Christmas flights, a two minute warning and running out of space for my NYT!

December 16, 2011 By 10 Comments

Happy Holidays to all of you, from all of us here at Michael Smith and Extra Virgin!! While I am not a huge fan of the cold winter months .. I do love the holidays. This year, I will actually be flying ON Christmas Day! I sure hope I don’t end up on the news in one of those sad Christmastime interviews of people stuck in an airport while the rest of the family celebrates by texting them pictures of the tree and the food.

Speaking of food … I mentioned this in my last blog and since I didn’t get any comments telling me not to … here is the two minute warning … I’m going to blow up some menu items around here. Please understand it is a difficult thing for a chef, when faced with customer reactions ranging from “ho hum” to “How DARE you” … but for me personally keeping the same things on the menu is inhibiting and formulaic. Last chance to tell me which items are “must haves” and I will try to keep some of your favorites alive. I just feel like a hoarder keeping the whole menu intact for any extended period.

I am not a hoarder by the way, in fact I like to throw things away that I have not used in say, a year or so (excluding pictures, mementos and the like)  BUT I will admit, I cannot get myself to throw away the New York Times travel section. I save them for years, telling myself that I am going organize them into files based on location, food and hotel accommodations. No luck so far … maybe this year I’ll resolve to do it.

Hey, I’ve been trying to at least tell you guys about restaurants Nancy and I have tried on our travels and recently we were in Scottsdale, AZ to cook at a private Ghost Horse wine dinner (amazing event, amazing wine BTW). While in town, we found four very cool and hip restaurants for you to try if you happen to head for a little warmer weather. Pizzaria Bianco, Cowboy Ciao, Marcellino’s and Razz’s all get four stars in our book. Fun, great food and wonderful people.

Usually in this space, I vent a little. Rattle off a pet peeve or two fueled by an espresso-charged over-active need to get some stuff off my chest … not this time. It’s the holidays and I feel fine. I absolutely love cooking holiday meals, large and small and like I said, this is one of my favorite times of year … don’t worry, I’ll have a peeve or three for you next time. Until then …

Stay caffeinated!

Chef Michael

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Hey, Old Man Winter … Beat It Already!

November 16, 2011 By 3 Comments

Can I say it without offending? I’m tired of Winter already and it hasn’t even officially arrived! Summer was way too short for me this year … If I don’t have to look at another squash or pumpkin, I’m good with that.

Butternut squashJust kidding, I know you guys all love the warm and hearty soups and sauces made with these autumnal gourds, even if they were never favorites of mine .. I just miss the warm summer breeze, cooking outdoors and the color green. I guess I’ll try to do some tropical destination cooking events soon to warm my bones and make it through the long cold months ahead.

Speaking of getting tired of stuff … I want to blow up the menu at Extra Virgin … it’s hard for a chef when menu items are loved so much that it’s impossible to change them without negative blow back. But I’m feeling hemmed in, so a word of caution .. I may need to blow it up!!!  I’m going for my third shot of espresso now, so I’ll give it more thought and get back to you. Feel free to comment and let me now your thoughts too.

know why I’m missing Summer (while short), we had a very eventful one. We did a private party for singer Sheryl Crow and it was an honor. A small group of 12 and she was so easy to talk to. Beautiful, smart and sexy .. oh and she can sing a bit too, so what’s not to like. We also saw the opening of the Kauffman Performing Arts Center, literally right down the street.

We were featured on both Food Network and The Cooking Channel recently and had a lot of fun doing that. We are also very grateful to all of you for giving us your patronage, spreading the word and helping us stay excited about what we do. We love Kansas City, but I have to give a shout out to a few Chicago Restaurants we tried recently. Belly Shack, Publican, Frontera Grill and Urban Belly …all fun and interesting foods. Check them out if you are in the windy city.

Right here in Kansas City though I was glad to see the Pop-Up Restaurant concept taking hold this Summer as Alex Pope and Jenny Vergara gave it a go. Our wish is for continued success as we love new ideas and concepts that move the cooking process forward.

So anyway, don’t worry, I’ll keep the wood fire hot and the seasonal foods on the table because after all … it’s you guys we do it for and I can’t imagine doing much else than cooking for you. When you’re happy, I’m happy … I’d just be a little happier if Summer would hurry back around.

I’ll end with this … we experienced some sadness recently. I’m sure you are all aware of the death of a close friend of ours, Chef John McClure. I have nothing but heart felt sympathies for his family and extended restaurant family. He cooked like his food…real and honest.  He partied with the best of them. And ironically…I believe he loved life!!  He would be furious with himself over this tragic news. We’ll miss you John.

Until next time … stay caffeinated.

Chef Michael

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Rocking the Vote …

September 23, 2011 By 1 Comment

Olive Oil Chef Michael Smith's Restaurant BlogA semi regular outpouring of Michael Smith’s opinions, peeves and affinities.

Recently I dined at another restaurant in town … yes, we do that too, so don’t feel bad. While there, I overheard a waiter explaining to a customer that the chicken had been sautéed in white wine … now I don’t expect waiters to be chefs, but they should at least be able to master the fundamental basics of food prep explanation. Any thought as to what was wrong with their statement? …. anyone? … anyone? … Yes, you in the back with your hand raised.

Correct!! …(I heard you yelling out the answer) … Sautéeing can only be done in OIL , butter or some other shortening or fat. Cooking it in wine would either be poaching, boiling, blanching or even steaming, but not sautéeing. You know, it’s not always the waiters fault? I must admit, around the country and even locally, I have seen “sautéed” in white wine printed as a descriptor in the menu. I have even seen, “sautéed in marinara sauce” on the menu at a restaurant in Hamilton, New Jersey.

Anyway, enough about sautéeing … Have you noticed there is a lot of voting going on these days online and I must admit, I find it all pretty cool. The Greater Kansas City Bartending Contest was a couple weeks back and our own head bartender, Berto Santoro (he’s from New Jersey by the way) came in second in the people’s vote in all of Greater Kansas City … whatever THAT is.

Then locally The Pitch newspaper put out the “Best of Kansas City” where you vote for best schools, bartenders or churches. Best dry cleaners, car dealers and of course … restaurants. Not sure how we fared, but the voting is over now so we’ll see. We are very much into social media around here these days, it provides us with a wonderful tool for staying in touch with our customers and we love to hear and read feedback about how we can better serve you. But beware … if you tweet or Facebook about me … I may just have to respond!

OK so some of you may know this, but Food Network and The Cooking Channel were in town a few weeks back filming at Extra Virgin for a couple of shows airing Next month. Pretty cool stuff and we had a lot of fun doing it. But both times, the crews were here for about five or six hours while we prepared some food and moved some food and then moved it again, then moved it again, this time slower, next time from a different angle, this time faster etc. etc …. hours and hours of filming, for what I am told will end up being four or five minutes of actual on air time. It’s a lot like cooking I suppose … it takes hours to prep and you guys eat it in a minute and a half.

If you’re interested in watching, check our Facebook page occasionally because when we know the exact air time and dates, we’ll post it there. And if you were in the restaurant the day they were filming, who knows? Maybe you didn’t end up on the cutting room floor … no guarantees though, so don’t call your agent just yet.

One last thing … we are having a wine dinner next week that will feature some old favorites (of course, I’ll mess around with them a little) but Shrimp Cocktail, Wedge Salad, Duck A L’Orange, Steak Diane and Baked Apple Pie will be paired with six amazing wines as we celebrate 40 years of Dick Wilson spinning classic hits on 94.9 KCMO – We’re calling it Wine Down Wednesday with Dick Wilson and by the time this posts there may or may not be any seats left, so call and ask, we’d love to see you. Bon Appétit!

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Say Cheese …

September 13, 2011 By 4 Comments

A semi regular outpouring of Michael Smith’s opinions, peeves and affinities. Say Cheese Cheese from Michael Smith Restaurant

I love it when I see people smile. Especially if it’s in one of our restaurants. I try to get around and visit with my guests when I’m allowed out of the kitchen and I must admit, I’m attracted like a moth to flame to a friendly smile … so when you see me coming, say CHEESE!

Speaking of cheese and you know if you have read my blogs before, I always have a pet peeve or two to get off my chest … This one is another mispronunciation peeve.

Mascarpone is a commonly used cheese in the restaurant business. It is an Italian cheese made from crème fraîche, denatured with tartaric, citric or acetic acid. You can actually make your own mascarpone by using cream and tartaric or citric acid, or even lemon juice.

It is most often recognized as the main ingredient in modern tiramisu. But for heaven’s sake people … it is MAS-CAR-PONE … not MAR-SCA-PONE … your Italian teacher would be rolling in her grave … So let’s all have an ESS-PRESSO with some TIRA-ME-SOO and Mascarpone … that’ll make me smile for sure.

So, in case you have been away for a while, or just haven’t noticed that behemoth of a structure rising from the earth just northeast of us at 1601 Broadway … take a look at the new Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts! You can actually see it from the restaurant and what a beautiful addition to the Kansas City skyline. We couldn’t be more happy that it’s finally going to open on September 18th .. in fact we’re so happy with our new Crossroads neighbor that even though it’s a Sunday, we’re going to be open from 11:00am to 8:00pm so stop in for a bite either before or after you tour the new PAC.

One more peeve while I’m at it … Ice cold salad plates and forks from the freezer. I mean, I get it, the sentiment anyway … salad is served cold, but how long does a restaurant think the plate and fork stay cold once taken out of the freezer? I’ll tell you it’s a lot less time that it takes you to eat your salad, rendering the sentiment useless. Lettuces and other vegetables should not be served ice cold anyway … a room temperature tomato has a lot more flavor than one from the refrigerator. So as we used to say in the 70’s … Cool it Man! … Cool it … just don’t chill it. That way you can keep this chef from boiling over .. check please.

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Gasoline, Light Bulbs, Bartending and Sauces … a few things to get off my chest.

March 30, 2011 By 2 Comments

A semi regular outpouring of Michael Smith’s opinions, peeves and affinities.
chef michael smithSo I’m reading and hearing all over that gas is going to $5.00 a gallon by this Summer and it kinda bummed me out. Of course, organic extra virgin Olive Oil is $135.00 a gallon, a 2005 Merry Edwards Pinot Noir is $403.73 per delicious gallon and Nancy’s favorite perfume is $4,287.50 a gallon. It’s just that we seem to hate the thought of paying so much for something we actually need.

Speaking of need, I think I need a sixth finger on each hand or hands like ET (the Extra Terrestrial). Let me explain. It’s really cool to have an interior designer create a great space for you, like here at Michael Smith and Extra Virgin, specifically the interesting and unique lighting. We get comments all the time on how great it looks. But let me tell you … when the light bulbs burn out in these awesome fixtures, it is expensive. And not only do they have to be purchased at a specialty lighting store, but they are hard if not impossible to change out if you are a cook like me and not an electrical engineer or mechanic.

While I’d sure like to be able to swap out my light bulbs a little easier, I think I’ll stick to cooking. Although lately I have been thinking that I’d like to bar-tend. Bartenders look like they have so much fun. They get to stand behind a “dividing line” and hold court. I would love to mix it up sometime without getting into the weeds too much. I want to be helpful not a hindrance … and I think it would be cool to create some drinks and develop a great bar night EVENT. Do I need to go to Bartending School???

Finally for this edition of my Espresso Rant … my pet peeve. This one is about my own industry and my fellow chefs. Chefs who reduce wine to make sauces, but don’t let it reduce all the way down to a syrup … thus creating that irreplaceable flavor that is otherwise impossible to achieve.

I realize that some chefs only reduce the wine half way because they are trying to the reserve the volume of the sauce. Of course, reducing wine in a sauce all the way to nothing but syrup is costly … but it has to be about flavor not cost. A properly reduced wine sauce will produce an intense, rich flavor that will actually require you to use less anyway, but the difference in taste, texture and aroma are worth the slightly more expensive reduction.
IMHO (that’s, In My Humble Opinion, for you cats that don’t text much).

Until next time, stay caffeinated.

Chef Michael

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Chef Michael’s Espresso Rant

February 23, 2011 By 9 Comments

A semi regular outpouring of Michael Smith’s opinions, peeves and affinities.

First, let me explain. I am often accused of being temperamental, high strung or wound a little tight. To a certain degree, I will admit that some things make my blood a little warmer than usual. I am creative (thank you mother), concerned and passionate about a great many things. I live, I love, I contemplate and I am fueled by a desire to share my passion for great taste, locally procured food and the vintner’s labor.

Those close to me would tell you that when stimulated by my second favorite beverage … espresso, my passion is especially fine tuned. To that end, I will always try to be at that peak caffeinated performance when penning future blog posts. My rant posts if you will, may be about something bothering me at city hall, a pet peeve or a national injustice, but rest assured, I will feel better once I get it off my chest.

As an example, I recently purchased some new tables for my restaurant and while my well trained, professional staff were preparing for another day, I spent a little time assembling the aforementioned furniture. The instructions were clear and simple. Align tab A with hole B and attach A to B using the provided self tapping screws. The problem here was that the screws provided were not only NOT self tapping, they were wood screws!

Not a huge deal I know, but in my espresso amped state, stripping the heads off a few screws provided for a more than lively morning. What should have been a simple task, now involved a time consuming trip to the hardware store. A simple packing error on somebody’s part sent my blood pressure up the scale, my temper into another dimension and my desire for another espresso into overdrive.

Speaking of espresso … Here’s a pet peeve. There is no “x” in espresso. It is not Expresso, although I hear it ordered as such all the time and that just makes me want another cup! Mispronunciations aside, today I want to raise the bar and tell you how to take espresso over the top. How? You may ask. Well, if like me you are an espresso aficionado, it is time for you to seek out the next level of the barista’s art … the ristretto shot.

The ristretto shot of espresso is one of the most fiercely debated topics amongst the coffee cognoscenti.  It is without doubt, the purists pour.  The finest art of espresso extraction, it defies the “Venti” coffee drinker mentality. It is like sipping ice wine at a “yard of ale” drinking contest.

French author and aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupery said, In anything at all, perfection is finally attained not when there is no longer anything to add, but when there is no longer anything to take away … Antoine would have drunk ristretto shots.

The standard shot of espresso is 1oz, not including crema.  Unless otherwise requested this should be the default volume served in all espresso based drinks. To extract a true ristretto shot of .75 oz of liquid in less than 25 seconds however, requires an adjustment to the grinder. This adjustment is not realistic in all but a handful of cafes, but worth asking for. It can also be achieved by an especially aggressive packing of the espresso in the basket.  It should be noted that the preparation of a ristretto shot is highly debated with no definitive answers, least of all from this writer.  The above guideline is one of only many “right” ways to prepare a ristretto shot.  A lazy man’s ristretto shot is as simple as pulling the cup out from under the pour when only .75 oz of liquid has run through.  But unless you want to see how easy it is for me to lose my cool, please don’t be lazy. I am after all, temperamental and I just had my third shot.

Until next time … stay caffeinated.

Chef Michael

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