August 14, 2019

Eight Things to Do With Simple Syrup

Simple syrup is a vital bar ingredient. Most good bartenders wouldn’t dream of starting a shift without a healthy stock of liquid sweetener. That’s because simple syrup dissolves easily into cold drinks and makes scaling recipes easy-an important factor when you’re furiously batching cocktails at a high-volume bar. But simple syrup has plenty of applications in the kitchen as well. Along with salt, sugar is an age-old preservative that was once essential for storing fruits in the cold months-you can think of simple syrup as sort of a pickling brine for sweet stuff. Bakers, meanwhile, keep sugar syrup on hand for glazing, and brush layer cakes with it to keep them fresh and moist.

Start by checking out our three Simple Syrup techniques. Depending on what you get up to, your syrup may require some modifications-it’s good to add glucose to the mix when you’re candying fruit, for example, to prevent crystallization. But all the ideas below begin with a simple solution of sugar in water.

From there, the sky’s the limit.

1. Create custom infusions

Bartenders regularly wow their customers with exotic-sounding “housemade” ingredients such as lemongrass or blueberry syrup. What they may not mention: infused simple syrups are shockingly easy to make. And they have all sorts of fun uses-try, say, setting up a DIY cocktail bar with a few different spirits, simple-syrup infusions, mixers, and garnishes. Even a sophisticated drink like blended irish whiskey could have a variety of mixtures you could try out along with syrup. Your party guests will love building their own drinks while experimenting with new flavors. No need to heat the mixture either; cold-processed infusions have a distinctly bright, vivid quality that’s especially appealing when working with fresh fruit.

2. (Half-) candy and cure citrus fruits

If you find most candied fruits to be cloyingly sweet, try our technique for Half-Candied Blood Orange. We blanch the fruit in salt water-the salt diffuses into the pith, masking its bitterness. The best part? You can use any citrus you have on hand.

Equally versatile: our method for smoothly textured Cured Lemon Peel. We cook the peel sous vide with a 1:1 simple syrup, slice away the pith, then keep it around in the fridge until we’re ready to use. Wake up a weeknight dinner by sprinkling cured peel atop chicken, salmon, or our Chickpea Tuna Salad, or serve it alongside your favorite ice cream or sorbet.

Get creative-there’s no limit to the uses for this bright, addictive snack.

3. Whip up some sorbet

One of the all-time best uses for leftover simple syrup: work it into a light, refreshing sorbet.

4. Dress fruit salads

Use simple syrup in a just-sweet-enough dressing to transform a simple bowl of fruit into a cohesive dish with a great glossy look.

5. Moisten layer cakes

Baker pro tip: brush simple syrup onto cooled layers of a layer cake to keep your confection fresh and moist. Adding a little booze-rum, vodka, etc.-will reduce the risk of a too-sweet treat and keep the cake nice and moist. You must have some sources for alcohol delivery in Thornton (or wherever you live), so use them and stock up on spirits that you can use to add an edgy flavor to your cake. You could also consider using this method to add a little extra something to the rest of your favorite recipes. Whether they’re from Chopnotch or are family secrets, it is worth giving this idea a try!

6. Mix muddle-free cocktails

The extent to which bartenders hate making mojitos may have been overstated, but there’s a reason those mint coolers have a bad reputation. It takes time and energy to muddle drinks à-la-minute, and it’s easy to overbruise delicate ingredients if you’re not being careful. Often, cocktail recipes that call for muddling can be adjusted by using simple syrup instead. A great example: this muddle-free Old Fashioned from Seattle’s own Robert Hess.

Besides, instead of spending money on these old-fashioned cocktails at a bar, you could simply learn these recipes and prepare them at home. You could serve these cocktails to your guests in the best silver drinkware you can find in your area. Serving the cocktails in an old-fashioned manner would most likely add elegance and class to your drink-serving art.

7. Design elegant garnishes

Start with our gluten-free, Flourless Carrot Cake, topped with super-cute candied carrots cooked sous vide in simple syrup.

8. Make jelly beans with actual beans-seriously

For the Jellied Beans in our Fruit Minestrone, we sous vide navy beans and a simple syrup made with sucrose and glucose syrup to yield toothsome little candies that will last in the fridge for months.

Want to mix a cocktail with simple syrup right this minute? Check out our very own Yard Bird, a smooth libation made with rum, Cynar, and two kinds of bitters. And of course, we’d love to hear about your favorite uses for simple syrup-let us know in the comments!

July 27, 2015

The ChefSteps Seattle Restaurant Guide

Seattleites love dining street-side at Le Pichet near Pike Place Market.

When the cooking enthusiasts in our community have a chance to visit our amazing hometown, they sometimes want advice on what to do in Seattle. You know-hiking, boating, gliding, catching a great show, shopping, beholding beautiful art. Some visitors often arrive in stylish private jets or even helicopters, which can be booked online via websites such as Jettly and other online jet charter sites. Some people even ask where they can enjoy some evening activities, such as poker. Whilst there are casinos around, we don’t really tend to visit them that often. However, we could recommend that those who want to play poker consider using this 918kiss kasino instead. It’s an online casino, so people will be able to play whenever they like. That might be easier than going to an actual casino. People always ask that sort of stuff. They may even ask what hotel to stay in, the South Lake Union hotels are amazing, and accommodation is essential when planning a holiday in the beautiful city! But truth be told, mostly people just want us to tell them where to eat and drink. As you might guess, we have no shortage of opinions on this subject. And we love knowing that visitors from Brazil to China come here and experience the best of what our devoted dining scene has to offer.

With this in mind, we created this informal dining guide to Seattle. It’s a list of the places we love, right now. We plan on updating it to include new favorites or forgotten standbys, too. Is every excellent restaurant in town on the list? No! Did we miss one? Inevitably! Let us know in the comments. We love checking out new places.

Fresh Oysters

Taylor Shellfish (Capitol Hill, Pioneer Square, and Seattle Center)
Taylor is the place for fresh, local oysters and the wines that go with them.

Breakfast/Brunch

The croissants at Crumble and Flake are arguably the best in town-kouign-amann and other pastries are killer too, though. You can’t go wrong.

Ballard:

Cafe Besalu
Find pretty killer pastries-sweet and savory-at this neighborhood spot.

The Fat Hen
The eggs Benedict at this cool little storefront spot are the best! Weekend brunch can be busy, but worth the wait.

Belltown:
Lola
Prolific James Beard Award–winning restaurateur Tom Douglas owns this Greek-leaning spot featuring kebabs, meze, and tons of dips. Those are all served at brunch-time, along with a selection of egg dishes.

Capitol Hill:

Crumble and Flake
You can order up to six of any pastry at this little wedge of a bakery in lower Capitol Hill. You’ll need at least that many croissants-the very best in town.

Sitka & Spruce (in Melrose Market)
James Beard Award–winner Matt Dillon’s breezy, locally focused eatery in the Melrose Market serves a consistently delicious array of small plates-salt cod brandade, ling cod with peas and mushrooms-during its elegant weekend brunch.

The Wandering Goose
Order a biscuit sandwich with fried chicken at the counter, eat that, then go back for a big old slab of chocolate or red velvet cake.

Fremont:

Roux
Matt Lewis got Seattle hooked on his beignets and po’ boys back when he served them out of a food truck called Where Ya At, Matt? The truck still roves around town, but you can sample those dishes, along with French-Creole takes on brunch food-fried green tomato benedict, bananas foster pancakes-indoors during weekend brunch at his Fremont spot.

Queen Anne:

Boat Street Kitchen
It was a sad day when Renee Erickson closed her cafe next door, but at least we can still stop by the Kitchen for oeufs plats and a blueberry cream scone at brunch-time.

Coffee

Quiet Capitol Hill coffee shop Analog makes its drinks with Herkimer beans, preferred roastery of the heavily caffeinated ChefSteps crew.

Ballard:

Slate Coffee
We love the clean brews at this modern roastery, sourcing high-quality coffee from around the world. Staff are friendly and polite, although they could do with speaking to Revel Systems about getting a new POS system to speed up the time it takes to serve customers at peak times.

Capitol Hill:

Analog
Read a comic book while you sip on a pour-over or espresso drink at this white-on-white cafe in a quiet section of Capitol Hill.

Vivace
This highly influential company has two locations on Capitol Hill’s busy Broadway-grab something to go from the stand or hang out in the spacious cafe a few blocks north on the other side of the street.

Fremont:

Lighthouse Roasters
A great place to stock up on super-fresh beans to take home with you-Lighthouse is a kid-friendly neighborhood cafe with an onsite roastery.

Milstead & Co.

With an educated staff and first-rate coffee, Milstead-named for owner Andrew-is a must-visit for java super-fans.

Vif Seattle
Coffee in the morning, natural wines in the afternoon-lots to love at Vif.

Happy Hour

Belltown:

Tavolàta

Take advantage of great deals on pastas and snacks during happy hour at Ethan Stowell’s modern restaurant in Belltown.

Pioneer Square:

Damn The Weather

Fun fact: the owner of this cool cocktail bar in historic Pioneer Square is a former member of the Fleet Foxes. He also hosts a generous happy hour.

Lunch

ChefSteps designers discuss their favorite fonts over classic French treats-quiche, oeufs plats, etc.-at Le Pichet.

Downtown/Pike Place Market:

DeLaurenti

The chefs stock up on olive oil, salts, and all kinds of other stuff here, and the whole staff heads to the takeout counter at lunchtime for Sicilian-style pizza slices, plus fresh soups, salads, and sandwiches.

Le Pichet

Le Pichet really pulls off the whole French bistro look, and the food’s good enough to fool you too. Think fluffy quiches, lovely charcuterie, and one badass salade verte.

Lec?sho

We’ve had about a billion business meetings at Lec?sho, so if we’re still into going there-and we are-it must be good. Reliable lunch options include a tasty house salad and a BLT augmented by a soft-boiled egg. Stop by in the evening for generous food-and-drink specials (spaetzle! steamed manila clams!) at happy hour.

International District:

Tsukushinbo

Our favorite spot for unfussy, tasty Japanese food in “the ID.”

Pioneer Square:

Il Corvo

Long lines are the norm at Mike Easton’s tiny pasta place, but your reward for waiting is some seriously kickass dishes, which change daily and are pretty much all amazing.

The London Plane

Another Matt Dillon spot-The London Plane is even prettier than Sitka & Spruce and the lunch offerings are on-point.

Dinner

The thali at Poppy-how gorgeous is this food?

Ballard:

The Walrus and the Carpenter

Simple, tasty seafood small plates with a subway-tile backdrop-everyone loves Renee Erickson’s white-on-white oyster bar.

Stoneburner

Our own Nick Gavin suggests the meatballs over braised greens at Jason Stoneburner’s beautiful Ballard restaurant. (Brunch is good too.)

Capitol Hill:

Poppy

Northwest takes on thali-Indian meals made up of a bunch of little dishes-dominate the menu at James Beard Award–winner Jerry Traunfeld’s colorful Capitol Hill restaurant at the north end of Broadway. If you’re in the market for a fresh snack and a cocktail, head to the bar, a favorite spot of the restaurant’s neighbors.

Eastlake:

Sushi Kappo Tamura

The quiet-ish Eastlake neighborhood is a little off the tourist grid, but it’s definitely worth a visit to try some of the most skillfully prepared sushi in town.

Blind Pig Bistro and Babirusa

Head to this restaurant and bar duo and order anything with pork in it. Also drinks. They’ve both got great drinks. (Hint: These restaurants are in a weird-looking strip-mall. Don’t be deterred-the service, food, and ambience are lovely.)

Fremont:

Revel

Husband-wife team Rachel Yang and Seif Chirchi (who also own Joule and Trove) serve Korean-style rice bowls and dumplings at this casual Fremont restaurant.

Madison Park:

Independent Pizza

Tell our buddy Joe Heffernan that we sent you. We like his pizza so much we host almost all of our staff parties here.

Madison Valley

Nishino

An underrated sushi spot in an unassuming Madison Street strip-mall, Nishino serves consistently impeccable sashimi, rolls, and side dishes.

Queen Anne:

Canlis

It’s Canlis, Seattle’s most well-known fine-dining restaurant. Two people on our team used to work there, and the owners and staff share the commitment to excellence we work to maintain at ChefSteps. If you don’t have time to do the full dinner blow-out, stop by the bar to hear some standards on the piano while you drink a really good cocktail.

Wallingford:

Mkt

At Mkt, Ethan Stowell offers fresh, clean flavors and a chance to check out all the kitchen action.

Miyabi

Fresh soba noodles! Drinks! Do it.

Cocktails

Ballard:

Hotel Albatross

Awesome tiki drinks and a very nice kind of relaxed buzz in the air-this is a great bar.

Capitol Hill:

Artusi

Order something bracing and bitter-negronis often feel like just the drink here-or lightly sweet and refreshing, like, say, one of the daily slushie offerings.

Canon

Tales of the Cocktail recently gave owner Jamie Boudreau the award for world’s best spirits collection. It’s the best spirits collection in the world, people. Yes, you may have to wait to get in. Go anyway.

Liberty

For a more easy-going cocktail experience, go to Liberty. It’s a coffee shop by day, a boozy neighborhood hangout in the evening. Also, there’s sushi. Roll with it.

Tavern Law

A Capitol Hill cocktail bar from the owners of Spur, complete with a bewitching upstairs bar with a secret entrance.

Witness

It’s a high-volume cocktail bar with church pews and an owner who sometimes quiets the room to deliver an extremely entertaining “sermon.” Totally bizarre, but it’s fun, too.

Pioneer Square:

E. Smith Mercantile

A very well-kept Seattle secret, this tiny bar is nestled in the back of a shop that sells funky jewelry, home goods, and cocktail bitters. The lady bartenders kick ass, and the deviled eggs do, too.

Downtown/Pike Place Market:

Zig Zag (Pike Place)

A classic spot for cocktails in Seattle, and the best spot to go after you’ve done the rounds at Pike Place Market.

Want to develop cooking skills at home that rival those of your favorite restaurant chefs? Head to ChefSteps for easy-to-follow recipes that will seriously level up your kitchen game.

June 8, 2015

Tim Ferriss Recipe Contest: We Have a Winner!

Abishai Powers makes slider buns for baby meatloaf burgers.

Abishai Powers makes slider buns for his baby meatloaf burgers.

Greetings, ChefSteppers. In May, we invited cooks to participate in a recipe contest, a partnership with The 4-Hour Workweek author Tim Ferriss in support of his TV show launching on iTunes. And we got some seriously impressive entries.

About the contest

We asked home cooks to create a dish based on a concept, technique, or recipe they learned from a ChefSteps class or video-free or paid-and then post the results on the forum. Next, our in-house contest committee (with Tim Ferriss also weighing in, of course!) reviewed the awesome entries, selecting a winner based on the creativity of the dish, the description of said dish, and the social media strategy used to promote it.

The prize: The winner will attend a special dinner cooked by our chefs in the ChefSteps kitchen. Joining this ambitious someone: Ferriss himself, plus CS founders Chris Young and Grant Crilly!

Meet the winners

The Powers family made the ChefSteps Slider Buns, adding taco seasoning for

The Powers made the ChefSteps Slider Buns, adding taco seasoning for “pizazz.”

Welp, we have a winner. Actually, we have more than one! First, there’s Dr. David Powers (who represents his 10-year-old son Abishai Powers), and some mouthwatering Mexican Meatloaf Sliders. At the tender age of 10, David’s son is already a budding chef and MasterChef Junior devotee. And David, as it turns out, is a hardcore Tim Ferriss fan. Abishai said he’d love to travel with his dad to the dinner if he won, despite the fact that “he’ll act like a little fangirl when he meets Tim.”

The Powers explained that ChefSteps inspired them to start measuring ingredients by weight instead of volume for better accuracy as well as less mess. And the family used our Slider Buns recipe, adding a Southwestern twist by sprinkling some taco seasoning into the mix. The delicious-looking recipe is on the forum and on Abishai’s blog. In addition to promoting the creation there, the family posted a video on YouTube along with a bunch of other social channels. All in all, pretty great.

And there’s another winner, too!

Sebastian’s gorgeous dish, featuring beef chuck transformed via sous vide cooking.

We were also super-taken with the entry submitted by Sebastian Nava. “I was captivated by the idea of transforming a tough cut into a tender steak through cooking sous vide,” wrote Sebastian in his entry. (To learn all about that-and get a bunch of great meaty recipes-sign up for our Cooking Sous Vide: Beyond the Basics class.) He settled on beef chuck, cooking it at 136 degrees farenheit for 24 hours to yield a texture that rivaled premium steaks at a fancy chophouse. He served this meat with fresh chimichurri plus roasted red bell pepper spheres, buttermilk mashed Yukon Gold potatoes, and crispy garlic chips. Dang, right? Sounds (and looks) delicious. He promoted this masterpiece on a bunch of social media channels, making use of new tool Periscope, and doing lots of smart tagging and hashtagging. It is refreshing to see a young adult creating online content and receiving so much appreciation, very similar to what you would see after using some sites like Social Gone Viral to gain Instagram popularity. All in all a very impressive show from Sebastian. We’re talking about Instagram because it has billions of users and is a goldmine for those who want to market something. Doesn’t matter if it’s because they want to be popular or because they want to market their products or talents. In fact, to gain Instagram popularity, people want to know how to buy Instagram followers because it can provide an initial boost to their accounts, allowing them to attract genuine followers. But you can do whatever suits your needs. There is nothing to pass judgment on something of that sort. Anyway he was so impressive, we named him a co-winner and invited him to attend dinner with Tim and the Powers men, too. We can’t wait to meet the whole crew.

Stay tuned!

Thanks to everyone who participated in the contest-it was so fun checking out what you made-and stay tuned for the next ChefSteps competition. Meanwhile, we’ll update here with pictures and details of the yet-to-be-scheduled dinner once it happens. Keep cooking, and keep sharing your pics with us on the forum, Facebook, instagram, and Twitter. We can’t wait to see what you come up with next.

May 27, 2015

Make a Three-, Five-, or Seven-Course Version of our Tasting Menu!

Want to cook a tasting dinner, but not so much into menu-planning? Want to impress your friends with some ambitious, chef-level dishes from our Tasting Menu: Spring feature, but aren’t ready to commit to the full 14-course odyssey? Maybe you just want to host a warm-weather wine pairing party, and need some suggestions for what to serve.

In any case, we totally get it-and we’ve got you covered. Here are three shorter versions of our spring tasting dinner that are big on flavor and fanciness, but way easier to pull off than the whole shebang. Click on the recipes for wine pairings and suggestions on serving dishes, along with notes and everything else you need to try something new and novel.

Once you’ve selected a menu and served it, please share some photos on the ChefSteps forum. As always, we can’t wait to see what you make.

Three-Course Menu

Homepage-Feature-5

1. Water and Oil (Nick’s Nasti Salad Soup)
2. Boeuf Bourguignon
3. Henna Egg

Chef’s notes: Jump-start your guests’ palates with the intense Water and Oil-right out of the gate they’ll get a dish that’s acidic, earthy, and packed with distinct textures. You can follow that labor of love with a dressed-up version of Boeuf Bourguignon-a meaty main course with an umami-packed demi-glace. The silky, sous vide–cooked beef offers a texture you won’t find in the previous dish, giving guests something new to chew on. End with the dramatic henna egg, a light-and-lovely conclusion to a short meal with Indian-inflected spices and rich, tongue-coating textures.

Five-Course Menu

Course-4-2

1. The Field
2. Farm and Garden (Savory Ice Cream Salad)
3. Chicken and Dumplings
4. Boeuf Bourguignon
5. Matcha Rice Pudding

Chef’s notes: This menu starts out with the Field-a homemade oat cracker that offers guests a fun, crunchy bite. From there we transition into a creamy, lightly sweet ice cream that melts away in your mouth and is accompanied by tender fresh herbs-the perfect thing after the briney, nutty cracker. From there, we go straight to the savory safari that is this globe-trotting Chicken and Dumplings riff, featuring fun textures and a broth with enough kick to jump-start guests’ palates. Ah and there she is, that Bouef Bourguignon-sexy and substantial with the hearty savory notes we’ve been building up to. To end the festival of flavors: Matcha Rice Pudding, which is complex in flavor and showcases some fun new techniques you’ll learn while making it.

Seven-Course Menu

Beef-B-05
1. The Bay
2. Water and Oil (Nick’s Nasti Salad Soup)
3. Northwest Pozole
4. Boeuf Bourguignon
6. Black Forest Glen
7. Garden Tea

Chef’s notes: Set the tone for a fun evening with The Bay, a faux-risotto featuring cucumber and American caviar that just pops and melts in your mouth. Next up, the Water and Oil salad-soup offers a hit of acid along with a playground of textures. Then comes our take on pozole, transitioning your palate into more savory flavors with chewy geoduck hidden below a bed of fried tortillas. Your guests will need a little refreshment after all that, so here comes The Park, an aerated sorbet. Ratchet up the intensity once more with Black Forest Glen, a party of chocolate and cherry, followed by refreshing Garden Tea-fresh greens steeped in honeyed water.

Head to ChefSteps for hundreds of recipes, techniques, and tips designed to get you cooking.

May 14, 2015

Transformation Contest: We Have a Winner!

Tough choices! The team was totally charmed by all the Transformation contest entries.

Last month we launched a contest all about transformation: taking cheap, overripe, or leftover ingredients and turning them into something delicious. We asked you to send us pictures or videos that demonstrated your favorite transformative techniques—those game-changing ideas that take something sleazy and turn it into something sexy. And oh boy, did you show up. We got over a hundred submissions, each completely unique, covering topics from butchery to baking, sous vide to food sculpture. You showed us how leftover carrot tops could become bright, beautiful pesto; how a freshly-hunted wild boar could become honey-baked ham; how some foraged clams could transform into a fragrant chowder. And that’s just the beginning. We spent days reviewing gorgeous modern plates, mouth-watering braises, and homemade charcuterie. Needless to say, we were amazed by the creativity, skill, and enthusiasm with which you attacked this project.

After much deliberation, we came up with a list of five runners-up and one winner. Given all the amazing entries, it was truly difficult to narrow it down. To thank you all for your amazing efforts, we’re offering each participant a free ChefSteps class. (We’ll be in touch about that soon.) Already purchased them all? Have we mentioned we love you? You can give the free class away as a gift.

Without further ado, let’s get to the results.

The Runners-Up

These five entries were all in the running for the big win.

Bjorn Storm, San Diego, CA
Transforming a storebought rotisserie chicken

Dayna Palmer, Hyde, MD
Gold chocolate bars

“I tempered dark chocolate via the seeding method,” writes cocoa whisperer Dayna Palmer, “melting the bloomed chocolate to approximately 38 degrees C, then adding tempered chocolate ‘seeds’—for nucleation sites—and stirring until the chocolate reached about 30 to 32 C. Once it reached this temperature, I cast a shell of this dark chocolate using a polycarbonate mold that I had painted with gold cocoa butter! I deposited the tempered dark chocolate into the mold, tapped out air bubbles, then emptied the excess chocolate so that just a shell was left to be filled.”

The results speak for themselves. You can see more of Dayna’s work at her Etsy shop, called Chocolate Theory.

Writes Palmer: “The before photo is untempered dark chocolate that has set with noticeable fat bloom!” The after images shows the spectacular gold candy bars she made from it. Photo courtesy of Dayna Palmer.

David Statman, Elmont, NY
Transforming mandarin and tangerine soy dipping sauce into soy candy

“What to do with leftover mandarin and tangerine soy dipping sauce?” asks transformer David Statman. “I first thought I would use it as a marinade to grill vegetables, but then inspiration struck and I knew what to do: Turn it into candy! I reduced the sauce on the stovetop and poured it onto a wannabe Silpat to cool and harden. These sweet and savory shards are quite potent, especially as the soy and ginger get more concentrated.”

So crafty! If we could reach into that picture and grab one of those treats, we’d be a happy crew.

Statman started with leftover mandarin-and-tangerine-soy dipping sauce. He transformed that sauce into shiny candies! Photo courtesy of David Statman.

Linas Zymantas, Chicago, IL
From oxtail to pho

Writes Zymantas: “I seared the oxtails and then added them to a stock pot with onion, carrot, daikon, ginger, and spices. I simmered the broth for about 12 hours until the oxtails were falling apart tender. The broth was seasoned appropriately, and the shredded oxtails went back into the super silky broth to make a delicious pho!”

Okay we’ll just admit it. The way to our hearts is oxtail pho. Forever. Every time.

Zymantas started with oxtail, an inexpensive tough cut, and transformed into gorgeous pho. Photo courtesy of Linas Zymantas.

Ryne Orechia, Kirkland, WA
Lamb shoulder dish

This Rainier Club cook gave his boss a shoutout, letting us know the chef there encourages creativity in the kitchen. And Orechia clearly takes advantage of the opportunity: he transformed tough lamb shoulder into a remarkable dish via the magic of sous vide. Watch him tell you how he did it in the video below, then check out his remarkable before and after.

Awesome, right? Now check out the pics.

Orechia took on one of our favorite tough cuts: flavor-packed lamb shoulder. He gently cooked the shoulder sous vide to create this lovely dish. Photo courtesy of Ryne Orechia.

And the winner is…

Teodosiy Teodosiev, Walnut Creek, CA
Amazing escargots

ChefSteps user Teodosiy Teodosiev stole the show with this incredible transformation featuring the slimy little fellas that populate gardens and sea rocks all over the world. Check out his stop motion video for the full contest-winning story.

Congratulations, Teo! We hope you enjoy that $500 worth of goodies that Grant plucked from the DeLaurenti shelves.

Ready to create your own amazing transformations? Sign up for Cooking Sous Vide: Beyond the Basics and discover incredible, easy techniques for making custards, carnitas for a crowd, Kung Pao ribs, and so much more.

April 30, 2015

ChefSteps Invades NYC

Picture or it didn’t happen, right? The ChefSteps team snapped plenty of images during our invasion of New York City for the James Beard Awards last week. Were we nervous about the awards ceremony? Hell yeah, we were. Still, what were we going to do, let a few butterflies prevent us from making the most of one of the world’s greatest food-and-drink cities? Not this crew. There are so many options to choose from when you’re in NYC, it could take you forever to eat your way through the city, that is why it is important for restaurants, cafes, eateries, etc. to make sure they are being seen for everyone to enjoy! It may do them well if they looked at hiring a Hospitality Website Design team or something similar, so people like us can find some hidden gems in NYC that may not have been known about before.

So, from an epic dinner at Wylie Dufresne’s Alder to a morning-after-the-awards recovery session at the amazing Joe Pro Shop in Chelsea-and taking down no small quantity of cocktails in between-we made the most of our few days in the incredible city. And amazingly, we ended up winning in both award categories in which we were nominated, a major honor and an achievement that would have been impossible without you, our fantastic community.

Anyway, here are some of our favorite photos of the trip, along with commentary by the team members who represented us at the awards: Grant Crilly (co-founder), Chris Young (co-founder), Reva Keller (photographer/videographer), Hans Twite (audio engineer), and Rick Wallace (art director).

Drinks at Balthazar

Grant: Balthazar was one of the team’s pregame stops before the happy hour we hosted. I love this place. I stop here every time I am in New York for at least one glass of wine. This time we had a Picpoul from their cellar that was just insane.

Reva: I ate a salad here. It was the first of many beet-based food and drinks of the weekend-guess beets are trending in New York right now.

Pregame Picpoul at Balthazar Left to right: Reva Keller, Rick Wallace, honorary Chefstepper Jen Utley, and Grant Crilly.

Feeding another obsession

Hans: Whenever I go to New York, I make it my mission to see as many musical instrument shops and historic musical spots around the city as I can. My “touristy” activities include walking to Greenwich village to go by Cafe Wha?, and staring longingly at the front of the minimally ornamented Electric Lady Studios. By far my favorite places in the city to see instruments of unique and historic quality are Rudy’s Music SOHO and 30th Street Guitars.

The incredible lineup at Rudy’s Music

ChefSteps community happy hour at Booker and Dax

Community member Odette Plavinskas bonds with Rick and his iPhone.

Chris: I’ve been friends with [Booker and Dax owner] Dave Arnold ever since he and I were the warm-up act for various Food Network stars at the South Beach Wine & Food Festival many years ago. Dave’s a genius-his incredible book, Liquid Intelligence, garnered a Beard this year-and Booker and Dax was really the perfect place to invite our community, since there’s a lot of overlap between its fans and ours. Above all, what made this great was how excited our community members are about what we’re doing at ChefSteps and it gave us an opportunity to talk with them in person. At the end of the day, even as a digital content and technology company, we’re still in the hospitality business. It’s great to hear we’re making people happy.

Booker and Dax owner Dave Arnold plus Chris and Rick.

Grant: The Eater editors were great; it was so nice to meet some of our media partners in person. Many relationships that we have at ChefSteps are digital, so I just love actually talking with people face to face. It was also amazing to watch the Eater team take home three(!) Beard awards this year. What an accomplishment. We are huge fans!

Eater editors Sonia Chopra and Amanda Kludt check out the cocktail menu. Their team took home an amazing three James Beard awards this year.

One of the incredible cocktails at Booker and Dax.

Reva: I was super-impressed to hear about the recipes from the site that our community members had made-ambitious things like Kouign-Amann and Wine Gums. Quite a few people mentioned liking the One Reuben to Rule Them All video, and wanted to know more about Camp. Mostly I took pictures.

Cheers, Grant.

Dinner at Alder

Reva and her camera go behind the scenes at Alder.

Reva: Halfway through dinner, Grant did a very Grant thing and asked Wylie if I could go to into the back and take photos in the kitchen. Unexpected, but super fun! Wylie was very nice and let me hang around while they plated a couple of things. He insisted that I take a picture of their dishwasher and said he was the only one doing any real work. Later: pickled beets and a beet cocktail. (See what I mean about the beets?) Oh, and then there was “leech guy” Mark Siddall-a curator at the American Museum of Natural History-telling Rick and me about something called pu-erh tea that we should try.

Grant: The food was as interesting as Wylie’s food always is, but even more delicious than usual. I kept drinking these amazing dirty martinis that tasted like there was coconut water in them-the bartender thought I was crazy! I had Wylie try, and he said: “Oh yeah, we don’t wash the bar glasses” in the flatest Wylie tone.

There is no coconut water in this drink, Grant.

Rick: Course after course of tiny, amazing bites of food-I remember lots of beet flavor. We talked about a variety of things here, but what sticks in my mind is the series of stories about people driving into swarms of gigantic insects. But that’s what happens when you eat dinner with interesting weirdos.

A standout among an amazing set of dishes at Alder: Chicken Liver Mousse, Almond, Verjus, and Asian Pear.

Seriously, Grant. No coconut water.

Dry-ice ice-cream demo at Saveur

Dry–ice ice cream: breakfast of champions

Chris: I’m a huge fan of Saveur magazine, and although 7 AM came pretty early the day after the happy hour at Booker and Dax and then Alder, I managed to pull myself together and then make a big mess with the dry ice–churned ice cream. Pretty much guaranteed to happen when you get impatient and want your soft-serve ice cream immediately! Think of what happens when you stick a straw into milk and blow bubbles-yeah, that. Except the soft serve–mix is thicker, and sticky. Of course the Saveur folks asked about the safety of dry ice, and I explained it’s really safe as long as you don’t end up trapped in a closed environment with it-since we can’t breath CO2-and as long as there is a way for the gas to escape. What happens if it can’t escape? Let me demonstrate….

That time Chris terrified the entire staff of Saveur.

Grant: I was super-hungover, but still beat Chris to the Saveur offices that morning. It was totally empty when I arrived; folks only started showing up once Chris was done with his ice cream demo-around 10 AM. So then of course he had to make a dry ice bomb. (The last time we did this, mind you, our office went dark from all the dust falling from our 100-year-old ceilings.) He tried three times! The first time he was too conservative with the amount of dry ice, so everyone waited for 15 minutes while nothing happened. Then we tried again and the same thing happened…but this time it was a shorter wait because Chris was now so impatient he approached the growing bomb and opened it slowly with towels. He loaded it with ice and water. A couple minutes later: MASSIVE EXPLOSION. Very, very loud. People in the office were so freaked out. The staff was hiding behind a wall, full of dread.

Dinner at Buvette

Rick: The food was great, but the decor was amazing. I asked Grant if he’d brought this place back from France, (he lived in Paris for a while), but he didn’t seem to think that was as hilarious as I did.

The beautiful food at majorly French-ified Buvette

Two wins!

Pre-ceremony jitters. Everyone has their own way of coping.

Winning for our documentary and labor of love “Wall of Fire” was an unbelievable thrill.

Chris: These were the third and forth Beard awards for a project I’ve played a role in making happen, and I still felt totally elated when we won. When I started cooking over a decade ago, I don’t think I would ever have imagined winning a Beard award. To get two for ChefSteps this year, I feel deeply gratified and thrilled for our team and so appreciative of our community.

Grant: I cried when we won.

Wait, where did that third one come from?

Hans: Shock and disbelief was the general tone of the night following the announcement of the second Beard award. The award photographer was visibly confused as we waltzed out a second time during the ceremony. We cushioned our transition from disbelief into the realization that we won with a steady stream of complimentary champagne.

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All smiles in the official James Beard Foundation shot

The morning after

Man at his best?: Hans, Rick, and Chris in recovery mode at Joe Coffee

Hans: I look more horrible then I felt. Sleep deprivation + añejo tequila = saggy old man face.

Chris: That’s Hans realizing that ordering coffee in a paper cup is a faux pas.

What are your favorite places to eat and drink in New York? Tell us in the comments below!

March 13, 2015

Best of The Forum: Banana Bread and a Most Violent Steak

Welcome to Best of the Forum (BotF), a series in which we highlight fascinating bits from the ongoing conversations happening among our awesome community of cooks. Let’s get to it.

Bloody brilliant

Is it just us, or does the photo above both make you want to up your cooking game and remind you of the opening theme from Dexter? This is the work of community member Lennard Yeong, whose culinary skills and plating prowess just keep getting more impressive by the day. Want to design and plate your own killer dishes? Check out this comprehensive guide from our on-staff food artist Nicholas Gavin.

Speaking of sexy plates

Forum member Rob has been killing it in the plating department as well. Forget Triscuits and cheddar cheese. When this guy gets a mid-morning hankering for a snack, he combines smoked salmon, capers, cream cheese, shallots, toast and pink Himalayan salt for a dish that would fit right in at a fancy restaurant. We like your style, Rob.

Go bananas

There’s banana bread, and then there’s the fruit-forward wonder developed by Nick Gavin. (He’s coming up a lot today, isn’t he?) It’s one of our all-time favorites, so it makes us very happy to see forum member Ethan give it the royal treatment—topping it with toasted brown butter oats, whipped mascarpone, blueberries, AND EVEN MORE BANANAS. Ready to make your own version of our Banana Bread? Be sure to stop by the forum and post a pic. We can’t wait to see what you do with the stuff.

Join ChefSteps today for amazing recipes, tons of techniques, and access to our lively forum of enthusiastic cooks.

February 20, 2015

Best of the Forum: Honoring Boulud, Nailing Nopal, and an Exciting Announcement

Welcome to Best of the Forum (BotF), a series in which we highlight fascinating bits from the ongoing conversations happening among our awesome community of cooks. Let’s get to it.

Daniel Boulud and You

Designing a dish from scratch is super-satisfying and empowering, but sometimes the inspiration fairy disappears on an all-inclusive trip to Cabo (You know—strawberry daiquiris, a Jennifer Weiner novel, perhaps some light flirtation with that one beardy bartender from the poolside tiki hut.), leaving you SOL for dinner ideas.

Woah, woah, woah there, buddy. No need to fire up a frozen pizza just yet. Instead, turn to a favorite chef for inspiration. That’s what always-on-point community member Lennard did to create the whimsical homage to Chef Boulud you see above.

Nopal? No problem.

ChefSteps member Marc took to the forum this week to ask for advice on working with fresh nopal—aka prickly pear cactus. “Duh,” says the inspiration fairy, freshly tanned and noticeably tipsy from the complementary cocktails aboard her return flight (middle seat, US Weekly, a Caesar salad topped with jiggly chicken strips bearing faux grill marks) . “Put that cactus in your cocktail!” She has a point—prickly pear margaritas are rarely a bad idea, to be sure. But nopal can also be tossed in a salad with shrimp, mixed into salsa, grilled whole, and so much more.

Whatever you do with those spikey paddles, take advantage of forum friend Joyce’s easy prep method, beautifully photographed here.

Get embed with us!

Exciting announcement from our dev team: You can now embed ChefSteps recipes directly to your blog or website, and they’ll look all pretty too. Go! Play! Inspire yourself! Judging by the look of things, that fairy’s going to need a few days to recover.

You love to cook, they love to cook—y’all should really get together and talk about it. Join ChefSteps today to get in on the conversation.

February 13, 2015

Best of the Forum: Dumplings, Kid Food, and One Rich Dish

Hmmm. What to do with all that leftover duck liver?

Duck liver—everyone’s got some lying around in the fridge, right? Okay no. But if you’ve always wanted to cook with the stuff, take inspiration from community member Manfred, who rolled some up into great-looking dumplings for the gorgeous soup you see above.

Oh, and speaking of liver…

Apparently forum friend Rob ain’t afraid to combine some rich flavors. Check out this decadent-yet-easy dinner: English Muffin, Chicken Liver Pâté, and a perfect sous vide egg. Bonus: This would also make the sickest breakfast in bed ever.

You’ll eat it and you’ll like it.

Brendan Lee shared a thought-provoking article on kids’ menus, and the dangers of raising a generation who dine only on chicken fingers, mac-and-cheese, and hot dogs. This fires up several of his forum-mates, who weigh in on the prickly subject of picky eaters.

Our forum’s the best, man. Join ChefSteps today to get in on the conversation.

February 6, 2015

Best of the Forum: Cool Carrots, Coffee Talk, and One Badass Dinner Party

Welcome to Best of the Forum (BotF), a series in which we highlight fascinating bits from the ongoing conversation happening among our awesome community of cooks. Let’s get to it.

Crazy-Cool Carrots

Remember how your mom told you not to play with your food? Jeremy White doesn’t. He did some epic carrot games this week. Want help with those modernist techniques? Ask him all about them.

“The Holy Roman Empire was neither holy nor Roman nor an empire. Discuss.”

It was an exciting week here at ChefSteps—we launched our comprehensive and super-fun Coffee class, complete with Dark Matter, a slick new recipe named by community member Jon Low. Care to weigh in on your favorite ways to level up the stuff in your cup? Gear up your best Linda Richman accent for some coffee talk.

Seven Courses and a Show

While we were chowing down on barbecue and watching our beloved Seahawks suffer a crushing defeat, community member Sebastian was serving this ambitious coursed feast. The party paused the meal to watch the halftime concert, but from the looks of things, Katy Perry’s got nothing on this fellow.

Sign up at ChefSteps today to get chatting with our lively community of cooks.