Joisey

I've recently started making terrines and galantines for the restaurant I work at, haven't done it since school 15 years ago. I'm using the Polcyn/Ruhlman book "Charcuterie" as my reference point. My question is about fat loss while cooking. In the book it states that if your farce gets too warm, it could result in the fat emulsion breaking while cooking, which results in shrinkage and a noticeable difference in texture if not flavor. I've been religious in keeping my equipment and raw product as cold as possible. In the two times I've done the Pork/Pork tenderloin inlay recipe I've noticed melted fat both in the water bath and inside the saran wrap. Shrinkage has been negligible, about what you would expect, and I haven't noticed a graininess in texture of the finished product. Is some fat loss like this normal and/or acceptable? Thanks for help and any other tips you guys might have.

Having worked in a casino steakhouse, I can attest that the caliber of cooking isn't quite as high as a French or Italian room. However, you're usually held to stricter food cost standards because most of the time you're getting your stuff PC and cryovaced so the product cost is less and there should be less spoilage. If she has good experience with numbers and watches what goes into the garbage (in addition to doing specials that cost out well), she should do OK.

--In what aspects do you consider Heather a pretty poor line cook? -- In some of the episodes that actually spotlighted her on station, I thought she ran around too much. Not that it makes her poor, but it was something that stood out. What I don't like about her overall package are the extreme mood swings. Anyone that runs those emotional gamuts in a kitchen setting is gonna crash hard. She paints herself as this tough NYC chick but then falls to pieces at both good and bad situations. But hey, at least it wasn't K-Gross.

To me it's like the difference between Andrew Dice Clay and the recent movie "The Aristocrats". Some profanity is gratuitous (the former) and some of it borders on poetry (the latter). Of course the profanity is shocking, isn't that the allure of people like Bourdain and Ramsay to the average joe? They're like the GG Allin of cooking; flinging feces and chasing you around, holding your feet to the fire to make you feel something. I could NEVER work in a kitchen without the profanity, the endless dick jokes (like Tony says, in the kitchen it's ALL about the pinga), ad nauseum. The discourse is what separates us from the suits who have to act civilized towards each other. If a little F-bomb or penis reference slips into the mainstream, then so be it. If it offends you, then I don't want you to know about what I do. It's all part of the package.

--As for the gourmet snob, the last time I ordered off the menu, I ended up getting kicked out of Dick's Last Resort in San Antonio, Texas.-- Great resto. I don't know which I liked better, the penis-shaped balloon that our waiter made my grandmother or the ketchup packets that got thrown at the passing tourists in the little boats. I'm serious, I never laughed so hard in my life as I did at that place.

Reminds me of the old 80's SNL skit with the oriental couple who can't part with their birds..."YOU NO WANT CHICKEN, CHICKEN NO MAKE GOOD HOUSEPET!!!!"

--After Virginia's little speech, I feel like I need a shower.-- God, I felt filthy after a half hour of that mess tonight. When this show first started, the litmus test was "who would I probably hire?". Heather, up until tonight, has been the only one. Now I wouldn't let her whiny ass near my food. I'd have no problem putting Virginia in the pantry where she came from in the first place. It will be fun to see sweaty Tom and the gang back to haunt the two finalists. I'm still waiting for another Virginia in the Hot Tub scene.

Favorite: Ramsay, without a doubt. On The Fence: Bourdain. I totally appreciate the no BS way he tells the tale of "this thing of ours". However, his wannabe Hunter Thompson shtick wears thin. Batali. Loved the guy until I read "Heat". The bumping incident still pisses me off whenever I think of it. Rachel Ray. Pop cooking for the masses, but she loves to drink and laugh. Perfect girl as far as I'm concerned. Emeril. Anyone that hangs out with Sammy Hagar is cool by me. I still laugh at the whole "Ewok" thing, though. Arrgh: Alton Brown. I don't care if he was instructing me to the secret of enlightenment, I would still want to climb the clock tower with a rifle after hearing it. Guy (from Guy's big whatever, the dude that won the Food TV reality show). Would you please take K-Grease from Hell's kitchen and disappear somewhere? Honorable Mention: Not a food celebrity in the sense we're talking about, but Michael Ruhlman is right at the top of my list. He could write a book about Meter Maids and I'd pre-order it. "Charcuterie" is my new bible.

--Her tits don't appear big to me -- Linda, can I buy you lunch sometime? LOL at K-Gross=Sloth from Goonies. I am also reminded of VH1's Celebrity Fit Club last season when they had Jani Lane of the 80's band Warrant. I really want to get behind Heather (to win..) but everytime the tear faucet comes on I want to just smack her. She deserves something, but not her own restaurant. I'll bet Ramsay finds a place for her somewhere else in his empire.

Why should they focus on technique when they can instead have close-microphoned sounds of Giada's lips smacking and chewing sounds while panning down to her cleavage? This is what FoodTV has become (and they don't try to hide it a bit). Honestly, I get more inspiration watching whatever dishes the monkeys on Hell's Kitchen are f**king up than any show on Food TV these days. Bill Buford's new book "Heat" sums up perfectly in one paragraph what I've been telling my wife for the past year about Food Network and its dumbing down. Thank god for the internet and all the great Gordon Ramsay stuff that is out there.

--But, something is bothering me and I think it’s Mario Batali. Not the book, but Mr. Batali himself, or at least the books portrayal of him. -- The part you mentioned also annoyed me, but there's another incident that outright pissed me off..the whole "bumping" incident where Batali dressed down a guy for bumping into him while Mario was working at his station. I've worked in plenty of tight kitchens and you tell someone sorry if you knock into him...I guess if you have to squeeze a huge ego in addition to a fat ass behind a NYC kitchen line, you're gonna get bumped into a lot. The book was a good read, but I could have done with a little less history and a little more kitchen action.

I'll be an asshole until the day I die (and hopefully in the afterlife I can piss off a few people too). Pretentious? No f'ing way.

After reading some of the self-important replies on this thread, I'm tempted to use a term other than "snob".

--Remind me never to be friendly to female coworkers, for fear of everyone assuming I'm gay. I failed to see how that friendly exchange between the two could be taken as sexual.-- The only thing missing from that scene was some 70s background music with the "wocka wocka" guitar. There was totally something there, sorry you missed it (though honestly Rachel scares me so the moment had little erotic value).

I worked at a hotel where we used to throw cinnamon rolls, danishes, profiteroles, Croissants, muffins, whatever we had laying around in the bread pudding. Honestly, is it any worse for you than making French Toast out of Brioche?

Yeah, I'm putting a "Salad Chef" ad up on Craigslist in my next kitchen in hopes Virginia will show up.

Somewhere in a Spanish Laboratory, they may be working to change that....

Saw it and I wasn't blown away. Some of the techniques are pretty cool, but I guess I'm just old school. It was neat like watching a Discovery Channel show, but I have no desire to eat it.

--I'd find that all kinds of amusing to watch. Big ol' dopey Keith at his side as sous. That actually has the makings of a decent movie, maybe.-- Yeah, a bad remake of "Of Mice And Men". Having worked my way through both the "Boiling Points" and "The True Gordon Ramsay", the thing that gets me the most is how much the guy whines when he's "bollocking" someone. I've worked with guys who just spew venom when they yell, Gordon has this almost mincing quality that is annoying and endearing at the same time.

Oh, Rachel and Heather had a little flirtation going on. Heather actually initiated it, which surprised me.

If Heather stopped crying everytime something bad happened and was a little more assertive, I'd give her a shot. That whole little subplot with her and Rachel just skeeved me, too.

Jesus I wanted to just stamp my feet...how many times can you screw up Beef Wellington? Someone needs to smack that dopey bastard Keith, too.

--Watching them get treated is a snap.-- Didn't they used to just shove a syringe of penicillin up there and push the plunger? I had a teacher in Jr. High who was a WWII vet and he loved to regale us with neat stories like that. Way OT, sorry.

I'm going to go against the grain here and say that there are medical procedures besides childbirth I'd rather witness than watch Alton Brown...watching a festering boil get lanced, or maybe seeing soldiers in WWII get treated for the clap. I guess I'd prefer to just learn something rather than have to sit through a vaudeville routine to acquire the knowledge.

--I have to ask whether or not others on this forum think that anyone would really be willing to work under an executive chef (which is the prize, right?) who won their job on a TV show?-- At this point I'd be willing to bet the farm that any "Executive Chef" job that one of these morons is going to win will be in title only. I also thought for sure that Virginia or one of the other women would say something about Sara's little game. I'd bet if Heather was on that team she would have piped up, being the only one who has any sense of integrity or professionalism. Honestly, at the end I thought Ramsay was going to call Sara out for it, like maybe he heard the exchange and was playing along. Jesus what a train wreck though; how fast do you think the French Culinary Institute is purging that guy Tom from their records to deny he ever graduated from there?