Coming Soon: Beautiful Breast of Lamb

Metaphorically Speaking

Wow, it's been three days since my last post, and six days since my last video, and that my friends, is a new Food Wishes record. That's how insane the schedule's been working on the show down here in Los Angeles.

Not only haven't I had much time to film, but I also haven't had any time to visit with my SoCal food blogger buddies, which means I haven't been going to any fabulous restaurants. However, I did have a very nice Korean lunch on Friday, at a place next to our office called, Genwa, where I filmed this 100% cotton-based excuse for a lame metaphor. 

Right about now, I feel exactly like those tightly wound wads of gauze, desperate to be soaked with lots of clean, warm time. I'll be back in San Francisco Tuesday, and I can't wait to get wet! Stay tuned!

What is the Opposite of Meatless Mondays?

This is "Meat Salad" from the YouTube channel, Epic Meal Time. I would LOVE to know what you think. Enjoy! UPDATE: We have an official Vegan response video below!

Back By Popular Demand…The Secret Underwater Pomegranate Trick

I already ran this video demo a long time ago, but when my mother sent me a photo of some “Sweetheart” pomegranates (below right), I thought it would be perfect timing to rerun this clip since this is pomegranate season. By the way, I had never seen a non-red pomegranate before, but she reports the insides are as red and delicious as the traditional varieties. This is a short, but hopefully useful demo for how to remove all those pomegranate kernels without making a big mess. These are great on any fall/winter salads or soups, and of course desserts.
Photo credit, top left, © divenmisscopa

George Clooney Update

Many of you may have been wondering what Clooney has been up to since he lost his gig as my online sidebar avatar. I’m sorry to report the news is not good. Apparently he took the dismissal much harder than anyone could have imagined. For those of you that are new to this blog, George served as a celebrity look-a-like for my profile photo for many months (you can see him pictured below during happier times). Once my secret identity was made public by About.com, I replaced Mr. Clooney’s photo with my own, and told him that his services would no longer be needed. At the time he sounded fine with it, and said he still would like to “stay friends.” We’ve all heard that one before.

Anyway, my Hollywood sources tell me that since he was removed from the site, he has really let himself go. As you can see from the photo, he has gained about 50 pounds, and friends say he basically lives on hot dogs, chocolate Pop-tarts, and root beer. George, if you are reading this, please get a hold of yourself! You still have the movie career, and all those beautiful women, and all that money. You’re going to be okay. You just need to move on.

Testing, 1, 2, Testing

Blogger recently added the feature of uploading video directly into these posts. So I thought I would test it out with an older, low-res, yet still incredibly delicious chicken recipe I previously posted using the standard YouTube embed. I'm curious if there is a big difference in quality. The other obvious advantage is I could post videos that would only be available to visitors of this blog, since I could avoid the need to upload to video sharing sites first, just to get the flash embed code.

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, don't feel bad, I'm not that sure either. Anyway, we are basically comparing the two clips. Any and all input is welcome, especially from tech nerds.

Here is the blogger video upload of The "Ultimate" Roast Chicken at same size as the YouTube version:


Here is the regular YouTube flash embed of the same clip:


Here is the blogger video upload of The "Ultimate" Roast Chicken:


Well, so what do you think?

A Celebrity Chef’s Worst Enemy? David Letterman!

For this weekend’s filler clip I’m posting this very amusing bit of video from the David Letterman show, featuring Jamie Oliver. I’m a big Jamie Oliver fan. I like his simple approach and real enthusiasm (unlike many TV Chef’s who just turn on the passion for the camera). Famous Chefs have been going on Letterman for years to plug books, shows, new restaurants, etc., and they all have basically the same experience; as they are trying to cook their signature dish, Mr. Letterman is goofing around, asking bizarre questions to distract them, drinking olive oil, pretending to burn or cut himself, and generally doing everything possible to prevent the poor Chef from finishing his or her dish properly.

It’s basically a running gag by now, and several Chefs will no longer appear on the show for fear of being made to look like a fool again. Well, Jamie Oliver does a great job in this clip of holding it all together. He actually keeps Letterman under control (sort of), finishes the dish (which looked great), got his plug in for the Children’s School Lunch Program he was involved in, and, my personal favorite part of the demo, tells guest Tom Cruise “to be a man.” By the way the dish he was making was a Thai noodle dish that translated to “Fairy Purse.” Insert your own joke here. Enjoy!

Hello World! It’s me, Chef John…the man behind the hands

I knew this day would eventually come. I realized I couldn’t hide behind George Clooney’s photoshop’d photo forever. When I first start filming and posting cooking videos on the internet about a year ago, I made the decision to never appear on camera. I wanted to be the anti-Food Network Chef, which seemed to be more and more about the Chef, and less and less about the food and the cooking. I also found that most of the amateur cooking videos people were posting looked like audition reels for Hell’s Kitchen. So, since I wasn’t going to appear in the videos, I decided I would just remain completely anonymous. I liked that people would email asking for pictures of me. I liked being mysterious (I had never been mysterious before).

So, why show myself now? I have too. I have recently been contracted to do some “professional” cooking videos for several online outlets (to be named later), and as part of the production I must be seen introducing the recipes. Since I knew it would only be a matter of time before one of my blog visitors saw me on one of these other sites and recognized my sultry voice and nimble fingers, I decided to out myself today.

By the way, just because I’m now using my real photo on the blog, the video recipes will not change. I will still never appear in the recipes, mugging for the camera nor doing puppet shows with an oven mitt. I will not deviate from my original vision of what these videos should be about…the food.

My Favorite Food Network Star – Alton Brown

When people hear I’m a Chef (or at least that I play one on the internet), they always ask the same two questions. What kind of food do you cook? And, who’s your favorite TV Chef? The first question’s one I can never answer, since I cook everything I can get my hands on. I never understand that first question, and usually give some smart-ass response like, “edible foods” or “the kind you buy at the market.” The second question is easy; Alton Brown. His sense of humor, his entertaining delivery, and his scientific (yet simple) approach to food is what really makes me such a big fan. Besides, his jokes and puns are almost as bad as mine!

Here is a short, and I think inspirational, interview he did on the Big Idea recently. It’s an interesting look behind the man and his show, Good Eats. Enjoy.

The One That Got Away

This is what an artichoke looks like when it somehow eludes the Chef's clippers and gets to flower. These delicious “vegetables” are nothing more than the large flowering buds of a thistle plant (Cynara scolymus). It is not uncommon in San Francisco to see them planted as ornamentals. I’m not sure if “pretty” is the right adjective; “interesting” is probably more like it. Personally, I prefer mine much younger, and served with a garlic aioli.

Roasted Pork Tenderloin with Balsamic Glazed Peaches – A Perfect Pairing in 2 Parts

Ahh, the perfectly ripe peach. My momentary guilt for not just eating it raw was quickly forgotten as soon as I tasted this amazing sweet and savory summer combo. By the way, this was filmed last summer before I even thought about wearing a Chef coat while shooting (thanks mom). So, that’s me in the lime green Polo shirt cooking this truly delicious recipe. This was one of the first recipes I ever filmed for the web (insert standard lower video quality disclaimer here), and it’s still one of my favorites. This was actually posted here back in May, when I converted a bunch of older clips over to this blog, but since peaches weren't in season yet, I doubt too many people payed much attention.

Everything on this plate works so well together, and it’s also a very easy recipe with just a few ingredients. While I used a fresh, ripe peach, jarred or canned halves will work in a pinch. This juicy fruit is first caramelized with aged balsamic vinegar and then used in a salad sitting next to sliced, roasted pork tenderloin. As you’ll hear in the recipe I refer to another meat trimming demo (how to trim a butcher steak), as I remove the “silver-skin” from the tenderloins. Don’t bother looking around the site for that, as it no longer exists, although I plan re-shooting that one soon. I also prepare a very simple pan sauce to finish this amazing dish. This recipe demo is broken into 2 parts because of its length. In Part 1, we make our glazed balsamic peaches, and prep our pork tenderloin. We also “bruise” some rosemary …hey, that fragrant rosemary had it coming! In Part 2, we finish the pork, make our pan sauce, and “plate up” with our glazed peaches and salad. If you’ve only used peaches for summertime desserts, give this a try. You will think about our fuzzy friends in a whole new way. Enjoy!

Part 1:


Part 2:


Ingredients:
whole pork tenderloin (not loin)
3-4 rosemary sprigs
Black pepper and salt to taste
2 fresh peaches
2 tbl butter
2 tbl aged balsamic vinegar
1 clove garlic
olive oil
mixed greens
slice of toast to garnish

Note: If you are using fresh peaches make sure you get the "freestone" variety, not the "clingstone.” For more info on the difference, click this link to wikipedia.

Food Wishes - The Highest Ranked Blog in the World!!

That’s right, and the screen shot I took of the Technorati blog ranking stats proves it! Part of my usual weekend site admin duties is going over to Technorati to check my blog’s rank. You can imagine my excitement when I realized I was now the author of the top ranked blog in the world. Well, that didn’t take long. I guess I better call my broker and begin discussing my IPO.

The blog has been climbing steadily in rank ever since I first began tracking these statistics a few months ago. Back then, Food Wishes was ranked like 120,000th. At first, I was kind of depressed that after all the hard work I hadn’t even cracked the top hundred thousand blogs. But when I saw that the total number of tracked blogs was an amazing 71 million I felt a lot better, since that put me well within the top 1%. Last week when I checked I had climbed to the 70,000th ranked blog. So, I figured at that rate of ascent it was only a matter of time before I took over the top spot. I just didn’t think I would pass 70,000 blogs in one week.

Well, much to my chagrin, I soon found out that Technorati was doing some type of site maintenance and that every blog in the world was given the top ranking for a few minutes. When they finished their work I saw my real rank; a respectable and still rapidly climbing 60,930. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.

This is What Happened to the Other Half of the Pie Dough

It was rolled out and filled with a pint of fresh blueberries. They were mixed with just the right amounts of sugar, cornstarch, and cinnamon. The dough was folded up and around, covering some berries, while leaving others exposed to be dotted with small pieces of butter. A light sprinkling of sugar rained down, and in the oven it went. After being baked golden, in a 33 cent pie tin, it was served with vanilla ice cream and my family. It was almost transferred to a pretty plate to be photographed, but that just didn’t seem right. Enjoy!

Is “The Simpsons” the most delicious television show ever?

Yes, it is. As most of you know the Simpsons movie is premiering next week. If you don’t know, you don’t have a television, since the trailers have been running non-stop for 3 months. I am a huge Simpsons fan, and I can’t think of another television show that has discussed, parodied (D’oh! I should have said “skewered,” then I could have said, “both literally and figuratively”), and celebrated food as much as The Simpsons. I don’t think anyone keeps statistics about these things, but there must be more food references per minute of air time on this show than another other show ever produced. After an exhaustive 20 minute search of YouTube, I found a few of my favorite foodie moments. So, grab a doughnut and enjoy!

Homer really likes bacon (and so do I).


If a Chef only got to use one animal for the rest of their career which would they choose? It’s not even close.


Since it is Sunday, I thought I should post one clip devoted to the power of prayer.


Sorry Takeru Kobayashi, but competitive eating is NOT a sport. But, in this clip it sure is funny.


In case you don’t know how to pronounce “Chowder.”


The greatest theme restaurant parody ever!


My sister Valerie is a cop, so this is my favorite Simpsons food clip of all time.

Partly Cloudy with a Chance of Soup

Whenever I get to travel back east in the summer I’m reminded how lucky we San Franciscans are to enjoy such amazingly pleasant weather. We just don’t get many of those hot and humid days that I’ve heard referred to as “the air you wear.” Our cool, grey city, with is natural air conditioning, always welcomes you with a breath of fresh air. While not as foggy a city as its reputation would have one believe, we do get a good layer of fog, especially as the sun goes down in the summer. Most of the time, however, we are treated to mild temperatures and clear blue skies. And that’s why the picture of the beautiful, puffy cloud in today’s post (the other reason for the cloud photo will be explained shortly). This photo was taken near my Mom’s home in Clifton Springs. It is very rare to see such big, tall, shapely clouds like this in San Francisco. Our skies come in three basic styles; blue and completely cloudless, blue with thin little wisps of clouds, or the thin layer of grey fog I already mentioned. That’s pretty much it. In fact, the first time I brought my wife Michele back to meet the parents; she noticed (and fell in love with) these impressive looking clouds right away.

Anyway, today’s video is a re-run of my wonton soup recipe that I posted back in March. One translation of “wonton” means “swallowing clouds” and has always been one of my favorite all-time food translations (and properly made a very accurate one). I’m also having the family over today and wonton soup is on the menu! I’ll be doing it with ground turkey instead of the pork you’ll see in the recipe clip. I’ll just post the video below, but if you click on this link you can go to the original post to get the ingredients and full article. Enjoy!

What did people watch before FoodTV?

I found this clip on YouTube this week and thought it would give some of you a nice, nostalgic chuckle. By the way, I was one of those guys that took Home Economics in high school instead of Shop class. It wasn’t really because I wanted to be a cook at that point; it was more a choice between making hot chocolate chip cookies, or bird feeders and ash trays. Also, I was 15 at the time, and the Home-Ec class had 15 girls and 3 guys, while the Shop class had 15 guys and 3 girls. You do the math.

Anyway, we watched many of these “instructional films” made in the fifties (actually this one was made in 1949). I always found them strangely mesmerizing in a slightly disturbing, hypnotic sort of way. It was probably all the subliminal anti-communist messages they spliced in between the frames. Enjoy!

Fresh Strawberries and a New Camera

It's my birthday on July 11th, and my Wife and In-laws surprised me with a much needed digital camera! So, I thought I would do a little experimenting. This was the first food shot ever; some fresh strawberries in all their summer glory. Thank you Michele, Peggy and Al! Hopefully future blog posts will display photos that are of a much higher quality. Don't worry, I have no plans to replace the video clips with photo essays, I just want to improve the overall visual appeal of the site. By the way, if you're thinking that another reason for this post was to inform all you regular viewers that my birthday was coming up in a shameless ploy to solicit a few donantions to the site...well, I can not confirm or deny any such attemp. Enjoy!

I've Never "Bean" That Scared Before!

This funny clip is a great reminder why you should never buy those letter refrigerator magnets. Why take a chance? As far as the beans, well, those are a nutritious kitchen staple that we must have around, so make sure you get them from a reliable source. Enjoy!

Was it the Last Supper?

I'm a HUGE Sopranos fan. So for this weekend's filler clip I'm posting this clip I found on YouTube that makes the case for Tony being whacked. Since the now famous final scene takes place in a Diner, that makes it food related, and completely appropriate for this blog. Personally, I don't think Tony was shot, but as you'll see in this clip, the author makes some interesting observations. I especially like the onion ring comparison. And, what if you've never seen the Sopranos? Well, you've got a lot of catching up to do. In my humble opinion, the Sopranos was the best television show EVER…except of course for The Simpsons and Seinfeld. I tried to find a Sopranos food scene montage, but didn’t find anything, which would have been very cool. If you see one please let me know! Enjoy.

I Can't Decide. What Do You Think?

I just ran across some polling software that I thought I would try out this week. Yes, another test! I'm not going to describe the recipes listed on the poll, so don't ask. Just pick the one that sounds the best to you, and click the button (if you feel like it). It's more of a test of the polling software than an experiment in culinary democracy. Thanks for participating. Speaking of polls and voting, in true American political tradition, I will be voting for which ever 2008 candidate’s campaign donates the most to this site. Yes, my vote can, and hopefully will, be bought.

Which recipe would you most enjoy seeing this week? (by the way, you have to vote without any recipe desciptions)
	"No Slice" Potato Gratin
	Romesco Glazed Salmon
	"3 Corn" Polenta
	Chicken Parmesan
Free polls from Pollhost.com