STUDIOKITCHEN

Make your own menu.

There used to be a time when I consulted with clients to see what they wanted to eat when they host dinner parties at their homes.
Now they just go to the blog, pick what looks good and make their own menus.
Easy for me.
An educated consumer is the best customer.

You go girl !

 

Chilled Corn Juice
Grapefruit and Fennel Confit

Crab "Spring Roll"
Tomato-Sorbet
Mustard Oil

Quail
Anise Salt . Fig-Onion Jam
Wild Watercress
Vincotto

Lamb Loin
Eggplant-Raisin Caponata
Whipped Cauliflower
Lamb "Bolognese"

Carica Soup
Lemon Buttermilk Sorbet
Spicy Togarashi Rice

Cookin 2

Pseudo Asian

Slow Cooked "Meadow Run Farm" Egg
Smoked Ham Hock Dashi
Sansho Pepper

King Crab Gently Griddled with Kaffir Lime and Screwpine Leaves
Pickled Spaghetti Squash
Spicy Sudachi Lime Gelee
Mint Oil

Miso Marinated Hamachi Belly
Fine Herb Salad
Meyer Lemon Vinaigrette

Foie Gras Poele
Yuzu Kosho
Delfina Cilantro
Kumquat

Star Anise Scented Quail
Ketcap Manis
Roasted Beet
Sorrel

Goat Cheese Brik
Fig-Onion Marmalade
Oka Hijiki

Cooking

Spring Basics.

Menu 4.10.08 Villanova.

Ramp Soup
Dayboat Scallops . Xeres
Pickled Ramps . Fennel Pollen

Morel Risotto
Castelmagno Cheese
Whipped Foie Gras

Citrus Oil Poached Black Cod
Moscatel-Miso Glaze . Pomme Ecrasee
Sweet Pea Jus

Roast Lamb
Spring Vegetables . Dried Fruits
Basil . Mint

Ginger Poached Apricots
Cauliflower "Brulee"
Gingerbread Condiment . Mandarin Orange Gelee

The Full Chateau D'yquem Dinner

Comments at ERobertparker.

Wine Comments.

Food Comments.

We Want Chocolate......with the runny center.

Blogging in Tribeca

11.10.07

Menu Below.
Alex...You Rock !

Menu 11.10.07

Kona Kanpachi
Radish. Yuzu. Miso

Foie Gras Custard
Blis Maple Glaze
Smoked Duck Panino

Butternut Squash Soup
"Tom Gai" Froth
Curried Peanut Praline
Roasted Fuji Apple

Prawns and Chicken Oysters
Spiced Carrot Puree
Cardamon-Carrot Juice
Preserved Lemon

Barramundi
Slow Cooked Farm Egg
Salicornia. Soybeans
Black Truffle

Wagyu Beef Tri-Tip
Oxtail Ravioli
Parsnip
Yuzu "Beurre Noisette"

Vacherin
St Agur
Selles Sur Cher
Moliterno

Pineapple "Ravioli"
Basil Oil
Olive Sugar
Lemon-Chaource ice Cream.

king Crab

The unanimous hit among the clients last night was the King crab course. Conservative tastes usually request the rather mundane, Filet Mignon, Crabcakes, Tuna Tartare, Chilean  Bass, Shrimp anything and such. While these may seem to provide no added creative value index, we just have to think a bit harder.

Description below :

Foodie Kids Part 1

I have been hired to do a small birthday dinner for a group of 8-9 year old boys and girls. Parents have hired me and given them the choice of what they want to eat. They aked for one specific thing, of course I was horrified but nothing convinces you like thier lovely young faces and the fat checks from thier parents. Not being one to settle for mediocrity, stage one of this meal requires me to roast two whole cull lobsters with standard aromatics, tomato paste and tarragon. I then transferred aforementioned dispatched lobsters into the blixer with 3/4 quarts or grapeseed oil and blended for 15 minutes. Let me tell you, this machine is scary. At 3400RPM and 3/4 horsepower, it reduces lobster shell and all into a fine paste. It's like the Wellcraft Scarab of food processors. Pass through a superbag and you get the loveliest fragrant roasted shellfish oil. Refrigerate. The rest comes later. Would you like to take a guess what these silly children want ?

Scenes from yet another dinner party.

My favourite people are those who have money and have come to the full realisation that once they die, besides a lavish funeral you arent going to take it with you. What do you do about it ? Enjoy your life, eat drink be merry, It would be nice to check your cholesterol and blood pressure now and then but I personally prefer the California Cabernet therapy to statins much like the French subscribe to.
More on the dinner below. These guys like to eat, no pretense, just tons of food.
Before anyone harps at me about seasonality, clients dictate what they want, they ask, I cook.
They pay me, they book another date, I go, take my ambien hit the sack.

Not in any particular order of service.
Details below.

Gone Fishing

A seafood dinner.
Rather Rather ambitious for a rehearsal but nonetheless pleasing to the clients and guests.
Actual menu below.

Say What.....

Every now and then a clients e mails and asks for something I clearly have no intention of making. I was recently asked to make cannoli for dessert. Cannoli is the absolute worst waste of calories, too fried, too rich however No was not an option for these cats. I then embarked on cleaning up cannoli. Rolled a standard tuile batter into a cylinder, filled it with chocolate chantilly and garnished with both a coffee and Mandarin orange glaze. In the end she said "my grandmother's cannoli was never like this, this is fabulous"

A Menu.

Warm Pink Spotted Prawns
Avocado, Basil
Watermelon Juice

Roasted Eggplant Soup
Brussels Sprout Leaves
Asian Pear
Black Trumpet Mushroom

Halibut Poached in Jurancon
Braised Chinese Celery
Lovage

Milk Fed Poularde
Caramelized Parsnip Tart
Baby Leeks
Peking Duck "Albufera Sauce"

Smoked Chocolate "Tiramisu"
White Chocolate-Black Pepper Ice Cream
Coffee Oil

This was one of the rare cases when the client is a world traveller and know's her food.
She basically made the menu and I filled in the technical requirements to pull it off.
At the end of the day for these kinds of fees, client indeed should get what they want.

Polled at the end of the evening:
Favourite  coures : Tie between 1 and 2.
Favourite single item: Albufera sauce on poularde.

"Chinese" Albufera Sauce.

1 whole Peking duck.
2 cups Madiera.
1 cup Rice wine.
1/2 Cup Shaoxing vinegar.
4 Quarts H20.
1 Onion stuck with cloves.
1 whole carrot peeled.
1 head of garlic cut in half equatorially.

Bring to a boil and simmer for 3 hrs.
Skim and Strain.
Cool.

Reduce 4 cups of broth by half and emulsify-in with a stick blender off the heat
4 oz high quality mouse of foie gras.
1 oz unsalted butter
1 tablespoon of high quality hazelnut oil.
Season.

Scenes from another dinner party.

In the world of short term private chefs, we basically acquiesce to clients requests. We feed them what they want, when they want and if we have to wait around till they are ready, we do. A lot of the work I do makes me feel like a character in an episode of "Upstairs-Downstairs" working for the Bellamys. 10 years ago, chefs did not aspire to be as wealthy as thier best clients, now in many cases they are and much more. The "variable constant" is that respect between artisan and customer. Some treat you as domestic help, others realise the sacrifices that are made to realise their requests. It really isnt always about money, humanism will save you a lot of money and aggravation. I cooked a dinner recently where from the moment I walked in I felt like family, the clients were absurdly nice and if I anticipated the guest of honor's reaction, I would have done it for free. Some things are worth much more than money.
Humanism.
You know yourselves and You rock !

Scenes from a dinner party.

Gazpacho
Grapefruit Oil

Foie Gras  Ganache
Sherry-Maple Gelee

Bomba Rice
Summer Truffle
Sweet Corn
Soy and Lemon

Kona Kampachi
Brioche Crust
Leeks and Lovage
Braised Pistachio
Yuzu kosho

Lamb Loin
Cauliflower
Peach Chutney
Orange Oil
14 Herb Salad

Cheeses

"Tatin" Bananas
Chaource Sorbet
Buttermilk Lemon Curd
Togarashi Crispy Rice

Quail.Anise Salt.Figs.Vincotto

My contribution to a rooftop charity  barbecue. 8 chefs cooked 1 course each. Grilled quail seasoned with star-anise salt, figs and pea shoots. The birds are simply brushed post cooking with fig vincotto. Simple and effective.