This week we're talking to Food 52"s Kristen Miglore about fried egg salad and other ideas in food...
Years Past
Adventures in Doughnutland.
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Writing and Photographs by Aki Kamozawa & H. Alexander Talbot
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To Be Read
Martin, Melissa M.: Mosquito Supper Club: Cajun Recipes from a Disappearing Bayou
Lee, Lara: Coconut & Sambal: Recipes from my Indonesian Kitchen
Chauhan, Maneet: Chaat: Recipes from the Kitchens, Markets, and Railways of India: A Cookbook
McDermott, Kate: Pie Camp: The Skills You Need to Make Any Pie You Want
Lee, Lara: Coconut & Sambal: Recipes from my Indonesian Kitchen
Kimber, Edd: One Tin Bakes: Sweet and simple traybakes, pies, bars and buns
Clark, Letitia: Bitter Honey: Recipes and Stories from Sardinia
McDowell, Erin Jeanne: The Book on Pie: Everything You Need to Know to Bake Perfect Pies
Michael Solomonov: Federal Donuts: The (Partially) True Spectacular Story
Chris Cosentino: Offal Good: Cooking from the Heart, with Guts
Deb Perelman: Smitten Kitchen Every Day: Triumphant and Unfussy New Favorites
Samin Nosrat: Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking
Michelle Tam: Ready or Not!: 150+ Make-Ahead, Make-Over, and Make-Now Recipes by Nom Nom Paleo
Lee Brian Schrager: America's Best Breakfasts: Favorite Local Recipes from Coast to Coast
Jacqueline An: An: To Eat: Recipes and Stories from a Vietnamese Family Kitchen
Carolyn Phillips: All Under Heaven: Recipes from the 35 Cuisines of China
Alexandra Stratou: Cooking with Loula: Greek Recipes from My Family to Yours
Meathead Goldwyn: Meathead: The Science of Great Barbecue and Grilling
Learning to Roar
Adding a second shop is teaching us a lot about what we don't know. It's hard to toot your own horn and to reach out to people and ask for help. This new project has forced us to do both of those things, sometimes at the same time. It's helped us to own our accomplishments in a way that we may have shied away from in the past. We've never been big on bragging about our achievements but we've realized that acknowledging them can be empowering. It reminds us that even when things get tough we can push through and make things happen. We know that we can create magic because we've done it before. This is very helpful knowledge when we're chasing doughnut unicorns in Virginia and beyond...
Years Past
October 4, 2008
Ideas in Food: Great Recipes and Why They Work
Maximum Flavor: Recipes That Will Change the Way You Cook
Gluten Free Flour Power: Bringing Your Favorite Foods Back to the Table
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Frozen Crushed Garlic
Someone recommended this to me in the checkout line at Whole Foods. Frozen crushed garlic in individual portions. It's brilliant because it doesn't oxidize in the freezer. You simply pop out a portion, still frozen, and slide it into your pan. If I really want to, I can make my own with organic garlic. But for now, I'm going to enjoy the ease of this. It's the little things that make the difference in my day.
Years Past
Ideas in Food: Great Recipes and Why They Work
Maximum Flavor: Recipes That Will Change the Way You Cook
Gluten Free Flour Power: Bringing Your Favorite Foods Back to the Table
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Jule's Organic Ice Cream Bars
These Ice Cream Bars by Jules Organic are one of my new favorite indulgences. They are delicious, not too large, chocolate coated ice cream bars that I can feel good about eating. I have a thing about RGBH and rBST that I just can't shake. While my two favorite Haagen Daaz flavors are non-gmo, it's a work in progress. It's important to me that food we eat at home with Amaya is food that we can all feel great about. Jules Organic ice cream treats fit the bill. We've also tried their ice cream sandwiches and fudge bars and Amaya and I are both fans. With summer coming, I will definitely be keeping a supply of these in my freezer.
Years Past
May 1, 2006
Ideas in Food: Great Recipes and Why They Work
Maximum Flavor: Recipes That Will Change the Way You Cook
Gluten Free Flour Power: Bringing Your Favorite Foods Back to the Table
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Kombucha
I spend a lot of time observing people at Whole Foods. It passes the time when things at the stand are slow. One of the things that strikes me is the diversity of customers in the store. They are from all walks of life, are all different colors, and from every socio-economic level, at least as far as I can see. I find that very comforting. I see the very best and worst of people as they help themselves to items from the hot and cold bars, which are directly in front of the doughnut stand, but that is a whole other story.
Slightly to the right of our stand is a kombucha display. Ten years ago hardly anyone drank kombucha. Now it is easily the most popular drink in the store. Almost every cart has some kind of kombucha in it. I drink kombucha every day. It's mostly because I like it, not because of any purported health benefits, although that may be how I was roped into tasting it in the first place. The bottle pictured is my favorite flavor. I limit myself to one bottle a day because it's expensive stuff. I don't drink coffee though, and I buy it by the case to save money, so I can justify my one a day habit. I often wonder what has made it so popular. Does everyone drink it because they like the not-so-sweet, fruity, fizzy flavor or are they in it for the health benefits? Is it just a good alternative to diet soda? Hardly anybody in Whole Foods has soda in their carts. Those not drinking kombucha are drinking iced tea/lemonade/water or some version of coffee. Alex claims that five years from now they will discover it's bad for us and then kombucha will be done. It's possible. For now, it's the hottest drink in the store. Do you drink kombucha?
Years Past
Ideas in Food: Great Recipes and Why They Work
Maximum Flavor: Recipes That Will Change the Way You Cook
Gluten Free Flour Power: Bringing Your Favorite Foods Back to the Table
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Squid and Saffron Gnocchi Sardi
In a recent workshop the creative catalyst was squid ink gnocchi sardi. Too often we make squid ink pasta and leave it alone. Recently we have revisited exploring complimentary pastas. As it turns out squid ink noodles have been the foundation. Not by design but through chance circumstances. In our recent exploration we looked at the squid ink sardi and it dawned on us that saffron sardi would be deliciously complimentary.
Years Past
March 1, 2011
March 1, 2009
March 1, 2007
March 1, 2005
Ideas in Food: Great Recipes and Why They Work
Maximum Flavor: Recipes That Will Change the Way You Cook
Gluten Free Flour Power: Bringing Your Favorite Foods Back to the Table
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Cryo-Blanching and Pressure Extraction
We started with an ad libbed and impromotu workshop. In it we brought two of our old ideas together to see if we could make a more intense truffle oil. The truffles were first frozen and thawed, cryo-blanched. We pureed the truffles with sunflower seed oil, vacuum sealed them and put the bag into an isi canister to apply an intense amount of pressure, an idea we explored to expedite brining years ago in the pressure chamber.
The initial results produced an intense and elevated truffle infusion in the oil. While the aroma does not come close to the synthetic enhancements of most truffle oil, the idea lends itself to further pursuit in the truffle arena as well as other flavored oils.
Years Past
Ideas in Food: Great Recipes and Why They Work
Maximum Flavor: Recipes That Will Change the Way You Cook
Gluten Free Flour Power: Bringing Your Favorite Foods Back to the Table
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Instant Bread and Butter Crumbs
The use of the Pacojet adds refinement and speed to the process. We added herbs and fresh bread into a Pacojet container and processed them once with the coupe set blade. Then we added soft butter, salt and pepper, and processed the mixture together. The result was a compound butter blended with bread crumbs. A useful idea and addition to a dynamic kitchen.
Years Past
Ideas in Food: Great Recipes and Why They Work
Maximum Flavor: Recipes That Will Change the Way You Cook
Gluten Free Flour Power: Bringing Your Favorite Foods Back to the Table
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Lemon Meringue Pie
I love the idea of using everything and combining it together in a finished application. Unfortunately the idea is an obstacle. When I saw the obstacle I was able to change my angle and see a fresh starting point. We started with 7 eggs. We adapted our mason jar meringue and our sous vide lemon curd from Ideas in Food: Great Recipes and Why They Work. We cooked the meringue base and the curd base in bowls covered in plastic wrap in the CVap at 66°C for 2 hours. After cooking the bases we made sure to stir the bases to dissolve any residual sugar. We whipped the meringue and pureed and strained the curd. When they were both finished and chilled we used them together to create a lemon meringue pie doughnut. We stuffed the doughnut with the curd and topped it with the meringue. We lightly torched the meringue to complete the doughnut into pie transformation.
Years Past
Ideas in Food: Great Recipes and Why They Work
Maximum Flavor: Recipes That Will Change the Way You Cook
Gluten Free Flour Power: Bringing Your Favorite Foods Back to the Table
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Toast With Jam
I've been working on a new milk bread recipe and not every loaf comes out the way I'd like it too. The upside is that no matter how imperfect a loaf is, very often it still will make delicious toast. It's a breakfast habit that we had gotten away from and are re--embracing this winter. When you make it from your own bread you can slice it exactly the way you like it. Mine is a little thinner, Alex's tends to be on the thick side. We both like it perfectly golden brown and while I am very happy with a generous dose of salted butter, he likes his thickly spread with butter and jam. It's a classic combination that each person can make their own. Letting everyone make their own toast is an easy way to ensure that we all start our day getting exactly what we want.
Years Past
January 6, 2005
Ideas in Food: Great Recipes and Why They Work
Maximum Flavor: Recipes That Will Change the Way You Cook
Gluten Free Flour Power: Bringing Your Favorite Foods Back to the Table
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Luchito Salumi
After 18-ish days of drying, our luchito salumi was ready. It had lost 35% of its weight. The Mexican chile paste provided smoke, heat, and savory undertones to the pork shoulder and belly. The meat had acquired a slice-able firmness and balanced acidity. While we happily consumed several slice straight up, I see a happy home for this on our next pizza.
Years Past
Ideas in Food: Great Recipes and Why They Work
Maximum Flavor: Recipes That Will Change the Way You Cook
Gluten Free Flour Power: Bringing Your Favorite Foods Back to the Table
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Cuts of Meat
Dry Aged and Bone-In
When given the choice we opt to test as much as we can. This way we can taste them all, because on any given day any cut can be the best one.
Years Past
Ideas in Food: Great Recipes and Why They Work
Maximum Flavor: Recipes That Will Change the Way You Cook
Gluten Free Flour Power: Bringing Your Favorite Foods Back to the Table
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What Can You Do In An Hour?
Let's find out. Not everyone knows that one of our most popular services is consulting. We've worked with clients from international food service companies to single restaurant chef-owners. We show talented, visionary chefs who are looking to excel how to become more creative, define their goals, and implement new ideas and techniques in order to reach new heights. Our clients are inquisitive cooks who love food and embrace the idea of continuing education. We provide a supportive environment for them to troubleshoot their issues and help them fine tune ways to make ideas happen.
Our most popular service is the telephone consultation. We spend at least one hour a week refining ideas and troubleshooting any issues that have come up in your world. We talk through menus and dishes and help focus their preparation and execution for maximum flavor and efficiency. We can show you new approaches to overcoming obstacles in your kitchen and help you work with the equipment and resources you already have to decrease waste and streamline service in order to improve your bottom line. For those of you who want a more in depth overhaul we provide hands on consulting to work directly with you and your team to organize and implement new ideas, seasonal menus, and updated processes.
Telephone consultations are $150 per hour. On site consulting services and special projects are priced on a case by case basis. Now that you know what's possible, contact us to find out what you can accomplish in an hour.
Years Past
May 28, 2005
Ideas in Food: Great Recipes and Why They Work
Maximum Flavor: Recipes That Will Change the Way You Cook
Gluten Free Flour Power: Bringing Your Favorite Foods Back to the Table
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Cauliflower Crumbs
Coming back to the complete cauliflower it seems we left a few rocks unturned. We started again. We took the cauliflower and used a mandoline to shave off the fine textured florets. We put them into the dehydrator until they were a coarse crumb. We melted a large piece of butter in a medium pot and added the cauliflower crumbs and an equal amount of non-fat milk solids. We seasoned the mixture with salt and cooked the crumbs until they were a rich golden brown. We removed them from the heat, cooled them down on a tray. The crumbs are toasty, buttery, rich and full of cauliflower flavor. They are packed with potential.
Years Past
April 18, 2009
Ideas in Food: Great Recipes and Why They Work
Maximum Flavor: Recipes That Will Change the Way You Cook
Gluten Free Flour Power: Bringing Your Favorite Foods Back to the Table
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Asparagus and Broth
We created a dish with eggs, asparagus, and chicken broth. In the creation of that dish we found that we really enjoy the flavor of asparagus paired with a rich, intense chicken broth. The other day when we found some beautiful asparagus I went to the freezer and pulled out a container od roast chicken broth from our growing supply. Amaya is a big fan of broth and soupy noodles. Thankfully our pressure cooker has allowed us to keep up with her appetite.
For the asparagus pictured above, we put the broth in the pan and steamed the asparagus in it until just tender. We served them in a shallow bowl in a puddle of broth so that everyone could enjoy them together. We could have served them with a bowl of mayonnaise (perhaps even schmaltz based) to dip the asparagus in. This would have introduced the egg element from the original dish. Instead we kept things simple. Amaya was thrilled with her dish because it was fun to eat with her fingers, dipping the asparagus pieces in the roasted chicken jus, and because it was so good.
Years Past
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Breakfast Noodles
It seems as though there is always a book in progress. A notebook on the kitchen counter, scribbled post-it notes hanging from the cabinets; it's the story of our lives. There are always an assortment of small moleskin notebooks lying around, color-coded at the moment to differentiate between projects. This morning Amaya asked for a notebook of her own and proceeded to record her very first recipe. It's pretty bare bones, a list of ingredients, but for a not quite 5-year old it's quite an achievement. It's a recipe for "Breakfast Noodles." Angel hair pasta, boosted with organic frozen peas, cooked al dente, drained, returned to the pot, and mixed with a couple of large organic eggs beaten with a generous splash of soy sauce (Amaya does that part) until everything thickens and comes together. A simplified riff on pasta carbonara, it is her favorite breakfast (right now) and a fitting beginning for her first kitchen notebook. It's the things we love that motivate us to do more.
PS: The pumpkin pie was a request. We'll work on that recipe next.
Years Past
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Yellow Mustard Gnocchi Sardi
We made these gluten free gnocchi sardi (die # 191) for the dinner at Heritage RVA with 425 grams of yellow mustard, 425 grams of whole eggs, 1900 grams of What IIF flour and 100 grams of potato flour. The pasta had great bite. As you can see above the ridges were well defined and the flavor was intense. It matched beautifully with lamb heart ragout we served it with. Now that we have the recipe, the real question is what to pair it with next?
Years Past
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Love What You Do
stuffed rabbit and broccoli-anchovy sauce
These last few weeks? months? have been busy. This is always a good thing in the life of a free lance artist (or two). We've had some great workshops this month with home cooks and professional chefs. It's always interesting to go between the two. Non-professional cooks want to enjoy the process, learn new things and taste great food. Chefs want to maximize their precious time off and see and do as much as possible. Either way we have fun and are inspired by the people we are working with. Two to thee day workshops work the best because the first day we get to know each other and work on things that our people know they want to do and the following days we explore things they didn't realize that they wanted to learn more about. It's about building relationships in order to explore more in the kitchen. Once we know what you like we can extrapolate ideas in the appropriate directions. It's that breakthrough that we're going for, that light of passion in people's eyes that says we've tapped into their psyche and we're exploring food in exactly the directions they want to go. That's what makes it all worthwhile.
chicken oyster and cucumber pearls
Years Past
May 8, 2007
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Culinary State of America
Recently someone asked us what we thought was the next big food destination. We were slightly stumped. It seems that most places have been well-explored and in some ways food is becoming more homogeneous. As cultures expand and restaurants proliferate, they go through a stage of exploring other styles of cooking. Restaurants specializing in classic French techniques, modern cooking techniques, food from around the world abound and then ever so slowly the tide begins to turn. Chefs and cooks reach a level of expertise that allows them to embrace their homeland. They begin to refocus on what they have at hand, the ingredients, the history, the local specialties, and their own memories of food come together to create a renaissance of sorts. That type of revival is happening here in the United States right now and that's why we think this is the place to eat this year.
In the 70's it was a common practice for Americans to travel to France on gastronomic pilgrimages. WIth their Michelin guidebooks and a few key reservations they would drive across the country enjoying great meals. I believe that we've hit a point where people can, with a little judicious research, crisscross this country and eat great food everywhere they go. The level of cooking has increased to the point where you can find passionate chefs creating great food in almost every small city or large town and even in a few out of the way areas where you'd never normally think to look. From Charleston to Austin, Baltimore to Providence, and Pittsburgh to Seattle, you can find a great gastronomic experience. The best part of it is that because we have such a large country with so many regional variations, if you look carefully you can find old favorites and classic ingredients slowly coming back into the spotlight. Of course as diners we have to do our part. When we find great places we have to support them. We have to actually eat there every so often and tell all our friends about it. Passion and good press will only take a chef so far, it takes actual customers to keep the doors open.
In 1979 Raymond Sokolov published Fading Feasts, A Compendium of DIsappearing American Regional Foods. When I first read it there were many things I had never heard of or tasted and now many of them are newly popular once more. It's a great book full of great stories, recipes and information. Sokolov covers a wide range of ingredients and regional dishes including persimmons, gooseberries, abalone, sea urchin, Pacific salmon, Country ham, key limes, Minnesota wild rice, moonshine, chili con carne and morels. It's gratifying to see that all of them are still around and many are thriving. We have an important food history in this country and its wonderful to see chefs like David Kinch, Sean Brock, Tony Maws and Spike Gjerde leading the charge to embrace it and share their knowledge. There is an incredible bounty of chefs and ingredients available to tantalize any palate and it's time to give them their due. It's no longer just about New York and California, it's all of us, working together to create an environment that fosters great food in restaurants and in home kitchens.
Family restaurants are on the rise and instead of or in addition to making biscuits and gravy, meatloaf and fried chicken, these places are turning out handmade pastas and salumi, making cheeses and pickles, growing gardens in back lots and on rooftops, and simply taking their food to the next level. FIne dining has become incredibly fine and focused ever more on pristine ingredients and graceful flavors, modern cooking techiques and high tech equipment have made new things possible in the kitchen and smart chefs know that some things can be improved upon and others are perfect just the way they are. Home cooks are also breaking barriers, using weights and measures, making their own sourdough starters and strudel dough, curing sausages and smoking bacon in their backyards. Admittedly none of this is new to the American cook but it is wonderful to see the enthusiasm and passion that blossoms over social media and through books, blogs, television and magazines. Home cooking is a relatively affordable activity that allows us to indulge our differents needs to make something tangible with out hands, be creative, socialize and actually feed ourselves something delicious.
Professionally there has never been a better time to be an American chef. FIfteen years ago the majority of famous American chefs were originally from France or other parts of Europe. Now it's anybody's game. Most of the best known American chefs are home grown and with the advent of food television and media it's easier than ever to get your name out there. It's also easier than ever to get your hands on quality ingredients and to find your audience. The local restaurant has come a long way from SIzzler and Perkins. Yes, those places still exist and do a booming business, but places like Niche in St. Louis and Bluestem in Kansas City are thriving right alongside them. While doomsayers say that chains will take over the world, our industry is so much more than that. Given a choice people will choose great food at an affordable price point over mediocrity almost every time. In addition to that there is access to other chefs and information that was never possible before. There is enough room for everyone to be successful and that realization has enabled us to develop a great culinary community that is more focused on camaraderie than competition. How can you not love that?
Years Past:
December 15, 2008
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Taking a Look Back
May 4, 2005 herbal cocktails (it's not what you think)
May 16, 2005 saying it clearly
May 26, 2005 mouli grated smokeded foie gras in action
May 31, 2008 beet greens
May 21, 2008 brining morels
May 17, 2008 the pleasures and difficluties
May 11, 2008 Eating Noodles in Tokoyo
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Red Wine Burgers
In my newest obsession I am looking to integrate the flavors of marinated meat into a burger. For our first explorations we are marinating short ribs in a blend of red wine, soy sauce and Crystal hot sauce. We have added crushed garlic and dried onions to the marinade for the flavors of the alliums and their wonderful aromatics. In this slightly skewed representation of beef bourgignon we are marinating the ribs for two days. When they are done we will grind and mix them in the style of our butter burgers. The wine marinade will be boiled and used to make red wine ketchup. The theories are good, now it's time to put them to the taste test.
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Cooking in Miami
Turns out we scheduled a visit to Miami at the same time that Food and Wine is conducting their South Beach Experience. So if you are in the are and are game for something off the beaten path we would sure like to cook dinner for you on February 26, 2011. The way to purchase a seat is to follow the white rabbit.
And on Sunday we are also cooking something up, but that information will come later.
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Asked & Answered
Charlotte Druckman interviewed us about the book and cooking in general and posted it over on the T Magazine blog today. It's candid glimpse into our everyday culinary banter. Go check it out.
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5 Factors Shaping Creativity in the Kitchen
Since our Harvard lecture was not filmed, we wanted to share our handout so you can get a sense of what we talked about. The class was on science, technology and creativity and we used pasta as the vehicle for our discussion. We brought the new pasta extruder to demonstrate how an understanding of science combined with technology can open doors to creativity by allowing us to accomplish things that wouldn't be possible without them. Below is a short video the pasta machine extruding and cutting chestnut noodles.
5 Factors Shaping Creativity in the Kitchen
1. Inspiration: observing and absorbing the world around you, asking questions, maintaining a sense of wonder.
- Finding answers is easy, finding the right questions is the true challenge.
-Mistakes are just steps along the path to success.
-Understanding history allows us to change the future.
-Finding the hidden links between ideas allows us to build a chain of development.
-Recording ideas allows us to have access to earlier inspirations and use them in the future.
-Exercise your brain by exploring new interests and ideas to keep your mind flexible.
-Allow for the cross-pollination of ideas, we get new perspectives and inspirations when we share ideas with others.
-Cyclical pleasures, enjoy the different seasons of any ingredient/idea and celebrate each new ending and beginning.
-Find balance between science and nature, if you can make them work together you can do anything.
-Juxtapose flavors, temperatures, textures, aromas so that each dish is a constantly changing experience that engages the diner and keeps them involved and excited in a meal.
-Match disparate ingredients. Don’t be afraid of trying unconventional pairings. You never know what will happen or how good something can be until you try it.
-Understand and identify relationships. Potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants are all part of the same family and go well together.
2. Flexibility: the ability to change perspectives on a dime. Looking at ideas backwards, forwards and upside-down. Separation of ego and invention: understanding that you will not necessarily invent the big idea but having the ability to identify it and extrapolate it will be more important than being the person who creates it.
-Sharing ideas leads to new perspectives, which in turn leads to more ideas to be embraced and shared anew.
-Build a repertoire of techniques and ideas. Have confidence in your creations and own them. Just because they may have sprung from someone else’s inspiration doesn’t detract from your own evolution.
-Organize your ideas because it will make it easier to access them and utilize your creativity.
-Choose your goal. Decide what you want to work on or work with and explore it to the best of your ability.
-Water is always available. It can be used to dilute flavor to make it approachable, like a splash in your glass of scotch or it can be used to change textures, like rehydrating freeze dried fruit. It’s also important to know when not to use water because you want to add flavor instead of subtract.
-Know when to close the door. Sometimes you’re just wasting time. If a dish isn’t working, know when to walk away and try something completely different.
-Realize that most mysteries are lack of knowledge.
-Use your subconscious. Pay attention to random thoughts and dreams.
3. Motivation: the desire to create must be stronger than fear of failure. Throwing spaghetti on the wall knowing that you can always clean up the mess later.
-Creativity is an attitude. View life as an explorer looking for opportunities and relationships, pay attention to small details and occasionally step back to see the big picture.
-Every finish line is also a starting point.
-Know your own taste and establish a clear voice.
-Allow the ingredients to inspire you.
-Pay attention to sensory experiences. Taste and memory are intertwined and certain textures and flavors resonate with certain populations. Utilize sensations to increase flavor and improve the dining experience.
-Enjoy the moment. Food peaks quickly and then deteriorates.
-Spontaneity is facilitated by constant rehearsal of skill sets. Ability allows for creativity.
-Every “overnight” success is the result of hard work.
-Structure allows for creativity. Having too many options can be paralyzing. Embrace parameters because they can actually allow for more creativity.
4. Adaptation: the ability to learn from your mistakes, successes and all of the bumps in the road on the way.
-Focus your energy. It’s easy to be distracted by ideas and lose your way. Jot down new ideas but always keep the end goal in mind.
-Establish your own set of rules to work by but don’t be afraid to change them if the situation calls for flexibility.
-Many times the smallest detail can affect the overall outcome. Calibration can make a big difference.
-Realize that there is always a right and wrong in cooking that it is determined by your standards. You choose what is right for you.
-Keep your audience in mind when composing a dish. Nobody cooks in a vacuum.
-Science can be art and vice versa. It all depends on your perspective.
-Realize that the description can be as important as the execution.
-Draw on past experiences and extrapolate.
-Don’t just balance flavors on your tongue, use you nose and balance your aromas.
-Take advantage of your resources and use them whenever you can. They will only make you better.
5. Refinement (Editing): Knowing when to say when. Utilizing critical examination to determine when a preparation is at its peak, when a dish is done, when a technique works perfectly and when you need to do more. Being able to trim the fat and sharpen the edged to reveal the hidden treasure its best advantage.
-Have a clear goal. Focus on delicious and always keep it in the back of your mind.
-Have a sense of urgency to move you forward. Use your energy wisely and don’t spin your wheels if you can avoid it.
-Are your components working together or struggling against one another? Everything on a plate should taste good, eaten alone or together.
-Explore all your options and then narrow them down. Too much is too much.
-Subtlety is underappreciated. Big bold flavors are wonderful but so is finesse.
-Start with the best raw materials available and do your best not to screw them up.
-When using a filter remember that it produces two sets of ingredients that you can use.
-Trim the fat and remove any extraneous details that simply add noise to the plate.
And if you are looking for the pdf here it is: Download 5 Factors Shaping Creativity
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Deadlines
Scott and Joe from Elements stopped by to pick up a circulator and we were chatting.
Alex: Are we still thinking about doing a dinner this fall.
Scott: Yeah that'd be great. If you guys are up for it.
Alex: Definitely, we'd love to do--
Aki: A dinner after the holidays, after we've finished the book, right honey.
Alex: Um yeah..right, of course, after the book is finished.
Scott: (Grinning) Someone has to be the voice of reason. Early winter sounds good to us.
We love saying yes to opportunities and collaborations, but with just about two months to write 75,000 words I think it's safe to say it's crunch time around here.
Although while we're on the subject, our last guest chef dinner for the year will be at Blackfish Restaurant in Conshohocken, PA (outside Philly) on Monday November 2, 2009.
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A New Kind of Activa
Chef A and Chef T are both part of the same restaurant group. Chef A calls Chef T looking for a helping hand.
Chef A: Dude, I'm in a pinch and looking for some Activa. Can you spare some RM and YG?
Chef T: RM and YG, I don't think I have any of those. I only use the new stuff. It works for pretty much anything.
Chef A: The new stuff?
Chef T: Yeah, Activa FU, haven't you heard about it?
Chef A: No, FU huh? And it works for everything?
Chef T: Everything I've ever needed it for.
4 hours later. Chef A calls back.
Chef A: You a--h---! It took me four hours to figure that out...
New is not always better, a lightly fictionalized account of a true story.
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On My Mind
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Behind the Blog
For anyone interested in a glimpse of Alex uncensored and off the cuff, check out the interview with Christy Harrison over at Gourmet.com. Personally, I found it very entertaining.
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Corn Skin
We have discussed the myriad possibilities and uses for our new skins. While Aki enjoyed the chocolate pudding, I
wanted something a bit more savory. Today during our class we decided to try something new. We had a corn puree on hand with which we were planning to turn into a hot custard when inspiration took over. We added Ticagel to the corn puree and heated the mixture to hydrate the hydrocolloids in the blend. Unfortunately, my liberal usage of butter in the mixture caused the corn puree to separate. Thankfully, the corn puree and the Ticagel were forgiving. We put the mixture into the blender and sheared it back together. We rolled out the resulting emulsion between two sil pats to create a thin corn skin. The additional butter in the corn base altered the texture of the skin just a bit. This skin is softer and more tender than the chocolate pudding skin.
This corn skin opens up many new opportunities for us. We tested the thermal nature of the pudding skin (thanks to yesterday's class) using a heat gun, so we know we will be able to use the skins in both hot and cold environments. Now that we have jumped into the savory realm we can use the skins as the pasta sheets for cannelloni or to drape over other ingredients thus creating hidden gems on the plate. Again we are just beginning. Ideas from parsnip to pear and miso to mango are popping up in our brains. And is a skin or a sheet our only option? Of course not, it's simply a question of figuring out how else to utilize this particular texture to its best advantage.
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Ed Bilicki
Ed is another who we have met through Ideas in Food. He was actually pointed in our direction by our friend and chef Victor LaPlaca. Ed first asks questions. It is with these questions that we have built a relationship and stumbled upon many inspirations in the kitchen. Ed is currently heading up a new restaurant, and with that on his mind has a fair amount to say and share.
By Ed Bilicki
Looking Back, Moving Forward
November 7th was my last night at bluezoo, a last hurrah of sorts, which was highlighted by the
opportunity to work with Michael Mina and Todd English. I have spent the better part of eight years with the latter chef…from prep guy to chef de cuisine, from Westport CT to Orlando FL; it has been an interesting path. The pictures you see are from my tenure there, a little bit of what we were able to do as a team. We served all of these dishes on some level, from two to more than a thousand and in the process provided a lot of people their first experiences with modern technical cooking. I hope that they demonstrate a point of view. I hope that they speak to our approach there and to my approach in the future.
To the point, I am currently working on a new restaurant called Satava. Our broad focus will be on coastal cuisine, drawing inspiration from the intersections of water and land wherever they may occur. Not a new idea to be sure, but my purpose and passion is to do it in a way that has not been done before. Looking back, my life has been intrinsically linked with the water; from surfing at age four in Coca Beach to fly fishing the Rouge last fall for wild steelhead, interaction with water rejuvenates my soul. Cooking replenishes my body and mind, a marriage of the two is only logical.
I mentioned the fact that we served these items in bluezoo not to say “hey look at me,” but to highlight an important aspect of my vision for this endeavor, accessibility. I presume that the majority of regulars here at Ideas in Food are either likeminded professionals or very passionate patrons of the culinary arts. While we at Satava will look forward to serving this constituency, I want to address the issue of the dining public at large, how do we bring them into the fold? For me, this is the crux of this conversation.
The problem with modern technical cooking, hyper-modern cuisine, molecular gastronomy, nueva nouvelle cuisine, cocina de autor (insert your favorite name for the movement) is that, despite being in vogue with the food press, a good number of people don’t initially see the appeal. If we can’t find a way to reach those people, then the movement loses momentum, becomes a fad and fades away. Given this reality, we must consider modernism for the masses. If we confine our growing knowledge of technique to elite temples of gastronomy and force people to consume 10-30 courses, we are limiting our potential audience and potentially limiting ourselves.
In the context of these considerations, Shola’s inaugural piece had considerable resonance with me. After eating out at most of the major restaurants here in Orlando over the last few weeks, it ultimately
all boils down to variations on fried calamari, Caesar salad and meat and potatoes. While it would be easy to become disheartened by this reality, I choose to look at it as a challenge and as an opportunity. Regardless of the outlook a restaurant espouses, its price point, its targeted audience, its style of service…someone will always ask for a Caesar salad eventually. I struggled with and even resented this reality for years, but recently I have made peace with it and have even embraced it. After all, I actually really enjoy a good Caesar salad and my mouth waters at the prospect of Point Judith style fried calamari.
Is there a way to serve our guest’s (often) simultaneous desires for familiarity, comfort and novelty, and innovation? While these sets of impulses are seemingly opposed to one another, our understanding of product, modern technique, and presentation provides us with the opportunity to explore integrating these disparate desires. At this point, perhaps an example is in order, so let us return to the (formerly frustratingly) ubiquitous fried calamari.
The classic dish I grew to love while living in Rhode Island is comprised of fried semolina dusted calamari rings tossed with hot cherry peppers, lemon, parsley, and in the best versions a little brown butter. A very simple dish to be sure, but for me it is the quintessential preparation. It does, however, have its limitations. The moisture introduced from the lemon and brown butter in particular, ultimately lead to the loss of the subtle crispness of the calamari. The last few bites of the dish are still delicious, but texture is clearly compromised. How can we improve this aspect of the dish through the application of modern technique?
My approach would involve removing active moisture (items that are physically “wet”) and replace them with elements that supply more passive moisture, but let us first consider the squid itself. If we start with calamari “scaloppini” instead of rings we gain greater control of the application of garniture (and therefore moisture) because we have easy access to its entire surface area. We can then dehydrate the cherry peppers and grind them into a dust which can then be integrated with the semolina. To this we can add a little tapioca starch to enhance the crispness without excessive breading. The brown butter can be turned into a powder with N-Zorbit and the lemon can be mixed with cherry pepper vinegar and lecithin and be aerated. Add a few lightly dressed leaves of parsley and we have a dish that has all of the flavors of the classic, but in more functional and interactive forms. 
While we have all likely riffed on classic dishes, my aim is to do so in a way that is distinctly modern while remaining true to the identity of the inspiration, to provide the opportunity to experience new culinary paradigms in an a la carte setting. Beyond this, I intend to be sure each item speaks to a point of view and highlights the ingredients at hand through the combined contexts of flavor, texture, aroma, visual appeal, intellectual stimulation, responsible provenance and historical connection. If we can do this, then we can provide an experience that is meaningful to a broad swath of the dining public. In moving forward, I want to present a cuisine at Satava that is inclusive, not exclusive, one that appeals to the epicurean and the everyman. Who says you can’t do both?
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Sean Brock
I wish to introduce Sean Brock, the chef at McCrady's Restaurant in Charleston, South Carolina. We first met Sean through this website. It began with questions which have only blossomed into more questions. Sean is driven in his quest for answers and his approach to ingredients and cooking in general. Our interaction and open forum with ideas has helped develop, refine and spark numerous breakthroughs in our cooking. Here Sean has shared a few pictures from his kitchen which capture his process. The rest of his conversation will come when technology permits it (computer problems). For now, check out these pictures and for a bit more on Sean and his world, his website.
by Sean Brock
First of all thank you to Aki and Alex for including us in their brilliant new ”idea”, Culinary Conversations.
We have for some time admired, been inspired by, and jealous of, what
Alex and Aki are able to produce on a daily basis. They are truly paving the way for the next generation of forward thinking chefs. Their generosity in sharing ideas is beyond conception, especially in the beginning stages of such an important time in gastronomy.
I was first introduced to Ideas in Food through a purveyor that we share, Mikuni Mushrooms. They were trying to sell me the now famous smoked steelehead roe from Steve Stallard and directed us to the Ideas in Food website. I have to be honest; since then I have checked their site nearly everyday. It is amazing how creative and passionate these two chefs are. Through their efforts we are constantly reminded of why we cook for a living. The constant pursuit of knowledge and excellence.
For example, every ingredient in our kitchen is put under a microscope. How do we serve the best tasting carrot ever? Common sense would say to buy it from a farmer who pulled it from the ground hours before it I served. But what we are trying to do is reevaluate the entire process from the ground to the plate. We try to think about every step in the cooking process before the costumer consumes it.
We first think about what we were taught in the early stages of our careers. Before service we were taught to clean the carrot, peel it, and blanch it in heavily salted water then shock it in an ice bath. We would then heat it a la minute in a little vegetable stock and glaze it with some butter. Delicious, but can we make it better?
What if we were able to make that energy source that most insanely flavored energy source available. What would that take? My first thought a couple of years ago were to use a carrot-flavored liquid to slowly cook the carrots in. Why use water when we could use carrot water? So we began to cook carrots sous vide in carrot juice. We reserved the liquid and heated the juice a la minute. When we reheated the carrots in their own liquid, we were essentially making carrot-glazed carrots. We became obsessed over discovering new techniques after we tasted the results. We began to use the left over pulp from the carrot juicing process to make a carrot powder using the dehydrator. In our minds we were taking the best carrot we could find and cooking it in a carrot flavored water, reducing that juice to a glace and adding butter to make carrot glazed carrots, we than garnished them with carrot powder. The result was a really intense carrot flavor. Again this wasn’t enough for us, as we are never satisfied or maybe it’s just the ADD. What if we took our carrot juice to a new level? What is we heated the carrot juice until the caratanoid separated from the water and all we were left with was 100 percent carrot and no water to dilute its flavor? We could scoop the separated caratanoid from the juice and emulsify it into fresh carrot juice. We have now begun to make the carrot juice taste better than it did in its original state. We then use this to cook fresh carrots sous vide and eventually make an intense carrot glaze. We then looked at the butter that was used to make the glaze. Why not use carrot butter? As you can see this process is endless. For us it is the constant pursuit of making the best tasting carrot ever. Now our next project is distilling carrot juice to use for our base liquid. Where does it end? Who cares, the idea is to look at things in a different way. We have also found that sometimes this isn’t necessary. Sometimes the ingredients are so unbelievable we leave them alone. But we still feel that it is important to ask those questions and seek the answers before we bin the idea.
Over the years we have realized that we can’t remember everything or every idea that enters our mind unless we write it down. We write everything down, no matter if it is during a busy service or having beers at the bar after a busy service. The process starts with notebooks that we keep in our pockets, we write everything down, no matter how ridiculous it is. When our notebooks are full and there are no pages left to write on, we enter them into a computer program. When we get a few pages we print them out and hang them on the wall. The ideas are always in front of us, they are now constant reminders of our random thoughts. We have now gone as far as using a highlighter to showcase the things we are most excited about and want to tackle first. Keeping in mind that the ideas that aren’t highlighted are not dead, just on the back burner. We may revisit them at any time.
The printed sheets of ideas are also designed to keep everyone in tune with where we are and what we are working on. We have a lot of cooks (19 or so) and it is tough to have everyone together at one time to discuss ideas. With this system a stranger could walk up to the wall and read an idea and begin to think about it.
We then have dry erase boards and chalk boards in the kitchen that are broken down into different categories. The first is a random idea board, hopefully inspired by our idea sheets that are hanging in the kitchen. Everyone is encouraged to contribute to this board (servers, dishwashers, guests, etc). When we get really excited about an idea it gets moved to the next board entitled “projects”. Once it makes it to the project board it is then looked at more closely. Each component of the dish is brainstormed and evaluated. We then start cooking our ideas and tasting them. Once everyone decides that it is a good dish we serve it to our guests. This sounds like a lot of work, but we as a team are convinced that the dishes we serve are as good as we can make them. Trying hard is everything. Thanks again to Aki and Alex.
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Steve Stallard, BLiS Caviar
Our relationship with Steve began with an idea. It was a moment of sychronicity when Alex and I had the same inspiration at about the same time, although it had come from two different sources. We had been getting this amazing caviar from some guy out in Michigan and we had been playing around with smoked salt in our kitchen. The idea? To cure caviar with smoked salt. Alex badgered our purveyor to try and talk the caviar guy into testing the idea. The purveyor in turn gave Alex Steve's phone number and said ask him yourself. Alex called him up and it was the beginning of a beautiful relationship and lots of great food. As with many of our friends and colleagues we have never met in person but I'm sure we'll get together eventually. In the meantime he has been a source of great products and inspirations over the years. We're pleased to introduce him to all of you. As with Shola, Steve will be checking on the comments periodically so if there are any questions for him, fire away...
I was just getting ready to do some fly-fishing for steelhead in northern Michigan. The real reason that I have located the BLiS facility here in Michigan is because of the short drive to the woods and waters. I guess the reasons that I wanted to do this post are not only that we have maintained contact prior to the inception of the company, and the fact that you asked me to, but because we share some of the same styles of food concepts and contrasts, as well as having common interests. Your willingness to share and to be open with the knowledge pool is a real asset to maintaining the culinary arts. It is why success will be forthcoming always, but possibly not exactly if and when you expect it.
Our company, if you might call it that, is not big at all. It’s basically a chef trying to deliver cool things
to other chefs to work with. The retail end is not a driving force because the product seems to take a measurable amount of skill to use to their full advantage. There is a lot of dialogue and energy needed to explain how to be creative with Bourbon Aged Maple syrup or with a citrus and smoked Fleur de Sel roe. Fresh wild infused and natural roes do not appear to work well with the beginner gourmet. Although they are not meant to be, we believe that the products can be intimidating for novices. They do not always understand how to utilize them, but if something tastes good, it tastes good. It’s getting to the next stage of asking yourself what to do with what you’ve got, instead of just asking how do you eat the fresh roe, or can you put the bourbon aged syrup on pancakes? This knowledge is something that I have learned by watching the sales trends. I do not want to sound condescending, but the fact is that most of our retail customers seem happiest to use the products as they are instead of as the building blocks they are meant to be.
This is not at all the case with chefs, which has been fantastic! I think we will state right here that we are a chef-driven company. Hey, that’s got a nice ring to it. Where would we be without you? BliS has grown fairly rapidly and keeping that growth in check is the top priority. We only want to sell enough of our products to be able to do it right. When we sell out, that’s it. Much like in the wine business only a finite amount of product per season or vintage is available and when it’s gone its gone. Food and wine have basically consumed my professional life for many years, only second to my enjoyment of the outdoors. I created BLiS as something different, but still sort of in the business. It’s just enough
to get my food and wine fix in. We all know that you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave. Now I’m off to go fishing. Later I’ll be back to rack barrels in the solera and then I’ll go pick up char at the Canadian border. It’s a great blend of all the things I love to do and it’s all in a day’s work.
-Steve
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My Sister...over the years
This week our guest blogger, who shall remain nameless, succumbed to the pressures of their hectic daily routines. We'll be back next week with our regularly scheduled program and we are anticipating a post from Steve Stallard at BLiS Caviar. This week instead of a culinary conversation with someone new, we're going to talk about how we've been affected by our culinary conversations with someone near and dear, Alex's sister Meredith.
Over the years I have been able to take part in many converstations with my younger sister. She has been known as a picky eater. So much so that in her youth she subsisted on a diet of frozen tortellini in pink sauce and carrot sticks. I was the one known to eat and try most anything. At the very first dinner where Aki met the family everyone talked about what a picky eater Meredith was. But from the point of view of a newcomer, it was clear that particular characterization was no longer strictly accurate.
After we moved back to New York after years of cooking on my own, I realized that she had grown up while I was gone. We have been able to engage in conversations about food. She began trying such things as calamari (albeit breaded and fried--actually not a bad way to eat it) and oysters. This is my sister we are talking about, the carrot stick Queen. And when she tried something new, she would invariably pick up the phone and give me a call or shoot me an email to fill me in on her revelations and explorations. I have really enjoyed asking her about her meals and enjoyed watching her tastes evolve.
These days I get emails about where to eat in NYC. She wants to try food. I think she is becoming a foodie. Not a bad thing for a brother who is a chef. Most recently she dined at 11 Madison Park for her birthday and had a tremendous time. However this time her sights and palate are set on an upcoming dinner at wd-50. This is a restaurant we have talked about often and it has truly captured her attention. I look forward to hearing about her culinary discoveries, about the new tastes she experiences and the new ingredients she will try. She's even cooking meals at home with her partner in crime, Brian. They are experimenting with new ingredients, tasting different wines and stretching their culinary horizons. To her, each meal is not about a critique but rather an opening of the mind and the ability to try something new. It is really a great way to look at food. Sometimes we get caught up in analyzing a meal and forget to sit back and enjoy what we're eating. It's a great lesson from the girl who used to discuss the finer points of a carrot stick and the benefits of frozen tortellini.
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Inspired by Others
Just because you hear something does not make it so. I strongly believe and am continuously convinced that if something should not be, then it is a great place to launch an idea.
I received an email from Sean Brock yesterday asking if we had ever used transglutaminase with sweetbreads. He had the idea of making a roulade of sweetbreads and was just beginning the process from idea to execution. I had previously not tried cross linking sweetbreads before because I had heard that transglutaminase did not work with organ meats. Well, upon hearing Sean's question I figured we should give it a shot, we had not actually tried to make a roulade or in our case a block of sweetbreads. Guess what, it works.
Similarly, I was recently introduced to Johnny Iuzzini, pastry chef at restaurant Jean George. Johnny has more energy than anyone I can recall. His energy is contagious as are his queries about food. He is working on a new white chocolate sorbet which has a base of clear white chocolate. Our discussions led me in the direction of white chocolate and toasted curry leaves. As it turns out we made a sauce with those two ingredients last year, yet the spark today emerged from Johnny's idea of making clear white chocolate. We have put together a clear white chocolate broth flavored with toasted curry leaves and brown butter. My initial idea was to serve the broth with seared scallops, yet the sweetbreads end up being an equally natural fit.
In today's dish we serve the broth chilled with Asian pears and arugula with the crispy cube of sweetbreads on top. Originally I wanted to serve the clear white chocolate hot, however the amount of dairy in my initial broth actually precipitates out of the clear liquid when it is heated. Today we have adapted. The dish is tasty and actually to two temperatures complement each other very well.
What is even more exciting is seeing what avenues these two chefs take with ideas which began as simple conversations.
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Shola Olunloyo
Today we happily introduce a chef who drives to his own traffic rules. He has also single handedly shown me that if you really put yourself out there you can do it your way. We met Shola through this website and from his first introduction a culinary banter began. The bouncing, sharing and dissection of ideas has allowed us to grow as chefs and people. Shola's need to find the source, the reason, and the way inspires us and pushes us to just be better. Along those lines, we have asked Shola to be the first of a number of individuals to open themselves up and share ideas. Here is the what I can rightly call the beginning of our Culinary Conversations. Please feel free to leave questions and comments for Shola below. He doesn't have a current website but if you would like to get in contact with him, now's the time.
By Shola Olunloyo:
You are driving down a quiet scenic country road and suddenly you notice the scenery is going forward not backwards, that’s when it occurs to you that your career is going in the wrong direction. What do you do at a crossroads, when you question if you are doing what you are doing for the reasons you wanted to?
The answer is a profound change in direction, sublimated into the very essence of the art of in this case food and cookery. Philadelphia is a small town with lots of well meaning people who rarely exit their comfort zones, basically a meat and potatoes town. So many people who have rarely ventured into European Michelin Starred establishments have been convinced over the years that the delicious but cumbersome antiquated food at LBF is the best French food in the world. All the restaurants were serving variations of the same food, Pan-Asian was basically anything with the axis of evil, Soy, Ginger, Wasabi.
There was the requisite Tuna Tartare, calamari with a new novel crust, chipotle aioli, a copious use of truffle oil on everything, and umpteen variations of steamed mussels.
It was time to do something profound, a complete but temporary change in direction and the rallying cry, depending on how profound you wanted to be, was either…….FDR’s ”There is nothing to fear but fear itself” or the famous line from Risky Business with the young Tom Cruise “sometimes you just have to say what the ____ and take some chances”. Either way the message was the same and clear. I needed a forum to continue to cook, as it relates to income and on a different tangent, for creativity, exploration and opening up a conversation about food. That was Studiokitchen.
Thankfully there is no shortage of people in Manhattan who have no to time to cook and will gladly pay you upwards of $250 a person to cook a dinner party in their homes, however at that price point, the expectation was also of high level creativity, choice ingredients, lightness, modernism, and an intellectual component.
Buying really good food was and is still is expensive, Farmer Jones, Blue Moon Acres, Browne Trading for fish, D’artagnan the great meat negociant, driving to Lancaster and Bucks county to 
buy amazing vegetables. Even at the price point per person minimum of $150 in Philadelphia and $250 in NYC, there needed to be amortization or subsidization of expensive ingredients. This was when I recruited 8 very good friends and started SK as a weekly social dining
experiment. It basically filled in all the blanks, a forum for the intellectual exchange and discussion of food and cookery but mathematically allowed me to bring down the cost of food for private chef work down by about 9%.
Anyone who works in the restaurant business knows that shaving 9 off your food cost is like winning the lottery.
It essentially started by trying to observe people’s expectations and the relationship between creativity and flavor. Every person involved in creativity needs an audience as a measure of feedback, SK provided that audience. Private chef work is highly lucrative but SK was fun. The premise was to have an atmosphere which encouraged a conversation about food, to 
get people to think about food differently, to expose them to ingredients, techniques or elements of various cuisines. It wasn’t always about new or cutting edge, there was a distinct attempt to clarify misperceptions about food and eliminate the proliferation of mediocrity. It is easy to come off sounding preachy or to alienate your audience so rather that force information on people, they were led to the water but not forced to
drink.
The use of language to open up a discussion about multiple related subjects became quite effective while consuming food made with said items or techniques. Although attempts were made to make the food absolutely tasty, most walked away from the experience saying they loved the direct communication with the information source. Think about learning about wine varietals without drinking wine, it doesn’t quite work effectively.
Studiokitchen was like a restaurant with training wheels
How does one finance such a startup without having to answer to anyone? Good Credit. The answer is start with a significant chunk of cash, charge every single thing and pay it all off completely at the end of the month. The credit card companies, the idiots that they are continue to increase your limits and lower your interest rates in the hopes that you will go in debt. It
was tough in the beginning doing it alone until it occurred to me to sell all of my bicycles. I was a serious cyclist for many years and I had amassed a collection of very expensive racing bicycles, mostly purchased at deep employee discounts. At some point I decided to liquidate this into a windfall of slightly over 15 grand.
Initial emphasis was on good equipment. I like toys, but functional toys.
I guess was a bit spoiled because the batterie de cuisine currently includes….Vita Mix Blender, Thermomix, Imperia 220 electric pasta machine, 2 polyscience immersion circulators, Techne circulating waterbath, Achatz AntiGriddle, 20 quart mixer, Berkel Slicer, Bamix Stick blender, Kitchen Aid Ice cream maker, Champion Juicer, Sodir deep fryer, Cooktek Induction Units, Oakton Thermocouple, Sper infrared thermometer, a ton of pots by Mauviel, multiple ISI canisters, Berkel Cryovac machine.
Respectable, but not quite Nathan Myhrvold’s home kitchen. As the private chef work expanded, I was always reinvesting about 40% back into equipment and other hardware such as china, the Pacojet fund and other technologies that come to be deemed requisite.
Even though I work mostly alone, I get a lot of offers from people interested in modern cooking who want to spend some time with me. I always ask them the same question, which came first?
A. The Chicken.
B. The Egg.
C. The Carrots and Coconuts sunny side up.
The answer is NOT important as long as you don’t say C.
I am finding out the few are interested in the basic foundations of cuisine, certainly there is something to be said for innovation but innovators and forward thinkers are grounded in the classics. Modernism to me is more effective when transparent. I take a lot of cues from other “artists”, architects and musicians primarily because of the creative process.
Inter-disciplinary conversations and explorations were the best part of Studiokitchen dinners. Inspiration is all around us and we just have to expand our minds and venture outside the world of food every now and then. People always ask me “how do you combine certain ingredients or layer flavors and textures”
You think intelligently and you experiment and tweak till you get to your end point.
Restraint is just as important and you need to know when you have gone too far. Just because it’s really good doesn’t mean it can’t get better and just because it got better doesn’t mean it still can. End points are critical.
A fairly easy illustration is to listen carefully to one of the greatest bands ever assembled.
As you think of your basic components of flavor, temperature, texture, color, think of Julian Adderly, Bill Evans, Wynton Kelly, Paul Chambers, Jimmy Cobb, John Coltrane, Miles Davis. The album is “Kind of Blue” the 3rd track is “Blue in Green”, everything proceeds smoothly, perfectly, could not get better, Wynton Kelly and/or Bill Evans are smoothly rolling along on the Piano, the tune could pretty much finish unchanged satisfactorily but at exactly 2 minutes and 27 seconds into the song, either Coltrane on the tenor or Adderly on the Alto saxophone starts up and nails it, just nails it and as soon as he is in, he is gone and that quite frankly is how you have to think of everything you add to a plate of food.
I met Alex Talbot on E-gullet on a discussion pertaining to Paul Liebrandt’s cooking in New York City, which is how I became exposed to Ideasinfood. I have come to the conclusion that most of the chefs in America who talk about sharing ideas are full of it and that people actively practice the exact opposite of what they preach, in the sense of sharing sources, information and inspirations. Perhaps you need to be deemed worthy if you are outside the myopic tunnel vision (no pun intended) of NYC. I asked for some advice and information, which I expected to get no answers to and I was pleasantly surprised with a forthright response. He has greatly influenced the way I think about food not so much about new ideas but re-arranging your thought processes.
I met Alex and Aki at the worlds most prestigious dining mall outside Dubai, that would be the AOL/ Time Warner Center at Columbus Circle…hehe.
Though I had seen pictures of them on the site, he described himself as having a cowboy hat on. A cowboy hat ???????? like a Stetson, indeed. I could not reconcile the image of the food photography on the site with a cowboy hat and I kept thinking, why a cowboy hat? Maybe that’s his trademark, I even almost convinced myself that it was because HAT stands for H.Alexander Talbot. My mother always said never to judge people by appearances alone and I asked myself what famous chef wears a cowboy hat, cooks complicated food, requires a special detour to go eat his food and whose cookbook everyone wants to buy…Marc Veyrat.
The exchange of ideas is more infectious in person, within 3 hours of running around Manhattan and talking about food, thoughts and ideas had sublimated into well over $500 in purchases ranging from Japanese charcoal, implements for making shrimp Spaetzle, and fata paper. Note to self, if you are in Korin or JB Prince with Alex leave your credit cards home. Meanwhile I think I scared them both half to death with my driving. Unlike cooking, driving for me is about getting from point A to B ASAP.
So there you have it, one chapter in a free exchange of ideas.
Current Inspirations :
Ideasinfood
http://www.ltlwork.net/
http://www.designboom.com/eng/interview/ito.html
http://www.arvopart.info/
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Another Point of View
One of the reasons Aki and I work well together is because we can look at the same ingredient and see do different outcomes. The blending of our styles and approaches to ingredients and techniques enables us to achieve an interesting and exciting balance in our cooking. We have also noted that we are inspired by the world around us. Walks in the woods are good for both of us as are reading books. Yet, the interaction with other chefs, a quick phone call or a quizzical email to share ideas usually leads to great discoveries. These are what we have referred to as our culinary conversations. Over the next several weeks we will be publishing the thoughts and ideas of our contemporaries here, in hopes of furthering culinary thought and development. Each Sunday morning we will upload their post as written. We can use the comment section on the post to flesh ideas out further. These individuals have been kind enough to take time out of their hectic schedules to share in the concept of culinary conversations and the importance they provide in developing and executing ideas. If all goes well, we will have the first conversation next Sunday.
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