Here at Yeak Inc., we have professionally trained (and maybe talented...maybe) chefs that craft our sauces, recipes, and Pop-up menus. But unfortunately, not everyone at Yeak Inc. is a chef, or can even cook for that matter. While not being able to cook at a food company is a fantastic source of entertainment for the staff, we knew we had to fix it.
“if you can cook this, you will never again have trouble getting a date”
Since Yeak Inc. recently moved to a new corporate headquarters with larger kitchens, the decision was made to start training staff in the finer art of cuisine. Actually, it came out more like “OK, no more excuses, we’re going to learn you some cooking”. Or something like that.
So we went with Standard American Steak and Potatoes to start. The chef was quoted as saying “if you can cook this, you will never again have trouble getting a date”. This is a great way to motivate and make more likely it will be cooked after the lesson. The secret was made clear that this would also include butter.
Want fluffy mashed potatoes? Use a whisk, and beat air into it.
Thawing out 4 massive steaks to room temperature, then peeling and boiling 3 huge potatoes was a good beginning. We’re going American style all the way with this meal and, of course, bigger is always better. After going over the fine points of what to look for with steaks, we cut up 3 corn-on-the-cobs in 3 pieces and got them ready to boil in water with butter. They didn’t need to be cut up but it did make them easier to cook and plate.
Something to mention here: one of our staff has a realistic fear of stabbing himself with a chef’s knife. This wasn’t helped by our chef telling us it was going to happen at some point so just accept it.
Cook corn in water with a touch of cream and butter to add riches and bring out the sweetness in the corn
We then took out a variety of raw herbs such as sage, and rosemary, thyme, and basil and lined them up. What we thought was going to happen was some type of dicing, but apparently it’s not really necessary. We did have to slightly crush some garlic cloves but other than some salt and pepper on the stakes we were pretty much done there.
Then they went into the pan with olive oil and butter. Butter is the thing that makes everything tasty in this world, according to chefs. And, apparently, it works. We grilled up the steaks in the pan, searing them to get just the right color and pulled them off to finish cooking to a nice medium rare (mostly rare) finish. It was news learning that steaks finish cooking off the heat. This will help take care of the overcooking problems we had been having.
Finally, finishing up the mashed potatoes, after mashing them, we mixed them with salt, pepper, butter (of course!), heavy cream, and sour cream. This guaranteed a rich smooth flavor and a likely heart attack by the end of dinner. But it would be a heart attack worth having.
Terrible lighting and too much wine took this photo
Because our chef has a weird addiction to American cheese (the most boring cheese possible) we made some mac and cheese. This would have been normally a dull addition to what had turned out to be a fantastic meal but kicked it up a notch by adding in some of Yeak’s Krahom hot sauce. Stirring it in as the cheese melted made it amazing, and just set the dish off into it’s own special place.
Plating everything just added the finishing touches to a basic meal made special. Creating this standard American dish on the 4th of July gave it a special feeling. And, hopefully will help with dates.
Have a suggestion for the next cooking adventure? We’re interested!
We are always looking for ideas! Want us to check something out? Let us know! Have any suggestions for blog posts, or comments in general, we want to hear it. Drop a note in the comments or email us at info@yeakinc.com.