Chefs Kitchen: cooking tip, Metropolitan Grill, Seattle WA, Executive Chef Eric Hellner, FareStart, Consolidated Restaurants, bacon fat, Elliott's Oyster House, Elliott's Oyster New Year Celebration, USDA prime beef, American Wagyu-Natural Kobe-Style beef

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 Executive Chef Eric Hellner of the Metropolitan Grill. Part of Consolidated Restaurants, The Met is recognized as one of the top ten steak houses in the country and their focus is on USDA prime beef, custom dry-aged and grilled over true mesquite hardwood. Exclusive to The Met in the Pacific Northwest is American Wagyu-Natural "Kobe Style" beef, as well as a 32 ounce long bone rib-eye steak. Along with classics like Chateaubriand carved table-side, New York Peppercorn and Delmonico, they offer wild Pacific King salmon, scampi and Australian lobster tail. A classic steak house, the mahogany tables and dark green booths take you to a sophisticated place. The 50-foot black marble bar is a Seattle gathering spot, the perfect place to sample their extensive collection of West Coast red wines, classic cocktails, small batch bourbons, single malt scotch and specialty martinis.

Chef Eric Hellner began his culinary career in the kitchen of Metropolitan Grill some 20 years ago. He has served as chef in many of Consolidated Restaurants since that time including Elliott's Oyster House and the former Union Square Grill. He spent five years as chef at Elliott's where his credentials included helping coordinate and manage the annual Oyster New Year celebration--a Northwest seafood extravaganza and charitable event serving more than 900 guests. Chef Hellner has shared his culinary knowledge on local Seattle television and in national magazines, as well as through cooking classes and demonstrations throughout the region. He believes in giving back to the community and is an active volunteer with the FareStart training program.

The truth about bacon fat, by Executive Chef Eric Hellner

The truth is that fat is flavor and makes things taste good! My simple tip is USE YOUR BACON FAT! It has unlimited number of uses and can make your bacon and cooking a little more fun. Cook your bacon on medium-high heat and then put it on a baking sheet in the oven to finish it. In the pan, you will have a good amount of rendered bacon fat that you can use for sauces, vinaigrettes and many other parts of your meal. Don't throw it out!

Metropolitan Grill
820 Second Avenue
Seattle, WA 98104
206-624-3287

www.themetropolitangrill.com

Click here to see Executive Chef Eric Hellner's recipes

February 2011

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