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


