Local Cook on Hell’s Kitchen
Mar 31, 2008 Television, chefs
Although it’s the one Ramsey show that actually irritates the hell out of me, Hell’s Kitchen is back upon us tomorrow night and with it a local, Christina Machammer, will be hitting the national airwaves.
Josh Galliano gave me the heads up saying that “Christina is from St. Louis and used to work with us at An American Place and she is [now] attending the CIA.”
The winner “will earn a coveted senior chef position at Ramsay’s new restaurant, Gordon Ramsay at the London West Hollywood.”
Congratulations to Christina for getting on the program and for putting up with Ramsey on his most ego-boosting program.
Tags: An American Place, Christina Machammer, Gordon Ramsay, Hell's Kitchen, Joshua Galliano
Chef’s Garden
Mar 11, 2008 farming, sustainable agriculture
Judith Evans made a brief, but nice, blog post about the Chef’s Garden event held over the weekend on her Recipe Exchange blog on stltoday.com.
If you don’t know, Chef’s Garden, utilizing a term coined by Joel Salatin, is a Beyond Organic purveyor of Micro Greens, Micro Herbs, and Specialty Heirloom Vegetables based out of Ohio that sells to many big name chefs.
I would like to comment that I always feel bad how Joshua Galliano gets hosed on the name droppings anytime An American Place pops up on the who’s who style best chef lists since Forgione is such a heavyweight.
Absolutely they should mention Forgione, and I’m not implying for a second that they shouldn’t, but the day to day operation of the kitchen falls to Galliano and it’s his food you’re dreaming about the next day when you’re thinking to yourself about how delicious everything was.
He’s also a super nice guy, and as you can see on his forum post, not only did he cook up a stellar meal with what Chef’s Garden dropped An American Place’s way, but he also gave away the excess to Gerard Craft and Kevin Willmann where their restaurant’s diners (like me) got to benefit from his generosity.
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| “beet plate with herbed orecchiette tossed in lemon oil, poached baby beets, golden beet chips, red sorrel leaves, raw parmesan and a red wine - beet reduction that was flavored with ras al hanout”
– Josh Galliano |
It was really nice to taste something so fresh and green in the first week of March, and the quality of at least what I tasted was an obvious indicator as to why Thomas Keller is a Chef’s Garden customer.
Jennifer Blome also spoke with Farmer Jones on KSDK
Tags: An American Place, beets, Cat Cora, Chef's Garden, Farmer Lee Jones, Gerard Craft, joel salatin, Joshua Galliano, Kevin Willmann, Larry Forgione, thomas keller
3 Things I Learned Last Night
Feb 29, 2008 chefs, offal watch, restaurants
We had a great meal at An American Place last night, and although I will comment on it further when I have recovered, I wanted to make three quick comments.
- Duck Testicles are really not a big deal. They have the texture of a soft sausage with its casing removed, and they are wonderfully delicate. If you didn’t tell someone what they were, they would devour them with glee.
- Cockscombs I don’t quite get. It doesn’t really taste like much, and has a rubbery texture that I likened to soft liccorice before our server rolled in with the win and called it gummy-bear-like. Yes, yes it was.
- Tripe. I hate tripe. I loved Josh’s tripe.. It was the best of the offal we ate last night. I was in utter disbelief.
They’re cooking up some great food at An American Place and it’s sad there were so many available seats on a Thursday.
I have no room to talk on that point, as we’d only eaten there four times previously, but we’ll definitley be doing our best to go a little more frequently than before.
And man, that is such a beautiful restaurant.
Tags: An American Place, Joshua Galliano, offal
Questionable Foods
Feb 26, 2008 chefs, general food, offal watch, restaurants
Unable to be a ringer on your Convivial Pursuit team, I and a few others are heading over to Mike’s house Saturday to act as guinnea pigs for a test run of the questions.
Kimberly Henricks — Slow Food Member, blogger, and I think friend of Cupcake Grand Champion Stef has vowed to make The Cupcake Projects Beer Cheese Cupcakes with Bacon Cheddar Cream Cheese Frosting.
I am terrified at the prospect of eating a sugary, cheesy cupcake topped with bacon, but at the same time it will be a part of this weeks personal food challenge.
Namely, which will I enjoy more?
- Joshua Galliano’s offal tasting at An American Place including common offal like tripe and not so common offal like the duck testicles (which they say has a texture like sausage).
- The Bacon Cheese Cupcakes
We will see.
Tags: An American Place, cupcakes, Joshua Galliano, slow food
Local Chefs Make the 2008 James Beard Awards Long List
Feb 18, 2008 chefs, restaurants
Joshua Galliano and I had hoped previously we might get some locals nominated for this years James Beard Awards, so it was exicting news when Stephanie (bakemeacake over on the forum) pointed us to yumsugar’s post regarding this years long list of James Beard Award nominees.
Up for Best Chef Midwest are:
Michael Roberts / Jean Donnelly, Atlas, St. Louis, MO
Lou Rook III, Annie Gunn’s, Chesterfield, MO
The award is for “Chefs who have set new or consistent standards of excellen in their respective regions. Candidates may be from any kind of dining establishment and most have been working as a chef for at least five years with three most recent years in the region. (IA, KS, MN, MO, NE, ND, SD, WI)”
And up for Rising Star Chef of the Year is
Gerard Craft, Niche, St. Louis, MO
This award is for “A chef age 30 or younger who displays an impressive talent and who is likely to make a significant impact on the industry in years to come.”
Congratulations to all four, and here’s to hoping they make it to the short list.
Here is the complete long list of names for the 2008 Beard Awards if you’re curious. It contains some pretty fierce competition for our locals, and especially Gerard with people like Sean Brock (McCrady’s, Charleston, SC) and Wesley Genovart (Degustation, NYC) being on the Rising Chef list.
Tags: Annie Gunn's, Atlas, Gerard Craft, Jean Donnelly, Joshua Galliano, Lou Rook III, Michael Roberts, Niche
In regards to the forum, you were right!
Feb 2, 2008 chefs, offal watch, restaurants
So, um, yeah, I had no idea the forum would take off like that.
In basically three weeks 47 people have posted 835 articles, and while a nice chunk are from only four of us (and you know who you are), we have everything from magazine editors, to a wine rep, to local chefs.
This morning, one of them who we will call Josh Galliano, walked away with the award for greatest post (by about twenty fold) in this thread about offal. One of Josh’s tasting menus at the moment is completely comprised of offal like cockscombs and honeycomb tripe, and he took pictures of a lot of it to not only explain to us what he’s up to, but show us as well.
The pic above is actually beef hearts from American Grass Fed Beef, and it’s An American Place’s amuse for the weekend. I don’t know which I like more, that they’re getting away with serving beef heart, or the fact that he titled the pic “two hearts” and I can’t stop laughing because of that goofy eighties song.
So thank you everyone for posting and showing me that there is a core group of people in St. Louis that get it. I’ve never been more proud to live in St. Louis.
Tags: American Grass Fed Beef, An American Place, beef heart, beef hearts, cockscombs, grass fed beef, honeycomb tripe, Joshua Galliano, offal
James Beard Open Nominations
Nov 15, 2007 chefs, restaurants
Joshua Galliano, Executive Chef at An American Place restaurant, posted a call to the St. Louis dining public over on Eat@Joe’s that we all go out and register for the James Beard Awards nominations so we can “stuff the open nominations with St. Louis restaurants as a way to push St. Louis into the national spotlight and entice judges/critics to visit our city.”
I agree it’s a good idea, and while I’m not a huge fan of everything they do, The James Beard Foundation has a certain cache with the dining public that is never a bad thing, and they do award the deserving.
So do like he (and I) did and go nominate Gerard Craft or anything else you might find worthy in our city. It definitely can’t hurt.
Joshua’s post in full:
Open nominations have begun for the 2008 James Beard Awards. The open nomination process allows restaurateurs, chefs, the food loving public, and anyone else to nominate their favorite restaurant/chef. When open nominations close, a long list of nominees is formulated in order for James Beard judges to vote for their favorites. From there, a short list of the nominated chefs/restaurants is created, which ends with the awards ceremony in May.
The open nominations are a great way to promote St. Louis restaurants because in the past, the city and the area has been overshadowed by Chicago. The competition for all divisions is stiff, but there is one category where a critical mass of nominations could help to promote St. Louis. Please take a moment and register to vote on the James Beard Organization website at the following url:
http://www.jamesbeard.org/awards/forms/index.shtml
When voting for your favorite restaurant, there is also the chance to nominate a second restaurant. I recommend that we stuff the open nominations with St. Louis restaurants as a way to push St. Louis into the national spotlight and entice judges/critics to visit our city. More judges, more chances for local restaurants to win a nomination or award.
The division where a St. Louis restaurant stands the best chance is for Rising Chef. In order to qualify for the Rising Chef award, the chef must be under 30 and must have worked as an executive chef for at least 2 years. Gerard Craft at Niche not only fits those requirements, but the soul and love that he puts into his food more than qualifies him to be recognized nationally. Please take a moment, register, and vote for some St. Louis restaurants.
Tags: An American Place, Gerard Craft, James-Beard-Awards, Joshua Galliano, Niche
