turkeybone

I just did a quick glance over this thread and I saw a bit about 2 years, 4 years, transferring between schools, NOT transferring into the Ivy League, etc. Well, to blow all your minds, the CIA and Cornell University have come up with their "Alliance" program whereby you get both an AOS and Bachelors in 4 years. So what have been people been doing before this was official? Doing their 2 year culinary school run, then transferring into the Ivy League Hotel Administration program. Edit -- I know we're getting super off topic, but I want to add that Ive graduated from the Ivy League, AND soon to graduate from culinary school, and Ive seen people transfer in, out, up, down, whatever. Private schools look at the quality of the person, not just the diploma. Didn't you see "Rudy"? He transferred from junior college into Notre Dame, and they carried him off the field!

One component of the Jean Georges' exotic dessert plate is roasted bananas with a curry powder'd whipped cream.. Id never had curry powder in a sweet application and it was really, really good. It also might help eliminate that "sheet pan grey" that might come along with using bananas. edit: So the next step (which was in my mind but not on 'paper') is to pastry cream it up with banana puree and curry powder (or spice x) and lighten/stabilize as you see fit. And if you want that caramelized banana flavor, just use caramel or dulce de leche to replace all or part of the sugar for the cream.

I'd like to hear the reasoning for how baking powder would forgo blind baking -- what does baking powder do, chemically leaven? Is that going to let heat permeate faster, or something?

Another gratin hat in the ring... Basically a combo of everything so far -- slice the potatoes right into a pot of your seasoned milk/cream, then cook that until the potatoes are floppy, then pour it into your 1/2 hotel or whatever vessel, cook it covered until its done, taking the cover off 10ish minutes before its done so it can brown up all nice.

I've made these with Swiss Meringue as well, and had no issues. I think for making such large batches, you may want to avoid running around with 240 degree sugar.

I dont know where youre located, but if you dont want to go mail-order (at school we use 'perfect puree' from Napa) you'll have the best luck looking in latin specialty stores, if not for puree, for juice or "nectar" -- my mom always has a bottle handy for making mousse. Edited because I read your other thread about the design

Regular digestive biscuits would make a fantastic substitute, or those digestive-like Hovis crackers. You want something that's a little buttery (not dry like crackers) - maybe even stale cake crumbs in a pinch. It's a base very similar to the base for american-style cheesecake. ← Graham crackers get their flavor from whole wheat flour and honey -- it's a rolled cookie dough that wouldn't be too difficult to bake off a few sheet pans at a time and crumble. As far as relatively labor free items -- flavored marshmallows and frozen souffles are good fun with meringue; tuile paste (and chocolate tuile paste) can always be made into any sort of interesting shape -- and sugared puff pastry cookies (palmiers and papillons) are really easy and SUPER delicious.

When we make meringues in school we almost always make a swiss meringue, which involves heating the egg-sugar mixture to about 145, and according to them, that takes care of most egg-borne disease. Of course, if you're serving a nursing home or have a lawsuit-happy clientele, go for the pasteurized.

The morning after a night of, uh, festivities, I may or may not have stirred a bechamel for a solid 40 minutes before one of my co-workers turned up the low heat under it and said "ya know, it has to come up to a boil before it thickens".

My first shallot experience was eating them slow-roasted off a sheet pan with just olive oil salt n pepper. REALLY awesome. I too am a big fan of the thin slice low fry (300ish or less), no flour necessary.

My guess would be it's the day that he loses the least money being closed on. One place I worked would always close Monday Tuesday during the off-season. Why Wednesday? I dunno. But I would think its a fiscal thing.

That's pretty much the way to do it -- produce the smoke in one vessel, then transport it via a chimney to another vessel which holds the food -- and at some point in between have the smoke ice cooled. it wouldnt have to be through a cooler of ice, but if the ice was cooling the pipe then the smoke would cool down as well.

Weight by the dozen: Jumbo - 30oz XL - 27oz L - 24oz M - 21oz S - 18oz Peewee - 15oz

I'd say 160ish is ideal if you go right from the cooking into the warmer.. thats a good temp to keep heat, not reheat. Even if you have to go at 200, you'll be alright for most stuff (i.e. not medium steaks) so long as you're not holding it too long. I mean your family isn't coming to the table 30 minutes late, are they? Warmed plates and covers are also alternatives to keeping food hot a little bit longer.

On a random note, 115 is the temperature we're taught to stop messin' with a consomme raft, so it would seem to make sense that it's a relatively universal temperature at which proteins begin to coagulate.

Yeah so far "well roundedness" and "meaty richness" are the best descriptors of umami. Shiitakes are high in umami so saute, cover your nose and eat one, and you'll taste umami. It's not like an "experience" or the like -- its a flavor so it wouldnt come from smells at all.

Today and tomorrow we're smoking shoulders as well. I don't have pics, but mmm mmm mmm, its going along with all the other southern cookin. They way we do it up is quite simple -- season with just s&p, roll it around on a hot grill til it gets nice and colored, then pop it into a 325-350 oven with some wood chips for about 5 hours, covering with foil about halfway. Then the next day we pull, vinegarize, and make into some mighty fine BBQ sandwiches with both an eastern n western BBQ sauce.

Ive always considered myself very anti-condiment. As Ive grown up some, I think it comes down to my dislike of mayo and ketchup (we had to make some 1000 island in class recently.... blech. But at least I know what its supposed to taste like now). If I do reach for ketchup, its during one of those rare times I crave a well-done burger (yes, I said it). Never on fries, eggs, hot dogs.. ew. I wish I could be more constructive with my criticisms as far as taste, but I think the ketchup "flavor" is too overpowering for anything but a charred hockey puck. A delcious charred hockey puck. Also, I was always more interested in the variety of mustard flavors I could always find -- whereas ketchup only really changed colors (ew). Though after reading this thread, I'll have to do some investigating into these organic/garlicky/etc ketchups.

This is why you have to use canned pineapple if you want to use it in conjunction with jello...

Check out The Breakers in Palm Beach.

My first thought would be to add sugar, which would help combat the acidity of the tomatoes which is what you're tasting. Don't overdo it though. Of course the first response is "make your own sauce" but it's not always tomato season. You can go halfway and use the whole peeled stuff (run it through a food mill or the like to get the seeds out and mash it up a bit) and make your own -- it really doesn't need to cook for all that long.

Nevertheless, I think flavored mayos -- even though they can be made with commercial stuff -- are better when made from scratch. So I make mayo perhaps three times a year. Kevin ← I agree with that as far as home-made, and I do enjoy making mayo (just to make sure I still know how, heh) -- I was in the mindset of a professional kitchen, where there is more emphasis on shelf life and consistency, and of course time and labor costs to consider.

I know this is going to stir some folks up, but I don't think its worth making your own mayonnaise. In a serving kitchen environment, you can only use pasteurized eggs, and with the labor and possibilities of failure, I think it's much easier to add your own flavorings to prepared mayo (you all know the brand). Now if you want to make aoili with olive oil or something, thats different. Using special or flavored oils straight up in a mayonnaise is not really a fun and delicious idea... its best to mix them, and then you have to worry about mixing them, and then you have to buy two oils, and this and that.. but if you want to make some chipotle remoulade, get your can, toss in that adobo, and spend your time and effort making some really crispy delicious fried foods to eat with it.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought pommes "fondant" referred to a similar method (fully cooked in butter from a raw state) but specifically to a large tourne shape.. in the same way that "chateau" is to a smaller tourne, and "risolee" to potato that has been parisienne scoop'd. Im just nitpicking I guess... I havent met a potato I didnt like.

It's been awhile since I read the book myself, it'll be an interesting re-read now that I've bumped into many of these personalities (haha I even saw Roland Henin at one of the career fairs, just to drop some more names ), and heard tons of fun little stories (like a kid who would march up to Mr. Metz's office and complain about the food he'd get from skills).