tan319

Alamoana, Thanks for writing. I think the machine you're talking about is this: http://www.carpigiani-usa.com/ I was looking at their small one, it looks boss! They also make pasteurizers (SIC?) too, I think. I geeked on them at the chocolate loft website. I was wondering if Chikka had a Paco on display so people could see it being made on the spot , for spectacle factor. I was speaking about the overhead thing more in general.Ingredients, etc. NYC I know would be a piece of work, rent wise. I've been toying with the idea of a dessert place here in N.M. for awhile now. I was thinking about continuing to do the menu items for the 2 place's I chef at now at the shop, maybe have a side business with ice cream and sorbets ( for carry out and on premises) and maybe rent some space out to a friend who's a kick ass bread maker. I was also thinking about using students from a local culinary arts program for a lot of staff. I helped opened a rest. in NYC for someone who was using 45% students for the line at his place and it worked out well for him. BTW, I never dreamed I would be seriously considering this kind of thing! Edit: I would also want to avoid the Costco route if I could. I've seen enough people running around like crazy, trying to save 50 cents a gallon on milk, etc., and losing much more then that in time and labour.

Alanamoana Are they doing their ice creams with a Paco-Jet? At the counter? I was thinking about the Conticini article in the NYTimes a year ago or so, about Petrossian. Also: Do you (and anybody else who want's to chime in) think that an all dessert restaurant would have lower overhead, considering the standard items that would be used? I know yoou would have to have an considerable amount of inventory, but the day to day stuff.

Damn! She was rather horrified, no? Maybe too many Sunday 'Roasts' for her...

THAT is a BEAUTIFUL dish!!! Please explain 'Anarchy' to us! Much appreciated

The dessert that surprised me the most, wasn't the recreations of different perfumes (Polo from Ralph Laurent, ...), it was one called "Anarchy". Make sure you'll taste this one. If you love wine, you'll love Can Roca. Ask for Josep Roca and his advice. Hi, Pedro. If you get a chance, could you elaborate on the desserts at Can Roca? I'm very curious about his work there. Much appreciated, thanks!

Too much alcohol, IMHO. Reduce the plum wine, take the plums and process, strain into container. Add syrup to plum puree and reduction. To cup of puree add 1 and 1/2 cup of syrup. Taste for balance, season with squeeze pf leom juice and a pinch of salt. Spin in your machine. Good luck.

Mags, What does nobility and honor have to do with Burger King? He had the benefit of the doubt for the Santa Fe sandwich. The BBQ makes him shillish., to me at least. Puck Makes his soup ( at least the recipe) It's HIS product. I could see RR doing FHM to get publicity more then her BK thing too. Doesn't really matter, anyways. Just waiting for Batali to endorse...Ragu or something now.

Could be, Zilla. I think the buffet bar thing could be cool. especially with all these waiters weighing in on it. The CCF thing would have confused the hell out of me, that's for sure. My experience is that kids don't like nice, they want choices and fun, all that. Good luck on this, sounds fun.!

I did 4 of them today, the recipe as it reads, as to not waste anything,and , my oven being semi crappy (uneven), had the under/overbake syndrome. I'm using 4 oz. aluminum molds, utility cups they're called.

Maybe 'ho' would be less offensive, knowwhati'msayin'? Rizzo, you got da dilliyo on dat,yo?

Thanks, Sinclair. That is indeed what I'm attempting. Today was at 4 minutes. 375 in a convection, load high. Shocked in an ice bath, as my walk in never feels cold enough to me. Then stored in the walk in to cool completely. After I mic-ed, as I said the cake didn't so much deflate as collapse. And it looked like the cake was baking thru up ( I unmolded it to a plate to warm, so up was bottom and vice versa) Do you think I should bake till top is 'sealed' looking, or still a bit shimmery? Thanks for your input. Going to go look back at chefettes post about baking these. Oh, I did hit it with a bit of Fleur de Sel. And I'm using Valrhona 70 % Guanaja (sic?)

Chefette, et al, Tried the molten cake, la Conticini, recipe again today. Worked better, but still needs to be perfected. Too gooshy, sides too thin. I micro-ed for 20 seconds, it came out a bit..deflated But that's cool, I'll get it. Thanks for the tips, much improved.

I've always thought of Bowie as an underdog. I've alway's been mystified by people as rich as a Jimmy Page (beyond rich) who sell stuff for even more money. I'm aware that the stand I took on that issue seems naive, immature, whatever ( "hey, that song used to MEAN something to me! Why did you sell it???!!!) but , hey, just telling the truth. Why would someone have to pay you 500k to carry a book? We're not talking about people who need help to pay the ConEd bill by doing commercials, are we? Hey, if Bayless was selling Hillfiger, I would think it was pretty cool. Bowie selling it, it fits, cool. Thomas Keller is doing commercials for something, can't quite remember which product but' it's a close call. Ditto Trotter. My life has ( and has had) plenty of downsides, working and otherwise. What does that have to do with this? Don't you think Bayless ( and Rachel Ray, to a certain extent) look kind of silly doing these ads? Are they that broke ? Does Rick pull up to BK after a hard night at Frontera or Topalabampo and order a BBQ sandwich? (BTW, just saw the ad for the Bayless BBQ thing. ) Does Rachel, after a day's worth of taping motor over to 'the king'. If they do, I'll take it all back. Edit: Did using the "Whore" word rile everyone up? Or just my expectations ?

Right when I thought this thread was going to go away... this comes up. He's a schill, no other way to describe it. I tried to give him the benefit of the doubt, tried to apply the same reasoning I gave to some of my fave rock people like Bowie selling 'Heros' to Microsoft, for instance. It's gotten a little harder to understand people like Zep or the Who but I gave up on those guys because they kind of made it obvious they're whores for dollars anyways. Groups who just are starting out placing their songs in commercials get my support because it's a way of getting exposure. But this food thing is such a different animal. Bayless could be endorsing All clad or caphalon stuff, getting his own line of something like that and donating his proceeds to these farmers, etc. I have to make something clear here. I don't hate fast food. I eat it probably twice a month, sometimes more. I'm a chef, I have a kid, sometimes I can't cook for the family unit and we go for it (wife doesn't cook much). We go for Micky D's or Sonic. I understood the Santa Fe thing a bit, at least it hooked into where he is coming from as a chef, regionally, more or less. BBQ?= Bullshit.

C'mon!!! You're kidding, right? Jaysus!

Cool. That's how I've done it, as far as the stirring goes. I didn't pipe, I poured. I didn't notice any gaps, just the timing is SO hit and miss. But it was fairly goey. It just never pours out of the cake like say, the Jean George Vongrichten (?) pictures always look. RE: Salt. I'm always using it to bring my flavours up, in everything. I made a chocolate panna cotta the other day and found it a bit flat and a pinch of salt put it right there. Thanks for the tips!

Chefette (and Steve) I just got my copy of that Food Arts with Conticini and am waiting for my Thuries mag with him. I love this guy, what he's about and am so kicking myself in my ass for never getting to Petrossian when I (and he) was in NYC. Question about his Moelleux recipe. When you talk about whipping the choc butter mix into the yolk mix, are you on a Kitchen Aid or doing by hand? I also have those NYTimes articles with Conticini and am trying a variation on the brownie he does there. It say's "Swiss meringue" and then describes a meringue made with confectioner sugar but not heated over a bain marie. It's my impression that Swiss meringue is egg whites and the sugar combined and then heated over a bain, then whipped to volume,etc.. That's how I do it. Can you verify? And thanks for posting more stuff. Awesome.

BPG, Jeffrey Buben at Vidalia! Was that in DC? Always heard Buben was a killer Did he throw anything at you? Hope everything is great with you!

Ms.Kate, In the 'passion' debate, I believe I said that "sometimes" you appear to lack passion about school and cooking. That was based on what came thru via your posts. I know it's easy to mistake someone's mindset reading a thread. I got that feeling from reading a lot of your stuff. But, enough of that. School is tough. I hated going to culinary school at first. I NEVER liked school of any sort much past 7th grade and when I found myself in culinary school, in my 30's, I felt like crap. Very shy, in a way,afraid of screwing things up, the teacher knew I knew a lot about food but kind of liked intimidating me. It changed about 3 months in. I got confidence, got rid of my shyness and actually ended up doing pretty well. If you haven't decided to drop out, don't let the teachers bug you. They are perhaps preparing you for life out there, and even if you're a personal chef, there will always be conflict.

Thanks for the heads up but am very aware of all those place's. I said crazy for all the usual reason's. But, it's getting to be time to try to do thing's the way I see them, for better or worse. It's getting harder and harder to compete with the "meal" everyone eat's in restaurant's before they even think about dessert. Maybe a specialized place where dessert is THE reason is what the doctor ordered. Thanks for your input, Suzanne F.

Anybody CAN cook. very true. But cooking well, with spirit and passion, people can tell the difference. I know the chef breathing down the neck thing is aggravating, unnerving and sometimes hostile but, I found it helped build my ability to take 'IT'. It isn't that different to have one person telling you one thing and another person telling you another in cooking. It's the same in every profession, don't you think? Cooking isn't "brain surgery", that's for sure, but, maybe consider the source? Chef after chef saying "anyone can cook" can be taken in a lot of different way's, depending on the context it's said in. I don't think anyone can alway's cook GREAT. That's something that's either in your blood or is learned, the latter often with a considerable amount of stress and blood, sweat, and tears. It rarely comes easy. You've spent a lot of time in this forum, Kate. I was one of the 1st people who posted on what was probably your 1st thread, when you were just starting at RT's. I was ( and am ) sincerely interested in what you do and whatever you want to put out there for us to read. Anywhere on this site.

MAN!!!!!! Where was I when this thing ran??? Well, I wasn't reading e-Gullet, was I? What a GREAT THREAD! I laughed, I cried, I.... BTW, I didn't get into cooking because I thought it was going to pay great ( it was, and is, the only other thing I care about besides music) BUT, the best paying gig I've ever had was right out of my 9 month, Theory and Technique, and Practique course's at L'Academie de Cuisine, in Bethesda, Md. (it's now in Gaithersburg,Md.) when I had an apprenticeship that started at 8.50 an hour and within 6 months I was making 15.00 bucks an hour + OT! 50 hours a week, max. Next best paying was as a pastry chef here in NM,10,11 years later, 60 -75 hours a week, 30k It's gone down from there Next up: trying to open my own, dessert based place. Crazy? You bet'cha

I don't understand the little to no credit for it line. From who? From the people here? Is this school? I think people here have been really kind to you, Kate. Hate to be a bummer but, there have been times when I was wondering why you're in cooking school. Because you seem to be sort of passionless about cooking sometimes. It sometimes seems from your post's that cooking is just something to do. 'Word'!!! . This is kind of not true. Steve has given many people, including me, some great stuff, including the Conticini recipe for molten cakes. Ditto Michael L., chefette, Brianpastryguy, et al. Right here. Not P.M.'ed. If people aren't vague about what they're looking for, researching, etc., 'They will come'... What happens after that is up to you, your skill level, the god's. Congratulations!!! Now you have two .

It's a forum, and I asume that means I can post questions. If your going to start getting rude then please either don't look at my post or don't reply I fail to see how your posts help me......I was after a recipe!! Sure there are heaps of recipes out there.............BUT........only a few are great!, Why should I waste my time and money trialing recipes when like minded people here have already got practical, easy, cost effective recipes?? I have a problem and wanted help resolving it!!!, so where is the harm in my question? Wow! getting a bit heated in here. As Sinclair said, there are tons of recipes on the net, in books,etc. Unfortunately, recipes are things that don't necessarily yield great results. For many reasons. It doesn't mean the recipe is awful either. Molten cakes have proved hard for me too, and I have a few really good recipes for them. I have a thread on here somewhere titled 'molten cakes'. I live in a high altitude, that may be effecting how they turn out. Do you? The best results I've had with them have been from borrowing a technique (kind of) Steve Klc talked about in an article about brownies from the washington post. I baked at a high temp (450). For maybe 4 minutes for a 4 oz. mold, then shocked the molds in an ice bath. I don't know if I would do that with china or ceramic ramekins (you might break them ) They were more molten then other times I've done them. As Sinclair suggested, maybe load them with ganache ( aball of it) to make it more runny. I'm sorry, but think about this statement for a moment... Seems kind of silly, maybe? Easy to one person is ballbusting to another. And if you've never tried a recipe before, there is only one way to find out ( trialing a recipe) Good luck to you. Hope I was of some help.

If you want to shine up your puree, add a bit of a liquor, spirit that is either neutral or will add something to it. It will shine up nice!