Chef and Joon proprietor Chris Morgan has been a mentee of legendary chef and cookbook creator Najmieh Batmanglij since 2013 and created Joon’s Persian and Center Jap menu along with her. Now he’s serving up complete fish, slow-cooked meats, and kabobs that play with conventional flavors and have garnered nationwide approval for the upscale Northern Virginia restaurant.
Morgan walks his approach by means of the kitchen as completely different stations prep dishes for service, together with about 500 private servings of crispy tahdig rice which can be prepared within the walk-in fridge always. The restaurant goes by means of tons of of kilos of basmati rice every week, filling small containers with rices flavored with herbs, bitter cherries, or saffron. Subsequent, he checks in on his kabob cook dinner, who has been constructing barg (beef tenderloin), kubideh (floor lamb), and rooster kebabs for over 20 years, and might construct them uniformly by hand. Morgan breaks down a 75-pound Shenandoah lamb scoring the meat and prepping to cook dinner it down for dizi (lamb neck stew). Vats of brilliant, lemony hummus are made for the lunch and dinner rush. A complete branzino is full of pistachio and herbs — about 10 are offered every day — and they’re roasted contemporary for every order.
Earlier than the push of dinner service, Batmanglij joins the kitchen to strive the lamb neck stew, speaking in regards to the background behind the dish and the way it’s historically eaten. She explains that “joon” means “life” in Persian and is used to explain the thrill in life, together with making an attempt a scrumptious dish.
Watch the newest episode of Mise en Place to see how Morgan and his crew put together kebabs, stews, flatbread, and complex rice dishes to feed the 265 seats within the gold and blue-flecked eating room.
