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Howdy Fellow Chef’s and Culinary Minded Folks,
How have you been? How has your start to 2012 been? Keeping well I trust 
Please do drop me a line or two and let me know what is going on in your part of the culinary world. Alternatively, feel free to leave a comment right at very bottom of this blog post.
Pro Chef 360
I wanted to fill you in on what I have been up to in recent times. You are probably wondering why the Pro Chef 360 Blog has not been that active recently.
The Stewarding Department and Chef Blog Digest
In a nutshell, I got side tracked and have been spending time with 2 of my other sites.
Namely; the Stewarding Department and the Chef Blog Digest AKA “CBD”.
If you are not signed up for the weekly eZine for the “CBD” you will find an archive of recent eZines right here.
As far as the stewarding side of life goes you will find all there is to know about stewarding on that very site. You can also sign up to the site to ensure that you are kept up to date with all things stewarding. You can do that by filling in the contact details on the top right hand side of the sites home page.
CBD is currently being featured as the “Site of Week” on the Cook Eat Share site. We are so proud of our recognition by our peers.
You can expect to be bombarded with a steady flow of industry related data from this point forward. I will keep you posted. See you on the flip side.
Happy cooking!!!
Matthew
Helpful Links:
Stewarding Department FB Fan Page
Topic : The Chef, The CBD eZine and the Stewarding Department
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PS: Many sexy and smart people have realized that clicking the Facebook like button and/ or the twitter retweet button on this page gets them free promotion 
When it comes to social media; I am guessing facebook is number 1 in the chef world. Am I correct in my assumption?
Or is it twitter?
Oh by the way are you a Nokia, Blackberry or iPhone Chef?
Tastefuly yours,
Matthew
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Many automatically associate Chef Tom Colicchio with Top Chef, a hit reality show where he is one of the leading judges. But there is more to Chef Colicchio than just Top Chef alone.
Chef Colicchio was born on the 15th of August 1962 in Elizabeth, New Jersey. Growing up, he has always been surrounded by the aroma of cooking food, what with his Italian mother’s as well as grandmother’s passion for food and cooking. In fact, he had so loved helping around in the kitchen that his father suggested that he pursue a career in the culinary world.
He began teaching himself the French style of cooking and immersed himself in culinary books like La Technique as well as La Methode written by the legendary chef, Chef Jacques Pepin. At a very young age, he was already impressing people with his culinary abilities that, at the age of 17 years old, he landed a job in his hometown’s Evelyn’s Seafood Restaurant.
After his stint at Evelyn’s Seafood Restaurant, he then went on to try his culinary skills in New York, which is the food capital of the country. In the city, he found work at some of the famous restaurants such as The Quilted Giraffe as well as Rakel. He also found a job at the Gotham Bar & Grill and Mondrian.
It was when he was working at Mondrian as its executive chef that his culinary style caught the attention of the Food & Wine Magazine. The prestigious magazine named him as one of the country’s top ten “Best New Chefs.” Aside from this prestigious title, he was also awarded three stars by The New York Times.
It was in the mid 1990s that Chef Colicchio and Danny Meyer, his partner, thought of launching their own restaurant. They launched their own restaurant in the Gramercy Park area of Manhattan and called in Gramercy Tavern. Two years after first opening Gramercy Tavern to the public, in 1996, The New York Times’ Ruth Reichl gave the restaurant three stars and called Chef Colicchio as a confident chef who is not afraid of blending bold flavors to create unusual balance of flavors. Aside from this, in 2000, Chef Colicchio was also awarded by the James Beard Foundation as the Best Chef in New York.
His achievement not enough, Chef Colicchio then launched Craft a year after his James Beard Foundation Award. Likewise, his new venture received three stars from The New York Times’ William Grimes and Best New Restaurant from the James Beard Foundation in 2002. Chef Colicchio also received a Chef of the Year award from Bon Appetit.
The success of Craft prompted him to launch a sandwich shop chain named Craftbar (located in New York City) as well as Crafsteak (located in Las Vegas). Chef Colicchio also launched a sandwich shop chain, the Wichcraft. Right now, there are 14 such sandwich shops in New York City as well as in Las Vegas and San Francisco. His Crafsteak and Craft also branched out, and they can now be found not only in New York in Las Vegas but also in Dallas, Los Angeles, and Atlanta. He has also launched Colicchio & Sons in New York, another three-star restaurant by The New York Times. It was also during this year, 2010, that he received an Outstanding Chef award from the James Beard Foundation for his contributions to the culinary world.
These are not the only things that keep Chef Colicchio busy though. He is also working as a consultant at numerous restaurants as well as private clubs, and he is also writing cookbooks. Right now, he has published three cookbooks – Think Like a Chef, Craft of Cooking, and Wichcraft. He has also written Top Chef the Cookbook. His first book won an award from the James Beard Foundation in 2001, The James Beard Kitchen Aid Cookbook Award.
Chef Colicchio became one of the leading judges of Top Chef when it was first aired in 2006. The reality show was an instant success that it also received awards and praises as well as an Emmy award for himself in 2010.
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Chef Michel Guerard is considered as one of the fathers of the Nouvelle Cuisine. In a nutshell, this simply means a new approach to traditional French cooking and is characterized by the lightness of the dishes as it does away with heavy sauces and complicated cooking techniques. Instead, it focuses more on enhancing the natural flavors of the ingredients of the dish by using less ingredients. Chef Guerard is also the founder of Cuisine Minceur, which is somewhat similar to the Nouvelle Cuisine in that it is lighter than the traditional French cuisine but different in such a way that it is lighter still than the Nouvelle Cuisine and does not make the diner feel “heavy” when he finishes the course. His culinary techniques and approaches to cooking French cuisine have earned him and his restaurants http://www.michelguerard.com/#/uk/ numerous awards and recognitions. Right now, Chef Guerard has three Michelin stars to boast of.
Chef Guerard was born in Vetheuil, Val-d’Oise on the 27th of March 1933. When asked about his reasons why he pursued a career in the culinary world, the first memory that comes into his mind was a time when he watched his grandmother prepare and bake a pastry dish.
His interest sparked, he then went on to become n apprentice in Mantes-La-Jolie’s Kleber Alix patisserie. It was here that he furthered his knowledge on pastry making as well as traditional French cuisine. Aside from this, he also found work at a variety of top restaurants in Paris, some of which include Maxim’s and Le Lido. In 1958, Chef Guerard received his first award while he was working as the Hotel de Crillon’s pastry chef. He was awarded the Meilleur Ouvrier de France Patisserie.
It was in 1965 that he decided to launch his first restaurant in Asnieres. He bought a bistro and named it Le Pot-au-Feu. Good and famous friends such as the Troisgros brothers and Paul Bocuse as well as Alain Chapel, among others, came to attend the opening of his first venture. Two years later, Chef Guerard earned his first Michelin star in 1967, and in 1971, it earned is second star. His restaurant was doing very well until a road-widening project made him close shop.
The next year, he met Christine Barthelemy, his future wife. Her father owns the Biotherm chain of spas and hotels, and when they got married in the mid 1970s, he relocated with her to Eugenie-les-Bairns where she was managing and operating an ailing spa. Together, they decided to completely revamp the spa. The couple not only restored and refurbished the spa’s building, but Chef Guerard also made a totally new cuisine to suit the purposes of the spa, thus, the Cuisine Minceur. It was like the Nouvelle Cuisine but much more lighter and much more healthier than the former. Pretty soon, his cuisine began receiving the attention of Parisians who not only want to eat healthy foods but to also enjoy delicious meals at the same time. In no time at all, people began trekking to their spa. Three years after, he received his third Michelin star.
Chef Guerard opened other restaurants in the area with his wife, and they also subsequently received accolades and awards from numerous award-giving bodies such as the Michelin Guide. As a chef, Chef Guerard also received numerous honors such as the Chevalier of the Legion d’Honneur and Chevalier of the Ordre du Merite Agricole, among others.
Chef Guerard has written numerous books that have been well received by the culinary community. Some of his books include Grande Cuisine Minceur and La Cuisine Gourmande. Aspiring chefs from all over the globe also come to his restaurants to work under his tutelage.
Chef Michel Guerard’s Armagnac-Drunken Capon
Ingredients:
- 1 young capon, about 2.8 kg/6 lb.
- 2 large pig’s feet, pre-cooked and quartered
- 250 g (9 oz.) smoked bacon, in 16 thin slices
- 50 g (3 tbsp.) butter
- 4 tbsp. olive oil
- salt and freshly ground pepper
Marinade:
- 400 g (14 oz.) carrot
- 200 g (7 oz.) onion
- 750 ml (3 cups) red Madiran wine
- 1 large bouquet garni
- 6 cloves of garlic
- 2 large pieces of orange zest
Sauce and garnish:
- 300 ml (1 1/4 cups) Armagnac
- 1 liter (4 cups) chicken stock
- 2 tbsp. powdered sugar
- 50 g (2 oz.) flour
- Salt and pepper
- 16 balls of pumpkin, cooked in salted water
- 32 pearl onions
- 32 small white mushrooms
- 1 bunch of parsley
Procedures:
Marinating the capon – the day before:
- Cut the capon up into 16 pieces.
- Lay them out on a work surface and season with a few grindings of pepper; the salt will be provided by the bacon.
- Wrap each piece of capon in a slice of bacon. Fasten each bacon slice with a toothpick to keep it in place.
- Place the bacon-wrapped capon pieces in a bowl; cover with the diced carrot and onion, bouquet garni, garlic cloves, orange peel and Madiran wine.
Cooking the capon:
- The next day, drain the capon pieces and pat dry with a cloth.
- Heat the olive oil in a large skillet. When it begins to smoke, brown the capon pieces for 5 minutes on each side.
- Drain the capon pieces and transfer to a preheated Dutch oven containing 50 g (3 tbsp.) of heated butter. Add the drained diced carrot and onion from the marinade (4); continue sautéing, sprinkling the sugar over top, then the flour, and cook uncovered for 5 minutes, stirring with a wooden spatula. Place the quartered pig’s feet on top of the mixture.
- Pour on the Armagnac, flambé, and add the wine from the marinade (4) with the bouquet garni, garlic and chicken stock.
- Bring to a boil, cover and cook in a low oven at a bare simmer for 1 3/4 hours.
- A half hour before the end of the cooking time, add the pearl onions and mushrooms, sautéed until golden brown, to the pot.
Finishing and serving:
- Once everything is cooked, remove the capon pieces, pig’s feet, pearl onions, mushrooms and bouquet garni with a skimmer. Remove the toothpicks and keep everything hot.
- Pour the cooking liquid into a blender with half the diced carrot and onion and the orange peel. Purée to make a smooth sauce.
- Return the capon, pig’s feet and remaining diced vegetables to the Dutch oven (or a more elegant serving dish, if you wish) .
- Strain the sauce through a sieve and pour over the capon. Sprinkle the pearl onions, mushrooms and coarsely-chopped parsley over top.
- Garnish with 16 little pumpkin balls.
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Australian Chef- Matthew J. Goudge is the mastermind behind the formation of the ProChef360 platform.