"Grapefruit"

Floating truffle box

Sparkopolis 2

"Crab"

Arnold Palmer

Dippin dot machine

My new hobby

"Coffee"

Honey

Liquid nitrogen truffles

Most of the techniques I come up with usually involves time and the lack there of. I needed to make 300 truffles for a party and did not have time to let the ganache set. I added liquid nitrogen to my base and got it to the point were I could shape it into balls

The balls are then dropped into a second bowl of nitrogen to get them really cold before they go into the tempered chocolate. This creates a super crispy chocolate layer before they are dipped in the crumbs. The violent temperature difference yields a crunchy creamy truffle

Time to pull my head out of my ass

Well, it's been a while since I have sat down and put some thoughts down. This blog was always intended to organize my culinary world, now I need to organize me, a monumental task. So forgive me if this seems like a therapy session. I promise I will get pointed back in the right direction.

In an ideal world I would be able to do a culinary experiment eveyday but this little thing called life has gotten in the way. This year has hit me at my core, testing me as a human

I spent the first part of the year trying to figure out my marriage. It seems like I could never quite find the balance needed. It seemed like my cooking was going really well or my home life was great, the two never seemed to be able to coexist. I tried counseling, electro therapy, mood stabilizers and breathing exercises but I could never balance myself. I blamed my ex and still do in some ways but I now understand that I am as much to blame as she was. If I could I would sit down and tell her I'm sorry, I really tried my best.....

The next 6 months were filled with child like lessons for me. How do I live alone? Bills are due on the 1st, right?? Waking up on my Dad's floor sobbing each morning wanting to go home, but I could never go back.  I got my shit together for a few months. I concentrated on my business and got a place to live. It seems like I was focusing on whats important but if you don't deal with the problems they just come back in a different form

I guess I am writing this to remind myself were I am in my life. I am not a kid anymore, I feel each event I cook in my back, legs and hands. I have stopped learning and have relied on the lessons I have learned in the past. I have died and now it's time to pull my head out of my ass and start living again

Eat street filming

We have been asked to be on Eat St., a amazing show on the cooking channel about street food. We will be taping the episode here in Denver on Tuesday, May 31st . Please stop by at 940 Logan Street at the Realeyes building from 11-2 to have a chance to be on national TV and to support our cart

Balistreri wine dinner

I have a crazy weekend coming up with a wine dinner and private party on Saturday. I had the honor of going to the winery this week and had an amazing tasting with Jessica and her farther who make and bottle all of their wines. The dinner is SOLD OUT, here is the menu for the event:

Spicy lump crab

Compressed spring vegetables in smoked olive oil, 

Avocado gnocchi, Yuzu cubes

Chicken confit

Smoked grapes, Fried sour cream, crispy lavosh

Pinot noir Sorbet

Marinated berries, frozen thyme

Berbere encrusted pork belly

148 degree egg, grilled spinach, Israeli cous cous corbonara

Liquid nitrogen whipped coconut sorbet

Brown sugar braised pineapple and raspberry paper

Patty Loveless

I had the pleasure of cooking for Patty and her band before a charity concert this past week. I was only there for the bands warm up but those boys from Tennessee can play. Here was their menu:

Crisp spinach with strawberries, goat cheese, curry vinaigrette

Shaved vegetable salad with smoked olive oil, toasted pecans

Jasmine rice with scallions, ginger,sesame oil

Pan seared chicken breast roasted with fresh herbs, garlic, mushrooms

Liquid nitrogen whipped coconut milk sorbet, brown sugar braised pineapple

Aria dinner photos

Had a great time at Aria doing a duel menu with Mike Long. They actually put score cards on the table to see what people liked more, Art or Science. Mike took the first corse with his Scallop clock, he seemed over confident. Fortunately I took the vote on the next 3 plates. I have to admit Mike pulled out all the stops and his food was amazing. Here are the Scallop, Tuna and Tenderloin plates, I did not get a shot of the dessert

The great American food truck race

As I pulled into the commissary yesterday I noticed that the parking lot was full of food trucks. After a little inquiring I found out that the Great American Food Truck Race was taping an episode in town and they were using the lot to get there trucks prepped and ready to go. Speaking of trucks/carts, we will be starting our cart at 17th and California on Monday. Please follow us on Twitter or Facebook to see when we will be out. Here is our menu:

Slushie

Strawberry with sweet milk $4

Soup

Chilled watermelon with Feta and Pecans $4

Creme brulee

Burned with banana foster $5

Ice cream sammie

Chocolate Chip cookie, whipped marshmallow

and Hot fudge ice cream $4

“Kool-aid”

Blueberry mint “kool-aid” with lemon sugar $1

Sorbet

Coconut sorbet with braised brown

sugar pineapple $4

Ice cream

Hot fudge with exploding whipped cream and

peanut butter pop rocks $4

Space Foam

Popcorn $4

Aria dinner

I will be cooking a duel dinner with Mike Long from Aria on Wednesday, May 11. We were lucky enough to have Thrillist Denver do a pre-article about the dinner that you can read about. Mike is talking a lot of smack so come down and see a old fashion whippin

Volcano

I get contacted by some pretty interested people and companies through this blog, last month Storz and Bickel, the manufactures of the Volcano emailed me. They asked me if I was interested in receiving a free unit, I answered yes of corse. I have read about how Grant uses this unit to extract the lavender smoke he uses in his pillow presentation. I have already tried vanilla with some mixed results, cant wait to go to the spice shop and play around with some different combinations.

2 coats-1 new, 1 old

Its funny how we end up with all of the random coats we have hanging in our closet. I have managed to keep at least 1 coat around from the last 10 restaurants I have worked in since I was 14. This week I was truly honored to be named a chef of distinction at Johnson and Whales University. On Wednesday I gave a demo on molecular cooking and made a few dishes including a shrimp sheet with ricotta, lemon and charcoal oil. Thanks to the President, instructors and chef Jorge for making me feel so welcome. The other coat came to me after a hectic day of running around prepping for hush. I ended up down at the Westin tabor center needing to compress some celery, the chef lets me use his machine in a pinch. All I had on was a dirty t-shirt and I could not walk the halls with everyone else in uniform. I asked a manager for a coat to use and out popped Scott Burnham coat. Apparently not many people liked him, I had some interesting conversations in the elevator. As I was driving home I noticed I had walked out with the coat so if you know Scott tell him I have something for his closet.

Stuart middle school demo

I was out in Commerce City this morning giving a demo to the chemistry students who excelled this year in their studies. Were quickly approaching summer and the schools have been calling like crazy. We had lots of great questions about the states of matter- liquid, gas and solids. I have noticed that the girls tend to ask questions about science and the boys ask how they can blow stuff up and shatter things. I am so glad I have daughters. Thank you to the students for making me this great banner.

JW Demo, public is welcome Tuesday at 10 am

Hush Menu

First corse

Grilled shrimp carpaccio, dried chilies, carbonated citrus cells, charcoal oil, peeled cherry tomatoes and cilantro

Second

Fried chicken consomme, buttermilk dippin dots, peeled and compressed celery, cornbread foam

Third

Coconut milk sorbet with braised pineapple, strawberry champagne jelly and

vanilla bubbles made table side

Fourth

Sous vide Tasmanian pepper encrusted sirloin in butter and tarragon, smoked milk pudding, siracha cubes, candy cane carrots and demi glace caviar

Fifth

Flexible white chocolate with nutella powder, liquid nitrogen malted ice cream, exploding whipped cream and peanut butter pop rocks

Miracle fruit tasting

Hush Dinner 2.0

I am doing another dinner with HUSH on April 22,23 and 24 that will include 5 courses and a miracle fruit tasting at the end of the meal. There are limited seats, 40 on Friday, 80 Saturday in two settings and 40 on Sunday. We will publish the menu in the next week. The menu will feature some fun new techniques like color changing lemon bubbles. We have not done a dinner in a while and it would be nice to see everyone again!!Click here for details

HUSH TICKETS

A true miracle: getting kids to eat their fruits and vegetables

I have been working with the miracle fruit for over 3 1/2 years. I have never seen a natural ingredient that can alter the way you taste. Early on I used it for purely entertainment purposes. Now I see the potential with kids, diabetics, chemo patients and helping with weight loss. Recently I have been developing recipes that can work with the fruit.

If you have not tried the berry it works something like this. A frozen berry is placed in your mouth. You begin to suck on it until the skin comes off. The skin is actually very good for you packing as much antioxidants as wild blueberries. You then place the white pulp on you tongue and try to remove as much pulp as you can. The begging and end picture should look like this:

The fruit will make sour or bitter foods taste sweet. It does a number on lemons and limes but does nothing to broccoli or cauliflower. So the question is, How do we get kids to eat raw veggies? Our answer was to make a sauce that is made of carrots, lemon juice, vinegar and olive oil. It taste terrible, there is no sugar or salt and is barley palatable but after the miracle fruit it taste like candy.

Recently the miracle fruit man(the company I work with)was approached by the St. Lucia school district in Florida about using the fruit at lunch. I developed some recipes including the carrot dip and traveled to central Florida to show the kids and school staff how to use it.

After our 3rd trip to Florida we realized we have something very special here. I could expose kids to new fruits and vegetables and make them taste amazing. I am very excited to see where this project will take us in the next few years, perhaps we could change the way people eat.

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