After our incredible dinner, Chef Ian Kleinman gave us a tour of his kitchen at O’s Restaurant.  One of Mont Blanc Gourmet’s strengths is the number of culinary professionals we employ, so our tour group was a collection of chocolatiers, culinary chefs, research chefs and culinary school graduates, all passionately interested in food.

During the tour, the chef took us into the very back room where he kept his canisters of liquid nitrogen and carbon dioxide.  “We are the third largest user of liquid nitrogen in the state” he chuckled, as he showed us his gas tanks.

We had just enjoyed the meal where he used liquid nitrogen to make the Space Foam and the ice cream.  One of our chefs laughed.  “When I was a chef in a hotel 25 years ago I thought it was cool when I got to mess around with dry ice.  And he gets to make desserts with liquid nitrogen!”

This moment made the meal far more than a holiday party. It crystallized our mindset as we move into 2009, committed to try new methods and create innovative products with form and function.

To everyone out there looking for their own solutions and new products … cheers to the New Year!

Cocoa beans, cocoa butter and cocoa powder are traded on two world exchanges: London and New York.

After my initial dinner at O’s Restaurant, I sent chef Ian Kleinman an email commenting on his enjoyable menu and inviting him to visit the Mont Blanc Gourmet lab. He graciously accepted and the team – including our head of R&D – eagerly gave him and his wife a tour. We discussed some of his techniques and brainstormed about our holiday meal. The chef left with some of our products, promising to try and incorporate some of them into a menu especially for us. And incorporate them he did. We arrived for our holiday meal and beside each plate was the following:

Mont Blanc Gourmet’s Molecular Gastronomy Five Course Tasting Menu

Mole Shrimp with Dried Posole, Cotija Relleno, Cactus Glass
Chocolate Polenta with Pulled Spicy Pork, Mozzarella Sheets, and Tomato Textures
Ghana Space Foam
Caramel Chicken with Carrot Pudding, Pea Drops, Brioche
Chai Tea Noodles with Coffee Jelly, Condensed Milk Ice Cream Made Tableside with Liquid Nitrogen

Since Chef Ian had taken bottles of our products, I knew the mole for the shrimp and the polenta were made using our Sweet Dark Chocolate syrup, the Ghana Space Foam was based upon our Omanhene Single Origin Ghana Chocolate syrup, the Caramel Chicken used our Original Caramel syrup, and the Chai Tea Noodles were made with our Chai concentrate.

The first dish was the Mole Shrimp with Dried Posole, Cotija Relleno, Cactus Glass. The shrimp rested on the mole sauce, and next to them was the Relleno with the Cactus glass resting on top. The combination of the savory chocolate with the shrimp was certainly unusual but worked well. The soft relleno and the crunchy Cactus glass was a good combination.

The Chocolate Polenta and Spicy Pork proved a successful combination as the Chocolate in the polenta added richness, while the granular texture of the polenta complemented the pork.

Then came the Ghana SpaceFoam. This was the first dish prepared tableside.

Chef Ian wheeled in a table with an ice crusted pitcher, two whipped cream siphon dispensers, and a deep metal bowl. Inside the siphons was the mixture for the Space Foam made from the Ghana Single Origin Chocolate syrup. Into the bowl he poured the liquid nitrogen.

Next he piped the chocolate from the siphon onto a spoon and dropped them into the steaming bowl.

Biting into the resulting, quickly frozen, beignets and exhaling emits a stream of smoke from your mouth. Imagine blowing smoke “O”’s using the smoke from liquid nitrogen — that’s a party trick!

The meal continued with the Caramel Chicken. A savory dish, the chicken and sweet Caramel combination was delicious, while the Carrot pudding, Pea Drops, and Brioche added interesting flavors and textures.

Last was dessert, a treat in every sense that the whole team had been anticipating. Chef Ian returned with his cart for the finale and announced, “Tonight, you are going to see something that has never been seen before in a restaurant. Ladies and Gentlemen, I’d like to show you floating food!”

Floating food?! What the hell is floating food, I wondered. I soon found out, as Chef Kleinman demonstrated. On his cart he had a plate with a small square metal cube about the size of a large lozenge. On top of it he had a circular magnet, about the size of a quarter. On top of the magnet he placed a truffle, and then placed both on top of the metal cube. Miraculously, the truffle was suspended in the air, resting on the magnet hovering over the metal cube. It was a fantastic effect.

By this time our entire group was gathered around the cart watching and asking questions. “What makes it float?!”

“It is basically two magnets that repel allowing the food to float” he said.

“How cold is liquid nitrogen?”

“Minus 321 degrees Fahrenheit” he replied.

“Doesn’t it burn if it touches your skin?”

“Not if you don’t leave it on your skin. Watch, I can put my hand in it and as long as I take it out quickly I’m OK. But if you leave it in too long, you will get frostbite.”

Then the chef announced the dessert course.

Knowing that so much of our business involves the coffee industry and specialty drinks, he created a dessert combining different flavors found in coffee shops. He had already used Chocolate and Caramel, so the dessert included Chai tea which flavored the noodles, a Coffee jelly, and a Vanilla scented ice cream. To make the ice cream required decanters containing the ice cream ingredients, a deep metal bowl, and several pitchers with ice condensed on the outside. He combined the ice cream ingredients into the bowl, and mixed them together. Then he poured the contents of the pitcher — liquid nitrogen — into the bowl and mixed everything quickly. With a temperature of -321 F, the liquid nitrogen quickly freezes the mixture, and within about three minutes, he had created ice cream that he scooped into the dishes containing the noodles and coffee jelly and served them to us. We attacked our desserts with gusto.

The combination of the frozen ice cream, slippery chai tea noodles, and coffee jelly was a treat. Once again an unusual combination of colors, flavors, and textures that were the perfect end to a highly unusual, highly memorable evening.

As the holiday meal ended, everyone talked about the dinner and agreed that this was an unforgettable evening. This year, our holiday event wasn’t simply a meal, it was an experience that resonated with everyone in the company who embraces the unusual, innovative and fun.

The forestero is the variety of cocoa tree that originated in the upper Amazon region. The word forestero means “foreign,” and the tree is the most widely cultivated as it has a high yield.

Times are tough, companies are cutting back, employees are being laid off, and holiday parties are being cancelled.  But I always look forward to our annual holiday party for employees and their spouses and friends. And with such a small, tight-knit group of dedicated workers, it really has become a family event as we celebrate the past year and toast the new one.

The office “Fun Committee” was looking at a number of well-known Denver restaurants, all of which would have worked well for our group.  But this year has been important for Mont Blanc Gourmet; we focused on our core strengths and came up with no fewer than 10 new products. I wanted to somehow take the momentum of 2008 into the new year.

And then I had dinner at O’s Restaurant inside The Westin hotel in Westminster, where the restaurant features a unique four-course tasting menu created by an extremely talented chef, Ian Kleinman.  As a classically trained chef, Kleinman’s cooking is excellent. But he goes a step further with his tasting menus and employs principles and techniques of molecular gastronomy.  Molecular gastronomy is the practice of combining traditional cooking techniques with scientific processes.

Upon experiencing his tasting menu, I was smitten by the creativity of his dishes. And watching some of them being prepared in front of me was great fun.  I knew the restaurant would be perfect for the company party as the menu embodies all of the things that our brand and company stand for—innovation, quality, and fun.

The next morning I recounted my experience and explained how this year’s dinner could be about innovation with food, creating new products, and having fun while doing it. Things that we do daily.  We agreed to make the switch, and I knew we were in for a fantastic experience.