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Gabe Q

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Posts posted by Gabe Q

  1. While I didn't say this in a way to make sound wd-50 sound bad, maybe it could have sent the wrong message. I am definitely an advocate for this type of cooking, and so I want to see places like this triumph. I just thought I'd share the experience of other people from the industry whom I know, that don't even know about egullet. But not to use it in a negative way, but as an unviased opinion.

  2. While I have not been to wd-50 myself to eat I have also heard a lot of mixed reviews about it. I do plan to visit soon, but maybe will opt for a la carte.

    I recently talked to a friend of mine from Spain who is a chef de partie at elbulli. And he told me that the day before thansgiving, he along with another chef de partie from elbulli and friends from mini-bar in DC went there and they did not like the food at all. And these are obviously people that are used to working with and tasting all sort of cutting edge cuisine. He felt that the food didn't have any depth of flavor and was maybe trying too hard to be "out there" instead of putting the flavor factor first.

    But I think food like this is very personal and it will affect everyone differently. I will probably go try out a few dishes soon and see what I think.

  3. I recently bought the Angelo Corvitto book in Spain "Los secretos del helado" (The secrets of ice-cream) and it is excellent. From what I've seen it is the most professional ice cream book out there.

    Because there are a lot of ice cream books out there which only use typical home ingredients which are basically eggs, cream, etc.

    But in his book it is more focused for the ice cream business and also for fine dining restaurants so it includes the use off important additives like inverted sugar, dextrose, glucose, stabilizers, etc which gives you a trully professional result.

    The book is very pricey, 150 euros and I have not seen it outside of Spain. Spanish only but I think it's worth it.

  4. For all of you who were wondering how they did the oil caviar for the dashi dish, I present to you the oil encapsulating machine from elbulli.

    gallery_46172_5184_204645.jpg

    You can see the machine in action right there. Basically here is how it works. On the left side you see a line with olive oil coming in, and on the right side is the second line with the alginate mixed with squid ink (to make it black obviously). The oil is pumped by a syringe that you charge everytime and it goes into a motorized lever that pumps it. The alginate goes into a bottle where there is an air pump and it forces the liquid out into the line. Inside the machine's central unit where both lines meet, there are 6 pivots and it joins both fluids, and so what comes out are drops which have oil in the center, surrounded by the ink alginate. And that falls into a Calcic bath to create a basic spherification. The thing though is that the machine doesn't just run perfectly by itself, so you have to constantly be observing the drops coming out because sometimes the oil is not "encapsulated" so it just falls into the calcic bath and makes a mess of oil and solidified alginate. So it needs tweaking all the time. Pretty interesting though.

  5. Hello everyone

    Well I got a very unusual and interesting report from today. We had our typical meeting before starting the day and there were 5 guys in the kitchen there just watching. And they spent the whole day today walking around and filming everything and the chefs were all explaining to them all the techniques and things we were doing. And they told us the reason they were there. They were all spanish, and the reason they were there was because they are in the process of developing a VIDEO GAME based around elBulli!!!!!!!

    This is like beyond reason. I have no idea what it will be like or when it'll come out or anything. All Albert Adria told us at the meeting is that those guys are game developers and will be working on making a videogame based on elbulli. They asked everyone in the kitchen who played video games and the people who raised their hands they told them to talk to the guys later to give them some imput. Needless to say we joked all day as to who could play the villain :raz:

  6. I am wanting to buy a siphon soon and I have been checking around the internet for different options. Most of the places I have been to use the ISI brand. But I have seen models that are considerably cheaper. I assume they all have a standard size for the charges so you can use them with any siphon brand.

    So me question is, is there a considerable difference in quality between ISI siphons and cheaper models by other brands????

  7. Hey Baggy

    Yes, the Quail Jelly dish is served cold. The jelly is kept cold in a fridge already set in the serving cups. If I am not mistaken there are also 3 radish cubes and pea mousse at the bottom below the quail jelly. Then when they are ordered they are taken out of the fridge, the langoustine cream is added to cover the jelly, and a quenelle of the froie gras parfait is taken out from the parfait mold from the fridge also. There is some sea salt and freshly ground pepper and chives added to the parfait and then a little square of fig tuile inserted on the quenelle and that is transferred to the middle of the jelly.

  8. I read on eater.com yesterday that all the plywood in front of Tailor has already been removed. So it may seem that indeed, tomorrow will be the opening date for Tailor as mentioned in Iuzzini's calendar.

    Anyone has any news regarding this or plan to go there for the opening date???

  9. Nice report Stephen. Just one thing to clarify, not to disappoint anyone, but the roe inside the sea cucumbers is real trout roe that they just buy in a jar.

    The only caviar being made now (by myself I might add :raz: ) is olive oil caviar made with alginate that has been colored black with squid ink. So it looks like real caviar. That is then seasoned with salt and miso paste and goes with the dashi gelatine plate in the little caviar tin. And it's done with a special machine they have to encapsulate oils inside alginate, not in the old fashioned way like the melon caviar.

  10. I had made a point of stopping to follow The Launch website since they obviously just stopped making any updates and the people from Tailor have kept an extremely low profile the last few months. Now I don't see any dates they expect to open.

    Anyone has ANY information on the place and a possible date????

  11. I have been curious about this same topic so I thought I'd bump it up instead of starting a new one.

    I am wanting to start experimenting with desserts and the restaurants I am currently in uses a lot of them for both savory and pastry. They have this company that privides them all the edible flowers already selected and packaged.

    Is there any online resources you know for ordering edible flowers, or somewhere in NYC that specifically sells flowers for cooking????

  12. Just as a fun fact, in tonight's service the special guest was non other than "Yukio Hatori" (hope that's spelled good), the main commentator from the original Japanese Iron Chef show! The kind of chubby one with the white hair. The whole kitchen staff including the Adria brothers seemed very excited to welcome him.

  13. Funny thing is that mannitol is a sugar used for therapeutic purposes. We give it IV to induce a diuresis from the kidneys. It is most commonly used during neurosurgery. I love the way Ferran Adria and Co. take elements from different contexts and apply them in novel ways.

  14. Forgot these ones:

    Icy Truffle meringue: that was carrot juice that was mounted similar to the pine meringue, and then also piped in little dots on sheets and put overnight in the dehydrator.

    Sweet Frost Fruits: That meringue I recall has many different things, including Xilitol which is a type of sugar that's commonly used for "sugar free" chewing gums that doesn't promote dental cavities and feels cool in the mouth. They cover blackberries with it and sculpt it by hand and again put it in the dehydrator overnight.

    The raspberry with wasabi: is just a raspberry that is dipped in hot "Manitol", which is a type of sugar that comes in powder form and is heated until it melts completely into liquid state and can reach very high temperatures with no color change. It is just like a one second dip and then taken out and the freshly scrapped wasabi is put on top and it goes with the raspberry liquor.

  15. OK from what I've seen:

    Beetroot meringue: is done just in the oven. Pastry does it though so I can't guarantee that.

    Fever Tonic meringue: in a siphon with soda charges and gelatine sheets.

    Pistachio meringue: in siphons with cream charges and then freeze dried.

    Pine meringue for the daquoise: they mount pine infused water with several things I can't recall and then pipe it in sheets and put it in the dehydrator overnight.

    So they are applying a whole bunch of techniques to come up with all those textures. Out of those the tonic is wet, and the rest are completely dry.

    I have noticed that once they get a product they like they go crazy with it. To an extend that to me is bad. Like for example I think this year they are going way overboard with the algae. Since the beginning of the season I have seen like 20 different ones used, but there are a few of them that they just use and use non stop. They try not to put the same thing twice on a persons menu. For example in the razor clam dish with the algae salad, if they are served a new dish now that has an algae they call "Codium", then they put a substitution on the other dish's salad. But it's getting to a point where a couple of them I have seen used in like 6-8 different plates throughout the season. So in that sense I think they are overdoing it.

  16. No problem. Glad I can help in any way.

    Unfortunately right now I don;t know exactly the recipes or exact way in which they make the morphings since they are all made in the pastry department. I know which they are, but not how they are made exactly. That I can remember now they are serving 5 different morphings.

  17. A "morphing" is basically their way of saying petit fours. Since they have the menu designed with the snacks first, which are usually savory, and they are just little things to be eaten before the tapas/plates. Then come the pre-desserts and desserts, and then they finish with morphings. Well since they were very similar to the snacks, only sweet, then they thought the word morphing fit well since it "morphs" from savory to sweet towards the end of the meal. So it is basically just petit fours after the desserts.

    From 1988-1997 they were called "petit fours". Then from 1998-2000 They were called "Follies". In 2001 they had both "Follies" and "Morphings". And from 2003-present they are only called "Morphs" or "Morphings".

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