days go by

Time is speeding up. Each week has a pattern and a rhythm that I now know well. I suspect that time is going to keep going faster and faster until i'm off to the next adventure, the next challenge.

I handed in a sheet of paper yesterday stating my preferences for the type of restaurant i'd like to stage at. I wrote about local and seasonal cuisine, farms and farmers, cooking with heart and humility, food that is rustic, creative, and accessible all at the same time. I wrote about my desire to become an expert pasta maker.

I feel a gravitational pull towards the south of Italy, Puglia or Campania, we'll see if I end up there.

I worked with a whole octopus today, and then later a whole rabbit. And that sentence makes me smile, because of how completely comfortable and relaxed I felt all day long. I know that I would have felt differently six months ago. But today was simply business as usual, as I've already worked with both those animals before. The octopus got stewed with fresh tomato, garlic, and olive oil for over two hours. It released a lot of liquid during that time, creating a flavorful broth that tasted like fresh summer tomatoes, the sea, and garlic. I never needed to add any salt. Later, I butchered the rabbit (which, interestingly, didn't gross me out too much - rabbits have basically the same parts as pigs, cows, and lambs, and butchering a whole rabbit offers a good opportunity to learn how many of the animals we eat are structured). The rabbit meat was later seared and then braised in a sauce with fresh tomatoes and olives. The meat was delicious and tender. I remember being a little uncomfortable the first time I ever ate rabbit, but today I got very good feedback on my dish from our head chef and so then proceeded to happily eat the whole plate of food I'd just made.

I had a risotto that changed my life today. And I'm not sure how to begin explaining its perfection. Tons of tiny details that, when examined one at a time may seem inconsequential, but when taken together created something that should be used as a model for all other risotto. Our chef explained that the stars of the show should always be the rice and whatever other main ingredient or ingredients are being added. Often times, people cook their risotto rice in broth or stock, and so the true taste of the rice becomes masked. And our chef proceeded to cook his risotto using water instead of stock.

The risotto pot always had just enough liquid to prevent the rice from sticking and burning, and never more than that. He said the rice must always be dancing, and that this is how a maximum amount of starch gets released, allowing the risotto to be as creamy as possible.

At the end of the cooking process, butter and cheese are traditionally added off the heat. In Italian, this moment is called Mantecare, and it's a crucial step. But, the trick is to add butter without having the final product taste like butter, and to add cheese without having the final product taste like cheese. These ingredients are added to help bring the dish together, but not to overpower. The final product should taste silky, with a balanced melding of flavors. Our chef used a few drops of white wine vinegar to help balance the butter, and the acidity elevated the dish, and without leading to a final product that tasted like vinegar.

At the end of class today, I told our chef that he raised the bar for risotto as far as I'm concerned. He said that often times, when he tells a class that they will be preparing risotto, the reaction is a groan - everyone has cooked risotto before, why do it again. But, he said it is not about how many times you've cooked risotto, it's about how many times you've tasted the perfect risotto. He said that this is a taste that must be ingrained in your mind, just as the visual image of the risotto's creaminess should be ingrained in your mind. He said that risotto should ideally be cooked with a wooden spoon and with a copper pot. Everything counts, he said.

On monday we were back in central kitchen, and I did pasta with a lamb ragu for 200 people. I spent a lot of time de-boning lamb shoulders, trimming away fat, and then cutting the meat into tiny cubes. The final dish was really flavorful and delicious, and it was a cool feeling to know that every single little piece of tender, juicy lamb that was eaten that day was the result of my work.