Spire/Alice Waters

I think the trail at Spire went okay...we'll see. They had me make an almond cake, an anglaise, and a chocolate-guinness mousse. The pastry chef was this cool Irish woman and it was nice, because I was telling her how I wanted an environment where the communication was better/different and where I could learn and grow, and she said they really wanted people who would play around in their free time...so if the place was quiet for the night, I could play with some new desserts. Pretty neat-though I think the prime duty of the job would be plating, with some low-key prep depending on how busy it was that day. In general though Spire is one of the 50 best hotel restaurants in the country and Nine Zero is a top boutique hotel in Boston so it'd probably be a step up from Sonsie in terms of quality and reputation. We'll see.

I'm making dessert with Julia tomorrow night. Profiteroles with Caramel ice cream and Chocolate Sauce, courtesy of Delphin, Alice Medrich and Claudia Fleming. Should be delicious.

Tonight I made really good rice with garlic, onions and carrots, and a touch of adobo. I also made chard with red pepper and lemon, courtesy of Alice Waters's Vegetable cookbook. It was really good and kind of brought back the Chez Panisse experience for me of making something simple taste so good. All I did was saute the chard in olive oil until it was tender, then add a crushed dried thai chili and some sea salt, then squirted it with a lemon wedge. I thought it might be too lemony or something but it was perfectly seasoned. In fact I might always make chard that way from now on. It made me feel like an actual chef, not just a patissier.

The chard was California grown and organic and one of the leaves was larger than my head. I saved the stems to make chard stem gratin as Alice suggests.