Mussels, just "that damn good"

In the video below—an audition for the Food Network—Chef Teddy Folkman of Washington DC's Granville Moore demonstrates how to make Moules á la bière. [UPDATE 2008.03.21: Moules aux moules-- Folkman vs. Flay]

He cooks them with a Belgian Trappist ale— Chimay White.

Many moons past, my chef at Sissons Brewpub in Baltimore would prepare Prince Edward Island (PEI) mussels with gueuze-lambic: Cuvée Renée to be exact.

The gueuze's acidity and fruity funkiness proved to be wonderful cooking and flavor foils for the bivalves. My staff took to automatically serving extra bread in anticipation of the invariable request for more with which to sop up the broth.


At one point in the video, Chef Folkman gets wistful, wishing that beer were food. But, of course, he need not, as beer is indeed just that—a foodstuff, best served fresh.

He wafts the aroma of the cooking mussels toward his face, reveling. The aroma of food is of course a component of its flavor.

Why then, at the conclusion of the video, would he drink his Chimay from a bottle? Where's the aroma in doing that?

Other than that, it looks wonderful.



I grabbed this over at Frozen Tropics, a blog about the comings and goings along and near the H Street corridor in NE Washington, DC.

P.S. Chef Folkman's audition was fruitful. The Food Network will be filming him, the restaurant, and his patrons on 17 March.

P.P.S Flay was flayed.