Chef Debbie Says: You Really Expect "ME" to Eat at a Gas Station?

Last weekend I went down to Maggie Valley to visit my dearest friend Beth Brown, her darling husband Kenny and some of my favorite doggies in the world: Heidi, Oscar and Charlie Brown.

I arrive in Maggie with a full cooler with enough delectable treats to feed half of the state: center cut filets, two big slabs of meaty baby back ribs and lots of juicy Amish chicken breasts. Oh, and cheese. Lots and lots of cheese. Parmesan, Sicilian Jack, Danish Blue and Honey Goat. All this for just 3 people for just 3 days!

Beth says she wants to take me to a new favorite restaurant for lunch. I'm game. She's a foodie, Kenny is a foodie and if they say it's good, then it must be.

Oh, one minor detail... this restaurant is in the back of a gas station. And it's in a tiny town 45 minutes away.

Say whaaaat? You want to take me to a gas station restaurant? I'm secretly thinking they might have been away from city life a little too long...

Being the good sport that I am, I "graciously" agree to try the gas station restaurant with the slightly pretentious name of Caffé REL.

Well, Caffé REL put this snotty city girl in her place!

It was nothing like I expected. A charming little restaurant that would fit anywhere on the Champs~Élysées, the extensive menu featured delicacies such as:

Lamb Lollies ~ Rosemary rubbed lamb lollipops finished with shallot scallion Madera sauce

Snails & Tails ~ Helix snails and crawfish tail meat sautéed in butter with portabella mushrooms, Glace De Viande, fresh herbs, shallots, garlic, sherry and fresh cream... and then it's finished with a homemade puff pastry braid

French Blue Bâtard ~ Blue crab claw meat sautéed in butter with shallots, garlic, scallions and capers served on French bread, topped with Parmesan cheese and then baked hot and bubbly.

Not only was lunch simply amazing but when the server inquired about dessert, I ~ of course ~ suggested we "share" one. I naively asked which of the desserts on the extensive list was made in house... too many for me to keep track of.

After much discussion and debate, we decided on the Lemon & Strawberry Cake ~ delicate yellow cake with homemade strawberry jam in between the layers and then iced with an amazing lemon curd icing. Oh, and served with a fabulous whipped cream and vanilla bean ice cream.

I didn't want to leave the table and "laughingly" suggested we just order wine and keep the table until dinner.

So next time a foodie friend suggests lunch at the gas station, hope and pray they're talking about a road trip to Franklin, NC.

Chef Debbie's Amazing Dinner at Radio Milano

Do you Twitter? I started just a couple of months ago am finding it addictive.

If you're so inclined, you can follow me at ChefDebbieCPC. I Tweet about my blog, recipes, the cook day or anything else I can say in just 140 characters at a time.

I follow lots of foodie people around the world ~ restaurants, chefs, food writers, etc. and when I happened to mention a couple of weeks ago that sweet husband and I would be in Scottsdale this week, I received a Tweet from Radio Milano.

So sweet husband and I left our resort paradise to have dinner at Radio Milano ~ and, boy, are we glad we did!

My food photos didn't turn out very well ~ not sure if it was the second glass of wine or the lighting. The service from the instant we arrived (free valet parking) to immediately being greeted at the door to our super server, Les, was stellar.

The menu is small but packed full of interesting choices. Sweet husband started with the roasted red pepper soup followed by a beautiful, perfectly cooked piece of roasted halibut served over sautéed spinach. A generous splash of the grilled lemon accompaniment and sweet husband was very happy.

I'm never one to pass up an opportunity for pasta and I certainly wasn't disappointed. When I'm in a new restaurant, I always ask the server what his/her favorite entrée is and I'm rarely unhappy with the choice. Our server last night was Les and I can honestly say if he wasn't such a talented musician, he could make a bloody fortune as a server. Attentive, knowledgeable about the menu and not too bad on the eyes, his recommendation of the linguine and clams was spot on.

Baby clams ~ lots and lots of baby clams ~ were tossed with a perfect prepared al denté linguine and all tossed in a light white wine, olive oil, butter and garlic sauce. In many restaurants the white sauce is heavy but here all I wanted was 3~4 more loaves of bread to soak up the sauce. Sometimes I embarrass myself when I pick up the plate and lick it clean so I (occasionally) try to act dignified and use bread to finish the job.

Even though we shouldn't have, and really didn't need it, we finished our wonderful dinner with the radio chocolate pudding ~ a creamy confection of chocolate decadence topped with an espresso meringue. We fought over the last bite!

So thanks to my new foodie friends, Daniel (the general manager), Joe (Twitter expert extraordinaire) and Les, super server. It was a wonderful dinner and Tim and I can't wait to return and try an entire new array of delightful delicacies.

Chef Debbie Hits the Jackpot(s)

So sweet husband took me to Las Vegas for a few days for my birthday last month.

I know. You're saying "But spoiled brat didn't you just go on vacation for, like, two weeks to Puerto Vallarta?"

Well, yes, I did. But that was months and months (OK maybe just five months ago) but it seems like a really long time ago and I really needed a birthday vacation.

So many of you've heard my video poker stories over the years and I'm sure even though you know me, you take the stories with a grain of salt.

Gotta tell you, if I heard those stories, I'd wonder too. So I decided to take photos of my jackpots ~ when I remembered.

And there were many times I didn't remember ~ or, rather, when the champagne made me forget.  

These are the jackpots I won during the first two days of my birthday vacation because I got sick and spent four entire days in bed.

But. Thinking about it. Four days doing nothing but sleeping and reading IS a vacation right there.

Lest you think that I spent my entire vacation sleeping, drinking or in front of the video poker machine, I did manage to get to a couple of very good restaurants. Besides our standard stop at Mon Ami Gabi for steak au poivre for sweet husband and filet and a couple of French 75 martinis for me, we ate at a wonderful little restaurant in The Venetian called Tia Toretto.

I typically don't order dessert after dinner but I always look at the dessert menu before anything else ~ well, except maybe not before ordering a glass of wine. But when I saw the dessert tray at Tia Toretto, I had to have dessert. The trouble was deciding which one to have!

All of their desserts are homemade and offered on that evening's tray ~ from the top around clockwise: Apple Cheesecake; Macadamia Tiramisu; Flourless Almond Chocolate Cake; Strawberry and Pistachio Torte; White Chocolate and Orange Layer Cake; Custard Filled Chocolate Covered Longjohn; White Chocolate and Pistachio Torte; Bitter Orange Chocolate Ganache Covered Chocolate Mousse. Yummy!

I had the Apple Cheesecake ~ it sounds boring but it was amazing! Thin slices of apples were painted with a raspberry glaze and then shaped into the rose design all around a creamy apple flavored cheesecake filling. Very simple but oh so good. Along with a glass of 20~year old Port, this restaurant was a Winner!

Personal Chef Asks: Waiter Is That A Fly in My Soup?

A Blog A Day For A Month: Day 30. Only 1 more day to go.

By now, everyone has learned the identity of the infamous mystery author of the frightening and disgusting blog Waiter Rant, Steve Dublanica.  A New York Post article discloses his identity as well as revealing a couple of the "lessons" he's subjected his past customers to.

And, surprise of surprises, he's written a book about his experiences as a waiter!

Have you ever read the blog? It's full of the "lessons" waiters teach customers who send food back, are rude, don't look like they'll tip well or whatever.

Of course, it's never the waiter's fault when I had to ask three times over the course of 20 minutes for the same glass of wine that was never delivered but charged on my bill three times.

And, of course, it's never the waiter's fault when I order a medium~rare steak with asparagus risotto and I'm served a chicken with fried potatoes. And, yes, the waiter did deliver the food.

Or, I love this one. It's never the waiter's fault that I had the huge misfortune to walk into that restaurant on that night when the waiter is in a foul mood, has cigarette breath, dirty fingernails, is wearing half a bottle of the cheapest drugstore cologne/perfume and I ask for a different table outside of their service area.

I know the work is hard. And the customers can be rude. And you don't make a lot of money. And you occasionally get stiffed on your tip.

But. DO NOT take it out on me before I even sit down and you've already determined that I'm a lousy tipper because as Waiter Dublancia boasts "It's gotten to the point where I can tell how much money I'm going to make off a customer within 10 seconds of meeting them." Even though he then claims, one paragraph later, "I try not to fall into that (profiling diners based on age, sex and race) trap."

Huh?

Perhaps the reason you didn't get the tip you "expect" could be because you've treated me like crap, have served me the wrong dinner, have admitted to leaving your personal body fluids all over a customer's food or any multitude of other lovely disease~ridden pranks that you've pulled over the years.

And my friends wonder why I don't like to go out to dinner!

But if I do go out to dinner and receive impeccable, attentive service from a waiter that is knowledgeable about the menu and preparation techniques and has some semblance of personality, then you'll be extremely happy with the tip you earned.

Personal Chef Would Rather Eat at Home

A Blog A Day For A Month: Day 19. Only 12 more days to go.

Sweet husband Tim and I went out last night. Now most people probably go out for dinner once in a while. Not us. Sweet husband offers to take me out to dinner almost every night.

But I almost always say no for a myriad of reasons ~ it's too expensive, the wine is marked up at least three times retail, it's not as good as I can normally make, on and on and on.

So I agreed to out "for happy hour" with our friends Tom and Vicki. I should mention though, that happy hour can sometimes turn into happy hours when the four of us are together. We went to In Cahoots in downtown Blue Ash. They have a great happy hour with a nice sized glass of wine at only $3.95/glass and they pour a very decent drink.

Dinner, however, was hit and miss. We've never had a problem before. Every item we've ordered ~ from angus burgers to beef stroganoff to curry chicken salad to smothered chicken ~ has been cooked and seasoned properly and plated beautifully. It always happens. You take somebody to a restaurant they haven't been to before, tell them it's good, and they end up having a less than stellar meal.

Sweet husband had a smoked top sirloin steak which was very good. Vicki had salmon. Again very good. Tom and I, on the other hand, ordered the "house favorite trout." Ugh! It was just plain broiled trout. No seasonings. No sauce. Overcooked, dry and flavorless.

Now I'm not shy but apparently Tom is. Two bites into the fish and I called our server, Stephanie, over. Absolutely no problem to switch the trout for the smoked steak. Tom muddled through his trout while I happily gnawed on smoked red meat.

And the best part? For the inconvenience, they bought me another glass of wine. Cant' beat that!

Sake Bombs for Dessert

A Blog A Day For A Month: Day 13. Only 18 more days to go.

Last night we went out with two of my favorite people ~ Kristy and Ryan. Now it's a good thing we planned this several weeks ago, because after the week I had I would have cancelled and spent the night in my comfy chair watching the flat screen.

So we went out for sushi at Soho. We had two large platters of sushi, salads, veggie tempura and soup. Oh. And drinks. Lots and lots of green tea martinis, red wine and, of course, the obligatory sake bombs at the bar after dinner. I think the guys call them "dessert."

Kristy and I didn't sake bomb, however, our server Tina always joins the guys for one. I'll stick with green tea martinis.

So, thank you to Kristy and Ryan. I'm glad we planned a night out. I'm glad I didn't cancel and sit in front of the flat screen. And I'm really glad we're friends.

Yeah. What Charlie Gibson Said!

A Blog A Day For A Month: Day 5. Only 26 more days to go.

Yesterday, World News Tonight with Charlie Gibson had a segment about Dinner In The Sky, a new dining concept where chefs and guests dine 15~20 stories in the air.

With nothing under them!

In case you haven't heard about this yet, it's the newest ~ and most expensive ~ dining craze (or is it crazy) that's sweeping the rich and bored.

Their website doesn't have pricing, however, it does state that infrared heaters are 750 euros a pop. That's just for the heat. So, my guess is that if you have an extra $500K USD laying around then you, too, could have Dinner In The Sky.

Gotta tell you ~ there isn't enough wine in the world to get me up there! And then I'd have to go to the bathroom.

Charlie Gibson ended the segment with a personal comment. "With all due respect, that's just nuts!"

Yeah. What Charlie Gibson said!

Extra Wine? Not in My Glass (Unfortunately)!

A Blog A Day For A Month: Day 2. Only 29 more days to go.

A couple of days ago there was an article in The Los Angeles Times discussing a study published this week in the journal "Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research" claims that alcoholic drinks served in bars and restaurants are often larger than the standard size and contain more alcohol. The study went on to claim that the average glass of wine served in a bar was 43% larger than standard.

Huh?

First, I'd like to know who really reads that journal. Then I'd like to know which bars and restaurants they studied and where they're getting their glasses of wine!

I went out the other night with Sandee for a cocktail after work and I can guarantee that my glass of wine was certainly not almost 50% more than a standard glass of wine. Now granted, it was happy hour. And my glass of wine was $1 off the regular price. But it sure looked like instead of serving the regular glass of wine for $1 less than their standard price, they served $1 less of alcohol and charged me $1 less.

When a bar/restaurant can charge $8/glass for a bottle of wine that retails for $16, food prices rising over 20% in the last year alone, a Bear market on the horizon and gas averaging over $4.25 nationally a little extra wine would really help dull the pain.

Beware of the Lemon Slice

Ouch! This one is gonna hurt! If:

You have ever been served water with lemon in a restaurant;

Or, your Chivas on the rocks is served with a double wedge of lemon and a twist is run around the rim of the glass;

Or, you like fresh lemon with your tilapia dinner;

Or, lemon slices are served with anything you order in a restaurant:

Watch this short video.

In order to be a Certified Personal Chef, I've had to pass the national Serv-Safe exam which is a national exam testing for food handling, food storage and food safety.

Bottom line.

Wash everything!

Lemons, limes, bananas, oranges, peaches, onions, shallots, potatoes.

You get the idea.

I cook a lot.

Every day.

All day.

I wash everything.

Everything.

Green Tea Martinis at Lunch

So I attended sweet husband Tim's office holiday party today.

You know the routine.

The entire office, including spouses, shows up at the restaurant for lunch. They stick us in a private room far away from normal people. Silly hats, Secret Santa gag gifts, Christmas muzak on the sound system.

In years past there have been a large selection of soft drinks for our dining pleasure.

This year, party central was at Soho. Soho Japanese Bistro is a great sushi restaurant where I just happen to know the bartender, Ian. Well, you'd know Ian too if you'd spent as much time there as I have in the last couple of years.

So, sweet husband is having a Dr. Pepper with his steak and shrimp and I get all wild and crazy and order a Green Tea Martini. Ian makes a kickbutt Green Tea Martini.

Sweet husband is ready to hide under the table.

Green Tea Martini disappeared entirely too quickly for polite company.

Sweet husband's feet are barely visible under the tablecloth.

So the server comes around seeing who else needed soda refills. Not me.

Ian walks in ~ of course I'm sitting as far away from the door as possible and he has to pass by every one of the firm's Partners to get to me ~ proudly offering me his holiday gift of another Green Tea Martini.

I just couldn't hurt his feelings.

Well, green is the color of the season. And Green Tea is really really good for you.

Disappointing Dinner!

Met my friends Janeen and Nancy for dinner last night at Paul Sturkey's new restaurant, Mesh. With crazy schedules for all of us, it's a rare treat when we can all get together and catch up. So we braved the pouring rain and cold to meet for dinner. Chef Sturkey has owned several restaurants around Cincinnati in the past and, as a Certified Personal Chef and owner of Yummy~issimo! Personal Chef Service, I'm constantly in search of good food, prepared in new and interesting ways and beautifully served.

I'd heard both good and mediocre about Mesh, so we decided to give it a try. The bar and restaurant were filled with businessmen on expense account from the Marriott across the street. As three women together ~ without a man ~ we were seated at the table closest to the kitchen door, as in we were so close to the kitchen that the servers were constantly in and out, talking to each other as they passed, and brushing our table constantly. Oh, by the way, there were quite a few empty 4~tops with a much nicer dining location than next to the kitchen. It was quite irritating.

Our server, Lauren, was visibly annoyed that we didn't want wine for the table. As Nancy was late with the bad weather and associated terrible traffic, Janeen and I had wine at the bar. None of us wanted a full dinner and we all decided to have salad and heavy appetizers. Needless to say, Lauren's body language grew even colder.

My selections:
Marinated Beet Salad $8.00 ~ described by Lauren as marinated roasted beets topped with goat cheese, spiced pecans and an orange truffle vinaigrette. In reality, it was four paper~thin slices of beet topped with a 4" high mound of goat cheese mixed with microgreens and a couple of spiced pecans on the side. I'm not quite sure where the orange truffle vinaigrette ended up but I couldn't identify it on my plate.
Grade: C-

Vegetable Trio $23.00 ~ this was not described by Lauren at all as she was pushing the the $40 venison dinner special and the $50 steak entrees. The menu describes this entree as a trio of Curry Carrot Soup with Truffled Apples, Redskin Potato Ravioli with Tomato Artichoke Emulsion and Tofu Tempura with Toasted Paprika Vinaigrette. Sounds Yummy! The curry in the soup was overwhelming ~ and I like curry. There were a couple of microscopic apple bites and I have no idea what or where the "truffled" part was. The potato ravioli was heavy and was reminiscent a periogi topped with diced tomatoes. The tofu tempura was inedible and, once again, I like tofu. Imagine uncooked tofu covered with a crunchy coating and deep fried.
Grade D

Janeen's selections:
Paul Sturkey's House Salad $8.00 ~ sun~dried tomatoes, toasted almonds, feta cheese and Sturkey's creamy balsamic vinaigrette. This is the same salad he served at his Encore Restaurants (all abruptly closed two weeks ago) and it has always been quite good.
Grade A

Atlantic Salmon $25.00 ~ served with lobster mashed potatoes, French green beans and a sherry soy sauce. Lauren suggested the salmon be served medium and Janeen agreed. The salmon was medium~well bordering on well done and the lobster mashed potatoes, while a substantial serving, were quite heavy and overwhelmed the salmon.
Grade C

Nancy's selections:
Iceberg Salad $6.00 ~ 3/4 of a head of iceberg lettuce smothered with blue cheese dressing, a dab of diced tomatoes, onions and olives. Certainly not something that should ever be on a Sturkey menu.
Grade D

Mashed Potato "Poppers" $8.00 ~ a great way to use leftover mashed potatoes. Deep fried and dusted with Sturkey's Spice and white truffle oil. We all agreed it tasted like deep fried mashed potatoes with cayenne pepper and lemon. Once again, we weren't sure where the white truffle oil was used. Lauren didn't warn Nancy that these were quite spicy.
Grade C ~ I liked the spiciness of them while Nancy couldn't eat more than 1/2 of one.

Overall, I was extremely disappointed with the entire meal and the service. Our check was $83.00 before tip and I'm really sorry we didn't go someplace like Ember's Restaurant or Jag's. I don't mind spending money for a great meal with good service but unfortunately that's not what I got last night.

At least my dinner companions were exceptional.