Sethro

Thanks for some interesting advice. Soy is actually the intended flavor--I guess I forgot to mention that. My first test run is going to be with arrowroot (thanks for reminding me I have that) and agar. If that isn't serviceable then I'll get some carragenan. I prefer agar powder...I don't suppose anyone has a flake to powder conversion handy...

Never used it. Is it cold soluble? How much should I use?

Ineed to make vegan panna cotta. Anybody have a ballpark conversion ratio for gelatin to agar? Also, any thoughts on simulating the creaminess? I was thinking of thicken up soy milk with lecithin or methcel. Anyone have a notion as to which would provide the creamiest mouth feel?

Classic. Full article here. ← I guess he rents a seperate test kitchen/production space somewhere. The kitchen at R4D is...well there isn't a kitchen!

One of the line cooks accidentally puts the tarragon soil in the lowboy...every night...which doesn't seem to screw with it at all. I expected it to collect some moisture and clump up, but it's fine. I actually kind of like it cold. Has any one tried freezing, either for storage or just to have a frozen soil?

A guitar cutter would still be much faster. What if you need more ganache than there are spaces in the molds? You have to make multiple batches, waiting in between each for the previous to set? That already bothers me with baking in fleximolds, especially the washing them in between batches, but there's not other option in that case.

Corn syrup is abot 70% as sweet as sugar, whereas honey is close to 130%, so I wouldn't make that substitution. Its presence in the reipe is pobably to add in the spreading of the cookies. I have no idea what they sell in Japan that's similar to corn syrup but you could warm some honey and cut it with an equal part of water. That might be about the same viscosity and sweetness.

I wouldn't want to be then next poor sap up for review. It's bound to be a zero or one star bludgeoning.

Can anyone describe "coconut pebbles"?

I don't get it. "Mason" would have been a pretty cool name.

I don't think comfort food can be "three or four star", nor should it ever command fine dining prices. That's not a knock on her stuff at all, which in my opinion is way beyond comfort food anyhow. Pop rock foam, cornbread ice cream, chocolate shooters--this is kind of modern stuff.

I got bad results from the Nature's Flavors product too. The malto from L'Epiciere is only slightly more expensive and works fine, so I'm sticking with that.

Yeah, NYC may be a bastion of haute cuisine, but there isn't a restaurant in the world that has anything on a perfect pie of NY style pizza. Make sure you don't miss out on that!

About that "mention": http://dinersjournal.blogs.nytimes.com/?p=90 ← In all fairness there was also a diner's journal proper on Loft, prior to the mention you linked. However both pieces pre-date Angelo Sosa's helming of the kitchen, so for accuracy's sake the only NYT mention of the chef in question are Yumcha related.

Well there is a sub-level prep-kitchen and pastry kitchen connecting the two. Of course there is also alot of work done upstairs at the prepective lines by seperate line cooks. The exec chef next door doesn't have the title of "exec" but he really is. The dailly specials are completely different and handled by two different chefs. It feels like one restaurant up until service, though. The wait staffs even split shifts between nobu and next door. Everyone eats familly together. The deciding factor might be the seperate licenses. I believe that officially makes it two seperate businesses. ...sorry, back to Ramsay...

Is the custard cooked in the pumpkin? Those pumpkins don't look baked, whats the deal?

They carry a good selection of exotic fruits that are hard to find elsewhere.

Best of luck with Varietal, I'm looking foward to seeing your stuff.

I've been expermenting with the stuff. Took me several tries to get a soil with detectable flavor. The 2:1/starch:fat proportions don't work for me at all. it seems to dry out at around 3:1, but at that point the flavor (and color) is mostly masked by the starch. My technique thus far has been to start the starch spinning in the robocoupe and then drizzle in the oil. Am I doind something wrong? Also, anybody know how to work this with chocolate? I tried melting it and thinning it with veg oil. It made for a nice textured soil but the color was light brown and the flavor was barely detectable. Any help?

If you want a dairy-free white chocolate sauce (I mean, not including the milk solids in the chocolate itself), I use a glucose based one. I only use the chocolate sauce for the plate. I don't really understand what you maean about baking with it...

...and those came out just fine. Thank you.

Here's mine. I use E Guitard for almost everything. 350 ml water 300 g sugar 25 ml water 1 T cornstarch 80 g 72% couveture 50 g cocoa powder Bring the sugar and first portion of water to a boil. Make a slurry with the second portion of water and the cornstarch, and whisk it in, letting it simmer for a couple minutes. Stir in the couverture and cocoa powder, and keeping stiring till its smooth and glossy. Strain and chill.

Much thanks! Testing tommorow.

Again, those are the savory, more bread-y zeppoles. There is another breed of zeppole that's much more similar to choux paste. I'm gonna check out that baking powder one and see what happens.

Both those recipes are for the savory, bread-y zeppoles. Sorry, I should have specified I'm looking for the sweet, lighter kind. I had a pretty good recipe that called for pastry flour and baking powder, but that hard-drive died and all was lost. EDIT: possibly a mod could move this to the Italian forum so I don't have to cross-post it?