Catching Up...

Oh man.

It's hard to believe that it's been over a month since my last installment on these pages. In this business, time can be a blur, if not outright skewed. Living life constantly on "kitchen time" definitely leads to fatigue, or at least an appreciation of eventually being able to sit quietly in one place for more than a few minutes. We've been quite busy at the restaurant, not to mention all of the projects on top of that, both the long-anticipated and those that tend to pop up out of nowhere. I certainly didn't intend to let things around here lie dormant for so long. My apologies to readers who have regularly checked in for updates, and my gratitude to those, both longtime friends and complete strangers (there were surprisingly many) who have written in with actual, sincere concern. And to surfers who have only recently discovered this blog in the interim, a welcome. So here are a few newsworthy items as I ease back into more regular writing.

A fair amount of time over the last few weeks has been spent commuting back and forth to Philadelphia, where we've just opened our latest consulting project with the Ritz Carlton, 10 Arts. While any restaurant opening can be a roller coaster ride even under the best of circumstances, my job this time around was made immeasurably easier due to the fact that we've installed Monica Glass as its pastry chef. As you may have read here, Monica was a member of our team here at Le Bernardin. The early word on our dessert menu has been overwhelmingly positive, and yes, after the local press jumped at the mere mention of it, we did decide to incorporate TastyKakes into one of our desserts! Of course, there is still ongoing work in Cayman, and I'll soon implement some changes in Washington D.C. And we've already begun talking about the next consulting project...

It seems like it was just yesterday that I was intently willing the arrival of spring, and now all of a sudden, summer is upon us. We've played with a number of ingredients and techniques recently, with varying successes and failures. While I was excited about working green almonds into a dish, I felt I couldn't coax enough character out of them to make it all worth it. But we are in the midst of local strawberry season, which is still cause for celebration even if we have access to their less than flavorful distant cousins all year long. And this year, I'm already beginning to work cherries into something involving pain d'epice and sherry vinegar. Early rambutans have made an appearance in the walk-in, as have feijoas, and soon enough we'll have figs, melons, and more. I'm sure the tomato will come into play at some point too. Just this past week we've been in a flurry of production toward creating some new pre-desserts, cakes, chocolates, and more. For some of these new dishes, we've dabbled in gelatin filtration, encapsulating olive oil in sugar, and as it seems Tailor has perfected the gummy bear, our pastry assistant Simon has been devoting a fair amount of his free time to perfecting our own rendition of Swedish Fish (seems fitting for a place like Le Bernardin, no?).

It's been busy on the media front as well. A small bit in New York Restaurant Insider magazine should appear any day now, as well as a couple of early summer recipes in the Wall Street Journal. Look for the next issue of GQ, where Alan Richman will take a look at some of the psychological reasons why we humans crave dessert. There's a segment on the Today Show scheduled for the near future, and on the heels of doing a stint as a judge recently for one of those Food Network Challenges, I was asked to participate in another show for the network, but I can't really say much more than that. My friend Alan "Battman" Batt has two new books out in September; I have recipes in both, one an investigation of soup, and the other a color-inspired look at dessert, for which I've also written the forward. This humble little blog has oddly enough gotten some mainstream press as well, first from Regina Schrambling in the LA Times, and then in the Washington Post, courtesy of New York pastry veteran Nick Malgieri. The latest issue of Plate also has a piece by Schrambling on the continuing savory-sweet crossover, where our recent Chocolate-Sweet Potato dish gets its props. And among the countless bloggers that have written about me and linked here, I'm humbled to see Michael Ruhlman and Ideas In Food, not to mention Raphael at Serious Eats, among them. In related cyberspace news, this first week of June should see the launch of both an updated Le Bernardin site, as well as one from my boss, Eric Ripert (Avec Eric). And just this past weekend, I had a chance to leaf through the absolute final galleys of our new book, which should be available to everyone come November.

Even as New Yorkers have now begun the weekend exodus to the Hamptons and points elsewhere, numbers at the restaurant are still strong. And the calender always seems to be full. The annual James Beard Awards are upon us this coming weekend, and not only do I get to present the award to this year's winning pastry chef, I had the honor of announcing to the press all of the chef nominees several weeks ago. The Awards weekend is always kind of fun- the restaurant is inevitably full of industry VIPs in town for those few days, and it feels as if you can't walk down a Manhattan street without bumping into a famous chef. I'm already planning a working trip to Thailand at summer's end, and just before that will be the hotly anticipated International Chefs Congress, where I will conduct both a demo and participate in a "chefs-who-blog" panel discussion. Somewhere between now and then I'll be taking a real vacation, up the New England coast to Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island (OK, so maybe there are some minor culinary motivations of the shellfish kind happening there!).

So, yeah, time has flown by. We're nearly half way through what still feels like a new year, and before I realize it, I know we'll be deep into the "season" at year's end. Barely four months ago I started this blog with a post about the "egg". And though we still bang out almost a hundred of these a day, that post was meant to be a last nod to an old friend, a quiet resolution not to ever overtly promote it again. But those old friends often reappear when you least expect it. As I can track such statistics, I know that a fair amount of readers end up here by "Googling" the "egg", and this past week there was a huge spike in traffic due to a post on Amateur Gourmet, extolling its virtues (though at the expense of the restaurant's dress code!). But I have to say, I did experience a moment of inner pride recently... Upon a visit to Le Bernardin by Laura Bush and daughter Jenna some months ago, we of course, served them the "egg", but I was a bit surprised when upon leaving, the First Lady actually asked for the recipe. I guess, when the wife of the leader of the free world asks for the recipe of your signature dish, you fork it over (all personal politics aside). I initially thought it funny that my good friend and colleague Bill Yosses, now the White House pastry chef, might eventually find the recipe in his hands. Sure enough, according to Bill, at Mrs. Bush's request, he prepared my little "egg" at an Easter brunch at the White House.

Kinda cool, eh?

Ok, enough of my stroll down short-term memory lane.

We're back.

Comments

[Ciaran Chung]

The suspense built from your delayed entries only adds to the enjoyment. As a cook/chef, the time for yourself often comes second to a big function or a busy service. Enjoy your vacation! I'm enjoying mine!

[andrew k]

ah, its about time, i love the insight you put into your posts, they are refreshing and lively. thanks again for the inspiration.

[silverdale flowers]

wow, your job seems filled with wonderful discoveries and adventures.

[chadzilla]

It would take half a year to pull up all of those links, let alone live it.
It's great to see more and more chefs out there 'building an empire,' and for that to mean much more than just opening more restaurants. The business is changing fast, and it's a wake-up to keep-up. Figure out the next step and move on up.
We (the chef team from the Trump International Miami Beach Resort) are very much looking forward to seeing you as well as the other great chefs at the 2008 ICC. Perhaps you should be giving entrepeneural business advice as well as pastry advice... or advice on how to prioritize and juggle time in today's food industry.

[Adam]

Michael--- Glad you got a spike in traffic from my site! And I hope my dress code rant didn't in any way detract from my genuine love for Le Bernardin; I'd wear a suit for the next 365 days if it meant I'd get to eat at Le Bernardin again. Congrats on all your success!
Best,
Adam

[kristin]

Michael,

What an honor to have the White House Pastry Chef make your desert! Congrtats on all the new and exciting things.

[pastrymann]

Michael.... good to see that all is well & after some time you are off to the northeast for some much deserved R & R. Too Cool.