Max lets Behindtheknife know why he always keeps a headlamp handy November 12, 2009
Posted by Eli in : Cooking, In the News, Press, Video , add a commentBehindtheknife.com Chef Profile: Max Sussman
A must for every chef’s toolbox: a good headlamp…
The Chef: Max Sussman is executive sous chef at eve the restaurant in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Max is the co-author, along with brother Eli, of Freshman in the Kitchen: From Clueless Cook to Creative Chef.
The Toolbox: A red roll-style knife bag. “I keep it pretty simple,” he admits.
The Tools: Whiplash is setting in compared with Chef Hetrick in yesterday’s installment. Turns out Max Sussman is quite the minimalist though he, too falls victim to Sharpie Love. “I’ve got my chef knife, a paring knife, some tongs, a couple silicon heat-resistant spatulas, and a few Sharpies,” he says. “I live across the street from the restaurant where I work, so I rarely need to bring much more than that. If we’re doing an off-site catering event, I may add an extra knife.”
Max and Eli cutting it up in the kitchen.The Sentimental Tool: He tends to turn misty-eyed over his knife bag, since his girlfriend gave it to him. But he can be awfully sentimental about his 10-1/2” Mac Mighty chef knife. “No,” he quickly warns, “you can’t touch it.”
The Strangest Thing In There: Well, this is a first: “A headlamp,” says Sussman. “I once worked at a fishing lodge in a very remote part of Patagonia, Chile. The power was so unreliable with frequent brownouts, so at least once a week we’d have to turn the lights off and bust out the headlamps.” Even though he lives in the middle of civilization today, he still carries it everywhere with him. “The one time you need a headlamp makes it all worth it,” he advises.
The Tool That’s Inspired You: His Mac Mighty, of course. “When I cook at home, I like to use my knife and play around with different ways to cut ingredients. Cutting a pepper into a dice or julienne yields such such different flavors and can also change the whole look of a dish,” he says.
What A Psychologist Would Say About His Tools: “I think he’d say that I’m either a minimalist who like to keep things simple, or a drifter with a fear of commitment.”
His Voyeuristic Side: “I’m a knife guy, so I’m always curious about what type of knife other chefs use,” he says. “But I’ve noticed that even if everyone uses pretty much the same tools it’s what you do with it that counts. So I’m always looking out for other people’s technique and ingredients as well as their toolbox.”
Watch Max & Eli on YouTube and follow them @FreshmanKitchen on Twitter.
Shoutout in the Herald-Palladium News! November 11, 2009
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Cookbook for college students
By Jane Ammeson / H-P food columnist
It’s a great book for beginners, with easy recipes and lots of hints on how to stock a kitchen, getting to know ingredients and even how to shop. Rule No. 1: Don’t grocery shop on an empty stomach. Here’s a recipe from the book.
Potato Skins in the Microwave
4 large potatoes
1-2 cups cheddar cheese, shredded or broken into small pieces
3 tablespoons Bacon Bits or 3 diced cooked bacon slices
2 tablespoons thinly sliced green onion
Garlic powder (optional)
Sour cream (optional)
Cut potatoes into wedges, lengthwise, 2 or 4 pieces depending on the size of the potato. Place in microwave-safe dish filled with water to cover potatoes. Cook on high for 7 minutes.
Remove and test for doneness by poking with a knife. If you cannot scoop out the inside of the potato, return to microwave on high for 1 minute at a time until finished.
Scoop out the potato so 1/4-inch thickness remains around shell of potato. Sprinkle cheese over the top and return to microwave for 1-2 minutes, until cheese is melted. Remove and sprinkle with Bacon Bits and green onion. Top with a shake of garlic powder and a dollop of sour cream, if desired.
My daughter and I sometimes watch the TV show “Ace of Cakes” about professional bakers who make the most wonderfully elaborate cakes – sometimes using blowtorches and drill saws.
So it was fun to find a book and blogspot that showed the opposite spectrum of cakes. Call it cakes gone bad or, as the book and blog are titled, “Cake Wrecks: When Professional Cakes Go Hilariously Wrong” (Andrews McMeal 2009, $12.95) based on the blogspot that inspired it, www.cakewrecks.blogspot.com.
This isn’t about the disasters that happen in home kitchens. Instead, according to creator Jennifer Yates, the book and BlogSpot focus on any professionally made cake that is “unintentionally sad, silly, creepy or inappropriate.”
Her examples abound, including the cake that reads “Best Luck Suzanne, Underneat that, We will miss you,” obviously taken word for word from an order on what to write on the cake.
After reading the book, I thought it might be fun for others to share their own disaster stories. If you have such a story you’d be willing to share, please e-mail or write me.
Jane Ammeson can be contacted via e-mail at janeammeson@comcast.net or by writing to Focus Department, The Herald-Palladium, P.O. Box 128, St. Joseph, MI 49085.
Chicago Tribune font, how we love thee September 23, 2009
Posted by Eli in : Press, Stories, Updates , add a comment
Elizabeth Schiele September 23, 2009
Brothers in the kitchen: Eli and Max Sussman sign their new cookbook, “Freshman in the Kitchen,” and conduct a cooking demonstration at two events. 6 p.m. Saturday. $10. Whole Foods, 3640 N. Halsted St. Information, 773-472-0400. And 6 p.m. Tuesday to benefit Common Threads. $60. The Chopping Block, Merchandise Mart. Information, 312-644-6360.
Thanks to the Chicago Tribune for including us in the Good Eat’s Section of today’s new-sa-paper!
Mittenlit.com shout out about Kerrytown! September 18, 2009
Posted by Eli in : Press , add a commentThank you to mittenlit for helping to make Kerrytown a huge success for us!
This cookbook is for the kid who thinks a grilled cheese sandwhich is a gourmet dinner
Thursday, 3 September 2009, 14:17 | Category : Author Visit, Culinary
Tags : Freshman in the Kitchen, Jane and Michael Stern, Kerrytown BookFest, Sussman
Eli and Max Sussman will bring their message that enough’s enough when it comes to microwave popcorn, take-out pizzas and little cardboard boxes filled with gelatinous goodies to the seventh annual Kerrytown BookFest in Ann Arbor Michigan September 13. They are part of a literary ”foodie day” which stresses locally grown food that includes the talented road dogs of Jane and Michael Stern who are sponsored by Michigan Radio.
The two brothers, (Eli went to MSU and Max to U-M) have collaborated on a cookbook, “Freshman in the Kitchen: From Clueless Cook to Creative Chef”, published through Ann Arbor’s Huron River Press. The two brothers got their first lessons in cooking their parent’s home in Huntington Woods. They will do a demo at the BookFest in the Hollander’s upstairs Kitchen shop at 2:00 P.M. For more details on the BookFest go to www.kerrytownbookfest.org
New Press in The Daily Press! June 2, 2009
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Thanks to the Daily Press in Newport News, VA for including us in the graduation gift guide. Getting included in gift guides make us feel warm and gooey inside. If sales in VA spike, we only have one place to thank for that.
