I think I've been incredibly blessed to have had the chance to attend several World Gourmet Summit events and I may just once again break my rule of not blogging about work to talk a bit about my culinary adventures. But first up, a surreal evening with Bob Blumer we bought tickets to.
He looks just like he does on The Surreal Gourmet, except without the wacky hair. I was so excited I dropped my shoe while getting up to take a picture with him. Will I ever be less klutzy and a bit more cool?!
The dinner started with us having to churn our own butter. It was definitely an ice-breaker at the table of seven other strangers, who turned out to be passionate foodies and really nice people. We all worked pretty hard to get semi-churned butter/cream that was yummy nonetheless.
The medley of surreal dishes for the night:
The dressing for the Flower Pot Salad comes from a watering can; Chinese Snow Cones; and the Nutty Monk, an almond-walnut infused cognac that was STRONG.
(l-r from top): Psychedelic Caviar; Flower Pot Salad, Beef Cup-Cake (the icing is actually beet-dyed mash potatoes); Camembert Cappucino and my favourite Eggestential Eggs. What looks like ham and eggs is actually white chocolate mousse with a passion fruit sorbet yolk and painted white chocolate. Yum.
A quick pick with David Rocco at last Wednesday's La Dolce Vita dinner. He's bigger in real life than on tv and no, I wasn't tipsy and cuddling up! It is just my subconscious habit to tilt my head towards people! No pictures of the food unfortunately because I was seated at the media table and it wasn't too cool to keep whipping out my camera! Haha.
Yesterday morning, I attended Chef Laurent Pillard's culinary workshop and had a taste of the US$5,000 Fleurburger (served without the mind bogglingly expensive Chateau Pétrus of course) among many other creations, like a Blackjack of cod brandade and some seriously good potato gnocchi. The Fleurburger features a juicy Kobe beef patty, pan-fried foie gras and black truffles sandwiched between homemade brioche. Click here to read more.
I had a tasting lunch scheduled immediately after the culinary workshop, and hearty meat dishes like pork knuckle, veal sausages and veal liver were served up. "It's part of the job!" said my editor when I told her about my two consecutive lunches in four hours. Perhaps it's time I took up the advice of a writer I met last week: "On days when I have tastings, I have just coffee for breakfast and an apple for lunch." I should consider rewriting my rule of having a proper breakfast to start the day, at least on tasting days. Right now, a vegetarian weekend sounds just about right to balance things off.
Now to the shower and out with my babes. It's a beautiful day ain't it? :)
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