Dinner Party

douglas_bd

10 Courses. 6 people.

Chihuly Garden Old Fashioned Fruit Cocktail

Fruit, Bourbon, Coriander Syrup, Bitters, Glass

Foie Gras Parfait

Pomegranate, Mustard Seed, Radish Micros, Bread Crumbs

Maitake Mushroom

Seared Maitake, Soft Scrambled Eggs, Dashi, Scallion, Sesame

Slow Roasted Roots

Carrots, Beets, Coffee Butter

Scallion Pancake

Braised Oxtail, Creme Fraiche, Kimchi Powder

72 hr Pork Cheek

“Old Spot” Pork, Celeriac, Apple

Seared Octopus

Pickled Radish, Avocado, Fried Peanuts, Szechuan Peppercorn, Burnt Lettuce Jus

State Fair Puff

Cotton Candy, Foie Gras, Corn Nuts

Northwoods Sorbet

Lemon, Balsam Fir

Slow Poached Pear (Cheers @Todd Shewman!)

7 Hour Pear, Red Wine Reduction, Vanilla Ice Cream

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Comments

brian_martin2001

Beautiful presentations

A_L_Esterling_35269

I love this, @Brian_Douglas_35255! You totally crushed it! Did you have a favorite course?

BTW—Maitake Mushroom is posted on the ChefSteps Facebook page.

fisher23

Absolutely beautiful platings.

Afonso_Tito_de_Morais_164825

Nailed itttt! How'd you do the scrambled egg?

tangma27

Holy crap! Did you have help making all these courses or did you just like...go nuts? Really beautiful, you're a madman if you made 60 dishes by yourself. Second on scrambled eggs. Whipping Siphon?

Afonso_Tito_de_Morais_164825

The beauty of mise-en-place my friend!

This really made me want to do something similar soon!

douglas_bd

Hard to pick a favorite, but that Maitake may have been it. Clean flavors but with lots of depth, great texture, yet simple and homey too. That wasn't originally in the plans, but I found a beautiful looking mushroom at the market and wanted to use it somehow. I was also happy with the sorbet. It's a technique I've tried several times and it's never worked out for me, but I followed the recipe for The Park this time (minus the LN2) and it came out perfect.

douglas_bd

The eggs are blended with some milk, salt, butter, and extra yolk, then cooked sous vide at 72C for 30 minutes until just barely set. Then I hit them with the immersion blender, pour them into the whipping siphon, 2 charges and dispense. It's essentially the MCAH scrambled preparation. The eggs end up airy and delicate, just on the verge of collapsing, but so good.

douglas_bd

A couple of the guests came over about 2 hours before dinner to help with some of the final touches. I also had 9 pages of notes on ingredients, timing, what could be made ahead, and what needed to be finished a la minute. I also left some room to improvise. I had 3 other courses ready to pull out, but based on pacing and overall quantity of food, I passed on those for another time. None required much prepwork ahead of time, and I'll have dinner tonight or tomorrow now.

Tim_230841

Absolutely amazing!

Jack_Mayer_85396

Wow, most impressive Brian! Fantastic dinner!

tshewman

Beautiful!!

tangma27

You are a beast. Seriously.

grant

Holy shit Brian, very well done sir.

douglas_bd

Thanks Todd! I stole your pear idea. It was a big hit. I think I prefer this to the sous vide pear recipe. The wine reduction was so intense and the pear just melted in your mouth. My guests would ave sworn that the wine was a chocolate sauce if I didn't tell them differently. I also stole the powdered kimchi from someone here, but I don't remember who. Anyway, that shit is good good stuff. So thanks!

douglas_bd

Thanks Grant! You guys have definitely upped my game.

douglas_bd

Thanks @Michael Tang for the kimchi powder inspiration!

tshewman

You stole nothing. Theives don't give back. Your presentations are incredible! BTW-works with apples and apple cider caramel as well.

douglas_bd

Have you tried it with peeled fruit? I'm not sure if they would go the distance sans peel.

lockgavin

Super well done Brian! I've been thinking about this type of thing for a long while now. I can't get my head around some of the more nuts and bolts type things. I always struggle with keeping things warmed. How did you do that in a home kitchen? I assume you have but one oven? Did you keep the oxtail, cheek, celeriac and egg (in siphon) in a circulator to keep them warmed? Also did you eat too or were you just a workhorse for the night?

douglas_bd

This really wasn't planned out as carefully as one I did a couple months ago, but it was simpler from an equipment perspective. Service was set for 5:00 on Sunday night. I've got just one oven, but 2 circulators (and a Joule on the way) and siphons. I did the pork for 72 hours in one circulator (62C), starting Thursday night. Made the coffee butter the night before in circ 2 @ 90C and threw the celeriac in the bath at the same time. Celeriac puree was then reheated in the bath with the pork about an hour before serving. Sorbet prepped the night before and into the freezer. Kimchi went into the dehydrator the night before as well, and ready to grind in the morning. I did the fois gras ganache in the 2nd circulator (54C) early Sunday morning to give it time to set, and the pomegranate gelee right after. Started the pears in the oven just after noon, and the root veggies about 2:00. They both fit in there together, and I wanted to roast slow, so set at 275F until I started to get nervous on the carrots and cranked it up to 300F at about 4:30. Circulator 2 was free at that point, so dropped the Octopus at 80C about 1:00. Also dropped my phone in the bath, but that wasn't part of the plan. Made the cotton candy about 3:30/4:00 add put into ziplocks to hold. Started the caramel for the cocktail sugar work about 4:15, then while watching that, the Oxtail was seared and cooked in the pressure cooker at about 4:30. Just before 5:00, I dropped the circulator bath with the Octopus to 72C and added the eggs. Shortly thereafter, started plating the first course. Thoughout the day, I prepped other components: the fruit, pickles, fried peanuts, cornnuts, peppercorns, etc.. The mushrooms and burnt lettuce jus were prepped during service, along with some various other searing / torching activities - pork cheek, octopus, foie gras. (The searzall is great for this sort of thing. I wasn't sure about it initially, but I've come to use it all the time) Scallion pancakes were made by one of the guests, and just warmed during service. I cheated on the ice cream and bought haagen daas. I think that covers most everything. It looks like a lot, but as long as you plan it out, you can make sure there's no equipment conflicts. Not mentioned, but in heavy rotation albeit only a short bit at a time were the chamber vac, blender and stick blender. Consider all these times approximate, but should be pretty close.

douglas_bd

Also, I ate too. I'm was cooking for friends, and the service pace was relaxed. I've found it works best not to plan a seated meal, but to have a table available when needed. This makes it more fun for me, as I can remain a part of the conversation, and I can grab someone to help out if needed. We ate most of the dishes standing around in the kitchen, but did grab a seat for a couple of courses that would have required a bit too much of a balancing act while standing. Service started at 5 and last course went out at 8:00. That flew by quickly for me, but there were probably a few lengthy interludes for the guests. I'm doing this for fun, and part of that is getting to eat the dishes, so they can wait.

lockgavin

Thanks for the detailed breakdown. Doesn't seem like too much work to be honest, more planning. I really have to look into times/temps and what can be kept at temp during courses and such. One day I'll get to it..

sandro.kuendig

Seriously this is amazing Brian, especially the scrambled egg and pear..- look at this @Marc-Remo Kündig

douglas_bd

Definitely. Planning to this degree is relatively new to me. I used to think about what was needed for each dish, but not necessarily how to fit them all together. In my experience, if that's all I do, things can (and usually do) quickly spiral out of control. It definitely helps me because for the most part, I'd never made these dishes before. Only 2 of them were refinements from an earlier meal, the rest were new things I wanted to try. Once I have the plan, it's just about execution. The hard work is all done.

douglas_bd

Thanks @Sandro! I was really happy with the way that egg turned out. That and the cocktail are really the dishes that I feel are most mine.

tangma27

I love this

david_217076

Bloody hell this is amazing!