It Has Been A while

I dont have a picture of a dish that I have made and the last time that you guys heard from me was over three months ago. The last thing that I told you is that I was moving to Chicago to work at Alinea. I did work at Alinea for just a few weeks. Why only a few weeks? well it was just not for me. I stopped working there and moved on to work at Laurent Gras new restaurant L2o. I am working on pastry and there is no pastry chef. The kitchen is insane. They had to have put at least 6 million in the kitchen alone. If you want you can check it out at l2o.typepad.com. Also I decided to wait to post until I got 30,000 hits, again thank you all very much and as soon as I get to start cooking again I will post everything I got. I will keep this blog for years I am just on a stand still in my career right now when it comes to creating.

KimChi

“Bok Choy KimChi, Ahi Tuna,

“Shredded” Kimchi Soup, with Korean Carrot”

I had been wanting to make kimchi for the soup of the day at work for some time now and when I saw how much baby bok choy we had in the walk in I decided to go for it.

I served most of these ingredients on the plate as the soup garnish but decided to make a plate as if it were my restaurant. The very first customer we had tonight was korean of course, and she ordered the soup. I was not worried about the flavor because I knew it was tasty, but I knew that it was not as spicy as she wanted. And that is what she told the server, it tasted great but ot spicy enough for her.

And to show the smooth texture of the carrot tube is as smooth as a puree here is a pic.

Work In Progress II

Rabbit “Noodles”

I have been working on the almost 100 percent meat noodles for several weeks now. These can be served cold or hot with no side affects. They are almost what I want but they can only be bent to 9o degrees with a lot of care. Here they are shown with sweet carrot puree and asiago cheese.

Clay and Soil

“Sour Cherry and Cilantro Sorbet,

Bacon Caramel Dipped Cornbread,

Mole “Soil”, and Pineapple and Avacado Anglaise”

This is a dish that I have been wanting to make for a while. I have had a version of this written down, but I have not had time to make it until now.

I served a smaller version of this for the dessert amuse and the guests, all of the staff, and I were really shocked by the flavor combination. It was completely devoured by everyone.

The micro green garnish is basil cinnamon and the cornbread is seasoned with cinnamon and cumin. The tuile on top is bacon caramel and cocoa nibs.

Friends of James Beard Dinner

“Octopus and Scallop “Scroll”,

Green Apple-Celery, Radish Granite,

Ginger Air, and Sprouted Wasabi”

On Sunday we did a James Beard Foundation benefit dinner, my chef invited all of the other chefs that were nominated for the Midwest division last year for Best Chef Midwest. The other cooks and I were asked to make a dish for the after party upstairs. I took it as an oppurtunity to impress some great chefs.

The octopus was poached in a stock made with lemongrass, ginger, cardamom, clove, tangerine, lime, lemon, and mirepoix. I really let the flavor of the octopus be slightly softened and highlighted with the flavors of the broth. The whole thing was poached at 107F sv for about 45 min. then cooled and brushed with olive oil, lemon juice, and fleur de sel.