Coming soon...A Day in the Kitchen

Restaurant Impossible

     For a long time, I have dreamed of opening a restaurant.  The obvious problem is how, with kids getting ready for college and bills to pay, do you attempt something that has a 50% failure rate and, frankly, a tight profit margin.  Additionally, while I love to cook and entertain my friends, would I love or be able to work in a professional kitchen day in and day out.  

     I worked in a kitchen for a summer right before I started law school.  It was a great experience, but I know that with the passage of time, I've glamorized my experiences and have, likely, forgotten those things I disliked about working as a cook in a hot cramped kitchen.  That said, I love losing myself in different aspects of cooking.  Prepping dishes.  Knife work.  The pace.  The artistic side of plating dishes.  The fact that after I put any self-doubts aside, I know I'm a really good cook.  I also find the whole kitchen thing incredible soothing.   

     As a lawyer, I spend every day running around dealing with other people's problems. Often, with peoples lives/futures more or less in the balance.  I know that sounds overstated and melodramatic, but it's also true.  What I do and how I do it may result in someone going to jail, losing their home, their family, frankly, everything.  When I cook, none of that matters.  I'm able to focus on the task at hand.  There's a relaxation in the rhythm of the kitchen... of cutting vegetables in a perfect julienne or brinouse.  Of hearing the right sound when you put a protein (cook speak for meat, fish or poultry) into a properly heated pan.  When I worked in a kitchen as a cook/chef, I took direction and was responsible for my small part of that little world.  There's a purity in that that I miss.  Plus, if I mess up a dish, I can always re-make it.  At my real job, that's not always possible.  It's more of a humpty dumpty kind of a thing.  Sometimes, no matter how hard I try, I can't put the pieces back together. 

     Here's the other thing.  The pressure is more of less the same.  As a criminal lawyer with my own practice, I am generally frenetic and stressed from about 8:30 am to about 1:30 pm..  Then I get back to the office and go through the routine of calling people (many, annoyingly don't want to hear what I'm trying to tell them) and working through the paperwork that is part of a legal practice.  As a chef, I imagine the opposite.  You spend the beginning of your day prepping for the rush that occurs when the customers arrive and then, around 5-6 pm, you are slammed until about 9pm or so until you lapse back into a more sedate pace as the night wraps up.

......OK.  It's been about a month since I started writing this...  A few days ago, Susan and I went out to dinner with friends to a restaurant we've been hearing and talking about for a while.  51 Lincoln  Not surprisingly, the address of the restaurant is 51 Lincoln St., Newton, MA.  The food was ridiculously good....As was the service.  The chef/owner came up with this thing that I thought could never be really good.  Grilled watermelon steak.  Sounds both good and awful at the same time.  Well, after braising  watermelon flesh for about 3 hours in shallot and sherry cream and then flash grill it, you wouldn't believe how good it could be.  Then there was the charcuterie, which is all made in house and is simply incredible.  Finish up with the best ribeye I've had in a while all done in a farm to table kind of way and you have a great restaurant.  Frankly, just the kind of restaurant I'd love to own.

     Here's the thing.  As we were leaving, we struck up a conversation with a couple at the bar.  Turns out to be the chef/owner and his wife.  They were great and very fun to talk to (I hate ending a sentence with a preposition).  I told him how much I loved his place.  The feel, the vibe and most importantly, the food.  He offered me the opportunity to come in and check out what it's like in the kitchen.  He gave me his card and told me to get in touch.  For whatever reason (me being me), I didn't really follow up.  I figured he was just being polite and I didn't really want to impose.  About 2 weeks later, Susan and I were having dinner at the bar and the Chef, Jeff Fournier, came up to us and during the conversation, asked, more or less, why I hadn't gotten in touch and followed up.  It became clear that he was serious.  So I decided I'd put whatever reservations I had and take the plunge.  We went back and forth but couldn't get a date in the books.  A few weeks went by and Chris Harding and I were there for dinner.  Jeff came out and gave me a wave.  A few minutes later he was standing next to me with his phone and we were putting a date in the calendar.  

     Here's the scary part...what if I what if I suck at working in a real kitchen.  What if I don't have what it takes.  What if I get there and the real people who work in kitchens realize what I fear when I doubt myself...I'm just a poser and I don't belong in their kitchen.  I've got a pretty health ego and I'm pretty confident of my abilities as a home cook, entertaining and turning out excellent food for the people who come to my house.  But what if I can't do it for real?

     Well, here's the thing.  I'm going to find out on April 26th.  That's when I show up at 51 Lincoln and see whether I can hang.  I'm not looking for a special experience.  I want to be treated like everyone else, just like. sh*t... That should mean whatever scut work they have for me.  I'm not looking to work an actual station.  I'm just looking not to be treated like a some rich lawyer who's playing at being a chef.  I want to see if I can really do this.  Who knows, if it works out maybe I will...

I'll keep you posted after....

In Velo Veritas

With life as busy as it is, I've clearly slacked on adding anything of real note at any point in the recent and not so recent past. With that in mind and without completely abandoning the focus of this blog, I've decided to use it for a different vehicle (no pun intended).

Background

I've been an avid recreational cyclist since about 1987 (kind of). Back then, motivated by a cute girl in spandex who rode a lot, I bought a used Shogun road bike, bike shoes (Diadoro road shoes), bike shorts and strapped into the toe clips to ride early morning loops around the Charles River with her. In a theme that would repeat itself too often in the future, I spent as little as possible on the bike and then proceeded to spend a small fortune ungrading and modifying it into what I really wanted - kind of. Although my attention span for this girl was relatively short, the same cannot be said for my love of cycling. Early the next year (the fall of my second year of law school), I spent the ungodly sum of $500 on a Cannondale road bike. It was one of the first aluminum bikes with Cannondale's distinctive oversized aluminum tubing. With a combo of Campagnolo and Suntour components, Look clipless pedals and Cinelli bars, it was an incredibly stiff, quick and fun to ride.

Back then, I was in pretty good shape and used to ride all around Boston, Brighton, Brookline, Lexington and Cape Cod. I road my first century on it and would've ridden it when I rode from Montreal to the Cape with my father, brother and uncle, but it was totaled when I was hit by a car near Boston College, in Cleveland Circle (thankfully insurance replaced it, just not in time for the ride from Montreal). During summers on the Cape, I would ride in the morning and head to the beach. For 2 1/2 weeks in July, I would leave the beach early to get home to watch coverage of the Tour de France. Although some of my friends, by that time, probably knew who Greg LeMond was, I can assure you not one could tell you who the hell Pedro Delgado or Laurent Fignon was - and forget about the greats like Bernard Hinault or Eddy Merckx

For reasons unknown, I stopped riding from about 1991ish (Susan?). My Cannondale gathered dust and cob webs until around 2003 when I hopped back on my "new" Cannondale and went for a ride with a friend who is a serious cyclist. Half-way through the ride (which was probably only about 18 miles), I thought I was going to die. I was completely out of shape and the stiffness of the bike (and maybe an extra 25+ lbs) made me feel every pebble in the road and pray for the end of the ride. Despite that ride and many other painful rides, I wanted back into cycling. I went to Belmont Wheel Works and started looking for a new bike, ending up with a bike I've loved to ride for the past several years -- a K2 Mod 5.0 Aluminum and Carbon Fiber frame with Shimano Ultegra Gruppo and Speedplay Zero pedals (great bike!).

I road 6 Pan Mass Challenges and countless miles around Wellesley, Needham, Dover, Natick, Concord, the Cape and Vermont. A month ago, I retired the K2 and moved into the 21st century with a 2009 Cervelo RS (love this bike even more!!) - all carbon, Ultegra gruppo (I wanted Campy Chorus, but opted not to spend the extra $ - something I'll likely regret when I upgrade to the Campy later this year or next once my afore mentioned penchant for buying "low" and then spending more to get what I wanted in the first place takes over).

The Challenge:

I'll never run a marathon. I HATE running. When I do, it is a complete and utter chore. I wear an iPod and run from telephone pole to telephone pole (you know the feeling... "just one more and then you can stop...ok, really, at the next one you can really stop", until the 2-3 miles is over). On the other hand, I love being on a bike. While I can find any number of reasons to procrastinate and/or nap instead of ride, once on the bike, I absolutely love it. Whether with others for the banter, speed and fun of a group ride, or (maybe my favorite) alone, quietly working by myself....in my own private Idaho.

For the past several years a number of my friends have been riding the Harpoon B2B - a 147.2 mile 1 day ride from the Harpoon Brewery in Boston to the Harpoon Brewery in Windsor, VT. I doubt I'll be able to keep up with some of them but, this will be my marathon. Centuries (single day 100 mile rides) are relatively easy. It's just a matter of sitting on the bike and spinning for long enough to finish. The B2B, like a marathon, is a sufferfest. At around the 90 mile marker you begin a 7 1/2 mile climb called "The Leviathan" -- enough said. Around the 110 mile marker (as I'm told) you get to a dark place psychologically and the ride takes another of its many upward turns for another long pull uphill. Your body starts to break down at about mile 120, but you still have 27 miles to go. So here we go. Sounds like fun.

Right now I weigh about 200 lbs. Weight is not a good thing on a bike. -- ever look at a professional cyclist? -- this is especially true when you're climbing the hills/mountains necessary to finish the B2B at an average overall speed of not less than 16.0 mph for the entire 147 mi. I want to drop about 15-20 lbs. and, for the winter months, average at least 100-150 miles a week, inside on a trainer and outside on my cross bike. I just subscribed to dailymile.com to keep track of my progress.

I'll still, maybe, add a wine post or 2, but I think the rich, red meat focus to my diet has come to an end as my focus for the near future will be training for the ride....

So much for coming tomorrow...

Well, it's only been about a year and a half since I sat down to write something here. Not to say that there's been nothing to write, nor any good (or bad) wines to write about. Just been tied up with life, kids (hockey, bar mitzvahs, bass lessons), work, and trying to ride my bike (pedal not moto) more.

I still have tasting notes and stuff to get out here and maybe I'll start up again. Anyway, I think I the next post will be about the wines I drank with friends on Labor day -- some great 2000 Bourdeauxes (Alter Ego, Beychevelle, & Ducru Beaucaillou). Great wines!!! Then maybe on to other wines and some Bourbons.

Coming soon? Maybe a sidebar compendium of tasting notes with prices. Stay tuned, even though I think the only one reading this is me.

Coming Tomorrow

Colorado wine breakdown -- Tomorrow, I'll list out the wines we drank in Colorado before we got to Larkspur. Some great wines and great deals!!!