Alena, Alex, and I had the great pleasure of partaking in Taste of the Nation at the Omni Hotel in New Haven.  This is a yearly event hosted simultaneously all over the country by Share our Strength, an organization dedicated to eradicating childhood hunger.  Ben has always had the philosophy, that while we are in business to make money, charity work must be a huge part of who we are as a company.  This event is particularly fun because instead of just writing a check we are allowed to show off our culinary talents and let the audience be the judges.

There were over thirty restaurants, bakeries, and wine shops in attendance making for an amazing spread for the nearly 400 guests.  Each restaurant gets a small set up space where they cook and prepare their dishes for the audience meandering from table to table, sampling a huge variety of amazing food. This is the third year that La Cuisine has entered the event and we did not disappoint our adoring fans.

We prepared three items, two savory and one sweet, all in mini portions so that guests could come by and sample a bite of everything. Our first offering was a Chipotle Infused Potato Pancake with Marinated Grilled Flank Steak topped with an Avocado Cream Fraiche.  Our second offering was a Mushroom  Slider served with our Lemon Aioli on mini House Baked Brioche Buns.  And last but not least was our dessert, a Spring Berry Shot served in mini shot glasses.  Rhubarb compote was the first layer followed by a small thin round of vanilla cake then topped with strawberry mousse and finally a dollop of lemon meringue.  The dish conjured up images of spring and summer while maintaining the perfect balance between sweet and tart.  The reaction of our guests said it all as the different layers of the dessert all interacted harmoniously, generating big smiles and requests for seconds.

This event is particularly satisfying for an number of reasons.  First, you see several area business putting on their best face, presenting amazing food that is beautifully displayed. There is a slightly competitive edge to the entire event because the audience and a small panel of judges decide on best entree, best dessert, best table presentation, and people’s choice.  Because pride is on the line every restaurant really pushes the envelope with their food and presentation.  Finally and most importantly, it just feels good to know that 100 percent of the proceeds to this event go to ending child hunger. This year alone over $60,000 was raised on behalf of Share our Strength.  On a final note, the event was made just a touch sweeter for La Cuisine by claiming the title of Best Dessert on heels of last years Best Entree.  Hope to see you all next April for Taste of the Nation New Haven!

Tags: audience, bakeries, Ben, charity, chefs, childhood, enjoy, feelings, food, hunger, judges, La Cuisine, restaurants, Share our Strength, taste of the nation

This past weekend my family and I had the pleasure of celebrating my Dad’s (Ben Bloom) birthday.  Special events in our family are not celebrated with lots of pomp and circumstance or lavish, expensive gifts to each other.  Instead, our special occasions are celebrated with food and last Saturday night was no exception, except for one minor detail.  My brother Alex and I actually did the cooking for Dad. Most often Ben is the one creating the culinary masterpieces that grace our family table but we thought on his birthday he deserved a night off.

Now as you can imagine cooking for Ben is not without stress or anxiety. Having run LaCuisine for the past 25 years he has seen and eaten a ton of incredible food.  I don’t mean to say that he puts pressure on us when we cook; in fact it was just the opposite.  He was sitting contently in his favorite chair reading the Times, enjoying some excellent wine.  The stress comes more from the fact that we can’t let this man down.  I have now worked in the business for last 2 years and my younger brother Alex is a second year student at the Culinary Institute of America.  If, with those combined credientials we can’t put together a top notch dinner, than what good are we, have we learned anything after all these years of eating terrific food?  Well the answer is quite simply, yes we have, thank you very much Dad.

Saturday’s Dinner featured two courses focusing on the seasonality of spring; Dad was a spring baby after all.  Earlier in the week Alex and I put our collective heads together and came up with a menu that we thought would be straightforward to execute but also present very well.  After a number of phone calls back and forth, “Lets roast the lamb, no we should grill it, better yet grill then roast!”  You can see my point two over ambitious cooks over thinking the whole meal.  Finally we settled down and decided Dad would like simple clean flavors, the type of food that we grew up eating and enjoying as a family.

The first course was an Asparagus Velouté topped with a Seared Sea Scallop over crème fraiche and finished with a Cantaloupe Melon Gelée.   Asparagus Velouté is a rich creamy asparagus style soup with herbs, a dish that shouts spring. The seared scallop added a touch of sweetness, the crème fraiche a hint of creaminess, and the final bright note from the melon gelée.  A dish of subtle elegance, simple yet fresh flavors that were the perfect embodiment of early spring.

The second course was a Herb Crusted Roast Rack of Colorado Lamb served over Pureed Chive Smashed Potatoes with Spring Onions and Carrots, finished with a Veal Demi-glace.  This dish featured the earthy tones of the lamb, the smooth yet slightly piquant bite of potatoes, and the richness of the demi. The ring of carrots and spring onions added the final bright notes to the dish.

For dessert my step mom, Patty, made one of our family favorites, Chocolate Buttermilk Cake with Fresh Whipped Cream Icing topped with Shaved Chocolate.

All in all the meal was a slam-dunk if I do say so myself. Our vision actually turned into reality and the final presentation and flavors were just what we had hoped for.  Dad seemed genuinely pleased with the outcome, glad not to have been in the kitchen for hours on his special day. We spent the last hour after dessert dissecting what we had eaten, trying to decide what could have been done better, what worked, what did not. Could we have added a pinch of this or a pinch of that, what would have happened if we used this ingredient instead of that, typical Bloom family dinner conversation.  My wife summed up the night the best when upon leaving she said, “Your family really is food obsessed!”  Cheers to that!

Tags: Alex, asparagus, Culinary Institute of America, dad, demi-glace, dinner, food, LaCuisine, lamb, melon, menu, scallop, veloute, wine

I am an unabashed sauce guy, I love sauces, dips, and condiments of all varieties and flavors. From soy based dipping sauces to fresh pickle relish, I have not met a condiment that I do not like.  Sometimes I think I should be reborn in a place like India, Thailand, Vietnam, or China, where dipping sauces and condiments come with almost every dish.

Here at LaCuisine we also take our sauces, dressings, and condiments very seriously.  All items are made from scratch in small batches to preserve their freshness and flavor.  Each and every sandwich and salad comes with their own unique condiment or dressing.  These condiments are the final accent to lift what could otherwise be ordinary food and elevate it to extraordinary.  Lemon aioli, Pesto mayo, Chipotle mayo, Russian Dressing, Cuban Sauce, all add the final pop to our sandwiches.  Dressings and vinaigrette’s are the final touch to bring all of the wonderful fresh flavors of our salads together.

House Dressing, a mainstay at LaCuisine for 25 years and running, is buttermilk based with a variety of fresh and dried herbs.  Apple Cider Vinaigrette is the perfect balance between sweet and tart, it takes the Spinach Salad to new heights. Our classic Caesar, no we don’t use raw egg but I bet you would hard pressed to tell the difference, is rich and creamy with a slight hint of anchovy.  Finally the workhorse dressing, our Balsamic Vinaigrette, simple in name but complex in flavor, this dressing depends entirely on good olive oil and truly aged Balsamic.

The best part about our dressings is that they are now available to take home.  You can now complement your wonderful salads with our tried and true restaurant inspired dressings.  Taste the difference freshly made cand make.  Enjoy!

Tags: condiments, dressings, LaCuisine, mayo, restaurant, salads, sandwiches, take home, vinaigrette

Greetings and Happy New Year!

New Englanders have a love hate relationship with the seasons. We love to say that New England is the best region in the country because we have four very distinct and uniquely special seasons.  This being said we all know that winter can sometimes be one of the most difficult to endure especially at the rate we are going.

La Cuisine has the perfect cure for those Winter Blues; a cooking class here in our state of the art kitchen.  The first class “Pasta” was a smashing success, each and every student left with an ear to ear grin and a full belly.  Executive Chef Uli Weil has a special place in his heart for homemade pasta and it was his mission last Wendesday night to impart that love onto our students.

Students starting by donning aprons and kitchen towels and then got right to work mixing eggs, flour and a pinch of salt to get their pasta dough started.  Kneading was the next order of business, followed by multiple runs through the pasta machine.  The first pasta that students made was the Herbed Fettucine.

Next was Butternut Squash Agliotti, basically more intricately folded ravioli, that are made by rolling out large sheets of dough and filling each one with a dollop of filling.  The filled sheet is then pinched together by hand, cut with a pasta wheel, and then folded into the desired shape.

Students rotated through the various stations in the kitchen taking turns making dough, needed, and perfecting the art of using the hand cranked pasta machine. Students who started the class only watching were soon covered in flour and were rolling pasta dough like experts.

The open forum gave students the opportunity to ask questions about consistency of the dough, amount of kneading required, what happens if the dough breaks, how much pasta do I need for my family, what are the cooking times for fresh pasta.  Uli fielded each and every question and the intimate format allowed everyone to really get involved.

After about an hour and half, students washed up and headed to the communal table in the Cafe and Market to eat the fruits of their labor. It was truly amazing to see people who just a few hours before had been pasta novices emerge comfortable and confident in their pasta making skills.  Uli preprepared three sauces to accompany the pastas. A Ragu Bianco (mushrooms, chicken livers, garlic, with a touch of cream, very rich), a Sage Brown Butter with Balsamic Vinegar (browned butter, walnuts, sage, and balsamic vin.), and finally a traditional Marinara Sauce.  Once cooked, the pastas were left undressed so that each student could try a small helping of sauce with their freshly made pasta.

Students finished the night by discussing their efforts, the taste of their pastas, and the techniques involved.  Uli sat down with students as they ate to answer any lingering questions and talk more about his philosophy on food and cooking in general.

Next up, Braising!, this class will focus on using under utelized cuts of meat that are often less expensive to make extra ordinary stews and warm winter dishes.  Space is limited but still available, please call us at 203-488-777 and/or check the Cooking Classes section on www.lacuisine.net. for more information.

Keep those Winter Blues at bay, Happy Cooking from La Cuisine.

Tags: Add new tag, agliotti, braising, brown butter, butternut squash, Cafe, Classes, cooking, cooking classes, fettucine, LaCuisine, marinara, Market, New England, pasta, ragu, sauces, success, Uli Weil, winter

Since our opening last July we have been committed to using all natural chicken and beef.  Many of our new customers often ask me why we have made this choice. We here at La Cuisine truly believe that all natural chicken and beef simply taste better and are better for the environment than their conventional counterparts.  Read on for more details!

Does all natural protein taste better than conventional?

We believe this is a big yes and probably our number one reason for using these proteins.   We have found that all natural chicken has a deeper, earthier flavor, tasting in fact more like chicken. The breasts remain tender when cooked and do not have a tendency to dry out even when reheated.  All natural beef exhibits many of the same properties, the beef has better marbling (fat dispersed throughout a particular cut) and the flavor is deeper and richer than conventional products.

All natural chicken and beef are fed using feed that is exactly what the name implies “All Natural”.  That means no animal byproducts are feed to the animals, they eat corn, whole grains, grass, and minimally processed feed.  This also means that there are no antibiotics in the animals feed.  They fight diseases naturally and are not pumped full of hormones to mask real flavor.  This ultimately allows the animal to live a more normal life, as nature intended.  As the end consumer of a long natural cycle, we benefit from all that the animal has ingested.

Most conventional chickens and cows are kept in massive holding areas as they grow and are prepared for harvest.  Their feed is filled with antibiotics and hormones to protect them from being in such close quarters with each other and to artificially inflate their growth rates so they can reach weight faster.  As a result, meat does not develop the deep complex flavor of all natural proteins.  Often times we find conventional meat to be bland and flavorless.  Sauces and rubs easily mask the flavors of the product instead of working in harmony with it as with all natural chicken and beef.

Is all natural chicken and beef better for the environment?

We believe the answer is yes.  Animals are not kept in massive holding lots like their conventional counterparts.  Therefore, animal waste can be processed at normal levels instead of the massive amounts of animal by product that occurs from conventional husbandry.  Many farms actually use their own animal manure to fertilize crops on their land thereby keeping the growth cycle within the farm itself.  Animals eat natural feeds that their own manure originally helped to fertilize.  Sounds slightly graphic but the truth comes out when you taste the products.

All natural feed helps to support organic and all natural farming, minimizing the use of pesticides on the land.  Crops and feed grown organically and all naturally use natural pesticides and herbicides to protect against insects.  As a result farm run off is not toxic and does not contribute to the pollution of our creeks, streams, rivers, lakes, and ultimately the ocean.

All natural beef and chicken tastes fantastic, is better for the environment, and as a result is ultimately better for you the consumer. Stop by today and try our delicious all-natural chicken and beef dishes.  See for yourself what all natural is all about!

Please check out the following web sites for more information on all-natural proteins:

Our meat supplier: www.cambridgepacking.com

All-natural chicken farm: www.springermountainfarms.com

All-natural beef: www.brandtbeef.com

Tags: all-natural, animals, antibiotics, beef, chicken, conventional, environment, flavor, hormones, La Cuisine, pesticides, proteins, taste