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So I might do other things besides cooking… I have been invited by Photographer Michael Huff to show some of my images from Dubai at the La Jolla Art Association gallery in La Jolla Shores from 21 April to 5 May 2013, with an artist reception (including beer and food) with live music on [...]
Bacon….yes bacon. The one meat that once was relinquished to Sunday morning breakfasts and egg sandwiches has, over the past couple of years been reinvented. Well, maybe reinvented is the wrong choice of words, perhaps re-imagined or re-awakened would be a better choice. In any event, bacon on this side of the pond is [...]
Fixing a Kitcheniad Mixer Bowl Lift Assembly (Heavy Duty) Yes…they do break. Every professional and aspiring chef has one or has this on their Amazon wish list, the life-would-come-to-an-end-if-I-had-to-whip-cream-by-hand stand mixer. Much like Ferrari and Porsche are synonymous with sports cars, Kitchenaid mixers are synonymous with the kitchen. While mostly white in color, the [...]
Well, seems like January just few by and now here we are in the beginning of February. Last month was a busy one, with us severing ties with our cdc and me returning to train the staff to run things on their own. Now that all of the dust has settled was can start [...]
Happy New Year
It is with great excitement that I can say the new Penny Lane menu is now live! We are still restructuring the kitchen and with continued training and equipment replacement Penny Lane will be in the best shape in its 18 year history moving forward and a great addition to the Restaurant Row area [...]
Quiet doesn’t mean a thing… So, while I have been working on the latest and greatest project that is rolling out before Meekong, I got a call from Pete Zacarias of Jade Theater fame asking me if I could help him redo the menu @ his l8est venture, the landmark Penny Lane in San Marcos. [...]
well, what seems like a couple of weeks away from blogging has now been a few months, and I again ask myself where has the time gone… I certainly know the answer to that, as I write this from deep within the kitchen of a flip of sorts. Friends bought a pub, chefRob comes in [...]
Panna Cotta Recipe If anything says “summer”, to me in the world of desserts it is this Panna Cotta recipe. Slightly sweet and equally slightly sour, adorned with fresh seasonal fruits and a bit of sauce this dessert is the perfect way to beat the heat. Traditionally, this dessert is made with cow’s [...]
Searching for an easy pineapple jam recipe without using pectin? Well, well, well…what have you found here. As a chef I seem to be out in left field…alone. It seems that every chef today is using thickeners like pectin, xanthan gum and all the other “garbage” the molecular gastronomists and TV chefs have pumped to [...]
The keys have been silent on my laptop for a while. Now, this is not because I was running out of things to say or food to cook but is more due to the load of finalizing a restaurant concept + all the work at the Design Haus. I just finished (with he help [...]
Leftover starter seems to be the bastard child in the sourdough cooking world. Cruise the search engines and you will see recipes that tell you to toss out a portion of the starter before you refresh your little pot of love before making your latest loaf of bread. As we discussed in the crepe [...]
Sourdough crepes What should you do with that leftover starter that your sourdough recipe tells you to toss out before you feed the mother again? Well…you could just be a mindless cow and toss it away. Not being one who follows the “herd mentality” may I suggest that you find something useful to [...]
Sourdough bread Wow…ok so we are back to the sourdough bread recipe. It should be known (if you don’t know this already) that wild yeasts are sometimes a finicky lot, and mine was or is no exception. I took 3 attempts to make a loaf that I was proud of and now finally we can [...]
And so it goes…winter, rain and wind. I can find nothing better to do on a blustery day than to bake. So since it is blustery here and I have nothing to do…we are going to go through the process and bake naturally leavened sourdough bread. San Francisco made be famous for sourdoughs, but lemme [...]
Flax Bread Recipe Start your year off with this great Flax bread recipe. The New Year always seems to start with a big thud around here, with the rush of the holidays being over and the partying that accompanies this subsides. Trading in your beer or cocktail for that New Year’s resolution is [...]
Image courtesy of @KyleOfThrillist (twitter) Doesn’t it seem that every year the leftovers from Thanksgiving just grow and grow? Not only does it add some pressure to make sure you use them all up before they become dog food or spoil can sometimes be a daunting task. You want to be creative but at [...]
So the holidays have begun. Family, friends, parties, photographs, high balls and hangovers. Now that we are deep into the season one question always pops up…what to do with the leftovers? If you are wondering how to be creative and at the same time get rid of some of your holiday leftover food take [...]
It seems like only yesterday I switched over from my old, crusty html site and created my blog. The reasoning behind it was simple…I no longer had to create/update pages in dreamweaver/golive and upload them to the server. The new “free” CMS (content management system) system would take care of all that for [...]
Mung Bean Soup - Ginisang Mungo Ginisang mungo, or mung bean soup is one of those timeless dishes. When the weather turned cold here the other day and I thought to myself that is was time to make a soup this is the one that popped into my head. Easy to cook, this [...]
Isn’t the “big” question always what to do with the leftovers from Thanksgiving. I mean really now…everyone has their grandmother’s gravy recipe, their mom’s stuffing recipe and pretty much everything else under the sun. Books have been written around holiday cooking and there are thousands of web sites offering up the “best new thing” [...]
A great water cracker recipe has to be one of the best kept secrets in any chef’s arsenal. Easy to make and bake, this is the perfect “on the fly” recipe that you can make when friends stop on by unexpectedly. Toss in some cheese or my Turkey Rillettes recipe and you are minutes away [...]
Fleur de Sel Water Cracker Recipe Print Recipe type: Appetiser Author: Robert Conaway Prep time: 10 mins Cook time: 15 mins Total time: 25 mins Serves: 12-16 Ingredients 3 cups unbleached flour (organic if you want) 3 cups wheat flour (whole wheat if you like) 1 teaspoon salt 4 tablespoons fleur de sel (or to [...]
…can you figure them all out…?
I like to eat with my fingers. I know, I know…I am a chef and I shouldn’t do such things…but I do. Maybe that is why I love Thai food so much, and the foods of South East Asia for that matter. It is as rustic as it gets, and if you want to find [...]
With the arrival of the 4th of July holiday here in the US means one thing to cooks and chef’s…BBQ! With summer in full swing and the grill’s tune up complete from the Memorial day holiday at the end of May, BBQ’s countrywide will be firing up and cooking brisket, ribs, burgers, hot dogs and [...]
Wow…seems like forever that I have been able to get a post in. A extremely busy spring in Dubai, a move and now some down time in San Diego have given me the chance to catch up on life, with friends and take some time to detune and relax a bit. With this time I [...]
Ice cream, what’s your favorite? So I will admit it, though I do not think it will come to anyone’s surprise that I am a lover of Ice Cream. I will blame it on the job I had after being a paperboy, which was scooping Ice Cream at a local drug store. At that time [...]
Not too terribly exciting just a oh so normal dinner service on the Palm Jumeirah.
Time seems to be ever fleeting, and time off well that never seems to come. I have been trying to get out and actually do something here in Dubai but all I do on my day off is sleep, do laundry, nap, find a place for dinner and then sleep…exciting chef life I must say. [...]
Have you ever wondered how many coffee beans it takes to make one shot of espresso? Yea, well me neither until that one Saturday morning in the beginning of October. The website had just launched and the restaurant was jamming. Kitchen was in its usual controlled state of chaos, food for the dining room, the [...]
Coffee and tea can be considered, for all practical purposes my favorite drinks, morning, noon and night. Whether it’s a day off, an early morning at the restaurant or an afternoon out and about in Dubai or whatever city I find myself in I will, with determination and conviction, search for the finest cup of [...]
Have you ever created something when you really were not planning on it? For those of us in the food industry, and for those who make a lot of coffee (cappuccino in this case) it seems that creating something, even when you are not trying to comes with some ease. As a chef, I get [...]
Got a few ingredients floating around the fridge and have no idea what to do with them…perhaps a compound butter is in your future. Compound butters have been around for what seems like an eternity and hold a very special place it the annals of culinary history. One in particular, Maitre D hotel butter is [...]
It’s a slow summer day here in Dubai. Summers here are hot and with Ramadan upon us the days are long as no food or drink can be consumed during daylight hours. Idle hands and time makes a chefs mind wander and today it is about the term organic. Back in 1997 when I was [...]
We are finishing our menu tasting and plating trails and with the hard work, dedication and support of Chef Edi, Chef Sal, Chef Anston and both the FOH and BOH staffs of the restaurant we are on the verge of something big… Just thought I would share some images from the last 3 weeks of [...]
Summertime is the time of year when everyone gets outdoors. After a cold winter (for most of us) and a spring that can alternate from wet and rainy to snow flurries and bits of sun through the fog, summer brings the “p” in partay right to your door. Sun, fun and for the most part [...]
…and so it begins… If you have been reading my posts as of late you will know that we are opening Dubai’s newest steakhouse @ the Oceana hotel and spa called West 14th, New York Prime. The restaurant opens in the end of June, 2010 and will feature some amazing beef straight outta Texas along [...]
…and so it begins… If you have been reading my posts as of late you will know that we are opening Dubai’s newest steakhouse @ the Oceana hotel and spa called West 14th, New York Prime. The restaurant opens in the end of June, 2010 and will feature some amazing beef straight outta Texas along with [...]
