up close and personal at Whisk
March 25th, 2009 § 1 Comment
A week after receiving a tip from two friends who know good food, I found myself pulling up to an unassuming strip mall on the outskirts of Coral Gables. Why had I not heard about Whisk before? I was either living under a rock for two years or this was a place that fans and regulars coveted, wanting the word to get out only just so much. Enough for the place to be successful, but not too much lest its charm be destroyed or the line, already out the door at the peak of lunchtime, snake around the parking lot. If there’s one thing we’re short of south of 395, it’s great neighborhood spots that you can go back to time and time again, without getting bored or disappointed in the food or service. Well, the rock was working, and thus lunching, in Coconut Grove and then commuting home to Brickell. Lame excuse, I know. But hello, finally, Whisk.
Happy accident: Whisk's intimate space is a consequence of its original intention, to serve as a catering outfit. With the seasonality of that business, it soon made sense to offer a lunch and dinner menu, too. And now customers keep coming back, not only for the daily specials and weekly-updated menu full of organic and locally-sourced ingredients, but I suspect for its homey feel.
It’s a little after 11:00 a.m. when I arrive, and Owner Kristin Connor is busy at the computer, taking calls and updating the website with today’s specials. Kristin’s office, from which she runs both the restaurant and catering businesses, forms the border between the kitchen and dining room. Like the shelves of pantry supplies and stacks of cookbooks from her library at home, this work area doubles as decor and is part of the front of the house.
Alright, so my mother used to run a catering company out of our home when I was growing up... But I think you'll find that dining at Whisk feels like home to you, too. Ok, a really wonderful version of it where chefs cook really tasty food to order... The whisk-made-menu-weight is a family heirloom.
All in the fam: Chef Brendan Connor, Kristin's brother and partner, preps for lunch service in back with a team of three. He earned his culinary chops in famous Charleston, North Carolina kitchens such as The Hominy Grill and Anson's. The one at Whisk is suprisingly spacious, perhaps even the same size as the front of the house.
Inside seats about 12, with tables outside for likely 8 more. I grab a stool at the counter-for-two up front and get the lay of the land with Lorena Cosme, the server and hostess, who will be with restaurant one year this April. Things will get a little crazy soon, she hints, when the lunch crowd begins to trickle in at about 11:30.
The calm, then the storm: On the left, a rare glimpse of an empty Whisk before the lunchtime rush. Before Noon, tables both inside and out were full. Folks who had ordered carry out filed in to grab their brown bag lunches and head back to work.
I don’t recall ever being in a restaurant quite like this, but I can draw comparisons with Gabrielle Hamilton’s Prune in the East Village of Manhattan. Like Prune, Whisk takes a simple, don’t-mess-with-the-beauty-of-the-natural-ingredient approach. That’s the genious of the place for me. The Connors are very serious about executing and maintaining a high quality of product without being fussy. When you go, I highly recommend the tuna fish sandwich on multigrain bread. It’s one of Kristin’s favorites, and although I didn’t have it this way, she suggests adding sliced avocado. You should know that I don’t like tuna fish. I actually try to avoid it at all costs. But this was really scrumptious. Brendan and his team construct their version with fresh tuna, cubed like tartare and then barely cooked, mixed with the traditional tuna fish fixins. And grab a refreshing jar of cold iced tea or an Arnold Palmer to go with it. There’s a photo of my sandwich in the slideshow below. It did not stay whole for long. Also, I hear from customers, like regular Whisker and FIU Finance Professor Brad Stark, that Friday’s burger days are not to be missed. Save one for me! Fresh, homemade desserts including blondies, brownies and Brendan’s “famous” key lime pie are a perfect accompaniment for your espresso or latte if you’re craving something sweet to finish the meal.
I spoke with Kristin about family dinners at home growing up, her experience in the industry in D.C. and New York City (where she planned private parties at Tribeca Grill for Myriad Restaurant Group,) and how she and Brendan reconnected in Miami where they were both born and raised, to open Whisk. (They attended Coral Gables High School, just down the street.) Check back tomorrow for the interview!
family meals
March 19th, 2009 § Leave a Comment
We sat down at a cleared, round 8-top in the front of the house. Me in my polyblend tee, skinny jeans, and pumas, and seven chefs in their whites, each looking more different from the next, listening quietly as Chef Allen began the meeting. Tonight there would be a private party of 70 at 8:00 p.m. A la carte tables were booked for 7:00 and 7:30. And, we would have another reality cooking experience. Me. Chef de Cuisine Daniel Serfer, who I would come to know as Danny, went over the details of the menu, who was responsible for prepping what, and before I knew it, I was whisked off to dress the part and get started. Of course, the smallest chef jacket on the rack hung on me just like mom’s clothing when I played dress-up as a little girl. (Thank goodness I wore acceptable shoes.)
Had kind and gentle Allen Susser, the chef with eyes like a bear hug, lost his mind? Only a maniac with an appetite for disaster would bring customers of any level of cooking experience into this mine field of flames and knives. Not so! The experiment actually worked. Really well, in fact. And this is probably the only restaurant kitchen it could ever work in, credit to his staff.
From left to right: me, Chef de Cuisine Danny, Chef Lindsay (who comes from the advertising world, like me) and Pastry Chef Andy, at the completion of my 'chef for a day' experience.
Chef Danny, who lives around the corner and walks pug Bacon on breaks, runs the kitchen and also had the good fortune to land a job as my handler for the afternoon. Like me, he grew up eating at Chef Allen’s, mostly for special occasions, and has seen it evolve over the years since the doors first opened in 1986. Somehow the restaurant has stayed true to its roots and customer base, while at the same time, as Danny notes, “it’s not your grandmother’s Chef Allen’s.” How could it be, with everyone behind the line all under the age of 30?
Dinner service comes together in phases. There is prep, cooking, plating, and the task of dish washing, overlooked by most – except chefs who know better. At Chef Allen’s, Henry, Jacques, and Jimmy execute diligently and without a complaint. This time of day is devoted to prepping the ingredients that will later be used as hot and cold dishes come together on plates. My first task is slicing in half, length-wise the contents of a very large can of olives from Provence. Rather than one at a time, which I proceed to do (quite proudly – and evenly, I might add,) Chef Danny shows me how to lay my hand over a bunch of them and pass a rather large serrated knife horizontally through. First lesson: you are never too good for a mundane task. Second lesson: it is actually not mundane. It took tackling half of the olive container to get a rhythm going. And there were still plenty of rogue olives that escaped the blade. When Chef wasn’t looking, they became snacks, not part of the warm mixed mushroom salad.
How about them olives?
Rock Stars: Rock shrimp make for a tasty shrimp and grits (the base of the dish is in the pan to the right) that Chef Danny brings down from Tallahassee where he attended FSU. And would you believe these pans in the sauce station are only a few months old?
I quickly felt at home inside Chef Allen’s kitchen, learning the most important skill of all — pushing Chef Danny’s buttons by stealing his towels. Chef Lindsay would hand me yummy things to munch on during my prep work like freshly-fried yucca chips from the Ahi Poke appetizer, and romaine lettuce spears dipped in creamy Caesar dressing, gray with anchovies. Pastry Chef Andy surprised me with my own liter bottle of Pellegrino, special treatment that was only topped when I was allowed to trade in my lemon slice-adorned glass for an aluminum container with a straw, like his. Just like a chef. He also dispensed important advice: Don’t eat too much during family meal, when the staff gets together at 4:30 to eat. Today it was his tres leches and fish and chips, but there would be plenty more eating is in store from 5:00 on. At the time, “plenty” didn’t translate to Chef Danny’s exotic bowl of piping hot clams in a broth of sake and bananas, pistachio-crusted Mahi Mahi, rock shrimp and grits with bacon… all for me and enjoyed from behind the counter, with a clean napkin and silverware setup. And Andy’s chocolate, berry and vanilla souffle sampler platter, with bittersweet chocolate sauce, fresh whipped cream and creme Anglaise toppings?
A little Grand Marnier here, a little Creme de Cacao there... and voila.
I worked hard for my indulgences. After the olives, Grill Chef Kyle showed me how to break down par-cooked lobster, whom I met live earlier in the day. It’s not a table-friendly maneuver, but removing the shells works best when you can swing a knife into their backs, cracking down the middle to split the tasty crustaceans in half. They would eventually be broiled with a rich bechamel sauce, cavities cleaned and stuffed with succulent claw and knuckle meat. I took a quick break to get a lesson in stoking the fire inside of the wood burning oven, one exactly like the one Chef Allen used in 1976 while at Le Bristol Hotel in Paris. Chef Kyle showed me how they dry out the wood first in the conventional oven, and then light the logs on the gas range beside it before loading them in.
It was soon time to say goodbye when Chef Allen reemerged. We spoke in the office kitchen about his inspiration for the program, while I gushed about his staff, and thanked him for so graciously inviting me inside his world for an unforgettably fun opportunity. I hope to see Allen, Danny, Andy, Lindsay, Kyle, Samantha, Chris and Henry again soon, both in the front and back of the house. To be the star of your own reality cooking experience email chef@chefallens.com or call 305-935-2900.
Click here for part of my conversation with Chef Allen
And below, to watch Pastry Chef Andy’s stellar folding technique, as he combines beaten egg whites with the vanilla souffle batter base of egg yolk, milk, butter, flour, sugar and vanilla bean:
And my attempt with the chocolate one:
“get thee to a nunnery…”
March 13th, 2009 § 1 Comment
When Hamlet utters these words to Ophelia in the eponymous Shakespearean tragedy, it is interpreted as an expression of his conflicted state, an inner turmoil over a father slain, a revenge plotted and a love uncertain. (Nunneries were once known to operate as both convents and brothels, believe it or not! How’s that for dramatic irony?)
Please rest assured, the intent of my allusion is neither to baffle nor to signal impending doom. There are a few reasons why evoking Shakespeare works to preface this post. Most literally, we’re going to be talking about nuns. And figuratively, like most brilliant works of classical art, this English Master’s plays have stood the test of time, only to grow stronger with age. Especially their power to transport us to the romantic old world of the past in which they are set. Of lords and serfs. Nobles and peasants. Where castles aren’t just relics of a forgotten time to which your travel agent coordinates a visit. It’s where the history of religious orders and their tradition of winemaking first began. And when the vines were first planted. It is in this mindset that I’d like to share what I learned about the Monastero Suore Cistercensi della Carita.
Relatively new to the game, considering the Catholic religion dates back nearly 2,000 years, the Monastero was founded in Vitorchiano just north of Rome in 1709, 93 years after Shakespeare’s death, during the period immediately following the Italian Renaissance, or Rinascimiento. Translated from the convent’s website - yes, they have a website, which put my waning Italian to the test - ”Mother Claudia De Angelis saw the human and spiritual poverty in her city and thought to create a ‘pious place of charity,’ founding the basis for an extraordinary spiritual adventure that lasts until today, with new means and new possibilities, but with a substantial and resolute faith to the past.”
It figures that for Importer Rosenthal Wine Merchant, it has also always been about preserving the time-honored traditions of their suppliers. I spoke on the phone Thursday with Blake Johnson, who has been with Company Founder Neal Rosenthal for 15 years, about the sisters’ wine and how it came to be marketed state side with the help of Area Vintner Giampiero Bea. He also touched on the Importer’s philosophy, of which you can read more in Rosenthal’s new book, Reflections of a Wine Merchant (Amazon, $16.32 when I last checked.) Having read the reviews, I think it would be an excellent read, especially while traveling to the terroir itself – or just dreaming of it while enjoying a glass of one of the nuns’ new releases, now available locally at Sunset Corners.
Click here to listen to how the nuns began bottling their wine
On respecting the land and the product
On the style of the nuns’ wine
2007 Monastero Suore Cistercensi Coenobium ($29.99 a bottle at Sunset Corners)
Grapes: Verdicchio, Grecchetto, Malvasia and Trebbiano
Characteristics: Bright with crisp acidity; dry wine and driven by its minerality; light in color with a pale yellow tint; sturdy and full-bodied, with hints of chamomile and lime blossom.
2007 Monastero Suoro Cistercensi Rusticum 2007 ($39.99 a bottle at Sunset Corners)
Grapes: Blend of 55% Trebbiano, 20% Malvasia, 15% Verdicchio, and 10% Grecchetto
Characteristics: Powerful with lots of character; deep golden color, carries 13.5% alcohol; haunting combination of honey and walnut flavors.
Helpful descriptions courtesy of Michael Bittel of Sunset Corners. Email Michael at mbittel@sunsetcorners.com for more information on the wines and what foods to pair with them, and he will be happy to help you.
