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About half way through my extern I was put on the morning assembly team because one of our girls went back to Barbados. I dredded getting up at 5/6 in the morning but thoroughly enjoyed the company in which I was working with. My team consisted of an elderly colombian man who had been working there for just under a decade. He treated me like a nephew. He told me stories of his own pastry shop back when he was young and before his children had children. He seemed to take a lot of interest in my personal vision and skills/creativity. For a man who deserved so much respect, as an amazingly hard worker, good father and husband and all around gentle person he handed out respect as if it were candy in his back pocket. I also worked with a young and sweet red head who seemed a bit melancholy at times. She could go from a mixture of anger and depression to excitement and flirtatiousness with a short series of moments and events. She definitely kept me excited with her random comments that were never affensive. She gave the impression that she didnt give a damm about anything or anyone she worked with, but the second someone actually started to believe her she would pull a 180 on you to make you feel wanted again. The last link in the puzzle was our leader who was a middle aged egyptian woman who had been working at The Breakers for around two decades, but nobody really knew exactly how long, and she would say she didn't either. She was undoubtetly and interesting human being. Sometimes she would turn and look at me, proceded to say something and then turn back to what she was doing. I always anticipated something, but once in a while it didn't come and would throw me through a loop like anticipating milk but swallowing water. It's just wierd. This team apparently aggravated the hell out of each other, and none of them would hesitate to give me 411 on each other when they were alone with each other. But no matter what they said, I knew they loved each other all they needed was a vacation from one another. This was definitely the most entertaining time I had because at no point did anyone expect me to be a moderator, so I was able to sit back and laugh my ass off at the confusion and disgruntled atmosphere. I must say, I didnt really care for the work that was done during this time of my externship. There are many people here on egullet that know me as person following in the footsteps of those who attempt the unknown or non-traditional. These tasks I was performing on my externship were far from un-heard of. I spent my time dipping strawberries, setting up cookie platters and amenity plates plus News and Gourmet orders. The other chunks of time were spent moving and rotating things in storage, because once again I was the only ox around . I did enjoy Sunday Brunch though. Unfortunately I cannot find the pictures I had taken of brunch (which were incredible) but I can tell you that The Breakers brunch was like no other I've seen yet. And every Sunday on this shift I spent working brunch. Working brunch with me were a couple eggs and omellette makers, a meat slicer, sushi guy, and colombian woman who prepared lamb chops. And man can I tell you, I had a lot of conversations with women from young to old at the pastry section. From the amount of attention I received there, the closest example I can think of would be equivalent to a female bartender. Unfortunately I didnt get any tips, even though I did perform some cooking for a few people now and then. Sometimes I felt like an auctionaire, constantly selling off desserts that I think certain people would enjoy.

Rob, you should check out E.Guittard's 91%. I have a few chefs at school who eat it like a child eats a Hershey bar.

if you want to enjoy life, I suppose thats for the best.

Ok, maybe I missing something but where is the damage? Just because the guy has a slightly childesh side doesn't make him a bad person. If anyone out there is going to judge this guy for playing misleading a few people to humour hisself than I think they may be a litl hypocritical. We have all played jokes on people, and we have all messed with people a little. Maybe I haven't seen where he has sacrificed good for evil, but isn't there someone more deserving we can trash over the internet? P.S. I can't view the stock journals right now, so could someone enlighten me to where he is taking the rights away from others? He is just a man right? I still find whole foods to have significant standards, and I'm not about to stop shopping there over him goofing off on the interenet.

On the Banquet shift we generally did parties greater than 150. As a person from restuarant experience, I am used to 15-30 people being a party. Considering The Breakers is a place where whole companies come to vacation or have "getaway meetings" we could generally do considerably large size parties. It was not uncommon to do parties up to 1000 or more. There were many weddings that would be up and over two and three hundred. We generally used on banquet hall to plate for another. I don't ever remember plating in the "Ponce" though. We spent most of our time plating in the gold room becuase in was somewhat in the middle of everything, one of the smaller rooms, and not as popular I suppose than the others. It is a gorgeous museum like room, but just doesn't have a pleasant atmosphere for dining and dancing. I have done parties over 200 before, but never with covers, so usually you would just fill every last surface area with a plate and roam around the room plating up as quickly as possible. This plating procedure of stacking plates on end was intense for me at first. Actually now that I think about it, I never really became use to the mountain of plates, it still seems insane. But here we are in the gold room, and I think this party was around 500 people. here you can see the ceiling of the goldroom a little. This was a plate up we had to do in the bakeshop because everysingle room was filled. We did probably six plate ups this day and loaded them all on queen mary's. The weddings were no joke here. If you feel like dropping several hundred grand or million on your own wedding, you could very easily at The Breakers. The pictures of this wedding, which as one of the more expensive ones, was taken in the "Venetian". This was during the beginning of set up. You can see the cake with its own table right at the entrance. I actually had to assist in a lot of the moving and removing of the cakes because I was typically the only able male pastry person around. Ha, yea sometimes I felt like an ox. Heres Angelique finishing the cake after we spent a good 20 minutes properly positioning it. They dimmed the lights here to test one of the procedures of the wedding, I took the advantage to get a couple pictures of the remarkable colors portrayed on the silk coverings. And the Cake in all its glory. I never had times like this on the culinary side of the line. I spent a lot of stressless time helping assembling the wedding. Usually I was only there to help move the cake, so waiting for angelique to put the finishing touches on I had a chance to help some of the musicians and designers do there job and ask them questions.

My first shift started out in banquets, the evening shift. I partially requested it because it was the shift my body and mind is most accustomed to. The shift started at 2p.m. and ran until roughly 10p.m. or whenever plate up was through which could run as late as midnight. In banquets we seemed to do the brunt of the prep work for morning and our shift. Any cakes, fillings, cookies, pies, etc. that needed to be prepared we did it in the evening. My colleagues at this hour consisted of the Assistant Pastry Chef who was English male and had spent much time in the Caribbean area like Barbados. The rest of the crew was female ranging from 19 to 34 years of age, roughly. There were about 9 or 10 running the gamut of corporate rank from cook I (me) to chef brigade, and there seemed to be a lot of controversy over who was in charge of what and why. My experience with these women showed me the difference between men and women. I believe the main difference is (on a social aspect) men concern themselves with who is screwing up the most or bringing the team down, women seem to concern themself with who is leading the team properly or improperly and who should. It might not seem like a big difference to some, but living your whole life and understanding people in the work field one way, and then being thrown into considerably different way can make it difficult to adjust. I believe I spent the majority of my experience at The Breakers adjusting my personality. I spent the majority of the 5 months very tense and frustrated for numerous reasons, but a year later in my collective and calmed state I look back at it and am glad I went through it. It always takes a small amount of time and reflection to appreciate ones own struggle I feel. I concquered physical work and stress a long time ago, so for me to take the time and put myself through pyschological strain was exactly what I needed to make myself stronger. I do feel somewhat sorry for putting some of the girls through my own alteration, but there was little they could do for me except be harder on me.

Well my extern has been over for a while now and unfortunately I have just been too busy to post over the last few months. Its probably not such a bad thing either because over time you tend to forget unnecessary activities and or events plus negative features and focus on what was/is important and the best of your experience. the 16 hour drive to west palm beach was probably one of the most exciting parts of my externship. The sun just began to shed tones of purple and orange around the southern tip of Georgia, the same time where the palm trees and marshlands became more and more prevalent. Even though we have marshlands in North Carolina, there is a vast difference in appearance. I couldn't help but notice how spread out the trees were, it almost looks like a wet safari (especially when driving in a jeep). The marsh terrain in carolina tends to have clusters of trees, many of them evergreen with more filling around their trunks plus a large amount of bush fills the marshland. Here in Florida it seemed like you could see for days in and out of the trees and through the grass. It definately was an interesting experience as the temperature slowly raised, the shadows lifted, the colors lightened and became more defined, and objects became far more vivid. Plus being awake for 26 hours and listening tool and pink floyd for hours on end probably didnt help my state of mind from being a little distorted. I arrived a couple of days early before my orientation so I took advantage of the free time to explore west palm beach. I didn't bother with Palm Beach because I was sure I would spend plenty over there during my 5 month stint. My experience for the first couple of days was filled with mixed feelings. I would drive down one road or highway and gain somewhat of a surreal feeling noticing how different life is here than where I have been before. And this wasn't so much the people, just the land structure, building style, appearance of the bright sun on everything, it just seemed great to me. But then I would go down over roads and the realization that life is generally the same no matter where you are and people are people no matter where they live sort of brought me back to earth. I would assume that my second day in Florida was one of my worst from a perspective point of view. It didnt get me off to a good start because through my wandering I think I saw more homeless people that day than any other day in my life, not just in Florida. The drive down Military south towards Boca made me not want to venture south at all (from my apartment). Over time I discover PGA, Jupiter and other areas and was a little more settled. I never had a job orientation that lasted longer than 30 minutes before I was thrown into work before The Breakers. I honestly felt like I was back at school sitting through lecture and going over the details are rules/guidelines I will need to follow for the next five months. There with me was my roomate, an extern from a Cordon Bleu in Orlando, a couple of Cornell Graduates and a few locals. We spent most of the time across the street from the Resort at the Wachovia bank where apparently The Breakers keeps its human resource department, their orientation lecture room, a sort of classroom filled with computers and tables and a few other offices. The orientation consisted of a about 5 hours a day for two days of discussion about all the departments and what they do. We were visited by a lot of the "heads" of departments who gave us their own "101" on the subject. On the second day of orientation we went on a "scavenger hunt" to get a good idea of all the things you can see or expect from The Breakers. Unfortunately for me I had a couple people on my "team" who had been staying at The Breakers for a few days free and knew the answers to roughly 70% of the questions. And since most people just wanted to complete it and get on with their day I was out of luck for touring the facilities. It wasn't a big deal for me though, I am an adventurous person, I was sure I would get around and see everything for myself, if not more.

My extern at The Breakers was everything I imagined and expected. It gave me a chance to explore southeast Florida; work for a corporation and a resort; gain experience with high production; and take on a rather respected extern site and still make enough money to live. The greatest thing about being at The Breakers was it visual aspect, so I'll give you a tour before I open up. The front entrance facing the street. Arches at the front entrance Northern wing passage leading past L'Escalier to the Gold Room and Seafood Bar. Southern wing passage leading to Mediterranean and Venetian Ballrooms. The Ponce De Leon (during break down) room with seperates into six individual rooms. Part of the courtyard, view from the southern passage facing front desk area to the left and northern passage to the right. The Circle Dining Room chandelier and ceiling. L'Escalier Dining Room Top of the Italian Restauarant which holds special parties. One of the most popular spots amongst the employees. Overlooking the pool and cabana area. One of the pools and the beach club. Inside the Beach Club The brand new Cabanas Another view of the pools And another to give you the ocean feel. And this is where it gets its name, where the ocean is known to break right on the wall. And of course a quick image of the infamous golf course.

get ahold of some chicle, or petroleum ha.

ah, its kinda neat but it is ridiculously strong. You could easily make a punching bag out of konjac. I have a few ideas rolling around upstairs, but its not a priority.

well some polyssacharides will hold air like xanthan gum, and xnathan gum will form a gelled substance in the presence of another polysaccharide like iota carrageenan and konjac. At TIC they experimented with marshmallows with agar and xanthan in a aerating device they have, it apparently worked but came out quite stiff. If you are careful with the quantity of konjac you use you could probably dvelop a pretty versatile (fun) marshmallow.

Does anyone have a recipe for a possible tequila cookie and or agave? I am curious to see if there is a cookie that keeps the flavor of the tequila in it some way. Thanks.

Freeze water inside hotel pans or sheet pans and transfer the ice cream from one to the other. If they are small enough I do not see why you cannot use a truffle dipping method.

Bryan, have you ever thought of doing something different with dessert than carbonated fruit. Also, I must say by reading the menu's all of the food sounds delicious, I love the ideas, but when I look at the plating, even though the components look right I dont feel intrigued to eat so much. It almost makes me feel cold, maybe thats the El Bulli effect on me though.

what in the world makes that a vietnamese caramel? i guess its called that because it is done wrong . Sorry. All the advice already given will set you fine, just remember, any clumps and its all over.

apparently the jolakia just won the guinness book of worl records earlier this month for hottest pepper in the world beatin the red savina by nearly twice the capsacin count. That means the jolakia is roughly 120x hotter than the jalepno. yikes.

Probably because the saturated fat is able to absorb more surface area during cooking and also clings (like cooked sugar) to the meat. ← I'm not sure I follow this. What does "absorb more surface area" mean? ← I am not sure scientifically, but it seems to me from my personal experience that when I cook with animal fat (duck mainly) that the fat seems "grab a hold" of the meat easier than say, canola.maybe i'll try an experiment when I get a chance. Sear the same exact cut of meat, same temperatures for same amount of time. Then I will check which one cooked faster, which one is hotter, which one created the most malliard and where, and which one (after removing form the pan) retained the most fat from the cooking surface. I think that will be neat to find out.

I dont think saturated fats have been redeemed, I think people relize now that they aren't as bad as their once replacements. The saturated fats are still linked to many diseases, so it is more important to pick up mono and poly unsaturated fats, preferrably the ones with the double carbon bond at the omega-3 placement. I believe McDonalds has replaced its oil with fully hygrogenated soybean oil, that is cut with remaining un-hygrogenated oil to produce the proper consistency. I could be wrong about this though. Soybean oil may not be the best oil to choose as a replacemtn either. Soybean oil contains I much greater ratio of omega 6 to omega three fatty acids. Even though omega 6 fatty acids are good for human health and cellular structure, we already consumer far more than omega - 3's on average, and this can lead to arachidonic acid, because desaturase ends up converting remaining linoleic acids (omega-6) if there aren't enough alpha-linoleic acids (omega-3) to compensate the proper ratio.

Many wild and lean muscle tissue carry unpleasant tasting fats. I will trim quite a bit of fat off of a wild duck to keep it from tasting foul. it all depends on how the animal is raised and fed. Thats where the cages come in to play, so that these animals aren't running wild picking up random organisms in the fields.

Probably because the saturated fat is able to absorb more surface area during cooking and also clings (like cooked sugar) to the meat.

whoever wrote that qoute more than likely just botched the recipe, and now one screw up on his/her account they are an experimental genious. If you dont really understand why something went wrong I suggest you not contribute a theory. I don't make a lot of fudge, but I have used several different types of butter in several different states with no problem resulting the butter itself. I even bet you this screw up wasn't even beyond fixing.

I think we overlook the fact that for thousands of years things happened on accident, and then the observers spent much of their time recreating something or perfecting it. I think it also has to do with custom. Basically the same sort of people that were boiling coffee beans were boiling all sorts of other nuts, vegetables and spices, ie. peppers and cacao. Its just like the first people to ever properly coagulate an egg, all of the sudden everyone jumps on the banwagon to find a new way to do it, or what can be done with it. The difference between the past and present, is we document everything we do. And many things happen as experiments and theories. But a lot of new things come about when we are trying to solve a completely different problem, hence artificial sweetners. It is humorous to think about, but in the long run I think its just the way man is, discover something new and manipulate it to death until something new comes along.

There's no need fo any of that. A properly cooked creme brulee ought to be able to hold a shape at higher than fridge temp. Obviously it'll need to be frozen and cut/unmolded, then and set in a shell or on a base so you never have to handle it once its thawed. ← I second that. I have actually done this many times. I have worked under pastry chefs that told me it couldn't be done, then low and behold I have extracted a 10x2" creme brulee that holds itself just fine. Just off the top of my head, I think the ratio is 1 qt heavy cream 9 large egg yolks 6 oz sugar bake it, cool it, freeze it, extract it and allow it to come up to the proper holding temperature. I do suggest that if you are going to be using it for "retail" an these will be sitting exposed to air that you cover them in some way. If you caramelize them the sugar will turn to syrup within a the first 30 minutes. You can easily spray them with chocolate and that will help hold them significantly longer, and just put some bubble sugar with them or something.

I guess you always have the option of par cooking (stove top) both batters to thicken them as is or with a gum to stabalize them. Then pour a cooled batch on top of a set batch, allow them to chill and then bake. I dont see why it wouldnt work, if your slow with the par cooking.

Now thats not so nice