I just wanted to say thanks to Veeky Forums.. I wouldn't be where I am at in my career right now if it wasn't for y'all.
Like two years ago I quit my previous job due to it being owned by shady fucking korean lawyers/accountants and three (3!!) of my paychecks bouncing (consecutively).
I fired out resumes, and got a call back from a spot that hadn't even opened yet but offered the opportunity of helping to open a restaurant. Anyway, I went to the interview, got a printout of the first conceptual write-up of the first menu and I posted it here to Veeky Forums. I posted it here because I had to take a pay cut to work at this spot (hourly I made less, but I was also given 10% of floor tips) and I don't like getting screwed and wanted some unbiased opinion.
Anyway, most people said go for it. One person was adamant that I'd be out of a job in a year, and this is who this post is for:
>2016 james beard award nomination, ended up semifinalists >2017 james beard award nomination, still in the running >positive reviews left and right by actual city-wide media >rave reviews on social media >photo shoot for food network the other day (pic related) >highschool dropout working as sous chef making more money than I ever dreamed
Veeky Forums swayed my decision to taking a risk and I wanted to say thanks.. I also wanted to say fuck you to the dickhead who said we wouldn't last a year.
Jason Stewart
Glad you did it right, OP.
Michael Hernandez
me too.. feels good, man.
>dumping pics now >making rabbit roulade
Gabriel Martin
...
Henry Garcia
>sous vide, julienned, and dredged/fried pig ear >burnt honey/mango and fermented habanero hot sauce >soft egg >celeriac/cabbage slaw tossed in a calamansi/maple vinaigrette >roasted peanut >peanut snow/radish garnish
Alexander Garcia
>beet salad
don't get me wrong, i think beet salads are boring as shit (even though they're delicious).. it was just plated nicely
David Bennett
>white sturgeon sous vide in duck fat/thyme/bay leaf/coriander seed/black pepper/garlic >house made kimchi rolled up in blanched cabbage leaf >kimchi juice/butter/lemon juice/salt pan sauce >salsify confited in olive oil/aromatics, then dredged and fried.. tossed in burnt honey/herbs/salt after
Josiah Baker
Nice blog post
>reddit tier pics >expects people to suck his dick
Kill yourself
Eli Robinson
Too many distracting flavours pulling away from the fish. I'd simplify the dish to focus on the kimchi and fish. Roll the salsify after sous vide in ash to balance the salt sour and fatt of the fush. Use kombu instead of all them herbs keep that duck fat tho.
Hunter Rogers
well done op. you only owe it all to yourself. Veeky Forums didn't do shit for you,
Luke Johnson
He was being a grateful faggot and saying thank you, follow ups to things like this are always nice. Why not make yourself useful and smash your modem with a hammer dill weed
Nolan Anderson
you're wrong, friend.. the dish is literally kimchi/fish. the pan sauce brightens it up cutting through the fatty piece of fish and the salsify added crispy texture and much needed starch to offset the acidity of the pan sauce and sharpness of the kimchi. the burnt honey and herbs (parsley/chervil/chive) rounded out the flavor profile.
kombu would fuck the whole shabang up, m8
Christopher Garcia
The herbs poached with fish. Seaweed, kombu especially and fermented cabbage is a greater match than dem herbs used. Frenchies chefs just saying all dem herbs yo and for salsify don't need them. French kitchen tho?
Landon Evans
nah, contemporary 'murrican..
are you talking about fresh kombu? the dried stuff we get here when making dashi or whatever is so potent i feel like it would override the subtlety of the fish and kimchi.
fines herbs and honey on the crispy, starchy salsify absolutely brought the dish together.
Joseph Howard
It shouldn't just add umami and a bit of that seaweed flavour. There's a dish of kombu and fermented cabbage some Copenhagen cunt did which was dope af it's like one of them holy grail flavour combinations. Fresh or dried. Would have to taste test both in this situation. Would say fresh tho! Yeah I get that, I think it would elevate the fish and kimchi tho it's classic Korean flavour combination.
Yeah that's true tho the sweetness of that would be interesting af. I wouldn't take the crunch aspect away tho as you say it needs it.
Chase Ross
Post more op also.
Julian Allen
nah m8 i feel what you're saying about kimchi and kombu being logical bros, i'll have to give it a shot.
on a related note, another holy grail combo: kimchi and cheddar cheese
since a lot of the meringues were cracked anyway i just broke them the rest of the way and tried to make it work
Brayden Phillips
Wasted meal when get back from drinking, kimchi toasties hahahaha.
That sounds dope af
Lucas Reyes
>salt-baked potato >bacon jam (inside the potato) >smoked oyster aoli >paddlefish caviar >dill >burning sage bundle
i know it looks gay, but eating is mostly influenced by smell and the burning sage wasn't superfluous; it brought it all together plus people love burning shit.
Turn potato on its side then look will be aight, people love that shit tho yeep! Once I did a coffee mist, city where we were rained almost erryday and coffee obsessed, people lost their shit. Was matched with betroot ice cream, honey cracker, betroot meringue, tonka bean foam and pollen dust.
Angel Gutierrez
Pastry mostly? Wanna try that lovage sorbet
Kayden Mitchell
Consomme looks watery and messy. Why not do a jelly disc?
Jackson Collins
Yeah this guys right. Or fluid jel
Hudson Nguyen
lol, in a rainy part of the US? or where?
tonka bean is illegal here in the states for some reason.. beet/coffee makes perfect sense, i'll have to play w that combo
the sorbet was so good. lovage/brandy/yuzu, i forgot about the yuzu almost.
but i do everything, man.. we all do. it's such a small restaurant that we're largely responsible for our own prep. as the sous i work both hot and cold sides depending on scheduling so i definitely end up doing a lot of pastry things
>lamb tartare (lamb, salt, lemon juice, olive oil, brunoise shallot, fines herbs, worcestershire sauce, pickle juice, hot sauce) >cajeta >chinese hot mustard >bread and butter pickles >house made brioche
Matthew Johnson
looks more organic/natural that way IMO.
a disc or more dots of fluid gel wouldn't look as nice, plus it adds another textural element.
Daniel Thomas
Moved around. Australia, NZ, Asia, Scandinavia. That's kinda cool tho challenge and always learning. Yeah it's pretty fun. Can do things with coffee scraps from machine also. Worked at a place that was almost zero waste that was a fun challenge.
It tasty, so tasty but if you have high amounts it's death hahaha. Fucking hate food food laws.
I'm in Eastern Europe, it's all pork. I want that. Presentation could do with work tho. If paper thin pickles layer like pattern and mold it into a shape with sauce underneath and bread on the side. Can prep the pickle scales look on clean film beforehand then just throw ontop.
Nicholas Butler
dude, fuck yeah. that would look SO good.
we have literally 5 people who work in our kitchen (including dish) so garnish like that is really hard to keep up on because there's just so much to do every day.
it's one of the most labor intensive things we've done though because of the fact that there is 9 ingredients in the tartare alone just to make it taste right. you taste that shit 8-10 times before you plate it for a customer
Sounds like a hipster award, I wonder if the food is served on slates..
Fucking knew it
Justin Richardson
i hate the slates as well, user..
you live and you learn, but have you never heard of the james beard foundation? it's a pretty big thing in the murrican culinary scene.
Jordan Moore
Yeah that's what I thought. That prep is easy af tho. Smash the mandolin and layer them before service. Then slap.
How many seats?
Would be curious to try that coconut and nut in there. I'm more of a simplified manner, such as the Esther Au or Kadeau Denmark Copenhagen, Pasture Auckland NZ.
