For the past two years I’ve had the pleasure of sponsoring a Reluctant Gourmet Culinary School Grant in association with Chef4Students.org. It is a great way for me to participate in the industry and make a small difference to these fine young people and future chefs. This year’s recipient is Blair Cannon who is currently attending Johnson & Wales in Charlotte, NC.

You can read his appreciative letter to my friend Chef David Nelson, founder and president of Chef4Students on my blog. Check out A Letter From Culinary Student Blair Cannon. It is letters like this that get me so excited to be involved with this organization.

A Little About Blair

Blair Cannon is a 20 year old who lived in Virginia Beach, VA all his life. Virginia Beach is a beautiful resort city and a great place to grow up. Tourism is big and there are a lot of great restaurants to work.

Before attending culinary school, Blair started out working as a dishwasher at the age of 15 with little training. Then he worked my way up at some of the most popular fine dining restaurants as a line cook. At 16, he was given a great opportunity from local celebrity Chef Todd Jurich, to apprentice at his new restaurant, Zinc Brasserie. He taught him everything there is to know about opening a new restaurant from scratch.

He and Chef Pete Evans taught Blair not only how to be a line cook, but inventory and the financial responsibility of opening a new restaurant. Even though the hours were long and the work grueling, the rewards were great. They even displayed his photo on the side of the restaurant building.

Blair is currently finishing up his training at The Masters, at the Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia. According to Blair, working his co-op at the Masters was a once in a lifetime experience. He never had worked at a golf resort before, especially one that is famous for the Masters Golf tournament. He said it was exciting to overcome the challenges that were presented through working with such a high-volume production.

Interview

At what age did you decide you wanted to go to culinary school and become a professional chef?

Ever since the age of five, I loved to cook. Growing up in a family of “foodies” who had a passion for cooking, it was not until I was 15 years old, that a culinary class I took in high school gave me the inspiration to want to go to culinary school and become a professional chef.

Even though I have enjoyed cooking with my family, I had originally wanted to become an air force pilot. But my mother wanted me to have another profession to fall back on, in case I did not get into the Air force Academy. She suggested I try the C-CAP, Careers through Culinary Arts Program in high school and the rest is history.

Did you take any classes in high school that may have helped you prepare for a culinary education?

While in high school, the C-CAP, Careers through Culinary Arts Program, had the greatest impact on me and gave me the foundation toward my career as a chef.  I cannot speak highly enough of how great this program is!

This culinary program that was taught at my high school, Vo-tech or Technical and Career Education center, is an excellent program for students interested in pursuing a culinary career. Not only do you receive high school credit, but you gain skills that give you an enormous head start before attending culinary school.

This program also offers scholarships through culinary competitions that help a lot. I won many scholarships in these competitions as well as gained a lot of experience.

You are currently enrolled at Johnson & Wales in Charlotte. How did you decide this was the right school for you?

Originally I wanted to attend CIA, the Culinary Institute of America. But after being selected as a finalist in Johnson & Wales University’s National Top Teen Chef culinary competition, I knew I made the right choice in selecting Johnson & Wales as the best culinary school for me.

Not only did I receive a large, renewable scholarship, but the school is closer to my home state. Johnson & Wales in Charlotte, North Carolina, is not only a new campus, but it has state of the art culinary labs and is in a great location. The staff that I met during the culinary contest were friendly and helpful as well.

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I am a big fan of learning the basic techniques of cooking and then applying them to create your own recipes with your own favorite ingredients and what’s on hand in your refrigerator. Not that I don’t use recipes, I do, but recipes are not always developed with your skills, likes and experience in mind. If you learn the technique properly, you never really need a recipe except for coming up with new ideas.

Saute is one of those techniques that I think every home cook can learn to master and when they do, they will be coming up with dozens of there own recipes and variations.

Saute is a dry heat method requiring a minimal amount of cooking fat whether it be oil or butter and intense high heat. Literally it means “to jump” and is associated with chefs tossing the ingredients in the air but I can tell you from experience, if the pan and cooking fat is as hot as it should be, smaller cut ingredients can actually “jump” in the pan.

I received an email from a reader who asked me a question about saute temperatures and I realized I had it wrong on my web site so I just updated The Secret to Great Saute as well as How Hot Should You Heat Your Pan When Sauteing and you may find this update easier to understand.

I go into much more detail and describe:

• What Is Saute?
• What’s The Difference Between Sauteing and Pan Frying?
• The Formula For a Great Saute
• The Right Pan For The Job
• The Right Fat - Butter or Oil
• How Much Fat
• Preheating The Pan
• Equal Sized Ingredients
• The Ideal Temperature
• Caramelizing and the Maillard Reaction
• How Do You Know When the Fat Is Hot Enough?
• Smoking Points
• The Basics

How To Saute Video

Just added to the site is a new saute cooking video page with three excellent cooking demonstrations by Chef Todd Mohr offering step-by-step instructions on the secrets to a great saute. I highly recommend you check out the How To Saute Cooking Video. It is an entertaining way to learn the basics and pick up some valuable cooking tips.

Related Articles

• How to choose a good saute pan?
• How do I choose the right cookware?
• How much heat when sauteing?
• How to saute properly
  

On Saturdays, I go to the Ardmore Farmer’s Market to shop with my buddy, Barbecue Bob. I typically pick up some pork product at Stoltzfus Meats because they have the freshest pork around. This weekend I picked up some Country Style ribs that were described to me as “big pork chops that have been cut in half so they look like ribs.” They were meaty, about 1 pound each.

I noticed from the cover of my June/July edition of Fine Cooking they were talking about a new way of grilling called “Sear, Braise & Glaze”. I’ve been reading about this technique lately in some other cooking articles. Basically you sear the meat on the grill, braise it in a Dutch oven or heavy bottomed pot and finish it on the grill as a barbecue.

There are many advantages to this somewhat new cooking technique and a couple of disadvantages but I’ll write about all of them another time. For now I want to tell you how I used their recipe to braise the country style ribs in my outdoor wood burning oven for some pretty good ribs and show you how you can braise them in your oven.

Country Style Ribs - What Are They?

These ribs are really not ribs at all but pork chops cut from the blade (think shoulder) end of the loin that are then butterflied so they look like a big, meaty ribs. There is enough fat on them so they can be braised or slow cooked barbecue style on the grill. Cuts with less fat would just get tough during a braise and are better suited to shorter, higher heat dry cooking methods.

These aren’t your pick up with your fingers type of ribs that you may be used to. You more or less need a knife and fork, and if you braise them, be sure to have your spoon ready. The sauce from the braising liquids is incredible.

Did I mention they are not that expensive? I think I paid under $5.00 per pound.

Dry Rub & Braising Liquid

Basically I followed Fine Cooking’s recipe for the rub, and it was very tasty. I encourage you, however, to come up with your own brand of rubs by experimenting with different ingredients. If you look at 100 cookbooks that have rib rub recipes, you are going to find many with similar ingredients, but they will all be a little differently. I typically go with what I like and what I have on hand.

One of the key ingredients for the braise is beer. You may remember my post called Bert’s Barbecue Baby Back Ribs. This is one of my favorite and quickest ways to make barbecued ribs in a hurry by starting them in the oven and finishing them on the grill. Bert’s recipe also calls for a bottle of beer.

Braised Country Style Ribs with Orzo & Sauteed Broccoli Rabe

Dry Rub Ingredients

1 1/2 tablespoons sweet paprika
1 1/2 teaspoons brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons dry mustard
1 1/2 teaspoons dry sage
Salt & Pepper, to taste

Braising Liquid Ingredients

4 strips of bacon, cut into pieces
2 medium yellow onions, cut into thin slices
4 medium cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 carrots, chopped
3 cups chicken stock
1 bottle of beer, stout or dark lager if possible
1/4 cup cider vinegar
2 bay leaves
1 teaspoon caraway seeds

I also added a few drops of Asian hot sauce to give it a little kick.

Meat
6 Country Style Ribs

How to Prepare

Start by preparing the rub for the ribs. You’ll want to cover the ribs with the rub and let sit for a minimum of a couple of hours up to overnight. I used a large stainless steel utility bowl to mix all the rub ingredients and one at a time added a rib to cover. Be sure to knock off any excess rub off the rib before starting the next. After each one was covered, I placed them into a large Ziploc bag and stuck the bag in the refrigerator.

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