Buttermilk, Rhubarb, and Lovage

The combination of these three ingredients somehow manages to be both envigorating and comforting.  The lovage adds a bright note of herbal bitterness dissolving on the tongue from a soft powder into a rich decadent lovage oil.  The buttermilk is set in the form of an orb and textured like a soft panna cotta.  The tart rhubarb cubes are marinated and compressed in their own lightly sweetened juices.  The residual liquid from the marinated rhubarb is whipped into light bubbles to dress the ingredients and to bring them together.

The organization of these ingredients and their placement in a menu is transitional.  This dish carries us from cheese to chocolate.  In our minds this is the natural progression of the end of a tasting menu: cheese to fruit to chocolate.  We've basically eliminated the mignardises from our repertoire as in our experience most people are too full to truly enjoy them. They can be wonderful little bites, but if there is no appetite for them they become simply the platform for a tummy ache. Instead we end our meal with chocolate and hopefully send our guests home with pleasantly full bellies and happy memories of an evening well spent.