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

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

But wait, there’s more. Three more to be exact. Even after assigning groups to cook (Chris and I were going to do three dishes each and assigned two more dishes to others), we had some more dishes brought to the party that were all magnificent. So let’s summarize that up: an 11 course (count ‘em ELEVEN!) tasting menu served between 8 friends. Now that is mind bottling.

And now, the starting lineup:

Round 1

We started off with some flavorful appetizers. The first tastings consisted of four dishes:

1. Polenta Cakes topped with Carmelized Onions and Mushrooms & Tomatoes and Blue Cheese
2. Broiled Mussels with Sweetened Salmon Roe
3. Pan Seared Scallops
4. Pepper Crusted Ahi Tuna

The polenta cakes were nice and thick. Serving as a perfect bedding for a classic mixture of caramelized onions and mushrooms & small cherry tomatoes, basil, and blue cheese.

(unfortunately we didn’t take pics of these but trust me, they were good looking, great tasting appetizers)

The mussels. Now, if you’ve never had mussels with a layer of thick, sweet, pale-orange cream, then you’re missing out. These tasty bivalves were broiled under a hot oven, caramelizing the exterior and forming a handy little appetizer. They… come… with… their… own… spoon… folks.

Our scallops were a bit cold since they were cooked WAY in advanced. But either way, you could taste the nicely seared tops simply seasoned with salt and pepper. Mine had a great texture and didn’t succumb to the rubberization (yes I just made that word up, nice huh?) that overcooked scallops usually exhibit. Good job Chris, I had like five of these.

Chris made some phenomenal looking Ahi Tuna. There was a nice and thick pepper crust that added a bit of heat to the fish without overpowering the taste. Not only was the texture was great on this slice of fish but it was beautiful to look at as well. Nice job again Chris.

My plate: Hello, my name is Fat. You may have heard of my relatives, they reside at 123 Artery Lane.
Me: Oh why hello Fat. i heard many things about you. Are you really as tasty as they say you are?
My plate: Yes, very versatile too. I come in many forms. I can be an oil for deep frying, a flavorful component of a great steak, and an Omega-3 fatty acid commonly found in fishes.
Me: Wow, that’s an impressive resume. Come hither and be consumed.

Round 2

We took a short break to plate the next round of tastings. Then the bell rung and Round 2 officially began with:

1. Honey-Walnut Shrimp Doughnuts
2. Sirloin Steak with a Red Wine Reduction
3. Miso Marinated Chilean Sea Bass

Leon started us out with a cool twist on Honey-Walnut Shrimp. After carefully de-veining and peeling the shrimp, he wrapped them in French Bread dough and deep fried them. The result? A crispy outside with a nice and chewy interior filled with a nice and pink shrimp. After dipping it in a honey, mayonnaise, and sweetened condensed milk glaze, my heart was in love… or was that an acute myocardial infarction?

Gloria seared us a few delicious steaks with a red wine reduction. I don’t know too much about what went in there but the steaks were freakin’ delicious. They were seared on the outside with an absurdly hot pan (I know from experience) and cooked to a nice pink medium-rare on the inside. The reduction was a concentrated mixture of red wine, shallots, and garlic.

Up next was an enormous piece of wild Chilean Sea Bass. One of my all time favorite fishes to eat due to the ‘melt-in-your-mouth’ texture, this fish was not an exception. Leon marinated it with a miso, Mirin, and brown sugar blend and threw it in the oven until it reached an internal temperature of 130F. You want to try the best fish ever? Go buy a good piece of Chilean Sea Bass, do it right, and be prepared to get wow’ed.

Round 3

At this point, we needed a long break. The premiere of Gossip Girls came on so the girls (and Chris) watched that. Meanwhile, the others relaxed and pondered how they were going to work off the massive calorie intake. However, when Round 3 came along, we were ready to go again:

1. Japanese Mushroom Risotto with White Truffle Butter and Piave Cheese
2. Japanese Wagyu Beef Shabu Shabu with a Lemon Soy Dipping Sauce

A risotto is a wonderful thing. Using standard Arborio rice, I prepared it the traditional way by slowly stirring in chicken broth until it was thick and creamy. Fusing Italian with a bit of Japanese, I stirred in some sauteed Hon Shimeji and Enoki mushrooms and at the last minute, infused it with cream, white truffle butter, and Piave cheese (a delicious hard cheese very similar to Parmesan). The risotto was topped with some fresh chives, a Piave cheese crisp and drizzled with some white truffle oil. Rich yes. Expensive yes. Worth it, oh my gosh yes.

This here ya’ll is imported Japanese Wagyu (Kobe-style) beef. Not the American stuff. Not the Australian stuff. The marbling of fat was so intense it gave the overall appearance of the meat a soft pink hue. I decided to prepare half of it by simply swishing it around some boiling water. The other half was quickly seared in a pan coated with a bit of extra virgin olive oil. I then made a soy, mirin, lemon dipping sauce that rounded out the meat with a bit of salinity and tang. The beef was extremely tender and flavorful though I’ll be the first to admit that Wagyu or Kobe needs to be enjoyed in the form of a steak to be properly admired (only if you have an extra arm or leg to spend).

Finally dessert…

Yvonne said that dessert goes to another stomach. I will agree with her. We all know that scientifically speaking, humans have a separate glove compartment for storing after dinner sweets. So what is for dessert? Oh wouldn’t you like to know…

1. Tiramisu
2. Trio of Frozen Delights: Berry Sorbet, Mascarpone Sorbet, and Vanilla Ice Cream

Emily made this gorgeous Tiramisu in the living room. Yes… with the couches, the carpet, and everything… without spilling a drop. The kitchen was occupied by people making the savories of the night so she made her dish some where else. The cocoa powder and sugar was even sifted outside! Tiramisu needs no description. Just look it up on Wikipedia.

Without a doubt, the single coolest piece of kitchen equipment I own is my Ferrari-red ice cream maker. I went a tad crazy with it and churned out a luscious Mascarpone cheese sorbet (think rich cheesecake), a triple berry sorbet (blueberries, strawberries, and raspberries), and a decadent vanilla ice cream. Once you have any of these home made frozen wonders, you’ll never want to buy iced desserts again. The offer is open, if you want to borrow my ice cream maker you just have to ask (oh and make sure that I’m not using it that night haha). I’ll even teach you how to make the base for any of the above.

After the night was over, I certainly felt sick to my stomach given how much I had eaten but the experience of it all was unforgettable. I’d like to think of it as the ultimate potluck. It was fun and educational culinary experience.

A summary, in pictures (credit to Chris for taking such wonderful pictures, they came out awesome man)

All the pics at once now:

For those of you who didn’t see the first video Sam the Cooking Guy waltzed right into an awkward situation on the Today Show. And he thought he was just going for a cooking demonstration…

First Time Around

Kathie Lee and Hoda Kotb was in for one heck of a surprise as their usual subjugation over the guest’s segment took a 180 as Sam the Cooking guy stopped them in mid-sentence and asked for one minute of silence so he could do his thing (and subsequently called them out for doing so on others!).

As if the above episode wasn’t awkward and rude enough,  they invited him BACK to the Today show this morning and they seeked vindication for Sam’s ‘transgressions’ on the previous episode. They even brought in an etiquette expert! Check it out:

Second Time Around, August 8, 2008

In my opinion Kathy and Hoda, you guys just seemed more rude than ever and I don’t mean in an entertaining way. I’m glad Sam took the initiative and defended himself on national TV while you guys snickered at him and played stupidly coy afterwards. Your loyal audience is not a dumb crowd, they know some genuinely rude people when they see it and it does not make for good TV. I hope the next time he gets invited back to NY for NBC it’s for his own show that runs right over your time segment.

Once in a while, we San Diegans get to go to this magical island called Coronado. It has it’s own magnificent little bridge that takes you up and across a bit of the Pacific Ocean and besides being a great day-trip or date-trip, it houses 1500 Ocean, a superb restaurant all around and my first establishment for Restaurant Week 2008.

Restaurant Week Menu
First/Appetizer Course
Choice 1 – Kona Kampachi: Serrano, kumquat, radish, avocado mousse
Choice 2 – White Corn Soup: Tempura mussels, saffron potatoes, espelette oil
Choice 3 – CBurrata Cheese: Baby beets, arugula, blood orange

Second/Main Course
Choice 1 – Grilled Prime Flat Iron: Yukon gold potato mouselinne, haricot verts, cipolinni
Choice 2 – Sonoma Duck, two ways: Roasted breast, confit of leg, farro, cherries
Choice 3 – Roasted Lamb Porterhouse: Flavors of ratatouille, salsa verde

Third/Dessert Course
Choice 1 – Warm Chocolate Chipotle Cake: Carmelized banana, caramel ice cream
Choice 2 – Artisan Cheese Plate: Walnut bread, macerated strawberries
Choice 3 – Black bottom Crème Brulee: Summer berries

Kona Kampachi - This was perhaps one of the more intriguing dishes of the night. Three bite size portions of tuna, serrano, kumquat, and radish were served. The citrusy, heat intensified the flavor of the tuna and while spicy and tangy, the dish rounds itself out by hitting you with a very neat avocado mousse. While taste-wise, it was exactly like an avocado the mousse was a textural delight: smooth and airy.

Sonoma Duck Two Ways – A well cooked and prepared dish. Duck breast was tender, flavorful and the confit was paired expertly with the farro (a grain similiar to brown rice).

Black Bottom Creme Brulee - The creme brulee was nicely done. Served with a crispy sugar top and some seasonal berries, the real surprise laid on the bottom in the form of liquid chocolate. While this pairing isn’t my absolute favorite (creme brulee purist here, I think chocolate goes poorly with it in general), the actual custard was not too sweet, slightly thicker than normal, and tasted delicious. I did however, miss the tiny black specks of vanilla bean that is usually present in creme brulee. While vanilla flavor was clearly present in the dish, I wanted specks dangit!

In conclusion – I would go back to 1500 Ocean in a heartbeat to try out all their dishes. They have an attentive waiting staff, a view to die for (when the marine layer isn’t hovering over), and great food. I sampled the Kurobuta pork (similar to Kobe for beef), their really delicious flat iron steak, and one of the best salmon filets I’ve had in a long time. Their prices aren’t outrageous, I paid $60 OTD for the Restaurant Week menu and a glass of wine. Not bad for top notch dining.