All About Food

I spent most of the past two days at the first annual Chef’s Conference held by Drexel University, two days that were all about food!  If you are reading this, you probably love food, and this event was pretty exciting.  Day one I chose to attend the panel discussions which were informative and which I will probably reference later, but the second day was food day!  There were demos and tastings and some wondrous things to behold and I got to see someone remove the flesh from a pig’s skull which isn’t the kind of thing you get many chances to see, and which I hope I don’t dream about… There were chefs there from some of the best restaurants in Philadelphia, and they made some food, and I got to eat it!!

 

 

 

 

Chef Brad Daniels from Marc Vetri’s Osteria made a meat ravioli.  The dough rolled thin enough to see the grain of the wood through it, the meat a mix of more things than I can recall, but the flavor deep and rich.  The pasta went through an Arcobaleno Pasta Machine, and then was hand formed into delicate pockets.  The two wheeled pasta cutter made of bronze and a work of art itself.  Chef Daniels cooked the pasta and served it with a simple butter and parsley sauce.  Vetri is known for their pastas, and this was a wonderful as it was simple and straightforward.  I had two, then three more, and had to stop myself from having more, because I knew there was a lot more food to come.

Chef Joe Cicata from Le Virtù (my favorite restaurant)  then served his pasta; a rigatoni (also freshly made on an Arcobaleno extruder) with a duck ragù, richer than the ravioli, and the shape a perfect vehicle for the sauce.  The pasta was lush, and Cicata explained to us that as they use and reuse the pasta water, it gets more and more starchy, making the pasta silkier as service goes on.  You may want to think about making a later reservation next time you’re dining out on pasta.  

There were other pasta dishes, and they looked good, but I didn’t manage to try those, I didn’t feel like I’d missed anything!

Next was the Charcuterie portion of the entertainment, presented by D’Artagnan.  If you see packaged confit, or other such delicacies in the grocery store, they are probably from D’Artagnan.  They are located in the Hudson Valley of New York, and supply the Culinary Institute of America with all their fois gras.  

Chef Justin Bogle from Avance  (located where the famed Le Bec Fin reigned from 1970 until last summer) made a foie gras appetizer using a mix of old and modern techniques, including using liquid nitrogen to make a yogurt snow to serve alongside the piped, whipped foie gras which had been prepared in a cook/blender device.  It was served on a plate with pickled grapes, brioche toast and the snow.  It practically disappeared as it hit my tongue.  I skipped the toast and ate the foie as slowly as I could.

 

 

 

 

 

From Le Cheri and Bibou, Pierre Calmels made a silky and delicate rabbit ballotine.  he started by doing a demonstration of boning out a rabbit, then assembled the ballotine.  It was stuffed with a mousse that included some foie gras (because more is more) and the liver of the rabbit as well.  The ballotine gets wrapped in cloth, tied and gently poached, which is why it is silky.  Cooking any kind of forcemeat (including hot dogs) will make them tough.  You can hardly ever go wrong turning down the heat.

I was invited to attend this event as a member of the COOK Masters program I was to have started this week.  They needed to reschedule Monday’s class, so we were able to attend this two day extravaganza!  Many thanks to Mike Traud from Drexel for inviting us to this conference.