Chef K has helped me out with some pictures and notes on the last Paradigm dinner. Sure it feels strange not having anything to do with our baby (well, it was our baby before I had a real baby in my life), but it's great to see some of our cooks push themselves (or be pushed by others) into adding some creativity to the mix. So, since I'm sure no one wants to read about all of the stuff I've been cooking at home the last 2 weeks (gumbo, cajun spaghetti, roast beef sandwiches, roast chicken, grits, slow-cooked pasta, kimchee pork, steak and mashed potato, stir-fried rice, etc), these dishes will definitely be much more interesting...
Here they are in no particular order or fashion.
pretty peas
All peas in many ways. I like this presentation. Chef K said that he literally woke one day after having a dream that he made an entire plate out of peas. I'm sure they were much more creatively interesting than Carla's peas on Top Chef which, although fresh and tasty, convinced me to never ever watch that show again. The pea orbs are typically El Bulli signature, but marinated in mint oil for a couple of days. The smaller pea pearls are fully gelled pea juice. Apple and pea juice were combined and gelled to make the fluid gel. Compressed fresh local pea tendrils added another vegetative element. The sponge on the side is a variation on a microwave biscuit made, of course, with peas. The dusting of very light green powder is snow peas... or pea snow. Chef K let cream infuse with bacon overnight and mixed some of it with pea juice, froze it, and spun it in the Paco Jet to create a sort of smokey creamy pea snow.
green eggs & ham
Ok, we know the Dr. Suess theme is like beating a dead horse, but I still think that this one is probably more interesting than Carla's version... sorry, but that episode just got to me. But, I digress.
This dish was put forward by Carlos, one of our cooks from Southern Cali, so it is basically a huevos rancheros version. 36-hour C-Vapped pork belly plated with a salsa-flavored fluid gel. The green egg flan was mixed with a cream steeped with tomatillo, poblano, anaheims, and cilantro. Frothed lime cream and red tortilla powder finish the deal.
parmesan & strawberry
This is Ben's dish. It's a transition of complementary flavors... frozen parmesan air, parmesan granita, vanilla parmesan custard, parmesan rose gel sheet, strawberry consommé, lyo-fresca, tomato anise marmalade. The consommé was frenched tableside. Custards set with carrageenan. Ben's original plan was to do textures in parmesan, then after several conversations the theme evolved. Soon afterwards, Massimo's 5 textures of parmesan came out in Art Culinaire the very next day, so it was probably a good evolution in retrospect.
burger & float
This was an idea of Marianne's to play on an upscale burger with the flavors of a root beer float. Raw Côte de Bouef ground and homemade root beer flavors are shaped into a patty and C-Vapped to a juicy medium and quick seared. It's served over fresh brioche with flakes of tomato pickle and lettuce films. A hot vanilla ice cream (with Metil) is garnished with root beer evervescance and root beer gel. Fat Duck fries on the side. These were done following the procedure in the FD cookbook of blanching in water until super (or 'souper') tender, drying in a cryovac, and deep frying (this time in duck fat).
sardines & crackers
This is a play on traditional while staying firmly within the comfort zone box (and I mean that in the most respectful way). Fresh sardine was smoked and coated with a tomato fennel chaud-froid. A chocolate cracker and gelled roasted yellow tomato finish it. I have to say that I actually tasted the chocolate crackers (they ended up as our beer snacks on a night out to hear a friend of our's band, Pegasaurus), and it was phenomenol (the crackers and the band). The texture was perfect and it had a spicy bitterness without a dominating flavor of cocoa... recipe hopefully to come soon.
&
3 from Fabian next.
I don't usually hype new blogs, but our friend, Chris Windus, exec. chef at bluezoo in Orlando, just started blogging, bluechefs.blogspot.com. There isn't much up yet, but Chris and his team deal with a lot of interesting ideas, techniques, events, etc. I'm sure he sometimes takes these for granted, but for the rest of us we will find many moments of interest in reading up on some of his day-to-day. Although it's a Todd English restaurant, the place is part of a much larger institution as it is housed in Disney's Swan & Dolphin hotels. This means he gets a lot of creative freedom while still getting to put his hands on some big budget resort equipment.
I actually had some other things I wanted to say, but can't seem to remember them at the moment. Oh well, oh well... that's what happens when you're on vacation.