Floating Plate Set

I received my package from Robert today. He sent me this floating plate set. I now have 8 small plates that can hold a small sphere and one large plate that can hold up to 25 pounds while still turning. The larger conductor and ring gives even more lift then the smaller plates. I have only played for a few hours but have already measured a 2 inch gap from conductor to magnet. We have many dishes in mind for this new presentation. Starting next week we will feature our floating plate on the tasting menus.

Potato terrine

I have been using pectin a lot as a fruit and vegetable glue. (thank you alex) I have also been doing a lot of sous-vide vegetables since I got my vacum sealer. The best temp is around 83 C or about 181 degrees Fahrenheit. (thank you chad) For this component we have combined both techniques to make this colorful terrine for our menu this week. Is this a terrine? No , not in the classical sense of being baked in a mold but the finished product resembles a baked and sliced product. To make it we mixed 15 grams pectin with 80 grams melted butter and .5 grams calcium bicarbonate. We then tossed the potatoes in the pectin mixture. I then layered them in a bag with salt and rosemary. They went into the vacuum sealer at #9 pressure setting and #8 seal setting. We cooked them for 50 minutes and then shocked them in ice water. The key was compressing the potato slices together after they finished cooking. This insured a tight seal between the layers.

Valentines day 09

Valentines Day 09

Warm Avocado and Spicy Shrimp with

Ginger Caviar Papaya Salad
$12

Sweet Corn and Jalapeño Consommé with

buttermilk Fried Oysters
$10

Sous-vide Maine Lobster with

White Asparagus Tapioca and Vanilla air
$30

40 Second Rose Pedal Cake with White

Chocolate Ice Cream and Frozen Caramel
$8
Tasting of all 4 courses
$50

Tasting menu 73

As you can probably tell by the lack of post and pictures I have been crazy busy. I usually have a few hours a week that I can devote to experimenting but the last 5 weeks have lent me no time. I have agreed to take on the position of GM/Chef here at the hotel. It is a very unique opportunity for me to be apart of decisions that happen in the front of the house. This will mean that I will need to be even more organized in my efforts to better my restaurant. It will take a few months of growing but I am excited at the opportunity to gain more skills. I can finally concentrate on the ideas that I have had instead of running into road block after road block. We will hire a front of the house manager in the next few weeks with our new lunch and dinner menus after that. I wanted to improve on service and here is my chance.

Lump crab Benedict
Foie hollandaise, avocado, 148 degree egg

Sous-vide potato terrine
Pancetta, fig pudding, black pepper paper

Tempura vegetables
Edamame, frog legs, dashi noodles

Caramel apple cracker crust pizza
with cinnamon streusel and clove ice cream
made tableside with liquid nitrogen

Bison Confrence

I had a great time doing a demo for the bison conference this past week. I did it with Robert Long, a rancher from Halltown Missouri and the Flintrock bison ranch. He talked about how they smoke 1/2 carcasses of buffalo under their ham so the buffalo can absorb the fat and flavors of the ham. He has a huge facility that raises, slaughters, and processes meat. My part of the demo was explaining how different cooking methods can yield some amazing textures. The best conversation we had was about how sous-vide could help him in his operation. His biggest concern is listeria. Listeria is a food air borne illness. If you do sous-vide correctly you can portion, cook, cool and ship all in the same package, the product will never be exposed. It would also save him in labor and would help his consistency. It was a pleasure meeting everyone and learning about all of the care they put in to their side of the industry, and the buffalo they brought was amazing

Tasting menu 72

We have our annual bison council meeting this week along with a speech from Mr. Buffalo himself Ted Turner. I have been asked this year to do a demo on unused cuts of buffalo. It should be a great event. The cooking class on Saturday is sold out. I am doing a demo at nobel sysco on February 9Th to launch the companies affiliation with Will Powder. There will be a few other chefs demoing including Keegan Gerhard from Food Network andhttp://www.dbardesserts.com/. I am also starting work on the Miracle Fruit project. Things are starting to move again after a couple very slow weeks.

Purple yam éclair
Tobiko fondant, scallop scramble, coco nibs

Smoked pecan waffle
Mushrooms, corn, goat cheese bubbles

Loaded baked potato gnocchi
Buffalo sirloin, dandelion, cayenne

Hot chocolate ice cream with broken whipped cream
Made tableside with liquid nitrogen

Absolute Zero

I have been fascinated with this subject ever since I wanted to learn how liquid nitrogen was made. Absolute zero is a temperature around -273 C. It is the point when temperature meets pressure. Heat can go up and up but absolute zero is believed to be the coldest point that can be reached. When temperatures almost reach absolute zero, atoms behave in a very weird way. A new matter that is not a solid, liquid or gas is created at this temperature. Atoms no longer have a individual quality to them. They actually mix together and become one wave like structure. I have been trying to think how absolute zero could be used in foods. Imagine isolating atoms of flavor and being able to mix them together, a kind of molecular mixing bowl. Actually building a flavor on a molecular level. I theorize that this is how food could be replicated. If you had a machine that had 100's of different flavored atoms and a process of mixing and emulsifying, you can replicate anything. Absolute zero is not something that I could do in my kitchen today. Only about 10 years ago at a lab 20 minutes away from me in Boulder was absolute zero almost achieved. They had to use lasers and magnetic fields to cool heavier periodic elements to come within a billionth of a degree. It took centuries of scientist and chemist theorizing and experimenting to get where we are today. We take for granted many useful products that were invented because of mans quest for absolute zero. Items like walk-ins , flash freezing, and air conditioning. Without these inovators pushing their boundaries, we would not enjoy the common conveniences of today.

Mark

Mark has a laugh that can be recognized throughout the hotel. As I turned the corner yesterday I saw him in tears wearing this very "special" uniform that only Mark could pull off.

Cooking Class

I will be doing a cooking class at www.kitchentablegv.com on January 24. It should be a fun evening of molecular cooking in a small classroom setting. The session will be hands on with the oppurtunity to use some ingredients like liquid nitrogen and the thermal circulator.

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

Cooking at the Governors Mansion

Last night I was invited to cook a few courses at the Governor's mansion. The event was for file://www.projectpave.org/, a organisation promoting alternatives to youth violence through education. Chef Greg Barnill from the Broadmoor along with Joe, Phil and myself prepared and served this menu in a amazing setting.





Walking into the house was like stepping back into time. The dinning room had a large wooden table with very fine linen and set with china from the 1800 and 1900's.


The kitchen was nicely updated with a large buthcer block and a commercial stove. It reminded me of the Beard House kitchen before the remodel a few years ago.


There was a long corridor behind the dinning room where staff could move freely as they cleared plates and poured wine. The dinner went perfect. Chef Greg's dishes were based on Colorado ingredients, solid in flavors and technique. My dishes were challenging with some surprising textures and flavors. It was a perfect balance of new and old styles. It was a quite a honor to be there, we found out that it is a very rare site to see outside chefs come in and cook. The staff of the house always takes care of all functions, they made a exception for us and I will never forget it. We ended our evening sipping Colorado distilled whiskey with the Governor and his wife.

The Governor’s Dinner
with Colorado Governor & First Lady Bill & Jeannie Ritter
Benefiting Project Pave
Honored Guest David Scanavino & Friends

Amuse Course
Seared Ahi in Wonton Cup with Chucka Salad Wasabi Tobiko Caviar
Paired with Philieponnat Brut Royal Rose, Rems Champagne

Salad Course
Compressed vegetable Salad with Colorado Goat Cheese Marbles and Balsamic caviar
Paired with Cakebread Sauvignon Blanc

Fish Course
Smoked Colorado Trout with Apple Textures and Tempura Cranberries
Paired with Cakebread Reserve Chardonnay

Intermezzo
Wild Strawberry and Yuzu Sorbet with Frozen Olive Oil Dust
"The Floating Egg"

Meat Course One
Juniper Crusted Colorado Elk with Maple Roasted Root Vegetables and Colorado Chokecherry JusPaired with Cakebread Syrah

Meat Course Two
Grilled Colorado Bison with Blue Cheese Crust, morel mushroom ragout and stone ground grits
Paired with Cakebread Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon

Dessert Course
Chocolate Cinnamon Flan with Homemade Churros and Hazelnut Cream
Paired with Monastrell, Olivars, Jumilla Spain

Presenting Chef’s
Greg Barnhill, Executive Chef, Charles Court, The Broadmoor
Ian Kleinman, Executive Chef, The O’s Steak and Sea Food, Westin
Joe Hubbard, CPA, Sommelier, Chef at Anne Hubbard’s Kitchen
Sommelier, Phil Laramore, Baroness Distributing & Insatiable Wines

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

look Ma I am a Top Chef

One of my regular tasting menu customers came in tonight and told me he saw my photo on the Top Chef website. He told me to go to season 5 on Hosea's photo page. Sure enough there is a photo of me making liquid nitrogen sorbet for a wine tasting I had here a few months ago.( It is the 5th photo on the page) I have no head in the picture but it is my coat, table set up, restaurant, everything. I will have to give Hosea some shit when I talk to him next time. http://www.bravotv.com/Top_Chef/season/5/photos/gallery.php?e=photo_diary_hosea

Superfoods

All Westins are starting a new Superfood program for breakfast starting in January. Superfoods are high in nutrients and anti-oxidants and are believed to have disease-fighting benefits. Superfoods include: Apples, Avocado. Beans, Berries, Broccoli, Cinnamon, Dark Chocolate, Dried Super fruits, Honey, Garlic, Kiwi, Lemons, Low Fat Yogurt, Oats, Onions, Oranges, Pomegranate, Pumpkin, Soy, Spinach, Tea, Tomatoes, Turkey, Walnuts and Wild Salmon. We have a few guideline recipes that we will use but the rest of the menu is up to us. I worked on a raspberry french toast pudding with lemon curd and whipped cream today. We will do a tasting next week with a new menu roll out the following week

Culinary Resolutions

1. Be more artistic in my presentations
2. Be original
3. Develop 5 commercial products
4. School demos
5. Organize notes and recipes
6. Miracle fruit project
7. Have fun
8. Challenge my guests
9. Educate my staff

New Years Eve

We had a great New Years eve last night. We did around 175 in the dinning room and another 100 in room service. I did a few molecular specials on our price fix menu last night. Shane, our pantry chef took a lot of pictures from service last night. Unfortunately only 1 of the 20 pictures he took was actually in focus. This is a grilled tropical fruit plate with ginger sabayon.
It was hilarious coming in this morning seeing how all the drunk people parked their cars all over the private drive. We have 500 spots about 100 feet away but why walk when you can park on the side walk?

Mont Blanc Christmas Party

This is the Mont Blanc Blog about the custom molecular dinner we did for them using some of their productshttp://montblancgourmet.com/blog/

Tasting menu 69

I have been getting some emails lately about how crazy my food is and that I am doing some kind of disservice to the culinary world. Why would you ever float food or why did you put a inedible garnish on a plate they ask? My answer is why not. As long as the garnish if functional like the chap stick compound butter. I would rather challenge my guest with new flavors or presentations then throw out the same shit year after year. Look, I was the chef 2 years ago looking into this crazy world and wondering if it had a place. After a few years of burning my hands in LN or making soda or even making Lego's my answer is yes. I am having a blast and the people that try our tasting menus do to. I know my customers will remember their meal, will yours??

Quail eggs
Chorizo, black vinegar, blackberry

Compressed watermelon
Olive salad. Snow crab, whipped feta

Line caught tuna and prosciutto terrine
Parsnip pudding, curry sphere, zucchini

White chocolate macadamia nut brownie
With coffee ice cream made tableside
With liquid nitrogen

Floating Blueberry Pate Fruit with Yuzu Sugar

Merry Christmas

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

Silicon Mold for Floating Dish

I bought some bouncing balls today to use in my soft silicon mold. After the mold is cured I will be able to make 1/2 spheres of any flavor and glue them together for the for the floating plate.

Gadget Inspectors

This article came out Monday in the Rocky Mountain News. There is also a video part if you get on the website. Last week we all learned that the Rocky Mountain News was up for sale and might shut down in the near future. The paper has been running for over 150 years and it will be a tragedy to see it go.http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/dec/14/slicing-and-dicing-the-claims/

Tasting Menu 67

I hate December. Most people like it because they get to spend time off with their families. Chefs get to spend 20% more time at their jobs handling holiday parties and special request. This week marks the end of our major Christmas parties. I will take all of the business I can get, who knows what the first quarter of next year will bring. I am looking forward to spending some time on some ideas I have had floating around my head. I am still playing with my superconductor like a little boy on Christmas morning

Grilled Hama Hama oysters
Buddha’s hand, garlic jel, fried bread

Popcorn soup
Butter lattice, Siracha caramel corn

Maine Lobster
Ginger mosaic, corn sorbet, avocado cream

Fresh baked blueberry muffin
Yuzu cream cheese ice cream
made tableside with liquid nitrogen

The Floating Truffle

Ever since I started cooking I have always thought about floating food. After a gentle nudge from Jason at Westword and a lot of help from Robert Semerad of Theva labs in Germany my dream was reached. I have been like a kid playing with the superconductivity "plate" since it arrived from Germany yesterday.

Robert has baked rare earth metals into this superconducting cube. It is attached to a special plastic plate with glue that can with stand the -320 temperatures of liquid nitrogen. The "plate" is a rare earth magnet ring that levitates on top of the cube when the cold temperature of the superconductor is reached.

Any round food item can sit inside the ring as it turns and spins. It is imposiible to not sit there and stare at it in amasment. How can this be done? I have already had thoughts about eggs, bubble gum, spheres, you name it. Thanks again to Robert for helping me make my dream come true. We will be getting in more "plates" in so our guest can play with their food.

FIN

GSI Score

When you check out from any Starwood property you have the opportunity to rate your entire stay from the friendliness of staff to food quality. This is called our Guest Service Index or GSI. Today ratings were posted for all brands. Our restaurant came in #3 for all Westins and #10 overall for all brands. Our brands include St. Regis, Le Meridien, Luxury Collection, W, Westin and Sheraton. This is a huge honor for us considering that we are not a resort property rather a business hotel with very traveled and educated customers. I am very proud of my entire staff

The Silver Solder Plate

I really like table side presentations. It is a chance for the guest to see a little kitchen prep in the dinning room. As I was soldering some pipes for a plumbing project at home, I was taken back by the shapes the solder would make as it hit a hard surface. I wondered if it was possible to make someone a plate table side. Solder in the 60's, 70's and 80' was made from lead. These days it is lead free and non toxic so my plate was still an option.
I began by melting the solder into a liquid ball.

I then picked up the sheet tray it was on and slammed it against the table. I then cooled the plate with cold water. After a few seconds it is cold enough to serve a dish on.

A free formed plate remains that when cooled can be used as a app plate

Here I used the plate for some liquid nitrogen dipped creme anglaise cherries

Client Holiday Party

Every year we throw a big reception in the lobby for our clients. This year we did chef action stations throughout our decorated lobby. We made a few molecular dishes including cranberry mint spoons with eggnog gelee, roasted Colorado lamb with mint neutral caramel and of course the liquid nitrogen station with peppermint and eggnog rum ice creams

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

Art Institute Demo

I was asked by chef Corey to come do a demo at the culinary school I graduated from in 1997. They have started a new class called Art Cullinare where they study and then learn the techniques of the best molecular chefs. Their first day was El bulli, Alinea and The Fat Duck. We agreed that I would come make a composed dish using some different hydrocollids and the thermal circulator. I would then talk about some techniques using liquid nitrogen. My demo came on the Monday after Thanksgiving. We had not received our normal shipment of LN due to the holiday. There is a small airgas store pretty close to the culinary school so my plan was to stop over in the middle of my demo to fill my small dewar. Everything that could have gone wrong did. My thermal circulator would not work. This was the base for the composed dish. To make it even worse the shop were I went to fill the tank had the same problem, they did not receive there shipment due to the holiday. A good chef will always figure the situation out. I poached the eggs in water, not the same texture but they got the point. As for the LN, I talked about its physical properties and what I use it for. I will go back to the school on Monday so they can actually try something. All I could do is shake my head, smile and get through it. No matter how much planning goes into a event there is always something that will go wrong. The trick is not letting the guest know there is anything wrong.

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

The Gadget Test

If you have ever lived in Colorado or watched the news on your way through town you probably recognize this guy, Bill Clarke. He was a news anchor for many years at channel 7. Bill is retired from TV, now he does some side projects for different media outlets in Colorado. Bill asked me if he could bring up some kitchen gadgets that he ordered off those late night infomercials. I have always wanted to know if the electric vegetable peeler really works or if the slider grill made perfect paddies. We had a blast trying some different gadgets. The only one that really worked was a microwavable pasta cooker. The story will be coming out in the Rocky Mountain News Spotlight section in the next 2 weeks.

The Vertical Table Prototype

I received my rare earth magnets in the mail the other day for our superconductivity dish. As I was playing with these extremely power full magnets I wondered how else I could use them. I decided I wanted to build a table setting that did not take up a lot of room. I found a metal rod and attached it to a wood base. (For the finished table setting, the rod would be drilled into the middle of the table). We first melted a candle and reformed it with a magnet inside. We also moved the wick so it would burn on a angle. I then filled salt and pepper shakers with nuts so they would stick to our pole. In my next design I will have little metal bowls with tiny wooden spoons to remove the salt and pepper. I then attached some fresh cut flowers and some flat bread. Think about how much room is taken up by all these items. You could have smaller tables in your restaurant, more seats, more revenue. The downside- anyone with a metal plate or a pacemaker.