Thomas Keller – Chef, Entrepreneur, Genius

Thomas Keller is an extremely talented American chef and entrepreneur. His restaurants include the famed “French Laundry” in Yountville (Napa Valley), Bouchon (in various locations now), Ad Hoc (Yountville), Bouchon Bakery, and of course, Per Se in NYC. He is the only American chef to own two, 3-Michelin Star establishments. Having one star is tough enough, but six? Keller was Disney’s culinary consultant for the hit movie “Ratatouille” and he is known for his efforts in sustainability (the French Laundry has it’s own garden across the street) and sourcing ingredients from small-time purveyors for his restaurants (listen to his Google talk for more details).

Keller’s motto on cooking? “Product and execution.” You take a great natural product, execute it in a dish correctly and the food you create will be stunning. After a night at Per Se, I can say with confidence that he might be on to something.

The evening at Per Se was more than a meal. It was a symphony of service and food masterfully mixed with the appropriate ambiance and environment. The people were cheerful, yet professional. The kitchen was immaculate, busy, yet peaceful. The location was luxury. The entry way smelled of fresh flowers (they have their own florist). Everything about the restaurant just screamed “perfection”. At the end of the evening, the hefty, handwritten bill was deemed well worth it and if I had the opportunity to do it all over again…

I totally would.

And by all of God’s blessings, I might be able to do it soon at the French Laundry. But more on that in June.

Salts from around the world

A small buttery roll

Terrine of Foie Gras

Cod and a Pea Tendril Raviolo

Lobster “Mitts”

Poulade with green garlic, polenta


Degustation of Lamb

Snake River Farms Beef, bone marrow confit

Pine Nut Tuile, Goat Cheese, Cherry fruit pate

Guava sorbet with toasted black sesame nougat, watermelon foam


“Coffee and doughnuts” (gotta ask for this dessert in advance)

Lemon trio dessert.

Chocolate Swiss Roll, creme fraiche sorbet, chocolate mousse.

Creme Brulee

Pot de Creme with Hibiscus Jelly

Mignardishes (hand made chocolate)

Kitchen

Kitchen again

The Menu

The Bill

Epic Dinner II.V (2.5)
Why not call it Epic Dinner III (here are the posts for Epic Dinner I and Epic Dinner II)? Well, mainly because we are auctioning off the next iteration of Epic Dinner for our church’s servant auction this month so this project was kind of an “in between” event as a gift for the Pastor of our church (Harvest San Diego) and his family. The entire spectacle took about a month of planning and an entire day of cooking but not surprisingly, it was worth every minute.

Saturday morning of the event was spent traveling to a farmers’ market and specialty grocery stores. Saturday afternoon was spent prepping and rehearsing. Saturday night was spent executing, plating, photographing, serving, and cleaning. We had 9 different staff members not all of them cooks per se but most all of them having some hand in the cooking and serving process. The most important figure of all? The dishwasher. If you are ever planning on doing a big dinner with multiple courses, a dedicated person at the sink and a dedicated person drying and racking dishes are imperative! So a big shout out to our escuelerie (keeper of the dishes).

So without further adieu, I want to present to you the food and pictures from this Epic Dinner.

Canapes

Thomas Keller’s “Bacon and Eggs” from the French Laundry Cookbook

Quail eggs are awesome to work with. They give a great “micro” presentation to any dish you’re serving. This “amuse bouche” is a soft-poached quail egg on warmed in beurre monte, finished with a brunoise of carrots and chives, and topped with crispy, applewood-smoked bacon.

Wisconsin Cheddar Gougeres, chive creme fraiche, and Jamon Iberico de Bellota

Salad

Caprese, salad of heirloom tomatoes, garlic tuile, mozzarella sphere infused with roasted garlic air, aged balsamic glaze

Not your standard caprese salad (mozzarella, basil, tomato, vinegar). We spiced it up by inflating a mozzarella curd with roasted garlic air (roasted garlic tossed into an ISI nitrous cream whipper, a neat, albeit useless culinary trick… looks pretty though). It is presented with a salad of heirloom tomatoes on top of a brioche round and topped with a garlic tuile (a la French Laundry).

Seafood

Sea Bass Sancocho, yuca, plaintains

Sancocho is a traditional Colombian soup with sea bass instead of cod filets.

Sea Bass, two more ways – miso marinated, broiled, rainbow chard, mango, avocado salsa

Miso marinated sea bass generally pairs well with pea shoots so we substituted them out for a prettier, and just as earthy, rainbow chard from the farmers’ market. Another pairing that goes well with sea bass is mango so we put together a mango salsa (mango, avocado, avocado blossom honey, lime).

Poultry

Duck breast “a la mode” – Foie Gras mousse pate, brioche triangle, honey-thyme balsamic sauce

The “a la mode” part was a play on serving it with a creamy, rich foie gras mousse pate with a brioche triangle. For the second time in a row, this was my favorite thing to eat in the dinner. The pate was super rich and creamy and the duck breast and glaze had a tremendous amount of flavor.

Meat

Braised Oxtail, Shitake, Jumbo Shrimp

Slow braised (veal stock/chicken stock mixture), red-wine marinated oxtail. Finished with a pat of butter, garlic, and chives topped with Shitake mushrooms, and a seared, jumbo shrimp. I was particularly happy with the way this dish turned out on the plate. It was simple, elegant, and each ingredient really brought attention to itself as well as accentuated the other.

Dessert

Molten Lava Cake, macerated summer berries

At first glance, a predictable and normal sounding finisher to a meal. But I challenge any exotic dessert to a well-made chocolate lava cake with berries marinated with Amaretto liqueur. I can hardly think of a better end to a meal this epic. The bottom of the cake was sprinkled with some toasted almond meal which gives it some texture and a distinct, toasted-almond flavor on the palette.

Mignardises

Lemon glazed cookies

Holy smokes these were good. The cookie had a nice, soft crumb and was expertly balanced out with a smooth, lemon glaze.

Entire Gallery

Photo Credit: Chris Chan and myself

(For Facebook viewers, the pics look much better on the blog site when clicked on and viewed through Lightbox or on the Flickr slideshow on black background slideshow here)

And then on a nonsensical note, here’s another drawing from the Wacom and Photoshop/Illustrator: Polarmoose Goes Home for Christmas.

Canon 7D
50mm, f/1.4, 1/100sec, Flash did not fire.

For this illustration, I put it on paper, then traced it in Illustrator with the pen, and then colored it in Photoshop with a pen. Pretty straight forward and coloring/inking is a lot of fun.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Our last epic dinner was on a much smaller scale. It was more of an experiment and an excuse to hang out with friends and eat more extravagantly than usual. So naturally when the idea of doing another one came up we had to make it bigger and bolder than before. So we auctioned off this dinner at a missions fundraiser for church and sold it for quite a large sum of money.

The funny thing about coordinating something this massive and epic is that the planning and execution requires an exponentially greater effort per dish you add. The elements of prep, mise en place, kitchen space, service and attentiveness to guests all require precise scheduling to ensure a smooth dining experience. Not surprisingly, I was overwhelmed by the sheer amount of hustle and bustle required to keep a multi-course meal running but the experience was invaluable and the next time it can only get better. So thinking about hitting up a restaurant that serves a 20+ course tasting? Appreciate the artistry and dexterity required to pull that off because it’s not easy – not by a long shot.

All the cooks came up with exceptionally creative and tasty dishes. The expenses came out of their own pockets and we even had practice runs to ensure that our dishes came out great on the night of Epic Dinner. I can probably speak for everyone when I say that we learned quite a bit from this experience. Anyway, without further adieu I present to you the dishes. Bon Appetit!

Photo Credit: Leon Shen

Granted, Taylor and Martin have come a long way in the practice of mass manufacturing quality, high-end guitars but when it comes down to it, both builders will probably admit that a well-crafted, hand-built guitar by a talented luthier has some sort of magic built in. Minute details like ideal bracing patterns, wood selection, and wood thickness vary by guitar due to the unique character of them.

James Goodall is, and has been, building some amazing sounding guitars. He recently moved back to Northern California and closed his shop in Hawaii. Scaling from about 15 employees to 3 (him, his son, and his wife), James will continue to build in May but on a much smaller level. So now, more than ever, I feel very fortunate to even own a Goodall guitar. Not only is she a beauty, but she makes me smile a bit on the inside every time I pick her up to strum around.

Without further delay, here’s the specs and the pictures:

1995 Goodall Rosewood Standard

• Rosewood back and sides
• Sitka Spruce top
• Ebony fingerboard with diamond inlays
• Abalone rosette
• Schaller tuners
• Flamed Koa binding
• Mahogany neck