53.Alain Ducasse at essex house
September 2004-October 2005
"What the hell is this punk???" I'm sure this must be the first impression when chef Christian Delouvrier saw me. When I started Alain Ducasse New York(ADNY), there were 7(!!) Japanese in the kitchen. But the little kid just straight down to knock the door was..... far different from others!! Blond hair, blue eyes, sleeve of tattoos on his arm.... and "My name is Tattoo!!" Well, just you readers know, my old name... It came from TA-dateru TO-kudaiji, I used to like changing my names every year!!
I staged ADNY one day, Chef didn't give me a job offer. But told me to call if I get a job offer from somewhere. And I left to Las Vegas and got my first Sous-chef job offer. I called ADNY and chef gave me a job offer. Later I heard chef Delouvrier was against(of course) hiring me at the beginning, but Japanese cooks convinced him to hire me because they saw I took good care of my knives and worked professional throughout my stage. Chef Delvourier used to call me "mon petit tatu" every day... was a good old days memory.....
Anyway... what is most important in cooking? My answer is simple, "Taste" What is taste? It is made by "flavor / character of every single ingredients" I always say I want my food is innovate, creative and original. But it'll be nonsense if losing the focus on "flavor". Especially using any kinds of molecular gastronomy techniques, we can make the dishes look "SO COOL" and "SO FANCY", but if the dish lose flavor and losing focus on the taste itself, what is the point? I personally hate alginate caviar techniques because it losing the flavor of the liquid.
In MY opinion, I didn't think the dishes I've done at ADNY were not so "innovative" or "creative". But it is true to the flavor and I described the cuisine is pure, natural and well-focused. It maybe not so "interesting" from culinary professional standing point, but.. the food at ADNY it is done RIGHT, done PERFECT.
A couple dishes from ADNY, say: foie gras with mango / bass with shellfish / egg, sunchoke with truffle Is it inspiring? Not really, people probably call those "classic", but those dishes were SO DERRRICIOUS!! Braised pig, butternuts squash and gnocchi will be one of the best dishes from my past restaurants I worked. Classic or molecular, these dishes are winners in the end for me.
Tourne butternut squash, making gnocchi, butchering meat, sous-vide techniques, using siphon.... I've refined many of French techniques at ADNY. I had fortune to work at meat station over 5 months. Now I make my jus and sauce on my way, but it all based on what I learned at ADNY. I salute chef Ducasse, Merci beaucoup!
The dsihes I recalled from ADNY'04-05:
foie gras terrine, apple, quince / blue leg chicken, crayfish( was it?) / cod, fennel, tapanade / dover with swiss chard / barramundi, beets, heart of palm / turbot, celery, fondant / veal, tomato, mozzarella / ribeye, panisse, sabayon / lobster, butternut squash, salsify, mango, hearts palm / tuna with eggplant / butternut squash soup with chestnut / bay scallop, lemon, ex virgin / sous vide lamb rack with .... something I forgot!
Thanks list:
Chef Christian Delvouvrier, chef Tony Esnault, chef Sebastian, Gwendal, Jeremy, Pierre, Santos, Jansen, Myorei, Junko(N), Junko(T), Junko(M), Angela, Ryan, Tomo, Yuhi, Junya, Brad, Walker, Danny, Joe, Matt, Nick, Todd, Andrew, Chris(py), Chris(mas), Sarah, Safe, Rachel..... and as usually all people I forget momentarily....