Matthew Levin's FAHRENHEIT825:

Portland Trip

Jason, my Chef de Cuisine at Lacroix and myself took a 16 hour train to Portland, Maine at 6:30 in the morning. I attempted to book a flight last minute resulting in $1700 per ticket, which the Rittenhouse Hotel obviously wouldn’t fund on their account. J and I were taking the cheaper route: A $400 trip between the two of us . After we reached Boston with a 3 hour layover, I was pissed for not taking my King Ranch Truck up North instead.

By this point we were starving, annoyed, and trying to make the best of the downtown residential neighborhood of Beacon Hill, Back Bay, and Old State House in Boston. We went to Fenway Park and ate some hot dogs and ventured to Boston Common’s park and walked around the city. By that time, we headed to Boston’s North Station and we were off to Portland. When we finally arrived in Maine, it was pouring outside and the production assistant was waiting to drive us to Sheepscot Harbor Village and Resort in Edgecomb, which was an hour and 45 minutes north of Portland.

Steven Horn, the producer of the Chef’s Kitchen hosted a dinner every night at 8 o’clock at Bintliff’s Ocean Grill for the chef’s who were filming. The chef’s included :Roberto Donna from Galileo, Chris Lee from Guilt, Pastry Chef David Carmichael from Guilt, John Mims from Le Bon Temps, and Evan Deluty from Stella. The first night we arrived around 8:30 just before they plated the entrees. I ate lobster mac and cheese and skipped dessert.

The last thing I wanted to do was sit around, so J and I decided to hit the local bar. There isn’t shit to do there in April so we drank, and drank, and drank some more patron. I was completely shit-housed. J and I were just shootin’ the shit but there is absolutely nothing to do but drink. The town was dead.

The next morning I taped the half-hour show with Hope Cohen, the host of Chef’s Kitchen at the ass-crack of dawn. On air I made Foie Gras bon-bons, which had 5 different kinds of fillings. I made green jolly rancher fluid gel, dehydrated honey (from my own collection), smoked balsamic vinegar, blackberry and oregano, and muscat grape purée.

After the show, J and I were hungry and decided to bike to Reds Eats in Wiscasset, the best lobster shack that makes rolls. Nearly 40 million pounds of lobster are harvested each year from Maine which is insane, and the lobsters are so fucking good. We had lobster rolls, fried clam bellies, fries, and 2 sodas which emptied my pocket. It came out to about $70 but was so worth it. After the awesome food, we biked back to Davis Island and decided to drive around and explore. We got lost and spent half an hour trying to find the Oyster farms.

The oysters are beautiful, clean, fresh and have a great depth of texture and flavor. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to see any because we were thrown out of the oyster farm. The farm wasn’t open to the public around the time we arrived. We snuck in at the bottom of the hill where the farms were located, however, the owner’s daughter freaked out and told us we had to leave.

We headed back just in time for dinner. The food was better at Bintliff’s the second night. J and I split the Maine clam chowder, wings, and ribs. Evan downed a 5th of vodka and went into rage mode against Steven while I kept texting friends to see who won the Flyers game since there was no television in sight. It was a pretty beat night and we ended it early.

We had another 16 hour trip back home to Philly, which left bright and early. If the trip wasn’t long enough, our fucking train gets back to Penn Station and breaks down. We are sitting in the pitch-black for a good hour or so. If there was anything else that could have pissed me off, there was unattended “suspicious baggage” on the train and the cops had to escort the luggage off. I could have flown to fucking Vietnam and back in the amount of time it took to get home.

Philly's Best Cheesesteak

Glen Macnow, an on-air personality for 610 WIP Sports Radio hosted an ultimate cheesesteak challenge in search of Philadelphia and surrounding areas BEST cheesesteak. The last three food hunts were on focused on burgers The winners : (Rossi‘s Bar and Grill), ribs (Fat Jack‘s), and pizza (Tacconelli‘s). Glen sampled top-grade cheesesteaks all over the Delaware Valley--40 cheesesteaks in 40 days (and 40 pounds heavier) while keeping fans updated on the rankings. To make the competition consistent and fair, he only sampled cheesesteaks with provolone cheese and onions.

This year, the competition was held at Paddywacks on South Street. Jon Runyan, Kathy Orr, Vince Papale, Ike Reese, George Perrier, Ray Didinger, and myself judged the competition. After exploring all the restaurants in the area, Glen narrowed the competition to the Top 5 best cheesesteaks including: John’s Roast Pork, Steve’s Prince of Steaks, Chink’s Steaks, Talk of the Town, and Grey Lodge Pub. We had to determine from his Top 5 which were the best cheesesteaks. Listeners called into the station to question and second his opinion so Glen allowed Slacks Hoagie Shack, Sonny’s Famous Steaks, Tony Luke’s, White House Sub Shop, and Dalessandro’s to redeem themselves by competing for listeners choice.

There was clear-cut favorites and I already knew that Steve’s Prince of Steaks was my favorite but I didn’t want to be partial. It was definitely good, but wasn’t nearly as good as when you actually take the track up to the Northeast. The steaks were made ahead of time, the cheese was cold and the meat was tough. Since each restaurant had to bring all their food to South Street from wherever they were located, his suffered greatly.

Our criteria was based on a 1-10 scale of how well the meat, cheese, bread, and overall appearance was executed. John’s Roast Pork on Synder Avenue, South Philadelphia won the competition (also Craig Laban and James Beard Foundation Award) but I preferred Chink’s Steaks, which came in third. I think Chink’s had a great sandwich. The roll was perfect, crispy on the outside and warm and soft on the inside. The provolone cheese was mild and the onions were browned and beautifully executed.

John’s foot long cheesesteak was good but the sesame seed roll was hard and seemed out of place, the sharp provolone cheese was stringy and the seasoned beef was messy and very difficult to eat.

There was approximately 400 people on live broadcast and we were all breaking each others balls. Joe Conklin, a Philadelphia comedian who is well known for his impersonations of local athletes and celebrities was mimicking all of our voices at the judging table. It was a great time and absolutely hilarious watching everyone down cheesesteaks…thankfully no one threw up. George Perrier left halfway through the judging to take a shit and by the end of the event Jon and I were in need of a toilet, pronto.

Lick Your Plate Pet Cookbook

Recently, I collaborated in writing a Pet Cookbook called Lick Your Plate with George Perrier, Dan Barber, and myself. The cookbook will be written by Kit Feldman from the University of Pennsylvania and the photography will be shot by Sabina Pierce. The premise of the cookbook is to design interesting, innovative, tasty, and healthy ways to cook for our own dogs and give the recipes we actually make. Arthur, a.k.a Bo Bo and Saddie my Weimaraner’s are the shit. With my busy schedule, I cook for them in the beginning of the week and package and freeze the rest of the food so it’s always fresh and ready to eat. Their two favorite recipes include Turkey brown rice stew with seasonal vegetables as well as smoked quinoa biscuits, which will be featured in the cookbook. George and Dan both highlight their favorite recipes for their dogs. George makes great recipes for his Bishon Frise while Dan has creative meals for his hungry Black Lab.

After the pet recall in which they found aminopterin, a toxin used as rat poison in some countries and melamine, a chemical used to make plastics in the recalled food, I wanted to make sure my dogs were safe. I try to feed Arthur and Saddie the best food without the bullshit of wondering if their eating contaminated food such as wheat gluten. I know others are just as concerned so the cookbook should be a hit. The recipes are for dogs only and include some vegetarian options as well.

The proceeds for the cookbook benefit animal charities and there are some cool shots of me with Arthur and Saddie. The cookbook should be released shortly, I definitely recommend checking it out.