Taco Tuesdays, Paella Wednesdays, Family Style Thursdays… Oh MY! January 30, 2008

We’ve been thinking.

Choosing the highest quality, local, organic ingredients from around our local foodshed is not always the easiest route. And it’s certainly not the most affordable or most profitable. But we’re not willing to let that go.

On the other hand, we all have families and jobs and we understand that eating out on a Tuesday or Wednesday or Thursday night “on the cheap” is expensive, especially if one is trying to eat ethically.

So here’s the deal.

Until further notice, come and join us during the week for some fun alternatives to our regular menu (which is also fun… it just happens to be a little pricier… but as we mentioned above, preparing excellent ethical food is not inexpensive).

Starting next week (February 5th, to be exact), Taco Tuesdays are here! And Paella Wednesdays!!

And starting February 21st, bring the whole family in (or bring all your friends…) for Family Style Thursday! Children eat for just $10.

Oh, and the most exciting part is that it’s all still delicious, local, sustainable, and organic. In that order.

For more info, check out our Upcoming Events page.

Band of Brothers, Part Three January 20, 2008

Part One

Part Two 

As in every battle, injuries did happen from time to time.  Despite all the preparation, planning and practice; the reality of the act provides what practice can not: pressure.  Pressure speeds things up causing a disruption in rhythm.  Popping grease and hot panhandles are booby traps set by friendlies and are sometimes forgotten about.  Once burnt, the fight does not stop: a shot of whiskey, quick bandage, self pep talk and back to the line for you.  Your team needs you and if you go down then the burden of dead weight being carried on already stacked shoulders can become overwhelming, and depending on your kitchen unforgiving.

It is said by the U.S Marine Corps that the best drilled and most disciplined unit wins the battle, and ultimately the war.  When not at war or on the front line practice is important as play.  A true cook does not stop cooking once leaving the threshold of his or her employment.  He is at home cooking meals for loved ones or long time friends that only read the reviews in papers about the various restaurants you have on your resume.  Now this is not the time to showboat or get carried away with high-rise plate ups.  Simple plate ups with well-executed technique and rich flavor will let all know you are a warrior in the kitchen, a true hero.  After your days off coming into work and sharing what you achieved at home with your comrades can be very enjoyable.  It is here where raw exchange of ideas are floating in the air waiting to be picked apart and used for a later date and brainstormed to fit your menu.

With all this talk of work one must not forget to play.  You work hard, you play hard.  This is the motto or code that line-cooks, pastry chefs, sous chefs and every other in the industry live by and generally accepted by onlookers and unbenounced to them fall victim to it every once in a while.  Eleven or eleven thirty is an hour most people have been out for an hour or more on a Friday or Saturday night, however the kitchen creatures are only starting to emerge out from their foxholes and dug-in positions where they were enduring fire from every direction just hours before.  Now it is their turn to wreak havoc.  Like Spartans who stood few against many and fought with expert timing, these line cooks will go till the last man standing, taking no prisoners.  Starting the day together honing knives and blathering about last night’s adventure and now at the day’s end reliving the hours spent.

Sleep is much deserved and is probably spent somewhere other then one’s own bed.  Unless it’s the night that everyone has decided to crash at your flat, on the living room floor, couch… raiding your empty fridge or nestled up against the porcelyn throne.  Heads are all down and some dream about fame and fortune while the cook runs through the prep list for the next day’s battle.  Fish, meat and produce are the last thoughts passing through their minds as they slip into an inebriated coma.  The sun shines, and the warriors awake disheveled emitting the aroma of last night’s cooking expedition and alcoholic induced escapade.  Despite the pounding headache and lack of real R.E.M sleep, chests are beaten by tough hands and the warriors’ cry is heard by all to announce his walk into the kitchen ready to do it all over again.

Band of Brothers, Part Two January 19, 2008

Part One

Final checks and re-checks of one another’s stations have been made; there’s no turning back.  Tonight’s mission is to feed guests an excellent meal and upon their departure make each guest’s final thoughts be, “I gotta come back and dine here again.”  Seizing each table with the same key objective, one by one, is the only way to complete this mission.

The first wave comes through and both the sauté positions throw pans on burners to get hot, the salad man prepares the first course while the team leader orchestrates the assault, tying up any lose ends.  No casualties are sustained however the enemy has more to come, as if the first wave was just a probe to test the water.   The brigade charges on taking a real pounding now, the entire dining room has been sat with no more then two-to-few minutes between each, and the bar is packed with people who want to be fed quickly as to attend to their scheduled drinking as well as people who are waiting for a table opening.  Orders are belted out to soldiers and each react with precision, almost effortlessly.  Those whose stations haven’t yet sustained any hits from the assault are called on for support.  Runners come back to the kitchen asking for a SITREP (situational report) to give to the GM.  If all is well more tables will be sat, if we are receiving a pummeling then a blockade would be set up to bog any further advances.

We were winning the war.  Almost no sound could be heard while each man was plating. It was a sight to see: six different plates on three different stations each with two or three varying entrees, arranging a proper garnish.  Each man would scurry to the window as they carried hot plates and masterfully constructed creations, and hoped that upon the hand off, the package would arrive untainted and with intended integrity.  Despite the narrow passageway to the window for each man, a plate was never dropped and bodies never collided.  Even flow of in and out was practiced as if there was an imaginary traffic light at the window managing the chaotic deliveries.

To Be Continued… 

10 Things… January 17, 2008

10 things I should be doing instead of blogging…

Welcome to my first blog entry.  Not easy from a person who spends 30 minutes editing one sentence emails.  Who am I?  JoAnn Cherry, mother of Camille (14), Henri (12), Villa Creek restaurant (10) and Villa Creek Cellars (7).  Wife of Cris Cherry wine maker and husband extraordinaire.  In charge of a myriad of things under the umbrella of “Creative Director” of the Villa Creek lifestyle (more on that later).

As I sit down to write this, all I can think about is what I should be doing instead of blogging and so I’ve come up with a 10 item list.

1. Savoring the bright young delicious brand new Villa Creek wines of our 2006 vintage and writing tasting notes and an engaging letter for our upcoming spring release due in one week.

2. Playing Scrabble with the kids.  Last night’s record… 38 points for QUIVER by Henri… I’m so proud.

3. Putting together an itinerary for the winner of the Villa Creek inspired awesome Paso Robles Rhone Rangers package I put together for the Sun Valley Center for the Arts Wine auction.  This package includes tastings at Saxum, Jack Creek, Pasolivo, Terry Hoage and  Four Vines, 4 nights accommodations (at Canyon Villa and Bill Grant’s house), a helicopter tour of the appellation, a blending session at Villa Creek Cellars with a chef Tom catered lunch,  dinner for six at Villa Creek restaurant, a guided Wine Wrangler bus tasting and tour,  lunch with a vertical of Optimus at L’Aventure, a blending session at Four Vines, dinner for six at Bistro Laurent.  Of course everyone donated wine to take home the night of the event (last July).
Sun Valley Center for the Arts hosts a stellar wine event each summer.  Auction lots like ours (from Paso Robles) are still diamonds in the rough in the crowd of Napa cab drinkers that are in attendance and can be stolen for a song!  Never the less, we take great pride in our appellation and will continue to sing the praises of Paso at this fabulous event.  For more info visit  sunvalleycenter.org

4. Cleaning the mud off my running shoes.

5. Creating a floor plan for the future Villa Creek Cellars tasting room (for my 9 am meeting with the draftsman).

6.  Baking the Oaxacan rugs that hang on the wall at Villa Creek restaurant. (annual maintenance)

7. Ordering seeds from Seeds of Change catalogue for our 2008 home and restaurant gardens.  Seed saving is one more thing I can’t seem to fit in.

8.  Washing the dinner dishes – the kids/slaves were excused tonight to do masses of homework.

9. Snuggling up with Bob…that is, reading The Emperor of Wine, the unauthorized auto biography of Robert M. Parker Jr by Elin McCoy.

10.  Sleeping..which is what I’m off to do.

Until next time…

JoAnn

Band of Brothers, Part One January 17, 2008

It’s Friday night and your crew is buried face down in prep. You look around and no one is in a panic or even nervous about what is about to take place in a few short hours. Seasons have come and gone, and through each this assembled and ever-maturing team has banged with the best of them, and has proved night in and night out that there is no obstacle to difficult to overcome. On top is where they want to be; and almost in a nonchalant approach, as they pour into the kitchen exchanging hellos and stories of the previous night’s events. Some were shared together and some were luckier than others, enjoying an evening with a lady friend or two. Popped collars under clean toques, fancy pants and rims, this crew seems to belong on the cover of some hip kitchen magazine and almost bad enough to create their own. They move in unison not wasting a step, every movement is precisely thought out. A trip to the dish station also meant on the way back either a pick-up of a needed ingredient or fixing of a Scooby-snack, though not to be consumed immediately but at a future moment in time when knife was not in contact with product.

An hour has passed through mise en place and a stockade of each entrée’s accoutrements is stored below in the lowboys or reach-in refrigerators, stacked accordingly and neat, ready to stand a drill instructor’s white-glove field day inspection. It’s the calm before the invasion and the DMZ is the restaurant’s front door and the invaders are the diners waiting to get their fill. They come in assault after assault in waves of two, four, six or ten, they’re completely unpredictable. Not to worry, your A-Team has dug in deep like a well disciplined military unit fortifying foxholes and stockpiling re-supply points.

H-Hour is near and your soldiers are honing their knives and wiping down their stations preparing for the onslaught. Each have their rituals: a smoke if they’re ready, quarter folded side towels separated for wiping or grabbing hot items, filling up Big Gulp am/pm mugs with soda water and a squeeze of lime, or maybe a last minute phone call to a loved one to let them know they would be home soon. This is where we separate the men from the babies, either shape up or get fried by the chaos that is knocking at your front door.

To Be Continued….

A Boy Named Sous January 8, 2008

Johnny Cash sang that life ain’t easy for a boy named Sue. I for one believe that Johnny had it right in more ways then he initially intended. But here I am speaking on a tangent without even a platform to be launching from. Why is it that this song is so near and dear to me? Aside from it being a fantastic song, I am Sue. Sous Chef that is, of a truly tremendous establishment called Villa Creek where I work under an organic and sustainable conceptually dedicated Chef by the name of Tom Fundaro; a hero to the restaurant, community and the industry. But this not a tune to toot Tom’s horn.

Who is the Sous Chef? Most answer that he is the guy who makes sauces. Though wrong you are, for according to Escoffier this is the job of the Saucier. Augustus Escoffier created the Kitchen Brigade, which gave structure to the kitchen. He was a smart man who realized that there were several jobs in the kitchen, each that needed a team leader to instruct each department. Each of these echelons were maintained by the Sous Chef, the second in charge to the Chef. It is oh too funny that he used the word “Brigade,” a military word by definition; self-reliant unit that answers to no one and has its own independent mission and in this case would be to serve exceptional food. And not to mention if you have never visited or sat in on a Friday or Saturday night rush in any kitchen it is a war zone. Sharp objects, hot liquids and gas-powered burners are the weapons and arsenal used by the soldier like line cooks to thwart the seven o’clock, seven thirty and eight o’clock rushes.
So what does the Sous Chef do exactly? In short he is the jack of all trades but master of none; though expected to be master of all. Let’s face it the Chef is the Chef because he has been in the industry for some time. You can also bet that he doesn’t want to work on the line five nights a week from three in the afternoon until late at night. He did that coming up and then some before he was Chef. So it is up to the Sous Chef to ensure that the ideas, visions and quality of the Chef’s food are delivered up to his standards. This large task requires a vast amount of work, dedication and attention to detail. Employing and delegating each of the duties the Chef calls for with the staff that the Chef has put together is a whole ‘nother task on itself. Recognizing each of the individual’s talents without overloading or overlooking any is key everyone wants to be a part of a winning team.
It is here in the delegation process that being Sous is not so easy. The boys you used to hangout with after late nights and engage in debauchery are now your subordinates. Not all friends take orders very well or differentiate between hangout and work time. The hierarchy asks living and working daily with respectable conduct and furthermore to uphold these requirements amongst the staff, though this doesn’t always fair well or very easily. Ah, as well as if a mistake is made during the course of the night, or something is left out over night unwrapped or an item is burnt oh no the line cook does not feel the wrath of the Chef, the Sous Chef does. Answering all of his inquiries on why so and so is not performing or why the system is not working followed by the ultimate question, “Do I need to be there?” Now this question really doesn’t mean does he need to be there so much as it translates to you better do your job or I’ll find someone else who will. After sustaining a lashing, it’s time to suck it up and go about my business.

My daily routine starts with assessing the situation from cleanliness and organization of product to time management for executing the prep-list for the evening’s service. Each day of the week coincides with a particular delivery, whether it is from one of our many organic purveyors for produce, olive oil, local and imported cheeses and other stock dairy items, daily seafood requirements or our game and meat items. Finding a home for all of these newly arrived items is now the labor intensive and anal-retentive portion of my day. This shuffling of product in the dry storage, or either of the walk-in refrigerators allows me to have an up-to-date inventory of stock which in-turn allows me to know what I have to play with for when developing the daily additions to our seasonal menu such as the Soup of the Day, Market Catch or Cut. It is here that most of the thinking and conferencing is done with the Chef as well in the cool air of the walk-in perusing each shelf with its bountiful fruit and vegetable items and the quality check on the delivered fish. The aroma and humming of the fridge’s fan fill the air while we spitball ideas or catch up on the previous night’s business, lack their of how it was managed.
Now after an hour or so of cleaning and organizing, it’s time to do the real fun stuff. Let’s move into the kitchen and ready the ovens, the grill and French Flat Top. Now depending on the time of year this can be awesome or punishing. Obviously in the winter it’s great, but come summer time Paso Robles pumps out some above 100F days and with all of these machines up and running it gets mighty hot. But like the saying goes, if you can’t stand the heat, get your behind out the kitchen.

I’ve hit my knives on my steel and off to prep I am. It’s about ten minutes to one and I have a couple of hours before my line cooks show up and I’ve got plenty to do.

where’s the pig January 8, 2008

I know, I know, I have been truant in my correspondence with the masses. Here I am trying to decide what to talk to you about. Do I tell you about the 250 Pound Pig that we had raised, butchered and house cured? Maybe I write about the Political landscape in the upcoming election. How about discussing the merits and meanings of “sustainable and organic”…. No, let’s talk pig!

It was a blast taking a whole animal, disassembling it, curing it, hanging it, watching it dry, slicing it and eating it. It gives one a real respect for food when you have to look an animal in the eye before you process it. It also provides the necessary motivation to make sure you don’t screw it up.

I started with the hams. Wow! what hams! These things were 30 lbs a piece. It took 12 lbs of salt for each and almost 150 lbs of weight to press the liquid out of them.
Curing hams for Serrano ham(Spain) or Prosciutto(Italy) is one of the oldest forms of preservation on the planet and I felt linked to generations of people trying to feed their families in the off season. It is so very “Little House on the Prairie”.

I needed to press them in salt for 30 days, so half way through I changed the salt and checked the meat for the cursory outer drying that takes place. They were already tightening up nicely and getting the proper color. I replaced them under the 150 pounds of brick.

Meanwhile I started on the coppa. Using curing salts, sugar and herbs I cured the pork loin and allowed 16 days for proper curing. I also started making sausage for the restaurant. We made a standard spiced sausage that we serve on our “Shepherd’s Plate”. We made Chorizo in the Spanish style as well as a red wine and pepper flavored Salumi. I am particularly fond of the Chorizo, its smoky sweetness and meaty garlic flavor go so well with the local wines.

I also made some pancetta out of the pork bellies, which we use to wrap our house made pate´. I dig the earthy spice it gives the noble “meatloaf”. The other pork belly was gingerly braised in duck fat and is still curing in said fat as I write this tale.

With all this meat curing and hanging in the walk-ins, I can’t walk ten feet without smelling the romantically pungent odor of salted meat. In this Cook’s humble opinion, there are few smells more appealing than the earthy richness provided by hanging pork in a curing room. If you ever have the chance to do so don’t pass it up. It is an aroma that feeds the soul.