Monthly Archives: August 2011

Licorice Cake, Orange Confit, Anise Hyssop, Spun Sugar

It won’t come as much of a surprise that after that last dish, I was interested in doing something a little simpler. While the tomato dish was unarguably fun to try, there’s something relaxing to me about making and eating a dish like this one, which highlights flavors atomically and is eaten in one bite. [...]

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Tomato, Balloon of Mozzarella, Many Complimentary Flavors

Hey guys! Are you ready for a super-verbose and instructional description of one of the most beautiful and challenging dishes in the Alinea cookbook?? No? You’d rather do something more productive? Too bad! This one will be involved. I’ve been preparing for this one since January, and it’s taken me weeks to get it working [...]

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Aged Gouda, Black Truffle, Honey, Thyme

  Something Sarah and I picked up in New Zealand was the relatively-simple but incredibly-delicious pairing of cheese with honey. I can’t remember exactly what led us to this, but it wasn’t infrequently that we spent a Sunday morning perusing the cheese wares at Moore Wilson, picked out a nice cheddar, and got a small [...]

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Black Truffle Explosion, Romaine, Parmesan

My previous odyssey with black truffles, which involved making about 1kg of truffle juice, was put to good use for this one. This relatively-unassuming little ravioli is one of Alinea’s powerhouses and is Chef Achatz’ signature dish. The idea is actually very simple and straightforward; a small ravioli is topped with a slice of black [...]

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