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Troy's Taste Private Chef & Catering

My First Love: "Pancakes"

In my earlier posts I mentioned how pancakes were the very first food that made me want to dig deeper to find out how to make them.  I have made pancakes probably hundreds of times in my life, sometimes using a box mix, and sometimes from scratch.  Recently I have been trying to really fine tune my pancake recipe, and my results have not really matched my vision. Usually trial and error have been my process in creating and tweaking recipes, but that really wasn't working. So I did some research on how baking powder and baking soda interact with certain liquids, and what liquids work best to achieve the best consistency.  Yesterday evening I told my wife that we were going to have pancakes for dinner, so I had my wife get the list of ingredients I needed, and this evening I went into the kitchen on mission to make the perfect pancake.

After putting together my batter I made my first 2 test pancakes, and they came out PERFECT!  They were light, fluffy, and delicious.  My taste testers (My Wife and two little ones) agreed that these pancakes were great.  I made 2 more pancakes for myself, and I have to say they were quite good.  I have to admit I was pretty happy.

I have made dishes with a much higher degree of difficulty, but to nail down the dish that made me want to become a chef is such a gratifying feeling.  Now that I have my base recipe, it is time to build upon it.  I made lemon ricotta pancakes with brown sugar & cayenne pepper bacon.  It was absolutely delicious.  Pictures are below.

Saturday Night's Dish

Tempura Fried Catfish, French Fries, Chipotle Ketchup, and Ginger Aioli.  The Wife and kids really liked this one.

Dreaming Big

I had all intentions for this post to be about building flavors, but a project I did in Culinary School got me to thinking about long term aspirations.  Most chef's in the back of their mind always dreams about having their own restaurant, but I never really gave it much thought.  That was until I did this project and realized that being able to express myself through food to the masses would be exciting.  To open not just a restaurant but being able to have people get a true sense of me.  My passion, my history, my style, my taste would all be on display for people to absorb.  Something about this truly intrigues me and motivates me to figure out how to make this happen one day.

Many of my chef instructors and chef's I know in the industry say having your own restaurant is a colossal responsibility and in the end becomes your life.  I know many chef's who have gotten divorced and lost a lot personally pursuing this dream.  Many tell me, "Sometimes you should be careful for what you want or ask for."   I really believe in anything a person does, there has to be a balance.  A balance of ones professional and private lives.   Many people try to separate the two and it doesn't work, but I know I would never want to lose my family for anything, not even pursuing a dream. 

Having a restaurant allows a chef to be much more versatile in the dishes they can prepare.  Everything is prepared, cooked, and served in relatively short period of time which allows for the use of many more ingredients and the creation of many more intricate and complex dishes.  When you are a caterer one always has to consider is this dish or does this ingredient hold well, can it survive being held at certain temperatures for long periods of time without compromising taste, texture, appearance, and the overall success of the final product.  There are trade offs to both career path's but from a pure culinary perspective, restaurant chef's have the advantage.

Maybe one day I will be blessed to open a restaurant, but until then, I will keep working towards becoming the best Chef possible.