Five Minus Two

Architect Charles Gwathmey died on August 3, 2009 at the age of 71. I didn't know Gwathmey (Charlie as he was commonly known) personally and didn't work at his office; some of my former bosses and friends worked at Gwathmey & Siegel. Nevertheless Gwathmey has left strong impressions on me.

The first time I encountered Gwathmey was through his work, namely Whig Hall at Princeton University when I was a freshman there. Whig Hall is one of a pair of identical neoclassical buildings situated just behind Nassau Hall. In 1969 a fire destroyed all but the exterior of Whig Hall. Gwathmey was hired to renovate the building. Instead of simply restoring the building he carved out a side of the building and inserted several white volumes in the Corbusian language.

The combination of modernist and classical language makes Whig Hall a very unique building, not only as a standout on the more classically oriented campus of Princeton, but a prime example of how classical buildings can be transformed and enhanced.

The second time I encountered Gwathmey was also during my freshman year in college. A businessman in Taipei, Mr. Chen, commissioned Gwathmey to design a house for his family and my father was asked to be the associate architect. When my father was in New York to meet with Gwathmey to discuss the design, I went with him. At that time, I had not decided to study architecture, but I was curious to see Gwathmey's design and his office. Gwathmey's office was actually the first mid-size architectural office in New York I ever visited. The firm is located near the western edge of Manhattan in a converted industrial loft. My first impression of Gwathmey was he didn't fit my image of an architect that was formed from photographs in books and magazines. Instead of a suit and a tie, Gwathmey was dressed in a white Ralph Lauren polo shirt with blue jeans. He was very athletic-looking with broad shoulders. The visit with Gwathmey and seeing his office established a new image of an architect in my mind.

The Chen House was a unique project in Gwathmey's portfolio. Because of requirements in the program and zoning, it has four levels of basement and five-levels above grade. It is like a typical large Gwathmey house but turned ninety degrees vertically. The project allowed Gwathmey to investigate new spatial relationships. I still remember vividly how excited Gwathmey was when he was describing the atrium with the spiral stairs. It is unfortunate the house was never built and remains as one of Gwathmey's more interesting projects.

Gwathmey was a member of the New York Five and he established his reputation very early in the 1960's when he was still in his 20's. He is one of the very few architects in the world where his earliest works, namely the house and studio for his parents in Long Island, remain as his masterpiece. In his long career he produced a few questionable designs, such as the apartment tower at Astor Place in New York City. Nevertheless, he created many memorable designs ranging from educational buildings, museums, office interiors, and residential buildings. His design of tableware, the Tuxedo collection, for Swid Powell remains a favorite of mine. In fact I still use the mug from the collection for my coffee every morning.

Morakot

Today is the first typhoon day for Vera. All the schools and offices in Taipei are closed due to the arrival of typhoon Morakot; the name means emerald in Thai.

Despite the typhoon, many restaurants remain open for business; they all say they are 風雨無阻.

Bib Gourmand Dessert

A friend of ours gave us a few boxes of blueberries - a very nice gift since they are expensive and I love to eat them. After a couple days of eating blueberries without anything, I thought maybe I should try to do something with them. I used to bake blueberry muffins for breakfast, but this time I wanted to make a dessert. The recipe I used is in Anthony Bourdain's Les Halles Cookbook: blueberries with lime sugar. This was quite easy to make, just some lime zest confit, lime juice, mint, and sugar tossed with blueberries. A few simple ingredients mixed together created a dish that was sweet, sour, and bitter. It was delicious.

Three-Star Desserts

A few weeks ago, I saw an article in the local newspaper that said Philippe Rigollot, the pastry chef of the three-star restaurant Maison Pic was coming to Taipei for a cooking class at the Sherwood Hotel. While I am very interested to learn about cooking, I actually have never attended a cooking class. Maria offered to pay for the class as my birthday gift and I happily accepted. The price for the class was NT$2500 and included lunch at the Italian restaurant at the hotel.

Maison Pic is located in Valence, France, just south of Lyon. The chef at the restaurant is Anne-Sophie Pic whose grandfather was a 3-star chef, and so was her father. When her father passed away in 1992, the restaurant lost a star. In 2007 she regained the third star and is now one of the few female 3-star chefs in the world. Rigollot has been the pastry chef at Maison Pic since 2000. Besides the work at the restaurant, he was part of the team that won the pastry world championship in 2005. In 2007 he was awarded the Meilleur Ouvrier de France; he gets to wear the red, white, and blue stripes on the collar of his chef jacket. In short he is one of the best pastry chefs in the world.

The class was held at a banquette room on the second floor of the Hotel. There were roughly twenty or so participants. As we entered the room each of us was given a package with the recipes. We were also handed a chef jacket and an apron to put on, which was a bit strange because we were not going to do any cooking. We mainly just sat on the rows of chairs in front of a table and watched Rigollot prepare the desserts.

The theme of the class was chestnut because the class was partly sponsored by Imbert, a French brand that specializes in chestnut products. Rigollot demonstrated two recipes: macaron marron and tarte marron framboise.

I was eager to see how Rigollot makes the macarons. I have made them a few times but never with much success. My batter was always a bit too soft and runny and I could never get the right chewiness in the macarcon. Rigollot’s recipe uses TPT or tant pour tant, a mixture of equal parts almond powder and icing sugar. Instead of French Meringue he uses Italian Meringue, which is more stable. His batter was not runny, more a lava-like consistency. I was surprised to find that he didn’t use a baking tray, simply a silpat on oven baking racks. He piped the batter on to the silpat like a machine, fast and evenly.

After piping out the batter, he tapped the rack on the counter to release any air bubbles and let the macarons rest for around 15 minutes, then they went into the oven.

While the macarons were baking, Rigollot made the filling. This was relatively easy, just involved using the Imbert chestnut products and mixing them up for around 5 minutes on the stand mixer. When the macarons were ready, Rigollot piped the filling and made the sandwich cookies. To present the macarons, he placed them vertically on a thin sheet of chocolate, using a bit of chestnut paste as glue. He then put a small piece of chestnut on top of each macaron and also a little piece of gold leaf for brightness.

For the raspberry tart, Rigollot didn’t demonstrate the whole process from start to finish. I suppose the basic part of making a tart shell and the filling is relatively straightforward that it didn’t need to be shown. Rigollot first demonstrated how to make the confit framboise. He then showed how to make the mousse marron framboise. The ingredients were mixed and spread into a spherical mold to be chilled. He brought out some that were pre-made and chilled and then sprayed the balls with red food coloring. He then showed how to construct the tart by spreading the confit on the tart filling, placing the ball in the center, which was surrounded by a ring of fresh raspberry dusted with powdered sugar.

The tart was finished off with a small piece of chestnut and raspberry on the top and accented again by a small piece of gold leaf.

After the class was over, Rigollot chatted with the participants and took pictures with everyone. He signed the recipe for me. We were issued certificates for the completion of the class. Since he didn’t speak English, I had to resort to my broken French to ask some questions. He was very patient and very engaging.

Lunch took place at the Italian restaurant, Toscana, on the ground floor of the Hotel. Lunch consists of the antipasto/salad bar and a soup, followed by the two desserts that Rigollot made. The mouse on the raspberry tart was amazing, great texture and flavor. The macaron was textbook perfect with “foot”, a crust like rings on the flat sides in contact with the filling. The outer shell is thin like an eggshell with a soft meringue-like inside.

While this was an expensive way to spend three and half hours, it was a memorable experience. It was a pleasure to watch Rigollot work. He had great techniques, and I suspected he probably could do some of these things with his eyes closed. There was no extra motion, no dripping or splatter. It was very efficient and extremely clean. The way he constructed the dessert was very much like an artist about visual composition through different geometries, colors, and textures.

Now I just hope I can recreate the two desserts at home.

World Not Interested

The World Games 2009 concluded in Kaohsiung last night. The eleven-day event went smoothly and was quite a success - a great achievement for the city of Kaohsiung and Taiwan. Taiwan won a total of 24 medals and ranked seventh in the standings. The main stadium by Toyo Ito is very beautiful, at least from television (I haven't seen the building in person yet). The fireworks in both the opening and closing ceremonies were very nicely done.

The only thing I find to be very strange about the World Games is the almost complete lack of coverage in some media. For instance, a search for reports on the World Games on the website of The New York Times shows only four reports in the last 30 days, three of which are about Ito's stadium.

A similar search on Wall Street Journal's website shows only four reports as well.

There are even less reports on the World Games in UK's London Times and Guardian. While the media in Taiwan cannot get enough of the World Games, the rest of the world doesn't seem too interested.

Sonoma 焱

A good friend of mine recently came from Hong Kong to visit me. I asked him where he would like to go for dinner. He said a friend of his recommended that he try the steakhouse Sonoma 焱 because the friend believes the steaks at the restaurant are better than any of the steakhouses in Hong Kong. I was a bit surprised to hear that so I thought why not go and find out.

There are three branches of Sonoma and the one we went to is located on 敦化南路2段9號1樓. The restaurant is not large, roughly 70 some seats with an open kitchen at the back. There are a few menus to choose from, a la carte, 4 course prix fixe, and a wagyu tasting menu. My friend ordered a la carte: crab cakes, grilled wagyu strip steak, and chocolate dessert. I tried the wagyu tasting menu which costs NT$2800: lobster tail, mushroom cappuccino, salad, grilled wagyu strip steak, and chocolate dessert.

We were first served some warm bread, which was not bad with a decent crust. There were also some marinated olives on the table, but they were just way too sweet.

I didn't taste my friend's crab cakes, so I can't comment on that dish. My friend wanted the steak to be medium well (don't ask me why), but the steak arrived medium rare to medium. Maybe the chef was reluctant to cook a the nice piece of meat to medium well. Nevertheless, the steak was not cooked to the right temperature.

As for my dishes, the lobster dish had decent flavors, but the caviar on the lobster tail wasn't that good. The mushroom cappuccino reminded me of one of Gordon Ramsay's signature dishes: white bean cappuccino. Maybe it was the word cappuccino. In any event, I would have preferred the mushroom soup to be a bit creamier. It was a bit thin for my taste. Strangely the soup was served with a small spoon, almost like a coffee spoon, which made drinking the soup a bit tiresome. The salad was quite fresh, but I wished the dressing had a bit more acidity. My steak was nicely grilled and quite flavorful. It was a good piece of red meat, but it could have been seasoned more aggressively. I wasn't too keen on the sauce, which was a bit too reduced. The dessert at the end was a molten chocolate cake. This was essentially like Jean Georges signature dessert. Sonoma's version was executed well with good flavor. My only complaint is that the cake and the accompanying ice cream was pathetically small. I would think the restaurant can be a bit more generous with the portion of the dessert, considering the total price they are charging.

The service was quite good, my only quip is that since my friend and I had different number of courses, they could have brought out an empty plate for my friend when I was having the extra course, so he didn't have to stare at the table cloth and might have shared some of my courses.

Overall, the meal was decent. The ingredients were good and fresh. I asked my friend if Sonoma was indeed better than all the steakhouses in HK, he said no.

Here's the Beef

Maria wanted steak for dinner, which meant an expensive dinner. A steak in the U.S. is already a relatively pricey ingredient, however, in Taipei the prices are even higher. Good steaks are available only in some of the more western-oriented supermarkets. I bought the steaks at City Super, a supermarket originally from Hong Kong, located at the basement of a Sogo department store. There are many imported beef, mainly from the U.S. and Australia, to choose from. I picked a cheaper cut, U.S. prime ribeye, which goes for NT$200 per 100 gram, or roughly US$28 per pound. This is quite a premium to pay for a steak since a similar cut at Fresh Direct in NY costs around US$17 per pound.

Besides the price, another problem with buying steaks in Taipei is the lack of varieties. The supermarkets mostly just have a few cuts, namely, ribeye, fillet, strip, and sirloin. They don't carry the cheaper cuts that I like to buy, such as skirt, hanger, brisket, or flank.

As for the cuts that are available, the steak in the supermarkets do not come with bones, especially the ones from the U.S. Taiwan only allows boneless steak to be imported from the U.S. because of concerns for BSE (Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy) or Mad Cow disease. Therefore, while I typically like to buy a bone-in ribeye, because I think the flavor is better, I have to settle for boneless steaks.

Cooking an expensive ingredient at home always seems to be a bit tricky. If a mistake is made there isn't anyone else to blame, the dish can't be sent back like in a restaurant; it is really just like throwing money into the trash bin. To cook the ribeye steaks I decided to follow Alain Ducasse's advice. Instead of using the oven or broiler, I cooked the steaks on top of the stove to have better control. I did not use super high heat. I seared the steaks first and later added butter and garlic and then constantly basted the meat until they are cooked to the right temperature. Then I let the steak rest for half of the time it took to cook.

In short the steaks were quite delicious. Although they are expensive, it is an indulgence worth having every so often.

Five on Fourth

Vera turned five today. We invited a few of her friends over to our house for a little party. Since I wasn't going to entertain the kids myself, Maria asked Vera's art teacher to come to do a class. The theme of the class was party food. The teacher first read the kids a story and then taught them how to make party food with paper clay.

About half an hour or so later the kids created some "food".

I made some food as well because I was in charge of making the birthday cake. Ever since I bought Dorie Greenspan's book, Vera wanted me to make the cake on the cover.

I always told her I would make it for her birthday, therefore I had to do it today. The cake was not difficult to make but required a couple of components. I baked the chocolate layers the night before and assembled the cake this morning. Assembling the cake was a bit like building an architectural model.

The kids seemed to enjoy the cake.

Happy Birthday Vera!

Japanese Names

One problem I have been encountering quite often is Japanese names pronounced in Mandarin. In the U.S. Japanese names are all spelled out in English. However in Taiwan, the Japanese names are pronounced in Mandarin because they consist mainly of Chinese characters. Since I know Japanese people mostly by their romanized names, I often have conversations as follows:

"Michael, you must know the designs by 深澤直人 (Shen Ze Zhi Ren)"

"Uh, how to you say 深澤直人 in Japanese?"

"I dunno."

Conversations like these all require a Google search on my iphone to continue. Most of the times I actually do know the Japanese people in the conversations, just not their names in Chinese characters.

Note: 深澤直人 is Naoto Fukasawa, one of my favorite Japanese designers.