Blaine and Gene Excel!

2:30 pm, Sunday

Blaine finished his presentation and performed beautifully. I will share a video later this evening. Gene did the raven dance, which was viewed with obvious delight by the audience of nearly a thousand. The production of this event is huge and flawless. Andrea Petrini and his staff are amazing organizers, especially in a city as complicated as Paris. Some of the best chefs in the world are here today, such as Albert Adria, Alex Atala, and Daniel Patterson. Albert Adria, brother and artistic force behind Fernand Adria of El Bulli, brought his restaurant and serviceware designers, and they showed us some amazing dishes. Alex Atala, from Dom in Sao Paolo, Brazil, is arguably the best chef in the world, though his restaurant occupies #7 on the Pellegrino list. Using the simple ingredient of sugar, he made taffy while his restaurant furniture designers made, with varying success, chairs from the viscous mass.

Tomorrow I will watch such stars as Fulvio Pierangelini, Anne-Sophie Pic, and David Kinch and share those performances.

Paris des Chefs

I left Lummi Island in the middle of one of our worst winter storms for years. Seatac closed the day after I left...all flights cancelled. So was my flight to Paris via NY, but I managed to go via Dallas. I was somewhat sorry to leave home..I love how a storm like that can stop everything, and allow me to appreciate the small world around me, and make do with what I've got.

The planes were quite less than full..I got a whole row to myself to nap on the 9 hour flight from Dallas. Paris was 50 degrees and overcast. I felt so proud when I found the train (RER) from the airport to the 1st Arrondisement where my hotel is. My September advance trip was paying off! When I got to the hotel, I was amazed to find the live geoduck Blaine had FedExed just the day before. The best that they could promise him was Monday, some 4 days later, and since it is central to Blaine's performance, we were uneasy leaving it at that: Blaine stuck the other 4 geoducks in his luggage as a hedge. I'll find out today if they made it, and if so, are they still alive?

Finding Fish, the Restaurant

After some rest, my next job was to find Fish, a restaurant in the St. Germaine district owned by a friend of Keith Carpenter, from Wood Stone. He has a walk-in cooler big enough to store the giant clams. Also Blaine emailed and oh, by the way, he needed a Paco Jet, a "reconstituter" that looks like a milkshake mixer but costs $5000, and also some liquid nitrogen. Not things a tourist might come upon in a strange city, or any city, really. Drew Harre, owner and proprietor of Fish and also Cosi across the street, was just the man to ask. I wasn't sure enough of my metro prowess to try to find it on my own, so I called a cab and soon I was standing in front of his restaurant on whose face was a large mosaic that spelled out Poissonnerie, hence the restaurant's name. Some nasty person had taken spray paint to make the P into a B, thus spelling Drinkerie, But that was also accurate as his wines were fantastic. When I figure out how to upload photos from the ipad you will be able to see it.

Drew was most accommodating. He is a Kiwi who has owned Cosi, across the street, for 23 years, and Fish for 12. The crew at Wood Stone knew him because he had installed a big oven at Cosi, and of course all of the Wood Stoners had to pay it a visit! He was in the middle of remodeling another space next to Cosi, for a third restaurant, this time a Spanish tapas bar. By the time I left that afternoon, I had the use of his Paco Jet, and 10 liters of liquid nitrogen was being delivered the next day. Also the duck was really good, served on a bed of lightly fermented sauerkraut and surrounded by a foie gras foam.

Finding Rue Monge

Next day, my job was to locate the event site. The address was Maison de Mutualite, address near Rue Monge. I took the metro to Chatelet...the hotel had told me to go the other way towards Ballard, so as not to have to transfer, but a Chilean man showed me the shortest way, and gave me a free ticket too. Got off at Odean, then walked the wrong direction in the rain and fading light for awhile, until I saw a patisserie, and popped in to buy a tartine de pomme. It was delish...the fellow at the counter gave me directions to Rue des Ecoles, and I started out once again in the drizzle. I walked past the Sorbonne and Musee de Cluny, and soon saw the intersection of rue de Monge. Luckily I stood there for awhile, and noticed a big building to the left, called le Maison de Mutualite. That sounded familiar! Wasn't the address to the event vers rue Monge? I walked over to the building, still under remodel construction, and asked a fellow outside if there was going to be an event here this weekend. Yes? Paris des chefs? Yes! I had found it! I decided to go into the Cafe St Victor for a caesar salad and cafe au lait. job well done.

As I sat and ate my salad, beautiful people, young and old, came and went. Vital young men stood at the bar in a group, joked with the staff, sipped their aperitifs, and smiled as they went back out into the friday evening. Why is everyone so good looking? I haven't seen a fat person yet that I can remember. (Oops, take it back. Just saw a fairly robust middle aged woman...think I'll start counting. )Even the 4 top septugenerians who had 3 beers and a glass of white wine were impeccably dressed and good looking. Dark haired male models, impossibly gorgeous women with flowing hair and high cheekbones....is this a movie set? Even the staff is well dressed under their long dark aprons.

Okay, out into the night. It looks like I can walk two blocks along rue Monge and find the #5 metro at Gare de Austerlitz, that goes right back to my hotel. I'll have to remember that tomorrow when i scout out the trip carrying a paco jet and a 10 liter bottle of liquid nitrogen from Fish to the event site.

Andrea Petrini talks about Paris Event

In January, Chefs from all over the world will gather in a convention center in the 5th arrondissement of Paris. Each will be given 50 minutes on a stage overlooking 600 seats. The 3 day event is open from 10 am to 6 pm, and each chef will use food and cooking techniques to demonstrate the theme of the event, "Surface, Skin, and Scar". At the same time, occupying the same stage, an artist of the chef's choosing will interpret what the chef is demonstrating. Here Andre Petrini talks to Blaine about the upcoming event, at the "Exquisite Corpse" event in New York City.

New York City Le Fooding Event: Apres Event Parties

The Dutch

We all packed into the large booth at one corner of the bar, and the staff knew who we were, and brought some wine. Andrew Carmellini had other plans, but twittered he was sorry he missed us and let the staff know we were coming. Most of us had not eaten much all day, and were hungry, so I asked our waiter to just feed us, to let the cookstaff decide our menu. More or less one of everything came out during our 3 hour feast. First a 3 tiered seafood platter with crab (east coast version), octopus, calamari, sea urchin roe, even west coast head-on spot prawns! Then crackers with eggplant dip, oyster sandwiches, and Asian white boy ribs, followed by barrio tripe, burrata with figs and escarole. After not much of a pause, out came striped bass with lemongrass curry, grilled bigeye tuna with chorizo, roasted duck with pecans and rice, lamb shank tagine with citrus couscous, giant ribeye steak, and glazed bone out pork chop with chard and roasted apple. All of this was accompanied by amazing french fries, a cornbread that Blaine and the rest could not stop talking about, spaghetti squash with walnuts and sage, yummy mashed potatoes, and broccoli raab with garlic and lemon. Wow, the food was so good that Michele and I dug right in for dinner #2. Even dessert was irresistible: pepper chocolate cake, sweet corn panna cotta, sundae of frozen yogurt, grape sorbet, figs, baklava, and rosemary granite, and the piece de resistance, a deconstructed blueberry pie that was undeniably the best I have ever had. This was the best meal of the trip, due not only to the food and lack of stress, but also the fun and camaraderie shared by our staff and Carmellini’s staff. They were showing their stuff, and it was good! Michele and I headed back to the hotel for a good night’s sleep, and everyone else headed up to 15^th st for dancing. Ah, to be young again.

Per Se

Because Blaine and crew missed their flight Friday, a reservation at 11 Madison Park, one of Zagat’s top 10 restaurants in New York, had to be cancelled, much to the disappointment of everyone. After all, part of being in New York is eating at legendary restaurants. Luckily, Aaron, who had worked there, managed to secure a reservation at Per Se, Thomas Keller’s New York version of the French Laundry, and rated #2 in NYC by Zagat, for Sunday night, our last night in New York. Anticipation was high as Sunday brought blue skies and warm weather. Since only Jesse had a sports coat, the rest of the staff had to borrow jackets from Per Se’s cloakroom, all matching brown, some better fitting than others. Michele and I arrived a little early, and waited in the “bar” area, a formal seating area of small couches and matching chairs. I asked for a flute of champagne, (no prosecco at this place!), and it was a nice Billecart Salmon Rose. Michele asked for the wine list, and an i pad was placed in her hands. They do have a huge wine list, and I can see why they went to this technology 6 months ago. Unfortunately, we found the champagne I was sipping, at $42 per glass. We decided to share.

Finally everyone arrived, dressed beautifully, and they found seats around our coffee table. From nowhere 7 flutes of Billecart were set before us. I gulped, knowing the price. Oh, well, nothing to do. We sipped the flutes and set them down, and were shown to our seats. Following behind us were 4 servers, each with two of our variously filled flutes in hand, who set them down in front of each of us in exactly the right position. I knew that we were in store for special service. Bottomless bottles of Billecart Salmon Rose came from the wings unbidden, as we pondered our menus, with me cringing with each round. At $42 per glass, we were rushing into forbidden economic territory, even at Per Se. I consoled myself that WE serve bottomless prosecco with our first snacks, and perhaps this was their prosecco, and that because I first ordered Billecart that was a signal to the staff to serve Billecart as our starter. This turned out to be the case, and I congratulated myself on my good choice!

There were two menus available, each at $295 per plate. One was the tasting menu, and one was the vegetarian menu. There were a few substitutions, and we ordered every variation they had. Michele ordered vegetarian, I asked for gluten-free, and the rest ordered omnivore’s delight. See both menus here. In all, the experience was delightful. Each plate was perfectly beautiful, and served with grace. There were 4 service missteps, which surprised all of us, since Per Se is rated #1 in service in all of NYC, as vegetarian plates sometimes went to others, and caviar and foie gras substitutions were switched. We all felt that the flavors were not as big as we had grown used to on Lummi Island, and the textures were not very toothsome. Blaine became obsessed with their pretzels, one of the bread selections that were constantly replenished, so much so that soon jokes went around the table about “Wetzel’s Pretzels” being the next business venture. We asked the sommelier to decide on wines for us, at a moderate price range, and he chose 4 beautiful pairings, one of which we bought for $420. We were not at Per Se to be frugal, and wanted the whole experience, and certainly got it. The bill came to $4022.94, for 8 of us, service included. We finished at 10:30, a 4 hour feast, and after dinner the staff gave us a complete tour of the kitchen. There were no walk-ins, just a few reach-ins, and a special chocolate-making room. Everything, including the floor, was spotless. The staff still there working late was large. We saw the famous video link with the French Laundry’s kitchen in Napa, where it was only 7:30. Strange to ponder. After dinner we walked to Times Square, just to see it. It was like drinking 10 cups of coffee at once.

New York City Le Fooding Event: The Event

The Event

Michele and I arrived an hour early, at 4 pm, in order to take pictures and save some good seats for Manny Howard and his wife, Lisa. Manny is a writer for New York
Times, and Lisa is the producer of Billboard, in all of its iterations. As I walked around and took some photos, I noticed Andrea Petrini on the fringes of the super hot kitchen, talking to Blaine. He was dapper as usual, dressed in pink pants, yellow shirt, and Keds that looked to be decorated by Jackson Pollack. His signature flat black glasses perched firmly on his nose, and he seemed so at home, taking time to speak to everyone who came into his sphere of influence. He stayed for Blaine’s food, eating with the Slovenian chef Ana Cos, who had preceded Blaine and was a true standout of the event.The pop up kitchen was a little better than a home kitchen, set up with authentic walls and shelves, fridge, large island, and a stove. The 58 guests were seated at 3 tables, one of which was long and lit by a beautiful chandelier made from gallon jugs and lit by small strings of lights. To enhance the ambiance, the table was festooned with lots of candles, all of which added to the 90 degree heat. Blaine and team had black kerchiefs to wipe the sweat that was flowing freely. Veuve Cliquot and S. Pellegrino were two of the event sponsors, and everyone received a split of yellow label and lots of sparkling water at their table. Raquel had managed to train the Fooding staff to do things her way. Serve the ladies first, if someone leaves refold their napkin, take dirty dishes with nary a whisper, and the food needs to be delivered hot! Hot! Hot! Because the numbers increased from 40 to 58, due to the popularity of Blaine’s meal, service was super hard, but we on the receiving end noticed very little. The snacks of smoked sockeye, pink salmon roe, black cod on a potato chip, all came out without a hitch, though the gaps between them were a little longer than usual. After all, Blaine maxes out at 36 at the Willows Inn. The courses were familiar to me, but the flavors were good, and I could hear satisfying murmurs from nearby diners. A lot of them were from Europe, perhaps because of the 7 European chefs at the event. Even the ice cream dessert with green apple and licorice discs arrived still solid, a feat in the heat of the room.

Somewhere after the second course I realized that the meal was going to end, the boys would want to eat and celebrate, and it was Saturday night in New York City. I asked Manny if he had any ideas, and right away he and Lisa started tapping away at their blackberries. Andrew Carmellini, chef/owner of The Dutch, who had performed on Friday, was contacted. Just like that an 8 top in the bar of one of the hottest restaurants in the city was reserved for us. Nice to have friends. Finally Blaine’s dessert of ice cream and apple and licorice discs was served, amazingly still frozen, what with the 90 degree temperature in the room, and soon the team was scrubbing the counters and sweeping the floor. True to form, Blaine left the kitchen spotless and uncluttered, a fact noticed by many of the chefs who offered congratulations after the meal. We walked back to the hotel in the warm twilight, and changed for dinner.

New York City Le Fooding Event: Getting Ready

Getting Ready

Michele and I flew in a day early on Thursday, September 24^th, to check out the hotel and the event site. The lodgings chosen by Le Fooding for guest chefs was a brand new hotel in Chelsea called Hotel Americano, a Mexican chain of boutique hotels. It had been open only a week, and was heavily staffed and very attentive. Our plan for the next day, Friday, was to find the restaurant Andrea Petrini had found for Blaine to do his prep work, the Del Posto, Mario Batali’s Michelin starred restaurant near the Chelsea Market, and then to find the Honey Space, an empty art gallery called a Pop-Up, where moveable events take place and then disappear. Instead, at breakfast we received an anguished phone call from Blaine: he had missed his plane. The whole team would not arrive until 11 pm, and I was to pick up their luggage (read: food ingredients) and get it to the hotel and ice it down with dry ice. I immediately thought, oh, right, Blaine late, with his head in the clouds, but I could not have been more wrong. They arrived at SeaTac three hours early, only to find that the ice chests were too heavy. They scrambled around town to find some wax boxes to shift some of the ingredients, and by the time they got them ready, a huge line had assembled at the Delta check-in. Cutting to the front of the line, they managed to get the bags checked , but the line at security had also grown, and there was no cutting in line there. They suffered through security, with Blaine and Aaron getting out first, and they ran to the Delta gate, knowing there was not much time. At the gate they were told that they had only two or three minutes until the doors would close, and Blaine assured them that the rest of the team was only four minutes, the time to ride the shuttle train, behind. He left Aaron there to make sure that the gate door would not close, and ran back to meet the train. When it arrived, everyone sprinted to the gate, only to find Aaron nearly in tears: they had 30 seconds earlier closed the gate door. Blaine and Aaron saw that the plane was still there, and forced the doors open. Security alarms went off all over the airport, and in seconds security personnel swarmed the group. See the video.No, they were not getting on. Period. Lucky to not go to jail.

The luggage arrival time was 3 pm, but I went at noon to take no chances, leaving Michele to wander around Chelsea by herself. The taxi driver who took me to JFK was typical of the drivers we had experienced thus far. There seemed to be no rules, especially around police, except you were not allowed to make contact with any other vehicles. Two lanes become three, yellow lights mean speed up, and seat belts? Ha! Forget it! The drive was pleasant to a person who learned to drive in San Francisco, and I sat back and enjoyed the ride.

When the luggage began to slam down the rotary island chosen for Blaine’s flight, I realized that I had no idea what the bags looked like, only the huge white ice chests. I texted Blaine, and he told me that red socks had been tied to two of the bags, and that there was a purple one as well, no markings. I managed to snag the ice chests, the boxes, and the two bags with socks, but wasn’t sure about the purple one. There was one going around and around, and after everyone seemed to have gotten their bags, I took the purple one and added it to the pile. Wrong. After waiting an hour or so for Ben Speigel, one member of the team that was flying in on a different flight, a wild-eyed black woman in a uniform walked by me and gave me the evil eye: “That’s not your bag! Is it?” I said I hoped it was, but didn’t really have a good description. Wrong answer. “No, that’s not your bag!” and she went away and brought a beautiful young woman with a serious attitude who grabbed the bag and said,” What? Do you just go around taking other peoples’ bags?” I mumbled an apologetic no, and then realized as she disappeared with her bag, that I was missing a purple suitcase. I went to the authorities, where Miss Evil-Eye asked me for names. Who’s bag was I missing? I just started naming names, until she heard Jesse Cammerer, and she stopped me and led me to his purple bag outside the office.

I had found a store online that sold dry ice, not that far from the hotel, but it closed at 6:30. No problem, I thought, since it was only 4, and the ride back to the city was usually less than an hour. What I failed to realize was that we had more luggage than any two taxis could haul. “No problem!” our airport ambassador assured us. He would find us a van! 45 minutes later, a non-descript van appeared, and we loaded our considerable luggage into its bowels. The driver was a pleasant South American born American, who just loved to talk. For the first 15 minutes, I engaged him in conversation. When I realized that he would slow the van to a crawl for each answer, generously allowing those behind us to pass us on both sides, I stopped talking to him. Unfortunately, Ben did not get that lesson, and the driver actually stopped and turned around to address him. Green light? Who cares! This is an important conversation! Around that time I called Michele and suggested that she should prepare to find the dry ice store, and make plans to get some, and she volunteered to head out then. Good call. By the time we had circled W 27^th Ave and 10^th st for the 3^rd time, it was 8 pm and there was no way we could have found any dry ice. I hadn’t eaten all day, and my blood sugar was down to somewhere in the soles of my feet. I paid the driver, and rushed to my room to find Michele with a grand smile and a hug. I chugged a champagne split from the wine bar and started to feel normal. Everything was going to be all right. Ben, Michele and I repacked all of the ingredients, using new dry ice, and were thrilled to find the ice cream still frozen solid. Almost nothing had been damaged in transit.

The rest of the team arrived at midnight. The group included Raquel Fenn, Blaine Wetzel, Aaron Abramson, Ben Speigel, Jesse Cammerer, and Austin Johnson, Aaron’s sous-chef friend who lives in the city. Instead of falling asleep, they immediately walked to the prep restaurant, Del Posto, and checked out the kitchen. After that they found the event space, where at 3 am one of the dinners was being served, and they got the full impact of what was about to transpire. They went back to the hotel, and got 2 hours sleep.

When we got to Del Posto, at noon the next day, Blaine and team were seriously into the prep, and almost done. After the chaos of the previous day, they were solidly in control. They knew what to do, and there wasn’t much that could throw them off their game. This was a team that had worked together so long, doing all of the courses about to be served, that it was pretty much rote at this point. Back at the hotel, the next day, the team quietly went over every detail of the service. Who was to do what, when, and what the likely pitfalls might be. Then, with a group high five, they headed to Del Posto to pick up their food. Let the Show Begin!

Summer May Never Arrive, But...

...we are acting as though it has. At least is is not 110 degrees, and humid. I'll take our weather.
The reefnet boats are in the water and ready to fish! Here is a video showing our outside boat being launched using Bob Jewell's trolley. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SY6yqwqJLA
We will likely start fishing towards the middle of next week, for sockeye. This season will bring a very large run of pink salmon, the cleanest protein on earth! Taste for yourself what a well-cared for, bled pink salmon tastes like. We will be serving them at the Willows Inn as soon as we get the first ones.
Spot prawn season is moving right along. We are serving them for Prawns on the Deck on Mondays and Tuesdays, and Blaine is using them for one of his courses. This is how they look after Blaine has peeled them. They are so beautifully translucent before they are cooked.
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Koraley Orritt is once again bringing her amazing organic ducks. Blaine dry ages them for a week and though expensive, the breasts are exquisite. We are still serving Jeremy Brown's troll-caught king salmon, which is hard to beat. My guess is that our guests will get to compare reefnet-caught sockeye with troll-caught kings for the next 6 weeks.
We had our first float plane landing with some guests from Chicago. It went seamlessly, with our guests stepping off the plane pontoon onto dry sand. I pushed the plane away from the shore, and off he went!