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Open Sky: A New E-Commerce Idea and Company

This summer I received an email from a company introducing itself as an e-commerce start up that wanted to return us to the way we used to shop: personally. Founded by John Caplan (who helped to start About.com, then worked as CEO of Ford Models), and a few other innovators, it sought people with a particular passion and voice to recommend products that they personally loved. I sensed immediately that it was a fantastic idea and embraced it.

I receive thousands of emails each month, many from strangers asking what kind of knives they should buy or where can they get this or that product I've mentioned in a post.  Now there is a way for me to connect with those people on a broader scale and to recommend all kinds of products that I personally love.

Here's why I think Open Sky is such a great idea. Earlier this month, my son James was home with the flu (all's well now, thank goodness!). I scoured netflix for thrillers or sci-fi flicks that both a 10-year-old and his father would love. There was no search function for this. But I went to my local video store, VidStar, explained the situation to a guy named Joe behind the counter, who took me to his personal shelf and handed me a dozen movies that fit my requirements.  I chose three, they were awesome and I went back for three more a few days later.

This is an increasingly infrequent experience in our WalMart-Amazon world, one that Open Sky hopes to make less so by asking individuals to create small "shops" comprising products they themselves love and use. There are shops for gardeners, for fishermen, for bird watchers. It's an expression of the Long Tail theory.

Just last week, a reader of my books and blog wrote to me saying she had had enough worrying over E coli and wanted to start grinding her own meat.  She doesn't have a standing mixer so I sent her to the grinder I recommend on Open Sky.

This is my shop for kitchen tools—and everything in it is something I either own and use or covet myself.  Want to make a proper quiche?  I've got the ring mold you need.  What's coolest about Open Sky, though, is that I tell my colleagues at Open Sky that I want to offer something unusual, something most people don't know about, and they find a way for me to offer it through Open Sky. For instance, I found a great magnetic knife holder to hang my knives on (they're made from gorgeous woods so are not only beautiful, they also won't ding my knives) made by a small company you've probably never heard of.  Now you have. The company is Bench Crafted and the knife holder is called Mag-Blok, and if you want a space-efficient way to store your knives, I highly recommend it. It's also a really cool, affordable gift (it's not like you see these things all over the place).

Another example. Every time I returned to the Culinary Institute of America, I brought home with me 4 or 5 of the side towels they sell and which all the students use.  They're really heavy duty sturdy towels, not for wiping your board! or dabbing your brow! as Chef Pardus told our class, "They're FOR GRABBING HOT THINGS!" I hate pot holders and oven mitts; I find them ugly and clunky and inconvenient.  I love these side towels.  They have many uses and I always have a stack folded and ready nearby.  I used to have to wait till I went back to Hyde Park to buy more.  Now I can order them from my own store!  I love it.

That's the first best part of Open Sky. The second best part is that they've found a way to match or better Amazon's prices.  Yep.  I don't know how they do it but they do.

I'm not the only one telling people what my favorite stuff is, so there's all kinds of variety available.  Shannon and Alison, who write the cooking with friends club blog, have their own "shop." Michael Laiskonis, the outstanding pastry chef of Le Bernardin and excellent blogger, has begun building his own product list.

This is a new idea, Open Sky, a new concept, as far as I can tell, a new endeavor.  It's only months old and they're still developing the company.  There are drawbacks.  Not all the products I want to be available are available. But the folks at Open Sky are working hard to change that.  Please check out the site and tell me what you think.  Pros and Cons.  What could be better, what did you like? If you buy those side towels, or anything else, I'd love to know if the process was easy?

Here's Open Sky's "About" page and here's its Mission Statement.

If you have any questions, please ask me!

Update: A comment was made that is important and should be addressed here.  The commenter writes: "As a cynic, I'm wondering if companies will be paying people deemed 'celebrity' to push their products. How are we to know if Eric Ripert really uses that Kitchen Aid mixer or if he's being paid to promote it?"

It's part of the Open Sky Agreement that "shopkeepers," as we're called, will NOT be paid by any of the companies whose products we recommend and we do not accept free products from anyone.  This entire venture is about integrity and transparency, without which it would die a quick death.

Introducing: Michael Symon's Live To Cook!

Photos by Donna

Been so busy and so behind I've yet to make this announcement!  Tuesday saw the publication of Michael Symon's debut cookbook—Michael's motto and M.O.—Live To Cook!  He does indeed, and I'm thrilled to write about it here.

Before I went to the CIA to speak with president Tim Ryan about a book project, I introduced myself to Michael so that I wouldn't be going into the interview blind and stupid. He was friendly and helpful and I spent a couple nights in the tiny kitchen he happened to be working in (it was so small he and his sous chef simply stood in one place and cooked all night long, no room for another soul, nowhere to go).

He quickly made a name for himself there, and by the time his first restaurant, Lola, was a couple years old, he'd received a Best New Chef award from Food & Wine. That award gave him the credibility that allowed me to write about him as one of the three chefs in Soul of a Chef, and there I really got to know him and his wife Liz and the whole family.  That was what was so great about reporting that part of the book. Feeling like a part of his big exuberant restaurant family. (Above, he's with April Bloomfield before an SOS dinner at Lola.)

What I admired about him then is on full view in his book which I was honored to help him write: He's an ingenius cook, bringing huge flavors out of common ingredients, and creating complex meals with a simplicity that often made me do double-takes.

His Mac and Cheese (recipe below) is so popular, he can't take it off the menu at his restaurants, there's too much of an outcry when he tries.  Takes twenty minutes or so start to finish and is awesome.  And he's got the fabulous beef cheek pierogies and other signature dishes in the book.

But why I really love the book?  Pig ears.  He put his cripsy pig ears technique in here, and they are sooooo good.  Will I offer the recipe and technique here?  Can't!  Gotta buy the book for that one!

Another reason I love the book (and loved writing it): Michael is able to explore his culinary eccentricities, his love of coriander, the bench scraper, his no-knead egg-yolk pasta (for the sheep's milk ravioli, above).

It's a chef's cookbook that doesn't talk down to the home cook but is completely home cook accessible. One of his old cooks said this to me, I've never forgotten it, and it remains true: "You know what I like about Michael's food? It's the kind of food you can do at home."  So true.  He got a Best New Chef award, and last year Best Chef Midwest from the Beard Foundation, by serving do at home food. That's what I love about his style and the food in this book.

Congratulations, Michael, the book looks fastastic!

Mac and Cheese with Roasted Chicken, Goat Cheese and Rosemary

from Live To Cook: Recipes and Techniques to Rock Your Kitchen

Kosher salt as needed

1 pound dried rigatoni

1 quart cream

2 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary

8 ounces goat cheese

2 cups shredded roasted chicken

Bring a pot of water to a boil (add enough salt so that it tastes seasoned). While it's heating, pour the cream into a large sauce pan, add the rosemary and a 1/2 teaspoon of salt and bring it to a simmer, careful not to let it boil over.  Reduce the cream by about half.  Add the goat cheese and chicken and keep cooking it till the cream coats the back of a spoon.

Cook the rigatoni till it's al dente, about ten minutes.  Drain the pasta, add it to the sauce.  Toss the pasta in the sauce till the sauce resumes a simmer, then serve.

Serves 6 to 8

Cleveland November Appearances: Don't Let Me Be Lonely!

Photo by Donna

The time between Labor Day and Thanksgiving is one of the busiest of the year and in addition to a lot of work, I'll also have the opportunity to do several food and book related appearances.  Hope you locals will join me for some of them.

Fabulous Food Show, November 13-15

I'm very excited to be welcoming Thomas Keller to town.  We'll be at the Fabulous Food Show Friday, November 13th at 7 p.m., for an intimate conversation about food, cooking the meaning of life, and plenty of Q&A with the audience. Tickets are $60 bucks and INCLUDE a signed copy of Ad Hoc At Home. He's making a special trip just for the food show as he's in LA to open the new Bouchon on November 18th. Please try to make it out and welcome Thomas on this special trip (my ass is grass if no one shows!). Here's the purchase tickets link, just click the blue button for all fab food ticket sales and look for the Keller event.

The Fabulous Food Show goes on all weekend and includes Food Network stars and plenty of Cleveland chefs. I, too, will be on the Culinary Celebration Stage the next day, Saturday, Nov 14, at 2:45, singing "Don't Let Me Be Lonely Tonight," and demo-ing all manner of doughs and batters, talking about Ratios and how, when you embrace them, there's simply no point in fearing death.

I will then head over to the Big Boy's stage and hurl the leftover green tomatoes at Michael Symon as he demos favorite recipes and takes Q&A from the audience. Michael begins at 4:30 and will be signing copies of his awesome new book, Live To Cook after. He'll also be on stage twice on Sunday, check the schedule at fabulousfoodshow.com for details on his demos and...the rest of your favorite Ceeeelebrity Chefs—with and without restaurants!

Bioneers Cleveland, November 6 - 8

Bioneers is a group of social and scientific innovators whose mission is to address environmental and social problems.  Food, as Michael Pollan said in his keynote address at this years main conference, is at the nexus of the most important issues we face today: health care, climate change, and oil-dependence. I'll be moderating the opening discussion of the conference following Pollan's taped address, with local food experts, this Friday, November 6, at CSU at 9 am.  The conference lasts all weekend, see details on tickets and registration here. 

Last But Not Least: My Library, Just Up the Street On Coventry, November 4

Tomorrow, Wednesday at 7 pm, is the last of a series of local author talks. Please come to what I imagine will be a very intimate gathering at the tiny Coventry library, where I'll be talking about writing and cooking and food and anything else you want to talk about. Hope you'll join the conversation. Jane from the lovely Appletree Books, around the corner from my house (an indy bookstore so retro it has no site, but here it is), will be on hand to sell books. Good time to get signed copies of Ratio for Xmas gifts for your favorite cooks!  Buy them from Jane or bring your own—hell, I'll sign anything, doesn't even have to be mine!

Fun month here and beautiful weather. Everybody should live in Cleveland!

Ohio: Vote No on Issue 2

Issue 2 would create an amendment to the state constitution, instituting a board with the legal authority to set and enforce the care of livestock throughout the state. Vote no. It's apparently a move to preempt national animal-rights groups from demanding changes in farm facilities that would cost big ag money and put smaller farmers out of business. A constitutional amendment is not the way to do this, especially given the vague wording on who would be on this board and how they would get there. My thoughts are these:

This is a really tricky issue with dangers on both sides. I'm truly skeptical of everything big agricultural interests do. If Issue 2 passes, this new board could basically say that the hundreds of CAFO's in Ohio are just dandy, carry on. They could also tell small farmers that it is illegal to pasture raise your animals due to safety concerns. Also, the ads urging voters to vote yes are downright creepy in their opacity. Without saying at all what the issue is about, they present bucolic images of small farm families with the message that a yes vote is a vote for safe wholesome food. As if anyone would vote for unsafe, nasty food. The deceptive, arguably dishonest, nature of the ad is, in itself, enough for me to distrust the interests pushing this issue.

On the other hand if the board were truly representative of all the voices out there, both big and little ag, as well as farmers concerned about good animal husbandry and animal care experts, it could be a good thing. I spoke yesterday with a fierce small-farm advocate who's referred to at the capitol by big ag as "the raw milk lady" who is for Issue 2. Acknowledging that the issue presented two difficult extremes, she seems to want to fight for what's right within the system, and she's also concerned that outside interests such as animal-rights groups may make good food too expensive for low-income families, which is and should be a primary goal—making good, humanely raised food available to everyone.

Such food must be founded on a good economic model if it is to succeed. While I don't want animal rights groups forcing any Ohio farmers out of business (business that will simply go elsewhere and do the same thing), I don't believe a constitutional amendment setting up some vaguely-worded board to create legal standards for animal husbandry in Ohio is a step forward; and it may well be a bad step backward.  Read the Tom Suddes opinion piece below for a more black-and-white, Big-Ag-is-evil take on the subject. And keep paying attention to where your food comes from.

 Download Issue 2 itself.

 Download Issue2factsheet on the legal issues.

Here is a link to Thomas Suddes strongly worded opinion in The Plain Dealer.

Question to Chefs and Cooks: Favorite Uncommon Tools

Photo by Donna

A few weeks ago I ran a post on baked buttered corn, a popular dish that requires three-quarters of the corn to be more or less juiced. I use the above corn cutter, costs about ten bucks.  It only does one thing, and that one thing, I can do with a knife or a knife and a blender, I resist letting any unitasker into my kitchen, and yet, I love this corn cutter. It's really easy to use and the result is perfect for what I want in my baked corn.  I'd buy another if someone borrowed this one and never gave it back.  But it made me curious.

A while back I went on a brief I-use-my-egg-separators-to-bake-pies rant, about useless kitchen gadgets.

What are some of your UNUSUAL favorite tools or gadgets.  Not the obvious tools like a good knife or a spoon, but the more uncommon of your cherished tools, unitaskers or not.  And why?  For instance, I know Cory cherishes his mini offset spatual, Michael Symon never wants to be without his plastic bench scraper, Keller wants a very specific pepper grinder (one with a fine grind).  Would love to know specific brands and where to find if it's unusual or difficult to find.

And especially would like to know store-bought gadgets like the above corn cutter that are actually useful.

If you don't have one, I would imagine that's a good sign!

Update 10/30: Thanks everyone for the awesome comments and ideas.  For some reason, Typepad took away the box where you can leave a comment.  I'm trying to figure this out. Comment should be open.  Sorry for the annoyance!

Update, mere moments later: The perp has returned the comment box! Comments welcome!

How To Cook Mushrooms

Photo by Donna

Donna got these from the mushroom man at our farmers market because they entranced her. But what to do once she's had her way with them?!

Much depends on the mushroom. Big meaty fat cepes and chanterelles are excellent roasted. The coolest looking mushroom, the morel, likes soft heat and a creamy environment. These are varieties the forager Connie Green calls "act of God mushrooms," mushrooms that appear from out of nowhere, mushrooms that must be stalked.

But for cultivated mushrooms, which is what most of us work with, everyday mushrooms, I always go with really high heat—a smoking hot pan, plenty of neutral oil. Most cultivated mushrooms—the ubiquitous white button, oyster mushrooms (above), shiitakes—don't have a big flavor on their own.  It's up to the cook to elevate that flavor. You do this by browning the mushroom, and you can only accomplish this at a temperature that's so hot, the moisture in the fungus doesn't have time to start falling out.  Once that happens, as soon as water gets into the pan, the temperature drops to 212 degrees and you can't get any more browning. All you get is lots more moisture. Another way to drop the temperature of your pan is to put too many mushrooms in it. The key to really tasty mushrooms is high heat and not crowding the pan.

I salt immediately upon putting them in the pan then add minced shallot . Mushrooms cooked this way can be chilled and reheated gently in butter.  Pepper them and give them a small squeeze of lemon to finish. If you can find good mushrooms like the ones above, simply prepared and served with some crusty baguette, they can be a meal in themselves. They also make a fantastic, sauce-like accompaniment to roasted chicken or veal or asparagus.

Other ways to vary them are to deglaze the pan with some white wine after you've got a nice sear on the mushrooms. A pinch of curry powder can  heighten their flavor—not so much that you can taste the curry, add just enough to intrigue. Add whole cloves of garlic and fresh thyme to the oil just before you saute mushrooms, and they'll pick up these aromatic flavors.  Mushrooms add a depth and savoriness to eggs, vegetables, meat and fish—great on their own when well cooked, and they're a powerful way to add flavors to other foods.

Cooking them well is all it takes. Eric Ripert still remembers the oyster mushrooms when he was a young cook at Robuchon's 3-star Jamin. He had to cook each one individually to get that perfect sear. That's what it takes, that's what makes the difference.

How To Cure Olives

Photo by Donna

When I left the Hudson Valley last month, after shenanigans with Bourdain, I did have enough wits about me to grab a bagful of Chef Pardus's fresh olives to cure myself. I'd never cured olives.  Olives straight off the tree are bitter fruits, so defiantly inedible that one wonders why anyone would think to try to make them edible in the first place. But the transformation from inedible to delectable is an extraordinary one I wanted to attempt.

Neither of us knew the exact type of olive we'd procured but they were big meaty ones, like cerignola, which are my favorite kind. They need to be cured with lye, aka sodium hydroxide, the stuff often used to burn through gunk in drains. I picked some up at the hardware store, 100% Lye, the bottle said. I was told there are probably good reasons why they make a "food grade" lye, so it's a good idea to get this if you want to put your food in lye. I bought some here with the intention of making pretzles. The lye works by drawing out the glucosides that make olives bitter (a little more info on this here).

If you have access to raw green olives, this method works great and results in a fresh clean flavor.  The olives are soaked in a lye solution followed by several days of soaking in fresh water, followed by a brine. I'm sure you could add flavors to the brine as well but I kept mine plain. Be very careful working with the lye.  It's a powerful acid base when the crystals combine with water and will cause bad burns.

Home-Cured Olives

Green olives (I used about three cups)

Food grade lye

Salt

Determine how much water you'll need to cover the olives in a non-reactive container (glass or Pyrex is best) by an inch or two.  Measure one tablespoon of lye for every quart of water you're using.  Dissolve the lye in the water and pour the water over the olives.  Let them soak for 12 hours (I did mine at room temperature).

Drain the olives and soak again in the same strength lye solution for 12 hours.

Drain and rinse the olives. Soak for three days in fresh water, changing the water twice a day (you'll see a brownish haze in the bowl; I believe this is the tannins leaving the olives).

After the third day make a brine. Pardus prefers a 3% brine, but I found this not salty enough. I'm rebrining with a 5% brine, the strength I pickle foods at. Depending on your preference, make a 3%-5% brine.  That would be 30 grams kosher salt for a 3% brine or 50 grams of salt for a 5% brine per liter of water. Soak the olives in the brine for three days, then store them in the fridge for up to 2 to 3 months.

A Survey Asking For Your Help

Photo by Donna, Apples at North Union Farmers' Market

UPDATE: THANK YOU FOR THE EXTRAORDINARY RESPONSE!  I'm told I have to conclude the survey otherwise surveymonkey.com starts charging me for each new survey taken.  I didn't think that would happen at all, let alone happen so quickly.  Thank you for help.  I'm truly grateful! Will ask Twitter to choose the winner of the signed books.

And congrats to Steve Larochelle of Siver Spring, MD, winner of the signed copies.

I'm asking a favor today.  It's fall and fall has gotten busy, happily so.  I hope soon to be making some changes to this site and truly want to know why you click here.  Will you help me and take 90 seconds to click through an 8-question survey?  I'll be grateful for any and all comments.  What do you like about this site, what don't you like, what would you like more of?

I'm also gathering emails for what will be a newsletter. The great majority of you who comment here leave your actual email, which comes to me via typepad. This is great because sometimes I like to respond personally to your comment.  But I don't collect these addresses or do anything with them. A newsletter, offering additional content (no spam, filler or crap, I promise), is email based, and there will be a question on the survey noting this. My ingenious incentive for you to take the survey and leave your email address is to give away to one such person a copy of Michael Symon's new book, Live To Cook, AND Thomas Keller's Ad Hoc At Home, respectively signed by Michael and Thomas to whomever you choose (and by me if you wish—I'm the "with" guy on these two books, and proud to be so).  It's not imperative that you leave an email address if you simply want to answer the questions anonymously.  Either way I'll be grateful. 

Favorite Kitchen Tool: Spoon

 
Photo by Donna

The best tools are the simplest tools.  The above spoon sat around among my stove-side utensils, lonely and forlorn, seldom used.  Just a spoon, after all.  A biggish spoon.  Didn't fit in the silverware drawer, so it hung out with the A-team, the flat edged wooden spoon, the perforated spoon, the slotted spatula.  I believe I was trying to baste a chicken roasting in a cast iron pan, and couldn't get a useful angle in the tight space, so I bent the bowl of the spoon up by about 30 degrees.  Suddenly I heard a choir singing.  I'd hit some kind of golden mean. The entire nature of the spoon transformed.  Suddenly I wanted to use it for all kinds of tasks, from stirring to saucing and, of course, basting, lots of basting, hot seasoned butter over pan-roasting meats.  I've got two of them now, and sometimes, when I'm cooking, I'll reach for one of them and they'll both be in the dishwasher and I'll think "shit"—this large soup spoon does the job like nothing else, and every other choice is a compromise.  Sometimes I just like to look at it.  Look at that line, the curve of the stem to the bowl, there's an elegance to it that somehow is conveyed into the food. That's a damn good tool.  These people who make fetishes of Sub-Zero fridges and 48-inch Viking ranges and sets of copper sautoirs hanging in an unused designer kitchen, I honestly believe if they learned the power of a great spoon, they might actually start to cook. ...Then again maybe it's just me.

Raw Zucchini Salad (Zucchini Crudo)

Photo by Donna, from Live to Cook

Yes, you can fry zucchini as fritters and anything fried trumps anything raw, but try this simple salad of raw zucchini with almonds and you'll be amazed by the power of zucchini. Now, when Zucchini is plentiful and inexpensive, is the time to make it.

I first had this salad when we were working on Michael Symon's new book, Live To Cook. What's always impressed me about Michael's cooking is his ingenuity; he delivers powerful flavors and fun dishes with a minimum of fuss yet without sacrificing basic technique.

The key to this salad is pre-salting the zucchini. Cut it on the bias into 1/8th-inch slices, give it the salt and let it sit for 10 minutes. The salt softens it to the point of wilting, but not so much that it's mushy. It retains a distinct bite and fresh zucchini flavor. It's important though not to salt it too early; eventually the zucchini will get mushy. I dress raw zucchini simply, squeezing lemon juice over it and a drizzle of olive oil. I usually combine it with almonds, a perfect flavor pairing and adds an important crunchy component. It's easy to improvise once you've discovered the zucchini's transformation by salt from bland to exquisite.

Below is Michael's recipe from his book (due out in a few weeks!), in which he adds garlic, shallot and dill. When he made the above dish we couldn't stop eating it; it was really satisfyingly filling, with great flavors and textures. I love to cook and spend hours in the kitchen, but this is a perfect example of how vivid fresh delicious dishes without compromise are every bit as good as the dishes that take a long time.

Michael Symon's Zucchini Crudo

2 zucchini (about ¾ pound), thinly sliced
2 yellow summer squash (about 1½ pounds), thinly sliced
1 tablespoon plus ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 shallot, finely sliced
Grated zest and juice of 3 lemons, or to taste
½ cup extra-virgin olive oil
1⁄3 cup slivered or sliced almonds, toasted
1⁄3 cup chopped fresh dill

Combine the zucchini and yellow squash in a colander in the sink and sprinkle 1 tablespoon of the salt over it. Toss to coat, and set aside for 10 to 15 minutes, no longer. In a large bowl, combine the garlic and shallot, sprinkle with the remaining ¼ teaspoon salt, and whisk in the lemon zest and juice. Whisk in the olive oil in a steady stream, then the almonds and dill. Taste for seasoning and acidity (it should be nicely acidic). Add the zucchini and squash to the dressing, toss, and serve immediately.

Makes 4 to 6 servings