IDEAS IN FOOD

They Did the Work

I need to thank Joan Roca and Salvador Brugues for compiling, cataloging and testing sous vide techniques and publishing their works in the book Sous-Vide Cuisine.  They have answered many questions in their step by step practical approach to the technology.  This book was first published in 2003 in Spanish, and my poor linguistics allowed for rough culinary extrapolation.  After several years of ad lib  culinary development, it is a pleasure to have a researched guide with which I am able to solidify our own findings and be challenged to improve upon existing theories and activities.  The book is well worth its $135.00 price tag.  I have witnessed and taken part in many guessing games about sous-vide.  It is a science, and this is the text book. 

The Learning Curve

Be prepared to climb hills.  I wish I was given these exact words of advice.  Perhaps I would have traveled a different path.  I do not think so.  Everyday I face new culinary challenges and am forced to ask more questions which have answers though I realize they will be difficult and time consuming to find.  Yet, it is the search for these answers which keeps the senses sharp and helps pull us up the difficult mountains of continued education.  It amazes me daily with how little I actually know, how like a chicken scratching the barnyard looking for worms, I am only scratching the surface.  In the same thought I realize how lucky I am in being in a creative environment in which my learning is expected and instrumental in our own culinary development.

We are exploring the uses of ingredients, techniques and specific tools and instruments in order to maximize culinary pleasures and functionality.  The more I see and do, the more I have to search and discover.  Unfortunately, in learning through doing we make multiple mistakes and have had numerous setbacks.  Though, we have been able to examine our failures and leapfrog our mistakes, it is difficult to realize that the more you uncover, the more failures you will have; that is the learning curve.  The benefits are equal to the hardships, it is understanding this point which will inevitably allow us to succeed.

July 29, 2005

Summer continues and we are pleased to harvest fresh ideas.

Shaved Barramundi
armando manni olive oil, salted and fresh plum puree

Nori Crusted Yellow Fin Tuna
hot buffalo mozzarella, baby tomatoes, jalapeno slivers

Grilled Flank Steak
horseradish creamed spinach, smoked blueberries

MouCo ColoRouge
peach pico de gallo, maitake mushrooms, smoked dr. pepper

Pineapple Semi Freddo
lemon-honey chanterelle mushrooms, toasted curry leaf, braised pineapple

The Next Step

After truly enjoying my own dinner last night, we opted to translate our rustic tomato and nori salad into a dish for tonights menu.  We marinated baby tomatoes with fleur de sel and lampong pepper.  Sliced scallions represent the alliums and thinly sliced jalapeno the chili.  We have been working with hot buffalo mozzarella, so we decided to use it in part with the nori for a toasted crust for yellow fin tuna.  The nori toasts while the mozzarella acts as a creamy insulator.

Refreshing Salad

In an attempt to feed ourselves amidst the heat we have sought chilled noodles in light broths with vegetables and seaweed. In looking to remove more heat from our kitchen, in conjunction with some beautiful tomatoes, we put together a light salad with shaved jalapeno, toasted nori rectangles, sliced onion, green olive oil and wine vinegar. Sure, we left out the noodles, but the tastes and flavors married happily and the toasted nori, a staple in our cold noodles became the secret star. Just had to share, the whole dish just made me smile.

Influenced by Flavors

Syrah: smoky and tannic, full bodied and green, a compliment to meat and grilled fish.  After smoking blueberries and eating far to many, I realized that their flavor profile was similar to a glass of syrah, though as is the whole mirroring of flavors fell short.  If I was to make a edible syrah as part of a dish, I needed to pique and highlight more of the palate and olfactory nerve.  I searched our larder and surfaced with piquillo peppers and our honey-lemon marinated chanterelle mushrooms.  I needed something to carry the smoked blueberries; our hot yogurt proved the proper vehicle.  Now I just needed the meat, in this case braised beef cheeks to pair with our edible syrah.  The dish combines several flavors all working together as a united whole. 

Thoughts for the day

I don’t feel much like writing today but here is a list of ideas bouncing around in my head:

I never much liked mousse, but pudding is another story…

The first cookbooks that I ever really read were the Sixty Minute Gourmet and More Sixty Minute Gourmet by Pierre Franey.  The boxed set was Christmas gift…

We cook for strangers every day so finally I decided that dog biscuits could not be too much trouble for the faithful companions who deal with us every day…

The music that is played in our dining room is an item that is overthought, inconsistent and unable to live up to the food.  It is the perfect illustration of all of our service issues at the Guest House…

Why can’t people just be honest about what they think, why do they need to hide behind other people in order to express themselves..

Cold noodles are the ultimate summer food…

The trouble with most chocolates is that they are just too big…

Ice cream just isn’t what it used to be…

The most horrifying eating experience I ever had involved a rainbow Italian ice…

Gimlets were the drink of choice for one of the members of the Nantucket yacht club…

Barbeque is everywhere you look in the summertime but our specialty is a little something we like to call the UN-Barbeque…

One of my favorite food writers is John Thorne because he is so earthy and mostly honest in his approach to food…

Laurie Colwin was a wonderful writer because she really understood how to make food comfortable and approachable…

Cooking at home can be the hardest thing to do when you’re a professional chef because…

What is the deal with soup?  Summer or winter people have to have it…

Why is it after a meal at a fine dining establishment you are always left wondering why they are so stingy with the vegetables…

A truly great burger is a meal to be relished…

Artichokes are one of my favorite…

Who remembers Munchos…

Fried foods are almost always better in restaurants...

New York City hot dog carts will never be replaced by Gray’s Papaya…

I hardly ever eat them but there’s something about a Jamaican meat patty…

Driving to NYC my Chef in Boston insisted that we stop for White Castle hamburgers, we were meeting the rest of the kitchen at Union Pacific to taste Rocco's food and smuggled in a sack...

Dining out has changed so much in the last decade...

Why is it so hard to get good cheese???

This is just a list of things that I am mulling over but I suppose it gives you something to look forward to reading about in the future…or not, we’ll see what happens.

Improv Wisdom

Patricia Ryan Madson has written the book Improv Wisdom .  She gets it (improvisation) and shares her years of experience with the art of improvisation in a pointed composition which even I can relate to.  Furthermore, she applies improvisation to life; while I am currently still adapting it to the kitchen.  Funny point is her approach to improvisation closely mirrors our approach in the kitchen; yes we do speak of culinary improvisation though it is validating to read someone else's well developed principles. 

One quote from the book which ties into our everyday is "We are all borrowing heavily from the labors and efforts of others.  But it takes another lens to view it this way--to see these amazing loans from the universe."  In our constant search for creativity and ideas we often forget how much borrowing exists.  It is the acknowledgment and honest acceptance of this borrowing which allows us to move forward, creating and expanding our horizons.

Good News

    There's really no such thing as overnight success.  Sometimes the hardest thing is to just keep plugging along and wait for things to happen.  We've been out here in Colorado for 31 months.  We came out here to open Keyah Grande and everything took longer than we thought that it would.  We weren't even the first chefs, they had someone else before us, but it still took eight months after our arrival just to finish the construction and get our certificate of occupancy.  That was just the first major step in getting to opening day.  Although our Grand Opening was just this past January, we're on our fourth PR firm, our second general manager, our second ranch manager and our umpteenth reincarnation of everyone else.  To say that getting to today has been a long haul would be an understatement.  Things are finally starting to shift into gear.  This week so far has been a particularly good one. 
    We were recently approached by the Holland America Cruise Line to be a part of their Guest Chef program.  We have been working out the details and it looks like we will be joining them for a cruise to Hawaii from March 22-April 6, 2005 on the Amsterdam.  We'll do four cooking lessons and two cooking demonstrations while on board.  Depending on how things work out we may be able to get some of our dishes featured in one of the restaurants on board.  It's a very exciting opportunity for us to get out there and reach new audiences for the property and for our food.
    The second good thing happened this morning.  We were forwarded the newest issue of Andrew Harper's Hideaway Report which features a write up about Keyah Grande.  Here's what they said about the food:
"An excellent staff and two exceptionally talented
chefs (the husband-and-wife team of Aki Kamozawa
and H. Alexander Talbot) further enhance the patrician
ambience of the property. It would be no exaggeration
to say that during our brief visit we enjoyed some of
the finest, most imaginative and passionate cooking
that we have experienced anywhere in the world. This
is food for foodies (roasted duck ham with calamansi
lime mustard fruit, foie gras dumplings and shiso-
marcona almond pesto) relying for effect on innovative
combinations of flavors and exquisite presentation
in the manner of Thomas Keller, the über-chef of
Napa’s French Laundry and Manhattan’s Per Se. A
3,000-bottle wine cellar complements the cuisine
and may be browsed prior to dinner. "

What more could we ask for in a review of our food?  Thank you to Andrew Harper and his team of professionals.  Frankly, at this point in the summer we could use both the mental boost and the inspiration that we received from both of these events.

Smoked Blueberries

A glut of blueberries, now what?  Smoke them, you have smoked everything else.  A little ascorbic acid, a brief crushing and into the smoker they went, along with some more peanuts; I like smoked peanuts.

An hour later the blueberries emerged smoked, macerated, tannic, sweet and just slightly thick.  I was also working on the chocolate gnocchi; the two would be merged.  A few thoughts later and a malted rum milk would sauce the dish.  The flavors married nicely, we have a new staple in our larder and the gnocchi worked like a charm.  Sometimes I get lucky.  Next is a savory chocolate gnocchi or dumpling.

The Black Leg Ham

Alan and Barbara are the owners of the Guest House.  We are very fortunate with their attitudes toward food and it’s importance in the overall experience here.  They are both hunters and as such have a real appreciation for where food comes from.  I know that might sound contradictory but a true hunter has a great respect for the animals that he/she hunts.  They use the animals for food, either for themselves and their guides in camp or donating the carcass to a nearby village.  They do mount trophies on their walls as a remembrance, but a good hunter can tell you the particular story of each trophy on their wall down to the very last detail.  Conservation is important to them because if the animals disappear, there is nothing left to hunt.  It is very similar to the chefs who are active in sustainable agriculture and slow food.  The attitude is that you have to protect the things that you want to enjoy, whether it be a game bird or an apple tree.  I’ve learned a lot about hunting in the last few years and the attitudes that swirl around it always amaze me.  There are avid fishermen that think shooting an animal is inhumane.  There are people that eat meat every day who think that hunting is appalling, although apparently shooting a cow between the eyes in a slaughterhouse is fine.  Certainly there are unethical hunters as there are unethical chefs but the true sportsman is no one to throw stones at.   We should save our stones for hypocrites and vigilantes.
    We often cook for hunters at the Guest House.  They tend to have simpler tastes than the food connoisseur, no foams or fancy architecture needed, although a surprising number of them are wine enthusiasts.  Alan falls into this category.  He loves good simple food and fine wines.  Anyone looking at our wine list can see his preference for red wines in general and France in particular.  Bordeaux reds are his winter preference, Burgundian reds are his summertime stand-by, whites from Burgundy are the norm.  In spite of this favoritism, he is branching out all of the time and experimenting with wines from around the world.  Working with him has been educational and enlightening for both of us.  He demands good food in general but our food is a bit “precious” for him.  Every once in awhile he needs plain steamed Dungeness crab meat with melted butter or a thick steak and potatoes followed by chocolate pudding.  He is more concerned with complexity in his wine than in his food.  That mentality helps to keep us focused and our egos in check.
    But what does this have to do with black leg ham?  For those not in the know, black leg ham comes from Spain.  Like many wonderful food products, it is illegal to import into this country.  The best are produced in the Southwestern regions of Spain and allowed to roam through the mountain forests living off acorns from the cork oak trees.  The diet of acorns produces some crystal inclusions within the meat that is looked upon as a proof of authenticity.  The highest caliber of Iberian ham is produced from native black leg pigs, who are characterized by their ability to build up fatty deposits within the muscle fibers.  There are different levels of ham, mostly differentiated by the feeding process, but suffice it to say that a true black leg ham is extremely expensive and hard to locate, even in Spain.  They are not beautiful.  In fact, they look blackened, moldy and shriveled to the uneducated eye.  They are the polar opposite of Italian Prosciutto’s sweet and tender profile.  The meat is intensely flavored, chewy, buttery, nutty, earthy and complex.  Its flesh is much darker than it’s Italian counterpart although they do share the traditional layer of fat and the intense admiration of their followers.  True Iberian hams are sought after for their dark, musky flavors and for their almost total lack of availability here in the States.
    Did I mention that we were eating one the other night?  Two years ago Alan and Barbara were hunting in Spain.  We mentioned the hams before they left and Alex, being Alex, asked them to smuggle one back for us.  As it turns out, Alan ate Iberian ham almost every night that he was in Spain.  It became one of the highlights of his trip.  Every restaurant and bar had one on the counter and although the quality may have fluctuated from place to place, his enjoyment did not.  He loved that ham.  The end result was that he finally tracked down a very expensive store that carried true, acorn fed black leg hams, purchased one and smuggled it back to Colorado for us.  It was amazing, made more so by the fact that he took the time and trouble to bring it back to us.  We set it up on the bar in a jamonero that first night and carved slices for everyone to enjoy.  This ham is a precious thing.  When they leave we wrap it up ion cheesecloth and hang it in the walk-in.  It’s lasted for two years because we only use it when they’re here.  Not because they asked us to save it for them but because Alan enjoys it so much.  Each time he comes out he asks us if we’ve finished it, but how could we?  A present like that is meant to be shared with the giver, it is symbolic in so many different ways.  Things can get crazy out here.  There are the fluctuating tides of a new business, new staff, new ideas, new challenges as everything changes all of the time.  But on those evenings when we eat the ham together, even if we are in the kitchen and he is the dining room with guests, it reminds us of the relationship underneath it all.  Mutual enthusiasm, respect and genuine affection are hard to come by.  We are lucky to have found all of these things here, in this place with these people.  Whether we stay on for a day or for years, we appreciate the relationships found here that are so hard to come by.

Ask How? Not If!

I spend a good portion of my day asking questions.  For me, questions stimulate thoughts and spark ideas.  This morning I looked aside at my post-it riddled desk and a small note caught my eye.  The note contained the phrase ask how, not if.  That is all.  I had forgotten about some past discussions Aki and I had; from which emerged the vocalization of this important statement.  In asking how, we begin the process of looking for the solution.  In asking if, there already exists doubt; not a very good first step in the execution and pursuit of ideas.  Also, in asking how we begin to challenge ourselves in our daily actions.  The ability to be continuously challenged enables us to overcome obstacles, push internal limits and expand our own knowledge base.  What is even more useful is that we are able to ask each other these questions--further pushing our boundaries and achievements.  Tomorrow we will make hot chocolate gnocchi.

Rethinking a dish

I constantly rethink and examine our food.  Flavor combinations, textural interplay and the availability of ingredients all tie into the development and evolution of our food.  Most recently, I had the pleasure of working with terrific plums and in this instance three plum accompaniments were developed.  In our first run of working with these bases, we used them to frame Gorgonzola dolce.  Yet, I felt the plum pico de gallo, salted and fresh plum puree and the chip could complement other ingredients as well.  Today, we paired these same bases with filet mignon of veal.  Our one addition was petite french horn mushrooms which added a dense, nutty earthiness to the dish.  In fact, I think using our plum parts with the veal works even better than with the cheese.  The first dish brought the pieces to the table.  In being able to work with them, we are able to refine and rethink our cuisine.

Going Uphill

I continue to struggle.  We achieve small successes in the kitchen though we are still going uphill.  I spent some time today working on fish--in this case steelhead trout-- enrobed and cooked in a pine nut cream cheese coating.  I was eventually able to get a worthy coating which sealed the moisture and flavor of the fish inside the hot chaud-froid.  My problem is that to recreate this cooking method on a large scale--in a restaurant larger than the intimate guest house--will be difficult.  And that is my dilemma.  The process works, but it is not efficient.  I continue to climb the hill.

Stone Fruits

I have a tendency to be excessive. If there is an ingredient that is spot on, it tends to haunt my thoughts.  For the past several weeks, cherries have captured my attention though not my creativity.  I keep a stash of plump juicy cherries in the walk in.  I offer to get any and everything from the walk in; always emerging with a squirrels mouthful of cherries and pits, though usually forgetting the initial reason for going into the refrigerator.

Anyway, cherries are beginning to dwindle while plums are now coming into their own.  While my mouth is not big enough to hold several plums, I still end up with a mouthful of stones as the day progresses. And unlike the cherries, the plums have been inspiring beyond just eating as is.  Today, we made a plum pico de gallo to serve with Gorgonzola dolce.  The trim from dicing the fruit was mixed with Japanese salted plums to make a puree and an ensuing chip.  The dish is drizzled with manni olive oil and we eat.

Got It

Finally!  It has taken some time, but we now have a solid recipe for hot foie gras terrine with a molten center.  I have made many, many mistakes and am now happy with the results.

Summer Evolutions

With summer fully upon us, fruits and opportunities to present lightness are sought after.  This morning we worked with a lighter version of mozzarella gnocchi to make a Dali-esque version of hot mozzarella with roasted watermelon, grapefruit-vanilla maple confiture, marinated tomatoes and ground lovage.  We had salted the peeled tomatoes overnight to draw out excess moisture and make the tomato flavor more intense.  The hot watermelon holds its texture and the grapefruit-maple adds structure.  Lovage adds a bit of vegetable bitterness to complement the sweet cloud like mozzarella.  Over all the dish is delicate and suits the summer mood.

Image

Attention to detail is essential.  In the development and execution of ideas the last details can make or break the finished dish.  Funny coming from someone who promotes the ideas of improvisation and adaptation in the kitchen.  Yet to be able to improvise, all the details must be taken care of leaving the brain free to assimilate ideally perfect parts. 

And so I talk about our website.  We are slowly refining and defining ourselves visually, verbally and in some cases through  many imaginations.  The point, our image fell apart today.  We also have www.ideasinfood.com to put to use at a later date, our blog is enough to handle currently.  I wanted to domain map one to the other, just to make life easier.  Well, for a brief period today our digital notebook took a bath.  Everything looked a mess; I was not pleased. 

I believe we have returned our website back to normal, and ideasinfood.com to a basic template with a link to here.  Anyway, one thought sparked another; unfortunately technology still trumps me.

Two Summer Dishes

The arrival of the whiskey barrel aged maple syrup, along with a surplus of smoked frog legs led directly to the evolution of these two dishes.  The first dish features the maple syrup, with sauteed scallops, pickled mustard seeds, curry leaves and pine nut-cream cheese yuba.  The heat of summer sparked the second dish, which contains our slow cooked frog legs, now pickled in cider vinegar, watermelon, shiso, mango-miso, espelette pepper chip and fortified wine syrup.  Our quick tribute to a barbecue.

An Important Book

I could write a review or interpretation of The Zen of Creativity: Cultivating Your Artistic Life, by John Daido Loori, and perhaps come close to a reasonable point.  Everyone's time is more important.  Buy the book and read it, then give it to a friend who will get it.  Call this a worthwhile chain book giving; but that is all it is.

Pie Crust

I meant to include a recipe and technique for crust in the last post on pies but time escaped me.  So, here it is.  I’m not a fan of vegetable shortening and good lard is hard to find so I use an all butter dough.  The flavor is great and you can add some flakiness to it with your technique.  I use the basic recipe from The Baker’s Dozen Cookbook although I must confess that I tend to eyeball the amount of butter (we get ours in irregularly shaped balls from the farm) and the water.  The recipe calls for 1 cup AP flour, 2T sugar, 1/4 t salt, 8T cold butter, 2T ice water.  I use a food processor for dough because it’s faster, easier and comes out better.  My personal method is to process the flour, sugar and salt to blend.  Then I add the butter and pulse 2-3 times.  I don’t have an exact size for the blended butter, everyone says that it should look like cornmeal or peas but mine tends to be somewhat irregular.  I would say that no lumps should be larger than a pea.  The butter should be well coated with the flour and not too small, if you can't see the lumps you've gone too far.  The I drizzle in the water and pulse the machine 2-3 times to blend.  If it doesn’t come together I add some more.  I stop when the dough looks like a mass of coarse little balls.  It will not be fully blended and there should still be some loose flour in the bowl.  At this point I dump it out onto the counter and fraisage ( smear the dough across the counter with the heel of my hand, to flatten the layers of butter)  Try not to add any extra flour during this process, just use the leftover from the bowl.  Depending on how the dough feels I do it once or twice.  If you’re afraid of toughening your dough, just do it once.  This adds flakiness to your layers, finishes the mixing process and brings the dough together.  Form it into a ball and dust it with flour.  Roll it out immediately and put it into your pan.  Chill it for at least an hour before baking to relax the gluten.  You can prepare the filling while the dough rests.  Use as you would any pie dough.  Double the recipe for two crust pie.

Maple Syrup in a Whiskey Barrel

I have talked about Steve Stallard of Blis Caviar before, he cures sea and brook trout roe with fleur de sel--sometimes smoked, sometimes with mezcal.  Well, he does a few other crazy things with food and the like.  Currently, he has sourced out whiskey barrels which had previously been used to age single barrel whiskey for eighteen years.  He takes these gems, the wood saturated with aged whiskey and fills them with a rich decadent maple syrup.  He then ages the syrup in the barrels for a period of months so the maple pulls in the whiskey and wood flavors.  The syrup arrived yesterday; it is amazing.  We plan to use it in several preparations; I had it for breakfast on these fromage blanc and blueberry pancakes.

Steve has captured and transformed one flavor in order to impact another.  His crazy thoughts inspire ours.  In fact, I have asked him to age some tamari soy sauce in the used maple syrup barrels. Oh, he is also infusing some of the maple syrup with Tahitian vanilla...another story and more inspirations.

Easy Failure

When a process becomes thought of as easy, it is at that exact point when you will fail.  That is the point where you lose respect for the process, its entire evolution and the reasons behind it.  I wish to convey the fact that easy is not a good place to be.  I do not believe that life should be difficult, yet when you look for easy and are happy because of it, failure is right behind.  I know, for I failed with gusto because of what I thought was easy.  Now I know.  Hot foie gras terrine is not easy, that is why it is interesting.

Frog Legs Day Two

I cured the frog legs overnight; the curing time allowed me to digest my thoughts.  I opted to smoked the backs and feet rather than the legs themselves for a more subtle flavor and a more controlled cook on the legs.  After the backs were smoked, I wrapped them and a bunch of dill in a sachet, added them to a bag with the frog legs proper and proceeded to cook everything for one and a half hours at 57.2 degrees C.  The result is a tender and firm frog leg, balanced with dill and smoke.  Foreseeable combinations are with foie gras, watermelon, scrambled cauliflower, in vinaigrette, fried rice, with a country ham of duck  and a ragout of morel mushrooms and nasturtium leaf kimchee.

Thoughts on Pie

It's been a long, tough week.  It started last Tuesday and won't end until this Friday night.  I hate to say it but I'm seriously hoping that no one calls to book for this weekend.  We've been averaging about 15 hours per day and we're pretty damn tired.  It's to the point where we're losing track of conversations mid-sentence and flubbing basic techniques because we forget what we're doing.  Thank goodness Friday is only a couple of days away.  Thankfully we're never equally tired at the same time, so when one of us hits the wall the other can usually rally.  Today Alex hit the wall and there was only one solution, pie.  That's his comfort food and it sustains him when the going gets tough.  It just makes him feel good...as long as it's good pie.  Here's part of a conversation we had about pie, pardon the expletives, he's tired, wired and fired up.

"Sh***y pie has a sh***y crust.  Good pie has a great crust.  The filling can't be glued together with crap.  Like a bad blueberry pie is sweet and gummy and has the consistency of snot while a good blueberry pie, made with wild blueberries is tart, sweet, explosive, tannic and balanced.  Pie is such a simple thing and so many people f**k it up."

"Pie is like great glass of wine that you can have for breakfast.   The tremendous thing about a great glass of wine is that it's a great glass of wine.  It has layers of complexity, flavors and textures.  It lingers on the palate and changes as you drink it.  You can pick it apart and analyze it or you can just enjoy it.  Pie is the same way.  A great pie has layers of complexity, flavors and textures.  It changes as you're eating it and you can analyze it or just enjoy it.  It's a total experience.   And no one gets mad if you have it for breakfast."

It's a good thing that I don't often muck up my pies.  Obviously this was a bit of a crisis today and so nothing would do but pecan pie.  Unfortunately I was missing a few key ingredients like molasses.  Not to worry though, I'm very adaptable.  I managed to pull off a maple syrup pecan pie with molasses sugar and dark rum.  Just a little something to soothe the savage beast in us all...

Smoked Frog Legs

I have not seen nor eaten nor heard about smoked frog legs.  I am sure they exist, I rarely have a new thought, but I figured what the heck, give it a shot.  So, our frog legs arrived today, I cured them with onion, dill and salt.  Tomorrow into the smoker to catch some flavor and then into a bag to gently cook.  These frog legs arrived with backs intact; I am not sure how I will utilize them though a broth for a risotto or pasta sauce might be nice.  More to come as the dish or dishes evolve.

The Differnce Between Molten and Liquid

The liquid filled hot foie gras--while successful--opened new doors for us.  I was asked if I could make the center molten, not just a runny vinaigrette.  Why?  Two important counsels had the same answer; so you can taste everything separately and together.  I listened.  As some may know, my culinary improvisations come about based on ingredients on hand and current inspirations.  While ultimately I plan to make a molten foie gras, I figured I could test theories on ingredients less indulgent but equally delicious.  Today saw the emergence of a warm cauliflower timbale with a molten passionfruit center.

Making Beds

    Sometimes in this business you end up doing things that aren't really part of your job, or things that you never expected to be doing in the first place.  This occurrence happens in direct proportion to the size of your establishment, the smaller the place, the bigger your "box" can be.  This can be a good or a bad thing depending upon the situation, but it's always a learning experience.  We are located at a very small, very high end guest house in a very small town in a relatively remote location in Colorado.  Staffing is a constant problem which cannot affect our guests' experiences.  Unbeknownst to the owners (who are not here very often), our "boxes" don't even exist.
    So, yesterday we were short housekeeping staff and I was making beds.  There are a lot of layers that go into a high end hotel bed.  It starts at the bottom with a mattress cover, then an under-sheet, then an over-sheet, a blanket and a top sheet.  The over-sheet is folded over the blanket and the top sheet creating a sort of blanket ravioli encased in a pasta made of fine linens.  The theory behind this is to keep the tender skin of our guests from touching the actual blanket, sanitary and elegant at the same time.  Over this is the goosedown duvet with duvet cover.  There are four pillows on each bed wearing both a pillow protector and a pillowcase.  The pillowcases and duvet cover are in the style of an overlapping closure so that nothing can hang out and accidentaly make contact with the sleeper.  The pillows are stored in the closet during the day when the bed is made up and brought out in the evening for turn-down.  On top of the duvet is an ornate bedspread and decorative pillows corresponding to the theme of the room.  Everything under the bedspread is white to convey a message of cleanliness and purity.  We use Frette linens which do not stand up to bleach very well, so keeping them that pristine white without holes is a challenge.  Especially since hotel guests do all of things in our beds that they would never do in their beds at home.  Enough said.  All of the sheets are flat and the beds are made with hospital corners.  I am somewhat embarassed to admit that I have not completely mastered that technique.  We have very ornate beds with high headboards and fancy bottoms.  Housekeepers who do not have arms approximately the thickness of a toothpick find changing the linens a bit of a challenge.  Did I mention that we have trouble finding and keeping a full staff in spite of the fact that we pay very well for the area?
    Anyway, making the beds yesterday was actually a somewhat peaceful occurrence.  We have had guests for several days on end with a shoestring staff and I was a walking zombie, so the change of pace was actually somewhat soothing.  Somewhere downstairs there were major issues in the laundry room but Alex was fielding that one.  The bed looked so inviting, soft fluffy pillows, downy blanket, puffy duvet that I just wanted to sink into and fade away into blissful oblivion.  But it was not to be, dinner was looming and I still needed something for dessert.  Something comforting and relatively easy to prepare.  As I looked at those pillows an image took shape in my addled brain of creme caramel.  It's soft silky texture and creamy richness were exactly what I needed at the moment.  Better, I could make a large batch and use them for that night's dinner and for the new guests checking-in in the morning.  Even better than that, I could take one home at the end of the evening and savor it on the sofa with Alex and the beasties before crawling off to bed.  Truly, the dessert was more for me than for the guests, but they enjoyed it too.

Adding Flavor to Water

Once we were able to saute water, I needed to find out what other potential possibilities existed.  I literally just began to scratch the surface by combining prickly pear puree and rice vinegar to make a savory hot melting bite.  What is next? I am not sure, but I happy with this mornings exploits  as well as  challenged for I  realize the painting is huge and I am looking at  the first brush stroke.

July 8, 2005

A few days late...

Hot Foie Gras Terrine
mango-miso, tamarind-maple vinaigrette, curry leaves

Wild King Salmon
marinated chanterelle mushrooms, blueberry compote, pickled green almonds

Grilled Loin of Lamb
hen of the woods mushrooms, mint pesto, eggplant-banana puree

Redwood Hill Farm Camellia
smoked apple sauce, crab apple mustard chips, balsamic syrup

Steamed Lemon Pudding
organic blackberries

July 9, 2005

Key West Pink Shrimp
salt roasted peach, nasturtium leaf kimchee, curry leaves

Barramundi
cauliflower, granola, ramp bulbs

Grilled Prime Sirloin
sardinian cous cous with mushrooms, braised swiss chard

Colston Basset Stilton
baby tomatoes, manni olive oil, young basil

Mascarpone Cheesecake
strawberries, vin cotto

Taste and Summer

A lemon pudding emerged chilled, smooth and tangy.  A blueberry concentrate adds a tannic note and the chanterelle mushrooms preserved in lemon and chestnut honey add an earthiness.  Manni olive oil adds spice and a touch of green to the blueberry and lemon.  Besides the flowery blah, blah, blah, it tastes great; that is it.  At the end of the day I like the taste, texture and aroma. 

Cauliflower and Foie Gras

The liquid is in the middle.  Fun with cauliflower and foie gras led to working on the fillings and the flavors.  We are still in the development and fine tuning stages with these dishes, but our second steps hold promise.

It's a Mission Statement

    It’s easy to underestimate the importance of focus.  This point was brought home to me recently as I experimented with our new camera lens.  It is incredible at capturing minute details so that the iridescence of the fragile shell of a bubble of frothed liquid can be captured in all of its glory.  The downside is that it’s not an easy lens to use.  It can only focus on something very close up and our camera, which can be manual or automatic, acts differently with this lens attached.  It becomes more temperamental.  If I’m not careful in my adjustments the focus keeps pulling inwards until everything becomes an unrecognizable fuzzy haze.  It has become a common practice to take a step back and check my light and my positioning before settling in to finalize my focus and shoot my pictures.  If only I could become more adept at this technique in other areas of my day.
    Cooking actually has a built in focus.  There are recipes and services.  You are usually concentrating on preparation for a particular menu or meal.  Focus is inherent in the prep list that becomes an outline for you day.  There is always a time factor and a smart cook knows when it’s time to ask for help.  Unfortunately, the further away you get from the range, the harder it is to focus on the tasks at hand.  People think cooking is all there is to do in kitchen, but those people are wrong.  But there’s no convincing them, so most of the time I don’t bother to try.  In their minds cooking is all we do.  The reality is just a bit more complicated.
    Here at KG, we have a myriad range of responsibilities such as creating menus, finding suppliers, cooking food, staffing a kitchen, coordinating with the dining room, training your staff (hopefully an ongoing process), paying bills, cleaning everything, checking in orders, storing food, maintaining the wine cellar, updating the wine list, taking care of room service, writing advertisements, playing catch with the GM, working on packages for the hotel, jumping on command for marketing & PR, writing website copy, booking special events, chatting with customers (it may not sound like work, but it often can be, especially when you’ve three hundred other things to do), keeping up with new regulations, preserving ingredients, dealing with inspectors, killing hornets, the list could go on forever.  What’s interesting to me is how few people can see the scope of other people’s lives.  If you were to ask the person next to you what they do every day, I’m sure they would give a list with several items, much like the one above.  Ask the same person what the person next to them does every day and you would probably get a one or two word answer.  He or she is a (blank).  Somehow everyone else’s lives fit into a box.  My goal is to look beyond the box and try to appreciate and respect what other people do in the same way that I wish certain people would do for me.  That’s one small focus for me.
    Years ago we were catering an event in Westchester.  It was s somewhat swanky cocktail party and the hostess was obviously nervous and on edge.  She was buzzing around the house as we were setting up, fussing with the flowers, checking on the bar.  At one point she stopped short in the middle of the room and said sharply to herself, “Focus!  Finish your task.”  The room actually went silent but she never noticed.  She visibly pulled herself together and finished what she was doing.  It was humorous in a not so humorous way.  There have been many occasions where I’ve been reminded of those words and invoked them myself, albeit silently.
    So what is our focus?  It’s a question that has been discussed today at great length.   What are we trying to accomplish here?  There’s no easy answer.  We want that elusive dream of job satisfaction.  We want to feel good about going to work every day.  We want to come home at night feeling as though we’ve accomplished something, or at least made some progress toward achieving something.  We want the thought of cooking in our kitchen to bring a smile and not a frown.  We want to be successful, financially and spiritually.  We want to be recognized by our peers for the work that we do.  We want to share what we learn every day with others.  We want to have fun cooking.  We want people to leave our tables satisfied, dreamy and content.  We want people to walk through our doors anticipating an amazing morning, afternoon, or evening and leave through them feeling that anything is possible.  We want to create an amazing dining experience and the memories that live long afterwards.  That last statement is our actual focus, the rest is just gravy.  That’s actually not true, that’s just what we’ve been telling ourselves.  We need all of the things listed above to happen in order to create true job satisfaction, hell, we need it to create life satisfaction.  Now we just have to figure out how to make that happen.

Super Ball

Today proved frustrating and eventful.  In exploring ideas there is a lot of spaghetti throwing.  Not often does it stick to the wall.  Similarly, I look at culinary developments through the eyes of a super ball.  The tiny little ball which used to reap havoc on classrooms while also supplying an immense amount of pleasure.  Sometimes the ball hits you in the eye, other times it wakes you up, and many times it can make you smile.  Today we fried water. 

My Troubles with Brisket

I have struggled with cooking brisket for a number of years.  I do not believe I am alone.  Everywhere I go people talk about brisket, the best and most juicy, moist brisket.  It is described as perfectly cooked and knock dead delicious.  I try it and am always disappointed.  Sometimes there is some good flavor, sometimes a bit of juiciness, sometimes there is absolutely nothing right about it.  To make matters ten times worse, my brisket stands right in line with the masses of mediocrity.  And that upsets me.

Every now and again I muster up the moxy to buy a brisket and cook it.  I try different methods, marinades, techniques and temperatures.  I might as well just eat saw dust.  Yet, I finally realized an important fact.  I was just cooking brisket to cook it, not to make great brisket--and I needed a purpose for the brisket.  Well, I found a purpose.  I needed an idiot proof method to cook brisket.  I had to have it, no choice, no failure allowed.  The result, a brisket I am proud of.

One brisket
pickled jalapenos and their juice
mustard
ketchup
soy sauce

Puree, the jalapenos, mustard, ketchup and soy sauce to get a paste.  Rub liberally on the brisket, any left over can be saved for sauce.  Wrap the brisket in a triple layer of plastic wrap, place on a sheet pan in a 250 degree oven for eight hours.  Let cool, then refrigerate overnight.  Unwrap the brisket, discard any visible fat, mix the meat drippings with the left over paste and warm for sauce.  Slice the brisket thick and then grill to warm through.  Eat.

Finding Joy in Simple

I enjoy pasta with pesto; it is vibrant, earthy--honest.  I put together a pesto of sorts: charred jalapeno, grilled ginger and mint.  No it is not pesto, but it is simple.  I tucked it away for a new foie gras dish and began to fail miserably about the kitchen.  Water decided not to boil for me.

Well,  I cleaned up my mess, several to be exact, and began to contemplate menus for upcoming guests.  While talking to purveyors, I decided to give our dairy noodles another shot.  I had the base ready and figured what the heck.  Well, it worked; a new cooking method and a different ration of ingredients and our noodles have bite, are easy to handle and they taste good. 

Here it is; fromage blanc noodles with mint-jalapeno pesto, pickled shiitake mushrooms and ricotta salata.

Garlic Bread

    It’s a gorgeous sunny morning.  The Fourth of July is not one of my favorite holidays.  I’ve spent the past several years working and it’s never been a hardship for me, but this year we are off.  I’ve spent a somewhat restless morning, somewhat hungry and dissatisfied, but unable to focus on a solution.  I spent half an hour cleaning dust and cobwebs off the deck only to be attacked by microscopic bugs the instant I settled down in the sun.  I flipped through the stack of books waiting to be read, just managing a just few pages here and there.  Magazines were no better, once the stack reaches a certain height it dies.  It becomes too large to even contemplate so I tucked them away to avoid the guilt.  I rummaged through the cupboards searching for inspiration with no luck.  Nothing was working for me this morning.  I was cranky and starving and—there was a head of garlic and some rolls on the counter.  The perfect solution finally reared it’s head.
    It’s called a fettunta.  We served it with, I believe, the lamb dish several summers ago.  It was our first season on the Vineyard together and we were working at a Tuscan restaurant in Edgartown.  Ostensibly we were Chef and Pastry Chef but as in most of our joint endeavors, titles were somewhat irrelevant.  The new restaurant was owned by an up and coming Chef from NYC.  He was about to open a new place in Manhattan as the Chef de Cuisine for a very well known Chef.  There was no question that the new endeavor would succeed and become the launching pad for his own place in the City.  Although he had owned the place on the Vineyard for a few years his presence that summer was meant to be minimal as his place in the city was supposed to open at the beginning of the summer.  It should come as a surprise to no one that he was very much around for the entire season.  Although it was a great learning experience, it was not exactly one we had been anticipating.  But those are stories for another day.
    The fettunta was on the prep list of the grill station.  Every day the local bakery delivered large round loaves of country bread sliced thin.  This bread was brushed with olive oil and grilled.  While the bread was still warm it was rubbed with cut cloves of garlic and sprinkled with salt.  It was incredibly pungent and earthy, greasy, crisp, chewy and utterly delicious.  I made my dinner from the leftovers at the end of service each evening.  I seemed to be the only cook with a taste for it.  I would rub a cut tomato over the garlicky bread and sprinkle it with Parmigiano-Reggiano.  At this point the bread was cold and more chewy than crisp.  The sweetness and softness of the tomato were the perfect foil to the sharpness of the garlic and the saltiness of the cheese.  I would sit on the back step with a cold beer and savor each bite.  It was always a nice finish to a long, hard day.
    This morning I didn’t have any tomatoes but I did have relatively fresh rolls, garlic and amazing olive oil.  I split a roll and put it in a pan over high heat to toast.  We lost the toaster to the mice when we were away on vacation.  While it toasted I peeled a clove of garlic, split it and removed the sprouting center.  When the bread was toasted I rubbed it with garlic, brushed it with the dark green oil and sprinkled it with salt.   I sank my teeth into the slick crust, inhaling its earthy aromas, as grains of sea salt melted on my tongue.  The world stopped as I closed my eyes and was magically transported to sun and water and ocean breezes against my cheek, pots and pans clanging in the background.  It was an illuminating moment.  Perhaps this feeling of wrongness dogging my steps lately isn’t me, perhaps it’s just where I reside at the moment.  If so, at least I can find the flavors to take me back where I belong, in spirit if not in the flesh.

*Memory can be a shaky thing.  Since posting I've remembered a few salient details.  In the interests of accuracy I'm noting them here.  We used to serve the bread with Caciucco, a Tuscan fish stew, not lamb.  I learned the term fettunta after the Vineyard from different Italians.  Marco actually used a different term for the bread but I'm slightly embarassed to admit that I don't remember what his term was.  If there were any leftovers, I would use up the tomato concasse from another station on my dinner.  If there weren't any leftovers I would rub my bread with a fresh tomato.  The end result was the same but the pathways were a little different than the ones recounted above.

Look Beyond the Rules

Today is about breaking the rules.  Irony sets in on the fourth of July.  The fact is that many rules are in place to act as guidelines and structure in the world of food, wine and beyond.  I find great pleasure in individuals who in some way turn their nose up at rules and pre-set conditions and look for other paths to journey down.  The greatest breakthroughs and discoveries have come through the need to see past rules and existing systems and break new ground. 

What is necessary is to see.  We must work at removing our existing blinders in order to see a broader spectrum of the world.  Unfortunately, once the blinders are off, the world takes on a whole new vastness.  How then do we cope with the great expanses now in our sight?  I believe in taking steps forward.  I will definitely fall on my face, but I have done that before. 

My greatest fears and pleasures are experienced on the path towards discovery.

Fining My Thoughts

It began by saying yes.  Then we had tension. There is a tension good or bad between individuals working together.  Yet, it is the result of the tension which creates the moment of innovation.  Just think of a rubber band.  What is essential is being able to harness that tension and use it to fuel activities.

What appears to be the compilation of a series of spontneous acts, is actually a calculated approach to food and dining.  We begin by asking how not if. The entire world is at our fingertips for ideas and inspiration.  Our means of fining these influences is expressed through our interactions as well as the creations they inspire.  Impossible conquests are achieved by looking at the project from a varried perspective.  Because no thought or idea is a bad one, just unrealized, we are able to achieve discoveries through our rehearsals. 

Be at the End of the Rainbow

We have all seen rainbows.  We all know of the pot of gold at the end of a rainbow.  So, how many rainbows have you been at the end of?

Sure, in one thought we are talking make believe.  Yet, if you take part in the process, the evolution and development of a dish, a technique, a vision, at the end of the day you will be sitting at the end of a rainbow; perhaps a pot of gold will be in your lap.

Looking Through a New Lens

Our new camera lens arrived on Thursday.  I have been looking forward to this lens for a number of months, and now it is in my possession.  The lens, a cannon EF-S60mm f/2.8 macro usm, opens a whole new view point on food.  I thought we were taking close up photographs before, now we can take close up pictures of mustard seeds and feel the details.  Understandably, not all food needs to be looked at under an extreme magnifying glass, yet it enables us to see the details.  From knife cuts, to the petal structure of a thyme blossom we can now get closer to the food.

The lens gives a new perspective, one which without looking through it, I might not have missed, but now that I can, I must begin to examine everything more closely; it give a new perspective on our food.

Of course, I must first learn to control and use the lens.  My first picture of food with the lens.

Ingredient Auditions

I just read a great piece of advice with regards to writing which in turn applies directly to cooking and really writing.

"Every word must audition for the page."

Every ingredient must audition for the plate.  Every technique must audition for its use in a recipe.   And we must be tough critics in the selection process.  In order to create a great dish, we must push ourselves to be exhaustive in our analysis and absolute in our selections.