The Last Word

I have called an end to this bull shit chapter of my life and am happy to start a new one.

www.notionrestaurant.com

There is a blog started that will be attached to this site. Thank you for your support in the past and for your continued support in the future.

Before the stars fall....

I would like to take a moment to let everyone know that my previous employer, myself and my dining room manager amicably parted ways today. Just as important as it was for me to tell the world I was the chef of a Forbes 5 Star restaurant, it is even more important for me to let you know that I no longer am.

It would be easy to be embittered, but I can only imagine that would just be wasted energy. Instead, I am thankful for the time I had there and the opportunities given to me. I spent most of my culinary career and I grew from a cook to a chef there. I made the best friends I've ever had in my life there. For that I am thankful.

We busted our asses, all of us, the stuff that we have been through together built bonds that I wont soon forget, and while the resort is going in another direction, Lautrec 2007-2010 will never be forgotten (some of us have ink to prove it). And I will be eternally grateful to the team who helped me reach my goals, front and back you all know who you are.

Rose Strawberry, Cane Sugar, Menthol

Duck Fennel, Grapefruit, Thai Pepper

Sous vide duck breast, duck confit, foie gras, caramelized fennel puree, confit fennel, fennel stalk, fennel fronds, oro blanco segments, juice and candied rind, diced prunes, foam made from oro blanco juice and thai pepper

Fluke Salsify, Red Onion, Lemon

Salsify puree, fried salsify, red onion marmalade, lemon powder, panko roasted in brown butter and thyme

Lime Miso, Sesame, Powdered Sugar

Frozen lime foam, dehydrated and powdered sesame cake and red miso, powdered sugar

Milk Chocolate Elderflower, Cocoa, Sour Cream

Milk chocolate pudding, dark chocolate sponge, elderflower in forms, gooseberry and sour cream ice cream. Mmmmmmmmm

Peekytoe Horseradish, Passion fruit, Soy

I like really bold flavors, not for every course, not even every bite, but sometimes when used appropriately, overly sweet or overly salty or overly acidic flavors can be really great.

Beet Carpaccio, Traditional Flavors

This summer we did a watermelon course that was frozen and defrosted 3 times. I used that idea when thinking about this course. The beets are salt roasted for 2 hours and then frozen and defrosted 3 times. The freezer usually doesn't get any colder than -10 so it takes the beets a long time to freeze, which is important. At this temperature ice crystals form and expand and break down the cells inside the beets. Texturally the beets are really amazing. They feel like they would be soft enough to just fall apart to the touch, but surprisingly they have a great bite to them.

The rest of the flavors everyone would expect from carpaccio: capers, chives, pickled and burnt onions, manchego cheese, puffed manchego cheese, cassis, almonds, beet chips, baby cress. Well, they started traditional anyway.

Lobster Puffed, Chilled, Sudachi

This one bite course is before the larger version. Tapioca starch, lobster, and lobster glace are processed, rolled thin, steamed, dehydrated, and fried. On top is chopped lobster mixed with vanilla chive aioli and sudachi gel.

Lobster Shellfish, Curry, Celery

Chestnut Apple Cider, Cauliflower, Praline

White Truffles from Umbria

Skate Matsutake, Pinenut, Rosemary

It makes sense. The association of ingredients that are closely related or grow together is a good place to start when creating. We started with the matsutake or Japanese pine mushroom. The rest was easy, pinenut puree, heavily roasted pinenuts, and rosemary intended to be inhaled by the diner to incorporate the aroma without the bitter, overpowering flavor.

Pork Cucumber, Bok Choi, Miso

SRF pork shoulder is brined for 2 days and cooked for 18 hours. After its cooked, this pig offers no resistance and practically melts like gelatin. Coconut is blended and set with agar. Before the gelee is set, it is put in a cryovac machine to remove the air to give it a much denser texture, a lot like tofu. The coconut gelee actually has more bite than the pork. Cucumber kimchee offers a sour flavor that I thought was important in this dish. The broth is a spicy, briny, sweet and salty, gingery mass that is the reason for the dish. Actually, if it wasnt for young chef William's "mistake", this dish wouldnt be on the menu.

Coconut Blueberry, Habanero, Acid Orange

Tuna Kiwi, Soy, Black Garlic

Wagyu Broccoli, Cheddar, Mustard

Scallop Matsutake, Almond, Curry

Elysian Fields Lamb Carrot, Whipped Honey, Raisins

Keith Martin is one of the few purveyors we as chef might be fortunate enough to work with. Because of his strict attention to detail and love for what he does, his lamb is considered to be some of the best in the country. If you haven't read it, there is a great story about Keith in TFL cookbook (which I read at least 2 dozen times). I am fortunate that Lautrec is only 45 minutes from the farm and have had the pleasure to shake Keith's hand and thank him for his hard work in person. Its not every day we get to meet the Shepard's of the products we use, but when you see the same passion in the eyes of the man who raised your food, it put a new perspective on what my responsibility to this lamb really is.

Corn in Eight Forms

Corn Custard, Corn Husk Gelee, Sous Vide Corn Bread

Truffle Popcorn, Corn Chips,Freeze Dried Corn, Corn Shoots

Frosted Flakes Milk(under the custard)

Foie Gras Peach, Blueberry, Buttermilk

Dark Chocolate Lime, Raspberry, Mint

the light box

This is the first picture taken in my new light box. A $10 light, 3 sheets of poster board, a free box and some glue. Presto!! Much crisper photography.

Watermelon Imitating Tuna

King Crab passion fruit, coconut, kabosu

butter foam(not shown)

candied cilantro

coconut custard

freeze dried coconut

toasted coconut

                                                      braised mustard

                                                      kombu

                                                      kabosu gel

                                                    green goddess 

                                                    passion fruit custard

these flavors together really make me happy. sometimes if you're lucky when you bite into something you smile involuntarily.

                                                 

there are 3 months out of the year when i have other hobbies...may is one of them, the others are october and the first 2 weeks of november. thats my little dudey behind me. and if youre asking yourself "what does this have to do with food"...where do you think turkey comes from?

Wagyu(bulgogi)fermented black garlic, soy, kiwi, argan

i stole this directly from a friend, well the combination of flavors anyway....mine looks better

Peas lavender, honey, passionfruit

pea puree, fresh peas, green and gold pea shoots, pea blossoms, passionfruit gelee, whipped honey, honey sphere, freeze dried honey, lavender gel, lavender flowers, vanilla cream, malted shortbread

when i first completed my list of components, i thought this dish would be in the first 3rd of the grand tasting menu. just like every other dish, it starts with a clipboard with a blank piece of paper(cause the lined paper messes with my ocd a little), a blue bic pen, and the dinner menu hung on the wall to my back where i prep in the kitchen. from the "final" list, because no dish is ever really final, i began to write the recipes that we would test. i took a step back from the clipboard and i hit me that for a couple of reasons this would make perfect sense being in the bottom 3rd, specifically after the last savory course. most of us think of peas in a savory application, so mentally it isn't what the guests will expect. and second it offered a great bridge or transition between savory and sweet. 

I think he scared the meat off that fish

finally i have two thermal circulators and the capacity to sous vide foods at different temperatures. this is my first white asparagus cooked sous vide....WOW! i feel like ive been cheated my entire life...like every time ive eaten asparagus prior to today i was stolen from or lied to. blanching asparagus in water was, for the most part, how every aspiring young chef learned to cook the vegetable. i would imagine this is because thats what chefs had done for years and it was just passed down from generations. the end result was palatable asparagus and pot of intensely flavored asparagus water. but this generation has science. like it or leave it, for better of worse, science and chemistry play a huge part in cooking. i understand like hydrophylic properties of asparagus because of chemistry, meaning its volatile flavor compounds bond rapidly with water, but not with fat or in this case oil, but i never realized just how drastic the difference is. the flavor is amazing. this is what we did with it.

 White  Asparagus meyer lemon, green goddess, violet, licorice

sous vide white asparagus, white asparagus cloud, green goddess dressing, frozen meyer lemon puree, violet flavored yogurt, lemon oil jam, violet flowers, grated licorice

          Sanchez d, little d, dan, daniel, danny, chef dan...

          he goes by many names, i proudly call him my sous chef

tai snapper from browne trading company. these guys really know their fish, namely lucas, who is the greatest fish monger alive! they have earned a lifelong client. thank you for you commitment to being the best.

Pork Belly banana miso, kimchee, sudachi, daikon

Pork Belly in Brine

Fennel Soup apple, pecorino, marigold

Tuna sudachi, avocado pineapple, banana

Yuzu ginger, macha tea, salt foam

Langoustine fennel, foam from its head

Shrimp  lemon, daikon, soy green garlic

Cod honshimeji, pinenuts, burnt onion, parsley

Cod Skin malt vinegar

Celery Root red curry custard, almond, dried bacon, warm cider

         Cherry sweet and tart

Niragi soy, soybeans, cucumber

 daikon