Really, though, this business concept will work in other, more permanent, spaces as well.  I have designed the logo and graphic language for the concept.  I have also designed the menu and developed all the recipes.  This could be a very fun Summer start-up project.  I am currently looking for space and investing partners.  Please contact me if you would like more details.

Quoted from the Apple post-purchase Customer Survey that I filled out after buying an iPad 2 at their Manhattan Upper West Side store:

“That day was the fourth day that I arrived at the Apple Store at 6AM to stand in line to buy an iPad (Thurs 21st, Fri 22nd, Sat 23rd & Mon 25th). On Thursday, Friday and Saturday, after waiting for between 20 minutes – 1 hour, we were told there were no iPads that day.  This evident disconnect between the channels of distribution and Apple’s own branded retail store seems ridiculous to me.  Especially from a tech company such as Apple.  A company that tracks and reviews every song download and iPhone/iPad application proposal.  For the retail store to tell me and every other customer that they “have no idea” what they will be receiving that day is crazy.  Someone does.  Even possibly as little as two people up the supply chain.  If Apple wanted to have that information available, they (you) would.  What if a potential customer could log onto iTunes or a special Apple website at midnight the night before and find out what each store would be offering in the morning: 10 iPad 64G, 15 iPad 32G AT&T, etc.  Or none for that matter.  That way the customer wouldn’t have to waste their time getting up ridiculously early and go to the store only to find that, oops!, there are no iPads that day.  Come back tomorrow and try again!  Apple would still sell the same amount of iPads.

And please do not use the excuse that giving out this retail availability information would allow people to game the system.  The system is already being gamed.  12 of the 13 people ahead of me in line yesterday morning were Chinese.  I tweeted a photo of it if you would like to see evidence.  They all bought two iPads.  And the ones that I saw while I was waiting to purchase mine all paid in cash.  I am not sure what is going on here but I bet someone at Apple does.  Is a blind eye being turned?  The New York Times even wrote an article about it happening at the Soho store a few months ago in regards to the iPhone 4.

I am a designer and brand consultant so I understand the concept of leveraging distribution to build demand.  But if the system that is put in place to manage demand is not designed correctly, it has the potential of doing harm to the brand image.  Maybe I am alone in thinking this, but to me it does not take much thought to realize that Apple’s system of distribution and customer information is flawed.  And we the customers suffer.  If I didn’t need this iPad for a trip this week I would have never stood in line four times and be turned away three times to buy one.  I definitely won’t do it again.  I like Apple.  But I like Apple a lot less than I did before standing in line a week ago.”

Jimmy’s No. 43 Restaurant in New York’s East Village recently held a friendly competition to benefit Food Systems Network NYC.  The competition, winkingly titled a ‘Duck-Off’ asked participants to serve a duck dish of their choosing to 150 people.  The judging panel, made up of Serena Di LIberto of Heritage Foods USA, Amy Zavatto of Edible Magazine, Food Network’s Jake Schiffman, Ariane Daguin of D’Artagnan, and writer Adam Robb, would be judging the dishes not only on taste but also on creativity, regional sourcing and seasonality of the ingredients used.  More info about the event can be found here.  After noticing an Edible tweet about it, I stumbled into being a contestant.

I have recently been developing a few meatball recipes so I decided to try to push my duck dish in that direction. Letting my creativity get the better of me… I served duck confit meatballs in a red wine ‘re-Duck-tion’ sauce along with duck liver pate, pickled oyster mushroom, fresh ricotta, asparagus pesto, pickled Spring onion and fiddlehead fern puree.  Oh and a little micro sprout to top it off.  A ridiculous amount of components.  But it was fun and we managed to plate all 150 dishes without too much trouble.  Also, I am honored to say, I ended up winning the competition!  My duck meatballs were awarded 3rd place in the ‘People’s Choice’ category, and 1st place as well as ‘Grand Prize’ in the judges category.  I was thrilled to accept the ‘Golden Ducky’ award.

A nice video of the event is here:

Jimmy’s No. 43 Duck-Off to Benefit Food Systems NYC from Letitia Productions on Vimeo

The ‘Duck-Off’ competition at Jimmy’s No. 43 was great fun.  The other contestants served some amazing duck dishes.  Over 150 people packed into the meandering restaurant, ate lots of duck and, best of all, supported Food Systems Network NYC.  Thanks to Jimmy and to Danielle for making it happen!  Thanks also to Hudson Valley Duck Farm for supplying me with some super tasty duck and duck livers!  Good stuff!

Corn sauteed with leeks, garlic, green onions, white onion.  Simmered in cream and chicken stock with corn cobbs, leek greens, bay leaf, thyme sprigs, salt and white and black pepper.  Strained.  Served with caramelized sauteed corn, basil chiffonade, olive oil and chili oil.

Salad of Arugula and Baby Heirloom Tomatoes with purslane, cipollini, purple radish, grapes

Peel baby heirloom tomatoes and marinate in olive oil, salt and red wine vinegar.  Dress arugula and purslane with a vinaigrette of olive oil, lemon juice, lemon zest, anchovie, shallot, cornichon, dijon, salt and pepper.  Plate with tomatoes, glazed cipollinis, purple radish halves, grapes and confit grape tomatoes.

Take advantage of the Green Market while it’s hot.

I had the pleasure of not only helping to stir a few pots in menu development but also designing the menus for the events.  It was a fast job finished just as the Razor team’s wheels were down at LAX but we would have it no other way.  Tight timing always helps to catalyze the creative process.  I used the Bauhaus-ian layout and Bauhaus font in conjunction with a script font as a play of traditional/modern (Bauhaus as one of the foundational traditions of modernism) within a relationship of modern/traditional (Bauhaus modernism to vaguely Renaissance script representing traditional practice in food and wine preparation).

Maybe I was overthinking it?  But fun to do nevertheless!

Searching the internets I found the very thorough Wandering Chopsticks blog and her recipe for a pork Banh Mi which called for, among other things, ‘Char Siu’, a Chinese Barbecued Pork.  I liked what I saw.  But I also came across Sam Sifton’s article in the New York Times about the pork spareribs that chef Zak Palaccio does at his Fatty ‘Cue restaurant.  I liked that also.  I decided to combine the two.

I deboned a pork shoulder.  I then prepared the fish sauce and garlic brine from the Fatty ‘Cue recipe, making the apartment smell quite funky.  Not feeling any need to tie the meat, the shoulder went into the chilled brine and then into the fridge overnight.  I had a few more minutes (Alton was still on) so I also made a simple pickle of julienned carrot and daikon radish with white vinegar, salt and sugar.  That also went into the fridge to mellow.

The next morning I pulled the pork out of the brine and dried it off.  I then prepared the Char Siu marinade from the Wandering Chopsticks recipe.  Smearing that all over the shoulder, the pork went back into the fridge for another two hours.  Was this overkill?  Hopefully not.  I then roasted the shoulder according to the Chopsticks recipe although here the instructions were a bit vague.  The recipe allowed for pretty much any cut of pork from a should to a loin or belly.  So, naturally, cooking times would vary.  But since my pork shoulder was on the thick side I figured my cooking time would be on the long side so I let it go for about two hours, only occasionally prodding it with a thermometer near the end to make sure the internal temperature was 165F (74C).  Hitting that mark I then did as the recipe said and put it under the broiler for a few minutes on both sides to let the sugars caramelize a bit more.

ton, When the pork shoulder rested enough to handle I cut it into thin slices.  And tasted it of course.  The meat was out of control good.  A depth of taste complexity, sweetness, spice and fishy funk that I had not ever before achieved.  This was getting exciting.  I then made the Wandering Chopsticks dead simple pate recipe of not much more than chicken livers, fish sauce and butter.  Also very good.

Time to assemble the sandwiches.  A relatively soft baguette gets smeared with the chicken liver pate on one side.  The other side of the bread would typically get a mayo application but not wanting to overplay the fat content of the sandwich, not to mention that I didn’t have any on hand, I skipped this step.  I then loaded in warm pork slices, sprigs of fresh cilantro, sticks of cucumber, some of the pickled daikon and carrot  and topped it all of with a little bit of Sriracha.  Amazingly good.  And surprising how close my pork banh mi was to ones I had that were professionally made.  Serving this makes you look like you know what you’re doing.  For a depth of taste that has real profundity, the combination of barbecued pork, pate, fresh herbs and vegetables in a bahn mi is hard to beat.