Thursday, February 26, 2009

Chef Michael White - Purely Delightful

I loved the chef on The Today Show this morning! Michael White of Convivio, Alto and the soon-to-be-open Marea, was on for just a short time, but made a wonderful impression - soft-spoken, kind and polite (when was the last time you heard a chef described THAT way?) AND authoritative.

He says that scallops are easy to cook and they can make a chef appear to be a superstar. (Remember Jamie?) Chef White gave us some quick tips for cooking scallops:

Get FRESH ones that haven’t been sitting in a pool of liquid. That liquid means they’ve been treated with phosphates to preserve them, because their lack of fat causes them to turn quickly.

Mix the scallops with some ruby red grapefruit juice mixed with a touch of olive oil to counter their sweetness.

Add cold olive oil to a hot pan.

Set the scallops down in the pan and don’t turn them. Leave for 3 minutes on the first side.

Serve them on top of a quick salad of fregola, wild arugula, fennel and black olives.


Lovely dish, NICE chef and it probably helped that it wasn't the Hoda/Katheee Leeee team interviewing him.*


*H and KL made up with the chef with whom they had the fight, but, sadly, that part isn’t on the video of his appearance.


My Top Chef Finale post is coming...soon.

2 comments:

Tracy said...

His dish looked nice but I wish they'd give those guys a little more time to demo. He didn't even get enough time to explain the liquid the scallops are in, etc. It seemed very disjointed and rushed, like most morning show cooking demos.

Sue said...

Hi Tracy,
The funny thing was that Chef White was so calm, it didn't seem like he was being rushed at all. Those scallops looked really good too.