4 to 6

well the 4 star place actually got six. Still it is wanky and over the top, fun reading or rather criticizing the review when you know more than the reviewer.
http://www.timeout.com/newyork/articles/restaurants-bars/69236/corton
His lavender mustard foamy thing is awesome, his dishes so labour intensive it takes two chefs a day to prep one but cool if you can do it and boring if you have to do it 80 hours a week.
So here is a review, without eating at a restaurant.
Corton is trying to be a serious contender for the top fine dining restaurant in manhattan, without a chef with a comparable reputation to Thomas Keller it is going to be hard to compete with Per Se. Chef Paul Liebrandt has serious talent and potential as does the concept, in these difficult times the top end food and service is accompaned by reasonable prices. Everyone is making a fuss over the from the garden salad, just a pile of veges on a plate showing off many flavor combination and cooking techniques arranged artfully in a five stage plating process consisting of 20 or 30 seperate elements. For some it may seem over handled, others too beautiful to eat for me just over the top. The fois gras shows outstanding care and skill in its preperation and plating but the flavor falls short of the visual appeal. Scallops with their modern art look deserve gallery space and the dining room provides it, the flavors are fresh rich and clean, the tweezer skill required to arrange them is surgeon like. Green olive sponge starts you off with a delightful bite of cleverly ingenuitive microwave ability, the puffed buckwheat worked well with its oyster. As for the main show if you like the texture provided by sousvide cooking you are spoilt for choice. The finale is the star, caramel brioche with a touch of stilton and beatiful ice-cream and heaps of balancing flavors that took me to thailand without the heat.
Yeah I want to eat their but i dont think they take hodded rifraf.

Aphrodisiac recipes

So this is the latest turn in my cooking career. I am writing recipes for males that want to increase their stamina. It is looking good I might even get a recipe or two published although I am finding it hard to write crucial instructions like drink one hour before intercourse or eat until you feel horny.
Just sounds ridiculous.

Liquid nitro cooking

Well the highlight of my 4 star staging was cold cooking. The pastry chef, couldn't help but jam some air guitar every time a technique called for playing with freezing liquid. It looked super cool and produced some fun effects. Citrus can be smashed apart to individual.... um i wanna say segments but what are the segments of segments. Now that i have made complete sense and my point perfectly clear i will continue to confuse. Soak a cake in liquid, think tres leches then coat with frozen citrus segmentations for a cool look and unique textural sensation. For those of you that know of Heston his nitro stuff is pretty easy with one big but be careful, habits can cause serious damage. A spoon that has been dipped in really cold stuff should not be tasted unless your aim is to provide comic relief and dont mind not being able to taste for a week.

Stage

Working for free in a kitchen is referred to as staging (star- ge). On friday and saturday I was stage in a new restaurant corton. The highlights were liquid nitrogen, a $12,000 white truffle the biggest to come into the country in 3 years and someone smoking weed in the bathroom of a fine dining restaurant. The menu was a bit over the top (wanky) at times with high tech plating, mostly done with tweesers. The 5 stage salad had over 20 components and if the circulators for the sous-vide cooking broke, (boil in bag) the kitchen would have to be shut down.
More on monday......

Ingredient driven

I have struggled to describe my style of cooking but now I have figured out that I am ingredient driven. Just meaning I have no clue what I am doing or going to make until it appears on a plate or bowl. My little direction is governed by what's hanging around and needs using most.
Today, we had a avocado that was perfectly ripe, I visited the local wholefoods, purchased some potatoes, brussel sprouts, green onion and pork, with a few breakfast items it was amazing to escape for ten bucks. On the rainy trudge kitchen ward, the meal concept came after stopping to admire street art. So simple but cool painted shadows of a fire hydrant, my taco concept was far less brilliant. Tortillas were another thing sitting in the fridge, so my strange tacos ended up as apple chipotle miso briased pork with tri color potato brussel hash topped with avo. Kindda wierd but good and cheap.

readysteadycook

market to mini kitchen

some inspiration along the way

tasty squash and scallops

Cruising for leaves

The finale of my Manhattan season, a cruise up the Hudson til my New Yorker kitchen hand had no clue where we were. This boat was very late on its southern migration and this last trip was all about looking at leaves. My faux pas of the day was describing one dish as roast Autumn produce, oh you mean a Fall vegetable salad, yes indeed. Possibly another annoying american word to add to the list that route (R - OUT) is currently topping.
The long time discrimination suffering brussel sprout has been a hit in my last few buffets, so try the kids on this one. Quarter and blanch then saute in butter and garlic, dress with dried apricots, cranberries, roast pinenuts, grapefruit segments and juice, pomegranate and a teaspoon of sour cream. Toss together, season and serve warm oh and fryed shallots too are good.
The biggest success was teaching people that beets come in a variety of colors (I am willing to embrace some american english) and can be eaten raw. Sliced thin, you kinda need a slicer type thing, mandolin really essential bit of kitchen kit. Toss with some arugula, (don't know what language I am adopting here) feta, balsamic vinagerette.
I even discovered that looking at leaves can actually be a legitimate enjoyable passtime and that white beets are beautifully sweet but a bit too fibrous/starchy to eat raw.