April 20, 2010

The past week was so hectic for me. My kitchen hasn't gotten hit this hard since the Billy Joel concert many years ago. I apologize to any of our guests that had to wait for their food on Saturday night. Its a rare occasion that my kitchen can not keep up with the floor.

The menu will change this week.

Mostly we will focus on salads. We have been working to redesign and change the look and taste to be more spring like.

Here is one of them.

Goat Cheese Salad with French Vinaigrette

The salad itself has frisée, baby arugula, roasted red peppers, Belgium endive red and white. It is garnished with marinated goat cheese (just some salt, pepper and some vinaigrette), spicy micro greens to create extra acid and balsamic reduction to complete the triangle on your palate... salty, sweet and sour.

The French Vinaigrette is a basic dressing: white vinegar, light oil, salt, pepper, garlic, shallots and mustard.

A friend of mine asked me about Kobe beef on Sunday and we got talking about the different ways it can be prepared. He asked me what I thought about cooking Kobe on a piece of flat rock at a constant heat of 350 degrees. This is not a simple question. It depends on how thick the Kobe is, how many pieces on the rock and very importantly how big is the rock. This is what I think but this is just me...

I love Kobe beef. I've been eating it for over 45 years and have learned how to cook it to perfection. I think that all chefs know that extreme heat on a thin slice of Kobe will be good for the flavor of the high fat content piece of beef.

If the surface of the beef did not char enough, the correct fragrance and flavor will not appear.

350 degrees on the rock... is the heat good enough to contribute enough flavor for this expensive piece of meat?

Will there be enough heat to cook the meat enough to get the right amount of melted fat for the first appearance on your nose??

Will you get that thin coat of fat on your tongue???

Then will you feel the passion in your mouth as it melts with a fighty surrender????

If people like to apply the Japanese technique of using a hot stone and cook Kobe beef, they should understand to slice the beef thin enough to cover the basic cooking ground. To successfully apply Eastern cooking techniques to Western food is a real charm, but did you bring the best out in your materials from your charming technique?

Now a days marketing comes first before flavor?

I don't think so!

That is what I told my friends.

Your Chef,

Max