Posts Tagged ‘Left Coast Catering’
Adaptation
©Marianne Jackson
As a catering chef, I have cooked in all kinds of kitchens, with all kinds of equipment, and nevertheless, it is always expected that I will deliver great tasting food on a pretty plate at an appetizing temperature. In catering, there are no constants. Things are always different and often unexpected. If there is any one thing that catering has taught me, it is how to cook anywhere.
When the show this week asked us whether we could cook anywhere, I know a lot of the other cheftestants didn’t expect that to mean over a fire pit in the middle of the desert. We’d been told we would be spending a night on the ranch and that we’d have to cook a high-end lunch for the ranchers. Thinking back to it, I have to chuckle; so many people were really thrown by the change of scenery. I was okay with the plan, but I know I was one of the few who didn’t find the cooking environment and the sleeping arrangement outrageous. Having lived on a ranch in Colorado years ago, I had an inkling of what to expect and the possibility of outdoor cooking had occurred to me. I realize now how that early experience adapting to a rustic ranch kitchen prepared me well for catering, and more recently, this challenge. Read the rest of this entry »
High Culinary Art
© Henry Dombey/FACECOLLECTIVE
Perhaps this week I should start by explaining the importance of who we were cooking for, because it was a huge deal.
Joel Robuchon was the most influential French chef in the post-nouvelle era for cuisine and is still reknowned for the perfectionism with which he executed his food. He was seen as instrumental in leading French cuisine away from the excesses and excessive reductionism of nouvelle cuisine, and back to a more authentic, bourgeois French cuisine, which aimed to have each ingredient taste of itself. Besides this reputation, he was also named “Chef of the Century” by the French restaurant guide Gault Millau in 1989 and awarded the Meilleur Ouvrier de France (France’s Best Craftsman) in cuisine in 1976.
Daniel Bouloud was Executive Chef at Le Cirque from 1986 to 1992. His tenure saw the restaurant become one of the top rated in the country. Despite all of their accolades, I was most impressed with their humility. Both men are very warm and incredibly kind, despite their exacting methodologies.
Joel spoke to us following the challenge, expressing that he understood the difficulty of the task we were given and offered his respect for our undertaking–preparing traditional French proteins and sauces for a table of some of the best French chefs in the world.
What’s In a Kitchen
Watching Eve go home last night, I was thinking back to a conversation we had the day of that elimination challenge about the competition. Even before that day of cooking poolside, I know she’d been thinking of resigning the competition because the whole Top Chef thing wasn’t for her. I remember her telling me how happy she was with her life and her career in Ann Arbor, and how much she loves to keep learning about food and about cooking. Eve already has a successful restaurant and a cookbook under her belt, and didn’t feel like she needed to prove herself to Bravo or to the judges.
Of course some of the chefs, like the Voltaggio brothers, were more competitive. At this stage in the show, I for one, wasn’t thinking of the elimination challenge as a competition among the chefs but instead as an opportunity to cook great food for the groom and his friends. That’s probably the caterer in me. I suppose I was a lot like Eve on this challenge–I just wanted to cook alongside talented chefs to craft a great experience and make the guests happy.
There is obviously quite a difference between a top chef in the real world and a Top Chef on Bravo. Bravo seems to think that a chef should be a highly driven, hyper-competitive badass with the ability to create well-executed food in any kitchen, on any day, in any amount of time, to meet each week’s unexpected challenge. Can I say, that not in 20 years as a chef have I had to pair food with a shot? Great food and boozey shots have never gone particularly well together, in my experience, but I suppose the scenario makes for good television. And what do I know? I’m just the chef.
At The Beginning
© Henry Dombey/FACECOLLECTIVE
My name is Laurine Wickett and I own a company called Left Coast Catering. Welcome to our blog! Here, I plan to chronicle the ins and outs of our kitchen in San Francisco and my recent dallying as a chef competitor on Bravo’s Top Chef.
Some of you are likely wondering how a person ends up competing on national television for such a lofty title. Truly, it feels like an accident. One night, during a launch dinner for my private dining venue 2150, a guest and food writer suggested I go to the Top Chef Season 6 casting call the following day, with a promise to expedite me to the VIP list at the call. I honestly hardly heard her. I’m not an avid watcher of the show and I’ve never wanted to become a television chef. I enjoy cooking food in my own kitchen for people in real life. For some reason, despite all of this, I mentioned the suggestion to my staff later that evening. They chimed in to echo that initial encouragement and set to work convincing me to go; after a few drinks and much persuasion, I set my alarm clock and decided I’d go.
Welcome!
© Henry Dombey/FACECOLLECTIVE
Welcome to the online Journal of Chef Laurine Wickett of Left Coast Catering in San Francisco, now appearing on Bravo TV’s Top Chef season 6.