AAQuesada

The hardest part of making big batches of bechamel is making the roux properly. Are you using oil or butter for the roux? If you're using butter are you cooking off the water first.. there is a lot of water in 15 lbs of butter. what is the temp of your fat when you add your flour? If it's too high the flour wont properly absorb the fat and you won't get all the thickening you could out of your roux. 1lb per gallon for a med thick roux is how I learned it as well. 2 lbs of roux per gal is way too much, something is wrong if you have to use that much roux.

From: Chef2Chef BF15 yellow skin, dark yellow flesh available from July to March excellent for frying, mashing, sautéing I would say Yukon gold.

Are you doing this on top of the stove on the fire or in the oven? When I butter baste I either do all the way on top of the stove or before the protein goes in the oven. Once your in the oven I wouldn't touch it unless you didn't get a good sear going in.

You can add Michel Richard to the list of creative pastry chefs gone over to the savory side. Interesting article, thanks for posting about it or I may not have seen it. There is a lot of truth to it of course it doesn't tell the whole story. Escoffier did some famous deserts but came from the savory side. I would say he was fairly revolutionary.

Laiskonis has some really good cheat sheets posted on his site. Had to dig a bit but here they are http://mlaiskonis.typepad.com/files/metric-volume-conversions.pdf http://mlaiskonis.typepad.com/files/metric-weight-and-measure-conversions.pdf http://mlaiskonis.typepad.com/files/temperature-conversion.pdf http://mlaiskonis.typepad.com/files/standard-temperature-measurements-1.pdf

If you try it let me know what you think.

They aren't getting a lot of support. The GM worked for Michael Mina in the past, and MM was quoted as saying "what was he thinking?". All this apparently because SIV didn't like some of the chef's deserts at XIV Mina's trendy Hollywood place. Relationships are really important in this business you should think before you start burning bridges.

I usually do equal parts 3oz butter + 3oz flour by weight. If you use butter, if you don't clarify it at least try to cook out the water.

I finally developed a recipe I like. There's nothing wrong with the boxed stuff, but I like to do things the hard way. Japanese Curry Yield: 10 Ingredients: Amount: Notes: Beef Chuck 1 lb Cubed Onions 6 ea Julienned Garlic cloves 3 ea minced Ginger 1T Minced Chicken Stock 1 gal Hot Curry Pwdr 3 T Pref Japanese (S&B) Apple, red 2 ea Carrots 4 ea 1/2" Mire Poix Potato, AP 4 ea 1/2" Mire Poix Peas, frozen 6 oz sachet 1ea 1 star anise, 1 bay leaf Brown Roux 6 oz Add 2T curry pwdr to roux Methods: 1) Sear meat, remove and reserve Key Points: 1) Do not over crowd pan 2) Caramelize Onions 2) Slow, med heat 3) Add Ginger + Garlic 3) . 4) Add hot stock and Sachet; Add meat 4) . 5) Peel and grate Apples into pot 5) . 6) Simmer until soft 6) . 7) Add Carrots, Potatoes, curry powder 7) . 8) Simmer until just cooked 8) . 9) Add curry roux and simmer until thick 9) . 10) Add frozen peas & serve 10) .

Aleppo is a decent sub for Espelette, often easier to find and less expensive. Although I do love Pd'E, it's med spicy and pretty aromatic, it's usually ground just a little coarser than most chile powders as well.

LOL! So as I was saying.. great move Congratulations on landing a good gig.

No one in the industry respects Tsuji or graduates of Tsuji. Culinary schools in Japan are not like culinary schools elsewhere. caveat emptor. Interesting.. why is that? What is culinary school like in japan?

Should be fine, you did add the egg in the pan. So it should have been hot enough to cook through as long as you didn't let it sit out for more than an hour or two before refrigerating. If you did the Mario Batali recipe where you mix in the egg yolk later Id say chuck it.

Firefly really is pretty good! I love my classic cocktails but, flavoring neutral spirits isn't a travesty. Its Gin, aquavit, lemoncello....

LOL! I've seen it put through a food mill like mash potatoes!!

That's great that you can speak the language. BUT: Do you have any professional cooking experience in your home country. Any knowledge on how to use the big 3 hocho: Yanagi-ba, Deba, Usuba. Can you do basic katsura muki? Japanese cooking may look easy on the plate, but that belies a lot of technical skill. It would be a lot to expect to get a job working in a restaurant in your home country with little experience or training, I don't know why you would expect to do it in Japan? If you really want to go through with it I would thing culinary school would be a good route. Here's one that even has an english web page. http://www.tec-tsuji.com/english/

That's what my F.Dick chefs is for. Or a really old school knife like a Chef de chef: http://thebestthings.com/knives/sabatier_canadian_knives.htm The Japanese equivalent would be a western deba. You can scroll down the page for an example: http://www.japanesechefsknife.com/SwedenSteelSeries.html

Yup. It is explained pretty well here: http://www.foodieforums.com/vbulletin/archive/index.php?t-6840.html And if you want to master japanese knifes you really need to develop good sharpening habits. I would say minimum once a week in a working kitchen or daily depending on use. It becomes much easier if you don't wait until they get super dull. The egullet sharpening class is a great resource as well: They shouldn't be all that chippy if used properly.

The only way to really learn the deba is to try to use it exclusively for at least a month or so. Here are some places to start. http://www.tsuji.ac.jp/hp/gihou/Basic_Techniques/japan/fish/sea_bream/home.html From the great Itasan18: Cleaning and breaking a salmon Japanese style.

AAQ, thank you for the link. I've not seen MINSA products in our local Mexican markets, but I suspect if I look hard enough I can find it easier than I think How was the food show, and especially Comida Latina. I wanted to go but was actually in Mexico so had to miss it this year. Other than the masa you cited above, any new and/or interesting items? I think it will be one of those things where we, the buying public, need to ask for. In mexico I think non-GMO and organic don't really figure much into buying decisions. There was someone importing good quality Mexican Vanilla based out of S.D..(PM me if you want the name). Chocolatera Moctezuma from Michoacan was there with some really high quality Mexican chocolate including 40% bittersweet tabla.. Some really nice Mezcal from http://premiummezcal.com/ who is fighting for shelf space. Those were the ones that interested me the most. There were quite a few beef and pork wholesalers, Mexican Cheese producers, Spice and Chile vendors. All sorts of prepared foods.

Out of season there doesn't seem to be much difference between med or thin. If they are a little old and limp you can revive them like cut flowers by trimming the bottom and putting them in water with an aspirin. You won't believe how they firm up! Personally in season I love the Jumbo Green or Purple Asparagus from the Sacramento delta. Thicker is more tender and doesn't need to be peeled in season IMO just trim dry or tough stalks and cut any scales from the side. I still remember my first in season farmers market Asparagus from Zuckerman farms. I couldn't believe the sweetness, it seems like a totally different vegetable.

Yep! I don't dis-agree with you I just wish I could see it done (you tube) or hear a report of someone who made with success, because it is so different. Don't get me wrong, I've made pasta a lot and know how it's supposed to be when made in the usual 100g per egg or high ratio yolk formula. I'd love to master his technique because his reputation is so solid. The formula is soo different it seemingly has to be genius or unworkable and I can't figure out which?!

So, I went to the Western Regional food show/Comida Latina and I thought I'd share one of the purveyors. 'MINSA' is selling Organic and Non GMO corn flours from White, yellow, red and blue corn. http://www.minsa.com.mx/ingquienes.html

Yes, Bugalli uses XL eggs, I calculated it out at 27 oz per dozen or 2.25 oz ea. I wanted a way to compare the recipes and converting to a bakers percentage seems the best way. Bugalli's ratio seems to be pretty standard. Bertolli's is very different and a lot lower hydration on both his whole egg and semolina recipes. His egg yolk heavy formula goes back to a higher hydration. I just am very curious if anyone has had success with it. My experience is that it yields a VERY dense dough that is difficult to work with.

You must have industry contacts in catering. I would highly recommend getting in on a few event to really get a feel for the differences. As a lot of questions. The cooking is the easy part.