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^ Welcome to the forum JasminL! Hey anyone know anything about "Waves" coffee on Main and 10th? I saw the paper sign a few weeks ago.

What kind of evilness doesn't season their burgers! Gasp thou shalt season! salt is your friend!

Don't worry guys, Tony is a bit of a nut himself so I think it will be a perfect combination to scare the other students.

^ Hey guys, Thanks for the detailed explanations. I had not considered he angle of people who reserve and don't show or reserve and show very late. I find that the peak of bad manners as well. I can understand how that can be for the owner. This is indeed a good discussion.

Friday night was Joe Fortes 1985 prix fix --- They had clam chowder, salmon and a raisin bread pudding. We also had "sweet potato" fries. Yumm! The clam chowder was pretty good, but I wouldn't say it was in my top 5. The salmon was a little on the bland side (more salt!) but I will mention that the portions were INSANE. I was positively stuffed! Stomachs must have been bigger in '85. The rasin bread pudding was good too but they served it with creme when ice cream would have made the dessert. I don't blame them since they were probably serving a billion of these things that night. Saturday afternoon I had sushi at Miyagi Sushi on Main. --- It was a last minute decision due to time constraints and Toshi's being closed. The Tamago was pretty good. The Katsu don was a little drenched with sauce and the teryaki was way too sweet. But someone did go in and was raving about their bubble tea (?). Saturday night --- I was inspired by a previous thread and decided to make... The cake consisted of a layer of beef, a layer of buffalo with red peppers, zuccini and onion. The layers were separated by a a layer of corn and yam mash. I then covered the entire thing with garlic yam mash and "tried" to make it look like a cake. As you can see I am still a young grasshopper when it comes to cake making. Actually I ran out of yam mash too so it was a panicked move to ration it. I know what to do differently for the next one (I'm making another one? I must get my head examined). The white flakes on the outside are chicken poached in miso and shredded to look like coconut flakes. Innanimate, your friend is nuts

Shall we warn Tony or just let him face you guys unprepared?

^ Puhleez tell me there's a really good and shining reason for opening a restaurant then. I always knew it was hard to run a restaurant but I always assumed the rewards are in the grins and yumm noises from guests as they enjoy the food you provide. The first glint of a guests eyes when they see the dish triumphantly placed before them. There must be a sort of romance to this that makes you crazy kids become chefs and restraunteurs.

If that was the case, I'd rate Montreal's metro on par if not better than Calgary's. I will agree that Calgary has a very well planned centralized downtown core which is wonderful. Montreal also has fairly priced accomodation. Perhaps Calgary is booming so there was a higher hit rate on business travel? But Montreal has a good representation of travel too. Hmm.

^ I'm less surprised about Vancouver's ranking than I am about Calgary's How does NY score 45 places below Calgary? Grain of fluer de sel?

I also forgot to mention <insert non cured protein here> saltimbocca. I mean how hard is it to take a piece of fish/chicken, a <insert herb here> leaf and <insert salty meat here> and slam em together with your frying pan bottom. Then just sear and serve. Done. Halibut + Basil + Pancetta => WHAM / Sear ->

^ I have to agree, I usually go after the model that if something costs more it's because it will last longer/work better/look nicer but in some cases there are items out there where the mechanism is so simple that there really is no need to spend copious amounts of money on it. A mandolin is a pretty simple mechanism and the only thing I would fret about is the blade replacement capability. But spending multi hundred dollars is a bit much for the home user for one of these things. That being said I still want to buy the crazy braun immersion blender with stainless steel immersion piece and 400W of ice crunching power even though I'm sure the 250W version would do

^ I walked by it last night on my way home from Sandy's and I was exhausted so i couldn't pop in. It looked PACKED! People inside, people outside. It was like a mini block party. I'll actually go INSIDE next time

Thanks Daniel! Thats a good idea. As long as the guests don't arrive early (or I can provide a cheese platter to keep em quiet) leavin a bit of time to finish the meal is a great idea!

My dishes are certainly not anywhere near as refined and beautiful as everyones here so be gentle I wanted to try some dishes I learned in the cooking class I took. So I started by finding some squid on sale at the local market. These squiddies were HUGE compared to the babies we used in class. I was a little unprepared. I also noticed that in class they were cleaned for us (how nice!) cleaning them myself was not so fun. I was so dirty with squid parts I didn't take pics of the actual squid cleaning but here's what my two big squids looked like when they were cleaned. [Aside - What the heck do you do with the eyes/eye sockets and the like, I found NO elegant way to remove this stuff] So now they are drying away on a paper towel and I get some water boiling for some linguine and start tossing together my salad consisting of red pepper, green onion, golden kiwi and lychee. I really dug the colour of the salad as it was coming together. I was also worred about tossing it with my dressing (lime juice, rice vinegar, sugar, fish sauce, lychee juice and a red pepper). Gentle toss, thats the only way to avoid bruising the kiwis. Ok so here is what I learned AND what I respect about chefs of the world over. Timing. I don't know how you guys do it. My fiancee came over and I was midway through breading the squid, boiling the pasta and frying the pasta sauce. I had to deep fry the squid, reduce the sauce and toss in the brocolli and pine nuts as well as toast the cashews for the salad. I began to gently toss my salad with the dressing while trying to keep my squid from overcooking in the oil, my sauce from burning and the pasta from going beyond al dente. End result? The pasta was overcooked and I tossed the broccolli into the sauce a little too 'vigorously'. Thankfully the squid turned out ok. I think I 'overdressed' the salad as well. I should have gone light and then drizzed some over the finished product. It tasted better than it looks I need to learn more about timing. I just read the EGCI lesson on plating...ooh my next dish will have to have tear drops!

^ You won't know till you try it. Ginger and beef go together very well I must say.

Soul/Snapper Fillet with Cream Corn [7 minutes] ------------------------------------------ -Take some filets, salt and white pepper and rub into fish, set aside -Ziploc bag: combine cornstarch and cayenne -Toss fish into the bag and shake! -Heat a pan to medium high heat, add some oil to coat pan -Throw the fish in and sear on both sides -if you have a skillet I tend to like to turn off the stove at this point and pour in a can of creamed corn and let it heat up while the pan cools down -Serve with rice This sucker takes like 7 minutes assuming the fish is defrosted Linguine with Brocollini and Proscuitto [20 minutes] ------------------------------------------- Learned this one in class - Chop brocolli/brocollini - Boil water in a pot (lots of water) - Add salt after water boils (1Tbsp per serving of pasta) - Throw Brocolli into water and simmer until knife tender - Take out brocolli and reserve - Throw in your pasta [Good quality linguine] - In the meantime melt Tbsp butter and 4Tbsp olive oil in a pan - Add proscuitto and pine nuts and brown them - Add garlic (1 clove should do) - Add reserved brocolli - Add Salt - When the Linguine is Al Dente, remove and throw it into the pan - Toss all together - Serve Really good and you get to really taste the pasta with the simple sauce.

This whole concept blows my mind. Sushi is meant to be served at a 'cool' temperature to keep the fish unspoiled. Putting fish on a cool wooden block makes sense. Putting it on a warm naked body does not. Do I really want to eat Nigiri with warm rice? Yuck that's almost like hot beer.

You'll do great Laura! I entered the class pretty green. My knife was SO blunt too! My god did I butcher that first tomato. They even help you learn how to properly sharpen your knives. You will quickly discover just how laid back and unhostile the environment is. And the helpers are wonderful...you just wisper to them stuff like 'uhh what the hell is Chiffonade?' and they secretly show you to protect your pride P.S. I found a beginners glossary of cooking terms (as you can see from the site name I truly am the eGullet Geek for the vancouver chapter)

We know you're out there Dan! Get your butt on and post! [or I might paint little horns on your picture above]

You get to use me to test your next dessert experiment. Maybe even take the course with Chef Marco and then use me as a Guinnea pig.

Bing! Not only that but you saw arms where I just saw sauce so really that's pretty impressive! The frog is going after a small stack of berries.

They taped up the windows but the door was clear!! I took a peak and took 3 very very bad pictures which I am too embarassed to post. Needless to say it looks good in their and he wall texture is pretty funky. The chairs were stacked on the tables for cleaning. I couldn't see much tonight but it is looking very ready to go.

Does the Chef Consultant work for the show and not draw any money from the budget?

Beautifully written Joie. I will merely provide some pics and maybe a few additional words. Let me first say THANKS to the amazing helpers who really dedicated their time and sage counsel to a bunch of out of control home cooks. My hat's off to you all! Dan, Lori, Hugh, Betty and all the others I have forgotten the names to but remember your faces! It was a geat last class and Chef Tony was as animated as ever. You really have to SEE him in action. Today he talked extensively about "developing a relationship" with your steak. When you put it in the fridge for 3-4 days you develop a relationship and an anticipation with your meat. You just don't have that kind of bonding with meat from a store... First pic is Joie ladeling out parsnip soup which consisted of an amazing array of ingredients. I asked Chef Tony "uhh, I never eat parsnip...what does it taste like". He said "Carrot, sorta and it I really DON'T KNOW what it likes <finger pointing to Cardamom>, NO IDEA <tapping cardamom jar>, yeah good luck". That guy cracks me up. Funnily Joie had already selected that spice so we were on the right track... Second Pic is Joie masterfully ladeling the two soups (Brian's group made the butternut squash soup - feel free to tell us what you put in it!) Here is a GOOD pic of Brian, hey look at that am I excused now? and he's adding the garnishes to the dishes. The butternut had a brilliant roasted squash in butter and spices (?) really added texture and depth to the dish And voila, the finished product. Our side had a minimalist approach with a small sprig of thyme. Yes I controlled my Jackson Pollock urges. Plating our ribeye steak. Yumm! We made a simple sauce with red wine and the 'sucs' from the steak frying and some butter to monter. Earlier in the class we actually roasted our pepper on a pan till they 'pop' and then crushed them with a pot to make a very nice black pepper crust. We seasoned the meat with fluer de Sel and the roasted black pepper (that's it!). We cut the steaks on a bias and I was reminded of "Hanger Steak" and then placed them on top of the polenta and Joie added the Veggie's in expert fashion. Drizzle some sauce and perhaps pull with a spoon for 'flare' Now off to dessert-land, we made a french toast style dessert with Pannetone, Ricotta (mixed with nutmeg, almonds, sugar) and some eggs. Joie and my pannetone looked like they had 'lips'. After frying top and bottom we 'roll' the sides on the pan to cook them too! My pannetone lips were smooshed at this point. mmmm butter and brown sugar, together at last... One more shot of our 'lips' pannetone. And the finished product. I had to rescure my 'lips' so I could build my masterpiece! It took some work and the shaking heads of Arne and the gang but it was complete. Can anyone guess what it is? No guesses from class members! I also have a group shot of the 'gang' and the chef helpers plus Tony (in the back). I'm sure we were the most out of control 'freaks' he's ever had the pleasure to teach and I am so happy he has the kind of energy needed to really get us going. I'll be sad next monday when I have no class to go to but I am really happy with what we've accomplished in the past 8 weeks. Smoke me a kipper, I'll be back in April.

Wow I totally agree. For a restaurant at that price point it really ought to LOOK a lot better. I'd like to see their chef consultant try to improve Tojo's menu though. That ought to make for a good show.