Brylczyk Blog: Food from the Heart

On Saturday September 8th 2007 I had the pleasure of being able to spend the day with Jason Tucker, in the place that we love the most, the kitchen. Jay and I have been cooking since the fourth grade. His mom owned a catering company and I can say with confidence was a tremendous influence that led to me landing in the food industry. Jason and I started experimenting with food very early. I can vividly remember being in the fourth or fifth grade working on perfecting the perfect pizza dough. Temping our water to make sure we bloom the yeast at exactly the right pace, the perfect sauce, shrimp and artichokes or roasted peppers and chicken. Jason is now the Executive Chef at Tresca in Boston's famed North End.

Jason and I prepared a five course meal for our Harvest Supper of the Nottingham Supper Club. We spent about six weeks talking about the menu. Each week we added elements and tweaked ideas until we felt that the menu accurately reflected the best of New England in the first weeks of September. Everything in the menu was locally harvested and season specific. We started prepping at ten am and arrived at Fred & Kim's at about four. Cooking with Jason at this point in our lives is effortless. We can anticipate each others thoughts and tendencies and react to make each dish reach it's maximum potential. At the end of the night kicking back in the pool we honestly both felt that there was not one element that could have made the dinner better. It was a perfect weekend spent in the kitchen with my dearest friend!