For the last few months I thought Twitter was for 13 year old girls and bored congressmen however upon further investigation and talking to Alex about the collaboration dinner, it seems like a great way to share the thought process behind creating the menu and details of logistics.
Without further ado......
Studiokitchen is now on Twitter.
Lobster Poached in Truffle Butter
First of the Actual Summer Peas Accompanied By Their Shoots
Gratuitous Menu Language
Goats Milk Ricotta Rigatoni
Vadouvan Masala Butter
Toasted Pine Nut "Keema"
Spicy Cheddar
Ill advised cookery but terribly delicious.
How do you get organized ?
I take the most intuitive approach to organize things in grouped categories.
Things that belong in the same category as opposed to in the same dish.
Time for a new rule.
I was in a conversation with a guest of a client last night who was on the precipice of being annoying while I was trying to cook.
He kept asking me about the "logic" of my compositions and while I scrapped for eloquent answers, I was thinking.....Dude It's just food !
I have never been one to seek validation with bs answers.
Pardon the vulgarity, I am not quite sure there is a better word to communicate the frustration in these kinds of situations besides bs.
My mind wandered back to my Deepak Chopra classes hence new Rule #48....adapted for chefs....and cooks !
Resist any temptation to allow your sanity and mental comfort to be attached to others accepting your point of view.
One of the most meaningless yet profound statements in mankind and womynkind.
New Rule #48
It is what it is.
Reverse composition means I get to taste the wine first before making the menu.
These are beef eaters hence the two meat courses.
Sometimes no matter how creative you want to be, you have to cook simple food your clients want.
I am not in this business to teach.
Corn Soup
Honeycap Mushroom Agrodolce
Maple Vinegar Glazed Chicken Wings
Sea Scallops
Speck
Radishes . Baby Leeks. Sea Beans
Spicy Lemon Gelee
Goats Milk Ricotta Stuffed Rigatoni
Vadouvan Keema
Peanut Milk
Sharp Cheddar
Grass Fed Hanger Steak
Brown Butter Parsnips
Royal Trumpet Mushroom
Pickled Baby Leeks
Pineapple Cannelloni
Ginger Water
Fluid Holy Basil
Lemon-Brie Ice Cream
I never run out of Parmesan Cheese, I may get dangerously low but it's like blood pressure to me.
Parmesan always saves the day.
Pasta in the house, basil in the garden, pancetta in the freezer, eggs are a constant.
Carbonara is the weeknight life saver, a simple expression of flavor and authenticity.
I never run out of Parmesan cheese.
Olive Oil
Garlic
Ginger
and the list goes on.....
.............Change the texture of Oreos to be less resistant and fill them with Foie Gras instead of Icing.
Who does that appeal to ?
What is Creativity ?
Where do you get inspiration ?
Is it any less legitimate when it comes from pedestrian snack foods ?
Is a Macaroon pedestrian ?
Wouldn't a chocolate macaroon with foie gras be delicious ?
That is if you like chocolate and foie gras.
Which part is the filling ?
The Chocolate or the foie gras ?
Do any of these questions matter if it's tasty ?
Isn't what we do simply about tasty ?
What is tasty ?
The memorable things I remember eating.
Sometimes you just need to elevate the bloody basics.
No gums, activa, Kobe this, Wagyu that....!!!
A stunningly delicious Croque Madame.
Brioche
L'etivaz
Iberico Palleta
Truffle Vinaigrette
Egg cooked at 61C
Unbread That !!!
The Balthazar bread is dangerously close to a light airy genoise, perhaps when the poor people complained, Marie Antionette should have said "let them eat brioche"
11.08 Eastern Standard Time, the Eastern Coast of the United States of
America means lunchtime is upon us. Do you ever experience selective
hunger ?
Today my mind is gravitating somewhere in between France, Italy and Spain.
Since I did not have breakfast, I want a good egg dish, some cured meat, goobs of cheese, perhaps some gratuitous vegetables to give the illusion of a healthy meal.
I think I am going to make this right now.......first things first, drop a farm egg into a water bath and run over to DESPANA for some Iberico, Balthazar for some Brioche.
I think it's time a Croque Madame meets some Jamon Iberico.
Pictures around 3pm if I am still awake.
A frequently asked question on the blog is how these pictures are styled and composed, what kind of lighting and why do they look so stunning.
Are the retouched ?
Photoshopped ?
Tricky dusts, glues and substitute food items that look better than real food ?
EQUIPMENT:
You can't show up to the party unprepared, one can generally take very good pictures with a mid range digital SLR and built-in flash. I studied photography as an elective in college and have always been fascinated with it thus as funds have allowed, I invested in good equipment.
Up until this spring, I shot with a Canon Rebel XT which I eventually sold to my good friend Tucker Yoder.
Absolutely fantastic guy, check out his blog.
Currently because I eventually want the ability to print these pictures in high quality, I now shoot both in RAW and JPEG 21.1 Megapixel files.
Overkill perhaps but better safe than sorry.
Camera Body :
Lenses:
EF 85mm 1.2
EF 50mm 1.2
EF 100mm 2.8 Macro
EF 17-40 F4
Flash:
580 EXII
Surfaces:
High Quality white (porcelain white) food grade thermoplastic.
From an artistic perspective, this gives more flexibility for plating since you have a wider area to work with.
Lighting:
Unless I am shooting in daylight.
Post Shooting Software:
Adobe CS4 or in a pinch for simple stuff Lightroom 2.
THE FOOD:
is actually real, no tricks, just cook, plate and shoot asap.
Lots of frames, pick the best ones.
Daylight late afternoon sun works very well, a bit less harsh and more natural.
Fantastic Wine.
Every now and then you just come across a bottle that is stunning.
Giuseppe
Quintarelli
Amarone Della Valpolicella
New rule #47.
You cannot ask me for money when I am BUYING stuff from you.
You cannot even buy food in peace anymore, what the hell is up with this annoying precedent of retail stores panhandling from their own customers with a mixture of guilt and manipulation.
#1 offender : WHOLE FOODS.
Why do I need to be asked every time to buy an overpriced "reusable" bag or make a donation to a charity championed by a grocery chain that is already in the minds of some customers a rip off ?
They make money on the bloody bags and make it seem that they are doing anyone but themselves a favor.
EVEN.....Ikea wants you to "Donate a dollar" to save a vaguely discussed tree that Dick Cheney is resting under at some undisclosed location.
Stores soliciting donations at the cash register is hypocrisy, if you are not going to allow homeless people to wander the aisles asking customers for money then you should not do it too.
The excuses are basically the same.
Unverified stories.
Lobster Mashed Potatoes.
Truffle Fries.
Chipotle Remoulade.
Thai Bouillabaise.
Cilantro Pesto.
Anything Demiglace......actually the emperors very old clothes which is even worse.
Tomato Mozzarella Napoleon.
Non-Shellfish Bisque.
Cross-Ethnic Tacos.
Risottos that do not include rice as an ingredient.
Olive Oil Powder
Any "air" except oxygen.
Non-brothy broths.
Fruit on Pizza
(Insert another root vegetable here besides potatoes) -Mashed Potatoes.
yes I am venting today.
Every year sometime between spring and summer, I do a complete spice inventory, old dead stuff is gotten rid of, others supplemented and new additions come into the pantry.
Up till now I have never been happy about how spices are stored, the problem was always the search for the perfect container system. The perfect container system is at the container store.
Find one near you.
This took the better part of 3 days, thanks to Le Sanc, Terra Spice, L'epicerie and few other.
It is now time to cook again.
Some Chefs say they are artists, others regard themselves as Artisans.
Few regard themselves as artists and even fewer say they are artisans.
Get it ?
I say both can co-exist without becoming too full of yourself.
Infused in the vacuum bag in gentle heat, eventually used to confit fish like wild Salmon.
Works great with Lamb too.
The conversations have started, equipment has been discussed, the creative process begins.
What are we going to cook.
That is the question.
One thing we know is it has to be better than the last time.
I love the bounty of spring legumes, most are terribly overcooked but I like the mid point between cooked and raw. You get flavor, texture and a stronger vegetal addition to any dish perhaps simply served on it's own.
Lately I quickly char fresh peas or fava beans with salt and peanut oil.
Immediately vacuum seal and toss into a bowl of icy water as you would blanch normal vegetables.
It cools rapidly without diluting the flavor.
Are you fixated on the color of food when you compose dishes ?
How about Black.
Olives
Garlic
Corn
Chicken
Collaboration Series Part 2
Friday July 10
Saturday July 11
Alex and I will be doing a second collaboration dinner in July.
Multiple courses, maximum creativity and flexibility.
We are not going to pre-plan a menu, we will simply start with ideas and let them evolve.
This dinner is about the consumption of good food with wine NOT a wine matching dinner.
Interested attendees should dispense with the OCD needs to pre-plan what wines they want to match courses with.
In order to attend this dinner, you cannot be allergic to or resistant in any way philosophically to any food item.
That means absolutely no diet restrictions whatsoever.
Just show up and eat.
Courses will be plenty.
Cost is $150.
E mail me your requests to attend and they will be responded to and processed on a first come first served basis.
Your intent to attend will be confirmed with prepayment by the specified date.
The Clones.
West Coast Halibut Brik
Pea Puree, Pea Shoots, Charred Peas
Summer Truffle Vinaigrette
This is more about mathematics than food but I find it slightly irritating when questionable math is used to make a point.
I was on a website by an unnamed restaurant entity that describes the kitchen as having "A Combined 80 Years of fine dining experience".
An innocent enough statement but in all seriousness if 5 people ranging in age from 36 to 45 work in the same entity for essentially the same time period of 15 to 20 years, it seems completely spurious to say that the number of years of experience is a simple aggregate of the number of individual employment length.
If all parties exist within the same creative time frame, why should the level of experience be multiplied as years by number of people ?
After all it would be clearly absurd to claim an entire college graduating class was simply impressive because they have a combined 400 Thousand credit-hours of knowledge.
What is up with that ?
Any math/statistical whiz kids out there ?
It's great on the cob.
When I lived in West Africa, we grilled it with husks on, sometimes wrapped with banana leaves.
I love Polenta with corn juice and Castelmagno cheese.
A very simple ingredient that can be elevated.
Twice Cooked Corn Souffle
L'etivaz
Celery
Sherry - Maple Vinegar
I may be preaching to the choir here but it's getting hot and cold first courses are de rigueur again.
Some items certainly require a bowl of crushed ice which creates yet another logistic element in the service of food. Thankfully we can solve that problem quickly by freezing high quality heavyweight glass votive holders. They hold temperature for a reasonable time and are quite elegant.
Lobster and Celeriac Remoulade
Tomato-Almond Gazpacho
Tomato Sorbet
Lemon Mosto Oil
Wishing everyone a fantastic weekend.
It is now officially sunny happy hour and I am starting mine with Pinot.
I doubt I will be posting anything new till Monday but then again I have reserve rainy day posts I haven't gotten to editing.
I made tommorow night's dinner tonight since I plan on zero cooking after tonight, a fantastic old school Bechamelasagna.
Refriderator to Cvap...done!
Yum.
Can't Wait.
It is rare to have 4 days off, I plan on burying myself in a new book.
I probably have about 20 waiting to be read.
Got these in the mail today thanks to our friends at Simon and Schuster.
A quiet Hendricks sipping weekend it will be.
Chive Flowers.
I believe the term is "bulby".
Testing Adobe Lightroom.
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