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AnxiousCowboy

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I know I dropped off the face of the forums, but it's because I took a new job that I may or may not have mentioned. the 98 hour work weeks are winding down a bit now that I am almost full staffed. But to make a long story short, my chef from La gren (ouille) left and I decided to follow him as chef d'cuisine at a new spot that had been open for half a year with a ****** chef and it was time for the owners to turn things around.

I am completely exhausted and broken but am exceedingly happy with where I am at this point in my career. We are masochists in this industry and I am no exception. I had my first day off in 27 days the other day and I slept so long my back hurt lol. Anyway, we are starting to pick up and get a lot of good press. The name of the restaurant is La Silhouette. I posted a very similar thread to this a week or two ago (all the days are blending together at this point) but accidently pushed the back button and fell asleep instead of rewriting it.

But check out some of my press, got a 26 in the new zagat for food as well as second best new restaurant. and I would love for some of you guys to come in and eat.

http://ny.eater.com/archives/2011/07/david_malbequi_out_after_seven_months_at_la_silhouette.php

http://www.johnmariani.com/archive/2011/110918/index.html#ny_corner

http://www.zagat.com/buzz/new-yorks...zz&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=buzz20111102

http://ny.eater.com/archives/2011/10/sketch.php

http://www.zagat.com/buzz/no-2-la-silhouette

http://www.nypost.com/p/lifestyle/food/this_is_hell_kitchen_0T5UFA7cOKdXb0MJtqCtQM

http://www.omgfoodie.com/cities/new-york/la-silhouette/
 
Wow. That's quite a story! Congratulations and good luck!
 
Best of luck. I will definately check it out the next time I am in NY.
 
Congratulations! You should be very proud--especially considering all that time you put in. Good on ya.
 
Thanks, things are going well after the holiday push. Still waiting to get reviewed by the Times, though. Working with my chef on several menu changes and finally getting some proper staff; had several cooks walk on me in the middle of the busy season. Just filmed an intro for the show Chopped, so that's my next side project at the moment. I've never seen the show (I'm downloading an episode now) but when the PR was trying to persuade me to do it they had me at "$10k." In reality I really dislike TV beyond a small handful of TV shows. We'll see what happens..another new experience under my belt if nothing else. As interesting as TV may be for some people the only thing I'm truly focused on now is the new menu changes and awaiting the review. We're also going to be doing a Zagat-promotional Prix Fixe featuring 'duck.' 5-6 courses using duck. We have one duck breast entree on the menu, and we make several other items out of those bi-products, mostly lunch and pre-theatre menu items (3 pates/terrines/sandwich, confit/croquettes/cassoulets, consomme/jus/sauce bigarade, etc). I'll be shooting the show sometime between February and April, I'll let you guys know when it airs when I know--beyond that I signed a contract saying that I cannot speak about much more.

Stay Tuned!
 
Thanks, things are going well after the holiday push. Still waiting to get reviewed by the Times, though. Working with my chef on several menu changes and finally getting some proper staff; had several cooks walk on me in the middle of the busy season. Just filmed an intro for the show Chopped, so that's my next side project at the moment. I've never seen the show (I'm downloading an episode now) but when the PR was trying to persuade me to do it they had me at "$10k." In reality I really dislike TV beyond a small handful of TV shows. We'll see what happens..another new experience under my belt if nothing else. As interesting as TV may be for some people the only thing I'm truly focused on now is the new menu changes and awaiting the review. We're also going to be doing a Zagat-promotional Prix Fixe featuring 'duck.' 5-6 courses using duck. We have one duck breast entree on the menu, and we make several other items out of those bi-products, mostly lunch and pre-theatre menu items (3 pates/terrines/sandwich, confit/croquettes/cassoulets, consomme/jus/sauce bigarade, etc). I'll be shooting the show sometime between February and April, I'll let you guys know when it airs when I know--beyond that I signed a contract saying that I cannot speak about much more.

Stay Tuned!

Good luck! :D
 
Awesome! Good luck! I'm a big fan of the show, so let us know when you're on. :D
 
That's really cool. The judges are kinda a-wipes on the show, although they tend to be a little nicer now then they were the first season or two. I think off-camera they are much friendlier.

Can't wait to see your on-camera knife arsenal :cool2:
 
when you watch keep in mine I just had a heart attack few days before. I was not at my best. I actually was barely standing and they had a paramedic on call watching my every move.lol
 
Link please?

I couldn't get a direct link to work and the site is kinda a PIA where you have to click through a few pages to finally get to the show, but it's the only place that i could find it.

http://watchseries.eu/episode/~107913
(click through one of the 'gorilliavideo' links in the list)

Watching this just reminded me why I don't watch this show: the most abnoxious, but idiotic judges in food tv.
Son's preparation of the tenderloin was EXACTLY how I like it and actually alittle tricky to do well... and rather than recognize the validity of the approach, the a-wipe on the end is all like "i eat raw hamburger and this is too rare for me.
But he thought that the well-done lump of grey that the other guy did was "perfect".

Anyway Son, know that even if I weren't biased by you being on here I still woulda picked your dish. I'm glad that you kept on cooking and I'd love to see what you could do in good health and in front of some people that hold their heads between their shoulders; not between their butt-cheeks.
 
at that point in the show they edited out all the good stuff. All of my knives disappeared, five minutes later they brought me someone else's pos knives to use. mine was the only tenderloin not cleaned. that's why i cooked it that way. I sold about 30 orders a week of black and blue fillets in my restaurant. we had taro root and you need to wear gloves as they are toxic raw, well my box of gloves disappeared off my table and you can't use anyone else's stuff. Allen say's " chef son why have you elected not to wear gloves with this highly toxic root" "because some ass stole my gloves".
Half way between cooking the taro root chips the gas goes out on the stove and i end up with poached taro.

Chris jaekle forgets to season any of his food, no salt no pepper. The judges tell him that it is unacceptable for a chef to serve food without seasoning. Chris Santos tells him " i would never serve this in any of my restaurants." " This food is inedible!" The only thing that was good was the cherry sauce. he went on to the next round. keep in mind he is Morimoto's sous chef.

Poppy who owns a restaurant that only serves meat cut every steak a different thickness. serves one chef a burnt hockey puck, one a perfect medium and one rare to the judges and he too forgot to season. judges say's " are you sure you own a meat restaurant, maybe you should rethink that" he also went on to the next round. Keep in mind he went to culinary school with one of the producers.

My turn after all the crap, I turn in some pretty good food. I told them it would be black and blue. Chris says " this eggplant compote is so good I want the recipe for my new restaurant." Amanda say's " this is so yummy I licked the plate" " i really love the flavor profile of this dish it all works together" Chris " I knew you knew what you were doing when you toasted the bread in the rendered beef fat, Oh My God!" Scott" I don't get the bread, what do i want toast for?" " This is too raw for me and I eat raw hamburger."

While we were waiting in the green room, the other contestants came up and congratulated me for winning. They both had pretty much thrown in the towel after getting raped in the judging. I walked out fully expecting to move to the next round, They lifted up the cover and it was me. I said thank you and as I walked out the door, they stopped production and everyone that was working there came and said goodbye to me. Said I was the nicest contestant they ever had and if I ever needed anything give them a call. All of that was edited out.
 
Wow.
Thanks for sharing all of that. I always suspected that there was a lot of BS that goes on behind the scenes/gets "cut" in editing, but I never knew that it was that bad.
For whatever it's worth, just know that even in the edited, spun, crap they aired, you still came out looking like you should have won that round.

Every time I try a new, self-proclaimed steakhouse, I order my steak black n' blue or Pittsburgh blue(as I've also heard it called). I can count on 1 hand the number of places that knew what that was and on 2 fingers the number of them that did it perfectly.
Your show was clearly a case of Scott not knowing a perfect filet even if was staring him in the face.

On a side note I had no idea that taro root was toxic raw.... I always cook it, but I am a bit shocked/embraced that never knew and it's not marked on the packaging.
Can the calcium-oxalate be absorbed through the skin, and or are the gloves just to avoid cross contamination?
 
Wow.
Thanks for sharing all of that. I always suspected that there was a lot of BS that goes on behind the scenes/gets "cut" in editing, but I never knew that it was that bad.
For whatever it's worth, just know that even in the edited, spun, crap they aired, you still came out looking like you should have won that round.

Every time I try a new, self-proclaimed steakhouse, I order my steak black n' blue or Pittsburgh blue(as I've also heard it called). I can count on 1 hand the number of places that knew what that was and on 2 fingers the number of them that did it perfectly.
Your show was clearly a case of Scott not knowing a perfect filet even if was staring him in the face.

On a side note I had no idea that taro root was toxic raw.... I always cook it, but I am a bit shocked/embraced that never knew and it's not marked on the packaging.
Can the calcium-oxalate be absorbed through the skin, and or are the gloves just to avoid cross contamination?
thanks, Justin
if your skin is overly sensitive or you have cuts or broken skin people have been known to have reactions. In my case, we filmed this in February and the skin on my hands were cracked and the taro root caused a rather uncomfortable burning sensation. You know they contacted me for the show and i said no, but my boss wanted me to do it for the exposure. In the end, i did it for the experience. I even told them I didn't care if I won I just didn't want to be the first one voted off and I wasn't.
 
Just shot the chopped episode. Signed a confidentiality agreement so I can't really say **** other than the shoot took almost 17 hours (not counting the 5 hours it took to shoot the 30 second intro) and that it will air in september--first episode of the new season.
 
sachem, I remember watching that episode and was yelling at the judges on how stupid the one of them was on how your meat was cooked. I hope you had found your knives, it would really suck if you ended up losing money doing the show. It may also be that you just had a heart attack that they got rid of you so soon.

Any way good luck on the show. hope you did well, and I hope you had a better time than sachem did.
 
quick bump to this thread , Anxious , I was wondering if you guys would be interested in having a Stage maybe in april for like a week , If I am able to get it.

I have been looking around and have been seeing la sillhouette getting some great reviews , maybe send me a PM if you see this

ps. I dont suck
 
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