pastrygirl

Nancy Leson gives the tally of '09 closures: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/ally...s_seattles.html Anyone know what happened w/ Cremant and when they closed? I've heard Madrona is a tough neighborhood to survive in, but I at least used to be willing to make the trek from Queen Anne. Bummer.

OK, people, after sobering up and overcoming technical difficulties, you can find my Flickr set of the WPF 09 here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/11037087@N02/sets/ While you're there, the Australia set has photos from my 4 days of chocolate class at Savour School in Melbourne, and a bit of food interspersed everywhere else if you care to look. Enjoy!

Could you 'splain this to someone who never worked in a commercial kitchen? I get the "behind" thing, I know what "in the weeds" means, but this has me confused. ← An 'all day' is a running total. If stealw needs two onions for the soup, two onions for onion rings, and an onion for caramelizing, he needs five all day. Or if table two orders two chickens, then right after that table six orders two chix, you have four all day. On the fly is ASAP, needed it two minutes ago.

I guess I wasn't aware of Adria's version of "air," but the Alinea version is what I was referring to. Not a foam at all. Nothing is actually eaten; it's a scent that adds to a dish. The concept is solid, and it adds to the dish in a way similar to a cocktail garnish. I think I'd just prefer "scent of rosemary" or something in that vein. "Air" just rubs me the wrong way. ← In this case - Alinea air pillow - scented seems to be the appropriate word. But I would ban 'scented' from just about every other place it is used. For example, vanilla scented panna cotta that may have been infused with vanilla beans but does not noticeably smell of vanilla. Lemon scented shortbread, etc. BAH!

Don't know a thing about fondant, but a "mud cake" doesn't sound easy to split and fill. Since this is last minute and it sounds like you don't have a lot of time, do what you can do and let the bride know this is what you can give her. If you can't do the level of detail without serving week-old cake that you are uncertain about, convince her she needs less detail. Take control!

Is that your usual recipe? 1-1/2 cups of sugar is only about 10-1/2 ounces, so having more butter than sugar could make things tricky. I don't have a recipe handy, but I think mine uses much more sugar than butter, 2:1 or 3:1. More butter is usually better, but I think there is a maximum amount the sugar can soak up.

Congratulations to Team Chowdhury our new US champions and Chef Anil Rohira, PC of the year! I'll have a link to a flick page in a few days. Later, after I sober up

Then one needn't study French when one can simply study food.

Is that true even in, say, Vancouver? ← That said, unless there's a big specific enclave of Spanish speakers in Vancouver (or Calgary, or whatever) of which I'm unaware, I'd say French is still more useful. It still appears on all the packaging, many signs, etc.. ← In Vancouver, Mandarin or Cantonese might be more useful than French or Spanish.

I wasn't thinking both in the same piece, but you never know!

You could get pockets sewn onto all your shirt sleeves.

Last weekend I was feeling restless but too lazy to go to the store, so I made peppermint caramel bonbons using water and butter instead of cream. I have the numbers at home, I think it ended up being around 100g milk chocolate, 90 g sugar (caramelized), 90 g water, 30 g salted butter and 4 drops peppermint oil. The texture was soft and gooey like I wanted. These were for a friend who doesn't drink, otherwise I would have used peppermint liqueur for some of the liquid and less oil. Other than trying to make totally non-dairy chocolates, is there reason to use oil instead of butter? I do see how water instead of cream can lead to intenser flavor, but butter is so good.. OTOH, olive oil could be interesting.

There may be a minimum time you need to work with the company before they will transfer you, like a year. Still, that may be a good plan for the long-term planners.

Oh no no no no. I WANT it to be hard. REAL hard. That means I get to learn a better skillset! It's just that I'm curious about weather or it's as hard as people make it seem. We've all heard stories about Japanese sushi chefs having to go through rigorous training to become sushi chefs. It's just that I'm curious about weather or not it's really that hard or if it's all just a part of the lore of the sushi chef. I mean, is Pablo the sushi linecook really doing the same thing that a master sushi chef is doing? I know Pablo can cook a perfect medium-rare steak just as well as Thomas Keller. Can he make standard maki and nigiri just as well as Morimoto? ← It seems like there is just that level of finesse and perfection that is hard to define or quantify. There may be a bit of mythology to it, perhaps just out of the respect the Japanese have for the fish and for the rice and the importance of them in diet & culture. On the one hand, it's just fish and rice. I love sushi but every now and then I kind of trip out on I just spent 60 bucks on fish an rice? On the other hand the master chef is going to have a lot more knowledge about a lot more kinds of fish. Who do you want preparing your fugu? Good chefs are constantly learning and refining their skills no matter what the cuisine.

It kinda sounds like you want a sushi job that is not too hard (requires years of training & incredible finesse) but not too easy (dishwasher can do it). There may be a happy medium, I sort of doubt it but would be curious to find out. I'm sure all of the sushi guys in most places have gone through some training, and I think there is even a sushi school somewhere in the US - the magic of google suggests 2 or 3. If cooking rice is not difficult, then how difficult is putting 'pre-filleted, quality, frozen fish' on it? My favorite (read cheap but still decent) kaiten sushi place has a couple of Mexican guys putting pre-sliced fish on pre-formed rice balls (not to say that I haven't worked with amazing Mexican cooks and chefs, just that these guys don't appear to have formal sushi training and appear to be mere assemblers). I think asking if cooking rice is difficult is a deceptive question. Is cooking anything really that difficult? No, it just requires a certain amount of care, understanding, technique and consistency. I think tempering chocolate and making mousses are easy - you have to pay attention and do things in a certain way, but once you understand they are not hard. Other people may look at those things and think they could never do them. What do you enjoy and not enjoy about line cooking and western food? What is it that you are getting impatient with? What attracts you to the world of sushi, and if you don't picture yourself butchering whole fish, what do you see yourself doing and how long will you be satisfied? What culinary skills could you learn in each type of establishment?

What he said. For ring molds, Fantes has not-horrible prices.

My crush on Albert Adria is now official! He looks so young. Single? Straight? Anyway, today I had petits gateaux with Laurent LeDaniel and sugar with Alain Roby. They make it look so easy! I'm totally going to go home and make 500 entremets in sugar bowls, just for fun.

I don't know, but I was checking out the goods at Theo in Seattle the other day and noticed that they had used a couple layers of bubble wrap under their enrobed caramels to push them up and fill the box. Looked deceptive and cheap when you realized that the candy only filled half the box. I'd say bubble wrap is NOT the way to go.

Ohh, that could be interesting. If I wear something low cut and leave my hair down, maybe I'll be discovered as the next pastry Giada. Gotta work on my Italian. Uno, due, tre...formaggio!

Oh I don't know, I like a towering phallus every now and then.

If you guys think granite/marble counter tops are bad, you haven't tried concrete countertops! I don't know how much these have caught on for home use, but I'd lived in a house that had been remodled by a guy with too much money who had to go for the cutting edge concrete counter tops. They looked cool, but because they had to be so thick - a good 2-1/2 to 3 inches - they were really cold. And concrete does stain and crack - or rather acquires a patina with use. At the time I know a guy who made them and thought they were cool, but now it seems rather ridiculous. I sympathize with the cold surface complaint, I hate bars made out of heat-sucking material that chill you to the bone when you lean on them. BUT my Mom's granite counters are lightyears better than the 1940's yellow hexagonal tile that was there when I grew up, gathering dirt in all the grout lines. There are other reasons why trying to cook in her kitchen drive me nuts, but at least the counters are easily cleanable and I can roll pastry or do chocolate work on them.

http://www.amazon.com/Lello-Musso-Lussino-...45884072&sr=1-1 I really thought mine was only $500, but that was 3 or 4 years ago. The bigger one is $1100. There are not a lot of choices under $1000, and I doubt any of those will let you adjust your churn speed. I think when you get into the Taylors and Carpigianis, you might be able to adjust the speed, but those are much more industrial machines at industrial prices.

She did say that there were still some unmelted bits to provide seed crystals, so maybe it doesn't heat all that fast and 4 minutes was only enough to melt most of the chocolate but not all. ← I don't get it either. Even if there are unmelted bits to provide seed crystals, wouldn't you have to do some sort of cooling with agitation to temper the chocolate. My impression from the video was that at the end of the 4 minutes the chocolate was tempered. Maybe I missed something. ← Yes, they did seem to suggest that the chocolate was tempered and ready to be used, not just melted and ready to be tempered. On the other hand, maybe it is more of an infomercial and they are not to be believed, although I would expect more from Callebaut and such chefs.

She did say that there were still some unmelted bits to provide seed crystals, so maybe it doesn't heat all that fast and 4 minutes was only enough to melt most of the chocolate but not all.

Machines are also good for very thick ganaches that don't quite have enough cream to easily melt all the chocolate.