As introverts we haven’t shown any faces on this feed (and as they say, the proof is in the pudding!) but thought we’d break the pattern to share that we’re James Beard semi-finalists this year. As a small business it’s a wonderful surprise to get this kind of national attention. The real reward, however, is to show up everyday to work with the most warm-hearted and talented people out there.
No night at Recoveco has ever been the same: a different set of wonderful characters come in, the menu changes, the playlist evolves, we each have a role to play in the best kind of social theater that exists. One thing stays the same though: the hope that people are tasting work and attention through the experience they have while they’re with us.
Iris Murdoch said that “we often receive an unforeseen reward for a fumbling half-hearted act: a place for the idea of grace.” While we’re sure she didn’t mean it literally, Recoveco feels very much like that place - and this crew’s attempts always do feel very full-hearted.
With that said, let’s go back to making some pudding!
There’s a lot of recovecos out there, only one quite like this.
Nico took these pictures and Tere typed this Ă la minute to carry out the millionth step of opening a restaurant: tell people about it
Thank you @counterculturecoffee for inviting us into your beautiful space (with equally beautiful sunlight, see above!). @sobremesamia_ brought out their wine and we made snacks to keep the night - maybe not young, - but full and tasty:
Middleneck Clams Escabeche | Cultured Butter and Tomato
Éclairs | Foie and Banana
Stone Crab | Barley, Yogurt and Harissa
Chorishitos | Mojo Verde
Cheesecake | Chabichou and Papaya
1. Taleggio cheesecake, fig leaf and monstera jam, for the latest NIU event on August 20, 2023.
2. Same monstera used on the jam, pre-harvest on April 17, 2023
3. Same monstera in its inflorescence stage, spathe still attached on August 5, 2022.
4. Same monstera, mid-shed.
A fruit that takes over a year to mature makes any contribution to it pale in comparison - especially when I was the one patiently, somewhat skeptically, heavily on Google-y. Waiting. For. It. To. Ripen.
But if a monstera fruit falls from the plant and no one is around to eat it, was it delicious?
Thanks to everyone that came for this and other tropical thought experiments to NIU, also thanks to @_shannon_lynne@da.reyes and @kaisersauzey for one fun night + @barbaracolonna for gifting me a monstera fruit and opening my eyes (really, palate).
PS: I can write a little about cooking oxalic acid, but it’s much more fun to talk about it in person. Also, all nice pictures above are taken by @nicom6
#monsteradeliciosa
Thanks to some greatly timed coincidences I got to spend some time at @jatakcph . I want to thank Jonathan and his wonderful team for letting me dive into far more than endives from very early on. It’s really difficult to calibrate the right ratio of professionalism and kindness down in any workplace but I think they have it down to a T and I benefitted immensely from seeing it in action.
Thank you for letting me make arepas and quesillo on my last day after the many delicious family meals I got to enjoy and the hospitality everyone showed me. I look forward to seeing you in Miami for cachapas (aka: the best thing you can make with *sweet* corn!).
NB: it’s always exciting when the fourth wall is broken in restaurants, but even more so when you discover someone’s been chipping at it from the other side - thank you to the Belgian couple for handing me this list of bands they thought I should listen to at the end of their dinner - I will keep this for as long as I can.
I went to Copenhagen for MAD Academy and as someone who switched paths I can say it felt positively strange to be with 23 other people who love what they do but don’t necessarily love the way it’s been done.
In life I’ve approached learning with the understanding that most, but not every little thing, would serve me in the future, and I liked that sample bag model of education - but I came back from this seeing the value of a model that looks at specific challenges (felt by people already in the field) in order to improve.
Learning about things doesn’t necessarily mean you grow legs to jump-over obstacles and fast-forward past lessons that only life can teach but I loved meeting my peers, listening to the speakers and am overall just thankful to have been given the opportunity to attend.
Thanks to everyone that cooked for us, spoke to us, selected the books and made the whole thing happen.
Copenhagen in springtime was quite the backdrop to this whole adventure: I sat in as many storied chairs as I could, took pictures of trees as they changed and had way too many fun breakfasts (and lunches, dinners and snacks). If I have to come back as something other than human and I don’t get first dibs for “dog in loving-family,” I will settle happily for “crumb-eating dove in Copenhagen.” Top notch.
Last thing: I learnt from a classmate that Tere is how you say “Hello” in Estonian and I highly doubt I will love any other fun fact harder (thanks @darlingitspasta !)
A neat side of Miami and social media: a mangolive! Thanks to @chefniven for the inspiration to use the mango’s fruit drop. I stopped halfway through the process of making a pickle to taste and really liked them after being buried in salt for two weeks, much like an olive but with the slight piney flavor characteristic of green mangos; they went on Sunday’s menu at @niuwine with cobia and tindora
I had an inkling I’d be dishing out portmanteaus for a living but I didn’t think they’d actually be edible: thank you to everyone that came to @niuwine Sunday night to SLAY those Chorishitos! And Scallops! And really making us sell out of everything at the speed of ticket printing.
I associate NIU with fun (from Alter Christmas parties past to dates with Nico to dishes I have already waxed poetic on), so what an honor to go into a space you already love to serve some food. Thank you to @demelomas , @biggirlsdontwine and Deme’s stash of Tonka beans. Thank you @josefdiago for your presence and photographic evidence. Thank you to @llolamilagro and Mau for their hard work and ice crushing skills. Most of all thanks to @_shannon_lynne , who had the idea to host us and put in a lot of work to make it happen the way it did. As always, she’s not someone to talk the talk but really *work* the walk, and I love that.
Yes, repetitive, but thank you so much to all who came.
#morefoodnexttime #maybeicontroltheplaylist #justthirtyminutesplease
As some already know, my tenure at Itamae has ended. It has been a lovely year and eight months with many systematic and personal accomplishments in a small bit of space. There’s a quote I like from Eula Biss that says “work, if we are fortunate, is rewarded with money, but the reward for labor is transformation.” And transformation there was. I see all aspects of it: the work, the labor, the products, but mostly the people (guests, providers and friends) with an indomitable sense of joy.
I don’t know how much longer the cremolada will stay on the menu, but for those who were wondering, yes, before they’re gingerly mounded, each strip of meringue is piped by hand, and yes, I will miss making, tasting, sharing, teaching and evolving it.
Other things I was too busy to record here, but in the spirit of the medium: a tasty slideshow.
This is just to say there is more than one way to get somewhere, and at times, you may not even know you’re on the path. At the beginning of working at Itamae I tried to clarify leche de tigre with processes that had worked to clarify other murky liquids. I tried agar (which seemed a bit wrong, because it required a bit of the solution to be heated – which I didn’t really want to do). Also, gelatin - not good. But it unintentionally happened while trying to make a kombu/rose leche de tigre. Just for the sake of flavor I made a really concentrated kombu *cold* brew that when mixed into *cold* leche made all the solids flocculate (it was very easy to filter them after the alginates did the work). I don’t know if there’s any scientific, poetic or culinary value to this, but I glimpse a bit of all three.
