My Revalation in Progressive American Cuisine...

Sorry for the delay Mike, thats the luxury of having two other minds to meld(live long and prosper, thats my movie quote for this post). Circa 2007, I was finishing up culinary school and working at the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin hotel in Orlando, FL. After almost a year at the hotel I finally got my transfer to Todd English's Blue Zoo(check out their blog, Bluechef) and at this point I thought I was a pretty good cook. Long story short, I realized that there was MUCH MUCH more for me to learn. We were in the middle of a small menu change and one of the dishes called for pea puree. As I read the MOP, I saw a vaguely familiar ingredient....."xanthan gum"...??? I knew I had seen that word on ingredient tags of commercial products, but what were we going to use it for. I was amazed to watch this unassuming powder thicken and stabilize the puree as it rained into the blender. From that moment I was intrigued, enlightened, and hungry to see what else I somehow missed. Unfortunately, my path had me leave Orlando before I had sponged up all the knowledge I could from the zoo. That is when I discovered this vast world of information on the Internet, that is why I started this blog, at that is how we learn to think progressively about the manipulation of whole foods. These new techniques and ingredients are what help us find ways to make liquids into solids, fats into powders, and pearls out of Pernod liqueur. Rarely a day goes by that I don't run through a gauntlet of blogs from chefs that are smarter than me so I can be better myself. Its part of the idiom of an accomplished chef, to hand down the knowledge.

Obviously Mike, Brennan, and I are just getting settled in with this blog and honestly I still spend the majority of my time on the page design. However, we will make sure to post more actual recipes and techniques that we find success with as we iron out the blog into a "well oiled machine" along with our individual culinary philosophy. Thanks for reading and don't hesitate to offer feedback.