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 [...]

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Some Pics from our New Kitchen

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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 [...]

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Happy 2nd Anniversary Guerrilla Cuisine

A good time was had by all….
congrats to chef hat, well done sir

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Flowers

Just picked
radish and borage

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Australian Finger Limes

Buy Some from Tyler
 
super cool, lots of ideas bouncing around

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Three Flavors

 

 
Saba, Balsamic and Apple Cider Vin
 
A great way to add acid to a dish….

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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

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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!!!

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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….

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Nasturtium

  
almost ready to transplant

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Foraging

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

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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

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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.

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Shrimp and Grits

for star chefs

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Garlic Buds

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

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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

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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 [...]

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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.

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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!

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i have a dream……..

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

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Farmer Maria Baldwin

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

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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

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Floral

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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 [...]

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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

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Fried Chicken and Waffles

Bourbon-Banana Puree
blis Maple
Fried Chicken Liver terrine
red may waffle
 
photo by joan perry

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Chocolate Covered Carrots

Chocolate Covered Carrots
Brown Butter Caramel Ice Cream
cocoa Crumble
photo by our friend joan perry

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Seaweed

Seaweed Puree
Marintated Seaweed
Cvap Spot Prawn
Spot Prawn jus
frothed mango vinegar
togarashi

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White Chocolate-Strawberries-Citrus

Yuzu Curd
Strawberry Puree
Fresh Strawberries
Cara Cara Oranges
White Chocolate Cup
Crispy White Chocolate Pearls

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Wild Ramps

Morels
 Charleston Stone Crab
Nasturstium Butter
Ramp Pasta
Pickled Ramps

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Twitter

www.twitter.com/hseanbrock
keep up with my ramblings, this should be interesting, especially after 2am

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Rabbit Mortadella

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Beet Glazed Beets

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Wild Wood Sorrel

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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

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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 [...]

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miso bacon

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

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Wild Onions

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What Now?

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

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The Vita Mix XL

4 horsepower
what a pleasure to use, this thing is a monster
really, really awesome

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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

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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!

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Smokin!

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A quick Interview with Angel Powell of the Post and Courier

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

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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 [...]

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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

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Liquid Foie Gras Lollipops

Foie Gras Puree trapped inside white chocolate and grapefruit

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Green Strawberries

My first attempt at growing strawberries….fingers crossed

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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!

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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

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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.

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Cardoons

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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.

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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

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Cauliflower

saduchi and smoked honey glazed with pickled winter squash

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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….

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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 [...]

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Roasted Mushrooms

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

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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!

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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!!

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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 [...]

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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

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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 [...]

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Marinated Sferification

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

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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!

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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

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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

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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

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A Picture of some Pigs

fat and lazy
enjoying a gorgeous day on wadmalaw

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Buttermilk

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

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Chicken Liver Parfait

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

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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

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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.

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Birch flavored Bourbon

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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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Yuzu

pugdog

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Onions

you can never grow enough onions

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Growing

it tastes so much better when you grow it yourself!

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orion fennel

I planted this just for it’s pollen

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Our Pigs on Wadmalaw

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

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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 [...]

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Thanks

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

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Heirloom Black Peanuts

anybody know where to get these seeds??

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Local Triggerfish

a wonderful fish
our friend mark marhefka catches these for us

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Check out our new Website

www.mccradysrestaurant.com
 
thanks to green olive media for doing such a great job!

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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 [...]

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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) [...]

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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

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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

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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

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Jowl Bacon

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Heirloom Turnips

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

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Chicken Thigh

TG

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Fall is here

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

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Matsutake

Seared matsu
Black Garlic Milk
Sweet and Sour Turnip

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Raw Fish and Pork

Snapper Crudo
Warm Lardo
Pork Rind
Fennel Pollen
Compressed Fennel Bulb

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Ocean Broth

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Bacon Flavored Bourbon

My two favorite things in one glass…..

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Kumo

one of my favorite oysters
 
here we serve it with raw apple consomme , pickled pears and frozen horseradish

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Blis Brook Trout Roe

this dish was really tasty
 
passion fruit powder
spray dried coconut
lychee sorbet
 
lime basil

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God Bless Meat Glue

Black Cod, tightened up!

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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!

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Tasting Menu

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

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Carolina Trout

Bacon Poached Potatoes
Crispy Potato Sheet
Pernod Compressed Celery
Benton’s Bacon
Shellfish Vin Blanc
Poached Clams
Onion Soubise
Glued Trout

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Lardo

Chilled Scallop
Warm Lardo Vinaigrette
Compressed Fennel
Fennel Pollen

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Malpeque Oyster

Raw Oyster
Miso-Dashi
Yuzu
White Soy Pearls
Wild Steel head Roe
Tart Apples

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“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 [...]

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Our Pigs

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

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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..

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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

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Salami Cappota

Coppa wrapped in Spicy Soprasatta
Aged for 4 months

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Some Pics from the Van Winkle Dinner

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Poached and Chilled

Pickled Radish
Miso-Buttermilk Dressing
Wood Sorrel
Crispy Nori

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Just a picture of an Oyster

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Raw

Kona Kampachi
Spiced Saduchi Puree
Puffed Kelp
Miso Powder
Shiso
Apples compressed with Sake

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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!

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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 [...]

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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

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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 [...]

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Crispy Buttermilk

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

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Milk Bubbles

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

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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 [...]

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Excited

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

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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

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Olive Snow

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

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Black Summer Truffles

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

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Simple, Simple, Simple

We created this for a whiskey tasting….
Foie Gras Terrine with smoked butterscotch and tart apples
Perfect with Whiskey

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Charleston Stone Crabs Again

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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 [...]

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The Raw Product

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

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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

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Heat

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

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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

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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

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Red Ribbon Sorrel

Smoky Hollandaise, Leek Puree, Beets

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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 [...]

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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

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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

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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

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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 [...]

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Five Months

we finally harvested our jimmy red…
anybody want to grow some next year??
 
we now have a ton of seeds

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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.  [...]

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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.

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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 [...]

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Peaches and Cream

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

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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.  [...]

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Milk-Fed

my piggies love milk.

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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

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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

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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……

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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

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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
 

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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 [...]

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Can Anyone Guess what this is??

 
one hint……it’s totally natural

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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.

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Tuna

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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

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Ice Cream and Fish Eggs

Coconut, Curry, Nasturtium and Artic Char Roe
 
 

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Charcuterie

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

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Fresh Coriander Berries

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The 2008 James Beard Awards

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

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Good Times in NYC

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

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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!!!

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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!!

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The end of May

 

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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.

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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 [...]

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Palmex Carrots

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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 [...]

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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

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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 

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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.

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Micro Ice Plant

these edible succulents are really neat.  What a cool texture

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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)

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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 [...]

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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.

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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

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Local Shrimp

Insipred by the local shrimp arriving with it’s roe
local shrimp, avocado, white soy, red miso powder, perilla

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Isar Beans

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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

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Summer Truffles from Tyler

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Early Thanksgiving

 
this is so good….really well balanced. 

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Dehydrated Goat Cheese

 
 
 
Something tells me this will be served with zucchini puree

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We had a Nice Rain

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

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Fried Pig’s Ears

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

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Tornado

the tornado killed our scarecrow

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Peas and Carrots

 
liquid center english pea soup encapsulated with crispy carrot puree

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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

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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

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My Apologies

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

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Spring Garden

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

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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 [...]

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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??

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Foie Gras

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Fish Rinds

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

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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

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Confit of Lamb Neck

Date Puree, farro Verde, Thackeray Cabbage
 
Thanks to Damon Campbell for prepping and cooking the lamb neck.

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Thickened Olive Oil

<

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Langston Progress Peas

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

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House made Butter

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

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The handy work of Jaques Larson

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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 [...]

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The Chef’s Office

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Foie Gras

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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 [...]

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Milk Fed Pigs

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

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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

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Onion Puree

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

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Tamworth Pork Belly

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Superbag

serious clarification….much cheaper than a chinios

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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 [...]

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Mozzerella Sheets

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Calcium Gluconolactate

Pork-Mulled Cider Jus

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Peelzyme

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Nantucket Bay Scallops

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

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Tamworth Pigs

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

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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 

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Liquid Center Chocolate Panna Cotta

 
Dessert by Winburn Carmack
Photography by www.heatherforsythe.com

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A Picture inside of a Picture

www.heatherforsythe.com

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The Vegetable Garden

photography by Heather Forsythe
www.heatherforsythe.com

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Collard Greens

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

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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.

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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. 

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Pig Pickin

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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

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Crispy

making the squash blossoms crispy

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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

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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

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Olive Oil Snow

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Foie Gras Marshmallows

Inspired by Asbel

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Beet Wrapped in Beet Wrapped in Beet

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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

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Smoked Salmon Bagel

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

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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

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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

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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

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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 [...]

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Our new Ribeye Dish

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Duck Meat

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Clear Seaweed Broth

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Inspiration

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Toro

This came from a 600 pound fish

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Local Stuff

we braise these with glucose and grapefruit

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Winecap Mushrooms from France

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JUMBO Lump

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Ebay…..$99

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The Food and Wine Festival

Bob Carter and Bradford Thompson

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My newest book…..

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

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Amuse

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

espelette

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The Bradford Thompson Dinner

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Production

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Beef

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

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pics from andy c

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some pics from andy c

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Sweetbreads

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

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Pictures from The Charleston City Paper

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Egg Yolk Caviar

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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

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Flavor Pearls

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Chorizo

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

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Peas and Carrots

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Lobster with vanilla and bay laurel

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Some old pics of the Kitchen

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Sunday

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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

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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.

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Plating

photo by Andy C.

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Sweet Shrimp from Maine

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

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Getting to know your product

peekytoe

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Blue Prawn

Seared on the plancha with radish, fennel and bergamot

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Hawaiian Snapper

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Service

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Green Truffles from Mars

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Creamed Spinach

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

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Crispy Leaf Garnishes

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

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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.

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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

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Our Current Ocean Trout Dish

fennel, radish, citrus

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Bubble Gum

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

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Waiting

This is going to be tasty.

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Puffed Chorizo

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

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Mustard

tommorrow this will be clear….

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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

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Roasted Lamb

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

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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.

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Puffed Olive

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Solid/Liquid

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

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Manipulation

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

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Raw Tuna

Apple, Yogurt, Celery, Smoked Steelhead Roe

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Grouper Cheek

grande

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Frog Legs

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

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New Trick

we are always looking for ways to make food lighter….
we stumbled upon this by accident…
the flavor is mastic

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Onion Glass

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Saffron Cream

olive poached artichokes, chorizo, safrron, eggplant

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Slightly Busy

this is how we spent our newyear’s eve….

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Snap, Crackle, Foie

foie gras flavored pop rocks with Blis elixir

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Cap of Prime Beef

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

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Raisin Bubbles

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

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Smoked Salmon Noodles

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

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Submerged

sunchokes cooking in olive oil for our new chicken dish

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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 [...]

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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

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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

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Liquid Center Chocolate

malt, nitro strawberries, white chocolate powder

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Triggerfish

eggplant, black truffles, tomato, maiitake

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fAMILY mEAL

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Slow Cooked Lobster

parsnip, tonka beans, cara-cara, leeks

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White Truffles

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Caviar and Vodka

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

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Giada

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

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Twice Cooked Scallops

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

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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 [...]

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The chicken noodles in action

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Raisin Consomme

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

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The Elixir

thank you Blis

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Bacon

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

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Chicken Noodles

these are made using tg…….

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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

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Frozen Mustard Pearls

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

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Mastic Tears

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

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a gift from TN

we are currently brainstorming our goals for this TN treasure

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The Real Deal

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

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Foie Gras Tea with Roasted Peanut Cotton Candy

Eat the cotton candy and drink the tea

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Wagyu Shortribs

Duo of potato, hollandaise, worcestershire

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Smoked Roe

apple, salmon soil, cauliflower

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New Toy

This thing gets to -40 degrees C………..

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Scallop Gnocchi, Chestnut, Black Trumpet

We pour a bacon-butternut squash puree tableside

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Protection

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

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Big Fish, Big Guy

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Crazy Drumstick Hand Lady

Creepy

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Chicken Noodle Soup

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Baby Golden Beets

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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

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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

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That’ s alot of meat

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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 [...]

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Crispy Sheets of Foie Gras

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

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Toys

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Sous VIde

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Ingredients and Tools

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Our Creative Process

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Slammed

Fun,Fun,Fun

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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????

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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Vanilla Smoked Pork with pumpkin

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More Pictures of The Truffles and Caviar

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A really big fish

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10,000 Dollars

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

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A pic from the Vault

james beard house 2005

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The Grand Master

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

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Crispy Carrots

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

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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

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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

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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….

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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 [...]

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Pushed Tuna

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

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Foie Gras with cherries, balsamic and chocolate

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Blue Cheese Bubble

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Tuna with grapefruit and soy sauce cotton candy

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Pics from the Headquarters

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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.

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Arrival

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

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Chemicals

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

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Meuniere

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

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