Seasonal foods and prissy chefs

This is one of my pet hates! So many times you encounter chefs that completely miss the boat.

So come November the asparagus sees the plate, having had more stamps than a student on a gap year travelling around Europe. Strawberries when the ground is as frozen as an ice cube. Now I love strawberries and asparagus as much as the next man. Here's the thing food that has to travel is far from it's best. Strawberries picked green and lacking sun to slowly ripen them and sweeten them are practically as acidic as lemons. Asparagus that's popped on a plane flown from South America is long past its best. For just like sweetcorn these are at there best as close to the field as possible.

What these prissy chefs miss is whilst we have nearly lost all notion of seasons, food is at it's best when in season. Strawberries picked with the sun on its red body embody the sweetness of summer. Asparagus picked with the morning dew wetting it's head has a subtlety that carries more than a green grassy flavour of travelled asparagus. Sweetcorns natural sweetness found in the kernel on the plant, as sweet as sugar, disappears as quickly as the morning dew in summer once picked.

Now I'm not against extending a season when we can. When trying to impress and wow lets highlight the best at its best. Just putting fancy ingredients on because we can is pointless.

Recipe:- Orzo/Risoni with Butternut Squash and Peas

Since coming across Risoni/Orzo I've completely changed my way of making risotto. Orzo is rice shaped pasta, now I tend to use it for vegetarian risotto I'd think it would be just as good for meat and certainly for fish.
The reason why I've been converted is due to it being pasta I find it quite a bit more neutral than rice. This allows the flavours to stand up allowing the more subtle ones to dominate the dish.
So the recipe, I'm a chef so to be honest weights and measures tend to be guidelines and eyeballed.(We'll get to a post about recipes)

Butternut Squash and Pea Orzo

Ingredients:-
300g of Orzo
Half of a Butternut Squash
150g of frozen Petit Pois
50g of Butter
1 Onion
1 Clove of Garlic
Water/vegetable stock as required
Herbs(basil works well as do generic mixed)
Parmesan
Seasoning

Method:-
Finely dice onion and crush garlic, sweat of in oil with diced peeled squash. Add water/stock to cover and about half again with the Orzo, if using dried or hard herbs add them also. Simmer adding more liquid as needed you're aiming for a moist dish that just holds shape. Finally add the butter, peas and seasoning, finishing it off with some grated parmesan.
Now for the seasoning I'll use a maggi mix substitute as it imparts an umani taste which rounds the dish of. Should you be against msg then add extra parmesan(natural msg) when finishing with the butter. More about msg in another blog.

Degrees of separation!

Gutted had this written and posted destroyed it with the app so here it goes again. Oh well it's a learning curve. Plus one more.

Over the years slowly types of chefs have evolved. Generally you'll find these or a variation on them. In no particular order...

1 Arrogant
Now probably the worst one for these will believe their way is the right way and would of stopped learning.

2 Prissy
Now the prissy chef or as they are known all fur coat no knickers. It'll look good but with little thought or reason.

3 Steady Eddie
Every kitchen will have a steady Eddie they offer a little more autonomy than a machine. Though with little will and aspiration not a lot else.

4 Machine
Though valued like any machine leaving it unsupervised will lead to a sloppy job!

5 Prideful
Probably the hardest type to keep stable for they will try to congregate with their own type. Also hunted and destroyed by management teams.

6 Passionate
Whilst rare they come in varied types. From the ones that sacrifice all, living and breathing the craft, to the accidental ones who find themselves looking for the next fad and finding the roots of the latest fashion. Also tend to have traits of other types.

7 Paycheck
These crawl from all kinds of cracks and crevices the scourge of the kitchen. I question why for there are plenty of easier ways of earning a paycheck!

8 Fad
Now these will believe they're it. Believing if your not following the fad you've lost it. Yet what they miss is no follower has found the next fad. A good tailor will always be a good tailor regardless of whether they follow the latest fashion!

9 Taster
Highly likely to lack a bit of presentation yet can be left unsupervised.

10 Interference
Normally a member of the management team who either failed back of house or who has a long time ago forgotten the limitations of the kitchen. Likes to write menus that tend to be impractical!

So second time written, added one other though. Maybe you'll see yourself, it'll be highly likely you'll determine what kind I am. Some types share traits of other types, some are wanted in a kitchen some not. Perhaps I've missed a few leave a comment should I think it of merit I'll add it!

Will I always be a prolific blogger?

Who knows? As for why starting this what can I say never one to shy away from an opinion got plenty of those. Maybe it's born from bitterness and frustration and here I have stage to let of steam.

Certainly I've got plenty of things to tell you about from customers that forget what they've ordered. Prissy chefs that think sous vide of a ribeye is the way to go. Chefs that think they're all fancy and clever putting on strawberries and asparagus in the depths of winter.

Maybe and just maybe along the way I'll share recipes teach you to not only 'not to try changing the wheel' but also accentuate the flavours, how to determine the good from the bad. Or maybe how my latest fad has got me which by the way is dosa's and idli's(damn why is it I'm unsure on those apostrophes).

It also seems I'm quite happy to waffle along online, where I can't see the glazed look that non-foodies give me!

Oh by the way to the grammar Nazi's feel free for certainly along this learning curve grammatical errors will be plenty!

Why such a long title for a blog?

So the question stands, what can I say except in one fantastic book of who's title escapes me was a snippet. So here it goes running around in some fancy rich mans house, preparing the great banquet waiting on the show piece to be delivered(Many a chefs dilemma).So it fails to show so to a field he goes, a bullet later and one chef dies. So there it is, the reason why. As this post does him no justice I'll have to come back with an edit or another post and allow him to live on in my blog.