Bacon dinner at Opus

Mike Long, owner of opus invited my wife and I to a bacon dinner. Mike asked me about a week ago to do a bacon ice cream for him. I agreed knowing that I could fill my small tank at a local welding store. On Friday I went down and filled my four liter tank. Joe the manager asked what I was driving. I pointed to my Honda in the parking lot. He informed me that I had to have a pickup truck for him to release the nitrogen. It turns out that some guy had a small dewar in his car that spilled all over him and caused third degree burns a few years back. With no pick-up and no one to help at 4 p.m. on a Friday, I parked my car 6 blocks away and told Joe I was going to walk it home. I had to do it, I promised Mike I would make it happen. I made the ice cream base and went to the dinner. We had a great dinner that included

Bacon wrapped scallop with pancetta risotto

Roasted ribeye stuffed with sous-vide pork belly

Peanut butter nougat and bacon chocolate bar with bacon ice cream

It was good to be back in the kitchen for a night. As far as the bacon ice cream, it turned out pretty good but I probably will never make it again

Goodbye and Thank you

I want to say thank you to everyone who has supported me at O's steak and seafood for the past 3 and 1/2 years. It is time for me to move on to bigger and better things. I walk away happy and excited to work on a project that I have been planning for the last 2 years.

Top 5 Things I will not miss

1. Getting sick 45 minutes after eating in the cafeteria

2. The ridiculous circa 1960's chefs hat they made me wear

3. Being open 365-24-7

4. Cooking a "pop-up" for 150

5. No music

Top 5 Things I will miss

1. The Strabucks machine in the lobby

2. The limitless supply of liquid nitrogen

3. Some of the people

4. Being able to order 20 lobsters, a piece of foie and some kobe

5. The engineering department

Taste of Elegance Competition

One of our favorite events is coming up next Thursday. It will be held at Mile High Station this year instead of D.U. I was given my wines yesterday to pair with my dishes. I received a Proseco and a Petite Sirah. I am going to make the graham cracker soft shell crab with tropical fruit, coconut mousse and soy dipping dots to go with the Proseco. I will match the Sirah with a blueberry allspice sorbet with frozen honey crystals. There are tickets still available for $100 a pop. There will be 18 chefs competing this year from all over the United States. http://www.denverwinefest.com/order.html#toe

Tasting menu 103

We had a huge snowstorm come through Colorado this week. It dropped 2 and 1/2 feet of snow at our house ( this is our air conditioner in the back yard) It reminded me of mountain snow, very light and fluffy. I will spend a little time on making some snow textures with liquid nitrogen this week.

Graham cracker encrusted soft shell crab
Coconut mousse, tropical fruit, soy dippin dots

Grilled goat cheese
House made caper bread, goji berry carpaccio, tomato caviar

Berbere sous-vide pork loin
Grilled banana puree, brown sugar gelee, compressed apple salad

Lavender honey baklava
Roasted pumpkin ice cream made table side with liquid nitrogen