Coastal Cooking with Chef Michael Hutchings

Dispach from a Silver Pot

Le Gavroche, London, is still a stunning restaurant at 40 plus years old. This short post from the field will be expanded on later. For now, I will cite two snippets of our dinner to make the point. The service staff was finishing plating a table next to us. Two waiters and one captain were busily carving and serving a leg of milk fed lamb from France. One gentleman left the table at that point. I told my wife, Christine, that his plate would be covered with a silver dome within five seconds, and so it was. The second point was the entrée pictured in this post, rack of milk fed lamb. This dish, served with a ragout of fresh flageolet and porcini, a light jus and lamb kidney was a perfection of superb ingredients and precise execution. The lamb was so tender that it evaporated in your mouth. Yes, Le Gavroche at 40, under the direction of chef-owner Michele Roux Jr., is destined to be a dinning Mecca for decades to come.

Chef Michael Hutchings

http://chefmichaelhutchings.com

Le Gavroche

England's First Three Star Michel Restaurant

In 1978, when I reported to work at Le Gavroche, it ws a three star restaurant encased in two star surroundings. The dining room was small, restrooms ordinary and the wine cellar was under the banqet seating. What was spectacular at Le Gavroche was the food. Albert Roux's style was solidly based on classics from the repetoire reching back to Escoffier, Duboise and Careme. The menu made it clear that "the classic dishes that appear on our menu bear the hallmark of our interpretation." Some of those dishes included Oeufs Froide Careme, Souffle Suisesse, Caneton Le Gavroche and Sable aux Framboise. The Souffle Suissese dates back to the 1800s and chef Escoffier. The soufflé is a binding bechamel (thick cream sauce) thickened with egg yolks and whipped egg whites folded into the bechamel. The soufflé is placed in a mold, baked, tipped onto a pool of reduced cream and topped with grated gruyere cheese then baked again. Albert said that this dish paid the rent. It still plays well today and diners remeber the dish from my restaurant, Michael's Waterside (1983-1993). We dine at Le Gavroche tomorrow evening. The location of the restaurant changed from the Chelsea area of London to Mayfair. The move provided the luxury needed to lift it to three star Michelin rating. Michel Roux Jr. Took over the kitchen in the early 1990s and Michelin dropped one star, typical when the primary chef position changes. We look forward to dinner tomorrow and will post our thoughts on a future blog.

Chef Michael Hutchings

http://www.chefmichaelhutchings.com

Gruyere Cheese Souffle

"Discovery" at Covent Garden

Christine, my wife, and I did our own walking tour in the heart of London today. Tired and hungry, we grabbed a cab and headed to the Covent Garden area. We stubled into "the oldest restaurant in London," Rules. Established in 1798, they make a good case.

The chef also made a good case for British food. We had a delightful dinner that started with Potted Shrimp and Goat Cheese Fritters. Main courses were a Veal Blanquette with Porcini Mushrooms and a Saddle of Rabbit with a ragout of mushrooms and artichokes all washed down with a house claret. Puddings were "Pancakes" in honor of Shrove Tuesday (orange crepes with clotted cream) and a Treacle Cake with mascarpone.

The ambiace was a clutter of British pop culture mixed with persons of literary, political and entertainment fame. All this is encased in a shell of dark woods, gold leaf and British brick-a-brack. A chat with the chef revealed that we dined off the new winter menu. The main game season has passed and new dishes have been introduced to replace them. For the menu and more information go to their website, http://www.rules.co.uk

Cheers, Chef Michael Hutchings

Wild mushrooms at Fortnum and Mason

Fortnum and Masons is a London institution. The shop has been around since 1707. Aside from being a high-end department store, they have a food hall that sells hig-end groceries. There is a whole section of foie gras (from fresh to pates), a caviar section, jams of avery kind of fruit and berry and my favorite, a wild mushroom section. In the photo below are wild mushrooms from the New Forest. The

porcini mushrooms, pictured on the right, are one of the best of the wild mushroom varieties. The best way to enjoy the porcini is to saute them in butter with shallots, garlic, chopped parsley, salt and freshly ground pepper.

Chef Michael Hutchings

Simple Beginnings at Sly's

My dear friend and college, James Sly, purports to cook "tired old favorites" at his namesake restaurant, Sly's in Carpinteria. Skinny Onion Rings and Potato Rounds sent us off to LAX. Chef Sly's Wedge with Roquefort and Vine Ripe Tomatoes and Bone in Prime NY Steak fortified us for 36 hours of travel.

James and Annie surprised us with lunch at the Waterside Inn, the three started Michelin restaurant outside of London. Christine and I are looking forward to knoshing and gawking around London.

Chef Michael Hutchings

Abalone!

Chef’s Corner-Bits and Bites, by Chef Michael Hutchings

Abalone!

Above-onshore abalone farm at The Cultured Abalone, Goleta, CA

The mention of this mollusk conjures up memories of someone diving for, eating it somewhere, hearing about it, or seeing a button or ashtray made from the shell. Mostly we remember it as the abalone steak. Some diners claim that the texture reminds them of Wiener schnitzel or conch. The abalone is really a huge, flattened snail, a sort of escargot of the sea. The abalone has its origins in the Upper Cretaceous period, some 80 million years ago. In California there are four types, red, black , green, white and pink. The white and red varieties are considered the best culinary types. The abalone has a long history as a food source. California Indians used them as food and the shells were used as tools, ornaments and barter items. In the 1800s, commercial harvesting started on a large scale first by Chinese then Japanese immigrants. Hard hat divers began harvesting in the 1900s. In 1915 “Pop” Ernest Doelter, a restaurateur in Monterey, introduced abalone at the Panama Pacific International Exposition and abalone became a gourmet food item. Inevitable, the abalone resource was overexploited and wild stocks dwindled to the point where harvesting was banned. The 80’s were the last hurrah for the wild stock. About that same time, marine scientists at the University of California at Santa Barbara discovered how to induce abalone to spawn and a new industry was born, abalone mariculture.

Enter John McMullen of Ab Lab. I met John one afternoon when he wandered in to the kitchen at the Olive Mill Bistro, a bygone Santa Barbara restaurant, with a bag of red abalone that were 1-1/2 inches in diameter, live in the shell. He was growing them for the State Fish and Game Department to reseed the depleted abalone beds. I had been cooking the large wild abalone for years and tried these out as an appetizer. They were a huge hit and I was soon preparing some 20 dozen a week. Locally, The Cultured Abalone company has been raising abalone at an onshore mariculture farm located in Goleta. Abalone are bred and raised in onshore tanks until they reach a commercial size in about 3-1/2 years. Sea water is pumped in from a deep intake and passed through a UV light to kill off parasites. They start life as free swimming, microscopic animals eating an algae that grows on the tanks and then graduate to kelp, their natural food. The abalone farms sells live abalone that are about 3-1/2 inches in the shell. As a twist of history, the orientals are still big buyers of abalone and the farm ships thousands overseas each year. Preparation involves scrapping them out of the shell, removing the “working parts” and giving them a little time under a tenderizing mallet. I like the classic egg batter method with a quick sauté in butter. A white wine and butter emulsion sauce with enoki daki mushrooms, snipped dill and diced tomatoes is a great foil for this unique local product. They are available from The Cultured Abalone, (805) 685-1956.

  Farmed abalone with a dill and enoki butter sauce 

Tastefully yours, Chef Michael Hutchings Michael’s Catering

http://www.michaelscateringsb.com

Gone Fishing

Chef’s Corner-Bits and Bites, by Chef Michael Hutchings

Gone Fishing

My favorite way to fish is to call my suppliers and find out what the fishermen are bringing is that day and have it delivered the next morning. Unless you live on the coast, the task for the at-home cook is much more difficult. Purchasing fish is one of the more confusing things we do at the market. After all, there are hundreds of species and varieties of fish but far fewer types of beef, chicken and pork. 

Fish needs to be fresh. After all, have you ever heard of 21 day dry aged fish? Add to this complexity the fact that just caught fish can bee “too fresh” to cooked due to the dramatic stiffening of fish which occurs several hours after it is caught. If cooked too soon, the fish will contract and pull itself apart and become mushy. It can take several hours to several days to relax before it is ready for cooking. Compound this with the fragility of fish and it is easy to see why buying fish seems too complicated.

Much of the fish that is available in retail market has been frozen. Frozen retail fillets have the potential of being frozen twice when bought frozen, once as a whole fish on the boat and then after it has been defrosted, cut into fillets and refrozen.

Frozen fish can be excellent provided it is flash frozen shortly after being caught, kept below zero and defrosted slowly in the refrigerator, set on ice so the ice crystals do not damage cells causing moisture, flavor and texture loss. Second best is to defrost in cold water with fish in a sealed bag if it has been filleted.

Your best bet is to find a finding a fishmonger that is serious about freshness and cultivate a relationship with that business. Choose fish markets that are spotlessly clean, no fish aroma, save sweetness like the ocean shore. Look for oriental markets, especially Japanese, as they are fanatics about fish quality.

Fish should be stored neatly, not heaped carelessly on ice. Whole fish should be covered with clean crushed ice.

fillet of fish should be set on trays with no direct contact with ice and should be in a refrigerated case. Whole fish is always better. Look for clear eyes not cloudy or faded, skin smooth and slick. The flesh should feel firm, with a resilience.

Fillets should not have a strong fishy smell but a sweet smell of the sea and fresh, brilliant colors. They should have a moist sheen with no hint of film or slim. Any coloration on white fillets should be cherry red and not brown. Irregular red coloring may indicate mishandling and bruising when caught. The flesh should be translucent, not opaque which indicates it may not be fresh or was frozen improperly. Tuna steaks are best if kept in large pieces, wrapped in plastic and should haze a translucent pink or red color with no hint of brown. Some fish get a rainbow effect and should be avoided. Avoid fillets with spaces in the flesh. They should be dense with no gaping anywhere, if you get pre-packed fish, look for all of the above as well as avoid those with an accumulation of water.

One final hint. Do not overcook fish. Internal temperature of 135 to 145 degrees F. gives a great results.

Tastefully yours,

Chef Michael Hutchings

Michael’s Catering

www.michaelscateringsb.com

Going Home to Le Gavroche

In 1978, when I was casting about for a position in Europe to hone my culinary skill, I spoke with the chef of L'Ermitage restaurant in Los Angeles. Chef Jean Bertrano of L' Hermitage. He was very sympathetic to my search and suggested I contact Albert Roux of Le Gavroche in London. As luck would have it, Chef Jean Grodin of L'Orangerie, where I was working, had spent a year at Le Gavroche . A call that evening to Albert Roux landed me a position as a chef de partie.

I was married at the time with an eight month old child, Emily, and we cashed out savings and our worldly possessions to go to Europe for a year of training. While waiting for my documentation for a work permit in England, we made a culinary tour of France. I was hoping for a brief stint at a fine restaurant for a month or so. We, I mostly, ate my way from Paris to Monte Carlo with stops at L’Orangerie, Paris, Chateaux d’Artigny, Troisgros, Le Pyramid, Chez La Mer Brazier and La Terasse to name a few. 

The bureaucracy took almost 6 months to get the papers done.

 

During that interim, we were hosted by a kind French family, Gerard and Elian Antonin. They owned a one starred Michelin restaurant, Restaurant De La Terrasse,  about an hour out of Lyon on the Rhône river. They were very generous and put us up in their country home in Baron. To earn my keep, I worked at the restaurant and kept the garden at the country home. 

It was an idyllic spot. We bought milk from a dairy across the road, goat cheese and rabbits from next door, hunted wild strawberries in the nearby forest and shopped for groceries at a local village open air market that was hundreds of years old.

 

Finally, the papers came through and we made the trip to London. After settling in a 6 floor walk-up attic flat, I reported to work. My mouth must have hit the floor when I saw the kitchen for the first time. It was in the basement at 61-62 Lower Sloan Street. It was small, very small, and some 16 cooks were busy getting ready for service. It was hard to believe that this was a two starred Michelin restaurant.

 

I reported to work with some apprehension. The Chef, Jean-Louis Tabellaut, put me to work. Mind you, I’ll do anything in the kitchen. That first day I cleaned mussels, very encrusted, peeled grapes and walnuts and chopped herbs. This was not what I expected. I decided to stay at least a month since we had made such an effort to get there. I borrowed the recipe book every night and hand copied the entire 150 pages by hand into my notebook.

I managed to stick it out and after two months, Albert Roux invited myself and family to dine at his home. I thought it was a sympathy dinner. As it turned out, Albert offered to fully train me in all aspects of the restaurant and then do a partnership in the U.S. to open a branch of his culinary empire. I was delighted and after thinking it over, agreed to the plan. Shortly thereafter, I was made sous chef of a two starred Michelin restaurant.

I’ll pick up on this thread later.

Next week I am off to celebrate my 60th birthday with my new bride, Christine. We are making a pilgrimage to London and going to celebrate at Le Gavroche.

Michel Roux Jr. has held the reins of the kitchen since the 1990s. He was an apprentice back in 1978 when I was at Le Gavroche. I am looking forward to seeing the evolution the restaurant has made in the ensuing years.

Check back over the next few weeks fo updates.

 

Chef Michael Hutchings

 

www.michaelscateringsb.com

Le Gavroche

43 Upper Brook St. London, United Kingdom W1

Phone: 020-7408-0881

Reserve Online

Website: 

http://www.le-gavroche.co.uk

 

 

 

 

 

Wanted, a few good cookbooks!

Chef’s Corner-Bits and Bites, by Chef Michael Hutchings

I was once accused of being a chef that cooks from book knowledge, not from experience. My short reply was that I don’t cook books, I cook food. That was in 1981 and I now own some 1,200 cook books.

I find that I go to a cookbook for recipes that are practical, interesting or inspire the creative process. Recipes to me are like the score to a musical composition. Preparing a recipe still takes the skill and craft of to bring it alive and interpret the written words. I always feel a certain kinship communicating with a fellow culinarian through their recorded work. Many cookbooks are the personal memoirs of celebrity chefs. I have books from Mrs. Beaton’s Cookery and Household Management to How to Serve Man, a spoof on cannibal cooking.

 

Among my cookbook library as a treasured 1904 first edition English edition of Escoffier's Guife Culinaire. Auguste Escoffier was the super chef of his day. He wrote books, sold a food product line, was a media star, presided over grand kitchens and cooked for celebrities and royalty. He earned the moniker “Chef of Kings and King of Chefs”.

 

The fundamentals section in Escoffier’s book is ageless and should be read and reread. There are timeless methods for the preparation of stocks, mother sauces, little sauces, endless recipes for fillet of sole, filet of beef and the named recipes based on persons or places. Many of the recipes are a history lesson on a plate. Peach Melba was named after an opera singer and Tournedos Rossini after the famous Italian composer.

 

The famed chef Andre Soltner said, "When we were young chefs, we were almost forced by our chef to read Escoffier. To me, it's the basics. We should not forget these things. The danger is...that young chefs [will] follow the trends without knowing the classics. And then when the trend changes, they are stuck. You need this basic training, and then you can do anything you wish. " 

 

I can only encourage young chefs to reread the old masters, learn the classic methods much as a music student learns basic harmony, before you try to improvise. It’s all in those books.

 

My essential list for that trip to a desert island (with lots of food):

Foods of the World (1968-70), Time-Life Books 

American Cookery, James Beard

Encyclopedia of Practical Gastronomy, Ali-Bab

Fish & Shellfish: The Definitive Cook's Companion, James Peterson

Great Italian Cooking, Luigi Carnacina

Joy of Cooking, Rombauer, Becker and Becker

Larousse Gastronomique, Prosper Montagne

Le Guide Culinaire, Auguste Escoffier. 

Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Beck, Bertholle, Child

The Complete Asian Cookbook, Charmaine Solomon

The Professional Chef, Culinary Institute of America

The Professional Pastry Chef, Bo Friberg

 

 

Tastefully yours,

 

Chef Michael Hutchings

 

 

Michael’s Catering

www.michaelscateringsb.com