This week’s topics include another lesson from culinary school, you too can break down a whole chicken, a review of the original Thomas Keller Bouchon, and the best steak I have ever had.
Another Lesson From Culinary School. Buy whole chickens and cut them up at home. Why, you ask? Many reasons, my friend.
First, whole chickens taste better because all of the pieces are together until such time as you cut them up. When you buy chicken pieces, you don’t know when the chicken was carved up. It could have been weeks ago and the pieces were frozen for shipping. Plus, the meat doesn’t have time to dry out or otherwise get funky.
Second, it’s fun to carve up a chicken. If you’re not a vegetarian, you love to cook, and you won’t carve a chicken, I ask you if you actually love to cook. You have a stronger connection to your dishes when you get your hands messy and do all of the work. Plus, you learn more about the food you're preparing.
Third, you can impress your friends with your mad butchery skills. Not everyone can or will carve up a whole chicken.
Fourth, and perhaps most importantly, you get chicken carcasses for stock, and nothing beats homemade stock. I freeze them until I have 4 or 5 and then I make gallons of stock.
Try whole birds. You can find videos online to help you carve up the bird. If you email me, I’ll send you step by step photos. I'd post them, but not everyone wants to see that.
Restaurant Review – Bouchon in Yountville, CA. While I was at my culinary school boot camp, the Red and I had dinner at Thomas Keller’s Bouchon, which is built and designed like a small French eatery. The colors are bright, yet elegant, and the tables are very close together. Like so close you have to pull the table out so the person on the far side can slide in.
The proximity of the tables encourages you to strike up a conversation with the tables next to you, or at least it encouraged me to do so. In no less than two minutes, the table next to us is offering me a sample of their fries fried in duck fat and drizzled with truffle oil. The Red was either impressed or appalled at this. Whatever. Why did they sit so close to me if they didn’t want to be talked to?!
Did I mention fries fried in duck fat and drizzled with truffle oil? They were good. Like I needed a moment of silence good.
Another note about Bouchon. There are no salt or peppers shakers on the tables. Apparently, they’re confident in the way they season their food.
Anyway, back to the story. We order ridiculously priced French wine. Truly a fabulous wine. It needed some time open up, but when it did it was wonderful. A somewhat big wine, yet no single flavor was predominant. Quintessential French wine.
I ordered the Steak Au Poivre (medium rare, naturally) with French potatoes and spinach. The Red ordered the Beef Bourguignon. Check out the photos.
The beef was Niman Ranch American Wagyu and my steak was the eye of the ribeye. They cooked it in a sous vide machine to the desired temperature and then finished it on high heat to give it a nice crust. At the table, they ladled the au poivre sauce onto the steak. The waiter gave me some of the sauce and then tried to walk away with the rest. No, son. Don’t you walk away with that! Pour it all on.
Side note – au poivre sauce is a pepper cream sauce, with a little brandy or cognac in it. You make it in the same pan that you sear the steaks in. You like steak sauce? This is steak sauce on crack.
The Review? Absolutely fabulous. I have never had a steak with the same buttery texture. It literally melted in your mouth, and the au poivre sauce was just as good. Creamy, peppery, and rich. I simply can’t describe how good this steak was. I will forever compare all other steaks to this steak.
The Red’s Beef Bourguignon was also very good, but I was too infatuated with my own meal to pay too much attention to hers.
I don’t mind spending real money on a meal. How often do I get to sit across from my lovely bride and enjoy a grown up meal with a great bottle of wine? However, if I’m going to spend real money, I expect the meal to knock my socks off.
Bouchon definitely did not disappoint.
Another Food Mecca. On our way to dinner at Bouchon, we stopped by the French Laundry. I just wanted to see the place.
For those of you who may not be familiar with it, the French Laundry is generally regarded as one of the best restaurants (if the not the best) in the country. It’s also this tiny little converted house in a sleepy little town. Check out the picture. Note the shadow of the dork taking the photo.
If someone didn’t tell you what this place was, you’d probably drive right by it.
They claim that one of the reasons for their success is their gardens. You’d think these mystical gardens would be shrouded in mystery and closely guarded, right? Wrong.
They’re right across the street and absolutely unguarded. Anyone could saunter through the gardens whenever they see fit. Apparently, people rarely cause problems in the gardens.
For me, these gardens were very zen-like. Beautiful and peaceful. Check out the photos. I actually had no interest in wandering through them, even though they were wide open. I just wanted to see them. Odd.
Happy cooking.
WF.
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