L+L Report: Chef Alex Friedman of P’Cheen

Monday, Lindsay and I were invited to sample P’Cheen’s famous, award-winning barbecue at Monday Night Mike’s Bone Lick BBQ and afforded the opportunity to sit down with Chef, co-owner, and ATLANTA FOOD RAVE participant Alex Friedman.  Both were amazing.  This post will be divided into 2 parts: The Man and The Meat.

1. The Meat: Monday Night Mike’s Bone Lick BBQ

Homemade BBQ sauces of every variety

OK so here’s the Q+DD: Monday nights, Chef Alex takes a rest and Mike LaSage (P’Cheen sous chef and lead singer/guitarist of Mike LaSage & the Stumbling Troubadours) takes over the kitchen to serve up some undeniably spectacular Q.   Though it was a tough call between the “Roadside Boiled Peanuts” and the “Redneck Charcuterie” (house-made jerkeys, homemade ketchup, Mountain Dew and RC Cola Jellies, and homemade “Velveeta”), we started with “Died and Gone to Bacon”

Smoked jalapeño bacon wrapped around hickory bacon, wrapped around andouille sausage

For dinner, we couldn’t decide which meat to choose. Linds and I both find that we default to pulled pork in matters of BBQ, but Natalie, our dining companion, and CWPR darling, raved about the brisket. Plus, the ribs looked delish! We debated.  We hemmed and hawed. Then – divine intervention – we discovered that they ring a BELL when someone orders a platter with all 5 meats (pulled pork, antouille, “Texican” beef brisket and the international BBQ of the week).  Otherwise known as the FAT ASS SAMPLER.

As in, DINGALINGALINGALINGALING! “Who ordered the Fat Ass Sampler?”

We did!

Yup, and some jalapeño mac and cheese and collard greens.  And we finished every. last. bite.   JUST when we didn’t think we could eat any more, we managed to finish some of the BEST banana pudding I have ever had (that’s a huge statement.  I am from Alabama) and a FRIED TWINKIE.

YUM. If you haven’t made it over to Mikes Bone Lick at P’Cheen on Mondays, you’re missing out.  Fact. Go immediately.   You gotta trust a man who’s so committed BBQ he has a tattoo of the cuts of a pig on this arm:

Mike LaSage's lifetime commitment to Pork

2. The Man: Chef Alex Friedman

On to our interview. Now, we may not have made him cry like Barbara Walters would have, or jump on a couch like Tom Cruise on Oprah… make no mistake, we are serious, hard-hitting investigative journalists and we take no prisoners.  Chef Alex didn’t even know what hit him.

Truthfully, neither did we.  Alex is a special brand of awesome.  We came all prepared with 20 questions (exactly!) but our conversation took a lot of unexpected turns.  Of course, the first thing we REALLY wanted to know was…which tattoo is your favorite?

Strong contenders were the “road map of his life” that encompasses his forearm (which started out as a doodle in his notepad) and the birthdates of his immediate family around his fingers like rings.  But his favorite serves as a daily reminder of the virtue he wishes he had in higher supply…

“Patience”

We were also very interested to learn about his upbringing in an artistic home and how he started his academic career on a ceramics scholarship.  Even more interesting still was his transition from prep cook and dishwasher to sous chef to chef and how he came to own P’Cheen with his business partner (and former DJ!) Kieran Neeley.  It was immediately obvious that Alex is a guy who’s constantly evolving.

When we asked him about his colleagues in the Atlanta food scene, Alex said he especially appreciates “any chef that’s out there doing his own thing” a few who came to mind were Richard Blais, Jay Swift, Scott Serpas, Shane Devereux, and Ryan Stewart.

We covered the most underrated and overrated trends in food (molecular gastronomy? Mad Science isn’t for Chef A-Fried.) and the highly topical street-food movement. (“Long overdue!” Alex said.)  We may just see a food truck from P’Cheen sometime soon…

We got him talking about his resto – Alex let us know that both his best and worst days in the kitchen were P’Cheen’s opening day and that his 3 favorite items on the menu are the mussels, the fish + chips, and the hanger steak a la plancha.  Natalie was shocked that the mushy peas didn’t make the cut and we HAD to ask him about the burg.

I must tell you, our web guru, Mark Wolfe, swears up and down that even among all the recent burger hoop-la, P’Cheen’s burger remains his favorite.

A “Frankenstein of his own creation” (speaking of mad science!) Alex confided there are 19 ingredients in the burger that create the “layers of flavor” responsible for it’s amazingness.  Among them?  Mushrooms, curry powder, hoisen sauce. Alex loves to cook with an Asian influence.

Asian influenced food.  One American owner, one Brit.  A Celtic name (which translates to “moonshine”) a BBQ night.  P’Cheen truly is an International Bistro.

But what would Chef Alex request on death row?  “Jewish Penicillin:” His mother’s potato latkes (with apple sauce and sour cream, duh!) and chicken noodle soup. (Alex confesses, “I am the worst Jew.  I love bacon, I’m covered in tattoos and I’m terrible with money!”)

That’s when we realized: we were just three Hebrews hanging out and enjoying some delicious pork!

Not Kosher. Not sorry.

 Chef Alex, thanks for having us!  We’re looking forward to shots of Jameson and fist bumps at the Atlanta Food Rave!  See you there, sir!

xx, L+L

P.S. Thank you, also, to Caren, Natalie and Caren West PR!  We LOVE you.