Lacroix 7/19

The most exciting part of my day at Lacroix is when all the brunch prep is finished. Though the prep is necessary, my learning peaks between the time the brunch prep is over and dinner service begins. I am often involved in the determining, and the preparing of the amuse bouche, a tiny, complimentary dish served before the meal. Its main goal being to "amuse the palate" as I am so constantly reminded by my buddies at the restaurant.
I finished up my prep as quickly as I could, and presented my idea for the Bouche (tuna tartare with spicy mayonnaise and a citrus foam) to the macdaddy of the Lacroix Restaurant cooks. He however, turned it down, and rightly so. He had his own little trick up his sleeve.

I started by taking candied cherries and mixing them with some basil, salt, and lime juice and then macerating them by vacuum sealing them with these ingredients (the vacuum seal causes diffusion, osmosis, etc. between the cherries and the other ingredients).

I left the cherries in the vacuum pouch for about an hour before taking them out and putting them on a skewer. I then took some pepperoni that had been picked up from DiBruno earlier that day, and dredged, then deep fried them. I put that on the same skewer as the cherry, and served that with an avocado mousse.

Though I was slightly skeptical when Mr. Macdaddy chef put me up to the task of serving pepperoni, cherry, and avocado on the same plate, my skepticism was not validated after a taste test. The three flavors married beautifully. The sweet cherry juxtaposed (tend to throw that in when I need a big word) the salty and slightly spicy pepperoni. The avocado puree achieved the almost intangible combination of rich and light, and allowed for happy marriage between the pepperoni and cherry. Shortly after I asked "Are we in Disney world? cause that was one roller coaster ride for my taste buds!" (kidding, didn't actually).
I actually received a compliment about my blog from one chef. He said "sometimes you move like you're on pot, but you sure don't write like so." Made me happy. Oh yea and I have copyright on the roller coaster joke if anyone was thinking of using it.

p.s. The pictures are just random photos of Lacroix food, available online. They may be retransmitted, reproduced and duplicated in any way without my express written consent.