Chef's Table

We recently hosted a Chef's Table for the winners of a charity auction.  Here are som pics:

Dotted Rose Snapper, Shiitake "Bacon", Spring Pea Puree

 Notice the resemblence to the pics from Rick Moonen's ICC presentation.  We made our dish with local snapper rather than the striped bass.  I can understand now why they chose striped bass.  The shape of the body makes it a clear choice for this application.

Watermelon Gazpacho, Cucumber Sorbet, Tomato Gelee

Pepper Cured Pork Cheeks, Smoked Maple Molasses, Granny Apple Slaw

So, I found a use for the irregular cuts of pork cheek that I was talking about in a recent post.  Since the pieces were so unevenly sized, I decided to glue them together with transglutaminase and press them into an even block.  I rubbed them with a peppercorn cure, and sous vide them to 150F.  If I were to do it again, I would change the cure recipe.  It's pretty much a dash of coriander away from being pork cheek pastrami.  Which, by the way, has a nice ring and it was tasty, just not what my end goal was.

What a Month!

I say a month, but it's really been like a month and a half!  Where do I begin...Ah, yes, StarChefs.
  What a fantastic experience!  This is our second year attending and I have to say, this year is even better than the last.  A lot of that has to do with knowing the city better (Not going Uptown instead of Downtown on the subway), and just generaly making better use of our time.  Our first seminar at the conference was with Rick Moonen of RM Seafood in Las Vegas.  Chef Moonen is a staunch advocate of sustainable seafood and fishing.  The name of the class was:  "Sustainability Under Pressure: Sous Vide Seafood"

Chef Moonen (pictured on the left) demonstrates an interesting sous vide technique using striped bass.  His Executive Chef, Adam Sobel, is actually doing all of the dirty work.

The finished dish (pictured above) is Slow-Cooked Wild Striped Bass with Late Summer Corn, Crispy Hominy, and Chanterelles.

Next, we got liquored up (at 10am) with Dave Arnold and Nils Noren of the French Culinary Institute.  Hey, who's that handsome lad over Dave's right shoulder?

Here are some random pics from The International Chef's Congress:

More to come!

September Prix Fixe

As you can see by the first course selections in the menu, I figured out what I wanted to do with the pork cheeks.  I decided to use the largest of the three different cuts for this application.  Based on an idea from Brian, we are going to use the smaller pieces to make a pork cheek tasso.  Has a nice ring doesn't it?  More on that when we get to it.

September Prix Fixe -

Our Favorite Top Chef

Our good friend Erika Davis will be representing J-Ville (Among other things) in the inaugural season of Top Chef: Just Desserts.  Tune into Bravo for the premier, tomorrow night at 11pm after the Top Chef finale.  Good luck Erika!l

International Chef's Congress

One week from this moment, Chef Jon and I will be in the Big Apple for some much needed R&D time at the Fifth Annual International Chef's Congress. Joining us will be Chef Perry Kenney and Chef Marcos Fernandez.  Hopefully we will be able to post from the road like we did last year. 

Pork Cheeks

Pork cheeks.  Ah, the possibilities.  What direction should I take?  Our cheeks arrived today from Eden Farms.  At first glance they seemed to be an assortment of different sizes and various miscuts.  After cleaning them, however, I discovered that there seems to be three distinctly different cuts.  The largest of them is clearly the cheek itself.  The other two, must have to be removed separately.  The question at this point is: How do I get all of the elements of the cheek in one dish?  Maybe I don't need to.