The Lost Alinea Cookbook Essays

Vol. 2: The invention of Hot Potato, Cold Potato, an Alinea signature dish

“Hot pot! Walking!”

A food runner clad in a raven black suit cries out.

He glides across the Alinea kitchen, fixated on two paraffin bowls containing icy truffle potato soup, their smooth translucent walls pierced by sharp glinting pins upon which an eighth inch cube of Danish butter, a fissured chunk of parmesan, a crisp aromatic chive, and a truffle-draped sphere of hot Yukon Gold potato glistening in clarified butter are impaled.

The bowls are perched precariously on stainless steel serving forks (to ensure that the heat from a runner’s hand doesn’t compromise the temperature of the cold soup during delivery) and held fast to a silver tray lined with non-skid black grip. The runner’s somber visage is clear. Don’t fuck with me, or you’re a dead person.