gfron1

Checks can be mailed to HERO H.U.T. Fund which is the school's account for extracurriculars. Memo line should read: O'Bannon Culinary Team. If it is sent to the restaurant then I can catch it for the financial match (3307 Washington Ave, STL, MO 63103). I also have talked the Les Dames de Escoffier local chapter to match as well, so all donations are being double matched. And I don't have an electronic way of doing this because it would have to go through my personal venmo or paypal, and that's too messy. Thank you!

As we go into the final week or two of JBF judging, I'm proud to share this interview I did with our local NPR affiliate about our work with a local high school. The school is in the historic red-lined district of St Louis, which, while legally ended in the 70s, practically continued into the 80s and some would argue, today. HERE is the interview. On Thursday we were named the #1 restaurant in the city by the Post-Dispatch (the city's main newspaper). We were #2 last year. I'm immensely proud of my team!

Ha! Yeah, obviously fingers and brain were not connected with that response, so I'm glad folks sorted me out.

Many possible explanations, but if it called for cake flour, that means there is corn starch in with the flour, and so if you didn't replace that, this is a likely outcome.

If you ever dig them out I would love to see them. I have a few modern wooden molds, but like everyone else I've been getting into the plastic lately

Based on some of the research that led to the last post I bought this book and am so happy I did. The translating is a slug, but there's such a long, rich history of baking told through the lens of molds in China. Here are just a few snips for anyone interested in seeing the beauty of these molds.

I am circling back on this topic because I knew there was a culture context that I was missing between my question and Liuzhou's response. My bestie is from Shandong province and he and I have been having an ongoing conversation about this confusion. I share his response: The articles he shared are below, both of which Chrome did a pretty solid job in translating for me: http://life.51grb.com/life/2022/09/26/2024320.shtml https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_9481145 So it appears that baking has a long history and even a professionalization back to the Tang Dynasty: Now I'm more determined than ever to find the books or blogs that explore this history.

I lease mine and won't every buy again. They service it monthly and that's included in the price. They'll have options of hot or cold water, and size/location. Now I have an left to right, but previousy I had a corner unit. At our bar we have a small one that's quieter but has a very small profile. A leasing agent will have options for you to consider. DO. NOT. USE. SYSCO or any other EcoLab system. They lock you into arrangements that you may not want and for a price higher than anyone else. They are trying to sell you convenience. I found a company through my commercial equipment repair company, and they have the lowest price, year to year leasing so i can bail at any time, and they do not require that I buy their chems - unlike SYSCO and many other places. They happen to have the cheapest chems so I often do, but I can also grab some at Restaurant Depot in a pinch. In New Mexico we bought, and felt great about that until we started having repairs and that happens a lot, which brings in mechanical repairs and plumbing repairs, we had to dial in our own chems which sometimes led to issues with our health inspector, etc. I think the $80/month I pay for my machine and servicing is well worth it.

Wondering if anyone has ever noticed a difference to explain the price variance among these products by brand. For an example, the bag on the left is .99c US at my local store, and right next to it was the bag to the right priced at $2.19US. There's a third brand that falls in the middle at $1.79US. I've never noticed a difference but I don't use them every day.

OK, it sounds like you've got things well under control then. I would suggest browsing the pastry forum which has a few topics on starting a chocolate business. Those might have what you're looking for.

I highly encourage you (since you're in the US) to reach out to your Small Business Development Center. Their experts can walk you through the development of a business plan, which will cover all of these questions and more. Please take this comment in the spirit of helpfulness it is intended - your original question suggests that you have very limited knowledge of running an operation like this, and the failure rate of new businesses is so high, and in chocolate with ever rising CoDB the risk is even higher. My original SBDC consultant (which is a free service) told me that their job is to talk me out of starting a business, because if they couldn't do that then I likely had a solid plan for success. Best wishes in following your dream!

A friend bought this for me. This is the level of book I'm looking for. It will help me with my Mandarin lessons, and get better with my Chinese pastry.

HERE you go

I've noticed butter making an impact lately as well. And which pig and which level of refinement certainly makes a difference. Ours didn't have that smell or flavor at all, but I know in the past we've had some strong flavored lard. Since these were just for me it didn't really matter.

We just slaughtered a pig for the restaurant so lard it was