Chris Amirault

I've been sick a few days but plotting my Sunday dinner, all of which will be drawn from volume 3: mac & cheese, cucumber pickles, and fried chicken. Off to do the shopping for it now. Will document obsessively.

Sure, give it a try. Only one way to find out!

Anyone interested in fast food production line quality and consistency should just stand and watch the Subway workers build sandwiches for an hour or so, then go to Burger King, McDonalds, or anywhere else and ask for something made "your way." The differences are pretty striking, and, I think, key to Subway's genius: everything is made "your way."

On the "doneness" question, I'd add that the parametric charts usually offer a variety of doneness levels, particularly for meats and fish but also for eggs and other items. In those charts, the temps and times preferred by the team are highlighted, but others are included, allowing you to make your own decision. Many have been spot-on for me, but I'll dial back the brisket recommendation as I found it a bit too "done." That's the point, of course: to give you enough information to make your own decision.

I'm not a fan if there are other options around, but a Subway vegetarian sub with lots of pickles and hot peppers is a life-saver on interstate road trips. (Props to my wife for revealing this.)

I guess I'm not a TB because I think that the review is the best yet and has useful criticisms as noted above. I would take issue with this: I have the Alinea cookbook so I get the concept here, but I have already cooked many things "from" this. I guess it depends on what "from" means, and, as Chris Hennes pointed out, which volume you're holding.

I suppose you could ask Dale DeGroff that question, whose 2 oz spirit, 1 oz liqueur, 3/4 oz juice sour ratio is the base he arrived at after decades of what most of us would call a pretty decent professional career. Of course, it's just a base to be tweaked, not a proclamation of absolute truth in every instance. Correct me if I'm wrong, Matt, but I don't think that's what you're proclaiming, right?

How much is that gonna weigh?

It wouldn't be essentially wrong. It's ground corn, after all. Now grits with oats = not grits.

I will be returning for the final class of the course on Thursday and will report back then. You'll want to check in: the class moved to one of the new, state-of-the-art classrooms in the Cuisinart Center for Culinary Excellence, which I toured last week with a battery-dead camera. Not so Thursday.

Removing baguettes: Baguettes: Rosemary oil atop the foccacia: Seeded semolina loaves with sesame and sunflower, ciabatta rolls and the foccacia: Critiquing the baguettes for crumb, crust, color, etc.: Here's a good example of a challah loaf that was braided too tightly:

I'm very eager to see how it turns out. Please provide photos if at all possible!

Oops. Never, apparently.

I think that Yelp and Zagat have droves of quite certain people posting their opinions.

In "Defend Your Research: Experts Are More Persuasive When They’re Less Certain," just published on the Harvard Business Review website, Zakary Tormala writes compellingly about persuasion and certainty -- and he uses restaurant reviews as the basis for the article. In response to a skeptical interviewer, Tormala pointed out, Well, we deal with tastes and attitudes around here quite a bit, so I thought I'd put the question to you. Me? I'm still uncertain....

Has anyone actually identified a legitimate scientific basis for the Coriolis effect influencing the results in a documented, meaningful fashion? I've been making risotto for a few decades and haven't seen it in the kitchen, nor can I find it in any reference.

Who's at the Carousel bar now that Chris McMillan isn't?

Here's the website. Which types do people order?

One student group was working on their bread centerpiece project:

How do you get them? I just checked google and Zingerman's is the only source -- at $12.50/lb. By the way, Nathalie Dupree has an entire book on the subject.

BadRabbit: no cheese?

A good friend is traveling to New Orleans this spring and wants to hit a few bars. I've given him the address for Cure and for Bar Uncommon -- though it sounds like they should only go there if Chris McMillan is behind the stick. Where else should I send 'em?

Can you find any type of coarsely ground corn?

Welcome to the eGullet Cook-off 55: Shrimp & Grits. Click here for the Cook-off index. Let's just start with a shameful fact: until this moment, eG Forums has had no topic dedicated to making this classic southern dish. True, there's this rambly topic on the origins and particulars of shrimp & grits, and this one on a shrimp & cauliflower "grits" project by Chappie, and a couple dozen on grits basics. But nothing focused on preparing shrimp & grits. Perhaps this is because many think of it as a dish without need for specificity or even care. I mentioned to someone recently that I had to do some prep for a shrimp & grits dinner; he retorted, "How much prep is there?" I suppose you could toss some grits into boiling water, toss some shrimp into a skillet, dump B onto A and call it done. But that seems unfair, doesn't it? The grits below can be a simple foil for dolled-up shrimp, or they can be the luxurious star, creamy, cheese-y, and more. Additional ingredients, garnishes, and accompaniments vary widely, too. If you've had a top-notch version of the dish, you know it isn't just, well, shrimp & grits. Even this Yankee knows that it's good for what ail's you, late winter blues included. So let's see what your basic recipe is, and then you can show us what you do to kick things up a notch. So to speak.

That's where I've seen it!