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Our photo repository is here! The gallery contains a raw feed of our photos – they may be blurry, oriented incorrectly, and not have captions — all of this will be resolved as time permits.

Please note that if you wish to leave comments for the chefs, you may do so on this site. They’ll see everything you send!

Day two in Gotha started mid-morning for us, as we all slept in a little bit to get caught up from the trip. With less than 5 hours of sleep last night, I’m still dragging a little bit, but hope to catch up on sleep in the next day or so.

The weather in Gotha is “perfect for aspic work”, said Rick Potter, team manager. It’s clear and cold; not hot like when the team was here in 2000. It’s cool enough that you want a jacket when you leave to go outside, but any amount of walking makes you want to take the jacket off and enjoy the cool, crisp air.

After a good German breakfast at the hotel (the breakfast included roulades, pork, sausages, pickled onions, potatoes, a green salad, and more (believe it or not – MORE!)), the competitors and team manager (that’s Alan, Greg, and Rick, respectively) got to work organizing our prep while Brian and I ran out to the local market for a variety of last-minute items – roses & baby’s breath, flour, ladles, saffron, a few electronic gadgets to make life easier – and had a great time at the market trying to make these unusual requests understandable to non-English-speakers. Lots of pointing and gesturing. Believe it or not, the easiest thing to communicate was electronic equipment. We had a difficult time figuring out flour (mehl) and chives (schnittlauche) in German, but thanks to our PDAs, wireless connections, and BabelFish, were able to get nearly everything we needed.

After another run or two to the shops (as new items were discovered) – thankfully the shops are within a couple minutes of our preparation area – we got rolling. Brian chopped lots of vegetables and did assorted assistant duties (as assigned) while I managed the electronics including getting pictures from the cameras up on the gallery and writing articles.

Tasks for the chefs today included spending a lot of time poaching vegetables, making croquettes out of various proteins, making crackers for garnish, lots of precision knife-work, made and cut polenta cakes, preparing aspic, and fried off miniature “sausages” wrapped in caul fat.

To answer a question from email (remember that you can comment on any article in this category and we’ll make sure the chefs see everything you send), we cannot reveal the menus we’re using in the competition at this point. The full menus will be revealed after we compete and are judged.

After flying directly from Cincinnati to Frankfurt overnight (with only a few uncomfortable hours for most of the team, and no sleep for other members), we were able to get (quickly!) through customs and security to retrieve our bags and pick up our rental car. Because of confusing one-way roads in the rental car garage, getting out of the airport took longer than it should have and cost a little bit of money (1.50 Euros). But all is well and we’re now in possession of a 9-passenger diesel van, which we loaded with all of our equipment and luggage and began the long trek (230 kilometers through lots of construction zones) from Frankfurt to Gotha, a small town about 20 minutes away from Erfurt which is to be our home while we’re competing. We stopped for lunch in an unknown little town – basically, what the GPS said was close when we decided we were hungry – and had a nice Italian meal of pasta (including a dish that Brian couldn’t eat because of dietary issues but turned out to be one of the best on the table, drizzled with truffle oil and dressed with shaved truffles), capresi salad, soups, and bread before heading on. I was tired from the trip but Brian helped keep me awake & alert during the long drive.

When they participated in the International Culinary Olympics in 2000 (at which the team took a silver medal), Chefs Potter and Neace stayed in the Quality Inn in Gotha and really built a kinship with Chef Thomas Zajaczkowski, who warmly welcomed us when we arrived today. Not at all deterred by the lack of a common language (we’re English-speakers with a tiny smidge of German; Chef Thomas speaks very little English), the team reacquainted and presented gifts that we brought over from the USA for Chef Thomas and his crew. Chef, typically understated, mostly smiled (a lot) as he and his crew accepted the gifts.

We got checked in and situated in our small, comfortable hotel rooms before moving to the preparation area reserved for us by Chef Thomas. There are a few other teams using the hotel as their home base, so space is at a premium. We’ve got a really nice area in which to work, and they let us use their main kitchen as well. Unpacking and examining our materials, we were pleased to note that everything seems to have made the trip without damage.

Afterward, we asked Katja Haja, the front desk manager at the hotel, for a recommendation for a good German restaurant nearby where we could have our first dinner in Germany. She recommended a place close-by and we programmed the destination into our rental van’s GPS and took off on the short trip. We never found the restaurant but ended up, after a few conversations with locals, in a very nice Italian restaurant called Bocelli. The five of us had a cozy table in one corner of the dining room where we enjoyed the food very much. We met a local, Mattias, at the next table who was very interested in our Culinary Olympic story.

We walked back to the car and made the short trip back to the hotel for a quick team meeting to discuss plans for the next day – Brian and I have several errands to run and a few elusive last-minute items to pick up. We also wrote this blog article.

Afterward, it was time for bed, for much-needed rest before the acceleration begins tomorrow! Alan Neace competes on Monday and Greg Skibinski competes on Wednesday.

Stay tuned to this website for frequent updates!

Everything is done… We had a final fund raiser last night at Midwest Culinary Institute with “action stations” dotted around the Summit Dining Room. (The dish I prepared was a fork-tender tornedeau of beef on a crouton with a rich mushroom demi-glace and topped with crab meat.) The equipment has been collected, packed, shipped, and received in Germany. The foodstuff has been prepared, packed, and brought to the Greater Cincinnati Northern Kentucky International Airport. The official team coats have been pressed and starched, carefully packed away to minimize wrinkling. It is inevitable that we will need to press them once we arrive – a task for Brian and me to solve when we land. Our bags are packed and we’re all set, or we’ve forgotten things (like Brian nearly did with his passport – a last-minute dash to his house solved that problem (thankfully he lives very close)).

Finally, after more than 12 months of planning and untold hours of work, it’s time to go compete. It is hard to believe that, after so much work, the time is finally here.

The team – all five of us – met at Stringtown Grill in Florence Kentucky (the restaurant owned and operated by Rick Potter, team manager) for a last minute meeting, meal, and finalization of packing. A few of the spouses were there to see us off; other spouses were managing the responsibilities of one partner being away for 10 days. From there, we made the short drive over to the airport and began the process of getting through check-in and security. With the amount of electronics (cameras, computers, chargers, CPAP machine, batteries, converters and inverters, and more) that we’re taking with us, we expected security to be more time-consuming than it was. Still, Brian, with his slew of equipment, had his bag run through the X-Ray machine three times before it was hand-searched and cleared.

We made it to the gate in plenty of time for a last-minute team meeting before boarding the plane. As I write this, we’re settled in on the flight, anticipating a meal, then it’s lights-out for me. The miles (or kilometers, if you prefer) are stretched below us, still more ahead of us than behind. I need to get some rest since a large part of my role tomorrow is ground transportation. I need to be on point and rested.

We’re all excited about the competition, and have reviewed our to-do lists over and over. We’re ready to represent the Midwest Culinary Institute.

Please stay tuned to this blog as we will be updating as often as possible during our trip – at least once a day and hopefully more frequently than that.

LOLA BISTRO

On Wednesday, October 8, I found myself in Cleveland Ohio for a work-related event. Once that event was finished, the evening was my own, so I went to LOLA BISTRO, one of Iron Chef America Michael Symon’s places.

Despite not being able to make a reservation on Open Table, I was able to walk right in and was seated immediately. It annoys me when restaurants participate in Open Table only to lock out entire evenings, especially during the week when restaurants are slower. The dining room was not full by any stretch.

The first-floor dining room is spacious and decorated in dark, soothing colors with nicely appointed tables — padded tables, linen tablecloths, and nice, funky silverware. I especially liked that the steak knives were engraved, “Live to Cook”. A nice touch. Chef Symon was not in the restaurant. He is opening a new place (in Detroit? I don’t remember…) and was there this evening.

My server, Gina, was friendly and knowledgable without being overbearing. After discussing the menu a bit, I was torn between a couple appetizers — a sweet corn & bacon soup or the charcuterie plate. I decided on the charcuterie plate and, surprise!, Gina brought me a taste of the soup. The sample of the soup was sweet and bacon-y. Nice interplay of flavors.

The charcuterie plate contained a delicious bacon-wrapped rabbit pate with pistachios, pork salami, another type of salami, and an amazing air-dried pork. All served with whole grain mustard, pickled onions, and cornichons.

From there, I moved on to the Beef Cheek Pierogi (as recommended to me by Michael Ruhlman, who was unable to join me after all due to family commitments) and they were… pretty good. Thick dough, nicely seared on the outside, stuffed with shredded beef cheeks and smothered in a wild mushroom sauce and a horseradish creme fraiche. The mushroom sauce was overly thick and bore a striking resemblance to a jarred mushroom sauce. Everything was cooked well and seasoned appropriately, but it lacked the OOMPH and balance of flavors I’ve come to expect with meals at restaurants run by Iron Chefs (this being the third such restaurant I’ve dined in). And so begins my general complaint about LOLA: The flavors were big but one-dimensional.

The next example of this complaint came with my entree… Squab with foie gras, chanterelles, confit, sweet potato puree, dried cherries, and a wine reduction/demi-glace. Again, cooked nicely. Presented well. Obviously a thought-out dish, but the execution left it one-dimensional — the expected lift from the dried cherries was simply overpowered by the rest of the ingredients. The foie gras was “B” grade and hidden in the wild mushrooms, which I thought was a strange choice for a premier ingredient. The sweet potato puree, while very silky, was not served at the right temperature (instead it was cool to the touch). The plate was not warmed, either — certainly a contributing factor to the temps being off.

I didn’t have any desire for desserts, but enjoyed the two cookies Gina brought for me. I respect what Chef Symon is trying to do, but overall, LOLA was …pretty good… Is it worth dining at LOLA? Sure. The prices aren’t terrible — I paid $70 (before tip) for the above and a glass of wine. Is LOLA going to redefine the way you think about food? No.

Have you dined at Lola? What’s the best restaurant in Cleveland? Let me know in comments.

Not my roof!

After the windstorms that ravaged Ohio a few weeks ago, it became apparent that it was time to replace the roof on our house. Calling around to various roofing companies, we were able to make appointments with some, told by others that they were entirely too busy, and never called back from others.

One company, FACTORY DIRECT REMODELING, sent a representative over to look at the roof right away. We were told that he would drive over and look at the roof then contact us for the next step. So far, so good. The representative then called and told us he would not give the quote over the phone (despite our direct request for him to do so), instead preferring to come spend “a couple hours” with us going over the quote. Unhappily, we agreed, because “a couple hours” is very difficult for us to find with all that’s going on right now. Still, we made it happen, and the representative showed up (late) on our scheduled date. I was a bit miffed that he obviously had not looked at the house at all — he didn’t know if we needed a full tear-off or not — and made us walk around with him to look at the roof.

After we got done doing his job with him, he announced the number. It was over $11,000 — considerably more than I wanted to spend — and I told him so. He “crunched numbers” for a while (and hinted that he’d like a drink from the bar in our dining room). Finally, he announced the new price, which he’d dropped down to $9500. I informed him that $9500 was more than $3800 higher than another quote we’d received, but that I would be happy to add his quote to the pile we were generating if that was the best he could do. Sarcastically, he said, “I am so happy to be added to the pile! Oh, thank you for adding me to the pile!”. I said, “I don’t have to add you to the pile if you would prefer I didn’t”. He grudgingly admitted he’d like to be added “to the pile”. He proceeded to tell us that there would be no Mexicans on our job if we hired his company. Wendy & I were very offended and quickly ended the meeting. I don’t need that crap in my house; in my life.

So, we found another company who would do our entire roof — including a full tear-off — for less than half the price quoted by the racist working for FACTORY DIRECT REMODELING. So we went with the other company. They started work today and we’re impressed with most of their work so far… The got all the old shingles torn off and confirmed a problem we suspected — the “decking” (plywood layer) under the shingles was in bad shape for a few reasons:

• The plywood was not up to code — it was too thin.
• During the installation of the existing roof, no felt paper was used. None at all. That allowed water to seep in and rot the plywood, which increased the problems.
• Much of the plywood, as a result, was in bad shape and had to be replaced.

I should mention that the price (less than half as much as the other quote) INCLUDED the replacement plywood.

The roof that was torn off was not the original roof on the house. The roof we are installing is either roof #4 or roof #5 on the property. I am shocked that the former homeowners would have cut so many corners when replacing their roof. This makes me wonder where else they cut corners when our house was theirs <shudder>.

A new skylight

The roofing team worked extremely hard today while I was on my way home from an overnight in Cleveland. After work, I came home and was washing up in the master bathroom when — BOOM! CRASH! — a worker fell through the ceiling in the dressing area right outside the bathroom. Fortunately, he was not hurt — he fell in the EXACT best spot — 6 inches in any direction would cracked his head on a counter or a cabinet. And fortunately I had clothes on (Wendy asserts that seeing me starkers would have been more damaging to the worker than any impact to his skull). But now we’ve got a man-sized hole in the ceiling of our dressing area. The foreman assured me that it would be fixed to my expectation. I trust them. Well, I guess I don’t NEED to trust them — I won’t pay them until it’s fixed properly.

They have replaced all the decking on the back side of the house. They’ll replace the rest tomorrow and expect to finish the job by Saturday afternoon. Expect a full report if anyone else falls through any other parts of my house.

“Computers are incredibly fast, accurate, and stupid; humans are incredibly slow, inaccurate, and brilliant; together they are powerful beyond imagination.” — Albert Einstein