andrewB

yeah, boo hoo for you. too much lobster??!? in any case, don't throw the shells away and make a bisque with 'em...

Andrew, I see you're in need of a sig line. . . ← this topic has been wonderfully dangerous. for example, as i was watching the restaurant fill and waiting to get my a@s handed to me on the sunday lunch rush, i was trying to come up with new fun things to do along these lines. oh, and also to torture my cooks with!!

Do you cut it up before confiting it or confit it as a whole? Do you use only duck fat? ← boned out but left whole and trussed... i found that a combination of fats seems to flavor it the best...

I'm curious about this as well. I've wondered what happens when a chef leaves -- whose recipes are they? In a lot of other professions when you are employed by somebody, they usually own the work you produce for them. There recently was a head chef change at a well-known local restaurant (Mel's), and the place kept a lot of the old dishes, but also added a lot of new items created by the new chef (many of which I think he brought from the last place he was a chef). ← The recipes belong to the chef i think. in my case, when we change the menu, i basically sell the restaurant my recipes for that season. to be sneaky though, i take all the old kitchen books home and the translations are done on my computer so i have the originals ))

i do a confit of lamb shoulder in my restaurant which works perfectly...

As the fish cook in SF i used to open the kitchen and receive all the orders. When i got the lobsters in and while i was waiting for the water to come up, i would cut their bands off and depending on the day and my mood, i would either have lobster wars or lobster races. I'm not sure if i have ever laughed harder by myself.. It was all fun and games until one day the chef came in ealry and caught me trying to get a lobster to drink my coffee...

when i worked in France there was a tremendous squab dish which was seared and then finished in a tied pig's bladder. it was cut open table side and amazing! when i came back to the states i tried sourcing bladders to recreate it but was told you can't purchase pig bladder as its a non regulated offal. not sure the validity of this but was not able to recreat the dish until i moved back to Europe...

was back in the states to do a few wine dinners and the first night, 1929 was poured from a standard bottle. right out of the bottle it drank amazing but faded in the glass. wonder how the magnum would be... someone once said "if you can't afford such wines, its nice to know someone who can."

they have something similar to that here in Slovakia but made from pork. its something like mixed offal encased in a gelatinous offal based stock... not too sure where i stand with it however...

hydrogentated fats though are indeed dangerous to the body. Adding either one or two hydrogen atoms to the strand makes it hard for the body to process. These are what turn into free radicals in the body as i remember ... Remember the margarine scare? same thing...

would have to be breaking down 40 pheasants in the Ambassador's garage in the late fall. it was so cold i couldn't feel my fingers. I had feathers from head to toe and was constantly fighting chasing the dog away... those were the days...

Don't forget to check us out in Bratislava if you all are in Prague. we are only a hop, skip, and a jump away!!!!

the best dish i have ever tasted was outside of Milan at Antica hostera del ponte(sp?) as was a soft poached egg on brioche with a passed foie gras and port sauce with shaved white truffles. it was the sexiest dish i have ever had and pairing it with an '83 d'Yquem was truely wonderful...

used to use sand paper and a bleach solution which worked quite well...

Greystone probably has one down in the dungeon somewhere!!

i think even 120 is a rarity on that end of the food chain. and the corporate brainwashing doesn't help the matter either...

as per the website, it looks as if this machine IS used in food grade applications. the possibility of high volume output would be tremendous. think petit four in a large high end hotel. they would get their moneys worth. look at all the other stupid cr*p only large hotels and the CIA can afford...

Which they do (expose themselves to NY media, I mean). But beyond that, what else *should* a chef get? The idea upthread that it should return their investment somehow -- kind of like buying a good review or an award -- doesn't make much sense to me. I do wonder what criteria are used to judge what is a Best restaurant, chef, writer. ← Cooking at the Beard house was/is an honor to be a part of. I think some people are a bit 'angry' or jaded by the concept. Any one of us professionals consider it a great regard to be invited there. James Beard and the foundation have set about a standard for the industry which some of you may or may not appreciate. I wonder what tune you would sing had you been nominated... Its not the foundation of the awards which is a joke, funny enough its the kitchen at the house!!! it is ridiculous to cook in! a part of the ceiling fell in on us when i was there last... now that was a hoot...

they had a marketing campaign here in Slovakia last year, something like 'the two week challenge'. they guaranteed satisfaction if you drank one Activa yogurt drink a day. Well i tried it, and have continued with it. From my experience, it improved my digestion, removed the sometimes sluggish 'gout' feeling after breakfast, and gave me more energy. Could be all in my head, but i would recommend it...

The results are in for this years James Beard awards. Check out the award winners here any comments or experiences about the winners this year??

curious as to what your final choice was )

you can also press on the slip to determine ripeness....

my money would be on a la mission haute brion... don't know the price on it, but had a '45 la tour with my former employer which was deelightful...

i witnessed swordfish under UV lights to remove the parasites. once you see those things wiggle out, you will NEVER eat swordfish again!!!!

Bang for the buck, its gotta be a Benriner. They rock!! For commercial use, something which has a built in blade needs to be 'semi disposable,' and at about $35 a pop, you can do that with a Benriner. Also seems to hold a blade for quite some time. Never seen the point of buying an expensive one because the blades aren't near as good, and the construction not worth the extra cost. Some do have removable blades but are freaking a pain to get sharpened properly and are more thickly made and not as fine as the Benriner... Thats my 2 cents anyway...