Lento Restaurant

A Great Time of Year

Anthony White — Wed, 30 May 2012 20:56:35 +0000

Summer looks like it is here to stay. No more freezes or frosts means things can start growing proper. The bad news is that last frost pretty much killed all the local peaches and cherries. Maybe there are some farms up near the lake that didn’t get hit as hard but I have yet to hear about them. It’s still too early to tell too, considering nothing of note has shown up at the public markets. Keep your finger crossed. But, asparagus is in full bloom and we’ve had plenty of it. Extremely tender stalks that we havent had to cut the ends off. Green garlic has been showing up and will get more regular as June starts. Chef Art even got the first local shell peas. They have yet to make the menu but I would suspect to see them on this weekend. Local soil grown spinach is out now too. This is a great time of year. It seems like every week more and more vegetation is popping up and we could not be any happier.

Pink Slime Makes An Exit

Anthony White — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 21:28:53 +0000

This is a great step for America. The fact that the public is finally demanding a higher quality of food means that we are taking our first steps in the right direction for food education, admiration, and pride. You have to learn to walk before you can run. I’m amazed that its taken this long for this to come out. This is what we feed our kids. I can’t think of any consenting adults that would consciously feed their children anything labeled “pink slime”. Where would that be in the grocery store? In aisle 7? Next to the finely packaged slarvage? I think that this could have all been avoided. We, as citizens, trust our elected officials and our government not to flood the food market with anything labeled slime. But who really can you trust? I know I trust my farmers who sell me, directly, their beef. Thier beef that they are proud of, that contains no “pink slime”. Farms like 7 Bridges, Aberdeen Hill, Old Home Farm, Gansz Farm, Finger Lakes Family, Angela Bedient, and a whole list of others. I remember the old adage that if you can’t say the ingriendients on the package then you shouldn’t eat what’s inside. Maybe if you can’t name the farm that the beef came from you just shouldn’t eat it.

Check out these videos about the slime:

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-pink-slime-20120322,0,1133733.story

http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/food/story/2012-03-22/pink-slime-supervalu-food-lion-safeway/53700356/1

Warmer Sundays

Anthony White — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 15:28:51 +0000

It just occurred to me that winter is slowly leaving town. Maybe it was the calendar or maybe it was yesterdays record breaking heat. Either way, warmer Sundays are on the way. This, to me, means two things; the grill is going to need a spring cleaning, and pasta and meatballs will no longer be my go to for Sunday dinner. Almost as far back as I remember, chilly Sundays meant pasta, sauce, meatballs, and red wine. My grandmother used to have us kids help her mix the meatballs. She used to say that you knew when they were at the right consistency when you chucked them at a wall and it stuck without completely flattening. I have know idea if that’s a good gauge, but it did provide us with some hilarious entertainment. She also used to toss a piece of spaghetti at the ceiling, and if it stuck it was ready to eat. So with meatballs on the wall and pasta on the ceiling, we sat down to Sunday dinner. In the summer months that food is a bit too heavy, its great to break out the grill or just eat some fresh vegetables and fruits for dinner with a glass of white wine. Warm summer nights almost beckon you away from heavy foods and into lighter fare. But when the weather is cold and there’s football on television, all I can think of is the smell of tomato sauce simmering all day on the stove, the way the bread smells when it comes fresh out of the oven, and you break off the end and dip it right in that sauce. There’s nothing like it. I guess while the weather is still a little chilly I better get some pasta and meatballs in. Or, at the very least, on the wall and ceiling.

Grilled Duck Heart Salad

Anthony White — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 15:53:35 +0000

We sure didn’t know how this dish would go over. But, for all we’ve been reading, non-traditional cuts and organs, are vastly becoming more normal in the States. Growing up, my father used to love when we would get a whole bird, whether from hunting or otherwise, so he could fry the heart in butter and eat it. I remember being a kid and thinking that my dear old dad was a certified whacko. Then, one Thanksgiving, he talked me into splitting the heart. I never looked back.

So, last Saturday night, Chef Art decided to skewer a few duck hearts on rosemary stems, grill, them, and put them over a spinach salad with a warm bacon vinaigrette. The salad sold out before 8pm. I’m pretty sure were going to do that again soon.

Pork Rib Roulade

Anthony White — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 15:59:34 +0000

Art made Pork Rib Roulade for this weekend. I want to take a second and clarify what this actually is. It’s very Italian to roll things. My grandmother used to make braciole with beef, pork, or chicken, about two or three times a week. They love to roll things up. (think cannelloni, manacotti, or even rigatoni) This Roulade is no different. Since Art butchers his own meats, he cut the ribs, boneless, into strips saving some of the belly on each strip. Belly on the pig is simply bacon. Then, he rolled up the rib and belly meat, seared it, braised it, and then we serve it. Imagine getting ribs and bacon with each bite. It may be, one of the greatest dishes we’ve ever done. It’s being served with horseradish whipped turnips and a slightly spicy souther style braised green cabbage. If you like ribs and bacon, this is your dish.

Art Teams Up with Fairport High

Anthony White — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 22:27:39 +0000

Recently, Chef Art, went out to Fairport High School to get involved with Nutrition Month. Art, along with teacher Kelly Lang and student Chris Cullen, are attempting to educate students, teachers, and parents about local meats and produce. Art and Chris are going to create meals using local foods for the students to eat. The staff at Lento is extremely excited for Art and also proud.

Eating local isn’t just healthier, its better for our community. Shopping at the markets, meeting our farmers and their families means so much to all of us. I feel better connected to Rochester because of it and it gives me a strong sense of pride when my friends come from out of town and eat at my house or at Lento. Its nice to see Art being commended for his tireless work, running a business and educating.

So I’ll speak for everyone and say thanks, Arthur. I know I’m not alone.

Read the full article from Fairport-East Rochester Post about Art.

Coming Up This Weekend at Lento!

Anthony White — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 16:07:01 +0000

The rotisserie smoker will be up and running again this weekend. We did some beef briskets and they came out awesome. Now we’re going to do a ham and a pork shoulder. A real showstopper, for sure. A cooking method that has been around for a long time, but just never gets old. And it’s not too common to see anymore, unless you’re at a barbeque joint. But rotisserie and smoke go beyond just barbeque. Smoke can be an exotic seasoning when combined with the slow cooking of the rotisserie and the meats natural flavors and juices.

The beef brisket we smoked came from Seven Bridges Farm.

The ham and shoulder came from a whole pig raised specifically for us by Gansz Farm.

Also, homemade ice cream cake! Yes, that’s right. Just like carvel, only better. With Rocky road cookies, vanilla ice cream, and chocolate sauce. Everything made from scratch, of course. We made one last weekend and it sold it half a night. We’ll have one ready by Friday.

Introducing Our Rotisserie Smoker

Anthony White — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 16:05:32 +0000

We’ve been so excited about this for so long. I think it was as far back as last June when Art came up with the idea of making the kitchen bigger and to add the rotisserie smoker in the grotto next to our newly renovated kitchen. We closed for a week last July during construction. Then, Matt Sherwood, our resident builder and fixer of all restaurant related things, built this thing from scratch with no blueprints. It has enough torque to roast an entire pig! I guess we’ll start small first.

We fired it up on Saturday just to see how it worked. The whole area had a faint smell of campfire. It smelled like summer. We’re going to fire it up again this Wednesday. Come in and check this thing out!

Lucky to be a Line Cook

Anthony White — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 13:08:33 +0000

Memories, health, comfort, wealth, pride, encouragment, and love are all words I hold synonomous with food. Food is more than eating. Food is more than stopping hunger. Food is a gathering, a centerpiece, life. Sometimes its my whole day, other times its the whole week.

Even beyond that, sometimes it’s just plain fun. We have a great time in the kitchen, whether it’s prepping, baking, or right in the middle of service. There’s been so many times that I’ve actually laughed until I cried at work! I can’t imagine too many people being able to say the same about their jobs.

Food brings people together, whether it be my parents coming next week for the Super Bowl (I’m making venison chili), or my coworkers in the Lento kitchen. If it had not been for cooking at Lento, I wouldn’t have known these guys. And since, sometimes, they make me laugh so I hard I snort, I guess I’m pretty lucky I’m a cook.

Sunday Steak Day

Anthony White — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 01:13:49 +0000

Before I became the sous chef at Lento I worked for a popular steakhouse. It was like nothing to grill 200 plus steaks on a very busy night. I liked that kind of work, just not as much as I enjoy working at Lento. But every once in a while it’s nice to get back to that kind of cooking. We had a wedding Sunday at Lento and they had pre-ordered their meals. 33 steaks at once. I was in my glory. So much so that I snapped a picture. So here’s to line cooks and grill enthusiasts alike!

p.s. Thanks to all who came back to check the score and have a few laughs. We had a blast!