Hey everyone, sorry I have not posted in a while, I have been really busy with schoolwork and my job. But I finally got a break from all that craziness and had a meal out. My friend Allison and I went out to Frasca Food and Wine, already rated the best restaurant in Colorado, and had a seven-course meal prepared by three Michelin star chef, Daniel Humm. First of all, I have to mention how beautiful the Frasca dining room is; it is one of the most beautiful establishments in our fine city of Boulder. But enough about that lets talk about the food. We sat down and our amuse bouche was placed in front of us, sea urchin on toast with foie gras, lemon and chives. This dish reminded me very much of a dish I saw Anthony Bourdain eat at Marea, sea urchin toasts with lardo, lemon and chives. No matter how familiar it looked it tasted incredibly unique. However, the lemon and the foie were the stars of the dish and I could not taste any sea urchin. If it were sold as a foie gras dish it would have been a remarkable course because the finely grated foie gras snow was to die for. The subtle lemon flavor balanced the foie gras perfectly and made it a great, light way to start the meal.
Now before I go on I must mention that everything I ate is in the Eleven Madison Park cookbook, one of the best books I now own, I would highly recommend that my readers buy it.
Now back to the food, our next course was an expertly executed langoustine ceviche with celeriac- apple cream, apple snow, celery leafs, apple, and shaved celeriac. This langoustine preparation actually surpassed the one I indulged in at Le Bernardin, that’s a pretty big deal, and a pretty outstanding dish. The moment I head the words ceviche and cream together my mind jumped to, unbalanced, heavy, no langoustine flavor, and the dish was the exact apposite of what I expected. The langoustine flavor was very clean and had the great, briny sweetness that I love about langoustines. The cream was very subtle and did not over power the langoustine one bit. The cream coated your palate with a lovely flavor and the apple snow cleansed your palate after every bite.
The next dish placed before us was John Dory poached with citrus with pickled daikon, candied citrus, edamame cooked in brown butter, green onion and baby tarragon. To me, this dish was an exploration of flavors. The pickled daikon was scaled on the fish and shaved so thinly that you could not see it. Each bite was different; my first bite was only fish, perfectly cooked and seasoned. My next bite had a surprising crunch and blast of acidity from the pickled daikon. My next was perfumed with anise flavor from the baby tarragon, and the journey just went on and on. Every bite was different but they all linked themselves together in beautiful harmony of flavors.
Next came my favorite course of the evening, Cauliflower four ways: Caramelized, sous-vide, puree, and cauliflower couscous with raisins, marcona almonds and raisin-green curry jam. This one dish has changed the way I look at cauliflower for the rest of my life. The caramelized cauliflower on the bottom of the plate was tender, flavorful and had a great crust and color. The puree was smooth as silk and added a great creaminess to the dish. The cauliflower couscous was where things got interesting. The couscous was not couscous but cauliflower made to look like couscous, and the depth of flavor in it was insane. It was folded with lemon juice and brown butter. The lemon added a great pop of acidity and the brown butter added a great depth of earthy nuttiness. When eaten with the raisins the combo of acidity and sweetness was great. The sous-vide cauliflower was cooked with curry oil and tasted, in the best way possible, of an Indian buffet.
Now for our last savory course, Chicken slow cooked with black truffles, butternut squash puree, parsnip puree, braised cabbage and truffle jus. This course was much more simple than the other courses but restraint often unveils the most brilliant creations. The chicken was prepared in an ingenious way. First the skin was removed from the breast and it was scaled with shaved black truffles. The skin is placed back on and the chicken is vacum packed and cooked sous-vide with butter and thyme. My first bite of chicken I was hit by the intoxicating flavor and aroma of truffles. The jus added great flavor but it was not needed because the chicken was so juicy on its own. Both purees were like velvet and the parsnip puree captured the essence of parsnips. I have had parsnips that tasted less of parsnips than this puree. It was great.
Now time for dessert, Chocolate ganache with chocolate-sweet potato beignet, brown butter ice cream, sweet potato puree, coco nib crumble, chestnut honey and orange froth. This was most certainly one of the best desserts I have ever had. The rectangle of ganache in the center of the plate was rich and just melted in your mouth. It looked very dense but was actually incredibly light. The beignet was a great treat to cut into the crisp outer layer and have molten sweet potato and chocolate spill out. The brown butter ice cream was a perfect nutty contrast to the rich ganache and the orange froth added a great burst of acidity to the dish, relieving the creaminess and getting you ready for the next bite. The coco nib crumble had a great crunch and was a great component to the dish. I also want to mention the amazing attention to detail on the plating. The ganache was perfectly rectangular and topped with a single small cube of orange pate de fruit and one flake of Maldon sea salt. The quenelle on the ice cream was perfect and the dish was as much a pleasure to look at, as it was to eat.
Our mignardises was PB & J. Now you know PB & J as a sandwich but Daniel Humm's PB & J is so much more. Try peanut butter truffles coated in milk chocolate and feuilletine and raspberry pate de fruit glazed with liquid short bread and sprinkled with peanut crumble. I am not going to go into full description on how these were, but lets just say I could have eaten 1200 of each. So that concludes the three Michelin meal in Boulder, truly one of the best meals of my life. Oh, did I mention I met Chef Humm, got his book signed, and I might be staging at Eleven Madison Park this month!!! What a night!
Awesome pix, Aaron. Great to see your passion in this.
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