Outside of philosophy, my primary passion and creative outlet is food preparation. My style is eclectic; this is a polite way of saying I have no formal training in any one region's style. I will take most any excuse to cook for people, but my favorite practice is throwing small-course dinner parties. Below are a few of the menus I have put together and executed.
First Dinner
1 - Potato custard with Parmesan foam.
2 - Watercress/baby butter lettuce salad with raw tuna, jicama, fennel, avocado, and lemon olive oil/champagne vinegar vinaigrette.
3 - Braised beef short rib with parsnips puree, pearl onion, morels, and red wine/veal stock reduction.
4 - Fresh strawberry filled with crema of Mascarpone, goat cheese, black pepper, and toasted almond, drizzled with aged Modena balsamic reduction and Texas wildflower honey on an organic basil leaf.
5 - Apple weincreme chiffon custard with rhubarb-Grand Marnier compote.
Second Dinner (AKA "Dessert is a season")
1 - Summer: Seared watermelon with aged balsamic glaze, beef carpaccio seasoned with fennel pollen, arugula and herb salad dressed with lemon olive oil, bee pollen and edible flowers.
2 - Spring: Cannelloni fresca, seared sea scallop, violet gastrique, kohlrabi microgreens.
3 - Winter: Confit of goose with warm spices, roasted wild forest mushrooms, Calvados-glazed roasted apples, cranberry caviar.
4 - Fall: Italian cheese assortment with pomegranate seeds, figs, pears, Marcona almonds, and spicy curried pumpkin seeds.
5 - Dessert: Duo of miniature baked Alaska. Chocolate cake, coconut-coffee ice cream, allspice meringue; orange pound cake, beet ice cream, walnut meringue.
Third Dinner (For my Vegan/Gluten-Free Friends)
1 - Seared watermelon and cucumber espuma with balsamic vinegar reduction.
2 - Moroccan spiced tofu and rainbow chard stems, served with golden raisins, preserved lemons, green onions, red pepper flakes, and olive mix.
3 - Roasted zucchini hollows filled with eggplant mousse on a bed of red quinoa with pesto.
4 - Roasted assorted mushrooms with red mole sauce, powdered avocado, and powdered cinnamon-infused macadamia nut oil.
5 - Deconstructed banana split: avocado fried ice cream, coconut milk whipped cream, fried bananas, and red chile caramel sauce.
Celebratory "My Prospectus Is Defended" Dinner
1 - Roasted beets, Jacob and Brichford Arabella cheese, honey/balsamic, smoke; Ardbeg 10 year Scotch.
2 - Lemon sorbet palette cleanser.
3 - Salad/appetizer - Grilled brussels sprouts, apple cider vinegar, golden raisins, pancetta.
4 - Lobster claw, daikon, chives, roe, scallop, vanilla bubbles, shiitake mushroom.
5 - Potato soup with roasted-fennel Parmesan Chilean sea bass.
6 - Palette cleanser: Cucumber, pea puree, mint oil.
7 - Duck confit with warm spices and duck sausages, roasted wild forest mushrooms, Calvados-glazed roasted apples, cherry-port reduction.
8 - Brown butter sorbet, sweet ginger gel noodles, cherry blossom foam.
