Aga Kitchen

Take one look at those fashion forward shades and you know there is a formidable cook behind those dark lenses. Charron just got back from her last gig out at Anne Amie Vineyards in Carleton, Oregon. She was the in charge of feeding the large group of workers gathered for the harvest. Lots of good Pacific Northwest food, vino and an appreciative but challenging audience. A perfect job.

Charron has quite a bit of fine dining service experience under her belt. Nice to see her wake up and smell the mire poix. All the cool kids work in kitchen and she is one of the cool kids. Her bacon answer is so beautiful the Pigskin Butcher is going to have to ship her out a few lbs of the good stuff.

Lets see if her passion for wine, food and cooking translates in my newest version of Twenty Questions.

Do you currently have a job where you cook food for strangers in exchange for money? No but I want one (I am currently seeking employment)

Are you a better cook than your mother/father or if you're from Vermont mother/mother or father/father? My parents make great food, but I think my skills set has surpassed theirs.

My chef is a ......... figment of my imagination right now but I am hoping that the next will be someone I look up to immensely.

If Gordon Ramsey is a whiskey sour what drink are you? Maker's Mark rocks, with a splash.

Do you hunt, fish, garden, forage or dumpster dive for food? I have never been hunting although I think if I am going to continue to cook meat for a living I need to take part in the slaughter of an animal. Sort of my own circle of farm (or woods) to table. Fishing and foraging are two things I want to do more of and I love to garden. I have never dumpster dived for food but I guess if I had to.....

I have barley, fennel, eggs, flour, goat's milk, zucchini and an orange. Make me breakfast please. Poached eggs over caramelized fennel and barley risotto cakes, goat's milk bechamel, zucchini orange bread with fresh whipped goat's milk butter.

Give me one absolute unbendable cooking rule.This is going to sound like a copout I'm afraid, but it's the truth. After this past fall I don't have any unbendable culinary rules. I have broken all of them. I was the harvest chef at a winery out in Carlton, OR for Harvest 2009. On a regular basis I cooked for about 15 people. At any given meal I was feeding: 2 pesco-ovo-lacto-vegetarians (vegetarians that also consume eggs, cheese and fish/shellfish; one of these two ate no fish), a person with an aversion to shellfish but was an amateur body builder and insisted on having copious amounts of (preferably lean) protein at every meal, a person with a severe shellfish allergy, a person with an egg allergy, and a person with Celiac disease (a wheat gluten allergy so severe that it causes an autoimmune reaction in the body.) I should also mention that the kitchen I was cooking in was equipped with an electric range with a ceramic cooking surface and no hood (circa late 80s?), and scant refrigerated storage space for product (I was sharing all of it with the tasting room, and the cellar at different points during harvest.)

Sgt. Christian Nooney, in the middle, with two guys from his unit in Afghanistan. He is with the 3rd Platoon, 509th Airborne, based in Anchorage, Alaska.

Just a quick disclaimer, Sgt Nooney is my son. He cannot cook but he can eat and has a very good palate. He is currently stationed at the end of the line in East Bumf***, Afghanistan. These are the guys who don't get fresh food, have no running water and at times, no water period. Internet yes, clean uniforms, not so much.

Here is a glimpse into a soldier who has been on the frontline of freedom fighting for 2  of the last 3 years and still has a way to go. This is more in depth reporting than the Associated Press. I feel a Pulitzer coming on.

Twenty Questions with Gerry

1. Do you currently have a job where you cook food for strangers in exchange for money? Absolutely not, I'd say I'm in the customer service industry making blankets of freedom.

2. Are you a better cook than your mother/father or, if you're from Vermont, mother/mother or father/father? I can cook MRE's better than my dad due to experience, although I'm sure if he had a day he could pull something together that would put my creations to shame. Me and mom are close to level, we can make eggs and Campbell's soup. (Note from Mom: Progresso soup doesn't require adding water!)

3. My Chef is a...Outrageously funny, smart, witty man that I'm lucky to call my Dad.

 4. If Gordon Ramsey is a whiskey sour what drink are you?  Redbull and Vodka

5. Do you hunt, fish, garden, forage or dumpster dive for food? Explain?

Wouldn't say I dumpster dive but it's pretty close, trying to find chow that hasn't expired or been eaten by rats is a task.  I do hunt terrorists though, “fightin' 'em over here so you don't have 'em over there!”

6. I have potatoes, eggs, leeks, bacon and an orange. Make something for dinner that is not breakfast. Be specific. Going back to me only being able to cook eggs I would have to put everything minus the orange in a frying pan and hope it all worked out well. If I ending up tossing it I'd just eat the orange and hope Carrie comes home to make dinner soon.

7. We serve healthier food to people in prison or in public school? It's all grade U meat. The only difference is probably the people making it and grease/oil used to cook most of it.

8. If you could only get seafood from one ocean which one would you choose and why. The Great Southern Ocean (the one surrounding Antarctica) because you never see "Delicious and tender filet of baby seal" on a menu.

9. Pick Martha Stewart or Rachael Ray for each question. Better cook? Martha, because she's got a little more street cred. Richer? I'm going to say Rachael cause Martha has probably spent most of her money on blow and male hookers by now. Cellmate? Martha, she already can make a shank. Sit next to on a plane? Whichever one leaves me alone or has the courtesy to buy a soldier a drink.

10.  Americas best contribution to culinary arts?  Using the word X-Treme to describe convenience foods.  It really lets people know that you're not here to mess around, and that you push things to the edge.

11.  Are you glad you did/didn’t go to culinary school?  With my limited cooking skills I would have failed, and then how would you sleep so warm at night with that blanket of freedom that me and my fellow soldiers provide?

12.  The best pizza I ever had was……Couldn't think of best pizza, best sandwich I ever had though, and I do mean this was the world's best sandwich was at 845am on the fourth of July after we got attacked.  It was slightly stale bread, luke warm ham and turkey with possibly moldy American cheese and Mayo and at the time it was the second best food ever, next to Dad's Goulash.

13.  You can only eat one food for the rest of your life, what is it?  Goulash, it can be a stew, a sandwich or the usual meal.  I'd probably need to learn to cook at that point though.

14.  Should chili have beans?  I'm all for it.

15.  Does Texas suck as bad as everyone says it does?  Never been, know a lot of people from Texas and I'd have to say no it doesn't suck that bad, it's just the people that make it sound like nothing bigger or better has ever existed.  Not all things are supposed to be huge what if my cell phone was the size of a laptop?  And really, who wants it to be 110 degrees during Christmas, that's about as UnAmerican as it gets.

16.  Do you want to own your own restaurant?  Work front of the house, smile at people I don't know and pretend to be interested in their day?  It'd pay the bills, maybe a father- son deal.

17.  McDonalds will become a vegetarian restaurant by 2040?  Only if they start making grade U Veggie Burgers, I don't know, if movies are any indication of the future and I'm pretty sure it's a law that they have to be accurate within 90% then according to Demolition Man Taco Bell will win the fast food wars, which I can deal with.

18.  Reality TV is good for the trade. Discuss.  Not too up to date on reality TV.  It does give people some new ideas to explore cooking down a route they hadn't thought of before.  To someone with no clue how to operate in a kitchen it just scares the piss out of me.

19.  Have you ever cooked a meal for date thinking it would help you “score”? Did it?  As my Dad you should know that the answer is no I have never cooked a date a meal because I have a Dad that owned a kickass restaurant at the time.  As to the scoring part that's not really kosher conversation between us.

20.  Are you part of the problem or the solution?  This guy I know always tells me to help the little guy, and I hope that by me doing that that I become a part of the solution.

21. Bonus: Is it OK to kiss one the first date?  Tongue or no tongue, maybe church tongue?  There's too many ins and outs, do you want another date, have you been eating at an Italian restaurant and you both smell like garlic, have you been drinking and will she accuse you of doing something more?  I guess roll the dice and see what happens, worst is you end up in jail, just remember I called Martha.

Brian is a Florida boy, not big enough to play football so cooking it is. Nice observations about prison food and I'm still scratching my head about High Fructose Corn Syrup. His pork recipe will be my next post after I return. Brian is currently on the coast in Maine, here goes..

Twenty Questions with Gerry

1. Do you currently have a job where you cook food for strangers in exchange for money? Yes, I currently work the sauté station at Natalie’s in the Camden Harbour Inn.

2. Are you a better cook than your mother/father or if you’re from Vermont mother/mother or father/father? It is hard to say for me. I feel that my mom and dad are great cooks, but that I have more technical skills in a professional kitchen. My favorite meal is probably my mom’s fried pork chops, mashed potatoes, okra, and sweet tea. Fallow that with my dad’s omelets the next morning and I could die happy.

3. My Chef is a…..an amazing cook, and someone I look up to immensely. He might be the most calm and collected chef I have had the pleasure to cook under. My Chef also has an encyclopedic knowledge of French food, chefs and their restaurants.

4. If Gordon Ramsey is a whiskey sour what drink are you? Homebrew with tons of hops and malt. I also think Gordon Ramsey has done more harm than good at this point and his name shouldn’t be on your blog anywhere!

5. Do you hunt, fish, garden, forage or dumpster dive for food? Explain? I hunt and fish when I have the time and company. Now that I have acquired some skills in the realm of butchery thanks to you and Chef Cathy I really enjoy getting fresh game and fish. I’m trying to get the mushroom guy we use to take me with him one day because I have never seen chanterelles in the wild. I did forage for blueberries the other day for the first time in my life……amazing. I have never dumpster dove for food, but would not rule it out in times of need.

6. I have potatoes, eggs, leeks, bacon and an orange. Make me something for dinner that is not breakfast. Be specific I can’t believe Ryan took gnocchi! Oh well. I would render the bacon and use the fat to sweat the leeks. Once they are tenders I would cut the potato and cook that a bit and then add water. After the potato is cooked I would puree the soup and butter poach the egg for garnish. I would segment the orange and eat it for dessert.

7. We serve healthier food to people in prison or in public school? Well legally they get the same nutritional content, but after studying penology in a former life I can say prisons. It’s still crap and when you look at the facts, it becomes clear that the sub-standard nourishment we are subjecting kids and felons to only make the problems in those systems worse. Eat well and live well.

8. If you could only get seafood from one Ocean which one would you choose and why. The Atlantic. From the Gulf of Mexico to the bays in Maine, you just can’t beat the variety and quality of the catches. And that’s just the American in me, don’t get me started on Scottish seafood……

9. Pick Martha Stewart or Rachael Ray for each question. Better cook? Richer? Cellmate? Sit next to on a plane? Martha, Martha, Martha, Martha…….She has got to have some crazy stories and I bet she gets rowdy in an airport bar.

10.  Americas best contribution to culinary arts? High Fructose Corn Syrup……or the tomato……it’s a toss up really.

11. Are you glad you did/didn’t go to culinary school? I am very glad I attended NECI. I met some great people, learned a metric ton about food in a short time and got to go over seas to cook.

12. The best pizza I ever had was……a slice in NYC and was greasy and gooey and amazing. Oh, and it only cost 3 bucks.

13. You can only eat one food for the rest of your life, what is it? Chocolate milk, it’s the only thing you can survive on.

14. Should chili have beans? Yes

15. Does Texas suck as bad as everyone says it does I have never been and will probably not go, unless I get a job in Austin.

16. Do you want to own your own restaurant? So, so badly.

17. McDonalds will become a vegetarian restaurant by 2040? No.

18. Reality TV is good for the trade. Discuss No, there is nothing real about TV and it makes me sad to think about my fellow cooks watching TV instead of reading cookbooks. There are a few lifetimes of info out there in print and it’s not getting utilized.

19. Have you ever cooked a meal for date thinking it would help you “score”? Did it? Yes and yes.

20. Are you part of the problem or the solution? Defiantly the problem, I mean I LOVE foie gras and bacon….

21. Bonus: Is it OK to kiss one the first date? It’s my indication that a second is on the way.

Ryan doing his best Yosemite Sam with two six-shooters, flames and everything

I met Ryan three years ago. He was a student at NECI. An older student. He had already been to Virginia Tech and is quite good with numbers. Dead serious on first blush. Smart, focused, not much patience for those who didn't focus quite as well. But I thought he was not as badass as all that. He helped me with students who needed one on one in Math class. He did it quietly without them noticing one of their classmates was helping them. Not easy. Lots of testosterone in Culinary School. He was funny. Thinking funny. Like South Park when they get it right (think Imaginationland episodes) not the poop and fart jokes. On my last day of teaching I was happy to head out with Ryan to my fav brew pub.

His answers are a little serious and thoughtful. I think I need to have him do another round so we can get some funny. His answer to # 20 is spot on, if your normal. How many of us are really normal?

Twenty Questions with Gerry

1. Do you currently have a job where you cook food for strangers in exchange for money? No, I have a job doing lots of complicated math for people who do cook food for strangers in exchange for money in hope that these people can continue to stay in business cooking food for strangers.

2. Are you a better cook than your mother/father or if you’re from Vermont mother/mother or father/father? Yes, absolutely a better cook than both of my parents. Better than my grandmothers? Probably not.

3. My Chef is a … The guy who inspires me to do better than he did.

4. If Gordon Ramsey is a whiskey sour what drink are you? A Pale Ale, because it works well no matter what you’re eating.

5. My dog Titan is awesome true or false? I have never met Titan, but haven’t really met a dog I didn’t like.

6. I have potatoes, eggs, leeks, bacon and an orange. Make me something for dinner that is not breakfast. Be specific. Excellent! I would roast the potatoes until tender, take them out of their skin, rice them, add enough flour, parmeggiano, and an egg, and roll them into gnocchi and poach them. I’d then render the bacon crispy, melt the leeks in the bacon fat, then sauté the poached gnocchi to color them, add the bacon back in, plate, top with a little more cheese and the orange zest. The flesh of the orange I would give to Titan, because dogs gotta eat too.

7. We serve healthier food to people in prison or in public school? I would hope schools, but it probably depends on the school district and how much money it has.

8. If you could only get seafood from one Ocean which one would you choose and why. The Atlantic because that’s what I’ve grown up eating. Actually, I would just pick the Chesapeake Bay, I don’t really need the rest of the ocean. I’ll take blue crabs and stripped bass over lobster and cod.

9. Pick Martha Stewart or Rachael Ray for each question. Better cook? Martha Stewart is a better cook, she’s not afraid to take longer than 30 minutes Richer? That’s probably a toss up. Either way, both of them have more money than I’ll ever see. Cellmate? Rachel, because I imagine Martha would be quite the cutthroat cellmate. Sit next to on a plane? Rachel, again but not by much. I don’t really like to fly, but I imagine Rachel could keep a conversation going the whole time and distract me. Martha would be interesting to talk to, but I don’t know if she’d be willing to talk., being cutthroat and all.

10. Americas best contribution to culinary arts? This is a tough one. I think for my generation of cooks & chefs it would have to be Thomas Keller. He, more than any other American chef I can think of right now, helped shift the paradigm of American fine dining into a combination of the best of Nouvelle ideology, brand new techniques & approaches to food and running a restaurant in general, as well as a huge respect and reverence for history and Classic Cuisine.

11. Are you glad you did/didn’t go to culinary school? I am absolutely glad I went to NECI. It was, without a doubt, two of the best years of my life and the things I learned, experienced, and gained cannot really be quantified and put onto paper.

12. The best pizza I ever had was…… This is a toss-up between pretty much anything I’ve ever had at American Flatbreads and anything I’ve ever had from some tiny, hole-in-the-wall shop or stand in NYC.

13. You can only eat one food for the rest of your life, what is it? For survival purposes I’ll pick “beer.” It’s like drinking bread!

14. Should chili have beans? If you want to adhere to historical record, then no. However, I put beans in my chili because it adds another dimension of texture and taste.

15. Does Texas suck as bad as everyone says it does? Having never been to Texas, I cannot answer this. However, I imagine it’s like everywhere else I’ve traveled: just different that what you’re used to, which isn’t really all that bad. Sometimes it’s kind of fun. Besides, I am currently dating a girl from Austin and she’s pretty damn fun (and pretty damn feisty too!)

16. Do you want to own your own restaurant? At the moment, no, but I’m sure that I’ll own my own business at some point in the future. Whether it’s a butcher & charcuterie shop, a specialty store, a bar, or a diner where I can cook pancakes while I shoot the shit with the regulars, I’m not sure.

17. McDonalds will become a vegetarian restaurant by 2040? I hope not. Not because I have a thing for McDonalds, but I hope that the cattle (actually meat in general) industry doesn’t get so bad that it’s safer to not serve it. I hope that by 2040 food distribution with be much less centralized and more localized. I doubt that America will ever lose it’s taste for beef, but we’re going to have to re-think how that whole process works.

18. Reality TV is good for the trade. Discuss. Ultimately, it’s good. There are a TON of terrible shows out there that paint a not-always-true-to-life picture of our industry, and like most reality shows they are fairly silly (I do think Top Chef is the truest of them all because, like a real kitchen, it is a meritocracy and the contestants are judged on their food and how they execute it and not about who’s cool, etc. Still, it’s TV.). However, it has, undeniably gotten the general public interested in food and restaurants and that is a good thing. Locavore movements, Slow Food, etc. would not be where they are today without food TV shows making viewers wonder what the hell a shallot is.

19. Have you ever cooked a meal for date thinking it would help you “score”? Did it? Oh yes, many times, actually.

20. Are you part of the problem or the solution? Everyone is somewhat part of the problem. Only those who are self-aware and can self-actualize can be part of the solution, and that is really tough to do 24/7.

21. Bonus: Is it OK to kiss one the first date? I think so, as long as everyone involved is okay with it. Over-stepping bounds is what gets you into trouble.

You gotta love or hate those smart guys who can think threw the BS. You know you will either be working for them or they will take your job. Thanks Ryan, G

Laurie is a renaissance women when it comes to the kitchen. She has one of the nicest home kitchens I have been in. It's an inviting space with fabulous views of the Green Mountains and is always well stocked with good food. Her collection of small wares, baking accessories and dishes rivals some stores. She can cook, she can mix a mean drink, she can coordinate, design and even cut hair and do make-up.

When I stopped by she was working on a red velvet cupcake. The results were pretty good.

Lets see how she does with the Big Twenty

Twenty Questions with Gerry

1. Do you currently have a job where you cook food for strangers in exchange for money? Sort of

2. Are you a better cook than your mother/father or if you’re from Vermont mother/mother or father/father? I am a better cook than my Father and a different cook than my Mother – not necessarily better

3. My Chef is a non existent dream chef

4. If Gordon Ramsey is a whiskey sour what drink are you? Full bodied Cabernet

5. My dog Titan is awesome true or false? True

6. I have potatoes, eggs, leeks, bacon and an orange. Make me something for dinner that is not breakfast. Be specific: First I would par boil the beautiful new red potatoes, then I would sauté the bacon and render the fat. I would remove the bacon and sauté the thinly sliced leeks in the bacon fat and at the very end, add the eggs, scrambled. I would cool the potatoes, scoop most of the flesh out and stuff the egg and leek mixture into the potatoes, add crumbled bacon – a squeeze of fresh orange juice and the zest of the orange on top with a garnish of a twist. Either that or I would say – make yourself something for dinner and have you ever heard about the word please? – I am not your slave.

7. We serve healthier food to people in prison or in public school? I’m hoping the answer is school

8. If you could only get seafood from one Ocean which one would you choose and why. Atlantic ocean because I am all about the Locavore movement.

9. Pick Martha Stewart or Rachael Ray for each question. Better cook? Martha Richer? I hope Martha Cellmate? Martha Sit next to on a plane? Martha

10. Americas best contribution to culinary arts? Julia Child

11. Are you glad you did/didn’t go to culinary school? I wish I had gone to culinary school as well as cosmetology school – think about the possibilities.

12. The best pizza I ever had was……my Grandmother’s

13. You can only eat one food for the rest of your life, what is it? Dry Cheerios

14. Should chili have beans? Yes

15. Does Texas suck as bad as everyone says it does- I like parts of Texas

16. Do you want to own your own restaurant? Maybe

17. McDonalds will become a vegetarian restaurant by 2040? Nope

18. Reality TV is good for the trade. Discuss – TV has been good for the trade I suppose – anything that makes food and restaurants popular is good I guess. I’m not sure I believe in the name reality anyway.

19. Have you ever cooked a meal for date thinking it would help you “score”? Did it? OH YES and OH YES

20. Are you part of the problem or the solution? Depends on the problem

21. Bonus: Is it OK to kiss one the first date? Depends on how much you’ve had to drink

There you have it. A couple of yes's, a few maybe's and some definite no's. Seems like she is more of a Martha Girl than a Rachael Rayette. I have a simple test on how I interact with people. Do they make me smile when I see them. If yes I try to see them often. Laurie makes me smile