chadzilla

under the weather

Without getting political, the 'call for change' is more necessary now than ever before.

If you are a chef, a food enthusiast, or if your human body requires nutrients in the form of food to continue your daily survival... take a moment to review the selection for the United Stated Secretary of Agriculture.  Nicholas Kristof has a great article in the NYTimes that was linked by Michael Ruhlman.  Please read it, and sign the petition at  food democracy now.  If you have a blog or website, link it and pass it on.

Food is at the root of most of our current world issues.  The systems that we have in place are doing more harm than good to the health of the world.  There is much more to the food system than picking up a pack of meat and a quart of milk at the grocery store.  There are serious environmental and health issues that will only escalate to a point of no return in a short time without immediate massive change and restructuring within the industry that gets these products to your home.  This may be the first real opportunity to change this since the out-dated Department of Agriculture was established over one hundred years ago.  Push the momentum.  Add your voice to the cause.  The world is under the weather.

When both Michael Pollan and Dan Barber endorse a petition, it's at least worth a look.

flat-bottomed pearls

 

It should always be this easy... but, it never is.

It's so easy to get thrown for a loop sometimes.  We were putting together a dish which included pearls made of a caramelized onion puree and pearls made from what would essentially be a fondue.  Considering my experiences, I estimated that the onion pearls would be fairly easy to create with agar/cold oil and the real challenge would be the cheese (dropped into an algin bath).

 

The frustration began when my onion puree kept pancaking on the surface of my cold roasted garlic oil.  I assumed that there was no reason for this except for possible air trapped in the puree (and possibly temperature).  In the end, I tweaked it so much and added water... and soy... and more hydrocolloids... and more water that a documented recipe became impossible.  Eventually, it did work and the water weight reached a sufficient point and the temperature gods smiled so that the drops sank on impact.

 

The next loop came from the cheese.  In my 'old school' mind, I approached it by making a gruyere fondue with added calcium.  Disastrous.  Mentioning it to Fabian, he copied an old El Bulli recipe for making mozzarella orbs.  Although I was using swiss instead of mozz (completely different textures) and the recipe called for double cream (which we don't have), Fabian just said "Try it."  So, I did... sort of.  I went into the first step of blending the cheese into water.  This tipped my mind in the right direction and I abandoned the recipe.  I created a fondue without using heat simply by blending cheese and water.  Instead of adding calcium gluconate, I dispersed 5g of powdered milk into it (sparked by a past email from Michael Laiskonsis).  Once dripped into the algin bath in a test run (going to actually make them tomorrow), the texture and flavor were bangin'.

That's where these challenges come into play.  What I thought would be easy proved to be frustratingly difficult, and what I thought would be difficult pretty much worked right out the gate.  Go figure.

 

These were my measurements for the gruyere pearls (just blend together, last 2 ingredients are obviously the algin bath).  I added in a small amount of blue cheese after reflecting on the flavor punch I desired.  Can't remember if it was Doritos or Cheetos, but upon scanning the ingredients in a mozzarella cheese snack I noticed that they included blue cheese powder.  Another tip learned from the industrial food world.

christmas rush

 

The month of December is always a unique time in a hotel environment.  The whirlwind of holiday tasks surmounted on top of personal quests is usually very time-consuming, but unfortunately not very post-worthy.  So just to keep the flow, here's a short note of what's happening down here.

Obligatory gingerbread houses adorn the lobby.  That's just a small part of the complete face-lift a resort lobby gets at year-end... decorators sneak in at night and set-off explosions of holiday symbols like Disneyland employees in the underworld.  Alas, there is no snow down here, but we did have a nice cool front for about a week.  No matter how you look at it, it's all a welcome break from the norm.  Various departments within the operation become decorated.  Holiday music is piped throughout the guest areas, including the restrooms.  Some departments will be looking foward to extra time off, some will look to extra time in.  The garage becomes filled with cars tagged with plates from far away places (mostly NY and Quebec).  Monthly inventories will become year-end inventories.  Everyone seeks closure for this long crazy year in American history.  We've written drafts for holiday menus during the hotter months, and will probably re-visit them with fresh minds... restaurant menus for Christmas eve and Christmas, New Year's eve menus, various holiday party menus, employee cafeteria menus, attempting to change some of our regular menus on top of that, Paradigm menus, the Employee holiday party menu on a budget (everyone is this year) that Chef K spent extra time working on late last night to ensure that it will remain as special as possible within the given boundaries.  Spreading general holiday cheer without clinging to any specific holiday (it took me nearly 3 years to get used to saying "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas") which I can now do without having to think about it.  Putting yourself in the right frame of mind for the season can sometimes be as easy as slipping the "Bootsy Collins Christmas CD" into your stereo on the way to work.  There is always a sense of family in the kitchen due in part to the amount of time spent there, so there is the constant association between the two.

Maybe it's because I've been in hotel kitchens for so long that this obligation has transformed into a duty of sorts... in a restaurant, a guest only expects to be fed and given good service.  In a hotel, guests are under your care for 24 hours a day while sometimes being away from home, away from family.  It takes many special touches from many different people to create an environment that will make a difference.  Instead of dinner guests, we have house guests.

coco snow

Usually, with gelatin clarification, the 'raft' of impurities and gelatin is discarded in lieu of the real prize of clear flavorful broth below.  When we started a coconut milk clarification a few days ago, the beautiful bright white and delicately flavored raft took us by surprise.  It looked like a futuristic arctic landscape.

It began to dry a bit more over the next couple of days in the cooler, and I definitely wanted to incorporate it into the same dish as the coconut consommé.

The 'snow' was grated and used as a bed for a light lime-tossed scallop ceviche.  Jellies of lemongrass and tamarind are spooned around the bottom of the bowl, and the clear coconut clarification is poured over the center tableside.

This really led me to think about what can be a first course... or an amuse.  Typically, it should not be more than 2 bites, but there should be room to play when the flavors are so delicately light in terms of weight and impact on the tongue (also... as always, it needs to be reasonably proportioned to the full meal).  This was definitely an exploration of subtlety and delicateness of flavor while remaining pronounced on the palate.  Even the jellies (with their 0.4% gelatin) had to be spooned onto a frozen plate because they teetered on the verge of solid and liquid at room temperature.

allium

This plate was designed around all flavors and personalities of the onion.

 

The green gel is a charred scallion fluid gel.  Upfront, a pissaladiere made with arepa cake and topped with tempura white anchovy.  Thanks to Heston Blumenthal for teaching me a new use for maltodextrin represented in the onion lattice.  Behind that are some poached red amethyst onions.

more turkey talk

After all the turkey variations lately, I thought I'd be over it... but here's a cool video of Grant Achatz and Nick Kokonas demonstrating how to cook your turkey sous-vide at home.  The videos are on YouTube, and I found the link through Michael Ruhlman's blog.  Love the "pan-shaker" comments.

Part 1

Part 2

whipped

Sometimes, I just need to put a question out there...

There is always a reminder that, no matter how much you learn or what your experiences are, things can sometimes behave in a way that is totally unexpected.  I've used xanthan a thousand times alone and synergistically with other hydrocolloids and dispersed it many ways.  I realize that it has emulsifying properties, but almost always it's use is intended to thicken a water-based solution (except when boosting the powers of other additives and starches).

Then for a VIP table during lunch, I planned on quickly thickening some clear tomato water to add as an element to an amuse featuring fresh mozzarella, duck salami, and basil.  Instead of getting thicker, the tomato water immediately began to hold air... so much to the point that it became a very light fluffy whip which remained stable for hours afterwards (all with a very small percentage of xanthan, I might add).

 

The texture was slightly of xanthan, but not so gummy as a methocel whip.

What was the variable in the tomato water that catalyzed this outcome?