My final look at the Aviary

The Aviary will without a doubt be the most innovative, interactive, and disaplined bar in the country, if not the entire world. I was given an education like no other. I am so grateful to the entire Aviary staff. Thank you Nick Kokonas, Grant Achatz, Craig Schoettler, and Greg Buttera for allowing me to be a part of this surreal opportunity.



It all starts with a plan








A few of the Aviary crew catch a first look at the "bar"





Each "chef" will have their own private station. Although unlike every other bar in the world, there mise en place is placed directly in front of them.


The breathe taking, unbelievably gorgeous kitchen of Next

A field trip to the Koval distillery!

The entire staff was extremely friendly, knowledgeable and family oriented. The family truly cared about their product and customers. Thank you so much for letting us take a tour of your facility!





The Koval's column still


The saved heads and tails


Several of the awards and grains used in the Koval products.

Handcrafting creativity at Crucial detail

I had the pleasure of working on several of Aviary's service pieces as well as some ice molds at Crucial detail. I worked for the master of design Martin Kastner and a few of his highly skilled crew. Martin brought to Alinea (and the dining world for that matter) things that no one had ever dreamed of. Gorgeous functional service pieces built by hand. Working there was a combination of ceramics and wood-shop an experience i will never forget. Thank you, Martin and Thomas for letting me be apart of this project.



One of the many ice molds


Each pin was carefully placed into the mold to allow the liquid to drain through, and ready the mold to be re-casted


2,000+ pins later the mold was ready


After the CNC did its magic


Each porthole was to be sanded and toasted to achieve a smooth base


A prototype of the "porthole"


Because each piece is custom designed they must be casted using plaster and slip


Each plaster mold is smoothed out to prevent any chance of factors


Firing the "cups"


The finished prototype

Aviary, the beginning

A text book, guide, and novel to all things cocktail. Its were we all began.


Sampling a few Amaros


Just as a Chef must taste his ingredients, so did the Aviary


A tasting of orange cordials


Several juices and syrups ready for mixing. Juices and syrups including: lemon, lime, grapefruit, orange, simple syrup (50 brix), demerara, orgeat, raspberry, and cranberry to name a few.




What would soon be 14 different blueberry sodas.

Each containing different ratios of Blueberry to H2O, Brix and PH levels

24 Hours at Alinea

It will finally happen, in 10 days....

Aviary and Next Restaurant Trailer

Goodbye Moto, thank you for all the wisdom, fun, knowledge, and friendships. See you on the other end of the block...........

Kohler toilets and fixtures, advertise them, love them

Omar selected me as well as the executive sous chef Darrell to fly to Florida and cook for the National builders convention. I was pretty ecstatic to say the least!

The event would be for 3 days, 100 apps every hour, for 7 hours. All of our prep would be driven to the location ready for service (or so we thought). At the time Florida was the only state in the country without any snow! The truck was a little delayed (we had only hours to set up). However everything went fantastic and we also had a little fun.



The GIANT Kohler booth


Omar, throwing down


Chef Darrel in our "make shift kitchen'


Dinner, 2001 Opus one, and 2002 dom......life is good my friends


Omar and I at NASA


I met DIY network superstar Monica on the airplane flying back to Chicago!

DEC 2010 dinner party

I had done a private party 6 years ago (right out of high school) for a small business firm celebrating for the holidays. The event was to be held at one of the 12 guests homes and have a selection of items. The dinner consisted of 8 different ala cart style items, my brother Nicholas preping hor dourves and brittany ginger serving every course.

Any way, they called me back to do yet another dinner for them, I called upon one of my best friends and co-workers Randell to handle desserts as well as my little brother (my partner in crime throughout all these events) to set this one off.

The menu for 14 people went as follows:

Balloon sphere cocktails - Refresher

Cucumber juice

Lime juice

S.S.

Lemongrass vodka

Lillet blanc

Ginger Ale

Lavender spray

Lemon bitters

Wrap frozen cucumber around ice sphere, onto straw, mint blossoms

Fried brioche goat cheese twinkies (warm)

Walnuts (spiced and toasted), arugula, herbage, good olive oil

Rehydrated basil seeds (olive oil)

Red / golden beets, roasted and dressed

Beet purees

Pickled peal onion (vinegar, spices, Bourdeaux)

Prep 5 soup,

baked Yukon potato

black truffle

Pumpernickel, seared gnocchi

Sous-vide protein - squab <-- at work

Roasted squash (balled, thyme, BS, maple)

Thyme, honey and root-beer reduction

Cranberry, vinegar puree fluid gel

Roasted Figs

Fried sage

Chervil

Thyme scented butter candle

Pork belly(no picture on this one)

Reduction sauce (air brush plates + stencil)

Smoked molasses gel strips

Rehydrated mustard seeds, vinegar, caramelized honey

Dressed fennel / appleS, honey, peppercorn, coriander, vinegar

Fennel frond

Fried fingerling potatoes, BB, thyme, rosemary

Frisee hearts

Burnt wood / smoked plate

Palate cleanser

Menthol and pear pate a fruit

Giant smoking cinnamon

"chocolate cake"

Chocolate cake, shredded

Mint mousse

Bitter chocolate crumble

Sherry gastrique

raspberry ice cream

caramelized white chocolate "noodle"

Ohhh New york! New york!

My next adventure would bring me all the way to New york, New york! I had been looking into what had been going on at WD-50 for a while. I became really interested in the works of Wylie Dufresne and Alex Stupak.

I came in early to work one morning and found Omar sitting in the lab on his laptop. I very quietly asked if i may speak with him. He responded with a "of course, whats goin' on"? I spoke with him about how I had been looking into a stage at WD-50, he immediately stopped me and told me to go get him the phone. I did so, and he dialed up Wylie and basically planned out my time in new york. I was thrilled!

To be completely honest i didn't think it'd be that easy, and with the wonderfully talented Amy returning back to the CIA i would have a place to stay. A short month later I was off to New york! My time there held all kinds of fun such as Eatily, Daniel, Bouchon bakery, a tour of the CIA and a dinner at WD-50.


Wylie, myself, and Alex

I had the pleasure of working on Pastry under chef Alex Stupak, for five days:










Chef Alex's station


Pastry kitchen


Main kitchen


Halloween family meal!




The bars ice molds