Lesley C

Malawry, I'm at odds with your biscuit roulade recipe. Why heat the eggs? It's not a génoise. A trick for the butter: place about a 1/2 cup of your final egg/flour mixture in a small bowl and whisk in the butter, this way the two mixtures will be compatible when you fold them together. Also, why roll the cake once cooked? It should be moist enough to roll when cool. I never understood that method. Just leave it on the parchment until ready to roll. Keeping on the parchment makes it easier to handle.

When I worked in a big pastry shop, we used to grease pans with a paint sprayer filled with some German grease. We also used the sprayer to butter sandwiches. I think I inhaled enough oil on a daily basis to fry calamari. At home I butter and flour, or use Pam when I'm lazy. My Misto broke about a week after I bought it.

I just heard from a friend in Paris who read that Pierre Hermé is having some sort of financial difficulties. Apparently there were a few discreet lines in Le Figaro last week about trouble with his partner. Has anyone else heard this news? I'm sure he'd have no problem finding another backer if these reports are correct?

I like the Ducasse book done with Linda Dannenberg, Tradition. Pretty pictures. Never cooked from it though

OK cake is done. The hardest part of this recipe is grating the chocolate. I used a new rotary microplane grater I had to test out and it was tedious. At least the grating results were good. I started this recipe by creaming together (with the paddle on a Kitchen Aid) the butter (straight from the fridge) and the almond paste (the supermarket Odense variety, yet had I been in a pastry kitchen “pâte d’amande brut” would be the correct almond paste to use for a cake). I then followed with the sugar, vanilla (extract, I’d never waste a good vanilla bean on a cake batter) and salt. Then I whisked together the dry ingredients, whipped up the whites with the sugar, folded one third of the whites into the base mixture, stirred vigorously, then proceeded to fold in the rest of the whites in two times. I then folded in the dry ingredients, transferring the mixture to a second bowl to finish folding (I always do this when making chocolate mousse as well; it’s a good way to make sure the bottom of your mix is as smooth as the top). Poured the mixture into a 9’ cake mold (lightly Pammed on the bottom with a parchment round on top), and baked – like Chefette – for 40 minutes. The resulting cake is 1 3/4-inches high. I find the top is slightly overcooked and the surrounding crust is bitter. To resolve this, I’d bake it for 20 minutes at 375º then turn it down to 350º, OR bake the whole thing at 350º. About the ganache. The food processor method is common, especially in chocolate shops where they make ganache in huge quantities. I’ve even seen chocolate tempered in massive food processors. The microwave method is not recommended because the ganache can split, but if it works for you and you get good results, why change now. When I make ganache, I chop the chocolate by hand (placing the block of chocolate in the microwave for 30 seconds makes it easier to chop) and gradually add the chocolate while stirring with a spatula. Some pastry chefs pour the hot cream over a big bowl of chopped chocolate and stir it up later, sometimes finishing with an immersion blender for a super-smooth ganache. There are many different kinds of ganache in the pastry-chef's repertoire besides the common 50-50 recipe. They all kind of have to be treated differently.

Steve is right about the Teubner book. It's nice (he must be Swiss) but the instructions lack detail. I read through the recipe and the method of folding in the dry ingredients after the whites is absolutely correct (he did not mention lightening the base mixture, though, which is an essential step with almond paste-based cakes). I'll try it today and report back. You can never have too much cake in the house!

Be sure to pre-heat your oven and that your mold is ready when the batter is ready. Try removing 1/4 of the sugar from the first creaming step and adding it to the whites to keep them firm. Then, when ready to fold, STIR 1/3 of the whites into the butter/almond paste mixture with a spoon to lighten the base mixture, then FOLD in the rest using a rubber spatula. As Sandra said, be sure your pan is the correct size. The steam idea might be left to the last 10 minutes of the cooking time. Also, French cakes are often cut into many thin slices. I've cut cakes into five that most people would cut into two. How high was your last cake? Finally, what recipe are you using?

Veyrat is a chef known for his innovative use of the herbs and flowers specific to his area, therefore I would think many of his ingredients would be tough to track down at your average North American supermarket. I have many such chef's books that I read, but can't use. The Guy Martin vegetable book is good, but the recipes seem overly complicated. Chefs think differently than home cooks -- especially French chefs -- and I don't think their mindset translates well into the home-cooking mentality.

I often use the Georges Blanc books: La Nature dans L'Assiette and, I think, La Vigne dans L'Assiette. They are also available in English. Also excellent and less "cheffy" are the Joel Robuchon books: Le Meilleur et le Plus Simple de la France (co-written with Christian Millau) and Le Meilleur et Le Plus Simple de la Pomme de Terre (co-written with Dr Patrick Sabatier). I'm not sure if these have been translated. The recipes are outstanding.

Great report. My Parisian brother-in-law gave me a set of those wine label lifter plastic sheets. They are truly amazing, the smoothest and fastest way to remove a wine label cleanly. They're called COLLECTIQUETTE and are made in Japan. If you're interested, I could find out where to buy them in Paris.

lizziee thank you thank you for these amazing reports. How my heart bleeds for you over that dinner! After spending that sum for that food I'm sure I'd have gone straight back to my balcony and cried my eyes out. I remember an issue of Thuries magazine a few years back that featured Veyrat's cuisine. It looked awful. Worse yet, it looked very weak technically and most of the dishes were smothered in herbs and flowers. Yuck.

I watched Gary Rhodes make some the other day on his cooking show. He melted black licorice and added it to a regular anglaise ice cream base. He served it with sticky toffee pudding I think. Looked great.

Are you paying a lot more for the goose foie gras? The colour can be dull, but I remember goose foie gras in France as having a creamier texture than the duck. Looking forward to your Foie Gras d'oie au torchon et sa petite compote de coings.

Sounds delicious! Actually, I don't know why I bothered with this queestion. I think everything Nancy Silverton does is pretty amazing. She has great, great taste.

I know of the goose, but I didn't know there was any foie gras being produced. Jesus, hot goose foie gras...now there's an idea for an article. Some people have told me in France that searing goose foie gras really ruins its delicate flavour. Guru, are you going to have a go at goose foie gras?

The problem with the garlic you find in supermarkets sold between December and May (often from China, Argentina or Mexico) is that it’s been stored in refrigerated conditions for up to 8 months before sale. Not only is it far from fresh, but the cool temperatures cause it to dry out, discolor, and lose its potent flavour. It's best to stock up on locally-grown garlic at the peak of the season (September and October here in Canada) and store in a dark place in your kitchen. It should keep well until next summer.

Are you sure about the goose foie gras? Only duck foie gras is produced in Quebec. Also, I have never seen goose foie gras served hot, either here or in France. So, overall, did you prefer Savannah to Cube? Did you have anything breaded at Savannah? Their breading was awful. Maybe they fixed that.

Curry and banana bread

Has anyone had a look at this book? If so, thumbs up or down ?

I just saw Susur Lee on a decorating show (!) cooking pork confit with cherries and apples, and I'll tell you, I've never seen an apple peeled so beautifully. I haven't tasted his food, but just the sight of his technique assures me that with Susur you can believe the hype.

Please tell me there was no pork foam

I second the suggestion of Baking with Julia. It's an excellent book, and there are basic recipes and technique pictures in the first chapter.

Don't know the guy but ...couldn't these people come up with some new and original mentors. Just reading that list gives me an idea of what he's cooking. Makes me want to watch Martha Stewart make a pie.

Thank you Steve. Our book was inspired by the Roux pastry book, which influenced me greatly when starting out as a pastry chef. It's not a dessert book (a waste of time IMO because desserts are so quickly dated), it's a pastry technique book. Unfortunately our book, Boulangerie et pâtisserie: Techniques de base, is only available in French at www.indigo.ca and www.amazon.ca (amazon's Canadian site). I have a few English copies, so if anyone's interested, e-mail me.

No, you're right, I've seen that done in a big hotel. Why not just buy the eggs whole in liquid form? When I worked in a patisserie in France I never separated a single egg because they bought the yolks and whites separately. Major time saver.