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Chef’s Kitchen
Each month we bring a guest chef into our Chef’s
Kitchen column to give us tips that elevate their cooking (and hopefully
ours). They also provide a recipe that showcases their tips. Our guest
chef this month is Chef de Cuisine
Anthony Polizzi of Steelhead Diner. Located in the heart of the Pike
Place Farmers Market, Steelhead Diner offers high-level comfort food:
succulent fish, amazing fried chicken, gumbo, razor clam chowder, caviar
pie, decadent desserts and much more. With a constantly changing menu,
they offer the freshest seasonal items with their own special twist.
Boisterous and fun, Steelhead Diner appeals to locals and visitors
alike. Owners Chef Kevin and Terresa Davis also own Blueacre Seafood in
downtown Seattle.
A New York native, Anthony worked as a busser and
server at a fine-dining French restaurant while attending Drexel
University in Philadelphia in 2002, planting the seeds of interest in
the culinary world. He moved to Los Angeles, taking a job in marketing,
eventually realizing his interest was in cooking. He moved to Seattle
and worked as a server at Le Pichet while attending the Art Institute of
Seattle, receiving his Applied Associates Degree, Culinary Arts, in
2006. With a friend, he began catering parties and buffets. He took a
job as a line cook and closing manager at Salty's on Alki and completed
his school internship there. He then worked as a kitchen assistant for a
private chef, moving to The Purple Cafe and Wine Bar as a sauté cook and
closing manager. In May 2007, he was hired as a cook at Steelhead Diner
by Chef/Owner Kevin Davis where they worked side-by-side for three
years. When the Davises opened Blueacre Seafood in early 2010, Anthony
was promoted to Chef de Cuisine at Steelhead Diner. The smooth
transition and Anthony's skill in the kitchen make him a chef to watch.
Stock your kitchen
By Chef de Cuisine Anthony Polizzi
The biggest tip I can offer a home cook is to have
stock around. Stocks are an essential building block of cooking and one
of the most basic things that can be mastered. Stock is the base for
many dishes such as soups, braises and risottos. They also help take a
dish into something that is restaurant caliber when made into a
sauce. Imagine how good a traditional steak and potato dish is. Now
pour a ladle of black peppercorn red wine sauce over it. With
Thanksgiving around the corner, having a good quality chicken stock to
combine with your pan drippings to make your gravy will impress your
guests. Your dishes now pick up a certain edge.
Store-bought stocks are pretty easy to come by, but
making good stock at home is not that difficult and they are easy to
store. The recipes for the stocks listed are in order of difficulty, so
start out easy with the vegetable stock and build off that experience.
All that you need is a little time. As these recipes show, it doesn't
take much to put them together. All the produce you need is easy
to obtain in the super market. Chicken bones and veal bones could be a
little trickier to source, but any good butcher like Don and Joe’s Meats
in the Pike Place Market, Rain Shadow Meats on Capitol Hill or Uwajimaya
will have these things available.
You do not need a lot of special equipment; a large
5 gallon pot is incredibly useful. A strainer, not a colander, is
imperative; a metal strainer that can be lined with cheesecloth will do
fine. Those small 1 quart storage containers you can get at the super
market are ideal for storing the stock in the freezer in batches that
can be removed for easy use. Make sure you date them.
Steelhead Diner
95 Pine Street
Seattle, WA 98101
206-625-0129
www.steelheaddiner.com
Click here to see
Chef de Cuisine Anthony Polizzi's recipe
October 2010
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