godito

How much is one of them digital recirculating water bath heaters? I love that set-up. Me wants it!!!

I worry more about customers stealing my saltshakers (here's me wearing the "owner" hat) than customers adding salt to the food I've prepared (Chef hat, please) I like EMP's method, as described by Fat Guy. I also like the idea of removing the shakers before dessert. Those methods work for me best. Now, let me tell you, one of the hardest things to learn when cooking is how to season well. You have to find a happy average that will suit most customers. I don't mind when I see one of my customers adding salt to their meal, but I would if I saw a lot of them doing it. Then again, it's better to underseason than to over do it. Amen!

I come from a non practicing catholic family. Of course, most latin americans are catholic, and a lot of us really don't practice. However, fanesca was a good reason to follow tradition during "Holy Week" Basically a braised salt cod dish featuring 12 different types of lentils, beans and other grains. Soooooo good Now, that 12 is just the "base" number, representing the 12 disciples of Jesus. However, if I remember correctly, there were over 30 grains to choose from in the markets when this time of the year came close. It would be no surprise to find a recipe wih over those 12 grains.

I have a technical question about choosing the right exhaust engine for a professional kitchen. Details follow (sorry, all measurements follow the metric system) I'm expanding the kitchen in the restaurant I just bought. The revamped version will have the mail kitchen where a small dining room used to be. The space is small: 3.30m wide by 2.50m deep. Most of the front is a window 2 meters wide. Now, the "pass" is 1 meter wide, and it's open to the restaurant (half of the front window slides open). My equipment will be 6 burners, an oven and a small electric fryer. In total, the space where the fire power is, will be about 1.70m, and the hood's 2m wide. Now, I have a brand new 5hp engine. I know nothing of hood engines. This seems like it would work, but I'm worried about two things: 1. Mainly, the smell of food creeping into my dining rooms through the open window. 2. The noice that the engine might make. I'm lucke enough to work with a group of cooks who have worked in open kitchens befor, so I know they wont be noisy. Thanks!!

I'm all for getting a part-time job at a nearby restaurant. Most welcome somebody willing to do the mise-en-place or someone to work weekends. You can learn a lot peeling carrots, doing sauces... heck, even washing the dishes. It's true that you might want to be exposed to good food from the get-go. However, there are a few equally important factors to consider. 1. Cooking at home and for friends is in no way similar to working in this industry. Wherever you choose to work, it will give you an idea if you really like working in a professional kitchen. A lot in this business has nothing to do with "liking food". Be sure you wouldn't just be happier cooking at home. 2. Try to avoid "chain" restaurants. Sure, you will get to serve a lot of people in a short amount of time, but most of the food comes pre-elaborated. I think it's important to learn how to do that. In most kitchens, the prep will take up most of your day. Wish you the best of lucks. Cooking professionally has given me more satisfactions than headaches, and I wouldn't trade it for anything. But it's not a job that fits everybody. You have to be a little crazy to put up with the long hours and little money. Cheers!

Gaston Acurio is one the few well respected latin american chefs who are well known all over the world. He was even a guest speaker at the 2006 Madrid Fusion show. I have a lot of respect for his food and his efforts to rescue native ingredients to ise in his high-end cuisine. Coca leaves have been consumed in boh Peru and Bolivia for centuries. You need to chemically alter the leaf to make cocaine, but we drink coca leaf infusions all the time. They are particularly helpfull to fight altidude sickness. The natives, btw, chew the leaves for energy (just like some would stop to drink some coffee) I generally enjoy Acurio's food, and I would, no doubt, try his coca infused food.

Maybe I'm way off, but Sous Vide is mostly a book on technique. Nathan is familiar with the research involved. In a way, like most technical books, a lot of money is charged because of the time spent researching and experimenting. They want to spread the word... and get their money back. Having said that, it is absolutely a matter of supply and demand. I believe the books are THAT expensive to produce, but they wouldn't be published if there was no market for them. Of course the market for those books is considerably smaller.

I had intended to write about that. Must have forgotten. El Bulli publishes three books whenever they releasa a tome. That is, El Bulli 2003-2004 is edited in Englis, Spanish and Catalán. That's three different books. US books are very rarely translated, and that cost is more likely nopt covered by the first edition publishers. I've never seen TFL translated. I think that would make the books more expensive to produce, right? In any case, you are right, the quality is much higher in European books, and the iinformation has much more value. All that just leads to expensive books.

My 2 cents American books are targeted to the home user, no doubt. More people to buy them, more profit for everybody. And some are still good books (like TFL, for instance) European books are more expensive to produce (Europe isn't cheap nowadays) and distribute (for the same reasons). And they are more technical and targeted to professionals. Well I do remember a few of the first Arzak and Adria books. They were also written for the home user. Maybe things changed because the flow of information became greater. I mean, none of this countries are too big. The populatios of spain is roughly 44 million. Only 11 million more than the population of California, and yet we have all heard of Adria, Santamaria, Arzak, Balaguer, Torreblanca, Roca, Subijana, Dani Garcia, Gaig, Jordi Cruz, Jose Andrés, Anduriz, and many others. I'm sure you've all heard of most of them. In spain, as in France, cooks are starting to make what some have calles "intelectual cuisine". That is thinking and talking a lot about food before plating it (hence, the now very popular labs that everybody wants to have) My guess is they decided to write about what they were doing. Those writings became books. They wanted to make great books, art books (their food as art, through photography) and technical books. Now, another reason these books are as expensive ase they are might be because their markets are significantly smaller. Even if they were targeted for home use. Indeed, not many people speak french. As for spanish, a lot of us do (in latin america) bur I doubt they see us as a good market. We don't really have a lot of money.

Check the iSi website for ideas. I agree, once you get a hold of the process, your imagination will be your only guide.

Not quite extended cooking. You need to cook them at a lower temperature (for a longer time). Temperature must be kept under boiling (Textbooks often say 70ºC) and cook until fork tender. At lower temperatures, collagen will not "melt" and at much higher temperatures, there is a risk for the meat to dry out (at boiling point, the liquid inside the meat is also boiling)

Just my 2 cents: I've had my food blog for... say, a year and a half now, and, although I'm a professional cook, not really a writer, it catapulted me into helping some friends launch a culinary magazine here in Chile (first issue is done and will come out within the next 30 days) Also, a publisher from Spain contacted me to start a monthly one-page article. So, what I'm trying to say is that your blog can be a showcase for your writing. I guess just don't have high expectations. Just do your thing and when people like it, great things could happen... maybe

You can re-use the bones, but not for making stock again. This is calles remouillage, which means something like re-wetting. Remouillage doesn't have the aroma, color or flavor as real stock, but you can use it as a base for a new stock (use this liquid instead of water). Now, is it worth it? I know some chefs that do this all the time.

I'm affraid I can't recommend many hotels. Most of the ones I know are the ones my friends stay at when they are on business, and I have no idea on how much they cost. However, like I said, my favorite neighborhood is Providencia. This one is near the subway. To the north is Providencia avenue, and to the south some really cool streets to walk around. You can check it. As for you having a car, you can do some traveling around wine country. Depending on how much time you've got, you can take a whole day trip (to a nicer wine region) or you can choose to have luch at a winery closer to Santiago. Let me know and I can make some recommendations. Cheers!

Coriander and cilantro are staples in altiplano bolivian cuisine (as in La Paz city). so, fresh cilantro

I'm too lazy to check, and it's not extremely likelu, but the wikipedia article might be wrong. After all, it's contents are user-generated. Also I soooo agree with this. Who's gonna tell me that Iberico ham was unwholesome in 2004?

Did you all see Marcel's "poetry" video? I thought it was hillarious. As I've said before, I know him. It's easy to understand how many people might think he's a deuchebag, and he IS arogant. However, he's just the funny kid that "free-styles" some stuff about his current situation. I know I would be up in the roof with him drinking a beer and laughing it off.

btw, about the whole foie gras thing, I also like it later in the progression, but not so close to the desserts (which gets complicated during wine pairing). The way I see it, is I like my fish courses (and light meat courses) before my foie gras. And I like my game and my braises after. There are three reasons (well, there are about 20) why I to enjoy tasting menus: well cooked fish, well prepared foie, and prper braising technique. After the braise, I'm ready form my cheese course.

In my experience, it IS complicated to get your kitchen crew organized enough to fire all the dishes at the same time, sepecially in a progression menu. This is what I have observed: When the chef-expediter has high standards, all the dishes are placed on the pass at roughly the same time, and never before the runners-servers are ready to pick them up. If a plate gets to the pass too early, the chef will yell "Re-plate table XX", and then everybody has to do so. Otherwise, the fish will get cold, or dry, or whatever. But if that person is gone (say, visiting tables, or dealing with providers, or on the phone, or whatever), or if he doesn't have such high standards, then a dish is placed on the pass a minute might go by before the rest of the dishes are ready. I think I might like my smart waiter to bring me my fish before it dries out and then go back to the kitchen to grab the rest of the dishes (food is at its best when it's just plated, afted that, texture, temperature and even flavor get lost) Now, of course I like the former situation a whole lot more than the later. And I demand it when I'm paying over US$100 for a meal... but sometimes you can't expect much.

The restaurant is ehat in the US one might call Nuevo Latino, except that makes no sense here in Chile. It's latin american flavors in a "highend-ish" restaurant. I expect to open up in March. I would love a drink when you make it down here. Just let me know. As for restaurants, then, most of my favorites are in my post above. However, I can still recommend a few other places. If you like wines and are willing to pay the prize, then the best spot is the wine bar at the Ritz Carlton. They have (they don't just say they do) one wine for every day of the year. Of course the place is called Wine 365 Their formal restaurant is also excellent, as you might expect. It's called Adra. Similarly good are all the restaurants at the Hyatt. But then again, why would you come all the way to Chile to eat at the Hotel? If your boyfriend (or you) can read spanish, this is a great webpage full of restaurant recommendations. In the menu to the right you will see the restaurants divided by region. Providencia is by far the coolest. Av. Italia is the area where I'm opening up my place, and most of the reviews there are a good starting point. Other than that, if you have any questions, please write here or PM me. Oh, btw, some wineries around this region are closeby, like a couple of hours away. Don't know if you plan to rent a car... but it might be cool to check out.

I think that's the point. The way I see it: 1. I don't like the law. Then again, I'm biassed, as I grew up in latin america, where drinking age is 18... and I don't remember ever getting carded. Of course I didn't do much buying before I turned 18, but there was a few times before that. 2. I had my first drink (beer) when I was about 3 or 4. My grandpa (who was German) gave me a zip of his. Did I get drunk? No, I didn't. Was it iresponsible of him to let me taste what he was drinking? I don't think so. Almost 30 years later I don't see anything wrong with what he did. In fact, I hope to share similar moments with my kids-grandkids one day. 3. What Markk said is right "people who could imbibe responsibly". A kid at 16 having a quarter of a glass of wine with a meal is not wrong in my book. That 16 year old kid driving drunk after a party is. 4. Now, can having some wine with your meal at a fancy restaurant be considered "drinking responsibly?" It depends on how much wine are you going to consume. Also, are you on any kind of medication? Or... well, you get the point. I have seen people hammered at high end restaurants before. So, how old do you have to be to drink responibly? I think education (home and school) have a lot to do with that. I had my first drink very early, got drunk for the first time when I was quite drunk (about 14), but I learned to drink responsibly, and by the time I was 21 (living in the states) I was cautious on how much I drank.

Carolyn, well, I'm still living in Chile, and working on opening a restaurant myself. It will not be ready by the end of the month, however, so this is not a self-promoting response. I can give you many ideas on where to go, from the upscale, to the touristy (but worth knowing) and the typical (where knowledge of spanish, or going with a local is a must) Also, will you be staying only in Santiago? btw... my last response is only a couple of months old. But I do have other suggestions if you want them (from places to get a good drink to places to eat good ice cream)

As a lawyer myself, I have a certain philosophical investment in the concept of the rule of law. When circumstances demonstrate that the law is not being applied equally, particularly in a manner that annoys those least empowered to demand change, I do think that a readjustment and redistribution of the annoyance caused by the law is in order. It may provide a stepping stone towards reforms that will benefit everybody. I sound like I'm taking a page from Grover Norquist and his "tax the poor so they'll hate taxation as much as the rich do" play book, and that somewhat disturbs me... but I think that booze law and tax law are different enough to justify taking that page... after all, taxation treats different people differently (and it should), whereas booze laws purport to treat everybody the same (and it should.) The more people who get annoyed at the puritanical booze laws this country has enacted, the better it will be for people who love nice things to drink. Think how much better everything would be if there were an actual free market in alcohol containing drinks. Better selection, no distribution bottleneck issues, etc. That sort of change will only happen if enough people are annoyed at the status quo, or if the status quo required some effort to maintain. ← I agree with everything you have said.

If I, as a manager, owner and/or chef of my restaurant would have overheard this, I would have had a serious talk with my steward that would have possibly resulted in him loosing his job. I think there's no harm in asking, and if you get served (your ID never checked and so forth) it's the restaurant's fault if they get busted. ← You don't work in New York. Management KNOWS what's going on. This is apparently the way the law is enforced here. Why is this so hard for people to understand? ← THIS is the way the law is ENFORCED? Are we sure we are clear with what enforcing the law means? We could say "Law isn't enforced here". What is NY? The New Wild Frontier? I'm sure management knows what's going on, and I know for a fact that they do serve alcohol to minors, so that helps prove your point. But it doesn't mean it's ok. And It isn't wrong that a particular server or restaurant choses not to serve underagers. Now, that "don't ask dont tell" thing, it doesn't only happen in NY. As the same manager, owner and/or chef as before, I don't mind my steward serving an undergaer wine to go with his/her meal... as long as I don't know about it. When I train my people I explain that it's illegal to do so. I encourage them not to do so because it's illegal. Why make myself liable and risk losing my license? So, again, in NY or any other place in the States (where this discussion is relevant), if I was that manager, I would make sure I talk to my staff when they make that poor judgement call. And the poor judgement call is not the one about serving to minors, it's the one about publicly anouncing that they do all the time.

If I, as a manager, owner and/or chef of my restaurant would have overheard this, I would have had a serious talk with my steward that would have possibly resulted in him loosing his job. I think there's no harm in asking, and if you get served (your ID never checked and so forth) it's the restaurant's fault if they get busted. Again, the law is ridiculous. It should be changed back to 18 years, but as long as it isn't, don't get mad at servers or restaurants for not serving underagers. That being said, I agree some restaurants don't spend much time/resources in training their employees on how to deal with the situation. The server in Hawaii was doing the right thing, he just wasn't delicate about it. If the comps come and catch you drinking from your mother's glass, they probably won't care that the restaurant was correct before when they decided not to serve you. All they see is that there is a minor drinking, and management is responsible. Again, we don't know if they were being targeted by the authorities and feared a raid. Fact is, if the law says you should't drink, and for whatever reason the restaurant refuses to serve you (and don't even want you smelling the empty wine glasses on your table), then you should just deal with it. Now, if your issue is that the waiter, bartender and manager were rude and insulting (and you weren't), then you did the right thing.