the bluezoo team

It's great to see my guys really pushing everyday. Wanting to share what they do and create plays a factor in their food. We have a tasting menu that is open to our cooks interpretation. I step in and tell them what they have to work with and provide some on hand flavor profiles and direction if needed but these guys and gals are the ones that are making it happen. Many of my posts are about what they are doing everyday on top of their already hectic workload.
I am thouroughly impressed by their passion amd commitment everyday. They are what makes bluezoo a great restaurant to be a part of and they should be recognized. This is our team, and over the next couple of weeks you will be able to become familiar with them and the food they put out every night.

chef de cuisine
aaron christian

sous chefs
daniel de la rosa
erich seig

line chefs
Guadalupe Rangel
Andre Robberts
Brittany Hatch
Ashley Monteiro
Nathan Howey
Diana Saulibio
Brian Baxter
Jason Rodriguez
Chris Spaulding
Keola Dietz

Stay tuned.........

Chicken and Lobster terrine

Chef Rob designed a terrine mold with our plexi glass guy from Ice Magic for a dinner we will be working on in bluezoo in September. He wanted something like the terrine molds he was familiar working with during his stint in France. Traditionallly it would be a wooden box with a sliding top and removable sides to unmold the terrine. we went a step further and created this.



Here is a shot of the whole deal from the side.



Of course the commissioned piece was personalized for chef. We will have 12 more in the works as we will need 125 portions for the dinner we are preparing for. This was a test run for us and it worked great.



The first step is to line the mold with plastic, then layer your terrine, press until set, and remove the top of the mold.



Each wall of the terrine is equiped with a hinge to easily remove the finished product.



Our terrine has finished pressing and the top of the mold is removed.




Here is our buttermilk brined, sous vide poussin, slow poached maine lobster, savoy cabbage, and truffle cream terrine.



You don't see these around much any more but our last executive chef of the hotel was austrian so having one of these electric knives on hand was neccesity. It's the first time I've ever seen one or even seen one used and it actually worked pretty well. It's novelty with an actual purpose. We all laughed at it but ole' bessie did it's job.




Chef Dan Herman did the honors. I think he might be the only one in the hotel who has used one of these before but that is still yet to be confirmed.




Nice slices of layered poussin, barely poached sweet maine lobster, tender savoy cabbage, and the richness of the truffle cream. It's hard to go wrong with that combination.



This is the finished dish. Warm porcini cream, grape fluid gel, pickled fennel, micro chickweed, parisienne buternut squash, armando manni per me olive oil.

Kelp Rubbed Mero

We picked up some kelp powder from Terra Spice and we toying with the applications. We ended up using it as a rub for our Mero bass from hawaii. The kelp powder has a salty vegetal flavor that when well with the fatty mero.




Some cleaned and marinated mussels along with key west littlenecks, brunoise veg, j. le blanc olive oil, scallion, and sea cress(my new favorite garnish from chefs garden). The servers finished the dish tableside with a sauce of reduced cooking liquid from the mussels with a hint of cream. Clean and simple, quality ingredients exploding with flavor.

Kappa Carrageenan

We have been playing with some kappa over the last week. It started with Cody glazing mini cuke blossoms with saltwater to season them and give them a nice shine. I started thinking about what else we could do and threw out the idea of an oyster coated with mignonette. So here it is



2 versions, one traditional and one finished with miso both, evo,samphire, and sea cress.




We seasoned FORVM 8yr Cabernet Vinegar mignonette style then did a .75% ratio of the kappa. Bring the FORVM to a simmer, whisk in kappa then hold at a low simmer, preferably in a water bath or more easily on our cook tek induction. We dip the shucked oyster and the gel sets up immediately upon removing it. We had to play with the temperature a bit, too hot and it won't glaze, too cold and it will start to set up in the pan. We served this as amuse and got some good feedback.

Now we are looking at glazing more vegetables and this week we will be playing with the idea of glazing whole pieces of cooked fish just before it goes on the plate. I will most likely start with spice infused liquids or maybe ocean water if we can get our hands on some of the really good stuff that is coming out of Fiji and Hawaii, Mike Mina uses it at American fish and the flavor is amazing. That's a whole other post by itself but hopefully we can get the appearence of a shining jewel on the plate.

NYC

We took a couple days for family vacation in NYC to get away. Usually my visits consist of food, drink, and more food, then more drink. This time I had the family in tow so we hit the sites and I managed to still incorporate food. So here you go For some reason the first few picture descriptions are off, just scroll down, I'm sure you can figure it out.

Empire state building right off the bat.










Caeden is checking out the view.










Caeden's first MLB game and my first in a while MLB game. Mets vs. Cardinals, 3rd game of series after a tough 13th inning loss the night before. Mets 4, Cardinals 0, good game.



He might be a mets fan



Shake Shack @ citi field, only a 3 inning wait.



Union Square Farmers Market, patty pan squash the size of your head and just about everything else. Wednesdays and Saturdays, check it out.



rick's picks hooked me up with some smokra.




Caden's version of the Statue of Liberty, buy your tickets on line, if you want to go to the crown or monument plant at least 3 months in advance. Get to battery park by 8:30am, otherwise I hope you like 2 hour lines.



Central Park zoo, buy tickets ahead on line as well. Lines suck!



Some seals up close



Snow leopard



I work for Todd English and we did the official NYC Todd Tour. Olives for dinner the first night(Wed). Friends and family at Ca Va Friday night, then Food Hall at the Plazs Saturday for lunch. All were really good. I love the creativity and seasonality at Olives, Ca Va is delicious frenchy french all the way with the return of Victor LaPlaca to the TE crew, Food Hall is a monster to be reckoned with. Take the Todd tour, hit all three eateries in NYC, it's worth it.



Shake Shack is in the Intercontinental with Ca Va, get a perfect slice of foie torchon at the bar in Ca Va while your friend waits in line at Shack shack then join him for burger madness.



Food Hall burger is awesome.



Mike, just letting you know i'M STEALING this flatbread for the zoo, it was ridiculous! BLT flatbread, charred romaine, cabot cheddar, lardons, heirloom tomato, garlic aioli.



Some cool places we just happened to walk by. Aquavit.



a voce in Time warner



Some awesome China.



Columbus Circle, from here you can throw a rock in pretty much any direction and hit something with a michelin star, or two, or three.



The best meal I've had in NYC period!



Heads up, Kitchen Arts and Letters is closed on saturdays during July and August. Sucked, didn't get a chance to go in but I'll be back during Star Chefs ICC in september.



The entrance to all that is holy, JB Prince.