The commissary smells like weed

We work out of a commissary were we rent dry storage space, walk-in space and pay $20 an hour to use the facility. Slowly the caterers and street food companies have been phased out by hard candy makers and THC soda suppliers. The kitchens are separated by walls and locks but the unmistakable odor finds it's way around the whole complex. I guess it is a sign of the times here in Colorado but I miss the smell of stewed beef tongue.

Fancy pants party

I am excited to cook this molecular menu tonight for Adam's birthday. We took his favorite food and drinks and turned into this all star menu. As you can see by the invitation, it should be a blast. Here is the menu for tonight

Passed apps

Mini tandori chicken skewers with sweet pea pesto and yogurt caviar

Smoked trout and apple stuffed mushroom with warm walnut mayo

Drinks

“Mai Tai”

Rum and triple sec mixed with toasted almond syrup and fresh squeezed lime juice

Served over cherry ice cubes, glass rimed with lime pop rocks

Strawberry-Banana daiquiri frozen with liquid nitrogen

with sweetened condensed milk

Small plate 1

Berebere encrusted tiger shrimp

Color changing bubbles, garlic and blue crab fried rice, pickled mango and pineapple

Small plate 2

Sous- vide pork tenderloin and bacon in beau monde and herbs

Grilled applesauce, spatzel carbonara, Worcestershire jel

Tasting of fun textures

Nitrogen frozen smore

Cheesecake ice cream with frozen caramel powder

Twizzlers space foam

Banana foster creme brulee

Justice League

Here is Ali in his penguin costume for our halloween Justice League of street food bash

New projects

I started the cart at the Colorado Convention center a few weeks ago. Our sales were good at the Gorillaz and Drake concert and not so good for the private conferences. I am interested to see how our business will grow. Our next convention will be the Holiday and Gift show from the 19th to the 21st. I am also working with the Breckenridge brewery to come up with a line of liquid nitrogen ice creams that use there great brews. They will make it to order at their Kalamath location. I will also be in Florida 3 times this month presenting the miracle fruit to elementary kids. The goal is to implement the fruit and the recipes into the lunch program at 85 schools in southern Florida

Color changing food

I was contacted by a bio chem engineer about 3 months ago asking if we would be interested in some free help. I am a sucker for free labor. Ali has helped us in many different ways in a our young company. When he first contacted me he told me of a idea he had to change the color of a soup by simply blowing on it. "It has to do with the acidy and the ph of the liquid" We finally had some time this week to experiment and I am very excited with the results. By simply adding lemon juice we can go from this purple color to this red color

What about a foam on a sashimi plate that would change colors when the lemon is squeezed over the fish. I have had at least 40 different ideas with this new application. We are going to experiment with the soup this week. I love working with new ideas, thanks Ali

Slow foods dinner at Six 89

Here are some pictures from kitchen along with the chicken coupe and herb garden that are located 20 feet from the restaurant door.I had fun meeting and plating with all of the chefs. The pictures have been loaded in reverse starting with the dessert course. The only picture I lack is my course. I was too busy running around making sure it went out perfect. Thanks to Mark Fischer and his amazing staff for treating us so well each and every time we see them

Cart Menu 5, Justice League of street food and beyond

We will be at Civic Center Eats tomorrow for the last time this season.

Slushie

Chai Tea $3

Small plate

Grilled marinated potrebella with

haystack mountain Feta $4

Creme brulee

Traditional creme brulee with banana foster $4

Liquid Nitrogen Popcorn

Peanut butter $2

Ice cream sammie

#1 Espresso fudge cookie, whipped marshmallow

summer strawberry ice cream $4

“Kool-aid”

Mango rimmed with chili sugar $1

Sorbet

Coconut with brown sugar pineapple $4

Ice cream

“berry sundae” Sweet strawberry ice cream

with blueberry bubbles and blackberry pop rocks $4

Space Foam

Popcorn

Friday we have a entire menu planned around the secret theme for the Justice League of Street Foods event. Can you guess the theme?

MIAMI VICE “Kool-aid”

Mango rimmed with chili sugar $1

A CHRISTMAS STORY Special drink

Hot Chocolate with frozen whipped cream $3

BACK TO THE FUTURE Ice cream Sammie

Strawberry ice cream, whipped marshmallow

fudge espresso cookie $4

COCKTAIL Sorbet

Coconut sorbet with grilled pineapple and

brown sugar bubbles $4

SMURF Space Foam

Smurf berry $3

PRETTY IN PINK Ice cream

Summer strawberry with white chocolate pop rocks $4

SIMPLY IRRESISTIBLE Creme brulee

Traditional with banana foster $4

As the seasons are changing, our plan for the cart will continue into the winter at the Colorado Convention Center. We will be setting up for our first convention on October 18, 19, and 20th.

Sparkopolis

After 6 months of preparation and many sleepless nights we executed Sparkoplis. It took a lot of planning and help from my sisters Rachael and Kaylie and team of professional friends to pull it off. Here is a link to the article in the Denver Post about charity events this summer.

Passed appetizers

Colorado lamb meatball wrapped in angel hair and rosemary

Roasted sweet Colorado corn and apple shooters

Smoked Rainbow trout Bruschetta

Chef’s garden grown vegetable kabobs with sweet pea pesto

Long family pork belly sliders with asian slaw and hoison aioli

Rocky ford melon pipettes with serrano peppers and proisutto

Food Entertainment Stations

Cheese

Baked rolls and sesame crackers from City Bakery

Artisan cheese from Haystack Mountain Dairy

Goat cheese baked in olive oil and rosemary

Pickled watermelon and mint with feta

Creamy buttercup with Colorado peach chutney

Snowdrop with jalapeno caramel

Tamale

Hand rolled mini tamales with red chili or green chili and pork

Featuring Colorado cheeses,farm to table vegetables and unique sauces

Cotijo cheese, Asadero, western slope corn, hatch chili, chef grown tomatoes

yuzu avocado and black olive chipotle

Colorado poured bar

Featuring

Cottonwood cellars, Debuque canyon winery

Great divide and Breckenridge brewery

Stanahan’s whiskey, Colorado vodka and Montanya rum

Creation Stations

Bar

Stanahan’s whiskey caviar and cream

Montanya rum carbonated over vanilla ice cubes

Colorado vodka peach martini with strawberry pop rocks

Ice cream station

Strawberry mint ice cream, hot fudge ice cream and Madagascar vanilla sorbet made with liquid nitrogen. Topping bar includes:

Exploding banana whipped cream, chocolate bubbles, pineapple bubbles, frozen caramel rocks, coconut marshmallows, mint paper and carbonated cherries

Cart Menu 4

This past week was exhausting, I am still wondering how we made it . Here was our schedule:

Saturday-Sparkopolis, Sunday- Nick and Petra's wedding, Monday- Slow foods dinner, Tuesday- Civic center, Wednesday- Tiri's garden, Thursday- Justice league, Friday- Wedding tasting. We took the weekend off to decompress and now we are getting ready for this week. We will be at Civic center on Tuesday and Westword's Dish event on Wednesday night. Here is our cart menu for this week:

Slushie

Chai tea $3

Soup

Chilled red pepper with haystack mountain feta $4

Creme brulee

whole raspberries with raspberry sugar $4

Liquid Nitrogen Popcorn

Black truffle $2

Ice cream sammie

#1 Espresso fudge cookie, whipped marshmallow

caramel ice cream $4

“Kool-aid”

Coconut pineapple with mojito sugar $1

Sorbet

Blueberry pomegranate $4

Ice cream

Melissa’s caramel with sea salt and peanut

butter pop rocks $4

Space Foam

Popcorn $3

Yogurt meringue sticks $2

Cart Menu 3

We will not be doing the street cart next week. We will be shopping and prepping for our Sparkoplis event. We will return to the streets on September 21 at civic center eats and September 22 and 23 at Tiri's garden at 15th and California. Here is the menu for that week

Slushie

Chai tea $3

Soup

Pineapple consommé with frozen pineapple foam $4

Creme brulee

Burned with cappuccino sugar $4

Ice cream sammie

#1 Espresso fudge cookie, whipped marshmallow

caramel ice cream $4

#2 Coconut macaroon, lemon curd, raspberry sorbet $4

“Kool-aid”

Fruit punch with strawberry fizzy pop rocks $1

Sorbet

Raspberry sorbet with Ian’s carbonated lemonade $4

Ice cream

Melissa’s caramel with sea salt crust $4

Space Foam

Chocolate and mint from our garden $3

Popcorn

Hatch chili $3

Yogurt meringue sticks $2

Cart Locations

We have signed up to cook at Civic center eats on Tuesdays along with Tiri's garden at 15th and California on Wednesday's. We would love to see all of our friends come by and support our new concept. Here is our menu this week:

Popcorn

Ginger caramel corn with asian

spiced nuts $3

Sorbet

Mango peach with blackberry pop rocks $4

Ice cream

“Smores” Hot fudge ice cream with burnt

marshmallow and graham cracker $4

“Kool-Aid”

Apple pie $1

Creme brulee

Banana foster $4

Ice cream sammie

Espresso hot fudge cookie with whipped

marshmallow and hot fudge ice cream $4

Space foam

Root Beer $3

Soup

Coconut with frozen pineapple cream $4

Yogurt meringue bites $2

Slow Foods Dinner at six89

Mark Fischer from Six89 is putting together a amazing dinner on September 13 and has asked the Inventing room to cook a course. He had all the chef's send in a few choices and he made the final menu from that. I am very excited to go up and cook with a few chefs I have been following for years. Here is the menu and the chefs

Sarah beckwith helsey- restaurant montagna at the little nell

anti pasta er marinated vegetable "salad" with home made goat feta

Bryan nelson- pacifica

hiramasa tartare, preserved palisade peaches, rooftop thai basil and chilies

Kelly liken- restaurant kelly liken

chilled sweet corn soup, roasted red pepper-tarragon relish

Bryce orblom- six89

braised north fork fork goat, foraged wild mushroom, house made chevre agnolotti

Ian kleinman- the inventing room

long family pork belly, isreali cous cous carbonara, poached egg, grilled spinach

Frank bananno- mizuna, luca d "italia, bones, osteria marco

roasted beet salad, home made burrata, aged sherry vinaigrette

rob zack-8k at the viceroy snowmass

cheesecake, avalanche chevre, blueberry fritter, salted pistachio brittle

Please check out six89 for details

What a Wednesday

We are still trying to catch up from Wednesday of last week. We debuted the Inventing room cart in the morning and had a catered event at the Governors mansion that night. We began the morning loading my car full of tables, water bottles, tents and whatever else I could fit into it. I drove to commissary and loaded all of my prepped purees, bases and creme brulee into my coolers. Chad, the chef from the Porker cart helped me get my product to the site along with towing our cart. We unpacked and waited to see what would walk up, not a lot but I was OK with that. It was our first time and I had to figure out what went where and if I put this over here it might make it easier. We packed up our cart and the Honda around 3:00 and drove the cart back to the garage. Exhausted, I now had to think about the buffet we needed to have set by 6:00. We made it to the mansion at 4:30 and began to set when we realized our bread had not been delivered. There was a mix up with our order and our menu featured a bread station. Jeff ran to Whole Foods, the bread company sent a emergency delivery and we did what we could until we got slammed around 6:30. It all ended up working out and it was a really fun event.

Our menu included:

Bread bar with hummus, olive tamponade and spinach artichoke dip

Grilled marinated vegetable kabobs from the chefs garden

Colorado sweet wine sorbet bar

Merlot space foam

Jennifer and Peter's wedding

We had a amazing time cooking Jennifer and Pete's menu that included beef tongue bruschetta, mint and chicken wrapped in phyllo and pork belly sliders. It was an honor being a part of such a colorful ceremony and meeting such wonderful people. Here was our vodka bar that included nitrogen frozen vodka lemonade, blackberry nitrogen shots and a peanut butter cup martini with a peanut butter pop rock rim

The Inventing room cart debut

We will be making our debut at Tiri's garden on Wednesday August 25th at 15th and California. The cart will feature 7-8 categories that will change daily according to seasonality. I am really looking forward to bringing our vision of street food to fruition. We can talk until we are blue in the face but the bottom line is people need to try what we are doing, you can't explain space foam no matter how hard you try. Here is our opening menu, no item will be over $4. Please come down and grab some treats, there are some amazing street vendors that will be gathering from 11-3

SOUP $4

Chilled black cherry soup with apple

creme fraiche

POPCORN

Tomato and basil Kettle corn $3

SORBET $4

Peanut butter sorbet with chocolate pop rocks

ICE CEAM $4

Vanilla ice cream with 1 topping

Banana foster, Colorado peach,

Hot fudge exploding whipped cream,

Whipped marshmallow, Melissa’s caramel,

Organic strawberries, Vanilla sugar $1 add on

ICE CREAM SANDWICH $3

Double chocolate cookie, marshmallow

vanilla bean ice cream

TRADITIONAL CREME BRULEE

vanilla bean, cappuccino or lemon raspberry sugar $4

SPACE FOAM $3

Root Beer

YOGURT MERINGUE STICKS $3

SLUSHY $3

Summer strawberry with condensed milk

“KOOL-AID” $2

Mango peach

A kid in a candy factory

We took the kids to Hammond's in Denver for one last trip before school starts. They have a tour where you can watch the candy being cooked, pulled, folded and flavored into some amazing confections. The best thing they make is called a vanilla caramel. It is a whipped marshmallow encased chewy caramel. You can buy a bag of rejected marshmallow carmel that is block of goodness, we have been cutting off chunks since we got home. Here are some pictures of where I want to be buried

This is where they take different flavors and colors and pull them into the sugar. They make #50 batches that will be pulled into hard candies such as ribbon candy or candy canes. The brown block is wrapped in a layer of white

The white candy was then cut into sections and placed onto the green sheet

The green sugar was rolled around the white blocks

The sugar block is then placed in this machine that rotates the sugar on the canvas while a propane lid keeps the sugar pliable so they can pull it into any shape they want. The tour is free and they give out candy, do I have to twist your arm anymore?

Have you kissed your dishwasher today?

I miss my dishwasher. The last 4 years I was spoiled at a hotel where there was a team of stewards that did all of the cleaning for us. Now I find myself soaked from head to toe after a good battle with the dishwasher after a catered event. My advice( if your dishwasher is worth keeping) is to grill up a good steak, crack open a nice beer and thank your dishwasher at the end of their shift because you don't want to end up wet and stinky

The cart

I have been trying to finish up some projects this week so I can concentrate on getting our street cart up and running. We will have 8 or 9 choices everyday ranging from creme brulee to gazpacho. No item will be over 4 dollars. We are still looking for a private land owner that will let us park our cart on their property, preferably someone downtown or in the tech center with lots of foot traffic. Please email us if you know of anyone who is interested. Here is our stripped down cart. I will work on some decals this week along with our inspection so we can be up and running. Please visit our cart menu at www.theinventingroomonline.com. Thanks to the waffle brothers for letting me use their cart.

Six89 Beer

When we were up in Carbondale doing the Mountain fair we fortunate to get to know John Little the sous chef at Six89. John brewed these beers (pictured with our dog Aspen) in house. They also do some incredible work with local farmers and do a lot of growing themselves including all their herbs and eggs. I can't wait to try them this weekend

Sparkopolis

We have a amazing event coming up on September 11. Sparkopolis is a fund raiser for front range libraries. The new Wright Farms location at 120th and Holly will be transformed into a interactive light and food show. We will have creation stations where you will be able to build your own dishes. Garnish your Colorado tamale with creative toppings, make whiskey caviar for a shot our build a banana split with pineapple bubbles, exploding whipped cream and carbonated cherries. We are even growing the produce for the event in our garden as we speak. Tickets are $75 a piece and we hope you come out and support this amazing concept

The Inventing room street cart?

Carbondale Mountain Fair

We are making ice cream bases like crazy right now for the 38th annual mountain fair. It runs from Friday July 22 through Sunday July 25. Here is our menu, we will be located in the kids section of the park. We can't wait to get out of the city and mix some ice cream in the mountains. Come up, get out of the 100+ degree weather and make sure you stop in and get some of the cold stuff.

Our Slushy made American Libraries Magazine

This little girl is so cute Library opening

Planning for 2000 liquid nitrogen slushies

I have always loved math but sometimes the numbers are overwhelming. It starts with a simple recipe: 3 oz of fruit syrup strawberry or mango, 3 oz of apple juice and 4 ounces of water. Add 6 ounces of liquid nitrogen and top with .2 oz sweetened condensed milk. Serve in a corn based recycled cup with a jumbo straw. Now multiply by 2000. That would be roughly 25 gallons each of fruit puree, 50 gallons of apple juice and about 65 gallons of water. Each 220 liter tank of nitrogen has 58 gallons but the nitrogen is always evaporating. If my tanks are delivered today, how much will be left for the event?94 gallons times the evaporation rate in the dewar times the number of hours, to be on the safe side I will order 3 tanks. Straws and cups are easy, just need to think about the environmental impact. 4 gallons of sweetened condensed milk. Now how many people do I need??

Anythink library opening

Please join us on July 10 for the Grand Opening of Anythink Wright Farms. We will cooking burgers and dogs with gourmet toppings on egg buns from Mike Bortz at City Bakery. Whats a BBQ without liquid nitrogen mango and strawberry slushies with sweetened condensed milk? We will be donating .50 cents of each sale back to the library's educational programs. The opening begins at 1:00 and there are different programs for the family throughout the day.

Caramel corn ice cream with granny smith apples

Smores Shot

Marshmallow vodka, chocolate caviar, graham cracker foam

Asian Stroganoff Pipette

May ploy and crispy onion meatball, egg noodle, crimini mushroom,

red wine, beef and hoison reduction

Tres Leches spoons with cinnamon pop rocks

Marshmallow Vodka

We added grilled de-hydrated marshmallows to vanilla infused vodka. The alcohol broke down the marshmallow into clouds of smoke that swirled into the liquor. We will let it sit over night until the solids settle and gently remove the infused vodka

Ice cream drinks

We have a birthday coming up this weekend where a client has asked us to take some classic ice cream flavors and make drinks out of them. The menu includes:

Banana Split- banana liquor, compressed pineapple, chocolate exploding whip cream, glass rimmed with strawberry pop rocks

Smores- Marshmallow infused vodka, dark chocolate caviar and graham cracker bubbles

Peach melba- Carbonated peach schnapps with raspberry sorbet frozen with liquid nitrogen

Shopping for a bullet proof vest this Father's day

Here is the story, I was asked to develop some recipes for a local hamburger restaurant. I was not asked to design a menu rather help with recipes from a list of items the owners wanted on the menu. One reason they came to me is because they new I had been using nitrogen in my cooking for over 3 years. If you want to be technical about it I have stole a lot of techniques from people. The first time I saw Ben from Moto make a hallow sphere I ran to my nitrogen like a little boy and rolled balloons till my hands froze. When I saw Sean Brock make coffee bubbles I tried for weeks to replicate the same structure. I should sign over the deed to my house to Ideas in Food for all ideas I have stole from them. Not to mention the first time ice cream was made with liquid nitrogen was in 1903. Did I steal Richard's nitrogen milkshake, yes, he inspired me to try to make a shake with nitrogen. As the consulting chef I presented a list of ideas I had for shake flavors but in the end it was not my decision what the final menu looked like, it was the owners and the opening chef. Richard's Nutella Marshmallow was never on my list and he does deserve all the credit for it. I have put a lot of ideas out on this blog, I don't think I would ever "load up my gun and do a drive by" if I saw someone making a liquid nitrogen ice cream flavor I made up some where. ( you can read the X-rated version here) Westword Blog.

Taste of Elegance Beer Competition, the results

Thanks to everyone who came and supported us at the event. It was great to see some old friends including David Harker, the executive chef at the Omni in Broomfield. I worked with Dave when I first came out of high school at the Westin tabor center. We also opened Babaloo burritos in the Fox theatre in Boulder a long time ago. Mike Long from Opus took Best Chef, Jean Luc from the Westin Tabor and the Inventing room tied for most creative and chef Harker won peoples choice.

Our ice cream turned out amazing. It was Honey vanilla roasted peanut ice cream with molasses popped liquid nitrogen popcorn and pretzel bubbles.

The Culinary code??

Dear Westin Westminster,

I know I am not suppose to be writing this letter to you. You told me not to contact any employees or even do a blog post about you after I had left. Do you think this is really how a grown up should act? The real reason I am writing you is to talk about how you continue to steal my ideas even though I do not work for you. It seems the entertainment company we work for booked an event at the hotel. They asked The Inventing room to write a menu and cook for the event. To my surprise instead of booking our company the Westin stole our menu word for word and is using it for the event. It is nice to see that you and your staff have not changed. Here is the menu, just wanted to make it available here in case you lose your copy:

Drinks

Mai Tai

Rum and triple sec mixed with toasted almond syrup and fresh squeezed lime juice

Served over cherry ice cubes, glass rimed with lime pop rocks

Blue Hawaii

Rum, pineapple juice and blue curacao hand carbonated. Served over coconut snow with pineapple and cherry caviar

Chi Chi

Vodka and pineapple juice “slushie” with coconut bubbles. Served with a brown sugar grilled pineapple cherry kabob

Dessert

Toasted coconut ice cream with macadamia nut crunch, grilled pineapple and toasted Hawaiian vanilla marshmallow

Luau ice cream ( taro, brown sugar, coconut milk) served with honey grilled wontons

and candy ginger

Mango guava sorbet with diced kiwi and mint and frozen honey crystals

Chef Ian Kleinman

P.S Please let the chef know that he can call me with any questions about how to make the menu, I am sure he will have a few