Kidding. In all honesty, they are dedicated, hard-working, talented and unique people. I’m proud to introduce you to them and even prouder to have them as part of my team.

Our first interview is with Sous Chef Paula Smagacz. Paula joined Habitat in December 2010. Previously, she held positions at the Four Seasons Hotel in St. Louis and Las Vegas, the Bellagio Resort in Las Vegas and numerous other kitchens across the country.

What is your favorite dish to make? What is your favorite food to have someone else make for you?
I actually don’t have a favorite dish to make. I’m happy with whatever someone would cook for me. I just appreciate that they took the time to cook for me. Being a chef, a lot of people don’t want to cook for you.  But my dad makes venison for me when I visit and my Aunt Lucy makes the best sauerkraut and Kluski noodle dish. 

What do you love most about your job?
My fellow colleagues, getting to use quality ingredients every day, our beautiful kitchen, the guest interaction. Overall, Habitat is just a great place to work.

When did you know you wanted to be a chef?
At my high school career day during the chef presentation. And I have always cooked with my family.

What brought you to Pittsburgh?
The opportunity to join Fairmont Pittsburgh and be more involved with food. Sorry - not the Steelers.

What do you cook at home that you never cook at the restaurant?
I am a fairly simple cook at home. Usually I cook on my days off and stock up for the work week. I make simple things like lasagna and some old Polish dishes I grew up with.

If I can invest in only five things for my kitchen, what should I buy as a home cook?
A good knife, Vitamix blender, good set of pans, cutting board and Kitchen Aid (with attachments).

What’s your favorite newly discovered ingredient?
Honey tangerines. They’re like eating candy. We just started getting them in Habitat.

Best piece of advice you would give a home enthusiast?
Taste everything, season well, and don’t be afraid to try new recipes.

Hello again, blog world. I’m back. And I’ve got big news. On Sunday, January 29 I will be making my debut on the Heinz Hall stage with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. Why (in the hell) would I be on stage with the Symphony, you ask? I’ve been coerced asked to participate in a “Freaky Friday”-ish fundraising event for the Symphony. 

Here’s how it works:

On Monday, January 23, THE Marvin Hamlisch (Principal Pops Conductor at the PSO) comes to Habitat and trades places with yours truly in the kitchen. Diners will be treated to a five-course dinner inspired by the upcoming PNC Pops performance “Marvin and the Movies.”  In addition to cooking and serving and of course being generally entertaining, Marvin will play a few numbers on the piano. 10% of proceeds from the evening go to the Symphony.

Then, on Sunday, January 29, I trade places with Mr. Hamlisch and guest conduct the Symphony. I’ll basically be doing my best not to screw up or make a fool of myself. Should be fun. And don’t worry – I’m only doing 1 song. Marvin will take over from there.

Confession: I was a bit reluctant to do this. Believe it or not, I don’t like big crowds and I don’t like speaking in front of groups. Put me in the kitchen, behind the scenes and I’m a happy guy. But this was too great of an opportunity to pass up.  

So, I encourage you to make a dinner reservation for Monday, buy a ticket and come support me on Sunday and most of all, please be kind.

Call 412-773-8848 for dinner reservations. $125/person (includes wine pairings).

Call 412-392-4900 for tickets to “Marvin and the Movies.”

It turns out, however, that I was mistakenly given the wrong set of questions the first time around. So I gladly answered another set. And rather than waste the first set, I decided to turn them into a quick Q&A blog post. (Thanks to Andrea at Savor Pittsburgh for the Q’s!)

On which cooking reality show would you most like to participate and why?
Iron Chef – the Japanese version. I don’t really watch reality cooking shows, but that’s one I do enjoy (remember the Iron Chef Habitat competition?). I’m also not sure that I would do well on this show. It looks really tough.

What is the worst mistake you’ve ever made on the job (or while cooking?)
I make mistakes all of the time, but none are really that memorable…maybe ask my staff? I’m sure they’d be happy to point some out. Ha!

What is the most unreasonable (or strangest) request you have had from a person dining in your restaurant?
I’ve gotten this request (or something similar) many times and it always confuses me. Someone will order a very healthy meal (i.e., poached egg whites with grilled tomatoes) or order their meal with “no butter” and then ask for extra hollandaise sauce. What is that about?!

What flavor or ethnic culture has the most influence over your cooking style?
Asian. I like the lightness and subtlety of it.

What cookbook is a “must have” for the average person who is not a professional chef?
Joy of Cooking by Irma Rombauer. I also recommend White Heat by Marco Pierre White and On Food and Cooking by Harold McGee

To see my answers to the other questions, you’ll have to come to Savor Pittsburgh on September 1!

Prepping hundreds of house-smoked salmon roulade for the Best Restaurants Party

Pittsburgh Magazine's Best Restaurants Party at Heinz Field

Then there are the big fundraiser and social events centered around food like Pittsburgh Magazine’s Best Restaurants Party (which Habitat recently attended), Cosmpolitan Pittsburgh (Habitat and Andys will be there), Summer Safari at the Zoo (Habitat will be there), Savor Pittsburgh (Habitat will be there) and many, many others that I either attend on my own or with the restaurant and hotel.  And, of course, there is the always-growing list of farmers’ markets (my favorite is Farmers at Firehouse in the Strip) throughout the city.

Yes, there are plenty of events to keep you busy and full in Pittsburgh throughout the summer. And I’m adding one more to the list! On Thursday, July 14th I will be teaching a cooking class at CRATE Cooking School. I taught a class at CRATE in the fall about root vegetables and really enjoyed it. See?

Edu-cooking at CRATE

This summer’s class is all about tomatoes. The tomato is one my favorite and most versatile summer ingredients (remember my gazpacho recipe last summer?). I’ll be featuring local ingredients and sharing simple recipes and techniques for tomato sauce, panzanella, tomato sorbet and many other refreshing summer dishes. And I’d love to see you there. Learn more about CRATE and sign up for my class here!

What’s your favorite Pittsburgh food festival? I’m always on the hunt for the best ones.

Pâté en Croûte

This delicious little guy is a pâté en croûte made with pork from one of Maggie Henry’s pigs. We had such fun making and then photo shoot-ing and then eating this dish that I had to share.

Pâté en Croûte Part Deux

Pâté en Croûte - The Prequel

And for those of you who want to get in on the fun, we offer a pork and pistachio terrine on our new spring dinner menu. Served with cornichon, whole grain mustard and country bread…it’s a delicious way to start any meal.

It’s hard to believe that Easter is already upon us. Spring is moving so quickly, but I’m doing my best to enjoy all the beautiful food, foliage and weather (still waiting on that one) this season brings. And I can’t think of anything more symbolic of spring than the egg.

As a chef, I especially appreciate the simplistic beauty, incredible health benefits and endless culinary possibilities packed in these delicate shells. But even I am guilty of taking the egg for granted. Humans have been eating eggs for literally thousands of years, so it’s easy to see why they’re often overlooked.

Thanks to Maggie Henry (aka the Farmer’s Wife) at Henry Family Farms, I’ve taken a renewed interest in eggs recently. She introduced me to some wonderful eggs from local heritage chickens. These eggs can be summed up in one word…superb! Habitat is now offering them to our guests in addition to the commercially raised free range eggs we have on the menus.  We put a bowl on the pass each morning so guests can see them and even select their own egg. 

They’re all chicken eggs, but you can see they come in different shapes, sizes and colors. These eggs are also significantly more expensive than other eggs because of the way the chickens are raised and the time needed to properly raise them.

In order to be considered a “heritage chicken,”  a chicken must meet very specific criteria set by the American Poultry Association. To simplify, a heritage chicken is slow growing (giving the chicken time to develop naturally),  naturally mated (without artificial human intervention) and given a long productive outdoor life (aka is pastured).

I encourage everyone to try these eggs. The difference between these and eggs from the supermarket is incredible. You really can taste and see a difference.

And speaking of eggs, I recently came across this very interesting egg article in the Guardian and had to share it.

Happy Easter everyone! (Please note that I refrained from making any corny egg  jokes throughout this entire post. You’re welcome.)

I also have to mention that Habitat will host Easter Brunch on Sunday, with seatings at 11:00 am and 1:30 pm. If you haven’t made your reservation yet, I’d encourage you to do so quickly. See you there!

After four rounds of competition and numerous dishes, the winner has been selected! Congratulations to Jason Sherrill, winner of the Iron Chef Habitat competition. Congratulations also to Michael Rapuk (aka “Puck”), our runner-up.

It was an intense final round. In addition to regular competition nerves, the finalists also had to deal with 2 photographers snapping photos of them in the kitchens. Whirl Magazine and the Post-Gazette were both there capturing the entire competition, from prep to final judging (You can read all about the competition in the Post-Gazette and watch a fun photo slideshow!).

Contestants had to make a dish using tuna as the main ingredient, as well as several items from a secret ingredient box, including asparagus, peas, ramps and other spring ingredients. Our panel of judges included myself; Len Czarnecki, Fairmont Pittsburgh GM; Victoria Bradley, Executive Editor of Whirl Magazine and Edible Allegheny; and Gary Saulson, Director of Corporate Real Estate, PNC. Both Jason and Puck created delicious dishes and impressed the judges with their poise and creativity. We had a tough time selecting a winner but in the end chose Jason’s poached tuna with a miso barbeque sauce. You can find a version Jason’s winning tuna dish on the new spring menu.  

I’d like to thank all of the cooks who participated in the competition. They  took what was just an idea and really ran with it. Their creativity and enthusiasm impressed me and went above my expectations for the competition. In fact, the competition was such a success that I’d like to do it again in the fall for the winter menus. I’ll be sure to keep you posted on that.

Congratulations again to Jason and of course, Allez Cuisine!

Puck and Jao competed first with pomegranate as the secret ingredient. Puck made a risotto dish with fish and pomegranate. Jao made crab tacos with a mango and pomegranate salsa. In the end, Jao’s tacos prevailed, and she took the winning spot. The biggest concern the judges had with Puck’s dish was that the risotto was not cooked properly.

You’ll notice, however, that Puck is moving on to the finals. After winning, Jao decided that she’ll be going home to Thailand for her sister’s wedding, and that just so happens to fall over the date of the final competition. Can you believe she’d choose that over a chance to win Habitat Iron Chef? Me neither. But alas, Puck has earned a well deserved spot in the finals.

(I apologize for the lack of photos from Puck and Jao’s competition. I didn’t think of it until we’d already eaten their dishes.)

Next, Jason and Gotji were challenged to create a dish using stiped bass.

Gotji and Jason prepare for judging

Gotji served his striped bass with cheesy rice, red pepper cream and a steamed cucumber dome. 

Striped bass with rice, red pepper cream and a cucumber dome

Jason’s stiped bass was served with crispy pork belly, oyster mushrooms, sauteed English peas and an arugula, tangerine and red onion salad. Jason’s dish was a bit more cohesive and was named the winner by our judges, earning Jason a spot in the finals.

Stiped bass with crispy pork belly, oyster mushrooms and English peas

The final competition will take place Wednesday, March 9 at 3pm. The finalists will create dishes from a “mystery basket” of ingredients created by our sous chefs and will be judged by our panel of suprise judges. We’ll keep everyone posted on the results and be sure to take lots of photos.

Allez cuisine!

Here are the standings after week 1:

(I can’t tell you how long it took me to create this damned chart in Word.)

Stay tuned for next week’s competition. Allez cuisine!

There is a friendly competition going on in the Habitat kitchen. If you hadn’t guessed from the photo above, it’s based on the Japanese cooking show Iron Chef (note: I didn’t say Iron Chef America. Big difference.).

Really, the competition is just a fun way to stimulate creativity among our cooks and get them excited about, well, cooking. We have a lot of young talent in the kitchen and, in fact, are hosting several interns from Thailand over the next several months. The competition gives these young cooks an opportunity to express themselves creatively in the kitchen – something our industry doesn’t often allow them to do.  

Much like the show, we’ll announce a secret ingredient each week and the participants must create a dish based on that secret ingredient. We’ll judge each dish, pick the winner from each competing pair and widdle our way down from 8 contestants to 1 winner. The winner will be selected by a panel of 3 judges (the final round brings in some surprise judges!) and gets to put his/her winning dish on the new spring menu. Plus, he/she will receive dinner for 2 in Habitat, an overnight stay at Fairmont Pittsburgh and a suprise prize (oooh!).

Stay tuned for weekly updates from the Iron Chef Habitat competition. Allez cuisine!