Bloody Marry Popcorn in Liquid Nitrogen

This was one of the courses for the Gabby Gourmet dinner last night. I started by dehydrating roma tomatoes for 48 hours. I then placed them in the spice grinder with celery salt, Cayenne and sugar. We then sprayed vodka on the popcorn before it went into the liquid nitrogen. It was a hit.

Gabby Gourmet Radio Show

Gabby asked me to come on her show this past Saturday. We did a remote brocast from Snarf's, a sub shop on 11th and Ogden in Capital hill. I had the Italian, one of the best sandwiches I have ever had. This is Snarf, he is from Chicago and he knows a good sand.

Tatsing Menu 92

It has been a very hectic week at the hotel. We have been sold for rooms the past 8 days with another 7 ahead. The groups do not have many banquet functions so the restaurant is getting hit hard. I am feeling a lot more comfortable running the kitchen after my crash course the last 3 weeks. The chef is back so I can finally get some work done in the restaurant.

Curried grilled eggplant
Fennel foam, fried artichoke and fennel, coconut

Sweat pea and rosemary cream
Carrot caviar, grilled mussels

Basil and lemon Popsicle

Roasted leg of lamb
Mint, flexible potato, roasted garlic and onions

Peach cobbler with brown sugar ice cream
Made tableside with LN

Tasting Menu 91

My wife and I had a amazing meal at 1515 market last night. Gene the owner invited us in for some food and wine. The best plate by far was the seared scallop with huitlacoche puree. I have not seen the corn mushroom since I worked at the Rattlesnake grill about 1o years ago. It is a underutilized ingredient. Basically they leave sweet corn out in a warm environment. Eventually a mold or mushroom will grow on the outside. It has a deep sweet flavor to it that complimented the scallop dish perfectly. I would say it was one of the better meals I have had in a while.

Coconut Grouper
Watermelon pop rocks, mint from the garden, dashi gelee

Compressed heirloom tomatoes
Garlic, dandelion leaves, Tasmanian pepper caviar

Chorizo
Brioche, plantain, fried quail eggs

Tiramisu ice cream with frozen lady finger dust

Made tableside with liquid nitrogen

A Chefs Wife

This might be the most difficult job in any kitchen. She deals with my crazy dispositions, constant mood swings and hours that are never consistent. I met my wife in culinary school, she looked amazing in that jacket with her shy demeanour. We began to live and work together in a very demanding industry. We would lean on each other to get through the really hard times. I cannot imagine where I would be in my career without her support, she is the reason that I am where I am. It seems like it only gets harder, more hours, more stress but she always finds away to pull me back into the most important thing in this world, my family. Thank you Melissa, I love you

Real Photos

Chris Davies from Wine Country International came up for a tasting menu this week. He sat on the patio for his dinner and took some nice shots of the food. All I have is my I Phone and it does not take great pictures on a dark line during service. Thanks Chris for the pictures

Chili calamari with avocado and fried yogurt

Heirloom carrot, curry jel, sweet pea powder

Tattooooo

You rarely meet a line cook that does not have some crazy tattoo. Mike surprised me yesterday with this mustache on his finger. We talked about getting him a different expression on each finger. A living mister potato head

Tasting Menu 90

What a difference a few days off makes. I had a great weekend celebrating some friends birthdays along with my daughter and I. People often ask why I live in Denver and why I don't move to more of a culinary city. My answer is quality of life. I have visited many places and lived in a few but Colorado is the place where I want to raise my kids. The quality of life here is amazing. For example we have the best concert venue in the world at Red Rocks Amphitheatre. We saw OAR along with Brett Dennon on Friday night. I feel much more creative when I am rested. We are back to our regular tasting menu rotations.

Ginger soy marinated pineapple k-bob
Chili squid, cilantro from the garden, fried yogurt

Green pea powder
Sous-vide carrots, curry jel, pita

Achiote grilled arctic char
Tomatillo, pepper crisps, pico de gallo noodles

Carbonated strawberry shortcake
Made tableside with LN

New Liquid Nitrogen Dewar

One of the biggest set backs to using nitrogen is the rate it turns back into a gas. We have had a small 10 L dewar for the last couple of years. It was old and had cracks in the top. Every time we would fill it, it would evaporate back into a gas in less then 2 hours. With this new 25 L dewar with a built it thermal separator, the evaporation rate is very low because the nitrogen is under constant pressure. We can now fill this dewar and it will last the entire shift

Tasting Menu 89

We will run the same tasting menu as last week except for the desert course. I am going to take the weekened off to celebrate my daughters birthday and mine on June 4th. The restaurant is in good hands, we just promoted Camilio to roundsman. He is an amazing chef that will help both the restaurant and banquets. Camilio and Mike will put the menu out this weekened. It has been a hard couple of weeks for me at the hotel. Change is good, it just takes a little while to get used to it. My blogging has suffered, learning something new takes twice as long. The cooking has always come easy, it is the financial side of the business that I need to work on.

Grilled scallops

Compressed apple chutney, pumpkin powder, pineapple sage

Lobster crepe

Mornay, black truffle caviar, salt water bubbles

Grilled Kobe beef

Smoke pudding, herb potato, red pepper

Creamy goat cheese cheesecake
Peach ice cream made tableside with LN