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Do you have the guts to cook guts 4.0?

January 27, 2012 on 2:00 am | In Blog, Offal | No Comments

menu meeting

After each years head to tail I look back and say how can we top that, and each year its a challenge that I gladly welcome. With the past 3 year we have brought in stages to spend a week cooking with the Incanto team, and it has been alot of fun and a great experience. Each stage has come and left their mark, thank you to Derek & Omar 1st year , Michael & Jonah 2nd year, Kylie & Michael 3rd year. So to continue on in that spirit we shall do it again, its time for someone else to come and play. This is all about sharing, inspired by the constant requests for knowledge about how to cook offal. Now’s your chance to learn. I will be accepting 2 volunteers to help with the event this year. You get to come into my kitchen and help cook 2 nights of head to tail dinners. You will work your ass off, have some fun and learn a ton, but there are rules to this game. This offer is open to professional cooks only. You will be an unpaid volunteer. You must commit to working in my kitchen for 5 days, from Friday, March 23rd through Wednesday the 28th except for Tuesday, which you’ll have off to recover. But usually i take us all out to eat and do something fun. You must submit your resume and a short essay on why you should be one of the chosen ones. This is a busy time and I don’t have time to be baby sitting. The Head to Tail dinner is a multi-course menu with a shit load of detailed work..

Here is the pay out; you get all 4 of my t-shirts to take home and you will be able to sit down and enjoy the head to tail menu in the dinning room on the last night. And you have to write a story for me to share on this website after your time here to share with the world. hey Jonah I am still waiting for yours.

: working out the plating

Email your resume and brief essay to me at chris@incanto.biz by friday February 20th th. I will make a final decision and contact the 2 lucky winners on February 24th to confim your participation. This gives you 4 weeks to make travel arrangements. Ultimately, this is a fun opportunity to be a part of a great team for a week and learn how to cook some innards.

team photo

Mozo vs Zappos cook off Finale

July 8, 2011 on 1:56 pm | In Blog, Resources, Videos | No Comments

This was so much fun, I hope they had as much fun as Aaron and I did. Who would have thought it would come down to that! Be sure to look to Zappos for our shoes, they cant be beat

Mozo vs Zappos cook off Part 1

July 7, 2011 on 11:41 am | In Blog, Resources, Videos | No Comments

Some how I got paired with the super forward thinking CEO of Zappos in a cooking competition I dont

know how, but I am not going to complain Tony is a true visionary.

This was a fun event we did at Zappos headquarters in Las Vegas with the entire staff watching on.

There is another video with part 2 coming to see who win take the crown so keep watching.

Eat my heart on The Feast!

July 6, 2011 on 11:35 pm | In Blog, Offal, Press, Videos | 2 Comments

View more videos at: http://www.thefeast.com.

This is a video I did for The Feast for valentines day, its a bit old but I thought I would share it anyways.I cant get enough of the heart tartare, but with the foie gras it’s over the top.

Restaurant trade panel on Twitter

June 29, 2011 on 7:34 am | In Blog, Resources | No Comments

This is the Amex Trade panel I did about social media in 2010 at Aspen Food and Wine classic. It was a fun panel to be on, what you cant see is I have a giant screen posting my twitter feed to the audience as you answered my questions. It was a great way to show the power of social media.

My rejected TV pilot Chef Unleashed

June 26, 2011 on 10:10 am | In Blog, Videos | 29 Comments

A lot of you have been asking me if “Chefs vs City’ was coming back and the answer is no! I have been trying to find a show that makes senses for me. This is a pilot project that I completed a few months ago that has been turned down, I am proud of this show check it out.

ABOUT CHEF UNLEASHED

People pitch me TV ideas all the time. Some are good, some not so good. Having done my fair share of TV, I’ve gotten to a place where I’m particular about the projects I choose to do. I’ve also watched how our celebrity-driven culture has infiltrated the food world, with some alarming side-effects. But I’m getting off-topic.

Last year, a couple of guys approached me about doing a food/adventure show called Chef Unleashed. One of them had written about me a couple of times in food magazines and the other was known for directing music videos and concert movies. I was intrigued. The approach they suggested was fresh and honest and, as it would turn out, envelope-pushing: They actually wanted to do a show that would challenge and excite me, a chef, and, in so doing, challenge and excite viewers.

The impulse behind the show was simple: Everybody onboard loves food, is fascinated by where it comes from, and is not squeamish about how to get it, whether it might be game hunted on open terrain or tuna hand-gaffed by blood-soaked Sicilian fisherman, a tradition that goes back 1,000 years. As the guys wrote in their proposal, “Chef Unleashed invites the viewer on a global eating exploration. It’s a new kind of reality show, about where good food really comes from—when it’s done right.”

I appreciated the directness and honesty, along with the prospect of traveling the world to explore how the very best food is raised, butchered, or farmed in its native habitat: Chef Unleashed would have me put on waders, pick up a rifle, wear a hardhat, don overalls, whatever it might take. Real stuff. Challenging and yet totally entertaining. No oohing and aahing studio audience. No eating of 40-pound omelettes or 9-foot hoagies. No races or contests.

We went to the Texas Hill Country in January and shot a pilot with one of my favorite purveyors: Broken Arrow Ranch. They’re the go-to guys for wild game in the US. We had a blast. I learned how to “field harvest” deer alongside their sharpshooters and, in turn, I taught them how to use the whole animal, including the heart, the kidneys, the liver. We had a huge feast at the end, outside, with the moon rising. Some of the ranch guys were pretty skeptical about a.) my hunting ability (well, honestly, I was skeptical about my hunting ability, too), and b.) my approach to cooking. But when it was all over, everyone was fast friends. We learned a ton from each other and it was, I have to say, one of the very best days I’ve ever experienced as a chef and easily my best experience doing TV.

The guys working on the show captured it all brilliantly: my excitement, my apprehension, my eyes opening – and my hosts’ too — to new ways of doing food. I have no doubt that the pilot will open more eyes, right down to the very frank, honest, and totally riveting footage of Texas deer – majestic, gorgeous animals — being hunted (and butchered) to provide food for our dinner tables.

Oops. Mistake. Yes, we were pretty aware that we were, to repeat the phrase, pushing the envelope with this. And I admit, it was pretty gory stuff. If you watch, you’ll see my very real reaction to it.

But this was not – at all – about shock value. This was all about getting down to the very source of the very best food and showing where it comes from. People who know me know I’ve been waging war against our Styrofoam-wrapped, hormone-pumped supermarket culture my entire career. Chef Unleashed allows me to continue that by other means, along with cracking some jokes, making new friends, and preparing some great food. But I suspect that some squeamishness – both the kind that I encounter occasionally in diners at Incanto, but, seriously, more often in TV executives who like to say they’re always looking for the next “new” thing, but in reality are pretty terrified when they ever really see anything new – got in the way of our show: The program made its way around the network that paid for it. And then just kind of petered out. Whatever. These things happen all the time and I refuse to take it personally. I’ve done other projects that didn’t get above the ground floor. Fair enough.

But this one is different. I think it’s a great opportunity for viewers and for a network game enough to break the boundaries of where food TV is right now. I’ve said way too much and yet I don’t think I’ve even given the best picture of what I think this show could become — something, I believe, that can inspire a lot of people in their own kitchens, in their own journeys. It’s part travel show, part cooking show, and total adventure. It’s a food and travel show that looks and feels like no other. I love it and, even in this roughed-out pilot form, I think you might, too.

Thanks for checking it out.

Aspen restaurant trade panel

June 24, 2011 on 12:58 pm | In Resources, Videos | No Comments

To have the opportunity to speak on this panel with such amazingly talent hospitality professional was an honor. Each one had so much information to share, I hope the audience learned as much as I did.

Pairings with Ben Harper

May 15, 2011 on 9:42 am | In Blog, Press, Videos | 2 Comments

This was one of the most amazing events I have ever done. 170 guests, outside event with a live acoustic set by Ben Harper after dinner was amazing. To have Ben dedicate and sing me into a song was a priceless moment I will never forget. Thanks to all the amazing staff of chefs and great friends who helped me cook this event. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.

Pairings unites the world’s premier musical artists, chefs and winemakers in the creation of once-in-a-lifetime events and live performances across the globe. Visit DOWNLOAD THEIR DINNER PARTY PLAYLIST (WITH SELECTIONS FROM NORAH JONES TO COLDPLAY AND THE PROPELLERHEADS), created especially by us for Napa Pairings with Chris Cosentino, Ben Harper and Franciscan Winery.

Kylie chimes in on her H2T experience

May 12, 2011 on 12:24 am | In Blog, Offal | No Comments

plating the lamb kidney dish. photo by Michael Turkell

It was our pleasure to have Kylie as our guest in the kitchen for this years head to tail. Her essay is spot on, thanks again for all your help.

Monday, May 9, 2011

Hi Chef and crew of Incanto!

It’s hard to believe that a month and then some has past since I had to honor of taking part in your nose to tail dinner. Thank you for inviting me into your lives and giving me such an unbelievable experience.

I took many things away from my time with you. But after some serious reflection, I think what I was most impressed with was the absolute camaraderie that we as cooks (and restaurant people in general), have the privilege to enjoy on a day-to-day basis.

I knew coming into the experience that the food would be great and that I would learn new techniques and tricks and skills and tips in the kitchen. But I did not expect to discover what it really is that creates a successful working restaurant machine; that is, above all, teamwork.

This was my first stage and, nerves aside, I was anxious walking into Incanto, solely because I didn’t know what to expect from it’s inhabitants. But from the first second I set foot in your kitchen, it was evident that we cooks are all one unique sub species of human. We have our own language, our own jokes and definitely our own sense of humor. We take things seriously in a way that really proves our devotion and passion and, most importantly, respect for our craft. I was inspired in this way, by every one of you, at every turn.

I think as cooks, we can be overly eager to prove ourselves to each other. I will openly admit to being guilty of this. It was a welcome and humbling experience to turn this off, in a sense, and just absorb and embrace the things that were happening around me. For this reason, I will continue to search out new stages and experiences which may make me uncomfortable at first, but will establish lessons that I couldn’t possibly gain without the drive to constantly learn about food, where it comes from and what it brings to every person in our world.

Thanks again. And please, pass on high fives to all the beautiful people of Incanto!

Regards,

K.Y. Gelee

Offal Good™