How about that gruesome, attention-getting title? Chef memoirs are all the rage these days, with the Food Network having made chefs cool. The first one for me was Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential, which I read twice. Gabrielle Hamilton, a notable New York chef and owner of the restaurant Prune, has entered the fray. Just as Bourdain does in his book, Hamilton pulls no punches in describing her life and culinary path. Rather than writing a full review, I’ll just point out a few things about it that may be of interest.

Butter, widely popularized by Julia Child. It's what's for dinner.

Her writing, just as the blurbs claim, is excellent. It’s very much in her own voice, and extremely vivid – so much so that during many passages I could feel stress and exhaustion as she described some of her kitchen life and activities. Later on, her warm feelings and passion spill over as she tells tales about her experiences in Greece and Italy. It’s a roller-coaster ride of incidents and impressions. Bourdain extols her as having written the best chef memoir ever, and his opinion carries weight, as he is an exceptional writer. That said, I find Bourdain’s writing a lot funnier, and I can scarcely think of a more entertaining and incisive essayist and polemicist. But she’s great, make no mistake. Hamilton has an MFA in writing, but having read about her career, it’s hard to imagine her having any time to do that – her energy level must be spectacular.

Unappetizer

Hamilton’s early life is poignant, as she was essentially left by her parents to fend for herself at a certain point. Messed-up family life is part and parcel of many chef’s backgrounds, I gather. As a teenager, just short of legal age, she recounts a lengthy stint as a waitress at the Lone Star Cafe in New York (a place where I saw Larry Coryell play guitar once), where the extra-legal activities and antics are amusing, and even instructive for aspiring bar owners.

Tonight’s Specials

There’s a great anecdote about watching famous chef Andre Soltner make an omelette. Yeah, I know, it doesn’t sound like much, but if you’re a serious chef or real food geek, you’ll love it. I found the most pleasurable parts of the book to be her lyrical chapters about meeting special people and eating scrumptious food in Greece and Italy. I wonder if she recovered some of the missing family feelings in these visits.  Finally, she painted a lucid picture of her views on women in the culinary industry, framed by her appearance on a “great women in the industry” type of panel at the CIA. While some of the women were blithely touting getting into a relationship with your local organic farmers and other such ideal circumstances, Hamilton cringed, thinking that these very young women need to be told that they may be under trial by fire indefinitely, possibly never to see the lofty restaurants and luminaries at the posh top of the food chain. Oh, and as a bonus, they’ll be treated badly because they’re women, and don’t forget the massive student loans!

¡No más!

I confess that as much as I admired her writing and enjoyed parts of the book, I think this will be the last chef memoir I’ll read for awhile. Simply put, I’m burned out, after having visited the CIA (Culinary Institute, not that one) several times, having observed my stepson getting educated there, and having read too many foodie books. I’m thinking of moving on to something lighter, such as combat memoirs. Mario Batali’s blurb on the cover describes how he’ll read this book to his children. Hmmm, I wonder which parts they’ll like the best?  Family abandonment? Drug use? Tremendous hardships that come with a kitchen life? Getting married for a green card? Oh, maybe it’s the tasty omelette!

Hit Me, Beat Me, Make Me Write Bad Paychecks!

The sheer insanity that is running a fancy restaurant no longer appeals to me as a reader. Two parts of Hamilton’s book drove this home. One was where she talked about meeting someone and instantly being able to tell they’re in the business, and how gratifying that is. It reminded me that I am very much an outsider, never would have succeeded in that business, and can’t really relate to  it. Restaurant owners demand loyalty, work attendance even when sick (scary for us diners, no?), and unrelenting hard work, all for crappy pay. (Come to think of it, they’re just like bandleaders!) And as she says in the book, when someone “crosses her” by deigning to quit at a bad time, that person is “dead to me”. Then again, when’s a good time to quit a busy restaurant? Under the stress they live in, with small profit margins and nearly no time for a normal life, it’s understandable that she’d react that way. Yet from the outside, I’m thinking, I can’t believe that they stay as long as they do. It’s cuckoo land, essentially volunteering for abuse.

But anyone who does buy into that lifestyle or who loves the hardcore restaurant life will LOVE this book.

Explosive Growth

No, I’m no hater. I’ve always liked Greek yogurt. It’s been available for many years, and its tarter flavor and somewhat different texture make a nice alternative from the typical yogurt you find in a US grocery store. So why has it suddenly exploded? The simple answer is marketing hype. You can scarcely go anywhere without seeing ads for it. And unlike many heavily advertised products, it doesn’t suck. So once people actually become aware of it, they try it and like it.

Raising the temperature of this yogurt too much could cause explosive growth.

Bifidus Schmifidus

And now there’s a massive campaign of ads that tells you of another brand of yogurt will supposedly make you poop your way to happiness, and is even asking the public to video themselves doing exactly that! Jamie Lee, eww???

But that doesn’t fully explain the huge Greek surge. Another reason may be the constant barrage from the media about how dreadful the average US person’s health is, and if Greek yogurt is advertised and perceived as a healthy food, then that should punch up even more sales. But if that’s the case, why hasn’t non-Greek yogurt exploded, too?  (or maybe it has, and just isn’t being constantly pimped like the Greek stuff?)

Zero Sum Gamers

After reading people’s opinions online, I think I may have stumbled upon another key. It seems that many people think that zero-percent fat Greek yogurt tastes better than the non-fat non-Greek kind. Mystery possibly solved!

Unfortunately, this reminds me of when I worked in as a corporate drone in an office. There was a coterie of people who didn’t eat breakfast at home, so when their morning break came along, they’d buy some donuts or pastries and wash them down with, you guessed it, diet soda. I suppose that this way, they got their comfort from eating something fun, while still assuaging some guilt with the supposedly healthy soda. Sheer madness, and watching them do this made me think of tooth decay pain.

Leon’s Getting LARGER!

Moving ahead in time, we have people thinking that they’re doing themselves a favor by eating zero-fat food. It’s true that pounding down mounds of fat isn’t a great idea. A purely whale blubber diet may be not only nutritionally incomplete, but somewhat impractical, and even slightly gross. But zero-fat yogurt isn’t the best implementation of this idea. As Lonnie has written, some dairy fat is actually good for you. Sure, definitely cut down on trans fats. But attempting to eliminate all fats not only leaves you eating food that tastes pretty bad (and often feeling hungry), but there are also some healthy fats that your body needs, such as Omega 3 fatty acids.

Donuts, a popular food whose calories can be negated by mystery chemicals found in diet soda.

My Advice To You Is To Not Start Eating Heavily

Of course, some would take that last sentence to mean that they can now eat 8 pounds of french fries per day. It’s never as simple as all that. Getting healthy and losing weight is a holistic process – activity, diet, sleep, emotions, and many other factors are involved and should be addressed. But advertisers like to make you think that a quick fix will make you healthy – just buy our product, and the pounds magically go away! A very silly and harmful fantasy, but one that has sold products since the beginning of time.

So I say eat the yogurt with fat, whether Greek or not. It’ll taste better, and sorry, 0% fat yogurt will not turn you into a thin hottie. And those stupid Reebok unstable shoes will not make your butt instantly tight, either.

Young woman claims that she lost weight by eating Greek yogurt. In fact she simply put down her barbell while eating.

I had the rack of lamb, which was succulent and gently flavored, a perfect fall evening dish.  It was delightfully augmented with tiny fried gnocchi.  Lonnie’s duck had a luscious sauce with cherries just bursting with flavor.  We were repeatedly cooing with pleasure.

Another great thing about Gentile’s is the service.  It has been so friendly and professional every single time we’ve been there.  We waltzed in fairly late without a reservation, and managed to get a seat at their gorgeous bar.  It was an especially convivial spot, and the bartender was incredibly sweet, friendly, and helpful.  Sometimes at fine dining places you get a certain reserved distance from the servers, which can be just fine and unobtrusive, but friendly repartee is a bonus to me.

Chef Kevin is incredibly skilled, and highly creative, two things that don’t always go together.  You can have a killer red-sauce Italian place and just crank out the 50-year-old classics ad infinitum, and many eaters wouldn’t have it any other way.  Since we’ve had that type of food since the Jefferson administration, we like things that are more bold.  The list of specials that night was almost mind-bogglingly inventive.

Someone commenting on Jim Johnson’s blog mentioned that Gentile’s will tweak a dish at a customer’s request, and though I have no need of that with Kevin’s masterful food, I have seen people do it.  So diners who are chicken picky less adventurous can make requests within reason.

There are quite a few Syracuse restaurants that are very good.  But very few can compare with Gentile’s.

Yes, this pepper does have an intriguing appearance, doesnt it? I didn't see this particular one at Chipotle.

Usually I’m too much of a snob to review chain restaurants, but this one is interesting. I had heard about their emphasis on fresh ingredients and positive reviews here and there. They are expanding so rapidly that there are two in the Syracuse area already. I tried out the one on Marshall St. on the SU hill, sporting my helpful two-fer coupon I’d received in the mail.

We are very interested in Mexican food, especially having visited there and eaten some incredible food, much of which doesn’t make it to the US except maybe at Rick Bayless‘ places. The first thing that struck me was the complete absence of any Mexican imagery in the restaurant.  Instead, they have opted for very hip modern urbanity, with metal surfaces and minimalist layered wood chairs and tables.    Though it has plenty of tables, it’s counter service without any waitstaff.  So the overall effect is like a very fancy take out place.  So you could eat pretty cheaply here.  The air conditioning was strong, and on that day I appreciated it.  Modern ambient music played in the background, which fit the decor.

Let’s Eat!

Taking advantage of the coupon, I got to try two types of burritos, the barbacoa and carnita, beef and pork respectively.  I was very impressed with the flavor, freshness, and quality ingredients.  Like many such places, they ask you a lot of questions on which options you want, so you can customize quite a bit.  I like spicy, so I asked for hot.  It was muy picante, quite hot!  So I’d probably do medium next time.  It’s good to know if a restaurant means hot when they say it, and good to have a choice as well.  The burritos and other meals run around 6 or 7 dollars.  I liked it, and I’d consider going back!  I remembered to ask if they had gluten-free stuff, and I was told that their corn taco fits the bill.

[I also photobombed some poor guy who was taking photos of the place from the outside.  It was great fun, and I wonder if he'll catch it.]

I had read awhile ago that Chipotle was having some difficulty sourcing fresh chicken.  I suppose that this is one of the problems that arises when you want to use quality purveyors.  I’m not sure what became of that, maybe one of you knows.

Other Places

We really like Ponchito’s, which does roadside South American style food, a concept that is like a more rustic variation on what Chipotle is doing.  Since they’ve expanded to the Valley Drive area, we miss seeing the original owner and his family here in Eastwood.  There’s also another company downtown that is attempting this general idea, and we dutifully tried it, but although the staff was friendly, the food really wasn’t so good.  You know you’re in for it when you’re looking at what seems to be a series of Sysco food trays.  So they’re not really worth mentioning.

So apart from being possibly having the most misspelled restaurant name around, Chipotle is quite good for a chain!

You'd be smiling, too, if you were to eat us!

Though cucumbers can be cool and refreshing when bought from the store, sometimes they can be a little waxy or uninteresting.  I decided to try something new.  The Poona Kheera originated in India, and it seems to think it’s a potato!  But looks aren’t everything – it’s very refreshing, and is the best-tasting cucumber we’ve found.

We got the seeds from Seed Savers, and planted them just a few weeks ago.  We put some string in the raised bed garden so the plants could climb easily.  Today we had our first ripe ones, and here they are.  They grow very fast, and pass through several color stages, beginning with bright yellow, and then gets gradually darker.

The cucumber seems alarmed that its counterpart has been sliced up. Oh oh! But I'd be lying if I didn't say, mmmm, yummy with a pinch of salt!

We like them so much that we usually eat them by themselves, but they’d be great in a salad.   And they’re adorable.  We’ll be eating these for a few more weeks!