gfron1

That took some brain power and an extra cup of coffee. Strip of thin tape down the center. Spray all black, although more heavily on the side that you want to remain. Wipe the side you want to be yellow. Remove the thin strip which will no reveal an untouched strip plus some seepage. Spray yellow. That makes sense. Has anyone done this? Is that line pretty consistent? Do you have to do the wipe a certain way - maybe swiping toward the tape, along the tape or away from the tape?

Y'all are liking the pic, but ideas on technique? I've seen Melissa do ultra thin lines as well. Sure, you could scrape, but keeping it perfectly parallel to the masked line would be hard. Seems like a tool or a stencil.

His reviews include facility and service, and we're a counter service cafe in a shared facility of which we have no control. It bodes well for Bulrush when we have full control.

Pretty much anything coming out of this kitchen blows me away. That line is so incredibly thin! And the tips in that mold are more than I'd want to deal with.

A review of Squatters Cafe from a local reviewer who also sits on the JBF Awards Committee.

I'm standing by my last answer. It is an optical illusion - simple dome mold with a wet choco ring pressed on after everything is said and done. If you do the zoom in at 10x and look at the back bonbon you'll see the major flaws. He put his best foot forward on this one and was liberal with photoshop.

I lost sleep over this last night. While I could perfect the size of the pastry tip and the amount of chocolate on the tip when its pressed into the mold, the matte finish that @pastrygirl mentioned above is still bothering me. So let's say that you dropped a chocolate ring into the mold. And, let's assume that you could form a ring, release it from whatever surface you formed it on, and you could move it into the mold without breaking it. Yes, that would get you the matte finish. But, that would cause problems when you go to spray because there would be a slight ridge that the spray would have to work around. I then zoomed in on my screen doing a 5x enlargement and you can then clearly see flaws in his ring. My new conclusion - Make chocolate as normal, remove it from the mold, then take a large pastry tip or other ring, dip it in chocolate and press it onto the finished bonbon. That solves all of the problems and would give you a matte ring with no void or shadow from the spray, and would be doable (v. overly fragile). I consider this mystery solved.

Tried out a couple of these recent techniques. Just quick goes while my cb was warmed up. I dipped a pastry tip in tempered chocolate for the rings. I'm more confident than before that with the right tip I could replicate exactly. Then here's the multiple finger swirls. Less success. Also tried out the thin painters tape. Good but not good enough for me to use. I saw a video where the chef had a clear acetate looking tape. Not sure what that was.

I'm constantly on the lookout for Asian strainer v.2.0 That one was my fennel pollen honey ganache

Here's my theory. Large hole pastry tip dipped in tempered chocolate, pressed into bottom of dome mold leaving ring. Then splatter and spray.

That would be at least 8 swipes from what I see. times 30 cavities x number of trays for an operation as large as them....hmmm...maybe. The distinct lines also make me question whether that's how its done. I can totally see that working, but that would make more sense in a competition where you have a smaller volume that Valentines production.

Saw this one today. While I can see a slow way to do this I'm hoping someone can describe the faster time efficient method.

I thought I knew what I wanted to do but now I'm not sure. I currently have a KitchenAid Pro 6qt, a Hobart 20qt and an Electrolux(Anskarum) 7.5qt My KA has slipped its gears so many times I can't even count anymore, and I've dropped $100+ on repairs each time (after the warranty period). And while I could take Paul's advice of fixing it myself, I've found that is not my gift in life. Also, its a bit small for my current needs. My Electrolux - love the power; no such thing as gear slip; the mechanism in the center of the mixing bowl is often problematic although it whips the crap out of things. Also, a bit small for me. My Hobart is just too big for the majority of my projects. I use it on some larger volume stiff doughs but I'd say it gets used 1 out of 20 recipes. So, my need is around the 12 qt level; won't slip gears. Don't care about attachments because I have them for my other machines (grinder, pasta, juice, etc). I'll use it mostly for stiff doughs - cookies and breads. I don't want to re-wire so a standard outlet is important.

This answered my question of whether they sprayed a white or black coating after the colored brush strokes - no, they just pour the shell and still kept those colors.

I was an early adopter and finally sold it for that very reason. I found it much more useful for velvet effect-ing my entremets than my chocolates. Very simple - brushed color, 1/6 turn, brushed color, 1/6 turn...on and on using just the right colors to create the iridescence. I use both. I know its bad, but depends on my control for the day.

That was a great video - thanks for posting. A few notes that I took. First, rapping the tray with a wooden rolling pin. Brilliant since I have so many marrings from rapping my drywall spat. Second, Piping the backing on. Not sure if I have the patience, but very smart and I'm sure this is more common than I know. The technique at 11:45 is so simple yet so stunning. I will totally rip that off! Lastly, the snipped ballpoint pen - I'm going to give that a try on my crescendo on my next round. I do hate seeing all the cocoa butter waste, but I'm sure these were all larger operations.

Plenty of local hydro growers, and none has dispelled my dislike of tomatoes in January, but maybe I just haven't had the right one yet.

HERE's a podcast that was just released with me talking about Bulrush, Squatters Cafe, my chef crushes and more. Summary: I hate winter tomatoes; meth clinics drove me to become a chef; Jordan Kahn in the most creative chef in the country; gumball "nocino" is probably toxic but I'm drinking it anyway.

Sure there is. You should see how lousy I am at ironing.

Not to be an EZ Temper commercial, but it has upped my game a bit. This is my Valentine's collection. Since EZ I haven't had a single chocolate stick to the mold and every one is super shiny. More importantly for me since I do smaller production (300-1000 per batch/month) is that I haven't been turning on my large tempering machine. I use my melter and EZ, and the melter has been good at holding my chocolate overnight for use in multiple batches. Generally I deplete the bulk of my tempered chocolate and then refill and start again in the same pan, never letting it fully cool. On my refills I just do the 1% silk add and continue as normal. Anyway...from top to bottom (left row): 12-year balsamic, cinnamon, mango habanero, fennel pollen/honey, lemon

One of the very interesting things I've learned over the years running a foraged foods restaurant is the relationship between diners and their allergies. Not getting into the fake allergies used for likes and dislikes, nor the chefs who don't care enough to control allergens, but I'm thinking more about how my local, organic, milled to order wheat doesn't seem to give any issues to gluten sensitive diners (not talking about celiacs), and I can serve acorns all day long to folks with nut allergies (a doctor once explained the scientific reason but I forget). I seem to be able to serve 50 or so foraged ingredients that people don't know if they have allergies to, and never have problems...not once in a decade. So, is this our industrial food system? That's where I'd put my money. Or, is this something in the diner's mind? I've had many hours of interesting conversations with educated folks about this.

We won't be equipped for that level of allergies. Because we are 100% locally sourced (minus a handful of spices) and 100% made in house from scratch, allergies are relatively easy to accommodate, but anyone who can't be in the same air as other diners is not something I'm prepared for. I know of many other great restaurants that I'll happily recommend to them.

Another kind article. And we signed our LOI on the Bulrush space last Friday. Hopefully this one will come through.

Last week my daytime concept (Squatters) was named one of the best new restaurants of 2017 in St Louis. Not too shabby since we've only been open two months. HERE And I've been doing a lot more thinking about my Bulrush STL design because of the spot that we're hoping to get. It has a rooftop space which we'll use to garden, and the view is so stunning, and the structure so interesting I want to up the ante on wow factor. Curious what restaurants you know of that the facility really wowed you (links appreciated). And, what was it about the space that connected with you. Mine has to be Vespertine which was in a recent Atlantic video HERE.

Getting ready for NYE dinner.