University of Minnesota College of Design
Steven Brown, Tilia (Minneapolis)
Chef Brown recounted one of his most vivid food memories at Fat Duck, outside of London. With the Red Cabbage Gazpacho and Grainy Mustard Ice Cream, Chef Heston Blumenthal played with imagery, color, and the experience of surprise. The theatrical presentation of the soup inspired the way Tilia serves their butternut squash dish.
The waiter pours this absolutely magenta-colored broth around this tiny quail egg, and explains that it’s a red cabbage gazpacho and that the egg is, in fact, grainy mustard ice cream. It really surprised you in a lot of ways because, first, it wasn’t what you thought it was, and second, there was this really unbelievable, otherworldly color that came out of this pouring vessel which you couldn’t see, and then when you ate it it was harmonious and perfect, in every sense of the word. It was a moment for me that is really indelible. To me that was the gold standard of what people’s food experiences can be.
Restaurant: Fat Duck photo: Lennard Yeong
Steven Brown, Tilia (Minneapolis)
When first creating this butternut squash soup, Chef Brown knew he wanted to reimagine the classic dish as a surprising dining experience. He began with a satisfying and traditional flavor combination of bacon, maple syrup, and butternut squash, then manipulated each ingredient into a new and unusual form. The bacon mixture is aerated with nitrous oxide, the maple syrup is spherified using agar-agar and hydrochloride, and butternut squash is finely shredded and deep fried. The bowl is presented, room temperature, to the table before the waiter dramatically pours a pitcher of hot soup over the three elements, and adds sage-infused olive oil from a dropper. As the diner combines the soup, the bacon foam and maple syrup spheres slowly dissolve into the mixture, leaving the crunchy squash as texture. Though the experience is unexpected, the resulting taste is still familiar and timeless.
Diane Yang, La Belle Vie (Minneapolis)
Designed to showcase a world-class chocolate product, this dessert is built from stacked geometric forms that play with temperature, texture, and “pop” culture references. When her assistant walked into work with a cherry soda, Chef Yang was inspired to use cola as a light, sweet, and refreshing accent to a dark chocolate and cherry combination. After successfully reducing dried cherries in cola, she experimented with using the classic American beverage in a sorbet before settling on a slightly creamy sherbet. The chilled mound of sherbet is balanced by warm chocolate soufflés dusted with cocoa nibs and powdered sugar, while the surprisingly soft block of chocolate ganache is accented by crisp wands of cherry meringue. The dessert is topped with chocolate spirals, created by swirling tempered chocolate into ice water.
Stewart Woodman, Heidi's (Minneapolis)
Rather than using the classic technique of rolling and slicing foie gras, Chef Woodman freezes the pâté mixture and gently forms it into a fragile undulating form. Its shape is reminiscent of contemporary architectural façades or a Richard Serra sculpture, and dramatically collapses as the material warms. Flower petals and grass-like greens give the dish the appearance of an object within a colorful landscape, and the foie gras’ delicate earthy flavor is balanced by the sweet tang of dried cherries and date purée.