Risotto. A wonderous rich dish, so veristile, so complex and yet so simple. Risotto is an Italian rice dish made from arborio rice. Unlike other rice dishes you need to stir it almost constant and add the liquid in parts instead of all at once the result is a delictable creamy pile of goodness. I make alot of risotto at work each day adding something different. Meats, fish, veggies, fruits, cheeses, nuts. You can throw almost anything into risotto, it is a great medium to using the odd piece of whatever when you don’t have enough for a few apps or entrees. Like the 1 duck breast I was left with the other night, Cook it up dice it add lets say maybe dried cherries and walnuts and presto, duck risotto with cherries and walnuts. Or maybe braised Lamb (from that one or two shanks left) and kalamata olive risotto with sundried tomatoes. A customer has offered to back a book of risotto recipes and the bartender Ray keeps making up numbers for each new one I create, we joke that i have 1001 risotto recipes ( I dont have that many but it is getting close.) Maybe one of these days i will compile a list of risotto dishes I have created over the years. I have been daring on some “experiments” like veal risotto with capers and golden raisins. Truth betold I dont think I have found an item that didnt do well in risotto, if the ingredients go well together without the rice then the rice just gives it another layer of something.
Monthly Archive for September, 2008
Greeting to all, I am the one, the only, the Chef Chuck. No really I am a chef, I am also a son, brother, Marine, husband, uncle, fixer of cars, plumber, “ACer” (more on that later), a jack of all trades, and according one person “a very evil man”, others call me a tender soul, teddy bear, and white knight. I’ll let you decide what I am.
Lets see where to start, guess at the beginning is always a good place. I was born in 1970 in Brooklyn NY, my brother Mondo came first, then John came a bit later, then more of us started coming out of the woodwork. Mom was single, did a damn good job with 3 boys, none of us has really gotten in to any serious trouble. I always wanted to be a chef so when I went to Park West VHS in Manhattan, which has a culinary program. Then in 1988 I joined the United States Marine Corps. Yes I am a jarhead and damn proud of it. During those years I was trained and worked on the HAWK missile system, went to war in Desert Shield/Storm, and traveled to Okinawa japan. When I left the Corps in ’92 and decided to continue my culinary career, so in early ’94 I went to the Culinary Institute of America and graduated in late ’95. I worked in MSG and in a few restaurants around the NYC area for the next few years before moving up to the Hudson valley. In 2001 my life may have started a downward spiral, which I am now coming out of, when i started dating and eventually married Daisy. It has been a very rough 7 years, and I will rant about that portion of my life another time. We are now seperated and I hope to get a divorce soon. I am still cooking as head chef in a small restaurant in Po-town.
What you will see here is me ranting about stuff (mainly to get it off my chest), recipes I want to share or have created, and little glimpses of the life of this chef.
Hmmmm I think that’s will be it for now its late and i have clothes to hang and crap to do. Until later children behave yourselves.