Steve Klc

Sandra, yes, possibly. Possibly because it's not like the Teubner book is worth much. But almond flour is different from almonds you grind yourself--almond flour has had most of the oil pressed out of it, it is the cake, or what's left over after extracting the oil. It's lighter. Some people prefer it for certain things--others adapt their recipes to accomodate the extra fat of using their own homeground almonds. There's alot of wiggle room here. Me personally, I buy (and prefer) nut flours for baking and for things like dacquoise--it is more consistent and yields a more delicate end product--though I use ground nuts for sprinkling on finished desserts. You can have more control over the size and roast of the nuts if you do it yourself.

Your wish is my command.

Colleen and I have a wedding cake tonight--an inverted, stacked Frank Lloyd Wright Guggenheim-inspired structure (widest tier on top, narrowest on bottom)--but she was so intrigued by this thread that she's baking this Teubner "torte" as I type this. Her most major artistic parts of the wedding cake--some impeccably thin stained glass windows in sugar--are already done. She'll report back, too, Lesley, on this.

Choco--though others seem to like that Teubner book, I do not. Deal with good books, I'd recommend French books when it comes to pastry and baking--but as my wife chefette is fond of saying, only if you enjoy French-style cakes. Many Americans do not find French-style cakes enjoyable. (I do.) Good advice from all contributors to this thread--really good from everyone--Lesley shares a few tips pros don't even think about sometimes. Folding is one of those things that is problematic for home bakers--that sometimes doesn't get transferred from the printed page as well as watching someone fold properly--and this particular cake recipe (from a book I don't recommend) requires you to fold twice. To the comments about egg size, pre-heating, not over-beating your whites, etc. I'd add--check and double check your oven temp. Seems obvious but your dial may not indicate what your actual temp is--many a home baker has widely varying oven temps--you could be at 325 instead of 375 or 375 instead of 325--with recipes from coffee table books like the Teubner that aren't thoroughly vetted you could be working from "convection" oven temps and trying them in your conventional oven at home, the pitfalls are myriad. So Rachel's tip re: calibration is a good one. Baking cakes is difficult--or rather, it is not as easy as it seems. You're approaching it with a keen eye--a scientific eye--and that's good, I'm sure you will succeed. Just put the pretty Teubner book back on the shelf. I'm not a greased sides/springform kind of guy, either. Real pans, rings, smaller cakes in silicone treated papers, or non-stick flexible molds a la Flexipan/Gastroflex.

I wonder about Katy's style. (Apologies Katy.) And I'm not talking about what appears on the printed page. She gets points for coming clean, identifying herself and her project rather than merely lurking and trolling for ideas anonymously. She's a professional getting paid for her work. What I worry about is mining eGullet for leads on whom to call--using eGulleteer's knowledge and willingness to share specifics--which appears--appears--to have enabled her to ask more informed questions of the named or quoted sources. Is it coincidence that these "sources" just happen to have been contacted? Is it problematic if Katy "found" her chefs and industry sources here and did not, in turn, work eGullet somehow into the text of her article? To me, that's how you say thank you. Give credit where credit is due. Not that I contributed meaningfully to this post--but I for one might be wary of contributing to future queries on her part. I have enough trouble working on my own stuff I don't really have the time to help others write their own articles without attribution. The only salient question as far as I'm concerned is whether Katy was aware of the Trotter, Sel de terre and Jack Rent leads independent of eGullet? Or, am I being a bit puritanical here, did eGulleteers share because that's what we do and to borrow Shaw's words, did Katy "show the right kind of polite interest?" I wonder if anyone else will hesitate a bit before responding to any future post from Katy? As an example, Bill Daley, a talented writer for the Hartford Courant deserving of greater exposure, has posted queries to eGullet for information in the past--and gave credit where credit was due when he used information he gleaned here in the resulting article. Would that all writers do the same.

Was it apparent how or if this eGullet thread was used in the article? Was the site or anyone credited or was the author simply fishing for information--i.e. start a thread, read thread, write a better article and accept credit for it?

Come to the Courthouse section of Arlington--the place Tom S. just reviewed--Singh Thai, I believe--is fantastic and endearing. Not every dish is fantastic but on the whole, quite good. I've eaten there now 3 times--very enthusiastic staff, a few servers still "practicing" their English on you, it's a small place with a patio--the antithesis of "chain" Thai. Come early or make reservations--for now, at least, they seem to honor them. Slowly, but surely, Courthouse and Clarendon are getting a few worthwhile restaurants doing interesting and/or technically adept food at fair price points--this place, Minh's (Vietnamese) just up the street from it, and the Boulevard Wood Grill further up Wilson Boulevard. I've always been partial to the stand-bys Mexicali Blues and Hard Times--for what they do as well--so now you have my neighborhood list.

I've mentioned my favorite pastry and baking books on the site mixmaster in several threads. As a decent pastry chef and fairly experienced teacher myself, I have to say I'm not a fan of Regan Daley's book, I find it leaden and underwhelming. The thing about pastry and baking is you absolutely have to be grounded in French techniques--you already seem to sense this and intuitively want to embrace the classics. You have to come to understand them or acquire them in order to do much of significance in the area beside amateurish/simplistic tarts, pies, cookies, muffins, bread pudding, maple sugar pie, etc. a la Daley. If you aspire to more than this--Daley is not the answer nor your best first choice. Seek out instead the older Roux brothers book on pastry or our own Lesley C's book (written with her husband Bertrand) on pastry and baking techniques--both of which we have discussed at length on the site. Excellent step by step color photos, very clear instructions, very strong grounding in classical and traditional French techniques--and with tons less clutter. You will thank me later. Under no circumstances open the Gisslen book yet unless you are planning to become a professional, or go to a cooking school factory like the CIA or become a commercial high volume baker, embarking upon a very uncreative life, devoid of flavor and palate interest and excitement. There is a very exciting, very rich world out there in pastry and baking and Gisslen, while an eminently studious and nice guy, doesn't have much of a clue to it.

I sense alot of misunderstanding about French food when I read things like "People may want different thjings from high end French dining but I suspect words like "simplicity," "purity", "staightforward" and "quality of ingredients" are not what is at the forefront of most people's minds. As has been said, they want the food "worked" by the chef, they want complicated food combinations etc." The French food and French chefs I know assume all of this, they're a priori considerations, jumping off points, upon which to build or work or rework or layer. There's countless simple straightforward, low end Italian-like stuff like 'moules et frites' or 'steak et frites' that isn't so overtly "worked" by the chef and then there's application of technique, skill, handling, refinement and sophistication in the preparation and presentation of the food--but not necessarily so obvious or overt. As if application of technique and skill were a bad thing. But what I'd really like to say is that Steve P. is on to something with regard to the French celebrating their chefs and pastry chefs as "craftsmen" alongside their butchers and silversmiths and cabinet makers--historically that has to have made a societal impact and helped codify and spread standards. This is the concept behind the M.O.F.--the Meilleur de ouvrier de France--and I may have gotten the spelling wrong here--but there are MOF's in all creative and trade disciplines. It's the other MOF's in yout discipline that decide to award you and let you into their little club. Jacques Torres was the youngest pastry MOF ever at the time he gained admittance at like 28 I think. This is fine when creative disciplines are in a kind of conservative stasis--or plateauing--as happened with French pastry for the past decade or two. The problem is what happens when the MOF system--which is set up to protect and preserve what is best about the achievement within the ranks--do the best work, the way it has always been done, get recognized--is challenged by the likes of an Herme or Conticini who decidely operate outside the rules of the MOF--and gain fame and fortune in a decidely non-MOF independent, truly creative, media-savvy way? The problem is that the MOF system starts to lose its relevance in the eyes of the consumer.

Yes, I'm on their Board of Advisors actually, along with Jacques and Francois and Nick and Claudia...you're asking how did I get my name on that letterhead, huh? Anyway, it is a nice event, the demos/dessert tastings are the strongest component of the show, and my demo is on Saturday at 1PM I think--I asked Patrice Demers to join me, since he was coming in from Montreal the week before to do the IHMRS demo. We are each going to take the same three flavors/ingredients--chocolate, caramel and banana and show how two minds can create two completely different desserts with them--and then serve both to the audience. Should be fun. Colleen and I are also doing another chocolate dress for this year's fashion show on Friday. That is if she ever finishes my Dad's Christmas present--a non-chocolate smoking jacket.

Let's see--food professionals would include people thinking about opening their own restaurant, freelance food writers including those who write "online," personal chefs, people who run their own small catering businesses, recipe testers, wine buyers or salesmen, etc. There are lots of categories one might fall into if one tried. And Macrosan, yes, there is still hope for me yet. I will overcome.

A nice feature of this show is a "free" series of chef and pastry chef demonstrations in a large, beautiful, well-lit kitchen stage with very good audio and sound. All chefs pass out examples of their dishes, take questions from the audience and demonstrate techniques. I've been fortunate to coordinate these demos for the past few years, on behalf of the Societe Culinaire Philanthropique of New York, and I've tried to turn them into something very educational and interactive. This year, a few eGulleteers will be an official part of the proceedings: On Saturday morning, the Blue Hill guys--Dan and Mike--give a demonstration of their desserts in the big chef demo kitchen way in the back of the show on the ground floor. About 100 seats, they'll be serving little tastes of their desserts. Get there early for this one. They'll be joined by Stephane Motir, the very fine pastry chef of Tribeca Grill and Bakery. (I'll be emceeing and hosting all the demos by the way.) Later that same day, our own Wingding joins Suvir for another demo of desserts--I've asked them to emphasize both locally-sourced and exotic ingredients--and how to procure them--with little tastes of their desserts passed out. I'm not sure what Suvir is doing yet but wingding tells me she'll use quince somehow--which is great for me since I am quince-deficient. Then on Monday afternoon--a big two-hour plus "master class" on desserts emphasizing "Fall flavors, use of vegetables and modern trends in dessert" with Paul Connors--the brilliant former pastry chef of Radius in Boston, now relocated to Minneapolis--joined by another three very special, no less brilliant pastry chefs AND eGulleteers: my wife, Chefette, Michael Laiskonis of Tribute and Patrice Demers of Les Chevres in Montreal. Oh, the only people guaranteed desserts are those sitting down, and there are 100 seats. Should be alot of fun--join us for all the demos, ask tons of questions, come up and introduce yourself afterwards--we'd love to meet all of you. someone file a report, too, for the site, ok? For specific information, go here: http://www.ihmrs.com/ See you there.

I apologize for dropping in and then disappearing--I open a restaurant on Monday for mock-service and am still training staff. This discussion isn't beyond your range Michael. And Steve P, if Lizziee weighed in I wonder if she'd support you as much as you think. She has demonstrated to me a deep ability to appreciate the achievement of very diverse chefs and the restaurant experiences they create--and not get caught in a bind of subjectivity, rational or otherwise. And Michael, you've done a great job bringing this back to something I wrote a few pages ago concerning the cynical, jaded diner needing to be moved--that "needing to be challenged" is hard for me to take sometimes, as both diner and chef. Recognize the differences, celebrate the differences and revel in the excellence of supreme achievement within any genre or style of restauration. Though I would say you and I (and Patrice in Montreal) as pastry chefs do desserts that lean toward the modern and "challenging," that we all revere Ferran Adria and hold him in high esteem, I'm not sure any of us as chefs feel "challenging" is inherently or necessarily better. And we're modernists in our own work! As a diner, I definitely go both ways in my appreciation. Food isn't necessarily boring if it is not challenging; modern cooking isn't better because it is perceived as daring, subvertive or juxtaposes flavor combinations or textures. I wondered then if diners feel more informed when they appear to be challenged? This went largely unanswered. But it shows up on lots of eGullet threads--and I speculated whether it was the single biggest divide between all of us eGulleteers at the high end. It really isn't about who has eaten at the most three-stars in France--but I see this trap door swinging both ways and infecting all of our discussions to a degree--there is a dining segment prone to swing toward the perceived inventiveness/challenging aspect of certain chefs--and latch on to that--and a segment recoiling from modernity, devaluing it, and in turn latch onto that. The question I'd ask Steve P is--if I'm just a professional giving the trade view in your eyes--how is it that I can appreciate and celebrate the achievement of Ducasse and Adria as unparalleled? Is that inherently contradictory? Or is that the trade view as well? Shaw has done yeoman's work defending this point so far--the hat that I never wear is off to him. It is in this trap door that I believe Shaw feels Steve P. may now be stuck. No PM's are supporting me because I haven't had time to check them. Apologies to all.

I fear your understanding of chefs and how chefs approach eating--at all price points--is as accurate and nuanced as your appreciation of Ducasse, Steve. And you are most certainly correct when you state "There is a reason that the public has a different view of things then professionals have." Too often the public, which includes some very experienced diners, get caught up with things like signature dishes, spoon fed to them by publicists and the food media machine. If over-reliance on signature dishes is not the trade view, I don't know what is.

I like Ducasse's food, alot. No problem admiting it. His is the total, complete restauration experience. I'm solidly with Shaw on this, sorry Steve P. You may or may not trust my opinion, but I've written on eGullet before that within the chef community--the chefs who are aware of everyone cooking, their books, their restaurants and their influence, it is Ducasse and Adria, one and two, head and shoulders above the rest in terms of significance, achievement and setting standards. For different reasons. And Steve P--name me one other three star level restaurant that does as supreme a job as Ducasse's pastry chefs with dessert service, chocolates, petits fours, the dessert trolley, lollipops, caramels, etc. I'm not sure what middle of the road moves you elsewhere, but the Ducasse end of the meal experience is transcendent--as is what comes before. This cynical, jaded diner needing to be moved--needing to be challenged is hard to take sometimes. Like challenging is inherently or necessarily better. I wonder if diners feel more informed when they appear to be challenged. I do think it says more about the diner than it does the kitchen's efforts or the chef's skill. It shows up on lots of eGullet threads--and may be the single biggest misunderstanding on our site--the single biggest divide between us at the high end. (This coming from someone who has been touched by Adria and considers Ferran the greatest chef of the 20th and 21st century. But as I keep telling everyone, Adria isn't considered great and won't become the most influential chef ever just because he challenges you.) Recently when my wife ate at Cafe 15 in the DC Sofitel, this came up, naturally, and I believe she was the only one not worried about the "appearance" of not being challenged by the Westermann-supervised cuisine there. Recognize supreme achievement for what it is. Appreciate the supreme effort, energy and desire to fulfill your every service need effortlessly. Whatever it is, do it the best it can be done. You, cabrales and others are not moved by Ducasse and are immune to the wordwide perception that he is near alone on the culinary mountaintop--joined only by Ferran. I'm not trying to put words in Shaw's mouth, but I believe he and I understand. You know you are on slightly firmer ground when you divorce cuisine from the total, complete experience, the total package of significance. Subjective preference is like that. But that's like stacking the deck. I agree with Shaw's money quote: "And I find it astounding that you dismiss the opinion of the professional chef community in this matter. That kind of willful ignorance is a prime example of letting your conclusions follow your prejudices rather than the facts. I happen to think Passard's food is weak, but I understand where he fits into the perceived hierarchy of chefs, who has studied with him, who has imitated him. Ducasse's fame by every imaginable measure exceeds Passard's by an order of magnitude. If you can't see that, it's just wishful thinking on your part." I think we still have more to discover about Passard over here and when we do, he may or may not ascend to join Ducasse and Adria on the mountaintop. I lean against but if impaneled I'd say the jury would stay out awhile.

Ajay--vidal, riesling and cabernet franc, for Inniskillin icewines, that is.

Trust me, Wilfrid can do camp.

Perhaps for the better comparison of this "guide" rather than the Best 50 ranking, you have to go back to October 2000, Gourmet ran a "America's Best Restaurants" guide--by city. It was the one with Rocco on the cover cradling the huge fish. Most cities had a "Top 5"-- Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Las Vegas, Miami, Montreal, New Orleans, Seattle, Toronto, DC--and then they mentioned a few other categories--Specialties-- for also-ran restaurants--really whatever catch-phrase fit the bill of whichever restaurant they felt like mentioning--fun, sleeper, casual, etc. NYC, SF, LA and "Texas" were accorded a "Top 10" overall followed by Specialties. The minor leaguers, who didn't rate a Top 5 were: Cleveland, Detroit, Honolulu, Minneapolis, Philly, Phoenix, Portland (Oregon--though not specified) St. Louis, Salt Lake City, Sante Fe. That year, Wilfrid, NYC's top 10 were in order: Jean-Georges, Lespinasse, Daniel, Le Bernardin, Babbo, Nobu, Gramercy Tavern, Bouley Bakery, Union Pacific, Honmura An. French Laundry was 3rd under SF Bay area.

"Freezing the beans may stop this decomposition but freezing also destroys the delicate oils and aromatics." And this is the crux of one very specific issue, Owen. I wish I were aware of other sources who could independently and scientifically verify this claim--admitted experts but who are not intimately involved in selling roasted coffee and selling roasting equipment. Say a blind tasting by panelists, not solely vested in the business of selling, to determine whether the freezing process is so readily apparent to them. As I wonder--and as I suspect you believe, too--the average, serious experienced coffee palate cannot taste--cannot quantify--this presumed loss of oils and aromatics from careful freezing. Is it too skeptical to suspect that since freezing has been scientifically proven to stop one kind of bean deterioration--then the freezing process itself has to be questioned in order to drive the fresh roasting business and home roasting business plans?

Do you mean it's tough reading magazines, press releases and clippings all year and saving the best ones for yet another catch-all compilation or list?

Wilfrid doesn't have the time, understandably, but is someone else with the magazine willing to parse the lists and post them here? Even if it were a few cities at a time or regionally--many eGulleteers would be grateful for your effort.

Robert--I found your last post very compelling. Thank you. In large part I agree completely with the sweep of your assessment. Not to beat the dead horse of Lauder too much, but if he just spoke to the overall decline and incongruence of service issues he sensed within France I would not have had any problem with his FT article. Unfortunately, he reached way beyond that and as I've written I'm just not convinced he has any handle on the big picture. Steve P--may I ask why Passard wouldn't open in NYC a la the Ducasse model instead? Don't you think if and when a Passard (or Ferran Adria) were to open their restaurant in NYC offerring uncompromising modern creative cooking it would essentially be one service per evening? I do. The high end of NYC always defies the consumer market. And don't you think it might not necessarily be progress valued at this high end but the premium itself?

I recently got my hands on a not-world-class but very nice Greek Samos muscat dessert wine from Kourtaki, distributed by Dionysos, I believe, and imported by Nestor in NY. Very inexpensive as well--like 8 bucks retail. It would have been fantastic at twice the price and I'm using the leftovers of it with vanilla in a gelee. The bottle itself was just ok. In the August 14th Washington Post Food section, their wine guys rated "food friendly Greek white wines" and I remember alot of positive things said. Articles older than 14 days are in the paid archive.

Only the first six have made it to video, and none to DVD yet. I Googled and found a "Chef!" fan site: http://siegler.net/chef/

And now for something completely different--it may have bombed in Britain but I loved this show, found it quite funny and diverting in small doses. Lenny Henry miscast? I found him perfectly cartoonish, larger than life and pompously expressive. The half hour form suited all this as well. However many episodes there are, maybe three season's worth, they continue to enjoy a long life on American PBS stations. I think I liked the first 6 episodes, the 1993 season, the best overall and the unpasteurized cheese/Albert Roux/cheese police episode as single best. The second season was very strong, the third uneven. Other faves--Gareth and Everton go to cook in Lyon with English ingredients and wine; Everton creates his own signature dish and pisses Gareth off; Everton has to help Gareth cook Caribbean for Gareth's visiting Dad. I haven't watched it in a while, so I've forgotten some of the names, but the ensemble was also interesting--again, on a sitcom-scale: I adored Janice, his wife, and Everton, who tried out cooking Caribbean and calling him 'Stock, the talented old chef reduced to an assistant because he's a drunk--played by Ian McNeice (aka Baron Karkonnen in the Dune mini-series on the Sci-Fi channel and prone to drink as well in the "Englishman Who Went up a Hill but Came Down a Mountain" movie), the young but talented and tough female suprisingly promoted to sous chef when Gareth had trouble sacking someone on the staff--Lucinda maybe? Alphonse the French sommelier was classic stereotype. Maybe it's a chef thing why I appreciate this show so much.