The Garden

My wife and I decided to plant a pretty big garden this year. We wanted to see how long certain items take and if they would grow here in Colorado. We planted early, the first week in May. It was probably a couple weeks early. We had to cover the plants a couple nights. Everything lived and is thriving. We wanted to see how long lettuce took. We cut our mixed greens 1 month after they went into the ground. We yielded about 4 pounds of lettuce. Our cost was 3 dollars and got 20 dollars in greens. If you staggered the planting times you could have mixed greens all summer. Some other items we planted: white cherry tomatoes, white patty pans, heirloom pineapple tomatoes, sweet corn, watermelons, cantaloupe, romaine, bok choy, leeks, scallions, jalapenos and a shit load of herbs.

JB Prince order

JB Prince has a lot of great items. There dipossable serving pieces are really nice for events. I called JB Prince two weeks ago to place an order for our media event next week. I specifically told them I needed the items no later then Monday in two weeks. Half of my items showed up yesterday. When I called and asked about my other 3 items they said they are on back order. They offered another item "in stock" but it would be another 120$ in shipping cost. Get your shit together. Most events are planned two weeks out. Don't say you carry it if you can't deliver.

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

Taste of the nation 08

We did this event at our sister property the Westin downtown. It was a good event. We had 10 guest sit table side as we prepared a 7 course menu. I love sitting in front of the guest and watch them as they experience some molecular food for the first time. I forgot my camera and it was probably a good thing seeing how my station looked afterword. This was my 10th year doing this event. I think I might be in the 100's for charity events in my career. Hopefully I am building up some good Karma

Grilled mashed potaoes

We served these with a chicken fried Cornish game hen a few weeks ago. We wanted a crisp texture on the outside and a creamy mashed potato on the inside. We made little pucks and grilled them for 45 seconds on each side

Recipe

700 g riced potato half russet half Yukon

200 g caramelized white onions in Madeira

300 g heavy cream

100 g butter soft

6 g salt

3 g pepper

225 g water

20 g methocel sga7c

7 g gelatin bloomed in water

Place the water in a saucepan and boil. Remove and add the methocel and bloomed gelatin. Mix for 1 minute. Place all other ingredients in a bowl with the methocel. Mix until very well combined. Place bowl over a ice bath until mixture is very cold to the touch

5280 review

Here is a link to the cover of the review. You have to buy the magazine to get the full article. 5280 is an amazing magazine that has a lot of pull in Denver and the surrounding suburbs http://www.5280.com/issues/2008/0806/feature.php?pageID=1177

Last Day

Tasting menu 36

Have a very busy June coming up. We are doing Taste of the Nation at the Westin downtown on Sunday. You have 10 guest that you cook table side for and you can pretty much do anything you want. My celebrity sous chef is Mark Randall. He is a ex NBA player and played for the Kansas Jayhawks, my favorite basketball team. We are also doing a media event on the 10th and a charity event and Denver's zoo on the 19th.

Tasting menu


“Slow cooked “tenderloin
Cognac, grapes, buttered leeks

Homemade sausage
Feta jelly, crispy eggplant skin, tomatoes


Yuzu nitro foam


Hollandaise stuffed shrimp
Perrier batter, champagne caviar, truffle puree


Blueberry waffle
Maple ice cream made table side with liquid nitrogen

Olive oil terrine

Yuzu nitro foam

I am slowly working through el bulli 2003, 2004. It has some amazing techniques and a large section on liquid nitrogen techniques. The first molecular item I read about was the Fat Ducks palate cleanser. It is dispensed out of a whip cream canister into liquid nitrogen. I was very happy to see the recipe in El Bulli 2004 specifically recipe number 1004. As I made the recipe I noticed that in the directions it tells you to add gelatin but in the ingredients there is no gelatin listed. I made it the first time following the recipe. It did not work. I then made a new recipe adding a small amount of bloomed gelatin. The nitro foam came out amazing. I will use it to top fish or a soup or anything that needs a crispy cold texture

Recipe:

50 g Water

25 g Yuzu

75 g Sugar

125 g Heavy cream

2.4 g Sheet gelatin bloomed in cold water

Put the water, yuzu and sugar in a saucepan. Boil for 20 seconds. Remove and add the bloomed gelatin. Stir in the cold cream and place in a canister with 1 charge. Cool in fridge for 3 hours. Release a small amount onto a spoon and then into the LN. Let the foam "cook" for 15 seconds. Remove and enjoy immediately

Media client party June 10th

Music and food go together like food and wine. We listen to music when we eat and chefs usually have a radio blaring in the kitchen.We get lost in it, it takes away from the circus we live everyday. When I was a kid I worked at a restaurant that always had classic rock on. If you did not know the song the other cooks would give you a load of shit. You listened. learned and would be able to scream out Zeppelin or the Dead when it came on. I have always wanted to pair a song with a dish. I am finally going to try it for this media event. We are going to set flat screens in each station with the video and the song playing. The guest will finish off each dish giving a play full quality to the event. We are going to send everyone home with a I tunes gift card and a musical recipe they can make at home.

Musical menu

Pour Some Sugar on Me
Def Leppard
Grilled crimini with celery root dynamite and togarashi brulee
Guest uses small torch to fire their brulee

Corn Flake Girl
Tori Amos
Cornflake and cashew tempura shrimp with avocado aioli and siracha caviar
Guest makes caviar by dropping balls with a syringe into calcium chloride


Proudest Monkey
Dave Mathews
Barramundi wrapped in banana leaf with tempura banana and ponzu noodles
Guest makes there own noodle by squeezing syringe into hot water

Cold as Ice
Foreigner
Carrot cake dippin dots with cream cheese ice cream
Guest will drop dippin dots into liquid nitrogen


Bar songs with custom molecular drinks
Red Red wine
Tequila sunrise
One bourbon, one scotch, one beer

Tasting menu 35

Took a trip to Kansas the last couple days. Thank god my mom can cook, there is not a lot of good restaurants out that way. The best meal we had was at the Topeka airport. I guess people like to watch the plains come in while they eat. It is certainly a whole different pace from my life here. My cousin and her husband have started to raise Angus cattle. Next trip out I am going to check out the farm and see if they could support a small place if I should ever open one.

Tasting menu


Sesame snapper
Dashi, edamame noodles, cinnamon


Tandori grilled salmon
Cucumber gellee, Greek yogurt, rose pedals


Organic chicken-tenderloin steak
Hunter sauce emulsion, leek, skinned tomato


German chocolate ice cream
Coconut dippin dots, pecans, chocolate 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.

Yellow Scene Magazine

In the food section of the magazine they have started a new section where they give a chef a ingredient and 24 hours to come up with the dish. They asked if I could create a dish with a red potato. Here is a link to the articlehttp://yellowscene.com/2008/05/05/challenging-element-red-potato/ We will be featuring this soup for the next month at night

Tasting menu 33

We are getting ready for Mother's day this week. We are booked except for a few late spots. We plan on doing around 1000. The new menu is going good. The flavors are were I want them but we are messing around with some presentations and ratios. I have not sou-vide fruit so I am interested in the flavors I can get.

Tasting Menu

Chorizo
Clams, Potato, Smoked carrot foam


Pickled mango
Blue crab, tarragon, pineapple sheet


Organic Colorado tenderloin
Salsify puree, cranberry pepper jelly

Sou-vide blueberries
Pie crumbs, vanilla marsala ice cream
Made table side with liquid nitrogen

Apple spice cupcake with brown sugar frosting

Need Inspiration? Go to the Asian market

I visit the Asian market at least 2 times a week. I use to go to Lucky market on Federal. I developed such a great relationship with the owner that she would give me recipes for anything in her store. Her daughter lived in the Philippines and would send fresh exotic fruit via fed ex. She has since sold her business and moved to Florida. Now I go to Pacific Ocean on Main and 120th in Westminster. It is a very clean market with lots of stuff you just want to buy and play with. Alot of the products come in smaller sizes so you can through down a buck here in there to try something new. If you want some inspiration spend some time, a little money and make good with the little old grandma behind the counter.

New menu

We have been working on a new menu this week. There is a lot to coordinate in this hotel. Tastings, Costing, Pictures, Recipes, Prep schedules, Sourcing ingredients, Training, Printing of menus ( house and room service), Menu roll out, Quality control, Basically a lot of shit. Twice as much if I was in a independent. Here menus must be costed to the penny, at a independent I usually took the price of the protein and made a educated guess about the rest. I never took pictures in a independent because I was always there when we were open. Room service is a whole different animal. 300+ rooms with no kitchens and high expectations. Anyway I have been busy. Here are some examples of some molecular techniques that we are doing on our new menu:

Sou-vide salmon with edamame flan and curry carrots

123 degrees for 40 minutes with yuzu dill butter. Sear in hot oil to order

Colorado trout with beans, pancetta and whipped maple 7 oz pure maple, 1 oz molasses, 1/4 cup apple juice, 1/4 tsp xantham, 1 tbl. virsawhip 600

Fried baby artichokes with warm walnut mayo, cotija cheese, elephant garlic chips
6 eggs, 6 egg yolks, 1 cup walnut oil, 1 1/2 cup oil blend, 2 tbl Dijon, 2 tbl. Sherry1 tbl. salt, 1/2 cup parm grated fine, 1 Co2 charge, place in water bath of 120 degrees

Mojo jelly side sauce with oysters2 cups fresh lime juice, 2 cups sugar, 1 cup corn syrup, 8 sheets gelitan, 4 tsp. agar, 1/2 cup fresh mint chopped. Bloom gelitan, boil sugar, syrup, agar 2 minutes. Add gelitanand cool. Place in blender. Whip for 10 seconds. Remove and add mint

Southern peach sorbet made table side with liquid nitrogen with Merlot caviar and frozen thyme. 150 grams Merlot syrup, 50 grams water, 2 grams aliginate, 2.5 grams calcium chloride, 500 grams water. Place syrup, alginate and water in quart container and mix with hand blender. Place in a squeeze bottle. Put second water and calcium chloride in a different court container. Blend with hand blender. Drop small balls of Merlot syrup in calcium water. Remove after 2 minutes and rinse. Marinate in Merlot syrup.

Shrimp sheets

We used the sheets on the tasting menu this week. We layered them with whipped corn, ricotta, charred tomatoes and olive oil.

Recipe

300 grams Tiger shrimp cleaned and diced

3 grams Activa

1/4 tsp. Ground toasted fennel

1/4 tsp. Kosher salt

pinch White pepper

Put ingredients in a small chopper and pulse until a very smooth paste is formed. Smear through a tami. Place a large piece of plastic wrap on your work surface. Put 1/2 cup paste and form into a square. Put another piece of plastic wrap on top. Roll out to desired thickness. It can be rolled paper thin. Place on a sheet tray and steam for 2 minutes. Remove and cool.

Flexible warm white chocolate with frozen coconut powder

Liquid nitorgen Smores with cinnamon foam

Tasting menu 32

I am planting a big garden this year in my back yard. Hopefully we will yield enough to do some nice tasting menu items. Colorado is warming up. I can't wait for the farmer's markets to open.

Tasting menu


Curried escargot
Pea puree, crispy carrots, pea sprouts

Shrimp Lasagna
Charred tomato, whipped corn, ricotta


Apricot sou-vide organic chicken
Jalapeño rice, smoked crimini, apple butter


Villa Mandori dark balsamic
Cherry Ice cream made tableside
With liquid nitrogen

Grapefruit frozen ahi

I am playing around with some ahi because it will be gone next week. We have experimented alot with freezing purees onto food with liquid nitrogen. I think one of my favorites is creme anglaise frozen on cherries. It is like eating a impossible frozen bon bon that melts back to creme anglaise instantly in your mouth. Today we froze a honey-wasabi- grapefruit puree thickened with little xantham on the rare tuna. The tuna remains tempered while a popsicle like coating is made on the outside. We topped it with some kiwi and pickled ginger jelly

Lego dish

I build blocks a lot with my 2 girls. I was imagining how interesting it would be to give a customer a plate of different flavors of blocks. Different flavor combinations of dishes could be presented like whats on the back of a jelly belly box. 1 red+1 orange+ 1 green= Shrimp cocktail. I like serving dishes that the guest has to use all of there senses to consume a meal. I ordered some silicon today to make a mold that looks like a Lego. If it works I will want my kids to play with their food.

Tasting menu 31

We are getting ready to switch menus right now. I have implemented a lot of molecular techniques and technology on the new menu. We kept all of the descriptions generic so no one will be intimidated.We want the food to speak for itself. We are taking all tuna products of the menu. After reading about the almost extinct population of blue fin, the mercury scare, and the fact that a lot of yellow fin is being caught very young and raised in over crowded pens we have elected to take it off for a while. We have to allow fish to repopulate naturally and I think the best way is not to buy it. Will my one restaurant make a difference? No, but it is the responsibility of the chefs to take a stand. I have also checked all of my new seafood menu items on the Monterrey baywebsite.http://www.mbayaq.org/cr/SeafoodWatch/web/sfw_search.aspx

Roasted parsnip
Edamame, asparagus, rice wine Dijon noodle

Alaskan king crab
Coconut, brown butter sorbet, smoked cashews

Mission fig consommé
Barramundi, spicy apples, goat cheese sphere


Tempura banana
Honey clove ice cream
Made tableside with liquid nitrogen

Interviewing

We see a lot of people interviewing in our hotel. Interns are in and out. Line cooks come in and usually bail when we can't match 15.00 dollars an hour down the street. I usually have to talk to potential candidates along with the executive sous and banquet chef. Here are a couple things some people could do if they really want the job:

1. Don't come in a fucking tee shirt and shorts. You are applying to work in a professional kitchen, not the hot dog shack on the 16th tee.

2. Familiarize yourself with menu of the restaurant. Understand what you are getting yourself into. Show interest in wanting to learn and grow in this business

3. Understand that working in a kitchen, especially a hotel, means you need to be flexible. You can't have off every holiday and yes you may need to stay late to plate.

Tasting menu 30

This is my 100th post. I have learned alot since I have started but I am more excited about what is to come in the future. After talking to Herve and eating Wylie's food, I am ready to begin my next 100 post. I have alot of chefs that understand why and alot of other chefs that don't. It is the same attitude that I encountered before I started doing any molecular. Everyone has there own taste, flavors that they are comfortable with. I could make the best shrimp dish but you may not like shrimp. I don't think you could ever make a savory dish that everyone will like. As chefs we put our hearts on our sleeves everyday hoping to connect with that persons perception of that perfect dish. You may like it, you may not but I feel good giving you that opportunity to make that decision. Here is to a 100 more

Tasting menu

Purple potatoes
Sopresetta crème Frâiché, crispy shallots

Sou-vide beets and tarragon
Shitake hummus, lemon stilton


Lobster steak
Baked taro, Tasmanian pepper, béarnaise gnocchi


Apple dippin dots
Danish dough, mascarpone, caramel powder


Pineapple curry bubble gum

WD-50

I have been using some molecular techniques for about a year. The only problem is that besides the food that I make I have not tried anyone's food. That all changed for me on Saturday. My wife and I made it down to this restaurant after we cooked at our event. It was amazing to see what Wylie can do with food. We had the tasting menu which was one course after another of a seem less balance of flavors and textures. My favorite course was the hamachi and the coconut cake. After we had eaten I asked if we could see the kitchen. They let us come back and take a look. It was a double sided French line with Wylie on one side and 3 chefs on the other. Pantry was nestled into the corner. A solid butchers block sat in the entrance of the kitchen with 4 heat lamps hanging down. It was amazing being there, to be able to ask questions about the food. Was that carrageenan in the chocolate paper? "No, it was pectin and agar." I thought to myself holly shit I am asking the people who wrote the book. Needless to say I think it was important to try the food, but it was equally important to see that I am pointed in the right direction. Thanks Wylie, Alex, Kevin and the entire staff

Random Ln tank in NY

Cookin in New york

We arrived on Thursday night for our Friday event. My package made it to the W in good condition. We ate at Icon in the W where we were staying that night. Chef Mike Wuster has worked in may great restaurants. He opened Le Cirque and was the chef at 11 Madison. He sent course after course of some really great food. The next morning we gathered our food and some small wares the W had lent to us and made it down to the event.

We set our food in our booth and went to check out Colorado in New York. It was cool to see the Breckenridge film festival and mountain bike team. I grew up in Breck and I liked seeing my home town in the park. I think more then anything I was proud to be there. I was born and raised in Colorado and I am proud to call it my home. The event went great. The tent was packed with media and people from the Colorado tourism board. Hopefully I made some good impressions with people.