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Quack time: Beacon Hill Bistro

10

A food writer’s favorite culinary indulgences

If ever there was a time of year to be a little indulgent, it’s December. After all, isn’t it payback for having to slog through 31 short, dark, chilly days? In that spirit, I’ve put together my personal top 10 of micro, mini, and maxi indulgences for the month. The key to making the most out of these small pleasures is conscious ceremony. You don’t just eat the great, juicy cheeseburger on the run, or slice off cold chunks of artisanal cheese before it comes to room temperature runny-ness. You construct the ambience carefully, hold the bite in your mouth, marvel over it, rhapsodically describe it, and thus transform a small moment of sensual pleasure into a big helping of self-love.

Moving On Up

What does it take to transition from cook to chef?

It isn’t automatic, you know. Just because you’ve been working hard, have cooked long hours in a professional kitchen, and maybe even graduated from culinary school doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll ever get to be a “chef.” Actually, I used to make fun of chefs when I was a young kitchen slave. It seemed weirdly hierarchical for all these hotshot cooks to be responding, “Yes, Chef!” to every order barked by some 26-year-old in a tomato- stained white jacket. As if the guy — or girl — were a general, an archbishop, or some other authoritative chieftain. Who was this titanic “chef” figure? Wasn’t he or she simply someone with a slightly better palate, a mildly more refined sense of presentation, or just more seniority on the line? Nope, I learned. Making the transition from just another cook on the brigade to a chef’s position — be it sous, chef de cuisine, or executive — is a matter of technical mastery, drive, discipline, leadership skills, an excellent palate, and a gift for creativity.

So how does a young cook know he or she has what it takes to move up the ladder? And how does a chef identify the “comers”?

Comfort's in

Think there's no place like home? Think again. 

Triple Threat

To the delight of cocktail lovers everywhere, Barbara Lynch opens Drink, the first of three Fort Point ventures

Feeding Frenzy: October 21, 2008

And so it begins: some local restaurants have started tweaking their menus and price points, and whether or not they say so, you know the failing economy must have something (or everything) to do with it. Over at Sage, chef/owner Anthony Susi has unveiled a new menu concept, what he calls “a more casual and relaxed Italian dining experience.” In addition to antipasti and entrées, an expanded stuzzi (small plates) selection now features inexpensive munchies like pickled eggplant ($4), sliced sopressata ($5), chicken-liver crostini ($6), and marinated mushrooms ($6).

Leave it to the always-whimsical Jake’s Dixie BBQ in Waltham to come up with “Jake’s BBQ Bailout.” From 5 to 9 p.m. every Sunday through Wednesday for the remainder of the month, Jake’s is taking 50 percent off appetizers when ordered with an entrée.

Feeding Frenzy, October 7, 2008

Good news for public market fans. The Massachusetts Legislature has approved $10 million for a Boston Public Market that will be a hub for locally produced foods from across the region. Governor Deval Patrick, a major foodie himself, signed the bill, which allocates money to plan and build the market. In a simultaneous and supporting development, the Boston Redevelopment Authority funded a companion initiative to locate the market in Boston. My personal thanks to all those private citizens, members of the Massachusetts Farm Bureau, and legislators who worked long and hard so Boston will have a year-round indoor farmers’ market.

Third Time's a Charm

After years of searching for just the right space, Chuck Draghi returns with Erbaluce

Sea Change: Indian cuisine goes Coastal in Brookline

Indian cuisine goes Coastal in Brookline

When I finally sat down with a map, I didn’t know why I’d been surprised when restaurant entrepreneur Vik Kapoor of Harvard Square’s Tamarind Bay first floated the notion of a new venture specializing in Indian seafood. But it had seemed so odd to me at first. My mind was so firmly attached to a meat-and veggie-based Indian cuisine of goshts and murghs, and my idea of seafood so focused on things from Maine grilled with lemon and butter, that it didn’t compute. What would Kapoor serve, other than really good shrimp curry?

Feeding Frenzy, September 23, 2008

 How about night school for grownups who love to eat and drink? Instead of AP chemistry, sign up for the Boston Wine School’s “WINE 101: Wine Tasting for the Complete Novice,” a fourclass series held on Tuesday nights starting October 7 and taught by Wine Master and educator Jonathon Alsop. “The goal is to help beginning wine drinkers respond with verve to the server’s perennial question: ‘What kind of wine do you like?’ ” Alsop says. The course fee is $200; visit www.bostonwineschool.com for info.

Boston University ramps up its Food & Wine Seminar Series (www.bu.edu/foodandwine) this fall with hands-on cooking classes and demonstrations. On October 6, puzzle through the evolution of Latin and Spanish cuisine with Jose Garces, chef/owner of Amada and Tinto in Philadelphia. For $50, participants will taste dishes paired with wine and take home a copy of Garces’s new book, Latin Evolution. On October 6, there’s a $125 hands-on “Modern Asian” class with Jason Santos, chef at Somerville’s Gargoyles, on the techniques, ingredients, and flavors of today’s Asian food. October 15 brings “Artisan Cheeses” ($80) with Ihsan Gurdal, owner of Formaggio Kitchen and South End Formaggio. Gurdal will discuss the traditional methods of cheesemaking and the craft of affinage, or cheese maturing; there will also be tastings paired with wine.

Less and More

Sometimes you feel like a splurge, and sometimes you don’t. But even when you’re feeling more like Scrooge than a big spender, you still don’t want to settle for crapola for dinner. It just means you have to think a little more creatively about where and how to eat. So here’s something for local newcomers to consider: true, Boston has plenty of worldclass, big-ticket eateries, but it also has more than its share of places to eat where the bill for two can be under $40, excluding the bar tab.

Of course, ethnic restaurants are dependably cheap eats. Good food, fast service, fair prices. But as terrific as the cuisine can be, sometimes the atmosphere at the nearest Indian, Chinese, Thai, or Mexican joint leaves you feeling a little less than festive. If dinner out was only about spending as little as possible, where would the joy be? Think of this as a little cheat sheet on where to eat when you don’t want to sacrifice style just because you’re a little short on change.

Boston Restaurant news, September 9, 2008

There’s a second location for entrepreneur Scott Herritt. The chefowner of Grotto, at the base of Beacon Hill, has opened Marliave, steps from the Park Street T station. Herritt is pitching Marliave’s menu as “New England–sourced food with Italian and French influences.” What does that mean? “It’s food you know — steaks, rack of lamb, steak frites — but not authentically Italian or French. Like, you don’t find shrimp scampi in Italy,” Herritt says. Upstairs, Marliave will be a finedining, Whitetablecloth space; the downstairs café is a more casual bistro, with a 15-seat marble bar.

There’s at least one more gasp of summer on September 14, when the Samuel Adams Brewery in Jamaica Plain, along with the Massachusetts Aquaculture Association, hosts a Shellfish Shindig celebrating local mollusks. The event features local chefs and shellfishermen demonstrating preparation and cooking and shucking techniques, plus plenty of local oysters, quahog clams, steamers to eat and Sam Adams beer to wash it all down. Admission is $10 and includes two beer tastings (or pay $25 and get six tastings); food is sold separately. Get tickets at www.massaqua.org.

Leaving home

Why do we eat out? 

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been asking chefs what they’re doing to convey value to their customers in a deflating economy. Gas prices are high, jobs are shaky, yet still the body needs to be fed. Whether you eat in or out, the cost of basic food is up: everything from corn to milk is more expensive than it was six months ago. You might be wondering if you should trim your dining-out budget. I feel a little like George W. Bush suggesting a shopping spree as the cure-all for the post-9/ 11 blues when I say this, but there’s never been a better time to eat out. Even though some entrée prices have edged up, savvy chefs know that they can’t pass on all their commodity costs to the diner or you’d all stay home and heat up a can of soup. Still, many diners are wary, which creates a back-to-basics question for restaurants: why should diners eat out when we all have adequate stoves at home?

Good-hearted eats

Feeding frenzy: Latin faves, Grill 23 saves, Todd English's proteges