Charlie Trotter’s

				Trotter’s.doc From: msimmon2@gsb.uchicago.edu Subject: Charlie Trotter’s Date: August 10, 2003 5:23:26 PM EDT To: aroundthekitchen@aroundthekitchen.info Reply-To: aroundthekitchen@aroundthekitchen.info I only know a few of you, so I will explain my connection to the group. I am Lynda Carlson’s daughter-in-law (married to Noah) and have met Leslie & Rob and Tom & Cathy through the Carlson family (I don’t believe I’ve met anyone else personally). I have just completed my MBA at the University of Chicago and relocated to New York’s Upper West Side (less than a block away from the Fairway Market and 5 short blocks from Zabars). During the last year of my studies, I had the opportunity to spend 2 days per week in Charlie Trotter’s kitchen and Tom has asked me to share a bit about the experience with the group. To give you a bit of background, I have no formal culinary training (other than observing Leslie cook a handful of dinners) and have never worked in a restaurant. I just very much enjoy cooking and reading about it. I started a food column for the U of C’s business school and quickly became known as the grand food expert (but keep in mind, this crowd thinks that home made means coming from a box). I decided that I would make the most of my flexible schedule during business school and try to gain some exposure to the kitchen of an established restaurant and possibly write about the experience (I was inspired by Michael Ruhlman’s Soul of a Chef). Through a very roundabout way, my name was passed along to Charlie Trotter and I woke up one morning to find an email in my inbox from Charlie Trotter. My initial thoughts were that someone was playing a joke on me. I opened the email to find the following message followed by his contact info: Ms. Simmons, It has come to my attention that you are interested in spending time at Charlie Trotter’s in order to write about the experience. If that is the case, please contact me and we can discuss the details. With regards, Charlie So we spoke and I spend 2 days per week in the restaurant for the next 4 months. The deal was that I had to work the full shift to get a true feel for the day from beginning to end. The shifts began around noon to 1:00 and ended anywhere between 2:00 – 4:00am. (more of a time commitment than I had anticipated, but well worth it). I have attached some (very unedited) notes from my first few weeks there in case you are interested. As I read over them now, I realize how much I learned throughout the time I spent there. The arrangement we made was that I would actually work in the kitchen….not observe. In the beginning this was extremely intimidating, as you can imagine. I started off doing a lot of prep work, then gradually moved into a bit of everything else, including plating the food, preparing sauces, poaching salmon (in olive oil…in a slow cooker….delicious) and correcting for seasonings. I learned a tremendous amount. I spent a lot of time working with Chef Brian Ogden. Brian is Bradley’s (of One Market and Lark Creek Inn in the Bay area and most recently Restaurant Bradley Ogden in Caesar’s Palace in Vegas) son. I learned more from him than anyone. He grew up working in his father’s restaurants and then attended the CIA before coming to Trotter’s. (As a sidenote, Trotter learned a great deal about cooking from Bradley. And Bradley’s other son, now in Japan, also worked at Charlie Trotter’s). Brian was one of the younger chefs in the kitchen, but had more knowledge than just about anyone other than Matt and is truly passionate about all aspects of food and wine. I remember one incident when Giuseppe (one of the 2 Sous Chefs trained in Italy) had cut the salmon that was to be poached and layered it in a container and Brian was infuriated. Though he could not disrespect his superior, he explained to me that placing layers of fish, or any kind of meat, on top of each other was disrespectful to the animal and he was completely repulsed. Brian left at the same time I did (end of last December) and took at least 2 other chefs and a few people from the front of the house with him. I can only imaging Trotter’s response to this. In December, he only knew that one other Chef was leaving with Brian and was infuriated. He called Brian into his office and warned him not to use his restaurant as a recruiting agency. At the time, I knew of 2 others who were also following, but they were all afraid to tell Trotter until the last minute (they were leaving mid-January). Brian is the Chef de Cuisine at Restaurant Bradley Ogden. So, if you find yourself in Vegas, I would highly recommend it. It opened in March. Trotter himself actually spends very little time in the kitchen and he does not do any of the cooking (some of his chefs wonder if he even knows how to cook). The Chef de Cuisine, Matthias Merges, is the true genius behind the scenes. He creates every dish that is served and comes up with some incredible ideas. His talent is truly amazing. Trotter has not worked in the kitchen since 1989ish. I believe the restaurant opened in 1987 and he worked the kitchen for the first 2 years, but then moved on to become more of a business man. He definitely is in tune with what is going on in the kitchen, but his priority is promoting his PBS show, cookbooks and Trotter’s-to-Go store (ie, his image). Without divulging too much, since this is a public email, I will say that I don’t have much respect for Mr. Trotter as a Chef or as a person (neither do most people who work for him), which was very disappointing to me. However, he did provide me with an incredible opportunity, and for that I am thankful. I never ended up publishing anything about my experience, as Trotter and I could never come to an agreement about the topic. I could go on with stories forever, but will stop here, but feel free to ask questions. Next time a dinner is coordinated in the DC area, I will be more likely to make it, as it is now only a train ride away. Noah and I would like to meet the rest of you crazy people who have so much time on your hands to talk about food (I mean that in a good way). -Michelle From: kradit@earthlink.net Subject: Re: Charlie Trotter’s Date: August 10, 2003 6:43:12 PM EDT To: aroundthekitchen@aroundthekitchen.info Reply-To: aroundthekitchen@aroundthekitchen.info Michelle - I enjoyed reading your email and the attachment. It just happens that your timing is perfect, as my wife and I have reservations at Charlie Trotter’s in about 3 weeks (neither of us have been there before). We have been looking forward to the upcoming dinner for months, but after reading about your experiences, I wonder if we should go to Pizzeria Uno instead. But seriously, if we want to have the best dinner that can be had in Chicago, is Trotters’s still the place to go? Kevin