Bouley was sick! Sharing his pholosiphy of kaiseke mixed with traditional french technique. Some of the best dishes I saw put together.
The master started by cutting the scales off a nice japanese hamachi with his custom Nenox knife instead of using a scaler so the flesh under the skin would not be damaged. I was in my fishroom here at bluezoo within the first 10 minutes of being back in the restaurant doing the same.
Jose Andres brought a great stage prescence and personality along with some of his chefs from minibar. I have already implemented two of his techniques. Littleneck clams cryovac'd and poached in simmering water for 10-15 seconds then removed and into ice, then shuck. Gives them a much nicer finished look and of course topped it off with some iberico jamon broth.
Juan Marie Arzak shared his history, philosophy, and love of food with us.
Doc Sconz and Juan Marie after his demo. It was a pleasure to finally meet Doc and his son.
Dave and Nils doing their thing, and doing it well. If I was on my way to culinary school I know where I would be going.
After the demo Dave let a couple of students and attendees take their shot at killing some live black sea bass by severing the spinal cord above the gill plate and again at the base of the tail then threading a piano wire down the spine ceasing all commands from the brain for the flesh to tighten and go into rigor. The result, crunchy sashimi, it actually had a cruch to it and it was great. I don't know how much live fish I will be bringing into the restaurant but I have a new trick for on the boat sashimi next time I go fishing.
There were so many more things to the ICC. I wish I had some pics of Sean Brock's presentation. It was a history lesson on a plate. Our good friends Chadzilla, Chef K, and Fabian. It was good to see Alex of Ideas in Food again, got to hang out with Kosta again and it was a pleasure. 3PO made a special guest appearence, Danny, my sous chef was lucky enough to attend after I won a free ticket to the event after filling out the culinary trends survey. I think he will benefit from this greatly, next year it's Aaron's turn. Seeing George, an old cook now at Olives NY, Mac and Dixon from Olives for hooking us up with some grub. Momofuku Ssam bar was good as always, pork buns, beef tendon salad, their version of the McRib, pickles and kimchee were all good. Pastrami on rye at the Stage deli was over the top, have to get it all the way of course with coleslaw and russian dressing. Halaal Chicken stand on 53rd and 6th at 3:45am with a line of about 75 people waiting for some street food. JB Prince store, could spend $10,000 in 5.5 seconds, Korin shop down by the Brooklyn bridge, ridiculous. Pre-drinking/post-drinking hot dog from who ever and where ever, Baoguette booth at the ICC was nice.
To finish it all off we had a great meal at Marea, Chef Michael White's new place next to Colombus circle and the Essex House. It was an amazing meal with great company. Myself, Danny, Kosta, and Chris(3PO, name that stuck, don't ask) celebrating his 25th birthday. It was coastal Italian cuisine at it's finest. Awesome uni covered with a melting paper thin slice of lardo on some fresh baked bread, rustic and ridiculous. All the courses were amazing and it didn't hurt walking into the restaurant, sitting two tables away from David Bouley and Pierre Gagnaire, and all of us looking at each other saying to ourselves "this is the shit".
Information overload, it will take some time to process and digest. A great experience.
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