On April
the 25, 2014 I backed a Kickstarter called 'The Alinea Project' by Allen
Hemberger. The description read as follows:
Hi there; I'm Allen. I've spent the past five years working my way through the Alinea cookbook. I've been documenting my progress in writing and photography along the way. Over the course of the project, I've built precisely-controllable heating chambers for warming chocolate, learned how to import super-fresh fish from the Tsukiji fish market in Japan and washed more dishes than I could possibly keep count of. Every recipe in the book has offered new and unique opportunities for me to deepen my understanding and appreciation of the food I eat, how it is procured and prepared and how it can be used as more than just a source of nourishment, but as an expression of artistic creativity.
This intrigued
me. I have always had an interest in cooking, even (in my teens) spend some
time in a restaurant kitchen that had a Michelin star at that time, complete
with a chef that had a serious alcohol problem. But never anything spectacular.
I had never heard of Alinea, never heard of Grant Achatz. Yes, molecular
cuisine was (somewhat) familiar, I read some books on flavor pairing and the
totally incomprehensible "Sous Vide" by Heiko Antoniewicz. But that
was about the extent of it. I used my sous vide basin to cook meat. Maybe with
a salad on the side.
So, the
idea that one would take up an insanely complex book (which, I am certain now,
was never meant to be used as a cook book in the first place) and spend this
amount of time to cook through it, was an idea to which I had (and still have)
to tip my hat to.
I had no
idea whether the resulting book would be any good. Nor did I care. I simply
wanted to be part of that journey, if only as a bystander.
I paid my
dues, was excited for a day or to, and then gradually forgot about it. As is
often the case with Kickstarter project, the deadlines get delayed. And delayed.
And delayed again. This is in no way criticizing Allen, I believe it is just
the way things go, when people are enthusiastic but lack in business
experience.
In August
2014, I ordered the actual Alinea cookbook. I flipped through it. Admittedly,
it was rather nice to look at, the photography is rather good, the recipes seem
to be straight forwards. But as far as imagining to cook these things myself…
no way!
Another six
months passed, until early February 2016, the book finally arrived. By that
time, I somehow had an image in my mind that it would be a commentary on the
original Alinea cookbook. But instead I found a very personal story of a
regular guy (although clearly with a very keen sense of aesthetics and a
background in design and photography, judging from the sheer production value
of the book I received) trying to do something he never had done before and
that he was – at the outset – in no way competent to attempt.
I told a
friend of mine, Christian, of this book, and a bottle or two of red wine later,
we decided, well doing something we were not competent to do, we could do that
too.
The first
attempt, supposedly one of the easiest recipes, ‘Bacon, Butterscotch, Apple,
Thyme’, worked out somewhat ok, except that the Bacon wasn’t right, the Butterscotch
took 2 attempts, the Apple failed. But we added the Thyme leaves alright.
The second recipe,
THE easiest one, ‘Dry caramel, salt’, was a complete disaster. (I will have separate
post about both recipes). But we drudged on, each in our own way, Christian
always willing to take shortcuts and substitute, me always trying to do things
as perfect as possible, buying yet another rare ingredient or obscure kitchen
gadget.
Now it is
three years later.
I own a
large kitchen (in a rental apartment), an induction stove, an oven that can
grill, steam, sous vide, a professional grade sous vide basin and vacuum
sealer, a Pacojet, dehydrator, meat slicer and grinder, a juicer, blender, food
processor, spray painter, and I have enough sieves and chinois that I could
open a medium-scale restaurant. And yes, I am from time to time looking for
used rotary evaporator.
I have
travelled to the Tokyo fish market and bought Mastic from the bazar in Izmir. I
have imported ingredients that might not necessary be legal where I live.
I have had
the pleasure and privilege to dine at the Aline Restaurant and get a reference
for what I was doing so far and it was not all bad.
But most of
all, I have learned an unimaginable amount about cooking. I came to understand
that (at least some of) the photos in the Alinea cookbook no not show the
recipes described, that the measurements are sometimes gravely incorrect, that
food waste apparently is not an issue at all. Beware of the Agar agar. And no
matter what, you always strain through a chinois.
I also came
to understand that you can not simply follow a recipe as if it were a building
manual for a Lego model. You have to try, try again, and again.
And I look
at food in a different way. I eat something and try to figure out the
components. Why they combine in the way they do. What works, and what doesn’t.
What could be done better.
And for at
least that last part, my world has forever changed. For the better, I hope,
although I clearly see that ignorance can be bliss at times, when I watch
friends gush about some dish and I am thinking “The cooking oil is old, the
veggies are too soft, the meat clearly not done en sous vide, the sauce does neither
have a good flavor profile, nor is the consistency goog – some agar agar,
maybe?, and can we – please – get it presented in a way that doesn’t look like
somebody puked on the plate”.
So for
this, thank you Allen Hemberger. And good luck with the Aviary Cocktail book.
Because mixing booze and drinking, I am competent at.
