eG Foodblog: BryanZ - Alchemy

[Genny]

How exciting Bryan! I've had waaay to much life lately to be on eG much but I will certainly try to keep up with you this week!

I'm surprised with your bend towards molecular cooking that you are not majoring in a scientific field of study such as molecular biology. No worries on knowing what you want to be when you grow up, most of us don't, or rather, didn't. And unless you are very single minded or averse to change, the likelyhood that you'll have multiple sequential careers is high.

Can you say why you have not chosen to go to a culinary school to be the next big thing in the culinary world you have such a passion for?

I've not looked much into the molecular cooking thing so I have no idea what you are trying to do with the butter. Can you explain more?

I'd love to hear more about your work process: how do you plan your menu, is it around the fresh produce you find at the grocer or do you start with a protein in mind and go from there? I imagine you are feeding the whole family when you cook, are there any foods you stay away from because of general dislikes?

What cookbooks do you own or use the most?

Last question: will your sister be making your birthday cake since shes the baker?

Thanks in advance for a whirlwind of fun this week!

Edited July 10, 2006 by Genny (log)

[carpetbagger, esq.]

Finally, I'm working on a long-term project of opening up an underground restaurant in my apartment/dorm next semester, similar to the late and great StudioKitchen in Philadelphia.  If people are interested in this or have advice to give (or legal counsel) please post.  My concept is called Z Kitchen.  The site is up and running but still in beta development.  My Z Kitchen e-Lab, HEAVILY influenced by the brilliant people at ideasinfood (twodogs on eG), is also in its infancy.

←

not to rain on your parade, but this comes from the dook apartment/residence hall terms

V. TERMS AFFECTING RIGHTS, ORDER, HEALTH AND SAFETY

P. Selling or soliciting, to include the operation of a private enterprise, on the premises of University housing by residents or outsiders, that is either commercial or unrelated to University objectives or activities, is prohibited.

and if you're living in a residence hall:

V. TERMS AFFECTING RIGHTS, ORDER, HEALTH AND SAFETY

O. Selling or soliciting, to include the operation of a private enterprise, in the residence halls, by residents or outsiders, which is either commercial or unrelated to University objectives or activities is prohibited.

also, on your website, you have the "z kitchen is not" section twice. not only is it set up on its own, but it also looks like you hit paste accidentally in the "z kitchen is" section.

since you're technically not allowed to have an enterprise like z.kitchen in your apt/dorm, one idea to get around it would be to set up a student group like "dookies as foodies", where you could have an official presence on campus. not only would you be able to hold dining events on campus (not just in your apt), but you could lobby for a budget. one possible benefit of the student org route is that with other members, you could move the location from place to place, offering different themes at each. i realize that reduces the amount of control you have over the enterprise, but you are limited by campus policy.

[philadining]

Cool deal, looking forward to observing your adventures. I'd like to see as many weird, squishy, translucent spheres of unlikely food as your family can tolerate...

[MarketStEl]

I'm not worthy, I'm not worthy, I'm not worthy!

I expect to be astounded this week. Please don't let me down.

You mentioned the brand of the range; I assume the fridge is similarly high-end?

(This morning, as I was showering, I was internally fuming over the base-model Frigidaire which our landlord installed about three years ago after the Hotpoint that was part of the original appliance suite conked out. Soon after it went in, the fridge door somehow developed a gap in its bottom left corner (on the side that opens), which the landlord's appliance repair folk "fixed" by stuffing plastic bags in the gasket. Ever since, we've had serious moisture problems, which I was told the last time I complained were because we don't close the door fully -- how can we? Now we get rime in the freezer, including rime that blocks the forced-air vents, the temp control in the fridge is stuck on the coldest setting, and neither the freezer nor the fridge are as cold as they ought to be, and I don't think that's entirely because I've got the freezer almost completely full right now--I shouldn't be able to press my finger into a chicken breast that's been sitting inside it for 12 hours. I was thinking, Maybe we should buy a good fridge and take it off our rent--or maybe not, and take it with us should we move? Okay, rant over. Sorry.)

I know we sort of discussed writing about food in another thread a while back on this board. Have you done anything else in this regard since then? And have you given serious thought to doing so? You are a good solid writer, and while the pay's not fabulous (unless you work those Duke connections to land at a top-tier newspaper or magazine), it's very rewarding work.

[tupac17616]

Wow, Bryan, I'm thrilled to see you blogging this week! It will be a remarkable week, no doubt. I'll look forward to your NYC restaurant week reports. And of course all the wonderful food you turn out in your own kitchen.

I, too, would like to know if you've considered culinary school as an option for yourself. Especially considering how interested you are in the restaurant concept. There are, of course, a great number of well-regarded chefs who are self-trained. Having such great skill already, as well as the more creative molecular gastronomy that you seem to be involved in, perhaps the traditional methods taught in culinary school would only stifle to your wonderful creativity. I'd be curious what your thoughts are on this.

[tammylc]

Ah, a blog featuring some of my favorite things:  Duke, Jersey, and California!  Bryan, why do so many Duke students come from this area?  I love the underground restaurant concept and am anxious to see it unfold. 

I have been told that New Jersey's number one export is college students. Apparently they make up a surprisingly high percentage of students in most other states.

[Varmint]

There's an old joke frequently told by the students at my alma mater, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (which is 8 miles from Duke):

Chapel Hill is frequently referred to as "The Southern Part of Heaven."

Duke is frequently called "The Southern Part of Jersey."

I'll try -- really, I will -- to keep the UNC-Duke jokes to a minimum. And if I fail, I'll at least make them food-related.

[carpetbagger, esq.]

if you grew up in nj, wouldn't you leave as soon as humanly possible?

seriously, if your parents can afford it, why not go out of state? outside of princeton, nj is pretty much an academic wasteland, and i think that's why you see so many nj kids at uva, duke, emory, etc.

Edited July 10, 2006 by carpetbagger, esq. (log)

[judiu]

At Duke I'm majoring in Economics and History and am getting a certificate in Markets and Management, Duke's closest thing to a pre-business program.  So I'm sort of pre-law, pre-business, pre-not knowing what to do with my life.

←

Honey, don't worry about it; hell, I'm 55 and STILL don't know what I want to be when I grow up!

[foodite]

Wow, your concept sounds really exciting, good luck with it and can't wait to hear more about it on your blog.

[mizducky]

Oh my. This is gonna be one killer blog.

I am all for underground campus enterprises, food-related or otherwise. (Hey Sandy--remember our later-celebrated classmate Peter Sellars and his undergrad theatrical enterprise, the Explosives "B" Caberet? That was going on right there in your dorm, wasn't it?) If all else fails, maybe you could take an off-campus apartment and StudioKitchen away with legal impunity (at least vis-a-vis school regulations).

And maybe I'm naive, but I would think a biz/marketing degree could come in real handy opening one's own restaurant.

(At the risk of wandering off-topic, I'm almost as interested in reading about who you're going to go hear at the Bowery Ballroom tonight as the restaurants you're going to hit in the meantime. )

(oh yeah ... going on 50 and still haven't figured out what I want to be when I grow up either )

Edited July 10, 2006 by mizducky (log)

[Shalmanese]

I personally like the idea of turning Z kitchen into an undergroud speakeasy. Making it legit would remove some of the frission of the operation. Now that I'm on the same continent as you, I'll definately have to come over and check it out when you get it up and running.

[Kouign Aman]

Sounds like this one is gonna be fun!

[ASM NY]

Sounds AWESOME Bryan, looking forward to seeing what you have in store.

The Z Kitchen project sounds very interesting, especially if you can document all its progress going forward. It will be like a mini "Alinea Project" for the up and coming amateur cook. While I am sure you will encounter some legal/regulatory issues regarding Z Kitchen, I am sure that you can find a way to push it through. When all is said and done, I don't think that there is a regulation against having people over for dinner. If not, you'll have to go underground, which will probably bring more clientele your way!

[BryanZ]

What a day! I'm sorry to have not posted but I've been out in NYC from just after 9:00AM to now, just past 1:30AM. Plenty to report and post, and I promise to get to those pictures I mentioned before and the fridge/kitchen shots people have been requesting. First, however, I'll answer some of the most direct questions that have been posed thus far.

Can you say why you have not chosen to go to a culinary school to be the next big thing in the culinary world you have such a passion for?

While culinary school has always been something I've thought about, it's not all that practical for me. I worked my ass off in high school to get into a top college and feel that I need to get that under my belt, so to speak. I think I would like to go to culinary school after college, but might be pressured into law school or business school by my parents. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but culinary school is kind of "back burner" in terms of my greater education. Perhaps my dream is to run restaurants, from the operations and business perspectives, though I'm not to sure how realistic this is.

I've not looked much into the molecular cooking thing so I have no idea what you are trying to do with the butter.  Can you explain more?

In the Cooking forum a few of us have played around with sodium alginate and calcium chloride to essentially create "ravioli," "orbs," or "caviar" essentially made from pure liquid. This is a technique developed by Ferran Adria at El Bulli, and the process has just entered the public domain.

Here are some of my examples. I know some of you have seen these, and I will try some more experiments through the week, but for those who are unfamiliar with the process this is what it looks like.

Poached salmon, canteloupe caviar

Earl grey orb, lemon zest, honey

(Left to right) Pea caviar, pea ravioli, pea noodles

So what I'm trying to do is create a ravioli or orb out of butter. I've had this at Alinea, in a dish created by pastry chef Alex Stupak. The problem is that when butter melts it separates. In order to make a nice orb I have to keep the butter emulsified. Tonyy13 suggested making a beurre monte (butter and water emulsion) and I further theorized to stabilize the emulsion with lecithin (a vegetable-based emulsifier). If this is over your head, I'll try to explain it further when I do some more experiments.

I'd love to hear more about your work process: how do you plan your menu, is it around the fresh produce you find at the grocer or do you start with a protein in mind and go from there?  I imagine you are feeding the whole family when you cook, are there any foods you stay away from because of general dislikes?

I have two styles of cooking: restaurant (which is ironic because I've never cooked in a restaurant) and home.

My home cooking is probably very typical for most serious eG members. I try to take simple dishes and execute them as well as possible. If I'm making pasta with mushroom sauce, I'll make fresh pasta, use chanterelles and porcinis and other flavorful mushrooms, and maybe make a couple truffled poached eggs to give some body to the sauce. If I'm making steaks I'll buy the best beef I can find, work on perfecting my searing techniques, and maybe, if I'm feeling ambitious, make a potato foam rather than making frites or roasting them.

My "restaurant" cooking is based heavily on my dining experiences. Here, I'm even more obsessed with seasonality both in the literal sense of using sesonal ingredients and in the more figurative sense of making sure a dish "feels" like spring, summer, winter or fall. With this said, I may start with an idea more than an actual protein and build from there. When I'm at the market, I start to play with the idea I have in mind to make it a reality given the available products.

What cookbooks do you own or use the most?

I don't use too many cookbooks. I used to but not so much any more. Now, as alluded to previously, my food is more idea-driven than recipe-driven. With that said, I love the French Laundry Cookbook. It's inspirational. I also like JG Vongerichten's and have been known to use the Le Bernardin, Babbo, and Nobu cookbooks for inspiration.

Last question: will your sister be making your birthday cake since shes the baker?

I'm actually not much of a cake person. Perhaps this says something about my personality, but I don't love baked goods as much as most people and CANNOT STAND commercially produced desserts and sweets. So, no, my sister will not be making me a cake.

Somewhat tangentially related, some people have asked me what I'll be doing on the 15th to celebrate my birthday. Since we'll be in Cali., I don't think anything special will happen and my meals at Bouchon and Gary Danko the next day will kind of be the equivalent to my culinary birthday present.

The Girlfriend is supposed to take my to Jose Andres' Minibar on the 22nd for my birthday dinner from her, but she might be going to Italy with a friend, thus forcing me to cancel the reservation. If we do end up going, it should be an awesome meal.

not to rain on your parade, but this comes from the dook apartment/residence hall terms

V. TERMS AFFECTING RIGHTS, ORDER, HEALTH AND SAFETY

P. Selling or soliciting, to include the operation of a private enterprise, on the premises of University housing by residents or outsiders, that is either commercial or unrelated to University objectives or activities, is prohibited.

and if you're living in a residence hall:

V. TERMS AFFECTING RIGHTS, ORDER, HEALTH AND SAFETY

O. Selling or soliciting, to include the operation of a private enterprise, in the residence halls, by residents or outsiders, which is either commercial or unrelated to University objectives or activities is prohibited.

←

This is unfortunate. I'll just pretend I've never read the above statements should anyone official ask. I think a bit of civil disobedience is in order. I will push forward (and do my best to catalog my progress).

You mentioned the brand of the range; I assume the fridge is similarly high-end?

I use a Viking six burner range with gas oven. I also have a much older Jenn-Air electric oven. My fridge is a not-that-great GE. I wanted to get a true commercial unit but our cabinetry was cut especially for a model with the GE's dimensions. Kind of a shame, but whatever.

I know we sort of discussed writing about food in another thread a while back on this board.  Have you done anything else in this regard since then?  And have you given serious thought to doing so?  You are a good solid writer, and while the pay's not fabulous (unless you work those Duke connections to land at a top-tier newspaper or magazine), it's very rewarding work.

In fact, I have. I'm the food and dining editor for The Chronicle, Duke's daily independent newspaper. If you're so inclined you can click on the link and type my last name, Zupon, into the search bar to read some of my work. In the past year I've covered everythign from restaurant reviews, to food sustainability, to molecular gastronomy. I might try to do some writing for the local city paper, but I'm not sure if I'll have the time.

[BryanZ]

So now onto my huge day of eating in NYC. For those who may not know, Restaurant Week is where many of the city's top restaurants offer $24.07 three-course lunches and $35.00 three-course dinners. I assure you, this is a comparative bargain. On this day we had two lunches and a dinner and we made a pit stop for a light afternoon snack. Eaters less experienced than the Girlfriend and myself would have cracked under the pressure of the massive amount of food we consumed. While the Girlfriend kind of hit the wall at Aquavit, I was able to make up the slack. We left every plate clean, an accomplishment in itself.

I took a bunch of pictures, some better than others. I'll post as many of the highlights as I can with the most accurate descriptions I can recall from memory. I apologize for some of the shoddy picture quality and descriptions.

First on the list was Cafe Boulud at noon. It just so happened that the restaurant was only a few blocks away from the building that collapsed on Monday morning. It certainly made for an interesting morning but thankfully all was okay.

Cafe Boulud is a charming restaurant, kind of modern design meets French farmhouse influences. It's hard to believe, however, that the original Daniel was housed in such a space.

Duck and foie gras terrine, herb salad, ice wine reduction

Rich, nice sweetness and acid from the baby herbs and wine sauce

Bacalao, fresh tomatoes, herb oil

Extremely tender and flavorful cod with subtle acid from the variety of tomatoes

Duo of milk fed veal, wild mushrooms, olives

Pan roasted and slow roasted veal

Chocolate and hazelnut tart, banana ice cream (not pictured, to the right)

Rasberry-lemon gratin, mango sorbet

Kind of like a baked lemon custard on top of a cookie with mango sorbet (you have to love my painstakingly accurate descriptions of the pastry courses)

Next, was Tocqueville at 2:00.

New entrance (this is a new space just down the street from their old one)

I can't believe I forgot that glass reflects, oops. That's me, again.

Toqueville is a very nice restaurant with a bit of inexplicable downtown friendly quirkiness. The food was solid but perhaps not as good as Cafe Boulud.

Cod, braised fennel, saffron emulsion

A different take on cod. Here, a bacalao paste was spread ontop of a cod fillet.

Open-faced poularde ravioli

An exceedingly tasty dish, but somehow it seemed wrong for the hot summer day (and a second three-course lunch). The filling was almost a gourmet take on pot pie.

Grilled Greenmarket peaches, basil ice cream, almond pound cake

The basil ice cream was awesome and will be attempted in this house (though not by me)

Most people would've called it a day. Such things don't exist around here...

[BryanZ]

Restaurant Week Day 1, cont'd.

After our (second) lunch at Tocqueville we went over to the Union Square Greenmarket, just a couple blocks away. The market was open today, though with not as many vendors as on the weekends. The Greenmarket is where many top restaurants (especially within a 10 block radius) get most of their produce. Restaurants like the Tasting Room are known to build an entire night's menu from the Greenmarket's daily offerings.

I snapped a couple quick pictures while browsing through the stalls and trying some jams and fruits.

Currants, one of my latest obsessions

By this time we thought it wise to head back uptown to Central Park, near the restaurant we'd be visiting for dinner and just steps away from Columbus Circle. For those who don't know, Columbus Circle has the highest concentration of Michelin stars in the world. While the validity of the Michelin stars in the US can be debated (in other threads), Columbus Circle includes the restaurants Per Se and Jean-Georges (three stars each), Masa (two stars), and Cafe Gray (one star). This is big time eating.

The Time Warner Center, the building that holds all the restaurants save for Jean-Georges, which occupies the Trump International Tower next door, also holds the newly opened Bouchon Bakery. This Bakery is Thomas Keller's second NYC venture. Naturally, we had to try it out.

View from the dining area over Columbus Circle and into Central Park

Some of the pastries

A CB&J sandwich

Cashew butter, and homemade apricot preserves on super-buttery toasted bread. Soooo good.

So with sandwich and iced caffeinated beverages in hand we spent part of the afternoon looking out to the circle and park. The early evening was spent taking a well needed half-nap on a bench in Central Park.

(Somewhat) refreshed, we headed over to Aquavit, one of my favorite restaurant in the city. Aquavit's Scandanavian cuisine is radically different than much of the French-infuenced fare served in nearly all of the city's top restaurants.

Entrance

Although I love the food here so much, the lack of natural light at dinner time made taking pictures very difficult. Here's what I have.

Herring sampler

A humble ingredient elevated, four distinct times

Arctic Circle

One of Aquvit's most popular desserts, it includes a goat cheese ice cream thing filled with passion fruit curd, served with blueberry sorbet

Edited July 11, 2006 by BryanZ (log)

[BryanZ]

Good night. I need to go to bed so I can do some work tomorrow and try to make back the significant financial hits I sustained today. It was worth it though.

[Ling]

The Arctic Circle dessert looks great. What did you drink with your meals?

[Milagai]

not to rain on your parade, but this comes from the dook apartment/residence hall terms

V. TERMS AFFECTING RIGHTS, ORDER, HEALTH AND SAFETY

P. Selling or soliciting, to include the operation of a private enterprise, on the premises of University housing by residents or outsiders, that is either commercial or unrelated to University objectives or activities, is prohibited.

and if you're living in a residence hall:

V. TERMS AFFECTING RIGHTS, ORDER, HEALTH AND SAFETY

O. Selling or soliciting, to include the operation of a private enterprise, in the residence halls, by residents or outsiders, which is either commercial or unrelated to University objectives or activities is prohibited.

←

This is unfortunate. I'll just pretend I've never read the above statements should anyone official ask. I think a bit of civil disobedience is in order. I will push forward (and do my best to catalog my progress).

Well, you just outed yourself online and can no longer claim ignorance

(and ignorance of rules is never accepted as an exculpation for

flouting them).

Many "official" eyes read public fora

It would be interesting to know your enterprise fares vs.

that of say, a local "tamale lady" or "chapati lady" .....

Milagai

[BryanZ]

The Arctic Circle dessert looks great. What did you drink with your meals?

←

Unfortunately all we drank is water. A bunch of the restaurants run wine specials during Restaurant Week, but technically speaking neither of us are old enough to legally order drinks. The cost factor also plays a major role in that decision. Choosing between another meal and a bottle of wine, I'll almost always go with the former as opposed to the latter.

As an aside the Girlfriend turns 21 next month. I'm not sure how this will affect our dining habits but to be able to order alcohol without having to use a fake ID or risk getting called out will be very nice.

[Megan Blocker]

The Arctic Circle dessert looks great. What did you drink with your meals?

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I love that dessert - very tasty, and just so pretty.

Bryan, you managed to hit a few of my favorite spots...well done!

[Kim Shook]

Bryan, your pictures of NYC and NYC restaurants make me miss it so much and remind me that on my next trip, I am going to tell NO ONE that I'm there so that I can go where I want to!! Thank you so much for those lovely pictures and descriptions.

[H. du Bois]

I must say, this is a marvelous idea. Let a food enthusiast with the metabolism of a healthy teenage boy (and a girl who is capable of eating her own body weight) loose upon the restaurants of New York, where they can eat three times what the rest of us can manage, and live to tell the tale. It will be like three blogs for the price of one! I no longer wonder how you are going to accomplish all that you set out to do.

Seriously, Bryan, I'm really enjoying this. I'm not as frequent a visitor on the dinner thread as I should be, and I'd never seen the photos above. I want that Earl Grey creation, and I want one now!

I do hope that you'll be doing some cooking this week.

[racheld]

Earl grey orb, lemon zest, honey

Okay, maybe not DIVE, but it's certainly the Bounce-shot of all time. What does it DO exactly? Is it solid gel? Is it a one-bite wonder, bursting flavor onto the tongue? Please explain for the masses, we who have not the experience nor the magic wands.