Chef James Landis talked to Fat City yesterday about the subtle changes at Blue Grotto since he started there last February. Today, he shares his love for his favorite food: sweetbreads. And tomorrow he'll explain the key to making a proper pizza.
What are your culinary inspirations? When I'm thinking of new
menu items, I first start with the season. What's fresh, what's
traditionally in season. I don't want to serve tomatoes in the dead of
winter unless they're freshly canned ripe ones. I have to -- it's a pizza
joint. I don't want to mask the ingredients. I just want fresh, simple
food with a little twist.
What's your favorite ingredient? Sweetbreads. I love them. They're adaptable, whether I'm stuffing something or frying them into fritters. I can't get enough of them. Unfortunately, they're a hard sell. It goes to trust. If a customer trusts me, then it's good as long as they're not a texture person.
What's your best recent food find? La Tur cheese. It's an incredible cheese we just brought in. It's got a straightforward bite of sheep's-milk cheese, the earthiness of goat cheese and the substance of cow's milk. You throw all those together, and it's really interesting.
What's your favorite local ingredient? Heirloom tomatoes, when they're in season. Missouri peaches, when they're in season. The cheeses that they're doing at Green Dirt Farms. The dirt lover's is great, but I like them all.
What's one food you hate? I don't think there's one anything out there that I hate.
What's one food you love? Lamb. Any way I can get it -- loin chops, racks, legs. When it's done right, it's so adaptable to so many cuisines. I love a nice North African stew with the right amount of spice and dried fruit. There's just so much going on, and it all works. Everything melts into this beautiful dish.
What's your guilty pleasure? A good scoop of chocolate ice cream. I'm not a complex person. I just don't get it that often. Anything from Christopher Elbow.
What's never in your kitchen? Food. [Laughs.] Literally, food. I'll have breakfast items, but regular food is never there because when it's there, it spoils.
What's always in your kitchen? The number one is beer. I always have eggs and bacon. The Smokestack Series from Boulevard is in my fridge. I'm a hometown guy. I always drink the hometown beer.
Besides your restaurant or home, where are you eating? Bluestem happy hour-- the steak tartare definitely. Le Fou Frog. I like to see Mano every now and again. And I love their sweetbreads and mussels. They have good fries, too. I'd never had sweetbreads before I went there, but I learned how to cook them right, and I'll never go back to chicken nuggets again. When done properly, they come out crispy. There's nothing worse than soggy breading. I like Happy Gillis. The steak sandwich and meatloaf, when it's on, are really good. The Pho from Vietnam Cafe. That and a salty lemonade will make you happy. It's like Vietnamese Gatorade. And when it's late-night, I'll end up at Harry's and order pizza at the bar. It's always way too hot, and I always burn my mouth. I know it, but I still burn my mouth every time.
Steal one recipe in town? I have a Mano-ism for you. You should never follow the recipe if you're looking at a cookbook. You get the idea of a dish and then make it your own. The idea of stealing a dish never really enters my mind. So there's no recipe that I would steal.
One book that every chef should read? Escoffier. Start with that and when you want to get into the layers, get Le Repertoire de La Cuisine. It's Escoffier, without the recipes. It gives you the starting point, and you're not breaking your back carrying it around with you. It fits in your back pocket. It's just a good base.
You didn't go to culinary school. Do you have any advice for someone considering whether to go? I didn't. I just had chefs yell at me. But I was lucky with job opportunities. I had chefs that allowed me to fail. I'm happy I don't have to pay back the loans. But I'd ask someone what's their motivation? If they want to go work for someone like [chef] Thomas Keller, it'll be a lot easier to get your foot in the door with a culinary degree.
You can learn what this job entails as an apprentice. But you have to be hungry for it. I don't want somebody who complains about a 40-hour workweek and a show at the RecordBar that they want to go see. I missed all those bands because I was working. You have to be willing to put in the time.
What are the rules of your kitchen? Just do your job. I think they understand what their jobs are. It has to be quiet. It would be a little louder if it wasn't open. That's another reason why I don't need to have a cooking show because I dance every night.
Who's got the best barbecue in town, and what are you ordering? I'm ordering the smoked pork from Arthur Bryant's with extra bread and the traditional sauce, vinegar and paprika. And their beans. When you walk into their store at 19th and Brooklyn, you can just smell the smoke dripping from the walls and the oven that has been there since the 1930s. And then you take all that extra Wonder bread and soak it up. If it's not white bread, it doesn't work.
If you weren't a chef, you'd be ... ? I'd probably be lying in a ditch somewhere. I don't even know what I would do. I've never really thought about it. This fits my personality. It allows me to express my creative side. and I actually have to talk to people. Maybe I could be a writer. Then I could be a recluse.
A chef is only as good as ... his staff. I can't do it alone.
[Image via Facebook: Blue Grotto]
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