Has anyone ever noticed that the more you write, the harder it gets? When we started this blog I was perfectly content to jot down ideas and opinions, with perhaps a brief scan before printing. As our readership has grown though, so has my need to rewrite, revise, and redo. There’s a certain obligation to make sure that ideas are clearly written and expressed; that was definitely less prominent in the past. The upside is that my writing is improving (I think), the downside is that I don’t post as often as I could because it takes more time now. A double-edged sword if ever there was one.
We’re tossing around ideas for a warm chocolate pudding using the methocel. That’s tomorrow’s project. I have a tendency to approach hydrocolloids, enzymes, and additives with extreme caution. New and unusual products that are meant to be ingested make me nervous, even though methocel isn’t really new at all. I’m a bit of a curmudgeon and it takes me a while to get used to innovations. I liked the transglutaminase, or “meat glue,” immediately because its applications made sense to me, but I’ve been ignoring the methocel and simplesse for a while. Although I’m the first to admit that foie gras without veins is a beautiful thing, when it comes to noodles, texture is an integral component. I’ll put my yogurt pasta made with flour and eggs up against Alex’s methocel yogurt noodles any day of the week. Depending on whom we’re serving, it could be anyone’s game. But, I’m getting into the spirit of things. I’m starting to view these ingredients as natural tools, like cornstarch or egg yolks, something that can help me create new textures and differing levels of stability within our food. So for me, it’s a cautious beginning, but a strong one nonetheless.
I was recently asked if it was difficult to share a voice the way that we do here. As we no longer sign our posts people have to guess who is doing the writing. That is a deliberate choice for both of us. The reason being that the blog chronicles what we do in the kitchen and our approach to food. We try to keep it focused on those ideas and because of that, one voice is appropriate. We have worked together for so long that nothing either of us does in the kitchen can truly be called a solo endeavor, even if we’re alone at the moment of execution. We cook for each other in our minds all the time. The shared voice can be a major source of frustration at times, but it is a true illustration of what we do in the restaurant and how we develop our ideas in food. We stretch each other’s boundaries and force each other to look at things from new angles. It’s the most important thing that we do for each other in the kitchen. Our partnership is what makes it all come together.
This week I’m the one stretching and opening to new ideas. It’s been quite an experience and although I did not begin enthusiastically I am happy with what we achieved. We’ve pretty much crossed off everything on our current list. The things that we accomplished with yogurt, mozzarella, and foie gras were huge breakthroughs for us. The hot puddings came up today and I’m sure that by Monday, we’ll be on to something else. That’s the beauty of exploring food, we never know where we’ll end up next.
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