Foie Bacon

We are working on our Foie Gras Bacon. I am thinking lentil salad, purple cherokee tomatoes and foie bacon. I can almost taste it.

Summer Menu

Our summer menu comes out today. You can check out the update on our website. We have been really busy getting ready for the new menu. I will post some pictures soon. Sorry for being away for so long.

Tuna

Tuna has become a love hate relationship with me. I really love cooking, or not cooking, tuna and eating great quality tuna, but the market on tuna has become so short and the demand is so large that the price of tuna has risen above what we can pay. The picture above is from around 1950 and it is a 300 pounder. Tuna this large is becoming increasingly rare because of over fishing. Tuna is no longer allowed to mature before being caught. So in an effort to be more conscious of our limited resources we will not be serving tuna for some time. While this is unfortunate, and I will miss sashimi, I feel t it is important to work towards sustainability.

Duck fat Poached Cod

Here are some pictures of our final dish.

Duck Fat Poaching

We are going to poach cod in duck fat. We figured if we can poach in water, olive oil, and you can fry in canola etc, then why not duck fat. Tomorrow:

Duck fat poached cod, summer vegetable medley, celeriac puree, and snow pea tendrils with star anise-red wine reduction.

Foie Gras

Foie Gras can be quite the controversial menu item. Ben Barker in Durham has been serving it for a long time as have many other reputable chefs. On the flip side many reputable chefs won't serve it because of the controversy. Well, I love Foie Gras, but I am mixed about the treatment of these animals. A lot has been written on this and one can make a decision for themselves. 2 things to remember about Foie Gras; 1.poorly treated animals make really bad meat; 2. We should never fail to utilize an entire animal. Hudson Valley Fois Gras is a cage free and humanely treated product and that is what we serve. It is pricey but well worth the peace of mind. My peace being said on Foie Gras here is our new appetizer.


Seared cage free Hudson Valley Foie Gras, with pickled NC blackberries, port-blackberry syrup, and toasted brioche

Lobster Paella

I love Paella. My Mom made a killer paella for me after returning from Spain. Well, we took a method I'd seen on Ideas in Food in which Aki and Alex cook risotto in cheese cloth as a par cooking method. We figured if it worked for risotto it should work for Calaspara the traditional rice for Paella. We found out that cooking the Calaspara for the same time as the risotto gave us mushy garbage. So we dropped the time from 30 minutes to 25 and we had the perfect consitancy.

That's part one. Part two were the lobster. We ordered in whole 1 1/4 pound lobsters and blanched them all to remove the meat. We really wanted to use every part of these lobsters seeing as they perished for our consumption. So each plate received claw and tail meat. We used the coral or innards to make a lobster and saffron aioli. The bodies went into stock with which we finished the Paella rice. Then the tail shell and tenticle were used for garnish.

Chicken

We use Tanglewood Farms Chicken out of Winston-Salem, my home town. It's a great chicken and local. We have worked towards a summer style chicken to get a lot lighter than the one we have had on the menu.

The finished dish: Lemon thyme pesto stuffed chicken, yuzu beurre blanc, marscapone polenta cake, and Serrano ham and artichoke sautée. This is a really good example of how I like to pull from different types of cuisine and really searching for what tastes good regardless of boundaries.

Our New Toy

Thanks to the owners for we finally got our vacuum sealer. I love this machine and although we are using it in many ways, compressing strawberries to poaching fish, I thought this was a pretty cool use. We made rye croutons for a gazpacho shooter. But I wasn't sure how to cut the croutons small enough to fit in the shot glass without mangling them. Well, we took the marbled rye and cut off the crust and compressed it in the vacuum sealer. Then sliced it and diced it thin because the bread was so compact already. We then foamed butter in a saute and added the rye, and to our surprise it popped right back into shape. Here is the finished product.

A few shots

Here are a few shots from around the kitchen.

This is our view from inside the kitchen. I have never had a window to the outside world while still working on the line.
The Calm before the storm.
Brioche Grilled cheese with Gruyeres. A special request for a special guest.
Here are a 2 shots of a party we were about to send out.