The Art of Blending: Stories and Recipes from La Boîte's Spice Journey
Page 1
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction
Preface
Isphahan No. 1
Marinated Black Bass with Roasted Sweet Potatoes
Amber No. 2
Beer-Can Chicken with Roasted Sweet Potatoes
Bombay No. 3
Seared Turbot with Asparagus & Lemongrass Sauce
Luberon No. 4
Braised Chicken Thighs with Bacon & Peppers
Breeze No. 5
Spice-Rubbed Swordfish with Tomato & Nectarine Salad
Marrakesh No. 6
Sweet and Spicy Eggplant Relish
Pierre Poivre No. 7
Pepper-Crusted Beef Tenderloin with Mushroom Sauce
Smoked Salt No. 8
The Cinder Cocktail
Iris No. 9
Ratatouille Pizza
Yemen No. 10
Spiced Ice Cream with Ginger
Cancale No. 11
Sauteéd Flounder with Pickled Spring Onions
Blue Grass No. 12
Pork and Poblano Stew
Galil No. 13
Steamed Mussels with Fennel & Lemon
Sri Lanka No. 14
Sufganyot Donuts with Coffee-Raisin Glaze
Kibbeh No. 15
Orecchiette with Spiced Lamb and Carrot Purée
Ayala No. 16
Chicken Wings with Spiced Aioli
Noga No. 17
Tagliatelle with Clams & Chorizo
Smoked Cinnamon No. 18
Chocolate Pots de Crème with Cinnamon Speculoos
Salvador No. 19
Seared Tuna with Arugula & Bell Pepper Salad
Dali No. 20
Boquerones and Egg Salad on Toast
Moruno No. 21
Spice-Crusted Lamb Skewers
Cataluña No. 22
Piquillo Pepper and Cataluña Financiers
Tangier No. 23
Grilled Vegetable Couscous Salad
Coquelicot No. 24
“Everything” Cured Salmon
Escabeche No. 25
Cod Brandade
Borneo No. 26
The Sarawak Cocktail
Chios No. 27
Poached Shrimp with Yogurt Sauce
Vadouvan No. 28
Lamb and Spinach Parmentier
Apollonia No. 29
Lamb Meatballs with Spinach Salad
Mousa No. 30
Spice-Rubbed Baby Back Ribs with Potatoes
Penang No. 31
Ricotta Gnudi with Spring Pea Soup
Siam No. 32
Maple-Glazed Roast Duck with Scallions
Mishmish No. 33
Mishmallows
Orchidea No. 34
Berry Crumble with Almond Topping
Ararat No. 35
BBQ-Baked Oysters with Bacon Powder
Ana No. 36
Rice Pilaf En Croûte
Izak No. 37
Striped Bass with Fennel & Preserved Lemon
Shabazi No. 38
Fluke Crudo with Grapefruit Salsa
Reims No. 39
Chocolate Truffles
Sheba No. 40
Braised Short Ribs with Coffee & Apples
Lula No. 41
Grilled Caesar Salad with Cheese Biscuits
Acknowledgements
Contributors
FEATURING RECIPES & COOKING IDEAS INSPIRED BY LA BOÎTE’S 41 SPICE BLENDS
LIOR LEV SERCARZ was raised in Israel and trained as a chef in France, where he was introduced to the fine art of spice blending by Olivier Roellinger. He moved to New York in 2002 to cook for Daniel Boulud, and left the restaurant kitchen in 2006 to work with spices full time. He has since created blends for some of the world’s best chefs under the label La Boîte á Epice. In 2011, he opened a Manhattan store and art gallery, where he blends and sells his spices and a line of sweet-savory biscuits.
“At Le Bernardin, we only get our spices from Lior. His blends are like none other, and they give so much inspiration to our creative process at the restaurant. Lior is a true magician with spices.”
—ERIC RIPERT, CHEF-OWNER OF LE BERNARDIN, NEW YORK CITY
“Having known Lior for more than a decade, I have seen firsthand his passion, skill and expertise as a chef, as well as the mastery with which he understands the world of spices and herbs. He is not only a global authority on the subject, but an educator, artist and consummate innovator in all things delicious.”
—GAIL SIMMONS, AUTHOR OF TALKING WITH MY MOUTH FULL: MY LIFE AS A PROFESSIONAL EATER AND JUDGE/HOST OF BRAVO’S TOP CHEF
“Using La Boîte spice blends has changed the way I cook forever, not only at home but in my restaurants as well. Lior is one of the finest chefs I’ve ever met, and his spices are a true gift to gastronomy and fine cuisine. They will bring life to all of your recipes.”
—MICHELLE BERNSTEIN, CHEF-OWNER OF MICHY’S, MIAMI
“Lior once told me, ‘I felt the need to tell my own story, and the best way to do it was with the spices.’ Here he has blended a masterful and delicious tale that I will treasure in my kitchen for years to come.”
—JOAN NATHAN, COOKBOOK AUTHOR, MOST RECENTLY OF QUICHES, KUGELS AND COUSCOUS: MY SEARCH FOR JEWISH COOKING IN FRANCE
“Lior was trained by the master of spice himself, Olivier Roellinger, and it shows in every single one of his blends. They are above and beyond anything you will find anywhere else. They have changed the way I cook and the way I look at spices in my cuisine.”
—MARC FORGIONE, FOOD NETWORK IRON CHEF AND CHEF-OWNER OF MARC FORGIONE RESTAURANT, NEW YORK CITY
The Art of Blending Vignette (00:01:33)
Introduction
I don’t have some poetic story about how I started cooking and blending spices. I didn’t come from a long line of spice blenders. My grandmother was a decent cook, but she didn’t pass down any secret family recipes. I began my career in the kitchen because my mother worked late. She would leave ingredients on the counter for me to make dinner for my older and younger sisters. It’s really as simple as that.
Growing up in Israel, I was influenced by the country’s diverse cuisine beginning at an early age. An amalgam of spices and ingredients from North Africa, Eastern Europe and Persia collectively make up the food of my birthplace. I also grew up with my mother’s father, who was Tunisian, and with his Transylvanian wife, who exposed me to the spicy red pepper notes of harissa and aromatic cumin.
My family traveled a lot, which broadened my exposure to various cultures and cuisines. During the time we lived in Belgium, we’d get away for weekends in Holland or Paris. At home, when my mother cooked, she would prepare dishes like chateaubriand with Calvados and crème fraîche when I was only eight years old. The fact that I never ordered anything off a kids’ menu gave me an early start at developing my palate for ingredients from different parts of the world.
When I was 19, I became a sergeant in the Israeli army. I was put in charge of the kitchen, where I ultimately learned the most basic lesson in cooking: Food is a satisfaction. Whether you are the executive chef at some fine-dining restaurant or preparing meat on a field cooktop for 80 soldiers in hostile territory with missiles flying overhead, your goal is to make sure people are fed properly and that they are satisfied. Y
ou have to provide the best possible meal, regardless of the circumstances. If that experience taught me nothing else, it was that even in the most primitive situations, heat and melted cheese do wonders.
After leaving the Israeli Defense Force, I took some advice from my older sister and spent the following year traveling across South America. As it turns out, I treat food markets the way most people treat museums. I’d find myself skipping the obvious tourist attractions and go to the local stores and open-air bazaars, where I immersed myself in the produce and spices of each place. Something about exotic ingredients such as purple potatoes and quinoa (still considered exotic at the time) ignited my excitement for food traditions. It’s not what I’d gone to South America looking for, but from then on, my cooking career had a singular purpose: to harness the indigenous flavors and authentic elements of classic preparations through spices. I set out to find their source.
I found that only by learning each step in the process of spice production could I truly appreciate the final product. As a result, I visited family-run farms in Peru and Ecuador to watch the chile harvest, and I went to Colombia to see how cardamom is grown. I was surprised to find these spices weren’t farmed in huge fields run by large corporations. It’s the terrain that keeps the technology away: Incredibly steep hills or dense growth leave room only for donkeys or horses to carry crops up to a main road, where a truck waits. Generally, in many regions, one man drives from farm to farm collecting bags of peppers, then brings them to a primitive drying facility and then to another facility, where they’re ground and packaged. And so on.
The rest of the world’s spice industry is very similar. A lot of herbs and spices are still grown on small farms and harvested by hand: Sesame seeds, Tasmanian peppercorn and coriander seeds never touch a piece of modern equipment. And because it takes 15 or 20 pounds of fresh herbs to yield a pound of dried herbs, meeting the market demand is not always easy. We often take spices for granted because they sit in a jar on the shelf, but it’s important to remember how much love and labor go into spices well before they reach our stores.
My appreciation for spices grew exponentially when I enrolled at the Institut Paul Bocuse in Lyon, France. During culinary school, I did an externship with chef Olivier Roellinger in Cancale, France. Roellinger had earned three Michelin stars at Les Maisons de Bricourt, his hotel and restaurant, where he displayed a rare understanding of spices, blends, oils and pastes that would have been difficult to find elsewhere. Meeting him meant learning not to take spices for granted. In seven short months, he pushed me to learn about the history and value of spices, and to experiment with them on my own. He taught me how to refine my blending technique and urged me to always strive for perfection. Olivier showed me the importance of using spices early in the cooking process, to let them drive the dish rather than adding them as an afterthought. There is no school for any of this. Olivier quickly became a mentor in my cooking life and beyond.
Silly as it sounds, I always equate making a spice blend to organizing a party. Whom do you invite? Some people just don’t work well together, so youhave to consider each person individually before throwing them into a room together. Part of the reason I typically toast my spices isn’t just to release their essential oils; it’s also to warm them up to each other.
In spice blending, preselecting ingredients and their quantities is infinitely important. Everything needs to be measured precisely, and every element needs to be taken into consideration. First you decide what story you want to tell, then you consider sensory aspects such as color and smell, and then you choose how coarsely to grind the blend depending on what texture you want to achieve. For instance, do you want it to dissolve in a drink or be chewed and remain in the mouth longer? These are very different outcomes and require different considerations.
From the moment its elements are mixed together, a spice blend takes on a life of its own. This is why I test each one over the course of several months to see how it develops over time. And because I have 20 years of baking and cooking experience, I am always putting my blends to the test in various preparations to make sure they deliver the story I set out to tell and that they have a long enough shelf life for people to enjoy them.
In 2002, I brought my newfound understanding of spice blending with me to New York, where I had the honor of working with Daniel Boulud as a sous chef and catering chef at his flagship restaurant, Daniel. In his kitchen, I continued experimenting with blends, and Daniel and I built a beautiful spice rack so all his cooks could discover new spices from around the world. It remains one of my greatest achievements. After working at Daniel for four years, I realized I didn’t want to open my own restaurant; I wanted to teach people how to enhance their cooking with spices. This was another big turning point for me.
I left Daniel to start La Boîte. I launched the company by making and selling a line of French biscuits because I’d done a lot of baking when I worked with Olivier. I researched traditional recipes and revised them in a way that uniquely comes to life in a food everybody likes: cookies. Soon I became fascinated with the idea of adding spices to them. Although many people wouldn’t necessarily pair cookies with spices at first, the fact that savory marries so well with sweet makes perfect sense to me.
I wanted my spiced biscuits to be cleverly and beautifully packaged, so I merged them with my passion for fine art. As a child, my grandmother would keep her cookie tins forever, using them to store just about everything. With that in mind, I invited artists to design my biscuit boxes and inspire a seasonal line of cookies. La Boîte releases a new box every six months, which allows people to have an intimate encounter with art in addition to eating delicious cookies. I always find it so hard to have that experience in galleries or museums, where there’s a barrier between viewers and artwork. Food is as much about what you see as what you taste.
After working more with spice blends, I eventually opened La Boîte Biscuits & Spices, an art gallery and spice shop in Hell’s Kitchen. Each season, the artists whose work adorn my cookie tins also show their work in the gallery. My shop allows me to combine all of my passions—cooking, baking, spices and art—under one roof.
Since then, I’ve been making spice blends for clients, one by one. I’ve spent the past six years working closely with chefs from around the world, developing custom blends for them and for other customers with all levels of cooking experience. In all, I’ve created 41 unique blends. Each blend is deeply connected with the person it was made for, and, as such, each has its own unique story. That’s why you’ll find their recipes in this book.
Befitting its title, The Art of Blending is more than a cookbook: It’s a story of the people who inspire every jar I create and the places where flavors are born. Each of my 41 blends represents a moment in my life, a combination of the scents and textures that make up the foundation of who I am today. With each page, my spice blends come to life through recipes and cooking tips provided by a selection of my esteemed colleagues and friends. This book encourages you to experiment with spices in new and creative ways, and to experience the essence of faraway cultures even if you never leave your kitchen.
Because each jar is a collection of spices from various global cuisines, you can re-create and capture those elements in dishes at home by adding them to your favorite meats, fish, vegetables, pastries and so on—even cocktails. Consider this my open invitation to explore, be imaginative and start your own spice journey in the kitchen.
Preface
What I’ve always appreciated about Lior is his refined approach to blending spices and his unwavering respect for tradition. He has a rare intuition, particularly when it comes to Mediterranean flavors. During his years at Daniel, I worked closely with Lior to encourage him to take inspiration from his culinary background and translate that into the spices we needed for our recipes. His upbringing in Israel and immersion into various types of cuisine starting at a young age provided him with a rich background of flavors and sensi
bilities that brought authenticity to many dishes at our restaurant.
Lior has always been very careful to listen to his clients and understand the delicate purpose of a well-balanced spice blend. It’s one thing to mix spices; it’s another to know what you’re going to do with them. Together, we collaborated many times on creating the perfect spice blends, particularly when working on my cookbook Braise: A Journey Through International Cuisine, but also with seasonal dishes à la carte in the restaurant. With a shared passion for spices, we researched and developed traditional blends and tested them on shellfish or meat and kept adjusting them until they were perfect.
While working on Braise, we built a spice cabinet in our kitchen. Of course, we’ve always had a cabinet to store spices for our chefs, but with a bit of inspiration from Lior, we added an entire wall of open spice shelves as a statement piece. He developed a guide for our chefs so they could further learn and understand different flavors, assisted in making our own in-house blends and stressed the importance of freshness and quality.
One of Lior’s blends that you’ll read about in this book, Vadouvan N.28, is still very popular at Daniel. A delicate curry that has more of a French colonial influence than a spicy Indian curry, this mix of toasted onions, shallots, garlic and curry leaf is used for delicate items such as quail, squab, seafood and lamb dishes on the menu.
For my recently opened Mediterranean restaurant, Boulud Sud, Lior was the ultimate source for creating unique blends. Rather than having our chefs mix the spices themselves, which runs the risk of inconsistency or freshness each time, it’s important that one trusted person is in control, so each dish tastes the same every time. A spice blender is like a chemist who has to work with measured precision. From toasting to grinding and blending, each step is important, and whether you want to add spice, something herbal, citrusy or garlicky, you need someone as knowledgeable as Lior who understands how to create a blend that will provide a consistent experience.
Using spice is also about restraint. You have to find the delicate balance between liberally seasoning and using only a pinch. It really comes down to understanding the ingredients you’re working with and knowing when to let them shine on their own. What is unique with Lior is that he’s an accomplished chef first and foremost, but he also understands the impact of spice in blending, cooking and enjoying food. When you have a pristine piece of fish, just-caught shellfish or wonderfully marbled meat, you must take care in how you season it to enhance its natural flavors rather than overpower them.