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  • One Liners…sort of

    Renew Your Imagination
    Creativity and Surprise
    Collectible Edibles
    The Clarity of Lines
    The Logic of Flavors and Tastes
    For the Sake of Art and Science
    Ingredients…the Ultimate Truth
    Extension of the Mind
    Wanting to Think
    Between Tradition and Modernity
    Figure out what your options are. Not what is best, but what you think you can execute the best.
    Focus on a single achievable task then depend on average individuals to make big plays and completely surprise your opponent.
    The most effective and flexible system will win out.
    Sensations, Memories, Flavors
    Creation, Freedom, Tendencies
    Precision of Flavors
    Progression of Textures
    Polished Taste
    Return to Simplicity
    Four Simple Changes
    Notice Things
    Frugality and Stewardship
    Sense of Balance
    Harmonize with Wine
    Determined to Make a Difference
    Defined by the Season
    Making Both History and Art
    Genius and Sensibility
    Obsession of Elements
    Unplugged in the Kitchen
    Continue to Reinvent
    First Impressions
    Working with Time
    Explore Flavors
    The Power of Productivity
    The Functional Kitchen
    Creating Innovations
    Innovative Creation
    Adaptive Cooking
    Creativity Gets Stifled When Everyone Has to Follow the Rules
    Leverage Insight and Creativity
    Clever and Quick
    How to Get it Done?
    Culinary Adaptation
    The Essence of Experience
    Auditing a Dish
    Experience by Design…Design by Experience
    Three Chords
    Designing for Adjustability
    The Last Breakfast
    Garden Menu
    Juxtaposition of Flavors, Tastes and Aromas
    Texture and Temperature
    Multilayered Experience Management…Nothing is Left to Chance
    Balancing Cuisine
    Auditing Experiences
    The Practice of Culinary Research
    The Discipline of Design
    Exercise your Brain
    The Conversation Starter
    Idea Driven Narrative
    Practice Spontaneity
    Filter Out the Irrelevant and Focus on the Meaningful
    Rewire Your Thinking
    Sparking Questions
    Intellectual Awakening
    Better is Better
    The Power of Imagination
    The Harsh Test of Performance
    True Innovation
    Simple and Over the Top
    Highlight the inherent flavors, aromas, and textures of food
    Simplify the Problem
    Do Not Follow Directly in Anyone’s Recent Work
    Expose Your Ideas
    The Alchemy of the Creative Process
    Flushing Out Creativity
    A Quest for Understanding
    Trusted Instincts Over Received Wisdom
    Identify the Point
    Commitment to Simplicity
    Enigma in the Kitchen
    Perfect Refinement
    Mirroring the Landscape
    An Expression of a Lifestyle
    Filter and Concentrate Flavors
    Luxury in Simplicity
    Cooking and an Appreciation for Products
    Care and Precision
    Controlling the Cooking Process
    Harmonious Composition
    Hidden Treasures
    Intelligent Use of Ingredients, Techniques, Technology
    Full of New Experiences
    We Can Change Our First Impressions

  • You’re not in Kansas anymore

    While our remote outpost would cause many culinarians to cringe at the thought of procuring products, we must protest. Technology has allowed us to share a few of the bounties which have recently fallen upon our doorsteps, thanks to modern day delivery systems. We were fortunate enough to capture a few of them on film, so check out the KG photo album.

  • Calamansi Margarita

    After spending the afternoon uploading photography, a well-deserved libation was in order. Being in the Southwest, a margarita comes to mind, in our case with the help of the calamansi lime. While orange in color, this deceptive piece of citrus packs the punch necessary to deliver the goods. Current plans include infusing tequila with this gem as well as Patrón Citrón to create a well-balanced libation. Look for more uses of the calamansi to come… for now, bottoms up.

  • Other People’s Menus

    Constantly searching for flavors, tastes, combinations, verbiage, descriptions, sparks… inspirations. Menus provide such stimulation. Reading in print the works of others enables the brain to extrapolate and merely drift in pointed directions. While direct borrowing from menus is frowned upon, I believe the culinary creations represented in many menus act as culinary touchstones from which we may all learn.

  • Recently From the Smoker

    In the middle of nowhere, culinary preservation is essential. In the process of looking for means to preserve ingredients, evolutions occur. For example, we have been smoking salt—fleur de sel, sel gris, maldon—for years. We also have an incredible purveyor, Steve Stallard, who has been curing sea trout, brook trout, and salmon roe with fleur de sel. One thought led to another, and we asked Steve to cure his roe with smoked salt. He accepted our offer, and smoked roe was born. Steve then mentioned that the roe is amazing drizzled with his whiskey barrel-aged maple syrup. A smashing combination—think bacon drizzled in maple syrup—and one which inspired our most recent culinary evolution.

    We have much more to talk about in the world of roe and working with Steve, but if I get too far off track…

    So, with the idea of maple, smoke, and flavors bouncing about, I decided to load up our smoker. Maple syrup in one tray, antique apples and cider in another, cocoa nibs on the third, and rice paper on the fourth. Smoked apples became smoked apple sauce. We had already smoked soy sauce to great success, so the smoked maple as a flavor base in our repertoire was thrilling. The smoked cocoa nibs have not found a home yet, perhaps ice cream or a crust for scallops with figs. The smoked rice paper, now more delicate than ever, will be a great crust for cod or hake roasted “en papillote”—further thoughts to come.

  • The New Year

    Well, the new year has come and gone, and my search for true inspirations continues. We have successfully signed up to write about ideas in food for at least a year, so now we must delve into our notes, ideas, and thoughts and hopefully come up with something interesting.

  • The power of Fluff

    We recently had an eclectic group of travel agents and a marketing man stay with us at the Lodge. It was an interesting weekend for us because they were into food, wine, and fun—all of our favorite things. On Friday afternoon, we did a short pasta lesson with the travel agent from CA and the marketing man. Alex taught them the joys of handmade chestnut agnolotti, which were later featured as a course in their tasting menu in the dining room that evening. Earlier, the two had spent some time in the kitchen with me simply talking about food as we made arrangements for their upcoming lesson. We talked about recent food trends and about how things have changed since 9/11. Although they both loved good food and fine dining, the marketing man confessed to a secret weakness for fluffernutters (peanut butter and marshmallow creme sandwiches for those who don’t know). This sparked a lively discussion as the travel agent had her own very strong feelings about peanut butter and marshmallow creme, with perhaps some chocolate thrown in for good measure. I had never tasted Fluff or any of its variations, so I was fascinated by the strength of their debate. I quietly made arrangements to stock the pantry with Fluff—or, in this case, Jet Puffed Marshmallow Creme (the only thing available at my local markets)—for midnight cravings or other emergencies. At the end of dinner that evening, I let it slip that there was peanut butter and marshmallow creme in the kitchen. The pair of them lit up like Christmas trees but professed to be stuffed after their meal. About an hour later, one of our servers walked into the kitchen to see a volcano of marshmallow creme pouring from the container, the flow being staunched with napkins and fingers as the pair of them giggled like children caught with their hands in the cookie jar. The server, giggling herself, retrieved napkins, peanut butter, and a Scharffen Berger chocolate bar for their somewhat messy indulgence. I think it was the highlight of their weekend! We sent them off the next morning with bagged lunches of fluffernutters (chocolate chips on hers) on white bread with the crusts cut off, fruit, cookies, and sodas. I felt like a co-conspirator in their return to childhood, and I must confess that as I cut their crusts, I indulged in my first taste of a fluffernutter just to see what all the fuss was about.

  • From the Store

    Tamari Soy Sauce
    Heinz Ketchup
    Balsamic Vinegar
    Unfiltered Honey
    Yuzu Juice
    Tabasco: original, habanero, chipotle
    Fleur de Sel
    Lampong Peppercorns
    Olive Oil – the varieties are many, worthy of their own discussion
    Pickled Ginger
    Ginger Marmalade
    Maple Syrup
    Crystal Hot Sauce
    Key Lime Juice
    Matouk’s Hot Sauce
    Toasted Sesame Oil
    Lyle’s Golden Syrup
    Cane Syrup
    Rice Vinegar
    Alex & Aki

  • Thinking forward…two voices one mouthpiece

    We spend enough time discussing food, wine, kitchens, ingredients, people, and the like that our own ears have heard enough. It is time to share our thoughts and learned lessons, and we learn a fair amount daily, with a greater audience. Our kitchens, both home and professional, are littered with post-it notes and Cambridge notebooks with ideas, recipes, techniques, extrapolations, and more ideas. Does our abundance of culinary thought prove our worth or that the thoughts are worthy? No. That is for you to decide.

    We are beginning today to organize and categorize living and breathing culinary thought. These thoughts, once written, become memories, hopefully memorable, and now becoming organized to be used by us and others as a tool for culinary exploration. Sharing discoveries with ideas in food.

    So there are two of us writing this, obviously. That was Alex, H. Alexander Talbot, my husband and co-chef. I’m Aki Kamozawa, chef, wine geek, reader, writer, etc. Alex is the cerebral one; he focuses on flavors, textures, techniques, and food science in his pursuit of flavor. I prefer the method of looking back to look forward. Food history and food writing are my touchstones. I love taking old recipes and ideas and making them new again. I tend to think in terms of the individual diners (the people, not the restaurants) and try to create experiences through food that will bring them home again, perhaps to a home that they’ve never experienced before. It sounds a little bit far-fetched, but I actually have a lot of fun with it.

    Anyway, these chronicles will be ours, sometimes mine, sometimes his. Occasionally, as in this instance, we will write something together, but more often, you will find his words or mine. I may be mistaken, but I think it will be relatively easy to tell the difference, although we will be signing our personal notations. Don’t be afraid to play favorites or to change your mind from time to time. Our styles are divergent, but that’s why they meld together so well. Balance in all things: if we both like and/or agree on something, it’s a pretty good bet that we’re onto something. On the other hand, two opinions keep us from writing something off too soon or laboring endlessly over a dead elephant. We welcome comments, criticisms, and challenges; they make us think harder and more creatively. Welcome to our journeys in food and wine. We look forward to hearing from you.

    Cheers,
    Aki & Alex