This dish is a pastiche of the garden dishes of many chefs, all of whom pay homage to the original: the "Gargouillou" of Michel Bras. This New York Times article, though brief, describes the phenomenon.

The idea is to showcase what's fresh at the moment. In my case, it's what's available from the farms in the vicinity of San Francisco, many of the best of which bring their produce to the Ferry Building Farmer's Market. I've started to develop a relationship with many of the farmers, and I follow their selection of vegetables quite closely. They, in turn, point me to special produce that I might otherwise miss, or let me know when certain things are particularly fantastic, or sometimes even slip me a bag of something that isn't set out for the normal customers--and of course, they often give me wholesale prices and other deals.

The dish turns out a bit differently every time--even from Friday (on the left) to Saturday (on the right). Each night, the dish included around twenty components. The base, in this case, was a buttery, warm cauliflower puree. There was also a bit of beet puree, and a bit of carrot puree. Those would change depending on the season, the week, the availability of certain produce, etc. Then several vegetables are plated, including some raw and some cooked--various carrots, various beets, various radishes, romanesco, nameko mushrooms, etc. Then a bunch of leafy things get plated--spigariello (leaf broccoli), Japanese kale, tat soi, several chicories, red Nagoya kale, red Russian kale, orach. Finally, some herbs and flowers are plated, for their flavor and visual impact--chervil, mustard flowers. The idea is that the guest will dress the greens with the purees, and combine all the flavors in whatever ways he chooses. It's a very active dish for the diner, in that the diner must assemble his own bites from a large variety of flavors and textures, only a few of which can be in a particular bite. In that way, it commands the attention of the guest.

Yet the cooking is all quite simple. Nothing fancy at all, though preserving the natural colors does take some care in certain cases. The skill is all in the shopping and the arrangement. And the plating, with so many components, takes forever. I served this dish to a party of sixteen at a private party last Wednesday, and then to groups of 9 and 10 on Friday and Saturday. Plating 16 of these at once, or even 9 or 10, can take quite a while for one person--at least ten minutes! And that's after all the components have been individually prepped and assembled, greens washed, large greens torn or cut artfully, radishes sliced, beets and carrots cooked and in some cases peeled, in all cases selecting only the most handsome specimens. Suffice to say, it is a complex dish. Nevertheless, it is one of the most beautiful things I've ever plated, in my opinion. All the work is there for the guest to see, and the visual impact when these are brought out is pretty awesome. And the impact continues as the guest discovers other components lurking beneath the canopy.

In the future, I may tweak the purees, and I also might start dressing more of the greens. I found, when eating it, that some bites lacked acidity, particularly when you fail to get any of the purees along with your greens. I wanted to dress it with a citrusy froth, but I felt that if I did, my dish would too closely resemble David Kinch's at Manresa. So I held back on that. We'll see about the future versions.

Chicory Soil

Combine 3 parts vegan chicory soil (recipe below) with 1 part brown butter solids.

Vegan Chicory Soil
30g ground, dehydrated, roasted chicory root
60g sugar
60g flour
40g olive oil
5g salt

Mix all ingredients in a mixer, then roll out between two sheets of parchment paper. Bake at 300F for about 10 minutes, then remove the top piece of parchment and bake for another 5 minutes. Take it out and let cool, then break up the "cake" into a loose soil consistency. Return it to the oven for another several minutes until it gets more dry, and fairly toasty.

Posted by Barzelay on 2010/01/19 @ 0:15 | Comments (1) | Lazy Bear, Veggies, Fruit, Grain, Cheese

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