This week is the saddest week I can remember at EVOO since I started working there a year and a half ago. Donnie, our lunchtime sous-chef, is leaving.

Donnie was one of the first people I met at EVOO, and I was absolutely terrified of him. He is incredibly meticulous in everything he does, and tried to make everyone around him pay attention to details. As this was my first kitchen job, this meant that Donnie was constantly showing me how to do things differently and better, which intimidated me. At the end of the night, a stovetop was not considered clean if he could find one tiny bit of black somewhere it didn’t belong. Although these were all things that scared me at first, I’m now happy that he showed me everything he did, as it has made me far better at my job. Looking back at the beginning I actually find it funny that of all people I was afraid of Donnie- although he points out things he sees being done wrong, it’s never “you’re doing that wrong” and always “why don’t you try it this way instead. It’s better if you do it this way, do you understand why?”. If something isn’t understood at first he makes sure that he does all he can to make you fully comprehend the reasons for doing things a certain way.

After 5 years of working at EVOO, and despite much kicking and screaming from those of us he’s leaving behind, Donnie is moving home to Pittsburgh with his family. As sad as we all are to see him go, he has made the fantastic decision that he wants to be a teacher- a decision that no one can really argue with. Of all the people I’ve ever worked with, Donnie is the best instructor I’ve ever crossed paths with (come to think of it, he’s probably a better instructor that the majority of teachers and professors I’ve had as well). When I asked him why he wants to teach instead of cook, Donnie shrugged his shoulders, said “because I want to save the world”, and laughed. It makes it harder to be upset about him being gone from our lives knowing that he’s going to be making a difference in kids’ lives, and that he’ll be able to concentrate more on his family.

EVOO will certainly not be the same without him, but we all wish him the best in the future. I suppose it will be like the dawning of a new era, and it will be interesting to see the way things unfold.

As many of you know, this week is officially “restaurant week”, which started last weekend. Aside from slightly shortening the menu and reducing price, we don’t change much for the occasion. Portion sizes are still the same and we are still serving the same fantastic quality food. The shortening of the menu is a necessary step for us to take to be better prepared for the rush of the weeks- The less complicated things are the easier it is for us to make sure we are completely ready for service, and the fewer dishes there are to worry about the easier it is for us to put out food in a timely fashion.

Last Tuesday night was the first night I worked during dinner service of restaurant week, and it went extremely well. The front of house staff was extremely well coordinated with the kitchen, and all of the reservations were evenly spread out so that although there were a lot of plates for us to make we were able to do them well and fast. Yesterday I worked during lunch, and was a bit caught off guard by the difference made by restaurant week. Once the orders started coming in they came in quickly and steadily for the entire afternoon, and because we were ready for it it all went smoothly.

I’ve been working all week, and there has not been a single point where we haven’t been caught up and things have been out of hand. On Sunday night I was working “Garde-Manger”, the cold station with salads and desserts. Toward the end of prep time I was starting to get worried about running out of apple crisps, and knowing that I didn’t have enough time to make filling and topping and get them in the oven, I told Pete. I’m pretty sure the last thing anyone wants to do during restaurant week is tell the head chef that we don’t have enough of something, and I was terrified that he would be mad at me for not getting them done (even though I’ve never seen him angry). As soon as I told him he just calmly asked a few of the cooks from Za to cut up apples, asked Anthony, one of the prep cooks, to finish up the filling, and got one of the dishwashers to quickly clean the giant mixer I needed to make the topping. Within 5 minutes I went from feeling panic and dread to feeling immense relief. It was a perfect demonstration of how if something is really desperately needed and a few people work together and power through it, it can get done well. It would have taken one person over an hour to get it all done, but we got through it in about 15 minutes, and had more than enough desserts for service. It was also another instance of me being grateful that I have such an awesome boss. He wasn’t even upset at me for a second for not having it done, just saw that I had none of the things I needed to make it, and saw how much else had been done, and found a way for us to finish it in time.

The team we have right now on the line is amazing- everyone has been stepping up through prep and service, getting an incredible amount of things done extremely well in a very short amount of time. It shows that for all of us it’s not just a job, and we’re not just working for a paycheck- we actually care about what we’re doing and who we’re doing it for. Everyone is tired, but I’ve noticed that morale is actually higher at the end of the night than at the beginning. There’s no better feeling than finishing service and realizing that we’ve done almost 200 covers flawlessly, or at least without panic and chaos.

As exhausting as it is, I think I’ll miss restaurant week when it’s over. It definitely gives you a rush of adrenaline and an insane feeling of accomplishment that’s usually reserved for Saturday nights. But alas, it’s nearing it’s end, so come and enjoy it while you can!

Charcuterie is one of the things we do at EVOO that I think is the most interesting and unique. The easiest way I can think of to describe exactly what it is is to relate it to deli-style specialty meats. This includes prosciutto, Tasso, guanciale, but also things like pates and rilletes. We make it all ourselves, which takes a lot of time and dedication but produces a superior end product.

On our list of charcuterie products, Tasso was the one that I was least familiar with (by which I mean I had absolutely no idea what it is), so I looked it up. If you were unsure of the meaning of a word, you would look it up in the dictionary. When you’re unsure of what a food item is, there is the Food Lover’s Companion. It knows everything and anything there is to know about all types of food, and that’s where I went for a definition of Tasso. The definition starts “Much to the disappointment of many, this Cajun specialty is generally hard to find outside Louisiana”. Well, much to the excitement of many, our head chef (Peter) loves Tasso enough to make it himself and make it available to all Tasso-lovers who come to EVOO. The definition continues to say that “Tasso is a lean chunk of cured pork (usually shoulder) or beef that’s been richly seasoned with ingredients such as red pepper, garlic… and any of several other herbs or spices…”. It is a unique and delicious offering which we are proud to serve.

When I first started at EVOO I was most excited to try the guanciale. I knew I loved prosciutto, and I knew that the cheek is supposed to be one of the most delicious parts of an animal and thus was thrilled at the idea of cured cheek in the style of prosciutto. My expectations were met and exceeded, and the guanciale is phenomenal.
When I buy prosciutto at the grocery store it’s hard for me not to just eat the entire package in one sitting. The prosciutto we make at EVOO is beyond comparison, and it makes the grocery store variety seem almost undesirable to me. One of my favorite things about all of the charcuterie is the plating of it- it seems like it would be simple enough, it’s just sliced meat on a plate. Maybe it’s the quality of it that makes it look so good, but I think that the charcuterie plates are some of the most beautiful plates we put out.

This is a photo of our prosciutto that we were serving in the spring, with a salad of zucchini, fresh basil, cherry tomatoes, and red onion. A perfect summer snack, I really can’t think of anything I’d rather eat. Except maybe the guanciale, of course. The color is amazing, and it doesn’t need any additional ingredients or “pizazz” to make it look a jaw-dropping level of delicious.

Also on our bar menu is a pig belly puree. Once again, I wasn’t sure what to expect when I first tasted it. My family on my mother’s side is French-Canadian, and one of my favorite foods growing up was my meme’s meat pie. When I had my first bite of the pig belly puree I was catapulted into memories of my great grandmother stirring her giant pot of stewing pork for meat pies, and the familiar taste was as warm and welcoming as her kitchen. We serve it warm on pieces of grilled bread, and even if you didn’t grow up with a French-Canadian great grandmother’s meat pies, I’m certain that the taste will warm your soul as it does mine.

Aside from charcuterie, we also have a great selection of cheeses on our bar menu. My two favorites are the Bijou and the Humble Pie. Bijou is French for “Jewel”, and rightly so this cheese comes in small wheels about the size of a glass bottle cap. The cheese is a goat’s cheese from Vermont, and despite my lactose-intolerance I find them hard to resist.
The Humble Pie is also made in Vermont, and is a blend of sheep’s and cow’s milk. It is similar to Brie in taste and texture, and it is the personal favorite of our sous-chef Michelle (she’ll have it for dinner every now and then, it’s just that good).

Needless to say, no one will ever go hungry sitting at the Bar at EVOO. In addition to the special bar menu, the regular menu is also available to customers at the bar. We got a new pig in last week (Pete named him Leon) and will hopefully have a wealth of new additions the the charcuterie menu (and the regular menu) as a result. I will continue to update as this happens, so stay hungry!

It seems as though all my recent posts are centered around holidays, and the most recent one to pass by was Valentine’s day. We served a special menu created just for the event, and the restaurant was fully booked. Most of the day before was spent preparing, and Randy was working until almost 4 in the morning (only to return to work at 10). Although it was insanely busy, the evening was a lot of fun. The shortened menu made it easier for us to make sure tables weren’t left waiting for too long for their food, and all in all it went smoothly.

More recently EVOO was finally covered in a thin blanket of snow- apparently New England weather dictates that once we all start expecting Spring, we can finally have the snow we’d been missing all winter. Although unwelcome by some, I think that snow can be the perfect excuse to sit inside of a cozy restaurant and enjoy a leisurely meal with good company. A bit of leftover decadence from Valentine’s Day, we are still serving a delicious lobster-parsnip bisque garnished with leeks, hedgehog mushrooms, tarragon butter, and of course, chunks of succulent lobster meat.

Working the corner station on the line, I have been responsible for preparing the fried clam dish, which has been incredibly exciting for me, as they are plated on a base of potato salad, which is one of my favorite things in the entire universe. The flour mix they are fried in is different than we usually use- we add a mixture of spices (most prominently Old Bay) that liven the flavor of the clam, and which are balanced out by the cooling effect of the potato salad.

As far as other new starters, we’re also bringing back the empanada- this time the filling, designed by both Sous-Chefs Randy and Michelle is a mixture of rabbit meat and prunes, and it is served with a mustard cream and a salad of celery root, pea greens, and toasted almonds.

We also have a new mussel dish courtesy of our head chef Pete. The mussels are steamed with potatoes and onions in a green curry sauce that (to me anyway) smells a little bit like Tom Kha Gai, my favorite Thai soup.

All week I have been dreaming about having enough time to make enchiladas at home, and then on Saturday I came into work to find that the chicken dish had been changed, and is now served with an enchilada of caramelized onions and goat cheese. It is also served with discs of twice-fried sweet potato and a salad of pickled jalapenos, cilantro, and toasted pumpkin seeds. The dish is pulled together by a delicious red chili gravy that also adds a beautiful color to the plate.

The new vegetarian dish coming off of my station is a sweet potato tamale, which is served on a bed of cumin-scented toasted rice and black bean. The tamale is stuffed (overflowed) with a ragout of roasted peppers, onions, olives, raisins, and pine nuts, and topped with a salad of fresh cilantro, feta, pickled jalapenos, fennel, and red onion.

Lamb is back on the menu in 2 places- as a chop/loin combination, and as a meat sauce.The first dish is a grilled lamb chop with a roasted loin, served with a potato croquette, roasted carrots, and a salad of baby spinach and pickled cauliflower. The dish is topped with a minty chimichurri and a natural Jus.
The other lamb dish is a polenta “lasagna” with lamb Bolognese (another of my favorite sauces), stracciatella cheese, and a salad of fennel, orange, arugula, and a hazelnut crunch.

The new beef dish is a piece of grilled sirloin with braised beef and a potato gratin- I feel like I’m saying this a lot, but the potato gratin is one of my favorite things on the menu. Maybe I just really like the menu at the moment, but I can think of few things as great as a pile of layered cheese and potatoes baked to perfection and oozing flavor. The dish is then topped with an arugula salad with pickled oyster mushrooms, and is finished with a smoky hollandaise sauce.

Fish dishes have changed as well- We are now serving a seared Arctic char fillet with celery root puree, curried root vegetables (carrots, parsnips, turnips, rutabaga… you get the idea) and a creamy apple salad. We also have a seared striped bass fillet served with a smoked pig stew with large white beans (lima beans) and mustard laced salad of wild carrots and greens.

That’s about as far as I’ll go into menu updates for now (the menu on the website will keep you up to date on daily changes.

We’re all gearing up for Restaurant Week at the end of the month, which will be an entire week of busy insanity, and we’re all looking forward to it. Warmer weather should be coming soon, but given the weather in the past few weeks, I wouldn’t count on it. Either way, the menu will change to reflect the weather and the changing produce, and i’m sure that greatness will come out of it.

I’m back! The holiday season was very busy for us, but now that things are settling down I’m hoping to find more time to keep the blog updated.

On Thanksgiving Pete closed the restaurant to the public and continued his annual tradition of serving a feast to friends and family of EVOO who have no family in the area or nowhere else to celebrate the holiday. Although I wasn’t present for the festivities, I love the idea of the celebration and think that it exemplifies the overall feeling of Thanksgiving.

We were also closed on Christmas and Christmas Eve, although on New Years we were certainly open, and very very busy. I spent New Years Eve with my best friends, and for a while I felt a little bit pathetic saying that (I was at work…) but then I realized that it’s pretty awesome that all of the cooks get along so well- I don’t think many people can say that about their work environment.

In the midst of all of the holiday chaos, we finally got ourselves a new sous-chef. Michelle was one of our line cooks, and had been putting in extra hours (and quite a bit of extra effort) for a while when Pete was out from surgery. She was recently officially given the title of sous-chef, and I couldn’t think of anyone better suited for the position. Her appointment has taken some pressure off of Randy, our other sous-chef, and we’re all hoping that he can get more sleep in the future. Despite his knee surgery, Pete is back nearly full time, and runs the line most nights of the week.

All in all, the line is functioning extremely well- everyone is back, working hard, getting along extremely well, and doing the best work we’re capable of. A few nights ago Michelle timed Pete when he was breaking down an entire lamb- he did the entire thing in under 10 minutes!

Menu changes can be found on our website, and I will (hopefully) update again soon.

So once again, our menu has almost completely changed since my last update.

Our salad has changed to reflect the season, and now has a base of roasted root vegetables- carrots, celery root, parsnips, and onions. On top of that is lettuce dressed in a curried buttermilk dressing, and the whole dish is finished with dried fruit and toasted hazelnuts. I never thought I’d say that a salad looked festive, but the dried cranberries and apricots give the salad a really gorgeous aesthetic.

The clam starter has also changed, and it’s one that I really enjoy plating. Flavors somewhat reminiscent of Paella, the clams are steamed in a white wine saffron broth, and served with saffron rice, roasted red peppers, chicken sausage, onions, garlic, and cilantro. The colors are bold and bright, and the scent of the dish is enough to tempt anyone it reaches.

We are serving a new ravioli starter as well- homemade ravioli filled with mozzarella and potato, served with a ragout of braised rabbit and carrots.

Then of course since we got another pig, the head cheese terrine is back, served with wild watercress, pickled cauliflower, and a mustard cream.

The pig’s contribution to our main courses can be found in the best stuffed pepper you could imagine: A poblano chili stuffed with adobo-braised pig, and then batter fried. It is served with cumin-scented toasted rice, black beans, cilantro, sour cream, and pickled jalapenos.

Our chicken dish has changed, and is now served with a creamy ricotta polenta, spinach, wild oyster mushrooms, and a garlicky chicken jus.

Of all of the new dishes on the menu, my favorite is the haddock. It is a filet of Maine haddock baked with a Thai red curry sauce, potatoes, squash, and fresh herbs (Thai basil, mint, and cilantro), and topped with a salad of wild watercress, herbs, and toasted peanuts. The flavors are bright and exciting, and I think the dish is a lovely addition to the menu.

The sirloin on the menu is once again served with sour cream whipped potatoes (why stop at butter and cream when you can add sour cream and make it that much more delicious?), roasted cauliflower, toasted pistachios, and a salad of capers, parsley, olives, and pickled peppers. The steak is then finished with a smoky Hollandaise sauce. I personally feel that Hollandaise sauce is one of the most beautiful and perfect creations on the planet, so I’m a sucker for this dish as well.

The last new dish on the dinner menu that I’ll mention is the braised lamb. I think that braising any meat makes it a thousand times more delicious. The dish is a ragu of red wine braised lamb, topped with crepes filled with a mixture of sunchoke and potato, and then finished with a salad of Persian cucumbers, red onion, and a minted yogurt dressing. It may once again be my personal preference and love of cucumbers, but I find the salad particularly hard to resist.

I will update again soon (I promise!) with updates on our lunch menu, and of course our sweet sweet desserts.

Ok, I’m finally updating about all of our new main courses. As you will see, there are quite a few…

The sirloin dish has changed, and is now served with sour cream whipped potatoes, roasted cauliflower, a salad of toasted pistachios, capers, parsley, olives, and pickled peppers, and is topped with a smoky Hollandaise. The roasted cauliflower smells like the holidays to me, although I can’t recall ever having it on a holiday. The whole dish has a lovely warm, rustic feel to it, and I think it’s perfect for the colder temperatures that have been moving in.

Although still smoked in the back room, the bluefish is now served on a completely different plate. It still has a spice crust, which now includes pumpkin seeds as well. Rather than corn risotto, which would no longer be seasonal, the bluefish now sits on a roasted sweet potato hash with poblano and red peppers and onion. It is topped with a fresh pear relish, and garnished with a maple-cranberry gastrique.

The salmon main course has changed to arctic char, and is served with a smoked pig skin risotto, creamy parsnip puree, and a slaw of celery root and apple.

Our vegetarian main course has changed from the sweet potato croquette to an incredibly festive dish, and one of my new favorites. Homemade cavatelli pasta with apples, fennel, and carrots, all cooked in a cider reduction and served inside of a roasted red Kuri squash with a celery root puree, toasted pecans, parsley and thyme, and topped with maple whipped cream.

Duck is once again on the menu, and we are serving a seared duck breast with roasted fingerling potatoes, braised celery, scallion tempura, and an orange-five spice jus.

Courtesy of our newest pig, we have a grilled pig chop served with a two potato gratin, brussels sprouts, crisp apples, and a smoky cider jus.

There is another new starter on the menu which I feel I should mention here, as I find it very exciting and fun. The dish is a Roxbury Russet apple stuffed with a smoked lamb rillette, served with dried cranberries, toasted pistachios, and a spiced cider reduction. Much like the vegetarian main course, I think that the presentation screams fall, and is visually striking.

Hopefully you all enjoy these new dishes as much as I have been, and as always I will continue to update with more changes as they occur.

Our menu has nearly completely changed since my last update, so I hope to get everyone caught up as much as possible with this post.

I’ll begin with the starters:

The first of the new starters I’ll mention is the Pierogi. Stuffed with Hubbard squash and served with duck confit, spinach, and pea greens in a sherry ginger sauce, I find the plate particularly visually appealing. Watching Russell, one of our line cooks prep and plate the dish will assure anyone watching that there is no lack of love in it.

Our soup has changed from a butternut corn chowder to a butternut squash and apple soup, which is topped with smoked goat cheese, toasted walnuts, apples, and fried sage.

Our version of ham and cheese can be found in our breaded, fried ham and cheese croquettes. These are served on top of a cauliflower puree which is drizzled in a parsley puree, and the dish is topped with an orange gremolata.

Last on my list of new starters for the day is a nest of roasted spaghetti squash (if you’ve never seen spaghetti squash before, it’s a squash that naturally takes on a spaghetti-like form when cooked and forked out of its skin. Served with white cap mushrooms, a quenelle of cloumage cheese, caramelized lamb bacon, and a poached egg.

In addition to these starters we also have a slew of new main courses, which will be the focus of my next post.

A few weeks ago, our head chef Peter had surgery on his knee and as a result has been out of commission. Recently he has been coming in to the restaurant to expedite to the best of his ability, and most recently and excitingly we got another pig, which he has been working on butchering for yet another installment of new pork dishes. Everyone at the restaurant is glad to have him back, and despite the setback he has not lost any of his enthusiasm for his work.

Coming up will be the rest of the main courses, new dishes from the pig that we just got, updates on what we’re pickling and jarring for the winter, and more general updates from behind the line at the restaurant.

On Saturday night I had the privilege of working at a new station, on the opposite end of the line from where I usually work. This meant that I got to learn three new dishes. The first was the shrimp box, which is one of the few dishes that remains from our old menu. Served in a Chinese food-style box, the dish starts with honey mustard, followed by stir-fried shrimp with Thai basil and scallions, followed by a salad of Napa cabbage, red peppers, broccoli, radish, Daikon radish, and carrot, which is then topped with an asian barbecue style braised beef- after working with it on my station I think it is one of my favorite things in the entire restaurant- and the box is finished off with organic brown rice.

The second main course on the station was our vegetarian option- a deep-fried sweet potato croquette. The croquette is served on a base of red chili gravy, and is topped with creamed corn and a salad of fresh pea greens, pickled peppers (which we pickle ourselves), cherry tomatoes, shaved red onion, and lemon vinaigrette.

The starter on the corner station is our clam dish. Steamed clams are served in a bowl of broth with lima beans, smoked tomato, blanched onions, and lemon balm.

Aside from learning the new dishes on the station, working in the corner allowed me to work next to the sauté station, which I am usually far removed from. Ryan, one of our cooks who is usually on the corner station, was working sauté on Saturday. Even though that was a new station for him, it made it easier for me to learn my station since he knows it better than anyone and was readily available to help me learn the dishes. He was in charge of the chowder, the mushroom starter, and the salmon main course. The chowder is a butternut squash and corn chowder topped with squash, potatoes, corn, and onion all smothered in homemade ancho butter.

The mushroom starter is one that I found especially enticing, which is odd because I am not usually a fan of mushrooms. The dish includes a variety of mushrooms, spaghetti squash, stracciatella cheese, and a poached egg. I think that anyone who has ever poached an egg can appreciate the concentration and patience it takes to run that station, as it can be incredibly difficult to get an egg perfectly poached and on the plate in the midst of many other tasks.

Although the experience was slightly chaotic, it was nice to learn what goes on on the other half of the line, and I gained a new respect for my co-workers after seeing what they do on the other stations.

I will have more menu updates as the week continues, and we got a few lambs in this week, so expect to see at least one lamb dish on the menu. We are also continuing to play with the dessert menu- we are no longer making the sweet potato pound cake, but we do have a flour-less chocolate cake (served with raspberry sauce, fresh raspberries, and whipped cream), and the crisp has changed to a pear-cranberry crisp. I will continue to update as we come up with new dishes.

As we transition out of summer and into fall, nights are getting colder, and local produce is shifting. As a result, our menu is changing to reflect the new season.
I think root vegetables are closely associated with fall, and so we have a parsnip cake on the dessert menu. It’s similar to a carrot cake, and we serve it with a warm coffee-toffee sauce and a homemade hazelnut-mocha ice cream.

Donnie, our lunch sous-chef, has been having a lot of fun coming up with new desserts for us in the past couple of weeks. His shifts are primarily lunchtime shifts which aren’t huge dessert times, but I think he started with one new dish and just ran with it. Every day I come in for my dinner shift he’s excited to tell me about some new thing he came up with, whether it’s an entirely new dessert or a different accompaniment for an existing dessert. He has been tweaking each recipe tirelessly to get the perfect end result, and I think it has paid off.

Along the same “root vegetable” theme as the parsnip cake, he made a sweet-potato pound cake. It has the desserty richness associated with pound cake, and a flavor profile along the lines of a pumpkin cake or zucchini cake. Of all of the new desserts this is my personal favorite to plate, and I think it’s a lot of fun. We serve it with two homemade marshmallows on skewers that we toast (with a blow torch! what could be more fun?) and put with a chunk of walnut brittle-another of my favorites. Smeared on top of the cake is maple butter. When I was little my favorite part of trips to Vermont was maple candy- a treat I hope no New Englander has missed out on- and this maple butter tastes almost exactly like it.

Donnie also came up with a new apple cake for the menu- I can’t think of what to compare it to because I can’t remember tasting anything quite like it, but I can tell you that the smell of it is something surreal. It’s, well, a cake, in simple terms, baked with apples, raisins, and spices, and served with a whiskey creme-anglaise. I honestly can’t think of anything more comforting on a cold fall night than whiskey, except maybe pairing it with warm apple cake. The dish is topped with a baked apple chip, and if there’s any hint of a chill in your bones I recommend this dessert to you hands down.

The last of Donnie’s new desserts (I told you he’s been having fun) is a cheddar cheesecake. Another thing I had never had, and never heard of before. The cake has a very interesting texture, and a citrus-y freshness (orange zest) that cuts the strong cheddar taste, and it’s not nearly as savory as you would think a cheddar cheesecake would be. I think it tastes more or less like a regular cheesecake, but less rich and less dense. Once again going with the theme of alcohol being comforting in the chilly weather, the cake is served with beer-braised apples and homemade whipped cream.

As the dessert station is the station I work at most often, these changes are particularly exciting for me. I think it’s important to be excited about the food you’re serving, and to be able to have fun making it and serving it. As always, the attitude of everyone at EVOO makes that easy.

I will update again soon with pictures of these desserts, and given Donnie’s attitude lately I’m sure I’ll update again with more new desserts, or with changes to these.