Smith at Saison
This is fourth and final episode of Jeremy Fox’s interviews with Inside Scoop. This one took place yesterday, midway through his weeklong Smith at Saison dinner series. Above, enjoy the photo galleries; some photos, where indicated, come courtesy of ChuckEats. See also: Part One, Part Two and Part Three.
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Scoop: How’s it being back in the kitchen?
Fox: We’re two nights in; the second night was better than the first. We’re more and more on the same page and starting to gel. By the time the week’s over, we’ll have gotten better and better, and then it’ll be done. I couldn’t have done this week without chefs Kim Alter and Eli Kirshtein.
Who else has helped out?
Peter Jacobsen and Jeff Dawson. Farmers always seem to be wisest people, and I’ve been fortunate enough to work with the best.
What are some things you guys have liked that you’ve done? Any revelations?
Revelations? Might be too soon for that, but there’s been some good feedback. Dishes have changed pretty significantly the first few nights.
How so?
We looked at what we liked, what could be better, what could change. Just tightening and refining. The first night we did a really rustic dish, large turnips roasted in the embers in the hearth. We took random cuts of that with small raw radishes. The first night, we thought it wasn’t bright enough, and seemed more like a wintry dish.
So we gently cooked smaller and medium-sized turnips whole and kept them in their natural shape — didn’t halve them or anything — and put them with a puree and some really great daikon seedpods. Usually when the seedpods get as fat as they were, they get woody, spicy and very hard to eat. These were tender and a mellow flavor, and we had nasturtiums to go off the spice of the turnips and radishes. It became a much lighter dish, and we were a lot happier with that.
Any experimenting with techniques?
The first day we did everything in the hearth and the wood oven. After that first night, I felt like I didn’t want to use the hearth and wood oven just to be using it. I thought the flavors — at least the menu I put together — was too repetitive. We shied away from the hearth a lot more yesterday, just to cook things more gently. You know, it’s hot outside, it’s summer. We didn’t want the food to be too heavy.
Looking ahead, anything you’re excited about?
We’re doing a corned beef heart “tartare.” It’s fully cooked, but still has the nice reddish-pink color to it. It’s with a bunch of different beets from the garden, red mangels, foronos…
What’s a forono?
It’s a red cylindrical beet. We also had some creme fraiche with fresh grated wasabi root, ficoide glaciale and some caraways, so they’re deli flavors. We got really good feedback on that last night.
Then the turnip dish the first night was all of our least favorite dish, but the feedback was amazing and it seemed to be one of the hits.
The blood sausage — the morcilla — has gone over really. Instead of rice we put cereal grains in it: our own barley, wheatberry, farro. That’s with some different fennels: Bronze fennel, orion fennel…
So it seems you’re enjoying yourself?
Yeah, definitely. It’s not like riding a bike, that’s for sure. Each day, though, is more comfortable.
What do you mean?
Being able to come into a foreign environment in one day and getting whatever the vision is across — it’s definitely a challenge. When opening a restaurant, the opening weeks are just getting everyone working together. There are breakthroughs along the way.
Any takeaways so far?
Well yeah, I’m always learning, or I always want to be learning. If I’m not, I get really antsy. But it’s just two nights in a kitchen. We’re changing and refining the dishes and getting more focused as we go.
It’s a challenge cooking meat.
How much meat are you cooking?
I think probably a normal amount. We have the ocean dish for the first savory course: seaweed, sea beans, uni, caviar, braised abalone. And there’s the beef heart. Chicken skin and offal sofrito with chicken gizzards and hearts. The morcilla. But yeah, I’m getting used to cooking with meat.
How so?
I sort of answered a question for myself, just in preparation and the dinners so far. I think I prefer cooking without meat. I think it’s just the way my brain has been trained over the last few years.
I can see the vegetable dishes so clearly, but with proteins, it’s siphoning the creative process for me. It feels like cheating or a crutch. I’m liking the dishes without the proteins.
That’s kind of how it got started, at Manresa. We would be working on the garnishes for a dish. We would set the plates, and before the meat or fish would go on, we would look at the dish and think “That’s a finished dish.” Whatever you put on top could be interchangeable, be it pork or lamb.
I think two days is a bit premature to rule out cooking with meat, but it’s definitely requiring some adjustments on my part. Trying to present the produce and proteins in a way I feel is harmonious, unforced, and unique.
How are you feeling about tasting menus?
I like tasting menus, I also like a la carte. Being able to have a menu where I might just have five of something for a night, and that’s why I would love to be able have a place where I could do a la carte on some nights and a tasting menu on other nights.
So what is next?
I don’t know. Definitely looking for my own space. Could be this year. Could be next year. Could be never. You never know.
Well, I like that as a sign off.
Earlier on ‘The Smith Interviews': Part One; Part Two; Part Three