amuse-bouche
The first time I had an amuse-bouche was at The French Laundry. Specifically, their signature amuse-bouche, the creme fraiche and salmon tartare "ice cream cone." And I loved it.
Since then, amuses have shown up at most of our dinner parties, and I pay attention to them whenever we get one at a restaurant. I love the concept of a little pre-dinner snack, one that showcases a particular ingredient or offers a unique presentation.
So when I got re-hired, one of my first purchases was Rick Tramonto's amuse-bouche, a cookbook devoted wholly to the concept. Chef Tramonto is a reasonable expert on the subject; his Chicago restaurant Tru became so well known for their amuses that they now offer an all amuse "flight" menu.
His enthusiasm for these little bites carries through in the pages of his books. And while the ideas are definitely inspirational, it seems to me like some of the recipes could use some work. While I loved his idea for using a blood-orange aspic with oysters (which we did when we hosted a Champagne tasting), the actual aspic was pretty, um, solid. Rubbery even. One gets the sense that he really likes gelatin; his all-purpose vegetable aspic calls for 2 cups of vegetable stock and 20 sheets of gelatin. This seems excessive.
His saffron-Champagne sorbet came out pretty grainy, though it tasted great. Good enough in fact that I'll probably take the time to dig out my Harold McGee and Shirley Corriher food science books and research sorbets so that I can improve his recipe with my own.
But some of the pictures are stunning. He had a set of glass staircases made on which to present caviar, and it's probably for the best that I'm on a budget, because he sells them. Not that I eat caviar all that much, but you could present virtually anything on that and have it be stunning. I don't know how much they cost; I've been afraid to ask. He uses interesting platings, kept simple as befits the nature of the amuse, but interesting nonethless.
The final analysis: if you cook, and you are as enraptured with these bites as I, it's probably a worthwhile book to pick just for inspiration. If you want to incorporate amuses into your dinners, it's probably also worth it as a starting point. But it's definitely worth doing a trial run of a dish before you serve it to guests, as the recipe may not come out as well as you think.
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