Chef at Home

As fashion trend has taken the monogram print as a logo, or as a part of the design, I thought that food could do the same. We as chefs are always thinking and looking for innovative plating to create a surprise, but we always fear that the design will take away from the nature of the product. Bold and intense flavors cannot be manipulated too much or they start loose their impact. But a potato, braised with meat bouillon and caramelized to get that shine, does not need a natural round shape to be good. Any shape will work. NYC is submerged with fashion week now, so I thought Chicago can have a little bit of that too.

Noe, our baker, made croissant for us this morning. Some filled with chocolate and other with asiago cheese. That was a nice touch with coffee.

A dish always start somewhere. More precisely, it starts with a component that will be one of the main players on the plate. Sometime you continue the idea and are able to finalize it. Sometimes the idea just dies. It might come back one day mixed into a new thought at a better time. 

Mole is a complex preparation that combines a lot of different elements to create a balance, usually between spicy, sweet and salty. But it is also interesting, from a gustatory point of view, to create greater clarity in that balance by combining these element side by side, to be eaten together but not necessary all at the same time.

In this dish pineapple mole is the main player. It is meant to be combined with a cooked lobster or a prawn. We did few different preparations of the mole and even though the overall taste was good, the different layers of taste were missing clarity. So we broke the mole into several pieces and the result is much more dynamic. The dish itself is not finished yet but it is very close.

Pictured here is roasted pineapple juice, passilla de Oaxaca and tomato, garlic and vanilla, green onion and chive.

Twice a week we receive Tai snapper from New Zealand. You might think that buying fish from so far away you might not get a really fresh product, but when you open the box you realize it is really pristine. Today distances do not really matter. This Tai snapper is a sustainable fish and part of the sea bream family. Tai means good fortune in Japanese and it is eaten for celebrations in Japan. The fish is killed using the Ike technique. Ike means quickly, then it rests in a brine to clean it. 

Now we use the Tai snapper in a cooked preparation. The fish is scaled and dressed, then filleted. We remove the skin from the flesh and brine it in a salted water solution to firm the flesh. During service each portion is first steamed to order for a couple of minutes at 85 degrees Celsius. Then it is butter poached at a 60 degrees Celsius until the center of the meat reaches 50 degrees Celsius for medium rare. We season the fish with Murray River salt, then plate it.

We use Nopales from time to time in cold preparations. I definitely like the texture and the freshness of this vegetable. It can remind you a bit of a cucumber, but with a more vigorous character and a greener flavor. The first step is to remove the thick skin by peeling it with a knife. We cut it into a small dice, season it with 1% sea salt the cactus then place it in a sealed jar in a cooler for 24 hours. This allows the salt to penetrate and sweat the natural juices from the plant. It is then rinsed under cold water and drained. The result is a deeper green color and the texture is more gelatinous and crunchy like a fresh pickle. For our last preparation, we seasoned it with pickled ginger and some of the pickling liquid, fresh diced jalapeno and parsley leaves. We finished it with a touch of grapeseed oil and deep-fried dried shrimp on top.

Both of these preparations combine the same ingredients: corn and heavy cream. 

The hot preparation calls for a reduction of cream, shallot and corn, which is blended and strained. Then it is poured into a spherical mold, frozen, and rolled in egg and ground panko. The spheres are deep fried to create an outer shell and while the center remains warm and liquid. 

The cold preparation calls for corn juice and heavy cream, combined and heated to a simmer. A few sheets of gelatin are melted in the hot liquid. It is cooled down and poured into an ISO cannister to be set into a cold ladle then plunged into liquid nitrogen. This creates a shell on the outside, while the center is still fluffy and soft.

Corn kernels are quickly pan fried to garnish both of the preparations. Both are just a bite to start the meal.

A velvet skin, melting flesh, sweet and flavorful, the apricot translates summer by its warmness. 

I remember that special time, at our country property in France, when the apricot trees were full of fruit. Climbing up the tree and eating a dozen of them was the treat of the afternoon.  In the French boulangeries, they take a square of croissant dough, spread pastry cream on top then place two apricot halves, one on each side. It is rolled and baked in the afternoon, for the kids when they finish school. I have to admit I ate those more than a few times. 

I also like apricot jam where the fruit is present and the scent of vanilla compliments the flavor. Apricot sorbet is always creamy and doesn’t get icy because of the amount of natural pectin in the fruit. This year apricots from California are very good. I’ve enjoyed them after service just as they are.