A Razor, A Shiny Knife

Cervidae Tartar with Smoked Onion Rings and Cranberry The tartar was made from the leg of a deer. We did a coarse chop with a set of knifes and got it into a proper 1980’s tartar texture, and tossed with some olive oil, mustard, salt, pepper and herbs. The onion rings were compressed in smoke brine instead of hot smoking them to give them a nice smoky flavor but to also get them to be nice a crisp. The smoke brine was then carbonated and used to make a tempura batter which also helped carry the smoky flavor as well. A sweet and tart cranberry sauce was put on the plate to help soften the flavors and bring a smooth richness in texture. Photo: Cassidy DuHon www.duhonphotography.com

Chioggia Beets with a Roasted Red and Yellow Beets Pasta Salad, Beet Curd, Aji Amarillo and Passion Fruit

The Chioggia beets were glued into a sheet and the red and yellow beets were unpeeled using a planner and compressed with a spicy passion fruit dressing under vacuum. They were then cut into cut into linguine shaped strips and dressed on either side of a firm Yellow beet vegan curd.

Photo:
Cassidy DuHon
www.duhonphotography.com

Sheet of beets
Alex and Aki pioneered this process of using pectin or sodium alginate and calcium to create a fruit and vegetable glue that can impart flavor while holding things together. Here we created a dressed beet sheet that was sliceable.

Photo:
Cassidy DuHon
www.duhonphotography.com

Alex explaining the whole process of gluing fruits and vegetable together with a sheet of beets in his hands.

Photo:
Cassidy DuHon
www.duhonphotography.com

Pumpkin Seed Risotto with Coffee and Ham Hock Lardons The process of pressure cooking pumpkin seeds to give them a risotto like consistence was another invention by Alex and Aki, while on vacation somewhere silly. In this iteration they were cooked with coffee and pumpkin stock. After cooking they were cooled and mounted to order with butter and the cooking liquid, dressed with ham hock lardons which gave the dish a nice smoky flavor. Sous Vide pumpkin balls where topped with a little pumpkin powder and parmesan cheese. Photo: Cassidy DuHon www.duhonphotography.com

Compressed Pumpkin Balls Photo: Cassidy DuHon www.duhonphotography.com

Olive Oil Poached Halibut over Celery Leaf Gnocchi in a Lobster Mushroom Ragu This is first step in the evolution of a dish we have been working on since august. It was conceived as a surf and turf style dish where the surf is represented by a lightly cooked flaky white fish and served over a earthy flavored pasta dish, here done with celery leaf gnocchi (double cooked potatoes with celery leaf juice used in the beginning of the dough making similar to spinach) in a lobster mushroom beurre blanc. We have since seen this dish evolve into an almost entirely black dish with black trumpet mushrooms and a black truffle beurre noir, where the fish is topped with black caviar and purple basil is grated on top like cheese. (more to follow on this soon) Photo: Cassidy DuHon www.duhonphotography.com

Lobster Mushroom looking radiant Photo: Cassidy DuHon www.duhonphotography.com

Brussels Sprout Kimchee getting its essential crispy side

Photo:
Cassidy DuHon
www.duhonphotography.com

Skirt steak with Brussels Sprout Kimchee, Apple and Chicharrones

Double Thick Skirt Steak is a real treat. Skirt Steak is a very flavorful yet cheep cut of beef that when bonded into a double cut piece becomes otherworldly. Fresh off our Korean Pig Roast we really excited to get some of our left over Kimchee into some more forms. In this dish we compressed halved Brussels sprouts in a Kimchee puree to get the flavoring into all of the cracks. We then seared them off on a flattop to create a nice caramelized flat edge to them. This was pared with a Kimchee Chicharrones made with tapioca flour and Kimchee and a touch of water. These crispy vegan treats played the crisp spicy role in this dish while a smooth apple puree lent a touch of sweetness to the bottom of the plating.

Photo:
Cassidy DuHon
www.duhonphotography.com

Kimchee Chicharrones before frying

Photo:
Cassidy DuHon
www.duhonphotography.com

Kimchee Chicharrones after frying Photo: Cassidy DuHon www.duhonphotography.com

Cheese fresh from the liquid nitrogen and the blender before warming up in the freezer.

Photo:
Cassidy DuHon
www.duhonphotography.com

Lime panna cotta and banana rocks with a banana sponge cake and key lime

Lime custards for this dish were set in a sphere mold and arraigned with some freshly torn banana sponge cake that Aki made in absentia. We had a little Liquid Nitrogen left from powdering the cheese so we froze whole banana and shattered them into rough chunks and then let them come back to room temperature to give them an insane and unpredictable shape. It was topped with a little key lime zest.

Photo:
Cassidy DuHon
www.duhonphotography.com

Pierre Robert with Walnut Ribbons and Pear Mostarda

This was/could be my favorite cheese course ever. I know I am partial and everything but it just came together in perfect balance. The Pierre Robert was frozen with Liquid Nitrogen and then crushed into a snow like powder. It was placed next to a candied walnut ribbon and topped with a fruit leather of slightly spiced pear mostarda.

Photo:
Cassidy DuHon
www.duhonphotography.com