From the Pass
A dish leaves the kitchen once, and only once, in the state we meant it to be seen. Everything before that moment — the sourcing, the testing, the small failures no one else saw — happens out of view. This is where we bring some of it forward: notes from the chef on what we’re cooking, why, and what we’re still chasing. Not a recap of the menu. A window into the thinking behind it.
Mad Scientist
A few times ( I could count them on one hand) in my decades long career, I have created something that felt both inspired and original. In 2000, I created a crab souffle that became very popular and has followed me around, sometimes to my dismay, ever since. Like many chefs, I can be resistant to repeating myself monthly, much less for two and a half decades, so I tend to be both flattered, and less than thrilled when a current guest asks if it will soon be making a menu appearance. In 2000, I had never seen a crab souffle anywhere, so the absurd idea crept into my head that I may have invented it. A quick search on the fairly new worldwide web turned up somewhere in the neighborhood of 150 examples of my “invention.” At no point since that time have I ever had the temerity to think that I may have created something entirely new…until this week. At OBS, we play around with a lot of things in our food lab. A large part of that involves koji production. Koji is a spore that works magic on foods through protease, amylase and to a lesser extent, lipase. In
From the Pass
A dish leaves the kitchen once, and only once, in the state we meant it to be seen. Everything before that moment — the sourcing, the testing, the small failures no one else saw — happens out of view. This is where we bring some of it forward: notes from the chef on what we’re cooking, why, and what we’re still chasing. Not a recap of the menu. A window into the thinking behind it.
Mad Scientist
A few times ( I could count them on one hand) in my decades long career, I have created something that felt both inspired and
Spring theme of “Fresh”
We’ve just launched our most ambitious full menu flip to date. New courses developed by our culinary team feature bluefin tuna, swordfish, avocado gazpacho with octopus, heirloom corn orecchiette, rabbit, Pennsylvania Spring lamb, and dry-aged duck breast with rhubarb. This past winter, a key litmus test for the menu was “umami.” Now, the farm takes center stage, and its fingerprints are on everything we serve. This is an amazing time to both reflect and live in the moment. I feel so fortunate to have connected with this team, in this space, representing our city. Our Urban Farm Fresh Feed We are currently harvesting chard, radishes, edible flowers, herbs, hakurei turnips, and hybrid spinach romaine heads.
100 Days Down A Rabbit Hole: The Evolution from Imposter to Alchemist
There is nothing that gives me imposter syndrome quite like an ingredient that I am only marginally familiar with, yet just familiar with enough to know that it ‘s deliciously useful. Usually, it starts this way: “Wow, that’s amazing”! Which is followed by despair at the realization that I don’t fully comprehend how the chef achieved what he did. Next comes my desire to figure it out, try to make and master said ingredient and lastly, use it in a way that elevates my cooking. It happened to me with the butter at Restaurant Daniel, a black shallot fish broth from Eleven Madison Park, and a smoked scallop butter that René Redzepi brushed on a yakitori-grilled ramp. The latest rabbit hole I was forced to go down involved the production of Gochujang, the fermented Korean pepper paste. Its complexity and umami notes set it apart from other pepper mixes and pastes. So besides the desire to stock our pantry with ingredients capable of transforming our cooking, there was also the impetus to use and preserve the pounds of various chili pepper varieties produced by our urban farm. With this in mind, we set out in early October on a mission to craft our