Another Day in Paradise - Chef John's news from the edge!

March 15th, 70 degrees and not a cloud in sight, the daffodils are blooming and I am wondering; is this going to be a long hot summer in the high desert?

After glancing at the weather page in my ever present iPhone I see a storm is approaching with the promise of rain and snow. Hurray is all I can say. Bring on the rain. We are already well into the Hopi bean dances, signifying the return of the Kachinas. They have spent the winter sequestered on the San Francisco Peaks, high above the bustle of Flagstaff, no doubt eagerly awaiting their day to arise from the Kiva and bring joy, hope and celebration to the people of their village. Rain and snow will be a most welcome sight on the Mesas after this dry winter.

The produce coming from McClendon’s is spectacular, asparagus, salad greens and herbs are a plenty. I have completed my Easter and Mother’s day menu plans. We are celebrating 100 years of statehood so I have combined that along with some food tributes with The Fred Harvey Company, The White Star Shipping Line and La Posada.

If you would like to know more as to how all of this fits together with my new dishes, you will have to proceed to my Blog where you can read the story and see the menus.

Progress is being made for the upcoming changes to the hotel. Our new offices are almost finished so we can vacate the “Spam Room” that we have been occupying for so many years. This is so it can be demolished to make room for the patio and adjoining chef’s garden.

All of the rooms will be completed very soon so we will have 53 to offer. If this winter in anything to go by I do expect we are in for a busy year. The spring break is well under way up here so we are already seeing an increase in traffic.

I do hope to see you soon. Safe travels.

Another day in paradise, thoughts from the edge!

John

 What to do? 100 years of Arizona statehood, the White Star Shipping line, The Majestic Hotel in Harrogate, England and the Turquoise Room at La Posada has in common?

 Well, like most good tales it’s complicated yet I hope worthy of your time! So come with me and let’s take a stroll down this lane in history.

 When Fred Harvey started his dream in the late 1800s Arizona was not a state. The White Star Line was transporting people to America. The Majestic and La Posada were not yet built.

 However there was a common thread being woven into the world of travel. By sea or by train people needed to be fed. This posed some interesting challenges for the new breed of “caterer”.

 All of the great hotels in Europe and America were for the most part staffed with classically trained European Chefs. They all adhered to the classic guidelines set up first by the great French Chef Careme and then later by Escoffier. Many of the chefs that worked the White Star Line and for the Fred Harvey Company were trained in the great hotels of Europe.

 When I worked at the Palace Hotel in St. Moritz Switzerland in 1968-69 the Chef was Monsieur De France who at the time was almost 80. He had actually worked at the Ritz in Paris with Escoffier. We cooked very conservative French classic food. My apprenticeship at the Majestic in Harrogate was grounded in the same philosophy. The kitchen was organized by the “brigade” system created by Escoffier. We cooked many of the same dishes as the early shipping lines and the Fred Harvey Company.

 So now you can start to see where I am going with this tale of Arizona, two hotels and a shipping line.

 Re- reading “Appetite for America” by Stephen Fried I was struck once again by the style of the early menus served in Harvey Houses. This book is the consummate tale of this remarkable man, Fred Harvey, who came to America from England, no title, no wealth. By the turn of the century his company was the largest caterer in the world. He had created the first “chain” of restaurants and hotels on the planet. If you find this fascinating then get this book as it is full of some of the most wonderful characters and stories of early American business history. Well entwined with political intrigue. It’s a must read. In fact, while discussing this concept with Stephen he came up with an interesting phrase. I am sure he will not mind me sharing it with you. He coins the phrase – bi continental when referring to the cuisine created by the chefs of the Fred Harvey Company in the early part of the 20^th century as they started to incorporate local foods into the established standard of the day. Looking at some of the menus you see the Mexican and early American influence starting to creep into their creations.

 So back to menus.

 All of this led me down a lane, at the bottom stands La Posada, The Turquoise Room and my quandary as to what new menu items should I come up with this year for Easter and Mothers Day weekends.

 The middle of April always reminds us of one of life’s inevitable, taxes. This year we remember that faithful night when The White Star line lost its pride and joy, The Titanic. There will be plenty on that topic in the news and at the movies so I will leave it at that.

 I will bring back some of the dishes that were served on the great ships of the White Star line as well as in the Fred Harvey Houses across the country. It is appropriate to look back and remember how “Continental Cuisine” started in America. I think Fred Harvey has to be credited with helping create this early “trend” if that’s the correct term. This may have been one of the first food trends that we can account for. Many of these dishes I have cooked over the years, from England to Switzerland and in my first years in Beverly Hills at the Beverly Wilshire hotel and Le Cellier restaurant in Santa Monica. I will place a couple of twists here and there so as to retain the local nature of my food; however I promise you a memorable journey down the lane of food history.

http://www.jamesbeard.org/files/2012_JBF_SEMIFINALISTS.pdf

In addition to the nomination we are enjoying very warm weather so who knows if the winter will ever return to Winslow.

I will be finalizing Easter and Mothers Day menus this coming week so you can make your reservations early. We will be serving an a la carte menu each day with respective specials. NO fixed price menu. NO buffet.

Open from 11.30 to 8.00pm each day all day long. No lunch menu will be served on those days. Only the a la carte dinner menu. There will be three brunch items to choose from available 11.30 to 2.00pm.

Bob Carr, the General Manager is settling in and has already met quite a few of you so when next you visit make sure you make yourselves know to him. I am sharing the hosting duties with him for the next few weeks along with Linda who many of you already know.

Kitchen staffing is improving. I will release all the details about that when I post the holiday menus.

I will be at the Home and Garden Show in Flagstaff for three days at noon each day. This will take place in the Dome at NAU and the dates are March 22^nd to the 24^th. So stop by and say hello. I will give a different demo each day followed by samples.

From here on the edge, where it is another day in paradise!

Happy Valentine’s Day to everyone. We are finally experiencing some real weather with the promise of some snow later today. However it has been a very dry winter so far.

Here are a few photos of this week’s special menu that I have been running in celebration of Valentine’s Day.

The Killer Vegetable Plate, with the Romesco cauliflower from McClendon’s looks really nice. There is a photo of the Wild platter, the Sturgeon with Moro Blood oranges and the Lobster Raviolis with Maine Lobster meat and organic asparagus. Click here for full version of our special menus.

I will be publishing the Easter and Mothers Day menus towards the end of this month. These special days will be upon us soon.  

On the 28^th and 29^th of this month I will be at the Shamrock food show in Phoenix to see what they have been able to do with “local food”. They are making an attempt to source more produce in state. This is a good move for all of us. Especially the farmers. For years most of our produce here has been coming from out of state, lots of it from Mexico. Those of us that are Slow Food members have been trying to encourage this kind of buying for years. Well, that’s why it’s called “Slow Food”.

Just another day in paradise, news from the edge!

~  Chef John

I had a really nice visit to the Farmers Market in Phoenix this week. Picked up some delicious produce. Salad greens, Tuscan kale, arugula, edible calendula flowers,   Cheddar cauliflower, purple cauliflower as well as the unique Romanesco variety. Meyer lemons, Moro blood oranges, cosmic carrots and lots more. Fresh basil, tarragon, mint and sage.

Great to see Bob, Sean and Kate McClendon. Kate took some photos of the three of us. It was also nice to see some of our loyal customers at the market. We hope to see you in Winslow soon.

All of this will be on the Valentines Week Menus.  Angels on horseback at the oysters wrapped in jalapeno bacon and served over arugula. Columbia River smoked salmon served with the asparagus that has been grilled, tossed in Meyer lemon vinaigrette that is served over the smoked salmon.

A lovely salad made with fresh Moro Blood Orange vinaigrette with beets, pomegranate seeds and petals from the calendulas.

We have the Fresh Columbia River White Sturgeon served over a slaw of fennel, carrot, Asian pear, snow peas and mild Japanese turnips tossed in a light broth of carrot juice and blood oranges.

I have a new Lamb dish that includes the roast leg seasoned with fresh mint and garlic, a grilled green chile lamb sausage all served with a sauté of brown tepary beans with winter squash, beets, Watermelon radish and baby green beans tossed in a lamb broth with mint and garlic.

The asparagus is served with Main Lobster Raviolis. Tarragon scented Lobster sauce.

Lots of chocolate dessert to finish off the meal.

This menu will run through next Thursday so if you miss Valentine’s Day you can still enjoy some of the special dishes.

The hotel is now adding the outside staircase for the east wing. This will allow for the completion of the last 4 rooms. Looks like we will have all of this ready by spring.

We are still awaiting our winter snow and rain, it was the Hopi Bean Dance today so that may trigger the weather gods to send us the moisture we need not only to help get the bean plants off to a good start but also our own gardens.

Till next time, stay off the edge and enjoy your days in paradise!

~ Chef John

No i am not in school! Working on learning how to blog and set up my social media information.

Stay in touch, lots of news, tips, photos and more on the way soon.I will keep you posted on my trip to McClendons this week.

Chef John

The Turquoise Room's entry into the the world of social Network has begun! Many thanks to those of you that have already visited the site. Please be patient with me over the weeks ahead as i will work on Facebook & Twitter posts into my life routine. I do not have a personal Facebook's nor Twitter's account so all of this is very new to me.

As many of you know the staffing has always been a challenged for us.One piece of good news is that the General Manager position has been taken. We are still in need of an assistant manager and a Chef DE Cuisine.

Well Valentines Day is just around the corner. We will be offering the same special specials along with the regular menu from Friday the 10th through the 16th. Many of our local guests work on the railroad so they cannot all be home on the 14th. This gives everyone an equal opportunity to celebrate this special day.