This plate looks and sounds too forced. I don’t like it. Also the color palette is really dark. You didn’t do yourself any favors by picking a matte black bowl. I also find that specific type of plate my least favorite, because every single little fucking smudge shows up and they’re so ridiculously stupid to keep clean. I commend you for your efforts.
First off, there’s too much going on and your flavors are all over the place. There’s absolutely no refinement.
Your potatoes look greasy and chunky. We’re they riced? Did you maybe boil them with a little cream? Sweet potatoes tend to have that look, that’s why you often times see them in braised dishes, or soups, or purées. I also think it’s the worst choice of potato for me in this dish, with the richness of smoked AND confit chicken, mustard, truffle, bourbon?, I would have done a very simple yet classic russet pomme purée. The potato is just the vehicle for the rest of the plate, it doesn’t need to stand out as much as the rest, although it’s flavor is an important contributor. Puree them better and loosen em up just a touch.
The mushroom looks like a half limp dick and the sear isn’t strong enough. You want that wow factor from the depth of that crust when you’re using knife skills to score that type of way. Start your pan hotter while it’s dry, then add your oil so you prevent it from burning. Finish with butter. Also the little mushroom disc is unnecessary, just stick to the half cut one, there’s also plenty of mushroom in that one half alone.
Truffle is nowhere to be seen. I’m assuming you used oil, in which case the truffle doesn’t belong in the asparagus, it belongs in the sauce. You’re gonna get better end results with the sauce by not using it as a component to flavor only one ingredient, it becomes overpowering. Again, I’d take that asparagus and some smaller cut pieces of the mushroom and I’d make a fricasse to hide my pile of mashies.
Ok the chicken. I’m curious. It looks as if you confit first, then smoked it, considering the skin is so dark. I think in fact it is too dark, especially with the choice of a dark plate. I would have smoked the chicken first to absorb all that initial flavor, and finished with the confit process. This execution keeps the chicken a lighter color, and it makes crisping the skin a nicer finish.
Stop naming your garnishes on your menus, people. Nobody cares that you put a whole flower on a plate. The pickled mustard seed, the skin chip, the dill, the bourbon, they all kind of confuse me a little bit. Make the skin crispy enough on your confit that you don’t need more chicken skin on the plate. Get rid of the dill, you don’t fucking need dill on this plate. If you want green use parsley or chives, and if you’re going to use flowers, pull the petals off! Leaving a whole flower on a plate looks so elementary.
Ok, this sauce man. A pan sauce is a sauce that you build and finish in one pan a la minute. Are you implying you’re taking chicken stock and reducing it in a pan before finishing? In that case, it’s just a pan sauce. Demi is already a finished sauce in its own. But the bourbon has me wondering quite a bit. With some of these components I’m getting a feel for Texas BBQ for some reason. I would actually stick to the pan sauce but I would go more Bacon Madeira, French/ Spanish style sauce route. I’d keep the Madeira as the base for the sauce and add only some bourbon, so you get the flavor but it’s not so overpowering, and I would hit it with just a bit of good tomato paste, so it kind of comes off as a barbecue sauce kind of thing. I think having that finished sauce and throwing some of those pickled mustard seeds in right before putting it on the plate would look killer. And heres your chance to properly use that truffle oil.
All in all, I’d still eat it but it doesn’t look good. And now I wasted half my morning critiquing a dish and now I need to get ready to go to work.
1 Comment
This plate looks and sounds too forced. I don’t like it. Also the color palette is really dark. You didn’t do yourself any favors by picking a matte black bowl. I also find that specific type of plate my least favorite, because every single little fucking smudge shows up and they’re so ridiculously stupid to keep clean. I commend you for your efforts.
First off, there’s too much going on and your flavors are all over the place. There’s absolutely no refinement.
Your potatoes look greasy and chunky. We’re they riced? Did you maybe boil them with a little cream? Sweet potatoes tend to have that look, that’s why you often times see them in braised dishes, or soups, or purées. I also think it’s the worst choice of potato for me in this dish, with the richness of smoked AND confit chicken, mustard, truffle, bourbon?, I would have done a very simple yet classic russet pomme purée. The potato is just the vehicle for the rest of the plate, it doesn’t need to stand out as much as the rest, although it’s flavor is an important contributor. Puree them better and loosen em up just a touch.
The mushroom looks like a half limp dick and the sear isn’t strong enough. You want that wow factor from the depth of that crust when you’re using knife skills to score that type of way. Start your pan hotter while it’s dry, then add your oil so you prevent it from burning. Finish with butter. Also the little mushroom disc is unnecessary, just stick to the half cut one, there’s also plenty of mushroom in that one half alone.
Truffle is nowhere to be seen. I’m assuming you used oil, in which case the truffle doesn’t belong in the asparagus, it belongs in the sauce. You’re gonna get better end results with the sauce by not using it as a component to flavor only one ingredient, it becomes overpowering. Again, I’d take that asparagus and some smaller cut pieces of the mushroom and I’d make a fricasse to hide my pile of mashies.
Ok the chicken. I’m curious. It looks as if you confit first, then smoked it, considering the skin is so dark. I think in fact it is too dark, especially with the choice of a dark plate. I would have smoked the chicken first to absorb all that initial flavor, and finished with the confit process. This execution keeps the chicken a lighter color, and it makes crisping the skin a nicer finish.
Stop naming your garnishes on your menus, people. Nobody cares that you put a whole flower on a plate. The pickled mustard seed, the skin chip, the dill, the bourbon, they all kind of confuse me a little bit. Make the skin crispy enough on your confit that you don’t need more chicken skin on the plate. Get rid of the dill, you don’t fucking need dill on this plate. If you want green use parsley or chives, and if you’re going to use flowers, pull the petals off! Leaving a whole flower on a plate looks so elementary.
Ok, this sauce man. A pan sauce is a sauce that you build and finish in one pan a la minute. Are you implying you’re taking chicken stock and reducing it in a pan before finishing? In that case, it’s just a pan sauce. Demi is already a finished sauce in its own. But the bourbon has me wondering quite a bit. With some of these components I’m getting a feel for Texas BBQ for some reason. I would actually stick to the pan sauce but I would go more Bacon Madeira, French/ Spanish style sauce route. I’d keep the Madeira as the base for the sauce and add only some bourbon, so you get the flavor but it’s not so overpowering, and I would hit it with just a bit of good tomato paste, so it kind of comes off as a barbecue sauce kind of thing. I think having that finished sauce and throwing some of those pickled mustard seeds in right before putting it on the plate would look killer. And heres your chance to properly use that truffle oil.
All in all, I’d still eat it but it doesn’t look good. And now I wasted half my morning critiquing a dish and now I need to get ready to go to work.