Let’s face it, people who make a career of working in kitchens aren’t normal to begin with. Every once in awhile it’s good for the soul to throw away convention and make something as weird as we sometimes are.

This dish is “The Goose and the Golden Egg”. The “goose” in this dish being a foie gras custard. Technically the foie gras we use is duck liver (grade A Hudson Valley), but historically it was goose liver so I took some poetic license. The rest of the dish is a crispy potato nest, local microgreens with a pear vinaigrette and truffled whipped cream. The whipped cream is prepared to be more savory than sweet.

To make the golden egg cup, I used an Inox egg topper from Sur la Table. I’ve used just about every topper out there, including an electric dremel, and this one is the best I’ve found: Inox egg topper. It looks odd, but the mechanism works great. You just place the bell shaped end at the top of the egg, raise the black ball all the way up and let the spring fire it back down. You would think the whole thing would explode on impact, but instead it makes a really clean slice in a perfect ring at the top of the egg. You can simply pull the top away, then pour out the egg. Be sure to reserve the egg for the custard recipe. Rinse the inside of the egg out very well under cold running water. The most time consuming part of making this cup is thoroughly cleaning out the very thin inner shell membrane. It is a thin, pink layer that rubs away when you rub it with your finger tip.

After you have a thoroughly clean egg cup you can begin the process of gilding it. You can find the gold here: Edible gold dust. I applied it with a fine tip paint brush then sprayed it with food safe shellac that can be found at Michaels. You may have to apply gold again to bare spots as it falls away fairly easily then apply shellac again. Also, Make sure when you are taking the eggs out in the beginning that you save the egg carton. It’s perfect for holding the egg upright and perfectly stable while in the oven. Only use the paper cartons, not the Styrofoam ones!

The recipe for the foie gras custard is as follows:

Foie gras 10 oz. wt.

Eggs, large 6 ea.

Heavy Whipping Cream 16 fl. oz.

Kosher Salt ½ tsp

Freshly ground white pepper ¼ tsp

1. Place the eggs, foie gras, salt and pepper in a blender and blend thoroughly.

2. While the blender is running, add the cream in a steady stream. Make sure not to blend too long or else the cream will curdle.

3. Fill the empty egg shells about three quarters of the way.

4. Place the custard filled eggs in the egg carton “cups”. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 325 degrees Fahrenheit for about forty minutes. Shake the egg a little to make sure the custard has set.

If you don’t feel like shelling out for gold dust, or like your company well enough to spend hours cleaning and gilding shells, you can always simply cook the custard in a mold then chill it and serve it with a soup. Wild mushroom soup for instance, or even a roasted apple or sweet potato soup.