Lisa Shock

Some challenges keep coming back, and the mis en place challenge will probably keep appearing in one form or another in upcoming seasons -it's cheap, and easy to stage. If I knew I was going to be on the show, I'd have been practicing basic skills as much as possible. Also, practice would improve overall speed which is super-important as well.

Don't forget to print enough business cards and a lot of brochures so that you capture as many holiday orders as you can. -Even if people don't buy that day, they might order two weeks later.

Yes, I can taste the red color in red velvet cake. When I first made one in the 1970s, it was pretty weird to be putting a whole bottle of color into batter for just one two layer cake. I am not fond of the cake. I'd rather have a straight up decent chocolate cake. Also, the base scent in the 'Red' perfume by Giorgio of Beverly Hills is pretty much the same stuff. I laughed when I first smelled a sample, in 1989.

I can taste some colorings, red in particular. It depends on the type and how much coloring is used. I was surprised to try the Costco berry smoothy from the snack bar for the first time (1990s) and discover that the main flavor was 'red.'

I recall reading Escoffier on the importance of soft light to flatter women's appearances. He seemed to feel that it was a critical feature that really affected where women chose to dine, or places they actively avoided. And, since they were often the decision maker on where to eat out, pleasing them was important.

Have you tried reducing the bourbon before adding it?

Your best bet is to only work with organic, unbleached flour for the first two weeks. That will have yeast in it. Once it gets going, commercial flour will work just fine.

I liked to try different things, and our cakes were always from a bakery. I can remember getting marble cake one year, spice cake another year, and orange cake with fudge icing once. We moved a lot, and some places had far better bakeries than others.

ACF certification can be useful and is recognized throughout the industry, although many people do well without any certification. Clients will expect some level of health department food handler card, I am beginning to see more and more ads asking for ServSafe certification or the management level FH cards. Some clients will also want to see some type of nutrition education. Some clients accept the classes used for ACF certification or culinary school degrees, others look for people with specialized nutrition degrees. (I live in Phoenix where a lot of personal chefs cooks for senior citizens on really specific diets, like diabetic plus no vitamin K.)

That's probably nutritional yeast, not active yeast.

Fresh, raw, cranberry and orange relish.

Some of mine are too broad in nature, like 'Saucepans an the Single Girl,' 'Son of the Martini,' or the ever-popular 'Pyromaniacs Cookbook.' I guess I could put 'Scheherazade Cooks!' in my Middle East shelf, but it really captures a time in cookbook writing history for me, so, onto the cheesy shelf it goes, next to 'Fashions in Foods in Beverly Hills' (1931.)

Eventually, a vacuum sealer might be something to look into purchasing. The bags are tougher than storage bags, and food really does freeze better with one. Just avoid the super-cheap ones, their motors are too small. (I recommend the ones at about $150 or more.) One trick I've done for years is I freeze liquids and generally wet things like stew, chili, indian foods, etc. in a square shaped container overnight and the next day pop out the frozen brick of food and vacuum seal it. These bricks stack well in the freezer, and I only need to own a couple of containers -containers aren't languishing in the freezer indefinitely. -I also do this with rice so as to make sure I do not crush it in the vacuum sealer. BTW, I freeze rice in several sized portions: 2 servings, 1 serving, and about a ¼ cup. The small portion is to use as an add-in for soup, so I can have tomato soup (frozen plain) with rice, for example. Don't be afraid to give him meals that involve a couple of frozen components. I don't have a microwave, so, I reheat in a saucepan on the stove and then plate the food. I have also used the slow cooker to reheat things. Sometimes, I just make a soup or stew base (like onion gravy, I am a vegetarian) and freeze that. Later, I put the sauce in the slow cooker and add fresh veggies. I am wondering if there aren't occasions where you could do this, too. (you could have a base with meat) Maybe with fresh veggies or frozen mixed veggies.

Obviously, cantaloupe and prosciutto are a classic duo and would be good as well. Mango should work, though, think about mango salsa -you'd put that on some roast pork with crumbly mexican cheese, right? This would be similar.

You could make a quick bread, kale bread, similar to zucchini bread. Here's a ZB recipe. I would cut the kale into chiffonade strips and substitute that for the zucchini. Obviously just substitute one baking mix brand for another. Substitute raw sugar or brown sugar for the white sugar (it's a bit tastier.) Eliminate the vanilla, and instead of cinnamon and nutmeg, use pumpkin pie spice.* Add 1 tsp of lemon zest and 1 tbsp lemon juice. And, add 1 crushed candy. Maybe eliminate the nuts, as much as I like them, you may face allergy issues, plus it shortens the recipe. You can bake this batter in large or small loaf pans, make as a muffin, or drop into hot oil and deep fry for doughnuts. Normally, I don't use pre-mixed spices like the PPS. However, you'll probably do better in a competition with a shorter ingredient list. Also, apparently PPS is in season right now.

Green Crepes & Ham? Ok, think pesto, which in some regions has chopped mint leaf in it. So, get some parsley, garlic, and some walnuts and chop finely, add the lemon juice, parmesan and a little of the crushed candy. Figure out how to make crepes with the mix, as a bonus you can steam some kale, puree it and add to the crepe batter along with some lemon zest. Cook some kale (with salt & pepper), drain well. Heat some ham slices, cut into strips. Fill crepes with kale, ham and pesto, serve warm. --- I was looking at the Wikipedia entry for mint sauce, there may be ideas there. I was also contemplating a sauerbraten, the lemons and mints for the marinade, but, I suspect you'll lose due to the 3 days marination.

Mangoes have a lot of peach-like qualities for me. They also will ripen at home if purchased green.

I just saw today's Ideas In Food and thought you might want to have a go at Moule-Sel.

I believe that you could use it as a base for pesto rosso. Just add some fresh chopped tomato, chopped nuts, a little chopped garlic and maybe some Parmesean.

I have pastry books in one bookcase, a shelf of general pastry books like the textbooks on a variety of topics, then on the other shelves they are grouped by topic: bread, ice cream, cake decorating, sugar showpieces, etc. The other three bookcases have some topical sections, like management/logistics, catering, food history, cheesy old cookbooks, celebrity chef authored, kids, modernist, vegetarian, cocktails/wine -and then the rest are by region or country. I have a shelf of general cookbooks as well: 3 editions of the Joy, a Fannie Farmer from 1906, Ranhofer with a deco binding, Amy Vanderbilt w/illus by Warhol, an 1837 pharmacy receipt book, a couple Escoffier versions, etc.

Maybe someone is serving platypus eggs?

Here's a list of 6 instances of mass solanine poisoning 1899 - 1983, including: "In North Korea during the war years of 1952-1953, entire communities were forced to eat rotting potatoes. In one area alone, 382 people were affected, of whom 52 were hospitalized and 22 died. The most severe cases died of heart failure within 24 hours of potato consumption. Some of the less severe symptoms included irregular pulses, enlargement of the heart, and blueing lips and ears. Those who displayed these ailments died within 5 or 10 days." IMO, avoiding greening potatoes matters.

Things do get reported, but, people either forget quickly or did not read the news carefully. I recall an entire school in Britain being hospitalized in 1979 after being served badly held potatoes for lunch (WaPo article, maybe?), and an in-depth article in Scientific American in the mid-1980s. The Sci-Am article went into detail about how not only were greened peels dangerous, but listed how much solanine was drawn into the interior of a potato when cooked dry (like baked) vs when cooked wet (boiled) and a goodly amount of solanine leaches out into the water and away from the center of the potato. I changed how I stored and prepared potatoes based on the article, and started to check potatoes at the store prior to purchase for green areas. I was surprised that the general news outlets did not pick up the story, when so many other research papers were picked up by the news. A scientist friend of mine pointed out that the food industry had just gone crazy making 'potato skin' products (crisps, frozen, stuffed, etc.) and that news that the skins could be poisonous sometimes would just kill off whole product lines, so, outlets like CNN were probably being paid to not air this news. About a decade ago a paper came out showing that consuming potatoes and, to a lesser extent tomatoes and eggplant as long as three days prior to surgery interfered with the human body's ability to flush out surgical anesthesia, sometimes with patients still under the influence of the meds hours or days longer than expected. -Thus possibly being the reason why anesthesiology is such a difficult practice, with some patients winding up very overmedicated and some undermedicated. It was on the science newsfeeds, but, regular news never picked it up. I don't know how or why some news stories have traction and others do not. (of course, this past week there was exciting news about granny smith apples, and no one has picked that up either)

I know that cooked potatoes once cooled do have a changed type of starch that has different properties than hot potatoes. Those cooled potatoes taking on flavors while refrigerated could just be taking on odors from the fridge, or you could be tasting bacterial action and decay. Is your fridge at proper temperature? That said, most moist low acid foods should be disposed of after 5 days, so you could just be tasting its patch to the garbage heap. I personally am not fond of cooled potatoes and tend to make warm potato salad, or at least make potato salad promtly, I don't make the potatoes a day ahead or anything like that, I don't like the texture. Gfron1, I am thinking that maybe you are getting some sort or reaction with minerals in your water. Do you use filtered water? If yes, try putting a teaspoon of vinegar in the water, it will help keep the potatoes firm on the outside and will counteract some hard water minerals and minerals in the potatoes. (yes, potatoes have a lot of minerals, like iron, remember they turn brown when cut) The only other thing I can think of (for gfron1) is that potatoes have a lot of vitamin C in them, but it gets destroyed when heat is applied for a long time. I don't know what it gets broken down into and what those by products taste like.

Some foods do have established recipes, you just need to start looking around a bit more -like for baked apples, which will give you the apple goodness without a crust.