School! Good Food! Career! SO MUCH!

Well, I'm done with Banquets, I finished up last Friday to be exact. I'm taking the time today so I'm not just head deep in my Wines book all morning to write and catch up. Oh and yes, I start Wines Studies today and I spent a great deal of the weekend review what I read over Thanksgiving break, doing my highlighting and sticky noting and printing of power points and notes. SO MUCH INFORMATION! But I am looking forward to the class. I don't really know much about wine and the process and history of wine interests me alot so I think it will be a very fun but challenging class (lets just hope I don't lose my mind or my brain explodes or something). But soon I'll be able to make awesome wine pairings and what not it will be cool...hopefully.

Things here at school are pretty good, I passed my costing practical (woo!), made it through serving graduation with 30 other students (for serving 200 people, 30 people is alot). I've just been crazy busy working, studying, doing all that college stuff. But I do have a restaurant review for you all!

Me, my friend Morgan, Jesse and Martin all took a trip up to Red Hook (past Rhinebeck by 3 or 4 miles) to go eat at an Italian restaurant suggested by one of my Chef's called Mercato's. Let me say, this was a great meal and we were all very, very pleased!

They gave us grilled bread with garlic oil and it was so perfect.

Morgan got the penne with a spicy, creamy tomato sauce and smoked pancetta.

Jesse got the farro pizzichi with butternut squash, mushrooms, mozzarella bufala and just a simple butter sauce with fresh herbs.

Martin got the special for the evening which was bucatini with sardines, Marsala soaked raisins, pine nuts, braised fennel, roasted garlic in a simple tomato sauce.

I got ricotta ravioli just in a simple, fresh tomato sauce with Parmesan Reggiano.

Morgan got mint chip gelato for dessert.

I got panna cotta with cherry balsamic vinegar and black mission figs.

Jesse got affogato which is gelato and espresso.

Overall the meal was amazing and I would go back there again and suggest if you get the chance go. It's very decently priced we all got pasta and a dessert and spent about 20 or so on ourselves. So I'd highly recommend it.

Like I said everything has been good for the most part around here. I've spent alot of time figuring out this next step of my career considering I graduate in 4 months! I want to follow through with getting my BS in Hospitality Management so I'm working on college applications to NYU and Boston University to maybe starting next fall and I might be going out over New Years to visit my Sous Chef from extern to check out the Inn at Dos Brisas so we will see! But I've got to go get ready for class so I'll be writing some reviews for Wines class very soon!

-Garrett

The Culinarian - Thanksgiving Edition!

Ok, yes in all reality Thanksgiving was a couple weeks back BUT it doesn't mean I still can't write about Thanksgiving back home and all the food goodness that followed. So my friend Maddy decided to come home to experience the Saylor Family Thanksgiving. Maddy did have alot of fun (or at least I hope so) but it was all good times. Way to many jokes (which is never a problem in my eyes) with the whole family, alot of amazing food and thats to the extent of it. After this paragraph I'm just going to bombard this whole post with photos so oogle and oggle at all the delicious food and the captions that follow.

Pre Thanksgiving Snack: Crab Squares - a spread made from crab, cream cheese, your seasoning of choice, shallots and some sharp cheddar cheese. Put on bread (of your choice), browned under the salamander till GBD (Golden Brown & Delicious) and then sprinkled with smoked paprika and enjoy.

THE TURKEY: Marinated in Franks Red Hot Sauce for 24 hours, rubbed down with Cajun spices, injected with Cajun butter and then deep fried. Spicy, moist, and just so flipping good. Been doing it this way for many, many years.

The Fixings: Mashed Potatoes, Sweet Potatoes with of course marshmallows and cranberry sauce

Maddy and Her Cranberry Sauce, shes the one who made it this year and it was bangin and so on after Thanksgiving, we ate cranberry relish/sauce with everything, I enjoyed it with some ice cream.

The Stuffing: Italian sausage, cornbread, mirepoix, mushrooms and some giblets. 

Giblet Gravy: Gravy Amazing in your Mouth

Slow Cooked Greenbeans: Simmered till tender with onions, potato, some white wine and of course a ham hock for smoked, pork flavor from our favorite butcher.

Mom Slicing Turkey

My Sister baked up all the Rolls and assisted in prep

My Dad looking formal for the event (only for the classiest of events is the tuxedo tshirt a requirement) taking the turkey off its what you would call it that holds the turkey as it goes into the deep fryer.

Me post Thanksgiving, now you might ask, what did Garrett do during this Thanksgiving meal, well I watched the deep fryer and help do some turkey prep, I had to keep an eye on the oil temp and also miss Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade again but its no big deal, for delicious turkey, its worth it.

Mom made her amazing pumpkin pie!

And my father, Lily my dog and I got into a whipped cream fight

Now breakfast for me when I go home is like one of the greatest things on the face of the planet. I will argue that my dad's biscuits and gravy kicks yours in the butt because its my dad's. One of my favorite meals.

Outside North Market, I'm pretty positive I've written about North Market before, describe it as a scaled down version of Chelsea Market but still awesome!

The one and only Jeni's Ice Cream, yes I ate ice cream at 10:30 in the morning, what else is new.

Schmidt's, some of the best German food you can get. Tucked away in Columbus' German Village, this place is just amazing. See the date, 1886, yes they've been open that long and its stayed in the family going on 5 generations. Amazing kraut, housemade everything....good, simple food.

I had a bhama mama (a spicy kielbasi) with kraut, potato pancakes and apple sauce of course.

Maddy had bratwurst, kraut, warm German potato salad, and applesauce.

Another favorite breakfast, French toast made with baguette, an egg mixture in which the base is heavy cream and screw maple syrup, just sugar ontop of my French toast. An addition, I was spoiled all break long because Maddy had Kona coffee from back home so I had a cup or two every morning.

A four way using the Gold Star Chili Recipe. Now I know Ohio has this rep for being out there but this is good chili and the face we serve it over pasta no one gets. This chili is a brown chili versus a red chili from the south. And unlike being tomato based and spicy from chile's, Cincy style chili gains its color from use of chili powder but sweet spices like nutmeg, cinnamon, etc. The ground beef in it isn't browned either, its cooked in the liquid and thickens through simmering. But theres different classifications of this chili and pasta.

Theres the coney: a small hotdog with chili, onion, mustard and grated sharp cheddar cheese

The 3 way: Pasta, chili, cheese

The 4 way: Pasta, chili, cheese, onion

The 5 way: Pasta, chili, cheese, onion, and kidney beans

Always served with oyster crackers and your choice of hot sauce.

I wanted to finish this blog post with a shot of Jeni's Ice Cream, from left to right it was, Bourbon and Pecan, Cumin and Almond Brittle, Almond Cake and Brown Butter Ice Creams.

So thats it for the Thanksgiving Edition of the Culinarian. Enjoy!

-Garrett

A Blog Post!?!

Hello Everyone,

I am indeed writing a blog post and its been way to long I think but then again I've been so caught up with school and sorry but my studies and health have come first before the blog. On the other hand, its time to play catch up and fill everyone in on the life of a student in culinary school.

Where do I start?

Well, I'm currently in Cuisines of the Mediterranean and Europe, I'm about halfway through the class now and I moved out of Baking and Pastry Fundamentals which was last block (about 4 or 5 weeks ago). Its crazy to now think, I graduate in 5 months, yes you heard me FIVE MONTHS!. So I've been planning out several paths into where I'd want to go. But before I start talking about career/life stuff. Let me fill you in on some of the fun things I've been up to lately.

So, sometime in October I took a trip into New York City on a Saturday and had a relaxing time.

Strolling through Central Park

Outside of Sheep's Meadow

The One and Only Gray's Papaya (72nd St and Broadway)

Two Hot Dogs (with Sauerkraut) with a Medium Drink (Papaya Juice) only for $4.44

Also while in the City, I had the chance to go to the Museum of Natural History, I'll post up those photos sometime in another post or something.

A few people I go to school with told me about this bistro called the Northern Spy Food Co., its in East Village, its 511 East 12th Street in between A and B Ave. I highly suggest you go, the food was amazing and a decent price as well. They feature local produce and proteins from local farmers.

Just a snapshot of the interior. This was a small restaurant, only 45 to 50 seats I'd say. Showed up at 5:30 when they opened. By the time I had my entree, they were already packed and lined out the door.

They have a snack menu as they have a bar. This is headcheese (a terrine made from all the meat from a pigs head) with a spicy arugula salad and house made grain mustard. Some of the BEST headcheese I've ever had.

I'm a sucker for fried chicken livers, so that was exactly it with a light arugula salad and house made buttermilk ranch.

This is a before and after shot of the entree. I had a PEI Mussel and Squid White Bean Ragu with toasted country bread to mop up all the juices.

A little snapshot of the dessert menu. I opted out to have dessert and hit up somewhere else to have my after dinner treat. Somewhere I just couldn't pass up on having.

Momofuku Milkbar, David Chang's bakery serving up amazing goods. Such as Crackpie (Butterscotch and Carmel Pie), Compost Cookies (made with chocolate chips, potato chips, oatmeal, pretzels, and more) and Cereal Milk Ice Cream (milk that's been infused with Frosted Flakes and then turned into Ice Cream, how better can that get).

This is just a picture of my marzipan rose I made for Baking, pretty awesome eh?

Now, I was able to find the limited edition Schweddy Balls Ice Cream from Ben & Jerry's and let me say, IT IS DELICIOUS! Based off of the SNL Skit featuring Alec Baldwin as Dave Schweddy from Season's Eatings talking on NPR about how "No one can resist my Schweddy Balls". This is a vanilla and rum ice cream with chocolate rum balls and malted milk balls. Its a really good Ben & Jerry flavor (doesn't beat Jeni's though) but I can say I had Schweddy Balls in my mouth and it new tasted so good.

One night on campus we decided to have a burger night....

Basting hamburgers in bacon grease = Flavor and Winning

My monster creation: Hamburger with a fried egg, bacon, garlic-herb mayo (handmade!), pickled peppers and cheddar cheese......

Yes that is yolk running down my hand and face.....it was such a good burger.

The day it dumped snow in New York (oh wait, last weekend...more like last Saturday). We did a road trip to Fleisher's, a fantastic butcher shop in Kingston, New York (just across the river!) to obtain some raw meat for cooking purposes. The only serve local meats which means the quality is unbelievable! It reminded me of the good old days working back at the butcher back home. Which raised a question, should I be a butcher? (Probably not but I plan on carrying on the tradition of butchery at its finest, maybe when I retire I'll open a shop).

Now, Grimaldi's Pizza is originally located in Brooklyn under the Brooklyn Bridge but they have a sister pizzeria in New Paltz, New York (right across the river too!) where that is some fantastic NY Style Pizza.

Just to end the blog with a photo I took while on campus. I'm hoping things will balance out soon and I can write more. But before I leave to talk about some future/life stuff!

So I've been trying to figure out what might happen in the next few months. Theres a career fair coming up this week and I plan on going for sure. Blue Hill will be there and I really want to talk to them about trying to go and stage for alittle while. Other than that I should/might be going down to Houston to go out and stage with my sous chef from Colorado at the inn over my winter break (more like over New Year's). I've also be considering staying up here at the school and becoming a TA (teaching assistant) at one of the restaurants and going to the community college to knock out my general education classes so I can pursue my BS in Hospitality Management either at NYU or Boston University. I've got some thinking to do and plus some studying to also do for my current class but I will be writing soon! (Hopefully!)

-Garrett