Go to the Article: Tasting Menu: Spring
BI am in the midst of planning of a dinner party for several members of the local Symphony Orchestra and a member or two of the board - this will be the perfect planning aid in addition to my binge watching of Frasier on Netflix (I am very sincere and will def get photos this time). Once again Chefsteps,your timing is masterful if not a bit eerie.
Make a dish from this menu ,put your own spin on it and post the progress. Also, I would love to help you work through any logistical or menu planning issues you might have for your dinner. Post them here and I can lend a hand.
This is perfect! I am currently planning my own tasting menu, to illustrate where I am now as a cook and how I have evolved. This will be tremendously helpful in my preparation.
Bees + Knees = ChefSteps
'nuff said
That is hugely appreciated. I'll definitely have a few but one question off the top: can you point me to some resources on foraging. I have an idea for a Black Forest Cake that I have been working on. I want to present 1/2 half individual size cakes that look like tree logs along with a Hot Tonka Bean Ice Cream made with Methycellulose and served with a Kirsch Flambee similar to Heston's Flaming Sorbet. I thought it would be cool serve is on moistened rocks with the same candied lichen or tree moss but I have never worked with moss or lichen and want to be sure it's safe and how best to prepare.
Also, the Balsam Fir essential oil has inspired me - I was thinking of now Brushing the cakes with some Birch Syrup. Or Maybe a Venison course with cherries and some Balsam Fir oil and a simple rub with a hint of raw chocolate or cocoa powder... hmm.
The moss that we used at The Fat Duck came from a florist, and we made sure that it hadn't been sprayed with pesticides. I would probably avoid foraging my own unless I talked to a botanist and really knew the species and what pests it may harbor.
Very excited by this. Would be awesome to do with and for friends sometime
Can you use any other esental oil (like lavender, bergamont..)
Grant, I love the concept! Can you come up with some suggestions for the Caribbean? We don't get a lot of the ingredients that are needed here. BTW, I am Chris' godmother.......
Yes, definitely! You may want to adjust other flavors accordingly, like subbing out the parsley for another green, or trying lime juice instead of lemon juice, etc. But other essential oils will work great.
I can't wait to try this dinner party ...time to recruit some friends.
Question on essential oils. Pharmacy grade vs therapeutic grade, etc. How do I tell if it's edible or not?
I don't want to poison anyone.
I'm curious about this as well. A lot of websites I've read have conflicting information regarding what is and is not considered edible with regard to essential oils.
Joe and Charles: It can be confusing! Aftelier's Chef's Essences line is a great place for sourcing high-end essential oils for culinary purposes—that's where we get ours.
Wow this is awesome! Chef Daniel Patterson in San Francisco uses a lot of perfumes. I wonder where he sources his...nonetheless the website you provided is great!
If I tryed it with a bunc of fennel insted of parsley. And used lavender essental oil would you think those would work together, because im a bit sceptical because I use wild fennel and it has a much stronger flawour.
Purely amazing.
Hey Grant. I am playing around with a warm sorbet or ice cream.. I've had some success with methlycellulose but I find it more just warm, creamy dessert and I am hoping for a cool & hot sensation. Later this summer I am thinking of doing a peppermint ice cream and adding extra menthol for the cooling sensation and serving it hot... for now, I am focused on making a fluid gel sorbet with gellan f. For your cherry sorbet recipie with the black forest glen, if I add 1% gellan f of the pre-gellan weight do you think that would work? Maybe 0.025% sodium citrate and sodium hexaphosphate? I am guessing I can ommit the gelatin? Will the malic acid mess up the fluid gel?
That sounds like a great start, I would try that and then give it a taste. The menthol will certainly cool the palate but you will want to be careful not to use to much.
what does each course weigh? How much should I be serving each for a coursed menu?
Will you ever do another series like this? These recipes are wonderful.
Nice
There aren't enough resources for composed tasting menus such as this, so this is highly welcomed. I recognize the amount of work and planning that goes into composing >12 course tasting menus because I have created a few also (including a kosher, vegan, gluten-free 12 course dinner) and I hope we can look forward to seeing more of these in the future. This was a wonderful voyage into Spring and a great education. Thank you.
Yes, we would love more tasting menus!!! I also loved the short one you did for Valentines Day back in the JouleReady sauce era.
I really enjoyed this read and the recipes. I'm not sure if Chef Steps can or will go this direction again but know doing a post with recipes like this maybe once or twice a year would be amazing. I truly am inspired by this post and would love only more!
@chefsteps team - If you do another one of these We'll sign up for Studio Pass. I promise!!
Still one of my favourite articles on here which I return to often, any plans to repeat this process for the other seasons?
