Snapshots from work

[ironchef]

Been pretty busy with work for the past few months. A few things that I've been able to play with:

This is some Shelton Farms organic free range chicken cooking sous vide with a thermal circulator. We get the chicken whole and then butcher them. The breast and thigh meat are molded and formed into a roulade style with plastic wrap. The rest of the chicken is used for stock. The chicken is then cooked sous vide for about 2 hours or so then chilled. After that, the chicken is then wrapped with serrano ham, seared golden brown on all sides, and pan roasted to order:



Once the chicken is done, it's chilled, unwrapped, and stored in the fridge until service. Although it's ultra tender, it doesn't look too appetizing in this picture. This is pre-seared and pre-wrapped of course:



Unfortunately this one came out a little blurry, but this is fresh airflown hamachi, straight from Japan. They catch the fish, butcher it, seal it in cryovac bags, and fly it out immediately. This is how the fish looks right after it's removed from the bag, before butchering:



Lots going on at work, no time to post. Hope everyone is doing well.

 

[Uncle Bob]

Hey IC,,,,Very interesting pictures...Thanks for sharing them!

 

[AllenOK]

Ironchef, I commend your efforts. By looking at your pictures from your place of work, it's inspired me to do basically the same. The past six months I've been documenting, through photos, what the menu items "should" look like. We've installed some plexiglass "signs" above the line, and plan on putting pictures of the menu items there. I've also been documenting various functions, as well as the construction of the new pool, and some of the ice damage from last month's ice storm.

Dumb question, though. What kind of camera are you using? Is it one of those smaller "point and shoot" digicams, or a full-blown DSLR. I'm currently using my Nikon D40, which gives me great flexibility in settings, etc., but is a little on the "big" side.

 

[kadesma]

Thanks for sharing your pictures with us...We all miss you here and look forward to hearing from you..Take care and come say HI when you can.
kadesma

 

[LEFSElover]

someone mentioned you the other day in here somewhere. made me think you've not been on lately. it's okay, we'll hold down the fort for you until your safe return, enjoy your day in Spam land............
thanks for the report, wondered how Hahn did that, you Iron Chef you........very impressive................

oh, someone please post the what's for dinner thread today, I think days in a row of me doing it gets redundant and b---oooooring

 

[ironchef]

Ironchef, I commend your efforts. By looking at your pictures from your place of work, it's inspired me to do basically the same. The past six months I've been documenting, through photos, what the menu items "should" look like. We've installed some plexiglass "signs" above the line, and plan on putting pictures of the menu items there. I've also been documenting various functions, as well as the construction of the new pool, and some of the ice damage from last month's ice storm.

Dumb question, though. What kind of camera are you using? Is it one of those smaller "point and shoot" digicams, or a full-blown DSLR. I'm currently using my Nikon D40, which gives me great flexibility in settings, etc., but is a little on the "big" side.

Allen, I actually took these with the phone on my camera. It's 2.4 megapixels which is pretty decent for a camera phone. Usually I'll take pictures with my normal camera which is a Casio Exilim.

 

[ironchef]

thanks for the report, wondered how Hahn did that, you Iron Chef you........very impressive................

Hahn....you mean Hung? You can sous vide without the thermal circulator but it's much, much harder to maintain a constant temperature throughout the cooking process. The sous vide liquid needs to be constantly checked if you don't have one of those cool toys.

 

[SizzlininIN]

Hey isn't that the machine they used in the competition for the New Iron Chef? The episode where they introduced several technilogical pieces of equipment for the chefs to use? And then when it came down to the final 2 the one chef used it in the finals.

 

[TATTRAT]

Great toys, and a great setting to display you and the crews skills. Great stage.

 

[ironchef]

Hey isn't that the machine they used in the competition for the New Iron Chef? The episode where they introduced several technilogical pieces of equipment for the chefs to use? And then when it came down to the final 2 the one chef used it in the finals.

Yeah, but "The Next Iron Chef" basically copied "Top Chef". Also, the judging was whacked out on TNIC. It made the show not fun to watch, much like most of the shows on that network.

I didn't like that particular episode because some of the chefs didn't take advantage of the equipment. For instance, Aaron Sanchez only cooked I think a vegetable component of his dish sous vide and cooked his protein normally. Anyone can pan sear a protein; they should've been required to sous vide or whatever to cook the main component of their dish.

 

[ironchef]

One of the best tools that any good professional kitchen will have is a Vitamix blender. These blenders are super powerful and are important in making smooth purees and other things. What's great is that it does the job very quickly so the ingredients don't overheat which will turn the color, especially when making an herb puree.

These are before and after snapshots of a basil puree. In this first shot, the blanched basil is in some canola/olive oil blend waiting to go. I actually used the puree as the base for a chilled basil foam (you can see the Isi whipped cream dispenser in the background) which was used to finished a sous vide salmon dish with a tomato-fennel confit. The puree was then combined with cream, gelatin, and salt, then poured into the whipped cream dispenser and charged with CO2:



In this second picture, the basil and oil have been blended into a silky smooth puree. The basil retains it's vibrant green color due to proper blanching and because it was not overheated during the blending process due to the power of the Vitamix. The picture doesn't really do the puree justice. It looked a lot more green and bright in person (in retrospect, I should have taken a picture from above; the bluish color of the blender muddies the color a bit), but you can at least see how smooth it got:

 

[college_cook]

OMG, I totally agree with you about the Vitamix. When we got one in the last kitchen I worked at we tried and tried but couldn'y find anything that the Vitamix couldn't turn into puree. It's truly a remarkable, powerful, and amazing machine. I'd say once you own one you might think that it's indispensable.

 

[ironchef]

Some of the sauces from my station. Clockwise from top right:

1. Yuzu, Soy, and Beurre Noisette Emulsion
2. Indonesian Black Pepper and Garlic Sauce
3. Romesco Emulsion
4. "Liquid Parmigiano-Reggiano" Sauce
5. Ume (Japanese Pickled Plum) and Port Beurre Rouge

 

[LPBeier]

If I could have just ONE new appliance in my kitchen it would be a Vitamix. I used them at school and work, but unfortunately don't have my own. Of course, I would prefer more than just one new toy, but that would be my first choice!

The picture of your sauces didn't come out but they sound amazing! Specially the Ume and Port Beurre Rouge. I can almost taste the Ume and port combination!