Washington State Chef's
Member Spotlight
Member Spotlight - March 2011
Linda Strong
Favorite Quote
"Living here, a Pacific Rim town, provides me with the raw ingredients to cook and enjoy all the delicious cuisines around the world."
Bio
Chef Linda provides custom designed events and menu’s that meet client-specific needs in Pierce, Thurston, Mason and Kitsap Counties, in Washington State. She has professionally developed and delivered menus and meals since 1999. Cedar Bay Culinary is the realization of her passion for educating and collaborating with people who enjoy good food and cooking.
Her target market includes clients in-home, in office environments, recreational culinary schools, company gatherings, committee meetings, and shop meetings among many other venues. Her services include cooking education, cooking demonstrations, buffets, cocktail parties, and in-home 5-Star restaurant-style meals. Her services fit clients who desire an intimate experience with memorable and customized attention, demanding excellence in development and execution, and are interested in something more than a restaurant or calling a caterer.
In ongoing collaborations as an adjunct professor with South Puget Sound Community College Chef Linda provides cooking demonstrations and tastings for the annual spring quarter class Horticulture #104.
Chef Linda is a 2002 graduate with Honors with the degree of Associate of Applied Arts from The Art Institute of Seattle (AIS) in their two-year program of study in the Culinary Arts specializing in classic French methods and techniques. She took three years to complete the program in night classes while employed with Boeing. After graduation, at the request of the AIS Director, she returned to teach/manage the School’s graduating classes in preparing their menus for the week’s restaurant services (for three quarters).
Following a move to Mason County, Chef Linda contracted for a year and a half; spring of 2006 through summer of 2007, with Bayview School of Cooking, a recreational cooking school in Olympia, developing menu’s and curriculums, and delivering 51 live cooking demonstrations which culminated in serving multi-course meals to students. During her tenure, she also delivered two wine dinners with paired courses. She left Bayview as her private chef business gained momentum.
Chef Linda’s previous 30+ year career was spent with The Boeing Company as a management consultant coaching executives in collaboration skills to achieve annual organizational goals.
Chef Linda received her MBA and her undergraduate degree in business from City University in their night programs. She is a member in good standing of the American Culinary Federation, a nationally recognized association of Chefs across the United States.
A life-long resident of Washington State, Chef Linda lives in Shelton, Washington with her partner William Coppernoll. Her daughter, Ann Rutherford, lives on Harstene Island in Mason County with her husband Brett.
View her favorite recipe below…
Favorite Recipe
POTATO GNOCCHI IN CHANTERELLE NAGE
-By Chef Linda Strong
This is a comforting bowl of rich colorful broth with cheesy pillows of Italian potato Gnocchi and tender golden local Pacific NW Chanterelles; just what you need on a cold, rainy October day. The orange gremolata is a flavor spike that complements the Gnocchi and the Chanterelles. It’s a real standout with a glass of good Spanish Sherry. Enjoy!!
Nage Ingredients:
- 3 slices bacon, cut into lardons
- 1 tbsp butter, unsalted
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 4 oz onion, brunoise
- 1 oz celery, brunoise
- 2 oz carrot, brunoise
- 4 oz bell pepper; colors, brunoise
- 1 tbsp thyme, picked
- 1 tsp rosemary
- 32 oz chicken consommé, hand made, fully flavored
Procedure:
- In a 12” sauté pan, sauté the bacon lardons until golden brown and crispy; set them aside on paper towels to drain.
- Pour out the bacon fat and wipe out the pan; do not wash.
- In the hot pan, add the 1 tbsp butter and the 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, onion, celery, and bell pepper and sweat until tender crisp.
- Add the thyme, rosemary and chicken consommé and simmer for 10 minutes.
Chanterelle Mushrooms Ingredients:
- 8 oz chanterelles, brushed off and torn into pieces
- 1 oz butter
- 1 oz extra virgin olive oil
- ½ tsp salt
Procedure:
- In a separate preheated pan add the butter and extra virgin olive oil to melt together.
- Add the chanterelle pieces and sauté until tender adding salt to taste, about 5 to 8 minutes.
- Set aside.
Potato Gnocchi – makes about 40 pieces
Gnocchi
- 1 lb whole russet potatoes pierced with toothpick all over
- 2 egg yolks, beaten
- 4.5 to 6 oz (1 to 1 ½ cups) flour
- 2 oz Parmigiano Reggiano finely grated
- ½ tsp salt
To Cook
- 1 gallon water, heated to simmer
- 2 tbsp kosher salt
To Finish
- 2 tbsp unsalted butter
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Procedure:
- Bake potatoes at 350-deg F until tender; 35 to 45 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and split open to release the heat and steam; let cool until just warm.
- Scoop the potato from the skins and pass through a potato ricer into a bowl.
- Add 4.5 oz (1 cup) of the flour and the egg yolks along with the Parmigiano Reggiano and salt.
- Mix together with a fork or your hands, adding as little additional flour as possible until you have a workable dough; do not over mix or the resulting Gnocchi will be tough.
- Cut the dough ball into 4 pieces.
- Lightly dust work surface with flour and roll out one segment of the dough into a ¾” cylinder; about 8 to 10 inches long; cut into 1” pieces with bench knife.
- Flour a butter paddle and roll the pieces over the paddle to gently imprint grooves; you can also imprint grooves with a fork, but I find the butter paddle a little easier.
- While you wait for the water to boil, put the Gnocchi in the refrigerator. The Gnocchi can be frozen at this point for up to a month; then cook from their frozen state; it just takes a minute or two longer. You’ll have more Gnocchi than required for this recipe.
- Heat a sauté pan and add 2 tbsp unsalted butter and 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil and hold on very low heat while you cook the Gnocchi.
- To cook, heat 1 gallon of water in a large pot to a gentle simmer and add 2 tbsp salt; add the Gnocchi about 10 to 12 pieces at a time and poach until they float to the surface. Don’t add too many at once, you don’t want the water to cool down.
- Remove them with a slotted spoon directly into the sauté pan, gently toss to coat.
Orange Gremolata
Ingredients:
- Zest from one large orange
- 1 large clove garlic minced
- 1/8th tsp salt, kosher
- 2 tbsp peppery extra virgin olive oil
Procedure:
- Zest the orange into the mixing bowl to capture the oils as you zest.
- Mix together with the garlic, salt and olive oil; set aside.
Assemble the dish:
- Flat leaf parsley leaves picked and roughly chopped
- Chives cut into confetti pieces
- Bacon lardons
- Orange Gremolata
Procedure:
- In a warm wide rimmed soup bowl place 6 Gnocchi from the sauté pan.
- Add 3 or 4 pieces of the torn sautéed Chanterelles.
- Ladle in 1 cup Nage.
- Top with ½ tsp Orange Gremolata, 1 tsp bacon lardons, a sprinkle of chopped parsley and chives.
- Serve hot.