“Adventurer? How do you know?” I asked with a bemused smirk.

She shrugged, “You just give off that air, and you ordered an Earl Grey.”

Off-topic? Not exactly.
This was more than kindness and levity with a customer- it was humanity. Especially around this time of year, whether or not one celebrates any holidays in particular, I’ve noticed people start to either compress and disguise their humanity or they put it out on display.

Perhaps it’s the chilly weather of this time of year, reminding some primitive, animal part of us of the necessity to huddle together for warmth.
Perhaps in the proximity of New Year’s, and we band together to recognize the incessant march of time- whether we see it as having survived another year, having lost another year on our way to the grave, or- in the best case- we see it as having lived another year and grown one year wiser.

As I hopped on the PATCO train into the city, I got one with a group of quiet fellow travelers, all of us keeping very much to ourselves to the next stop. At the next stop, a massive group of travelers came on board, including at least 6 very loud children and 5 very loud and excited adults. They were apparently on their way to a light show- a family tradition for them this time of year. At once, I could have imagined that most of my quiet companions would be irritated at the sudden raucous noise. Instead, as I looked around, I realized we were all showing the same knowing glance and smile, silently saying “Awww… what a happy family, traveling all together. It’s like a Lifetime movie!”

Chance smiles and words create warmth. I never met any of those people before, and probably never will again- but for 10 minutes, we were companions.

The title of this entry is Hebrew (written as “הכנסת אורחים.”) It is one of the 613 mitzvot (commandments enumerated in the Torah,) and literally means “inviting guests” or, colloquially “hospitality.” The commandment came from a time when companionship and kindness from strangers was not just something mannerly, it was vital to survival. It was no unusual act of kindness to give a stranger aid, or food, or a place to stay the night- it was a fact of civilization, as much of a commonplace rule as stopping for a red light.

This time of year, time, weather, mortality, religion, and society tries to nudge us toward remembering this. I’ve said before and again that feeding people is more than nourishment- it is a social interplay, and a meeting of humanity. As my great grandparents would say, “Hospitality is a form of worship.”

This time of year, in between the movie marathons, Road Warrior on the highways trying to get home, and last-minute dashes to engage in an orgy of gift buying- stop somewhere, sit awhile, and just have a kind word and smile for people.

And mean it.

See what happens- you’ll love it.

Stay Classy,

I apologize for the radio silence of the last few weeks- the past month has been pretty crammed with events personal and professional.

As amends, I offer- what else? Food porn.

….

There we go.

Apart from Thanksgiving festivities, the month has had me rather distracted with finishing school and filling the odd order here and there (by the by, holiday season is upon us! Take shelter and order a pie!)

Experimentation time has been cut somewhat since school has started, but there’s opportunity everywhere if you know where to look. I happened to look directly at my awesome friend Joe when she opened her house for a pub night.

My friend Joe’s house, affectionately called the “Pub House”, is a beautiful little 1920s manor tucked in one small corner of a fiveway intersection. Over the course of years, Joe slowly converted one small wing of the house into her own private pub which she opens up to friends periodically, making a wonderful impromptu salon of an evening. Her friends include travelers, gourmands, homebrewers, bicycle shop owners, musicians, qi-gong and reiki healers, historians, and others.

And, of course- one baker.

As important as the skill set for being a good host, is the skill set for being a good guest. You call ahead, you according yourself appropriately, you do not invite yourself, and you never come empty-handed. In Joe’s case, it is understood that donations of food and liquor to the bar are always welcome. So what could I possibly bring on Friday night besides beerbread?

This recipe, however, is not the be all and end all. Basic in the extreme, it is one of the few formulas I know by heart:

Beerbread
Yield- one loaf

Ingredients
1 12oz. bottle of beer
3 cups AP flour
1 tbs salt
1 tbs baking powder
1/2 c sugar
Extra ingredients as you see fit
2 tbs butter (optional)

Method
1. Combine all your dry ingredients in a large bowl. Preheat your oven to 375 F, and grease up and 9″ x 5″ loaf pan.

2. Pour in beer and mix well. The mixture will form more of a thick batter than a dough. That is a appropriate, since this is a quickbread (similar to a muffin.)

3. Pour batter into loaf pan and bake for 55 minutes. If desired, melt the 2 tbs butter and brush on to the top of the loaf with 3 minutes remaining.

4. Let cool briefly in pan, then remove. Serve the same day if possible.

This recipe is marvelous because you can do almost anything you like with it.  My suggestion is to start by tasting some of the beer and look for particular flavors, then add spices or ingredients that could play off of them. Just be careful not to overload the bread!

That’s about all I’ve got for today. What would you all like to see here in the future? More recipes? Small business know-how? Dining philosophy? Cat pictures? Leave a comment, or shoot me an email at blackhatbakery@gmail.com. As always,

Stay classy,

Particularly this one. 


I discovered Gavin Aung’s webcomic Zen Pencils some time ago, since I am rather fond of collecting adages, parables, snippets of wisdom, etc. and Gavin has an elegant, inspiring, and lighthearted way of bringing them to life. This particular comic, based on the poem “Ithaka” by Constantine P. Cavafy, is one of my favorites.

I read this shortly after catching up on an episode of Anthony Bourdain’s show “Parts Unknown.” Anthony Bourdain is something of an icon of mine- not just because I’m a sucker for great travelogues (putting him in the company of Kerouac and Steinbeck), but because he has a very human way of approaching great figures in the culinary world. So many times I read his work or watch his show and find him talking to people like Marco Pierre White, Fergus Henderson, Fernand and Albert Andria, and others- people who have figuratively shaken the world with their work. All in a field that I am barely more than a neophyte in. I look at Bourdain’s work, or Whites, or the Andrias, and sometimes I can’t help but feel absolutely impotent. In a field with people of this genius, creativity, and caliber- many of whom rocked the world with their works when they were around my age- what hope can a small-time baker in Southern New Jersey have of making an impact? 

How can I even imagine that, someday, somehow, I might step out of their shadow and cast my own? 

That is when I remember two things:
1. I remember the poem “Ithaka.” The idea that it’s the journey, not the destination. I am not Marco Pierre White or Albert Andria. Their lives were not mine. The goal of anyone should not be to be the facsimile of someone great, but to be great in one’s own way. Where we end up doesn’t matter nearly so much as how we got there, and what was learned along the way. If I want to be great and famous one day, I will be- but I am in no rush. I still have a lot to learn.

and 2. I remember the following poem by Robert Service.

The Land of Beyond
Have you ever heard of the Land of Beyond, 
 That dream at the gates of the day? 
Alluring it lies at the skirts of the skies, 
 And ever so far away; 
Alluring it calls: O ye yoke of galls,
 And ye of the trails overfond, 
With saddle and pack, by paddle and track, 
 Let’s go to the Land of Beyond! 

 Have ever you stood where the silences brood, 
 And vast the horizons begin, 
At the dawn of the day to behold far away 
 The goal you would strive for and win? 
Yet ah! in the night when you gain to the height, 
 With the vast pool of heaven star-spawned, 
Afar and agleam, like a valley of dream, 
 Still mocks you the Land of Beyond. 

 Thank God! there is always the Land of Beyond 
 For us who are true to the trail; 
A vision to seek, a beckoning peak,
 A fairness that never will fail; 
A proud in our soul that mocks at a goal, 
 A manhood that irks at a bond, 
And try how we will, unattainable still, 
 Behold it, our Land of Beyond! 

The samurai of Japan had a saying- “The only opponent is within.” The culinary industry (indeed, the world) is rife with competition, and there will be winners and losers. There will be people that get the trophy and victory lap at the end, and there will be others that just pack up and leave quietly.
In the end, however, no matter what it is, your only real competition is with yourself.
“Can I do this faster?”
“Can I tweak this formula and make it better?”
“Can I fix how I work so I have more time?”

So I as much as I might dream of one day being like them, I am not Anthony Bourdain, Marco Pierre White, or Albert Andria.

I am me- and my goal is to learn and be the best baker I can, the best person I can, and the best me I can.
All in due time.

Stay cheerful, and

Stay classy,