Not all of our ideas work. I had been doing a version of crab with caviar, lychee, and lemongrass which had been getting good reviews from guests. The crab and lychee made good sense to me, but I wanted to see how the caviar would hold up to it without the unctuous crab. In short, it didn’t. Guests were arriving in a little over an hour, and I was forced into scrambling. With 15 courses on the menu, many ingredients were already in use. Cauliflower was an exception was one of the fastest purees I ever made. The components include a quail egg yolk that is slow cooked for three hours (also part of original idea), a cauliflower pudding finished with creme fraiche, supremes of lime, a generous topping of ossetra caviar and finished with a citrus coriander blossom. Textures here are velvety and luxurious with the creamy egg yolk and popping fish eggs, and the citrus coriander blossom nicely accentuates the cauliflower.

Original incarnation with crab, sea urchin, and eggs