Banana Bread Pudding with Caramel Sauce

On November 30, 2011

Today marks the first month in my new kitchen.  We’ve completed the concept and changed the menu to a fresher, more seasonal list of offerings.  While that was a challenge, it was easy compared to the next phase, changing the culture in the kitchen.  That means erasing the ingrained bad habits, creating work ethic, instilling [...]

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Aioli 101

On November 10, 2011

It seems whenever I go over to a friend’s house for dinner, the subject of my job comes up. Chefs like Gordon Ramsay, Bobby Flay, and Mario Batali, along with shows like Top Chef, Hells’ Kitchen and No Reservations have glamorized the life and work of the chef. These blue collar service industry employees have [...]

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Photographing Bittersweet

On September 17, 2011

Is it me or does summer just seem to fly by? I always have more plans than time during the summer, some stuff I get to, some things get put off and some appear out of nowhere. Back in July, Olav Peterson, a friend and chef/owner of Bittersweet, Denver’s current best restaurant, asked me to [...]

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Summer Spice, an Original Cocktail

On July 26, 2011

It took awhile for me to warm up to mixology, more specifically, the mixologist. It seemed like a glorified title for a bartender and I hate titles. That’s why when somebody asks me what I do, I reply that I cook professionally. I intentionally left my title off my kitchen whites. I feel titles are [...]

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The Vegetarian Experiment

On July 20, 2011

It’s funny how the things we begin to accept as we get older are generally those same things we swore in our youth never to compromise on. For some it’s politics, for others it’s art, for me, it was my diet. I’ve been a carnivore since day one. I love meat, in all forms, shapes [...]

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Almond Poundcake, Cherry-Goat Cheese Ice Cream, Cherry-Whiskey Sauce

On June 28, 2011

What is it that sets individuals apart from the masses, be it chef, writer, photographer or what have you?  Is it their creativity?  In part, yes.  Is it their execution?  Most definitely that is a large part of it.  But there is a single factor that encompasses all these little attributions that make up what [...]

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Seared Chinook Salmon, Lobster-Corn Chowder, Tarragon Oil

On May 18, 2011

I’ve always prided myself on the fact that I rarely cook with butter and/or cream. When I started in this business, it was cream sauce this, butter sauce that, and while there are a myriad of things that you can do with each in regards to making sauces, none were ever exciting to me. They [...]

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Ribs-8704

St. Louis Ribs, 72 Hours Later

On March 6, 2011

From the moment I took the job opening up this steakhouse, I knew I was going to purchase an immersion circulator. While I never took any interest in molecular gastronomy, sous vide cooking was something that I valued as a cooking method. Sous Vide applications use actual foodstuffs, not that the ingredients in molecular gastronomy [...]

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8 items in all my kitchens…

On January 30, 2011

People always tell my wife she is so lucky to be married to a chef.  They seem to think I throw together high end meals nightly, that we eat like kings.  Nothing could be farther from the truth.  Not because I don’t want to, but there is a huge difference between cooking in a professional [...]

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Lady Apples, I Hope

On November 8, 2010

There are some things you never outgrow, loves that are with you from childhood. Anything from Star Wars action figures to a warm ocean breeze. One of my life long loves has been apples.

I grew up in Chester County, about 30 miles west of Philadelphia, the mushroom capital of Pennsylvania. As [...]

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