Johnny Ortiz

LINKS: 
<a href="/talks">→ TALKS ( video links ) </a>
→ FOOD ( photos ) 
→ FIRING ( photos ) 
→ BEHIND THE SCENES ( photos ) 
<a href="https://www.maestroeats.com/post/johnny-ortiz-in-residence-at-stone-barns-pocantico-hills-ny">→ MAESTRO EATS ( article )</a>
 
It has been exactly one year since I arrived in Tarrytown NY at <a href="https://www.stonebarnscenter.org/">Stone barns center</a>. Months before I had received a text from an unknown number that said maybe: “Dan Barber”. I wondered if I knew a Dan Barber, I obviously did, but maybe I knew someone else with that name also. I was chopping wood when I saw the message come in so I waited to open the message until later that evening and it was in fact the Dan Barber ( chef of Blue Hill ) I knew. He wrote to ask if we could chat about this residency project they were putting together, <a href="https://www.bluehillfarm.com/">Blue Hill restaurant</a> + Stone barns center. I spoke with him but felt weary of committing due to trying to finish up my own space, and to make a long story short I refused the offer a couple times before finally saying yes. It was one of those moments that a no really felt like the right answer, but in reflection, and honestly after I said yes, I was so glad I did. 
It had been a few years since I have been in a professional kitchen running an entire team, but this would be the first time I would be doing that with my own menu, not to mention with a team I have never worked with. I was second to Josh Skenes for 3 years running the kitchen of <a href="https://www.saisonsf.com/">SAISON</a> so this wasn’t too foreign, and I started / shed in 2017, where I have been creating my own food since, but with / shed I touch almost every detail. To jump from that to a whole team was special to witness. It was nice to witness that I could still do it, kind of like riding a bike, but more so I thrived. I loved it a little too much and found my self standing at the pass towards the end of the residency thinking to myself I could do this all the time. The thing is kitchens are largely fueled on adrenaline, and I thrive on that a little too much. In starting / shed I had the intention of being more grounded and to have a lifestyle a traditional kitchen couldn’t offer. 
After agreeing to be the chef in residence no.3 back home I started to make vessels both for the future dinners and for an exhibition with <a href="https://object-thing.com/">Object &amp; Thing</a>. I had the idea to make a horno ( mud brick oven ) to do most of the cooking in. So much of my cooking is terrain based and in doing this residency I wanted to carry that ethos to the new terrain. Having an horno would be a through point in everything we cooked, passing on a sense of home in everything. My idea initially was to send a guide to making adobes to the Stone Barns team and having them build the adobes with their mud before I arrived. It would be sweet to think that though it would carry the ethos of home, but it would also be from their terrain. In discussion with the team they were intrigued by the idea and after a few more discussions had decided it would be too much, the ground was still frozen, their soil was mostly sand, and they were worried it may mess up the courtyard where I wanted to build it. I almost gave up on the concept, but last minute I decided it was imperative to have, so <a href="https://maidagoods.com/">Maida</a> and I loaded up 50 old adobe bricks from a wall we took down in our future / shed space onto our flat bed dodge truck and Arkas and I drove them out to NY from NM.  
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In arriving I was immediately met with the warmest and most welcoming souls. We spent the morning yesterday catching up with Irene who was such a force in making magic happen while I was there. Thinking back on all of the said warm and welcoming souls, there are too many to mention but it was beautiful that a place with so many people could have ingrained into it a culture of warmth and excitement. / shed is really an ecosystem and a culture and Stone Barns was the same in a lot of ways, just on a larger scale.
The next four weeks to come were filled with excitement and explorations. Some of the the most exciting things to come out of this experience were talks with individuals I chose to have conversations with over zoom. There was no underlying conviction in conversing with each of these individuals, aside from that they have had some importance in my life or are on the same path as me, or ahead of. I loved getting a chance to share with a new group of people my love for the desert southwest, and to speak with some amazing people I had recently met like the head farmer of Stone Barns <a href="https://www.stonebarnscenter.org/staff/jack-algiere/">Jack Algeire</a>. 
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As for the food, I thought I would be compromising my ethos going to a place I knew less about and not cooking all the food myself, but the kitchen staff besides being great humans were excited to learn more and this felt like a moment for us all to explore and learn. We did trials of any corn the team could find cooked in ash from the horno, of every wood from the property, for corn tortillas and posole. We found local salts and used only those. We made “oven bread” like at the pueblo with grains from Stone barns center and nixtamalized corn. We made a beer with <a href="https://hudsonvalleybrewery.com/">Hudson Valley Brewery</a>, with nixtamalized corn and New Mexico native hops. ( humulus neomexicanous ). We used almost every wild thing we could find. We used as many parts of the cow as possible, even the manure to fire plates. 
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I can’t believe it has already been a year, it doesn’t feel like this all happened that long ago, but looking back over it all it makes me miss being there. I learned a lot in my month being at Stone barns and taking over the kitchen of Blue Hill, and largely it was learning more about myself, my relationship to food and terrain and it’s importance, I was also affirmed that with / shed I was on the right path. Maida, Arkas, and I drove back more excited then ever to be back home, excited to continue to put in the energy to be able to host dinners in our terrain again. 
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STONE BARNS residency

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