What is the role of the tasting menu in the modern restaurant industry?
When we chatted with Dr. Beth Forest, she said “I don’t think I can tell you the future of tasting menus.
But I would say that going out to dinner fulfills different needs for different people. And I think you will always have - because we always have had - people who use it for aesthetics, for taste, for craft, for artistry, for status, for performance.
And that I don’t think is going away.”
What do you think is the future of the tasting menus?
#TastingMenu #RestaurantLife #ChefLife #FineDining #Chef #Restaurant #Michelin #FoodAndWine #Culinary
How does a restaurant embody hospitality?
Heather Wallberg is one of the owners of @gabbianospdx , as well as one of the original founders of @rouxportland — an event honoring the remarkable women and often-overlooked voices who are transforming Portland’s culinary landscape. A bustling neighborhood joint that serves comfort Italian-American food, Gabbiano’s was created to bring feelings of warmth, of love, of comfort, and of hospitality to their guests on a nightly basis.
They’re celebrating Roux October 11th-17th with the Golden Hour, a cocktail made with vodka, lemon, orange, vanilla, amaro, and bubbles. The best part is that a portion of the sales will go toward @xceleratewomen , which helps women business owners overcome systemic inequities to grow their businesses and build economic power.
Don’t miss the chance to visit Gabbiano’s and get your Golden Hour. Plus, explore the fantastic Roux promotions happening across the city via their interactive map! 🍴🥣
#PDXEats #PDXTreats #ItalianAmericanFood #FriedMozzerella #Cocktails #WomenInFood #PDXEvents #TravelPortland #PortlandOregon #EaterPDX
How can a business owner nurture community ties?
Rebecca Smith, the creator behind @icequeenpdx , channels a sense of childhood nostalgia through her plant-based frozen desserts. What started as a popup has grown into a brick-and-mortar shop, as well as packaged paletas in stores across Oregon and Washington. To support others who are building a business like her, 20% of the Oreo Thiccflurry sales October 11-17th will be donated to @xceleratewomen as a part of @rouxportland — an event honoring the remarkable women and often-overlooked voices who are transforming Portland’s culinary landscape! 🍦
Don’t miss the chance to visit Ice Queen for your Thiccflurry, and explore the fantastic Roux promotions happening across the city via their interactive map! 🍴🥣
#PDXEats #PDXTreats #PDXSweets #Vegan #PlantBasedTreats #WomenInFood #PDXEvents #TravelPortland #PortlandOregon #EaterPDX
How do memories shape the food we love?
💫 Lisa of HeyDay (@heydaypdx )took a nostalgic childhood treat and reimagined it with this marbled black sesame, matcha, and ube rice flour cake. It’s her spin on báhn bò, and it’s available this week for Roux (@rouxportland )— a celebration of the incredible women and underrepresented voices shaping Portland’s food scene! 🍩
Make sure to swing by HeyDay to grab a slice of this treat, and check out all the amazing Roux specials happening around the city on their interactive map!🍴🥣
#PDXEats #PDXTreats #PDXSweets #Bakery #WomenInFood #PDXEvents #TravelPortland #PortlandOregon #EaterPDX
Our Fourth Course - Sukiyaki
”How does a cuisine rise in prestige and value?”
This is a question that Dr. @krishnendu_ray posed in our podcast episode about the modern tasting menu. In his book “The Ethnic Restaurateur” he discusses this idea and points to cuisines such as Italian and Japanese and how they were considered “ethnic, poor people’s food” but then gained prestige. In the case of Japanese cuisine, now, not only do Japanese sushi restaurants dominate “best of” lists, but Japanese ingredients and techniques are prevalent in many fine-dining kitchens. And this rise in value is seen through the transition in popularity between sukiyaki and sushi.
The recipe we cooked was from the 1963 edition of The Joy of Cooking.
It included:
🥩 Sukiyaki beef
🧅 Onions in
🫘 Tofu
🌿 Scallions
🥬 Cabbage
🍄 Mushrooms
🍠 Shirataki
🫙 Sauce made with stock, soy sauce, MSG, and mirin
🥚 a raw egg for dipping (“as an authentic detail,” according to the cookbook)
#Chef #JapaneseFood #Restaurant #Sukiyaki #RestaurantHistory
Our Third Course - Rouge en Encaille de Pomme de Terre
In the ‘60s and ‘70s, nouvelle cuisine took off in France in reaction to the cuisine classique of the time. At the same time as this new style of cuisine was being defined by chefs such as Paul Bocuse, a cultural exchange was happening between chefs in France and chefs in Japan.
“For so long, French cuisine was the dominant haute cuisine in the world and it had what might be called a hegemonic position,” Sam Yamash*ta, a history professor at Pomona College, told us in our podcast.
Nouvelle cuisine bore many similarities to the kaiseki traditions of Japan and many aspects were incorporated by French nouvelle chefs. And yet for years, they avoided identifying Japan as a source of inspiration.
This recipe is from the @academiedugout website and it includes:
🐟️ Pacific Rockfish
🥔 Potato scales (with lots of butter and potato starch)
🍊 Rosemary orange sauce
🥩 A little bit if demi-glace
In an industry with such small margins how does one equate the value of investing in people?
At the beginning of 2023, we had the privilege of chatting with head chef and co-owner of @hags_nyc Telly Justice about the Brigade system and her innovative approaches to kitchen organization that maintain well-defined roles.
We were fortunate to dine at HAGS later that year, and these videos capture that experience.
#chefowner #cheflife #foodpodcast #restaurant
Our Second Course - Hassun
Hyotei in Kyoto is the oldest operating kaiseki restaurant, as we learned from Dr. Sam Yamash*ta in our podcast episode about the history of tasting menus. Kaiseki as a dining format emerged in the 1500s, though it evolved from traditions ranging back to the 9th century.
We made this hassun from seasonal ingredients of Oregon and is inspired by Hyotei’s hassun.
It included:
🥚 A soft-boiled egg inspired by the Hyotei Tamago, which has been on their menu for 400 years
🌿 Oregon dulse seaweed salad
🫘 Simmered cranberry beans
🐟️ Black cod with dulse seaweed onion jam
🦪 Coos Bay oyster with salmon roe and plum mignonette
Our First Course - The Restaurant
In the mid-18th century, restaurants in Paris were a health food, a consomme of meat and bones that were thought to have healing properties. These broths were sold in new establishments alongside other items, and thus, the restaurant was born as an eating establishment. As we learned talking to Dr. Beth Forrest for our episode about the history of the tasting menu, the rise of the restaurant in France was a pivotal time in fine dining as conspicuous consumption and the rise of the middle class changed how people ate.
The recipe we cooked was by Francois Marin from “Les Dons de Comus” written in 1739, as found in “The Invention of the Restaurant” by Rebecca L. Spang.
It included:
🐓 A whole chicken (supposedly freshly killed and still warm, but we just went to the store)
🐂 Slices of veal
🐖 Ham rinds
🥕 Slices of carrots and parsnip
🦴 A little bit of bone marrow
Pretentious, overcomplicated, stuffy.
Tasting menus have had a bad wrap since they became popularized in the ‘80s. But why? Where did this format come from? What is its future in the modern restaurant industry?
This is Part 1 of a series where we cook you the history of the modern tasting menu with a 6-course tasting menu of our own. Pour yourself a glass and join us.
#ChefLife #FoodPodcast #TastingMenu #FoodHistory #Restaurant #RestaurantHistory
What skill is standard for a restaurant cook that’s hard to translate for a home cook?
For @sadd_papi , his social media accounts and brand new cookbook, Make It Fancy, are all about teaching how to bring restaurant cooking into the home kitchen.
In our recent podcast episode (recorded live at @cookbook_fest ), Brandon talked a lot about sauce work, so naturally, we had to make some bordelaise. We made the Beef & Pomme Puree from his cookbook, Make It Fancy: Cooking at Home with Sad Papi, which included making these recipes:
🥩 Beef stock
🍷 Bordelaise
🥔 Pomme puree
🥩 Cooking a steak
It was a two-day process, but so worth it. We’ve been eating leftover bordelaise on everything.
Check out our new episode to hear the full conversation between Brandon and Bricia (@bricialopez ). And make sure to pick up your copy of Make It Fancy!
#ChefLife #BeefStock #FiletMignon #Cooking #Chef #Steak #SteakAndPotatoes
