Christopher Cina, the Executive Chef at HideAway Steakhouse in Westminister, Colorado can always be counted on to make something that is not only delicious, but absolutely beautiful to look at as well (it doesn’t hurt that he’s also a great food photographer). Much of his menu is gluten-free and while he doesn’t advertise that fact, he really understands his customers with special needs (look for a guest post from him in the near future on this topic).
Christopher, being a chef and all can make things look good with his eyes closed, but with this recipe, so can you.
Photo by Christopher Cina
– – –
“I’ve always prided myself on the fact that I rarely cook with butter and/or cream. When I started in this business, it was cream sauce this, butter sauce that, and while there are a myriad of things that you can do with each in regards to making sauces, none were ever exciting to me. They were rich, fatty and lacked the brightness that was much more appealing to my palate.
At my first job as a professional cook, the sauté station consisted of several proteins, several flavorings and gallons upon gallons of cream and butter, each one made a la minute. Within an hour of service, my palate was exhausted and useless by the insane amounts of cream sauce, finished with butter. I was unable to taste the difference between a tarragon-mustard cream and a shit sandwich.
That being said, there are still places I will use a butter or cream sauce, although I prefer to keep them lighter. For example, I do a mustard cream sauce as an option for the steaks at my restaurant. The sauce is, in actuality, a bordelaise finished with Dijon and just enough cream to lighten it a shade…”
