Melanger

Ahhh. the Peppermill, the land that time forgot...blue velvet banquettes, a romantic firepit, little jars of peanuts and "the scorpion" (watch out, it'll sting you!). This would be where I went on my first date with my now husband. (No, there is no trend...) Go later (as with everything in Las Vegas) the people watching just gets better, so do the rather frequent heated arguments. Let's just say what's been happening in Sheboygan doesn't necessarily stay in Sheboygan and the baggage didn't necessarily get left in the hotel room. Mmmm, the domestic fireworks of strangers. Nevertheless, it's cool, you'll dig it and if you're hungry after or in need of cocktail padding check out the coffee shop out front the portions are huge and not bad. As for the Double Down, I am afraid that it has mellowed a bit with age. Gone is the midget porn, the carousel pony and those wonderful nights of drinking outside (can you say crackdown). As for location it is right near the Hard Rock (think one block south and half a block east). Don't even think about trying to park on a weekend night, the DD is surrounded by most of the gay clubs in LV and it is a big party scene on the weekend. Your best bet is to take a cab or pay the guy at the massage parlor across the street ten bucks for the "right" to park in their lot, but that's always seemed really shady, even by my standards.

I met my husband there... But alas, they do not serve food, they merely have a vending machine, and puke insurance.

I ate there about a year ago when Eric Klein was still the Chef. We had a special tasting menu, something like 10 courses, super yummy, although the floating head ( a "show" in the lake next to the restaurant, not a dish on the menu) is a bit freaky. David Walzog who was at Country Club Grill is the new chef and the changes - at least in terms of the temperment of the kitchen - are supposed to be quite interesting. At the time, SW didn't strike me as a "Steak House" so much as a restaurant that happened to have a nice selection of steaks on the menu. The service was excellent, many positions in the front of the house are filled by Circo and Le Cirque Alums, the cocktails are strong and the patio is delightful.

Summertime and the big chef is gone - BLTT! Bacon Lettuce Tomato and TORCHON! on brioche with cherry preserves and mayo. Mmmm, who thought getting fat could be so fun!

I swore that I was going to sit on my hands on this one... just this one post and then I'll duck for cover. I actually posted this about a year ago on a different thread: "The most important thing in terms of being a successful "woman" chef is to not to define yourself as a "woman" chef but rather to define yourself as a chef. If you allow yourself some sort of excuse or cushion or even worse a lack of drive because you feel that at some point your gender will limit your ability to succeed or to come out on top then you have cut yourself off from the chance of greatness even before the journey has begun. I am 28, I have been doing this for 10 years. I have been a sous chef at a five star restaurant, I put myself through hotel college at the same time, I am an assistant pastry chef at a multi-billion dollar hotel, I love what I do, I am part of the team. I excel. Why? Because I have never, I repeat, never, thought that my gender would in anyway inhibit my ability to get to the top. You read, you learn, you work. You practice precision. You devote yourself to the profession. Devouement du metier. Is this path any different than the path the any other chef has taken, male or female, to the top? No. It is individual will, intelligence, fortitude and strength that lift you to great heights, not a free pass past the glass ceiling." Well, tempered by another year of experience, I'm sticking by it. Sure, there are establishments where the chefs are dead set against women. However, to demonize the majority of an industry based on the viewpoints of a few is short sighted, to try and justify inequality based solely on gender is just plain dangerous and does a great disservice to those on both sides of the fence. Long live the meritocracy.

Those lovely chocolates if I recall correctly... Fed Ex, sounds like the plan is shaping up. Keep it frozen, bribe the chef, sponge substitute at the ready, and either pack this puppy into the seat next to me or rely on the Fed Ex. Merci Beaucoup!

The bride is my sister in law! I was recruited for the project by me brother in law after a fine dinner with the family and several bottles of wine I am a pastry chef so the whole making of the cake doesn't faze me, just the shipping of the cake. It is a gift from me to her, considering I would normally charge about 1200 dollars, without shipping, I think it is a nice gift.

I am making a wedding cake for my sister in law. The wedding for 150 ppl is the at the end of July in Nashville, I live in Las Vegas. I wondered if anyone has some advice or critiques of my plan. I have a lot of experience in making cakes, just none in shipping them. Here's the plan... I am planning to make four tiers- 6",10",14",18". I am going to build the cakes in 4" rings, pre doweled, with parchment on the tops, cardboard circles top and bottom and wrapped in several layers of plastic wrap. Then they go into the blast freezer, I want them super firm. Up to this point the methodology is pretty much the same as I usually use, except I usually use regular freezer, not blast freezer. And if all else goes to complete hell I still have the rings in which I can make a new cake. Do you sense my unease? Having a bucket of fondant shipped to the reception location ahead of time. The wedding is on Saturday, I was planning to ship it overnight on Wednesday (leaving on the plane to go there on Thursday). Packing it in a cardboard box fitted with a styrofoam box insert and dry ice. UPS says that I can put up to 5 lbs of dry ice without a hazardous materials declaration or more dry ice if I make a declaration. Thinking I need something like 10# of dry ice. Cake arrives Thursday, leaving the extra day heaven forbid it doesn't get there until Friday, in which case I probably have other problems. Chef at the reception place is already notified about requirements for receiving, mainly unpack it and put it into the cooler to defrost. Friday I go to reception place, fondant the cake, stack it and do the piping between the tiers. Saturday I do the flowers on the cake prior to the ceremony. Saturday night I have a glass of champagne of two and have a happy sister in law. I am a bit concerned about the amount of time that the cake will be in various states of shipment/defrost but I can't think of a better way of doing it short of shipping the sponges, fillings and buttercream and building it on Thursday or Friday, but with planned events and whatnot I am concerned about having enough time or space in the reception kitchen. Option C it that I could bring it with me on the plane, the idea of checking it makes me pretty queasy and it would be too large to hand carry. I should note that the main reason I am so freaked out about this shipping thing is that a few years ago my chef at the time had the not-so-hot idea of overnighting baked alaska to a charity event in Napa. Needless to say It was more like vanilla apricot soup when we unpacked. Thankfully I has enough sense (fear) to leave them packed in the bombe molds and bring my recipe book and scale. I think I am still haunted by the memory of seeing that go sort of south. Turned out ok, though not as well as it should have. Thanks for any comments, questions or concerns that my long-winded post might generate!

Greased Lightening with a stiff nail brush works really well. If that fails try a soak in trisodium phosphate (used to clean driveways and whatnot), a wash in clean water and then a wash with bleach and laundry soap. DO NOT combine the two. After all of that labor, a precautionary towel over the shoulder will work wonders.

Seems like you are enjoying yourself more lately. Good for you!

Even more ultrasonic choices! And other neat-o machines. http://www.foodtools.com/products/sheetcutters.htm I'm actually going to be in the market for one of these things, or something similar, within the next six months or so. Does anyone have any input on their use? Which brands might be better, easier to use, harder to break, nicer to clean, etc? Any and all recommendations or damnations are welcome!

What about ultrasonic? http://www.symetec.com/News/Doinghaus_-_Ul...ic_cutters.html

If you need to make various size ubbles you can use solid wooden dowels as well. Way faster than blowing individual balls. Take a small disc of sugar about 1/4" thick and slowly push a lightly oiled dowel through it forming a thin layer of sugar over the dowel, think a "sheath" of sugar. Pull the dowel out and close the bottom of the tube with our pointer finger and thumb in an "O" shape. Slide you fingers up the tube pressing the enclosed air towards the tip thereby forming a bubble. Cut off the tail to desired lengh and viola, bubbles in a jif. You can used different size dowels for different bubbles. Rolling pin = big bubbles. Handle of a wooden spoon = small bubbles. Hope this helps.

Christmas is coming soon, right?!?!

Bravo Chefette, very well put! I think that one issue still at hand is the difference between the goal of the school to present a "real kitchen experience" and an actual real kitchen experience. I keep thinking about the example of law school for some reason, that is you are taught the laws and the processes of critical thinking and are given a set of intellectual tools but you aren't going to come out and try a case before the supreme court. You need to gain practical working experience in order to move up. Having three people on a dessert station that does sixty covers isn't very real world. Still, I am glad that I had the chance to run pastry stations in the restaurants and I think one of the ovelooked changes of taking B&P students out of the restaurants is the elimination of the commissary production section that went with the restaurant blocks. Learning the proper order of mise en place and actually having to make things in some quantity seemed to be more valuable than the actual plating of the desserts in the restaurants.

My class, graduated Jan'00, was the last stream to go through the restaurants. I'm not sure what they were trying to achieve by doing that other than to have another shiny outlet to capture the grey hairs bucks. I thought it was odd that even though we went through the restaurants we didn't do Escoffier, the "flagship", is it still? The next stream only went through the Apple Pie, not Bounty, not Caterina, not the healthy one (obviously that one didn't have that much of an impact) It seems that the best thing would be to incorporate all of them into the curriculum in one way or another. After seeing the level of production in the Apple Pie I am really glad that I didn't stay to do fellowship, seriously, six kids on the counter falling all over each other in goofy chefette attire, wow, thats a reality check. I completely agree with you on many of your points, I truly felt that it was detrimental to the education to remove the restaurants from the B&P curriculum. I also agree with you on the admission requirements (something that I spouted off about on your school life blog). Being that I was the one in my group who felt compelled to play "crusader rabbit" and had some nearly dire consequences as a result let me offer some points for thought. I know what you said upstram about the editing and spelling, etc. just make sure you edit for emotion as well. While there are chefs who will support you and your ideas, Chef Greweling and Radin in my time, there is a disconnect between what seems like the right thing to do and what the administration wants to do. Talk to your chefs, ask for extra work, make your time at CIA YOUR time, use the resources that are available to better yourself and honestly, to hell with the unmotivated and uneducated masses of Cash In Advance students, most of them do not go anywhere significant professionally anyway despite the marketing attempts to call it the "Harvard of Cooking Schools". I don't know too many Harvard grads who would be happy with 14.00 an hour. But this profession is a choice that you made, really stupid schoolmates/future coworkers and all. I used to get so worked up about the very same things that you are upset about, really, it is like looking into a mirror. Just realize that the truth, the real truth, is you are not in a democracy and unfortunately no amount of bellyaching (even though I swear you are right) will change anything. It will just make you frustrated and take away time which could be spent more constructively. Step back, enjoy and let social darwinism take care of the rest. Good Luck!

I went to school in Syracuse for a few years. The grand opening of the giant Wegmans out there (1996 i think?) was the highlight of our semester. We would go late at night and wander the aisles dreaming of cooking great meals and forever ditching the dining hall. The produce section was enough to make one swoon.

I agree with FabulousFoodBabe: "One thing I learned when I went back with a younger group is that the education is now being sold as "leadership training." Meaning, to many students, that they don't have to do the nasty stuff because they'll be in charge of people who will be doing it. You know, managing them. " The best demo ever was Patrick O'Connell's. He is telling the students that he is going to show them the most important skill that they can have, something that most of them probably know little about. The students are salivating at the though of gleaning this bit of knowledge from super successful chef. He steps around the counter, dumps some rubbish on the floor, grabs a broom and says, I know most of you have never even swept a floor but you think you are all going to be great chefs, sounds like you have a lot more learning to do. It was great. Great but true.

You are so completely doing the right thing by skipping dinner, coming early, staying late, etc. That is where you gain the most valuable experiences and develop the strongest realtionships with the chefs and like minded students. It is like creating your own honors program. I think that it is a shame that they have relaxed the entrance requirements to the point of not needing any experience. It creates such a disparity among the students, those who know this is what they want and those who think it is cute (an extension of high school), mainly to the detraction and general annoyance of the more dedicated students, at least that's the way that I saw it way back in '99. Does the phrase Cash In Advance still get thrown around? Don't get me wrong, I love the school and continue to value my time there immensely. I just don't want to see the value of the education diluted by bloated class size achieved through reduced admission standards resulting in a lowest common denominator approach to teaching. Nevertheless... Congratualtions on the Breakers and on your display of devotion to your chosen profession. It will serve you very well!

Another way to do the minis is to build them in a stainless steel ring. Ice the inside of the ring with buttercream and place layers (cut slightly smaller than the diameter of the ring) and filling inside. Top it with more buttercream and use a spatula to scrape it smooth. Refrigerate or better yet freeze the cake until the buttercream is hardened. To remove the ring warm it slightly with a blowtorch and slip it off. Presto! Perfectly symmetrical ice mini cake!

Wow, this is fun! Do any of you know where one can purchase some gellan gum? I found a manufacturer, CP Kelco, but it doesn't seem like you can purchase it directly from them. Thanks in advance!

"I have a couple of life-threatening food allergies. The worst one is alcohol which is a rather odd allergy. I have had numerous scratch tests on my back for the numerous allergens that affect me, mostly hay fever, burning eyes, and the normal things one expects. However, with alcohol and iodine (the seafood thing) I get edema in the larynx which partially closes my airway and several times I have come very close to a tracheotomy. " Can you consume alcohol if it has been cooked as in a poaching liquid or in deglazing a pan?

A restuarant which I used to work at often had guests with allergies (real, implied or imagined). What always struck me was the small contingent of people who would bring in laminated 3x5 printed notecards with their dietary restrictions and substitutions that could be made. How brilliant! The kitchen would not mess around and play "I am the French chef and I know better than you", the cooks were extra careful about cross contamination and the guest could enjoy their multicourse meal without having to be questioned before the presentation of each dish. People who have genuine allergies have every right to be accomodated. However, in a restaurant setting you hear of so many "allergies" that it becomes a bit like the boy who cried wolf (allergic to wolf?). My favorite is the man who had a gluten allergy and needed his bread heated so he would be able to eat it. Arrgh! My question is for those of you with serious allergies is how do you cope with eating out? What strategies have been most effective in terms of keeping yourself reaction free? How do you approach eating at a new place? Have you ever refused dishes because you were concerned about how they were prepared? Please share...

I have made a chocolate souffle which was stabilized with powdered egg whites. You can make them way ahead of time and they turn out like champs, a bit more "marshmallowy" tasting but yummy! 500 g. Egg White Fresh 25 g. Powdered Sugar 25 g. Powdered Egg White 100 g. Granulated Sugar 250 g. 70 % Chocolate Mix together powdered sugar, powdered whites and a bit of fresh whites to smooth comsistency. Add back to rest of whites and mix over the stove until warm. Whip to medium peaks adding sugar slowly. Fold in melted chocolate and pipe into prepared molds. Bake at 425 about 15 minutes until they stand proud and are still soft in the middle. Hope this helps!

The IR thermometers can be a problem in cooking sugar because the surface is not still, so the temperature inside the bubbles rising to the surface can be different than the actual temperature of the rest of the sugar mass. Still, they are pretty nifty gadgets and nothing beats the lack of clean up!