spontaneity

[speidec]

Chef Achatz,

A window on your life as a chef at the French Laundry (indicated in Michael Ruhlman's book) painted a picture of the French Laundry always in flux, ever-changing and most of all spontaneous. The work you do at Trio is very exhaustive in research and planning and detail, do you ever miss the spontaneity in the kitchen and the freedom it often brings or do you save a little of it for friends and other VIP diners?

Thank you for the time.

(Edited to correct typo -- JD)

Edited March 3, 2003 by Jonathan Day (log)

[chefg]

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.