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

Vacation

I will be on vacation for the next 10 days. It is a good thing because I don't have any creative juice running through me. A little break is good for the creative process. I told the hotel to call me only if the hotel is on fire so I can come get my knives.

This is not Dairy Queen

A common occurrence in this industry is when you receive a case that is not on your order. The people that work in the warehouses of our food distributors are filling hundreds of orders with hundreds of cases. They mess up from time to time. When chefs are missing a case from an order they are on the phone with the sales rep right away. Where the f--k is my case?? But when a case of something arrives on our doorstep you don't pick the phone up so quick. When I was cleaning our freezer today I found a box of Peach Julius that was supposed to go to dairy queen. The box was damaged so I called our rep and he said to use it up. A little ice and some egg white powder and it was like I was sitting in the mall with my sisters screaming at my mom

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

Denver polo classic

I have never seen a live polo match. Yesterday we cooked at the Denver polo classic to benefit the Children's Hospital of Denver. It is amazing how the handlers can control their horses all the while trying to hit the ball in the goal. We had one line for people picking up our food samples and one line of kids eating LN marshmallows all afternoon.

How much ice cream could I make with this load?

Sugar crystals

When I was a kid I use to walk to the drug store in Breckenridge. I would pick up a sugar crystal stick and eat it as I skipped rocks at the lake. I love the sweet crunchy texture. The basic property is to supersaturate a solution with sugar. This is done by slowly adding sugar to water until it won't take any more. You then place a stick secured by twine and tape into a glass container.

The key is to make sure the wooden skewer does not touch the sides. It takes a while for the finished product to grow- about 2 weeks for a small stick. We made this sugar crystal stick with black tea. I will check the progress in a couple of days

Recipe:

550 grams Water

50 grams Black tea

1650 grams Sugar

Jersey city here I come??

I got a call from our cooperate chef that he would like me to be the executive chef at the new Westin in Jersey city. After talking it over with my wife, it looks like we are going to stay here for now. I can't say that I am not ready for a change, it just did not feel right. 5 years ago I would have jumped at the opportunity but today I am thinking about other peoples happiness before mine. Plus it's Jersey ( no offense, I have never been but I here things)

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

Agar crepe

I have always been fascinated reading el bulli. How does he get these amazing thin textures. In one recipes he says that they use a piece of wood that has had a 1/8 inch removed in the middle and treated for food. I began to think about how crepes are made. We ladle cold batter into a hot pan creating a thin texture. I decided to try it but in reverse. I filled a nonstick pan with LN to get it very cold. I then made a mixture of prickly pear puree and .45% agar. Agar takes longer to set then gellan and carrageenan. The non stick pan did not allow the agar to stick in the crepe form.

I then tried it with a aluminium pan. After the crepe set I carefully cut around the sides with a knife and pulled the crepe out.

I made a white chocolate whipped cream that I piped into the center and rolled it up. We garnished with some fresh fruit and mint

Miracle fruit

I ordered my own miracle fruit tree today. I don't know how it will grow in Colorado but I have to take a shot. After you eat this small fruit your taste buds are changed for about an hour. Everything sour or bitter becomes sweet. I saw a demo of a guy pouring Tabasco on his tongue. He looked up and told the camera it taste like smoky maple syrup. This would be the ultimate ingredient to fuck with people. Imagine leaving the fruits and a buffet of limes, vinegars and other pungent ingredients. The fruit spoils within 48 hours so shipping it is out of the question. The only way is to grow. You can also get tablets from:

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

Welcome to lego land

I have had this dish in my head for about 3 months. The original idea came when I was building Lego's with my 2 girls. I originally thought about making broccoli or brussel sprouts that my kids would play with and eat. I wondered if my kids played with their food, they might be more open to eating their vegetables. The finished dish is pictured on tasting menu 41. Now that I have my mold I can make chocolate Lego's or pate fruit or whatever I want. These Lego's were made by clarifying stocks made out of shrimp, cilantro, corn, goat cheese and pineapple soy. We then added food coloring and used agar to gel the stocks.

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

Soft silicon molds

I have found that this style of cooking requires a lot of different molds. It is impossible to find a flat sheet tray in this hotel. When I pour my product onto a surface it is hard to get a even shape and it is even harder to cut. The answer is having molds that are the exact shape you want. I have been thinking about doing a Lego dish for a couple months now. I needed to make my own molds to pour different Lego flvors. I ordered the soft silicon mold set from Albert Uster. It was around $100. It allows me to cast any shape that I want. The directions are simple. It takes about 3 days to produce a final mold. My first attempt is this dice cube. I needed to mix a little more silicon but I have a few ideas for this mold

I love noodles

As you can tell by my tasting menu I have an obsession with noodles. Molecular cooking has enabled me to come up with new flavors that are gluten free and are 95% or more of the ingredient you are highlighting. I think people are comfertable with this medium, they are willing to try new flavors because we all love it. This week we did a Bing cherry noodle to go with the salmon

Puree being passed through a plastic tube into ice water

They look like twizlers with an amazing spring flavor

Recipe

740 grams 80% bing cherry juice 20% red grape juice

15 grams balsamic syrup

60 grams Turbano sugar

10 grams Salt

9.84 grams Gellan F

35 grams Glucose


Place juice in a sauc pan with balsamic, sugar, salt and gellan f. Pulse with a emersion blender to hydrate the gellan. Add the glucose and place over high heat. Remove and fill a syringe. Squeeze into plastic tubing and dunk in the ice water for 1 minute. Fill the syringe and repeat stopping when the gelled noodle is at the end of the plastic tube.

My daughter holding bok choy from our garden

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

Doo at the Zoo

We had a pretty good event last night. We could not get the grill to work when first arrived. You have to trust that every thing will work and if it doesn't you have to figure it out. We ended up serving our pork loin without the spatzel until we could enough heat to crisp them up. I could have served the spatzel warm but I wanted the texture. We also did Liquid nitrogen creme brulee tarts. It is fun to see peoples faces when they try it for the first time. Thanks to my wife for helping out and no I did not get a chance to bag an elephant

Democratic National Convention 08

Our hotel is about 20 miles from downtown Denver. A couple days ago the security department showed us a little video about possible terrorist concerns with the convention. It basically was a video of people blowing up other people using breifcases, trucks, cell phones and even fake babbies in a carriages. It scared the shit out of me. First of all it is impossible to screen everything that enters our hotel. Second it made me very happy to live in this country, I don't think I could function knowing that the box of romas next to me could blow my ass up.

Tatsing menu 39

I am doing some early prep this week because we are cooking at Doo at the Zoo on Thursday. This event raises money for the zoo's programs throught the year. I have a pretty sick dream of jumping one of the fences and taking down a elephant with my french knife.I know that is sick but when you let a bunch of crazy chefs in the zoo what do you think they want to do?

Tasting menu

Oyster Carpaccio
White soy gelee, frozen olive oil, lime air

Pretzel consommé
Dijon chicken, charred onions, apple dumplings

Black truffle paper

Buffalo short rib ravioli
148 egg, cotija, sweet onion tops from my garden

Lindsor tort
Sour cream and mint ice cream
Made tableside with liquid nitrogen

Penny Parker

Penny gave us a great article in today's Rocky Mountain News. She came to the music event last week. http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/jun/17/penny-westin-chef-puts-music-on-menu/

Mango paper

Happy fathers day

Here is a link to the story they did in the Rocky mountain news this week. As you can see I am very proud of my dad and the culinary adventures we have been on
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/jun/10/dads-delights/

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

Musical event

We had a great event on Tuesday. Here are some pictures of the stations as we set them up. Claire Walter is a amazing travel writer based out of Boulder. She covers a lot of happenings in the culinary world. This is a link to her blog and thoughts of the evening
http://culinary-colorado.blogspot.com/2008/06/molecular-gastronomy-and-other.html

Denver post review

Tucker Shaw reviewed us yesterday in the Denver post. We got the review that I new was coming, a review that highlights our service and room. Tucker talks about the fact that the molecular cuisine does not go with the restaurant we are serving it in. I agree with him, we are trying to be too many things. Chefs are always concerned with reviews. Good reviews bring business and bad ones don't. We use reviews to judge our careers. The good ones get put in a folder and come out when we look for other jobs. Most of all it is your reputation. I have mixed thoughts of this one, if we can't put it all together then it will never be greathttp://www.denverpost.com/search/ci_9532976?source=email

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