Archive | May, 2011

Website: New Site

By on May 29, 2011 in About the Chubby Cook

Well, for the rest of this holiday weekend I’ll be working on the site getting it changed around… well, we do have one drop-off catering client tomorrow, but all I have to do for that is fire the ribs on the grill (cooked them today- they’re definitely fall-off-the-bone tender) and make our Apple ∏ (that’s supposed to be a Pi symbol, but it doesn’t look exactly like it).

Soon you will find some new voices on the site as well- more to come on that in the next week!

For the next couple days, if you get any errors or pages not found, please be forgiving- it just means that I am updating the site.  Or, it means that I am trying to fix something that I broke… wish me luck… Thanks and keep checking back!

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New Kitchen: The Chubby Cook’s Kitchen

By on May 16, 2011 in About the Chubby Cook

Starting up this week, I wanted to get up some pictures of the transformation of the actual kitchen that we will be cooking in.  It’s a really nice kitchen that has undergone a lot of work in the last four or five weeks.  The funny thing is that nobody really knows what to expect when they walk in the front door.  The typical response when anybody first walks into the retail space out front is that it is a nice space.  Then we continue the tour back into the kitchen and I usually get a “wow, this is awesome.”  Yeah, that’s exactly why we picked up the lease.  The kitchen is awesome.  It’s got a lot of space and enough counter top room to pump out a lot of food.

When I first walked into the kitchen, it looked as if the people before me had just walked outside to take a break or something.  The shelves were full of equipment and there were aprons and other items sitting on the counters.  It was a little bit eerie.  There was also a lot of work that needed to be done.  The equipment looked a bit neglected and there was a good amount of grease and grime coating the entire kitchen.

Fully stocked with dirty pots and pans when I first walked in.

Before the lease was even signed, we brought in a professional cleaning crew to get started.  They had eight people scrubbing the kitchen from ceiling to floor for four, ten hour days.  When they were done, it looked incredible.  The equipment looked shiny, the walls were gleaming white and there was no grease anywhere.  They definitely did a bang up job.

The cleaning crew finished up and things are starting to look better.

I wanted the kitchen to feel a little less institutional, so we started to do some work in here.  First, we added in some color.  Then we moved some equipment around.  And some more equipment around.  After moving it several times, I decided that we needed to paint the floor in the kitchen so we moved the equipment around some more.  Lots of moving equipment around- but it was fairly incredible to watch this transformation.

Color on the walls and a kitchen in chaos.

Ahh- a fresh coat of paint on the floor and we're ready to move more equipment.

After the floor was done, we tried multiple layouts before deciding that this was a good one.  With this layout, we can fit 15 people in the kitchen comfortably for participation classes.  When the classes aren’t running (or until we get them setup), we will be using the kitchen primarily for catering.  We’ll be working on the layout in the months to come as we continue to break in the kitchen a little bit.

Looks shiny and new.

Bang!  We’ve got stuff in here now.  The shelves are starting to fill up with pantry items, new kitchen utensils and equipment.  Our UPS and FedEx guys are working overtime for us.  It takes a lot of work to fill up a pantry this size.  Check out the huge bay leaf container- we’ve got enough to hold us over for a while to come.

Filling up the shelves and gearing up to open the doors.

Up next, we are waiting on the flat screen and camera to get installed for the cooking classes.  We still have more equipment on the way and need to fill in our catering supplies.  But, it’s all coming together!   We will have our lunchtime catering menu up on the site hopefully by mid-week!

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Website Update: New Banner

By on May 15, 2011 in About the Chubby Cook

Well, I’m working through the website.  Definitely takes a long time to think about how things should look and what functionality should be included.  Going to be reworking the entire page over the next several days, so check back and let me know what you think.  The first change which has been published is the banner that you see at the top of the page. I was using the banner below for the last six months or so… that little dessert was fantastic and I really like the contrast between the brown, red and green in the picture.

Here’s the old banner… The one before was terrible so it’s never coming back!

On the other hand, I like the look of the new banner- and putting the pics up of those dishes I created really reinforced why we’re doing this.  The love of food and cooking.  Makes me want to get back in the kitchen right now- but instead I have to keep on trucking on the website.  Hopefully this week I’ll be back in the kitchen again.  Check back for a walk through of the transformation of the kitchen itself next- it’s crazy!

 

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New Kitchen: Retail Ready

By on May 11, 2011 in About the Chubby Cook

My contractors have been hard at work in our kitchen and retail space getting things ready to go.  It’s been a long road for them because it seemed like every day we were switching directions or coming up with new ideas on how we could maximize the impact of the space.  Here is a quick and unsolicited plug for the hard working crew at Aspen Design- they are not only great in commercial settings, but have done superior work at our house too.  Plus, they are a green company which means that for all my projects, almost all of the work site waste was recycled or repurposed. I’ve got nothing but good things to say about this company and look forward to our continued relationship.

In the picture below, this is how we basically walked into retail portion of the space.  It was setup for carry-out and other food merchandising.  I don’t know about you, but to me it looked really drab.  The battleship gray wore on me every day I was in here.  The counter tops were stained and the cabinet doors were chipping.  After about a week in the front (the kitchen itself was getting cleaned during this time), I realized that something needed to change.  The next step was to figure out exactly what.

Ready for carry-out business... but not for us. Too drab. We need color!

While we were figuring it out, the thought process was to leave everything in the space in the event that we might need it.  What this led to was my contractors moving these heavy cases around way too many times.  We discussed changing the tops to butcher block, wrapping the laminate in stainless steel, making tables- you name it and we thought about it.  What was the final solution?  Getting rid of just about all of it.

This is a relatively tame picture- wait till you see what happened in the kitchen!

Finally we came to the decision that it needed to be bright and clean with a bit of industrial feel to it.  So we tore off the worn counter top, removed all the broken doors and hardware and got to work.  Along the way, I realized that the carry-out business is not something that we wanted to take on at the current point.  Out went the cold cases, the sandwich board and the huge checkout counter.  We might add take-out into the mix sometime in 2012.  Check out the blue on the wall- I love it.  All the cream walls were painted too- the entire place just looked so much better when it was done.

Nice- the blue immediately made a huge impact. The floor has its first coat here.

Here we go!  The counters are in and the doors are going back on.  The floor was painted and sealed which really cleaned up the overall look.  We took off the laminated shelves and installed some tempered glass shelves that I think look really sharp.  We are really close to being finished in this picture.

Pete and Mike from Aspen Design are installing the cabinet doors. Fresh and clean!

These next shots are of the completed retail and demonstration area.  All we are waiting for now is our 3X8 foot butcher block table to show up. Can’t wait for that bohemoth to arrive early next week.  We are working to stock up the shelves currently not only with cookware, but with locally produced items as well (think artisanal cheeses, house made stocks, hot sauces, jellies, pickled goods).  We are picking up our folding chairs and tables this weekend to be able to use the space for demonstrations, networking events and small seminars.  If you or someone you know is looking for space to use, give me a call or send an e-mail.

Up next, the butcher block table and pictures on the walls.

Ready for retail and demonstrations- looks good to me.

Up next is our virtual face lift.  Time to get the website moved around and reworked.  Well, no rest for the weary!  Before I go, I wanted to thank everyone for all of the support.  I think that we are working on something that has the potential to be pretty cool and different.  If there are things you would like to see us working on- shoot me a note!  Thanks again-

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New Kitchen: We’ve got a sign people!

By on May 10, 2011 in About the Chubby Cook

Hey- lots of good news today, but the biggest news is that we have a sign on the building!  Makes everything feel so official.  I love it.  It feels like we’ve been telling people that we are located between the dentist and title agency for way too long.  With this sign, you can’t miss us.  Check out the progression:

No sign here... hard to find us.

Our sign, just hanging out on the floor.

Nice- this was a really cool feeling to see the sign going up. What a nice day too.

Schwing- we've got a sign baby. Almost open for business.

So with a little luck, we should be good to go by the end of the week with everything else.  We’re picking up all our pantry items today- hard to cook without a little sugar and spice hanging around.  Headed down to the Tremont Farmer’s market this afternoon to pick up the ramps from Kevin at Por-Bar farms.  Going to pick up some other goodies too… we’re cookin baby!

 

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What’s next for The Chubby Cook?

By on May 6, 2011 in About the Chubby Cook

I know it has been quite some time since my last post.  There just hasn’t been enough hours in the day to get a new post up for a while.  But, I’m ready to get moving again.  So, what have I been up to?  First, and most importantly: my daughter is one month and one day old today!  She’s an incredible addition to our family and I am one proud papa.  I can’t wait to get her into the kitchen watching her old man, just like I did with her big brother.

But, that’s not the only reason I have been neglecting the blog.  I have started a new business venture in the culinary arena, and it’s pretty cool.  The Chubby Cook is moving from the blog-o-sphere to brick and mortar.  Who knew, right!?  About nine months ago I enrolled in cooking school at Western Reserve School of Cooking and the moment I started, being in the kitchen just felt right to me. There’s really no other way to describe it. There were no visions of being a chef at a five-star restaurant, no aspirations to be the next Food Network star… just a great feeling of being in the moment. While at WRSOC we made some great food, I learned an incredible amount in a short time span and truly embraced the entire experience.  A big thank you to Catherine, the other instructors (particularly Kathy and Tom) and everyone else associated with the program.

So I figured out what my true passion is, the next step was how to translate my passion into a profession.  Caroline and I talked through it at length… It was really cool as we both watched my dream unfold, washing over my family.  I’ve also talked to hundreds of people along the way (thank you to everyone for listening patiently) and made a lot of new friends. It has been a phenomenal start to my journey.

For those of you who know me, this next part will come as no surprise. There was no sticking my toe in the water (much to the dismay of many people giving me advice), but a headfirst dive into the deep end. And I’ve gotta tell you, the water feels great. I signed a lease on a 2000 sq/ft commercial kitchen and retail store for The Chubby Cook to come to life.   It’s a cool little space, tucked away in Beachwood near Moxie and Hiroshi’s Pub. Soon, there will be a face lift happening inside and boatload of new gear in the kitchen.

The Chubby Cook's new kitchen! We've got just a wee bit of stainless steel in here...

So what’s it all about? Well, we’re offering recreational cooking classes and a small catering service to start.  Most of the classes are new, fun, original ideas that you will only find here, but we will still offer some of the traditional style classes as well.  Interested in learning how to make sausage at home?  We’ve got that in our DIY series where you can learn that and other great techniques such as how to preserve, make cheeses, bacon, hot sauces and a ton of other cool stuff.  Oh yeah, we’re also going local for as much of our produce and products as we can.  That means we’ll have very seasonal classes ensuring that everything will be fresh and delicious. If you’re looking to learn how to make great food and feel good doing it, we’re going to be the place to check out.  I’ll be writing more about classes and catering in upcoming posts, so stay tuned.

Most importantly, The Chubby Cook is about having fun.  My best day in the kitchen is when I see a genuine smile from anyone who made something so delightful they just couldn’t hold it back. Pure joy. That’s what The Chubby Cook’s kitchen strives to achieve on a daily basis.  Keep your finger on the pulse of this joint because it’s about to get jumping. I’ll be posting up pictures of the transformation in the kitchen and will be looking for people who have unbridled passion for cooking to teach upcoming classes.  If you are an expert in a particular field of cooking or food prep or know someone who is, send me an e-mail to get in touch.  For all my Cleveland based fellow food bloggers out there, shoot me an e-mail or message on Facebook if you are interested in coming out to give our classes a shot.

You’re going to see some new changes to this blog, including our Class Reservation system and the addition of an online ordering system for food and other goodies. Hopefully over the next couple weeks and months, you’ll get to know some new faces and voices on the site. There will be some other surprises as we continue down this path- so check back. Lastly, thanks for reading and helping me through the process to get here. I genuinely appreciate it.

 

 

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