Where my fellow cooks at???

[tifosi77]

And the white bit tastes quite strongly of garlic, and has a texture similar to heart of palm.

[columbia]

LGP Cooks thread: Your place for live culinary blogging.

[count2infinity]

went to the store today and YESSSSSS... zucchini is back. nice tiny baby zucchini. love them.

[Godric]

went to the store today and YESSSSSS... zucchini is back. nice tiny baby zucchini. love them.

*insert jr high humor joke here*

[mac5155]

made some sauteed shrimp last night cause i was hungry and have nothing in the fridge. butter, lemon juice, basil, salt, pepper, and some Worcestershire.

[columbia]

This is how you don't use social media.....

http://www.buzzfeed.com/ryanhatesthis/t ... ebook-ever" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[count2infinity]

have you ever seen the episode of kitchen nightmares with them on it? holy crap. they're nuts.

[columbia]

Yes.

[count2infinity]

freaking lulz... try going to the website: http://www.amysbakingcompany.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[canaan]

have you ever seen the episode of kitchen nightmares with them on it? holy crap. they're nuts.

that episode was incredible.

[mac5155]

This is how you don't use social media.....

http://www.buzzfeed.com/ryanhatesthis/t ... ebook-ever" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

This all started on the fake "God" Facebook page, IIRC. I mean, that page is just a massive troll, but when people don't realize that, stuff like this happens.

[tifosi77]

I don't really watch KN, but we have BBC America on at work a lot so I hear a lot of episodes. I honestly have a hard time believing some of these restaurants are as bad as they are made out to be. It's depressing.

[count2infinity]

So there's a pasta company here in state college that makes and sells fresh pasta and ravioli. They had a free pasta day that they gave away bags of free pasta to celebrate the opening of farmer's market season. they had a contest that the person to guess closest to the poundage of pasta they gave away that day won free pasta for a year. My fiancee entered it and won. We get a free pound of fresh fettuccine each week for a year. Guess we'll be having pasta more often.

[canaan]

slappy is going to murder you, skin you, and wear you like enzo rocking the trenchcoat outside of the hospital in the original Godfather, and assume your life for the next 52 fettuccine-filled weeks.

[Shyster]

have you ever seen the episode of kitchen nightmares with them on it? holy crap. they're nuts.

They were already nuts a couple years ago. This is a local news report that ran in 2010 after Amy blew up and wrote a threatening response to a bad Yelp review:
[youtube][/youtube]

Edit: I thought those two might be putting on an act just for the TV show. Based on this news report, however, it appears they are actually as crazy as they appear to be.

[tifosi77]

They just showed a local news report covering this Facebook flap. For sure, they are legit guano loco.

[the wicked child]

LOL. Total nutjobs. I don't think I've ever rooted harder for someone to fail.

[BadHands71]

I don't really watch KN, but we have BBC America on at work a lot so I hear a lot of episodes. I honestly have a hard time believing some of these restaurants are as bad as they are made out to be. It's depressing.

I think it's a little of both, I'm sure that alot of the restaurants are picked based on the makeup of the staff so that Gordon Ramsey can have someone to go head to head with. I will say that I've worked in enough restaurants in my life that I've seen the good, the bad, and the ugly. Sometimes it's just an honest mistake or oversight, and sometimes the people who are supposed to care don't. I will say that I saw a cook at a restaurant I worked at (which will remain nameless and has since closed), drop a burger on the ground, pick it up and put it on the bun and send it out to the table. He looked and me and did the shhhh (talbot style...). I'm sure that wasn't the only time it happened. That combined with seeing them pick mold off of bread and the general uncleanliness of the place was enough to make me quit. One of the biggest problems in alot of restaurants and you see it alot on KN is that they're poorly managed. The kitchen manager or chef orders too much food and then keeps it too long to avoid wasting it. The fear of running out keeps people from ordering reasonably. Managing a kitchen is not easy and it's not a job I'd ever want to have. I love to cook but I never want to manage a commercial kitchen and that's why I'll never pursue having my own restaurant.

I'm sure it's sensationalized and they look for a very specific mix of staff personalities, poor management, and a restaurant that's pretty far on the skids to make for better TV, but I think there is a fair amount of truth to it as well.

[tifosi77]

Yeah, the sheer headachedness (?) of professional cooking is why I shall remain ever more a very enthusiastic amateur.

Fwiw, my wife has a background working in restaurants (that's how she actually got to live in Japan for three years long ago in the days of yore known as "the 80s"). She's told me plenty of horror stories, but they're mostly related to how the kitchen staff have the backs of the front of house people in terms of dealing with obnoxious customers, or the abuse a steak gets when a diner orders a NY strip "well done".

[MRandall25]

Alright, cooks:

If I wanted to find remoulade sauce in the North Hills, would Giant Eagle have it?

[Shyster]

Alright, cooks:
If I wanted to find remoulade sauce in the North Hills, would Giant Eagle have it?

I don't recall ever seeing bottled remoulade sauce in any Giant Eagle.

[tifosi77]

Zatarain's makes a jarred remoulade, so if GE sells that brand they might have it.

However, it's pretty easy to make your own. Start with a store bought mayonnaise (or make from scratch!) and add creole mustard, horseradish, Worcestershire sauce, cayenne, lemon juice, pimentón, garlic, parsley. I think celery salt is used sometimes, and there might be one other ingredient that I'm forgetting (ketchup?), but that's pretty simple stuff. Deliciousness.

[Ben Klingston]

Pork Loin with Fennel Pollen, Jerusalem Artichoke Puree and Dandelion Sauce

Had jerusalem artichokes for first time last fall as part of the local farm produce subscription I bought. Really liked them - kind of a nutty potato. Though they didn't for me, others had some intestinal 'problems' after eating them... which is supposedly a common effect. I guess that's why schools don't serve them on lunch menus... .

[mac5155]

Redneck surf n turf, aka "holy crap, these items were in the way back of the freezer"... Deer steak and sauteed shrimp.

[columbia]

I cooked a pork tenderloin and went for a new (to me) technique:

Blast it at 550 degrees for 5.5 minutes/pound, turn the oven off and let it go for an hour.
It came out slightly more done than I had hoped; which is to say, probably a bit underdone for accepted practices.

Either way, it was delicious. Using a simple rub with marjoram and s&p worked well.