Menu Planning - Part I - The Concept

 

Notes	Dominic Armato

As mentioned last week, I'm now officially in the throes of menu planning for my Chef For A Day date with Posh Restaurant, and I figured it'd be fun to keep a running journal of the process of bringing this thing to fruition. It all starts, of course, with the idea. These things rarely end up the way they start (for me, at least), but half the fun, and half the effort, is in deciding what to serve.

So what to serve when you have a crack at a full-fledged restaurant kitchen? Play it safe with things I've known and done forever? Treat the access to the equipment as an opportunity to try out things that are difficult to do at home? What's appropriate for a restaurant like Posh? My first thought was that I really, really don't want to screw this up. Maybe I should do what I know best. But then I thought that it'd be a shame to do simple pasta and such for an evening at one of the more creative restaurants in town. Which is about the time it hit me.

On more than a few occasions, I've hammered people for making a mess of contemporary Italian. But I'm also of the belief that it can be done. So why not do it myself? I can put myself out there by making the cuisine that's always felt like home to me, while at the same time doing something that feels appropriate to a place that stresses creativity with a healthy dose of MG techniques. So after kicking around a bunch of ideas, here's the plan for a three course prix fixe with amuse, very, very subject to change:

Carbonara Egg
It’s kind of ripping off Passard and Vongerichten – in terms of presentation, at least -- but what the hell. Why should the French have all the fun when it comes to elegant egg amuses? The Carbonara Egg is Spaghetti Carbonara without the spaghetti. We'll top the eggs, drain the guts, separate whites from yolks and clean the shells for presentation. We'll then render finely chopped pancetta or guanciale with a touch of garlic to release the fat and crisp the little bits. We'll drain and reserve the bits, then cool and mix the rendered fat with the egg whites and a bit of grated pecorino and parmesan. A yolk goes in the bottom of each eggshell along with as much white mixture as will fit. To fire it, we set the filled eggshell in a water bath controlled with an immersion circulator to get that perfect just barely cooked but still nice and soft texture. Once done, the egg is topped with the crispy bits and a little more cheese and served in an egg cup or something along those lines with a demitasse spoon.

Sausage Tortelli in Squash Brodo
It’s going to be fall. Squash time! Even in the desert (I hope). Everybody everywhere fills tortelli with squash and dresses it with butter and sage. So why not refine it by turning it inside out? We'll fill the tortelli with finely ground sausage, pecorino, just barely enough ricotta to keep it light and together, and maybe a touch of cinnamon if I don’t think it’ll get too busy. We'll place the tortelli in a shallow bowl filled with a very intense, clear squash broth – maybe cut with some chicken stock to give it a slightly meatier body – top it with fried sage and float a little bit of melted, very salty butter on top of the broth.

Crispy Chicken and Apple Napoleon with Fennel
This is the one that still needs the most conceptual work of the four, but it’s close enough that I ought to be able to hammer it out over the next few weeks. I want to do a very Italian chicken dish, but I want to amp up the textural contrast. So we do it with thighs and separate the meat from the skin. The thighs get simmered or braised in stock with a lot of herbs and a little wine, such that they're considerably more tender than something pan-seared. We also braise some apples – probably separately to keep them from going mushy – with a similar flavor profile, maybe a touch (I stress a touch) of sweetness. Maybe the apples get a touch of juniper. Then the skin is seasoned and crisped on its own on the flattop under a weight to keep it flat. We layer the braised chicken, apples and crispy planks of chicken skin to build a savory Napoleon, and serve it on a rectangular plate alongside some simple grilled or roasted fennel.

Fall Spice Gelato with Caffe Corretto
We start with a spiced gelato done with cinnamon, clove and star anise. Then we mix in bits of candied orange peel and freeze it a little colder than you'd typically serve gelato. We then serve it alongside a shot of espresso spiked with a premium orange liqueur, and encourage diners to pour a bit of the coffee over their gelato.

So there it is! It remains to be seen whether what we serve in four weeks will in any way resemble this, but that's the plan at least. And as these dishes are honed and revised (hopefully not scrapped and replaced, though you never know), I'll continue writing about them right up until we serve the final menu on October 18th. It's Italian, contemporized not by throwing in fifty different flavors and making everything a mess, but rather by using some modern techniques and presentations to draw attention to the pure, simple flavors that typify Italian food. It's a good theme, it's a good progression, and I like the idea of taking something that's so often butchered and doing it my damn self. If it works in reality the way it works in my head, I think it has the potential to be a great dinner.

Now I just have to figure out how to make it.

Comments

[timothy]

That sounds great. So are you doing the cooking? Or do you create the recipes for the chefs to cook? I am sure it will be great. A quick aside: I am south of you, down in Tucson in fiction writing school at the UA. It is so fun to see you plan this meal. It really reminds me of the process of writing a story. You really show how this is your creative realm, or at least one of them, and you basically write the draft, revise, revise, revise, and then publish. Very cool. I wish I could come up to Phoenix on that day. I am sure it will be a great dinner.

[Naomi]

Mmmmmm

[paula]

Oh my god, that sounds delicious (no dessert for me, though. Candied orange peel in gelato gives me textural nightmares. But that's just me.) However, I want that carbonara egg right this second. Godspeed, Dom!

[Independent George]

Knowing absolutely nothing about how restaurant kitchens operate, I'd very much like to hear more about the logistics of the menu play out. Because I'm a nerd, and like reading about logistics.

[Natalie]

I want to eat this meal right now, and it's ten in the morning where I am. =)

[ally]

I love that you're sharing your experience with us.

Your menu sounds really good except for the egg yolk (I will never be able to judge food because I hate all eggs except dried scrambled). Your tortelli sounds fantastic.

Your Neapolitan sounds great in an ideal world, but if even one of those components goes wrong (mealy apples, too thick of skin, tough chicken, etc) then the whole thing falls short. Sounds like you want to be a bit risky, though, so I do hope you pull it off.

[Anon Man]

If you are taking critiques (which I assume you are), I have two comments.

1. On the pasta course, what will you do to ensure that the sausage does not become greasy with the ricotta? I'm assuming you're going to brown/render the sausage first, but you definitely want to avoid a grease pillow. Related, salty butter sounds great, but salty butter with salty sausage, not so much.

2. I'm kind of confused by the seconda, which admittedly is a work in progress. Does stacking this like a Napoleon really add to it? I like the idea of several chicken preperations in a single dish (Top Chef contestants who like "duos", take note here), but there's something off about it to me. Maybe its the name Napoleon, which to me invokes some puff pastry (which I understand the skin is replacing), but maybe a small square of a dough of sort as a layer would make it more Napoleon like. I also think you could redo this to make it like an Italian "pot pie" with or without a pot. The flavors sound great, but the concept needs some refinement, IMHO.

I want a picture of this egg by the way. I love Carbonara like a child. Michel Richard's Onion Carbonara side dish was a revelation.

[SorchaRei]

I never heard of Onion Carbonara before, but I found a video online of Michel Richard making it, and I am getting off the computer right now to make myself some. Wow, that looks great!

The menu sounds wonderful except for the candied orange peel in the gelato. If I were eating that, I would want the orange peel next to it, not frozen in it.

[SorchaRei]

I never heard of Onion Carbonara before, but I found a video online of Michel Richard making it, and I am getting off the computer right now to make myself some. Wow, that looks great!

The menu sounds wonderful except for the candied orange peel in the gelato. If I were eating that, I would want the orange peel next to it, not frozen in it.

[SorchaRei]

I never heard of Onion Carbonara before, but I found a video online of Michel Richard making it, and I am getting off the computer right now to make myself some. Wow, that looks great!

The menu sounds wonderful except for the candied orange peel in the gelato. If I were eating that, I would want the orange peel next to it, not frozen in it.

[SorchaRei]

I never heard of Onion Carbonara before, but I found a video online of Michel Richard making it, and I am getting off the computer right now to make myself some. Wow, that looks great!

The menu sounds wonderful except for the candied orange peel in the gelato. If I were eating that, I would want the orange peel next to it, not frozen in it.

[SorchaRei]

I never heard of Onion Carbonara before, but I found a video online of Michel Richard making it, and I am getting off the computer right now to make myself some. Wow, that looks great!

The menu sounds wonderful except for the candied orange peel in the gelato. If I were eating that, I would want the orange peel next to it, not frozen in it.

[SorchaRei]

I never heard of Onion Carbonara before, but I found a video online of Michel Richard making it, and I am getting off the computer right now to make myself some. Wow, that looks great!

The menu sounds wonderful except for the candied orange peel in the gelato. If I were eating that, I would want the orange peel next to it, not frozen in it.

[Bart]

I never heard of Onion Carbonara before, but I found a video online of Michel Richard making it, and I am getting off the computer right now to make myself some. Wow, that looks great!

The menu sounds wonderful except for the candied orange peel in the gelato. If I were eating that, I would want the orange peel next to it, not frozen in it.

/sorry, couldn't resist

[Independent George]

Bart, you are much too subtle. I didn't catch that it was you at first.

[Anon Man]

When SorchaRei gets back from making his Onion Carbonara he's going to be highly embarrassed. ;)

[Skillet Doux]

Well, I *was* going to delete the extras...

Anon Man... I'm absolutely accepting critiques. I reserve the right to completely ignore them, but I'd very much like to hear them :-)

I'm not too concerned about grease from the sausage. I don't intend to use a ton of it. I expect these will be lightly filled. But that's definitely on the list of things to watch as I test them out.

As for the Napoleon, I need to ditch the name. It always bugs me when people stretch culinary terms too far, even consciously so, and I shouldn't be doing it myself. I thought that when I posted it, but I don't have a better name for it yet, so that's what I'm calling it for the time being. Either way, I definitely don't want to get pastry or bread involved. Again, the idea is to keep the number of ingredients to a minimum and keep the flavors pure. Though it sounds goofy since I'm throwing some molecular stuff in there, I'm trying to ensure that these play simply, even if the process is a little convoluted. The idea with this one is simply that I love chicken thighs that have been pan-seared so the skin gets nice and crispy. I wanted to do something that would have that feel, but would increase the contrast between the tenderness of the meat and the crispiness of the skin... kicking up the textural amplitude, if you will. It may turn out to be a pointless exercise. If any of the four end up getting completely scrapped and replaced, this is probably the one I'd put my money on. But I have a hunch it can work. I'm playing with the tortelli right now, but this one really needs to be next on the list to give me time to work on a replacement if I hate it.

[Anon Man]

Ditching the name on the "Napoleon" goes a long way to ending my bother with that dish. Also, it probably avoids the obvious synaptic connection between that name and the criticism that the apples make it too sweet. Looking forward to 2.0 (or 1.1) of that one.

[SorchaRei]

Oh dear. Sorry everyone.

P.S. The Onion Carbonara was indeed awesome, and even with the prep took less than 20 minutes to make. I love this blog and the conversation that happens here.

[Peter]

The menu looks really interesting; I'll do my best to come out to try it when it's done. I've been puzzling over how I might have heard about this if you hadn't mentioned it on your blog, though. I saw the Chow Bella article about Joel's run, but other than watching Josh's twitter like a hawk I'm not sure where I can find out who's cooking when.

[Jen]

I can't wrap my head around the Carbonara Egg, but everything else sounds delicious. Good luck!

[paula]

SorchaRei, did you even do the salmon roe? I'm going to make those onions for sure.

[Anon Man]

@Paula, I've eaten the dish at Richard's bistro, and while he used to do the roe when it was on the lunch menu at his finer restaurant here, the side dish at the bistro (served with a steak au poivre, by the way), actually has pancetta and no salmon roe. I think the recipe is in his book "Happy in the Kitchen"

[Duffy]

I am going to try the onions, but thought I would use some bacon or maybe anchovies instead of the roe. I might be able to take the roe, but I could never get raw fish eggs past my sweetie, no matter what I called 'em.

By the way,Dom -- pork chops braised with apples and onions is a wonderful dish around here -- punched up with some dried cranberries. Tart cherries and currants also work, at least with the pork. Deglaze the pan with some apple brandy at the start. Yum. May just fix that tonight.

[SorchaRei]

I made it on the spur of the moment, so I did not have salmon roe on hand. I used artisan garlic and black pepper cured (not smoked) bacon, sort of like pancetta but with a local twist.

I am now terrified to push the "post" button . . .

[Jon Olsen]

Hey, you're probably going to use an egg topper, I suppose. Sometime, I'd like to see someone cut an egg at an angle between 90 and 180 degrees. For presentation awesomeness. Think you could do that Dom? You know...you said "egg cup or something" so this would serve up in the "or something" category. Like an oyster or something. Someone should do that, why not you?

[ri]

Jon,

That seems like an interesting idea but I don't think it would work too well with an egg topper, would it? The egg topper is round and that cut would be ovoid, so it wouldn't quite make it correctly. It's an interesting idea, but I'm not sure it would work.

I'm also interested in the egg though, so are you just going to submerge the eggs cut and exposed? Vacuum seal them (would that crush the eggs?) I'm trying to figure out the cooking of it but can't wrap my head around it.

[Skillet Doux]

Jon... actually, my preferred method of egg topping is a Dremel. Which, though I haven't tried, would also make it really easy to do angles, I imagine. It works shockingly well. A sanding wheel cuts right through the shell while leaving the membrane intact, so you can cut the shell, rinse it off, then separate the top from the bottom. Plus, you get perfect cuts.

ri... the plan is to set them in some plate that will hold them upright -- maybe like those plastic paint trays you had in grammar school -- set that tray in the water container, and fill the water so that it mostly submerges eggs set upright in the tray but leaves the cut portion just above the waterline.

[Anon Man]

While I agree that a sideways/angular egg presentation would be cool, won't that create a giant mess? The one thing about egg toppers and the standard vertical approach is you cut it off and then dump out the contents. Easy-peezy. Doing a sideways cut strikes me as potentially messy.

Dom, how fast can you cut an egg with a Dremel? I love my Dremel. (I use for things like cooking, home projects, computer case mods - yes, I'm a nerd, and much more). Is it faster than an egg topper? You are cooking for a restaurant, not a dinner party, and the difference between 20 seconds and 60 seconds in topping 80 eggs is going to add up.

[KinderJ]

Dom, the dishes sound fantastic, but I was curious to know how you were going to make the squash broth. Boil chunks of squash with a bouquet garni, simmer and reduce? It sounds like the sort of thing I might like to make my self, so I am curious.

As to cooking the eggs, you can cut them at an angle if you like, just wrap them in plastic before dropping them in the immersion circulator. At such low temperatures, you don't need to worry about the plastic melting or imparting flavor. Bit of a bugger wrapping them, but it lets you prep all your eggs in advance then drop them when the order comes in.