A Top Chef Becomes A Top Entrepreneur

There are some chefs who just cook - and that defines them. Others turn their skills into a multi-level business and that also defines them. Then there is Mike Isabella who is a combination of both.He's setting the Washington DC culinary world atilt and now has a new concept, a modernist food church .

Jennifer Steinhauer interviewed Chef Isabella for yesterday's New York Times Food section. Mr. Isabella first came to prominence ten years ago when he appeared as a contestant on Top Chef. He wowed judge Tom Colicchio with a tasty pepperoni sauce. In the years in between he established eleven restaurants in Washington DC, Virginia, and Maryland.By then end of this year he'll be opening a vast food emporium at Tyson's Galleria, a McLean Virginia luxury mall. His latest venture, a French eatery, Requin will bring life to The Wharf, a refurbished  area of the Washington waterfront. This new eatery is a kind of food church being helmed by him and chef Michael Rafidi who has also has a background in southern Spanish and Moroccan cuisine. Chef Isabella has a whole globe of international restaurants, including Greek,Italian Mexican and Chinese.

Mr. Isabella is much more than a restauranteur . He is a mogul, somewhat rare in the food world. His empire is worth thirty million and it includes stands in airports and sports arenas. He has an army of six hundred workers whiich will double when the new restaurants open. This boy  from New Jersey had humble beginnings. His culinary career started at the now defunct Restaurant School of New York, did stints in Manhattan and Philadelphia. He cooked for the famed Marcus Samunessen and prolific restaurateur Stephen Starr. He experimented with eastern Mediterranean food at Zaytinya. He met Tom Colicchio at food writer , Joan Nathan's house where he pushed Mr. Nathan to let him compete on Top Chef. After the show he started Graffiato in Washington 's Chinatown section. His future lies with the success of Isabella's Eatery at the upscale mall.. It will have a variety of different cuisines from Mediterranean to Japanese , with Italian thrown in He'll also have an  ice cream parlor and a coffee bar.

Mike Isabella is beyond just a restauranteur. He is a giant in the industry  and his empire will keep growing. It will be exciting and interesting as to what he'll do next.

Dhosas A Tasty Spin On Crepes

Dosas are one of the fun foods in Indian cuisine. They're light and crispy, without the heaviness of say a curry or paneer. These crepes can be filled with anything and make for a perfect dinner or even a snack.

Melissa Clark wrote about them and tested out a recipe in her A Good Appetite Column.They are a variation on the FRench crepe, being made with lmetils and rice. Unlike them, there's no special pan to create them. Any cast iron  skillet or griddle will do. Dosas do require a lot of prep time and devotion.There will be a trip to the local Indian market to purchase white urad dal  - a type of black lentil that's been split and husked along with Ragi flour or malted finger millet flour. Home chefs will also need frozen shredded coconut and curry leaves also available at Indian market. It's then soaking, grinding and fermenting for twenty-four hours.It's basically rinsing the rice and urad dal in cold water and then transferring it to a large bowl or container. Fenugreek is added and then cold filtered water . The grains are left to soak at room temperature for twenty-four hours  before cooking.It's then drained afterwards, then transferred to a powerful blender or food processor and blended with filtered water until a thin runny batter is formed. Rice flour or ragi millet flour is whisked in until the mixture is the consistency of pancake batter. The fermented batter will bubble and rise up..

Making dosas is exactly like making crepes. The first few won't come out perfect. There's an old saying about throwing the first few crepes to the dog. It does take a knack according to Anita Jaisinghani of the famed Indian restaurant Pondicheri in New York City. She recommends not using too much oil to fry them along with setting them on the griddle for a heartbeat before spreading the batter out to the pan's edges.Use a measuring cup's bottom and not a spoon for spreading. This creates, golden, crunchy exteriors. Don't worry if they're not thin,. The thicker they are the better to taste the rich  lentil flavor. Ms. Clark fills her with  a pumpkin seed chutney and flavored mustard greens. The chutney is super easy to make. It's cooking the frozen shredded coconut and onion in coconut oil.. Mustard seeds and curry leaves are also added for intense flavor. Ginger and cayenne are also added for the classic Indian heat we all know so well.Pumpkin seeds are add for crunch .

Dosas are a traditional Indian dish that's tasty and traditional. They are labor intensive but worth it.l Try them for a taste of the fiery yet delicious./

Lia Huber's Amazing Journey

Many chefs go overseas to learn cooking. They usually head to Paris or Milan, but not Lia Huber. She learns her craft on the beaches of Corfu and the lush jungles of Costa Rica. This journey has led her to her latest cookbook/autobiography, Nourished : A Memoir of Food, Faith and Enduring Love.It's much more than a recipe book, it's a template for surviving rough times.

Ms. Huber has lovingly and humorously written this interesting book published by Penguin Ramdon House. She has been through a lot in her life with being diagnosed with cancer in her twenties along with fibromyalgia, first mistakenly diagnosed as lupus. She and her husband Christopher have gone through a plethora of ups and downs. Their strong faith has kept them anchored as she writes about it, One of the aspects I love about this book is that it can strike a resonant chord with anyone, not just home chefs but anyone going through their own hells.Chef. Huber is a regular contributor to the magazine Cooking Light, and that detailed, colorful writing, usually reserved for recipes and food articles, is present here.Readers will feel like they're in the lush forests of Costa Rica or the dusty roads of Oaxaca , Mexico.She vividly shares her meals with friends  in Northern California , inviting the reader into their circle along with sharing the pure joy of her daughter,Noemi's adoption The book travels the world, from North and Central America to Europe. The places have impacted her and her recipes.

The recipes are important to her and at at the end of each chapter. They are as varied and as interesting as her life. Any home chef, from novices to pros, can recreate these delicious tributes to the people and places in her life. Spring peas are what changed her way of life and cooking and there is a recipe for them along with an accompanying recipe for roasted rack of lamb. Home chefs will share her excitement of opening up their culinary repertoire with spices and herbs.There is the grilled pork en adobada with cebollitas,Ancho and guajillo chilies along with cumin and cinnamon zing up boneless pork loin.Try pollo en jocon, chicken with tomatillos and serrano chilies. Greek cooking has greatly influenced Chef Huber's life and there is an excellent recipe for the garlicky potato dish , skordalia. Since she also spent time in northern Italy, learning the intricacies of pasta making there are some good recipes for surprisingly zucchini frittata.It's so simple yet so flavorful. She also is inspired from restaurants, as we all are, and that's seen in her lasagna and Beijing Peanut Noodles/ Yes, there's a cake one, from Mexico, Pastel Imposible, Or Impossible Cake, a magical blend of chocolate and flan that changes position while baking.

Nourished: A Memoir Of Food, Faith and Enduring Love is not just a cookbook but an inspirational book. Buy it  read it for hope , make the recipes for nourishment, It is  must have for any home library.

Marriages

Columbus did a lot for food fusions despite  his many sins. The Americas opened up  world of different marriages on so many levels that could not have been possible on the other continents. Recipes were fused as nationalities mingled and married. It created a brand new cuisine.

Marriages are  the first places where fusion cooking occurs. Many Germans and Italians have intermarried in the last 140 years with them recipes. Italians learned how to make spaetzle, pasta's Teutonic cousin while Germans  experimented with brajole, rouladens's or beef roll's relative from across the Alps.Kids, hybrids, themselves had the joy of one of the most varied charcuterie's from landjager and teawurst to mortadella and prosciutto.Greeks , usually thought of being exclusive, married out and brought such diverse foods as corned beef and Yorkshire pudding into diets, rich with dolmades and pastisio. As more and more people came to both North and South America, intermarriage occurred. People from the islands came and fell in love with, not their new cities but the people in them. Rice and beans became  a side dish to such American classics as roast turkey and squash. New cuisines , such as Tex-Mex a combination of Texan and Mexican and Creole, a wide mix of French and Spanish recipes, but also influenced by Amerindians, African, along with Haitian, Italian, German and Irish.

The Columbian Exchange also brought another type of marriage. Ingredients from both sides of the Atlantic  were now being combined to create brand new dishes. Italians embraced tomatoes so much that it's hard to think of Southern Italian cuisine without them.Corn, another New World crop is the catalyst from turning polenta, that ancient recipe that first used barley , into pure heaven and a staple of Northern cuisine. Corn also brought that international snack favorite popcorn all over the globe. The South American tuber, the potato was all important in feeding both Ireland and Germany. It's big in Swabian German recipes like ,kartofelkloesse dumplings made with potatoes and zinged up with gingersnps. They're the chief component in potato pancakes or latke, along with the Irish boxties and English tattie fish. The Europeans brought  over the domesticated meats such as beef, chicken and pork. Without these Mexican cuisine would not have chicken tacos , beef flautas and pork chilis.
. The indigenous North Americans gave the world its' most famous bird, the turkey, used in every holiday dinner , both in the US and the UK.


Columbus ushered in the Age of Discovery . He also brought in marriages of diverse culture and fusion cuisines. The Columbian Exchange changed the world's lives and diets

Helping The Hurricane Victims

There have been three devastating hurricanes in the last month . Homes have  been demolished and with them the heart of any house - the kitchen. It's ,time to step up in our kitchens to generate money and items that are crucial to starting over. Charity does begin at home, but with our ovens and pantries.

One of the easiest fund raisers to organize is a bake sale. Nothing beats homemade cookies and cupcakes. These are simple to make and fun to vary. Bake giant chocolate chip cookies instead of the usual smaller ones. (Try the recipe from Wednesday's New York Times Food section.) It's a good idea economically because you can charge more - think three dollars a cookie  instead of two dollars for six. They can also be made in sugar and peanut butter flavors too.  Since it's fall, think about a fun batch of caramel apple cupcakes. Bake them in muffin tins for a rounded apple look and then ice with caramel when cooled. Finish by sticking popsicle sticks in them to look like the real thing. Again, these can be priced at four  dollars a piece to bring in more money. To honor those hit by Hurricane Maria on the beautiful island of Puerto Rico, bake  Pueto Rican cakes. These are a delicate mix of an egg and butter rich cake soaked in a homemade rum syrup.They're then decorated with a  syrup soaked meringue. Another cake to celebrate the island is a yummy pineapple rum cake which is sure to be a best seller. It's a pineapple upside down cake spiked with the Caribbean spirit. Squares of it would sell well.

A second way of helping is going through your pantry and donating any duplicates.It's easier to donate cans and foodstuffs to the Houston and Florida victims.It's not so much for those on Puerto Rico.  If anything donate water and diapers to those hit by Hurricane Maria.  When donating, try to aim for canned items that are versatile. Tomato sauce and  can be used in making a great pasta dinner but it can also be used for making chili as well as soup. Canned green beans can be used both in salads and as a side. Canned potatoes are another must donate. They are great in thickening up soup but the sliced ones can used in scalloped potatoes.Corn is another versatile canned veggie because it can be added to salads or served on its' own. Canned chili, although not as good as homemade - yet makes for a  satisfying meal They're not as donated as much as other canned goods but canned fruits are always welcome. Kids. love canned peaches and these make for a change up from the usual processed snack cakes for dessert. Just remember to get the ones that are low in syrup and sugar. Try canned grapefruit which is loaded with Vitamin C along with canned mandarin oranges also packed with Vitamin C and fiber. Fruit salad is also good. It can even be eaten for breakfast and canned cherries make for a nice snack.

We have to open not only our hearts, but our Kitchens and pantries too. Organize bake sales. Start a can drive . Bring those hurt by these wicked hurricanes closer to returning to their own kitchens and pantries.

Your Fall Dinner Guide

One of the blessings of fall is that it's perfect weather for creating lavish dinners. It's time for roasting  and  creating good old fashioned sides that are filling. It's the season for the kitchen to be filled with mouth watering aromas and tastes.

Roasts are always a great fall dish. Not only are they satisfying, but they also provide the family with leftovers. A Sunday favorite is London Broil, a top round steak that is usually marinated. It doesn't have to be , it can just be liberally sprinkled with pepper and then put into an oven  or broiler. A simple marinade is using olive oil, garlic and maybe a splash of lemon. Roast beef is another great fall main course. It can be made on its own or with gravy.It's an easy cook, Just  dust with salt and pepper. Remember cooking time is one pound times twenty minutes, so a six pound roast can take two hours. Cooler weather also means tasty pork dishes. A pork roast can be cooked in a broiler, oven or slow cooker, however if you want a nice crust go for the oven method of cooking.It can be made Italian style with garlic cloves and rosemary or German with a side of cooked, spiced apples. Tired of the usual roasts? Then go for lamb. It can be with made exotic with the addition of  tarragon, paprika and cumin or simple with only lemon , garlic and rosemary. Want  lighter fare? Then go for chicken or Cornish hens. These are more delicate in flavor and calories, a different spin on the traditional roasts. Of course there is turkey which  should not be reserved for just the holidays. Roast a smaller one for a Sunday dinner.

Traditional roasts demand traditional sides. Mashed potatoes are always a crowd pleaser. Think of the age old recipe that's just a simple mix of Golden potatoes, butter and cream. You can sub in milk for the cream. Variations include add garlic, chives and even the skins themselves. Scalloped potatoes are a nice alternative and easy to make. It's just potato slices layered with a kind of Bechamel sauce, dots of butter  and then baking for an hour. Sweet potatoes are another great side that can compliment any roast. Nix the overly sweet casserole and go with baked kind. They can be roasted with your roast on a separate foil lined cookie sheet. Because of their intense flavor, just serve with butter and a sprinkling of flaky sea salt. Don't forget the greens. Steamed broccoli is  the perfect palate cleanser for all the other sides. Add  some lemon juice to bring out the fresh "Spring-y" flavor. Another great green is Brussels sprouts.. It's just boiling them and then giving them a topping of butter knobs and grated Parmesan cheese. It's then broiled so the sprouts are covered in buttery and cheesy goodness. For color throw some corn into the mix. Use canned since the corn season is well past. Try fiesta corn ,a marriage of the kernals cooked with chopped red and green peppers. Creamed corn is another nice alternative.

The temps are dropping That means it's the season for cooking hearty roasts and sides. It's a nice way to warm up against the nip in the air.

The Perfect Parmesan

One of the best dishes for fall is eggplant Parmesan.It's a tasty dish, well loved on both sides of the Atlantic yet somehow it loses in translation here.However there's a new way to take that casserole from soggy to super. It's just rethinking the eggplant in a more traditional way.

Julia Moskin tackled this in yesterday's New York Times food section. Eggplant Parmesan has always been a dinner favorite both in the US and in Italy. Unfortunately the American version is as delicious as its' Italian cousin. This is due in part to the way we love our slices of eggplant. They have to be dipped in egg first and then heavily crusted with bread crumbs. This method is fine if you're having them as "poor man's oysters" with a squeeze of lemon on the side or maybe a drizzle of .aioli Yet to layer these oil rich slices  under layers of tomato sauce and melted mozzarella is not good. It bakes into a mush as the sauce seeps into the slices ad turns the whole dish into flavorful sludge. People will eat it, whether at home or in a restaurant but it's still not the best. Luckily it was the famed French chef Jacques Pepin  and his mother who inspired Ms. Moskin. Start off with the eggplant. Don't get those whopping deep purple ones. Stick with delicately striped Japanese ones. These make the best for slicing and frying. Also forget about individual slices. Think fans. Cut one into a fan and flatten out with your palms. Doing this expels any liquid which makes for a crisper texture and much better for pan frying.

Here's the hard part. Changing up both the batter and the sauce. Mix the heavy breadcrumbs. Use Madame Pepin's recipe for aubergine beignets which is just dipping the fans in a mixture of water and flour. If you still want the crunch of  bread crumbs, then use the feather light panko ones. Fry in vegetable oil or extra virgin olive oil. (If you want  just serve the fried eggplant on its' own) next is the sauce. Ms/ Moskin looks to shakshura, the North  African egg dish with a tomato sauce. She uses a simple tomato sauce , preferably homemade. A canned sauce can be used as well, however one made with late season tomatoes is much more delicious. The next step is adding packaged mozzarella, shredded or diced.Place the cheese in evenly spaced piles  in the bubbling sauce so that they're not so close and melt together.It may have to be done in two batches. It's then placing a spoonful of the sauce either on top or alongside the eggplant. Top with the mozzarella, lifting it out with a slotted spoon. Decorate with fresh herbs. and serve. This is the closest to Italian style.

Eggplant Parmesan can be made better the Italian way. It's a geat way of reimagining a classic dish. Try it for a tasty change of pace.