Bio:

Scot Hill was born in Talladega, Alabama. His southern roots run deep. Just like the speedway where he was born Scot has been on a culinary fast track to learn all that he can about food. His career has taken him from Alabama to California, Florida to Oregon and once upon a time, to St. Croix.

Scot first visited St. Croix near the end of 2000. That’s where he met Smokey and Kelly Odom. By July 2001 he was the executive chef of Tutto Bene where Scot made his residence for 4 years. After a short culinary hiatus, working as a wine and radio salesman , Scot accepted the executive chef position at the Galleon.

During his Crucian career Scot Hill worked with such wine makers as Dennis Cakebread, Iron Chef Contender Wayne Nish and the most knowledgeable wine rep in the V.I., Byron Gregory.

Presently, Scot Hill is a chef instructor for Publix Aprons Cooking School. At Aprons he has had the opportunity of working with culinary greats like; Martin Yan, Roland Messnier, Paula Dean, and Iron Chef Michael Simon (he's cool as shit btw). Scot also is chef/partner of Spoontini Café and writes a food blog and shoots a Webisode as Chef Vigilante (a persona created on stx while working for the mongoose) yep! That’s it!... for now!

Woww...its been too long since the last post. This post is just to inform you that the video version of this blog has been shot. We are still editing and should post our pilot episode tomorrow. Wish us luck and keep checking in....this is only the beginning. No flavor left behind.

Recipe

For success? For dinner? For disaster? For love? Is a recipe a map of sorts. Is a recipe a manifesto? How about a list of commands that must be followed OR ELSE? Maybe a recipe is more like a modus operandi, a plan of attack - so to speak. When I approach a new recipe i generally break it down into 3 sections. By doing this I tend to understand the objective of the "plan" much more clearly. Like this....

1. Read and understand the title of the recipe. For example, if the title is " braised leg of lamb with pomegranate jus and orange pesto" I first want to make sure that I am able to define all of the components of the title. Do I understand braising. Do I know what a jus is, etc.. Understanding the title of the recipe is the first step to a confident finish. Once i have the general understanding of the title then i will read the entire recipe before i begin.


2. Mis en place. Do I have everything that I need to execute the recipe from start to finish? My pantry is stocked but I may not have oranges or pine nuts for the pesto. How frustrating to start a task and not have what you need. You can't build a wooden house when the plans say that you need nails and there's none in the tool box. Save yourself the trouble. Read. Then gather your mis en place (things in place) or start your shopping list.
3. Light a candle. Once all the Mis En Place is all taken care of and you have read and understood the recipe, light a candle, sit down, have a glass of wine and plan your approach. I always light a candle before I start cooking. The tiny flickering flame somehow reminds me to slow down and respect the necessary ritual of cooking. A warm beacon in the heart of my kitchen that says "relax and do this your way". We must remember that though eating is crucial to our survival we should be able to express ourselves within this most basic of human needs. A recipe should only point the way, we must create our own path to the finish.

What have we learned? A recipe is a plan. Depending upon how creative you feel maybe a recipe is just a rough draft. Whatever your approach just remember that the more we cook off the page the sooner we will be picking up the pencil and creating our own modus operandi coquere.....no flavor left behind!

Left-overs..no flavor left behind

"Oh, we don't do left-overs, if there is anything extra we just throw it out". Wow! Many people have shared this with me when I ask " what ya gonna do with that tomorrow?". So many people consider that extras left after a meal to be "left over", not good enough to keep. The way I see it, nothing is "left over" unless it is thrown away. In my house anything that is extra from the meal is considered an ingredient for the following meal. Turkey and cranberry sauce are not another turkey dinner. They are the ingredients for a turkey quesadilla with cranberry salsa. Extras are not left-overs when I can deconstruct a meal into its base components and see the food for what it is. Parts of a meal and not just the meal it was initially a part of. Look beyond the obvious. When your at the table look at what you're eating and consider all of the flavors and how they can be reconstructed into other meals. New combinations and new dishes may become family favorites. Who doesn't love meatloaf sandwiches or roast beef and mashed potato burritos?
Be imaginative. The food we eat gave it's life to nourish our bodies. It will nourish our soul only if we respect it and do not waste. No flavor left behind

Coffee

Since its discovery by excited dancing goats somewhere in Ethiopia, coffee has captured our attention and even commanded us to praise it in morning rituals around the world. Grinding. Scooping. Plunging. Pressing. Dripping. Percolating. Centrifuging. No matter what our methodology, to create the perfect eye-opening cup of deliciously brewed coffee is the common objective of this ritual. For some of us just waking up early enough to grind the coffee is too much of a daunting task. For these people an automatic grinder set to grind (and even brew) before they wake is optimum. Some of us, though I shudder to think, buy our coffee pre-ground. For us true lovers of this energizing seed from the "coffea cherry", the previous methods are not acceptable. Instead we will go to any length necessary to brew a respectable cup. Consider the Ethiopian method/ritual for the perfect cup. Brewing coffee in some villages is as much a social practice as anything else. What would we do if when we really wanted a cup of coffee we had to gather with our closest friends, sit and talk for about an hour waiting for that perfectly brewed hot elixir. We would go nuts. First, the cherries are hulled to extract the seed. Then the seeds/beans are roasted over an open fire in something resembling a shallow cast iron skillet. Next, the beans still hot are ground and and finally placed into hot water to steep. The hot coffee is then strained (or not) into a cup. Now, about 55 minutes later you may enjoy your coffee. 55 long agonizing minutes. We could have been Tweeting, Blogging, Texting, Facebooking or even better, sleeping an extra hour. Who wants to slow down enough to catch-up with the members of our community? Whats so damn important about sitting and talking to your friends face to face? Maybe...just maybe, before we sip to speed up we need to slow down to appreciate our small world.....gotta run!

Garlic

Why do we love this stinking rose so? Allium Sativum has been used through out history for both culinary and medicinal purposes. It has been used to treat everything from acne to the plague. Used as insect repellent and vampire repellent. Garlic is a welcome addition to almost any soup and almost everything I cook. Garlic is both exploited and respected. Exploited when we use it for absolutelty everything without ever considering the beauty of this plant. We chop it grind it peel it roast it and sometimes we even waste it. Our love for garlic at time leads to obsession. Using it like salt in every dish we make. What if Miles Davis played the same note in abundance in every composition. Davis once said that the essense of jazz is knowing when not to play. The spaces between the notes. Garlic is respected when we understand how to reserve its beautiful potentcy. Waiting for the right time, the right amount or maybe just this time ...none at all.

Soup

Who made the soup? Any chef that sets out to make a soup must consider 3 very important points.

1. Ingredients and quality. After all is a soup much more than the sum of its ingredients. At time yes. Consider the origen of the ingredients. The sea, field, orchard, roof top, the farm. The source of the ingredients reaches much deeper that the corner market or mega grocery store. In a simple soup we can imagine tracing it back to its roots so to speak, we may even imagine what the fisherman was like or was it raining when the tomatoes were plucked from the vine. The ingredients and the freshness of those ingredients are paramount to the goodness of what is ladled into the bowl.
2. Timing. The best soups are those that are not rushed. In fact, it is my belief that the soup is always best served the day after it was made. A soup is slowly prepared with care and consciousness. The chef must be aware of the life that is or was in all of the ingredients. This is very important for the transfer of the chi of the soup into the eater. Time must be taken when sauteing or sweating the aromatics. timing and patience translates to love and respect for the food we consume.
3. Essence. A great soup is more than the sum of its ingredients. A great soup is the essence of culinary experience. A bowl of soup is eaten not with the mouth but with your heart. a soup is not tasted on your tongue but on the pallet of your soul.

It is these 3 key points that should not just be considered but lived by when making a soup......in all aspects of life.