Blog
The Picture Says It All | October 10 2011
My cousin sent this to me. It made me laugh. Thanks cuz.
Chef Series with Frank Parhizgar | October 8 2011
How do you know Roger?
We met at George Brown, I think almost 10 years ago and it was second year where we ended met. There was a whole class of aspiring chefs but you could really spot the chefs that had passion, you knew they were going to be there for the long term and Roger was one of them. Roger took a huge risk, he was a successful artist and changed his career to something completely different and I identified with him. It was a new start for me as well, I wasn't interested in cooking, it happened by accident. I decided to pursue it to it's fullest and educate myself about culinary techniques and theory and that's where we met.
And how did your interest in cooking happen by accident?
I was an athlete. I ran track and field, 400-meter hurdles. I used to travel Europe, going from city to city like a tennis player, following the tournaments and trying to compete and trying to get better. In between seasons I used to come back to Canada and save up money. One of the years I decided I wasn't going to come back. It was in between the outdoor season and the indoor season and I decided to get a job. It really happened by accident, I had no intentions to be a chef or cook or anything, but I found this fantastic place, a chateau in France, with lots of rolling hills. I was thinking if I could get a job here, it would be great, I could exercise here, use what was around me, get myself back in shape, get some money. I thought, I'm already here, I don't have to spend another $2000 on flights. The money could go towards cheap motels where I could stay and wait for the next tournament to start. So I went in, asking for a job and they literally told me f*** off. I wasn't a trained chef, no culinary background, no idea. It's like going to a mechanic and just saying I want to be a mechanic, I had no clue. But I finally managed to be a pest enough and not get rejected, and got the job. So when I started, they wanted to teach me a few lessons. They would say, you see the stacks of potatoes, take them down to the cellar. And these are old Parisian buildings, where the steps are tiny and there are hundreds of them. I had to take the potatoes, put them on my back and go down these stairs and then for fun I would do squats and they would be like who is this guy? But for me it was physical exercise, it was fantastic. And I would do it faster than any of the other apprentices and better than any other apprentices. But I was a prep there and as a prep you come in, clean the restaurant, help with the prep, peel the potatoes and when the chefs were done at night you would stay there and clean the entire kitchen from top to bottom. Every time I would finish my task I would go to the head chef and the chef would get so angry with me because I wasn't following the chain of commands. So, I would finish at 1:00-2:00 in the morning and as punishment the chef would say, you come tomorrow at 4:00 am and I thought great! More exercise! They could not understand. So at 4 in the morning I would come and they would think okay, this time we are going to break this guy, he's going to leave. But this was a time when you saw all the butchers, the bread bakers, the guys that would smoke the fish, butchering all the fish and you saw everything from scratch. That was it, I fell in love with it. So I would help prep, but I had no knife skills. I would be cutting things and bleeding and they would say faster, faster! Putting pressure on me, but I was directly with the chef, with the coach and all of a sudden, I accelerated a lot quicker by being directly there and I guess somehow they started to take a liking to me. And one important thing I learned about kitchens, is that the person who knows where everything is, is very valuable. So when service would start, even though they were main chefs, they wouldn't know where the ingredients were and I would know where it was. I put them away from morning to night, and I just got more involved, more efficient, you move up, you learn. And that's how I fell in love with it, it consumed me so much. That team atmosphere, the sights, the smells, the art of it, it all made sense, for me it was a perfect transition into it.
What do you want people to feel when they leave Frank's Kitchen?
Well when we opened up, we had one goal in mind and that was just a dining experience. I mean I'm a huge fan of our industry, huge fan. I love dining. I married my wife who is also in this industry. We talk about it, we live it, we work together and one of my favourite things is planning vacations around it. We love the people, the culture, it's like a religion. So when we were opening, our goal was just to have a good restaurant and to have a dining experience that includes everything in people's imagination of their past experiences of their favourite restaurants and what made them fall in love with that restaurant. We are still based on the classics, but I also took inspirations from my time in France, Italy, and New York, where I was mentored by some of the top chefs. All these things come together, along with my wife's personality. We realized it's possible to have fine dining in a casual atmosphere. There is no snobbery about it. It doesn't matter if you're somebody or nobody, you're still VIP here.
What do the ingredients you use say about your personality?
Well it's definitely a cross between French and Italian for the techniques. But for the ingredients, they are the same normal ingredients that you would get at any store, like from the Kensington Market. The only thing that we concentrate on here more is the craftsmanship of it. I really believe that as a chef, you are in the trades, just like a carpenter or a welder. You need to have craftsmanship in your work. It's more of a workshop here then anything else. You can make artisan bread that looks unique, like a picture out of a book, hot and steaming, just the way it's suppose to be. And when you put butter on it, it should melt. Those basic fundamentals. You can do different things with your vegetables, making shapes out of them, turning them into half moons, just being playful. Those are craftsmanship. It doesn't have to be so esoteric. I mean we have never opened a box of pasta here, not that that is something to brag about, but if you want to have a simple dish like penne ala vodka, you better make the penne. In France, they are not embarrassed about feeding you something very simple. They will say, this is it, we can do better, but this is who I am and that's it.
What unlikely inspirations do you have for your cooking?
Well right now I feel inspiration from my childhood, growing up with my mom, my family. I'm from Iran, so family cooking is so influential and so is the whole family atmosphere. My mom would cook rustic and simple dishes, something fried with chicken or stews with rice. Rice was huge in our family, lots of herbs and salads. The personality and atmosphere that comes from that, I try to capture that. Love was a huge inspiration for this place. Also, another unlikely inspiration is when you see a really great movie. I was working at a restaurant where this one guy had gone and seen a movie called The Usual Suspect, which looked like garbage to me, but this person was so convinced that it was the best movie he had ever seen, he was like, "Man! You gotta go see it! I can't tell you a thing about it! But I'm telling you, go see it!" So eventually I decided to see it. And after I saw it I was like, man! What a great movie! So then I come to work and tell all the coworkers, "You know that guy, that was talking about that movie? It was a great movie! I can't tell you a thing about it, but you gotta go see it!" That is something that inspires me to have in a restaurant. Where people leave and they're like, man, I gotta tell ya, I went to this restaurant, I can't describe it to you, there's nothing special about the place, it's not trendy or posh, the food is simple dishes, but there's something about it that's worth going, you got to go to this restaurant, you gotta give it a shot. That has been our success and that has been an inspiration for us. We want to capture that essence in a restaurant, the complete essence of a restaurant. Our inspiration is a really basic philosophy; we just want people to have a good time.
If you weren't a chef, what would you be doing right now?
Wow, I would be a fashion designer. I think it's a similar field. You get to put a little bit of your personality, your culture, you point of perspective into your designs, just like food. I think fashion and cooking are also very similar to music. When you're having a romantic dinner your not playing Metallica, that doesn't make sense to the mood. They are all connected, the craftsmanship and art of it. I would have gone into fashion, I think I would have been good at it.
What is soul food to you?
Everything can be soul food. We try to do soul food here. But it has to do with craftsmanship and art. You have to have a certain personality, take a risk and put your personality in your dish, that is part of your soul. The experiences I had growing up, they are also in my food. More importantly, having control and restraint in your dishes. To have restraint requires a certain amount of boldness, confidence and there's a form of sexiness and elegance to it. There is more to imagine. You can throw a lot of luxury items on a plate and make anything taste good, but if your able to do it with elegance and restraint and just let the flavours shine through, when you bring the essence out of the ingredients, then that is when you have soul food.
One Day Soon | October 7 2011
Listening to this right now. Futuristic Blues.
• IanKamau.com
Heat Seekers Charleston TONIGHT on Food Network Canada | October 6 2011
If you have never been to Charleston then there are a few things that you should know about:
- The ratio of women to men is 5:1
- Many women leave this town for greener pastures
- Many men dont
- It is near the a large body of water and they are freaky for Oysters there
- You can ride a white horse drawn carriage any time of day
- Also known as the Low Country and Im still not sure why
- The ratio of women to men is 5:1
Enjoy this episode, its a good one.
• Click HERE for more info on this episode
Where Were You When This Happened? | October 5 2011
RIP
Chef Series with Frank Parhizgar | October 8 2011
We met at George Brown, I think almost 10 years ago and it was second year where we ended met. There was a whole class of aspiring chefs but you could really spot the chefs that had passion, you knew they were going to be there for the long term and Roger was one of them. Roger took a huge risk, he was a successful artist and changed his career to something completely different and I identified with him. It was a new start for me as well, I wasn't interested in cooking, it happened by accident. I decided to pursue it to it's fullest and educate myself about culinary techniques and theory and that's where we met.
And how did your interest in cooking happen by accident?
I was an athlete. I ran track and field, 400-meter hurdles. I used to travel Europe, going from city to city like a tennis player, following the tournaments and trying to compete and trying to get better. In between seasons I used to come back to Canada and save up money. One of the years I decided I wasn't going to come back. It was in between the outdoor season and the indoor season and I decided to get a job. It really happened by accident, I had no intentions to be a chef or cook or anything, but I found this fantastic place, a chateau in France, with lots of rolling hills. I was thinking if I could get a job here, it would be great, I could exercise here, use what was around me, get myself back in shape, get some money. I thought, I'm already here, I don't have to spend another $2000 on flights. The money could go towards cheap motels where I could stay and wait for the next tournament to start. So I went in, asking for a job and they literally told me f*** off. I wasn't a trained chef, no culinary background, no idea. It's like going to a mechanic and just saying I want to be a mechanic, I had no clue. But I finally managed to be a pest enough and not get rejected, and got the job. So when I started, they wanted to teach me a few lessons. They would say, you see the stacks of potatoes, take them down to the cellar. And these are old Parisian buildings, where the steps are tiny and there are hundreds of them. I had to take the potatoes, put them on my back and go down these stairs and then for fun I would do squats and they would be like who is this guy? But for me it was physical exercise, it was fantastic. And I would do it faster than any of the other apprentices and better than any other apprentices. But I was a prep there and as a prep you come in, clean the restaurant, help with the prep, peel the potatoes and when the chefs were done at night you would stay there and clean the entire kitchen from top to bottom. Every time I would finish my task I would go to the head chef and the chef would get so angry with me because I wasn't following the chain of commands. So, I would finish at 1:00-2:00 in the morning and as punishment the chef would say, you come tomorrow at 4:00 am and I thought great! More exercise! They could not understand. So at 4 in the morning I would come and they would think okay, this time we are going to break this guy, he's going to leave. But this was a time when you saw all the butchers, the bread bakers, the guys that would smoke the fish, butchering all the fish and you saw everything from scratch. That was it, I fell in love with it. So I would help prep, but I had no knife skills. I would be cutting things and bleeding and they would say faster, faster! Putting pressure on me, but I was directly with the chef, with the coach and all of a sudden, I accelerated a lot quicker by being directly there and I guess somehow they started to take a liking to me. And one important thing I learned about kitchens, is that the person who knows where everything is, is very valuable. So when service would start, even though they were main chefs, they wouldn't know where the ingredients were and I would know where it was. I put them away from morning to night, and I just got more involved, more efficient, you move up, you learn. And that's how I fell in love with it, it consumed me so much. That team atmosphere, the sights, the smells, the art of it, it all made sense, for me it was a perfect transition into it.
What do you want people to feel when they leave Frank's Kitchen?
Well when we opened up, we had one goal in mind and that was just a dining experience. I mean I'm a huge fan of our industry, huge fan. I love dining. I married my wife who is also in this industry. We talk about it, we live it, we work together and one of my favourite things is planning vacations around it. We love the people, the culture, it's like a religion. So when we were opening, our goal was just to have a good restaurant and to have a dining experience that includes everything in people's imagination of their past experiences of their favourite restaurants and what made them fall in love with that restaurant. We are still based on the classics, but I also took inspirations from my time in France, Italy, and New York, where I was mentored by some of the top chefs. All these things come together, along with my wife's personality. We realized it's possible to have fine dining in a casual atmosphere. There is no snobbery about it. It doesn't matter if you're somebody or nobody, you're still VIP here.
What do the ingredients you use say about your personality?
Well it's definitely a cross between French and Italian for the techniques. But for the ingredients, they are the same normal ingredients that you would get at any store, like from the Kensington Market. The only thing that we concentrate on here more is the craftsmanship of it. I really believe that as a chef, you are in the trades, just like a carpenter or a welder. You need to have craftsmanship in your work. It's more of a workshop here then anything else. You can make artisan bread that looks unique, like a picture out of a book, hot and steaming, just the way it's suppose to be. And when you put butter on it, it should melt. Those basic fundamentals. You can do different things with your vegetables, making shapes out of them, turning them into half moons, just being playful. Those are craftsmanship. It doesn't have to be so esoteric. I mean we have never opened a box of pasta here, not that that is something to brag about, but if you want to have a simple dish like penne ala vodka, you better make the penne. In France, they are not embarrassed about feeding you something very simple. They will say, this is it, we can do better, but this is who I am and that's it.
What unlikely inspirations do you have for your cooking?
Well right now I feel inspiration from my childhood, growing up with my mom, my family. I'm from Iran, so family cooking is so influential and so is the whole family atmosphere. My mom would cook rustic and simple dishes, something fried with chicken or stews with rice. Rice was huge in our family, lots of herbs and salads. The personality and atmosphere that comes from that, I try to capture that. Love was a huge inspiration for this place. Also, another unlikely inspiration is when you see a really great movie. I was working at a restaurant where this one guy had gone and seen a movie called The Usual Suspect, which looked like garbage to me, but this person was so convinced that it was the best movie he had ever seen, he was like, "Man! You gotta go see it! I can't tell you a thing about it! But I'm telling you, go see it!" So eventually I decided to see it. And after I saw it I was like, man! What a great movie! So then I come to work and tell all the coworkers, "You know that guy, that was talking about that movie? It was a great movie! I can't tell you a thing about it, but you gotta go see it!" That is something that inspires me to have in a restaurant. Where people leave and they're like, man, I gotta tell ya, I went to this restaurant, I can't describe it to you, there's nothing special about the place, it's not trendy or posh, the food is simple dishes, but there's something about it that's worth going, you got to go to this restaurant, you gotta give it a shot. That has been our success and that has been an inspiration for us. We want to capture that essence in a restaurant, the complete essence of a restaurant. Our inspiration is a really basic philosophy; we just want people to have a good time.
If you weren't a chef, what would you be doing right now?
Wow, I would be a fashion designer. I think it's a similar field. You get to put a little bit of your personality, your culture, you point of perspective into your designs, just like food. I think fashion and cooking are also very similar to music. When you're having a romantic dinner your not playing Metallica, that doesn't make sense to the mood. They are all connected, the craftsmanship and art of it. I would have gone into fashion, I think I would have been good at it.
What is soul food to you?
Everything can be soul food. We try to do soul food here. But it has to do with craftsmanship and art. You have to have a certain personality, take a risk and put your personality in your dish, that is part of your soul. The experiences I had growing up, they are also in my food. More importantly, having control and restraint in your dishes. To have restraint requires a certain amount of boldness, confidence and there's a form of sexiness and elegance to it. There is more to imagine. You can throw a lot of luxury items on a plate and make anything taste good, but if your able to do it with elegance and restraint and just let the flavours shine through, when you bring the essence out of the ingredients, then that is when you have soul food.
One Day Soon | October 7 2011
• IanKamau.com
Heat Seekers Charleston TONIGHT on Food Network Canada | October 6 2011
- The ratio of women to men is 5:1
- Many women leave this town for greener pastures
- Many men dont
- It is near the a large body of water and they are freaky for Oysters there
- You can ride a white horse drawn carriage any time of day
- Also known as the Low Country and Im still not sure why
- The ratio of women to men is 5:1
Enjoy this episode, its a good one.
• Click HERE for more info on this episode
Where Were You When This Happened? | October 5 2011
