Surreal Gourmet Bites:
Showstoppers and Conversation Starters

Off the Eaten Path: Inspired Recipes for Adventurous Cooks

The Surreal Gourmet Entertains: High-Fun, Low-Stress Dinner Parties for 6 to 12 People

The Surreal Gourmet: Real Food for Pretend Chefs

David Wood's
Cheese Odyssey

Cheese Wisdom
from Andy Shay:

5 Things Not
To Do With
Artisan Cheese

Bloomy Rind
Cheeses and
the Crème
de la Crème

Low-Fat Cheese?

Cheddar Nation

Washed Rind
Cheeses

New York City
Cheese Survey

Sheep's Milk
Cheeses

Thank you for reading
Gremolata, Ontario's fastest growing food and wine website and newsletter.

Dufflet Rosenberg: Queen of Cake

Bob Blumer published The Surreal Gourmet: Real Food for Pretend Chefs in 1992 and hasn't looked back since. Formerly Jane Siberry's manager, Blumer combined his skills for living well with little money , his artistic talent and his playful interest in surrealism to produce one of the most influential cookbooks of the 90s. The book was a hit and he has been inspiring cooks since with three more volumes. Ever looking for interesting ways to present food, earlier this year, Blumer brought his unique outlook to Paris, where he opened a "temporary restaurant" for a week. Gremolata's Malcolm Jolley caught up with him closer to home recently in Toronto, where he is finishing up the fifth season of his popular Food Network TV show, to be aired in October (see www.surrealgourmet.com for more information).

Interview:

Gremolata: You're in town shooting the fifth season of The Surreal Gourmet: what can we expect from the new shows?

Bob Blumer: Well, more of the same, but over the course of the last five years my cooking has totally evolved. You know I'm completely self-taught: never went to cooking school or worked in a restaurant. So what I do is every year I try and work at a restaurant I really respect. I've been in the kitchen at Campanile in California, Craft in New York and just recently the restaurant associated with the Bordeaux wine Lynch-Bages. I've also been immersing myself in food culture and learning whatever I can. so the recipes are a little more sophisticated, as is the audience. I think the audience has also grown with me. People are much more refined in the kitchen which makes me a lot less afraid to try some more interesting things. Although, I do have a general rule that nothing be terribly difficult and there be no serious technique involved.

G: So what tricks have you picked up?

BB: In France I saw them do amazing things with lamb - they would make a reduction from braising. It was a very tiny presentation, you would get a little piece of lamb on the plate with the braising juices reduced to almost a demi-glaze and then draw a line of the demi-glaze on the plate. When I tasted the demi-glaze it was so intense: a sticky, gooey thing, the essence of lamb. So now we're doing things now like reducing sauces.

G: Could you do this lamb dish at home on a Friday night?

BB: Yeah. Braising lamb shanks is the easiest thing in the world! You just need a few lamb shanks, throw them in a pan with some herbs, some chicken stock and some wine and maybe chop up a few sticks of celery and carrots and that's it. Throw it the oven for four hours, and that's it. all the muscles disintegrate and what was originally the toughest part of the lamb is now incredible soft and just falls apart. Then, you take the cooking juices and reduce them on the stove.

G: Your show's on in Canada and the States. Where else?

BB: Everywhere: Italy, Scandinavia, Hong Kong, The Philippines...

G: Have you ever seen your self in Italian or another language.

BB: No, but I have friends in Hong Kong who tell me when I'm on. And I get emails from places like Manila.

G: What do they write to about from Manila?

BB: "Do you have a wife?" [Laughs.]

G: So, 15 years ago, when you started, did you envision yourself as a world famous TV chef?

BB: No! I was a rock man 15 years ago when I wrote my first book. I did it as a lark, as a kind of little art project. It was really just my little repertoire of home recipes and I did it more for the illustrations than the food. I really describe all of this as my accidental career.

G: But that book was very important for me! It was my first introduction to some basic techniques, like how you  flour, dip in egg, then bread crumb a chicken breast. Where did you get your technique. How did you assemble those recipes?

BB: I think my taste buds were always a ahead of my cooking skills. I loved to eat really well and I had no money so I somehow just learned. I would see someone else do something and try and figure out how and why they were doing it. So there was some method to the madness. I also had a buddy in college who worked at a restaurant where they made Caesar salad at the table, so I learned how to make Caesar salad at the table. There was a restaurant that I used to go to a lot in California when I was managing Jane Siberry that made great French toast. And I never got the recipe, but I kind of figured out how I thought it was made. It was a real mish-mash of things.

You know, I painted a lot and did a lot of art as a kid. So for me mixing flavours is a lot mixing colours. You get a sense of what's going to show up on your palette in your mind. I think most chefs have a sort of instinctive sense of how flavours work together.

G: I think you've said that one of your missions is to help people live better with less.

BB: Yes, for sure.

G: What's a good way to start doing that? What's your advice?

BB: All you need, at least in the kitchen, is one good sauté pan and a desire to eat well. Then, it's about getting prime ingredients; if you  have really good fresh ingredients, they'll do all the hard work for you. but that's about it, at least that's how I started and it doesn't require much else

Except maybe a good chef's knife. You know how they sell pots and pans in these huge sets? Like 12 at a time? Or there'll be a bridal registry with a set on it. You don't need all of those. You need one good chef's knife, and maybe a good paring knife. And one pan and one pot!

G: Are there other food writers or chefs that inspire you?

BB: I love Jeffrey Steingarten. But I have a group of friends in Los Angeles who are cooks or caterers, and I'm probably most influenced by them. I'll cook at their house, or they'll come over and we'll cook at mine.

G: You write a column for Wine X Magazine and have an interest in wine. What's caught your attention lately?

BB: Well, I'm on my summer beer hiatus, but I guess I'm really into the whole old world murky, skanky wine scene. Wine that I was originally repulsed by are the ones that I'm drinking mostly now. It's funny how your tastes evolve.

G: What does the surreal Gourmet think of Ferran Adria?

BB: I think he's great. It's like what Starbucks has done with gourmet coffee. Ten years ago no one would have thought they could revolutionise how we drink coffee. The same with him. No one knew where nouvelle cuisine was going to go and then he just blew everything out of the water.

But I've always seen eating as entertainment. I understand why some people don't, but you'll never win an argument with me if you say, "if you want to be entertained go to a movie theatre."

G: well, as long as it tastes good...

BB: Yeah, but it's more than that. I've always seen eating as an intellectual exercise. And wine, too. Like when a wine tastes a little funky. If you know a little about the wine and where it's made and all that, then there's a reason behind the taste and you can get into it. So it is with food. You might have a cut of meat that isn't as instantly gratifying as a filet mignon, but it will still have a sort of architecture and a story behind it. Well, I can get into that.

G: When you cook for yourself, is it in the style of the Surreal Gourmet?

BB: No, not always. But I'm always making food that's jam-packed with flavour. I will always eat really well.

Browse or Search
All of Gremolata

Serrano Ham
in Toronto

Gremolata's
Gourmet
Travel Tips:

Vancouver:
Hot Food City

Gourmet
Montréal
Weekend

Canadian
Cheese
Tourism

Gremolata;
gremolada: [greh-moh-LAH-tah]
A garnish made of minced parsley, lemon peel and garlic. It's sprinkled over osso buco and other dishes to add a fresh, sprightly flavour. (Source: Food Network Encyclopaedia)

Forever Summer

Nigella Lawson

Summer Cooking
Elizabeth David

Lulu's Provençal
Table

Richard Olney

River Cafe Easy

Rose Gray &
Ruth Rogers

Chez Panisse
Fruit

Alice Waters

The Cooking
of South
West France

Paula Wolfert

Read Paula Wolfert's Contribution to Gremolata's Great Arugula vs. Rocket Debate here.

GI Diet Guru
Rick Gallop

Please contact Gremolata with story ideas, questions or comments.

Gremolata People:

Gina Mallet