Coastal Cooking with Chef Michael Hutchings

What you Did Not Know About Carrots

A foray to the Farmers Market in Santa Barbara often reveals the unexpected. James Sly, chef/owner of Sly’s in Carpinteria, and I were at the Saturday Market and came across a tuber we did not readily recognize. We spoke with the farmer who related that it was a purple carrot. These were being sold along with yellow-white carrots and the usual orange varieties. The farmer gave us a brief lesson on carrot history and this piqued my curiosity.

 

According the World Carrot Museum, www.carrotmuseum.com, wild carrots were used some 10,000 years ago in Europe and Asia for medicinal purposes.

Carrots with edible roots originated in present day Afghanistan about 5000 years ago, probably originally as a purple or yellow root.  Over thousands of years it moved from a small, tough, bitter and spindly root to a fleshy, sweet, pigmented unbranched edible root.  It transformed from its seeds being used as a medicine or aphrodisiac to the root being eaten in many different dishes. Even before the introduction of domesticated carrots, wild plants were grown in gardens as medicinal plants.

Photo Credit Museum of Carrots

The purple carrot existed in Central Asia for several centuries before the Arabs in about the 10th century brought it west. It is thought the carotene carrot was domesticated in the regions around Turkey. The precise date is not known but thought to be before the 8th century.

The purple and yellow carrots both gradually spread into Europe in subsequent centuries. It is considered that the white carrot is also a mutant of yellow varieties. These mutants eventually produced an orange carrot.

The origin of the cultivated carrot is clearly acknowledged to be purple and in the Afghanistan region mainly because it was known to exist there well before reliable literature references or paintings gave evidence of Western carotene carrots.So, those oddly colored tubers are descendants of the original varieties that emerged from Afghanistan.

Here is a simple recipe for a puree of carrot and potatoes, a Peruvian wild tuber.

Tastefully yours

Chef Michael Hutchings

 

Souffle Omelet

Omelets are one of the best uses for natures most versatile ingredient, eggs. A Souffled omelet is a fun hat trick that will impress your guests. Essentially, the yolk and white are separated, the whites are whipped into a meringue with a little salt and the two are folded together. The egg mix goes into a non-stick pan with sizzling butter, cook for a few moments on top of a stove and then baked in an oven for a few minutes.

This omelet souffle has an addition of cooked tiny scallions with tomatoes and local ridge-back shrimp. I found these at the local Farmers Market in Santa Barbara.

Assemblage of Ingredients for Omelet Souffle

Garnishes Simmering in Pan

Yolks and Whipped Egg Whites Mixture Added to Garnishes

Omelet Souffle Out of Oven

Finished Omelet Souffle Steaming Hot

Two important tips on cooking the souffle is not to under or over cook the souffle. If it is undercooked and a little raw, it will collapse. Overcooking toughens the souffle and it will also collapse as the egg proteins shrink.

The dish has infinite variations limited only by your pantry and imagination. There are also dessert variations such as the Omelette Souffle Rothschild that Chef Michel Roux does at Le Gavroche in London, England. It has a sweet bechamel base with meringue folded into the mix and is served with vanilla poached apricots. Please send an email for a complete recipe.

Here are a few ideas for combinations:

Finely chopped herbs, tarragon, parley, chives.

Grated Gruyere cheese and diced-steamed potatoes.

Basil and tomato.

Wild mushrooms sauteed in shallots and garlic.

Black Perigord truffles.

Tastefully yours

Chef Michael Hutchings

[email protected]

Last Meal on the Planet

 

photo credit 13thcolony.wordpress.com/2008/07/

It's a favorite question to ask a chef, "What would you have for your last meal on earth?" The book, My Last Supper by Melanie Dunea, compiles a list of celebrity chef's Final Order. It is as if death clarifies choice. I think I would be like Sheherazade in 1001 Nights and have as many favorite last meals to prolong the gustatory orgy as long as possible. OK, so it is really the last meal on the planet. What would the menu be? Not the Kahlil Gibran version with a jug of wine, a loaf of bread and thou.

I have two versions, one deluxe and the other maximum comfort food.

Maximum Comfort Food

Peel and Eat Ridge-back Shrimp

New Orleans Style Clam Chowder

Caesar Salad

Roasted Free Range Chicken with Truffles

Garlic Mashed Potatoes

Haricot Vert with Shallots and Thyme

Selection of Farm Cheese and Walnut Bread

Vanilla Bean Ice Cream with Bittersweet Chocolate Sauce

Warm Chocolate Chip Cookies

Homemade Orange Marshmallows and Truffles

Ultra Deluxe Final Order

Beluga Caviarr Fully Loaded

Gratin of Crayfish with Cognac

Terrine of Foie Gras Torchon with It's Aspic and Brioche Toast

Vervaine Granite

Rack of Milk Fed Lamb from the Pyrenees au Jus

Fricassee of Wild Mushrooms

Gruyere Cheese Souffle

Salad of Mache, Hazelnuts and Apples with Shaved White Truffles

Marjolaine Cake - Point's Recipe

Hazelnut Tuiles, Cognac Truffles with Fleur de Sel

On second thought, why wait? Oh yes, I'll have a little thou as well.

Pensively yours

Chef Michael Hutchings

Santa Barbara Farmers Market

The Tuesday Farmers Markett in Santa Barbara is a great place to shop for local seafood and farm-fresh products. My wife Christine and I were on the hunt for dinner so we headed down to the market. It is clearly spring at the market. The strawberries are and incredible, luscious red. The Gaviota and  Chandlers are particularly sweet. We found scallions that were only 1/8 inch thick and lettuces that looked like a still life painting.

We picked up a few pounds of brilliant tomatoes, the longest baby leeks I have ever seen, and a couple of pounds of ultra-fresh ridge-back shrimp, still twitching. The ride-backs are limited to an incidental catch of no more than 50 pounds.

Local Ridge-back Shrimp

Dinner was easy to improvise with such great ingredients. I prepared a fricassee of shrimp with leeks, tomatoes, rosemary, garlic and Sherry wine, steamed artichoke, boiled beets and a salad with Japanese cucumbers, red leaf lettuce, cauliflower, more luscious tomatoes and my own Boudrain salad dressing.

We washed it all down  with Jaffurs 2006 Syrah.  In Jaffurs own word, "Jaffurs Wine Cellars is dedicated to producing great Rhone varietal wines with a new-world independence. Our wines -Syrah, Grenache, Petite Sirah, Viognier, and Roussanne - are among the best in the county. Owner/winemaker Craig Jaffurs, produced his first professional wines during the 1994 harvest. All our wines are carefully made in small lots. Only about 3500 cases are produced each year - production is limited. We work closely with our growers in the Santa Ynez, Santa Rita, Los Alamos, and the Santa Maria growing regions. We limit vineyard yields and require that optimal farming practices are observed. All our wines are crushed, pressed, cellared and bottled in our Santa Barbara facility. Visit us for a glimpse of world class winemaking in the heart of the city.  2007 is our 14th harvest!."

Send me an email if you would like the recipe.

Tastefully yours, 

Chef Michael Hutchings

Luncheon at Girls Inc.

We had an opportunity to cater a luncheon for the local Girls Inc. of Carpinteria. In their own words,

"Girls Incorporated is a non-profit organization dedicated to inspiring all girls to be strong, smart, and bold.  With National Girls Inc. roots dating back to 1864, and local roots dating back to the 1980's, Girls Inc. has responded to the changing needs of girls through award-winning, innovative after-school and summer educational enrichment programs and through public education efforts that empower girls to understand, value, and assert their rights." 

I created a new dish for the luncheon, Roulade of Leeks and Mushrooms with Chicken Salad.

It is a dish I derived from a recipe in Chef Darren McGrady's "Cooking Royally." Chef Darren was Princess Diana's private chef. I had the pleasure of helping him do a luncheon for CASA last year. He has a recipe for a Carrot Roulade with egg salad. I loved the concept and have evolved it into several new dishes.

Here is a conceptual recipe for the roulade. Cut leeks into round ribbons and wash them well. Drain. Cook the leeks in butter until soft and transparent, season with salt and pepper. Slice white mushrooms, season with salt and pepper and saute in butter. Cool.

Combine leeks and mushrooms and mix in egg yolks and fresh herbs like tarragon and chives. Whip egg whites to a meringue and fold into the leek mixture. Place into a sheet pan lined with parchment paper and buttered well. Bake in the oven until golden and set. Cool. Tip roulade out onto a buttered parchment paper. Remove parchment paper from the bottom. Top with filling and roll up into a spiral. Place on foil and twist it tightly and chill well.

I have one deluxe version that is waiting for an economic stimulus package to be able to afford it. Instead of white mushrooms, use copious amounts of sliced truffles poached in stock and sliced. The filling could be lobster or crayfish salad bound with a homemade mayonnaise with the addition of a reduced lobster or crayfish stock.

The luncheon for 200 was a great success and we finished it with a chocolate dessert.  We made a chocolate shell using transfer sheets. The base was gianduja chocolate with praline and that was topped with chocolate-whiskey mousse. Garnishes were mango coulis and berries.

Tastefully yours,

Chef Michael Hutchings

To Vacuum or not to Vacuum? Sous Vide Cooking

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

Sous-vide (pronounced su-vid), French for "under vacuum", is a method of cooking that maintains the flavor integrity of ingredients by cooking them for an extended period of time at low temperatures. Sous-vide cooking uses special airtight plastic bags placed in hot water well below boiling point, usually around 140 degrees F. The method was developed by Georges Pralus in the mid-1970s for the Restaurant Troisgros (of Pierre and Michel Troigros) in Roanne, France.

Pictured below are two of the essential pieces of equipment for Sous-Vide cooking, a vacuum sealer and a precision water heater-circulator.

Typical Vacuum Chamber Food Sealer

Immersion Cooker from PolyScience

In the early 80s, I did a short apprenticeship at the Troisgros. The foie gras was denerved, marinated in salt, pepper and cognac, packed in a plastic lined terrine and chilled. Afterward, it was removed, vacuum packed, replaced in the terrine and cooked slowly in a water bath. The method produced a pink, smooth pate with little shrinkage and great flavor.

The Sous-vide method is used in many high-end restaurants under chefs Thomas Keller, Jesse Mallgren, Paul Bocuse, Joël Robuchon, Charlie Trotter, Michel Richard, Albert Roux and others.

In the late 80s Albert Roux, of famed Le Gavroche, London, opened a sous vide supplied restaurant in London called Rouxl Britannia with the intent of replacing skilled chefs at the restaurant level. Roux had already been running a factory supplying the French rail and British Airways with sous vide product. The restaurant concept failed due to lack of public acceptance of a chef-less restaurant. I once had a dinner prepared by the Roux factory that consisted of a cauliflower soup, veal roast au jus and poached pears. It was as good as freshly made.

Chef Michel Richard uses the method in this restaurants. It is an effective way for a chef to consistently turn out the same quality dish, day after day. "If I tell the line cook to cook the salmon sous vide at 130 degrees for 45 minutes, it will come out moist and perfectly cooked all the way through every time," says chef Michel Richard, who has five of the slow cooking machines at his Citronelle restaurant in Georgetown. Initially, he admitted, he wasn't much of a fan. "When I first heard about it, I thought, 'Aw, just another stupid machine.' " But now he's a convert. At Citronelle, Michel uses sous vide machines to make virtually all the entrees on his menu, including short ribs braised for 72 hours until they're buttery soft, or pheasant that's slow-poached to keep it plump and moist.

The sous vide method does require great care to keep the food safe and should be used only if you are trained in the science of sous vide cooking. New York City Department of Health has been suppressing the method while they determine how to advise and inspect for food safety. In this country, the Food and Drug Administration's 2005 Food Code sets out strict procedures, including chilling the bagged products to 34 degrees and storing them for no more than 30 days, to eliminate the possibility of listeria or botulism poisoning.

I like to use a compromise method for banquets by placing blanched vegetables in the vacuum bag with butter and seasonings. It is an easy matter to reheat the sealed bag in boiling water or a steamer. I also cook red meats like a venison loin to 135 degrees Fahrenheit then chill the meat. It comes out a perfect medium rare. I rolled the loin in curry spices and seared it. We served little medallions on bamboo skewers with a demi glace for an appetizer.

The technique is here to stay and should be used as another method in our arsenal of cooking. Never forget that food safety and flavor are the abiding rules.

For more information, go to the following link:

http://amath.colorado.edu/~baldwind/sous-vide.html

Tastefully yours, Chef Michael Hutchings

Sources and excerpts from Wikipedia, Washington Post, New York Times

Cruising for CASA

CASA, Court Appointed Special Advocates, is a national organization dedicated to helping foster children. In their own words:

"Mission Statement

The mission of the National Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) Association, together with its state and local members, is to support and promote court-appointed volunteer advocacy for abused and neglected children so that they can thrive in safe, permanent homes."

We were delighted to prepare Hors d'Oeuvres for a recent fundraiser aboard the fabulous Channel Cat luxury yacht.

We prepared "Soul Food" as a prelude to a large fundraiser that is taking place next month. The Santa Barbara CASA chapter is hosting their fundraiser at the Coral Casino. Click here for details.

Menu for CASA

Mini BBQ Beef on Homemade Rolls

Hot “Wings” Chicken Bites on Bamboo Skewers

Cheese and Herb Stuffed Mushrooms

Gulf Shrimp Spread on Toast

Macaroni and Cheese

Cheddar Biscuits with Ham and Spiced Mustard

Pimento Corn Muffins with Pickled Onions

Channel Cat Cruising off the coast of Santa Barbara

 

Santa Barbara Harbor

Main Lounge on Board

BBQ Beef and Pickled Onions on Corn Muffins

Ham Biscuits

Tastefully yours,

Chef Michael Hutchings

French Style Dinner

In the course of catering in Santa Barbara, we are fortunate to see many great estates of the captains of industry. We did a dinner last night for a French society. The food was French in style,naturally.

Duck Rillette on Brioche, Pissaladiere and Mini Nicoise Salad

Gruyere Cheese Souffle

Chef's Mushroom Mix Bordelaise

Breast of Chicken with Leeks, Coq au Vin Style Sauce

Opera cake

Dessert was from Christine Dahl Pastries

Tastefully yours,

Chef Michael Hutchings

Lard, Friend or Foe?

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

Lard, the very mention makes vegan chlorophyll curdle. It does, however, make the best pie crusts, superior fried chicken and great French fries. There are three grades of fat that is the source of lard: the kidney fat, back fat and basically everything else. Is has been used like butter in the past and for general sauteing of foods. Lard has gone out of favor because it was thought to a villain of heart health. The fact is, in its pure form there is less saturated fat than butter.

There is the American lard that is rendered as opposed to what the Europeans call lard. In the European case, it is raw or cured but not rendered. My Chef friend, James Sly (Soon to open Sly's in Carpinteria) related an Italian dish to me. The Italians have what is currently a fashionable dish called Lardo di Collinato. It is cured pork fat served up like a prosciutto. The Lardo is made from back fat strips that are layered with salt, herbs and spices then cured for 6-8 months. It is eaten with toast, olives, tomatoes and a drizzle of olive oil much like a fine Parma ham.

There is an old culinary method called larding whereby strips of back fat are cut into ribbons, seasoned and marinated in cognac, then laced into large cuts of meat. It is a way of introducing richness and flavor that is missing in some cuts of meat. The fat back is also classically used in making pates and terrines both as part of the stuffing and in lining the terrines.

In London at Le Gavroche restaurant we used the raw form of lard called the caul fat. It is used to line some pates as well as making little parcels of food wrapped in this thin fat layer. Famed chef Freddy Girardet of Crissier, Switzerland, did a lamb loin stuffed with spinach and wild mushrooms, wrapped in caul fat and then roasted.

There is another great classic called a Rillette de Porc. It is pork meat cooked slowly in rendered fat then shredded and packed into a terrine with some of the cooking fat and flavorings such as wine, cognac and peppercorns. It is absolutely delicious with cornichons, Dijon mustard and crusty French bread,

I would say, though, you want to render your own lard to be sure it is fresh and free of additives or industrial processing. It is a simple matter to chop in finely, cover it with water, place it on a medium flame and cook it until the fat “renders" out and the water has evaporated then strained. It should be stored in the refrigerator at that point to keep it from getting rancid or can be frozen.

So, go ahead and fry those donuts in lard.

Tastefully yours,

Chef Michael Hutchings

Michael’s Catering

What makes a legend? Wolfgang Puck

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

Wolfgang Puck is among a sauté pan full of super-celebrity chefs whose name is known worldwide. To many, he represents the best in good cooking. That name now refers not only to the world-famous chef himself but also to the culinary empire he has built since the early 1980s: the group of fine dining restaurants through which he first rose to prominence, developed in partnership with Barbara Lazaroff; his extensive catering and events business, which gains international attention through its flagship event, the annual Governor's Ball following the Oscars; and Wolfgang Puck Worldwide, Inc., the corporation that controls the Wolfgang Puck brand in areas as diverse as casual and quick-service dining, consumer packaged foods, cookware, book publishing, television, radio and Internet programming, and other franchising, licensing, and merchandising activities. We see him in the grocery stores on soup cans, pizza boxes, Home Shopping Network, the after Oscar party, Food Network channel, celerity chef events and in his restaurants.What a long ways chef’s have come from being back of the house technicians to media darlings and masters of large culinary empires.

My first encounter with Wolfgang was in 1974 at the Pomona College. The college had a guest chef series that I had subscribed to and Wolfgang was doing the dinner at the college. The only dish I recall was “Ouefs a la Neige”, meringue poached in milk, drizzled with caramel and almonds and served on creme Anglaise. Even then he had star power.

At that time, he was just being noticed in Los Angeles by the budding food community where he worked at Ma Maison. Ma Maison was a “rustic” French bistro a short distance from Paramount studios. At Ma Maison, Puck was at the vanguard of bringing Mediterranean-style cooking to the American public. He emphasized the casual approach of rustic cuisine that favored an "open" kitchen plan and the wood-burning oven.

I went to meet with him in 1976 to ask either for a job or a suggestion on where to train in France. Wolfgang was very generous and called the restaurant in Paris called Maxim’s. I didn’t work there but I was impressed with the gesture.

While observing in the kitchen that evening, I recall him telling the waiter that the restaurant opened at 6:00 and Carol Burnet would have to wait.

In 1982 Wolfgang broke away from Ma Maison and opened Spago. That success was soon followed by Chinoise on Main, Postrio and numerous cafes, food products, cook books and food kiosks. The rest is a culinary legend. He now oversees and empire that reportedly grosses over $375 million in 2002 with more that 4,900 employees.

Toques off to the legend.

Click here to learn more

Tastefully yours,

Chef Michael Hutchings

Michael’s Catering

So, you want to open a restaurant!

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

Many people dream of opening a restaurant. We all know the failure rate is pretty high, some say 50% in the first year. There is an old saw that goes, “If you want to make a large fortune small, open a restaurant.” This is not a business for the faint of heart or unambiguous. It is work with long hours, high stress and margins that can erode very quickly. You deal with customers who can be cranky because of hunger, a complicated supply line, staff that can be difficult and a product that spoils fast. Just getting open is a major undertaking.

Finding the right location for the style of restaurant you want is the beginning. There are then the hurdles such as legal structure of the business, financing, kitchen and interior design, contracting of construction, permits, regulations from city, county, state and federal agencies to follow, food and beverage menu planning, point of sales systems, sound systems, equipment purchasing from small wares to ice machines. Just a reminder, all these permits and inspections have a fee attached to them. Getting past the building inspector, fire inspector, health inspector and complying with all the codes may give you pause to question your sanity.

You will face inconsistent application of regulations. Why are you the only restaurant on the block to be required to have underground electrical utilities, cost $20,000 or an area to wash your floor mats, cost $5000? Oh yes, a neighbor called the Air Pollution Control and you are now facing fines over $10,000 a day for asbestos abatement. Never mind the city waived that requirement in the permitting process.

Getting a liquor license means a trip to the Alcoholic Board of Control for fingerprinting and posting notices so the neighbors can object to you selling alcohol. By the way, the license can cost over $100,000 in some areas.

You will need to contract for linen service, trash removal, maybe valet parking service, fire system service, flue cleaning, grease removal, utilities, and grease trap servicing. Hiring the crew and complying with all the legal requirements from document verification to W-4 and setting up payroll are all vital. Have you done an employee manual? Can you afford group insurance? Don’t forget the training of staff, PR and advertising, menu printing. Was that the 8th call this week for a donated dinner for four and you are not even open?

You will need accounting systems and computers to run them, point of sale systems, alarm system, a safe, inventory controls, schedules, pro formas, business plans, banking arrangements, credit card processing. You need to protect the dream with insurance for liability, theft, business interruption, workers compensation and key man insurance.

You will face all of this and more just to get open. Now the task of preparing great food and wrapping it with service becomes the challenge while insuring that you are profitable.

So, do you still want to open a restaurant?

Tastefully yours,

Chef Michael Hutchings

Resources: http://www.restaurant.org/business/start.cfm

Michael’s Catering

A Few of My Favorite Things

Caviar with Scrambled Eggs and Brioche Toast

Local White Seabass with Port Jus and Vegetable Pearls

Chef's Notes

Dust the seabass with Chinese five spice and salt. Roast in a 375 degree F. oven 8-12 minutes. Serve on potato-celery root mashed with little vegetable "pearls" made from carrots and squashes. Sauce is a port-fish stock reduction with a little Chinese five spice.

Sable with Chocolate Butter Cream and Raspberries

Tastefully yours,

Chef Michael Hutchings

Breakfast at home

Swedish pancakes and fresh poached blueberries

Rudy's Mexican Restaurant

Bits and Bites by Chef Michael Hutchings

Rudy's has been around since the 1970s. With the current economic downturn, it is great to find a casual restaurant doing a great job. Rudy's prepares simple Mexican fare, well executed and good value. Portions are generous and there is a salsa station with all the usual suspects; tomatilla, roasted tomato, pickled vegetables, radishes, chopped onion and cilantro.

Tastefully yours

Chef Michael Hutchings

Soft Tacos with Carne Asada

The Ultimate Food Emporium - Harrods

Bits and Bites by Chef Michael Hutchings

 

Harrods from Brompton Road

No trip to London is complete without a trip to Harrods department store, founded in 1849. It is the ultimate department store boasting over 330 departments. In their own words, “Since the store first opened its doors in 1849, Harrods has always prided itself on a reputation for excellence, that nothing is too much trouble to our customers, and finding the finest-quality merchandise. But this is just part of the Harrods story. The store is much more than a shopping destination, more than just a splendid building. Its story is tied up in the people who have passed through its doors, worked here, written about it and added to its magnificent architecture.

Noël Coward, Sigmund Freud, Oscar Wilde, Queen Mary, AA Milne and Pierce Brosnan have each added their own mark to the store's rich patina – and as each year goes on, Harrods continues to grow, adapt, reassess and reinvent itself to create a new history.”

Harrods Fabled Food Halls

If you are a foodie, going to Harrod’s means seeing the Harrod’s famous Food Hall which also boasts 28 restaurants. The food halls are mind-boggling. There are whole cases for foie gras, a Caviar House with an oyster bar selling caviar, oysters, smoked salmon, vegetable counter that has many little-seen tropical varieties, teas in abundance, wild game in season, Jelly Bean confectionery outlet, Kripy Kreme doughnuts, seafood, every imaginable canned and bottled food and boutiques with French pastries from Laduree, (great macaroons) chocolate boutiques to name but a few of the options.  Another room hawks charcuterie, traiteur dishes, cheeses and dairy products, and houses Indian and Middle Eastern food counters, a sushi bar, and cheese and charcuterie bars. The abundance is seemingly endless.

Tastefully yours

Chef Michael Hutchings

Harrods Fish Hall

Meat Department

Traiteur Section

Pates and Terrines

Laduree Pastries of Paris

Stalking the Wild Chanterelle

Bites and Bites by Chef Michael Hutchings

Stalking the Wild Chanterelle

Julia Child and Michael Hutchings              Photo Paul Child

Hunting wild mushrooms fulfills a primal instinct of our hunter-gatherer past. Santa Barbara’s most abundant wild mushroom is the Chanterelle, (Chanterelle, Cantharellus ciborium, Pfefferlinge). It is a mycorrhizal edible fungus, meaning it forms symbiotic associations with plants, making it very challenging to cultivate. Our local chanterelle is associated with oak and poison oak. C. cibarius: The best-known species of this genus is the Golden chanterelle, which is orange or yellow, meaty and funnel-shaped. On the lower surface, underneath the smooth cap, it has gill-like ridges that run almost all the way down its stipe, which tapers down seamlessly from the cap. It has a fruity smell and a mildly peppery taste, and is considered an excellent food mushroom. The European girolle, a variant of C. cibarius, has a thicker stalk and stronger flavor.[1]

My first encounter with the chanterelle was in a can back in the 1970s when I worked with a German chef, Rudy Stoy, at the fabled Club 33 in Disneyland. They were almost flavorless. We served then sautéed over veal scaloppini.

Segue way to 1978, France. The girolle (French chanterelle) was abundant, fresh and a whole lot different in flavor; it had some. I made a few attempts to find them in a forest outside of Lyon with no success. While working in London at Le Gavroche, we had both French and English harvest of these little golden gems.

Santa Barbara circa 1981, Francis Dwight, a local forest sprite, called me at the Olive Mill Bistro, a Santa Barbara restaurant of yore where I was the chef. Francis said she had fresh, local chanterelles and asked, “can you use some?” I said, “I love you, bring them over.” I was surprised by the size, some 10-20 times larger that the European varieties. I was hooked and asked her if she would show me where to find them. Now, most mushroom hunters NEVER will tell you where they pick. Francis was very kind and we went the next day up to Toro Canyon and harvested a few pounds.

In 1984, Julia Child was filming “Dinner at Julia’s” in Santa Barbara. This was a video magazine and the format was a field trip built around food, guest chef, guest winemaker and a dinner. I took Julia out mushroom hunting for one segment on a ranch near San Marcos Pass. The filming of that episode is a whole other story. Her off camera quipe after filming the segment was, "that's a blow to fungaphobia." This PBS show and my earlier mushroom business opened up the commercial use of the local wild chanterelle. Now, intenerate hunters gather the mushrooms all over the county and ranchers look to the mushroom as an income source.

Here are a  few tips on gathering mushrooms. Know your mushroom and be positive of the identification. Locally it is most often confused with the jack-o-lantern mushroom.  Respect private property and disturb the area as little as possible. Our local season ranges from October to April and is dependent on the rain and other unknown factors. Be careful as the season warms up, I have had to avoid rattlesnakes in the early spring. The chanterelle turf is rife with poison oak and use great caution. Look for chanterelles under oaks in well-protected, deep canyons. Often they are hidden under the forest leaf litter and all you see is a little bump. I harvest with a knife and a pastry brush to remove some of the dirt. Place the mushroom in a bucket and layer with paper towels to keep them undamaged. Call me if you find some.

Happy hunting

Chef Michael Hutchings

http://www.chefmichaelhutchings.com

[1] Wikipedia

Avocado Terrine

Avocados are a large agricultural product in the Santa Barbara area. I still perceive them as an exotic fruit and a treat to enjoy. I have used them in all the usual ways like guacamole and salads. One of my favorite recipes is this avocado terrine. It has a look of Italian terrazzo. Adding cooked dungeness crab or ridgeback shrimp and you have an over-the-top entree. This is a dish that I created while chef of the Olive Mill Bistro in Santa Barbara, California.

Tastefully yours

Chef Michael Hutchings

Impromptu Dinner

Local Seabass and Ridgeback Shrimp

The fisherman's market by the wharf in Santa Barbara is a great place to shop for local seafood fresh off the boat. A trip to the market yesterday netted me super fresh local white seabass and live ridgeback shrimp. The local ridgeback shrimp are a small, crayfish-sized shellfish with a sweet taste and firm texture. They are an incidental catch from the local area and fisherman can bring in no more than 50 pounds. Back in the 1980s, it was a different story. The shrimp was a new fishery in the local area and trawlers were bringing them in by the hundreds of pounds. Santa Barbara Shellfish was a local source and you could buy them shelled and ready to eat from their location at the end of Stearns Wharf.

I like  to cook with the shrimp very simply to enjoy their sweet-fresh quality. I have also done elaborate dishes such as a gratin of ridgebacks with leeks and local chanterelle mushrooms.

There is another local shrimp known as the Santa Barbara Spot Prawn. Sizes range from 1 to 2-1/2 ounces, head off. They suffered a similar fate of overfishing. Large trawlers from other ports plied the waters and the fishery was overtaxed to the point that the State Fish and Game shut it down. The spot prawn is also an incidental catch or is trapped live. As a result, they tend to be expensive. 

Here is an easy way to enjoy these wonderful products. You can substitute the seabass and ridebacks for similar, fresh or defrosted seafood.

Dinner at Le Gavroche

Le Gavroche is the legendary restaurant in London, England, that was the first to receive the coveted three stars from the Michelin Red Guide. Founded in 1967 by Albert and Michel Roux, Le Gavroche has set a standard of dining for over forty years. Michel Roux Jr., Albert’s son, continues the tradition of dining in a grand style. The food is French, of course.

My wife, Christine, and I dined at Le Gavroche last week. It is an experience that melds ambiance, service and cuisine into a magical dining experience.  The hostess opened the door as we exited the taxi, one of those black beetle-like vehicles, and we were seated in a bar area.

We enjoyed Tatinger Brut Champagne, compliments of Albert Roux, while enjoying canapés of smoked salmon mousse and goujon of monkfish. 

The bar is a cozy, club like room with the collection of Chagall paintings that graced the walls of the original location on Lower Sloane Street. We decided to order the chef’s Menu Exceptionnel with two sight changes. We opted to substitute the Scallop Baked in a Shell with an Irish Rock Oyster and Scallops Poached in Champagne with Leeks and Truffles and an Apricot and Cointreau Soufflé instead of the Chef’s Dessert Assortment. 

The dinner was sensational. Course after course, 10 in all,  were perfectly executed. The highlights were the oysters and scallops with a generous garnish of thick slices of fresh black truffles, crisp and redolent of the earth, the hot foie gras with a pastilla, a sort of warm duck pate in filo, the milk fed rack of lamb from the Pyrenees and the Omlette Rothschild.

We topped off dinner with cognac and a nibble on the nougat and gelee candies.

The dining staff are like the proverbial perpetual motion machines. They whirled around the dining room like the bionic man. There was one seemingly overactive waitress that seemed to be everywhere at once. It finally realized that there were twins working in the dining room. One never wanted for anything, cutlery is replaced, glasses are never empty, tables are pulled out and you are escorted to the restrooms. They practice the art of table side service such as carving a leg of milk fed lamb. It bespeaks of a graciousness afforded only to royalty. 

It was interesting to me to see the menu evolution from the early 1980s when I worked there as sous chef to the present day offerings. Michael Roux Jr. was just beginning his apprenticeship when I was working at the original Le Gavroche location on Lower Sloane Street. The menu at the time was heavily influenced by the old French traditions laid down by François Pierre La Varenne, Urbain Dubois, Edouard Nignon, Augustus Escoffier and Antonin Careme. Indeed, Albert Roux had original editions of cook books by all these chefs and we regularly took dishes and updated them to modern practices. The cuisine at Le Gavroche has always been unabashedly luxurious. I recall doing a special with squab. The bird was glove boned and stuffed with a foie gras mousse, served with a light port jus and a ragout of truffles and Jerusalem artichokes. Of the twelve portions I prepared, we sold two. I was disappointed but all Albert Roux's only question was, “where you happy with the dish?”

Michel Roux Jnr cooks in a familiar style with his own interpretation. In an exerpt from his web page , "French cooking, perhaps more than any other in the world, has shown a capacity to move with the times, to develop new techniques, to absorb new ideas and ingredients, to re-invent itself without loosing a sense of its own cultural identity. It is in these new directions that Michel Roux Jnr has taken the cooking at Le Gavroche, basing his culinary flare on his experience of the time spent in the kitchens of many of the greatest chefs in France."

Tastefully yours®,

Chef Michael Hutchings

Le Gavroche Menu

 

Le Gavroche Menu Exceptionnel