Dinner at Alinea

My love of food notwithstanding, I have been really, really excited about our upcoming meal at Alinea. I had heard a lot about the place and what Chef Grant Achatz has been doing...and his recent battle with tounge cancer. The man lost his sense of taste then won the James Beard award - crazy. His is also a former French Laundry cook and one of the few who have left and made it big....so I was curious how he would meld his training with his own personality...



Steelhead Roe (coconut, cilantro, vanilla fragrance)
Cocktail of Louis Roederer Brut with Roussanne, Spiced Mead and Curacao

This was fascinating...the vanilla bean was the stick that had some coconut custard, roe and was wrapped in a cilantro tuille. The combination of flavors was very interesting...almost Thai inspired both sweet and savory and tangy.

Tomato (basil, mozarella, olive oil)
Domaine Sigalas Assytri "Santorini", Santorini Greece 2007

So your basic caprese salad..but completely deconstructed into a different set of textures as to play on your palatte. The mozarella was a frozen foam, the basil was presented as a gelatto and the balsamic was made into little gelee cubes. The tomatoes...now THAT was interesting - it was umami-riffic. They had regular tomato cubes, tomato water gelee cubes, a spoonful of tomato seeds AND a tomato powder that was pressed into a cube. The tomato flavors were just absolutely fascinating and different in each bite.

Cauliflower (five coatings, three gels, apple)
Venica & Venica Tocai Friulano "Ronco delle Cime" Collio 2007

Now THIS was also very interesting...the cubes there are cauliflower custard rolled in a variety of different toppings. One is cheese, and um I can't remember the rest but they were all delicious. There are also 3 different gels (one was vanilla I remember) and dried cauliflower pieces. They then poured a warm apple soud (SUPER CREAMY) at the table. It was so interestingly savory.

Alaskan King Crab (popcorn, butter, curry)
Chrereau-Carre Muscadet "Comte Leloup de Chasseloir, Ceps Centenaires" Loire 2003

So they told us to think about things that go with butter....so you naturally think popcorn, lobster, crab, corn....and surprisingly they all show up on this plate all together but some in different texture form. The ribbon you see running across the plate is a popcorn puree, there is lobster and crab on the plate along with some regular corn and curry...in the middle is a mango pudding/custard thing. On the right you see a ball, it is basically a ball of melted butter - totally cool.

Celery (pork belly, shiso, sudachi)

Crisp and delectable pork belly on the fork with a bit of shiso and celery shaving. The cup holds a little bit of shiso soup and some sudachi foam...dericious

Wagyu Beef (maitake, smoked date, Blis Elixir)
Littorai "Savoy Vineyard" Pinot Noir, Anderson Valley California 2005

So it was Wagyu....enough said there. And this was the good shit straight from Japan. they brought out the beef suspended in a pair of decorative chopsticks a few courses prior...after a quick dip in liquid nitrogen....so it slowly defrosts on the table, then they bring out the rest of the goodness..the mushrooms laying on a bed of smoked date mousse and then drizzles a little vinegar and wagyu fat YUMMMMM!!!!

Lamb (potato, sunflower, sweet spice)
Cims de Porrera "Classic" Priorat 2004

They use the same lamb as The French Laundry...there are like only a handful of places that this supplier produces lamb for..as a small outfit in upstate NY. And the verdict? It is f-ing delicious. I was a little over the sunflower puree though...it was good but for me there was too much of it for the lamb....

Hot Potato (cold potato, black truffle, butter)

Apparently this is a classic Alinea dish. In the bowl is a cold potato soup, the skewer has a cube of parmesean cheese, butter and a hot potato ball with black truffle. To eat you pull the pin, thus making all of the pieces drop into the soup and then shoot the whole thing - YUMMYLICIOUS! I think this was one of my favorites.

Duck (foie gras, mole flavors)
Gonzalez Byass Palo Cortado "Apostoles 30 anos" Jerez Spain

SUPER interesting... It had duck confit shredded in the bottom of the cup, with a nice seared foie gras cube and and mole. I don't love mole in general but this was fantastic!!! And well, the foie gras.....well I do LOVE foie gras. The seeds and goodness in the bowl were heated to provide added aroma.
From left to right:
Watermelon (fresh coriander, tamari, bonito)
Bacon (butterscotch, apple, thyme)
Strawberry (violet, nicoise olive)
Concord Grape (yogurt, mint, long pepper)

This was VERY interesting...not onlly did everything taste wonderfully interesting, they each had their own special serving piece. The watermelon on that spear was funny because you just kind of lean into it and take a bite..it was sweet and savory YUMMY!

The bacon was suspended in that little moon on a wire and was crunchy and sweet and well, you can't go wrong with bacon.

The strawberry was like a little malt ball in texture almost...melting in your mouth when it sits in your mouth and as the layers melt you taste the briny olive and the aromatic violet...crazy.

The concord grape - WOW - the little ball was so delicate so that it almost instantly crumbled when it hit your mouth releasing an intensely flavored juice and shooting that with the juice that the grape was sitting in was super fantastic.

Forrest about to fellate his watermelon.
Pumpkin (gruyere, Blis maple syrup, smoke)
Klein Constanatia "Vin de Constance" Constantia South Afria 2002

Oh yeah - this was pretty cool. They placed a pillow filled with smoke that smelled like a campfire on our table then put a plate on top. So throughout the course you are surrounded by the smell of a campfire while eating a pumpkin thing with cheese and maple syrup. It was kind of like a custard thing.... it was all very fall :)

Chocolate (fig, olive, pine) Famille L. Dupone Pommeau de Normanie France

I don't even like chocolate but I ate this. I really dug the figs and the pine sorbet in this one. It's basically a chocolate sheet over a bunch of figs and other yummy little bits.

Dry Caramel (salt)

Again WOW...it was basically a shot glass of powder but after you shoot it, the moisture in your mouth instantly turns this into chewy salted caramel...amazing. I could have bathed in this.

I was worried that Alinea was going to be "too wierd" even for me, because sometimes all the food science of playing with texture and flavors can push the boundaries to a place where it no longer tastes good....but everything was executed perfectly and deliciously. Many of the flavors were familiar and grouped in ways that felt natural but you ended up experiencing them in a manner that was new and different, thus changing your perspective. And the service was amazing...not stuffy, very efficient and friendly - it was almost if you found a middle place between Charlie Trotter and Thomas Keller's schools of thought and then mixed in a little hipster.