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Thanks you all, I had hoped you would be reading! I guess he wrote the recipes at different times perhaps? Some of the call for creme liquide, some for fleurette and so on. I kind of thought that sucre gros was that brioche sugar, used to see it in France and strangely enough, here in Abq., in a French bakery I worked at for a short time. Know what you mean about the espresso spoon, louisa. But Conticini has that savory chef thing in him too, all other measurements are in grams, except for the measurements in QS, to taste? Atomised glucose is used in those recipes that call for more dry ingredients, like non fat dry milk, invert sugar like trimoline. Atomised glucose is more water absorbent, improves texture, etc. I would imagine you'll be seeing a fair amount of it at El Bulli this season The canned corn is used in a tuile recipe,where you make a mix that's kind of a cross between pastry cream and mashed potatoes. He has many beautiful tuiles in this article, green olives, banana, pistachio, sesame with licorice powder and cardamom, 'sucre vergeoise (brown sugar?) ,stunning. I'm not using any of these recipes yet, though a couple of things are calling my name. Just trying to understand what he's working with. Thanks again for all of your help, my friends. I really appreciate it!

I've been translating some unfamiliar ingredients in this Thuriès mag with Conticini. One that has me flummoxed is 'Creme fleurette', which translates to cream flowerlet which makes no sense to me. I've seen this in Duccase's dessert book also, I believe. Can Lesley C. or loufood illuminate me, please? Or anyone else, for that matter I did some googling but came up blank. Also, when a recipe calls for a say, "Cuillère à café de pâte de pistache", is it a tablespoon of the product? In this case, pistachio paste? Also, I've noticed that these ice cream recipes normally call for glucose, which I would take as regular glucose, the thick clear stuff. But then, in a banana sorbet recipe of his, he calls for 'sirop de glucose', which on the glucose buckets I have, is what the above is normally called in French! It seems kind of weird that he's not using atomised glucose in any of the ice creams... Kind of confusing, made me think of the problems Sinclair encountered in her PA&D recipe adventures. Not too much else is giving me problems. There was a reference to'Maïs en boîte', corn of the box, which I took to mean canned corn, seeing that he calls for it to be drained, would that be right? Maïzena is cornstarch? Sucre gros? Fat sugar? Thanks for any help. I really appreciate it!

Easy - catch the redeye out of San Francisco - sleep on the plane. Arrive in Newark at 5:30am, go to the restaurant, prepare the night's menu, catch the 3:00pm out of Newark, arrive back in SF at 5:00pm - just in time for dinner hour. That schedule wouldn't kill Keller too much...

Just wanted to let you know that I tried making my curd with euro style butter and didn't really like the result. It became all about the butter, kind of lost the plot with that one....

I just got mine tonight. everyone at my restaurant chipped in and got it for my b-day(3-19). I'm blown away! Now, fingers crossed that my cd-rom works. Will be posting my thoughts later. Cheers!

Great presentation, great article/interview! How was this claptrap? I love the way the Adria's polarize people. I love this man's honesty, like a child's honesty. I love the fact that they are cooking for them, it's their food, you are invited to join in on their vision, and they hope you like it, but if you don't, that's ok too. Well done, guys, well done!

This is a good idea... As long as he mentions the pastry chef

well, so be it. I thought the Gothamist "interview", weak, the Eurotrash "review" of the review, brilliant. Interesting V.V. article though, thanks, Jason.

jeunefilleparis, You need to get an A&R person to take you to the'50'! Hope the band was good. I miss the Mercury Lounge Can you tell us a bit more about the pinenut parfait? Was it a frozen type of dessert? When I get back to NYC, wd-50 is the 1st place I'm going to. Thanks!

Interesting that Keller thinks that it's Rakel joojoo that caused this.

Ha! We might have been neighbors. 254 from August or September of '95 until some point in '97. WoW!!! I lived there, 1-J, from 8/98 to 10/00 Small world, eh?

Fleur de Sel looks most interesting to me, dessert menu wise. BTW, where on E20th is it located? I used to live at Park Ave S, between 20th and 21st. Mesa grill and Bolo used to be always good for a quick dessert fix. Eager to please too. Bolo especially.

From the thread Bourdain started to criticize Marian Burros's interim reviewing. A thankless job indeed, though that does not excuse the JGV fetish. Oppps...

Thanks for the info. That refractometer you linked to seems pretty reasonable, Steve. Seems like the last time I looked they were more like 300. Maybe I looked at the wrong one. So, by getting your brix level right you should be able to prevent sweating and all that? Thanks again, the both of ya!

Being a New Yorker didn't hurt Bryan Miller or William Grimes, did it? I also would think knowing chefs thru writing about food and trends, etc. for years shouldn't have an effect on writing reviews. The guy wrote the front flap blurb for her book, it's a bit of a diff..

I just got a bunch of info sheets on boiron fruit purees, amongst them, their table for making pate de fruits. It talks about using a refractometer to check brix level. I've been intrigued by refractometers anyways but can't really find much out about how to use them. I've googled, etc. but usually get articles about winemaking, which I'm not ready for quite yet In that Sam Mason article in Fader, he's checking out something with one by holding it up (to the light?) and I'm wondering how the damn thing works! Is it like a microscope that has a window that gives you a brix reading? A readout of some sort? And how do you get around using one if you don't have one? It's a pretty expensive item, no? Thanks as always for your thoughts and info!

Something must have happened... Like around 3 pages of us taking that review apart, not a little based on her relationship with JGV. With things like the Blair incident tweaking the Old Grey Lady, she shouldn't have done the review in the 1st place. And she should have mentioned Kunz and Ong. That's some cheffy karma/voodoo coming back at 'cha!

Silvertons books never lit me up either. I like her talking about food, cookbooks struck me as dull. But, are her Parfait recipes really good?

I commend you for your honesty. Very surprised you haven't drawn a bit of heat though... The 1st place I worked at here one of my comrades had it, took his class at CCA and loved him. I'm not much for all that frilly, prissy stuff, I think that's been notated. I like more abstract, frilly, prissy stuff ie; No butterflies, harlequins(sic), broadway ticket stubs made of chocolate, movie reels made of chocolate or sugar, happy/sad masks,etc.,etc.

: You're funny as hell, seriously. Love the doorstop ref. But, although he strikes me as dated and I've maybe used one recipe of his and don't own his book and probably never will, I do think he deserves just a little respect. You strike me as a little xenephobic, in respect to pastry. Those Spaniards are kicking a bit of French ass, no?

Amen to that...

Does anyone feel that as long as Keller smells any smoke from that fire, in his restaurant, he won't open the doors?

I feel the same way. He does deserve some respect though?