pastrygirl

Could be good in sorbet or pate de fruits.

Jad, welcome to EG. I started working out with a personal trainer and watching what I eat about 2 months ago and it has really been working. I have lost weight and feel so much better. What I like about my trainer's approach to diet is that nothing is forbidden, it is more about tracking food and exercise (I use My Fitness Pal iphone app), eating regularly to stay satisfied, plenty of protein and fruit & veg, and portion control. If you don't already have one, get a digital kitchen scale so if you want those crisps or other junk food you can weigh out exactly 1 ounce or 100 calories or whatever. I'm finding that when I go to work out and see how much effort on the elliptical or treadmill it takes to burn off 200 calories, dessert (my weakness) is a lot less alluring. Good luck!

In my experience, most cleaning is done by regular staff. We do bring in an outside crew who specializes in cleaning the vent hoods over the stoves, and they do that a two or three times a year. We have big windows so we also have a guy who washes the windows inside and out every few months. Other than that, cleaning is generally done by the dishwashers or a prep cook in their down time.

You're right, plenty of legitimate reasons to have shorter term jobs, whether seasonal, school breaks, visas. I think the key is somehow making those clear on your resume. If you are sending a resume to people not familiar with the places or situations you have worked, you want to make sure they don't read it as 6 months here 6 months there, super flaky, but rather worked hard the entire season that the establishment was open, went back to school, worked part time during school or while traveling, etc. And if you move around a lot, it may help to give a little description of the type of cuisine, average # of covers, etc. so potential employers get the bigger picture.

Normal, unfortunately frequent. Desirable, no. Speaking from the BOH, I avoid resumes with multiple less than a year stints. Sure, everyone has had one job that didn't work out after a short term, and no, the three weeks I worked at a big hotel in town is not on my resume. You have to balance showing a solid work history and proving your employability with not looking too flaky. Unfortunately, it sounds like you may actually be kind of flaky Nobody wants high turnover, it is expensive and bad for morale.

No, but doesn't the lack of fat just make it like biscuit aka ladyfingers?

Once I started using silpat for macaron I haven't looked back. I find that parchment absorbs moisture and wrinkles/buckles, resulting in less round macarons. Glad you figured it out, too bad about that massive supply of the wrong parchment.

I agree, related, but not the same. Crispy is thin and brittle and shatters easily - potato chips, tuile cookies. Crunchy is thicker, denser, and takes more work to eat - peanut brittle, carrot sticks.

Out of curiosity, other than this particular dessert, what are other applications for such a chocolate? Why do they make this formulation? Is it for stability in warm climates? High fat, low fluidity is the opposite of normal when it comes to chocolate. Assuming the fat is still cocoa butter, how do they do that? Is it like this Cadbury non-melting chocolate I read about recently? http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/26/non-melting-chocolate_n_2192236.html And would it be good to eat at room temperature? Clearly this is boggling my mind.

That's funny, I was there for a weekend just before Halloween and thought the PDFs were all very good but slightly too acidic, and a bit weepy. Different batches or different tastes, or both. Also stumbled on a Japanese sweets store, all imported I believe, but interesting if you're into that sort of thing, at Market between 2nd & 3rd: http://www.kitchoan.com/ Craftsman & Wolves in the Mission a few block SE of Tartine was pretty good too - less mainstream flavors, more architectural - if you are back in that neighborhood. Tartine is the best though, LOVE those spicy pickled carrots!

I knew I'd seen that somewhere, of course it was Migoya. Thanks for the reminder.

I sure can't pipe that straight! It could be marshmallow sheets. Albert Uster has decorated marshmallow sheets in patterns similar to chocolate transfer sheets.

I can only speak for myself, but I certainly feel like it is expected and an obligation in the US, not a matter of leaving a little something out of generosity. I'll work on getting over that

As far as I can tell, the custom of tipping does not differ in different parts of the country, the custom of tipping 15-20% is the same across America. How would you say it differs? The custom, the expectation/obligation of the diner, not the money taken in by the server.

Are you using 'minimum wages' to mean a set hourly wage? We all agree that it would be nice if everyone managed to make a living at whatever job they choose, whatever the cost of living in a certain area is. We can't seem to agree on what a server should make on an hourly basis. And yes, I agree that servers prefer working for tips, because of the possibility of "raking in cash" in large amounts. The lack of homogeneity is indeed a problem, because the culture of tipping in this country does not respond to it. The expectation that a diner should tip 15-20% does not change from state to state even though base wages do. It doesn't change from city to rural or in any other way. Diners are trapped.

And civilization as we know it will continue to exist even if servers rake in slightly less cash. I'm sure all those unemployed servers will have no problem finding work, with their highly valuable skill sets and all. But seriously, Australia and Europe still seem to function, and the restaurant industry is alive and well in states that pay servers above the federal minimum wage. What are the people who resist change so afraid of?

I totally agree.

Halving the recipe may have been the culprit, or maybe "warming up" the liquids wasn't hot enough. I've used Francisco Migoya's perfect pastry cream recipe, which is similar, and he does state that there is a minimum volume at which the formula will work. The liquid also need to be at a full rolling boil for that one, maybe for the IIF puddings too? The chocolate pudding would thicken anyway due to the chocolate solidifying rather even if the eggs and starch didn't perform.

Would/should/do you tip differently when visiting Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Nevada or California? These states do not allow tip credit and have minimum wages higher than federally mandated, so there is less hustle required to make a living. I love living in high-paying, dope-smoking, gay-marrying WA, but I do think that since our minimum wage is so much higher, we in particular should be able to re-think tipping, make it closer to 10% than 20% if we continue the tradition at all. http://www.dol.gov/whd/state/tipped.htm#.UPRYP-ivWH0 In that gig where you tipped out 52%, did you still manage to make a living? And was it cash flow alone or other factors that led you to leave?

I agree, you need more specifics on what they didn't like. Is there some ideal (probably boxed ) that they had in mind and yours is different? I'm thinking of Christina Tosi's nostalgia for boxed confetti b-day cake as described in the Momofuku Milk Bar cookbook - some may be hoping for an exact replica of that. I, on the other hand, grew up on Grandma's homemade cakes, and I think Tosi's confetti cake looks gross and wonder why anyone would want to slavishly re-create boxed cake and nasty jarred icing. Do you have it by the slice/cupcake? I work on Capitol Hill, I can come by and taste it with you if you like. And, if possible, can you give them credit instead of cash so you are not out the cash and get another chance to redeem yourself?

Your "of course" confuses me. Why of course? How is the dollar value of a particular skill set determined? My baby brother and I have different careers but our salaries are the same - completely different skill sets, no income inequality. My salary is based on years of baking & pastry experience and the fact that my employer hopes to keep me forever in 'golden handcuffs' and is decent enough for my field, his is based on having gone to law school and is probably considered entry-level for his field. (Though once he has 15 years of experience his income will likely be a few times mine, mine hopefully will go up but realistically not much more than 25-50%). So what determines wages? Experience? Education? Specialized skills? Competition for skilled workers in a given market? Whatever the market will bear? I don't think tipping culture is based on any of these, tipping is an obligation, not a true reflection of a server's skills. When we tip, we have no idea how much the other tables that night have tipped, so we don't know whether that server is making $15 an hour that night or $45. We are not tipping to say, "your service was deserving of $X an hour tonight". If you knew what your server was earning on a particular night and didn't feel obligated to a certain percentage, would tipping change? Would you say, "eh, the other tables must have liked her because she's up to $32 an hour, I don't think she's all that, I'm leaving a dollar"? Or, "I can't believe that last table didn't like her, she's way better than the $14 an hour she's at tonight, let's leave extra"? Which skills are worth what? Which FOH skills are worth 2-4x BOH skills?

Ahh, well there you go Mkayahara, that's the attitude you've got change. Good luck! Well as long as no one is forcing the diner to tip if they find it distasteful, then we are all good.

Oh yes it does, big time.... Best thing for this kind of couverture is to use it in ganaches or praline pastes But you can temper gianduja....? I know chocolate mixed with other fats will temper differently, but it seems like a few grams of nut oil wouldn't be a huge deal, as opposed to if there were chunks of ganache containing cream or other forms of water. Still, i would value your elaboration on the tempering differences.

Bits of praline paste, being fat-based, will not interfere with future tempering, so the only thing you have to worry about in re-using that chocolate is nut allergies. If you have big chunks, you could strain them out. When I make praline paste, I use two parts by weight toasted hazelnuts to one part powdered sugar. It does not get perfectly smooth in the food processor, so I strain it through a fine chinoise, and there is no detectable grit. The straining is a bit messy and tedious, may not be worth the effort for everyone, but it is an option.

Dare we imagine what would happen if they tipped out 20%? 30%? 50%? One thing that makes these discussions challenging is that state policies and minimum wages vary so widely. In WA, servers make the minimum wage of $9.19 an hour. I wouldn't recommend trying to live on that in Seattle, but it would go further in Walla Walla. When tips aren't quite as crucial to a persons survival, 16-20% of my dinner check seems awfully generous. Yes, I think tipping culture does contribute to transiency. I have tried to get servers to name an hourly wage for which they would work, and nobody seems to want to name one. Nobody wants to commit to an hourly wage when they could potentially make so much more. Who would, when they might double or triple that on a really great night?