STARS MENU NOTES PART ONE
What made Stars restaurant great was in many of the details. Here is the food.
At Chez Panisse I taught the dishes of the menu that changed every day three hours before the first dishes were due in the dining room. By cooking the dishes with my one assistant.
By the time after I left and took over the Santa Fe Bar & Grill (also in Berkeley), I sketched on 8 1/2 x 11 sheets what I wanted for each dish on the daily changing menu and then added notes. See below.
Stapled them together and handed them out to the cooks. This worked well since then everyone could read from a typed page.
We were in such a rush to open the new restaurant, Stars in San Francisco, that for the first menu, a PR event, this was all the cooks got. This page annotated by one of them, Steven Vranian.
In the beginning of Stars in San Francisco, in 1984, they still could read and understand my notes.
By the mid 1990’s it started to occur tome that these handed out notes and sketches were not working so well. But I loved doing them because it clarified my own mind about each of the new dishes. And I was there to demo each one at 11am and 5 pm.
By the late 1990’s and 2000 when I was opening new Stars, this method of teaching was a failure. And I was not hip enough then to realize that it was all about phones.
If they could not see the information on a cellphone it weirdly (to me) did not exist.
Let alone no Instagram.
Here they are, some menu notes from the late 90’s.
First Courses
KING SALMON GRAVLAX. LIME ‑DILL CREAM & SHITTAKE MUSHROOM SANDWICH
Lime cream has the zest in it too and is thinned down so it will drizzle freely. The mushroom sandwiches are cooked shiitakes chopped and spread between two crustless slices of brioche 1/8-inch-thick, toasted to order, buttered, spread with the shiitake duxelles, another slice on top, cut into 2 fingers and put on the plate. Reheat the sandwiches in the oven briefly if they get cold while being made.
Slicing the salmon: Two schools of thought 1. Slice along the filet horizontally, or 2. Slice at a 30-degree slope from the top of the filet all the way down to the skin.
At Stars we sliced on the angle, so that every slice has some of the top fish and some of the fish against the skin, which is fattier and has a different flavor. The dark‑colored flesh next to the skin is placed at the center of the plate so that the two slices face each other and make a pattern. The whole bottom of the plate must be covered, and NEVER put wet food on top of the fish. The lime cream is sour cream, milk to thin, fresh lime zest and juice from salted preserved limes. The cream is drizzled over the sliced salmon. Add the finely‑chopped dill to the cream.
STARS ICED ACQUAVITE BLOODY MARY SEAFOOD SHOOTERS
Three glasses: one with an oyster, one with cooked mixed shellfish and one with mixed fish marinated in fresh lime, chopped cilantro and orange zest.
The mixture is made from cold bottled tomato juice (that is kept in the walk‑in), fresh lemon juice, horseradish, Tabasco, dash Worcester sauce, salt, and Aalborg aquavit. The process is to put some of the mixture in the glass first, just a touch so that the seafood does not stick to the bottom of the glass, and then the shellfish, and then top with the Bloody Mary mixture. Finish with gremolata ‑ equal parts lemon zest and finely chopped parsley.
LIVE ALASKA SPOT PRAWN COCKTAIL SERVICE
These prawns are taken live from the tank, cooked in salted water, and laid out on a perforated shallow hotel pan and ice placed on top while you work on them, peeling all but the tail (heads are used for shellfish essence). The prawns are then sprinkled with fleur de sel. The service is cocktail sauce ‑ fresh horseradish, lemon juice, Tabasco, and ketchup in a bowl placed in a larger bowl of ice, the prawns hanging over the little bowl. Lemon wedges without seeds or membrane on the ice.
STEAK TARTARE WITH ANCHO CHILI & ROASTED MILD CHILIES
Top round or sirloin cut into 2‑inch cubes and wrapped in parchment in portions to keep at the station and then ground in a food processor to order. Then mixed with lemon –juice, salt, coarse freshly‑ground black pepper, a teaspoon of XV olive oil and teaspoon of mustard. Put in the center of the chilled plate and served with the usual garnishes around ‑ capers (rinsed, soaked 15 minutes. then stored in white wine with thyme sprigs), sieved cooked egg white, sieved cooked egg yolks, chopped parsley. Top the beef with an ancho chili cream (ancho puree with sour cream, thinned) and put the julienne strips of chili on top. Garnish also with the stem caper berries (rinsed, soaked 10 minutes, and then put in olive oil).
The chili strips are large mild pasilla type chilies, roasted in the wood‑oven, seeded, skinned and cut in fine julienne.
Salads
THE GRAND CLASSIC CAESAR
Just remember that the little leaves are the best, and the presentation is the biggest leaves on the bottom, the leaves all facing one direction, all the leaves the right (inside) way up, and do not leave any of the tiniest leaves in the bowl ‑ the customer wants them.
The bowl must be clean before every order. You do not want sauce build up in the bowl, because your carefully proportioned sauce for the fourth order will have sauce from the previous three ‑ no thank you. And Classic because the dressing is made to order with coddled eggs, Dijon mustard (not whole grain) lemon juice, garlic, that day’s anchovy puree (made from salted anchovies that have been soaked and stored in olive oil with fresh herbs), olive oil, black pepper, Kosher salt. And cold, cold, romaine leaves. Salted anchovies, garlic toasts. Parmesan tuiles are not classic, but delicious and pretty.
LETTUCE SALAD WITH EXTRA VIRGIN OLIVE OIL, LEMON JUICE, ROASTED WALNUTS, HERBS & WATERCRESS
This is a salad of a mix of whatever lettuces are the best in the market, and the dressing is fresh lemon juice, extra virgin Olive oil), salt and freshly-ground black pepper, the proportions of 4 oil to I lemon juice. The lettuces are tossed in the sauce, and then arranged on the plate so that the leaves look like an intentional arrangement, no stems sticking up, no leaves upside‑down. A mix of herb leaves, mint leaves, and lamb's lettuce and/or watercress tossed in the bowl after the lettuces, and placed on top of the lettuces.
BUTTER LETTUCE HEARTS WITH CREAMED BLUE CHEESE & RADICCHIO
The lettuces kept whole but trimmed at the station, then cut into wedges to order, 3‑5 wedges per order depending on size and cost of the lettuce. Leave a little of stem on the center facing out. Dressing is blue cheese (NOTE the word “bleu” will never be used) mixed with milk to thin it, sour cream (and never crème), olive oil, freshly ground white pepper. It’s 80% blue cheese, 10% milk, 5% sour cream, 5% olive oil. Whisk together. Wedges lightly tossed in the dressing.
The garnish is flowers, sprinkled over crumbled blue cheese (the 'dry' kind that will sprinkle), and slivers of old baguette, cut into long toast, toasted to order in toaster, spread while hot with the blue cheese mix. Add the fine chiffonade of radicchio dressed and scattered over the top of the lettuce.
More Substantial First or Lunch Courses
BLACK BEAN CAKE WITH CHIPOTLE CREAM AND TEXAN SALSA
Chipotle cream is sour cream, lime juice, salt and chipotle puree. The chipotle puree is made from soaked chilies which when soft are put into the food processor without the stems, some onion, vinegar, garlic and salt.
The salsa is chopped onion, chopped cilantro, lime juice, salt, chopped serrano chili, chopped skinned and seeded ripe tomato, a bit of olive oil.
The black bean cake (a dry mash of cooked black turtle beans made by putting the beans through the meat grinder, and then mixing it with salt, ancho chili powder, and chopped serrano chilies) is formed into 1/8-inch rounds and cooked in rendered chicken fat from skimming the stocks, put on a hot plate, and then presented with the chipotle cream - thinned to the proper consistency with milk - in the center of the cake and a teaspoon of the salsa in the center of the cream. Garnish around with cilantro sprigs.
BLACK BEAN CAKE WITH RABBIT CONFIT. CHIPOTLE CREAM & TEXAN SALSA
The rabbit picked from the leg confit, shredded by hand. Put the cake on a hot round white plate, then the chipotle cream, then the salsa, then the rabbit and then the sliced in julienne roasted, skinned seeded peppers.
TERRINE OF HUDSON VALLEY FOIE GRAS WITH ROASTED CHESTNUT STUFFED CORNMEAL CREPES
Devein grade A foie gras. Season with salt and white pepper. Line a terrine mold with plastic film and lay in the seasoned pieces of foie gras. Tightly wrap the plastic film over the top and poach in a water bath at a temperature of 160 degrees ‑ no more. You will have to keep a thermometer in the water bath and occasionally regulate the temperature with ice. Bring the internal temperature of the foie gras to 150. Transfer the terrine to a cold-but not ice water- bath. Let it cool there in the refrigerator overnight.
This dish is a room‑temperature plate with the slice of foie gras and two crepes made with very fine cornmeal, folded over with a filling made of wood‑oven roasted chestnuts, peeled (no shell and no outer fiber), chopped up and mixed with chopped roasted sweet onion, a little mascarpone and sprinkle of black pepper, hint of cumin, little amount of chopped mint. Heat the crepes in the oven briefly to order.
Soups
CREAMED GARLIC SOUP WITH BLUE CHEESE SOUFFLE
When I put garlic soup on the menu at Stars, nothing prepared me for its enormous success. I attribute its continued popularity to its mildness, the result of cooking the garlic until it is soft. For a garnish I stuffed little profiteroles with a butter made with chopped fresh sage and ancho chili butter which melts out over the surface of the soup and provides tantalizing bits of flavor as you eat the soup.
Do not think that you will smell like a garlic factory after eating this soup. Not only is this a fast and easy crowd pleaser, this soup is mild, full of flavor, mysterious, and delicious. And you don’t even have to peel the garlic. Just smash a few heads of the freshest garlic you can find, and in half an hour you have a signature dish that costs almost nothing. Make it in advance. And if you are put off by making or buying profiteroles, just put a dollop of the flavored butter (or use a whipped cream with sage and ancho chili puree) on top of the soup at the table.
The soup: Chicken stock, unpeeled but cleaned garlic cloves, egg yolk, half & half, salt, white pepper, sage leaves. Cook the 10 cloves of garlic per person in chicken stock until tender, and put through a food mill. For one cup of cream, whisk in one egg yolk. To order, put 3 TBS of this mix into the 6-8 oz of the garlic puree, and heat while stirring. DO NOT let it boil. Garnish with the blue cheese soufflé and the finely chopped sage and some sieved cooked egg yolk on top of the soufflé.
Soufflé: Egg yolk, egg white, blue cheese that custard that is cooked in the oven in a water bath, and then kept warm for service in another water bath on the station.
CURRIED LENTIL & WOOD‑OVEN ROASTED EGGPLANT SOUP WITH MINT MASCARPONE
This soup is especially good if the eggplant is cooked in a wood‑burning oven so it is slightly smoked.
Slightly score lengthwise the Japanese eggplant with a paring knife. Put all the eggplant in a bowl and toss with the olive oil, herbs and ancho chili powder. Cover and let marinate 1 hour. Put the eggplant on a sheet-pan, and cook for 30 minutes or until tender in the wood oven. Boil the chicken stock. Remove the eggplant and put them in the chicken stock. Add the ancho chilies and cooked lentils. Simmer for ten minutes. Strain. Take the stems off the chilies. Puree the chilies with the eggplant and some of the stock. Mix the puree with the rest of the stock and strain through a medium fine strainer. to order, stir in the cumin and sour cream until well mixed. Season with salt. Garnish with a thinned mascarpone cream flavored with a puree of blanched mint. Also, some of the sieved, cooked egg yolk.
Below you’ll find the recipes for: Smoked Trout Brandade, Shrimp and Oyster Shooters, Another Garlic Soup: with Sage & Ancho Chili Butter Profiteroles, Ancho Chili Puree & it’s many Sauces.
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