Dining in all the fabulous restaurants in the big cities like New York, Chicago, Los Angeles or San Francisco, you can find a wide array of themes. You can find facilities with Nuevo Latino, Italian, French, Dim Sum… classic themes like these, while some restaurants rock the latest trend, which could be whatever the Food Network has told America. With the somewhat recent release of Al Gore’s film The Inconvenient Truth, rising gas prices, and rocky economy, creative marketing has become a very sought after skill. Other informative and mind-opening media pieces such as Morgan Spurlock’s Super Size Me or Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma have caused the food industry to reevaluate the way food is sold. Corporate food chains display bright banners with words like ‘organic’ or ‘fresh’ embossed across the packaging that is ‘biodegradable.’  T.V. commercials or ads are bright and coupled with a kitschy soda-pop soundtrack to lure our unsuspecting youth.

Coming out of culinary school, I wanted to shape the industry and show everyone something they hadn’t seen before.  Armed with my new piece of paper that told me and everyone else that I knew how to make hollandaise and butcher salmon, I was led to believe I was going to get my face on the covers of Saveur, Food & Wine or possibly my own cookbook. However, what I wanted to show the world was prepackaged and the same thing that the instructors at the school had spoon-fed to many other students like me. I was left with something that was not new and lacked my soul and any real foundation, and my quest to invent something new must begin. Luckily I came to the realization that the old way of doing food, the really old way, was and is still the right way. Restaurants, hotels and cooks of households in rural towns shopped in the market square that we know now as the Farmer’s Market and prepared what was available to them at the market. The geographic location of where you lived dictated what was available to you. For example: if you lived on the coast, the ocean’s treasures were there for you. If you lived in the mountains, goat, rabbit and cattle might more likely make an appearance on your menu. Of course the geographic location with its soil content and climate also affected what produce was available to you.  Living in California I am fortunate as I have a huge array of vegetables and fruit here for my picking, as well as the most expansive coastline in the U.S. and several fresh water resources to fish from.  Within a hundred mile radius all of these things are at my fingertips. The proximity eliminates the gas consumed to deliver any nonlocal product, and ensures freshness.

As a cook I want to serve foods that taste good and are exciting, but at what cost?  Should I be serving pumpkin in the middle of spring? Or should I be flying in halibut from Alaska if I have fresh California halibut available? These don’t support my local economy or help my environment by flying or driving a product hundreds or even thousands of miles away to reach my table. As a consumer, these questions should be asked: Where did my vegetables come from? How is it that I am having English peas in the middle of fall?  It’s spring, how or why am I enjoying figs?  Is it that these things do not matter?  Of course they do! Neither is available in those seasons.  Again this goes back to the classic way of doing things. Foods should only be prepared while they are seasonally available. Now of course with modern developments like planes, trains and refrigeration, people in South Dakota can get fresh tomatoes, avocados or mangoes and in the blistering cold winter.  Again, at what cost?

For me, I like having the ability to visit with the farmer and ask him or her what is on hand as well as what will be coming on line in the next few months. Sure, its fabulous to be able to display exotic items from far off places and sit in a dining room that looks like it was pieced together from a town in the La Mancha region of Spain, but again at what cost?

So now with a few years of industry realities under my toque, I have developed an idea of what the world needs to see (and I strongly emphasize the word, needs).  With a cynical but very realist chef as a boss and mentor showing me the way as a young epicurean, I have realized that yeah, all the million dollar restaurants with chefs who have their names embroidered across their chests and dining rooms designed by GQ’s top rated interior designers are great but what are they doing for the community in which they reside? How are they giving back? Being in a small town versus a large city, this point is far more important in the birthing years because you do not have the masses to visit your establishment and pay your bills.  However, in the grand scheme of things if more restaurants decided to only buy local either from fishmongers, cheese mongers, cattlemen or farmers, the local agricultural economy would thrive and allow for growth and security instead of being outsourced from a stranger hundreds of miles away.  And come on, isn’t nice to know where your beef came from and not just seeing a picture of your happy cow in a green pasture chewing on some grass behind a wood fence? FYI, I have decided that Happy Cows come from Cayucos. Just look at that view!

Happy cows come from Cayucos

The beauty of this concept of Local, Organic & Sustainable is that any cuisine can fit this mold. It’s this simple if an ingredient is missing in order for your cuisine to be completed you either do away with the recipe or the cuisine as a hole. Don’t get me wrong, I love having all the Chinese, Thai, Indian or Italian restaurants around to dine at but just imagine how much better they would be if they were based in their proper environment. This idea allows for a fresh menu that correlates with what is fresh that day. This is so cutting edge because now the cook is faced with a challenge to prepare something what is available now and not with a set of ingredients he or she is so used to having readily available due to modern logistic capabilities. Could there be a better market for the consumer? Farmers, ranchers and fishmongers working hand-in-hand with chefs to bring the consumer the freshest product available?

The very idea has sparked my appetite.

Once again the walk-in refrigerators of Villa Creek have been graced with the presence of beautiful summer treasures. As I step into the cool frigid air and lay my eyes upon the shelves I see unbelievable produce and dream of dishes to prepare for patrons. Flats filled with juicy strawberries, blueberries, black mission figs, cherries and raspberries all brought to us from the Bay area via one of our organic, sustainable and local purveyors Veritable Vegetable. In addition to those juicy fruits we try to provide on the table some local treats featured on a number of our plates such as the Cheese Plate, Shepherd’s Plate, Fruit Plate, Fresh Berry Gratinado and a couple other dessert items. Some berries from closer to home are blackberries and boysenberries that are without a doubt the best I’ve ever had. When they arrive from Four Elements Organics, located in Atascadero, I look at the flat and try not to consume too many while thinking of new and creative ways to use them. Though the best way to have them is just washed and popped in your mouth. Chef, gets on the staff for eating too much of them but its so hard when they are as good as these and when you see the tips of his fingers stained, just as yours, with the color of their incredible juice you smile inside knowing you can’t just walk by them without a taste. Its as if they are calling to you…eat me…eat me, I’m so tasty.

Not only has the kitchen tried to shove these amazing berries down your throats but so has the bar. If you find yourself at Villa Creek and are in dire need of a cocktail to unwind from the days pressures post up at the bar and let one of bartenders fix you a black berry mojito or some other concoction that will have you slip away into berry ecstasy.

If there is one thing you can be happy about last weeks intense heat is the beautiful summer treasures it has packed for us in little cardboard flats from our farmers, berries galore.

Whether you are a local, regular or first time diner coming in this weekend you are in for a treat. We will be featuring our kitchen staff’s favorite Braised Rabbit with Sauteed Bloomsdale Spinach, Creamy Polenta and Mole Negro. We do this dish from time to time and has gained much popularity from its appearance on some of our previous menus. This dish speaks to someone who is either willing to try something new and go on a culinary adventure to the heart of Mexico or to a mole guru who expects something great from anyone bold enough to put it on their menu.  And Chef Tom has created just that a very robust mole that culminates to a sweet, spicy, chocolaty, nutty and fruity finish that will have you quite literally licking your plate. Obviously my opinion as the Sous Chef is quite biased and I think that everything we do is absolutely fantastic so don’t take my word for it, come in and try it for yourself. I will promise that you will not be disappointed. If you come in, tell you server to not even bother with the additions or the menu at all and say, “I’ll have the Rabbit.” I recommend a nice glass of Tempranillo or our Villa Creek Cellars Cuvee.   Enjoy!

Working at a successful restaurant, the publicity and the names behind the scenes are fun to read about. The obvious players are mentioned:

• The Chef of course, who has a concept he is devoted to, and maybe his staff that does his biddings to make dreams and ideas manifest into reality.
• The General Manager, who assures the restaurant runs smoothly and tends to all patrons with a firm handshake, courteous smile and a brief knowledge on family history and business to the most regular.
• And finally there is the owner who upon arrival through the doors requires a great deal of attention answering inquiries from the previously mentioned players, then finally reciprocated with the owner reviewing the establishment and its current matter of state.

Each of these individuals is responsible for working in unison to develop new ideas for maximizing profit and performance from employees and product. This effort is to provide not only a reliable workspace for employees but also an establishment in which patrons feel they are receiving adequate or more service for their dollar. Educating the staff on the ins and outs of the business as well as providing the knowledge on the product and idea being sold is another task bestowed upon them but is not always the easiest to keep fresh. Though if all of the above come together recognition by the press is seemingly inevitable in time.

Praise from the local paper to international periodicals goes to all the likely candidates commending the dedication to the concept and its execution. Snapshots are included with beautiful portraits of all with inserts of information on wine or spirits and a focus on the food.

However, one player is inevitably always forgotten and is probably the most underpaid and underappreciated of all. This employee is the one who endures the heat with the line cooks but does not cook although he may be called upon to do many of the time consuming tasks that line cooks do not have the attention span for. Peeling potatoes, shrimp, garlic, cleaning mussels, picking spinach, shucking oysters or peas, cleaning green beans and the list goes on. This employee’s job title is dishwasher. And though he or she is equipped with an industrial dishwashing machine that has a run cycle of about thirty seconds, he is still scrubbing pots and pans in the triple compartmented sink.

This employee is called upon, no… expected… to ensure that all the flatware, plates, glasses and pans are clean in such a timely manner as not to disturb the flow of service. A description of this speed cannot be captivated by the likes of this writer even though it is observed day in and day out, hour after punishing hour. This employee is a workhorse, a true unsung hero and the backbone of any successful restaurant and arguably one of the most important player amongst the team.  Without a great dishwasher, pans can’t cook food, food can’t go on plates, nor be eaten without silverware.

Sorting through half-eaten plates, organizing various shaped and sized plates and bowls passed through a window stacked aimlessly and precariously by servers and bussers in the bus tub, all the while prioritizing the order in which the restaurant needs them… this is just the tip of the iceberg.  If it wasn’t enough to wash them, now he must negotiate the return of all the newly cleaned items. This means navigating through a gang of extremely busy line cooks who are turning and spinning erratically to the untrained eye from cutting board to stove and back with either a hot pan or sharp knife in hand.  I imagine attempting this untrained is like a white boy joining in on a double dutch session somewhere on the lower east side of New York; unheard of and virtually impossible.

This guy may not own the place, can’t recommend a glass of wine to go with steak you just ordered, and might not know how to prepare a single dish on the menu or recognize the most regular of patrons but without this employee any restaurant would surely perish.

So the next time you sit down at your favorite restaurant reflect upon the sparkling silverware and spotless glasses, admire what’s beneath the food you are about to consume: a clean and sanitary plate.  And when you finish indulging and signed your check, take a peak in the kitchen and tip your hat to the super hero who is doing the job that is so far from glamorous, it isn’t even mentioned in the credits at the end of the show.

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.

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… 

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….

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.