Last weeks was a little crazy. We started with the MOST Gala on Tuesday night and I was in and out of the doctors office all week. Then on Friday Pook and I hopped on a plane and flew to Chicago for the weekend. We went to visit our daughter and recharge my inspiration battery. I ran out of juice with all the work I have been doing and I bet that my fans can tell too.

The greatest thing was going to the Chicago Farmer's Market. It was all certified organic foods and products. If you want to open the box and sell them in Syracuse the answer is no. The next morning I just walked around the neighborhood where there were a lot more smaller farm stands. I saw Rick Bayless, the grand master chef from TV. He was shopping next to me! I bought Faises des Bois (baby wild strawberries) which you would never see in Syracuse. So I took some home and whipped some cream... so delicious!

Now I can't wait to go to the Syracuse Farmer's Market. I really want to see again what Syracuse will offer my customers.

Oh, I forgot to tell you about my Peking Duck! The restaurant called and told us that they did not have the duck so we canceled our reservations and went to the "Black Bird" instead.  The chef is Paul Kahan, he is a recipient of the James Beard Foundation Award and has been named as one of the best chefs of the year. Their pastry chef, Patrick Fahy worked with Thomas Keller before at French Laundry. The dessert was amazing... better than our meal!

Now lets go back to the MOST Gala... actually I was not impressed with my kitchens' performance. Don't get me wrong they did just fine but I wanted more. The food was ok to very good but not at the level that I wanted it to be. Maybe my menu was too simple. My front staff did a great job. Thanks to all of them.

I still want to write a lot more but  this blog is getting too long.

Your Chef,

Max

Its been quite slow at The Grass lately, but we are all still busy preparing for the MOST Gala on Tuesday night. Numbers are down a little for the Gala be we will still serve over 200 guests.

The business will keep its own track until the end of the second or third week of July so in the mean time we will start gearing up for this fall. Next week we will start to meet with food suppliers to discuss the options of a new cut of meat.

The trend now is to focus on local farmers and growers as long as they keep the quality up. This is not a new trend, as I can remember, we tried to use all high quality products form local and neighboring states since 1994. It is ok if the price is slightly higher its worth it. For sure we will see more farmers in the few weeks to come.

Next week I will go to Chicago to taste Peking Duck at L20, so we'll see how good its is. It will be fun to go to a few new restaurants while we are there. Last time I went to a Japanese place that served tapas. Soooo good. I at so much. I kept the menu and marked what I ate so I could keep track of what I haven't tried yet.  I wish a place like this could make it in Syracuse but for now I have to go to a big city.

We adjusted our menu again. We added grilled squid steak and a few other items to both Lemon Grass and Bistro Elephant.

Your Boring Chef,

Max

Summer is finally here! Unlike last year this June seems to be too quiet. We just hope to get a fair number without "Summer Dining Week" for sure... now way for a new record again.

The MOST Gala will be here in 2 weeks. This year the food and wine donations are better than the last couple of years. From the appetizer reception to desserts we will serve 21 courses. Neal my sous chef will take over all preparation and kitchen staff management.

Shrimp prices are out of control. Even the Gulf is supplying less than 2-4% of the world's shrimp consumption. Panic... maybe or somebody is getting so rich while those shrimp guys over in the Gulf are getting really poor.

This season is too busy for Pook and I. A lot of traveling with more still to come. At the end of August Pook, the two kids and I will go to Spain. Both of my daughters have good palates on most of the cuisine. They have even made reservations at several 2-3 Michelin Star restaurants. We are all so excited.

In the past 4-5 years I've never once gotten a new idea or new look from South East Asian cuisine that I can use in my restaurant. Most of the concepts and looks have come from seasonal American, Euro-Asian, Asian-Euro and European chefs. Lately a lot of them came from Spain too. I will come back with lots of ideas for a new fall menu.

Asian concept... we got it! Its not hard for me to whip out great Asian dishes. No, the hard part is marketing them the right way to our clientele. In order to be successful you have to lure them with the presentation after that the rest will follow. Of course you must be sure you do not cheat on the original cuisine in both taste and concept.

By the way I know that I missed last weeks blog and would like to apologize for that. There were too many things going on for me in Thailand. Now I'm back in shape and will be here on regular schedule.

Your Chef,

Max

This time last year we were gearing up for summer dining week. Unfortunately there will be no dining week this summer. Neither the Downtown Committee nor the other area restaurants have the funds to support the advertising budget.

So far this spring the downtown business has been quite slow. Some said it is the Pascale Effect, they may be right. Pook, Ali, DDT and I went there last week and we ended up having to say "Hi" to half of the customers in the dining room. We went there twice to finish the whole menu. Their concept is great. Its a lot more casual than before. Those 2 bros will make it well over there. For sure we will miss them downtown too.

Next month Pook and I will go back to Chicago again to see one of my daughters. She made reservations for us at L 2 O (L two O) it is a French-Japanese or French-Asian restaurant. This is one of the very top places in the area, we will go there for their Peking Duck special. My kid sent me L2O's blog about their Peking Duck and told me to check out a different preparation. Its really quite interesting what they are doing there.

While Pook and I were in Thailand I ate several Peking Duck at two of the best restaurants in Southeast Asia. This is the way they serve it...

The lacquer skin with a homemade crape, Hoisen sauce, fresh cucumber, and green onion. Then the rest of themeat they cook to your liking. We had them cook it two ways. One with black pepper sauce and the other sauteed with sprouts and celery.

Soft shell crab may not last that long this season. The fish, shrimp and oyster price is going up very fast. They are using the Gulf excuse to murder us on the price. We'll see what I can do.

Your Chef,

Max

The past few weeks have been too slow. Its been good for the staff's sanity just not good for their pockets!

Last week we got our first shipment in from Brown Trading Co. They are good to very good. I can't wait to put my hands on the Lobster Roe for this coming week's special... it will be very yummy in my tummy!

We had a meeting with Tony and Nicole from the MOST to discuss the menu for the Gala. This year we will take a slightly different approach. We will have more variety of food but lighter in style. This gives me a chance to be a little more fun with the food. Ali will post the menu once it has been finalized and approved.

Two weeks ago I had a chance to taste a Black Button mushroom, a delicacy in Northern Thailand. They have a very short season just like our ramp and fiddle head ferns do here. Just two days into the season four locals had died because they mistook them for a poisonous mushroom. I bought mine from the older vendor and I figured if they have stayed this long they were okay to eat... I was right I'm still alive!

I used to get this kind of mushroom in a can but then they got banned by the USDA. When I got back I asked around and my guys said the ban was lifted and they are safe to buy again. I was thinking of using the Black Button mushrooms and roasted prawn with an orange curry, shredded Kiffer lime leaves, pickled young bamboo, palm sugar and tamarind jus.

I will test it out and save you a picture.

Your Chef,

Max

I didn't give up on writing my blog, I had a family emergency and had to travel to Thailand for ten days after graduation week. It was not fun at all. With a low temperature of 94-95 at night, a great cool day at 110 or a bad evening at 122 the heat was deadly!

I had a chance to refresh my palate memory for a lot of food, most likely I'm still OK. For example most curries, they are so hard to get the classic flavor like before. Even from the best chef, most of the curries lack a third dimension, and of course no forth dimension at all.

I took a lot of pictures for you guys. I went out hunting for lychee nuts and I found a lot of them along one of the major highways. I found a variety of lychee nuts some that are the size of a golf ball! I bought 16lbs of them, I paid $12.50 USD estimate about 80 cents a pound.

The first stand we went to the skin was so bright they had just picked them three hours before. When I bit into it it was so sour. The guy at the stand said it was so fresh that the fruit hasn't forgotten the tree yet. At the next stand the lychee nuts were much darker in color they had been picked two days before. They were delicious so sweet and juicy. I saved the fresh lychees to eat over the next few days. Each day they got sweeter and sweeter. I ate half of one right there at the stand. The first half was a little sour because they just picked it 3 hours before. So I saved the other half and eat it after about 36 hours of being picked. The skin was quite dark and they were so sweet. I wish we could get lychee nuts like those here in Syracuse. I have paid $4 to $6 per pound for lychee nuts imported from China and Florida but they were not very good and 1/3 of the size.

Now that I am back I have a lot to catch up on. The Annual MOST Gala is coming up in July. I am finalizing the menu and locking in my wine and food donations for the event. We will also be trying out a new fish vendor this week.

Over the next few weeks I will share more about the food I had overseas and also keep you posted on what's going on here at the Grass and my Big Elephant.

Your Chef,

Max

There is a family emergency in Thailand and Pook and I have to go to Bangkok for a week. We will leave in the morning and come back on Tuesday, June 1st.  I will talk to you when I get back.

Your Chef,

Max

I can't believe that it took me two full days of light work to get back to normal again. It was fun for a solid 80 hour work week in the kitchen.

The whole staff front and back are all pretty much burnt out. They are all taking turns to get a day or two off to get back into shape. We still have parties all over the place to take care of for a good week.

I had a good talk with my partner Palmer Foods. We are trying to get them to dry age some Prime CAB for us. We are also looking for a Kobe Rib Eye lip. DDT (Dave DownTown) my Bistro Chef, and I are still debating on whether we should carry one more cut or just stick with what we have now. We want to update the Bistro menu but will we be able to maintain our prices if the quality keeps going up? This coming Tuesday DDT and I will meet with Palmer's meat specialist and discuss the alternatives and possibility of alteration.

Your Chef,

Max

Graduation day is right around the corner and we are trying so hard to fill our chairs to capacity. If everything goes according to schedule we should served about one thousand customers this weekend. The kitchen and front have been staffed, kitchen orders have been placed and now we are just tying up a few loose ends with the menu.

Here are just a few of our specials for the weekend:

Fresh Canadian diver scallops from North Coast, huge U-5 shrimp, Chilean Sea Bass and Belon Oysters from JP. I am also trying to get the "whale" soft shell crab instead of the "prime." The "prime" looks like crickets they are so small. Of course we will also have Russian King Crab and Kobe, Dry Aged and Prime Beef.

Steve our sales rep from our "partner" Palmer Foods gave us more time on our account. He has been good to us but I always make him work for his order. We are not the type of restaurant that will just order 300lbs of haddock every week. He must watch the quality, price and have good timing to earn a good order. He does a good job that is why he has been with us for years.

Our relationship with Palmer Foods is getting a lot better. They seem to understand the need of a fine dinning establishment. Their seafood program has greatly improved and we are very happy with their company right now. Thanks to everyone from Steve all the way to Mr. Palmer himself!

I will spend the rest of the week preparing for Graduation Weekend. I will talk to you all next week.

Your Chef,

Max

After 13 hard weeks at the Grass it seems like everything is slowing down a little. This is good for everybody. At the very least we get to relax for a day or two but we all know that this is the calm before the big storm!

Today I even had enough time to fix some issues with my eggplant appetizer. We are using Japanese purple eggplant. It is available year round but we are having a hard time keeping it in stock because it bruises so easily and has a short self life. I just got a new baby eggplant in from California. They are so very nice, young, tender and most of all they are so yummy.

We sliced them real thin and made a quick grill with sea salt and olive oil. Then we rolled them up and served them over our double roasted pepper sauce and more olive oil.

Our lunch menu is getting old and out dated so it is time to polish it up a bit. I had enough time to work with Scott on a new shrimp entree. Now a days, since we have a lot of Japanese influence around the Square, why don't we just follow the trend and make them look more attractive and taste better.

First of all I am thinking about tempura shrimp. How can I make them light, fresh and fast on every order with out pulling them out of a box from the freezer and popping them into the grease fryer? It took me half the day but I think I got it. Now I just have to work on the presentation I have already a couple preliminary drafts down.

I will pile the shrimp high over a bed of sushi rice serve it with Japanese pickles or greens. The price will be in the $11.50 range.  Remember this is just one of my ideas. You will not see it on the menu until I am completely satisfied.

This lunch menu is going to be the best! Just give me a week or so.

Your Chef,

Max

BTW Kevin my web kid is working on fixing the photo problem so we can have a better time together.