A great article by way of Andrew Sullivan...
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July 2008
July 31, 2008
July 30, 2008
July 25, 2008
Red Hen Dinner
I assisted Tucker with an 11 course dinner Wednesday night for some of our investors.
Swiss chard from Stonehouse Farms:
Tomatoes with morning dew:
More veggies from Brendan. Baby turnips, carrots, and pickled carrots. The turnips and carrots were cooked at 83 C for a few hours and were delicious:
The circulator hard at work cooking the lamb:
36 hour short ribs. These were the standout of the night.
Tucker explaining the lamb dish. This kitchen was gorgeous. Huge thanks to the Wallers for hosting this party:
For pictures of all the food, head over to the restaurant's blog
From top to bottom, the dishes were:
Shrimp sheet with watermelon, tomato, strawberry, and jalapeno
Sweetbreads cooked in molasses butter with dandelion puree and blackberries
36 hour short rib over wade's mill grits and caciotta al tartufo
Seared halibut with green bean and tomato salad and caramelized spring onion
Lamb with swiss chard, lamb confit, and wheatberries
Frozen peach air with fresh peaches and raspberry puree
Sage pastry cream with blackberries and pie crust
Chocolate-earl grey ganache with lemon shortbread and honey.
Huge thanks to everyone who made this possible.
July 11, 2008
Pork Belly Sous-Vide
I got some awesome local pork belly from Polyface Farms yesterday. All of this meat came off of a super pig apparently, as the entire belly was enormous.
Following Tucker's model...
Clockwise from the top left:
Chorizo-poached
Soy-Maple-Chili
Thyme-Cracked Pepper
Dijon-Apple
In the bath at 158 F. Let's see how it turns out...
July 09, 2008
July 08, 2008
Chocolate-Cranberry-Miso
I made a chocolate chantilly a la Herve This and froze it in order to see what it would do. It ended up tasting delicious, like ice cream but not. Like a Wendy's frosty made with dark chocolate. It melts in the mouth immediately and provides a great texture. Unfortunately, it also melts immediately on the plate, hence the shoddy picture.
For a more scientific explanation of the chantilly, here's Heston Blumenthal making it.
Chocolate and salt are delicious, so I finished the frozen chantilly with cranberry-miso taffy and some smears of its puree.
18 Hour Short Ribs
136 degrees.
July 06, 2008
Blue in Green
"It doesn't matter how it sounds, it only matters how it feels."-Dr. Lonnie Smith (by way of Cyrus Pace)
No one cares about what mode or jazz scale Miles was playing in Blue in Green, no one cares about the so-called "fundamentals" of the harmony in the song, and to think that the musicians on the track cared either is missing the point entirely. People (including myself) are infatuated with the beauty, grace, and most importantly, the feeling expressed within the song's boundaries.
Like with music, food simply does not matter if it doesn't feel good all around. The experience is paramount to the techniques used or what it sounds like on a menu.
No one cares about music that, although it might sound interesting, does not feel good, and the same seems to go for restaurants these days. People go out to eat in order for the whole experience it provides. Ingredients served in establishments these days are readily available in most grocery stores, and this combined with people becoming better home cooks means that every restaurant now has to become a destination. Going out to eat has to be an exciting experience that feels good. You could have a kitchen with the nicest equipment, tons of money, and a huge staff to make cutting edge food, but if it falls flat and the experience sucks, then you're done. I feel like the next few years will separate the "men from the boys" so to speak and we'll see who can really get their shit together...
July 03, 2008
Aw, sheet
Terrible pun, amazing food product. I unfortunately have no access at home to squeeze bottles, pastry bags or anything like that so I was only able to use methocel to make sheets of sauce.
Hot mozzarella sheet:
Salted melon sheet:
Olive oil...sheet:
Methocel has an awesome mouthfeel. I thought it would be a lot tougher and gel-like, but I was surprised to find that the additive didn't alter the product at all, once I started eating whatever was sheeted, it immediately went back to the true flavor. Delicious.