Flavour Exploration

Fresh Lamb Liver and Other Interesting Things

Well, here I am again writing about yet another food experience I've had in my life. I guess I shall start off this blog by realizing that I always find a way to return to my past life of being a psychopathic Italian butcher( any good chef knows all Italian butchers are a little bit crazy) and I guess that is where this story will begin. 

As a young boy I was always a very picky eater. I stuck to what I knew was good and never explored any other avenues of food. This consisted of pasta, pasta, sandwiches, and pasta, and every once in a while a sausage roll from my British side of the family. Now as any great human being has once done on his path to greatness I broke free from my pasta jail cell and began trying to new things. This mostly took place at my place of work as my mother would never cook or even allow any foreign animal parts in the house, except that one year I scared her with the head of a lamb, but I digress. 

Now it goes without saying that working in a small butcher shop you are bound to see many deceased animals coming through the door, always freshly slaughtered. This one particular time quite recently the slaughterhouse delivery guy walked in with a freshly slaughtered lamb over his shoulder and proceeded to hang it up in our cooler. My boss, being the old school psycho that he is, took out the liver, and the brains of the lamb. He sauteed the liver quickly in a hot cast iron pan and breaded and fried the bits of brain. I can truthfully say the liver was one of the best tasting things I have ever eaten in my life. The brains, because breaded and fried, tasted like anything else that is breaded and fried. But, that liver was undeniably fresh tasting, with a very distinct flavour profile which I now know is called umami. It had a distinct smooth, tender, meatiness to it like nothing I've ever eaten before. 

I ask myself, would I ever eat this food again? The answer is, absolutely, but it would have the be under the same conditions as the first time. It has to be just as fresh and simply sauteed with a little bit of salt and pepper to highlight the distinct flavours of the liver. This experience has definitely changed my perspective on what is good to eat and what is not. So far, it seems that there is a cornucopia of wonderful flavours and things to eat in the world just waiting for me to try them all. 

The moral of the story here kids is to always try new things. It can only benefit you as you go on to become a culinarian. 

Ciao Regazzi! ( Bye Guys in English for you non-italians)

Culinary Biography

Sopressata Made by Me

My Culinary 

Biography:Kitchen Confessions

Welcome to the official culinary blog of Matthew Skinner, Chef Extraordinaire. In this blog we will be covering such topics as my personal culinary philosophy, why I want to be a chef,what I hope to gain from my experience, and also my industry experience. 

Sectioned Beef shows my background of Butchery

 Firstly, Here are a few pictures that describe my culinary philosophy and personality. 

Left to right: My Co-worker Carmine, Me, my boss Domenic Martelli at the butcher shop where I started off and still work.

Pizza I ate at a bakery in New York City.

The first three pictures show a little bit of where and how I got started in industry. I began working ( and still work part time) at a small Italian grocery/butcher shop. Similar to others I began cleaning up and slowly began to learn the trade. I can do many different things in butchery and was taught and mentored my boss Domenic Martelli, A real old school butcher direct from Italy. My favourite thing to do at work is to make various types of sausages and charcuterie. The picture of the pizza I ate in New York City is there to show simply two things. One being that Pizza is my favourite thing to eat, and two that my family is from Queens, New York and is Italian which contributed heavily to my culinary personality.

Now, you may find yourself asking, if he started as a butcher and is still a butcher, what is he doing in culinary school? Well the answer is very simple my fellow chefs. I simply love to work with food of all kinds. I have loved it since I was a child and it has always been a true passion of mine to know how to properly cook and to work my way up through the industry. After trying out other career options for a few years and being unhappy, I decided to chase my passion and here I am.

I decided on George Brown for my first culinary experience simply based on its outstanding reputation and so far it has surpassed my expectations. I know I will gain a lot of knowledge about the industry and about food specifically ( production etc.) I suppose I could say that is the number one thing I hope to gain from this experience is knowledge on the one thing in life I truly love. Enough knowledge so I am able to go out in the world and succeed in the culinary world as I've always dreamt I would. I believe with this gained knowledge and a lot of hard work it is definitely possible.