Antonio Burrell
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Everything posted by Antonio Burrell
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As a chef, I can tell you that it is true, any chance to "showoff" abit is fun. Oftentimes we become absorbed in the routine of daily menu prep, and special request give us a chance to stretch abit. I personally love the oportunity to pull some different stuff out and try some things I wouldn't normally cook simple because you never want to dedicate to many slots to those kinds of items. I know many of my collegues, with ample warning, would willingly meet any dietary constraints. That said, the vegan/ veg who shows up at the steakhouse and DEMANDS that you do something for them at 9:00pm on Saturday night....... edited to add: I know that today, I called a reservation personally to ask if they would be interested in a veg tasting menu, because they had noted in their res that they were vegetarians. And this is not an isolated incident. I'll happily go off menu for anyone who request it, it really is fairly fun
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Yeah, as a confessed donut fiend I've eagerly awaited the coming of the Prune. Now, until recently I didn't know what they were about but all that mattered was that they had donuts, fresh and fried to order...how can that be bad. Having read up on them recently I see that they have an amazing amount of toppings and some different kinds of base donuts...I can't wait, I see that they are now hiring..Yea!!! -
Tyler Florence Pitching for Applebee's
Antonio Burrell replied to Antonio Burrell's topic in News and Media
For me I guess the bigger picture thing is that as a chef that attended a culinary school, I didn't expect Tyler Florence to be pitching for Applebee's. Rachel Ray I could see . When I worked in France for George Blanc in Lyon, I gained a tremendous amount of respect for food and its orgins. When I came back to the states I found out that he had started a line of gourmet products ie: foie terrines, pates things of that nature but, and here's the key, they were all based on recipes that he made in his own restaurants, his charcuterie was phenomenal and people began to ask for it so he sold it through retail outlets. When I worked at Aquavit, Marcus began to develop a line of our Swedish inspired mustards, herrings and smoked salmons. All things that we made everyday in the kitchen. The point is that if the market is there for things that you are doing and doing well, then I consider that less of a "sin" than if you are blatently pawning your image off for some loot. I mean, really, this is such a departure from what he did before that it shocks me. About Rachel Ray, I guess if someone becomes attracted to cooking through her, great. The message, however of how to properly do things is better spread through Alton Brown, who I might add is also a trained chef. -
Tyler Florence Pitching for Applebee's
Antonio Burrell replied to Antonio Burrell's topic in News and Media
I can honestly say that no, I wouldn't. Fortunately I don't have that perdicament to deal with. Would you feel as proud to work for Micheal if they were selling "Foiereos by Micheal Richard" at 7 eleven? I just think that integrity and not debasing the value of what you do is worth more than dollars. Now, maybe he's got a reason for doing the selling out, maybe he's bringing gourmet food to the masses but somehow I think it's something closer to wanting a bigger house or something.....I do agree that selling out is more the norm than the exception and Tyler Florence is not someone I particularly hold in high esteem, but the general trend just leaves a bad taste in my mouth....that said, I sure would like a Foiereo..... -
I don't know if you guys have seen this, but tonight I saw Tyler Florences' ad for Applebee's. "Bringing big flavor to the neighborhood"...... Which immediately brought to mind the following question: Can you get "big flavor" from a microwave? Having once disgraced myself by working in an Applebees in high school, I KNOW that they do very little real cooking when you order. Open a portion bag, pop it in the Box and let Chef Mike do all the work. THe thing is, Tyler Florence is a Chef, a real chef, not Rachel Ray bullshit....I guess it just reinforces the fact that he's a tool, a huge tool.....There I feel better
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I think I have a better appreciation for this place now that I've eaten there again. This time I had the pizza with the little meat balls, I added cherry toms to it. I think that, for me, slight mods to the standard fare make it more to my taste. I think that the crust is something that all other pizza joints in town should envy and strive to emulate. I had a debate with my boss about the relative merits of 2 Amys and Pizza Paridiso, and while I have enjoyed the other in the past, I find 2 Amys more to my liking now. Maybe like the difference in beer you drink while in college and that which you enjoy as an adult. I think 2 Amys pizza is more refine, more restrained and balanced; whereas PP's pizza is loaded and all out. Now that I'm all growed up...I think I like the restraint
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I went to Eamonn's on Monday for dinner with the wife...and then for lunch on Tuesday alone...(pathetic me). All I can say is that the battered banger is my new crack.... edited to add: I almost forgot the fried snickers bar....molten hot chocolate goodness....I need to be alone now...that is all.
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Had my first experience at 2 Amy's tonight and I liked it quite alot. The Crust was chewy, crisp and flavorful from the wood fired oven. I had the clam and my wife had the Puttenesca. I liked the way the tomato sauce served as a contrast from my pizza which had no sauce. I very much enjoyed the rillettes as they were everything I would expect them to be, creamy, meaty, fatty goodness. My wife had the escarole salad and said she didn't like it, to bitter, but devoured it nonetheless. I really have to say that the most brillant things we ate tonight however were the desserts. She hade the special pastry filled with riccotta and I had the blueberry-peach sorbet. Both were incredibly simple but perfectly executed. I really appreciate a sorbet that taste good, has the creamy texture because the temperature is correct and has no ice crystals in it, perfectly executed. The special, highly recommended by all the employees, was the sorbets equal. Crispy, flaky pastry filled with sweetened riccota and served with sweet cream ice cream. A difficult task is making a filled pasrty crisp enough to shatter when you cut it with your spoon, this literally exploded, fantastic. I enjoyed the pizza enough but I truely enjoyed the dessert. Wonderful neighborhood spot.
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A New Season in Vino Viridian’s First-Harvest Wine Dinner 95 per person excluding tax and gratuity
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Well.......it would be the menu offered...before...the...theater..... Just Kidding...we are going to be super generous and allow you pretty much free reign over the whole menu. This is subject to change but I can't see why we wouldn't allow you to order pretty much whatever you want We may tweak it in the future but that's what it is now...so giddy up and take advantage!
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Alas, we come to the closing of a chapter....We are going to close lunch for the time being. It's not a reflection of anything else other than we aren't located in an area that is condusive to us having a good lunch crowd. We will be open Monday through Friday for dinner and Saturday and Sunday, brunch and dinner. As much as I'll hate working all those doubles it'll give me more of an opportunity to concentrate on dinner service and tweaking our weakness' such as our apparent disregard for salt Half price wine nights on Tuesdays and beginning September 5th, pretheater menu 5:30-7:00pm $32.00....discuss amongst yourselves
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Just wanted to drop a note letting everyone who has given us a chance this week, thanks! I realize with all the upheavel in the past, that trying a place in transition can seem risky, so thank you. After some deliberation we have decided to extend our restaurant week promotion through next week, lunch and dinner, to give those of you who didn't give us a try another chance. Couple that with 1/2 price wine night on Tuesday, extended happy hour the same night and you've got quite a bargin Also, we will be opening for dinners on Mondays starting the second week of September and will be having a Wine Dinner on the 18th. The wines will all be American and have a strong emphasis on biodynamic/organic wines.
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I think Nadya did touch on one thing, while it is up to individual interpertation, how comfortable is someone going to be when they are obviously underdressed? If you have a very explicit dress code, like Citronelle, then fine, enforce it. But the people who book reservations at Citronelle are usually very informed as to the dress code requirements and are also informed of them when making their reservation. Our dress code says business casual but as I've said I've seen all types of dress in the dining room. Most people who chose to dine at restaurants of a caliber put alot of thought into what they are going to wear. However, restaurants in the tier below the rarefied air of Citronelle, 1789, Eve's tasting room etc... should expect alot of their diners to come from the surrounding area ie neighborhood, and be open to various forms of what is "appropriate". If you open a restaurant across from the MCI center, with its sporting events, concerts and conventions would you reasonable turn away a huge crosssection of that available business for the sake of being 'hip' or 'exclusive'. If you want to open a restaurant like that, you shouldn't open it across from a sports arena and then wonder why your half empty. We opened a restaurant in a upwardly mobile, revitalized neighborhood. We appeal to that, we covet it, we don't turn them away....
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I will never understand the willingness of some restaurantuers to turn away business based on the apperance of a customer. This will probably be deleted or moved (to it's own thread I hope), but I just had to weigh in on this. When I look out at our dining room, I realize that it appeals to a certain demographic, it was built that way on purpose, that's the asthetic we wanted to achieve. That said, we have people from the neighborhood who are out walking their dogs in shorts and t-shirts have dinner or drinks; we have people dressed to the nine's come in; we've even had a man in a sweaty tank, shorts, radio headset and rollerblades sit at the bar and have brunch, it is what it is. A customer is a customer. If you want to sit in our dining room and have dinner in a t-shirt, god bless you, be comfortable, enjoy your meal etc. To me your money is damn fine...and if that's how you choose to dress when you spend it, good for you!! I just don't believe in being f*ing snooty for snootiness sake. Sure I want to appeal to a certain demographic(s), that's what we advertise for, but am I going to turn away the customer now in hopes for the customer(s) of the future. Once you lose that dollar, it's gone. Lastly, having worked for Jeff Buben, I can safely say that customer satisfaction should always be paramount in a restaurant of any caliber. Jeff always said and I still say, if it is in our power to satisfy a request then we should do so...end of story. Just my two cents. Sorry this is so off topic.
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You are correct, thanks for the spell check. I always seem to add h's here and a t there...
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Another month, another menu. Come August 2nd we will roll out another new menu as is my want Again, most everything is changing so I guess I'll post it here....keep in mind that we will be serving this same menu for restaurant week so if you want to avoid the crowds you can come in anytime and enjoy the same thing without being overwelmed with all the other people DINNER STARTER watermelon chilled soup with grapefruit, cilantro, crème fraiche sorbet 7.00 salad greens with banyuls vinaigrette, cherry tomatoes 6.00 arugala salad with purslane, watercress, hook creamery blue, farm potatoes 10.00 beets roasted, with pipe dreams farms goat cheese, oranges, walnut coulis 9.00 squash on pastry with onions, tomatoes, herbs, Keswick creamery ricotta 10.00 sea scallops with American caviar, yellow tomato, potato leek hash 14.00 tartars beef and tuna with crisp bread 13.00 mussels steamed with shallots, parsley, lemon, tomato water 12.00 MAIN gnocchi parisian, with pennsylvania chantrelles, sweet corn, green onions 15.00 tofu tofu and mushroom terrine with red pepper jam, three bean salad 14.00 red trout sunburst farms with gazpacho, squash blossom, crab, olives 20.00 whole mackeral spanish, with fennel, onions, preserved lemon, salsa verde 21.00 barramundi seared with beet rissoto, lobster, beet-ginger reduction 23.00 chicken phoenix farms with stuffed leg, farm potato salad 19.00 flat iron steak, grilled with port mustard, cippolini onion, figs, wilted watercress 24.00 leg of lamb poached with star anise jus, currant preserves, roasted garlic, sorrel 25.00 SIDES 4.00 local vegetable succotash gratine of cauliflower chile marinated cucumbers roasted Kenneth Square mushrooms with thyme roasted tomatoes persillade pickled red cabbage salad roasted potatoes with spinach and mustard summer squashes with caramelized onions So there you have it....again hope to see some of you soon, we start 1/2 price wine night the same night I think.....
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I haven't, but my friend who works there says the new guys from Vong or Jean George and is into that cutting edge "microgastronomy". Sous vide machines, lots of enzymes and protiens and stuff of that nature...so we'll see what happens next. He did tell me the guy made a grilled cheese sandwich where he didn't use any cheese, he cooked an egg for 3-4 hours at a really low temp in the circulator and peeled it and served it between toast. He said the texture was the same as eating a grilled cheese but obviously the flavor was a tad different....
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A group of four of us had dinner here Monday. Overall, I loved the design of the kitchen and how it's all open and spills out into the dining room sortof. The food was very good, I particuarly enjoyed the marrow, pork terrine, cote de beouf, polenta, tomatoes and strawberry icecream, we ate to much food, drank to much wine and talked to much business. I maybe wrong, but the info I have from people that work there is that Mark is the Chef de Cuisine. He sent out some things he was working on to the table, and seemed like a nice enough fellow.
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Restaurant Week - August 14th-20th, 2006
Antonio Burrell replied to crackers's topic in Events and Gatherings
for those that are curious, I have decided to offer the entire menu for restaurant week (app, main,dessert) with no upcharges/supplementals. The menu we will be doing is also not a "restaurant week only" menu as it will be exactly the same as the menu I'm putting in on August 1st. So I hope that for all of you who haven't given us an opportunity to feed you some good food, I encourage you to come try us for restaurant week, and if you can't wait that long, come on tuesday and check it out -
Viridian is seeking a Chef de Cuisine/Sous Chef. The resposibilites for this position will entail insuring food production and quality, assisting with ordering and proper product storage blah blah blah, the usual stuff. The proper person should have 5-6 years as either a lead line cook or sous chef at fine dining establishments. The ideal person would have worked abroad and throughout the United States as well. This person should also posses creativity as well as attention to detail. To apply fax your resume to 202-234-2795 or pm me. I'm not looking for a rookie, but would be willing to take a chance on someone with good technical skill and desire.
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Yep, that is indeed what they are, I couldn't remember for the life of me so I dug through all my back issues last night just to find the f'in name
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"We also had this very interesting beef-pasta dish that was very different for me. Tiny amounts of beef in what looked like tiny pipette pasta, the texture was new to me and the whole mess of stuff was covered in this yogurt and spice mixture, which is what made the dish for me. " I can't remember what the name for this dish is but I read an article about it once in Sauver. They are itsy bitsy ravioli type dumplings stuffed with lamb (in Greece or wherever they are from, I think the article was on something of that sort). But the interesting thing is that in this restaurant they were talking about the Chef has a crew of Grandma types who make these things by hand all day long!!! They just sit in the basement and make dumplings that he then boils, and serves with a spicy tomato sauce and a sumac yogurt. After reading the article I was dying to eat some but hadn't the faintest idea of where to score em. Good to know that they have them there. As for other things I love about Zaytinya, those zuke/ cheese fritters, the grey cod roe, and everything everyone else mentioned, I however, will never eat the pizza thing with lamb and eggs ever again, It seemed like a good idea when I ordered it but it was dry to say the least, but all in all I love this place, esp for a lazy afternoon lunch nosh and wine....ummmm maybe monday.....
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I don't have a rotation per se, I don't have enough time off But, when I think about it, I do seem to eat at the same places when I do eat out. I'll note the places I do eat at alot and places I make it to on an occasion Alot: Fortune, I love that schezuan chicken Marks.....I need to get out more Old Ebbit for oyster happy hour Bahn Mi Sandwich in Falls Church A&J Pho 75 Pollo Campero and with alarming frequency Bob & Ediths and IHOP, at 1 in the morning when I'm done with work, breakfast calls to me....what can I say Alittle: Cashions Johnny's Half Shell Hanks Bistro du Coin Flavors Cafe St. Ex
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To answer Dan, South Street Steaks in College Park gets their rolls from Amarosa, uses Whiz and does it all with out the 'tude. I like Pat's and Geno's and have even tried Jim's on South Street which is the place the owners of South Street Steaks have based theirs on. There are picks of South Street inside and there is definately a Pro Philly vibe to the place and all of the principle are from Philly or spent a great deal of time there from what I understand. My new food runner is actually friends with three or so of the owners. I've eaten there several times and it fills my cheesesteak hankerings everytime. It's right on Baltimore Ave. Depending on where you live, it can be a hike, but I drive all the way from Falls Church for the steaks if that says anything. And just an aside to Don, Cheese Whiz isn't disgusting on everything, just everything but cheesesteaks