Star Ingredients Necessary
September 30th, 2009 by HHG
This week Liz attended the 4th Annual Starchefs International Chefs Congress in New York City. This conference is a chance for industry professionals to participate in demonstrations and workshops by internationally renowned chefs, pastry chefs, sommeliers, and mixologists. Liz was able to attend demonstrations by Jose Andres, Paco Torreblanca, Juan Mari Arzak, Nils Noren and Dave Arnold, among many others.
One of the most interesting workshops was Sean Brock´s workshop entitled ¨Bringing Back American Heirloom Ingredients¨. Sean Brock is the chef of McCrady´s Restaurant in Charleston, South Carolina. He is a chef who, like Heirloom Hospitality Group, is extremely concerned with the direction of commercial agriculture in the United States and in an effort to combat that, has a farm on Wadmalaw Island where the cooks can daily gather produce for the restaurant. It just doesn´t get any fresher or more local than that! His workshop was about the preservation of native seedlings an example being some pre civil war red corn that he is growing on his farm. It is amazing that he is contributing so much time and effort to growing these types of plants before it is too late and they are lost forever. We are all really looking forward to visiting McCrady´s, seeing the farm, and learning about how he is making a dream restaurant work.
The workshop by Albert Trummer the owner of Apotheke in New York City also gave a fascinating presentation about cocktails entitled ¨Advanced Infusions and the Bar Apothecary¨. He and his fellow ¨lab technicians¨ are creating some of the most fascinating, cutting edge, well balanced cocktails. If you are passing through New York City, we highly recommend visiting Apotheke for a truly memorable experience.
Jose Andres flew out to Los Angeles after the Star Chefs Congress to spend some time at the Bazaar and meet with Felix. Saam, The Chef´s Tasting Room, is finally coming into its own and Felix was extremely happy to report that their numbers have been consistently high over the last couple of weeks.
Katie is still busy busy busy working at El Bulli. Last week she tested out a technique she learned while staging at Jean Georges in New York City to see if Ferran Adria might be interested in testing out a modified version of it. The technique involves inflating an agar based gel with a nitrous oxide ISI siphon and then further expanding the gel with the help of the cryovac machine. When it sets, it has a really interesting texture, resembling a cake full of air pockets but with the smoothness of a firm gel.
All in all, times are busy for Heirloom Hospitality Group. We´ll keep you posted as everything continues to evolve!
Posted in Chapter One: The Four Corners of the World | Comments (0)