Here are just a few happenings of the past days...
this was my first time with romanesco. It tastes sort of like broccoli, until you warm it in whole butter... then it takes on a pecan-like flavor... and they look like shrubbery.
Trying the salt dome crusted beets a la Alain Passard. A fun technique, although it had never dawned on me to try it with vegetables. These were golden beets, and the salt crust contained orange zest, fresh mediterranean herbs, and horseradish. Very fun to hammer open in front of the guests.
... a little salty, but nice. very nice.
And here are some red beets reserved for another purpose.
I once had a bass player friend years ago who quit our band, and went to play with a guy who had a voice exactly like the singer from Queensryche (this was many many years ago). On one hand, I thought this was a cool move since the guy could really really sing... on the other hand, it sucked because everything they played sounded like Queensryche. This is sort of how I feel about our new crucial details bows and peacocks. They're really great, they look great, and we appreciate the great deal from Kevin, but it really requires a lot of thought to avoid looking like Alinea rip-offs. How to get around this? I believe it's possible. It's just got to be a little deeper than clipping some mini clothes pins to the damn thing. Just another mental challenge for us... we are so mentally challenged.
Chef K really really likes to make marshmallows and burn them.
Karina Nuvo has a great voice. She played a concert in our ballroom in conjunction with our Beaujolais Nouveau event, then graced us by dining at Paradigm the following night. Definitely very cool.
I love organic and local produce, but I'm not particularly crazy about organic and local produce markets. Maybe it's all of the things that have nothing to do with the real 'meat' of it... such as hippie hemp weavers, juice bars, pretentiousness, cash-only check out, and people selling stuff that has nothing to do with organic produce... while simultaneously taking up space that should be occupied by organic produce. Why can't I just browse the variety of interesting stuff and talk to the actual farmers who grew it?
Television perspectives are interesting, to say the least. It's always good to get attention.