Cheese is actually a surprisingly useful theme for a multi-course dinner because it can play completely different roles depending on the dish. It can be the main ingredient, a garnish, a sauce, a foam, a filling, or even part of a cocktail. The main challenge was making sure that ten cheese-based courses did not turn into ten increasingly heavy plates of melted cheese.

The final menu ended up ranging from a blue cheese martini and a fairly light beet salad through several pasta and vegetable courses, before finishing with Japanese cheesecake.… Read the rest

The original dish was created after the 2012 earthquake in Emilia-Romagna damaged a huge amount of Parmigiano Reggiano. Bottura came up with the risotto as a way to help encourage people to buy and use the affected cheese. The resulting recipe takes the basic idea of cacio e pepe and turns it into a risotto built around an intensely flavoured Parmesan stock and cream.… Read the rest

The basic idea was pretty simple: instead of serving cubes of paneer in spinach gravy, I would put the paneer inside ravioli and use the palak as the sauce underneath. The nice thing about this approach is that the flavours remain very recognizably palak paneer even though the presentation is completely different.

It also turned out to be a pretty good dinner-party dish. Almost everything can be made ahead of time, and at service all you really need to do is warm the spinach sauce and boil the ravioli for about a minute.… Read the rest

I particularly liked how broadly I could interpret the protein theme. When people normally think of protein, they tend to think of red meat, but I wanted to use a variety of things like seafood, eggs, milk, etc. The final progression was egg, salmon, shrimp, dairy, chicken, lamb, beef, and then back to egg + dairy again for dessert.… Read the rest

This 2017 BMW i8 is one of just 400 Protonic Red Editions produced worldwide, making it a rare and collectible example of BMW’s groundbreaking plug-in hybrid sports coupe. Finished in Protonic Red Metallic with Frozen Grey accents, this special edition features a color combination and styling details exclusive to the Protonic Red variant. It’s part of a total global i8 production run of fewer than 20,500 units from 2014 to 2020.

Powered by a turbocharged 1.5-liter inline-three paired with a front-mounted electric motor, the i8 produces a combined 357 horsepower and 420 lb-ft of torque.… Read the rest

For our first multi-course meal at our new place in Hayward, I spent a lot of time brainstorming a theme. My initial idea was to base it on ice cream because it would be completely prepped ahead and offer a unique twist. I found some really interesting recipes, including several savory ice cream options, but ultimately, I felt it would be too much sugar and too one-dimensional to be a complete meal.

My second option was to go with a potato theme, especially since I had always wanted to recreate the Hot Potato Cold Potato dish. However, I remembered that the last time I did it was also a potato-themed dinner, so I decided to switch things up and go with pasta and pasta-adjacent dishes instead.… Read the rest

Fast forward to 2022 and I had a meal at Gucci Osteria da Massimo Botturo where they served a fantastic American Breakfast dish which consisted of poached quail egg and caviar covered with a potato foam.… Read the rest