This is a powerful story of his upbringing and his journey in becoming a Chef, although it can apply to any profession or passion. Read it, and be inspired.
Viewing entries tagged
food
Had a great ice cream sandwich at State Bird Provisions and couldn't get it out of my mind. The next day, while eating ramen, I had an idea...
In an ongoing series on hybridizing fruit trees, Syracuse University sculptor Sam Van Aken’s Tree of 40 Fruit is true to its name.
Our team has always been a huge proponent of supporting our local food shed, small farmers, and sustainable agriculture.
I stumbled on this technique serendipitously. I was aiming for a flat-baked salmon chip, but it didn't work out as planned. Although, it ended up with a cool effect of looking like glass, it also tasted like glass, or at least, that's what it felt like we were chewing on. It was virtually unpalatable.
We saved the tenderloins from a whole goat we purchased from Marin Sun Farms. I had an idea to do goat lollipops. We seared the loin quickly to medium-rare, and then immediately spread it with a very smooth hummus before rolling it into a pangretto of falafel crumbs.
gin & tonic | carbonated gin-infused cucumber - pickled fennel - lemon meringue - borage flowers
Inspired by Chef Dave Arnold.
beets | a dessert salad of beets in several forms
I put a lot of work into this dish, only to find out half of the table didn't like beets. Thanks for telling me...
We call the general area of our offices, the Shire. On one of the rooftops, we've installed an urban garden, where we acquire most of our herbs and flowers for Chef's Table. This is the Sous Chef's course. He takes care of it every week, tweaking it a bit this way and that, each time.
A pea soup and salad combo. Feta cheese, mint, and peas work so well together. This salad is a celebration of their unity.
smucker's jar | peanut butter mouse - crumbled peanuts - strawberry sorbet - salted brioche crisp
I don't do desserts often, but this is something simple that I could pull off without pulling my hair out (I don't like working with sweets). It's a playful take on a Smucker's jar, with the salted brioche crisp as the lid. You crack the brioche into the jar with a spoon, and enjoy the textural and temperature juxapositions these familiar ingredients would otherwise provide.
brioche-crusted halibut | white corn pudding - israeli cous cous - corn shoots
My sous-chef, Cecile, taught me a really cool technique with corn. Basically, you juice raw corn, saving the flesh, pulp, and cob for another purpose. Take that raw corn juice and heat it up, and the starches from the corn will thicken the liquid, making an incredibly intense corn-flavored pudding.
korean blt | bulgolgi bacon - bacon powder - cherry tomato - butter lettuce heart
The eggplant is deep-fried whole, dunked in ice water, then peeled. I like eggplant this way because it has a very clean taste. The texture is almost like that of a giant grape.
Sometimes I create dishes purely on a certain look that I'm aiming for. I have a picture in my head of how I'd want the dish to look, and then I make it work from a taste and culinary perspective.
We have a forager that comes around every once in awhile. He brought us some exotic ingredients this time. I built a dish around them.
COMPONENTS
- hazelnut & nasturtium crumble
- fava puree
- fiddlehead ferns
- miner's lettuce
- sorrel
- morel mushrooms
- torched broccoli rabe
- parsley twigs
- pickled ramps
strawberry & raw scallops
sake sherbert
pickled hearts of palm
sesame seeds
bergamot mint
pink peppercorn
yuzu/sudachi citronette
milk & honey
hazelnut milk
fresh ricotta
honeycomb brittle
fennel oil
chervil
pixie mandarin
pickled green strawberry
baby fennel
strawberries & champagne
strawberries confit in olive oil
short bread
champagne gel filled strawberry & coated with chocolate and popping sugar
kiwi & green strawberry sorbet
Minibar is absolutely the best dining experience I have ever had--easy. Both food and drink were unparalleled.
dan dan noodles | sichuan spiced oil - iberico broth - jamon - shanghai noodles
"Dan dan" refers to the pole that street vendors originally used to carry the fresh noodles who made this dish popular. This dish tastes different every where I've had it. I like the flavors, but I usually get palate fatigue before I can finish a serving. The best I've had was at Spicy Town in Fremont. It's numbingly spicy, both from the amount of chilies, and the heavy use of sichuan peppercorns. It's intense, it makes you piss sweat and your lips feel as though you've rubbed it on habanero sandpaper, but it's delicious if you can manage the pain.
My version is more subtle. I clarified a broth made from jamon iberico bones and served with a noodle sample from Rice Valley. I made an oil with the same spices found in most Sichuan staples (coriander, garlic, chilies, sichuan peppercorns, cumin), and separated the liquids from the solids, and smeared the latter on the sides so the diners could control the heat at their discretion. Top that with some sliced jamon, and we have some fancied-up dan dan noodles.
raw scallops & coke farms strawberries | sake sherbet - pink peppercorns - fried sesame
This was dish conceived through improvisation of ingredients on hand. One of my favorite pairings is strawberry and pink peppercorn. It just works. The sherbet acts as a chewable dressing for the salad.
hen of the woods | koji marinated chicken - foie - truffle demi - siberian miner's lettuce
The breast was marinated in koji, which is rice inoculated with the bacteria 'aspergillius oryzae.' The same bacteria responsible for the fermentation of sake, soy sauce, miso, and a good majority of the Japanese pantry. If you'd like to learn more, listen to David Chang's lecture at Harvard, where he covers in detail.
home-made chicharones | pimenton - vinegar
Chicharones at home is easy. Remove the skin from the belly, leaving about 1/4 inch of fat. Put your pork skins into a non-stick pan and season with salt and a touch of vinegar to taste. Do not crowd the pan or else the skins will stick to each other later on in the cooking process. Add water just to cover, then add twice that amount of water (this is just a method of measurement to make you have enough water). Boil the skin until all water has evaporated and then turn the heat to low. At this point, the excess fat from the skin should have rendered out enough to cover the skins. If this is not the case, add a neutral oil so that the skins are submerged. Keep the heat on low and continue to render until the skin becomes crispy. Toss with additional salt if needed and your choice of seasoning (I like pimenton because it gives it a smokey characteristic). Drain on paper towels to cool.