Grønbech & Churchill, review!

So With my old job, we went for Grønbech and Churchill restaurant this summer.
The chef Rasmus Grønbech was a friend of my boss, so all of the staff went for a summer staff party.
Grønbech is the former headchef and co. owner at "premisse" (now AOC) restaurant, and he has been in some competition`s aswell.
After being away from the scene for a couple of years, he has opened his new restaurant.
Buuuuuuuuuuuut being one of the unlucky restaurantours during the flooding this summer, having to close his restaurants, we went not long after the re-opening.

It was to me not the best meal ever, some interresting stuff in the dishes, but no dishes really shined, in my opinion.
Here are the dishes:

Liqurice bread and butter´.

 The first thing we got after snacks where this bread, and whipped butter.
Nice but the edge of the bread was covered in raw liqurice, and made it impossible tasting the wine for the first dísh, and the dish itself.

"lammefjord`S" carrot and parsnip, seabuckthorn and cured ham from iberico!

Cold carrot and parsnip in rapeseed oil and smoked salt, good taste, but cold parsnip, just aint my thing.
The taste of the ingrediens worked well, but just did`nt come thrue!

Scallop`s, garlic, white radish and coco sauce!

One of the better dishes, nice scallops, and a lovely sauce. did`nt think the raw radish and garlic did anything to the dish though.

Munkfish tail, parmasancreame, fava beans and cucumber!

 Nice munkfish though the end a bit dry, the garnish was nice, but the plaiting made it hard to get a bit of everything together, so that the whole thing could come together.


Veal two ways, selleriac, cauliflower, cheese foam!

Again nice idea, very fresh main, but when i think braised veal, i think a kick in the nut`s, POWER, but this wasn`t the intention here. the bit of "foamed" cheese did unfortunally not do enough ass sauce.
I think the dish ended up a bit dry!

Prune`S white chokolate and icecream!

A Good dessert, though a bit sweet for me, but nothing else to say here.

Unfortunally I missed out the picture`s on the cheese serving.

We had THE BEST brillant Savarin I have ever had, perfectly salty (probably to much for allot of people), aged and tempered, and a lovely manitoba bread for this.

This was actually the best serving this night, and i could have eaten this bread all night! and for breaky again.

All in all a bit dissapointing, I did expect some more from this chef, but deffently worth a shot again, cause we where round 15 people for this dinner, and they had just reopened.

So I am sure it will be allot better next time a visit!



Stuff from my current job!

Allright, so here`s a load of pic`s from my current job, at the Balcony restaurant at the bella sky hotel.

From the old menu:

Beet`s, smoke and ash!

Pork two ways, onions and cheese!

Venison, pickled cherry`s, glascabbage!

Plum`s with madaira and liqurice!

Pear tarte tatin!

From the new menu:

Cabbage from Sweden!

Prep!

Selleriac, malt, and chestnut pure with salsafy`s

Cured cod, pearl onions, cabbage, mussels and crisp codskin!

Hallibut, chared garlic, almonds and couliflower, vanilla blanuette!

Lobster, dill, pear and crisp "øllebrød"

Foie gras terrine, pumpkin and liquerice

Bresse duck, gizzards, brusselsprouts, bayleaf!

Smoked sweetbreads, jerusalem artichoke, brownd onion pure, and egg yolk!

"Citron fromage" olives, white chokolade, and crispy milk'!

seabuckthorn, beurre noisette foam, and hazelnuts!

Chokolade, almond and pine!

Things are deffently shaping up!





Gotta love a one pot meal!!!

A pot of lovable goodness.

I will bet you that if you follow a rainbow when it`s on the sky, you won`t be finding a little lebcrachon dancing round a pot of gold, you will find him with a pot of this lovable goodness, and he will protect it with his life. (by the way this dish has nothing to do with Ireland, but actually is my version of a traditional Spanish dish, I had during a interrail with a friend when we where hosted by my mates lovely aunt and family, in the mountains outside Madrid, leading up to the annual bullrun/fighting of the year) Thank you SO much for the hospitality, and for showing me this wonderfull dish.

Enough to make 3 happy hungry guys and 1 happy kok

8 sausages pr person (chorizo, blod, salcicia, cabbage ore som other good meaty sausage)

(I used chorizo and southern jutland cabbage sausage)

200 g. of good bacon ore pancetta

600 g of braised pork breast, ore cheeks.

½  a white cabbage

3 onions

3 carrots

500 g of soaked white beans

300 grams of soaked chickpeas

1 whole garlic

10 bay leafs

10 sprigs of thyme

2 tomatoes

3 big potato`s

10 black pepper corn`s

2 liters of water.

1 spoon af whole grain mustard

A liter of good dark bear (here I used “ale number 16” one of my favorites)

Roast sausages, onions, garlic and herbs whole in a big casserole.

When slightly roasted, add the beer, and reduce till glace like consistency.

Add water, potato`s cabbage and tomato`s, along with chickpeas, bacon and beans.

Simmer till everything is almost tender, then add the braised pork.

Serve with nothing but a good grilled sourdough bread, whole grained mustard, good company and good beer.

Life on the line review



Well worth the money.

2 weeks, is about, what it took me to get thrue this book.

And that`s not allot fore a guy who has problems sitting still, and doing nothing.

Is it because it`s just one of the BEST books ever.......?

The answer is no.

But there is something about the book, that makes it hard to put it back down.

It`s well written, changing between the two head caracters behind Alinea rest.

Achatz and Kokonas both give a very detailed story about the stress, concerns, fun, and pride that it took them to put together a world class restaurant, especially when Achatz get diagnoses with cancer in the tongue.

It is probably the worst thing ever, but this story show`s that you can still pull thrue, even the worst things.

Taking you thrue his childhood, in a restaurant and his chase for perfection with Keller, before going at it himself, and in the end making his own rest. he go`s thrue the thought`s that every cook and chef with passion can relate to.

But that being said, it also showes (to me) a lesson that is important in this industri, "don`t put all of your identeti in your job as a chef".

There is a fine balance between being genius and insane!

But read the book, it is pretty good.



Photostream!

Okay so found out i could do this on my computer.
So here`s the result, a bit of things that i have done, or been a part of the last couple of years!
sorry for some of the a bit blury pics. allot of them are from a phone!
Enjoy!

OLO Restaurant, January 2011 Finland.

During my stage at Chez Domenique restaurant in Helsinki, i went for lunch at OLO restaurant with my friend and former head chef Filip and his lovely wife Linda who is working there.
They had been more then generous and kind during my stay at there house and we enjoy`d a lovely lunch at this place.
Good taste, a bit of twist`s here and there, and just solid good combinations.
In the next michelin guide OLO got back there star they had lost earlyer.

Here is the menu we went thrue.

Selleriac variation, confit egg joke, hazelnuts. lovely starter, and classic cominations. good textures. would have like`d the joke a bit less cooked though.





Pork Riletter, apples and nuts, and consomme. again comfertable taste and taxtures..

Monkfish, gnochi, provencàle garnisg and jùs. Nice but nothing really crazy.

Lamb in two way`s fennel and salsafy`s. this was the only dish that lacked tase. As far as braised dishes, I expect a good kick in the bollocks, this however did not gie me that. a bit bland.

Creme brùlle, mareng and citrus. lovely fresh but still hearty dessert.

Filip had the Chokolat dessert instead, looked quit good.

Deffently a place i would visit again if in Helsinki.
good service, wine and food for the price.

Thanks again Linda and Filip!

Pescatore restaurant Spring 2010, Cristchurch NZ.

Being in NZ with my friend Niels who did his overseas study in Auckland, we ended in Christchurch after a wonderfull month, of driving round this lovely country.
We had a great month with a good mix of nature, good food, wine trails, adrenalin experience and of course heavy drinking, so we wanted to end it with a great meal.
After a bit of research, we landed on Pescatore restaurant.
A nice setting of the restaurant, view to a park (after the parking lot though), but nice and bright with loads of big windows.
Before we went in, the waiter served us a shot of rasberry tasting cleanser from a sifon bottle.
A nice start.
The meal was not the best we have had.
ï did seem like the kitchen was trying to get molecular cooking technics, into the menu but most of it was unsuccesfull.
The wine`s on the other hans was surprisingly good, comparred to the wines we had earlyer on a winetrip in the Queenstown area.
I did later on at my stage at Quay in Sydney, hear from one of the Kiwi chefs, that the restaurant did good traditional french food before, but changed the concept, and he left for the same reasons i mentioned. a good example of the molecular, has to make sence and contribute something to the dish.
Actually the only really good dish, was the dehydrated salmon salad starter.
Fun and really tasty.

Apetizer tuna tatar.

Nice way to serve the bread.

Dehydrated salmon salad starter, with goats cheese cream.

French onion soup, crisp parmasan, parmasan air and raw qail`s egg. An good example of the idea not working, the soup was pored table side, wich meant, soggy parmasan chip, air gone, and the qail egg did nothing. so in the end a normal onion soup.

The rosè "insedent"

Raw venison, rhubarb, beet, brioche and mustard. nice dish.

Smoke bell.

Scallop, fennel, chorizo, mango and burnt fennel pure. Actually the mango, scallop and chorizo works quit well together.



Hare, parsnip carrot, wonton with rilette, and pure of a traditional Kiwi veggy, kinda taste like yams. pretty good main, but the foam does nothing for the dish.



blue cheese, apple, selleri broken gel (tasteless) but a really good broken gel from raisins.

Sharp, classic, fresh rasberry soufle. maby they should stick to the classics.

Dark chocolat dessert, milk icecream. actually a pretty bland dessert. The fondant was overcooked, the chokolat gel tasted wierd (chemical like)


All in all not the best meal, but the price for this kind of food is nothing compared to Denmark, and we got loads of wine and a good night from it.
Think NZ deffently have some more to offer on the food side.
Ill be back!

Trio 2010 Svensk perfektion.

Snack: torske skind og fennikelmayo

 I foråret 2010 tog an kammerat og jeg fra KBH til malmø for at spise på den (nu lukkede) Trio.
Jeg havde fra min gamle køkkenchef, hørt om stedet da en af hans tidligere ansatte, var den ene af de tre gutter der ejede restauranten.
De tre skallede gutter (den ene mere gal at se på end den anden), havde lavet noget meget specielt.
En aften hvor alt var perfekt ned til mindste detalje, især vin og mad sammensætningen var, over noget jeg nogensinde har prøvet før.







Rå rejer, 3 slags rogn, youghurt is og sprøde rejer.

 Forretten var frisk og salt. ren i smagen og en god start på aftenen.

Makrel, grøn rabarber, tang og østersemulsion

Perfekt makrel, sprødtskind men stadig rå i teksturen, igen ren smag.

Vegetar retten: sprød salat, stegte kartofler, løg og urter. 

 Bedste vegetarret jeg har fået indtil videre, duften var virkelig appetitvækkende

jomfruhummer, marvpulver og lun hybenjuice

 Den mest specielle ret men også mest interresante, kombinationen var noget helt nyt, og marvpulveret fik den i forvejen lune hybenjuice til at emulgere i munden, og var lige så lækker som den var enkel.

æg 63,5 asparges, flæskesvær og røget æggehvideskum

 Ikke så meget at sige, lækker ret, flot håndværk og en matchene overgæret fransk cider, (duftede af rådden æg) og underligt nok fungerede det helt vildt godt. Provokerende.

Kalv, beder og raps blomster

 Mest enkle kødhovedret jeg har fået, men med så intense smage og en dejlig cremet rødbede gele manglede værken sauce eller andre ting.

havtorn sorbet, brunet smør emulsion, hasselnødder og skovsyre.

 friskt, fedt og syrligt, perfekt balance. Bedste dessert jeg har fået.

fåremælksmousse, granulat af solbær og rugbrød, stikkelsbær gele

I forhold til den andre retter en lidt tam afslutning, men stadig meget velsmagende og enkelt.


Candyfloss med sødskærm.

 Altid sjovt, med candyfloss. lakrids tonerne knækkede sødmen ret godt.


Alt i alt, perfekt aften, gode vin match, behageligt korrekt tempo, dejlig service og på det tidspunkt en del billigere end på top steder i kbh. pga. kronens forskel.
Desværre nåede jeg ikke derud igen før de lukkede.