Monday, March 29, 2010

A food Epiphany

Hello!! Sorry it´s been so long for some words! (Now Playiñg: Stevie Wonder-Uptight) I am sitting now again in the hotel lobby on their computer, as Marcus took his computer power cable last night(I´ll get it back tomorrow, for first time readers my electricity converters aren´t working over here even though they should be and so I can't use my computer.) The time is now 12:10(lets see what time I finish, I bet 2ish), and I had free all day today! I spent the day in Palma, the capital and biggest city on Mallorca. In the past few days I have been working and had many blog worthy stories, as I will recount later on. But I want to recount this one to you all first.

Let me start by saying I don´t know if anything can bring more happiness to me than eating. Not just eating, but eating good food, with the setting matching the food. Mostly, I don´t think these occasions can be duplicated. It happens at the right time, right place, and can only happen there. The food came from a few miles away, maybe the yard next to the table where you are eating it. It is so fresh you can taste the last rain that dropped on the vegetable. You can´t quite say you´ve had tapas, if you´ve eaten them in Richmond. It´s not the same. It may be good, but eating it in Spain, hearing Spanish all around, eating the food with the ingredients that came from so close to where it was prepared. What only makes the experience better is eating with people you love and enjoy being around. Food is a commonplace, brings people together, everyone is in a joyous mood, naturally as food is only good for the body. On many occasions in the past, and I hope you all have had these also, I have had food epiphanies. Times where happiness is so full, everything is so right, overcome by a blissful food blanket. It is ethereal. My mind, body, and soul are at ease, and the only thing that is coming to my mind is how dang good the bite is that is in my mouth, and how good that next bite will be. (Now, I am not fat, and hope to never be fat, food is just so good, it is my medium, my art, my love.) Today, I had one of those occasions. I´m going to attempt at writing this a la Anthony Bourdain esque...if you don´t know who he is, he is the only tv show I watch. He travels the world and eats, and was a former french chef in NYC for 30 years. He knows what he´s talking about, and more importantly, HOW to talk about it. He is funny, smart, and puts on a very good show. Check it out. If you´re in a foreign place reading this, search his name and your country on youtube and who knows, he might have done an episode in your country.
Hungry, hot, tired, I continually stumbled through the streets of Palma looking for that right place to eat. I had no idea where I was or what I was looking for to eat, something good and Spanishesque, please though. Finally I trudged onto the right street-seeing six or eight Jamon Iberico legs hanging in the window, I thought this is the place for me. And I was right. Busy, and deep in the streets, not along the water tourist trap, I foresaw this meal being a very great one. This blissful moment in my life all began with five nice, crusty slices of bread generously smothered in a vibrant, most true tomato flavor I have ever eaten. Topped off with a good handful of olives and more pressing, the oil. The oil was seeping from side to side, onto my fingers. So substantially beautiful, I would truly soak myself in this stuff. I was crying with pleasure. The oil/brine from those olives, with that tomato...heaven. The olive in the juice rang the taste buds, I couldn't stop eating it.
Next came the good friend sausage. Sausage you say, you mean that tough, flavorless, fake casing tube of meat found in the U.S.? Oh no my good friend, this was tender enough to cut easily with a fork, flavorful and juicy. Soaked/braised in red wine, I say we replace the hot dogs in the baseball stadiums with these. The fans wouldn't know what hit them, this my friends would be more historical to the game than Babe Ruth.

And finally, the Primeros (Primeros meaning appetizer or small plate in Spanish) sampling paradise.

When this came into my life I was already tense with happiness, still working on the Sausage and Bread, but the feeling had already blanketed my whole body. Nothing could stop it, it was flowing through the veins with such intense vigor as the Nile. It flowed faster and it grew.
The platter was composed of Dates wrapped in Bacon, Fried whole Baby Calamari con Lemon, Croquettes, and Mussel shells filled with a mousse of the mussel, and other joyous ingredients. Salty, fatty bacon encased the sweet morsels from god, and the flavor profiles went in the same order. The mussels were rich, beautiful. Croquettes fluffy and full of flavor. The calamari was great and tender, unlike the chewy normalcy I have experienced in the U.S. Flavor was extremely fresh and vibrant, rang true and complemented well with the lemon of course.

All this swished throughout with a local, cold, and as of right now my favorite cerveza to taste in Spain. Of course, no, I cannot remember or tell you all the name, as I couldn't quite understand the person who served me. Guess I can account that to more authenticity of the place?

This was a lot of food. And I finished it all. I sat after for quite a few minutes, gazing, still in a food bliss euphoria. Beginning to snap back, I attempted to talk to the minimal english speaking workers, wandered the restaurant, gazed upon the Jamon Iberico legs incredulously, and eventually wallowed back out onto the small streets of Palma, Mallorca.
Hope you enjoyed this post. Tomorrow during break I will hope to recount the rest of the day spent in Palma, and finally recap the past few days for me here. Enjoy the night, talk soon!

Sunday, March 28, 2010

Tour of my room

Hope to soon also give a tour of the hotel and the kitchen! Stay tuned for that and a blog post later on tonight!

Collin

PS 12:35, not 2:35!


Friday, March 26, 2010

Some Pictures

Here are some pictures from my first few days. I have some more and there will definitely be many more. I wandered away from the hotel today into the small town...funny stories to come. Now, I am really tired and am working the morning. (Also, my body is feeling a little achey/sick...hope I don't get sick.) I am borrowing the German cooks power plug for the computer, although it doesn't resolve all the problems (don't know when he will want it back, how will I shave?, and how will I charge my camera...) all is o . k . right now. Have a good day, and we will talk soon! Hope you enjoy the pictures!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2031554&id=1573200196&l=e24510d76a

Thursday, March 25, 2010

The tales of a stupid American

Alas. I am sitting here in the "resort", it is definitely not what you would consider a hotel, lobby, drinking a glass of the wine made from the "resort`s¨ vineyard, a red wine. Bare with me, for my lack of correct punctuation, as I DO not know how to use this keyboard. The time is now 23:18, or as we Americans say 11:18. Back to the start, no?

Boarded the plane from Philadelphia to Washington after a grueling few hours in Reagan International. That flight was good..If I remember. Ah yes it was half full(all the memory is now coming back to me) My bad din´t fit in the area and I was confused and then the flight attendant told me the flight would´nt be full and I could move to the back. I sat near some pilots, and when we were landing, some Asian guy had to go to the bathroom. The flight attendant told him no, to sit back down, he din´t listen, went anyway, got arrested when we left the plane. Drama. Then, as that flight was a little late, I had less time than expected in Philly. I wolfed down a Philly cheese steak, walked to the...what Do you call it, I´m thinking two other languages right now, also. Gate? Yes. Called my people to say goodbye, charged my phone, had to get my boarding pass ¨"stamped?" and then pretty quickly boarded the plane. I took a video that was SUPPOSE to be with that lame post from Philadelphia, but for some reason it didn't´t work. I even had tried it before to make sure it would work. It was a funny video of me walking through the terminal talking to myself (my phone) so people were looking at me. Perhaps I will get it up here sometime. Onto the plane to Madrid: 1. There was a stupid/fat Mom-Sister-Grandpa sitting in front and to the left of me. The mom and grandpa who wasn't that old by the look kept complaining "I have NEVER been in a seat this small, OMG" I laughed. There was nobooody sitting next to me. That was nice, I listened to music, watched "Love Happens" but fell asleep to it. Good movie!!! The part I saw, Jennifer Anniston is beautiful. I barely slept, which sucked. Almost everyone on the flight was speaking Spanish, so already I was confused. "Dinner" (I barely ate it) was Tortellini? With spinach mush, 5 pieces of lettuce with carrot sticks, potent Italian vinaigrette, and a fluffy chocolate something. Oh and a packaged role that was good. I took a picture of it as it to me was kind of ironic, a cook on a plane going to cook, and getting served that POS. One of the flight attendants was kind of mean, and yelled at me for not saying please first.

Finally in Madrid. After 2 hours of ansy-news, we finally landed. Beautiful, the Spanish country that we flew over. Groves/vineyards everywhere, and MOUNTAINS. ! There were mountains surrounding the Madrid Airport, which by the way is HUGE. Got off the plane, with a 3 hour layover, pretty tired. After a bus ride with a man who I thought was going to the same place(the guy was from Miami) he was going to "Las Palmas" which is in some islands of the OTHER coast of Spain, not in the Mediterranean. I didn't know that. Good thing I didn't board his plane with him. Went to the food court, and immediately it struck me. Spain is food centric. It is AWESOME. I mean, orange juice freshly squeezed by some compounding machine, it must take 6 oranges for a glass. Iberico Ham, (the GOOOD stuff) being sliced to order for a baguette by some girl who decided to get a job at the airport cafe. Awesome. At the duty free shop, a whole refrigeration section dedicated to iberico ham and manchego cheeses. Iberico ham to those in the not know, is like proscuitto, or salami almost, but much much better. The fat ribbons melt on your lips. Take a little bit of this stuff, keep it in your pocket, and you will never need chapstick again. I don´t know if you can say that you have eaten unless you´ve come to Spain. So I hung out at the Madrid airport for a bit...began To get very tired. My first meal in Spain was a Baguette with Iberico ham slathered all up inside. Very good! Some old man came up to me and said "Nordsk?" which sense I have Scandinavian connections, I knew meant Norwegian? And I said no, and he proceeded to ask me ins Englisch if it was free internet in the airport, and I said no, I had my laptop out. Lame Madrid, even Richmond has free internet.

So, then, when they released which gate would be my flight I went to that gate. Sat there for a while, people watched, listened to music. After a while I looked at the monitor that displayed where the flight was going. GONE. What?! This is where I was suppose to be. Ok. Went back, looked again, 6 gates away. Ok. Went there, began to get VERY tired. That was when 5/6 was hitting me. I was getting so tired that I was scared I was going to fall asleep and not wake up, so I set my alarm on my phone. By the way, there were people all around me speaking every language, I truly think I was the only American.

Finally the time arrived to start boarding, about two minutes when we were suppose to start boarding, a HUGE group of old people got in line. They were obnoxious/oblivious. And of course the person over the intercom saying which zone was boarding spoke spanish very fast and English very fast with an accident low so that I COULD NOT UNDERSTAND. I just boarded. They let me on aha. I sat next to a couple, from Ukraine? We didn't talk on the plane/I passed out.

I awoke, began to get excited since I was finally on the island. All was good. Until I started looking for my bag. Went to the first belt that it was suppose to be at. Nobody else came. Looked again at the screen, it was the WRONG belt, a different flight from Madrid. But on the way there I saw a plane had come in from Paderborn, which if you really know me would know I have a friend from there, it is a small German town.

Finally got to the right belt, after everyone else had come and gone. My bag was nowhere to be seen. But the Ukrainian seat passengers were still there. Where are our bags!? I was super scared. Almost started crying ahhh. The Ukrainian girl went to look around, and apparently since we weren´t from the EU our bags were suspicious and sent into this gated belt. We had to get them scanned again. Thank goodness for that couple, or else I probably wouldn't´t have found my bag. If I could have read the signs, I might have gotten it, but ALAS.

And then, out into Mallory looking for the Chef´s wife that was suppose to pick me up. Couldn't´t find her. Walked every which way, no sight. So I tried to call her. Couldn´t get the payphone to work. At this point I was getting pissed off/nervous. I tried and tried to get the payphone to work. I had the right money in it. Of course it was in Spanish and had no German. No budging. I pressed all the buttons. Agh.

Then, I walked to all the booths and asked if I could PLEASE use their phone, I couldn't get the payphone to work. Finally a German tour type of group girl let me borrow her phone. She was nice and cute, and I talked to German to her. Everyone, speaks German here. It is amazing. Finally reached the chefs wife, Sarah, I don´t know if she didn't´t come or had come and gone, but she was no longer there. I had to take a cab.

An experience that was. He was of some different origin than I am aware. He played cool music that was rappish/rockish, of which I could not understand. That does not however, rule out German. He drove fast. Weaving in and out of cars, on the highway. And then we get to the closed in Spanish roads, which are curve and you can´t see past that curve. That didn't´t mean he slowed down. Good times. I saw part of Palma I think¿ Quintessential Spanish looking place. It seemed as though every house/place had their own grove/vineyard, we drove past so many. It was amazing. I have pictures of the ride in, but my camera is upstairs/don´t want to upload on this computer.

Finally to the Resort. This is becoming quite a long blog post. Entschuldigung(sorry, don´t know if that's how you spell it in German?) Saw it from a distance. It is so beautiful. Walked in, and Chef Felix was standing there. Awesome. Then came the rest of the restaurant crew. (Bless your heart if you´ve read this far, this must be boring.) I met three of the cooks then, Marcus, 22, from Germany. Very nice, it looks like we will be good friends. He is very funny, don´t know where he is from. Has a girlfriend from the island, who is 30. Told me some crazy stories of what happens on the island. Is currently playing poker with Chef Felix, told me he goes out everyother night. Went to sleep last time at 5. 5! Woke up at 10:30 to start cooking. I am not ready for that, I am still jet lagged for **** sake! Marcus speaks German, ok Spanish(better than anyone I know) and good English. (In Europe, they say their English is OK, or their Spanish is OK. But it seems they are MUCH better than we are at other languages, I can talk almost how I feel and he can understand me. Crazy. They are insecure about their speaking of other languages.) The other cook who I worked today also was Marco. He is from Venezuela. Speaks Spanish, perfect English, and no German(although im sure his German is better than mine.) Felix speaks perfect all three languages. Marco is 26? Martin is Spanish? And around the age...30? I don´t know. After I arrived I talked for a little, and then went up to my room...a Room IN the hotel, queen sized bed, nice EVERYTHING, kid you not. ! Cheese diese ist zu laange! (shit, this is getting too long.) Unpacked my stuff, hung up all my shirts, (kid you not mom) unpacked everything. The restaurant people were going to play soccer against another hotel, as they do every Wednesday. Apparently they lost 12-6. They were excited when I said I though I was pretty good and would be of assistance next week. I was suppose to meet back downstairs for a meeting/food at 7:00. Set my alarms. For sure over slept them. I was soo angry. I knew how much it would mean for me to wake up for them. Aagh. Woke up around 830? And found out that none of my lights/electricity were working. They have a very weird system for the room, there is a box in Spanish, and then a card that you have to slip in to turn it all on. I didn´t have the card. Went downstairs, got Malcolm (English? The hotel is owned by English people) and he got me a card. But agast, I can still not get my plugs to work even though I have one transverter, and a borrowed one from the lobby. Must be something else with the plugs. I will ask another day, I am too embarrassed currently. For now, this lobby computer suffices. Finally after getting the lights on, I took a shower and was invited down to eat at the casual area and have a drink. I had Mango Risotto with Duck Confit, stir fryed vegetables and a spicy sauce. It was extremely good. Before I had house cured olives, if you have not had an olive in Spain you have not eaten an olive. So amazing. With a yogurt chive spread and olive tapenade. All amazing. And a huge "Becks" beer to go with it. I tried to pay for it, but apparently if you work here and are eating, alle ist freu. (All is free) The bartender/my server was Slovakian and spoke English, German, Spanish, and Slovakian. Blows my mind.

After eating I went into the kitchen after they had just finished up. We had some more beers outside and talked and they smoked cigarettes like they were nothing. 5 or 6 a piece, crazy. Felix, Martin, and Marco left, and it was just I and Marcus. Again we talked, he is very nice, we are going to be good friends. As customary in the kitchen, you are always playing jokes on eachother, saying nasty things. Today I already made a joke about Marcus´s sister. ha ha! Aso, before Felix left, he told me to meet down in the kitchen at 11 ready to go. Already?! What!! I still have jet lag! Ok. Chef.

So I went back to my room and soon thereafter fell asleep. Woke up at ten, opened my window and enjoyed the amazing view of the mountains, orchards, houses. Everything.

Headed down to the kitchen at 10:45, by the way, its just two flights of stairs and I´m to my place of employment. Crazy. The hotel has many rooms that are just for decoration, with all sorts of plates and things. Weird. There is one dog and one cat that live here. I think? I hope to make good with the cat by the end. My room number is 15.

I started by cutting breakfast fruits for the next morning. One melon I have never seen before. As cooks, we get three meals a day from the kitchen, and thus far they have been quite good. During my cutting of the fruits for the next morning, a Spanish waiter asks me if I want a coffee with or without milk and something or another else, my Spanish is good for only 1. Cafe-Coffee. 2. Leche? Milk? I think. I had to translate. Still jet lagged, as this was 5 or so for me, I got to work. Next I worked on small dicing parsnip, and running Salsify along the mandolin. Sorry for you non foodies..Look the terms up, this is a cooking blog. The littlest things were big differences to me, I had to check about everything before I went. We put salsify in Water and lemon, they, in Milk and Lemon¿ What is better? I don´t know. Their plastic wrap is just a roll without a cutter, that caused me the biggest problems. To me, their coriander tastes the same as parsley, I got in trouble for that. I have never used fresh coriander before. This will be a long journey. Along comes 2/3 o´clock. Then arrives tickets for dishes to start coming in. You want me to do what chef, already start being the Entree-Mat for your proteins? I don´t know any of the dishes or even where anything is...agast. So I worked lunch service with chef doing all the accompaniments to the meat/fish. It was long and grueling.

After we cleaned and organized for dinner service, which apparently was much later than usual...around 5:45, we drank cokes and hung out for a few minutes, and then got a 1 hour break. By the way, during the prep time, we were listening to the radio. No no, not some foreign radio, but what I would call Classic, lame, American music. And they all sang to the songs?! What! Any American coming into this kitchen seeing German/Spanish guys singing to...the Titanic theme song?! We are family?! Smash Mouth Shrek song?! Oy, it was funny.

I went to my room, tweeted? Hung out for a few with some sparkling water. Tried to get the electricity to work...nope...read Over the menus or as Felix calls them "cards" and by that time it was time to head back. During break I had imagined how to set a more efficient station, although I had no idea what I would be doing that evening for dinner. What is the main difference for me though, is not having a open "station" that which I have everything set at to pull from. Here, everything is in closed containers, some distance away, with a different language written on them for what it is. That for me has caused problems. Also, my sharpie doesn´t write on said containers?! Agh.

During lunch, I ran a very messy, disorganized, ugly, bad, station, that was quite hectic. During dinner, this was changed quite a bit. Although still a bit lost, it was a great improvement. So I made a few mistakes, I am still an American, who has never worked a hot-line before, doesn´t speak Spanish, doesn´t know anything about the food here, and, is STILL JET LAGGED. I think my work was quite good. It can only improve. I think by the end, I will be ahead of the game. I can make a much more efficient station, with food of better quality. (Although, the products here are AMAZING. Seriously, the lemons, local, oranges, from here. You can feel, smell, taste the difference. It is mind blowing.)

By the way, I forgot to interloop the beautiful English girl I met. I don´t know what her job is. She is soooo beautiful, brown hair, her name is Roma? Ruma? I don´t know. We talked for a little. Ahh.

We cleaned after service, made a list, ate curried chicken/pineapple/pepper/other things over rice. It was good. Had a Spanish beer with that. I don´t think I will be spending much money, as when I am working all meals and drinks are paid for. Awesome. Scrubbed the beautiful range down, it has the name of the restaurants/hotel painted on it. Unlike other kitchens I have been at where it is a line, this is an island, as I have seen only at Metro! Roanoke, great restaurant, check it out if you have a chance. After, I was invited to go and play poker with the other cooks, people, at Chef´s house. But am tired, and weary of losing sight of the cooking, and becoming too tired. I will go out next time with them.

Thus far, the food has been somewhat familiar. The pastries were of a different world, I didn't´t recognize much. I saw a beautiful paella that felix made that I didn´t get to try. Next time. We try everything before we plate it, that makes it fun and exact.

My scabs were worn off during services, I now have bare wounds that are hurting currently while typing. Already, my German/Spanish have gotten better. I spoke a good bit of both today, although most could speak English to me. The hotel is beautiful, my room is beautiful, I hope to get my computer working up there so I can be on more often. I work in the morning, who knows what tomorrow will hold. Hopefully should be a bit better, as 2 more cooks will be there tomorrow.

This was too long of a post with a lack of pictures. Hopefully it won´t happen again. I hope you enjoyed it, laughed, and learned about my first two days. It is now 1:10, and I should head to bed pretty soon as I must wake up around 10 again to start day 2. I thank you sincerely for reading, I hope it wasn´t too boring. The next will be better, I promise!

Day 2 at the beautiful Mallorca awaits! Tschus! Adios! Guten night! Good night! I love you all!

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Hello from Philadelphia! PS I just crushes a philly cheese steak!! Talk to you next from Spain!
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Monday, March 22, 2010

The "why", "what", and an adiós


Please note: If you are an English major, highly intelligent, or generally get angry about poor writing, grammar, or incomprehensible thoughts, please don't hate me.

Plane leaves tomorrow, 6:00, from Ronald Reagan National Airport across the river from the District. Just about to start packing, no I have not started yet. I'll be fine, I have a list. I had a superb weekend at James Madison this past weekend, spent it with most of my best friends. Nick, Jeff, Emma, David, Kelsey, and every other person, thanks for making my last weekend in the United States(for two months, or forever!?) a memorable one! I love you all. Seriously!

In the past week or so, I have begun thinking about the "WHY" and the "WHAT," of everything. Why I love cooking, why I want to cook, why do I enjoy traveling, why do I sometimes have reservations about fully committing to cooking for the rest of my life, what do I want in life, and many more, I'm sure. My memory is horrible.

I have a deep passion for cooking, and it continues to thrive and develop every moment I spend in the kitchens and eating, seeing, enjoying. However, I know the lifestyle, I know that once I commit to cooking, there is no looking back. I know that if I do cook, my days will be long, pay will be short(although I firmly believe due to the Food Network and food awareness that has come about that wasn't present during my role model's in the culinary field's beginnings, that hopefully the field will get a bit more recognition and overall the harshness in the field will be relaxed) In the past, I have been weary of this. But thinking about what I really want, and why I want it, it helps to really show whats true and what would make the best sense to continue on with. I recently applied to George Mason University, thinking that I would attend there for a degree in politics and work the nights in one of the kitchens in Arlington/Washington, D.C. Therefore, simultaneously keeping both paths running that I wouldn't mind spending my life in, Politics and Cooking. However, due to my mediocre grades, average SAT scores, and what appeared to them as a lazy, recently-graduated high school kid, who has done nothing in the past year, they denied my acceptance. I can't blame them, but how do I explain what I'm doing on an application that is solely education based? I don't know if I could do politics, maybe too much paperwork, might be too boring at times. But I would have liked to try. But currently that path has been closed. I'm alright with it though, food and cooking are my gig.

Hang in there, I hope the thoughts in the past few paragraphs have been comprehensible. It's difficult at times for me to communicate what I am thinking.

If I work hard enough, cooking and food will give me all I need in life. It might be hard, but it will be rewarding. I owe it to everyone who has helped and shaped me in the past 8 years of my culinary journey.

Why I love cooking: the food, the fast pace, the comradery, the people involved, the places it can take you, the difficulty, the reward after a successful dinner service, the drive and endurance it takes to succeed, the feeling of pleasure that you receive after someone eats and is blown away, smiling ear to ear, because they don't know what they just ate, or why it tasted so good, but they love it, and it evoked memories from the times that I can't know, but connect to only by means of food.

One recent memory of this is just last week, during dinner service as it often happens, a patron came up to the window at Acacia, and older gentlemen. With a huge smile and with jubilance in his voice, he said something to the like of "Outstanding, really amazing. That is all I have to say. Amazing. Thank you." It hit home for me.

Who knows what my next year will look like, I wouldn't mind spending it in kitchens in Europe. Or perhaps Culinary school in NY or Providence. But they need to give me some money. I'm not trying to have over 40,000$ in loans. We'll see what happens.

It is now 12:23 and I need to begin packing.

But first I want to thank everyone who is in my life, a lot of the time I think about how incredible all of you are, how everything is so perfect, I like to think that my life and relationship with you all is really something special. Different. Thank you familia for supporting, being amazing and funny, and awesome. I love you all. Thank you Nicholas for being my best friend, you are my boy, YOU ARE AMAZING. Thank you Jeff for teaching me, we're good counter parts. Emma, we have grown, I love you. You keep me grounded. Thank you Courtney I owe you, your passion amazes me. Ynhi, Caroline, Joni, David, Kelsey, people at Cafe Caturra, teachers at Midlothian, Phil, Andy, Dale, Chris, Star, Edgar, and Aidan at Acacia. Chef Joe at Can Can, Chef James at Can Can, Mike Y, foreign friends. If I know you, then thank you for being a part of my life. So many thanks and appreciation.

I began to find my voice in this post, awesome. Much to do in the next 24 hours before I leave, thank you sincerely for reading.

Now listening to: Gettin' Over-David Guetta Ft. Chris Willis

Next post should be from the Philadelphia Airport, Stay Tuned!

Below are some shots I took during my last days at Acacia, Enjoy






Finishing Scallop plate













Sous Chef Phil


























Peruvian Style Tuna Ceviche, avocado, pickled watermelon rind, tuna, pickled red onion brunoise, cucumber, crispy shallot.














Left: Smoked Salmon Salad: celery root, pickled red onion, hearts of palm, blood orange mousseline, house smoked cured and smoked salmon, blood oranges





Picture at the top: Pan seared Sea Scallops, house-made linguine, baby carrots, brussel sprouts, cipollini onions, basil butter sauce (That picture came out real nice)


Tuesday, March 16, 2010

A superb day for a first blog post


First blog post. You all will have to bear with me, hopefully I will develop a blog voice in the coming weeks. In one week, Tuesday, March 23rd, at 6:00 in Washington, DC, I will be boarding a plane en route to Palma De Mallorca, Spain. I am embarking on this journey to work at a one Michelin star restaurant, at the Reads Hotel and Vespasian Hotel. I will be working the restaurant Bacchus. Once again I apologize for my dry writing at the moment.

I come back to the states on May 25th, four days before my sister Morgann's wedding.

I am nervous, anxious, excited, uncertain, and at the moment disillusional that it is truly becoming reality. A giant opportunity for me to not only increase my skill and experience in the kitchen but also as a person, learning a different culture, language, and lifestyle. Nervousness resides due to the huge step up this will be in the culinary artistry....the food is much more refined and precise then I have ever been exposed to. I can only hope that I will be able to hold up in the restaurant. Without any reservations I am sure that I will learn extraordinary things and my skill will be increased ten fold.

This opportunity came about due to the Swedish Exchange teacher, Lars Johansson, whom I will forever be in debt to. He has a house on the island, and is a friend of the Chef at the restaurant. Hopefully one day I will be able to treat him to the meal of his life at a restaurant that I own. Until then, I can only offer many "thanks" or, in Swedish, "Tack!!"

I am hopeful that during my stay on the island I will be able to provide all my family, friends, and random people that decide to read my less-than-average writing style with a insight into the kitchen, my day to day in Spain, and other occurrences!

Today I am counting down my time in Richmond(Midlothian), enjoying the beautiful weather, gathering things needed for the journey, and enjoying my last few nights at the restaurant I have worked at for the past year and some.

Acacia Midtown, which since being employed at, I have repeatedly insisted to all inquiring as the best food in Richmond, Virginia, today finally received the press it deserves. Today, Style Weekly awarded the team with "State of the Plate Best Restaurant 2010." A HUGE and well deserved award, Chef Dale, Phil, Chris, Andy, Star, Edgar, front of the house staff (and I, although deserving much less of the credit to compared to the others) have worked tirelessly the past year, and it shows in the food. Come out and eat, you will not be disappointed. I cannot express how proud, honored, and happy I am for the restaurant.

(In picture at the top, from left to right: Andy(stirring caramelized white chocolate), Me, Chef Dale, Phil, Star, Edgar, Chris)

Also deserving some words, Chef Dale was nominated as a Semi-Finalist in the James Beard Awards: Best Chef Mid-Atlantic. Finalists will be announced in the coming week I believe, and he certainly deserves a spot.

A sincere and big thanks is due to Sous Chef Phil and Andy, I have been working under them for over two years now, in the beginning at the Can Can Brasserie, and then following them to Acacia. They have been like brothers to me in the kitchen, teaching me and giving invaluable guidance. I will forever remember them, as they are my beginnings.

Hope this wasn't too painful of a read, thank you for taking the time to read it! Off now to Sur La Tabla/Williams Sonoma for some last minute kitchen items needed. Then to dinner service at Acacia. Half Price wine night, come eat! 7 Days until I depart! In the words of my Swedish friends Robert and Jonathan, who blogged their cross the United States van trip, "Stay Tuned for more information!"

Hopefully sooner rather than later!

Collin