Wanted: Superfast Pizza Guy

Occasionaly as I troll the internets a gem appears.  Perhaps this is true, perhaps not – but the story is good.  It’s written in kind of that aw shucks style of the Golden Era of Comics.  As well, if you live on Lois Lane – somewhere in America, Superman has a pizza pie for you.

This is a little  good news in on an otherwise bland day.  Enjoy.

Posting the menu

Beckett on Wine and Restaurant 21

Port Wine Dinner

FEATURING INTERNATIONAL GUEST SPEAKER

HUYSHE BOWER

November 22nd, 2006 – 8:00 PM

Whole roasted almonds with coarse sea salt – Taylor Fladgate Chip Dry

Olive oil poached mussels with red pepper and pineapple salsa – Taylor Fladgate First Estate

Foie Gras au torchon with toasted brioche, dried fig salad, sel rose – Taylor Fladgate 10 Year Tawny Port

Pan roasted duck breast rubbed with thai chillies, pear puree, dry cranberry and pear relish, glazed organic baby carrots, wild rice – Chateau de Serame, Corbieres

Stilton cheese, ice frosted grapes, thin hard tack – Taylor’s Single Quinta Port

Classic cream brulee flavoured with nutmeg, cinnamon, and vanilla, with a snap cookie cone of sugar – Taylor’s Fine White

Coffee/tea with Belgium Callebaut Chocolate Truffles – Taylor’s Vintage 1985

I said that the menu would come soon -  and it did. I am particularly interested in some of the white ports.  While most drinkers tend to lean towards the sweeter side of the porto world, I like the dryness of the white ports.  In the summertime especially.

While not all of the ports are vintage -  it is still going to be a good night out.  A taxi in – a taxi out and a banging good hangover for work the next morning-  swell.

—end

I’m ready for my close-up

It’s early in the morning and the smell of barbecue is lingering in the house.  I’ve been up since “the crack of doom” to prepare for a photo shoot at my house.

Writing for a food magazine is one thing -  it is completely antiseptic.  I write send it in -  an editor takes it and makes it pretty on the page and then someone makes all the design and hires yet another person to shoot pictures -  all so that it can be wrapped, packaged, sold, distributed and given away.

Now I’m trained in some areas of food production – OK, more than some.  But i haven’t been in a commercial kitchen in some time and I’m not very interested in letting someone see me cook.  Yet here I am waiting for a food stylist to arrive at my little house on a Saturday morning after I have spent some considerable time preparing for their arrival.

What is a food stylist -  what do they do?  Well, if all goes according to plan, they will turn my food into gourmet works of art. Sounds simple, right?  Let’s just say that  I’m a nervous wreck.

Cooking for yourself is one thing.  Cooking for a guest is even easier -  there is no one watching your mistakes.  Cooking food to be shown in a static format to be ridiculed and criticised  for all time.

Cooking for a magazine is different than cooking for people.  See you don’t have to eat the food just make it look pretty.  Sounds easy right?  Wrong.  Perfect food for a photo shoot is difficult to purchase as a consumer in the first place -  but when there is the expectation that it will be gorgeousness on a plate -  that is a whole different matter.

I have come to the conclusion that I love the work I am doing. I love the writing -  the expounding, the descriptive language, and selling the food to other people through words.  I don’t however, enjoy the stress of producing food for a magazine shoot.  I can expound on the technique to make something taste good, write arecipe off the top of my head, and guide someone on the way to make it.  This is the difficult part.

So as I wait for the stylist to arrive -  I am checking my mise en place for the last time.  We’ll breeze through the food she said -  sure easy for her. She arranges the food on the plates -  I have to cook it.Hiding behind a computer screen is one thing.  Having someone examine your work in full colour -  warts and all – that’s a whole different kettle of fish.

Ok.  Im ready for my close up.  Just shoot me now.

—–end

Copyright 2006.  Unlawful dissemination of this or any other work will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

Back in the saddle

It is gearing up to be a busy food week.

Tasting of new wines – by invitation at a private tasting with a new import company – the weekend wine show.  There is so much to take in -  I am redying my palate in anticipation.

Next week is even better – a multi-course port tasting and dinner sponsored by the distributor. For the first time since I started food writing I have been asked to make a speech – not that bad. I guess I’m being asked to “sing for my supper”. Hey, if they’re picking up the tab – why should I worry?

Being a food writer in town is a pleasure and a privilege – and I am not going to let the side down.  So over the weekend I’ll be researching the guest speaker, the wines and the company – you can’t be over-prepared.

When the menu is sent – I’ll post it for all of you to read.  In the meantime read this -  a restaurant review by one of my personal favorites: A.A Gill of theTimes of London.

—-end

Things to eat before you die

A while back I saw this site – brilliant. It is a list of lists of people’s favorite food. The Traveller’s Lunchbox is a special place where you see what makes food so special to people.

The list is found here and I have certainly posted.

I love this as a sociological survey. There are lots of people who like me, have decadent and awe inspiring haute cuisine lists – and their respective restaurants to boot. However, more still have lists of street foods – found only in their native cities. That, more than the other lists are much more interesting.

For me, street food is where the heart of the city lies. It could be that frank stand on the corner. The kibab hut parked neatly in the traffic way. It could be a beaver tail stand as only found near the Rideau Canal in Ottawa. It could be the F&C (fish and chips) truck on the wharf of a city harbour. It could as easily be the open fire pit serving kibab and roti in a busy and cramped market place. Street food is the food of the people. Most of the time it is good – sometimes it beats the hell out of a restaurant any day of the week.

Anyway my list runs thusly:

1) fresh tuna, eaten sashimi style with a the fish in front of you.
2) ‘84 Petrus
3) pan seared foie gras, pear chutney, aged balsamic drizzle paired with Sauterne
4) wild mushroom risotto, with shaved white truffle
5) olive oil sorbet (unreal)

Foods you must eat if you visit Newfoundland, Canada

1) CDG at Chess’s Fish n’ Chips (an institution)
2) have breakfast as the sun comes up at Cape Spear (most Easternly point in N. America)
3) cod tongues and scruncheons
4) have a shot of Screech Rum. Better yet – get Screeched In
5) bake apples (aka cloudberries)

What do you think?

—-end

Copyright 2006