Search this site:
Loading
|
|
Archive for the ‘seasonal menu’ Category
Monday, May 20th, 2013
This is my favorite OITF location. You can’t beat the backdrop of the Pacific Ocean and the sandstone cliffs forming the cove. The wind is a bit much but, being from the area, I knew and came prepared. Those who didn’t could borrow blankets which is an excellent plan. I brought many layers that I slowly added and used all of before I ventured to the bonfire.
No surprise, the food was amazing under the direction of Central Kitchen and Flour and Water’s Thomas McNaughton. The fish came from my longtime fishmongers, H&H Fresh Fish. We actually ended up sitting with them so it was nice to visit all evening and talk about life beyond what fish I was buying.
My favorite dish of the night was the grilled squid. I could have eaten all 8 portions put in front of us family style. I’m always interested in squid done in new ways. It’s a seafood that I’ve made and it’s been amazing and other times just not right or slimy and blechy. This was amazing.
Sadly, we aren’t able to attend another Outstanding in the Field dinner until December. I’ll just have to savor the pictures and memories of this one until then.
-
-
Thomas McNaughton and his pet pig
-
-
Thomas’s pig
-
-
The first view of the table
-
-
The table
-
-
Jim and Leah
-
-
The crowd is released to the table
-
-
The menu
-
-
Finding seats
-
-
Finding seats at the table
-
-
Smoked salmon with asparagus, dill, roe
-
-
Grilled squid with potato, fennel and squid ink aioli
-
-
Halibut boudin blank, pork belly, ramps, farro
-
-
Meyer lemon curd, strawberries, yum
-
-
Meyer lemon curd, strawberries, yum
-
-
Trying to stay warm
-
-
Post-dinner bonfire
Posted in decadence, dinner, flavor, food, organic, review, santa cruz, seasonal menu, squid, table dance, wine | No Comments »
Thursday, April 18th, 2013
You know how I feel about Eric Ripert. He’s probably mentioned more on this site than any other chef. He and Anthony Bourdain came to San Jose on their Good vs. Evil tour and of course I had to go. Even though I had a feeling I’d already seen a lot of the material at the two Cayman Cookouts, I didn’t care. My neighbor said she’d go with me so we decided to grab a bite to eat before the event. I pinged Jeff Bareilles, Beverage Director at Manresa, and found out we could get some food at the bar so we popped in there.
We sat and talked with the bartender, whose name I did not get! D’oh! He was a lot of fun. Jeff recommended my perfect cocktail. It’s one he developed called the Lemon Zest. He was spot on, it was sooooo good. My friend got the Manresa Bordeaux blend wine that Jeff blended. Also, soooo good.
The food didn’t disappoint either. A Belon oyster with a citrus granita started everything off. If you didn’t say it was an oyster and I blind tasted it, I’m not sure I would be able to tell you what it was. It was ridiculously good. Don’t get me wrong, I love oysters…my friend does not and she loved it too…but this wasn’t like any oyster I’d ever had. The Arpege egg came out and I, once again, had to tell the L’Arpege/food poisoning story. I however wasn’t poisoned so I ate the egg. I like that concoction until the end where all I have left is yolk—unfortunately, runny yolk is not my thing.
The remaining courses were awesome: chicken with potato mousseline (not Mussolini, no dictators in my dinner please). And dessert was a goat milk ice…thingy. It was ice cream with an ice on top and goat with goat. Yeah, I didn’t write it down :P The final plate had macarons that tasted like the best damn nutter butter you could ever imagine and crunchy little chocolates pieces.
We headed out of Los Gatos and headed to the San Jose Center for Performing Arts. Last time I was there was with this same friend and we sat front row, center for Tori Amos. Amazing night. We weren’t that close for Eric and Tony, those seats were crazy-expensive!
I have to say, I find it pretty amazing that these two chefs…well, one chef and one former chef now traveling gourmet…can fill this huge theatre. I mean, I love Eric and I find Tony very entertaining but I’m usually an anomaly. I’m the weird one. I’m the one who squeals like a ’60s Beatles fan when my favorite chef walks in a room….I mean, who does that?!
We had a moment of hometown and just-eaten-there pride when Eric listed David Kinch as one of the 3 chefs he’d want to have cook for him if stranded on a desert island (the other two: Suzanne Goin and Joel Rubuchon). Tony was really, exceptionally brutal towards Eric. I’m amazed they can do this night after night and remain friends. I was right, I had seen a lot of the stories in the Caymans, but there was plenty I hadn’t heard. In particular the story of Eric, in a restaurant in France, telling a woman she was mal baisé then punching her husband! ERIC RIPERT! Practicing buddhist, proponent of calm, encouraging surroundings….PUNCHED a guy in the nose. Not saying the guy didn’t deserve it or that he wouldn’t have clocked Eric but…OMG! That story was worth the (significant) price of admission alone!
I’m also amazed that they can talk for 2 hours every night of this tour and either continue to come up with new material or, when it’s rehashed, continue to look so authentically surprised and/or embarrassed. All in all we had a lovely food-centric evening. Food at Manresa, hilarity with Eric and Tony.
Posted in amuse bouche, celebrities, chicken, chocolate, dinner, eric ripert, flavor, food, Michelin star, photos, restaurant, seasonal menu, self pleasuring, table dance, tasting menu, Uncategorized | No Comments »
Tuesday, March 19th, 2013
Many moons ago I won a fundraising auction for a table for four at the as-yet-unopened Central Kitchen. We could be one of the first to dine there. I was very excited. I informed our friends of the wonderful news and we aligned calendars. That proved more challenging that we though but we eventually had a table booked for November. My husband was in an accident at the end of September and was still not mobile by reservation time so we had to put it off. Finally, he was up, walking, off the crazy meds and we could enjoy a weekend in San Francisco. I booked the table for a Friday night.
We got up to the city with just enough time to check into our hotel, change clothes, hop in a cab and get over to the Mission. We were a little confused about where to enter the restaurant. We ended up going through the salumeria but cut through the back door when we saw our table mates were already seated.
The tasting menu had a few things that neither I nor one tablemate could eat but the kitchen was amazingly accommodating. The first course was fine for all though: A taste of pork. The pork rinds, as I called them as I ate them by the bag as a kid, or cracklins, were fine, crispy but not much to them aside from crunch and they were slightly oily inside. This was seriously the only minor disappointment all night. The pickles alongside the cracklins were crisp-sour-salty-tangy-wonderful and the pork consomme….THE PORK JUICE! Cup-o-heaven. Wayyyy too small of a glass of this broth. It is the basis for every good soup you could think of. It was gone far too quickly.
The pork fat was sadly left behind but we didn’t miss it long as a light, refreshing, and beautiful plate of Hamachi, kumquat and insanely thinly sliced hazelnut was delivered. Clean flavors, cool and crisp.
When I read there was geoduck coming up next I was taken back to Sooke Harbour House on Vancouver Island. We were brought a plate that looked caprese-like. Tomatoes, cucumber…not cucumber, geoduck. Raw geoduck very much resembles cucumber in appearance and not at all in taste. This was not the case at Central Kitchen. It was served in a bowl with quail egg, and amazing lemongrass broth. Between this and the pork broth, I just wanted a vat of each to soak in. Whoever is in charge of making the broths deserves a medal.
I assumed the mussel, smoked sturgeon, black cioppino dish was going to be a seafood stew but not at all! The sturgeon which, at first bite, was overwhelmingly smoked seemed to be tamed by the…well, black cioppino sauce??…it was jet black. It was thick. It was rich and so good.
A couple of months ago we went to a restaurant in San Francisco that will remain unnamed. It was a very large dining room…huge in fact. We had lovely oysters and good wine and then I ordered the duck and the waiter said, “The chef suggests it be cooked medium.” I very much disagreed. That is far overcooked for duck. I said, “Really?! Odd. I want it medium rare.” The waiter said, “I’ll see if he can do that, you know, duck is very hard to cook.” Ummmm…right. Note that there was no discussion of how to cook the duck at Central Kitchen, it just came out perfect with thin slices of kumquat and celery root puree.
The palate cleanser was the perfect pregnant lady’s drink (my friend is expecting) and when I was pregnant with my son I couldn’t get enough lemons. This was Meyer lemon ice with whey and topped with celery salt. I actually ordered her a second one :) Even not pregnant, I would have loved a few of those!
Last but surely not least we were destroyed with a wooden bowl of chocolate death: Dark chocolate, caramel, sesame. I was stuffed but not so much that I couldn’t move. Perfectly stuffed. We had the wine pairings which all matched beautifully and were all over the map and not at all familiar which was a rare treat.
Posted in chocolate, decadence, dinner, flavor, food, photos, restaurant, salt, seasonal menu, table dance, tasting menu | No Comments »
Monday, January 28th, 2013
Friday began just as it did last year. With the highly anticipated arrival of Jose Andres to his cooking demonstration at 10am. We just had a few bites of fruit for breakfast knowing we would be eating for hours. This may have been a slight mistake since the first thing Jose served was a drink. I’m getting ahead of myself again though.
Everyone gathered around the demonstration tent speculating on how Jose would arrive. Last year he emerged from the ocean in scuba gear holding two live lobsters. He had to outdo himself this year. He did! He came in on a water jetpack….a toy seemingly straight out of Hammacher Schlemmer magazine. Completely useless and ridiculous but futuristically awesome.
  
He shed the helmet and gear and put on a chef’s coat over his wet clothes and got to work! There was a freak storm that came through Grand Cayman on Friday that brought higher than usual tides so the surf was coming right up to the tents. They set the paella pans up on fires under the tents rather than out in the sun further down the beach. That worked out, I was sweltering last year and I thought the sous chefs were going to collapse from the heat!
  
He got the paella started with a lot of olive oil and chicken, browned all that up nicely, added squid, green beans, mushrooms (chanterelles!), chicken stock, saffron and most importantly SPANISH rice.
  
While he’s got his sous chefs manning the fires along with help from an audience volunteer, Jose gets to work on a cocktail. This one has wine and whiskey….it’s 10am!! To be more precise it has lemon juice, simple syrup, brown sugar, whisky and ice in a shaker. That goes into a glass and then you pour red wine in over a spoon so that it layers. It was quite tasty! And made for a bit of a blurry morning.
  
He keeps running around like a maniac barking orders for MORE OIL! MORE LIQUID! LESS FIRE! MOVE THIS! DO THAT! It was hectic and fun but I would not want to be his sous chef!
  
The end result was fantastic though. The key? Put the rice in, even it out in a completely level pan and then Don’t Touch! Sixteen minutes of staring at the bubbling pan. It had a roasty-toasty flavor that was so rich. The chanterelles were incredibly flavorful.
  
We grabbed our paella and ran off to catch our shuttle to eat with David Kinch of our local Manresa fame. Yes, we traveled half way around the world to eat food from a chef that lives in our hometown. Don’t judge!
  
We hopped in the shuttle bus and drove the 20 minutes to The Brasserie where David was taking over the kitchen for the afternoon. We chatted with David a bit when we got there but of course he had a few things to do! So we went out into the garden and sipped some lovely Justin Vineyards Sauv Blanc and began enjoying the appetizers.
First to waltz by us was the Garden Callaloo and Cucumber soup with Grated Coconut. A little shooter of refreshing yum. The next was a rich bite of Braised Oxtail with Java Apple and Marcona Almond on a Blue Corn Pancake. Not light, not refreshing, just rich, lick-your-fingers goodness.
  
We had a simple bite of a local tomato with basil and sea salt. A wonderful treat to get in January! I had to skip the Tuna Crudo with Pepper Escabeche and Garden Ackee. The peppers were right out for me but hubby said it was great! The dish we had to guiltily confess to eating to our son was the Cayman Turtle Stew on a Garden Breadfruit Chip. I’ve never eaten turtle. They have turtle farms in the Caymans just like we have trout or oyster farms. They are raised for food. And DAMN they’re good! It tasted like slow braised pork. I got over the guilt pretty quickly!
  
We were instructed to mosey inside and find a seat for the next round of food. David came out and told everyone about his experience with the local fare and also about Manresa and what it’s like with its partnership with Love Apple Farms. He stepped up and gave a great representation of his food and talent, that’s for sure. I think he’ll be getting people from this lunch coming out to Las Gatos. We sat at the same table as Joe, the owner of the wineries being featured at lunch, Justin and Landmark Vineyards. He got up and described their style and location (Paso Robles and Sonoma) and we continue on to the first sit-down course: Island Gungo Peas with Snapper and an emulsion of Seville orange, pimento and lime leaf. I didn’t leave a speck of anything on my plate. It was wonderful. The gungo peas aren’t like sweet peas, they’re, well, not sweet. They’re more bean-like in flavor but they’re round. It was really interesting to try all these new island flavors.
  
The Wahoo and Conch marinated with fennel and tangerine was another plate licked clean. I can’t get enough of the caribbean wahoo. I know it’s technically the same fish as Ono but it’s not even close in texture and flavor. Wahoo is worlds better! I was worried about the dessert because it was a coconut cate with passionfruit and guava sorbet. Surprisingly, the coconut cake was not coconut-y. I loved it! The guava sorbet on the other hand I couldn’t eat. On our honeymoon in 1999 we went hiking in Hawaii just after guava season which meant there were rotting guavas everywhere. It’s been over 13 years and I still can’t stand guava. Scarred for life. The rest of the dessert was spot on though.
I’m really glad David was asked to the Cookout. He really showed off his talent beautifully and I hope people fly out to Manresa to try it out. I know he worked like mad down there to make sure everything came out the way he wanted it and it showed.
We shuttled back to the hotel to pick our son up from the afternoon camp and spent the rest of the day in the ocean! Rough life.
Read about Thursday and Saturday!
Posted in chanterelles, decadence, eric ripert, flavor, food, gardening, photos, restaurant, seasonal menu, snapper, table dance, tasting menu, tomatoes, wine | No Comments »
Tuesday, August 7th, 2012
My dad brought me tomatoes. He seriously grows the sweetest tomatoes I have ever had. When summer starts I begin dreaming of the tomatoes and waiting for them to ripen. I remember how sweet they are and then I get one and I taste it and it’s even sweeter. It’s like my brain can’t contain the awesomeness of these tomatoes from year to year.
He also brought Armenian cucumbers and basil. GAZPACHO TIME!
All I put in gazpacho when it’s with these amazing tomatoes is a couple of garlic cloves, a ton of basil and salt. I used the blender for this one since it’s so juicy. I garnished with a drizzle of chili oil and cucumbers and this time a borage flower because our plant is blooming and they look so pretty!
Then I made inside-out gazpacho. It’s a modified white gazpacho but I didn’t have any bread that would work in it so I just used about 2 cups of almonds, 4 or 5 cucumbers, a handful of parsley and more basil, garlic, a bit of water to thin it out and a dash of cayenne. I used the food processor for this since there was very little liquid. My blender just whirrrrrrrs and does nothing without lots of liquid. It turned out more like dip than soup. The texture was a bit grainy from the almonds (I only had whole almonds…also from my dad!…No blanched or sliced ones). But the flavor was nice. I topped it with tomatoes for color and served with crostini since it was dip-like anyway!
I’m getting paint in my kitchen today. Soon there will be cabinets.
Posted in amateur, dinner, flavor, food, gardening, gazpacho, oitg, organic, photos, recipe, salt, santa cruz, seasonal menu, self pleasuring, tomatoes | No Comments »
Monday, August 6th, 2012
Making food in the garage actually hasn’t been that difficult. I can’t make anything that has to simmer for a long period of time (I’ll run out of propane) or go into an oven larger than the toaster oven, but other than that, it’s been working.
I made one of our favorites with my CSA Salmon:
And another night made a quick appetizer of grilled padrons with olive oil and Bali Kechil salt.
I’m still making frittata just about every Sunday with the weeks CSA goodies. Sometimes greens and pancetta, sometimes squash and basil, sometimes all of the above!
There are nights that I just keep it simple and BBQ. Sometimes steak and onions:
Sometimes chicken marinated in red wine, mustard, onions and rosemary:
One day I got ground pork from my CSA and some nice white fish from my CSS and thought I was making fish soup with pork. Turns out it was pork soup with fish and MAN, was it GOOD! My son would have had the whole pot if we let him but we wouldn’t give ours up!
The hardest part is getting the food from the garage through the sliding door, through our bedroom, down the hall and to the dining room table, then the drinks, silverware, and us before it gets cold! It’ll be nice when we have our kitchen door back.
Posted in amateur, beef, chicken, dinner, fish soup, flavor, food, frittata, oitg, organic, photos, pork, Salmon, santa cruz, seasonal menu, self pleasuring | No Comments »
Friday, June 8th, 2012
The first event of the year. Route 1 Farm is just a little way up the coast from Santa Cruz. We left our house when it was sunny and hot. We got 3 blocks from our house and it was socked in fog and freezing. I was numb by the end of the night but full and happy! A great start to the season. Just like last year, the Fogline chicken was the highlight of the evening. So incredibly good that I took a picture of an empty plate!
 Appetizers  Route 1  Fennel frond cracker with salmon and pickled dandelion  Jim and Leah - The make this all happen  Jeff from Route 1 Farms  Nettle ravioli with pork belly and milk thistle butter  Butter lettuces with beets, prosciutto, ricotta salata and balsamic  The table  Caleb from Fogline Farm  That was good chicken  Strawberry tart with lemon verbena and meyer lemon cream
Posted in chicken, dinner, flavor, food, organic, photos, pork, proscuitto, raviolis, santa cruz, seasonal menu | No Comments »
Monday, March 12th, 2012
If…I mean when…you go to Manresa, because you should, you’ll get two menus. One is a normal menu with dishes listed with ingredients. The other is an alphabetical list of ingredients for the “seasonal and spontaneous” chef’s tasting menu. You won’t know what will be together, in what dish, in what order, but you will know the general items that will be appearing on your plate over the course of the evening.
My husband’s evening started with a roasted red bell pepper pate de fruit with an olive madeleine. That was not for me given that bell peppers and olives are two things I detest but they knew that…I gave them my card! :)
The first thing I got was a mint sorbet in a lavender gelato. It was pretty, it was flavorful but those two flavors for me are gum and soap. It was beautifully executed and I ate/drank the whole thing…all the while saying, “Hmm…gum and soap.” This was not a miss in my book, just my weirdness.
The highlight of the whole dinner, the dish that still has us talking about it, was the Abalone with local milk panna cotta, abalone gelee and radish. I am not a fan of the texture of a huge blob of panna cotta but this was a thin, amazing layer, with a thin amazing layer of gelee (another thing I’m not typically wowed by) and crunchy, thin radishes and delicious thin slices of abalone. It was beautiful, creamy, salty, I wanted to order it for dessert.
The black radishes with savory granola were served on this gorgeous, wavy plate that had me chasing the dish around these little grooves but I’m not ashamed to used my fingers to mop up the last of the luscious saucy goodness. The granola in this had us longing for it the next morning. I hate sweet granola but I’m thinking maybe I should try my hand at making some savory instead!
A few years ago, every time I would eat a scallop, all I could taste was a metallic flavor. Like chomping into a piece of tin foil. Logically, that got me to stop ordering or cooking scallops and they used to be a favorite of mine. The only scallops I’ve had that I’ve enjoyed since then were raw at fancy sushi bars. That is until Saturday night. This one had that buttery flavor and caramelly sear that I so remembered and didn’t think I’d enjoy again. Along with the scallop were gorgeous pieces of asparagus (it must be Spring!!) and a scallop chip that I wanted a whole dish of.
Another dish that completely surprised me that I truly enjoyed was the slow-poached egg with toasted brioche and sweet onion soup. Runny eggs aren’t my thing but when added to a soup with the same or similar texture, the yolk just added a … not a depth of flavor, something else that means that!…to it…a richness…destination: another level. Now I understand why people like runny yolks! They’re quite sumptuous.
Black cod, aka Sablefish or Butterfish, is one of my favorite local delicacies. David layered every local “black” ingredient: Black cod, black truffle, black trumpet. Earthy and beautiful.
For the next course, the item on the menu was pork belly with blood sausage. I couldn’t do it…I might be able to do a blind tasting of blood sausage but I haven’t gotten to a point that I can knowingly dive into that yet…give me time, I’ll get there. My husband had it and said it was great. Instead I had duck with farro and was not at all disappointed in my substitution! The flavors were amazing. I do however like more fat rendered out and a crispier skin on my duck. Still, I enjoyed the course.
I’ve always liked the “What grows together, goes together” saying but that goes right out the window when you get Lamb with seaweed. Who knew?! Well, this surfer chef did. Maybe inspired by a beach barbecue? I don’t know. But the combination of lamb, seaweed, roasted garlic and charred green onions was great.
The cheese course came around which I obviously skipped but my husband picked out four and was struck dumb by the combination of Pim‘s marmalade and the roquefort cheese. He just kept pointing and saying, “That…..that…”
You may know that I am a huge fan of candy cap mushrooms. They’re maple goodness makes for the best cookies and ice cream. What I did not know what that you could pair candy cap ice cream with sunchokes (which are in my opinion bitterly vile things) and have it be such a magical combination. The sunchoke chips were bitter, salty and crunchy. The ice cream was rich and creamy, the doughnut hole (sure it had a fancy name, but it was a doughnut hole) was sweet and yeasty. A bite with all three components hit every sensory part of the tongue. Each component made stronger by the presence of the others.
Our waitress, Amanda I believe, was fun and accomodating and would have been as formal as we wanted her to be but of course we don’t go for that. The sommelier got the premier pairings spot on. He even helped me decipher a flavor I was getting in one of the wines that was driving me absolutely crazy because I couldn’t pinpoint it. We finally decided it was chervil and I’m sticking with that so I don’t go insane trying to figure it out. The general manager, Bobi, came and chatted with us for a while. We’ll be taking the same class from Pim in a couple of months. He was an excellent host. And Pim tipped David off that we were coming so he graciously came out to our table and talked with us a bit. We got to rave about the abalone and prod him about going to the Cayman Cookout next year. I hope it happens! We need some Bay Area representation there.
We’re looking at our calendars to plan our next dinner there. We need to hit another season, we did Spring last trip there too…oops! Summer next!
Posted in decadence, dinner, flavor, food, Michelin star, photos, restaurant, review, seasonal menu, table dance, tasting menu, wine | No Comments »
Thursday, February 2nd, 2012
Posted in chanterelles, cumin, dinner, flavor, food, hardcore, mushrooms, organic, photos, seasonal menu, table dance, wine | No Comments »
Thursday, January 19th, 2012
The first real day of the Cookout began at 10am. As Jose Andres put it, “Who puts a cooking class at 10am?! You start a cooking class at 3pm so you have the day sleep and then do your things…then cook!” But he didn’t seem to be slowed by the early start. As Dana Cowin was introducing him for demonstration, she was wondering where he was. As she was saying, “He has got to be here somewhere…” he came bounding on the stage straight out of the ocean in his scuba gear with his ten year old daughter. He is a character to say the least. We were all seated in a tent with the people who payed extra with their American Express Platinum Cards having the preferred seats in the front rows. He undid all that (hilariously) by getting everyone up and out into the blazing sun on the beach, around ENORMOUS paella pans over fires built in the sand. He immediately started hollering for volunteers: 2 people for each pan to stir and add ingredients, 4 people to help make the cocktails, 3 people to grill oysters…go go go!!!
 
The fires were hot. The sun was hot. His sous chefs were in jeans. I thought they were going to pass out but they have to be strong to work for this guy. The dish he was making was called Fideo. It’s like paella but made with pasta instead of rice. Much easier to control the outcome of when cooking for 100 people over open flames on a beach! Pork ribs, tomatoes, pasta (short angel hair), lobster, broth. Everyone was sweating like mad in the heat of the day and the fires but the cocktails started flowing. Fruit, mint, champagne…a beautiful, refreshing way to begin drinking at 10am!!
 
I stood next to Dana Cowin and shamelessly plugged my web site. All the while Jose is running around like a madman and then puts a song on the PA, passes around lyrics and has us all sing along. He is amazing and the food was phenomenal. He’s completely insane and a blast to see cook.
Our next ticket was for a Behind the Scenes tour of Blue by Eric Ripert. They don’t ever just call it “Blue”, it is always “Blue by Eric Ripert”. That was making me laugh.
 
Anyway, we arrived and grabbed a front row seat. Luis Lujan is the Executive Chef at Blue (by Eric Ripert) and walked us through the preparation of the dishes we’d be having for lunch. The first was wahoo. If you ever have a chance to eat wahoo, DO IT! This is an incredible fish. It looks like hamachi but it melts in your mouth. He cut it perfectly, seared in perfectly and dressed it perfectly. I would expect no less. Eric popped in to say hello and then we all got a brief tour of the kitchen. It’s not a huge kitchen and in 2 days time would be filled with the world’s best chefs making 164 plates each for the Gala Dinner. Incredible.
  
We then sat on the patio for our lovely lunch. The wine flows continuously at these events. I’m amazed I could walk but something happens on these sorts of adventures and what would result in me being horizontal at home is just par for the course as the weekend goes on. Probably not healthy but this is not an every day occurence.
 
The afternoon treated us to a demo by April Bloomfield of which I only got to catch the end. Then a beautiful green curry ceviche by Laurent Gras. I was so ridiculously full by this point, I was scared of what Laurent was going to present but it was so light and refreshing that it was more like a cocktail with some fish in it than a meal. It was almost a palate cleanser. He took the ingredients of a green curry but instead of making it a heavy dish full of coconut milk, he used coconut water and created a light ceviche. Something I will definitely try at home.
The first of the epic evening events was the Barefoot BBQ at Tiki Beach. They had a shuttle running from the hotel to the event but it was a whopping 2km away, on the beach, we decided to walk. Really for two reasons: one, we were already so full, we needed to work up an appetite and two, we had to pick up our son from his amazing camp at the hotel before the shuttles were going to be running at the end of the event and we needed to time the walk. What a beautiful way to get to the BBQ. I’m so glad we did that. We didn’t have to wait in line with anxious rich folks who complain if things aren’t exactly as they think they should be, we were walking along the white sandy beach of Grand Cayman at dusk. You can’t beat that.
We arrived at Tiki Beach and it was crazy-busy. Our first stop was Tony Bourdain’s station and some sumptuous pork. He’s still got it man. He may be more known for traveling and writing now but 28 years in the kitchen doesn’t just vanish. He makes a mean pig. We worked our way to the complete opposite end of the venue and found Jose Andres being loud and hilarious as usual as his chefs carved thin slices of Jamon Iberico. I will never be able to eat prosciutto again now that I’ve experienced Iberico. Dryer, saltier, damn it was good. It was atop some sliced beef. So now I’ve had pork, I’ve had beef with pork on top and we waltz over to Eric Ripert’s station where he’s serving beef tenderloin. Why not?! Pork, beef and pork, beef….so full. I thought I made a damn fine tenderloin but, as usual, Eric takes it beyond.
We found a table in the back near Jose Andres and relaxed with our plates for a bit. We got to visit with some fabulous people. I wasn’t sure how the attendees would be at this. There is a lot of money here obviously. And there are some people that have more money than I could ever imagine having and are real snots about it. They have their Gucci and Valentino clothes shipped to them to try on because they live an hour from the Galleria and that’s just too damn inconvenient for shopping. Just one example. But the people we visited with at the BBQ were all wonderful. One woman was a coordinator for the event. One couple had been before but brough his mom this year from Michigan. There were a lot of Canadians representing. Maybe because of Paul Rogalski being there or maybe becuase it’s usually 25 below this time of year and it’s a great escape.
After a few nibbles of dessert we headed back to the beach and walked back to the hotel under the stars….many more stars than we get to see in our neck of the woods. Mars was so bright it was reflecting off the ocean. Amazing.
Read about Day 1, Day 3 and Day 4!
Posted in celebrity, decadence, eric ripert, flavor, food, Le Bernardin, photos, seasonal menu, table dance | No Comments »
|
|
|
