alanamoana

I have a couple of questions for you Anthony. When did CIA start the separate "Pastry and Baking" curriculum? From what I understand (which isn't too much with regard to CIA), this program is relatively new to the school (by relatively, I mean it might be ten or fifteen years old). If it is the case that the program needs to redesign itself for the (modern) times, then go ahead with your letter...taking into consideration some of the points made earlier by chefette, et al. One of the things I've noticed about culinary schools in general is the great majority of chef instructors whose main experience is in hotels as opposed to restaurants. I'm not saying that hotels don't do plated desserts...but let's be realistic...hotel desserts, hotel pastry chefs, hotels in general are nothing like restaurants. One of the reasons I wanted to get into teaching was exactly this point. I wanted to bring in restaurant experience...plated desserts, etc. It is funny...I've looked on-line at some of the culinary schools in New York City and they claim to have great staff...sure, they put names like Jacques Pepin, Jacques Torres, etc. on their brochures but these people are not working as full time instructors. They might make a guest appearance or demo or something. I've noticed, more than once, that an instructor's bio will say something like the following: "So-and-so is a graduate of our fine institution. She/He spent their externship at X restaurant and now they're back here with all that great experience to teach you!" In other words, they haven't worked anywhere for any length of time. I'm shocked by that, particularly since I have done research into teaching and have found that their requirements are ridiculous. Sound familiar?! Sort of like trying to get into culinary school after all that research and finding out that any moron with $40K can get in! I guess what I'm saying is that it is noble to try to change things. Every effort should be made. But it will be hard, if not impossible, if you are the only one talking. Try to put out the small fires first and work your way up to the larger ones. Use your connections and allies among the chef instructors to back you up (with their permission of course, it is after all their paycheck). Good luck.

rainbow jello is definitely an asian/islander thing! i grew up in hawaii where it was a staple (as bite sized cubes) at any picnic or potluck event. yunnermeier, is it more common to use agar than gelatin? sometimes the texture of the asian version is much firmer.

for photo purposes, you can always lightly torch the glaze to give it some shine. it is beautiful, regardless! are those macaron the italian meringue version that you've posted the recipe for on the macaron thread?

but it doesn't actually peel the shrimp. just slices it down the back...silly!

Baking powder already has the acid incorporated; it doesn't need any added acid the way baking soda does. MelissaH ← ← this doesn't mean that you can't use sour cream. it just won't give you a lighter product (which is what you were looking for, right?). might make the cake a bit tangy and a little richer...probably delish! (i could be wrong on this...anyone?!)

Just ate at Alexanders this evening. This was our first visit and won't be our last. The steaks are the best we've had in Silicon Valley (granted, we've only been here a few months and Black Angus shouldn't even count). But really, the quality of the meat we had was comparable to New York steakhouses, in our opinion. We were just having a regular dinner, so didn't go overboard. I had the small filet mignon (is that redundant?!) and my husband had the small prime rib (still not too small!). we had the "simply spinach" side dish which was actually sauteed spinach and onions with chopped chives as a garnish. My filet had tarragon leaves on top and was served with a side of bearnaise. The prime rib was served with jus and horseradish cream sauce. Excellent! Not only was the quality of the meat good, both were cooked exactly as ordered (medium rare). Dessert is another story entirely. I'm sure that the "normal" desserts on the menu are fine. We, however, ordered the "Spice Rack"...subtitled "exotica". I wanted to see what they considered exotic. I should have trusted my intuition and stayed away. It was largely unpalatable. There were three main components to this dessert: basil panna cotta topped with a blueberry gelee (for some odd reason, garnished with thyme) coconut cake topped with a quenelle of milk chocolate mousse (again, an odd garnish, two orange segments) finally: saffron sorbet(? possibly sherbet) on a shortbread disc the only thing edible was the coconut cake. the basil panna cotta was set with too much gelatin and tasted like they used an entire (large) container of dried basil to infuse the cream. they also used green food coloring . the saffron ice was way too saffron-y (disclaimer, I HATE saffron, so it wouldn't have mattered how much they used, it would have been too much) When the server asked how we liked it, I told him it was awful. I tried to put it in the nicest way, but I don't think he understood. I think he thinks the pastry chef is very avant garde...he responded with a rather unconvincing "Yes, you either love it or hate it" sort of answer. I don't think he understood that 99% percent of people would probably hate the panna cotta. Most people would eat the coconut cake (very average tasting) and maybe 50/50 on the saffron sorbet. If you've read any of my posts on the pastry and baking forum, you'll understand why I'm so opinionated about this! But...we love the steaks and will definitely eat there again...we'll just go somewhere else for dessert!

If you actually read my post, you'd understand that what I said is exactly what you said. Regardless of being a "money making machine" with the restaurants, etc. The majority of their money is coming from tuition. This is exactly like a private university. If you understood my veiled comment on Yale (we can't talk politics on eGullet), you'd know what I meant about the hacks that have the money to burn on culinary school but can't be bothered to work in a restaurant first to see if they know what they're getting into. As a matter of fact, the school is probably banking on these people! I can guarantee you they run this place the same way as a private university (um, they offer bachelors degrees, right? So I guess they are a private university to some degree...very specialized). Endowment is where the money goes...as turkeybone says...you can call it savings it is the same thing. This is where scholarship money, grants, etc. come from. And if by chance you read my first post for content instead of assuming I was insulting your grammar, you'd know I did attend culinary school and agreed with the major points of your letter. I'm a restaurant professional who attended culinary school. I'm not talking out of my *ss. But all of this is off topic.

when you overchurn/spin ice cream...you're basically making butter. it is possible to overchurn ice cream in the home machine if your ice cream base has a very high percentage of fat/cream in the mix. as these machines take longer to freeze the base, the constant agitation is whipping the cream...thus butter.

definitely dumplings...my mom and her three sisters (the joy luck club) and whoever else was around...that means me, becuase i am the oldest cousin. if you didn't help, you didn't eat. the only exception to that rule was my dad because he can't cook, much less pleat jiao-zi, to save his life. those were the best guo-tie (pot stickers) in the world! after stuffing ourselves, the crazy sisters would play mah-jong until the wee hours with me serving them tea and little snacks like watermelon seeds and stuff.

until your pants don't fit anymore...

this really isn't any different than private four year universities...if they only relied on "qualified" students...and not those who can merely flash a lot of cash...where would places like yale be?! it is a business after all. even if it is supposedly run as a non-profit or not-for-profit or whatever title you'd like...money has to come from somewhere to keep things going. that's just a fact of life in general. although it can be difficult to deal with these "unqualified" students when you're in school...it only gets worse when you're out in the industry. if anything, this will help you gain patience and learn to be a better leader in spite of the obstacles. there are some people who are born to work in restaurant kitchens and there are some who, regardless of experience or schooling, should never be in the industry. people figure it out sooner or later and as they fall out of the picture, you can rise among the ranks. edited to add: i know this doesn't help your current situation with your letter and concerns, but realistically speaking, these people exist at every stage of life in every endeavor you'd like to pursue...unavoidable...

i've been nagging my husband now that we HAVE to go to amsterdam. of course we've moved to the west coast so i don't know when it will happen...but i hope you don't mind strange eGulleteers popping up on your doorstep?! i showed him the photo of the frites from your first food blog (and he's a HUGE junk food junkie) and even he couldn't believe how much mayo was on them. he said "you'd have to shove your fist through the mayo to get to the frites"... so being a terrible one for wordplay i sang to the tune of Missy Elliot's "Get Your Freak On"... you guessed it... "Get your frites on" all i got was one of these from my husband. klary, your blog has been wonderful! happy birthday again at the close of your birthday week!

ummmm...culinary school anyone?! i just loved how many classmates (and current students, and recent grads, etc.) thought they knew more than the chef instructors...isn't there a reason why you're paying $15K+ to the school?! i'm not going to say where on eGullet i read this...but it was interesting. when asking about a particular recipe which was posted in a newspaper...the person was shocked that the cake didn't have leavening of any type and only called for egg whites (not whipped). they immediately attempted the recipe with their "common sense" adjustments (before i could post that the recipe was for a particular type of cake and perfectly fine the way it was printed) and was disappointed that it didn't work out the way it should have...hmmmmm. i almost pointed them to this thread, but thought that would be mean spirited no matter how nicely i worded it.

sorry you had a hard time with it. in the future, if you make the batter ahead of time and refrigerate it, you can scoop it into your molds or whatever you're using and start it in the oven until it softens up, then press any extras into the top before it sets up from baking.

thanks everyone! i'm going to assume that they are interchangeable in most recipes (aside from the difference in fat content)...as i have never noticed the difference before...

i have two cans of coconut milk in front of me: chaudoc brand ingredients: coconut milk, potassium metabisuphide (preservative) chaokoh brand ingredients: coconut extract, water, citric acid (antioxidant) and sodium metabisulfite (preservative) does anyone know what the difference is? they're about the same price...could this just be a poor translation? i don't want to pay for water in a can... maybe i'll post this in the asian forum as well.

it is a recipe for a financier. it is meant to be dense (not like cheesecake, more like poundcake...but moister...there's a definite crumb). often you'll see financier recipes call for baking to start at a high temperature and then lower the temperature about ten minutes into baking. i like this method because it gets a really beautiful caramelized crust with the moist dense interior. edited to add: the recipe says he pours the batter into the ring molds. just note that this can only be done with fresh batter. if you keep it in the fridge to bake off when the mood strikes, you'll obviously have to scoop it out. it works fine this way.

i would do it all (initial letter) caps. as a form of research, you can check most newspapers' (new york times, los angeles times, etc) food sections on-line and see what their conventions are. frank bruni of the nytimes seems to not capitalize anything. i don't know if he's using the wording directly from the menu of the restaurant he's reviewing...didn't research that far back.

i ate there the other day on a whim...just happened to be driving by. in a previous life, i worked for the restaurant group of which betelnut is a member. i remember liking some of the recipes which i had to prepare that came from betelnut. i don't think their menu changes too terribly much. i think they prepare flavorful, decent food but i don't think it is incredible. i definitely enjoyed my meal and if you're looking for ethnic without the strangeness of some ethnic food then you should give it a try. lunch is probably more worth it than dinner.

thanks pan, that's exactly it! so often, particularly for ethnic stores, you just walk in and shop and don't really remember the names (maybe that's just me). but i think the kits have the big boba also...not the mini's as much as i love eating/drinking bubble teas, the brown tapioca STINKS when you cook it.

edited to add: ahhh, crap...never mind, i just re-read your post and it says black MINI boba...haven't seen those anywhere. just go to one of the bubble tea shops nearby and ask to buy some raw product (ten ren or teas tea or whatever their names are). shouldn't be too much trouble. if they say "no", no big deal. there's a korean market somewhere near 10th street (not far from astor place?! i could be wrong) but they carry bubble tea kits. it should also have the dark colored boba. also check that other shop that is on mulberry (same street as asia market)...it is near the butcher shop and you have to take a couple of stairs below street level to get in...don't know the name of the place, but they might have boba.

i also think there are asian cultures who eat rice with their hands. they cup the first three fingers and use the thumb to push the rice into their mouth.... i eat just about anything i can with my hands asian style meals with chopsticks of course i love (but am having a hard time finding) korean style spoons. they are great for soup, cereal, ice cream...just about anything. the handle is flat like korean chopsticks and the bowl is almost perfectly round but rather shallow. i love these spoons.

according the the texturas web site, PCB Creation is the distributor of their products in France. I've ordered from them before and they are very reputable. I think they also carry the "kit" for working with alginate and calcium chloride. They also carry all the other fun things like licithin, gellan, xantham gum, etc. thanks for posting your demo, it was fun to see how someone can do this easily in the home. edited to add: and darn you for making me order some from w. goldfarb! i've been avoiding this but you made it seem so accessible that i had to give it a try. there aren't many people on the west coast doing this stuff, so it should be fun.

"soft" coating I think SweetSide is correct, but I also think it is a generic term as the product linked to above shows. It is more like a glaze but called "soft" pate a glacer. I think the french also call a glaze "glacage" (with the funny cedilla). In the US we more commonly use the term "coating compound" for a chocolate-like product which contains the vegetable oils SweetSide mentioned eliminating the need to temper as for real chocolate (couverture).

Before going any further in analyzing the content of your letter... Check all your spelling and grammar and try to focus a little bit on the subject at hand. Nobody is going to take a letter like that seriously when you can't create a coherent sentence: "there" instead of "their" "no" instead of "know" "our" instead of "are" "In case anyone did not no "The Worlds Premier Culinary School" has completely eliminated the experience demand. It use to be 2 years a while ago, then it dropped to 6 months when I started. Now in recent days it has been stripped from the application." I don't even know what you are trying to say here. I could figure it out, but if I were an administrator at your school, I wouldn't take the time. The list goes on and on. I understand what you are trying to do. I felt the same way when I attended culinary school almost ten years ago. I still feel the same way. Now, I might be interested in teaching at a culinary school, but I have to get beyond my own negative stereotypes of the students who attend culinary schools. Try to distance yourself a bit from the subject (I know it is difficult) and come back to your letter with a little bit of objectivity thrown in. Understand the school's point of view when it comes to attempting to teach a very broad curriculum to a very broad range of individuals. Not everyone goes to school to become Sam Mason or Norman Love or Jacquy Pfeiffer (sp?)...there are also different schools which focus on different things. I think the French Pastry School in Chicago would have been more your speed. Definitely respected and definitely focused on pastry and what is new and interesting in the field. Remember too that some well respected pastry chefs who are doing great and innovative desserts never went to school and may very well disdain culinary school graduates who think that having a certificate or diploma from the CIA makes them better than other candidates. It is great to try to push the school to understand the needs of the industry and of you the student, BUT a well worded and thought out argument will help you better than an incoherent diatribe.