For example, once a chef annoyed her and she decided to slap
him, metaphorically, with her food. So she came up with “Citrus
Rose Slap”—a brown sugar–braised pineapple pureed with an oil
infused with Szechuan peppercorns, ginger, chili, cloves, and
ginger. She served it, naturally, with her “Chocolate Ninja Bitch.”
The surprising nature of Falkner’s food is there by design.
That’s abundantly clear when it comes to her red velvet cupcakes.
“I’m not a red velvet person,” she declares. “And I don’t like the
color pink.”
Her solution is to work raspberry vinegar into the batter and
pomegranate molasses into the icing and then to top the whole
thing with dehydrated blackberry powder. It’s a red velvet cake in
which the red color actually has a flavor, and most people don’t
see it coming.
But to really get a sense of how Falkner weaves elements of
surprise into her work, you have to watch her create a dish from
scratch, as she does with some yogurt, dried cherries, and
chocolate. “Let’s rehydrate the cherries in something,” she says,
zooming around her kitchen. “Maybe a little water? With a drop
of balsamic?”
She places blood orange peel into a pot with the dried cherries
and water and changes her mind about the balsamic, using honey
instead. By the time she’s finished she has a cooling bowl of
yogurt with fruity bits—segmented blood orange in addition to the
cherries—toasted hazelnuts, and chocolate that she’s treated so
it’s soft.