Olney Love Can Break Your Heart

2012 was also Foodlab's first year of existence, and, oh, what a year it was.  Sure, it was wild & wooly at times, but mostly it was a year of lovely, often adventurous menus, stellar events, a truly incredible summer that seemed to want to live up to Foodlab's seasonal theme ("Club Med"), loads of positive feedback, some well-deserved acclaim, and lots and lots of ping pong.

Like I said, Foodlab was the site of a number of fantastic events over the course of the year (a Greek kebab night, on a hot August night, that was amply lubricated with ouzo comes to mind), but my favourite was definitely Michelle & Seth's hommage à Richard Olney.  From the thoughtful Provençal menu, to the fine Bandol wines (courtesy of Theo Diamantis and the Oenopole crew), to the convivial ambiance, and the lively and appreciative crowd, this was a truly memorable night, a heartbreakingly beautiful night, one that Montreal desperately needed, and one that, I'm sure, made dear Richard very proud indeed.



Michelle & Seth put the finishing touches on the chalkboard.



Theo's pride & joy.



The night's menu.



Ratatouille.



Game terrine with red-wine-soaked prunes.



Stuffed and braised squid.



Marinated & grilled mushrooms.  Stuffed lamb shoulder with jus and white purée.



Michelle's Salade Olney.



Red-wine-poached pear.



Honey & apple tartlet.



Here's to many more amazing Foodlab events, and let's hope the hommage à Richard Olney becomes an annual event!

aj

Belgian Connection 1: Lapin à la Kriek

There were many great meals that we prepared at home over the course of 2012, and, yes, quite a few of them involved green chiles of one variety or another, but perhaps my favourite was one of the most unexpected.  Unexpected not because the dish was new to us, or because the recipe was particularly challenging, or because things appeared to go poorly, but somehow turned out well.  In this case, it was unexpected because another dinner party, one that we'd been invited to, had fallen through, and we'd decided not only to host the same guest list at our place, we'd also decided to use the principal ingredient that was meant to be the focus of that other party:  rabbit.  So there wasn't a whole lot of time for planning, but, more importantly, we had to figure out what we were going to do with all this rabbit, a meat we hadn't had a lot of experience with.

Luckily, I'd given a fair bit of thought to hosting a dinner party involving rabbit over the last couple of years.  I'd come back from one of my many trips to Belgium with quite a few bottles of quality kriek, and I knew exactly what I wanted to do with them:  make a traditional Belgian specialty named lapin à la kriek.

Kriek (pronounced "creek") has a bit of a funny reputation.  Of course, to the Germans, the whole idea of producing beer with fruit is simply horrifying, and it's one of the characteristics that they see as sullying Belgium's much-vauted beer-making reputation (just don't question Franz about the bananenweizen he's drinking).  But even within Belgium, kriek is seen by many as being a "little old lady's beer," because so many modern-day krieks are both weak and cloyingly sweet, bearing little resemblance to the tart, refreshing cherry lambics of the past.  I'd returned with a supply of Boon kriek, one of the few brands that's widely available in Belgium and still made in the traditional manner--in this case, with black cherries added to a six-month old lambic for a second fermentation.

 fig. a:  kriek chez Cantillon

Anyway, I'd fallen in love with good kriek (especially Boon and Cantillon brands, but Waterbury Vermont's dearly departed The Alchemist also made a lovely one) and I wanted to throw a party that showcased this misunderstood, even maligned, classic, and no dish does a better job than lapin à la kriek.

A couple of other reasons the results here were unexpected:  1)  The rabbits had been brined.  Like I said, the original intention had been to make some other dish with them, and, consequently, the rabbits had been brined for a couple of days.  Lapin à la kriek involves marinating the meat in the beer, and we weren't sure if those brined rabbits would still take on the delicate flavours of the kriek, but they did.  2) We started the dish relatively last-minute.  Most recipes call for the meat to be marinated overnight, or for at least 8-12 hours.  We only picked up our rabbits at around noon and we served dinner at around 8:00 pm, so, realistically, our meat had only marinated for about 4-5 hours.  You might think the rabbit wouldn't have had the chance to pick up the delicate flavours of the kriek, but you'd be wrong.

One reason this dish turned out so well:  We held a trump card.  We had some of Michelle's preserved sour cherries on hand, and that's what we used to give the dish the cherry boost it calls for.  When seeking out cherries for your own cherry boost, look for either frozen or preserved sour cherries, assuming you don't preserve your own.  You want cherries that are tart and only lightly sweet.  You can find sour cherries at your better Middle Eastern and Eastern European specialty food stores.

We decided to save our Boon krieks for drinking and to cook instead with one of the only krieks available in Quebec, Mort Subite brand, made by the people at De Keersmaeker.  Mort Subite is a decent kriek--it's certainly good enough to cook with--but it's not a traditional kriek and it's quite a bit sweeter and less interesting than Boon's.  Kriek was what we had as our apéro, and it went exceptionally well with the assortment of charcuterie that we served.  By the time it came to digging into the lapin à la kriek, however, we'd moved on to white wine, and the wine flowed freely.  No one else at the table had experienced this dish before, and a good batch of lapin à la kriek can be quite a revelation, bestowing Belgian cuisine and its beer-making tradition with the love it deserves.  We must have been toasting that rabbit like crazy--somehow we went through an usually high number of bottles that night.

 fig. b:  lapin à la kriek

Lapin à la kriek

2 rabbits, portioned into six pieces each

2 250-ml bottles of kriek

flour as needed

2 tbsp butter

2-4 shallots, depending on size

several young carrots cut in half lengthwise

2 sprigs of thyme

white wine as needed (I used roughly 1 bottle for 2 rabbits)

1/2 cup sour cherries

1 tbsp red currant jelly

kosher salt

fresh black pepper

Brine the rabbit.  Marinate the rabbit in kriek to cover for a minimum of 4 hours.

Remove the rabbit from the kriek, reserving the liquid.  Dry the rabbit pieces and flour them lightly.  Melt the butter and brown the rabbit pieces in the butter.  Remove the rabbit and put aside.  

Sauté the shallots in the same skillet until soft and just beginning to caramelize.  Add the carrots and sauté for 5 minutes.  Add the thyme sprigs, the reserved kriek, the rabbit pieces, and dry white wine as needed.  Simmer gently with the lid off to reduce for about 30-45 minutes.  Check the rabbit for doneness.  When the rabbit is fully cooked and perfectly succulent, place the pieces in your serving dishes.  

Add the cherries and the red currant jelly.  Simmer for another five minutes, adjusting the seasoning.  Dress the rabbit with the sauce, making sure to be generous with the sour cherries.  

Serve with roasted potatoes, a nice salad, a loaf of crusty bread, and some quality bottles of kriek and/or white wine (we did both).

Serves six generously.

aj

The Green Chile Variations, pt. 2, rev. ed.

 fig. a:  garden-fresh chiles

So, like I was saying...

There was this initiation in the majesty and the mystery of New Mexico-style green chile that occurred sometime in the 1990s in Albuquerque and environs.  This initiation turned into something of an obsession--a Green Chile Madness--albeit one that lay mostly dormant for years afterwards.  Then there was a period of rediscovery that began a few years ago, and that resulted in the rekindling of this obsession.  Things reached a fevered pitch sometime this past summer, not long after a fateful encounter with a green chile pork burrito in Billings, Montana, of all places.  When it comes to green chile pork--the genuine article--you learn to not ask too many questions.  You learn to just accept, and appreciate.

By the time the height of summer hit, we were roasting green chiles over open flames at every occasion.  We made a lot of green chile stew, and, in an homage to both Billings and Albuquerque, we filled quite a number of burritos with that stew.  But we also made a whole lot of chunky green chile sauce that we used for a wide variety of purposes:  from dressing scrambled and fried eggs in the morning, to smothering a pile of nacho chips, to adorning our AEB green chile cheeseburger.  Michelle cried real tears of joy the first time we made these.  She cried real tears of grief about eight seconds later when she'd made her first AEB green chile cheeseburger vanish into thin air.  Luckily for her, we had the means to make more, and that's exactly what we did.

 fig. b:  come to mama!

AEB Green Chile Cheeseburger 

1 lb freshly ground beef chuck
AEB green chile sauce*
cheddar or Monterey Jack cheese
smoky bacon
beefsteak tomato slices (in season)
ripe avocado slices
lettuce (optional)
mayonnaise (optional) 

Divide the meat into three portions.  Form into patties making sure that you've salted and peppered the meat sufficiently and that you don't overwork the meat.   

Fry in a pan (preferably with your leftover bacon drippings) to desired doneness, making sure to grace with sliced cheese for the last minute of cooking time.  Place patties on buns and dress with the remaining ingredients.  You might think that topping the burgers with guacamole would be even tastier than topping them with avocado slices, but, in our humble opinion, you'd be wrong:  the guacamole just competes with the green chile sauce, and the green chile sauce is already bursting with flavour. Sometimes less is more.

Place the top half of each bun on top.  Try your damnedest to hold that burger together as you take a chomp.  This may very well be the messiest burger you've ever eaten.  It will likely also be the very best. 

Makes three 1/3-pound Green Chile Cheeseburgers.  Serves 1-3.

These burgers are unreal, but don't forget about those eggs and those nachos.  Actually, you'll want to put that green chile sauce on just about everything when you have a batch around.  That's when you'll know the Green Chile Madness has set in.

END OF PART TWO

aj

* I haven't had the chance to turn the AEB green chile sauce into an actual recipe, but I can give you some pointers.

You'll need the following:

onion
vegetable oil or lard
garlic
cumin seeds
roasted green chiles
tomatillos (optional)
chicken broth
masa harina (optional)
salt and pepper

And basically, you'll have to do the following.  Sauté your onions until they are nice and soft.  Add your chopped garlic and some toasted and ground cumin seeds.  Add your roasted green chiles, some tomatillos, if you're using them, and your chicken broth.  Be judicious with your use of chicken broth.  You don't want to add too much, but the idea here is to add enough that you can cook your sauce down, uncovered, reducing it into a thing of beauty.  This shouldn't take all that long.  No more than about half an hour, if you've added the right proportion of broth.  Add a sprinkle of masa harina towards the end of this process if you'd like to thicken your sauce further and give it a bit of depth.  The goal here is to create a fairly thick, chunky sauce that will actually be appropriate for dressing a burger.  It ought to taste like heaven, too.

You'll notice that the ingredients and the method here are essentially just a variation on the Green Chile Stew recipe from Part One.

Others opt for a simpler approach to the green chile cheeseburger.  At the end of their Saveur piece on chile-hunting across New Mexico, Jane and Michael Stern included a recipe for a prototype that they picked up from a chef in Santa Fe.  There, instead of creating an actual green chile sauce, they spiced up the burger patties, then topped them with roasted New Mexico chiles that had been roughly chopped.

Either way, you can hardly go wrong.  In fact, you can only go right.

top ten #47

1.  Fall/Christmas bazaar season, Montreal

2.  Meek's Cutoff (2010), dir. Reichardt



3.  The eel hunt, Kamouraska

4.  R.I.D.M. 2012



5.  hommage à Richard Olney



6.  lapin à la kriek

7.  Foodlab turns 1



8.  Errol Morris, Believing is Seeing (Observations on the Mysteries of Photography)



9.  turkey, turkey gumbo, hot turkey sandwiches





10.  More (original soundtrack/"music played and composed by Pink Floyd," 1969) + Zabriskie Point (original soundtrack/various artists, 1970)

aj

Fou de Kamou, rev. ed.

 fig. a:  Kamou view 1

Until this summer, Michelle had never set foot in Kamouraska.  Oh, sure, she'd heard lots about it.  In this part of the world, Kamouraska is a fabled region.  Situated at the point where the salt water of the Atlantic mingles with the freshwater flowing east along the mighty St. Lawrence River ("entre la mer et l'eau douce"), at the beginning of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the largest estuary in the world, and encompassing verdant fields, lush forest, impressive rock formations that shoot out of the landscape, and fantastic views of the river, its marshes, a number of its islands, and the mountainous north shore, Kamouraska is a pretty striking place.

 fig. b:  Kamou view 2

Michelle felt instantly at home.

 fig. c:  Kamou girl

She took to the landscape, and the landscape seemed to agree with her.  And she quickly adopted Kamouraska as a home away from home.

We were only in Kamouraska for a little over two days on that visit, but we had a pretty active couple of days:



 figs. d & e:  sowing seeds

We attended a traditional seed-sowing ceremony, featuring live musical accompaniment and an elaborate fertility ritual, at Patrice Fortier's magical Société des Plantes.





 figs. f, g, & h:  there will be eels

We visited a cultural centre dedicated to eels and eel fishing.  (Eel fishing has been a staple of the local economy for hundreds and hundreds of years, long before the settlers arrived.  Eel was a traditional part of maritime Quebec's diet, but has decreased in popularity over the last several decades, due in part to the misconceptions that surround it.  Still, the eel hunt persists, with most of the catch shipped to either Japan or Europe, but mostly to Japan.)

 fig. i:  Boulangerie Niemand

We checked out Boulangerie Niemand, perhaps Quebec's very best bakery (and almost certainly its most beautiful), and a real hub for the local community,

 fig. j:  côté ouest de Côté Est

as well as Côté Est, right next door, a fine new addition to the local dining scene, with wonderful views on the river, a convivial atmosphere, and a menu that specializes in local delicacies like eel and locally raised salt-marsh lamb, as well as natural wines from Montreal's own La QV.

 fig. k:  got fish?

We made sure to pick up some smoked eel, sturgeon, and salmon before we skipped town.

 fig. l:  faire du pouce

And although the idea of hitchhiking from Kamouraska to La Pocatière to visit our friends at Fou du Cochon (the very same ones who'd made the wonderful charcuterie pictured above at Côté Est) held a certain romantic appeal, ultimately we opted for other means of transportation.

 fig. m:  golden age

When we got to Fou du Cochon we were blown away by how meticulous an operation it is, but we were especially impressed by the hand-crafted maplewood architecture they'd created to age their vast array of charcuterie, which not only looked beautiful, with its golden hues, its aromas also imparted an additional goût du terroir to their product.

 fig. n:  après Kamou

When we got back home, we celebrated our trip with an après-Kamou feast.  And Michelle immediately started to put the plans together for an Hommage à Kamouraska menu for the fall.

Notes:

Kamouraska is roughly 400 km away from Montreal along Autoroute 20/the Trans-Canada, but it pays to follow Hwy 132 along the river soon after you pass Quebec City--it's one of my favourite drives in Quebec.

 fig. o:  beauty queens

If you'd like to experience the flavours of Kamouraska, but you're not in a position to make a trip out to that region anytime soon, you might want to visit Seth & Michelle at Foodlab over the next couple of weeks for their Hommage à Kamouraska menu.  That's right:  it's now fall, and their Kamou menu has gone live.  It features bread from Boulangerie Niemand, charcuterie from Fou du Cochon, smoked fish from Poisonnerie Lauzier, and a truly amazing array of fresh produce from our good friend Patrice at la Société des Plantes.

For an extra special treat, you might want to attend tomorrow night's (November 15) Fou du Beaujo festivities at Foodlab, featuring the entire Hommage à Kamouraska menu, plus some amazing Beaujolais wines from La QV.  If you happen to be in Kamouraska that night, you can attend the tandem Fou du Beaujo event at Côté Est (!).  How's that for inter-regional togetherness?

And if all that wasn't enough, the Hommage à Kamouraska menu features one my favourite Michelle Marek desserts in recent memory:  a phenomenal maple custard with caramelized apples and pecans.

Fou du Beaujo info:

Foodlab, 1201 boulevard St-Laurent, November 15, hours:  5 à 7

Fou de Kamou addresses:

Boulangerie Niemand, 82 avenue Morel, Kamouraska, QC, (418) 492-1236 

Côté Est, 76 avenue Morel, Kamouraska, QC, (418) 308-0739 

Poissonerie Lauzier, 57 avenue Morel, Kamouraska, QC, (418) 492-7988 

Site d'interprétation de l'anguille de Kamouraska, 205 avenue Morel, Kamouraska, QC, (418) 492-3935 

La Société des Plantes, 207 rang de l'Embarras, Kamouraska, QC, (418) 492-2493 

Fou du Cochon et Scie, La Pocatière, QC (available in fine food establishments across the province)

aj

Return of Generation F, rev. ed.

 fig. a:  peach, Morgan Hill, CA

You may remember our affection and admiration for Adam Leith Gollner's The Fruit Hunters:  A Story of Nature, Obsession, Commerce, and Adventure.  It was a book that easily made our "Best of..." list for 2008, a book that inspired us to interview Mr. Gollner on the subject of fruit and fruit obsession right here in the virtual pages of "...an endless banquet."

You may have also picked up on our affection and admiration for the work of Yung Chang, the acclaimed director of Up the Yangtze and China Heavyweight.

Well, you may be interested to know that Mr. Chang's latest film is premiering this weekend at the Rencontres Internationales de Documentaire de Montréal (RIDM), and it's an adaptation of Mr. Gollner's book called (you guessed it!) The Fruit Hunters.

 fig. b:  fruit hunters, Los Angeles, CA

If you've read The Fruit Hunters, you'll see that some of the colourful characters that made the book so memorable reappear in the film version, but Chang's film is a fairly liberal adaptation, and he takes the hunt in a number of new directions and introduces us to a whole new cast of fruit obsessives, including Bill Pullman (!) and his gang of Merry Orchardists.

 fig. c:  oranges, Los Angeles, CA

Chang's film is also much more graphic and sensual than the typographic version.  The cinematography is quite literally luscious--the sweetness, the complex flavors, and the fragrance of the world's most exotic fruit appears to have infused the very screen, and the experience is nothing if not tantalizing.  You'll feel the urge to satisfy your curiosity.  You might even feel the first pangs of your own fruit obsession.  Chang recommends attending screenings with a bowl of exotic fruit at the ready, and it's good advice, but it might not go over so well with the folks at Excentris or the Cinémathèque.*  However, Chang and his team have ever-so-thoughtfully organized an exotic fruit tasting at the Cinémathèque after the November 10 screening (in the RIDM's food- & drinks-friendly events room), so you'll have a golden opportunity to sate your cravings.

The Fruit Hunters screens on November 10 (16:30) and November 13 (17:30), at Excentris and the Cinémathèque Québécoise, respectively.  For more information, you can consult The Fruit Hunters' webpage on the RIDM site.  And if you're in need of a teaser, you can find the Official Trailer for the film here and the Official Website here.  And if film festivals just aren't your trip, The Fruit Hunters opens in theatres in Montreal and Toronto on November 23.

aj

* I got busted for smuggling an apple juice into Excentris one time.  It was in a sealed bottle, and no spills were involved.  Forget about trying to even bring an apple, let alone a cherimoya.

Baby's Turning One

 fig. a:  déja un an!

Foodlab/Labo Culinaire turns one this weekend [!].  With this in mind AEB conducted an exclusive interview with its chefs, Seth Gabrielse and Michelle Marek, at Foodlab, on the third floor of Montreal's Société des arts technologiques.

"A Brief History of Foodlab"

AEB:  First off, is it “Foodlab” or “the Foodlab”?  You know, like “Mile End” or “the Mile End.”

S:  Foodlab.

M:  Definitely just “Foodlab.”

 fig. b:  Michelle & Seth

AEB:  What was the first thing that ran through your minds when you were approached with this project?

S:  “You’re out to lunch.”  

Seriously.  I thought they were flat-out crazy.

The idea seemed to go against everything I knew about the business.

M:  Plus, there was a very specific notion about how this place would function.

S:  Yeah, they had this concept that involved doing a 5 à 7 every night, then stopping service for the show in the dome, then starting up again to serve food from 9:30 pm to 1:00 am.

AEB:  [laughter]

M:  And it all seemed very pie in the sky.

AEB:  But obviously both of you are here, so there must have been things that enticed you.

S:  More than anything, we were intrigued.

And there was the prospect of complete control over the menu.  It sounded like a rare opportunity.

Plus, there was the vast amounts of travel we’d be doing.

M:  And the massive staff we’d have.

S:  And the research budget.

M:  And the cleaning team.

[laughter]

We didn’t know at the time that we wouldn’t actually get a pizza oven.

S:  At one point we had the idea that we’d be baking bread and that the aroma would be vented out onto the street to entice any passersby.

People would be lured into the lobby and then they’d be overwhelmed by Michelle’s display case of desserts.  [This display case of desserts doesn't exist as of yet.]  When they saw those they’d be totally powerless.  They’d come up the 3 flights of stairs without any hesitation and they'd be ours.

AEB:  How did you settle on the rotating theme approach?

S:  We did one week that was all over the place.  No theme to it at all.  The only constant was that everything was small.

M:  And everything came with a $6 price tag.

S:  Including tax

M:  We knew we needed a direction, but we weren’t ready to decide, we weren’t ready to settle on a fixed menu.  And there’s something about this building, this space, that demands flux.

S:  Plus, the constant change allows us to keep our sanity.

We have something really special here.  There are no restrictions on which direction we take the menu.  We can change the entire menu in a way other restaurants just can’t.

We do these tributes to all these different regions, all these different cuisines, and we’re interested in doing them justice and being true to them, but, at the same time, everything is always our interpretation of these dishes.

Because, you know, Michelle and I aren’t Japanese.  [They ran an izakaya/manga menu last February, around the time of Nuit Blanche.]

AEB:  Really?  Because there’s a rumour going around town...

[dead silence]

 fig. c:  Foodlab by night

AEB:  Okay...  Moving right along.  What were some of the crazier themes that you came up with, but ultimately passed on?

S:  Well, when we did our Fou de cochon menu, the idea that was presented to us was that it should have a mud theme.  It should be a mud menu.  Everything should either be brown or have mud involved in the dish.

AEB:  Or both?

S:  Yeah, or both.

M:  One plate was supposed to involve five different shades of brown, including something baked in mud...

We ended up kind of using that idea--we just went the opposite direction with it.  I thought, it’s spring in Montreal, we’re sick of brown.  We’re craving colour.  And that’s what we did for our Homage to Fou de cochon menu--we added colour--and everyone was really happy with it.

AEB:  How about some of the crazier themes you guys came up with?

[Michelle consults her notebook]

M:  Wedding menu theme.  It would be like attending someone else’s wedding.  Someone you didn’t know at all.  There’d be a fixed menu and you’d have to stay the duration, and there’d be a big, elaborate cake.  And a cake ceremony.  And dancing.

“Wartime Europe Under Rations.”  

AEB:  Ooh, that's a catchy one.  Who wouldn't want to relive the pleasures of Turnip Winter?

M:  “Real Cocktail Hour.”  Where the emphasis would be on mixed drinks and the food would only consist of snacks and they wouldn’t be sufficient to soak up all the alcohol.

S:  Is that the week that we take off?

M:  Yeah.

“Sommeliers’ Ball.”  This would be about the dancing.  We’d turn the dome into a ballroom and get some dancing instructors to teach everyone some moves.  It would be on a Monday night and all the sommeliers in town would come and learn to dance while they drink.

S:  “Expo 67.”  

We ended up turning that one into a TV episode.  [For the Les Touilleurs show.]

M:  “Dinner at sea.”

S:  Oh, yeah.  And we talked to Fred [Morin, of Joe Beef fame] about doing a train menu.  We’re still hoping that one actually happens one day.

AEB:  What was the kitchen like when you first started?

 S:  There was no kitchen--there was a folding table.

M:  No, there wasn't even a folding table.  There was a riser that the SAT used for their [music] shows.

S:  There was no running water on the third floor [where Foodlab is located].  You had to go to the first floor to do the dishes, and if you wanted to wash your hands you had to go to the second floor.

We cooked at my house and biked everything in.  And all our equipment came from home.  Most of it is still here.

AEB:  Believe me, I know...

M:  There were no plates and no utensils.

We had two induction burners and during our first week one of our staff broke one of them.  So within a week we’d lost 50% of our cooking power.

S:  We had actual stoves for our first menu, but not for the first couple of events we did.

M:  We pitched the idea of just buying two electric home stoves--$450 for both.  We still have them.  They’re the only stoves we have, and one of them is still going strong

S:  Of course, we can only use four burners at a time between the two of them, otherwise the breaker jumps.  So it makes the logistics of cooking here pretty interesting.

AEB:  Did this situation pose any problems when you hosted Omnivore?

S:  Oh, my god.  Did it ever.

Actually, our ovens were doing great until then.  They really took a beating that weekend.

That Saturday we had thirty people in our kitchen area for most of the day, many of whom weren't necessarily chefs.  It was bedlam.

And the fact that our walk-in fridge is down in the basement caused a lot of headaches.

AEB:  What’s still on the wish list?

M:  A sous-vide machine.  A Hobart mixer.

S:  A blender.  A telephone?

M:  A gas range.  They’re on order right now.  They should arrive tomorrow [!].

AEB:  And what was your staffing situation when you guys got started?

S:  For the first few months, till January, Michelle and I did all the prep, the cooking, the cleaning, and the serving.  Michelle was also responsible for ordering the wine.  In mid-January, Heidi [Gindl, Michelle and Seth's trusted assistant] came on board.

Maude [Rochette, Foodlab's sommelier] got hired just before the summer started and she took over the wine list, the service, and the hiring.  Things have been much smoother since then.

M:  Originally, we inherited a bunch of bar servers who didn’t know anything about serving food.

S:  They were used to running kegs up and down the stairs.  And suddenly they actually had to wear [button-down] shirts, and they had to serve food, and learn a menu.

 fig. d:  Foodlab + Oenopole

AEB:  What has been your proudest moment?

M:  During our summer boom, when we were suddenly handling way more customers with exactly the same amount of staff.

Especially that special night we did with Theo [Diamantis, of Oenopole fame]--the kebab night.  That was really crazy-busy, and really magical.

I’ve done stuffy events my whole career, but here we’ve had the opportunity to do these special events that are totally different.  There's a freedom and ease to them that I really love.  And we've gotten to work with some of our favourite people.

And people have responded.

S:  With the help of Theo, we got them to come to an Izmir-style kebab night.  No one had any idea what an Izmir-style kebab was, but people loved it.

 fig. e:  Theo brings it!

M:  And the Richard Olney night.  There were probably some people who had only the vaguest idea who Olney was, but they turned out, they stayed late, and everybody had a great time.

S:  I've worked in a couple of places that were well-known, well-stocked,  and well-managed and that made it into The New York Times.

But we got a mention in The New York Times in our first year, and that made me pretty proud.

AEB:  What can we expect from you over the course of Year Two?

S:  Gas stoves!  Of course, we have no budget for pans, but that's another story.

AEB:  You'll just have to raid your home kitchens again.

S:  More stuff from home!

M:  A Chinatown menu.  My Chinatown menu.  I can't wait.  All the things that I want to eat when I go to Chinatown.

And more events.  We had this other great idea:  a Masters Dinner.

We'd invite all the old-school chefs in town.  All the chefs that have been working the line for decades.

They all know each other, so it would be a reunion.  It would also be a beautiful night of beautiful technique.

AEB:  Anything else?

S:  The release of our first cookbook.  And the launch of our Food Network show.

M:  And our line of cookware.

[laughter]

AEB:  Thanks, guys.  And congratulations!


Foodlab's First Anniversary Party takes place this Saturday, November 3.

On the menu:  

Oysters:  Thrumpbacks and Sea Angels 

Consommé with bone marrow dumpling 

Seafood terrine 

Beef carpaccio with lemon and watercress 

Carrot, cumin, currant, and cilantro salad 

bar snacks 

& 

cake for all!

Festivities begin at 5pm.  (Makes for a great stop after RASPIPAV 2012.)

Foodlab, 1201 rue St-Laurent, Montreal, QC

aj

There Will Be Eel

 fig. a:  God bless the Eel Hunt!

Yes, it's true.

 fig. b:  The Eel Hunters

The Eel Hunters traveled to Kamouraska in search of the last of the season's catch, and though their prey were a wily and slippery lot, they didn't come up empty-handed.  In fact, they brought a few eels back to Montreal, live and feisty, and the next day they were summarily dealt with.

 fig. c:  success!

So, not only will there be eel, but They Will Be Smoked.  And tonight we'll be celebrating the Eel Hunt at La QV.

On tap:  eel rillettes with rye bread from the legendary Niemand Bakery, prepared by Julie "Miss Vivres" Rondeau, and an Austrian white (Grüner Veltliner, Domaine Meinklang) selected by Cyril "Boss Soif" Kérébel.

Come one, come all!

Tonight's apéro will only set you back $12.  The festivities start at 5 p.m. and will last until sometime after 9 p.m.  And there's no better way to get yourself in the mood for Raspipav 2012.

La QV, 29 Beaubien E.

aj

On the road 5: Zingerman's Roadhouse

 fig. a:  the Roadhouse

If only road food was this easy all the time.  I mean, sure, there wouldn't be the thrill of the hunt, but at least we'd be fully satisfied.

You might have heard of the good people at Zingerman's.  They established a delicatessen in Ann Arbor, Michigan, back in 1982 that long ago became a legend.  They knew what it took to keep the Jewish deli tradition alive, and they knew how to name a good sandwich,* but things didn't stop there.  Not only did they fashion themselves into perhaps the country's premier purveyor of fine foods, featuring a brilliantly curated selection of America's must-have regional specialties, but they established a veritable empire of good eats and tasty treats right there in Ann Arbor.  In addition to the deli, Zingerman's line-up now includes a bake shop, a creamery, a coffee shop, a candy "manufactory," and Zingerman's Roadhouse, their full-service restaurant.

Visiting the constellation of Zingerman's businesses in quick succession is a feat that requires so much will power, so much self-control (it's all so tempting!), that Zingerman's has named it the Tour de Food and actually enters all those who successfully complete the circuit in a 24-hour period in a rather generous draw (you stand to win a $250 gift certificate).  But for those who are just passing through Ann Arbor, the Roadhouse makes for an awfully convenient and delicious pit stop, and a great introduction to Zingerman's particular brand of magic.  Imagine a restaurant that served all your favorite American comfort foods, using only the very best ingredients sourced from the best producers across the continent, and prepared with the utmost care.  Imagine that same restaurant adding a top-notch barbecue pit** built into a vintage Airstream directly adjacent to it.  Now imagine that restaurant situated in a Eastern Michigan strip mall just seconds from the I-94.  That's Zingerman's Roadhouse for you, and if you've got an aversion to dining in strip malls, well, it's time to get over it because you don't want to miss out on a place like this.

 fig. b:  exterior decorating

When you step up to the restaurant, you're going to have to decide whether you want to go to the restaurant, or visit the barbecue/bake shop/coffee shop next to it.  I recommend that you do both:  visit the restaurant, eat to your heart's content, then swing by the Airstream to pick up some goodies for later.

 fig. c:  the perfect brunch

If you happen to visit Zingerman's Roadhouse in the morning, you'll find an extensive breakfast & brunch menu to choose from.  For brunch there's a full assortment of omelettes, waffles, and egg dishes to choose from, and some of them get kind of elaborate, but you might just want to go for the grits & eggs combo, featuring Anson Mills stone-ground grits, eggs any style, scallions and Cabot aged cheddar, fresh biscuits, Nueske's applewood-smoked bacon, sorghum molasses, homemade preserves, and a side of homemade hot sauce (upon request).  That was exactly what I wanted, and it was exactly what I got.  Even better, it was just as good as I imagined.  Really good coffee, too.

Jeez, why couldn't every brunch be like this?

 fig. d:  streamlined for better smoking

Afterwards, I paid a visit to the Airstream to pick up some treats for the road.  I mean, I had to make it all the way to Montreal that day--I was going to want to have lunch at some point, right?

So I picked up a smoked whole hog pulled pork sandwich, some Zapp's potato chips, and another coffee for the road.

 fig. e:  pulled pork picnic

And wouldn't you know it, a few hours later I had myself just about the tastiest picnic lunch you could imagine, considering I was traveling along the 401.  The only thing was that I forgot to ask for a side of some barbecue sauce or hot sauce.  Good thing I just happened to have a bottle of Arthur Bryant's barbecue sauce on hand (!).  You know what they say:  Be prepared.

Zingerman's Roadhouse and Road Show, 2501 Jackson Ave., Ann Arbor, MI, (734) 663-FOOD

aj

* Actually, naming is a big part of the Zingerman's story.  They were meant to be called Greenberg's, but then one thing led to another...

** How good?  Well, Jane & Michael Stern included Zingerman's in their list of the top barbecue joints in America when they put together their special BBQ edition of Popular Plates back in 2010.  When they did, they wrote:  "...Zingerman's goes beyond any ordinary definition of a barbecue restaurant.  But we would be horribly remiss not to include it here, because the pulled pork is as succulent as any found in North Carolina [!], and it is only a slight exaggeration to say it melts in your mouth."  That's a helluva claim, and I haven't traveled the BBQ trails of the Carolinas extensively enough to weigh in with any authority, but I can say that that pulled pork sandwich tasted mighty fine to me.  I would have served it on a bit less bready of a roll (Zingerman's uses one of their famous onion rolls), but that's just me.