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[Starkman]

Okay, see, I can deal with this! What I can see...I can eat!

Very nice, Chef!

Starkman

[Jacob Burton]

@ HomeCook,

It's hard to see, but the white stuff on the plate past the red banana sauce is the tomatilio. I also sauce it with our house Tsume sauce (right on top of the dogs). I'll post a recipe on the Fredrick's website in a day or so.

@ Unity451

On the Tropic Thunder, are those fish eggs on top?  Wouldn't that make it non-vegan friendly?

That's what I was going for. The "caviar" is actually made from cantalope juice using a molecular gastronomy technique called "ionic spherefication." The cantaloupe juice is mixed with soudium alginate and is dropped into a clacium chloride and water bath. When the cantaloupe-alginate mixture hits the calcium, it starts to gel from the out side in, giving the "caviar" a spherical look, with a liquid center that "pops" with a realistic caviar effect.

I really like the cantaloupe because it looks almost identical to trout eggs. Here are some pictures of the process if you're interested.



The setup with the caviar maker and cantaloupe juice.



Pulling back the plunger to draw the cantaloupe juice into the caviar maker.



Dropping the cantaloupe-alginate mixture into the calcium chloride bath.



Rinsing the caviar in cold water because the clacium chloride is a little bitter.



Finished cantaloupe "caviar."

@ Starkman,

I knew I could win you over. Hope to see you in for dinner one of these days!

[Jacob Burton]

UPDATE:

Here is the recipe for the Lobster Dogs and their corresponding sauces.

http://fredricksbistro.com/award-winning-lobster-dogs/

[Homecook]

...the white stuff on the plate past the red banana sauce is the tomatilio...

@Jacob
Ah, I see it now. I didn't before. Thanks for so willing to share the recipe. I'm not sure I could recreate the Lobster, but I might lift the sauce for a fish dish. 

As for the ionic spherefication, i've read about this from WillPowder http://willpowder.net/calciumChloride.html and from reading about Ferran Adria. It actually doesn't sound difficult to do. You can get the chemicals from WillPowder, but where did you get the rest of the gear?

[Starkman]

Starkman,

I knew I could win you over. Hope to see you in for dinner one of these days!

Well, now that I'm living again in the west coast (southern Oregon), maybe I'll be able to make a trip, one of these days (when I have a car again!) to Tahoe.

Starkman

[Zalbar]

Just out of curiosity, and related to Jamie's post (http://freeculinaryschool.com/forum/index.php/topic,23.msg1132.html#msg1132)

What's the menu pricing like for the plates in the pictures?

[Homecook]

Just out of curiosity, and related to Jamie's post (http://freeculinaryschool.com/forum/index.php/topic,23.msg1132.html#msg1132)

What's the menu pricing like for the plates in the pictures?

Zalbar,

Jacob's full menu, with prices are listed on his website. http://fredricksbistro.com/summer09dinner.pdf

[Unity451]

@Jacob

Thanks for the pictures.  Very interesting.  I love seeing ways of manipulating food like that.

[acinonyx]

I love the "caviar" - always love seeing ideas like that in practice! (So far El Bulli's rejected my booking attempts twice, bah)

Just a question - is there more that can be done about the presentation? They are undoubtedly pretty, but I was wondering if there was something that would make you go "wow". For instance, most dishes seem to have a green leaf or something green on top, and it might be good to have more variety. I would be the last person who would be qualified to suggest ideas, but there may be ideas there.

If I knew how to do it, I'd wonder if there was a way to make coffee & doughnuts, for example, arranged by colour - from coffee to dark brown. And throw in something odd like sweet coffee lamb that you would never expect with a dessert.

Just ideas! I'd order the duck rilette (curious about the vanilla), melons and beef (again curious), and the vanilla toast. But then again, I'm the type who craves entertainment....you know, the bacon & egg ice cream type!

[Kevin Curtis]

"Finished cantaloupe "caviar.""

Very cool.

[Jacob Burton]

@ Acinonyx,

I like your love for creativity, and I appreciate the comments. Yes, the presentations are decent, but I do agree with you that the garnishes are a little "lack luster." In a professional kitchen there are a lot of other elements that a chef must take into consideration when writing a menu, and execution is HUGE.

Chefs like Ferran Adria, Thomas Keller and Grant Achatz have reached a level of success that allows them to have large brigades (anywhere from 20-60 cooks, half of which work for free).  I've been lucky enough to become the chef of a small restaurant which allows me to have complete control over the food, prep and flavor structure of my dishes.

However, I'm not a celebrity chef and I don't have a huge brigade at my disposal. But in the same token, I'm really not trying to be the next Thomas Keller, I just want to do great food that people love, with flavor structure being the key. And yes, I have a couple of tricks up my sleeve if I had a large team to execute them, but I made the conscious decision to be a small time chef in a small town because that's the sort of lifestyle I seek.

I don't know if that answered your question, but I think that's the best way that I can put it. Feel free to make follow up comments.

[acinonyx]

Hi Jacob, appreciate your reply - it's great to hear from the chef himself!

Re the green leaves on many of the dishes, I think I wanted to ask if there was something other than a green leaf that could be placed on top? For example, if you needed green, seaweed (ok, that's technically a green leaf but...) or green fruit? Or a different colour of leaf? I suppose I'm over-reacting, but I don't like mint leaves on desserts anymore - maybe it's just me that's seen that a lot!

I certainly didn't mean to ask for the works of art that you can achieve if you have a chef/customer ratio of better than 1:1. Within the constraints that you have, is there anything that can be done with the same effort/time as a mint leaf? Say a cappucino foam (which is of course incredibly stable) on the coffee and doughnuts as the garnish, for instance. 

I am a great fan of teeny veg like cress, but I also know that they'll eventually go out of fashion! I do wonder what's next - I've seen purple leaves these days, I'm sure that they'll manage to breed them every colour of the rainbow soon!

Wasn't meaning to criticise, just trying to suggest if there's something different. Do like your efforts in things like caviar - now that's a great garnish!

[Michael]

See, I got a few months forgetting to visit and I miss threads like this...

I'm going to try some of those dishes at home! In particular the salmon, the heirloom tomato salad and lobster dogs. My boyfriend keeps talking about "meat on a stick", and apparently the south has the same affliction that Minnesotans have. :-)

Did you make the dehydrated olive oil or did you buy it?