[ChristianSeel]

Juxtaposing a classical dish into a contemporary menu is - but not limited to - both reference and homage to classical cuisine. Alinea chefs are all classically trained and chose to pursue a career in progessive cuisine. We all learned to make pomme puree, before fluid gels. Chef Achatz spent years training at The French Laundry before opening Alinea. It is important to have that reference point, not only to recognize our culinary roots, but as a benchmark for progress.



It is impossible to make great food and not acknowledge these fundamentals. Many of the recipes at Alinea are based on classics. The recent uni and aloe dish featured a classical glacage with heavy cream, sea urchin and farm fresh eggs yolks. The tomato dish that recently came off the menu was served with an olive oil ice, made with a standard emulsion of oil into a water-based liquid. A cold crab dish this summer had, as a component, a savory cream flavored with crab glace, whipped to soft peaks by hand over an ice bath. A chocolate dish from last summer featured a pastry cream emulsified with olive oil and set with carrageenan. Our current Hay custard is equal parts traditional pastry cream and contemporary ingredients.



These classical boat-shaped pastry shells are a great example. We make the barquettes everyday. The recipe is a standard pate brisee, made in the morning. The chef de partie, sous chef or tournant will roll the dough, press it into molds and bake it in the afternoon. Leftover shells are thrown away, and the whole process begins again the next day. A great Chef once said, "Every morning the cuisinier must start again at zero, with nothing on the stove. That is what real cuisine is all about."

[jyee]

"A great Chef" = Fernand Point. In Ma Gastronomie, he also wrote such lines as "La grande cuisine must not wait for the guest; its the guest who must wait for la grande cuisine."