Starchefs International Chefs Congress 2008

[docsconz]

François Pellerin and Enrique Suarez:The Art and Science of Sense-ational Beer and Food Pairings

Sponsored by the Quebecois brewery Unibroue, this workshop focused on pairing specific Unibroue beers with various foods.

While I did not participate in this seminar, I did enjoy tasting a variety of Unibroue beers in the product expo hall. I had never had any of them before then. While I am still generally a wine drinker more than a beer drinker, I did like the depth these beers offered.

[docsconz]

Back out on the Product Fair, we paid a visit to some new friends I made at dinner the night before who were representing Cheeses from Quebec.

One of my favorite things to do when visiting Montreal is to buy Quebec cheeses at the Jean Talon and other markets. I particularly liked the cheese shop Chaput. My son and I chatted with our new friends for a few minutes and sampled some of their nice cheeses before we made our way back to the main theater.

[docsconz]

A Preview of What is Yet to Come:

[David Ross]

Wonderful report doc. Your words and pictures have given us a detailed look into the exciting innovations being introduced by the hands of these talented Chefs.

Edited October 14, 2008 by David Ross (log)

[tan319]

Falai's the business, isn't he?

This vid is one of the coolest thing's I've found this year.

You can see how much he appears to love his work, his food...

Bomboloni

[Peter the eater]

It's great to see Quebec cheeses getting the word out. Every time I visit through Quebec (like last month) I find some outrageously delicious cheeses unknown to me. They're usually soft ones, and not inexpensive -- but then again the good stuff rarely is.

Keep up the good work!

[Peter the eater]

Is that a dozuki?

[docsconz]

Is that a dozuki?

←

I suppose it could be. What is a dozuki?

[docsconz]

Wonderful report doc.  Your words and pictures have given us a detailed look into the exciting innovations being introduced by the hands of these talented Chefs.

←

Thanks, David. I even found a Las Vegas chef with "soul" and a conscience - Rick Moonen. I will be sure to visit his restaurant when next in the desert city.

[docsconz]

Falai's the business, isn't he?

This vid is one of the coolest thing's I've found this year.

You can see how much he appears to love his work, his food...

Bomboloni

←

I've only started to become acquainted with Iacopo Falai. I find him and his work intriguing. For whatever reason, he seems to be flying under the eGullet radar, though I suppose his restaurants are doing ok by virtue of his continued expansion. I must make a point of trying his food outside of the few delights I have enjoyed via Starchefs.

Thanks for the link.

[Peter the eater]

Is that a dozuki?

←

I suppose it could be. What is a dozuki?

←

Sorry JS, a dozuki's a saw used by carpenters for precision cuts. I'm sure there's a culinary (i.e. non-woodworking) equivalent, but if it has a different name, I'm sure someone else might know.

[David Ross]

Wonderful report doc.  Your words and pictures have given us a detailed look into the exciting innovations being introduced by the hands of these talented Chefs.

←

Thanks, David. I even found a Las Vegas chef with "soul" and a conscience - Rick Moonen. I will be sure to visit his restaurant when next in the desert city.

←

Funny you should mention that doc-as I read your report about Chef Moonen's demo, it immediately reminded me of our discussions last May regarding my search for the "soul" behind the cuisine in Las Vegas.

Chef Moonen is one of the Chef's in residence in Las Vegas-what some would say is a rarity in that city. He has a "soul" and an ethic about seafood that is reflected in his cuisine and the service provided by his staff at RM Seafood.

I had dinner at Chef Moonen's restaurant when I was in Las Vegas in August. We had a lenghty visit with Chef Moonen about his time in Las Vegas and adjusting to the differences between Las Vegas and the restaurant scene in New York. He's not only one of the country's top Chefs, but an incredibly gracious host and great conversationalist.

[tan319]

Chef Moonen used to be on ( if you back aways) Sara Moulten's Live show frequently when FTV was truly interesting.

He was very engaging, humorous & knowledgeable.

A great chef.

[docsconz]

I'm hoping to be in Vegas in early December for a meeting. If so, I will definitely dine at RM and report back.

[tan319]

Falai's the business, isn't he?

This vid is one of the coolest thing's I've found this year.

You can see how much he appears to love his work, his food...

Bomboloni

←

I've only started to become acquainted with Iacopo Falai. I find him and his work intriguing. For whatever reason, he seems to be flying under the eGullet radar, though I suppose his restaurants are doing ok by virtue of his continued expansion. I must make a point of trying his food outside of the few delights I have enjoyed via Starchefs.

Thanks for the link.

←

There was a great article in Art Culinaire #88 with him, Sam Mason, & Pichet Ong with recipes, etc.

His concepts and approaches to food in general are inspiring.

Now, if starchefs.com can just get Philippe Conticini to the ICC next year...

[docsconz]

Marcus Samuelsson - Highlighting Swedish and African Cuisines

Since they both have relatively small reference points in the US, Marcus Samuelsson said that both African and Swedish cooking can be called "minority cooking." he described a culinary evolution in the US from French to Italian, Japanese, Mexican and so on culminating today in an emphasis on regional ethnic foods with the next iteration being a "personal cuisine" incorporating elements from all over the world in distinctive personal styles. He added:

The hard part about Swedish food in America, is that when you look around you see very few swedes, very few people who sit around on a Wednesday night and say, I want some Swedish food.

He continued:

Each regional cuisine has base dishes, but at every restaurant they can tweak a basic idea into their own. But the basic idea exists. In minority cuisines, there is no basic expectation, so the chef can kind of tweak his dishes to his will, ask himself how he wants the dish to taste. My food is all about the flavor, I like to call it flavor-driven.How do you create things where the flavor is always in the center?

Today I will show you an example where I am using a pastry brush to create an effect that will be very dramatic on the plate. Being raised in Sweden, minimalistic aesthetics are very important on the plate. The watermelon is a perfect example of having a firm, hard texture but becoming very moist. The texture, the temp, and the aesthetic all drive the flavor. Today we are doing hot on the outside and warm on the inside. These aspects are all very very key, and they are also individualized. They are all important to us, when we create modern Swedish food. What does Scandinavia look like? It has cold, clear water, so we can have very good seafood. A large hunting tradition as well, and game plays a large part. And finally, to the Swedes pickling and preserving things, especially with sugar and salt, plays an even larger part in the cuisine than it does in others. Swedish flavors should always be a balance between sweet and salt. Also when you create a cuisine, you have to reflect upon what aspects of the cuisine are very important? Nowadays, green, organic, fresh flavors, the feel of freshness is all very important. Every restaurant is different, and those differences separate different strata of the culinary scene.

The dish here is called the foie gras ganache, with some sea urchin. We have to clean it well at the perfect temperature to not break the veins. Coming from France to America, and experiencing the differences between the preparation of foie was very enlightening, but it made me want to create a new way to prepare foie gras. I needed a way to make it obvious that the food was luxurious but different at the same time. There are many ways to get the Swedish flavors out In this dish I will be melting butter and foie gras together, basically one step closer to a heart attack, but we control the portions and make sure that the luxuriousness and the richness of the dish comes across as we blend it with egg yolk, and chunks of sea urchin or something else that makes it even richer. We puree it even more, and then we pour the liquid into cups, about halfway full, and we will bake them for about 3 minutes, at which point we will fill the cups up again, add a chunk of sea urchin so that it sits in the middle as a centerpiece, and bake them again. I feel that with this dish, the more you do it, the more you learn about the dish. There’s always room to learn more about it.

The plating of the dish was completed for all in the audience to sample.

The sampler plate:

The dish was out to the audience.

How was it? Stay tuned.

[docsconz]

Falai's the business, isn't he?

This vid is one of the coolest thing's I've found this year.

You can see how much he appears to love his work, his food...

Bomboloni

←

I've only started to become acquainted with Iacopo Falai. I find him and his work intriguing. For whatever reason, he seems to be flying under the eGullet radar, though I suppose his restaurants are doing ok by virtue of his continued expansion. I must make a point of trying his food outside of the few delights I have enjoyed via Starchefs.

Thanks for the link.

←

There was a great article in Art Culinaire #88 with him, Sam Mason, & Pichet Ong with recipes, etc.

His concepts and approaches to food in general are inspiring.

Now, if starchefs.com can just get Philippe Conticini to the ICC next year...

←

That would be pretty cool.

[docsconz]

Marcus Samuelsson continued...

So how was the dish that Samuelsson and his crew prepared and generously sent around to the entire audience? In my son's words.

Time to try what he made for us. It was extremely rich, and the watermelon on the side did help to cut that a little bit. Unfortunately I was not in the mood  for such a rich dish, but the sea urchin was definitely prevalent. It was very complex, the flavors built and played on each other, and I think that if I was not so full I would have enjoyed it more.

The unfortunate thing is that this very rich dish came on the heals of lunch. In no way could it have been appreciated by either my son or myself at that point the way it should have been. The flavors were good. It was complex and it was creative. Had I known it was coming, I would have saved a little more room.

This did not preclude others from trying and enjoying it.

The official, minimalist plating of the dish:

to be continued...

[docsconz]

Marcus Samuelsson continued...

Marcus went on to talk about African food,

On the other side of the coin is how Africa tastes. If Scandinavia is difficult to portray and introduce, then how difficult can Africa be? Not too many people have knowledge about African food, not because they are not curious however. Look at Asian food: few people here are of Asian descent, but that does not mean that we are not interested in Japanese, Indian, Chinese and other such cuisines. I think that I can apply that curiosity to make African food popular in America as well.  I think that we have tried a lot of foods from the northern part of Africa, like Morocco, Algeria, even Egypt, but I do think that the southern part of Africa is very underrepresented.  Sometimes the food has no specific country of origin, but is just very flavorful.  When you go into central and southern Africa, you start to find the kassava puree, the mashed potatoes with yams,  fou-fou. Indian influence is enormous. You have a lot of spices that you think of in terms of African food. In South Africa, you have southeast Asian mixed with European cuisine, which in turn is blended with black South African cuisine to create an entirely new cuisine.

Samuelsson prepared a modern dish with origins in Africa, cassava stuffed shrimp with pickled papaya salad and green curry sauce.

[docsconz]

By this time, both my son and I were getting pretty wiped. I needed a little time to chill, so that is what I did. I went over to the Polyscience booth, where culinary science whiz and instructor at The French Culinary Institute Dave Arnold was chatting with Polyscience President Philip Preston.

At the same stand, they were making chocolate-raspberry ice cream pops using the anti-griddle.

Tasty and refreshing!

[adey73]

I presume that's ice scraped off the antigriddle?

[docsconz]

I presume that's ice scraped off the antigriddle?

←

You presume correctly.

[docsconz]

I meandered around the Products Fair a little more, returning to the Winston Industries CVap stand, where Howard Richardson was making venison racks.

These were just out of the CVap.

Searing on a hot griddle.

Generously seasoned and ready to cut.

Perfect!

These people including Kurtis Jantz and Josh DeChellis know a good thing when they see it.

[docsconz]

Ana Sortun - Middle Eastern Flavor Profiles

Ana Sortun of Oleana in Cambridge, Massachusetts presented next. I confess that I missed a fair portion of her presentation, not out of lack of interest, but simply for a need to recover and catch a second (or really fifth) wind. In addition, my son's computer battery needed recharging so our notes were scarce. Her presentation focused on variations of the Middle Eastern vegetable or meat dumplings, kibbeh.

Using finely ground bulgur wheat as a base and a binder, Sortun prepared three different kibbehs using a variety of techniques.

The first was carrot kibbeh with dates, fried almonds, and za’atar.

The ingredients were first sauteed then baked. The plate includes labne and za'atar mixed with olive oil.

Next was tomato kibbeh with pickled corn, sumac, and sweet and hot peppers.

Pickled corn.

Last was beef kibbeh with porcini, spinach and dried mint. Unfortunately, I did not get any photos of this dish.

[docsconz]

Falai's the business, isn't he?

This vid is one of the coolest thing's I've found this year.

You can see how much he appears to love his work, his food...

Bomboloni

←

I've only started to become acquainted with Iacopo Falai. I find him and his work intriguing. For whatever reason, he seems to be flying under the eGullet radar, though I suppose his restaurants are doing ok by virtue of his continued expansion. I must make a point of trying his food outside of the few delights I have enjoyed via Starchefs.

Thanks for the link.

←

There was a great article in Art Culinaire #88 with him, Sam Mason, & Pichet Ong with recipes, etc.

His concepts and approaches to food in general are inspiring.

Now, if starchefs.com can just get Philippe Conticini to the ICC next year...

←

For those of you interested in the career of Iacopo Falai, here is a photo of Iacopo sitting with Japanese food-writer and Iron Chef America judge, Akiko Katayama.