The least successful were the most conventional: Gulf grouper with beurre blanc felt flat; a side of carrots almandine was oddly gritty.

For example, he began using pecans instead of almonds in the trout almandine because pecans could be found locally.

Flat polished slabs of garnet are found inlaid in mosaic work in Anglo-Saxon and Merovingian jewelry, the material used being almandine, or “precious garnet.”