Currently Reading The Making of a Chef: Mastering Heat at the Culinary Institute By Michael Ruhlman see related

Just finished reading The Making of a Chef; about this writer Michael Ruhlman, who attends the Culinary Institute of America in upstate NY and wrote about his experience there.  Pretty interesting read if you want to learn about the intense training that is required for working in some of the top kitchens in the world.  Can be a little bit boring/tedious with all the technical talk, but it makes you appreciate the training and skills that chefs have and how much they need to learn before reaching the likes of Keller and Ripert. 

Next up is The Soul of a Chef, sort of a continuation of Ruhlman's foray into the world of professional cooking.  There's a whole section devoted to Keller, his philosophy and TFL, which I'm looking forward to...

now if i can only find the time to read and not be tempted by tv...

Bastardized Bouchon Butter Roasted Chicken (Poulet Roti au Beurre)

So I had a July 4th get together at my apartment since you can see the fireworks from my place.  I decided to roast some chickens based on a Bouchon cookbook recipe I have from a while ago.  I wanted to do this back in Jan/Feb, but never got around to it.  Finally had the chance to do so last week, so here's what I did (WARNING: this is pretty damn detailed so if you’re not really into food/cooking, I suggest you just skim or just move on to the next webpage you were planning on surfing)

Purchased the following from Bazzini after work on Monday (since i basically have nothing in my kitchen):

1. 4 whole organic chickens (~ 3.5 lbs each)
2. 8 ounces of Plugra European Style butter (more fat + less water=more flavor)
3. Fresh thyme
4. Butcher's twine
5. Black peppercorns
6. Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt
7. 2 heads of garlic
8. Olive Oil (Not extra virgin)

On Tuesday, afternoon, I wokeup, went for a run, showered and started my prep at around 3pm.  I started by setting my oven to 475 degrees, grinding about 8 teaspoons of black peppercorns, mincing 6 teaspoons of thyme, pouring a healthy lump of kosher salt, measuring 8 tablespoons of room temperature-softened butter, and peeling/crushing 2 heads of garlic (about 20 cloves) into separate bowls.  This became my sort-of "mise en place" along with my cutting board and baking sheet.

Subsequently, I started on my garlic confit to rub all over the chickens while roasting.  I measured about 3 cups of olive oil into a pot, put my crushed garlic, and a few sprigs of fresh thyme.  I turned the flame on very low, almost a simmer.   

While my garlic was confit-ing, I removed the chickens from the fridge, unpacked them, removed the package of giblets, and proceeded to rinse them thoroughly in the sink.  Once done rinsing, I moved them to my cutting board and patted them thoroughly dry with paper towels.  I must've used half a roll of bounty to pat down my 4 chickens in total.  I did this so the chickens were as dry as possible.  Water creates steam when cooking and doesn't lead to as crisp a skin.

I made sure the check on my garlic confit periodically as it started boiling at points, which isn't what you want.  You want it to simmer nicely so the garlic doesn't brown.  You just want your garlic confit to be nice and soft. 

While the garlic confit was still simmering, I salted and peppered the cavity of my chickens.  Doing this is quite important to having a tasty chicken.  Afterwards, I trussed my chickens.  Keller apparently is a big fan of trussing.  It supposedly keeps the legs and wings close to the body so the chicken cooks more evenly.  It was kind of a pain in the ass since I never trussed poultry before, but it was a good learning experience.  I won't describe how to do it because it's quite hard to explain.  If you want, you can google it and find diagrams/videos of it.  Not hard after you do it once or twice.  Only tough thing is having the cavity remain closed after tying the legs and tail together.  Sometimes the tail can slip off the loop and your cavity kind of becomes exposed. 

Just about when I finished salting/peppering the chicken cavities and trussing them, my garlic confit was done.  I took it off the flames and put it to the side.  I wouldn't need this until well into the roasting of the chickens.  I subsequently rubbed the softened butter all over the skin of the chickens.  This is where I bastardized Keller's recipe.  His recipe just calls for salt and pepper all over the chicken and then roasting them.  However, I thought, "Hey, how could butter on the chicken NOT taste better....?"  After massaging the butter into the chicken skins, I rained salt all over the birds.  Decent amount.  Then I sprinkled pepper over them as well.  My chickens were pretty much all prepped.  I finished this prep about an hour earlier than expected, so I finished watching Italy beat Germany in the semis.  I left my chickens covered out on my counter.

Finally, 6pm rolled around and I placed my first chicken into a sauté pan.  This all-clad aluminum one I bought 6 months ago that I hadn’t touched since.  I stuck my instant-read probe thermometer in between the thigh and leg and then placed into the oven, then connected the end of the thermometer into the digital reader.  After about 45 minutes, the digital reader alarmed, signaling that the chicken was at 155 degrees.  Though chicken should be cooked to around 165, it continues to cook after you take it out of the oven.  If you remove from the oven at 165, your chicken will rise to around 175, and be overcooked.  I removed the chicken, then sprinkled a couple of teaspoons of thyme into the liquid fat/juices that collected in the pan.  I then spooned the juices/fat infused with the thyme over the entire chicken and then let the chicken rest for 10-15 minutes. 

After this, I removed the twine and then cut the tail piece off.  As Keller mentions, it is probably one of the tastiest pieces of the chicken, since it’s all skin and fat.  Damn, it was tasty, after soaking in butter and chicken fat.  MMMM….  After quartering the chicken and actually found the “oyster” which is probably the most tender part of the chicken.  I popped one in my mouth and it was quite tasty, though not as good as the tail. 

I used the garlic confit on my last two chickens.  I followed the same process of cooking the last two; however, about half-way through cooking, I took about half the garlic confit and spread it over the entire body of the chicken.  Then, I put the chicken back into the oven and let it finish cooking.  I liked both versions, but the garlic confit version was a little better.  If you don’t love garlic like I do, then maybe the other ones may have suited your palate better. 

Before this, the only entrée-worthy dish I had cooked was a mustard-crusted rack of lamb, which was two years ago.  Now I’ve added two versions of roast chicken to my repertoire.  Thomas Keller, here I come!!

So here I am, back again, after almost a year of writing anything.  So a decent amount has happened since my last entry. 

I switched companies from Deloitte to Citigroup, working for one of the CFOs in the GCIB (Global Corporate and Investment Bank, just rolls off your tongue doesn't it).  I switched back in August, finished Deloitte at the end of August, started here beg of September.  It feels like i've been here for so long already, which is good and bad I guess.  Work is pretty interesting and the people I work with are really cool/chill.  Anyway, enough about work. 

The next biggest thing is my new apartment.  I recently bought an apartment in battery park city with my parents back in November.  I just moved in a couple of weeks ago and am getting accustomed to living in the city.  Having a 5 minute commute to work is hot.  Only thing that sucks is having a mortgage.  That puts a strain on my monthly spending, but that was the goal of my parents, to get me to save money and invest it in something other than food/alcohol/clothes/electronics/alcohol.  Now i'm working on small renovations.  redid the wood flooring, got additional furniture, need to paint the living room.  painting is this weekend's task.  After that, i'll be pretty much ready for a housewarming party.  Nothing like a housewarming party to mess up the place again... haha. 

anyway, that's pretty much all that's been going on since my last entry.  exciting stuff huh?  still single and enjoying it.  werd...

So it's been a few months since my last entry.  A lot has happened since then.  I'm still doing the consulting thing.  My project is in dirty jersey.  Short Hills to be exact, definitely cleaner than most of jersey...but far as hell.  Drive out there everyday in my phat ride....Pontiac Grand Prix...courtesy of Avis...hahaha.  i think i should be able to rent a bmw by the end of this project.  It's been going on for 3 months already, and I'll probably be there until the end of September...hopefully not though.  I need a change of pace. 

Anyway, so Lola and I broke up.  She actually broke up with me.  No need to lie about that stuff.  But I'm alright with it.  She said she doesn't want to be tied down, etc.  Since I can't devote 100% of my time to her, she'd rather not be in the relationship. 

Since then, i've been hanging out with my friends alot.  Definitely nice since I havne't really hung out with them that often when i was going out with Lola.  I feel more free, which is pretty good.  

Other than that, my life has been pretty uneventful.  Working in Jersey kind of makes your days short...can't hang out at night cause u gotta wakeup early to drive to jersey.  I really need to get off this project soon.  I'm gonna go nuts. 

Damn, it's been over a year since I've had my last entry.  I guess this is my "yearly" entry.  I was inspired to write because I keep getting everyone's subscriptions in my email and it's part of my daily morning routine: wake up, shower, get dressed while reading weather.com, espn.com, and xanga subscriptions.  I think I've been doing this since I've started working, which is almost two years ago.  Damn...i'm really getting old.  I've been out of school for two years already.  wow.  The only reason I don't feel old is because most of my friends are slightly older than me (24 vs. 23) and most of the people I work with are significantly older than me.  (28+).  Not to say my company doesnt' have a wealth of people around my age, it's just how the project teams end up being staffed.  I'm assuming some people don't know how consulting works so I guess i'll explain it since i'm sitting here on  a saturday morning with jackshit to do, chatting on IM.  Consulting isn't like your normal 9-5 job where you go to the same cubicle everyday and say hi to the same boss every morning.  In a sense, consulting is cool like that because you're never stuck working with the same people for months at a time.  Projects arise from companies needing the our services, whether to "rationalize" or "simplify" an organization (basically firing people), perform an operations assessment,  strategize regarding future growth opportunities, etc.  Once project is sold, it must be staffed with consultants.  A project team consists of a mix of practitioners of different levels.  It is pretty uncommon for a project team to have numerous young practitioners because a project team usually only needs one "bitch," and the young practitioners are usually the least experienced.  Sometimes, on bigger projects, there are multiple "bitches." Anyway, so that is why i work mostly with older people.  These project teams are usually different for every project you're on.  You rarely ever work for the same people for long period of time.  I've been on five projects and I haven't worked with the same person on all 5 projects.  My "boss" has always been different.  The leader of hte project, the project manager, is basically the "boss."  So that's basically the big difference between consulting and a regular job.  If i don't like the people I'm working with, it will eventually end and if i don't like the work i'm doing it will also eventually end once the project is over.  It's not like a regular job, where if you hate the work you're doing, the only way to get out is to quit.  So that's the story of my awesome exciting titillating life as a consultant.  I'm surprised if you've read this far.  I guess I can't complain that much about my job.  The biggest complaint is my compensation.  But i guess everyone always wants more.  But i have friends who are making 70K + now.  That just makes me feel undervalued.  Oh well.  I'm too lazy to try to find another job.  I hate interviewing. 

So anyway, last week was my two year anniversary with Lola.  Two years is a pretty long time.  I was still at columbia when we started going out.  Damn that seems like 239408092834234820934 years ago.  I was thinking about senior year a few days ago.  Those were some fun times. especially second semester after I had already found a job and didn't really care much about school.  We'd go out at least four days of the week to drink and fuck around.  Well, maybe drinking 4 days out of the week isnt' so good now that i think about it.  My liver probably loved me for it.  It was a fucking good time though.  Now most of my interaction with my friends during the week is email conversations and debates.  Sometimes we email 40 times a day about some random topic.  It's like IM but over email.  It makes hte day go by faster and it's definitely entertaining.  Here's some examples of those debates:

1.  Is seafood a meat?  Agree or Disagree

2.  In 20 years, the NBA will be 25% Asian? Agree of Disagree

Fun eh?  haha. 

Anyway, I spend most of my free time watching tv, playing video games, and reading (sort of).  I read two books a couple of months ago that were really good.  Angels and Demons and The Da Vinci Code.  I think everyone has read those books by now.  Those are the first books I've read since graduating college, except Harry Potter. 

One show that's mad funny is Curb Your Enthusiasm.  My girlfriend hates it but I love it.  It's freaking hilarious.  It's on HBO and the season finale is this sunday.  You should definitely watch that show. 

Sopranos is back on, starting last sunday.  I hope this season's better than last season.  We'll see i guess. 

So I guess that's my yearly update.  I doubt anyone has read my ramblings to this point but THANKS if you did.  Peace.