Entries tagged with 'Critic-Turned-Cook'
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[Photograph: Darlene Barnes] Lost in a sensory memory while chopping pimento-stuffed olives, I slashed through my thumbnail. I should have known better—mixing politics and food preparation can be dangerous. I was making olive salad for muffulettas for the 70 guys at Alpha Sigma Phi. My boss, Louisiana native Darlene Barnes, pulled the recipe from Cooking Up a Storm, the epic, deeply moving post-Katrina roundup of recipes lost in the disaster, a collection compiled by veteran food writers at the Times-Picayune. While making that flat-out delicious recipe, I started thinking about the first time I had a muffuletta in New Orleans (at Central Grocery), about how much I love that city and how angry I was that five years later, there's...
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David Chang and me. [Photograph: Traca Savadogo] Lucky me—I recently got a double helping of David Chang, who unwittingly reaffirmed my culinary quest to try and make the leap from critic to cook. First, at the Southern Foodways Alliance Symposium last month in Oxford, Mississippi, I shamelessly ingratiated myself by offering the superstar chef a little "Trick or Meat" on Halloween, sharing some salumi I toted from Salumi in Seattle. Chang and his crew were at the awesome annual event to make lunch for the 300-plus participants. (One highlight of the meal was beautiful, paper-thin slices of Allan Benton's country ham draped over tender salad greens.) After sampling some salumi, I think "mole" might be David Chang's new favorite four-letter...
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[Photograph: Leslie Kelly] Darlene Barnes would like author Michael Pollan to walk a mile in her tiny kitchen clogs. "It's all well and good for Michael Pollan to tell people how they should eat, but it's another to try and make it happen in the real world," she said. My boss at Alpha Sigma Phi at the University of Washington was in a bit of a snit after a frustrating effort to reel in some domestic, wild shrimp. She had done research and called her sales rep, asking for him to find her some American shrimp. "At first, he told me the shrimp from Mexico were as good as Louisiana shrimp because they were both caught in the Gulf," she...
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[Photograph: Robyn Lee] Since my dining budget has gone from $30,000-plus a year to zero, I don't go out often. That's why it really grinds my corn when meals go terribly wrong. As much fun as I'm having in the kitchen at Alpha Sigma Phi at the University of Washington, I occasionally wish I still had my print platform to write about restaurants that are like that emperor who had no clothes. I may not be a restaurant critic anymore, but that doesn't mean I stopped being a critical eater. The time spent in the kitchen on my quest to try and become a cook have given me new insight about the millions of little details that go into turning...
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[Photographs: Leslie Kelly, unless otherwise noted] ASP members Matt Hansen, Mitch Halliday, and Richard Sherman. [Photograph: Darlene Barnes] A month into my gig as the second banana at the Alpha Sigma Phi's frat house kitchen at the University of Washington, I continue to be blown away by the quality of the ingredients chef Darlene Barnes sources, and the care and integrity with which she prepares the surprisingly exotic meals for 70 perpetually hungry young men, including those who may have dietary restrictions. After a scary trip to the ER this summer, sophomore Matt Hansen found out he couldn't tolerate gluten. So, Darlene has been making adjustments to recipes, cooking as gluten-freely as possible. Although it's no small feat, "It's...
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[Photograph: Leslie Kelly] If you were standing next to me earlier this week, you might have wondered, "What stinks?" It wasn't onions or garlic, day-old fish, or durian—it was the spicy scent of Tiger Balm (like Ben-Gay on steroids). While I was rushing out the door Monday morning on my way to my job as cook's assistant at Alpha Sigma Phi frat house at the University of Washington, I wrenched my back. It's an old injury and, frankly, I'm shocked it hasn't flared up sooner with all the bending down and heavy lifting I've been doing on this culinary journey from the keyboard to the kitchen. As any seasoned pro can attest, cooking can be mighty treacherous. If there's ever...
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"If there's one thing all the guys seem to agree upon, it's milk. Man, do they drink a lot." A table of Alpha Sigma Phi brothers at the University of Washington. [Photograph: Leslie Kelly] When my friends and family learn I'm working as a prep cook at a fraternity house at the University of Washington, I get loads of ribbing. My former boss, Tom Douglas, actually rolled his eyes. A few ask the obvious questions and no, I haven't met anybody named Bluto and I have not tried a keg stand—not yet. (Though this 83-year-old woman is inspiring.) One of the things I've so appreciated about my time at Alpha Sigma Phi is the opportunity to see some stereotypes shattered....
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Darlene Barnes and Alpha Sigma Phi President Alexander Badley. [Photograph: Leslie Kelly] After working in 10 kitchens since the beginning of my culinary journey from pen to pan, I think I've finally found my niche in a totally surprising place. My latest kitchen gig—cook's assistant at University of Washington's Alpha Sigma Phi—just might be my dream job. I didn't know there could be flat-out fantastic food served in a frat house, but the 70 members of this old school spot are discriminating diners-in-training thanks to the efforts of their clever cook, Darlene Barnes. I met Darlene this summer at the Quillisascut Farm School for the Domestic Arts and was fascinated by her unusual job, which she writes about on...
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[Image: Bridget Sawicki] When I first started down this crazy path, radically turning the tables from being a restaurant critic to trying to cook, I took a vow: If this thing was going to work, it had to be fun. If I made money, well…that was just gravy. But half a year into this adventure, I’m having a financial freak out. Maybe it has something to do with the six-month anniversary of the newspaper I wrote for folding, which led to a dramatic decline in my bank account. My once-healthy nest egg now looks like something you'd find perched on top of a piece of sushi. My mortgage is underwater and I'm bailing as fast as I can. Oh, yeah,...
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[Photograph: Rachel Strawn] Frank Bruni and I have at least two things in common: We’ve both hung up our professional feedbags and we’re both over the moon about the lardo lollipops at Salumi in Seattle. I got to meet the author of Born Round: The Secret History of a Full-Time Eater when he was in the city on a West Coast leg of his book tour. We had lunch at the renowned salumeria started by Armandino Batali and now run by his daughter, Gina Batali, and her husband, Brian D’Amato. But before he sat down at the head of the table for 10, my friend and former Seattle Post-Intelligencer colleague Rebekah Denn and I double-teamed the former New York...
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