 Valley Table staff Issue 43 (Oct/Nov 08) [Copyright © 2008, The Valley Table] This time out, we highlight a dish we didn't order. We didn't have to--an amuse bouche (ah MOOZ boosh) is that tasty little tidbit some restaurant kitchens send out "compliments of the chef." An amuse, intended to tease the appetite and set the tone, is served before the first course--a small offering, usually just a single bite or spoonful. It implies a certain level of quality and service and gives diners a sample of what's to come. At Back Yard Bistro, a small, 18-seat dining room, near Montgomery, chefs/owners Susan and Jerry Crocker bracket many meals with a treat at the beginning (an amuse) and at the end (mignardises) to give customers a good first and last impression. "The amuse serves so many purposes," Crocker explains. "It's about first impressions--it covers that awkward little moment when people are waiting for their first course. It puts people in a good frame of mind. It's that little touch that you don't get everywhere." While a simple offering of olives or hummus suffices in many restaurants, an amuse (or ami, as Crocker affectionately calls it) often is used to showcase the chef's creativity, and it's anything but simple. Crocker likes to use four to five ingredients in his. "We put a lot into the amuse," he stresses. "It's this little thing, but you have to give a dissertation when you put it down. We don't do simple." Harmonizing unique ingredients and showcasing new cooking techniques are de rigueur. Crocker once offered Parmesan pearls with oysters using "spherification," a technique that uses sodium alginate and calcium chloride to create a gelatin shell around a liquid. "A 'caviar' effect," Crocker explains. "It 'pops' in your mouth. We put it on the menu a few times, but it's better as a mid-week ami. It's difficult--when we're busy it's too much to do." Indeed, an amuse can be labor intensive and costly; it's not a matter of throwing scraps together, though it can be a creative outlet for ingredients that might otherwise go unused. Crocker routinely trimmed and tossed away lamb belly, for example, until a line cook suggested making bacon out of it. Now, lamb bacon is used to make one of the Bistro's favored amuse: lamb bacon with heirloom tomato jam and micro-greens on a crispy potato chip (recipe opposite). When an amuse proves to be a real crowd pleaser, it can graduate to the menu. Tonje Farm blue cheese ice cream cannelloni (frozen blue cheese ice cream wrapped in beet) was first served as an amuse--it's now a steady performer on the appetizer menu. So, the amuse bouche is a tiny, pre-dinner palate-pleaser. Make that a big-time crowd-pleaser, too. | 
