gfron1

Makes sense - you guys are saying the same thing essentially. So I will go back to scraping instead of wiping, and not heat before backing off and see what that does. Thanks.

Very slightly. Explain why that would make a difference please.

I've been looking really closely at some of the molded pieces I see in magazines and many have flaws or rough spots on the bottom edges. But others don't. I wondering what the difference is. One thought I have is maybe I'm wiping my excess cocoa butter spray too aggressively. Currently I'm wiping the mold on a towel, but in the past I've scraped. So maybe the towel fibers are wiping away some of the cocoa butter. But when I look at older pics of mine I still see some of the same issue. Any thoughts?

So do you want the good news or bad news first? After almost two months I heard back from the top cookbook agent whom I had approached to represent me. She said that she was going to pass because the topic was too specialized and was unlikely to be picked up by a publisher. I responded immediately that I had a major publisher who was interested, but we hadn't signed anything yet, and I really want an agent to handle the negotiations. She responded, "I have an associate who has developed a recent interest in foraging, who might be willing to represent you." "Recent" as in, now that you have a publisher... I'll take it. I really think I can accomplish more with an agent speaking on my behalf.

In today's dialogue with the publisher, his editor had concerns that the recipes were too difficult and many of the ingredients were too hard to find. Included in the hard-to-find ingredients...cashew, peanuts and coffee. I kid you not. I created a chart that lists all of my ingredients, then using the plants.usda.gov website, listed their geographic spread, any substitutions, online or local grocery sources and gave each a rating of difficulty to source. I'm not sure who the editor is but I'm guessing they eat out a lot...and hence are not my market. Again I say - the fact that they are spending so much time on this project without us having signed a deal is very encouraging.

Exactly - absolutely no need it if its in a glass. BTW, the other option is a bit more egg yolk.

If its for a client, add the gelatin for security. I never have though.

At 60º, you should not have had to put them in the fridge...brrrr....I keep my room as close to 68ºF as possible. This morning I worked at 64º Maybe the ganache was too cold, but based on how you describe setting it out, I doubt it. I think the temper was just off. Try, try again!

I've also been thinking back to what the highlights were for me beyond my time alone with Tyler, and what stands out is, yes, Olo, but also our dinner at Neh in Tallinn, the Mannerheim museum, Vivo's, and that crazy Jaffa soda Christmas display! I really like the Church of the Rock but that's only 5 minutes of your time.

I don't like to gloat (more than once a day), but I weighed myself yesterday. During our 7 day trip to Helsinki Tyler and I consumed 7 breakfasts, 7 lunches, 6 dinners consisting of 53 courses beer or wine with almost every course and meal, plenty of sugar in between for me (not so much for Tyler), and I gained a whopping 3 pounds on our trip. Which I am sure is gone already. Moral of the story - good genes go a long way, and walking a long way will keep you in your jeans.

Thanks Sylvia - they were all kinda doing the same thing to different qualities. I would say there's some inbreading amongst the high end restaurants.

Mostly vegetables, but not limited to that - what's the best book out there.

I nixed cholla early on because it doesn't have enough geographic spread. Too bad - its a good ingredient.

That's what I thought. They could have at least said, Southwest specific, but its not. I'm going to list all foraged ingredients, show their geographic spread, which we offer online sourcing, and which we offer substitutions. They were burned on another book, so I get it, but ours is very consciously not regionally specific.

Just heard from my preferred publisher. His content editor thought the ingredients were too Texas specific...they aren't. In fact we were very careful to make them nationally available. I'm preparing a response to educate the editor. But the good news is...they're still talking!

My unfinished notes for my staff: Individual towels in bath in all nice restaurants – paper day, cloth night Local textiles on back of chairs at night Deliver silverware on napkin line wooden tray Remove and replace silverware on every person, every course *obvious but we don't remove unused silverware Offer champagne at start of every meal “Would you like a glass of champagne to start things off tonight?” Wipe the bottle hole after each pour of wine Take coats and hang them on hooks with table numbers Refold napkin when go to bathroom *we just haven't done this Short version of menu at table and “chef’s notes” emailed upon request Refilled pairings if still needed for next course Angled silverware at 2 oclock to accommodate all dish shapes and sizes Notes for me Add ons: Gruet, cheese board, bon bon finish Yeast in bread was announced as a 3 year sourdough starter…we have better story Butter in parchment satchels Get heart and tongue from local butchers.

I went digging. I had to. I mean, the whole trip was based around the memory of something you typed 8 months ago. Well...I found it. Not quite how I quoted you but close enough that yes, I would absolutely jump on a plane to take this trip again. You actually said,

That was Sunday night at Passio. Our flight was the next day around noon, so we carefully packed all that food along with all sorts of various gifts and kept our fingers crossed that it would make it back to the states. Well, a funny thing happened...I thought we had a 2 hour layover at JFK, but it turned out I misread the itinerary with the date changes and time zone changes, and we ended up having 6 pm Monday til 6 am Tuesday, so I sent a call out on FaceBook to all of my NYC friends and ended up meeting one of my dearest friends, whom I met on eG, but had never met in person, but is my pastry compadre - Mark Manguerra/Manggy! He's a doctor resident in the city right now and living in Chinatown, so he took us to his favorite restaurant followed by some bar we where we got a chance to catch up. Along with way we picked up my high school art teacher whom I hadn't seen since 1987 who was one of the single most influential people in my life. It was a good night to say the least.

How about squeezing one more tasting menu in before we leave! Apparently we hadn't had enough yet, so the somm at Olo recommended we eat at Passio. I was tainted at this point in the trip, so I'll hold my negative comments back because it was actually a very nice meal at a decent price. Its newer and is owned by a beer brewer from the western part of the country. They paired 3 of his beers (saison, wit, and porter) with the dishes along with a couple of wines. You'll see that I didn't take notes but the ingredients were essentially the same as what I had at all three previous tasting menus. If I could say one thing to all of these chefs - dig deeper! Find something that isn't the cookie cutter model. But enough...let's eat. I don't remember but I'm sure this was something with dill, sour cream, fish and fermented carrots or cucumbers Reindeer, blueberries He made bread with his beer's spent grains Beet, brussels, goat cheese Pike, scallop, white asparagus (Chef - way out of season yo!) Moose, potato Chocolate soufflé (underbaked), out of season fruit Licorice, toffee pudding, ice cream Again, I'm being overly critical. We enjoyed the meal completely and enjoyed talking shop with the owner/brewer. But I'll find something more positive to end this thread with

Now just a few touristy pics. The main Christmas market Us walking the streets looking at the architecture We finally saw the sun for 10 minutes after a week of no sun...how, you ask. Well, we took the tall ferris wheel right at sunset and got to see a little bitty sliver of sun! Another view from the ferris wheel Quick! The sun! Get a picture of me in it And just like that...it was gone. We walked over to the city museum which was ok and ran into a concert at the Christmas market

I'm in the middle of installing an aging cellar at the restaurant for meats and cheeses which should be up in about 3 weeks. These will be my inaugural cheeses, then I'll start making my own.

So after we settled our bellies a bit, the chef came out and chatted with us, and ultimately invited us into the kitchen. I asked him about the Global sponsorship and he said his bosses arranged it. Its always good to see how others do their prep schedules Chef Heikki Liekola

So to recap - 7 words from EdselL are the reason we dropped a few thousand and a week and a half of our lives to go have dinner on the other side of the planet. 7 words. No pressure on Edsel! With two other nordic inspired tasting dinners down and we were off to the Ravintola Olo. About two weeks ago they entered the Facebook and Instagram worlds when one of the kitchen staff from Portugal (Carlos Henriques) brought them online. Fortunately I was able to engage Carlos and so I was primed for my visit and they were primed for mine. My sole goal was to eat the type of food that I make since I don't get that opportunity very often. Secondarily I wanted to have a chance to compare my food to a Michelin starred restaurant. And lastly, I was looking to see how they handle service - I like mine proper but friendly, and so I was curious to see Michelin service can look like. We were offerered sparkling and were brought a Sumarocca Brut 2011 along with Linseed rice crisps and pickled cucumber mousse. Then we were directed to see the bread that we were later to be served rising at our table. Sea Buckthorn and yogurt encapsulated in cocoa butter. Fermented carrot and yogurt on oat cracker with vinegar powder Duck prosciutto, gooseberry mousse and gooseberry powder. Pic missing. Benoit Chablis Salt baked celeriac, apple, nasturtium on warm marble. Adele Cotes du Rhone 2012 clairette blanc - really interesting wine that has strong hints of yeasty sea water. I'll pursue this wine. Reindeer heart, celeriac stock sphere, spruce introduced to us as "memories of home in Greenland." Marcona, parsnip, moose tartare, yolk, pickled elderberry and mustard seed. Austrian Stroheiemer Trauben Liebe and Zeit Rot Nº5 - another really nice wine. Rhutabaga, smoked egg whites, and a chicken broth of tarragon and fennel. I said this was their take on an egg drop soup. Roasted sunchoke, fermented and raw; white fish, white wine sauce, salmon roe...essentially an au gratin. Malmgarden Eumer Tripel beer. Our previously risen bread with Finnish butter (pretty salty), garlic soup (less salty). Taleia 2011 (Catalan monks) - another tasty selection. Pike, potato, parsley powder, pike scales and pickle Urchin, fennel, apple granité, seaweed broth with dill. Ramnista 2010 Kir Yianni Greece. Very dry, not our favorite. Reindeer loin and tongue, moss, blueberry, mushroom sauce. Quinta de la Rosa port and Graham & Co. '66 Port 3 Finnish cheeses with gooseberry jam with elderflower juice, onion caramel Local berry tea with bay, thyme, cardamon and black pepper with a goat cheese ice cream sandwich cooked with powdered berry. Errazuriz late harvest SV blanc from Chile. Roasted sunflower seed praline, sunchoke puree, roasted sunchoke, roasted yeast syrup consomme. Birch sap ice cream, licorice syrup, pine tree crumble. Wild & Pure liquors (Lingonberry and Cloudberry). And then we sat and let it all sink in. I'll stop here and in the next post show the tour of the kitchen.

Since these were tasting menus the meat portions were small, so my memory I didn't notice a difference. What I do know is that reindeeer filet at Sea Horse was an amazing piece of meat in flavor and tenderness.

I don't know which we bought because Tyler bought when he got away from me. It had rice for sure. And the number of places that I "have to" visit is so lengthy that a return is unlikely although it certainly deserves it. My travels are much more spontaneous and esoteric than that. We'll probably hear about some noodle maker on an island in the middle of a mountain lake and we'll head out to have a bowl of noodles