Week 8

Our amuse this week was a spin on a traditional peanut butter and jelly sandwich. This was achieved by taking a savory peanut butter mousse and combining it with a persimmon-cinnamon reduction. It was then topped with a candied persimmon slice.

The bread course was a contemporary take on a classic German pretzel. The pretzel sat along side a Beehive cheese fondu for dipping.

The classic roasted tomato soup was souped-up (pardon the pun) with the addition of a olive charcoal and a chiffonade of basil. Olive charcoal is made by taking focaccia bread and combining it with olive puree and squid ink and then baking. The squid ink is used to achieve the dark black color of charcoal.

I know what you're thinking. There is no wayI would find a salad consisting of curried carrots and celery root with a bacon cider vinaigrette in Utah. Well, you're wrong, we did it this week!

What could possibly follow a salad of that magnitude? How does a potato risotto sound? Need a little more? Ok, we'll finish the risotto with Parmesan and mascarpone cheese and serve it with balsamic grilled mushrooms and a chive oil. Happy?!

Braised pork sits atop a tamale pancake. This mountain of flavor is the centerpiece our Entree. And what brave Sherpa of deliciousness could scale such a summit unscathed? Why, only an avocado chimichurri and a radish salsa, of course!

Dessert this week was a bit of a let down... NOT! It was one of the most brilliant inventions since sliced bread. (Note, this course did not include sliced bread.) What it did include however is a plethora of culinary delights more commonly reserved for breakfast. How did they do it you ask? (You ask a lot of questions by the way) We made a Chai ice cream and coupled it corn flake granola and an egg shaped panna cotta.

Week 7

We surprised our guests this week by presenting them with an amuse of beet lollipops. We made these by roasting and slicing the beets and fixing them atop skewers.

This weeks' tasting menu began with a bacon lavosh accompanied by caramelized cippolini onions. Lavosh bread is typically very crispy and resembles more of a cracker.

Our soup was banana squash, with a pear and wassail gelée garnished with a black molasses crouton.

In keeping with our tradition of using beets on a weekly basis, the students chose to get the most flavor out of the most well known member of the Chenopodiaceae family through the process of roasting. The roasted beets were set along side wild mushrooms, pickled grapes and a Verjus vinaigrette.

For our pasta course we decided to create a rosemary-cheddar souffle with an apple-juniper berry reduction.

The Entree was braised lamb with a winter berry gastrique along side a savory bread pudding. A gastrique is a sauce produced by a reduction of vinegar or wine, sugar and usually a fruit.

The dessert was a Greek yogurt crème brûlée with zucchini bread and bacon chai jam. The bacon jam was made by first crisping the bacon then slowly reducing it into a sauce made with apple cider vinegar, orange juice, maple syrup, onions and spices. The Greek yogurt gave the crème brûlée a cheesecake-like flavor.