Meat en Place


I am a few pages from finishing Kitchen Confidential. I love it, did I mention that? So inspired to read more food writing! Anyway, the book has a couple of pages dedicated to why the author hates vegetarians. His view is that he makes food his way, without any compromise and vegetarian diners with their special requests, stand in the way of this. Naturally, I don't see eye to eye with him here. The book is pretty meat heavy. I think he's obesssed with it. Meaning, it talks a lot about meat, meat preperation and meat presentation. I'm cool with it. I'm not eating it though. But it made me think about my being a vegetarian who's kind of into food. The unsophisticated eats I'm accustomed to, aren't made by chefs who think that they're above modifing a dish on the menu for my diet if they don't already offer a pasta primavera or slimy vegetable panini. To show the difference, take a look at the Chez Panisse menu (the restaurant, not the cafe) or the French Laundry menu (just to cite a couple of fine, West Coast eateries) and you're not going to see any vegetarian prix fixe menues. Sure, you got Greens and Millenium that both have entirely vegetarian or vegan menus. Hey, I've eaten at Greens and liked it. But I also want to eat with the big boys. Is that too much to ask?

I'm also feeling some inspiration to build up my kitchen arsenal with some pro gear for my new pro 'tude. Like the Wustof gourmet 6.5" santoku that's finally on sale at C&B. But the book also suggests a Global chef's knife as a cheaper alternative. I wasn't able to find it for cheaper though. And then I think I need to get Complete Techniques by Jaques Pepin so I can learn how to use the knives right. Baby steps, right?