August 2011 Tasting Menu Post Report:

It's taken quite a while to get this post report posted...things have been crazy at the restaurant, what with Hurricanes and power outages and such.  I'm very pleased to announce that the August Tasting Menu was an unprecedented success.  We sold out all three days of the menus run and completed a total of 98 chef's tasting menus!  My team and I want to thank all of our wonderful guests who came in and participated.  We put an enormous amount of time and effort into the tasting menus (from development to planning to execution and production) and it's all worth it when we're able to sell out for three straight days and please our guests.  What's even more exciting is that by the time we were finished with day three of the August tasting menus run we had nearly sold out our September tasting menu, and that menu hadn't even been written yet!  There are still some slots available for the upcoming September Chef's Tasting Menu, but they are going quick...

Anyhow, here's a brief photographic synapse of the August Chef's Tasting Menu that ran Sunday, 8/21/11 to Tuesday, 8/23/11...

For the amuse bouche we put together a clam(s) casino.  This is simply a freshly shucked countneck clam (about the size of a half dollar) on the half shell that is topped with a casino butter (a mixture of bell pepper, garlic, bacon, white wine, butter and other goodies) and baked/broiled.  The resulting bite is fantastic!

First Course:

Tuna Crudo

tomato ceviche, watermelon pickles, micro cilantro

cucumber "soba" noodles

aji amarillo coulis, chipotle aioli

this dish came together beautifully with all the components combining to create a wonderful marriage of freshness, acidity and summer flavor.  This dish featured sungold cherry tomatoes from Beckett Farm right here in Glastonbury, CT!  The aji amarillo coulis is a spicy yellow chile sauce that is inspired by my El Salvadorian team members, many of whom are very fond of this chile. 



Second Course:

Butter Poached Lobster Tail

gold potato blini, celery salad, native tomato marmalade

lobster-tarragon emulsion

This dish was received as a great success and chosen by many of our guests as their favorite course, but I secret was not pleased with our plating on this dish.  For me the plate presented itself as crowded and if I had it to do over again I'd most definitely re-work the plating.  The lobster poached in beurre monte is the star here and this cooking method (slowly cooking the lobster submerged in emulsified butter) highlights the subtleties of lobsters and produces a perfectly cooked meltingly delicious lobster...

Third Course:

Braised Boneless Shortribs

sweet corn polenta cake

local goat cheese stuffed squash blossom

roasted mushroom pan jus & horseradish bubbles

this dish featured boneless beef shortribs from Meyer Ranch slow cooked in a porcini mushroom & veal jus.  The finished shortribs were served with a pan seared corn polenta cake (featuring local corn from Ferrari Farms in Glastonbury, CT), roasted cremini mushrooms, fresh horseradish bubbles and a goat cheese stuffed squash blossom tempura.  The goat cheese we used for the squash blossom was from Beltane Farm in Lebanon CT. 

Fourth (Dessert) Couse:

Vanilla-Mango

mango sorbet & salted vanilla-caramel ice cream

strawberry fluid gel

vanilla olive oil cake, candied pinenuts, mango "tartare"

this dessert featured the flavors of mango and vanilla and the components of the dish were developed to accent or contrast them.  I also presented variations in temperatures (hot/warm olive cake and cold ice cream/sorbet) & textures (crisp pinenuts to smooth sorbet).

 

The meal finished and we presented our guests with a Chocolate-Passionfruit Macaron (below).  The macaron cookie shells are flavored with a fine belgian cocoa powder.  A valhrona chocolate & passionfruit ganache is sandwiched between 2 macaron shells.

and for those guest with canine friends/furry children we sent them home with some hand made dog treats as I'm a fanatical dog lover.

That completes the post report...again I'm very pleased with the success of this tasting menu and look forward the September Tasting Menu which is right around the corner (September 18th - 20th).  The menu for the September Tasting is completed and will be posted very soon!

Thank you all

July 2011 Tasting Menu Post Report:

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...

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.

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 

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

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...

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.

June 2011 Tasting Menu Post Report:

The first menu of the revised tasting menu series is now officially under our belts at J. Gilbert's in Glastonbury!  All in all our team did very well, though the 3 days of tasting menus were certainly not without a few minor issues behind the scenes.  Much of this first menu involved a major learning curve for my team in the kitchen as we had to completely rethink our execution this year.  In the past we've done 80% of the plating and cooking from "the line", this year we changed our process in an effort to expedite the courses and also ensure proper plate presentation and temperature of food.  We essentially set up an entire kitchen in our small prep area.  It took some work and flexibility on the fly but we made it work and I believe we ended up with a better product at the end of the day in comparison to years past.  Now we have a better idea of what we're capable of this year with the new set up and equipment.  Just a few of the new tools/equipment that we brought in this year for the new format are a brand spanking new portable steam table, a free standing toasting oven/broiler & 2 brand new ice cream machines!  I'm confident that we can take the lessons learned from our execution of the first menu and make the necessary adjustments within our team to provide improvements in the execution of the second menu of the season, which is presently in the works... So here's a recap of our First Tasting Menu of the 2011 Summer Tasting Menu Series:



The amuse bouche presented to all of our guests for this menu was a BLT on a spoon.

The bacon we used was from Berkshire hogs and thus was loaded with flavor allowing us to get big bacon flavor in a very small piece.  The Lettuce component was a watercress coulis, the tomato component was a tomato marmalade.  We topped the bite with a small round of toasted sourdough and a "dot" of rosemary aioli. 

The resulting mouthful ended with concentrated flavor of a BLT

First Course:

Georges Bank Scallops

sweet corn puree, red pepper relish, pickled onion

basil gelee, black pepper tuile

The three highlighted flavors of this dish are fresh corn, natural sea scallops & basil.  The scallops are highlighted with simple preparation and by sourcing all natural (NOT soaked or treated) Georges Bank Scallops.  For the corn and basil I wanted to be certain that those flavors were not muddled by any unnecessary ingredients.  The corn puree or sauce consists only of fresh corn juice, fresh corn kernels and a touch of butter...the result is a vibrant sauce that announces itself as fresh sweet corn.  The basil component is in the form of a gelee (this is featured in a previous posting) with the only ingredients being basil, water and agar (the gelling agent).  The pepper relish, pickled onion and black pepper tuile are accompaniments to the dish which add texture and depth.

Second Course:

Prime Carpaccio "Ravioli"

beltane farms goat cheese, mushroom puree, black truffle aioli

herb salad, grenache vinaigrette

In this dish we've made a ravioli with thin sliced prime sirloin as the "pasta" and filled it with local goat cheese from Beltane Farms in Lebannon, Ct.  The mushroom puree and truffle aioli provide depth and earthiness to the dish while the herb salad with grenache vinaigrette serves to add some freshness and crispness to the dish.

Third Course:

New Zealand Lamb Loin

"tater tots", caramelized zucchini, pickled cherries

rosemary pesto, chocolate lamb jus

In this dish the "tater tots" are actually small potato croquettes.  The cherries were pickled with red wine and spices and the chocolate lamb jus was made by creating a lamb stock with roasted bones and aromatics.  This stock was then reduced and finally mounted with 100% cacao chocolate.  We used the 100% cacao so that we could get all of the flavor of chocolate with none of the sweetness, the result was perfect.

Fourth (Dessert) Course:

Strawberries 3 Ways

strawberry shortcake, broken chocolate-strawberry napoleon, strawberries & balsamic

For our version of strawberry shortcake we made a sorbet as the strawberry element and round lady finger cookies for the shortcake element.  We also served creme anglaise and peppermint whipped cream with this presentation.  The broken napoleon consisted of a valhrona chocolate creme patisserie and cocoa phyllo crisps with fresh strawberries.  Finally for the classic pairing of strawberries with balsamic we macerated strawberries in vanilla sugar and fresh thyme.  For the balsamic vinegar element we made a balsamic ice cream and topped the strawberries with this.