Ratatouille with a Roasted Fennel Vinaigrette

‎"When you acknowledge as you must, that there is no such thing as perfect food, only the idea of it, then the real purpose of striving toward perfection becomes clear; to make people happy. That's what cooking is all about."

- Thomas Keller

I have a real issue with perfection. To me, perfection is my nemesis. Perfection is my Doctor Evil—the one force that I am constantly trying to outdo.

I seek perfection in food, relationships, performance and so much more. Perfection is that moment that everything is right. Unfortunately, and one thing that I must always remember, is that perfection is rarely achieved in reality.

There have been times when after a dinner event or a date, that I look back on the evening that I think, I could have done something better, or I could have said the perfect line, but I didn’t.

For me, perfection and its pursuit, often clouds what was a great performance. I’m driven and motivated by perfection and in many ways that is my greatest downfall. The desire to achieve perfection hinders my ability to understand what was in all likelihood a great moment.

The point that Chef Keller is making is that the ultimate goal is to make people happy. The point of perfection is a figment of our imagination, so to thrill people, to ignite people is what we, as chefs, must wrap our arms around.

This dish, inspired by Chef Thomas Keller and the movie Ratatouille, is a true reflection of that pursuit. When I did this dish for a recent dinner event, the flavors were spot on, the texture and balance was achieved but the final presentation just never quite came together. I plated the dish over and over and I was never happy with it. When it came time to plate the final dish I was extremely frustrated. My little chef told me to stand back. On her first try, she nailed it.

“It needs height chef!” She said and smiled at me.

The presentation was brilliant. It was exactly what I had been desperately trying to achieve. The line in the movie reminds me of this particular moment.

“Not everyone can become a great artist, but a great artist can come from anywhere!”

“Plate them all.” I told her and she did. When the plates hit the table the guests were amazed.

Ratatouille with a Roasted Fennel Vinaigrette

• 3 yellow squash, thinly sliced
• 3 zucchini, thinly sliced
• 3 Japanese eggplant, thinly sliced
• 5 roma tomatoes, thinly sliced
• 3 sprigs of rosemary
• 3 sprigs of thyme
• 3 cloves of garlic, minced

Tomato Sauce

• 4 roma tomatoes quartered
• 3 cloves of garlic, minced
• ½ cup of water

To make the tomato sauce, place the quartered tomatoes in a mixing bowl with the minced garlic, a touch of olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Place the coated tomatoes on a sheet pan and roast in an oven set at 350 degrees for about a half an hour. When the tomatoes have wilted a bit, remove from the heat and add to a food processor. Add the ½ cup of water to the processor and puree until the mixture is smooth and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Roasted Fennel Vinaigrette

• 1 bulb of fennel with the green fronds removed (We’re only interested in using the white portion of the fennel bulb!)

Halve the fennel bulb and coat with olive oil, salt and pepper and roast on a sheet pan in the oven at 350 degrees. It’s totally fine to do this at the same time as roasting the tomatoes for the sauce. You can use the same roasting pan, as you should have plenty of room for the fennel bulb. When the bulb is soft, remove from the heat and chop down to smaller portions. Place the chopped, roasted fennel bulb in a food processor with a ¼ cup of apple cider vinegar and puree until the mixture is smooth.

To assemble. In a roasting pan, spread the tomato sauce on the bottom of the pan and shingle the squash, zucchini, eggplant, and tomato over the sauce. Repeat this process, one after another until the roasting pan is completely full (see photo).

Place the sprigs of rosemary and thyme along with the garlic over the neatly arranged slices and then lay a sheet of parchment paper over the roasting pan making sure to cover every last bit of surface area. Then place the roasting pan in a preheated oven set at 325 degrees for about 45 minutes.

To plate. Use a thin spatula to lift the shingled slices from the roasting pan. I used 12 slices, meaning that I had three slices of each component and set in the middle of your finest white-rimmed bowl. Give the slices a half twist and affix on the bottom of the bowl.

Next take four more slices, one zucchini, one squash, one eggplant and one tomato and lay over the twisted arrangement of vegetables. This is what I was failing to do, and this is where my little chef’s brilliance comes into play.

As she lay the last four slices, she gave them a last push of height to the final presentation. My slices were more like a blanket, covering the arrangement where her idea was that the initial stack was the base to achieve height.

Lastly, spoon the vinaigrette around your tower of Ratatouille goodness and serve!

Buen Provecho!