Public House 49 in Patchogue

Stopped into Public House 49 on Main Street in Patchogue (Long Island folks will know where this is.) and I have to say, the food was very good.

It's a loud place. Very loud! Not many seats to eat in. It looks as if it were two stores that they combined into one establishment. One side is the bar/nightclub and the other side is the restaurant with tables and booths.

It was busy on Friday night. We had about 35 there for a friend's birthday celebration. However, without our group, it was still full.

By the time we wanted to eat, they had to set us up on the bar side all the way in the back. I was appreciative that they accommodated us that way. We were ready to eat and I guess we would have had to wait a bit to sit. I had perused the menu online and it looked interesting.

There were five in our party. My wife and daughter and I started with the Savory Trio. It was disappointing. The portion size and flavors didn't deliver. However, our friends ordered the Calamari with lemon garlic sauce. That was a definite winner. Perfectly seasoned. Flavorful. Just the right balance of lemon and garlic. Very good indeed.

I ordered the Lemon Rosemary Roasted Chicken with a Parmesan bread pudding and baby spinach. Now, I know, that's not daring, but I thought this was a good way to judge the food. If you can deliver chicken correctly, the other food would probably be good. At least that's what I thought. I was not disappointed. Not only was the chicken flavorful, but it was moist. I love bread pudding of all types, so I was excited about trying the Parmesan Bread Pudding. Unfortunately it had a very mild cheese flavor. I was hoping for more, but the texture was creamy and pleasant. The baby spinach was excellent also.

All in all everyone at the table agreed that Public House 49 is worth another trip. The food was very good overall. The service was also very good. Friendly, accommodating. Everything you expect from a good eatery.

The one thing I do have to say is that it is very LOUD there. And, although each section is separated by a glass wall, it does not help. Both sides are so loud it forces you to yell, making it even louder in there. And, we were in the back and it was still loud. However, the dining experience wasn't diminished by that. It was an annoyance, but we still had a good time and really enjoyed the food.

Public House 49 is worth the trip. The food and service make it a recommended spot in downtown Patchogue.

Eating @ Home

So, it's been a while. Winter is in full swing. Lots of cooking @ home. We haven't been eating out as much and we're just enjoying it!

Cooking is fun if you approach it like that. There's no right or wrong. It is all about what you like.

I watch a lot of cooking shows. Right now, I'm a Tyler Florence fan. Jacques Pepin is also a huge favorite of mine. These two guys make cooking look fun and "doable". And, their dishes always look like they taste great.

I have been a cooking show junkie for over 25 years. I spent a lot of time on the weekends watching Julia Child and the great Pierre Franey cooking on my local PBS channel. Cooking fascinated me. I always wonder why I never went into the business.

After many years watching, I seem to have gotten the hang of it. I am by no means a professional, but a good home cook. Strictly amateur. I love trying new things, as well as cooking tried and true dishes that I love. My favorite thing of all time is lasagna. It is the dish I always asked my mother to make for my birthday. Her lasagna was the best. It incorporated meatballs and sausage, as well as ricotta and mozzarella. No bechamel in her lasagna. That's not how she did it.

I am also getting into BBQing. Not grilling, but BBQing where you cook low and slow. I use a charcoal Weber 22-inch BBQ. I smoked a turkey for Thanksgiving in it and it was fabulous! Used applewood. It came out so nice. I will do that again.

Taking whatever ingredients are around and putting together a dish is something that I wish I could do better. I often look in my pantry and on my spice shelf and wonder what Alton Brown or Emeril would do with what I have in there.

Adventurous would be a label for me. If I could cook bison, ostrich or armadillo every day, I would. I like the mixture of fruit with meat. I enjoy how simply some parsley or a squeeze of lemon perks up a dish.

It's fun. And when I "hit one out of the ballpark", it is so satisfying. To hear my family enjoying and complimenting what I cooked makes it all worth it.

And, bringing the family together around the table for a good meal leads to good conversation and brings us all closer together. It's something I hope never ends.

Next up, I want to talk about cookbooks. If you have a favorite "go to" cookbook, let me know.

TOP CHEF FINALE RECAP - It's MICHAEL V!

Well, Top Chef ends the way many of us thought it would. Though some pulled for Bryan, or Kevin or (be still my beating heart) Jen, Michael V, the one chef that was the most "out there" when it came to creativity took the title of Top Chef.

I have to say, that although Michael was somewhat snobby to the others, his culinary passion, application of technique and instinct for the right flavor profiles and textures, was unmatched by anyone. I think his brother Bryan and also Kevin had the chops, knowledge, technique and passion to be Top Chef, Michael was just a level above them. And the fact that he, Michael, approached each dish with "abandon", not wreckless, but sort of a controlled crash kind of approach, he was able to push the envelope each time and mostly successfully.

Even though they didn't take the title, you have to believe that Bryan and Kevin will be wildly successful. This kind of exposure is invaluable. I wouldn't be surprised to see Bryan in the Bocuse D'Or competition representing America. And both he and Kevin will, no doubt, enjoy success in each of their establishments. They are both on my "places I want to eat at" list.

There were more good chefs in this competition than in any prior season, especially in the last group of five. I really enjoyed it and didn't have any chefs I was pulling against. A pretty likable group.

Now, we wait for the "reunion" to dish all the dirt and get one last look at the cheftestants.

I'm looking forward to next season. Padma will be a mommy. All the best to her. And, we'll see if Top Chef can top itself.

Top Chef Recap - And Then There Were Three!

This week Jen, Michael, Bryan and Kevin returned to the competition to decide which three would continue on to the final. Napa was the venue.

Of course, when you are in Napa, you must include "Mr. NapaStyle", Michael Chiarello. Chef Chiarello, also a Top Chef Master, was the guest judge.

The QuickFire Challenge was to make a dish that incorporated and celebrated the Napa wine grape. The cheftestants had several varieties to choose from, including concord grapes. The prize, a brand new Toyota Prius. The catch, the chefs had to cook on a moving train, The Napa Wine Train. It took each chef just a few moments to get back into the competitive groove. Michael took the challenge and the Prius.

The Elimination Challenge was they had to cater a party for 150 people at one of the Napa Valley vineyards and each had to make two dishes which had to include a vegetarian dish.

Everyone made some mistake in the elimination challenge. Bryan definitely was the best. The only thing they said about his two dishes was that they needed a little more seasoning (salt and pepper).

Kevin made brisket as one dish and he didn't have enough time to braise it and it was "toothsome" as he called it. It wasn't tender and needed a little more time.

Jen's dishes were good. She wanted to grill duck, but the wood grill went out so she couldn't do that and wound up doing duck confit. It was good, but I think they held against her that she let the grill go out and couldn't do the dish she originally planned on.

Michael served a dish with an egg in it and the egg was undercooked. Yucky. I thought that was going to send him home especially since pregnant Padma got the most "raw" egg.

Jen went home. I don't understand why, but they sent her home, so it's the three amigos.

I think it's going to be Kevin or Bryan.

Scientific scandal appears to rock climate change promoters

Scientific scandal appears to rock climate change promoters

This is BIG! Climate warming is a hoax? This scandal is going to change everything! Al Gore must be hiding.

Top Chef Recap - Final Four

OK, now Eli is gone. I have to say I came to like the guy in the last few weeks. I saw more of him instead of the arrogance he displayed early on.

JEN! Love that girl! She took the QuickFire challenge. She's back! I was so bummed that she seemed to be on her way out, but she picked herself up and came back with a roar! Way to go Jen!

Bocuse D'Or. That's the premiere international cooking competition where twenty-four teams of two chefs from around the world are given five and a half hours to vie for the title. They must present a meat and fish dish with garnishes and they are scored on taste, presentation, technique and efficiency. The Elimination Challenge was a sort of mini version of that contest. Chef Gavin Kaysen (remember The Next Iron Chef?), who was America's representative at the last Bocuse D'Or competition, was the guest judge, as was the great and respected Thomas Keller of the French Laundry in California. The chefs were given a choice to cook a fish (salmon) or meat (lamb) dish. Jen, being the QF winner got an extra half hour to cook. The rest had four hours. Most chose the lamb, Michael V, of course, went with salmon. Gotta tell ya, not likin' MV these days. He's insulting and disrespectful to the other chefs. He said, "The food Kevin cooks is the food I cook on my day off." Nice Mike. And Kevin is a good guy, too. You can be confident, but how about a little civility like, oh, I don't know, your brother Bryan?

All cheftestants did well, but this is a contest where the judges look for something to criticize. After all, there are no perfect dishes. In the end, and for the life of me I cannot figure why, really, Eli was eliminated. This one caught me off guard because they way the judges were talking, I thought, for sure, Michael was gone because they found a bone in his fish which would have eliminated him immediately from the Bocuse D'Or competition. So Eli went home, upset, but with his head held high and deservedly so. Great chef. He did imaginary things with food. He'll continue on a path of success because he's got the drive and passion and imagination. All the best Eli!

So, we're down to Jen, Michael V, Bryan V and Kevin. Now, you know how I feel about Jen, but I have to go with Kevin as the winner. MV seems to wow the judges from time to time, but Kevin consistently delivers great food. Tune in next week to find out who is TOP CHEF!

Top Chef Recap - Restaurant Wars!

Well, it happens every year and the always anticipated Restaurant Wars went off last night on Top Chef. Rick Moonen of Top Chef Masters and Rick RM Seafood at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas was the guest judge for this episode.

The High Stakes QuickFire Challenge started it all off and set up the two teams that would eventually go into Restaurant Wars against each other. After drawing knives, Michael V and Jen picked teams. Michael picked his brother Bryan, Eli, and Robin. Jen's team was Michael I, Larine and Kevin. The challenge was to tag team a dish. The two twists were, except for the first to go, everyone was blindfolded and the team members could not talk to each other! How hard was that going to be? The only communication allowed was that each team had a minute to decide the order of chefs. It was up to the first person to choose the dish and get it started and then each subsequent chef had to decide what to do next based on what they saw when they got to the cooking station. I thought it was very cool!

Jen's team won and split $10K. Then they were given the option of taking the money or letting it ride on Restaurant Wars where each team member would get $10K if they won. They let it ride. That would turn out to be the first of a number of bad decisions that team would make.

Each team had $3000 to set up their menus. The advantage they had was that they didn't have to worry about setting up the front of the house as each team got to use Moonen's restaurant which is multilevel, so as the winner of the QF, Jen's team (Mission) picked the second floor, which was more of fine dining environment and the other team (Michael V's Revolt, a play on the chefs's names) took the more casual first floor setting.

Right off the bat, Jen decided, "no dessert". She said every team that tried dessert went home. Not sure that was a great decision. I think that was a cop out. They should have taken a dessert on. A Top Chef would do that. The other team produced two desserts which were very well received including Robin's pear dessert, which was the favorite of many.

Larine (Mission, Jen's team) and Eli took the front of the house positions. Say what you will about Eli and I don't care for him, he's got the gift of gab, so I think he was well suited for that part. Even though the two were taking on the FOH tasks, they were also responsible for a dish each.

Michael's team seemed to have it all together even though there was some tension between Michael and Bryan and Michael and Robin. They got past it to have a very successful service. With Eli seating and schmoozing, Revolt, although that was a horrible name for a restaurant, was anything but revolting.

Jen's team lost it quickly. They got "in the weeds" early and never recovered. Jen wound up steaming clams and mussels as each order came in rather than doing that task ahead of time and that really put her behind the eight ball. Eric Ripert, her mentor of five years, would have been surprised at how poorly she managed her station. Kevin undercooked lamb and if you've ever had lamb that was too rare, it's one of the most unpleasant dining experiences you can have. Undercooked lamb was going out and this after Larine declared that she would send food back if it did not meet the standards. Larine really fell flat at the front of the house even after volunteering for the task. She was not as engaging as Eli. Where Eli carefully and expertly explained each dish, Larine basically dropped the food and ran away. Eventually, Padma had to lasso her in to get a description of each dish. Not good. The evening fell apart for team Mission and they wound up losing Restaurant Wars. You could see how dejected they all were. They each realized that any one of them could be sent home for the myriad of poorly executed dishes that went out.

The judge's declared that Team Revolt ran the best restaurant of anyone in the six seasons of Top Chef and that's quite an honor. Though the team won, a single winner was picked from the four. Michael V got that honor as he was clearly the leader and driving force behind the success of the operation. For his win, and to the consternation of his brother Bryan, he won $10K, which he quickly and generously asked if he could share it with the rest of the team. Since it was his money, as Tom stated, he had the freedom to share the winnings, which he offered to each of his chefmates. Bryan, who was seething, refused the money. He felt his brother ran an unprofessional kitchen (with the way he treated himself and Robin) and got rewarded for bad behavior. That was the only downer to the whole evening for Team Revolt.

When Jen's team came to Judge's Table you could see how down they were. Each member wore worry and defeat on their faces. Each team member got vilified for one thing or another they did wrong, except that Mike I avoided any major criticism and he seemed safe. What he did was not spectacular, but it wasn't great either.

In the end, the judges felt Larine disappeared during the entire task and I think also, in the back of their minds, they must think the other team members (Jen, Kevin and Mike I) are stronger than her, which I agree with. So, Larine went home.

Restaurant Wars is so popular because you get to see each chef in the environment they spend the better parts of their lives in, a professional kitchen. The planning, the buying, the preparing. It's all so fascinating to see what goes into making a restaurant run successfully or not so successfully. It is also interesting to see how "competition" changes how each chef approached their chosen profession. When a "win" is on the line, will they perform as well as they do day in and day out when getting good food out on time is the win they are striving for? The dynamics of a contest really affects each person differently and in the end, the winner is the one or the team that can put the competition or the game to the side and let their experience and skill carry them to a positive end.