tan319

Were you directing that to me,E? I'm not throwing them out, but I did order some new ones. I think scotch bonnet stuff finally cleared out.

I doubt it. I used to work @ Chicama before I moved from NYC and I'm happy to say the drinks were always slammin! My fave was the 'ChicamKazee'. I have a feeling I'm going to love the 'KIWIprihina'!

not sure about that. The chiles were actually touching the silpat and still exuding their hot oils. You probably folded the chiles into your batter? maybe do a test run before you unleash anything on an unsuspecting guest? BTW, my chef wasn't pissed. He's from Texas and was just wondering what I had put in them!HAHAHAH! Crazy, huh?

OK, new one. I know I was involved in the incident with the dessert souffles, chef,and salt but that wasn't my fault. This next one was. Last Friday I was running a dessert special and was trying to make a clear candy with scotch bonnet peppers. First, I mixed the scotch bonnets with the boiling sugar,LOL!!! I had warned everyone that this would amount to something like tear gas so they should steer clear of my dungeon like basement cooking area. Even I was surprised though by the amount of coughing and gagging it produced. But the real kicker was yet to come. I poured the candy onto my silpats and put one over it to roll out the candy. I decided to forget the candy idea. I continued with my day, finishing it off with baking my tuiles for the evenings service, on my silpats, of course. I had cleaned and washed them well after the candy experiment. I came home, and after about an hour, got a call from my exec chef, who was wondering what in the hell I had put in the tuiles! I will NEVER AGAIN do anything with the HOTTEST CHILE IN THE WORLD... on a silpat that I intend to use for ANYTHING else!!! I ordered 2 new ones today from JB PRINCE.

New stuff up on Apicius http://www.apicius.es/ also, Michael, if you're here, I was rereading the thread and saw the 'steamed cake' mention. I'm intrigued... Did you ever make one? I'm getting ready to get the Balaguer book.What do you ( or anyone else. BPG? )think of it? PS: I've been using the 'crema montada' technique for a lot of sauces lately and I love it! I made a coconut based one today to go with this 'Faust' theme thing that we were doing as a special menu for a local symphony doing 'Faust'. It was a ancho chocolate cake done in a sphere mold, inverted, with a milk chocolate semifreedo that I infused the cream with chile caribe. Plated kind of 'Yin & Yang'-ish. I tried to make it a "hellish' look. Sold a good # before I left for the night :-)

I dig 'AKWA' Kind of like 'The X-MEN' of 'AG' cooking!

I'm sorry to intrude on this thread, ladys, just doing some research... This mac and cheese thing is just...wow!

looking forward to the over exposure. The brown butter caramel cider thing is cool.I was doing something similar 2 winters ago as a sauce for a free form apple tart.I did a caramel, deglazed with an apple concentrate, meanwhile browning butter and hitting it with calvados. Then I combined. At first I was having trouble with it separating after a while , but then I started burr mixing the brown butter into it and it worked like a charm! No separation, total groove. I didn't know the Achatz thing was still going. The Caramelized sous vide dairy sounds kind of like a dulce de leche.Very cool! BTW, do you know what a 'mate' or a 'drap' is? Damn, I'm full of questions tonight. My apologies if it's annoying! Thanks for the info. Sounds good!!!

ummmm, buerre noisette, yum! what is the olive oil ice cream taste like? Not to be a weirdo, but, it it sweet, nutty, salty? I haven't had one yet. How soon do you think the P&A thing will be out?

I just finished reading the thread reffered too. I'd like to throw my 2 cents in. Firstly, no dessert carts. Or displays. Stuff starts looking bad, it's way 70's,etc. BPG, I forget what was on your menu. Make sure you have some cool garnishes, ones that look good as a dessert get's walked across the room.The other day my chef and I were discussing how one item ( a berries and cream panna cotta) has it's ups & downs on my menu. One person at lunch ordered one, I had a great, kind of oversized tuile, cloudlike in that panna cotta, and boom, sold 4 more in 15 minutes. MAKE SURE your servers taste everything. Make them love your stuff and you. Make sure all your stuff is indie, no cuts. Get together with your chef or owner and maybe have him (and you?) have a meeting with servers discussing selling desserts. How they're helping themselves and the house by adding more sales to the kitty. I agree w/ Steve Kic in the other thread, consider doing a dessert in a martini glass or such. Like the Tiramisu ideas that have been on some of the Spanish threads. THAT would sell like crazy, people love that stuff! I did one that was orange accented,in a ring mold the other night as a special, sold out all 15. And I live and work in an area that is chain restaurant central. Or a triple layer mousse in a glass. Make sure your menu is appealing, that if you were presented with it as a customer you would HAVE to have something from it. Maybe talk to your chef about a prix fixe special every night that offers dessert with it. Personally, I hate sampler platters, although the Trotter one looked nice. Mesa grill had a nice one too. I just don't like them. When I was working in NYC, if we had a big table, my chef would just say give me 2 or 3 of everything and we would plate them individually. Lastly, use good words to describe them on the menu. " Chocolate from south Pacific cocoa beans, or "Venezulean chocolate'. If you're doing a Panna Cotta make sure you or your servers mention that there are no eggs in it. Hope this is helpful!'Good Luck,BPG!!! PS: Don't comp unless it's a VIP or your boss demands it.

Kareen, Michael, Got any new stuff going with the Paco Jet? Just curious...:-)

Btw, in that polvo chocolate recipe page I also noticed the turron recipe. This is a nougut,correct? I've noticed lot's of them on these various Spanish pastry sites. can you explain why they're so prevalent?

The superbag... so you would put the solids in the bag and the liquid around it? to eliminate the whole 'raft' thing? That's wild... I've got to get to Spain!

Michael, the 'polvo helado' recipe and pic looks pretty wild! thanks for the link.

Michael, the pacojet recipes look cool. I guess you and your assistant will be a bit busier for awhile? :-)

Just found this site http://www.cookingconcepts.com/ They make the isi profi whipper, pacojet but a really cool thing is apparently an Adria development, hence the name, 'elBulliolor Vaporizor'! Has anybody seen or heard of this before? I did a search but couldn't find anything. Anyone else? update: Looked a little more on the site. It looks like it is a bottled 'essence' sprayer.

thanks very much for the info, Michael. I really appreciate it. I have 2 questions for you. 1- how and why do you used powdered Glucose? Is it more efficient? I've had an idea for the packaging of the gooey stuff for awhile. also, where did you see the Adria recipe? I'd love to have a look at it, if possible. thanks!

I would also like to hear some info from people on this machine,(Steve, Michael??) I was just speaking to a pastry chef friend of mine in NYC this morning and he was telling me about his new Paco. IThe last time I was in NYC I had suggested him using stabilizer in his ice cream and sorbets and he did , liking his results. He was using a Taylor. Now, he said he has had to readjust his recipes because the Paco makes it soupy, I believe. The reason I want to know is that I have to convince my owner to get a machine of some type and the Paco is cheaper, correct? I love the small Taylor. It's just a heavy hit, pricewise. My question is, is it user friendly(ie: people doing service who are not focused on quality, etc.?)

I just found a new one ( to me, at least). www.afuegolento.com Enjoy!

Thanks, Chef, for your time. I read your post about age in the kitchen. And also about thinking about ideas,etc. I realize that you have cooked for a long time and paid your dues but the fact that you are accomplishing this at your age, which is quite young to me, is pretty amazing. It's like a musician having a 5x platinum record in a way. Since the age of your cooks is pretty young also, are they coming to you from places like TFL, Trotters, Clio, etc. or in that sphere? Are you getting people from Europe? el Bulli in reverse, in a way? And do you ever get people who have little experience but who are really excited about "the movement", who impress you enough to take on? Thanks again!

Speaking of British TV, can anyone PLEASE tell me where I could get a copy of 'Boiling Point', the doc that featured Gordon Ramsey? I'm dying to see this but have come with nothing. Any help would be appreciated! thanks!

Thanks for the reply, chef! I wish you all the best in the future.

hello chef. Thank you for doing this Q&A! It's fascinating and informative. My question is: When you did your stage at el Bulli, did you cook a lot or did you observe mainly? How long were you there for? Thank you I can't wait to eat at TRIO!

Here is a link to a translation of the Apicius article... Edit: Due to the standards set forth by the User Agreement, it is advisable not to post at length material under copyright. I've edited tan319's posted translation to provide a link to where the site can be viewed translated into English! ML

Do you think that his missing mise might have made him stumble a bit? Had to be a bummer for him:_(