alexw

After skimming On Food and Cooking, a few glasses of wine down the road, then (hopefully) newly translated el buli, I got the 2002 one last year. Will settle into Peter Barhams Science of cooking, Chemistry with recipes. By this point wine will most definately have got me in it's grasp. I can then begin to assemble all the kids toys, which in itself isn't thet bad until you have to place the reams of stickers toy manufacturers insist on supplying with every "flat pack" toy.

Ultimately the taste will rule the day. all the tricks in the world are useless unless whatever food you are producing tastes fantastic, one of the first things I learned as a commis was that presentation only encouraged the first bite, and the flavour made you eat the rest. I know that many of the chef Grant and Adrias etc food is only one bite however if one of them is a dud then it is almost impossible to regain that guests trust for the rest of the meal. not that we should produce food that is so middle of the road it straddles the lines, however if something is perfectly executed then if someone doesn't like a particular product/flavour then they will accept it and move on eagerly to one they do like. Itching to get to Chicago, as you can see the journey is a bit longer for me than others posting, but hopefully I will blag a "business trip" early in the new year. can't wait.

Hi and thanks very much for participating, I am currently studying Science with the Open University in the UK, I have been a chef now for 15 years and intend to continue until my old knees give out. I began to be interested in a more scientific approach when many sous chefs all has the same reply when I was younger "because it just works like that!!", generally folowed with a comment and a sharp clip. I felt my knowledge was getting nowhere. I then heard of a cook who was making ice cream from bacon and eggs, and wodered why and started a liitle research, which dug your name out amongst many others (Herve, Peter Barham). This in turn lead me to feel I needed further scientific education. Eventually to the question in hand, could you provide a word of advice as to which eventual direction I should take, as the course is modular I do not have to choose the final degree for some time, I have an easier understanding of Quantum physics than chemistry, but feel that a degree in Molecular chemistry would more suit what it is I do every day as a chef. Any words of advice would be grateful. Many thanks Alex Wood one aldwych London

For nearly the whole of the second page now, the subject is around origionality and more to the point the fear of plagarism. what is important about any chefs work is the journey taken, and its creative process within ourselves. If we worry too much about being first and binning any ideas that we see, or are told, are similar then full evolution of any dish isn't achieved and then the time wasted and our enthusiasm dampened. I a couple of years ago heard of Ferrans Air of carrot and thought as many, Wow and went about trying to replicate it using every emulsifying chemical or gelatins I could lay my hands on. The closest I came to was a Carrot angel delight and, enthusiasm dampened, binned the idea. Imagine how sick I was when 10 months later I am lucky enough to see him demonstrate at the royal horseguards hotel in London, how bloody simple it actually is. My enthusiasm returned I knocked up a special a couple of weeks later using my old Carrot angel delight as a solid sauce. enough wittering, I wish to congratulate all the chefs involved in this project, all the work I've looked at appears phenomenal, and wish you every success with the developments both purely original and close replications. after all the saying is there is nothing new under the Sun, if you think of it all the new "clever" products we use in cookery are extracts (agar, alginates) or byproducts (gellan gum) take care and thanks again for the fantastic insights into your creative, not at all mad, scientific culinary brains. One quick question for anyone please, I'm having difficulty obtaining sensible quantities of Sodium Alginate and Calcium chloride, could someone point me in the right direction. Alex.

Breakfast with us is always croissants and selection of preserves from the wierd list at fortnums, with Ham and tongue and smoked salmon carved at the table with another selection of this seasons mustards washed down with a glass or three of bucks fizz. this is then followed by presents and subsequent building of many hot wheels toys and putting enless stickers on things before you can settle down to your own prezzies. Lunch then for everyone but me is the bog standard turkey, veg etc, I reserve a nice chateaubriand as I cook for a living by the 25th the last thing I need to see is another bloody turkey. what ever you decide to have on the day I wish you a very (early) blooming great Xmas. Alex.

if you grate the cheese and mix it with the herbs and a little seasoning, then with a long bladed thin knife stab the chicken with at the thick end, go about 3/4 of the way down, wiggle the knife nearest the entry point. this will create a small pocket, force the mix into the pocket leaving a bit at the end so the chicken can again meet. press the open end down. Flour egg then crumb the breast, seal in a moderate pan to get your colour, then finish in a moderate oven (160C-320F) cook this for about 14-15 minutes. just to be on the safe side, carve just as you are serving and lightly grill if it's under done, I would not recomend deep frying cos it will look cooked long before it actually is. another way is to bat the breast out roll the filling in to it (like a swiss roll - or your american equivalent), then qrap in pigs caul fat before breadcrumbing this should stop any goo from falling out. hope this helps Alex.

Don't leave out the goats cheese, it'll taste great. however it could just pour out of any gaps, my advice would be to try and wrap the joint in creponette, (pigs caul), this should hold it together, seal, stud with rosemary and garlic, and roast at 160C until med rare. I'm jealous. what ever you do I hope its great Alex.

Daddy A thats fantastic, I am still married and whilst the first few months were trying times for my wife, (she never had a partner who could cook before let alone someone who did it for 80 hours a week), she soon came around to the fact that I actually wanted to share the job, since then we've now got three little Angels (see Fallen) My eldest started with veg prep when he was three, my children constantly badger me to make stuff with them on days off, favourites being sushi and ice cream. Recently I bought a candy floss machine and this has caused endless tooth rotting days of amusement, however the other day I though I would get my own back and produced a slightly tinged candy floss up for the family to try, my wife asked if the machine had got too hot I smiled and said no everything was fine and my children munched into, soomewhat disbelievingly, Savoury rosemary candy floss. Alex

Ok this was a long time ago, using a gravity slicer to plough through some Roast sirloin for vast sandwich party. About half way through the blade was sounding rough against some trapped beef debris. so I carefully swithed off, moved left hand to remove the obsruction with my right hand very carefully placed over the "ON" switch. you guessed it, 7 stitches, thankfully the blade was set quite thin, so only buried itself into flesh and not bone. still scarred 13 years later, fingernail looks like a girl, lesson learned. Alex.

i only ever use a timer for boiling eggs as have no sense of elapsed time, otherwise i eyeball, some things though I need the temp probe for as most of my lamb is cooked in a modified yogurt maker, (I set the temp to 58C), also when cooking pork belly confit or duck confit then I have to set the cell phone alarm cos I cook these for up to 60 hours. I notice a lot of toaster comments, can someone please answer why most toasters have a setting to burn the damn toast, Hmm maybe I should start a new thread on this one. Alex

Food and cooking. basically is everything. we need food to function, we have to do it every day, so we may as well enjoy the chore. Cooking is my career of choice and a complete obsession. I am studying moluecular chemistry at degree level to try and understand what it is that makes the perfect meal, also its occasionally fun to sidetrack for novelties sake. but I cannot forget that whilst science can help to make a combination or technique better, the second you put it in your mouth science has to go out the window and the chefy skills developed over the last 15 years must take over. in a nutshell, i'ts my world my life my everything, but not at the cost of my family who all thankfully share the passion, after all my son's favourite things to do on days off is make sushi and ice creams. Alex.

not quite sure but reckon it's around 50, also got 20 or so books on food science from peter barham to a record of the 17th science food fair somewhere in greece back in 1984. oldest book, "366 menus from the Baron Brisse" which dates back to 1882. current faves Oriel ballaguer "dessert cuisine", watch out for the recipes as some are a little more involved than looks on paper. El Bulli 1998-02 Family Food - Hestn Blumenthal On food and cooking - Harold McGee (re-release later this month) Alex.

Isn't this what the FD is all about. The headphones thing is an old one, watch Discovery channels "kitchen Chemistry" of a few years ago, and Heston eats custard whilst listening to a crunchy apple being eaten. I assume that he has bought some tasteful earphones however. As for showing this on Richard and Judy though, perhaps not the ideal target audience show. I think the FD has got to the point now where people know what they are in for, like el bulli, it's not somewhere you would pop for a casual lunch. Alex.

forget the butter for a minute and make way for the little thimble full of piss, the UHT milk carton, with the lid that's superglued on so that just as the seal goes and it starts to open the momentum of the struggle throws the 2 mls of white stuff all over the 16 stone trucker on the next table.

I've never been paid for any starges that I've done nor ever heard of it, after all you are only there a couple of days and there to grab as much inspiration as possible. I know Ashley, the head chef and my chef knows Heston so I did what is known as an associated starge, however they get many applicants for month long positions there from all sorts, and they consider each application. however a month is a long time to take out of your life especially if you have the wife and kids in tow. however it is to be noted that with such limited space they have to stricktly control the amount of people who can work there, baring in mind that since the third star they are quite full for every service. one point to note as I mentioned before, it's a normal kitchen, fantastic atmosphere and team, but ultimately most of your day is spent doing MEP in the normal fashion, with the exeption of a few ingredients such as multidextrin, trehalose, you would be peeling asparagus and sweetbreads. If you apply post as to how you get on Alex.

Alex, welcome to eGullet. I hope you'll tell us more about working in the kitchen. ok then. basically it's a normal working kitchen, started my first day shaving fennel on a mandolin, vac packing, cooking, pureeing. this was for the base to the fennel veloute with sea urchins on the then set lunch menu. Spent a large amount of time working on the garnish as it's very central and you can keep a good eye on what is going on, no mean feat. (those who have seen the kitchen will understand 11 chefs at one time in that space, an achievment in itself). What was very noticeable was that the whole team there is behind each other, everyone was extremely busy (they had just got the 3 star), but no real signs of being dans la merde, as in most kitchens. Don't get me wrong there is an extreme amount of work to be done to be ready for each service, but everyone had their Mis en Place well organised. Other fantastically interesting jobs were, picking boxes of parsley, some for the snail porridge and some for the langoustine lasagne, picking a huge bucket of small morels (thanks Jock), for the caramel on the bacon and egg ice cream. During service I was obviously relegated to a mere watcher, granted I was the kitchens runner during this point, a bit of a culture shock for a London sous chef, prepping asparagus for the Salmon wrapped in licorice, vac packing and the like, but spent most of the service either getting in the way or bombarding Mr Blumenthal or Ashley (head chef) with questions and comments. to which they were extremely accomodating. Heston was and is extremely forthcoming with his thoughts both past and future. you'll find no secrets hidden here. I also took a little time to copy down some favourite recipes, inbetween being given little titbits to eat constantly as service progressed, did I mention the sardine sorbet? this I robbed on a regular basis. At the end of my final service (boo), after a lengthy chat with Heston, he kindly signed "Family Food" for me wishing me luck with the degree course I am pursuing. I am attempting an undergraduate course with the Open University at the moment in molecular science, with the long term aim of being able to get even more from our food. Not as plain sailing as I thought it might be though, and am posting this trying to put off my final paper which is due next week. Should anyone get the opportunity to work there then jump at it, beware though the waiting list for starges is pretty huge, and I know they like people where possible to do 1 month, so you can benefit from the whole experience. Me I am probably resigned to just eating there as often as my credit cards will allow, but will keep in touch to try and have another go next year. alex

Having been to the Fat Duck a few occasions now, and luckily enough to do a few days working with them back in January, I personally have found both food and service worthy of all awards. I guess I am just a bit lucky, because other cooks I have recommended have said service was lacklustre, but Hestons oddities more than made up for it. Also everyone warned me about the service at chapter one, but when I got there the whole experience was faultless, and probably only got better service at Sketch (hardly surprising when there were 8 waiters and 10 guests) Lots of comments lately regarding the inability to eat the snails, Me personally think this dish comes second only to the sardine on toast sorbet, which is probably one of the cleverest tricks on the tongue I have eaten to date. However my wife Sally can't abide the thought of eating creepy crawlies or garden pests simlpy asked Didier for something different and he gave her a small choice of others, not just the veggie option. Moby P, I understand where you are coming from with the whole warmth thing, however if you slightly overdo this kind of thing, the whole effect is buggered, they do flash the plates before sending but have to be careful not to toughen up the collagen in the meat.(see Discovery channels kitchen chemistry website if you want more sciency info thats easy to digest).