pastrygirl

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.

I just returned from almost 2 years in the Himalayas, a job I got through word of mouth. I had worked with the exec chef at a previous job, he'd heard about the job from the people who'd had it before, etc. There are a variety of recruiters and placement services, google can help you find those. The foreign job market is pretty tight right now. People who still have jobs are tending to stay where they are instead of moving around, and as most of these jobs are in hotels or hospitality related, the downturn in Americans traveling abroad is affecting business and hiring. For example, in April I'd emailed back and forth with a recruiter about a position in the Maldives, but the company had decided to put hiring on hold until the busy season later in the year. You should prepare a CV (curriculum vitae) which is a little more detailed than a typical American resume. Recruiters are going to want your age and marital status as well as a photo. There is probably a greater market for American chefs in Asia than in Europe. What French or Italian hotel is going to hire an American over one of their own? I haven't found any recruiters that specialize in Australia, and job ads online always seem to specify 'must be able to work in Oz', so short of emigrating, or doing the backpacker-seasonal fruit picking thing Oz might be a difficult place to find work. Don't know about Central or South America, haven't looked there because I'm afraid my Spanish skills wouldn't cut it.

The good thing is that it allows you to take reservations in off hours. People might not want to leave a message and wait for a call back if no one is there between midnight and 2 pm.

I'm pretty happy with my Musso Lussino (1qt, around $500-600) unit in terms of speed and ease, but I've never been to Italy and don't know what ideal texture you're looking for. It seems like the local galato shops vary from fairly dense to really meringue-y.

Maybe off topic, but this could be social anxiety, which, if it interferes with your life to a significant degree, may be suitable for medical treatment. I took some anxiety meds for about a year and they really helped - unfortunately made me slightly nauseated all the time, which didn't go so well with kitchen work...just saying that if serious shyness or anxiety around people is causing you to not function as well in your daily life as you'd like to, it may be worth a chat with your doctor. It's OK to be quiet, but you should also be getting as much out of life as you want to be getting and not be afraid of your co-workers.

It's not that we don't have decent Mexican food in Seattle, more that is is generally cheap and I never get tired of it. The $$ I'm spending is really going to change my outlook on how long I can be comfortably unemployed Leaning towards getting a car and being able to explore.... Rob, are you in yet?

OK, I signed up! Still haven't decided on lodging, but I'll see you guys there. I'll be wearing black and feeling inadequate Lisa, are there any good taquerias in the neighborhood?

I think melters are supposed to be much much cheaper than temperers, and if you have to fuss around with your temperer anyway, adjusting the holding temp and all, maybe a melter isn't that much more work. With a melter, you melt your chocolate, then take it out and table or seed it as you like, turn down the melter and use it to hold the chocolate at working temperature. Also no moving parts and nothing to break.

Lisa, Thanks for your advice that does help. I recall that Phoenix has incredible sprawl and goes on for miles and miles in every direction. I lived in Tucson briefly in the mid-90's, same deal. Just trying to figure out if a room and car can be found for significantly less enough than the Marriott rates to make the commute worthwhile. It looks like maybe so. Were the evening seminars at extra cost?

Did you find it essential to stay at the venue? That is, what do you think you would miss out on if you stayed at cheaper lodging nearby? Were there evening seminars every night or mostly just social activities? I'm debating attending.

Anybody going? I just realized I have the free time and could probably rationalize the cost. If you've been to previous events, did you feel like you really learned how to do things in the demonstration classes, or was it all ooing and ahhing but hard to tell what was actually going on. The thread with pics from 2007 looks pretty good. Convince me that this will help me catch up on the industry after having been stuck in the Himalayas for 2 years! Seriously, I feel out of touch and need some inspiration! Will the WPF be it?

I hadn't heard about it, but maybe I will go. Thanks for the suggestion.

LorAnn does have a few natural flavors - pure oil of peppermint, lemon, orange, tangerine, grapefruit. I have used these and they are decent, have added a few drops to tempered chocolate for flavor. The rest of the product line does seem to be artificially flavored, apparently oranges are easier to get oil from than root beer or butterscotch

A pinch of nutmeg is nice with blueberries.