Join Heidi in the second video of our series on Breakin’ Bread as she visits our friends at Capistrano’s Bakery to see how artisan breads, and specifically the renowned Julien Baquettes, are made for your local grocery store or restaurant.
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This Breakin’ Bread is sponsored by Capistrano’s Bakery.
One of the coolest things for me about Chef Gross is not that he has opened some of the best restaurants in Phoenix or that he has cooked for presidents, but that he actually cooked FOR Julia Child. Add that to the way he gives back to the community, and I am impressed. The week before he was on our radio show, we visited his restaurant and sampled some his grub… outstanding! I have to say that Julia was a lucky gal. Chef provided us this wonderful soup for our fans and members. Enjoy.
Melt 1 tablespoon olive oil in heavy medium saucepan over medium – low heat. Add vegetables and sauté until tender about 10 minutes.
Add the stock and cream (you may substitute 2 additional cups of miso stock for the cream). Increase the heat and simmer until reduced by one third, about 30 minutes.
Puree in blender in batches.
Strain soup back into the saucepan. Simmer 15 minutes or until reduced to desired consistency.
Season with salt and pepper and serve. (When adding the salt and pepper you may elect to stir in two tbsp of butter to finish the soup.)
**Optional
Christopher Gross has a love of food and wine. He has spent years discovering and learning about food and wine in kitchens throughout Europe and the great dining rooms of notable American restaurants. Today, he has a solid reputation of a highly regarded, award-winning chef. From renowned kitchens in Europe to the great dining rooms of American restaurants, Christopher Gross discovered and perfected his love of food and wine, devoting all of his knowledge and experience to establishing his reputation as a highly regarded chef.
In 1997 Christopher was the first chef in Arizona to be bestowed the honor of the Robert Mondavi Culinary Award of Excellence. In 1995, Perrier Jouet and the James Beard Foundation named Christopher Best Chef Southwest.
Cooking for Christopher is not only a career, it is also a passion which he enjoys sharing through cooking classes, cooking segments on local TV, and his featured articles in Front Doors Magazine. He and his recipes have appeared in numerous cookbooks, including the Julia Child PBS series and cookbook; “In the Kitchen with Master Chefs.” Christopher orchestrated the Arizona chapter of the American Institute of Wine and Food (AIWF) and was its founding chairman, along with being the Chair of the American Liver Foundation’s “Flavor of Phoenix,” and the Chair of the Share Our Strength’s “Taste of the Nation”, the nation’s largest hunger relief program. Christopher also sits on the National Advisory Board for the James Beard Foundation and the Advisory Board of the Art Institute of Phoenix.
Christopher makes it a priority to give back to the community by donating his time, talent and cuisine to such charitable organizations as the Center Against Sexual Abuse, Cystic Fibrosis, American Liver Foundation, American Heart Association, Share Our Strength, West Side Food Bank, the James Beard Foundation and others. He was also a featured chef at Dinner of the Decade, “A Salute to Peter Kump,” at the 2002 Salt Lake Winter Olympic Games, and at a political dinner for President Bush. He has also cooked for President Ford, President Reagan and Vice President Al Gore. You can experience Chef Christopher Gross’ food at Christopher’s Crush. Click here to learn more.
I love a good bar!
Tavern, pub, lounge, or dive, however you want to call it; as long as the seats are comfortable, the music ain’t too loud and the pours are long and strong, I’m one happy camper. Aside from my kitchen, a good bar is one of the few places where my shoulders fall away from my ears, my heartbeat slows, and I am completely at ease.
Of course, not all bars work this magic. The winners are those with an air of welcome when you arrive and surroundings that say, “Come on in and relax. What’ll it be?”
Bars are living things as varied as the patrons who walk through the door. The first bars weren’t really bars at all but resting houses for weary travelers and pilgrims. Inns, public houses (pubs), and tabernaes began sprouting up as places for travelers to rest along ancient roads. This makes total sense to me.
As a weary traveler myself hoofin’ it around the globe, the local tavern was always one of my first stops in a new destination. I could find people of like mind sitting on stools or at a nearby table with a map spread out between them. There might be a backpack or two leaning up against the wall and a hearty soup on the menu with a basket of bread. Passports were proof of age and the stamps were proof of experience. It never took long to find a friend, get some advice on the local scene and share a story or two. The only common bond… the joint you were sitting in.
Many of my best and worst memories took place in bars. I got my first job cooking at the Yacht Haven Bar & Grill in St. Thomas. I broke my wrist at a mid-evil tavern in Palma de Majorca by falling off a bar stool. I discovered the extent of human kindness in a pub in South Haven in the UK. I had my first goat cheese tart and Pinot Noir at a Lounge in Antibes and listened to Gregorian Chants with my hubby while the skies opened up outside Napoleon House in New Orleans. I pulled beers and poured endless glasses of Claret for a WWI veteran in London, met a pack of wandering Aussies at the Club House in Lilongwe and bid tearful farewells to some of my most dear friends at the Raffle’s Writer’s Bar in Singapore.
Surprisingly enough, of all these places, my favorite watering hole is right here in Arizona… the Pub at Thunderbird, the School for Global Management. My husband spent 18 months getting his MBA at the school located on an old Air Force base, and I hung out at the bar.
Back in the day, the Pub was run by the students and boy did we have a good time with that set up! There was a juke-box with a great selection of tunes, two pool tables in the back where a rhinoceros head stuck out of the wall and all sorts of clothing hung from his horn. Not to mention that the students are from all over the world and conversed in every possible language. It was like every traveler’s bar, tavern or pub I have been to dropped into one singular place. We shared stories, showed off our passport stamps and talked about where in the world we might be next. The beauty of all of this is that we now have good friends all over this world – the ones we met right there at Thunderbird Pub.
My husband and I ended up in Dallas then moved to Chicago and from there returned to Glendale and the Pub. Then we took off to Singapore for a few years, traveled throughout Asia and the Pacific, and ended up right back here near my favorite watering hole.
We stop in every now and again for a cold beer and a game of pool. The names are different but the faces are the same and the pictures on the wall bring our friends back in full color. The students look at us funny at first and try to strike up serious conversations, but after a few beers, we are right back in our groove.
That’s what a good bar can do. Did you ever think it could be all that? Of course, you did.
Live Well, Eat Well
Heidi
by Robert Cole
You may have seen the classic commercials where Captain Kirk (William Shatner) is running around daring everyone to save money on Priceline. I have to agree that Priceline is the best place for those of us who are obsessively trying to find cheapest hotel deal to achieve our goal. Like defeating the Kobyashi Maru no win scenario, though, it requires patience, some cunning use of math skills and a clever strategy. So, if you don’t have the nerves of a Vulcan, I would make maximum warp speed back to the easier Hotwire Hedge strategy. If you are game, boldly read on.
Priceline is a reverse-auction. You must enter your name, address and credit card information before you bid. You will not see the name of the hotel until after your bid is accepted. All you have to go on are the city, neighborhood and hotel category (star-rating). If your bid is accepted, your credit card is charged and the purchase is non-refundable.
My Priceline deal-finding philosophy is simple – “Re-bid and prosper.”
Before you start, one important consideration; Priceline only books rooms with a maximum double occupancy using the “Name Your Own Price” option. Priceline is not a good solution for traveling families booking a single room.
Priceline aggressively promotes its “Name Your Own Price” product, but provided with that liberty, what makes you think your bid is the lowest price the hotel is willing to accept?
Priceline has established some rules to avoid bottom-feeder bidders from continuously testing for the lowest price. Priceline policy prohibits re-bidding for the same itinerary within 24-hours of a rejected bid. Priceline does, however, allow immediate re-bids if the date, city, hotel category (star-rating), or neighborhood is changed from the original bid.
This is important.
The trick to triggering immediate re-bids is that Priceline allows re-bidding when an additional neighborhood is added but that zone does not offer any new candidate hotels for consideration based on the previous bid… huh? In essence, you can re-bid a slightly higher price for the exact same target group of hotels. Pure genius!
The key to getting the lowest possible hotel rate on Priceline is understanding how many immediate re-bid opportunities you have so you can know where to start bidding and when to stop. This will be a three step process.
Step A: Calculate the number of available bids (initial bid + any rebids) re-bids and maximum bid.
Step B: Determine your starting and maximum bids.
Step C: Complete your table & Engage by writing down the exact zones and star-ratings for the initial bid and each re-bid next to the dollar amount. You will want to carefully prepare and follow this sequence. May the force be with you (oops – wrong sci-fi movie reference).
What was the best deal I ever found on Priceline? Last summer, I paid $39 per night for a five night stay at a 4-star Sheraton Suites in suburban Chicago using Priceline. Over the same dates, the hotel was charging $130 on its website. I recall being quite pleased that I used the 70% discount level for my starting bid.
So there you have it, by employing this strategy, faster than Tribbles can multiply, you’ll be using multiple re-bids to get the lowest possible price out of Priceline. Be careful not to stun yourself with the savings. Make it so.
The Founder of Rock Cheetah LLC, Robert’s role in the travel industry is to help companies bridge the chasms separating marketing, technology and operations to create best practices and process improvements that benefit the consumer and drive profit. Robert has worked at the VP of Destination Experience for Mark Travel; VP of Hotel & Car for Cendant Corporation; VP of Business Development and Marketing Services for Anasazi Inc.; Director of Electronic Distribution for Budget Group; and Director of Hotel Distribution for Sabre Holdings. Robert is also active in many Travel Industry groups including the Hotel Electronic Distribution Network Association, the Hospitality Technology & Financial Professionals, Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International and the Open Travel Alliance. Follow Robert on Twitter at @RobertKCole and for total travel industry geeks he also author the Views from a Corner Suite blog where he talks shop for industry insiders. Click here to read.
While waiting for Kirsten Seltzer to emerge from the kitchen at the Wigwam Resort for her interview I was expecting a lady in her late thirties to early forties. Nope. There aren’t many women who become the Executive Chef of one of the most revered restaurants at one of the most prestigious resorts in Arizona before the age of 30. Impressed? Absolutely!
Chef Kirsten Seltzer is a breath of fresh air. I would wager her lack of airs and her straight forward demeanor are just a few of the reasons she is successful.
Selzer graduated from high school in Northern Pennsylvania and bounced around seeking her path. A few years later, a bolt of lightning struck, and she entered culinary school. After graduating from the outstanding program at Indiana University of Pennsylvania Academy of Culinary Arts, she was offered some choice options for externships; hence, her manifest destiny to the Wigwam Resort in 1999.
Selzer put in 450 hours of externship and within two years was promoted to Garde Manger supervisor for the entire the resort. Two years later she moved into banquet supervision then onto Chef Tournant, meaning “I’ll do it if you can’t,” and in July 2007, she was promoted to Chef de Cuisine of Red’s Steakhouse where she spent the next three years.
Under her tutelage, Red’s was awarded the Mobil AAA Four Diamond Status all three years. Selzer is currently in the position of Banquet Chef – that’s a lot of covers at the Wigwam. When asked why she moved around she stated, “I just want to know the whole operation.” Good answer.
Selzer grew up as an only child with lots of male cousins. Undeterred by her gender, she “broke nearly every bone in (her) body keeping up with the boys.” Although being an executive chef doesn’t always require body slams, her tomboy background plays well in her favor. “You gotta’ be tough to make it in this business”, says Selzer. “If someone gives you crap, you’ve got to stand up and give it right back!”
When asked her inspiration for cooking, her answer is typically family oriented. “My Grandmother taught me how to cook.”
Her grandma spent 50 years in the biz, working as a Chef for a Nursing Home in Pennsylvania. If you think it’s hard for a woman to break the barrier now, think how tough it was 50 years ago. Selzer must have been paying attention to that Grandma of hers.
Aside from all of her drive, talent and professionalism, she’s a little self-deprecating and a lot of fun. Someone I could most certainly have a few pops with. We asked her to smile for the camera and she said, “You’ll have to make me laugh to get me to smile for a picture.” So, I told her a joke, dropped the “F” bomb a few times and – voila!
Selzer has a really good sense of humor and a very strong sense of family. She saves up vacation time and heads home to Philly during the slow (i.e. hotter than hell) season here. A few days in the city visiting friends, and she’s off to her family’s beach house in Delaware. They do some serious water sports, go shark fishing (yes, you read that correctly), crabbing and enjoy a low country boil of corn, onion, potato, andouille sausage, crab and shrimp.
I asked her for the recipe for the boil and she says, “Are you kidding? I don’t cook when I’m home on vacation?” So she settles in with her big family, knocks back a few cold ones and sponges up the relaxation she so richly deserves.
Selzer admits that she doesn’t cook for herself as much as she’d like to, but if she did, she’d go Italian with some pasta and good sauces. She nearly put on an accent for this part of the conversation while speaking highly of Tony Luke’s in Philadelphia and their signature Chicken Italiano Sandwich. When asked of her dream job, she mentioned her own catering company or, better yet, her own joint in the East with family stopping by for dinner. I’d eat there.
Back to reality and time to attend to the work for which she so passionate. So, for Chef Kirsten Selzer, it doesn’t really seem like work at all which is probably one of the biggest reasons for her success. I’m sure that her Grandmother is quite proud.
When cooking at home, I like to roast a whole chicken sometimes, but, invariably, there are leftovers. I use that chicken for this soup, as well as various vegetables or things in the pantry. This is a light, broth style soup that can be adapted in many ways. Have fun and just be sure not to use the chicken skin.
1 quart – rich, dark chicken stock. If you do not have fresh stock, you can use a base such as Savory Choice and maybe add a little beef broth to it for some depth.
Keep your knifework small to medium pieces, as you want a good mixture of ingredients in each spoonful.
Ingredients
Method
In a large saucepot, heat some olive oil over medium high heat. Start by adding the squashes, and cook till slightly soft. Add the tomato and garlic and increase heat, deglaze with the dry white wine. Add the bay leaves, chicken and pasta, then cover with stock. Bring this to a slow boil, all the while enjoying your glass of really good white wine. Check for seasoning, and adjust with salt and white pepper. Add the spinach and herbs to your serving dish and ladle the hot soup over it.
Serve this with some good quality rustic bread, such as ciabatta, perhaps grilled with olive oil, to provide some charred flavor to it. Prepare to receive the accolades of your guests, a complimentary scholarship to Le Cordon Bleu, and the Keys to the City.
Bon Appetit!
Brian
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