Chef Dreams

[Fincher]

A couple of times a week I'll start having food dreams in the early a.m. Its usually something I've never cooked before. Usually nothing overly exotic, but still a little differant. It always sounds a lot better in my dream though. Even if I somehow manage to wake up a little and realize I'm dreaming, I still fall back asleep and take over where I left off, while still realizing its a dream. Still the food idea sounds awesome. Its not until I'm fully awake do I realize it wasn't as good as it originally sounded.

past examples of ideas I created while asleep:

annato braised monkfish with salsa verde and heirloom tomato salad.

roasted, candied parsnip icecream (still haven't made this one yet. not sure how to roast AND candy it, but thats what I dreamt about, so I'm keeping the title, maybe roast it then toss in some sugar to caramalize)

rasberry zinger sauce for chicken wings

and today's dream was muffins! I never make muffins! (well a few times) anyway it was whole wheat muffins with quinoa and lentils.
I may make them, but leave out the quinoa and sub cornmeal. Its a good idea, it will create a complete protein.

any of you experience this?

[cewall]

Just the nightmares of going down hard on the line, not getting orders, or dreaming of forgetting to place an order.

[Fincher]

oops I meant I'll leave out the lentils and use just the quinoa.

well what the heck, I might as well use both.

[Max_Xavier]

most of the Asian-Mexican food I sell comes from the edge of sleep or sometimes intoxication.

but the hardest part for me is making sure it conforms to the Mexican diet and not a tex-mex expectation.

alot of the huitlacoche ideas were from that same mental state and most of those did not work out but 2 did well.

I have been working on a recipe similar to a typical beer batter in my sleep but without the beer. but I am having some trouble with it. the lemon juice in the batter keeps screwing up the mix and it quickly deflates and becomes unuseable. when I perfect it then I will test it.

[foodpump]

ZZzzzzHnnnsnrxxx....sub the lemon juice for micro-planed lemon zest....yahhnnsnnrrxxxxzzZZZZZZ

[Max_Xavier]

I want the acid more than the flavor.
been pondering switching to citric acid in place of the lemon juice but when I do the calculations the overraction causes neutrality. and I don't want that so I am moreso considering using Calcium Aluminum Phosphate which won't react much until it is droped into the fryer as it is heat activated acid. many a morning I wake up with a headache do to over thinking.

[justwingit]

I dream each night that I get all my paper work done, 3 months of schedule on the board, and the fruit and veg company doen't short me on the darn busiest weekend of th year.....

Tom

[randall pink]

as for the ice cream I love sugar and cinnamon coated parsnips, I hope it works out for yA!

[cheztom]

I usually read before bed, but sometimes I watch a little tv. Last time I did this I dreamed I was in the basement of my kitchen with a huge blowtorch in my hands. Their were cocoons lining the walls that contained the weakly struggling figures of catering waitrons. Every surface was covered with some kind of goo and it was tropical hot. Suddenly a huge creature dropped from the ceiling almost on top of me and I began firing my flame thrower at it as I backed up towards the stairs. The thing was a hybrid insectoid/lizard with a nasty set of claws and a horrible double hinged jaw that snapped viciously at my face. The monster's face vaguely resembled an old GM I had worked for who has since retired to go torture poor bastids at some assisted living facility in Florida. Finally I lured the thing to our back dock where I inexplicably donned the disposable hazmat clean up suit from the first aid kit and then slowly, painfully maneuvered the creature infront of the garage door. And then I pushed the up button on the opener and the thing wooshed out into the darkness of the campus. And then I woke up.

[FishinChef]

I've had the nightmares of line service as well, my wife has woken me up before for expediting in my sleep. Random employees tend to show up, usually former ones that I've had to let go. Never the cocktail waitress or that new hostess. I did have a pretty hot dream about a female sales rep once; I couldn't look her straight in the face for weeks. I felt so embaressed when we would meet to go over orders; all I could think about was my dream

Never had anything as crazy as cheztom's. Once I dreamed I was drinking flourescent glowing tequila with a bunch of guys dressed in robes who looked like jedi knights. Out of nowhere some chick on a motorcycle jumped out the front window (on her bike) and I sat on the back seat as she drove off; then I woke up

[lebelage]

To do the candy roast parsnips may I suggest roasting some until tender enough to puree into the base then candy a bunch by cooking in a simple syrup made of parsnip juice and sugar.

The resulting two kinds of parsnips go into the base.
The juice from the candying you reduce to a thick caramel, mount with your cream and butter and use as a dulce de leche ribbon running through the ice cream.

I've done this with carrot and it turned out great.
Parsnip is pretty dang close to carrot, eh?

[Randy]

Once a year our community hosts an annual mac & cheese cook off/contest. Many local chefs are invited to participate, every guests gets to vote. The typical variations are always covered and someone always takes it a bit to far trying to stand out.

I've kept it classic using different cheese variations over the four years I've attended..no awards yet.

So, the night after last years event I had a dream, it was so fricken cool i had to get up and draw it so as not to forget the next morning.

Below is my "paint" rendition of my late night sketch.

I call this Deconstructed Macaroni and Cheese.

1. the outer ring is a pool of mornay sauce
2. the triangle is cheese, still undetermined
3. the straight line with triangle on top is a bar sword
4. the squiggly thing is a pasta noodle on the sword, stuck in the cheese, laying on the mornay

This will be plated and presented to 500+ guests.

[vegetable]

Just the nightmares of going down hard on the line, not getting orders, or dreaming of forgetting to place an order.

yeah had that one way too many times or worse waking up inthe middle of the night & relizeing you did forget to place the produce order & running thru it half asleep on your cell phone

[Bubba Shlub]

I worked for a chef who would call out orders in his sleep. After he woke up one morning his wife asked him "What's an O.S. and an O.C.?" He said "Those are sandwiches we sell at work. (open face shrimp and open face chicken). Why?" She said because last night you kept yelling "I need an O.S.! I need an O.C.!"

I've had dreams about being in the weeds and kicking a$$ so good that I was making orders before they were even ordered. They kept coming back either cold or wilted, depending on if it was a cooked item or a salad.

[firechef37]

Sleep depravation is so in control I can honestly say I had breakfast with Ronald Regan this morning about an hour before my alarm went off...the strange thing about it is that in the 6th grade I had lunch with him in the Oval Office. PB&J, grape of course along with the famous jelly beans and Hostess Cup Cakes.

Breakfast in the dream was eggs bennie and REAL good coffee.