Shefzilla

Stewart Woodman is chef-owner (with wife Heidi Woodman) of Heidi’s and the Birdhouse, critically acclaimed Minneapolis restaurants. He began his culinary career over 30 years ago as a fry cook at McDonald’s in his native Montreal, and has gone on to work with some of the world’s to chefs, including Alain Ducasse, Eric Ripert, and Jean Georges Vongerichten. Among his accolades, and four star reviews, in 2006 he was honored as a Best New Chef by Food & Wine Magazine.

God, guns and geese

By Kevin Sawyer, Shefzilla

I have never shot a gun. I don’t particularly understand why people love shooting guns so much. Not my cup of tea, gun sports. On the other hand, I am an unabashed fan of the fatty liver of overfed fowl. In the hands of the right chef (and even some of the wrong ones), foie gras is damn delicious.

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Who will a minimum wage increase benefit? Who will it hurt?

By Kevin Sawyer, Shefzilla

Barack Obama is proposing to increase the minimum wage to $9 an hour. Isn’t that great? What could go wrong? After all, our hardest workers deserve a break, don’t they? Maybe that’s why our state legislature is trying to do him one better (38 cents better to be precise).

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Things they don't teach you in culinary school

By Stewart Woodman, Shefzilla

Culinary school teaches very little. Some recipes, some techniques, some approaches. Some of it will come in handy for a while, but pretty soon after graduation you’ll have to do the rest of the work.

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Listy lists

By Stewart Woodman, Shefzilla

One of the things that occurred to me after I published a Best of List last year, was the curious reaction that some folks had.  ”Well don’t you think that so and so is better.”

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In the age of online reviews, could a pledge card help restaurant-customer relations?

By Stewart Woodman, Shefzilla

The craziest thing happened. The other day I was sitting in my garage with the car running just listening to music, having a glass of wine and thinking about a negative Yelp review. When it occurred to me that I should create a discount card say 5% off when you announce to a restaurant that you are NOT an online reviewer or amateur critic, because you believe in the following things:

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