Tasting Menu 98

Luck has it that I was selected to sit on a jury last week. It gave me an appreciation for our justice system. The gentleman was found guilty of 3rd and 1st degree assault on a person of risk. Sometimes I wonder if I could have had the patients to be a lawyer or a judge. Instead I chose a profession where I am constantly judged.

Lobster popcorn fritter
Tempura seaweed, yuzu jel, bok choy

Buttermilk fried tarragon chicken
Corn flan, sous-vide ranch potatoes, coconut gravy

Berbere grille New York
Smoked plum puree, compressed portabella, cheddar bacon risotto

Blackberry ice cream with hazelnut cream
Made tableside with liquid nitrogen

Tasting menu 74

I am enjoying a slower start to this week. We are getting ready for 52.80 week to start on Saturday. I have to remind myself not to put myself in situations like I had last week. When I have to much going on there is something that suffers. Last week it was my lack of time with my wife and kids. Undoubtedly the hardest part of this job is not being chef rather then being able to let it go when I leave so I can spend quality time at home. I would like to be recognized as a hard working thought full chef but in the end it is about if your family recognises you.

Curry pancakes
Tea smoked salmon, lemon grass syrup, yogurt

Crispy silver fish
Wonton noodles, toasted nori cream, roasted peppers

Floating buffalo chicken and celery

Pork belly Oscar
Puffed pearl barley caramel corn, carrots, onion

Oven baked palm sugar crepes
Cherry and vanilla ice cream made table side
Using liquid nitrogen

Tasting menu 70

We are getting back to normal business levels this week. We are continuing to work on our new menu. I will be out of the restaurant on Friday, I have been asked to cook at the Governors mansion that night for Project pave. I have never been inside but I am very familiar with the building. I used to live across the street. I have always wondered what the inside looks like.

Goat cheese fondue
Compressed vegetables, black pepper puff, bing cherry air

Lagastino risotto
Smoked peas, shitake paper, lemongrass brulee

Sou-vide tenderloin
Coffee, malt, mustard greens

Yuzu sphere with blueberry dippin dots
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 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 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

Tasting Menu 57

I am finally ordering my commercial vacuum sealer. It only took 15 months of constant harassment to our controller. It is a 4000$ piece of equipment so I understand why it took so long. I had to show him that it was not a toy for me to play with but a necessary piece of equipment to extend shelf like of products. I made the case and my sealer should be here (to play with) in a couple of weeks. We went to the Shamrock food show today. I go to check out any cool new products. The only thing I saw was a berry that taste just like a kiwi. It was amazing, I will get some in for the tasting next week. It blows my mind that it is the same crap every year. They just add another flavor and put the same product in a different box.

Kampachi sashimi
Tobiko noodles, rice wine foam, soy dippin dots

Compressed ratatouille vegetables
Spicy octopus, fried olives, yogurt aioli

Blood orange space foam

Sou-vide truffle honey and organic chicken
Artichoke macaroni, brussel sprouts, tarragon air

Coffee crepe filled with amaretto mousse
Served with brown sugar ice cream
Made tableside with liquid nitrogen

Tasting menu 54

The 40 second chocolate cake recipe comes from El Bulli. It is a cake batter you add to a isi container with a charge and foam it into a plastic cup that is microwaved for 40 seconds. My wife and I had a great meal at Black Pearl last night from James. It looks like he will be gone soon though. Hopefully we can hook up and cook some day, He is very talented.

Ripe plantains
Guava, aged provolone, scallop ceviche

Pork and champagne pate
Caper sphere, Gewürztraminer foam, alder smoked honey

Sou-vide Snapper
Nitrogen broken vegetables, tobiko powder, yam noodles

40 second cake
Chocolate textures, Lime ice cream made table side
With liquid nitrogen

Tatsing menu 53

We have a few chefs coming up this week to hang out and check out some techniques. It looks like I will be teaching a demo at The Cooking School of the Rockies on November 2. I will post more information when I get a final date.

Tasting menu

Confit organic chicken
Colorado corn waffle, shattered jalapeño whipped cream, maple air

Watermelon consommé
Sou-vide shrimp, black garlic dumpling, scallion pearls

Chicken skin wrapped tenderloin
Béarnaise blanket, beets, flexible asparagus

Chocolate éclair
Crispy choux paste, pastry cream dippin dots
Ganache ice cream made tableside with liquid nitrogen

Tatsing menu 50

I was wondering on my days off if other chefs have the same problem going out to eat as I do. I can never sit down and enjoy the meal. I think about operational shit like what was the food cost of that dish or wonder what the line looks like and how many cooks do they have? It is very annoying never being able to turn my brain off. This week we will be doing a lot of experimenting with our new carbonating machine. We have also been looking at doing a dish using superconductivity. I never thought I would here myself say that

Snacks
Yuzu soda with rasberry sorbet

Crispy chocolate wrapped curried peanuts

Pomegranate marshmallow

Oil poached snapper
Smoked corn pipette, crispy potato, potato foam

Scallion crème brulee
Unagi, Asian pear, king mushroom

Bing cherry flambé
Mexican vanilla ice cream made
Table side with liquid nitrogen

Tasting menu 49

It is really crazy for me right now, even posting menus has become a struggle. We are getting ready for the Democratic National Convention. The day before the confrence starts we have the Green Bay Packers. Our roll is still up in the air as far as who and when we are going to be feeding people. We know it will be crazy for breakfast and late night at the very least.

White soba noodles
Jelly fish, roasted peppers, toasted nori cream


Heirloom tomatoes 10 ways
Marshmallow, granita, sushi, glass, confit,
Inverted Bruschetta, fata paper, clarified, sou-vide, candied


Roasted lemon
Peppered chicken, brown butter powder, crispy garden squash


Black pearl tapioca
Coffee jelly, condensed milk ice cream
Made table side with liquid nitrogen

Tasting menu 46

It was good to have a break from work but it is time to get going again. I have a lot of questions about where I will be in the future. All I know is that I need a change. I got my miracle fruit powder in. It will be transformed into gum this week.

Tasting menu

Candied fennel
Grapefruit gelee, blue crab, watercress caviar

Sou-vide pork
Smoked shallot powder, cream corn, asadero relleno

Stone fruit
Buttered lobster,83c yam, macadamia nut air

Brandied strawberiies
Panna cotta ice cream made tableside with liquid nitrogen

Miracle fruit bubble gum with sours

Tasting menu 45

I received my miracle fruit tree in the mail a few days ago. It is only about 7 inches tall but it has some new growth. The total price was around 60$ so I am hoping that it grows. We also ordered some miracle fruit tablets fromhttp://www.miraclefruitworld.com/index.html. I tried them with my wife and sister the other night. Lemons were my favorite with a syrupy sweet quality. Next time I will try them at work where I have 100's of things to try. I have ordered some more and will feature it on a tasting in a few weeks

Tasting menu

Dragon fruit
Yucca, shrimp ceviche, avocado caviar

Fried egg consommé
Pork belly cubes, macaroni, potato


Colorado lamb loin
Spearmint from the garden, grilled cherry peppers, parsnip


Pineapple upside down cake
Kahlua ice cram made table side
With liquid nitrogen

http://denver.metromix.com/restaurants/photogallery/chemistry-in-the-kitchen/553467/content?photo=9

Tasting menu 42

Very slow right now. After having 2 months of good business, this week sucks. I have been working on a couple side projects but when the days drag on, it is hard to stay motivated. I stole some gold leaf from the pastry box that I will use on the final course this week. I remember a lunch I cooked for Bush about 6 years ago that we garnished all of the plates with gold leaf. It is a real pain in the ass to work with but if you do it right it makes an amazing presentation.

Tasting menu


Artichoke textures
Crepe, mousse, fried, kewpie baked


Sushi rice salad
Wasabi tobiko jelly, wok seared salmon, white soy air


Achiote sou-vide pork
Chayote squash, white cherry tomatoes, tomatillo glass


Banana split dippin dots
Shattered whip cream made tableside with liquid nitrogen


Organic white chocolate and spearmint gold leaf bar

Tasting menu 41

I had a gentleman named John and his chef friend named Janos joined me in the kitchen last night. They are both from Tucson and were in town and asked if they could come and play with me. John is geochemist at the university of Arizona. He has a lot of knowledge of liquid nitrogen ( he uses it for science stuff) It was a lot of fun asking him scientific questions about centrifuges and he told me stories of putting liquid nitrogen in his mouth. We talked about building specific scientific machines that we could use in molecular cooking. I think we started a great relationship and I am very interested being able to know a professor I can bounce some questions off of. We are going to do the Lego dish this week. I am excited for this new presentation.

Tasting menu

Roasted summer vegetables
Vinaigrette sheet, ricotta gnocchi, squash blossoms from my garden

Lego’s
Red=shrimp, Blue=pineapple, Green=corn, Yellow=goat cheese, Orange=cilantro
chive creme fraiche, lego garnishes

Hibiscus space foam


Sou-vide prime rib cubes
Warm walnut mayo, fried aujus, morel puree


Warm zucchini bread
Golden raisin ice cream made tableside
Using liquid nitrogen

Tatsing menu 40

I have not done a post in a few days. I am trying to get my packet ready to send into Bocuse. I feel that I have some strong dishes. The only problem is that I heard of it last week so putting together a art full presentation might be a stretch. I will put in a entry no matter what. This opportunity does not come along everyday. It has been very crazy in the hotel. We have been very busy with the recent press. I have decided to keep my shit together rather then blog. We had 8 GM's from different properties for a VIP dinner. I also had Mike Long, a really good chef come up and have a tasting menu. I have known mike for a while, he is a strange guy, that's why we get along. It is nice to have other chefs come in and critique your work. He is honest. He makes me a better chef with his criticism. He did not have a lot to say this time. I guess that is a good thing.

Tasting menu

Berbere encrusted pork bellyc
Fermented black garlic, sour cream folded basmati, poached egg

Sou-vide dill salmon
Carbonated lyches, bing cherry noodles, sweet corn butter


Grapefruit and spearmint space foam

May ploy incrusted buffalo meatloaf
Blue cheese air, bok choy from Ian’s garden, shitake gnocchi


Chambord marshmallow
Toasted on graham cracker and dark chocolate ice cream
Made tableside with liquid nitrogen

Tasting menu 38

I have been scaling back some of the techniques to see if the menus will sell better. I am relizing that the people that come in for it are looking for the freeky shit. I am going to experiment a little more with some flavor combinations and textures. I am using some rose pedals that I picked and some bok choy from our garden this week.

Tasting menu

Grilled anchovies
Romaine sheet, shallots, Dijon air

Wild mushroom jelly
Fried cherries, cherry balsamic, crisp apple skins

Whiskey caviar and cream

Coconut sou-vide Alaskan crab
Candied kumquat, Bok Choy from Ian’s garden,


Grilled apricots
Goat cheese rose pedal ice cream
Made tableside with liquid nitrogen

Tasting menu 37

I am very busy this week with the planning of the media client party. It should be a great event. We did a photo shoot for the Rocky Mountain News a couple days ago. They are doing an article for fathers day and got a few shots of me and my dad. My father is a culinary instructor and is the reason I got into this business. Our garden is starting to produce some amazing arugula and bok choy that I will feature on the menu this week

Tasting menu


Smoked peppered Spanish mackerel
63 C quail egg, agave cream, acorn squash


Crisp camembert
Grilled tomatoes, freeze dried corn, balsamic foam

Lime vodka nitro foam


Sou-vide New York
Crimini marshmallow, butter powder, Asian salad Bruschetta


Tres leches
Cinnamon pecan ice cream made tableside with liquid nitrogen

Tasting menu 34

Shit is hittinig the fan in the hotel right now. Our banquet chef is leaving to go to our competion a couple miles up the street. They are not going to replace his position so it is up to the three other chefs to pick up the slack. Needless to say I am a little worried about our banquet staff leaving with him. If they do, it will be a month of 7 days a week until we get staffing levels up. I won't be here for service this weekened. I am driving to Kansas to attend my moms master degree ceremony. Better get it in while I can

Tasting menu


Vindaloo curry
Tiger shrimp, Mexican papaya, Sweet lime emulsion


Chicken fried Cornish game hen
Grilled mashed potatoes, apple gravy, smoked pecans


Sou-vide grilled Rib Eye
Goji berries, blackened spinach, cherry balsamic



Double cream noodles, butterscotch broth, espresso ice cream
Made tableside with liquid nitrogen

Sou-vide blueberries

We cooked these blueberries at 128 degrees for 95 minutes in turbano sugar and cinnamon. They came out plump like they had only been seared for a short time. The texture was amazing, like blighting into a juicy grape.