Chef's Story

Chef's Story: 27 Chefs Talk About What Got Them into the Kitchen 
Dorothy Hamilton and Patric Kuh
2008

I am sorry I missed the Chef's Stories series on PBS television. You can find a few episodes on YouTube and listen a handful of episodes on the Chef's Story website.

Chef's Story takes us into the private world of more than two dozen master chefs—twenty-seven remarkable individuals who share their memories, their beliefs, and their passion for quality to reveal what helped them all become modern culinary legends.

Visit Chef's Story website



Animal Farm - Orwell, Vermont

 

Photos by Colin Clark

Animal Farm is a small, licensed dairy and farmstead creamery located in Orwell, VT. They have been producing handmade butter from grass-fed Jersey cows for ten years, and recently expanded their facility to bottle their own buttermilk, straight from the churn.

Their commitment is, first and foremost, to cow comfort and well-being. From this foundation, they create delicious, high-quality dairy products using small-scale techniques. This allows them to produce food that tastes as it was meant to be — butter that is rich in mouth-feel, fragrant on the nose, and changes with the seasons as well as buttermilk that is light and tangy with butter flecks that melt in your mouth.

The majority of our butter is sent to Chef Thomas Keller’s restaurants, The French Laundry and Per Se. In addition, their butter goes to Chef Barbara Lynch’s Boston restaurants, Menton and No. 9 Park, as well as to Chef Patrick O’Connell’s, The Inn at Little Washington, in Virginia. Small amounts are available through the Middlebury Natural Food Coop. Their buttermilk is distributed throughout New England by Provisions International and can also be found in New York City from Saxelby Cheesemongers.


The Animal Farm Buttermilk CookbookRecipes and Reflections from a Small Vermont Dairy 
Diane St. Clair (Author)
2013

This cookbook offers 100 recipes, from sweet to savory, designed to showcase the best that buttermilk can contribute to food, all set in the context of what it is like to live and work on a small Vermont artisanal dairy.




 

Richard Rosendale

 

I first contacted Chef Richard Rosendale when he was the executive chef at The Greenbriar, a National Historic Landmark and world-class resort. He was serving the radish butter terrine at private dinners.

Chef:  Raised in Uniontown, PA, Rich Rosendale’s love of food and cooking was inspired and nurtured by two great cooks—his grandmothers. Rosendale attended culinary school and classically trained in Norway, Germany, Luxembourg, France, Switzerland, Northern Italy, and some of the finest kitchens in the United States, including a six-year apprenticeship under seven Certified Master Chefs.

Chef Rosendale has received many awards and accolades during is career. A few of the milestones include:

-   Making his television debut on CBS’s Recipe Rehab

-   Completing a 130-hour cooking exam and earning the title of Certified Master Chef

-   Representing the United States, placing in the top third at the biennial 2013 Bocuse d’Or competition in Lyon, France

-   Serving as the youngest Executive Chef in The Greenbrier’s 200+ year history, opening five new restaurants and launching the 44-acre Greenbrier Farm

 

Butter: The idea for the radish butter terrine was inspired by the delicious combination of eating radishes and butter together. The layered terrine is to be eaten with crusty bread.  

Commentary:  When Chef Rosendale was Chef de Cuisine at The Greenbrier, they averaged one pound of butter per guest. “Butter is something that we would use to carry flavor.” He said. “It was used to enhance flavors, butter was a critical ingredient on our kitchen for many reasons.” They would rest meat in it, sous vide vegetables in it and baste fish with it. 




 

Spinning Plates

 

Spinning Plates is an award winning documentary about three extraordinary restaurants and the incredible people who bring them to life. A world-renowned chef competes for the ultimate restaurant prize in Chicago, while privately battling a life-threatening condition. A 150-year-old restaurant in Iowa is still standing only because of an unbreakable bond with the community. And a fledgling Mexican restaurant in Tucson struggles as its owners risk everything to survive and provide for their young daughter. Their unforgettable stories of family, legacy, passion and survival come together to reveal how meaningful food can be, and the power it has to connect us to one another.



 

Butter Packaging

 

I have to admit, I am a sucker for good packaging. I will try a new product just because the packaging is designed well. I'm thrilled when the product turns out to be as good quality as the wrapper.

Here are some well designed butter packaging. I plan to do individual features on some of these items so stay tuned!

Abernethy Butter - Dromore, United Kingdom

Abernethy Butter website


Pepe Saya - Sydney, Australia

Pepe Saya website


The Butter Factory - Myrtleford, Australia

The Butter Factory website


Banner Butter - Atlanta, Georgia

Banner Butter website


Stirling Creamery - Stirling, Ontario

Stirling Creamery website


Photo Credit:  The Diplomatic Wife

Isigny Sainte-Mère - Isigny-sur-Mer, France

Beurre d'Isigny website



Vital Farms

Vital Farms website



 

Fat: An Appreciation of a Misunderstood Ingredient

Fat: An Appreciation of a Misunderstood Ingredient, with Recipes
Jennifer McLagan
2008

Winner of the 2009 James Beard Award for Best Single Subject Cookbook and Cookbook of the Year, Fat: An Appreciation of a Misunderstood Ingredient, is broken down into five sections,

Contents:
Introduction: A Matter of Fat
Butter: Worth it
Pork Fat: The king
Poultry Fat: Versatile and good for you
Beef and Lamb Fats: Overlooked but tasty

 

 

I, of course, focused on the first chapter, Butter! 

From the book jacket:
For all of history, minus the last thirty years, fat has been at the center of human diets and cultures. When scientists theorized a link between saturated fat and heart disease, industry, media, and government joined forces to label fat a greasy killer, best avoided. But according to Jennifer McLagan, not only is our fat phobia overwrought, it also hasn’t benefited us in any way. Instead it has driven us into the arms of trans fats and refined carbohydrates, and fostered punitive, dreary attitudes toward food–that wellspring of life and pleasure.

In Fat, McLagan sets out with equal parts passion, scholarship, and appetite to win us back to a healthy relationship with animal fats. She starts by defusing fat’s bad rap, both reminding us of what we already know–that fat is fundamental to the flavor of our food–and enlightening us with the many ways fat (yes, even animal fat) is indispensable to our health.

Mostly, though, Fat is about pleasures–the satisfactions of handling good ingredients skillfully, learning the cultural associations of these primal foodstuffs, recollecting and creating personal memories of beloved dishes, and gratifying the palate and the soul with fat’s irreplaceable savor. Fat lavishes the reader with more than 100 recipes from simple to intricate, classic to contemporary.




In De Wulf - Dranouter, Belgium

 

Photo Credit: Piet De Kersgieter

Chef:  In 1979 Kobe Desramaults’ parents bought a farm and started up a little bistro. After a few years, they added extra rooms and created an inn. He grew up around food but wasn’t interested in making of life of it. When he was eighteen, his mother sent him to a restaurant apprenticeship and this sparked his culinary interest. He spent a few years working at restaurants around the world (including Oud Sluis), but at 23 he headed back home. His mother was financially struggling and she had decided to sell the restaurant, but Kobe convinced her to give him one year to turn things around. He managed to help his mother get out of debt and turn her French-style bistro into the success that it is today.

Restaurant:  Among the world's most noted destination restaurants, In De Wulf has a few rooms upstairs for those that come for a culinary adventure and an overnight stay.  In de Wulf’s philosophy is to create an experience that is honest about who and where they are, the constraints of their philosophy are both their biggest challenge and motivating force. Their kitchen is therefore sometimes brutal, sometimes soft, but always natural. The Michelin-starred restaurant is located in Dranouter, Belgium, a few hundred yards from the French border.

 

 

 

Butter: The butter that In de Wulf serves is pretty exceptional. It is made in the city of Mons by a diary farmer named Alex Godart and his wife. They breed Holstein cattle and only produce butter for the locals. The fresh cream is matured for one week in the cellar, this gives it a lovely cheesy flavor. After it arrives at In de Wulf, they store it in the cheese refrigerator at 11 c°, on roasted hay that’s been slightly moistened with buttermilk. They keep the butter there for another two weeks. Some mold from the white cheese begins to take form on the surface, and that’s when they start serving the butter.


Kobe Desramaults closes the doors to In de Wulf in December 2016.  Though In de Wulf is closing, You can still enjoy Desramaults' cooking Bistro De Vitrine and De Superette.


De Superette
Guldenspoorstraat 29, 9000 Gent, Belgium
+32 9 278 08 08 

De Superette website

De Vitrine
Brabantdam 134, 9000 Gent, Belgium
+32 9 336 28 08

De Vitrine website


In De Wulf
Wulvestraat 1
8951 Heuvelland (Dranouter), Belgium
0032 57 44 55 67

In De Wulf website



 

La Vie - Osnabrück, Germany

 

Restaurant:  After 10 years, Restauarnt La Vie has much to celebrate. Awarded three Michelin stars six years in succession, 19 Gault et Millau points, and top ratings in Feinschmecker, Gusto and other guides. Additional impressive statistics: 6,500 bottles of champagne served, 2,800 saddles of venison prepared, 225,000 pralines created, and no less than 880 hours worked in Ippenburg Castle kitchen garden. The gourmet restaurant lies in the heart of Osnabrück’s historic Old Town, opposite the town hall where the Peace of Westphalia was proclaimed in 1648.  Not only is the food exceptional in flavor, it is so beautifully plated that you could take a photo of it and hang it on the wall. 

Chef:  Chef Thomas Bühner has been one of Germany’s top chefs for over 20 years.  He has developed avant-garde, aromatic cuisine by utilizing his three-dimensional philosophy. First, Chef Bühner is convinced there is no more authentic and intense flavor than the original, pure flavor of a product. Second, his cuisine is dominated by his penchant for low-temperature cooking. His motto is “take your foot off the gas”, and by this he is not only referring to the time taken to prepare a dish but also to the temperature at which it is cooked. Third is the extensive range of his cuisine: rather than viewing his set menus as a collection of disparate courses, chef Bühner likens them to a symphony. “Sometimes the violin can be heard, at other times it is the oboe – but strong emotions are only ever aroused when the whole orchestra comes together.”

Butter: La Vie serves salted and unsalted French butter from Le Beurre Bordier. Waiters serve butter embossed with the La Vie logo on a small white porcelain trays with matching knifes. 

Chef Commentary:  “Butter really reminds me of my childhood.” Admits Chef Bühner. “When we visited my grandparents on their farm, they would always offer us rye bread with butter and Westfalian ham.”  (Westphalian ham is a ham produced from acorn-fed pigs raised in the forests of Westphalia, Germany. The resulting meat is dry cured and then smoked over a mixture of beechwood and juniper branches.) He fondly remembers this butter because at his parent’s house, they would only eat margarine. Chef Bühner admits that he has not touched margarine in over 35 years. However, he does think it is getting more difficult to find really good butter these days.


La Vie
Krahnstraße 1, 49074 Osnabrück, Germany
+49 541 331150

La Vie website



 

Iris Butter Dish

 

This beautiful butter dish and knife are designed by architect João Faria. 

Place a pat of butter on the top of the cylinder, then place the cap on top of the butter and press down to make the butter flower appear. Spread butter with included knife.

The butter dish's official name is Emotional Object #014: “Iris” because it is a part of a group of expressly designed objects. For now, Faria has produced 100 numbered and signed pieces, author’s editions.

Made of 316 grade stainless steel, laser-cut and laser welded. Assembled by experienced hands and polished manually to perfection. 

April 2015: The Íris butter dish won the “Golden A’ Design Award” in “Bakeware, Tableware, Drinkware and Cookware Design” category.

July 2014: The Íris butter dish earned its first prize in the category “Decoration Objects” in POPs 2014 (Portuguese Original Design), sponsored by the Serralves Museum.

- - -

If I had a restaurant, this would be our butter dish!




 

Carotene Butter

This carotene butter tastes more like a carrot than a carrot and more like butter than butter. That's because skimming off the carrot's cellulose (the insoluble polysaccharides that make up the cell walls of plants) strips away any watery, fibrous flavor normally found in a raw carrot, leaving only the carrot's purest essence: sweet, slightly nutty, and, of course, bright orange.

Read the article on chefsteps.com...


Carotene Butter Recipe


4.4 oz  Carrot juice, from about 6 carrots

8.8 oz  Butter

-

Ice water, for chilling, as needed

Equipment
Juicer
Fine-mesh sieve
Blender
Offset spatula

 

Timing:  1 hr

 

1. JUICE CARROTS

3 Carrots

Remove ends and peel carrots.

Juice, and pass through a fine mesh sieve. Reserve 4.4 oz.

Keep extra juice in the freezer for other uses.

 

2.  CLARIFY BUTTER

8.8 oz  Butter

On low heat, melt butter until a layer of milk solids forms on the surface.

TIP: Gently rake the bottom of the pot with a spatula to encourage all the whey to float to the top. Don’t mix.

Using a ladle or a spoon, carefully and gently remove the whey that has gathered on the surface.

The reserved fat is called clarified butter. This will hold in your fridge for weeks or in your freezer for a year.

 

3.  BLEND CLARIFIED BUTTER AND CARROT JUICE

4.4 oz  Butter, clarified

4.4 oz  Carrot juice, fresh

While the butter is still hot, blend ingredients on high until the emulsion breaks.

NOTE: The liquids will initially emulsify and thicken in the blender, due to the cold carrot juice being mixed into the fat from the butter. Eventually, the friction from blending on high will cause the emulsion to heat and separate. This takes about two minutes in our blender. To confirm that the emulsion has separated fully, stop the blender occasionally and watch for fat droplets to form as the liquid runs down the sides of the blender. You should be able to see that the liquid has thinned at this point as well.

Tip  -  Blending required
Breaking the emulsion on the stovetop in Step 5 is nearly impossible unless you blend the ingredients together as described in Step 3.

 

4.  POUR BLENDED INGREDIENTS INTO A SMALL POT; BRING TO BOIL

On low heat, warm the carrot butter until boiling. A raft of cellulose from the carrot juice will form on the top.

Turn the heat off and let rest for two minutes. This will result in better separation.

Skim off the solids. Strain with a handheld strainer for best results.

 

5.  CHILL

Place whole pot carefully into an ice bath and store in the fridge uncovered until the butter on top is hard.

 

6.  REMOVE THE PUCK

Run an offset spatula around the outside of the puck of hardened butter to dislodge it. Pat the puck dry with a paper towel.

Discard any liquid left in the bottom of the pot.

 

7.  SERVE OR RESERVE  

Reserve butter in the fridge until needed. Use cold, or melt as needed.  The carotene butter will last for at least a year in the freezer, or for months in the fridge.


Printed with permission from
ChefSteps