The two cooks kept kibitzing while Hollingsworth broke down a mountain of côte de boeuf. Hollingsworth described how he helped out with a dinner at The French Laundry in December, when Chicago restaurant Alinea’s Grant Achatz was in town for the joint cookbook promotion with Keller.
There was no doubt about it: Henin and Hollingsworth were engaging in that essential ritual of male-on-male relationship-building—they were bonding.
“How did you pick Adina?” asked Henin.
Hollingsworth told him the story about how he used to think she was European and didn’t even know she spoke English. He also shared the one “con” to the numerous “pros” she brought to the table: as talented as Guest was, through no fault of her own, she lacked on-the-line experience. It’s a strange downside to a Bocuse d’Or commis drafted from The French Laundry; as a commis, she was world class, but having never worked the hot line, when it came down to service, there were things she had yet to learn.
“In Monday’s practice, she almost served a broken sauce,” Hollings-worth said, recounting how he showed her how to rescue it by whisking in hot water.
Beneath his convivial exterior, there were things Henin had on his mind. One was a nagging feeling that all of this progress might be a little too late. “This is exactly where we should have been at the week before Thanksgiving where we packed up for the Thanksgiving week,” he would say a couple days later. “This is where we should have left it, at this level, and take it from there in early December and have the whole month of December without all the other interference that we are in the process of, unfortunately. Then you imagine where we would be a month later instead of being today. Not that where we are today is wrong, but it is really a month late. Had we been there we would be in better shape.
“We can still make up some of the time even though it is very short.” To this end, Henin resolved that he’d do what he could to free up things for the team, managing whatever aspects of the travel he could when they were in Lyon.
“It is good at least to be at this comfort level. Where we are right now, even though it is a month late it is better than it not happening at all. We are going to need that comfort level. That trust. That faith in days and weeks to come.”
This was not an optimistic assessment, but “I am not pessimistic either,” he said. “I am just saying, look … I think it is all in preparations. Same as if you were to become a master chef.” This was a reference to the Certified Master Chef exam that he had taken years earlier. The CMC tests all aspects of a chef’s culinary knowledge and prowess over the course of several days, and Henin believes that you cannot study for it—you either know your craft or you don’t. “It is all what you have done in fifteen to twenty years. You can’t make up that time. If you sat on your butt for five hours a day watching TV, you weren’t progressing towards the master chef. [The Bocuse d’Or] is the same thing.… If you don’t do your homework—training, practice, and preparation … to the hilt, it will come back and bite you. Whatever portion you didn’t do will come back and bite you in the butt. It will. Even if you are a genius. No matter what field it is, swimming or cooking, it will come back and bite you.”
Henin also had some concerns about specific items from Hollingsworth’s platters, especially the fish. For example, the beet under the boudin had leached some juice into the mousseline on which it sat. Not enough to have been problematic in a restaurant, but point-costly for sure in Lyon. Henin knew that you only needed to cook the beets with a few drops of vinegar to arrest that bleeding, but he didn’t bring it up for fear of disrupting the fragile peace with Hollingsworth. “I want to protect this. We can work on the garnish another time as opposed to me coming on strong and saying this garnish sucks and we need to rework it. Because that would take us back to where we were in November and I cannot afford that.… He takes it as I am a master chef and I am telling you what to do and you better do it for whatever reason I don’t know. He gets on the defensive. I don’t want to do that. I am not going to do that because it sets us back too far and it takes too much to come back and I don’t want to put him on the defensive. I would rather bite my lips and have bleeding beets.…”
The coach didn’t share any of this with the candidate that afternoon. Instead, he retired to his room to rest and Hollingsworth turned his attention to the kitchen. The facility appeared clean to the untrained eye, but Hollingsworth knew there were imperfections: streaks on the counter, microscopic detritus in the carpet, grime in the shadowy well of the sink. And so he set about deep-cleaning the room.
For the seven years he’d been working for Keller, cleaning the kitchen had been a part of his daily life. It was the way he decompressed after a night on the line, processed the day, organized his thoughts before sitting down to menu meetings as a cook and then as a sous chef.
He cleaned the same way he cleaned his station at the end of every working day. He scrubbed the counter and the doors of the refrigerators, leaning into the motion, putting the full force of his weight behind the effort. He wiped under canisters and equipment. As he did, he thought about how much work still lay ahead of him. He thought about the previous day, about cooking for Paul Bocuse. All those notes everybody threw at him ricocheted around his head like numbers in a bingo tumbler. He needed to silence them, and this was the way to do it.
Before he knew it, Hollingsworth was lost in his cleaning, almost to the point of dancing. It was a solitary time, and it was clear that he didn’t want company. Coach Henin, seeking a dinner companion, periodically emerged from his room, then retreated, not saying a word.
As evening descended on Yountville and cold darkness enveloped the little house, time’s merciless march propelling him ever closer to Lyon, Hollingsworth continued to clean. He straightened the stacks of pots and pans on the utility rack until they were as neat and orderly as the items on a Bocuse d’Or platter. He thought about the shrimp garnish. He wondered if there was too much honey in the marmalade, or too much vinegar, or were they just right?
He vacuumed the carpets, then wrapped the cord tautly around the cleaner’s neck and parked it in the corner.
After three hours, the kitchen looked as spotless and orderly as it had the day it was first outfitted with the Bocuse d’Or equipment. Hollings-worth stood in front of the freezer and surveyed his handiwork. He still needed one more garnish for his fish platter. He still had a lot of practice to do. But he had accomplished something that day, and accomplished it to perfection.
He was ready for tomorrow.
ON WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 7, with twenty days until the Bocuse d’Or began, Hollingsworth and Guest tried some slightly rejiggered items in the kitchen. Seeking more of a visual punch, he wanted to revisit the rectangular form of the beef with bacon that he had employed in Orlando; a thinner cylinder of cod with diced preserved Meyer lemon incorporated to add acidity and sweetness to the scallop mousse; and the scallop tartare with a smaller melba, that would fit inside the glass instead of on top, to keep judges from picking them up like crackers when the intention was for them to break them up, so they’d fall into the consommé and custard and be eaten with the spoon.
When it was all done, with Masters of Rap—an eighties-era compilation—playing in the background, the team, including Coach Henin, discussed them.
Hollingsworth was still worried that the judges would pick up the melbas, perhaps using their spoon to tip and grip them.
“Maybe mark it in quarters, so as soon as you touch it, it cracks,” said Henin. To illustrate his concept, he set a melba on a cutting board and gently pressed a serrated knife blade into it, perforating it.
Hollingsworth nodded. This was the kind of exchange he was always looking for with his coach. “Like saltine crackers,” he said.
Regarding the cod, the entire team found the pistachios a bit gummy, due to the natural oil in the nuts. Hollingsworth wanted to try cutting them with something crispy or drier.
“I still need one more garnish,” said Hollingsworth. �
��I don’t like the boudin.”
“What happened to the artichoke from Orlando?” asked Henin, referring to the artichoke gratin Hollingsworth served at Epcot. Henin hadn’t been a judge there, but others had told him that garnish was a knockout. “Everybody loved that.”
“I got bored,” said Hollingworth. Henin smiled. He understood.
“You need a big piece of protein,” Henin said. They never made a chart, but he was clearly keeping a mental tally of colors and textures and “meaty” was a void.
By way of brainstorming, Henin held up a section of an artichoke heart and stood a shrimp up in it. It was way too old-fashioned for Hollingsworth, but he didn’t want to dismiss it out of hand.
“Adina does love turning artichokes,” he said. In other words, unlike many previous suggestions from his coach, he’d think this one over.
IN THE MIDDLE OF the night (between Wednesday and Thursday), Hollingsworth and Guest received the following e-mail from Daniel Boulud:
Dear Timothy and Adina,
First I want again to congratulate you on your dedication, talent, and hard work you have been putting into everything in preparation to the Bocuse d’Or in Lyon and you made Monsieur Paul very proud of the American Team!!
I know that it is not an easy task and now we gather as much information and advice about what to expect in Lyon and how well prepared we have to be.
I can say that you have done a fantastic job with both proteins pulling together in time and in harmony. They are two very interesting dishes with a good balanced palate of techniques, textures, taste, seasoning, and look, with delicate flavors. The cuisson was overall very satisfying and the full presentation has great potential but remains a work in progress. The counter clock is on and you have exactly 8 days left in the US and about 8 days in France to finalize all the details. Your dishes are very strong and promising and we are looking forward to a great competition in Lyon.
Mr. Paul, Jérôme, and I were very impressed by the almost real replica of the Bocuse d’Or kitchen you will have in Lyon and of course they like the charm of Yountville—TK’s father’s home is a perfect stage for training. We want to thank Thomas again for making this possible. Thomas, we missed you, but our trip was very spontaneous based on the fact that this was one of the first complete run-throughs. We were all very happy to have been there and Paul is very confident that the team is very strong and has great podium potential. We also are sorry to not have been able to stay that night as we didn’t want Paul to stress in the morning to catch our plane. Of course I will have given you these observations in person if I had stayed overnight.
So, now this is my personal observation of my day with you on this run, and believe me I was expecting a full run with still plenty of details to work out. The strongest points overall were that you were very well organized, had a good timing schedule, and worked very well together as a team with Adina. You use original technique for your garnishes and show a lot of good technical skills with your work. You have selected some really great flavor combinations and the seasoning in general was very good. The cuisson was basically perfect for the beef and need a little more on the cod but between curing and timing it right it should work well.
Your goal for the next weeks is to refine each preparation to perfection and make sure that you can accomplish what you wish by following your time table rigorously and make it more accurate every full training run. Actually, it will be good to film one full run to be able to take note of your timing.… Jennifer will bring a video camera if you think it can help. You did very well for the first 4 hours but the last one was and is the most challenging in the competition, you should build a more detailed timetable for that period. As they’re a lot to put together between the 2 platters.
Now that you know what the platter size is and how much has to go on, draw different sketches or if someone can help you with a computer to put everything to scale and make different scenarios of presentation. Don’t leave it to your spontaneous feeling because the stress will build so fast and so strong in Lyon that you want to almost robotize your last hour to avoid getting lost.
The use of Roland becomes imperative now to guide you the best way possible without altering your goals, but refine your game plan to a T.
For the dishes 4 most important things to remember is creative technique, taste, presentation, and timing.
As for the cod, there is still a little bit of adjusting to do. I think that the contrast between the scallop and the cod is good, but the cod can be a little firmer. As we talked about, the cod was slightly undercooked. If you need to push the cuisson of the cod a little, make sure the mousse stays airy and not gummy.
I think that the contrast between the scallop and the cod is good but you need more flavor. If you want to stay on the citrus theme, it could be interesting to add into the pistachio dust a sharp clean fragrance like fresh grated lime or yuzu zest and maybe a little pinch of powdered sancho pepper—so it will be a little fragrant but with not too much heat. I guess it will blend okay with the pistachio?
To keep the pistachio green, chop it finely with a knife rather than a Robot Coupe to avoid getting the oil to come out too much and then pass it in a fine to medium tamis (so it is fine but not too powdery).
With the pistachio dust, be careful to use a glue that doesn’t give any grayish color. I am talking with one of my chefs about something our pastry department uses and Jennifer will try to bring it with her this weekend for you to try. Do you need her to bring super green pistachios??
To make the presentation of the roulade on the platter a little powerful, maybe you want to consider make 2? Or a little longer or fatter one.…
I think you should create just a little bit of contrast with a simple design on the roulade. Maybe this décor can be done in advance and brought if it is dry and it takes a long time to make. Another option is to put something between the cod and the scallop mousse to add extra contrast in color and texture. Perhaps this could be a sprinkle of shrimp roe or lobster roe powder?? something with the cod to boost the contrast a little bit.
The hollandaise is very good but is a little rich in egg yolks (maybe it should be a little lighter, more like a mousseline). It also needs a little element of surprise in the flavor, something light and refreshing or maybe a touch more lemon. You need to create a little more sharp layout and artistic presentation.
Let’s be sure to know what plate size you will have in Lyon (Jennifer??)
The potato and caviar are very delicious, tasty, perfectly crispy, and delicate on top and it must taste delicious with the real caviar you will be using in Lyon (Jennifer: is Petrossian giving the caviar??). The crème fraîche needs to be a little more than crème fraîche (it is still all in very good harmony, but you need to push it (Touch of chive or dill puree??).
The presentation between the crème fraîche and caviar—you mentioned the possibility of two quenelles next to each other, which I think would be nice and bold. You could do one larger quenelle of caviar in the center and 2 small one each side (a plain and a green?).
For the shrimp roll, the taste and texture are very good and the beets underneath are very tasty. The roll itself needs to be a bit more interesting with the vegetables (carrot brunoise)?? Not sure if I remember the farce composition inside, can you make the shrimp farce a little pinker?
It might be a challenge to find Swiss chard that will be tender and green like yours in France at that time of the year, so in case think of a Plan B if necessary. Also be careful that the beets don’t drip any liquid into the platter.
The taste of the custard/consommé is fantastic and the general idea is very good. I worry only that the melba brioche toast might get soggy very fast (maybe you can try it with some very good buttered and press pain de mie [a presliced Pullman-like bread] you also want to make sure that the brioche is not sweet). You could also brush or spray a thin film of butter and chill it so it remains crunchy underneath and sealed away from moisture. To make the tartar
or spread of scallops, you can maybe try to press it between two pieces of acetate until they are very even, and size them like the toast melba with your cutter. Keep ready until needed then season them on one side add the herbs and fresh zest, then flip it over the toast and peel off the acetate?? This way the carpaccio can be thinner, made faster and at the last minute—instead of having to spread the scallops over—and you won’t have to worry about the toast getting soggy. For the grapefruit, you could make a gelée with the juices at 10 or so sheet per liter, a lot of pieces inside. Then roll a boudin in the plastic film and when cold preslice them not too thick so you save time and it’s clean.
• • •
Now for the beef, do you think it will require a tiny vessel (plexy or glass for the presentation)?? Like a small shallow half pipe like, closed at each end, and the length of the roast loin or 2 of them smaller for 2 loins?? Let me know and I can have someone in Brooklyn make it with plexy.
The cuisson on the beef was beautiful, but we need to do something to add a little more impact. Something that is decorative and tasty, added on top or under the pancetta?? You need to show that you are a great cook and technician. In terms of amplifying flavor, you could consider putting truffle between the beef and the pancetta. Also when you are trimming your beef tenderloin, maximize the size, and when clean trim the shape so you can gradually size it or you could risk to make it too small then is too late.
Once the beef is on the plate, it looks a little lonely and plain. (I see you are using celery do you want to toast a celery root disc between 2 Silpat and make it very crisp and transparent pinch of sugar could help a bit, too). You then make a tiny incision on top of the roast where you will slice it anyway and place those small disks of crisp celery and each slice of tenderloin will get one on top in the plate.
The prune in the oxtail jus is a little too sweet and risky (maybe move the prune with the bresaola—it could go well with the apple and cabbage, and I think the Bresaola needs a little richness on the bottom). The jus could be finished with a black truffle purée with a touch of black trumpets and shallots??
Knives at Dawn Page 21