Mack's Corner

Kitchen Confidential One of my favorite books is "Kitchen Confidential". It's by and about Anthony Bourdain, the former chef at Les Halles in New York City. It's kinda crude, not bedtime reading for kids. There's nothing Christian about Anthony Bourdain. But, I really like him. He talks about the kind of people that he likes to hire as "line cooks".  These are the people that do all of the cooking in a restaurant. He says they have to have... Read More

Veg-O-Matic I was slicing potatoes for a rehearsal dinner a few years ago. I had 10 pounds and I had to slice them very thin. The thing you use to do that is called a mandoline. They come in two types, cheap ones that don't work and expensive ones that do. The cheap ones have about 40 attachments, they're usually plastic, cost $19.95, and all of the blades are only sharp enough to cut your hands and nothing else. You can cut your hands to pieces slicing 1 onion, because... Read More

60 Most wanted Back in the early 80's I taught school at Cypress Jr High. When I first got the job, I was going to be a math teacher, but I ended up being a remedial math teacher. I was supposed to teach kids who had a hard time with math and were several grades behind. But there was a trick to it. The way the kids got selected to be in my class was by the math teachers themselves. The kids just had to be failing to be eligible. There were 4 regular math teachers, each with 30... Read More

Best Meal you ever had.. I Went to a culinary school graduation and the speaker asked: "Do you remember the best meal you ever had?" .. I knew it immediately.. I knew #1,#2,#3,… #22.. 5 of them here in Memphis, Iris, Andrew/Michael, Deli Mexicana, Swiss Manner (closed), La Tourelle (closed)… 2 in New Orleans, 5 in Napa, 3 in San Francisco, 1 in New York, 1 in Chicago, 2 in Dallas, 1 in Fort Worth, and 2 in Austin. Then he said the thing you remember most... Read More