Baume Palo Alto

Bruno Chemel was the chef of Chez TJ a few years ago in Mountain View. Chez TJ was the restaurant that had officially introduced me to upscale French cuisine. Since then, I started exploring the wonderful gastronomy world, and the more I eat, the more I learn the meaning of food.

Over a year ago, Chef Chemel opened his own restaurant in Palo Alto. Since then, it had earned one Michelin star. I finally have had an opportunity to dine there on 10/21/2011.

Located near Cal Train station, Baume is hosted in at the corner of California and Park. Its external view is simple yet elegant, with orange (sign and door) and black (window and door frames) as its themed colors. Inside, it's tastefully dark, and well decorated. We were directed to the right hand side of the dining room which was divided by the entrance and reception area. Three tables were in that seating area, surrounded by ceiling to floor drapery. Although dim, there was a spot light above each table, so that your date and your food would get the right focus.

Only one tasting menu was offered at $168. Dishes were not listed, but ingredients were. Dishes were changing with seasons and most fresh ingredients. The choices I had to make were 1) if I wanted the companion of aromatic Alba white truffle, 2) if I wanted one of the two wine paring options, regular at $268 or premium at $328. I opted in with the $268 wine paring, but no white truffle.

I am a follower of Chef Chemel's blog (http://www.brunochemel.com/). He has one of the best blogs written by a chef, with recipes, knowledge on ingredients, etc. I've also read about his passion for molecular gastronomy. After trying out Bo Innovation in Hong Kong, and reading and hearing a lot about the closure of El Bulli, and Ferran Aria's lecture at Harvard, I am very curious about molecular gastronomy.

There was the signature dish, 62 degree egg. The egg was cooked in the constant temperature water bath, at 62 degrees. Egg white was cooked, egg yolk was fluid. There was halibut sous vide, very very tender. There was Salade d'Automone with asian pears and butternut squash. There was seedless pomegranate with 2 layers of sorbet presented as meat and skin of a slice of fruit.

Dishes were very well done. Many of the well known ingredients were either prepared in unimaginable ways, or presented in unexpected formats. There was not much foam floating the food, no steam of liquid nitrogen flowing in the dining room, however, it was indeed molecular gastronomy - taking daily ingredients, applying physical and chemical transformation, create artistic and delicious enjoyable food.

It's a serious French restaurant, with Bernardaud china and Christofle silverwares.

Service was attentive. I would suggest the staff introduce the procedure and essence of each dish without customer asking. After all, customers come to Baume intrigued by the scientific approach of cooking.

Just learned today that Baume restaurant has gained the second star in Michelin 2012 guide. Congratulations!

x.commerce

Today, at innovate coference in San Francisco, ebay has anounced X.Commerce. Ebay wants to enable open commerce, by opening up the commerce platform. How many times did we stand in a retail store, looking at the goods, take out our smartphones, use an application like redlaser, do research, and complete the transactions on the phone? Commerce is about what consumers want, how they want it, and when they want it, said John Donohoe.

At San Francisco Symphony

For Yo-Yo Ma's performance of Hindemith and MTT's Brahms No 1.

RulesFest 2011 in San Francisco Bay Area!

I will be speaking about "Scalability in Real-Time Decision Making". Come join us!

Bo Innovation

Bo Innovation was the 65th best restaurant in the world, voted by World's Best 50 Restaurants by Restaurant magazine, in 2010. It holds one Michelin star in 2011.

Chef Alvin Leung looks like a Chinese rock singer. He wears a black t-shirt that says "The Maverick Chef" under his highlighted blue hair. He spends most of the time in the open kitchen, overlooking line cooks and the service in the dining room, as well as explains the dishes proudly to the customers who choose to sit at the bar in front of the kitchen.

The restaurant has a Chinese name, 厨魔, which literally means kitchen demon. It serves Chinese cuisine in molecular gastronomy. It sits in a semi-residential building, on the second floor. The dining room isn't big, there is patio seating.

I had the 13 course Chef's dinner menu. Food was more interesting than tasty. It was definitely more of a playful experience, by learning how Chef Leung reconstructed the traditional Chinese ingredients into the creative dishes.

For example, instead of bread, they serve egglets (the egg-shaped pancake) with a blend of Iberico ham.

Tomato cooked in the traditional soy vinager.

"Xiao Long Bao", the famous Chinese steamed dumpling with meat inside, has turned into this warm gello in Leung's hand. Same ingredients are used: flour, meat, vinager, ginger, but totally in different form. Funnily, after I put it in my mouth and crush the thin skin, the thick sauce inside is indeed the same taste of Xiao Long Bao.

Century Egg is the traditional Chinese pickled egg with pickled ginger. The presentation is the ginger liquid with dry ice, that generates the bubbles and foam.

Chef Leung must be the pioneer of molecular gastronomy in the Chinese world. I admire his creativity. Some of the dishes are nicely crafted and are very fun to eat, others need some polishing. Dessert (Chinese petit four) needs more thinking - what is served is the chinese candies bought from supermarket.

I had chosen the wrong season to be there, a night of temperature of 95 degree. The dining room itself isn't the most comfortable one, especially under the extreme weather, it has negatively impacted my appetite.

However, it's a fun and eye-opening restaurant. If you travel to Hong Kong, be sure to try it.

Here are some other pictures: