Craig Shelton is owner and executive chef of the acclaimed Ryland Inn in Whitehouse. In 1998, Shelton was one of 22 chefs in America to be honored with the status of Relais Gourmands by the Relais & Chateaux organization. In 2000, he was named “Best Chef-Mid Atlantic” by the James Beard Foundation.
Lord Love a (Curried) Duck
Today's recipe--curried duck and mango sandwiches--is easier to make than it may sound.
The secret? You don't have to cook the duck. Make your way to a Chinese market and buy a succulent cooked Peking duck for these sweet-and-spicy sandwiches. (Alternatively, substitute four sautéed duck breast halves.)
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Let's Go Moroccan!
Heartfelt thanks to all of you who wrote such supportive replies to my recent posts.
Here's a little giveback from the kitchen of the Ryland Inn. It's the first of four of my favorite recipes, which I'll be posting in coming days.
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I Miss You, Too...
The other day, I was cooking at an elaborate special event in New Jersey. The adrenaline was pumping. In the frenzy of activity, I felt close to my “old friends”: the energy, the aromas, the heat, the pressure of the kitchen. After scrutinizing and adjusting every dish, I walked out on the floor and was greeted so kindly, so warmly---by quite a few of you---that my heart nearly burst.
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Will It Ever Return?
"Will the Ryland Inn ever reopen?" People ask me this question all the time, along with two others: "Why is it taking so long?" and "When will it reopen?"
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Evian to the Rescue! (Vanderbilt Would Have Understood.)
My family and I recently returned from a visit to Newport, R.I. At this time of year the weather alternates between brooding melancholy and wondrous full sun.
With crag and bluff, the rugged isthmus between playful Narragansett Bay and the brooding Atlantic brings to mind the Scottish Highlands. Traipsing up to the lighthouse, you notice the wizened, vine-entangled trees agelessly defying the headwinds. All about you is water.You cannot help but contemplate the stuff.
Water again came to mind during our tour of the Breakers—the 70-room, Italian Renaissance-style palazzo of Cornelius Vanderbilt II. In the magnate’s marble bathroom, I marveled at his 3,000-pound, hand-carved marble bathtub with its four polished nickel taps for hot and cold running salt water as well as fresh water.
It reminded me of a calamitous Mother’s Day incident at the Ryland Inn, involving conspicuous consumption of expensive water.
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The 1,600°F Fallacy -- Part II...
Today almost no world-class chef disputes the superiority of low-temperature protein cookery. In spite of their credentials, they were almost entirely ignored by the rest of the population.
In this post, I’ll tell you why.
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The 1,600°F Fallacy
The trouble started more than a century ago with the absolutely false notion that “searing meat locks in the juices.”
In restaurant and home kitchens to this day one hears, “If a little searing locks in juices, then a lot of searing will lock in even more!” Or, “If an 800°F broiler sears the outside of the steak decently, a 1,600°F broiler will sear it that much better.”
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