bread&cup blog

Our fourth objective for 2010:

• To create a place our employees love to work

Restaurants are notorious for short-term, short-time, transient staff that turn over as often as flapjacks on the griddle of a Pancake Man fundraiser. Part has to do with the nature of the work, appealing to a young person who needs a job to fund other more stimulating interest, but I would be willing to bet that more often than not, staff leave a job because it’s just not a fun place to be.

There is a dermis of self interest in this objective, especially in the early days when I spent more waking hours in the kitchen than in my own home. If I am going to devote that much time to my labors, it better be a destination I look forward to showing up. If I dread getting out of bed in the morning to go to work at a place I created, I have become The Man for myself. I have written my own death sentence.

There should be more to any job than a two week paycheck. There needs to be camaraderie. There needs to be motivation to learn and grow in skill and knowledge. There should always be a chance to hear feedback, and always more positive than negative. Every good place of employment will seek to provide these elements and more. Productivity will be less of an issue to scrutinize when employees like what they do, and the people with whom they are doing the work.

It’s an honor to see my staff come back in on their days off, meeting with another coworker, to have a bite to eat. This says two things to me. One: “I still like eating the food I make and serve other people.” Two: “I don’t hate this place.” It does help that they can eat at a discount, but a markdown alone doesn’t go very far in changing an unenthusiastic attitude or opinion very effectively.

Ken Blanchard wrote an important thought years ago that has stuck with me from his little book on management titled, The One Minute Manager. He says “catch somebody doing something right.” Most employees only hear from the boss when they screw up, not when they’ve done a good job. I like to call it “seeing people.” I saw how you scrubbed cleaned the floor in the dishroom…I saw how you handled that customer with grace and kindness…I saw how you stayed late and got the rest of that prep done…Thank you. I appreciate it.

I have a great staff. They are the reason I can take today off without fret. They are the reason you had great bread and great soup at lunch. My staff facilitated the experience you had with your friends last Friday night. They are the reason you want to sit at the bar so you can chat with them and see the action up close.

I know I don’t say it enough, but thank you, Staff. We have a great place to work.

In defense of scratch made components, here is a visual explanation of why we are committed to making as much of what we serve from raw ingredients. It is a lesson in craftsmanship, which I believe is often times confused with artisanal. Pardon my beef with semantics, but here's how I keep the two clear in my mind.

Art is the act of creating something new, whereas Craft is the act of creating something the same. Art has its focus on pushing boundaries and limits. Craft, on the other hand, knows the importance of restriction for the sake of a desirable end game. Art and Craft both have their place in the kitchen, and one must know their post times in order to bring them into the right race on schedule

Yet both have their strengths that can easily morph into a liability. The Name of Art can be used as an excuse for hiding a lazy streak. When a chef keeps saying he’s trying to do something out of the box, examine the outcome carefully. He could easily just be flying by the seat of his pants and not know what the hell he is doing. Art deserves better that spontaneous regurgitation and calling it good.

{pasta dough}

On the other hand, the Achilles Heel for the Craftsman can be the fear of trying anything new. Sticking to the same tried and true method is what makes the Craftsman who he is, but in the end, the food might get boring without an occasional shot of creativity.

{pasta rack}

This being said, making pasta is a craft. It is not an art. You want to reproduce the exact same quality, texture and taste from the manipulation of four otherwise basic ingredients every single time. Not much wiggle room at the bench here. You apply the same techniques over and over again, and therein lay a level of comfort in its reliability.

{pasta on plate}{ring mold}

{click for photo}If you are thinking of ownng your own business, don't do anything until you have read and understand the E-Myth. Nothing prepared me better for realizing that being a chef is more than just cooking. Some guys are able to hire the tedious, yet crucial tasks out, but until you can get to that point, be prepared to bust it at the spreadsheet as well as the cutting board.

A third objective for 2010:

• To attract and maintain a loyal customer base via WOM

The busier you get, the more selective you need to be when it comes to anything that demands your time. This objective gives me reason to just say no to countless sales calls for marketing gimmicks. I tell the caller that we are committed to marketing our business through word of mouth and would not be interested in their product. When they push back with their scripted, conditioned response, I ask them what it's like to have a job trying to sell me something I don’t need. The awkward conversation usually ends right after that.

I will admit that am skeptical about the effectiveness of most media advertising. I can’t tell you the last item I purchased because of a commercial on TV. If anything, I tend to be cynical about how products are presented and find ads more of a means of humor and mockery than useful information. We all look forward to the spots shown during the Super Bowl, but do they translate into anything more than watercooler talk on Monday?

We have stuck to a plan to market our business through people with whom we have some connection rather than through a massively anonymous approach. We manage three primary means of dispensing information to people who request it, and believe if they are inquiring, we’ve already established interest. A person can easily unsubscribe at their will, so if they want to stop getting information from us, it can cease immediately, unlike the mountains of junk paper mail I send right through the shredder and into the recycle bin as soon as I retrieve it from the mailbox at home.

Call it self-serving or just a good business, but we like partnering with groups for events that have a mutual benefit. We’ve hosted new beer release parties for the Modern Monks Brewing Consortium. Since they sell us beer and we sell it to you, we tap both networks to create a win/win scenario. In two weeks we are having a Wine & Food Tasting for Woodsmoke, an African themed business started by local entrepreneur Sean Coetzee. As we take opportunity to serve his fans, they may in turn become our fans, as well.

In our technologically fueled Information Age, we suffer from a glut of data that is absolutely useless. As a business man, I want my marketing to be concise, useful and to the point. I don’t want to waste your time, because I don’t want to waste mine, either.

A second objective we are setting for ourselves this year:

• To be a prominent reference point for Lincoln’s culinary opinion.

If experts were to do a story about role of sports in Lincoln, to whom are they going to speak? Obviously the Husker football program is going to play a major part in telling that story. So if a food writer, researcher or other seeker of information wants to know what is developing in our town in the area of food and its enjoyment, I would like to find myself on the top of the list of choices.

I love to write and talk about my business, but if I can get you to speak about it for me, I’ve multiplied my efforts. The more people I can have telling others to come eat at my restaurant, the more energy I can spend on making certain the experience is congruent with the story that is being told.

We have set a goal of achieving some kind of media recognition beyond Nebraska and outside the Midwest. If we can continue to build a broad reputation for what we are doing, it only helps reinforce in our team the importance of our work.

With the Internet, any customer is a potential international food critic. Anyone can go online to any number of travel or food related web sites and leave a review of their experience at bread&cup, either favorable or not. I do a Google search of these sites regularly to find out what is being said and share my findings with my staff. I remind them regularly, that the guest at table 51 could be from Food and Wine or from Beatrice; that guest still has access to a world wide pen.

My chef blog is another point of reference for outsiders to learn more about what we are doing, and the why’s behind our means and methods. I enjoy writing as much as I do cooking, and so I have committed to keep regular posts here.

But the seduction of getting noticed can never supersede the pleasures of doing what we do on a day to day basis that is drawing the attention in the first place. Our work of creating an outstanding environment for conversation and reflection with the service of simple food and drink, with as much sourced locally as possible, is foremost. A positive review is the icing, not the cake.

For every business leader, there comes a time when a sober assessment of one’s business is crucial in determining the next step to take. For many eating establishments in Lincoln in the last two years, that step has been to get out of the game. Gratefully for us, considering that direction is not necessary. We need to make sure we are taking steps forward, and thus, how far?

It is not a stretch for me to say that the approach we are taking to food and drink is unique not only to Lincoln but to many of our out of town guests who tell me they wished they had a place like ours in their city. And while I would like to take credit for some new and original idea, the concept of bread&cup is merely based on the outcome of this simple inquiry; what do people really want? We had a prediction, rolled the dice and are now happy that our number keeps coming up.

Which is more satisfying, to eat your dinner out of a bag that was handed to you through your driver’s side window? Or to sit down to a scratch made meal made by a face that will tell you what you are eating and that tastes far superior? And if your objection says, “But I’m in a hurry, man!” again, it reinforces my point, you want convenience over substance and you are willing to organize your lifestyle around that desire. Other companies may not, but my business plan takes the latter into consideration first.

Occasionally, when a customer likes what they see in our restaurant, I explain it this way, I tell them we are trying to shorten the distance between the kitchen and the table. This is what happens at home, and why the kitchen always becomes the most crowded room during a party. It’s why my kitchen is open, and why I try my best to come out and visit with you at the table. In shrinking that distance, it reconnects you to something that makes you human.

The metaphor of reducing the distance between the kitchen and the table is another way of saying that we believe what people really want is to reconnect the stomach with the soul. Ours has been severed by the Knife of Speed and Convenience, and we hope to sew it back together with the timeless thread of Conversation and Reflection. When I write, “We’ll set the table; you bring the conversation.” our implied meaning is that verbal human exchange over the practice of consuming simple food and drink will nourish far more than an empty stomach.

I’ve set four objectives for our restaurant in 2010. I am a firm believer in the “aim at nothing; hit it every time” school of thought. I am not educated or experienced in the finer points of business management, but I am convinced of the fact that a simple plan can be as effective, if not more so, than a long, detailed one. I post these as an exercise in clarity for my sake, but I hope you will enjoy seeing behind the scenes of what it takes to make a restaurant successful.

1. To maintain an outstanding environment for conversation and reflection

An online poll by a local marketing firm posted last year showed that we have achieved this mark. Over 80% of the respondents said they like coming to our place for conversation. Food and interaction go hand in hand. The majority of people who eat at our place do so with someone else. But eating alone is nothing to be ashamed of. We have many regulars who come in with their book, journal, or just a full mind needing a place to untangle the thoughts, and a little food and a glass of wine assists in the process.

Decisions we’ve made recently were run through this filter. We added a small, hot breakfast menu to provide another reason for people to utilize our spot in the mornings for a meeting, mentoring session or a quiet place to start the day. We are trying to boost awareness of Wine After 9, an evening wine and dessert feature available after our dinner service. Where do you go after the movie, the play or when you’re just not ready for the date to end, and you don’t want caffeine and you don’t want the noise of the college bars? We want to be top on your list of choices.

This year we are also contemplating adding a Happy Hour with food that reflects our value for simplicity. Our biggest question now is finding out if there is a market for it? Do people in Lincoln want more out of their Happy Hour than cheap bar food and penny pitchers of beer? Some have said to build it and they will come, but I need a little more info first.

The reason we put conversation before food is because people still go out to eat and meet to chat at places that serve food of marginal quality. Ours is not to try and change the culture first, but to flow with our culture and provide a superior product, one that may garner attention and lead to an epiphany that there is a better way to eat.

Keep us in mind. We feed your need for conversation, all day long.

Occasionally I am asked about bread&cup, “What kind of place is this?” Behind the query are such options as, “A bakery?” “A café?” “A bistro” “A sandwich place?” “A little spot for lunch?”

In developing any kind of definition, it helps us both to first know what we are setting out to accomplish. The objective is as simple as our food. We are creating an outstanding environment for conversation and reflection.

To unpack this idea, I have to explain to you the quote above my kitchen, facing the front door for everyone to see as they enter. It reads:

We live in a fascinating age of progress and scientific discovery. Technology offers us better and faster ways to communicate and share information with one another all across the planet. Yet with all its advancement, we believe nothing will provide a better channel for meeting our deepest needs of communication like the timeless practice of sharing simple food and drink.

We’ll set the table. You bring the conversation.

In this statement, I am trying to adopt a position of standing on two foundations, one built upon the best of the days before me, and the other, upon the strength and promise of the future. This is very hard to do, since when we yearn for the past, many ears hear people like me saying we should all become Amish, revoke women’s voting rights and reestablish Prohibition.

As a citizen of a new millennium, I am acutely aware of a tension that exists between the past and the future, especially as it pertains to food. I affirm the need and the benefit of returning to an understanding of the source of our food, and a connection to the land from which it was grown. There is not only nutritional value of enjoying fresh, whole foods grown naturally in unadulterated dirt, there is an intangible benefit from the understanding of its source as well.

At the same time, I am realistic in acknowledging the practicality of initiating this kind of quantum cultural shift. McDonald’s and Burger King are not going away anytime soon. Much of what is passed off as edible food is going to be contained in a cardboard box, aluminum can or plastic bag. Convenience is the operative word that drives the decisions for what and how we eat in this 21st century. Mine is just a tiny voice amid the cacophonous noise of a culture whose stomach has become disconnected from its soul.

Personally, I am glad to be alive in 2010. It is a fascinating age. I would be amazed, but not surprised, to witness a cure for cancer in my lifetime. Computers are getting smaller, more powerful, giving scientists and engineers the ability to solve more complex problems. I like this outlook. Armed with this muscle, I believe new, economical energy sources are within our reach. Given the choice of being alive now or in 1910, I’ll take today every time.

But at the same time I still want to be able to reach back and grasp what was good about life a hundred years ago, when our world was simpler, when electronic media did not rule our attention like an insecure dictator, and when the pace of life allowed for more meaningful human contact. Let me keep my computer, but remind me to close it down at some point each day and take up activity that will renew my understanding of what it means to be simply alive, wonderfully grateful and distinctly human.

Talk to any small business person for any length of time about their venture and I guarantee the topic of employees will come up sooner than later. Eventually the use of the line, “you just can’t get good help these days” will make it into the conversation.

I, however, am very grateful for my staff and feel privileged to hear most of the comments from customers about them. One woman in particular, told me yesterday that one of the things she likes about coming in to our restaurant is how enjoyable and interactive everyone seems to be. Another gentleman, who works in HR, asked me where I got my training in interviewing and hiring good help. I blushed at the compliment, but had to admit to him that my style is more visceral than textbook. I go with the gut most every time.

I have two questions; I call them my “cut to the chase” questions, which I use at the start of every interview. They are:

1. Why do you want to work here?
2. Why should I hire you?

I can usually tell after this initial query what you think about the both of us, whether or not you are informed about the kind of business we run, and if you possess any kind of self-awareness or not.

I’m looking for people who don’t just want a job; I’m looking for people for whom our place is first on their list. This was impossible at the onset, since nobody knew a thing about us, but now that our reputation has preceded us, more and more people are finding their way to my doorstep asking for an application.

Even though I may get snookered on the second question, it will only take a few days at work for your true colors to bleed through. In the interview, you may give me all the right answers about how you are such a hard worker, clean, and get along well with others, but one day in the dishroom will tell me if the default setting on your control panel is set to action or just plain talk. People are hired for what they know, and fired for who they are.

Most ads for help wanted put a strong emphasis on previous work experience, noting that 2yrs is a bare minimum in many cases, but not so much for me. Having worked in a commercial kitchen is not highest on my list of qualities in a new hire, else I wouldn’t have been able to give myself a job. Give me someone with a strong work ethic versus a culinary degree. I can teach you to cook; I can’t teach you to work. You’ve got it or you don’t.

{circa 1988}

Ironic that I have been listening to Rush this week, the brainy iconic band of my younger days. I came across the song, Tom Sawyer, on the way home from saying my last goodbye to Kerry after our last meal served on Saturday night. Geddy Lee belts out this line that has new meaning after 29 years:

Exit the Warrior, Today’s Tom Sawyer, he gets high on you and the energy you trade he gets right on to the friction of the day.

A warrior for the vision of bread&cup steps aside today, Exits Stage Left, and moves with new energy to chase another dream, one with new challenges, new frictions, but most importantly, with new rewards. Changes aren’t permanent, but Change is.

Today starts a new season in the bread&cup story, as Kerry begins exploring his new direction in Tulsa, OK this morning. I reflect on the role he played in breathing life into this living being that at times felt as monstrous as a Frankenstein that would consume us all. It required more than any of us ever imagined. We could not have done it without his help.

“This is the way the day got started, and it only got better from here”

Thanks, Warrior. You will be missed.

A Slow Meal @ bread&cup
Saturday, January 16th, 2010
$50 per person
By reservation only
Call 402-438-2255

Five Course Menu
Includes 4 wine pairings

First
Rosemary & Sea Salt Flatbread with Garlic Olive Oil and Tomato Marmalade
Sparkling Mineral Water

Second
Mushroom Ravioli
Earthy flavors of locally foraged morel mushroom, chevre, black walnuts

{2007 Donnafugata Sedara Nero d’Avola }
Sicily, Italy

Third
Coq Au Vin
Locally raised chicken slowly braised in red wine (Zinfandel) sauce

{2007 Turley Dragon Vineyard Zinfandel}
California

Fourth
Prime Rib
Nebraska raised grass fed beef, with Yorkshire pudding and sweet corn from York, NE

{2006 Ladera Cabernet Sauvignon}
Napa Valley

Finish
Strawberry & Chocolate Mousse with Shortbread
Princeton grown berries, mousse with rich 64% chocolate and buttery strips of shortbread

{2006 Elio Perrone “Bigaro” Moscato/Brachetto}
Piedmont, Italy

During a scene in the film Up In The Air, Ryan Bingham (George Clooney) is listening to his coworker Natalie (Anna Kendrick) recount her decision to decline a significant employment opportunity for the sake of following her boyfriend to live Nebraska. As Ryan rapidly repeated her words “To Nebraska!?! in utter disbelief...

...the entire Lincoln audience chuckled with agreement.

This is one thing I like about the place I call home. Hollywood can make fun of us and we can take the joke. We realize we aren’t the Mountains or the Beach or the Big City. It’s obvious that weather is not the alluring factor about our state.

No, ours is the Good Life, ridiculed by those seeing the moniker on the big green sign posted on the state line on the ribbon of highway known as I-80. We rate ours on a scale that will not make sense to the average passenger in the fly-over jet, whose perspective could easily assume those round circles were made by aliens, since they have no earthly idea what a center pivot system is, let alone what it does.

Call it foolish justification. Call it blind loyalty. Call it a lack of drive to do something better. I prefer to call it the ability to find the beauty growing in the ditches beside the road less traveled.

It has been bitterly cold these last few weeks. Colder than I can remember. Temperatures in the minus digits, even without a factor of windchill. My drafty door jams and leaky windowsills whisper a reminder of the season’s outdoor brutality. My toes disagree with the thermostat, and my wife’s hands argue with the reading on the dial. We cope by putting on a sweater and layering on another blanket.

So why cope? Why put up with it? What makes people stay and endure year after year?

It dawned on me Sunday as I took my beagle out for some much needed exercise. She seemed oblivious to the negative symbol on the car’s external thermometer. She ran with boundless energy through the field of snow, finding the scent of every foolish rabbit that ventured across the boundary between the city wilderness and the fenced dog run. Her happiness made me smile.

Bundled from head to toe, walking across the acres of snow covered field, trying to keep the condensation of my breath from fogging my tinted Smith eyewear, I was brought to a word, one that would require explanation if anyone ever asked me to describe what I love about Nebraska. It is the word, diminution.

Winter’s natural result has a diminutive effect. Step outside after a heavy snowfall and you will easily hear how it reduces the amount of noise of both urban movement and the exchange of natural wildlife. All of a sudden, it’s quieter and a little more peaceful.

In certain cases, it can bring movement to a halt altogether. The snowfall of Christmas 09 will be remembered as the holiday we couldn’t get anywhere. Granted, some will recall it as the holiday the family got on each other’s nerves, but some will retell the story of how great it was to be forced to slow down and be together, and enjoy the moment.

Winter reduces your visual color palate by several thousand Pantone numbers. A few months without shades of green, orange, red and multiple permutations thereof, gives relief to the eye. Limiting the ocular field, it creates appreciation for the nuances of white and gray, as well as the eventual return of spring, when the first signs of yellow daffodils speak reassurance that the season is coming to an end.

I, by nature, don’t sit still very easily, at least not without project or purpose. Winter pushes me inside, away from the garden, away from the duties outdoors and reminds me to put it in a lower gear, let the engine run slower, and not be in such a hurry.

But the diminution of winter leads to abundance in other regards. I read more, write more and cook more for personal pleasure. The winter ales I brew are bigger and more lavish with complexity. Granted, I have no backyard garden from which to harvest fruit, but the limitation gives me more reason to be creative with what I do possess, and that’s never a shortcoming.

The Slow Meal is another example of the compensation of winter’s diminutive effect. Our first Slow Meal of the season is scheduled for Saturday, January 16th at 6:30pm. Two and a half hours, five courses, four wines, a few good friends, and plenty of time to savor and converse. The menu will be sent out via our member email list (you can subscribe in the upper right hand corner at www.breadandcup.com). Call 402.438.2255 to make a reservation for this special winter event.

We'll set the table; You bring the conversation.

Special thanks to Kris Reiswig for her wonderful photography.

Today we are beginning some of the preparation for the New Year’s Eve dinner this Thursday. This year we are offering three courses in a reservation only format. You can choose two seatings, at 6PM or 8PM. Call 402-438-2255 to hold a place.

So you’ll have a good idea of what we are serving, below is our menu, true to our simple food and drink form.

To start:

Beef Consomme with Wilted Spinach

We are making traditional beef stock from roasted bones and mirepoix and later clarifying it with a raft of egg white and ground beef. The resulting clear broth is served at your table over fresh spinach leaves and minced green onion.

Spinach Salad with Clementine and Almond

Staying with the fresh spinach as the foundation, it is dotted with fresh Clementine. Clementine is a variety of mandarin orange readily available now. Add to the mix lightly smoked almonds, gorgonzola cheese and vinaigrette made with juiced Clementine and balsamic vinegar

Main Course:

Cultiva Coffee Encrusted Beef Tenderloin with Yorkshire Pudding

We rub the whole tenderloin with a dry mixture of ground coffee from Cultiva, brown sugar, paprika, peppercorn and kosher salt. Roast it to medium rare and serve it with a side of Yorkshire pudding, a side dish of British origin resembling a puffy muffin made from egg, flour and milk. Finish it off with beef jus and sautéed green beans.

Chicken & Chevre Roulade with Malted Wheat Berries

The chicken breasts from Dave Sanders are so big they can be pounded out in to a large thin pieces onto which we can spread goat cheese, roasted garlic and fresh sage and roll it into a round (roulade) shape, seared and baked. It is cut into slices and served over a seasoned pilaf of malted wheat berries. We use malted wheat often in the same way you would use rice. The texture is more chewy and the flavor slightly sweet from the malting process. The dish is finished with sautéed leaves of Brussels sprouts and a chicken stock reduction.

Saffron & Potato Gnocchi with Romesco Sauce {vegetarian}

Fragrant threads of saffron add color and flavor the hand made little dumplings made from Russet potato and tossed in a traditional Romesco sauce, with is comprised of red pepper, tomato, bread, almonds, garlic and olive oil

Finish:

Vanilla Bean Eggnog with Rum

We make this in house, the old fashioned way by starting with the egg custard, with whole vanilla beans steeped and scraped for a rich, aromatic outcome. Egg white and whipped cream are folded in to create a thick texture, and mixed with a shot of spiced rum. Served chilled, but will easily warm you up from the inside.

18 Layer Crepe Cake with Dulce De Leche

Egg crepes are lightly frosted with buttercream and layered 18 high. Dulce De Leche is milk based sauce made from sweetened milk. It takes about 3 hours to make, but slow always wins the race in our minds.

We hope you enjoy eating as much as we enjoy creating. We’ll set the table; you bring the conversation.

I remember a year ago about this time of year, it was Miles Davis and an Anchor Steam. This evening its Vince Guiraldi and a 471.

Our staff has all gone home, Karen has taken a friend to church, our kids are with friends, and I sit and ponder the beauty that is this Christmas season.

I've been here since 3:45am, making cinnamon rolls to fill the orders for people to enjoy with their friends and family tomorrow morning. It was an expected slow day, but nonetheless, a pleasurable one, as I think back on the road traveled to get to this point.

Because of our business, I have much for which to give thanks. Second on the list of top restaurants of the decade by our local paper. An establishment that bucks the trend of our dreary economy. Numerous guests that are now our new friends. I recall my dad saying countless times, "If it gets any better I couldn't stand it."

I know I should go home soon, but I am drawn to linger in silent moments like this one. Its when I hear the most profound messages. I am humbled to receive such gifts. I know the story could have taken any number of turns, but the lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance.

Merry Christmas...

To me, music is an important component of the dining experience. I like what I hear in the restaurant to match the mood that is being set for me. To be able to hear the boombox back in the kitchen puts a damper on that tone, or to have some random playlist going from one genre extreme to another doesn’t say that all the details have been thought through.

If you’ve noticed, the Coca-Cola thermometer above the door way back into our kitchen always reads 55 degrees. It serves as an icon of what we hope your experience will be; chilled, relaxed, and slowed down. I try to pick music that reflects this vibe, and below are ten of my all time favorite selections that help achieve this end.

My criteria in choosing? I look for an entire album that can go from start to finish without the need to skip over a song that disrupts the flow of the whole mix. Note that there are no “Best of” or compilations in this list. I have dozens of those that work very well. I like it when the musician develops a theme as opposed to an editor putting it together. Here are ten full albums I like to play start to finish that help bring the temperature down to 55 degrees.

1. Gotan Project – La Revancha del Tango
1. This most unique sound of tango is led by a skillful bandoneon and blended with modern electronic beats and samples.
2. Charlie Haden – Nocturne
1. True to the title, this disc sketches a night scene with broad strokes of moody piano and thick, dark lines of bass, filled in with the shadowy color of violin and saxophone.
3. John Coltrane – Lush Life
1. You have to be careful when choosing to play Coltrane, because he went through a period of extreme experimentation and exploration of the outer reaches of the jazz galaxies. This one is also aptly titled, as it is full of lush solos and textures that don’t draw undue attention or worse, make your head hurt.
4. Karrin Allison – Ballads: A Tribute to John Coltrane
1. She took Coltrane’s 1961 record, Ballads, an all instrumental piece with saxophone sussing out the lyric lines, and recreated a song for song interpretation, with the lyrics added back in. Sometimes I will play the original along with this remake in the same playlist and put it on shuffle for an added bonus.
5. St Germain – Tourist
1. Categorized as house music, and if I was forced to keep that label, I would insist on adding the word “intelligent” as a descriptor. Often house can be nothing but mind-numbing repetition of loops and tricks that go nowhere but in circles. This DJ takes the basics of electronic groove and layers in useful vocal loops with trumpet and sax lines that will have you executing Rock Concert Movement #1, yet never leaving you dizzy.
6. Thievery Corporation – Richest Man in Babylon
1. To incorporate such world musical styles as Jamaican reggae, American jazz, Brazilian dance and Indian meditation requires more than skill; you need a 6th sense. This disc transports you to places all over the world without the jet lag.
7. Audio Lotion – The Finer Essence
1. I don’t know why I’m such a sucker for lounge-esque titles like this group, but this Latin inspired, downtempo CD has me reaching for my smoking jacket and brandy snifter.
8. The Blue Nile – High
1. Much like a David Gray album, the unapologetic use of beats that betray their mechanical source are made to work as a part of the effect of this band’s minimal sound. My only stipulation is that this is to be played on a rainy day.
9. James Taylor – One Man Band
1. Who else has a voice of distinction like this man, other than James Earl Jones.? Just him and a guitar, and all the songs I remember growing up.
10. Andy McKee – Art of Motion
1. God bless the Internet for allowing this otherwise obscure guitarist to be noticed. This YouTube sensation will leave you scratching your head wondering how he gets that much sound out of one guitar.

In my next life, I might choose musician over chef, as music holds deep meaning for me. I admit a bit of hesitation in the making of “Best of” lists, because of my thought that Top 10 music lists are often only a means of carving out a place to stand and brag about bands that only you and no one else has any idea even exists, thereby proving you a person of superior taste and judgment. If no one knows what you are talking about, it’s easier to dismiss criticism.

With that disclaimer, I reflect on five albums that caught my attention this year. Would I call them my favorite? Let’s veer away from that word, and replace it with the word notable. Favorite means they will probably be in my playlist five years from now. Notable means they drew me back to listen again, allowing me to discover something new in subsequent visits. Much music is one dimensional, some is just plain forgettable. These were neither for me. Here they are in no order of preference.

1. Band of Horses – Cease to Begin

If a band is important to you, I hope I can reciprocate the favor, by treating it with equal meaning. So when Feng Dude told me about these guys over a year ago, I chose to not go there until I had ample time to give them my full attention. In the era of ubiquitous downloads playable on any of five digital devices you have on your person at any given moment, I grieve the loss of the trip to the record store or head shop an hour away to track down the latest vinyl presentation of rock and roll. I couldn’t listen to it in the car. No, I had to endure the hour return drive, waiting to place the disc on the turntable and do nothing but listen to the music in its entirety while reading the liner notes and following along with the lyric sheet. I felt I needed to hold this suggestion with some sort of reverence

When Feng Dude came to visit this fall, I took the opportunity to acquire my first Band of Horses CD, and put it in the player while I had an undistracted drive to the airport. Immediately, the opening song, Is There a Ghost, hooked me like a crankbait in the jaw of a struggling fish. Resistance was futile, since I’ve often wondered if there was a ghost in my house, also.

2. Brad Mehldau Trio – Art of the Trio Vol 4

I love jazz, for reasons I’m probably not able to articulate intellectually and certainly not with a theoretical musical explanation. It’s much more visceral for me. Simply, I like the way it makes me feel. I love its groove. I love the energy and spontaneity. It’s the music I wish I had the ability to play, therefore, it also makes me jealous. I can’t watch good jazz musicians without a green-eyed stare.

It was actually the liner notes of this CD that made me want to give it a listen. Written by Mehldau himself with a bit of resentment in his tone, he attacked the common comparison of his style to Bill Evans, a Miles Davis contemporary that forged a sound in the late 50’s that has come to signify the era. Mehldau’s resistance to this association made me wonder if I could detect the stylistic differences of which he noted.

3. Pablo Zeigler and Quique Sinesi – Bajo Cero

My wife and daughter got to hear Zeigler at our performing arts center here in Lincoln, (I had to work) and loved the show so much, she bought the CD. You have to understand, this is out of character for her. Getting the recording is something I do. I regret not getting to hear them live.

Tango can easily be relegated to a clichéd image of dancers in a cheek to cheek embrace, while stepping with exaggerated movements in rhythm to an accordion-heavy ensemble. Gotan Project did its part to destroy that impression. The remake of Roxanne in Moulin Rouge likewise. Pablo Zeigler reinforces the new vibe.

4. The Elders – Gael Day

When we planned to go to the Irish Fest in Weston, MO, where The Elders were headlining, I bought their latest CD. I usually like to have a sense of the music of a band I am about to hear. That way I don’t feel so ignorant when people around me are enjoying the music and tell me how much they LOVE this band.

Songs becomes more meaningful when you know the context out of which they were written. Lead singer Ian Byrne recently became a US citizen, and told the story about Decoration Day, which accounts the process immigrants go through and the joy they feel in coming to America.

Despite the centuries of bad circumstances, somehow the Irish have maintained the ability to let their music rise above their past. I put this in when I want to feel good.

5. Young Dubliners – Saints and Sinners

Our trip to Ireland sparked an interested in all things Irish. So with a card for store credit at Best Buy, I decided to buy a risk CD. The rule of the risk CD is to purchase a disc based on artwork, mood, or gut instinct. It has to be one you’ve never heard or listened to before. The band name alone convinced me to roll the dice.

Straight up, Irish influenced rock and roll, I can listen to this one all the way through without feeling the need to skip a track here and there.

I understand my role as a chef is to make people happy, and take that role very seriously, but sometimes feel my hands are tied when a request comes back to the kitchen to alter a dish in some way. Food allergies, I understand. Picky eaters, let me offer some advice.

I am a professional. I cook food for a living. In the same way that you trust your car to a mechanic and your teeth to a dentist, consider putting your palette under my protection. By sitting at my table, you are driving up to the bay and saying, “Can you take care of it for me?”

That’s why we’re in business.

We believe you want to be taken care of, or you would have chosen to go elsewhere, or to cook for yourself. But dining out is an act of indulgence that involves more that just tying on the feedbag and waddling out the door muttering something like, “Geez, I can’t believe I ate so much!” Allow it to appeal to something more than just getting stuffed.

Last week a ticket arrived in the kitchen for the pasta entree without meat. We assembled it accordingly, sent it out, only to have the server return saying the customer thought it was bland. Yes, probably so, because the theme of the dish was altered in a way that took out a significant flavor component. I can and will stand by my dishes as I designed them, and if I fail to please, I take the hit and consider how I missed the mark. But if the customer tries to change the game plan, I can’t always guarantee the outcome. It’s like telling my mechanic to change the oil, but asking if he can substitute half the really expensive stuff with the cheapo kind. He might look at me kind of funny.

Consider the pot roast dish we designed last night. We put a lot of thought into making all the traditional flavors work together in a creative, cohesive unit; Beef, carrots, celery, onion, and potato. Serve the carrots as a sauce instead of whole, use celery leaf powder to lend a bold aromatic element (akin to what dry hopping does to ale), present a seared, braised leek for the onion, and a thinly sliced, layered potato cube to complete. If someone asks if we can leave off the carrots, there goes one-fifth of the dish.

If you will, allow me and my kitchen staff to address your culinary hindrances. Let us be your gastronomic psychologist, to guide you beyond your aversion to asparagus or why beets make you queasy. Trust us as food pilots to transport you to places you would not go on your own, but you’ll be glad to know you arrived safe and sound and already look forward to the next trip. And if after trying, you really just can’t go there, we’ll understand.

We’ll set the table; you bring the conversation. It’s more than a slogan.

Maybe you’re like me in that you like the idea and the spirit of the holiday season, but all of it gets so easily intercepted by the other trappings that tag along with it. In protest against it, some folk go to the extreme by ignoring the holiday all together. No tree, no lights, no presents, no music, etc. While I can appreciate the decision, I’m afraid of what I would miss out on if I were to take the same tack.

I cannot control what my culture at large does with Christmas. For example, I can do without the extra bale of advertisements in the Sunday paper, and the ubiquitous sound of Jingle Bells in every retail shop and the urgent request to include a handful of gifts to myself in my shopping list.

I don’t need a gift, though I can remember some that made me one happy kid, like the GI Joe Action Command Center or the AFX slot car set with MagnaTrack steering. I still have the Evil Knievel action figure and motorcycle in a box downstairs somewhere.

I don’t need snow, though it’s a nice added touch, because growing up in Oklahoma meant more Christmases than not were spent outside shooting the new BB gun without a coat.

I don’t need much, but I did consider this morning, what do I need in order to feel like its Christmas?

I need a tree, because I will always remember the fascination over getting one as a young boy growing up. It was always a real one, always purchased from the Lions Club and it always smelled so fresh and clean. And this year, as in every year that I can remember, I hang on my tree, the little opaque plastic icicles that once would glow in the dark, but have since lost their fluorescence.

I need those sausage balls that mom used to make on Christmas morning, but eventually turned the responsibility over to me. A simple recipe of Bisquick, ground sausage, cheddar cheese and water. Believe it or not, if you gave me a choice for my last holiday meal between turkey and dressing or those baked little nuggets, I’m going with the latter.

Above being together, which for more years than not has happened at Shinndell, I need to know my family is happy and well. And isn’t this why we resort to giving gifts, sometimes elaborate ones, because we all love the look of joy on their faces when they get that one things they always wanted?

And even as a person of faith, these simple components make more sense to me than the religious ones. They are more tangible, and dare I say, more meaningful? But maybe therein lies the Beauty of the Celebration, where the Profound is discovered in the Simple, and the Fortune is held by the Observant?

As I was watching Iron Chef last night, guest judge Donatella Arpaia commented, once she was able to speak without being interrupted, that the dessert Bobby Flay made was good, and tasted fine, but that it seemed safe. Her comments need to be taken to heart by any aspiring chef. To make great food requires one to take some risks.

The kitchen is not a safe place to work.

The essence of the chef life is danger. Not because of the flames of the stove or the spatter of hot grease or use of sharp knives all day long. The biggest risk lies in the act of putting your creations into the hands of a server, who will deliver it to a patron, who will ingest in into his or her body, which ultimately becomes a part of that person. It can make them at best, happy, or at worst, sick to their stomach. As a chef you are banking on the former, but if the latter happens, it puts you in an awkward predicament. But even if the response is indifference, like Donatella’s, the chef feels the dull ache of the blunt blow.

This is why I choose to face the music straight on. I try my best to make it around the dining room to get direct reactions from my guests. I need to stay in a position of being vulnerable. I can’t play it safe. No chef can. If you do, start looking for another line of work. Bobby Flay didn’t rise to his position serving safe, boring food.

And by safe and boring, I don’t mean you should buy a case of sodium alginate and a tank of liquid nitrogen and start trying to flex culinary muscles you don’t possess. Taking risks doesn’t mean doing something weird and inaccessible. No, it simply means being vulnerable enough to allow a negative comment to bug you to the core.

Many of the dishes we serve are not ones we have tested over and over again. We don’t have that luxury of time. Instead, my kitchen staff relies on acquired skill, technique and gut instinct to put new entrees on the menu, almost weekly. We’d never done a smoked meatloaf until the night we served it a couple of weeks ago. We had an idea, trusted that idea, and watched it pay off in the end.

If a guest doesn’t care for the pate, maybe it’s just a preference issue. But if I see several bowls of half eaten chowder coming back into the dish room, I can’t be so quick to condescend on them as unsophisticated palates. Pony up and realize that maybe I sent something out that just wasn’t that good. I can do better, and staying vulnerable ensures that I will. Become calloused and I watch my customer base dwindle.

You cannot be a great chef without the constant threat of getting your food crushed by criticism. You wouldn’t disagree with the writer if you got a great review, but your defenses will rise quickly if you feel writer is less than favorable. And even if you disagree, are you able to objectively examine the feedback and learn from it?

There’s an old saying that goes, “A fool finds no pleasure in understanding but delights in airing his own opinions.” I hang on to this as I read comments posted about our restaurant on sites like TripAdvisor, Yelp or UrbanSpoon. I can tell which remarks are something we can fix, and which we just need to let slide. Some folk just like to bitch, and that is their right. But some people really want their words to construct, build up and matter, and the wise chef will recognize the source as valuable information.