Kerry Beal

It's that time again - I'm the group leader for a group of newly minted Ecole Chocolat grads taking a masters course. This one is in Wieze, Belgium. You may recall my last trip as group leader for Ecole when I took a group to Valrhona in France. I got my packing done on Sunday - was all prepared, car was to pick me up at 6 pm to drive me to the airport. Got a little suspicious when the child was late getting off the bus from school - the driver said that the highway wasn't moving well. At about 5:15 I got a call from the limo service to say that the car that was coming to get me had moved 2 car lengths in the last 30 minutes. Apparently a car roll over on the westbound lanes of highway had ejected two people into the eastbound lanes and the entire highway was closed in both directions. So I set out in my own vehicle - which of course had no gas, and needed oil... at least the toll highway got me past the problem. Airport wants $175/week to park - so a quick text to @Alleguede and he came to fetch my car from the airport to park in his driveway until I return. So here I sit in the lounge awaiting my departure. I'm doing the Jet Lag program that I have done several times before that has worked well for me. Overcoming Jet Lag, by Charles F. Ehret and Lynne Waller Scanlon. This involves food and caffeine modification. So for the past 4 days I've been drinking Rooibos Provence throughout the day and between 3 and 4:30 slugging down as much real tea as my bladder can handle! The dietary part consists of alternating days of 'feasting' and 'fasting' with high protein breakfasts and lunches and high carb dinners. I had planned to get the driver to stop at the Tim Horton's at the top of my street to pick up the black coffee that is to be taken at around 6 pm the day of travel - unfortunately as I was driving myself that didn't happen - so when I hit the lounge I drank down two cups of strong black caffeinated coffee - better late than never. I'm not much of a coffee drinker - and particularly not black. Should be good for some palpitations when I start the next part of the program which is to sleep as soon as I get on the plane! This is a 'fasting day', 800 calories suggested - I left my carb meal until I reached the lounge. ] One of the two cups of coffee. These are the "Gentlemen Retire to the Library' chocolates that I posted before that I am taking along - port wine PDF and tobacco ganache. I used Sosa tobacco flavouring this time instead of a cigar so I don't have to concern myself with nicotine poisoning.

From what Nathan said in the talk in Toronto - there was a thorough look at the microbiology of sourdough. Geographic differences were also looked at but weren't as important as first suspected as I recall. The thing that interested me was his discussion about growing an osmo-tolerent sourdough starter by selecting out the bugs.

The choc cherry bread was apparently one of Nathan's favorites

Chris - do you think you could talk the team into doing a Q&A here on eG like the old days?

What about the orange?

There will be a run on them at Value Village!

https://www.eatlivetravelwrite.com/2017/10/fifteen-minutes-with-nathan-myhrvold/ Just wanted to add Mardi Michels interview here too - she was invited to interview @nathanm by the college - she came out looking flushed and totally 'fan girl' as she mentions in her blog.

Shall look forward to it - always loved your photos.

Velveting Paste 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour 2 teaspoons cornstarch Salt and freshly ground black pepper ¼cup (½ stick) unsalted butter, melted Brush over one side of the sous vide breast and brown quickly in a hot pan. I didn't have any cornstarch and I didn't measure - just added some flour to some melted butter.

Made a few of the egg bites in the CSO instead of the sous vide - cooked at 190º steam for 40 minutes. There was a bit of leftover that I cooked up in a little fry pan for my breakfast. Made a batch of Cream Scones with raisins for the nurses. Didn't last long. For lunch a sous vide boneless breast that I browned on one side with the velveting paste.

Attendees: RobertM gfron1 (tentative) pastryani tikidoc

like that would ever happen

Spray onto a small offset then flick it off.

I splattered with two different cosmic colours - both were versions of purple apparently - sprayed bronze behind then a finger swipe of gold.

I'm guessing some sort of bull appendage to encourage fertility for the twins?

They did indeed - I sat next to one of the women who was involved in the baking. She is a retired public health nutritionist who is enjoying volunteering in her retirement. She spends a lot of time with the head bread chef at George Brown. I'm working on getting her to help out at the Luxury Chocolate Show - I think she'll be a great help to the folks doing demos in my absence.

Well - after a 3 1/2 hour drive to get to this event last night - I've got to say it was thoroughly enjoyable evening. It was held in one of the auditoriums at George Brown - in the hour or so before the event started Nathan chatted with various bloggers and other press. They all came out rather star struck and fearful that just because he's very intelligent that he would find them simple. The audience was heavily weighted towards geeks and those who love baking bread. It started with a short lecture - followed by a Q&A. One of the first questions asked was "what bread knife is best?" - electric carving knife was the answer. They evaluated thousands of dollars worth of bread knives - and decided for straight cuts, dealing with various crusts... electric wins! The plexiglass case for Modernist Cuisine wasn't as tough as they hoped - so this time around the case is stainless. Apparently they have made some stainless cases with the logo for Modernist Cuisine on them for folks with the plexiglass ones that want to swap them out. 55º F was found to be ideal for proofing a lot of doughs - wine coolers are the perfect proofing boxes. They realized there are light fluffy loaves of 100% rye being baked in some eastern european countries - rye flour acts differently than wheat flour - and the fineness of the grind is what makes the difference between a heavy pumpernickel and a light fluffy loaf. Wheat flour doesn't yield the same result. A couple of drops of a papain containing fruit juice, such as kiwi or pineapple, will soften a challah dough and make it amazingly workable. A tiny bit of fat (0.5 - 2%) added to a lean dough will improve the rise. An almost infinite amount of lead shot can be added to bread or placed on top of a loaf and it will still rise! A tasty gluten free bagel CAN be made. After the event we moved out to the lobby where they had set up breads they had baked for the event.

I'm not quite sure what you are reading into Justine's quite reasonable request for advice here. I'm not understanding how her questions have resulted in the impression that she has no passion for food. Perhaps she doesn't / but with her questions that is irrelevant. I see some very reasonable responses to her questions and she is certainly not attacking the people who made those suggestions - just those who seem to be suggesting she go away. I suggest to people on a regular basis that they ask their burning questions on eG because of the helpful environment and huge knowledge base - I won't if I feel people will be attacked for asking questions. I always wonder the motivation for unprovoked attacks - but suspect the attacker is the one with an unresolved issue being played out in front of the rest of us.

Attendees: RobertM gfron1 (tentative) pastryani

Attendees: RobertM gfron1 (tentative)

Attendees: RobertM

Our annual eGullet Chocolate and Confectionary Workshop 2018 will be held again in Niagara on the Lake, Ontario, Canada the weekend of May 19th and 20th, 2018. We will attempt to organize a masters class of some sort on Friday the 18th for anyone interested. This year I plan to collect money ahead of time so that if anyone is unable to show up - no shows have come out of my pocket in the past and that won't be happening again! If you are unable to attend then you will be able to sell your spot to someone else. I have no idea as yet what the cost will be but it it unlikely to be too different from other years - although we will need to rent the room at the college for a 3rd day for the Master's class so we'll have to factor that in. Of course we welcome any thoughts around what people might want to learn. For those who have not attended previously - we get together and teach each other what we know. The Master's class will usually be taught by someone with advanced knowledge and an additional cost is associated with that because we pay them.

Funny was just looking at the same ad.

Heading to Belgium next week, I am a group leader for an Ecole Chocolat masters class. While I'm not exactly a participant, each student is asked to bring some product for the group to check out. Of course that means I feel the need to bring something! Last trip I took caramel frogs - this year it's 'The Gentlemen Retire to the Library' - port wine pate de fruit and tobacco ganache.

It's a spoon holder - but usually has a stainless bowl in the base.