Read These, Watch This.

27 Monday Feb 2012

Posted by in blow shit up

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I’ve been assaulted by all sorts of great food related things to indulge in and I think you should indulge as well:

International Journal of Gastronomy and Food Science

International Journal of Gastronomy and Food Science

Dry technical white papers on high end gastronomy?  You know me too well.  This is the first edition in a type of publication that is long overdue.  Want to learn about priprioca and its contributions to gastronomy?  How about the recipe to Mugaritz’ edible stones?  It’s here.

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Roses in Chicago: Experiencing elBulli At Next

15 Wednesday Feb 2012

Posted by in i ate there

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Next:elBulli

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.

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Rotary Evaporation In The Emerald City

10 Friday Feb 2012

Posted by in homogenization, rotary evaporation

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Buchi Rotary Evaporator

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.

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Modernist Cuisine At Home: Combi Oven Roast Chicken

06 Monday Feb 2012

Posted by in brining, combi oven, MC at home

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I’m reading (and cooking) through that massive tome that is Modernist Cuisine, and am currently at Book Two: Techniques And Equipment, Chapter Eight: Cooking In Modern Ovens, Section One: Cooking With Moist Air. It is here they put their first sentence that is entirely in italics: “Humidity governs the temperature at which food actually cooks“. This is an important point, and helps understand why things are cooking the way they are, down to your particular oven and location. This is covered in Book One on the physics of heat and water. The basic takeaway is that transferring heat from air into food is more even and efficient when water vapor is condensing onto cooler food. For example, onto a roast chicken.  Let’s observe.

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Eating In San Francisco: Benu

24 Tuesday Jan 2012

Posted by in i ate there, uncategorized

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Benu

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?).

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Eating In San Francisco: Commonwealth

20 Friday Jan 2012

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The Kitchen At Commonwealth

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?).

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Extracts

17 Tuesday Jan 2012

Posted by in dehydration, sous vide, vacuum sealing

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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