In the Kitchen with DKDetective and InCali: All Things Food, Wine, and Spirits, Etc.

Hey Everybody, with so many of us filling our time during COVID cooking, baking, and well... drinking, I thought it might be fun to revive some discussion of these topics around here. Also given how small independent restaurants have been hurt by the pandemic and how badly they need the support of loyal patrons right now, I thought it might also be nice to discuss them and share some recommendations.

To get things started, here are some of my favourite chefs, cookbooks, cooking shows, local restaurants, and wines...

Chefs: Thomas Keller, Paul Bocuse, Eric Ripert, Fernand Point, Eugenie Brazier, Jean, Pierre, and Michel Troisgros, Aaron Franklin, Jacques Pepin

Cookbooks: The French Laundry Cookbook by Thomas Keller, The Bouchon Cookbook by Thomas Keller, Paul Bocuse's French Cooking, The Babbo Cookbook by He Who Shall Not Be Named, Hawksmoor at Home, Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child, The Food Lab by J. Kenji Lopez-Alt

Cooking/Food Shows: Alton Brown's Good Eats, Iron Chef America, Chef's Table, Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations/Parts Unknown

Restaurants in Southern Ontario: David's Bistro, The Restaurant at Pearl Morissette, Craft Farmacy, Inn on the Twenty, Barberian's Steakhouse, Waldo's on King, The River Room

Wine Producers: Chateau Lagrange (Bordeaux), Chateau Lanessan (Bordeaux), E. Guigal (Northern Rhone), Paul Jaboulet Aine (Northern Rhone), Maison Roche de Bellene (Burgundy), Cave Spring Vineyards (Beamsville Bench, Ontario)

For those who noticed a certain through line in my favourite chef and cookbooks, here is my favourite Anthony Bourdain episode of all time (free on YouTube):

 

Yes, women do like a man who can cook. First date I had my now wife over to my place, I made her braised Osso Buco with fresh gremolata and traditional buttered pasta. It seems to have worked.

I also have no professional training. I learned to cook from my grandmother, a Czech immigrant who grew up on a farm and learned to cook and bake the old-fashioned European way from her own mother. I was very lucky to have my grandparents living with us growing up. Both my parents were professionals and my Mom worked late. So I would get home from school and hang out with my Grandma in the kitchen as she cooked dinner, which was always from scratch, and we would often watch the Food Network together. My only experience with fast food as a kid was other children's birthday parties or play dates. I was not a fan... My Mom had to warn other parents that I was a strange child in advance because I would often not eat anything.

The other key component of my love of food was my weekly Saturday father-son time with my Dad. He would take me to see the first matinee movie showing at the old downtown movie theatre and then would take me for lunch downtown. Lunch would usually be at some nice downtown restaurant near the movie theatre that my Dad wanted to try. My Mom used to give him hell because I got taken out on way more "dates" to nice restaurants than her.

 

Lol Unfortunately our forums do not allow thread titles of that length, otherwise I would totally add that. It would be like our version of @Kane52630 and @Black Narcissus at the movies thread...

BTW, @DarthSkywalker, to help get onboard with my man crush on Chef Thomas Keller, he was the chief culinary consultant on Ratatouille and designed all of the dishes from the film. The whole idea of perspective and the best food drawing upon memories of familial and childhood in the film is basically his culinary ideology (as you would see in that Bourdain episode from 2001).

Also, despite having more money than God and not really needing relief, Keller has started a class action lawsuit on behalf of independent restaurant owners whose commercial insurers are possibly denying business interruption coverage for Covid-related revenue losses.

 

Re Keller
Oh yeah, Keller would definitely benefit from the lawsuit if successful. He is just not in as much need as others. Class actions are expensive and risky.

He also started selling TFL merchandise with the proceeds going to his restaurant relief fund. The other thing to know about him is that he is opposite of the Gordon Ramsay stereotype of the yelling abusive chef. Many of his former staff say his kitchens are quiet and civil. He is a perfectionist, but would devote time every week to teaching all of his line cooks how to do classic French techniques, which is why many have become great chefs in their own right. His style of discipline is more of the "disappointed, loving Dad". Knowing that you let him down is all the reprimand needed most of the time.

Favourite Foods to Cook
With respect to what I love to cook, I'm a big fan of French food, Northern Italian, German/Czech and European classics generally. I am huge believer in using fresh, local produce and humanely raised animals. When it comes to meat and fish I believe in good old fashioned "peasant cooking" and using every part of the animal. Most great French cuisine is at its coret epitome of "peasant cooking". They just applied scientific levels of refinement and philosophy to it. It is all of the sort of stuff my Gramma would cook for me, but taken to professional levels. She would make sole in a mayonnaise sauce with parsley butter potatoes, panfried trout with lemon and capers, schnitzel with fried potatoes, steak fried in butter with homemade French fries, Hungarian goulash, or a simple roast chicken with beautiful fresh herbs. At Christmas, she would make us the traditional Danish Christmas dinner that my grandfather grew up with, a whole leg of roast pork with crackling, and baby potatoes roasted in butter and sugar.

My "signature dish" is probably my various versions of braised beef short ribs. You take a tough, fatty, cheap cut of beef and through love, technique, time, and the help of some wine, stock, root vegetables, and herbs transform it into something melt in your mouth tender with a rich sauce. It is "transformative cooking".

A lot of my other dishes well-known to guests are similarly braises, like Milanese Osso Buco, Brasato al Barolo (Northern Italian Pot Roast made using real nice local Barolo red wine), Pappardelle with Bolognese Sauce, Coq au Vin, Duck Confit and a Cassoulet of Beans.

I also love to grill and barbecue. I learned from my Dad that everyone always enjoys a family cookout with some nice steaks in the summer. I have a charcoal grill/BBQ/smoker and will make real Central Texas-style BBQ with it eg. Brisket, Beef Ribs. (Central Texas BBQ is descended from the meat smoking traditions of late 19th Century German and Czech immigrants).

I also love to cook fish. Many of my fondest memories of those post-movie lunches with my Dad are of beautiful fresh fish, like Arctic Char. We went to Mexico when I was 5 and we went off resort for some authentic local food and found a beautiful restaurant on a mountain. Seeing white English-speaking tourists, the very gracious waiter offered to get me an American style burger and fries. I said no thank you and ordered the local blackened red snapper off the menu.

Favourite Restaurant Meal
With respect to the post-movie meals with my Dad, my fondest memory and possibly the greatest fine dining meal I have had in my life was when we went to an old local fine dining institution for dinner one time when I was 13 or 14. My Gramps had passed, and my Mom and Grandma were out of town for a bridal shower, so it was just me and him for the weekend. The restaurant was situated in a beautiful old Victorian house on the edge of the city. It had just changed owners. The new owner was a German chef. After being an executive chef in hotels and the like, this was his first time owning his own restaurant and the passion showed. My Dad ordered for me and I still remember every course like it was yesterday. My starter was a "deconstructed" Caesar salad - the romaine head was grilled whole and served with a large round of crispy pancetta and a slice of toasted fresh bread instead of croutons. Then I had the rack of lamb which was roasted with rosemary and paired with Port sauce. It was the first time I had lamb and have loved it ever since. For dessert, I had the cappuccino creme brulee, which came with crunchy chocolate covered espresso beans. It was phenomenal from beginning to end.

Sadly, the chef retired and the building was sold to some hack developers who turned it into a mediocre pub with bad food for suburbanite Boomers who want to get drunk and can walk home afterwards. The beautiful antique hardwood trim was painted black and a faux wine cellar (you don't store wine in front of big windows) installed in the elegant old parlour room where I had my life changing experience.

EDIT: Oops, I did not intend for this post to be this long, I guess I just have a lot I would love to discuss on these topics, hence the thread!

I have added headings to make my manifesto easier to navigate.

 

That's great. Anything that can help people get fresh, healthy ingredients without having to brave the hustle and bustle of busy supermarkets is important right now. Wild boar, elk, and game generally are among my favourite foods. When my wife and I honeymooned in Oslo, I'm pretty sure I ate reindeer in every possible way it can be prepared.

I grew up in the countryside and fortunately still live in a smaller city surrounded by abundant farmland, so I have easy access to farmer's markets, vegetable stands, and small local butchers. All of them are great for doing telephone orders and curbside pickup. Other than game, I buy most of my meat from one family-owned butcher shop 5 minutes from where I grew up. They still hang their beef the old-fashioned way instead of wet aging it in cryovac bags.

 

Most certainly, old man.

 

Funny story, our microwave broke about 2 weeks into COVID. We didn't set up our replacement until last week. I never really use the thing. I prefer to use our countertop minioven when possible. I don't like what the microwave does to the flavour and texture of food.

 

You have a gas stove? Okay, respect...

 

God, I love cheese in all of its various forms and styles (except processed and spray form, which I do not consider real cheese).

One of my favourite dishes to make as part of a casual, comforting dinner is a traditional French cheese and mashed potato preparation called "Aligot". Basically you make Pommes Puree (French mashed potatoes where you push the boiled potato flesh through a fine sieve to get tiny potato particles and then fold in copious amounts of heavy cream and butter), except you replace large portions of the cream and butter with large quantities of shredded cheese, preferably something French or Swiss that melts well like Cantal, Comte, or Gruyere.

The result is gooey, cheesy happiness in a bowl: