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Marcle Pine

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Posts posted by Marcle Pine

  1. As our opening date draws near, we finally have our full kitchen up and running. Here are pictures of the kitchen as it was and as it now looks.

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    Our kitchen before we started the transformation

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    The Atelier Anti-Kitchen

    The first question people always ask when they walk into our kitchen is "where's your stove?" We call it the 'Anti-Kitchen' because there isn't really much of a kitchen there ... or so it would seem. When we began developing the idea for this restaurant several months ago, the idea was that we would be using new culinary technique and technology, which meant a very atypical kitchen set-up. We do not cook with gas. We do not have a stove. We have no grill, no deep fryer, no heat lamps, no exhaust system. All of our cooking apparatuses can be tucked into a cupboard. At the end of the night, our kitchen looks as it does in this picture. We cook with immersion circulators, single-hob induction surfaces, dehydrators, pressure cookers, heat guns, a thermomix, solar ovens, etc. The primary advantage is that these are all small and portable, and we wanted to build a kitchen that consumed far less energy than today's standard professional kitchen.

  2. Here are some pictures of the front of the building, as it was before we moved in, and as it looks today with the changes. Things are coming together very nicely, and my staff and I are super-excited to open. There is a small amount of work still to be done on the outside, but you get the basic idea here. I told them to make the building look like Darth Vader. They got it close enough I guess.

    I will post before and after pictures of the inside soon as well.

    gallery_53170_6244_80933.jpg

    Before we moved in

    gallery_53170_6244_66933.jpg

    Atelier as it looks today

  3. Also, this is a book that should likely sell for a lot more than $50 ... we are all fortunate to get one at that price, whenever it arrives.

    I wouldn't be overly surprised if, in Alinea fashion, there was something else included when the pre-orders do arrive based on this comment by Nick Kokonas on the Mosaic:

    "The book shops put it out earlier than they were supposed to...

    that said, you are getting something a bit different.... :-)"

  4. First, thank you for your interest in Atelier. We do still have a fair amount of renovation to do, inside and outside. We more or less gutted the entire space, including the kitchen. Atelier will indeed be a tasting menu restaurant, serving a 12-course menu every night to every guest. I think people often underestimate the dining public in Ottawa, who, from my experience, are very well educated and enthusiastic about new and exciting culinary happenings. We will be serving 'New Canadian' food, based on more efficient and more exciting culinary technique and technology. The world of gastronomy has never changed so quickly as it has in the past 5 years, and we would like to reflect that in our food, wine, and service.

  5. I somewhat agree sadistick about buying your own cheese for when you get home, but the same could be said about wine I suppose - they find it and pour it for you. Also, we must not forget that it is expensive for a restaurant to keep a good cheese inventory at perfect ripeness.

    Almost got into Colborne last time I was in TO, will certainly be going on my next visit in March. Thanks for the pictures.

  6. Another simple way to levitate food is by diamagnetism - foods that contain water (which is diamagnetic) are repelled by magnetic poles, and this type can last forever...the only tricky part is achieving lateral stability...

    4 ways to levitate food:

    Type a: Negative ion propulsion, most objects, including food have a positive ion charge, if you give it a negative ion charge, they repel. Solids, liquids and gases.

    Type b: foams created with a mixture of helium and nitrous oxide

    Type c: using a calculated amount of cfm's to push objects upward

    type d: using the meissner effect with superconductors and liquid nitrogen (also a futuristic type of "perpetual motion"

    All of these forms are still being tweeked for final dishes and I suspect will be complete and on the menu by mid january.

    GTM! GTM! GTM!

    Sorry, hardly constructive but the sun is shining for what feels like the first time in about 2 months and I'm feeling playful.

    The GTM with full wine tasting is expensive. I have a feeling it might have been the most expensive meal I had ever eaten earlier this year. It was more expensive than Trio, but we did kick off with some good champagne so that might have pushed us over the edge. It is well worth having the paired wines, they really do add another level to the meal. The first time I had the GTM here I just drank champagne, which was great but my second GTM with wine was amazing.

    That said, there's no point bankrupting yourself for one meal so GTM without wine would win over 10 course with wine for me. But that's because I'm more about the food than the wine.

    I'm not sure if the levitating food is on the menu yet but if it is can you post about it? I was chatting with Wylie Dufresne of WD-50 about it and he was just desparate to know what the deal was.

  7. I just use a styrofoam box with a lid (cut with vent holes), and the LN2 is usually good for about an afternoon if you don't disturb it. I only use about 1L at a time, and I imagine that a larger volume in a proper Dewar would last at least a day.

    In a proper dewar, LN2 lasts a lot longer than a day. I have a 10 L dewar and if left untouched, it would take 45 days to evaporate (according to the manufacturer). I get a refill once a week, and I don't notice any loss at all.

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