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I'm not too familiar with american hominy, and I'm not too familiar with mexican pozole, so I don't quite know if those two are the same. But as I understand it pozole and our mote (that's the name we give it) are the same thing. Even as a Bolivian I have to give Peru the credit for potatoes. Maybe Bolivians use more of them in food, but it's still peruvian. I can't remember if it was 2 or 3 thousand types of potatoes in Peru, but they have a lot of varieties. Even here in Chile I miss that variety. In Bolivia we use a diferent type of patato for each dish. Here, in a regular market, you can find only 2 or 3 kinds. As for pisco, the name pisco is peruvian, from the town of pisco. Chile also has a town with that name, but it's only a few decades old. However, grape liquor is common to all the region. I think bolivians were the smart ones as they just gave it a different name (Singani) and are, therefore, absent from the controversy. As for Pisco Sour, it's also unknown how it originated. We'll probably never know and Peruvians and Chileans will keep debating about it. I`m glad you will be going to Cochabamba more often. It's one of my favorite places in the world.

You're right about, well, pretty much everythin (except that Bolivia does have a jungle region that borders Brasil and Paraguay). But yes, Andean food is Andean food, no matter which way you look at it. Even more, Bolivia was a part of Peru during the colony, so the european influence was the same for both countries. Also food is mostly regional in most latin american countries. In Bolivia, for instance, you have typical foods from all their major cities (La Paz, Sucre, Santa Cruz, Tarija and Cochabamba), but you can aslo find food that's characteristic to a region (like food from the highlands, the valleys, the jungle, etc)

I think the writer didn't like the restaurant so much, and it might be because of the price charged for the meals. Have NY restaurants really lost a sence of reality? Maybe the customers pay up regarldess of the price. Maybe, even, for some, the more they pay fopr the meal, the better it is. I mean, c'mon, 29 bucks for valet parking? Will they then expect a tip? And what's with overspending in the building of the restaurant itself? Then it goes to describe a pasta dish served with truffles, oxcombs and duck testicles. Batali charges $30 for it. I know ther's other threads discussing the pricing (overpricing?) of meals in big cities and/or by celebrity chefs, but I still have to know... what do you all think? edited to add link to full article.

Corn is used in many ways. They use it as flour for bread making, but they also eat it as is, with some cheese or butter. But typically it's served as something called Huminta, which is somewhat similar to a mexican Tamal. It can eiher be wrapped in the husk and boiled or baked in a pan. It is sometimes seasoned with aji (chiles) and usually stuffed with cheese. They eat this for tea-time (an sometimes breakfast). I like it with a little sugar sprinkled on top and with a cup of coffee. Cochabamba is a beautiful town. I was born there. The dish Davydd was talking about, with the strips of beef and onions and fried potatoes is calles Pique Macho, and it was created only a couple of decades ago in that town, which is famous for it's culinary delights. Cochabambinos like to eat. a lot. Salteñas can better be described as soup turnover. The filling is made with collagen, therefore, when cooked, it becomes stew-y. They are served with a spoon, but few use it. The unspoken deal is that whoever makes more of a mess while eating it pays the bill. I must admit that the best salteñas are not in Cochabamba. You'll find better ones in La Paz or Sucre.

ok... now I'm hungry... love homemade pasta... great photos, thanks for sharing

I'm Bolivian, although I left my country at the tender age of 8. However, the food we ate at home (well, we still eat it sometimes) is mostly Bolivian. Also, when I started going to culinary school, my grandma took an interest in talking to me about food. She's no longer alive, but our conversations remain in my memories. So, if you have any specific questions, I'd be glad to help. Let me just tell you that typical bolivian cuisine is very regional. It differs greatly from city to city. Like a friend of mine used to say whenever asked about the typical bolivian dish: "It depends where you are, what time of the year, and even what time it is". In fact, some traditional dishes can be only found during festivities. Others, like our local empanada (the salteña) can be purchased every day of the year, but only from 10 in the morning to around noon. It's what we eat before lunch. I can give you a lot of examples, but that would take too long. Again, if you have any specific questions, I'd be glad to help.

Dulce de leche shouldn't be to thick to dissolve in, well, anything. However, it's kind of pointless to dissolve it in milk. After all, it's made out of milk (dulce de leche = milk jelly). Traditionally, milk and sugar boiled down to the right color and consistency. Now we pretty much just grab a can of condensed milk and simmer it for a couple of hours. It's too easy to make for me to go and buy some overpriced "flavored" syrup. In any case, I would use it as a sauce to top or stuff churros or pate-au-choux. Or to go with crepes and ice cream edited to correct spelling of pate-au-choux (no, I won't tell you how I spelled it originally )

true that. LOL. you always get people like your team member in your groups. Don't worry, it's his money he's wasting. And in the end, a few years after he graduates, if he's still in this business, he will understand that he could've done much better in school. Bad thing is he's probably gonna say he wished his school was better. Oh, well, whatchagonnado. In any case, you have the right attitude towards learning, and that's all a Chef could want.

I did a fair deal of dishwashing during my externship. It wasn't fun but it was a great learning experience. And Fabby, you're right. Scools (in general) seem to be teaching their students how to be the boss. But, like one of our instructors used to say: everybody wants to be a chef. Too many chefs and the kitchen doesn't work. Nobody want's to work. Everybody wants to be the boss. Isn't it time to put the cook back in the kitchen? As with everything, though, school is what you get out of it. You can learn as much or as little as you want.

I had chef Temme. Cool guy. He was my baking chef for culinary arts (I forget the actual name of the class). We did a lot of interacting during class and after class. If you see him around, tell him Carlos says hello... he might remember me... then again I graduated a year and half ago. Also.. shifting groups and new people get worse after externship. Just get uased to it. The cool thing is you now have a lot of friends in other blocks and classes. I call that shared knowledge. Good luck!

I think a POS system is a great tool if you really use all of its advantages. It's great for inventory control, it makes accounting a lot easier and it can help you with instructions to your service staff, too (for instance, you can tell the computer that you only have, say, 10 special desserts. Well, every time a server logs in, it would tell him/her how many are left to sell. Much faster than the chef telling a runner that there's only three left, and by the time he's done telling everybody else, there's only one left). But if you don't learn to use all of its features (and you don't train your staff to know as much as you do) then it's a waste of money, and I would go with the hand written checks.

I`ve worked in places where risotto is made from scratch and it does take about 20 minutes. But even in some places where the menu would say that the dish will take that long, the risotto is pre cooked. I don't really think you compromise a lot of flavor this way. You just have to be careful not to overcook it as you re-heat it.

So it's your recipe. So long as you change at least one ingredient, or the amount of an ingredient, and of course all of the directions are your own writing and there's no plagiarism, it's now your recipe. ← And that´s exactly the point. It's your recipe as long as you dont copy it from someone else. Just by adding, say, a teaspoon of sugar to a dressing that originally had none, then you should have no copyright issues. However, the same also applies when somebody adds a dash of mustard powder to that same dressing and calls it something else.

think meditarranean: figs, rosemary, most sharp cheeses, olives... in fact, most fruit goes well with serrano. Yes, watermelon, but also melon and even mango. Scallops and shrimp go well wrapped in serrano. So does asparagus. Goes great with eggs (like soft boiled eggs) and potatoes. I also like it on top of toast with aioli.

The breakers has a really good externship program, but it's kinda hard to get in, as they normally nlyneed help during certain times of the year (I know a lot of people that could't go because there were no "vacancies" during their externship periods) And I wouldn't recommend going to Disney. Don't work for the "rat". They make it sound really cool, but my friends that went there all hated it. Just remember, when they talk about you being part of the "staff" thy're talking about exactly that. You must stay in character, because you are one.

I know this is usually an umpopular answer, but you should try beer instead of wine. If I had to go with wine (which would be my second choice) I would stick to whites, like gewurstraminer or riesling. Or even better, sparkling wine. A good blanc de noir goes well with most asian food.

good point. I worked at a restaurant that we had a foie appetizer, and we still had a foie special made just to charge a little extra. or another place I worked at always had specials before we received new fish just to get rid of the old one. however, some chefs do specials to highlight seasonality. like special dishes with asparagus and strawberries during spring. it depends on te chef, I guess.

I think prices for a special should never be too high (unless the special uses expensive ingredients, like a truffled foie terrine). I think the best way for a restaurant to deal with specials is to print it somewhere. Some places write them on a blackboard. I like that approach. Others have a section on their menus to add a card with the day's specials. Mostly, though, if you want to know howmuch the special costs, you can just ask your server. You're right, some restaurants do a horrible job with pricing information (I've even seen menus without prices that are handed to the women in a table), but other times, even though they are instructed to, some servers neglect to do so because they forget, or they're tired of repeating the same thing over and over, or they just don't care to sell that particular item.

Now I'm wondering if we ever met... But you're right. It was very good time to be alive... that's for sure. And chianti, don't worry about your age. I was older when I went there (28), but I kept thinking I wished I was younger... the best time to graduate is when you're young and have the state of mind to work your ass of for a few years. Me? I'm too old! In any case, the important thing is your attitude towards learning.

There's a site with links to a lot of molecular gastronomy resources in many languages. You can find some stuff from This in engish here. Hiowever, you're right, most of what he's done has been translated to german, but for some reason, not english. And you're right about Kurti. He was, as far as I know, the person who coined the term "molecular gastronomy". The role of Herve This was (is) making it popular.

I couldn't agree more. There are very few revolutions in cooking. The whole concept of molecular gastronomy might have been, at one point, revolutionary. But nowadays, it's the normal evolution of cooking, adapting itself to technologies that were not used in cooking before. Persnonally, I welcome the change

Well... Herve This is the "father" of molecular gastronomy. Probably no other individual has been as involved in the subject as he has. I've read quite a few of the articles he wrote, and it's not particularly easy reading. It is, however, enlightning. I guess it would depend on how good the translation is. If my french was any better, I would've definetly bought the original. In any case, I'm ordering it through amazon. I'm trusting it won't be terribly dense.

That looks great. What are the three ways? Is one of them use achiote? ← The one on top is poached in a gingery cout bouillon, the second one is just sauteed (I deglazed that pan with some broth and ripe cherry juice to make the sauce) and the last one is deep fried after a regular beer batter. That one, of course, turned out to be the best. Then again, I'm a big fan of deep fried fish.

I can't think of any possitive effect that smoking could have on a cook/chef. I guess I could say it helps them relax, but I'm a non smoker, and I've found ways to calm myself throughout and after the frensy of a professional kitchen rush. However, I really don't think there's something negative about a chef smoking. I'm not sure smoking inhibits your taste buds. It makes sence to me, and I've heard people that quit... they say that they can "taste better", whatever that means. But I assume the chef is used to his/her taste buds and atuned to them, so they learn to adapt.

There's a show about two brothers (Rubino brothers, I think) filmed in Toronto. The show is called "Made to Order" or something on those lines. I can rarely watch because of my schedule, but it's a great show. I watch it on Discovery Travel and Living (I'm in Chile) but I think it originally airs on the Food Network in Canada