Photos & Recap: The Doppelganger Dinner
Photo by Steph Goralnick (http://sgoralnick.com)
I had a thought once about couples where one person was a vegetarian and the other was a meat eater. It seemed like they could really never share a meal and have the same experience without one person–usually the omnivore–compromising to suit the mutually agreeable meal. To a normal, well adjusted human being, this is a totally banal observation that wouldn’t warrant losing sleep over.
But to us at Studiofeast, we thought it’d be cool to do a meal where an omnivore and a vegetarian could both share the same meal without the former forgoing meat or the latter having to try flesh. That was the seed of an idea that grew into our most recent dinner: a 7 course meal with an omnivore and vegetarian option where each corresponding course looked identical across the meat/vegetable line. And on July 17th, we seated 40 guests–20 omnivores on one side of the table, 20 vegetarians sitting opposite them–and served them our Doppelganger Dinner. [Full menu & photo gallery after the jump!]
Photo by Steph Goralnick (http://sgoralnick.com)
We also wanted to challenge ourselves by not simply creating a bunch of meat dishes and substituting each meat with tofu or some other protein stand-in. So no repeating of ingredients: if we used basil puree in the veggie dish, then we had to use parsley puree in the meat dish. This turned out to be an interesting puzzle because we had to compose our dishes in pairs. Ingredients that could never be coaxed into resembling some other ingredient were out of the question. On top of that, we needed pairs of ingredients that looked visually alike to each other, but also paired nicely with the flavor profile of the rest of their dishes. Derrick, Soomin, Christine, Demian and I spent hours brainstorming and testing to create what ultimately became our menu:
Amuses // Photo by Steph Goralnick (http://sgoralnick.com)
Amuses
Vegetarian: Apricot Roe, Coconut, Mint
Omnivore: Salmon Roe, Vichyssoise, Celery
Spherified apricot puree matched salmon roe with our pair of white soups.
Tartares // Photo by Steph Goralnick (http://sgoralnick.com)
Tartares
Vegetarian: Tomato, Yellow Pepper, Basil
Omnivore: Beef, Smoked Egg, Parsley
Again, spheres save the day and we paired a smoked egg yolk to a yellow pepper puree.
Marrows // Photo by Steph Goralnick (http://sgoralnick.com)
Marrows
Vegetarian: Potato/Onion, Kale, Miso Butter
Omnivore: Beef, Mustard Green, Duckfat
The team hand carved 45 yukon potatoes to look like bones; caramelized onion played the marrow part.
Noodles // Photo by Steph Goralnick (http://sgoralnick.com)
Noodles
Vegetarian: La Mian, Shiitake Dashi, Kombu
Omnivore: Shrimp Noodle, Bacon Dashi, Wood Ear
Instead of veggie looking like meat, we had meat looking like veggie. Activa bonded shrimp paste was extruded through a squeeze bottle to create pure shrimp noodles.
Breasts // Photo by Steph Goralnick (http://sgoralnick.com)
Breasts
Vegetarian: Watermelon, Fennel, Carrot
Omnivore: Duck, Celery, Sweet Potato
Compressing, sous vide-ing, and grilling watermelon yields a deep, red, meaty texture.
Scallops // Photo by Steph Goralnick (http://sgoralnick.com)
Scallops
Vegetarian: Tofu, Green Bean, Kimchi
Omnivore: Sea Scallop, Garlic Scape, Red Pepper
Amazing tofu from an old man in Chinatown hand carved to mirror some incredible dayboat scallops from Metropolitan Seafood.
Desserts // Photo by Steph Goralnick (http://sgoralnick.com)
Desserts
Vegetarian: Blueberry, Frikeh Wooddruff, Birch
Omnivore: Uni, Lobster, Corn, Licorice
Micah Phillips from Compose, kicking ass as usual.
That dessert was lovingly invented and crafted by Micah, pastry chef at Compose in Tribeca, with help from his lovely assistant Karen Yung. Derrick and I had been to Compose during the planning phase of this dinner and instantly knew that Micah was the perfect pastry chef to rise to this challenge. He definitely hit it out of the park.
Photo by Steph Goralnick (http://sgoralnick.com)
During service, I also saw a great deal of cross dish sharing, with veggies and omnis curious about what the other had on their plate. Confusion was indeed a byproduct of this meal and I hope it kept everyone on their toes throughout the meal. That tension of “wait, what am I eating?” ended up being a great catalyst for conversation and interaction and it was fun to watch the crowd as new dishes arrived on the table. It was also nice to simply see vegetarians in the room, as this was the first time we’ve ever offered something for them. The night turned out incredibly and we had a well oiled machine that was our chef/server crew creating a great night for a room full of happy guests.
Photo by Steph Goralnick (http://sgoralnick.com)
This was certainly one of the more complex events we’ve pulled off, and I would be remissed if I didn’t give a shout out to the amazing staff helping to plan and execute this dinner: Derrick Yuen, Soomin Baik, Demian Repucci, and Christine Wells for their herculean efforts during testing and prep; Joe LeVine for being an especially awesome dude; Michael Cirino of a razor, a shiny knife lending his formidable science and cooking skills to our chef team; Brian Quinn for pairing and serving our wines along with Jessica Lawrence; Micah Phillips and Karen Yung for killing it on the dessert; Ben Walmer of the Highlands Dinner Club for hooking me up with Mark Drabich at Metropolitan Seafood (the greatest scallops I’ve ever tasted); Steph Goralnick for being a visual virtuoso and capturing the evening beautifully; and finally to Jeremy Kressmann, Jenny Lee, Brittany Clark and Roiya Saatian, and Danielle Gould of Food+Tech Connect for being total rockstars at making sure our guests were happy in the dining room.
Team Studiofeast // Photo by Steph Goralnick (http://sgoralnick.com)
Below is a full photo gallery of the evening by Steph. Stay tuned for a time lapse video and be on the lookout for more events coming soon. We look forward to cooking for you in the future.
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There should be an online survey/quiz as part of this article that asks readers to guess which dish is the omnivore and veggie version. I bet getting even 5 out of 7 would be a challenge.
Haha great idea!
That would be an excellent idea because honestly as an omnivore I had a really hard time guessing which was which!
WOW!!!!
That meal and the way that it is presented looks fantastic. Looks delisious too.
looks absolutely incredible! the entire studio feast team looks ridiculously happy. sooo happy for you..
k
love the girl with the jaw-drop. mine is currently in that state. BRAAAAVOOOOOOOO!!!
Wow wow wow! This is truly impressive! Please bring this concept to Paris and thank you for the awesome reportage!
[...] This is fantastic: http://studiofeast.com/2011/07/21/recap-doppelganger-dinner/ [...]
I love this idea and I think it was executed beautifully but I think you missed part of your original point. You said that the two people: an omnivore and a vegetarian never have the same food EXPERIENCE and if you give them two different flavors aren’t their experiences still going to be different?
Either way this was certainly a challenge!
holy shit this is epic
this is nice, but where’s the protein for the vegetarians? two tiny tofu circles? i have a small appetite but think i would have walked away hungry.
Proof that you don’t need to support animal cruelty to have a delicious, gourmet meal! Bravo! I hope you will be adding these dishes to your regular menu.
So bummed I missed it – it looks amazing! Congratulations Team Doppleganger!
Why bother! And apart from anything else your veg option looks sadly lacking in quality protein. When will vegetarians realise that if they want to improve animal welfare in farming, they need to buy – yes – BUY – meat that’s certified reared to high welfare standards. Meat like lamb and mutton is free range, as is venison. There is guaranteed free-range grass fed beef and pork also available. The more people buy these – and are prepared to pay the price – the more will be reared this way. In the meantime, too many vegetarians rely on soya protein. Commercial grown Soya beans come from China, Brazil & US – that’s a big carbon footprint! Furthermore, we as homo sapiens would not be “sapiens” were it not for our hominid ancestor eating meat! The only reason for not eating meat is because you don’t like the taste. Any other reason is downright spurious
Brilliant attempt to confront a common problem. Quite often the issue for vegetarians eating out is not the crap food – we expect that – but the imbalance of trying to share an experience with someone, or even a bunch of people. You don’t have to eat the same food to share the pleasure of eating exciting food together, but it does have to be of the same standard and style of cooking. So bravo for an inspirational effort.
Cat – animal welfare is not a vegetarian issue. We don’t eat them at all, so how you rear them, catch them or what you feed them is of no interest to us. You must be confusing vegetarians with someone else. Vegetarianism is an issue of personal morality focussed on the issue of using animals as food.
[...] collaborator Soo Baik will be demonstrating how to make the Beef vs Potato Marrow from their recent Doppelganger Dinner- one of my favorite dishes from the evening. Soo will be doing the beef version from one Hangout [...]
[...] Link – via Nag on the Lake [...]
[...] of friends, old and new, in the hangout while Soo and I demoed the Marrows dish from our recent Doppelganger Dinner. Here’s a short clip of the plating where her meat version met my mirror image vegetarian [...]
Incredible! I loved the photos … many colors and many flavors … perfect combination!
[...] The Doppelganger dinner. [...]
LOVE that you thought to create interesting food for vegetarians! Yes, I noticed the lack of protein, but was bowled over by the effort at presentation and flavor. I think it’s often the veggies and not the omnivores who have to compromise. I usually have one choice on the menu while my husband has many. Can I fly up from Florida for one of these events?!
[...] Krulwich blogged about Studiofeast‘s so-called Doppelganger dinner – seven full courses of meat/veggie look-alikes served to twenty couples – earlier this [...]
Thank you for your hsntoey. I hope people benefit from your story and that you continue to feel better
[...] the whole story here. See a timelapse video of the whole thing below. GA_googleAddAttr("AdOpt", "1"); [...]
[...] more than 12 guests and serve anywhere from 3-6 courses. While things like the L Train Lunch or the Doppelganger Dinner were larger, more bombastic concepts on a spectacular scale, the Studiofeast Sunday series aims to [...]
[...] to Studiofeast- the supper club behind the Doppelganger Dinner and a partner in the L Train lunch- AOL users choose sauce, cheese and crab, while Gmail users [...]
[...] me and was interested in doing a web short on Studiofeast. He had read about us following the Doppelganger Dinner and was looking to feature us in the first episode of a series of food films he was producing [...]
[…] The Doppelganger Dinner – "a 7 course meal with an omnivore and vegetarian option where each corresponding course looked identical across the meat/vegetable line." […]