bistro 160: a summer tasting menu - Friday Night Dinner by CTP 160

sadly, it's nearing the end of my chef's training program at Natural Gourmet.   for the past several months we have been anticipating, dreading, practicing for, worrying over, and just plain thinking about our big final project.  Friday Night Dinner at NGI - a 4 course vegan meal served to 100 guests, including NGI folk and the public at large.  this dinner showcases our own menu,  theme, decorations, and cooking.  there were 6 of us in my group, and for the past two months we have been busy planning every last detail of this menu.  as group leader of this project and a self-proclaimed perfectionist (read total Pita for my fellow Ayurvedic geeks out there), I spent several hours considering how to make not only our meal amazing, but also the overall dining experience unique & beautiful.     

our chosen cuisine was Bistro-meets-seasonal American - think Chez Panisse or Blue Hill mixed with some Spotted Pig.  from the start our entree gave us nothing but trouble, but we were insistent on seitan strips and we went through many revisions to compose the perfect stock and sauce.  and in the end they came out moist and delicious.  nearly everything on our menu went through some sort of metamorphosis, from adding millet to the cauliflower mash for a softer texture, to the original dessert - watermelon 3 ways - becoming our appetizer.

check out the pictures below of our meal (in the craziness of it all we didn't get a pic of the 2nd course, an arugula salad with heirloom tomatoes & oyster mushroom frittos with a pesto aioli, all a huge hit).  

our menu:

garden fresh mint lemonade

sage tossed popcorn

watermelon 3 ways

heirloom tomatoes & oyster mushroom fritto

savory seitan with a fresh corn sauce

lavender-cashew ice cream with candied figs

karolina & melissa in the kitchen after several hours cooking and a good amount of pie

the line - where all of the plating happens

filling lime cups with watermelon granita

prepping the watermelon salsa

watermelon 3 ways, our appetizer

seitan strips over the kale, cauliflower mash & corn sauce, topped with a red onion pickle & a red pepper sauce for garnish

a delicious & beautiful dessert - ice cream in a pecan tuile cup, which is dipped in chocolate.  also, a salted caramel swirl, a raspberry coulis swirl, and an edible microflower.

some of CTP 160A, just after serving our meal!

and now we celebrate...

check out the Friday Night Dinners at NGI here and make a reservation for one soon!  they're the best deal in town - amazing food, fun atmosphere, and a unique experience in the city which any foodie or foodie-in-training will surely enjoy.  

there's a new chef in the kitchen

I’ve always told myself that I would never, ever step foot into a restaurant kitchen. the idea of working in such a fast-paced, high-pressure environment scared me nearly to death... the thought of it alone brought on Hell’s Kitchen-esque images of crazy, screaming chefs throwing slabs of meat at their staff. so when I enrolled in culinary school I knew that eventually I would have to face this long standing dread of working in a restaurant, as much as I tried to ignore it.

last weekend I entered, for the first time ever, a restaurant kitchen. with only a month left in school we are all searching for the right fit for our August internship. once you’ve found the place you’d like to intern, you then spend a day in the kitchen “trailing” – working an entire 10-12 hour shift to see if you like them and they like you. it’s kind of like a blind date but in a chef’s jacket and black & white checkered pants.

when I started researching restaurants I quickly became enamored with one in particular. Blue Hill at Stone Barns is Dan Barber’s restaurant (some of you might know him from the most recent Top Chef finale) up in Tarrytown, NY; there’s also a Blue Hill here in the city. a huge factor in my internship search was finding an establishment which supports local farmers, and Blue Hill is the ultimate farm-to-table restaurant. the vast property houses a farm, a learning center, a café, and the well-respected & much loved restaurant. I’d been hearing about Blue Hill for quite some time but had never made it up for a visit.

I arrived at 12:30pm and was thrown right into the kitchen. I separated and shucked spring peas fresh from the farm and finely julienned red and purple radishes. in the garden I picked fresh Purslane (a wild, edible weed) and Johnny Jump Ups (also known as a Viola Tricolor, an edible flower) for the special tea they serve at dinner. after eating the staff meal outside overlooking the farm – a cool summer shower patting down on us – I returned to the kitchen for the real challenge. the kitchen is divided into two sections: the “a la carte” section, for those ordering off the menu, and the private dining section for parties and events and runs more like catering. I spent the second half of my day (well, night by then) prepping and plating appetizers & small plates… bite-size chicken on skewers with basil & cauliflower; tufts of homemade salami, bologna & prosciutto served on slate slabs; warm sturgeon strips over a bed of zucchini & pistachios, topped with large crystals of salt. while dessert was being served – mounds of chocolate truffles, homemade raspberry & yogurt marshmallows – I was out in the back hallway already prepping for the next day of service, skimming the fat off of gallons of chicken stock. I ended the night peeling the shells off of soft-boiled eggs, freshly lain, for their signature fried soft-boiled eggs dish (I had been forewarned of this task…) and at the end of the night I nearly knocked myself out on a pig hanging frozen and skinned in the walk-in.

as luck would have it, I start my internship there in one month. so much for never stepping foot into a restaurant kitchen… who would’ve thought?!?!

and this is how we do it...

my biggest masterpiece yet... a vegan lemon cake with lemon-tofu frosting

deliciously scrumptious and fun to decorate

Melissa puts the finishing touches on her ridiculously good looking cake

my very first clam shucking experience!

chef Richard teaches us shellfish

a 91-degree kitchen + some hott herbed dinner rolls

chef kat whips up a crazy delicious pizza creation

chef larry prepares to work those arms, whisking egg whites for waffles

these were some *delicious* crispy wontons

chef Elliott teaches us how to convert regular cookie recipes into health-supportive recipes... possibly the most cookies i've ever eaten on a single day

big D and Karolina in the kitchen

oysters 3-ways: wasabi sauce, salsa & vinegar

veggies from our "grill class"

chef Annie works with us on salads

Welcome to Eat My Greens

When I entered my junior year in college I did so as a newly converted vegetarian. My friends and the people around me all greeted this news with a downpour of confusion, frustration, and even what seemed to be anger about my new lifestyle. A year later when I returned from summer vacation a vegan, an even stronger reaction ensued. I began to realize that people took my food choices personally, as if by labeling myself a vegetarian or vegan I was inherently judging their own food choices. I became aware for the first time of the disjointed and disordered relationship our society has to food – how easily we fall into fads of what’s “healthy” versus “unhealthy”; how we lack any relationship between our food, our land, and our environment; how reliant we have become on processed and “Frankenstein” foods, the twice removed-distant cousins of the whole foods they started as.
Eat My Greens is not here to tell you should or shouldn’t be eating. Every person’s body is different and requires its own unique food and lifestyle choices. In other words, there is no one right answer when it comes to how and what you should eat…and what works for you today might change in a week, a year, or ten years down the line. Eat My Greens is here simply as an impetus for discussion. It is here to prompt you to question yourself about what you’re consuming day to day, to help you become more attune to your body so you actually know what works for you and what doesn’t, and to explore the myths and generalizations of “rights” and “wrongs” in foods and help find the path that works for you.

Oh and also…to share with you some useful information, recipes, and hints for making ridiculously delicious and beautiful food.