Living the compost life

All things culinary has always been a big part of my life since I grew up with a chef for a father and also make my living in the food industry. I’ve never been afraid to try new things and most often it’s a really good experience. A while back I came across a dish I just had to try. It was presented on the menu as ”compost baked onion” and that really caught my eye and intrigued my mental taste buds. Needless to say, an image of a bunch of onions resting cozy in the middle of a compost pile, came up for my inner eye. Of course this was not the case. I will get back to the technical side soon but first I want to describe what came in fron of me and the taste experience from this particular way of cooking onion. 

The plate that landed in front of me was a work of art in its simplicity. Three pieces of scale leafs was the base, this little natural cup was filled with a very eye pleasing truffle foam on a mix of fried forest mushrooms and topped of with chips made from Jerusalem artichoke. The smell was just amazing and instant hunger set in. With an anticipation I really haven’t felt before, I dug into the food. And OH! MY! GOD! The flavours exploded in my mouth. The onions themselves was so intense in flavours and that mixed with the soothness of the mushrooms and trufflefoam was incredible. Add in the crispy chips and I had an instant mouthgasm. That’s how it should taste. Nothing more, nothing less. It was food perfection. 

So… the technical bit. Of course the onions weren’t sitting in a compost pile for days, to bake. No, what the restaurant had, was a controlled compost machine where they tossed all the veggie leftovers to make a very flavourful compost bed. They took the compost and baked the onions on it in the oven. Like so, the food sucked up all the flavours from the compost. Amazing.