chefette

The ganache with red wine infused with pear and spices is something I have been playing around with for a couple of years now since we did a Kosher Parve class for a Jewish Community Center. I wanted to come up with a way for them to make and enjoy a nice chocolate cake with ganache just like anyone else. I like to use the somewhat reduced liquid from poaching pears in red wine to make the ganache. It works out rather well, although if you were specifically considering the ganache and not the pears, you would want to cut back a bit on the sugar to make it less sweet. pretty much substitute the wine mix for cream - yummmm.

This year I did not have time to make any of my usuals. I did manage to make a few chocolate bon bons though. I made a white chocolate nutmeg ganache with butter and a touch of rum that tasted like egg nog enrobed in dark chocolate (72%) I also made a nice milk chocolate ganache infused with orange zest also enrobed in dark chocolate (72%) I had prepared several other ganaches to make chocolates for friends and family (some experimental) but did not have time to make all the chocolates I had planned so wrapped and froze most of it for later use. Tried and true; milk chocolate with cinnamon, dark chocolate with red wine infused with pear and spices, Manjari (simple, smooth, perfect in its natural complexity). I think that the holidays seem to be all about spices so I like to do a holiday chocolate spice collection. My experimental ganache that I was not so happy with was based on a reduction of mulled apple cider with dark chocolate (no dairy). The other dessert I usually think of for New Years is Creme Caramel.

In this little chunck of guilt-free calorie-free time between Christmas and New Year's resolutions when everyone is getting together with family and friends, preparing and consuming special meals and treats, what is everyone making, or buying, or looking for at the table? I love these little chocolate cakey cookies frosted with fudge and topped with a maraschino cherry half. They are a must have, and gingerbread christmas tree cookies frosted with the good old fashioned 10X, butter, and milk recipe frosting with red hots as decoration. Somehow the season also seems to make me think of mint and chocolate too. Maybe people have alot of mints around at the holidays to help people who have indulged a bit more than they should ease their stomache pains. Everyone lists off what they had or served for dinner, I think we need to start seeing more detail about the really special parts of everyone's meals - desserts. Life is Short - Always start with dessert!

Let's see.... we grow up eating industrially produced ice cream in a day and age where even the most 'natural' ice creams are made using finely tuned recipes based on chemical analysis of the ingredients (even if those are just millk, cream, eggs, sugar, and vanilla). These ice creams are produced in huge batches in temperature controlled locations in huge specialized machines. The industrial ice creams that we enjoy (or tolerate) were introduced to save us the trouble of churning the stuff in ice filled buckets. They did their best to approximate the flavor and consistency of the good ole home made stuff. But like all good machines that wasn't enough and they went far beyond the capacity of mere mortals in their homes. Now we wish to create our own ice creams and try our best to emulate those produced by the industrial producers. I spent about two weeks this summer trying to perfect Mint Chip ice cream (based on the Haagen Dazs). I can therefore sympathize with you in this quest for the "perfect" recipe with "perfect" flavor, texture, meltiness. It is a slow process and you are financially and personally invested by the time you finally get to try the end results of your labor and it is a real let down when the results are not what you are after. It does seem that the milk/cream ratio is the tricky part. I thought my first batch was too thin tasting and on the icy side (awww) - I added more yolks and cut back on milk in favor of cream (too fatty - yuck), I returned to my original ratio of milk/cream/yolks and tried a bit of pectin (like rubber cement ewwww), I ended up using more milk than cream and a bit more sugar than the recipe I started with suggested and was fairly satisfied with the results. My other basic problems were getting the mint flavor that I wanted (make a syrup?, cold infuse the cream?, hot infuse the cream?...) I had not really thought about my efforts to emulate a commercial product until I read your post and it really hit me - home cook emulates industry emulating home cooks. Anyone got a recipe for Wonderbread? Campbells chicken noodle soup? Ragu pasta sauce? Jello pudding?

A bit of water - use about 100g (1/2 cup) of water. I think that if you wish to add butter (consider spraying with butter flavor crisco before you dump it out of the pan for fat free), or after you uncover the pot plop in a tablespoon of butter while you develop the caramel. I have not tried it with butter.

Quote Coop: "Chefs that run real restaurants have no time for these phony ego building competitions. The chefs involved are usually union workers, government employees or both. The only reward a real chef wants is happy customers and some money in the bank at the end of the month. " Hmmm, you sound biiiitttter! What is the impetus behind your statement Coop? Are you a "Real" chef? Have you competed before? Have you lost? Have you wanted to compete but been prevented from doing so by management? Are you opposed to all types of competition? or just culinary competitions? Are athletes who compete in the Olympics not "Real" athletes? You really seem to have put yourself out on the fragile limb of blatant generalities and uninformed opinion here. Since this is a Canadian thread I am a bit suprised because I thought the general ignorance and double standards about food, cooking, and chefs was mostly contained here in the US, where people believe food should be joyless, completely sanitary, come in sealed plastic packages, be microwaved and untouched by human hands, consumed dutifully for the sole purpose of sustaining life functions. We were in France a couple of years ago right after the French Team won the Coupe du Monde--the Pastry World Cup (a very highly respected competition by elite pastry chefs and the world in general). The French Team was at this Food Show and at all times they were surrounded by young boys (and their parents) clamouring to get their autographs, to ask them pressing questions about technique and style. It was a real eye opener and fascinating for an American to behold. They were heros. Subsequently a team from the US (Ewald Notter, En Ming Hsu, and Michel Willaume--all elite pros, not sous chefs or chefs with initials after their name) won this French competition for the first time in history and there was a confused little paragraph in the Washington Post food section a month later. I think this speaks volumes about the US and its appreciation of the entire culinary career track. You might also look up stories about Tracy O'Grady from a Washington, DC restaurant (Kinkeads - where she is a sous chef). She went out for the Bocuse d'Or competition (also very highly regarded worldwide for young chef/sous chef types). She went through alot to prepare and raise money to compete and was pretty much crushed. As are most people who compete in most competitions - which I think pretty much nixes your 'ego' statement. Most people compete for the same reason people swim the English Channel or climb Mt. Everest - because it's there. Most people who compete also do not win (except for the personal victory from merely being in the competition) and so get no real ego stroking out of it. Its not a walk in the park, it is a hard process of pushing one's self in concepts, artistic presentation, technical skills, and taste.

Hmmm - could it be her staff of designers and in-house artists?????????

I did indeed have caramel popcorn as part of my corucopia dessert at the Javitts. Malawry was unavailable to assist since it was a school day but Edemuth was there to help me out. (thanks again Edemeth ) I was planning to demo my varamel popped corn but did not have the opportunity because of the structure of our demo. My approach is much different (and simpler) than the one Jaymes described. I place about 300g of sugar and just a bit of water in a heavy saucepan (that has a cover with it) and cook it to soft ball, I then toss in about 1/3 cup unpopped popcorn kernels and stir them around. They will suddenly start blossoming just at the caramel stage. At this point for your own self protection you will want to put the top on and start madly shaking the pan around. When it stops making popping noises you open up, stir the corn around a minute or two to deepen the caramel color and pour our onto a sheet pan. If you do not move it around until it hardens it will stick together in big clumps than you need to break up. Then you can toss in a handful of nuts or whatever if you want. You could even caramelize them along with the corn in the first place. Of course I did just make this up one time since I wondered what would happen if I tried caramelizing popcorn kernels in the same manner that I would caramelize almonds. Since I have never really been much of a popcorn fan, I did not even think to make popcorn first than caramelize it. The trick is to not put too much corn in the pot. For more caramel and a richer darker color use less corn (say 1/4 cup). This makes a bowl full and is fast and easy. After getting hit in the face with flying hot caramel coated corn though I had to resort to using the cover.

The majority of today's Washington Post Food Section was dedicated to Christmas Cookies, Here is a link to the article http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/artic...7-2002Dec3.html Unfortunately it does not seem to have the many attractive photos. Highly recommend you try to locate a print version of today's paper to see the cute cookies.

OK, those olives are going in the trash tonight.

I procurred an amusing selection of olives from one of those nifty olive boutiques at a Whole foods market. I am just a recent and somewhat hestitant convert to olives so I never really paid much attention to them. What turned me onto these was hunger actually. I was having drinks with friends and they ordered hot olives with cheese and fresh pita. There didn't really seem to be any other options when I arrived so eventually I tried one and it was actually good -- olives served hot in olive oil in a small fondue type pot with fire to keep it warm, fresh feta and hot from the oven pita breads. Anyway, thought I would serve somethin akin to this to guests recently, but had fewer than anticipated takers, now I have all these stupid olives. How long can I keep them? Is this what the cockroaches will be munching on in the post nuclear war environment - do they last forever?

After a flurry of recent work, we were fixing to just do nothing for Thanksgiving and stay at an Inn, but now, we will not be able to get away until Friday. This morning it ocurred to me that we should cook something - at least buy some food so we will have the option. One year we were all preoccupied rendering an interesting architectural effort in chocolate for the chocolate show and ended up having macaroni and cheese with a pork chop I found in the freezer. What I think we will make/have: Champagne, some oyster thing for Steve, maybe brie, who knows - we'll see what is at the store Riesling with pumpkin soup (with some sesame oil and a little chili maybe), fried shallots, pomegranate seeds, baguette Watercress salad, maybe with warm goat cheese, more baguette Pinot Noir with roast turkey breast, bread stuffing with sage and sausage, gravy, mashed potatos, warm lentil salad (with French green lentils) and lardons (bacon) Dessert wine with caramel apple tarts (on puff pastry), pumpkin creme brulee (with maple sugar crystals from Ontario), poached cranberries (with rosemary) or maybe hamburgers - but they just had a huge recall on hamburger in the DC area - so maybe its better to focus on other meats.

Other places to try are Bed Bath & Beyond, The Kitchen Store (L --- something?), and those big grocery stores that sell tupperware or something like it. Linens and Things, the Container Store. Places like this usually have a stock of plastic things to tote stuff around in. Run down the hall and ask someone's grandmother - all grandmother's have these things.

So Eskimo, Nightscotsman... what Lesley C says is true. Less skilled people, longer hours, harder work, less pay, less interest-- important things to think about in making a decision to change careers. I know, I know, that's how it is, you've heard it before, but it will be different this time...or will it? Why are you leaving a nice skilled profession behind?

Quote Nightscotsman: "lately I've been metabolizing Claudia Fleming and Pierre Herme" I guess that pretty much covers the spectrum.

Wow Lesley, what a great response. I think that we are all grateful for what you put into that, and it is good advice... Now, as to its practicality in the current market in the US for someone changing professions in the 30+ age range....that is debatable. I guess Steve already sort of addressed why I speak so much about restaurants, but that is the world as I (and I think most of my compatriots in the US) know it. Removing NYC and possibly San Francisco from the equation, there really are very very few pastry chops, chocolatiers, and boulangeries in the US. Almost all food (including bread, cake, chocolate, etc) comes from the Supermarket or grocery store here in the US. All centralized and made convenient for us. In the last 10 years we have seen some bakeries, artisinal bread places and such pop up, but they are not part of most people's daily food acquisition and consumption patterns. You might stop by and get a loaf of bread for a party or company, or munching on the weekend, or you might be lucky enough to live or work close enough to one that you could procure their products regularly. However, these places are very expensive and the vast majority of people are thrilled to pick up a nice warm soft squishy loaf of Italian or French or San Fran sourdough or whatever at the grocery store (and naturally someone in the back is shovelling dough into molds and making it all look like a variety of breads - it would be hysterical to do a blind taste test - gee is that the Ciabatta or the greek, maybe the baguette? Also, bread is not necessarily part of the daily diet in most American's lives anymore, especially with the whole protein craze. Most chocolates come from department stores - the closest thing to a chocolatier most Americans ever see (again - outside NYC) is the Godiva or Ethel M shop at the mall or are purchased at the drug store and handed around as token gifts. Most of them are so bad that no one really cares that much about eating them. It is the packaging that inspires the purchase. hmmm maybe these people are smarter than I thought. You see a few pastry shops here and there but they have a tiny selection of rote pastry (eclairs, a fruit tart with sort of dry glaze on the fruit, cheese cake, lemon meringue pie, chocolate cake, sometimes something more ambitious), but it looks like they need to sell alot of sandwiches, bottled water and gourmet items to make ends meet. The most successful pastry shop in the US is Mrs. Field's Cookies. Just about the ONLY place most of us in the US (not NYC) see pastries is in grocery stores, amusement parks, shopping malls, and restaurants. We love restaurants here. That is where we do most of our eating. If we have any desserts or cakes or pastries, especially yummy ones, they are ordered off of menus at restaurants. Pastry books are sort of fantasy collections of cool-sounding things that we imagine the rich and famous to be served after their caviar and champagne dinners. And think about it - if we are awed by Peche Melba (and what is that except a poached peach, some raspberry sauce, and vanilla ice cream) and never even have a chance to have one what are we thinking? Come to think of it - most of the things that hold our imaginations in the US involve the miracle of ICE CREAM. (Ask someone what their favorite dessert is and they'll say ice cream.) Sorry to vent. Naturally, given this situation, people interested in pastry in the US think first and foremost of restaurants. I also think it is worth noting that the demographics in kitchens, and especially in pastry in the US, are interesting. It is my unscientific opinion that most people making pastry and desserts in the US are women - mostly self taught, mostly home style, and that has had a huge impact on the payscale, the standards, the respect paid to the profession. In other countries and NYC, and in the higher-end places (again in my opinion) you see a very different demographic.

On behalf of Nightscotsman and Eskimo and others who may be thinking of leaving behind their jobs and working in kitchens to make desserts, allow me to pose a few more questions... Most people doing the career changing thing will probably have a college degree. In the professional world education and degrees give you some level of qualification and even precedence in your profession. Professionals taking continuing education classes are normally required to provide qualifications to take classes. Do you believe that this same thinking applies to pastry and cooking schools? (my thought is that it does not. The only qualification for getting into a pastry or cooking program is your ability to sign a check or apply for a loan. I see no real evidence that having a pastry 'degree' gets you one iota farther along the proverbial 'dues paying' path.) As a career changer, how do you think one should approach the profession? Go for a basic job and hope to get noticed? Shoot high for a pastry chef job? Specialize in something like chocolates? Be independent and sell to retaurants or caterers? Should they go to a big place like a hotel, or a small restaurant? Where will you be most competitive? Where is the best compensation? (I myself am completely at a loss on this one, but I tend to think that you should assess your personal skill set very seriously and think about it from a business perspective. You are making a change to do something for love, but be smart about it, don't try to compete against people who need to do this, or who have been doing it at a higher level since they were 13 years old. The fact is - it will be very hard to compete in terms of ingrained physical know-how, speed, or precision. Career changers might consider what some of their innate advantages and experience are that would be discriminators - do you have strong management or business skills? Are you aware of a niche market that you can leverage, do you have PR skills or connections you can leverage? How can you sell youreself independently or to someone else to get the most joy and financial payback from this decision to change your life?) I think these are some key questions, but I am sure there are many others. Even if no one has any good answers, it is valuable to post the questions I think.

I just left a note on Eskimo's thread and had a thought. Nightscotsman and Eskimo are basically asking the same question about entering the field. The big difference is location. If I understand correctly, Nighscotsman is on the west coast in the northwest? and Eskimo is is DC. Do any of the others of you reading this feel that their relative locations will impact their best course of action? What are some of the key elements? Age? Sex? Physical location? Language skills? Artistry? Pastry and Baking Background? Cooking experience (food)?

I think that Eskimo's question about who to look to is a good one. People entering the field do not necessarily have any real perspective and do not know who is who. Everyone is sort of in a big glimmery blob all looking vaguely the same, and an outsider's judgement of who is 'good' and worthy of emulating would be vastly vastly different. For that matter a newcomer's view of what constitutes excellent or modern pastry would be very very different. Who are the people that aspiring pastry people should be looking to, what elements and styles should they pay attention to? I look back at some of the pastry books that I bought and was all wowed by before I started and now I see that much of what excited me about the desserts pictured was artifice and photography. I think that many things someone inside the field knows to be old fashioned and ho hum look like amazing wonders to newbies who have never even seen it before. I think this is one of the really intriguing elements of professional pastry and a real quandy for learners - that what we have grown up with (especially in the US - and especially outside of NYC) is such a tiny tedious little chunk of what is out there. So much of 'pastry' is the stuff of legends and myths to most people. If french meringue is a thrilling new experience and nougatine is something no one has ever seen before what does that say? I know I have digressed some from the topic here, but I think that people entering the field need tools and information to help them along their decision paths and to help them make the most out of their experience that they can. I think Steve Klc for one does not want to see another herd of fresh pastry students rushing out to make eclairs covered with fondant, and huge chocolate layer cakes wrapped in modelling chocolate that are sliced up, served with mass produced sauces purely for color accent, and served with bad coffee. He, and his brethren want to see flavor, texture, temperature, and color used with a creative artistic hand that is in keeping with the food presented by an establishment. I think he thinks many of the desserts being served in many fine establishments are tantamount to getting a corn dog as an appetizer at Ducasse.

OK Steve, Lesley, Tim, Karen, Michael, Patrice, Meredith...et al If you were given the opportunity to devise a really worthwhile pastry education for yourself (given that you were between 28 and 35) or someone else at this point in time, what would it be like? What classes would you invest in? What schools would you take those classes at? What teachers/professionals would you pay to receive info from? What people or restaurants would you try to stage with/at? What would you specifically ask the chef to share with you during your opportunity? What restaurants, pastry shops, chocolatiers would you visit? What books would be part of your curriculum? What periodicals should an aspiring pastry person be perusing? What is it that you would be looking for as discriminators to emulate? What would you specifically NOT do? How much time, effort, and money do you think you would spend on your program? What do you think are the drawbacks of changing careers? Do you think it IS possible to "pay your dues" in this field and pull even with respected professionals in the field?

So Steve 1) Would you say that you are actually sort of suprised and taken aback at the mediocre level of most pastry in most restaurants today given the increasing number of talented, artistic, passionate people out there who have experience, who have skill sets because they care, think, went to school, travelled, read, etc??????? 2A) Do you think it is the fault of pastry professionals for not putting the effort in, or 2B) do you think the skills and the talent are out there but that people are being constrained by Exec chefs and restauranteurs who do not think that it is worth it to put in the effort and go the extra mile. 3A) Do you think that the reason you get a specuacular, creative, and amusing appetizer and maincourse followed by a huge blob af bread pudding or a slice of cake with a circle of strawberry sauce regardless of whether it makes sense is because of the pastry people or 3B) because of the owners and exec chefs? 4) It seems to me that there is probably more free flying capability out there now than ever before just that it is not given an opportunity.

Hi Nightscottsman A young woman was recently asking me about pastry school and Steve thought I ought to post some of the thoughts I sent her. (Just my humble opinion. I know there are many others out there who really should chime in on this - including Elizabeth 11): This woman has actually had some professional experience, (in a bakery during a summer during college and then working summers at restaurants and coffeehouses during college,) professionals she has spoken with often discourage a "traditional" sort of schooling. One of her concerns like yours is how to 'break into' the profession. By this I think that you have concerns that your skill sets will not be competitive in the workplace. You might want to consider taking the money you would spend at a school and parcelling it out to specialists to acquire the best skill sets that focus on precicely what you are interested in over the course of a year or so. I would think that a catering company might offer you better financial rewards and opportunities to try your hand at a more varried and decorative set of pastries. Meanwhile, Ewald Notter's school that offers short focused courses head and shoulders above anything you could ever hope to get out of most regular pastry schools, The French Pastry School in Chicago also offers focused one-week courses that feature world-renowned amazing chefs as instructors. This is not to say that the professional pastry programs offered by schools such as FCI or ICE are not worthy. They certainly familiarize you with the techniques, skills, equipment, ingredients, and recipes commonly used in traditional French Pastry. My point is, think about what it is you are really wanting out of this and then think about what your options are and see if plopping down thousands for one school is really in your best interests or not as a career changer especially. Another thing to consider when you voice your concerns about gaining a background in Classical Techniques is this: how relevant are these techniques really in modern and developing pastry? This is not to say that you should not have these skills, just that - like food - pastry is changing and becomming less traditional. Part of your investment in the profession should be viewing the field - market research. Know the field, know the competitors, become aware of the distinctions in quality. I hope that others such as Steve Klc, Lesley C, Patrice, MLPC, etc will add their insights here for your benefit, and that Elizabeth 11 who went out on a limb and dove in to pastry will also weigh in with her experiences and thoughts. I hope this is helpful.

Thanks Bux! And next time I pull a Nigella imitation, I will try my accent. I was actually all over the map from a philosophy standpoint re the taste of my dessert. Does one play with an ingredient to confine it within the boundaries one is accustomed to in desserts, or does one sort of revel in the true nature of a flavour. This was especially trying with the beet jus because I felt that I was struggling against its beetiness and wasn't sure if that was really fair. In the end I thought we reached a compromise with the broad red, woodsy beetiness in counterpoint with the tartness of the cranberries and pomegranate. In fact, in the future I might leave out the cranberries altogether and see how it worked. I think I would also forego port in favor of red wine or even just use water since the beets just sort of swallowed it up. But I would have to try it to see if it made a difference or not. If it doesn't serve a purpose, no point in putting it in - right? The mix of alcohols also bothered me a little in assembling my dessert, but I felt the port didn't really count, and it seemed that the guinness and bourbon played different roles that were not incompatible. I thought the bourbon helped anchor the sweetness of the corn and the guinness seemed to pull out an exciting note. I would consider trying it with a Guinness gelee to see how that played too just to tie its continuity together more. See, once you start experimenting things just get out of hand. Regarding the Onion Rings, I have to admit I was suprised at the light taste and inherent sweetness of the onion when I sliced it up. It made me think about normal onion rings I have eaten and that the onion normally seems sweet. Perhaps we get carried away with the impression/sensation we have of onions while we are cutting them or sauteeing them (collected through our noses) and not really thinking so much about what our taste buds are conveying to us. Glad to hear that you trusted me enough to taste one. Paul Connors' desserts seemed really innovative. I was busy helping plate, so did not get a chance to try either. I think we should explore the social effects of free food on crowds in a thread of its own.

I am happy to hear that Suvir at least found my dessert edible - even enjoyable. I have to admit I did get a bit carried away with the concept of the demo and was afraid I had taken it too far (especially with the onion rings which I very nearly did not serve). My dessert that Suvir is referring to was called Corucopia. The demo title was Modern Techniques and use of vegetables in desserts (or something to that effect). My original thought was to do a butternut squash and green apple preparation, but when Patrice decided to use those ingredients I thought it would be best to use something else to offer the audience more variety. I also thought that squash is fairly accessible and many people have already pursued it in dessert preparations. I thought it might be fun to move to something less explored and outside the conventional boundaries. So I chose Corn, Beets, and Onions. The reason I selected corn and beets was that they are both excellent sources of sugar. In fact I had to play with my recipees to counteract the inherent sweetness of the vegetables. Unlike many fruits (that have bright spiky flavor), corn and beets offer no acidity to spike their flavors - After working with them, I thought they produced very broad, flat strong flavors. My final dessert was (starting from the bottom): Bourbon gelee (infused with cilantro) with golden corn kernels in suspension Sweet Corn Custard Beet Jus (with port, pomegranate and cranberry) Cilantro Corn Foam (with Guinness Beer) Corn popped in caramel (which I wanted to demo) Corn flake caramel crisps (which I also wanted to demo) A sweet onion ring (for fun) I believe that Steve is planning to collect and post all the recipees from our demos on the site, so those should be available shortly.

Saturday, November 9 Hosted by Steve Klc of Pastryarts.com and Food Arts 11:00 am-12:pm The Challenge of Creating Distinctive Desserts in Different Styles - From Bakery to Restaurant Stephane Motir, executive pastry chef of Tribeca Grill and TriBakery, New York, NY and Dan Barber and Michael Anthony, chefs of Blue Hill Restaurant, New York, NY will demonstrate the diversity of specialty desserts by creating and serving examples of their work.