Cosmos, a Four-Diamond Restaurant in downtown Minneapolis, prides itself on its quality ingredients, intriguing menu selection, cutting edge presentation and creative plating. This is no surprise, given that its chefs constantly seek new ideas through food blogs, stay after hours to experiment with new culinary ideas, and are dedicated enough to plan an herb garden on the hotel’s roof.
The concept that makes Cosmos distinct sounds a bit scary, but we must pay it a visit - molecular gastronomy. (Stay with me, I’m not going to give you a science lesson.) Molecular gastronomy is a method of cooking that has nearly transcended the notion of traditional cooking. Ultimately, molecular gastronomy is a combination of art and science, even though you won’t find the chefs trading in their whites for lab coats, hovering over solutions, which would eventually become a reduction sauce. It’s a process of taking ingredients, and changing their shape, consistency, and texture with various compounds, mixtures, and methods. (If you’re really interested, watch this video.)
Similar to Chicago’s Alinea and, arguably the hottest restaurant in the world, el Bulli, (rumor has it they are booked for the next 3 years), the chefs at Cosmos reinvent ingredients by creating things like pineapple noodles, celery terrine, exploding lingonberries, and edamame sheets. Frothers, foams, compressions, and vacuum sealing are usually involved in the mix. Molecular gastronomy turns food into an art medium that stimulates the mind as easily as the palate.
The kitchen at Cosmos puts all of the gruff imagery associated with chefs at bay - those that bad-boy chef Anthony Bourdain would love us to believe. Not only does Lundberg manage the execution of well-planned menu items, he has created a kitchen culture in which chefs actually like to come to work, play their own version of Top Chef together (hence, their ‘Spam Off’), where customers are invited to dine IN the kitchen, and a 20-year-old line cook learns the ropes without culinary papers because Lundberg believes in hiring based on attitude versus papers. It’s these details, matched by the culinary details such as rosemary-scented smoke that is captured under a bowl and puffs up when the waiter lifts it and presents you with the lamb bacon, that makes Cosmos so strong and unique.
Chef Lundberg wants each plate leaving the kitchen to look mysteriously sexy. Interesting plating intrigues the diner, inviting them to be more present in their eating experience, he said. Matching cold items with hot, and crispy with soft, the chefs never stack the food on-purpose because it eliminates the option to eat it all at once. This way, the diner can follow a trail, or make their own mixtures so each bite will taste different.
Don’t let the Four-Diamond Restaurant label mislead you about the prices - a 3 course tasting menu is comparable to a large dinner at any steakhouse in town. More than food-costs themselves, value is added through the experience of the chefs and the attention to detail they put into your sensory experience at Cosmos. Not interested in their new lab experiments? They’ll be glad to flip you a burger.
Reinvention - it’s what we’re all trying to do in these tough financial times. Re-envisioning new futures, new careers – we’ve got to work with what we’ve got. And that’s exactly what Chef Lundberg and his crew are doing at Cosmos, maximizing the use of ingredients by envisioning new twists and nuances to their original uses. Resulting in new sensory experiences for the eyes, nose, mouth, and mind – the food at Cosmos is a refreshing look at the world of possibilities. Maybe these chefs are doing more than giving us foie gras and pineapple noodles and teaching us a thing or two about life.
-Melinda Feucht
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment