godito

I second The Whole Beast. Cautivating read. I think that the new Spanish movement is coming out with fantastic books like Oriol Balaguer's Dessert Cuisine. I have the spanish version, so I can't say much about the english one, but I'm loving every second I spend reading it. I also loved Jordi Cruz's Cocina Con Lógica (logical cuisine)

It's crazy that a 20 year old can't drink in a bar, it's even crazier that s/he can't share some wine with dinner. I come from a culture where 18 is the legal drinking age, and the last time I was carded I was probably 24 and was living in Ohio at the time. It's a crazy law that should be revised. However, it IS the law. You can't really blame a server or an establishment for not serving anyone underage. Who knows if they had commited any kind of infraction in the past few months and were "under probation". Who knows if the server walked by a supervisor who said "that kid doesn't look old enough". Who knows if they had just finished a seminar on alcohol policies and were just applying what was just learned. Now, we know and the server knows that his tip will be reduced for doing so... plus, there will be less alcohol consumed in the table and the bill will be less (again, a reduced tip), so, really, why would he do it? Maybe he's just a moralist, or maybe a friend or family member was injured in an accident involving an underage drunk driver, but more likely, there was another reason. I have worked in restaurants, and have met many managers. Many will look the other way, but none will ever tell you that it's okay to serve minors. Ever. It's just too big a risk: bad publicity, a fine and possible license lost (would you go to a fine dinning restaurant if they could not sell you wine?) Also, about the not enforcing the law thing, picture the following scenario: Three kids eat at a restaurant, share a bottle of wine, drive off and hit some guy. That guy callas the cops, the cops realize the dirver is underage and has been drinking, so the guy, adviced by his lawyer, of course, goes after the restaurant. Unlikely? yes. Worth the risk? hmmm

I like to use my copy of Larousse Gastronomique

I think about it daily... then again, I'm planning a lot of dishes lately, and I like to put a lot of thought into them. This is what I discovered: 1. I like cilantro and hot peppers. Yes, my cooking is mostly latin american, but I still have to learn to control myself (the usual answer to "how can this dish be better?" is "add something spicy to it!") 2. My food has some generalities. My menus have more fish than anything else, and I try to avoid meat as much as possible. When I do use it, I'm partial to longer slower cooking methods (like braising or stewing). 3. I tend to like fruit in my savory dishes. I make a peach salsa (and sometimes other fruits), I roast pineapples and watermelons, and I serve figs as often as I can. 4. My desserts tend to be less on the sweet side and more on the tart and bitter side (like high % cocoa chocolate and citrics) The more we think about how we cook, the more we can change it not to hit the same "notes" all the time. The composer you mentioned might have done it on purpose, but more likely he never stopped to think what he was doing. He just kept playing what sounded good. Same with me... now my dishes have less cilantro and chillis.

hand picked mahi mahi... I'm still laughing

More likelly they were seared with lard, the most usual way to cook them in most latin america. However, they could also be baked, it's not uncommon to serve them like this. I don't know where you live, but I think the main issue is the variety and/or freshness of the plantain. I can't speak of Venezuela as I've never been there, but in Ecuador, where I lived for 12 years, they had several varieties, and they were available extra fresh (you just had to take a 30 minute drive to the plantations and get them there). My experience is that I've had much better plantains in Ecuador than just about anywhere else. Hope this helped

Black pepper sauce (au poivre) goes fantastic with kindneys

I agree with Timh, use what some would call a "white mirepoix": leeks, not so much celery, turnips insteas of carrots if availabe, some fennel makes great fish stock, maybe even some mushrooms.... I'm not a fan of long simmer times, either. In cooking school, we did a tasting once: fish stock simmered for 45 minutes and one simmered for 2 hours. The first one was a bit clearer and we could perceive no change of flavor. That said, shorter time = less cloudy, but the flavor will not change if left too long. It's just a waste of firepower you could be using somewhere else. Amother thing I like to do when doing fish stock is to sweat the mirepoix (no color) with very little oil (half and half olive oil and butter, actually), deglaze with dry white wine, reduce "au sec" add heads (clean), water and aromatics (I like crushed peppercorns, garlic, thyme, parsley, bay leaf and sometimes ginger and/or fennel leaves)

meringue and water chestnut puree

Like most cheese goes well with grapes, most cheese also goes well with figs

Or eating raw food... wait, wasn't that a big thing a few years ago? I agree, Adria once said that there IS room for innovation in the kitchen, otherwise, there would be no classical dishes. Somebody had to make the first tortilla, and it remained as such until he "deconstructed" it. And Bryan, that was a really good article. Would you mind me trying to translate it and posting it on my blog? (With due credits, of course)

I agree with this. Now thay are more relaxed, but at the CIA (and other schools too, I'm sure) they used to require six months working experience before you join. I agree. The actual "working" in the food business you will learn working, not schooling. So I think you have to taka full advantage of that requirement. That being said, it's not a bad idea to go to school. Again, it's how you deal with it and the amount of work you are willing to put into that. In school you will learn the fundamentals. Some of them, I've never really used in the business, but I know them. And you really get a good base if you talk to all your instructors. After all, each one might add something to what you already knew, or even teach you a different way of doing it. The problem is the many students who go with a "I-already-know-this-stuff" attitude, and don't care to listen to what the chef says. Cooking school is not for everybody. A lot of people go and spend a lot of money, but they don't invest it, because they don't learn anything new. It's up to you how much you learn. It's a great tool to have a lot of professionals to talk about cooking, and methodology, and fundamentals, and general experience. Yes, you will learn a lot more from a good chef wherever you are working, but s/he won't take the time to go over fundamentals like your instructors will. You will eventually pick up tha way your bosses want you to do things, but will not get rhe amount of imput you eill get at school. I recently interviewed the executive chef at the Grand Hyatt, in Santiago (Chile), and we talked about culinary schools and the learning process. Him, being Italian, gave a good example. It's fantastic to have many people teach you ten different ways to make Pasta, because then you can make an educated decission on what techniques suits you best for each situation.

Now, you see, I would consider anything left in its own habitat as "organic". If we pollute that habitat, the fish (or wild turkey or boar) may not be particularly healthy to eat, but it has lived its life as its predecessors have, it has hunted for its own food, and lived its life without the overt (key word) control of man ... whether it is still healthy to eat is another question. The example that sticks in my mind is the salmon from Lake Michigan, which used to have PCP from polluted water in its subcutaneous fat; these fish were not farmed or controlled in any other way by man, and were thus "wild game". They hunted for their food and lived naturally, which ultimately led to their being polluted and being "unhealthy", but "organic" in the USDA definition. I think governmental agencies should not be allowed to redefine words which are already in common use and in the dictionary ... I now longer know what "natural" or "organic" mean ... ← I completely agree. Now, I'm no expert, but I think organic means (among other things) something that grows with only organic feed (no chemicals) and that's harder to control in the wilderness. Again, I'm not familiar with the USDA definition of organic. Maybe I should do some more research

Piperdown, I graduated from the CIA, so I highly recommend it to anyone. It was the right decission for me to go there, I learned a lot, got a lot of things to put on my resume and had a blast. However, that's my experience. Cooking school (even the CIA) can be a cruise if cruising by is all you're up to. It can also be very hard and time consuming if you are willing to volunteer, work and do more stuff with the instructors. I think spending a great deal of time and money is an important decission. I don't want to get in this "my-school-is-better-than-yours" argument. I think i's better if you do some research. The CIA sells itself well, only by name, so they can afford to have a small section on thei webpage dovoted on choosing the right culinary school. Also, if you call, thay will be glad to send you more information like this (I've seen some brochures thay have). Here's some of what it says: For the link, clickety here Also important, choose the school you can afford and see if the location is convenient. Hyde Park is in the middle of nowhere, in a nice location by the hudson but far from many things. Sure, you're close to "the city" (about 2 hours from NYC) but you may want to work some on weekends, and when you get out, there's only two or three mediocre bars around. Hope this helps

Part of the problem is the term "organic" and the infatuation some people have with it. We had a huge discussion (me and some other cooks) on people's percpetion of "organic". I think most people view organic as the opposite of genetically modified. I don't think it's wrong for the USDA or any government agency to set up the regulations under which food can be labeld organic. It is a problem, however, when those regulations are favoring big producers. Now, fish... that's a tough one. There is more control over farm-raised fish. You can control what they eat, the kind of water they have, their procreation and their growth. Plus, with all the industrial fishing that's going on (The Japanese are famous for invading Chilean waters to fish ilegally. Thay just take anything into their huge factory-boats and process whatever they don't freeze), farm-raised fish may be the only fish available in the future. Now, of course, wild fish, although more exposed to polution, is better tasting. I wouldn't dare call it organic, though.

And I like to pair that riesling with a whitefish ceviche

Maybe someone mentioned this somewhere else, but today I payed a visit to one of my favorite foodblogs (and I know it's also the favorite of many others): Ideas in Food. Turns out Ales and Aki have self-published a photography book that's being sold online... and you can also download it for much less money. I'll get on downloading it as soon as my next paycheck comes Anybody purchased it yet? Comments?

I eat those with a little cheese and mebrillo (quince paste), so membrillo

Pickled onions and beer braised pork butt

I used to cook those lentils using the risotto method. To finish them off, plenty of black pepper and ghee

If you have enough room, it's best if you hang them until dry. In any case, I sprinkle them with some semolina flour. I don't like to use regular flour after the pasta is made... it dries the dough, and you get starchier pasta when cooking it. That means heavier... lighter is better.

a few ideas I've done in the past: spoons (I love those asian spoons) shot glasses (not practical for dipping, but they look great) little rammekins (sp?) Make "vegetable containers" Like cutting a cucomber into a box-shape. Don't really like this one, but we've done it. Fry your tortillas between serving spoons to make cups Just place them on top of some garnish over the plate (I'm thinking nori or banana leaf)

And what would a mignonnette sauce be used for if there weren't any fresh oysters

I don't have it, but I know the El Bulli 2005 is already on the market. For what I hear, the book is as good as all his other ones, except with newer techniques. I even includes a dvd of the cooking itself. That's pretty hot, I think. Also cooking ®evolution by alex hanbuckers. Really good. Now, I don't know if either are books "you-can't-live-without"

Hey Doc, how's your spanish... I could recommend you a couple of peruvian food bloggers that might know a lot about this. But I'm not sure they speak english. In any case, Maria Elena Cornejo is a peruvian food journalist. This is her blog. You can drop har a line.