Tag Archives: #RTW, #roundtheworld, #worldschool, #nofilter, #chefinstructor, #chef, #cheflife,

Fire and Knives (Belonging)

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I have and will always belong among the fire and knives.

As a young lad I had several of the plastic Bowie knives.  I would break them within a few days of purchase.  Graduation to just shy of a million pocket knives and soon enough I had lit the driveway on fire.  I was destined to become a Chef.  Ma even said “I should have known.”.

I can sense the shine of a knife store around the next block.

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Be it in a kitchen or in camp I gravitate like moth to the flame.

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Master Oakley’s Marshmallow Brulee

Campfire smell is not a sign you need to wash your clothes.  To me it’s the much sought after smell they should try to put into laundry soap.

If someone made campfire scented laundry pods I would buy them.  (If you do, then make a complete line up…. Juniper, Hickory, Pine, cherry, ect…)

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WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge – Place in the World

poke around my blog to see more of my handy work. Chef Gurr Work and Play

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Twisted Sister?

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“Oh we’re not gonna to take it. NO, we’re ain’t gonna take it!….sorry,  echos in the ear of a younger me and my Twisted Sister cassette tapes.

Now back to the prompt.

In the picture it’s not the cow in a chef’s uniform that seems twisted.  It’s the watermelon cow with a bite out of its back.  Take a look and tell me what else you see.

Thanks Amsterdam for keeping things interesting around every corner.

WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge- Twisted

Unlikely

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Upon visiting Chateau de Dampierre-sur-Boutonne just north of Saintes, France the curator told us he had just set up a Cocotte show on the third floor.  Not what I was expecting to hear!

This replaces the Indiana Jones scene with the golden head and sandbag for me.

Or see but I was super excited!  Just look at these beauties!

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The curator happened to have a friend with the largest collection of cocottes in I’m not sure what demographic, but it was quite sizable.

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Being a chef and lover of evenly heating cookware I figured it was a sign.

Later in the week I welcomed our hosts back to their home with a nice batch of short ribs procured from a local butcher that had worked in that had worked/owned that butcher shop with the picture on the wall from 1974.

right out of the vac seal.  No moisture loss at all.  Wow.

I tourned carrots, potatoes and zucchini to go alone with them but then plated and served hot (as it the priority) so no photographic evidence of the final plates.

Thanks for the prompt Michelle Weber!

WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge-Unlikely

Homard/ Lobster/ Labsta!

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For Sadie, the only person I know from Maine, USA:  I know you miss “Labsta Day” and I’m sure you haven’t had your fix in a while.

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Lobster Thermador

This is to show homage to all those beauties that gave their lives for learning and tasting.

As a Chef Instructor for 12.99999 (slightly superstitious here) years I had the pleasure of teaching multiple classes.  I taught the two classes with Lobster demos and fabrication.

On “Labsta Days” by some unknown force or possibly genetics, Chef Sadie would find her way to the class just as a dish was finished.

Other Chefs had their favorites as well.  Some would seek out Lamb (Chef Anjali) and others wouldn’t care what you were cooking as long as it would fill a seemingly hollow leg (Chef Paul).

I had a weakness for “Cookie Day”.  Secretly dropping subtle hints to pastry class after pastry class letting them know I happened, just by coincidence, to enjoy, very much so, a few chocolate chip cookies if they found it in their hearts to relinquish a couple.

Mmmmmmmmm COOOkies…..

Sorry about that,  I seem to have lost my train of thought.  Back to lobster or homard, as it is known in French.

I have collected photos of my dishes produced for demo or that I did while joining the class for production.

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Sautéed Lobster on Dilled Sweet Potato Mash, Leek Cream and Sautéed Spinach with Bacon

Most were delivered to Chef Sadie for “inspection” and for fear of her hearing that lobster was being produced and consumed without her being notified.

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Lobster, Chive and Gruyere Omelette

 

While here in France I have had opportunity to play with Langoustine AKA; Scampi, AKA; Salt Water Prawn.

They are fun to clean and vary in size.  Fun is a word I like to use to sell peeling garlic to someone.  Really they are tedious but well worth the sweetness they deliver.

Shoot on over to a past post titled Chef Gurr Work and Play to view more of my work as a Chef Instructor.

Changing Pace

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Dear internet,

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An Aussie Magpie (They about as big as a fryer chicken and not to be messed with)

It has come to my attention that my dream of being able to write at a pace that would keep up with amount of data I am taking in is both overwhelming and impossible.

My brain works on stories and tries to tie things together.  I tend to sit on a story for a long time.  Remember when I told you I once spent two years working on a chuck box and most of that was planning?  Well, I caught myself trying to write stories in my head with out actually writing anything.  This way of thinking has turned my thoughts into a jumbled mess.

In the past 60 days of traveling I have not written nearly enough.  I need to be getting more out of my head.  Thus, I have decided to change the way my blog works for me.

This blog is for the folks interested in following our journey through my eyes and folks wanting to know what it may be like to travel the world with wife and kids.  I have discovered it needs to be for me first and foremost because my memory is crap.

I have notebooks of what I see, hear, and experience on our travels.  These notes are not pretty.  They don’t say more than a few words about a topic or subject.  I wouldn’t want anyone to try to decipher what I had jotted down in the back of a bouncing car.  Future blog posts will contain some of these ramblings.

Please think of this as more of a journal from now on or until I change my mind again.  The information I’m trying to hold on to is too great.  If I don’t log it, it will escape me.

This is still my photos and all that.  I’m just looking to increase the posted information.  I may, from time to time, surprise you with longer stories with more depth.

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The Australian Magpie is known for “swooping” during the spring breeding season.  so mush so that the cyclist wear helmets with zip ties sticking out all over.  This technique makes you look like a porcupine head.

I first thought the young cyclist had forgotten to remove the decorations from her helmet since a recent parade.  Not so.  Apparently, the Magpies will swoop so mush so that there are signs up in parks warning folks that this is a thing and that the damage can be pretty horrible.  Loss of eye and or cuts on head and ears happen quite frequently.  In other words they are total ***holes.

But wait, there’s more.  The Magpies have friends called Butcher Birds.  Smaller and slightly different in coloring.  Both are black and white but the Butcher has a full white apron.  Butchers also like to swoop.  (Well there’s another sentence that I didn’t know I would write.)

We lucked out and didn’t have any issues and survived the spring.  Back home I think this would be called a “hunting season” but the Magpie is a protected bird in Australia.  In that case there should be free helmet or umbrella (they work to protect you as well)  stands all around.