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Awbrig: The Wall Street Journal last Thursday. Progression within a dish is a tool for chefs to do a variety of creative approaches. In some cases, such as the lamb dish you sited, we echo the flavors of Thai cuisine but show them presented in differnt textures. The complexity that is produced is fun. When we can show the same flavors in 3 different states: liquid, natural, and powder it makes eating the dish fun. In other cases we can deconstruct a dish into it's basic flavor components and reassemble the dish on the plate. Since the dish is pulled apart into distinct flavors we encourage the diner to eat it in a certain order to attain the best result. We are currently running a dish based on beautiful white asparagus from the Loire. The asparagus itself is starkly presented on the left of a long plate running north and south to the diner. It is divided into five sections, but kept in it's linear shape. To the right are 5 compositions that are meant to compliment the asparagus. The diner starts closest to them and works their way up the plate, sampling the asparagus with the flavor to the right. The compositions range from light to heavy and from simple to complex. They are as follows: saffron scented asparagus stems with flowers and chervil, wild mushrooms with meyer lemon and walnut, Valencay goat cheese with tupelo honey, tosaka seaweed with pickled oyster and hijiki mayonaise and after we have taken you on a bit of a journey in relation to asparagus your 5th bite brings you right back to where you started before you took the first bite of the dish. At least for most people. The tip of the asparagus with hollandaise, presented in a spoon. I hope this illustrates how sequencing can be a highly creative tool for the chef.

Awbrig: As recently as this month we have looked into opentable and other online booking systems. At this point we do not feel it would be benefical to Trio or our potential diners at this time. Why do you ask? Is internet booking something that you feel benefits the consumer? If so how?

Ryne: We often speak of the changes in cuisine taking place throughout the world but service is evolving as well, keeping pace with the food. I mentioned in a previous post how important food discriptions, explanations, and instructions have become at Trio. It ranges from informative (where the lamb is from) to crucial as in the case with a black truffle explosion. These advances in service bridge the gap from kitchen to dinning room, and make the experience of eating more entertaining, and enjoyable. We go through intensive tastings and meetings with staff to insure knowledge of the food and style of the service we provide. The front staff is vocal about guest reaction to preticular dishes and this open approach makes us stronger.

Chazzy: Trio is prepared to accomadate vegetarian menus in the 4 and 8 course menu formats nightly. We have produced TDF menus under these restrictions but advanced notice is required. Vegetarian cooking is a bit more difficult due to the reliance on certain animal based products we use to produce certain effects. Depending on the displine of the guest, ingredients like eggs, dairy, gelatin, honey may be restrictive, making certain things nearly impossible to create. As far as innovation using vegetables we look to people like Roxanne Klein for inspiration and techniqcal advances. Obviously we have created vegetarian dishes that represent our style, or have made the necessary adjustments to animal based dishes, but we have not commited our energies to a vegetarian cuisine like she has. Therefore the repetoire is much smaller in that category. As we break away from protein driven dishes we will be forced to explore vegetables more thoroughly and utilize their potential. We have already begun to shift our train of thought to include more vegetable driven items, and looking into how they effect a meal in its entirety. Things like satiation, and nutrition should be considered. Not to mention all the possibilities that have been overlooked in the vegetable world due to the consumers reverance for meat.

201: Trio does make use of creative liquids in it's menus but not to replace alcohol by way of a tasting paired with the food. I think beverages that pair well with the food enhance the dinning experience by simply adding more to the experience itself. I doubt people would dislike the cuisine without the addition of alcohol. There are many ingredients that people cannot consume for many different reasons, allergies, religon, personal beliefs. We deal with shellfish , nut, diabetic, ,and many other restrictions on a nightly basis. Although it is an interesting concept, the replacement of alcohol with other paired beverages, we do not currently do that.

Tan319: I stayed at el Bulli for only one week. It was an intensive week however, conversing with cooks form all over, France, Holland, US, Italy, and of course Spain. That was one very inspiring thing about the el Bulli experience, it linked so many cultrues together in the name of cuisine. We would sit and talk about food, a French guy translating Spainish to the guy from Denmark so he could tell the guy from New York what he said. Amazing sense of reverance for the food and what was being created there, everyone knew it was special. In my case I was able to perform a large number of tasks that most short term stages would not have been able to, although that could be wrong. What I am saying is I was surprized how much they let stages do in the way of cooking. The day the started at 9 am and ended at 1 am. At the time I was there they were serving lunch as well. It was a packed day. 2 Americans were seasonal stages, meaning they planned on staying the full season. I have not heard of them in the US yet, I staged there in 2000. I hope they surface here, bringing the new cuisine with them.

chefc: Certainly there can be complexity in simplicity. that is one tool a chef can use. I don't know if cuisine is moving to a simpler state overall. In fact I would say the opposite. With the advancement in techniques and new found flavor combinations cuisine is growing more complex. I find the post by Micheal Laiskonis especially interesting because now we tap into the possibilities of changing the progression of multi course meals, making the experinence even more complex.

Robert: Yes, Trio is still offering externships on a limited basis.

spencer: Thomas is the man. He has his reputation for a reason, he earned it, it's real, he throws down. It's interesting, your comment on taking it for granted, as after I left that restaurant you realize how amazing it and he are.

guru: At times I have struggled with this question. My philosophy has changed over the last year, let me try to explain. All artists want their work to be understood, if I am painting, writting, or cooking the desire to connect to people will always be there. What I have come to learn is connection comes on all different levels. Like I said before the more educated you are about food the more you will probably enjoy it. My job, and that of the waitstaff, is to create an experience that is enjoyable for most everyone. Some people will eat at Trio and leave appauled. We can't help the close minded, or grumpy. What we can do is customize each meal to suit the diner. A trained server can read a table, if they sense a diner needs more information or less, they will make that adjustment. Alot of the food we serve actually comes with some instruction. This is gently conveyed to the guest so they recieve the most out their meal. This step is one that makes or breaks our food. Some of the creations need to be consumed in a certain order, or at certain speeds, without this guidance the dish will be lost, and so will the guest. I can't make people like the style of cuisine we serve at Trio. I can make them enjoy an experience that is new and exciting by producing food that tastes good, touches on a food memory from their past or shows them the cuisine of the future. We had a diner celebrate her 80 th birthday with not so long ago, I watched her face light up in a smile and follow with a giggle when she slurped the bubble tea. That is where it's at.

marcus: You may or may not have read my post answering Awbrig's topic on foie gras, if not it may give you some insight on this topic as well. What is the difference between a market ingredient and a luxury ingredient? Nothing form the standpoint of creativity. If I can present to you a caviar dish that you have never seen before or make you taste, feel, and enjoy caviar like you have never experienced it before, how could you be less interested? Admittedly I feel the same as you on at least one point, the quality of luxury dishes served in the states is poor overall. The problem with this is the way the "luxury ingredients" are handled, how they are feared. Many chefs have not been exposed to the products enough to know how to manipulate them to their fullest potential. They are expensive so waste becomes an issue, but the main obstacle for creativity is tradition. These ingredients are soaked in the grandest of European tradition. Historically simple preparations letting the ingredient itself "shine". What is the difference between a tomato and a truffle. Can you say that a fresh tomato out of the garden is less impressive than a black truffle? I can't. Sure, they are more expensive, wild, harder to find, harder to find chefs that know how to handle them because exposure is limited due to the above mentioned. So maybe it's not the ingredients that you are lacking interest in, it's the way they are manipulated. As I mentioned in the Awbrig post I think people expect to see luxury ingredients at high end restaurants. They want to see something in return for the dollars we are charging. Innovation is tough to put a value on for most people. Foie Gras sales are high at Trio, 24 to 30 % nightly. Caviar or some type of roe is always on one or more of the menus, it may be osetra, a beautiful trout roe from Michigan, an artisan steelhead roe for the same producer, bottarga, spicy cod roe, sea urchin which may or may not fall into this category. When in season black truffles are used generously, as well as whites. I feel very strongly about our preparations of foie gras. I feel we handle the product extremely well, and present it in creative ways. We use La Belle foie gras from the Hudson Valley. Although I can't say I sample french livers enough to be intimate with them, I feel La Belle produces a very high quality liver. In closing, I feel the ingredients that fall into the luxury category are treated with the same respect and innovation that any other ingredient would be. We still approach the creation of dishes based on these ingredients the same way.

Ryne: I feel the more educated about food you are the more you will potentially enjoy it. Certainly I taste all the food at Trio, both during it's creation and on a nightly basis, and yes I enjoy the dishes, but not the way you do. Here is an example. The best meal I have ever eaten was my first meal at the Laundry. It was before I started working there, 2 days before in fact. I dinned with my father, I was blown away. Thomas rolled it out for us a bit, but I am sure my feelings would have been the same regardless. The "oysters and pearls" is probably the best dish I have ever tasted to this day. From that meal October 14 1996 until my last day June 30 2001 I dinned there 9 times! Each time it became less memorable. Not because the food was less quality, in fact if anything it was probably better. But knowing the repetoire like I did after such a length in the kitchen took away from the experience that diners feel. In fact I always recommend to chef friends of mine to plan their potential "best meal of their lives" carefully. Had I not eaten at el Bulli before I staged there would the experience been as magical? Probably not. I love to cook at home. In the past I would get in way over my head, trying dishes that have little business in a home kitchen, or coursing out 10 dishes for my family. Now with time more of an issue I tend to cook simply with a Trio Twist snuck in there. An unlikely ingredient, or technique that my girlfriend usually picks out, and pushes to the side of the plate. When I lived in Napa the team at The Laundry would get togehter often and each do a course. Cooks love to eat good food. I love to go out to eat, but when I am at home ethnic foods get the nod. Thai is a staple, grilling outside (a ribeye steak or fish), often we get 4 different cheeses and some bread and fruit...some wine that always works well. Angela cooks a mean pot pie.

Robert: The CIA was a necessary step for me in achieving my culinary goals. I was 18 at the time of entry and had no mentoring by an established chef. The school did many things for me, but probably the least was teach me to cook. For me it was the level of exposure it produced that inspired me. My objective was to submerse myself in food, media, cookbooks, demos, conversations with other students and the classes themselves. Through all of these mediums the school exposes the students to how wide the profession is. All of the different facets are revealed and the student has a broader knowledge of the craft, abling him/her to make the desicion which path to take. For me it was the road to fine dinning. I used the school's resources to research the restaurants that were making an impact of the culinary world at the time. This was in 94, so Trotter was hot, as well as Gray Kunz at Lespinasse, Patina was doing well in La, and at the tail end of the year Thomas was making waves in Napa. Of course the school is very European driven so my awarness of the 3 star chef's of France became clear. This exposure ignited the passion for food in me, without it I may have been building houses right now. You reap what you sow. Of course we learned how to cook at school as well. The foundamentals were important in building a strong sockel for our careers. Although I can say I don't make veal stock, or butcher fish, among other things, like I was taught at school, it was my first experience doing so, and in turn became a good foundation in which to build. It seems to be a universal opinion that the most beneficial parts of growth for a young cook are the early years in a live kitchen. My time spent at the French Laundry is where I learned to cook. Thomas followed French tradition but at the same time challenged it, improving, refining and personalizing the techniques to suit his style and cuisine. It was here I gained confidence as a cook and became intimate with ingredients. Another thing that is important to understand about working with great chefs vs schooling is the relationship with the chef and how that effects learning. Most cooks that work with a chef emmulate them completely, knowing that the chef wants the cooks to be extentions of themselves. The focus is intense and the drive to impress is a powerful learning tool. At school you go from class to class and never make a strong connection to a leader that will mentor you in this way. I feel schools should provide a stronger focus and more specialized training for the different facets of the business. A person that aspires to be 4 star chef should be exposed to a differnt program than one hoping to become a corporate chef of a large company, or a private chef and so on.

Chojwu12: In all honesty 33 is a bit old to be starting out in that kitchen, but certainly not out of the question. You have to ask yourself if you want to sacrifce for that long before you develop your own style. Working in these kitchens are not often a lucritive proposition. If your plan is to become an owner you also need to build some stability. Most of the cooks in 4 star restaurants are young people. The oldest at Trio is 27, probably the same at TFL . It is great to work for the masters but once you have a strong foundation on technique, and the principals of cooking I would encourage you to force yourself to express your cuisine. Otherwise you will become stylistically chained to your mentors, void of any personal style. Also something to consider is "learning from the best" Often times the "best "chefs to learn from are hardly in their kitchens, so you wouldn't be learning from them at all. Search out chefs that are new to the scene, have not yet opened several restaurants, or authored many cookbooks. All of these activities pull them away from their kitchens. Chef's that have strong backgrounds but have recently began to develop their own style are the ones I would seek out. Paul Liebrandt (if he enters the ring again), Wylie Dufresne, Luke Sung, Micheal Anthony, Laurant Gras, these are the guys I would look to make impacts in the future, get on their teams before the rush.

Chef: The swapping of ingredients and techniques from pastry to savory are certainly becoming more popular. These are techniques that we support at Trio and it has greatly shaped the food we serve. You strike several interesting points. Starting with course progression, I ask why we should start savory and end sweet? Some say sweetness deadens the palate and supresses the appetite, I don't agree. We actually start most of the meals at Trio with a sweeter style amuse, I find it appetite stimulating as opposed to supressing. We are trying to break to stereotypes about coursing and the typical outline they follow. Cuisine is taking large steps forward at a rapid pace, as the food itself becomes more complex so will the experience they provide when linked together to form a meal. That is why this food is so exciting is because it actually defies comparison. That is why it is so contraversial, people can no longer compare apples to apples. Each experience is their first. How long will we follow the model set up 100 +years ago? Remember when the use of meat to garnish fish, and drinking red wine with fish were taboo? Those are two good examples of the blurring of traditional coursing. Does a meal have to follow a straight line? Can there be ups and downs within the duration of a meal. Now we have jumped again...further, with the use of invert sugars, chocolates, sweet spices and pastry techniques in savory food. All of this complexity requires a tightrope walk for chefs. The rate of failure is undoubtably higher, but when done correctly the results are exciting. As I mentioned earlier most menus are protien driven. Most people expect meat at the end of the savory courses. But what if the fish dishes are heavier? What if the vegetables dishes are heavier? I believe to a certain degree tradition must be overtaken by intellect, expectations reworked, and open mindedness brought to the front. This may be of interst to you especially. It seems we have the most resistance to pastry dishes utilizing savory ingredients and techniques. If we use chocolate with lobster people love it, if we use nori in dessert people are less reseptive. This may tie into what you mentioned about flavor memory being obscurred. People seem to gravitate towards familar flavors in dessert. If people sense they are on a familar progression, sweet being at the end of the meal they may revolt against the mixing of the two because now they have lost all perception of the meal. It would be like traveling to a destination only to find out after a length of time...you are lost? What if that progression assumption was erased? Sweet items came into the progression periodically, or in small sequences and meal was made homogenous by the stratigic placement of the dishes themselves, wine pairing, transitional courses, intermezzos, to makes a rolling hills picture rather than a typical peak. The top being the point from savory to sweet. I find this question very interesting and I would like to come back to it tomarrow if possible. Alot more can be said. Thank you.

Chris: Reviews are extremely important to restaurants. They can make or break businesses and even careers. This topic is very difficult because so many things come into play, I'll do my best. Reviews have to be taken very seriously at all restaurants because they bridge us to our customers. When I was looking for a new car a few years ago what did I do ? Looked to Motortrend, Car and Driver, JB Powers and so on. The same way people look at The NY Times, Gourmet, Zagat, Mobile and so on to find a place to dine. Reviews are necessary, people need the information made available by media that scores restaurants. One of the problems being we are judging the unjudgable. The food at Trio is aweful to some and brillant to others, matters of opinion are just that ..opinion. Operational and techniqcal issues are different, and can be understood more clearly. Any criticism of a dish, wether from a guest, a critic, or a employee provokes a second guess. I will taste the dish again, even if I have already done so or I have 100% confidence in it. But when I do so I try to think like them, obviously, if the dish has been consumed I had confidence in it during it's creation, or it would have never been served. But I am I chef thinking differently than a guest, wanting it to work, knowing why it should, and so on. We have been in situations where a particular dish has caught a steady stream of fire, commonly I decide to leave it on the menu because I feel so strongly about it. There is a fine line between customer satisfaction and artistic belief. It goes beyond the finances, and customer counts. Chefs' are dedicated to their food. They work very hard and sacrifice a great deal to bring a part of them to the table. A bad review can be crushing on a personal level. Through our food we expose ourselves immensely. It becomes our religon, faith, and being. In reading a review I trust that the critic is speaking on behalf of the readership, not themselves, much like a president is speaking on behalf of a country.

speidec: True spontaneity is "of the moment" I think that is rare in kitchens. It is our job to plan and taste dishes before they leave the kitchen. At the French Laundry the sponaneity was from day to day. They try to change the menu frequently from day to day and week to week. Menu planning was discussed the night prior and executed the next service. Trio tends to be more week to week and month to month in its dish runs for the exact reason you sited. The food is more experimental in nature and needs to be worked with before we let it go. Of course we have diners that join us frequently, often times twice or more a month. For those people we create dishes in advance but new to them. We don't want them to watch the same movie over and over again. There are some guests that will get more experiemental cuisine than we would serve in the dinning room to other diners. Mostly friends of the restaurant, peers, or employees. Sometimes they become guinea pigs of sort. Testing the prototypes for the next menu.

hspringut: Q #1 You can't. If I were going to dine at Trio here is what I would do to "get the most "out of my experience. Be excited. Remember, chef's like to cook for people that are into food. If a waiter hints that someone on table 32 is jazzed to be here and the energy is high, chances are I will send out a little course or two. Talk to your server. They are the liasion to the kitchen. Especially if you are in the business. I would rather know if I have a cook or front person in the dinning room rather than you feeling silly telling your server you are the saucier or backwaiter at some restaurant. Help them, help you enjoy the ride, tell them what you like , and what you are looking for. Chances are they will find it. Choose your dinning partners wisely. Make sure you are going with someone that enjoys food. Sounds silly, but make sure money, time and cuisine style are condusive to your dinning partners. A restaurant can put out a first class meal only to be ruined by the person sitting across from you. The food can be thought provoking, you either want to go with someone that says nothing and leaves you to your thoughts or will bounce cerebral conversation around. If money is not an issue...get the TDF. It is an experience very rare in this country.

Explorer: I have been fortunate enough to have been "brought up" in restaurants that offer only multicourse meals, so it has become second nature for me to organize the kitchen accordingly. It does offer some challenges it terms of operation within the restaurant. Your first subquestion is very true, and probably why most chefs choose the tasting menu format to exhibit their food. The kitchen has more control of the experience. If we can concepulize a 7, 11, or 22 course menu offering no choices to the diner it eliminates chances of the following: Repetition of ingredients, cooking techniques, flavor profiles, textures, concepts, plate ware, presentation, thought processes, aromas, and so on. Imagine having a multicourse meal with alot of repetition? It becomes boring. I fully believe the philosophy Thomas talks about in the TFL cookbook (Heston gives a good example of this on his website as well) called the law of diminishing returns. The multicourse experience allows chefs to create smaller courses that capture the guests attention for shorter periods of time to avoid the dulling effect to the palate. To answer your second question we view the menus as a whole. This helps us create flow and progression within the meal. Most of the food in today's restaurants are protien driven. The longer the menu the more we try to break from that mold. Protiens become limiting to a certain degree, anything would if it were the cornerstone of creativity.The menus flow light to heavy, although there are some execptions to this. We may "break" the meal with a cleanser or "transitional course". Also wine becomes a huge part of the experience at Trio. We have dedicated ourselves to a tasting program that truely hightens the overall experience. Sometimes with the addition of wine into the mix it changes the perception of the course, allowing us more leadway. Food cost means instead of costing a dish you cost an entire menu. The same guessing is applied to some degree wether the guest will order the 4, 8, or 20. Much in the same way in an alacarte restaurant you guess on chicken vs. fish vs beef. Mis en place rolls over on only very few items since most of the ingredients are prepared the day of the service. I feel its no better nor worse than ala carte situations. Another effect of the multicouse experience is felt in the dinning room. An enormous amount of staff must be employed to handle the constant maintainance at the tables. Imagine running 10 tables at one time recieving 20 course of food and a wine to go with every course! The amount of plates, silver, and glassware is daunting. It is also a financial commitment to do these menus, as your turn times are extremely long if you turn tables at all. Overall it is the only way I can see presenting the cuisine we do at Trio.

Awbrig: Chef Trotter's decision to eliminate foie gras from his menu is interresting to me for a numbers of reasons. Chef Trotter exposed the "French model" to a specific generation of chefs here in the US starting in the early 90's. Through his cuisine, personality of the restaurant, and PR, he shaped the way alot of chefs in this country cook . He has always been associated with luxury ingredients, and uses them generously, foie gras included, as you will see them prolificly throughout his books and piled on his plates at the restaurant. If chef Trotter has decided to quit using foie gras for animal rights issues you have to respect that. Will he no longer use caviar due to it's reputation as well? Time will tell. Charlie Trotter has one of the strongest voices in the industry, he has shaped the culinary landscape greatly in his time. His push for the raw food movement , this statement about foie gras, and any other that will follow will be not taken lightly by his peers. This brings up an interesting question. When diners patron restaurants at the high end, with high price tags, do they expect expensive ingredients? When you dine at The French Laundry, Trotter's, Daniel and so on do you expect, or even demand luxury ingredients? Would you be dissappointed if caviar, truffles, foie were not present on their menus? The key questions for me is what is innovation worth? What is the value for creativity, if it does not utilize the luxury ingredients? At Trio we present osetra, foie, and truffles in new and unusual ways, but what if we didn't use those products? Could we charge the same amount for our tasting menu? There are ingredients which we refuse to serve, but it has more to do with integredity of the product rahter than humane issues.

Perry: As I left the French Laundry to come to Trio I knew I wanted to commit to a cuisine that was highly creative. I thought it would be very difficult to find a situation where an owner would give me "carte blanche" of a high end restaurant knowing the creative level I wanted to produce. Luckily my first inquiry was with Henry Adinaya, the propreitor of Trio. After 4 months of dialog, each of us expressing our goals and getting to know eachother, I realized I found the perfect platform. Henry was very open to the forward thinking process, and actually used it himself in overseeing the dinning room. We took some baby steps in the begining, but the goal was shared at the inception of the partnership. Once we commited to this "creative cuisine" it became less of a choice and more of an expectation. Both from the standpoint of the customer, myself and the brigade. We make time to create. Often we saty late into the night talking abou tor experimenting wih tnew ideas. I knew the food I wanted to produce would be different, the cooks that were hired did so with the trust that this experience would be different than any they had experienced before, press releases were cut, dinning room was trained, the PERSONALITY of the restaurant was reshaped to project the cuisine of our vision. The actual conception of dishes come in many different venues. It starts with a focus of forward thinking. That is the way we process food. We are a very cerbral kitchen, an enormous amount of thought goes into the dishes we create. The deconstruction of food itself is very important. As I mentioned before, the more you know about an ingredient the better you will be able to manipulate it. Connecting it to other ingredients by way of flavor, texture, PH, memory, smell, region, color, temperature, expectation and so on, makes new dishes possible. It is this very basic approach to food that produces dishes that seem so complex. When they were concieved the process wasn't : Gold beetroot will taste good with Mukasi Soy and pumpkin seeds. NO. It was: the sweet earthy flavor of the raw beet will taste good with the saltiness of the soy and the nuttiness of the pumpkin seeds. If we juice the beets it will be very lean and bright, we can balance this with the fattiness from a pumpkin seeds, and contrast the sweetness with the salty soy. We will make the pumpkin seeds into a oil which will float on the juice, giving us a mouth coating effect since it will be the first thing in the mouth, the soy will sink to the bottom, making it a perfect ending to the consumption, a contrast needed after taking in the naturally sweet beet juice. I hope this example illistrates how we anylize food and turn it into a dish.

Death.

I've agreed with the site administrators that we will do a formal Q&A session in weeks to come. They suggest I stop answering questions, and I ask that you hold your questions until the Q&A begins. I appreciate all of the thoughtful inquires thus far and I am excited to continue. Best, Grant Achatz Chef/Partner Trio Restaurant

Most of the small farms we deal with come from recommendations of other chefs. The butter from Animal Farm came by the way of Thomas, it is wonderful. 100 % organic, produced like you said, by a woman who owns four cows. It is a cultured butter so it does have a certain tang that is stylisticly different than most french butters. In general most "small farmers" produce limited quanities of their products and most of the time they are very expensive due to labor and special care taken. Both of these factors make their products available to only a certain few due to quanity and price. This keeps the circle tight. There are advantages to the small purveyor relationship. Chances are if you are working with a lamber, and you want an artisan butter he will know someone, the circle of farmers and wild crafters is very similar to the circles of chefs. Of course the better your understanding of the product you are dealing with the more likely you will manipulate it in creative, sound ways. When I talk to the lamber he may inspire a dish based on what the lamb feed on, or how they live. He may also set me off on a different or speciality cut that is not commonly produced for the average market. Since he takes the animals down himself it's not an issue to get lamb kidneys, sweetbreads or hearts which would never be available otherwise. Another benefit is custom growing, through conversations with growers different specs or techniques will be talked about and soon the product you get from that supplier will be specific to you.

The roe is produced by a freind of mine and the first chef I worked for. He harvests the Trout from a natural spring fed body of water in central Michigan. The fish are not fed the typical diet of "pellets" laced with carotoniods, because the water is a thriving ecosystem the fish have enough natural food to sustain them. Crayfish and insects make up their diet and it shows in the flesh of these beautiful fish. The processing takes place at the water, so freshness is priority. The roe is rinsed with spring water and cured in sea salt, hand sieved and never frozen( a common practice) this is the most amazing roe I have ever seen. It is fresh and clean in the mouth with light popping of the eggs and no bitterness. The salinity is kept at a minimum, therefore it becomes very seasonal, due to reduced shelf life. It is truely one the greatest products we use at Trio