(This is an interview I conducted a few years ago with Chef Noel Jones of the PolytechnicON20)
The PolytechnicON20 Delights With a Heavenly Experience
As a guest of the beautiful PolytechnicON20 in downtown Hartford many surprises wait to tantalize your every sense and awaken a playful feeling of adventure.
Martinis that change color as you drink, appetizers that delightfully bubble and smoke and a dessert amuse that hovers in mid air, if this sounds like the dining experience of another planet, then executive chef Noel Jones has done his job. Although Jones has yet to perfect the tasty morsel that defies gravity, he does have numerous other tricks up the sleeves of his immaculate chef’s coat to surprise and delight his guests.
“It’s in our nature to want to serve and make people happy,” says Jones. “What I do is create fun and an illusion with food. Food is theatre and I want people to be captivated by it.”
In his kitchen, Jones practices what is known as molecular gastronomy, a recent trend in haute cuisine that is the scientific exploration of food and its preparation; although Jones prefers to call it “experimental cooking.”
Born in Ireland to a family of chefs and restaurant aficionados, Jones began his career at the age of 14 when he began working at the French restaurant where his mother was maitre d’. After graduating culinary school in the top of his class, he earned such titles as chef tournant at the Hotel Europe, a five star hotel in Killarney, and executive chef at a Michelin rated restaurant in Kenmare.
Eventually, Jones crossed the Atlantic to join his two brothers, both also chefs living in Connecticut, and became the corporate executive chef for the United Technologies Companies. When he came to ON20 in 2005, Jones vowed to bring something unique to the table that had never been seen in the area before.
An amusing example of Jones’ creativity and his playfulness occurred during one of his extravagant tasting menus. Jones’ tasting menus are a special feature offered to restaurant guests in which Jones will send course after course of specially prepared items to the table, none of which appear on the regular restaurant menu. Jones says the inspiration for the various courses comes simply from the ingredients he has on hand and when he has repeat tasting customers, he strives to never send out a dish that guest has had at a previous tasting. This is no small feat since there is no set limit to the number of courses that will keep appearing at the table for as long as his guests have the stamina to enjoy them.
During this particular tasting in 2006, two of the gentlemen at the table kept getting up between courses to smoke a cigarette. Jones soon became annoyed by this and took a cigarette from a member of the waitstaff. He then infused the sauce that was to accompany a subsequent course with the tobacco, strained it, and served it to the two smokers. The “nicotine sauce” staved off the men’s cigarette cravings, keeping them in their seats and, most importantly, the men agreed the squab was delicious.
“There are nights I wake up in the middle of the night trying to think of what I can do different and how I can make it better,” says Jones. “Like an athlete before a big match, my mind gets racing.” More often than not, however, the problem for Jones is not getting the ideas, but rather effectively executing them. This is where Robert Moore comes in. If Jones is the painter who finesses the brush, then Moore is the carpenter who stretches the canvas.
Moore came to ON20 in the spring of 2007 as an intern while he completed his studies at the Connecticut Culinary Institute. A retired pathology laboratory director from Hartford Hospital, Moore admits that he has no interest in becoming a professional chef and that he decided to go to culinary school simply out of curiosity.
“I love to cook and I figured it would be neat to see how it’s done properly,” says Moore.
Jones and Moore instantly took to each other, as can be seen in a simple name.
“My given name is Robert,” explains Moore, “but my whole family calls me Bobby. Noel was the only person in my life to ever call me that in public. I thought that was so neat I put it on my chef’s coat.”
With his science and medicine background, Moore is able to fill in the technical gaps in Jones’ ideas and also is often able to supply the equipment needed in order to carry out their more elaborate projects.
In order to facilitate a recipe Jones had concocted for beet caviar, Moore brought in a peristaltic pump which forces a beet juice preparation through one tube, drops it at intervals into a non-toxic chemical solution and then pushes the resulting round beet juice pellets out the other side.
“Most of the tools we need already exist,” says Moore. “It’s just a matter of finding the components in the science and engineering world that are being used for something else and bringing them into the culinary world. The difficult part in all this is finding materials and methods that are acceptable as food products.”
Despite his unconventional methods, Jones insists that his approach to his craft is actually quite simplistic.
“I try to win you over with something very simple versus expensive ingredients like fois gras or truffle oil,” says Jones. “Taking something simple and making it remarkable is what real cooking is all about.”
Such as martinis that change color and food that levitates.
The levitation trick involves the use of sulfur hexafluoride, a compound that is denser than air. The compound is non-toxic and, if breathed in, has the opposite effect of inhaling the helium out of a balloon. In a liquefied state, the sulfur hexafluoride is poured into a container such as a pint glass or Mason jar and, because of its density, will cause a small object placed at the mouth of the container to float.
“It’s a simple matter of fundamental science,” says Moore. “The problem is finding food stuffs that fit the scientific requirements. It needs to be something light and airy and most people think that means small but that’s not necessarily true. There are ways around it and we can do it, but right now it’s not very elegant. We have the ideas in principle, but it takes more of the artistic skill to really pull it off well.”
“If it doesn’t taste good and it isn’t beautiful, then there’s no point in doing it,” says Jones.
While Jones and Moore are certainly not the first to dabble with gastronomic innovations, well-known chefs at prestigious restaurants around the world have for years been preparing such delightfully unexpected dishes as nitro-scrambled eggs and bacon ice cream, they certainly are the only ones in Hartford attempting to create a dish so heavenly it literally floats off the plate.
Now that Moore has finished his internship, he continues to work with Jones on discussing new concepts, such a fruit-based pasta dish.
“We don’t get out much, but that’s what gets us excited,” says Jones. “Bobby is my counterpart. When we first met I knew he was so much more intelligent than I’d ever be in my life. I see him as a friend and respect him so much.”
As this duo continues to push the limits of the culinary avant-garde, however, they never seem to loose sight of their purpose.
“I want to shake things up here,” says Jones “and we are. But I’ll never say that ‘I’ve arrived’ because the next time you always have to be better. If you think you’re at the top of the mountain, then what way do you have to go from there?”
Even if the artist and the scientist managed to reach the top of the mountain, it is doubtless they would stop there. More likely, Jones and Moore will reach to the very edge of possibility in order to provide their guests with an outer worldly experience.
