Top Chef 2012 Trilogy: Fun with Food with Chef Richie Farina

I love Bravo TV's "Top Chef."  Whether it is Top Chef, Top Chef Masters or Top Chef Just Desserts - count me in.  I'm there!

Although what is up with this season of Top Chef: Texas, Mean Girls Edition?  Lady chefs, you are really doing yourselves a horrible PR job!  While I am plotting how I can visit Top Chef Contestant Chef Edward Lee's restaurant "610 Magnolia" in Louisville, Kentucky and Austin, Texas' restaurant Uchiko to see Chef Paul Qui in action; I have no desire to ever set foot in any restaurant where Chef Sarah Grueneberg, Chef Heather Terhune or Chef Lindsay Autry are cooking.  Mean-spiritedness, bullying and rudeness are not the elements I want in the flavor palate of my meal.  It is really disappointing to see such accomplished women acting like they are in high school.  I can only hope that the next season of Top Chef isn't chock full of episodes where the men are excelling and the women are acting like catty bitches trying to slit each others' throats.

But I digress from the subject matter of this blog post.  Allow me to get down from my soap box ...

If you are a frequent reader of LilyOnTheLam.com, you will remember my blog post from last year where I attended a cooking demonstration by the amazingly wonderful Spice King himself, Chef Floyd Cardoz.  (Otherwise known as the winner of Top Chef Masters).  So today's blog post will be the first of three 2012 Top Chef-related or Top Chef-inspired blog posts that I will be writing in the next couple weeks.  (Actually it's the second of four, if you count the Top Chef cookbook-inspired dinner party I wrote about in one of my recent blog posts.)

For the first installment of my 2012 Top Chef Trilogy, I turn to this current season of "Top Chef" and the dreamy-eyed newly appointed Chef de Cuisine of Moto Restaurant in Chicago, Chef Richie Farina.  I don't want to appear to be a Top Chef stalker, but I seriously want to put Chef Richie Farina in my purse and carry him around.  Taking him out of said purse to occasionally stare at his jaw-droppingly dreamy eyes, his crazy colorful tattoos and to have him emulsify some chicken skin for me.  (Yeah you heard me, I'll be talking about that particular culinary bit later in this post.)

Back when Chef Richie Farina was a high schooler in Florida, he worked at The Rolling Pin Kitchen Emporium in Brandon, Florida.   The Rolling Pin is one of my favorite kitchen gadget and specialty products stores and their cooking classes are always beyond fantastic.  Rolling Pin Owner Chef Dave West, seized upon the opportunity to have Chef Richie Farina teach two classes while he was in Tampa visiting his family.  Needless to say, the two classes sold out.

The Rolling Pin has recently remodeled their kitchen demonstration area and I have to say it is a giant step up from where it was before.  More seating, a great marble wrap-around bar and motion-sensored cameras that project to a number of flat screen TVs so that every seat in the area has a great view of what is going on during the cooking demo.  Chef Dave West really outdid himself on the remodel.  The remodel is not 100% done yet, but this is definitely a world-class kitchen demo area for the Tampa Bay area.  

When I arrived, I saw that my seat was directly front center of where Chef Richie Farina would be cooking.  Nothing like up close and personal!  However, 2 companions I was meeting had place cards at the end of the bar.  I decided that sitting by my class companions was more important than being two feet away from dreamy-eyed Chef Richie's face and Chef Dave West graciously let me switch place cards to be next to my friends.

Here is what happens when you put friends before making inappropriate come hither looks at a young Chef ... my original seat turned out to be next to a woman who was either on some sort of anti-anxiety medication or she was lacking a large number of IQ points.  She asked the most ridiculous questions.  Then two seats down from my original seat was a gentleman with a mohawk who also was in the restaurant industry and asked so many questions that had I been doing a shot for every question he asked, I would have been dead of alcohol poisoning by the second course.  Had I been seated in-between these two question lovers, I would have had to strangle both of them.  And I don't look sexy in prison jumpsuits.

Not only did I save myself jail time, but my seat was next to the hand washing station - so Chef Richie spent half the night standing right next to me.  Dreamy eyes framed in very dark, lush eyelashes.  He was close enough to me that if I had very slightly extended my arm, I could have touched his colorful array of tattoos, but I didn't.  I thought about it, but I didn't.  I really thought about it.  But I didn't.  I thought Chef Richie Farina was a fun character on Top Chef, but good lord the TV didn't do those cute eyes justice!

So moral of the story - put your friends first and karma will reward you.

Sitting so close to Chef Richie and his tattoos, I spent part of the evening staring at his tattooed sleeves trying to pick out the various images.  One tattoo was of some sort of baby saber-tooth tiger or a rabid squirrel with a giant picnic ham.  I wanted to ask him what the heck it was and what did it represent, but then I decided to embrace the zen-ness of it all.  Do not ask why a fang-toothed creature and a ham - just accept it and be.  Namaste.

Chef Richie's mother and father also attended the cooking demonstration.  It was sweet to watch Richie's mom set up stories and Chef Richie add the punchline.  It was obvious that there is a lot of love in their family and his mother's immense pride was heartwarmingly evident.

Chef Richie's menu for our class concentrated on "fun with food."  If you've been watching Top Chef this season, you'll know that both Chef Richie Farina and Chef Chris Jones are from Moto Restaurant and both are masters at making food appear to be something it's not.

Our first course was this gorgeous lemon yellow sponge cake with a piping of cream cheese frosting.  I love desserts, so I don't care if it's first, last or in-between.  However this was not a sweet course, but a savory one.  It was a sponge cake made with King Crab leg meat and topped with a very lemony cream cheese seasoned with Old Bay Seasoning.  It was a savory appetizer, not a sweet one.

The sponge cake was infused with a "crab butter" - King crab leg shells steeped in butter and then drained.  The aromatic effect of this crab butter was unbelievable.  Just smelling this dish, I was drooling.

It was delicious.  The cream cheese "frosting" had this clear, crisp punch of citrus.  I don't know how it was so lemony.  A classmate thought the overall effect was a little too sweet.  I loved the "frosting" but I would have perhaps put in some shredded vegetables in the sponge cake to increase the savory component.

Our next course was ribeye and onions, four ways.  I have been to a good number of cooking classes and demonstrations.  I have to say that someone needs to give Chef Richie Farina his own TV show or national tour.  His banter and very insightful cooking technique recommendations were gold.  Usually I find that a chef may give tips that are standard common knowledge.  For example: "you should make your own chicken stock."  Really?  Sheesh!  Thanks for the tip!

Chef Richie Farina's tips were practical and insightful.  At Moto Restaurant, they season meats and fish with fat, acid and salt.  They season meat and some vegetables and then let them sit for 15 minutes to let the seasonings penetrate the food versus just forming a salt crust.  After letting sit for 15 minutes, wipe off the meat to remove residual water so when you sear the meat you will get a true sear and not a steam.  One of the attendees said that she had been told not to salt meat because it draws out water and dries out the meat.  Chef Richie's response was that you are replacing water with flavor - like dry aging a steak.

He also showed how you could balance your stirring spoon in the pot hook opening instead of a spoon rest.  Genius!

One of the most intriguing tips of the night was finding out that if you mixed Five Hour Energy with crushed up Vitamin B-12 tablets, you will make a liquid that is invisible but becomes visible with a black light.  Moto Restaurant had served a 16 course meal where every item was black and the edible menu was printed with this "invisible ink."  Guests were then given black lights to be able to read the menu.

Chef Richie's stories and cooking tips kept the audience riveted!  He then showed the class how to break down rib eyes.  I have almost no butchering skills, so it was wonderful to see someone so passionate about butchering.  Chef Richie took us step by step through breaking down the meat.

Video screen at the Rolling Pin showing how to break down your steaks

Chef Richie seared the rib eye to a medium rare.  He let the meat rest and flipped it halfway through to keep the maximum juices inside the rib eyes.  Our recipes included the following passage on meat temperatures.  Check it out and have a chuckle.

Since lilies and onions are part of the same family, I have to say I love a good onion.  Chef Richie's onions four ways were insanely good.  He made an onion puree, pickled Cippolini onions, deep fried steakhouse onions and confit scallions.  My favorite was his onion puree.  I could have eaten a gigantic soup bowl of it.   All four ways were crazy delicious.

There were a number of volunteers who plated the rib eye and the onion four ways.  Mine was plated pretty sloppy, but the woman next to me's rib eye was plated well (see below).

Oh that heavenly onion puree-- it's just onions sweated in butter for an hour.  No wonder it is so good.

Chef Richie would not be a true Moto Restaurant Chef if he didn't have an entree that was crazy, wildly different.  The recipe guide said "Braised Chicken and Roasted Beets with Puffed Rice."  Sounds good, but what's wild about that?

What we were served was bloody roadkill.

The volunteer platers did not make a bloody splatter on the plate like Chef Richie had done in his demonstration, but let me walk you through the assembly.  Golden beet puree is piped on the plate to simulate a yellow line on a road.  Red beet puree is splattered on the plate to simulate a bloody mess.  On top is braised pulled chicken meat-- the "roadkill" and the puffed rice simulates maggots.  It definitely is a jaw-dropping sight.

Chef Richie braised the chicken and then pulled the meat off the bone.  He then did something that I thought was going to be insanely disgusting but turned out to be one of the most flavorful parts of the evening.  Chef Richie took the chicken skin that he had removed from the braised chicken and some water and put it in a Vita Prep.  He blended the heck out of the chicken skin, creating an emulsion.  He then mixed the emulsified chicken skin back into the pulled chicken meat.  The end result was like roasted chickeny goodness on steroids.  Intensely flavorful chicken.

He took Uncle Ben's converted rice and deep fried it.  Voila!  Homemade rice krispies.  The "maggots" added a fun crunch to the savory chicken.  In addition to our "road kill," we had had a velvety smooth potato puree that was so crazy rich I wondered how many pounds of butter and cream were incorporated into it.  (I looked at the recipe, trust me- you don't want to know!)  The potato puree when eaten with the ultra-flavorful braised chicken and the tangy beet purees was the perfect complement to the rich potatoes.

But what's a meal with a Top Chef contestant without a "fun with food" dessert?  Chef Richie was going to make us chili dogs with cheese for dessert!

YES!  The ultimate dessert!  OK OK, so it's not a chili dog.  I've actually seen this made on television, but it was nice to see the steps up close and personal.

Chef Richie started with the same sponge cake as the crab cake, but with twice as much sugar and instead of crab butter he used browned butter.

Chef Richie made "hot dog bun molds" by wrapping foil around a spice jar and then pulling the spice jar away.  He sprayed the inside with a flour/oil spray and sprinkled poppy seeds in it before piping in the sponge cake batter.

After baking, he trimmed the "buns" to look more like split open hot dog buns.  He saved the cake scraps and blended them with orange juice and goji berries.  He left the mix in the Vita Prep for quite awhile so that the protein in the cake scraps could break down and thicken the sauce.  This would be the "cheese sauce."

He rolled raspberry sorbet in plastic wrap and then refroze it to create "hot dogs."  The plastic wrapping, after removed, did leave indentations in the sorbet that looked amazingly like hot dog casing.

Last but not least, the "ground beef" was milk chocolate blended in a food processor.  You have to use milk chocolate because dark chocolate will not make the same crumbly effect in the food processor.

I liked how when I started eating the "chili cheese dog" that the melting raspberry sorbet started to look like traces of ketchup on the plate.

Chef Richie also gave us some scoop on life as a Top Chef contestant.  He did not feel "Last Chance Kitchen" was fair.  The reason he believed this is because the last contestant voted out before the final four, the fantastic Chef Edward Lee, did not get a second chance to make it back in whereas everyone else did.  A very good point.  Where is Chef Edward Lee's last chance?

While Chef Richie was sad to have been eliminated so early, he was happy that reality television showed his genuine friendship with Chef Chris Jones.

Of course,  I had to get a picture taken with Chef Richie.  Did I happen to mention he has dreamy eyes?  That's my hand on his shoulder ... Chef Richie looked adorable, me not so much in this pic so I cropped it for maximum dreamy eyed loveliness!

Chef Richie Farina's class was one of the best cooking demos I have attended.  He was sweet, funny, sincere, engaging and extremely knowledgable.  Someone needs to book his national tour now.  If you see Chef Richie is going to be in your area, sign up for the demo as soon as possible!  You will not regret it!

However, since I worked as a management consultant for many years, I have a few tips for Chef Dave West at the Rolling Pin Kitchen Emporium.

First, your volunteers were amazingly quick on the ball, constantly refilling our beverages throughout the evening.  However, each time they had to ask "was that sparkling or still water in your glass?  Was your wine the Reisling or the Chardonnay?"  Since there was a large number of attendees for the cooking demo, this constant questioning of each participant caused a constant, distracting buzz and made it difficult to pay attention.  Get some laminated coasters in a variety of colors and have your volunteers place them under the glass.  Let's say a blue coaster is still water, green is sparkling-- then the volunteers can refill to their hearts content without constantly asking what's in each person's glass.  It's a little thing that would make a huge difference.

Second, having the volunteers wash dishes during the Chef's presentation also was distracting and noisy.

Third, not sure if this is from Chef Richie or the Rolling Pin but the recipes we were given were incomplete and not thorough.

Last tip for the Rolling Pin -- keep booking chefs that are as interesting, engaging and fun as Chef Richie Farina.  It was an absolutely amazing evening!

P.S. At the end of the night, I was standing in the parking lot chatting.  Chef Richie and his mother came out of The Rolling Pin.  He saw the group of class attendees and looked startled.  I suspect he must have been able to read my mind when I was contemplating keeping him in my purse.  Sorry Chef Richie, while I am a bit crazy; I am not going to kidnap you and throw you in my car trunk.

My car is a convertible and the trunk is much too small for kidnapping humans.

Consider yourself lucky. ;-)  And thank you for a wonderful cooking demo.