ham & peas | cured pork jowl - parsley juice - pea puree - morel mushrooms - white asparagus - smoked foam - morel demi
Sometimes I create dishes purely on a certain look that I'm aiming for. I have a picture in my head of how I'd want the dish to look, and then I make it work from a taste and culinary perspective. This seems backwards because you're essentially building flavor based entirely on presentation and aesthetics, something a cook should worry about last, but for me, the exercise produces unique flavor combinations that wouldn't have been arranged otherwise.
peas & pistachios | pistachio puree - goat cheese & white chocolate mousse - sicilian pistachio cookie crumble - clarified pea gel
Jenna, our pastry chef, juiced a bunch of peas, and clarified it with agar. She then gelled an empty pea pod, and painstakingly stuck each pea back of it. An English pea jell-o mold. These ingredients have no business being on the same plate, but Jenna was somehow able to persuade them into cooperation. In the end, they worked together beautifully.