Food... Stick... Good

Pretty much says it all doesn't it? I mean really how long was I going to wait to open the ffridge and find something to put on a stick. Well not long enough to finish dishes actually.
Fumbling around in the fridge I come accross some rounds of brownie and the chocolate stewed cherries for the top. One more thing or two. Smoked oreo soil and some smoked vanilla maldon. Hmmm. Yummy
The second has some red cooked pork belly with miso butterscotch and grains of paradise. Pig on a stick with salt and sweet, what more can you want.
We shall have to see.....

New Kitchen Tools

Never thought I would have one of these in my kitchen. Well with more time on my hands for other things. Fun projects get to be finished I always try to come up with new ways to present food. One method I found was really neat. And involved eating food from a stick. Something everyone loves to do. C'mon you know you like it....
One inch plexi with holes cut to fit standard bamboo skewers. The look is really sleak. I wanted to make one kind of industrial, hence the plexi. And one rather organic with wood and angular skewers coming off of it. More like nature, and use both in one service to highlight two distinct bites. Maybe to art as food. I don't know, but it was a cool idea in one of my more contemplative moments.



Now how many cool bites can we put on sticks?

New Avenues

With the arrival of the Christmas busy season, and our second year coming to an end. It was time to start getting the ducks in a row and marketing ourselves better. To accomplish this task we have hired a new catering director. Someone who will help make the Essence name more known. She has a wealth of experience at helping service industry companies take the next step. And we are proud to have her on our team. Look for continued good things from our team. And with more time on my hands some really fun new food and service ideas. All of which will be posted right here as we accomplish them.
Oh yeah who is she....well stay tuned and see for yourself.


Jason

Cube Gallery

Last night we had the pleasure to cater a party at Cube Gallery. Absolutely amazing setting for our food. The reception was for a retirement party. Great fun was had by all. We hope to be back there soon, as the venue really does justice to our service. Thanks to all who attended and of course a big thanks to our host for having Essence take care of the food.

Governal Generals awards cocktail party

Just getting back from a party for a Governal General awards receipient. Lots of fun, and some interesting bites:
Wild mushroom cube on polenta with goat cheese and crispy leek
Grilled chipotle shrimp with avocado and serano
Seared beef on tapenade and crostini, parmesan and micro greens
Pan roasted cubeb pepper chicken on parsnip and celery root fritter
Red cooked pork belly bites with daikon and apple slaw, miso butterscotch
Plantain beignette with cajeta and sugar spice.

All fun bites with lots of bold flavors.
We also worked on one we have been testing for a while now. House duck prosciutto wrapped fig with double smoked duck bacon and gorganzola. Finished with a sherry vinegar reduction. The picture is a little fuzzy but you get the idea. Really tasty.



Be sure to check out our pictures in the Citizen next Saturday in the "Arts" section.

Later

New Bites

With all the new reading material, we have been working hard on some new bites. This one is a hard sell as it's raw beef. But we couldn't resist. The dish was born out of the need to use some quail eggs that were cooked sous vide at 66 degrees. The texture of the yolk is melt in your mouth luscious. We decided that some organic beef tenderloin would produce a nice tartar to contrast the texture of the yolk. A little parmesan and some black truffle and voila, a very fun little bite.

Where does the time go

July 20th was my last post. So much for regular postings on my blog. Busy, busy, busy summer. Well I am here now, so whats new?
I just received my copy of Grant Achatz's book. WOW is all I can say. I haven't played this much with food since school. The ideas are never ending and the photography is really clean. Well worth the cost of the book. I have to write down all the ideas spinning in my head from just about every page. I will hopefully receive Thomas Kellers book very soon, followed closely by the Fat Duck cookbook.
Essence has been very busy this sumer and getting busier each week as we get closer to Christmas. The quality and presentation of our events keeps getting better and better. We now have a few extra bodies around to help with innovation and service. Bringing others perspectives into play has really helped the creative process. We will have a camera at the kitchen from nnow on and will keep pics of our dishes as we come up with them.
Until next time.....
PS here is the first dish I tried from the Alinea cookbook. Tobacco, blackberry and nasturtium. I changed it a bit in the garnish department but all in all a great bite. The tobacco gets you in the back of the tongue with a camphor or menthol quality just like smoking a cigar. Really neat bite.