Results tagged: Laurent Gras

As part of its "New York Diet" series New York Magazine recently invited James Beard Foundation Outstanding Chef Dan Barber to chronicle his meals for a week. Aside from learning that Dan does most of his eating in the kitchens of Blue Hill and Blue Hill at Stone Barns, we also discovered that he consumes a remarkably consistent, and simple, breakfast: a mystery power shake mixed up each morning by his girlfriend, writer Aria Sloss.

Photos from the L2O blog

Chef Laurent Gras at L20 in Chicago is giving new meaning to term "low and slow." On the L20 blog today he documents his simple method for cooking USDA prime short rib. The preparation calls for a 12 hour sea salt seasoning, a quick sear on the stove, a 12 hour marinade, and finally a slow "braise" at 145-153 degrees in an immersion circulator for 48 hours. He finishes it off with another quick sear and a touch of sauce. What you're presented with is a succulent piece of pink meat that can be cut with a fork. With a preparation time of 72 hours, this one's best left to the professionals. 

[Source: L20 blog]

Photo by food_in_mouth on flickr

I've often wondered how chefs work through the process of creating new dishes when they have so many other things going on. How do they come up with ideas? How many tries does it take to get just right? How do they adapt a dish over time?

In The New Yorker's profile on David Chang we learned that Chang and Momofuku Ko chef Peter Serpico worked on a scallop dish "for weeks." I tried this labored over dish shortly after Ko opened and loved it. Its other incarnation, with fluke standing in for the scallop, received mostly positive reactions from the critics.

In a post yesterday chef blogger Laurent Gras at L2O in Chicago provided a glimpse into his new dish creation process and how he works to "get in the memory of the guest." Gras uses lobster, peach and lemon verbena as his starting point and adapts the components based on taste, aesthetic and technique. He then turns to the visual impact and then finally to assessing overall balance, texture and intensity.

Considering that the seemingly thrown together "seafood stew" I had for dinner last night at a popular southern Connecticut restaurant was priced at a third the cost of Ko's tasting menu I think that more insight into how talented and thoughtful chefs work can only benefit their cause.

Probably the most anticipated restaurant of this year has been Laurent Gras' L2O. As construction began on the restaurant, Gras started a blog, updating it with pictures and processes of how the restaurant was going to run, giving serious gourmands a look inside a budding kitchen. Surprisingly, the blog didn't go radio silent once the kitchen was open for business. Gras and his team have found time to keep a steady stream of posts hitting the site.
From where we're sitting in NYC, you can clearly see that L2O is a labor of love and only this kind of passion and sincerity can garner a perfect glowing review from the paper of record in Chicago. Phil Vittel, the chief restaurant critic for The Chicago Tribune gave L2O 4 of 4 stars. About the service, Vittel says, "Service is everything you want in a restaurant of this kind, with serene and unintimidating guides. That's especially true of sommeliers Chantelle Pabros and Doug Marello, who provide imaginative and spot-on pairings to Gras' dishes."
About the food, "He changes the way you feel about food. Slide a piece of kinmedai (golden eye snapper), unctuously fatty yet so mild you can detect a hint of cherrywood smoke, into your mouth and you'll never feel the same about snapper again."
And while the meal might cost as much as dining at Alinea or Charlie Trotter (Vittel notes that Laurent Gras belongs in this group of uber Chicago chefs), he notes that at the end of your meal, each guest is invited to tour the kitchen which is "too cool to miss."
As Chicago starts to wake up and read its Thursday paper, I'm sure the reservation line will start to heat up at the restaurant. Right before posting this, I checked OpenTable and there was availability a month out for a reservation. I bet that won't last for long.