alanamoana
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Posts posted by alanamoana
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a local restaurant (which is part of a nationwide small chain) offers a prime rib sandwich:
"servi avec au jus"
just that phrase in french...the rest of the description in english.
i know we've covered the "with au jus" but in french? it just got worse...
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in nyc at some of the higher end restaurants, they have special bags for taking home opened bottles of wine. in order to comply with 'open bottle' laws, the bag has to be able to be sealed and will show some sign if opened after leaving the premises.
so, the fact that they have these bags and developed this policy would indicate that it is not socially unacceptable to bring home the bottle that you couldn't finish at the restaurant.
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john is of course more eloquent than i am, but please do take your time and consider it...especially if it will be a hardship to pay back the debt you incur.
also, please consider taking shorter classes from other schools around the country. while still expensive, they are more manageable and a great introduction to subjects that you can pick and choose. maybe the lcb in atlanta even offers a part-time or a continuing education type of program? explore ALL of your options before you dive in.
all of this advice is to be taken with a grain of salt as you are the only one who knows your own specific story better than anyone else, but it is certainly not meant to discourage you from finding ways to achieve your dreams
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it is interesting that he has you put them back into the oven after filling the starch mold. sort of goes against other advice with regard to super saturated sugar syrups.
i have the book and took a look at the picture. it looks like they're supposed to be caviars with delicate shells that break and ooze the liqueur...is that the effect you're looking for?
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This is Le Cordon Bleu, after all, and hopefully I wouldn't have a hard time finding a good job, and could pay back the money in a timely fashion. Any ideas? HELP!!! Thanks, Lesa
there are a lot of threads on eG discussing this very topic. please don't be disillusioned, but even at 45 years old, with your experience AND with a le cordon bleu 'degree' under your belt...what are the job prospects? have you done homework on this end? most entry level jobs (and without restaurant, hotel experience this is what you'll be looking for) pay around $9-12/hour. for a $20K loan, that will take an awfully long time to repay.
popping out of school, don't expect to be a pastry chef right off the bat. if you are doing this for self edification, that's one thing...but again, i wouldn't go broke doing it. if you're doing it to get into the business, again, i wouldn't go broke doing it because it doesn't pay well enough for it to be worthwhile. since you are 45 years old, are you settled where you live? would you be willing to move to another state to get a better job? i know that atlanta has a lot of great restaurants, but i'm not sure what the job market is like in those restaurants.
maybe getting a job in a restaurant first to see what it is like before jumping into school? ask to work for free for a few weeks in the pastry department...
and while i can't link to all of the threads, do a search and see what others have to say about starting culinary school.
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they can be tempered together, but you have to maintain the lowest working temperature based on the chocolate with the most added fat. in other words, if you're tempering a blend of milk and dark chocolate, then you can go no higher than the proper temperature guidelines used for the tempering of milk chocolate.
because you're a beginner, i would recommend tempering them separately and getting used to this (practice, practice, practice). particularly in the case of dark chocolate, in order to melt out all of the cocoa butter crystals (bad ones) you have to reach a certain temperature that you can't reach with milk or white chocolates.
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Vanessa,
I was wondering how it would come out to cook down all that stuff into caramels/fudge...thanks for posting your results.
Would you cut that up and dip it in chocolate?
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i just cooked up some of the low sodium/low fat stuff...it is awful! i have to agree. low salt, low fat spam = no balls.
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forgot to add regional specialty...i worked at mcd's in hawaii where one of the breakfast offerings is "portugese sausage, eggs and rice"...it is fried linguica (portugese sausage), scrambled eggs and a couple of scoops of eggs. along with pepper, ketchup and soy sauce condiments, it is a great fast food breakfast.
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Mary, I don't think it is a problem. Remember during the class that Wybauw micro'd some leftover ganache to demonstrate the slam filling method. I think he was just cautious not to take it too hot. You've probably been doing it right all this time!
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sorry, i think people sometimes use shortened names and assume that everyone knows what they mean!
RLB = Rose Levy Beranbaum
Author of "The Cake Bible" and "The Pie and Pastry Bible"
due to copyright issues, we can't reproduce the exact recipe here, but maybe someone has an adaptation of their own they will post.
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hey mayhaw man...this might be interesting to you. the person who posted all this stuff is the owner of a restaurant in san francisco. an old boss of mine. he did all the remodeling himself and documented everything.
i'm not saying that the concept or decor is what you're talking about, but i found the photos fascinating and also because i worked for him, i was amazed at what he accomplished himself!
i wish you good luck and i know i would fall over AND roll over in my grave if i knew what you paid for your house. living in the san francisco bay area is pretty scary real estate-wise. there are some tear downs on small lots going for over a million!!!!!!!!!!!
keep us posted on your progress!
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i've never heard of people making broth out of parmigiano rinds, but i have heard of people putting the rinds into sauces, soups and etc. that already have a lot of flavor.
i agree with vadouvan...i have a feeling that if/when people do this, they think they're infusing or imparting parmigiano essence into their dish...but really it is psychological. maybe they figure they paid so much for the cheese they don't want to waste any
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^^if you go to the thread i linked to in an earlier post here, i think there's a description of the method i use.
i do a smooth crumb coat first and then glaze.
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even with a convection oven, i rotate my pans front to back and top to bottom halfway through baking. there's no such thing as an even baking oven. i don't care who says there is.
overbaking is probably the culprit as you're reducing the temperature in the oven by adding all of those pans at the same time so that it ends up taking longer to bake...drying out the cupcakes as well. also, by dropping the temperature so much, the baking powder doesn't get the hit of heat it needs to create carbon dioxide, so that could be a reason why your cupcakes aren't rising as much when the oven is too full.
imagine if you filled your refrigerator to capacity with hot items. it wouldn't cool them down quickly, would it?
an oven is no different. you change its efficiency when you fill it too full.
often with commercial convection ovens, there's room for two half-sheet pans side by side. so what i do is put one sheet pan on the left, on the next shelf down, put the next sheet pan on the right and so forth. this leaves some room for the air to circulate.
but again...to be pedantic, you should still rotate front to back and top to bottom.
edited for clarity.
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there's no problem with the milk or cream curdling when adding passion fruit juice, orange juice and lemon juice to it before scalding?
whenever i'm dealing with dairy and citrus or acidic ingredients, i scald the milk mixture first just to be safe. i'd probably whisk the sugar into the juices as well to temper them and then add to the dairy components.
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from what i understand, paul bertolli doesn't work at olivetto anymore. they're still on the bay area top 100 (by food critic michael bauer) list. their current chef (for the past two years) is paul canales. sounds like they're still doing stellar food though!
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based on phlawless' response to your post, it doesn't sound like it. i've never used a pastry cream based buttercream, so don't really know.
i know that italian meringue buttercream and swiss meringue buttercream both work well as smoothed surfaces and hold definition well when piped.
some other cake people...what are your thoughts?
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forgot that i also used to use coffee filters. they're pretty cheap and you can cut them down to size easily. they take shape better than parchment and they're non-toxic.
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john, i think you said that somewhere else and i think it is a great idea. what with all the concerns we've had lately with plastics (bottles, etc), at least these things are meant to be put in the oven. my concern is price and are they reusable?
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viva (and i don't mean paper towels) la revolution!
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i use plastic to blind bake and don't have any problems. just make sure that the plastic is the heavy duty restaurant type, NOT regular saran wrap. also, make sure the plastic doesn't touch anything metal while baking or it will melt. otherwise, you should be golden.
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i use an italian meringue buttercream (don't know if it is particularly 'american' or not) and when i want it perfectly smooth (ends up looking like i used rolled fondant), i melt it slightly and actually glaze my cake with it. the effect is beautiful.
edited to add link to old post with picture:
hope this helps
edited to add: realize that i didn't really address your question directly, but i don't know if there is truly an "american" buttercream. we tend to use 'frostings' and 'icings' and as mukki states below, it can usually be a blend of powdered sugar, butter and milk, while you can get a decent surface with that type of recipe, it tends to crust over and isn't as nice as buttercream.
most american cake decorators are probably using some form of a meringue based buttercream (swiss or italian) if they're not using fondant (or even fondant over the top of a buttercream base).
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Hey Serj, thanks for the additional information.
With regard to silk-screening:
1) do they use a special food safe silk screening method of transferring the film onto the screen? I know that when I did it in junior high art class, they used a kind of solvent.
2) when you talk about cocoa paste, are you talking about unsweetened chocolate (cocoa liquor) melted? or are you talking about cocoa powder with liquid added to it to make a paste?
3) how do you color the above cocoa paste (in other words, what do you use for a white base to make brighter colors)?
Thanks again!
Alana
All Things Blueberry
in Pastry & Baking
Posted
what about dried blueberries that have been hydrated in alcohol or other liquid? that way, the liquid will allow the fondant to liquify (sp?) once coated in chocolate?