gfron1

Most important thing to know is that these are very casual and friendly, and there is a wide, wide range of skills levels and areas of expertise or interest. Every year we have people who are more skilled at eating chocolates and confections than making them. Beyond that the formal program is Saturday and Sunday where we have a mix of peer-led instruction and more formal workshops. You can go to any or none. We also hold a Master Class on Friday for more experienced folks. Depending on what the topic is and where it is held, that will determine how many people and what skill level are required. We hold tours on Thursday for folks wanting to come in early, and/or we hold them on Friday for people not in the Master Class. We also do social gatherings Friday night and Saturday nights including a 'bring your creations' sharing event. Think of this as adult show-and-tell with souped up instruction. Long-timers, did I miss anything crucial?

The pastry room. There is an equal sized savory room as well.

its always good to keep this topic up to date...so...I'm heading to Vegas next week with not a penny to my name (not quite true but I need to keep this extremely cheap). Best cheap eats? Eater.com, which is not known as the best source of information, suggested Phat Franks and Zero Degrees. I need to look back at my notes for my favorite food truck. But, I eat everything and will have a car and time. Thanks.

Thank you - that wasn't on my radar.

I liked when we had a bit of formal instruction or two for people to attend, and then the usual group-led teaching. If there's no energy around a specific idea or two then there's no point bringing in a ringer. But if people want something specific, its easy enough to find willing instructors.

It seems the weekend after Mother's Day has become our standard - May 17-19, 2019.

We have a venue! St. Louis Community College - Forest Park has agreed to host our 2019 event. I visited today and they have plenty of space for us, lots of equipment including a brand new Selmi and enrober. Casey Shiller is the program coordinator and is a Brand Ambassador for AUI/Felchin. He's easily googleable if you want to learn more about him. He's on the USA's culinary olympic team. His classes end the Friday that we arrive so we'll have the place to ourselves, but his students are also willing to do a continental breakfast and lunch for us if we want. I didn't ask him about dinner like we've done sometimes but I'm sure they would if we asked. A short 5 minute walk is a Hampton with rates averaging $100 per night (haven't talked about discounts with them yet). And the location could not be better! This borders Forest Park which has all of St. Louis' major attractions (almost all are free) - the Zoo, the Art Museum, the Muny - and more trails than you could ever want to Lime Scooter on. Its also 2 minutes to the Central West End entertainment district and 5 minutes to The Loop (home of Chuck Berry and Blueberry Hill). I would really like to get more thoughts on possible workshops. There are so many top chocolatiers in the area that we can do some fun stuff. I also would love to have someone step up and coordinate the sponsor requests. It looks like my new restaurant is opening before the end of the year so I just won't have time to do that aspect of the weekend. Thoughts?

depends on effect but consider 10-15%

There are a number of details that I won't be able to announce here until I can announce them through the local media. "Many decisions are yet to be determined."

Going by @pastrygirl's list above (which was shared via link with attribution but no modification nor desire to profit by the sharing) I score vary highly on the - give it to him list. Of course I couldn't answer the questions about my friend's source. Because one person here thinks I'm Satan incarnate by my friendly pestering, I haven't asked since. Instead I made Diana Kennedy's recipe which I'll cut into tomorrow and post photos abundantly on my social media. After reading everyone's thoughts there really is only one factor that I would take seriously - does the recipe provide financial recompense for the originator and is it his/her recipe or did they swipe it from someone else? if not, I would suggest that one might be taking life way too seriously and could probably benefit by putting their tightwad energy elsewhere and focusing on being more giving and generous. But what else would this Satan incarnate recipe beggar possibly have to say about the matter!

I've got a few minutes to share a bit more about what's been happening since my last round of updates. I stopped posting updates around the time my emotional energy was waning from being shown "a sure thing" only to have it collapse out from under me. We must have had a dozen sure things, many of which went very far through the process, only to have the landlord pull out. At the time the reasons were all over the place - tax credits ran out, larger development project is on hold, keystone tenant pulled out. And during that time we saw some amazing buildings...one I hope I can get in the future. But in hindsight I'm confident the issue with each of them was that we were asking the landlord to make major structural changes to their building, and to front the money to do so. If I had been willing to keep the kitchen in the back of the space there would have been no issues. But this restaurant needs to be the way I intend it for the concept to work. Essentially, so much of what I am selling is my ability to share my enthusiasm with the guests, and if I'm stuck in the back cooking I can't do that, and if I'm on the floor I don't have confidence that I can control quality at the level I need it controlled. Quite frankly the whole process was very emotionally draining. What shook things loose was Squatters Cafe. Being open and visible, beyond my occasional popups, allowed customers to interact with me and my food. That lead to one particular regular who manages finances for one of the city's big developers and philanthropists. His bosses dined in the cafe a few times and loved it apparently - I regularly have guests come in saying that They sent them to me. And so the manager approached me about moving into one of their spaces. I outlined my vision, the financial need and a couple of months later I have a signed lease. As I mentioned, I still need to secure the SBA loan, but we never missed a payment on our last SBA loan. The only real concern is collateral. We are 11 years into a 15 year SBA loan for our building back in New Mexico. The building would need to be appraised to determine its value and the amount of collateral that the bank would consider. If it comes in high enough...no worries. If it comes in low...well, we don't have much else although I believe they'll consider the equipment we would purchase as part of the collateral. I'll be wrapping up my SBA loan application this week to get it into my bank, and I've started working with SBDC, who will also submit the application to some of their banks as part of their service. Meanwhile a lot of things are waiting at the starting line with me - architect, ceramic artist, potential staff, etc....hoping to move this faster than the past two years.

There are a lot of chocolatiers out there. Walk in. Introduce yourself and offer to wash dishes if they'll let you look over their shoulder. Most good ones will happily take you up on your offer even if you are potentially competition. And if the first one says no, ask the second. Someone will happily mentor you.

I was debating Denmark or Minnesota 😁

@Madsandersen I'm not sure if you've said where you're located, but I would highly encourage you to invest in a workshop if one is available, especially an in-person (versus on-line) workshop. This forum is great for sharing information, but it's no substitute for being in a room with an experienced pastry chef who can walk you through numerous designs, and talk about equipment needs and such. I hope you've also explored the other topics here at eGullet like the troubleshooting topic, the early learning topic, and numerous topics on spray guns, cocoa butter, choosing chocolates, etc. A good starting point is the Index, although dated, is still very useful. And lastly, as a shameless plug, if you're in the United States or interested in traveling, each May many of us get together for a weekend chocolate and confections workshop. Our planning topic is HERE.

You heard it here first...signed a lease yesterday. Surpassed my investor fundraising goals by 20% two hours later. All that's left is the SBA loan. More details when I catch my breath. I never did post our third and final local review HERE.

I looked again and because you can see that its white chocolate with yellow coloring only on the surface I'm more confident that they made a custom mold.

Pull your needle back to create greater air flow.

Sorry, challenges with the English language. By hit, I mean spray the mold a second time or maybe even a third. I generally do straight down, then angled for the four sides. That gives a consistent coating of cocoa butter.

It just looks like you need to give it a second coat and also hit the mold from all directions. It is possible that you need a more saturated color, but if it is a purchased white (v. mixed yourself) then I assume the saturation is good for back coating.

What if...they fill the cap and as it firms up but is still wet, set it on the mold which would make it adhere and then easier to remove the cap from the chocolate.

If I"m understanding your question correctly, you would add more colorant to the cocoa butter if you want a more solid color. If you are not mixing your own colors, you could also spray the color first, then spray white behind it.

I wonder if they made a mold of the bottle cap or just used a bottle cap

I've definitely settled into a very solid ritual. 1. Room to 18/19º 2. Mounted heat gun next to my spray box on low 3. Spray the hot air through my gravity feed cup onto the inside of my write (think testing baby milk bottle), and as soon as I feel it on my wrist I hit the nozzle briefly (1 second) 4. Loosen then adjust the needle front and back a few times just to make sure everything is clear, then settle it pretty far back and lock it back in 5. One more quick hit of warm air through the cup onto my write. 6. Load it up and spray. And yes, I never use the tip since I'm not doing any precision work. (lines, etc)

Honestly though, you go through so little. You know I'm mixing my own now which really cuts back on costs, but also I've realized that if I cap my airgun gravity feed bowl I used about a third of what I was using with no cap. I'm sure it has to do with airflow.

A few of my latest. Blueberry with sheep's yogurt and granola crunch; Cinnamon, honey & chartreuse; and House roasted Rwandan espresso, passion fruit ganache, passion fruit caramel. My run at the dendritic effect. Need to keep playing with it but still cool. I'm already for a winter 'frost on windshield' chocolate.