The Aftermath:

Happy Holidays to everyone!  They are finally over.  I love the holidays, I'm not a grinch, I swear.  The problem with the holidays in this business is that you're not left with a moment to spare.  If you're not working, you're shopping or wrapping or cooking, etc...  Needless to say we've had NO time to do any testing for tasting menus in the past 2 weeks.  But the Holiday season is over and so Brian got to work yesterday, commenting that nothing had been posted on the blog for a while...my apologies.

Here's what Brian made and my critique of the dish:

Celeriac Soup with hedgehog mushrooms & lobster froth

The Soup:  Celeriac, Butter, Water, Kosher Salt, White Pepper

The Lobster Froth:  Lobster Glace, Cream

the hedgehog mushrooms were beautifully cooked and the texture of the soup was terrific, extremely smooth, yet a bit too thick, it simply needed to be thinned a touch, easy fix.  

The end result, however, was that Brian over did it with the white pepper!  The soup was over seasoned with the pepper to the point where it overtook the palate and didn't allow for the other ingredients, which were nicely done, to pronounce themselves.

Four things that Brian must do to perfect the dish. 

1.) take it easy with the white pepper

2.) lose the micro green garnish, it's not necessary

3.) adjust the consistancy of the soup

4.) Stabilize the lobster foam with some lecithin, this will increase his yield, stabilize the foam & provide a better mouthfeel

At the end of the day he (Brian, a.k.a. monoblanco) did a nice job, fact is that if he hadn't over seasoned the soup with pepper, I'd probably have very little to criticize.