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
Posted by Eli in : Press , add a comment
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.
Check someone off your list! We are giving away 2 signed cookbooks! One for you, one for them! November 10, 2009
Posted by Eli in : Uncategorized , add a commentMoney is definitely tight right now so we want to help alleviate (a small amount) of the holiday shopping burden by giving you 2 signed copies of our cookbook “Freshman in the Kitchen.” Keep one for yourself or give both away, we’ll sign em both to whomever and ship them directly to your door with plenty of time to have them wrapped for the holidays.
To win the “FreshmanKitchen personalized cookbooks Contest” all you need to do is:
1) Go to www.youtube.com/freshmankitchen
2) Watch our reel video AND leave a comment
3)Log into twitter and tweet this message “I just entered to win 2 signed cookbooks from @freshmankitchen! Contest info : www.youtube.com/freshmankitchen” (the remaining 42 characters are yours if you want em!)
We will contact the randomly selected winner via twitter at the end of this month!
GOOD LUCK! And remember that you can also buy our cookbook by clicking on the very not subtle sky blue link to your upper right.
Max with Anthony Bourdain! November 9, 2009
Posted by Eli in : Uncategorized , 2comments
Is that a signed copy of FITK tucked underneath Bourdain’s arm?
New Crazy site called Youtube November 5, 2009
Posted by Eli in : Uncategorized , add a comment
A good friend of ours that refers to themself as a “social media maven” (see: uses twitter AND facebook) told us we should be on youtube. As we are 26 and 24 respectively and Youtube is for the “young kids” we had no idea about this magical tool’s capabilites were. VIDEO??? FOR FREE??? ONLINE???
He said that we could film ourselves doing WHATEVER we wanted and post it to the web. Immediatly we threw on weird outfits and started dancing to bad pop music in our bedrooms. Video of Max making a ”viral” video commenting on Britney Spears? Check. Video of Eli playing a Dave Matheews song on his acoustic guitar? Check. Eli and Max fighting (lightsaber FX to be added later)? Check.
But before we upload those videos, we’ve posted our reel which is directed and edited by the most professional and skilled videographer in all of the CHI, Harry Mayers (http://www.vimeo.com/harrymayers). We think he did a sick job on it and we think you all should check out his handy work on our brand new youtube fan page:
http://www.youtube.com/freshmankitchen
Please send it around to your friends, tell us what you think in the comments section, post it on your facebook and watch it over and over. We’ll even entertain suggestions for our next “viral video”
