Momentarily, however, my passion is emerging again. Most likely spurred on by The Next Iron Chef airing on the Food Network. Two of my favorites chefs are competing head-to-head, Michael Symon of Cleveland (!) and Chris Cosentino of San Francisco. When Michael won this last Sunday I yelled loud enough that neighbors probably though the Indians are going to the World Series (bummer on that). Symon showed his Cleveland colors by not being afraid of the grill, hell, everyone in Cleveland has a grill...and know hot to use it.Michael Ruhlman has been blogging about his judging experiences with Bourdain weighing in his armchair critique, insightful and humorous. I wish the Food Network would focus more on the cooking and let these chefs really cook in real Iron Chef situations. Next up, "Snacks on a plane", WTF. This is like Top Chef with a better prize. But I'll still watch it, of course. Any show that demonstrates that great food can be made on-the-fly, I believe, sends out a strong message toward the general populace to not be afraid of good cooking or cooking well.
I remember a newspaper article about Zach Bruell of Z Contemporary Cuisine ( in the mid eighties) and Parallax ( in Cleveland. Much like today's "Take Home Chef", he would go to a grocery store, pick and interesting "victim", and offer to whip up an extraordinary meal from the contens of their cart in their own home. It was like me learning to cook in my Mom's house (no offense, Mom) rumaging through leftovers to create something I wanted to eat that was just the right taste. Ok, I'm rambling. More later.
Ta for now,
JR
