Deconstrucion: Playing With Your Food

Top Chef Voltaggio is quoted (and I'm paraphrasing?) as saying 'deconstruction is where you place all of the elements of a dish on the plate, separately, so that the guest may reconstruct them so that they may taste like the original.'

I beg to differ, although I have a sneaking suspicion that he simply chose the wrong words.

To me, deconstruction allows the diner to reconstruct the dish according to thier own tastes. The simplest example I can use is the Caeser Salad- one of the first successful deconstruction dishes in the US...

No two people agree on the amount of dressing to salad, parmesean to salad, salt and pepper to salad. This is where deconstruction comes in. It allows the guest to adjust the proportions!

This style of presentation is no new thing. Think Peking Duck/ Mu Shu. Think Bouillabase. Think Pho. Every taco, baked potato, nacho, crostini bar you have ever eaten. Now put it on a single plate. To me, that's deconstruction.

In the following posts, I'll outline a couple food and beverage examples, focusing on new and old concepts. I hope you will find these concepts enlightening and that the will influence in you some great ideas that will serve you well at your next dinner party!

These Chinese pancakes, we all know...

you assemble them, add hoisin, veggies, your done, Delicious!

Ahhh! But the french have a better pancake, don't they? The crepe? What if we were to assemble them like we do mu-shu?

The crepes would be placed in the same container as mu-shu to be kept warm. The on the 'assemblage side-' we could present the works:

Lightly sauteed garlic shrimp (26-30's-easier to fill)
Chevre Cheese Sauce
Finely Chopped Scallion
Roasted Root Vegetable Puree
Wedges of Lemon
Black Pepper, Finely Ground
Artisinal Salt, of choice

Then Mu Shu, becomes a dish altogether something bigger. The stuff of personal legend. A thing of beauty, because every person who 'makes thier own' has a personal stake in the finished product- this becomes 'thier dish.'

Nice.

The Whiskey Sour

Whether you know it or not, the Sazerac is a drink that resembles the sour, with the addition of absinthe. What's say we offer this option to guests? As some will enjoy the anise nuance, some will not...

Thinking about this it seems to behoove me to describe the various glass each of the liquids should be served in, as they tend to take the shape of the vessel, so to speak.

In a collins glass:

2 ozs, bourbon of choice (that's it, let it look unfinished- that's our point)

In a wide and deep side-car:

4 ozs homeade sour mix (recipe should be accessable here)

In a glass ramekin:

1 oz Absinthe (or less)

Another 1 oz portion:

Simple Syrup: 1 to 1 proportion

In a shot glass:

1 oz Grand Marnier

A large 'swath' of orange peel, for squeezing over top of the drink. Quickly flamed by lighter.

All of this would be placed on a dinner serving plate and served to the guest, preferrably during the appertif portion of the meal. Stick around! I think this one has great promise and will be trying to pull it off at the next available opportunity. You know me, I'll tell you how it goes, better or worse!

[Robin Garr]

When you talk about deconstruction, I've got to talk about Batali and Babbo. Best desonstructed dish I ever had was there: A pig's foot! It arrived as an elegant porkburger, removed from the bone, chopped fine, and presented as a lacy, thin round, sizzling from the saute pan.