JeanneCake

No idea. But would love it if we got to live in andiesenji's life for a week!

It was always frustrating for me to work with applying gold leaf; the slightest exhale and oops! This is a poor man's alternative: use an edible gold aerosol spray, made by Chefmaster (a truer gold than PME) or by PME. Both available through cake decorating distributors (such as Pfeil and Holing, Avalon Cake Deco, etc) and I think Williams Sonoma has some but I only say a white pearl when I was there last. Put the nuts on a parchment lined pan and spray with one hand while shaking the pan with the other so they roll around and you can apply the gold to as much surface area as possible. It smells like vanilla whenever I do this at work; everyone comments on it, strangely enough. Just don't get too close with the can, then the color beads up.

I would not let the incident affect my decision to go or not go; but if something were to go wrong during the meal, I already know there would be no interest from management in fixing it. Customer satisfaction doesn't seem to be high on their list. What I found interesting was the comment about people losing jobs because of past poor reviews by the critic. Perhaps someone the chef knows was one who lost a job and now has exacted payback?

I'm looking for some choices in buying Braun/Alaska Express mousse mixes. I know Qzina distributes them; I'm looking for others. Can anyone recommend places? Thanks!

If you are using fondant to cover the cake, you would want to use a buttercream on the outside so the fondant has something to stick to. Because it firms up, ganache doesn't provide a surface for the fondant to stick to. In our shop, we use a simple syrup flavored with the appropriate liqueur or juice to add some subtle flavor notes but if you're looking for a stronger Kahlua taste, you might consider making a creme anglais to serve alongside the cake, and put the liqueur in that....

Normally when you are presenting an individual dessert, you put it on a mono board that's a 4" circle that has a tab for easy handling. Lately there are some newer shapes and sizes out there but I need to find a 2.25 inch card to build miniature, personal bite-sized cakes on. I don't want the card or board to show much. I have 4" round silver mono boards and the client wants a uniform, clean edge just as if it were machine cut. So no matter how careful I am, if I were to trim these down they won't be perfectly uniform and the client has been very specific about not doing that. So a shout-out to all of my cake-baker friends in the UK and Australia and New Zealand who use miniature cakes more often than we do: what kind of card are you using and where can I buy some? The wedding is on New Years' Eve and the client and I just finalized all the details yesterday. So time is of the essence and if I find these available internationally, I need time for them to be shipped to the US....

I guess it depends on what you were reading. If it was just cookbooks, the copyright on the early ones (MTAFC, etc) would have given you some historical reference. If you read the book My Life in France, it chronicles the journey she took in her culinary education as well as the struggles in getting the first book published. The comments about recipe testing that are included in the book show that people were not cooking like that at home because everything was processed and convenience foods were being heavily touted as THE way a modern person cooked. The memoir type books will help you put things in context. So if you read those books and still had the question, that's why people would wonder if you were just trying to spice things up in the forums ETA: correct typo

do a google search for "wowie cake" - it is similar to the above recipes with oil, water, vinegar, cocoa, flour, sugar, salt baking powder and baking soda - no eggs; you need to use a dutched cocoa for best results. I am thinking of experimenting soon with replacing the flour with a gluten free flour substitute to see if it works as well.

This year I get to host Thanksgiving! And because my parents are older and hate to drive at night, they'll arrive around 1 and we'll sit down by 2 and they will leave for home (with lots of leftovers. I don't get this practice of sending guests home with empty hands. When my sister did Tday, I'd make a turkey before we left so that there'd be something to eat when we got home).

Your description instantly made me think of the sausage roll/bread from the Silver Palate book. It's an herbed bread dough that's rolled around an Italian sausage filling and smoked mozzarella (like a jelly roll) and then you bake it in a spring form pan (so it's round). My mother and husband adore it and I haven't made it in years. It will be a nice surprize for both of them on Thanksgiving day - though they'll probably save it for the next day!

One of my accounts has asked that I make some hush puppies for them to include in a bread basket for an event on Saturday evening. This means frying to order is out of the question, since I would be delivering their order (which includes other things besides the hush puppies) on Friday evening or some time on Saturday afternoon. I think this means I have to pretend and use a baked version that they can reheat (we don't have a fryolator in our kitchen and there's too much going on on both days to mess with frying them). So, are there any decent recipes for a baked hush puppy? Thanks in advance....

Please! Share the recipe

Using fondant will give you cleaner lines than if you did this in buttercream; what I've found from people who say "no fondant" is that they've had the fondant from a craft store which is not to their taste. I've never used marshmallow fondant to know how it would compare in terms of ease of handling or taste; the commercial fondant I've used has been really well received by clients (even the "no fondant" clients). You can use Bakels Pettinice or Albert Uster's Massa Grishuna - both of which I've used and like; FondX is made by Cal-Java and a lot of people like that one; some people like Satin Ice but I only use that brand for the precolored fondants, it seems much drier than other brands when I use it. You could even use modeling chocolate for the entire thing; it might be more of a challenge than fondant depending on how firm the chocolate is, but it can work.

You could do a fruit soup, but I wonder if the banana brulee is going to count as "hot" since it's only the top that's torched - the custard itself is cold.

So it's ok for you to be angry and post about a private conversation - but MW doesn't get the same courtesy? I am also appalled that you would take that step (of escalating matters and making a private call public); in anger we do and say things we cannot later take back. Let's be clear about things: This would not have happened if you had never posted about the call.

Yes. Grilled steak. Of course, tonight we're having chicken and now I want steak!

From the Guardian quoting Marcus Wareing: "I felt I could call them because we have spoken before - we then had a private conversation which I am saddened to see has now been posted." MW was given the opportunity to respond and didn't refute the CC's claims - he was just "saddened" to see it posted. Just wanted to point that out. It was a private conversation. CC should have asked his permission or notified him prior or during the call that they would make this public. He is under no obligation to respond to inquiries regarding a private conversation. With the way the CC people are behaving, who knows what they would do with his response?! It served them well, to get their 15 minutes of fame. We don't know what was said during that private call so we are in no position to start wondering about why he was "saddened" - he doesn't need to refute anything, just like the CC isn't refuting their claims regarding what they posted (they had said they would address the issues raised in this thread, but so far have not).

This looks divine! What a great job Isn't being a mom fun?! Most fun I've had so far....

We only know one side of the conversation, and not much of that, either. My objection to this is the fact that the chef most likely has no knowledge that the CC were making it known far and wide that they received this call. No one likes to be blindsided and no one should. In my opinion, true professionals do not behave like spoiled children stamping their feet and saying "look what bad things have been said about me". In this thread, we have the CC making their experience known and the chef taking exception to that (first tantrum), and then the CC have a tantrum by saying "the chef spoke rudely to me, wahh!" I 'm not suggesting that we all behave perfectly all the time, but when we behave badly, do we have to shine s spotlight on it and keep probing the wound? Do you want your mistakes at work to be broadcast far and wide? Mrs CC should have informed the caller that she would be making the call known to the public; and included a transcript (OK, I'm being pedantic about this); but the bottom line is that they blogged about their experience, the chef called to discuss it and we only know what Mrs CC wants us to know about this call. What's the motive behind that? I can't find a shred of professionalism in that action and this action (posting about the call) from Mrs CC is equally as unprofessional and childish as what she claims Chef Wareing's behavior was during the phone call.

And posting this fact (about the chef calling) isn't unprofessional?!

the recipe I use calls for equal amounts of sugar and butter (mixed together but not creamed - no adding air); then eggs, vanilla, flour and some milk. The original recipe called for baking powder, but I didn't like the puff it gave so I leave it out. If I were making just round, crackly type of sugar cookies, I would add it but for my cookie cut outs, I leave it out. The recipe is at work and I am at home, so I am trying to remember the quantities for the small batch size, it would be 18 oz of butter, 18 oz sugar, 3 eggs, vanilla; and I can't remember the flour but it is probably 2 pounds perhaps? And 3 tbl milk. I am just guessing on the flour, I will check in the morning. But something else that helps is rolling the dough between sheets of parchment and letting the dough rest overnight. I also notice that I get a smoother cookie (more shortbread like) when I roll the scraps together - it's almost as if I could use more flour or leave it in a disk and then roll it out the next day.

The truffles look to be coated with sprinkles (also called "jimmies" here in New England!), you probably know them as vermicelli (these are more rounded than paillettes, which are tiny squares - at least, that is how I get them from my distributor.) Our standard ganache recipe is 2# chocolate (chopped, coins, callets, chips), 8 oz butter, 2# heavy cream; put choc/butter in a bowl, bring cream to a full boil, pour over choc, stir, let firm up.... so you could use that or whatever your own favorite recipe is.... I would say to use your own favorite cake recipes - a layer of chocolate cake, a layer of chocolate ganache; a layer of white or vanilla cake and a layer of white chocolate ganache (you could use the same ganache as above, just use 1# choc to 8 oz cream).... I have never had this, but it looks wonderful! At first I thought you were going to make tiny, tiny little truffles and put them in the filling! Please show pictures of the birthday cake! It will be lovely, I'm sure!

I have to wonder about whether or not the OP told Chef Wareing that the conversation would become a thread on a public forum. You know, sort of like the message at the beginning of a call that says "this call may be monitored and/or saved for training purposes". At least then you know that whatever you say has the potential to be recalled and reviewed. Sometimes the answer we get isn't the answer we want. I haven't read the review, I don't know the restaurant but I have to wonder about the intent of the poster in making the phone call so very public. Once, when I made a mistake with a customer's order; I fixed it and still the woman was irate and let me have it. I calmly replied that I hoped her boss would be as kind to her as she was being to me when she made a mistake at work. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Even when they are wrong and behaving badly!

I used to buy the most delicious apricot jam from Agrimontana through the same distributor who I buy my chocolate from (Sparrow in Boston). They stopped carrying Agrimontana and now I want to make my Apricot Linzer again for the holidays - and I'd like to use this brand because it was so good. I don't want to buy this retail; I could never sell the tart if I were to buy a small jar through Salumeria Italiana..... Anyone buying Agrimontana? From who? Or where...?

if you microwave the pumpkin, take the stem off first. I've heard that it can really be smelly or messy (can't remember which). Canned pumpkin would be easier to work with, with kids. Just demo the roasted/microwaved pumpkin if you can.....