gfron1

Another angle...a typical conversation heard in almost every household every day: Partner #1: Honey, what do you want for dinner tonight? Partner #2: Hmm...I don't know. What do you want? Partner #3: I guess we'll have meatloaf again. I know in my household we hate answering that question. You go to a restaurant because, for whatever reason, it sounds interesting to you. If its in your realm of possibilities you're either going to make it yourself or go where you know that you can get it. I'm craving injera tonight..."Nah, they won't have that." I won't bother.

I want to ask the bigger question. Is this change for an improvement or change for change's sake. Maybe go about this from the other side to test the merit of the project. What is broken that isn't working for you in the current food service system? This keeps feeling like its dancing between personal chef and dinner club. The problem is (as I interpret your comments) that you can't always get the meal that you want (type and quality) at the price you want (a personal chef is expensive). Throwing this idea to see if it sticks: When I opened my first business I was told to pick two of these three, but I couldn't achieve all three: Price, Product and Service. We opted for Product and Service figuring that was more appreciated than price to our target market. I think you're asking for all three - My choice of food, at my choice of quality and my choice of price (affordable). That goes against this basic business premise. Again, just throwing it to see if it sticks...because damnit, eGullet deserves an A

Are you suggesting that chefs might do things that are illegal or not to code?! Surely not

I would be surprised if this were true. A quick google showed me some things, but many aren't established enough to even hit google. Watch your weekly alt paper and adds will appear from time to time.

I guess its not too far off from visiting the dorm cafeteria food court of a larger university. I would think quality would suffer from being something for everyone, but I know many, many people don't really care about that. But, they would care at the price point you're suggesting.

I had a mistaken batch of ganache once that just wouldn't set up. So, I pulled out my airbrush and airbrushed the crap out of the open bottoms. That gave me enough firmness to then back off the bonbon.

I"m officially out. Looks like my sale is going to go down really quickly which will have me moving and renovating right during the conference.

Beautiful collection, and a second to Jim D's question

@Kim ShookJust seeing the picture raises my blood pressure thinking about getting that cake out without sticking. Great job!

@IowaDee - but I just have to say...the editor hasn't even returned the manuscript to me! Its such a crazy, crazy world. We're still editing the cover which i know will change. Its just so bizarre to me. I've always used this forum as educational, not shlepping, but we're certainly getting closer to the shlepping phase it appears. But here's another learning... I started my own site to sell. Not knowing the price, we set it at $40. Amazon is showing $35, which again I ask how they can know since the book isn't set to print (i know they can guess based on the manuscript). With Amazon I get $3.25 per book. With my site I'll get closer to $20. The price difference between my site and Amazon was meant to accommodate a few perks - inscription, additional recipes not in the book and detailed technical data from my photographer...plus shipping. I'm interested (but not asking) what the publisher thinks of me selling on the side with a website. Every author sells but it seems like its competition at some level. Just thoughts for the night. I can't wait to see what the designer does from here. Really happy with her work. And yes, you'll see me in St. Louis. A food reporter somehow found out and contacted me today. My lips are kinda sealed to the media since its so premature.

What!? I didn't know that. How cool.

I'm reviewing page layouts today...just a glimpse:

a few quick thoughts. Don't partner with lemon or it comes off as floor cleaner. Spruce in tip form is the king of the edible needles. You can do a few quick blanches to clean them prior to eating. I've taken mostly to having the needles in my cooking vessel (floating not submerged) to release just an essence of needles.

Just a quick note from my editor today that made my day: She GASPED!

So many great memories of Oaxaca and especially taking the various classes of buses. If you get a chance, be sure to his up Itanoni. Its an eGullter's dream on the north side of town. And I remember great gelato in that part of town as well.

@CatPoet was my go to source for all things in that region during my trip last December.

well, welcome to both of you!

Have you tried the Askinosie white bar? That's a knockout! Not one you'd make bonbons with however.

My thought after reading through this - good for you Anthemoney for hanging in there. Its always hard to enter an established community. We do welcome folks into the forum every single day, but once we know that someone is going to be making money off of our knowledge, and they haven't invested in the community's knowledge base (take, not give), then we get a bit touchy. I want to point out a small version of a model that might be of interest. I don't know that your target market is interested in reading a story or essay - the whole point is convenience right? Askinosie choclates offers just a brief snippet of info that makes the chocolate more interesting. I could see you sending a bibimbop package with a "trading card" of either someone important to the origins of the dish, or maybe a daily Korean working person who might eat it and a short quote about what it means to them...tied to a website with more info for people who actually want to take the time to learn more. As to reading these forums - they're too big to just jump in. Instead of the dinner forum suggested above, I would go into the regional cuisines where it will be more digestable. Maybe the Pad Thai topic, or Ethiopian. Lots of info, but less overwhelming.

My agent checks in with me every other week or so and asked for an update. She then followed up with the editor just to maintain communications. Here is her response (edited to protect the innocent):

and I'm not sure if I missed it but, no, do not just add cocoa butter to cut the sweetness. Won't work and will really screw with the texture. There are plenty if people who like white chocolate and so no need to bash it. Plenty of flavor pairings listed above - I like tart citrus like passionfruit with mine. Another brand option is El Rey, who's white continues to win top awards. I also have played more with the Caramelia and Valhrona Dulce (mentioned above). The Dulce is very chemical tasting to me, but the idea of a caramelized white offers new avenues to go down.

There's a cool event coming up in Phoenix on February 20th. I'm just a small part of it, but its focused on a wide display of indigenous foods from the Phoenix area. There's going to be food artisans, performance art, markets, and a dinner by me. More details HERE.

I put the price in context of other items. Guitar $1500+, Melter $600~, Tempering machine $3500+ I charge $2.50 per pc for my chocolates, and my markup on chocolates averages just about $2.15 of food cost, so nearly $2 per pc covers my overhead, equipment and profit. A couple of good weekends and it pays for itself once you adapt its use ot your situation. We're all doing different things here, so it all varies. I know that the batch I made today will be gone by the end of Saturday and I'll repeat the batch next Tuesday for Valentine's. If you know about how many you can sell IF YOU CAN KEEP UP WITH DEMAND, the its easy to calculate how fast it can be paid for. On a side note, I don't count previous equipment in my costs anymore because those expenses have long since been recouped. That makes the math easy - chocolate plus cream plus other ingredients, plus new toy=cost. ETA - I wish I had spent some time with another chocolatier before I bought mine, who had a similar setup. That would have really sped things up for me. And I still want to do that, and hope to once I'm back in civilization. Its like buying a car, take it for a test drive first.

for me, time is money and that's where its proving its worth.

Step by step I'm learning how to use the EZt. So I did the same process I mentioned above, except this time I added the silk to my ganache. I sprayed and shelled at 11am. Finished my five ganaches by 1pm and backed off at 2:30. That's damn fast. 3.5 hours to knock out 400 bonbon start to finish. I do have a question and I don't remember seeing it above, but surely its been answered - on formulas that call for mycryo, can I simply sub with silk in the same proportion, or if not, why can't I?