Lesley C

It sounds bit more like Toque! lite to me than bistro. Bigorre, can you give us an idea of what you ate?

What's this about? Does a chef show up do his thing between 5 and 7? Will there be other chefs involved? What are we talking here, canapes? Do tell.

I once reviewed a restaurant my husband was making desserts for and I said his tiramisu was mediocre. It was mediocre. He told me why it was mediocre, but that didn't matter to the readers. I was just doing my job. He barely spoke to me for a week. Had I disclosed our relationship in the review, some might have thought I had it out for him. So you see in many ways, you're damned if you do and damned if you don't. Also about the Spice Market review, there might have been little said had her words been limited to praise. But that review read like a love letter, and the fact she left out Kunz gave the impression -- rightly or wrongly-- that she had perhaps taken sides in a dispute between the two chefs. In the long run, what's more important, the chef who owns the place, or the chefs who pulled together the dishes being reviewed? I would say the latter.

Steven's right. That's the heart of the matter.

Carswell, I think you should contact him and offer your services for a few terrines or something. Sometimes these restaurateurs have no one to point that out or help. Do him a favour, put that language out of its misery!

Yes, I did read that review, but I think you can only get away with a line like that once, or at the most twice. What if you have to say it over and over again, and before every four-star restaurant review? Forget it, your credibility is shot. As for a reviewer not being from New York, the only reason I say that is because any high-profile food writer in New York is bound to have come in contact over and over again with chefs, and eventually get a bit chummy with one or two. I would think that most topnotch New York food writers would be in the same boat as Hesser. However, the disadvantage of going with an outsider is ending up with someone who knows little about the New York, New Yorkers, and the history of the city's restaurant scene -- which makes for very food-driven, dull reviews.

So how was she to have disclosed that nugget of information without losing credibility with her audience? And how is she expected to write-up the restaurants of the other chefs she knows? And there are many. I don't think she'll ever be able to distance herself from all the people she has had to write about for years. She has been reporting on restaurant trends, she has had to speak to these people over and over again for a long time. They all know her. I don't think she'll ever be able to escape that. This is a problem way beyond anonymity. Then again, she's not helping her case by gushing over someone like Jean-Georges twice in the past month. This proves that the only realistic candidate for that job would be someone from outside the Times, or even New York.

Sorry, I'm only back in Montreal tomorrow. Will call Ian ASAP upon return.

Silverton's latest books, IMO, are too complicated. But I liked her first one. When I saw her vanilla-bean ice cream called for five vanilla beans, well, I almost fell off my chair. Lots to like in that first book, great emphasis on flavour at a time (late eighties) when so much about pastry revolved around looks. In that sense, I think she was revolutionary. And, to stay on topic, there are quite a few good PARFAIT recipes in Desserts.

Good pastry is good pastry, I don't care where it comes from or if it's cutting edge. Nancy Silverton's book, Desserts, was my first big influence. But those professional pastry chef books read like a bible for uninspired hotel or hospital chefs. Talk about drawing the life out of something vibrant. Not my cup of tea.

Dreary, dreary, dreary. If I had flipped through those books before going to cooking school, I would have run the other way. If I had one at home, I would use it as a door stop.

Right-o!

My definitions are for French pastry. And they are correct. Friberg? Who's he?

A parfait glacé is a pate a bombe with flavouring and whipped cream folded in, which is then frozen in shapes or in a terrine. When shaped in a terrine, it is usually served sliced. A mousse glacé adds meringue (such as the nougat glacé) and is usually found inside a bombe glacé lined with ice cream. A biscuit glacé is a creme anglaise-style pate a bombe with whipped cream -- and flavourings -- folded in, frozen in a mold or terrine. And then there's the sabayon glacé (a wine-based parfait glaceé) and the souffle glace (a souffle glacé is a mousse glacée) And yes, a semifreddo and parfait glace are one and the same.

Sorry, but that menu hardly sounds like an alternative to L'Express. And the prices are a lot more than L'Express as well. Mains are in the $20-$30 range. At L'Express they don't go over $20. They will not be serving lunch any time soon.

I also had a tough time getting through the review because it was bogged down with adjectives. And I read the description of the restaurant three times and still couldn't picture it. Also, notice there wasn't a single negative comment in the entire text. I never trust a review that reads like a PR document. One, just one little negative in there would have added some much needed balance to all the praise.

Hey bad things, that's great! A good thing. Still waiting for the response from Hamel. I think the fellow was a little taken back by eGullet.

That's a Swiss machine right? They sell it at Les Touilleurs for over $1000. Krups makes one that looks just the same. I'm waiting for the Phillips Senseo to hit the market. It's under $100 and it makes a decent cup of espresso. I don't care if the machine babysits the kids and washes the dog, I aint dropping a grand on a coffee machine, especially a fully automated one that could bust several times over post guarantee. But yes Kenk I agree it does make a good cup of coffee.

No, what I'm saying is that, in Quebec, cheese made with thermalized milk is allowed to be labeled "raw milk," which if you talk to a purist like Luc Mailloux, is a total travesty because many good bacteria are killed off when milk is heated above the body temperature of a cow.

Unfortunately, in Quebec, thermalized = raw milk. But of course, WE know better.

I just got off the phone with Ian Picard. He's looking into it and will get back to me with his comments soon. So, stay tuned. BTW, that cheese is raw milk.

I have a call in to Hamel's affineur, Yan Picard. Will get back to you soon.

Yeah, but you only refrigerate them for a few minutes. That's the idea: speed. Ideally you let them set at room temperature, cool room temperature, around 14C. You get a better shine that way. But at Easter, who has the time to let the filled molds sit there for hours on end.

The trays of individual chocolates should always set at room temperature. If you put them in the fridge, you'll always end up with too thick a base.

I'm kind of with Sinclair on this one. It might be the design of the mold. But there are ways around this. I once had to make a Christmas scene for a patisserie I worked at, and the Joseph figure always broke at the neck. The way around this is to make sure your first coating of chocolate on the mold is with a brush. Brush quite thickly around the weak spot on the mold. If you have to, do it twice, then snap together the mold and carry on (you might only need one shot of chocolate depending on the size of the mold). There is no way around putting mold in the fridge if you are working on a large scale (also large molded figures must be refrigerated to avoid white streaks in the chocolate taking too long to set). Unless you really have twenty-four hours to spare and you are sure your room is cool enough for the chocolate to set properly, use the fridge. (Molded figures always get refrigerated in my books. But I never, ever refrigerate molded chocolates. IMO, it's a telltale sign of an amateur)