Category Archives: Random Rants

2011 Bellevue Home & Lifestyles Show + Cooking Demonstration by Me!(Jan. 23)

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I’m doing a cooking demonstration at this year’s Bellevue Home & Lifestyles Show at the Meydenbauer Center.   This is a pretty big deal and I’ll be cooking on Sunday the 23rd at 3PM (I’m closing out the show!!).  I’m going to be doing Tapas on the main stage and I intend on putting on a pretty good show.   A little seafood here, a little saffron there, a little more olive oil over there…. It’s going to be awesome!

Oh, and as you can see I have about 40 or so tickets.   Email me (ericriveracooks@gmail.com) and let me know you want to come to the show and I’ll send them to you for free (maximum 2 tickets per person and address that emails me…don’t try anything funny….I have really sharp knives).  Tickets are usually $5-$8 but since you know me and you’re my VIP then you get in FREE.

Check out their site for more information (click)

E-mail me for tickets:  ericriveracooks@gmail.com

Eric

An Evening With Bob Tate & Friends

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A little over a year ago I did a post on knives after Bob Tate came to my culinary school to do a talk (here is the original post…click).  My friend, Jethro (click), knows Bob Tate and offered to get our little group of gastronauts together to go see the art of knife sharpening up close and personal.

I still use Bob’s tips to this day and it was really amazing to be invited into his home where he does the knife sharpening and has honed his own skills. He trained under Bob Kramer who has his own signature series for Shun so it was honor just to be around Mr. Tate to at least get a glimpse into the mastery that is knife sharpening.

We each brought a knife for Bob to sharpen for us…… Seriously Jethro…..a pink knife?!?!?!  Uh….. Anyway, Scott brought his shiny Shun knife (middle) and I brought my money maker Mercer knife (right) for a little honing and sharpening action.

Bob showed us a few new projects he was up to and how he can create serrated knives and even sharpen them.  It was amazing to watch him take a $2 knife and turn it into something usable and extremely sharp…..Eric “likes” the degree of sharpness.

I have a really weird attachment to my knife. It’s not expensive or special but it’s been along for the ride while I’ve moved through and cut thousands of things with it.  When I first started using it I had no idea what I was doing…..it was too big……it was heavy…..it wasn’t my 7 inch santoku that I was used to using.  I stuck with it and now I treat it like a really great friend of mine.  I sharpen it myself because I don’t trust anyone else to even touch it but when I was in the home of Bob Tate I let him have it……I guess it’s kind of like dropping your kid off at a baby sitter…..weird stuff.

Bob sharpened up the pink knife and while I saw him doing it I noticed how he moved the knife over the belt gently.  He asked me not to film his finishing process and not really talk about it since it was something he had learned from Bob Kramer and it really is the difference from him doing something amazing or just entrusting your knife to that random clerk at that one store with the French name downtown.

He finishes and tests every knife by doing the newspaper test.

That folks, is the sharpest pink knife in the world!!!! He finished Scott’s knife and my knife and it was like picking up your dog from the groomer….looks new….smells nice (what?)……knife is all excited to cut stuff……

Look at that shiny new edge.

No matter where I go, where I cook, or what knife I buy, Bob Tate is my knife sharpening guy.

Eric

Gobble Quest 2010

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The plan was to pick up the turkey from Don and Joe’s meats after class on Tuesday, I would do a bit of grocery shopping then head over to my house and start prepping because I had the next two days off.   Well, plans changed quickly when on Monday morning we woke up and there was snow and ice all over the place.  We live on a hill in West Seattle so getting down it is nearly impossible when there is ice and snow….all…over…the…place.

I started checking the forecast on that Monday morning and I had to make another quick decision…..do I go to class and get stuck in Seattle for 5-8 hours and then make it home and accomplish nothing or do I just do my grocery shopping, hope the school closes, and move on with my plans.    Two or three years ago I used to work in Bellevue and we had a house in Federal Way…there was a snow storm happening while I was at work and my boss said, “just another hour or two and you can go home”.   Well, that totally f’ed me.  It took me 8 hours to get home that night and he even had the audacity to ask if I was going to come to work the next day….I hung up on him….and moved on.  I hate getting stuck in places so I ran around West Seattle trying to get everything that I could possibly need for gobble day.  There was one thing I couldn’t pick up yet……Mr. Gobbler.

I reserved Mr. Gobbler about 3 weeks ago from Don and Joe’s Meats in Pike Place Market.  They’re my source for duck fat and a few other things I buy on a consistent basis.  They’re a few blocks away from school so when I’m on my way home or just going to work they’re my go-to place.   I had a turkey ready to pick up on Tuesday and when I went to sleep on Monday night I knew I would have to figure out someway to get to Pike Place Market from West Seattle. Could I teach Blue to be a sled dog overnight?

Do I know anyone with a helicopter?  Could I just look up and see if the buses were running???? Right….

I gathered up some volunteers to go with me on Turkey Quest 2010 and we made our way to downtown on the King County Metro……free advertisement for The Orca card begins now:

(My dad, Mindy, sister, Dave!)

The bus was running on a snow route so it took about 5 minutes longer than it would have normally to get where we wanted….pretty awesome considering the day before the whole city was shut down and the roads were still really icy.  Another good thing about all of this is that we never lost power…it pays to live in the city!

We walked around, bought food, and then packed it up in our bags in order to carry it back home so I could prep for gobble day. Try to stop me from cooking?  Hahahahahahaaa, that was a weak attempt nature!!!  I had two back-up whole chickens ready in my refrigerator just in case :)

I just hope this time next year I’ll be in Spain or Denmark doing a turkey quest.

Eric

 

Will You Find The Golden Ticket? #willbakeforfood

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I’m am forming a bunch of chocolate right now. There is a gigantic bake sale happening on Saturday in Seattle and I volunteered some of my time/ingredients to this event. It’s to benefit Northwest Harvest and is run by the two Jenny’s (click).   I am going to drop off 20 chocolate bars and one of them will include a golden ticket that will make you a winner…..if you find that ticket, of course.

“What do I get if I win?!?!??!”

I will cook for you, in your home, for free, a 5 course dinner, that’s it!   Please be a Washington resident!!!!

Go here (click)….buy my chocolate bars…….I’m donating all my chocolate…no $$$ goes to me…zero…..I just want an excuse to cook :)

Please support Northwest Harvest.

Eric

Dehydrated Peppers and Other Projects

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I dehydrated these peppers (click) in the oven.  It took about 16 hours at 170F.

I have some chocolate bars, bon bons, and truffles coming down the pipeline.  I should have the rest of the equipment by next Wednesday so look out for crazy flavor combinations and lots o’ chocolatey goodness.

Eric

Going Mobile…..

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I’m going mobile!! I got a new phone courtesy of my brother-in-law working for the best cell phone hardware company out there. This G2 phone is incredible and now I can post on the go. The pictures are decent enough that I am ready to post those as well.

The picture above is of some peppers being dehydrated…..sooooooooo fun!

Here is a picture of chicken I was fabricating about 10 minutes ago……….close to instant posting people…..this….is……awesome!!!

Eric

_ _ _ _ _ Bean

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These are very special beans. I would love to go into more detail about them but I don’t know if I’ll get in trouble for doing so.  They’re delicious and they smell like a mix of vanilla/cherry/cinnamon…..

Eric

Where Ya At Eric? I’ve been busy!

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(Photo shamelessly stolen from Janna Wemmer of Secret Stash Sea Salts CLICK) :)

I’ve been cooking a lot lately at work and at a few other places and not so much for this blog.  This is me transitioning out of being mr. blogger guy and being mr. cook dude….I need to find some better names for myself.  I’m working full-time at Blueacre (40 hours/week), going to school, and when I have some time out of those two things I’m always looking for more places to learn and cook.

Above is a picture of me as casual cook Eric holding an enormous squash that was later made into a soup for Chef Lisa Nakamura’s (click) cooking demonstration at Dish It Up in Magnolia.  I saw that chef was coming into town from Orcas Island so I sent her an e-mail to see if she needed any help while she was in town. She said yes so there I was helping out and learning things from an amazing chef.  She did a class called “Stress Free Holiday Entertaining” and she showed people how to cook a multi-course meal without having to freak out and go crazy.  She cooked a turkey in about an hour by taking it apart and cooking the pieces separately so they would cook faster and also had a killer dish with mussels and locally sourced saffron, and a whole bunch of other great food ideas.  I helped her prepare the event and was doing a little bit of cooking as she talked through the next courses so it was a great time!

This incredible view is from the penthouse suites at the Aspira tower in downtown Seattle. Blueacre sent Chef Brian and me as his assistant to the top o’ the tower to do a cooking demonstration for their clients.  We did three demonstrations on separate days and all three of them were incredible.  You can’t beat the views from that place.

Damiana (pictured on the left next to Mindy) has a food truck coming out so I helped her prep for a pop-up dinner they were doing as a fundraiser to help build the rest of the truck.  I’m really excited about this one because Damiana has a great knack for food and will definitely take that truck to being one of the best in the city. She’ll be doing soups and sandwiches and should be up and running in the next few months….I’ll keep you updated!

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm, duck.

On November 16th I’m working the event

Salmon in the Trees with Amy Gulick at the Burke Museum

for Blueacre along with Chef Kevin and Chef Anthony which I am really excited about.  If you want to go then you can buy tickets here (click).  I’ll be busy but you’ll be able to check out an amazing exhibit and talk with a bunch of people that care about sustainable seafood practices and nature….oh, and you’ll get some great food and a copy of the book!

So yeah, I’ve been busy but don’t worry, I have a bunch of fun things coming soon.

Eric

FUUUUUUUUUUUNNNNNNN THINGS!!

New Blog: Seattlecooks: Aspiring Chefs in the Emerald City

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(Any opportunity to sneak in a picture of Blue is totally awesome)

In the book Charcuterie I read about Brian Polcyn and how awesome he is.  He has his own restaurant, teaches butchery and charcuterie at a culinary school, has 5 kids, and still had time to help write a book…..that drove me to do more with my time.   I work 40+ hours a week, blog, go to school, and still have some time for Mindy and Blue…….I’m keeping chef hours! :)

I decided to start a new blog to help out other cooks in Seattle that are in my same position.  It’s hard to put yourself out there if you don’t know who to talk to first. I intend to change that.  I believe the journey starts at culinary school and while there are a ton of people that will tell you that you don’t need to go to culinary school in order to be a great chef or what not I do believe it helps and it is important….it’s working for me.  I have found 3 other people that are as crazy as me and I have created a site to highlight their work.

The site is http://seattlecooks.wordpress.com/ and I urge you to check it out.  I have put in a lot of hours into it already and I believe I have found some of the best cooks in the city.  Join us on our journey to become chefs.

Welcome to Seattle Cooks: Aspiring Chefs in the Emerald City (click)

Eric

Seattle Tilth’s Harvest Festival

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Mindy is the weekend planner for us.  She’s always scouring the interwebs looking for great events to go to before I head off to work.  This past weekend she stumbled upon Seattle Tilth’s Harvest Festival and it was one we both agreed was an event we should definitely go to.

Seattle Tilth is an organization that promotes organic and sustainable practices.  Earlier in the year Mindy bought a few vegetables starts from an event they had earlier in the year so it was nice for me to actually get out there and see their garden.

It’s a very large garden and I would love to do a pop-up style restaurant there one day and cook items from their garden…..one can hope! They have everything there and all of the vegetables are beautiful.

Chard

Enormous pumpkin that isn’t ready yet…..Could have used it in my cooking demonstration…patience…

The event was highlighting urban agriculture and it had a lot of information available so people could keep

and

and (MINI-GOATS!!!!!!!!!! I WANT THREE!!!!)

in and around the lovely city of Seattle.  I would love to have all of these things at our place in Seattle but we’re renting right now and it was hard enough finding a place that would allow a pet, have a fence, and be affordable……but one day we’ll have all of these things at our house/restaurant.

I can’t wait for future Seattle Tilth events.  Check their site out for more information (click)

Eric

Somewhat Famous in Seattle Weekly!!!

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Jason Sheehan did a great write-up about Blueacre Seafood (click here for the article) this past week and I was fortunate enough to be working the night they came in (Thursday-Monday Evenings COME SAY HI!!!!) to take pictures for the article.  Now, I know I’m not really in focus or anything but I’m the one in the back reaching for something at my station.

HOW COOL IS THAT?!?!?!?!??!?!?!?  They’re plating the angry crab that I have talked about a ton of times on here….I could eat all three of those  angry’s being plated! So awesome to be working at Blueacre!  Also in the picture is Chef Kevin Davis, JOE, Chef Jake, and Chef Seth’s back (haha)!

Eric

Rolling The Dice

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Crazy Dragonfruit.

I know that I’ve been quiet for quite some time on here.  My “writing” has been on more on the surface stuff and nothing too deep.  Since that lovely accident with the food processor at my previous employer I have re-evaluated what I want and my priorities have changed.

This blog started a lot of things for me and I will always use this as a source to try new things.  The quality of food and posts aren’t where I would like them to be. This used to be the only place where I could post my ideas and cook things and evolve but that has changed.  These days I reserve my best for the restaurant I work at and for good reason….they pay me, it’s my job, and it’s my career.  The stuff I am learning there is miles ahead of my previous employer and miles ahead of school. I am working under a talented group of chefs and everyday seems like a dream.

Now don’t get the wrong impression here. I’m not going to stop going to school or stop this blog, just realize that priority #1 is to make sure my job at work is done properly.  I want to be one of the best chefs in the world one day….I’m serious about this. It’s not about ego or anything else but I really do feel like I can learn from the best chefs in the world then bring my own spin to it in order to create something incredible.  This blog, school, and jobs can help me achieve that.

My journey started here on this blog and has lead me to some pretty cool restaurants and some pretty cool events.  People ask me all the time if I want to be a food writer one day.  No, I don’t.  I’m not a writer and I have more fun taking pictures of food and eating it than I do writing about it.  I would rather not talk, “write”, or take pictures and just cook…. All I want to do is cook and think about my next dish.

I have a  question that I always ask myself that has lead me in the right direction.  I always ask myself, “Will this make me a better chef one day?”.  If the answer isn’t a 100% yes then I simply won’t do something or make it a priority…it’s that simple.   Me being a chef isn’t just about a title or being the cool guy that people just automatically respect just for being called a chef (it’s weird how that works…) I know when I’m a chef I will be supporting my family and working my ass off to push a restaurant into being the best restaurant on the planet. Constant improvement and the pursuit of perfection while realizing I’ll never achieve perfection.

I don’t want something to be good enough, I want it to be the best out there…. I am an intense person and I have all the energy in the world and when people get in my way I am not the nicest person in the world. I can be the nicest person in the world but can also be a world class dick. Why?  I demand better from myself….always. When I screw something up I don’t like it and I am never happy with it…..some people say, “well mistakes happen”…I say, it shouldn’t have happened if we were prepared for it and ready for it in the first place (at work we see how many people are coming in each day….I always say I’m prepping for 400 people to come in the door…..it works)  I am a very passionate person and while some people have tried to get me to “calm down” over my life I have realized that those people were just weak and were complacent fools who were just happy with their own lives and situations and all they wanted was to bring me down to their level instead of helping to push me up.  It’s not that I’m not happy I just want better things for Mindy and myself.   The people at the restaurant I work at now have realized the fire I have and they are pushing me to be better everyday instead of trying to wonder what’s wrong with me or trying to calm me down. Will working at ______ make me a better chef than working at Blueacre….Blueacre it is!

I want it all. I want to be the best. I’m working on it.

I have a few goals that I want to realize in the next year…year and a half. I am putting them in writing so if you see me doing something different then you can call me out on it.

  • Graduate from culinary school
  • Go to Spain and work at El Bulli before it closes…while I’m there work at Arzak as well.
  • Work at The French Laundry in Yountville, CA
  • Get the new blog up and running (I’ll have more information on this soon….basically a showcase for Seattle culinary students….handpicked by me)
  • Learn as much from Chef Kevin Davis and Chef Brian as I can at Blueacre….the guys are f’ing geniuses.
  • Last and definitely not least. Make sure Mindy is happy.

I know I’m shooting for the moon with those restaurants and while my technical ability might not be there with other people and I might not have a cool degree from the C.I.A. I know that I want to be at those places more than anyone else that enters those doors in their kitchens.  I’ll do anything it takes and I’ll fight anyone/anything that gets in my way….all 148 lbs. of me!

Eric

“Why did he call it rolling the dice….it seems like he knows what he wants”.

I had an extra picture lying around. haha!

New Blog: JetCityGastrophysics.com

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(Dragonfruit after seeing some nitrogen cavitation)

I’m doing a little posting on a new blog that brings three food nerds together.  Jeth, Scott, and myself.

Check it out. (click)

Eric

Doing anything tomorrow?

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I think you should come to the Queen Anne Farmers Market tomorrow and catch me doing a cooking demonstration at 6PM!

What I have planned:

-Fromage Blanc “Cheesecake” with Rainier Cherry Syrup and market fruits

-Fried Plantain Cups with Market Roasted Vegetables and Eric’s Pique sauce!

Should be lots of fun and it’s free!!!!!!!!!!

More information:

http://campaign.constantcontact.com/render?v=001LUMlplLnauYSK6dfi_2KP0DSGuBrpMVeVNzvaQjRQsL508yHPGsSpfDP1Ot8LKK7413L1ivVPMg5MRvDRlzVKmhXDwuQs0do-gdOKPun10DmgZ6vgKcaLw%3D%3D

Eric