It is important to remember that everything is an experiment.  We don’t always know that a certain flavor combination along with the techniques used in the preparation  are going to be a success. In all actuality, they aren’t always successful.  Failure is an important piece of every success.  We have spent several hours studying, researching, testing, and discussing every dish that makes up our menus.  Nothing reaches the table until we are both fully satisfied.

Through years of repetition and working with various ingredients we have been accustomed to how flavors work, and how most preparations affect certain ingredients.  We gather inspiration from the season, cookbooks, feedback, and the team around us.   Although there is always more to learn, we consider ourselves experts in our profession, as every Chef should be.  When it comes to food we have a trained eye and palate.  Just as a musician plays an instrument, food is our instrument and the dishes we create are the music that they make.

Another important step in the menu making process is portioning and costing.  Although it may not be the most exciting step, it is crucial to the development of a finished dish and to the success of a business.

We already know what we want in a dish, but, how much we put on the plate affects how the flavors work together, the presentation, how much it’s going to cost you, and most importantly your diet.  Overeating is just one of many problematic gastronomical issues that face our society.  We feel very passionate about the people in our community and what we are contributing to their bodies.  Thats why it is of the utmost importance we take responsibility for the amount of food on the plates we serve our guests.  At the same time we understand what an honor it is to have someone spend their such valuable time and disposable income at our establishment.  We don’t want anyone leaving feeling like they didn’t get their money’s worth.

After we have worked out the portion sizes and measurements for every single ingredient in every single dish we cost out everything.  We won’t go into too much further detail as it varies from item to item.  In the end we set a price that is fair to our guests as well as our budget.

Check back for more updates soon, as well as our new spring menu set to debut March 27th.

Nick & Ryan

A study guide will be made so the team can become familiar with each item as well as the process it takes for us to create each dish from raw product to plate.

It’s a great feeling to take something from in your mind and work it all the way to a plate that will be set out for our guests to enjoy. It’s a living process and one of the best parts of being a Chef. Look for the release of this menu at the end of March.

Even though the north wind still sends the mercury plummeting and the snow banks continue to grow, winter is winding its way to an end at last. Spring is right around the corner and with the change in season we get yet another opportunity to express our creativity and imagination with a change in menus.

The process is indeed a pleasure. One that excites us, keeps us motivated, and always looking forward. Here is a look at how we begin to gather ideas; moving from ingredients, to composed dish, to first draft of the completed menu.

As we begin, we each start alone, looking at the ingredients that will be in season. What are the peak items of spring? We list what we hope to or think we can work with, moving then to creating generalized concepts of what we would like to do. At this stage, we sit down together and compare notes. Sometimes we have ideas that are shockingly similar, other times we have entirely different thoughts. We then discuss what we like about our own ideas and share what we like and what we would change about the other’s. From here we select our strongest players, and reformulate the others that need work, agreeing on the main items that we will feature. We then take a break to “marinate” on what we have come up with.

 After a few more meetings, along with input from our team,  we slowly hone in our concepts to finish our rough draft menu. The difference between a good dish and a great dish is not only stepping back to look at what may be missing and letting that ‘AH HA’ moment occur naturally on it’s own, it’s also being able to not force things onto the plate. Sometimes 3 ingredients smartly paired together in harmonious fashion far outshine 6 or 7 that fight on the palate.

Over the next few weeks we will continue to share the steps that will take us from the rough draft to the final stage of the process when we debut the new menu at the end March.

-Nick and Ryan

Our hope is that these lovely bits of food porn tide you over as we work on our next series of entries which will cover the creative process and the birth of our NEW SPRING MENU, set tentatively to be released some time near the end of March.

vanilla & parsnip bisque with a prune and pistachio gremolata

blood orange salad with Felix’s feta, beet micros, pine nuts, lolla rossa, and a coriander vinaigrette

cured lamb heart with watermelon and purple ninja radishes, turnips, arugula, candied fennel, and a bone marrow dressing

confit duck rillette on sourdough toast with crispy guanciale, pickled figs, rainbow sorrel, vecchio balsamico, pea chutes, and fleur de sel

fried east coast oysters in the shell with pickled cabbage, tabasco gastrique, mustard infused herring roe, and candied garlic aioli

spicy calabrian chili breaded berkshire pork chop with carrot dijon puree, pickled & charred cauliflower, and herb fingerlings

beet laquered Faroe Island salmon with king crab gribiche, avocado, creme fraiche, jicama & cucumber, and yuzu

Zingerman’s Lincoln Log cheese pane cotta with black pepper & strawberries, and a sesame tulle

raspberry mousse, cheesecake, almond cake, raspberry coulis, and cake crumbs

chipotle chocolate cake with chocolate creme, frozen aerated chocolate mousse, chocolate dust, and shaved chocolate

Not pictured was the Wagyu beef new york with a sweet potato puree, velvet piopino mushrooms, oxtail marmalade, and broccolini.  Also, apple red hot sorbet.

If we learned anything so far it’s that patience is certainly a virtue.  Also, even if it seems like it, there are no failures as long as some knowledge was gained in the process.  We ambitiously started with a 20 pound batch of traditional Italian salami, which sadly after a month or so of hanging in the curing chamber left us with a couple of measly 8 ounce sticks of salami that weren’t garbage.  Yet sometimes it’s about the small victories of what we had created and the growth from what we had learned in the process.

Near the time we mourned the loss of our salami we celebrated our first ever dry cured coppa.  We couldn’t be more excited for this whole cured muscle that came out beautifully.

We recently butchered two whole hogs and carefully removed the coppa muscles from each of the shoulders.  I then put them on a salt cure for about 10 days.  They came off the cure today with the lovely aroma of cured meat (you would have to experience it to understand).

Next I rinsed each piece under cold water and patted them dry.  After rubbing the coppa down with white wine, I coated them thoroughly with a mix of cayenne, fennel, and pimenton and wrapped each one in cheesecloth and trussed them with butcher’s twine.

And in the curing chamber they will hang for the next 3-4 weeks where we will be monitoring their progress including weight, temperature, and humidity.

With everything in the kitchen moving at such a fast pace from plate to plate and day to day, it’s important to slow down and take a moment to think about how it all gets from our kitchen to your table.

Ryan

This was one of the first knife cutting skills I learned in culinary school.  I liked it so much I would go to the store to get oranges to practice with, and it became a fun and cheap way to work on some knife cuts at home.

I find the job is easiest with a sharp and slender knife. Cut the top and bottom of the orange off and start cutting the rind away from the fruit.  One of the keys to a perfect supreme is getting all of the pith removed with out wasting the fruit.

In the top picture you can see how you start to follow the “white line”of the pith to help guide you as you cut. I find that if you set the orange away from yourself at an angle you can see where your knife is going much easier. The bottom picture is of the orange completely peeled.

Next you want to cut out each segment of the orange. Start by cutting on the inside of the little membrane that holds the segment in place, once again using the natural “white line” as your guide. Cut on each side and release the segments one at a time working your way around the fruit. Once you are all done place your orange segments into a small dish (tupperware, bowl, etc) and squeeze the orange (not the segments) to get the juice. You can use the segments in any number of ways. Easy ones come in the form of salads, or added to a fruit tart, or even arranged simply on a plate to have for breakfast.

The zest from the left over rind can also be used in a few different ways. It can be candied or dried and powdered to add to salt or sugar. If you don’t feel like eating it, it can also just be dried and put on a fire at night which will release a beautiful show of colors; something my parents would do when I was young, a cherished memory indeed.

I hope you try out supreming a blood orange this year. It is one of the simplest pleasures of cooking that I know.

-Nick

New menus for us also bring new experiences.  We try to push ourselves to create exciting and unique dishes that also push our skill levels and techniques.  Pictured above are live sea urchins of which we were familiar with yet never had the pleasure of working with.

To clean we first cracked each piece with a knife and then using a kitchen shears, clipped the whole side off.  We next scooped out the beautiful yellow uni, also known as roe, but more accurately the gonads, out of the center.

Who would have ever thought such an ugly obscure creature produced such a delicious briny, sweet and creamy substance as this.

You may find this extraordinary ingredient on our new dish:  Pan seared sea scallops with gjetost caramel, tangerine & celery, uni, and pink peppercorns.

Ryan

With dedication to our craft, we approach our work with energy and passion. We hope you enjoy our theories, thoughts, ideas, antics, and rants on food and cooking.

Thanks!

Ryan and Nick