This pass week focus was our forth restaurant service. This time I was a team player but not a group leader which made my job a lot easier, I found it very enjoyable and laid back but less challenging. We were doing the fish dish again and got to handle dorade (sea bream) once again. Another interesting new concept this time was cooking a pasta-“risotto” a la minute, meaning, cooking it freshly with every order. took about 20 minutes to cook every time so we had to start a little while after the order came in and it was not simple to handle 4 pots cooking different phases of the risotto. The first night I was frying the fish, which was also good for me because as the group leader last two restaurant services and the first one which we did the cold amuse bouche, I didn’t get a chance to be in the real fish/meat preparation station. The second day of service we had to switch to the 4th floor restaurant with an unfamiliar kitchen but it was nice to have a change. We were waiting for 40 lunch covers but a reservation for ten got cancelled last minute. I guess in an actual real restaurant this sort of thing is a real waste of money and time.
The dinner menu
Millefeuille de foie gras au pain d'épices, vinaigre balsamique
Rabbit pâté on a toast with mustard ice-cream
Préssée de volaille au chou vert, salsifis cuit au jus
Marbré de canard et foie gras aux artichauts
Demi-dorade piquée aux olives, risotto de coquillettes
First day presentation
Deconstructed Paella
Canon d'agneau rôti et sa croutes d'agrumes, gnocchi de pomme de terre, dattes au citron
Jarret de porc farci de joue de cochon, lentilles verts du Puy
Amuse bouche Anglo A: Millefeuille de foie gras au pain d’épices, vinaigre balsamique – Foie gras, spice bread, reduction of balsamic vinegar.
The livers has to be deveined. How? Watch the video
Rested inside alcohol
Put inside a terrine mold. Pushed down, then cooked for 30 min in a bain marrie and then pressed heavily until served
The terrine ready to be sliced
Spice bread toasts, balsamic syrup
The slices had to be thinner in my opinion
The crust added both sides like a sandwich
Served to all customers
Presented
Amuse bouche Anglo B – Rabbit pâté on a toast with mustard ice-cream
Cannel of rabbit pâté
Plating
I tasted just the ice-cream and it's kinda weird on the pallet, surprising
Entree Anglo A: Préssée de volaille au chou vert, salsifis cuit au jus – Pressed chicken with green cabbage, salsify cooked in juice
Little rectangles of cabbage
Salsify which is this rot vegetable cooked in chicken broth
Chicken breasts cooked for hours on low temp
Separate the meat from the bones
Frying some foie gras
mixing the chicken with herbs and the foie gras
...
The mixture ready to be pressed
The happy group
The presser doing overtime
Eye level view
Bird's eye view (thanks Claire)
On the pass
Entree Anglo B: Marbré de canard et foie gras aux artichauts – Duck, potatoes, artichokes and foie gras terrine.
Before coloring
On a bed of leaves
Crown
Fish Anglo A: Demi-dorade piquée aux olives, risotto de coquillettes – Half a sea bream stung with olives, risotto of pasta shells
We cleaned and filetted 32 dorades
Then every filet was "stung" with olive scales, took a while but it was amusing
Scaled olives
For the pesto and the risotto we got a huge chunk of parmegiano reggiano
A good amount of pesto
Our mise en place, I actually spent about an hour to cut one zucchini to 1mm squares
Childhood memories for french people apparently
Staring the service with cooking the pasta risotto style per order
Barbara handling the risotto cooking
Adding butter, parmesan and a spoon of every color vegetable
Four pots of different stages of the risotto
Frying the pique dorade
Plating
First day we plated inside a bowl
Second day plating was in a square plate, trying different styles of plating
The winning plating
Did I mention the pine nuts?
Pretty nice but kinda simple
Yum, pesto, pine nuts, parmesan
I know, many pictures 🙂
Fish Anglo B: Deconstructed Paella
Seafood slide
Blowing a film bubble
Really cute
Side view
Meat Anglo A: Canon d’agneau rôti et sa croutes d’agrumes, gnocchi de pomme de terre, dattes au citron – Canon of lamb and citrus crusts, potato gnocchi, lemon dates
We were all experimenting with bonning the "canon" out of the lamb rack
The canon after I cleaned it and the layer of fat
Most of the time dedicated to...... pealing dates! Hot and sticky
Making the gnocchi
Posing chefs
These gnocchi were fine but too heavy, have to find a better recipe
Cooked
Braising the canon of lamb, wrapped in lamb fat
Carved before plating
Plated
Lamb
Meat Anglo B: Jarret de porc farci de joue de cochon, lentilles verts du Puy – Knuckle of pork stuffed with pig’s cheek, green lentils
Making baby carrots
Green lentils
Side view
Didn't have time to ask for a taste of the lentils and most of the other group's dishes
The pass
The 4th floor pass
The calm before the storm
Anglo B's part of the kitchen
The Gard Manger
אנחנו היינו היום במסעדה שנחשבת לטובה מאוד בארץ ולא זכינו לקצה של הדברים שהגשתם שם כמובן….. גם מבחינת האוכל המעניין וכמובן הפלייטינגוהעיצוב המדהים שוווה שווה
just a few hours after I left and you are already at a fancy restaurant?
what is the – rôti et sa croutes d’agrumes ???
Roti is roasted (roasted lamb) with a citrus crust
I had a Deconstructed Paella in Washington DC, last time Dhiru invited me to dinner
Very nice & so diverse!
My favorites were Deconstructed Paella & risotto de coquillettes.
It left me a bit confused because I thought risotto is only for rice, not pasta..
The risotto issue is that it’s actually a cooking technique so it can be used to cook not only rice but whatever. Came out nice, but using rice would be more creamy in texture… Chef wanted something that the audience will be remembering their childhood, this is why the little pasta was chosen