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S to the C O Double T to Join MC. An OG From JCG! Respect!
Congratulations Scott! You’re gonna kick ass for Modernist Cuisine. I still think you should get this tattooed on your knuckles.
Congrats!!!!
Eric
Roaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad Trip, Yeah.
It’s green.
Now it’s not.
The sun sets.
Emo forest.
I showed up and it turned into a party rock!
“Go east my Washington Son”.
Huh.
30 more random signs later.
Probably 75 more signs, all random. OK, I’LL STOP!!!!
On the road again
Not a turn in sight.
Windows background
Sunset
Spamcation
My kind of town.
My parents are going to love this.
SQUIRREL!!!
Just waiting on Mindy and Blue to get here so we can go on our own walks through the park.
Eric
Goodbye Blueacre Seafood, and thanks for all the fish!
It was an amazing ride. I’ve written a ton of posts about my time about Blueacre and since I’m not big on recycling posts I’ll just let you get acquainted with the search function on this here blog of mine.
I started as a fry cook, worked my way to hot appetizers, got an opportunity on saute, and then got promoted to sous chef in a very short amount of time. Anything is possible, and I’ll take what I learned working for Chef Kevin Davis and move onto Chicago in the hopes of kicking some serious ass. Yup.
“BE the future of Modern Cuisine”.
-Kevin Davis.
YES CHEF!
Eric
Happy 10 Year Anniversary Mindy!!!
Thanks for being my best friend, wife, and for being the person that supports me the most with all the crazy things I want to do. Thanks for being the ultimate taste tester and for being the person that pushed me to pursue this whole cooking thing. Thanks for being my experimental gardener and for helping me find “new” ingredients to work with. Thanks for understanding all the crazy hours that I work and for being my biggest fan when things go right and for letting me vent when things go wrong. Thanks for letting me cook at 3AM when you’re sleeping and I can’t get to sleep because I have “some ideas!”. Thanks for being with me through 10 years of growing up together, we were kids when we got married and I’m happy that we still are kids at heart. Thanks for teaching me how to make spaghetti and being a kick ass wife!
10 more years, 10 more years, 10 more years!
I love you,
Eric
p.s. enough with the rolling of the eyes! 
Check me out on nwxposure.com
The crew at nwxposure.com came over to my house and did an interview about me. Pictured above is one of the dishes I did, they have the pictures of other dishes I cooked up for them so go check it out!
Thanks again nwxposure!
Oyster Trip!
(Hama Hama’s Oyster Field)
Chef Kevin asked me about a month ago if I wanted to visit a few famous oyster beds in Washington in order to learn more about oysters…..I said, “YEAH!!!!!”. We rounded up the rest of the crew at Blueacre Seafood and headed out to the lands of oysters.
I’m in the process of writing a kitchen manual for the restaurant and we’re also working on an oyster guide for our customers so this trip was perfect timing for a little time away from the restaurant and a great opportunity to see oysters in their natural habitat.
At Blueacre we have an oyster bar and every day we have twelve different oysters on our menu and I have been tasting my way through the daily variety of oysters. I say daily because the taste of an oyster can be different each day and through each type of oyster there can be a gigantic difference in taste. They rely less on the type of oyster and instead in the method and waters it comes from….it’s like wine….yes, exactly like wine. You might have a California Semillon that tastes completely different from a Washington Semillon. The ground, fermentation method, and growing techniques all differ so you get a completely different wine……again, same with oysters, minus the whole fermentation thing. A few weeks ago we had California Kumamoto oysters and while they were nice they were completely different than Washington Kumamoto’s. I’m really a novice when it comes to oysters so this trip was perfect for me to get to learn more about them as well as taking some time to meet the producers.
So, how do these little oysters start their lives and end up at the restaurant? We headed out to Coast Seafoods Hatchery in Quilcene, WA which is a 35 minute ferry ride and 1 hour of driving from downtown Seattle. They supply just about every producer of oysters and clams with their larvae and shellfish seed.
Judy Edwards gave us a tour of the facility and gave us all the information we needed to know about how they hatch and take care of oysters and clams before selling them in various stages of growth. She showed us an example of how oysters cling onto older oyster shells and how they will later grow into taking the shell over or moving to another shell. These oysters were about 2 weeks old.
Along with hatching oysters and clams they also develop their own algae. The first room we stepped into was their first feeding room that had algae and little oysters and clams in different containers that circulate continuously. The oysters usually stay in this room for 48 hours then are transferred to other containing rooms that you will see later.
This other room is the ultra-clean room where the algae is carefully monitored and controlled, we weren’t allowed in there.
Next, we visited a room and she showed us our first glimpse of what the larvae look after only a few days of coming into this world. The video is of manila clams. Look how small/delicious they are!
We walked into another room where they had a little bag full of oysters, 23 million to be exact. They will soon go to the larvae tanks but they are closely being monitored until they make that next step.
Next we visited the algae holding tanks which are covered, temperature controlled, and are each different as you can see by their color.
In another room they hold the larvae which are held in much larger containers. As the days go by the larvae are collected and monitored to see their progress.
Once the oysters or clams get large enough they are transferred to other tanks for holding, these are clams.
Judy told us that she could tell the clams were happy because they were trying to climb the walls of the tank. Another interesting thing about clams is that when they’re at this stage they cling together for security.
We walked back into a room that contained bags of algae that were much larger than the first ones we saw that were in Nalgene containers. These contained larvae that were being circulated and fed. Here you can clearly see the different types of algae they use.
There is so much more information about what Coast Seafoods Hatchery does so be sure to check out their site for more information (click).
Next up was the Hama Hama oyster bed where the Hama Hama’s and Blue Pool oysters come from. Blue Pool’s have become new favorite oyster and are only a year old. They have a nice balanced flavor, a nice meaty bite to them, and have extremely beautiful shells.
Adam James, General Manager, gave us a tour of their oyster and clam beds.
He talked to us about the water surrounding his beds and the techniques used to make their oysters. For the Blue Pool’s they are tumbled in bags with buoys to build the strength of their shells. The water helps them grow quickly so if they’re not tossed around a bit they will develop a brittle shell and the meat will be really tender.
He opened a bag of 1 year old Blue Pool’s so we could see how they were developing. This is the first year he is letting them go to spawn so he is carefully watching their progress. He’s hoping that after they spawn they will develop an even better flavor, I can’t wait until September!
He shucked some Hama Hama’s for us straight out of the water which is an experience I’ve never had. People say fresh oysters all the time on their menus but this fresh? Hardly!
For more information about Hama Hama Company check out their site (click).
Next up was a stop to meet up with Mary and Gordon who own Wallins Oyster and Clam which carries Barron Point and Eagle Rock oysters. This was a little different than the other two because there is a house on the property where one of the family members lives and it is officially my dream home.
Here is a view from their backyard.
They don’t tumble their oysters in the same way that Hama Hama does but they tumble them by hand to make sure each bag is being monitored.
Gordon took us down to the water and shucked some oysters for us. These were the Barron Point oysters.
After eating a few FRESH oysters Gordon asked us to grab some more and we would have a little bit of wine and he would grill some up for us and we could shuck some more for ourselves. OK!
This by far was the best experience on the trip and was totally worth waking up at 4:30AM to make the ferry. With a little bit of oysters, wine, and the company of good friends all the problems in the world disappear.
For more information about Wallin Oyster and Clam click here (click).
Many thanks to Chef Kevin (click) and Marinelli Shellfish (click) for setting this trip up for us. Thanks Coast Seafoods Hatchery, Hama Hama Company, and Wallins Oyster for taking the time to show us around. It was an amazing trip and I can’t wait to get back to the restaurant to talk more about oysters!
Eric
Like this:
Testing
Need my blog to be more “on the go”. Posting from my phone……
Eric
DList Magazine “Chef of the Future”
Dlist Magazine here in Seattle did a Q&A with me and it ran in their 51st issue called, “The Future Issue”. In it they called me “chef of the future” which is a tremendous honor. Also in the magazine is one of my favorite restaurants, Spur, and a very cool information about canning from Kathy Casey. Also, the best ever, Seattle Food Geek! Lots of good stuff so check it out for yourself online (click here for link then click on magazine for full screen view).
How cool is it that the person on the cover is Lil’ Jon?!?! YEAH!!! WHAT????? OK!!!
Thanks again Evan and the rest of the crew over at DList Magazine, congratulations on 4 years!!!
Eric
Bob Kramer- Master Blade Smith (3 of 3)
Part of the deal for meeting up with Mr. Kramer was for Jeth, Scott, and I to do a little cooking for Mr. Kramer at his house. “So, we get to tour his shop and cook for him………..AWESOME!”.
The following pictures are from Scott and his fancy new camera.
First up Scott’s Caramelized Carrot and Coconut Foam Soup (the glass is tilted, you’re not that drunk yet).
Next up was my pickled dish. Pickled golden beets, pickled sea beans, pickled purple asparagus stem, black tobeko, frisee, and Jeth’s sous vide applesauce with ceylon cinnamon.
Jeth’s spruce portobello marmalade.
A dish that I’m working on was up next. Seared scallops, white bean/caper ragout, pear, wood sorrel, fried nettle, and saffron gastrique.
A little pause to cut my cured pork prosciutto with a KRAMER KNIFE!!
And the final course: Seared Halibut, Asparagus puree, saute of asparagus tips, prosciutto lardons, roasted potatoes, fava beans, moss, and kale flowers.
Dinner was a success and we all had a great time.
Thanks again Mr. Kramer (click), Mr. Tate (click), Jethro (click), and Scott (click) for making all this happen. I can’t thank you guys enough. My piggy bank is now accepting cash towards purchasing my first Kramer knife one day!
Eric
Bob Kramer- Master Blade Smith (2 of 3)
What makes these knives special and what exactly are we looking at here? In order to best describe what’s going on here I’ll let Mr. Kramer’s website explain why he works with Damascus (Direct link):
Damascus, or pattern welded steel, is the process of combining at least two different types of steel to achieve mechanical properties or to achieve a desired aesthetic. In my Damascus, I use three different types of steel all of which harden and temper in the same temperature range.
To begin creating Damascus I make a sandwich of different types of steel, usually starting with 20 layers, at room temperature. This sandwich is tack-welded together and put into a forge running at 2350 degrees Fahrenheit.
At this temperature, the steel becomes “plastic” and “sticky”. The steel sandwich is then placed into a hydraulic press or mechanical hammer where these different steels are fused together.
Molecules actually move back and forth across this interface between the different steels bonding the materials together. This process is also called diffusion bonding. The resulting billet is then stretched and manipulated to create desired patterns or folded a number of times to achieve a desired layer count, sometimes going up to 10,000 layers.
This process is very labor and material intensive. In some cases up to 70% of the material is lost along the way to achieve a desired pattern. This is why Damascus knives are much more expensive than the straight carbon steel knives.
Often I am asked if Damascus is better than Straight Carbon Steel. I’d say that it isn’t better, only different. I see my Damascus knives as a bigger chunk of my soul. The making of Damascus requires more time, and a higher level of concentration. When I developed the steel recipe for my Straight Carbon Steel, the goal was to design the highest performance kitchen blade my experience and skills could muster. The Damascus blades are several steps down the road, as I am able to embellish an already high performance tool with patterns and processes that inspire me and engage me fully while I’m making them.
If you are wondering which steel cuts better I’d say that they cut different. The Straight Carbon Steel blades have the keenest, sharpest edges that I know of. The Damascus blades are made of different types of steel whose many layers extend to the cutting edge. These layers wear at a slightly different rate, causing a very fine micro-serration, which can be very helpful in staying sharp longer. Both sharpen exactly the same way and both get equally sharp, so it’s in the way that they wear which is different.
Therefore, in deciding which type of steel you prefer, perhaps you might think of the Damascus as an art piece, as well as a functional tool.
So as you can see the process is pretty labor intensive. While we were in his shop for about an hour he showed us through the process, very quickly, of how to complete a knife about 20% of the way. Even at this point there can still be flaws and Mr. Kramer explained to us how he made one knife three separate times in order to ensure his customer was receiving an optimal product. He takes pictures of all of his knives and reviews them constantly and if he feels that something is off then he will change his work to be perfect.
He told us it was much like cooking. Find the right ingredients, cook them to the right temperature, and expect perfection along the way or at least shoot for perfection (he used to be a chef before he got into the knife business 20 years ago).
There were so many different knives he showed us throughout the shop that were in different stages of production. It was really amazing to see. Each one was different in its own way which is another reason each knife Mr. Kramer makes are so coveted.
On to post number three. So much bandwidth so little time………
Bob Kramer- Master Blade Smith (1 of 3)
“So Eric, how was your weekend?”
I don’t even know how to explain it. I just spent time at Bob Kramer’s knife studio.
“What, are you serious? How did that happen?”
It’s a long and complicated story so I’ll save it for another time.
“We have to peel and clean these artichokes so I have time”.
Alright…….
About a year ago Bob Tate (click) came to my school and talked about knife sharpening and explained how he worked with and knew Bob Kramer personally. He showed us his website and talked about how his interaction with Mr. Kramer was instrumental into making his knife sharpening obsession become his trade. He learned from the best and from that moment I knew I had to one day own a Bob Kramer knife.
Fast forward a year later and Jethro (click) came in out of the Twitterverse and after a few conversations we talked about knives and knife sharpening and he explained how he had a friend named Bob Tate that sharpened knives. I told him that Bob Tate came to our school and he said we could check out Bob Tate’s workshop (click) one day and see first hand how he sharpened the best knives in Seattle. When we visited Mr. Tate he said that one day he would introduce us to Mr. Kramer and maybe Mr. Kramer would let us come to his knife studio. WHAT? NO WAY!
Fast forward a month or two after that and there we were hanging out in Bob Kramer’s knife studio in Olympia.
No way, I’m really here. Jethro reminded me that not many chefs get a chance to see this part of the knife making process, let alone be in the presence of Bob Kramer. I understood what was going on and pretty much felt like I was in culinary Disneyland with a fast pass!
My first steps into the workshop was to check out the wood drying room.
There are some types of wood that take 5-7 years to dry out in this room and those custom pieces of wood find their ways into the handles of his perfectly crafted knives.
This is a three part post. Bandwidth is eating this post up so I have to split it up.
Part #2 (click)
Part #3 (click)
Eric
More Projects……
That’s a nettle gelee using agar and gelatine…noma style. They use a parsely gelee using the same method then roll it around a razor clam. I rolled it around a pear emulsion.
Did a bit of pickling. Purple asparagus/sea bean, sweet peppers, pickles, and broccoli rabe
Been practicing plating with play dough.
Smoked some salt
Dehydrated some scallops and halibut so I can make an XO sauce.
Dehydrated soy sauce
Working on my pasta.
There are lots of other things going on too. I have two more Noma posts coming your way and a Bob Kramer knife post too.
Eric
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Copenhagen, Denmark (The Noma Experience: Part 1)
I spent a week and a half in a city working in a restaurant that has completely changed my approach to food, organization, and goals in life.
Back in October 2010 I attended a book event here in Seattle where Rene Redzepi, chef of Noma the best restaurant in the world, was launching his cookbook highlighting signature dishes from the restaurant. From the original post:
I looked at the price of the event and I had to think about it for a few days…………after thinking about it I said, “You missed when Thomas Keller and David Chang were in town because you were working….how often does Chef Redzepi come to Seattle?!!?!?!?!? Oh, and you’ll get to meet him and ask him for a job!….Oh, and you’ll get a copy of the book!!!!”. Done. The voices in my head are good salesmen.
I took a chance and my goal for the event was to track chef Redzepi down and ask/beg him for a stage at the restaurant. I asked him when he signed my book and he responded yes….it was that easy. However, I still had to clear a couple of hurdles before my trip began. I’m in the middle of a thousand things right now with school, work, and other cooking related things. It truly is a 24/7 immersion program that I’ve worked my way into. I made a commitment to myself two years ago that said I will not do something unless I’m sure it will make me a better chef one day….and I have stuck to that approach. I work 40+ per week, I’m a full-time student at school, and I spend my “off” time in my kitchen at home or working with my friends on creating new dishes and finding exciting methodologies in order to cook amazing food. It’s fun and I’m having the time of my life.
I had to figure out when I would be able to go to Denmark. Should I wait until I graduated in September? Should I just quit school and go there and work for as long as I could (how much more could I learn from culinary school compared to the best restaurant in the world???!?!?!?). Mindy and I worked these questions out and we came up with the best case scenario for everything. I was going to go to Denmark during my spring break in between quarters then once I graduated I would go back again and compete for a job at Noma, if possible. We thought we had things figured out but best case scenario turned into better case scenario. Mindy’s bosses at her work decided that she should share this experience with me so they bought her a plane ticket to come with me and the school I am attending decided to change its program so I would now be able to graduate one quarter earlier. That extra quarter makes a difference because I can’t imagine being there much longer, I’ve already put enough opportunities on hold because of school (I’m going to culinary school….not going to be a doctor).
January 2nd (one year after this) came around so I emailed Noma again just to make sure they hadn’t forgot about me amongst the thousands of people that apply for a stage a year there. I wrote an email to the kitchen and received a prompt response within about an hour from the chef de cuisine, Matthew Orlando. He gave me the all-clear and told me the dates that I picked out worked great for them. Noma impressed me again. The prompt response I received from them wasn’t something that I had received from local restaurants in Seattle that aren’t even on the radar for a San Pellegrino Award or a Michelin Star. I’ve met and shaken hands with chefs in this town and passed around my resume via email and paid to attend food events where networking for food professionals was encouraged but I never received a call or email back about a job in their kitchens….zero…nada…..zilch. However, here I am now with an open line of communication with the best restaurant in the world……weird how that works.
I spent a few months studying the book more and trying to figure out how the Noma kitchen was going to be like. How does the #1 restaurant in the world do things like prep for two services a day? I’m used to ala carte restaurants where people order what they want when they want and however they like it a.k.a. the fancy Burger King style. Noma has a lunch service and a dinner service where you can choose from a 7 or 12 course dining experience that lasts a few hours. I’m used to a 200 seat plus restaurant that can churn out 500+ covers in a night with five to seven people on the line cooking the food. Noma, has 60 chefs, twelve tables (with one private dining room), and while I was there had a maximum of 56 covers for dinner. As I read more about Noma before my visit I knew things were going to be very different than what I was used to.
I watched that video about 20 times before my visit and I thought I had a pretty good grasp on what Noma was doing but once I got there everything was even greater than I had expected.
Leading up to the time we left Mindy and I were ridiculously busy. Finals for school, lots o’ work, and trying to save as much money as we could before the trip so no fancy cooking at home 
We were going to go to a concert but I couldn’t get the time off so I gave the tickets to my main man Jeth in exchange for him driving us to the airport at an obscenely early time in the morning. He picked us up and after a frantic time tearing the house apart looking for Mindy’s passport we were ready for Denmark. However, Jeth had a present for me.
It was a signed copy of Grant Achatz’s “Life on the Line” book. Grant Achatz and Rene Redzepi spent time together working at El Bulli and Grant said that his time at El Bulli changed his life. I WANT MY LIFE TO BE CHANGED NOMA!!! I was really excited to receive a copy of this book and I had planned on buying it once I returned but Jeth reads minds. He also had an amazing interview with chef Achatz and Nick kokonas which you can read here (click).
(You can see the moon at the top of the picture and a reflection of the sun rising off of the engine)
(Slowest video game ever)
From Seattle to Copenhagen it’s a 16 hour flight with lay overs. On our way there we went from Seattle to New Jersey then straight into Copenhagen. On our way back we went from Copenhagen to Toronto then to Seattle. Our flight there was fantastic, we moved straight through security with no issues or problems. Transportation wasn’t going to be a problem because as we learned more about Denmark we realized they had their s— together when it came to transportation. Trains, bicycles, taxis, and all that jazz. We wouldn’t have to rent a car and the hotel was less than a mile away from Noma.
We arrived, got our luggage, then walked over to the area to buy tickets at the train station. Uh, so how do we…..alright let’s just ask this person. Just like that we had our train tickets and made our 15 minute trip via train to the downtown area of Copenhagen.
Our first plan of action was to find the hotel (which was 2 block away from the train station), find Noma (less than a mile away), then look for adhesive to temporarily hem my pants (Noma requires black pants and I had found about that about two days earlier so I had to find black pants and hope I could find a way to hem them quickly…..good thing Mindy came along or I would have resorted to staples or trying to force my legs to grow somehow). We dropped our bags off at the hotel and started walking towards Noma.
None of these pictures of videos do enough justice as to how beautiful this city is. It doesn’t seem real at all….it’s just perfect.
Here is a little video as well giving you a 360 degree view on the way towards Noma. You can really see how the new parts of the city blend in with the older parts of the city quite nicely. It’s always funny how people in Seattle talk about the old parts of Seattle that are only about 100 years old and in Denmark those older parts are about 300+.
I was really happy Mindy came along because I have an awful sense of direction. I use Google Navigation for almost everything but since international phone usage was not an option ($1.09 per minute and $15 per megabyte of data) I had to rely on Mindy’s sense of direction in order to map out the path from the hotel to Noma.
(Yes)
(Yes!!)
(Yes!!!)
Holy s— NOMA!!!!!
(I have two more parts that will be added to this so stay tuned!)
Eric
Recent Projects…..
Things have been pretty crazy lately but it doesn’t mean that I haven’t stopped cooking or anything. If anything, this blog thing is a way for me to slow down a little bit and catch my breath. So here’s a little update of what I’ve been up to lately.
(happy onion)
I’ve been working on a pho broth lately and I have it nailed now. It started with using the Modernist Cuisine book for a little inspiration. They used a pressure cooker and while that worked amazingly well I decided to use my low and slow broth technique for an ox tail pho that turned out to be pretty damn amazing as well. Combine the two ideas and I came up with a pretty serious game changing pho broth for myself. The only problem is that it ends up being a little more expensive than the $5.75 for a large bowl at a restaurant…..does it taste better? Yes. Hybrid braising techniques + clarification with agar (cooking issues guys) = Pho king amazing.
The dehydration station has been getting quite the work out lately.
Black olives and parsley.
Green bell peppers and red chili peppers
Shallots. In a maltodextrin slurry then dehydrated for 12 hours ala Fat Duck. Round 1 of these, many more to come.
Pickled gold beets.
On to other things….. This is a little work with iota carrageenan. I set this pickled golden beet “terrine” with iota carageenan and it turned out pretty good but I’m going to make it again with a touch less iota or even move to using kappa….just need more time to work with this stuff.
I have another round of pork pancetta going. Should be done in two weeks.
Have a lot more duck prosciutto going……it should be done in another two weeks.
Cured my own corned beef. It was a Chinese 5 spice that I blended and used for the spices in the brine.
Then I diced it, cooked it, and made it into tacos.
In more taco news. I showed my friend Adam how to cook flank steak in a pressure cooker. Takes about 25 minutes at 15 p.s.i. We had a midnight taco party after work with some of my savoy cabbage kimchi.
(very blurry picture…oh well)
then chop it up, add pickled serranos and pickled gold beets then pickle it again and let it ferment and you have some kimchi. You can put it on just about anything. I suggest a garam masala crusted seared tombo tuna.
Oh, and if any of this food seems to serious and pretentious for you then have a look at octodog.
Octodog is awesome!
So, I’ll be in Denmark working at Noma for a couple of weeks. I have some guest bloggers taking over the site so be nice to them!
Who is nervous? This guy.
Eric
