“But how did you think to pair the lychees with the lobster and
the cauliflower and the bone marrow?”
Again, he looks a little blank for a second. Then he says, “Well,
I know lychees go well with lobster and lobster goes well with
cauliflower.”
“And the bone marrow?”
“It’s a good substitute for butter,” he explains. “That way I can
put less butter in the dish and it’ll still taste rich.”
That explains one dish, but what about the other dishes on the
menu? What about the creamed corn so popular that, according to
Dieterle, “people freak out over it”?
This time Dieterle has a quick answer. “It’s my mom’s recipe,”
he explains. “We ate it growing up; only she used frozen corn and
I use all fresh ingredients.”
I know this is true because I’ve been assigned the task of
cutting the kernels off the cobs. Dieterle suggests I do this directly
into a plastic tub, so the kernels don’t fly everywhere. He also has
me slice garlic and shallots, and when I ask him if I’m doing a good
job he shrugs. “You want to hold the knife more from the handle,”
he says.
Dieterle doesn’t overthink things. He just does. When we’ve
cooked the shallots and garlic and added the corn and the cream, he
tells me to season it. I do so, gingerly, shaking some salt in.
“Taste it,” he says.
I do and it tastes pretty good. But then I doubt myself—I