A mess of food photography - Steph Goralnick

After a hard fought battle with Keller and Achatz a calm settled over us as we prepared for our next series of dinners in Chicago. The preparation for those events was pushed to the back of our minds and we threw a party with our friends at PhotoJoJo in celebration of the photography of food. All the attendees were invited to bring a camera and get up close and dirty with whatever was created.

After our first hard fought battle with Keller and Achatz a calm settled over us as we prepared for our next series of dinners in Chicago. The preparation for those events was pushed to the back of our minds and we threw a party with our friends at PhotoJoJo in celebration of the photography of food. All the attendees were invited to bring a camera and get up close and dirty with whatever was created.

Aside from us the lovely ladies from the HAPA Kitchen were there, as well as Ted Allen and Amy Sedaris’s supper club. The whole event was hosted by the Whisk and Ladle with cocktails poured by resident bartender Nick Bennett and virtuoso cocktail artist Mayur Subbarao.

Here is a small collection of photos taken by our good friend Steph Goralnick.

Mark Losinger, Michael J Cirino, Daniel Castano, Akiko Moorman - by Jordana Rothman TimeOut NY

And so it was on the first night of Chanukah in 2008, Jordana Rothman a writer for TimeOut NY came to the first of our Breaking Bread and Boundaries series of dinners. She was skeptical and quiet letting the events unfold as they would, smiling in the corner and chatting among the 25 other guests.

I ask you to follow the link below to her brief review of the event paired with a conversation with the Chef from Alinea, Grant Achatz. After a quick read I have provided the answers to some questions posed, some clarifications and explanations for things brought up and a full exploration of the team with whom this would not have been possible. I encourage you to follow the links in Jordana’s first paragraph to get a better picture and clarification for what we were attempting.

A Razor, A Shiny Knife: Achatz’s take
By Jordana Rothman

“But ARASK’s attempt felt more deferential than presumptuous, particularly when presented by ringleader Mike Cirino, whose jocular trips over French menu descriptions were received warmly by this young, willing crowd.”

It is true I could not then and still struggle over pronouncing mille-feuille and this is even after hours of practice with my very patient fluent French speaking girlfriend, hours of abuse in the kitchen by a couple of the French speaking cooks who were working with us and a couple of hours in the car with a learn how to speak tape.

“we were impressed at the resulting meal, even if some of the more bold presentations didn’t coalesce (that sweet-potato tempura, for example, slid like melted ice cream from its cinnamon stick vessel)”

This was one of the only dishes from the meal that was actually in the Alinea cookbook and it was one that provided us with some of the most difficulty. Convincing gelatinized potato and whiskey puddings not to dissolve when deep fried was a long and tenuous battle which was eventually won by Brian Sullivan on the second night with a collection proper hydration techniques and huge muscles.

“Was it also a good opportunity to see your book put to use?
Ironically, not too many of the dishes in the menu are in the book. Most of the techniques certainly are. They are certainly being creative in their own way. They have budget constraints, plating limitations, equipment and space issues that all force creative solutions. How can you not applaud that?”

I have to admit that this was one of the hardest things to explain when speaking about the dinner to our friends, family and loved ones. It is one thing to cook a 25 course meal of your own creation, it is another to try and emulate what was done by these two brilliant men and their incredible teams. It was an honor to have Chef Achatz so succinctly explain the greatest challenges that we encountered while showing the core reason for our attempt in the first place.

“The Hot Potato is a rock-star effort. Complete with wax bowls even…nicely done! I think he should come and stage at Alinea for a couple days before his next dinner.… I might be able to show him a few tricks.”

And before the next dinner I did take him up on this offer, but more on this to come soon enough…

But first I would like to say thank you to everyone who participated in these first meals in New York and the research and practice that went into making them a reality. Without the intense commitment and dedication given by these lovely people none of this would have been possible.

Daniel Castaño – The two of us came up with this exhausting idea while driving to Boston one rainy afternoon so I blame him for a majority of sleepless nights, long hours testing recipes, fighting with purveyors, booking flights and credit card bills. But without Daniel none of this would have been possible and it was with his guidance and knowledge that allowed us to consistently create such great food.

Eugene Edele – Is a master chef and was able to help break down some of the more intricate flavor profiles and create unique and interesting ideas for the way the dishes might have been served from just a menu.

Matt Franco – Guided the wine selections and pairings based off of the original menus. One of the largest components of the original meals price was the brilliant and rare wines that were paired with the amazingly intricate food. Matt was able to recreate a similar experience with varietal and flavor balance while functioning on a fraction of the budget.

Kristen Hager – helped with logistics and promotions and was instrumental in making sure that the word got out about our meals in every city. Her deft knowledge of wine and service made her to be a key part of our front of house team in NY.

Mark Losinger – Was intricate in the cooking and execution of evening’s menus. Whether butchering beef, lobster or fish, working the sauté station or teaching people about the variety of nonsense they were watching being assembled in front of them.

Kathryn Mahoney – tirelessly supported the entire team throughout the research and development stages of the event in a myriad of ways and led the front of house at the event, creating an atmosphere of comfort and flawless services for the guests who partook in a twenty-five course, five hour meal.

Akiko Moorman – was driven not only to create recipes that were reminiscent to the original per se  meal but also making the ingredients used to cook those the best local and sustainable products. She was critical in not only the execution, but the creation of the recipes which we served and was an invaluable member of team at every meal.

William Oberlin – with Brian Sullivan designed the replicas of Martin Kastner’s beautiful serving pieces and built all of them by hand at his studio in North Brooklyn.

Mayur Subbarao – is a pastry chef extraordinaire amongst his other talents which are many. He was responsible for a majority of the recipe writing and development in the confectionary sections of the menu and was the only team member to have eaten ate all three of the restaurants who’s menus we were recreating. His tireless efforts and creative were instrumental to making this meal happen.

Brian Sullivan – single-handedly took command of writing and testing most of the modern cooking recipes that we executed over the course of these dinners. His passion for cooking and designed drove the creativity in the team and his dedication to perfection created a standard that we all strove to attain with every dish. His input on the service piece design, kitchen equipment set up and his flawless execution at meal time made him a crucial part of every event and without him none of this would have been possible.

Here is a collection of photos from TimeOut NY and our own cameras from the New York events.

Grant Achatz's - Blackberry, Tobacco, Kola Nut, Nepitella

Time was lost and the minutes that were given to us to accomplish this herculean task seemed to be as inadequate as cocktail umbrellas in a hurricane. Fire was closing in on us from all sides and the pressure of was mounting by the second.

Grant Achatz's - Hot Potato-Cold Potato w/Chive, Butter, Truffle

On slightly warmer than desired morning of December 12th, 2008 we packed up our kitchen and moved it to the sight of the first of our dinners. Until now we had had the foresight to plan our events around the resources available to us: space, time, equipment, etc. In this case these seemingly simple luxuries were not an option.

Our host was gracious and provided us with and amazing amount of space; a beautiful modern kitchen in her amazing brand new north Brooklyn loft. We had access to an incredibly powerful six burner stove with a delicate oven, an unreasonable amount of stainless steel counter-tops (for this part of the world), a dish washer (which in and of itself was a godsend) and a very adequate sub-zero refrigerator who’s only contents were a few bottles of half imbibed liquor, mixers and some butter and cheese.

Menu with prep notes

To accomplish what Chef Keller and Achatz were able to execute at per se we had to supplement these tools with some of our own equipment. A complete list of items that were packed up and carried across Brooklyn would be mind-numbingly boring but here is a non-exhaustive attempt at giving some idea to what was required, in prose. Two immersion circulators, one set for meat and fish and one for vegetables for the first half of the meal and then reset for warming and holding for the second half. A forty liter tank of liquid nitrogen for turning white truffles into a snow, as we did not have the budget to buy fresh white truffles for the celery root puree. Six additional burners were added and stationed in a neighboring room creating a second line, allowing the simultaneously firing consecutive courses. Add on two blow torches, a laser inferred thermometer, a couple of Kitchen-Aids, a dehydrator and a selection of incredibly specific tableware that would make your head spin. We were finally ready to serve twenty-five courses of the most technically difficult and precise food conceived in this century.

Grant Achatz's - Black Truffle Explosion

After set-up was complete and we got the whole process rolling, things went as smoothly as you could imagine. With a few exceptions, we did what we thought was an amazingly admirable job with the time and information we had. As the first night came to a very late end, we were in a place of extreme exhaustion, yet happiness. Feeling confident, we ran head-first into the second dinner. Our mobile kitchen had been refined – almost completely eliminating the kinks that had occurred the first night, which only created space for a whole new set to come in and take their place.

Our Truffle Flight from the first Keller/Achatz Dinnner

The days were long and grueling. The mornings were filled with recipe writing and research on ingredients suppliers, purveyors and manufactures. Deliveries would arrive between 1000-1300 and testing would begin about 1600; lasting into the wee hours of the evening, with a rotating cast floating in and out of my apartment with casual regard an energy that was constantly refreshing and inspiring.

About a week out from our first set of events we were pretty sure we had a good idea of what we were going to serve for the dishes outlined on the simple printed menus we had been basing our dinners on. It was at this point that a burgeoning friendship with Nick Kokonas (the owner of Alinea) provided us simultaneously with the most beneficial and detrimental tool in our quest. He was able to get us a very extensive set of photographs that were captured by Lara Kastner at the per se dinner.

This provided us with a conundrum as the photos enabled us to answer all of the questions we had when we were trying to extrapolate the simple menu descriptions but we had already committed hours of practice and testing to the recipes we had written which were no longer relevant to the actual dishes. So in what could have been the worst decision we had made for our sanity we decided to rewrite all of the recipes and try to execute the dishes exactly the way they were served originally.

With 72 hours before service was to being on Friday December 12^th, 2008 we started to prepare and write simultaneously. Working around the clock, while shuffling our day jobs and the fleeting extraneous bits of our lives we pushed forward and into one of the longest dinners ever.

Truffle Flight:

© 2008 Lara Kastner. If you would like to see more photos from the Keller/Achatz Dinners please visit Lara's site and look through her Cuisine Portfolio

Keller:
Truffle Oil-Infused Custard
“Ragout” of Black Winter Truffles

White Truffles from Alba
Celery Branch and Celery Root Mousse

Achatz:
Black Truffle Explosion
Romaine, Parmesan

Hot Potato-Cold Potato
Chive, Black Truffle

When attempting to attack something of this nature, the best thing to do, in my opinion, is just abandon all hope for being casual and relaxed about it. I say spend every waking moment obsessing about every detail and let yourself only be properly satisfied with an unusual amount of desired perfection in the outcome. Setting your goals ridiculously high will easily create a sense of unbridled drive and hopefully this passion will overcome you and push you to new heights, while inspiring others around you to throw in their lot and do the same.

That night in early November, a small group of us sat down to talk, plan, experiment and discover truly what we had signed up to in trying to recreate this meal.

First task was to turn the menu, with its simple and cryptic description, ingredients and quotation marks, into recipes.

I can say now that the first night was one of the most memorable events in my entire life. To watch this assorted group of people fall together behind this quest and in 6 hours go from nothing to having some semblance of a plan. To see people, who had never met each other before bond with dedicated passion over this goal was so strong it fueled my own drive for the long months to come.

While pouring over the various cooks books we could get our hands on we searched and hunted for clues and tips that we could use. In a bit of good fortune some of the dishes were classics and were able to be gleaned directly from the amazing cookbooks these meals were celebrating. But a majority of the courses were new: progressions on thoughts that the chefs had been cultivating over many years, new flashes of inspiration that overtook them in the run up to these glorious events, reinterpretations on dishes and techniques that they had created or perfected and were now able to bend to their creative will.

This first night turned out a few great successes and some amazing failures.

Our first success, were these little puffs of yuzu. Fluffed with Methocellulose F50 in a stand mixer and then piped on to a dry sheet of acetate. Like tiny meringues but instead of being baked with egg whites, these were dehydrated to a crisp. Containing only: yuzu, water, sugar and roughly 1.25% of the total weight of juice of Methocel F50.

This was a reinterpretation of a dish we found in the Alinea cookbook that was originally a spiced foie gras treat. Here it was served as a passed canapé with a smoked salmon pâté and with a caper buried deep in the light and crunchy yuzu puff.

After a long battle of wrestling with recipes we ended up breaking the menu into pieces for everyone to do some research and refinement over the weekend. And with a few more drinks we started stage two of our planning: how to recreate the Alinea display pieces.

The man behind the camera of these pictures W. Oberlin and Brian Sullivan, were captaining the construction and develop of the two critical devices we would need to serve this meal,

1. Parafin wax bowls

2. Squids

A handful of amazing drawings were scribbled out on paper, in blood red ink, crossed out and then redrawn. Little words were written next to big words on digital prints of the actual devices. After a bit of doing we settled on budgets and what we thought were good ideas and then remembered we had one last recipes setting in the fridge.

It was decidedly the most triumphant success of the evening. It was one of the most simple but thought provoking dishes in the whole menu. It was Chef Achatz Black Truffle Explosion, a riff on a Chinese soup dumpling but with a truffle stock and butter liquid center wrapped in a rich and dense Italian style fresh milk and egg pasta. Here the gelatinized center is poked before being wrapped in the silky pasta dough and gently cooked.

It is hard to explain how incredibly flavorful this was, but easier to understand was the emotional response to closing your mouth around the little bit and having it explode filling your mouth with overwhelming deliciousness.

It was just the stock emulsified with butter and then set with about 1% gelatin into a sphere. Simple enough, and now a great way of making liquid filled ravioli of any flavor or design. Please try if you are so inclined as it is simple and amazing. The shape of the gel does not matter so you can just set a gelatin and then cut it up and wrap it tightly in fresh pasta dough. Have fun.

One of the complete failures of the night, and what would become one of the more difficult dishes to decipher, was Chef Achatz’s Lamb, Fennel, Pernod, Coffee-Scented Air. Not having any idea what this would be like we started making wild guesses and decided on trying to make spheres of Pernod sauce and braise lamb necks until they were tender. Turns out we got close with the lamb necks but in the end there were actually a total 3 different cuts of Lamb (loin, neck, sweat bread), three sauces (in varying consistencies: liquid, gel and leather) and the Pernod was actually an airy foam laid on top of the coffee braised lamb neck pudding.

Even liquid nitrogen wouldn’t get the Pernod gel to set for us to try to encapsulate it with gellan. After about twenty minutes of fighting with this, everyone basically took to blowing into the bowl with the LN2 and making fun little clouds.

Turns out it was never supposed to be a sauce in a sphere but a foam. Which was way easy and quickly rendered once we saw the photos.

About one year ago we decided to embark on a series of adventures. It was our hope to learn through emulation and execution of what would be some of the most exquisite food in the world, cooked by two of our generation’s greatest chefs.

It was last September 17th when Grant Achatz and Thomas Keller announced to the world that in celebration of their new cookbooks and their admiration toward each other they would host a meal at per se in NY, Alinea in Chicago and The French Laundry in Napa. They would serve a 25 course meal showing a career retrospective and some of the most current and advanced dishes their kitchens have developed, paired with the most amazing wines, at a price of $1500 a person. Three of the best restaurants in the world, hosting a meal that would come to define this generation of American cuisine.

It was at this point, while trapped in a crushing rain storm somewhere on interstate 84, driving to Boston for a series of events Daniel and I decided that best way to learn and advance with our own cooking was to try and recreate these meals. To elevate our own cooking by learning from the incredibly high bar these masters have set with this series of events. We decided the only way to do it properly was to recreate the meals to as exacting a measure as possible, following the chefs across the country, and preparing our interpretations of the meals in NYC, Chicago and San Francisco.

We gave ourselves roughly one month from the dates that they had set to host our first event in NYC. Without any knowledge of the actual events and not being able to sample and taste the food we embarked on the recreation from a purely educational point of view.

We were able to convince a friendly insider to sneak us a copy of the menu from per se a couple days before the event to see if it would be possible to execute such lofty food from our studio and serve it in home kitchens. With that one sheet of paper we dove into reverse engineering for twenty-five of the most technical dishes of haute cuisine in world, from simple menu description.

The above menu does not include the following passed canapés

Chef Keller

Salmon Cornet – Marinated Atlantic Salmon with Black Sesame Tuile and Red Onion Crème Fraîche

Lamb “BLT” – “Petit Salé”

Chef Achatz

Puffed Idiazábal – Yeast, Mustard Seed

Smoked Salmon – Yuzu, Caper

We had to rely on, photos and blog posts about similar dishes served and eaten in their restaurants and the few scraps and pieces that were scattered across their respective brilliant new cookbooks, and any hint or review that could be gleaned from small amount of press that attended the first dinner.

Not knowing how food was supposed to taste added one level of complexity but not knowing what it was too look like was another layer of impossibility that started to become overwhelming. How do you recreate a dish that in its description was beautiful to eat and delicious to see on the plate?

How could we know how they wanted it to be presented to the world? If we could get it to taste similar would we fail when the pieces didn’t come together correctly?

In addition to the plating and composition of the food we also had been tasked with creating the custom service pieces that Chef Achatz uses to serve his dishes. Parafin wax bowls to suspend a pin a with a hot potato over a small cup of ice cold potato soup, steel squids for holding a singular bite. Here was the best example of how refined and perfected these men held their craft. Would we fail if we could not make sure to execute these details as well?

So with about 32 days to work out all of the details we set to work with nine chefs, two engineers, an industrial designer and a collection of amazing friends whose strength and support would prove to be the most deciding factor in being able to follow through with all of this.