It’s finally Friday folks! It’s time to pack your bags for one last weekend at the beach. And whoever is staying in town this weekend should have an interesting time thanks to Jay-Z’s big shindig on the parkway. So to all of you have a great one and make sure you eat something good, and to inspire you here are some snapshots from last week’s class with Michael Solomonov (Zahav, Percy Street Barbecue, Federal Donuts and the soon-to-come Citron and Rose) that I just had to share.
First: Free corned beef to any commenter who can successfully identify the classic movie quoted in the headline.
Onto the non-literal meat: The fifth installment of COOK’s Open Stove series, which sets two Philly kitchen up-and-comers on a collision course beset with culinary booby traps, had a bit of theme. Yes, the unwelcome surprises, overall confusion and indecorous liquor consumption that have characterized previous installments were present, but OS Numero Cinco boasted something else entirely: cans. Each of the secret ingredients — competitors are allowed to pre-prepare an amuse bouche and a dessert, with apps and entrées up in the air — came vacuum-sealed, perhaps last thing a professional chef wants to be handed.
How did the personnel fare? Damn well.
Philly’s long been a low-key blip on the Great American Hot Dog Radar. Though we do have a signature style (the “Philly Combo” or “Surf and Turf,” consisting of a fried fish cake smashed on top of a link), our city doesn’t enjoy the national nitrate notoriety of cities like New York, Chicago or Detroit. Thankfully, there are a few locally based forcemeat figures working to change all that. Two of these frank fellows, illustrator and hot dog writer Hawk Krall and Hot Diggity! owner Keith Garabedian, recently stopped by COOK to take a small group of lucky hot dog fanatics on a tour through American wienerdom, making sure to celebrate Philly’s contributions to the field the whole way through.
Dean Carlson of Wyebrook Farm kicked off an exciting collaboration with COOK this month to connect Philadelphia food-lovers with sustainable meat, produce, and dairy products from Chester County. COOK’s own Audrey and Lily had the pleasure of touring the farm in late April and welcomed Farmer Dean and his chef Janet Crandall for a pork-centric class at COOK last week featuring that fine looking porchetta.
COOK caught up with Dean to learn more about his journey from city-dweller to sustainable farmer.
There are many things that distinguish Pierre Calmels, Chef/Owner of Bibou, from other chefs in Philadelphia – his height, his thick French accent, his “four bell” rating by the Inquirer’s Craig Laban – to name a few. At COOK, what distinguishes Pierre is the fact that he is the only chef who comes without a sous chef or assistant of any kind and manages to plate 5 courses – 16 times each – over the course of the evening in amazing time, knocking our socks off with every delicious bite (most chefs knock our socks off though!).
It was COOK’s first ever Valentine’s Day class – and we wanted to do it up big. So who did we enlist as our culinary cupid? Why, the lovely and extremely talented Jennifer Carroll of Top Chef and 10 Arts fame.
I was trying to write my new blog post on Zack Engel‘s “Night in Nola” class we had last week at COOK and encountered photos from when he was here helping out his good friend Erin O’Shea for her Percy Street BBQ night. As I flipped through the pictures I was reminded of how entertained I was! It goes without saying the food was amazing, but there was something special about that night, and that something can be summed up in two words: Rick Nichols.
