FOOD & DRINK

Food ink

From broccoli to cupcakes, mixers to oven mitts, food-related tattoos aren't just for chefs and home cooks.

By Addie Broyles
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Tuesday, September 22, 2009

For Uchi executive pastry chef Philip Speer , there is no food as perfect as the peanut.

"I challenge you to find me a food that does not go with peanuts," he says. He loves peanuts so much that he got a tattoo of one with the words "Always Good" on his leg. Mulberry chef Zack Northcutt paid tribute to the pig - a "magical beast," he calls it - with a tattoo on his leg and a banner with the words "Praise the Lard." Uchi cook Jared Ferguson made so many BLT sandwiches at a previous job at a sandwich shop that he had the bacon-covered sandwich tattooed on his forearm.

When it comes to something as essential to life as food, it's no wonder so many people have food-related tattoos.

Madeline Pizzo wanted a tattoo that made her happy when she looked at it, so when the former vegan was cooking on tour with guitar heartthrob John Mayer a few years ago, she got a tattoo of broccoli on her forearm. A companion avocado tattoo followed a few years later. "It's fun and silly," she says, a reminder to herself not to take things so seriously. "I always get a good feeling from food," says Pizzo, who now cooks at Thai Fresh.

"Most people don't like their jobs enough to get something of their job tattooed on them," says Chris Gunn, a tattoo artist who co-owns Southside Tattoo on South Congress Avenue. Besides chefs, Gunn says police officers, mechanics and hairstylists are typically the only other people who get an aspect of their profession tattooed on their bodies.

Despite the long hours and often low pay, "cooking is our life," Ferguson says. "Food is what allows me to provide food for my family," Speer says.

Chefs aren't the only ones with enough food in their blood to get it permanently inked on their skin.

Phil West, who owns a public relations company, got an eggplant on his calf back in his vegetarian days in Seattle in the early 1990s. Pineapple Tangaroa, co-owner of Shaman Modifications in South Austin, has an upside-down cake topped with his namesake, as well as a pineapple-topped Pez dispenser.

In exchange for free coffee for life, several Thunderbird Coffee customers, including Kara Perlman, have gotten tattoos of the coffeeshop's logo. Co-owner Chris Cusack sent out the offer in an e-mail newsletter, and he says four people already have gotten tattoos.

Perlman says the red tattoo on her hip already has paid for itself. "People laugh," the Thunderbird regular says, "but it was the most responsible decision I've made in ages."

Gunn says that people sometimes get a tattoo as a reminder to avoid vices like sweets or alcohol. He says candy, lollipops, bubble gum and fruit - especially grapes, apples and cherries - are popular with women.

Tattoo artist Stacey Martin has nearly a dozen food-related tattoos on her arms, from salt and pepper shakers to a portrait of Martha Stewart with the letters "W.W.M.D." on a banner underneath. "I look up to her, despite everything she's been through," says Martin, who got the tattoo after Stewart served five months in prison for lying about a stock sale. "She came out of it in a classy way, and now she's bigger than ever."

Martin says that one of the reasons for all the food-related tattoos is that people are migrating back into the kitchen. "People are into homemaking again, but not like Susie Homemaker," she says. "The idea of being self-sufficient is a huge thing now ... It's no longer, `Hey, this is all I do,'" she says of modern-day homemaking. "It's part of being able to do many things well." Martin has tattoos of oven mitts and mixers, and she knows how to use them.

Kitchen utensils and tools, such as forks, spatulas, mixers or ovens, are popular because they are classic and rarely change, Martin says.

Cupcakes are particularly popular right now, says Martin, an artist at Shaman Modifications. She says she's tattooed about one cupcake per month since moving to Austin from New York last year. "I've never been to a city with so many cupcake shops," Martin says. Two years ago, owls were the trendy tattoo to get, and now it's cupcakes. Why? "They are cute, cuter than dolphins," she says, "and you can customize it."

Amid the brightly colored koi fish and flowers that cover about a quarter of her body, you'll find a cupcake tattoo on Kristin Gunn, Chris Gunn's wife, who got the tattoo when she launched her cupcake trailer, Sugarstar Cupcakes. She added a bowl of cherries with the word "life" to her tattoo collection last week.

"I'm getting more grown-up tattoos now," she says over the buzz of her husband's tattoo gun as she points to the word "gratitude" on one arm and her grandparents' names on the other. Eating isn't usually allowed while getting tattooed, but Kristin Gunn says she's always starving afterward. "It makes me want to go out and eat mashed potatoes, pork chops and mac and cheese from Threadgill's," she says.

Some food tattoos are done as joke tattoos, Chris Gunn says, but they can be meaningful and inspirational if done right. "It's easy with a dragon or a bleeding heart, but it's harder when it's a simple piece of fruit or bacon."

Realistic-looking images of, say, a saltine cracker are difficult to ink on skin, and a tattoo artist can't rely on classically symbolic elements such as fire, eyeballs, wind, teeth and claws to evoke an emotion, Chris Gunn says. That doesn't mean he hasn't tattooed an open-faced BLT sandwich with clouds and beams of light shining from behind it for a woman in honor of her father's favorite food.

A well-done tattoo of an orange candy peanut taught him an essential lesson about tattooing: "There is no such thing as a small, rinky-dink tattoo," he says. "Take something as simple as a piece of candy, and if you're a good enough artist, you can make it beautiful."

abroyles@statesman.com; 912-2504

Linus' Pumpkin Cupcakes

This isn't the cupcake tattooed on Kristin Gunn's leg, but it is one of her favorites and it's named after her son, Linus.

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 (3.4 oz.) package instant butterscotch pudding mix

2 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

1 Tbsp. ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp. ground ginger

1/2 tsp. ground allspice

1/4 tsp. ground cloves

1/3 cup finely chopped crystallized ginger

1 cup butter, room temperature

1 cup white sugar

1 cup packed brown sugar

4 eggs, room temperature

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 (15 oz.) can pumpkin purée

For cream cheese frosting:

4 oz. cream cheese

1/2 cup butter

2 cups powdered sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

1 tsp. cinnamon

Preheat an oven to 350 degrees. Grease 24 muffin cups, or line with paper muffin liners. Whisk together the flour, pudding mix, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ground ginger, allspice, cloves and crystallized ginger in a bowl; set aside.

Beat the butter, white sugar and brown sugar with an electric mixer in a large bowl until light and fluffy. The mixture should be noticeably lighter in color. Add the room-temperature eggs one at a time, allowing each egg to blend into the butter mixture before adding the next. Beat in the vanilla extract and pumpkin purée with the last egg. Stir in the flour mixture, mixing until just incorporated. Pour the batter into the prepared muffin cups.

Bake in the preheated oven until golden and the tops spring back when lightly pressed, about 20 minutes. Cool in the pans for 10 minutes before removing to cool completely on a wire rack.

For icing, combine all ingredients and spread frosting on top of the cupcakes. Makes 24 cupcakes.

- Kristin Gunn, owner of Sugarstar Cupcakes

Macaroni and Cheese

Tattoo artist Stacey Martin says Martha Stewart's macaroni and cheese is one of her favorite dishes from one of her favorite people.

8 Tbsp. (1 stick) unsalted butter, plus more for casserole dish

6 slices white bread, crusts removed, torn into 1/4- to 1/2-inch pieces

1/8 tsp. onion powder

1/8 tsp. granulated garlic

5 1/2 cups milk

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

2 tsp. coarse salt, plus more for water

1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg

1/4 tsp. ground cumin

1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper

1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper

4 1/2 cups (about 18 oz.) grated white or yellow sharp cheddar cheese

1 1/4 cups (about 5 oz.) grated Parmesan cheese

1 lb. elbow macaroni or shells

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Butter a 3-quart casserole dish. Place the bread in a medium bowl. In a small saucepan over medium heat, melt 2 tablespoons butter. Pour the melted butter, onion powder and garlic into the bowl with the bread, and toss. Set casserole dish and breadcrumbs aside.

Warm the milk in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Melt the remaining 6 tablespoons butter in a high-sided skillet over medium heat. When the butter bubbles, add the flour. Cook, stirring, 1 minute.

While whisking, slowly pour in the hot milk a little at a time to keep mixture smooth. Continue cooking, whisking constantly, until the mixture bubbles and becomes thick, 8 to 12 minutes.

Remove the pan from the heat. Stir in salt, nutmeg, cumin, black pepper, cayenne pepper, 3 cups cheddar cheese and 1 cup Parmesan; set the cheese sauce aside.

Cover a large pot of salted water and bring to a boil. Cook the pasta until the outside is cooked and the inside is underdone, 2 to 3 minutes.

Transfer pasta to a colander, rinse under cold running water and drain well. Stir the macaroni into the reserved cheese sauce.

Pour the mixture into the prepared dish. Sprinkle the remaining 11/2 cups cheddar cheese, 1/4 cup Parmesan and the breadcrumbs over the top. Bake until golden brown, about 30 minutes.

Transfer the dish to a wire rack for 5 minutes; serve.

- Adapted from `The Martha Stewart Living Cookbook: The Original Classics'

Peanut Butter Semifreddo with Golden Raisin Purée and Apple Miso Sorbet

Uchi's most popular dessert stems from pastry chef Philip Speer's passion for peanuts. He says it's a play on a childhood snack, and this is a modified recipe to make it easier to make at home.

For semifreddo:

1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream

1/4 tsp. salt

1/4 Tbsp. vanilla extract

4 oz. cream cheese, room temperature

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

1/2 cup sugar

For raisin purée:

1 1/4 cups golden raisins

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup sake

1/2 cup mirin

1/2 tsp salt

For apple miso sorbet:

1 lb. Fuji apples, cored and seeded but not peeled

2 oz. miso

1/2 cup water

2 cups simple syrup

1 tsp. salt

For semifreddo, whip cold heavy cream, salt and vanilla to soft peaks, reserve and chill. In mixer, mix room-temperature cream cheese, peanut butter and sugar. Mix well, until mixture is a smooth consistency. Add half of reserved whipped cream. Mix well, being careful not to not overmix. Transfer mixture into large mixing bowl. Gently fold remaining whipped cream into mixture. Pour mixture into plastic wrap-lined terrine mold. Freeze for a minimum of 4 hours.

For raisin purée, combine all ingredients in small sauce pan. Bring to a boil and turn off heat. Let raisins sit in the pan for 30 minutes to rehydrate. Blend all ingredients in blender to form a smooth purée. Refrigerate and put in squeeze bottle for service. Reserve remaining purée in airtight container.

In blender, purée apples. Combine 1 cup of apple purée with miso paste; add water, simple syrup, and salt. Chill mixture and freeze in ice cream machine according to manufacturer's directions.

Half an hour before serving time, remove terrine of semifreddo from freezer. With a hot knife, slice into desired serving sizes. I usually slice about 3/4 of an inch thick. Place individual slices on serving plates and refrigerate so that the temperature of the semifreddo rises. The goal is to have a partially frozen center with a creamy soft outside. When ready for serving, scoop a liberal serving of apple and miso sorbet next to the semifreddo and finish with golden raisin purée. At Uchi, we also garnish with ground peanut brittle and dehydrated apple slices ("ringo crisp s" ). Serves 8.

- Philip Speer, Uchi executive pastry chef