The “lady with the notebook” and burnt carrots

Burned carrots

This is a story about why it’s good to be a nerd. Why it’s an excellent idea when you’re listening to a world-famous chef give you a few tips about a new way to cook that it’s a friggin’ excellent idea to actually write the instructions down. And why taking notes may get you a shot of tequila.

My son Noah, my friend Mary Ann and I recently grazed our way through the Music City Food and Wine Festival. Bizarre Foods’ Andrew Zimmern swooned about it on his website. And, of course, we went to Chef Tim Love’s demonstration because there’s not a funnier chef who continually drops the F bomb out there. Love was demonstrating the fine art of burning food, which is not what you think. It’s more like charring one side of a vegetable while keeping the other side crisp tender. It’s a good idea, trust me.

So Mary Ann is a very analytical person and she spent every demonstration taking copious notes in a teeny, tiny notebook. And during Tim Love’s demonstration, he stopped what he was doing, looked up and said, “Who’s taking notes? There’s always one person taking friggin’ notes during a demonstration.” And, of course, Noah and I both pointed at Mary Ann and we caught Tim Love’s eye.

Lady with the notebook

“Come up here, lady with the notebook,” Love cheered. “I want you to take a shot.” And before I could even get my camera out, Mary Ann had bounded up on stage and downed a shot of tequila. And I am not kidding you – this is absolutely true. For the rest of the festival, countless people recognized Mary Ann as the Lady with the Notebook. And since Mary Ann does not usually do shots of tequila, she was slightly impaired for the next few hours. Tim Love seems impervious to the stuff. He not only drank during his own demonstration, he crashed all the other chefs’ demonstrations with a bottle of tequila. I just love that guy.

At any rate, the method for “burnt vegetables” is just this: for more tender vegetables like yellow squash or zucchini, cut them on the bias and then season them with whatever you like. Then get a skillet screaming hot and char one side only. For more firm vegetables such as carrots, roll them in a little olive oil and season them. Then put them under the broiler until one side is charred. In this case, Love used red pepper flakes, salt and pepper and honey and sprinkled them with walnuts after they came out of the broiler.

Genius and simple. He even has the burnt carrots on his menu at Lonesome Dove in Fort Worth. And how do I remember all this? The Lady with the Notebook.

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