flavors unknown podcast

The idea of this conversation with Executive Chef Andre Natera on leadership was conceived for the CMO Club.

Chef Leia Gaccione and Chef Sam Freund pivoted their business a few days after the pandemic hit New Jersey. They implemented curbside pick-up menus and a series of other initiatives. Every restaurant is different and others decided to close for business or for safety reasons. What made them give it a chance? Listen to both of them sharing their respective stories of the hardest three months of 2020.

Creativity versus technique. There is no right or wrong answer, you know, everybody's got their own way to get from point A to point B. People have different styles. You know, some people say rustic is sloppy. I disagree.

In France, the doors between the bakery shop and the laboratory are open. And [when I was a kid] I would sneak my head through the door and look at the guys working. When you put your head there, seriously the flavor, the smell of the fermentation really hit me. That's a place I wanted to go to. I wanted to see how it was done.

Beginning of March, COVID-19 hit the US and had a dramatic impact on the restaurant industry.

This very sad situation had a ripple effect in the whole restaurant supply chain and their purveyors.

In Ohio, West of Cleveland, a family farm was directly impacted. The Chef’s Garden farm has made their business in supplying unique vegetables, herbs, roots, blossoms varieties to top Chefs across the country. My guest today is Farmer Lee Jones from the Chef’s Garden.

A few months ago I had the immense pleasure to record an episode with celebrity chef Roy Yamaguchi. It was before COVID-19 and I was just coming back from a trip to Hawaii. So much has changed in the world since.

COVID-19 is impacting the US economy and has a devastating effect on Chefs and the restaurant industry.

I have three top Chefs invited them on a panel discussion about COVID-19 as they represent different regions of the US and different restaurant styles.

Naomi Pomeroy, based in Portland, Oregon, has helped define Portland as one of America’s most culinarily creative cities with her restaurant, Beast.

Ian Boden, located at the foothills of the beautiful Appalachian Mountains, has contributed, with his restaurant The Shack in Staunton, Virginia, to the revival of the Southern cuisine.

Gabriel Kreuther has proven, with his 2 Michelin star restaurant in Manhattan, that the market for fine dining remains at a high level.

Conversation with Chef Drake Leonards from Eunice, a modern Cajun-Creole brasserie in Houston.

His menus are seasonally-inspired based on Louisiana’s heritage with some European influences (from his travels to Germany and France), and using the ingredients of the Gulf Coast.

Chef Brad Miller is currently the Chef and Co-Owner at Inn of the Seventh Ray restaurant. He is also the corporate chef and tastemaker for Five Star Senior Living, one of the country’s most prestigious retirement companies. Brad is a much sought-after television personality, appearing on such channels as VH1, NBC, FOX, Food Network, Cooking Channel, PBS, Tasted Channel and Hallmark Channel. Brad currently stars in Food Truck Nation on Cooking Channel, airing now.

What we covered in this episode with chef Brad Miller

Chef Brad Miller grew up in his Dad’s butcher shop outside of Chicago.He discovered that he liked cooking in a class at school.Chef Brad Miller went to culinary school in Arizona and cooked in various resorts. He then moved to L.A and staged at a few places.He is the executive Chef and partner at the Inn of the Seven Ray in Topenga, CA, next to Malibu.The restaurant was voted the most romantic restaurant in LA and the 7th in the country.The cuisine style is contemporary American leveraging both luxury ingredients and ingredients from local farms.Chef Brad Miller says that his creative process is the same than with every chef. It starts with the produce.Already having cooked from food memories, now his creative process starts at the market, from tasting on site.Amazing to me these food truck. The level of cooking is amazing.Chef Brad Miller shares his experience of being on the Season 3 of Hell’s Kitchen with Chef Gordon Ramsey.He is the host and producer on the Cooking Channel of Food Truck Nation.They picked these food trucks for the show from around the country because they are the best of the best.For him the top 6 cities for Food Trucks in the country are Portland, Austin, L.A., Charlotte, Denver, MinneapolisThe mission of the show is to demonstrate that people are really good cooks and they're doing it off a food truck.Chef Brad Miller expresses his opinion about people writing reviews on social media platforms.He got inspired by culture and why they eat that food. And figure out different techniques and method I can apply and use to keep it different and fun.Science play a huge part in his cooking and when he is with someone filming.Truffles and persimmons are his latest obsession.Fake hustle is Chef Brad Miller top Pet Peeves in the kitchen.Link to the podcast episode on Apple Podcasts http://bit.ly/Chef_Brad_Miller

Links to other episodes in Los Angeles area

Chef Alison Trent - Ysabel

Links to other podcast episodes with chefs who competed in food TV shows

Conversation with Chef Brad Miller in episode #40 – Amazing Food Trucks!Episode #64 with Chef Silvia Barban – Her Lifelong Italian Culinary InfluencesConversation with Chef Elizabeth Falkner in episode #63 – Elizabeth Falkner Continues to Challenge the Status QuoEpisode #56 with Chef Lamar Moore – Striving for GreatnessConversation with Chef Tim Hollingsworth in episode #51 – Celebrating Luxury and Mundane FoodEpisode #52 with Chef Brian Duffy – A Gigantic Appetite for Casual RestaurantsConversation with Chef Edward Lee in episode #21 – The Marco Polo of American Cuisine

#gallery-3 {

margin: auto;

}

#gallery-3 .gallery-item {

float: left;

margin-top: 10px;

text-align: center;

width: 25%;

}

#gallery-3 img {

border: 2px solid #cfcfcf;

}

#gallery-3 .gallery-caption {

margin-left: 0;

}

/* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

Yellowfin Tuna Crudo by chef Brad Miller

Crispy Brussels Sprouts

Chef Brad Miller and @flavorsunknown

Inn of the Seventh Ray in Topanga Canyon

Submitted questions from podcast listeners

What are the top three elements that make a food truck successful?Having a cool food truck wrapped in fancy colorsFocusing on one type of food and becoming great at it.Serving hand held food that you can walk around with.Chef Brad Miller's burger recipeIt's not something that you're going to do all the time, but it's definitely a mix that's like really great and makes it like, very umami, it makes your burger kind of taste meatier and kind of things of that nature has like a it's basically a couple of ingredients. It's take your burger meat. I would do a chuck steak and short rib. I do a 50 50 chuck and short rib grind, cut into cubes. Don't freeze it, but I get really cold and then grind it and then mix in smoked paprika, onion powder, garlic powder, and here's the kicker, a little bit of miso powder. Like when you're gonna make miso soup with these little packets, just a little bit of each. Not too much. You don't want to overpower the flavor. And salt, of course. But these little ingredients really bring out the flavor of the piece. It tastes really beefy. The smokiness of the paprika almost makes it taste aged a little bit. For a pound of burger meat, I would say, a sprinkle of smoked paprika, a sprinkling of all these things, you know, like more than a sprinkle, I'd say like two sprinkles. But it really brings out the beefiness of your meat and it makes you have so much flavor and also have the salt in there. It will make a juicy, really juicy burger. You get a really good bite and it doesn't matter what you put on top of that. You can just put cheese in a bun and it's gonna be delicious. I would say Kewpie mayonnaise, Japanese mayo. That is the best mayonnaise in the world. I consider that and Duke's. Duke's mayonnaise and Kewpie Mayo. I would say just that burger, medium-rare, two pieces of American cheese. Not cheddar, American cheese. Just because for me, even though cheddar has more flavor, American cheese just gives you that gooeyness, that old school memory of cheese. So I would do two pieces of American cheese, the burger, just brioche buns if you want, just mayonnaise, and about three pickles.Chef Brad Miller recipe with persimmonsI take the persimmons that I quarter them and I take the middle out and then I put them in a sous-vide bag with really good olive oil and a little bit of salt. And then I compress them and I let them sit overnight. They go on a plate with whipped ricotta. More really nice olive oil. We have a pomegranate gel. Fresh pomegranate seeds. And then a little bit of shiso. So we've got a little shiso all over it. Toasted Marcana almonds. A couple drops of lemon oil and then Maldon salt. And it's one of those things that when you serve it, you will, think it's gonna be a dessert. But it's like a starter and it's just so tasty. And when you bite into those persimmons, they melt in your mouth and you got that pomegranate gel with them. And it just really is an amazing dish.

Click to tweet

By nature, cooks and chefs are just curious. I am just curious what other chefs are doing and why they're doing it, and what is their purpose for doing it

Click To Tweet

Being a chef is putting the guests first and really putting something out there that you're really proud of. And it's going to go and nurture people's children.

Click To Tweet

I've learned one thing trying to produce TV is that every idea has already been thought of. There are no original ideas.

Click To Tweet

The great thing about food trucks is that it's a great soundboard to trial your food before you open a brick and mortar restaurant.

Click To Tweet

You don't have to be a classically trained chef to have a food truck.

Click To Tweet

In 50 years from now, cooking is going to be so different because all the health laws.

Click To Tweet

Nobody wants to be a Chef anymore. Cooks don’t want to be Chefs and kids don’t want to be cooks. Everybody kind of just wants to have the fame of it and the funny thing is they absolutely can do that nowadays.

Click To Tweet

Social media

Chef Brad Miller

Instagram

Facebook

Links mentioned in this episode

Bradley Miller WebsiteInn of the Seventh RayBrown Butter ProductionFood Truck Nation Show

Jamie Bissonnette is the James Beard Award—winning chef and partner of Boston favorites Coppa, an Italian enoteca, Toro, the Barcelona-style tapas bar, and Little Donkey, Cambridge's eclectic neighborhood restaurant.  In fall 2013, Bissonnette and co-chef and partner Ken Oringer brought Toro to New York City, and received rave reviews from outlets like The New York Times and New York Magazine. The Little Donkey concept was expanded to Bangkok, Thailand during 2019.

What we covered in this episode

Chef Jamie Bissonnette travels around the world and brings back ideas for Toro and Little Donkey, inspired by specific ways of cooking tortilla Espagnola in Madrid or unique honey in Dubai.

"Spain is such an innovative culinary capital of the world, but it also excels at its simplicity".

 Toro is inspired by Spain. Chef Jamie Bissonnette and his partner Ken Oringer took inspirations from different part of Spain when they travel there.

Coppa is an Italian Enoteca. Handmade pasta and handmade charcuterie. 

Linked Donkey in Cambridge, MA and Bangkok is small plates from all over the place. 

Chef Jamie Bissonnette explains how they expended Toro from Boston to NYC and then to Dubai.

He goes over the reasons why in Bangkok they revamped their concept from Toro to Little Donkey.

Chef Jamie Bissonnette loves Indian food and Middle-Eastern food. He talks about the variety that exist with green cardamom.

"A lot of times young cooks, when they don't understand intrinsically that culture of food, they think that they need to have too many ingredients to make something more interesting".  Spain is such an innovative culinary capital of the world, but it also excels at its simplicity. 

"The best creative outlet for me is to just start cooking. Don't overthink it. Sitting in front of a notebook and writing things down is great. But I will have more impact with things if you. just put me in the kitchen, give me a bunch of ingredients, and say start cooking", says Chef Jamie Bissonnette.

To learn more about Chef Jamie Bissonnette, listen to the full episode!

Link to the podcast episode on Apple Podcast 

Submitted questions from podcast listeners

Where does Chef Jamie Bissonnette find inspiration?

You're going to find your inspiration from a lot of different places. It can be from a song. It could be from an article that you're reading, a cookbook that you're looking at, a dinner that you've had and opening up your mind to realize when something strikes you to try to remember it and do something with it is important. But for me, I find that the best creative outlet is to just start cooking. Don't overthink it. Sitting in front of a notebook and writing things down is great, but I will have more impact with things you just put me in the kitchen, give me a bunch of ingredients, and say start cooking! I become way more creative than I would be if I was just looking for recipes and reading books and looking at pictures and my notes from travel.

What is Jamie Bissonnette's Tortilla Española recipe with chips?

I always have eggs in the house that one of my favorite foods. I don't always have potato chips in the house because I eat them too much. But you can get potato chips if you live in the city. You can get potato chips within three blocks, pretty much anywhere in any city you live in. Whether it's a bodega store. Guess what? So my one of my favorite tortillas to make is I make tortillas española. But instead of using potatoes cooked in olive oil and onions, I use some sort of either just regular straight-up salted potato chips, sometimes salt and vinegar, potato chips, barbecue potato chips do not work. Don't try that at home. They taste terrible. And I make a tortilla where I add they add to the eggs some potato chips at the beginning. Before I do my first flip, I add more potato chips so it gets the bottom side on the first flip gets a nice like very, very like golden-brown crust from the chips that you can slide it right if you use an individual pack of potato chips and you only use three or four eggs. You can slide it right back into the potato chip bag and you've got tortilla española on the go.

#gallery-3 {

margin: auto;

}

#gallery-3 .gallery-item {

float: left;

margin-top: 10px;

text-align: center;

width: 25%;

}

#gallery-3 img {

border: 2px solid #cfcfcf;

}

#gallery-3 .gallery-caption {

margin-left: 0;

}

/* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

Galician octopus, basque oil, squid ink crème fraîche & crispy potatoes

Pressed sandwich of sea urchin, miso butter & mustard seeds

Jamie Bissonnette Coppa Boston

Brunch Tapas Tortilla Jamie Bissonnette

Click to tweet

When we travel, we leave no stone unturned. We go down every alley, we go into every store, we look at everything, we get inspired by everything that we see.

Click To Tweet

Spain is such an innovative culinary capital of the world, but it also excels at its simplicity.

Click To Tweet

A lot of times young cooks, when they don't understand intrinsically that culture of food, they think that they need to have too many ingredients to make something more interesting.

Click To Tweet

I always say don't cook the recipe like you have to follow it exactly. It's like music. The first time you want to play somebody else's song, you follow the sheet music and then you figure it out.

Click To Tweet

The thing that I love about Spanish culture is, because it's so innovative, that you can really mix any kind of flavors together and you can still have that same spirit of delicious, impactful bites like tapas and pinchos.

Click To Tweet

Ken and I are like little kids when we start talking about food. So as long as we can get the business stuff out of the way in the morning, by the afternoon, all we wanted to do is taste food, eat food and make people happy.

Click To Tweet

We know what and how we do something. But knowing why we do is what makes it authentic.

Click To Tweet

You don't have to be traditional and authentic all the time. You can be innovative if you can. Use your own whimsy. But as long as you do it in a way that is educated and that you're not just throwing things together.

Click To Tweet

The best creative outlet for me is to just start cooking. Don't overthink it. Just put me in the kitchen, give me a bunch of ingredients, and say start cooking.

Click To Tweet

Social media

Chef Jamie Bissonnette

Instagram

Facebook

Twitter

Links mentioned in this episode

JK Food group

Chef Jamie Bissonnette

Toro

Coppa

Little Donkey

Tony Messina at Uni

Colin Lynch at Black Lamb

David Bazirgan at Bambara

Contra NYC