Mont Blanc field trip

Michael Szyliowicz invited my wife and I to his office on Colfax. We did not know what to expect, was it a factory or a tasting room? To my surprise and delight it was a lab. Here Michael and his mom come up with the ideas for new products. They give there ideas to Nina who is a product development specialist. She uses computer programs and her knowledge of product development with companies like Kraft to invent their chocolate syrup line that is used by some of the largest coffee shops in the World. I talked to Micheal about everything from packaging to distribution to ingredients sourcing. It was inspiring how they picked 1 product and how they make that product the best in the world. If I concentrated on one of my ideas would I have the same effect? They had a whole wall of bags of powders that looked very familiar to me. It was very interesting talking about how my molecular work and product development are so closely related.

Michael gave me a line of their products for a dinner that the company will have here in December. Can't wait to play around with these flavors. I can say this is a carrer that I would love to go into in the furure

http://www.montblancgourmet.com/index.html

Thomas Keller demo

I was fortunate enough to be invited to the opening of the Johnson and Whales new demo kitchen. Holly shit it was beautiful. What even made it more memorable was a demo by Thomas Keller. He made a simple lamb dish using sou-vide techniques. He cooked a bone in lamb loin at 142.7 degrees for 1 hour. He took it out of the bag and seared the meat in butter and herbs giving a roasted quality to the meat. He also demonstrated a lamb demi. He started with a lot of oil that he added lamb bones to. After a fond developed he de-glazed with water. He allowed the fond to develop again and de glazed with chicken stock. A third fond was followed by tomatoes and mirapoix. His final fond ended with lamb stock. He will reduce and strain 5 times before his final product achieved.

What did I learn? First the French Laundry has 15 thermo circulators. Second Thomas Keller has a quality about him. He is so passionate and outspoken about his art. He talked about a provayer that produces 15 pounds of butter a week for him. That's all this farm produces. All of their product goes there and nowhere else. He has a amazing commitment to ingredients. Herve last week, Thomas this and Notter next week. I am truly inspired.

San Fran

I went to California to attend a demonstration at Le Sanctuare. The demo was from Herve This, the leading authority on molecular gastronomy. I was hoping to pick up some new techniques but instead I have a whole new direction in my experiments. I first learned that I am not doing molecular gastronomy. I practice molecular cooking and there is a huge difference between them. The difference is that Herve is analysing food on a scientific level with very controlled time consuming experiments. I am taking the knowledge that he has developed and I am using it to cook. I also am using some molecular technologies like a thermal circulator to achieve different textures in food

Herve also talked about using a simplified process to write recipes and come up with new dishes. It made me think of food in a whole new way. He talked about and egg that could be classified in the way you would cook it. For example a whole egg is 1, a whole egg out of its shell is 2, The egg yolk is3 and so on. Next is the method in which you cook it like liquid nitrogen would be LN or water would be W and so on. I have a system now where I can organize my experiments and think of new combinations


The biggest lesson I took away is not to be so frustrated. Take a step back and simplify the question. I was trying to make brown butter foam. I was using methocel and xantham and whatever else I could think of. It turns out that is the ratio of fat to water and how you cool the product that will give me the desired texture. No additives, just a better understanding of why food does what it does. Thank you Herve, it is time to start all over again!!!