Rasberry pistachio nougat

Tasting menu 96

I am getting pretty nervous about my presentation at the museum of art for mixed taste next week. I have to build a keynote presentation which I have never done before. It will be hard to sum up molecular gastronomy in 20 minutes. I will rely on the two speeches I heard from Herve This and Harold McGee to explain the base premise of the movement. I will throw in some of my crazy experiences and highlight some dishes from other chefs. We will end up the evening like always, next to the nitrogen take whipping out batches of creamy sorbet. This tasting menu will run from Wednesday 8/2 through Saturday 8/12

White anchovies
Heirloom cherry tomatoes, basil paper, mozzarella sheets

Chorizo
Dirty rice puree, old bay shrimp, cashew clams

Buffalo short ribs
Pumpkin powder, pineapple gnocchi, hearts of palm

White chocolate mousse ice cream
Chocolate dipped raspberry nougat
Made tableside with liquid nitrogen

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 85

The tasting menu has been selling like hot cakes lately. 80% of the reservations last Thursday, Friday and Saturday were here for the menu.

Sweet green pea flan
Carrot cardamom caviar, pea shoots, smoked trout

Chipotle angel food cake
King crab, tequila mosaic, cilantro

San Francisco sourdough space foam

Snapper Veracruz
Flexible avocado, apricot rice taquitto, tomato
]
Hot chocolate ice cream
Shattered whip cream made table side with LN

Tasting menu 84

My wife and I did a demo at Mckinley-Thatcher elementary school yesterday. There is no doubt that I would rather cook for kids then adults. I have so much fun showing them how everyday products they buy at the store can be made at home using a little imagination. We are getting ready for Mother's day brunch next weekend. We should do around 800 for brunch and another 150 that night for early dinner. We have hired a new Executive chef for our hotel, I cannot wait for him to start. I need to learn a lot more before I become a hotel chef and he is the guy that will bring me to the next level.

Compressed Mexican papaya
Jerk shrimp, avocado pudding, parsnip

Spring ramps
Foie, tempura berries, coco nibs

Acidic yogurt space foam

Smoke bubbles
New York, jalapeno jelly, tamale pie

Pecan waffle with maple ice cream
Made table side with LN

Tasting menu 82

I have a mixology gig coming up that I am getting ready for. I am not a bartender by any stretch but I am going to lean on my experiences with flavor to execute the menu. We are doing coconut sorbet with spiced rum and pineapple bubbles, whiskey caviar and cream, carbonated blueberry vodka with compressed apples. The event is at the Curtis downtown and it should be a good time. We have some media friends coming up in the next couple weeks to play in the kitchen with us.

Oregano grilled clams
Potato confit, pancetta foam, nitro mirapoix

Carbonated cantaloupe consommé
Scallop ceviche, roasted apples

Black truffle popcorn

Sous-vide pork and goji berries
45 second parsnip cake, date power, garlic honey

Caramel banana bread pudding
Barley malt ice cream made with LN

Tatsing Menu 81

If you have children or will in the near future you will get my take on fruit salad. A friend brought a Wiggles tape in for me and my wife after we had our first girl Taylor. She would play this video over and over. Anyway one of the songs is called Fruit Salad Yummy Yummy. Unfortunately the song has been burned into my psyche and now I cannot say the word without singing the song. We have this little Mexican taco fast food place by our house that serves a horchata drink on ice. I am having a few of the cooks help me with making the recipe but apparently you soak rice for a day, not cooking it at all. You take the remaining liquid and add sugar and vanilla. Some variations also have nuts in it. We will make the ice cream and then roll it in croquant, a puffed sweet rice.

Fruit salad “yummy yummy”
Lavender legos, yogurt crisps, mint

Southern grit French fries
Buttermilk aioli, greens, fried chicken

Pina Colada space foam

Smoked corn powder encrusted halibut
Lobster gnocchi, papaya pipette, coconut blanket

Horchata ice cream
Croquant, agave
Made tableside with LN

Tasting Menu 79

Next week will start to pick up for us again. I have a wine dinner on Thursday night that is sold out. We are hosting the event along with Buil & Gine winery in Spain. Xavier Buil is personally making the trip over from Spain for the dinner. It should be a great night. I am also getting ready for April 1st. The iapc conference is here in Denver this year. They have asked me to help gather equipment and organize the event. There are some great professionals speaking at the conference including Alex and Aki from Ideas in Food, chef Andonu Luis Aduriz from http://www.mugaritz.com/ in Spain and one of my favorite chefs Michel Nischan. After helping with the conference I will be teaching a molecular class at Cookstreet that night.

Plantain
Avocado, blue crab, strawberry caviar

Risotto
Bone marrow, blueberry sphere, lobster mushroom

Vietnamese spring roll
Cilantro wrapper, shrimp and pork, salty peanut ice cream

Honeydew consommé
Mascarpone noodles, plum ice

Tasting menu 78

It has become increasing difficult to keep up with my blog lately. Being a GM requires a lot of time and patients. You have to be like Switzerland, remaining neutral when talking and dealing with employees. When I was independent I was able to dismiss people when they were not doing their job. Being in a corporation is much different. We must document the behavior of the employee no less then three times before we are able to act. I believe that it protects the employee and gives them another chance to perform. This is a good thing but lets face it, some employees just don't get it no matter how many chances you give.

Lemon grass salmon
Blue crab rice, wasabi pop rocks, watercress

Foie Gras Consommé
Grilled lobster, chive rocks

Floating caprese salad

Smoked brown sugar cured pork
BBQ pudding, garlic blossoms, pineapple augratin

Chocolate covered almond marshmallows
Raspberry ice cream made tableside with liquid nitrogen

Tasting menu 76

I enjoyed a extra day off this past week to recover from restaurant week. Whenever I take a extra day off something inevitably goes wrong. This week it was a horrible headache that I could not control. I had a small bump develop around my ear this past month. I thought I had brain cancer or something along those lines. Come to find out that I am starting to get severe migraines. I got some medication that I can take when I feel a attack coming on. No doubt that it was caused by stress. DAMN YOU RESTAURANT WEEK

Grilled scallops
Yuzu curd, Fennel pollen, Treviso jelly

Watermelon powder
Oregano nuggets, Tomato, Fried feta

Guacamole space foam

Sous-vide black lime and all natural pork
Chimichurri, Sour cream rice, Compressed tomatillo salsa

Chocolate filled doughnut holes with espresso ice cream
Made table side with liquid nitrogen

Tasting Menu 75

This is probably suicide but we are going to do a tasting menu this week. I will bring in a few extra chefs this weekend to help with service. We only have 1 restaurant in this hotel so we must have a little something for everyone. If I need someone to help that night I can pull from banquets. That is the best part about working in a hotel, we can flex people from other departments when you need it. There is always someone that can help. The short rib dish is inspired by Grant's short rib at Alinea.

Smoked oyster sheet
Warm shitake foam, compressed soba, crispy red bean paste

Coconut poached vegetables
Tomato cloud, yuzu, frozen puffed wheat

Buffalo short rib manicotti
Beet, housemaid ricotta, green bean “casserole”

Peanut butter sorbet
White chocolate-strawberry jelly mousse

Tasting menu 71

The restaurant is going to be going through some major changes this month. We have lost our GM of 6 years to some unfortunate circumstances. I had a good relationship with him but we did not agree on a lot of service issues. One being that he refused to have a expediter. The food would sit for 5 maybe 6 minutes before it was run. A lot of our molecular presentations must be run right away or we lose the textures we worked so hard to create. I had to take some items of our last menu because of the timing issues. With a new GM comes new ideas and a wiliness to work with each other to improve our guest experiences. I know I have been pulling this place in so many directions, hopefully we can settle it down and have fun and create

Poussin
Caul fat, goji berries, red pepper

Buffalo short ribs
Shitake wonton, mint, pickled watermelon

Tomato Brushetta Space Foam

Maine lobster tail
Chipolte, corn gnocchi, Cilantro tapioca

Banana foster ice cream sandwich
Made tableside with liquid nitrogen

Tasting menu 68

I am working on changing all of the menus in the restaurant this week. We are going to make some changes to help with our business levels in 09. One thing we will do is not to offer a breakfast buffet Monday through Saturday. We will be able to control food cost better and with one less cook. We are going to have to take a look at all of our operations to make sure we are running a tight ship next year. New Years eve should be very interesting this year. Rumor has it that Wide Spread Panic will play in our ball room after their concert in Denver. Merry Christmas to everyone and have a creative 09.

Smoked tempura cranberries
Rainbow trout, dried Japanese cucumbers, apple gastrique

Parsnip fries
Bresola, caper aioli, red pepper textures

Frankincense space foam

Sou-vide Colorado lamb chops
Chanterelle, blue cheese marbles, chestnut powder

Peppermint ice cream rolled in gingerbread crumbs
Made table side with liquid nitrogen

Tasting Menu 66

I am posting the menu for next week a little early. We are doing a special menu next week with some Mont Blanc products. They are having there Christmas party here next week. It is insane here at the hotel right now. For example I have 5 parties in my restaurant tonight along with over 1000 in banquets. During the holidays you really see which employees and which managers step up their game. Needless to say December is not going to yield a lot of time to play. Tis the season

Mole Shrimp
Dried pasole, cotija relleno, cactus glass

Chocolate Polenta
Pulled spicy pork, mozzarella sheets, tomato textures

Ghana Space Foam

Caramel Chicken
Carrot pudding, pea sphere, brioche

Chai tea noodles
Coffee consommé, condensed milk
Made table side with liquid nitrogen

Tasting menu 65

We are getting into the start of our Holiday party season. We have a lot of parties on the weekend so if you are coming for the tasting menu please make a reservation so we can be sure to save you a table. After some plumbing work at my house I am going to play around with silver sauter. I want to make a plate for someone table side. I would bring out the torch and melt a silver plate for you in the dinning room. That's my problem, even when I am working on something that is not food related, my brain is still thinking of how I flip it into a dish.

Blackened Colorado trout
BBQ onions, smoked grapes, whipped yogurt

Bacon consommé
Sweet corn, tempura clams, potato foam

Forrest mushroom sheet
Prime rib, hollandaise, broken baby vegetables in soy

Peanut butter frangipane tart with strawberry ice cream
Made tableside with liquid nitrogen

Tasting Menu 64

We had a really messed up Saturday night last week. Not only did we sell over 30 tasting menus, we had a group in house called LA Dance. This is a group of 8-12 year old boys and girls that have a dance competition here at the hotel. Imagine slamming out tasting menus with 150 orders of chicken fingers along with our regular menu. Nights like Saturday make me realise that I try to do to much sometimes. We are almost sold out for Thanksgiving brunch here at the Westin. I have volunteered to help cook thanksgiving dinner for St. Matthews Baptist church this year. I will be here all night at the hotel cooking turkeys along with all the fixens. We will not serve the tasting menu on Thanksgiving. We will have it Friday and Saturday night.

Fried baby artichokes
Caper dirt, warm walnut mayo, garlic sugar

Smoked herring brandade
Onion taffy, dried corn, red pepper crisps

Beet Space Foam

Molasses painted quail
Smoked chicken hash, fennel, apple textures

“Red” noodles with miso ice cream
Made tableside with liquid nitrogen

Tasting menu 63

I have been talking to scientist all over the world about superconductivity this week. Will it work for my application? I ordered my materials in and I am going to give it a shot. I am still waiting on my vacuum sealer from Le Santuaire. I have had some problems the last month getting the right products from them. The other exciting event this week will be some serious playing around. As I was reading some research about liquid nitrogen I came across this very interesting fact. If you freeze a container of shaving cream in LN you can peel the metal away leaving a frozen foam cylinder. You then put the cylinder in someones car. As the temperature raises the foam will expand. Apparently you only need two canisters to fill a car. We will see!!

144 degree egg yolk
Fall vegetables, cranberry, smoked shrimp

Roasted apple consommé
Beet and carrot meringue, red wine rocks

Hibiscious sorbet with tarragon
Made tableside with liquid nitrogen

Slow butter poached monkfish
Grapefruit, hot soy-cold soy, coconut milk

Coffee sphere filled with tiramisu foam
And frozen lady finger powder

Tasting menu 61

I just bought a dehydrator this week so I will be playing around with some new textures. We have a charity event on Saturday this week with a Cowboy theme. I know I live in Colorado but can we please stop the Cowboy shit. I am going to do a campfire smores ice cream with liquid nitrogen. We also have a school demo at Palmer elementary on Monday.

Flexible parsnip
Popped wheat, maple jell, grilled carrot marshmallow

Tiger shrimp powder
Cocktail caviar, dashi granita, horseradish bubbles

Crispy soy wrapped Kobe beef
Smoked milk pudding, granny smith apple, shitake leather

Homemade eggnog ice cream
Rolled in frozen sugar cookie powder
Made table side with liquid nitrogen

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

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