#20 - 01 February 2009 - My Notes

So, I've finally compiled my notes of the last two weeks and they appear here in an unedited form. I'll be writing my future blogs from these tidbits and morsels. They make sense to me... Major work on pictures and content by Tuesday as I am off all day. So, I'll be sitting in the California sun composing my novel about "My Time in Napa". Peace

~R

P.S.
My heart goes out to all the friends, loved ones and people that John "Louisville Jesus" Breaux touched, and brought a sense of peace, to. May he be remembered and his life lived not in vain.

1. “The Need To Feed” topics:
· TFL is not just a fine restaurant – it is a business that stretches the realm of teamwork and standards. It is a model for business and a training ground for life. Write about The French Laundry as a model for business.
· Empowering people. Enabling people. The pursuit of excellence.
· The French Laundry standard from Chef Devon.. “What makes a good cook? Adapting to your food by noting touch & feel and the condition of the product. That is what helps to develop your skills.”
· Standards. It is Thomas Keller. But the torch is passed every day. The recipe for success: Standards, Teaching, Speed, “The Sense of Urgency”, Critique, Training, Praise, Pushing the Envelope, Well-oiled machine, the employee “buy-in”…
· It looks like small food and multiple courses in the tasting – but it is really the level of care directed towards everything that the guest sees, tastes, touches and smells…
· Professional appearance at all times.
· The Brigade. Chef Patron to Commis and then to stagier.
· Communication. Sharing knowledge. The staff keeping the staff on point.
· Hire intelligent people.
· Check the ego at the door…
· Recuperation
· The Blue Apron
· This One’s for John
· Clean with Enthusiasm
· Own the moment
· Sense of Urgency
2. Food ideas:
· VitPris – For marmalades (dextrose, gelifant, pectin, acidifant, acide citrique)
· Sous Vide Slab Bacon for 12 hours @ 74.0 degrees C.
· Pear or Asian Pear Supremes – Wedges cut into pears exactly the same.
· Kampachi Tuna – Trimmed and squared off in long bricks. Sliced to order at the pass.
· Spinach – Pick and clean (no stem) baby spinach. Add (by weight) 15% Canola Oil and 1% Kosher Salt. Mix well and then cryovac until firmly compressed and dark green. Reserve until needed.
· Calotte
· Confit Potato/Turnip/Carrot Coins – Coins cut from ¼” vegetable discs and pared. Cooked in duck fat (potatoes) or Clarified butter (other).
· Tomato Compote – Quenelles as component on plate.
· Tomato Marmalade – Hache and cook with with VitaPris, sugar and water. Cook to marmalade.
· Pain Perdue with Cheese Course
· Lobster Tails served whole, poached and finished in Sous Vide Beurre Monte @ 59.5 degrees C.
· Cippolini Onions – Peeled, first layer only, cryovac.
· Egg Shells – Cambro of ½ HOT water and 1” white vinegar for soaking shells (for 10 minutes) to remove egg lining.
· Pearl Onions – Soak in hot water, peeled, even sized, cryovac.
· Foie Gras – Deveined and pass through tamis, load in terrine and glacage with duck fat or sun choke puree with gelatin.
· Andante Dairy
· Diane St. Clair Butter
· Keith Martin lamb
· Black Trumpet Mushrooms, washed three times and squeezed dry, dry on towels over rack suspended by deli containers.
· Brunoise – Turnips and carrots poached to count of 5, add green leeks and shock. Dry on towels on rack. Deli container with c-fold towel.
· Pluches of: Mizuna, Wild Arugula, Watercress, Frisee
· Brunoise of: Tarragon, Cornichons
· Truffles: Brush/wash, pick for dirt, peel (retain trimmings) poach, and cryovac.
· Peeled Grapes and Apple Brunoise – 1 deli of ½ simple syrup and ½ water and 3g Ascorbic Acid.
· Red Pepper Juice
· Red Beet Juice
· Parisienne: Muscat de Provence melon, apples, carrots, etc.
· Crones
· Truffle Coins
· Garlic confit – blanch garlic 5 times. Then poach in clarified butter until really soft
· Potato Chips with Chives – Baked between sheet pan and silpats. Trimmed as necessary. Other option is to produce herbed disc chips.
· Pommes Maxim – Slice yellow potatoes and cut into rounds. 10 rounds per Pommes Maxim. Blanch rounds and shock. Drain and dry on towels. Add minimal cornstarch and clarified butter. Assemble maxims and rub with clarified butter. Sauté to order with kosher salt and white pepper.
· Butter Rounds – 36 g each, formed in cheesecloth as ovals and hardened in ice water. Served room temperature with bread.
· Poularde brine – 1500g kosher salt to 15 L water. 13 breasts for 2 hours.
· Foie Gras Terrine
· Salmon Tuile Paper Cornets – Triangle napkin folded in half around cornet mold. Retain the paper very taught. Roll left side tight on mold. Roll right side over left. Fold down wings and use tuile rack to hold.
· Parsnip Agnolotti – individual self-sealed pastas.
· Petite Rabbit Loin with frenched bones
· TFL Garden and Green House utilizing seeds and “farm to table” concept.
· Beurre Monte kept in immersion circulator @ 59.5 degrees C.
· Fried Corn Balls – Corn milk (or corn flour) with Asiago and gelatin, loaded into 1/3 pans and chilled. Scoop with parisienne, coat with nutted milk batter and ground panko. Fry to order.
· Ice Cream and Sorbet Quenelles – Temper frozen product, utilize hot water bath for magic spoon and warm quenelle by rubbing in palm of hand.
· Wagyu Fat – Place ground fat in rondeau and cover cold fat with water. Render until impurities coagulate and strain. Chill.
· Date Balls – Hot water on dates for one minute. Peel. Split and remove seeds. Remove white pith. Weigh out 0.6 g in strips. Roll into balls and store in light oil.
· Profiteroles – Filled with pastry Cream, topped with caramel and rolled in ground candy violets.
· Sun choke Tourne – Mini-pared sun chokes in almond milk, dredged in ground panko with herbs and pan-fried.
· Mignardise – Served on Silver trays @ TFL. Serve on white platter @ Ai along with pots de crème of Truffles - with the check…
3. Organizational ideas:
· Deli containers - Used for mise en place, washed and re-used.
· C-Fold paper towels – For passing food during service and for filling deli containers.
· Blue Painter’s Tape – For all labeling, in black marker.
· Scissors – Cutting tape.
· Tape – Taped to wall, written on and then cut (straight lines).
4. Kitchen:
· All work station spots utilize parchment paper down to control mess and stay organized.
· Shaved Iberico ham (cryovac) served over Agnolotti
· Lots of little timers used all around the kitchen – “precision cooking”.
· Rolls of wet cloth for wiping plates at the pass.
· Classic sauce pans with lids and handle..!
· The stoves and ovens are “Bonnet”.
· Well-designed kitchen spaces with self-contained work stations.
· The Pass – Use wooden butcher block.
· Service areas – Linen taped to benches by FOH.
· Mimi hand-held burr mixer @ The Pass.
· Trivets on linen @ The Pass to protect the linen.
· Call out “dish” or “dry store”…
· Air dry to cool plates.
· Food kits of cambros with tops and labeled – for all food products.
· Food is hand-carried to tables.
· Wicker baskets for citrus, garlic and onion to air…
· Detail all equipment on weekly schedule.
· Daily cleaning jobs A.M. and P.M.
· Prep lists from evening meeting with chef and staff – orders placed in P.M. for next day. Prep lists posted for chefs de partie and commis.
· Potatoes kept open to the air in baskets/bins with holes in them.
· Chef’s equipment stored in dry storage and/or locked in janitor’s room and/or locked in cages.
Equipment - Juicer
Molecular kit
White Service Ware
Pullman bread pans
Griddle
All equipment from storage
· Cleaning solutions – Windex for Stainless steel, yellow cleaning solution for walls, and hot soapy water with 3M pad for top of stainless benches (then BUFF).
· Soak Immersion Circulator in soap solution and clean with pads…
· Magic spoons at all stations with tasting spoons as well…
· ½ sheets with paper c-folds for passing food to The Pass.
· Finish foods at The Pass with nice pepper mill and Fleur de Sel.
· Last thing at night should be sharpening knives, icing fish and other product and cryovacing product.
· Chef’s meeting with snacks produced by chef de parties…
5. Recipes:
· Vegetable Stock
Mirepoix
Mushrooms
Tomato
Garlic
Turnips
Steep and strain.
· Pasta
2 whole Eggs
20 ea. Egg yolks
1 K Double O Flour
1/3 C. Milk
2 T. Olive Oil
· Gnocchi
Russet potatoes, pierced, cooked covered with salt. Split potatoes and scoop out pulp. Rice onto wooden board. Add egg and flour until just incorporated. Roll on rack and poached until just set.
· Tomato Compote
5500 g Canned San Marzano Tomatoes
250 g Red Onion
475 g Shallot
1 L Cabernet Sauvignon Wine Vinegar
500 g Sugar
1 deli Tomato Water (plus more as needed for cooking)
Pinch Kosher salt
Clean tomatoes under running water; no seeds, skin or stem. Drain and reserve tomato water. Hache red onion and shallot. Cook with tomato water until no bite. Add sugar until dissolved. Add RWV. Cook down until a sec. Add tomatoes and pinch of salt, cook a sec. Cool completely. Hache until absolutely smooth. Pack in deli containers.
6. Other food ideas/concepts:
· Casa Botin, Spain – Suckling Pig (7#, 1 month), Baby Eels in Hot Garlic Oil, Serrano ham “of the sierra” considered to be a lesser ham, Iberico (Patanagra – raised on Acorns and Hazelnuts) starts @ $80.00/#.
· Sausages – Braised in Red Wine and stock reduction