Cogito Ergo Sauté

05/22/2025

10/30/2023

The respect of fellow chefs can be everything. Thank you, John. (Accessible text in the first comment).

09/01/2023

New feature on the website: Where does this chef eat on his days off? And we are adding the voices of other chefs now too. So where does Robin of The Midlands eat on her day? That's on the list too.

Most chefs' “off” hours are different from most other professionals' non-working time (lawyers usually aren't required to consume law during their downtime, for example, but chefs must eat). When chefs decide to spend their rare unscheduled time, cash, and calories dining at another restaurant, ...

09/15/2022

Continuing with my gratitude for the people who supported the Launch Party for my cookbook, An (in)Appropriate Amount of Butter...let's talk about .

A few years ago I was looking for a lighting solution for a favorite client's outdoor wedding. I contacted more than a dozen lighting companies before finding the one I wanted to present to my client. My client and I spent an hour or so meeting with the lighting vendor and when the meeting ended, my client was completely smitten with the lighting guy. She asked me “how did you find someone so perfect for this?”. I replied that “I just kept calling people until I found someone who talked about lighting the way I talk about food”.

I didn't plan it, but that was the first moment that I articulated a core business philosophy – find people who are as committed to the pursuit of excellence as I am. One of the companies that is so committed is District Cutlery. They love knives, love sharpening knives, love making knives, and again, love knives.

They're the only people I have ever trusted with my knives. They're also just really good humans. Kinda early in the pandemic – everyone was still isolating, but the definition of essential business had expanded – I really needed a fresh edge on my knives. I could have done it myself, but not nearly as well as the knife experts. I sent an email to Derick, one of the owners of District Cutlery and asked if I could send my knives in an Uber to get sharpened. Derek replied that he would be happy to ride his bike to me and pick-up my knives. That was just some extra.

I could keep going for just about ever about how this company gets it, how they're the very best of us, how they're the ones who talk about knives the way I talk about food, but let's call it here.

Not for nothing, they also sponsored the red carpet and banner for the launch party...and gave me a gorgeous knife as congratulatory present for the book. Seriously, if you're in the DC area and not getting your knives sharpened or purchasing your knives at District Cutlery, you're doing it wrong.

09/14/2022

First: Go follow The All Purpose Kitchen on Instagram, Facebook, and all the places.

Now let me tell you a little bit about my friend and once-and-forever colleague, Rémi. He was the only choice for the person to run the Q&A/Host the launch party for my cookbook, “An (in)Appropriate Amount of Butter”. He is utterly brilliant, and if you enjoy good food or good writing, you'll love The All Purpose Kitchen. He provides great recipes, great insights, and approaches food in a manner that combines academic rigor, journalistic curiosity, and culinary passion.

Thank you, Rémi. Thank you for being an agile and charming inquisitor, and for being my friend.

(in)AppropriateAmountofButter

08/11/2022

As a native Washingtonian whose DC pride runs deep, I cannot believe that it took me more than a dozen years to add the DC flag to the sleeve of my chef coats.

(While you're here, have you pre-ordered the book yet? Ship date is coming soon. Link in the bio.)

08/08/2022

PRE-ORDER the cookbook now at AppropriateButter.com!

07/12/2022

When I redesigned the company website a couple of months back, I decided to also rewrite and even re-conceive some aspects. One section that I kinda accidentally (but a little on-purpose) eliminated was the “Recent Menus” page. That page was so rarely updated that “recent” was laughably untrue, and it also didn't matter because potential clients only viewed it once, and repeat clients never looked at it again. It wasn't until I was updating the company's Google listing that I realized that Google was still pointing to that page for menus (the distinction between restaurants and personal chefs isn't great). So I decided to both rewrite and re-conceive the “Recent Menus”.

The “Recent Menus” page now shows a “Cook for My Life/Cook for My Wife” dinner menu – if my life were on the line or the woman of my dreams would marry me based on the dinner, this is what I would serve today. For the cocktail party sample menu, I imagine what I would cook if a bunch of chefs are the guests.

By the by, do you remember that pork belly dish from yesterday? Yeah, that's on the Cook for My Life/Wife menu.

I am also committed to changing these menus seasonally if for no other reason than the fact that it is a good writing/culinary exercise.

So go take a look and let me know what you think. What dishes surprised you, what would you have put on either menu?

Because every post is going to have some shameless book promotion for a while, many of the recipes for those menus are in “An (in)Appropriate Amount of Butter” the forthcoming cookbook you can preorder now.

If my life is on the line for one meal, or the woman of my dreams will decide on my marriage proposal based on one meal, this is the menu I “think” I would serve. I could re-write this every day for a month and would probably get 15 different versions, but this is it today.

07/11/2022

Twice-Cooked Pork Belly on Gruyere & Fontina Whipped Polenta with Crispy Strips of Fried Prosciutto finished with Pan Sauce – this dish was a SHOWSTHAPPPA!
The pork belly is marinated for three days (buttermilk, beer, soy sauce, spices) before being cooked sous vide for 12 hours with butter. The pork belly is then deep fried for extra crispiness. All of the delicious pan juices are blended with a touch of cream for an insanely flavored finishing sauce.

The polenta was made with chicken stock and cream. Finely grated gruyere and fontina was blended in before hitting it with an immersion blender for an even creamier texture than normal. The fried prosciutto was a surprise addition because it was an extra from another dish. It will be a regular part of this dish in the future. Not gonna front, the chiffonade of basil was added more for color but it did add some nice flavor too. Next time it will be a tarragon créme fraîche.

How to make the pork belly and why cooking it sous vide is the only way I will ever cook pork belly are explained in my new cookbook “An (in)Appropriate Amount of Butter”. Preorder now at AppropriateButter.com

07/05/2022

Pork Birria Quesotacos. Making this dish was an impulse decision so I used the Instant Pot to speed the process. I started with dried ancho, guajillo, de arbol peppers, onions, shallots, garlic, and a bunch of herbs and spices to make my stew/braising liquid for my pork. Country-style pork ribs are my preferred cut for stews and sauces. I seared them and put them in the Instant Pot with the braising liquid and more onions. 45 minutes under pressure, 15 minutes natural release. Shredded the pork, dipped a hybrid flour-corn tortilla in the cooking liquid, and crisped the tortilla in a pan with brown butter. Pork, grated 3 year cheddar, halved cherry tomatoes fresh from , a little cilantro, and my red cabbage & jalapeño coleslaw…and yes, [shameless self-promotion ahead] the pork and coleslaw recipes are in my cookbook. “An (in)Appropriate Amount of Butter” drops in a few weeks and is available for pre-order now - check my bio or go to AppropriateButter.com.