Alinea at WIRED NextFest
October 13, 2008
Posted by Heather Kaplan
Last week, I had the pleasure of attending a special event at WIRED Magazine’s NextFest, celebrating the release of Grant Achatz’s new Alinea cookbook. While Alinea’s official exhibit at NextFest focused more directly on its use of innovative serving pieces by Crucial Detail design studio, the theme of the book party was tailored to the multi-sensory Alinea experience.
Chef Achatz began with a recipe demo: “Pheasant with Shallot, Cider, Burning Oak Leaves.” As I’d never been to Alinea, I was admittedly a bit unsure what to think before the demonstration began. Overrated? Gimmicky? There’s only so much insight that a restaurant review can offer – and I was a member of the “I’ll believe the hype when I see it myself” camp. But from the second Achatz started speaking, I was hooked. The featured recipe was one of his favorites – agar agar simmered with apples to form cider gel cubes, skewered onto a skinny oak branch with a cube of pheasant, dipped and fried in tempura batter. As a finishing touch, the oak leaves were ignited, then quickly extinguished, before serving. He explained that the recipe was inspired by autumn in Michigan, where the smell of burning leaves was an ingrained memory from his childhood – a memory that countless others share, too. As the demonstration came to a close, the smoke from the leaves slowly wafted through the audience. It became quite apparent that the dish was not a gimmick at all; it was a unique emotional trigger. Even in writing the description of the dish for this essay, I can’t help but be drawn back into the experience.
Following the demonstration, we were treated to a sampling of Alinea dishes at five different stations. Each was unique in its own right, though the standout for me was a small strip of bacon that featured a small drop of butterscotch paste and ribbons of apple “leather.” Other dishes included a cinnamon meringue with foie gras filling and a lobster cracker that Achatz’s sons had fittingly deemed the “Lobster Cheeto.”
The Alinea cookbook is scheduled for release on October 15, and I would strongly encourage anyone reading this post to purchase a copy. It features pages upon pages of beautiful photography and insightful essays and, of course, intriguing recipes for the adventurous and patient chef. I haven’t made it through the entire book yet (6 pounds and 400+ pages…) but it has instantly become my new prized possession.
For more information, please visit:
http://www.wirednextfest.com/inform/2008/exhibits/alinea.php
http://crucialdetail.com/
http://www.alinea-book.com/
Preparing apples for the cider gel
Getting ready to torch the oak leaves…
Gravity-defying pumpkin mousse at one of the tasting stations
Buy this book!
Last week, I had the pleasure of attending a special event at WIRED Magazine’s NextFest, celebrating the release of Grant Achatz’s new Alinea cookbook. While Alinea’s official exhibit at NextFest focused more directly on its use of innovative serving pieces by Crucial Detail design studio, the theme of the book party was tailored to the multi-sensory Alinea experience.
Chef Achatz began with a recipe demo: “Pheasant with Shallot, Cider, Burning Oak Leaves.” As I’d never been to Alinea, I was admittedly a bit unsure what to think before the demonstration began. Overrated? Gimmicky? There’s only so much insight that a restaurant review can offer – and I was a member of the “I’ll believe the hype when I see it myself” camp. But from the second Achatz started speaking, I was hooked. The featured recipe was one of his favorites – agar agar simmered with apples to form cider gel cubes, skewered onto a skinny oak branch with a cube of pheasant, dipped and fried in tempura batter. As a finishing touch, the oak leaves were ignited, then quickly extinguished, before serving. He explained that the recipe was inspired by autumn in Michigan, where the smell of burning leaves was an ingrained memory from his childhood – a memory that countless others share, too. As the demonstration came to a close, the smoke from the leaves slowly wafted through the audience. It became quite apparent that the dish was not a gimmick at all; it was a unique emotional trigger. Even in writing the description of the dish for this essay, I can’t help but be drawn back into the experience.
Following the demonstration, we were treated to a sampling of Alinea dishes at five different stations. Each was unique in its own right, though the standout for me was a small strip of bacon that featured a small drop of butterscotch paste and ribbons of apple “leather.” Other dishes included a cinnamon meringue with foie gras filling and a lobster cracker that Achatz’s sons had fittingly deemed the “Lobster Cheeto.”
The Alinea cookbook is scheduled for release on October 15, and I would strongly encourage anyone reading this post to purchase a copy. It features pages upon pages of beautiful photography and insightful essays and, of course, intriguing recipes for the adventurous and patient chef. I haven’t made it through the entire book yet (6 pounds and 400+ pages…) but it has instantly become my new prized possession.
For more information, please visit:
http://www.wirednextfest.com/inform/2008/exhibits/alinea.php
http://crucialdetail.com/
http://www.alinea-book.com/
Preparing apples for the cider gel
Getting ready to torch the oak leaves…
Gravity-defying pumpkin mousse at one of the tasting stations
Buy this book!
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