Cheeses by Chef Jeff at the Hilton Huntington Beach

Good news, cheese plates are common on menus now for after dinner or a light snack. A personal wish of mine, a true cheese lover, is to find them on a breakfast menu someday. With a selection of thousands from all over the world, a chef must choose wisely and many choose locally.
Executive Chef Jeff Littlefield of Shades at the Hilton Hungtinton Beach considers textures, flavors, and milk type to balance his offerings. He serves guests inside or on the pool deck with ocean views.

Hilton Huntington Beach

He sources his cheeses from artisan cheese makers in California and his native Utah. The smaller hand crafted batches lead to frequent menu changes. “The cheeses rotate in and out depending on the season,” he said.
Mt. Tam from Cowgirl Creamery just north of San Francisco is a triple cream cheese made with organic milk, comparable to camembert. The mellow earthy flavor tastes great on the toasted ciabatta with or without a little dab of honey. You also get a washed rind Red Hawk from Cowgirl, a semi-hard cheese.
Chef Jeff also serves Seahive and Promontory Cheddars from Utah. “I was on vacation when I found Beehive cheeses,” he said. The Seahive is rubbed with wildflower honey and sea salt from the Great Salt Lake.
Promontory is named for the summit where the Union Pacific and Central Pacific Rail Road Lines connected the country from sea to sea in 1869. A buttery cheddar, it also hints of citrus.
Midnight Moon from Cypress Grove has a nutty and brown-buttery flavor with a dense, smooth texture.
Bermuda Triangle is a goat cheese from Cypress Grove with creamy, earthy qualities.
Point Reyes Blue is a boldly flavored blue cheese favorite.
Chef Jeff serves his cheese with membrillo, honey and reduced balsamic vinegar along with toasted ciabatta. He charges $10 for a choice of 3 and $15 for 5 out of about 8 cheeses.

Executive Chef Jeff Littlefield

At home

Cheese plates are also easy to create at home for a party or dinner. Typically 4 to 5 choices are plenty as long as a few thoughts are given to the options. Strong and mild, soft and firm types should be included. A semi-hard cow’s milk cheese, a spicy blue, a creamy Camembert or Brie, a chevre or sheep’s cheese would make a fine mix. Condiments such as nuts or candied nuts, fruit such as grapes, olives, honey, balsamic reduced to syrup or a sweet chutney are all possibilities. Wine, your preference, is a natural accompaniment.  Your own taste buds make the best guide.

Chef Marc Cohen

Lobster bisque with tarragon shallot sorbet combines two distinct elements that are delicious on their own or together by spooning the sorbet onto the bisque. The creamy sweetness balances the savory and enhances the subtle sweetness of the lobster.
Chef Marc’s menu at the Watermarc in Laguna Beach is filled with old comfort dishes alongside newer creative items. Dishes such as Crab Louis or Steak Tartare appear side by side with Ahi Watermelon Skewers–Seaweed salad, ponzu or Smoked Paprika Day Boat Scallops & Shrimp–Saffron orange couscous, apricot butter.
“Guests come in and say I’ve not had this since like forever,” said Chef Marc. “We have 26 grazing plates and are not too expensive. We don’t want to be a special occasion restaurant.” Appetizers, salads, flatbreads, and soups range from $6 to $12, sandwiches $9 to $16. The most expensive dinner item is the Fillet Three Ways: Oscar, Wellington and Diane for $34.

Chef Ramon Perez
Pastry Chef Ramon Perez never runs out of ice cream or dessert ideas. A recent dessert menu at Sona in Los Angeles listed “Fatale” Chocolate Tart with braised raspberries and avocado-rum ice cream and a Montmorency Tart Cherry Strudel topped with a scoop of Parmesan ice cream. What he doesn’t enjoy as much is repeating himself. “I like to change it up too often and can’t do routine,” Chef Ramon said. Fortunately his fans are open to his desserts and dessert tasting menus. Sona charge $55 for 3 to 10 courses of desserts that change frequently depending on what’s best and in season. “We sell about 6 per night. Guests come and just order that,” he explained.

Inspiration comes from random places. “I went into the walk-in and saw a drawer of brussel sprouts. Once I burnt the white chocolate by accident but discovered caramelized tasted good,” he said. Knowing what goes with what and utilizing product is what every good chef does.

Chef Scott Brandon
Chef Scott is from Corona del Mar where he currently is chef/partner at the Crow Bar and Kitchen. He’s returned from his working culinary travels through Los Angeles, Baton Rouge, Lafayette and San Francisco. He spent 13 years as executive chef at Oysters before partnering at the Crow Bar. He serves “pub food” with local ingredients that follow the seasons.
He has some regulars who come in just for his bananas foster bread pudding–rum caramel, caramelized bananas and brown sugar/caramel gelato; and Spreckle’s draft root beer float–root beer sorbet, vanilla bean gelato.

Chef Rudi Wieder
Currently working at the Hilton Bayfront inSan Diego, the German-born master pastry chef is an award-winning chocolatier with years of experience. He trained in Germany and has worked there, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates, Canada and the US. He came up with the monk hat ice sculpture holding his sorbet for a VIP dinner once. “Too much work to do on a large scale,” he said. How to make the ice sculpture? Something to do with freezing water in a balloon.
He currently delights guests with his dessert creations and baked treats at Vela Restaurant.

Brussels Sprouts Ice Cream
500 grams milk
250 grams cream
4 grams kosher salt
250 grams sugar
10 ea egg yolks
300 grams Brussels sprouts

Bring milk, cream,salt, brussel sprouts and half of sugar to boil. Cook till Brussel sprouts are tender, blend and strain through fine mesh strainer into a medium sized sauce pot. Place over medium-high heat and allow to come to boil. Add remaining sugar with egg yolks, temper Brussels sprout cream into egg yolks, stirring constantly. Once tempered, pour custard base back into sauce pot. Place over medium heat, using a spatula constantly stir until temperature of base reaches 85°C. Freeze according to ice cream manufacturer specifications.

Serve with lemon olive oil sponge, kumquats and mustard seeds.

Chef Ramon Perez
Sona
Los Angeles

Shiso Ice Cream

1150 grams milk
300 grams sugar
10 grams ice cream stabalizer
240 grams milk powder
130 grams glucose
485 grams cream
700 grams shiso

Blanch shiso in salted water. Shock. Puree, and pass through fine mesh strainer. Set aside.
Mix 100 grams of sugar with stabilizer. Add remaining sugar with milk, milk powder, glucose and cream. Bring up to 45C, add stabilizer, and bring to 85C

Buckwheat Ice Cream
200 grams buckwheat grain
1000 grams milk
300 grams Simple Syrup

Cryovac buckwheat with Milk, place in water bath at 72C for 30 minutes. Cool. Strain. Add Simple Syrup and freeze according to manufacture specifications.

Serve with buckwheat sable, sous vide cherry and yuzu kosho marshmallow.

Caramelized white chocolate, potato chip praline ice cream

Chef Ramon Perez
Sona

Chanterelle Ice Cream
1100 grams milk
300 grams sugar
10 grams stabilizer
250 grams milk powder
140 grams glucose
500 grams cream
670 grams chanterelles
25 grams butter
10 grams salt

Place butter in medium sized sauce pot, allow to brown. Add chanterelles and cook down. Add salt. Add milk, half of sugar, milk powder, glucose, cream. Mix remaining sugar with stabilizer, Once milk mix is up to 45°C, add stabilizer. Bring to 85°C. Blend, strain, and chill. Freeze according to ice cream manufacturers specifications.

Serve with soft jivara ganache and apricot.

Chef Ramon Perez
Sona
Los Angeles

Lemon-rosemary Pernot Sorbet

Juice and zest from 6 lemons
600 grams sugar
26 grams pectin
150 grams trimoline
32 grams fresh rosemary, leaves only
800 milliliters lemon juice
12 bottles water

Combine all ingredients in stockpot and bring to a boil. Strain through a chinois. Process in ice cream maker.

Chef Wieder’s colleague, Sous-chef Vijay Thukral, suggested the sorbet could also be served in an appetizer salad of greens and shaved fennel.

Pastry Chef Rudi Wieder
Hilton San Diego Bayfront

by Linda Mensinga

Although the classics–chocolate, strawberry and butter pecan–will be favorites forever, chefs cannot resist tempting the tastebuds of their guests with fun flavors that boggle the mind a bit. Popcorn, brussel sprout, sticky bun or wood ice cream anyone? Florentino, a family run business in Orange County, California, makes it their mission to make the best tasting ice cream and have won numerous awards in competitions. Selling primarily to chefs in restaurants, clubs or hotels, their flavors are divine and inspire customers to create memorable desserts. They also custom make ice creams with recipes provided by the chef if desired or will create a flavor to the customer’s taste. Flavors range from the expected vanilla supreme and chocolate gelato to the more exotic honey poppy seed, spiced tomato basil or mango cilantro. While somewhat unusual, their names make culinary sense and read as ice creams deserving a large scoop. Some of the chefs featured here are chef/owners of their own restaurants who prepare food for lunch, dinner and dessert menus, while others create desserts full time. They are inspired by other chefs, their experiences and the ingredients. 

Chef Gabbi Patrick  

“Mango and coconut are staples in Mexican desserts,” Chef Gabbi Patrick said. Elements of her desserts include mango cilantro, chili pepper and sour cream blueberry sorbets as well as banana and vanilla bean gelato.

Chef Gabbi Patrick

Growing up in a restaurant family, she was already managing two of her parents’ restaurants at 17. In 2002 she opened her own catering company and 2006, Gabbi’s Mexican Kitchen in a pedestrian-friendly zone of Orange. No sign of recession here, instead her lunch and dinner menu of regional Mexican dishes usually require a wait for a table. Her next project is developing a mole ice cream with Florentino based on her special mole recipe. Chef Jordan Kahn Chef Kahn does not use the frequently heard chef phrase, “I’m passionate about food,” He doesn’t have to because his desserts are the far superior show to tell. His attention to details, culinary curiosity and presentations speak for themselves.

Pastry Chef Jordan Kahn

He is a self-described food geek who makes crazy desserts (his words) but Jordan Kahn, pastry chef extraordinaire of Michel Mina’s XIV on Sunset Blvd in Los Angeles, makes the most inventive and delicious desserts to be found anywhere. While each of his desserts contain 6 to 8 elements and are artistic and architectural wonders, mere mortals could replicate parts of them and be perfectly happy with the results. Recipes follow. Some also appeared in Culinary Trends, a trade publication for chefs.   Chocolate covered Pavlova (Serves 1)  A quick read of this recipe reveals professional pastry chefs have access to time saving short cuts and do not always make everything from scratch when they find a satisfactory commercial product. Swiss Chalet, www.scff.com, is available online and comparable ingredients are sold in many locations. 1 piece Pavlova (baked meringue)  ( Swiss Chalet #90407 ) 2 ounces Vanilla bean ( Florentino ice cream #100 ) 4 ounces Dark Couverture  ( Swiss Chalet #31102 Accra ) 0.5 ounce White Couverture ( Swiss Chalet #31139 Sao Palme ) 1 ounce Raspberry Topping ( Swiss Chalet #31313 ) 1 ounce Bourbon Royal Sauce ( Swiss Chalet #31351 ) 2 ounces mixed berries Mint leaf  

Tres Leches Cake with banana gelato and strawberry peppered sorbet

Cut Pavlova in half and freeze again. Temper the white and dark chocolate. Soften the ice cream a little bit and get ready to cover the Pavlova with the dark chocolate. Spread the ice cream between the 2 Pavlova’s half’s, make like a sandwich and freeze them again. When sandwich is frozen, take it and start to cover it with the dark couverture. Make sure the chocolate is not too hot, otherwise ice cream will melt quickly. Do it two times and than freeze the covered Pavlova. Use white couverture to garnish the sandwich. Get plate ready and garnish with the berries and sauces. Exec Chef Thomas Bader Florentino Ice Cream Passion-pineapple Tres Leches Cake (Yields 14 individual cakes) Cake 3 cups sugar 3 cups flour 15 eggs, separated 1 cup milk 3 teaspoons baking powder 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla Milk syrup 2 cans evaporated milk 2 cans condensed milk 2 cups heavy cream 1 cup passion – pineapple fruit puree Frosting 2 cups heavy cream 1/2 teaspoon vanilla Garnish Sliced bananas, white chocolate shavings, seasonal berries Florentino banana gelato and strawberry peppered sorbet Preheat oven to 350°. Line pans with parchment paper. Beat 1 1/2 cups sugar and egg yolks until light and fluffy. Fold in milk, flour, baking powder and vanilla. Beat egg whites and 1 1/2 cups of sugar until firm. Fold whites into mixture gently. Pour batter into pans and bake until set, 40 to 50 minutes. Let cool. Pierce cake with fork and pour milk syrup on top until cake absorbs all the liquid. Whip cream for frosting with vanilla to soft peaks. Decorate with shavings, bananas, berries and whipped cream. Serve with banana gelato and strawberry peppered sorbet.

Chef Gabbi Patrick

Gabbi’s Mexican Kitchen

Orange, CA

THE LIVING FOREST COMPONENTS

Wood ice cream

Nutella custard

Coffee streusel

Bourbon toffee

Pistachio-cardamom sable

Green tea “vines”

Toast streusel

Herbs and flowers

Cocoa sable

The Living Forest

Wood ice cream

500 g        apple wood chips

4 l              milk T

oast the wood chips in a dry pot over medium high heat, until toasted and slightly smoking. Meanwhile, bring the milk to a scald in a large pot, and add the toasted, hot wood chips to the hot milk. Cover and infuse overnight in the refrigerator.

300g              cream

3 L                   infused milk

700g              sugar

15g                 salt

225g              glucose

9g                   xanthan gum

450g              yolks

200g              butter, cubed and room temperature

100g              milk powder

Place the sugar in a large pot, and cook to obtain a medium caramel. Deglaze with the cream, then add the infused milk, salt, and glucose and bring to a boil. Temper into the yolks. Fill a blender half way with this mixture, and begin to blend on high. Add the xanthan gum, and continue to blend for 1 minute. Pour this mixture into a clean, large bowl. Fill the blender again with the ice cream mixture without the xanthan gum, add the milk powder, and blend on high until all of the milk powder is dissolved. While the blender is still running, begin adding the butter a few pieces at a time until completely emulsified. Mix all of the ice cream base together until homogeneous.  Strain through a fine chinois.

Nutella custard

1200g                        milk

1200g                        cream

1200g                        nutella

1 1/2 tsp            genugel lc-4 carageenan

1 tsp                 salt 

Blend together the carageenan and milk in the vita prep for 1 minute. Add the nutella to the milk mixture while the machine is running until smoothe. Transfer the mix to a medium pot along with the cream and salt. Bring to a full boil while stirring constantly. Deposit into glasses using a pastry funnel.

Coffee Streusel

1K                   Sugar

1K                   Almond Flour

600g              Flour

240g              Cocoa Powder

200g              Decaf Coffee Grounds

60g                 Salt

800g              Butter, melted and cooled   

Mix all of the dry ingredients in a bowl. Add the melted butter. Incorporate by hand until well combined. Bake at 300° F, stirring occasionally until crispy and dried.

Bourbon Toffee

650g              sugar

100g              glucose

500g              cream, hot

200g              butter

2 tsp                 salt

1 tsp                 xanthan gum

150g              bourbon

In a large pot, combine the sugar and glucose with enough water to make the sugar wet. Cover the pot with a metal bowl, and place over high heat.

Once the pot begins to steam, remove the bowl and bring the sugar to a medium amber caramel. Deglaze the caramel with half of the butter until incorporated.

Turn the heat off, the add the cream and mix until all of the sugar is dissolved.

Transfer the mix to the blender, and place on high. Add the xanthan gum, salt, and remainder of the butter, and blend for 1 minute. Strain.

Mix in the bourbon until well combined. 

Pistachio-cardamom sable

400g              sugar

600g              butter, soft

3 ea                 egg yolks

2 tsp                 salt

2 tsp                 toasted cardamom, ground

500g              sicilian pistachio flour

500g              all purpose flour

In a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter, sugar, salt, cardamom, and egg yolks until soft and airy. Add the pistachio flour and mix to combine. Add the flour and continue to mix until all of the dry is absorbed.

Roll out between 2 pieces of parchment and refigerate for 1 hour.

Bake at 300°F for 15-20 minutes or until firm, but not browned.

Allow to cool completely at room temperature.

Pass the sable through a tamis.

Green tea “vines”

White chocolate, tempered

Matcha green tea powder

Sift the green tea powder in a thick layer over a parchment-lined sheet pan. Place the tempered chocolate into a piping bag and begin to pipe thin strands onto the green tea powder. Sift another layer of the green tea powder on top while the chocolate is still liquid.

Toast streusel

1200g                        toasted pain de mie breadcrumbs

360g              powdered sugar

440g              butter, cubed and frozen

1 tbs                 salt

In a large bowl, combine the breadcrumbs, sugar and salt until well combined.

 Split the mixture in half. place one half in the robot coupe along with half of the butter, and blend until the mixture resembles almond flour and there are no chunks of butter left.  transfer to a large bowl.

Repeat this process with the other half of the butter and the dry mix, and add it to the large bowl.

Using your hands, mix well until the sable is homogeneous.

Spread out evenly onto two full-size sheetpans lined with parchment.  Do not pack down.

Bake at 290°f until golden brown.

Pastry Chef Jordan Kahn

XIV

Los Angeles

The education of a chef never ends. However, the basics of cooking can be learned in trade schools, junior colleges, culinary schools, apprenticeships and on-the-job. Four-year degree programs offer advanced techniques and classes in cuisine from around the world.

Hands-on training
Students learn to measure, mix, season and cook food. Techniques such as braising, roasting, frying, sautéing and poaching along with knife skills to dice, chop and slice are taught. Classes include sanitation, baking and pastry, stocks and sauces, vegetable, starch and meat cookery. The students spend 80% of their time in the kitchen with the rest lecture. An internship in a commercial kitchen outside of school is usually required. Students prepare a variety of ethnic and American regional cuisines.

Chef Vesa Leppala has led the kitchens at Harrah's Rincon near San Diego since 2002.

Operations curriculum
Courses include creating, planning, and pricing menus. Classes covering food, beverage and labor costs, profitability and other business aspects of cooking may also be required. Students study nutrition.

Considerations
Potential chefs should understand the challenging working conditions–heat, small space, long hours on their feet weekends and evenings, before investing in culinary education. Some prior work experience is desirable.

Chef Pierre Albaladejo completed a traditional apprenticeship in his native France. His son now follows in his father’s steps at the same restaurant.

Self taught successes
TV personality Gordon Ramsay, chef/owner of Ramsay’s in London; Top Chef host Tom Colicchio, and Ferran Adrià, chef/owner El Bulli in Spain learned on their own and on the job.

Advice
“As with anything, if you give 100%, you will get 100% in return,” says Executive Chef Gavin Kaysen.

Chef Gavin Kaysen was a contender for the Food Network’s Iron Chef.

“It doesn’t matter what education your have if you have a true passion for cooking,” Executive Chef Pierre Albaladejo believes. “You must be organized, agile, perform under pressure, able to multi-task, have great people skills, creativity, good taste and drive.”
“Get experience from different types of restaurants. You need volume, banquet, casual, fine dining and even fast food experience. Work a couple of years but don’t stay in any one place too long. Overseas experience is great,” Executive Chef Vesa Leppala recommends.

Rewards
Beyond future job security, a grasp of food preparation is a skill beneficial to anyone. Chef Kaysen adds, “When you are able to follow your dream, the possibilities become endless.”

Potential

“It all comes down to how good a cook you are. Your customers will come back if your food is worth it,” concludes Chef Albaladejo.

The flavors pictured from left to right are yogurt, coconut curry, basil, strawberry and butter pecan. Ulterior epicure at flickr.com

How many ways do you love ice cream? The beauty of this frozen treat is the number of choices. Super-premium, soft-serve, homemade, sugar-free, low fat, nonfat come in countless flavors plus toppings or stir-ins.
How did we arrive at this happy state of affairs?

Early Efforts

Perhaps as long as 4000 years ago, some wealthy Chinese enjoyed frozen treats by pouring snow and saltpeter over and around container filled with mixtures of frozen syrup or milk rice and spices. The ancient Roman emperor Nero is said to have sent servants to the mountains and return with fresh snow that he enjoyed with fruit syrups and fruit.

The Real Deal

Flavored ices appeared in Italian and French cookbooks in the1600s. Sicilian restaurateur Procopio served an ice cream from a recipe including milk, cream, sugar and eggs to wealthy guests.
Ice cream was expensive due to the amount of labor needed and the high cost of sugar. Ice was cut in large blocks from lakes and ponds during the winter and stored underground or in icehouses insulated by straw. Ice had to be chipped by hand and mixed with rock salt. A tub was filled with the mixture. Adding the salt lowered the temperature of the ice to below freezing but kept it slushy. A container was placed into the tub and the ice cream was stirred for hours until frozen but smooth.
Thomas Jefferson’s recipe for vanilla ice cream is in the Library of Congress. Dolly Madison served strawberry ice cream at President James Madison’s second inaugural banquet in 1813.

Ice Cream for Everyone

In 1800 sugar became more affordable and icehouses insulated. Both of these inspired Nancy M. Johnson to invent a hand-cranked ice cream freezer. Today with countless improvements, you can still buy those ice cream makers along with electric versions.
Jacob Fusell, a Baltimore milk dealer, found himself in 1851 with too much of the white stuff and built the first ice cream plant to make use of his product. He opened ice cream parlors and built more ice cream making facilities.
Industrial refrigeration developed by Karl von Linde during the 1870s in Germany made mass production of ice cream possible and even more affordable.

Cool Consumption

U.S. ice cream production has gone from 5 million gallons in 1899 to 1.6 billion in 2007.
In 1920 every person in the U.S. consumed 9 quarts of the frozen treat. By 2000 each of us was licking or spooning 23 quarts of the stuff. The top 5 flavors are vanilla, chocolate, butter pecan, strawberry and chocolate chip mint.
Americans eat the most ice cream followed by the Australians, Swedes and Italians.

Beyond Vanilla

Not so sweet ice creams now appear on menus in restaurants and independent ice cream makers. Expect to find flavors such as foie gras, prosciutto, peanut-butter curry, and beet and hibiscus if you live near Humphey Slocome in San Francisco.
Chef Marc Cohen serves lobster bisque with tarragon shallot sorbet at his Laguna Beach restaurant Watermarc.
Pastry Chef Ramon Perez of Sona in Los Angeles,“I went into the walk-in and saw a drawer of brussel sprouts. Once I burnt the white chocolate by accident but discovered caramelized tasted good,” he said to explain how he created brussel sprout and caramelized white chocolate ice creams.

Referencees

http://www.thenibble.com/reviews/main/ice-cream/the-history-of-ice-cream

http://www.florentinoicecream.com/

http://www.idfa.org/facts/icmonth/page2.cfm

http://www.makeicecream.com/top5icecream.html

http://www.library.northwestern.edu/govinfo/news/2009/07/ice_cream.html

Modern ice cream machines allow delicious creativity with little effort. WasabiBratwurst at flickr.com