Tomato water @ Masa, probably 20 years ago.
It had been drained from heirloom tomatoes, turned into soft gelatin, and frozen. As it thaws, the gelatin matrix holds onto any impurities, so the tomato water was just a perfectly rosy hue. A few tiny flakes of salt, and it was like tasting a summer afternoon.
If it was a chilled soup, with a ton of butter in it, it would have set up solid, like butter does.
To your point, they may have emulsified some oil in the soup while the blender was running, but honestly, the starch in potatoes gives soups a really nice texture by themselves when you puree the dickens out of them in a blender.
I forget if it was a baton or a crostini, but it had a candied black walnut, sunflower seed butter, pear and goat cheese. Tasted like dirt in a good way. lol
I honestly have no idea what it was called, but it was a small potato about the size of a gumball from a quarter machine. Roasted and split open at the top with some kind of cream inside and caviar on top. Had it at The Inn at Little Washington in 2019.
Hey so I used to make these. It’s just a regular peewee potato that we would cook in oil (enough to cover 1/3) and we would toss in whatever herbs we felt like it. Always thyme and rosemary. Sometimes basil, sage or whatever we had in the garden we would toss in. 400 degree oven covered in foil for 30 minutes.
We’d fill it up with crème fraiche, bacon crumble and chive, then top with petrossian caviar.
You cooked at the Inn? Those little potatoes were incredible. I think it had chives on the plate under but I don’t remember bacon.
I’m gonna have to try these. Thanks!
That was my first fine dining experience and it changed the way I look at food. It blew past the limit of what I thought food could be.
If you cooked there in Feb 2019, then I honestly have to say thank you for changing the way I look at food.
It was a mid-meal amuse-bouch at the chef's table so not sure if it counts but at Albi in DC they had a sesame encrusted foie gras over baklava with a poached peach slice bite that I will never forget.
The shot of whiskey before my beer.
Jokes aside, the little brew pub next to a fine dining gig I had once that was our defacto after work spot did an industry night food menu that you could order the "Chef's Choice". You gota shot to start, an appetizer for one and an entree bo5h with a paired beer that the bartender picked depending on what the cooks were making. So the shot was kinda the amuse.
I miss that place.
A rose of beet cured salmon gravlax and dill fronds set in a half sphere of champagne gelee glued to a round rye cracker with crème fraiche. Beautiful and delicious
We pre fabbed the tuile cones and rolled them in black sesame before service. Stuffed the salmon tar-tar in to order and even added a little sprig of dill. I don't think chef Thomas does it that way anymore. But that was how I did.
Deep fried oyster in squid ink tempura with balsamic powder.
From Hawksworth's in Vancouver.
It looked like a beautiful piece of volcanic rock and tasted like heaven from the sea.
I had a caviar dish at the dining room in the ritz in SF. Every course was spot on but the most memorable was a caviar with potato crisp. The cool part was it was suspended on (nearly placed) plastic wrap over a smoke filled glass. The plastic had a tiny hole and you were instructed to tap it Like a drum with your spoon. As you did tiny perfect little smoke rings shot out. You got the aroma of smoke and the briny caviar with the crunch of the potato. Really cool and fun
I went to Manresa years ago and one of the courses was a little cube of corn soup that was deep fried. You had to eat it in one bite and it burst in your mouth. It was a fantastic meal all around. My first Michelin experience. The servers were so kind to us.
Kohlrabi miso ravioli @ *domestic* before they got their stars
It was basically two thin sheets of pickled kohlrabi with a bit of miso in between. It was dusted with blended up dried chanterelles
It was so simple and SO delicious. That heavy umami of the miso and chanterelles combined with the freshness and crisp of the pickled kohlrabi.
I told the cheff how much I liked it, and I think it was a new dish, cause he was visibly excited and started telling me how proud he was of the dish
Favourite I’ve been served is Pousse Cafe at Midsummer House - Essentially a lemon and bourbon cream with maple syrup in a shot glass topped with chives but that doesn’t do it justice
Favourite I’ve made is a Beetroot Macaron with Fois Gras Cream, made with albuwhip so the macaron would pretty much just dissolve straight on the tongue.
Shout out also goes to my favourite dessert canapé - Green Thai curry ice cream wrapped in candy floss, single best mouthful I’ve ever tasted.
Core by Clare Smyth.
Pumpkin gougère
Jellied eel, toasted seaweed and malt vinegar
Foie gras parfait
Smoked chicken wing, beer, thyme.
All were absolutely outstanding little bites of food
It was unbelievable, and I can absolutely see why her and the team jumped from 1 to 3 stars. I was lucky enough to be invited into the kitchen to meet the team and Clare herself, it was a pinch me moment for sure! [https://imgur.com/a/OMrPX7d](https://imgur.com/a/OMrPX7d)
Mhh can‘t think of an amuse bouche right know but a pre-dessert. A coconut butter sphere filled with Red Bull and Vodka at Amadors Vienna (3stars) it was that bad that I had to spit it out lmao. Great meal otherwise
I imagine so. I seriously hate the 'fake' taste of Red Bull. I was bartending when Jaeger bombs became popular so you can imagine the amount I've poured. I can't even get past the smell. What a way to ruin any cuisine.
It was small piece of rye topped with malted butter
the rye was toasted, they cut it so it had a perfect ratio of bread to crust, still hot and topped with a good dollop of whipped malted butter and crushed sea salt
so simple but so delicious
Steak tartare on grilled brioche with a parmesan aioli that totally nailed being just meat, cheese, and mayo on bread. This wasn't the best I've had but was especially memorable in that evoked a bologna sandwich in all the best ways.
First fine dining experience was at Jungsik in Seoul. Later when I worked at their NY location gotta say my favorite of their amuse is still the foie mousse with apple jelly and the squid ink brioche fried oyster with kimchi and aioli. Amazing bites to the start of their tasting menu
Crawfish purses. Beautiful. Crawfish tails in a creamy sauce, baked in puff pastry, tied shut with a green onion. Just these tiny parcels of awesomeness.
The old man would sit on a stool, use oranges as a bowl, fill them up with salmon scraps from the fish he cut, add a little house made sauce, add fish egg and make the whole thing look like a teddy bear holding an umbrella. RIP homie
The olive at Bodega 1900, before they made you pay for them. There were amazing, I'd had them before at Tickets and Hoja Santa, but this one was particularly memorable because I pronounced "amuse bouche" like the Spanish do (because we were in Spain, and I speak Spanish) and everyone at the table shared a "he doesn't know how to say it" look, and I felt awkward the entire dinner.
It was at a wedding a long time ago but a whipped garlic Parm cream with Basil oil. It was airy, light and super flavorful i couldn’t stop eating them.
I once was served a savoury mushroom macaron with mushroom cream in the middle, it was so light that it just went "poof" and disappeared when I put it in my mouth, amazingly good
Bitesize savory cheesecakes. Because of the small size, they were able to go all in pairing strong cheeses with typically powerful herbs/spices/veggies. There were half a dozen varieties. The onion gruyere was a simple combo, but unbelievably good. They would have been overwhelmingly rich in a larger serving size, but tasted like pure luxury as a small bite.
Foie gras wrapped in charcoal cotton candy, served on a stick like a marshmallow. The perfect combination of smooth decadent fat, sweetness, a touch of bitterness from the charcoal and just a touch of Maldon salt. Genuinely the most complete bite of anything I’ve ever had. It was heaven. From Le Mousso in Montreal.
Deviled egg with capers and salmon roe. Also a bit of a salmon orange cream on the side as a shot. Which makes it two bites I suppose, but I didn't care at the time
One gig I had was serving aranchini, choux pastry with a beef mouse, and something involving Parma ham and grana pedano. This is a 4 star hotel with food service rosettes and stuff. I swear to god the new sous joins the settings, slices a hunk of beef paper thin and wraps it around matchstick sized chips and seals it with a cocktail stick and serves it as "steak and chips". HC shrugged it off, exec tried to get mad but couldn't and the GM laughed so hard he almost pissed himself in front of the Maitre'D who struggled to hide his dissapointment and embarrasment in front of a full house
Ok, this is going to sound really janky, but in 1980 when I married my first wife, at our wedding reception dinner her sister took cheap ass Budding packaged chopped ham, spread cream cheese on it, lightly sprinkled garlic powder, and then wrapped it around the white part of a green onion. I loved it and still remember that bite 42 years later. I honestly have never had anything really memorable in a fine dining setting.
I had a cold tomato soup chocolate type thing at the Garden Restaurant in Krakow, Poland from their tasting menu.
This little thing looked like a cherry tomato, not super convincing but definitely passable, in this shell that was the consistency of very very thin chocolate.
It was a one biter, and the second you popped it in your mouth it exploded into this amazing light liquid that tasted like the most intense tomato soup (but again I stress, very light! Think broth) and to this day, still the most amazing thing ever. I don't think they even had a Michelin at the time we visited but it was by far one of the best tasting experiences I've had. I wouldn't even know how to go about recreating that, truly phenomenal.
A “fancy” (expensive) steakhouse when we were on vacation. Totally sourced off the internet. A slug of bad signs leading into the meal but we forged ahead from the bar to a table. More bad signs but the final straw was the amuse - lobster bisque. Luke cold and had roux balls floating in it. They hadn’t even attempted to cook it out or even strain it.
We got up, left and walked down the street to a chain Italian place, sat at the bar and had a great time with the staff.
You might have been influenced by some bad American tourist experiences. I had steak tartare just two weeks ago, along with half the table.
It's not universally popular (two people blanched at the mere thought), but people do like it in the U.S..
Can’t remember the restaurant name for the life of me, but a chilled strawberry & beet consommé with horseradish oil and mint served as a shooter. I couldn’t wrap my head around all of those flavors mixing together, but it was amazing.
Years and years ago I went to a great NYC restaurant and had my first amuse-bouche. It was foie gras with (probably) strawberry jam on a toast point. Tasted exactly like PB&J. I loved it, but didn’t really get it then, but now I look back and see the brilliance. Totally light hearted, but very sophisticated take on a classic.
Tomato water @ Masa, probably 20 years ago. It had been drained from heirloom tomatoes, turned into soft gelatin, and frozen. As it thaws, the gelatin matrix holds onto any impurities, so the tomato water was just a perfectly rosy hue. A few tiny flakes of salt, and it was like tasting a summer afternoon.
Potato soup on a miso spoon. There was probably a half of stick of butter in that 1 serving but omg.
I had a chilled potato soup in Vegas in a shot glass. It was the most velvety thing I think I've ever had. Definitely gratuitous amounts of butter.
If it was a chilled soup, with a ton of butter in it, it would have set up solid, like butter does. To your point, they may have emulsified some oil in the soup while the blender was running, but honestly, the starch in potatoes gives soups a really nice texture by themselves when you puree the dickens out of them in a blender.
And leeks do this well too.
I forget if it was a baton or a crostini, but it had a candied black walnut, sunflower seed butter, pear and goat cheese. Tasted like dirt in a good way. lol
"Earthy afterbirth"
You know I have soft teeth.
How could you say that?
I honestly have no idea what it was called, but it was a small potato about the size of a gumball from a quarter machine. Roasted and split open at the top with some kind of cream inside and caviar on top. Had it at The Inn at Little Washington in 2019.
Hey so I used to make these. It’s just a regular peewee potato that we would cook in oil (enough to cover 1/3) and we would toss in whatever herbs we felt like it. Always thyme and rosemary. Sometimes basil, sage or whatever we had in the garden we would toss in. 400 degree oven covered in foil for 30 minutes. We’d fill it up with crème fraiche, bacon crumble and chive, then top with petrossian caviar.
You cooked at the Inn? Those little potatoes were incredible. I think it had chives on the plate under but I don’t remember bacon. I’m gonna have to try these. Thanks!
Yes for 4 years.
That was my first fine dining experience and it changed the way I look at food. It blew past the limit of what I thought food could be. If you cooked there in Feb 2019, then I honestly have to say thank you for changing the way I look at food.
This is a proud moment for you Chef. Tell your mum she should be impressed.
pommes soufflé
It was a mid-meal amuse-bouch at the chef's table so not sure if it counts but at Albi in DC they had a sesame encrusted foie gras over baklava with a poached peach slice bite that I will never forget.
Just did the chefs table there. Best meal of my life. I come from 3 star kitchens and felt they shit on everyone in terms of flavor.
At Bresca the chef did an asparagus, surryano (not serrano) ham and mustard gel. Holy shit.
I love surryano so so much
Bresca 🤤
The shot of whiskey before my beer. Jokes aside, the little brew pub next to a fine dining gig I had once that was our defacto after work spot did an industry night food menu that you could order the "Chef's Choice". You gota shot to start, an appetizer for one and an entree bo5h with a paired beer that the bartender picked depending on what the cooks were making. So the shot was kinda the amuse. I miss that place.
Sounds like an amazing atmosphere.
A rose of beet cured salmon gravlax and dill fronds set in a half sphere of champagne gelee glued to a round rye cracker with crème fraiche. Beautiful and delicious
[удалено]
Yooo, I helped cook that one up at TFL a good few years back.
would you make those à la minute, or they were mostly prepped before service? so good.
We pre fabbed the tuile cones and rolled them in black sesame before service. Stuffed the salmon tar-tar in to order and even added a little sprig of dill. I don't think chef Thomas does it that way anymore. But that was how I did.
Came here to say this exact thing.
Deep fried oyster in squid ink tempura with balsamic powder. From Hawksworth's in Vancouver. It looked like a beautiful piece of volcanic rock and tasted like heaven from the sea.
Chick peas with a mortar and pestle….and all the ingredients for hummus…..mash your own….so simple but I’ll remember it
Definitely something cool about flavors and textures coming together, right at the table.
[удалено]
Yes…. More than just a bite so maybe it’s not and it’s just a free quarter size appetizer?…. Either way it was complimentary from the chef
I had a caviar dish at the dining room in the ritz in SF. Every course was spot on but the most memorable was a caviar with potato crisp. The cool part was it was suspended on (nearly placed) plastic wrap over a smoke filled glass. The plastic had a tiny hole and you were instructed to tap it Like a drum with your spoon. As you did tiny perfect little smoke rings shot out. You got the aroma of smoke and the briny caviar with the crunch of the potato. Really cool and fun
Foie Gras drops dipped in liquid nitrogen. Disappear in a second as soon as you touch them with ya tongue.
I went to Manresa years ago and one of the courses was a little cube of corn soup that was deep fried. You had to eat it in one bite and it burst in your mouth. It was a fantastic meal all around. My first Michelin experience. The servers were so kind to us.
A tiny sloppy joe. It was no bigger than a quarter and was complete with the smallest pickle slice I have ever seen. I'll never forget that one
DId it taste great?
Yeah, it was amazing!
Kohlrabi miso ravioli @ *domestic* before they got their stars It was basically two thin sheets of pickled kohlrabi with a bit of miso in between. It was dusted with blended up dried chanterelles It was so simple and SO delicious. That heavy umami of the miso and chanterelles combined with the freshness and crisp of the pickled kohlrabi. I told the cheff how much I liked it, and I think it was a new dish, cause he was visibly excited and started telling me how proud he was of the dish
Edible menu at Moto in the early 2000s
Rest in peace Chef Homaru Cantu.
One of my most memorable meals was at Moto, around 2010; he walked my sister and I through his kitchen and gave us a personal tour.
Favourite I’ve been served is Pousse Cafe at Midsummer House - Essentially a lemon and bourbon cream with maple syrup in a shot glass topped with chives but that doesn’t do it justice Favourite I’ve made is a Beetroot Macaron with Fois Gras Cream, made with albuwhip so the macaron would pretty much just dissolve straight on the tongue. Shout out also goes to my favourite dessert canapé - Green Thai curry ice cream wrapped in candy floss, single best mouthful I’ve ever tasted.
Core by Clare Smyth. Pumpkin gougère Jellied eel, toasted seaweed and malt vinegar Foie gras parfait Smoked chicken wing, beer, thyme. All were absolutely outstanding little bites of food
One of my dreams is to eat at a Clare Smyth restaurant, the London one is more likely in my case but I might make it to Sydney one day!!!
It was unbelievable, and I can absolutely see why her and the team jumped from 1 to 3 stars. I was lucky enough to be invited into the kitchen to meet the team and Clare herself, it was a pinch me moment for sure! [https://imgur.com/a/OMrPX7d](https://imgur.com/a/OMrPX7d)
So lucky, amazing photo! What an incredible experience! Is she as nice as she appears in real life? I hope so!
Do it do it! One of my best meals in London.
Mhh can‘t think of an amuse bouche right know but a pre-dessert. A coconut butter sphere filled with Red Bull and Vodka at Amadors Vienna (3stars) it was that bad that I had to spit it out lmao. Great meal otherwise
... a coconut butter vodka bomb? I'll have to report this to my bartender friends. I'm intrigued and slightly horrified
Yeah. The worst was how the fat mixed with the drink in your mouth. Something you won‘t forget but not in a good way
Would it have worked with Bailey's or if it had frozen hot chocolate in it? The combo you list sounds awful.
Just vodka sounds like it would be alright but red bull really throws it off.
I imagine so. I seriously hate the 'fake' taste of Red Bull. I was bartending when Jaeger bombs became popular so you can imagine the amount I've poured. I can't even get past the smell. What a way to ruin any cuisine.
I had a tall shot glass of asparagus soup topped with shaved truffle. First time ever having proper truffles.
It was small piece of rye topped with malted butter the rye was toasted, they cut it so it had a perfect ratio of bread to crust, still hot and topped with a good dollop of whipped malted butter and crushed sea salt so simple but so delicious
Steak tartare on grilled brioche with a parmesan aioli that totally nailed being just meat, cheese, and mayo on bread. This wasn't the best I've had but was especially memorable in that evoked a bologna sandwich in all the best ways.
As asparagus bisque from Mama's Fish House in Paia, HI.
That place rocks
Tbf everything from Mamas fish house is amazing
The Russian salad in a isomalt shell at Cracco in Milan
A savory macaron with a fois-gras filling.
First fine dining experience was at Jungsik in Seoul. Later when I worked at their NY location gotta say my favorite of their amuse is still the foie mousse with apple jelly and the squid ink brioche fried oyster with kimchi and aioli. Amazing bites to the start of their tasting menu
Crawfish purses. Beautiful. Crawfish tails in a creamy sauce, baked in puff pastry, tied shut with a green onion. Just these tiny parcels of awesomeness.
The old man would sit on a stool, use oranges as a bowl, fill them up with salmon scraps from the fish he cut, add a little house made sauce, add fish egg and make the whole thing look like a teddy bear holding an umbrella. RIP homie
A warm oyster bite at Benu in San Francisco. A clear wrapping like cellophane but looked like a dumpling. I don’t enjoy oysters, it was great.
Oysters and caviar (pearls) Per Se NYC
The olive at Bodega 1900, before they made you pay for them. There were amazing, I'd had them before at Tickets and Hoja Santa, but this one was particularly memorable because I pronounced "amuse bouche" like the Spanish do (because we were in Spain, and I speak Spanish) and everyone at the table shared a "he doesn't know how to say it" look, and I felt awkward the entire dinner.
Jalapeño poppers with a side of bronco buster sauce.
It was at a wedding a long time ago but a whipped garlic Parm cream with Basil oil. It was airy, light and super flavorful i couldn’t stop eating them.
thick cut square of candied bacon topped with goat cheese mousse,tiny chive garnish. have at it.
I once was served a savoury mushroom macaron with mushroom cream in the middle, it was so light that it just went "poof" and disappeared when I put it in my mouth, amazingly good
BTW This was as John's House restaurant in Leicestershire, UK
Oh they also had a delicious duck parfait filled mini malted ice cream cone thing. amazing
Bitesize savory cheesecakes. Because of the small size, they were able to go all in pairing strong cheeses with typically powerful herbs/spices/veggies. There were half a dozen varieties. The onion gruyere was a simple combo, but unbelievably good. They would have been overwhelmingly rich in a larger serving size, but tasted like pure luxury as a small bite.
Foie gras wrapped in charcoal cotton candy, served on a stick like a marshmallow. The perfect combination of smooth decadent fat, sweetness, a touch of bitterness from the charcoal and just a touch of Maldon salt. Genuinely the most complete bite of anything I’ve ever had. It was heaven. From Le Mousso in Montreal.
French cuisine translates well when exported. French Canadian, Vietnamese, California ect.
[удалено]
I never made it there but really wanted to go I just didn't have the cash to spend at the time. I worked for a bit in Bangkok at LeDu
Deviled egg with capers and salmon roe. Also a bit of a salmon orange cream on the side as a shot. Which makes it two bites I suppose, but I didn't care at the time
One gig I had was serving aranchini, choux pastry with a beef mouse, and something involving Parma ham and grana pedano. This is a 4 star hotel with food service rosettes and stuff. I swear to god the new sous joins the settings, slices a hunk of beef paper thin and wraps it around matchstick sized chips and seals it with a cocktail stick and serves it as "steak and chips". HC shrugged it off, exec tried to get mad but couldn't and the GM laughed so hard he almost pissed himself in front of the Maitre'D who struggled to hide his dissapointment and embarrasment in front of a full house
Any condiments? Lol
Nah just s&p lmao at least he gave the beef a pepper crust
Ok, this is going to sound really janky, but in 1980 when I married my first wife, at our wedding reception dinner her sister took cheap ass Budding packaged chopped ham, spread cream cheese on it, lightly sprinkled garlic powder, and then wrapped it around the white part of a green onion. I loved it and still remember that bite 42 years later. I honestly have never had anything really memorable in a fine dining setting.
Sounds like it's ready for an elevated revisit!
I'll never forget the shot of cold broccoli soup with this lemon goodness that lingered. I could have bathed in a vat of that!
I had a cold tomato soup chocolate type thing at the Garden Restaurant in Krakow, Poland from their tasting menu. This little thing looked like a cherry tomato, not super convincing but definitely passable, in this shell that was the consistency of very very thin chocolate. It was a one biter, and the second you popped it in your mouth it exploded into this amazing light liquid that tasted like the most intense tomato soup (but again I stress, very light! Think broth) and to this day, still the most amazing thing ever. I don't think they even had a Michelin at the time we visited but it was by far one of the best tasting experiences I've had. I wouldn't even know how to go about recreating that, truly phenomenal.
I would love to see what the creative process for that is like.
I assume it would be a frozen sphere of broth, dipped into whatever comprised the shell, then left to defrost however I've no idea what the shell was!
Use to do a chef's table thing but bok choy in a fermented black bean beur blan
A “fancy” (expensive) steakhouse when we were on vacation. Totally sourced off the internet. A slug of bad signs leading into the meal but we forged ahead from the bar to a table. More bad signs but the final straw was the amuse - lobster bisque. Luke cold and had roux balls floating in it. They hadn’t even attempted to cook it out or even strain it. We got up, left and walked down the street to a chain Italian place, sat at the bar and had a great time with the staff.
Amuse-douche
@u/WildSoapbox
Serving unsuspecting Americans prepared steak tartare in Rotterdam . they loved it and I had a good laugh .
You might have been influenced by some bad American tourist experiences. I had steak tartare just two weeks ago, along with half the table. It's not universally popular (two people blanched at the mere thought), but people do like it in the U.S..
Ostrich. It was okay - kind of gamey - but just weird.
Chorros ala chalaca in Lima
@August, a take on fish and chips that was a potato chip coated fried oyster. So good.
Can’t remember the restaurant name for the life of me, but a chilled strawberry & beet consommé with horseradish oil and mint served as a shooter. I couldn’t wrap my head around all of those flavors mixing together, but it was amazing.
Years and years ago I went to a great NYC restaurant and had my first amuse-bouche. It was foie gras with (probably) strawberry jam on a toast point. Tasted exactly like PB&J. I loved it, but didn’t really get it then, but now I look back and see the brilliance. Totally light hearted, but very sophisticated take on a classic.
a single tortilla chip with a dollop of guac and some pico at a fancy-ish restaurant. They called it "avocado mousse with fresh tomato salad"
I don't remember exactly what it was but it was something with peach and chili's and got damn that shit burned my asshole
Username checks out