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Need to have a charity up here at the Escoffier. . I'd love to come, but there is no way I will be able to navigate in Jersey. Ii makes no sense in my brain.

I couldn't say this any better. The truth be told, the girls that are into to it, love it, drive for it are even high praised by the guys. We find it really cool to hang out with a girl that feels like us. They are put in the spotlight sometimes. The whole extension of high school speaks so perfectly. And there are a couple guys like that. But they don't seem to last long. Guys who aren't into this seem to quit faster. But the girls fitting this description seem to feel, I guess pressured by there parents maybe? There is one girl that fits this experience, and she is always commenting her parents won't let her miss a class, or her parents won't allow a B. Something like that. I'm going to be helping here any way I can because shes like a headstrong puppy that wants to be the leader of the pack. Not knowing whats out there to snatch her up. The last thing I'd want it someone like that to break, could be dangerous to me .

I've been doing a lot of thinking about Extern. There are so many options. I just asked Sam Mason on his thread if I could extern with him . More than likely that won't happen, but would be great. I have in mind so far, Park Avenue Cafe, The Breakers, Le Fountain Blue, Somwhere in San Diego would be great or possibly New Zealand. Both very far. I've been giving most concentration to Miami and NYC, but still a lot of other places in the back of my mind, like the Marriot in Arizona. I definately do not want to go to Vegas simply because I applied to the Belagio previously and plan to go there after graduation. Don't really want to extern a future employment site. I'd like to go somewhere that probability looks that I won't ever live. Somwhere I want to experience but not thrive in. Maybe Key West. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I'm leaning more towards plated dessert. But the real passion for me is the sculptures. I know that is a select group of people that get to do it, but I'm pushing all the more everyday.

Unfortunately, or maybe in this case fortunately I don't have Chef Andreini. I am in the pastry program and don not take Garde Manger. Though I will warn my fellow students about him. Girls, sorry to sound sexest, are the worst here. I htink that a lot of women will back me up on this. They are ruthless. And maybe it's because there barging into a predominately mans world. Of course this has been mentioned a million times. I do feel sorry for a lot of women depending on the situation here because some of these girls/women just don't want to get along. They really seem to let the tension get to them. I receive a lot of that similar tension, but when we are in the kitchen I treat you like a colleague, not a brother or sister or friend or enemy. A colleague should be unbiased and consistent. You do your job and I'll do mine. Our rythym must flow like water. When we get outside of the kitchen I don't care if you want to avoid me, ignore me, harass me whatever. But when were in the kitchen communication and production are key. But this is why were at school, to hopefully gain these traits. It's funny you mention this situation because currently we have to pick "group leader", and there was a rumour going around that I was running. I am 1 of 4 males in a group of 16. Basically every single female has decided that they do not want a male as there leader no matter of there stature. Can we come back to that whole "domination" thing again. Women fight to be recognized, to be equal and to show they can be just as strong as a man. But a monopoly is not a fight. So what is the pride in playing games like reality tv shows. Form your little groups, exclude some people that don't fit right and cut each others throat. This is not how the kitchen system should run yet this is what is falling into place. Maybe it's the males fault for so many years of pushing down women. But I have worked for several women in my life and showed them the same respect as men. If you know what you are doing I will listen to you all day long. I will pick your brain apart. But if you are foolish, arrogant and a liar I have nothing to offer you, nor you have nothing for me. I cannot tolerate lack of character that drives some of the students here. I will not run for group leader unless it's a unanimous decision to place me up there. Which it will not be. I have a feeling until extern there will be a lot of knee bashing, refering to the fact that somebody is not going to not like whoever is the "leader" and will do whatever they can to knock them down. As far as I'm concerned all I want is my group to pay attention and excel. The group will affect my appearance as well, so I will be doing everything I can to push people along, atleast at an expected rate, hopefully an excelerated rate. Please do not take anythign I said affensively. I could careless of sex, race, place of origin, etc. All I'm concerned about is the progressive learning of myself and my peers. I'm just trying to give everyone an overall idea of the frustration that may occur. Pan, the acronyms are given from the ACF (American Culinary Federation). Which surprisingly enough is not spoken of very much in this soceity. There are 12 levels of being certified by the ACF, Starting with Certified Culinarian to the Certified Master Chef. Theres also degrees of Pastry chef too. We Have 10 CMC's on campus and 1 CMPC. There are 65 total CMC's and 8 total CMPC's. CIA has the highest concetration of Certified masters for any school in the world. ACF is the leading "apprenticship" program in the world. Even though there is a world group, it is lead by the ACF, there for each countries around the world is more or less based on the ACF's structure. The CIA and ACF is directly linked together, and the CIA is the only school not certified upon graduation, do you know why? Simply because they say we set the standards for the ACF. Isn't that a load of cocky BS. hahaha. Egulleteers Plated Desserts I think you can easily find your answer here. thanks for asking.

Believe it or not, a study was actually done. The avaerage person is sad to gain 20-30 lb's within in the first semester. Then it dies down because your not eating 3 course meals, and quite frankly you get kind of sick of eating like a king . Though in relation I have only gained 5 lbs, and quite possible could be more muscle than fat gain. I finally have a gym to go to and am there every single day.

Also had a new thought. I just found out the new "theme" for El Bulli for the comming season in April? i think. Seems there breaking down cellulose form and reconstructing the flavor compounds. I'm not really sure the whole thing. My question was, have you heard of this yet, and if you have what are your takes. Do you see your self breaking down cellulose in the future for dessert purposes?

I've really enjoyed reading this. You are now in my top five favorite pastry chefs. I have either a simple or elaborate to answer question. Not sure. I was wondering what would it take for me to extern with you in august? That is if a Johnson & Whales grad. minds taking in a CIA student I do want to mention that you and Wylie have been discussed once in a while up here in gastronomy class, so theres definately an impact going on up at the CIA. Usually it's a trail off of Ferran Adria, but who doesn't want to be closely linked to Mr. Adria.

No retiree's but I have met several older people. 2 classes ahead of me I think, there is a 55 year old man that use to me a car saleman I beleive. I've seen and Older couple as students, probably in there mid 40's. They probably made some good money earlier, now they want to open up a restaurant and are going to school. I see things like that all the time. there are a couple 30 year olds in my class off the top of my head as well. I will say this, nobody cares about age, race, or well anything here. I think students hold a certain level of pride depending on skill level but thats about it. This is a school of passion, well, it should be.

Alright, I finally loaded all the images up and they are ready to go. I must say that what you are about to see is not all that was there. I showed up about 10 minutes late and I couldn't get a lot of pictures because there were just too many people in the way, plus I was trying to eat/taste myself. This "Grande Buffet" is a product of about 7+ classes worth of food and production. That I know of is Hearth Breads and rolls class, Cookies, Tarts, and Mignardises, Individual and Production Pastries, Basic and Classical Cakes, Special Occasion Cakes (the ones on display), Chocolates and Confections, Garde Manger, and I beleive Skills 1 and 2. I'm not sure. The entire Buffet is performed by the Banquet class. You can see there is a lot of chaos going on but somehow it all comes out rather professional. This is the second time I've attended since I've been at school, and the first time I was too in awe to take pictures. Even this round I was a little overwhelmed. Let's start with a few bread pics, remember what you see is not all that was there, only what I could find at certain times. Heres some pictures of the cuisine And finally the desserts. These came out much better than last three weeks, but thats my own personal opinion. I must say there was a lot to gather. Everytime something ran out it wasn't like it was instantly replaced with the same thing. Instead whatever ran out was replaced with something different. So the key is to constantly scrounge around because you really don't know what your going to get. Students are constantly comming in will full trays and out with empty ones. The best bet is to pick stuff of the trays before they get to their designated table. Also there were a few things floating around "cocktail" style like granitas (coffee, rose, and lemon I think), aswell as a "marrow custard". Didnt look too appetizing to me, more like mini drain pans . All In all it was a great time. But just to say one more time, whats in the pictures is probably only 1/3-1/4 of what there was throughout. A lot of those empty spots on the tables just mean there running out of product. In the beginning the tables are covere dish to dish. Right now I am in the process of getting a list of everything from the buffet. Since there is so many things and classes its hard to gather the information. Enjoy.

Student Government Assosciation

Hi everyone, How have you been. Sorry I've been gone so long. I began attending the CIA 6 weeks ago. I just finished my first block which is basically the generic start off. I've had 5 classes and have really been busy every second of the day. There is so much to do, especially extra curricular, everytime I sat down to put this intro into place I get distracted by something new and exciting. So here it is. First I want to give everyone a look through my eyes. I took a lot of pictures the day I arrived and it was in the middle of a snow storm, so here are a few. This is a picture of "Roth Hall" Heres one of the "Conrad H. Hilton Library" Heres a picture of the St. Andrews cafe, It may be a little difficult to see. Heres a small view of the brand new "Anton Plaza". It is a garden and stone plaza that rests ontop of a nicely laid parking garage. I must say it is classy for a garage. Heres a picture of the new Italian "colavita" education center with the Ristorante Catherine de Medici. Here are a few specs from the inside, first being Farquharson. This is where we eat most of our meals. A lot of events are held here as well, like formals and bingo night. This second one is where two of my classes were recently held, gastronomy and product knowledge. It's the Annheuser Busch theatre. Class has been very interesting. There was about 100 students starting with me during orientation, which lasted the first two days. The students ran the gamut of size, shape, age, sex, race, place or origin, and skill level. I actually could not sit still for the first few days, there was just so much to see and so many people to meet. Overnight I went from very good with names, to quite poor. On the third day we split up into 2 classes, both averageing about 48-50. AM class was from about 8 - 12 everyday while my class started at 2 and ended at 6 everyday. The AM class eats breakfast, and lunch on stage, served by the banquet class. PM eats lunch from kitchens and Dinner on stage from PM banquet class. We all have writing classes at various times, but those classes last a normal semester, like a normal college. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday I have Math from 2-3:30 and Product Knowledge from 4 - 5:30 Tuesday and Thursday I have Gastronomy from 2 - 4 and Food Safety (Serv Safe) from 4:15 - 6:15 Math is pretty basic on food costs. The math itself is no calculus, its quite easy. To me the class seems more like a game, more like answering trick questions rather than doing actually math. Product Knowledge is great. Anyone can learn a lot from that class and have a good time doing it. My professor J. Stein is a little wacked, but he knows his stuff. This guy is about as passionate about fruits and vegetables as I am pastry. Theres a lot of Identification as well as condition and quality explanation. The store room is immaculant. I love walking through it and just looking at all the different kinds of products all in one room. Gastronomy is also a neat class. It's kind of hard to think back and remember what I learned because in all it feels some what irrelevant. But everytime I left class I felt smarter than when I went in, so I am sure I got way more out of it then I thought. There were a lot of corky things going on. We had several "surprise" tasting and smelling projects. Everytime I volunteered to help set up and assist just so I wouldn't have to participate in the "surprise". I'll just say everything my classmates ate was proven to be edible, and possibly only enjoyable to select few people on this planet. Food Safety is pretty easy to figure out. It's Serv Safe, if you've ever had to take a sanitation class then you get the jist of this one. Pretty boring, pretty common sense, pretty easy. there was a little I got out of it so I would hardly say it was a waste. It's hard to push yourself to take a class like that, but I'm really happy I did because now I'm more confident in my decision making. I just finsished my Finals and next week I will start C block which is Baking Ingredients and Equipment Technology + Principles of design. Should be interesting. I wanted to say the last 6 weeks have been amazing. I've been getting involved with the SGA, the one at my highschool was useless but the one here seems to have a pretty big impact on the everyday cycle of the school. Soon I will be joining the Beer Club and hopefully bringing the brew master from a micro brewery I work at up to hold a seminar. Also the eating has been fantastic. When I say "on stage" I'm referring to "B block" who seats up on stage in Farq. hall and is served a 3 course meal plus an amuse usually, during lunch or dinner. it's really a great way to get to know your class mates, especially the ones your not in class with. On tuesday I start eating at the kitchens. There are 6 kitchens I believe you can get food from. They all have there own menus, being Asian, Cuisines of the Americas, Cuisine of Europe, etc, and the menu changes constantly so theres always 5 or 6 new things to pick from. Not to mention when you get that you usually have a selction of appetizer the class prepares such as salads. Once you get in Farq hall there is one table set up with baskets holding large amounts of fresh breads from, you guessed it, bread class. There is another 3 tables set up soley for plated desserts and cakes you can take at random. You can see I definately don't complain about the food situation. Hopefully soon I will have my report from our "Grand Buffet" held once at the end of each block (3 weeks), which is outstanding. I hope you enjoy this and please feel free to ask and questions, there is so much to say I can't remember it all.

theres a simple fact, your not going to temper herseys chocolate. It's not coverture. Have you ever looked on the ingredients list of a herseys bar? If you bring your herseys chocolate to 113 degrees you'll probably get 1 of two things. One may be a broken oily mess, the other (more likely) will result in the mass becomming thick and pasty even before it gets to the tempering stages. Trust me, you can taste the difference between a professionally made coverture milk chocolate and herseys. herseys is considerably grainy compared. The crystals won't form right. You can still melt it and use it for applicable recipes that call for melted chocolate, but as for using it as a sealed chocolate I would put that out of mind.

I definately can't get in to the site as well and have never had a problem with not having the right "tech" to work a website. Her webmaster needs to jump on the game and figure it out.

too bad its free neil, then you could make them pay for it I just got my issue today, and love it. I love being reminded that theres so much out there I don't know how to do. That means I'll never run out of something to learn.

Sweet potato salad Sweet potato biscuits Sweet potato rissotto sweet potato fries sweet potato beignets roasted medley of sweet potatos, onions, butternut squash and jiama.

I hope I get mine soon. The last PA&D really dissapointed me. I keep seeing the same old stuff. And the new things just didn't get my attention like I wanted it to. Sweet Bliss? Just not doing it for me.

AH, another one at home. This may be my last one for a while due to school starting. I hope I get an oppurtunity to put something together in a few months, but who knows. Chianti Souffle Glace with Poached Pear Tart. even though that is a nicer picture I beleive, you cant really see the spiced wine reduction on the clear plate, so heres a brighter veiw: It has a caramel cage "arc" over the cylinder of souffle glaze holding the tart above made from puff pastry, pear puree and slices of pears on top. Down below is a spiced wine reduction and vanilla creme anglaise. I had some red grapes to put on as garnish but come time to shoot I forgot about them, err. I always do something like this at home. Not only is there not enough room to work, not enough room to think, ha. Souffle Glaze: 3 yolks 4whites 7 oz sugar, divided 5 oz Chianti/Sangiovese 6 oz heavy cream, whipped to soft peaks Make sort of a red sabayon with the yolks, 3 oz of sugar and wine Mix the remaining sugar with the whites over a double boiler until reaches 160degreesF. Allow both too cool, mix yolks into the whites. Mix the cream in 3 sets. Fill molds and freeze.

A lot of personal chefs have access to professional kitchens. yes it is illegal to work out of your home, and have heard some stories. I pastry chef I worked for told me of a story about a colleague he had that use to do all kinds of pstry work out of his "suped-up" garage. He had tens of thousands of dollars worth of equipment until he was busted and had to shut down his operation.

Caterers are known to cook offsite and deliver and or have picked up. But it's quite common for caterers to cook onsite. There are many places I know that have large amounts of portable kitchen equipment, even whole trucks that are converted into mobile kitchens. The visa versa goes to the personal chef. It's also very common for a personal chef to have everything prepped and ready to go so that all they have to do is work the steps fashionably and present in a well timed orchestra of events with there, well who knows, 5 course meal. Ive worked all three never being head position, but getting the jist of what goes on in every career, that is restaraunt work, catering, and personal chef. There are VERY clear definitions between the three. The focus is completely different and has been exemplified already. Restaraunt Chef manages a constant team of people in a constant place setting. The difference there is that you never know what your going to get any night. You have to evaluate your staff for a long term bases, check food costs periodically and basically make sure that the system runs smoothely all the time. A caterer can fluxuate very much. Your business depends on when someone needs to hire you. You could be solid booked for a week and have nothing the next. There is a greater time for planning and making sure everything is ready to go for the event. The downfall is you can't really have left over product. The more product you have left over the worse your food costs is going to be because it may not be likely to use the product before it expires. The staffing, unless a very well established caterer, may change dramatically. You may have a lot of 2nd or 3rd jobbers that may cancel on you at the last minute. It's a struggle to keep up on not only a staff, but a good staff. A personal chef is a lot different. You have very much less help and sometimes cant afford to hire on help. The buck stops at you. There is nobody else to blame if something goes wrong. The personal chef is more like a performance to me. It's kind of fun sometimes, and antagonizing others. Bascially half the job is playing peoples personalities. Its almost like being a saleman. You have to bust your ass to get clientel and keep busting to continue clientel. The thing about personal chef that gets tricky is, going back to a point I made before, people are ignorant. You can easily gather clientel that you know aren't going to know any better. A lot of the time (if in resort area) there drunk. So you could basically serve them food thats better than they are used to even if its not that great and they will still be impressed. Unfrotunately you cannot do this in a restaraunt because you don't know who you are going to get as a customer and your also working with a whole staff that is aware of good food and if your capable of acheiving the quality you are representing. It just seems to me the difference lies in the ability to "lie". restaraunt chef has the least room to, lets say, bullshit his abilities. Then comes the caterer and then comes the personal chef. There is no denying a true chef no matter what he/she does. Its just what you do and how you do it that comes in to question. A restaraunt chef is being questioned not only more often, but more thoroughly. I hope this opens helps us figure out the difference a little more. If it doesnt, just call me crazy.

I think calling yourself a chef is a very dangerous thing. There is a lot of pride to those who we would all agree to be a Chef. I still get annoyed by the microwave hotdog commercial with the little boy telling his father he cooks so good he should be a chef. ohwell. I personally feel that people should give more attention to what is a chef. I wouldn't call someone a doctor just because they read websters medical dictionary. We have to remember that cooking is something that people do everyday, whether you can cook or not. The second one person cooks better than the other they may feel the need to label them as a chef . Not much can be done about that. I beleive we should set aside that title to an accomplished person who is not only enthusiastic, but very passionate about using his skills in the kitchen as his/her career, not their hobby. School is just a way to be certified. Unfortunately so many people go to culinary school and never use that knowledge in the field, so hsould they be called a chef just because of school? No. Back to what I said before, its all about the passion and accomplishment. On the other side, I have a very very strong passion for culinary and would never call myself a chef/pastrychef ( I quiver at the sound of someone labeling me) simply because I just haven't accomplished enough to feel comfortable with that title. Who knows, I may never feel comfortable no matter what I do. Thats how sensitive the issue is. And I dont think its sensitive because of chefs with big egos, I think its sensitive because the average person is so ignorant (I use that word loosely, not meaning to be mean just the meaning of the word) towards the culinary field and what really goes on, and or what a true chef puts themself through to actually deserve to be called a "chef"

If Americans won't go to a restaraunt because it has a foreign word "ho" in it that has no relation to "whore" than that is childish. Infact that would be a good way to weed out the morons and lousy clientel I would think. O h look johnny, there restaraunt is called a whore, tehehe, lets not eat there. ugh. Wonder why people hate americans?

Madagascar Mainly because noOoObody is doing it And also I would think I'd find things there your just not going to see anywhere else, don't know why, good and bad I think Jamaica would serve equally well. both have gerat surf too.

some hindi words: Chole = Gorbanzo Beans Meri Dua = My wishes Yaadein = Memories Jamiin = Land Mubarak Ho = Greetings Mahan Raja = great king Triptii = Satisfaction just thought they were nice words that can be worked around.

what happens to fat when you chill it? It tightens up and molecular structure binds closer. thats what happens to electrons when they slow down, the orbit closer to the nucleus. So if you have a cake high in fat and freeze it all that fat is going to pull together. then when you thaw it and or heat it back up it wil expand but also atract moisture aiding to its density. Not to mention the staleing of flour butter mixture over time making it stiff. these are all things to consider.

Sometimes its just a fluke. Toss it and try again. happens again, toss it and try again. happened to me a million times before i learned how to control it.