Further ideas, developments and experimentation.

Ever since I first read about the combination of Cauliflower and White chocolate in a blog review of Restaurant David Toutain in Paris, I have been fascinated and intrigued by this combination of flavours/ ingredients. The best way to describe this seriously interesting combination is of being a taste sensation akin to a pureed rice pudding.

My latest idea based around this combination is a White Chocolate, Cauliflower and chervil 'veloute'. baby beetroot glazed with muscavado sugar, butter, mirin, rice vinegar and toasted/ ground fennel seeds. This is then garnished with celery candied in white balsamic/ dark brown sugar, shavings of white chocolate and micro mint.

In a way I suppose this could be looked upon as fulfilling the part of my food philosophy that states, 'there are no desserts, just things with a higher level and degree of sweetness than preceding offerings'!

By way of a side note, I always find that when you caramelize Muscavado sugar, it takes on a taste that, to me, is very similar to licorice.

So, moving on to the next subject, Burgers (and I'm not talking about the tasteless cardboard that masquerades as a burger in those wll known chain places). Anyway, after watching Food(ography) on the Food Network UK last weekend, I got the following idea. I must point out there that this particular episode was about grilling and barbecuing. At one point in the show, the presenter was talking to a Vietnamese couple and after watching what they prepared, I came up with the following idea.

Pork burger with Vietnamese flavours. This was a blend of minced pork, fish sauce, garlic, chilli, ginger and sugar which I shaped into a burger pattie and grilled. I served this with a couple of waffles, an orange/ soy and maple syrup reduction and some Edamame beans. I did take a picture which will be uploaded shortly. I also included some mint in the burger mix as this is quite a common thing in Vietnamese cuisine, using mint in ways which we in the west would consider to be highly unusual. But, having said that, the mint brings a nice, refreshing contrast against the heat and warmth of the chilli and ginger.


Inspiration and ideas can be garnered from many sources and the other day I cam across the website for a New York restaurant called Juni that I had previously not heard of. Anyway, I looked at the menu section of the site and found some very interesting ideas in terms of flavour combinations. This was particularly true of the dessert section of the dinner menu. One thing that stood out in particular was a dessert featuring Avocado, mint, yogurt and peach and this is something that I am experiment int with today. I will write about this further next time.