Think On It

Mind blowing bloggers

November 2nd, 2007

Look here to read an account of a cooking job as executed by a couple who write a blog I read everyday. You will never read accounts of cookery so completely and generously open about the new ideas they develop and the new ways with food they have.

Their blog is deceptively titled Ideas in Food. You and I have ideas in food. Alex and Aki dedicate the larger part of their lives to making food into forms and flavors that rival nature in their diversity.

We know that I am never going to cook like that. Just the investment in equipment would be insuperable. Working alone couldn’t be that yeasty and productive. Occasionally, when they fool around with something Italian, I find myself talking to the computer. But I read it and I’m fascinated. It was therefore irresistible to read the account of a meal they were hired to create for a small group of foodies. Read it. You will be astounded.

Entry Filed under: Food, Brains, Heroes, Beauty, Favorite Blogs, Food Blogs, cooking school

10 Comments Add your own

1. eg | November 2nd, 2007 at 2:19 pm

I love those little glass jars they used for the soup.
2. admin | November 2nd, 2007 at 10:00 pm

I could probably afford those!
3. Snowpea | November 5th, 2007 at 5:51 am

I am astounded. I enjoyed reading bits and I’m bookmarking their site. As with your young friends in Switzerland, these two are also a fascinating pair of foodies.
4. admin | November 5th, 2007 at 12:36 pm

It’s too bad I wasn’t blogging when you and Peter were here. We were pretty foodie too.
5. Snowpea | November 6th, 2007 at 2:24 am

I was actually contemplating doing an avant-garde vegetarian Xmas supper for my parents until this morning.

So far, my menu was chiogga beet carpaccio with baby greens, parmesan curls, and sauce; followed by essence of carrot and essence of tomato in shot glasses (I was still figuring what to serve with them… something crunchy and something melty); then a slice of millet pie with tourtière seasonings, a wild mushroom Bourguignon stew cooked in a large winter squash… roast garlic mashed potatoes, and that olive cranberry tapenade I saw on their site… and a fennel slaw for crunch and tartness. That fennel caragheenan jelly looked fun, but I could not work it in. I had a brunoise of caramelized beet on one of the dishes I enjoyed at 5e Péché on Friday and that too was probably going to get worked in somehow to replace the traditional pickled beets.

Their carrot caramel was inspiring and I was thinking of devising something around it, probably maple-flavoured to stay on the traditional theme.

And do while working on my ideas for dessert, I realized several things: 1) it was going to be a lot of work, which is fine, but 2) my parents would never appreciate what I’d put into this and 3) they would not enjoy it because they are not adventurous and my father cannot imagine a meal without meat, esp. a Holiday one… and my mother’s sense of taste seems to have gone stale.

:sigh:

So looks like turkey will be on the menu after all. The chiogga beet carpaccio might yet make it, though. And the olive-cranberry tapenade.
6. admin | November 6th, 2007 at 9:38 am

You go girl! Sounds splendid. I don’t see me ever making a whole turkey again. I use the parts a lot, but you have to order ahead to get the whole creature. That’s a lot of expensive (here) meat.

Turkey wasn’t traditional in my family. For Christmas it was seafood on the Eve and any luxurious piece of meat for the Day. Crown roasts, fillet, hams, etc all made their appearances.
7. Snowpea | November 7th, 2007 at 4:59 am

Turkey is indeed not really traditional here in Quebec — meatball stew (ragoût de boulettes, made with pork, veal and beef) and ragoût de pattes (pig’s feet stew — lots of feet for very little meat) are more part of the historic table. My mom has made that meatball stew more in recent years - it’s rich and overly redolent clover. I don’t eat much meat anymore — I shudder at the thought.

Maybe a small roast so I don’t get stuck with tons of leftover meat I won’t want to eat.

PS the 5 chars code thing is really getting up my nose! Sometimes the characters are too hard to read even after generating new ones.
8. admin | November 7th, 2007 at 11:11 am

I thought tenderloin of pork when I read your ideas. It’s small, very lean, can be stunningly delicious. What think you?
9. eg | November 7th, 2007 at 2:42 pm

I think the stupid crookedy characters are hard too.
10. Snowpea | November 8th, 2007 at 1:38 am

I think the same re. pork loin… not sure I’d go very avant-garde with it. Perhaps stuffed with apricots… mmmh, apricots.