Jet City Gastrophysics Goes To Alinea

23 Monday Apr 2012

Posted by jethro in blow shit up, i ate there

Tags

Alinea, Chicago, Eric Rivera, Grant Achatz, Scott Heimendinger

~~Jet~~ Windy City Gastrophysics

I hear it’s pretty hard to get into high end restaurants. I’m not so sure – either the problem is exaggerated or I have an awesome lucky streak. My dinner for Next:Childhood? I just got online and reserved a ticket. Benu in San Francisco? I put in a request on the waiting list and a table cancelled.

So when I wanted to get into Alinea, considered the best restaurant in the US, and even the world (depending on who’s ranking), I called their reservation line. It was busy. I called again. It was busy. I called again. They answered and I made a reservation. I wouldn’t call that persistence. I guess it’s either not that hard or the food gods want my taste buds to do some worshiping. And if all else fails, of course, you can always rap battle.

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Modernist Cuisine At Home: Tomato Basil Spheres

16 Monday Apr 2012

Posted by jethro in centrifuge, emulsions, MC at home, spherification

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

basil, Modernist Cuisine, tomato water

It’s been a long time since I’ve tried my hand at spherification, and I thought it was time to revisit the technique. I’ve done it three times before: the first meeting of Jet City Gastrophysics, my cooking session with Chef Ian Kleinman, and another time when I made some coffee caviar. One of the iconic photos from Modernist Cuisine is their Tomato Basil Spheres, so that seemed like a perfect place to give it another go around. It’s basically an Insalata Caprese that’s been liquified. Welcome to the future.

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Modernist Cuisine At Home: Liquid Center Egg

08 Sunday Apr 2012

Posted by jethro in MC at home, sous vide

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Beet Juice, Easter, Egg, Modernist Cuisine

I was invited to an Easter brunch yesterday and thought I should bring something along, as is custom. Although a bottle of champagne for mimosas would have been good enough, I wanted to bring a dish as well. Of course, there is Easter ham, but I wanted to do something different. As luck would have it, the crew at Modernist Cuisine put up a riff on traditional Chinese tea eggs to create a special Easter dish. Perfect! I went to the store and went at it in the kitchen.

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