Dr. Green Cook

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2011-03-09T03:21:00.000-08:00

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Oven for us

2010-08-17T16:31:00.000-07:00

Our new Mini Convection Oven is great, the size is perfect for two people, really good looking and seems that it's going to stay with us for a long time. We already made bread (30 min app), grilling cheese and eggs over polenta, and baking potatoes and chicken. It's really fast and cooks evenly. I believe the next thing to get it will be a Thermal Circulator...

THERMOMIX

2010-08-08T17:39:00.000-07:00

This is something great!!! I have been using this appliance for the last 7 years in different places around the world and I love it. First thing is the quality and durability of the product; it lasts forever. Right now in the restaurant we are using the second model of Thermomix (Thermomix 3300 was launched in 1982) and then you have the multi-functionality of it, perfect to make ice creams or sorbets, cooking sauces or whatever you like and even a great use for cooking sous vide on a small scale. You have the control of temperature, speed, scales and time. Perfect!

I am a consultant now for Thermomix NZ and I want to introduce you the TM 31.

Great Taste in LA

2010-08-03T01:55:00.001-07:00

My last trip was in June, we went to California for a family visit, at the end of our journey, just right before going to the airport we stopped in Nozawa. The best sushi in our life, all the seafood was incredibly delicious, fresh as just came out of the water, a great gift from the ocean and we were very thankful with the people behind the "raw bar". It was a great experience and I hope more people can go and meet this little place in Studio City, 30 min from LAX.

Yellow tail, albacore, halibut, oyster, scallop, sea urchin, crab hand roll, toro, baby tuna sashimi.

FROM THE BEST

2010-04-27T13:30:00.001-07:00

"If you work with me you will often be starting your day in the forest or on the shore because I believe foraging will shape you as a chef. I know it has shaped me. If you see how a plant grows and you taste it in situ you have a perfect example of how it should taste on the plate. But it's more than that. When you get close to the raw materials and taste them at the moment they let go of the soil, you learn to respect them." René Redzepi

GLFM

2010-02-24T02:31:00.000-08:00

We had a very colorful start this Sunday with an amazing variety of tomatoes, meyer lemons, and george wilson plums.

Then there was the delicious Ooooby "O" Tromboncino, mountain paw paws, royal gala apples, cucumbers, and an array of greens, herbs and seedlings.

And then came my favorite part... the complete Farmer's Market dinner cooked up by Giulio

Free range sirloin, green sausage tomato, gold nugget tomato, red cherry, chopped tromboncino, kumara, and chopped spicy globe basil pesto. Thank you to each and every grower for making this delicious meal happen and thanks to the chef!

SOUS VIDE CHART, EQUIPMENT COMPARATION

2010-01-25T19:18:00.000-08:00

Precision is essential when you cook sous vide, as well if you need to reheat the product at the moment of service never go over the cooking temperature of the product.

Michelin Stars

2009-12-01T15:38:00.000-08:00

New Three Stars

El Celler de Can Roca (Girona, Catalunya: Joan Roca)

Three Stars

Juan Mari Arzak, restaurant Arzak (San Sebastián), Santi Santamaría, restaurant Can Fabes (San Celoni), Ferrán Adriá, restaurant El Bulli (Rosas), Martín Berasategui, restaurant Martín Berasategui (Lasarte), Carme Ruscalleda(Sant Pau) y Pedro Subijana (San Sebastián).

Two Stars

Casa Marcial de Arriondas (Asturias), Lasarte de Barcelona, La terraza del Casino (Madrid), y Les Cols (Olot)

New First Stars

El Etxebarri Axpe (Vizcaya), la Enoteca in the Hotel Arts in Barcelona, A Estación in Cambre (A Coruña), M.B. de Guía in Isora (Tenerife), Bo,Tic, in Corça (Gerona), Julio Fontanar dels Alforíns (Valencia), La Fonda Xesc Gombrèn (Gerona), Cocinandos de León, La Broche, (Madrid), Diverxo (Madrid), Kabuki Wellington (Madrid), Ramón Freixa (Madrid), As Garzas, in Malpica (A Coruña), La Cabaña de la Finca Buenavista (Murcia), Alejandro in Roquetas del Mar (Almería), Torreó in L'India de Xerta (Tarragona).

From 2 Stars to 1

Tristán, (Portals Nous, Mallorca, Balearics)

Lost their Star

Kursaal in San Sebastián, The Gallery Arts & Food in Gijón, Lillas Pastia in Huesca, el Chaflán in Madrid, el Solar in Puebla de Santa Cruz De Bezana (Cantabria), Read's, in Santa María del Camí, (Mallorca), la Taberna de Rotilio in Sanxenxo (Pontevedra) and Alejandro del Toro (Valencia).

DELICIOUS TO START

2009-10-09T14:14:00.001-07:00

My first week at Kermadec was very nice, the whole team is very professional and you can see and feel the passion for cooking, the wait staff is always asking about the components of the dishes and always thinking ahead to make the customers happy.

Like always in the first week you need to learn and ask about everything.. even where is the spatula!! Anyway Monique helps me a lot with any of my doubts. Peter put me in charge of the entree section to see how the fine dinning functions. I really like it because I have the opportunity to create more with the amuses and when Peter wants a special entree I have to go for it.

SURFING AND LOOKING FOR NATURE

2009-08-18T02:28:00.000-07:00

Since the 10th August I am on holidays, together with Christy we decided to make it unforgettable. It has to be perfect; looking for waves, beautiful days and nights, hopefully work on a farm and learn with new people and maybe we can find our land.

My parents are coming to visit us in mid-september, my plan: show them something that they can only experience here in NZ.

I will start to work in a new project in my unstoppable culinary journey, Kermadec is the only place in NZ that I can say I'll come back every time and work together to Peter Thornley, a magic person who makes me want to meet him more to understand and share knowledge with the rest of the team, all of them very good people with different cultures and perspectives about cooking.

I'll come back soon, this is the time to enjoy life next to my love and family. Good things are coming for everyone.

The picture... The garden to Auckland.

DEW AND NEW PROJECT

2009-08-02T03:37:00.000-07:00

I want to share one of my passions, wake up early in the morning and see how the plants are changing every day, always something new to learn with them. Lately I have been thinking about a new project, I want to create a menu with just New Zealand endemic edibles plants, I need to research and read a lot, find the uses of every single one and my priority is ... if I can ... find them all and grow them in our garden. to achieve my goal I need an eight courses menu to start and then non stop.

If you have any information about it I am waiting. Thanks.

Dandelions are the most prevelant plant in our garden... here it's in the seed stage.

BABY PAUA

2009-07-15T04:40:00.000-07:00

The other day I had the opportunity to cook for a friend and his family, he got baby Paua, there is a company in Napier who grows Pauas in big pools, I didn't feel guilty (for the size) using them because they were farm raised and not from the ocean.
Cooked in sous vide, 65 C x 90 min after very thin sliced served with tomato water infused cucumber (40C x 20 min) wakame gel and alioli. It was a complete challenge for me; I was concerned about the texture ... hard.. soft.. chewy... but not, was so delicate in flavor, it went very well with cucumber and tomato.

CRAYFISH.. AMARANTH.. WHEATGRASS.. RED ONION.. GREEN TEA

2009-07-07T04:45:00.000-07:00

Cooked in sousvide 52 C x 40 min, amaranth beurre noisette sheep cheese, warm salad of crayfish meat snow peas spring onions and wild fennel, wheatgrass salt sugar olive oil, red onions, garlic olive oil, green tea foam, pineapple sage flowers.

The cost for these two: 60 NZD. good price or not?

New equipment

2009-07-05T01:46:00.000-07:00

Now to be part of the Lab, we have an Induction stove 2000w and a FoodSaver (vacuum packer), this time good luck with the price very affordable on sale, so now is possible to have a longer time cooking sous vide and better and proper storage.

Goodness in the planet

2009-07-05T01:11:00.000-07:00

This is Dandelion, one of my favourites, helps me a lot for my stomache pains (gastritis), it is consider like a weed so is very easy to find every where, and here in NZ it is all over. By the vines in the restaurant every afternoon I am going to dig to get some of the root (Christy prepares a dandelion vinegar, chopped roots and cider vinegar), and now I have started to dry it out. Dandelion has inulin (approx. 10% sweetness of sugar/sucrose) and it has a little bitter flavour at the end. I am searching for more weeds, plants, fruits, etc with very special benefits for us to work with those, and find the best pairing in a dish.

Sous-Vide, 1st session

2009-06-26T03:50:00.000-07:00

I got an induction burner this week, it is for home use so anything special, anyway it works very well to keep the temperature at 52 celcius. I used 250 grs porterhouse beef divided in two bags (125 gr) plus 2 grs salt every bag cooked in 20 min, removed from the bag and fast seared in a pan, ready to eat, the first cut was clean, not any blood, soft and so much flavour, just salt!
Next time I'll have a better camera.

CALENDULA TEA

2009-06-10T14:44:00.001-07:00

THIS IS BEAUTIFUL, very deep yellow color

Cooking.. enjoy!

2009-06-10T14:22:00.000-07:00

The time in the lab is to create, think, and learn how it works every product in each recipe. Is amazing see the different the stages liquid, solid, foam, bubles, etc. by the moment I am not creating any dish, just working in different aplications and see how that comes. Just taking notes by the moment.

Innovations and Development

2009-06-10T13:56:00.000-07:00

I am going to introduce to everyone into our Lab at home: I+D (Innovations and Development) We start getting samples of different products (lecithin, metilcellulose, xanthan gum... check the pic) and buying very basic kitchen tools, then we got the Ezidri dehydrator, some books Alinea(Grant Achatz), Weeds (Isla Burgess), Texture (Martin Lersch), A Herbalist's Medicine-Making Workbook (Gilian Painter), A Practical Guide for Sous-Vide Cooking (Douglas E. Baldwin). Our last acquisition is the Thermomix TM31. We continue planting all different kind of herbs, vegetables and fruits, now we need to find something bigger than our little greenhouse.
We are looking for other "essentials", immersion blender, digital thermometer, vacuum packer, Roner (polyscience).

Sweet pleasure

2009-05-31T04:30:00.000-07:00

Was one of those nights that you just want to get a sweet delight... coconut, berries, nutella and pineapple sage.

I am looking for nice designed plates, if someone knows?

BUBBLES!

2009-05-31T04:09:00.001-07:00

Chocolate, they stabilized so well and for a long time. I tried them with nitro and they looked like frozen clouds as well I used honey and they are similar to soap bubbles (clear).

Thank's Mugaritz.

The Garden

2009-05-05T23:43:00.000-07:00

We start the garden on the first week of February: Chilean Guava, Calendula, Mint, Pineapple Sage, New Zealand Native Violet and Arthritis Herb, now after 4 months we add another 10 different, leaves and flowers. This weekend we plant Comfrey and Dandelion (roots, leaves and flowers uses).

Today I got in the mail a box with samples: maltodextrine, dextrose, carragenan, lecithin; we hope for the end of the month decide about getting equipment for our new business.

Gala Dinner, The Old Church Restaurant

2009-05-02T03:38:00.000-07:00

When I make this one, Tapioca Grapes and Roasted Royal Apples Sorbet, Peppermint infused Milk and Pistachios Tuile (flowers from Andrew's Garden) I felt so happy with the final product.... just representing a lot of the seasonal fruits in Hawke's Bay. the sorbet was the pulp from the apples and pectin from their skins, at the end very smooth texture not too sweet and the tapioca massaging your palate.

GREEN RINGAWERA

2009-05-01T11:44:00.000-07:00

These are the first flowers and leaves from our garden, three months only and we can prepare salads, marinations (for meat), using the flowers for decorations an add a fresh aroma, cocktails, etc.