The Gourmet Review

Pad Thai. Wouldn’t you love to make this at home? Look no further than Four Seasons Resort Hualalai.  Executive Chef James Babian shares one of his favorite Thai recipes. This is delicious paired with his Tom Yom soup and Thai Beef Salad.

SERVES 8

INGREDIENTS

8 oz flat Thai noodles (rice noodles)

4 tablespoons vegetable oil

2 tablespoons chopped Garlic

1/4 cup green onions

4 oz ground pork

1/4 cup dried Shrimp (soak in sesame oil and fish sauce) optional

SEASONINGS

1/3 cup Tamarind paste (strained)

5 tablespoons Fish Sauce

2 tsp Palm Sugar

2-3 eggs (beaten)

1/2 cup chopped Peanuts

4 oz regular tofu, dust in corn starchEdit

1 tsp dried chili flakes

Juice from half lime

3 green onions, cut into 1″ lengths

CONDIMENTS

1 cup bean sprouts green chilies

Lime wedges

DIRECTIONS

Place noodles in a bowl and add enough hot water to cover, soak 20 to 30 minutes, soft but still firm.

Mix together tamrind paste, sugar and fish sauce hold.

Heat oil in wok, stir fry tofu to golden brown, remove and drain.

In pan add garlic and green onions cook briefly.

Add pork and dried shrimp, stir fry until pork is browned.

Reduce heat, add drained noodles to pan and carefully fold them in to heat.

Clear a spot in the pan add the beaten eggs, cook a bit to set up then break apart and stir in pan.

Add sauce mix, cook for a minute or so to flavor and noodles to absorb.

Add remaining ingredients, tofu, peanuts, chilies flakes, lime juice and scallions.

Remove from heat and add half the garnishes, serve the rest in bowls on side.

-The Gourmet Review

Four Seasons has a reputation for great food, so it’s no surprise to find rising culinary chefs creating fabulous dishes at the Four Seasons Resort Hualalai. Executive Sous Chef Nick boasts that Chef Angela is one of those rising stars. Check out her Grilled Beef Caprese Saladand her Hawaiian inspired Lobster Lillikoi Salad recipes. They are healthy, quick to prepare and delicious.

The Blue Baker and I, along with my youngest daughter, had the privilege of doing an “inside the kitchen” tour with Chef Angela this summer. Since the Blue Baker is now 11 years old, she had a few things she wanted to try during our hands on cooking lesson.

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First, we watched Chef Angela demonstrate how to make the pasta dough for the Beach Tree Restaurant that evening. Of course, all the dough is prepared in house with that special 00 flour that Chef Nick flies in from Italy.

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Then it was time to decide what type of pasta to roll out for the evening, while the fresh pasta sauce cooked in an enormous pot on the stove.

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The process of running the dough through the pasta maker takes a lot longer than I thought. Over and over the dough is put through a press like apparatus until it is rolled super thin. Only then is it actually cut, portion controlled and placed on a tray ready for evening diners.

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Next, we made pizza from scratch. Then we tried to “throw” the dough into something that resembled the shape of a pizza. Chef Angela was clearly more successful than my two girls at this!

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Finally, Chef Angela demonstrated how to dip the vanilla bon bons into liquid chocolate. I know what you’re thinking; you’d love to just eat some of that warm chocolate. Well, rest assured, we did just that and it was delicious!

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The chocolate bon bons are now one of our family’s favorite desserts. The presentation was on dry ice and we ate until we could eat no more.

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We loved how friendly everyone was. Each person worked quickly, but always with a smile and a friendly greeting.

That’s Chef Will, Garde Manager at the Resort, saying good bye to us. A big thanks to Chef Angela and her crew for a great “Inside the Kitchen” tour of the Beach Tree restaurant.

-The Gourmet Review

Courtesy Wolfgang Puck

Fall and winter squash have a long season and are easily stored for months on end. Because our customers love it so much, we have this soup on the menu at Spago six months out of the year. The soup can be served warm or cold. For the vegetarian, the soup can be made with a vegetable stock.

– Wolfgang Puck

– On The Gourmet Review

Wolfgang Puck demonstrates how to create a delicious autumn or holiday soup. You’ll see it’s really quite easy. If cooking for company, try serving Savory Squash Soup in a carved out pumpkin!

This is a great recipe. I love the hint of nutmeg. The soup can be either a great appetizer or main course with a salad. Check out The Gourmet Review for the complete recipe.

– The Gourmet Review

Courtesy GLAZE Teriyaki

GLAZE Teriyaki, located at 638 Lexington Avenue,  is going to knock your socks off. That’s right. Take you by surprise and make you a regular. Where else in Mid Town Manhattan, or anywhere in NYC for that matter, can you get seriously delicious farm to table freshly grilled chicken, steak, salmon and even tofu – all  with mouth watering teriyaki sauce made fresh daily. AND (yes, I know not to start a sentence like this, but the AND is really important here). Every item on the menu is under $10!

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I love chicken teriyaki. At GLAZE, I can indulge all of my favorites. Choose any two teriyaki entrees on one of the Combo Plates. I personally love the salmon and steak combination. Bet you didn’t know that the same vendor that supplies Peter Luger’s Steakhouse supplies GLAZE AND it’s all under $10. Guess I mentioned that already.

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My husband loves salads. First, he tried the cold soba sesame and loved it. Next, he tried the grilled chicken breast salad plate. He considers himself something of a salad conoisseur, so I was anxious to hear what he had to say. He couldn’t help himself and tried all the salad dressings made fresh daily. Choose between the sesame and carrot ginger or honey lemon dressing (don’t tell him that one is gluten-free)? It was a toss up. Should he have chosen grilled organic salmon or tofu instead? Guess that will be our next visit.

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Now comes my favorite part. I could actually survive on side dishes or appetizers, so I felt compelled to try every one of the sides. My favorite was the shishito peppers. You’ll find these at Nobu for a whole lot more money.  I don’t like super spicey food, so it was a bit of a gamble to try these, but I can say that these smokey, succulent peppers are my new favorite food. Next time I go to Nobu, I’ll remember GLAZE Teriyaki and the $5.00 price.

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Next up was the cucumber salad. None of this thinly sliced cucumber at GLAZE. Nice big chunks of cucumber with a light seasoned rice vinegar dressing and sesame seeds. Or maybe some  BBQ pickles?

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Crispy gyoza – your choice of chicken, pork or veggie with dipping sauce. Mmmm. Could make a meal on this one.

[Read the rest of this entry…]

Courtesy Giada Laurentiis

This Roasted Sea Bass with Lemons  recipe is adapted from Celebrity Chef  Giada Laurentiis’ Roasted Branzino with Lemons. I can’t always find branzino, so I substitute striped bass and  sometimes red snapper. I love Giada’s recipes, for they are quick, easy, healthy and always have an Italian feel to them.

INGREDIENTS

2 teaspoons olive oil

8 ounces pancetta, diced into ¼-inch pieces

Vegetable oil cooking spray

2 (1 ½-pound) whole Branzino (or striped bass or red snapper), cleaned, heads removed and filleted

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Zest of 2 lemons

¼ cup roughly chopped fennel fronds

2 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme

1 teaspoon chopped fresh parsley

2 lemons, thinly sliced

1 medium bulb fennel, thinly sliced

½ cup white wine

DIRECTIONS

Place an oven rack in the lower 1/3 of the oven.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

In a small skillet, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat.Add the pancetta and cook, stirring occasionally, until brown and crispy, about 8 to 10 minutes. Drain on paper towels. Set aside.

Lay a piece of heavy-duty foil on a baking sheet. Spray the foil with vegetable oil cooking spray.

Lay the fish fillets, skin-side-down on the foil in a single layer and season with salt and pepper.

In a small bowl, mix together the lemon zest, fennel fronds thyme and parsley. Spoon the mixture over the fish.

Arrange the lemon and fennel slices on top of the fish and sprinkle with the cooked pancetta. Pour the wine on top.

Lay another piece of foil on top and crimp the edges of both pieces of foil together to form a packet. Roast for 30 to 35 minutes until the flesh is flaky and cooked through. Rest for 5 minutes.

Carefully remove the top piece of foil. Place the cooked lemon slices and fennel on a platter.

Transfer the fish to a cutting board. Pull back the skin from the fish. Using a sharp knife, separate the two top fillets from the backbone. Using a metal spatula, transfer the fillets to the platter.

Lift the fish backbone from the bottom fillets (the backbone should come off easily) and discard. Using the spatula, transfer the two remaining fillets to the platter.

Sprinkle with the remaining lemon zest before serving.

NOTE

Find Giada on The Food Network. This recipe can be found in Giada’s Family Dinners cookbook.

Courtesy Four Seasons Hotel George V

The Four Seasons George V in Paris is simply gorgeous. One word describes The George V hotel – fabulous. Drop dead, never want to leave, fabulous! It is regarded by many as the best hotel in the world.

Ask about their Rolls Royce Phantom. It’s the only one with an interior exclusively personalized by Hermes. How many hotels offer a Rolls Royce Phantom chauffeur service? Rest assured, you’ll be riding in style during your stay in Paris.

With each experience, the George V strives to offer the very best in life. Whether it’s gourmet dining at Le Cinq or the exquisite floral masterpieces throughout the hotel, you will know you have arrived at your dream destination.

Courtesy Four Seasons Hotel George V

“When you are the best hotel in the world, how do you measure

yourself when the only challenge is you?  Essentially, the continual

 striving to surpass inevitably makes you better,  which is why Four

 Seasons George V remains one in a million.”

                                                                                          Gallivanter’s Guide, UK, March 2009

Ideally situated steps from the Champs Elysees, the Place de la Concorde and the Arc de Triomphe, The Four Season’s George V hotel is one of the most elegant and luxurious in Paris and quite possibly the world for that matter!

My love affair with the George V started the moment my husband and I set foot in the lobby.

We checked in to celebrate a big anniversary. It was supposed to be a short visit to Paris.Then a funny thing happened. We couldn’t bring ourselves to leave, so we extended our stay!

Courtesy Four Seasons Hotel Georges V

This Four Seasons spa brings new meaning to the word “luxury.” It’s the ultimate pampering experience and will be the highlight of your stay at the George V.

Courtesy Four Seasons Hotel George V

One afternoon we walked for 2.5 hours along the Seine on a balmy 75 degree day and finally made it back to the hotel.

The outdoor courtyard offers a welcome break from the bustling city. It’s the ideal place to bask in the glorious sunshine and enjoy an ice cold beverage. My romantic husband drew a stick figure of us holding hands, while we waited for our freshly squeezed lemonade. That cartoon is still on my dresser.

The impeccable staff goes out of their way to make sure every minute of your stay exceeds expectations.

Courtesy Four Seasons Hotel George V

Be forewarned – the Four Seasons Hotel George V will wrap its arms around you and threaten to never let  you go. Don’t say I didn’t warn you!

NOTES

Did you know that General Eisenhower’s headquarters during the liberation of Paris in August, 1944 were at the George V?

Link to Four Seasons Hotel George V’s Website for fabulous videos and more photographs.

– The Gourmet Review

Courtesy Google Images

Celebrity Chef Thomas Keller has it all. Whether it’s delicious celebrity recipes focusing on comfort foods with a special twist, or the perfect desert at the end of the meal, you know that you are in for a gastronomique delight.

Readers can get a glimpse into Chef Thomas Keller personally and professionally in excerpts from Anne McBride’s interview with Chef Thomas Keller. Find out what it’s like having restaurants on two coasts, the background behind  menu concepts, opinions on today’s sustainability and a little about Keller personally.

How did you decide when you opened the French Laundry to go for that concept over something more casual?

The decision was made for me because that’s what the restaurant’s format was. It was a prix fixe menu. They didn’t offer any choices in their prix fixe menu. It was one menu. It was like Chez Panisse. Sally and Don Schmitt, who opened French Laundry, opened it about the same time that Alice Waters opened Chez Panisse, and it was just about ‘come to my house and have dinner. This is what we’re cooking tonight.’ They offered a four-course menu at that time, and when we first opened, we offered a four-course menu, and then we added a five-course menu to it. And it just evolved from there, slowly but surely, then we eliminated the four-course menu, and we added a nine-course menu. We added a vegetable menu. The process of evolution. Then we changed the five courses to seven courses. So, little by little, it evolved to what it is today.

Is that the best way to experience your cuisine?

I think it’s the best way to experience anybody’s cuisine who’s in this group that I’m in, if you will, and I don’t say that in an arrogant way, because I don’t know [laughs]. I mean, the idea of writing a menu for me, now, is becoming obsolete.

But would you be able to switch to a non-menu format?

I hope so. That’s my direction. If you come in tonight, you should have enough confidence in this restaurant, in this staff, in the chefs in this restaurant, and their ability to procure the best ingredients, and say, ‘okay, the chef is cooking for you tonight.’ You would say, ‘fine.’

And you don’t think people trust you?

I think people have become accustomed to having way too many choices in our society and our cultures. It becomes confusing. Dining’s about experiencing the person you’re with and having a good time, and having really good food in a really wonderful, environment, with great wines, and service in the correct way. I feel most comfortable, and this is from my experience, going to my colleagues’ restaurants, and saying, ‘Daniel, just make whatever you want,’ because I know that you’re going to do something great. And certainly, he does. So when I start to think about this, this is very interesting, because I go to these restaurants. I don’t order a thing. The wine comes. The food comes. I can spend time with the person I’m with. I enjoy the food. I don’t really have the expectations that I have about what I’m ordering. To me, that’s extraordinary. And that’s the way it used to be.

The original restaurants didn’t have menus. You’d go in and they would feed you. But as things evolved, people felt that they had to have choices. You look at wine lists today. Why do you have to have 2,000 choices on the wine list? To really look at the wine list, and study the wine list, in a way to be able to make a choice, you spend half an hour or 45 minutes. And what is your guest doing while you’re looking at the wine list? You and I are out to dinner, and I’m going to spend 45 minutes with the wine list, and you’re going to sit there and look at me? You’re going to be kind of upset, no?

Probably!

Right [laughs]. So I’m going to say, ‘we’d like some really nice wine. Maybe a Pinot Noir, from California, or from France, and I want to spend around 300 dollars tonight on a bottle.’ The sommelier comes back with two choices. Okay, because I trust the sommelier. That’s his job. He should know his wines in his wine cellar.

I think that a lot of people just want to be in control of what they’re eating.

But what is the definition of pure luxury? Not to be in control. To go into an environment, and trust the environment, and just enjoy it. When I go on vacation, I don’t want to go to a place where I have to have choices. I want to go to a place where everything is taken care of. I don’t have to ask for something.

How big is your wine list here at Per Se?

Too big. It’s ridiculous. I’m talking to my sommeliers about that. But sommeliers are saying ‘we need to have more wines, more wines.’ Forgive the phrase, but it becomes like a pissing contest. Who can have the bigger wine list.

But you asked about directions of the menus. Hopefully we’ll get to [abolish menus]. Like next door, at Masa. There’s no menu. You can go in there, and you have one of the most extraordinary meals of your life. Did you need to choose anything? No. He did it all for you. And in many ways, it’s such a relief, having that part done for you at this kind of restaurant.

Is it hard to be you?

Yeah. Sometimes, I really want to be bad and do something terrible, but I realize I can’t do it anymore. I have the responsibility. You have to be strong enough to accept the responsibility. And strength comes with experience. So hopefully, I’ll continue to be able to set the right example. But I guarantee you that I always won’t. I mean, I’m a human.

NOTE

These questions are excerpts from a longer, in depth, interview by Anne E. McBride for The Institute of Culinary Education. It’s a fun read for anyone appreciating great chefs and their culinary achievements. Check out Anne’s blog for more fun reads!

Per Se was just named the best restaurant in New York City by the New York Times!

– The Gourmet Review

Courtesy David Wells

Love new cocktails? If your  favorite is tequila, try this popular tequila cocktail recipe created by my friend, David Ravandi, to showcase his organic 1 2 3 Tequila (Uno Dos Tres Tequila).

“My name is Ramon“or, what we sometimes refer to as the “Moo Tail,” is the name of this top cocktail recipe and is sure to be a crowd pleaser.

SERVES 1

INGREDIENTS

2 ounces of 123 Certified Organic Tequila Blanco  (see post on 123 Tequila)

2 ounces mixed fresh Juice (Lime,Lemon & Orange)

1 sprig of fresh mint

3 slices of cucumbers(English)

1 teaspoon of organic agave nectar  (you can substitute with simple syrup)

I jalapeno slice seeded

DIRECTIONS

Muddle mint and cucumber, add tequila, mixed juice and agave nectar. Add ice. Shake on the rocks and strain into a martini glass. Float a seeded jalapeño wheel on the top. Now you have “My Name Is Ramon.”

NOTE

David Ravandi’s latest variation of the popular tequila cocktail will become a conversation piece as well as your new favorite cocktail recipe featuring Uno Dos Tres Tequila. The combination of great tequila and jalapeno is unusual and receives raves from my guests every time I finish with the  jalapeno slice.

For a variety of great tequila cocktail recipes, check out www.123tequila.com.

– The Gourmet Review

Photograph by Amanda Marsalis

Wolfgang Puck is one of the most recognized celebrity chefs in the United States, as well as the world. Puck shares some of his celebrity chef recipes on my  blog and they are fabulous. Whether it’s overseeing the Oscar after party or demonstrating how to create his signature satay recipe, Puck has changed the culinary landscape forever.

There are now 21 Wolfgang Puck fine dining restaurants nationwide. More than 80 fast, casual dining venues provide a more casual Puck dining experience, proving there is something for everyone. This number will be outdated quickly, as it seems as if Wolfgang Puck is always creating a new dining venue. Lucky us!

Puck also has a number of best-selling cookbooks and TV features, as well as a line of cookware and prepared foods too numerous to name. I’m sure I’ve forgotten something, as Wolfgang Puck is always innovative, creative and fun.

Many years ago, I first dined at Wolfgang Puck’s Spago and Chinois restaurants in California. Both restaurants offer contemporary dishes that feature only the freshest, seasonal ingredients.  The food was sensational – healthy, creative and simply fabulous. Back then, Wolfgang was just beginning to garner a following. The rest is history.

I remember ordering his Chinese Chicken Salad. It was fabulous then and remains a favorite of mine. This Chinese Chicken Salad is the first of many Wolfgang Puck recipes to be featured on my blog.

Out of curiosity, I pulled what must be one of Wolfgang Puck’s earliest cookbooks from my kitchen bookshelf the other day.

The copyright is 1986 and the book is no longer sold in hardback. I bought this cookbook after first enjoying the Chinese chicken salad and asking for the recipe. It’s hard to comprehend what this innovative chef has accomplished between my first taste of his chicken salad in the l980’s and today!

For more information on Wolfgang Puck, check out his website at www.wolfgangpuck.com.