what can we say about foie gras that has not been said. an incredible product for so many reasons. we buy our foie gras only from hudson valley farms. why only hudson valley farms? because we know their practices and their consistency. they have the upmost respect for the animal, which is most important to us. Here we have it seared with cous cous, duck confit, currants, olive oil foam and blis maple syrup.
quartet
terrine of spring lamb, currant mustard, cabernet, frisee
contemporary white gazpacho, nitrous carbonated white grapes
mille feuille of crab and breakfast radish
mushroom soup-capuccinno style
beets
prepared seven ways-pickled, puree, roasted, caramel, powder, gelee, roll-up with texas goat cheese creme friache
ravioli
house made ricotta, ramps, banyuls emulsion
foie gras
seared, spring onion, israeli cous cous, duck confit, olive oil foam, blis maple syrup
lobster
butter poached, fennel puree, baby carrot, truffle emulsion
gulf snapper
english peas, costa rican heart of palms, sorrel, meyer lemon
duck
smoked, carrot-orange puree, fava bean, morel, black pepper gastrique
venison
sous vide, cabernet soaked apple, spring onion, truffle honey, sour cherry
parfait
chocolate cake
crunchy vanilla ice cream
Busy saturday night! That’s vince plating up some pork belly degustations! In our kitchen we love pork belly, I mean its pork belly!!! Here we roasted it real slow with salt, pepper and grains of paradise. Vince is plating it with celery and apple puree with black pepper gastrique which equals delicious. Vince works grill and assists the meat station. He is also working on taking his third level sommelier exam, if you knew him you would know why he isn’t allowed in the dining room!!! Nice work vince.
Now that we have been open a few weeks we are really starting to settle in. The menu is really beginning to progress and everyone is finding their groove. We have been lucky to have friends, peers and foodies in and they have been enjoying all our hard work. We will be posting pictures as they come and as the menu changes and moves forward. Until then you will just have to come in and eat!
Special thanks to plinio(pastry chef extraordinaire and good friend) for coming in to eat it was a pleasure to cook for you all. Also to Misha(tasty-bits.com) for the picture here.
Thanks misha for coming in and writing up and also for the great photography. We should take you up on the offer! Can’t wait for you to come back. Check out his great write up and pictures at
tasty-bits.com
Due to comments by an important local “foodie” we have updated our menu a bit. Her comments were of course justified, we had been playing with a little winter ingredient still. So we gave our friends at mikuni wild harvest a ring and they sent us spring in a box…ramps, verpa morels, shimeji mushrooms, mizuna, frisee, tiny heirloom potatoes and more. We are pround to be serving their goods. So come check us out!
Our new friend, anonymouseater, has written about voice on his blog. He came in last week with a few other bloggers and good friend chef randy rucker. We cooked a good one for them, all said and done about eleven-thirteen courses. Thanks for the write up!
check it at- foodinhouston.blogspot.com
April 10 marks the opening of halibut season. And here in our kitchen we all get excited. This beautiful fish comes in whole here and we get to do so much with what we get. Of course it is on the menu but we use the bones for fumet, maybe harvest a bit of the collar for a special preperation or when its of exceptional quality a tartare, head on lets do some cheeks! The fish we get comes from either our local guys at airline seafood or comes from gary’s seafood in florida, and that stuff rocks! Here we have jason(also known as little protege) plating his halibut. A great dish that really magnifies spring. In the workshop chef kramer has us pairing it with baby carrots, salsify, fennel puree and truffle emulsion. As always jason holds it down on the fish station.
Well I know its not the best picture but here is a peak of a dish we did last night in the degustation. It screams spring to me. We have local beets in five preperations… roasted gold and candy stripe beets, pickled red beet puree, beet caramel, beet powder, house made beet vinegar en gellee, with local goat cheese creme fraiche and micro arugula. I know long winded explanation but it went over well. sorry about the picture quality.
So I guess the first thing is what is that…however lets focus on how it got to this point. The title of this entry is mise en place which translates to everything in its place. Without this what happens in the above picture would never come together properly every night consistenly as it does…well at least when dave is working the pans! So without further ado lets get down to the brass tacks of mise en place, also known as “mise”. This begins way before dave comes in. It starts in the morning as the kitchen wakes up and things start to happen. Wait a minute, back up it really begins on a farm or ranch, but that is for another entry another day. It all starts with receiving the product. A sous chef will greet, always with a warm welcome, a delivery person and proceed to rip open, finger, prod, poke, smell, feel all product that comes in, just hoping to find something that is less than acceptable just to give it to the ole’ purveyor. After this comes proper prepping for storage. This is when our amazing prep crew goes into action. Say you get a case of fennel in, well those greens gotta come off, maybe they go into stock or an oil. Those onions lets get them peeled and ready for the cdp’s coming in. Meats and fish are stored ready for a sous or chefs razor sharp knife. From all this stocks are prepared, which become glaces which become mother sauce which become finished product. Fish is fileted, dried, sometimes scored and readied for the all clad in its future. Meats are sinew removed and portioned ready for service and produce is broken down and maybe blanched, cut properly and ready for the show. Lets get back to the more commonly refered to definition of mise en place, its where something goes on a station. The truffle vinaigrette has a place on the garde manger, and damn it, it goes in the same place everytime it is picked up and placed back down. Your pepper grinder like “F’N” gold in the kitchen has a place and its the same place it was the last one hundred nights and it damn sure does not belong on someone else’s station it belongs on your station. Everynight the station is broken down, “mise” is placed in new containers and labeled and then the next day comes and right back to where it was the day before and all throughout service. Without mise en place service would not run smoothly and consistency would not be as obtainable. This golden rule, mise en place, is so important to what we do, its the way we live our lives in the kitchen and it is imperative to survival in it. So what is it you asked that is in the picture, its all that I have just spoken about. One plate with only five components on it may have been touched by hundreds of people in the process of all ingredients getting from farm or ocean to the dining room. But since you asked its…
Venison Sous Vide-port carmelized apple, salsify, sour cherry, truffle honey.
Nice job dave.
