lapin d'or

Potential new employers, if they are local and know the place, will want to know why you stayed there more than a week. I would start looking very fast and have some good reasons to give for moving on, ones that do not focus on the current employers shortcomings. Even if I couldn't get into a high class restaurant straight away I would want to get into one that other chefs would respect for what they do.

Josh, If your girlfriend is not actually working right now she could maybe just try and get some unpaid time in a good kitchen, start convincing people she really wants to do this. And please do not let her walk into an interview insisting she only wants to do the showpiece stuff. I know I sound like a grumpy old woman but I am concerned about her expectations of a first job, people want to see what you can do with the basics first.

Sounds like employees get more respect in France. Restaurants have summer vacation closures and staff gets 2 days in a row off. I doubt the staff are complaining.

Chris - I have a mould - I would never get them to look neat otherwise! Alanamoana, I am testing my egullet skills now but I think this link will take you to the post where you can download the excel spreadsheet for checking ganache recipes. schneich's balancing ganache post The thread is titled Balancing your Ganache Recipes 2.0 You need to change the formulae to match the ingredients you are using ie cocoa butter percentages for your chocolate and fat percentages of cream etc. But I have found it quite fun to use.

Lior, I think he is saying to heat the syrup up to 119 if you are then adding an unsweetened spirit but only 117 if it is sweetened. I guess the lower temp for the sweet spirit version results in the final sugar percentage by volume being the same as the unsweetend version?

I am trying to work on some chocolates/petit fours that are intended to eat after a dinner. This is my attempt at a cappucino candy. The cup mould is lined with a 63% Weiss dark chocolate and then a layer of coffee ganache from Greweling and then a vanilla white chocolate ganache based on Scotts book. I have been using the ganache checker spreadsheet posted by Schneich to tweak the recipes and this has worked very well for the first few I have done.

The site I linked to above has a small video showing how these sheets are printed, and yes you do get an actual transfer sheet.

I found this site : chocolate printing Looks like fun

We also had a very good lunch there a few weeks ago. Only marginally spoilt by two rather loud ladies that lunch. I could have done without the graphic details of how their first husbands had passed away. I had a really good guinea fowl dish as my main and I cannot remember the name but the beer was very good too.

I have only used chestnut flour to make pasta, not puree, but the pasta was very good.

"Feed the goat". Anywhere near Manchester most likely a Man City fan's graffitti in reverence to - Shaun Goater ex city player - Feed the Goat and he will score.

Chris's evangelical manner to his healthy food reminds me of those people who come knocking at your door offering to save you with their magazines. Why does a fresh piece of fish need an 'amino' foam? I like to see some lighter options on a menu but the whole menu?

I think a lot of the chefs have just cooked dishes they do everyday - never mind the competition criteria. How many would have agreed to do this competition if say just the final was televised.

My dipped caramels have done that too. It effected to so many pieces in my first batch that I had to double dip them. I think I read somewhere on this board that you should take care not to have too sharp edges on your caramel pieces so I lightly hand rolled mine last time before dipping to round off the corners and I think that helped a lot - far fewer appendages in my most recent batch!

superbags Adey, this UK site was linked to in another thread recently - they list the 100 micron bag. No idea if they have them in stock.

I cannot think of any regional foods that are vegan but for non vegan in the south west of england do try: cream tea - scones, jam, clotted cream fresh brown crab fish & chips (at Steins in Padstow they are very good) cornish pasties (also good ones to be found in Padstow) west country cider (should be vegan I guess) many many excellent local cheeses I am sure there are more uk vegan info sites but here are a few http://www.bristol.vegangroup.co.uk/index.html http://www.leedsveg.co.uk/eatingout.htm http://www.gla.ac.uk/clubs/vegan/scotland.html Hope you enjoy your visit

Tammy, its good to hear that method does work . I was getting very uneven shell thickness when I tried to angle the mould - some too thin, some too thick and assumed it came from not having the mould level when it drained. - I will just have to try again. I use the cling wrap lots as I still get drips and runs over the side of the bowl whatever I do!

I thought about getting a bigger melter because I was having lots of trouble working with chocolate moulds and my round 3kg melter. I could not tip the chocolate out back into the melter without making a right mess. I started tipping out onto a plastic tray but that meant I had to temper far more chocolate than I needed in one go. I now work around this by only filling about three quarters of the cavities in any mould- as many as I can without exceding the diameter of the bowl. I buy an extra mould so I still get a reasonable number of any one type out. By buying as many moulds as I can second hand this does not work out too expensive and if I ever get a bigger melter, well I'll be making more chocolates and want the moulds anyway. Those melters are so expensive Lapin

There is a recipe on page 25 of Paula Wolfert's The Cooking of the Eastern Mediterranean. She spices the ground lamb with black pepper, cinnamon and salt and then the dish is garnished with ground allspice. The onions and pine nuts are browned in butter.

I would say that unwanted attention of any sort is pretty annoying. I have seen waiters make quite a nuisance of themselves to tables of attractive females, usual endless checking of the ashtray and fussing of the table. Then I also get mad when I see guests demanding contact from the female wait staff. Most recently while at a table with someone celebrating their birthday the guy lurched at the waitress demanding a birthday kiss. Why does this happen in restaurants so much? It can't just be the alcohol.

Betty's certainly used to do individual cakes to order, there is a contact tel no on their web site. I think you get the choice of a fruit cake or a sponge cake with a personalised message. I am pretty sure you could collect from the shop in York. I have always enjoyed their bakery items but they are quite expensive.

I have been wondering if it would help to use a chocolate with as low a cocoa butter content as possible. If the chocolate you use has no added cocoa butter then that might help keep it more fluid?

schneich, are you adding hazelnut oil to the praline & chocolate?

I would guess from your description that the restaurant has specifically set out to use some bought in dishes and stuff that they believe can be zapped in a deep fryer to achieve a wide choice menu that can be on the plate in minutes and thus give them more scope to do several customers per table once things get busy. If that is what they have set out to achieve then they are not going to change it for someone who would like a little more care taken with their food. If the chef is not also the owner it may not even be his personal choice, so having a chat may just make him even more frustrated about what he is being asked to cook. If I went back I would just pick stuff they couldn't reheat in a fryer or buy ready made. That might narrow things down a bit too much mind.

My mother loves family tradition and while we were still at home we always had All Gold for Christmas. She bought some when she came to stay with me a year ago and they were just not the same at all, but we all made polite noises. I've been making my own chocolates for just over a year now and would really like to do this for fun, and for my mum. I reckoned if I used a good chocolate it would be worthwhile. Neither my mum nor most of the people I sell chocolates to show any interest in 'modern' flavours so this rather fits with what I have to do anyway. Thank you for the museum link, I did not know about them.