Although I know a burrata salad is nothing new, Ive always taken it for granted. sure its delicious and creamy and a paragon of artisanal italian mastery, at the end of the day ive always written it off as just another good cheese. Well thanks to summer produce i have gained an all new appreciation for this superior product. I was struck by inspiration while I was at the store and i picked up a particularly heavy watermelon which of course means it is chock full of deliciousness. Soon i began thinking about how long its been since Id had a watermelon salad with red onions, mint, basil, and feta. Rather than using feta I thought I might make something similar with the burrata. I ditched the onions and mint and stuck with the basil and watermelon. I diced the watermelon into a small dice and scattered about the plate. Next I put a couple dollops of port vinegar caviar (cold oil + agar agar) around the watermelon. I decided to put a few pockets of tomato seeds on top of the port vin. caviar and then took the smallest leaves of the basil and mounted them randomly. on top of the burrata itself I sprinkled a bit of smoked salt and white pepper and then drizzled everything with arbaquina olive oil. Simple, fresh and stupid good. Its almost disheartening because there are so many dishes that take forever and still can’t hope to be this good.

this menu is subject to change depending on the availability at the market. we want to make sure everything we give you guys is super fresh/amazing. we’ll be back with the cocktail menu soon! you can buy tickets here

One night only. The planets have aligned, the stars are in order, and the prophesy has been fulfilled. Thank you all for your faith and patience, you shall now be rewarded with the most face smashing, belly busting, brain shatteringly awesome night of your lives. Abed and I are launching a pop up event (finally, we know) and the food and drinks are going to be pretty insane. Unless you appreciate a life of isolation and restraint we recommend you buy a ticket and bring your most indulgent tendencies to the party.

Coast to Coast will be open June 14th.  Tickets are 80 dollars and include a 4 course dinner.  The event will be at 177 Mulberry Street Downstairs and we will have an awesome cocktail and alcohol menu.  Prepare to be rocked.  Buy tickets at eventbrite

Due to a heavy influx of both business and consequential laziness Im just now getting around to posting thanksgiving pics.  The food turned out alright, but lesson number 1 is dont start drinking heavily until after everything is out of the oven.

First we have the turkey which achieved rockwell like browning a la the alton brown method

the only way to do the turkey is to carve it in the kitchen and bring it out already sliced. Saves a lot of time and energy which must be rationed out over a 12 hour stretch of drinking and munching.

I had been craving beef carpaccio for a few weeks prior to the holiday so it’s arrival was really just an excuse for me to indulge myself. This version has crispy capers, roasted and glazed shallots, frisee, and a classic lemon and dijon vianaigrette. So good.

For the stuffing/dressing I made a custard based on creamed leeks with tarragon mixed that with butter saturated bread and tossed in some toasted pine nuts and fresh taragon. This became a casualty of alcohol induced memory lapse and the top layer was charred.  The idea and flavor combo was technically sound however.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………I rounded out the meal with sauteed veggies, mashed potatoes which I strongly believe must be smooth so I toiled over a cheap mesh strainer as I had no food mill or ricer, and of course apple pie  which I spruced up with a bit of rosemary red wine caramel.  After all this I felt as if I deserved to cheat a bit and went ahead and bought ice cream from the grocery.  all in all everything went well and I think my friends and I all really enjoyed the time we had together.

Sweet, plump, luscious morsels of briny ocean marshmallow known as scallops are one of my favourite things to cook.  In this dish I paired them with a pea puree, sauteed peas, braised shallots, and braised bacon.  I get a really excellent quality bacon from my butcher (see leonards prime meats on links page) and rather than having them slice it thin or just crisping up some lardons, I really wanted to show off the bacon.I cut big trenchers that were about 3 1/2 inches by 1/2 an inch and braised it in white wine, chicken stock, mirepoix, bay leaves, and a fresno chili for good measure but i did it really low and slow (275) so the texture of the bacon is really nice.

For the pea puree I blanched and shocked the peas to release some of the starch, then I dried them on a paper towel.  Next I blanched and shocked some basil.  I added both to a blender (saving some peas for later) and pureed with some heavy cream. Finished with salt to taste.

The saved peas I sauteed in butter and salt a la minute

I started the shallots by sauteeing them in the rendered bacon fat. As they started to caramelize I flipped them and deglazed them with vermouth and added a bit of brown sugar, salt, and white wine vinegar and a sprig of thyme. At this point I covered the pan and let them steam on low heat.  After this its pretty neccesary to check them often, adding water if needed.

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As for the scallops, the procedure was pretty standard.  Hot pan, room temperature scallops that have been dried and seasoned. Sear the scallops in butter, flip and throw in a hot oven to finish. Once you put everything on a plate, it should look something like this

This dish is all about subtlety and really great ingredients.  It wasn’t perfect on this first attempt, but it was close.  Ideally I would use kampachi for this dish as it is 100% sustainable, and extremely delicious, but as its not currently available due to a restructuring of the farm, I used hamachi as a substitution.  When working with raw fish, Im usually inclined to spritz with citrus and drizzle with aromatic olive oil, but Ive been pairing fish with mushrooms lately because there were so many beautiful specimens at the market this winter.

The dish is meant to resemble tidal pools during low tide, as well as emulate the smell of salt saturated earth and thick misty air.

It starts with roasted chantrelle mushrooms that I seared heavily in a pan with olive oil, then finished in the oven.  I then allowed them to cool and plated them at room temperature. Their luscious popping texture reminded me a bit of a good seaweed salad. I also cooked creamer potato confit style in olive oil, beef fat, white pepper corns, and bay leaves. These I also allowed to cool and sprinkled with sea salt.  I reinforced the mushrooms by making truffle “sand” with some tapioca maltodextrin.  The foam is made with beet stock and lecithin and when I make this dish next time I will use golden beets so the color isn’t so garishly out of place.  I garnished the elements with fresh thyme leaves and chiffonade of lemon zest, but I think some micros would help the presentation immensely.  I seasoned the fish super lightly with some pink himalayan salt only because it was the finest grain I had and I didn’t want the crunch or a big grain interfering with the flavor of the fish.  All the elements on this plate worked together in such a way that it really transformed into something more than the sum of its parts.

Being a chef is like owning a pick up truck. If you have a truck everyone expects you to help them move.  If you’re a chef everyone expects you to do the cooking.  In my life Ive had the pleasure of fulfilling both of these roles.  Oddly enough, this vacation spoiled me as my family did all the cooking while i peeled or chopped the odd potato here or there.  it was pretty great.  Dont get me wrong, i love to cook for people, but when there are thirteen expecting relatives with high standards… its a pressure id just as soon avoid.  My brother in laws took the reigns this year making bounties of epic proportions.  Brother in law A. came equipped with the balthazar cookbook and executed the braised shortribs perfectly as well as a duck ragout with rigatoni ( last minute sub for papardelle).  Brother in law B made a roast lamb shoulder and a chicken with 40 cloves.  everything was fantastic and Im sorry i dont have any directions for you guys. I was also treated to a lunch in one of Buford Highway’s awesome plaza restaurants with the real deal on a variety of ethnic foods.  We had mexican and I ordered the beef cheek tacos, beef tongue tacos, and taco al pernil (awesome!!) ill add a picture in a bit.  all in all it was a great trip despite being delayed 6 days on the back end.

this dish is delicious, and nearly impossible to screw up.  Its also a great recipe when cooking for a crowd which is what I developed it for.  The prep work is fairly simple and everything can be put together quickly.

First  I made the basil oil by taking a big handful of basil, putting it in a pot with olive oil and warming it slowly over low medium heat for about 15 minutes. Then I cooled and strained it. Next I put the oil in a blender with another handful of fresh basil and pureed it so as to achieve the more vibrant green color I was after.  Once pureed, I strained it again so that some of the basil remained in the mix but not so much that it look like a paste.

For the leeks I washed them and chopped them into a large dice and sweated them down with a bit of salt for about twenty minutes. Then I added about two cups of chicken stock and a cup and a half of cream.  I let this cook down even more until most of the moisture had been absorbed by the leeks.  Make sure you keep tasting for salt, as once they’re done there will be no way to adjust it successfully.

I had 12 six oz halibut filets that I had folded and tied so they resembled the shape of a typical filet mignon cut.  I started doing this after reading Eric Ripert’s “A Return to Cooking” and I find it really helps out presentation when your working with a longer and skinnier cut.   I seasoned each piece of fish with salt and lemon zest and put a small pat of butter on top of each piece. I organized them on a sheet pan and cooked them in a 400 degree oven.

I used beech and maitake mushrooms and caramelized them in a saute pan over high heat so the smaller ones would crisp up a bit. I seasoned  them heavily with salt and finished them with white truffle oil.

For plating I started with a bed of the leeks making sure to add a bit of the creamy leek juice to each pile, then I put the mushrooms in a ring around the leeks and the halibut (string removed) on top. I sauced randomly around the plate with the basil oil and a few drops of lemon juice to break it, and garnished with two fried basil leaves. All in all it was pretty solid.

There will always be an undying devotion to julia childs and her cooking show, however the best cooking show to ever exist by far was great chefs great cities.  Most of the episodes are available on you tube and every once in a while you stumble upon a real gem like this one with Eric Ripert!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0RUVYXNBVQ

For those of you that are here with me in new york city there is a serious pop up restaurant with chef seamus mullen this week called the feast.  I just wrote an article for it you can check it out here:

http://joonbug.com/newyork/firstcourse/Move-Over-Thanksgiving-Theres-a-New-Feast-Coming-to-Town/Ao2sMC52yRm