Vi har været på besøg hos Jesse Koide og det meget omtalte Mission Chinese Food i San Fransisco. Stedet laver moderne og vild mad inspireret af det sichuianske køkken. Det er stærkt, friskt og overrasker i smag og udtryk fra, hvordan man normalt opfatter kinesisk mad. Stedet minder om en gammel kinesergrill med nytårsdrager i loftet og borde på lange lige rækker.
Jesse har arbejdet med ejeren Danny Bowien siden 2005, hvor de begge stod i køkkenet på sushirestauranten Blowfish.
What's the best food experience you’ve had in the last year?
In New York at a place in the East Village called Robata-Ya. I went out to NYC to help Danny open our new shop on the East Coast, and I stayed there for a month. We pretty much ate our way through the city, but at this place I remember going outside to call my wife back home to tell her I was eating at the best restaurant in the universe!
It is an izakaya/robata restaurant. They have an open robata kitchen with all kinds of amazing seafood, meat and vegetables on display on ice, and they prepare everything and pass it to you on these long paddles.
Do you ever wish to create something that isn't completely gone 20 minutes later?
Rarely do I feel like making something that people won’t want to eat right away. Sometimes in the summer when there is an abundance of great produce here in California, I will preserve it in jars for the winter months. It’s nice to open a jar of heirloom tomatoes, or a jar of peach jam, left over from the summer, on Christmas, or any cold rainy day. It really takes you away from the fact that it’s really cold and crappy outside.
How did you get into cooking and what would you have been working with if you weren’t a chef?
I started washing dishes in a Japanese restaurant when I was 17 years old. I never had any formal culinary training. I just worked my way up from washing pots to prep cook, to line cook, to working in the sushi bar. I continued to work in sushi bars (plus a couple of other jobs in between) for about six years, which is what brought me to San Francisco. I worked at Blowfish Sushi here in SF, which is where Danny Bowien and I met. It is also where I met my wife (she was a bartender).
I spent four years cooking at various restaurants in Portland, Oregon. Pan-Asian, breakfast diners and italian restaurants. Then I moved back to SF in 2005, to return to Blowfish Sushi, and then floating around to a bunch of different places before landing here at Mission Chinese Food, to help my friend Danny out with this project.
If I was not a chef I think I would be doing something involving science, or astronomy. I really like geology, anthropology and astronomy. I like thinking about outer space and the universe, as well as finding myself staring at rock cliffs, or looking closely at beach sand. A lot of thoughts arise in my mind when i think about this stuff.
Do you have a favorite food store in San Francisco?
My favorite market in SF is the one by my house called Haight Street Market. A lot of people are fans of Bi-Rite market and Rainbow market or even Whole Foods. Haight Street Market is a family-run, independent business, with great quality meat, fish, poultry, cheese and wine. It’s reasonably priced and they are friendly.
During the holidays, the owner always slips a bottle of wine into our bag or hands us a box of tangerines. They recently expanded and have a new deli, espresso stand and flowers. I like supporting the little guys. It’s what makes this city so unique.
What and where do you eat when you have a hangover?
When I’m hungover I usually eat noodle soups with broth, like wonton mein or Vietnamese pho. Nothing like a huge bowl of broth and noodles to bring you back to earth from a night of partying.
What's your favorite everyday dish?
A good everyday dish for my wife and I would be a ribeye steak with a plate of sliced tomatoes, buffalo mozzarella, basil, sea salt, a good olive oil, and lots of 25-year aged balsamico poured over the top. Minimal prep/clean-up, huge payoff.
Also roast chicken with potatoes and braised greens, like chard or kale.
My wife appreciates leftovers but I’m not a fan of them. For some reason I don’t want to eat something from yesterday, unless it’s really good!
Which kitchen tool couldn't you live without?
My most important kitchen tool is my knife. I use a Nenox 27cm for everything. Having been raised in Japanese kitchens, I was always taught to take extreme care and pay a lot of attention to my knives. I also have a white steel Masamoto Gyuto 30cm that I use for heavy butchery. That thing can split a whole pig down the spine. No problem, no chipping. But my Nenox is the best knife I’ve ever used. Of course there are other tools I love. I have a serious spoon collection and scores of other crap, but without a knife one is pretty worthless in the kitchen.
Being around all this good food all the time, how do you not get super fat?
I guess I’m lucky I have a very high-speed metabolism. I have always been able to eat whatever I want and not worry about gaining weight. Actually, with my long work hours and busy kitchen, it’s hard to make time to eat or keep weight on. Most days I only eat once around 3-4pm, and sometimes grab a sandwich or a pizza on the way home. It’s pretty bad and borderlines anorexia, but it’s the sad truth.
I can’t eat Chinese food all day long, it gets tiring. We joke about how we only eat the bare minimum to stay alive, and started a club in the kitchen called the "bare minions", a word play on bare minimum and minions (like peers, or ones in lesser rank). I guess my diet is kind of embarrassing. I eat burritos, sandwiches, pizza, pho and Chinese food. I love ice cream and have been known to eat two pints in one sitting, shamelessly.
On the other hand, when I have a day off, I do eat a lot. Really a lot. And I ride my bike to and from work, a total of five miles a day, work 12-14 hours (while inadvertently starving myself), and always try to do everything as fast as possible, in the kitchen. If you put a lot of energy into your movements you will burn more energy in return. Those are my secrets to staying thin :)
Mission Street Food SF
