the KRBS blog

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

New Year's Eve - 2002 - Blast from the Past

Here's a nice one...a NYE menu I did while Cooking and Teaching at the New England Culinary Institute in 2002. Times were much richer back then!

First Course

Lobster Bisque, Scallop Sausage and Caviar

Ginger and Lemongrass Consomme with Goose Confit and Vadouvan

Jersualem Artichoke Soup, White Truffle Butter and Parmesan Crisp

Second Course

Smoked Goose Breast and Confit Leg, Roasted Pear and Mache Salad

Lobster and Creme Fraiche Crepe with Warm Carrot, Vanilla and Ginger Emulsion

Day Boat Scallops in Potato Shell, Shiraz Sauce

Intermezzo

Quinine Sorbet with Confit Lime

Third Course

Beef Tenderloin with Duck Foie Gras au torchon, Aged Port

Triptych of Veal - Braised cheek, Grilled Medallion, Roasted Sweetbreads - Madeira Pan Sauce

Stuffed Breast of Pheasant a la Souvaroff, Briased Cabbage, Spiced Sweet Potatoes

Pan Roasted Salmon with Parsnips and Sauce Americaine

Dessert

Mascarpone Ice Cream, Sour Cherry Coulis

Espresso Brownie with Guinness Gelato

Petit Four and Mignardises

Your choice of each course and a glass of bubbly...$72! And we were booked solid!

Berkeley's Gather has diverse dishes, PC flavor

In his review Michael Bauer seemed a bit out of his element, but Gather's vegetarian fare passes the muster. Good stuff all around...

Berkeley's Gather has diverse dishes, PC flavor

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Is molecular gastronomy dead?

Is it really dead? Was MG ever really alive?

The answers are: of course not, and yes.

Is molecular gastronomy dead? | Life and style | guardian.co.uk

That being said, there are plenty of components of "MG" cooking that have entrenched themselves into the culinary lexicon of many of the top restaurants, but I'm seeing a return to traditional techniques everywhere I look. There's nothing like a recession to get folks thinking in more pragmatic terms, but the real benefit to restaurants and patrons is - as the Guardian piece mentioned - is that more cooks are approaching cooking in a logical, scientific way.

In lieu of following recipes by rote, more and more cooks are able to look at a set of ingredients, and thinking about how they interact, proteins, fats, starches, etc, they can put them together in meaningful and interesting ways. Sometime those ways will be considered more MG than others, but if the influence of "meat glue" has been a lasting realization that terrines and ballotines can be a wonderful canvas on which to paint, well then we all might eat a little better for it.

For some more interesting thoughts on molecular gastronomy and scientific cooking, see this blog post by agoodfoodblog.

Monday, March 8, 2010

Simple Greens by agoodfoodblog

Here's a few simple and delicious-sounding ways to cook kale:

Simple Greens by agoodfoodblog

There's a link in there to the NY Times Winter Greens recipe too...