walking in my shoes

i found these stones outside the restaurant, stacked as they were.  most likely, everyone walked by them. i saw something inspiring.  a natural beauty, organic in nature though something man-made.  almost as if they were meant to be stacked...irregular in shape, various sizes and cuts, yet similar enough to compliment each other.  various shades of the same color. within the still life there was texture and movement.
i saw inspiration...and beauty....and it made me think...

chocolate cremeux, chocolate parfait, violet meringue, blackberry cremeux, feuillatine, violet croquant, blackberry sauce and drupes

little victories

in a conversation with the chef today i brought up the point of modern cuisine and all the new techniques there are to work with. we both agreed that the sole purpose of these techniques is to better serve the flavor of the dish. the end should justify the means. how can we make things better, not different or new. tomorrow we are having a mushroom dinner. i used dried candy cap mushroom powder to make these croquants. i used to add the dries to the sugar when it reached the proper temperature. this time i added it when i was grinding the sugar in the spice grinder. the flavors are so much more intense as the flavoring component is not subjected to high heat. i have also made these using freeze dried bananas and they taste so much better than before. i know others have done it this way and now understanding the results, it is now a permanent technique for me.

back to work

here are some pics to look at. praline croquant. yuzu parfait, pistachio pain de genes, candied yuzu peel, croquant