Racism In the Kitchen

Yesterday, Chef Eric Ripert, Executive Chef of Le Bernardin tweeted the following message concerning the most recent episode of Kitchen Nightmares with Chef Gordon Ramsay.


"Watched kitchen nightmares=RACIST content,verbal abuse,humiliation etc.Shame on Gordon&production of show!Not an inspiration of leadership"
Chef Ripert's Twitter Feed


I watched the show and was not completely appalled but was a bit disappointed in one of my favorite chefs, Gordon Ramsay. I'm used to the yelling and even find entertainment in it. But what I found completely unacceptable was the mocking of an employee of the Grasshopper Restaurant. The employee was speaking normally but with a thick Latino accent. To be completely honest, I couldn't understand him either, but that's not the point. The point is that Chef Ramsay mocked his accent and  publicly humiliated the employee.
It seems now as though Chef Ripert is taking some heat for the comment he made. All the Chef Ramsey fans are losing their minds because they say, "That's just the way he is."
But to be honest with you, that's no excuse! That's the attitude that continues to push racism into the next era of the restaurant industry. Racism has no place in the food industry. I have worked in a few kitchens, both military and civilian and the racism is more under-the-table. When I worked in a Grecian steakhouse in Missouri, people always made comments about a "Olive munching owner with a nigger pizza cook, two redneck river boys on the grill and a cracker high school student making salads." It might have been a verifiable fact that there was an authentic Grecian owner, two men from Columbia Missouri who happened to live by the Missouri River, and a caucasian high school student making salads but still undeniably a racist remark full of hate and complete lack of appreciation for the heritage of the individuals that made up a great place to eat full of family tradition and atmosphere. People talked trash about the kitchen even though it was putting out some pretty amazing steaks and some pizza that still makes me long for home. Not to mention a gyro that I'd put against any gyro shop in New York.
Now that I'm in the military, I even hear it under a zero-tolerance policy. People making jokes that the southern meal made up of fried chicken, catfish and greens hits every black stereotype out there. People get their feelings hurt over this stuff and justifiably so. The jokes have to stop. The abuse of ethnic slurs needs to stop. The mocking of an employees accent in an attempt to humiliate them has to stop. I applaud Chef Ripert for saying something and for not backing down in the face of criticism.
Now when Chef Ripert is on Top Chef as a guest judge, I don't always understand everything that he says--He has a very thick accent. But he makes some damn good food and he is a true culinary professional and I respect that and by no means would I ever disrespectfully humiliate him in front of his peers for my shortcomings of not being accustomed to hearing accents.
Thank you, Chef, for saying something. Thank you for not laughing along with the rest of the world who seem to just like to see Chef Ramsay yell/verbally abuse hard-working, skilled kitchen staffs. I have run a kitchen and it is no easy task, but a kitchen needs an organized leader, not a human gattling gun like Chef Ramsay. There is a time to be forceful and a time to be stern, but there is never a time to humiliate and belittle an employee for his ethnicity and heritage.
I hope Chef Ramsey, of whom I have a lot of respect pending, will apologize for the incident and be able to walk away with a lesson learned and his head held high. But if there is no apology, I hope everyone else sees the lesson that Chef Ramsey missed.
There is no place for racism in the kitchen and I support the views of Chef Ripert in this situation.


Aaron Oeth
The ProAm Kitchen

Dinner With The Oeth Family

Dinner at the Oeth house is never boring. We have all kinds of crazy games and rules of engagement for showing your chewed food (chicken only).

 Tonight was especially fun. Kayla made an awesome dinner of Cornish Hens, Mac & Cheese, Tater Wedges, Mangos and Brotchen.

JoJo Started us off with his bedtime prayer. Yes, he knew it was dinner time but he likes the bedtime prayer better.

Then JoJo found the joys of kräuter butter. We slabbed it onto some brotchen and he devoured it.

 The meal was great, so JoJo capped off the meal with a wonderful rendition of "Chocolate Rain."

Good dinner cooked to perfection by my bride and free entertainment offered by Cubby and JoJo. If you don't sit down at the table every night and eat with your family, you should. If you eat in front of the TV like a zombie, you shouldn't. You never know when your family will surprise you with a rendition of Chocolate Rain...metaphorically, of course.

McCormick Chipotle Chile Pepper Powder Review

I am not one for gimmicky, premixed or cop-out, season-it-for-me spices of any kind, but I think I accidentally found a winner! While shopping for the nearly fifty ingredients I wanted to use for pickling about a month back, I somehow accidentally ended up with this spice in the bags when I got home from the grocery store. It sat in the spice rack for a while until I could figure out what to do with it. I figured I could use it for an adobo of some kind, but I knew that this little shaker of punch-packed powder could make for some interesting items and possibly reinvent some old recipes as well.
The ingredients are simple enough. The shaker states, "CHIPOTLE CHILI PEPPERS, SILICONE DIOXIDE (ADDED TO MAKE FREE FLOWING). Awesome, two ingredients, one of which probably isn't good for me but, then again, neither is the 1/2 pound of butter I use in every recipe, so the silicone gets a free pass this time.

Recipe Coming Soon

I added this stuff to my Sascha Saxler-inspired German Potatoes and it woke them right up! They went from a side dish to a main event! They took on a deep smokey flavor that added a dimension to the vegetables and even a new edge to the vinegar. The heat it added wasn't bad either. It was a familiar jalapeno heat but it stuck around like a cayenne-type burn. By adding it I probably just completely obliterated any "German-ness" that the recipe had but good food is good food, right?
I added it to my standard salsa recipe and it gave the cilantro and even the jalapenos a new brightness but still added the deep smokiness. This one ingredient made it a completely different salsa.
This stuff is good. Deep, smokey, awesome. I may have accidentally purchased this magic powder, but I will definitely do it on purpose next time.


Aaron Oeth
The ProAm Kitchen

Passion and The Fish Who Brought Me Here (not a French seafood recipe)

I think it's safe to say that I am passionate about food. I also think it is safe to say that my passion has bled over into my personal and professional life. My work is food. I am a dining facility manager at a small site Air Force Dining Facility in Germany (The Best Small Site DFAC in USAFE, 2010 to be exact). I love this work. I often feel so restricted by the Air Force Recipe System, that I want to scream. I know that my people are capable of so much more and they have proven so on many occasions. I hate mediocracy, despise it! But I am forced to do it anytime I'm in an Air Force kitchen. Don't take this as me whining about my job--it is, but it's also not because I LOVE my job. I am passionate about the food, but I am more passionate about being a servant.

My Passion and my people all in one picture!

God has called me to be a servant over and over again and, like Jonah, I have run the other way many times. The funny thing about this is that I have not been swallowed by a literal whale. I have been swallowed by a metaphorical whale--my job. When I came into the AF as a weatherman, I knew it was a good job but I knew that it wasn't my calling. After the weather job didn't work out, I was forced into Services where I was trained to do my job now. In Services, I am a servant to the customer. That might sound bad but it's the life God built me to live. I didn't realize until recently that as I was running away from servanthood, that I was running straight into it. Through my job, my passion for food and servanthood to the people I serve,  I am slowly being trained to be a servant to God.
Now if you recall in the story of Jonah, he was eventually spit out from the fish and onto the beach. Well, here I am on the beach serving. My longing for excellence, my drive to be the best, my love for the smile of my customers, the positive comment card and the never-ending need for approval is only me being obedient to the God who caught me and shoved me into a fish against my will and made me become His servant. He might sound like a bully in this case, but He is good, so so good.
I suck at being a Christian. I'm a pitiful example if you're looking for one, but I simply cannot look at a situation like this and not see God in it. I have been brought to this point for one specific reason--to serve. Not just to serve food to customers every day. Not just to serve up amateur recipes online every week. But to serve my calling to be a servant to people in an effort to spread the love that God has given me.  Thank you all for your support while starting up the ProAm Kitchen Blog and I look forward to continuing to bring you great food, recipes and parts of my life every week.

Aaron Oeth
The ProAm Kitchen

Leftover Pepper Burger

I'm not going to post a recipe on this one because it was a basic burger with some additions but I thought you'd all enjoy it. I had some habaneros left over from the massive amount of salsa I made last week, so I mixed them into a burger for my lunch at work today. It was delicious! I only ate one of them. Some coworkers ate the other halves. They seemed to enjoy themselves too. I'll list the layers in order from top to bottom.


-Grilled Bun
-BBQ Sauce
-Tomato
-Lettuce
-Bacon
-Cheese
-Burger with minced habanero and onion in it
-Grilled bun


After I was done cutting the peppers, I decided to abuse my Airman. She wouldn't lick the top of the pepper for free but $5 later, she was in pain. Mission accomplished.

Before

After

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Mango Habanero Salsa

So maybe I'm a little late getting into the mango-habanero game, but this salsa turned out great and even won a small competition in the Best Overall and Best Spicy categories. This stuff has some serious bite to it, but the mango makes it very forgiving. It gets in your mouth, starts off with a strong sweetness and then the burn creeps in, then up your nose, and then it goes into your eyes (then at some point little habanero pepper demons creep into your brain and kick it around for a while) then the sweetness takes back over and your reach for another chip. It sounds like a horrific experience, but I assure you, it is worth it. It's packed with flavor and will be a contender no matter what you serve it with. It's nice on a chip, chicken or fish. I've even eaten it on a burrito and it was awesome!

Finished product

Mango Habanero Salsa

Ingredients

-4 Ripe Tomatoes, quartered (Large plums. Not beefsteaks unless you pulled them off the vine yourself)

-3 Ripe Mangos, peeled, pitted and cut into hearty chunks

-1 Small Red (purple) Onion, quartered (they are sweeter and you'll thank me for it later when the Habanero demons are kicking your brain)

-1 Habanero Pepper (or two in the winter months when the peppers aren't so potent) or 2 Dried Habanero Peppers (don't discount the dried, they'll burn just as hot, they're just not as fruity as the fresh. If you do use the dried, add 1/2 a yellow pepper to the mix to make up for lack of fruitiness of the dried habanero).

-1/2 of a Lime's worth of lime juice

-1 Bunch of fresh Cilantro, finely chopped

-2 Tbsp (or to taste) of Sugar in the Raw (regular sugar will work but it just doesn't have that earthy flavor that helps blend flavors so well). This will also help add a ripe mango flavor to the salsa if your mangos aren't so ripe.

 -1Tbsp of kosher salt (or to taste) (if you are going to consume the salsa immediately, I would use a finer salt that will dissolve more quickly)

Method

-Place quartered tomatoes in a food processor and chop until you have the desired consistency. Don't make it paste, but don't leave them chunky either. Think Mexican restaurant, not pico de gallo. Empty processed tomatoes into a large mixing bowl.

-If using dried habaneros, scoop up about 1 cup of tomatoes and let your dried peppers soak in it while you prep the rest of your recipe. There is enough water in the tomatoes to rehydrate your peppers and wake them up a bit.

Place pieces of mango into the food processor and chop to same consistency as the tomatoes. Add to mixing bowl.

-Chop the onion in the food processor to a slightly chunkier consistency than the tomatoes and add to mixing bowl

Red and orange habanero varieties

-Place the habanero pepper in the food processor and pulverize it. You want that thing as destroyed as possible. It will prevent you from getting a big ol' chunk of hellfire on your tongue while other bites taste like a dessert topping. It will help the salsa blend better. ***I highly recommend using a pair of latex gloves when handling high-powered peppers or else you next trip to the bathroom could result in a very painful situation***

-If you're using the dried habaneros, place the tomato soak, the dried peppers and the recommended yellow bell pepper in the processor and destroy.

-Use a chefs knife to finely chop your cilantro and toss it on top of the pile. I like a lot of cilantro. It seems to cool things off in the same way that sour cream might in a taco. I like a lot, but you can adjust to your liking.

-Add the lime juice, Sugar in the Raw and salt to the bowl. Fold it all together with a rubber spatula.

You can eat it right away, but I HIGHLY recommend saving it in the fridge for the next day. When you let something this volatile sit overnight, it will come together very nicely and the stages that I talked about in the introduction will blend and meld into each other--each providing an introduction for the next stage. If you don't let it sit overnight, it will, instead, hit you like the cars in the opening scene of Meet Joe Black.

Enjoy and let me know how your salsa turns out.

Also, to celebrate the first official NEW recipe of this blog, here is a video of me eating a raw habanero pepper. 

Perfect Pot Roast with Dripping Sauce

Friday night, with a little method help (searing and foil pack) from Alton Brown, I attempted my first pot roast. Now a pot roast is typically a not-so-great piece of meat with inconsistent marbling and the potential for a dry, overly fatty dinner results. This is easily fixed with some searing and strategic wrapping. I hope you enjoy this method as much as I did...and Cubby...and JoJo...and Kayla...well kind of because she is pregnant and nothing tastes normal right now.

Perfect Pot Roast
Ingredients:
-One pot roast: The bigger the bone, the better. Look for decent marbling and a little fat. Not too much but enough for some great flavor.
-Granulated Garlic Powder: Enough to cover both sides of roast
-Fresh Ground Black Pepper: Enough to cover both sides of roast
-Salted Butter: Use butter. Margarine is gross. Fat is good.
-Kosher Salt: Palm full
-Balsamic Vinegar: 1/2 Cup
-Red Wine: 1 Cup: I used a dry, Italian merlot but you can use what you like.
-Handful of Red Grapes
-Handfull of Queen Olives: Pitted, with or without pimento.
-Yellow Onion: Half an onion will do. Sliced thin (hamburger style).
-Fresh Basil: 1 Sprig/3 leaves...whatever

Method:
-Preheat oven to 325-350 degrees
-Bring roast to room temperature (don't let it sit there all day, you'll get sick and blame me. But it won't be my fault, I warned you). Season with garlic powder and pepper on both sides. Set it off to the side.
-Bring a cast iron (CI) pan to a high temp on high heat. If you don't have a CI skillet, use the thickest metal pan you have. Even heating is the key.
-When the pan is hot, melt butter onto bottom of pan. When the butter starts to foam and is completely melted, carefully place roast in pan. Sear roast on both sides for about 2 minutes or until a nice brown crust appears. Black is bad but doesn't ruin the roast, just try to not let the meat get that far.
-When the roast has a brown crust on each side, pull it and set it to the side.

-There will be a significant amount of rendered fat, a little beef juice and some butter left in the hot pan. Turn the heat down to med-high and add 2Tbsp of butter. When melted, add sliced onions, grapes (crush them in your hand and toss them in). Add olives in the same manner. Let the onions brown in the butter before moving on to the next step.
-Add kosher salt, balsamic vinegar and red wine. Now you should add the fresh basil, bruised (roll it in your hands a few times) and toss them in.
-Let ingredients simmer until sauce coats the back of a spoon.

Roast and reduction in foil pack

-While sauce is simmering, tear off two 2ft strips of wide, heavy duty aluminum foil. Lay them in a cross in a glass/metal baking pan (square, rectangle--whatever the roast will fit in. The pan doesn't matter, it's just an apparatus for catching juice if it spills). Place roast in the middle of cross in pan.

-Sauce should be reduced nicely by now. Pour sauce over the top of roast until roast is covered about 1/3 to 1/2 of the way up the side of meat making sure to get all the onions, grapes, olives and everything in there. Wrap foil loosely around the roast. Try to make it air tight so juice doesn't spill out.
-Place in 325-350 degree oven and bake for about 45 minutes hour before checking. Bake until medium (don't worry if you don't like medium meat, it will continue to cook after you take it out of the oven).
-When roast is about medium (135 degrees F), you should remove it from oven and LET IT REST FOR 15-20 Minutes. It will continue to cook and redistribute the juices as well as soak up some more of the sauce you poured over it.

Cup full o' flavor...not gravy!

-When 15-20 minutes has passed, remove roast from pan and place on the cutting board. Take leftover sauce/drippings from the pan and place them in a gravy boat/liquid measuring cup or whatever pouring utensil you want, really. Do not add flour or corn starch to make this sauce a gravy. This sauce is perfect the way it is and has all the rendered fat, juices, red wine, and tangy vinegar flavors all in one sauce. If you add flour or corn starch to make a gravy, you will dull these flavors and be very disappointed.
-Slice roast ACROSS the grain of the meat into 1/4" slices and arrange, fanned, on plate. Pour some of your sauce on it and DEVOUR!

Finished product. Finished with fresh cracked pepper, dripping sauce and a sprig of basil

I have never been a fan of pot roast. I have always enjoyed beef in the steak-on-the-grill form, but I am a newly found advocate of roasts.

Dinner and a movie with the wife. It's "Boiler Room" for tonight.

***UPDATE***

My sister-in-law, Kim, Tried the recipe and my brother and nephew devoured it!  Below is a picture of her roast. It looks awesome! Thanks for the pictures, Kimbo-Slice!

This pic makes me want to make it again tonight!