tonight we had a dinner celebrating spring vegetables. the cool thing was that there was no protein involved. not quite vegetarian. just letting the spring vegetables take center stage. i do enjoy this way of thinking. for most savory chefs i think it throws them for a loop. in my experiences, chefs tend to organize their menus/dishes around what meat/fish/poultry they have. probably the fault of the diner thinking they are going to eat either steak, veal, duck, tuna, etc. instead of all the other elements that make up a wonderful dish. do you start the dish with radishes or beef, asparagus or chicken, frisee or lobster. i guess these questions hold importance to me being the pastry chef because i face this question everyday. the strawberries or the cake, the apples or the tart. rarely has the cake or tart or other pastry product been made without first consulting the fruit or vegetable and seeing what they want to accompany them. maybe it's because i have always cooked in areas where great produce prevails.
so in the tradition of our dinner tonight i made a "strawberry and rhubarb salad" with a celery sorbet. i really just wanted to put as many things on the plate as i could.
compressed strawberries, strawberry gel, poached green rhubarb, rhubarb gelee, vanilla pudding, celery sorbet, celery ribbons, basil puree, basil seeds, dried black olives, olive oil powder, celery leaves and basil leaves, strawberry croquant, warm olive oil cake.
2 comments:
That's a lot of elements on one plate. You could break that into like four distinct desserts. How long did it take to plate?
Luckily it was a 5 course dinner party. I had the 6 other cooks put down at least two elements each while I scooped the ice cream. I wish savory cooks would learn to quenelle.
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