a razor, a shiny knife » Kristen Hager

A review and a conversation

Michael J Cirino — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 11:47:54 +0000

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.

Keller/Achatz - New York

Dinner Theatre

Michael J Cirino — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 17:49:00 +0000

Jonny and I after hours of negotiations

About a month ago I was relaxing with a friend of mine named Jonathan over a long late summer weekend, drinking Korean beers that taste enormously like Miller High Life and enjoying the lack of breeze. We were sitting in my back yard, watching my dog viciously lie in the sun and while talking about nonsense we stumbled into a conversation about dinner and theater.

We were speaking about our plans for the fall and some of the events that we were working on. I explained about the dinner on the first of November and the Autumnal Harvest and Pig roasting extravaganza in October, while Jonathan went on to explain about his plans for acting and writing throughout the fall.

Sometime around the middle of the afternoon it occurred to us that we had nothing yet planned for September and with a little bit of mental wrestling we discovered that there were some dishes that need to be tired and some of his plays that needed to be worked on. It was in that moment that we decided to take a stab at Dinner Theatre.

We wanted a lounge feel, with smoke and cocktails. Jonny thought it important to include some multimedia in the event and decided that he would like to bring in a dance performance as well as the thespian display. I felt strongly about cooking for each act and leaving dessert for the after whisky. What we eventually came up with, through the great help of our friends was this night of Dinner Theatre:

Menu:
Snacks: Candied Bacon, Crisp Garbanzos and Spiced Nuts
1. Dark Roux Sausage Étouffée with Caramelized Onions and Pega
2. Black Tempura Prawns in Green Curry Custard with Key Lime and Cilantro
3. Sweet Braised Short Rib, Country Pâté Brulée over a Horseradish demi-glace with Alsatian Munster whipped fondue, Enoki mushroom and quail yolk purses and charred Japanese scallions
4. Tobacco Crisps with Coffee crème and whisky dipping sauce
5. Cigar – Dominican Metropolitan

Menu created with Daniel Castaño and Eugene Edele.

Executed with Daniel Castaño, Eugene Edele and Cathy Erway; and special thanks to Kristen Hager, Kirsten Larson, Nora Sherman and Leah Viens-Gordon for all of their help in coordination and execution.

Wines and Spirits by Jesse Salazar:
Bodegas Llopart 2005 Rose Brut Reserva Cava
Wingut Hirsch 2006 Riesling Gaisberg
Scholum Project 2007 Naucratis Lost Slough Vineyard
Elmer T Lee Single Barrel – Buffalo Trace

With performances of:
“The Confidence Man” adapted from Herman Melville’s novel by Ben Rose and Jonathan Cristaldi and performed by Jonny Cigar and Abraham Danz.

“Awakening” choreographed by Ori Flomin and performed by Amanda Wells and Ori Flomin

“Kammerspiel!” Written, directed and performed by Jonny Cigar while featuring: Abraham Danz, Phoebe Oglesbee, Zach Bernstein and Another Girl.

Video Installation by Tyler Coburn www.tylercoburn.com

Photos by:

This is a simple snack that was common place in my childhood in many different forms. Here we just fried the canned Garbanzo beans until crisp and then tossed them with coriander, cumin, cayenne, Balinese long peppers and dried lemon rind. Citrus juice to flavor.

Gratuitous sausage. These cubes were shaped for the Étouffée. The shape held well, our next goal is to get casing to fit the outside. I imagine it shaped like a wrapped present.

Due to some dietary restrictions in the audience we were able to provide the Étouffée in both a sausage and more traditional shrimp versions.

A collection of black batter dipped shrimp.

This was just a standard tempura batter that we added shrimp brains and sepia for additional flavor and color. After we had it balanced and seasoned we bottled it and carbonated it to 50 psi to too make the batter extra light and crisp. The coating was airy and light and the brains gave the crisp a full flavor.

Short Ribs with a liberal amount of pâté

Short Ribs being caramelized

This is a shot of the short ribs from our test kitchen the Sunday before the performance. Here we exchange the Obrato for Phyllo dough.

We eventually settled with Enoki and Slow Poach Quail Egg wrapped in soy wrapper and flashed fried crisp and awaiting steak

I know it might seem obvious in this setting and maybe even trite being that the performers name is Jonny Cigar but we have been working on this Coffee and Cigarettes style dessert all summer and this iteration seems to work well. With crisp cookies and Cathy’s indulgent Sanka Cream custard the cookies we absolutely delightful on their own but with a dip in the whisky syrup everything became divine.