The Fall Menu Is Complete AND I Am Happy For Once.
DETAILS: The Fall Menu is starting on NOVEMBER 1st. Reservations are available through www.exploretock.com/astera.
Chefs are cranky little bastards most of the time. This often times comes from a place of terrible insecurity and a seemingly always unfulfilled need for external validation. CONSTANTLY. We can be little babies at times because lord do WE LOVE the idea of people loving what we do. However, when people actually tell us they like what we’re doing, we often wish those people would shut their dumb mouths because they obviously have a shit opinion seeing as how we know we’re just terrible mounds of garbage. It’s a problem.
And lord help you if you’re a chef with some confidence in yourself, because us other chefs hate your guts and confuse your gratitude, zest for life, and general healthy attitude as a MAJOR FLAW. You’re clearly an arrogant prick for liking yourself.
It’s with this in mind that I BEGRUDGINGLY report that I finished the Fall Menu today with the help of the skilled and smart Saxon Stites, CDC extraordinaire AND, weirdly, I really really like it. This is not normal, and usually while some of the menu is “acceptable” I usually just wince at the idea of people consuming the menus I create (see above). It’s still a problem.
This menu is thoughtful, very seasonal, and everything tastes and looks good. Crazy!
The Fall Menu brings us to our newest service transition. We’re offering TWO menus now: The Botanical Tasting and The Chef’s Menu Experience.
The Botanical Tasting has morphed out of the original Botanical and the Fields and Forest into one single menu. You’ll find wild mushrooms and foraged items on The Botanical now. The Fields and Forest is no more. The format is the same, with five drops with one to three items per drop, followed by mignardise (fancy word for little bite sized sweets you get with your farewell).
The Chef’s Menu Experience is TWELVE distinct courses. Many of the courses are just a couple of bites with others being more substantial.
Here’s a preview of the Chef’s Menu Experience for Fall (keep in mind we’ll make changes if there are wild market changes):
CAVIAR
Ash croustade with Ota tofu mousseline and our housemade seaweed caviar.
BEET TARTARE
A crisp beet tuile cone filled with beet tartare and fermented unripe blueberry.
MUSHROOM CANELE
A savory mushroom canele with roasted hazelnut puree.
CAULIFLOWER
Lion’s Mane mushroom with hakurei turnip, toasted pinenut, fennel, celery and seaweed with lemon, olive oil, and minced herbs covered with a cauliflower veil and served tableside with a caviar-vegetable milk and dill sauce.
CHICORIES
Pan roasted chicories glazed with kombucha vinegar served with cultured cashew cheese, crisp raw apple, and a savory rye sable smeared with black garlic apple butter.
SQUASH
Nixtamilized winter squash marinated in housemade chickpea misozuke, roasted over coals and glazed with a fermented chili and squash sauce, served in a mizuna leaf with fried shallot and scallion.
BUÑUELO
Crispy buñuelo filled with smoked maitake ham and roasted leek cheese.
PETRICHOR
Roast sunchoke puree and crispy skin, savory herb genoise, autumn forest mushrooms, fresh herbs, crispy kale
CELERIAC
Smoked celeriac, roast leek demi, roast mushroom salpicon.
AGED CHEESE
Three month aged cashew cheese with herbs de provence, quince jam, and ficelle.
SWEET POTATO TART
A crisp, translucent tart shell made from sweet potato filled with sweet potato custard and topped with whipped amazake.
PUMPKIN SEED ICE CREAM
Crispy puffed wild rice with toasted seeds.
MIGNARDISE: PEAR ROSEMARY PATE DE FRUIT, CHEWY APPLE WITH KOMBUCHA HONEY PARSNIP PUREE AND HYSSOP, & HAZELNUT CHOCOLATE AND ROSEMARY CARAMEL STROOPWAFEL
Anyway, this menu is far from terrible. It’s actually quite good. I am squirming a bit saying it, but I really want you to come and join us for dinner so I’m dealing with an uncomfortable bit of self promotion. See you all later my friends!
