Cooking Thanksgiving Dinner at Home — Houston’s Top Chefs Offer Their Priceless Tips
Shelby Hodge | Paper City Magazine
Chef Thomas Laczynski, Executive Chef at Ouzo Bay, on Shopping
“Shopping is very important. You can’t make a great meal with subpar ingredients. Also having quantities for how much of each ingredient you will need. For example, when choosing a turkey, I choose a turkey which is free range, never injected with antibiotics, nor injected with hormones and organic feed.
“The ratio I look for is one to one and a quarter pound of turkey per person as we have a lot of side dishes with our meal. Any time that a fresh product is available I go for that and stay away from canned or frozen products. This doesn’t mean you must make everything yourself. For instance, when making my stuffing I use sourdough bread mixed with corn bread. I will buy the sourdough from the bakery to save time.
“We always use fresh, in-season vegetables in our meals to ensure the recipes are consistent to season and region of where we live.”
Chef Thomas Laczynski, Executive Chef at Ouzo Bay, on Shopping
“Shopping is very important. You can’t make a great meal with subpar ingredients. Also having quantities for how much of each ingredient you will need. For example, when choosing a turkey, I choose a turkey which is free range, never injected with antibiotics, nor injected with hormones and organic feed.
“The ratio I look for is one to one and a quarter pound of turkey per person as we have a lot of side dishes with our meal. Any time that a fresh product is available I go for that and stay away from canned or frozen products. This doesn’t mean you must make everything yourself. For instance, when making my stuffing I use sourdough bread mixed with corn bread. I will buy the sourdough from the bakery to save time.
“We always use fresh, in-season vegetables in our meals to ensure the recipes are consistent to season and region of where we live.”