As mentioned in my last blog, we catered the bachelor party and the rehearsal dinner for Jimmy Buffet’s wedding and we were invited to the reception portion of his “big day”.  We were not invited to the actual wedding ceremony and I had no idea where it was to take place.  If I were to guess I would say it was al fresco in a remote location close to the Redstone Castle, but the location was TOP SECRET.

The reception was held in the Redstone Castle on the Crystal River.  The Crystal River joined the Roaring Fork River in the town of Carbondale, which was down the valley from Aspen.  The Castle was about half way up river to the ghost town of Marble where there was once upon a time a marble quarry.  I used to fly fish in the Crystal River.  When the marble quarry was active they would over load the train cars and as they traveled down the train tracks big chunks of marble would roll into the river.  Quite the object of curiosity while you were fly fishing in the middle of the river.  The shutdown quarry is now a large, cold hole in the ground.  When it was active the quarry supplied the marble for the Lincoln Memorial in Washington.  It was too expensive to mine, so now Marble, Colorado is a ghost town.

Forty years ago, there was a series of thermal springs alongside of the Crystal River.  Each one of these rock ponds was hotter than the last, making the tip top pond the very hottest.  This was definitely a favorite hippie hang out in the 70’s.  The correct way to enjoy the springs was to get naked (except for shoes) and work your way up the hill entering each pond as you ascended until you reached the top pond.  Once you couldn’t stand the heat anymore, you ran screaming down the hill and into the river until you were mid-thigh deep and then plunge into the icy cold river.  You could hear your pores slamming shut.  One night a group of locals high on acid stayed too long in the hot pond and par boiled themselves.  I’ll leave the cannibal stew jokes up to you.  The steep rock valley allowed very little development and for that reason was one of my favorite valleys. 

The Redstone Castle has a rich history.  It was built in the 1800’s by a wealthy settler, John C. Osgood, founder of the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company.  In 1971 it was added to the National Register of Historic Places, the first property in Pitkin County to be listed. Rumor has it that it was built for his mail order bride that never arrived.  The castle stood empty for decades but was later revived as a spectacular wedding venue. 

Enough history and back to the party.  Upon your arrival at the castle you were greeted by two claw foot porcelain bath tubs filled with ice, water and bottles of Mumm’s Cordon Rouge Champagne.  The champagne crew had an assembly line system and would restock the champagne bottles into the first tub and push the unopened bottles towards the second bathtub.  They would then travel on to the second tub and continue their journey.  By the time the champagne made it through the second tub you had yourself an ice-cold bottle of Mumm’s.  At the end of the tubs there was a pretty girl handing you glasses and an icy cold bottle of champagne.  Not a glass, an entire bottle.  OFF WE WENT.

Fingers Taylor (Jimmy’s harmonica player) found us wandering around looking for an empty table.  He suggested we go up to the balcony to find an empty table and enjoy the best view.  The balcony wrapped around the three-story, open air center and had a bird’s eye view of all the festivities.  The balcony was only wide enough for round tables in single file and they were only half full.  Fingers led the way as you had to know the layout to find the staircase going to the balcony.  As is the nature of castles, there were many hidden passages throughout.  We had the best seats looking down at the merrymaking.  The “go for broke” sound system was set up with the Loggins & Messina mixing board and crew.  No one was scheduled to play.  It was ready and waiting for impromptu jam sessions and jam they did.  My favorite moment was when all of the Eagles and Jimmy were jamming when Joe Walsh started playing and singing “Rocky Mountain Way”.  It seemed so “RIGHT ON”.   

There was no food being served at the reception.  Judging from the amount of cocaine that was being snorted, no food was a good call.

What a great party and super entertainment.  There are many stories about that party and the revelers, but most of what happens at Redstone Castle stays at Redstone Castle, just like Vegas.

Below you will find a recipe for herb sorbet topped with champagne, Mumm’s Cordon Rouge of course.

 

Herb sorbet topped with champagne is a showy way to do dessert.

 

HERB SORBET

 

Ingredients

1 ½ cups organic sugar

1 ½ cups spring water

2 egg whites

2 cups fresh lime juice

Zest of 3 limes

½ cup champagne

¾ cup of minced fresh herbs (basil, mint, thyme, lemon balm, sorrel & dill).  This is my favorite blend of fresh herbs, I have a preference for lemony herbs

Pinch of sea salt

 

Method

Over medium heat, dissolve the sugar into the water, approximately 5 minutes.

Cool.

Add all other ingredients and whisk. 

Pour the liquid into an ice cream freezer and make sorbet.

 

To finish the dessert scoop about 3 ounces of sorbet into a champagne flute, top it off by pouring very cold champagne on top.  Pour slowly as it will foam up. 

Add a sprinkle of edible flowers for color before you serve.

It is so festive to go around to your guests and top off their dessert with champagne.

ENJOY

In my last blog l told you about the rehearsal dinner that we catered for Jimmy Buffet’s wedding.  That was tame compared to the catering job we did for his bachelor party.  The fun started when the party coordinator told us to reserve some of our garnish and cold food for a mysterious task to be performed later.  We were to set up a buffet for food service, some of it was served hot but the majority of it was chilled.  All of the food had a Caribbean theme; lobster, shrimp, crab and fish.  “Rolling Stone” Magazine was footing the bill so price was no object.  My mentor and teacher, Chef Gert Rausch was really in charge and I was absorbing.  So, off we went to build a huge buffet with lots of ice.  We had large buckets hidden under the table to drain the melted ice into.  We withheld as we wondered what did the event coordinators want with the extra garnish of flowers and ferns and the chilled food?

The party was in a Snowmass bar that I cannot remember the name of because it had a new name and look every year, everchanging.  Two years beforehand it was the Leather Jug Bar and I saw John Denver perform there as a solo act.  I thought this guy is good, little did I know.  At this point in his early career, he used his real name John Doseldorf on the “coming attraction” bill.  It was just before “Country Roads” came out and then he soared to fame and changed his name.

As we were putting the final touches on the buffet, and the feast was gorgeous if I do say so myself, the coordinators brought in a 6-foot-long beautiful wooden stretcher type apparatus and an attractive girl.   We were instructed to take all of our extras and return to the kitchen.  We still had no idea what was in store.  The large wooden carrier was taken back into the kitchen and placed on the center prep table.  We were instructed to put the withheld food and garnish around the wooden carrier.  When we got all of the garnish placed around the carrier the party coordinator said “Ok it’s time”.  The attractive girl who was wearing a robe took 2 Quaaludes, 2 shots of tequila and then disrobed.  There was nothing under her robe, but her naked body.  To our amazement she climbed up on the wooden carrier and laid down face side up, settled in to get comfy and announced, “I’m ready”.  After Gert and I picked our jaws up off the ground the party coordinator explained that the girl and the wooden carriers were to be part of the buffet and we were to decorate the girl with the remaining food.  That was a first and actually a once in a lifetime occurrence, making a naked girl part of the buffet.  This was certainly much more inventive then just having your expected bachelor party stripper.  In order to decrease some of the awkwardness, we put the food and garnish over her private parts first.  However, she passed out quickly and that made the decorating easier.  We were done decorating and assembling in 15 minutes and she looked like a work of art all covered in food and flowers.  We carried the table with the girl out to the dining room and added it to the buffet set up.

Hunter S. Thompson was in charge of the guest list and party favors for the evening.  Hunter stood at the door flanked by two muscle bound bouncers in tight black t shirts checking the guests in.  The party favors were an eight ball of coke, one Quaalude and a half hit of acid and of course an open bar.

This was the 70’s and it was such a different time and place than our present-day reality.  Cocaine was making a splash in the party scene and was on the cover of Time magazine and in their reporting, they declared cocaine was not addictive.  The Fourth of July parade in Aspen had a float from the Aspen Valley hospital and the nurses riding on the float would reach into a large fish bowl filled with white breath mints (altoids) and throw them into the crowd while yelling “Quaaludes”.  Hunter had run for Sheriff in Aspen and his caveat was that dishonest drug dealers should be set in stocks on the courthouse lawn, and that “it will be the general philosophy of the Sheriff’s office that no drug worth taking should be sold for money”.  The New York Times reported that he lost by 500 votes.  It was a unique time.

The guest list was impressive and unforgettable to me.  I served Glenn Frye, Don Henley, the entire Eagles band, Joe Walsh was there but he was not an Eagle yet, just released “Rocky Mountain Way” artists Jim Messina, Kenny logins and so many more.

Jimmy arrived carrying a big wooden stick to whack anyone wanting to harm or kidnap him.  Where do you think they got the idea for the movie “Hangover”, that was a real thing.

We were paid generously with a 20% gratuity included and Gert and I received a bag of coke and an invite to the wedding as a little extra thank you.

Stark, the bar owner was given the same expression of gratitude.  I walked into his office to snort part of my tip and I found him in his office in tears with a pencil stuck in his nose.  He had been too lazy and hasty to properly chop up his tip and just stuck a bar straw into the coke bag and snorted.  The rocks stuck in his nose and his nostrils had swollen tightly around the cocaine rocks.  He was trying to pry them out of his nose with a pencil.  As funny as it was he was in some fairly serious pain.  We laughed and told him it was karma.  Aaah to be 25, well maybe not.

The rest of the night slipped by in a fog.  I’m sure there were more funny stories that old rockers are telling at this very moment that I was not aware of.

The lobster in herb butter was the crowd favorite, right up there with the appreciation for the “party favors” and the unconventional buffet.  Below you will find the recipe.

Compound herb butter is versatile.  You can use it on steaks, veggies, seafood, anything.  When soft put compound butter in a pastry bag with star tip.  Make star medallions and freeze in a zip lock.  It will last for months and you thaw out as many medallions as needed and keep the rest frozen.

 

Ingredients for Compound Herb Butter

4 sticks of softened butter

Juice & zest of 2 lemons

2 tablespoons of minced garlic

4 tablespoons of minced shallots

6 tablespoons of mixed & minced herbs (I use equal parts of fresh basil, thyme & oregano).

1 teaspoon sea salt, add more if you like

Half cup of white wine (use a wine you would drink, not one you drank in college)

 

Method

Put all ingredients in a food processor with the S blade.  Process for 3 minutes or until the butter turns green.

Place soft, freshly mixed butter in a large pastry bag with a star tip.  Squeeze out star medallions on to parchment paper and freeze.  After they are frozen you can store in the freezer in a zip lock bag.  I like a big taste so I make the star medallions half dollar size.

Lobster

Remove 2 lemon herb medallions of butter (2 per lobster tail) from the freezer and soften to room temperature.

Cut the lobster tails in half, lengthwise from the tail to front end.  Pull the lobster meat out.  Smear the shell with herb butter.  Salt and pepper the lobster meat and return it to the shell.  Smear the exposed lobster meat with the herb butter.  The shell will be the vessel that semi protects the tail while it smokes and grills and bubbles in herb butter.  Lobster tails cook quickly.  It’s better to undercook than to overcook, about 5 minutes or until the meat becomes opaque, not glossy.  Lobster tails grilled in their shells with a lemon/herb butter are simple and tasty.

Serve it warm or chilled and enjoy!

There are many dramatic moments in the restaurant business for which you have to be emotionally strong.  There is no crying in the restaurant business.

Jimmy Buffet was our guest for dinner in our home.  He brought along a couple of guests with him.  One of those guests was Hunter S. Thompson the inventor of gonzo journalism, author of “Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas”, a candidate for sheriff and an all-around character.

I was so star struck by the attendees that I didn’t realize I was being auditioned for Jimmy’s upcoming wedding festivities.  The evening was chock full of exciting events but those will be told in another story.

Anyway, we passed the audition.  We got hired to cater the rehearsal dinner and the bachelor party.  Gert and I thought we got the parties because we were cool…wrong.

Jimmy’s fiancée, Janie wanted tradition to be followed whenever possible.  The rehearsal dinner was a family event at our restaurant the Wineskin.  The guests were straight, as in clean and sober.  If they only knew that “Rolling Stone” magazine was footing the bill.

We had the dining room set up in large U shape so everyone could see everything.  The cocktail, canapés and appetizer course went smoothly.  We had a service table set in the middle of the U shape so all the guests could watch me plate up the food.  After showing the guests the tray of food, I used the classic large fork and spoon method to plate the food.  This was a combo of French and Russian service.

The entree was Rack of Veal Prince Orloff.  This is a dish cooked by Escoffier for the Prince of Russia.  It was a full rack of veal with tenderloin attached.  Gert removed the tenderloins and cut them into medallions and then seared them.  He then made a Soubise, an old-school French sauce classically made by puréeing softened onions with béchamel and is a great pairing for all sorts of roasted meats.  Gert re attached the cooled medallions of veal onto their original spot on the rack with toothpicks with soubise between each medallion.  He covered the entire rack with very thick hollandaise before it went into the oven to brown.  Talk about rich!  The rack was placed on a large silver tray beautifully garnished for all to view.  I passed the tray in front of the guests and got lots of oohs and aahs.

I then returned to the center service table to begin the plating and the waiters lined up to serve the plates.  As I removed the toothpicks from the veal and began plating, with the very first plate I knew the veal was COLD.  With my very best poker face, I returned to the kitchen with the tray.  As I told Gert about the cold veal he stuck his finger in the rack and with a thick German accent he screamed “gosh damns it”.  He threw a plate across the kitchen as he scraped off the Hollandaise and returned the rack to the oven.  I was helping him separate eggs for the next batch of hollandaise when I noticed a tear rolling down Gert’s cheek.

The rack got hot, the thick hollandaise was slathered on and browned.  This redo only took 10 minutes but it felt like hours.  Luckily the guests were engaged in conversation and never noticed the delay.  What goes on behind those kitchen doors is so dramatic.

We had a waiter in full grizzly bear costume come in and present Jimmy a quart of Mount Gay rum.  Everyone was happy and full and left in good spirits.

 

Here is my technique for making hollandaise.  I’ve made it this way for years.  I call it “unbreakable” or “blender” hollandaise.  I was watching Mario Batali critique blender hollandaise and claimed that it was nothing more than mayonnaise.  Then he tasted the finished product and gave it his thumbs up.

The big difference in the “standing over a simmering water bath” technique of preparation is that “blender” daise (those were the daise) is thicker.  If stored in a warm thermal pitcher it will last for 8 hours.

It is the base for many classic sauces like Charon or béarnaise.  Use your imagination.  One of my favorites is a southwestern hollandaise, just substitute lime juice for lemon juice then add chipotle peppers and cilantro and voila you’ve got a new sauce.  I always say “if you change 3 ingredients, the recipe is yours”.  I’ve watched Gert whisk in hollandaise with Demi glas or hollandaise with a tomato sauce.  These combinations were made as off the menu specials, but the combos are endless and tasty.

 

UNBREAKABLE LIME-CILANTRO-JALAPENO HOLLANDAISE

INGREDIENTS

8 Extra Large Egg Yolks

2 TBL Herb Vinegar

3 Dashes Tabasco

2 Whole Limes-Juice Only

2 Bunches of Cilantro

1 or 2 Jalapenos – it depends on how much heat you like

1 Pound of Butter

1 Teaspoon Salt or to taste

 

METHOD

Melt one pound of butter in a sauce pan.  Bring the butter to a rapid boil and hold.  Blend egg yolks, herb vinegar, salt, tabasco and lime juice in the blender for 3 to 4 minutes at high speed.  Take boiling hot butter and very slowly add to blender (still on high).  Add butter with ladle, 1 ounce at a time.  Heat from the butter will cook the eggs.  If it becomes too stiff, add 1 to 2 tablespoons of water to thin.  Add peppers and cilantro or be inventive with the flavoring of your choice.  SET ASIDE IN A WARM PLACE or in a thermal pitcher.

 

This Hollandaise is very stable and can be made hours ahead.  (Note:  It may become too stiff after sitting for ½ hour or more.  Just add 1 to 3 tablespoons of water until thin enough to ladle.)

My colorful driving episodes began early in my Colorado adventures.
Start with one-part ice, one-part snow, one-part Quaaludes, topped with my infamous driving skills and you have one well done and thoroughly terrorized passenger. My off-road driving skills got plenty of attention. There was a ConocoPhillips gas station at the base of the Snowmass resort where they sold fuel at mountain resort prices. Back in the 70’s they had an exclusive bulletin board where they posted a Polaroid picture of the vehicle that they hauled out of the ditch most frequently. Me and my 4-wheel blazer held that place of honor for all of the years that I lived in the area.
What is it about mountain locals and their drinking habits? Just being in Aspen seems to inspire people to drink, a lot. The city was trying to make the roads safer by keeping these local over drinkers anywhere but behind the wheel of a car and so they bought a double decker English bus to transport them home at the end of the night. The valley “drunk run” was to deliver the locals down into the valley from Aspen to Basalt to Carbondale and beyond. It all sounded good in theory until the inaugural run exposed the flaws in the plan. All the intoxicated riders climbed up on to the upper deck and ran from one side of the bus to the other. This caused the bus to rock back and forth and then landed on 2 wheels until it eventually just fell on its side. Those locals. With the bus on its side the city said they were pulling out of the “drunk run” biz.
Enter the local taxi company, the Mellow Yellow Cab Company said they would pick up drunks and run them down into the valley. On their first attempt at taking over the task, a Mellow Yellow driver was parked in front of a local bar waiting for a fare. An intoxicated local stumbled out of the bar and waved at the cab driver. The drunk was walking behind the taxi when he slipped on some ice, fell down and became unconscious. The taxi driver didn’t see any of this and he assumed that the drunk went back into the bar. The taxi driver decided to leave so he backed up to exit. He backed over the drunk and that was the end of their attempt at the valley “drunk run”. True story. Aspen Valley got so big that they now have a city metro bus system
My first winter in Aspen I was assigned to work the night shift at the Wildwood Inn. The hotel’s airport shuttle driver was late that morning (8:00am) and the guests were becoming nervous that they would miss their flights when I volunteered to drive them. I loaded up the hotel van and headed off to the airport. It had just started snowing big, wet, slippery flakes. As I passed in front of the ConocoPhillips station the van began to slide. The passengers were screaming as we began to do loopily loops. I finally got control of the van and pulled over into a gravel parking lot to put on snow chains. I had created a 40-car pileup, but I was back on the road before the pile up had concluded. On the return trip from the airport, a good hour had passed, the highway patrol was still pulling cars apart and trying to figure out what had happened. I just drove through the chaos waving and smiling.
There are so many stories that were simple ditch extractions and just too mundane to recant to you. But, all that time in the ditch got my picture on the wall of fame (or shame) at the gas station. It’s better than being on the wall of the post office.
Because our restaurant was in the hotel we served breakfast. I was always in need of morning waiters. The only thing that would get the locals out of their bed before noon was 8” of fresh snow, certainly not a breakfast shift. I was getting ready for breakfast service when I did a head count and noticed that my server, Rand was a no show. Rand later became the cartoonist for the El Paso News. We were always staffed with highly over educated folks that were just wanting to be ski bums for a few years before they got on with their adult lives. Knowing that Rand did not have a phone and no showing was out of character for him, I drove to his apartment. During the drive it was snowing per usual big, wet flakes, but I drove on because I had a restaurant to open. As I tried to pull into Rand’s complex I blew through the rail road tie wall and barreled down into Brushy Creek. It was so steep I thought my car was going to flip from bumper to bumper. Fortunately, this did not happen. The brush on both sides of my car was so thick that it kept me headed on a bee line towards the creek at the bottom of my path. When I stopped I soon realized that I could not open either door and I had to exit out the rear window. Luckily, I had rolled down the rear window at the restaurant to get a box out. I crawled up and out the window. I was at Rand’s door in seconds knocking on his door. His roommate answered the door and said, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, “what time is it?”. When I opened Rand’s bedroom door he was a combo of asleep, confused, mad and hungover. He looked at his alarm clock and threw it across the room. The clock stuck in the plaster wall (nice effect). He quickly got dressed and we left. In the parking lot, Rand not knowing of my expertise in “ditch driving” said, “who’s car should we take?” Not wanting to explain my driving skills, I said “let’s take yours”. As we drove past my ditched blazer Rand said “look, some dumb ass drove his car into the creek”. I replied “I’m the dumbass and that’s my car”. That was followed by silence. It took 2 tow trucks to pull the blazer up and out. One tow truck to pull straight up and one to pull out. I was back on the road by lunch!
This last story is the best. My friends, Cindy and TJ were doing shots at little Annie’s Bar and taking turns doing cocaine in the bathroom. Cindy was a bartender at my restaurant, the Wineskin. TJ was a house painter. When it was time for them to drive home to Snowmass they each took a Quaalude to balance things out. They were fighting about who was going to drive. The fight over the car keys escalated to a full on rolling around the streets scene. Cindy finally dominated and got the keys and the won the roll of driver! She was driving TJ’s partner’s Jeep which had 4 five-gallon buckets of white latex paint stored in the rear. All was good before they turned onto the Snowmass resort road. The Snowmass road was very curvy and Cindy dropped a tire off the road and never recovered. The Jeep rolled over and over on its way down to the creek. With Led Zeppelin blasting and the Jeep rolling, the white paint buckets all lost their lids and opened. 20 gallons of white paint in a rolling vehicle was like being in a spin art machine. The Jeep stopped and ended upside down hanging Cindy and TJ upside down as well by their seatbelts. They crawled out to hitchhike up to Snowmass covered head to toe in white latex paint. Finally, a pickup truck stopped to give them a lift but seated them in the back of the truck bed. They made it to Cindy’s apartment which was about 30 feet from the restaurant. They were too messed up to shower when they got home. They passed out completely covered in paint. Cindy had really long hair. She had passed out on the edge of the bed with her hair hanging off the end of the bed. When she woke up the next morning, her hair was standing straight up, stiff and white from the dried latex paint. She also realized that she could not move. She had broken her back. When EMS came, they told me they had now “seen it all”. Everyone healed and has thus far lived to semi old age to tell the tale.

QUICHE (MUFFIN SIZE)

This southwestern quiche can be made in a pie tin, but I prefer to make it in a muffin tin with 12 muffin slots because you can easily reheat these in the microwave and then have a perfect meal on the run.  It is hard to screw this up.

 

SERVES 8

INGREDIENTS:

8 eggs

4 oz. (1 small can) chipotles in adobo-rough chop

1 Roma tomato-1/4” dice

4 TBL. red onion-minced

2 TBL. garlic- minced

1 TBL. cumin

1 TBL. ancho powder

12- ½ oz. chunks of goat cheese

6 oz. Chorizo removed from the sausage casings

1 bunch cilantro-minced

1 TBL. sea salt

 

METHOD:

Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees. 

Grease a 12-hole muffin tin.

In a 12” skillet over medium high heat cook the chorizo & onions about 4 minutes or until the onions are soft. Add all the ingredients except the eggs, goat cheese & cilantro to the skillet and sauté for 3 minutes. 

Set this aside to cool. 

Whisk the eggs.

Add eggs and cilantro to the skillet and mix thoroughly.

Pour into the muffin tin, filling each hole about 75% full.  Then add chunks of goat cheese to each muffin. 

Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown.

Enjoy!  They will hold in the refrigerator for up to a week and are delicious when reheated in the microwave.

 

 The first time I made money in the food industry, I was hooked.  It all started purely by accident when I was nine years old. We lived in Buffalo, New York.  There was never a lack of snow in Buffalo and for a nine year old highly active boy, it’s just not possible to have too much snow!  We lived in a rural community that was close to a hill with a dirt road that led to stables. When the dirt road was snow plowed it created a large mound of snow at the bottom of the hill and then the freshly plowed road turned to the right and headed for the stables.  During the snowy winter months, this road was perfect for sledding. We would line up at the top of the road 4 to 6 sleds across and race to the bottom in a full on Olympic style, going for the gold, competition to find out who was the fastest.  We must have looked like a Norman Rockwell painting with our brightly colored hats, scarves and idiot mittens.  Idiot mittens had a strip of fabric going up one sleeve and down the other and they were attached to the mittens with stout alligator clips.  Idiot mittens were a very important part of outdoor wear for the children of the snow as they made the loss of mittens much more challenging.  One day there were 7 of us racing down the snow covered dirt road and I found myself on the outside lane.  We had all saved candle stubs from our families dinner table so we could wax the runners on our sleds to help the sleds reach their maximum speed.  We were waxed and all lined up to begin and someone yelled “GO”.  Off we flew.  I was in second place as my sled started to slide into the turn.  As we were all bumping into each other, I realized everyone was sliding and I was being pushed off of the road by the mass of sleds and would not make the turn. Sure enough, as I was quickly deducing, my American Flyer sled slammed to an abrupt stop into the pile of snow at the bottom of the road.  I flew up and over the snow pile and was air born in a matter of seconds.  As happens, everything appeared to be in slow motion as I flew through the air.  There was a bubbling creek below covered with thick brush and that is where I landed.  While I was thrashing around getting back to firm ground I saw a huge patch of watercress growing in the brook.  At the dinner table that night, I was explaining why my face was scratched up and I must have mentioned the watercress. My father suggested I make lemonade out of lemons and sell the watercress door to door.  My father was retired from the USN (ex fighter pilot in WWII) and was climbing the corporate ladder and I was going along for the ride.  He birthed and inspired the young entrepreneur in me.  My definition of an entrepreneur is “one constantly seeking employment”.  The next day I took my red wagon to the creek and harvested the watercress.  I then went knocking door to door in our hood, selling watercress.  No one had the heart to say “no” to a 9 year old pulling a red wagon loaded with fresh, crisp watercress.  It was a goldmine. The next day I used rubber bands to bunch up the fresh picked watercress.  I went to a different street and sold out in 2 hours. I did this for several months  until the watercress supply was depleted.  I took my earnings and bought a junior chemistry set.  My odor du jour was rotten eggs.  I have never lost my flavor attraction for watercress or my love of success.  Below is a great Watercress Salad.  Watercress can’t always be found so use baby arugula as a substitute. It has a similarly peppery flavor that you find in watercress.

Watercress & Pear Salad
This is one of my favorites with a drizzle of vinaigrette and a sprinkle of Maldon’s Sea Salt flakes.
It is simple but explodes with flavor.

Serves 4

Ingredients

4 oz. blue cheese crumbled
1 ripe pear, use a mandolin to get thin and even slices. 4 slices per salad
4 ounces of homemade vinaigrette (recipe to follow)
8 slices of heirloom tomato
4 bunches of crisp watercress.
1 bulb of fennel, using a mandolin to slice thinly.  3 slices per salad
4 pinches of Maldon Sea Salt flakes

Method
To assemble the salad start with 2 slices of tomato per salad.  Top with a bunch of watercress.  Place the pear slices and fennel on top of the salad. Sprinkle the blue cheese evenly over the salad.  Drizzle 1 ounce of the vinaigrette over the salad.  Sprinkle with a pinch of Maldon Sea Salt flakes.

 

 

Everyday Vinaigrette
Here is a simple salad dressing that will hold in your refrigerator for weeks and you know exactly what the ingredients are.
I make it in a glass mason jar that I can shake.  Shaking blends better than stirring.

Ingredients
2 tablespoons of Dijon or whole grain mustard
2 tablespoons of minced shallots
1 tablespoon of minced garlic
Juice and zest of 1 lemon
2 cups of sherry vinegar (good quality)
5 cups of extra virgin olive oil (the better the oil the better the taste)
1 teaspoon sea salt

Method
Place all ingredients in a large glass container & shake. Store in the refrigerator.

There are many stories about my time in Aspen/Snowmass.  The area was always packed with the Hollywood types i.e. Jack Nicholson to Lucille Ball and as you can imagine I had some funny interactions with them, but those stories will come-forth with time.  So read on.

The first story doesn’t include any Hollywood types just me and my mentor, Gert Rausch. Gert is a classically trained chef from Germany.  At the age of 13, his father thought he would do better learning a trade opposed to going on to higher education.  I definitely understand that train of thought after knowing Gert for the past 40 some odd years.  So, at the very young age of 13, Gert was sent off to a kitchen in Germany to peel potatoes.  In this strange, new and cold environment Gert cried for several weeks.  He was exposed to many high class European chefs that taught him how to make everything from hollandaise to demi glace.  From there, Gert went to work at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal.  This was fairly short lived as he crossed from Canada to the US illegally to work at a resort in Newport, RI, for Klaus Ottman.  Klaus Ottman was hired as the general manager at Lakeway Resort in Austin, Texas and he brought Gert along to be the executive chef in the kitchen.  And that is where I met my mentor!  If you were lucky enough to be in the kitchen with Gert, you learned a lot about food.  This was in the 70’s when fine dining in the US was limited to Steak & Ale.  So to have stumbled into a classically trained chef was a windfall and one that I am grateful for to this very day.  He was always willing and proud to share.  From Austin, Gert and I went to Aspen and opened the Wineskin Restaurant.  Another big point of gratitude goes to my father for signing all of the loans we needed to go into business.  With Gert as my partner most of my time was spent out front, but I did get introduced to gourmet food. The chefs in restaurants were beginning to get the spotlight and I took notice. As I look back, I was 24 and Gert was 26…way too young to own a restaurant. What we didn’t know, and that was a lot, we just faked.  Gert is a loud and entertaining person to be around.  His strong German accent always commanded attention.  His W’s became V’s and vice versa. Gert would say things like “I’m going to drink lots of wodka on waycation” all said with a thick German accent. You had to spend a great deal of time with him before you could understand him.

The back door to our restaurant kitchen had a great view of Mount Daily and the Rockies with the tiered Snowmass parking lot in view.  It was a great place to sit and peel potatoes or onions.  I walked in one afternoon to witness Gert arguing with the health department inspector.  Lesson number one in the restaurant business is you should never argue with the health department.  Instinctively, even I knew that.  Our restaurant was at 8600 feet elevation.  Far above the altitude that roaches, flies and pests thrive, or so we thought.  The inspector was telling Gert to install a screen door to keep the pests out. Gert was explaining that it was not needed because of the altitude just as a chipmunk shot into the kitchen, running across the tops of all of our shoes.  Alvin’s goal was a slice of discarded bread laying under a wire metal rack that was filled with pots and pans.  With the bread in mouth, the chipmunk shot out the back door.  In a defeated German accent Gert said “gosh damns it, ve put in a screen door”.  The Pitkin County health inspector was satisfied.

Gert now lives in Managua, Nicaragua where he just opened a restaurant and cooking school….so much for retirement.  He is 70.

This recipe is one I created for the Share Our Strength fundraising event.  This event is held yearly to restock the Central Texas Food Bank.  It is smoked duck diablos with red chili gaze. The red chili glaze can be used on grilled fish or grilled poultry.  Be sure and save some for other grilled foods.
The diablos makes a tasty appetizer passed at parties.
Julia Child quote…..
“The only real stumbling block is the fear of failure, in cooking you’ve got to have a what the hell attitude” I love Julia Child quotes. At the Fancy Food Show in Washington, D.C., I got a peck on my cheek from Julia, but that’s another story. My favorite Julia quote is “if you take butter out of your diet you’ll be buried alive in dandruff”.
This recipe was inspired by an old Texas favorite …… a dove breast, a fresh jalapeño wrapped by bacon….. a wild game popper.
At the restaurant we used half of a Granny Smith apple to hold the speared diablos. It made for an exciting presentation. You could use a half of a pineapple or watermelon for larger groups. Bet you can’t eat just one…..that’s how it got it’s nickname “Culinary Crack”

Red chili glaze
Ingredients
1 cup of light vinegar (rice wine)
1 & 1/2 tablespoon red chili flakes (if you prefer mild leave the red chili flakes out)
1 tablespoon minced garlic
2 tablespoons minced red onion
2 cups light brown sugar (packed)
1/4 cup tomato paste
1/2 cup soy sauce
1 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 stick of butter, cut into 4 chunks.

Method
Simmer vinegar, chili flakes, garlic & onion over medium high heat and reduce by half.
Add brown sugar, tomato paste & soy. Return to a simmer & cook for 4 minutes.
Remove from the heat & whisk in the butter…… this reminds me of another Julia quote. “If your afraid of butter, use cream”

Serve in ramekins as a dipping sauce for diablos.

Duck Diablos
Ingredients
2 duck skinless breasts
4 dried figs (mission figs are our favorite)
1 small jicama, sliced into pencil size
8 slices of bacon (we prefer thick, applewood smoked bacon)
2 fresh jalapeños, seeded & sliced into 4 juliennes per half
4 ounces balsamic vinegar for soaking the figs
Red chili gaze
Salt if needed

Method
Quarter the figs and soak in balsamic
Salt and pepper the duck breast and smoke in a stovetop smoker on high for 5 minutes. Cool & slice 1/4” thin. The duck will be rare and will finish cooking during the final heating.
Slice the bacon strips in half and cook them in the oven to rare
On the cooled bacon place a fig, sliced duck, jalapeño slice, jicama slice and then roll the bacon around the goodies and secure with a 6” skewer. Repeat
Bake the diablo skewer in a 350 degree oven for 10 minutes.
Poke the diablo skewer into a holder of your choice and serve with a ramekin of red chili glaze.
Serve & enjoy!

Back to the real world!
After living a decade in the Aspen/Snowmass area our restaurant, The Wineskin was sold along with the sale of the ski lodge. The sale would have been much more profitable, but the formula to derive the sale price was based on the previous year’s P&L and it didn’t snow the year they assessed until the spring.  So we did not get top dollar, but we still got enough cash to purchase a new car and to live off of in order to stay for our last ski season.  My wife was pregnant so moving forward, I had make responsible choices.  I got a job with R. G. Maxwell’s Restaurant in Dallas. The corporation had restaurants in Houston, Dallas and San Antonio. If you ever dined at a Houlihan’s Restaurant, then you know exactly what we were all about at R.G.’s–same menu, food & beverage.  Even the management staff were imported from Houlihan’s.  I quickly worked my way up their ladder.  I started as assistant manager, but worked through the ranks of manager and then escalated on to area director in a matter of two years.  This job title landed me back in Houston.  While I was in Houston another manager and I got restless at work and we started a Willie style herb grow area in the restaurant in a forgotten, no traffic attic. We had grow lights shining on our plants that were growing in used restaurant mayonnaise buckets.  I thought we had all areas of detection covered, wrong.  The home office got wind of our little covert project and destroyed the growing herb.  They fired me for 48 hours and then hired me back but moved me to San Antonio.  I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall when they justified my rehiring.

One of my buddies who was an executive in the home office found an old “Black-eyed Pea” restaurant in the Alamo Heights neighborhood in San Antonio.  Steve Davis invited me to partner with him and we scooped it up.  At the closing, just a little sign of the times, Steve, Phil Cobb and myself celebrated with a little pipe o’ hash.  He ran the front of the house and I ran the back of the house.  The idea was to copy the S & D Oyster Co. out of Dallas.  We called it the Broadway Oyster Co. and we served lots of fried seafood along with ultra fresh seafood. Times were tough and we had a very slow start with a small to nonexistent advertising budget.  The “Land Shark” was a big part of the Saturday night live skits at this time.  So I went to a local costume store and bought a large, man sized, foam, very realistic shark costume.   I would get very high and then slip out of my pride and into my shark outfit and arm myself with a sandwich board.  I would stand on the median at Broadway Boulevard and wave at all the cars going by.  I was very popular with kids and even made it on to the six o clock news.  All my advertising schemes did not work and we closed the restaurant.

I headed back to Austin with my tail between my legs, very humbled.  I found an old Hill Country house for sale on RR620 in the Lake Travis area and with a little help from my friends I bought the property.  My old partner from the Wineskin, Gert Rausch had opened several restaurants in Austin. I became a waiter at his restaurant the Courtyard restaurant on South Lamar while we remodeled the newly purchased house and birthed “Hudson’s on the Bend Restaurant”.  There were many folks involved with the creation of Hudson’s and detrimental in it’s long lasting success. I have not named or thanked many folks and for that I apologize. Hudson’s had a 31 year wonderful life with lots of amusing stories. This is where my history stops and the restaurant stories begin.  Hopefully through this blog I will catch up with all of those that I owe big ole “thanks for the memories”!   Enjoy

If you are going to make a mistake, make it delicious.  Our most requested dessert recipe at Hudson’s was a mistake.  Jay Moore was our first Culinary Institute graduate chef (CIA the one in Hyde Park….not in Washington).  Jay and I are both “shoot from the hip” style line cooks and we use our taste buds for measuring while pastry cooks use measuring cups.  Recipes are only guide lines is my thought and you will find that to be true with cooks world wide.
Jay was making pecan pies when the phone rang and he left the sugar filling cooking on the stove just a bubbling away.  Jay was gone for a long time and in his absence the filling had reached softball stage.  Unwilling to start over or throw the over cooked filling out Jay finished the pies and put them in the freezer.  They had runny filling.  The next day he took the pecan pies out of the freezer and sliced the frozen pies into 8 wedges. While still frozen he dipped each wedge in a melted dark Belgian chocolate to hold the filling in when they thawed. The birth of the turtle pie. A chef is like a general, it takes a mishap to reveal his genius.

Turtle Pie

8 servings

Tools
Sauce pan
Parchment paper
2 Mixing bowls
Whisk
Large fork….for dipping
Plastic wrap….film

Ingredients
1 cup light corn syrup
1/2 stick of butter (I prefer grass fed butter)
1 cup light brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
5 egg yolks
2 tablespoons vanilla extract
2 tablespoons of A.P. Flour
1 & 1/4 cup pecan pieces
1 frozen deep dish pie shell

Method
1. Preheat oven to 300degrees
2. Combine corn syrup, butter, both sugars in sauce pan & bring to a rolling boil for 5 minutes. Reduce heat to a simmer & cook for 15 minutes until the color starts to darken
3. In a separate bowl, add egg yolks & vanilla & blend together .
4. Add the hot sugar mixture, a little at a time, to the egg mixture, tempering the egg mixture. Once it reaches 175degrees the eggs are tempered & will not scramble.
5. Whisk in the flour
6. Fill the pie shell with the pecan pieces & then pour in the hot sugar & egg mixture in the pie shell
7. Place the filled pie shell in the oven & cook for 25 minutes.
8. Cool pie & freeze overnight
9. While frozen, cut into 8 even wedges. Jab the top of one wedge with a fork & dip it into the chocolate liquid. Scrape the chocolate off the base of the wedge & release it onto parchment paper…..you can get a rhythm going …. stab, dunk, scrape & release….repeat

Dipping chocolate

Ingredients
1 lb of semi sweet good chocolate (I prefer dark Belgium chocolate)
4 tablespoons of light olive oil

Method
1. Melt chocolate in a double boiler. Whisk in oil (oil tempers/soften the chocolate)
2. Dip the pecan pie wedges into the melted chocolate. It’s OK to warm the chocolate again….if needed

I’ll begin this blog with my restaurant history.

The 31 years operating Hudson’s on the Bend Restaurant did not just happen.  I have cooked and operated restaurants for the last 50 plus years of my life.   I lived and breathed many years working in other people’s restaurants and it was a long fruitful learning process. So let’s start at the beginning.

It all began when I was 16.  My folks built a weekend home in Lakeway in the 60’s.  I got a summer job in Lakeway as the head hamburger flipper at the “Beef n Bun” also known as the “Beef n Barf”.  It was located at the top of the marina tram in Lakeway, Texas.  The restaurant was seasonal and was only open from Memorial Day till Labor Day. It was a no brainer burger & malt shop and it took me no time at all to figure out the routine and work in time for my true passion…water skiing.  Ski all day & party at night with some burger flipping squeezed in my busy schedule. This was a theme I kept healthy for way too many years.

Back home in Houston, Texas while I went to high school I worked at the Rice Hotel at Main St. & Texas St.   I worked weekends in the decorating department.  The decorating department started at the top floor of the hotel & we worked our way down to the first floor, redecorating each room ….. new carpet, beds, lamps everything. When you got to the first floor the cycle began again…back to the top. I did not see the full cycle as it took about five years to complete.  But I did get a fascinating and in depth exposure to the back of the house operations of a large hotel.  Between my work experiences in Austin & Houston I became interested in the hospitality biz & ended up at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, Oklahoma. The hotel & restaurant School had just begun & it was a culinary waste land, but it kept me out of Vietnam. My first college summer job I found myself living in a crappy studio apartment on Live Oak Street near downtown Dallas and working at the Fairmont Hotel during its grand opening.  The Fairmont was a BIG deal….only the best.  Max Snallinger was the gm & Hans Plunkee was the executive chef. I was working with the food & beverage controller. Our office was near the receiving dock & main storeroom. I had full run of the hotel & it was fascinating. After three months of that it was back to OSU and the books.
I soon realized that hotel & restaurant educations were not well taught by books but best acquired with a “hands on” learning approach.  But there was that Vietnam thing hanging over my head so that kept me in school.  The draft lottery was based on your birthday & mine was in the very high 200’s and I was assuredly not going to war.  Boom, with that guarantee of freedom, I was gone the next day, no more Oklahoma State University.  Off to Colorado I went & on to the next adventure.

Colorado was where I first was introduced to expensive restaurant food. My education in gourmet food had begun.  Before I continue with my stories about my culinary education I want to give you the my most requested recipe the “Hot & Crunchy Trout”.  This recipe came from my sous chef at Hudsons on the Bend Restaurant, Courtney Swenson. It is great on trout, but I’ve used it on chicken, shrimp, avocado, snails etc.  It is three recipes, but worth the effort. It will make you a culinary rock star among your friends.

Hot & Crunchy Trout atop a mango jalapeño aoli topped with ancho paint.

I highly recommend making the Ancho Paint and the Mango Jalapeno Aioli days in advance.

Serves 6

Ancho paint (it’s really a spicy aoli)

Ingredients

1/2 cup ancho purée … to make ancho purée destem & deseed 5 ancho peppers & soak in 1 cup of warm tap water. With a blender on high, puree the mixture.
1 cup of mayonnaise
3 cloves of garlic
1/2 cup of red onion
2 jalapeño
Juice of 2 limes
1/4 cup honey

Method
Place all ingredients in a blender & spin on high until smooth ( 3 minutes). Store in squirt bottles. It will hold for weeks in the frig.

Notes….most good grocery stores will have squirt bottles. I remember when we had at least 20 squirt bottle on the cooking line to finish our food when our executive chef said “stop the madness”.   Becky was referring to the vast array of squirt bottles.

 

Mango/jalapeño aoli

Step #1 of the mango/jalapeño aoli starts by making a batch of mango/jalapeño sauce…..you can freeze the extra…..here goes.

Ingredients
3 cups of mangoes (1/4” dice)
1 & 1/2 cups sugar
3 oz. of rice wine vinegar
2 tablespoons diced garlic
3 tablespoons diced red onion
3 tablespoons of diced jalapeño
1 teaspoon sea salt

Method
1. Combine mangoes, sugar, vinegar, garlic, onion & salt in a saucepan.
2. Simmer 10 minutes, cool & stir in jalapeños

To make the aoli combine cooled mango sauce, 1 cup of mayonnaise, 1 bunch of chopped cilantro & the juice of 1 lemon.  Chill.

Hot & Crunchy Trout

Tools
Food processor with S blade
Large skillet 14” for sauté
Sheet pan (cookie sheet)
3 pie pans for breading station
Spatula for flipping fish

Ingredients
3 ruby red trout (6 filets)
1/4 cup almond slivers
1/4 cup sesame seeds
2 cups corn flakes
1/4 sugar
1 & 1/4 tablespoons red chili flakes (less if you don’t like heat).
1 tablespoon salt (I like sea salt)
1 cup milk
2 eggs
1 cup Rice flour (I avoid gluten whenever possible)
6 tablespoons butter or oil (for sautéing the fish)

Process
1. Toast almonds & sesame seed until light brown on a cookie sheet in a 350 oven. Then cool.
2. Combine almond, sesame seeds, corn flakes, red chili flakes, sugar & salt in a food processor with the S blade & pulse until mixed. Do not over process.
3. Mix milk & eggs together to make egg wash.
4. Set up your standard breading station …. first dish – place the rice flour…. second dish – egg wash…. third dish – hot & crunchy mix.
5. Pass the trout though the rice flour …. shaking off the excess rice flour, next pass the trout though the egg wash & on to the hot & crunchy mix. Lightly press the hot & crunchy mix onto the trout (use the palm of your hand. Set aside on a cookie sheet & repeat until all trout is breaded
6. In the sauté pan heat the butter or oil to just before the smoke point… about 350 degrees. Place the breaded fish into the preheated pan. Cook until golden brown (about 3 minutes). Flip & cook the other side. Repeat until all trout is cooked. Place cooked fish on a cookie sheet & hold warm in a 150 degree oven until you plate it.

To the plate:
Place a generous amount (about 3 tablespoons) of the mango/jalapeño aoli on the plate.  Place the trout on top of the aoli.   Stripe the top of the trout with the ancho paint. It’s best to use the squirt bottle to apply the ancho paint, but you can use a spoon.

 

 

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