Spend any time sweating through a shirt and walking slow and purposeful along Magazine Street toward a Sazerac before dinner, and you’ll hear the cry, in this bar or that one. You’ll hear it on the radio, driving the high-rise bridge over the Industrial Canal, someone spinning funk on WWOZ and talking about New Orleans [...]
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Imagine a cramped, chaotic space full of knives, flames and frantic people. OK, now imagine someone peering into this purgatory — aka your typical restaurant kitchen — and thinking, “Let’s use this same place to cook meals for a second restaurant.” Crazy, right? No rational person would devise such a crackpot scheme. But it happens. [...]
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FOR YEARS, without quite knowing why, I’d reach for the nearest bottle of soy sauce whenever my seafood stews, vegetable soups or tomato sauces lacked a little “something” and needed a bit of a lift. And every time, the dark-brown liquid worked its magic, adding not only a distinctive sort of saltiness, but an earthy [...]
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Think of food in Alton, Illinois, and sometimes it’s hard to get past great pie and cheap meat on a stick. Jarvis Putnam of Bossanova Restaurant & Martini Lounge (112 West Third, Alton; 618-462-1175) has spent nearly five years making a place for fresh, flavorful modern fare in the river town. “Alton is such an [...]
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In the early ’90s, Brian Miller had just finished his first year in law school in Chicago and was wondering about his future. “I kept wondering if $20,000 a year was worth my time,” he said. It wasn’t. Miller left school and began working for a foodservice company in Chicago. The work and his previous [...]
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AB: What question gives you the most insight to a cook when you are interviewing them? What sort of answer are you looking for? JD: Describe yourself, describe your work ethic. [I’m looking for] a sincere answer. I’m not looking for someone who’s going to blow smoke up my butt or say how great they [...]
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Neighborhood. We were the only Irish family in an all-Italian neighborhood, but we were kind of adopted. It was good, especially on Sundays. That was one of my first hooks onto food as a child, watching the family–all of them in so many ways, shapse or forms — work all day for one big Sunday [...]
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This chef has been trying to fly under the radar, but we’re outing him. Christopher Cramer, a Providence Johnson & Wales grad who has worked for numerous hotels around the country, has been the top toque at Panorama, Sonesta Bayfront’s only restaurant, for six years. “I spent five years working in D.C.,” he explained. “It’s [...]
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Opening a restaurant is like climbing a great set of stairs. The first step, in my case, was an idea. Then I struggled with investment proposals and profit and loss projections. Shareholders agreements shrouded in mind-numbing legalese followed. There were trips to law firms and finally—the fun part—researching recipes throughout Thailand. I’ve also been meeting [...]
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Local rising star chef Deegan McClung took time out of his busy day as Executive Chef at Jeffrey’s to talk to Austinist about his New Orleans roots, working under Master Chef Daniel Bonnet, and what he’s going to be serving Friday at this year’s Stars Across Texas Grand Tasting. Austinist
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