a moveable feat...my life at marigold catering

the changing of the guard

2009-07-01T08:40:00.000-07:00

well, friends, i suppose this is where the road ends for me. my last day at marigold is in two days and i've been cleaning out my office and generally trying to put my affairs in order. i've been truly lucky to have been given the chance to work with joan and everyone else here over the last five years and definitely feel a little sadness mixed with my excitement as i move on to new adventures. in my time here, i've seen our little company grow by leaps and bounds, winning awards, gaining business and the respect and trust of clients all over northeast ohio, buying new vans, obtaining new and bigger venues, and moving to a brand-new space that i got to design and layout. i suppose i've seen a lot of changes, almost all for the better, since joan and i first met in a starbuck's back in the summer 2004. even as i go, though, i know that we will remain close and, in some way, a part of me will always be tied to marigold catering. i will miss so many of the people here, many of whom i consider to be my closest friends.

one of those friends, mike smith, a talented and intelligent chef and all-around great guy, will be taking over the kitchen as marigold's new executive chef. mike has been working as my executive sous chef for the last few years and, as i became increasingly busy with outside projects, has pretty much been running the show for the last year. i feel confident leaving the care of my kitchen and marigold's reputation in his competent hands.

thank you to everyone who has made my time at marigold so incredibly enjoyable and rewarding. i wish you all so much luck and success in the future and i'm somehow sure our paths will cross again.

market under glass, etc.

2009-05-04T08:32:00.000-07:00

hey everybody! sorry it's been awhile since i've written, but we've been really busy here at marigold, leaving me little time to update the blog, do laundry, or sleep. i'm pretty sure that all kinds of newsworthy things have happened, but i can only recall a few at this moment. ben and greg's renegade lunch project is continuing to grow and gain notoriety, which is awesome. we just had a lunch to benefit the cleveland apl last week and already have confirmed locations for may through august. find out more at renegadelunch.blogspot.com. we'd love to have you join us! the picture to the left shows me and joanie at the helm of the taqueria station that we did at the cleveland foodbank market under glass benefit. our pals from spice of life catering co. were right next door and together we rocked out a bunch of food and fun. i personally have always loved events like this as they give you a chance to see a lot of f&b friends from other restaurants, etc. i'd like to give a special shout out to andy, the chef at university circle's incredibly awesome new restaurant, l'albatros, and to my old pal, brendan rea. together we conquered the absolut martini bar in the vip section and shared a whole bunch of laughs. anyway, i've got to run, but wanted to at least post something so it didn't seem like i'd abandoned the blog altogether. have a great spring!

saying good-bye to an old friend.

2009-03-24T15:42:00.000-07:00

for those of you who may have missed this story today, a. lopresti and sons, one of cleveland's oldest local food distributors, closed it's doors after one hundred years in business. we've been working with lopresti for all 13 years of marigold's existence and were saddened to hear the news. it looks like things in this economy aren't getting any better yet and our hearts and thoughts go out to pat, ginnene, and everyone else at lopresti in this difficult time. as much as it should always be our mantra, there has never been a better time to support local companies and work together to make cleveland a good place to live, work, and own a business. let's all cross our fingers, roll up our sleeves, and hope that this year holds greater promise for this great nation of ours.

me on good company this morning!

2009-03-03T10:39:00.000-08:00

hi everybody! if you're reading this and feeling super bored, feel free to check out my noodle kugel making performance on this morning's good company. wow, do i talk alot...

http://www.wkyc.com/video/default.aspx?maven_playerId=goodcompany&maven_referralObject=1050841500

a sheynem dank, park synagogue!

2009-03-02T13:25:00.000-08:00

it seems that i have a new spring ritual. just as the robins return to northeastern ohio, i make a trip to cook in the kitchen at park synagogue east. last year, it was for the first episode we filmed of dinner:impossible and this year to cook a tasty kosher breakfast for twenty guests after the morning minyan. i joked to rabbi skoff that i was beginning to have traumatic memories of the kitchen, as every visit seemingly requires some amount of early morning mishegas. it was, though, a joke only and thanks to the help of my partner, joan, our senior event planner, phil, and the kind words of some of park's members, we've been selected to be a member of the catering panel for the synagogue (and the original park temple on mayfield, just fyi). we feel very fortunate to have this opportunity and can't wait to be able to offer fabulous marigold events in a conservative temple for the first time in our history. mazel tov!

my boys are growing up...

2009-02-24T11:09:00.000-08:00

to celebrate fat tuesday, kate came up with the swell idea to have everyone pitch in a dish for a cajun-style potluck lunch. to fill out the festivities, we also decided to mix in a little midday baby shower for two of our kitchen boys. ryan and gary, who are shortly to become proud first-time fathers (separately, for the record). they got some swell gifts (ryan is pictured holding the onesy and gary's about to open a book of stories for children) and we finished out the luncheon with cake. at the time, the whole thing seemed like a pleasant enough time-killer in the middle of the working day, but i found myself feeling a little more deeply when i saw this picture. i've worked with both of these guys for years now and definitely feel a strong mix of pride, love, and even a little envy to see my good friends about to grow into good fathers. our best wishes to ryan and kelly and gary and kara as they welcome the little ones that will change them from young couples into new families. lechaim!

hey, it's those guys!

2009-02-20T10:43:00.000-08:00

so, my first full day back turned into a particularly full fourteen hour day ending in a plated dinner for 25o guests at the crawford auto and aviation museum in university circle. nothing like jumping back in head-first, i suppose. the event was a great success and we used a little bit of our extra time to check out the museum's cool collection of vintage planes and cars...my personal favorite being the all stainless steel '66 lincoln continental convertible. i've always thought the rear suicide doors on this car were killer and nothing really warms a chef's heart like a lot of shiny stainless steel. sweet ride. pictured here are most of my kitchen boys posing for a quick group photo before the real work got underway. (top row l-r: gary, peter, commander michael smith, jason "the sensation", and ryan. bottom row l-r: gabriel and byron. not pictured: me, jakub, ben, chris, bigfoot, and the elves that we've imprisoned to help with our most labor intensive projects.) Anyhow, we had a good time producing a great event...about as enjoyable a first night back as i could have asked for.

super-old, but super-swell overhead shot from our last renegade lunch

2009-02-19T09:41:00.001-08:00

well, i'm finally back in the shop after my furlough in south carolina's low country. right before i skipped town, we threw down our first public ben and greg's renegade lunch project. if you haven't run into this neat little concept of ours before, find out more at http://renegadelunch.blogspot.com/. of course, thanks to my poor planning and design skills, the first thing you'll see there is the picture that you see here. what can i say? i've found that this particular camera angle is very slimming for me. of course, it also gives the viewer a nice idea of what the thing is all about...a concern which is apparently secondary to my own vanity.

blog on holiday

2009-02-06T19:14:00.000-08:00

a great big south carolina hello to katie and the other three people who follow this blog. i'm currently on sabbatical and living in a small house at coffin point on st. helena island, trying to work on a project that requires solitude, focus, and vodka and soda. the first and last parts of the equation have been coming along really well so far. i've got all of the solitude and vodka i can handle. the focus, well, it comes and goes. anyhoo, i'll be back in another week or so and hopefully will have some interesting things to share with everyone then...heck, anything's possible.

meat packing!

2009-01-14T07:38:00.000-08:00

i'm sure you've heard the term "slow news day". well, with the holidays and generally slow start to the catering year, things have been pretty quiet here at marigold, hence the shortage of postings. now is the time of year when we put a lot of time and effort into planning for the upcoming months; filling our days with meetings, meetings, and meetings. we also have a lot of meetings. as youcan imagine, this doesn't make for much in terms of blog postings. as a semi-interesting event (at least it made for a good picture), my executive sous chef, mike smith, and i got to tour the blue ribbon meats facility yesterday to see how they do things and maybe find out about some new products. this is our "mission accomplished" shot graciously taken by our salesman, tom. it was a fun and informative field trip which differed from those of our youth in that beforehand we got beer. yay!

the dreaded marigold christmas kitchen party

2008-12-23T07:29:00.000-08:00

every year during the week before christmas, i traditionally take the whole kitchen staff out for dinner and a night of festive holiday drinking. this year, we decided instead to have a party at my place. what you see above is a picture of some of my absolute favorite people in the whole world and the reason that i believe that i'm the luckiest chef in cleveland. i consider myself so fortunate to be surrounded by so many great cooks who, even more importantly, are great people and my closest friends. as an extra treat this year, i managed to concoct the deadliest holiday punch of all time. recipe available on request. it went especially well with the keg of great lakes christmas ale. yikes! happy holidays, everyone, and our wishes for a truly fantastic new year.

here comes the flood...

2008-12-17T10:56:00.000-08:00

photo and article reprinted from the cleveland plain dealer and cleveland.com

CLEVELAND — A crowd gathered at East 38th Street and Lakeside Avenue this morning. Police and flooded roads kept them from getting to get to work.
Holly Brennan, 23, of Concord Township, is an event planner at Marigold Cafe & Catering. She tried walking across the flooded street and made it only two steps before being forced back.
"I think it's pretty crazy," she said. "It's really making our day pretty behind. We had several events today. We are definitely behind. I'm worried about it. We need food to be delivered in about a half hour."
She had seen a television broadcast about the break, but "I had no idea it would be this bad," she said. "It's very cold and its deep."

just so everyone knows, the follow-up to this story is that we did in fact get all of the food out to our events thanks to a lot of hard work from joan, holly, roseann, mike, gary, and our drivers: brandon, wyatt, allen, and james and everyone lived happily ever after. joan finally made it back to her car somewhere in cleveland. roseann was appointed to head up FEMA by the new administration, mike and gary were signed to a two-man cooking show on wadsworth's public access channel, holly ended up marrying the second fire fighter from the left in the above picture, and the drivers will be working on the next season of discovery channel's storm chasers.

for more flood related fun, video footage, and the full version of holly's big on-camera interview, visit:

http://vimeo.com/2555842

coming this january to an unexpected location near you...

2008-12-10T06:57:00.000-08:00

tis the season...

2008-12-08T08:03:00.000-08:00

ah yes, the holidays are finally upon us. here at marigold, our elves have already been busy getting ready for all of the wonderfully festive parties that occur around town in the next few weeks. we have one giant weekend of events under our belts and we're looking forward to dropping some more catering magic down our clients' chimneys really soon. the shot at left comes from the galleria this past saturday night. apparently santa was away from his big green chair, so i decided to fill in for him for a minute. ryan's been a good boy all year (more or less) and stopped by to jump somewhat heavily onto my lap....i don't know how santa does it. anyway, i hope that he and all of the other good little boys and girls at marigold get something wonderful under their trees this year and always.

something big is coming soon...

2008-12-02T13:09:00.000-08:00

ha! even though no one reads my blog...or at least no one admits to reading my blog, i'm throwing in this teaser post announcing news to come. we've cooked up a really cool idea that's currently taking shape in our evil lair. i'll post more when all of the details are firmed up, but we're calling the idea ben and greg's renegade lunch project and we're incredibly psyched. oh boy, doesn't it just make you wonder?

the boys take on the fabulous food show

2008-11-17T11:00:00.000-08:00

so, this past weekend, we somehow ended up doing a couple of things at the fabulous food show. on friday, i got to be a "celebrity" judge for the time warner cable "twc eats" pumpkin recipe cook-off. the winning entries were all wonderful and it was nice to find out that everyone else is still a better baker than i am. on saturday, ryan, mike, and i handed out samples of marigold fare at the taste of the neighborhood booth. we served grilled black bean raviolis with chorizo and cilantro creme fraiche. we also had the good fortune to share the booth with chris, jason, and danny from tremont tap house, one of my favorite bar/restaurants in the city. between the bunch of us, we managed to have a bit too much fun and a couple of beers, but isn't that what this sort of event is all about? well, regardless, that's what it was about for us. apologies to anyone who may have gotten the plates on which i wrote "this is poisoned" or "e.coli rules" before returning them to the pile to be used the next day. like i said, too much fun.

the big apple

2008-11-04T10:22:00.000-08:00

in my seemingly neverending quest to pack as much human experience into life as possible, i took the opportunity afforded me by a saturday off from marigold to spend halloween weekend in new york city. to the right you can see the crappy aerial photo of manhattan that i took out of the plane window on the way in. halloween night was a blast in and around time square with everyone (yours truly included) dressed for the holiday and the bars jam-packed with revelers. our hotel had a huge party that went until 4am...i know, i stayed to make sure it was true. : ) saturday meant a long walk up to central park, the metropolitan museum of art, some (very little) shopping on fifth avenue, lunch at bouchon bakery, and a very touching visit to strawberry field, the john lennon memorial in central park. in times like these, it's interesting to think back to a time when someone so famous would put so much of his reputation on the line to support love, peace, and understanding. that night, we went to see mel brooks' "young frankenstein" on broadway, apropos of the weekend, and finished with some late night outdoor dining at pastisse in the meatpacking district...i'm always a sucker for french bistro food. sunday saw more beautiful weather, a great brunch at a place called simply "eatery", apparently a local favorite in hell's kitchen, a visit to moma, and a final stop at a hole-in-the-wall bar to watch a little football before heading off to the airport. travel is important because expands your view of the world and yourself. it also teaches you how reasonable drink prices are in cleveland.

happy halloween!

2008-10-31T12:31:00.000-07:00

hey everybody! have yourselves a fantastic all hallow's eve. i'll be heading to take a bite out of the big apple and spend a few days of dining, drinking, and just wandering around the big city...you know, autumn in new york and all that jazz. anyway, i hope that this evening brings you either the tricks or the treats that you want. remember to have your parents check your candy before you eat it and stay away from that old house at the end of the street.

one last note of birthday thanks...

2008-10-29T10:42:00.000-07:00

thanks to my years in college spent uselessly studying medieval history and literature so that i could become a cook, i have a pretty keen interest in any number of things from the era between the fall of the roman empire and the rise of the renaissance. to anticipate the first question that may have come to your mind, no, i'm not one of those people who dresses up in tights and pantaloons and runs around some field every summer. i do, though, have a healthy interest in medieval weaponry and warfare practices (as well as studying how the philosophies and beliefs of the medieval church profoundly effected the evolution of modern civilization). for pure excitement, nothing from the medieval arsenal beats the trebuchet. more refined and advanced than the catapault, a trebuchet uses ropes, pulleys, and counterweights to fling a projectile accurately over great distances. seige engines, such as the trebuchet, were used to batter down the walls of castles so invaders could directly attack a well-fortified enemy, rather than continuously having boiling oil, excrement, and goodness knows what else dropped over their heads from defenders atop the walls. where all of this is leading, though, is that last february i told the kitchen boys about my interest and enthusiasm for trebuchets and even milled over building one. today, pete gave me this small, fully-functioning model, which hurls grapes and small wooden balls a good 20+ feet. the things itself is super cool, but what's even better is that i have a friend who listened to me, remembered something that i liked, and took the time and trouble to get it for me. thank you, petey. by the way, this is the second trebuchet that pete bought for me. he memorably confessed to having broken the first one playing with it a few days before my birthday. ha!

thank you boys...

2008-10-27T08:56:00.000-07:00

years back, i started the tradition of decorating the various kitchen boys' stations for their birthdays and giving them odd and/or fun gifts (legos, light sabers, etc.). i think that it's easy as we get older to stop thinking of our birthdays as fun and exciting, just as the joy and wonder that we held as children seems to dissipate in all of the other areas of our lives. i think this is sad. all too often, as adults, we focus so much of our time and energy on grown-up things that we tend to forget about how wonderful the world can really be. i've always tried very hard, with varying degrees of success, to put a little of that fun, wonder, joy, and even mischeif into the lives of the people that i love. this world is a beautiful place, but only if you choose to make it so. sometimes, i wish that more people would try harder to positively effect those around them...we each have the power to within us to shape our surroundings and either brighten or darken the days of those who we hold most dear. anyway, enough of my soap box, love is the answer rhetoric (even though i do think love is the answer). i can't begin to say how happy i was when i walked into work on my birthday and found my office decorated as seen here. i can say, though, how truly, deeply grateful i am to everyone who made my special day so much more so. by the way, the inflatable male "love doll" sitting in my chair is named bandit. he's been a fixture in the kitchen since he showed up at jason's birthday three years ago. although he's been in storage since receiving a puncture wound a few months back, i was especially glad to see him make a special birthday appearance for me. thanks again, everyone. "in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make." paul and john had it so right.

some of my favorite fall things...

2008-10-24T10:05:00.000-07:00

october is one of my favorite months of the year...always has been. i suppose it started when i was a kid. my three favorite days of the year were christmas, my birthday, and halloween, pretty much like every other kid more or less.

lucky for me, though, two of those days fell in one beautiful fall month. in many ways, i haven't changed much since i was a lad. i still love fall, my birthday, halloween, and christmas and do everything that I can to celebrate them as enthusiastically as possible. these shots are from a fun day that i spent with friends and family walking through the cuyahoga valley metro parks and stopping at szalay's sweet corn farm to enjoy some roasted corn and general seasonal joy...though i couldn't muster enough enthusiasm among my compatriots to attempt the corn maze. boo! strangely, i also ran into dan gallo, his lovely wife, and their dog at szalay's. dan is one of the chefs at spice of life catering, our on-site chef at thorncreek winery in aurora, and probably one of the funniest people that i know. it seems everyone had the same fall fun on their mind that day. we ended the afternoon with a trip to sarah's vineyard in cuyahoga falls and sat outside in the warm late fall sun. somehow, i always feel like food and wine taste better outdoors and with winter coming soon, it's great to be able to get a few more chances to enjoy some alfresco dining and drinking. now if only i could finally get to see the great pumpkin...

that's a lot of lettuce!

2008-10-09T11:59:00.000-07:00

i took this picture at a plated dinner last weekend. the event was for the golden barristers at cwru's law school over alumni weekend and went very well. anyway, the reason i took the picture was that it put me in mind of one of my favorite things. from the day i started in this business until now, i've had this really odd aesthetic fascination with the way it looks when you've got hundreds of identical plates all lined up and waiting to be served. somehow, the sight of this has always spoken to me and, i suppose, the fact that such a thing would somehow stir my soul is a good indicator that i was meant to be doing this for a living, instead of being a lawyer or professor as i'd initially planned. that's kind of one of the funny things about this business. i know and meet so many people who were on their way somewhere else in life and got side-tracked into a restaurant job, only to find that it was meant for them. obviously, these stories range from wonderful to wondefully depressing, but, i think especially for those of us in the kitchen, we each found a place in this world that made sense to us in a way that nothing else really did. my buddy mikey uses the catch-phrase "live to cook", which i believe is true. i think it is equally interesting, though, to realize how many of us were simply born to do so.

shrooming!

2008-09-29T08:33:00.000-07:00

last night was the spice of life fall forage and f&b plated landscape dinner at killibuck valley mushroom farm. for those of you unfamiliar with s.o.l.'s plated landscape dinners, throughout the summer and early fall, ben and co. host incredibly unique multi-course plated dinners on some of the farms from which we source our locally grown foods. the killibuck valley dinner is the benchmark by which all of the other dinners are judged. the setting is absolutely beautiful, listening to tom and wendy, the owners, discuss the actual science and method behind growing mushrooms is truly fascinating, and, like the other dinners, the whole experience feels like it was dipped in some kind of magic. our dinner for this lovely, cool evening was staged in an open-sided barn and a great band played quiet classic rock throughout the evening...with guests at the table tearing up quietly when one or another particular piece seemed to touch their hearts and bring even more power to this uniquely memorable event (the beatles always get me). the seven course meal was, of course, fantastic, even though ben began the evening by pointing out to all of the diners that they were lucky enough to be eating with a food network star...a little embarassing and mostly untrue, but funny. after basking in the glow of the wonderful setting for a while, the wine and beer started to take hold and the generally festive atmosphere became even more so. our end of the table was, as usual, loud and really, really jokey. i honestly don't remember the last time i laughed so hard or well. my very good friends who i don't get to see as often as i would like, michael and nicole, joined us to celebrate nicole's birthday and really helped to amp up the laughfest at our end, with the rest of the table stealing glances from time to time to see what was so incredibly hilarious. for me, the real stars of the show were ben, jess, chris, dan, and ryan from spice of life, my much-loved friends with whom i dined, and karen small, one of cleveland's very best chefs and owner of the flying fig, my favorite restaurant in town. the whole experience was like catching lightning in a jar and a reminder of just how beautiful and perfect life can be. thanks to everyone involved for a truly memorable night...and, of course, the staggering hangover that's followed it today. ha!

the other woman in my life...

2008-09-25T12:32:00.000-07:00

david, our on-site event manager at park lane villa, just sent me this forgotten photo from a p.r. shoot that my partner, joan, and i did last year. after taking a hundred shots of she and i looking enthused with our platter of food, i decided it would be nice to capture us also looking bored and melancholy. in reality, we're rarely bored and only occasionally melancholy. mostly, we're pretty happy and jokie. joan founded marigold eleven years ago and worked like crazy to grow the thing with a rotating cast of chefs in the kitchen. when we met, it was some version of love at first sight and here we are five years later, still working like crazy, but having just been voted #1 caterer in cleveland and bagging top three rankings and a couple of weatherhead 100 awards for being one of the fastest growing companies in northeast ohio over the last couple of years. i'm immensely proud of what we've done and built together here at marigold and can't wait to see where the future will take us. that said, this entry is more of a love letter to joan, my business partner, true friend and confidant, #1 fan, and, no matter what girl i'm dating, my official lifelong 'other woman'. thanks for making me part of your life, rosenthal.

holy hanna!!!

2008-09-23T09:23:00.001-07:00

this past saturday night was a big one in the life of marigold catering. we were fortunate (and talented, i like to think) enough to be chosen to take care of the catering for the gala opening of the newly and beautifully remodeled and re-imagined hanna theater. the event, which was for 580 guests, was absolutely one of the highest profile shindigs that we've ever done and, thanks to everyone's hard work, it went just about perfectly, something that's almost scary in the catering world. our event planner in charge of the event, phil, did a great job of organizing all of the details and performed with true grace under pressure throughout the evening. to your left, you can see a shot that i took of the tent which was placed right on the closed-off street in front of the theater. passed hors d'ouevres and cocktails took place inside the hanna itself, followed by plated arugula salads and gazpacho, a buffet dinner, and miniature desserts inside the tent. there was a cool band that played a lot of motown covers and our kitchen tent was set up right next to starbucks, so i was able to throw down a few iced venti quad lattes to keep me going. it's always wonderful when an event goes well. you leave feeling like you can do anything in the world...like a rock star, as they say. the best worst part of the event, however, came the next day when tony brown from the plain dealer's metro section gave credit for the catering to the hanna deli, instead of us. nice research, buddy! you could have asked anyone involved in the event and gotten the right answer, but assuming works well too... that aside, it was a great night, we heard a lot of really enthusiastic comments and, at the end of the day, we got to continue to be the biggest, best-kept secret in cleveland catering afterall. oh well, if we keep treating so many people in the city to such memorable nights, eventually someone will remember our name in the morning.

best place to work...ever.

2008-09-12T18:38:00.001-07:00

so, as any frequent reader of this blog knows, the kitchen staff at marigold/spice of life has its own sort of super fun, practical joking, chaotic kind of anti-culture culture. i won't use names, but someone came up with the idea last week of blowing up a locally grown watermelon with a smll pipe bomb. a couple of days ago, one of the boys rushed into my office around ten in the morning and said excitedly, "it's time". never being one to miss a moment of fun and mayhem, i hurried out to the back alley. the camera was set and we had about ten seconds of fuse to run for cover. what you see above are some of the great resulting shots. how awesome! what a great way to start the day. i really do love this place and my merry band of cooks. there are the occasional days when being in the food and beverage industry beats having an office job hands down. p.s. blogger's system for uploading photos is medeival.

back to the hamptons

2008-09-03T07:12:00.001-07:00

somehow, the event scheduling gods smiled on us over labor day weekend and the kitchen staff was lucky enough to get three days off in a row. yay! being adventurous and insane, i decided to take the opportunity to drive up to the hamptons with a friend to visit timmy and douggy and send the summer out in style. leaving after work on friday put me there at around 4:00 in the morning, but a short night's sleep had everyone primed for a good day of vacationing. less than favorable weather, however, killed any ideas of a day at the beach. this gave us the chance, though, to go exploring. we drove up to montauk, went to the lighthouse, hit a few bars and restaurants in town and along the way and had a really awesome day getting to enjoy being tourists. after a week spent working at the meetinghouse back in july, it was really nice to finally to get some free time up in the playground of new york's rich and famous. the highlight of the first day, though, was absolutely an awesome restaurant called the surf lodge. we sat on their giant patio overlooking the water, drank really expensive margaritas, listened to a fantastic female r&b singer, and watched the sun come out, promising good weather for sunday. the place itself is a perfect example of hamptons shabby chic and apparently the chef was one of the contestants on top chef, though we didn't eat having filled up on fried food and montauk's coolest dive bar earlier in the day. by 6:00, however, we were pretty much completely drunk and tired so we headed home for a short five hour nap. ha! one of the nice things about amagansett (and the hamptons in general) is that the bars stay open until four, so you can start late and end late. anyway, we enjoyed a post nap dinner at the meetinghouse and then headed over to talkhouse, the strangest dive bar i've ever found...great bands, low ceilings, pictures of nude models and all of the famous bands who've played there over the years, and the creme de la creme of new york's rich and famous partying their butts off make for an interesting setting to say the least. sunday turned out to be a beautiful, sunny day so we headed to the beach after brunch (again, at the meetinghouse). in observance of a hampton's post beach tradition, we drove up 27 to a place called cyril's and had a couple of their signature drinks, called bbcs, a particularly formidable concoction when you elect to add an extra shot of rum floating on top. we did. it was nap time again. that night was once more to the talkhouse with all of our friends and another 5:30am bedtime. we got up and drove home around 12:30 the next day and i was home safely by 11:00 monday night. it was an awesome, memorable weekend. (ps. that's tim and his son, gus, enjoying our day at the beach.)

are you ready for some football?

2008-08-29T06:12:00.000-07:00

we've finally made it to that special time of year that clevelanders hold so near and dear to their hearts. that's right, it's football season! last night, i was lucky enough to score some pretty sweet seats almost right on the fifty yard line courtesy of my friend brendan over at northern haserot. what began as sort of a rainy night cleared up and turned into a perfect night for football. the brownies looked pretty good all and all, though the opinion of our kitchen staff is that they're holding out until the real season starts next week. i hope that's actually the case. anyway, it was a fun night with a couple of drinks and some familiar faces on w. 6th and a couple of beers and some hot dogs once inside. we lost in the end, but it was still good to be back in the stadium and i'm getting ready for more games to come this season...now if i could only get these seats again, that would be something to cheer about for sure. go browns!

another fig wine dinner, another low point...

2008-08-28T09:26:00.000-07:00

it all began with a wine dinner at the flying fig about two years ago. ben and i, prior to joining forces in spice of life, thought it would be very nice if we planned a special night out at our favorite restaurant with friends and our significant others. the food at the fig is always fantastic and we're good friends with lots of the people who work there, so we figured it would be a blast. well, that first dinner sure was a blast and set the stage for many more to come. what began as a polite wine dinner quickly devolved, at our table, into a loud, somewhat irreverent party, featuring off-color joking, minor food fights, way more wine than we were allocated (like i said, we know people), and even a slow-clap for ben as he polished off the last piece of bread. after a few more like this, we noticed that we stopped hearing about the wine dinners for a while and ben and i began to joke that we'd been blacklisted. nothing lasts forever, though, and we've been back on the fig wine dinner circuit for a while now. last night, karen small and co. had an anniversary dinner with menu items from when the eatery opened back in 1999. the night featured four courses of awesome food for $19.99 and a selection of wines for $19.99 per bottle. the food was awesome as expected and we sampled five out of the six bottles. also, as if it could have happened otherwise, we had a food fight, drank too much, stuck plastic stars to our faces, and then, once we were assured it was a rental, started drawing on the tablecloth. a small portion of the art that i helped to inspire is shown here. as i've said so many times, i don't know why i'm wired this way, i just am. we all work really hard in this business, so it seems to me that nothing beats a little irreverent fun in the face of our daily f&b grind. i suppose i also need to maintain my reputation for being awfully puckish and poorly behaved for a chef, food writer, and business owner. the night finished off with a few survivors making it to jonathon sawyer's excellent bar cento in the o.c. and the flying monkey in tremont. another great night.

the last days of summer...?

2008-08-25T07:56:00.000-07:00

my sister, tracy, her husband, and my little nephew are in town for the next week visiting from south carolina. after spending a couple of days with my folks, they moved over to a house that they'd rented in downtown geneva on the lake. if you've never been to geneva, not only is it home to some of ohio's finest wineries, but the downtown area is a sort of america's vacationland from the bygone era when people could only afford to vacation in their home state. this was the time of airstream campers, little cottages by lake erie, and mom and pop amusement parks, put-put courses, and eateries. anyway, my family has always had a special place in our hearts for this faded little slice of americana, even with the incredible number of bikers who invade the place all summer long. a good wine buzz cures all though. tracy really loves geneva, so it came as no surprise that she would want to spend some time there. i took the time to join the family yesterday and had a great day filled with some headache-inducing wine from the firehouse winery and two, count 'em, two trips to eddie's grill. eddie's is a real geneva institution serving burgers, dogs, fries, and rootbeer in a setting that makes you feel like some greasers or girls in bobby socks and poodle skirts could walk in at any time. it was great to be there with people who are so close to my heart and, most of whom, i don't get to see as often as i would like. moreso, i loved the day, and especially my trips to eddie's, because it's just the sort of thing that makes me feel happier about the world. i like knowing that places like geneva and eddie's still exist...that everything hasn't succumbed to the seemingly endless wave of mcdonald's, applebees, and other chain places that have taken over so much of the dining landscape. admittedly, speaking of chains, i even found myself getting a little teary when the juke box played "unchained melody" by the righteous brothers...a song that i've heard a thousand times and that the movie "ghost" had almost ruined entirely. it finally seemed to have the impact on me that it had on so many kids back in the days of penny loafers, pat boone, and unbridled optmism about living and being in love in america. incidentally, since we were planning on having too much wine, there was also a sleepover at the rental house with the family involved. i'm including this picture of the sleeping quarters, just because i haven't had the opporunity to sleep in a red, metal matchbox car-themed bunk bed in, oh, i'd say, thirty years. sometimes it takes a few wierd things to really add up to the recipe for fun.

seriously?

2008-08-21T08:04:00.000-07:00

is it always darkest before the dawn? boy, i hope so. due to various factors, i haven't been having the greatest time all of the time over the last few months, though there certainly have been some really great things, too. that said, i've had a particularly crappy and challenging couple of days this week. just when i was starting to feel better, i came out of work yesterday to find this. i'm not sure how familiar you are with the toyota fj cruiser, but you should be looking at a rear-mounted spare tire on a big, shiny 17" aluminum rim. that's right. between 1:00 and 5:00 yesterday, in broad daylight, with people coming and going from our offices, someone actually stole the spare right off of the back of my truck. to add insult to injury, i'd just had a flat on friday that couldn't be fixed, so there was a brand-new $180.00 tire on the now-missing rim. sometimes i have no idea what's wrong with people. between the new tire and the full replacement of everything, i'm looking at around a grand for all of this fun. really? i'm hoping that this is the final sign before my universe begins to right itself again. cross your fingers for me, folks.

ben's revenge

2008-08-20T11:06:00.000-07:00

the smiling, cheeky bastard that you see to your left is my partner in spice of life catering co., ben, who has certainly appeared elsewhere in this blog. last night before leaving work, i decided to cover ben's desk with silly string, because, well, i had silly string and ben has a desk. for those of you who've never had the pleasure of working in a kitchen, it's important to know that practical joking is to a cook's life what furry hand-cuffs are to the s&m crowd: fun, somewhat irritating, and ultimately, inescapable. the problem with kitchen pranking, though, is it tends to escalate pretty quickly with a mixture of amusing and horrifying results...ie. mussels or blue cheese hidden in people's cars, freezing guys' street clothes in fish water, etc. i came into the office this morning to find that, in retaliation for the silly string, ben had resorted to one of the cook's oldest weapons: large scale plastic wrapping. in my days, i've seen cars, work stations, and even people end up wrapped in the stuff. today it was apparently my desk's turn, as well as my chair which ben wrapped onto one of the posts in the office's hallway. i think the high point of the event, though, was that i had about twenty minutes in between meetings to catch up on e-mails and take care of a few other office duties. i can't say that this didn't slow things up a bit. now, one question remains: to retaliate or not to retaliate. in case my special friend reads this entry, i believe i'd rather keep my answer to myself for now. see how fun an office setting can be when you put non-office type people into the mix?

only on a monday...

2008-08-18T11:26:00.000-07:00

it was about ten o'clock this morning when our dishwashers beckoned me outside and told me to take a look in our grease barrels. not generally being much of a morning person, i sort of drowsily wandered out to see what was amusing them so greatly. peering into the first, i saw nothing, but woke right up when the second barrel contained a seriously trapped and irritable racoon, staring back at me and growling. so, obviously, we couldn't leave the thing in there, both because we're good-hearted people and the idea of getting it out promised some fun early monday chaos. to address the problem, i gathered up ben and ryan, my ministers of mayhem and they set to work attempting to solve the problem. retrieval was solved by utilizing a combination of a giant prop chinoise (you can see the handle sticking out of the green barrel in the background) and a trash can containing a good amount of dawn dishwashing liquid, as ben figured the little guy would be badly in need of a bath. as the bravest of our staff looked on, ben scooped the angry racoon out of his greasy predicament and ryan caught him in the trash can, as shown here. we added some warm water to the dawn detergent in hopes of helping to get off some of the grease, swished him around a bit, and then set him free with one more bucket tossed over him for good measure. hopefully, he'll be able to clean himself up from there and his little racoon friends won't make too much fun of the way he smells. i'm still not sure what sort of omen this must be for the week to come, but i'm sure we'll find out. best of luck out there little buddy and i hope this has taught you to look before you leap.

what a thoughtful boy i have

2008-08-14T06:55:00.000-07:00

hello everyone. this is pierre. sometime back, my son henry, when visiting me at my house, became somewhat attached to a sock monkey named garvin, an attachment that seems to have given rise to an ever-expanding sock monkey collection. it helps that i've always been pretty accomplished when it comes to inventing amusing voices and personalities for inanimate objects, his various toys being no exceptions...i think i can do almost all of the star wars characters by now, as well as sponge bob, patrick, and an array of more comic voices that work well for things like, well, sock monkeys. henry found pierre on ebay and used some of his allowance to buy him for me as a congratulations gift for my appearances on dinner:impossible. i can't begin to say how touched i was by the gesture. he's a wonderful and very considerate boy and i'm blessed to have him as my son. needless to say, pierre is already developing his own distinct personality and strange high-pitched french accent, laiden with comic condescension and insult, without the rage and irritability that you find so often in other, human french chefs. i've yet to see how his inherent flammability will effect the success of his chosen career. anyway, thank you, buddy, you're the best boy in the world.

plush life

2008-08-11T10:23:00.001-07:00

i took this picture at the harbor inn (my favorite dive bar in cleveland) on saturday as we all sat around soaking wet after spice of life's all-day gig at burning river fest. it was a good day and i think ben learned alot about festival planning. the raft of severe storms that rolled through at night, however, sort of turned the evening portion into a bust. we ran two concessions stands (pizza and pulled pork nachos) and ended up with a lot of food left over, as the band didn't end up playing until three hours late and most of the crowd had dispersed. anyway, it was still a bunch of fun and i was once again lucky enough to get to be around some of my favorite people in the world, with whom i'm also lucky enough to work. the plush animals in the picture are courtesy of jess andjeski, spice of life's event planner extraordinaire. apparently, jess possesses the splendidly useless, but endlessly entertaining ability to conquer big choice games...you know, the ones with the little crain that you control to pick up toys and gifts out of a glass box. she wins almost every time and once even emptied out an entire machine just to see if she could. at any rate, for less than a couple of dollars she won all of the little friends that you see in the picture. clearly they were thirsty after spending all of that time trapped in an arcade game. personally, i think the world becomes a better place when filled with people who have awesome, amusing skills with no real-world applications. yay jess!!!! by the way, the title of this post is an allusion to "lush life", the great jazz vocal standard about lost love, a wasted life, and too much drinking written by billy strayhorn when he was only eighteen and, apparently, wise well beyond his years. the polychromatic mouse that you see finishing off my vodka and soda threw up only moments after this shot was taken and then borrowed my phone to drunk-dial the stuffed monkey that he'd been dating prior to being trapped in the game. we think that the dragon and the yellow rabbit left together, but no one can be sure.

house of cards.

2008-08-05T10:57:00.000-07:00

i was lucky enough to get to see radiohead put on one of the best shows that i've ever seen last night. a big part of the summer for me has always been attending as many concerts as possible by the bands that i love with the people that i love the most. this summer has been different, but certainly no exception. it was an incredibly powerful show and one that i'll probably always remember. blossom is one of my favorite venues and holds so many great memories for me..and not just because of all of the shows i've seen there. i worked for the f&b company for five years, from the time i was sixteen, moving kegs and moving my way up through the ranks. it's where i got my first taste of this business that would eventually become my accidental, but much-loved career. i also met a lot of great friends and perfected my beer-drinking and flirting skills. ha! anyway, the show was fantastic, the evening almost perfect, and the music a fitting soundtrack to a night that i'll always hold near to my heart. bye.

ohio wine fest and farm animals!

2008-08-04T07:11:00.000-07:00

this past saturday, i was lucky enough to have a good friend invite me to wine fest in kirtland, ohio. i'd never been before and the idea of throwing down a few cups of ohio's finest viticultural products seemed like a pretty appealing curative for a weekend that had started on an incredibly strong down note. after spending the afternoon at the beach, we got cleaned up and headed over to kirtland, which, unbeknownst to me, is apparently the eastern hub of the mormon empire. i wonder how fond they are of having such a bacchanalian event happening within site of their town. who knows. anyway, it was a beautiful evening and, once i learned that you could avoid the long tasting lines by simply ponying up $5 to buy a full glass of wine, the night just got better and more relaxing. we ate some cheese, drank too much wine, and wandered down to the farm park part of the premises to look at some of the farm animals. the goat you see in the picture has three horns and looked pretty much like something from the cover of a death-metal album. unfortunately, it didn't photograph very well. still, a strong wine buzz plus good company plus farm animals is an almost surefire recipe for fun. the sun set while we sat by the pond, finished off another couple of glasses, and the fest closed up shop. on the way out, a little stand was selling local blueberries which were delicious and reminded me of how great locally grown produce really is. unfortunately, given my level of maturity, they also reminded me of how much fun throwing blueberries and, anything really, can be. the traffic was bad and i tend to be impatient, so we passed the time trying to throw blueberries into a wine glass on the hood of the truck (and at the occassional car...sorry if i hit yours) until the exit arteries began flowing normally again. the night ended with a trip to a crazy italian restaurant called dino's. attached to a days inn in mentor, it certainly gives a certain faded 70s/e coli outbreak vibe, but the food turned out to be some of the best old-fashioned italian that i've had since eating at a similar place in wildwood, n.j. before the dinner:impossible shoot that just aired a couple of weeks back. overall, it was one of the best nights that i've had in a long time and ended up stretching into a really great weekend where i hadn't expected one. it's funny what you miss when you're looking somewhere else.

an important pig roast for a good cause

2008-07-28T09:42:00.000-07:00

this past sunday, my pal, michael symon, hosted an s.o.s. (share our strength) benefit at lola that featured a bunch of the best chefs in the country who also happen to be female. to welcome them to cleveland and give everyone a chance to bond, mikey had a get-together for 40ish people the night before at his house. he called me to take care of the food for it, which was an honor, but a little scary too. cooking for some of the best chefs in the country? yikes! anyway, ben and i decided that a latino-style pig roast would fit the bill pretty nicely. you can see the star of the show at the right. anyway, we put together a pretty cool menu using all locally raised ingredients (except limes and avocados) and set about making our plans. besides the pig, we did a bluegill and roasted corn ceviche, shrimp, chantrelle, and l.e.c. bluma empanadas, jicama lettuce rolls, black beans, crawdads, and all sorts of other things. my partner, joan, set up a beautiful table and we spent the day smoking our little porcine friend and working on all of the prep for this special event. thanks to a borrowed smoker/grill/trailer, we were able to drive our piggy over to the east side still hot and finish him on site. the party went incredibly well and everyone seemed to enjoy the food...or at least managed to lie convincingly. Highlights of the event were michael and liz's dogs eating an entire wheel of manchego cheese off of the buffet and traci des jardins (sp? sorry!) pulling the delicious pig cheeks out with her hands. awesome! it was an all-around excellent event and i think mikey was happy too, which makes me happy. i met some new people and got to see a lot of friends from the business who don't usually get to make it out on a saturday night. i privately felt like someone was missing from the group, but that's another story for another time.

when is a vacation not a vacation?

2008-07-17T11:34:00.000-07:00

so, i got to go to the hamptons last week. sounds pretty fun, right? well, it was fun, but not how you may think. my good friend, tim bando, is the chef at a restaurant in amagansett called the meeting house. this time of year, the hamptons are pretty busy and the quaint little restaurant that you see to your left is no exception. in fact, this place is incredibly busy...so busy that tim called a couple of weeks back looking for any help that he could get. being the swell guy that i am (and secretly hoping to get a little beach time in) i agreed to fly up for the week and loan him my sous chef ryan for the rest of july. we took off early on monday the sixth and landed by 10:30. a car service had us in amagansett by 11:30 and the week was officially begun. we had lunch, wandered around for awhile, i bought some long pants when tim informed me that i couldn't wear shorts to work, and got settled in. after lunch service, tim took me to his home...my home for most of the week...and we got changed and ready for work...and work we did. that night we got thrown into the mix with ryan working the grill and me on pantry, where i was trained by a fifteen year old who had only worked the station for a week. in spite of being greenhorns, i feel we performed admirably. the following days brought a lot more work, including some breakfast through dinner performances on my part. luckily, i did have a free evening to drive up to montauk and look around a little. i took a picture of the lighthouse, cleaned out tim's car, and bought a few souvenirs for the folks back home. next morning, i had my leisure until 2:00pm, so i made it to the beach for an hour or so. after that, it was all work (with some after-shift drinks on a couple of occassions). it's a funny place, amagansett. imagine an upscale new england version of mayberry peopled with some of the richest and most famous people in the world. chris martin from coldplay and julianne moore both ate at the restaurant while i was there and apparently the list gets longer from there. by the time sunday morning rolled around, i was really looking forward to heading back to cleveland. the car picked me up at 10:00 from the restaurant and dropped me at the airport a full two hours before my flight. evidently, you have to allow a lot of extra time for the trip as hamptons traffic can be terrible. with nothing to do and a generally relaxed frame of mind, i headed into the airport bar and managed to have a few to many vodka-sodas in the middle of the day. i slept like a baby until baltimore where we landed to drop off and refill the plane with more passengers (the southwest airlines way as i understand it). the plane filled and i prepared to again fall doze off, when the bad news came. a two hour delay. we were deplaned and what was estimated at two hours slowly became four. unfortunately, i was forced to again take shelter in an airport bar, this time a mexican place. i spent my time draining a few margaritas and talking to an amusing fellow traveler. in fact, i began enjoying myself so thoroughly that i nearly missed the plane leaving. i'll never know why they don't make those announcements in the bars, since that's where everyone who's stuck goes to wait...well, maybe not everyone. anyway, we finally took to the skies again and i dosed off until they announced that we were getting close to cleveland. bucking the rules of the sky, i decided to turn on my phone and take some pictures out of my window, as the day was clear and beautiful. there it was, our fair city by the lake. it was good to be home and i was happy to have helped an old friend and met some new ones. life is all about experiences, good and bad. some may shape us more than others, but it's always better to have done something than to have watched it on t.v.

i think i smell a rat.

2008-06-25T13:46:00.000-07:00

marigold's corporate world headquarters and evil lair are located at 3901 lakeside avenue in cleveland. that makes us part of the st. clair/superior development corporation's domain and we're happy to be here. asian town is right next door to us and so, each year, scsdc does a special public art project which corresponds to the chinese zodiac. local businesses can sponsor an animal sculpture which is designed by a local artist and installed in front of their (the business')building. proceeds from the sponsoring and auction of the animal sculptures goes to fund art programs in area schools. pretty cool, huh? this year is the year of the rat. i have to admit that i was a little disappointed to have missed the year of the pig last year, but oh well, rats, albeit not especially food service friends, are still cute in their own way (you know...the way they carry disease and invade your home, etc.). ours, shown in the picture above with mason, mike, ben, pete, and jason is pretty cool and is painted with fiery colors and the chinese symbol for...well, i have no idea. i suppose i'll have to find that out. anyway, i got a kick out of the above picture. i was sitting in laguardia airport leaving new york and feeling kind of down about various personal and professional things and more than a little hung-over from the james beard chef's night out the previous evening. this picture came through and cheered me up instantly. i know that it's become a really common theme in this blog, but i'll say it one more time: working with my best friends and personal band of brothers makes me one of the luckiest cooks in town. extra points to jason for giving the rat such a sweet and tender kiss.

back to the blogosphere

2008-06-24T10:55:00.001-07:00

so, i've noticed that my last post is dated may 19, 2008...over a month ago. it's certainly been a while since i've written anything here which is a sure sign that i've been busy. between shooting dinner:impossible and surviving may and june, our busiest months of the year at marigold, i haven't had much time to blog...though not for want of topics and events! the picture to the left is of a super-fun event experience from a couple of weeks back. ben at our sister company, spice of life, does these awesome plated landscape dinners at the farms from which he gets all of his local food. after the dinner at muddyfork farm in wooster, we all camped out overnight (that's ben's hammock tied to my truck), made a fire, drank a few beers, and played some acoustic guitar. the next day, ryan, ben, and i drove down to columbus together to see the raconteurs. we ate, drank, stayed at my favorite hotel, and saw one of the best shows i've seen in a while. i'm so lucky to get to work with people who i consider to be my best friends, it makes work fun and i think, personally, that a fun environment makes us better at what we do. definitely, one of the best roadtrips of my life.

hell week at marigold

2008-05-19T12:36:00.000-07:00

well, it's monday afternoon and we're almost through with hell week(end) here at marigold. this shot that i took of the finished foods cooler on friday night barely begins to show the massive volume of food that we have to prepare over and around this weekend every year, not to mention all of the supplies, beverages, dry goods, etc., etc. that go along with being exceptionally busy. i am, however, pleased to report that things have gone exceptionally well thanks to an extraordinary amount of hard work and extra time on the part of the entire staff. chris at our local, sustainable foods division, spice of life, set the record for the weekend, working something like 34 hours straight, which he rounded out on sunday afternoon with most of a bottle of maker's mark and some whip-its. rock on, brother! on our part, we hit a lot of homeruns over the last few days, including our annual lunch for case law school's commencement that serves around 1,700. it's a bunch of work, but always worth it. as tradition dictates, jason, ryan, and i went over to the barking spider tavern (the official bar of the marigold catering kitchen staff) after the event (at 1:30 in the afternoon) and threw down a couple of beers (5 each?). we laughed and talked for a while about the events of the past few days and enjoyed what turned out to be a fairly warm and sunny afternoon. afterward, we all headed for home to get ready for today and the last couple giant events of this little stretch (until next weekend). right now, i have to sign off and head over to a benefit for the rape crisis center for, gosh, like 500 or something. it's been a busy amount of business, but it pays the bills and keeps all of us reprobates gainfully employed. yay marigold!

perfect after a long day...

2008-05-16T10:02:00.000-07:00

another week, another awesome shoot with the dinner:impossible gang. symon and i ended up flying into philly together and sharing a car to our hotel, the radisson at warwick plaza. the driver, who a) drives for a living in philadelphia and b) had a gps system installed in the suv, managed to get lost and turn our twenty minute trip into an hour and twenty minutes. needless, to say, it was great to finally arrive at the hotel around 10:30pm monday night, after first stopping at the Windham and Hyatt as our driver attempted to find the correct location by using some method of dead reckoning. i enjoyed some room service and turned in for the evening so i wouldn't be too lethargic for the shoot on tuesday. the only obstacle to a good night's rest? the sleep number bed. for whatever reason, radissons all proudly offer these ridiculous beds, the basic premise behind them being that, by using a control pad, the recumbent inhabitants on either side of the mattress can adjust it to their preferred firmness. essentially, the system relies on a glorified air mattress packed in lots of padding. it sucks if you're sleeping alone, because, if you wish to move beyond your side (rolling, stretching, laying diagonally, etc.), the other side of the bed must be on something of an equivalent setting. if this is not done correctly, the sorry somnolent simply rolls into a mattress valley or up against a mattress hill. so, ultimately you're forced to wake up and fuck around with the controller until both sides are the same. i certainly found it irritating. anyway, the shoot went great and we were done early enough to head out with some members of the production company for a few pints at a philly microbrewery called nottinghead's. prior to the beer drinking, though, i feel like i was thirsty all day during the shoot and i took this picture in the hotel bar because it showed two of my favorite beverages in the world: pellegrino and beer. this shot records the end of the night before i wandered up to my room, pretty well in my cups, and fell asleep, only to wake up an hour later when my side of the bed deflated entirely. stupid bed.

you've got to know your limits...

2008-05-07T07:03:00.000-07:00

my good pal, tim bando, took this great picture of me over the weekend on location at our latest shoot for dinner:impossible. having enjoyed a lifetime of body image issues, i found the sign pretty humorous and suggesting the shot definitely fell in line with the tone of my generally self-deprecating humor. the shoot itself was a blast and, with tim, michael, and i a good ways past our physical prime, definitely proved to be a real challenge. if nothing else, it's hard to believe that we actually get paid and have the opportunity to be on national television, just for doing what we would be doing anyway (more or less): cooking, joking around, and getting to hang out with some really awesome brothers-in-arms. i wish i could tell more here, but i have a feeling that i'm probably not supposed to. anyway, they said that this shoot might be used for the first episode to air in july, so i've got my fingers crossed.

it's funny how some things become traditions.

2008-04-29T13:08:00.000-07:00

i just found this picture from a surprise birthday party that we threw at our venue in the heights rockefeller building for my business partner joanie rosenthal. pictured at left, from the left, we have mason, our youngest helper who also happens to be a computer super-genius and has great hair, pete the gypsy who was trying desparately to grow some facial hair when this photo was taken, and patrick, step-son of the rock hall's ceo, amateur magician, and aspiring drummer. pat, who has since moved to maine, is really the focus of this shot to me, because it catches him checking out the wet spot on pete's jeans. somehow, whenever the kitchen staff goes out together, one of us ultimately ends up dumping a drink on ourselves or someone else. here it's pete. the best example was at this year's annual kitchen christmas party when i accidentally dumped a full crown and coke on jason's crotch. being december, it wasn't really warm enough to dry out either, so he spent the whole night with a "not pee-->" sign tacked to his jeans. awesome!

two days ago it was official. now it's real.

2008-04-24T10:37:00.000-07:00

yesterday was the first shoot for the new and improved dinner: impossible starring mike symon competently assisted by me and the hairy guy to the left, jonathon sawyer. i'd only met jon-boy once prior to working with him on d:i and, i've got to say, he's a great guy and one hell of a cook. i probably shouldn't say too much about the challenge itself, but i will tell you that it was a blast and taught me the value of a good vegetable peeler. working with jonathon and michael was fun and really positive; a definite change from the feel of the old show with Robert Irvine, who always seemed a bit too cranky and serious. what a great day, wonderful opportunity, and nice time in the spotlight for our fair city by the lake. never mind the rock, cleveland cooks.

impossible, you say? i think not.

2008-04-22T08:55:00.000-07:00

<- this is not a picture of me with no hat.

so, the news is finally official. my pal, michael symon (shown at left), has been chosen as the new chef of food network's dinner: impossible. this, in and of itself, isn't that surprising: he's a newly annointed iron chef, owns two successful restaurants, and certainly has made the right connections through his charm, hard work, and natural culinary talent. the unusual and amazing part is that he chose me as one of his sous chefs on the show. over the next month or so, i'll be leaving town to film shows that, i guess, will air in the fall. it should be a challenge, but also, i bet, a ton of fun. i'm especially excited to be meeting up in the kitchen with my old pal, tim bando, who will be one of the sous as well and has already sent an e-mail to everyone in the production company saying he'll only agree to a shoot if I wear a thong and pasties. yep, it's going to be a wild ride, but an awesome one. let the fat, bald man show begin!

keepin' it real

2008-04-17T06:54:00.000-07:00

so, the word creme fraiche gets thrown around pretty loosely in the modern culinary world. i suspect that, pretty frequently, people are using the term to describe sour cream that's been thinned out and had some other flavor (see scallion creme fraiche, cilantro creme fraiche, etc.) added to it. real creme fraiche, though, is as different from sour cream as yogurt is. before the days of pasteurization (or in europe), to make creme fraiche we could just leave our cream out in a warm environment and the natural bacteria would produce this thick-yet-liquid, slightly sour wonder of dairy goodness. in this photo, ben is providing an example of how to make creme fraiche in the modern kitchen. if he looks unsure of himself it's because i'm holding (moving) the ladder and taking the photo. we've taken a bucket of fresh local creme, stolen some culture from sour cream, and then hung it from the rafters of the closet where our water heater is. Allow for 24-36 hours in this warm environment and no health department inspections and, voila, we get real creme fraiche! obviously, if you're from the health department and you're reading this, we're totally joking! we'd never do this because it violates any number of rules. this is just a test to see if it could work. really...

the mistake in the lake...

2008-04-10T07:36:00.000-07:00

so earlier this winter, my best friend, annie aka "schmidty" had the awesome and awesomely foolish idea that we should do a polar bear swim to celebrate the return of spring to lake erie's frozen shores. with easter falling early and various other scheduling conflicts, we didn't end up finally going for it until this past sunday. here's a great group photo of everyone who attended our big day of fun. about half of the people you see here actually went in, but i think everyone had a lot of fun. the day started with great food and a build-your-own bloody mary bar at schmidty's house before we all headed out to mentor headlands for a quick dip in the 35 degree water. let me tell you about cold! schmidty and i were dumb enough to go in twice, the second time leading to some serious brain freeze. afterward, the whole gang headed over to pickle bill's in grand river for some all-you-can-eat crablegs, some more cocktails, and the end of a long, fun day in majestic outdoors of northeastern ohio.

of fake weddings and real friendship...

2008-04-08T08:19:00.000-07:00

i see that it's been over a week since my last post, so apologies to everyone for my being such a less-than-diligent blogger. anyway, a lot's happened here at the m.c. since last i wrote. the busy season is finally here, coming on as suddenly as a tornado on a hot summer night and sweeping us all up in it's path. speaking of a trip to oz, we definitely had our "pay no attention to the man behind the curtain" moment of illusion this past saturday. in order to complete the website and promotional materials for our new venue, the ballroom at park lane villa, we needed to have photos and videos of a beautiful wedding being held there. unfortunately, our first wedding in the space isn't for another couple of months and we couldn't wait to get everything up and running. the solution? throw a fake wedding! christina from park lane, david, joan, and i planned out the whole thing with a string quartet, a d.j., a wedding cake, a fake bride and groom, guests invited from the building, passed appetizers, a plated dinner, and, of course, a fake minister to perform the fake ceremony. not being ones to pass up a chance for some goofing around, ryan and i decided to take advantage of the beautiful matrimonial setting to pose for this (unfortunately) poorly lit shot. The joke was on us, though, as it appears the minister was actually in town from canada and the whole thing is legit. we'll be honeymooning in vegas next week and then hope to get a little house in the country. ha! just kidding. i love ryan, just not in that way. oh well, i'm probably worse off for it. : )

one final thought on st. pat's '08

2008-03-22T20:19:00.000-07:00

as much as i hate to scoot on past my easter post before the holiday has even come around, i was thrilled to finally get a picture of the whole gang from this year's st. patrick's day festivities and couldn't wait to share it with the zero people who read this blog. i have this same picture taken every year because it gives me a pretty accurate accounting of which friends are always by my side and which ones have gone off in some other direction (for whatever reason). i try to be a good and true friend and always hope that the people i love count me as such...and, even though the lot of us are hardly perfect (and spend too much time indulging in our various vices), i wouldn't trade one of my nearest and dearest for anyone else in the world. in honor of the holiday, and in the words of an old irish saying:

i have only two things in life to worry about: either i am sick or i am well.
if i am well, i have nothing to worry about,
but, if i am sick, i'll have only two things to worry about: either i will live or i will die.
if i live, i have nothing to worry about,
but, if i die, i will have only two things to worry about: either i'll go to heaven or i'll go to hell.
if i go to heaven, i have nothing to worry about,
but, if i go to hell, i'll be so damn busy shaking hands with my friends, i won't have time to worry.

slainte!

here comes peter cottontail?

2008-03-18T09:37:00.000-07:00

so, we survived our annual kitchen st. patrick's day blow-out and now we're turning our sights to easter weekend and, hopefully, the end of the midwinter doldrums here at marigold. as is the case elsewhere in the f&b industry, spring brings with it increased business and an end to the months of cold, gray weather that tend to keep us northeastern ohioans holed-up in our caves.
the picture at left was sent to me by our graphic design guru, dana, over at thinking cap design. i instantly loved it because it's sort of inappropriate, while not being wholly so, and also because i loved peeps when i was a kid. i don't know if i could eat an entire one anymore since any sweet tooth that i once had seems to be gone entirely, but, boy, when i was little, it was nothing for me to knock down a pack of these in a couple of days. making things stranger, yet, i only liked peeps when they were stale. as soon as i got them on easter, i would poke holes in the peeps' packaging and wait patiently for the little marshmallow delights to achieve the strange, rubbery texture that my youthful palate so appreciated. i suppose i always had my own thoughts on what made food better...i'm just not sure when those thoughts became normal. i like that whoever did this thought to make the furniture out of starbursts, too (strawberry was my fave, but that's probably enough information about the candy i liked as a kid). anyway, i hope your easter basket overfloweth and all of your hidden eggs are found.

oh boy! it's almost here!!!

2008-03-13T20:19:00.000-07:00

so, i've always had a big thing for st. patrick's day. it combines all of my favorite things in one: food, friends, all-day beer drinking, and a whole lot of fun and memories. a couple of years back, i decided to start a new marigold tradition by closing down the kitchen on this one day and taking everyone out to honor ireland's patron saint. we usually get started around 9:00am and go until common sense kicks back in and we head for home. the above picture is from last year and is awesome because pete (bottom right) is only in his third or fourth day at marigold. right now, he's loving his job...and i think he still does. if you're a client reading this, by the way, don't worry! we work as late as necessary on the day before and the day after to accomodate all of the awesome people without whom we'd be unemployed. i have a dream that someday they'll finally give st. pat's official holiday status (which it basically has in cleveland already) and free everyone to take a day to celebrate two really vital things: fun and friendship. i hope we see you out somewhere and, if not, raise a pint for us. we'll certainly be doing the same. slainte!

a kitchen action shot!

2008-03-12T11:39:00.000-07:00

jason sent me this picture last night along with a few others and i liked it immediately. first, it shows everyone in the kitchen just kind of doing their own thing, unaware of the camera. ben's in the foreground making pasta for raviolis, ryan's walking past on the left side getting ready to deal with a whole bunch of our delicious rustic-style, flatbread-type pizzas that will be going into that stack of boxes, and pete, mike, and i are looking at whatever mike's holding...probably something that a bunch of unrepentant dorks would find interesting (a d&d module or star wars comic book?). i like the photo, too, in that it gives the reader a sense of the homeless guy/outdoor enthusiast chic that exemplifies a kitchen dude's wardrobe. also of note, you can see just the beginning of our pet sailfish, fitzwater, hanging above the chalkboard wall. i've always kind of liked the permanent vacation/waterfront bar vibe that having a large mounted fish brings to any informal room, so i felt fitzy was a natural fit for us...that and the fact that i'm not allowed to have him at home.

spice of life moves in!

2008-03-11T10:33:00.000-07:00

this is my friend, ben. a couple of years back, ben started a catering co. that works solely with local, sustainable foods from ohio's farmers. by this winter, though, spice of life (ben's company) had reached a critical stage where it either needed help to grow or was going to fall apart. enter marigold. we've moved ben in and merged with his wonderful little company, from which i truly expect big things. i'm anxious to start working with yet another person that i respect as a chef and a friend and i know he'll make our offices a livelier place. i also like that it looks like he has adult braces in this picture. ha-ha ben.

what's the largest mammal you've ever mounted?

2008-03-10T15:52:00.000-07:00

this is a delightful picture of ryan, mike, and i, decorating the threshhold to the marigold kitchen with yet another one of my odd "accent pieces". as much as i like the moose antlers, what i like better is what this says about our kitchen staff...being that we're a fun group who genuinely like to hang out with one another. ever since i managed my first kitchen as a chef, i've tried very hard to create an atmosphere where everyone shows up each day because they know it will be fun and that they'll be surrounded by good friends who genuinely care about them. i believe people work more productively in an extremely positive and comfortable environment. i think with marigold, i've finally succeeded in creating just such a place. thanks and love to jason, pete, ryan, mike, jakub, and ben. you guys are the best.

mr. fingerling

2008-03-10T14:17:00.000-07:00

...unbeknownst to many people, the higbee company, pleased with the success of mr. jingling during the christmas season, decided to add a themed character to schill their wares during other times of the year. for st. patrick's day, they created mr. fingerling, a cheerful, ne'er-do-well, composed entirely of potatoes, who was constantly in search of a mythical pot of gold. this is his last known picture. the skewers that held him together were found in a garbage bin some time later, accompanied by a number of empty guinness bottles and cabbage cores.
poor mr. fingerling.

is this how it starts?

2008-03-10T13:23:00.000-07:00

it was, to begin with, a simple comingling of interests. our graphic designer and web person suggested that our redesigned marigold website feature a blog (written by me). i, personally, was keen to post a comment on my friend rob's page, said commentary being verboten as i was no member of this blogging community. fast forward a simple and short sign-up period later and here i am, blogging for no one but myself (initially) and with the sole purpose (initially again) of sending along a brief well-wishing kind of message to a friend with whom we spent an exciting winter day of tubing and general conviviality.

so, as i mentioned only one short paragraph ago, this is all beginning with the simplest of intent and it may be there yet that it will always remain. i suppose that, like most metaphorical roads, it's not for the wanderer to know where this will lead. i'll just begin mapless and eager and see where i find myself. onward to destiny (or another abandoned cyber-project like the myspace page that i last looked at six months ago...too bad, though, as all of those girls with stripper names really seemed to want to be my friend.)