STUDIOKITCHEN

Prep Work Scenes

Prep work is like therapy.

Morel Ravioli

Content to be added later.
Suffice to say grinding up morels for duxelles is rather painful to watch but it's all for a good cause.

Brandade-Egg

Freeze an Egg Yolk in a silicone demi-sphere.
Wrap with a ball of firm brandade (yes with potato).
Crust with instant mashed potato.
Fry.

Served with
BlackBread-Prune Anchoiade.
Arugula.

CVAP

Finally got my own oven today, now the real fun begins.

oo ah ah ah  <--- James Bond Villain Laugh.

Click   Winston Industries.

I got  CAC-503 with a glass door.

Gotta have the glass door.

Walter's Lunch.

Over the years I have met several people who have transcended from clients to great friends.
They truly appreciate great food without any bullshit diet restrictions. As a result I have had an amazing rapid exposure to great wine I definitely cannot afford.
One of these groups that have taken me under their wings is the Commanderie de Bordeaux  and in particular Monsieur Rich a.k.a "Sir Walter".
So being a guest member, it is time to give back to Walter and cook  his birthday lunch for the usual suspects.

No doubt the wines will be sick.

Menu.

Foie Gras Brulee
Chocolate Salt

Panko Fried Egg
Smoked Pastrami
Spring Legumes
Black Truffle

Roasted Quail
Vadouvan Salt
Pea Flan
Curry Leaf Jus

Veal Tenderloin
Boudin of Ris De veau
Morel Ravioli

Undetermined Cheese

Vanilla-Ginger Scented Apricots
Lemon-Buttermilk Bavarois
Almond-Ginger Soil
Orange Croquant

Panko Egg.

Poach Egg.
Liquid Yolk.
Pane Anglaise with panko.
Fry at 325F.

Make emulsion of equal parts hazelnut oil, truffle juice and concentrated chicken bouillon with bamix.

Fill into syringe.
Insert  a few cc's into fried "poached" egg above as soon as done.

Serve egg over salted compressed raw asparagus.
Griddled artichoke.
Moliterno Cheese.
Watercress.
Morels would be nice.

My dinner last night, quite delicious for a predictable dish.
The yolk-truffle-hazelnut emulsion is insane.

Rule #32

Rule  #32 occurred this afternoon at a catering job.

A little background, as a terorrised comis back in the day, I have always been steadfastly against the assholleric communication style in French kitchens and egomaniacal American kitchens that I swore if I was ever in charge anywhere, I would not insult anyone. The truth is nobody has ever done anything better or properly by being diminished as a human being so I watch my language in the heat of battle. However some offenses are so egregious that language is the second casualty.

Rule #32.

It is OK to say  occasionally                         "Dude, WTF are you doing ?"

The reason : I told an unnamed culinary school graduate to separate lobsters and chop up the bodies for shellfish jus. He chopped up the tails an proceeds to argue with me that the tails were the bodies and the bodies were the heads. WTF are they teaching at cooking schools these days.

Tragic.

It just really sucks when good wine goes bad.
A downright tragedy.
Oh well, life goes on.

Drink on brothers, drink on.

Growing.

Day 7 Radishes.

Rule #31

"Truffled" is not an adjective.

You can add truffles to something.
You can even add truffle juice.
Hopefully not truffle oil.

But you cannot "truffle" something.

R and D

CONGRATULATIONS.

Finally a wedding with decent food.
Rock-on brother.
Rae, I love you too.

Love the marshmallow chocolates.
When are we starting wholesale for caterers ?

More on Rae ?
Click Below.

RAE

Germinating Seeds

Upgrade.

Some of the work I am doing in the next few weeks should be pretty interesting including the farm plot, CVAP oven and Kitchen Design work. I decided therefore it is time for a wide angle lens. I ran across town to Adorama and bought THIS.
Exciting pictures to come.
Sheeeze it's about as much as a circulator.

New York Stories 2

A lovely day in Central Park today, after a quick client consultation and a nice chat on the benefits of CVap VS Rational Combi Oven with JOEL , I decided to get out of Manhattan for dinner.
A short scenic drive to the barnyard.
Very good food, great philosophy.
I suggest you go if you haven't already.
Anything else you want to know ?

Click HERE.

Sorrel Margarita with Arugula Salt.
Who knew ?

Impregnated Sashimi

 

Yellowfin Tuna Compressed for 2 hrs.

85% Vacuum

White Shoyu
Mirin
Dashi

The fish takes on a "Japanese" flavor without it's delicacy being overwhelmed.

On to the final dish.

Canon 5D

I am in the process of upgrading my digicam, you know because the pictures on this blog suck.

While it's a rather basic plate of food with marginal creativity, I just had to slap something together to shoot a picture with the Canon 5D and a seriously good macro lens.

Ragout of Boneless Chicken Wings, Sweetbreads, Asparagus and Morels
Poached Egg
Toasted Hazelnut  Infused Chicken Jus

A winter dish pretending to be spring.

oops.....and Benton's lardons.
Definitely winter.

New York Stories

 

It's fun to see what other restaurants are doing and what better way to spend an evening off that roam around NYC, with passover and the pope in town it was a recipe for no waits anywhere, you could just walk right in and eat.

I much rather prefer sitting at the bar and haven't made a reservation in months.
Now that Wylie is all over Iron and Top Chef, I thought what the hell lets just go to WD-50 on an off night. Guess who was standing at the pass...Ha!
It's impressive to see New York Chefs actually in their kitchens on a Saturday night.
After having a quite tasty Escabeche of Sawara at the tasting room earlier, I thought it would be a great time to finally try Alex Stupak's desserts finally. I have to say the boy makes some good stuff, pistachio tube being my favorite.

They were quite nice enough to do a dual 3 course dessert tasting. Sadly no camera besides that would have attracted too much attention.

What next ? Thought I would find my pal Amador Acosta and headed to TAILOR for some chicken wings I heard about. I love whimsy when it works.

If you are in NYC, go try the "Tailor made wings".
As I am eating my perfectly geometrical wings, I said to the quiet looking Brit, "are you Paul Liebrandt"

Why yes indeed I am.

You never know where the winds blow in NY, after being dragged to Milk and Honey by Mssrs Freeman and Acosta, the  evening ends at 3am on the lower east side.

New York stories indeed.

Sugar-up at WD.

Liquor-up at Tailor.

Foie Gras #18

Foie Gras

Smoked "Corn Muffin"
Corn "Anglaise"
Apricot "Raviolo"

Much to my chagrin, I used alginates and quotations.
A sign of bad things to come.

Votives

Votive Candle Holders
Crate and Barrel

Freeze 24hrs
Perfect for cold seafood

Hiramasa Tartare
Tomato Sorbet
Lemon Gelee

Pork Cheeks

Pork Cheek Tart Tatin
Benton's Bacon Ice Cream

White Chocolate-Caviar

White Chocolate-Almond Panna Cotta
Clear Seaweed Gelee
Ossetra Caviar
Puffed Parsnip

Say What ?

A well known Chicago chef I will absolutely under no circumstances name forwarded me a blog post this afternoon asking for my opinion on something he had read  and wanted to know if I agreed.
Here is the post in question.

Read the whole post first.

The Flavor of Color.

For the record, Tasting menu is one of the best blogs out there full of solid helpful information by the very talented Dana. This is not an attack but an intellectual disagreement.

All  cooks  have a fiduciary responsibility not to allow dicey statements that go to the very heart of cuisine  to be taken as gospel.

The problem is not obvious but it is there.
Here is the problem :

This quote from the post clarifies the issue.

"I made a fresh sour cherry sauce that while stunning in flavor, was an off brown color. I split the sauce into two batches, and colored one with a bit of red food coloring. Two drops changed the dull brown color into a bright, vibrant red, much the color of the unprocessed cherries themselves. I had the cooks I worked with taste both and tell me which one tasted better, citing a difference in method as the reason for the color variation.

Cook after cook named the bright red cherry sauce as the better of the two. Way better, hands down above and beyond, they all said in their own words. To them, the bright red was an indicator of real cherry flavor, a better product, better handling, thus the sauce tasted better.

This brings up a deeper question. If the two sauces were identical in flavor, one only varying by the addition of two drops of color, then could one possibly taste better than the other? In fact the sauces were the same composition of flavor and texture, but in perception they were different, so which one is true?"

Lingot du Quercy

Dude why does every goddamn cheese course come with absurdly sweet condiments these days said my friend David, cheese is not a substitute for dessert. I suppose you can have it for dessert but it isn't dessert. It's cheese.

WTF ?

I suppose I sort of agree with him, I generally am not a fan of super-sweet stuff and in particular Philistine preparations like truffle honey.

I  like savory pairings with cheese far better, let's the cheese shine rather than compete with sugar. You can't compete with sugar unless you are acid or heat, two factors as far as I know are absent sufficient quantities in any cheese worth eating.

Um.....Boursin is NOT cheese.
It's joint compound for drywall.

and...Membrillo is not that sweet, in fact i would swear the membrillo in Spain isn't as sweet as what is shipped to the USA just like the "Mirin Syndrome".

Don't know what the Mirin syndrome is ?

Well Japanese mirin is less sweet than American mirin, even the Japanese have realized what a sugar obsessed lot we Americans have become and the whole world is slowly killing us with sugar.

Isn't that sweet ?

Beets and goat cheese are seamless.

Salt roasted golden beets simply dressed in "TBA" vinegar and hazelnut oil.
Lingot du Quercy, a fantastic tang and complexity.
Peppercress and Lovage for a vegetal counterpoint.

Repeat after me....in your best german accent.

TROCKEN..............BEEREN................AUSLESE !

Fantastic vinegar fron Gegenbauer.

Gingerbread Soil

Ginger Snaps
Golden Fried Marcona Almond
Super finely diced Crystallized Ginger
Salt
Brown Butter Solids from Ideasinfood
Toasted Brioche

Dinner UES 4.19.08

Hiramasa Tartare
Yuzu Kosho . Lemon Gelee
Tomato

Foie Gras
Burnt Maple Sugar
Apricot . Gingerbread

Ris de Veau
Marcona Almond
Ramps . Morels . Cauliflower
Curry Leaf Emulsion

Pork Cheek "Tart-Tatin"
White Bean-Benton's Bacon Ice Cream
Sweet Fennel Jus

St Nizer
Butterscotch Ice Cream
Smoked Brown Butter Soil
"Instant" Coffee Salt

Pressure Cooked Nuts.

Cuisinart makes it really easy to tenderise nuts.
Pressure cooked pine nuts with water, salt and pine nut oil.
Great texture and better flavor.

Cooked with Leblanc Hazelnut oil, they were fantastic.
Also try Sicilian pistachios with  Leblanc pistachio oil, water, salt, sugar.

Leblanc oils can be found at Keller Imports.

Cauliflower as dessert.

Version1.
Milk + Cream infused with cauliflower, sugar and egg yolks cooked as a "creme brulee".

Version2.
Milk + Cream infused with cauliflower, sugar and set with iota carrageenan.

Custard Burned.
Cube of poached pineapple.
Mandarin orange syrup.
Gingerbread soil.
Whipped peach (versawhip).

Version 2 was better, much clearer communication of cauliflower flavor which is a revelation balanced against orange.

Less "eggy" flavor and completely light.

Spring

Spring is here. European Morels. Ramps.

Rule #30

Rule #30

You are not Thomas Keller.

If I see one more person use cute menu language like "Liver and Onions", "Meat and Potatoes", "Lobster Roll" a-la Laundry cookbook to describe far more contemporary and complicated dishes, I think I am going to have to gag.
Remember that famous VP debate between Lloyd Bentsen and Dan Quayle back in the day ?

"I knew Mr keller, I ate Mr Keller's food, you sir are no Thomas Keller".

and while we are at it, don't do the Trotter "Studies" of food either.

Rule #29

As you well know if you have been reading between the lines, I strongly make an association between music and food in terms of composition and execution.
If music has taught us anything, "updated classics" usually turn out to be a bad idea.
I had a not so good dinner this weekend with Xanthan gum in the creamed spinach that looked like a baby was burped into  Limoges china.
No bueno.

Switched on classics indeed.