I'd be a fool and a communist to make any sort of connection here

It seems Jellyfish have been playing havoc with fisheries around the world.


Two 'attacks' in a North Ireland salmon farm has decimated the population.

http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSL2241858320071122

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/7110059.stm

It seems Japanese fisherman off the coast of an island called Oki are experiencing their own jelly traumas. Giant 450 pound monster Jellyfish are getting caught up in mackerel, yellowtail and salmon nets.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/01/0119_060119_jellyfish.html

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn3126.html

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119612452419404666.html?mod=yahoo_itp&ru=yahoo

I'm particular fond of this quote from Shinichi Uye, a Jellyfish researcher.

"It's like a harmless living thing has been angered," ... "The reason for its anger might lie with human activity."

I'm pretty sure this was foretold. Our only hope is either Godzilla or Ultraman. I'm pretty sure Gamera would be outmatched by the Nomura jellyfish.

In reality though it's just another symptom. People left amazed at such an outlandish happening; unwilling to look at the connectedness of unnatural practices. I'm not going into some absurd 'butterfly principle' rant; however there is a level of connectedness that is constantle overlooked.

Where are all these Truffles from?

So truffles are expensive right? White truffles, the Piemontese type, are really expensive. THe word on the street about the whites is that they're pushing 3,000 euro a kilo due to this years scarcity. That instantly pushes them out of the reasonable realm for a small restaurant. Even given the scarcity the quality is supposed to be sub par as well. However places are still pimping the fact that they have these Piemontese white truffles. Are they bolstering meager shavings with the chemically enhanced, yet still somehow accepted, 'truffle' oil? are they using Serbian truffles and pimping them as Alba? Will the madness of using Truffles in absurd applications ever stop?
Apparently in addition to the horrible year climatically there is an ever increasing cadre of inexperienced trufolau, truffle hunters, damaging the fragile ecosystem.

The writer who would be cook

I go through phases reading cooking literature. The vast majority is either inaccurate pulp, star chef-centric fantasy, or tired old rehashes of recipes and entertaining. There are some real gems out there though. Writers who get 'it'. Micheal Ruhlman is the one voice I've read that that consistently captures the feel of what goes on. His three books, Making of a Chef, Soul of a Chef, and Reach of a Chef, have been sources of inspiration and comfort. It's compelling stuff. The three should be required reading in most culinary schools.

A little something from the NY Times

School nutrition is always a hot topic. It is also so terribly vital in order to readjust our food values. Not only is nutrition important in a case by case approach to students (healthier more attentive, more energetic students, http://www.actionforhealthykids.org/) but awareness of our foods sources and the true value of food can only reap benefits well into the future. We have grown into a detached society, simply consuming foodstuffs, with little regard to it's production and manufacturing. What we focus on is simply cost. We have homogenized, dulled our palates. We value salt, fat, and sugar above the actual flavor of the natural foods themselves (and in many cases the bland industrial farmed produce and meats have little aesthetic value on their own. They exist as vehicles for processing). By instilling at least a basic awareness of nutrionaly viable food into school aged children one can hope for an expanding base of support for local agriculture.

Here's What's going on in Oregon

If you're unfamiliar with Alice Waters programs then check this out. It's an amazing program that needs to catch on.

Make what you will of it....

Thematic week. Depression. I'm not caught in some dark and self absorbed mood, the idea has simply arisen over the last week or so. It seems actually as if it's a fairly common theme in the workplace, which is surprising considering the level of levity that can occupy a restaurant before and after service. I had no idea depression was so rampant amongst people in my industry. I have seen the doubt in my compatriots, I have felt it in myself (it is not an unfamiliar companion). I have doubted myself, questioned my choices. I have gone without sleep, I rarely attend to a regular eating schedule. I have felt as if I could drop to my knees and not go on. I've stood at the line with my head swimming, unconscious of were I was or what I was doing. depression has chased me from time to time during my life. More or less than anyone else? Difficult to say..I am only me. I do know that I have felt true satisfaction and exhilaration as well. For every moment of question and doubt there have been equal sensations of gratitude and freedom. We are a conglomerate, those of us who have found a home in this business. A conglomerate of pains, successes and dysfunctions. There is however a sense of freedom and choice. I have never felt more out of control in my life than in the kitchen. I have never commanded my environment more than when I am in the kitchen. The intensity and focus required to be successful extracts true extremes of emotions (or perhaps those who can truly allow themselves to be extreme can truly find success in the restaurant). Simply because there is a high rate of depression within an industry does not mean the job itself is depressing. I argue that the hospitality industry, the service industry, is a clearing house for the anguished, foul mouthed, misfit geniuses who could find no other home. We are the few, the proud, the broken, the nomadic searchers looking for something more, yet not willing to find it in the mundane. One has to be flexible, dynamic, fearless, and a little bit fucking crazy to put in the hours, the energy, to suffer the machinations of the day to day square. One has to be euphorically manic in order to slap on a smile, make small talk, cater to the whims and bizarre fancies of customers adn do it with actual sincerity. And when it is all over, when the dust has settled, when it is quiet. We are left alone, spent, having given what we can to those who would gladly take it. Some with appreciation, others in blind consumption. We run high, we run low.

The Bail Out (Or, why FOH ain't your bitch)

There are those times. There are always those times. Those times being the spot when shit just breaks down for a second. By breaking down the dominoes fall. The dominoes fall and focuses shift. In the middle of service when one thing goes wrong everything that follows suffers. Tickets are stacked, each requiring a certain window of time, precariously waiting for their own time. It is these stark moments when one needs a particular instinctual sense to take over, as well as a shitload of luck. Food on heat is time sensitive. When one item, in a long chain of items, goes wrong then all items following will potential suffer. It is the biggest fear of the night, particularly for those who strive for pristine consistency.

Tonight it broke. A three top was ready for there entrees; a roasted bird, a trout, and a steak MR. The first two were ready...the steak had slipped over to medium (was it prematurely fired? Was the holding area too hot? Did any of it fucking matter because the fucker was overcooked?) I had been distracted by several tickets that were coming in course by course (it is one thing to see what is coming and plan for it. It is a wholly different thing to be surprised every time a server comes to the window). Regardless, I was sitting with two entrees ready to go, and one that was dead and destined for the garbage. I put the two acceptable entrees in the window and quickly dropped antother, thinner, steak. "I'm draggin the steak Sean. I fucked up". Meanwhile there was a pasta sitting in the window that the 'pasta boy' misfired. Sean, an experienced FOH mensch, quickly suggested taking the two ready entrees and the misfired pasta to his table. "I'll give him the pasta while he waits for his steak". Brilliant! We appease a potentially upset customer and utilize a misfired pasta. All were happy.

Kids, remember, as much as the FOH can drive you nuts they can also save your ass. We all fuck up, but if we cover each others asses then we can make sure the customer is taken care of. And bottom line it's all about the customer.

Only one thing could bring me out of virtual retirement

Ok, it's been awhile. I stepped away from the keyboard and focused on work, of which there was far too much. I have since quit one of the jobs. I now find myself with free time on my hands and deteriorating writing skills. With that in mind I've been considering starting this little exercise in masturbation one more time. I think I have a little more focus now, a reinvigorated view into the politics of food, a taste of Italy in Italy and a recent interest into the slow food movement. However all of this still hasn't been enough to kick my ass and get me to start posting again. Until today that is.


I generally abhor trade magazines. They tend to pander to the lowest common denominator of the food industry. Adds full of frozen breaded jalapeno chicken poppers, IQF avocado slicers, and pre-mashed cheddar bacon tater mashers. For some reason though, today was the last straw. Today I saw something too offensive though. So offensive that I recognized fully why other cultures hate, loathe, laugh at, and mock us. A product that the book of revelation might as well have been written on, for surely it is a sign of the end times. Fucking day-glo colored, soy bean, sushi wrappers! Why?! Was sushi not novelty enough? Was it not eye catching enough? Is this the gateway to fucking brand names on the rolls themselves? Like the nascar car of food? Will it help the customer to distinguish between the individual rolls themselves..."No honey, the chartreuse roll is the 'rocka makki, tuna roll. The banana yellow roll is the Krazy Krab Snacker roll.'" Will it end with just colors? How about fun new flavours as well. Zesty Chipotle, Cool Sour Cream and Bacon, Spicy Habanero and Mango! Mmmmmm.....Dorito flavored fucking sushi! Fuck! Obviously nothing is sacred, I've learned that by now (I mean shit, have you tried to find just regular macaroni shaped Kraft Mac and Cheese?) but damn. Sushi is one of the purest expressions of unadulterated food. Good fish, perfectly cooked and seasoned rice, soy and wasabi. Does this simple, perfectly refined food need the shellacking of filth? Will our dwindling oceanic resources be plundered just for the sake of filling a goddamn electric blue bubble soy wrapper just because we are so sensually dulled that we need bright colors to incite reaction like some fat bellied Florida bass going after a plastic rattling worm? Disheartening stuff indeed. We are smarter than that. Our traditional food is better than that and deserves more. This is not a matter of novelty or tittilation. It is a matter of right or wrong, good or bad. Valuing real food grown and produced by real people with real nutritional value , or validating the continued processing, distancing, and devaluation of what is our most important resource and pleasure.