Americans.  It is all so bloody good, unique and real.  Travel the country and taste it from street vendors to michelin freaks – all the while looking over your fork at someone who hopefully understands and appreciates it as much as you do.  Smile.  Sometimes food experiences can be like seeing the sunrise for the very first time. 



‘I hear America cookin’

It’s coming round again

There’s Pork and Corn a growin’

From Kidz to Women and Men.’

-Betty Fussell, ‘I Hear America Cooking’.



 We are cooking on the precipice of a new dawn.  The Revolution of American Gastronomy.  The cuisine in America is like her history – it involves freedom.  The freedom of expression.  The freedom to be creative.  The freedom to break boundaries.  The Statue of Liberty, a.k.a. ‘The New Colossus’, stands in New York Harbor and has beckoned, since 1886, with the words of Emma Lazarus:



Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!’



We Americans are a multi-cultural epic and ethnic collaboration of all the world’s people.  Diversity reigns in America.  Thus, our food follows suit.  In spite of this grand arrangement, the cuisine in restaurants must still impart a connection – a connection to the land, the spirit of its immigration, of the culture and of the season.  food must always taste good, make sense, and sate us in a visceral and physical manner.  We must cook to make people happy.



There are four Evolutions in the Revolution of American Gastronomy, and undoubtedly there are more to come.  In order to get where we are today, however, Chefs in America (and not always American chefs) had to join the movement to the past – the return to the land.  The objective was to find and source the best ingredients and if you couldn’t find them to find someone who would grow them.  The purely American Cuisine began by cooking those indigenous American products well while breaking the ties to European traditions of cookery.  Getting away, bit by bit, from the ‘classics’ brought new freedoms which allowed American Chefs to affect International Cuisine, as well.  Now the world comes to America to cook…



American Cuisine today is about bounty.  The bounty from our gardens.  Here lies another evolution in American cooking.  From Farmer’s Markets in Long Island to farms in the Carolinas, to Mid-western corn behemoths and fertile California valleys, American Chefs are clamoring for local, organic and sustainable products.  We are embracing cooking with the seasons and we are revolting against animal proteins inoculated and modified.



And, glory be!  we are learning to cook again.  A lost art that began to slip away in the 50’s, has found resurgence.  Cooks and Chefs are entertainment Kings and Queens!  Who will lead us into the middle of the century?  An American?  European?  Asian?  Whoever leads us it will still be an Evolution of American Cuisine.  In America, we are that Evolution, chefs who are the proverbial mixed, melting, conglomerate pot that is the American Dream.



In American Cuisine Today we shall explore the American landscape, find its gastronomic pulse, taste the culture-of-the-moment and dive into the ocean of the American palate – one great restaurant at a time.  We will be creating Spring Tasting Menus from the minds of the country’s best Chefs and from Dining Rooms across the land, from sea to shining sea.



We Americans may be defined by who our natural or adopted parents (family or country) might be.  More specifically we are defined by how we were raised and what events or rituals shaped our memories, and by what defined by our food preferences.  What we eat can be who we are, or what we wish to be.



‘Pioneers in American Cuisine’



The First New Age (The 70’s) – ‘The Classical Period’:

Jean-Louis Palladin

Alice Waters

Robert Mondavi

Julia Child

Graham Kerr

Madeline Kamman

James Beard

Waverly Root

Craig Clairborne

Greenpeace



Closer To Home (The 80’s) – ‘The Regional American’ Influence:

Paul Prudhomme

Dean Fearing

mark Miller

Wolfgang Puck

Jasper White

Larry Forgione

Jonathan Waxman

John Folse

Jeremiah Tower

Bradley Ogden



The Big Explosion (The 90’s) – ‘The Contemporary Period’ (Also known as ‘The Las Vegas Period’):

Thomas Keller

Alfred Portale

Charlie Trotter

Charlie palmer

Daniel Boulud

Norman Van Aken

Eric Ripert

Gary Danko

Jean-Georges Vongerichten

Rick Tramonto

Todd English

David Burke

The Food Network

Alfred Portale



New Chefs, New Issues (21st C.) – ‘The Cutting Edge Period’:

Slow Food

The Green Movement

Seasonal, Sustainable, Local and Organic Food

Grant Achatz

Nathan Myrvold, Chris Young and maxime Bilet

Food Trucks

David Chang

Daniel Humm

George Mendes

Wiley Dufresne

Joel Salatin (Polyface farms, VA)

Dan Barber

Bryan Voltaggio

Michael Ciramusti

JB Prince

PolyScience

Linda Runyon (ofthefield.com)