I was a caul fat virgin. And I wish I had stayed that way…even if knowing about it makes me a member of the culinary subculture. For those of you who are lucky enough to have never encountered it, caul fat is the lacy-looking fatty membrane that surrounds the internal…
I know, times are tough in our business. The belt-tightening evidence is everywhere. Restaurants with dollar menus are lining their pockets, while the full service industry is pretty much taking it in the shorts. Still, even with frugality the fashion these days, it’s hard to abide those who wear their…
I’m a Food Network devotee. I love the Iron Chef challenges. The pressure is thrilling but mostly I’m blown away by the way chefs like Hiroyuki Sakai, Masaharu Morimoto and Bobby Flay combine traditions and ingredients. Fusion cuisine. It’s innovative…and a big part of why I wanted to go to…
Three cycles in and the students have gotten so used to the environment — and each other – that previously hidden personality traits are emerging. No doubt, we’ll be separating at the end of this program as either lifelong friends or enemies. Quirks and comments that were marginally comical or…
Cooking school, as it turns out, has forced me to change some of my long-standing practices. It didn’t take long before I realized they were based on misconceptions. From time to time I’ll give you a myth buster or two I’ve learned about in class. For starters, lettuce. Get this…
Measure liquids in a liquid measuring cup – dry ingredients in a dry measure cup. All my cooking life, I’ve paid attention to this detail painstakingly, figuring that cooking and baking was so scientific that even the slightest mis-measurement would end in disaster. Ah, the things you learn in culinary…
Tanya Cruise is a trickle-down casualty of our piss-poor economy. With her boom years in car sales gone bust, she’s waiting tables, tending bar, and learning the tricks of a new trade. “I was pulling down 7K a month,” says Cruise, 26, shifting her career story in reverse while she…
Eat it raw. Cookie dough, I mean. You can also eat sunny side up eggs, make chocolate mousse at home and pull out the Caesar salad dressing recipe you stashed away because it included a raw egg. Pasteurized shell eggs can be eaten raw. The process used on them guarantees…
I’m coming face-to-face with things I never expected. My hands have morphed. They’ve got nicks, cuts, punctures and burns that make daily tasks like shampooing and squeezing a lemon borderline torture. I have pretty much forgotten what they look like without band-aids and finger condoms. Plus no amount of moisturizer…
For years, a restaurateur named Luigi Lamentini performed in the Italian dining theater – lucky for us, right here in Phoenix, where he operated several restaurants. A Florentine by birth with a thick, nasal accent, he’d take flight on fluid rants in his native tongue; singing a sad song about…
I’m settling into my new routine. No great surprise, but life in a kitchen is a world or two away from sitting in a cubical on the 4th floor of an office building downtown. Here’s my early take on culinary school: It’s fairly militaristic, at least to an old hippie…
All my life, passion, rather than reason, has led to my relationships, my jobs and my extracurricular activities. It’s why I ended up in culinary school when I have a house, some kids and a few pets to support. Here’s the short version: I’ve always been a late bloomer. Dated…
The time we spend in this business can be a gamble. From the easy money to the nightlife and liquor-fueled libidos, there’s a risk we run of getting addicted to the action. I’m the perfect example: That not-so-lucky winner you hear stories about. And the tale of my $4,000 tip,…
Today, the torch passes to a new generation. But some will never forget certain meals enjoyed during the Bush Administration. On October 13, 2004, in an act some might consider tantamount to cannibalism (shame on you), President George Walker Bush dined on turkey-stuffed enchiladas at Dick’s Hideaway in Phoenix. (Dick’s…
When it comes to playing hooky from work, you’d better be on your game – particularly if you work in a busy restaurant. Where my own exploits are concerned, experience has proven the best teacher. Susceptible to bouts of Cactus League-triggered spring fever, I’ve called in sick one day and…
There’s no denying it. Charles Barkley’s a character. He proselytizes. He womanizes. And his traffic stop after supposedly chasing a fellatio artist through the streets of Scottsdale two weeks ago will undoubtedly further his reputation. But before we burn Sir Charles at the stake (and let he who is without…
Things are getting spooky around town. Driving to work, I pass Chef Robert McGrath’s never-opened REM project on Lincoln Drive. Having boarded it up along with the Pischke’s property he took over in 2006, subsequent to the suicide of Chris Pischke, McGrath’s suddenly disappeared from the food scene he’s poster-boyed…
In the foodie blogosphere, you can be somebody. Just pick a site (Chowhound, Yelp, EGullet, et al.), a clever byline, and you’re in. It’s like AA for food junkies — a sympathetic forum in which Epicurean souls are bared and horror stories are exchanged in catharsis. Of course, it’s just…
Two doctors sit at a bar and start talking shop. “Why proctology, for God’s sake?” one asks. “I know,” the other answers, raising a hand with his thumb and forefinger an inch or two apart. “I was this close to being a gynecologist.” That same gag works…
Back in the days before TV talk shows brought Tourette’s Syndrome into our mainstream consciousness (circa 1985), I hung my server shingle at a lakeside seafood restaurant in Scottsdale. I’d gotten the job through a drinking buddy, just days after being fired for arguing with my former supervisor (and that…
Hovering tableside this time of year, it’s hard not to feel a little left out and invisible among so many celebrating their holidays. Like some Scrooge, I try to convince myself it’s all in a day’s work, but inevitably, hauntingly familiar faces in the crowd whisk me back to Christmas…
In principle, I get that whole “the customer’s always right” thing. In practice, of course, it doesn’t always hold up. Consider the barfly I once tended to, who, after asking me for an empty beer mug, proceeded to seal it over her mouth and puke in it. Then, as though…
