Cauliflower – Bottarga / Anchovy / Hyssop
This might be my personal favorites of the “Uh oh, we need to get another item on the menu stat!” series. Usually this happens when an integral ingredient becomes unavailable. In this case – as in the previous post – the versatility of cauliflower saved the day. As opposed to the sensuous nature of the [...]
Ossetra – Quail Egg / Cauliflower / Lime
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, [...]
Benton’s Ham – Fontina / Butternut / Cocoa Nibs
This course came to me on a Sunday afternoon while suffering on the couch with a 104 degree fever. Though I had no desire of thinking about food and tried pushing this idea out of my head, I knew that it had legs and would hit the menu. I brought the ham in from Benton’s in Tennessee [...]
Ideas in Ideas – Ideas in Food Workshops and Collaborative Dinner at EL Ideas
It is with great pleasure to announce that EL Ideas and Chef Phillip Foss will be hosting the cutting edge Ideas in Food for ‘pop up’ workshops and a collaborative dinner at EL Ideas. Widely considered pioneers in modern gastronomy on account of their refined and inquisitive nature towards cuisine, Chefs/Authors Alex Talbot and Aki Kamozawa are [...]
Sardine – White Eggplant / Tomato / Piperade
San Sebastian Sardine / White Eggplant / Zucchini / Tomatoes / Piperade One from the vault that was on the menu during the summer shortly after we opened. A couple of others from shortly after we opened I just ran across on the hard drive that will be posted soon.
Still Life – Snails / Royal Trumpets / Black Garlic
This course made a brief appearance on our menu. And although it was very enthusiastically received, I never really sunk my teeth into it (metaphorically speaking). The idea was born out of asking whether snails are from the water or the land. From there I formulated the idea of creating the dish as a setting. [...]
Black Sea Bass – Salsify / Onion / Sherry Vinegar
This photo was taken back in January by one of our diners and I just stumbled across it while looking for something to post. Black sea bass was very gently poached in a beurre fondue seasoned with sherry vinegar. Salsify enters in three variations: cream, braised with pearl onions and sherry vinegar, and as the [...]
Smoked Char Roe – Katsuobushi / Tapioca / Coconut Milk
As always, if you are here looking for information on EL Ideas, please see the sidebar on the right. A couple of other notes before getting into this post: The last couple of dishes I’ve posted have been of items currently on the menu. That is going to come to an end as I have [...]
Apple – Peanut / Bacon / Parsnip
This course began as a pre-dessert and was first introduced on the evening of our second Anti Restaurant Week engagement. The idea for this was born from my favorite personal snack and one that has kept me fed throughout all of my travels: Granny Smith apple smothered with Skippy peanut butter. From the time I was a [...]
Gin & Juice
Before getting into the post, for those of you landing here to find out information about EL Ideas, please see the side bar on the right. For those interested in the post, continue on down… With my mind on an oyster and an oyster on my mind. It is startling to me how many of [...]
Spanner Crab – Smoked Char Roe / Cucumber / Grapefruit
As far as I know, spanner crab is the only pre-cleaned crab meat that arrives at the door in a raw state. Coming from the waters around New Zealand, they feed off shrimp and scallops take the ocean floor and take on those characteristics in flavor. As the meat comes in raw, we have more [...]
EL Ideas – Press Release: Changes to Reservation Process
The below is probably the longest one paragraph ever took me to write. Is it any wonder I’ve all but buried F.U. Public Relations Company and am giving a go with Restaurant Intelligence Agency? Now that I’ve come out of denial that just because I’m pretty good at making news doesn’t really say that I’m good [...]
Pata Negra – Cana de Cabra / Espelette / BLiS Elixir
This preparation started out simply enough from our friends at Mercat a la Planxa who were kind enough to bring us some shavings of their Pata Negra when they came in to dine with us. We loved it so much that we decided to get a ham ourselves to see where we could take it. Though [...]
Anise Hyssop – Brussels Sprouts / Pecans / Sprecher Root Beer
There are many places that inspiration for a new dish is born, but for myself, this is the first time that one was born out of a dream. What makes it more unusual, is that it is rare that I remember dreams in the first place… and if they are ever involving food, it has [...]
Anti Restaurant Week in Review
One evening a couple months ago, I posted an update on Twitter that I was enjoying a pot pie that had been spiked with some fresh black truffles that were gifted to me. It was about 1am, but the taste of the comfort food combined with the luxurious aromas of the truffle was enough for [...]
The Rise and Fall of Meatyballs
This post began as a take on the food truck movement as a whole, then segued into a breakdown of my business and personal strengths and shortcomings.
EL ideas – Opening EL, The Micro Restaurant, & The Meatyballs Mobile Valet Service
The first weekend is in the books and we have served a total of 27 covers. Many of our colleagues do the same amount of covers in the first hour of their cocktail hour, and then anywhere from triple to more than ten times the number of customers per night (our number is for the [...]
