love, the porters: my chef crush

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

my chef crush - richard blais.

confession: i have a huge, gigantic chef crush on richard blais. i fell for him on his first season of top chef, continued my chef crush throughout his win on top chef all-stars {which i totally think was created just so blais could be a top chef champion}, & fell even further on life after top chef. this chef is insanely creative in the kitchen. he uses liquid nitrogen likes it's his job. {ok ok, he has actually made it his job.} i am in awe of the food his brain & his hands create.

so when i found out he was opening a new restaurant in atlanta, we HAD to go experience this restaurant. eating dinner at the spence, my friends, was the entire purpose of celebrating my birthday in atlanta. & it {along with my amazing husband being amazing} made the trip!

the restaurant itself has every bit of the urban, hipster vibe we love. it was dark with awesome lights, exposed ductwork, wine bottles every where, a key file folder menu, an open kitchen to watch the crazy awesome cooks work...

the bar area was seriously cool. a floating shelf held tons & tons of bottles. if we lived in atlanta, i would do my best to hang out here as often as, well, we could afford.

blakey ordered us the most amazing sparkling red wine. i am almost never a red wine drinker & am only on special occasion a sparkling wine drinker, but i must say this was the perfect start to our fabulous dinner & evening.

the spence {from old french despense, meaning pantry or parlour} has all very richard-blais-esque food. small plates, crazy imaginative food, leaving you having very little idea of what exactly you ate, but you are certain you are a happier person for eating it.

to commence our meal, we began with foie gras. i've never had it, so i absolutely had to try it. it's one of the most chefy things i know of - a delicacy made of duck liver. sounds disgusting, right? well, i certainly thought it was. hahaha. but i am so happy i tried it!

next up: oysters & pearls! now, raw oysters i love. from blais' cookbook, try this at home, {which my lovely mother gave me for my birthday - thank you, mom!!}:

i refer to this presentation of raw oysters as "oysters & pearls" in homage to one of my mentors,

thomas keller... when you get a canister of liquid nitrogen for the first time, it's like getting a new toy...

& the first time my cooks & i played with it, we dropped all sorts of things into it to see what would happen. one of my tests was to drop a little bit of the horseradish cream into the canister.

like dippin' dots ice cream, the horseradish cream froze into perfect spheres that looked almost like cavaiar... i'm happy to say it's a very simple process.

tell me that's not the coolest thing you've read about food. they were delicious too.

for blakey's main course, he had to have the "juicy lucy" - a big fat 6 ounce burger of brisket, short rib, chuck, & dry-aged beef fat, ground in-house daily, & stuffed with white american cheese. & triple cooked french fries. obviously, he absolutely loved it.

for me: roasted bone marrow topped with tuna tartare & quail eggs! another treat i had not before tried - bone marrow. this was lush & divine.

to continue stuffing ourselves, we also had a few side dishes, if you will. first up, macaroni & headcheese! what is headcheese, you ask? a classic terrine made of so-called 'spare parts,' the head, tongue, & often the feet of a pig that's been purposed for other, loftier pursuits. blais is huge on "nose to tail" cooking, or using all parts of an animal. i will admit, although weird as can be & certainly one of the least attractive dishes i've been served, it was quite tasty.