Thursday, April 14, 2011
My final look at the Aviary
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 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
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
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Aviary and Next Restaurant Trailer
Kohler toilets and fixtures, advertise them, love them
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
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!
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