nightscotsman

Here is some of his stuff from the Tokyo shop:

Try using snow sugar (otherwise known as sucre neige) instead of regular powdered sugar. It's formulated to not melt when sprinkled on moist surfaces, so it shouldn't draw as much juice out of your berries. I think King Arthur sells it.

I went to pastry school at 40 (I was not the oldest student) and I completely agree with chezcherie. I was SHOCKED at the number of people who had never even made the most basic things like italian meringue or pastry cream at before. You're life experience and any baking you've done at home will put you way ahead of many other students. Yes, take lots of pictures. Ask lots of questions and take lots of notes. Be the first person to volunteer for any extra stuff. Arrive early for class, always have a professional attitude, work as quickly and cleanly as possible. You're going to love it!

For shiny fondant glaze you need to start with fondant (pouring, not rolled). Most people buy it in buckets and it shouldn't be very expensive. I can describe how I was taught to prepare the fondant for glazing, though it's one of those things (like chocolate tempering) that's better to show in person. Put some fondant in a saucepan and add a very small amount of simple syrup. Heat over low heat just until the fondant starts to melt a bit on the bottom. Remove from the heat and "stir" - it will be super thick and hard to work with at first. Keep working at it until it becomes smooth and soft. Check the temperature by touching it. The key to getting a shiny finish on the final product is to warm the fondant just to soften, but if heated too much (higher than body temperature), it will go dull and hard in the cooler. When you have it at the right temperature and smooth, add small amounts of simple syrup to make the consistency a bit more fluid. The trick here is you want it to be fluid enough to flow off the wooden spoon to make a thin glaze, but not so liquid that it won't set up and just run off the eclair. The other tricky part is getting the fondant on the eclair. The traditional method is to pick some up on a wooden spoon or paddle and let it flow off in a kind of waterfall which you can pass the eclair through to paint a wide stripe of glaze on top. This takes a bit of skill and quite a bit of practice to get professional results. The other common method is to turn the eclair upside-down and dip the top in a prepared pot of fondant. We used the first method at Bellagio, though many people prefer the look of the second.

Well, not exactly. The puree doesn't cook with the sugar and corn syrup, so variations in the water content will make some difference. I've also found that fresh puree is very similar in water content to the standarized frozen purees. Most fruit purees vary in their percentage of dry content by only a few percentage points anyway - not really enough to make a big difference in marshmallow consistency. Except for maybe the extremes like bananas at 25% solids and lemon juice at about 6%, you can count on an average of around 13% solids. I don't think there's any need to cook them before pureeing. In fact, cooking may actually dull the flavor a bit.

First, margins are very thin on high-end pastry, so even 20% additional cost would be a big profit hit. However, there are more issues that would have to be dealt with than just the production cost of a porcelain alternative: Porcelain would be much heavier than current products, especially plastic, which would hugely inflate shipping costs. Porcelain would also be bulkier, especially since there would have to be some kind of serious padding (which would also add to costs) to reduce breakage. Many small shops have limited storage and they go through a LOT of these things in a week. Anyway, with all that packing required to protect porcelain plates, would there really be any savings in materials after all?

I don't see any justification for this statement. Care to explain yourself?

I've baked brulee both chilled overnight and not. Not a big difference. According to Emmanuel Ryon (translated from French), chilling and ice cream mix overnight allows the it to "mature", and "maturation allows the flavorings to develop which will be accentuated by the lactic ferments". Aging will also allow stabilizers and other dry ingredients to fully hydrate and improve the texture of the finished ice cream.

This is simply not true. I can guarantee that both restaurants are working with only the best, world class ingredients that have been carefully sourced. In fact Mr. Savoy has gone on the record as saying he won't serve beef in his Paris restaurant because he can't get good product in France, but he it's on the menu in Vegas because he has better access to American beef.

Thank you very much for the alternative perspective, Wendy. You make a lot of good points.

You can also find it at Amazon Japan here: http://www.amazon.co.jp/exec/obidos/ASIN/4...5693348-9331152 The site is in Japanese, of course, but the checkout process is available in English.

I know it may look like this cake would just make a chocolate flavored hockey puck, most variations produce a very moist cake with great texture. Make sure you use enough cocoa and maybe boost the flavor with a bit of espresso powder. It keeps very well and the flavor is actually better the second day.

I would guess it's a stabilizer product. How is it listed in a typical ingredients list?

Is this a new high? ← Not exactly - Robuchon is more expensive, but for 16 courses.

I had a couple weeks "between jobs" and thought I would play around with some ideas. Here's what I came up with: - "blueberry cheesecake": blueberry compote, almond streusel, cream cheese mousse, fresh blueberries - blueberry financiers - wild blueberry popsicle - blueberry pate de fruit - chocolate donuts with coffee cremeux filling - oatmeal stout float with milk chocolate ice cream (the donuts also have stout in them, plus some rum)

I got some molds at Target this year to play around with. Very cheap - less than 3 bucks.

As of last week, the tasting menu was $290 for about 10 courses.

New job? Do tell! ← We opened Restaurant Guy Savoy in Caesars Palace on Wednesday.

The problem with just engraving your name on tools is you can't pick out your tools from a distance. It's much too easy for someone who took your knife to say in feigned innocence "oh, is this yours? I didn't see your name there".

I used orange electrical tape in school, but it was not allowed at Bellagio (health code violation ), so we used an engraver. In my new job the tape is OK, so now I've go both.

For great flavors, get down to Trader Joe's and check out their range of bottled juices. They have some unusual flavors and the quality is usually very good. As far as just freezing the juice in molds, you might want to add a bit of sugar, since the colder the food, the less sweet it will taste. Also adding a little gelatin will improve the texture, acting a sort of like a sorbet stabilizer. Maybe 2 grams per 500 grams of juice.

It's on a page of short blurbs called "Off the Menu" dated May 17th. The story at the top of the page notes the opening of Guy Savoy in Vegas (which is where I'm working now. )

There's a blurb in todays New York Times with few details here (registration required): http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/17/dining/17off.html On the same page they note that Sam Mason is leaving WD-50 to open a new place for tapas, desserts and drinks.

If you're having problems getting a grip on your piping bags, definitely give Kee-Seal a try. The outsides have a non-slip coating that's very easy to hold onto.