I don’t think I’ve ever read about what happens to people after they appear on a major reality show. And I’m not quite sure if anyone really cares, but...
Recently, I entered the next phase of my post Top Chef existence.
There are still people who yell out “Top Chef”. There are encounters that start with, “Hey Richard”. There are frequently times people shout out “ you should have won”, or “ banana scallops”. There are, believe it or not, some who yell “ I love you”. For the record these tend to be slightly bearded and more than slightly overweight men. However now I get a lot more puzzled looks, and mostly this:
“Where do I know you from?”
If I was single and better looking, I’d think this was a sure pick up line, no ?
I do like this, as it’s presents an interesting engagement. Here are my personal rules for my behavior in such situations:
I’m not going to say that you know me from Top Chef or Iron chef or TV. It’s not going to happen. It’s a bad recipe. The first time I did this, the gentleman said, "no, I thought you were Craig Wilson from softball". So, I affectionately call this the Craig Wilson rule. You have to guess. I’m not going to be that douche bag that says, Oh, you probably know me from this television show, so you can then say that you thought we went to elementary school together. BTW, softball ?
I will say that I’m a chef. That's my only hint and of course I’ll introduce myself if it gets to that point. After that, you're on your own. There have been a few times that this triggers their memory a few yards after we disengage. Then, the inevitable shout across the airport is (my favorite), “oh yeah, Americas next Top Chef”. It is amusing.
I also will play for a bit if it seems we may actually know each other from some other encounter, you never know. So, there have been times where I’ve said, yes, I have been to Florida, I did live in New York, I did play little league baseball or no, I haven’t been on That Seventies Show. Yeah...that last one really threw me too!
And of course there are moments where people don’t say anything. That is how I would play it. In fact, that is how I have played it! I once followed Al Horford, one of my favorite basketball players for a few hundred yards not getting the nerve to say hello. For all of my friends, that's how I “know” Al Horford. I’d like to think that because Al Horford could palm my skull, that had to do with not pulling the trigger, nope. I did the same thing to Alton Brown once. Of course now I know Alton enough to walk up and say hello, so please don’t tell him that I stalked him at LaGuardia once.
BTW... If you are in NYC, I will be at Grand Central tomorrow from 12-2 for a charity event Bravo is hosting. Come say hello...
Showing posts with label NYC. Show all posts
Showing posts with label NYC. Show all posts
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Prep work
Preparation is everything. I think that was the motto of the Culinary Institute of America when I attended it. And in the kitchen, it’s absolute fact. A chef that is organized and well prepared, sets himself up for success. All too often, especially on the media circuit, inspiration seminar, product development, cooking class, public appearance set that I’m on currently it’s difficult to achieve.
You’re traveling from state to state, kitchen to kitchen, often working with new chefs, and people of varying degrees of both skill, passion, and drive. It’s tough, but I’m getting good. I’ve learned to get it all in writing, send recipes way in advance, be specific, overly specific, and like the famous line from Mick Jagger, “ you don’t always get what you want, but if you ask, you may get what you need.”
So, doing an event with 4 different companies involved can be tricky or in this case, very easy.
Bravo, the CIA, and the folks at Astor center know how to communicate. Everything I needed was there, everyone was hospitable, and the preparation showed in the results. It was a great class, and once again, the ultimate goal of any business, to procure more business, was achieved. Trail Blais will be heading back to Astor. Trail Blais will be appearing in Hyde Park. And as we wait to hear more concrete info, we will be doing more Bravo related work.
I know I haven’t been covering much about the food we have been producing, but at Astor we were asked to do 3 courses somewhat inspired from Top Chef.
A new Manhattan. a cocktail, we used Michter’s Rye whiskey ( go get some now ! ) smoked some cherries, and whipped up some bliss maple to create a pretty tasty molecular mixology version of my favorite drink.
Raw hamachi with fried chicken and smoked mayonnaise.
A dish I whipped up for Eli ( ENO restaurant ) one night. It’s just the ultimate, “you stuck your sashimi in my fried chicken” sort of thing. And the smoked mayo will soon be packaged and offered on our web site!
Tofu, with beef fat and green curry. This was the first time I revisited this dish and I’m very glad I did. Kevin, from CIA, did such a tight job on mincing the beef fat that we were left with some nice crispies of the fat that added a needed texture to the dish
Dry ice......... cream, with bacon flavor.
We couldn’t source nitrogen, and so I subbed some dry ice and demonstrated, quite honestly, a more applicable way to make creative, quick ice cream at home.
The crowd was awesome, especially a young inspired chef I met named Sam. I am looking forward to working with Sam in the future.
And, the most inspirational moment of the event for me was working with the CIA students. These guys made me very proud to be an Alum. Massive props to Max, Kevin, Patrick, and James. These guys will be my go to help in the NY area from now on...
You’re traveling from state to state, kitchen to kitchen, often working with new chefs, and people of varying degrees of both skill, passion, and drive. It’s tough, but I’m getting good. I’ve learned to get it all in writing, send recipes way in advance, be specific, overly specific, and like the famous line from Mick Jagger, “ you don’t always get what you want, but if you ask, you may get what you need.”
So, doing an event with 4 different companies involved can be tricky or in this case, very easy.
Bravo, the CIA, and the folks at Astor center know how to communicate. Everything I needed was there, everyone was hospitable, and the preparation showed in the results. It was a great class, and once again, the ultimate goal of any business, to procure more business, was achieved. Trail Blais will be heading back to Astor. Trail Blais will be appearing in Hyde Park. And as we wait to hear more concrete info, we will be doing more Bravo related work.
I know I haven’t been covering much about the food we have been producing, but at Astor we were asked to do 3 courses somewhat inspired from Top Chef.
A new Manhattan. a cocktail, we used Michter’s Rye whiskey ( go get some now ! ) smoked some cherries, and whipped up some bliss maple to create a pretty tasty molecular mixology version of my favorite drink.
Raw hamachi with fried chicken and smoked mayonnaise.
A dish I whipped up for Eli ( ENO restaurant ) one night. It’s just the ultimate, “you stuck your sashimi in my fried chicken” sort of thing. And the smoked mayo will soon be packaged and offered on our web site!
Tofu, with beef fat and green curry. This was the first time I revisited this dish and I’m very glad I did. Kevin, from CIA, did such a tight job on mincing the beef fat that we were left with some nice crispies of the fat that added a needed texture to the dish
Dry ice......... cream, with bacon flavor.
We couldn’t source nitrogen, and so I subbed some dry ice and demonstrated, quite honestly, a more applicable way to make creative, quick ice cream at home.
The crowd was awesome, especially a young inspired chef I met named Sam. I am looking forward to working with Sam in the future.
And, the most inspirational moment of the event for me was working with the CIA students. These guys made me very proud to be an Alum. Massive props to Max, Kevin, Patrick, and James. These guys will be my go to help in the NY area from now on...
Monday, September 15, 2008
The Dark Side
Trail Blais was at MOSH in Jacksonville Florida on Friday night. We served as the special guest and caterer and I put on 3 demonstrations inside of their science theater.
This trip was full of behind the scenes drama. It actually would have been the perfect pilot for “Trail Blais” the TV show.
Hypothetically speaking….
Would you watch a show where a rising celebrity chef ( sorry, what else do I call it ) and his team of diverse culinary talent, travel to a Science museum, and work alongside a dysfunctional local caterer. Shot in two drastically different backdrops; a beautiful science and history museum and a 30 year old “catering facility” that I can best describe as a pirate ship, a sinking pirate ship. BTW, the pirates themselves were helpful, nice guys and in the spirit of international football, we traded our blue aprons for their eye patches.
Watch the drama unfold between the guest chef and the local restaurateur obnoxiously protecting his turf. Witness the palpable stress of the pretty PR rep trying to be the glue holding it all together.
Do you want to know what the oldest stock pot in the world looks like ?
Do you enjoy karaoke ?
Have an interest in molecular gastronomy ?
Feel at home with an escort of storm troopers ? (I do, in fact. Look for this. I may just start traveling with Vader’s 501st)
Then, perhaps you would have enjoyed this trip… as a television episode.
Of course, it wasn’t.
The event was a smashing success. MOSH got a great turn out. The guests were more than awesome and once again I feel like I made a few hundred new friends.
In fact, we have been invited back for next year, and I can guarantee it will be a killer show. Bigger, better and stronger.
Culinarily, it was a trip that reminded me of how important some basic things are in our kitchen. Deli containers, green tape (shit, any color tape) vacuum bags, 9 pans (hell, any pans ) and most importantly.... enthusiastic help. All of which were in demand at some point during the weekend.
The presentation, with a science lab as our stage ( how freaking cool is that ), was a good push. This was the first time where we demonstrated a wide array of techniques.
Too many people to thank individually, but thanks to all.
Looking forward to rolling deep at MOSH next year with an army of culinary students… and storm troopers.
Off to NYC, as soon as I clean up the glass from my broken car window. Who breaks into a car for sneakers?
This trip was full of behind the scenes drama. It actually would have been the perfect pilot for “Trail Blais” the TV show.
Hypothetically speaking….
Would you watch a show where a rising celebrity chef ( sorry, what else do I call it ) and his team of diverse culinary talent, travel to a Science museum, and work alongside a dysfunctional local caterer. Shot in two drastically different backdrops; a beautiful science and history museum and a 30 year old “catering facility” that I can best describe as a pirate ship, a sinking pirate ship. BTW, the pirates themselves were helpful, nice guys and in the spirit of international football, we traded our blue aprons for their eye patches.
Watch the drama unfold between the guest chef and the local restaurateur obnoxiously protecting his turf. Witness the palpable stress of the pretty PR rep trying to be the glue holding it all together.
Do you want to know what the oldest stock pot in the world looks like ?
Do you enjoy karaoke ?
Have an interest in molecular gastronomy ?
Feel at home with an escort of storm troopers ? (I do, in fact. Look for this. I may just start traveling with Vader’s 501st)
Then, perhaps you would have enjoyed this trip… as a television episode.
Of course, it wasn’t.
The event was a smashing success. MOSH got a great turn out. The guests were more than awesome and once again I feel like I made a few hundred new friends.
In fact, we have been invited back for next year, and I can guarantee it will be a killer show. Bigger, better and stronger.
Culinarily, it was a trip that reminded me of how important some basic things are in our kitchen. Deli containers, green tape (shit, any color tape) vacuum bags, 9 pans (hell, any pans ) and most importantly.... enthusiastic help. All of which were in demand at some point during the weekend.
The presentation, with a science lab as our stage ( how freaking cool is that ), was a good push. This was the first time where we demonstrated a wide array of techniques.
Too many people to thank individually, but thanks to all.
Looking forward to rolling deep at MOSH next year with an army of culinary students… and storm troopers.
Off to NYC, as soon as I clean up the glass from my broken car window. Who breaks into a car for sneakers?
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Who freezes popcorn?
Garrett Popcorn event in NYC
So I randomly got involved with Garrett popcorn. Garrett is a nostalgic gourmet popcorn company based out of Chicago, and recently just opened up a few shoppes in NYC. My mission was to help develop a summer time treat featuring their product, and with the request of using liquid nitrogen, we decided to develop “popcornsicles”
Now many people will think that dipping a popcorn ball on a stick in liquid nitrogen is crazy, and groundbreaking, and well, it is I guess, but it’s also something science teachers have been doing for years. I only address this, because someone, who has way too much time is going to find out that many creative chefs have played around with popcorn and liquid nitrogen, and then someone is going to say he stole that, she did that first, and here we go with the never ending shit storm that the haters bring to the table. Any time more than 1 chef has a similar idea that involves very creative cooking people rush to call him a thief. But no one does this for French fries ?
Off topic, I know.... but if you research some very old science material and work books, you will stumble across these things, like for example, Ferran Adria’s caviar. Now, of course these textbooks don’t have them flavored with apple, or packaged, but you get the point.
So during the 4 days in NYC this past week, a lot happened.
Me and Billy, one of my sous chefs served over 4,000 popcornsicles for free, to everyone ranging from media to, well, honestly, the homeless. It was a great undertaking, and a great experiment for me, as it proved that people easily embrace creative cooking when combined with a familiar flavor. It was very easy to give away a caramel and cheese popcorn ball, even though it was smoking and dipped in liquid nitrogen. Most people find liquid nitrogen scary and/or dangerous. But people know caramel and popcorn, and it made the risk of experiencing something new less intimidating. If we served the popcorn w/o the nitrogen but with an unusual flavor profile, it would not have been received as well. Just some thoughts, but useful ones to me, as I do feel super creative cooking will only grow if it can tip into the mainstream.
I met with a well known publishing house who contacted me in regards to putting together a book. This is crazy, I have always wanted to do this, and also just crazy that they contacted me.
I pitched a television show to a major executive for a major network. I can’t go into it much further, but I couldn’t scrape the Seinfeld episode out of my mind where they pitch what is basically the Seinfeld show to NBC. Also, while we were in Jamaica, Mark and I came up with a
television show based on our driver, called “Driving with Mr. Ricos” or the working title in Jamaica of course “ Soon come...” Even though I was pitching a food show, I figured if it wasn’t going well, that “ Soon come...” would be my last resort, and maybe a way to lighten up the pitch…..
We marched around NYC a lot. And I realized that I don’t just miss being in NYC, but that I need to be in NYC more often. I was literally just running into so many people who write for that magazine, or represent that company, or run those events, or operate those restaurants.
Bullfrog & Baum rock the house…
And we appeared on the TODAY show. Now I’ve done a bit of TV, Top chef, Iron chef, a lot of local stuff, but the TODAY show is like a pretty big deal to me. Needless to say, I was a touch intimidated, as the digital preview to the show read. Morgan Freeman, Meryl Streep, Heidi Klum, and Richard Blais... Richard who ?
I walked by Heidi, couldn’t get enough nerve to say hello, I bumped square into Matt Lauer, and then of course I did the bit with Hoda and Kathie Lee. I grew up with Kathie Lee man, that’s crazytown…
So the Garrett event went well. I hope they invite me to do more work with the brand, they are good people for sure.
So I randomly got involved with Garrett popcorn. Garrett is a nostalgic gourmet popcorn company based out of Chicago, and recently just opened up a few shoppes in NYC. My mission was to help develop a summer time treat featuring their product, and with the request of using liquid nitrogen, we decided to develop “popcornsicles”
Now many people will think that dipping a popcorn ball on a stick in liquid nitrogen is crazy, and groundbreaking, and well, it is I guess, but it’s also something science teachers have been doing for years. I only address this, because someone, who has way too much time is going to find out that many creative chefs have played around with popcorn and liquid nitrogen, and then someone is going to say he stole that, she did that first, and here we go with the never ending shit storm that the haters bring to the table. Any time more than 1 chef has a similar idea that involves very creative cooking people rush to call him a thief. But no one does this for French fries ?
Off topic, I know.... but if you research some very old science material and work books, you will stumble across these things, like for example, Ferran Adria’s caviar. Now, of course these textbooks don’t have them flavored with apple, or packaged, but you get the point.
So during the 4 days in NYC this past week, a lot happened.
Me and Billy, one of my sous chefs served over 4,000 popcornsicles for free, to everyone ranging from media to, well, honestly, the homeless. It was a great undertaking, and a great experiment for me, as it proved that people easily embrace creative cooking when combined with a familiar flavor. It was very easy to give away a caramel and cheese popcorn ball, even though it was smoking and dipped in liquid nitrogen. Most people find liquid nitrogen scary and/or dangerous. But people know caramel and popcorn, and it made the risk of experiencing something new less intimidating. If we served the popcorn w/o the nitrogen but with an unusual flavor profile, it would not have been received as well. Just some thoughts, but useful ones to me, as I do feel super creative cooking will only grow if it can tip into the mainstream.
I met with a well known publishing house who contacted me in regards to putting together a book. This is crazy, I have always wanted to do this, and also just crazy that they contacted me.
I pitched a television show to a major executive for a major network. I can’t go into it much further, but I couldn’t scrape the Seinfeld episode out of my mind where they pitch what is basically the Seinfeld show to NBC. Also, while we were in Jamaica, Mark and I came up with a
television show based on our driver, called “Driving with Mr. Ricos” or the working title in Jamaica of course “ Soon come...” Even though I was pitching a food show, I figured if it wasn’t going well, that “ Soon come...” would be my last resort, and maybe a way to lighten up the pitch…..
We marched around NYC a lot. And I realized that I don’t just miss being in NYC, but that I need to be in NYC more often. I was literally just running into so many people who write for that magazine, or represent that company, or run those events, or operate those restaurants.
Bullfrog & Baum rock the house…
And we appeared on the TODAY show. Now I’ve done a bit of TV, Top chef, Iron chef, a lot of local stuff, but the TODAY show is like a pretty big deal to me. Needless to say, I was a touch intimidated, as the digital preview to the show read. Morgan Freeman, Meryl Streep, Heidi Klum, and Richard Blais... Richard who ?
I walked by Heidi, couldn’t get enough nerve to say hello, I bumped square into Matt Lauer, and then of course I did the bit with Hoda and Kathie Lee. I grew up with Kathie Lee man, that’s crazytown…
So the Garrett event went well. I hope they invite me to do more work with the brand, they are good people for sure.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
