Every Step of the Way

One of the most defining qualities of the Portland food scene is overlooked by almost everyone in the community except the farmer. That is the proximity of surrounding farmlands to the city markets and restaurants they supply. There are few cities that enjoy such a short drive into town with a van full of fragile, often highly perishable produce. 

One of my primary suppliers drives in from Canby, Oregon, a mere 30 miles from the restaurant in downtown Portland. Sheldon and his wife Carole keep about 12 acres of land productive for 11 months out of the year. His recordkeeping is very thorough, and his planting is carefully planned. One of the most impressive feats of this farm is its efficiency of delivery into the city. Every square foot of the company van is accounted for, with three different dimensions of waxed cardboard boxes tightly arranged according to the delivery route, filling perfectly the 48 inches between the wheel wells. Flats of tomatoes, tomatillos or ground cherries are stacked in the rear, so that all the boxes are secured against tipping and sliding. 

The small farmer has to have a wide skill set. Not just a green thumb, but able to fix machinery,  balance an uneven cash flow, organize their planting and crop rotation, and maximize their delivery space for the trek into the city. It's inspiring to see it all come together. So, next time you are shopping at the farmers market, remember all the hidden efforts and expenses that have gone into their lovely market stall. 

True and False Morels

Several people have asked me about the "false morels" of spring, what they look like and how they taste. This spring has so far produced some great specimens from all the spring mushrooms, so we can take a look at them. Morchella elata, the black morel is pictured on the left. A delicious mushroom that has many different morchella species, ranging in size and color. They are all edible, and easily identified because the stipe connects to the head at its base. 

Verpa bohemica, the verpa is pictured in the center. It is a false morel which some regard as more delicious than the morel, but others regard as inedible, causing stomach distress and flatulence. It is easily identified by its stipe, which connects to the apex of the head. For this reason, it is sometimes called the "thimblecap morel," because the cap can be easily picked from the base.

Lastly, gyromitra esculenta, sometimes called "calf's brain," for its appearance, or "snow morel," for its ability to grow before the spring snows have melted. The Latin word "esculenta," means edible, and this mushroom is often regarded as delicious in Europe. It does contain a known carcinogen, and some regard it as poisonous. However, the true and false morels are often cooked together and equally regarded by some people. 

The best of them all, in my opinion, is not a spring mushroom at all. The gray morel does not emerge until summer. Morchella tomentosa is the largest and most delicious. It is distinguished from other morels by the small velvety hairlike "fur" that covers it. These mushrooms can grow up to nine inches in height, making them absolutely wonderful for stuffing with a variety of flavorful fillings! In our region, they often come from Mount Adams and the wilderness to the east of Mount Hood. 

Plateware

Opening a restaurant begins a long process of decision making. What kind of tables and chairs shall we have, what kind of oven and refrigeration shall we buy, which computer systems will we use? And of course, what kind of food and service will the restaurant be known for. Raven & Rose intended to draw inspiration from the British Isles, serving rustic yet refined fare that harkens us back to our culinary and colonial ancestry. As a chef, I needed to understand not only what kind of food to serve, but what it would be served on. 

At home, I have a large collection of plates and glasses, especially Japanese plateware. Japanese utsuwa, meaning pottery or vessel, have always been my favorite kind of service ware. There is such a rich and diverse variety of shapes, colors and textures which enhance the pleasure of eating and drinking from them. For many years at Park Kitchen, I enjoyed using them to present all sorts of preparations. For the Raven & Rose project, I definitely needed something with more Anglo-Saxon connotations. 

I have always been a big fan of Heath Ceramics, in Sausalito, California. Their plates were always a leading candidate.  The speckled ceramics popularized by Noma in the Scandinavian countries seems to have sparked a great deal of interest in textured glazes and new shapes. Perhaps that was part of the inspiration for the new Craft Series launched by Steelite, the English plateware company. The moment I saw the catalog for these new plates, I knew this would be the perfect plate for an upscale English farmhouse restaurant. Strangely enough, I have used the Steelite plates alongside many of my Japanese pieces, and there has been a pleasant continuity between them. 

Raven & Rose

Sometimes people ask me how I have time to write stories as a restaurant chef. Usually, I say something like "We find the time for the things we enjoy." It has been some time since I have found the time to write stories, and not that I haven't had plenty to write about. As the executive chef for Park Kitchen, I have taken the team on inspiring tours of Bob's Red Mill in Milwaukee, Oregon, and one of our strongest farmers at Your Kitchen Garden in Canby, Oregon. I travelled to Sweden and Denmark this spring, foraged with the godfather of the Nordic Manifesto revival, and dined at Noma, the best restaurant in the world. I'm bursting at the seams with stories to share with you.

However, I have taken on a new project which has taken up all the time that would otherwise have translated into stories about the millstones at Bob's Red Mill, the inspiring whole grain breads and cheeses from Scandinavia, or the planning that goes into a diversified farm in the Willamette Valley. After eight years at Park Kitchen, I will be leaving to open a new restaurant in downtown Portland. It will be called Raven & Rose, and it will be located in a beautiful restoration of the historic Ladd Carriage House. 

Those of you in the industry know how much work goes into the opening of a restaurant, from ductwork and electrical wiring, equipment purchasing, menu planning and recipe development, hiring and training staff, service contracts and so many other things. Once we get all these things moving together in harmony, I will be able to return to telling stories about the people, places and products that inspire me to be a chef. 

Kitchen Notebooks

Restaurant kitchens are complex work spaces. As seasonal ingredients change, or inspirations bring new dishes to the menu, everyone in the kitchen must learn new techniques, recipes and methods. This information has long been conveyed through the use of pocket sized kitchen notebooks filled with scribbles and drawings of plating directions, the formulas and recipes needed for the next dinner service. You can gather a great deal of information about the cooks themselves by how they organize and reference their notebooks.

As technology becomes faster and more compact, this ancient practice is beginning to give way to ipods, clouds or smartphones tethered to home computer databases, giving the kitchen managers and their staff a virtual up to the minute restaurant cookbook. Will it lead to better cooking, or will the young line cooks just become more dependent on explicit instructions, losing their ability to taste, adjust, and think about the principles of their skill set?

Portland Meat Collective

They say necessity is the mother of invention. Back in January of 2009, talented editor and food writer, Camas Davis lost her job at Portland Monthly magazine. Her quest to find a new relationship with food led her to southwestern France. Through Kate Hill's cooking school, Kitchen at Camont, Camas met Dominique Chapolard and his family, who run an old-fashioned pig farm. They grow their own grain to feed their own pigs, and they slaughter and process their own pork, and sell it directly to their customers at farmers markets. Camas was blown away at this direct relationship between buyer and seller. Where had that gone in the American landscape? And why?

Camas came back to the States determined to find the answers. Her answer came in the form of the Portland Meat Collective. Determined to restore the long-lost, local supply chain, she started at the beginning, with education. By connecting the community consumers with local farmers, she conducts hands-on butchery classes that teach people everything they ever wanted to know about the meat that they eat. A local chef or industry expert conducts the class with Camas as students learn about butchering whole pigs or rabbits, primal cuts of beef, or finishing traditional products like sausages and terrines.

Why are people so interested in knowing more about meat? Are Americans really that sentimental and nostalgic? Are we really that hungry for the raw and the real? The answer seems to be "Absolutely!" When I joined Camas for a whole hog butchery class, the attendees had travelled to Portland from as far away as Denver and Vancouver, British Columbia. Motivated by environmental awareness, health concerns, and simple curiosity about what they eat, people wanted more information. Camas' students range from young professionals and enthusiasts to bold housewives and community activists. It was a pleasure to be surrounded by people who believe passionately that knowledge is power, and there are a growing number of people who want more power in their eating habits.

I made a diagram for the students that would illustrate what we were going to be doing. Of course, there is step by step instruction during the class, but when you are standing over 120 pounds of flesh and skin and bone for the first time, you could be forgiven for not remembering a thing or two. My method of butchery is a combination of French, American and Italian seam butchery. We separated the major muscle groups and I explained the difference in the muscle fibers to the students so they would know the difference between cooking a tenderloin or a tongue, an eye of round or a shoulder.

I know the Portland Meat Collective could only find an audience in a few cities in North America, but I am proud that Portland is one of them. Camas has been very keen to find the breach in the supply chain, and gutsy enough to try and patch it through education and training at many levels. I recommend you support her efforts and find the class that is right for you.

Online Reservations

In an increasingly fast-paced world, more restaurants are beginning to provide online booking systems. Most of the time, this is convenient for both the customer and the restaurant. The restaurant doesn't have to answer the phone as often, and the customer can check on availability without commitment. Park Kitchen uses Open Table, which not only makes online reservations, but also maintains a database about the customer, when is their birthday or anniversary, or whether they have food allergies.

Some of the world's most famous restaurants have customized booking systems with servers that can accomodate high volume. I recently made a reservation at Noma in Copenhagen, which opened its booking for the month of May at a precise date and time, three months in advance. I later learned that in just two hours, over 30,000 people were competing for a mere 1,500 seats over the entire month. In Chicago, Next launched their season tickets last month, including the coveted El Bulli tribute menu. Co-owner Nick Kokonas said that within the first 10 seconds, they had received 1,500 requests for tickets. When they opened the restaurant, they had decided to sell their tickets like a theater or concert venue, with a similar price structure based on peak demand, and now using similar booking technology. Yet another example of merging industries in a world that spins faster each day.

Winter Farmer's Market

Having a vibrant winter farmer's market demonstrates several things about the Northern Willamette Valley that we should all be thankful for. First of all, there is a strong agriculturual community that is willing and able to grow and harvest in the cold and rain. These crops are typically not as highly valued as summer crops, yet the work and the conditions are much more difficult and unpredictable. Roots, tubers, brassica's, and chicories may not be as glamorous as asparagus, tomatoes and peppers, but for those of us who enjoy cooking with the seasons, we know there is a time for everything, and the hearty and robust cooking of winter foods is a satisfying comfort. As with any other ingredients, quality shows at the table. Take a look at this huge celery root! It's almost the size of a basketball, and yet its incredibly dense, with no soft, spongy, hollowed interior, as often happens with poorly harvested or stored roots.

How beautiful is an arrangement of carrots of all colors? These are coming in to the city from the rural surroundings of Portland twice a week, even in the winter. There are some logistical reasons that make this possible. We do have relatively mild winters here in the maritime Northwest. Also, the proximity to the city is manageable. In larger cities, like Chicago, Seattle, and New York, it's simply a longer drive for the farmers, ranchers and cheesemakers to bring their product into the city, time and transportation costs that few small scale producers can afford. I hope you will all continue to support the wealth of our fortunate surroundings.

Piglets and Mark Payne

The time has come again when I will lose one of my finest ranchers to the harsh business climate of responsibly raised animals. Every few years, a great contributor in our community throws in the towel, and looks for another way to make a living. This leads me to find new producers, and I always learn something more about the choices that farmers and ranchers have to make to grow our food. This took me to Payne Family Farm in Carlton. Mark Payne breeds and raises pigs, which are distributed by Eat Oregon First, a co-operative effort to bring small producers to a larger audience, and keep the work as local as possible.

Mark Payne not only breeds his own pigs, which is a big enough task for a small rancher, but he also grows and mills his own feed. This makes the price of his pork very competitive against the domination of large scale commercial pork. In order to keep it that way, he pens a new mother and her piglets into farrowing crates for several weeks. You can see in the photo the alluminum bars that separate the sleeping sow from her young. Some people think this kind of containment may be cruel, but is it less cruel to leave them on their own. Typically, sows crush up to twenty five percent of their litter, just from rolling over in the middle of the night. Dead piglets are not much use to anyone, and after they are large enough, they are turned into open pens to romp around and suckle as freely as mom allows.

Thanks for taking the time to show us around the farm and entertain our questions, Mark. We look forward to buying your pigs this year and wish you the best of luck. It's not easy work, but I think you're putting together a strategy that will be local and sustainable, but also affordable, which seems to be one of the most influential factors in people's decision making these days.

Herbs and Spices

Any kitchen that prepares their meals from raw ingredients knows the benefit of a few herbs and spices in the cupboard. Restaurant kitchens often have an extensive arsenal of dried seeds, leaves, roots, flowers, barks and berries. Storing them becomes increasingly important when they are used so often. At Park Kitchen, we have a very open kitchen where the guests can see just about everything. I spent several years looking for the right container for our spice rack, which seemed like an eye sore in our otherwise tidy and presentable kitchen.

I finally found these great containers at Consolidated Plastics, a science lab supply company. They neatly accomodate the one pound increments that commercial herbs and spices are sold in, they have a wide lid that is easy to measure from, they are wide so you can reach the bottom with a tablespoon, and they also have convenient indentations for gripping. In short, they are everything I was looking for. Of course, I wouldn't recommend buying or storing spices in these quantities for a home kitchen. By the time you made it to the bottom, their potency would be a shadow of its former glory.

Winter Radishes

When people think of radishes, they usually think of the quick growing "spring radishes," like french breakfast, easter egg or tapering icicle type varieties. Easy to grow and easy to eat, usually eaten raw, they are juicy and crunchy addition to many quick snacks and appetizers. The world of radishes is far more extensive than these. Everywhere in the world, radishes of all shapes and sizes are grown and prepared in vastly different ways. The winter radishes all have one thing in common. They are very dense in order to survive harsh growing climates, and their flavor is much stronger than spring varieties. They are generally treated in one of two ways, braised until tender to mellow their sharp flavor, or grated and served as a condiment to highlight their strong and sometimes spicy nature.

Some of these radishes are known by many names. The bleeding heart radish or watermelon radish has too many monikers to list, but seems to be derived from one of the many softball sized asian radishes. It has a beautiful spectrum of color, and is sometimes thinly shaved raw to show it's beauty, but this radish is quite dense for such uses, and thin slices should at least be soaked in cold water before using them raw. It does maintain its colors after being braised, although the color does fade. There are also varieties that have all red skin and flesh, resembling a chioggia beet.

The so-called Spanish black radish is especially tolerant of cold climates, and unlike most winter radishes, it stores well after harvesting. It has a very strong flavor reminiscent of horseradish, and often used in the same way. This root vegetable is common among eastern European cultures. It can be grated and mixed with sour cream or rendered goose fat to spread on dense pumpernickel or rye. It makes a good pickle, or braised until tender with cream or butter.

The Chinese daikon radish is familiar to Americans, but there are many more giant winter radishes of different shapes and sizes. The Chinese probably love radishes more than any other culture, and as a result, they have cultivated the most variety. As with the black radish, it is usually either pickled, braised until tender and served as an accompaniment, or grated and used as a condiment mixed with citrus peels, herbs or chiles. The daikon is one of the most mellow, and a good place to start if you are trying something new with winter radishes.

The Juiciest Seeds in the World

Pomegranates are one of nature's unique wonders. The name pomegranate is derived from Latin "apple with many seeds," and it has been given its own family in the plant kingdom. There are over 500 cultivars of varying sizes and skin colors, ranging from yellow and purple, to the more dominant pinks and reds. The seeds also vary in color from white to deep red, and from sweet to very tart. Their cultivation extends back into ancient times, probably indigenous to the fertile crescent and the cradle of civilization, but it is now grown throughout the subtropical regions of the world. It is a popular crop in India, China and Afghanistan, throughout the Mediterranean, and in North America, most commerical production comes from California and Mexico. The tree-like shrub that bears these fruits is often grown outside the subtropics as a decorative landscaping plant, with attractive foliage and a beautiful orange spring blossom.

The seeds are surrounded by a supple pod of juice, delightfully moist and crunchy at the same time. They can be applied directly to dishes both sweet and savory, simply scattered over grilled meats, salads, or desserts. Their juice is also made into sweet syrups and cocktail mixers to extend the juice beyond their growing season, which usually lasts from November to February. When choosing pomegranates, pick the largest fruits, which should be dense and heavy for their size. At the end of the season, the seeds will not fill the entire fruit, and there will be more white pith than fruit (as shown below). Pomegranates do not continue to ripen after being picked, but they do store well under refrigeration. At home, I usually eat pomegranates for breakfast with yogurt and granola, but at the restaurant, they find their way into most everything for a few months.

Cedar Planking

The aroma of cedar is well known and loved, and its uses are many. One of the most famous and delicious dishes of the Pacific Northwest is cedar planked salmon. Fillets of salmon are laid on soaked planks of wood and grilled over an open fire. The wood not only imparts a rich smokiness, but also protects the delicate fish from direct heat.

In Japan, they have their own traditions of using cedar to impart flavor into food and drink. Their natural resources are less abundant, so their traditions are more frugal. Thin slats of cedar are wrapped around marinated seafood, sometimes accompanied by mushrooms or vegetables, and baked or roasted to impart the flavor of the cedar into the individual parcels. This technique, being smaller, also imparts much less smoke, and more of the wood.

Although the tradition of the indigenous tribes of the Pacific Northwest is a delicious and effective way of feeding a large group of people, if you're having a smaller gathering, the Japanese technique is an effective way of serving individual portions without using a lot of wood or charcoal.

Croute au Fromage

In the spring, I started a composed cheese plate at Park Kitchen. For whatever reason, we had never really sold much of the traditional cheese plate you see on menus all over town, a few wedges of cheese served with fresh or dried fruit, compotes, nuts, crackers, et cetera. It also never really seemed appropriate to the menu at Park Kitchen. I blogged about that first cheese plate, the Tete de Moine, in the spring. Since then, I have been featuring domestic cheeses, but I am once again returning to the cheeses of Switzerland for the first warm composed cheese plate of the year.

The melting qualities of Gruyere are well known and deserved. It is made from unskimmed and unpasteurized cow's milk, with a fat content of 45%. Aged from eight to ten months in 75 pound wheels, the dense texture and cream content make it one of the perfect melting cheeses, with its fruity aroma and nutty characteristics opening up as it melts. Shaving the cheese on a wooden Swiss mandolin is certainly fun, but you can use whatever you have. The dish is reminiscent of the classic Swiss croute au fromage, which is a sort of open faced croque monsieur. I have added a few elements to the traditional bread, ham and cheese. At the base of the dish are caramelized onions braised in beer. On top of that is a piece of grilled bread covered with melted Gruyere slices. Then we saute some chanterelle mushrooms and toss them with fresh sliced ham, pickled pears and pickled mustard seeds. As with the original croute au fromage, this is a hearty cold weather dish.

Mount Hood Matsutake

Although we have tremendous bounty of wild mushrooms in the Pacific Northwest, the matsutake is not well known outside the gourmand community. We have a good harvest of tricholoma magnivelare, the white matsutake, around Ponderosa and Lodgepole Pines along the coastline and approaching the higher altitudes of Mount Hood and Mount Adams. I have also found them among Douglas Fir, Rhododendron and Salal. It is a beautiful mushroom to see in the wild, peeking up among the rocks of shallow mountain streams, in mossy groves, and beneath the mosaic of autumn leaves.

The Japanese have a great reverence for this mushroom, which has strong symbolic value in their kaiseki cuisine. For this reason, they will often pay twenty times our local price, and matsutake from around the world are shipped to Japan in October and November. At Tsukiji Market in Tokyo, I have seen matsutake imported from Oregon, Washington and Canada, as well as Turkey and China. The Japanese variety, tricholoma matsutake, has more of the brown markings on the cap that are seen on the stem in the photo. However, the texture and flavor are almost indistinguishable.

The smallest mushrooms are the most highly prized because they are relatively tender, and the veil is closed, making them easier to clean. Larger mushrooms become rather fibrous, sometimes to the point of being impossible to chew. It's firm texture and spicy cinnamon aroma make it ideal for charcoal grilling or poaching and serving in broth. In kaiseki cuisine, it is most often served with fish or vegetables, but I have also liked serving it with meats like duck, beef and chicken. Bourbon has also been a favorite accompaniment in recent years. If you have never tried matsutake, perhaps a restaurant is the first place to taste them. If you feel adventurous, I have seen them at several farmer's markets and at Uwajimaya in the fall.

The Mysteries of Kombucha

The history of kombucha is hazy and speculative. This intriguing fermented tea is believed to have come from China and migrated to eastern Russia. From there it migrated back to the far east and across the Pacific to the United States. My initial interest in kombucha came from it's mysterious appearance, a large brown vat of bubbling elixir with a large whitish gelatinous cap floating on top. The name kombucha is actually Japanese for "seaweed tea," because the fermenting "mother" floating on top resembles seaweed or a sort of jellyfish. The Japanese do make a tea (actually a tisane) of kombu seaweed which has the same name, but the fermented tea beverage is called kocha kinoko. In Russia it is called grib, and in China it is called hongcha jun.

Folklore surrounding the drink claim it is a health tonic with many healing properties, though this has not been extensively demonstrated by testing. The main claim for this seems to be the presence of glucuronic acid, which is a compound used in the liver for detoxification. This drink received widespread notoriety last year when a national recall pulled the emerging product ($300 million in retail sales) from retail store shelves. It had been discovered that the unpasteurized product contained more than the legal limit of 0.5% alcohol. For more on the story, read this. However, many people who are drawn to the notion of its healing properties claim that the "living" beverage loses many of its magical properties if it is pasteurized.

Returning to my original interest in the wonder drink, I was fascinated by the thick layer of SCOBY (symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast) floating on top. This is the same thing you see in raw apple cider vinegar, but it is far thicker, and while living, it always floats. This is the perfect environment for the aerobic bacteria developing on the top of the SCOBY, and the anaerobic bacteria bubbling away from the bottom. Maintaining the pH of the fermentation is critical. Below 2.5 it is too acidic to drink, and above 4.6, it is at risk of contamination by unwanted bacteria and mold. If your grandmother ever made you drink a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar before dinner, you might be interested in trying a more flavorful alternative to healthy digestion. Others just like the taste of a slightly effervescent tea.

Huitlacoche, Black Gold of the Aztecs

In America, the only people who have heard of corn smut are corn farmers. It is a pathogenic fungus that swells and distorts corn into large blueish-black kernels, and usually gets fed to the pigs. The USDA has spent considerable time and money eradicating corn smut. South of the border, throughout Mexico, the same fungus is an ancient delicacy. Since the days of the Aztecs, it has been deliberately inoculated by cutting the stalks so that the water-borne fungus would infect the corn, promoting the development of the highly valued corn smut. It is called by the ancient Nahuatl name, huitlacoche, which means "raven's shit." Ears of corn infected with this dark colored fungus nearly quadruple the value of the corn. It takes on a rich, earthy flavor, retaining notes of the original sweetness of corn, but with far more complexity. When simmered with garlic and chiles, or made into a mole, the corn smut is often served on quesadillas or tamales. Maybe corn smut and raven's shit are not the most inticing monikers, which is why some American chefs are trying the term Mexican truffle! Whatever you call it, don't just throw it to the pigs, find out what the Aztec kings were so excited about.

McSweeney's Starts Cooking

In typical McSweeney's fashion, the San Francisco based publishers have entered the world of food writing with a rather unorthodox beginning. The first book from their newest imprint, McSweeney's Insatiables, is Mission Street Food: Recipes and Ideas from an Improbable Restaurant. This book tells the story of Anthony Myint and his wife Karen, opening a cart in 2008 in San Francisco's Mission District.

What is so interesting about that? Thousands of carts opened across the country after the economic collapse. In this case, a talented cook began by offering delicious late night food at dirt cheap prices. They twittered and they gossiped, the buzz spread, and so did their business. They eventually moved out of the cart and into a number of other iconoclastic restaurant formats collaborating with famous chefs in the community and donating proceeds to charitable organizations. Their book not only chronicles their madcap tales of how this all came to be, but shares many of their recipes with step by step photography. This is not a glamorous cookbook, but it is gritty and substantial.

The writing is sincere and silly. There are bold ideas that came from bold actions. Besides the sly commentaries and original page layouts, there is also a comic storyboard about how it all began. It is a very fun book to read or even peruse. At the end of the book, they list the four golden rules of a successful chef, after which you "reap your rewards." Once you complete the four steps, the authors have the following advice:

The night before you open to the public, take a shower and go to sleep early.
This will be the last time your life feels under control. By the time you wake
up, you'll already be a couple hours in the shit, no matter what time it is.
Equipment will malfunction, food will be compromised, and the first-aid kit may or may not be adequate...Congratulations! Your rejection of money, a social life, or any conventional form of happiness is now complete. You are a
successful chef.

There are laughs in many forms available in these pages. It makes sense that McSweeney's would be their publisher. In their own words, the authors had never written a cookbook, and the publishers had never printed one. Cookbooks are a very complex kind of book to produce, requiring not only an interesting story and good writing, but lots of photographs, recipes and recipe testing. This takes a considerable amount of time.

The surprising turn for me is how McSweeney's crew has begun their new genre with such hubris. They have also become the publisher of Lucky Peach, a quarterly food magazine conceived by New York celebrity David Chang and Peter Meehan. David Chang is many things. Like Anthony Myint of Mission Street Food, he is an opinionated, iconoclastic chef who started out by feeding people delicious late night food on the cheap. Like Anthony, he went on to open several other food service operations. Both publications have a collaborative spirit, with contributions from other famous chefs and food writers, and also a desire to bring fine dining concepts down to the proletariat price point.

Chris Ying is the editor-in-chief of both Lucky Peach and Mission Street Food. The $64,000 question in my mind is how this project ended up at McSweeney's. Dave Chang and Peter Meehan had published the Momofuku cookbook with Potter, an imprint of Random House in New York. They had originally conceived of Lucky Peach as a Food Network TV show, then as an iPad app. Somehow it ended up being a magazine from a west coast publisher that had never handled food writing before?!? It could be that a new generation of publishers, like the new generation of chefs, are willing to explore new media.

Oregon Wasabi

Over the course of this summer, I was introduced to the farmers of Oregon's only wasabi farm, Frog Eyes Wasabi. In fact, there are only four such farms in North America, all of them located on the Pacific coastline. This remarkable plant grows very slowly, taking over a year to mature. It requires the cool and steady maritime climate to stay healthy. This long growth cycle is part of the high cost of fresh wasabi, but as with so many great foods imported from other cultures, Americans have little understanding of wasabi.

The most widely used part of the plant is the rhizome, which we call wasabi root, and which few Americans have ever tasted. Sadly, most Americans have been to sushi bars serving blobs of green paste alongside their nigiri and maki rolls. This is powdered horseradish and green food coloring. It has a simple one dimensional nasal heat and no flavor or aroma. It is very cheap, but it is no substitute for wasabi. Real wasabi does have a spiciness like horseradish, but it also has a very complex vegetal flavor and floral aroma. These compounds are very volatile, and they dissipate within a few minutes of grinding them into paste. This is why wasabi is traditionally ground to order.

Although the cost of fresh wasabi is high, that is partly because supply is low, and supply is low because awareness is low. My friends at Frog Eyes are in their first year of production, and they are already having a difficult time meeting demand. We thought it would be fun for them to come to Park Kitchen and have a tasting menu with wasabi applied in different ways. I wanted to show them the potential of wasabi in cooking, so they could open up new ideas for their marketing.

The meal started with something familiar, oysters on the half shell, trout roe, and a granita of wasabi root. I hoped that the sight of the wasabi leaf, rocks and seaweed would invoke the feeling of being at the farm. From here, they tasted dishes using different parts of the plant, and pairing them with tomatoes, cucumber, tuna salad, beef and mushrooms. The main course was grilled ribeye with wasabi root butter, sauteed chanterelles, padron peppers, potcha beans, and a puree of wasabi leaves, which is a vivid emerald green with a bright spicy herbal flavor.

You may begin to see fresh wasabi on the shelves of Portland grocery stores like Whole Foods, New Seasons, or Uwajimaya. The rhizome is particularly hardy. You can store it in the refrigerator for several weeks and it will not deteriorate. However, once grated, the nuances fade rather quickly, so use it as soon as possible.

A Guide to Summer Berries

The Pacific Northwest is home to some of the finest berries in America. Boysenberries, marionberries, jostaberries, gooseberries, raspberries, loganberries, chesterberries, blueberries, huckleberries, a person could get lost in the lexicon of berries. Here are a few notes on what the names mean.

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  Strawberry (fragaria) is widely known and loved. There are many cultivars, but are generally divided into "June bearing" or "ever bearing" fruits.



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  Blackberry (rubus) is by far the largest family of berries with more than 350 species. The most widely known cultivars are the 'Boysen', 'Marion', 'Chester Thornless', 'Triple Crown', 'Logan', and 'Siskiyou', to name a few. Oregon is the leading world producer of cultivated blackberries.



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  Barberry (berberis) is more widely known as the Oregon grape or mahonia. It is too tart to eat out of hand, and generally used for making jellies.



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  Raspberry (rubus) generally refers to the European red raspberry, but there are also golden, purple and black raspberries. These fruits are particularly perishable, with its fruit being very soft when ripe.



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  Dewberry (rubus caesius) resembles the blackberry and is a close relative. It is reminiscent of the raspberry, but ripening to dark purple or black, and not as fragile as the raspberry.



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  Loganberry (rubus x loganobaccus) is a cross between a raspberry and a dewberry. It is about the size of a raspberry with the color and flavor of a blackberry.



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  Tayberry (rubus fruticosus x idaeus) is a cross between a raspberry and a blackberry, more resembling a raspberry and being sweeter than the loganberry.



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  Gooseberry (ribes uvacrispa) is a very tart berry, either green or red skinned, with green flesh. It is very popular in Europe, but not as well known or loved in America. I personally love this berry and use it extensively every year. It has a very short season, usually the month of June.



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  Jostaberry (ribes nigrum x uvacrispa) is a cross between a gooseberry and a black currant. It is slightly smaller than a gooseberry with a very dark colored skin and flesh. It's flavor is more like the black currant, especially when fully ripe.



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  Currants (ribes) are small, tart, pea sized berries ranging in color from white, pink, red, and black. The tartness of the berries also varies. They are generally used for jellies, preserves, liqueurs and sauces.
  


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  Blueberry (vaccinium) is divided into "lowbush," which are regarded as wild, and usually very small, and "highbush," of which there are many cultivars, and the berries are much larger.

Farmers markets in Portland are bursting with a wide variety of berries all summer long, and many people in the Northwest are passionate jam and jelly makers. People also store the berries in the freezer and use them well into autumn. Although I have always loved berries, I had never seen the wealth of fruits we have here in the Pacific Northwest, so take advantage of them.