Merchant Roots

Ryan Shelton

This blog was originally put together as a way to answer the question "how do they do that?"  One of the most common instances of this question for me here at Palo Alto Grill is the Char-Grilled Octopus.  Most people are familiar with octopus in a sushi context.  It is rubbery, flavorless, and mostly enjoyable in a novelty context. Our octopus is prepared in a more Mediterranean style.  It is cooked a total of 3 times over several hours in order to give it its delicate barely spongy… (truncated)

Ryan Shelton

Fried Brussels Sprouts, Brown Sugar, Butter Pecan.  That was the description we came up with months before opening Palo Alto Grill.  When it came to cooking the dish for the first time, we started a reduction of apple juice and maple and from the very first time we tried it drizzled over the crispy sprouts, it was perfect.  One almost never gets a dish perfect the first time, but this dish was the exception to the rule.  Then we re-read the description and realized it was supposed t… (truncated)

Ryan Shelton

First the ingredients are carefully measured For our starting gift to the guests at Palo Alto Grill, our Pastry Chef, Yoomi, wanted to do something unique and interesting, yet at the same time very familiar and satisfying.  Trying to think of bread products that were typically seen as part of Americana, we stumbled across the combination of soft pretzels and mustard.  We decided to refine the appearance by borrowing from the French Epi-Baguette, a baguette which has been cut into sh… (truncated)

Ryan Shelton

Being the Chef of a Steakhouse, the concept of Steak and Potatoes carries a lot more depth for me than most.  There are good steaks, great steaks and near-perfect steaks.  Very flavorful steaks are usually more tough, and vice versa.  Ribeyes have so much juice, but they are riddled with different tendons and muscles that have a completely different texture and flavor.  At Palo Alto Grill, we constantly seek perfection, and consistency, within the boundaries of nature.  For this rea… (truncated)

Ryan Shelton

I am often asked where inspiration comes from for the dishes that we create. Sometimes it is more obvious than other times.  Without wanting to seem gimmicky, I will often put clues or hints that the guest might be able to figure out for themselves where inspiration came from: a touch of chocolate cookie crumb to simulate dirt in a dessert inspired by flowers, or a bit of sea foam or seaweed on a fish dish. With our Yellowtail Crudo, the intention to produce a dish which would look… (truncated)

Ryan Shelton

Lamb is a tricky ingredient to squeeze into a menu format.  Sourcing can be an issue, as domestic lamb can often be 3-4 times the price of overseas lamb, which is also typically frozen.  The chops are sinewy and have only a couple bites of meat on them.  There are other parts of the lamb with better flavor, moisture and texture, but everyone loves the prettiness of those little meat lollipops.  So the question becomes: how does one serve the perfect portion of lamb, and still mainta… (truncated)

Ryan Shelton

If a picture is worth 1,000 words, then 3 videos should explain Corn Puddin' better than any recipe, especially because the only ingredient is corn!  Here goes: That's all it is - corn, shredded on a cheese grater and squeezed dry, then sizzled in a cast iron pan before being broiled brown, topped with a little bit of butter, fleur de sel, and lime. Sick!

Ryan Shelton

At Palo Alto Grill, we have a really special way of cooking chicken.  It is crispy and breaded on the outside, yet the inside is tender and succulent, like poached chicken.  We achieve this using a technique called Sous Vide. I am lucky to have been trained in the science of cooking sous vide by Bruno Chemel of Baum é Restaurant, who taught as the chef instructor of Jo ël Robuchon's School of Sous Vide in France.  Bruno has continued to practice and perfect the technique of sous vid… (truncated)

Ryan Shelton

I love mustard.  Can't get enough.  At my house, I have Chinese hot mustard, smooth dijon, whole grain mustard, yellow mustard, sweet hot mustard and sometimes others in my fridge at all times.  I love all of them differently, and cannot use them interchangeably.  At Palo Alto Grill, we have many kinds as well, and we even make two of them ourselves: Cheese Mustard (recipe follows) and Chipotle Mustard ( Recipe ).  We use it in everything from Caesar Dressing to Dijon Demi-Glace on… (truncated)

Ryan Shelton

Exciting news! This last weekend, we were finally able to begin cooking inside the kitchen of Palo Alto Grill.  We are right on schedule for an end of the month opening. Some beautiful photos were taken of the dishes we were able to demo on site, I've included some here.  The rest will be debuting on http://www.paloaltogrill.com soon, so stay tuned... It seems that there's a great deal of disagreement lately about the health value of different foods and food groups.  There is, howev… (truncated)

Ryan Shelton

More cooking in the last week.  We managed to execute a rough "cross-section" of the menu, including finally some STEAKS! We had long planned to do a Vegetarian Pot Pie Entree for the restaurant.  There are certain concerns with executing a pot pie for a restaurant.  If one were to cook the pie in the traditional way, it would take an unacceptable amount of time from ordering to serving.  Possibly even an hour.  We had to come up with a way to be able to put the pot pie up within 15… (truncated)

Ryan Shelton

Well we've been busy.  Lots of cookin'.  Most experiments smashing successes so far.  Few failures.  To catch everyone up, I'll be going relatively quickly through this blog post.  If you miss something you were hoping to hear more on, feel free to comment, I'll happily reply.  Just try and get the Pork Belly recipe.  That's a cool one. For one of our hot appetizers, we are doing a Soy-Glazed Pork Belly, with Charred Kale and Pickled Carrots. Ingredients: (serves 6) 1 1/2 pounds Por… (truncated)

Ryan Shelton

Seaweed has gotten a lot of attention lately.  People have begun noticing how full of dietary benefits the different types are.  We get so much nutrition from the land and all of its different plants, fungi and animals.  The sea comprises so many more species of flora and fauna accessible to us, and some cultures have historically made surprisingly little effort to tap into anything more than fish.  Seaweed-phobics have almost  a lopsided diet, missing out on all of the potential am… (truncated)

Ryan Shelton

We had a lot of fun last year at Le Cigare Volant with this dish.  Unfortunately, it was a lot of work!  In order to be able to push avocado through the thick corndog batter, we froze blanks of avocado meat, shaped with a cutter.  We would batter and par-fry them, then re-fry them to order.   It was a pain, and the quality suffered.   Additionally, we could only prepare a limited amount every day, because of the time involved in thawing the centers. This video shows how we used to f… (truncated)

Ryan Shelton

Today we showcase our soup lineup for the upcoming menu.  I love making soup, I think its a great way to showcase different products, from meats to produce.  Soup highlights the true flavor of things, literally distilling them down to their essence.  With these two recipes, we are doing our best to showcase the height of vegetable puree-style soup, as well as a less traditional treatment of a consomme. Our consomme-style soup is a Tuscan inspired soup, featuring sausage, chicken and… (truncated)

Ryan Shelton

Salad madness continues today as we round out the rest of the first section of our little menu here.  Attempting to round things out and maintain a California feel, we moved onto the steakhouse classic the chop salad.  Ironically, the Chop Salad being as much of a steakhouse standby as the Wedge Salad, and the two being essentially polar opposites in format.  While a wedge involves a large, unadulterated wedge of lettuce, the chop salad consists of many ingredients, chopped quite fi… (truncated)

Ryan Shelton

Exciting news: this chef has found a new home!  Palo Alto Grill is a New American Steakhouse on University Ave in Palo Alto .  Bruce Schmidt and Luka Dvornik, previously of Lavanda, will be running the show.  We will be featuring a variety of Steaks and other grilled entrees prepared a la carte with garnishes featuring quality Californian ingredients.  We will have an exciting selection of seasonal sides, as well as a full complement of creative appetizers.  Unlike many steakhouses,… (truncated)