Absolut Achatz

A year ago I was introduced to this chef called Grant Achatz. If you are not familiar for his work I suggest you start reading and watching. You can follow Chef Achatz through twitter and his amazing restaurant Alinea. I was given the "recipe" book of the restaurant by my mixologist friend Nick Nemith. Many ideas have come from studying that book and watching videos from the chef. This video is the greatest form of his brilliance and insanity. Knowing the difficulty in off site functions and catering it is hard for one to imagine the work and organization his team has.

I take many lessons from this great chef and I am sure many others can as well.

Slainte

My Journey Through the Vintage

2 weeks ago while visiting my friend Jeff Innes at Palatine Hills and tasting the various barrel samples we had a few conversations. There was a point in time where I was deciding which route to take, wine or food? Obviously I have chosen the path of a chef but I still look at the wine industry with great interest and curiosity.

Since my first serious wine class with Chris Waters (editor for Vines Magazine) wine has been nothing more than what I sample and analyze (of course enjoy). But over the past two years I have been asking Jeff to join him. So in our last talk he told me to come in once or twice a week to taste the wines from press to the bottle. So today was the first day going through the sparkling, Sauvignon Blanc, chardonnay and Gewurtztraminer.

Tasting the grapes is really interesting and tasting the fresh juice is nothing short of amazing. The sweetness is actually shocking when it touches your lips for the first time. It was even more interesting to me noticing the characteristics right in the cloudy glass in front of me. The aroma, the acidity and the sweetness all in a glass that looked the farthest thing from my recognition of this thing called wine. But put your nose into it and taste it and think hard and you can pick out the wine, you can see it as if an infant on what it can become, the great potential of this vintage.

The coming weeks are going to be a great experience for me and I will talk to Jeff more about documenting with photos and possibly video. There are a lot of great things happening with Artisanal Palate at the moment and for the future. However, for me it is the experiences such as this one that will mold me in the great chef I want to become. Sometimes I need to pinch myself to realize for 100+hrs a week I am not really at work but merely at play.

Slainte



as an aside: for those that are actual writers and English majours understand I am a cook. I will be taking a writing class in the winter as it is apparent that my writing is horrible. I hope that you can bare with me and at least enjoy the information. Editors are expensive for a young entrepreneur like myself.