Coi & Commis

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Coi Photoset. Meals are arranged in order of courses served. M1 is from the first meal, M2 from the second etc.

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Commis Photoset. Meals are arranged in order of courses served. M1 is from the first meal, M2 from the second etc. M3 is a special tasting menu I arranged with Chef Syhabout.


In this piece of required reading (note that the author is one of this post's featured chefs), Chef Judy Rodgers says, "All I care about is making delicious food. When there's plenty of delicious food in the world, then I'll start worrying about creativity." This is stupid because isn't it entirely possible for food to be both creative and delicious? While Chef Rodgers may lack the ambition to create tasty, creative food, chefs James Syhabout and Daniel Patterson do not.

You see, it all started with Alice Waters (whom I am told is a lovely woman. Please don't send your hippie assassins after me!) Back in the 70s, she had a revolutionary idea: Let's get some of the wonderful produce available in the Bay Area and cook it simply and beautifully. I believe it was a direct reaction to the heavy French food which was served in that era's fine dining restaurants. Put another way, it's similar to Mozart's reactionary light, clean writing to Bach's heavy, stodgy German compositions. However, Bay Area restaurants (and Bay Area tastes) haven't developed and many of the most highly rated eateries in this area still faithfully follow Ms. Waters' original conceit.  Commis and Coi are different because they bring a different perspective to Bay Area dining.

Now, I've got nothing against excellent ingredients. In fact, I believe quality produce is the first step towards quality food but it's not the last. Because great restaurants have access to great produce, it's what you do with those ingredients which makes me stand up and take notice. Furthermore, there is nothing intrinsically wrong with technique if done with intelligence and sensitivity. Take a carrot dish from Coi (pronounced "Kwah"), a Michelin ** restaurant helmed by Chef Daniel Patterson. In it, carrot coulis and carrot shavings sandwich burnt rice porridge, cocoa nibs and micro cilantro, the carrots providing sweetness and lubrication for the rest of the dish. This tiny, 3 bite dish really encapsulates Chef Patterson's mindset of local, seasonal food with a bit of manipulation, more of which can be read here.

Coi needs a bit of explanation. The restaurant is divided into two halves. On one side, the fine-dining dining room where you are fed a set menu. On the other side, a casual lounge where you can order the entire fine dining menu, individual courses from the fine dining menu or items off of the separate lounge menu. I am a lounge devotee because I love the flexibility. When I eat there, I typically look through the tasting menu and target one or two dishes. After that, I look at the lounge menu. Patterson always has a terrific Soul Foods Farm chicken dish...I know, it's just chicken but the quality of the bird and its seasonal accompaniments are FANTASTIC. However, I wish he'd put some seafood on his lounge menu...I bet he could work wonders with some local squid or sardines. If you're squeamish about wine, the service staff will be more than happy to pour you something that they think will go well with the food. I've yet to be disappointed with my dining strategy.

While Daniel Patterson is very vocal about his views, it's hard to get anything out of James Syhabout, head chef at the newly Michelin starred restaurant Commis. Chef Syhabout might be the quietest, most humble cook I've ever met. I almost always sit at the chef's counter and I rarely hear him say a word. However, his food speaks volumes. He adheres to the same principles of local, seasonal food which is de rigeur in the Bay Area but his plates are more intricate than what you might find at other places. While Patterson's fare leans towards acid and a cleaner flavor profile, Syhabout's food seems more lush and luxurious. His liberal use of butter adds a rich dimension to his food which Patterson's lacks. However, this richness is also the source of my one criticism. I find that his food, specifically the big meat dishes, can be a little TOO big. That is, they start to bore me halfway through. I start to crave an acidic/bitter counterpoint because all that richness becomes monotonous. I am specifically thinking back to my last meal and a dish of guinea fowl, confit leg, bread crumbs and escarole. The roulade of fowl was great but to add a large serving of confit leg? Meat overload. More bitterness or acid, please.

However, I am always excited to go to Commis because Syhabout has the ability to come up with smart yet unexpected flavor combinations which make you wonder "Why didn't I think of that?!?!?" In short, go early (meal pacing gets a bit long if you go during rush hour), sit at the chef's counter and watch one of the Bay Area's best chefs do his thing.

Anyhow, I'm not really a food writer so kudos to you if you made it through my rambling paragraphs. The next time you find yourself thinking about dining out, do yourself a favor and consider one of these two restaurants. If you're as sick as I am of generic Cal-Mediterranean restaurants, it's up to you to vote with your pocketbook. And, in the case of Coi and Commis, your mouth will thank you. Happy eating!

Coi
373 Broadway
San Francisco, CA 94133
Phone: 415-393-9000

Commis
3859 Piedmont Ave.
Oakland, CA 94611
Phone: 510-653-3902

Nopa

One of my favorite restaurants in San Francisco. I'm not big on the whole Cal-Mediterranean thing (wood burning ovens are de rigeur in this city) but NOPA has one of my favorite dishes EVER. Little fried fish. I dream about these things. The rest of the menu is solid, affordably priced and they have a neat cocktail menu. Loud and crowded if you go during prime time but they're open until 1AM so going late is a definite possibility. Grazing on nothing but appetizers is how I usually roll when I go. Try to score a seat at the bar in front of the open kitchen---if you're lucky, the chef will be working the pass next to you and you can grill him (no pun intended) on what's good. Dinner and theater, all rolled up in one.

560 Divisadero St
(between Fell St & Hayes St)
San Francisco, CA 94117
(415) 864-8643
www.nopasf.com

Citizen Cake

Citizen Cake. Click the picture for a larger, annotated image. Some macadamia nuts scattered about. Really good dessert. All the flavors melded together perfectly. I wouldn't have minded if the chef had created a more inventive/interesting plating but it all tasted good. Tasted even better with a glass of vin santo!

NYC: Jean-Georges (lunch)

Sports fans dream of meeting a Michael Jordan, Catholics dream of the Pope. For me, J-G V. I'm sure I blushed like a nervous schoolgirl when I shook Jean-Georges Vongerichten's perfectly manicured, butter smooth hand. No exaggeration. Seriously, I don't think many of you understand how much I look up to this guy. I own three of his cookbooks, respect his culinary empire and marvel at his longevity. No flash in the pan (haha, me and my food puns), Vongerichten's been turning out high quality food for the past 25+ years. This was, without a doubt, the most highly anticipated meal of my trip.

For full disclosure, you should realize that I went into this meal as a "known" diner. I wasn't an anonymous Joe Shmoe who made a reservation and showed up for a meal. No, I came with a guy, Jin, who worked at Jean-Georges for a year so we were thrown all sorts of perks. So if you go to eat at Jean-Georges, don't expect the same treatment.

Btw, our menu was decided as follows: I mentioned to Jin that, being my first meal, I wanted to try lots of Jean-Georges' signature dishes...the guy has like 10 of them at this point. I wanted to eat the dishes that formed the bedrock of the J-G empire. So Jin relayed this information to the kitchen and food started to appear.

As far as beverages are concerned, we had some champagne to start, a half bottle of white burgundy, some Sassicaia second label (super tuscan?), botrytised Gewurtztraminer with the foie gras and a Recioto di Soave with dessert. Whew.

The food:

The Egg: Softly scrambled eggs with vodka infused cream, caviar
(Frigging amazing. The texture of the dish is great...rich, decadent cream...eggs and the gentle pop of caviar.)

Bluefin Tuna Ribbons, avocado, spicy radish, ginger marinade
(This dish sounds great but the balance of flavors was off...ginger was WAAAAY too aggressive...very hot...left a REALLY spicy finish...slightly unpleasant...as Jin put it, someone didn't follow the recipe)

Sea Scallops, caramelized cauliflower, caper-raisin emulsion

(Great...the sauce has such a beguiling flavor...hard to figure out what it is without knowing what's in it...some grated nutmeg on top...I'm gonna make this dish one of these days...)

Skate with chateau chalon sauce
(Usually turbot. The sauce makes the dish...chateau chalon is a tiny area in eastern France. The wines age in a similar fashion to sherry and, as they age, evaporate and concentrate. Pretty neat stuff.)

Tangy Glazed Short Ribs, crunchy grits, herb salad
(Huge slab of meat and as good as the meat was, I LOVED the grits. Make grits. Infuse grits with orange. Take a spring roll wrapper, fill with grits. DEEP-FRY. So, crispy shell, smooth, creamy grits within. Soooo good...and such a simple idea. Herb salad a nice, cleansing counterpoint.)

Foie Gras Brulee, dried sour cherries, candied pistachios and white port gelee
(The dish is built in layers. Brioche on the bottom, foie gras on top of that, cherries and pistachios. Sugar is caramelized around the whole thing to achieve a slightly crunchy crust. More importantly, the sugar adds a touch of bitterness to the dish. White port gelee around everything. Incredible dish.)
Dessert...let's see if I remember...starting in the lower right...chocolate cake with yuzu curd and halva powder, lower left...jicama noodles with citrus and limoncello granite...upper left...pine-nut cake with smoked raisins and tamarind ice cream, upper right...apple and fennel palate cleanser

Jin's dessert...all I know is that the lower left is the chocolate, olive, fontina sandwich thing and the lower right is the molten chocolate cake which Jean-Georges is said to have created.
Dessert for us to share...citrus semifreddo...really light and refreshing.

And, now, The Budget College Cook debut...video! Here's a guy cutting marshmallows:



Assorted chocolates and macaroons.

And that concludes the food portion of this meal. Whew!!!!

Kitchen.

Dining room. Tres chic, non? Wonderful light comes through those windows.

Any complaints? Just one. WHERE'S MY DAMN MENU????!?! This is a restaurant that has received pretty much every award known to man. It strives towards the highest standards for food, ambiance and service. If the restaurant tells me that they will be more than happy to e-mail a menu, THEY SHOULD DO SO. I know this seems kinda anal, but lesser restaurants can easily handle this sort of request so I don't know why JG can't. There. I got that off my chest. Other than that, service is unobtrusive and gracious.

All in all, a memorable meal. Really, really wonderful. Would go back in a heartbeat. Oh, $123 bucks for all of the above, including tax. Expect to pay a little more if you end up going. Like I said, we were given perks.

edit: just thought I'd throw up a link to the NYTimes review of Jean-Georges. Click here.

edit 2: It is now the 31st of January. I've just read through the introduction to this book and it claims that Michel Bas, not Jean-Georges Vongerichten is responsible for the creation of the molten chocolate cake. I don't know who is right but thought I would just point it out.

NYC: WD-50

As much as I love all of my readers, I fear that the majority of you are out of touch with what's going on in the food world. And, given your ignorance, I'm not quite sure how to present the food of Wylie Dufresne. Wylie's food is unique in that he whole-heartedly embraces chemicals (not used in the pejorative sense) and technical wizardry in order to transform food products into innovative bites of food. If you want to learn more about this trend called "molecular gastronomy," check out this link. Talk about playing with your food!!!

Anyhow, my meal was incredibly fun and mostly delicious. It was also really neat to see how Wylie manipulated raw ingredients to achieve different effects. I'll try to point out some of these things as I go along. Let's get to the food:

Sesame Flatbreads (The restaurant serves these instead of bread)

The amuse for the evening: Surf clam, snow pea, pine nut-sage
The pine nut-sage was in the form of a puree (at the 7 o'clock position). When this dish was served to me, I assumed it was going to be cold or chilled. Instead, it was slightly warm. A pleasant surprise. A nice mix of textures going on in this dish. Served with Gruner Veltiliner "Punkt Genau" Brut Ewald Gruber NV (Weinviertel, Austria). This is a sparkling Austrian Gruner Veltliner.

Pizza pebbles, pepperoni, shiitake
Really, really cool. The puree is a pepperoni puree. The dark chips are dried shiitake mushrooms. The round balls are made from onion powder, tomato powder, parmesan, garlic oil..etc. So, you grab a ball, smear it through the pepperoni, grab a mushroom chip and toss it in your mouth...voila! It tastes like pizza! My only criticism of this course is that the little pizza balls tend to suck up all the saliva in your mouth so, after 15 seconds or so, it's like you've got a mouthful of sand. Other than that, a marvelous idea. Served with more of the sparkling wine.

Knot foie
A foie gras terrine that's been chemically manipulated so it is pliable and can be molded at will. Served with kimchi puree, sultana raisin puree, cilantro and coated in puffed rice. I have mixed feelings about this course...while it's neat that foie gras can be tied into a knot, I didn't feel that the foie had the lush, creamy, buttery mouthfeel that a good terrine has. It was almost mousse-like in texture...sorta airy. However, it definitely maintained good foie gras flavor. Kind of technology for technology's sake, ya know? Served with, get this, sake! Miyasaka "Yamahai 50 Nama' Ginjo Sake (Nagano-Prefecture, Japan) Oh, for the sake of comparison, foie terrine usually looks something like this.

Hamachi tartare, wakame, sake lees tahini, grapefruit-shallot
So, hamachi, a fish that I've not eaten much of. In the past, hamachi seemed like one of those inoffensive fish that people order in cheap sushi joints. Not at WD-50! The hamachi had a pronounced oily flavor which took me a few bites to get used to. A quick online search reveals that winter hamachi is more fatty and this is the source of the "fishy" flavor. Look at a close-up of the fish...it's definitely not a solid plank. The fish was finely chopped, seasoned and then "glued" back together with transglutaminase. Transglutaminase is meat glue. It binds protein afaik. So the fish was chopped up, seasoned and then reformed into rectangles...charred on top with (I assume) a blowtorch. Grapefruit-shallot marmelade to the right. Dollop of sake-lees tahini sauce to the left with more of the sauce dressing sticks of Asian pear. Served with Chardonnay "Hyde Vineyards" Whitethorn 2000 (Carneros, CA)

Eggs benedict
Most of you have probably had eggs benedict, no? I think it's safe to say that it's never looked like this! The cubes are fried hollandaise. Riiiiiight. Seriously, you cut into the cube and out spills hollandaise. In the past, Dufresne has used gellan and micri to fry mayonnaise so maybe he used something similar to fry hollandaise. The cubes have been breaded in english muffin crumbs. Crispy canadian bacon and eggs round out what, up until this point, had been a breakfast classic. Wildly delicious. A success on every level. Served with more of the chardonnay.

French onion soup
Another re-visited classic. Beef broth, encapsulated cheese balls, caramelized onion puree and crisp toasts. The cheese balls are neat...some of you who know a little something about modern cooking are probably assuming that they were made using the sodium alginate/calcium chloride trick but this is wrong. Now, I don't remember HOW they did it but my server informed me that Wylie thought that the technique was played out and wanted to come up with a different method. If you pierce the "skin" on the cheese balls, out oozes liquid cheese. I thought this course would've been better if the broth didn't taste so thin. The flavor just seemed a bit off, imho. Neat course tho...served with Julienas "Vielles Vignes" Potel-Aviron (Beaujolais, France)

Cuttlefish, squash, chamomile, orange, toast oil
Cubes of cuttlefish (really tender), squash, toast vinaigrette and a swath of orange puree. Nothing too weird about this course...just a few spoonfuls of delicious food. Served with more Beaujolais.

Lamb belly, black chickpea, cherried cucumber
Alot going on here. Big tangle of greens would be micro-lemongrass. The puree is chickpea and cheese studded with candied chickpeas. The red stuff at the 7 o'clock position is the cherried cucumber. To make cherried cucumber, shred cucumbers into noodle like strips. Place into a vacuum bag with cherry puree. Place the bag under a vacuum seal...pop the seal. The cucumbers will absorb whatever liquid is in the bag...in this case, the cherry puree. Bizarre technique but the end result is delicious. Lamb belly is up top...it's been cured in salt and sugar, poached, thinly sliced and then tossed into a hot pan to crisp it up. The process was described as very similar to making bacon. Here's a close-up pic of lamb belly:
A nice mix of lean/fat meat...tasted a little lamb-y. Really delicious. My favorite part might've been the micro-lemongrass. In most cases, micro-herbs are simply garnish...an afterthought. In this case, the lemon grass was NECESSARY to the enjoyment of the dish. Served with John X Merriman Rustenberg 2005 (Stellenbosch, South Africa)...a blend of Cabernet Saugivnon, Merlot and Petite Verdot....like that means anything to the majority of you...heh heh.

Yogurt, saffron, raisin
Pre-dessert course. A puck of lime yogurt, pickled raisins, raisin puree, spiced granola. The strands are saffron-flavored apple strips. Brilliant. The gals at the next table moaned as they ate this. Not much more to say than that.

Toasted coconut cake, carob, smoked hazelnut, brown butter sorbet
And speaking of people moaning while consuming food, I'm pretty sure that I let out a few inappropriate sounds while eating this course. SOOOOO DAMN GOOD. Coconut cake is the rectangle up top, brown butter sorbet is on top of the smoked hazelnuts. Coconut froth and bits of chopped up young coconut. Carob is the brown streaks. Most people hate carob but that's because most people eat it as a chocolate substitute. For this dish, chocolate would not have been appropriate. Would happily eat again. Served with Cerdon du Bugey "Methode Ancestrale" Renardat-Fache NV (Bugey, France).

Soft white chocolate, potato, malt, white beer ice cream
Moldable white chocolate. That's all i'm gonna say about this. That and I'm getting tired of writing. Served with Commandaria St John NV (Lemsos, Cyprus)

Menthol cocoa
Mignardises while I enjoyed my coffee. Menthol cocoa is up top...it's like a truffle, not a cup of hot cocoa. I forgot what the bottom nub is.

So...I had a great time. Alot of food for thought, haha, no pun intended. I'm really curious to see what some of you think about this kind of food...I mean, it's definitely not your steak with red wine sauce and potatoes au gratin. Anyhow, I hope you had fun vicariously dining through this post...

Manresa

Remember how I mentioned that I was going to go to a fancy-shmancy restaurant called Manresa? Well, my prophetic powers proved strong and last night at 6:30, I found myself walking into the restaurant with George, Carrie (George's GF) and a bottle of 2004 Corton-Charlemagne. That's a bottle of wine for you complete noobs and I'll get to that a little later on.

Anyhow, I'm just going to post pictures and menu descriptions...yes, I took pictures of my meal but cut me some slack! Last night was the first time and I noticed 2 other tables doing the same thing! Actually, I don't need to rely on the "appeal to a common practice" argument. I wish I had started doing it much, much earlier...I've been lucky enough to have been a participant in some pretty spectacular meals and a photographic record would've been nice. Oh well, the menus will have to suffice but, in this case, I've got a menu AND pictures so let's get to it:

Let me apologize up front for the slightly blurry nature of the photos...I'm still getting used to the new camera.

Section 1: These were 5 little palate teasers typically called amuses which is short for "amuse bouche." They're simply small, 1-2 bite courses which, among other things, give you an indication of the chef's style and direction of the meal. This is always my favorite part of any meal.

Petit fours "red pepper-black-olive"
(My taste buds are defective because I just don't get the black-olive madeleines...they don't taste black olive-y to me although my roommate thought they were rockin')

Horchata and lightly toasted parsnip
(I get horchata all the time when I go to taquerias but I've never had one like this...it wasn't sickly sweet, it was warm and the parsnips really added something...would drink again.)

Chestnut croquettes
(Fried little cubes which we were instructed to eat in one bite...they exploded with a rich, warm gushi-ness)

Oyster in urchin jelly, nori croustillant
(Not actually an urchin jelly...more like oyster and urchin in sea water jelly...just a filthy-delicious-stopallconversation dish...could've easily consumed a half dozen of these things)

Arpege farm egg
(L'Arpege is a restaurant in Paris...It is CRAZY expensive but considered to be one of the best restaurants in the world...this egg dish is an homage to an egg dish served at L'Arpege. It is a perfectly fresh egg gently poached and flavored with sherry and maple syrup. When you combine all the flavors in one gooey spoonful, it's memorable.)

Section 2: Done with the amuses. Onto some bigger plates.

At this point, they brought bread and butter to the table. This butter is phenomenal. The milk comes from a Normandy cow in nearby Watsonville, CA and is hand churned. The end-product is almost cheese-y in it's complexity. Bovinity Divinity (to quote Ben and Jerry) and I found myself eating the butter all on its own...crazy delicious stuff. I have reason to believe that this is the incredible animal whose milk gave us this lactic gold...yumyumyum.

Golden butterfish and geoduck clam, sashim style, exotic citrus
(Don't remember any geoduck clam in this but I'd like to point out the quenelle of caviar. Yummy dish. The chef has a way with raw fish...judicious use of seasoning which enhances rather than overpowers the fish...)

Shellfish in a pine mushroom broth
(A deliciously sweet, briny piece of crab meat with a juicy mussel hidden underneath. I believe the green is ice lettuce, an especially succulent variety of lettuce. A first for me.)

Spot prawns on the plancha, exotic spice
(Loved this. Curry-ish, I swear there were fermented black beans, prawn roe...nothing to dislike. I am not ashamed to mention that we ate most of the shells and sucked whatever we could off of the head. Really tasty. Oh yah.)

Nantucket bay scallops with lemongrass, leeks
(Neptune himself could not have found more perfect scallops...so sweet and tender...perfectly cooked. The creamy sauce is a scallop jus which was poured tableside. Hidden underneath are some melted leeks which added a bit of oniony goodness.)

Into the vegetable garden...
(Okay, so most of you are probably like, "WTF??!? It's a weird lookin' salad." NO. This is totally incorrect. This is a completely unique dish which evokes a sense of place, which is, a garden. I swear, it tastes like how my hands used to smell after a day of helping my mom in our garden. There must be 30 different vegetables in this dish and you can eat them one at a time or in combination with each other. The individual flavors never really get muddled but remain distinct. A really remarkable dish. Of all the dishes I was served, this is the one I could eat every day for the rest of my life and I would never get bored of it. If you want to learn more about this dish, click here.)

Abalone in its own bouillon, foie gras
(You can smell this one coming...the smoky dashi gives it away. This picture kinda looks a mess so I'll try to help you along...The abalone is on the bottom, a thin slice of foie gras is laid on top of the abalone, the white shreds are enoki mushrooms, the darker green is seaweed and the thin green shreds are green onions (i think). The dashi broth is the broth..duh. As a lover of salt, I rarely complain of overseasoning but the broth was definitely overseasoned for my taste. However, the foie and abalone is a fun combination. Surf & turf? haha.)

John dory and butter beans, squid and clams with vin blanc
(No, John Dory is not a man...ya noobs. Hidden underneath the fish are thinly sliced clams, squid and beans. Nothing really "out-there" about this dish but it's executed really, really well. My only regret is not having a spoon served with this course because I couldn't get at all the sauce!)

Sweetbreads, roasted whole, cereals with parsley root
(What's a sweetbread, you ask? Click here to find out. Anyhow, I have mixed feeling about this one. I kinda enjoy sweetbreads more when they have a crunchy exterior and that provides a contrast to the creamy interior. However, the parsley root provided the contrasting texture in this case...meaning, i found the roots a little undercooked. Love the wheat berries tho...I'm gonna have to find some...The red bits are cranberries. Very autumn-y, winter-y. Felt like Thanksgiving.)

Beef roasted in its fat, chestnut with horseradish
(A big meat course here...40 day aged beef. Some mushrooms underneath, the green is a kale (i think) puree and the little pucks off to the side are really, really cool. Chestnut and horseradish bombs. They're PERFECT with the meat. Grab a bit of meat, swipe a bit of green puree, grab a horseradish bit and it's a great mouthful of food.)

Section 3: Sweets.

Parsnip pain perdu and caramel ice cream, toasted barley gelee
(I'm tired of writing so I'll just leave pictures and menu descriptions)

Cranberry and pecan involtini, apple preserve with buttermilk sorbet

Milk chocolate coffee mousse, oat crisp and stout ice cream

Petit fours "strawberry-chocolate"

And, with that, the meal came to a close. All in all, a memorable meal. Not much more to say. I love the focus on veggies and seafood. This is my favorite restaurant in the Bay Area...and I need an excuse to go back...Maybe when I graduate?

Anyhow, I said that I'd talk about our beverages for the evening so here we go. Keep in mind that I'm not a great person to ask about wine.

We started with some complimentary Cava. Cava is Spanish sparkling wine...think of it as their answer to France's champagne. Most of it is produced in the Catalan region of Spain...think eastern Spain on the border with France. Chef was kind enough to send flutes out for us and we drank the cava with the amuses.

After that, the Corton-Charlemagne. Corton-Charlemagne is the name given to a set of vineyards in the Burgundy region of France. For white wines, you're primarily looking at wines made from the Chardonnay grape. Corton-Charlemagne is designated as a Grand Cru wine which is the highest rating one can achieve in Burgundy. I don't know what else to say but damn I'm tired of typing. I hope someone reads this!

edit: I e-mailed the chef with a few questions and here are the answers:
1. How is the beef cooked? the beef was roasted in a slow oven.
2. Do you consistently get prawns with the roe? I love the roe. Do most people eat it? We also ate some of the shells. I guess we're weird. yes, all prawns with roe. i go to a market and pick them out alive myself 4 times a week.
3. The veggie dish is amazing. Are all the veggies from your garden? All veggies from the garden, is rrequired.
4. The shellfish with pine mushroom broth...i assume this means matsutake mushrooms? yes, matsutake
5. The chestnut croquettes...an homage to your time with Marc Meneau? yes, Meneau.
6. How'd you insert the parsnip flavor into the horchata? Make some sort of parsnip milk? yes, parsnip milk.
7. Was the (incredible) butter from Pim's cow? yes, pim's butter.