eggbeater

plated desserts, in words

devil's food cake
crunchy buckwheat
amedei milk chocolate cream
chocolate-almond-buckwheat dacquoise
hot fudge sauce
dark chocolate granita
milk chocolate-cocoa nib-crunchy buckwheat-maldon salt 'candy'
        --plated on a plate

crunchy buckwheat is buckwheat groats simmered in oil until toasted
'candy' is made by melting cocoa butter & chocolate, rolling between layers of parchment & chilling
dacquoise is not a true dacquoise because I've added buckwheat flour as well as crunchy buckwheat, but it still has that light but unleavened quality indicative of an egg white cake

spicy thai coconut soup sorbet
cilantro (fresh coriander)-kalamansi lime-cucumber-thai basil soup
mango slivers, diced jicama, cherries, nectarines, watermelon triangles
        -- plated in a bowl

coconut sorbet is infused with galangal, ginger, green & red chillies, fresh & dried coriander, mustard seeds, basil, and dessicated coconut, then mounted with coconut milk
dessert is inspired by highlighting summer fruits & veg in gazpacho

ginger jelly
forbidden black & sticky rice
coconut cream
coconut caramel
fried sticky rice, two ways, sprinkled with amchur-salt-sugar
fresh dice pineapple
        --plated in a glass

ginger jelly has a kick from a long infusion/boil
forbidden black rice has one of the most amazing flavors & colours of any ingredient i've come accross. it's purple and black & blue mixed. while it is not 'sticky,' it works well with a sticky rice because both have their own distinct personalities
sticky rice is fried after it is cooked and sheeted single layer. it is also fried after sheeting much finer between two pieces of lightly oiled parchment, left to dry on stove & fried. the former method created little crunchy bits, the latter creates a rice 'cracker,' ---- light and aerated, like a puff

Eggplant Parmesan, aka Aubergine Parmesan

They say eggs don't grow on trees here. They think 'eggplant' is the silliest of words. But an aubergine? Isn't that a French word?

Did you know eggplants were once white and round-ish? Ahem, hence the name.
Aubergine coloured eggplants came later.
And that's only one varietal! There are loads of kinds of eggplants in the world.

-
I received a lovely note from a reader recently. While my absence here at eggbeater hasn't produced many comments, many of you have 'written to me on the side,' and, when I haven't been working, I've responded.

But these personal email exchanges don't include you, now do they?

As you know, I have a thing for eggplant parmesan. But, I have never said much else about it. I have never 'given you the recipe,' so to speak.

But, as you may have gathered, I'm not much into recipes these days. I have given you my best, my favorite, my tried & true. I give them when I get them just right, after making 'em a dozen or so times. And now that I am baking in another country, with completely different ingredients, I'm re-navigating my own recipes and learning new ones, so recipes, as a thing, as a concept, as a reality, have shifted and morphed into something else.

While I am in Recipe Limbo, as it were, I am on-leave as a Recipe Giver.

But I do have a method, with some ever-so-time-consuming hints, for the Best Ever Eggplant Parmesan, in my opinion, of course.

From Linda:
"I found your wonderful blog today through a friend who is helping with my search for the perfect yellow cake and chocolate icing...
she made yours and says this is it....but I have been sitting here reading and enjoying your recipes for several hours and it is now 1:00am and I must go to sleep...but you have made me hungry for eggplant parmesan...
Is there any chance of getting your recipe?

If you have the time it would be lovely."

From me:

I would not say i have a 'recipe' for eggplant parmesan, I just make it. Here are some of my time consuming tricks -

make your own sauce. mine is usually: sweated onions & garlic in olive oil. canned Marzano tomatoes, broken up, tomato paste, salt and freshy ground black pepper. to taste. additions might include sauteed red peppers, oregano, marjoram, basil... depends what i have. all fresh herbs, not dried. (did you know that store bought dried herbs {in USA} are irradiated UNLESS STATED OTHERWISE?)

My sauce could take at least 3 hours, maybe more, so start early. sauce should be thick because you don't want any excess oil/water in eggplant parmesan.

make your own breadcrumbs. stale/toast bread and run it through a food processor. mix in fresh chopped parsley, kosher/sea salt.
cut eggplant in @ 1" rounds. salt on both sides with kosher/sea salt @ 20 minutes before frying. remember that you can not fry all your eggplant at once.

make 3 plates for frying. 1. eggplant. 2. eggs, beaten. 3. bread crumbs.

fry in olive oil-- a good amount, but eggplant should not be swimming!

get your pan nice and hot (cast iron skillet is best) then add the oil. immediately lay in your rounds.

treat eggplant like pancakes = try and get all your color on one side before turning over. get it nice and dark! just this side of burnt.* *but you do not want the color to come on too fast. it's tricky-- you want everything to be hot but remember that the eggplant is thick and it takes time for it to get cooked through & through.

you may need to add more oil when you flip. again, do not have these pieces swimming in oil.

set fried pieces aside. on plate lined with towel.

when I assemble, I treat it like lasagna but with the eggplant as noodle. I don't usually use ricotta but sometimes i might. my cheeses are parmesan, grated fine & mozzarella, grated or chopped.

layers might look like: sauce, eggplant, parmesan, mozzarella, repeat.
On top I like to have a scant layer of sauce and then a good layer of mozzarella/parmesan so when it bakes this gets crusty.

this is my recipe.
now you've made me hungry for it. not sure i want to spend my day off making it, but hopefully soon I will...

london bakeries & bakers gossip.

i have to share some fun tidbits with you. shhhh, they're secrets. tee hee.
i used to work here, The Big Gun. the company was started in 1991 by the formidable She. now it is owned by two businessmen. it's a massive enterprise in Hendon with 3 factions/departments: The Cake Department, BMG (Viennoisserie) & Bread.

A number of years later She started an amazing food shop and ran these well known london bakeries too. She also has a small part of opening one of the most beautiful chocolate shops.

right after valentine's day of this year, her bakeries were bought by a company that should barely be allowed to call itself a bakery. that company fired just about everyone and still owes them months of back pay.
but i digress.

if you read the Tamasin Day-Lewis piece well, you'll notice that one of the chefs is now a main chef (and partner) at this other incredible london food shops/restaurants/pastry shops. yes, and the name of the business comes from someone else who worked for She.

one of the pastry chefs let go in the massive bakery take over in February started consulting for this bakery chain about 3 months ago.

this bakery chain was not begun by She, even though it's her name.
She has nothing to do with this bakery chain, even though the website might tell you different.
this bakery chain's products are produced in The Big Gun's Cake Department.
this bakery chain is just one of thousands of customers of The Big Gun and the Cake Department.
this bakery chain is owned by a He. yes, the same one of the two he's who own The Big Gun.
this bakery chain has just launched a new product line. you can eat it at 2 of their four stores. Clapham & Hampstead.

but massive product launches for one specific customer coming from a department producing 40,000 units a month (not an exaggeration) need extra pastry chefs.

and here's the clincher.
if it weren't full circle/incestuous/crazy small world enough yet.

The Big Gun, who owns the small bakery chain, named after She who started The Big Gun, the same She who went on to open the most gorgeous, delicious series of bakeries/food shops London had ever seen, and then hired two he's who would open (an eponymous) very similar businesses to Hers

are now the company whose pastry chefs are leaving it to help this bakery chain.

could you die? it's so amazingly ridiculous.

how could it be that a city as big as London is being baked for by a handful of pastry chefs/bakers?

one last thing. the people behind this shop will soon be opening a bakery. guess where the pastry chef/baker behind that venture worked last?

Royal Blenheim Apricots. buy & eat me now. Northern California & beyond.

Now is the time.
The time is Right Now.
If you live in California, USA or anywhere close by, and you love apricots

{photo by Anita Crotty of Married ...with Dinner}

The Royal Blenheim Apricot is in season right this minute.

AND YOU DO NOT WANT TO SEE THEM GO EXTINCT IN YOUR LIFE TIME

support the few farmers left growing them.

All this information just in from my favorite group, Bakers Dozen.

Dear Bakers Dozen Members:
The Blenheims are Here!  If you’d like to organize a carpool to pick some up, here are some sources:

 ♦Apricot King—Patty Gonzales’ orchard
Email:  info@apricotking.com
Phone:  831/637-1938

Visit their farm in Hollister, or check them out at these local farmer's markets:

Santa Cruz
2:30 to 6:30 Wednesdays – Lincoln & Cedar, one block off Pacific in downtown Santa Cruz
Los Altos
4 to 8 p.m. – Thursdays, downtown Los Altos
Palo Alto
9 a.m. to 1 p.m. – Sundays (California & El Camino)
Mountain View
9 a.m. to 1 p.m. – Sundays (Hope & Evelyn Streets)

 
♦Andy's Orchard
1615 Half Road
Morgan Hill, CA 95037

Store Hours:
10:00am - 5:00pm Weekdays
10:00am - 4:00pm Weekends
(408) 782-7600 and ask for Lorene

or
•    Sigonona's Market (Palo Alto)
•    Cosentino's (San Jose) carries Andy's fruit
•    Local Farmers Market @ Garden Accent
•    11155 Lena Ave, Gilroy, CA 408/846-4555 Thur  2-7 pm
or look on the local harvest website.

More lovely photos can be found on Flickr of Royal Blenheim Apricots on the branch, taken by Spidra Webster.

summer fruit desserts, in London.

I'm back working in a restaurant after what feels like many years. Moving thousands of miles can do that-- separate you from what you know, and remove the ground from beneath your feet. What was a recent experience can feel far away in lieu of disorientation.

For the last 11 years, the ground beneath my chef feet has been seasonal, local, mostly organic fruit; and my moniker, 'fruit-inspired pastry chef,' has been my guiding force. I have picked fruit, worked for farmers at favorite farmer's markets and eaten my weight in citrus and stone fruit many times over. I said for years anad years that I stayed in California for its gratuitous fruit array.

But here in London, fruit is an afterthought. Besides apples and pears in autumn, and gooseberries, elderflowers and strawberries in summer, which few do better than Britain, fruit comes from very far away and few people know when to buy it at its peak. Most fruit and vegetables are here year round, but flown in from various countries and continents catchers-catch can style, making fruit buying confusing at best.

And because few fruits are grown in British soil, they arrive with a high price tag. Using fruit as a primary focus for a plated dessert, here in London, is a bad idea, cost-wise. But also flavour-wise, because seasonal fruit in South Africa or Spain, or even a country as close as France, is probably not picked and shipped as ripe as one would hope.

All this said, I have found trusted places to buy UK seasonal fruit. And the restaurant I work for is produce-centric and we use an amazing produce purveyor, so I feel infinitely grateful/lucky to have well-chosen product close by.

That said, what desserts are on the horizon?

I'm thinking about tahini, white chocolate, bananas, tamarind, black sesame seeds, grapefruit; Thai coconut soup sorbet; manouri, strawberries & pink peppercorns; gooseberries, mint, rosemary, elderflowers & corn; mango inspired gazpacho; buckwheat & chocolate; brown butter, raw sugar, frangipane & nectarines; young coconut, black rice, caramel. For our retail shop I'm contemplating sandwich cookies, chocolate bouchons, Lamingtons, real graham crackers, verbena profiteroles, tart lemon drizzle cakes, peanut financiers, and rich bread & butter puddings.

Moving to a new place means thinking different. Cooking and baking professionally for a new public means learning about their collective palates and historical connections to food, fruit, baked goods, salt. I can still bring me to the table, but I have to compromise too. I can't move forward: careerwise, dessertwise, bakingwise; if I do not take into consideration new soil, new people, new fruit, new seasons, new pace, new price-point, new retail environment, new attitudes about communication/confrontation, new communication styles, new everything, really.

I look forward to changing styles a bit. While I will always be a fruit-inspired pastry chef, I look forward to thinking differently, in a new way, to meet my new surroundings and continue to grow. One can get too comfortable/ too ghetto-ized/ too smug in one's niche/ geographical area/ style. Stuck.

If nothing else, it should be interesting.

Underground Restaurant by @MsMarmitelover. Kilburn, London 13.06.09

you have been on twitter for a while
but when you move 8000 miles away twitter becomes something else, explodes
suddenly it's like when you first met the internet
everything new, you are innocent and trusting
and go to people's houses
you've never met, in Real Life, before.
Oneday
in the land of
nothingness that is neither working nor vacationing
you get a DM
'hey-- you wanna be a guest chef at my Underground Restaurant?' the person's name is @MsMarmitelover.
you say yes and head to her house
even though you have no idea what train you're on and how to get there.

you both talk about a lot of things.
but what catches your breath is that you speak of one of your most favoritest dishes to make and eat
EGGPLANT PARMESAN
you both agree:
when it's Done Right
it takes all day.
and an idea is born.


you know British strawberries will arrive just before June 13
and you don't know what you'll make for pudding/dessert
but you know it will be All About Those Amazing Strawberries.

while you've never been to or cheffed at an Underground Restaurant, you've done a fair amount of onsite catering and know you can handle it. you don't sweat the small stuff and you can pass on a few restaurant tricks. but it's not about any of that. it's about
COLLABORATION
COMRADERIE
COMMUNITY
ACCESS
REVOLUTION
HOME
HEART
GENEROSITY
delicious food.



to see the menu in it's entirety, photographed by the fabulous @MsMarmitelover, go to her blog The English Can Cook. The craziest thing you'll see is me in a dress in the kitchen !

My favourite lines from her inital post on our dinner:
"Shuna Fish Lydon is a specialist in patisserie and custards. What she doesn't know about eggs is not worth knowing."

*

For the photos I managed to catch between prep, plate-up, keeping tidy and generally taking in the whole scene with my heart and mind, check out my set on Flickr.

~

Underground Restaurants -
putting the u back in Guerilla.

underground restaurant above ground menu {ideas}

On Saturday June 13, Shuna fish Lydon is a guest chef at @MsMarmitelover's Underground Restaurant Extra Ordinaire!

Here are our ideas for what it will look like, although everything is subject to change because of availability

or whim.

bread
seeded crackers

starter
chunky gazpacho
goat yogurt granite + basil jelly
chilled fresh tomato soup, croutons

main
eggplant parmesan

salad
rocket + chicory + lemon + pinenuts

dessert
strawberry bavarois + strawberry & herb salad
rosemary shortbread, strawberry relish, ricotta mousse
strawberry granita, sheeps yogurt lebne, pistachio salad
carneroli-bay laurel pudding, strawberry salad, pistachio & rose petal shortbread

Menus are ideas, thoughts, musings, concepts, theory, themes, tradition, revolution, albums, one-offs, off the cuff, pre-meditated, conjecture, psychotic breaks, dreams, stolen kisses, drunk black outs, cock walks, demure courtship, powerplay, negotiation, vanilla lovely dovey rool arounds, theater, dance, Be Ins, walkouts, strikes, community efforts, and...

They grow in the ground, near the sea's edge, in our hearts.

I'll let you know via photos and musings how the day and night went once all is told, fed, washed, minced, chilled, forked, spooned, quenelled, poached, whisked, baked, tasted, nibbled, imbibed,

satiated.

Until next time.

/this is what i want to say about love.

what is the gift?
is the gift loving another or
just loving.
is love a gift at all
or is just
love.
you should ever put just before love
love is bigger than that.

i feel open
i feel broken
i feel naked
i feel am exposed

the gift of love is feeling love
starting from that place
filling you up
where pleasure starts
abdomen meets thighs
it melts me
melts you
light
it's all light
i can't feel my legs
i don't know where i am
but i'm traveling
rocketing -

you're taking me there
{but are you?}
/or is it me?

/this is what i want to say about love
don't be scared of it
sit inside it
even though
it's absolutely terrifying.

i've fallen in love with you and all you want to do is run away
run
get on a plane
disappear
run through the woods
get deep inside
when even a compass can't find your way out
bury you deep

i hold your face inside my hands
and kiss your eyelids
i tell you it will be alright
i place my hands, mouth between your legs
i pleasure you
i feed you delicious food
i take you to where the sky opens up
and swallows us whole
i pull heavy camera to my eye
and you say no.
i tell you your rules are not my rules
i tell you i will never tell.
secret
you are secret
i am your secret.

what is the gift of love.
i feel love
but i never say it
i know it scares you down to your toes
you said this wasn't real.

but you know what?
fuck you and your borders
my heart is mine
my love is mine
my body is mine

/this is what i want to say about love.
it's mine
and mine to give
and you can never forsake it
reject it
give it back
throw it down
break it

Hello love my old friend
Sure is good to see you again

what is the gift?
the gift is love
the gift is a heart
kept malleable
vulnerable, soft, permeable, punctureable
hand me a scalpel,
i'll show you
there
cut there
my heart's been bruised bloodied forgotten discarded dulled
i've sat in the deep waters of grief
i've held the hand of her dying
i've transformed
i've closed up my heart for years at a time
hidden it on a shelf
and smoothed over the door
shallow grave
walked away.

love.

she says the gift is the feeling of it
not the reciprocation
he says no one can ever love you the way you want to feel loved
i say you can't fall out of love
love ain't no fuckin' tree.

/this is what i want to say about love.
it is terrifying
it changes you
it changes everything
it carries you
aloft
from floating you see the land
color blocks and swirvy lines
deep blue water
flattened, like hammer to nail
and it could
float you down
        glide
wing ed
nothing but the wind in your ears and clouds in your hair
nothing but your whole body melting into ozone, hemisphere
but it can also drop you
baby bird
empty nest
what looks to be a parachute, ballast
all hopes
evaporate
eviscerated
a fish hook enters, sharp as a razor
pulled out the way it went in
stuck
barb
tearing
slow death, painful. jagged.

love.
so many costumes, guises.
a siren's call
kiss and a slap

/this is what i want to say about love.
be not afraid to speak it
be not afraid to tell it
whether it is taken from your hands, out of your mouth, from your sex
whether rejected, tied in knots
whether turned into lies
whether told
'no. this is not love. i don't love you. you don't know what love is. i've never loved you. you're not worthy of love. i haven't known you long enough. but i told you not to fall in love with me. you know i don't have love to give you.'

what is the gift?
is the gift loving another or
just loving.

/this is what i want to say about love.
love is delicious
inspiring, opening
it's nothing i want to be ashamed of
no matter the subject
no matter here nor there
no matter gender chosen or assigned
no matter
even if secret, unattainable, gone

love is at my door again
/this is what i want to say about love.

Tamarillo! my new favorite fruit.

TAMARILLO !

The Mystery Fruit is Solved.
Thank you to all who participated! Many of you were spot on. The rest of you were close or had great guesses.

The lovely Tamarillo is sweet & savoury
tomatoey & melony
elusive like a papaya,
enigmatic fruit like cucumber,
gorgeous to look at
deeply scented like a handsome farmer,
"rich in vitamin E but low in carbohydrates,"
photogenic
sexy



Tamarillo. Tamarillo. O Tamarillo!



Tamarillos are
edible
raw
or cooked



seedy, crunchy, jelly-like
voluptuous
strong
quirky
strange

Tamarillos straddle many fences.
Not everyone will like them.

Tamarillos will keep you on your toes.
And tease you
taunt
with their
je ne sais quoi
flavour.

What is the Tamarillo flavour?
Sun ripened tomato  melon  papaya  guava  red beet.



Tamarillos are the pride of New Zealand.
Yet another reason to go there.

*


This post is dedicated to Keith, who first introduced me to the Tamarillo with his poetic words about Tamarillo Jelly (jelly is something very different outside of the States) and then brought me to The Modern Pantry where I experienced poached tamarillo in Greek yogurt, garnished with New Zealand's famous Manuka honey. After that I was never the same. Obsessed.

So, thank you Anna Hansen for introducing London, and me, to this magnificent fruit!

This post is also dedicated to Bea Vo of her eponymous bakery, Bea's of Bloomsbury. Last week I had the honour of playing in her illustrious kitchen and she sent me home with a flat of raw tamarillos!

And you? Do you have a fondness for this fruit? What do you love about it? What do you do with it?

MONTEREY MARKET NEEDS YOUR HELP!! PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD

PLEASE MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD.
PLEASE go to Friends of Monterey Market and show your support/read about what you can do.
PLEASE WRITE A LETTER.
PLEASE DO NOT SHOP AT MONTEREY MARKET AFTER JUNE 3rd UNLESS BILL FUJIMOTO takes back his resignation.
PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD.
PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD THAT MONTEREY MARKET NEEDS EVERY ONE'S HELP to make it clear that Bill Fujimoto IS Monterey Market and his resignation is not an option.
PLEASE MAKE IT CLEAR TO THE ENTIRE FUJIMOTO FAMILY that you will not support a market that places its bottom line before family.
PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD.

If you have eaten ANYWHERE IN THE BAY AREA, you have supported Monterey Market.
If you have ever shopped at ANY FARMERS MARKET, you have supported Monterey Market.
If you have ever blogged about new fruit in season, new fruit available in the USA, climbed upon the great pumpkin interactive sculpture in North Berkeley, or made anything in any home kitchen or restaurant or catering kitchen with any fruit or vegetables, you have supported Monterey Market.
If you believe in farmers, chefs with integrity, great produce, eating seasonally, eating locally, supporting local business YOU BELIEVE IN SUPPORTING MONTEREY MARKET.
AND YOU WOULD CONSIDER SHOWING YOUR SUPPORT TO A MARKET, A TEMPLE, A STORE, AN INSTITUTION that was in need of help.

MONTEREY MARKET NEEDS YOUR HELP.
PLEASE BLOG ABOUT THIS RIGHT NOW AND LET GOOGLE AND THE FUJIMOTOS KNOW WE WILL BE HEARD.
WE DO NOT ACCEPT BILL FUJIMOTO'S RESIGNATION.
WE WILL NOT SHOP AT THE STORE IF THE FAMILY ACCEPTS HIS RESIGNATION.
PLEASE TWEET ABOUT MONTEREY MARKET and the petition.
PLEASE TELL EVERYONE YOU KNOW WHAT'S HAPPENING.

I love Monterey Market.
I always have.
I always will.
I support Monterey Market from accross the USA and into the United Kingdom.
BUY EAT AT BILLS AND WATCH IT WITH EVERYONE YOU KNOW PILED INTO THE LIVINGROOM if you don't believe me when I say this is a place that must be saved!!!!!!

**If you have time to leave a comment here, you have time to write a letter to the Fujimoto's.

Baking Classes in London. Bea's of Bloomsbury 2009 {POSTPONED}

You heard it right !



SHUNA LYDON
LONDON BAKING CLASSES
!
AT BEA'S OF BLOOMSBURY
Cake Shop Extra Ordinaire
44 Theobald's Road
London WC1X 8NW




Premiering Class ~

Meringue etc.: A Myriad of Egg White Possibilities
Egg whites are the backbone of dozens of recipes both sweet and savoury. Egg whites help cakes rise, make souffles turn into clouds of flavour, and play the leading role in meringues. Knowing how to work with egg whites well can lead to endless possibilities in the kitchen, including countless wheat & gluten-free desserts.

But egg whites are tricky. Come to this class and you could leave confident in ways you never imagined! Learn the 'Hows' and 'Whys' of egg whites and their mysterious ways from me, Shuna Lydon, student of the egg & consummate pastry chef, in the sweet kitchen laboratory of Bea's of Bloomsbury cake shop.

29/05/09 ~ THIS CLASS HAS BEEN POSTPONED!
SORRY FOR THE LATE NOTICE
JUNE DATE TO BE ANNOUNCED SHORTLY...

Sunday May 31, 2009
4:30 - 7:30 pm
£115*

*This price is negotiable.
As we are just starting out, please do not be afraid of emailing me to negotiate.

1 spot reserved at discounted price for 'assistant' position
----> email me directly if you think this should be you

Shuna Lydon has been teaching baking & knife skills classes for the last 5 years in North America.
Classes link documenting all of these.


Photo by Elise Bauer of Simply Recipes
from my last Egg Whites class.

See you soon?

come one, come all, come hungry to learn!

What's in Season, fruits & vegetables. Britain, UK

When you're like me, and you love love loves you some fruit & veggies, and you move to a new place, approximately eight thousand miles from where you lived last, and you find yourself on new geography, and the climate is not at all like the one you left, and maybe the people speak your language but they have different names for the vegetables and do not grow the fruits you're used to picking off trees back home, and your local markets are wonderful but not farm-centric,

you can wonder what fruits & veggies are in season month to month.

If you live in London, or anywhere considered Britain, you have a few resources for getting seasonal fruit & veg. And now you have another, What's in Season. A straightforward website with nice portraits of food that grows in the ground, you can be sure I'm posting this on eggbeater so I can refer to it myself.

Thank you What's in Season for letting me know about yourself. I get way too many, "I think you're readers would love to know about--" spam-mails, but this one did seem of interest.

Anyone have any other websites that help you to find local markets & fruit-veg in season?

How Do I Get a Professional Cooking/Baking Job in a Restaurant?

As you know, I get a lot of questions from cooks or future cooks from all over the world. When I started eggbeater I didn't really understand the internet, and I didn't know people from everywhere would be reading it, or even that they would get to it from someplace other than the exact location I was writing it from. You could say I was naive. You'd be correct, and diplomatic.

People want to know how they can become a chef, pastry chef, or even start cooking professionally. People want to know what to do when the kitchens they work in suck. Female cooks want to know exactly how much harassment they should take. Everyone wants me to tell them which is the best culinary school. A lot of people want to know what the pay scale is. Many people ask Google how many hours they should expect to work as a chef/cook.

But the question I get most is how to land the very first job, stagiere, apprenticeship.

How do I get my first cooking job?
What will the interview be like?
How long does it take to become a pastry chef?
Can I work for you?

I write, and have written, the same email response over and over and over. You'd think by now I'd have a form-letter, but I'm still a little naive, so I don't.

And because I have recently started pounding the pavement again, I can say that my own advice, after 17 years, still works.

Here are my standard tips for getting into your first kitchen, and maybe some more, if you so choose to make kitchens your life, love and home.

1. Eat out as much as you can afford. Bring a little notebook and pen with you wherever you go. Take notes. When you find a menu you love, ask your waiter for the full name of the chef and pastry chef. Ask what the hours of said restaurant are.
2. Print out your resume/CV and bring it, in person, to this restaurant and ask for the chef/pastry chef by full name. Only go to a restaurant before services. If a place is open for lunch and dinner it's best to show up between 3-4 pm. Never ever ever ever call or go to a restaurant and ask for anyone managerial while service is going on.
3. Flattery will get you everywhere. Tell said chef you loved her/his food when you ate there and that you would love to work in their kitchen. Questions to come out of your mouth sound something like this: 'Are there any entry level positions open?' 'Do you have room for a stagiere?' 'Can I come in for a stagiere?' You are humble. You will take any position. You know little. But you are firm and have conviction. You go to that back door every day and ask for the person you need to speak with if it's the place you want to work.
4. Do not wait for a phone call back.
5. Do not email your resume/CV as an attachment.
6. Do not take rejection as such until you have exhausted all your options.
7. Do not take rejection personally. Do not take acceptance personally either. Most chefs love free labour and if you land an entry level position, you will still have to work hard to earn respect in the kitchen.
8. Read as much as you can about said chef/restaurant. If you make it into the kitchen spend all your waking hours reading local papers, food magazines, blogs, and cookbooks covering said cuisine.
9. IMMERSE YOURSELF. In all things food, cooking, baking, ingredients, agriculture, butchery.
10. Take notes.
11. Buy these things for every job and never go to work without them:
12. Thick Sharpie, A little notebook that fits in your back pocket and 1 indelible pen that is not a thick sharpie.
13. Always leave a little time before you enter the kitchen for Mental Mis en Place. This is as important as your physical tools like knives, off-set spatulas and shoes you can stand for 16 hours in.
14. When you are in the kitchen, learn everyone's {full} names and histories. Get their information and keep in touch with them long after you leave said job. It is from my relationships to other cooks that I have gotten 98% of my jobs.
15. Your knives should always be sharp. You do not need a lot of them.
16. Get to work early and stay late. Watch and learn from the best people in the kitchen. Fellow cooks don't talk or give advice a lot in the kitchen but their movements, set-up, and how they fare during service will tell you more than they could.
17. Stay humble. People who have been cooking for decades and decades will die knowing less than most people think they know in their first few years cooking/baking. Cooking is a craft, not an acquisition.
18. Stay in every kitchen for at least 1 year in your first 5 years.

No matter your age, gender, sexual preference, religion, and class, when you are at the bottom of the brigade/totem pole, you are truly at the bottom. Learn how to wash dishes even if it's not your job title. Be available for anything.

Even if you are a stagiere, act like the job is a job. If all the chef has available is a stage, make a serious intentional arrangement about time. Just going in when it suits you will not build enough of a rhythm to learn from, at least not in the beginning.

If you really want to cook professionally, and all the restaurants in your area are chains or run by Shoemakers, you will have to move.

People keep writing to me about their horrible kitchens. Chefs with little to no integrity. Dirty disgusting kitchens. Kitchens putting their workers and diners at risk with food and safety issues.

If you work in a kitchen that is not safe for anyone working or dining there, leave. If you want to make a difference, access your local authorities. You can not make an anonymous claim, though. If you're going to advocate, you have to be brave.

I took Whole Foods to the National Labor Relations Board {NLRB} and filed a claim with OSHA when I was about 22, so I don't want to hear you're too young or scared of your job or whatever when it comes to reporting the kitchen you show up every day to.

If you want to cook professionally you may want to stop watching kitchen reality shows.
If you want to cook professionally you should have money in the bank or very cheap rent or a spouse to support you.
If you want to cook professionally you immediately give up having a 'normal' life with 'normal' working hours.
If you want to cook professionally you will have to really want it. Above all else.
If you want to cook professionally go after it like nothing else. Stop at nothing.
If you want to cook professionally you will, if it's all you can think about. If you can afford to do so. If you set your mind to it.

When will you be a chef?

That I can't say. For that there is no bullet point list, no advice, no recipe.

I didn't start cooking profdessionally to become a chef or be a chef or arrive as a chef. I started cooking professionally because it was all I wanted to do at a very particular time in my life. I didn't go to culinary school, I did not own a single knife, I did not know what an 'all-day' was.

I learned everything on the job. And so can you. Or you can go to school. Or take all that money you would sign over to a school, put it in the bank, and go work for someone whose food you love for free and live on that bank account.

I'm here to say that flattery is the best way to get your foot in a seemingly solid steel door. I recently took a CV to a restaurant I like a lot. I said these words,

"Hello. I've only been here to eat a few times but I love it. I'm in the industry-- I'm a cook, and I happen to have my CV with me. But I want you to know this: even if you never call me, I am going to come back. I have recommended __________ to many people and I will continue to do so. Just in case the chef needs any help, I'm available for any position."

And I got a phone call. And a trail/day stage.

While I have no idea what will happen, a lot has happened already because I was able to work for 12 hours inside one of the most inspirational kitchens I have ever had the priveledge to be in.

When the chef asked me why I had given the restaurant my CV even though no position was being advertised, I said, "Where I come from, if a resume comes to me and I can not utilize said person, I pass it along to someone I respect who can. If I gave you my CV, and I love your food, and you did the same, I would trust that my name would be passed along to someone else I would want to work for."

Rule of thumb: the more people who see your resume/CV, the more likelihood of getting a job. And if you never burn any bridges it's great because the cooking world is small. I recently traveled 8,000 miles only to work with a pastry chef who had gone to school with and worked for some of the very same people I had, in the exact same kitchens!

And now I'm in a completely foreign city, connecting with cooks and bakers, following the same advice I'm giving you.

Be brave. Be bold.

This industry isn't for the faint of heart. It's for the passionate, the crazy, the driven, the competitive.
This industry is a knitted series of networks of people who are like tiny cities/families unto themselves.
This industry is my home, my heart, my love, my people, brethren.

But it's not a part time job. And it's not impossible to enter.

Perhaps I have now finally created my form-letter response...
I do hope this helps.

Fellow cooks/chefs/bakers/pastry chefs-- any more advice to add to the list?
People entering the industry-- what has worked for you? What hasn't?

Petersham Nurseries for lunch at the Tea House.

I just wanted to remind you, and you know who you are, to go to Petersham Nurseries if you have not yet been. I realize that it's quite dear to eat in the restaurant. And that it's a bit far away.
But you know what?
There's nothing like it.
It's gorgeous, enchanting, delicious,
and you can get there by boat or Overground, not just Rail. So there. Easy-peasy.
Need a photographic prod? Here, take a gander.



As a reminder, the cafe serves food just as delicious as the restaurant, but not nearly as expensive.
It's open Wednesday - Sunday 12 Noon - 2:45 pm

I realize there's a notion that expensive eateries are more firmly grounded than more reasonable ones, but I am here to state for the record, as a chef and friend of many a restaurateur, places like Petersham Nursuries need continual support to remain who they are striving to be. The food here is clean, bright, fresh, hearty, nourishing and made with love.
And the Eccles Cakes are not half bad either. {I have knowledge from the inside.}



I hope you make it out here. If you go for the first time because I've leaned on you, can you let me us know what you thought?

The Modern Pantry, my new favourite restaurant & place

some of you know about my obsession with The Modern Pantry in Clerkenwell. I met this poached tamarillo and i have never been the same. I've talked about it just a little bit here.
well if you need more more more, like i do, check out my photos so far.
but if you really want to seal the deal,
go
there
now
and then tell me what you had.

Scotland Bound ~

Not to make you jealous or anything, but London has been experiencing, for some weeks now, a glorious sun, skies empty of clouds, the occasional grey day to stay in and get cozy, and an amazing warmth that has all manner of British and EU'ers in shorts, sunglasses, flip-flops and tank tops.
Everyone appears happy, content and generally talkative.

Perhaps this is why I am feeling a strong tug from the ocean, from a quiet, natural, old landscape. I wanted to go to Shuna Island, but it's a bit too far for my first Scottish journey. Instead I am off to the Isle of Skye. I'm utterly excited. It's been a long time since I traveled to a place I've never been before.

I will be without internet, but I have left eggbeater with a few photo series in case you want to know what I've been up to lately.

today, bittersweet. /i hate today.

as the weekend nears
you feel dread
but you can't put your finger on it.
it's in there
at the tip of your mind
tongue, a bitter taste.

but you can't remember
and it bothers you all day, all week, every day
like a scratchy sweater
or plastic on wet skin
sciatica

what day is it
not sure
has it passed, when will it arrive

and yet
it's on your mind
the day that's coming and you can't avoid it
even though if you could take a knife to that place
you would
without hesitation.

but you don't tell anyone
you keep quiet
because you don't want to make a fuss
hey, maybe the day will go unnoticed
because you don't live in america anymore
people here aren't as sappy.
a greeting card for every occasion isn't necessary.
and if you keep quiet
maybe it won't happen maybe no one will know maybe you'll
forget.

forget.
hahahahahahahaha
you're            funny
/in a dark dark dark way.

you never forget
in fact
it never gets better
just different
and you hate
you hate
time

you hate today

you hate the word forget
you hate people who still have both parents

 you hate that nothing can ever take it away
no amount of heroin, hours working, exhaustion, fucking, drinking, razors, inspiring, writing, punk rock, words, miles moved

nothing
will ever take it away.

nothing
will ever
bring her back.

nothing will ever
bring
you
back.

today, bittersweet.
/i hate today.

you hate that there's a name for today.
a demarcation.
you hate that it's all the rage to proudly declare it all over the internet like it's some sort of star receiving statement.

and funny,
because you almost forgot
you wandered into today groggy, spent, sore, listless, happy
you dreamt of the person beside you
naked
doing nothing in particular
just lovely to be near
even though
you are soon to say good bye.
again and again
you say farewell
you let go of someone's hand
because they're no longer
holding your hand back

you leave with you from the bar
you say, 'i make sweet things.'

click
document
memory
click
she's stopped breathing
finally
click
lightswitch
change
click
nothing.

but today is here
and heavy
and you are so goddamned glad
you won't see or hear from anyone you care about today
so you can walk into that space
no one understands
no one
and not come out
until you want to.

because when today is over
you'll be on a plane
you're going to see the ocean
you're going to taste the sea
you're going to see the sky
you're going to be close to your place
your name
you're going to allow someone to touch you
again
and then let-         go
you
are going to let another day pass
are going to live
in the moment
and savor it,
delicious de la.

cold water air
words unspoken
touch light, electric
close eyes
un petit mort
salt, wet.

you''ll come back
envelope sealed
wings tucked.
today, absence.

today, closed.
today, quiet.
today, armor down.

today, bittersweet.

dessert poems. III

buckwheat sable grissini
kasha pot de creme
toasted pumpkin seed-comice pear salad

raw almond milk gelee
toasted israeli cous cous
vanilla salt, long pepper, one caraway seed toasted & crushed
green almonds & cucumber seeds
peeled, sliced and halved green seedless grapes

pink grapefruit
yuzu marmalade
citrus blossom souffle
goat butter shortbread