| Breaking Bread and Boundaries A Perspective on Two Modern Culinary Minds Good day, I hope you all have had a happy new year, with all sorts of eventful nonsense, with all sorts of delightful consequences. I am going to start off this year in lock step of where we left of last year; burning the candle at both ends with all efforts bent on trying to learn and recreate these multicourse meals from Thomas Keller and Grant Achatz. I invite you to the final two presentations of these 21 course meals in both Chicago and San Francisco. After our event in New York, that we consider to be a rousing success we have secured beautiful locations in both Chicago and San Francisco in our quest to follow these amazing chefs across the county. Dates for events: Chicago: Thursday, January 22nd, Preparation Demonstration (no eating just cooking) Friday, January 23rd, Event Saturday, January 24th, Event San Francisco: Thursday, January 29th, Preparation Demonstration (no eating just cooking) Friday, January 30th, Event Saturday, January 31st, Event Below is the menu for both event, a vague description of the wine selection (as we are still talking with vineyards and what have you) some links to information about the events if you are not familiar, some photos from people who have been to the dinners and just some articles to try and put the whole event in perspective as we find it hard to explain the scope properly.
This is a lovely review of our December event by Time Out NY with great photos and an interview from Grant Achatz, where he does a great job of explaining the severity of what we are trying to accomplish. This is a course by course photo journal of the meal that was served at Alinea; the same that we will be serving which is below (minus the bread, sorry). Josh Ozersky from The Feedbag made this a video in our work space before the New York event while we were trying to work out some of the kinks in making a $1500 meal possible at $300. This is a series of posts by Pete Wells from the NY Times on his experience at Per Se for the first of their meal on November 11th: The chef’s their restaurants and new cook books. In our usual style, we will be opening the kitchen to our guests so that they may participate in the creation of their meal. In this case, in addition to the demonstrations and lessons that will be given the day of the event, we will also be offering an additional demonstration during the preparation schedule that precedes the dinners. Details for the events: Price: $300 a person, Friday or Saturday for the 1-day 21 course event, 6 hour demonstration $125 a person, Thursday, 6-12 hour preparation demonstration, into the wee hours of the night Demonstrations, lessons and location are purposefully withheld and will only be sent to guests the Wednesday before the event. Menu: CORNET OF SALMON – black sesame tuile, red onion crème fraîche PRAWN – yuba, miso, orange WHITE STURGEON CAVIAR – Lemon verbena gelée, cauliflower BLIS CHAR ROE – coconut, coriander, vanilla fragrance HOT POTATO-COLD POTATO – black truffle, chive, butter BLACK TRUFFLE EXPLOSION – romaine, parmesan HEN EGG CUSTARD – ragoût of black winter truffles JACOBSEN’S FARM MUSQUÉE DE PROVENCE SOUP – sea urchin sabayon, black truffle purée IBÉRICO HAM – acorn, compressed apple, celery, endive, honey WILD STRIPED BASS – chamomile, shellfish, ginger JAPANESE GREENUP ABALONE – yuzu, tapioca, seaweed, matsutake mushroom broth ELYSIAN FIELDS FARM LAMB – fennel, pernod, coffee aroma SNAKE RIVE FARMS ‘CALOTTE DE BOEUF GRILLÉE” – brisket and cabbage dumplings, horseradish pudding, sour cherries CHESTNUT – quince, chocolate, baked potato BACON – butterscotch, apple, thyme CONCORD GRAPE – yogurt, mint, long pepper TRANSPARENCY of raspberry, rose petals DIANE ST. CLAIR’S BUTTERMILK SHERBET – roasted pecan crumble, whiskey sour coulis SPICE CAKE – persimmon, rum, Ohio honeycomb CHOCOLATE S’MORES – graham cracker ‘crunch,’ chocolate ‘crémeux,’ creamy “fluff” toasted marshmallow, chocolate emulsion SWEET POTATO – bourbon, brown sugar, smoldering cinnamon Wines: These varietals will also be paired with each event Champagne Chardonnay Hermitage Blanc Gamay Cabernet Sauvignon Madeira Trockenbeerenauslese Menu written by Thomas Keller and Grant Achatz; executed with Daniel Castaño, Mark Low, Thomas Helmick, Akiko Moorman, Brian Sullivan, Mayur Subbarao, Andrew Rosenberg and host of amazing friends and special guest chefs. RSVP to me with any dietary restrictions. Seats will be allocated on a first come basis and will only be confirmed by complete payment. If you have any questions about the education topics that we will be going over or dishes we will be serving please feel free to contact me. If you would like to tell people about these events or invite anyone specifically, please forward this message along to them and have them RSVP to me directly. If you were forwarded this email and would like to receive future emails from A Razor, A Shiny Knife, please sign up at the site below. I thank you all and look forward to cooking with you. Michael "Like building cathedrals: each generation works off the last one, both in its advances and its errors." - David Foster Wallace.
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