Happy 2nd Anniversary St. John’s!

Hard to believe, but St. John’s turned 2 on Saturday, February 15th.

I’m personally thankful to all the people who have continued to believe and support us as we make our way in this very popular and food/drink centric neighborhood.

I’ve made a lot of mistakes, learned a lot, and am so very proud of what we have accomplished thus far.

To many successful and healthy years ahead!

xoj

Gabrielle Hamilton’s Christmas Eve Dinner

I had a day free yesterday and decided to cook a few things to save up a little $$ for end of trip splurging food wise. I’d come across an article on Chow about Gabrielle Hamilton’s annual Christmas Eve tradition of making this veg minestrone with grilled cheese sandwiches. Cheap to make, hearty, and plenty of leftovers. Done. Continue reading »

Fritzl’s Lunchbox

Now that I have learned how to actually post photos on this here blog, I wanted to do a recap of my time at Fritzl’s Lunchbox, in Bushwick. Fritzl’s was the first place that I worked when I first got to NY. Dan, the owner is a pal of a few friends of mine and thus I was able to make a connection for a stage.

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Brunch at Littleneck

Usually when I have some down time I like to get sucked into the worm hole that is the internet. Typically I’ll check in on my favorite restaurants, and then the journey begins. On one of those particular journeys I’d come across Littleneck in Brooklyn. The charm was noticed quickly with hand-drawn and artistically pieced together menus. A rotating selection of seafood items including their namesake, and oysters really interested me.
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Prune.

I’m having a hard time thinking of a way to start this entry. It honestly blows my mind, even now, that I had a chance to work in a kitchen that I respect so much.

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Allswell, that IS well.

Today was my stage at Nate Smith’s Allswell located in Willamsburg, on Bedford.

I met an amazing amount of extremely nice and talented cooks, bartenders, bakers and bakers and OH did I mention bakers? Turns out, Nate and his wife, Sophie own this restaurant/bar, he leads the kitchen and she leads the baking program. Continue reading »

Getting ready for Prune.

Took a loverly stroll through Manhattan today with my pal Wesley. I wanted to check out the location of Prune and pick up a few things at the restaurant supply store. I’ll be trailing at Prune Thursday and Friday of this week, and boy am I nervous. Continue reading »

Salvation Taco

I had the opportunity to spend an afternoon at April Bloomfield’s Salvation Taco yesterday. My childhood friend Peter Cho is the chef there and thankfully allowed me to see how his kitchen runs. Continue reading »

Day 4: Sunday

Day 4: Sunday

Sunday ended up being really overcast, and FINALLY cooler in temperature. Met up with the lovely and fantastic Katherine Randazzo, no relation. We met last year, have a ton in common (ie same culinary school, her husband is also a Joe Randazzo, etc), and love to chat about food. Kat has spent a lot of time in NY working in various kitchens and now at the Brooklyn Kitchen teaching classes.
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Day 2 & 3

Day 2: Friday

Friday was a bunch of exploration around the neighborhood. More menu research and meals. Ate @
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NYC- Day 1 & 1/2

Got in around 9pm on Wednesday to JFK and due to AirTran outage had to cab it into my pal Aaron’s place in Williamsburg. It seems unseasonable warm and really muggy with temps around the 80′s. That crisp weather I love so much better make it’s way back soon.
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Rockaway Beach Trip

Snuck away with a few pals over the weekend for a pre-trip beach excursion. The food was delicious, the urge for snack-attacks while lazing around sure is fun but man am I full.

Returning back to Seattle tomorrow early to start packing.

Thanks for the fun Rockaway Beach!

Pasta of the Day 09/26/13

Pasta of the day today at Saint John’s is a fresh linguine with lentils, bacon, and mushrooms.

Sunday Dinner

Happy first day of fall. I look forward to this season every year. The crispness of the air, the golden glow, the warmer clothes…it’s all fantastic in my book.

To celebrate, I’ve roasted a chicken for dinner with some mushrooms and a whole-grain and honey mustard dressed arugula salad.

Excuse my while I go turn my record player and heater on…

What are some of your favorite fall foods?

It’s happening.

“Please arrive at 1:00pm with your knives, shoes, white scully cap and white undershirt. Prune will provide chef whites. If you have any other questions in the interim, please don’t hesitate to email.”

NYC-ya real soon.

Well hello dusty, dusty, blog.

In two weeks time I leave for NYC. For an entire month.

The idea behind the trip was a bit of genius from my boyfriend Michael. To go and spend time once a year focusing on self-development and inspiration. Since opening St. John’s in 2012, finishing school in 2011, and honestly feeling a little whirlwind-ish with life, the chance to see something a little different piqued my interest. I sent an email explaining my interest to my work cohorts, Continue reading »

A New Year, (a-knew-ear).

Well, hello. Long time no see. Since I last wrote much has changed. I started and finished summer and fall quarters of school, graduated from culinary school and have had the opportunity to experience that strange post graduation “what am I doing??!?” thing. All in all, exciting and productive!

There is some fun news now that the new year has begun. As of mid February, I will be heading up the latest venture from the guys at Solo. Running the kitchen that’s to say. Basically, for graduation, I’m getting a newly renovated kitchen smack dab in the middle of Capitol Hill.

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Summer School: Show Platter!

For the first time in who knows how many years, I am in summer school. It has been a bit of change in comparison to the other quarters, but I’m finally starting to get the flow and am excited to see how the remainder of our five weeks turn out.

The big focus this quarter is our show platter. Think sassified terrines & pates ran through aspic, composed salads, all on mirrors. While we aren’t using mirrors this go around, we have been encouraged to push ourselves and think outside of the boxes we put ourselves in. I wonder if it’s possible to make these things light up?
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Well, Hello There Blog…

…I have been meaning to meet up with you for about a hundred years it seems. And now, here you are. I’m Joe (curtsey).

A lot is going on these days. I’ve gone from motion graphics designer to culinary school student. I just couldn’t deny how passionate I’ve become about food and the world that surrounds it. With starting my own little baking venture and the growing number of cookbooks in my small one bedroom apartment (more than one piece of furniture has been forced to the curb), I realized it was time to take the leap.
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Getting Ready for the New Site!

It has been months and months in the making, but we are very happy to announce that the new JoeRandazzo.com in finally finished! The work of amateurs is always slow, but creative…and you know what they say…better late than never!
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