Kerry Beal

Well - after finally pinning down our location for this year we have settled on a weekend for this year's workshop to be held in Toronto. Looking at May 17, 18 and 19 which is the Victoria day long weekend in Canada - so hopefully that won't interfere or put up the cost of hotels. It will mean a lot of traffic driving across the top of the city on their way north to their cottages. We will be holding this year's workshop at the Cake Collective - a rental commercial kitchen owned by two sisters who are friends of @Alleguede's who have agreed to host us. It is close to the Toronto airport (it's actually in Mississauga). Lots of details to hammer out - but having a date is a start! This will be the first year I don't have Anna to help keep me organized so it might be a bit more of a dog's breakfast than usual - so you'll have to bear with me. Once we get a better idea of costs for the rental, and flesh out the food and supplies we are going to need - we will set a price. Think experience has taught me that a set price will probably make the most sense as I just read back through last years planning thread! Thoughts on Master's classes for Friday am and afternoon? Shall we teach them ourselves or struggle to find someone (who if experience has taught me anything - will cancel part way through).

We will be doing the eG workshop at some point in May in Toronto (still trying to confirm the date) - pretty sure we can have a Fuji, a Grex and perhaps a few other options for you to play with. Was going to suggest Denman Island chocolate but I don't see colour on their pieces these days. Rachel - used to be head chocolatier at Purdy's - got them a Fuji. She's not working for them anymore and might be reopening Chocolate Nymph in Vancouver - you could track her down and see what she has around to show you.

@Dark side - where do you live? Perhaps visit someone and play with the equipment - it's a great way to get over that initial inertia and get yourself started.

And it doesn't help when you have metric and imperial to deal with.

Discussion on wire starts - here

Can’t do caramel I know - can you link me the Kriss’s post?

Actually bottom is usually bottom - you put a top chablon on when you are using a soft ganache that is likely to deform when you cut it.

If you put a foot top and bottom (foot aka chablon) then the one on the top should still be soft when you cut cause it will crack.

Set up - a thin foot on the bottom doesn't crack typically. The the chablon on the top get's cut when it's still damp if possible to prevent cracking.

Rum definitely! Nice to see you back James.

I have always suspected the the chocolate running behind the coloured cocoa butter is caused by the heating! I've not been happy with the results most times I've done it. And yeah - dates and amarula - sweet! Maybe some lemon?

No reason not to use two different chocolates. I'm not a big fan of the heating thing though.

Rotovap or vacuum microwave? Sorry - being a bit of an ass - but perhaps adding some freeze dried fruit powder to the un-concentrated juice to punch up the flavour? Beautiful looking product by the way!

Yeah - saw that - and some Canadian and US prices.

Bloody sure I didn't pay anywhere near that for it.

I haven't - but I'd probably use the basic Boiron recipes and see which fruit puree the texture is most equivalent to. Linking to the way earlier post of the file of Boiron recipes - sadly can't figure out how to post a PDF! link to pdf of PDF

Bit dusty!

Some from Scotland - some from LCBO - some from duty free I think. Not seeing some of the ones I know my dad and Gary used to enjoy.

think there might be a bottle of that on my very dusty sideboard

Pretty sure it's Alcohol by Volume - a lot of standard blends are sold at 40%

Couple of guitars I found in my travels last night that someone might be interested in This one is located in San Diego Dedy guitar cutter base with 4 frames $2,000 15mm, 22.5mm, 30mm, 37.5mm There is a mini available in Vancouver British Columbia I have a lightly-used Martellato Double Mini Guitar Cutter for sale. It has a plastic base, two stainless steel cutting arms (22mm spacing), and comes with the stainless steel lifting sheet, long plastic scraper/"doctor blade", and extra replacement wire and tools. Cutting area is about 23 x 23 cm. I found it most efficient to get inexpensive custom frames made by asking a local business to cut stainless steel bar or plastic to a size that fits the base. You can read more about it on the Martellato website. I bought it from Chocolat-Chocolat in 2017. It has been used about twice a year each year since then. It has two broken wires that are missing and I have not prioritized the effort of replacing since I have a new one to use. The plastic has discoloration on the top of the base, but is in otherwise excellent shape. I am local to Vancouver, BC, Canada. I am asking $850 CAD. Local pick-up preferred, but I am willing to investigate shipping costs if the buyer is willing to pay them. It is quite heavy. I'm not comfortable posting contact info here - so if you are interested send me a PM and I can hook you up with the owner.

That's what I do with the 15's.

Savy Goiseau makes excellent equipment - they must have been using it to cut bars given the size. Maybe you could get them to send you pictures of the frames - perhaps you'll find that they have more holes.

I'm curious what this looked like before you applied the tool to it.

I have not reworked a frame before - but when I got a 30 frame it was just a 15 wired every other hole. A 22.5 is a nice one to have. What's the brand in Maine?