June Photo Shoot

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.

plastic bags and "sous vide" cooking

I recently posted a method for cooking beets in what might best be described as a faux sous-vide technique. A reader asked me about the safety of this. You can read the comments yourself in the comments section (where else?) of that post. Scroll down to the July 17th post, Beat-the-Heat Cool Summer Dinner. Fortunately I was able to put that question directly to food science guru Harold McGee through a NY Times question and answer session. His answer was short and affirmative. Here is the text of my question and his reply:

Q: Are conventional zip-loc bags safe for sous-vide cooking? If so, up to what temperature? There seems to be a lot of guess work and misinformation (?) about this one on the Internet. Love your books! Thank you.— Posted by Ben Fambrough

Harold McGee replies: Heavy-duty Ziplock bags are made from polyethylene and are approved for contact with hot foods. True sous-vide cooking involves vacuum-packing the food, which zipping a bag won’t do for you. But you can certainly use the bag to immerse food in a water bath whose temperature you control carefully. It can be hard to squeeze out all the air, so the bags tend to float and heat unevenly unless you weigh them down. Sous-vide cooking generally involves water temperatures between 120 and 180 degrees, which the heavy-duty bags can take.

Click here to read the reply and related questions and answers in their original context.

2008 Food & Wine Celebration.

A Benefit for Veggie U

On Saturday, July 19th, The Culinary Vegetable Institute hosted the 2008 Food & Wine Celebration. This event took place the day after the Chef Summit (see posts below). More than 700 people attended to sample food and wine, watch demonstrations and participate in the auction. The event raised funds for Veggie U, a non-profit program developed by the Chef's Garden, designed to fight diabetes and obesity among children. Veggie U teaches fourth grade students in classrooms across the country how to live a healthy lifestyle. For more information on Veggie U, you can write to them at Veggie U, 12304 State Route 13, Milan, OH 44846.

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The day was intensely hot and humid under a threatening sky. Fortunately, storms did not materialize and little rain fell. D and I arrived to find the main food tent crowded and hot. We waited until the emcee, local star Michael Symon, kicked off the show under the demonstration tent. When most people cleared out to watch him and a host of other celebrity chefs (including Jon Ashton, Lee Anne Wong, Bob Waggoner, Marcel Vigneron, Celina Tio and Don Yamauchi), we ventured in to sample the food and wine. I have to admit, I totally skipped out on the demonstrations and cook-off. What follows are select pictures from the food tent with a little commentary. I hope you enjoy.

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I tasted almost everything (a real feat!) and thought I should begin with my top choice. This bean salad was hands-down my favorite item of the evening, among what was a decidedly protein-heavy showing for an event at a vegetable farm. It had everything going for it: multiple textures, bright and bold flavors, good color...just terrific all around. It gets my gold star.

Summer Bean Salad, Currant Tomatoes and Black Olive Oil

by Chef Craig Deihl of Cypress, Charleston, South Carolina.

Chef Deihl and crew.

One of the foods vying for second place was this combination of Tea Smoked Currant and Teardrop Tomatoes, Sour Cream and Long Onion Pound Cake with Candied Fennel presented by Chef Kirk Gilbert of Ballantyne Resort, Charlotte, North Carolina.

Another runner-up was this Slow Roasted Molasses Lacquered Pork Belly with Tomato Marmalade by Chef Anne Hart of Provence Market, Bridgeport, West Virginia.

This Quail Breast served with Bacon, Carrot and Mustard Cress also really good. Thank you, Chef Aaron Deal of Tristan, Charleston, South Carolina.

These southern chefs were really stealing the show in my humble opinion.

A Baltimore son, Beej Flamholz, had a lovely tuna tartar.
This beet and horseradish cured beef was pretty interesting. Presented by Chef Patrick McElroy of the Hyatt Regency St. Louis at Union Station.

And here is the friendly Christopher Lee of Gilt (NYC) serving up a delightfully chilled English Pea Soup with Pea Falafel and Cucumber Yogurt.

The soup. He made a mousse out of the cucumber yogurt using gelatin and a nitrous canister.

Chef Jeff Slough of North Hills Country Club, Menomonee Falls, WI served this intriguing Veal Cheek Lasagna.

This Utah Lamb with Huckleberry Sauce, Corn Cake and Weed Salad was great! Presented by Chef Zane Holmquist of The Glitretind at Stein Eriken Lodge, Park City, Utah.

Some local boys made a good show, too. Dante Boccuzzi made this Pork Belly with Santana Eggplant and Basil Salsa Verde.

Dante's a great guy. And a fellow chef that I can talk with about guitars!

Another local boy who really likes to play with food, Johnathan Bennett of Exec. of both Red and Moxie, offered up Kettle Corn and Pork Cracklin's. Yum.

You can always count on Anne Blackwood for chocolate. She's terrific. These chocolate martinis were the bomb.

Finally, if I had to offer another gold star, I would award it to Jeni's Ice Creams. The line for this stand stretched more than twenty people deep. I had the Sweet Corn and Blackberry Ice Cream. All I can say is WOW!...just fantastic, maybe not for everyone, but right up my alley. Where have you been? And why haven't you entered my life earlier? Please get a store in Cleveland.

Chefs Summit Part Three

In two of the demos (described in posts below) I mentioned the use of "bloomed" basil seeds. By bloomed, I mean soaked in water until they swell. This photograph shows dry seeds on the left and bloomed seeds on the right. The bloomed seeds are strained and used as textural garniture. Not surprisingly these taste like basil, but do not have a particularly strong flavor.

Lee Ann Wong graced the stage next with Chef Jeremy (also of the French Culinary Institute) to perform a mixology demo. She discussed molecular gastronomy research at the French Culinary Institute and a man named David Arnold, Director of Culinary Technology. Their mission is to learn how science and technology can improve the taste of food. I took this to mean, improve the enjoyment of food. For the mixology demo they prepared a cocktail of celery vodka with clarified grapefruit. Some fascinating techniques were at play here. First, to clarify the grapefruit, they dissolved gelatin in a small amount of grapefruit juice (to insure dissolution) and then mixed it with a large quantity of juice to make a solution that was .5% gelatin by weight. This they frozen and, finally, slow thawed over a fine meshed cloth. The gelatin binds all the solids (impurities) as it freezes. Slow thawing draws out a raw, crystal clear juice, leaving the impurities and gelatin behind. Very cool. She demonstrated all these steps, yet had product ready to represent each stage. The clarified juice is cocktail-ready. Next, she used a sous-vide machine (really a kryovac machine, a machine designed to vacuum pack foods in plastic) to decompress a pan of vodka and raw, sliced celery. She mentioned it is critical to keep all components as cold as possible before, after and during the process. In fact, she recommends storing the infused vodka in the freezer. Otherwise, high temperatures will cause the flavors to "brown out." The machine is run until it reaches zero atmosphere. The air in the celery is sucked out. It actually looks exactly like the vodka is boiling. When most of the air is sucked out the bubbles become slowed and fine. At this point the machine is shut off. The vodka celery mixture is allowed to sit at zero gravity for one hour. Then the machine is turned back on and allowed to finish its cycle. This process is repeated once to draw the vodka back out of the celery. The resulting infusion is strained through a coffee filter and kept very cold.

Here is Lee Ann Wong working the kryo-vac machine.

Before assembling the final cocktail, Chef Jeremy used a CO2 tank and two-liter soda bottles with specialized tops to carbonate a one to one mixture of celery vodka and grapefruit juice. This was not exactly a simple process. It involved three injections, shaking the containers to get the CO2 into the liquid and releasing pressure after each injection. Finally, they get a sparkling cocktail with a fine bubble quality, not unlike champagne, that will hold on ice for six to eight hours. The cocktail was garnished with lemon stick and various mints from the Chefs Garden. They had plenty to go around. It absolutely wonderful, very refreshing, very flavorful.

Celery Vodka and Clarified Grapefruit Cocktail

Lee Ann Wong then discussed some other mixology applications of this process, including one of her personal favorites, infusing gin with cucumber. She saves the cucumber and serves it as a "boozy snack." Yum.

Lastly, Chef Paul Del Favero of Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill at Caesars Palace. Faveros demonstrations was the most traditional, using no techniques borrowed from the realm of molecular gastronomy. He discussed the running of a kitchen that does between twenty to twenty-five thousand covers a month. Mind boggling. The food was simple and beautiful: fried zucchini blossoms stuffed with house made ricotta, corn and basil on a pools of yellow bell pepper coulis, spiked with habaneros, a starter that has remained on the menu since the inception of the restaurant. Thanks, Paul, for brining us back down to earth with this beautiful dish.

Second Annual Chef Summit at the Culinary Vegetable Institute Part One

I was very lucky to be invited to attend...

the Second Annual Chef Summit, the brainchild of “Farmer” Lee Jones of The Chef’s Garden, held at the Culinary Vegetable Institute last Friday, July 18th. It had been many months since I was at the CVI (or, for that matter, had visited the farm). To quote Lee, “This is an experience that brings the missions of The Chef’s Garden and The Culinary Vegetable Institute to life.” I had an absolutely fabulous time and learned a great deal. Also, I got a big heartwarming bear hug from Lee. Many of the chefs took tours in the morning, which I skipped. Not only have I toured the farm several times, but it’s almost an hour and a half drive and it’s such a luxury to sip coffee and read the morning news at leisure. I arrived just in time to enjoy lunch provided by the CVI (good timing, eh?), after which the real fun began.

Chefs get busy inside the CVI preparing for demonstrations.

More activity, and the CVI team preparing lunch.

First, Lee took the stage to give some words of welcome and talk about Veggie U, a program for 4th grade class rooms that’s in 1400 schools across the country. (I’ll write a little more about this program in another post). He then talked about the first summit. Having seen many talented chefs across the country doing really cutting edge work, he decided to bring as many as he could together for a summit where these innovators could demonstrate their work and inspire others. The summit dovetails with a benefit for the CVI and Veggie U, held the following day.

Farmer Lee Jones addresses the attendees.

The summit featured demonstrations by Will Goldfarb (a pasty chef with credentials that would humble anyone in the culinary arts), Lee Anne Wong (a Bravo TV producer and personality and chef at the French Culinary Institute), Christopher Lee (a culinary power who now runs Gilt Restaurant in the New York Palace Hotel), Marcel Vigneron (a young culinary nomad whose globetrotting experiences include some tutelage at El Taller under Ferran Adria and a second place finish in season two of Bravo’s Top Chef), Paul de Favero (a La Varenne graduate, now Executive Chef of Bobby Flay’s Mesa Grill), Celina Tio (former chef of The American Restaurant, now building her own place) and Giuseppe Tentori (former Chef de Cuisine at Charlie Trotter’s, now Executive Chef at Boka). In attendance were many culinary personalities and industry types, including Bruce Seidel a producer for the Food Network and famed chef Bobby Waggoner who was busy shooting pictures.

Will Goldfarb demonstrated first with a little help from his daughter, Lulu, and a local culinary student. He dismisses the “false idea that technology and natural cooking and slow foods don’t go together.” He made a pomegranate-beet mousse with xanthan gum (a natural byproduct of fermentation of glucous by a bacteria found in cabbage). The xanthan gum eliminates the needs for egg white and thereby considerably lightens the end product. He also used Versawhip, a soy-based whipping agent. When properly mixed with an immersion blender, he passed the mixture through a sieve and the whipped it in a Hobart mixer. He thickened some apricot kernel oil with tapioca maltodextrin in a one to one ratio by weight to achieve a powder used to perfume the final assemblage. He also made a coulis consistency sauce with orange juice, sambuca and ultratex, a version of tapioca starch. To complete the dish he had some hazelnut ice cream made with a gelato base and garnished the ensemble with baby fava bean leaves, crystal lettuce and micro yarrow. He concluded by putting all of this into a freeze-stable bag as an example of a “to-go” dessert. Funky. Tons of great info on the use of these products, which he sells through his company Willpowder.

Will Goldfarb and assistants.

Will with the dessert in "take-out" form.

Next to take the stage was Christopher Lee with his sous chef, Justin. Together they demonstrated their spring radish salad from the menu at Gilt. Chris Lee brought a very down to earth sensibility to the stage, claiming to prefer traditional methods while allowing his younger, more adventerous chefs to bring molecular gastronomy to the menu. The salad featured radishes pickled, blanched and raw. As accompaniments, they made a crumble out of sesame seeds and almond flour, a greek yogurt mousse (mixed with milk and lime juice) using a nitrous oxide canister, and, finally, a cold gelee "noodle" out of white soy and yuzu using agar agar and locust bean gum. The locut bean gum gives the noodle it's flexibility. The agar agar alone would make it too brittle they said. The final item for the dish was a cucumber-shiso sorbet, which they had made ahead of time.

Chris and Justin on stage.

Justin injects the mixture into tubing and sets the noodle by diping the tubing into an ice bath. He then extracts the noodle by using an empty syringe to push it out with air. The finish plate. Looks great!

The rest of the day will appear in parts (in posts) to follow.

La Sosta di Pio VII, Barberino, Val d'Elsa

An osteria in Tuscany

Recommended by our hosts at La Torre di Ponzano, the osteria La Sosta di Pio VII, turned out to be a great place for local, inexpensive and rustic cuisine. It is located 3km north of Poggibonsi, and maybe a 1/2 km downhill tumble west from La Torre di Ponzano, along the road that cruises through Val d'Elsa, which parallels the superstrada connecting Firenze and Siena. It's just inside the western tip of Chianti Classico DOCG region. We so enjoyed this meal that we attempted a return visit later during our stay only to find the place closed due to driveway and parking improvements. Inside the main dining room you can see a trough along the wall and short walled stalls that once separated animals in this former manger. La Sosta is run by a family (a common thread to our experience). The husband runs the front of the house and sources much of the product; the wife is the chef; the son waits tables. I had many questions for the husband about the beefsteak fiorentia. With his little English he graciously explained as much as he could regarding the aging or lack of aging the beef and it's origins. According to him, the beef he uses is bred in the Limousin region in France, then transported and raised in Tuscany. In the end, I ordered boar. The beefsteak is meant for more than one person. It would have been too much for me.

The dining room of La Sosta di Pio VII

Happy to be dining in Tuscany.
This was a very interesting dish of cucumber warmed with a local, salty cheese and garnished with chives. We don't often think of eating cucumber warm like this, but it was quite good. I ordered this pate. It was coarse, like meatloaf really, and spiked with white truffles. Very good.
This is homemade pasta with basil, tomatoes and local cheese.
This was a generous side dish of sliced tiny zucchini with herbs and shallots. Here is the "wild" boar. All the cinghiale is really far raised. It has tremendous flavor, but is a little tough. Roasted new potatoes.
Not a riserva, but yummy.
An apple "cake"- very good.

A Beat-the-Heat Cool Summer Dinner

Cold Cucumber Soup and a different method for cooking beets

While the weather here is mostly mild, Cleveland is seeing some temperatures in the upper 80's and pushing into the 90's, albeit rarely. When this happens, a cold summer menu can be very enjoyable and refreshing. D and I recently prepared an evening meal of cold cucumber soup and salad of mixed greens accompanied by baguette peppered goat cheese. Since I've not posted any recipes here yet, I thought this might be a fine time.

To make the cold cucumber soup (serves four):

3 cucumbers

1 Tbsp rice wine vinegar

1/2 cup milk

1/4 cup Greek yogurt

1/4 clove garlic

2 Tbsp fresh dill

2 Tbsp fresh cilantro

1 tiny pinch nutmeg

1 pinch cayenne (or to taste)

sea salt to taste

Peel, seed and chop the cucumber. Put the cucumber and the remaining ingredients in a blender and puree until smooth. Adjust the consistency by adding more milk (or water) as necessary. Taste and adjust seasonings. I didn't measure my ingredients exactly, so play with the herbs and amount of yogurt until you are satisfied with the flavor. I have conservatively estimated the herbs, so you may need more. The table set with some napkins and place mats we picked up in Provence.

Not a bad wine, especially when on sale at Whole Foods for about half the regular price. I confess to liking a slightly oaked, sur-lie sauv blanc.

Now, who in their right mind would crank up the oven just to roast a few beets in this hot weather? Here's a great alternative. I used this method for our Bastille day dinner (see post below this one).

Peel and cut the beet into whatever size and shape you wish to serve. Place the cleaned beets in a zip lock bag with fresh herbs, olive oil, sea salt, freshly ground black pepper and a small dash of good vinegar. I used fresh thyme and oregano. A little minced shallot would help, too. Seal the bag and drop it into a small pot of simmering water. I used the pot/same water that I had on to blanch the peas. The beets will probably need about twenty minutes cooking time or less, depending on how small you cut them. Check for doneness by lifting the bag out of the water and giving the beets a gentle squeeze with your fingers. Yes, it's going to be a little hot. Hey, toughen up. Are you a cook or what? Allow the beets to cool in the bag. When the beets are cool, drain them into a container for storage in the fridge. Or you can save them in their juice, if you have used very little vinegar. And now for some pictures of the meal.

Beets in the bag, going into the pot.Beets simmering along side some peas.The finished product. Yum.Prosecco should be three things (in my humble opinion): inexpensive, chilled and delightful!Here's a fine example.