Uchi at Home

We had a fantastic time catering an Uchi at Home gig this past wednesday night at the home of the Hicks’ here in central Austin. Paul,Philip, Ben and i knocked out a 9 course tasting over the course of the night and had a great time working in might be the best home kitchen i’ve ever cooked in. ( The huge island had stainless caps on either end, a convection oven and warming/freezer drawers, and a Meile coffee maker!) Good times.

Highlights of the meal where:

honeydew, lobster and thai chili.

dayboat scallop,anaheim pepper gel and lemongrass

big eye tuna,compressed watermelon and nuoc mam.

roast pork belly,fried apple puree and cauliflower kimchee.

valrohna chocolate,tobacco cream and scotch

me and my partners

Uchiko moving along now, faster than ever. The floor plumbing lines are done and concrete floor is poured. Fire proofing sprayed this week and walls start to go up as soon as the week to follow. From here we’ll see the whole interior build go quite quickly and needless to say i cannot wait!

We’ve been working so hard and diligently over the last year putting all of the pieces in place to execute this move to it’s upmost potential. Hiring new and talented people. Cross training staff on new stations and responsibilities. An entire  focus for our staff and our family of customers with an eventual goal of having the 2 best restaurants in town: Uchi and Uchiko!

How do you attempt to recreate something as majical as Uchi and execute just as seamlessly?

Answers to that question soon to come on future posts.

fyi, picture is of me, my partner/operator in Uchi and Uchiko:Daryl Kunik, and our newest added investor/owner Nav Sooch. Nav and i have been talking for quite a while on this new Uchi space and i’m happy and proud to call him my partner. Both guy’s are seriously talented people that bring a wealth of knowledge,talent and experience to an already proven restaurant concept. Daryl and i started/ founded Uchi from the beginning in 2003 and i wouldn’t be where i am today without him. The future looks bright indeed.

fennel.

daily preshift tasting, 420pm

wetstone.

“God is in the details”, as they say. Daily preparation at Uchi is organized chaos. I always tell people that aren’t  in the restaurant business,” Imagine if you had to get ready for a party at your house and you knew at least 250 people were going to come, and you had to feed everyone one of them whatever they wanted…then think about having to do that EVERY DAY.”

It’s challenging to say the least, but those of us that take up that quest for daily perfection in restaurants happily take it on our shoulders to do the best we can with it on each and every new hurdle we face in bringing what we try to make into the most fantastic dining experience that one person has ever had. It’s addictive.  Hospitality is a self fulfilling act at some point, and once you’ve been in “weeds” and feel the rush of a dinner service at full on balls to the wall lunacy….nothing else compares. Organized chaos? No, it’s more like an orchestra of people…all in motion and in tune with each other…..greeting,serving and cooking their asses off as best they know how…all the while with a smile on their face and helping hand to offer the person next to them who’s also caught in the rapids of the raging river when it all comes down upon a staff trying to bridle the storm/ecstacy of the ultimate dinner service rush. Dodge,weave and breathe. Execute.

None of this would be possible without one key element: prep. Everything prepped is important. The space. The food. The mis. The staff. Knives sharpened. Ovens and oil at temp. Clean towels. Warm rice. Cold fish. Music at the perfect volume. Lighting just right. Everything in it’s right place…..

A restaurant that “spins” as i call it, and is busy every night, is something incredibly special. I’m very fortunate to be part of one. I call it “Uchi”.

(man that was fun to write! too much coffee during service leads to blog rants i guess….i promise to keep them to a minimum in the future, but these pictures are just so bueno.)

More posts and pics coming soon!

maru sara

Paul Qui, chef de cuisine

Inching ever closer on finalizing our book deal, prep and testing of recipes is in full swing. Good timing too as we’re also finishing up on the Uchiko menu and taking some photos of dishes for training materials over the next few weeks.

The challenges of piecing a book together: finding the talent to make it happen with the vision that you see just. In this case, i think we’ve found someone. Jen Hellow is on the scene for us now and taking all of these fantastic new photos of Uchi’s daily prep over the last few weeks.

Look forward to more shots of her’s to come and especially lots more once we start shooting some dishes as i’ve said.

I’m proud to have her give us the perspective we didn’t know we had. Kudos,Jen.

Also, meeting weds with Jessica Dupuy in hopes she will take on the writing duties and help me discover how to edit all the information we have into something concise enough for people to want to read and purchase. From what i’ve read the she’s done in the past: outstanding.

And the blog continues……