Inside the Set of a Jacques Pepin Production

Behind the scenes of the back kitchen during the filming of a new Jacques Pepin show at KQED studios in San Francisco, a successor to the Fast Food My Way TV series.

CulinaryCorps now recruiting for September 2007 trip

June 2007 Group in NOLA

Looking for a way to jump start your holiday season with a whole lot of good will?

CulinaryCorps is looking for three more culinary professionals/students to join us on our upcoming outreach trip to New Orleans, LA: September 14 - 21, 2007.

The trip itinerary includes:

Friday, September 14th: Tour of impact area led by Share Our Strength, Welcome Dinner at opening night of the iconic Dooky Chase

Saturday, September 15th: Cooking Demonstrations and Cake Decorating Cook-Off at the First Annual Mississippi Slow Food Festival, BBQ Heaven at The Shed

Sunday, September 16th: Brunch and Dinner Creation at Emergency Communities in the Lower 9th Ward

Monday, September 17th: Kitchen Mentoring and Meal Creation at Habitat for Humanity's Camp Hope

Tuesday, September 18th: Visit to Crescent City Farmers Market, Lunch at Bayona, Food Tour of the French Quarter, Dinner, music and bowling at Rock n' Bowl

Wednesday, September 19th: Cooking and student mentoring at Café Reconcile event – "Bistrot Reconciler: A Thank You to Our Sponsors"

Thursday, September 20th: Volunteer Day with Edible Schoolyard New Orleans, Farewell Dinner with Chef Chris Debarr of Delachaise

This is a fantastic opportunity to put your culinary skills to work in the community that needs your support. but don't take our word for it, e-mail culinarycorps@gmail.com today and ask to get in touch with a former member…they're ready to share their stories with you! For trip details, please see below or go to our CulinaryCorps website.

In the words of writer Elbert Hubbard, "Don't make excuses, make good."

See you in September!

The CulinaryCorps Team

Jamonisimo

This is the king of all charcuterie - jamon iberico bellota, a cured ham made from the black-footed, acorn-eating, diabetic (?) (see comment) pigs (pata negra) of the Iberian peninsula.  To put it simply, it is to serrano ham what foie gras is to chicken livers.

Jamonisimo, a retail store in Barcelona specializing in iberico bellota, sells various cuts of the pata negra, including lomo (loin), txorizo (chorizo), and paleta (shoulder) as well as jamon (ham) from various regions of Spain.  There is also a private tasting room in the back of the store, which offers table-service tastings of cheese (6,70 EUR), textural tastings of pata negra (various cuts) (27 EUR), and regional tastings of jamon from Andalucia, Salamanca, and Extremadura (24 EUR each region).

Read more about jamon iberico bellota and it's highly anticipated 2008 US arrival here.

Jamonisimo
Provenza, 85
08029 Barcelona, Spain
Phone: 93 439 08 47
Email: jamonisimo@terra.es

El Celler de Can Roca

Tasting Menu, 15th May 2007

Snacks
Crunchy cod fish
Parmesan chips with truffle oil
Caramelized black olives
Sesame crunch

Tapas
Foie gras bonbon with oporto
Parfait of pigeon, bristol cream, orange, and spices
Little beans with bergamot

Cold gellied spring mushroom consomme with avocado and pine ice cream
Artichokes with sunflower seed and orange
White asparagus souffle on embers
Codfish with pumpkin and red paprika oil
Pigeon with red fruits, citrus, and spices

Lactic dessert
Rose souffle with chocolate and pistachio ice cream

El Celler de Can Roca
Carretera de Taiala 40
17007 Girona, Spain
Phone: +34 972 222 157
Email: restaurant@cellercanroca.com

Photos of Can Roca Chefs at Spain's 10

BCN - Bar Boqueria in La Boqueria

Mercat de la Boqueria

Sardinas (Sardines)

Navajas (Razor Clams)

Calamares (Squid)

Almejas (Clams)

Boquerones (Marinated Anchovies)

Botifarra Blanca amb Habichuelas (White Sausage with Beans)

Patatas Bravas (Fried Potatoes with Spicy Aioli)

A simple and extremely inexpensive lunch from Bar Boqueria inside La Boqueria.  Just tell the cocinero what you want and he'll throw it onto his plancha for a minute or two, salt and dress it with parsley and olive oil, and serve it with a half lemon.  Of course, don't forget a caña (small draft) or cerveza (bottle) to wash it all down.  It was so good, we went twice in one day.

Bar Boqueria
Towards the back of La Boqueria, Stall No. 220
Plaça de la Boqueria, Barcelona

Pass Christian, MS - Inside an Oyster Packing Plant

It's easy to forget that New Orleans wasn't the only city affected by Hurricane Katrina, or "the storm" as it is often referred to by locals.  In Pass Christian, a fishing port along the gulf coast of Mississippi, upwards of 30 feet of water came and went, like a tsunami, virtually lifting entire neighborhoods off their foundations and setting houses adrift. 

At the Crystal Seas Oyster Packing Plant, less than a mile away from the shore, owner Jennifer Williams discovered two homes in the parking lot.  One she recognized as originally being from across the street, but the other's origin was a mystery.  After a month of being unclaimed, they eventually got rid of it.  It was a very different type of devastation experienced in the gulf than that in the Lower 9th Ward.

Jennifer invited us into the packing plant to show us how it operates.  Crystal Seas is the leading supplier of hand-shucked oysters to restaurants such as Red Lobster and Emeril's in New Orleans.  Since it was the off season, there were only about 25 shuckers working, but in the season's peak there can be up to a hundred.

The shuckers are mostly immigrant Vietnamese and Mexican workers.  Most are on 10-month state-issued work grants where they are provided housing and allowed to work a certain number of hours a day.  They are compensated by a combination of the number of hours worked and weight of oyster meat shucked.

We timed some of the shuckers and they were averaging 8-10 oysters a minute using a pick and hammer to crack open the shells.  As they shuck, the empty shells get tossed onto a conveyor belt and are collected, then planted back into the gulf at the beginning of oyster season.  The used shells become the new home of the next seasons' oyster spawn.

Once a shucker fills their bucket with oyster meat, they grab their individually assigned tag and hand the bucket over for a rinse and weigh.  After the total weight of that person's bucket is recorded, the oysters are triple-rinsed with minimal handling and finally portioned out into six pound buckets before getting flash frozen and shipped throughout the region.

CulinaryCorps Website
CulinaryCorps posts on foodite

NYTimes - A photo of carnivorous gluttons in New York... and I'm in it.

Here's a photo from a bo ssam dinner I had at Momofuku Ssam Bar back in February - and it's in the NY Times!  And for a couple hours, the photo was even on the homepage online! 

The photo accompanies an article by Frank Bruni on the recent rise of pork fat in the NYC dining scene:

I’m not sure it’s possible to behave with much dignity around seven glistening pounds of pork butt, but on a recent night at Momofuku Ssam Bar, five friends and I weren’t even encouraged to try.

Servers didn’t bother to carve the mountain of meat. They didn’t give us any delicate way to do it, either. They just plopped it in the center of the table, handed out sets of tongs, left us to our own devices and let the pig scatter where it may.

It was an ugly scene, and it was a beautiful one. We lunged at the flesh. Tore at it. Yanked it toward ourselves in dripping, jagged hunks, sometimes ignoring the lettuce wraps on the side so we could stuff it straight into our mouths. We looked, I realized, like hyenas at an all-you-can-eat buffet on the veldt, and I wasn’t surprised to notice other diners staring at us.

But what I saw on their faces wasn’t disgust. It was envy. I’d venture that more than a few of them returned to Momofuku for their own pig-outs. The restaurant, after all, sells about two whole pork butts — a term that refers to part of the pig’s shoulder, not to its rump — every night.

These are times of bold temptation, as well as prompt surrender, for a carnivorous glutton in New York.

For the full article, click here.

NOLA - Crawfish Boil with Joey Fonseca

While down in New Orleans again for another CulinaryCorps culanthropy trip, we were graced with the company of Bayou fisherman and alligator hunter Joey Fonseca of Des Allemands - exclusive supplier of crawfish, alligator, and wild catfish to many of New Orleans' top restaurants. 

Joey brought along with him two sacks (40 pounds each) of enormous late-season crawfish, which he prepared in two separate boils - one spicy and one even spicier.  They came with some very tasty andouille sausage and a couple boiled potatoes.  It was a messy and convivial night of twisting, sucking, pinching, and pulling!

NOLA - Signs of Progress in the Lower 9th

Signs of progress in the Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans - slow, but progress nonetheless.  The top picture was taken on a trip I took to New Orleans back in March and the bottom taken from the exact same spot just eight weeks later.

London - Harrod's Food Hall

Sometimes I buy whole chickens from New York's Chinatown and they still have their entire necks and heads intact and feet attached - it's actually great when making stock, but inside Harrod's Food Hall in Knightbridge was the first time I've ever seen chicken for sale with a mane feathers and their combs still on.  They almost look like they're just sleeping.

And for something less morbid, albeit much more tacky: crusted and heart shaped logs of salami.