Like Water for Choclate uses Magical Realism to capture the transformative qualities of everyday food and drink into something more. Also consider reading (and enjoying) Joanne Harris' amazing Chocolat.
From Sydney to Paris the new year will soon roll in upon us. And while many of us within the Hospitality Industry are at this point a bit weary (to say the least) of holiday cheer, now is a good time to step back and think of our goals (and dreams) for the coming year, a year we all want to be exceptional.
Perhaps no one captures how to actually achieve that better than the staff at Absolut Vodka in their stunning "Anthem" video which takes items of the everyday and, in the hands of the gifted, turns them into art and meaning.
Likewise the members of our Industry do the same every day with our day-in day-out tasks. We take items common to us all - food, lodging, rest - and with skill turn them into the art of expression and experience.
And when we choose to add our perceptive insights, our unique take on it all, well, the result is both exceptional and unforgettable - just like a glass of fine wine or a sip of classic vodka, both well worth the effort and the price.
May 2012 Be the Best Year Ever!
Happy New Year Everyone!
Your Culinary World copyright Ana Kinkaid/Peter Schlagel 2011
In a strange twist of fate, this year’s holiday model of the White House crafted from gingerbread and white chocolate, echoes the reality of the U.S. President Obama. As of today, the President is there alone in the beautifully decorated White House (except for the family dog Bo) waiting for conservative members of the House of Representative to address the much desired payroll tax cut.
Perhaps the beauty of this year’s amazing gingerbread White House, created by the Executive Pastry Chef Bill Yosses with the thoughtful guidance of First Lady Michelle Obama, will offer him some additional holiday cheer.
Working from the original architectural drawing for the White House, Chef Yosses has created yet another stunning holiday masterpiece – this time weighing over 400 pounds!
Gingerbread house construction bgean in late September when sheets of gingerbread were baked using the traditional gingerbread recipe long used by the White House kitchen (see recipe below). This allowed ample time for the gingerbread sheets to harden before they were cut into wall and floor panels ready for assembling.
With Assistant Pastry Chef Susie Morrisonacting as a supervising construction contractor in the famed China Room, where the various presidential china collections are displayed, the model began to take form. When finally completed this year’s culinary wonder was displayed on a marble-topped console table in the State Dining Room.
At the suggestion of First Lady Michelle Obama, the 2011 replica included chocolate models of the White House culinary garden complete with beehives and sheltered vegetables rows.
Their thoughtful display was a wonderful way to say yet once again that healthy eating should be something all American shoould focus on each and enjoy every day.
Made with ample royal icing, his addition to the scene surely brought a smile to the over 85,000 pre-Christmas Day White House visitors. Now that’s a full house any hotel would envy!
Yet come Christmas Day, it’s currently unclear if the President of the United States will be joining his wife and daughters in Hawaii as he waits in Washington DC for the conservative Republicans of the House to address the nation’s urgent needs.
Perhaps those hesitant members of the House should remember what every great chef knows by heart and something so clearly declared to Scrooge by the ghost of his deceased business partner in Charles Dickens' memorable morality story, A Christmas Carol:
We in the hospitality industry craft, not with laws and legistation, but in sugar and with cuisine and service, but these are only a means of expression.
The true meaning of our profession hinges on the quality of our choices, the depth of values that we choose to express though our everyday actions. That said, may we all, like the newly enlightened Scrooge, keep that spirit of compassion within our hearts all year long as we serve and create!
Happy Holidays!
White House Holiday Gingerbread Cookies with Royal Icing
Ingredients for the Cookies
8 oz (2 sticks) butter, soft 2 cups dark brown sugar 2 eggs, large 1 cup molasses 7 cups All Purpose flour ¼ tsp ginger ground ¼ tsp cinnamon, ground 1 tsp baking soda ¼ tsp baking powder 1/4 tsp salt Lemon zest from 1 lemon Orange zest from 1 orange
Method 1. Cream butter and sugar in an electric mixer for a minimum 5 minutes. 2. Add eggs one by one, then molasses. 3. Put mixer on slow, sift spices, salt, baking powder and baking soda with flour then add these dry ingredients in three increments and scrape bowl each time. 4. Add zests and mix until incorporated, but do not over mix. 5. Remove dough from bowl and place on plastic wrap and spread to 1" thickness over wrap and cover with another sheet of plastic wrap. Refrigerate overnight. 6. Remove dough from refrigerator and roll out a small piece on a floured surface. This dough is very wet, so add flour when necessary to prevent sticking and turn over often. 7. Roll out to 1/8 to ¼ inch thickness for cookies. Cut out Gingerbread shapes. 8. Bake for 12 minutes at 350°F for cookies; 25 minutes or more for ornaments or gingerbread houses. 9. Decorate with Royal Icing
Royal Icing
Ingredients 2 cups Confectioner's sugar, sifted 1 egg white 1 tsp lemon juice
Method Mix with paddle attachment on electric blender (or by hand) for 5 minutes. If icing is too thick, add more lemon juice or a little egg white to desired consistency.
Post Note, 12/23/2011: Perhaps the conservative Republicans of the U.S. House of Representatives have heard the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future as they have finallyagreed to pass the expension of the payroll tax cut.
With additional dollars to spend millions of people will enjoy the Holidays much more in warmer homes and many welcoming restaurants. And so perhaps now we can all return to the true meaning of these final winter days, expressed so well in the closing words of Dickens' belovedA Christmas Carol.
Your Culinary World copyright Ana Kinkaid/Peter Schlagel 2011
Movies about service within the hospitality industry are few and far between, especially ones that portray the history and heritage of style that still hallmarks alllegendary hotels to this day.
And while so many of us in the industry can laugh with understanding while watching the very funny Fawlty Towers, we still might long for a more serious presentation of what service can require.
Based on a short story by George Moore, we follow the life Albert Nobbs, who is a butler at the Morrison Hotel in 1890’s Dublin, Ireland. But Mr. Nobbs hasa secret – he is actually a she.
No, this is not a film about gender preference but rather about the decision to hide and survive for only as a man could “Mr Nobbs” obtain a living wage in conservative Victorian Ireland.
Yet as the years pass Mr. Nobbs serves others so perfectly that “he” almost forgets his/her feelings within andthe precious dreams beyond the day-to-day of "may we serve you?".
And who among us with the industry, especially during the rush (and crush) of the holiday season does not know that feeling of so much for others, often so little for ourselves, as we endlessly smile and serve?
This is an outstanding movie – beautiful to watch, touching to see. It is well worth the viewing and one that the Oscars should acknowledge for Glenn Close captures in a single steady glance the true heart (and price) of service served then and still today.
Your Culinary World copyright Ana Kinkaid/Peter Schlagel 2011
‘Tis theholiday season, a time for fun and good cheer when all are friends and kindness fills the air.
Or should be…
In what can only be called a ‘cat-astrophe’, the New York City Health Department apparently forgot to refer to their calendar when they recently bannedthe Algonquin's ‘direcfurr of guest relations’, the beautiful kitty Matilda III from many sections of this historic hotel.
Now certainly the Health Department has a valuable job to do but perhaps this is an overreaction to a traditionthat since the 1930s has harmed no one.
Matilda, the Algonquin's famed cat, is part of a proud line of feline greeters who have been delighting guests since the first kitty was welcomed, cold and hungry, out of a stormy night by the hotel's compassionate owner Frank Case.
Honored by no less than the actorJohn Barrymore with the names “Hamlet” or “Matilda”, depending on their sex, the current kitty can now only grace the registration area – and only while on a leash.
All these restrictions are thanks to the NYC Health Department’s grumpy ‘grinch-y’ attitude during a season of supposed cheer and good well.
One can hope that amidst all the glorious sparkle and glitterthat typifies New York City during the winter holidays, the New York City's Health Department will perhaps review their decision and adopt a more objective perspective that honors both the values of the Season and the traditions of welcome that are the hallmark of our Industry all year round.
The hotel's insightful owner Frank Case often sent complimentary popover rolls and celery to their corner table as those gathered there tended to talk first, drink second (whiskey sours were a favorite) and eat last - a combination that anyone in the Industry knows is not the best for any guest no matter their talent or the season.
Your Culinary World copyright Ana Kinkaid/Peter Schlagel 2011
Today isVeterans Day in the U.S., a time for honoring the brave, the wounded, the departed. And though we can all hope (and work towards) a global awareness that war is a poor way to resolve the problems of humanity, until then there are those who serve to serve.
Early in December 1941 an unknown cook aboard the USS West Virginia stationed in Pearl Harbor was busy preparing Sunday mess for his crewmates when the attack that launched America into war occurred. His name was Doris Miller and he would be the first black U.S. sailor to receive the Navy Cross.
As the ship began to rock from the exploding airplane bombs, Dorie, as his shipmates called him, rushed topside. To his horror he saw a deck littered with wounded and dying. Dodging the incoming fire, he moved as many as possible, including his own captain, to safety.
But soon it became apparent that too many were being shot by the incoming airplane fire to protect his crew mates just by moving them to shelter. Something had to be done by someone.
So without training and without the protection of a helmet or a jacket, Dorie Miller took control of a 50 caliber machine gun andbegan firing. For a quarter of an hour, the cook fought – fought for the lives of the men he made coffee for, fought for the very men who ate the potatoes he had peeled the night before.
When the smoke cleared, no one had counted the planes he had shot down but his gun was burning oven-hot. Later Admiral Chester Nimitz would himself pin the Navy Cross to his uniform and thank him for his defense of so many lives.
And though his actions that day were shown in the moviePearl Harbor, the film does not record that only a year later his family would receive a letter telling of his death in the sinking of the Liscome Bay by a single massive enemy torpedo explosion.
But the bravery of those who choose to serve does not stop there.
Consider the courage of the now famed Tuskegee Airmen, black airman of the same era, who fought not only the enemy of the day, but also their own generals for the right to fly and defend.
On January 20, 2012 George Lucas will release a new movie financed with millions of his own dollars, entitled Red Tails that tells in stunning detail the courage of this brave first black flyers who, like Dorie Miller, fought to serve AND save.
Prior to their arrival, U.S. protective fighter escorts very often would evaporate as the enemy attack planes approached. TheTuskegee Airmen understood war very differently. For them war was not about kill counts or personal safety but rather how many men they were able to bring back safety to their wives, to their children.
Within the Hospitality Industry, we too serve. Each day, often in countries where our hotels and restaurants are sites marked for attack and violence, we work, we serve – hoping to remind all through food and beverage, through hospitality that each life, each moment is worth honoring every day, every year.
Your Culinary World copyright Ana Kinkaid/Peter Schlagel 2011
Thursday, December 29, 2011 at 2:48PM 
