Another Trip to the ER

We work in a very dangerous profession. I have had some bad kitchen accidents. My major accident happened when I was 17. I was breaking the line when another cook dropped boiling pasta water down my leg. As I peeled my pants off my skin went with it. I spent 2 days in the ER and 2 months in therapy. I have also had numerous stitches and third degree burns in my career. Yesterday I was making pumpkin noodles for the tasting menu. When I was filling a tube the hot mixture exploded into my eye. I ended up with second degree burns to my cornea. Normal people would take the day off but I have a VIP party today and the competition tonight. My Halloween costume has been decided for me this year. I will be a pirate hahahahaha

Coffee Bubbles

Tasting menu 60

I have a competition this week at DU on Thursday. It should be pretty fun, we did it last year and had a great time. We are going through a lot of changes in the hotel. We have a new F&B director and our GM just gave notice. There seems to be a lot of tension here. It is certainly not the same hotel I started to work at 3 years ago. It has been tough for me here because I do not share the same philosophies as other managers here. It is hard to build something up only to see it fall apart when you are not there. Hopefully something will give in the next couple of months??

Mignonette Jelly
House smoked trout, caper bubbles, lavosh cream

Apple Cider Consommé
Pumpkin noodles, floating sage, chicken and bacon

Kombu space foam

Green olive braised short rib
Marinated tomato sheet, anchovy aioli, eggplant

Trick or Treat ice cream
Made table side with liquid nitrogen

Mckinley-Thatcher Demo

The proudest moment of this demo is when I asked the class how they thought I made the strawberry noodles. After hearing some very interesting answers, my 7 year old daughter told the class verbatim how I made them for her 1 1/2 ago. I was a bubbling dad

Chapstick Compound Butter

I love a good compound butter on steak. The problem is if the kitchen or waitstaff timing is off, you might end up with a pool of broken butter by the time it reaches the table. I wanted to make a container that would allow the guest to control when the butter was applied to the steak. I thought about a chapstick container and how you can regulate how much product comes out. I got some clean chapstick tubes and filled it with the compound butter. Now the guest can control exactly how much butter goes on their steak

Tasting menu 59

Last week sucked. Hopefully this week I will have a little more time to get some stuff done. I am doing a demo at my other daughters school today. We will make strawberry noodles with watermelon ice cream, blueberry pop rocks and fizzy whip cream. We had a great event at Strings on Sunday. It was nice to see Aaron and his crew. We ended up making foie gras tacos with Peking duck and hoison tomatoes. We have a lot of reservations for the tasting menu this week. If you are coming in late please specify that you want the tasting menu. We have been running out and I want to make sure I prep enough for everyone.

Last tomatoes from my garden
Prosciutto cream, hazelnuts, balsamic textures

Carbonated black plums
Berbere shrimp, yuzu, yogurt powder

Port Space Foam

Sou-vide New York and truffle salt
Pepper butter chap stick, stewed cipollini in duck fat, tarragon

Pineapple and candy ginger ice cream
With baby kiwi made table side
With liquid nitrogen

Lucky Charms Ice Cream

I read an article recently when Heston from the Fat Duck talked about how are memories effect how we enjoy our meals. It is impossible to know how a persons eating habbits are when they are growing up. What did their mom make for a after school snack? Did their mom like shake and bake or was she more of a griller. I have served a dish to people who swear it taste like something their mom used to make. As chefs we either build a food memory or remind someone of a meal in their past. It is amazing how one meal can effect someone so much. Along those lines lucky charms is a food memory for me. This week we will do a breakfast dessert with this lucky charms ice cream that is garnished with nitro cereal.

Fox 31

I did a quick demo about the space foam course for project pave on Sunday. I like doing live TV, you never know what will happen or who you will run into. I was waiting in the green room to go on and in walks Stifler from American Pie. He was a pretty funny guy, he ended up doing a weather segment that was hilarious.

Tasting menu 58

We have a very busy week ahead. I am doing a demo on Fox news in the morning. We have the legacy foundation event here at the hotel on Friday. We have a separate 125 person dinner that we are handling in a banquet room on Saturday. I also have the passed app course at Strings for Project pave on Sunday. We are beginning to work on some Fall menus this week.

Smoked olive oil poached line caught tuna
Black garlic pesto, macadamia nuts, pea shoots

Roasted plum vinaigrette sheet
Portabella, dry corn powder, mache

NY wrapped tenderloin
Blueberry, pumpkin au gratin, chocolate

Sugar poached egg on French toast
Lucky charms ice cream
Made table side with liquid nitrogen

Coconut bubble gum

Banana Split

Brulee banana, maraschino cherry sphere stuffed with whipped cream, frozen chocolate-vanilla-strawberry powders, caramel dipped cherries

Foie Gras Taco Shell

I have been on a taco shell kick the past couple of months. I think it is a form that everyone is comfortable with. I wanted to make a shell using foie. I used a old tweel recipe and substituted some foie for butter. The trick is keeping ever thing emulsified and adding the egg whites in stages so you don't break the batter. The batter must be chilled overnight and spread very thin when it is cooked. I had to use a ounce scale for the recipe, my new gram scale should be coming any day.

Recipe

4.8 oz Foie, cleaned

1.6 oz Butter,soft

2 ea Egg whites

.2 oz Honey

1 tbl. Black pepper

1 oz Powder sugar

.5 oz Oatmeal ground

3 oz Flour

1/4 tsp. Salt

Place the Foie gras in a small mixing bowl with the butter. Beat with a paddle attachment until the mixture is soft. Add 1 egg white at a time so it does not break the batter. Add the rest of the ingredients and whip for 1 minute. Cool and spread on a silt pad. Bake at 325 for 5 minutes or until golden brown. Mold over a whisk handle to get the taco shape

Tasting Menu 57

I am finally ordering my commercial vacuum sealer. It only took 15 months of constant harassment to our controller. It is a 4000$ piece of equipment so I understand why it took so long. I had to show him that it was not a toy for me to play with but a necessary piece of equipment to extend shelf like of products. I made the case and my sealer should be here (to play with) in a couple of weeks. We went to the Shamrock food show today. I go to check out any cool new products. The only thing I saw was a berry that taste just like a kiwi. It was amazing, I will get some in for the tasting next week. It blows my mind that it is the same crap every year. They just add another flavor and put the same product in a different box.

Kampachi sashimi
Tobiko noodles, rice wine foam, soy dippin dots

Compressed ratatouille vegetables
Spicy octopus, fried olives, yogurt aioli

Blood orange space foam

Sou-vide truffle honey and organic chicken
Artichoke macaroni, brussel sprouts, tarragon air

Coffee crepe filled with amaretto mousse
Served with brown sugar ice cream
Made tableside with liquid nitrogen

Pre-school Demo

I like to cook for kids, more then grumpy adults. They are so open to trying new things. We made strawberry ice cream and 40 second chocolate cake for the kids in my daughters pre-school class. I always wonder what will these kids eat when they are my age. Will we still have all of the choices we enjoy today?

Key Lime Pie

Baked key lime foam wrapper, graham cracker ice cream,

cream cheese mousse, dehydrated tropical fruits, coconut powder, mint gel

Tobiko and White Soy Noodles

Hatch Chili

This is my favorite time of year. It is starting to get a little colder and the hatch chili stands line Federal here in Denver. All you do is pull into one of these road side stands and pick your chili. They usually have around 10 different kinds. They then load them in a giant propane tumbler and roast them to order. They put the roasted chilli's in a giant plastic bag and send you on your way. The smell is the best part, earthy and sweet. You can freeze the peppers and have them all through the winter. My favorite is putting them on flat bread with scrambled eggs, caramelized onions and siracha.