Adam Todd

Crispy Fried BBQ Calamari

Here's a photo of the Crispy Fried Calamari we do at Bear that was mentioned in yesterday's post BBQ Sauce That's Presidential: Q Gourmet

- Adam

Chef Adam Todd on Facebook

BBQ Sauce That's Presidential: Q Gourmet

My Chef, Ray Bear has lots of pots on the stove. Working with him gives me a glimpse at what’s cooking on a celebrity Chefs stove. He hosts cooking competitions, sells chinaware, and even has his own line of gourmet sauces called Q Gourmet by Chef Ray Bear. Actually, my first “shift” I worked for him was at Pete’s Frootique, sampling and selling 3 of the sauces; Smokey Mango, Passion fruit Mustard, and Smokey BBQ sauce.

While I was tending the Q Gourmet booth at the CATCH Seafood Festival  on June 28^th and 29^th, for Nadine Spencer, I got a chance to meet Peter of C100 FM’s The Breakfast Club. We chatted for a minute about the Chefs competition and Chef Bears sauces. I had mentioned that the White House Chef used the BBQ sauce, and he bought a bottle and went to find out the whole story from Chef Bear. Read the whole story: Smokey BBQ Cooking Sauce Makes it to the White House.

The next day, when I got to work, Chef Bear told me that Peter had invited him on the radio to talk about his sauce line and give Halifax the scoop on the Presidential BBQ sauce.

Recently when my father retired, we celebrated and raised our glasses with a family BBQ. I used the Smokey BBQ sauce on the braised ribs and they were a hit!

We use Chef Bears Q Gourmet sauces at Bear Restaurant too. The Mango sauce is used mostly for specials, tasting menus, and amuses. All of the sauces are really versatile and easy to use in the spur of the moment. They go great with everything, seafood, pork or chicken. We use the Passion Fruit Mustard as a finishing sauce on the Lamb plate.  

 

We also use the Smokey BBQ sauce in the restaurant and serve it as the sauce for our fried calamari dish. Our calamari comes from Terry O’leary, in Canso. Many places in the city serve imported squid from Taiwan. Not Bear, he has a close and personal relationship with Terry. He lives in Canso, retired, and makes the treck o the city every few weeks to sells his squid to a select few restaurants downtown and close friends across the province. The squid are bigger and meatier, fresher, and don’t have to fly halfway around the world to finally end up on you plate.

 

We serve the squid on a bed of the Smokey BBQ sauce (that we make inhouse from the exact same recipe) and garnish with a chiffonad of cilantro, salt, a squeeze of lime, and half a key lime in case the guest needs it.

 

You can pick up the sauces at Pete’s Frootique or online at Q Gourmet. There's also some great recipes.

 

Here is a quick one of my own:

Passion Fruit Mustard Salad Dressing

1 cup     Vegetable Oil

2 tbsp     Cilantro Leaves

1 cup Q Gourmet Passion Fruit Mustard

Blend Cilantro and Q Gourmet Passion Fruit Mustard in a blender at a medium speed. Slowly pour the oil, in a steady and fluid stream. This should take 45 seconds to a one min. This causes an emulsion and will make the dressing creamy.

I love this dressing with a salad of roasted beets and goat’s cheese, a little shaved fennel, some orange segments and some fresh greens from the market.

Enjoy!

 - Adam

---

 

Chef Adam Todd on Facebook

Bear Restaurant: Front of the House

Some photos from Bear... front of the house:

  

 More Bear Restaurant Photos on Flickr

Chef Adam Todd on Facebook

ApEx 2009 Chef Wars Final: Bear vs Gio

After the first battle we were given the black box items for the final. As we packed up our equipment and cleaned our station, Ian and I were already talking about what we were going to do with the beautifully fresh 2 pound Arctic Char, 15 fresh clams in their shell, Flat Iron steak and baby shrimp. We were busy at the restaurant that night even though it was a Sunday and we would normally be closed. We were pumped from the win in the afternoon and had a great service with a few special guests who enjoyed a 7 course tasting menu. The air was filled with a great vibe as we worked and our menu started to take shape between the orders of 2 scallop Ceviche, short rib ravioli, and a Pork belly! And picking up 2 fish, 2 lamb, a duck and a strip loin! When service was over and the kitchen was cleaned we took a few mins to collect our thoughts, finalize the menu and plan out the next morning…

The next morning, I arrived at the restaurant at 10 to pack up our equipment and get a start on final touches. As I worked on the dessert Ian and Chef were planning out the plate design. Everything was coming together. We knew the food was tasty, and when it hit the plates we knew it look great, and we had a game plan for go time… we were feeling pretty good.

As we did the day before, we set up early and went back to planning, trying to solve any problems and mishaps that might occur before they happen…as they usually do when you have an audience while you work. The judges arrived, as well as the competition. Gio’s Chef Bee Choo Char and Vince Scigliano, both accomplished former Chef Bear apprentices’ were just as ready for battle as we were. Cooks are very competitive and both teams were thirsty for medium rare blood… but Ian had worked with the Gio team at Gio and I had worked with Vince at Bear when I started. We were all friends so it helped ease my nerves. The competition began.

I started working on the broth for our appetizer plate. We were serving seared Arctic Char with poached clams and baby shrimp in an asparagus and cucumber broth and crispy char skin. As we plated… and re-plated… I couldn’t help but try to sneak peeks at what was happening on the Gio side. They were working fast and focused… Vince had that look in his eyes… I knew he wanted to win. Everything had to be perfect if we wanted to come out on top. The judges tasted our first plate, and we started on our main course.

Our sous vied flat iron steak was tender and tasty. We served it on julienned Portobello mushrooms, brown butter Parisian potatoes and an herb vegetable slaw sauced with a creamy parmesan velouté. The plate looked great and was exactly what we wanted. Rustic, and earthy with a little bit of style. We cleaned up our station and got ready to plate our final dish of the competition.

I had assembled the chilled goats cheese and raspberry mousse cakes with fresh berries. All we had to do was delicately place the shards of almond glass, mint leaves and drizzle the warm white chocolate butter sauce all around our final offering for the judges. After a big high-5 from Ian, I sighed with relief. We were done… our food tasted great and looked just as we envisioned, we were happy with our work, and I hadn’t burnt anything! A success.

After Gio put up their final plates it was in the judges hands…

On that day, Gio had better food. I was very happy for them. I wish I could have gotten too taste their plates, their menu sounded great. I hear that some of the dishes they did at the competition will be featured on the Gio menu… maybe I’ll get to taste them after all. The judges said that both teams had great food and that was all I needed to hear.  It was such a good experience for me. I had a great time and learned a lot. It was a great first competition for me. Good food, friends and mentors. My next battle won’t be like this… Chaine des Rotiseure. I'll fill you in when I know more…

+ More Photos on Flickr

+ Chronicle Herald Coverage

 

------------------------------

Like this post? Follow me on Twitter (@ChefAdamTodd) or connect with me on Facebook.

 

ApEx 2009: Bear Restaurant vs Hamachi House Photo Gallery

Read the post ApEx 2009 Chef Wars: Bear vs Hamachi House

------------------------------

Like this post? Follow me on Twitter (@ChefAdamTodd) or connect with me on Facebook.

 

ApEx 2009 Chef Wars: Bear vs Hamachi House

It's been a busy week with private parties at Bear and my first cooking competition this past weekend. The CRFA’s (Canadian Restaurant and Foodservice Association) 2009 ApEx Conference was held at Exhibition Park on April 5th and 6th.

Four restaurants and their Chefs were chosen to compete in a live cooking competition called Halifax Restaurant Chef Wars. They were Hamachi House, The Press Gang , Gio, and Bear. I was partnered with Ian Milner, a very talented Chef and good friend.

We worked hard the night before to get ready for our first battle against Hamachi house, preparing our menu using required ingredients. Our Black Box items were chicken, bacon, oysters, and lobster. MMMM… tasty… I showed up early to meet with Ian and Chef Bear to figure out our game plan. We were busy that night because it was Saturday, but we still managed to get some prep done for the competition the next day.

Sunday morning we met at the restaurant at 9:30, to finish some last minute preparations. We packed up Chefs truck and left for the battle. We arrived and set up quickly. It was all very exciting… it was fun abut also a little nerve racking. We started at noon, and it was one hour long. It flew by. We had to prepare three dishes using those four main ingredients.

Our first course was a seafood appetizer. A medallion of lobster tail rolled in tarragon, lobster and broccoli salad stuffed pickled onion heart, broccoli and cilantro puree and an oyster with gazpacho sauce.  We very happy with the way the plate came together; all of the flavors were really fresh and bright. So were the colours . The judges loved the dish. Chef/Judge Peter Dewer, commented that it was "the best appetizer I've had in my life" (Chronicle Herald).

We started working on the main course while the judges tasted our seafood offering. We butter poached the chicken breasts in a vacuumed sealed bag with a thermo-circulator. This is a machine that keeps the water at an exact temperature to allow slow and even cooking to a precise doneness. We wanted to make sure that we used all of the chicken, so we braised the legs in blueberry juice with the bones and some vegetables. We pulled the leg meat to make a ragout and reduced the blueberry chicken braising liquid into a sauce. Alongside the chicken we served a roasted squash puree on the plate as well in a fresh ravioli, asparagus ribbons, Portobello mushroom and crispy bacon. All of the sweet flavors of the cinnamon blueberry braise sauce and roasted squash worked well with the simple and earthy flavors in the vegetable ragout.

We had help with our dessert from our pastry chef from Bear. A strawberry cookie with white chocolate and pistachio dust sat atop a caramel Bavarian. We served it with macerated strawberries and raspberries and red wine syrup.

The whole time, Hamachi House was close on our tails. Every plate we put up, they followed shortly with their offering. All of their plates were well thought out and visually tasty, but when it came down to the judge’s decision, they gave us the nod. They announced that Bear restaurant would return the next day to compete against the winner of the afternoon battle between The Press Gang and Gio.

And with that, I had my first competition under my belt, a win at that, and a big smile on my face. We finished cleaning up our workstation, packed up our equipment, got our black box ingredients for the next day and went back to the restaurant for dinner service and figure out what to do for for the Finals!

+ More Photos on Flickr

+ Chronicle Herald Coverage

------------------------------

Like this post? Follow me on Twitter (@ChefAdamTodd) or connect with me on Facebook.

 

 

Amuse Bouche

Welcome to my first blog… and first blog post. This is all new to me but I’m very excited.  My name is Adam Todd and I’m on a journey to becoming a Chef. To anyone who has worked in a kitchen before, you know what I mean journey. It started years ago before I even realized that I would be getting myself into. But today, I’ll let you know about today. It’s Saturday April 4th 2009. I’m getting ready for a shift tonight. I’m an apprentice at a fine dining restaurant in Halifax Nova Scotia called Bear Restaurant. It’s a  relatively new  place, 5 months. We are gearing up for a very busy summer season, which will be lots of work and lots of learning. More about Bear to come.

I also have a catering company with a friend and former culinary student Geoff Gardner. Our varied experience, mutual love of all things food, and desire to be constantly improving became Relax Dinner Parties. More about Relax to come.

This blog, for me, will be a tool to share recipes, my experiences and tasty morsels of foodie info.  

Thanks for stopping by!

---