In rememberance

Kenneth and Joanne Thickstun. I love you both.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. I love the traditional food, sharing a meal, and connecting with family.

For the past several years, we haven't really been able to celebrate it as much as I would like. When we first moved to Las Vegas, we didn't know very many people, and we've spent the holiday either working, or making way too much food for two people.

But this year was awesome. We came out to Los Angeles to celebrate with my brother and his wife, who cooked up a feast. Surprisingly, I wasn't on kitchen duty, but I did supply wine and desserts. It's nice to have someone else do the cooking every once in a while, and Kristine did a great job.

After dinner, we relaxed and watched a movie, then took a walk down to the beach and had some cocktails at a local bar.

I have a lot to be thankful for this year. I've been really fortunate, and I've been able to do a lot of traveling and had some amazing experiences. I have a great family, and I have so much more to look forward to next year with Basque Stage.

There were some rough times too; the death of my grandmother was a major blow to me, but if she were here now, I'm sure she'd be really proud.

I hope everyone else had as wonderful a holiday as I did.

Adios!

Spain!

I'm still reeling from the news that I won Basque Stage. I'm so excited and happy, I haven't been able to stop smiling for the last two days.

Last night I celebrated with a bottle of Rioja, and made a nice pasta with a Piment d'Espilette infused sauce.

I still don't know the details about when I leave and all the other specifics, but I'm going to Spain!!

I'm so thankful for the judges and for Sammic and Martin Berasategui putting on this competition. This is such an amazing opportunity.

My next blog will be a bit more down-to-Earth, I swear, I'm just too happy to even think clearly right now!

Sorcerers, soups, and staging

For those of you who may not have heard, the latest Harry Potter movie, Deathly Hallows part one, came out on Friday. Of course, I had to see it. And it was awesome!

Anyway, before the matinee, lunch was required. We had originally planned on Thai, but we missed the window for lunch at Lotus of Siam, so decided to get Vietnamese food at Lemongrass instead.

Lemongrass is a charming little place here in Henderson. The location's a little strange; it's in an old 50's style diner building in a parking lot on Pebble and Eastern, not really visible from either road. But they have really great food, so I end up there quite often.

I got creamy Thai iced tea, the milkiness is always needed to combat the spicy for me. Plus, it's yummy!

Please excuse my spelling if I get any of these wrong, I don't actually speak Vietnamese... anyway, above is banh mi, a sandwich. It was made with home-made sausage, pickled vegetables, pork liver pate, herbs, and mayonnaise. Served on crunchy French bread, these are very bright and flavorful sandwiches, and a great bargain.

The egg rolls are made with ground pork, taro root, daikon radish, glass noodles, yam, and wood ear mushroom. You basically wrap the searing hot egg roll in a lettuce leaf, and throw fresh basil and shiso leaves in there, dip in a vinegar based sauce and have at it. They have a really unique flavor from the taro and a nice earthiness from the mushroom, brightened by the fresh bite of the herbs. I love the hot/cold contrast too.

This was a lemongrass and chile sauced chicken dish that Michael got, spicy, but had a great depth of flavor.

Of course, I got Pho ("fuh"), a noodle soup with sliced beef, in a consomme-like broth scented with spices. You spice it to your preference with jalapeno, lime juice, bean sprouts, and more fresh herbs, and a bit of Siracha or the mystery pepper sauce in the bottle at the end of the table that tastes great, but destroys you from within via capsaicin. This is the kind of tasty soup that haunts your dreams, the one you find yourself craving at odd times when nothing else will do.

Vietnamese cuisine is an interesting blend of Indonesian, French and Asian influences, and has unique flavors.

On the flip side, Jean-George Vongerichten's (man his name is hard to spell!) cuisine is French technique with beautiful Asian influences, and I staged at his restaurant in Aria again on Saturday.

It also happens to be one of my favorite steakhouses ever. Above is their wood grill, they use a mix of mesquite charcoal and apricot wood to grill their steaks.

I got to try a lot of the food, the short ribs came with an apple-jalapeno puree, apple and micro celery salad, and rosemary panko. Delicious, the puree was especially flavorful. I also highly enjoyed the miso and yuzu crust on the sea bass with maitake mushrooms, though I usually won't eat sea bass because it's not a sustainable fish at all.

The food there is fantastic, I blogged about visiting them for restaurant week about two months ago, where we all had an amazing meal. Being in the kitchen again was really educational, and I plan on going back to stage again some time in the future.

Now, I'm exhausted, and I have my sommelier class in the morning, so I must get some sleep.

Adios!

Basque Stage jury and Slider vs. Slider

So I checked Facebook just a minute ago, and surfed over to the Basque Stage page (as I do quite often) and saw that they had posted the names of some of the jury members.

All I can say is... wow. I'm shaking a little bit right, now that I know the people who are reading my essay and blogs. I'm humbled and in a bit of a state of shock.

Pedro Subijana and Hilario Abelaitz are representing from Spain, and THOMAS KELLER is on the panel.

Yes, THE Thomas Keller. He's... reading my essay.

I've mentioned before about staging at his Bouchon Bistro here in Las Vegas (two times now) and I'm going back in there to stage on Tuesday. I'm a huge, huge fan of chef Keller. His food is thoughtful and so exquisitely prepared, so much attention to the finest details...

So... I don't know what else to say about this. Working at the French Laundry has been my secret goal for at least 3 years now, a lot of what I do is in pursuit of the day so far off in my dreams that I could stage in that kitchen. I only hope that the judges can see my passion, see that this really is everything to me.

And now, on to bloggy things!

Wednesday morning was my Advanced Restaurant Desserts class. We made souffles... above is the milk chocolate souffle I had for breakfast. It was poofier pre-photo, but you have to angle plates a little bit to get them into the light box, so it was an effort to keep it lofty whilst turning the plate ever so slightly sideways.

I also made this mandarin orange semi-freddo, with caramelized hazelnuts and mandarin orange sauce.

But the real point of this blog; battle slider!!

This was of course, a self-imposed challenge, and the judges were myself and my boyfriend, but I think I held my own quite well.

Entry #1: sliders by Hubert Keller, the ones he made while I was working on the set of "Secrets of a Chef", his PBS television show.

Salmon sliders with smoked salmon (in lieu of bacon,great idea).

Sea scallop sliders with bacon. Chef Keller definitely wins hands-down on presentation, his style is beautiful.

After class yesterday, I saw this truck in the parking lot next to my school. Called "Slidin' Through", this is Las Vegas' only mobile mini-burger truck. They have such a great paint job, and the staff are super-friendly. This was the true impetus of the slider vs. slider challenge, I threw in pictures of Hubert's sliders because, well, they're so pretty!

On the left; feta cheese and tzatziki, on the right; caramelized onions, blue cheese, balsamic reduction, and arugula.

On the left; eggplant caprese, on the right; pulled pork.

I took a nap after lunch, and I awoke to a boyfriend who had gone grocery shopping. He had picked up a random assortment of goods from Trader Joe's, among them mini slider buns and organic ground beef. He just showed them to me and said "I think you can do better".

Mind you, the Slidin' Through sliders were really good, but this was a challenge I just had to accept. Plus, it involved tasty mini burgers. Boyfriend set to work making flavored bacon (by adding toppings, then slowly caramelizing them in a low oven) of his choosing, then showed me what I had to work with.

Voila. My entries into the slider challenge.

Up first: Caramelized onions (I cooked mine in duck fat, the most heavenly of fats), pecorino-Romano frico (crisp cheese rounds) duck confit, haricot vert, and balsamic jelly from Italy. These worked out really, really well. They actually tasted even better than they sound, not trying to toot my own horn here but; damn.

Roasted garlic, goat cheese, Fresno jelly (a super-amazing jelly made of red Fresno chiles... my secret recipe), Fresno bacon, goat cheese, and Dijon mustard straight from France. The jelly has a really complex, roasty sweet flavor, with a slow burn of spice. The goat cheese was a great foil for the spiciness, cutting it and mellowing all of the flavors together.

Cinnamon-laced Tuscan cheese, maple bacon, maple mustard (a mix of the French mustard and grade B maple syrup), and the piece de resistance; shaved Brussels sprouts, quickly cooked in brown butter and tossed with a pinch of Piment d'Espilette. I'm going to keep the sprouts in my arsenal for a while now... I'm thinking a big bowl of them with lardons and a poached egg would be an incredible winter salad.

Oooh, this one was yummy; sauteed tri-color peppers, jalapeno bacon, Gruyère cheese, French mustard and shallots. For the shallots, I cooked them the way we cooked red onion slices for a sardine salad when I worked at Batali's B & B; I cut thick rings, then seared them in olive oil on really high heat weighted down from the top. This causes the cut sides to be nearly blackened and caramelized, but leaves the inside of the rings with a sweet flavor and a hint of crunch. I had never tried it with shallots before, but it was definitely a success.

It was a day full of happiness on mini buns, and I was very proud of my flavor combinations.

I'm super excited to hear the Basque Stage winners announced on Monday, I'm nervous as well. This would be such a monumental step towards reaching my dreams.

Wish me luck!

Adios!

Another stage at Bouchon, and a late-night rendezvous at RM Seafood

Today I went back to Bouchon bistro, Thomas Keller's only restaurant in Las Vegas, to stage again. It was definitely an educational experience, and they asked if I wanted to stage again next week, so of course I said yes.

After my stage, I had a strange urge for seafood. My boyfriend hated seafood, but he said that he would try it (reluctantly) only if we went to Rick Moonen's restaurant here in town. (He became a fan after seeing chef Moonen on Top Chef Masters.) He had never before agreed to try it, even when I offered to buy it and cook it for him, he's a pretty stubborn guy.

So I decided that I would take him up on that offer, and to get there in time, we literally ran through Mandalay Bay to the restaurant. (The place is HUGE!)

He's now a convert. I love seeing the wide eyed look of wonder as people discover a new flavor, and he had that look on his face all night.

I didn't have my new fancy camera on me (I didn't want to leave it in the car while I staged) so you'll have to excuse the cell phone pics.

Blue Crab cakes. The crust was perfectly browned, and the crabmeat was barely bothered with breadcrumbs. The sauce underneath was a chipotle aoli (I didn't tell him that it was essentially mayonnaise, another thing he refuses to eat), and it was served with a jicama salad.

It's hard to explain, but Moonen has a way of adding a punch of unexpected flavor, in this case dill. It was assertive, but not overwhelming, and married surprisingly well with the smokey spice of the chipotle. The jicama salad added a nice crunch to the tender cake.

I wanted him to try crab in its simple glory, with nothing but a squeeze of lemon or a splash of butter, because it's my favorite way to eat it.

I had a zen-like experience once on Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco, where I bought a freshly steamed dungeness crab from an outdoor setup by the bay. I put nothing but lemon lemon juice on it, and with a hunk of sourdough bread, it was one of the best, most simply delicious meals I have ever eaten. I remember timidly trying to get the first fork-full out of the shell, not sure where to start, and when that sweet, juicy meat hit my tongue I had an epiphany. I proceeded to tear into that delicious crustacean with a primal vigor, all thoughts of presenting a genteel facade went immediately out the window. It was me, a crab, a lemon, and the sound of the lulling ocean and humming crowds. It was bliss.

Anyway, I had to get him to eat crab like this, and I watched him nervously part the shell (it's a nice restaurant, no wooden hammers here) and dig out a bit of the meat, then delicately dip it into the drawn butter. When he took the bite, his eyes lit up, and I just smiled. Later, I tried to be nice and crack the end of the leg for him, but he immediately said "Stop! ...I want to do it.", then proceeded to tear into it with gusto. He later told me it felt primal... and I just smiled.

I had a lovely piece of Alaskan Halibut with carrots and celery root. Remember how I said Moonen has a way with adding an unexpected punch of flavor? Well, this time it was cardamom, and it was delightful. There was also a playful hint of chervil... a nice dish.

Michael had the best fish and chips ever. Seriously, those chips were addictive. The batter was crunchy and flavorful, and the fish was so moist and flaky... I'm most assuredly going to be back at RM Seafood soon, just to have fish and chips and beer. Awesome plate of food.

Now, he's a seafood convert, and I think he may even try sushi (gasp!) with me soon. I'm really happy he enjoyed it.

I wish I could share amazing food with everyone in this country, to show them how good things could be if only they would try the brilliant flavors to be found all around them. It's an adventure, an exciting experience, to discover new flavors and combinations, to see the myriad ways good ingredients can be prepared and served.

One plate at a time.

Adios.

Good times, great pork.

Saturday was pretty exciting for me. In the afternoon, after a foray to get some coffee, my brother, Kristine, Michael (my boyfriend) and I went to Wurstkuche again, to wreak havoc upon beer and tasty food.

The happy couple, and an array of mustard...

And the boyfriend and I, complete with my hefeweizen.

I decided on the duck and bacon sausage again, it was so good the last time that I just had to have another. The fattiness of the duck really works well against the smoky-salty pork. Yum!

To work off lunch, we took a stroll down to the beach, puppies in tow, on their very first walk ever!

Aside from attempting to eat every stray bit of seaweed and the occasional mouth-full of sand, they were very well-behaved. We eventually got kicked off the beach because of the pups, (apparently, dogs aren't allowed) but it was grand while it lasted. Having such adorable dogs around also garners a lot of attention from passerby; people love puppies, and nearly everyone on the beach that day came over to coo over Hilo and Kona.

They were tuckered out from all of the excitement.

So was my brother, so we bid him farewell as he laid down to nap, and Michael and I hopped into the Hyundai and drove to Orange County to meet up with some friends I met on my study abroad trip to Italy earlier this year.

They chose a cute, hip little Cuban spot called Habana. The sangria flowed freely as we all caught up on life sans Italy. Above are some crunchy pulled pork and cojito cheese croquettes.

I had a roasted pork shank on collard greens, mashed potatoes, and fried plantains. The pork was crispy outside and tender within, the plantains were awesome, but the collards could have used a little salt. It was all pretty satisfying, though.

It was great catching up with everyone and remembering the fun times we had in Orvieto. (From left: Felipe, Edo, me, Stephanie, Chris)

After dinner we drove back to Vegas, and I pretty much fell asleep the second I got home.

This coming week is going to be pretty average, aside from another stage or two I've set up. I'll be sure to find something food-centric to blog about for you though, never fear!

Adios!

Los Angeles

This weekend my boyfriend and I were able to get two days off in a row together (very rare) so we decided to take a quick trip to Los Angeles to see my brother and his wife.

And of course, their Great Dane puppies, Kona and Hilo, named after their recent vacation to our birthplace, Oahu Hawaii.

The pups have grown, they've gained about 8-9 pounds since the last time I saw them, only two weeks ago! They're just as cute as ever, though.

We may be able to meet up with some of the friends I made on my study abroad trip to Italy tomorrow, which would be really amazing. We'll be heading back tomorrow night, but even a two-day sabbatical is a nice repose.

I know this is a short blog, but it's getting late. I've been really busy with schoolwork (of course) but pretty soon I'm planning on staging at a few restaurants, which will be an awesome learning experience.

And only 9 more days until the Basque Stage winners are announced!

Good night, everyone!

Adios!

Food and Wine Magazine's "All-Stars" Grand Tasting

I'm still reeling from this past Saturday night, it was an amazing experience!

A group of students from my school and one other local school were given the opportunity to volunteer for this event, and I just happened to be among the fortunate selected. We helped prepare food for a party with about 350 guests, hosted by Food and Wine magazine. The magazine had invited some of Bravo's "Top Chef" former contestants and other chefs to prepare dishes for the event. It was at the Aria pool at City Center, a really stunning setting.

We arrived at 10am, and were there until 11pm, so it was a long day, but there was a 4-hour block of relaxing around the casino, so it wasn't a problem for me at all. Some of the other students actually left because they were tired of waiting, and missed out on all the fun and excitement.

Four of us met Carla Hall (Top Chef season 5 finalist) in the Aria banquet kitchen and started helping her prep for the night's activities. Another group helped Hosea Rosenberg (Top Chef season 5 winner) get his pork belly with pomegranate molasses ready for the night.

After a break, Fabio Viviani (Top Chef season 5) showed up in the kitchen, to make his dish. I've never seen anyone whip out gnocchi so quickly... it was impressive! I met him once before, he was hosting a competition I participated in before I went to Italy, but I don't think he remembered me. That's okay, I still got my picture with him!

Then Chef Carla returned and we got everything ready to go up to the event area by the pool. She made a vegetable tagine, seasoned with harissa, fried chickpeas, couscous with candied citrus, lemon-scented olive tapenade, and some pita seasoned with za'atar. The dish had layers of spices, and was really rich and flavorful. The smell of the fried chickpeas cooking alone was enough to woo me.

I learned a lot in a short time working with her, and really enjoyed her manner in the kitchen. She was cheery, down-to-earth, and confidant, and was thanking us for helping her prep for the night. She was an honor to work for, really.

The hotel had a beautiful set-up by the pool, framed by City Center's ridiculously modern architecture. There were beautiful women wandering around in mini "chef coat" dresses, bars made of ice, and stained glass backdrops to each of the chef's booths. I was able to get a picture with Hosea before trying his pork belly dish.

Some of the restaurants inside of the hotel had booths set up as well, above is the FABULOUS 30 day dry-aged porterhouse steak from Union Grill. There were so many of these beautiful chunks of meat over the wood flame I was surprised the table didn't collapse! The smell wafting from their corner was also pretty hypnotic...

Jean Phillippe patisserie (he's the executive pastry chef for Aria and Bellagio) had two mini desserts for guests to try (both were really great) and two crazy sugar sculptures set up, with real live goldfish swimming in bowls set into the sugar!

There were also booths from Jean-Georges Vongerichten's steakhouse, Michael Mina's American Fish, Sirio Maccioni, and Julian Serrano. The food from all of the booths was outstanding. I was also happy to see the chefs from Jean-Georges, they seemed very happy to see me, and invited me to come back and stage for them again, (I was there earlier this year) a chance I gladly accepted!

Jennifer Carroll (Top Chef season 6) had a really nice dish featuring octopus at her table.

And Hubert Keller thanked me for helping on his "Secrets of a Chef" set!

Rick Moonen was there, signing his "Fish Without a Doubt" book, of which I now have a copy. He was a judge at the same competition I met Fabio Viviani at earlier this year. He also agreed to let me come in and stage at his restaurant, which is super exciting, I'm a big fan of his food!

Carla was also sweet enough to introduce me to Gail Simmons, who I really wanted to meet. She's a judge on Top Chef, a food writer/critic, and also has a great background in some of New York's fine restaurants.

Overall, it was an amazing experience, and I'm still floating on cloud nine from the night. All of the chefs were very personable and friendly. I really admire all of them for their talents, and their diverse culinary styles. It was such a great night, I made some really awesome networking contacts, and got to have fun and work with talented chefs.

The delicious food was also inspiring, and I would love to thank The Art Institute, Aria Hotel, Food and Wine magazine, and all of the incredible chefs for this opportunity. I'm amazed and humbled at having the chance to be present for this!

Until next time, adios!

PBS and chef Hubert Keller

It's been an exciting, but grueling week. I've been working really hard on my capstone project, a research paper, and my sommelier training, and working 10 hour days on the "Secrets of a Chef" set.

Monday was my first day on the set, and the first day of filming. Above is a picture of the set, we're filming in the Fleur de Lys kitchen, which is really beautiful. And yes, that's Hubert Keller, and he's a really nice guy.

He also makes incredibly beautiful food. He has a great eye for presentation. The stuff he makes for the show is simplified for the home cook, but still very tasty. Above is a salmon ceviche, from the second day of filming. At this point it was sitting under the lights for a bit, so it was far prettier on camera. Filming adds a whole different set of complications to cooking, it's interesting to see behind the scenes.

For my Wednesday morning Advanced Restaurant Desserts class, we had the pastry chef from Botero at Encore give a demonstration. She made fried tempura cheesecake, and dressed it up to look like a sushi roll. It was really cute, for the "ginger" she used shaved pear, and the wasabi was white chocolate that she intentionally seized with water and green food coloring. The cheesecake was molded into a tube, then frozen, rolled in hazelnuts, battered, then fried. She topped it with thinly sliced bananas, caramelized some sugar on top, then sliced it.

We didn't get to plate our own desserts for lack of time, but we will have two really pretty (and delicious) platings next week, and the chef was a really cool lady, so it was definitely worth it.

I had a little bit of time to throw together dinner last night. It doesn't look like much, but the flavor was really great. I made an American bison tri-tip, with mole and Arrogant Bastard Ale demi glace, and a pumpkin and Pecorino gratin. With a little tweaking, this dish could be something incredible, I had to stop my boyfriend from stealing it off my plate before I could finish!

Today was another long day of filming. I was an extra on the set again (I'm going to be on TV!), today chef Keller prepared several "sliders", above are scallop, bacon, and spicy mayo sliders.

Chef Keller's parents owned a bakery in France when he was growing up, so he also made millefuilles, they were really beautiful, and when they brought the leftovers backstage, they disappeared really quickly.

He loves burgers, here's another style of "slider", seared salmon, topped with cucumbers and some smoked salmon instead of bacon. He also made bison and king crab sliders, and braised beef cheeks.

Filming is a bit arduous, and completely different from working the line in a normal kitchen, but the experience really helps add to your creativity and versatility, so I truly appreciate the opportunity. Plus, I get to be on TV; granted, I'm in the background pretending to cut and stir things, but it's still pretty cool!

Now it's time to drink wine, make dinner, and study for my midterm tomorrow. I'm going to be going back to the set after class, working an event on Saturday, then filming again next week. No rest for the weary!

Until next time, adios!