Chefs Choice

Part Two- Matt

Back in the Nebula days 94^th street hosted 3 chefs; Bobo, Sweet P and myself. I had just started out working in the kitchen at Liquid Assets/Nebula. Bobo (Bob) was the head chef and was prepping for New Years Eve dinner. He was making a chicken demi-glace and this wasn’t any ordinary chicken demi. He had spent hours upon hours working on this wonderfully rich, velvety demi. He first roasted the bones, estimated to weigh around 100 pounds, the stock he made over night was tasty enough, but he wasn’t satisfied. Then Bobo cleaned off the bones after straining the stock and made another batch of stock the next night. The third day he combined the two and reduced it down to four quarts of the most intensely chicken flavor demi anyone had ever tasted.

On the fourth day I was opening the kitchen and starting to prep our Carolina Pork BBQ. I had all my veggies cut, pork roasted and I was ready to braise. It occurred to me to add some pork stock from a previous batch to increase the flavor of the pork. I found four quarts of a very tasty stock and added it to my pork.  Later that day Bobo come into work. He was excited for all of us to try his demi. He looked all over our walk in cooler and could not find it. I asked him where he last put the demi and he said in a four quart container. Then it hit me, I had used his demi to braise my pork! Once I confessed, Bobo was not just upset with me, he wouldn’t talk to me for over a day.

If you know me, then you know that it wasn’t my fault, it was Bobo’s because he didn’t label the demi properly.