Dessert Trio

For my Advanced Plated Dessert class we were inspired this week by a Japanese plate design. A few months back one of my students showed me a book completely in Japanese, but also completely stunning. One of the plates I kept in the back of my mind was the one pictured below. My class did this design complete justice and even bumped it up in my opinion~ We focused on a pear trio and used wild yeasted Lambic beer, pandan and Beehive cheese panna cotta to make it our own:

Pear Trio with Candied Nut, Squash Jam and Panna Cotta Mousse

Fig and Pear with Panna Cotta, Gingersnap and Balsamic

Pear Trio, Butternut-Coconut Jam, Honeycomb, Panna Cotta and Shortbread

Ode to Thomas Keller

This week we studied the French Laundry. Thomas Keller runs on of the best restaurants in the country. Although the cookbook was published in 1999, it still encompasses incredible technique and ideas. Here are a few dishes we tried to pay tribute to:

"Carrot" Salad, Carrot Powder and Lamb Chopper Cheese

Ceasar Salad: Parmesan Custard, Brioche, Romaine and Parmesan Tuile

Pineapple "Chop: over Fried Pasrty Cream

Foie, Sous Vide Root Vegetables and Caramel

You've Heard of Pork and Chicken...How About Some KANGAROO??

I always ask my class what they would like to learn/work with throughout the quarter the first day of class. I believe it's our job as instructors to go the extra distance to connect unique food with our "green" students. Most of my students wanted to work with more game meats. I took this opportunity to seek out a specialty meat provider and found Valley Game and Gourmet. I was able to obtain kangaroo, elk chops, venison loin, sweet breads, pheasant and foie.
Here are some of the dishes we created with our incredible proteins:

Elk Chop with Beet Tartare

Kangaroo Tartare with Gratin

Elk Chop with Lobster Mushrooms and Hubbard Squash

Edible Landscapes

For the first week of school in Art Culinaire we explored edible landscapes. The students made "soil" out of dehydrated black olives, dried figs and granola. We also designed plates from granite slates I bought at Home Depot. The end results were colorful and unique. Here are a few plates:

Wild Black Raspberries~

It's a Minnesota thing, well at least that's what I'm claiming until I find a slew of black raspberries in the West. Black raspberries remind me of railroad tracks. When I was growing deep in the woods we were surrounded by ponds, forest and railroads. Along the tracks grew wild black raspberries which we would pick each summer. Some summers were better than others and this summer was not a good one. But, there was a light at the end of the tracks that did hold plentiful black raspberries. After spending an hour picking berries and fighting ticks and pricks from the bushes, we had about three pounds of these beauties....it was a fine day. We decided to make freezer jam so we could stretch our love and labor of our berries deep into the winter months when we would need a friendly reminder of what summer was all about.

The begining of the picking.

The Cluster

Look Like Red Raspberries, But Just Un-Ripe Black Ones!

Here's To The Crew~

Thanks again for all your hard work! Here is who was part of the team for the 2011 Savory Palate~

Thanks Ryan, Ryan, Burtis, Alison, Monica, Jordan, Meryl, Ben, David, Yoko, Mo, Jeff, Eric, Owen, Issac, Trisha, Tina, Chris, Max and Jeff!

Final Week of Evening Restaurant!

Drum roll please...... This was our last night of restaurant for Spring quarter and also the final night of our evening service for The Savory Palate. The restaurant will now go to lunch service and be run by Chef Ramzy. Our dinner service for the past quarter was an another incredible success. It is and was always a pleasure to watch the students become more confident in the back and front of the house throughout the eleven weeks. Some of the dishes and food we designed this quarter were eye-opening and inspiring. A special thanks goes out to my students who showed respect and passion each day. Any local chef would be lucky to have them work for their restaurant.
Here is what the final week looked like:

AMUSE:  Santa Barbara Shrimp Sushi with Borage Flower (tastes like cucumber)

SOUP: Gazpacho with Spherified Mozzarella and Crispy Basil

SALAD:  Marinated and Grilled Octopus Salad

PASTA: Black Garlic Fettucine with Heirloom Tomatoes and Sunburst Squash

ENTREE: Duck Confit over Creamed Pearl Onions and Sunchoke Chips!

DESSERT: Funnel Cake, Italian Soda, Cotton Candy and Fruit Roll Up (All Home-Made!)