gfron1

Alright, my last attempt was a mess because my room was way too warm. Today I finally had a decent temp in the room. I left my EZTemper on for 24 hours and everything was just how I wanted it. I did a few trays of transfer sheets and every one of them came out perfectly. My question is now how will the EZ Temper interact with my tempering machine? Do I just use the EZ and melter or do I use the EZ with my Bakon. And if I use it with the Bakon, I assume I would just melt to working temp, add the butter and turn the wheel on. Is this right?

The start of chocolate season for me is always so painful. Today, I made a caramel (sugar and glucose), added my hot cream and the caramel was just right. Let it cool a bit and poured over my chocolate and stirred by hand - fine but a bit thick. I saw some oil already at this stage so I threw it in my food processor to try and bring the emulsion back together. It broke really bad. I warmed it with my heat gun thinking that would do the trick but it got worse. Now I'm cooling it to try again. Where did I go wrong?

Interesting that this thread has revived itself. All these months later here's where things are. I still have my same server, who still is pretty damn amazing, albeit human. I don't live in this magical fairyland of abundance of applicants and staff with heroic professional and world experience like many of you. I have small town youth who, many have never left the area, and who do the best with what they have. Which brings me back to my server. As a result of this thread and me taking more of an educational and mentoring approach with her, she has grown immensely when non-American diners come into the restaurant. In fact, the couple that prompted this topic are regulars coming in weekly, and they still complain and they still tip at non-American standards. BUT, we both understand that they aren't complaining to be rude or mean, and they aren't tipping as a gesture of the service. Last night we had two non-related couples from California, both of whom were Euro expats. Both of whom tipped at Euro standards, and one of which shared their criticisms throughout the meal. But to show you how far she (we) have come - my server acknowledged to me at the 2nd course that they were European, and laughed at their comments in the kitchen, but remained consistent in her positive attitude with the table. One big improvement is that the info that was fed to me by her prepped me for when I went out at dessert, and had a great time chatting them up. They were a lot of fun - loud, direct, borderline raunchy, fun. The tips was right at 10% for both tables. No offense was taken and I know that the tip was cultural because they were bidding on which of their cities needed us to move there and re-open. They loved their meal. This thread has been immensely helpful.

Yeah, pickled (a bit sweet) rind with the cod...sounds good to me.

Just encouraging you to be open to possibilities. There is a wide world of fruit out there, much of it non-citrus, that has potential to work with cod. Once you start saying you can't then you never will.

I'd puree the fish (very fine through chinois), integrate black sugar, a sweet vinegar (like a Chinese drinking vinegar) hold it together with a starch (rice most likely would be enough), form them, chill, bread, fry. Depending on the menu I would make them look like frozen TV dinner fish sticks and make a "ketchup" of plum.

My staff all wants to stay and none are meth addicts. (That was a terrible insensitive joke, but its true and I have probably the best trained and most consistent staff in the area)

Booked so far: Empellon chef's table, Cosme and Blanca. I couldn't get Take Root. Contra opens up 2 weeks prior but they've already told me they'll get me a seat.

I'm going to NYC at the end of the month for Starchefs ICC and have been trying to book a powerhouse week of dining. Almost every restaurant uses OpenTable or Yelp SeatMe for their reservationing system. Take Root was top of my list, but I knew that they only had 12 seats and were only open three nights a week, so I knew they would be tough to get. My first opportunity was two nights ago and the seats opened at midnight EDT so I sat by my computer at 10 MDT and hoped New Yorkers were sleeping. Refresh. Refresh. Refresh...and finally the box for the 29th changed colors...but I couldn't click it...WTH!? So I tried repeatedly over the next two hours thinking maybe it was PDT that counted as Midnight...maybe Bangkok...maybe Berlin...I went to bed and woke up with that date being sold out. Crap. I had one more chance for the next night, so last night same thing...same result. Then (and finally, here's my point) my spouse said, "Try changing the time zone settings on your computer and see what happens." So I did, and sure enough YelpSeatMe cleared the date for reservations...but it was already sold out since that was at 10:30 MDT (12:30 EDT). Well that makes no friggin sense!. What's the point of web-based technology if my computer's time setting is involved in the process. Web time is web time. So this is a warning, a lesson and an opportunity. I don't know about OpenTable, but for YelpSeatMe, switch your settings before trying to make that cross country reservation. You're welcome. Now, can someone get me a seat at Take Root!

Most commonly available is Goya brand either frozen or paste (as was said earlier, the paste is not preferable). It will be in your Hispanic market - fairly common.

I have an exception list and its stuff like my knives and equipment that most people wouldn't have any use for like my chocolate equipment, but yes, name, reputation, recipes, a few weeks training with me and a fully functioning kitchen.

Here it goes...up for sale. I know we can't sell/promote here but this isn't really the marketplace for such a thing. If a host feels it violates, just delete. Thanks.

That answer has really evolved over the years. We all have so much more experience, and our needs have all changed. In my case, I went from a Wagner to the Fuji and now I only use an Badger airbrush. My volume is much less so the previous two are overkill. I loved my Fuji while I had it however. So it really depends on what you're production volume is - a dozen or a hundred. And welcome. Glad you found us.

I defer to your authority. I just feel like we're looking at different pictures, but I'm much smaller production so like I said, I defer.

Interesting thought, but I still think it has to do with shelling where the mold or room are too warm and/or the cocoa butter being too warm. I've done it way too many times. I can agree with you about the temper, although being just the slightest bit off and not having ideal room temps could localize the damage like we're seeing.

Very nice shelling. The reason I posted room and mold temps is often the difference in these temps can be enough to pull well tempered chocolate off

Yes, temper. My basic numbers are: Room & mold 20ºC Cocoa butter 30-32ºC

Oh I do love my knives. They go with me (and to show the level of specificity of my inventory), as do the sayas, retail boxes, sharpening system, stones, wall mounts, honing rod and all of other knife related matter.

It will. I'm willing to take that hit if it happens. I'll train long enough to get someone up to speed, but I am confident that I"ll make much more of a name for myself in a larger city that will surpass what I've done here, and when a chef leaves or a business changes ownership, people know.

Crazy! I just did my inventory and (more importantly) my exclusion list of what is and isn't included in the sale of the building and business. Funny what we need to hold onto and those precious items that we're willing to let go of. Basically I only kept my chocolate making equipment, my beer making equipment and my cookbooks.

Fascinating process. The publisher provided their boilerplate contract to my agent. My agent then red inked it with her responses. A few interesting things are shared below. And I know there is at least one person who thinks I should share such stuff, but these are apparently standard clauses that my agent puts in all contracts, so I they are fair game and stuff that most of us wouldn't even think of. BTW, she also upped my percentage on the movie rights If someone steals content from the book and we sue: I can't write a competing book for two years following publication..oh, don't worry about that kids.

HERE's our NPR station's coverage. Feeling a bit warm and fuzzy after this one. (If it doesn't take you directly, its the report from 9/16/15)

Its not really a secret. I was just being evasive since nothing is set in stone yet. We won't be in New Mexico for sure. We'll end up wherever my spouse gets a job, but the two possibilities at this point are Northern California (yes, possibly the Oakland area), but I'd hedge all of my money on St. Louis. A wildcard is Puebla, Mexico where I'm loosely pursuing a residency program. I would love Australia, but your politicians are almost as crazy as ours. But why St. Louis? Its a big ass city that has a strong restaurant scene with room for growth on the casual fine dining side. Niche, Sydney St Cafe, Eloisa & Oilo and a few others are doing great, but its a huge metro. I was born and raised there - never thought I'd go back - but family is still there, and family is aging. I'd like to spend some time with them before they're at an age where we can't enjoy an active life together. St. Louis has some down sides. The one that is glaring at me is that it is the 10th oldest city in the US based on median age. My food is more geared toward a younger crowd, but again, its a very large city. There is plenty of foraging outside of the city. I would never buy forage - I have strong ethical problems with that. What I'll have to reconcile is that I've been in a pristine wilderness for 12 years and trust my food source, so can I trust the food safety of a plant that can breath the air of a big city? I had already begun researching soil and water sampling, so now its time to ramp up that knowledge. My plan is Tue-Sat, dinners only, closed all of Aug or Sept (I want to go Euro and break this crazy work cycle that we Americans love). I will double my capacity and I'm bringing a chef from ABQ with me who is CIA trained. We both share the commitment to farmed/foraged/scratch. On a side note, and while I have a big ego, this is a bit much even for me, here is the statement from the ABQ Journal's restaurant reviewer (recently retired): "Silver City is going to lose the best Chef not just in the city, or the county, or the state, but probably in the Southwest. Where ever Rob Connoley goes, he will be doing his best work and delighting his diners, no matter what. If you live within 6 hours, GO to eat at the Curious Kumquat. If you live somewhere else.... save your mileage points for the new location. I am."

HeidiH - she's able understands the breakdown of the business, my question is only about where to advertise since we really don't have that outlet in our area. And I completely agree that the business is me, which is why I hadn't considered it. But, as has been pointed out to me - someone could buy a turnkey restaurant, get a little training from me, and then turn it into their own, capitalizing on the years of press we've rcvd. If I closed tomorrow, there would still be plenty of tourists showing up at our door to eat for well over a year. The lunch side of things isn't as exotic and could easily be taken over and probably done much more effectively. So again, my question isn't about what is for sale or the value, but where? Brokers. Craiglsist. But surely there's other publications or websites.

Most of mine are Fujiwaras, but I have a Carter and some other nice ones.