The Schtick of Chefs

Chefs are the new celebrities and as they should be given the vacuous vapid void that is reality TV programming (a few exceptions notwithstanding).  

They're creators and innovators at the cusp of culinary experiences and while I don't count myself a member of that coed and co-opted elite yet, I'm trying to.  

And I realize now that showmanship is a part of it so I need a schtick.  

The orange Crocs of Batali won't work.  Nor will any Crocs for that matter.  I'm a Berks kinda guy.  

Nor will the, je nai sais quoi, spikey white hair and reverse david caruso sunglasses head thing of Chef Fieri.  Jesus that's scary.

Nor can I ever attain Tony Bourdain's bad boy reputation in rapid time or come to quip with Ramsey's constant beratement of donkeys.  

No, even though I created an entirely original culinary concept, I need a schtick and I've been sketching it out all this week.  I'm a desperate man.

Behold - The Brittany Bearded Brow

If I shave my head and let my eyebrows, much like Hugh Acheson's unibrow, merge with my goatee, well then I got something special and television-worthy. Artist rendition nearby, although NSFW or Sesame Street.    

I'm like the Louis CK of chefs, self loathing but curiously entertaining and still in search of a schtick since the Brittany Bearded Brow has already been trademarked in 23 states and a little known country, Stanktopia.  

I guess I'll just have to keep making great food damnit! 

Postscripts from the Wine Festival

Wow what a weekend.  And what a week!  Our first festival was nothing short of a profound, inspiring, yet humbling experience.   

 

On the production side, I made ten times the amount we have for the farmer's market, almost 1,000 tatties. 

 

I didn't even know until Monday that we'd be at the festival so creating a signature dish at a moment's notice was no easy thing.  But I don't like it easy.  Nothing great ever became so easily. 

 

I wanted the chef special tattie to pair expertly with wine and that's why I used four different types of cheeses.  And the topping I made for it was fruity, a pear, mango and habanero salsa.

 

And they sold like hotcakes I'm happy to report. 

 

But we had a few hiccups on the service side of the fest.  Once the word got out and we had a crowd of eager and anticipating palates, I got schooled on fryers, frozen tatties, and temperature.  Of the only three complaints we had over the hundreds of orders, one was that the center of the tattie was a wee bit cold. 

 

We adjusted and learned from the experience and on Sunday, I was on the fryer for five hours straight.  Several customers came back not once, but twice for 'To Go' orders and many, many wanted to know if we could ship them. 

 

This weekend was a validation of a vision and my desire to do something different, something special.  The lonely, unknown path of creation is only trepid to those afraid of exploration, who can't supplant acceptance with innovation. 

 

Shout out to those who are taking it with me - Fish for finding the fest for us, Dawn for helping us out this weekend, for tatties of course, Ashley for getting out of her comfort zone and selling, and finally, Chef Lucky.  I always joke that her nom de guerre is derived from how fortunate she is to work next to me.  But she held her own this week and I just might keep her. 

 

Chef Big Dog owns the house!

 

 

Where We At?

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Tex-Mex Tatties Coming to Connecticut Wine Fest

We're taking our new tapas concept to the Connecticut Wine Festival in Goshen this weekend to a crowd of several thousand and this is our biggest stage yet. 

 

We've even come up with a Chef's special just for the event - Max's Mushroom Quesadilla, a tattie that consists of wine, cheese, and locally sourced golden oyster mushrooms, topped with a spicy pear salsa. 

 

We hope you can join us for this festive occasion! 

Who's Your Tattie?

Some of you don't know the origin of my culinary adventures.  It began with a dog I lost to cancer that turned into a walk that turned into cooking. 

 

But I'll never forget where I began and the names of the Tatties I create will be in honor of cancer dogs - some I have met, others I have not yet their parents' devotion continues to inspire me. 

 

We have thus far;

 

The Murphy Breakfast Taco

The Miss Faye Chicken Fajita

The Max Mushroom Quesadilla (coming soon)

The Pete Chipotle Chile Con Queso

The Ben Jamin BBQ Chicken

The Huckleberry Hound Dog

 

 

 

 

10 Pounds of Mushrooms

Enough to satiate Timothy Leary and Hunter S Thompson at least for a weekend.  Even tho both have passed on to that great trip in the sky.  

But I'm not talking about those type of shrooms.  I'm talking about the Yellow Oyster variety.  

This week I'm making Mushroom Quesadilla Tatties and I just placed an order with the Rhode Island Mushroom Co  Bob & Mike are great and I've toured their mushroom farm and it's nothing short of beautiful and fascinating in a fungal sort of way.  

I aim to do something extraordinary with them.

Chef Special for July 20th - Miss Faye's Chicken Fajita Tatties

Last night cancer struck close to home once again.  Ginger Morgan, the Executive Director of the foundation I started, 2 Million Dogs, lost her beloved Miss Faye to a brain tumor.  I got to know her in Memphis when my own son, Murphy, was losing his battle with nasal cancer.  She was sweet like a Southern belle and had a penchant for stealing my pizza crust.  

This week's chef special is in honor of her spirit, Miss Faye's Chicken Fajita Tatties.