#cuisinecommando

“If you’re really going to be creative, you’re going to have to have your shit together.” Chef Frank Lee Still learning from this man. As long as I’ve known him, Chef has always had this fantastic repertoire of aphorisms that continue to knock around my head. The rhythm of mis en place. Strike while the iron is hot. Constant…

To the uninitiated, Buford Highway is a busy thoroughfare leading out of Atlanta and up towards Chamblee. For whatever reason, it has been for years the epicenter of primary and secondary migration to the area, and it is thick. A non homogenized mess of kebab stands, taco shops, carnicerias, papusarias, mercados, Asian and African markets, dumplings and noodles and oil drum grills wafting their wares of pollo al carbon. (You know the Valentina wings at Minero? Pollo al carbon was the inspiration.)

On the North end of Buford Highway just above 285 sits the Buford Highway Farmer’s Market. It seems counterintuitive, but the market is inside a strip mall in what appears to have been an old Burlington Coat Factory. Unlike other such large “ethnic” markets one may visit with questionable hygienic practices, the Buford Highway Farmer’s Market is immaculate and superclean. There’s no odor of dried shrimp and the air is filled with light downtempo chill out music.

Produce, dried goods, fish, shellfish, meats, baked goods, specialty products all extend in pristine row after row. There’s even a food court with a demo kitchen. As a chef, it’s pretty inspiring. Even if you don’t buy a mess of stuff (I didn’t) it’s worth it just for what it does to your creative process. In this case, the little bundles of sesame leaf they had bundled up had me thinking of rolling up little snacks of Lowcountry goodness in our own SC Benne leaves and serving them as an app like the Indians do with betel leaves.

Worth the price of admission right there. This is the stuff that fires my creative processes.

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Who is Charleston’s Most Underrated Chef?

Pretty spent today after a very strong weekend, so I’m catching up on some reading. I recently (and finally) pulled the trigger on several issues of Fool magazine. The culinary magazine awarded “Best Food Magazine” 2012 by Gourmand Magazine has been elusive to find on the newsstand. Finally, curiosity got the best of me and I ordered several copies online. I’ll tell you now, in full disclosure,…

Big news from Copenhagen this week: I admit freely to an unabashed chef crush on Rene Redzepi. In the process of collaborating on a contemporary iteration of Nordic cuisine, he has broadened the landscape from which as chefs we may draw inspiration from. Rene Redzepi is an innovator and a leader. He was one of the chefs to not only sign but also help draft the New…

Required Reading: The Culture of the Kitchen: Iliana Regan

Yup, it’s Bloodshirt Friday! I’d previously posted 2 other articles in this series from Lucky Peach authored by Rene Redzepi and David Chang. Here is the third in the series by Chicago chef Iliana Regan. Personally, what Iliana is saying resonated with me- the bits about unresponsive young chefs, stating “I’m not responsible for their lack of ambition. Their desire to succeed has to come from…

“Here. You’re overdue,” a familiar voice said. I turned to be hit in the face with a black t-shirt tossed across the office by Chef. Soft, 100% spun cotton, black, xxl. Sweet- I got my Bloodshirt. On the back, the familiar stamp “Cuisine Commandos.” On the front, the famous insignia of Slightly North of Broad. Myself, my partner in crime and collaborator Tim Pettit and General Manager / Resident…