Tweezermania.

When we went to Alinea Restaurant for dinner, one of the mind-bending showstoppers was their lamb course. Perfectly prepared sous vide lamb three ways with a rich jus.

But that wasn’t all — accompanying the lamb was a glass platter with SIXTY garnishes, 86 individual components in all, none repeated! Plenty for the four of us to share.

Questions like “How long did it take to plate this?” and “The horror, the horror, of prep involved?” immediately came to mind.

I actually did ask our server,”Can you please describe to us each of the components in detail?”

He paused, laughed, almost Zach Galifianakis-like, and replied “No.” That would have taken the fun out of it, and probably added another hour to our dinner…

Individually, I could see many repeats of familiar ingredients and component recipes from their cookbook. And it’s also a great way to use up extra prep from other courses served through the night. But there were also happy surprises like the three-way beets, and the compressed rosemary “chalk.” Cool things to try and identify, as if competing on some Food Network show…

Alinea released a video by Christian Seel, which shows some of the intense work that goes into this main course.

Since no printed key was given to us after the meal, here is my attempt at a “legend” to the garnishes. If you see errors, or want to add to this, pop me an email!

Garnish Key for Alinea Restaurant’s Lamb 86 Recipe

Now the real question is, should I try recreating this at home?