For the next three months, Grant Achatz’ Next Restaurant will feature a 30 course meal from the recipes of Ferran Adria that he created at elBulli.  I was lucky enough to get a ticket on the opening week to what is literally the hottest reservation on Earth at the moment.  With thousands of people vying to get in, how did I manage to pull off the impossible?

A rap battle, of course.

Facing Off On Facebook

Last week, Next Restaurant decided to reward the active “Nexties” on their Facebook page by choosing 120 people or so to dine there on opening week through email submission.  Over 5000 people sent in an email.  The Facebook page was abuzz last Monday evening as people waited to see if they had been picked.  A myriad of posts were put up on the page, with people commenting on various threads.  It was in many ways like a big party.  One guy put up lyrics, which was followed by a limerick.  Then I joined the fray, and it began to spin wildly out of control.

So, yeah, we were all getting a little punch drunk. Sadly, an confirmation email never arrived for me.  I missed the boat, and would have to try for season tickets (which turned out to be that you would have had to enter the site within TEN SECONDS or miss out.  Serious demand.).  The following day I received a private message from Rupert Vaughan.  He’s considered “the Mayor of Next”, having been to each menu they’ve served – twice.  After inquiring about restaurants in San Francisco from my earlier posts, this happened:

“Hey, Jethro, how did you get a ticket to the elBulli menu?”
“Oh, the Mayor of Next liked my rap battle.”

Back In Chicago, Back To Next

There’s no way I could turn down an opportunity like this but I had to act fast.  So I took a deep breath, got out my credit card, and booked a flight for the coming weekend. Trust me, I’m deep within in the 99%. But sometimes it’s all worth it.

My Jet City Gastrophysics crime partner Eric and his lovely wife let me crash at their place.  It was sunny, but it was cold.  Man, it was chilly.  I spent the day going to the Chicago Art Museum and trying to make sure I didn’t catch a cold or trip and fall or eat a loaf of bread or do anything at all that could mess up the upcoming evening.

Rupert and I thought it would be fun if the guys all wore the same thing.  We decided we would all dress like Ferran Adria does when he’s not cooking: dress pants and jacket with a dark shirt underneath.

Chef Adria In A Suit And Shirt

For an extra homage, we pinned on a white rose to represent Roses, Spain, the location of elBulli.  Understated and classy.  After we all met up for drinks, we headed over to Next to experience the meal of a lifetime.

The elBulli Menu At Next

As befitting the Mayor of Next, we sat at the Kitchen Table.  It’s a round table that seats six, walled off from the rest of the tables.  One wall, however, is made of glass, and looks into the kitchen as they prepare and plate the dishes. Liquid Nitrogen boiling away in styrofoam boxes, dishes being individually weighted to make sure every dish gets the exact proportion. It’s always eye opening to see a kitchen execute a menu like this.  And well, it looks like this:

We were immediately given a special treat.  The first course was a drink from 2004 – a nitro caipirinha with tarragon concentrate.  Jason, their bartender, was having dinner there the same evening. Chef Beran told him to come to the Kitchen Table and prepare the mix and then chef would freeze it with the liquid nitrogen tableside.  He rose to the challenge and expertly balanced out the flavor before Chef Beran took over and did the rest.

And from there we went into the menu.  And the drinks.  Man, there were a lot of drinks.  We all got a little…animated.  A special shout out to our server Doug is warranted here.  He kept us happy and informed as we speculated if someone saw Natalie Portman in the main dining room or if he knew every little detail about every dish, as we melted into a hazy gastronomic bliss. A soldier on the front lines, and he acquitted himself well.  As did I – I was a member of the Clean Plate Club throughout the entire meal.

It’s Different Now

I had a brief conversation with Eric during the meal:

Eric is right.  This meal blew my mind. The interplay of textures and transformation of textures while eating was especially amazing to me. The thin crispiness of bread paired with the melting of iberico ham fat; the crunch of a croquette only to have a thick chicken sauce burst across the tongue; the simple act of eating flecks of ice with different flavors powdered upon it. I had conflicting feelings: that I should never cook again, or I should cook twice as much.

I had this feeling before, except it was about playing guitar: seeing Stevie Ray Vaughan in concert. I was lucky enough to see him five times. His playing was so effortless and soulful, it was just mind expanding.  Even when he did covers of other’s music, like “Little Wing” by Jimi Hendrix.  Those are some of the most remarkable musical memories for me, and I’ve seen literally hundreds of bands.  I mean, it wasn’t Jimi playing his music, but hey, man, it was SRV playing it.  And blowing it up.  Just like this meal: OK, it wasn’t in Roses, Spain and Ferran didn’t cook it, but hey, man, it was Grant Achatz and Dave Beran cooking it.  And blowing it up.

I can’t thank Rupert enough for having me join him.  A true once-in-a-lifetime experience, and I look forward to paying it forward in the future.

Jethro

P.S. I know, I know. At this point you’re thinking, “DUDE, where are some shots of the food?!”. Check out this series of photos on Facebook or this blog post.  God, you expect me to do everything. Sheesh.

My old band mate was telling me about this guy he knew who is really into the same kind of cooking I’m into and that I should get in contact with him.  I was caught up in other things and forgot about it.  Last month, this guy, who we will now call Chris, contacted me and suggested we meet and talk food.  It turned out that indeed, Seattle had yet another home cook passionate about Modernist Cuisine.  He has a centrifuge, a liquid nitrogen dewar, immersion circulators, chamber vacuum sealers, the works.  Plus, something I don’t have: a rotary evaporator.  A chance for distillation?  Yes, let’s do this.

What is a rotary evaporator?  It is a piece of lab equipment that allows you to capture the essence of just about anything you put in it.  Sand essence?  No problem.  Leather, flower, herbs – whatever smells, you can probably isolate its scent and use it with other foods.  Dave Arnold wrote an epic primer on rotary evaporation on his website, and I suggest to read that to get a thorough lowdown on the how’s and why’s of this contraption.

Spiceless Peppers

I suggested we create a roasted Thai chili pepper essence.  The interesting thing about distilling peppers is that it grabs the flavor of the peppers, but not the spice – the compound that causes spiciness, capsaicin, is left behind.  I wanted to check out what that tasted like.  So I grabbed some Thai peppers and vodka (this has a low boiling point, allowing no change in the flavor of the compounds you’re trying to isolate due to excessive heat) and went over to Chris’ place.

First thing we needed to do was roast the peppers.  Chris had a torch and we quickly toasted them up.

Next we homogenized them with the vodka.  Chris has this killer old fashioned Virtus homegenizer that we used.  I love doing this stuff.

From there we poured the pepper glop into the evaporation flask, lowered it into the water bath, increased the pressure until it began to boil, and then began rotating the flask.

The vapor entered the condenser, turned back into liquid as it cooled down, and began to collect in the receiving flask. It works! I was so excited (yes, the collection of condensed vapor gets me excited.  To each his own.).

After a half hour or so, we thought we were done, and stopped the rotovap.  A thick glop was left in the evaporation flask.  Chris put it in his dehydrator to make a nice roasted Thai chili pepper powder out of it.

We tasted our distillate. It was extremely alcoholic.  In Modernist Cuisine, they recommend letting the oil separate overnight or using a centrifuge to separate the oil from the alcohol, or solvent.  But, hey, we had another thought: why not just burn it off?  That’s more Jet City Gastrophysics style, anyway.  Burn, baby, burn!

Chris Burns Out The Vodka

And in the end, we had our roasted Thai chili pepper distillate.  It tasted distinctly of roasted peppers, but no heat at all.  Really crazy. We tried putting some with a fried egg.  It was very subtle, maybe too much.  In a vinaigrette perhaps?  Or we could have just left in the vodka and had a nice drink.  We also thickened it up and used it as a dipping sauce for some fried Mangalitsa pork belly.  Once again, very subtle.  I’m sure we will think of other applications.  But it does definitely work, and yet another tool has proven itself as a worthy companion in the Modernist kitchen.  Thanks Chris!

Jethro

Fowl In A Combi

The Cast Of Characters

The classic roasted poultry we have grown to love can be amazingly better when you fully exploit all the bells and whistles the combi oven has to offer, including low, precise temperature control, humidity control, and the space to hang the bird while it cooks.

So says Modernist Cuisine.  Well, two out of three ain’t bad.

You see, the section on combi ovens is based on the kind you find in restaurants.  Huge, stand alone machines that cost around $35000 and up, with something like 15 slots for pans.  My home version has three.  It’s a wee bit shorter.  Space to hang? Not so much.  But not that that stopped me.  So, first thing I did was substitute a cornish hen for a chicken.  A bit smaller, and should give me more room to work with in my oven.  Then I started in on the recipe.

After putting together a salt brine for the first step, the next step involved separating the skin from the meat.  I threw on some plastic gloves like the example in the book and went at it.

It was a slow process, as I didn’t want to tear it up.  I did a good job, with only one small tear at the joint of one the legs.  Next I took the salt brine and injected it into the breasts, 10% of the total weight of the bird. I somehow thought a small needle would be all I needed, but I had to pull out the big guns to fill them up.

The next step was to air dry the bird for 48 hours.  This will dry out the skin and make it extra crispy and delicious, and well as let the brine suffuse through the meat.  But it needs to be hanged to do it properly.  So I got some twine from the local butcher, and strung it up in my fridge where I left it to hang out and dry out.

And after a couple of days, it did indeed dry out. Yes, not the prettiest sight to see in your fridge, but you gotta do whatcha gotta do.

My poor hen had another round of salt injections, and then I needed to hang it in my combi oven to cook.  My oven was still too small even for this smaller bird for it to hang completely.  If I laid it down in a pan, one whole side of skin would be in contact with the meat and get wet and not crispy and delicious.  I had to improvise.  And so I took my hen by the twine, and jury rigged her in there.

I set the combi for 140F, and let the hen cook until the breast meat was up to the same temperature.  The book said it would take about 4 hours, but mine took about 6.  The first part of the chapter deals extensively with the shortcomings of current combi ovens, and with those variances along with me using a home model vs. a professional model, I figured that might be the reason why.  It also didn’t seem to get up past 136F inside the breast meat with the oven set at 140F.  Once again, I think that has to do with certain quirks with my oven.  I’ll learn them soon enough.

After it (almost) reached its target temperature, I needed to let it rest for 45 minutes at room temperature.  This allows the meat to retain its juices. I wasn’t about to adjust it from its precarious position, so I just opened up the door and let it air out.

Finally, the fast fry.  I brushed some oil onto my bird and brought my oven all the way up as far as it can go: 450F. They say 550F for 7 minutes.  As my bird was already in the oven, it had to go from room temperature to 450F.  It took about 15 minutes before it looked ready.

Just in time, too. The string was burnt up and ready to snap inside of the oven.

But, in the end, there it was: a combi oven roast chicken.  Crispy skin and juicy meat that was already perfectly salted.

It took a bit of time, but the results were fantastic.  And it turns out that you don’t need an extra $35000 to try it out at home.  Yes! A winner all the way around.

Jethro

When I was in San Francisco, I managed to score a seat at Benu, the two star Michelin restaurant in the SOMA district. It is headed up by Corey Lee, whose career has seen action in seven 3-star Michelin restaurants in England, France and the U.S. He was also the chef de cuisine at The French Laundry.  The Real Deal.  And, my first Michilen starred restaurant (Next doesn’t count, right?).

As is becoming my custom, I won’t wax poetic.  Just bad camera photos. Enjoy!

Thousand Year Quail Egg, Potage, Ginger

Oyster, Pork Belly, Kimchi

Monkfish Liver, Caviar, Pistachio, Cauliflower, Lemon Jelly, Brioche

Eel, Feuille de Brick, Creme Fraiche, Lime

Caramelized Anchovy, Lilly Bulb, Peanut, Pickles

Salt And Pepper Squid

Foie Gras Xiao Long Bao

Read that again. Foie Gras Xiao Long Bao.  Full on Euro-Asian collision.  And he pulled it off.  That is cool.

Five Tines, Two Stars

Hokkaido Sea Cucumber Stuffed with Shrimp, Cucumber, Onion, Fermented Pepper

Chicken In Two Courses

Chicken In Two Courses

Japanese Deer Tartare

Beef Braised In Pear

"Shark's Fin" Soup

This wasn’t really shark fin but an artificial creation of his own making. It had great texture and flavor, and if I had had shark fin before, I might say it was a perfect replica.  But I have no idea.

Grapefruit, Espelette, White Chocolate

Coffee with Sugar (No, Really, Just Coffee with Sugar)

Acorn-Cranberry Custard

Chocolates

And that was that.  But, I saw the table next to me getting some serious VIP service.  The waitress was going person to person, shaving huge chunks of truffle onto their dishes.  I wanted in on the action.  I asked her if I could have some shaved truffle as well.  She left and came back with a little truffle trinket for me to taste.

I Be Trufflin' All VIP Style

I asked to go back to the kitchen and meet Chef Lee, which they gladly obliged.  The kitchen hummed away with action, and Chef Lee was very nice and I appreciated him taking a brief moment to speak with me.  The staff was stellar and I had a taste bud blast.

Now if only they had a cookbook so I could do this at home.

Jethro

I had the opportunity to try out some of the fine dining establishments of San Francisco while I was there.  My first stop after my flight was a burrito in the Mission district. It put a sudden end to that day’s culinary explorations, however; I was so stuffed I couldn’t think of taking a bite of anything at all.

The next day, I didn’t know where to eat, so I checked out the 26 new places to go at SFGate.com and SF Eater 38 and determined a couple of places to go. That evening, I found myself at Commonwealth at 18th and Mission (whose address is 2224 Mission Street – what’s up with that, San Francisco?).

They were busy and it was late, but they were still serving and had a single spot open at the bar so I took it.  It has a friendly gastropub feel. I had a guy in the kitchen in front of me alternately freezing things in N2O and burning things with a blowtorch.  The very hot/very cold station, I suppose.  My kind of place.  I decided on the tasting menu. So yeah, I’m one of those annoying guys who takes crappy photos of each course with his phone – and here they are:

Foie Gras Bon Bons

Tonka Bean Covered Foie? Yeah, OK!

Scallop

Quail

Green Apple Sorbet

Peanut Butter Semifreddo

I forgot to take a pic of the artichoke dish, because I inhaled it in about two seconds. But that’s not all – I tried some more courses on top of that:

I can’t remember what the first one was, but the second was a mushroom puree that I asked for a thermos full of, next was cedar smoked mussels, then sea urchin and the last was a matcha tea puff.  I was appropriately stuffed at this point.

On top of that, they donate $10 of each tasting menu to the San Francisco Food Bank. Yes, very, very cool.  Thanks to Chef Jason Fox and the rest of the crew.  It was a great introduction to what’s going on in San Francisco right now.  And let me tell you, it is going on.

Jethro

What do you need to do this?  Use vodka or better yet, everclear.   Depending on what you choose you can simply weigh it all out, can it cold, and place in the refrigerator for a few days then strain and you got yourself a nice bit of extract for sauces, marinating, baking, or whatever.   Some lend themselves better to going sous vide for about three to four hours.  So get to work, there are tons of crazy extracts for you to make!

Flavors I made today:

Saffron, Orange Zest, Candied Ginger (slice ginger thin, make some simple syrup and as it’s cooling down throw in the ginger then place in refrigerator for a day, take out ginger, dehydrate for 5 hours then toss in sugar with a little malic acid), Cocoa Nib, Adobo, Chili Flake, Coffee, and Licorice Root.

The possibilities are endless!

Eric

I dropped down to San Francisco to spend the weekend and got an opportunity to visit the private showroom of LeSanctuaire.  LeSanctuaire is a provider of very high end tools, plateware and ingredients online.  It’s a great online site, offering everything from Tapioca Pearls for $2 to GastroVacs for almost $6000.  I was met by their Sales Manager, Fany, and she let me basically lose my mind as I was able to be in the presence of some very cool kitchen stuff.  They have many things that are sold exclusively through them, so it was amazing to see it in person. It was like a museum of fine kitchenware.

Here’s some of the things I saw:

elBulli Plateware

elBulli Aroma Spoon

Thermomix and Super Bags

Many thanks to Fany for letting me check it all out, and I recommend you visit their site when you’re shopping for the best of the best. An amazing and unique selection!

Jethro