Pig’s Head in the Style of Pancetta

 

After this was cured we cooked it in Pork Stock and rerolled it.  It gets sliced paper thin and served cold, or sliced paper thin and dehydrated!

Uni

 

Black Sesame

Crystal Lettuce

Seaweed (2 types)

Basil Seeds

Ginger-Togarashi Snow

Frozen Nasturtium Leaf powder

Country Ham from our Pigs

There is just something amazing about tasting a ham from an animal that you raised personally.  These hams were from 7oo pound pigs.  The layer of fat at the top is my favorite part.  These pigs ate acorns for about 18 months or so and were able to forage on a gorgeous piece of land on Wadmalaw.  The flavor is so complex and nutty.  Makes me want to just make country hams for a living.

Vita Prep

Proof that the vita prep is actually tougher than nails

I bet it would turn nails into a powder if they were frozen in nitro

Surf and Turf

Scallop, Matsutake, Pine Nuts, Black Garlic, Black Truffle, Bitter Cress, Spruce Custard

photo credit: paul cheney

Chocolate Mousse

 

About to go into the vita prep to make a frozen powder.  The resulting texture is wonderful.

photo credit: paul cheney

Geoduck

Clam

Ikura Roe

Borage

Ginger

Australian Finger Limes

Marsh Grass

Grapefruit meringue frozen

Black Sesame powder

Uni

Apple

Celery

Buttermilk

Seaweed

Green Tomato Pickle

There is nothing more satisfying than preserving food.  These were pickled with fresh picked dill, mustard seed, celery seed, tumeric, dill seed and thai long peppercorns.  No sugar. 

Please feel free to email me old family recipes………. if you are willing to share them of course.  

Pork Sirloin

these came from our pigs…cooked them in lard at 55 c for 8 hours. 

we then portioned them into steaks for service, they get warmed in a water bath and then roasted on pick up….reminded me of roast beef..the color was very similar to beef and the texture was just like a slow cooked prime rib…really awesome…

Big Ass Pigs

lots of curing to do….these were too big for the scales….I’m guessin 750-800 pounds live…..tasty stuff, kinda like kobe pork

Tamworth Pork from Thackeray Farms

free roaming, wadmalaw foraging goodness

these pigs are raised the right way, thanks to shawn for hookin us up with such great pork

Foie Gras

Foie Gras with Milk, Walnuts and Huckleberry

thanks to john for sharing the crispy milk technique

Slow Cooked Vegetables

I love the broth this technique yields…slow cooked with a little butter and some really good vedge stock….everything is cooked in seperate pots and then the cooking liquids are combined to produce a wonderful broth that can be served on it’s own as a sauce

Can Anyone ID this Wild Cress?

The Winter version

 

Triggerfish with a pistou of garden vedge and herbs, braised pine nuts

Stone Crab

Stone Crab with Tropical Flavors

Sunchokes

Pickling 220 pounds of sunchokes, that’s alot of jars

A New Egg Dish

A couple of days ago we added a new egg dish to our tasting menu.  Inspired by drunken-late nights at the waffle house.  This dish requires us to cook the eggs in the shell during service.  We used to cook them before service and chill them, reheating them on pickup.  We have finally figured out a way to cook them to order.  It just requires a few timers and a little organization.  Last night 20 percent of our guest ordered the 7 course tasting menu, so I got lots of practice …

the numbers written on the eggs are the table numbers, the timers get labeled with the table number and the eggs get dropped into the circulator 14 minutes out

The dish consists of:

Fried Sous Vide Jowl, Hot Sauce Buerre Monte, Blis Maple, Potato, Raw Scallion, Braised Scallion, Charred Scallion, Burnt Scallion Powder, Maple Smoke Tableside.

Some Pics from our New Kitchen

The New Pork Belly

Fudge Farm Pork Jowls

Brined for 24 hours and cooked SV for 36 hours at 71.1C, pressed and then fried.

The liquid found inside the bag after chilling the jowls down was absolutely incredible.  It was so gelatinous it made your lips stick together.  It’s being used today to braise some trotters for a terrine.  The texture and flavor is really, really nice….Hello mr. sous vide pork jowl, we are gonna be great friends……………

Happy 2nd Anniversary Guerrilla Cuisine

A good time was had by all….

congrats to chef hat, well done sir

Flowers

Just picked

radish and borage

Australian Finger Limes

Buy Some from Tyler

 

super cool, lots of ideas bouncing around

Three Flavors

 

 

Saba, Balsamic and Apple Cider Vin

 

A great way to add acid to a dish….

As Hot as it Gets

 

These things are very sneaky.  They taste so good and look so innocent….and then the heat comes….wow these are really spicy…

we are making hot sauce out of these, now we wait…4months

A Bunch of Sea Island Red Peas

One of the most important ingredients in southern cooking.  It just feels good to be around these things growing.  Thank you Maria, click her name to check out her new website!!!

The Importance of Chickens in Cooking and Agriculture

We really do owe alot to the chicken.  They provide us with so much.  These guys provide us with incredible eggs as well as fertilizing our new plot that is designated for raising heirloom vegetables.  This plot will only be used for growing vegetables that we feel need special attention.  Thank you ms. chicken….

Nasturtium

  

almost ready to transplant

Foraging

 

 

 

I really like wood sorrel and it’s free, this stuff grows like crazy on the farm

Twitterific

just a reminder, I am updating almost daily with pics from my phone, check out the pics from my california vacation, my new orleans gluttonfest and updates on our new kitchen.  And I am sure there will be some interesting pics from starchefs.  Using twitter is so much easier than blogging.

www.twitter.com/hseanbrock

Another One of our 1 year Country Hams

I can’t even begin to tell you how rewarding it is to slice into something like this.  Waiting one year is harder than it sounds.  I will miss this thing dearly…come try it at the restaurant, it’s on the menu.

Shrimp and Grits

for star chefs

Garlic Buds

These are really cool.  Great flavor.  We are turning them into capers.

Holloway Hams

Chef Michael Paley of Proof on Main in Kentucky sent me this ham. Super smoky, super delicious.  This thing is smoked twice. From Paducah, KY..check out their website

I Love Hot Sauce

This is a simple green jalepeno hot sauce.  My friend Linton Hopkins taught me this technique.  Make sure you give it a try, it sounds crazy but tastes so good!

Pulse chilies in a food processor with a little salt.  Add burnt wood chips.  Cover with cheese cloth and allow to sit at room temperature for two months.  There’s gonna be some pretty crazy mold appear, just leave it alone.  After two months remove the mold and cover the pepper mash with vinegar.  Cover with cheese cloth and allow to sit at room temperature for another two months.  Process through a food mill….this stuff is awesome..we have several batches working and should have a life time suppply of hot sauce.  Anybody else know of other techniques?

Wild Wadmalaw Rice

Found this on the side of the road today out at Wadmalaw.  There is this one little spot where it grows every year, looking forward to harvesting and cooking this in a month or so.

More Manipulation of Fats

this is agar and olive oil….thanks to john shields for the inspiration and knowledge…if you haven’t been to townhouse…make a reservation tommorow!

i have a dream……..

of pickling enough ramps to get me through an entire year…..200 pounds and counting

Farmer Maria Baldwin

she continues to blow me away with every encounter….we are very fortunate!…look at the care put into these lettuces

Charleston Roe Shrimp

for a short period of time in charleston the local shrimp can be harvested carrying roe.  and man are they tasty….one of my favorite ingredients to cook and eat…this is our 2009 roe shrimp dish

raw zucchini

buttermilk

riccota

preserved meyer lemon

sunflower seeds

poached shrimp

I love this dish, come eat it at McCrady’s

Floral

Grass Fed Jersey Beef

This is “buster”, Celeste Alber’s raised this animal for two years.  She was kind enough to sell half of him to us.  He was dry aged for 26 days.  The meat is very delicious, it has a flavor that is very unique.  This is what beef used to taste like.  This animal was only fed grass and hay.  No soy, no grain, the real deal.  Come to McCrady’s and have some!

Capturing a Specific Day

The great thing about this dish is that it is going to be different everyday

it’s a celebration of the best produce we can find

pistou broth

vegetables

leaves

herbs

flowers

halibut

all of these vegetables came from Maria’s garden at Thornhill Farm

photo by joan perry

Fried Chicken and Waffles

Bourbon-Banana Puree

blis Maple

Fried Chicken Liver terrine

red may waffle

 

photo by joan perry

Chocolate Covered Carrots

Chocolate Covered Carrots

Brown Butter Caramel Ice Cream

cocoa Crumble

photo by our friend joan perry

Seaweed

Seaweed Puree

Marintated Seaweed

Cvap Spot Prawn

Spot Prawn jus

frothed mango vinegar

togarashi

White Chocolate-Strawberries-Citrus

Yuzu Curd

Strawberry Puree

Fresh Strawberries

Cara Cara Oranges

White Chocolate Cup

Crispy White Chocolate Pearls

Wild Ramps

Morels

 Charleston Stone Crab

Nasturstium Butter

Ramp Pasta

Pickled Ramps

Twitter

www.twitter.com/hseanbrock

keep up with my ramblings, this should be interesting, especially after 2am

Rabbit Mortadella

Beet Glazed Beets

Wild Wood Sorrel

on the fly

The guy on my left shoulder hates creating dishes on the fly and the guy on my right shoulder lives for it…..every once in a while something good happens, i was really happy with this dish

leek-mascorpone puree

parsely stems

dehydrated cauliflower

smoked steelhead roe

pumpernickel dumplings

elderflower

Birch smoke

I travel alot and get to eat at some incredible restaurants.  recently I was eating at one of my favorite restaurants in america and had some smoked lardo that was part of a charcuterie plate.  it was one of those moments where you say to yourself…shit, i should have thought of that a long time ago…so I was pumped up to do it when i got back because we have  a ton of lardo from our pigs…we were out of wood chips but had some birch bark….birch smoked lardo is pretty damn tasty..the restaurant was holeman and finch in atlanta….go eat there and make sure you are there at 10 pm for the best cheeseburger to ever exist

miso bacon

we used miso instead of salt to cure this bacon…we added some thai red curry paste for spice

Wild Onions

What Now?

thinkin braised in mustard consomme and paired with honey vinegar and smoked steelhead roe with a puree of cauliflower leaves

The Vita Mix XL

4 horsepower

what a pleasure to use, this thing is a monster

really, really awesome

Rabbit

deboned, glued together and crusted with chicken skin.  We cook this until the internal temp in 60c..then press

a la minute it is recirculated and the skin is browned

served with

lentils

turnips

english pea pesto

The Pig Dinner at Quinones

Has a blast cookin with Tyler Brown, Andy Carson and Dan Latham….

always thankful for the incredible hospitality of Anne Quatrano and Star Provisions!

Smokin!

A quick Interview with Angel Powell of the Post and Courier

http://www.charleston.net/news/2009/apr/02/sean_brockfrom_dumplings_mccradys77207/

Inch Worm

Tonight at the restaurant a guest found the smallest inch worm I have ever seen on a leaf of lettuce.  So we made her another salad as fast as we could….inspecting every leaf of course.  When the server took the new salad out the guest made a face that would make you think we were serving a plate of vomit to her.  She said no way, I’ll have the soup!.  So we gladly gave her a soup and I ate the salad, not wanting to waste such gorgeous lettuce.  After the meal the guest asked one of the managers if he knew about her horrific experience with the deadly inch worm.  He replied, yes mam, we made you a new salad, apoligized and then made you a soup after you didn’t want the second salad. He then explained to her that we only use organic farmers for our produce and no insecticides are ever used.  She looked at the manager and said “well this will reflect our online review! and stormed out the door…….what the hell is wrong with people?  food is grown in dirt.  it is washed at the farm and then it is washed as soon as it walks into the kitchen…if she saw how many bugs are at a farm she would never eat again I suppose

Tarver

http://goodstoneblog.blogspot.com/

One of the best chefs I know, he is missed dearly in Charleston

can’t wait to hang out on his farm

Liquid Foie Gras Lollipops

Foie Gras Puree trapped inside white chocolate and grapefruit

Green Strawberries

My first attempt at growing strawberries….fingers crossed

Just Picked

The aroma that is released from turnips when they are pulled from the ground is one of my favorite things about growing food.  Gotta figure out how to let the guests experience it!

Vegan

We created this dish for a vegan tasting menu we were doing for our friend Billy a couple of months ago.  Radishes and Sunchokes braised and served with an intense seaweed broth

Crispy Celeriac

I luv the idea of using dehydrated vegetables as a coating for proteins.  Especially for meats that are just poached and need a little texture.

Cardoons

Rhutabega

you rarely find rhutabegas in the baby stage.  these took a really long time to grow.  This is an old heirloom variety from france.  Seeds from Baker Creek.

Our Spring Onions

 

we planted a shit load of onions this year…..we staggered them so we can have them in various stages…this red onion was really really tasty…I might just look into being an onion farmer

Cauliflower

saduchi and smoked honey glazed with pickled winter squash

Bristol Burger

 

my favorite thing in the world is cheeseburgers….

thanks to amy and rathead for allowing me to be their guest at the burger bar….

Being A Pig Farmer

 

Well, raising pigs is real easy until it’s time to get them into a really small trailer after they are used to roaming freely on 6 acres of wadmalaw’s finest……we tried everything you could imagine, funyins, fruit loops, milk, corn, cheetohs….they just knew what was going on and had no desire to go near the trailor…being  out smarted by a pig is quite humbling….but we had the last laugh.. thanks to zac, mr. thackeray, sniff and rita for their help

Roasted Mushrooms

our attempt at making a tighter looking plate with simple roasted mushrooms….agar

The Naples Trip

pictures speak for themselves…

 

 

special thanks to travis and chris d for stickin it out and the biggest thanks to our friend chris for being the best host we could ever ask for..we owe you one!

Alright, I’m back

sorry for the delay in posts

for a little while I decided that I wasn’t going to blog anymore

then I changed my mind….

i will try and catch up with where I left off….this is gonna be difficult but I will do my best, thanks for checkin out the blog, here we go again!!

Carrageenan

I need to spend a little more time thinking about this particular hydrocolloid.  I think there might be some different possibilties in the “hot gel” catagory.  It seems to need the help of some other food gums to provide a little more heat stability.  I love the texture of the gel, it just won’t get as hot as I would like.  Methocel seems to be the obvious answer, it should hold the water inside the gel….this would allow for the puree (in this case onion) to be molded into a sphere and held on the station.  Then it could be popped into an oven or a water bath to heat for plate up…..or maybe a microwave

Frozen Coconut Powder

we treated coconut milk like a granita and then dipped the shaved ice into ln2

here it is served with:

king crab

pineapple flavored ponzu

dashi flavored cucumber

Come See Me in Naples

http://www.napleswinefestival.com/chefs.cfm

I am honored and really excited to be a small part of such a prestigous festival.  Thanks to my friend Michelle for helping me get involved.

I can promise it will be alot fun.  Just take a look at that line up of chefs, holy crap!

This event kicks off 2009 for me, lots of great events planned this year.  See ya there!!

Marinated Sferification

it looked like mozz, so I marinated it like mozz..we were really happy with the results

Perfect for Movie Theatres in the South

it eats like popcorn

handfuls of delicous, wonderful, flavor packing crispiness

except its pork rinds and not popcorn

screw popcorn……

thanks to www.ideasinfood.com for the inspiration!

Curing then Cooking

We cure alot of meat at the restaurant.  It goes without saying that we really enjoy it.  Curing has really opened my mind to the capabilities of seasoning.  I have been asking myself why we only season the outside of our proteins.  Why not season the inside.  Yeah we brine alot of stuff for short periods of time to improve flavor, moisture and texture.  But why can’t we take it a little further.  Not much further, just a little.  This seems to be a very fine line. 

 Last year I had a really incredible meal at Blackbird restaurant in Chicago by Mike Sheerin.  It was late in the meal and I had a few glasses of wine so my memory is a little foggy (help me here if you can),……….mike served a rack of lamb that seemed to be cured in the style of corned beef and was then cooked sous vide, anyway it was outstanding and got me thinking about trying to find a balance between curing and seasoning.  We are still in the begininning stages and we aren’t totally happy with our results.  this will take a little time to perfect although I feel like this has alot of really great potential.  any ideas or thoughts???

 

the picture above is a pork loin cured lonzino style for 9 days and cooked sous vide at 55C for 2 hours.  It ended up more like deli ham and less like great roasted pork, maybe 3 days?

Pecan Oil

something I have been tinkering around with for a while

for some reason manipulating fats feels rewarding

here we wanted to create a gummi bear texture with a fat

now that we have it all figured out we can use any fat imaginable

this will be rolled in nitro pecan dust

ingredients used:

glucose

isomalt

sugar

water

gelatin

pecan oil (jean marc)

propylene glycol alginate

cellulose gum

 

wondering if pectin would be a better substitute for gelatin

Redneck Pig Cooker

this thing was made out of tin roofing, old lumber and highway signs

thanks to randolph for babysitting our pig and thanks to Mr. Thackeray for throwing one hell of a party

 

photos by david clark

Our First Country Ham

 

it sure takes alot of patience to wait one year to taste something.

it was well worth the wait.

this ham came out really earthy, we didn’t add any sugar, just straight salt

we have 15 or so working right now and a pen full of pigs ready to be salted

photos by our friend david clark

Midnight Snack

Cruze Farm buttermilk makes the world go round

and some mighty tasty cornbread, this particular one is studded with Alan Benton’s Smoky Mountain Ham

A Picture of some Pigs

fat and lazy

enjoying a gorgeous day on wadmalaw

Buttermilk

aerated buttermilk

liquid nitrogen

my favorite way to enjoy buttermilk is when it’s ice cold, or colder…..

Chicken Liver Parfait

traditional style recipe, pulled at 63c and whipped with gelatin

The Color Black, an ode to Metallica

ever wonder what a color tastes like?

I have been wanting to do this dish for quite some time and pulled it together for the Town House dinner with John and Karen

Raising Animals for Food

Our smallest pig dressed out at 195.  I am guessing the biggest is well over 400 pounds.  This has been an incredible experience on many different levels.

Birch flavored Bourbon

I have been really enjoying the flavor of birch lately.  We recently served it with country ham wrapped quail and huckleberries

The OAD Best Meals of 2008

check out this survey that I was asked to participate in…

looks like NOMA is the hottest restaurant in this survey among chefs, bloggers, restaurant owners and food writers

 

Click Here

More Pics from the Town House Dinner

make sure you check out these pics that john and karen just posted

really, really cool stuff

click here

Glenn Roberts of Anson Mills

Just ran across an article about a guy that I admire a great deal.

We are very fortunate to have people like Glenn Roberts leading the way.

I can’t say enough about Anson Mills and their efforts toward preserving our food culture.  I am very thankful.

call this guy and order some food!!

Click Here to Read about Glenn

The Town House Dinner Recap

this turned out to be one hell of a dinner. 

these guys showed up so prepared it was silly, they even brought there own plates!

great food, great chefs, great crowd

look forward to the next one

thanks to everyone that attended and thanks to everyone from town house for their talents

Yuzu

pugdog

Onions

you can never grow enough onions

Growing

it tastes so much better when you grow it yourself!

orion fennel

I planted this just for it’s pollen

Our Pigs on Wadmalaw

our pigs don’t have it so bad…well, at least for now

The Town House Dinner

Please join us in welcoming John B. Shields and Karen Urie to Mccrady’s on December 7th for a guest chef dinner.  This dinner is going to be so much fun.  These chefs are cooking some of the most creative food I have seen in some time.  And the best part is that they are doing it in my home state of Virginia.  You don’t want to miss this, these chefs are awesome.  This dinner will be a collaboration, they will cook the blunt of the dinner and we’ll throw in a couple of courses in between.  The theme of the beverage pairings is “bubbles”……the dinner is 65 and the beverage pairing is 35.  don’t miss these super creative, super passionate chefs, John is an alumni of Alinea and Karie is an alumni of Charlie Trotter’s.  Please help me in welcoming them to Charleston, this dinner will be a blast.  check out their blog, the food is sick!! check out the pics below

http://townhouseblog.blogspot.com/

 

email me for reservations or call the restaurant at 8435770025

 

 

Thanks

 

http://www.charleston.net/news/2008/nov/12/brocks_star_rising_fast61247/

Heirloom Black Peanuts

anybody know where to get these seeds??

Local Triggerfish

a wonderful fish

our friend mark marhefka catches these for us

Check out our new Website

www.mccradysrestaurant.com

 

thanks to green olive media for doing such a great job!

SweetWater Beer Dinner

Sunday, November 9th, 2008…7:30pm

 

Join the McCrady’s Team in the restaurant’s newest space, the gallery, for a special evening highlighting Sweetwater beer.  The cost of the full dinner is 65 bucks per person.  Make a reservation at 843-577-0025.

if you work in the restaurant industry email me for a special industry discount

 

don’t miss out, these beers are awesome and the brewmasters will be at the resaurant to speak about them!!

Something to Think About

these are some stats from El Bulli

15 – Tables per day
50 – Guests per day
160 – Days open for business
8,000 – Guests per year
7–20,000 (4–12,400) – kilometers (miles) travelled by guests to eat at elBulli
70 – Staff members working at the height of the season
40 – Chefs
26 – People working in the dining room
8 (5) – Kilometres (miles) walked per day, on average, by each waiter
11,200 – Staff meals per year
12,000 (129,165) – Sqaure metres (square feet) of land by the sea
80 (860) – Square metres (square feet) of terrace
350 (3,770) – Square metres (square feet) of kitchen space
250 (2,690) – Square metres (square feet) of dining room space
200 Euros – per meal in 2008
230 Euros – per person including drinks in 2008 (on average)
170-200 – ingredients on the menu
1,500 – Cocktails, snacks, tapas-dishes, avant-desserts, desserts and morphings served per day
700 (25) – Grams (ounces) of food per meal per guest
5,600 (5 ½) – Kilograms (tons) total weight of food consumed per year
200 – Kitchen cloths and aprons used every night
1,000 – Pieces of cutlery used every night
10,000 – Bottles opened per year
55 – Types of glassware
750 – Glasses moved around the restaurant daily
1,666 – Wines on the list
40 – Different vintages
216 – Grape varieties
325 – Different DOCs on the wine list
2 – Wine ageing cellars
4,000 – Hours of creative work per year

Taylor Grocery

Always a highlight of the SFA Symposium.

Their slogan is “Eat or we both starve”

The best catfish that I have ever had the pleasure of eating, can’t wait for next year

Touched by the Hands of Alan Benton

This ham is over 2 years old.

We use the fat to braise fall greens and to flavor a sauce for our current grouper dish with chanterelles and Anson Mills Farro Verde.

The meat is shaved and used in a salad with compressed apples, smoked honey, frisee and a peanut vinaigrette

Our Fall Scallop Dish

Poached, Seared, Poached Scallop

Sunchokes cooked SV Barigoule Style with Black Truffles

Braised and Raw Radishes

Black Truffle Blanket

Truffle-Barigoule-Veal Stock Emulsion

Jowl Bacon

Heirloom Turnips

From our garden..these seeds came from Baker’s

Chicken Thigh

TG

Fall is here

Autumn is such a great time to be a chef and a farmer.

Matsutake

Seared matsu

Black Garlic Milk

Sweet and Sour Turnip

Raw Fish and Pork

Snapper Crudo

Warm Lardo

Pork Rind

Fennel Pollen

Compressed Fennel Bulb

Ocean Broth

Bacon Flavored Bourbon

My two favorite things in one glass…..

Kumo

one of my favorite oysters

 

here we serve it with raw apple consomme , pickled pears and frozen horseradish

Blis Brook Trout Roe

this dish was really tasty

 

passion fruit powder

spray dried coconut

lychee sorbet

 

lime basil

God Bless Meat Glue

Black Cod, tightened up!

Our Bacon

Still not as good as Mr Benton’s but pretty tasty.  This was cured with honey from our farm.  I look forward to smoking the next batch with wood from old rip van winkle barrels!

Tasting Menu

We now offer two tasting menus, 5 for 55 and 10 for 90

Carolina Trout

Bacon Poached Potatoes

Crispy Potato Sheet

Pernod Compressed Celery

Benton’s Bacon

Shellfish Vin Blanc

Poached Clams

Onion Soubise

Glued Trout

Lardo

Chilled Scallop

Warm Lardo Vinaigrette

Compressed Fennel

Fennel Pollen

Malpeque Oyster

Raw Oyster

Miso-Dashi

Yuzu

White Soy Pearls

Wild Steel head Roe

Tart Apples

“Ham and Gravy” Crowder Peas

these are part of our on going seed saving project.  These were given to me by the master himself, John Coykendall.  The fresh flavor of these peas are so incredible I don’t even want to cook them, just some warm lardo vinaigrette, I just gotta figure out how to keep the vinaigrette warm in the middle of the garden

Our Pigs

they are gettin bigger and lookin mighty tasty, check out those hams!!

Support

thanks to everyone for all the emails and text messages concerning last night’s show.  I truly appreciate the support, man that was a tough competition!  Mark one in the win column for charleston..

General Tso’s Sweetbreads

Broccoli Puree

Fried 64 degree egg yolk

pork fried rice (belly, lard, braised shoulder)

really, really delicious, props to Andy Allen for pullin together the General Tso idea

Salami Cappota

Coppa wrapped in Spicy Soprasatta

Aged for 4 months

Some Pics from the Van Winkle Dinner

Poached and Chilled

Pickled Radish

Miso-Buttermilk Dressing

Wood Sorrel

Crispy Nori

Just a picture of an Oyster

Raw

Kona Kampachi

Spiced Saduchi Puree

Puffed Kelp

Miso Powder

Shiso

Apples compressed with Sake

Television

http://www.foodnetwork.com/food-network-challenge/challenge-the-next-great-chef/index.html

Full broadcast schedule as follows:

• Oct 05, 2008, 8:00 PM ET/PT

• Oct 06, 2008, 3:00 AM ET/PT

• Oct 08, 2008, 7:00 PM ET/PT

 

tune in and wish me luck!

this was a really crazy experience

email me and let me know how it goes, I will be out of the country and will not be able to watch it!

Star Chefs 2008

 

Just got back from the annual star chefs trip.  Trying to backtrack and reflect.  This is such an important trip.  It really gets the wheels turnin.  I filled up an entire moleskine notebook full of ideas and thoughts.  Not only do you get to eat great meals and see great demos, you get to catch up with old friends and also make new ones.  There are two events that I look forward to all year………the sfa symposium and starchefs.  Here are some highlights:

*deskside meetings with great magazines, meeting some of the countries best food writers

*checking out Paul Liebrandt’s gorgeous new restaurant, meeting and hanging out with his staff

*lunch at blue smoke

*a wonderful tasting menu at gramercy tavern (including some awesome charcuterie)

*a really, really tasty meal at ssam bar with tyler brown, c3po and lauren

* the entire dessert menu at tailor and several tastings of various flavored bourbons (which were life changing!)

*a sublet apartment in harlem full of incredibly passionate chefs

 

 

*congratulating Jeff Wright on his new responsibilities

*a yankees game

*heston’s demo, meeting renee redzepi, seeing johnny i., george mendes, julian alonzo, and ideas in food.

*the marco-bourdain panel, grant’s response to that panel, wylie talkin about creativity, charlie talkin about giving, morimoto conquering a whole japanese monkfish, chef seaver talking about responsibility

*pork slap beer and great food at noodle bar with my cvap friends jill and howard and my atlanta boys phil and andy

 

*watching asbel do his thing in ny!

*seeing anne quatranno

*meeting the saffron king

*drinking free stella and woodford during the entire congress

*the product fair (especialy meeting the guys from vita prep)

*eben’s drink called the waylon (which is hands down the best drink that I have ever experienced)

*late night chef’s party in a weird part of china town followed by an incredible round table discussion back at the appartment featuring food from ny noodletown and a bottle of bourbon and some of the best laughing I’ve done in months

*hanging out with all the guys from green olive and jason from comfort

*spending time and laughing with my dear friend Tyler Brown

*Seeing Winburn and Chris soak in NYC for the first time

*meeting many, many very nice people who read the blog, thank you for the kind words

*norman van aken’s question to marco pierre white

*marco pierre white, period

*my best wd-50 meal, chicken liver spaetlze is mindblowing btw

*street food in little italy

*shopping at bowery’s restaurant supply stores

*randomly running into david kinch, a chef I admire greatly

*eating slow roasted iberico pig backstage with andy carson, phil bey, tyler brown, david arnold and george mendes

*seeing bradford thompson’s new kitchen and attending a wonderful party at lever house (full of delicious pork products)

*a conversation with paul kahan about his new place

*micheal laiskonis and his brilliance

*the charcuterie demo by daniel

*meeting spike from woodberry

*jordi butron’s philosophy on creating

*realizing I am taller than joan roca

*seeing people being introduced to the brilliance of restaurant noma

*catching up with john sconzo

*randomly running into my friends sara and andy from blackberry farm at tailor after I had recommeded they check it out during the beard awards

*hanging out with ashley and shelley from nashvegas

*seeing my friend kosta

*watching a cabbie pee in a water bottle before taking us in his cab

*chef andy carson being a walking billboard for McCrady’s via a ball cap

*saying hello to patrick sheerin

*finally meeting chadzilla and his team

*eating lunch by jose and katsuya

wow, that’s alot of great things.  I look forward to next year…see ya there

please pardon the typos, I am very sleepy

My New Favorite Magazine

A Celebration of Southern Lifestyle

click on the link below

http://gardenandgun.com/stories/features/best_of_the_new_south-166

The Pappy Van Winkle Dinner

Come and experience a once in a lifetime opportunity.  Julian Van Winkle will be at our restaurant to tell stories and drink his wonderful bourbon on the 28th of September.

We will taste the 12 year, 15 year, 20 year, 23 year and the Rye.  I am so excited to have this opportunity.  We will pair food with these bourbons in a tasting menu format for 120 bucks per person.  Reservations can only be made by emailing me at: chefbrock@mccradysrestaurant.com

We are only selling 40 tickets and alot of them have already been promised.  If you like bourbon you can’t miss this event and if you like Pappy Van Winkle Bourbon you are crazy if you don’t come to this dinner.  This bourbon is impossible to get and we are very lucky to not only have the bourbons at our restaurant but the man himself!!!!

See ya there!

The Richard Blais Dinner

On August 31st we hosted chef Blais for our guest chef series.  I first me Richard almost 5 years ago at his restaurant “Blais”.  I can honestly remember the entire menu, it was that good.  Richard was one of the first chefs in america to start pushing the boundries.  My first dinner with him was truly inspirational.  I recall sitting in the dining room eating the most creative food I had ever seen in the south thinking to myself this guy is crazy!!  Crazy is an admirable way of course.  After sitting thru that meal and seeing how much fun people were having around me I knew I had to finally let my guard down and cook the food that was inside my head.  I owe alot to Chef Blais for that experience.  

This dinner was a flat out success.  Seeing that many people in our restaurant having such a great time was a wonderful feeling.  I really enjoy bringing talented chefs to Charleston so the locals can experience food from other chefs and other cities.  We have many more dinners planned.  In fact the next dinner isn’t even a chef….even better, he makes bourbon.  Not just any bourbon, Pappy Van Winkle Bourbon…but more on that later.   

I have to also thank all of the volunteers that came from Atlanta and Charleston to help out during this dinner….with out you this dinner would have been very difficult. So, many thanks, I owe all of you a favor. and thanks to Jason Miller and Paul Cheney for shooting all the great pics

Below are some pics and links from the dinner.  Thanks to all the guests that supported McCrady’s and chef Richard Blais!

http://richardblaisblog.blogspot.com/2008/09/blog-post.html

http://www.charlestonpicturecompany.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2606

http://www.davidgheiser.com/2008/09/richard-blais-dinner-at-mccradys-notes.html

Crispy Buttermilk

designed to be a crispy garnish for bacon ice cream with buckwheat soil

Milk Bubbles

Milk with sucroester..a little to silly to serve but fun to make

Caw Caw Creek Pork

It doesn’t get much better than this.  In my opinion you can’t find a better pig.  Every time I order pork from Emile I am just blown away.

This pig dressed out at 260 pounds.  This is a Spotted Poland China.  Gorgeous.

 

We cured the entire animal in one day

Below was the plan of action

The head was cured and braised with the trotters for a terrine that we have been pan frying and serving with beets and truffles.

The shoulders were used for some beautiful salumi.

The loins are being cured for lonzino

Excess fat is rendered for cooking

The livers are used for terrines and pates.

The Bellies are being cured for honey bacon

One back leg will be proscuitto

The other back leg will be Country Ham

The Fat back (which was four inches thick!!) is being brined for lardo

The skins have been braised and dehydrated for pork rinds.

 

Nothing went into the garbage…nothing…this is why pigs are the greatest animals alive.

Thanks to Emile for doing what he does……….

Excited

Thackeray Farms “Wadmalaw Fuglies”…you can clearly see how pumped up I am to eat this gorgeous tomato

Orange-Cardomom Marmalade

We made this with no food additives…just the natural pectin from the seeds and pith…We served it with Foie Gras terrine, Hazelnut pancakes and blis maple

Olive Snow

Dehydrated, dropped into ln2 and then blasted in the vita…I suppose a pacojet would work as well….or a hammer

Black Summer Truffles

these tasty truffles garnished a stone crab bisque with celery and nasturtium

Simple, Simple, Simple

We created this for a whiskey tasting….

Foie Gras Terrine with smoked butterscotch and tart apples

Perfect with Whiskey

Charleston Stone Crabs Again

Bubbles

I have always wanted to be able to create bubbles like you get when you are washing dishes.  I finally figured it out and the results were pretty damn funny.  This is salsa consomme that got a little out of hand.  I was messing with this during service and turned my back on it for two minutes and this is what happened.  The bubbles held the shape of the container and were so light you could barely get them into your mouth while still retaining the flavor of spicy tomato salsa.  The food additive is soy lecithin…Up until today we had shelved lecithin…sometimes it pays to knock the dust off..

The Raw Product

these are some really incredible black velvet apricots…I love stumbling across ingredients that are perfect in their raw form….

Changing the Texture

compression is such a great tool..I wanted to serve the beets raw but wanted them to be a little softer…this worked perfect retaining the great flavor of raw golden beets.  It also prohibits oxidation

Heat

 

today the heat index was between 102 and 110…no bueno

Pickled Chanterelles

Such a nice staple to have on hand.  It’s amazing how complex pickling can be and what a pickled element can add to a dish.  The chanterelle acts like a sponge and soaks up all the wonderful flavors of the pickling solution……………herbs, spices, honey, vinegar

Charleston Stone Crabs

Yuzu-Black Truffle Puree, Celery

I love they way the natural pine flavor of yuzu tastes with black truffles…they actually seem to enhance each other…the celery adds a nice crisp freshness to bridge the crab with the condiment

Red Ribbon Sorrel

Smoky Hollandaise, Leek Puree, Beets

One more thing off the checklist

I recently met a really cool chick named Winborne (no, not our pastry chef Winburn) who was nice enough to move her bee hives to our garden.  This will make a huge difference in our pollination rate.  Just in time for the tomatoes, squash, peas, beans, and cucumbers.  I can’t thank Winborne enough for her genorosity.  If anyone wants to learn about bee keeping and honey production please feel free to email me and we can set up a time for you to visit them, although the are very busy bees.  I am so excited to eat this honey, gotta go, I have to search the internet for a bee suit…I think that’s what they are called

Pics from the New Garden Set up

I love our new set up..so many positives..you live and you learn, that’s what keeps me going

Jimmy Red Seeds

i have recieved alot of requests for the Jimmy Red seeds.

 

If you really want them call the kitchen and ask for me…I can schedule a time for you to pick them up, free of charge, just promise to “pass it on”

8435770061

Chuckeats

We really enjoy cooking for people who are serious eaters

check out chuck’s recent experience with us

http://www.chuckeats.com/2008/07/15/mccradys-charleston-sc-ingredient-fetish/

if you haven’t read chuck’s blog you will be hooked instantly, chuck has quite the dining resume

Whipporwill Field Peas

this is one of my favorites

it’s an old pea introduced in the late 1800’s

the flavor when they are fresh is very earthy, almost like eating dirt, in a good way of course

 

these will be great with a truffle puree and some jean marc apple vinegar….with pork of course

we are going to grow a whole field of these this fall….lots of shelling to be done in the meantime, we just bought 4 and a half bushels from our friend Todd Blair, thanks to Randolph for helping us find Todd, whom we also got our piggies from

Five Months

we finally harvested our jimmy red…

anybody want to grow some next year??

 

we now have a ton of seeds

Cooking Class

I am doing a participation cooking demo at Charleston Cooks on July 31st.  Charleston cooks is right across the street from McCrady’s.  It’s only 60 bucks.  I will be focusing on vegetable cookery but will also touch base on some other things.  Seats are limited since it is a participation class.  This facility is amazing.  I look forward to seeing you in class….don’t be late!!

Discussions:

vegetable and fruit compression using the vac machine

vegetable and fruit infusion using a vaccuum

vegetable aeration using a vaccum

cryoblanching using liquid nitrogen and vaccum

cooking vegetables under vaccum in a pressure cooker

other ways to utuilize the pressure cooker to cook vegetables

creating a vegetable driven dish using lots of different ideas and theories

fish sous vide

vegetable cakes

using hydrocolloids to reshape vegaetables

using versa whip

frozen ice cream pearls using liquid nitrogen

 

should be a hoot

 

here is the link:

http://www.mavericksouthernkitchens.com/cooks/classes.html

A Change of Plans

We have decided to take a different approach to gardening.  I have pulled inspiration from Thomas Jefferson’s garden at Monticello.  We are trying to eliminate plastic mulching and tractors without killing ourselves.  Stay tuned to see how things develop.  We are very excited.

Checklists

Since attempting to raise vegetables and pigs my daily checklists have changed a bit.

Fish Carcasses (tomatoes)

Egg Shells (tomatoes)

aspirin (tomatoes)

Bone Meal (tomatoes)

Lime (tomatoes)

organic fertilizer (tomatoes)

4 gallons sour milk (pigs)

2 gallons sour heavy cream (pigs)

2 large lexans of kitchen scrap (pigs)

water (me)

slim jims (me)

 

if you are curious about all the strange things for the tomatoes check out this site

 

www.growbetterveggies.com

Cynthia is one of the most talented tomato growers in the united states, if not the most talented, she is also the person responsible for all the crazy delicious vegetables for my favorite restaurant Manresa.

if Cynthia said to put toenails into the soil to get a better tomato I wouldn’t have any toenails

Peaches and Cream

The peach is compressed and then bruleed.  We serve it with a brown butter crumble and honey-mascorpone cream….

Jimmy Red

This has been an incredible project on many different levels.  This corn is from James Island, here in Charleston.  Jimmy Red Corn is nearly extinct.  Thanks to Ted Chewning for keeping this strain alive, he was nice enough to share some seeds with us this year. We ended up growing 1600 feet of Jimmy Red for seed.  The scraps will be used to make grits for the restaurant.  We use liquid nitrogen to ensure that the corn stays nice and cold when it is ground.  Next year, John Haulk corn.

Milk-Fed

my piggies love milk.

The Dinner with Aki and Alex

 

http://www.ideasinfood.com/ideas_in_food/2008/07/photos-of-mccradys.html

here is a link to some pics from the dinner with the guys from ideasinfood..

what a great night, thanks to all that made it possible

McCrady’s Guest Chef Series

August 31st, 2008

 

Richard Blais

 

100 per person

50 wine pairing

reservations can only be made through me..

 

chefbrock@mccradysrestaurant.com

Our Pigs

this should be interesting….

Our newest project is raising pigs for the restaurant.  These pigs are our responsibility and will be eating the scraps from our vegetable garden.  They will also enjoy lots of heavy cream and peanuts.  Stay tuned……

Tomatoes from our Garden

the great thing about growing produce for the restaurant is the learning curve involved.  Today I realized that 700 tomato plants might have been a few hundred too many.  lots to learn

The Ideas in Food Dinner

some seats have opened up…..who wants them??

june 29th…….75 bucks for 12 courses is a pretty darn good deal

reservations can only be made through this blog, email me quick

chefbrock@mccradysrestaurant.com

 

Messin Around with foie Gras

 

discovered a new foie terrine technique…rather easy..

 

temper the foie and clean it….cure it for 24 hours…push it through a tammis and place it in a vac bag…seal the bag…and roll it out…chill overnight, then it’s super easy to portion…by the time this gets to the guest the texture is like soft, spreadable butter, when eaten it is really creamy and decadent…awesome

 

we played around with lots of summer flavors but the winner was nutella, peaches and black truffles….

goes on the menu tommorrow

Can Anyone Guess what this is??

 

one hint……it’s totally natural

Keepin A Head of the Game

The heads are salt cured for 24 hours, then braised in pork stock in the cvap for 24 hours. We then allow them to cool in the braising liquid overnight.  The stock gets clarified and used to bind the terrine.

Tuna

50 Degrees C

the scallops are cooked sous vide in olive oil until they reach 50 c…then they are chilled and sliced…we then dress them with mango vinegar and olive oil ….garnished with fresh coriander berries

Ice Cream and Fish Eggs

Coconut, Curry, Nasturtium and Artic Char Roe

 

 

Charcuterie

 

Travis Grimes loves to cure meat, Thank God, he is damn good at it too

Fresh Coriander Berries

The 2008 James Beard Awards

What an incredible thing to be a part of.  Congrats to all the nominees and winners.

Good Times in NYC

this city really never sleeps…which works out good for me!!

The Big Apple BBQ Block Party

 

This event is so much fun….pretty funny seeing newyorkers going crazy over BBQ….my favorites were the ribs by my friend kenny of blusesmoke and of course the whole hog BBQ from the legendary ed mitchell.   You could smell southern BBQ for blocks….I felt right at home!!!

Headin to the Big Apple

reservations at:

Tailor

Yankees Stadium

Eleven Madison Park

Wd-50

Bar Boulud

Back Forty

can’t wait, I’ll take lots of pictures!!

The end of May

 

The First Tomato

 

Our tomatoes are struggling a bit right now……hope that they can pull thru, we shall see.  They sure are tasty, my dinner tonight was a huge plate of cherokee purples with salt, pepper and olive oil, I must have eaten 4 tomatoes myself.  Just like that it’s tomato season.

Hudson Valley Foie Gras

This was one of the components of a dish that Micheal Ginor cooked at the Share our Strength dinner in Nashville.  He cured it for 5 days with Nori, Salt and Sugar.  The Foie Gras was then frozen and grated with a microplane over tuna tartare.  The flavor of the foie gras was insane.  Just when you think you have seen it all with Foie Gras.

Palmex Carrots

A trip To Music City USA

just got back from a great trip to my old stomping grounds.  I did an event with the Southern Foodways Alliance and a dinner with Share our Strength at the Hermitage Hotel.  Got to catch up with some old friends and also make some new ones.  There’s always a good time to be had in NashVegas..

Forono Beets

 

these grow cylindrical instead of spherical…tonight we served them poached in strawberry consomme with whipped blue cheese, cocoa nibs and nasturtiums….we finished the dish with some hazelnut oil from jean marc and some Oregon hazelnuts…i was really happy with the simplicity of this dish….I

The Biodynamic Planting Calender

this is proof that if you follow Maria Thun’s planting calender you will get straight, consistent carrots….when I pulled them out of the ground today that’s all I could think about…these were some kick ass carrots…thanks to matt and starla for planting them 

Stone Crab Claws

 

These came straight from the boat and were still moving, one scared the crap out of me when it tried to pinch me.  Man did these taste good…hard to describe how delicious these were, you’ll have to come to the restaurant and try some.  These are straight from Charleston’s waters.

Micro Ice Plant

these edible succulents are really neat.  What a cool texture

The Garden in May

the may garden is great because you are still harvesting some things from the late winter garden but you also have fields full of peas, tomatoes, corn, beans, zucchini, melons, onions, okra and the begining of butternut squash (which are great in the baby stage btw)

Baby Shallots from our Garden

 

Sometimes it pays to be impatient.  Most of the time it doesn’t.  One of the best things about our vegetable project is that we can see the plants at different stages.  Where as before we were limited to what was for sale, now we can watch a plant grow in all of it’s stages and taste it along the way.  These shallots have been in the ground forever and I pulled some up just to see what was happening below the ground.  Wow, I will always harvest them this size.  The flavor is so balanced, which makes them extremely versatile.  Next year I plant 10 times as many I I did this year.

Farro Verde

We finally harvested our farro.  What a cool experience.  You certainly cook it with more care after you see the work it takes to get it into a pot…  Thanks again to Glenn Roberts of anson mills for helping us with this project.

Jowl Bacon

 

we are fortunate enough to make jowl bacon out of emile’s pigs from caw caw creek.  The quality of this pork in just incredible.  I can’t wait to fry up some of this bacon

Local Shrimp

Insipred by the local shrimp arriving with it’s roe

local shrimp, avocado, white soy, red miso powder, perilla

Isar Beans

More Thickened Olive Oil

This technique allows us to get the olive oil on the plate exactly where we want it and the guest experiences olive oil in a new way.  We thickened this with a little glucose and a slow cooked egg yolk

Summer Truffles from Tyler

Early Thanksgiving

 

this is so good….really well balanced. 

Dehydrated Goat Cheese

 

 

 

Something tells me this will be served with zucchini puree

We had a Nice Rain

Yesterday I picked a few squash and zucchini…nothing to speak of, most of them were small

Fried Pig’s Ears

 

what a great snack…….these were wonderful dipped in Frank’s Red Hot

Tornado

the tornado killed our scarecrow

Peas and Carrots

 

liquid center english pea soup encapsulated with crispy carrot puree

Scallops with Wild Char Roe

 

We really like this dish…the scallops are poached until the reach 50c and then chilled..then we slice them and dress them with some great olive oil and mango vinegar…for herbal notes we added some chamomile gelee and then we finish it with some really delicous wild char roe and some togarashi for spice

Strawberries and Beets

Today we cooked beets in the pressure cooker under vaccum in strawberry consomme….really tasty…once this dish is complete it will bridge the last meat course with the first dessert course in our tasting menu

My Apologies

Haven’t posted anything in a while………..been on the road, but I’m back!..promise to post more often

Spring Garden

The garden is growing like crazy..lots to look forward to.

Guest Chef Series

I am proud to announce Chef Todd Richards as our May guest chef.  Todd is a great guy and one hell of a chef.  You don’t want to miss this dinner, these sell out really fast.  Check out Todd’s blog:

http://cheftoddrichards.blogspot.com/

 

Todd is doing some really neat stuff and we are excited to have him in our kitchen…just call the restaurant to make reservations the date is May 18th and costs 75 dollars

 

p.s.  Todd was robbed on Iron Chef America versus Cat Cora during “Battle Carrot”

Trufflebert Farm

 

Ted Lang stopped by the kitchen yesterday and brought me the best hazelnuts that I have ever tasted!!

These are organically grown in the Lorane Valley of Oregon. The hazelnuts are custom cracked, hand selected and sorted just prior to shipment.

If you want the best hazelnuts you’ll ever have email them at: trufflebert@aol.com

 

Stick!

Foie Gras destined for the center of a country pate.

Housemade Bacon

this cured for 4 months, thanks to my friend Alan Benton for the inspiration!

The 5th Anniversary of FIG

FIG has always been my favorite restaurant in Charleston so when Mike Lata called me up and asked me if I would cook a course for his anniversary dinner I was thrilled.  It was really great to cook alongside such talented chefs.  This was a really, really good dinner…Below is the menu.

 

Hors d’ oeuvres

Craig Deihl, Cypress, Charleston

 

Crudo of Local Fish 3 Ways

Ken Vendrinski, Sienna, Daniel Island

 

Over Easy Ravioli with Carolina Morels, Fava Beans and Ramps

Mike Lata, FIG, Charleston

 

Softshell Crabs with Asparagus, Hedgehogs, and Anson Mills polenta Spin Rosso

Celina Tio, The American Restaurant, Kansas City, MO

 

Caw Caw Creek Suckling Pig with Carrots and Onions from Sean’s Garden

Sean Brock, McCrady’s, Charleston

Brown Sugar Hot Milk Cakes with Dulce de Leche-Mascorpone Cream and Boone Hall Strawberries

Lauren Mitterer, Red Drum, Mt. Pleasant

Broccoli Seeds

these are very soft and pop like caviar, thought about using them on a fish course but it took thrity minutes to pick the seeds in the picture above…wish I had a few extra hands….

Napoli Carrots

these took forever to grow, but they tasted awesome, braised in carrot juice and finished with a little citrus zest

Local Shrimp

cucumber, jalepeno, sweetened buttermilk

Crab Tail

these were on the tv show deadliest catch, they came form the boat “the time bandit”…super cool

 

they taste incredible with a very soft “lobster like” texture…why have we been throwing them away??

The “Ideas in Food” Dinner

June 29th, 2008

We are very proud to announce a guest chef dinner with two of the most exciting chefs in the country, Alex and Aki from www.ideasinfood.com.  We have been huge fans of their blog for years and have become  great friends in the meantime.

The dinner will be 12 courses starting at 6:30pm in one of our private dining rooms.  Don’t miss this opportunity to meet these incredible chefs and sample their groundbreaking cuisine.

The dinner will be 75 dollars, if you want to attend make a reservation thru me at:

chefbrock@mccradysrestaurant.com

the dinner is selling out fast so make a reservation!!!

for more Information on the dinner click here

White Chocolate and Caviar

 

Years ago I read about this flavor pairing.  It’s quite strange to think about but tastes wonderful together.

here we took cream cheese, white chocolate and greek yoghurt and made an ice cream with no additional sugar.  It was awesome with the salty roe.  The brown butter crumble added a nice nutty flavor that complemented the now classic flavor pairing of white chocolate and caviar.

Snacks

this is a fun way to start a tasting menu..it’s crispy foie gras croquant with truffled chicken liver mousse

Country Pate

 

preppin the country pate….using housemade bacon for pate work is rewarding..this came out really good.  can’t wait to make another one with different flavors, that’s the cool thing about it…endless possibilities…and btw the cvap rocks for charcuteries work

Foie Gras

Fish Rinds

Puffed Fish Skin with Vinegar Powder, fish and chips anyone??

Estagiere

We have been lucky enough to have some incredible chefs staging with us for the last couple of weeks.  It really allows us to work on some things that we normally wouldn’t have time to do.  It’s incredible how much you can accomplish with a fresh set of eyes and open ears.  Thanks to Robert, Damon and Christian for all their hard work and enthusiasm.  It is greatly appreciated.

Perigord Black Truffles

these were layered into a foie gras terrine

Gifts

 

this is a good luck gift from my friend Saramel

Red Ribbon Sorrel

 

I planted this on January the 21st….and all of a sudden it decided to grow the other day…great lemon flavor

Garden Onions

these are some Texas 1015 onions that we are growing for our restaurant.  They taste great when they are this size but I can’t wait for them to get huge and sweet

 

Confit of Lamb Neck

Date Puree, farro Verde, Thackeray Cabbage

 

Thanks to Damon Campbell for prepping and cooking the lamb neck.

Thickened Olive Oil

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Recent Pics from our Kitchen Garden

Bacon, Egg and Cheese Gougeres

we filled these with aged sherry cream, they ended up looking kinda like creme puffs.

Star Provisions

I was recently invited to cook dinner service at The Quinones Room at Bacchanalia with my friend Andy Carson.  Wow, what a humbling experience that turned out to be.  Anne Quattrano and her staff are incredible hosts and operate one of the most impressive businesses I have ever seen.  The cured meats program is mind boggling.  The smell of that room is just amazing, as you can see in the picture, I am thrilled to be standing among such wonderful, delicious pieces of art.  Thanks again to everyone at Star Provisions, and thanks for all the charcuterie tips.  If you haven’t been there plan a trip right away, I can’t wait to go back.

Star Provisions

Tomatoes

Wild Char Roe

with smoked ice cream and crispy blood orange

Spicy Pork Rinds with Beer Powder

We have been making some great pork skins lately, thanks to some direction from our friend Andy Hayes.  Clean the fat away, cook for 81C for 12 hours.  Clean the fat, deydrate, fry and season.

Langston Progress Peas

We started picking these a couple of weeks ago. Super Tasty

House made Butter

It doesn’t get much better.  What a fun thing to make.  We used local milk from grass fed jersey cows

Nitro Grits

We have always heard that the secret to good grits is cold milling.  In fact, people use to rush to be the first in line at the mill to get the grits first while the mill was still cold in the morning.  We realized that we have the ability to control the tempurature using liquid nitrogen.  These were the most amazing grits I have ever eaten.  They tasted like fresh baked, buttery cornbread.  A great example of forward thinking.

From our Garden

From left to right:

Napoli Carrots, Forono Beets, Shunkyo Radishes, Albino Beets, Easter Egg Radish

Cured Egg Yolks

A really neat technique.  Now we start playing with flavoring the salt

A gift from the Quinault Indians

Wild Sturgeon

buy some from Tyler

The handy work of Jaques Larson

Farro

this stuff takes forever to grow, and then the deer eat it, thank god for Anson Mills

Rice Variations

I’ve had some new thoughts on rice recently.  I am still quite obsessed with cereal production.  We wanted to create a rice puff that was super light and airy…

We started by cooking the shit out of some nishiki rice and then we put it in the thermomix with some wheat dextrin.  We tried frying the dough right away and got the hollow puffs in the second picture.  We then smeared some on a scallop and seared it.  The scallop was really tasty and super crispy, maybe the crispiest crust I have ever experienced.  Then we dehydrated the mix and fried it.  The result was very similar to a pork rind.  All in all some good results but not exactly what I had in mind, funny how that works.  We will see what happens today.

The Chef’s Office

Random Thought #1

“You are not finished seasoning or balancing a dish until it tastes so good you can’t stop eating it”

Service

Cocoa Jelly

Pork Rinds

Dear Lord, pork rinds taste good

Local Strawberries

First of the season.  These were compressed with honey vinegar and served with Meyer Lemon curd, white chocolate and yoghurt.

Seed Saving

Ted and Susan Chewning have done some incredible things with seed saving, among other things.  They were kind enough to share their hard work with us and give us some of these seeds.  We can’t wait to grow this corn.

Chorizo Grouper

Chorizo glued to Grouper….this is then poached at 60 C for 12 minutes and finished on the plancha.

Black Garlic

Aged Korean Black Garlic.  Truly a unique ingredient.

Balsamic Salt

created for a foie gras dish, we needed acid and salt, two birds with one stone

Franken Pork

 shoulder and belly

Foie Gras

Uni Ice Cream

We had some uni left over from our David Chang dinner.  I thought it would be fun to make a savory ice cream to start our tasting menu.  Seems like everytime I make ice cream I want to try a different approach or recipe for the base.  Today I called Alex and he suggested that I use white chocolate, cream cheese and greek yoghurt…..This turned out to be one of the best ice creams I have ever eaten…Alex needs to write an ice cream book

Milk Fed Pigs

Thanks to Emile for providing us such a great product….this stuff tastes awesome.

Radishes

Thermomix

Our Thermomix is four years old….we use this to hydrate and disperse lots of food gums, this works great with gellan, agar, and carrageenan.  We also use this everyday to make our potato puree.  We really need a new one………..

Sausage

The last couple of days Travis, Timmy and I were able to make lots of great sausage.  We were lucky enough to use some milkfed ossabaw and berkshire pork from Emile at Caw Caw Creek…We made chorizo, sauccison sec, hot and sweet italian sausage and bratwurst.  Tasty stuff

Clear Chocolate

this is a sam mason creation, a true visionary, and one hell of a nice guy.  We are going to serve it whipped with smoked foie gras

Dungeness Crabs

really delicous, we served them with kaffir lime, avocado, fresh hearts of palm and caviar

The Santa Monica Farmer’s Market

We have incredible produce here in South Carolina, but I have always been jealous of the chefs who have the produce of California at the fingertips.  It truly is amazing.  Tyler Gray has a new program where he can deliver produce from the Santa Monica farmer’s market to your door no matter where you live……pretty sneaky

Chocolate Pudding

Still in the works.  Cutable chocolate pudding made with iota and kappa carrageenan.  This turns into a wonderful chocolate pudding when it is consumed, I think Bill Cosby would like this one……..we are serving it with mascorpone cheese, brandied cherries and nitro cocoa crispies….

Random

Head Start

thousands of tomato plants have been started……I  can taste them already

Spring Cleaning

We are getting very excited about this spring’s garden…we have already planted a ton of stuff and will be expanding by 200 percent……

Flavor Combinations

mango, chocolate, balsamic and butternut squash…..we served this with roasted foie gras

Crispy Mushrooms

Mushroom puree set with gellan, sheared and cooked with glucose….we then dehydrated the puree in the oven…

 great texture but the glucose added to much sweetness.  Alex says the gellan works just fine without the glucose….back to the drawing board

Whipped Water

xanthan and methocel….I love this texture, endless possibilities

Russian Bacon

Straight from the Boat

Raspberry Vinegar

This stuff is unbelievable.  We serve it with tomatoes when they are in season and here we are serving them with garden beets and goat cheese panna cotta….the dish is finished with nasturtium and armando manni olive oil….buy some vinegar from www.mikuniwildharvest.com

Tennessee Truffles

These are Perigord Truffles that are grown in TN by a genius named Tom Micheals.  In my opinion these truffles are better than anything else on the market, they are the real thing….. The aroma is incredible, I can’t put these truffles down, last night I slept with them under my pillow, Yuzu the pugdog loves them as well…the quality is incredible, I’m sure the freshness has something to do with it and the love and respect that has gone into this project by Tom and his wife…Honestly, this is one of the most exciting things I have seen in years…

Tennesse sure is amazing….truffles, whiskey, Alan Benton, Blackberry Farm, country music, moonshine and nascar.  What else do you need?????? 

Mango Vinegar

I got some mango vinegar from my good friend Tyler Gray a while back, this stuff is insane.  Tyler can really track down some kick ass products…

we serve this vinegar with poached scallops, per me olive oil, flowers and avocado

Foie “Terrine”

Recently I have been thinking alot about cold foie gras preparations…the textures that are available, the refinement, the flavor, the mouthfeel, the romance of the entire process..while not 100 percent happy with this experiment I think we are headed in the right direction

First we cleaned the foie gras, then we soaked it for 24 hours in carbonated milk flavored with gran marnier….after a quick dunk in some ice water, we cleaned it again, checking for any gnarly veins or bruises….then we cure it with tcm, salt and sugar… next we cook the foie at 37 degrees C for 1 hour, then we cleaned it again…the mixture was cooled and then pushed through a tammis….next, into the kitchen aid with the paddle attachment and beaten for a quick minute…now it is ready to cast and chill

 we served this with some garden beats, saba and finished it with grated Tennesse truffles tableside with some hot toasted brioche…i think next time the puree will spend some time in the vaccum chamber to remove any air pockets.

My Recent Trip to NYC

one hell of a city….always a good time, can’t wait to go back….we ate at nougatine, wd-50, tailor, gramercy tavern, some cool hidden burger place, chinatown and of course lots of hotdogs……

Service

Puffed Rice

We cook the crap out of the rice and then roll it into thin sheets.  The rice is then deydrated and flash fried.  We season it with togarashi….

Fat Based Marshmallows

Mise en place

Incredible

Onion Puree

We have found that gellan gum helps us produce great vegetable purees.  .45 percent type f….set and puree

Brassica

Rolled Tight then Cooked in the Cvap

Lunch at the Farm

Turbo Pave

Super Crispy Tempura

Restructured Poularde from Four Story Hill Farm

The Man, The Myth, The Legend

Alan Benton

2008

http://www.charleston.net/news/2008/jan/02/chefs26324/

Scenes from a Chef’s Table

Puffed Allium

an old technique revisited

Rita’s Roots

My friend Rita Bachmann grew this incredible cauliflower.  It ended up whole roasted, shave raw and scrambled.  For a recent chef’s table we presented and carved it tableside to accompany some grass fed beef.

South Carolina Squab

Letting off some Steam

man we use the hell out of our pressure cookers

A Day in the Dirt with my Good Friend Yuzu

micro palmex carrots, surrey arugula, scarlet queen turnips, asian cress, red russian kale, yuzu

Kitchen Garden

These are wonderful braised in clarified butter with a couple of drops of lemon juice and a splash of agave nectar.

Fresh

We are lucky enough to get this fish straight from the boat.  Grouper and Porgy, although each catch may bring lots of different fish.  These fish are caught by two guys with two hooks.  Very cool.

Alaskan King Crab

crab, apple, radish, yoghurt

 after plating this dish, I realized that every component was in it’s natural state….great products just need a little salt and some acid

Winter Truffles

the aroma is incredible….it’s hard to not eat them like apples…buy some from tyler at mikuni wild harvest

The Flavor of the Sea

foie gras pound cake

shit, why not, where there is butter there can be foie

Makin Bacon

Tamworth Pigs….Hangin out

this was cured for 8 days with spices, sugar, and salt

cold smoked with maple and it will hang for 1 month

“Early Wonder Beets and Fall Lettuces”

Harvested this morning

Don King???

Fata Paper

Tamworth Pork Belly

Carrageenan

Pumpkin, Black Truffle, Matsutake, Brown Butter

The Upstate Farmers Alliance

this is very exciting for us….tamworth pigs taste really good.

Snacks

Garden Pics

Satsuma Tangerine

Cod

Cvap Cod..with cauliflower, allium, mushrooms

Superbag

serious clarification….much cheaper than a chinios

Playing with Textures

Check out the differences in appearance.  The straight iota has an incredible texture, but doesn’t hold up to any heating.  We adding a little gellan to help us along, but we still couldn’t get it very hot. We then tried straight gellan but the texure was to crumbly.  Back to the drawing board.  Thanks to ideasinfood for the guidance.

Mozzerella Sheets

Calcium Gluconolactate

Pork-Mulled Cider Jus

Peelzyme

Nantucket Bay Scallops

tomatoes pressurized with olive juice, methocel riccotta (a4m), olive soil, arugula pesto

Tamworth Pigs

South Carolina Tamworth pork belly.  Brined for 24 hours.  Cooked in the cvap at 71C for 36 hours.

Field Trip

Today we visited Glenn Roberts at Anson Mills.  What an impressive operation.  Great products from a great guy.  We are fortunate to call Glenn Roberts our friend.  He is really doing some great things with seed saving.  Very inspirational.  Check out their website, www.ansonmills.com 

Liquid Center Chocolate Panna Cotta

 

Dessert by Winburn Carmack

Photography by www.heatherforsythe.com

A Picture inside of a Picture

www.heatherforsythe.com

The Vegetable Garden

photography by Heather Forsythe

www.heatherforsythe.com

Collard Greens

Our Sous Chef Tim Moody had the brilliant idea of making southern flavored collard greens into a consomme.  Extremely tasty.

AnitGriddle

thanks to my friends at www.chow.com we now have an antigriddle.  Lots of ideas are in the works.  here we cold seared some tuna with micro white soy pearls and lime-avocado puree.

D’avignon radishes

These are from our kitchen garden.  They taste wonderful with soft butter and maldon salt.  Radishes are really easy to grow.  These were planted 21 days ago  We will harvest them in 10 days.  I can’t wait. 

Pig Pickin

Stirring the 500

Ideas

Unfortunately, sometimes ideas never get past the drawing board.  It should be interesting to see when this dish hits the menu.

cVap Fish Cookery

we really like to cook fish in our cvap oven…we served this halibut with autumn greens, long island cheese pumpkin and brown butter

Under Pressure

Harvest

Eating vegetables that still have dirt on them is incredible.  Dirt tastes good.

Scenes from a Guerrilla Dinner

Thanks to all the guests who showed up to support us and thanks to all the farmers and restaurant people who helped make this dinner such a success.  I can’t wait to do another one.  Be sure and check the website for upcoming dinners in the Charleston area.

www.guerrillacuisine.com

Carolina Suckling Pig

Spending a little time in the CVAP…..

The Southern Foodways Alliance

I was fortunate enough to be a part of the 10th annual southern foodways alliance symposium in Oxford, MS.  A weekend filled with great discussions, bacon trees, the best fried catfish I have ever had, Ed Mitchell’s bbq, fried pig ears, boudin balls, bbq mutton, moonshine, 24 year old rye whiskey, hushpuppies, chicken on a stick from the chevron, a red ford focus rental car, hangovers, bourbon, beer, the genius of shirley corriher, peanuts, a bucket of jack daniels and sweet tea, the hospitality of john t edge, mary beth and john currence, jack daniels with carolina gold horchatta, trouble at the airport, the cuisine of bachanallia, the presence of alan benton and the company of some really, really cool people.  If your not a member, I highly suggest signing up right away…these events are incredible

www.southernfoodways.com

www.jpibiodynamics.org

Time at the Farm

We are very lucky.

we are thrilled to be invited to participate in the first of many guerrilla dinners here in the southeast…..

these dinners are super cool, underground, speak easy supper clubs

they feature food, art, booze, strangers and music….all the interesting things in life….the music will be provided by sam perry and the whole shindig will be hosted by mr. jimihatt….  don’t miss this event, we only have a few seats left…..if you want to be a part of this event email me……..when you pay you will get the directions to the secret location…the secret location is super fly and is a perfect place for the theme of the menu……this will be a blast…………………………….hope to see you there…support guerrilla cuisine

Methocel spaetzle

5 percent gelatin and 1.25 percent sga150…

this was our first trial run…..still messing with the formula

butternut squash

Our Newest Project

The seeds arrive friday…

S’mores

A foie gras s’mores terrine.  Smoked Foie gras marshmallow, foie mousse, graham crackers, chocolate balsamic.  This was originally designed to be a dish that was eaten in the middle of the tasting menu, a bridge between fish and meat.   After tasting and discusing it we decided it was too sweet for that part of the menu.    We turned into a dish that bridged the last meat course to the dessert courses….we paired it with milk sorbet.

New Cooking Surfaces

we heated this salt block in the oven for several hours….we allowed the guests to cook some scallops and then dip them into smoked butter and truffle saba

Ocean Pearls

We topped this oyster with absinthe, cubeb peppercorns, apple and ocean pearls.  The pearls were inspired by a conversation with fany from le sanctuaire.  We used silver powder to make the salt water and oyster juices look like actual pearls

Cauliflower Stem

We cooked cauliflower stems under pressure with clear mustard.  We paired it with baby beets and celery.  The texture of the cauliflower stem was incredible. 

Cvap

Daurade Royale..  This was started in the cvap and finished on the plancha.  This is a really nice way to cook fish.  Thanks to Browne Trading Company for the great products.  We served it with a gellan based fennel fluid gel and braised radishes from Rita Bachman.  The yellow dots are a puree of braised citrus rinds.  We finish the dish with Blis steelhead roe

Controlled Vapor

Filtration

We plan to use this mustard broth to cook cauliflower stems under pressure

LN2

Modified Food Starches

The journey to figure out those damn listerine strips continues…how the hell do they do it??

Crispy Red Pepper

we used 1 percent and a nice gel formed….we then thru it in the dehydrator.  Very Crispy

Days End

Compression

Chewy Olive Oil

Olive Poached Tomato, chewy olive oil, braised pine nuts, arugula

One of My Favorite Websites

www.johnnyiuzzini.com

johnny truly is a visionary

check out his stuff and buy his new book

Cvap

Arrived today…..gotta figure out how to use this thing..anyone have any experiences??

New York

Thanks to everyone that made this trip so incredible… 

Lots to think about

Chris Delaney

It’s safe to say that he has a green thumb

Contact

I can be contacted at:

chefbrock@mccradysrestaurant.com

look forward to hearing from you

Our Mascot

Meet Yuzu, he loves hanging out in the kitchen

Cured

2 days in the cure…..

White Soy

Grass Fed Beef

Olive Oil

Thickened Olive Oil.  We have wanted to figure this out for quite some time…lots of new ideas are churning thanks to this new technique

Sardines

Wise County

My Grandmother’s Home

Red Russian Kale

Cauliflower

Braised with Vegetable Juice and Salted Butter

Golden Plums from Owls’s Nest Plantation

Blis Elixir, Tarragon, Foie Gras

Sometimes a picture speaks for itself

Slow Poached Farm Egg

These eggs come from a Farm right outside town.  Absolutely incredible, thanks to Celeste for providing us with such a perfect product

New Book

can’t wait to read this one

Infusion

gin, grains of paradise, tasmanian peppercorns, cucumbers, szechuan green peppercorns and angelica branch

Local Eggs

These are poached at 70c for 10 minutes then topped with?????????????????  The possibilities are unlimited.  My latest thoughts are uni with passion fruit and Sake cured steelehead roe

Products-Ideas-Execution

I love how certain dishes come together and how they spark new ideas for other dishes….Here we wanted to serve this great Hawaiian tuna with cucumbers, avocado and olive.  The cucumber is hidden inside the tuna…after compressing it we noticed that the tuna formed a nice seal.  This sparked the idea of putting a gel on the inside that would eventually melt.  The guest would cut the tuna and the sauce or flavoring would ooze out….

Campari-Watermelon

The sweetness of the wartermelon plays nicely with the bitterness of the campari…Here we serve it with peekytoe crab and citrus

Peekytoe Crab

Spice Roasted Lamb

Cauliflower, Huckleberry, Bok Choy

The Black Truffle Menu

Black Truffle Soup

Niman Ranch Beef Tartar with preserved and grated truffles

Spiced Tuna with summer vegetables braised with truffle butter and truffle saba

 Slow Cooked Egg with truffle puree, pumpernickel and malabar spinach

Grass Fed Beef with truffle-potato puree, local chanterelles and sauce perigord

Black Truffle Milkshake

Parsnip Cake with whipped banana and truffle caramel

Truffled Truffles

Umbria, Italy

Tomato Salad

This tomato weighed nearly 2.5 pounds….we serve it with mozzeralla sheets.  We make traditional mozz and then poach it at 65C for 30 minutes.  This allows us to then roll the mozz into thin sheets.

SGA150

Duck Ham

We cured this with several spices and salt….we served it roasted with local figs and bliss elixir

Pears from Farmer Joseph Fields

We compressed these with agave nectar and hazelnut oil…..We served the pears with duck ham, balsamic pearls and blue cheese

Classic

Beef Tartare with preserved and grated black truffles.  The second course of our black truffle menu.

Summer Vegetables

The vegetables are braised with vegetable juices and truffle butter.  We serve them on our truffle menu with tuna spiced with bee pollen, fennel pollen, Indian green coriander and Lucknow fennel seeds.

Braised Truffles

these are preserved trufffles from Italy

Potatoes from Kennerty Farms

These potatoes are wonderful, we braise them submerged in a mixture of duck fat, olive oil , bacon fat and butter.  They are stored in the fat and seared on the plancha to order.  We serve them with grass fed beef, beet glazed beets and allium puree

Black Truffle Soup

This is part of our truffle menu….we braise black truffles from Umbria in truffle juice and puree them into a smooth soup…topped with frothed truffle stock

Ice

This stuff has a super cool texture….very refreshing

Turnips

Local Chanterelles

We picked these ourselves at a local plantation.

Beets

We cook these beets in the pressure cooker with beet juice.  The yellow blocks are pressure cooked golden beets restructured with gellan.

Some Random Pics from Today

Bacon

Our Summer Garden

Featured on the Food and Wine Magazine’s Blog “Mouthing Off”…

Best Chef Run Blogs

By Ratha Tep, Assistant Features Editor
Related Categories: Chefs

At a recent press lunch, three diners (out of a table of six) whipped out their digital cameras to take snapshots of their food before diving in. Each had the same excuse: It was for their blog. While I’m all for food writers (ahem) and avid diners blogging, I’m more interested in learning what chefs have to say. Here, a list of excellent chef-run blogs:

Ping Island Strike by Sean Brock at McCrady’s in Charleston, South Carolina. Where you’re just as likely to find pictures of dishes made with methylcellulose as you are to find ones of Sean’s tomato garden.

Ideas in Food by H. Alexander Talbot and Aki Kamozawa, formerly at Keyah Grande in Pagosa Springs, Colorado. An insidery view on the thought processes behind the dishes created by these husband-and-wife chefs. A recent post even has a shot of their notes and diagrams—in pencil.

Spring by Daniel Rose at Spring in Paris. In my favorite posting, from November 23, 2006, Daniel recounts how he confided to a Michelin Guide critic dining incognito that he thought the two diners sitting next to him were critics—and subsequently invited him into his kitchen for company.

thanks to Ratha for including us!

BAD NEWS

this news came to us today via www.ideasinfood.com

our hearts and prayers are with Grant for a speedy recovery.  I am sure he is strong enough to prevail.

http://www.seriouseats.com/required_eating/2007/07/alineas-grant-achatz-has-cance.html

Frio

In the Works

we have decided that it would be alot of fun to make an interesting tater tot…..who doesn’t like tots???  this was our first attempt with local potatoes bound with methocel and thrice cooked potato puree….we are thinking black truffle liquid center for the next go round…

Heirloom Tomatoes

These tomatoes are incredible

My Tomatoes

Malabar Spinach

delicious

This appeared on the Food and Wine Website today

48 Hour Cheat Sheet: Charleston, SC

Visit our Wiki site, Food & Wine Across America, and tell us about the restaurants, shops and other food destinations you love most.

By JJ Goode

Restaurants

© Courtesy McCrady’s Restaurant

1) McCrady’s Restaurant
2 Unity Alley; 843-577-0025 or mccradysrestaurant.com.
Sean Brock, the young chef who took over the kitchen at McCrady’s last year, has brought some of the experimental techniques associated with molecular gastronomy to this stalwart Charleston restaurant: He cooks many of his dishes sous-vide and uses ingredients like methylcellulose. The handsome, clubby space, with leather banquettes, exposed beams and a mahogany bar, reflects the restaurant’s past life as an 18th-century tavern.

2) La Fourchette
432 King St.; 843-722-6261.
The pommes frites at La Fourchette are locally famous—they’re fried twice in duck fat, after all—but fans of traditional bistro cooking will find many other noteworthy items on the menu, including a fine cassoulet that arrives at the table in the earthenware casserole dish in which it’s cooked.

3) Cordavi
14 N. Market St.; 843-577-0090 or cordavi.com.
Cordavi’s Corey Elliott and David Szlam are at the fore of Charleston’s new culinary vanguard, which is looking to expand this city’s dining scene beyond the grits-and-gravy mainstays. The pair are arguably less cutting-edge than Sean Brock of McCrady’s but still exciting, preparing dishes like asparagus soup with bacon froth.

4) Social Restaurant + Wine Bar
188 E. Bay St.; 843-577-5665 or socialwinebar.com.
After working at some of New York City’s most noteworthy restaurants (Momofuku Noodle Bar, Aquavit), Charleston native Brad Ball returned home and opened Social this past February, which specializes in wood-fired pizzas and modern American main dishes. A certified sommelier, Ball also offers an extensive and well-edited selection of wines, more than 50 of which are available by the glass.

© Peter Frank Edwards

5) Fleet Landing Restaurant
186 Concord St.; 843-722-8100 or fleetlanding.net.
Situated in what was once a Navy debarkation point, this maritime-themed restaurant decorated with orange life preservers is Tradd and Weesie Newton’s much-anticipated follow-up to McCrady’s. Their gently priced menu celebrates the local catch—superb barbecued oysters or low-country shrimp boil with smoky sausage and okra. The best tables can be found outside, on the wraparound deck overlooking Charleston Harbor.

© Courtesy Sienna Restaurant

6) Sienna Restaurant
901 Island Park Dr., Daniel Island; 843-881-8820 or siennadining.com.
Gorgonzola gelato on warm treviso salad and yellowtail crudo with Meyer lemon aren’t typical nonna recipes. But Ken Vedrinski, who operates this trattoria on Daniel Island, still credits his Italian grandmother for inspiring terrific modern Italian dishes like these—all worth the 15-mile drive from downtown Charleston.

Hominy Grill © Peter Frank Edwards

7) Hominy Grill
207 Rutledge Ave.; 843-937-0930 or hominygrill.com.
Following the example of his mentor, famed Southern cook Bill Neal, Robert Stehling remains loyal to low-country cooking traditions yet finds a way to add his own imprimatur using the best local ingredients. The results are unpretentious, creative and delicious: sautéed chicken livers in gravy flavored with country ham; grits served with scallions, mushrooms, and local shrimp.

EVO Pizzeria
1075 E. Montague; 843-225-1796 or evopizza.com.
Last March, a wildly popular mobile pizza operation that makes the rounds among local farmers’ markets expanded to add a proper restaurant in North Charleston’s Park Circle neighborhood. Owners Matt McIntosh and Ricky Hacker continue to produce exceptional pies: Toppings consist of locally grown vegetables and homemade mozzarella and sausage on signature crusts that have been perfectly charred on their quick trip inside the 700-degree wood-fired oven.

9) Mercato
102 N. Market St.; 843-722-6393 or mercatocharleston.com.
Jacques Larson learned to cook sophisticated low-country food during his six-year tenure at Hank Holliday’s Peninsula Grill. But when he was tapped to open Mercato, he went straight to the source to refine his Italian cooking skills: Italy, not to mention Mario Batali’s Lupa and Otto in New York City. Larson’s slightly tweaked standards—carbonara with house-cured pancetta, Sicilian fregola stew stocked with local shrimp—ensure that even locals who come for the scene stay for the food.

10) The Wreck of the Richard & Charlene
106 Haddrell St., Mount Pleasant; 843-884-0052 or wreckrc.com.
When Hominy Grill’s chef-owner Robert Stehling wants to feast on local seafood, he heads to this signless shack—built on the site of a shipwrecked trawler, 10 minutes outside Charleston in Mount Pleasant—for fried oysters, she-crab soup and boiled shrimp. (They also offer London broil, but it comes with this unsettling disclaimer: “This is a seafood house claiming no expertise in the preparation of red meat… No returns!!!!!!!!”)

Ups and Downs

On the positive side………………… 

this is a tomato from my grandmother’s garden….the seeds will be saved and planted here in charleston and I will continue to save them for as long as I am alive…..

 On the negative side………

At the start of the growing season  I planted 15 tomato plants in my backyard with big plans to serve a 7 course tomato tasting menu at the peak of tomato season.   I spoke with several local farmers about their harvest times to also include their tomatoes and began working on our tomato dishes. We spent several hours fine tuning these dishes and finally decided on a menu.  We started the menu a week ago and after serving around 800 guests only 5 people have ordered the tomato menu.  Below is the menu.  Why aren’t people interested??  If you went to a restaurant and the server told you that the chef grew some of the tomatoes himself and was very excited about the tomato menu would you order it???

Tomato Tasting Menu

Raw….salt, pepper, organic olive oil

Hawaiian Tuna….compressed watermelon, Japanese spice, Kasu-tomato water

Seed Crusted Scallop……..fennel braised fennel, roast tomato, tomato emulsion

Foie Gras in the style of Bacon……tomato caramel, tomato brioche, tomato jam

Lamb Ribeye……..courgette, tomato flan, olive soil, tomato confiture

Frozen Tomato……avocado sorbet, basil meringue

Tomato Cake……chocolate, balsamic, pine nuts

Roots

Droids

thanks to alex and aki for turning me on to this pressure cooker……this thing is amazing, if you don’t have one go buy one now….we plan on buying several more…..we are cooking everything in this, how the hell did we survive with out this droid

Theory

we are constantly looking for new ways to cook poultry.  It really is a never ending journey.  Our latest effort is soaking the deboned chicken in a buttermilk brine, binding it with meat glue, wrapping it in it’s own skin and poaching it for 1 and a half hours at 60 degrees C. It is then flash fried to crisp the skin……other thoughts are layering sliced black truffles between the meat or maybe a quick minute or two in the smoker???

Aloe Vera

lots of things in store for this ingredient

Oils and Vinegars

these are so important to our cuisine.  They bring balance

Crispy Porcini

Smoked Tableside

Maple Smoke

we flavor the foie gras bacon with maple smoke tableside

Chris Delaney

Plating

Andy Allen

photoshop

Ghost Eggplant

Society Room

thanks again to sara and jason for taking the time to photograph and edit the pictures for this dinner

In case you were wondering…………………………..

this is what happens when you put garlic whistles through the juicer……..the flavor was insane….just like papa john’s garlic dip…..thanks to daniel heinze for this idea……we serve it with grass fed beef and local marble potatoes

Days Off

what a great place to wind down…….the smell of the ocean and the taste of margaritas

Products and Ingredients

Late Spring 2007

Chef’s Table

This dinner was so much fun, more pics to come…Thank you Sara and Jason for such great pictures

More Eggs

Four Story Hill Farm

This will be roasted and presented whole for our first chef’s table dinner on Wednesday.

Fresh Quail

These quail are so fresh that they still contain eggs!

Cryoblanch

Biodynamic Agriculture

www.jpibiodynamics.org

Winburn

Whipped Beet Juice

Saturday Night

300 covers…..smooth as silk, sometimes we get lucky

Rita’s Beets

These things taste amazing……

Old Skool

This wonderful piece of equipment grades the eggs…..

The Real Thing

A picture really says a thousand words…..

We put these things thru the ringer at the restaurant……They are also put thru the ringer before they even leave the farm….

Phase II

Today the Ping Island Garden was extended….The soil is being prepped for biodynamics and we shall see how things unfold in the next couple of months….

Revenge

Never Start a practical joke war with a man that owns 165 liters of Liquid Nitrogen….kinda hard to put your shoes on after work when they are -270 degrees C…

Liquid Nitrogen

Foie Gras

Fingers Crossed

I can’t wait to cook the vedge from this garden……

This appeared on the Food and Wine Magazine Blog "Mouthing Off"

How to Cook Like an Avant-Garde Chef
By Ratha Tep, Assistant Features EditorRelated Categories: Restaurants, Ingredients, News, Chefs
In our July issue, you’ll see the results of our third annual “What Chefs Know Best” poll, a survey of 100 top chefs around the country. Included in the questionnaire: “What food trend do you want to see disappear?” Many of the chefs said molecular cuisine; Todd Gray at Equinox in Washington, D.C., even replied, “Space-age cooking à la George Jetson.” The founders of Gastrotek resoundingly disagree. Launching in about two months, Gastrotek will be the third retail company to sell the chemical powders (methylcellulose, tapioca maltodextrin and the like) beloved by avant-garde chefs. Gastrotek’s Web site (up soon, at Gastrotek.com) will offer video clips that demonstrate the basic uses of each chemical, and a DVD will explore more esoteric preparations beyond the now seemingly ubiquitous “caviar balls.” One partner in the company (no surprise here) is the superexperimental chef Sean Brock, who’s taken over the legendary Charleston, South Carolina restaurant, McCrady’s. The other is more unexpected: Tyler Gray of Mikuni Wild Harvest, known for supplying wild edibles to the likes of top chefs like Thomas Keller. “I work with 700 restaurants, and I get calls every day about where to find these chemical powders,” he says. “They’re not going anywhere.”

The Garden

My home garden is complete and should be biodynamic by the fall……very exciting…I”ll post pics when things start growing….I have purchased seeds from Italy, France, Virginia and Japan….should be very interesting in deed.

Check It Out….

check out Jeff Allen’s new blog….

some mighty fine writing..

enjoy

http://cuisine.ccpblogs.com/

Gifts from the Garden

Haikuri Turnips from this morning…

Foie Gras Marshmallow Terrine

Foie terrine layered with foie marshmallow. We served it with compressed apples and licorice

Crispy

making the squash blossoms crispy

Rita and Celeste

Very few things in life bring me this much joy……….stay tuned for more pics as the growing season progresses….we are very lucky

Local Farmers

We are able to get these squash blossoms delivered 6 days a week from a local farm…They are picked in the morning and delivered to the restaurant the same day…We are currently working on a

new tuna dish for our current menu using these wonderful products

Olive Oil Snow

Foie Gras Marshmallows

Inspired by Asbel

Beet Wrapped in Beet Wrapped in Beet

Liquid Nitrogen

this is what happens when you secretly throw a large amount of liquid nitrogen into the pot sink

on the new dishwashers first night

Smoked Salmon Bagel

these cream cheese pearls were served with salmon tartare, smoked sea salt and crispy bagel

cubes

Lamb Rack

we cook this with marjoram, thyme, really good olive oil, grains of paradise, juniper, allspice, green sczechuan peppercorns, tasmanian peppercorns, and fennel pollen…..this cooks for several hours at 49 degrees C…..it is then finished on the plancha and served with huckleberries, local spinach and a cauliflower blanket

You never know who you are going to run into

That’s me with a gin and tonic and Jeff Corwin from the Animal

Planet

Spring is Here

My friend Tyler Gray hooked us up with the most amazing ramps ever…….we turned them

into vichysoisse and served it with smoked steelhead roe

Sundays>>>>>>>>>>>>>

seeing as though we have to work on sundays………..we try to make it as enjoyable as possible……..we eat like kings and listen to wonderful country music…..today we ate eric’s scrambled eggs, brioche-tonka bean french toast, travis’ famous hash browns, ben’s biscuits, timmy’s sage-sausage gravy, jimmy dean’s sausage, hand cut bacon and we listened to merle haggard, willie nelson, johnny cash and waylon jennings……these things make me look forward to working on sundays

Our new Ribeye Dish

Duck Meat

Clear Seaweed Broth

Inspiration

Toro

This came from a 600 pound fish

Local Stuff

we braise these with glucose and grapefruit

Winecap Mushrooms from France

JUMBO Lump

Ebay…..$99

The Food and Wine Festival

Bob Carter and Bradford Thompson

My newest book…..

what a great subject to write such a large book on, this thing is huge!

Amuse

Peekytoe, Sea beans, buttermilk-preserved lemon panna cotta,

espelette

The Bradford Thompson Dinner

Production

Beef

Slow cooked beef with carrot confit, caramelized fennel and sauce perigord

pics from andy c

some pics from andy c

Sweetbreads

Restructered Sweetbreads with marinated maiitakes, scrambled cauliflower and black truffle jus

Pictures from The Charleston City Paper

Egg Yolk Caviar

Rabbit

The rabbit was deboned, glued and rolled…..It is then cooked in duck fat at 60 degrees C for 1 hour….We then wrapped it in swiss chard and served it with mustard consomme

Flavor Pearls

Chorizo

Eggless Saffron flan, eggplant puree, chorizo and olive poached artichokes

Peas and Carrots

Lobster with vanilla and bay laurel

Some old pics of the Kitchen

Our Current Foie Gras Dish

We brine the foie gras whole and the sear it on the plancha….we serve it with granola, whipped raisin and brown butter-cider poached pears

Sunday

Plating

photo by Andy C.

Foie Gras Bacon

After three days in the brine we cold smoked the lobe. Then seared it on the plancha……We served it with Blis elixir, apples, and hazelnuts.

photo by Andy C.

Sweet Shrimp from Maine

We served these tasty little shrimp with salsify gnocchi, celery, saffron and apple…

Getting to know your product

peekytoe

Blue Prawn

Seared on the plancha with radish, fennel and bergamot

Hawaiian Snapper

Service

Green Truffles from Mars

Creamed Spinach

these are some of the components that we are working on for a new lamb dish……mustard broth and eggless spinach flan.

Crispy Leaf Garnishes

Trying to figure out the best temp for these crispy baby swiss chard leaves….

Methocel

These are sheets of lobster sauce for a ribeye dish we are working on. Here we are trying to choose the correct methocel for this particular application.
We use a blowtorch to set the methocel.

Vadouvan

This is my new favorite spice thanks to my friends at le sactuaire…

Here we serve it with lobster, cauliflower and apricot…..we finish the dish with crispy arugula

Our Current Ocean Trout Dish

fennel, radish, citrus

Bubble Gum

We have wanted to make chewing gum for quite some time now. It is really easy
and lots of fun. We are thinking about making bacon, foie, meyer lemon, spruce, mastic, vadouvan, menthol, tarragon to name a few

Waiting

This is going to be tasty.

Puffed Chorizo

this is the dough before it is steamed, dehydrated and fried

Mustard

tommorrow this will be clear….

Crispy Leek

This is our first attempt at a new technique that our friend Asbel was kind enough to explain…..the texture is amazing, the vegetables shatter and then melt away when consumed. thanks Asbel, we are currently working with lots of different vedge, herbs, etc

Roasted Lamb

This is our current lamb dish…..Braised pistachio cassoulet, carrot confit and
bay laurel jus….we are currently putting the finishing touches on our new lamb dish….

Charred Onion

This is an onion puree that has been set with gellan gum and cooled. It is then charred with a blowtorch and cooled. It is then cut into perfect rectangles and served alongside roasted diver scallops.

Puffed Olive

Solid/Liquid

The chocolate appears to w
be solid but is actually liquid. We serve this with peanut butter ice cream, burnt marshmallow fluff and thai basil

Manipulation

Cauliflower puree in blanket form. I draped these over some potatoes just to show the effect.

Raw Tuna

Apple, Yogurt, Celery, Smoked Steelhead Roe

Grouper Cheek

grande

Frog Legs

we served these in medallions with mastic, broccoli, and matsutake mushrooms

New Trick

we are always looking for ways to make food lighter….

we stumbled upon this by accident…

the flavor is mastic

Onion Glass

Saffron Cream

olive poached artichokes, chorizo, safrron, eggplant

Slightly Busy

this is how we spent our new
year’s eve….

Snap, Crackle, Foie

foie gras flavored pop rocks with Blis elixir

Yum!

Cap of Prime Beef

hollandaise, duo of potatoes, black trumpets…we serve this on
our tasting menu

Raisin Bubbles

reverse sferification…

we use calcium gluconate, calcium lactate and sodium alginate to achieve this…

Smoked Salmon Noodles

these are made using sga 150 methocel…we serve them with cream cheese, pickled ramps and crispy bagel cubes

Submerged

sunchokes cooking in olive oil for our new chicken dish

Smoke and Mirrors

this is a nifty trick that allows us to create new aromas at the table….we have been playing with various extracts and essential oils that are mixed with sawdust… they sawdust is placed in the pipe and the smoke is trapped under the plastic wrap…everytime the guest touches the food smoke rings are made…..for this dish we used a licorice smoke to go with sweetbreads and sunflower seeds….joan roca is responsible for inventing this technique

Nitro Fryer

we are still working on this piece of equipment…..it allows us to freeze things instantly..
..the circulator keeps the ln2 moving and the compressor keeps the nitrogen from boiling away

Cap of Prime Beef

For years I have been trying to convince our beef purveyors to sell us just the cap
or deckle from the ribeye…..they finally listened and we are super pumped, this is our favorite part of the cow

Liquid Center Chocolate

malt, nitro strawberries, white chocolate powder

Triggerfish

eggplant, black truffles, tomato, maiitake

fAMILY mEAL

Slow Cooked Lobster

parsnip, tonka beans, cara-cara, leeks

White Truffles

Caviar and Vodka

This is from the
day that we served 93 ounces of caviar

Giada

be watching for us on the food network,
it should be humorous

Twice Cooked Scallops

this is served with chanterelles, charred onions and brown butter artichokes…….

Restructured Butternut Squash

We have been really interested in taking things apart and putting them back together lately…..here we take butternut squash and roast it with blis maple syrup…after it is roasted we add butternut squash juice and puree the two together…we then add agar-agar and mold the puree…the result is very similar to the squash in it’s original state, we have just amplified the flavor…..we are working on making it better by distilling or reducing the juice…..

The chicken noodles in action

Raisin Consomme

we serve this with foie gras, oats, and cider poached pears

The Elixir

thank you Blis

Bacon

Alan Benton is a great man, his bacon is incredible…..Bentons’ is located in Madisonville Tn, we love TN

Chicken Noodles

these are made using tg…….

Crispy Foie Gras Poofs

my goal is to shape these like cheetos, they will then be covered in citrus powder to resemble one of my favorite snacks…..
we are currently brainstroming other flavor combinations as well

Frozen Mustard Pearls

We serve these with duck ham, crispy bread and cornichons for an amuse…They are 100% savory thanks to “envision”

Mastic Tears

these things are super intense….tastes like Mr. Clean

a gift from TN

we are currently brainstorming our goals for this TN treasure

The Real Deal

This stuff is from Japan………it was like eating cold butter..really good butter

Foie Gras Tea with Roasted Peanut Cotton Candy

Eat the cotton candy and drink the tea

Wagyu Shortribs

Duo of potato, hollandaise, worcestershire

Smoked Roe

apple, salmon soil, cauliflower

New Toy

This thing gets to -40 degrees C………..

Scallop Gnocchi, Chestnut, Black Trumpet

We pour a bacon-butternut squash puree tableside

Protection

We were doing some serious work with meat glue today and didn’t want to take any chances…safety first

Big Fish, Big Guy

Crazy Drumstick Hand Lady

Creepy

Chicken Noodle Soup

Baby Golden Beets

Thanksgiving

We served alot of turkey today….here we used TG to serve boneless medallions of turkey………they were delicious, glued, brined, poached and fried…..we served them with foie gras stuffing

Hollandaise

We use methocel SGA150 and gelatin to shape the strips of hollandaise for our ribeye dish…..we make between 35 and 60 of these every day

That’ s alot of meat

Under Pressure

Inspired by a few conversations with Alex Talbot about how pressure affects food and what a great tool it is, we began to brainstorm tools that would help us achieve our goals….We discussed building new pieces of equipment and talked about everything from food marinators to isi chargers. Yesterday we pressurized scallops with foie gras broth and the results were incredible.

Crispy Sheets of Foie Gras

To achieve this texture we used Ultra Tex 3 and a dehydrator.

Toys

Sous VIde

Ingredients and Tools

Our Creative Process

Slammed

Fun,Fun,Fun

This dish was inspired by the tasty and classic …

This dish was inspired by the tasty and classic bacon wrapped shrimp……….We slow cook the shrimp and serve it with a serrano ham consomme and fennel…..Thinking about adding a drizzle of 50 year balsamic????

Activa

We discovered activa a couple of years ago and have used it on a daily basis ever since……
It allows us to restructure things so that we can have more control over the cooking process…..Here we were concerned about the thickness of the halibut we have been recieving…..it was rather thin and was very easy to overcook. We simply dusted the skin side with activa and folded it over…..now it is twice as thick and will cook more evenly…..

A few modifications to the kitchen

Our kitchen changes all the time. We are always moving things around to try and make our lives easier…..check the archives and compare the differences….keep checking back, I am sure we will change it soon.

This new set up allows all the food to come to a table in the center where everyone can contribute to the plating.

Vanilla Smoked Pork with pumpkin

More Pictures of The Truffles and Caviar

A really big fish

10,000 Dollars

This is 93 ounces of oscetra caviar and 2 pounds of white alba truffles….

A pic from the Vault

james beard house 2005

The Grand Master

I was lucky enough to meet the greatest chef to ever live!

Crispy Carrots

Today we discovered how to make carrot juice crispy……it completely dissolves in your mouth

Oyster Pearls

WE take oysters and puree them……….we then drop them into liquid nitrogen…..we serve them in the shell….they melt in your mouth and you are left with the sensation of a fresh oyster

the long room

this is our newly renovated private dining room. It is well over 200 years old. George Washington had a 30 course meal here in 1791

yogurt-beet noodles

we were able to take yogurt and gel the outside with beet juice. The exterior is beet gel and the interior is liquid yoghurt…..we served it with fennel pollen, hazelnuts and poached lobster….

Olive Oil Sugar

After seeing a picture of Albert Adria holding an oil encased in sugar, I began wondering how the hell they produced it. We brainstormed for weeks, some of our ideas for producing this was downright hilarious. We finally figured it out, or at least made it work for us. I am still not sure how they produce their oil bonbons but it was rewarding finally getting the results we were looking for. We have begun to brainstorm various other fats that would work with this technique. We were even able to add balsamic vinegar to the olive oil. Endless possibilities are ahead………

Pushed Tuna

Olive soil, basil oil powder, anchovies, fennel, red pepper yogurt

Foie Gras with cherries, balsamic and chocolate

Blue Cheese Bubble

Tuna with grapefruit and soy sauce cotton candy

Pics from the Headquarters

We are very fortunate to have such great local f…

We are very fortunate to have such great local farmers. These vegetables are from our friend Rita from Full Circle Farms.

Arrival

This picture is from day one. It should be interesting to see how this picture progresses in the future…

Chemicals

These allow us to manipulate food in new ways. Read the labels the next time you go to the grocery store.

Meuniere

Our version of a classic dish….Brown butter-caper ice cream, parsley juice and lemon rind puree.

Foie Gras Powder

We have been rather obsessed with powdering things lately…..Why not foie gras??