60 days

It's funny what can happen in 60 days. Sixty days ago was my last post. It was a little bit of closure for me with Auriga. Well the time has come to speed up that process. I have another 60 days because I signed a purchase agreement today for the next restaurant. Impround to announce Piccolo. It will be on the corner of 43rd and Bryant Ave. South. And I hope to open in 60 days.

willingnes to fail

the decision to close auriga was an easy decision. doing it was the hardest thing that i have ever done. i spent the better part of two months tearing apart and removing things with my hands that took me ten years to build. i listened to cat power's "i dont blame you" over and over again as a walked, hands full of junk, from the restaurant, through the parking lot and to the dumpster over and over and over again. that was the start of a transformation away from "doug from auriga" as i said on a million different night line orders that i place over that ten year period. two and a half years. eight anniversarys (signed the lease on june 23rd, opened on september 11th and closed on january 27th) have been morned in silence.

i've spent all this time moving forward but now the time has come to move on. another restaurant awaits me. my biggest fear is failure. failure to live up to "doug from auriga" or the myth that has become auriga. but i've decieded that what made auriga great was a willingness to fail. and it did on many occasions. but at the end, on saturday night, january 27th 2007 at 2:00am when my wife amy and i closed the door on what was my auriga's last night...that willingness to fail rewarded me with great joy

the importance of self

as cooks...i think we often see ourselves as less then we are. i think we doubt ourselves to often. but then one of those days come along when there is clarity in our work. our movements on the line  and our vision.  today was a very clear day. harmonic with the world of food. past and present. 

my father

i don't really know if my father is a great man. but he is to me. i am the cook that i am in part because of him.  which is weird because i only saw my father make two things in all his life. one of them being macaroni with milk and the other being grilled cheese. which he burnt. which is weird because i just realized that i did a course tonight for a friend that i but burnt bread on. i purposely put a little extra char on a grilled piece of walnut bread. scraped it with the back of a knife to remove the charred bits,then added a little black salt to the black bits along with small pieces of scraped bread and viola..........i little bit of my father in me.

that's what im going to do

how about this. write three different 9 course tasting menus. take each course and write it down on a tiny piece of paper. crumble up each piece of paper and put it in a brown paper bag. shake up the bag . pull out one crumbled up  piece of paper at a time and rewrite it on a large piece of paper. repeat 26 more times covering the entire piece of paper.  that's what i'm going to do.

jh

i've worked on and off with jh for a number of years now. i still remember the call i got from him when he was inquiring about interning at my restaurant. i think i was the one that was being interviewed. i found myself justifying to him  why he should come to work there. i remember the night we burnt his internship papers over a couple of beers behind the restaurant after service. he hasn't stopped inspiring me since. i have a grave respect his ability as a cook in and outside of the kitchen. check out his blog:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/softarchitecture

washington virgina

as part of an elaborate birthday surprise  i was whisked off to the Inn At Little Washington this past weekend.  a truly amazing place. we had the pleasure of spending both nights in the Claiborne(as in craig) house and enjoyed dinner in the kitchen on the last night. we toured thomas jefferson's house at monticello and picked up a virginia ham from calhoun's ham shoppe.