Complexity and Food

I apologize for the delay between posts. Been a crazy few weeks. Busy weekends at the restaurants, new life developments ... you understand, right?

With molecular gastronomy asserting its dominance as a new food craze, the idea of food and what is delicious food is becoming confusing.

Molecular gastronomy in itself is confusing. That's almost the point. To deliver the unexpected, to surprise your palate, to have fun with food. I totally respect that and I think we as humans have come to a point that allows us to make fun of food. And I think it's obvious from my blog that I have a massive man crush on Grant Achatz. But there's a reason for that.

Using space-age technology and obscure chemicals in the kitchen is just fine, so long as it tastes good. I haven't eaten at Alinea or El Bulli, but even Grant himself seems to have an issue with his mentor's food. After studying the cookbooks of both, reading what a 20+ course dinner is like at each establishment, there seems to be a clear difference. Chef Achatz, though innovative and distinguished, still focuses on food being tasty. Chef Adria has seem to switched his focus to being as crazy and new-age as possible, taste has almost become secondary.

I obviously can't truly make that statement with much validity because I haven't eaten their food personally (except when I tried to elbow that grandma out of my way at Chef Achatz's cooking demo ... she boxes out like a champ). So I will leave it at a distant personal observation, and the opinions of others to give that statement weight. Anyway, I wanted to illustrate another point.

At what point do complexity and flavor reach a wonderful harmony? The answer: Thomas Keller. Okay not necessarily, but I really admire his balance between complex flavors and straight-up deliciousness. It would be a fulfillment of my ultimate dream to work at Per Se, Bouchon or The French Laundry. But if you compare the recipes of Keller, to Achatz, to Adria, to Portale ... or between Scott Bryan, Mario Batali, and Rick Bayless ... they each toe a line between simplicity and complexity, with every dish reaching the perfect point somewhere along that line.

Some dishes are meant to be simple, their ingredients being lightly dressed to allow the brightness and boldness of their flavors to shine through. I'm thinking of a good beef carpaccio. High-quality, grass-fed beef, pounded thin with a kiss of lemon juice, salt and olive oil ... it's delicious (though at Va Pensiero we add a little tomato fondue, parmigiano reggiano and arugula). Some dishes are incredibly complex, sometimes taking several days to get all the pieces together. Generally, the whole Alinea cookbook is kind of like that. You can see for yourself here, Carol Blymire's blog about cooking Alinea at home. Delicious, though very labor intensive.

So I guess the grand question is, where do I want to fit in on this spectrum? The S. Pellegrino List of the World's 50 Best Restaurants seems to have a thing for molecular gastronomy restaurants. But it also has plenty of restaurants that pride themselves on having dishes that contain less than 6 ingredients. I'd like to say I lean towards the simpler side, though I guess even that is subjective; what is simple?

One of my favorite dishes at Va Pensiero seems very complex, but it's quite simple.

Scallops with Brandied Lobster Sauce

The sauce is a standard mirepoix sauteed with lobster and shrimp shells. Once they are softened and much of their juice has been released, you deglaze with brandy, add dried tarragon and tomato paste. Then you add a truck load of cream and let it reduce for the day until it has a beautiful color reminiscent of a creamsicle. Strain, keep warm.

The scallops are U-10 (under 10 per pound, so ... big scallops), crusted with our herb mix (parsley, sage, rosemary, thyme, marjoram), seasoned and sauteed. The final dish is served with the sauce on the plate, scallops on top with navel orange supremes and a light salad of microgreens or arugula.

It's kind of a heavy dish, but it's rich and delicious. A lot of the dishes I like seem to have this level of "complexity." A veal saltimbocca with shallot sauce, a steak au poivre with a creamed mushroom pan sauce, steamed lobster with ghee and Old Bay even.

So if it ever comes to be the time you can come to my restaurant, as of now I promise no shenanigans. But things could change. After all, I'm going for fireworks. Who knows where that could take my food?

Feel free to comment and tell me your favorite dish. I love to hear about that kind of stuff.

EP #6