Its been a tough summer. Seafood prices have gone through the roof. Everything from soft shell crab to shrimp. Fish filets have increased in price and decreased in variety. It is so hard to keep up with the price hikes while not passing it along to our guests.

Business has been hit or miss but we are still going strong even with out the Summer Dining Weeks. The Candlelight Series is a nice boost for us. As long as the weather is nice our outdoor seating always fills up for that. Unfortunately there are only two more left, August 7th and 14th. I wish they were every weekend.

A new "Sushi War" is starting to brew. The chain restaurant "Koto," a Japanese steakhouse, has opened up on Erie Boulevard. They must have put a lot of money into the place. There are 7 to 10 hibachi tables with Down-Draft technology, plus another 40 to 60 seating.

One good thing about this place is their sushi and sashimi are good and inexpensive. Put it this way, I cant buy some of the fish they have for less than what they are charging for it. Maybe this is some kind of promotion or maybe because they are a chain they get it super cheap. Either way it will be interesting to see how some of the other sushi places will respond to this. In the mean time I will take advantage of their pricing.

Your Greedy Chef,

Max

PS. Next week the blog will be late. Pook and I are traveling again.

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