Wine and Cheese Paring

This blog starts in the year 1995, when I was in my third semester of culinary school at San Francisco City College. I had made it through two rough semesters of school.

First, I must digress as usual, and travel back to 1969 when at the tender age fifteen I quit high school, and went straight to work in my Aunt and Uncle's restaurant, or as Mom would say, the salt mines. I had taken the statement by that panty-waste Timmy Leary, "Tune In, Turn On, and Drop Out", literally. I actually use a version of that line at the end of my cooking videos, the ones that aren't on line at this moment. I should have known better after reading the book Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test than to trust that fucker. It was time for me to leave school anyway. High school just seemed so immature at the time. It still does, but you kids hang in there OK. There was too much to experience at the time, and I couldn't do both if I was going to the reformatory every day. It was the end of the 60's god damn it, and I wasn't going to miss the finale'. Of course I have taken college courses since 1969, but never a full boat load. Back to he story line.

In our first semester at culinary school we had to be at school, on the job, bright eyed, bushy tailed and ready to work,  at 5:30 AM to prep and cook breakfast, prep lunch, or slave away in the bakery making cookies, cakes, breads, and pastries. After working in the kitchen and serving breakfast there were lectures, demos, classes such as; micro biology, speech 101, English, math, and before you knew it four o'clock came rolling around, and there was still homework to do. There was no way I could do 14 units, and work a job to boot. Before I go any further let me say that I was having the time of my life.  I loved culinary school, and got the opportunity to use all my old material on a whole new audience. Sort of like blogging.

Second semester was grueling as well, 12 units, but the pressure was lessening, and by my third semester I could begin to see the light of graduation approaching, and it was time to pick up a job, but what? Before college I was doing restoration painting on old Victorians mansions in Pacific Heights, and making pretty decent money. Restaurant work paid shit. Or as my old man Rocco would say; "Show me a man who says he's making an honest living, and I'll show you a guy who ain't making any money."

Geri and I had only been married for a year, but had been living in sin for four years. I was bringing in a little money from playing music gigs on the weekends, some catering jobs, and small side jobs painting on the weekends. We had a cute little apartment in Fairmont Heights with our two dogs Penny and Lonesome. It had a bright spacious living room and bedroom, a tincy wincy kitchen and bathroom, with a backdoor that never did shut all the way.  Geri's sister and our asshole ex brother-in-law lived in the apartment in the back. We had great neighbors, and it was a wonderful neighborhood with just about everything we needed within walking distance of our apartment.

I was making just enough money to cover my truck payments with some pocket change left over for whatever. Geri was the sole supporter, paying the rent, and providing the medical benefits through her work.  Plus we were trying to save money for our own place at the same time. Naturally we wanted to purchase a home, and now that my school load was lighter it was time for me to find a "legitimate" job. In other words, a gig that had taxes taken out, bummer.

We had already been turned down for home loans because I was an unemployed student.  This was before the banks came up with their scheme to screw millions of people out of their life savings by giving anyone a loan regardless of their income, devaluing the prices of homes nationwide, not to mention plunging the American economy and half of Europe into the worst recession in recent history.

I tried a job in a downtown SF restaurant  as a line cook, and another in San Mateo throwing pizzas, and the both times I clashed with the reigns of power, so down the road I went. Maybe this career change was a mistake?

My friend Nicho Ashley worked at a place called Oakville Grocery in the Stanford shopping center in Palo Alto, and said that they were looking for people to man cheese and charcuterie. I applied, and started working there right away. So, I became a cheese monger, and loved it. The food and the attention to detail at Smokeville, as I came to call it, was the best I'd seen in all my years of working in the food industry. The management as usual was out of step to put it nicely, but the food, ah, the food. The food came first. I have always had a problem with authority, but at least here we had the best of the best, and what I could learn here would be invaluable. Line cook, slinging pizzas, been there, done that, 40 years ago, ah thank you, but no thank you.

There's nothing like opening up an eighty pound wheel of Parmigano-Reggiano that's been aging for four years, and digging out a soft sample from the middle. You can taste trace notes of chocolate,  and walnuts in those salty rounds of cheese. Or aging a wheel of brie till it's just ripe and oozing with creamy decadence, oh man.

I started working there just before Thanksgiving when truffles, or tartuffo as they are called in Italy, were in season.. These would often be smuggled in hermetically sealed packages to avoid detection from the drug/food sniffing customs dogs. People would call from all over the Bay Area sometimes in hushed voices whispering; "Do you have black truffles from Italy in the store?" We had both black truffles from Italy and white truffles from France.

I learned so much about cheese, wine, olive oils, vinegars, caviar, olives, bread, jams, charcuterie, and products from all over the globe that I had no idea even existed.  There was a big food explosion going on in the U.S. right around this time. The wages sucked at Oakville Grocery, and again the management, but the knowledge I got there was priceless. I learned more about haute cuisine in one year than I had in my whole life. It was yet another apprenticeship.  Once you contemplate how much you've learned over the years you also realize how little you actually do know.

But at least now with the extra income we were able to qualify for a home loan. I had no designs that we were graduating into another economic strata i.e., the middle class. The middle class has it's head in the ruling class, it's feet in the working, and has no class at all.  No, we still have our feet firmly planted in the working class, and that's where I prefer to be located.

The people at Oakville Grocery had their noses so far up in their asses I swear they would walk into doors. If I do say so, and I do, I became a pretty good fromage head, and I have been seriously hooked on cheese from that time forward. Which leads me to the theme of this week's blog.

Our dear friend and neighbor Deborah Roberto, who is a great cook,  had a charity event this last weekend, and I volunteered to help. I'll do anything to help people if it's within my ability. This is a charity started by Robert Mondovi called Hope at Home. People come, tastes wine, purchase wine, and 35% of the proceeds go towards helping people. In this case the Alameda County Food Bank was the recipient. It's a no brainer. You have great food, taste some fine wines, and you help feed people at the same time. Deborah asked me if I could pick out some cheeses for her and I said; "Let's do a cheese and wine paring?"

I was looking in one of my cheese books called Cheese Primer by Steven Jenkins, and I stumbled across this recipe for Graperon and Potato Gratin. It sounded so good that I had to make it. This is my take on that recipe. The Cheese Primer is my all time favorite book on cheese, published by Workman Publishing 1996. This particular recipe is very rich, which translates into calories, so beware. I ate the whole friggin' skillet full of taters over the course of the day.

As a result of writing this blog I called up my old friend Nicho, and we're getting together for lunch sometime soon. She still works at Oakville Grocery in Oakville California. She's a combination of Martha Stewart and Elaine Benes from Seinfeld, and when it comes to the culinary arts, and her knowledge of food snobbery, Nicho is at the top of her game. She is simply, the best.

The charity event was a gas. We fed 135 people, and that's a good deal any day.

I graduated culinary school in Dec. 96",  and in Jan. 97' with help from Geri's grandparents Ray and Elsie we bought our bungalow in Oakland.  I quit Oakville Grocery the day after we signed the papers for the house.

That's all she wrote this week folks. See the recipe below.

Peace,

Make Food/Not War

Note: Next time I make this recipe I'm going to add two or three stalks of scallions cut  on the bias 1/2 inch long, and a medium handful of chopped parsley. So, I added those into the menu as well.

Potato Gratin a la Brie De Meaux (serves 4 as side dish for an entree', or 8 as an appetizer)

Ingredients:
4 ounces pancetta cut into 1 inch strips thin
1 tablespoon fresh crushed garlic
crushed black pepper to taste
olive oil for cooking
4 medium size russet potatoes
2 scallions stalks
handful of parsley chopped medium fine
1/2 lb. Brie De Meaux

Directions:

1) Cut the Brie De Meaux into thin pieces, and put on a cold plate in the fridge.  Prep the scallions and parsley as described above and put aside.

2)) Slice pancetta into1 inch ribbons and fry in a hot cast iron skillet with a little olive till it's golden brown. A couple of minutes before the pancetta is done add the garlic. This way the garlic won't burn.  Put the pancetta and garlic mixture aside on a plate with a paper towel to soak up some of the fat.

3) Peel the potatoes whole and submerge in cold water.  Dry each one before you cut them into 1/8 inch thick slices.  Add a little olive oil in the cast iron skillet, pepper to taste,  and fry them till they are golden brown, and put aside. Don't crowd the pan.

Finished Product

4) When all the potatoes are cooked put the skillet on low heat, and add a layer of potatoes on the bottom (see below),  then add the Brie, some pancetta/garlic mix, scallions, and parsley. Then cut the heat off, add the second layer with all the above, and cover for one and a half minutes to fully melt the brie. Serve hot.

potatoes frying

pancetta and garlic

first layer