This is a better photo of the salmon powder dish taken by Chef K.
This was our spice menu version of the New Orleans dish. I tried to push the flavors by grinding a unique blend of the original components. The sauce is a combination of those spices with the classic worcestershire, crystal hot sauce, and butter.
This was an attempt at the onion glass recipe from ideasinfood.typepad.com. I changed it a little, and after an hour or two in the south Florida humidity it became like taffy.
We made melon confit by placing it under vacuum in flavored syrup. This was used as a room amenity.
A creation of Chef Fabian's made from tropical fruit gelee rolled in latin rice pudding. Served with chocolate amaretto sauce, pistachio paste, and pickled mango. This was featured on a Miami Spice menu.
We did a dinner for Laphroig Scotch and had the pleasure of pairing 6 courses with different scotches. This dish was the crown jewel of the menu. The match was incredible. The salmon was crusted in black mustard and seared. We accented the plate with roasted mushrooms and our house-made furikake. The sauce is the 'spicey tuna sauce' found in many sushi rolls.
An incredible simple idea used in a non-dairy menu. I made a hollandaise sauce with warm bacon fat instead of butter (actually, it was cut with a little olive oil also). The smokiness of the bacon and the lemon was perfect with the asparagus. It's garnished with a crispy fried onion.
This is an edited shot of an inside-out paella. I coated pork sausage and seafood meatballs with raw rice and steamed them (I actually stole this idea from my wife's dim sum). They are placed over tomato saffron sauce, and topped with chile threads and herb oil. I did this plate in the audition for my current job.
After attempting to make shrimp noodles (a la WD-50's fish noodles), I was left with a bowl of delectable reshaped chilled shrimp (cooked with Zatarain's, of course). The result, after we broke apart the entire bowl of noodle and tied the pieces into little knots, was this amuse bouche.
This was an accident turned VIP amuse bouche. I was trying a salmon flake recipe from 'Washoku' and I ended up with dry salmon instead... so I pulverized it. The chips were fried and tossed with a season blend of dill seed, sea salt, and dry sushi rice seasoning.
This was the last course in a 'non dairy' meal. I made coconut pudding by mixing coconut milk with xanthan powder and bourbon vanilla powder. It was great when chilled.
Tortilla soup done gringo style... with the corn tortilla pureed into the stock. I used pulled braised chicken as a garnish. This is comfort food dressed up.
...ok, so I alginated pea puree. Everyone needs to experiment with it sometime. I am still deciding exactly how to put a signature on the technique. Rolling the mixture into the calcium chloride bath is difficult when dealing with thick pea puree.
Another use of the marble technique. Served with a small nest of arugula and smoked tomato vinaigrette.
This is what happens to fruit when you confit it by placing it under vacuum in gatorade syrup for a day then freeze it. The sugar prevents the fruit from completely hardening.
The story behind this plate is archived on 6 August.
The shrimp was pureed with TGM, rolled flat, and cut into triangles before being breaded and fried.
Served as an early course for a Droughin wine tasting.
Another use of the frozen fruit confit technique. These were used for a wine pairing event.
Roasted wild mushrooms with truffle oil and lemon butter in rolled pasta ring.
This was pectin-thickened berry sauce with pinot noir and rosemary syrup.
A dragonfruit pop was served inside a frozen frosted glass for one wine event.
Not the usual lox and bagel plate. This is actually one of my favorite creations. It's served with coconut marscapone and hot curry peanut powder. The chile didn't transfer well through the spiced cure, so I added thai chile oil to the plate... well, just a few drops.
The winner on this plate is the smoked nigella seed vinaigrette that Marianne put together. This is a spice menu option.
This was a presentation that Marianne put together. The chicken sits over "hoppin' john succotash." A cardamom sugar spiced streusel tops the sweet potato purée.
This dish was done by Jason, one of our cooks, who modified a croquette recipe. The creme soda is a reduction flavored with caramelized onion. The powder is smoked bourbon vanilla powder.
Actually, it's Powerade. We want to do a version of this item for an upcoming VIP Superbowl event. They're going to be presented as 'first down markers'... the edible version. The sauce in the pipette is a balsamic honeydew powerade reduction... "Get yer ice cold electrolytes right here!"
This was a VIP course that Jason threw out. The shrimp is wrapped in soba noodles held with a cornstarch paste then deep fried.
This is made with the pounding technique. Chunks of white cheddar were sprinkled with chopped pistachio, Vietnamese fried shallots, and chile threads then pounded flat and smooth. The chile threads gave it the effect of cracked marble.
Here is the cheddar marble cut and used as a special amenity. Some nice olive oil and aged balsamic are all that's used to accent the flavors of the bold cheese compound.
The vinaigrette is held within an isomalt blown sugar casing that Chef Fabian tediously made. Perfect combination of flavors and textures here.
Using TGM with lump crabmeat has been proving to be an easy standard item. This tartar sauce was incredible. The coin is garnished with fried capers for texture.
A great combination. We should have called this duck with beet 3 ways (beet marshmallow, beet sugar powder, and crispy fried beet threads).
After a couple of attempts, Chef Fabian produced these incredible sugar shelled vodka pills. The shells were created using the Spanish technique of setting flavored syrup in a cornstarch bed under controlled temperature and humidity.
A standard cosmo recipe (in this version) garnished with alginated cranberry juice noodles and the chopsticks to eat them.
One of my favorite foods, pidan is made from duck eggs through an exacting preservation process involving lime, tea, and ash.
The barramundi is slow cooked in a Mexican vanilla beurre monte and accented with tomato cinnamon powder.
This is a simple dragonfruit and Roaring 40's blue cheese served with whipped balsamic reduction, and drizzled with a little more 'unwhipped' balsamic for an amenity.
The same preparation as the barramundi. The lobster is slow cooked in a vanilla-scented beurre monte. Kola nut & cocoa nib mole and tomato cinnamon powder round off the flavors.
Skinless sweetbread sausages made by classical methods and transglutanimase. These are par poached but not seared yet.
The balsamic syrup is whipped up with Versawhip 600K then burned with a torch.
Black cod with Taiwanese barbeque sauce and taro root chips dusted with our TW7 spice. Micro shiso on top.
Made with 5 day duck confit, rare grilled duck, confit red and yellow beets, and a whole lotta love.