July 22, 2010 — Today’s Pacific Busi­ness News story by Linda Chiem “really got it right about my busi­ness,” com­ments Chef Mavro.  My team’s ded­i­ca­tion to giv­ing each guest an “expe­ri­ence,” being con­sis­tent, buy­ing the best qual­ity from local sources no mat­ter the price, and start­ing fresh each day.
The story notes: “Mavrotha­las­si­tis buys his meat, fish, pro­duce and veg­eta­bles fresh daily from Hawaii ven­dors. His only freezer is a small one for ice cream. He goes to great lengths to give guests an expe­ri­ence, such as in the case of the mac­arons, “free­bies” that come with each meal along with an amuse bouche and a pre-dessert.”

http://pacific.bizjournals.com/pacific/stories/2010/07/26/smallb1.html

France is the pre-Bastille Day topic tomor­row at 7 a.m. (yes a.m.) on the Hawaii chan­nel OC16. Chef Mavro will be talk­ing on these ques­tions and telling sto­ries of course! French Con­sul Pati­cia Lee and oth­ers will also be fly­ing the bleu, blanc, rouge.

What is the National Dish of France or is there one? If not, why?

What makes French cook­ing, French? 

If there were one thing France has given to the world of culi­nary arts,
what would that con­tri­bu­tion be?

What are some of the French ele­ments in your Sum­mer Menu?

Acclaimed food writer Lesa Grif­fith posted bonus mate­r­ial on her blog from a con­ver­sa­tion with Chef Mavro in his home kitchen as he pre­pared one of his favorite fish dishes.  The orig­i­nal story appears in the cur­rent print issue of Mod­ern Lux­ury Hawaii with a intrigu­ing por­trait of the Chef by Linny Mor­ris shot at the Sum­ida water­cress farm.

But here’s that extra stuff that didn’t fit!

http://eatizenjane.com/2010/06/15/an-hour-with-georges-mavrothalassitis/

Lamb might be our favorite meat to cook with.  First our Col­orado lamb is for sure one of the best in the world.  Sec­ond, since Provence is a lamb coun­try we know so many com­bi­na­tions of ingre­di­ents than we are able to pro­vide you the best new lamb ever every time.  Like love, always bet­ter than yes­ter­day but not as good than tomor­row.

This one is a killer! We use always the loin, by far my favorite cut.  The loin is roasted in low heat and served with a “pissal­adiére.”  What the hell is a pissal­adiére? If you insist I am going to tell you.  This is a spe­cialty from Nice (Côte d’ Azur), a tart of caramelized fen­nel and onion, house-made lamb bacon, fin­ished with anchovy and gar­lic chips. The lamb jus is per­fumed with black olive pow­der and essence of parsley. 

All the Mediter­ranean fla­vors on your plate at once and the wine is from Napa Val­ley?  Yes! The “not-too-big-not-oakey-not-big-tannins” caber­net sauvi­gnon from Chateau Mon­te­lena.  When I first came to the States in 1985 I attended a wine tast­ing with Jor­dan and Chateau Mon­te­lena.  I am not kid­ding but at this time fresh from France I didn’t know that Amer­ica was pro­duc­ing wines you can drink.  Wow! I was blown away, in 1985 the fine wine indus­try was very young in the coun­try and that these two winer­ies were able to pro­duce wines of this qual­ity was a big sur­prise.  I told myself, in France we have been mak­ing wines since 2,000 years ago!  Wel­come to Amer­ica where noth­ing is impossible. 

(click on older posts to see the last sec­tion (dessert) of Chef Mavro’s let­ter)