Different Strokes: The Art of Recipe Design

From time to time, I pick a dish from a magazine or cookbook and have my chefs dissect it, mainly as an exercise in teaching them my cooking philosophy. If they are going to design successful dishes for our menu, there are basic principles to which I require that the dish adhere.

Today I picked a dish from a highly respected magazine for professional chefs. I'm not naming names because it is not my intent to embarrass anyone. I'm not picking fault here either: this is only an exercise in thinking about my menu. Each chef has different ideas about his own menu and my comments here are about my menu, not about the menu from which this dish came.

The dish in question is entitled "Chardonnay Poached Maine Diver Scallops with Lobster Roe & Fava Bean/Squash Blossom/Ramp Succotash." I don't know whose title this is; certainly the magazine editors could have taken liberties with it. Also, I suspect that the accompanying photo was done in a studio and does not represent how the chef would have plated it.

The photo shows an oval plate holding three bay scallop shells. Those shells have a succotash of fava beans and yellow corn down, with a couple of red pear tomatoes and a poached sea scallop over. The three scallops are curved around a squash bloom draped like a discarded petticoat on the plate next to a puddle of orange sauce. Over the top of all is draped a poached green onion.

My initial reaction to the photo and to the title is that there is way too much going on in this dish. My constant mantra for my chefs is "Simplify. Simplify. Simplify." I think most young chefs go through a phase where too much is not enough. Only with experience comes the ability to step back from a dish and question each ingredient so that you can distill it to its essence.

My second reaction is that the dish is very hard to carry to the dining room and very hard to eat. From a server's point of view (which far too many chefs ignore), the scallop shells are resting on bare plate guaranteeing that they are going to skate around the plate as the server goes to the table. Where the chef put them is not where they are going to end up. A favorite trick of mine when working with scallop shells is to put a dab of mashed potato on the plate to glue the scallop shell in place.

From the diner's point of view, first there is the issue of this poached green onion. It surely must be cut to be eaten, yet there is no real estate on the plate where the customer can cut it. Second, I wonder how the customer is going to cut the scallops and the tomatoes without rocking the scallop shell boats.

Visually, the green onion adds confusion to the plate and the tomatoes stand out for being much larger than the succotash that they accompany. The sauce and the scallops might look a lot better if the sauce draped the scallops. Again, this is personal preference as are all these points that I make.

From a composition point of view, I don't understand what the tomatoes contribute to the dish. The squash bloom doesn't seem to add anything either. And, if I had lobster roe in hand, I'd probably serve it with lobster and not scallops. Moreover, if you have ever eaten a ramp, you know that it is an excruciatingly garlicky affair. Do you really want to pair a very subtly flavored Chardonnay-poached scallop with a hugely garlicky ramp?

But my biggest problem with this dish is its blatant disregard for seasonality. Let's review the availability of the ingredients in my area:

Scallops—mostly year round, unless the fleet has fished its quota
Tomatoes—August and September
Favas—May and early June
Squash blooms—late June through frost
Corn—mid-July through late September
Ramps—April

In our area, there is no way that the spring ingredients can be at market at the same time as the summer ingredients.

Finally, one of my cooks posed the question that you are no doubt kicking around: "What would you do?"

Here are three off-the-cuff ideas:

1. Stuff the squash blooms with ricotta and scallop roe and lightly tempura them. Use the squash blooms as a base for the scallops with the sauce over the top. Garnish with micro-arugula to cut through the richness.

2. Purée the favas and put them down as the base for caramelized scallops (rather than poached). Put the sauce over and garnish with tiny fiddlehead ferns, small morels, and bits of crispy ramp.

3. Use a fresh corn (or even corn and baby Lima bean) risotto as a base for the scallops and sauce with a chunky vinaigrette of fresh tomato and cucumber. Garnish with small or micro-basil.

This offers a little insight into my philosophy of cooking, which is different from other chefs' philosophies. But that's one of the beauties of this world: different strokes for different folks.

Gas Tomatoes

I was reading a crop report from my produce supplier that indicated that gas tomatoes this week have lower pricing and excellent quality. I am amazed that anyone would suggest that gas tomatoes have anything but terrible quality.

You probably need some background to understand what I'm talking about. Modern tomatoes are bred to be uniform in size with a thick skin, and picked dead green and rock hard. That way, they pack into standard containers and ship easily with less bruising.

Then somewhere along the line, somebody puts these green rocks in a closed environment and pumps the container full of ethylene gas (hence the term 'gas tomato'). This gas causes the physiologically unripe green tomato to turn into a flavorless red rock. Then your grocer piles the rocks onto the produce shelf for you to buy.

The restaurant trade is partly to blame for this situation, since many restaurants insist on a rock hard tomato that slices well for burgers. All they want is some color and a thin slice. Flavor be damned.

Customers know that I insist on very ripe, flavorful, local tomatoes that we can only get in season, because they do not ship. The other 10 months of the year, we use canned tomatoes and grape tomatoes, which have made amazing strides in the last 10 years. The grape tomatoes we've been getting this year, with the exception of one batch, have been excellent and worth putting on our menu.

Next time you're tempted to buy a red rock, keep on walking.

What Kind of Food Do You Serve?

I hate to be pigeonholed by such a question. While my menus are firmly rooted in what is seasonal right here in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia right now, the treatments of these ingredients can be very far ranging indeed.

I have studied many, many of the great cuisines of the world and I bring those influences to bear on my menu. You should not be surprised to find an Indian dal paired with your local Virginia lamb chops. Nor should you be surprised to find a classic Thai fried rice paired with grilled Hawaiian king prawns. Nor should you be surprised to find a braised pork shank on a bed of silky Anson Mills grits and paired with wilted mustard greens. I can cook downhome Southern with the best of them.

I like to think that as I have matured as a chef, I have come to value simplicity in my food. My approach is clearly market driven. Those baby carrots that I found at the market this very morning will be on tonight's menu, although I haven't yet thought about how. What I do know is that there is very little that I as a chef can do to improve on beautiful, sweet, baby carrots, so I won't do much to them or mix them with a bunch of other ingredients. That's what I mean by simplicity.

In addition to local ingredients and a menu that favors simplicity of flavor versus complexity, I also reach out to find great game, amazing seafood, and artisanal products. I have an awesome game broker, several seafood suppliers, and countless suppliers of amazing ingredients ranging from hams and smoked sausages to honey to handmade cheeses. And from these people, all of whom are invested in their own small businesses and who have a profound respect for quality, I buy the best. My conversations with them never revolve around price. It's always a question of what's the best product you have right now.

As for the menu itself, it changes every day in response to what we have in stock and what we find at the markets. The composition of the menu itself is half first courses (appetizers in US restaurant-speak) and half second courses (entrées), with a balance that is about equal between seafood and game/meat. We always have or are happy to custom craft vegetarian offerings.

You can view typical menus on the restaurant web site.

Frequently Asked Question Index

I launched One Blog West reluctantly in March of 2008 after much encouragement from my customers at One Block West restaurant. I resisted blogging for years because I couldn't see what purpose a restaurant blog could possibly serve. But now that I am firmly in the blogosphere, I see that not only does my blog serve many purposes, but those purposes seem to be evolving over time.

On a personal level, blogging fulfills my need to write; I like to write. And after a stressful day, venting on the blog can be therapeutic. Also, I continue to meet fantastic people and other bloggers from all over the world. Many customers read the blog to stay apprised of the goings on at the restaurant. Other people from all over the world read to learn about food and to see recipes, even though they'll probably never visit the restaurant. A bunch of chefs are lurking out there, reading about my tribulations and knowing that we all face the same issues; for them, I am a something of a spokesman. Others read to get an inside view of the restaurant business, living the life vicariously through the Web. For all these purposes and others as yet undiscovered, I blog.

So, now that I have tackled the question "Why One Blog West?", here are other questions that I am asked very often.

  Why is your restaurant named One Block West?
  Where did you train?
  What kind of food do you serve?
  What kind of knives do you use?
  Do you really shop locally?
  How do I sell to One Block West?
  Do you cook at home?

How Do I Sell to One Block West?

Several times a week, I get phone calls from interested people asking if I would like to buy something from them. I'm always happy to talk about what you have to sell because I like to source products locally.

In general, I'm looking for a long-term relationship and a commitment to deliver product year-round or all season long, as appropriate. If, for example, it is the end of July, and you happen to have two bushels of cucumbers that you want to unload because you planted too many, I'm not going to be terribly interested. But, if you want to bring me nasturtium blooms, leaves, and seeds all through the summer, I'm going to be happy to do business with you.

And, I need delivery. Running my restaurant takes all my time, so I can't get away.

Also, if you sell meat, understand that it is very rare that I can take a whole animal. Part of my commitment to freshness is that I don't have a big freezer. If you can't sell me cuts of meat in quantity every week, it's going to be tough for us to do business. Not impossible, but tough.

By all means, if you have a great product that you think would fit with our menu at the restaurant, come in and chat. Bring a sample if you can. Even if we can't do business, I'd still like to meet you.

Why is Your Restaurant Named "One Block West"?

The quick answer is that the restaurant was already so named when I bought it back in 2002 and I decided not to rename it. That decision was a 50-50 proposition: there were equally valid reasons for changing the name as for keeping the name. The deciding factor was that keeping the name proved a lot less expensive.

One Block West indicates that the restaurant is located a block west of our main pedestrian mall in Winchester, Virginia. It's a catchy name and one that helps our many guests locate us.

Do You Really Shop Locally?

I'm not sure why customers ask me this over and over, as if they don't really believe that I shop locally.

Really, I do shop locally and I was into farm-to-table before the phrase ever came into common usage. This recent locavore trend is something that I have been doing forever.

Freshness is paramount for great flavor and so I try to source as much as possible locally. I also like the connection between grower and restaurateur—it’s a symbiotic relationship and we’re both striving for excellence. I also like that if the ingredients are not organic, I know exactly how they have been raised and treated. And, my restaurant is helping to create a market for the products that our local farmers raise. Buying locally is good for all of us.

You can find me shopping at our local Freight Station Farmers Market when it is open, in season Tuesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays. I also do cooking demos at this and other local markets throughout the year to show customers what they can do with the products that they purchase at the market.

In addition, we grow herbs and edible flowers in our window boxes, planter boxes, and on our deck.

Here's an idea of what we source locally:

Meat—lamb, some Kurobuta pork, hams, bacon, and sausages
Poultry—pastured chickens, organic chicken eggs, quail eggs
Dairy—cheese, some cream
Wine—lots and lots
Foraged items—mushrooms, wild asparagus, pawpaws, ramps
Grains—cornmeal, flour, grits, pasta
Vegetables, Fruits, and Herbs
Other—honey, shiitakes, maple syrup, root beer

We receive a lot of phone calls from people who want to sell us local goods. This is the subject of another FAQ.