Sethro

Like I said, the colder water is the better I like it. If it's cold enough, I won't even be able to detect wether its distilled or not (unless its Evian, which tastes horrible to me at any tempurature). I'd say my favorite is NYC tap, but I may be predisposed from a lifetime of familiarity.

You've got a good eye, man. You should definately think about food-styling. Its much better money than cooking...oddly...

I actually prefer (and find that most customers prefer) peppermint oil to fresh mint. Fresh mint has a distinctly grassy quality and mellow menthol flavor (unless you're talking black mint, which is pretty rippin'), which is nice for infusing creams for delicately flavored items. It tends to get lost when competing with stronger flavors, especially bitter chocolate. Peppermint oil is so concentrated that you never need to use more than a 1/4tsp (unless you're making a really huge batch of whatever) so it won't affect the dry balance of a recipe, and it delivers that really bright menthol punch that most people associate with mint desserts (especially those raised on mint choc chip). I personally would never bother with the extra steps involved with fresh mint in an application where it's nuances won't even be detectable.

You want to sum up the essay for me, since I won't actually be buying the book?

That JGV cake is not really meant to be too sweet. Use a 64% chocolate and the taste well be less bitter and more sweet.

I find that if its cold enough, NYC tap water tastes as good as or better than the bottled stuff. Colder water will always taste "better", since cold taste buds are less receptive, and what you really want to taste in water is...nothing.

I think its better used as a flavorant, as supposed to adorning desserts with actual pieces. I've done nori truffles before. Its a flavor kind of like black truffle, where you have to be very measured with your use of it. It can give a nice earthy depth to a dessert, or it can overpower and ruin it. Anyways you can steam and puree it, and then use it as is or blend it with a syrup to experiment with mousses, creams, ganache and the like. You can also infuse with it, if you just want to get a subtle flavor...the natural msg never hurts either.

Most Pf purees are in the range of 10% sugar, if that helps.

I always found mellow fruits to work well with matcha. Mango, Raspberry, and Cantaloupe particularly. Here's a Matcha Raspberry Salad recipe with a surprisingly round flavor: 1pt raspberry 2Tbsp vanilla sugar 2Tbsp lemon juice 2tsp matcha 1pinch salt 1pinch white pepper garnish micro mint Makes an awesome accompaniment to chocolate or citrus desserts. You could make a your green tea genoise and fill it with the matcha raspberry salad and matcha creme chantilly if you really wanted to reinforce the flavor. Just remember that you'll probably want to soak the genoise with a green tea syrup before building.

Morrel Soup at The Modern French Onion at Balthazar Chicken Noodle at Capital Dominican Market

On the Buddakan NY note, I had a chance to see Michael Schulson's menu, and stylistically its on a way different level than Buddakan Philly. I think they're are indeed intending to compete with NY's most food-foward establishments. As far as Morrimoto NY, my understanding is that we can expect to see something dramatically different there as well.

I'm going Sunday evening, and I'm very excited.

Thank you! So uh... how is the creme brulee a tube? What do you freeze it in acetate or something???

I know this one! What is "lecithin", Alec? Thanks for answering my questions! Here's one more. Just out of curiosity, what are some ideas you've fooled around with but weren't able to perfect (yet)? Also, I'd love to see more pics, preferably ones that haven't made it up on sammasonnyc.com or wd-50.com.

I would tend to agree, but undeniably different, as well. ← I would tend to agree as well at least as far as Per Se (I haven't been to Cru yet), but as Bryan says it is undeniably different. I would not necessarily expect all diners to agree with Bryan and I, though. Per Se is significantly more elegant and the food more straightforwardly accessible than WD-50. personally, I find WD-50 to be an extremely comfortable restaurant with a very nice NYC vibe. The food is right up my alley - it is fun, intellectually stimulating, beautiful and, of course, delicious. Per Se would be the better choice for a business dinner for which one did not know the proclivities of one's dining partners, but for a dinner in which all the diners are excited about food and creativity it is my opinion that WD-50 is the better choice. ← They're both incredible restaurants, impossible to compare. If I could only eat at one of the two ever again, I would pick WD~50 in an instant, but that's just me.

This is awesome! I hope I'm not too late to join in the fun. First off, you are a major inspiration, and WD~50 is my personal Graceland. When I'm struggling with new dishes I always ask myself "WWSMD?" Heh...seriously, though. Now I guess I can actually ask. When you're dealing with cutting-edge techniques and rarely used ingredients, where do you start? Take the cocoa caviar you just posted above. I was messing around last year trying to make a "chocolate compote" component which was basically supposed to be tiny pearls of chocolate like that, but having absolutely no guidelines I basically ended up wasting alot of time and chocolate. I guess my question is, do you have some set of resources you turn to for information on fringe techniques, or is it just a knack? OK, I probably won't have another chance to get online again before the focus is over, so I have three more quick and specific questions: 1) If you could recomend one "unusual" piece of equiptment or ingredient that every pastry chef shoud get their hands on, what would it be? 2) What do you do to the olives in the black olive claufoutis? Do you soak them in something besides water or simple syrup? Whenever I try baking with olives, it falls waaay short of your mark. 3) You got a book in the works yet? You NEED to have a book! Keep blazing the trail, man. I will be behind you in the distance, trying to keep up.

Yeah, heh, I edited to fix that. I also halved the recipe since I doubted anyone would want to "test" a full sheet of ganache.

SUPERGOOD!!! He is my fav.

It re-freezes fine in myexperience. You can make tuilles or poor-man's-puff with the scraps. For tuilies, punch into circles, and assmble about 3 layers with simple syrup, then bake off between silpats at around 200 degrees. They'll turn a cool translucent orange color. For puff, assemble about 7 layers with butter, and dock. You can also sprinkle sugar, salt or spices betwwen the layers. Bake at 350-375.

Well ganache isn't going to get too shiny sinc its totally out of temper, but glucose helps perk up it's looks a little. I'd say somewhere around 1tbsp glucose to every 20oz chocolate is plenty. Here's my fav ganache recipe, very smooth at room temp, and perfect for cutting clean lines right out of the fridge. Definately not for glazing though. 16.5 floz cream 7 oz butter 1 Tbsp glucose 1/8 tsp salt 20 oz 66% bittersweet chocolate (I like Guitard)

The one thing that really surprised me was the presentation scores. If I remember correctly, Mario eeked out Wylie by a half-point or so, which seems ludacris to me. Wylie had some really stunning plates last night, wheras Mario seemed to be taking his ala rustica approach. I think at my next gig I will just soak all my plates in saffron syrup so people can ooh and ahh over the color, as if you have to be some kind of wizard to throw saffron in water. That woman judge is consistanltly horrible; rude, ineloquent and seemingly inexperienced when it comes to fine dining. Why is it she's always the one with the tough piece of protein that she just...can't...cut? Admittedly, there have been far worse judes on ICA than her. Take for instance the actor from the Sopranos, who while judging Morimoto's offerings plainly stated "I don't eat nothin raw that don't hit the plate dead. My mama taught me that." Also, we're are spared ICJ's actersses de jour with their stunning insights like "The crab is dancing in my mouth! I'm so happy!" I have to agree that Sous Vide is not always a great road to take, but after transporting and setting up all that equiptment, I would have cooked whatever the secret ingridient was in it! I would have made hamburger sous vide and beef noodles, if that's what I was given...

1. More chocolate means a harder setting ganache. Your recipe would provide a lighter ganache, while Martha's would be denser. 2. Yes, it will whip fine with the corn syrup. It's purpose is to keep the ganache softer when cold, to smooth out the texture and to provide a gloss. Glucose works way better in my opinion, and with alot less needed. 3. A pound of chocolate to a pint of cream is pretty much a 1:1 ratio ganache, which is fine for icing. Alot of that depends on personal taste. The higher the cream in the ratio, the thinner and softer coverage you'll get.

I believe it was that thread, and although there was no answer as to why, there was a proportion suggested that minimized the effect.

Baklava?

Best dish: Sorrel Soup with Roasted Foie, at the Modern Runners up: Wild Mushroom Dumplings with Black Truffle Emulsion, at Breeze Foie Gras Soup Dumpling, at Anissa Anago Sushi with Butter Ponzu, at Jewel Bakko Black Olive Claufutis with Almond Sorbet, at WD~50