The July Tasting Menu was a success! We had about a 33% increase in attendance over the 3 day span and I'm very pleased with our outcome. The entire team (both front and back of house staff) pulled together and I'd say we were able to improve our execution and hopefully "wow" our guests. To all of our guests over the 3 days, the entire J. Gilbert's family would like to say "Thank You". I was thrilled that we essentially sold out our first day of the tasting (Sunday, July 10th) by Friday night, this tells me that the interest in this sort of dining is present in the state of Connecticut, and the increase in guest attendance is all the inspiration that my team needs to keep pushing ourselves. The next tasting menu event is scheduled for August 21-23 (Sunday-Tuesday). Work on that menu has begun and will hopefully be complete in week or so. As soon as it's complete it will be posted to the blog.
The following is a photographic recap of the July 2011 Chef's Tasting Menu...
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the amuse bouche that we put together for this tasting was an Ice Salad. Essentially this consisted of 2 savory granitas. A granita is a shaved ice. To make the ice salad we had to make a lettuce granita and a vinegar ice. For the lettuce granita we juiced the greens/lettuces that we use in our house salad. For the red wine vinegar ice we used red wine & red wine vinegar. The liquids are then placed into wide, shallow pans and placed into the freezer. Every 20-30 minutes for the next 3-5 hours these granitas are agitated/scraped which prevents the formation of large chunks of ice and produces small ice crystals. In the proper ratio our ice salad was right on the money. A few customers mentioned that theirs was "salty" which tells me that we must have been a touch heavy on the vinegar ice for that particular plate. We found a ratio of about 4 parts lettuce ice to 1 part vinegar ice was perfect
First Course:
Acadian Redfish
tomato "tartare", french beans, micro parsley
roasted tomato butter sauce
our redfish course started with a base of tomato "tartare". This "tartare" consisted entirely of finely diced tomato confit. The tomato confit is simply petals of tomato concasse slowly cooked with olive oil, salt, pepper & thyme. The resulting product tastes of bright, concentrated tomato
some thinly sliced chive gnocchi are pan seared and shingled atop the tomato confit
the redfish (pan seared to produce gorgeous crispy skin) is then laid against the tomato & gnocchi. A light salad of micro parsley and french cut haricot verts are tossed with simple lemon vinaigrette and this tops the redfish
lastly the plate is finished with a roasted tomato butter sauce which reinforces the tomato flavor of the dish while adding some body. Chive oil is dotted through the sauce and it's off to the guests.
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Acadian Redfish is caught in the gulf of Maine (in fact it's indigenous to the waters surrounding Acadia National Park just outside of Bar Harbor Maine, which is a fantastically beautiful place to visit). This fish is very small but is fantastic to eat. It has a light sweetness and a nice flake. Pan seared with crispy skin it's excellent eating. We actually beer battered a bunch of our extra redfish and had fish & chips for lunch on Tuesday, that also was delicious.
Course Two:
Scallop & Bacon
applewood bacon ice cream, seared scallop
fennel puree, shaved celery salad, orange gastrique
The Ice Cream: I had run a test of bacon ice cream earlier in the year and luckily I was able to track down my notes from that test. With the "chicken scratch" of my previous test "recipe" in hand it was pretty simple to make the adjustments I was looking for. I knew I wanted a more pronounced bacon flavor to the base so doubled the amount of bacon used to flavor/infuse my cream mixture. I replaced more (in my initial test had already replaced some sugar with powdered glucose) of the sugar with powdered glucose (which is not as sweet but provides the same structure). I also snuck a couple of tablespoons of strained bacon fat into the base before churning the ice cream. I am very pleased with the result that I achieved. The ice cream had a definitive bacon flavor and had only a faint sweetness to it. Still quite awkward as a stand alone product, but perfect in this dish partnered with a seared scallop
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In the finished dish (above) the seared scallop was plated atop fennel puree accented with vanilla bean infused olive oil. The bacon ice cream rests on the shaved celery salad (marinated with an orange dressing). The orange gastrique ties the two elements together with excellent acidity and the plate was garnished with micro tangerine greens.
Course Three:
Steak "Frites"
beef tenderloin, herb butter, truffled polenta fries
hen of the woods mushrooms, red wine sauce
This course is very straight forward...steak (filet) and fries (truffled polenta fries). The polenta was "seasoned" with white truffle oil once it's initial cooking was complete. Once the polenta cooled we cut it into shoestring fries. The red wine sauce was "built" by making a red wine jus with about 2 gallons of red wine and reducing this to one and a half quarts worth of jus. This concentrated red wine jus (infused with aromatics, porcini mushrooms and herbs) was then used to make the red wine demi glace for the dish. This course was a no-brainer from the start, earthy mushrooms throughout (porcini in the sauce, truffle in the polenta and maitake on the plate), red wine, beef tenderloin and an herb compound butter to finish it off. The herb butter was made with parsley and chives to add a bit of color and fresh vibrance to the plate.
Fourth (Dessert) Course:
Chocolate - Cherry
warm flourless valhrona chocolate cake
candied walnuts, tea forte gelee, gingerroot buttercream
morello cherry sorbet
All of the flavors on this plate were designed to play off of the chocolate cake (which is very rich and indulgent) and the sour cherry sorbet, which acts as a palate cleanser (and also provides a temperature contrast to the warm cake).
the fleur de sel in the candied walnuts helped to enhance some of the nuances of the the extra bitter valhrona chocolate used in the cake, while the buttercream added some spice and depth to the plate. We added the tea gelee (made using Orchid-Vanilla Tea Forte) to the plate to add another texture that would compliment the flavors of the dish at the same time. The floral notes of the tea worked well with both the chocolate and cherry. Finally we added a touch of whipped vanilla cream fraiche to the plate that lent a little tang (from the creme fraiche) and touch of moisture to the cake.
these are a couple of the charts (one form Sunday and one from Monday) that we developed to track our progress with each of the tables during the tasting menu coursing. We use these to ensure that we don't miss anything, to keep track of things such as food allergies, to monitor our timing, and just to help keep our front of house staff and back of house staff on the same page
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In the charts above on the far right we track which tables are dog owners (I'm a bit a dog loving lunatic) and those tables are sent home with hand made dog treats (I am constantly making dog treats for my boxer Lola at home) along with a french macaroon or macaron (below). We saw a large increase in the number of dog owners this month which I was pleased to see. It is a tall order that I've given to our servers to determine which tables are dog owners without coming across entirely awkward at the table, perhaps they improved with this task from last month. This months macaron flavor was blueberry. I actually had to put 3 weekends worth of testing into this macaron as the coloring I was using in the "shells" kept destabilizing the egg whites and ruining the cookies during baking. Fortunately I tested these and worked out the kinks prior to the weekend of the tasting. We used fresh blueberries in the buttercream filling and they came out very nicely. I'm already working on a ridiculous flavor for next month...I'll never tell...
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That's "all she wrote"...I've gotta get busy brainstorming and testing for next month.
Questions & comments are welcome, come to think of it even suggestions for future menus are fair game, thank you for your support of my culinary team and the entire J. Gilbert's, Glastonbury family.
