Star Crab Cakes

              Back in 1984 I was asked by some celebrities that I was cooking for if I ever have eaten at Stars Restaurant in San Francisco. My reply was not yet, but after hearing about the chef in charge and his new style fusion food menu I knew it would not be long before I would be there in the flesh. Stars were noted as being the birthplace of New American Cuisine. The restaurant was an instant sensation and quickly became the top-grossing restaurant for years. Chef Jeremiah Tower and his posse of celebrity chefs like Wolfgang Puck...

Fried Egg with Chili Pork Belly Bacon

The Thai, Mandarin, Vietnamese fusion foods are usually found on the Victoria, King Edward corridor in East Vancouver. Literally hundreds of little family run pop-up diners line the streets. Even the market stores have a BBQ or a wok fryer going full steam somewhere in the store. I found that these store cafeteria style eateries are providing cheap eats for the average street New Canadian. Some of these diners use real plate ware and some just a box or a napkin. Like dim-sum,… only hundreds of more interesting tasty options. This simple Fried Egg with Chili Pork...

Alan Alda’s Chili Garlic Pasta

                  I was just finishing up feeding the cast and crew of the movies Cocktail and Three Men and a Baby that had been shooting in several locations. Doing both shoots a once was totally exhausting. All that was left to do was throw the wrap party and then it was time for a break. I was looking forward to the down time after being on call 24/7 for the last several months. My crew was also run down and greatly needed some time for R&R. I was living in Preston at that time and could not wait to loaf about and visit...

One Very Sexy Salad

                Over the years working as a chef for high profile socialites you get a lot of requests to be inventive and perform outside the box when it comes to pleasing clients who have tried it all. Back in 1984 I was working for a hospitality agency that found small projects for maverick chefs that were between jobs. A lot of projects that I was involved in were being designed and built to specs and would fall behind schedule for whatever reason. This gave me lots of slack time to take on other short term cooking positions. I...

Beef Pho’ to Go!

Pho! Pronounced Foo! I few years back I got to work with a talented Vietnamese restaurant owner and chef. The Green Papaya was the name of this restaurant that my friend operated back in Hanoi and now in White Rock. He brought all his family’s cooking equipment and experience gained from his chef father and began showing me a real passion he held for this soup recipe. I was taught how to blend and roast spices to obtain a real delicious Beef Pho’ Noodle soup. I was now being exposed to a lot of new tricks that were vague to me in the past when I was learning how to...

Italian Wedding Soup

Italian Wedding Soup; Back in Vancouver while waiting for the new Planet Hollywood Restaurant to finish construction, I took on a catering position for a very well-known off Broadway play called Tony n’ Tina’s Wedding. The 150 paying guests would first go to the church and be part of the couples ceremonies. There were play actors sitting at different tables that would interact with the wedding family. Some were real funny, some were bitter, lots were just drunk uncles and many misfits humour. It was a fun job three times a week and later after the church...