breakdown of a dish...

i guess what better way to explain my outlook of what i am claiming as reflective cooking is to break down a dish...

this dish is called hollywood... and its based off of my own.. well,  sarcastic smart ass view of hollywood... 

every ingredient is on the plate for a reason and is from my own personal point of view.

so the dish starts out coconut milk pound cake. the reason i thought to use coconut is because when most people think of california or hollywood they think of palm trees and when most people think of palm tress they think of coconuts so this was the reason for having this flavor etc...

another part coconut that i added to the dish is the "line" of coconut milk powder. it doesnt take a genius to realize that hollywood is free flowing and full of drugs so this is why this is on the plate as well as adding another texture and re-inforcing the coconut milk pound cake.

the next part is the chocolate and gold sorbet as well as the chocolate soil. obviously this goes back to the fact that everyone loves chocolate and here theres no shortage of that but it also adds a richness to counteract some of the other things going on with the dish as well as textural contrast and temperature contrast. the gold is obviously there for the overkill that is "luxury"

next up is the black sesame "concrete" because everywhere you look concrete is in your face. the place is called the concrete jungle for gosh sakes... 

now we get to the rose water "implants". just drive down basically any main street anywhere in this city and you will understand why these bad boys made the cut... they look like silicone implants and taste almost like the perfume these ladies wear yet still sticks within the right flavor profile... of course i had to dust them with gold like jewelry.

and we also have the silver leaf to gild the lily even further, this is for well to look ridiculously over the top as most stuff here can be...

and then we have the rose water and orange blossom "roe" since we do grow citrus in california theres a tiny note of it there and they represent the diamonds... a girls best friend.

and last but not least we have the smoked beet "kisses" between the fake lips and real lips, trying to look like angelina jolie or marilyn monroe i had to throw this in the mix... also i chose to do smoked beet more as another jab at the contradiction of healthy vs unhealthy (also the smog). see there are a lot of people who live the healthy lifestyle yet smoke cigarettes like they are going out of style. beets are a healthy root that people eat raw and well damn the color is beautiful like a womans lipstick so you can have your cake and eat it to. (this part of the dish to me is kind of like running on a treadmill smoking a cigarette...)

then when you are all finished the flavors arent really all that crazy. its still a very approachable dish and thats what i wanted to achieve. there are still a few kinks i want to work on to hone it down even more as with all dishes its good to keep at them and improving but for the most part i had a great time coming up with the concept. not to mention i can be a smart ass while i am at it. yet this is what reflective cooking is to me, a reflection of my own experiences. views. attitude. and whatever other influences rear their heads in my food.

chocoloate. rose. coconut. black sesame. beet. 

 

Comments

[Grace]

I liked your description of Hollywood. It's beautiful but there's not that much to it...

[Grace]

You are an amazingly creative chef..I forgot to add that to my last post.