Chocolate Festival

This past weekend I conducted a demonstration at the Fairchild Tropical Botanical Garden Chocolate Festival in Miami. That’s right, a festival dedicated to chocolate! Natalie White, Director of  Marketing (formerly of Whole Foods in Coral Gables, FL) asked me If I could help out with kid and family friendly chocolate recipes.

Kitchen Cousins

When the family’s in town for a visit and you’ve already gone bowling and to the movies, a great place to catch up is in the kitchen....Cooking. During the winter holidays I got to spend some quality time with some of my cousins.

National Student Chef of the year competition

Its been nearly 2 years since I competed in my first American Culinary Federation  (ACF) competition. Now I’m at it again, this time to compete for the title of  2011 ACF National Student Chef of the Year, on my own without a partner! As you might remember, our dish for the 2009 ACF Salon consisted of snapper, which meant countless numbers fish to fillet for practice. It was one of the greatest experiences I’ve ever had and on top of that my partner Paige and I received Silver medals. We were the only high school competitors out of 4 professional teams. Professional Culinary competitions are a lot different from what you see on Iron Chef America. You’re judged by Certified Master Chefs (there are less then 100 in the entire world) who take everything into account from your uniform to the precise measurements of your knife cuts, sanitation, even the smell and freshness of your ingredients. I’ll bring you along with me every step of the way right up to competition day at the ACF Regional Conference in Atlanta this February. This is a very big deal, in fact you need to be nominated before you are even considered, so even being chosen to compete is quite an honor. Sixteen competitors have been selected to compete, four from each region of the country (SE, NE, SW & NW). The stakes are high because the winner from each of the four regions moves on to compete for the title of National Student Chef of the Year this summer.......I better start cooking!

Click here to see the ACF Press release.

For more information about how you can get involved in your local ACF chapter please log onto www.ACFchefs.org

Keep on Cooking!!!

A Resolution & A Good Roast Chicken

 To be honest JeremyCooks took a vacation or better yet, I took a vacation. It was an awesome vacation full of food, family, and friends! However it’s now a new year and therefore I have a resolution and a promise to you, yes YOU! My resolution this year is to bring you more content here on JeremyCooks.com. I promise this year you will see a whole lot more food, friends and kids in the kitchen. I can tell you that 2011 looks very promising so far with lots of exciting news and surprises just around the corner.

To start off the New Year there’s nothing better then a good roast chicken. In 2009 I interviewed Food Critic Bill Ciatra and he said the sign of a good restaurant is their roast chicken (that is if they offer it). If you don’t own a restaurant, a great roast chicken is the sign of a great cook. Roast chicken, done the right way is juicy, tender and wrapped in a crispy amber brown skin. When it comes out of the oven its almost like staring at one of the Seven Wonders of the World, you’ll never stop taking photos of it! It may seem like a daunting task just thinking about working with chicken and trussing it but believe it or not it’s quite easy and a fun experience. Here’s a simple tasty recipe for a JeremyCooks Roast Chicken with Root Vegetables. Serve it up with salad and a loaf of bread


…and who could forget dessert (even if it is store-bought).

Keep on Cooking!!

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Recipe

Roast Chicken with Root Vegetables
Serves 4

1 bulb fennel, thinly sliced
4 carrots, diced (1/2 inch thick)
2 yellow onions, halved, cut into thirds
2 turnips peeled, diced (1 inch thick) 
5 red potatoes, quartered
1/4 cup olive oil
1 (4 lb.) roasting chicken
2 shallots, halved
3 garlic cloves
1 orange, quartered 
1 lemon, halved 
1 bunch thyme and rosemary
6 tablespoons butter, room temperature
1 tablespoon kosher salt
½ tablespoon freshly cracked pepper

Preheat the oven to 475°F

In a medium size roasting pan toss the fennel, carrots, onion, turnips, potatoes and 3 tablespoons olive oil (reserve 1 tablespoon) together, season with salt and pepper. Thoroughly wash the chicken and remove any giblets. Pat the chicken completely dry and stuff the cavity with one lemon half and one orange wedge, shallots, garlic, rosemary and thyme. Add the remaining lemon half and orange wedges to the roasting pan.

Begin to truss the chicken by placing it with the legs facing you. Tuck the wings under the bird. Cut a long piece of kitchen twine (3 ft) and center it under the neck and the breast. Pull the twine up and over the breast toward you. Knot the twine, pulling it tight. Bring the ends of the twine around the ends of the drumsticks and straight up. Tie to pull the ends of the drumsticks together, then again to secure the knot.

Drizzle the remaining tablespoon of olive oil over the chicken and thoroughly rub the butter all over the skin. Generously season with salt and pepper. Make a well in the middle of the roasting pan, pushing the vegetables aside. Place the chicken in the well and roast in the oven for 20 minutes. Lower the temperature to 425°F and continue roasting for 1 hour and 10 minutes until golden brown and cooked.

Slice the chicken, place on a platter and serve with roasted vegetables.