New home - June 21, 2009

I will be writing and posting on iriemedia.com primarily from here on out.

Eat well, Post-Graduates. Parent? Read on. - May 19, 2007

Howdy, for those of you new to the site.  Thank you BU Today and foodPrints for the links in and your kind words.

So, I figure most of you reading this fall into one of four categories:

1) (Grand)Parents reading up about their young grown-ups' almost-alma matter

2) Hungover students checking when graduation starts, so you know when to plan your Blanchard's runs most efficiently (they're open all day Sunday, so don't worry about it)

3) Random people searching "food porn" on the internet.  you know who you are.

4) Generous, college-grad donating family member looking for a young cook to sponsor in his business ventures (if you fall into this category, urgently  contact my secretary for details on our secret and highly lucrative banking transaction)

If you fall into a category other than the ones listed here, simply leave a comment explaining yourself, and what makes you so damn special.  I might just make you a category.

Anyway, now that I've significantly categorized and made my judgments about you, I'm going to turn my attention forward.  To the future, that is.  The future of your/your child's/my eating career.  Do you know how to sniff out the best diner in town?  Do you know what's going on in your favorite kitchens?  Care to know who is actually preparing your food?  Can you whip up multi-course meals after a long night of drinking?  How many calories are in a beer?

If you wish to acquire this knowledge, continue reading.  If you're uninterested, just looking for food porn, or perhaps already consider this trivia; go away.  I won't be posting any pictures with this post, scroll down for the goodies.

No, today I am here to talk to you about your available food resources.  Where are you getting your food information?  From health scares in the paper?  Rachel Ray?  Your local "Dining Out"  section?

I'm interested in how this information is circling.  I'd like to do an experiment.  If you consider yourself a "foodie" and have not read Kitchen Confidendial by Anthony Bourdain, drop me a line.  I will personally buy you a copy and ship it to you overnight.  You will then read it, and recommend it to you everyone you would consider sharing a meal with.  It gives in its thin paperback-y pages a wealth of knowledge that could only otherwise be obtained by twenty years standing behind stoves.

After that, read Omnivores Dilemma, and have for reference Harold McGee's On Cooking.  Then, if you want to get your hands dirty, pick up The Professional Chef Vol 8.  Scalable, international recipes with all the instruction of a 2 year cooking school packed into a hefty book.

For the connoisseurs of fine food photography and detailed recipes, go for The French Laundry Cookbook and any of the El Bulli books.  Ferran Adria will blow your mind and make you rethink the meal.  While you're at it, pick up the El Bulli/Anthony Bourdain DVD.  It's dollar for dollar the best modern-media food investment you can make.

Advanced food reading includes Near a Thousand Tables and The Making/Soul of a Chef Series by Michael Ruhlman.

Until your books arrive, feel free to check out the "Recommended Reading" tab on the right side of the page.  That's my Google Reader feed, and I update it close to daily.

Once your information-packed novels get there and you read all of them, go to the reviews section of my blog, and check out my other book commentary.  Every one listed there is a guaranteed good read (I only blog the ones I really love), and I will add more if you run out.

I hope to hear back from you, either through comments or email, and look forward to your responses to the books.

Eat well graduates, parents, and all persons alike!

-Andrew

Technorati Tags: boston, boston university, bu, commentary, food, food book, food books, food writing, reviews

Check it - September 29, 2004

I can't let this go unnoticed. Evidently epicurious is trying to step up it's image, and has started a new news page.

There's some really, really interesting stuff on it, like this:

Ahead of The Times
When you sit down at either of Thomas Keller's celebrated eateries, Per Se in NYC or the French Laundry in Napa, your waiter will typically present three menu choices: a five-course prix fixe, a nine-course vegetarian menu, or the nine-course chef dégustation. That is, unless you happen to be New York Times restaurant critic Frank Bruni. On a putatively anonymous summer visit to the French Laundry as part of the research for his Per Se write-up, Bruni was quickly spotted by the restaurant's GM (and longtime Keller girlfriend) Laura Cunningham. As luck would have it, Keller was in the kitchen that evening and, after a brief confab with his staff, he decided to offer the critic something special—an extravagant fourth option.

A source tells me that Bruni and his two companions were then treated to a total of—get this—25 to 30 courses, each paired with a different wine. All told, I hear they sampled more than 83 wines from 10 countries, as well as various sakes and beers. Did the effort pay off? Well, it clearly didn't hurt. On September 8, Bruni awarded Keller's new home in the Time Warner Center a rare four stars. Per Se, Time Warner Center, Columbus Circle, NYC, 212.823.9335; French Laundry, 6640 Washington St., Yountville, Calif., 707.944.2380

Another thing that I thought was great was the Sushi Spreadsheet. Blurb on it found here.

I'm still working my way through the archives. Neat stuff.

Nada till Boston - August 24, 2004

Hey folks. I have been doin nothing but relaxing since I got back to Atlanta. I have eaten some good food, but nothing really of note. I believe I will get back into regular posting when I get back to school in September. That's all.

An unfortunate update - August 07, 2004

Well, I have finished my stay at the Castello di Poreta, and am now spending 5 days in Rome before heading back to Atlanta. Unfortunately, there is no internet access where I am staying, and its really not feasible for me to type up posts in an internet cafe.

Look for some new posts when I get back to the ATL! In the meantime, go rent Dinner Rush and watch it. It's a great mob movie thats set entirely in a restaurant. It rocks. (Thanks to Caleb for showing me this movie)

Ci vediamo!

Quick Update - August 01, 2004

Howdy.

Not much has happend here since the hunting day. Caleb is flying out today, and should get here tomorrow. That's when the good posts are gonna be coming.

We've been busy here, but nothing outstanding has really occurred. I've been working my way through the 10 bottles of wine my dad left here when he went back to Atlanta. Only a few bottles left now!

Stay tuned, we're gonna be havin some excellent adventures in the next few days.

I leave you to ponder this picture.

Public Service Anouncement - July 21, 2004

I would like to issue an apology. I have been recieving angry letters in the past few days, since there has not been a new post. This is because my dad is here, and he's been dragging me around Umbria (like, who would want to do that?). Anyway, we have had some very good meals, but I had suffered a major setback in publication. I had been taking pictures of some of the meals with my dad's digital camera (which seems to be easier to use without a flash), and thought I could easily transfer them to my computer.

Not so. Oh well.

I know this has been doubly hard for you, as AG is also on hiatus (but at least he has a very entertaining duo covering for him!)

Anyway, the past day I have been taking pictures with my camera, and will be posting these updates right now!!

Giddy - July 14, 2004

So, I have been attempting to contact all the folks on the list that I made (the pronunciation guide), and I sent out a bunch of emails.

Only about 6 hours after I sent them, I got a reply from none other than Ruth Reichl, one of my personal favorite food writers.

This was absolutely thrilling to me. I hope you can understand. Ruth Reichl used to be the editor for the food section of the New York Times, and now is the editor for Gourmet. This is bigtime stuff.

I feel as famous as AG! Well, maybe not, but I bet he doesn't get emails from Ruth Reichl!

Heres what she said, for those who are curious (and I will be doing a full write-up later):

It's more like rye-shel, but I can't say it the way my German father did, which was with an r in the back of the throat.

When I first started writing I used to save envelopes with the various permutations of my name on them; my favorite was the one addressed to Ruth Raisehell.

And hell, I did include a link to this site in the email, so it's possible that she read it. Now hows THAT for popular? Eh? Thats what I thought.

Everyone wave to her!

A warning - July 13, 2004

The below post is incredibly spoiled, self entitled, and somewhat childish.

It has some good points, but don't feel like you must read it. Take it with a grain of salt, if you will.

About The Gentleman Gourmand - July 03, 2004

I decided it would be a good idea to give those of you who don't know me a rundown on my history. I ended up writing this for my introduction to eGullet, and thought I would do well to post it here.

I started off in the big culinary world of ours in Telluride, Colorado, at a summer camp for years ago. They were offering a class on cooking at a local Thai restaurant, run by Chef Michael Guskea.

I was the oldest in the group, and ended up doing much of the hands-on work. The next summer I worked with Chef Guskea both teaching the class, and helping him with his catering work, which I greatly enjoyed. (The highlight of that being a 150 person dinner, buffet style, at the $45 million dollar house of one of the founders of Dell. Michael and I cooked and served all of the food, just the two of us.)

After that, I landed an internship at Kyma, the Greek restaurant of the Buckhead Life Restaurant Group in Atlanta, my hometown. I worked there Saturdays, getting a feel for how larger, upper scale restaurants functioned. I loved the family feel that I got from there, as well as the intense focus on the food. (They had me picking the yellow leaves out of the arugula IN the walk-in. 3 cases worth. It took me 2 hours, with the cooling unit blowing down the back of my neck the whole time. Yeah, I know...but I was making my bones!) One of the most rewarding things I got out of the internship was a good relationship with Pano Karatassos, who was previously employed at The French Laundry. (And it's clear he gets much of his work ethic from there. If anything, and I do mean anything, was spilled, you would have to stop what you were doing and clean it all up. Water on the floor? Get a mop.)

After that, I took another internship at Nikolais Roof, the French/Russian restaurant at the top of the Hilton Atlanta. Chef Klapdohr turned out to be one of the nicest people I have ever met, and continues to ask the General Manager (the father of a friend of mine) how I am doing. (Yeah, I know, real hard to get the internship knowing the GM, but eh, gotta pull some strings now and then.) At Nikolais, I really learned appreciation for quality ingredients, and the techniques for keeping food waste down. (I also saw some incredibly cool things. Evidently they had just discovered this new crustacean thing in the Pacific, and sent half a dozen of them to Nikolais to cook. It was kind of a half lobster, half horseshoe crab.)

When the big college decision came up, I considered culinary school. I applied to Johnson and Wales, and CIA, and got accepted to both, as well as a dozen other liberal arts colleges.

After much thought, I decided that year that although I loved cooking, I knew at heart that I could not be a chef. I really just don't think I could dedicate my life to something so stressful and difficult. I still cook, but I know I will never run a restaurant.

I ended up attending Boston University's School of Hospitality Administration, and am greatly enjoying it. This last year (my first there), was utterly amazing. They sent me all over the country to hospitality conferences (NYC, St. Louis, Anaheim) and all of my Hospitality related courses were the best I have ever taken. Of them, HF 100 was my favorite, not only because most of the information came almost intuitively to me, but also because my professor was so incredibly enthusiastic about teaching. My second favorite was probably HF 150, Intro to Cooking, which I will be a Teachers Assistant in next semester.

I am currently interning at il Castello di Poreta, in Italy. It is a small hotel / restaurant in the hills of Umbria, near Spoleto. I took Italian for my first two semesters, and am coming along slowly, but surely. I have been working in the kitchen, learning exceptional Italian cuisine from one of the best chefs in the area. This is about when the blog began.

Hopefully I’ll have the drive to keep it updated even when I get back to school to document all my foodie adventures in Boston!