Tonyy13

Woa, I think that we have former personal friends of Harry's here posting!!! Anyway, yah, read the story in the Best of Food Writing 2004! Too bad about a great market like Harry's going bankrupt!

You guys are crazy!!! Buy some off of the internet, or go to a local butcher shop, it will come in a 2.5# tub from Maple Leaf Farms and it will last you forever. Make french fries in it, and enjoy!!

Welcome Rascal, great to have you!! New to the place myself, this is fun!!!! Anyway, sounds like a great idea, but I would be careful how much bacon fat to use! You will completely lose any "pork" flavor, you will however pick up a heavenly bacon flavor, but some people don't like an overpowering bacon flavor (I don't know why....). Anyway, if you can use duck fat, that is what I suggest, it give a richer flavor to whatever you confit in my opinion, and you don't particularly add any other flavors to what you want to confit. We use the duck fat as a base to confit our foie gras, then after about 4 minutes in the warmed duck fat, we remove the foie, wrap it in a plastic wrap tube like you would for a compound butter, and hang it. Works great!! I am pretty sure that you can order duck fat from the Maple Leaf Farms website. Dont' know how to post URL's yet (or pics, can anyone help??), but google them, and I am sure you will find it.

Thought I would give some more info. At the culinary school where I teach, we have a "club" dedicated to growing fresh vegetables, fruits, and herbs. They then harvest those items (which aren't huge in numbers), and give them to our purchasing department, and we are allowed to get those ingredients and use them in our classrooms. This is huge for my class, because they are able to connect that they are using ingredients that came from somewhere, not just some warehouse. We recently went to a bee producers honey house and did a tour with some of my extern students, and they were really able to see exactly what goes into producing a product that is usually taken for granted. I sure as heck didn't know what kind of effort it took to get me a bottle of honey. So, I have always tried to incorporate this type of education with my studens, so they don't just think that jars of honey grows on trees, or that tomatoes grow in boxes lined with paper.

Just like she said, that is exactly what you want, confit takes a while anyway, and if you have it on a timer, than it will be super easy. We used to cook the confit of rabbit for almost 2 hours in the UK, so if your crock pot doesn't have a timer on it, you can always use one of those timers that go into the outlet to time lights. Have fun confiting!!

Chef, I was wondering if you have any problems with any "juices" of the food running down the wire and collecting on the base? I have seen many a liquids formed on bottoms of plates, and wonder if this will be or is a challence when using this type of piercing (therefore, allowing juices to escape) instrument. Thanks.

I did a quick stage at Charlie Trotters in Chicago, and they did a Poussin Confit (poussin=baby chicken), although I would say that you could totaly do it with full roaster size chickens if you wanted to. Also, you could totally do rabbit leg confit the same way as duck (cure, then cook). For added expertise, try boning out the leg, stuffing it with a farce made from the other parts of the rabbit or chicken, and sew them shut, cure and confit.

Thanks for the great post, I have been to Four Town Farms in Providence, and City Farm in Providence too, we used to buy food for our restaurant there. Great stuff, good to see that someone is thinking about fresh local produce for consumption. Always better. I have to tell you, can't find that stuff in Orlando, wish I could!! Thanks again,

Thought I would help some of you out there who might not know about a jewel of a market that you have in Georgia, just outside of Atlanta. The name of it is the DeKalb Farmers Market, and I must tell you, if you live within a few hours of driving distance, it is worth the drive. I read about it in a book called Best of Food Writing 2004 (awesome book, check it out if you can), and it sounded interesting, so when I went to GA for Thanksgiving this week, we decided to go and see what all the buzz was about in the article. I have to tell you, as a chef, I was truly inspired, as I always am when I see great food products. The produce was cool, found snow pea tendrils (a little bit bigger than their sprintime cousin, and not as sweet, but great for a salad nonetheless), fresh horseradish (perhaps the freshest that I have ever used), black trumpet mushrooms, hedgehog mushrooms, king oyster mushrooms, chanterelle mushrooms, and maitake mushrooms (in case you couldn't tell, I am a bit of a mushroom nut ). The Arkansas Black apples I bought looked great (better than they tasted, unfortunately for the apple that I have been told is the best of the country ), and the pink lady apples were awesome all around. Meyer lemons, and citrus looked good, but pricey (darn hurricanes). The seafood is a pretty cool thing, I didn't get any, but it looked like you could get about a dozen kinds either frozen, fresh, or live, with about another 2 dozen available dressed and fresh. The only bummer about the seafood was that they only sold me my oysters by the pound, rather than the each, so the better canadian oysters were much more than the florida ones that I bought (about twice the price, and although the Canadian were better, they weren't as good as the farm raised domestics that I have had). They post their shellfish tags (something that you have to keep on file for 90 days, but somethign that I have never seen posted, I really like the idea), which was cool. I brought my cam in order to take pics, but there was a sign posted saying no photos (SORRY!!!! ) Anyway, if anyone else has any other great stories about the place, or any questions that I might be able to answer (I have only been there once, but would love to help out if I can), let me know. Thanks, and I can't wait to hear about your adventures at the market!!

Well Guys, Thanks so much for the info, I haven't even heard anything this Blue Bistro place, usually, I hear about places from my students, they usually have an ear to the ground about the nicer places, but I guess they let me down this time. Anyway, Gifted-thanks for the link about the restaurant, I really appreciate it, I wish it was busier from time to time, the kids do too. Spent Thanksgiving visiting the gf in Athens, a great town, great restaurants too!! Anyway, thanks guys, keep them coming though....

Well, I recently moved to Orlando from Providence, arguably one of better food cities in the US, until recently, and have since found the Orlando food scene horrible. We have tried Seasons 52, K, Amura (which isn't bad for sushi, better than Sushi Mon, and Fuji Sushi), Friends have gone to Coque au Vin, CA Grill, Coral Reef (Not into Disney restaurants), and Primo (which they said was awesome, have yet to get over there, I staged at the one in ME). I heard about some italian place off of Sand Lake, but I must tell you, I am not into the whole straw bottled Chianti bottle scene, too much like the Goombas in Providence. Anyway, looking for a great place to just hang out, and find great food. I really like Red Bamboo off of Kirkman (really good Thai, but no one is ever in there...). But for the most part, I have sorely been dissapointed. I can't find decent cheese either, I am used to the best cheeses from all over the world, got them from farmstead in Providence, check it out if you get a chance, those guys are awesome!! Anyway, anyone who can help, I would really appreciate it. BTW, I am an instructor at the Orlando Culinary Academy, and believe it or not, we do pretty good food at the restaurant there, I teach that class. Check us out, good prices too. Machon is the name, and the prices can't be beat. Love to hear from you all, thanks!!

Well, I love to use it to froth a cream soup right before I serve it, or to froth a warmed pot of milk to which I have added a little bit of gelatin, then mix it with a thick sauce for an El Bulli like kind of foam. Works great, make sure that your milk is warm though, or you will be trying ot get cold gelatin to stabalize tiny bubbles.

Heard that A1!!!! That was the choice in the Truck Stops growing up in Maine!! Late nights, hanging out in high school at Trucker International in Fairfield, paying $4 for hours of "entertainment", a cup of coffee, and a big cup of bottomless Joe!! Used to work at a restaurant in Providence that served fries w/ Parmigianno, Truffle Oil, Grated to Order Lemon, Garlic, and chiffonnade Parsley!! We used to get $14 for them, and they were worth every penny!!!!!!

There is a great restaurant called Tlula that is a great little place that features a chef that is a former F&W award winner, Andrea Curto. She is an awesome chef, ched her out at their site, www.talulaonline.com. BTW, anyone ever seen that show Opening Soon on the Fine Living network? They were featured on it, so if you get a chance, you can get a little info on them at Fineliving.com, and open the Opening Soon Tab. Have fun in Miami!!

Chef Klc, thought I would drop a line to tell you that when you did that ice wine dessert, I was a lowly apprentice sent from Johnson and Wales to work and do mise en place for the F&W chefs, and I got to work with you and your wife, I can still taste the pear gelee that you made, and it was the first time that I thought about doing something like that. I have recently returned to Orlando to teach at the local LCB school, and we use gelees all the time! Thought you might just like to know that even after 4 years, you still inspire!! As far as the Innuskillen (sp?) Ice wine, I would urge anyone to try it, it is awesome, a perfect balance of acid and sugar, with a complex flavor. Food and wine this year was great, finishing off w/ Rick Bayless and his daughter, who just co-authored a book together about their travels and the food that they encountered while trotting the globe (must be nice!!!) Anyway, hope that you all had fun at the F&W Festival!!