Sunday, August 05, 2007

Menu Tasting

This is an all emcompasing view of about half the menu. We have a large supply of terra cotta dishes which work wonderful to bake things in the oven. Since we don't have a bank of 6 or more gas burners to sautee over, we really on baking most dishes. The terra cotta accepts heat well, holds heat supurbly, and cleans up well. While the dark brown does little to focus the eye on the food, it's optimal in all other aspects.



This is our shaved carrot salad with balsamic, lemon glazed almonds, dates, mint, dill, and parsley. An explosion of flavors that you think at first would be too strong to work together, but the dish is very warm and delish.



This exeplifies the terra cotta idea. We bake some cheese, with some roasted veggies, and garnish with a chopped herb. The whole thing melts into a warm dip, and we supply crispy crostini, or warm pita wedges.



Another picture of a clean work station. For some reason I'm obsessed with this little area. We now have a spot light right above it, I feel like this area draws me in, like I'm meant to work there.




Devestation, like I said in the last post. We cooked only two dishes of each item for 12 team members. There seemed to be alot of food left over, disappointing. Everyone exclaimed, "wonderful food" but the amount of food you scrap into the trash explains alot. I guess since not one of the tasters weighed in over 120 pounds, I'll cut then some slack, but shit, it's your job to taste. I remember back at Baracelli, and the chef asked me if i wanted a bit of whatever it was he was eating, and I said, "i'm not very hungry." Shit hit the fan soon after, it didn't matter if I was hungry, it was my job to taste everything we sent out. That was a lesson I learned.

We lacked sufficant plates to really examine how things will look, given the lack of photos you understand. The terra cotta dishs need an underliner, so we need to stock a considerable amount of plates. We will get there. I'm happy with the baked dishes we have now, they are easy to prep, produce, and serve, but in the long run i'm a composed kind of guy, and we will be looking forward to small plate composed dishes that focus alot on creative flavor combinations and presentations.
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1 comment:

Rachel said...

How I would LOVE to be one of your tasters! If only it wasn't such a drive, damnit.