Most of these places have been outside my present surrounding area (i.e. Salt Lake City), but last night my world was turned upside down.  I had the pleasure to dine with some great people at one the of the better eateries in the Salt Lake Valley . . . “Forage.”

The pictures speak for themselves as to the beauty of the dishes and the tastes and combinations of flavor were very modern and exciting; Two things for which Salt Lake City is not necessarily known for.  Our waitress informed us that most of the produce we enjoyed had been selected that morning from the farmer’s market, which coincidently just happened to also be the opening day for the market’s 2010 season.

For me, the Forage tasting menu ($89 per person, with an additional $49 per person wine pairing) seemed to embody the current trends in the restaurant world, namely: fresh, local, organic.  The tapas-style (small plates) dishes were beautifully presented, with a new one arriving about every 10 to 12 minutes.  Our wait staff was very knowledgeable about the numerous components on each dish and although we arrived at 8:30pm and left at 12:30am, it seemed like we had just gotten there and could stay all night (which we essentially ended up doing).

I guess what I’m really trying to say is,  you’ve gotta check this place out.

The onsite green house and garden as you walk in.

This is our 14 to 16 course meal (depending on what you consider a “course” to be) from start to finish.

And then, as we were leaving, we were each handed a box with a freshly baked Blueberrie Muffin.

forage

370 east 900 south

Salt Lake City, UT 84111

(801) 708-7834

Here’s to a couple of great guys . . .

The one sitting in the middle next to me is Chef Dave Prows, my mentor and a great friend.  I learned how to cook, how to live a fulfilling-balanced life and how to succeed in the crazy foodservice business from Dave.

The chef just to the left of Dave is Frank Krause.  You can see Chef Krause almost monthly on various local cooking shows around the Salt Lake area.  He is the director of the culinary program at the Art Institute and has become another mentor and friend of mine.  I have learned to be a better teacher from Chef Krause.

It just goes to show, that you can learn something everyday, from anyone.

Here’s to the mentors and friends in our lives that make us who we are!

http://heatherjustesen.blogspot.com/2009/09/book-review-first-timers-cookbook-by.html

Video Courtesy of KSL.com

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705312437/Cook-by-the-book-Recession-puts-novice-cooks-in-kitchen.html?pg=3

This was the biggest fish I have ever caught . . .  This picture was taken after 45 minutes of westling with what felt like an underwater horse.

While fishing with my cousin up on the mighty snake river near Twin Falls Idaho, we caught a Sturgeon. A member of the shark family, they are bottom feeders that look alot like a cross between a catfish and a shark.  They get pretty big and as you can see, the one we caught was between 7 and 8 feet long.  Because they are members of the shark family, you can’t take them out of the water since their bodies are not made to be out of the water their body wieght  will suffocate them if you take them out (plus, its Idaho law that you can’t take them out).  

You may be thinking, “What does this have to do with food and cooking and why are Sturgeon (which are normally ocean dwellers) in a freshwater river?”  Well, here is the answer to both.

As far as food goes, does anyone know where we get caviar from?  If you guessed Sturgeon, then you are right.  Which is yet another reason that we don’t want to harm them by taking them out of the water.

What is this ocean fish doing in the middle of Idaho?  Answer, living it up on the baby salmon that we fishmen use to catch them.  Years ago, the Snake River went all the way out to the ocean, which allowed the Sturgeon to swim up the river into Idaho.  When the dams began to be put in, the Sturgeon became trapped and have thrived in the Snake River ever since.

So the next time you go to a sushi bar and see some of those orange fish eggs, you now have an idea about how they may have gotten there and who/what they came from.

It never ceases to amaze me when we go to a restaurant and order eggs how many people don’t know what is what.  The questions that arise go something like this . . . “What is the difference between over easy and sunny side up?  What is over hard?”  And so on and so on. . .

So here is a pictorial tour of what is what.  That way, when you order your eggs, you know what you’re getting.

A very important part of cooking eggs is first not breaking the yolk.  If you crack the egg just above the pan so that it falls only a short distance, you will risk less chance of breaking the yolk.

Now, as the eggs cook, you will get various degrees of doneness.  For example, the above picture is “sunnyside up.”  This is done by letting the eggs cook in the pan without flipping.  This would be similar to a “rare” steak, its the least done of the egg cooking. 

After sunnyside up you will have over easy and over medium and over well.  All three of these will look very similar because they will all be flipped over (hence the preface “over” to each) before being served, but be different in the following ways.  Over easy will have the egg yolk and the closest surrounding white uncooked and still in liquid form.  Over medium (my personal favorite) will have the egg yolk in liquid form, but the white will be completely cooked.  Over well will have almost the entire white and yolk completely done. 

You also have the designation of over hard, that completely cooks the egg.  For this one, you can just break the yolk (or just keep going if you initially broke the yolk) and cook the egg white and yolk until there is no longer any liquid texture.

Now, here is everybody’s favorite, scrambled eggs.

You will notice that I crack them into a bowl first and then whisk, this serves two purposes.  First, if I cracked the egg into the bowl and a few stray pieces of shell just happen to come with it, no big deal, I just take them out.  Second, if the eggs are all in the bowl, it makes them a whole lot easier to whip into a nice even consistency before I pour them into a hot pan.

Now, you could just pour the eggs into the pan after they are whipped but I like to add a little bit of cream or milk to the mix, I found that it helps them come out fluffier.

Now that we have mixed our eggs we pour them into a nice hot pan and move them around frequently to make sure that they cook evenly.

Now when are the eggs done?  Well the answer to that question is another question, how do you like them? Scrambled eggs are alot like cooking whole eggs, there are different degrees of doneness.  So if you go to a nice diner and order up some scrambled eggs, they may ask you how you want them cooked, soft, medium or hard?  The difference in these is very minimal, just know that soft is less dense than medium or hard.  Most places don’t even ask anymore, once you say you want scrambled eggs the server will usually just put in “scrambled medium” on the ticket that gets sent back to the cooks. Its a nice middle ground and chances are you aren’t going to be able to tell a difference or even care for that matter.  But just for the record, I like mine scrambled medium.

Chef Shawn Bucher Makes Bananas Foster from Michael Potter on Vimeo.

Jerica, UT

The First Timers Guide to Evenly Cooking Meat

Man, if I had a dime for everytime I got this question . . .

One of the secrets that restaurants use on a very regular basis is “marking” items like steaks on a broiler or grill and then finishing them in the oven.  By cooking the food initially on the hot surface, you get those nice sear or grill marks.  The hard part about using this cooking medium is that your food tends to get done too fast on the outside and the middle doesn’t get cooked enough.  Thus, resulting in Jerica’s dilemma (and the title of this post), burnt on the outside, raw on the inside. 

This is why restaurants only “mark” the food on the broiler or grill and then finish it in the oven.  This allows for even cooking of the item(s) so that the inside gets to the desired doneness without the outside buring.

Have you ever been to a big banquet or dinner and wondered how they cooked each one of those steaks or chicken or fish so perfectly?  This is how, they mark them ahead of time and finish them in the oven right before service . . . Ta da!  If it works for the pros then why doesn’t everyone else do it?

http://health.yahoo.com/experts/eatthis/26542/americas-unhealthiest-restaurants