This video taping of Chef Mark & Wife Judy was... DA BOMB! While some chefs come home and put their feet on the coffee table, and nail a greasy burger from another fast food joint, and then take their 12 pack of Bud and drown their sorrows, even if they're great chefs, we all know most of these guys have a beer gut, bad tude, and or ego that makes you wanna flat the dude's tires in the parking lot... Beware because not all chefs are self destructive. Enter...Chef Mark Ellman and wife Judy. Ah... healthy food, no booze but only on occasion, lots of love, family, yoga? Are you kidding me? I thought most chefs just went birzerk with the booze and other things... well then, was I wrong? Not necessarily, I knew that Mark ate well, he did most of the time, I'd see him shopping and he was very selective, no Portuguese Sausage or Spam in his shopping cart.
The date, May 23rd on a Monday evening, Puamana, the sun slowly sets into the Pacific close to the island of Lanai. Me, I'm there on an assignment to video tape Chef cooking some awesome food, which I got to not only to sample but eat the whole thing! Yeah yeah man, no lies, this was like a dinner that would have cost me maybe close to 30 bucks if I ate it someplace in a dig where waitresses and waiters were dressed well enough to go to a wedding or funeral, or the ball.
So what did Chef Mark create? How about this, a Flour less Chocolate Torte with homemade whipped cream, and a killer, awesome Asian Seafood Pasta. Man it was great. We shot the Flour less Chocolate Torte first. Mark had his double boiler going on, with some chocolate being slowly melted, then the butter, then the egg yolks, then he starts to beat the egg whites with some sugar, then he starts to fold it all together and then into buttered cups with sugar in it, to as he says, "Create a Teflon pan using food, so the torte doesn't stick to it when it starts to bake for about 14 minutes in his convection oven. Yeah Mark has his kitchen down, designed with the right equipment, very user friendly folks, room to walk around, even the dishwasher is quiet, now when the dishwasher is quiet, you got yourself a custom kitchen.
But then Mark starts to do his Asian Seafood Pasta, using egg noodles, he boils them until just right, he makes the pasta sauce with garlic, ginger, fermented black beans, parsley, some other herbs, mushrooms, just to name a few, and then his tomato sauce that is cooked for 5 hours, this sauce is the same sauce that is used in his Mala Ocean Tavern, one of the hottest restaurants on the island, both in Wailea, and in Mala in Lahaina. Then he's got the seafood, fresh clams, huge shrimp, and scallops. As he finishes the sauce, he plucks out a clam that doesn't open, "Just remove the clams that don't open, not good for you." He tosses it out, maybe some ferrel cat will claw it open, cats have tougher stomachs than we do, imagine us humans having tough stomachs, the world wouldn't go hungry.
When the seafood was all in concert with the sauce and it was simmering, you could smell it, you could actually taste the sauce by the aroma, and whenever you can get that aroma into your system and you start to crave it, man you know that first bite is gonna be awesome. So Judy pours me a glass of white wine, that was after a bottle of beer that Mark got to me as I was running the SONY bigboy. Man what a gig, free food, and not only any free food, it was food at the Ellman's, wow, what a treat to da max bro!
So the cooking and filming is pau (done), we all sit together, sorry we didn't say a prayer, but I thanked God on the way home, we were busy talking story about other restaurants, other chefs, their new venture HONU, which will be opening in June 2011, that's just a few weeks away. Mark is stoked about Honu, which will be really interesting. Can't say more about it, will do later, but believe me, nothing like it ever on this side of Maui. Honu just remember that, it's right next to Mala Ocean Tavern close to Safeway. And like Mala, it's right on the ocean's edge, very Lahaina and laid back. I'll say this, they'll have pizza. Nuff sed. But it's the kind of pizza and how it's made... nuff sed.
So we are eating, laughing, and enjoying the stories, and the food. Mark emphasized the Flour less Chocolate Torte was gluten free, and that would be a great dessert for someone with celiac disease, or allergic to wheat. When he was making it, one tip was to fold the beaten eggs and the chocolate together, not stir it up, you want to keep that mixture airy and fluffy.
All in all, it was like a personalized cooking lesson, which it actually was. The company was nice, so what more can a dude with a big ass SONY video camera can ask for? Maybe a million bucks, but I don't think Mark and Judy would loan that to me because my credit score is like negative 100 ha ha. Mark and Judy Ellman rules the school when it comes to food, family, and friends. Check them out at Honu when they're open, I really really believe this is going to be such a hit, the concept is right on. It will be NO KA OI.
Mark and Judy
Mark plating Asian Seafood Pasta
Mark manning his station
The main dish
Me & Chef Mark
Me & Judy
The date, May 23rd on a Monday evening, Puamana, the sun slowly sets into the Pacific close to the island of Lanai. Me, I'm there on an assignment to video tape Chef cooking some awesome food, which I got to not only to sample but eat the whole thing! Yeah yeah man, no lies, this was like a dinner that would have cost me maybe close to 30 bucks if I ate it someplace in a dig where waitresses and waiters were dressed well enough to go to a wedding or funeral, or the ball.
So what did Chef Mark create? How about this, a Flour less Chocolate Torte with homemade whipped cream, and a killer, awesome Asian Seafood Pasta. Man it was great. We shot the Flour less Chocolate Torte first. Mark had his double boiler going on, with some chocolate being slowly melted, then the butter, then the egg yolks, then he starts to beat the egg whites with some sugar, then he starts to fold it all together and then into buttered cups with sugar in it, to as he says, "Create a Teflon pan using food, so the torte doesn't stick to it when it starts to bake for about 14 minutes in his convection oven. Yeah Mark has his kitchen down, designed with the right equipment, very user friendly folks, room to walk around, even the dishwasher is quiet, now when the dishwasher is quiet, you got yourself a custom kitchen.
But then Mark starts to do his Asian Seafood Pasta, using egg noodles, he boils them until just right, he makes the pasta sauce with garlic, ginger, fermented black beans, parsley, some other herbs, mushrooms, just to name a few, and then his tomato sauce that is cooked for 5 hours, this sauce is the same sauce that is used in his Mala Ocean Tavern, one of the hottest restaurants on the island, both in Wailea, and in Mala in Lahaina. Then he's got the seafood, fresh clams, huge shrimp, and scallops. As he finishes the sauce, he plucks out a clam that doesn't open, "Just remove the clams that don't open, not good for you." He tosses it out, maybe some ferrel cat will claw it open, cats have tougher stomachs than we do, imagine us humans having tough stomachs, the world wouldn't go hungry.
When the seafood was all in concert with the sauce and it was simmering, you could smell it, you could actually taste the sauce by the aroma, and whenever you can get that aroma into your system and you start to crave it, man you know that first bite is gonna be awesome. So Judy pours me a glass of white wine, that was after a bottle of beer that Mark got to me as I was running the SONY bigboy. Man what a gig, free food, and not only any free food, it was food at the Ellman's, wow, what a treat to da max bro!
So the cooking and filming is pau (done), we all sit together, sorry we didn't say a prayer, but I thanked God on the way home, we were busy talking story about other restaurants, other chefs, their new venture HONU, which will be opening in June 2011, that's just a few weeks away. Mark is stoked about Honu, which will be really interesting. Can't say more about it, will do later, but believe me, nothing like it ever on this side of Maui. Honu just remember that, it's right next to Mala Ocean Tavern close to Safeway. And like Mala, it's right on the ocean's edge, very Lahaina and laid back. I'll say this, they'll have pizza. Nuff sed. But it's the kind of pizza and how it's made... nuff sed.
So we are eating, laughing, and enjoying the stories, and the food. Mark emphasized the Flour less Chocolate Torte was gluten free, and that would be a great dessert for someone with celiac disease, or allergic to wheat. When he was making it, one tip was to fold the beaten eggs and the chocolate together, not stir it up, you want to keep that mixture airy and fluffy.
All in all, it was like a personalized cooking lesson, which it actually was. The company was nice, so what more can a dude with a big ass SONY video camera can ask for? Maybe a million bucks, but I don't think Mark and Judy would loan that to me because my credit score is like negative 100 ha ha. Mark and Judy Ellman rules the school when it comes to food, family, and friends. Check them out at Honu when they're open, I really really believe this is going to be such a hit, the concept is right on. It will be NO KA OI.
Mark and Judy
Mark plating Asian Seafood Pasta
Mark manning his station
The main dish
Me & Chef Mark
Me & Judy
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