Creating New Restaurant Dishes
How to think of a ‘new’ dish when the odds are against you….
This post follows a conversation I had with my brother after a fine Sunday lunch cooked by the good Mrs C. My brother had asked me if I copied recipes from books and how original were some of my dishes. It’s a good question, I have spent an obscene amount of money on food related books but I can count on one hand the recipes I have followed to the letter and most of them were dessert orientated. The fact is I don’t like to copy other chef’s ideas.
I was writing some new main courses for one of the restaurants last week and I was getting on very well until I hit a brick wall called Sea Bass. Over the years I’ve done pretty much all you can do with a sea bass, you name it, I’ve tried it and this time around I could not get inspired. On the morning the new menu was to start I still hadn’t come up with anything and the harder I thought the harder it got. So I stopped thinking and started cooking instead and ended up with this….
Sea Bass and Crab Brandade
I had originally wanted to put woodcock on the menu but following frantic phone calls by my butcher to local game keepers we managed to source one bird in the whole county! Sea Bass it is then! It’s hard to describe how I think of new dishes, the fact that I constantly think about food helps I suppose and the more I concentrate on photography the more I think of the aesthetics of a dish. Taste is obviously paramount but in this particular restaurant that I oversee the presentation has to match the taste so I’d be a liar if I said that I never discarded ideas based on their final presentation because I do which, incidentally is a shame.
Looks Scrummy, Miles!
If you ever have more sea bass than spring onions and crabmeat, there’s a wonderful Azeri recipe in Silk Road Gourmet for Sea Bass with Sour Cherries (p 99).
The original Caspian recipe is for a whole stuffed fish, but I’ve adapted it to be a bit more familiar as layered filets.
It may pose a challenge in terms of the artful presentation your restaurants aspire to, but it will make your tongue happy.
Keep up the great work!
Laura
November 16, 2009 @ 4:50 am
I’d say this must be the hardest yet least talked about area of being a chef.
The pressure to keep oming up with something not only new but also that matches what you’ve done before both in taste and visual terms.
I’m pleased I don’t have to do it !
Cheers
Rod
November 16, 2009 @ 8:56 am
Miles,
That looks extremely good for not having thought about it until the last minute.
Over your years as Chef you must have quite a repertoire of signature dishes that you developed. Do you repeat these over a period of time?
I heard on the news today that the average family uses 9 types of meals in rotation. Much better than I thought.
Anne
November 16, 2009 @ 3:15 pm
Laura,
Thanks, it gave me a bloody headache getting there though! I used to serve bass whole and was thinking about doing it again actually. A good idea Laura, thanks.
Miles
November 16, 2009 @ 6:30 pm
Rod,
It can be a pain at times, truth be told. I’ve written so many menus that being original gets ever harder.
Miles
November 16, 2009 @ 6:30 pm
Anne,
I raely, if ever repeat dishes. I take the occasional; idea but the dish is hardly ever the same.
Miles
November 16, 2009 @ 6:31 pm