L2O Blog

Shiso Noodle

Shiso has not only a fresh and bright flavor, it has a deep green color that brings life to any pale dish. With mint and fennel, the perilla leaf has a lot of essential oil with strong flavor notes. We simmer it with corn maltodextrin and water to set the color and blend it with ice to stop the cooking process. After it is strained through a coffee filter, the shiso water is set with LA Gellan. When cold it becomes a stiff block and is ready to use. Using a Japanese noodle sheeter we turn it into a thin ribbon, like a noodle. It can be used cold or warm as the gellan has a melting point of 140 degrees Fahrenheit. I like it cold with dry-fried shrimp and a light bouillon with vinegar.

Chocolate Box, The Dish

The final chocolate box is on the dessert menu. Earlier posts looked at the production and coloring process, now the final presentation and inside.  The box is filed with several different preparations in layers, ranging from dense to light with crunchy components. From the top down: caramelized almond mousse with a touch of Murray salt, dark toffee made of cream and caramelized sugar, caramelized almond rolled in cocoa butter to keep them crunchy, milk chocolate mousse, dark chocolate cremeux of manjari and cocoa paste, caramelized cocoa nibs, and on the bottom a caramel chocolate ganache. Sitting on top is an amaretto bonbon and on the side a chocolate sauce.

Miyazaki Wagyu, Close Up on the Eye

Miyazaki Wagyu, Beet, Heart of Palm, Lettuce

Fish Chips

CJ, one of the cooks on our team, had an idea. He took the skate wing bones, blanched them and cleaned them under the sprinkler. He cut them with scissors into small pieces, dried them few hours in the dehydrator and then fried them in a 180ºC fryer until they were brown and crispy. Seasoned with salt, the bones became chips. They were not at all fishy and very pleasant to eat. CJ then went to Australia for a few months on a sabbatical. 

CJ is now back and has picked up the idea where he left off. He decided to make an amuse bouche with the chips and garnish them with a combination of pickled eggplant and cucumber in red shiso vinegar, julienne of cucumber skin salad, and a shiso salt. It is very refreshing and texture-wise very dynamic to eat.

Black Cod, The Preparation

The arrival of black cod is a sign that the snow will be over soon in Chicago. This fish is available fresh in the market from now until mid-December. With other names, sable fish, butter-fish, it lives in the deep pacific water around Alaska. Considered as a delicacy, it is very pricey in Japan. Black cod cured with red miso and sake is a classic of Japanese cuisine- and it is delicious. For this preparation I looked into a light cold smoke for a warm preparation. After being fillet and skinned, the meat is seasoned with 1% of sea salt and brushed with Dijon mustard. We smoke the fish for 4 hours until the outside of the loin gets a thin skin. Then we portion the fish and store it for service.

Efficiency

Efficiency in a kitchen is key for a good flow service. If most of the things you need are around you, the less you need to move, so you become more efficient. Something as simple as pans and pots on busy night are slowing down service (negotiating space on the flat tops, dishwasher over loaded, back and forth to get clean pots) and every chef knows the burden they can create. In designing and equipping this kitchen comfort inside the space was key. As seen in the picture of the grill station, there are few or no steps in-between the grill, plancha, gas salamander and combi oven. We realize and appreciate every day how much easier things are when you can stay in one place. Even when we use a combination of couple of the different cooking elements to finalize a dish, one person on that station do all the cooking.

Cold Consomme, Spring Vegetables, 2008 Season