I’m kind of a cookbook addict. Besides this, I’m the guy that goes to the book store and flips through all the books, creates Amazon wishlists, goes to the library to see what’s new, and salivates at the books at work.  If Mindy ever kicks me out these will be my shelter.  This doesn’t even cover my digital collection which spans over 5,000 books from the 1400′s to current day musings of sliders and fusion food!

Hi, my name is Eric and I’m a cookbook addict.  I’ve been clean and sober for…..dammit that El Celler de Can Roca book is coming out soon and then the Cook it Raw, and the Manresa and…..freak out moments. Cookbook O.C.D., if you will.

Eric

The cement blocks came out a lot better than expected.  The edges are a little rough which I’m not thrilled about but the blocks didn’t crumble when I removed them from the molds.  I think the next go around I’ll add a little less water to the mix, add more dye, and make the molds a little more solid (not much of a wood worker of here in cooking land!).

Anyway, here are a couple more pictures.   They just need food on top of them now.  I think the best part about these cement plates is that if someone doesn’t like the food that’s on them then their car windows are going to mysteriously shatter.

Eric

I have an idea for a dish. It involves making my own plateware so here we go.  I like the idea of cement being plateware.  You can play with temperatures, texture, and it’s relatively cheap to work with. Thing is, I’ve never worked with it so this is all a crap shoot.  Will it work? Who knows!  If it does then the first back flip is on me.

I made mold to pour the cement in.  You’ll notice that each one is different….that was on purpose…..I promise.   I would like the final dish to be spread out on each piece and be fully composed but be plated completely different and with different temperatures being showcased on each little cement pedestal.

I chose a dark dye to go along with the cement in order to help contrast the dish that I will be working with.  Like I said, I hope this works….. If not, I have a little more cement for the next round…..I really just want to get to the cooking aspect so I hope I lucked out with this one.

I have a dream scenario for this dish but it’s going to take a lot more work to get there and frankly, I’m at cement .003 trying to get to 1.0.  However, the food aspect of it is pretty fun…I have all that worked out.

Anyway, let’s all sit around and watch this dry!  You ever pour cement in a 350 square foot apartment?  I have…………very carefully!

Eric

Eric

My first panoramic. Cool.   Click on it to make it bigger.

Eric

Prior to a little time with the pressure cooker.

Eric