tan319

How long has this book been out? He think he cooked at Veritas in NY before he went to TFL and I enjoyed his desserts. Thanks Ted

In regards to "cooking the yolk, I would bet a heat gun would blow a less brutal blast of heat then a blowtorch? I think heat guns are used a lot at Alinea and perhaps even El Bulli nowadays...

I kinda have to disagree with you. Food opinions are completely subjective and one person's perfection may be another's nightmare but to say "the chef knows best, you just liked it or didn't like it and don't have the ability or knowledge to say what you didn't like about it" is extremely condescending. And yes, I cook in a restaurant and for a catering company as well. If a customer tells me "there's way too much cinnamon in that ice cream" then I'm going to investigate the possibility. Not just say "you're wrong, you just don't like cinnamon". ← The last word I'm saying on this... Tri-2 Cook, I don't think I said anything about chefs knowing best. I said people screw up sometimes ( if they did). I should have said that the only issue should be whether or not you enjoyed the food. I was asking if paulrapheal was a working chef, cook, etc. I know that you are. My point is, if a customer said to me, the server, whomever, "this cinnamon ice cream is inedible", of course I would investigate to see if someone forgot the sugar or whatever. But if a customers point is "your portion of ice cream you're serving is too small" or "there's not enough creme fraiche" , I would consider the comment but probably wouldn't change it. If I'm at a restaurant and need some more creme fraiche, I ask for it. If the cake is stale or dry, I say "excuse me, this cake seems awfully dry, is that the way it's supposed to be served?" or "this doesn't seem very fresh" , something like that. Is that a bad idea? You or we are paying for it. If the point of the post in the first place was to criticize a meal at P*ONG why not post it in the Dining section? But since we're supposed to be talking about cookbooks I will say that there's very few cookbooks in that "Sweet Spot" range, where maybe something or more doesn't seem to slip by. I remember getting a look at Patricia Yeo's cookbook from a few years ago and trying some of her dessert recipes and none of them turned out stellar. Maybe I suck or maybe the recipe wasn't tested very well. I don't think I would screw up four different dessert recipes. A recipe for Pierre Herme's Pain d'epice on "Serious Eats" that Dorie Greenspan had on there turned out dryer than a bone to a point where I wrote her and asked if an egg or two might be missing or something ( I didn't hear back but am sure she missed the email, she's very kind & considerate.) I made it again, added some eggs, some pear puree instead of juice to give some wetness, still kind of dry though. Jump to now, I get PH10, look at Herme's recipe and there's eggs, orange marmalade,glucose, etc. Did Serious Eats ( where the recipe was) edit her recipe or did something get chopped out on the internet? Corn syrup is switched in for glucose in "home" cooks cookbooks all of the time, that's no hassle, it would seem. If you have to edit that many ingredients out, what's the point? But, I'm not sorry I tried them, never know until you do. Cook some stuff out of 'Sweet Spot', that Vietnamese Coffee Tart is a signature, the coconut bread pudding, easy. Any of those panna cotta-ish puddings , ditto. But, since this one of the few American cookbooks to feature metric weights, invest 28 bucks or so and get one like an "Escali scale if you don't already have a scale. Good Luck!

I think it was more than just holding. There were issues with the proportions of the components, and their flavor/texture relationships to each other. I still don't know if these were dud recipes or if they were just poorly executed by the staff. ← Sorry but talking about "issues with the proportions of components and their flavor/texture...'' blah is just subjective rhetoric . Have you ever worked in a restaurant before? Are you a chef? The only issue is whether you enjoyed the food or not and you clearly didn't.

Well, I didn't mean to imply that there was spoiled cream involved, or bugs running around on the plate. But I stand by my appraisal of "terrible," having eaten a lot of good desserts, including ones at similarly experimental spots. We also specifically ordered the two recommended by the house. I'm betting you wouldn't have liked them. The one that stands out most was a warm date cake soaked in rum syrup with creme fraiche, rhubarb, and kumquats. If it had just been a country style date cake in soaking syrup, and made well, it would have been great. But there were two problems: it was made poorly, and then the attempts to make it more interesting took it nowhere. Worst problem was that the cake depended on soaking syrup for moistness, but there was about 1/4 the amount of syrup required for this, all of it pooled at the bottom. So save for a couple of good bites, the cake was as dry as an old shoe. Then there were the secondary components: creme fraiche (a good, conservative choice ... but such a tiny smear on the edge of the plate that it was useless); rhubarb (tasty, but very similar in texture and even flavor to the two or three moist bites of the cake); and kumquat (the only part that was interesting and that worked). This is the kind of thing I'm talking about. The other dessert we had (also recommended by the staff) was better but only a little. You can see how I'm left wondering if the problem was with the recipe or the execution. The recipe might have been written with these proportions, or it might not have. I haven't been bold enough to try recipes from the book, because I don't want to spend an afternoon of my life only to end up with such a disappointment on my plate. Instead I've been playing it safe, thumbing through the book looking for general ideas to play with. And I'll be following this thread closely, looking to see if there are recipes people love. ← It doesn't sound like a recipe problem, it sounds like maybe a product could have been held for too long. We've all probably pushed some things a bit, once or twice in our lives... Execution would mean the technique with which it was made maybe wasn't good? I think Pichet is a pretty solid chef, you don't get there with just bullsh-t, no? Cookbooks are a gamble.

Not to niggle but "proportions, plating ( and all other details", Whatever they might be ) would seem to be sort of subjective. What you or I think is an awful plating, balance of food, others might find breathtaking and sublime. The only reason I care about this is that as a pastry chef, a restaurant pastry chef, you can send something out and a customer may not like it, just because of how it looks, etc. Truly. I once had a lemon napoleon on a menu that used shards of caramelized phyllo as the pastry layer. I send it, 10 minutes later go to check on something and see it on the pick up station. I inquire as to why it hasn't gone to the customer yet and am told that it was taken and the customer refused it because "he didn't know how to eat it"! If there was something "wrong" with the actual food on the plate, that's one thing. If you don't like P. Ong's esthetic, that's another

How was the execution terrible or wrong? I don't get it ( as in going to the restaurant). Also, the book was written 3 years ago, published 2 years ago, is he still doing those desserts at P*ONG? On a regular basis?

Not really but in PH's book at least, the basic recipe for fruit flavors could lead you pretty right. His big vaniila flavor "Infinement Vanille" is there

I hope that in your letter you spelled B-A-T-A-L-I correctly. ← Yes, make sure you spell that culinary icons name correctly, sir! F-A-N-T-A P-A-N-T-S

Cocao- Vanille is the title by Francois Pralus and Laurence Cailler. It has a sub title of " L'or Noir de Madagascar A more enticing picture. Pralus is a rather "underground" chocolate house it seems. I know Pastry Chef Alex Stupak of wd50 has used it in at least one recipe. It's in French, of course but any info on this would be much appreciated. Thank you!

The one thing I would add is if you're getting it from Amazon.fr is USE Chronopost or the high end delivery system. I had an *%ing nightmare when I ordered PH10 and tried to save 15 euro (lol!) only to wait for two, TWO months and endless emails and such to see what in the hell happened. I ordered "Macaron" and many others express and it was a beautiful story. PS: Just to add 2 cents to the original question, I doubt we'll be seeing an English version anytime soon, if ever. If a book like PH10 has been published in all of the major languages except English (wish someone would explain why) not to mention the general lack of knowledge about the 'Mac here in the US, the macaron needs an explosion of publicity like cupcakes did. Paulette macarons ln Los Angeles, a joint venture between her and Christophe Michalak, winner of the 2005 Coupe du Monde de la Pâtisserie, a former protege of PH himself and author of a really delightful cook book called "C'est du gateau!" which covers the 'mac with some great recipes and how to illustrations. Michalak writes a great pastry blog as well, Passion Gourmande Paulette is opening a store in San Francisco next so maybe the wave is starting to roll!

Thanks for the info. I've gotten by with Spanish books so I suppose, with some help from online translators, I can get by with French. Cheers ← It's a fantastic book! Well worth the $$ and the fuddling about with translation. Classic!

Puffed rice and corn is used a lot in France & Spain as dessert ingredients. I was reading " A Day in the Like of El Bulli" the other day and the have raw Lays "3-Ds" made for them. That's a rather eclectic snack, no?

The only Pirates Booty I know of is a kind of "Whole Foods-ish" type of Cheese Doodles puff.

Cream of coconut sounds good but I've found if you use coconut milk, it's always good to season with salt. It brings up the coconut flavor.

Just wondering if anyone has been trying any of the recipes from "D.F."? I've made a few from the website and they've always been spot on but I tried the Chocolate beet Cake from the book the other day and had a some problems. Instead of baking in a pan I did "mini loafs", an eight slot 5x3 and the cakes tunneled quite a bit, or caved in, whatever you want to call it. Hard to imagine that that would blow it. Maybe there's a typo on the temp ( 400 convection)? Or the calibration is off on my oven. I've always had a bit a problem with High Temp/High Fat ( a lot of oil) recipes for cakes. I saved them by using ganache to fill the cavity and covering the top. They were saved. Still digging the book

Don't know about Kentucky whiskey casks, but they sell chips made from Jack Daniels casks. ← I think you're right. I thought I had seen "Kentucky " but I just checked in my book and it is Tennessee wood. Thanks for the correction.!

Maybe they will but in the meantime try a Michaels hobby joint or a specialty shop for cake decorating? Even a chocolate mold section of JBPrine.com or Chefrubber.com, etc.? Good Luck

Yes, incredible looking restuarant and in yet another "Natura" infuence, there is a dessert by Chef Kahn features a "WHISKEY BARREL ICE CREAM" which i think would be more like the "Kentucky Whisky Cask Ice Cream " of Adrias. Cask wood is infused into the dairy in Adria's version. Where can I get some? BTW, All of Kahns menu looks swell...XIV Restaurant

That's some serious stuff!!! In the US you can go to Le Sanctuaire online, they carry a lot of the Sosa products.

Ahhhhh, the first "homage" to Albert Adria and his book "Natura", courtesy of Laurent Gras of L2o, a very good ( but technical , for the food and architecture obsessed) blog. Yes, Chef says it's a technique Ferran showed in Belgium and etc. but this sure looks like the strawberry "mi"out of "Natura". I think it's great that influences creep in & out of all of these immensely talented people. Which reminds me, some of the Natura work reminds me, in the "nature" aspects of the items, of Pastry chef Jordan Khan, who drove New York City crazy with delight and angst at the short lived Varietal( '06 ). check this out!

Yep, one of a myriad of reasons I wish I was back in NYC! I was looking thru Dessert Fourplay last eve and am still knocked out at how great it is. I like the font too, very "Dessert Cuisine" ish (by Oriol Balaguer.) Can't go wrong there!

Mine came today also. Everything about it is super solid. I would presume some of these recipes are from the website and the website recipes ( and the 'site as a whole) always work. A great job, well worth the wait IMO...

He does go on Martha Stewart a lot. I mean he even was on Tony Danza once...

Thanks all! I found it on his website for 58 euro's which would make it a quite bit cheaper. I saw it in France ( en Francais) earlier this year but it was the huge format. I have Pierre Herme's "Macaron" and that's pretty much the word on that subject but...