A New Mountain Cookery

Thoughts

A great article by way of Andrew Sullivan... 

Food for Thought

Rising food costs

A good read from Reason magazine about rising food costs across the world...

http://reason.com/news/show/127428.html

New Town House menu

The Town House Grill in Chilhowie seems to have gone to an all-tasting menu, and it looks awesome:

Town House menu

The Ideas in Food dinner at McCrady's

Ideas in Food was down at McCrady's Restaurant in Charleston the past weekend and Josh Smith, sous chef at 202 Market was lucky enough to be in attendance. Here's a picture that he snapped of one of the dishes served:

Griddled Crab Tail
corn blanket, chow chow, woodear mushrooms

Great thanks to Josh for the picture.

WTF

Saw this at Kroger:

I want to make it. I've seen plenty of sheets on plates from various sources, Alinea's campari sheet, Ideas in Food's shrimp sheets, etc, but I've never seen it with caramel. Delicious...but how do you do it?

Richard Blais

So he didn't win Top Chef...

While I thought he made some very clean, clever food, I thought that his overall approach to cooking was somewhat lacking in terms of ingredients. He seemed to sometimes let the gadgets and progressive techniques run the direction of his dishes, and not the other way around, in effect creating a barrier between himself and the diner. He has proven himself as an amazing chef within the show and in jobs he has had, so I'm not trying to take anything away from him. His cooking just seemed too "busy," I guess is the word.

I prefer seeing a more "organic" approach, where new techniques are used to elevate already terrific ingredients, whether through new textures, temperatures, or what have you. The dishes seen on Ideas in Food, for example, seem to be a perfect combination of ingredient and technique.

Apparently at the moment Blais is working at Home Restaurant in Atlanta, which has a pretty interesting menu, and from what I've read, it's on point. It seems like he's taking a simpler approach to the food, although he is using a lot of modern techniques with the menu-liquid nitrogen, sous-vide, etc.

All the best to him and I hope to try his food at some point.

What is "Molecular Gastronomy"

An awesome post by Michael Ruhlman on his blog about the movement and the way it has been branded to the everyday public by the media. Great insight from the food scientist and writer Harold McGee and Grant Achatz, chef/owner of Alinea in Chicago.

What Does Molecular Gastronomy Mean?