IDEAS IN FOOD

Smoked Sea Trout Caviar

The smoked sea sea trout caviar and its derivative smoked keta salmon roe from Steve Stallard at Blis Caviar continue to pose culinary questions about what one may do with ingredients. Seasonings, flavors, even applied techniques may be rearranged or reconfigured such that ingredients of pristine quality may be highlighted with the least amount of elemental stress.

To impart flavors perhaps it's the milk thats flavored not the fish?

Sweet, Sour, Salty, Bitter

Salt, Pepper, Sugar, Vinegar

Salt, pepper, sugar and vinegar are the basic elements which are the key to our cooking. They are used judiciously but not always by the books. These elements shape and tweak ingredients so that they can be shown at their best. We use salt to bring out flavor as well as add a base seasoning to ingredients, savory and sweet. Pepper adds both heat and bitterness which accentuates flavors. Sugars both granular and liquid bring richness and sweetness forward. Vinegar acts to frame the palate. It keeps flavors in line, pulling them together. Similarly it acts as a conductor of flavors when used sparingly, allowing for less salt or sugar to be used. It is with an understanding of these four ingredients and their siblings which enables our use of simple seasonings to pique our cooking.
In our kitchen we use fine sea salt for seasoning proteins and vegetables. Sea salt has a clean flavor free from extraneous chemicals and allows for a consistency in our cooking. Its fine delicate texture disperses quickly over ingredients for an even distribution of salt. The salts fine grain is extremely useful when seasoning salads and delicate greens for the grain is small enough to evenly coat and distribute the flavor base we are looking for—allowing for consistent seasoning on every level.
Similarly we use tamari soy sauce to season and highlight ingredients. While it is not a pure salt its saline quality and rich rounded flavor keeps it right next to our salt cellars. Soy sauces versatility from enriching mushrooms to seasoning raw fish keeps it in the forefront of our base seasonings and it is essential to our cooking.
We also use several finishing salts: fleur de sel, sel de geurande, haiwaiin black and red salts, and our own house made flavored salts. These salts are used for their textures, aesthetics and underlying flavor notes. Fleur de sel, flower of the sea, adds a delicate crunch to vegetable ragouts, foie gras au torchon, raw tuna as well as chocolates and caramel. Sel de geurande is a coarser heartier salt. It is a salt with moxie. It has a larger mineral content and its petite pebble like structure guarantees it is noticed. We garnish roasted and braised meats and fish with this salt. Also whole roasted vegetables and confit potatoes benefit from the textures and flavors of sel de geurande. Other salts we use are dish specific—from a fish or vegetable carpacio to a particular foie gras or offal preparation. These salts are fun and we play with them.
In fact, the many varietes of salt have sparked our own interest in infusing salts. For our infused or flavored salt we use fleur de sel for its texture and porous nature which absorbs and gently carries our individual flavors. Our first—and now a standby—flavored salt came about by an abundance of herbs gone to flower in our garden. We harvested and dried the flowers and then sifted the flowers through a fine tammis to capture just the pollen—an intense focused flavor the herbs. We mixed the pollens with the salt and produced our garden herb salt. Its intense herbal aroma and flavor carried by the delicate salt enables us to add poignant seasonings from our garden all year long. We use our herb salt mostly as a finishing salt, yet at times we use it so season fish or vegetables which are to be gently cooked and thus would benefit from the intense herbal flavor. While our herbal salt is our first we have since expanded. Next we began smoking salt, again for an intense focused delivery of smoke to certain ingredients. Since then we have incorporated spices, citrus zests, mushroom powder and even honey powder for an interesting seasoning. The choices are close to limitless, and that is exciting to know.
In cooking most people think of black pepper first. Unfortunately that vision is usually linked to a fine ground powder which must be violently shaken out of minuscule holes from the top of a pepper shaker. That vision must be erased or at least filed away. Pepper should be freshly ground—we use Peugot pepper mills. We primarily use two black peppers, Lampong and Telicherry. The Lampong is hotter and its flavor is more focused. The Telicherry has heat but also some sweetness. We also use a variety of other peppers to accent and heighten our cooking: white, green, red, espelette, long, The use of pepper should not be used without discretion. We usually add it at the end of cooking so the flavors are bright and intense. In cooking pepper subtlies are muted and an unwanted bitterness comes to the forefront of the dish. So what pepper to use? The choice is dependent on the flavors preferred, the amount of heat desired, and on culinary aesthetics. Thus our choice is based on the flavors of raw ingredients and where a dish is going. The flavor of the pepper can drive or be driven by the ingredients we use.
The addition of a sweet element in cooking helps highlight flavors and ingredients. Sweetness, inherent in all ingredients, can be manipulated and calculated with the addition of sugar, honey or another inherently sweet product. Depending on an ingredients flavor and the dish being assembled determines what type of sugar we will add: refined, raw, muscavado, honey, maple syrup. The quality and characteristics of varying sugars determines there use in our cooking. Sugars like salts and peppers have distinct qualities which are instrumental in our cooking. It is our choice to use these sugars to highlight in ingredients.
Vinegar adds acid to food which tightens and focuses flavors. It has sharpness and some sweetness. While pure acid puckers the tongue, several drops pulls the palate together. Ingredients dance in the mouth, unified and framed by vinegar. A vinegars individuality defines its use in our kitchen. White wine vinegar, sharp and focused, is a general purpose vinegar. It can be used almost anywhere. Red wine vinegar has its own strengths which influence but do not limit its use towards heartier preparations. Sherry and balsamic vinegars have repectively bracing and sweet undertones. Japanese rice vinegar is delicate, a key to lighter dishes. In our approach to cooking we realized that whenever possible we try and become directly involved with ingredients, allowing us to shape and guide our cooking. We were able to achieve that in the field of vinegar with our house made vinegar. We began with an old bottle of wine, a vinegar mother—the starter for vinegar—and a glass jug. From there selective unfinished bottles of wine get poured into our vinegar: red, white, dessert. After several weeks a base vinegar developed. It is not overly acidic. It has a flavor of wine, not aparticular wine but a rounded wine flavor shaped by the various vinous donations we have added. Our vinegar is delicate enough for vinaigrettes while still possessing enough character and acidity to shape and direct dishes. The vinegar, like our cuisine, is personal and instrumental to our cooking.

More One Liners

Harvesting Air; the need for foams
Educate Unconscious Reaction
Synergy with Nature
Distillation of Experiences
The Adaptive Unconscious
Maximum Meaning—Minimum Words
The Act of Getting at the Truth
We Can Change Our First Impression
Culinary Improvisation: accept all offers made
Create Conditions for Successful Spontaneity
You have to let people work out the situation and work out what is happening
Obsess with causing other people to appreciate perfection
Think Independently
Learn From Culinary History and Springboard
All of Us are Smarter Than Any One of Us
Precise Spontaneity
Intellectual Exercise or Sensual Experience
The Art of Seeing
The Extraordinary Quest of Cooking
Conversation with Ingredients
Modern Maturity
Simplicity, Honesty and a Touch of Surprise
Do Not Tell or Show Everything
Blended Memories
Culinary Catalyst
The Need For Shared Experiences

Improvisation and the Rule of Yes

Improvisation and the Rule of Yes

We further explored improvisation in the kitchen over this past weekend. We had the pleasure of conducting an exploration of tastes and flavors (a cooking school) with one base rule, we would say yes. Aki and myself believe in an intimate setting with limited numbers inspiration and improvisations are weaved together.
In order to facilitate our process, we began with a few base recipes: egg yolk pasta dough, Guinness bread and pizza dough. After working through these basics the kitchen became an interactive performance with ingredients and the methods of preparation. Only one element was constant, the word yes. By saying yes and traveling down rarely visited culinary paths our kitchen became and improvisational theatre. And, at the end of the day, it was Aki and I who learned the most.
We made, created, were exposed to or discovered with the help and influence of our cooking contemporaries: stinging nettle and almond pesto agnolotti with animal farm ricotta cheese (thanks to diane and the cows), vanilla-soy and meyer lemon soft boiled egg mayonnaise, chorizo-black trumpet mushroom-aged gouda pizza, artichoke eggs benedict, smoked tomato-mushroom ragout, whole fish grilled on a bed of sugar cane, fig and dried cranberry compote with extra aged gouda.
There is and was more, but at the end of the day our success came by saying yes.

Kaleidoscope

When was the last time you picked up a kaleidoscope and looked through it? Memories are sparked as colors, images, smells, ideas and emotions spring from the depths of the past. Every angle is different; no two pictures are the same. We have the pleasure of cooking and working in this environment. Our use of ingredients and adaptation in the kitchen parallels the ever-changing images of a kaleidoscope.

Arpege's Egg

In the hopes of making culinary leaps and bounds we decided to set slow cooked egg yolks in a smoked maple jelly topped with vanilla fleur de sel and surrounded with sweet cream. We tasted and thought brilliant!!! After digesting the dish we realized we just borrowed the flavors and tastes of Alain Passard's signature egg with maple and sherry vinegar. Well, the tastes, textures and aesthetic works well so we will continue to refine it. Pictures are in the "EGG" photo album.

New Dishes

As we continue to develop dishes in the kitchen they will be added to the appropriate photo albums and cross referenced when necessary. Please continue to explore our culinary evolutions and look within these albums as we search for more ideas in food.

Seasoned Salts

It all started back in Forest Hills, several years ago. A vendor was extolling the virtues of this new herb salt...made in the mediterranean, fresh herbs packed into salt that slowly dehydrated and created this wonderful, flavorful fleur de sel, blah, blah, blah. So of course, we looked at each other and thought we can do this. We can create our own salts, tailored to our specifications for less money. So we started with herb salts, to this very day, lovage Fleur de Sel garnisheds the rims of our smoked bloody marys. The we tried to smoke salt and after a period of trial and error with kosher salt we realized that we needed the higher moisture of sea salts to do the job justice. We use our smoked salt on grilled proteins to enhance flavor and sometimes on chocolate, fruits or vegetables to add that special something in the background that is rarely identified but oh so essential. Eventually we branched out into the sweet spices. Crushed cardamom pods, vanilla beans, cinnamon, lavendar...all of the aromatic spices make wonderful salts. My mom is known for smuggling japanese staples into the country for us on a regular basis and their salts absorb the flavors beautifully while their smaller grains enhance our sweet offerings without being in your face. Our salts tend to swing both ways, even smoked cocoa nibs add a dark sensous accent to salt which goes as well with short ribs as with hazeluts. Who says the last element has to be one dimensional?

Play with your food. We do, all of the time.

What are we doing?

The nutshell: to dine is to experience something words may only cast a small glimmer of light upon compared to the complete event.

Three Chords, Five Senses, Five Tastes; One Dish

Seth Godin, new style marketing writer, struck an instrumental note which is essential to our evolving culinary developmentss. How may a writer on forward thinking marketing influence the world of food and wine? Simple, he borrowed an example from the music industry. The imporance of his anecdote struck home for it referred to musicians I enjoy, the Beatles. The stripped essence of the story is that the Beatles and other musicians spend hours, no days getting to, establishing, creating or fashioning the first three chords of a song. The rest of the song is not an afterthought though it must fall in line behind these essential three chords.

We have previously focussed on the elements of dishes and the necessity to capture diners with just a single bite. Godin's reference brought this idea to the forfront of our own culinary conversations. In order to continue to capture the senses we focus on three chords in dishes. Similarly, we must express five tastes or the essence of them in three chords. The combination of these chords, srtinging senses and tastes together helps unify complexities in the simple arrangement of three chords as one dish.

If Foam is Dead, Why Does Starbucks Rule?

In the dining arena from chef, to foodie to reviewer the current and even now fading starement is Foam is Dead!! The forward thinking Ferran Adria and those influenced by his culinary advancement began to use foams and thus aerations in many forms and applications. The presence of foam seemed to be everywhere and it became fashionable for the culinatti--those in the food industry looking to tear apart something to dismiss the needs, uses and essences of foams in the culinary arena...meanwhile they sat writing about the overuse of foam sipping on cappucinos or eating ice cream or enjoying a caramel macchiatto. Their computer keyboard keys are warn with the defamation of foam and other culinary trends for it seems to be the popular manner in which to become heard.

And Ferran may not have been the first. Think back to years ago and Alain Chapel with his cappucino of mushrooms, do we then dismantle Adria and Starbucks for culinary seconds or their use of foams?

Customer Service

It's not just about giving people what they ask for. It's figuring out what they really want and giving them that too.

Condiments

The final touch: condiments which accent a cuisine

Situational Substitution: the use of store bought condiments to highlight a meal

Condiments: Homemade and Store bought there uses, alterations, inspirations and necessity for simplified cuisine. Many store bought condiments are great flavor platforms or accents for our cooking. From these initial bases we can then add our own influences or allow their flavors to influence what we are preparing.

Internal Inspiration

Mastering the Art of Improvisation

master: eminently skilled

improvise: to make, provide or arrange from whatever materials are readily available

An existing repertoire and learned techniques, flavor bases and principles allow for open thought, changes, variations, extrapolations, leaps and falls. Failure allows for growth. It is the influence of science and more so proven culinary facts which then drive our spontaneity and allows for our freedom. If there are rules, than one can bend or break them. This is the evolution of our cooking such that the steps, influences, and methodology followed allows for this to happen. Rather it gives us the skills and the repertoire which enables us to act freely.

Our Alchemy

The alchemy of flavor

alchemy: any seemingly magical process of transmuting ordinary materials into something of true merit

flavor: taste, especially the distinctive taste of something as it is experienced in the mouth; a substance or extract that provides a particular taste; flavoring

It is after defining our approach to cooking that we can then delve into the alchemy of flavor. This is where we put the practicality of our culinary approach into use; pushing and pulling ingredients so as to make them shine. Most ingredients have underlying flavors or parts of flavors. In creating dishes or garnishes we highlight or spotlight parts of these ingredients elemental flavors.

To Begin With

Approach to Cooking

These are the principles which guide our interaction with ingredients and define the final dish. While our initial philosophy is simple and straight forward there are several more intricacies and guiding points which define and structure our approach to cooking. It is important to note that we borrow definitions from the dictionary to introduce our approach to cooking. These definitions act as guides and stepping stones in our world of cooking.

simple—easy to understand or deal with

It is important for us to make ingredients and the final dishes simple. That does not mean that the process or the application of efforts used to reach the end are easy to do. Rather complexities, intricacies and characteristics are hidden within the final simple preparation and presentation. Here is the case of the little things making the big things happen.

natural— existing in or formed by nature

Ingredients have a form or presence. While they can be dressed up or down, given highlights and accompaniments, an ingredient must still represent what it is. If not, then why did we choose to use that ingredient?

extraordinary—exceptional to a high degree; noteworthy; remarkable

We strive to work in this manner as well as find ingredients of this caliber and present them in this method of artistic execution. Everything we are involved with must be extraordinary otherwise we are wasting our time.

relationship—a connection, association, or involvement

We are connected to food, ingredients, each other, the experience and life of cooking. Our relationship is personal. What we present or choose to deal with is based on our relationship with the ingredients and those who supply, grow, harvest or forage for them. Without a relationship there is no cooking.

respect—esteem, admiration

We have a personal involvement with cooking and food. We must have and present respect for what we are cooking, the procedures we follow and those and that around us which influence, drive, and guide our culinary approach: tradition, ingredients, innovation.

refine -- to bring to a pure state; free or separate from impurities or other extraneous substances

While we appreciate the natural structure and characteristics of ingredients, we must remove, trim and furthermore highlight aspects of ingredients to shape their natural core. The individuality of ingredients and there perceived role in the final dish dictate in which way we will need or choose to refine the ingredients.

precise – exact in expressing oneself

In order to refine ingredients, we must be exacting in our actions, feelings and approach to food. From start to finish precise actions will allow for an exacting path to be created and give us the choice of following it or straying from it.

finesse – extreme delicacy or subtlety in performance, skill, discrimination etc.

Demonstrates how our thoughts are executed. The need for finesse is applied to the entire process of cooking, tasting, manipulating, dealing, creating and envisioning food and its derivatives.

technique – the body of specialized procedures and methods used in any specific field

We have learned and adapted techniques and are simultaneously searching for new and old methods for dealing with ingredients and the process of cooking to which we can add twists, refinement or a new application such that new and old will add balance to our cuisine.

original – capable of or given to thinking or acting in an independent, creative, or individual manner

We push ourselves to have thoughts and actions based on the knowledge that nothing is truly new. Our knowledge, examination and interpretation of new and old cuisines in context with our approach and vision can get us at least close to an original idea.

taste–to test the flavor or quality of by taking some into the mouth; to perceive or distinguish the flavor of
--a sense of what is fitting, harmonious or beautiful

Taste has two key definitions for us. Without the process of tasting, what are we doing? We taste everything: good, bad, great, awful so as to build a structure of our own taste. It is the act of tasting which has molded or culinary beliefs, and given us the experience to express them.

focus – a central point, as of attraction attention, or activity; to concentrate

Dining and its role in our lives is what we concentrate on. Without focus there is no guide and our approach to cooking is lost.

Philosophy

Balancing Tastes

Everything plays and weighs in its part or role in our cooking. It is our job, no our mission, to balance tastes, opinions, visions, views, flavors, textures, styles. In order to accomplish our goals, we must adhere to our philosophy.

Philosophy: a system of principles for guidance in practical affairs

Appear simple
Look natural
Be extraordinary

Our philosophy is an introduction to our culinary beliefs. If after reading what it is you disagree or are uninterested, put this down, go somewhere else, you are wasting yours and our time. Our need to create a simple system to guide our culinary paths allows us to deal, no tackle the extraneous detours and roadblocks one faces in the culinary world. Similarly our philosophy enables us to face anything from esoteric ingredients to disgruntled patrons with a level of ease and comfort thus allowing us to create a balanced situation.

Some would say we create. Truthfully we are just manipulating different ingredients to form a final gustatory presentation.
We take cooking personally. It is our job, but it is also our passion. We are driven to push towards perfection. We continuously talk about balancing tastes in a dish as well as in a menu. Similarly, taste is affected by texture and temperature. Looking at food, being absorbed by food, being passionate with food allows one to have many sensory impacts on cooking. .
Is there a constant in cooking? The answer is yes. Everyday something changes, from the amount of water in a tomato to the mood in which we wake up in. So how then are we able to constantly cook great food. We paused here for a moment about whether or not we could write the word great for that would be showing off or patting ourselves on the back; but why shouldn’t we? We strive everyday to present culinary perfection. We are constantly climbing up a mountain pushing ourselves to present the best to every diner. So yes we cook great food and it is what we strive to do day in and day out, despite a bad mood or a watery tomato. For there are many days when the sun is shining in the kitchen while it is truly raining outside. We have become aware that our constant is the lack of sameness, and that those fluctuations allow our food to continuously evolve.

New Raisins

We have recently added sweet and salty raisins to our pantry. What are they? We basically tripped over them. We had recieved excess samples of tomolives (small green tomatoes cured like olives) and needed to condense them down, our storage space is small. Invariably the dehydrator came to the rescue. In went the tomolives, twenty four hours later out came salty raisins...really salty. Now what?

Soak them in water to draw out the salt, why not add some golden raisins as well? The two "raisins" shared flavors as they plumped, and one they were drained we had green and yellow sweet and salty raisins. These raisins now act as a flavor base in our pantry...so far used as a condiment with smoked foie gras and part of a salad with sweetbreads.

To further develop this condiment, I plan to soak dried bluberries in our homemade port vinegar and thus add a bright acidity and more color.

Indian spices and chutnies will be explored as compliments or accents.

Flavored Batters

Here is one that is just getting started...while salt, pepper and spices have been used to flavor batters, we felt we would flavor batters with a derivative of what was being fried. For instance, ground dried salt cod is used in the batter for frying and coating cod, dried shrimp is used in the tempura batter for crustaceans, other flavors and tastes to explore and enjoy...

Caramelized Yoghurt

Caramelized yoghurt has come to be because of the influences of Indian cooking, particularly those of Madhur Jaffrey, and the presence of sous vide cooking on the tips of many culinarians and chefs tongues. We knew that lamb marinated and then cooked in yoghurt would eventually caramelize as the yoghurt curdled and finally the sugars turned to caramel. Our goal was to just make yoghurt caramelize on its own. We sealed whole milk yoghurt in a jar and cooked it in a water bath at 180 degrees for twenty for hours and while the yoghurt does curdle, a spin in the blender emulsifies it.

Can we then caramelize yoghurt powder in the dehydrator??

Soup of the Day

Recently we've been talking a lot about soup. It could be the time of year, cold weather definitely brings to mind a hot bowl of soup. Or it could just be state of mind, there's something so comforting about the idea of soup. It brings to mind nourishment and sustenance. It's a reprieve from frustrations and stress. It's an escape from all of the little pinpricks that poke at you all day long. It's an instant of self indulgence that you don't have to share with anyone. When the soup is placed before you, steaming in its bowl, its fragrance wafting though the air, there is a pleasureable prickle of anticipation. As the aroma teases your nostrils you feel your mouth begin to water and a faint but insistent rumble emerges from your belly. Take a moment to look at it, the soup needs to cool, and enjoy the colors and textures dancing before you. Cradle your hands around the bowl, absorbing it's weight and heat. Feel the silence fall around you like a curtain as the world disappears. Inhale deeply and let the scent intoxicate you. Lean forward with your spoon and let it slide through the bowl scooping up the perfect mouthful. Blow gently so you don't burn yourself. Then taste your soup. Part your lips and let the soup flow over your tongue as the flavors explode inside your brain. Chew gently. Savor it like a fine wine, reveling in the changing textures and flavors inside your mouth. Let it slide slowly down your throat. Feel it warming your insides. Breathe deeply and capture the essence that lingers long after the soup has disappeared. Relax. Lift your spoon and do it again. It's all about you, alone with your soup.

Image is Everything

Here it is. If we did not taste with our eyes, why is so much money spent on packaging and decorating food products. I mean I'm not even talking restaurants or the fast food billboards, just a can of soup or a bread bag. I guess while I am on the subject it does translate into the worlds of dining from fast to fine. Thus my own thoughts on why simple plates with polish allow food to shine. We taste first with our eyes, then our nose and finally our tastebuds.

Plates, bowls and packaging all say something. Think about this, a can of soup will not sell if it is all white with words, people want to see what is inside. Similarly, plates that are beautiful may not show beautiful food for diners are to busy looking at the frame not the picture. Surround a Picasso in a neon frame and tell me what you see.

A Realization

In order to express the direction our food is moving, I have been looking for a term or definition or phrase. While reading blink, by malcolm gladwell, a brief anecdote on improvisational theater struck a cord. We are, in the long and short of it, creating culinary improvisation. We practice to stay sharp, but are merely cooking ingredients making condiments, refining and trimming products such that when guests arrive their own preferences dictate or at least begin to shape the meals. Our purveyors make sure we begin with the best, if not why are we cooking, in order that we may be free to execute. And, as noted in the book, our improvisation works best and really synchronizes when we always accept each others offer. We may have a profusion of ingredients to work with though it is the person who gets their hands on it first who prepares it as they see fit; only working it into the menu later on where it ties in.

More to come for we believe this concept is key in the development of ourselves and our guests alike.

Our Tastes Portrayed

While the menu of twelve courses is indulgent, here is a representation of our more approachable five tastes, one per category.

hamachi
basil, truffle vinaigrette, aleppo pepper

bluefin toro
chives, perilla, lemon oil

roasted beets
pickled mustard seeds, sorrel, orange zest

foie gras au torchone
cherries: pickled, jam, sauce

salsify and mushroom latte
ingredients: roasted braised, pureed

garden herbs
banyuls vinaigrette, toasted sesame

agnolotti
fingerling potatoes, tomato, parmesan

pemaquid oyster stew
sherry, crème fraiche, sea beans
_______________________

wild salmon confit
braised lettuce, white anchovies, grainy mustard

crispy skate
raisins, turnips, fresh bacon

lobster
smoked paprika, chanterelles, spinach

fluke
ketchup, sweetbreads, sauerkraut
_____________________

veal cheeks
blue crab, bone marrow, curry

squab
gnocchi bolognese, sage, broccoli rabe

lamb
breast, rice beans, thyme

suckling pig
farro, beet greens, balsamic

prime rib eye
potato puree, watercress, madiera
_____________

gorgonzola dolce
endive tart tatin

brie de meaux
onion jam, jambon de bayonne, black pepper

grafton 4 star cheddar
apples, cinnamon, arugula
___________________

hot chocolate tartlet
crème fraiche ice cream

blueberry cake
lavender, hazelnuts, vanilla

plum popover
clove, yogurt sorbet

bread pudding
strawberries, mint, lemon

mascarpone cheesecake
roasted cherries, allspice, walnuts

How to Smoke an Egg?

Our interest in smoked eggs was refreshed by the current interest in slow cooking; particularly with eggs. From water baths to foil wrapped and roasted in coals, the low temperature cooking of eggs produces an ethereal product, silky and flavorful. The culinary grounds being tested, we fired up our smoker. Room temperature eggs are then smoked with hickory chips for one and a half hours in their shell and carton. They are then allowed to cool naturally in our walk in cooler. These eggs are now ready for use; from being warmed in truffle bouillon to being set in a jelly of kelp dashi to being set over a bed of cucumber fettucine with smoked salmon caviar. Our uses are endless, we are enjoying the journey.

"Twelve Courses"

A few questions have been asked about what sort of menus we put together. Below is menu we assembled with ingredients from near and far. Yes our guests ate everything, the first two being canapes, the rest a progressive menu. Enjoy, we did

kumamoto oyster
banyuls vinaigrette

quail egg
prosciutto, espelette pepper

avocado panna cotta
crab meat, cumin, cilantro

hamachi
four preparations and garnishes:
fresh wasabi, saffron soy, cauliflower crusted, orange marinated

lobster emulsion
pink peppercorn, coral butter, shrimp toast

foie gras torchon
fortified cherries, toasted almonds, thé perfumé

handkerchief pasta
morels: pureed, roasted, braised

diver scallop
medjool date, stilton, very old sherry

cod en papillote
black truffles, onions: red, green, spring

pig trotter
lime pickle, bacon emulsion, bok choy

veal shank
braised cabbage, taleggio polenta, roasting jus

cote de boeuf
fiddle head gratin, yukon gold potato puree, sel gris

robiola by guffani
camembert
azeitao
honey caramel, roasted pears, brandy preserved black truffles

whole milk yogurt panna cotta
macerated rhubarb, black pepper

flourless chocolate cake
cinnamon, crème fraiche