tan319

Now that's some excellent news!!! Congrats! Hoping that next month you get into the black...

sorry

Oh well, I guess I have a bit more to say... This post really says it all. Rereading some of your stuff too, Mel. Has it been a year yet? Man, 120 hours a week, something has to be able to be done to correct that? Jesus, I'm working something falling between 60 to 70, 80 hours right now, and I think it could be less with better planning.. More productive with less hours, or at least less frustration in those hours spent. Truly dig what Karen says about level of skill required and how much people are appreciated. There's this little petite woman who works at the other place of my chefs who kicks so much ass. She's about 4'11'', from Peru, maybe 27, and she just pounds it out relentlessly, pretty much quality stuff. I've seen her tempted to take a shortcut or two, I rarely see her taste anything ( a pet peeve of mine with any cook, TASTE EVERYTHING YOU MAKE! ALWAYS!!!) but damn, she's good, and, I don't know, kitchen politics can be weird, especially in these kinds of places but, I've told my exec a few times, he should realize how lucky he is to have her, even if she's a pain sometimes. Medieval indeed. One thing I am really appreciating right now is how well my restaurant that went down was managed, kitchenwise, by my chef. I always knew it was, that why I stayed on for 2 years w/o a raise. 2 people quit in those 2 years, out of a crew of 8 or nine, and those weren't the core people. All 7 to 9 dollar an hour people who also didn't get a raise , those are. some damn good retention number's.

I just want to say this then I'll get out of here. The only reason I ever feel compelled to pipe up here in a somewhat critical, slightly negative way, is when I feel that disparaging comments are being directed towards the people who make business' work for the owners, the employees. I'll bring up age when somebody who is 20 something starts acting like anyone who gets tired of working grueling schedules, not necessarily LONG grueling schedules but grueling schedules, mismanaged work days, is a whiner. A wimp. Not saying you're guilty of that, Mel, just that's what happens to a lot of people. I also know a lot of employees make life misery for the owners by not showing up, etc., but it's kind of a vicious circle. Tons of people who do this for a living do it for a living, they don't care about food, they're not geeks on it, they don't get excited about how great the brioche looks today or how fantastic the new ice cream is, or how some new technique they read about really DOES work, they're just punching a clock. I know you know that. Anybody who shows up for work almost everyday of the year, to cook on a couple of propane burners, like Wendy does, love's what they do, and those kinds of people always seem to get the shit end of the stick, I know I did. I'm thrilled that you're getting awesome reviews, I'm sure you have kick ass product, I hope you make a million bucks, or at least enough to do everything you want to do. Just as a person who has ridden some pretty big assed tidal waves of work, reviews, raves, and other such stuff, in another line of employment that isn't that much different from the cooking world, sometimes you wake up washed up on the shore wondering what the hell hit you...

Thanks for adding that, wendy. I was going to say something about age and C.G. but .... Seems to be a contest of who's a hardass 'round here sometimes (yeah, I got mangled by my 50 qt Hobart yesterday but I just threw my arm in an ice bucket and worked 17 hours anyways!!!)

Sorry to bust your blog but, while I agree that getting up early isn't the worst thing in the world to me, it doesn't work for alot of people. YOU have a vested interest in tons of work and little sleep, it's your business. And exhaustion + adrenaline feels just like being coked up to me. It's addictive. It seems like you're having trouble replacing the French guy, and you have my sympathies. I'm sure he worked his ass off and then some. The question I have for you is, was there something you could have done to keep him? Give him benefits if you weren't already? Anything? Are any of these people you don't want to pay overtime to capable of picking up the slack? Could you put them on salary? Only saying this because at some point, no matter how amazing you are, your body will break. It happens. A very good friend of mine, a workaholic, driven freak of a chef, was doing this kind of stuff for years, and finally woke up one morning unable to move one side of his face and indeed, that half of his body, like Bells Palsey meets a stroke. He had a week in the hospital. Ditto my French friend in the bakery. Same kind of thing, except it affected his brain like a viral infection, and he spent a week in the hospital and another week in bed at home, and it wasn't because he was a wimp or a pussy, it was because he worked, like a PIG, 12, 14 hours a day, even more, for his boss, for 4 years straight. He's 28, was making better stuff then most anyone when he was 17 or 18, and knows hard work. And the thing that really galls me, is that stay in the hospital, will be his vacation time this year. And if that guy left that bakery his boss would be SOOOOOO up shits creek, because he would NEVER find another person who would do the same quality of work for him, in those kinds of conditions, for that amount of money.

please don't freeze

rodfog, thanks for the report. Was there anything that really stuck out as far as the shop goes? Equipment, etc.? Did he mention anything about a new book? I'd love to see a book from him delving more into the chocolates/bon-bon arena TThanks again! Oh, VERY important. Any pix???

Thanks for the input, edsel, but I think I got to the bottom of it. I wrote them an email friday night, as a matter of fact, and received a reply this morning that the videos will be/are(?) on the 83/94 book cdrom. So there we go! Thanks again. My translation: The CD may or may not be finished by publication deadline. BTW, "writing" on the blackboard - brilliant! I tried poking around in U.S., U.K., Spanish , Catalan, on both Windows and Mac. It never occurred to me to treat the movies like some sort of fortune cookie. Maybe you're on to something there. ←

These are actually my favorites of the bunch!

docsconz... Did I miss something? You snagged reservations at El Bulli??? Mucho congratulations!!!

anyone???

HELLOOOOOOOOO????????? IS ANYONE OUT THERE??????????? just checking...

I posted this question elsewhere but thought it may get more attention here. I've been going back to my copy of 98/02 over the last week and, for the 1st time really, dug into the guide. They mention videos being on the cdrom of kitchen work, techniques, etc. Is this true? I can't find them using the search engine, "writing" on the chalkboard, nada. Is this a "hidden" feature or is there a possibility that the guide was printed before they realised it was too expensive. I would think that there would have been a discussion of them here somewhere. Am I missing something or just plain dense? Talk to me!!! most appreciative!

from our own experiments I would suggest that you have to play around wih it. You can't just follow the recipe( if you did) but taste it and if you feel it's too solid add more juice to it. Having said that, I do agree with the above that the texture is very much like caviar.

Unless you overcook it it should be smooth.

I've come to the conclusion that it's all in the recipe. The guy I'm working with does a creme catalana, a brulee with cinn stick infusion. I can't give you the recipe but we bake it in a combi oven, convection on, ramekins in a hotel pan with some water, foil sealed, at 300 for 30 min., check them, if they're not set we leave the, sealed, for another 5 minutes, oven OFF. They come out PERFECT!!! Beautiful finish, best I've ever seen, made or eaten.

Damn, that was NICE! Thank you very much, artisanbaker, for the link. I love the ingenuity of these guys, that setup is so...rustic? But effective and it works. Swell stuff. Thanks again.

If you want want to use Dulce de leche as a cake filling, you need to do a couple of things to keep it set. If you want the creamy type effect, you need to set it with some gelatin, which would be best introduced into something like soft peaks heavy cream. I would do this by heating some rehydrated sheets or powder( following their method for powdered) and melting it and slowly drizzling it into some H.Cream being whipped in the mixer or beating the dulce with a paddle on the mixer and adding it in using the same method. Even if you use mascarpone you need to do this (imo), if you want some stability. If the mix goes whack on you (gelatin specks or clumps), just process it in a cuisineart or other food processor, it will smooth right out. Fill it using a ring mold or even a springform pan, and refrigerate it to set up. But you would need to keep this kind of cake refrigerated, and even then I don't know if that filling would support a thick layer of cake. The alternative would be to cook the dulce past the point you usually do, where it almost gets candy like. We do that here in the restaurant in Miami for a 'Brazo', a roulade cake of genoise, that is soaked with simple syrup spiked with rum, and spread with dulce de leche that is REALLY cooked up, maybe a 1/4 of an inch thick, then rolled up tight and covered with creme chantilly. I was really impressed with the taste, the DLD really came thru, even though the amount spread was relatively small. Good luck with it!

Thanks for the reply, and the great pix, again! I went out and got some of those syringes( for oral use, maybe for babys, one buck at CVS) and they worked perfectly, of course, for some passion fruit/saffron and prickly pear "caviars" for a fruit parfait we're working on. Thanks again. edited to add and ask: On the new snaps... Is that a canister of LN2 and it's product in the lead pic? And is tthat a faux "macaroon" in another simarly plated item down the way? Great pic of the "New Testament" of pastry. gotta love it!

Nice story, congrats!!!

Thanks for posting those pix, really incredible! Question, if I may... The setup with all of those plastic syringe type things. Is that used to drop the alginated substances into solution? looking forward to more, if you have them. BTW, did you work all stations? It would be great if you could elaborate. Thanks again.

We're talking about the bacon crocant/ pinon ice cream Adria dessert, correct, akwa? From 'Los Postres...' Just want to make sure I didn't miss something

one or three thoughts... I think the only way to really get something as savory as a bacon dessert on a menu is to offer it in a degustation. The customer is almost forced to take at least one bite, either to embrace or to push away. I totally get bacon and sweetness. I convinced the women I married that I was cool when we had bacon and pecan pie for breakfast once Re: Gagnaire: I 've been reading his 'Reflections On Culinary Artistry' down here in Miami and I can't put it down! Between the pix and the descriptions of them, and what he says, his philosophy about food, I'm totally blown away. I love the use of everything, the crossover of ingredients, and his freedom of adding to or subtracting something from a plate, no matter what the menu says, because it feels right then. I was feeling this way in the last few months of my last gig, really feeling ingredients at the moment, and what they needed, what the plate wanted. akwa, I getting some of those impressions with what you were doing at Cru, also.

I've never had the feeling that Achatz was anything but sincere. Everything is about cross marketing these days but It seems that after that article in the F&W 10 best chefs ish with the 'Pastry Provocateurs' article that mentioned the Alinea kitchen concept, and the subsequent mention here on the 'gullet about it (scooped?) that chefG and EG decided to document the development and opening of it.