tan319

Still think it's about his past rep and a "how dare he!" attitude.

Bruni and Cuozzo are about as different as can be, but they have very similar complaints. In my view, this gives credibility to both. ← Could be but, why does someone like eG member bryanZ ( amongst others) review it swell, talking about how much extra food ( amuse wise, etc,) and didn't mention the wine controversy until it hit the papers. bryanZ is a pretty even handed, enthusiastic, supportive gourmet. Reviewers who still have to drag out the old tired "blindfolded dinner" at Atlas or Pappillon are like rock writers who still mention the "Bat Biting" incident when they write something about Ozzy Osbourne, boring. Question... is Gilt REALLY the ONLY restaurant in NYC who are hiking wine prices up? Also, Liebrandt having a staff of 92 for a 54 person dining room says that he is trying to give an experience on par with France and Spains best and most starred high end restaurants, IMO.

Andrea Strong's Strongbuzz has a a mini review of Room 4 Dessert. The link will take you pretty much right to it. BTW, The Strong Buzz, IMHO, is a very worthwhile bulletin to sign up to, and it's free.

Re: The NYPost article. And the knives come out. Gee, he's 29 and talented and confident... Hmmmmm.... That = full of himself. It's that rockstar thing again. Chefs aren't allowed to be ballsy. "Aw shucks" works better. Screw 'em, hate their bullshit ( papers)

Yeah, I'm going to throw a few more up here How did you end up doing your stages with Pierre Herme and Michel Richard? Having eaten at Citrus and Citronelle a few times and knowing he dug ( as most french people/pastry chefs do, that milk chocolate hazelnut combo, is your Milk Chocolate Hazelnut Parfait with Tangerine sauce sort of an homage to him? I had one remarkeablt like yours at Union Pacific in '999/'2K? Could that have been you? Thank!

That's looking good to me too, doc!

Looks great! Dug the pic in NYMag.

Just thought I would let you know wd50 Pastry Chef Sam Mason is doing a Pastry & Baking Forum FOCUS, 1/17/06 thru 1/19/06. Stop on by!

The great thing is you can answer questions whenever you have the time. Very much a pleasure to have you! Couple of questions more for you... I'm with doc, how do you enrobe those cotton candy 'truffles'? Also, You recently took a kind of whirlwind tour of the Far East ( Gourmet Summit in Bangkok, a trip to Japan) and a bit of an Research & Development week at the Fat Duck in the UK. Can you tell what kind of things you were up to? Anybody else you've had the pleasure of having some time to commisserate with? _________________________________________________________________________________Have to add, are you going to check out Will Goldfarbs new space soon?Room 4 Dessert

Hi Sam, Thanks for doing this FOCUS. Firstly, You graduated from Johnson & Wales Culinary School. Did you take a general culinary course or did you take their pastry program? Also, What made you want to do pastry? Is it in your "blood", so to speak? Mom or dad a great cook or pastry person?

Just to throw in here, the first pix I ever saw of Sams kitchen ( in Fader Magazine) showed 3 woman in the kitchen.

Dissing it the first week it's open for cold plates and under/over/cooked food is kind of wrong, as it would be for ANY place just getting started, IMO. On the same hand, it's NYC, the pressure & need to perform is tremendous and that's the cold harsh truth. FWIW, I don't dig these 'not a review' reviews much anyways/.

I think this is a cool idea although I'm sort of with Trishiad about water and ribbon, etc. I hope you'll report your results, many of us will be interested.!

I think this is the link, yeasted is better for ganache. Beignets This might also be interesting. Thor choc lollipops I've always thought plain batters were more for fritters.

This was/is good! I think if Batali was extruded it might be a bit 'hammish' Bux, sorry 'bout the non accent , my key code guy is whacked...

Award-winning pastry chef and eGullet.org member Sam Mason, of wd50 restaurant on the Lower East Side in Manhattan, NYC, is often spoken of as a "Pastry Provocateur" or rebel because of his willingness to explore and experiment by combining solid pastry technique with new ingredients--at least new to non-food scientists that is. All of this comes together in an explosion of taste, temperature, and textures that have garnered Sam a ton of media exposure nationally and internationally, including a Rising Stars Award from Starchefs.com as well as a 2005 Pastry Arts and Design "Top Ten Pastry Chefs" award. Sam also finds time to teach a course or two at the French Culinary Institute in New York City, give demos across the country and participate in various seminars abroad. Mason wrapped up 2005 with trips to Japan, a brainstorming session with Chef Heston Blumenthal of the forward-thinking UK restaurant The Fat Duck as well as providing a dessert course to the World Gourmet Festival in Bangkok. A website, his work in progress, features some great pics of his desserts as well as some of the places he's been in the past and is well worth a visit. This article on wd50, written by eGullet's Andy Lynes will give some additional insight into Sam and his restaurant work. It's with great pleasure we welcome Sam Mason in the sophomore edition of the Pastry & Baking Forum 'Focus'! Welcome, Sam!

Now, what"s VERY exciting to me is a discussion or essay on this one area called "Taganika"(my emotions) where Conticini discusses candy and making a blueberry sauce that his assistants say reminds them of 'Chupa Chups' (lollipop made in Spain, I think) and then he goes on to discuss something that's been very much on my mind lately. The idea of memory, childhood specifically, and I suppose "whimsy" has to come up too. I came up with a mint truffle over the holiday (many of you probably did too) that REALLY reminded people, myself included, of 'Junior Mints'. I've always found myself propelled more by a memory or an idea of something from my childhood, etc. Conciously or subconciously. One time I was doing this chocolate flan with a prickly pear foam and candied pinions for a rest. I was at and a drunken wine salesman came up to the chef when he was leaving and told him to tell the pastry chef the flan tasted like a Hunts snack pack pudding!!!I've never had one, swear to gawd! Someone approached me about consulting at a diner recently and I've been thinking about peanut butter ice cream, grape sorbet, bruleed banana and toasted marshmallow. Good stuff there, nice to see thoughts are shared.

The English gateway is open now. Some great text, etc. I'm still going thru it but thought I would share. This guy is the s--t!

FWIW, I think the "molecular gastronomy" movement started in France with Herve This & Pierre Gagnaire. ← Good lord, that means the Coneheads COULD actually have been molecular gastronomists! ← Oui

FWIW, I think the "molecular gastronomy" movement started in France with Herve This & Pierre Gagnaire.

I enjoyed the show very much last night. Thought Wylie pulled it off. Loved that there was sous vide set ups. Thought that the female judge might have been thrown off by the texture of the fish sous vide though when she exclaimed that it tasted "overcooked" and "mushy". Those are terms you see written sometimes here in the sous vide cooking threads. Good show!

I'd second that. Nice one!

You can make praline paste yourself in your food processor. It's not going to be the same as the Mec3 pastes and the like but it will do the trick. I used to offer Gianduja ice cream at one of my former places all of the time that I made my own praline paste for. For bon bons, that would be a different story but for macaroons it should be fine.

Ditto and there is much info in there.

NhumiSD, I have to say I haven't a clue Can you tell us, kind sir??? Referring back to my Bau Tuile Thread of close to two years ago( the good old days) I'm not sure any of us know what it stands for! Thanks in advance