francois

Over the last few days, I tried a few simple things: - Smith (an apple cocktail): the taste was good but I was not able to keep it from turning brown. Obviously that is the reason for putting the apple in boiling water ai first. However, the 5 seconds suggested was just not enough - Soda siphon mojito: nice! - blood orange foam: very good. I served it with a white chocolate ice cream - beet ice lollipop: looked great but not very good Just cant wait to try the hot mayo

I received the book for Xmas. Wow! I'd like to know if anyone has tried anything from it?

My favorite would be: Bo Friberg's Profesionnal Pastry Chef, vol 1 and 2 (specially vol 1). Great books. Worth their weight in gold!!! Hermé's books are also very good. I like the chocolate one better ( I don't remember the exact title) than the other ones. His tarts are really very good and so easy to make!

Pineapples do not burn my mouth at all. However, they do to my wife's. How much salt should I use in my brine and how long should I leave it in (if I cut the fruit in quarters)?

Saran wrap, foil, parchment paper, zip lock bags. Also, I leave my bread dough to rise when the kitchen is cold.

I dont want to sound negative, but I just will not get anything that comes from Martha Stewart. All image, no substance.

Lesley, Can you tell us a bit more about Lait D'Antan. I am not familiar with that producer. (may be because it may not be available in the Gatineau region?)

Crepes Suzettes. An old classic but still as good as ever!

Farinex (www.farinex.ca) sells to the public. It is in 3kg bags. It seems a lot Between 50 and 60 $), but it goes very quickly. Way cheaper than buying it in smaller quantities.

Thank you for this wonderfull book. I have tried several recipes so far and they all came out wonderfully. Not often that we find such a carefully made book. Great attention to details. I just love the notes to the cook. The introductions to the recipes are mouth watering and inviting. In several of the sauces, you instruct not to stir after adding the cream. It seems conterintuitive. Would the emulsion not be better if stirred or whisked?

It's true that lamb shoulers are a painto carve. I much prefer them boned. It goes fairly well. Just arm yourself with patience, a good knife and go slowly. No pictures necessary. Look at the shoulder, imagine the bone structure and it should turn out well.

I used to have a microwave to got rid of it. It would never get use so it just took valueable counter space. I simply do not enjoy cooking in a microwave. The interaction with the food is not the same. Cooking is the only art form that I know of where you use all of your 5 senses. In a microwave, the food being cooked is in a 'box'. You can't sense it in the same way. It is just no fun!

The plating of the creme anglaise is very easy and looks nice. Pipe a thin spiral of chocolate sauce over the creme anglaise. Drag the point of a knife from the center to the outside or from the outside to the center (or alternate). You can find several other simple ideas in Bo Friberg's Profesionnel Pastry Chef (you really don't have to be a chef to use the book - I am not- the recipes are easy to divide or also given in small yield version). I like making little hearts: Pipe small dots and run the point of a knife in the center. I don't have a clue about the animation. My son did it (and took the other pictures). I asked him to explain: The animation is quite simple to realise. First Step: Taking the Pictures I simply setted up a Digital Camera on a tripod, so each picture was taken from exactly the same angle. And someone took more pictures possible while plating. So there was about 16 pictures showing the progression. Second Step: Converting the Pictures into an Animation. The picture I had on my computer where in JPEG format, that's the most popular image format for Digital Camera. Then I took a computer program to merge them into a Sequence Animation (as a GIF image, GIFs format able to show Multiple Images in a sequence). I used "Animation Shop 3", you can find a free evaluation version here: http://www.corel.com/servlet/Satellite?pag...d=1047024390003 . Or you can visit http://www.mindworkshop.com/alchemy/gifcon.html to find a free evaluation version of another software called "GIF Construction Set". Theses are only suggestions, there are tons of softwares that could do the job. If some of you show the interest in having more details about building a Gif Animation, I could Write you a Little Step by Step Tutorial. The only bad side of Gif Animation Image is that the number of colors is limited to 256, that's why it doesn't seem clear and crispy. Other solution would be creating a Flash Animation, or maybe directly a movie. Maybe next time!

I got a vita mix 4500 on e-bay a few months ago and love it. I use to have a KA blender, could not stand it. It did everything poorly and ended up in the garbage. The KA really cannot be compared to the VM. The Vitamix does everything great, soups, sauces, purées... Well worth its pricetag. I also have a immersion blender (waring pro) that I use regularly. They are really 2 different tools, just like a food processor is different from a blender.

Peter Reinhart has an excellent book on pizza - 'American Pie', published a year or two ago. It includes different kind of dough, even one to use on the BBQ. There should be one to suit your taste. Everyone I tried so far was slightly different and delicious - much better than any pizza I ever had in a restaurant or take out. I did not care much however for his tomato sauce recipes¸(can't be perfect I guess).

Toast is nice, but not at all at the same level as LR. L'initiale is better than Toast but still not like LR or L'Utopie. Between l'Utopie and LR, I still prefer LR. Of course, it is a matter of taste, very personal!!!

It is a nice book indded. Tried several recipes so far and they all turned out great which is of course a signof a carefully made book - not a frequent thing!!! Can someone explain why she instructs no to whisk the sauces when adding cream For ex. p. 97 'stratification. I would have thought the emulsion would be better if whisked.

Just checked out Les Caprices' web site. Glad to see they have changed it and are apparently no longer using pictures taken from The French Laundry book!

The current issue oF Art of Eating is about restaurants in Montreal. Have not read it yet. Just ordered it, hopefully, I will receive it within a couple of weeks.

Strange coincidence. I was just looking over farinex web site looking for Valrhona chocolate. Wow! They carry an impressive array of chocolates! If you read Cook's Illustrated, they also tried brownies with different kind of chocolates, and Bakers did pretty well. However, I would not use it for any other purposes.

Has anyone made the Oysters and pearls (p. 23)? How did it turn out? Looks like an odd combination.

I ATE the cauliflower panna cotta with caviar at TFL, but haven't made it. Post pictures please, have fun!! ← My son, the computer wiz, took a few pictures. we started with the cauliflower panna cotta with beluga caviar (a friend brought it back from a recent trip to russia, nice gift!!!). With it we had a few pickled oysters with cucumber capellini. Click for High Resolution Click for High Resolution Then we had the citrus marinated salmon. Click for High Resolution Then we had cheese with salad (to finish off the baguette (from The baker's apprentice - with pate fermentée). To finish off, we had the chocolate marquise (from Bouchon), with a coffee creme anglaise. Click for High Resolution Nice dinner!! Click to see a Work in Progress Animation

I use vermouth regularly (Noilly Prat). It keeps longer than wine...because I dont drink it as fast!

I am a bit obsessive with my knifes. I use a steel pretty much every time. I harpen them with a stone a couple of times a year.