voice box

Every day we strive to achieve balance in the kitchen. We attempt to hit that place where everything comes together seamlessly and our day to day craft can be elevated to an art form. It’s almost funny though, as the nature of a fine dining kitchen is so contradictory to that balance. The play of opinions and ideas, and the different skills brought together by folks of different backgrounds, these  colide with the constant need for organization, sanitation and consisitancy. One chef, three sous, and six cooks, all moving in different directions, and trying to get through the drudgery of every day chores, while still trying to experiment and learn from each other. It all contributes to the intensity of working in the kitchens we love.  However, on those perfect days when the books are full, everyone’s in a good mood and on point, and ideas fly across the kitchen from person to person, near magical things can happen. These are just a few…                -Peter

A few pics from the kitchen and our curing room at Voice.  I am excited to be moving the program forward.  In some of these pictures you will see some new salame being hung which we are very excited about.

chef peter holding local spring lamb leg about to go into to cure for prosciutto

will be local spring lamb prosciutto

chicken liver mousse ready for sealing

glenn about to cook up some "voicewurst"

roasting spring lamb saddle

local spring lamb, sous vide saddle, crepinette, roasted chop, and grilled house made sausage

just a little of what we have hanging at the moment

l-r basque style pancetta, tuscan salame, saucisson sec, house tessa

rosa cotto and mortadella

27, March 2009, tonight on the tasting we featured farm eggs from bellecreek farms.  Here in this picture we have a 63 degree egg that is poached for an hour, spring onions cooked sous vide, house made prosciutto, heirloom lettuce and gribiche sauce made from eggs from the same farm… enjoy

For those who know me or have even talked to me for more than 5 minutes on the subject of food know that salumi is one of my favorite things to eat and make.  The whole process becomes so romantic, from the curing to the drying-hang time, watching it transfrom from a raw product into something fully edible without the element of heat right before your eyes can be captivating in a way, trying to understand the nature of the meat as it cures, whether its drying nice or is rotting inside, makes for this almost romantic relationship with the product… and in the end, hopefully, you have a product that can almost defy the english language…layers of salty, spiced, fatty meat something that people have been doing for thousands of years, its a moving process.  I have been working on salumi for years now, trying to figure out what works for me in the enviroments that I have worked in, walk-in coolers, wine storage area, different rubs for the drying process and different ratio’s for the cure and finally after tinkering for so long we have decided to put a charcuterie plate on the menu… enjoy

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duck prosciutto, coppa ham, berkshire pork terrine, chicken liver mousse, cherry mustard, pickled mustard seeds

handing out free lessons at 220 main

21, March 2009… It’s spring now and we started into new menu items this weekend.  Saturday morning Cody, Peter and I ran down to the eastside farmer’s market and found some really great stuff, local strawberries, rainbow chard, radishes, napoli carrots, sylvetta arugula etc.  Along with our market finds we have started to recieve some amazing produce and halibut from our friends at pierless fish, mikuni, and the chef’s garden.  Here are some new spring dishes you can find on the menu and a few off menu items from the weekend.

hudson valley foie gras, local rainbow chard, vasek lo-quat confit

gulf black grouper, spring onion, asparagus x2, serrano ham, stinging nettle puree

workin'

roasted rockfish, peas n' carrots, shimeji, potato, van's pea shoots

olive oil sponge, vanilla nectar, local strawberry, marscapone ice cream

chef cody doin' work

kurabota pig wrapped in housemade bacon, globe carrot, carmelised salsify, maple-grain mustard reduction

It’s been a quick year, so quick we didn’t even realize it until fava beans starting showing up again.  It’s spring and time to retool the menu to the season, halibut is back next week, spring lamb is starting to come in and the harvest of the season is among us.  The ingredients of spring are always inspiring, the pinnacle of what a season can bring to us in produce.  Needless to say we are excited about the upcoming months.  But for now here are some scenes from the kitchen

Whats going on in the kitchen these days

So salumi….seems to be a hot topic around town and the country.  Every good chef in Houston seems to be running a salumi program these days.  As someone who has been practicing it for a few years since I was at Blue Hill in New York where Adam Kaye taught me about the craft, I am so happy to see everyone so into it from the chefs and cooks to the customers who cannot get enough.  At Voice we have been working on salumi since the begining but we have never put out a salumi or charcuterie plate.  Over the last year we have been using the products in our everyday cooking for the menu.  We are now tinkering with doing a housemade salumi plate and here are some shots of the meats, more pics to come when i can get them transfered.

It has been months since we have posted and we are sorry for the delay.  The banquet season was a success however gave us little time to post on here what we have been up to.  So lets get caught up, Albert Roux hung out, Thanksgiving at Voice was a success, awarded one of twenty top new restaurants by John Mariani, banquet season almost killed us!  New Year’s eve dinner at Voice was a hit and Texas Monthly named us the number one new restaurant in 2008 for the state of Texas…sigh and now its time for change, then menu will begin to change rapidly from now and then into spring.  Hope we keep seeing everyone and we promise to be more active in our postings!

Tasting Menus like crazy last night. One seven course menu after another. Seems to be popular these days at VOICE. The crew are kickin out “Degas” like it’s nobody’s business! Its a fun time to play for the crew at VOICE, with all that the season has to offer, root veggies, truffles, game, and mushrooms.