‘wichcraft: Craft a Sandwich into a Meal–And a Meal into a Sandwich

Think Like a Chef
Cookbooks by chefs can be daunting. They’re apt to include tricky restaurant recipes, or, alternately, watered-down “translations.” Tom Colicchio, chef at Manhattan’s top-rated Gramercy Tavern, has a better way. Think like a chef, he advises, and you tap into food preparation creativity–the ability to forgo recipes, when you wish, for spontaneous kitchen invention. In a series of innovative chapters that explore cooking fundamentals, culinary themes and variations, and “plug-in” component preparations, Colicchio provides a cooking “anatomy” for gaining kitchen mastery. The book’s 100-plus recipes are offered not as ends in themselves (though they stand as delicious examples of Colicchio’s simple yet sophisticated style), but as illustrative keys to the culinary processes.
How does it work? Beginning with a chapter that reviews basic cooking techniques, and includes exemplary stock- and sauce-making formulas, the book then presents a series of “studies,” building-block recipes like Roasted Tomatoes, followed by simple-to-sophisticated variations, such as Roasted-Tomato Risotto. A chapter called “Trilogies” explores clusters of three-ingredient recipes–duck, root vegetables, and apples is one ingredient grouping–that show how various techniques, applied to the same ingredients, yield various exciting dishes. “Component Cooking,” which focuses on vegetables (Colicchio’s major source of inspiration), provides recipes like Corn and Potato Pancakes to be used for assembling a “plate.” Concluding the book is “Favorites,” a selection of Colicchio’s specialties that range from My Favorite Chicken Soup to Poached Foie Gras, a taste bonus that also stimulates the cooking imagination. Illustrated with more than 100 color photos, and including a wide range of tips, Think Like a Chef succeeds at helping readers see through a chef’s eyes–and in so doing to visualize cooking with fresh insight. –Arthur Boehm –This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Craft of Cooking: Notes and Recipes from a Restaurant Kitchen
Curing duck breasts and hanging them like hams in your refrigerator for three weeks may not be your particular pail of blueberries. Or brining a whole, 30-pound piglet as a precursor for making porchetta. But how about grilling a hangar steak and slathering it with a bordelaise sauce? Mind you, this is a sauce that calls for a bottle of dry red wine and three quarts of veal stock as well as the requisite vegetables. But that’s the point here: the best imaginable ingredients and a lot of focused work leading to a sublimely simple outcome. Simple in this case being an ultimate grilled steak experience. The kind of experience dished up at Tom Colicchio’s restaurant Craft. Craft of Cooking is Colicchio’s way of making that same experience available in your own home.
The author of Think Like a Chef is betting that if he shows you what he does in a commercial kitchen, it will have an impact on your home cooking. Because what he does in his kitchen is what he likes to eat at home. It’s not about speed, and it’s not about convenience. It’s about making food taste great without fanfare or pretension. The book breaks out in major ingredient sections, meat, fish, vegetables, and the like. Subsections in meat, for example, include charcuterie, roasting and grilling, and braising. Some of the recipes, like the one for baby lamb, are simply too big for the home kitchen. But Colicchio wants you to see what he’s up to. He wants you to think about it. There are long asides about various products–the hangar steak, mesclun, beurre fondue–called ingredient portraits. And there are notes that detail how all the elements of a restaurant from prep to wine service fit together.
For anyone who simply loves to read delicious recipes, this is an elegant book. For those home cooks with some experience–skilled amateurs–Craft of Cooking is a challenge as well as a portal to a whole new realm of fine cuisine.

All three finalists did an awesome job the entire season. In the final, the remaining three chefs were Kevin, Bryan V and Michael V. After Kevin was told he would not be Top Chef, it came down to the brothers. It really could have gone either way in my opinion, but the judges picked Michael.

If you want to keep up with the brothers, they’ve started a website here: http://www.voltaggiobrothers.com/
If you’re ever in the Frederick, MD area, stop by Bryan’s restaurant called Volt. http://www.voltrestaurant.com/
If you’re ever in the Atlanta, GA area, stop by Kevin’s restaurant The Woodfire Grill http://www.woodfiregrill.com/
And I’m not sure if he’ll be there much longer, but you can dine at where Michael cooks by heading to the The Dining Room and Langham Huntington Hotel & Spa.

The previous chefs that will be joining Fabio are Richard Blais (season 4), Harold Dieterle (season 1), Dale Levitski (sseason 3), Tiffani Faison (season 1), Ilan Hall (season 2), Marcel Vigneron (season 2), Casey Thompson (season 3), Lisa Fernandes (season 4), Carla (season 5), Hung Huynh (season3), and Stefan Richter (season 5).

After a little reminiscing about previous episodes and whose is doing what, Fabio pulls out the knife block. 5 knives, 5 seasons. The knives are numbered, with each knife representing the course they’ll be serving. The teams each get $500 to work with.

After shopping, the cooking begins. All the chefs seem to have a good time getting back into the kitchen.
During commercial we get to see some unseen footage when the judge tells Marcel to shut up during one of the judges table. Marcel fires back when some choice words and ends up walking out after Gail has to put in some comment telling Marcel to calm down. Good for Marcel; the judges were being some a-holes in my opinion, but good old Marcel is always quick to get hot headed too.

Back to the reunion dinner and dinner gets served. As expected, the old memories and squabbles come out of the woodwork. More old videos are shown after Fabio and the others discuss the unfair judging that most of them received at one point or another. I agree with them; a good portion of the judging is harsh, but that’s the entertainment factor.

Fabio does more prying into previous hot topics, one of them being Marcel. Fabio’s doing what Bravo wanted, but I felt like I was watching the animated cartoon where someone keeps poking someone with a stick. Poke, poke, poke. Enough with Marcel already. Fabio starts in with the head shaving incident that got Cliff kicked off. He asked Marcel if he felt like a victim… Of course he was Fabio. He was the victim of a prank that went wrong and then it didn’t stop when it should have. I’m really surprised Marcel keeps coming around to these reunions.

Now that this reunion episode of Top Chef is almost over, I’m kind of disappointed with it. What could have been an interesting simple competition between previous contestants has turned into an unnecessary history of previous seasons. I think Harold kind of agrees as he’s saying “let’s talk about something positive.” With that, the show comes to somewhat of an abrupt ending.

Quickfire:
A challenge from TV Guide to recreate a classic TV dinner. TV Guide picked 7 iconic shows to inspire the chefs. Knifes are drawn and the shows are The Sopranos, Gilligan’s Island, The Flintstones, Sesame Street, Mash, Seinfeld and Cheers.
Bottom: Jennifer, Robin
Top: Kevin, Bryan
Win goes to Kevin who gets a version of his dish featured in the Top Chef Schwan’s frozen food home service.

Elimination:
The chefs get to take over Tom Colicchio’s “Craft Steak” restaurant. The chefs will be serving 4 judges and 7 other guests. The special guest is Natalie Portman who surprises all the chefs by telling them she’s a vegetarian. Tough challenge when you’re in a steak house. So the chefs get to cook their dishes in a superb steakhouse, but they don’t get to use meat. They all run back to the coolers and start to rethink their menus… and cooking time begins.
Top three: Kevin, Michael & Eli, with the win going to Kevin. But Michael wasn’t too happy about it.

Bottom three: Mike, Robin and Jennifer and Mike’s sent packing.

This week’s guest judge is Rick Moonen, chef/owner of RM Seafood. The challenge is about testing teamwork. It’s the first tag team cook-off. Knifes are drawn to determine teams, but as the knives are drawn they’re all blank with the exception of Jennifer’s whose knife says “1st choice” and Michael V.’s whose knife says “2nd Choice”. This means Jennifer and Michael get to pick the teams. Jennifer picks Kevin, Mike I., and Laurine, while Michael picks Bryan, Eli, and Robin. Each team will cook one dish in 40 minutes, but the chefs have to tag team in 10 minute intervals… the chefs not cooking will be blind folded and they can’t talk to each other.

The team that wins gets an advantage in the elimination challenge and they also get 10K in cash to divide. It’s a tough challenge but both teams seem to pull it together fairly well. The red team has a pan roasted NY strip with whipped miso avocado puree & pickled vegetables. The blue team does a pan seared sablefish with sautéed mushrooms, shiitake broth & radish salad. Rick picks the blue team as the winners.

Elimination:

It’s time for restaurant wars! Rick Moonen will be giving up his restaurant RM Seafood for the challenge. The restaurant has two different floors & two different kitchens. The blue team gets the advantage of picking the kitchen they want to work in. And this year, the teams will not be responsible for the décor. Too bad… I always thought it was an interesting part of restaurant wars, getting to see the teams put together the décor in the front of house. This time it will be about the entire experience… menu, quality, front of house, service, etc. Rick also states that his restaurant is a 100% sustainable restaurant and he wants the teams to carry that through when creating their menus. Padma goes on to tell the blue team it’s a high stakes challenge. They can let their 10K ride and if they win, they’ll each get 10K. The blue team decides to let it ride. The teams head off to shop and then head back to work on names. The red team names their restaurant ReVolt, while the blue team names theirs Mission.

The next day the teams arrive and they have 3 hours to get ready. Blue team heads upstairs to the fine dining, while red team will take the bottom floor which is more casual. And the cooking begins.

The Mission menu will be Asparagus & six minute egg, arctic char tartare, bouillabaisse consommé, seared trout, pork three ways, and lamb with carrot jam.

The ReVolt menu is chicken & calamari pasta, smoked arctic char, duo of beef, cod & billi-bi sauce, pear pithivier, and chocolate ganache.

Eli and Laurine head off to get dressed up and work the front of house. Times up and the restaurants start to fill up with guests.

The judges visit the red team first and most of the dishes appear to go over fairly well… the judges even make a few positive comments about Eli working the front of house.

Next is the blue team and the first comment Tom Colicchio makes is there are no desserts on the menu. Good or bad, it’s hard to say what he’s thinking. First course gets served, but the judges don’t seem all that thrilled. Then things get a little slow… there’s no explanation about the dishes (until the judges ask for it)… and more negative comments start rolling in. Not looking good for the blue team.

Its end of service and the comment cards start getting filled out.

On to judges table and Padma calls in the Revolt team members telling them they are the winners. Toms says it’s the best restaurant wars in 6 years. Rick says that Michael is the winner and gives him an autographed book, and Padma gives him a 10K chip. Michael says he wants to split it with his team mates. Good call Michael.

Time for the losing team to head in for judging. In my view it’s Laurine who’ll be packing her knives. The judges start asking questions. Laurine says she chose to work front of house. They each explain their dish, telling what they think worked or didn’t work. As expected, the judges seem to throw a little more negativity to Laurine and her poor job working front of house.

After the judges discuss everything they call the chefs back in and send Laurine packing.

Top three dishes are from Eli, Bryan and Kevin, with the win going to Eli.

Bottom three dishes are from Jennifer, Robin, and Ash.

Elimination
The chefs are asked to cook pork dishes for Chef Palmer’s Pigs and Pinot event. The chefs draw knifes to determine which part of the pig they’ll be cooking. Then they head to Aureole at the Mandalay Bay resort where they choose the pinot that they’ll be pairing with their pork dish.

Top four dishes are from Michael, Bryan, Kevin and Jennifer with the win going to Kevin.

Bottom three dishes are from Ash, Laurine and Robin. Ash takes the harshest criticism and he’s sent packing.

Bottom three: Robin, Eli and Jennifer
Top three: Mick I., Kevin and Michael V., with the win going to Kevin.
Kevin gets to pick between immunity or $15K. He chooses the $15K. Smart choice.

Onto the elimination challenge. The challenge is to cook an at-home dinner for Tyler Florence, Nancy Silverton, Govind Armstrong, Takashi Yagihashi and Tom Douglas.

The chefs draw knives to pick the ingredients that they will be cooking with… ingredients brought by the chefs named above. As the chefs team up and start cooking with their ingredients, it’s becoming clearer who the strong contestants are. In my opinion, if you’re complaining, you’re weak. The strong players have confidence no matter who they have to team up with.

Back to the Top Chef kitchen and Padma calls in Laurine, Bryan, Kevin and Jennifer who are the top dishes. Tyler tells Jennifer she’s the winner with the prize being a $10K Macy’s card.

The bottom four are Ash and Michael, Eli and Ashley. Michael takes a reaming for his fish which was overcooked due to the problems he had with the power going out. They tell Michael he can’t blame the power, which I don’t think he was really doing. Ash kinds of throws himself under the bus telling the judges how good of a cook Michael is. Bad move on Ash’s part. Eli and Ashley have the biggest problems in my opinion. After some discussion, the judges explain how both teams had one person who was really to blame for the failure. As soon as I heard that, I knew it wouldn’t be Michael going home. He’s way too talented to get sent home for one failure. Sure enough, the judges send Ashley packing.

Onto the quickfire and it’s Padma and guest judge Michelle Bernstein, chef and owner of Michy’s restaurant in Miami. Padma explains this challenge is about “Angel vs Devil”… or what the chefs feel are opposing type things in their lives. The win goes to Robins dish, but not without some more frowning and complaining from the other chefs. In particular Eli, who says Robins win was due to her playing the cancer card and getting some sympathy from it. Eli, in my view you looked like a little whinny man with your comments. Eli explains his comments here. Either way, Robin won… deal with it and move on.

After that little scene, Penn and Teller enter the room. They do a cup and ball magic trick and then show the same trick using clear cups… which leads to the elimination challenge – Deconstruction.

The chefs must draw knives and then take the classic dish they drew and deconstruct in. I love these kind of challenges. They show how creative a chef can truly be. All of the chefs had a fairly clear understanding of what it meant to deconstruct, with the exception of Ron. He was having trouble from the beginning. He knew his dish, but wasn’t very clear on how to break it down and be creative.

On the opposite end, were the brothers. I could tell these two guys knew exactly what they were doing and going to do.

The top four end up being Jen, Kevin, Ashley and Bryan, with the win going to Kevin. Kevin not only gets the win, he gets a new set of Calphalon Unison cookware from Michelle Berstein.

The bottom three are Ash, Ron and Laurine.  And to no surprise, Ron’s sent packing.

While Padma and Tim were trying the dishes it was really hard to read Tim and which he liked and disliked.

The bottom three were Ash, Michael, and Ron.
Top three were Laurine, Mike I., Mattin. Tim Love chose Mike I. as the winner saying he showcased the cactus the best with his Cactus and Tuna Ceviche.

Elimination
The elimination challenge is to prepare a high-end lunch, outdoors on a ranch for Tim Love and two dozen cowboys. The chefs can cook anything they want, but it has to be high-end food.
The chefs arrive to the ranch and the site of teepees and their outdoor kitchen. If you could really call it a kitchen. It consisted of four fire pits in the ground, cast iron pans, and a wagon filled with pantry items. Throw in the heat of the day and an open flame pit… not a fun environment for cooking.

Here are some of the comments made by the judges as they were eating each dish.
Mike: so-so sandwich, nothing Tim would call his grandma about
Laurine: flavorful, Tim liked it
Eli: could use more flavor
Ash: sensible, too much bacon and grease
Mattin: Tom actually spits out his bite… not a good sign for Mattin. Tim says it’s fishy.
Robin: Terrible, like sucking on a piece of chlorine
Bryan: appropriate, nicely cooked
Jennifer: good slaw, perfectly cooked
Ashley: best that Ashley’s done
Ron: best ceviche, bad cocktail
Kevin: pretty dish, nicely cooked
Michael V.: tasty, nice and refreshing

Top four were Laurine, Ashley, Michael and Bryan, with the win going to Bryan for his Roasted Pork Loin with Corn Polenta, Dandelion Greens, and Glazed Rutabega.

Bottom three were Robin, Ron and Mattin. Robin gets reamed for terrible shrimp. Mattin says he surprised to be up for elimination, but he gets the heat from Tim, with Tim saying he actually feels sick from eating the dish Mattin prepared. Tom explains how there was raw cod next to cooked cod. Ouch. Not good things to hear for Mattin. Ron gets it for his dish being to sweet, but takes it the worst for the drink he prepared.

The loss went to Mattin. Not a surprise after hearing all the judges’ comments.

Top 3: Mike, Kevin and Jennifer. With the win going to Kevin.

Bottom 3: Jesse, Ashley and Robin. But they get one last chance. The bottom 3 get 20 minutes to make an amuse-bouche out of anything in the kitchen. The loser goes home. The loss goes to Jesse who’s sent packing.

Elimination:
Knife drawing time. 6 knifes with a sauce listed and 6 with a protein. The chefs have to work in pairs to create a 6 course meal using the sauces and proteins. They’ll have to serving to a table with the some of the best French chefs in the world. And lucky winner Kevin doesn’t have to cook and gets to sit at the table to eat.

Sitting at the table is Daniel Boulud, Hubert Keller (chef/owner of Fleur De Lys), Jean Joho (chef/proprietor of Everest & Eiffel Tower Restaurants), Laurent Tourondel (chef/owner BLT Restaurants), Tom Colicchio, Gail Simmons, Kevin, a translator and Chef of the Century Joel Robuchon. Overall it appears most of the dishes are good… but two are above average and two are below.

The top are Brian, Mike, Michael and Jennifer… the excepted winners after watching the guests reactions at the dinner table. I think the whole show will come down to these final four. The win goes to Brian and as his prize he gets a week with Joel Robuchon.

The bottom are Mattin, Ashley, Hector and Ash… also expected after watching the dinner. Hector seems to get the biggest reaming about his meat not being cooked or cut right.
After a recap from Colicchio, Hector’s sent packing.

You can also check out this video of Hector the day after he was eliminated. He feels being on the show is going to do more harm for his career, than good.