confiseur

Thank you for your replys...and yes I am a 'player' in my field but I normally avoid publicity. Quite a shy person and like to let my work do the talking... Thanks also for the point about foreign editions... I dont have to pay for an agent or the photography... Latest offer from the publisher: ... advance against royalties of $20,000, payable 25% on signature of contract,25% on delivery of manuscript and 50% on publication. An initial royalty of 10% of cover price would apply on all copies sold at standard book trade discounts up to 10,000 copies, rising to 12.5% on copies sold thereafter... Excuse my naivety in such matters but is the quoted statement a good/poor deal? Certainly not expecting to get rich on it, just dont want to sell myself short either.

In short I have been asked to write a book...mostly recipes..First print run of approx. 8000, $40/£20 per book retail. I have been offered $10k dollars for this... A fair price or not?. It seems like photographers costs mega-bucks but I have not got a clue how the costs are generally attributed or who gets what. I dont expect to make a fortune but dont want to be taken for a ride either. Any help/suggestions much appreciated.

Good idea, but these must be eaten immediatley? or within a day or two at most. I am quite intrigued by the idea of a creme brulee truffle but it is it possible to get a decent shelf life ( 1-2 weeks) on a similar recipe?

..the previous posters reiterate my point...In the UK the head chef knows everything better... I left England as a young man...went to CH and studied as a baker/confectioner..realised I knew bugger all so trained on as a chocolatier/confiseur, realised I still had so much to learn.then worked my way up as a hotel/restaurant pastry chef...attended courses and seminars led by the masters ( Bau, Wybauw, Herme, Ziegler, Eggenschwiler etc) Lots of time and energy which were eventually honoured by a couple of great jobs with an excellent salary. I respected the Exec Chefs and visa-versa, even though he knew I was on the same salary as he was..I did not tell him how to make his sauces..he did not tell me how I should enrobe chocolates...mutual respect and team work all round. In the UK things are a little different...(not for me I do not work in the pastry anymore) and as for the 70k plus salarys, dont be shy please let us all know where they are as I have a friend who was a michelin 3* pastry chef and is now looking for a job but never earnt anywhere near that salary.

ok then..my 2 pence worth.. In the Sarf of England..Tony Hoyle at The Grove and Thierry Besselievre ( worked at a few of GR's places) are pretty good... Unsung hero's abroad ( certainly far better than the hugely over-rated Miss Clarke of the French Laundry, Wolsely and er.. Hilton Edgeware Road ) are Julian Hutchings ,ex Oriental Hotel Bangkok, now in Shanghai and Martin Chiffers, ex Raffles Singapore now in Seoul.

The reasons that there are so good few pastry chefs in the UK is that generally the salarys on offer are crap and their is no recognition of the pc as a craftsman in their own right. When I worked as a Pastrychef in Switzerland in hotels/restaurants I was more often than not paid more than the Exec. Chef.. This would be unthinkable in Britain where the pastry chef is seen as 'just another chef-de-partie' on the same level as the veg or larder chef.

Yes this must be the reason why there are so few Premiership teams left in the Champion's League ... ← ...Foreign owned, foreign managers and with mostly foreign players...Last night, Liverpool v Arsenal..2 English players on the pitch. Premiership teams yes..'English'..no.

....great report and lovely picture...well done indeed! ....however!...the following comment raises eyebrows... 'For instance, EVERYONE FREEZES! Chef stated flat out, if an artisan chocolatier says they don't freeze their finished product, then they are probably lying or don't know what they are doing. I plan on opening my own shop at the end of the year and this was a sensitive issue, since I want to do 'artisan' products and was concerned that I would be violating that spirit by freezing my products.' ...this is an incredibly broad-brush statement and one I cannot agree with....I know many artisan chocolatiers who do not freeze their products..these businesses are run by highly skilled craftsmen who have succesfull/profitable businesses.

..A question about the recipes that use gelatin...is is powder or leaf? or is it possible to use both? Secondly..when the recipe for a ganache says 'dark chocolate' for example is that 60, 64, 66, or 70% cocoa solids...'milk chocolate' 33, 35, 40 or 45% cocoa solids? Depending on the percentages their will be quite a big difference between the finished ganaches..

I don't know who they've got in to replace him but he's going to be a tough act to follow. I was invited to a press launch at the Latymer and had a very impressive meal given that he'd only just taken over the kitchen. Lovely restaurant but the rest of the hotel, which is bloody huge, is a bit corporate for my tastes. ←

....just on the places I've recently been too..Theo Randall should get one...Toms Kitchen most definatley not...Le Manoir to lose one..

very interesting indeed ,far better than the over-hyped dessert book from the french Laundry.

Quite a useful book for the dedicated amateur chef,however the publicity doesnt quite match the contents. The claim that the author is one of the top 3 pastry chefs in the world owes more to over-enthusiastic PR than reality. Fairly good but not in the same class as Herme, Bau, Torreblanca, Notter etc etc.

Dont swallow all this macho-man bullshit about being screamed and shouted at...it is pathetic,totally unnecessary and contrary to what some may say it does not make you cook better.. If you cannot teach someone to do things properly and/or the way you want it done without resorting to tantrums then you are the problem not the person you are training...and yes I have worked at the sharp end both in the UK and Europe for 25 years so I do know what I am rattling on about.. The 16 hour days should also be put into the myths and legends category....neccesary?...during the pre-opening/opening phase ..unfortunatley yes..afterwards? there having a laugh at your expense.... Expense being the operative word as the Exec. Chef will be on very big bucks indeed and will generally be paid a nice juicy bonus to keep staff costs low..... NVQ's?...well I am Swiss trained so cannot comment..however all knowledge is usefull and if you can get in somewhere decent such as Westminster/Kingsway you will pick up a lot...cost you a lot less than cordon-bleu and Leiths as well which cater mainly to the daughters of the Chelsea/Notting Hill/Kensington Ladies-that-lunch set. Prettier looking diplomas mind.. Ring around a few places and offer to come and work for a week or so for free...you will get to see what sort of style of food and more importantly what side of the kitchen you like..sauce/larder/pastry or a bit of everything..

.....Browns on Albermarle Street has always had a good reputation,Claridges and the Lanesborough also...Tea Palace is great...gets very busy at the week end though. Avoid the Ritz, massively over-rated/hyped, they serve'afternoon' tea from 11am-7pm in 'sittings'...which means you start getting the hurry-up after an hour or so.

'My Father who is a diabetic decided to have the ‘Stracciatella Ice cream’ thus was the quality of the food he decided to risk the prospect of a diabetic coma or death, the things people do for ice-cream. This was a fine example of excellent ingredients making an excellent dish. Simply a scoop of fresh light ice-cream, spiked with shards of delicious dark chocolate, just superb. I wish I would have asked what chocolate they used.' .....Amadei....either 9 or Chuao.... ,

Could anyone recommend an airbrush and suitable compressor for spraying coloured cocoa butter into moulds for making chocolates? Advantages/disadvantages etc. Any advice much appreciated.Many thanks

Mary Runciman cooks brilliantly at La Potiniere in Gullane. Very small restaurant indeed. Michelin standard food IMO.

Curley is good for pastries. L'artisan and Melt are both better for chocolates.

...it wasnt as funny as his Black-Forest Gateaux though...when he added oil to the chocolate to thin it down for spraying he certainly put the 'w' into tv anchor man for me...

....I hear La Noisette is looking for a pastry chef...7am to 12pm...( straight shifts )...23k per year...wonder why there having difficulties finding anyone ?

..am I the only one who thought last nights effort was a classic case of 'the emperors new clothes'....some of the techniques he presented as his own ideas have been around for donkeys years....and when he put the chocolate mixed with..what was it? groundnut or sunflower oil? through the paint gun I allmost wet myself....better than Borat!...the ONLY fat you add to chocolate to thin it down so it can be sprayed is cocoa-butter..with NO exceptions.

Never the less, it's far from a blind tasting. I wasn't particularly commenting on the specific ratio of awards between the leaders (Curley / Young / Melt / Rococo etc.), and I'm not necessarily implying they weren't trying to be good -- influence can be entirely uncynical/unmeditated and even quite subconscious. Also, what various artisans are trying to do artistically is bound to take their definition of "good [chocolate ]" in particular, rarefied directions... re. Melt, although they're not members, Damian Allsop is (and he was on the panel) and it sounds like Melt are still producing the same sort of chocolates. The new "atelier" is such a recent thing, could judging samples have actually come from there? ← ...regarding Melt...true, Damian was on the panel but as he fell out with the owner of Melt big time before leaving I seriously doubt if that helped them....having also seen the shop when he was working there and having recently visited I can confirm the chocolate style has since changed considerably.... Artisan did send samples from their new 'atelier/usine'... I agree, William Curley trumps Paul Young ....who is in turn trumped by Pierre Herme...who is trumped by Wittamar in Brussels...who is trumped by Confiserie Sprungli ....etc