A Very Busy Week

Monday 9/13
Prep for James Beard Dinner, 70ppl:
6 qts chilled plum soup
4 qts green grape sorbet
3 tubs crispy rice tuile
1 qt fresh red plum slices
1 qt fresh yellow plum slices
70 pc lemon macarons
70 pc mini chocolate chip cookies
70 pc mango-orange jellies

Tuesday 9/14
Finish prepping and packing for tonight's event
Put on two new dishes; one for dining room dessert menu, one for bar room menu
Away from kitchen for Beard dinner

Wednesday 9/15
Prep for "Let Us Eat Local" event, 450ppl:
400 pc gingersnap cookies
400 pc red plum mousse
2 qts lavender cream
Make 200 lemon macarons for favors for Saturday wedding
"Free Dessert Night" at restaurant, make a special dessert for this

Thursday 9/16
Make 200 blue raspberry macarons for favors for Saturday wedding
Away from kitchen for "L.U.E.L."

Friday 9/17
Morning: make another 200 blue raspberry macarons for favors for Saturday wedding
Afternoon: attend "La Rose Noire" party at I.C.E.

Evening:

Pack 200 boxes with 3 macarons each for Saturday wedding
Prep wedding cake for a different Saturday wedding: fill and crumb coat
Make 200 fondant flowers for wedding cake
Put on new dish for dining room dessert menu

Saturday 9/18
Dust dried fondant flowers with opal and pink luster dust
Finish wedding cake: final buttercream coat, build, attach flowers
Deliver (on foot!) wedding cake to Metrazur in Grand Central Terminal
Come back to restaurant and deliver 200 macaron favor boxes to wedding at Cipriani

Sunday 9/19
Prep for Starchefs gala on Monday, 200ppl:
80 pc red velvet macarons
80 pc chocolate peanut butter cups
60 pc mini passion fruit beehives
60 pc butterscotch tartlets
60 pc mini ginger/plum ice cream sandwiches
60 pc mini choc chip/vanilla ice cream sandwiches
60 pc concord grape cream soda

Monday 9/20
Morning: sit on "How to Make It" panel at ICC conference
Afternoon: finish prepping for tonight's event: make soda, finish tarts, cut out ice cream for sandwiches, make cream spheres for soda
Evening: attend event upstairs, away from kitchen

Tuesday 9/21
Prep for Starchefs gala on Wednesday, 700ppl:
10 qts watermelon soup
10 qts galia sorbet base
a lot of candied olives

Wednesday 9/22
Finish prep for tonight's gala:
a lot of crystalized shiso
a lot of mini canteloupe balls
a lot of min honeydew balls

Thursday 9/23
Start prep for wedding cake for Saturday

Won't get a day off til Sunday. Back to work Monday.

Impromptu Hominess

I had a bunch of sweet red seedless grapes. When I have an overabundance of fruit that I won't be able to use fresh within the next few days, I normally think of sorbet or ice cream. My red grape and balsamic sorbet was a hit with my pan-fried carrot cake last year. This time though, I wanted to do something else. I knew I wanted to do something rustic with them, so I picked 'em, washed 'em, and drizzled them with extra virgin olive oil and sprinkled over a handful of raw sugar. Oh, and I stripped a couple of rosemary sprigs into the bowl as well. Staring down at my bowlful of edible shiny marbles, my sideview led me to the wooden baker's table where my star baker had the entire top covered in a huge floury blanket of bubbly ciabatta dough. Pizza wheel in hand, he was ready to slice through the billowy dough to make individual rolls for service.

Forseeing a hot slab of grape-y goodness very near in my future, I excused my reach (and grab) for the wheel and cut off sheet pan sized piece of the dough for my own use. I flopped it onto a tray, brushed off the flour and brushed on some of the sweet oil from the bottom of the bowl of dressed grapes. Like a cat treading its paws on the surface it's about to take a nap on, I kinda did the same to the dough with my fingers, to make the grapes feel a little more comfortable before they go to their final resting place. I tumbled the entire contents of the bowl onto the dough and just pressed the grapes in where they landed. Another sprinkling of raw sugar and a good pinch of Maldon sea salt flakes and into the already hard working oven it went.

Next thing I knew, I had the perfect breakfast in front of me. The ciabatta puffed and colored beautifully. The grapes expanded, then shriveled in the oven, concentrating all the juices in their little skins. I grabbed the pizza wheel again and portioned it up for everyone in the kitchen, but not before I took the best piece for myself, right from the corner. Biting into a grape was like filling your mouth with warm grape jelly!

A Banana Split To Die For

You really can't mess up a bowl of ice cream, bananas, and chocolate sauce, but when I decided to put the said concoction up on the menu, I knew I still had to take it seriously. I was definitely aiming for the "classic" looking split --a row of three ice creams resting in a boat of fresh banana, rosettes of whipped cream atop each scoop, and cherries on top. The details and particulars, though, kept my mind spinning.

Before we can get into the details, though, we need to decide what actually makes the perfect banana split. Here are my requirements:

• ice cream
• two sauces (one of them must be chocolate)
• whipped cream
• nuts
• cherries
• did I mention bananas?

First, the banana. I want a perfectly yellow (with even light shades of green blushing the skin), perfectly firm and unbruised fruit. And I want a lot of it! My biggest dissappointments from splits always lie in the lacking quantity of bananas...really peeves me! So a whole and a half banana per portion. With the whole banana, I'll slice it lengthwise and caramelize the cut sides. Scroll down to see what I do with the remaining half.

Then the ice cream. For each of the three scoops, I want different flavors. The first, and yes most obviously, but absolutely mandatory, is vanilla. Second, malted milk chocolate; because 1)I am of the school that a banana split is not a banana split without chocolate ice cream, and 2)my malted milk chocolate ice cream is so damn good, I keep it around just so I can snack on it. The third scoop has to be a fruit flavor. An obvious choice would be strawberry, but I had my heart set on a strawberry sauce. One of my cooks said she liked pineapple sauce on her split, which birthed the idea for a roasted pineapple ice cream. So, done with the ice cream dilemma.

Next, the sauce(s). This part gets a little tricky. I was teetering on the idea of "wet walnuts", which would have ticked off the "nut" and "sauce" boxes in one, but I really had my heart set on a chunky wild strawberry sauce, and because not having a chocolate sauce would be out of the question, that would conflict with my two sauce rule. My sous chef made an awesome chocolate butterscotch sauce for one of her weekly desserts, and I'm afraid I had to hijack it.

Now onto the nut situation? Although I liked the idea of wet walnuts, I'm not always a fan of the bitter aftertaste of the skins. Peanuts might (and sorry to all peanut lovers) lower the tone of the dish. Toasted almonds, I love! But I've already got them elsewhere on the menu, and I really hate repeating myself. Cashews have a subtle but satisfying flavor and excellent crunch value. Yes! I want sweet n' salty cashews! Lightly tossed in corn syrup and sprinkled with a heavy pinch of Maldon sea salt, these guys toast up beautifully!

As for garnishing, the whipped cream must be whipped firm to support the cherries. I will not be using the scary red and overly sweet maraschinos from a jar to top this labored confection. I want fresh bing cherries, stoned and with the green stem still on.

Are we done? Not quite. Time to assemble. With the number of components involved in this dish, one can easily make this melange look like a pile of you know what. There must be order, there must be structure, there must be aesthetic. We start with an oblong vessel to hold everything cosily. Arrange the two lengths of caramelized bananas into a boat shape. Chop the remaining half banana into large chunks and fill the void of the caramelized bananas with them. This will keep the forthcoming ice cream propped up to stand tall above the banana. Sprinkle a small handful of sweet n' salty cashews over the chopped banana. Drizzle over the nuts a healthy dose of chocolate butterscotch. This jagged foundation of banana, nut, and sauce will keep the ice cream from wanting to slide around. Next, scoop the vanilla and roasted pineapple ice creams and place them at either end. In the center goes the malted milk chocolate. This keeps the color balance. Now that the ice cream's in place, it's time to move quickly with everything else. Spoon a couple of teaspoons of wild strawberry sauce in between the three scoops. Press a few more cashews into the top of each scoop.. this keeps the following rossettes of vanilla whipped cream from sliding off the ice cream. Drizzle more chocolate butterscotch over the cream, then crown each rossette with a pitted cherry.

Devour immediately.

Peach Melba My Way

Auguste Escoffier created the original "peche melba" in the 1890's to honor opera singer, Nellie Melba. He set peaches (I wonder if they were poached or just fresh) over vanilla ice cream, and doused the whole thing with raspberry sauce. Genius!! To this day, I don't think anything signifies summer on a dessert menu better than some form of peach melba.

At the restaurant, I just put up my own version of the dish. I blanch a boatload of peaches and remove the skins, but don't throw the skins away!! I then wedge the peaches off into a large bowl and throw the pits into the same bowl you're keeping the skins. I lightly poach the peach wedges by boiling a pot of syrup and pouring it over them. Allow them to cool on their own with a piece of plastic wrap over the surface.

A peach melba wouldn't be a peach melba without ice cream. Instead of the classic vanilla, and for the record I have nothing against classic vanilla, I use the reserved skins & pits to infuse the milk of my peach pit ice cream. Crack the pits open with a mallet to expose the little kernels within and throw it all into the pot. The pits of stone fruit, including apricots, plums, cherries, carry a lovely but subtle bitter almond flavor, and of course pair perfectly with their fleshy jackets. Let this milk infuse overnight to get the most flavor. The next day, finish the ice cream and churn. I garnish the dish with a blackberry sauce and almond nougatine for crunchy texture. Oh, and to make it even more decadent and squirt of very light vanilla chantilly from an iSi syphon.

**Did you know that peach and apricot kernals are "bio-identical" to almonds? Yes, so if you're allergic to nuts and/or almonds, you should stay away from nibbling on peach pits and/or this ice cream.