Composing Dishes

How does the creative process of developing a new dish unfold?

In coming up with a dish, the starting point for Anne Rosenzweig is the ingredient’s essence. “Then I go into taste memory to see what the ingredient evokes,” she says. “And I’ll either bring it back—or bring it back in an even better incarnation.” She cites as an example the meatloaf offered on her menu at her second restaurant, The Lobster Club. “We interviewed customers, and talked among ourselves, and found that the thing everyone remembers about eating meatloaf growing up was the tomato sauce. So we’ll use different meats, and different seasonings, but we always incorporate a tomato sauce with it. And sometimes we get very playful!” “Playful” certainly describes “Julio Iglesias’s Mother’s Meatloaf,” a fictional creation incorporating roasted peppers and ancho chiles!