Our chef introduced live lobster and langouste as suggestions during December and soon followed with a wonderful Coquilles St. Jacques in a Calvados sauce garnished with asparagus and mushrooms. In searching for a meat specialty I asked him if he’d try Osso Bucco, not an especially refined dish, but worth trying as a winter suggestion. On the morning he said the meat had arrived, I translated a very delicious, yet simple, recipe into French, went over it with him and he said they’d set it up to prepare for the evening service. At the briefing I was shocked to discover the chef was taking the evening off, which relegated the Osso Bucco to his sous chef and the meat/sauce chef…the sous chef speaks limited French but is capable in cooking terms, the meat/sauce chef is proficient in meat-cooking terms but otherwise it’s Arabic. My spoken French seems to be more easily understood by native English speakers than French…something to do with my accent. But the recipe was written, it was easy, I was hoping for the best. They said they’d started it and cooked it for 1 of the 2 hours it needed to cook, wanted me to taste the seasoning and stewing liquid, and help with the gremolata. When I saw the shanks they were swimming in liquid. I tasted the sauce and it was salty – an inexplicable taste, and not good. I went over the receipe, asked if they’d dusted the shanks in flour and browned them in butter – yes – had they then added a cup of white wine and evaporated it off after 15 minutes – yes…more or less – then added the two cans of tomatoes?? – yes. So far, so good, except the liquid was still not explained. I referred to the part of the recipe which said, “If necessary to add more liquid during cooking, add bouillon or water. I asked if they’d added bouillon – YES! “Well why,” I asked, as it didn’t seem to have needed it. “Because the receipe called for it.” No it didn’t, only if the tomato liquid had evaporated. What did they add – they said, to my horror, 3 cubes of bouillon and a bit of water! Well that explained the salty taste. I found they’d reserved the tomato liquid from the canned tomatoes and we added that to the sauce. I helped them make the gremolata and we returned the shanks to the stove to cook for the last hour +. I said I’d be back at 8:30 to check it and add the gremolata. While upstairs I called the maitre d’hotel and passed the message for them to make another batch of gremolata to keep on hand separately. We’d remove most of the sauce and mix the second batch of gremolata with it in an effort to salvage the taste. So at 8:30 there I was in my evening finery in the midst of a small kitchen already dealing with orders trying to salvage the Osso Bucco. They’d taken the meat out of the pan – I said put it back in to finish and add some of the sauce. Where was the gremolata – there was a plate of 4 large individual heaps of chopped garlic, lemon zest, anchovies and parsley. I testily asked for two bowls so I could divide the gremolata in two batches and mix each one up. When on asking for two bowls I got 4 ramekins with the meat/sauce cook then thinking I wanted to transfer each ingredient to a separate container I had to look to the heavens for strength! Somehow two bowls arrived, I divided the ingredients into the two bowls by hand (with my evening bag still over my arm), mixed the first bowl in with the cooking shanks and the other into the sauce. Tasted both…seemed to taste good (but by what comparison by this time I wasn’t sure!). Later that night we got our first order. The Maitre d’hotel said he thought the client was Italian – I prayed he wasn’t, and really had to think an Italian who’d order Osso Bucco at Rick’s Café in Casablanca maybe deserved it (this is my philosophy for a Japanese who would order tempura here or a Hungarian who’d ask for goulash). He loved the dish…they were from Venezuela. The chef promises me we’ll do it together next time. “ Buona idea!” |
