playing with food
You may remember that I was interviewed for an article in Cleveland Business Connects magazine. The article (July 2008) pondered the current state and future of molecular gastronomy in Cleveland. With the clear caveat that I don't practice much molecular gastronomy, I agreed to be interviewed and photographed. Ryan Divita shot the food and a few pictures of me for the magazine. Here are some of the results.
The first two are of me, designing the plates in my friend's kitchen (thanks, Doug!). 
These next images do, in fact, represent some of the cuisine I like to practice. The first plate does include some "transformations" of product: carrot into both a cube state and a powder, beet into ravioli and foam. The beets for the ravioli were cooked in the bag method discussed in posts below. I filled the ravioli with goat cheese. For the record, I generally do not like to put food on the rim of plates. I'm not sure what possessed me to put the stripe of carrot powder across the edge like that. It looks cool, I guess, but it's not something I would do in a restaurant.
The language of love and food are often intermingled. We hear chef's refer to food as sexy. I don't often see plate design as a fundamentally sexy endeavor. The actual experience of eating, however, can be another matter entirely. Yet I have to admit, I find the following photograph sexy--the spoon and foam suggesting movement and touch, also the color and suggested textures.
The second item I prepared for the photo shoot was a terrine of sous-vide white asparagus and shiitake mushrooms, garnished with mushroom crumbs and red wine mignonette. This dish is not strictly vegetarian. I used gelatin to bind the terrine. However, I have stepped away from the notion that meat must be the focus of a well centered dish, a practice I would like to continue should I ever get a restaurant together!
Lastly, here's one from a series Ryan shot in my friends dining room. I wanted to shoot a bunch that were a tad more playful, not so serious. This one is neither too goofy nor too serious.
