Taco de Asador

The book that launched a thousand one-eyed salutes in the pants of food geeks across the globe was the literal elephant in the room during dinner at the Intellectual Ventures Laboratory (IVL). This lab nee motorcycle machine shop is where every parametric recipe and epic image present in Modernist Cuisine was developed, created, tested, replicated and documented by Dr. Nathan Myhrvold, Chris Young and Maxime Bilet along with a team of dozens of stagiares.

Lab Kitchen- Maxime Bilet, left

I should say every image was created in the lab save the one of ballistics gelatin, which was shot in the forest at night. Picture a gaggle of lab coat-clad boy-men traipsing through the dark woods armed with sheet pans of gel and a wildly expensive camera with which to capture the quivering nuances of goo as it shimmies through space. And yes, for those of you considering bellying-up to the standing-room only bar that doles out volumes of the book for the not inconsiderable sum of $466.62 (current price on Amazon), you WILL get the recipe for ballistics gelatin. Read more

Being the West coast wild child that I am, chicken and waffles wasn’t exactly a staple of my youth. Because of that, I had no qualms about eviscerating it to its very core and recreating it Salty Seattle-style.  If you are some kind of Roscoe’s purist, or your mama makes the best chicken and waffles this side of the great divide, you may not want to read about my bastardization. (There- full disclosure)

The first time I had chicken and waffles was on a recent trip to Detroit. It was served in what I assume was a traditional fashion- fried chicken with waffles and maple syrup. It was good, don’t get me wrong. However it could have been SO much better. My ruminations and research began that day, and I’ve finally come up with a more-than-passable update on an old classic. Read more

*update- here is the news segment augmentation to this post, featuring the SousVide Supreme, which aired Wed, Jan 19th on Komo 4 News:

If you live in Seattle and you’re desperately seeking entertainment around the 4 o’clock hour this Wednesday, January 19^th, why not watch me make steak live on the news? I can assure you there will be ample opportunity to laugh, and who knows- I may even accidentally light the set on fire. You wouldn’t forgive yourself if you missed that, now would you? Tune in to Komo First News at 4 (broadcast on digital channel 38) and look out for my segment, likely airing around 4:25pm. Read more