behind the knives: masters of social gastronomy

Photos provided by Sarah Lohman and Jonathan Soma With the food media focusing on celebrity chefs, hot restaurants, and must-try dishes, it’s often easy to imagine the “foodie” movement as a zombie-like army that leaves a trail of dishes in its wake. Yet instead of pigging out, there’s an underground current of food enthusiasts that are “geeking out” – getting as excited about the history and science of food as they are about eating it. Masters of Social Gastronomy is at the forefront of that movement.

Led by Sarah Lohman, the culinary historian behind Four Pounds Flour, and Brooklyn Brainery founder Jonathan Soma, MSG is a hilarious, laid-back and addictively informative journey through the back-alleys of food history, culture and science.

How did Masters of Social Gastronomy get started?

Sarah: Soma and I met at an event I did about artists whose works were inspired by literature. I was featuring cocktails Dickens mentioned in his 1842 book "American Notes."  Everyone who came worked in small groups to learn to make their own cocktails.  So, Soma came, and he came up to me and was like "I'm Soma and I run the Brooklyn Brainery and you should come take a class."  So I took his card, and luckily someone standing right next to me went, "Ooh, the Brooklyn Brainery, they're great!"  So I emailed him and taught my first classes in the spring of 2009.

I loved teaching at the Brainery, so I started doing it every other month or so, and Soma and I would sit in on each other’s classes. We soon  realized that we had very complimentary bodies of knowledge--I knew a lot of social history about food, while he could always answer science questions.  So last year, after Christmas, he sent me an email telling me we were going to start a public lecture series and that it would be awesome.  Basically this started with Soma, demanding that I do awesome things, and me saying "ok."

Soma: Sarah's story is right on the money. I went to her Dickens event with the twin intents of drinking free cocktails and recruiting her for the Brainery. I did the first before I did the second, so I'm impressed that it all worked out.

As for MSG, the very very very beginnings happened long before the Brainery even started. Way back in 2010, Kent Kirschenbaum and Will Goldfarb of the Experimental Cuisine Collective presented at Secret Science Club at the Bell House. It was a super engaging hour and a half about the intersection of chemistry and food, and it left a really strong impression on me.

Sarah and I had both been teaching/presenting for a while, and I thought: we love food, we have to do this, we have to ramble at drunk people about food. Why there was no monthly talk on food - in Brooklyn of all places - was beyond me, so off we went!

How long has MSG been running, and what are some of the challenges in creating this type of program?

Sarah: Our first talk was in January 2012.  We've done Strange Meats, Candy, Artificial Flavors, Fake Meat, Gelatin, Ice Cream, and Drinking Games. And one podcast on Raw Milk.

It took us forever to come up with a name--that was catchy and evocative.  It was the "Stomach Eights" and we were going to start at 8pm.  I still kinda like it. Coming up with topics hasn't been trouble--there's always stuff we find interesting and want to know more about, and we'll start talking about something and get excited.  And at the very first event we had over 100 people show up, and there must have been 300 at Fake Meat--so clearly people are interested!

Soma: Yep, names are the most important and most difficult part of any sort of series. Stomach Eights was a horrible, horrible name and while I'm a terrible person for suggesting it, Sarah's an even worse person for not immediately shooting it down. I was sold on MSG as being the acronym, so we had to form something backwards from there. One fateful night at a bar my friend Andy came up with Masters of Social Gastronomy and we were set!

What has been your favorite lecture to date?

Sarah: Definitely “Artificial Flavors”!  I enjoyed it because the topic has a lot of negative rhetoric and not enough discussion of the facts.  So we turned to history and science to question the idea of "artificial".  How long have we been using substitutes in our foods? What does it mean when we say "chemical"?

The trick to getting people to question something they believe to be true - like, “artificial flavors are bad” - is to put the choice in their own hands.  I made two batches of identical cookies, one with natural vanilla and cinnamon and one with artificial vanilla and cassia (a popular substitute for cinnamon).  We did a double blind taste test, and people preferred the "artificial" cookies 2-to-1. Granted, we didn't employ the full scientific method, but it was still interesting, and people were really surprised by the results.

Soma and I are actually neither for nor against artificial or natural flavors.  We just wanted to dispel some of the myths surrounding the debate.  And after the talk, people stuck around a long time after to debate it amongst themselves.  Total strangers were talking to each other about the lecture and what they thought--it was amazing.  I think we'll be taking on more controversial topics in the future.

Soma: I hate agreeing with Sarah so much, but Artificial vs. Natural Flavors was definitely the best. I was really giving the comparative safety of artificial flavors a hard sell, and almost ended up in a brawl afterward as a result. People find it tough to believe that store-bought strawberries contain trace amounts of arsenic! Luckily a flavor chemist had my back.

Do you have any anecdotes about projects gone horribly wrong while preparing for a lecture?

Sarah: For the candy lecture, I wanted to make homemade Peeps for everyone in the audience.  But I decided to make them chicken flavored.  And the morning of the lecture, I started making the marshmallows, and they were just a mess.  My fiancé asked me if I was making marshmallow tentacle monsters.

I brought one of the monster marshmallows to MSG, told the story of what happened, and everyone thought it was hilarious.  Then I made Soma eat the peep with me.  It tasted just like ramen. Sometimes the disasters make the best stories.

Soma: My unofficial job is to eat poisonous/horrifying things in the name of MSG. For Candy I ate not-for-human-consumption menthol crystals in pursuit of "the coldest candy," while Artificial Flavors had me trying homemade wintergreen flavoring made out of hydrochloric acid and wart remover (yes, it burned). For Gelatin I made and ate an edible cup, which really wasn't so bad at all. Pork floss and tofu skin – for Strange Meat/Fake Meat - both sound sort of weird but are a lot more pedestrian than I usually give them credit for. I think the Raw Milk podcast is the only time I've been spared.

What role do you think this "alternative" food education can play in the "foodie" movement? 

Sarah: I spent a long time wracking my brain about this question.  I feel like we started this lecture because there was a void.  No one was doing something like this. The Brooklyn Kitchen and the Culinary Historians of New York spring to mind, but I feel they are too expensive to attract a young audience.  

Soma: I think the foodie movement isn't just one thing, it's a million people all approaching food from different perspectives - what does it make sense to eat, what might we eat in the future, what's good, what's dangerous, etc. - and MSG ties it all together with a good bit of fun. We aren't proselytizing, and don't have an agenda to push, so we can talk about issues that might otherwise be off-limits or tough to find unbiased information about.

New York is also a great place to have these discussions. People in Queens are making edible cups, there's a huge store that sells nothing but fake meat in Chinatown, the city was once attacked by a mysterious, artificial maple syrup smell – and the list goes on from there.

Is there any other noteworthy food programming/education that you admire?       

Sarah: Most of the food related classes I go to are at the Brainery, because they're cheap, promote discussion, and are taught by interesting people. There are also great narrative non-fiction books on food, and Slate.com has been killing it with their food essays recently.

Soma: The Experimental Cuisine College is a little on the professional/scientific end of things, but they're fantastic. At one recent talk, Subha Das of Carnegie Mellon was talking about using nuclear magnetic resonance to profile different sodas against one another. Incredible! - and totally free.

What's next for MSG?

Sarah: Perhaps we should crowd source that question! I'm not bored with our format yet, and we have tons of idea, so we're just going to keep talking. As long as people keep showing up, we'll keep doing it. After we have a year of these under our belts, we're talking about putting them together in a book with recipes and science experiments.  We're pretty excited about that.

Soma: Sarah pretty much nailed that one with the "people enjoy what we're up to now”, so it all sounds good to me.

Masters of Social Gastronomy is a monthly lecture series at Public Assembly in Brooklyn, NY. The next lecture takes place on Tuesday, September 25th at 7pm.

behind the knives: mardi miskit of brooklyn fork and spoon

Photos by Corry Arnold & Bethany Pickard

In just over a year, Mardi and her Brooklyn Fork and Spoon co-founder, Rebecka, have turned their amateur culinary ambition into one of the borough’s most celebrated supper clubs. I was lucky enough to attend their Greatest Hits Supper at a historic mansion in Clinton Hill, where I sampled some of the duo's best dishes to date. 

How did Brooklyn Fork and Spoon get its start?

Rebecka and I met through mutual friends and have always shared a love for cooking. Rebecka chronicles her delicious baked goods on her blog, and I have documented my passion for cooking for the past 2-3 years as well. With her sweet tooth and my love of all things savory, we always thought that it would be fun to collaborate on something.

We discovered the supper club scene through a friend’s site, Underground Dining NYC, and thought the concept was a perfect opportunity to join forces. But when we attempted to check out a few supper clubs ourselves, our RSVP's were often met with "sold out" emails (I now understand why). So we decided to just go for it. We organized a test run for ten of our friends, traded free dinners for website design, and crossed our fingers. Our friends provided us with some great feedback, and with a few tweaks, we announced our first supper to the public. Now, about a year and a half later, we just hosted our Greatest Hits Supper and met our 200th new face.

How do you think BK Fork and Spoon fits into or is different from the supper club “craze” of the past few years?

Many guests have commented that they enjoy our laid-back atmosphere, in comparison to other supper clubs they’ve attended, which we attribute to the crowds we attract. We also want to make our dinners affordable, despite our often high food and drink costs, so we suggest a $40 donation. The vegetarian aspect also attracts many people (even the carnivores!). Most people find us through word of mouth – previous guests or local press.

Is there an overall philosophy or style of cooking that you subscribe to?

Rebecka and I aren’t vegetarians, but we both eat mostly plant-based diets. (That said, neither of us will hesitate to indulge in a cheeseburger when the craving strikes.) We're also both huge cheese fiends. I actually don’t like using the word vegetarian to describe our supper club because I tend to associate the word with a lot of fake meat and soy products, which is not the kind of food we prepare.

At Brooklyn Fork and Spoon, I want to share my love for vegetables, grains and legumes and to show people how a meal can be incredibly satisfying without leaving you in a “food coma” (something that many guests have commented on and which brings a big smile to my face). I prepare all of the appetizers and main courses and Rebecka creates all of the desserts, fresh-baked bread or focaccia. We have very different cooking styles, but the meals always seem to fuse together nicely.

What do you wish you knew before starting your supper club?

That cooking a family-style dinner for a large group of friends is quite different from plating each dish in a restaurant format. In the beginning, sometimes timing between courses was a bit off, but it's a great new skill that both of us have since learned.

I also wish I knew that hosting a singles supper would not be as easy as it sounds. The RSVP's came pouring in from the ladies, but the guys proved to be shy, or just uninterested in an evening of food, wine and single ladies (what gives, fellas?). In the end, we reeled in some dudes, and - while there seemed to be more business networking than romantic connections - the evening proved to be a really fun experience.

What has been the most interesting or unexpected aspect of running BK Fork and Spoon?

I would have to say the fact that we've had an overwhelmingly positive response to our dinners. We set out to do this for fun, but, before we knew it, we were being listed in Brooklyn Magazine's “Top 20 Things to Do in Brooklyn This Summer”.  We now sell out suppers in minutes, and we couldn't be more grateful.

Any anecdotes from dinners gone-wrong or almost-gone-wrong?

At one of our very first suppers, one guest arrived with a less than happy look on his face. We thought he was going to ruin the entire evening, but, by the end of the night, he became the life of the party and even started a little dance party. If there's one thing we've learned over the past year, it's to keep the wine flowing. After a glass or two, the quiet ones start to open up, great conversations ensue, and new friendships are formed.

Advice for those who would like to start a supper club?

You have to love cooking and more importantly, love cooking for other people. Rebecka and I keep going simply because of our love for it. We find inspiration in meeting new people and watching new relationships form at our dinner table over a meal that we have put our all into.

What's next?

Once the cooler days kick in, we'd love to look into having a few outdoor suppers. We've done a few themed suppers (vegan, gluten-free, breakfast for dinner) and we look forward to throwing in some new twists. We'd also love to start doing some cheese and wine pairings, or perhaps some classes. If anyone is interested in collaborating or offering up their outdoor space to us, don't be shy!

Any preferred shops/markets that you source from?

We're lucky to have a great market down the street from us with tons of local produce and quinoa pasta (which I always cook with), so I often pick up much of our food from there. When I'm on the hunt for something more unusual, I'll bike over to the Greenmarket in McCarrenPark. I was desperate for red scallions for our last supper and, sure enough, I found them there.

When you do eat out, what are some of your favorite local restaurants?

One of my favorite little spots is a place in Greenpoint called EAT. It's a very small space that serves the most delicious, fresh and simple seasonal dishes. Of all the places I’ve eaten, it reminds me most of the foods we prepare at Brooklyn Fork and Spoon. Another favorite in Greenpoint is Calyer. Their poached parsnips with smoky yogurt and savory granola is one of the most unique and incredible plates I've ever come across.

Mardi was also generous enough to share her recipe for my favorite dish that evening, a beet purée that had even the beet-haters swooning.

Red Beet & Ginger Purée

Ingredients

• 2 medium red beets
• 1 scallion, chopped
• 1 one-inch by two-inch piece of ginger, chopped
• 1/2 cup of vegetable broth
• 2 oz goat cheese
• 2 tsp olive oil
• Salt to taste
• Greek yogurt (to top the purée)

Instructions

1. Slice ends off of beets and wrap them individually in tinfoil.
2. Place on a baking sheet in the oven for 40 minutes at 400 degrees.
3. Remove the beets from the oven, peel off the skin and slice into small pieces. Let cool for a few minutes.
4. Add beets to food processor along with ginger, vegetable broth, olive oil and scallions. Blend until well pureed.
5. Add the goat cheese and salt. Blend again.
6. Pour mixture into bowls and top with a dollop of greek yogurt, a few extra scallions and a sprinkle of cracked pepper.
7. Serve warm. Enjoy!

behind the knives: personal chef, jenna helwig

If you’re like me, you read food blogs not only to discover new recipes or time-saving techniques, but also because (on some level) you fantasize about starting your own food business or going back to culinary school. While there are plenty of books on culinary careers that outline all of your options, there’s nothing quite like meeting the professionals and learning from their experience.

Like many self-employed chefs, Jenna Helwig wears multiple hats: personal chef, culinary instructor, recipe developer, freelance writer and TV consultant. We met at a cooking class in the Meredith Corporation test kitchen, where she expertly whipped a motley crew of amateur chefs into shape. When the chance arose to assist Jenna on-set, at a Parents Magazine video shoot, I learned first-hand about the dedication and creativity that contribute to her culinary success.

What were you doing before you became a chef, and when did you know you wanted to make the shift to cooking? I graduated from college with a degree in Radio/Television and went straight into that field, working at a few documentary production companies before settling in as head of development at a great company here in NYC. But after about 6 years, I realized that television wasn’t my passion; food was. Let me hasten to add that I could barely cook in my early 20s, but my excitement led me to read countless books about food, try new recipes, and take a few recreational cooking classes. Finally, I realized that without going to culinary school I would never have the deep knowledge base that I wanted. So I went, still a little unsure about where cooking would take me, but knowing that I would find my way.

Why did being a personal chef appeal to you over other culinary professions? By the time I went to culinary school I had a one year-old daughter and – to be honest – was used to making a healthy income to help support my family. For those two reasons working the garde-manger station at a restaurant wasn’t really an option for me. (I did do a four-month restaurant externship as part of culinary school, and I loved it. I learned so much and am very glad to have had that bit of restaurant experience.)

My job now is a big jigsaw puzzle and, for me, it’s an exciting combination. I love being on my feet some days and sitting in front of the computer others, or interacting with students one day and then having some quiet cooking time the next. I also really like being able to plan the shape of my days on my own terms.

What do you think is the greatest misconception people have about working as a personal chef? I think aspiring personal chefs have nightmares about having to deal with difficult, capricious clients. And, well, it has happened! But, for the most part, my past and current clients have been friendly, lovely, appreciative people.

Is there anything you wish you knew before going to culinary school? Given more time, I would have resigned myself to just how truly ugly those uniforms and commis caps were!

But seriously, there was one piece of advice I got from someone who had already been to culinary school that I appreciated. In culinary school, it is possible to… take the easy way out sometimes, to choose to prepare a simpler recipe when working in a group or rarely challenge yourself with different ingredients and techniques. But if you’re taking the time and spending the money to go to school, you should really just go all in - get your hands dirty and push yourself to try every possible recipe and technique, no matter how seemingly difficult. Like most of life, you get out of it what you put into it.

Advice for anyone considering going into your profession? It’s the same advice I would give anyone going into any profession, really… get to know as many people as you can and keep in touch with them from your chef-instructors, to clients, to fellow students. Nearly every job I’ve ever gotten – from cooking to writing to recipe development – has stemmed back to a contact (read: friend) I made somewhere along the line.

Do you have a signature recipe to wow a crowd that you're willing to share? I’ve found that at cocktail parties or other casual get-togethers people really love small sandwiches. One of my favorites is lamb-olive sliders.

Jenna's Lamb-Olive Sliders

Ingredients 

For the yogurt topping:

• ½ cup Greek yogurt
• 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
• ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
• 2 Tablespoons chopped mint

For the burgers:

• 1 lb. ground lamb
• ½ cup pitted Greek olives, roughly chopped
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• ½ teaspoon kosher salt
• freshly ground pepper to taste
• 10-12 brioche buns

Instructions

1. In a small bowl stir together the ingredients for the yogurt topping. Taste for seasoning, adding more salt if necessary. Refrigerate.
2. Using your hands, mix together the slider ingredients in a large bowl. Form into small burgers.
3. On a grill, grill pan, sauté pan, or under the broiler, cook the sliders until just cooked through. (You can keep the sliders warm in a 250° oven for up to 20 minutes.)
4. Spread each slider with a smear of the yogurt topping and serve on toasted brioche slider buns.