Upcoming Wine Menu

So we have decided that we are going to host our next wine dinner in September and have begun the process of getting pairings done. I just put together my first draft of the menu and will be conducting a food and wine tasting on August 6th. Once I taste the wines, it will be much easier to match the flavor profiles of each dish. Here is what I have so far:

Appetizer

Haystack Mountain Goat Cheese Tart

Grilled Artichoke Hearts, Arnoud Olives, Roasted Sweet Pepper

Soup

Wild Mushroom Tea with Rocky Mountain Beef Carpaccio

Salad

Crab and Avocado Salad with Grapefruit Vinaigrette

Entree Duet

Hot Smoked Salmon with Citrus Fennel Salad

Mission Fig Stuffed Pork Loin with Molasses Creme Fraiche

Dessert

Frozen Blueberry Parfait with Danish Pancakes

Foie Gras Carving Station

Here is a photo of a foie gras carving station that I helped with at a food and wine event. Michael Ginor is the owner of hudson valley foie gras and also author of the book "Foie Gras". When I asked him what we would be doing that day, he response was 3 different preparations of foie gras: a terrine, a flan, and a carving station. After looking at him puzzled, he said it would be just like prime rib in Vegas, excepts we would carve lobes of foie gras for the guests. We pan seared a couple lobes of foie gras and roasted them until they were warm in the center with some shallots and thyme. The foie gras was sliced and sprinkled with a pinch of clean sea salt as each guest walked up to our station. It's not very often that you get to work with such an expensive ingredient on a buffet style presentation.

One day your here and then your gone.....

Life is extremely short and you never know when it's your time to depart. I really believe that each moment is a gift and you should cherish them before they pass. A really good friend and mentor of mine recently passed away at the young age of 50 years old. His memory will always be of high quality ingredients, a passion for your craft, and good scotch. He was a great friend and an amazing chef that made everything seem so much more interesting and beautiful when he was involved. I hope that when I'm gone people will say the same about me and remember that I loved my craft and family. Take a second to step away from the constant rush of the kitchen, buzzing ticket machines, and clanging of pots from the dishroom to realize what's most important in your life. Rest in peace Bob Zappatelli....

Petite Prime Rib

This dish was apart of wine dinner that I hosted recently. The prime rib was cooked in smoked rock salt for 4 hours at 250 degrees. With the beef having such an intense flavor, only a small portion was served and the components really completed the dish. The potato puree was infused with horseradish, the tomatoes were roasted 4 hours slowly in olive oil until the flavor was condensed into an explosion of flavor. The garlic chips were the best part besides the beef. With a sharp mandolin, the garlic cloves were sliced thinly (similar to the razor in goodfellas) and brought to a boil in milk to remove the bitterness. After rinsing off the milk, the slices were deep fried in oil until golden brown and sprinkled with sea salt. I was really proud of the simplicity and thought behind this dish. Each guest raved about how amazing it was to have classic prime rib course on a wine dinner.

Housewarming

My wife and I just purchased a home in Colorado Springs, CO and threw our first party for some our friends and family. I knew that everyone attending expected some great food since I am a chef. I decided to go above and beyond their expectations and bought a 40lb pig for the party. You can imagine the suprise on their faces when they walked in the kitchen. The pig started out in a 350 degree oven for 1 hour and then it was turned down to 250 for the next 3 1/2 hours. The skin was perfectly crisp and the meat was so tender and succulent. I made a pineapple jalapeno bbq sauce to go with it that really put it over the top. Now I'm trying to figure out what else can I do with all this leftover pork. Any ideas????

Summer Corn Soup w/ Shrimp, Walnut Oil, Ancho Powder

Here is a soup that I put together for tonight. The soup is a sweet corn puree that has a hint of honey and spice of ancho powder. The shrimp are poached in walnut oil and tossed with scallions. This soup is perfect for the spring season but rich enough to serve as an upscale starter. The balance of walnut oil and sweet corn are amazing when accented with a little heat from the ancho.

Posole

The beauty of working in a kitchen is the everchanging melting pot of flavors that come from all the cultures we work with. I've been craving some "posole" for awhile now and asked Juan (a talented cook from Mexico) to whip some up for the day. A few hours later, Juan dropped a big bowl of steaming "red chile posole" on my desk. The bowl was filled with chunks of stewed pork, shredded cabbage, hominy, and lemon wedges. For those that don't know, Posole is a stew that originated in Jalisco, Mexico and is commonly served during Christmas time. It's an easy dish to make that can feed lots of people on a low budget, (perfect for this economy). He started off boiling some pork covered with water, a chopped onion, and garlic cloves. In a separate pan, he boiled some dried red chiles, onion, garlic, and water until it was all tender. After pureeing the chile mixture in a blender, it was added to the simmering pork and cooked for another hour. The soup was seasoned with salt and lemon and served with fresh cabbage slaw. Yesterday we all enjoyed a yellow chicken curry for staff meal and today it's posole. More than often, this industry can be very fulfilling when it comes to satisfaction. There is nothing like a light broth with hints of chile and lemon on a cool day.

Mangosteen

A few days ago, I attended a food show in Denver and ran into one of our specialty produce suppliers. One product in particular that caught my eye were his exotic fruits. I love to try something new and saw that he had a fruit that I had never tried, Mangosteen. He gave me a few to take home and I just got done opening them up and trying the jewel fruit inside. The outside is extremely hard with a purplish brown skin. After carefully removing the skin like a citrus fruit, the center consisted of a lychee like fruit that was segmented like an orange. The flavor of the meat was delicate with a sweet start and tangy citrus finish. I cannot wait to get a larger quantity in so I can really play around with this superfruit.

Deep Fried Bacon Wrapped Sausage in Pastry with Cheese Sauce

This is seriously a request for an hor d'oeuvre next week. We took some extremely fatty bratwurst and wrapped them in slices of smoked bacon. The bacon was fried over high heat to partially crisp up and seal itself around the sausage. Once they cooled, we rolled the bacon wrapped sausages in puff pastry and baked them until golden brown. After slicing into individual portions and being skewered on a bamboo pick, they were drizzled with cheese sauce. This is by far the most unhealthiest dish I have ever made and now feel the need to run a few miles after eating all the end cuts. Even though it will create peanut butter in your arteries, it's very satisfying to consume so much pork.

Texas Meat Market

So I'm in Texas right now doing some culinary demonstrations for clients in Dallas and we just found a meat lover's dream store. While driving to Houston, we made a pit stop at "Woody's Smokehouse" in Centerville, TX and walked in to find hundreds of assorted jerkys and sausages. After a half hour of debating and spending $65 we had a truckload of goodies. Peppered pork tenderloin, buffalo jerky, elk jerky, pork jerky, pralines, and Texas sized chewy pecans. I love being in Texas because its all about the meat, whether it's smoked, grilled, or dried.

Black Olive Caviar

I have a wine dinner coming up this Saturday 4/18 at the country club and I'm starting to play around with the dishes. One of the hors d'oeuvres is called "olive and crostini". The miniature crostini is topped with a fresh basil pesto and garnished with olive caviar. The caviar was fun to make since I got to teach some of the cooks about chemistry and cooking. We took some olive juice and blended it with sodium alginate until it was slightly thickened. After placing the puree into a squirt bottle, we dissolved some calcium chloride into cold water. By dropping the puree into the calcium chloride broth, it created a skin on the outside of the liquid encapsulating the puree into pearls of olive juice. This hors d'oeuvre will really make people do a double take when they realize they are not eating actual caviar but olive juice. I love playing around with all these new techniques.

Colorado Fusion Tasting

Here is a tasting dish of our new menu. This plate has three different dishes of the new menu consisting of "stuffed poblano chile with potato corn hash, buffalo short ribs w/ mushroom salsa, and pork adobo with grilled scallions". The dish cost only $27 and the portions are large enough to share. We considered doing this dish to allow guests to sample a variety of items while being price conscious. The flavors are bold and the colors are extremely vibrant. I cannot wait to start getting feedback on this dish.