Tin Pan Chef DTES 2010: Part 2 – Judging and Crowning

Tin Pan Chef DTES 2010: Part 3 – Interview and Wrap Up

I will be posting a link to a film I made with some friends in a few days! Here is a little synopsis.

TinPan Chef Downtown Eastside is a cooking competition using sealed food boxes from the Greater Vancouver Foodbank. The purpose of this project is to draw attention to the challenges of maintaining a healthy diet experienced by people living on limited incomes, particularly in the Downtown Eastside.

The Competition RulesTwo chefs from nonprofit or community kitchens create at least 3 courses within a one hour timeline, using 2 hotplates each. Each chef is allowed an assistant and a $3.00 budget for “special” ingredients to supplement their food box. They also have access to a “pantry” which contains condiment packets for seasoning, and a minimal supply of basic ingredients like flour and oil from Army and Navy and The Dollar Store. At the end of the hour, 3 judges from the community score the dishes based on taste, appearance and creativity. One of the chefs is named TinPan Chef, Downtown Eastside.

The results of the competition
The competition segment of the film illustrates challenges faced in creating healthy food with limited ingredients and offers some basic recipes that can be cooked on a hotplate.
The judges are from the neighborhood and comment on ways in which people are impacted by food insecurity and make suggestions for improvements.

This film was made with an extremely small budget and by volunteers. Cameras and lighting equipment were loaned by BCIT, food boxes were donated by Greater Vancouver Food Bank, and the kitchen was provided by LifeSkills Centre,Portland Hotel Society. I am hoping to make another episode soon. I hope you check out Tinpan Chef when I post it in a couple of days and that you send me some feedback!

Recipes will be posted in upcoming blog along with a summary of episode 1.

2. c is correct. You want to keep appliances away from water, and also from heat to prevent possible damage to cord. It is also a good idea to unplug them when you are not using them as they continue to draw electricity when plugged in

3. All the answers are correct and e is the best answer.

4. Correct answer is d. The worst thing to do is stick a metal fork in a plugged in toaster, a rubber spatula might melt, and turning it upside down and shaking it might not get the toast out anyway.

5. The correct answer is d. If you stumble or fall (or someone else in the kitchen does) you don’t want to stab yourself (or someone else) and you could if your knife is pointing anywhere but down.

6. b and c are both right. It is better to clean it right away if you can, but if not, throwing salt on a spill will absorb oil or other liquid and prevent slipping.

7. The answer is b. It is best to wash anything with a blade on it separately. If you put it in soapy water or with other dishes, you are likely to accidentally grab the blade and cut yourself.

8.d is the only answer. Never use an appliance that has a damaged cord.

9. b is right.

10. d is correct

11. c is the right answer. Don’t use a wet rag. The liquid in it will heat to the same degree as the pan you are holding. ouch

12. b. It is harder to control a crappy dull knife than a sharp one.

13. b

14. If the leak is from an unlit pilot light, turn off the gas, open the windows to air the room and when the gas has dissipated, turn it back on and relight the pilot light.
If the leak is from a pipe, turn it off, call the gas company and get out.
If the leak is from outside call the gas company and get out.
No matter what, do not light a match until the leak has been fixed and there are no fumes.

15. c. In order to prevent infection, it is best to treat cuts right away. Metals ,such as nails and cans ,can transfer harmful bacteria into the blood stream if they puncture the skin. Tetanus is one extememely unpleasant infection possibility. A tetanus shot every 5 to 10 years is recommended. Check this link for more info about tetanus . http://www.emedicinehealth.com/tetanus/article_em.htm.

16. b. If the cut is spurting, you’ve hit an artery and need to get to a hospital immediately . Depending on the size of the cut, you could go into shock quickly. It is important to act fast in alerting people that you need help. For more first aid info on this go to

http://www.ehow.com/way_5660559_do-someone-cuts-artery_.html

17. b, c, and d. Any cut or laceration should be cleaned, treated and watched for signs of infection.

Quiz
How likely are you to maim yourself in the kitchen?

1.The best way to put out an oil fire in a pan is
a. Pour water on it.
b. Throw a wet cloth on it.
c. Put a lid on it to cut off the oxygen and turn off the heat
d. Pour baking soda on it
e. Pour salt on it.

2.The best place to keep counter top appliances plugged in is
a. Close to the sink for easy wiping.
b. Close to the stove
c. Away from the sink and the stove
d. Wherever is convenient

3.One way of preventing stove top fires is
a. To keep pot handles turned in
b. Keep anything flammable off the stove
c. Keep the stove top and burners clean
d.Don’t leave the kitchen when the stove is on
e. All of the above

4. If your toast gets stuck in the toaster and starts to burn the best way to deal with it is
a. Stick a fork in there and try to fish the toast out
b. Use a rubber spatula to force the toast out
c. Turn the toaster upside down and shake vigorously until the toast falls out
d. Unplug the toaster and fish the toast out

5. A safe way to carry a knife while walking in the kitchen is
a. At hip level with the point straight out
b. With the point facing upwards
c. With the point facing you
d. With your arm down, at your side with knife point facing down

6. If you spill something on the floor while cooking, you
a. Clean it after you finish cooking
b. Clean it up right away
c. Throw some salt on it to prevent slipping and clean when you can
d. Generally don’t notice

7.When you are finished using a knife you
a. Put it in a sink full of soapy water
b. Wash it separately and put away
c. Put it with a pile of other dirty dishes in the sink
d. None of the above.

8.You have an appliance with a frayed electrical cord. You
a. Keep using it and hope for the best
b. Wear rubber gloves when using it
c. Tape the frayed part with electrical tape and forget about it
d. Ditch it

9.You have a small kitchen area and more appliances than you can plug into the available outlets. You
a.Get an extension cords or two to keep on the counter and keep everything plugged in.
b.Plug in each appliance only as you need it
c.Get rid of some appliances
d.None of the above

10.Because you are distracted, or uncoordinated, your clothing catches fire on the candle or gas stove you are close to and starts to spread rapidly. You
a.Run screaming into the street
b.Run for the shower or bathtub
c.Look for a fire extinguisher
d.Drop to the floor and start rolling around

11.Your pan with dinner is red hot and done. You need to take it off the stove immediately. You:
a.Notice a wet dish rag nearby and use that
b.Use your sleeve
c.Use the potholders you always keep handy
d.Run to another room to look for something

12.You are mostly likely to cut yourself with
a. A razor sharp knife
b.A crappy dull knife
c. A really good dull knife
d.A medium sharp knife

13.You accidentally drop the knife you are using. You
a.Try to catch it by the handle to prevent it from being contaminated by the floor
b.Let it drop

14.You have a gas stove and you come home to smell heavy gas fumes. You
a.Open all the windows and leave the room
b.Get the matches to relight the pilot light
c.Look for the source of gas and turn it off, then open the windows.
d. Call the gas company

15. You cut yourself quite deeply on the lid of a tin. You
a. Wrap it in a bandaid and carry on.
b.Call an ambulance
c.Wash it, cover it and head off for a tetanus shot
d. None of the above

16. You cut yourself in the kitchen and blood is spurting from the wound. You
a. Run to the neighbours.
b. Call an ambulance
c. Sit to wait until the bleeding stops.
d.Try to bandage it
e.Take a bus or drive to the nearest walk in clinic

17. A minor cut with little bleeding can
a.Pose no threat at all
b.Become infected with flesh eating disease
c. Become infected with MRSA
d.Turn into gangrene

Big, Round and Smooth
Cooking as a Sensual Science

BY Jocelyn Brown

In 1626, Francis Bacon plunged into a snowstorm to test his theory on meat preservation, fatally contracting pneumonia after stuffing a chicken with snow. In 1837, Rev. Sylvester Graham (inventor of Graham crackers) preached that vegetarianism cured alcoholism and lust, inciting Boston butchers to riot. Such are the spirited moments in the long relationship between cooking and science. In publishing that relationship is highly responsible, and generates dozens of new books every year on anti-aging, cancer-prevention, brain boosting and virtuous eating, many of them beginning with a health questionnaire for readers not yet sufficiently terrified. The Healthy Heart Cookbook, for instance, offers “The Framington Risk Score for calculating risk of death or premature heart disease within ten years.”

Over the last decade science jumped onto the other side of the bookshelf—the side where, in Michael Ruhlman’s words, “It’s a cook’s moral obligation to add more butter given the chance.” Here, geekiness is sexy, science serves pleasure, and good cooking is a virtue unto itself. This is the science of deliciousness, a rapidly expanding genre including highly experimental chefs (Heston Blumenthal, Ferron Adrià, Thomas Keller, Grant Achatz), highly culinary scientists (Harold McGhee, Hervé This), food columnists (Harold Wolke, Russ Parsons), and other bold cooks with science leanings (Michael Ruhlman, Alton Brown, Jennifer McLagan, Diane Farley, David Joachim). Fall 2010 will see the hefty six-volume Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking; Jeff Potter’s Cooking for Geeks; Harold McGhee’s Keys to Good Cooking: A Guide to Making the Best of Foods and Recipes; and François Chartier’s Taste Buds and Molecules: The Art and Science of Food with Wine.

But why apply science to the culinary magic of a soufflé, a croissant, or brioche? Can too much information on egg white viscosity, for instance, contaminate one’s delight in meringue? Non! Hervé This would say. “Science can be warm, cheerful, sensual!” he writes on his blog; readers need to remember “that at the base … is the experience, the wonderful experience . . . .” To Hervé This, cooking is about love, science must be translated through the heart, and we must feel what makes an egg yolk coagulate in an otherwise hopeful hollandaise, why gluten is so thirsty and eager to bond, and what’s up with the snobbery of lipids.

Sharing Hervé This’ delight in culinary indulgence feels like a little holiday. On our side of the Atlantic, such reverence is rare, our cooking and eating habits being far more perfunctory than passionate. In the vicious circle of habitual cooking and joyless eating, the science of deliciousness meets the politics of food, and experts in both camps agree that the missing ingredient is pleasure. According to Michael Pollan, Anglo-North Americans have never known how to enjoy their food. We have a longstanding habit of “disdaining the proof of the palate,” as Laura Shapiro puts it in Perfection Salad, and instead eat scientifically, as if food were medicine. The result seems to be high obesity rates and guilt. (Particularly sad is the study where Americans and French were asked to choose word associations for chocolate cake. Americans chose “guilt” and the French chose “celebration.”) So, what will happen if science is applied to deliciousness as zealously as it has been to nutritionism? If we come to understand the furious activity of, say, Maillard reactions, can we surrender more fully to the wonder of freshly baked bread?

To bake that bread, use Michael Ruhlman’s Ratio, the only cookbook you may ever need. Then, with Harold McGhee in On Food and Cooking: The science and lore of the kitchen, reflect on those Maillard reactions and their devotion to the flavours not only of bread crust but roasted meats, dark beers, chocolate and coffee beans. According to McGhee, odor, or aroma, comprises most of our experience of flavour, so why not learn about the millions of olfactory receptor cells packed in high up our noses? For this and much more on smell and flavour compounds, see The Science of Good Food by David Joachim et al. Organized as a dictionary, it is nonetheless rich in pathos (bivalves can never be tender and flavourful at the same time) and intriguing recipes (from Absinthe Suissesse to Watercress Cream Reduction).

Flavours are what the science of deliciousness is all about— creating, intensifying, and experiencing them. “Big, round, and smooth” fat molecules are especially good at adding, holding, and helping us experience flavour as Jennifer McLagan explains in Fat: An Appreciation of a Misunderstood Ingredient. After championing the nutritional value of fat, she sprinkles literary and historical anecdotes over a rich mix of recipes, from Carbonara to sautéed foie gras with gingered vanilla quince. In Anatomy of a Dish, Diane Forley is also keen on nicely marbled meat but mainly investigates flavour via botanical classification. Beautifully illustrated, the book is part botany guide and mostly recipes for soothing, satisfying dishes such as beer-braised short ribs.

Comfort food is comforting because, as Heston Blumenthal explains, our personal associations of a dish affect our experience of its flavours. Known for his techie leanings (mayo with an ultra-sound gun) and for creating unusual dishes like Sardine Sorbet, Blumenthal and his fellow experimental chefs are not known for comfort food. They have a reputation for clinically reducing, over-intellectualizing, deconstructing and fetishizing food, partly because they’re all steely-eyed men with big stainless-steel kitchens, and partly because they do sometimes serve weird liquids in test tubes and odd itty-bitty cubes dangling from wires.

In The Fat Duck Cookbook, and A Day at elBulli, Blumenthal and superstar Ferron Adrià explain and display their versions of extreme dining pleasure. There is no licking of fingers or splashing about of olive oil in these pages. Blumenthal and Adrià’s methods are exacting, precise, and intensely intellectual—all about intensifying flavour on one hand, and analytical sensibility on the other. This “sixth sense,” as Adrià calls it, is “the intellectual stimulation that can be derived from appreciating irony, as a sense of humour, decontextualizations or cultural references in a dish.”

Criticized for being pretentious, elitist “techno-cuisine,” is this food really about sensory pleasure? How does one surrender to “the experience—always the experience” of nitro-poached green tea and lime mousse? Of porcini foam? Can we learn to enjoy food while simultaneously considering the nature of that enjoyment? Do we want to?

I pondered these things, as one should, over a Pain au Chocolat in an excellent local bakeshop, and answers came, as they should, through gentle serendipity.

“Ah,” said the baker. “That is the ‘elBulli’ book you’re reading. I went there.”

“You’re kidding,” I said. elBulli has been proclaimed the world’s best restaurant for five consecutive years and every year receives two million reservation requests for its 8,000 places. He wasn’t kidding, and treated me to details of his visit: how welcoming and casual the staff were, how his party was free to wander into the kitchen where they met Ferron Adrià and saw a fleet of silent chefs working intensely, how remarkable the service was (fifty-six staff, including the kitchen, for forty-five guests). And the food—the food!

“It was—wow—we were there for seven hours. Favourites? So many, we ate 35 tiny dishes. Oh, this gin cloud our waiter pulled out of dry ice; it effervesced in the mouth. And this inverse apple gelee-rabbit jus—oh, and the chest full of fresh chocolates. My head was exploding by the end.”

Gin cloud? Is all this fuss really necessary, one might ask? Clearly there is no resolution to an analysis of pleasure; most of us agree that the holy trinity of food, wine, and good company are all we really need to make a meal pleasurable. For inspiration, Taste Buds and Molecules explains all about wine pairing and offers unique but simple recipes. Canadian sommelier François Chartier pays homage to the senses, posing questions that can be answered only with but, of course: “Why not add some roasted fenugreek seeds to a young, heavily iodized manzilla sherry to generate a developed iodized wine such as in the days of ancient Rome . . .?”

What, then, can be said about perfectionism and pleasure? Why not, simply, Yes—that open-hearted grateful yes that excellent food in good company so magically produces? My last perfect bite of pastry and the vicarious thrill of an elBulli visit reinforced for me the wisdom of Hervé This. All that really matters is the experience.

Richard Pang - Gathering Place
Has worked in the food industry for 30 years. Went to cooking school and then worked in Alberta for many years cooking and then managing food operations. He then moved to Vancouver and opened Miu Jay Garden, a vegetarian Budhist restaurant in the downtown eastside in the 90′s. He later moved to Victoria and opened Lotus Pond with a friend, also a Budhist vegetarian restaurant. He moved back to vancouver in 2004 and started working at Carnegie. He made fantastic (and wildly popular) noodle stir frys, spring rolls, honey garlic tofu and other dishes on the vegetarian evenings and great BBQ pork and other dishes on the meat nights. Sadly for Carnegie, he moved over to Gathering place where he continues to work. When I asked why he likes doing this kind of cooking he said that he likes the people, and enjoys cooking good quality food for them. Although they use a standardised menu at work now, he puts as much TLC into the cooking of it as he can.

Richard Pang

Jacquie Cannon
Carnegie Centre 15 years
Trained at Dubrulle French Culinary School and worked in the food industry for 30 years, primarily in catering (Out To Lunch) and restaurants before starting at Carnegie Centre 15 years ago. She is a talented baker and skilled cake decorator and an experienced chef. Some of the more popular recipes that she has contributed to Carnegie include, shepards pie, tortierre, Italian sausage and white beans casserole, chicken pot pie, beef and mushroom pie, scones,roast vegetable pie, homemade veggie burgers, and a wide range of other dishes and baking recipes. She also makes spectacular salads and homemade soups.
She likes working in the downtown eastside as a way of connecting with and contributing to the community.

Jacquie Cannon

Pierre Leblanc (Yukon Shelter)
Has worked in the food industry for 30 years. He ran a cafe in Amsterdaam in the early 80s, wrote a cookbook/graphic novel (with a cult following) called “Scrambled Brains” in collaboration with artist Robin Constabaris,worked at Delilahs restaurant, and Reel Appetites film catering among other places, before coming to the Downtown Eastside to cook. He worked for Triage and then moved over to Yukon Shelter where he has worked

Pierre LeBlanc

Ian Mclean Carnegie Centre and Yukon Shelter
Professionally trained and has worked in the industry for 25 years. His background is in a pub style food and institutional cooking. He has worked at Carnegie for 12 years and Yukon Shelter for several. He cooks the Thursday seafood dinner regularly at Carnegie. Most popular dinners are shrimp with rice and coleslaw, fish roll ups with lemon butter, potatos, and veggies, basic fish burgers with homemade tartar sauce and homemade potatoe wedgies, potatoe and leek pie. Ian said he likes the community and the people that come to eat at Carnegie. (picture coming in near future)

Biyun Chen (Gathering Place)
Biyun went to culinary school in China and is a trained Szechuan Chef. She has been cooking for over 20 years. After moving to Canada, she worked primarily in Italian Restaurants such as Il Giardino. She started working at Carnegie Centre about 5 years ago, and eventually moved over to Gathering Place. Like many of the cooks working in the Downtown Eastside, she likes to work within a community and she likes the people that she cooks for. Although they now use a standardised menu at her work, her favorite foods to cook are dumplings and Szechuan food and the most popular meals she makes at work are pastas and Italian dishes on the menu.

Biyun Chen

Shawn Carvery: -Carngie Centre
Went to culinary school in Prince Edward Island 13 years ago and has been cooking ever since, in restaurants, cruise ships, catering other cooking jobs. He started working at Carnegie 6 years ago. He currently makes many of the dinners. He likes to cook a wide range of foods, especially vegan and vegetarian and covers a wide variey of cultures. His most popular meals are the Pad Thai, Kibbeh, curry, and traditional roast (any kind) with fixings and a huge range of other dishes. He told me he really likes the people and the community he cooks for.

Shawn Carvery

Janice Croxallhas worked for 38 years in the food industry primarily in the kitchens or management in restaurants. She has been at the Yukon Shelter for the last several. She does mostly homestyle cooking there and her most popular dishes are the pulled pork with coleslaw, fried chicken, lasagna and other comfort foods. You get attached to the people, she says, I like cooking for them. It’s fun and different every day. People really like comfort food most here. The most challenging part of the job is dealing with all the dietary restrictions and allergies that people have. We have a lot of diabetics and people with compromised immune systems.

Janis Croxall

I will be posting some of my recipes (The large and small version) that I have shared with some DTES kitchens and any recipes that other cooks want to share including some of the cooks from DTES who moved on but left great recipes.

Apricot Oat Bars

apricot oat bars
apricot oat bars

Date Squares

Recipe date squares
These are from Sue Mendelson's cookbook "Mama Never Cooked Like This" I reduced the sugar in the recipe but otherwise it is the same. These are very versatile. You can substitute equal amounts of dried fruit, coconut, or other nuts for the chocolate chips or the wanuts.

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I acquired this recipe from a fishing camp in beautiful Horsefly B.C.

Cinnamon buns

This recipe keeps well in a sealed container in the refrigerator if you like to make your batter in advance.

Bran Muffins Recipe

Ganache is a staple for baking. You need a ratio of 2 to one (chocolate to cream) for a thick ganache (fillings and truffles) and 3 to one for a thinner ganache (icing and toppings). Use chocolate chips or chop your chocolate finely and put into a large bowl with lots of whisking room. Bring the cream to scalding point, pour directly over the chocolate and whisk until smooth. For icing, pour over cake and put in fridge for several hours to set.
Here is a recipe for cream cheese icing.

cream cheese icing

cream cheese icing

Your basic Poppy Seed Cake recipe

Poppy Seed Cake

Recipe-Poppyseed cake

Here is a coffee cake recipe Rhubarb Cake

Rhubarb Cake

Recipe rhubarb cake

and a cookie recipe
hermit cookies

Hermit Cookies

Vegan Chocolate Cake

This is also a fast and delicious chocolate cake recipe
Chocolate Mayonaise Cake

Here is a basic carrot cake recipe. Carrot Cake Recipe

Carrot Cake

pineapple upside down cake

Recipe Pineapple upside down cake