Gettin on my grind
Legs of goat
Really getting a rise (photo ℅ Matt Zatkoff)
Cool crew (photo ℅ Teresa Becvar)
1st Course: Salted Fish Ball with Wine Sauce
2nd Course: Asparagus Custard
3rd Course: A Tempting Dish of Peas (photo ℅ Teresa Becvar)
4th Course: A Dainty Dish of Kid (photo ℅ Teresa Becvar)
The Pea Brain (photo ℅ Teresa Becvar)
5th Course: Cottage Cheese & Honey (photo ℅ Teresa Becvar)
Had a blast pulling together this Apicius menu with Matt Zatkoff. With such vague recipes (mainly lists of ingredients in this ancient tome), there was a lot of room for interpretation. Fortunately, I do think we captured the essence of this 1600+ year old cookery, I was told that the food “tasted of its history, definitely not familiar, modern flavors”. Enthusiastically, we converted non-offal eaters and shared first goat eating experiences. I should give special shout-outs to our select set of suppliers for off-the-beaten path proteins: big thanks to Chris Turner & the Butcher & Larder for the lamb brains and C & C Meats down on Archer & 33rd for the lovely local goat. There were flavors that surprised us too, for instance the cuisine’s heavy reliance on Eastern spices (reflecting the Byzantine provenance of the cookbook). Matt was determined to sneak cumin in his dessert, which paired wonderfully with the cheese & honey (he even snuck some garum, aka Roman fish sauce, in there as well). We used tons of cumin and cilantro, but not one clove of garlic. Fortunately we had laser, aka asafetida, to add its sulfuric pungency.
“Chefs” always trying to look tough. (photo ℅ Mark Siegal)
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