ohmyganache

I agree with you here chiantiglace. I did not go to 'regular' college myself, I got a bachelors at CIA in restaurant management. That certainly gives me a lot more opportunities in the field than simply an AOS degree. I could even continue schooling to get a masters degree at a different school if I wanted... For people that are unfamiliar with the BPS program, I took classes in Accounting, Marketing, Restaurant Ops, Ethics, World History, Food and Culture, etc... and the best part was that there was maybe 20 people in my class, so every teacher knew every one of our names. I grew up in Gainesville, Florida and at UF, you're lucky if there's not 200 people in your classes... What I didn't mention before is that this 17 year old friend needs to get a job cooking (or baking). Because it is a lot of hard work and you really have to love it.

I went to CIA and I loved it. I think it does a good job teaching the pastry skills needed to succeed in the business. The facilities, faculty, and general environment there are top notch. I also completed the Bachelors program there, and think it was a good investment in time and money. (I learned the business and management side of cooking.) Of course the school had it's problems, but nowhere is perfect. And what it really comes down to is the students themselves. I've seen wonderful people come out of tiny, unknown culinary schools... just as I've seen terrible cooks come out of CIA.

haha, yes I work with Cora. We actually started on the same day as well. That's so funny, it's such a small world. I will tell her 'hi' for you... The pecan tarts have a few pistoles of 72% chocolate in the bottom, and chopped pecanson top of that. We had some extra chocolate buttercream from a wedding cake the day before, so I used that up as garnish. I then candied some pecans and slapped it on there with a little chocolate garnish.

I'm now responsible for the Sunday Brunch every week. That means there will be lots of new pix every week! For some reason the pictures all came out blurry... sorry bout that. Enjoy! Trio of Pots de Creme... Chocolate, Vanilla, and Pistachio Chocolate Pecan Tarts and Fresh Fruit Tarts Caramel Floating Islands Cherry Frangipane Tart with Hazelnut Streusel Canneles... oooh these came out so nice. We just got the molds, and they are TASTY! Apricot Clafoutis Peach Panna Cotta with Sauteed Peaches Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting and Candied Carrot Individual Paris-Brest Creme Caramel Coconut Beignets Mascarpone Cheesecake The Spread The Spread again The flowers were amazing... we get some really awesome floral arrangments.

We have two different grades of pistachio at work. The dull, California pistachio, which tastes good and is used as an ingredient in items. And we get Iranian pistachios, which are much smaller, much much more expensive, and are a beautiful dark green. I don't know if you can purchase those out in the civilian world, I've never seen them. We get them from one of our pastry purveyors...

K8memphis, sorry it took so long to reply... When we make the whipped cream with a vanilla bean, we scrape out the stuff inside and add it with the sugar at the beginning of the whipping process. We then save the pod and use it for something else down the road. (brulee base, bavarois, etc...) We do end up with speckled whipped cream. I think it looks nice.

Thank God we have plenty of towels at work... one of the perks of corporate. I always have one clean, dry side towel in my apron, and one wet towel for wiping down my station. If I need more, we always have em... it's nice.

I can't really think of a answer about the bread flour. When I was at school there, we also used bread flour (so it wasn't a typo or anything... I checked). I'm guessing that the scones might be too tender and to short with a low protein flour, so perhaps the bread flour gives it more body. And the baking soda seems fine. I make a damn fine biscuit that every time I make it I think that there is too much baking powder. It comes out great though, and 2T doesn't seem like too much. The scones we made at CIA were really good, so have fun making that recipe...

We've been going out lately and have been taking pix of the food we get. Got these at Cortez in SF... Blueberry Crepe, Lemon Tart, Corn Ice Cream Greek Yougurt Panna Cotta, Strawberry Rhubarb Compote, Honey Chamomile Sorbet Banana Galette, Fudge Banana Swirl Ice Cream (Damn blurry pix... sorry)

Wow, I had no idea that Bay Bread did so much stuff. I might have to go down there today and check it out... take some pix. Great post, thanks a lot. It really is cool to hear about other pastry shops... Welcome to the biz, you'll love it!

We use 100 grams of granulated sugar and one vanilla bean to one liter of cream. Sometimes we use the powdered stabilizer, but I don't care for it...

I can't believe no one has mentioned Tartine. Tartine is by far the best bakery in town. Amazing bread, great pastries, good food... you have to go.

The food is really good. Desserts are okay. It's a nice, fun restaurant... I had a bad, unprofessional experience there though, and feel compeled to mention it every time I talk about Boulevard...

Oh remember a lot... my great grandma Cunninghams chicken and dumplings, my cousin jeremy and I making cinnamon raisin muffins at age 6 or 7, eating fresh peas that I grew in the garden when I was an early teen, making a cookbook when I was super young (my mom still has it)...

I'll tell you what I expect from my waiters... solid, professional service. It doesn't matter what type of restaurant I go to, be it Dotties True Blue Cafe or A16 or wherever. I simply expect quality attitude and sense of professionalism. To me, that's what matters. I could care less what tat's or piercings my watier has, as long as they do their job well. I will admit though, that serious body alterations can be a bit distracting at first. But like I said, if they're doing a stellar job... I won't even notice after a few minutes.

Our banquet chef did that to an extern a few months ago with his knives and stuff. I would have found it funny, but the whole kitchen was standing around laughing about it... and they were in my way. I don't mind when people are having a good time in the kitchen, but get the hell out of my way. Way back in my high school cookin' days (shout out to Steve's Cafe Americain in Gainesville), I remember putting mayo in a brulee ramekin, torching the top, and giving it the the front of the house. Man, those were the days...

If you substitute shortening it should work fine, we used to make IC cookies sandwiches and had to use shortening because it would stay softer when frozen. Atleast that is what my boss at the time told me when I asked her why we used shortening. Jill

I have a Cattabriga at work, it is an old model from the 80's and it makes really nice IC and sorbet but I dont think they sell them in the US. It uses anti freeze to cool the bowl and then you have to change it once every week-two weeks depending on how nasty it got. I have a serious love/hate relationship with this machine. http://www.cattabriga.net/index.html That is there website if you are interested in seeing it, whenever I have restuarant friends come in that is the highlight of the tour because everyone that I know has heard of this machine. It stands up right, the bowl sits in this antifreeze/water mix and spins. It is kind of more trouble then it is worth but it does make a nice textured IC. Mrs. Ohmyganache aka. Jill Pastry Chef Hawthorne Lane Restuarant

percyn, you have any pix of dessert from the Ritz brunch? I know I guy there that used to work here...

For the bakers out there in eGullet-land... can you imagine life with mixers? Without Kitchenaids and Hobarts, there's no way we could get by with the quality and variety of stuff we bake!

I made a sour pizza dough over the last few days, and we finally baked 'em off today... yum! Tomato sauce, mozzarella, olive oil, red pepper flakes, pepperoncinis. Same as above... Olive oil, sliced garlic, dry jack, oregano from the garden, red pepper flakes, black pepper. Onion confit (thanks to the onion confit thread), cave aged grueyere, zucchini, sliced garlic Me sliding the pizza off the back of a sheet pan onto our little stone in our little oven!

You have to go to Delfina... it's the best food in the city. You said that you're in the biz, right? Because a lot of people in restaurants love Delfina. I think we really appreciate it. Great food, wonderful wine selection, very reasonably priced. It's just great...

Yeah, I agree with PassionateChefsDie. Creme Fraiche sorbet, that way it's frozen and will keep a while longer. I have a recipe as well if you'd like.

Not exactly a fridge story, but I found a several-months old bag of potatoes in the back of my pantry. They were in various stages of liquification... and I was wondering why there were more than a few fruit flies hanging out. I totally forgot it was there, but found it today...

Just went shopping yesterday and had some time to cook today. Here are two pix of the contents of my fridge. Top shelf has some excitement on the right hand side. Several bottles of homebrewed beer. Yum. Middle shelf has cowboy cookie dough. Bottom shelf has tomato sauce and hummus I made for the lady to take to work. Exciting times in the butter compartment on the top right. I put my cheeses in there. Right now, a cave aged gruyere, vella dry jack, morbier... The door has some Franks Red Hot, a bottle of french wine...