Who is this Chef Nordo?

Chef Nordo Lefesczki is the inspiration for this blog. Nordo travels the country attempting to change the landscape of American cuisine with his simple, often bare, but eccentric restaurants. He is not necessarily a kind nor well-behaved man, but rather a relentless agitator against the poor, poor health and lack of imagination in our very vitality- our food. Nordo rails. And we want to help him.

What is going on here?

We're cooking! Call it cooking with a joie de cynicism. The food industry the world over is atrocious. It is the darker side of our human nature to corral, suppress, control, and kill for our own needs even if, in the end, it damages our world and ourselves. On the other hand, food should exhibit all the best characteristics of humanity including its humor. Don’t perceive yourself somehow superior or removed from nature because if you do you are ignorant, arrogant, and, well, not who we need to make this a better world.
Don’t let the sarcasm or brutality turn you away, it is only a way to prod your spleen and get your attention! Imagine the long naked carcass of a steer slid onto a hook...pretty brutal. And remember, nothing was ever gained by staying under the blanket. Along the way, we hope to explore food, learn about food, let food inform us, and find ourselves about a fire or an oven, with a well-loved and well-done leg of meat slowly roasting while a bottle or two of finely fermented grapes makes the rounds. The stars are high above, and as we take from the earth we offer thanks.

Do you think that chickens should have their beaks sawed off so that they cannot peck the eyes out of other chickens while they spend their stressful lives in boxes?

No. Of course not. A good animal to eat is not an uncared for animal full of stressful hormones, without the touch of natural light, without the proper foods, without the ability to run and fight. Our chickens are not square so that they pack better. The food industry is one reason to learn about your food so that you avoid the poisons of modern living. One must care for one’s food or it is garbage.

Do we agree that 1.8 billion tons of chicken shit should be dumped in the Chesapeake estuary system from the thousands of farms that provide Americans with cheap meat?

No. God no. Fuck no. Regulate that shit. Make the manufacturers refine it and account for it. Make the price of the bird go up to reflect all its costs, both economically and environmentally. We cannot feed ourselves on engorged, force fed box chicken and ignore the dead zones of over oxygenated oceans that strangle our fish and lay one of our best food resources- the oceans- barren.

Do we believe in vegans?

No. We call them houseplants.

What is Nordo’s take on foam and other such fancified modern machine food schticks?

That’s difficult. It is of course ridiculous and without style and most likely without nutrition and does make one think of the 80’s like puffy, over sprayed, stiff bangs or bubble skirts, but, on the other hand, there is a good joke in almost everything and a good joke always has its place. And besides, who says Nordo has taste? He disdains taste.

What is Nordo’s personal philosophy?

Break a gourd and let the waters spill on the ground each morning. Is this useful or not useful? No one knows.