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

The Miracle fruit cookbook

I have been working with the miraclefruitman for the past couple years developing recipes and even helping him present at the New York Academy of Science with Harold Mcgee. We recently started working on a cookbook of recipes to use with the fruit. It has been very interesting learning how you can manipulate a recipe to taste exactly like the original while on the influence of this fruit. The challenge is to make recipes with no sugar, sugar substitutes, low in fat, healthy, no salt and have a 14 day shelf life. The miracle fruit currently is used primarily for entertainment. The goal is to open it up to different markets that can benefit from the fruit. Examples include giving kids meals that have no sugar but taste sweet, diabetics that can experience a sweet sensation with out any sugar or giving chemo patients a appetite that is lost during the radiation process. Here are a few recipes we are working on: pineapple kumquat salsa, bloody marry, citrus frog loly, rice cake cookies and lemon lime push pops

Genes and Cuisines that Reign Supreme Lecture

I will be participating in a lecture at the Museum of Nature and Science on Wednesday. I will be presenting with Dr. Tom Finger from the Rocky Mountain Taste and Smell Center and Nicole Garneau the curator of Human Health at the Museum. Nicole is going to talk about the genetics about taste. Tom's lab has genetically altered mice to have their receptors removed for bitter, sweet and unami. I always enjoy talking with different researchers about taste. It has helped me discover how different textures and presentations effect taste.

Taste of Elegance Beer Competition

I have done the wine side of this competition in the past and I am very excited to participate in the beer competition this year. The chefs are given 2 beers that are that they pair two dishes with.

My first dish this year will be based on 3 P's of beer- peanuts, pretzels and popcorn and my other dish involves a flipped street taco. Hope to see you there. It is at the Omni in Broomfield on Wednesday June 9 at 6:00 pm. You can get tickets at www.denverbeercomp.com and they have a 2-1 coupon if you use the code: rack

Project Pave at the Governors Mansion 2.0

We were lucky enough to be invited back this year to cook at the Mansion. We were joined this year by Lance from Strings restaurant. I have to say it was nice sitting back this year and watch Greg and Lance do their magic. I took the sorbet and dessert corse and helped plate the rest. Here is the menu and some photos of the evening

Passed apps

Smoked sea scallop ceviche with lemongrass syrup and upland cress

Duck rilette with cardamon tulle, baby bok choy and duck praline

Country pork pate with pickled chippolini/ olive tapanade and curry apple remoulade

Salad

Swordfish Tataki with watercress, pickled shallot, cucumber and watermelon radish

Seafood

Roasted sea bass with artichoke tortelinni, tomato coulis and parsley puree

Soup

Heirloom tomato soup with babylus vinegar, natural tomato

salad and textures of olive oil

Sorbet

White peach and apple sorbet with Stanahan whiskey paper

Meat

Local micro ranch Berkshire pork 3 ways with carrot hazelnut puree,

braised greens and ancho glaze

Dessert

45 second chocolate cake with white chocolate exploding whipped cream, molasses powder, dark coco bubbles, hot fudge ice cream, mint jel and berry salad

This has not been easy

It has been a challenging road for me in the last 6 months. I have tried to understand my place not only in my professional life but more importantly in my home life. I have worked 80 hour weeks since I can remember. All of a sudden I was home every hour of every day and it was quite a change for me and my family. Chefs put a lot of stock( pun intended) in their work. We put it out there every day and night hoping to connect with someone through our food. It took me a few months of therapy and some hard love from my family to make me realize what is really important to me. Thank you to everyone who has supported us in our new company, we have some exciting events coming up.

I have been really bad at posting some great experiences I have had in the past few months. I will do my best to catch up.