pastrygirl

I thought it was confetti. Weren't they still at the party venue?

From the bookmark, I must have bought it in about 1997 from a used bookstore where I lived then, in my early years as a baker. If it's been around 40 years and also in paperback, we must not be the only ones.

I don't think I've baked from it much, and it's older than I am, but if you can find a copy, The Viennese Pastry Cookbook by Lilly Joss Reich (1970) looks pretty comprehensive and traditional. Voila, Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Viennese-Pastry-Cookbook-Lilly-Reich/dp/0964360055/ref=tmm_hrd_title_0

Jeanne, I've been in baking and pastry for 15 years (like your employee), and here is how I roll: when I drop something, I pick it up. When I spill something, I clean it up. When I screw up a recipe, I make it over (unless it can be salvaged in some creative way). If I feel like I was super spacey or not very productive, I may clock out for the last few minutes while I'm cleaning up. If I drop the lid to the robot coupe and it cracks and has to be taped back together, I fess up. If I have down time waiting on something in the oven and someone else is shelling peas, I'll shell peas with them. If the dishes are piling up in the dish pit, I'll run a few loads. Some of this was learned over time, and by working for a strict chef. Some of it is the fact that I do all the pastry, so if the macarons are ugly and cracked, it is obvious who was responsible. Plus, I am a lousy liar and have no respect for liars and lazy slobs. I take my job way too seriously and am rarely happy with anything, even as my coworkers are raving and scrambling for scraps. I always want it to be better, so I'm going to do my best not to serve crap. And on those rare occasions when I make the wrong choice and let something slide (like not properly re-spinning some ice creams after the freezer had been left open all night) I beat myself up about it for days. And you know what? Chefs are sad to see me go, and the restaurateur I currently work for has lured me back twice after I've left town and done other things. During one absence of about a year and a half they went through FOUR pastry chefs, either incompetent or crazy or some combination of both.

I totally agree. Having to clean up after someone else's mistakes is much more frustrating than just having extra work to do. If you have other staff that can put in a little more OT for the next three weeks, they might be happy to get some extra money and relieved the problem is gone. Your labor cost will go up, but waste will go down, and you'll be saved any damage this person is doing to your reputation/equipment/happiness.

Seriously. My fingers are usually freezing! If women all had hot hands, we wouldn't be suited to pastry either. There are a lot of things in pastry that you don't want to warm or melt when you touch them, like buttery doughs and chocolate.

A sushi bar near me has a woman who works behind the sushi bar. Does anyone who makes sushi qualify as a sushi chef, or only the head chef?

Don't worry, you haven't. See above Whew!

I'm in Seattle, and I think there are probably plenty of sources, but I'm looking for something pretty big, probably about 30 x 48" for the restaurant kitchen. I actually do have a smaller square of granite left from a friend's kitchen counters that I had trimmed up to about 18". Not big enough to temper any real amount of chocolate on. So... granite is fine if I can't find marble?

Right. Note to self. If you're trying to come up with a clever and attractive and appetizing food dish, probably best not to fashion it in the shape of something that's already pretty disgusting all by itself. Like a half-smoked cigar butt. Plus, it seems like more appropriate after dinner than as an appetizer. If he was on the dessert team it might have made more sense.

Does granite serve equally well, or is there something magical about marble? It seems like there are more granite odds and ends than marble out there.

Follow up... they are pretty intense and tricky to use - just hard to find a balance with the unique flavor. I used the zest of two in a 3 quart batch of lemon curd and that was about right. Both the chef and I tried passing them off to the bartender, who also found them too strong in initial experiments. But he tried again today, and made me a dark & stormy with a wedge of kaffir lime in it - maybe muddled? - that was quite nice. The flavor was there and added a nice limey bitter component to the drink, but it didn't overpower or linger beyond its welcome.

That's funny, I don't trust the vast majority of recipes on the internet. So much wrong "information" and how do you know whether you can trust peoples' taste? I only trust epicurious and egullet.

I've also had the "implosion" with that exact same mold. It doesn't happen immediately, but after a couple of weeks. It is my belief that this particular mold casts very thin shells on the sides and as the center dries out, sucks in the sides a bit. If you cast the shells twice, you should get a thicker wall which will eliminate this problem. Interesting. It does look like the sides with the white chocolate stripe did not implode, so I guess the extra layer did add strength there. I haven't been using my smaller molds lately - been making solid bars instead - but will get back to it soon. I spent a few hours yesterday with a local chocolatier who stressed tempering the ganache, although they do only slabbed & enrobed ganache, not filled pieces. She did some on the marble slab and some in the robot coupe with the liquid at only 145F so the chocolate wouldn't overheat. There are a lot of things in cooking that you can fake your way through, but not chocolate

Some of the cooks at work will vacuum seal freshly mixed pasta dough instead of letting it rest for an extended period. But with cookie dough, wouldn't that either ruin all the creamed in tiny air bubbles, or make a huge mess, again because of tiny air bubbles? I once tried vacuum sealing meringue buttercream, which balooned hugely, making me think that vacuums and foams were a bad combo.

I too thought it was strange that they didn't take turns sleeping.

My chef bought some through a purveyor but had to buy a case of 100 or maybe it was 500? You could try calling all your local fish wholesalers and see who's willing to negotiate.

Those sound heavenly, and I just recently picked up some golden syrup! I'll have to give these a shot! Based on Alice Medrich's Golden Vanilla Bean Caramels in Pure Dessert. Her honey caramels are also really good. This was only a half batch, with a little extra butter plus the liqueur. Cook to 260-265F depending on how firm you desire. I must say I think the Navan is wonderful stuff. It's a little pricey, but basically the vanilla version of Grand Marnier - a cognac based, drinkable vanilla extract. Nice in ganache too.

Dipping in chocolate is always an option. One of my favorite holiday cookies is leckerli - a spiced honey cookie with candied citrus: http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/leckerli

I made caramels yesterday with the thought that I would give some to friends and family for thanksgiving. O.M.G. I can't stop eating them, and will have to make another (bigger) batch if I want to give more than 12 pieces away 1/2 c lyle's golden syrup 1 c sugar 1 c cream seeds from 1/2 a vanilla bean 2 TB butter 2 TB navan vanilla liqueur 1 tsp salt

I use it for various sizes of smaller individual tarts. It would probably make 3 9" tarts. I need something that doesn't shrink or slide down during blind baking tastes amazing and melts in your mouth. I have an almond tart dough recipe that I really like, to compare the two, for a pound of butter and an ounce more sugar the almond has an extra egg, 6 oz more flour, and 8 oz almond flour. Maybe I should bake it and turn it into a crumb crust.

My chocolate tart dough always seems dry. I like the cocoa flavor and it performs well and holds its shape well, but it's missing something in texture. It is a somewhat soft and sticky dough. Should I use more butter? Melted dark chocolate instead of cocoa powder? Hydrate the cocoa in hot water? Use only egg yolks? What do you think? 1 lb butter 9 oz powdered sugar 2 tsp vanilla 3 lg eggs 22 oz AP flour 3-3/4 oz cocoa salt Thanks!

The latest tipping thread got me thinking about how much we in the restaurant industry love to bitch and moan and compare war stories, yet we still seem to love it somehow. Is this the sort of bad relationship we'd counsel our best friend to run, run away from? Or is it not as dysfunctional as it seems, and we all have our reasons to stay? I'm happy in my job as a pastry chef. I make things, which makes me feel useful, even if they are not very useful things. People then shower praise on me for it, which strokes my ego. I get to indulge my loner nature and work alone for at least half the day. I can't imagine myself in retail, and think I'd last about 20 minutes in the front of the house. The pay could be better, but the there is nothing I want for that money can buy. Sometimes it has been a factor, but not the only one. Catering orders and restaurant week can be annoying, as can vegans and freezer failure, but I pretty much do what I want all day. How could I complain about that?

They must count for at least one book collectively! Whenever I show my friends an issue of Art Culinaire and refer to it as a "magazine," there's this look they give me... When you consider that it's 12 years of issues and $750 , it better count as at least one!

Open table will show how many times a guest has reserved, canceled, and no-showed at your restaurant. I've heard that OT will cancel the accounts of people who no-show too many times in one year over all the reservations made on the system, not sure if that is true or what the number is.