Word: chef
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...answer may be, back to cooking's roots. "Last year, Madrid Fusion was all about machines, and two years before that, it was about chemicals," says Antoinette Bruno, editor-in-chief of Starchefs, an influential chef's magazine. "This year is the return to flavor." Several speakers at the conference concurred. Montse Estruch, of the Catalan restaurant El Cingle, boosted the taste of a beautifully presented San Peter's fish with a handful of violet petals. In a talk that drew on his own experience raising animals and vegetables for his Blue Hill restaurants in New York, chef Dan Barber...
...Adri?, head chef at El Bulli and the godfather of all this conceptual kitchen wizardry, reflected on the direction of the movement he spawned. In a long, almost evangelical Powerpoint demonstration, he urged chefs to learn even the chemical makeup of the products with which they cook. Then, he showed off a few new tricks of his own. Using a "spherification" process of wrapping it in an algae-based membrane, he turned olive oil into tiny, transparent pearls mimicking caviar. Afterwards, though, he displayed a superhero's circumspection about his work: "We're caught in a madness...
...competition requires each chef, aided by an assistant, to complete two platters of food, one featuring a meat course (Bresse chicken, this year), the other showcasing seafood (Norwegian white halibut and king crab), and three side dishes--all sufficient for 14 servings--within just a 5 1/2-hr. period. The food is judged on presentation and, of course, taste. Competitors train for the cooking challenge with the single-minded discipline usually found in élite athletes. For Kaysen, this means heading to the kitchen on his day off to sharpen skills like butchering a whole chicken. He began practicing...
...needs when he goes to buy ingredients for the big day. Many of his competitors are subsidized by their governments, but Kaysen has had to find his own sponsors. He has enlisted Uncle Ben's, Brandt Meats, De Buyer cookware and his employer, the Rancho Bernardo Inn. His chef's coat looks like a racing jersey, with the logos of his backers adorning his sleeves...
Kaysen has also attracted impressive mentors, including Daniel Boulud, the award-winning French chef who owns restaurants in New York City, Las Vegas and Palm Beach, Fla., and Charlie Trotter, the famed Chicago chef who has been a Bocuse judge. Both have high hopes for their protégé. "Gavin has the passion for French cuisine, a very good palate, and he's a master of technique and timing," says Boulud. "And he's very meticulous and detail oriented, which is crucial." Trotter, who has been following Kaysen's career since the younger chef applied for an internship in his kitchen...