A Big Disappointment...

Have you ever been anticipating something so much that you can hardly wait to experience it? Have you been enticed and lured to that special place by people you trust, and honor their professional opinion and just are so anxiously ready to explore what they have to offer? A restaurant that exudes the media's affection and the public's appreciation. A dining room and kitchen team that is one of the newest, hottest, most happenin' creative teams to come along in a while. So...you get ready. You make reservations. Reservations for the special outing. With your significant other perhaps? How about an anniversary celebration. Yeah, that sounds good. I know she will enjoy it. This is going to be awesome. Should we try something else? A place where we know it will be stellar? One of our most fabulous places like CRUSH? Not this time. We KNOW this will be good! How could it not be? Great reviews...great reputation...great sounding food scene...great comments. And so, the night begins. We are going to the "surprise restaurant". A new experience. That is what we as chefs long for...new and exciting experiences. Those that stimulate new thought. New concepts. New dimensions in food, technique and service. We arrive...all seems well, except for the parking situation. What a nightmare. Oh well...this is going to be awesome! I would park a mile away to eat some of the greatest of foods and be treated exceptionally well. I knew this was going to be great! We enter. We are seated in the rather understated, casual, yet appealing dining room, albeit in the back...in the back of back...behind the curtain even. Oh well...nobody we need to see perhaps? The food and service will be great. Who cares? (Shit, I hope it will be good, now that I have talked it up). Our server brings the menus. I can't wait to open it. The first thing I ask myself is..."where is the rest of it"? Oh well...this is going to great...isn't it? My wife being a semi-pseudo vegetarian ask's "do you have any vegetarian dishes"? The server replies " no, this is the menu". Oh well...a bit of a bummer, but this hopefully will be good. Quite odd, considering that we are in the middle of the granola-health-"free-spirited" crowd of Broadway on Capitol Hill. And to think that with all the peeps that eat vegetarian today? So, with a breath of hope, along with a positive encouragement of degustatory perseverance, I ask sensitively and politely " with all the great sounding accompaniments of the other dishes, could we simply put something together"? Our server replies...(if one would call her that) "NO! There are no substitutions"! Like...what? I was shocked! I almost got up and walked right there! With a given restaurant that's name includes commonplace tableware items, and the skill and level of execution that apparently rivals those of some of the best, one would expect at least SOME stretch of service. Some little thread of making the guest at least feel like they cared. To at least make you feel like you would make an attempt to ask the kitchen if there was something you could offer. Instead....NO! Oh well...we could at least try some dishes and then go to Harvest Vine afterwards. As I read the menu, feeling uninspired, I fixated upon a couple dishes. As they came to the table....that feeling was reconfirmed. Tasty, yet not "knock-your-socks-off"! I could not get beyond the fact that a kitchen that can glaze and braise a beautiful Kurobuta Pork Belly could not execute a simple vegetarian dish, or at least the request of one! Now... I can appreciate and undertstand that some chefs and restaurants simply stand by their philosophies and choose not to do such things. That is their choice to do that if they want to and thank our nation for that! But I have to ask why are we in this business? Is it not to serve the customer? To please our guest? To be given and accept the challenge of the quest that comes before us? To try and be better than the competition and to win over the minds of clientele from that of other locales? It is the effort of going that extra mile or providing that extra service or that special touch, dish or ingredient that reminds our guests that we are there and that we appreciate their business and look forward to seeing them again when they need to choose a place to dine. There are so many places. Why should they choose us? Because we DO CARE! So, Oh well...I have made mistakes in dining choices in the past. The dessert menu was brought to us. Again, quite uninspiring. No thanks. When the check was brought to us, we paid and from that point on, we had absolutely zero contact with our server. Not a "thank you", not a "hope to see you again soon", not a smile or acknowledgement of any sort, not even a "get the hell out of here". As we walked by our server, our busser, and the host desk, with eye contact of all of them, and nothing to encourage or warrant a return visit, all I could think of was...Oh well!

One Flew Out of our Crazy Nest...

As I write, I am both excited and honored to be able to feel at least a wee-bit responsible for his success, as one that I have come to know for the last ten years as Tyler Hefford-Anderson. A chef, a cook, a true culinarian, a friend, a colleague, a student and one that I feel will carry on some of the things I have preached for that duration of time that he spent with me as an apprentice, a cook, then sous chef in our professional kitchen. If ever there was a person in the kitchen that I have really taken "under my wing", he is that person! He knows me like no other. He knows my style, my direction, and what I am looking for and was always looking to replicate that sense of perfection in the food, in the service and in the work. He and I have been through a lot. Many a nights have been spent on the line; working on new dishes, in the kitchen; brewing up new concoctions and making vinegars or preparing charcuterie or just in the office; talking about how the day went and what we were going to be working on tomorrow(not minding the fact that it was already 3am). We would chat, think and contemplate for hours about new flavors, ingredients and ways to combine them for the utmost of intricacies as we strive to reach perfection in our food. The many countless fundraisers together, setting standards only for others to try and follow, the chef's tables where we would play "alter-egos" with our guests and the special wine maker and guest chef dinners that have graced our kitchen over the years, in which he played a huge role. Tyler has reached a point where he needed to fly. Fly out of our crazy nest of the club, out of the comfort zone he was so used to, only to soar to new heights and to achieve a higher level of greatness. The time had come to be his own. To be the creator of new dimensions of thought and flavor within his own creation. So it is with this post that I wish him the best...the experience that he deserves...the limelight he has earned to seek...the challenges and pain that lie ahead, as I had to endure and overcome when I was in his place...the learned and inherent wisdom that comes with time on your own to explore and reflect and all that is great...that undeniable sensation to conquer all and kick ass! I wish him well. He will be greatly missed. But with change comes great opportunity and experience for all. Many more have come before him and many more will pass along after him. What is inspiring, is that we now have another place to eat great food, another to cook along side of and someone to share in the quest of setting and keeping the highest of standards so that others will try and keep up. What happens after this only God knows! Good luck amigo, and thank you for great times! cuisinier

very presidential...

it is not often that i choose to write about something non-culinary, but this was an experience that i felt warranted the visit. And even if it did revolve around food, as that was at least one purpose, albeit not the only, nor the main one, we all enjoyed the experience. It starts off with a notion that someone of "high-profile" is coming to our establishment. Some days in advance, secret service, bomb sniffing dogs, sniper experts and the like start to snoop around, looking for means of destruction to a political figure. In this case, it was two! Imagine that...two different high-risk, high-profile dignitaries gracing our humble abode on the same day, at the same time with no correlation between the two?!? First, we welcome "Presidente" Vicente Fox, from Mexico. In town for about only a day, but we were one of the main attractions. A special luncheon for about 210 guests and media to hear the man speak. What then you ask??? He actually wants to come back to the kitchen to meet the kitchen staff! As we all lined up, he entered my kingdom. As executive chef, I was hardly comparing myself to him, yet I have felt like it at times. He stood there in the center of the kitchen, standing tall and proud, and well...Presidential, speaking for at least 5 minutes or more to all of us, just as he would to a group of foreign leaders. He then stood beside us to pose for an extensive photoshoot and then individual handshakes, of which, one of them was my own. That was the second President to have made my acquaintance. All the while, we had past President; Jimmy Carter in for a luncheon fundraiser for his son, who is running for a governmental position in Nevada. This was a little more laid back, but not-at-all any less exciting. He came up to meet President Fox and everyone went crazy. Unfortunately, I did not have a chance to meet him, as by the time Mr. Fox had departed, Jimmy had skated to catch a Mariner's game! He did come back that evening for another fundraiser dinner however, yet it was quite low key, and as always....he was late! All in all, it made for a "tre-cool" week. The only real bummer that occurred from a food perspective, is that unlike our visit from President Clinton, we did not get to choose the menu, so it was not anything to write home about, and thus, not anything to write in my blog about. Until next time...in good food and cooking!