Galleria Illy
October 24th 2005
David Rosengarten's 28 seconds
I am not exactly sure what I expected but it isn't the odd, fun, and informative play we saw last night in soho. My girlfriend asked me a few weeks ago - do you want to go to the Illy temporary coffee thing and learn about coffee? Sure - we all wanted to. It is free - cool. The day of the show I saw that David Rosengarten's name is on the invite - odd - I know him or well I have heard of him - his show on the food network was good back in the day. So we go.
We sit on couches and wait for the lecture to begin. They ask if we want a cappuccino - we rifle through our pockets find that all together we have a few bucks and go for it. Nice cappuccino - very nice - creamy - rounded - different then one in Italy but still amazing. Ok we all go in for the event.
And then it gets fun - David Rosengarten is lecturing - a woman interrupts him - and soon you see that this is a play not really a lecture. There are TV clips - bantering between the two of them - and coffee coffee coffee - oh my. They gave us enough caffeine to wake us even if we were dead! Brazilian coffee, Indian coffee, Ethiopian coffee - and then the illy blend. We learnt about roasting and why dark dark roasts as they are so popular in the united states isn't really the best way to drink your coffee.
The night continued. We tasted pistachios, dried cherries, chocolate, and burnt potato skins to get a feel for the different tastes and smells people usually find in their coffee. More coffee - this time stale, bitter, and watery coffee to get a feel for what makes a bad cup. I think a lot of the bodega coffee I get falls somewhere between stale and bitter.
There was a parade through the different coffee makers out there. David Rosengarten knows a lot about not only coffee but how to make it. Did you know that your drip coffee maker is not getting the water hot enough. 190 - 200 degrees Fahrenheit is the preferred temperature - not 160 which is where most auto drips sit around. There is one - it's called Techni Vorm from Holland that gets that hot - and of course Rosengarten uses one
The night ended with a Ethiopian coffee prayer in a dark room candles. It was a bit much I guess but I liked it (I am a sucker for this kind of stuff) but it gave you a nice bookend - a feeling of how important coffee is. Finally we got to taste our 28 second (the proper amount of time to shove steam through coffee to make espresso) cup of espresso. I liked it - my two event mates weren't too happy with it but really espresso is tough when you don't drink it much. I don't either but I could see the appeal - such a bang of taste all at once...and then it is gone.
I can say my love of coffee increased last night - I will try and experiment a bit more - maybe by a weird Dutch coffee maker or a crazy expensive Italian espresso maker (hmm which one...maybe one that starts with two vowels).
I recommended 28 seconds for anyone who can get in - I know lots of people sign up - so there are only a few left I think - so go for it. And people it is all free.