Chef Hasni Ghazali - Executive Chef/Owner, Bentara / MISC

           Today I was able to see an interesting cooking demonstration by the above mentioned. Chef Hasni Ghazali is a Malaysian chef who has opened a restaurant in New Haven,Connecticut. His food was definitely interesting. If I had to describe it I would lean towards saying it is Indian flavors with a cleaner finish with Thai influences. I tasted some of the dishes he prepares at the restaurant and they were definitely worth checking out if you are in the New Haven area. I haven't been to the restaurant myself but I plan on it.

Not much else to report on today, but I will say this. I recently switched to a gas range, which is by far a must for any serious home cook. I have had a set of pans which I thought were relatively decent, until late. Heat energy from gas  is pushed in differing ways than electric.Rather than simply conducting the heat there is radiation and convection and without proper cookware it is quite easy to create hot spots in subpar cooking vessels. Now, different metals have different specific heats, meaning it takes different amounts of energy to increase their temperature. There is a whole science behind it but it gets quite specific and boring. In reality, all you need to know is that a good quality pan, say a 10 inch saute, will heat evenly on the bottom and will conduct heat around the sides of the pan evenly as well. A lesser quality pan, as exampled below, allows the temperature on the side of the pan to increase well beyond that of the bottom. This is because the heat transfered from the bottom of the panis going directly into the oil and pork cutlet. The heat on the side of the pan is being absorbed into the bare metal which is creating a hotspot. If you look at the picture you  can see how the flour in the bottom of the pan is brown while at the far edge it has burnt and become black. This is simply due to an inferior quality saute pan heating unevenly over a gas flame. Now technically, you don't have to run out and buy new pans, you can cook on lower flames but now you have to be aware that it will take longer for your pan to heat as well as rebound when cold items are added. I say, when you are saving to buy a pan, you might as well save as long as you can and buy something decent. It will last a lifetime and if you cook regularly it will more than pay for itself in time of use and quality. Good pans last seemingly forever and only get better with age.