pastrygirl

A few years back, Johnny Iuzzini and some other chefs introduced liquid sable - a sable butter cookie, baked, then pureed in the food processor with a little oil. It takes a while (faster if the cookies are still warm). If there is butter in the cookie, you only need about 10-15% by weight of oil to liquify. It'll be soft at room temp but can be frozen for easier handling. Obviously, more oil makes it more liquid. Since I hate pressing in crumb crusts, I've adapted the theory to graham crackers and use the liquid crust for no-bake cheesecake and lemon bars. Since they are lower in fat than your typical butter cookie, I add more fat, and use browned butter for flavor. For a 1/4 sheet pan crust, I lightly toast 300 g graham cracker crumbs, add 50 g sugar and a bit of salt, then process with 125 g melted browned butter. I spread the crust in the pan then chill to set before adding my topping.

It's also possible to make a liquid graham cracker that you can pipe with graham cracker crumbs and oil or browned butter. Or let set and cut into pieces. It is denser than plain graham crackers.

Like cooked rice or couscous? Use a large fork to comb through and break up and lumps. More of a folding or stirring motion that lifts and doesn't mash.

Thank you for sharing!

IIRC, raw milk cheeses aged less than 3 months are banned from import. So yes, the US does miss out on some good stuff. Im surprised to hear France needs pastry cooks. Has everyone French left and gone expat? Or is there a restaurant bubble there too? Here in Seattle, it's getting comical how many restsurants keep opening despite how many chefs say it's impossible to find & retain enough qualified staff.

I think I did have a bit that I decided had gone off and threw away, but it was probably 5 years old and had been melted many times. It seems to be good for at least 2+ years if stored properly. And all those good (for chocolate sales) winter holidays are coming, might as well have lots of festive colors!

I don't know, it looks a lot like taro, just more gnarled. Maybe a sweet potato or yam of some sort?

I believe there may be a connection between these two observations ... in my kitchen, people sneaking treats get their hand slapped! It's all sweetness until you steal my mise en place

Yes it should be. Has it separated or changed color? If not, use it!

luckily we have imports

As an American, I must recommend an excess of cheese at all times. That's how we like it!

I have found some egg whites in cartons that will whip, but only because of added "whipping agent' stabilizers and definitely not organic. Might you add a yolk-heavy item in the future? Lemon bars, lemon curd, yellow cake, egg yolk buttercream, sable' cookies?

What is the heathen English version? Cheese after dessert?

Ugh, that was harrowing to read! There are definitely some chefs with anger management problems and substance abuse issues and somehow they manage to get away with it entirely too much. Glad you got out of there!

@MattyC, can I ask what your new job is? I see various industrial and cultural shifts happening. My first restaurant job started in 1999, after college and a few years of baking in bakeries and coffee shops, so it hasn't been forever, but it (the industry, the world) still seems to have changed in that time. Cooking school was not on my radar at all when I went off to college in 1988. I grew up watching Jacques and Julia on PBS, my dad was an avid gardener and my mom a skilled cook, we went out to restaurants for birthdays, and I liked to make cookies for my little brothers, but chef didn't seem like a career option. Men are expected to spend more time with their children than a generation or two ago. My dad was the old school dad, go to work, pay the bills, read the newspaper after dinner and pretty much ignore the kids unless someone was in need of a spanking. Kids barely get spanked anymore, and spouses want to see their partner and share in childcare. Once people have kids, working dinner service hours upsets the work-life balance. The whole concept of work-life balance is relatively new - Americans are becoming more willing to sacrifice money for happiness. The factory jobs are gone, women have careers, and there is a lot more encouragement to follow your bliss. It's great that food TV and chefs becoming celebrities have brought more legitimacy to the profession. But the explosion of cooking schools has not only sold thousands of people on delusions of grandeur, it has led them to believe that cooking professionally is a creative endeavor. I will not deny there being a creative element, but consistency and problem solving are probably more important. So you have all these cooks who think they are chefs and want to play and be creative. What happened to learning from the chef and executing as instructed? The same thing that happened to yelling and throwing pans? I think cooks have gone from working under a chef for at least a year at a time to working with a chef for as long as it takes to satisfy their curiosity. I don't know where the work ethic has gone. Even if you're only going to do a job for 5, 10, or 15 years, why would you not do it well? I think its more the special snowflake phenomenon, nobody wants to be told what to do or be uncomfortable. Everything is supposed to be fun and engaging. But is there really anything wrong with evolving into a new career? You kind of sound like you wish you could be in the kitchen forever. Some people do make it work. I definitely want to stay hands-on, but my long-term chocolatier plan is to get machines to temper and enrobe and retail staff to do the wrapping. And after 10-15 years of that, I'll either retire or try something else.

I don't know if it's any more prevalent now, but the hard long hours will take a toll on most of us sooner or later. I think trying to keep a restaurant open has gotten harder than ever with increased competition and increased wage demands. Right now it's so hard to find good cooks that one small place updates their hours on Facebook to reflect staffing - they've closed a few lunches this week. And I think it's one of the reasons why another place closed and is operating as an event space and catering kitchen. Lots of cook jobs means you can't piss them off or they'll leave, which drives up labor cost when you need to keep hiring and training. I do know one chef who went from CDC to catering to working for a local chain grocer in the interest of time and benefits for his young family. I think most cooks have to move up or out eventually, whether because their body is broken or they realized they need to save for retirement. it seems like a natural progression to go from cook to chef to restaurateur, but the business side is so different, that path doesn't work for everyone. Sandwich shop, artisan pasta or salami, private chef, "clipboard" chef at a hotel, product rep, teaching ... Many more ways to make a living than being on the line. I got got sick of the stress and drama and craziness of restaurants, now I work for myself which is a different kind of stress but much less drama.

I believe he does claim to outsource proteins - Amish chickens, fish, etc. Does all meat have to be processed in a USDA licensed processing facility? If he is using wild game and if that is not strictly legal for sale to the public, that may be why he is vague about suppliers.

Thanks, Rob! I believe you about a different way of thinking. So instead of planning a year's supply of something, you do different things with each plant, using or preserving them at different stages. And if you're doing tiny courses you don't need much. Very strange about the suppliers, too. Why so secretive?

You should absolutely be picky. Can you mold a test batch to see how the scratches show on the product?

Yay! I saw his post on Instagram (which I prefer for food photos) and thought of you. https://www.instagram.com/mlaiskonis/

Saw this article posted on another discussion site: http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/08/29/damon-baehrel-the-most-exclusive-restaurant-in-america This guy supposedly forages almost everything from the 12 acres around him and is booked out for years. Some people are skeptical whether he really does as much as he says, and I have to admit I am one of them. I immediately thought of @gfron1 - Rob, I'd love to read your take on this. How possible is it that one person can do all that foraging, curing, grinding, pickling, etc and still have time to develop dishes and produce dinners? This reminds me of the Mast Bros expose' - he may be foraging and cooking, but with some exaggeration of production. I bet he cooks when he feels like it or several times a month, but nightly dinner service?

Can you give examples of foods that were several weeks old and got served? Many cheeses, mustard, pickles, olives, salami, eggs, sour cream, usually no problem. Foods that are cooked sous vide and kept sealed (and refrigerated) are supposed to have an extended life, and things like duck confit are designed to keep. But no, no generally agreed upon standards besides if it's bad, don't serve it, and if it will be bad tomorrow, serve it to staff Much will depend on the temp of the fridge and if any contamination was introduced. Take it as a reminder to pay attention to the product itself, not just an arbitrary number.

My guesses for @BonVivant #1 peppers drying - maybe hungarian paprika peppers? #2 smoked pork skin? #3 green bean french-er: cut the stems off with the blade at the end then push the beans through the smaller hole with more blades to get thin, "french-cut" pieces?

Yeah, sorry, that'll take some experimentation. I do think that a combo of coconut oil and cocoa butter sounds like a good way to go for the fat, as all coconut oil would be a bit soft and all cocoa butter would be a bit hard. Good luck!

Ouch, that was unnecessary. Eat what you want, but no need to insult all the dedicated and amazing pastry chefs, chocolatiers, confectioners, and home bakers here.