Princess Sabia Has Spoken!!!!

I Love You Too Beana...

Unkle

Nessuna Passione-Nessun Amore

No Passion, No Love...

Jeez, how many times have I said that?

Lately the professional passion was kind of wearing down trying to figure out administrative procedures for our opening...

But then...

The wrench gets thrown into the system...(how many times have I said that?...ha ha)

Our menu concept has now changed to fine Italian...no problem, we still have time before opening, I know so many chefs that would have just gone ballistic if they spent as much time and energy as I did on this menu, but anyway, that's neither here nor there...

No Passion, No Love....that's what I'm writing about...

Once while speaking with Chef John Fleer from Blackberry Farms in Walland, Tennessee he expressed that his passion was getting into the hearts of the diners, it's been that way since the beginning of time from that first meat being roasted over an open flame and ever since. All of the worlds decisions are based around a plate of food in some extent or another...This was several years ago, but it made a lasting impression on the existance of the CheffyBoy...

So I had written a decent menu to do Italian on Wednesday evenings so when the idea of the Italian concept came up it brought a bunch of questions in my mind, not only how I could make the menu and the concept as individual and standoutish as possible but how am I going to rock the clientele as well as educate them on Italian Cuisine.

You know that when the average Joe thinks about Italian food they automatically think of tomatos, pizza, salami and pepperoni, etc. Never really getting it that there is so much more to Italian Cuisine...how often do people think of fish when they think "Italian"...freaking amazing isn't it being that 7/8ths its 117,000 sq miles is surrounded by water...

So letting the CheffyBrainHousingGroup go into overdrive the thoughts and ideas just won't slow down long enough for me to think about the last one....ha ha

So anyway, this is what I am leaning towards...

Regional Menu, changing monthly, first month will be Sicily.

The idea is to do a good sampling of foods all throughout Sicily and once or twice a month I will have a "Slow Food" night and between courses I will go into the dining room and tell a little story about the course that next...history, funny fact, why I chose this dish or that...maybe do 6 or 7 courses and make it a one seating event and then change everytime the menu changes, perhaps the second one will be on Tuscany...

So this morning I get the psychopassion started early and decided to call my friend and one of my former Chef's who has family in Sicily and travels back and forth frequently...



Chef Tom, Chef Greg and me being goofy...

Tom and I had a great conversation which led me to thinking more regionally...I had to laugh at him cuz he said that he was just gonna relax with a Gourmet magazine and I planted the inquisitive bug in him so now he is going to try to find a bunch of stuff for me to play with...

It kind of makes me feel good that once I wind up in that CheffyMode how that energy reaches other passionate souls...

Sometimes you just gotta love life....

The Tao of Being A Chef....

Walker Update

The Walker House Update

A quick note to everyone that has been checking out the blog and attempting to find out more about Chef, especially Amy and Darby...kind of a cute story...was out for dinner at Mineral Spirits and gave up my seat so that Amy and Darby can sit down, through our conversation it came out who I was only to find out that they have been to my website and to the blog checking out the stories and pictures of my food, I thought that was kind of neat....

The Update

Unfortunately, due to the inevitable glitches that often occur when opening up a new business, the Walker House will not be open for New Year's Eve as projected, but will open up as soon as possible and I am accepting other projects while we are waiting for construction to be completed. Our construction crew is diligently working daily in order to get us open but unfortunately we all have run into brick walls either physically or legally that have prohibited progress in some areas. These guys really rock and are doing their best to keep us moving forward. There was something that I had written a few weeks ago that was taken out of context, so regardless of whoever said what let it be said that these guys are working their asses off.

As a thank you to our staff we have been cooking for our staff on Friday's and that has been kind of fun. Our sheetrocker Matthew really amazes me with his palate. Matt had brought me some venison that I had cooked for the staff (pictured above) that was pretty awesome and Matt really likes to cook so I had showed him the marinade that I love to use for venison and had him alongside tasting each dimension of the marinade, was kind of fun, I love that kind of shit when someone really gets into food and I am able to teach them something. Last Friday I almost spaced out cooking lunch, so I had thrown something together quickly. I had made a grilled chicken with rice pilaf, while I was eating my chicken, in my mind I was trying to taste one of the flavors that I had used and then Matt looks at me and says "Sweet Chili Sauce right?" All I could say was "Good Palate..." I couldn't taste it but he could not only taste it but he distinguished the flavor...awesome stuff...

For Christmas I am going to do a cooking class with all of our workers and having them invite their families, that should be a lot of fun...anyhoooooo...will fill you in on that when we make it happen...

Other than that...

My bakery is almost completed, am going to move the ovens today and attempt to straighten out the pantry area so that we can move equipment around in an attempt to set that up.

I will be a happy boy once the bakery area is totally completed, is just a matter of time, but it looks more like a bakery everyday, so I guess in that sense I am pretty happy.

The health dept. has been over a couple times, just want to make sure that he and I are on the same page about things. Unfortunately, he is leaving town over the holidays so in order for me to be inspected I have to have the kitchen completed by the 18th and that is just not going to happen. The interior can be completed by then but there are issues with the make up air and hood systems for the bakery and dishtank that can not be completed by then...

Anyway...

That's pretty much the long and short of it, everyday we are making progress, but as it always is when opening up a new business there are always walls that we run into, is just a fact of life...

So be patient...

And the answer is Yes!!!!

The Walker's Back In Town Baby!!!!!

Walker House Update

What in the heck was I thinking?????

It's bad enough that I am not very fond of snow...but is my passion for food so ridiculous that I would actually move to Wisconsin in the middle of November?

Jeezul Cheffy...what are ya' thinking? Don't you know that it's warm(er) in Maryville, TN?

No Passion No Love I guess....

The buzz is definitely created about the Walker House in our community and then some. I have been as far away as Madison and had people approach us about the Walker House opening back up. A couple things have happened the past couple days that was kind of neat about us opening and the recognition of the CheffyBoy...

On Thanksgiving I had an article printed in the local paper on cooking turkey, thanks to Joy Gieseke, the director of the local chamber and there is a historical paper that comes out quarterly that did an article on the Walker House and had a little sidebar on Cheffy that included my idea of sustainable dining and I had supplied Mr. Beaman with one of my favorite sauces for Venison....so that is kind of neat.

On Wednesday, Dec. 19th I am going to be a guest chef at a local eatery and Dave Bulla and I are going to do German food, I will put something else on the blog talking about what is going to go on that night...

I was at a restaurant auction in Madison last Sunday and while I was out at the roach coach grabbing a couple bratwurst a woman approached me and asked if I was Chef Mike, and got all excited about the Walker House re-opening and said that she had seen the article in the Historical Paper...I thought that was kind of cool, is almost like Cheffy is turning into some kind of local celebrity...

Here is a list of some of the things we have going on:

Meeting this week with one of the teachers from Mineral Point High School, I am going to do a fundraiser for the chorus from MPHS to help raise money so that they can go to Branson this spring. Not really sure what I am going to do, but it will probably be one of the cooking classes, or a series of them, don't know yet, but for those that know me, it is going to be a blast regardless...

Guest Chef at Mineral Spirits on Dec. 19th

My mentor, Chef Roy England is coming to Mineral Point the end of December to teach me the finer points in pizza production. Chef is coming for a week to hang out, he has been a sound board for me since I decided to take this job and has always been a great influence in the establishment of who I am and what I do.

As always, it is great to talk to Chef Scott about what I am doing and bouncing ideas off of him, so I am always in contact with him throwing ideas back and forth with each other.

Will be back around later to fill you guys in on my concepts about the menu, sustainable dining, my use of the local farms and businesses plus talk about my gig with Mineral Spirits.

Peace, Hugs and Cookies,

Chef

PS Hugz out to Darby and Amy-thanks for keeping tabs on your little CheffyBoy