tan319

Oh, forgot to mention, ADNY gave me a price of $220, $240 all in. Amazon.com/fr with the currency conversion figured in it would be around $178 + shipping. Gotta figure out what my best deal would be...

Fat Guy, you're funny!!! Just wanted to pass this on, forgive me if you're already familiar with the technique. To do that concasse, if the recipe doesn't call for the seeds and if the tomatoes aren't blanched first, just slice the bottom of the tomato off at the core end. Then, from the top, with the tomato on your cutting board, cut the tomato flesh off in quarters, with a nice sharp knife, leaving the middle behind with all the seeds and waterey stuff. If you have to blanch and peel them, do that and then do the same procedure. Mise is a pain in the ass but this kind of stuff can go in a hurry if you do all of the tops first, etc. like the army

Are you sure it's the 10 pound, big Spoon cook book? I was just on the website and couldn't find it there.

Oh, well... I tried to cheat. I went to amazon.com/canada, to see if I could order it there, letting my US bucks buy big in one of the last remaining places possible to do that. They have the 1st two Spoon books there, not the behemoth FG is writing about. Pity! I'l call ADNY tomorrow, thanks for the number, Steve. PS Those pastry recipes better be good...

If anyone could supply any info as to where I could purchase this, I would be most appreciative. My curiousity is piqued. Also figured out that I'm not poor enough yet...

This looks great! I'll be getting it, thank you!

Nice article,bloviatrix! Many thanks for the heads up. Made my day

BTW, the article in Food & Wine magazine, "Pastry Provocateurs", is very good. A lot of info, no recipes, more a look inside where these people talk about new ingredients and inspiration. Jacque Torres weighs in (Favorably) with his thoughts. It should be on nesstands now, July issue.

For one thing, it's Food & Wine magazine, not Food Arts. But speaking of Food Arts, will you be featuring any coverage of the con fab that went on in Napa a few months ago too? Like they will be in one of the next two issues? I wasn't implying that you were going to make any kind of trouble for anyone. Rather, that you would do exactly as you have done, ask them to speak up, etc. The Icescape product line doesn't bother me in the least, in fact, if one was a pastry chef and didn't have a sheeter and a lot of time and staff, why not use the product? It's all butter, that says a lot for the quality, I suppose, and as in one of the threads here a fair amount of people, one in particular, was talking about his dealings with a pretty bad case of carpal tunnel syndrome/repetitive stress injurys caused by hand rolling his own croissaints, The case would be made for purchasing this kind of product if you were in that kind of situation. I posted my suggestions when you first came in here sometime last year, asking for them. I'm not going to write you every month, wondering where the articles on, say Balaguer, Mason, or any of these newer guys and gals are. I expect the magazine that speaks for pastry chefs to be on the lookout for these things, just like they are about new products from Sweet Street and Albert Uster, even if those business's are paying for it, which is fine. And I realize that a publicist or a freelance writer knocking on your door, to place an article gives those of us who are interested in certain chefs more of a chance to read about them, and makes your life easier,but, if there is a history of non payment or very late payment, those chances are going to get slimmer. Those signature pieces and bios are fine, but that's not what I'm talking about. You've ignored a movement in dessert cuisine, that's been written about a fair amount in all kinds of media, from the New York Post to Fader magazine, and it points to, or seems to point to, either a bias against it, or an ignorance of it. Is your magazine supposed to be on the forefront of reporting on what pastry chefs are doing and where pastry is going? In every facet? Or are you going to keep throwing it back at us? There's a lot of us out here, a lot are non communicators, just like lurkers on an internet site who either feel like no one is interested in what they have to contribute or that it will fall on deaf ears. Are you deaf? You are a New York based business, right in the heart of where a lot of this action is taking place. Pichet Ong, Jenigher Metha, Sam Mason, Will Goldfarb, a host of others, are right in your own backyard. There's no excuse to not take notice.

Can I get that with some marshmallow creme topping? Well, yes you could. I've been thinking about the marshmallow angle since Saturday, when I test drove the new item as a special. I was using raspberrys on top of dots of chocolate sauce and blackberries on top of dots of raspberry coulis for some acid to cut the richness of all that peanut butter and milk chocolate( milk chocolate cake disc hollowed out, filled with a milk chocolate cream, hidden by a milk chocolate/peanut crocant square, very thin, ice cream on top). So, thinking about the marshmallow thing, either I'm going to do a hot marshmallow creme, maybe bruleed or, remembering this really cool concept I saw on my El Bulli '98/2002' CD rom, do a filled marshmallow, with a really thick raspberry or mixed berry sauce. You make the marshmallow, pipe it out, let it set up, then inject it with the puree. That would be interesting. Of course, a lot of room for error in the plating comes up!

I'm with you, duck. Let this guy fade back a bit, hopefully replenish his spirit, and get back to what he does best, cook. And he does know how to do that. If you doubt it, go to Union Pacific. As fa as cookbooks go, and creating a brand, he should be allowed to do it , without being penalized. Just like Flay, Batali, Rodriguez, Ripert, et al.

What I meant by commercial product is more of a textural thing then a flavor thing. Maybe my stuff has that "homemade" feel going for it because I'm spinning with rocksalt and ice! Yeah, that's the ticket! I'm integrating "new food science" and "old fashioned" technique to make an ice cream that's a "bridge' between the centuries! Or some such nonsense RE: cardamom coming up: If you're not already, season with salt, it should come right up into focus. I have to do that with my coffee cardamom ice cream, works like a charm. I would use kosher salt though, as I would expect you would anyways.... Good luck.

I forgot to have scientists perfectly balance the mango-yogurt ice cream I just made. Maybe I shouldn't eat it. Oops, too late. Gone now. awww, look, Moopheus is right. At home there's no reason to use all this stuff, unless you want to experiment and have fun. It could get expensive, I guess. I was always striving to make ice cream that could compete, head to head with any commercial product, in my own work as a pastry chef. Since I went with the kind of formulas that Neil is talking about, I think I can say I've accomplished that. I made a COMPLETELY KILLER peanut butter ice cream last week to go with a new dessert ( features milk chocolate, of course) that just slayed everyone, including me, and I don't really ever go overboard talking about my stuff. I mean, the taste, texture, mouthfeel, everything about this one blew me away. I can honestly say I've never had better. It took a lot of balance and a lot of salt. And 500 grams of Jiffy!

artisanbaker, do you have the torreblanca and los secretos books? akwa, THANKS for turning us onto yet another $200 book!!! The secrets of ice cream book is calling my name! I'm going to get murdered by my better half Torreblanca book is calling me too. HELP!

That's pretty bad. I'm going to edit here, to say I can understand having to maybe do things (not you alacarte, them) to help pay the bills. There have been times that I wondered if their readership was high enough to keep them in business. Naive, I suppose, but I cared, whatever. But nowadays, even something like Pastryscoop.com, which IS an advert for the FCI, delivers more of what I want sometimes, most of the time, actually. Interviews with cutting edge pastry chefs, as well as bakers, more traditonal pastry chefs, chocolatiers, etc. I can write them an email suggesting something and get a response. I come from a record business background. The music business has always been kind of slimy, pay to play, stuff like that, but even a music rag is quicker to acknowledge a trend then PA&D. Look at Faders article on Sam Mason. It's like PA&D is dragging their feet in the sand or something. Or they're too busy with all of this WPF stuff. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. Not having a decent web presence yet is surely an indicator that they're stuck with and in the old world, where you react to things in a timeline of months rather then hours, kind of like the Pony Express. PS:alacarte, I'm sure Michael will PM you at some point demanding to know who you are, etc. I'll read it at the newstand from now on, instead of buying it and taking it home with me, unless there's an article that I want to have in my archive.

Maybe Chipsbooks.com? If these are fairly new titles it could take awhile to get them. I ordered S-21 from LiberiaGastronomica and it got here in about 4 days!!! I just ordered 'Plaisir de Petit fours' by Pascal Brunstein, a book which has been heartily recommended by some of the 'Gullets best here in the P&B forum. A lot of tuile recipes, methods for all kinds of different facets of pastry work. I'll post my thoughts on it when I get it. Would very much like that Torreblanca book!

Neil, when one is using non fat dry milk powder, that's giving you richness too, correct?

I've been trying to get back to this thread to post my thoughts on the new design, format, etc. for awhile now so here goes;. Look: Wasn't prepared for it being so stark, a bit harder to see on the newsstand. An improvement? Maybe if that title script was driving one nuts, never bothered me much. Content: Seems like it's linked heavily to advertisers or businesses with a vested interest. Reading about the prepped desserts and how it bothered some of the posters, I was kind of nonplussed. That stuff is for hotels and the like to me, and even if some of the chefs use these items for banquets and such that are names do indeed use them, I was kind of ambivalent about it. Once I got the new issue though, something about that column being written by the corporate chef for 'Sweet Street' desserts really got to me. All this talk about sanitation, ingredients, made me feel like he regards those of us who do make our stuff everyday, from scratch for the most part, as a bunch of shirtless sweaty morons out of a Peter Greenaway flick, infecting the public because we aren't in a factory punching out this shit. Even the column written by the dean (?) of my alma mater, culinary-wise, struck me as sort of inappropiate for some reason. It wasn't the content of it, it was the factoid stuck at the bottom of it, just seemed like a paid ad to me. So even more now, as I just read on the Food and Wine magazine thread featuring "Pastry Provocateurs", I'm bugged about PA&D getting scooped by an entertainment mag. What gives??? I know they had Izzunni in the 10 best recently, Laiskonis too, and they both represent the newer styles of pastry work, but the rest of these guys have been pretty much ignored for a good year and a half now. Not that it matters much in the bigger picture, but I've stuck up for PA&D when crap was being thrown en masse by various people here, who were complaining about how they thought that content was being influenced by connections to PA&D, either thru the World Pastry Forum or the 'Cup', amongst other things. I'm not so sure they weren't right. Did Conticini get a cover not only because of his great work, but also because of his connection to Valrhona, the World Cup and The World Pastry Forum? Did Adria get an article (meager as it was) wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy back in 99 or 2K because he was going to be judging in the WPC? Here are some of my thoughts from the other thread... "But, I have to say, all this morning I've been getting more and more annoyed that a magazine like Food & Wine, which to me, while being a good mag, has such a broad focus for the home cook, entertainer and party thrower, has an article like this on these new wave guys, and Pastry Art & Design, which is designed for pastry chefs of all sorts, has ignored this whole facet of dessert making! For pretty much more then a year and a half. Now, speaking of production deadlines, I'll take this all back if say, the next issue of PA&D has something on these chefs, as a movement or solo but, Jesus, does anyone else think it's sort of an oversight that's bordering on ignorant? Take a look at this link for Sam Masons dessert menu at wd50, click on the camera symbol besides some of the items, and tell me that his plating doesn't satisfy some kind of existing (?) requirement that PA&D says has to be met to be in there. http://www.wd-50.com/menu2.html No, there's no pastillage, pulled sugar monoliths, butterfly tuiles, whatever, but there is class and a simplistic beauty in these, and I'm sure the other chefs works, not to mention their innovation and thoughts in taking dessert cuisine further on down the road." Sorry to wax so 'paranoid', but, Scheneider, if you are reading this, you guys should be hanging your heads in shame. I know you wrote many moons ago about how many of your readers complained about, for example, articles about savory and sweet things being mixed together, they want the focus to be on the S.O.S... Maybe, every once in awhile, someone has to take the lead. Oh, I forgot, PA&D even got scooped by a Rap/Fashion magazine.

I guess I just hadn't stuck my nose into the Heartland forum enough lately, as 2 pages of posts about the 'G' mans new place were there for my reading pleasure. I should have noted in my earlier post that I was aware of rumblings of his moving on from Trio, just didn't realize that it was true. And, Jason, maybe he was just freaking on letting the cat out of the bag too soon. I'm sure you guy's will be hearing from him pronto. But, I have to say, all this morning I've been getting more and more annoyed that a magazine like Food & Wine, which to me, while being a good mag, has such a broad focus for the home cook, entertainer and party thrower, has an article like this on these new wave guys, and Pastry Art & Design, which is designed for pastry chefs of all sorts, has ignored this whole facet of dessert making! For pretty much more then a year and a half. Now, speaking of production deadlines, I'll take this all back if say, the next issue of PA&D has something on these chefs, as a movement or solo( and, they did have Izzunni and Michael Laiskonis in the '10 best' recently) but, Jesus, does anyone else think it's sort of an oversight that's bordering on ignorant? Take a look at this link for Sam Masons dessert menu at wd50, click on the camera symbol besides some of the items, and tell me that his plating doesn't satisfy some kind of existing (?) requirement that PA&D says has to be met to be in there. http://www.wd-50.com/menu2.html No, there's no pastillage, pulled sugar monoliths, butterfly tuiles, whatever, but there is class and a simplistic beauty in these, and I'm sure the other chefs works, not to mention their innovation and thoughts in taking dessert cuisine further on down the road. OK, enough of my rant. I'll probably be posting some more thoughts on this on the PA&D 'new look' thread in here. Bloviatrix, do you have a subscription to F&W? I went looking for it this morning and the July issue hasn't hit the stands yet.

bloviatrix, Thank you for posting about this F&W ish! I'll be getting mine on the 'morrow. BTW, Achatz has a new place? Man, I feel out of touch. Guess I'll head over to the Heartland forum and see what I can dig up! Thanks again.

Kit, that was such a great, informative post! Man, I can't believe you used to do all of that croissiant work by hand. At the French joint, the only kind of tough thing I have to do is beat the hell out of the butter inside of the "package". Which is harder then one might think. I just thought of the perfect tool to use. Instead of a rolling pin, I should use a baseball bat!!!!!!!!!!!!! Jeniac, The best place to probably start the search is at a state aid office, that's where people usually get medicaid and such. As far as the gig goes, go in and tell them how much you like working for them, that you need the job, and you'll do whatever they have open that won't interfere with the healing of your injury. And read that kit post again, a lot of good stuff there. Good luck, and feel free to PM me if you need anything.

Jeniac, it's honorable that you feel so responsible but the important thing is to take care of the injury. Not to sound weird or too personal but, if you might want to look into a county hospital or a catholic ( or other affiliated ) type hospital. A lot of times they will do work based on your income so you don't have to let it go. Look into county/state medical services. It takes a bit of time but maybe you can find something. Of course, it goes w/o saying, forgive me if you've already explored those avenues. Good luck!

Well... annie, et al, I hate to say this but, you guys have to do something about this. Jesus, I can't believe you didn't have surgery done. One thing is for sure. The painkiller route, heavy duty painkiller route, will screw you up even worse. Getting a vicodin/oxycotin(sp) jones going on will screw you even worse. One friend of my wife's is on the verge of losing her husband to various illness's brought on by painkiller addiction. They just lost their house due to the fact that he can't work anymore. Sorry to be bummy but this is the truth. I'm sure the state can help out somewhat, actually, quite a lot, if you have to take time off due to medical problems. You just have to take advantage of it. Sorry to say all this crap, even sorrier that one of the most screwed up things about this country of ours (oppps, are we allowed to wax political?) that spends billions of dollars "liberating" people can't take better care of it's own citizens facing situations like this. Good luck, please look into taking care of this!

JENIAC!!! the most important thing you do in this situation is not to irritate it. That means not working, more then likely. I understand where you're coming from, but this isn't your fault, so don't feel like you're letting people down. It isn't like you're a no call no show because you did too much coke and drank too much vodka last night. If you have tendonitis, you're going to have to be really careful or you're going to ruin your wrists. See if they will let you fill in somewhere else where you won't be aggravating your injury. It's great you're willing to even do dishes to help out. Re: what we do when we're sick(?) I rarely miss work for any reason but I will tell you one thing. One day, last fall, I think, I went in to work and I knew I had the flu. When the chef and the sous chef came in, they kicked me right out the door. As flu will decimate your kitchen pronto, they were kind of like "thanks but, no thanks", to coming in.I don't think any of us would work with a chronic condition that affects your muscles, skeletal system, etc. You need to see a specialist, if you haven't already. All the best to you, I hope you feel better soon!

Cory and I were just discussing this the other day. While fat does indeed contribute texture, so does (perhaps more importantly so) the proper balance of fats and of dry matter to water. Emulsifiers in the form of commercial gums and such can play a role, but shouldn't be overused. My approach to ice creams, which over time have evolved to contain less fat, allow for much more delicacy and finesse- 'feeling' but finishing cleaner, flavors have a better clarity, and they also tend to hold better and are easier to handle when it comes to presentation... amen!