Offal Good™

Stage winners for head to tail

This year was very difficult to choose the 2 stages for this years head to tail!! We had a great mix of very talented chefs form all over the country as well as Canada. As well as some amazing essays as well as some really bad ones, but that being said I feel we did a great job choosing our 2 stages for this year. So now the hard part is over lets let the fun begin. I have included their names and essays for you to read after the break. Thank you everyone for your time and effort in your essays, it is a very hard decision to make, all who applied were really great. keep cooking guts!!

Michael Aaron Freidman from washington D.C.

My grandmother loved to laugh. During holiday meals at my parents’ home in New Jersey, she found solace in the fact that two things would inevitably occur: she would concoct something delicious rooted in her Eastern European cooking style, and she would squeeze a chuckle or two out of her grandsons while slaving over the stove. And thus, my first interaction with cooking occurred on a wintery Hanukkah night when Mammy tried to attack me with a braised beef tongue she’d picked up from the delicatessen earlier that day.

I’m not going to go on and discuss how that definitive moment in my life spurred me on to pursue a career in cooking. I chased other dreams in college and eventually, out of a sort of rebellion against the straight-and-narrow road before me, diverted down the path lined with blades, burns, and fiery passion. That passion has built throughout my short career, and continues to burn within me every moment I flip through a cookbook, walk through a market or sharpen a knife. As I continued to learn and grow as a cook, I began to build an appreciation for our craft; the tradition intertwined in each braise, the history enveloped in every bite.

As cooks, we are bound by the past. We rely on traditional ratios, formats and recipes as a base to physically create something that we will share with others. Tradition anchors the foundation of everything we yearn to build, as well as everything we hope to pass along to future generations. This essential idea resides at the core of my passion for our craft, and will continue to drive me toward more adventures and excitement in the culinary world.

It would be a privilege to work in Incanto’s kitchen and act a part in the process leading up to the annual Head to Tail dinner. To be involved in the restaurant’s tradition is a true honor, and something not to be taken lightly. In many ways, I believe Chef Cosentino conducts this event every year in honor of the animal, but also in respect of the culinary customs that have fallen out of favor throughout the years. Because of this, I am even more drawn to his kitchen and his cause.

I miss my Mammy and think of her often. She was a wonderful cook – her hands wielded powers beyond my culinary talents. She rolled rugelach with ease and roasted brisket to perfection. She passed along many traditions to her daughters, and in turn, her grandsons. I called my mother a couple weeks ago, searching for my grandmother’s recipe for a heavenly jellyroll she would make from time to time. My mother told me that Mammy took that one with her to the grave. In a way, I felt a sense of relief that her recipe got lost somewhere in time – I know I would never make it as well as she did.

Kylie Evans from Montreal Canada

February 9, 2011

Hello, Chef and crew at Incanto!

My name is Kylie. I’m a farm girl. I grew up in a farming family near the small rural community of Beulah, Manitoba, Canada. And I’m positive that this has a direct relation to why I’m writing you this letter.

I have found myself on the line, working the pans station at DNA Restaurant in Montreal, QC. Ten years ago if someone would have told me that they “cooked pans”, I probably would have gave them a glazy blank stare and changed the subject. That was before I dropped out of what I was “supposed” to be doing after high school, and enrolled in the Culinary Arts program at Red River College in Winnipeg, Manitoba. It was the best move I ever made.

Growing up the way I did, food was always more than just about eating. We filled our freezer with beef from our pasture, which we could see through our kitchen window. Another freezer shared pork from a neighbor across the way, with the chickens that my mom expertly raised every summer. The cold room had bags of potatoes, carrots and onions from the garden every year. And I STILL challenge anyone to make better homemade salsa or refrigerator pickles then my mom. From almost as far back as I can remember it was part of my farming role to help dig/peel potatoes, or to make sandwiches to take out to the field for the guy’s lunch.

What scares me is when I tell people these things, and they get that same glazy blank stare.

So now, I’ve taken that respect for food, which I believe was bred into me, and I’ve turned it into a career that I never could have dreamed of. I love what I do. I find new lessons and challenges every day in the kitchen. And as I’m advancing and growing as a cook, I’m realizing that my ultimate goal is to be able to learn and preserve so many of those forgotten techniques and skills – and to be able to pass them along to anyone who is willing to listen.

I honestly feel that participating in your nose to tail dinner at Incanto would be a great catalyst for doing just that.

Thank you, and regards to you and your team.

Kylie Evans