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Society Room
thanks again to sara and jason for taking the time to photograph and edit the pictures for this dinner In case you were wondering................................
this is what happens when you put garlic whistles through the juicer........the flavor was insane....just like papa john's garlic dip.....thanks to daniel heinze for this idea......we serve it with grass fed beef and local marble potatoes
Chef's Table
This dinner was so much fun, more pics to come...Thank you Sara and Jason for such great pictures
Four Story Hill Farm
This will be roasted and presented whole for our first chef's table dinner on Wednesday.
The Real Thing
A picture really says a thousand words.....
We put these things thru the ringer at the restaurant......They are also put thru the ringer before they even leave the farm....
We put these things thru the ringer at the restaurant......They are also put thru the ringer before they even leave the farm....
Phase II
Today the Ping Island Garden was extended....The soil is being prepped for biodynamics and we shall see how things unfold in the next couple of months....Revenge
Never Start a practical joke war with a man that owns 165 liters of Liquid Nitrogen....kinda hard to put your shoes on after work when they are -270 degrees C...
This appeared on the Food and Wine Magazine Blog "Mouthing Off"
How to Cook Like an Avant-Garde Chef
By Ratha Tep, Assistant Features EditorRelated Categories: Restaurants, Ingredients, News, Chefs
In our July issue, you'll see the results of our third annual "What Chefs Know Best" poll, a survey of 100 top chefs around the country. Included in the questionnaire: "What food trend do you want to see disappear?" Many of the chefs said molecular cuisine; Todd Gray at Equinox in Washington, D.C., even replied, "Space-age cooking à la George Jetson." The founders of Gastrotek resoundingly disagree. Launching in about two months, Gastrotek will be the third retail company to sell the chemical powders (methylcellulose, tapioca maltodextrin and the like) beloved by avant-garde chefs. Gastrotek's Web site (up soon, at Gastrotek.com) will offer video clips that demonstrate the basic uses of each chemical, and a DVD will explore more esoteric preparations beyond the now seemingly ubiquitous "caviar balls." One partner in the company (no surprise here) is the superexperimental chef Sean Brock, who's taken over the legendary Charleston, South Carolina restaurant, McCrady's. The other is more unexpected: Tyler Gray of Mikuni Wild Harvest, known for supplying wild edibles to the likes of top chefs like Thomas Keller. "I work with 700 restaurants, and I get calls every day about where to find these chemical powders," he says. "They're not going anywhere."
By Ratha Tep, Assistant Features EditorRelated Categories: Restaurants, Ingredients, News, Chefs
In our July issue, you'll see the results of our third annual "What Chefs Know Best" poll, a survey of 100 top chefs around the country. Included in the questionnaire: "What food trend do you want to see disappear?" Many of the chefs said molecular cuisine; Todd Gray at Equinox in Washington, D.C., even replied, "Space-age cooking à la George Jetson." The founders of Gastrotek resoundingly disagree. Launching in about two months, Gastrotek will be the third retail company to sell the chemical powders (methylcellulose, tapioca maltodextrin and the like) beloved by avant-garde chefs. Gastrotek's Web site (up soon, at Gastrotek.com) will offer video clips that demonstrate the basic uses of each chemical, and a DVD will explore more esoteric preparations beyond the now seemingly ubiquitous "caviar balls." One partner in the company (no surprise here) is the superexperimental chef Sean Brock, who's taken over the legendary Charleston, South Carolina restaurant, McCrady's. The other is more unexpected: Tyler Gray of Mikuni Wild Harvest, known for supplying wild edibles to the likes of top chefs like Thomas Keller. "I work with 700 restaurants, and I get calls every day about where to find these chemical powders," he says. "They're not going anywhere."
The Garden
My home garden is complete and should be biodynamic by the fall......very exciting...I"ll post pics when things start growing....I have purchased seeds from Italy, France, Virginia and Japan....should be very interesting in deed.
Foie Gras Marshmallow Terrine
Foie terrine layered with foie marshmallow. We served it with compressed apples and licorice
Rita and Celeste
Very few things in life bring me this much joy..........stay tuned for more pics as the growing season progresses....we are very lucky
Local Farmers
We are able to get these squash blossoms delivered 6 days a week from a local farm...They are picked in the morning and delivered to the restaurant the same day...We are currently working on a
new tuna dish for our current menu using these wonderful products
Liquid Nitrogen
this is what happens when you secretly throw a large amount of liquid nitrogen into the pot sink
on the new dishwashers first night
Smoked Salmon Bagel
these cream cheese pearls were served with salmon tartare, smoked sea salt and crispy bagel
cubes
Lamb Rack
we cook this with marjoram, thyme, really good olive oil, grains of paradise, juniper, allspice, green sczechuan peppercorns, tasmanian peppercorns, and fennel pollen.....this cooks for several hours at 49 degrees C.....it is then finished on the plancha and served with huckleberries, local spinach and a cauliflower blanket
You never know who you are going to run into
That's me with a gin and tonic and Jeff Corwin from the Animal
Planet
Spring is Here
My friend Tyler Gray hooked us up with the most amazing ramps ever.......we turned them
into vichysoisse and served it with smoked steelhead roe
Sundays>>>>>>>>>>>>>
seeing as though we have to work on sundays...........we try to make it as enjoyable as possible........we eat like kings and listen to wonderful country music.....today we ate eric's scrambled eggs, brioche-tonka bean french toast, travis' famous hash browns, ben's biscuits, timmy's sage-sausage gravy, jimmy dean's sausage, hand cut bacon and we listened to merle haggard, willie nelson, johnny cash and waylon jennings......these things make me look forward to working on sundays
Sweetbreads
Restructered Sweetbreads with marinated maiitakes, scrambled cauliflower and black truffle jus
Rabbit
The rabbit was deboned, glued and rolled.....It is then cooked in duck fat at 60 degrees C for 1 hour....We then wrapped it in swiss chard and served it with mustard consomme
Our Current Foie Gras Dish
We brine the foie gras whole and the sear it on the plancha....we serve it with granola, whipped raisin and brown butter-cider poached pears
Foie Gras Bacon
After three days in the brine we cold smoked the lobe. Then seared it on the plancha......We served it with Blis elixir, apples, and hazelnuts.
photo by Andy C.
Sweet Shrimp from Maine
We served these tasty little shrimp with salsify gnocchi, celery, saffron and apple...
Creamed Spinach
these are some of the components that we are working on for a new lamb dish......mustard broth and eggless spinach flan.
Crispy Leaf Garnishes
Trying to figure out the best temp for these crispy baby swiss chard leaves....
Methocel
These are sheets of lobster sauce for a ribeye dish we are working on. Here we are trying to choose the correct methocel for this particular application.
We use a blowtorch to set the methocel.
Vadouvan
This is my new favorite spice thanks to my friends at le sactuaire...
Here we serve it with lobster, cauliflower and apricot.....we finish the dish with crispy arugula
Bubble Gum
We have wanted to make chewing gum for quite some time now. It is really easy
and lots of fun. We are thinking about making bacon, foie, meyer lemon, spruce, mastic, vadouvan, menthol, tarragon to name a few
Crispy Leek
This is our first attempt at a new technique that our friend Asbel was kind enough to explain.....the texture is amazing, the vegetables shatter and then melt away when consumed. thanks Asbel, we are currently working with lots of different vedge, herbs, etc
Roasted Lamb
This is our current lamb dish.....Braised pistachio cassoulet, carrot confit and
bay laurel jus....we are currently putting the finishing touches on our new lamb dish....
Charred Onion
This is an onion puree that has been set with gellan gum and cooled. It is then charred with a blowtorch and cooled. It is then cut into perfect rectangles and served alongside roasted diver scallops.
Solid/Liquid
The chocolate appears to w
be solid but is actually liquid. We serve this with peanut butter ice cream, burnt marshmallow fluff and thai basil
Manipulation
Cauliflower puree in blanket form. I draped these over some potatoes just to show the effect.
New Trick
we are always looking for ways to make food lighter....
we stumbled upon this by accident...
the flavor is mastic
Raisin Bubbles
reverse sferification...
we use calcium gluconate, calcium lactate and sodium alginate to achieve this...
Smoked Salmon Noodles
these are made using sga 150 methocel...we serve them with cream cheese, pickled ramps and crispy bagel cubes
Smoke and Mirrors
this is a nifty trick that allows us to create new aromas at the table....we have been playing with various extracts and essential oils that are mixed with sawdust... they sawdust is placed in the pipe and the smoke is trapped under the plastic wrap...everytime the guest touches the food smoke rings are made.....for this dish we used a licorice smoke to go with sweetbreads and sunflower seeds....joan roca is responsible for inventing this technique
Nitro Fryer
we are still working on this piece of equipment.....it allows us to freeze things instantly..
..the circulator keeps the ln2 moving and the compressor keeps the nitrogen from boiling away
Cap of Prime Beef
For years I have been trying to convince our beef purveyors to sell us just the cap
or deckle from the ribeye.....they finally listened and we are super pumped, this is our favorite part of the cow
Twice Cooked Scallops
this is served with chanterelles, charred onions and brown butter artichokes.......
Restructured Butternut Squash
We have been really interested in taking things apart and putting them back together lately.....here we take butternut squash and roast it with blis maple syrup...after it is roasted we add butternut squash juice and puree the two together...we then add agar-agar and mold the puree...the result is very similar to the squash in it's original state, we have just amplified the flavor.....we are working on making it better by distilling or reducing the juice.....
Bacon
Alan Benton is a great man, his bacon is incredible.....Bentons' is located in Madisonville Tn, we love TN
Crispy Foie Gras Poofs
my goal is to shape these like cheetos, they will then be covered in citrus powder to resemble one of my favorite snacks.....
we are currently brainstroming other flavor combinations as well
Frozen Mustard Pearls
We serve these with duck ham, crispy bread and cornichons for an amuse...They are 100% savory thanks to "envision"
Protection
We were doing some serious work with meat glue today and didn't want to take any chances...safety first
Thanksgiving
We served alot of turkey today....here we used TG to serve boneless medallions of turkey.........they were delicious, glued, brined, poached and fried.....we served them with foie gras stuffing
Hollandaise
We use methocel SGA150 and gelatin to shape the strips of hollandaise for our ribeye dish.....we make between 35 and 60 of these every day
Under Pressure
Inspired by a few conversations with Alex Talbot about how pressure affects food and what a great tool it is, we began to brainstorm tools that would help us achieve our goals....We discussed building new pieces of equipment and talked about everything from food marinators to isi chargers. Yesterday we pressurized scallops with foie gras broth and the results were incredible.
This dish was inspired by the tasty and classic bacon wrapped shrimp..........We slow cook the shrimp and serve it with a serrano ham consomme and fennel.....Thinking about adding a drizzle of 50 year balsamic????
Activa
We discovered activa a couple of years ago and have used it on a daily basis ever since......
It allows us to restructure things so that we can have more control over the cooking process.....Here we were concerned about the thickness of the halibut we have been recieving.....it was rather thin and was very easy to overcook. We simply dusted the skin side with activa and folded it over.....now it is twice as thick and will cook more evenly.....
A few modifications to the kitchen
Our kitchen changes all the time. We are always moving things around to try and make our lives easier.....check the archives and compare the differences....keep checking back, I am sure we will change it soon.
This new set up allows all the food to come to a table in the center where everyone can contribute to the plating.
Crispy Carrots
Today we discovered how to make carrot juice crispy......it completely dissolves in your mouth
Oyster Pearls
WE take oysters and puree them..........we then drop them into liquid nitrogen.....we serve them in the shell....they melt in your mouth and you are left with the sensation of a fresh oyster
the long room
this is our newly renovated private dining room. It is well over 200 years old. George Washington had a 30 course meal here in 1791
yogurt-beet noodles
we were able to take yogurt and gel the outside with beet juice. The exterior is beet gel and the interior is liquid yoghurt.....we served it with fennel pollen, hazelnuts and poached lobster....
Olive Oil Sugar
After seeing a picture of Albert Adria holding an oil encased in sugar, I began wondering how the hell they produced it. We brainstormed for weeks, some of our ideas for producing this was downright hilarious. We finally figured it out, or at least made it work for us. I am still not sure how they produce their oil bonbons but it was rewarding finally getting the results we were looking for. We have begun to brainstorm various other fats that would work with this technique. We were even able to add balsamic vinegar to the olive oil. Endless possibilities are ahead.........
We are very fortunate to have such great local farmers. These vegetables are from our friend Rita from Full Circle Farms.
Arrival
This picture is from day one. It should be interesting to see how this picture progresses in the future...
Chemicals
These allow us to manipulate food in new ways. Read the labels the next time you go to the grocery store.
Meuniere
Our version of a classic dish....Brown butter-caper ice cream, parsley juice and lemon rind puree.
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