How fun is this? My friend Carolyn has a great blog, Health Kitten, about her interest in food, exercise, her life… as she puts it: “living well in my own skin.”

For about as long as I’ve known Carolyn and her husband Tim, she has called me Mr. Bacon Man. It was an elegantly simple and apt moniker. I made bacon. That was part of the identity I had cultivated through hobbies and interests. It was, and still is, one of the things I struggle with giving up.

Rather than heckle my recent choice to give up my bacon loving ways, Carolyn kindly asked me to do an interview about this little vegetarian experiment of ours. It was a fun chance to reflect on some of the successes and challenges of what has become a big lifestyle change for Susan and I. It’s on her site, here, along with our recipe for “faux buffalo burritos.” 

“What keeps you up at night?

“A bad service.” – Thomas Keller

I’ve become very interested in ‘design thinking’ and experiences lately. Certainly, it was a common theme in Steve Jobs’s life. As I’ve devoured Icason’s biography on Jobs, some of the parts I’ve been most drawn to focus on his attention to detail over experience. Setting his flaws aside, and he had many, he insisted on perfection, not just with the physical aspects of his products, but how people interact with them. The Apple stores are a great example. He obsessed over the glass details, the color of the stone on the floors and even the font on the bathroom signs. He believed that attention to how people interact with Apple and its products was a differentiator. I think he was right.

I’m about as passionately devoted to all things Thomas Keller as I am all things Apple. Keller is known throughout the food world as the only chef with two Michellin stared restaurants. Keller, like Jobs, is obsessed with details; not only the details of his food, but of the diners experience.

In this recent CBS profile and interview, you get a taste of Keller’s appreciation for experience. I’m convinced he is one of the few other leaders who truly understands the importance of designing for experience.

Last month, I was in Las Vegas. I’m not much of a gambler, but I do love to eat. Keller has a less formal set of restaurants called Bouchon. Bouchon locations are based on classic french brasseries. It did not disappoint. I had the opportunity to chat with one of the bartenders – it’s my custom to sit at the bar when I’m traveling and eating alone. I asked what, if any, special training they had regarding service. “Well, it’s interesting,” he started,  ”so we make our own bitters and infused spirits, and we use this green masking tape to label them. Keller insists we cut the tape with a razor blade rather than rip it. Diners will never see these things, but he still wants it to be perfect.”

It took me a while to understand how his answer related to service. In talks I give, I often use a picture from the Per Se kitchen I took when we ate there and toured it in 2008. In each kitchen, Keller mounts a plaque which reads: Sense of Urgency. Our waiter and Per Se tour guide explained it. “In everything you do, wether it’s putting sauce on a plate or folding a diner’s napkin, do it like its the most important, the only, task in your life.” Trimming the masking tape with a razor is the same thing. If you take the time to do it precisely, you’ll also take the time to make the drink precisely.

Dining at a Keller restaurant is a complete experience. It’s not about the food alone. In fact, given the prices of a meal at his flagships, the expectation is of a stellar meal. If you had anything less, you’d leave questioning it. The differentiator, the thing that takes it from amazing food to memorial experience is the combination of the service, details, ambiance and food. Each dish is put on the exact right plate, for example. The size and shape is not only a compliment to the food, but how you are supposed to perceive it. Something whimsical and playful, like crispy fried pigs tail (hey, this vegetarian thing is a recent change), comes on a curved, wavy dish. Something fancy and formal like “oysters and pearls” gets a more elegant treatment. And that’s all by design.

How often do we design for experience in healthcare? There is a lot of emphasis on process design, particularly with lean and six sigma tactics. But do we really design things around how patients and visitors interact with our spaces and services? It’s virtually guaranteed that a phrase like ‘excellent clinical care’ is in almost every hospital’s mission statement, and even more certainly its marketing. But isn’t excellent clinical care the baseline expectation of everyone who walks in? I know I never expect to be treated incompetently. I’m not suggesting we stop focusing on safety and clinical quality. I just think we need to give some serious thought to everything else – the spaces, the service, the process, the ebb and flow, the details, the look and feel, the ambiance. We need to design our products and services with the end user in mind.

Dear pork,

It’s not you, its me.

Wait, let me start over.

Dear foie gras,

How do I say this, I’ve out grown you.

Literally.

Well, maybe that’s all a little extreme. I mean, I’n not ready to give up meat whole hog.

I know what you are thinking: who hacked this blog and does Nick “Bacon” Dawson know? Rest assured, its me. Here’s a picture of me holding today’s news paper.

See! I am of sound mind and, perhaps more than ever, sound body. And really, thats what its about, this bloated extra large body I’m carrying around. Its getting old.

I’m not, on the whole, unhealthy. But I’m also not running a marathon any time soon either. My knees are crunchy, both have donor ligaments – parts in both of my knees came from some wonderful soul who donated their organs – they aren’t mine. Hey, I fell hard, I defy any any ligament to take the falls I took and live to tell about it… but surely that extra 25lbs going into those 4 G ski turns wasn’t helping.

He’s how it went down.  For about three months now I’ve been kicking things into over drive. More cardio, less food. I got a FitBit, it tells me things..mostly it tells me when I’m lazy. So I’ve been running more. I’ve also been eating less.

I watched some movies too. I saw one about a guy who only had vegetable juice for 60 days. I watched one about the economics of corn. The best, the cream of the crop, so to speak, came with high praise. I heard about Forks over Knives from a colleague and friend. Dr. MK is a cardiac surgeon, he trained under one of the inventors of the heart transplant, he pretty much pioneered the use of surgical robotics in heart surgery… the man knows hearts. So, when he told me, over a year ago, that a vegan no-fat diet might prevent heart disease, my ears perked up.

Last week, Dr. MK and I were traveling together. I thought: what the hey, I’ve been working on calorie burn vs intake, lets see what this diet is like. And it wasn’t bad… really!

At this point I feel compelled to tell you,  I’m still a man-card-carrying, Fred-Flintstone-steak-eating, sausage-making, bacon-loving carnivore. Let’s just get that out there.

Still, eating a vegan no-fat diet really wasn’t that bad. For starters, you taste everything. Try a salad without dressing, maybe just a little sea salt and lemon. It’s alive, green, bitter, vibrant. If it is fresh and organic and well treated, there is a heck of a lot of flavor in them greens. Grains. Have you had really good quinoa or lentils?

Over the course of the week I tracked calorie intake versus burn. I have an awesome trainer at the gym who is helping me.  I’m trying to have a deficit of 3,500 – 4,500 calories a week. I get there through a mix of burning more and eating less. The trick is not to eat too few calories. So I monitored my intake. I used my FitBit to monitor burn and its online service for intake. At no point was I starving myself or in danger.

Here’s the kicker, I lost 5 lbs (down 20 over all), feel great and have more energy than I’ve had in…I don’t know when.

Will it last? Who knows. Have you seen the pork chops in my fridge? But I consider the week a crash course in what someone can do, how we can live. A vegan, fat-free diet can prevent heart disease and help turn off cancer genes. Surely a whole-foods-based diet is a long way towards the same goal. If (and by which I mean tomorrow) I eat pork fat, it will be from a farm I know, raising natural pigs in a healthy environment. Portions will be small. Veggies will be plentiful.

In what was perhaps a dose of karmic validation, on our last night on the road, I found myself – unplanned, I promise – sitting in the very seat piscitarian Steve Jobs had occupied a few months before. So I have that going for me.

What is it they say about stuff? You don’t own it, it owns you. I get that. Did I mention we hired an organizational specialist recently? But sometimes there are things which do matter in our lives. Quality things. Important things. Sentimental things.

I’m a big fan of quality in stuff. Sure, who buys junk, right? Maybe I’m a little more obsessive than most. When I get into something, I tend to research the heck out of it. I keep buying the same make and model of car because I did my research and really like how well it is made. I wear one brand of dress shirt because after 10 years the first one I bought still looks crisp and presentable. I’m a Mac because they tend to break less than other computers I’ve owned.

Quality doesn’t have to mean expensive. In fact, some of the best made things may be the least expensive. Take cooking, you can spend $300 on a single pan (don’t ask me how I know). Lately, I’ve been cooking on cast iron… like a lot. Cast iron is cheap, you can get a great Lodge brand pan at your local hardware or Amazon for $20. Its thick, heavy and feels substantial. You know the handle isn’t going to melt in the oven or break off. When properly seasoned, they are better than any nonstick pan for eggs. You can crank the heat all the way up on cast iron pan and never worry about it warping or discoloring. You can smash garlic or pepper corns with the bottom, turn it upside down to heat up tortillas, take it camping and stick it in the fire… see what I mean? These things rock!

By the way, I’m not alone in my adoration of cast iron cookware. Cast iron, like bacon, has become the topic of twitter exchanges in some circles.

I have memories of staying with my mother’s parents in the summers as a kid for a week or two each year. My grandmother got up every morning at 4:30 AM. She made breakfast, worked a crossword… well, I’m not entirely sure what all she did. I don’t think I’ve ever been up at 4:30.

By the time I was a kid, biscuits came in vacuum tubes and pancakes in boxes. I think my grandmother probably used those store bought items. I’ve often lamented the current state of packaged foods as an interesting mix of marketing, generational apathy (get off my lawn!) and connivence. If there was a time when my grandmother got up at 4:30 AM to make biscuits, I’m pretty sure it wasn’t because she enjoyed being up that early. Making biscuits is hard work and takes time. When someone came along and put them in that fun , explosive tube, well, game over, sign us up, no more kneading dough! Still, doing things the right way matters. You can’t really make southern biscuits without cast iron and you can’t really fry a catfish in anything else.

A few months ago my grandfather passed away. He had not been well and I’m truly sure he is in a better place. My grandmother had passed a few years before. When it was time to clean out their home I was asked if there was anything I wanted. “Find me the cast iron pan please.”

“Nothing else?”

“Nope, just the pan.”

Truthfully, I don’t know if my grandmother ever made biscuits in this pan or if grandaddy ever fried a fish in it. It may not be that old, although the markings suggest it is. It was pretty banged up and in need of some care. I ran it through the self clean cycle of my oven and have begun the process of “re-seasoning” it. Its not my only cast iron pan – I have lots. But I find myself using it more than the others. Maybe its the size, maybe its the memories; it just feels right.

…

Oh, and so this properly qualifies as a food post for me…

The other  night I made the most amazing lamb’s liver in the pan. I find lamb’s liver is pretty mild and doesn’t need a soaking. Sprinkle with sel gris, and dust really well with flour. It helps to really push the flour in like in this pork chop recipe. Let it rest for 10 minutes while you render some pancetta and melt the onions in the pan. Remove the pancetta and onions. Crank the heat to high. Use the pancetta grease in the pan and lay the liver in. When you see crimson pools of blood just starting on the uncooked side, give it a flip. You want liver to be rare; anything else is chalky and tough. When you see crimson on the cooked side, take it out of the pan.

I reduced the heat, splashed in some port and sherry vinegar, added the pancetta, onions and some home cured sauerkraut and warmed it through.

“we taste ‘em, the olive oils, usually three different ways – cold off a spoon, on a salad and then warmed, you know, not hot, but with a little tomato sauce… I’m still looking for the right one”

“well, this is my second job and I haven’t really tried the food. I hear the fish tacos are good.”

You have a choice, pick a restaurant based off of those two quotes. Don’t have enough info? One is a multi-million dollar investment, the other is a more modest joint. Still undecided? Ok, last clue, one has a tiki bar over looking the river and the other doesn’t take most credit cards or reservations.

Last night Susan and I had an awesome date night. We kicked it off at the Virginia Museum which is winding down its Picasso exhibit. The collection is on loan from the Musée national Picasso in Paris. We had a great time exploring the same collection we had gotten to know well while living in Paris in a new but familiar space. Ironically, I lived across, like seriously front door to front door, from the Va Museum for two years and we almost never went. Since moving down the road we are going a lot more.

But back to the food. So after hanging with Pablo, we went to Mamma’Zu. We had the most amazing meal which wasn’t a surprise to us, we’ve been there many times before. We had fresh ramps – a seasonal delicacy kind of like a wild leek. We devoured a bright green fava been puree. The courses went on and on, many off the menu. We were in foodie heaven. Why do we go back time and time again? Because its all about the food!

If Top Chef’s Restaurant Wars has taught us anything its that the front of the house and ambiance matters, right? Some health care guy with a blog wrote about a hoity-toity dining experience in New York where the service, as much as the food, made the experience. Holistically, clearly the two go hand-in-hand.

Mamma’Zu is a little different. It is a bit like this place in Germany which blindfolds diners to heighten the food experience. When ambiance is removed, you focus solely on the food. Mamma’Zu has no blind folds – the place is simply dark and different. This place is a Richmond institution (need a primer? check this post). The paint needs touching up. Most of the tables are wobbly, maybe because there are some floor tiles missing. It is also a bastion of inside out thinking.

It is one of my top three or four restaurants in the world. Here is what I’ve learned from Mamma’Zu:

Inside out in thinking restaurant owners think: “What is the best dish I can serve tonight? Is this best olive oil to use? Can I make enough of these to serve or would I have to sacrifice quality.”

Outside in thinking restaurant owners think: “Can I fit the tiki bar AND a faux beach scene on this same wall? Will more people come for drink specials or food specials? How does that guy across town make those pizzas, I want something like that.”

See the difference? The inside out thinkers have a core, a focus. In this case, we are talking about food. Sinek talks about Apple and tells us Apple is first a design company. Everything they do is about making better designs. Compair that to Microsoft, a company founded on selling software. When Microsoft launched the Zune MP3 player, its as if they thinking “we are known for global dominance in operating system software, I know, lets make MP3 payers to compete with Apple.” That is outside in thinking. It is away from their core competency, what some people call the “why”. In the case of the two Richmond area restaurants above, one chef/owner has a clear why, food. The best food; nothing else matters. The other place seems to be motivated off shtick. Their why is unclear. Are they going for a great tiki bar? If so, why serve bland fish tacos at all? In their case, the end result is that neither the ambiance nor the food comes off stellar.

Outside in thinking does not have to occur to the determent of everything else. A novelty restaurant can be a cool tiki bar and serve great food. An italian place like Mamma’Zu could focus on both atmosphere and food. The difference for inside out thinkers is resources. If focusing on something else means you lose quality and focus on your core, then its out. Outside in thinkers have no problem with detrimental compromise.

You’ve probably guessed it, I’m on this ‘inside out thinking’ kick. True. Consider it with me for a moment. Inside out thinkers start with a why, core, reason, mission…whatever. The end result is almost always focused. As consumers of that finished product, we can almost always trace it back to its roots. In a great restaurant we say “wow, they nailed in the kitchen today.” With technology we say, “it just works.”

Since my brain doesn’t easily shift gears, and since most of these posts are about healthcare, we’ll briefly explore the inside out theme in the healthcare construct. Healthcare leaders, both clinical and non-clinical, have the similar challenges to restaurant owners. Is it mediocre fish tacos with bad beach music or an almost obsessive focus on olive oil? Is it a fancy waiting room or is it spending that one critical extra minute more with a patient? The experience at Per Se taught me when the resources exist, one can build an infrastructure of service and experience to go along with a myopic focus on quality. Bridget Duffy tells us when we focus on that inside core belief, the rest (revenues, clinical outcomes, quality) will follow.

If you want to experience inside out thinking next time you are in Richmond, visit Mamma’Zu.

So….good news and bad.

First the good, my tacos took week 1! Thanks to everyone who voted!

Now the bad, it has become apparent that no one really likes the idea of confit of lambs tongue… although it’s not too late. Come on people, it’s just a muscle like any other cut of meat. Did we give up when the German’s bombed Pearl Harbor? “Over, did you say over? Nothing is over until we say it is!” So get over to RVA News and VOTE DAWSON!

From my entry for this week:

Ok, I’ll admit it. There is a certain stigma with offal. The problem with the 5th quarter, as our Italian friends often refer to organ meats, is they remind us so much of…well… us. But before you go sticking your tongue out in disgust, I implore you to try an experiment with me. Every time I use “tongues” below, substitute “duck leg”. Then, ask yourself, what is really different about eating the equivalent of a quadricep vs. any other muscle?

After the silence of these Virginia lambs, the tongues spent what can only be likened to a weekend at the spa: 24 hours in a salt water bath before being blanketed in a liberal snowfall of coarse kosher salt, thyme, and garlic over night. Next they went into a vacuum bag with some black tea leaves, juniper, and bacon fat, and took a plunge in the sous vide hot tub for 10 hours at 162 F. While they rested, some par-boiled potatoes, straight from my dad’s garden in Bedford county, were glazed in the cooking liquid from the tongues. The dish came together with some garlicky, sticky, slow cooked brussels sprouts. Some fennel was warmed in the separated bacon fat. The tongues got a final quick fry in some butter and were plated with a reduction of the cooking liquid and a whole grain mustard vinaigrette.

If I could have, I would have cooked the tongues longer. You’ll be surprised to find out there are not a lot of guides for sous vide of lambs tongue online. I think 18 hours would have made them meltingly tender. As it was, they had the texture of a medium rare steak, not unpleasant at all.

I’ve posted more pictures over on flickr

How fun is this?! RVA News, One of Richmond’s best news/blog combos is at it again. After a successful and highly entertaining Garden Wars it is time for Super Punch. I’m excited as both a foodie and a participant (VOTE DAWSON!).

This is all in good fun (seriously, vote Dawson) and I’m very much looking forward to seeing what everyone comes up with for the next 9 weeks. I’m joined by Sarah Bonkovsky, Jennifer Carnam and RVA News’s own Ross Catrow. Don’t let the cavalier attitude fool you – these are some serious contenders.

If this first week is any indication, the competition is going to be on like a pile of neck bones.

More than anything, I’ve loved having the impetus to get back into the kitchen. I’ve let my work-life balance pull me closer to the office desk than the stove lately; nothing like a friendly competition to turn up the heat.

This week I made an homage to Richmond’s own Nate’s Taco Truck. Self-dubbed “a mouth full of awesome”, I cranked out some home cured chorizo and potato tacos with a pickled tomato salsa and cilantro slaw. I know what you are thinking, and yes, you can vote for me.

Read more (and vote Dawson) on RVA News

Via RVA News:

First, there was Garden Wars where three gentlemen engaged in an epic battle for agricultural supremacy. Now, there’s Supper Punch, an equally epic battle, but this time between four local food enthusiasts and the cuisine they lovingly put forth for consumption.

Each week, our competitors will submit two photos and a brief commentary (including ingredients and prep time) on a recently-completed dish of their choosing. You, our readers, will then declare a winner for the week by voting in the comments. Your vote can be based on whatever you like: creativity, good use of local products, what you want to put in your belly at that exact moment, whatever.

The competition will go on for a total of nine weeks. The winner will be awarded with glory and honor. And hopefully our readers will walk away with a little culinary inspiration.

More pictures here on my flickr page

For a little something different…
The Richmond Times Dispatch ran an article last week on the Sous Vide style of cooking. I’ve become a huge fan (can you tell?) and was delighted when a friend suggested my name to the RTD. The article is a nice recap of the technique. And, like I said, I think it’s here to stay:

Dawson says he looks for the machine to soon be more prevalent when the price begins to decline. “Right now, it’s a bit of a luxury product, but I don’t think we’re far from seeing it become a mainstay in American kitchens.”

Does anyone know the medical signs of Gout? I will say this, its going to be salads for this guy for a while….at least until lunch tomorrow. Two weeks of indulging in everything from baby octopi to Ossobuco, from martinis to zinfandel, from sour patch kids to pizza rolls (don’t ask) have caught up. As I reflect back on menus and meals from 2009 it is not with the aire of a ill-fated gym resolution but rather appreciation for a rekindled passion for food. For me 2009 was a year of many things including career building, enjoying working in the town I live in, Land Rover repairs and knee surgery. Missing from that list – food. According to my scale there was no decline in my passion for eating. But, like all things in life when time is tight somethins’ gotta give; I simply did not cook as much as in previous years. Despite that, 2009 was not without some interesting salvos across the culinary bow. What follows is a retrospective of 2009 in three parts: food trends in, my top meals, and my top kitchen endeavors.

2009 Food Trends

The end of the last decade had a clear trend, it was when we took food back. Over the last few years us foodies have been kicking to the curb the ideas of factory made, mass produced food. Reaching a crescendo in ear of the factory food manufactures in 2009, the “local movement” has taken hold. There is still a long way to go before the movement is even mainstream, but it is clearly making headway. Want to know more? Have a listen to this episode of the Splendid Table. In addition to eating locally, we are continuing to pay more attention to the quality of our food. Books like Pollan’s Omnivores Delemma (though published in 2006) helped draw our attention to what we are eating and where it comes from. As home cook and diners we are celebrating by returning to slow cooking, artisanally made foods.

• Bacon – this is probably not news to anyone who has eaten in the last year. Bacon has transcended mere breakfast food to ubiquitous ingredient.  Perhaps a symbol of our rebellion against low fat, low carb tasteless diet food, last year we embraced cured smoked pork belly with vigor.
• Slow food – We came back to crock pots, braising, and the family meal in 2009. In addition to things that cook slowly, we also returned to things that that time to prepare and eat; quite literally the antithesis of fast food. The wonderful result of slow food is often slow eating; spending more time around the table with the people we really enjoy breaking bread with.
• Traditional food merchants – Though still not widespread, many medium and smaller sized cities are seeing the return of butchers, fish mongers, bakeries and traditional purveyors. In recent years we have begun rewarding the entrepreneurial foodies who setup specialty shops in our towns. Think about this, would you take your car to a place that claimed expertise in all manor of transportation from skateboards to horses? No, we take our cars to mechanics who work on four wheeled passenger vehicles. Why are we buying our food in a place that sells everything from trash bags to meat in plastic sitting on a diaper?

My top meals of 2009

This portion of the review is regrettably challenging for me. Our travel was sparse, our time to eat out limited and our energy to sleuth out foodie finds minimal. Although a year that included sushi, Vail cannot be considered unfortunate by any means.

• 18 week aged New York strip steak at the Wildflower in Vail Co – This was one of the best steaks that I never ordered. It was my father who called for the rarely cooked (and rarely well aged) cut. To add to the improbability, those who know my cynicism for hoity-toity, resort style restaurants are undoubtedly surprised by the inclusion of the Wildflower on this list. The steak was the standout dish of the meal, but it was the service that made the experience remarkable. If the economic situation (remember, we are not supposed to say depression) of 2009 has taught us anything it is that we do live in a service economy. The businesses who are going to make it are those that understand exceptional service. The Wildflower, and our fortunately named server Nicolas (he was French, thus no ‘asssh‘ – or h) were the quintessential definition preemptive service; understanding the customer’s unexpressed wishes and seeing to them. Have I discussed my passion obsession for service before?
• Sushi at Hatsuhana - I’ve said it many times (including in 2008), Hatsuhana in New York is the best sushi that I know of. Hatsuhana is not avant garde sushi, unlike the fusion and insanely creative creations of my friend Osada (formally of Takah Sushi in Aspen which has gone donwnhill since his departure). Hatsuhana is traditional in the best sense. When I first mentioned it to Osada his comment in whimsically broken English was “[Americans] dont eat there, only Japanese”. And although not entirely true, the place is frequented by Westerners and Asians alike, it is rooted in real sushi culture. In the spring of 2009 I found myself in New York for a speaking engagement; due to schedule, I was in and out in less than 24 hours. One thing I made sure of was a meal at Hatsuhana. I walked in straight from the airport to a nearly empty sushi bar, owed entirely to my late arrival. I started with one of my guilty pleasures, ankimo – cured and steamed monkfish liver served with ponzu and chives. I’ve long held the belief that you have to gain the trust of a sushi chef and there is no better way to their heart than to request a childhood favorite. I asked for sawagani which are unctuous and umami laden fried tiny fresh water crabs. Sadly I learned they are illegal in the US thanks to a frivolous law suit. Never the less, the gauntlet was thrown and when I asked the chef to chose for me the reward was spectacular. There is benefit of arriving very late at a place that prides it self on new fish daily. In an effort to make use of the ingredients that he was most proud of, I was literally spoiled for choice. What followed was a virtually private meal of non-stop piscine creativity. For once, it paid to be late.

My Top Kitchen Endeavors of 2009

As alluded to above, 2009 did not see a lot of kitchen time from me. I would like to think it was because I was too busy, which is in part true. Also the case, some of the passion was gone. Perhaps the former led to the later, or maybe it was experiencing so few inspiring meals (only 2 on this years list above, compared to 5-1o in years past). Regardless, I just did not feel as innovative or inspired as I have in years past. Two meals in particular proved the exception.

• The New Visits charity dinner in Lynchburg – Can you say ‘over the top’? We started by mailing a very simple “comfort food” menu to guests with items like ‘tomato soup with grilled cheese’ and ‘southern barbaque’. The reality, at least my hope in how it was perceived, was very different. The tomato soup, pictured above to the left, was a gazpacho aspic with jalapeno and cucumber caviar. The bbq was all day braised pork belly served under a glass filled with apple wood smoke. It did not stop there – the salad nicoise was deconstructed and the olives had a surprising twist, they were liquid inside… the bisque was an sea urchin foam…liver and onions? foie gras torchon served with apple butter on a southern biscuit and shallot salt. It was a great night, well executed with expert help (hi family!).
• New Years Eve, aka the Sous Vide Experiment -  Of all of the things I have played with recently, sous vide has to be the technique that has me the most excited about cooking again. Sous Vide, or under vacuum, involves cooking foods sealed in vacuum bags submerged in a precisely controlled water bath. Put practically, if you want a piece of beef to be perfectly medium, say 134F, then why not cook it at that temperature? When you think about it that way, it makes perfect sense. The added benefit of the vacuum bag is there is no loss of moisture of flavor from the meat. In fact, you can infuse just about any flavor you want. It does not have to be meat either. Veggies can be perfectly cooked as well. For New Years Eve we started with a take on the croque madame – fine dice of home cured bacon lardons and brioche, a scant bit of aioli with some water cress for color all topped with a butter fried quail egg. It was a perfect one bite dish! We moved on to veal cheeks which had been cooked en sous vide for 8 hours in butter and a braising liquor of squab stock and aromatics. We capped off the meal with buffalo tenderloin that was also cooked en sous vide, enveloped in duck fat with just a hint of sage. Check out the menu here for the complete details.

The end of the decade was still a resplendent one in terms of dining in the Dawson world. I would be remiss to call myself anything but lucky. The thing that I am perhaps the most excited about is becoming invigorated again about spending time in the kitchen. Here is to eating in 2010!

There are a few truths in life – death, taxes, jackalopes, freedom and the equality of all humans. Ponder that list, study it. Notice what is missing? Bacon. Maybe its sausage, maybe its a nice pate or a pickled trotter; regardless it is time to liberate our swine. Proclaim porcine freedom!

What am I blathering on about? Let us go back more than 2 years ago to the Pownce social network (RIP). Those were the early days when we waxed on into the morning hours about the pursuit of life, liberty and the pursuit of pork. We heard the call to arms with the first Pownce Pork Project (again, RIP). The concept was simple – make bacon as a group. We voted on everything from the spiciness of the cure to the wood it was smoked over. In the end we rattled the foundations of commercial pork production by auctioning off a luscious slab of salty bacony goodness. Whomever made the biggest donation to a food related charity got to…well…take home the bacon. The winner was @surlyshirley.

It is time once again crusaders of cochon to take up arms. We must not go gently into the factory produced, chemically cured BLT. Let us stand up together and say “We demand open source pork!”

Over the coming weeks we will resurrect the hoggett mission. Follow @nickdawson – help plan the next Open Source Pork Project. I will be asking YOU what part of the pig to lop off, how to treat it and in the end, it will once again come to a food related charity auction. So spread the word – let free pork reign and don’t miss your chance to get in on the action!