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100_2241
Originally uploaded by linecook

Moving is horrible. Just thought I would share that.

Plate Up: FOIE 9/07

People called the August foie plate up "elegant", "feminine", and "four star." It was classic visually, while utilizing modern techniques. For September, we wanted to do something completely different...flavor and technique wise. As ive never worked with Corey Lee or David Kinch, I resorted to studying their pictures and recipes for inspiration. On the other hand, I had also been looking at Alinea, WD-50, and Ideas In Food's stuff, and became obsessed with the idea of doing something completely different.

The mise for this plate up is gala apple puree, gelled with low and high acyl gellan, and bruleed. The rest of the apple puree is used for sauce. Also on the plate are crushed pistachios, a fennel pollen caramel made with isomalt, shaved tonka bean, and ice wine vinegar.

In the quest for something different, we had a few failures.

All in all, the lines on this plate were wrong. It was far too busy, and when Rossi finally told me he didnt really care for it, I decided to do something a little closer to my comfort level.


Sauce goes left of center, and smeared. The drag doesnt have to be perfect--its going to be partially covered.



Tonka bean and pistachios are added. Im giving even more tonka now...the aroma is amazing.

The apple puree is covered in bakers sugar and bruleed. It stays warm nicely.



The fennel pollen caramel is placed on the foie. These things are fucking delicate.

The final garnish is a dot of minus 8 vinegar gelled with agar, and micro Thai basil.


NEXT: Spiced French toast, pear butter, and maple powder.

Re: Dude Update.

Previously posted this. When I showed this to my wife, her inquisitive nature led me to this. Although, there were a couple more WTF's.

Enjoy.

George Lucas and the Hood

Last night, George Lucas was supposed to come into my restaurant. It would have been his third visit, and seeing as our place is on his property (and next door to Lucasfilm, Lucasarts, and ILM) its probably a comfortable place for him to dine. So imagine my dismay when his table of four sat, and George was nowhere to be found. Supposedly the guy that made the reso called himself "the other George Lucas." Coincidence that he happened to book at a restaurant on the real George Lucas's property? I think not. So today, as I ate my cereal and drank my coffee, I channel surfed onto Howard the Duck. It was like a double Lucas slap in the face.

Im moving this weekend. We found a place thats more or less twice as big, for five dollars less a month. Thats a cup of blue bottle. Our new landlord is....old. And crazy as shit. But a little more room will be nice.

My walk home the other night yielded some nice pics...






This last one is of the party next door. Its funny, a year of living here, and only in my last week do I see a party going on.

Much, much more later.

Dude.

WTF.

Iraq Lies (video)

My Spoon Is Too Big...

Plate Up: FOIE 8/07 Continued

Foie Gras. Just by talking about it can get you some weird stares, and my work has gotten several "I wont fucking eat there" emails because we serve it.

As a young cook, you are drawn to all things new, shiny, and expensive--including foie, caviar, kobe beef, etc. Coming from Northern California, young cooks are also exposed to some amazing produce and seafood. But its always the pricey stuff that gets them interested.

Ive been making the terrine of foie gras for a while now. Admittedly, our recipe is adapted from a John Benno recipe, which is ultimately from a Thomas Keller recipe. But I still think ours is unique enough to be called our own.


Ive now passed the terrine making on to the younger cooks. This has allowed a little more time to think about the plate up...which lucky for me, has been gifted to me by our executive chef. The following is our August plate up.

This is my station. Its up at the pass, next to sautee. We keep the sous vide bath and anti-griddle there. For this plate up we did alginate spheres..."sauternes caviar." There were also amazing pluots coming from Brookside Farms, which we used as sauce (juiced, strained through super bag, gelled with agar, pureed) and also raw on the plate.


I have an obsession with clean plates.

The pluot sauce gets dragged in a tight half circle, and another dot is placed a little further back. Foie powder is sprinkled in between. The foie is placed just off center.

Halen Mon sea salt

and the "caviar" is placed on top.

The final garnish is a slice of pluot and micro basil.

Star Route Farms

wii and radishes 007
Originally uploaded by linecook

These radishes came in from Star Route Farms in Bolinas. We also got some purselane and arugula...but these radishes were especially beautiful. (and tasty...with butter and sea salt.) More here.

Spoon.

newset tattoo
Originally uploaded by linecook

I got this in May, at Idle Hand. The artist was Doug Hansen. What can I say...I like spoons.

Station

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Originally uploaded by linecook

Sous station, stand around station, gastro station....whatever they call it, here it is. About two grand in polyscience gear, a calcium chloride bath, syringes, and alot of flavored oils.

Plate up. Item: FOIE 8/07

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Originally uploaded by linecook

So it all starts here...with the sake poached foie gras. We take sonoma foie--"A" lobes, and devein them. Then we soak it in salted ice water overnight to remove some blood. (the saltwater is salted as to mimic bloods salinity) The next day we rinse the foie and cure it in a mix of salt, sugar, star anise, curing salt, and white pepper. On the third day we roll it into torchon and poach it.

the first post.

so this blog is supposed to be about food...but will probably end up featuring pictures of me and my friends drinking. enjoy!