Behind-the-Line Chef’s edition connects our favorite chefs with home cooks, weighing in on cooking methods and kitchen technique, favorite ingredients and kitchen resources to help grow your inner cook.

Pâte a choux, a fundamental part of the baker’s repertoire, is a versatile dough that most of us have enjoyed in it’s light, airy prime — whether used as a sandwich for ice cream or as the mold to a chocolatey-filled pastry cream, the infamous eclair. Devon Morgan, Pastry Chef at the Sheraton Capitol Square Columbus, loves choux for this reason — it’s very versatile in terms of shape, baking options and finishing techniques. It can be sweet or savory and provide a great base for hors d’oeuvres and desserts. “I love choux, because my favorite thing is to fill it with pastry cream and dip it in ganache – it’s an oldie, but a goodie.”  At the hotel, she uses pâte a choux to make profiteroles, cream puffs, eclairs and gougeres. Depending on the size of the party, they can make anywhere from 50 shells to 150.

From making the dough to baking it, it’s finding that right balance for a successful finish. Piping over 5,000 choux molds in her pastry career, Devon can claim the secret to making a great choux paste. Steam is the main leavening that gives the choux its puff. How many eggs you add will help to determine the consistency of your dough and how much it will puff.

She has a great trick that she will share to making this step a success at her upcoming North Market School of Cooking Class on March 17th.

Find useful baking tips, her favorite kitchen tools and resourceful pastry books in my interview with Devon below:

One ingredient you couldn’t live without and why?
DM: Vanilla Beans – no matter what you are making the addition of vanilla can round out the flavor. Vanilla beans are what they use to make vanilla extract. You can use the seeds in your dessert or use them to make your own extract by steeping the pods in Vodka. You can also place them in sugar and make vanilla sugar.

When making custards we split the beans and remove the seeds and add to the cream or milk. We save the pod to add to our on-going batch of homemade extract or to make more vanilla sugar. We allow the cream to reach a low boil and infuse the cream with the flavor. Vanilla beans are best stored in the freezer – to keep them from going moldy due to warm temperatures in the kitchen and to keep them at their freshest.

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Behind-the-Line Chef’s edition connects our favorite chefs with home cooks, weighing in on cooking methods and kitchen technique, favorite ingredients and kitchen resources to help grow your inner cook.

Executive Chef Steve Johnson, of Hyatt Regency Columbus, at Big Bar On 2

“I was born in a restaurant,” says Chef Steve Johnson, “My parents co-owned an American-Continental restaurant, called Berkeleys, which was located just five houses from where I lived. Every day, I would pick up the house keys on my way home. I worked there until I was 16.” Growing up in an Ohio household to what he defines as “normal,” Johnson’s family grew everything from kale and greens to cherry and apple trees and blackberry bushes right in their own backyard. “I grew up with well water. It’s what we knew.” Tied to his roots, it’s these ingrained principles Johnson brings to the Hyatt Regency Columbus, where he has transformed the kitchen to an 80% made-from-scratch kitchen, designing organic menus with a commitment to local farms within 150 miles radius, partnering with farms like Davis Creek Meats and Gerber Farms. “All of our desserts are made in-house,” claimed Johnson, “I’ve changed the staff’s thought process. If they can’t embrace these core values, then they aren’t going to make it in my kitchen.”

Market Stand Café pear and brie sandwich – watercress, balsamic aioli and caramelized onion on rustic walnut bread. The pear, brie and bread are sliced to order and the arugula is organic.

Flavor affair with the southwest.
Johnson’s 13-year journey with the Hyatt Regency began in Southern California, where he discovered bright bold flavors of southwestern cooking. This Ohio native carries on the southwest tradition with a twist, where he merges traditional home-cooked staples with tex-mex flair. “Your typical fried chicken will not be accompanied with the standard mashers and gravy,” said Johnson. Better yet, expect smoky notes of paprika and hints of heat from this buttermilk-crusted breast. And the neighbor side dish? Be prepared for a spiced-up mac-n-cheese explosion with chef’s secret cream infusion, tapping into classic French cooking principles. And if you stick around long enough, your palate may be blessed with a mind-blowing take on fried ice cream. What I like to call a scoopin’ bombshell. Can you get your head wrapped around a poblano pepper stuffed with vanilla ice cream, then double-crusted with crushed blue and red tortillas? My taste buds are anxiously waiting.

For Chef Steve’s Southwest Fried Chicken and Picante Mac and Cheese recipes, scroll to end of interview [click to continue…]

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Behind-the-Line Chef’s edition connects our favorite chefs with home cooks, weighing in on cooking methods and kitchen technique, favorite ingredients and kitchen resources to help grow your inner cook.

Larger-than-life spirit and lead-with-the-heart joie de vive, Chef Hubert Seifert, of Spagio, shares childhood fond memories that has shaped him today to favorite kitchen supplies that every home cook should own.

One ingredient you couldn’t live without and why?
HS: Butter. You can finish any dish with just a spoonful of butter. It adds richness and beautiful flavor – you can’t beat that.

Must have kitchen supply or utensil in your kitchen:
HS: Big, oval, heavy-duty cast-iron pot, made by French manufacturer, Staub. I own two, but only use one. All you need is a burner and this pot and you can cook anything, from stews and soups, to sauces and roasts.

What can always be found in your refrigerator?
HS: Double-smoked slab of bacon I get from Albert, owner of Thurn’s Specialty Meats. Thurns cold-smokes the bacon and I cut the slab at home. This is the best place to get meat. They do it right and they have the real smokers, versus so many of the over-processed, machine-manufactured meat. Other items: onions and heavy bread, like a pumpernickel or a rye, but heavier.

A cookbook that every cooking enthusiast should have in their cookbook library:
HS: Books by author, Brillat-Savarin. For example, The Physiology of Taste, where he is also recognized for his famous commandment, “Dis-moi ce que tu manges, je te dirai ce que tu es.” Tell me what you eat and I will tell you what you are. A notion stating that the food one eats has a bearing on one’s state of mind and health.

Larousse Gastronomique, presents the history of foods, eating, and restaurants; cooking terms; beginning to advanced techniques; a review of basic ingredients and how to buy, store and use them; biographies of important culinary figures, like Brillat-Savarin; and recommendations for cooking nearly everything. [click to continue…]

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