Sweet Cuisine

Pumpkin, Mulled Wine, Pinenut Croquant and Horchata Espuma,

Here is a little snippet of a pumpkin pie sorbet with Mulled wine Jelly Veil, Pinenut Croquant, Horchata Espuma, Grue de Cocao, Parkin Fluid Gel 

Labels: horchata, mulled wine, Pumpkin

Chocolate Moelleux with Flexible Ganache Honeycomb wafer, Pink Grapefruit and Vanilla Sorbet,

Just having a play with the Flexible chocolate by Alex Stupak which he did for the Alinea cookbook, Really interesting texture as it feels almost plasticy if that's a word but is super creamy in the mouth, took a while to nail the recipe as it kept breaking but perseverance paid off.  This dish is just a play with what i had hanging around so development of it is under way possibly on a future menu.

Cookbooks :No1- Natura

I am an avid collector of cookbooks, especially dessert cookbooks of which I have countless, a couple of months ago I recieved my copy of 'Natura' by Albert Adria and can say that the work in this book is by far the most amazing I have seen in a cookbook. The book itself is different from the start with a padded feel to it, Along with the book which acts as a photo album you recieve a cd-rom with pictures and the recipes for all the dishes.

I wont deny that I am a keen follower of El Bulli and similar types of cuisine and as much as what people call molecular gastronomy or the more laughable phrase techno emotional cuisine(???wtf) what strikes me most in Adrias new piece of work is that there is hardly any use of the Methly Cellulose, Gums, Emulsifiers and more use of freeze dried products from the texturas Lyo range as well as sharing the techniques for 30 second microwave cake Albert Adria has gone back in time and reinvented mimicing fresh fruits but using a sorbet, a jelly and a mould of the fruits, he takes a strawberry gel made of Agar and puree'd, coats a strawberry mould with this freezes it then fills it with a strawberry puree, the results are amazing, and to be honest It wasnt until i read the book I realised it was not really the fresh succulent fruit that I percieved but a sorbet, this method is repeated with a few other fruits. 

I would recommend this book as a must for any serious pastry chefs out there, the photography is amazing, The story from Adria is captivating and the recipes are there to be tested, so far i have tried and adapted a few and they are all great

All in all I think this is his definitive work, now it seems from online articles that Albert is stepping away from El Bulli and he has produced this fantastic book he will be a big miss for the El Bulli Restaurant, For me he was the one pastry chef I would have given my right arm to have the opportunity to work under but sadly that chance  never arrived. yet. 

Labels: Albert Adria, Dessert cookbook, El bulli, Natura

New Menu Balloon

When I first made the sorbet Balloon I didnt expect it to become one of this dishes that you get stuck with but due to the popularity of it I cant remove it from the menu, because of this you will see an evolution of the dish as the seasons change here in Auckland.

Right now I can get amazing rhubarb from a local supplier, very red and full of flavour which brought me back to memories of Rhubarb crumble or stewed rhubarb that my mother made when I was a child. 

I decided to pair it with hazelnuts, Anise which took form in fresh fennel dressed in caramel and lemon juice,  Ammereto custard,  fennel and lime air, and a fried rice wafer that I had been working on for a while. I was trying to create a salad like looking dish with the presentation.

Im very happy with the dish which can be a pain to plate up during service but  the menu is in its early days and Im sure it will become easier.

Inside the balloon is  a rhubarb Cheesecake espuma, I filled and cut a balloon open so you can see that it is not just a dense sorbet ball or frozen empty shell, we

 fill the balloon to order with the espuma.

Labels: Ameretto, Nitro Balloon, Rhubarb

Tonka Beans

I love tonka beans, for me they are amazing with chocolate and i regularly infuse any chocolate dessert with the flavour of Tonka, they are very arromatic and it only takes a little bit of Tonka to infuse a large quantity of mix. Right now I serve a Cannoli shaped chocolate egg free custard made with kappa Carragenen, Vahlrona Araguani and cream with a little salt. The texture and mouth feel are great.

The Tonka bean has flavours reminiscent to Cinnamon, Vanilla and almonds and I believe that they were used as flavouring substitute for vanilla.

The Tonka bean is mostly found growing in South America but Nigeria is also one of the growers.

I think the beans look amazing, little black beans with such a strong flavour, when you pop open the jar i can keep them in it floods the pastry section with there aroma. So much so that the great perfume makers include it in there repertoire for making perfume, and interestingly they are also used in witchcraft, but that may be another story.

Labels: Chocoalte, Honeycomb, Tonka Bean

Licourice, Almond, Yoghurt and Banana.

Here is the first draft of the Licourice and Almond Capsule filled with Pineapple Fluid Gel, Served with a 30 second Yoghurt cake, Almond and yoghurt crumble, Banana white chocolate puree and licourice Ice Cream. Love the balance of flavours on the dish, The Acidity from the Yoghurt knocks the sweetness from the Pineapple down, and a more natural rather than moulded look.  

Labels: 30 second cake, Almond, Licourice, Mi-cake, Pineapple, Yoghurt

New Menus

Here is the link to the new menu at the restaurant. 

Labels: Kermadec, New Menu

Spaghetti Jelly

Here is the process for the spaghetti Jelly for the Salted caramel dish, ,

The Jelly is Balsamic and Apple Jelly, made with .65% gellan to liquid .

When the Jelly is made it is piped into plastic tubes using the syringe, then dropped into Ice Water. Using a special attachment that you can see in the photo for the Siphon I use the air to blow the jelly from the tube to order, because we use gellan we can serve the spaghetti jelly warm with the dish

Labels: apple, Balsamic, Spaghetti Jelly, Vanilla

Spanish trip part 2,

I'm all done in the planning for my trip to Spain, and reading Burch and Purchese's Blog is just whetting my appetite as Darren Purchese is going to do what seems like a similar trip, but before me!! jealous , well for a couple of months, 

I'm heading to Spain in the last week of September to avoid the extreme sun, ( being Scottish , Sun = Sunburn lobster style in minutes), I will be eating in Sergio Arola Gastro before heading up to San Sebastian to eat in Arzak, Martin Berasategui and Mugaritz, with the usual show arounds, still working on a stage at Mugaritz(if your reading this Giulio I may need some help), but have a couple of days arranged in the kitchen of Berasategui.

After this I will be flying down to Alicante to take up my 7 day stage at El Poblet in Denia, and with Paco Torreblanca's pastry shop Totel just down the road in Alicante I just have to make that visit.Just in case I have set aside one day on the chance of working in the Totel kitchen or even just to meet the man himself Im hoping to extract as much info out of El Poblet as possible, Quique DaCostas book is very impressive and im intrigued about there use of Aloe as a gelling agent, foamer and thickener in there cuisine.

After my time in Alicante I journey on to Mon St Benet where the research centre Alicia is housed and Restaurant Angle of Jordi Cruz. I cant wait to see this place. So many of today's top spanish chefs use the place for research, just to have a tour will be fantastic. Also the Hotel looks awesome so have treated myself and will stay for one day(opposed to the budget Accommodation for the rest of the stay,). 

I'm driving up to Girona to go to El Celler Can Roca after this and will eat there in the evening and spend two days in the kitchens trying to suck up as much info from Jordi Roca as possible, I love the desserts he produce with influences from perfumes and nature. And the new Roca restaurant looks amazing, I love the look of the wine cellars which look like they are made out of the wine boxes. 

After Girona I head into Barcelona to Inopia, Espai Sucre and Oriol Balaguer's, Sadly i wasn't so lucky to get into to El Bulli but I will persist until I get back on that plane to NZ. 

And that wraps up my trip. I'm lucky enough to be able through my work to do this trip every year and will be heading back to Spain next year with a different plan and Itinerary .

Its a bit of a whirlwind tour of Spain but I should gain alot from it and in turn share it with the guys back at Kermadec.

Labels: Alicante, Arzak, Burch and Purchese, El celler can roca, El Poblet, Mugaritz, Oriol Balaguer, Paco TorreBlanca, Quique DaCosta, Spain, Totel

New and revamped Salted Caramel Mousse

This is the only dish I kept for the new menu. Its the Salted Caramel Mousse but reword with Balsamic and Apple Jelly, little Donuts, and Raisin Puree with a Granny Smith Sorbet, some compressed Apples and some pretty intense Cinnamon Meringues. I love the flavours and its perfect for this time of year

Labels: Granny Smith Sorbet, Salted Caramel Mousse

Kitchen Equipment

We were extremely lucky when we got the new kitchens at Kermadec , getting fantastic gear , We got Rational ovens all over the place, 4 to be exact, a bonguard bread oven, Pacojet, Roner's, Antigriddle, Dehydrator, induction stove a couple of Scope blast-chillers, and the usual solid tops, fryers pasta boilers.....

SO much gear and we're getting good use of it all, all in all was a 1 million dollar outfit, love it and would find it hard to give it up, unless i got my very own kitchen, so if anyone out there wants to invest in a dessert restaurant in NZ give me a call;)

Pictured above is the Pastry section

Labels: Dehydrator, Ezi Dry, Kitchen, Pacojet, rational oven, Scope Blast Freezer