gfron1

We're in Tucson getting ready for the first night. Still scrambling through connections and social media to get those last few seats sold. Smartest thing I've ever done was turn of the responsibility of feeding me to my staff...they're out right now getting me something so I can focus. Also, I do a lot of my stocking up here in Tucson (I'm 3 hours away in the mountains), and so I knew right where to go - Lee Lee's Oriental Market on Orange Grove. BTW, here's my almost final menu: Course 1 Juniper infused butternut squash soup, goat cheese mousse, seeded crackers Course 2 Purple potato gnocchi, 3-year house-aged parmesan sauce, beet balls, boba Course 3 Hackberry broth farro risotto, caramelized amaranth, poured lemon cream Course 4 Thai spiced acorn croquettes, cilantro sauce, lichen Course 5 Elk heart crudo, savory blueberry sauce with popotillo, egg yolk, fresh blueberry, salt-cured blueberry, shaved pecan Course 6 Goat tagine with chocolate couscous, cumin scented mayonnaise, roasted turnip balls Course 7 House cured bacon, celeriac stock, celeriac cubes, roasted Brussels sprouts, yeast syrup, onion ash, raw apple, pickled mustard seed Course 8 Liquid juniper caramel, crème fraiche, milk crunch, pine needle Course 9 Nocino syrup, goat cheese Bavarian Course 10 Bonbons (cinnamon or Mexican vanilla), butter pecan caramel

Just yesterday we locked down a Santa Fe location - a PR director who's trying to sell her home near the plaza. We have plenty of tickets for that since we just opened sales - PM me for details if you don't already know how to get info. Curious Kumquat Pop-Up Series This is starting to feel nuts to me. What the hell was I thinking! Here's the latest as of this morning: Monday, Jan 5th Tucson – 6 seats left Tuesday, Jan 6th Scottsdale – SOLD OUT Thursday, Jan 8th ABQ – SOLD OUT Friday, Jan 9th ABQ – SOLD OUT Saturday, Jan 10th Santa Fe – On Sale now! Sunday, Jan 11th Truth or Consequences – 8 seats left Monday, Jan 12th Las Cruces – SOLD OUT TorC is the problem child. Today I'm emailing spas, hotels, B&Bs, doctor offices, lawyers...anyone who might be a customer. We've nailed down free housing in each city. We've been loaned a 15 person van to move our stuff around in. Our expense is uber low, profits high, stress astronomical. But as all of my in-town peers shut down for the week or two because there's no money to be made...I'm much more hungry for a profitable business. So seeyalaterzgaterz!

Its been almost a month since I've updated this because I've been out of control busy with the cookbook, the trip to Helsinki and keeping up with the holidays. The latest is that we're sold out in ABQ and Las Cruces; almost sold out in Tucson and Scottsdale. Truth or Consequences is turning out to be a dog. And Santa Fe we still don't have a location. Yesterday I turned to my friends at the various Edible magazines who are now helping, along with my restaurant and wine distributors. Once I have Santa Fe located it should happen fast...I hope so since its coming up in just over a week. TorC may just have to be an intimate affair.

Its all about who you know. I have a Facebook friend who has published a couple of cocktail cookbooks, and I asked her about agents. She referred me to hers. Her agent said she wasn't accepting new clients but since my friend referred me she would look at my proposal. I sent her my proposal, manuscript and a few pics, and now she's very excited about the project. She agrees that its a niche book, but she said, "niche books are what's selling." I like that attitude. Fingers crossed.

If anyone really really wants them, I have plenty in my neck of the woods come monsoon season. There are spots where the road literally is covered and when you drive through them you hear the pops - disgusting. So I'll sell them to you for $10 less Joking...no orders please.

And of course the circket power bars - Exo (I think) have gotten all sorts of press. I bought a case to support the idea...but the texture made it my last case. I'll eat anything. Once.

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