Work in Progress

In an earlier post, I mentioned our work with the apple bowl service piece.

The dish in development has three components - one on each layer. In developing a dish like this, we want for each component to be tied to the next and highlight the combinations. With this concept, we start with a high level of manipulation and work down.

The dish is brought to the guest, the top lined with gels of saffron, fennel, smoked paprika, olive, orange and parsley. At the table the server pours an olive oil consomme into the bowl releasing the dried confetti throughout the broth. The guest will taste each different gel combined with the olive oil flavor. Because the consomme is based on water and the gels are light in texture, the beginning top portion highlights brightness of the individual flavors, without being rich or heavy.

Once finished, the lid is removed to reveal the croquette. Aromas from the bottom layer permeate and complement the flavors of the croquette. The filling is an intense liquid cream flavored with iberico ham. It is wrapped in a strip of ham. The garnishes are temporary and just meant to simulate the final look.

The insert is removed to reveal the bottom layer. We make the crumb mixture by first with thin slices of baguette toasted in olive oil. To the bread crumbs, we add dried nicoise olives, ground fennel seed, fennel pollen, saffron, dehydrated orange zest, garlic and parsley. A hot river stone is almost buried in the crumbs and a piece of olive oil-poached cod is placed over the top. As the guest forks the cod, it flakes apart and pieces fall into the crumbs which are meant to be eaten with the fish.

Because this dish is in the development phase, many factors are likely to change, components, flavors, proteins, and concepts. As we test prototypes further, we remove the weak points, highlight attributes and iron out potential problems. We are just starting to enter the functional tests. All part of the process of developing a dish.