hi guys --
it's great to see some of you still really dedicated to Cookology. I understand that continuing on cookology is has become more difficult, with limited resources, money, and space. I wanted to highlight some key factors you guys could improve on that I noticed from my dining experience.
1. front of house: seemed a bit disorganized and didn't follow a protocol that emphasized details. for example, silverware was flung onto my table at times and was not uniformly set for all the diners at the tables.
2. food needed more clear communication. no one told us that the menu had changed beforehand; for example, that the courses of cod and lamb had been switched from the order on the menu. as diners, we would really appreciate knowing whats coming next, especially when given a menu.
3. the details really matter. on the amuse bouche, there should be more thought in putting the chili flakes on the soup spheres -- if you tried to scrape them off it there were too many on one, or if you just didn't like spicy foods, it would pop one of the soup spheres and you wouldn't be able to enjoy it anymore. take the time to think not only of the flavors of your dishes, but the experience and logistics of eating it. another example was being given a steak knife with dessert? it was just not very fitting.
also, ask yourselves if the garnishes add anything to the dish -- there was a lot of chopped parsley today that was just supposed to add color to an otherwise monochromed dish. it was also quite heavy handed with the garnishes of microgreens, which, when using as a garnish, should always be quickly tossed in olive oil, salt, and pepper as a finishing touch. the small handful of raw microgreens in certain dishes seemed rather careless.
4. the menu really revolved around spherification. i would've liked to see more variation in the techniques of delivering food in different forms.
5. be sure to taste the dishes before you send them out. the creole cod with mushroom gravy and hush puppies didn't have nearly enough salt. it was hard to get through because i felt like there were so many flavors just waiting to get amplified by salt -- it just wasn't there.
overall, good job cookology! please try not to be too discouraged with my comments (i realize they were pretty critical), because i also wanted to acknowledge the hard work and creativity i saw in Drift. Keep pushing the envelope!