nightscotsman

I'm afraid this isn't going to help you much, but Sur la Table carries blocks of E Guittard at outrageously inflated prices. Just in case you wanted to get some to try out and see if it's worth the hassle tracking down a supplier.

Last Monday was my birthday (thanks - I'm 40. yay.), and following my own personal tradition I booked a table for one at the restaurant of my choice. This year, the choice was the new Chicago restaurant Moto, helmed by head chef Homaro Cantu (eGullet member inventolux). Also on his kitchen staff is eGullet member and Chicago potluck favorite Hobbes. Approaching the address given on Moto's web site, I was beginning to wonder if there had been a typo - the neighborhood is gritty industrial warehouses with big trucks and semis blocking many of the sidewalks. But then here is this clean little storefront hacked out of the raw urban wilderness. And coming inside everything is calm modern minimalism and chic all-black clad staff (including what look like lab coats in black). In fact the space is so minimal that you find yourself wishing for just a bit of artwork on the walls, but then the food starts coming and you forget all about pictures. The current menu offers four tasting menus of five, seven, ten, and nineteen courses ranging in price from $50 to $160. Each menu also has a wine progression option for an additional charge from $30 to $65. There is no separate wine list, which is fine with me since there is no way I could have hoped to pick better matches with the dishes that were about to appear. I would even go so far as to say the the wine progressions are an essential part of the Moto dining experience. A complimentary glass of a lovely proseco was poured to enjoy while I'm studying the menu. It's a tough choice, but given my temporary financial situation I go for the seven course - the nineteen course will have to wait for a time when I'm feeling a bit richer. (Sorry about the poor quality of the photos, but I didn't want to be rude and use a flash in the restaurant.) Toro, Sturgeon Caviar, 11:45am Live Uni & a Utensil Study NV Herbert Beaufort Bouzy grand cru, Champaigne, France As you can see, the custom made spoons are an integral part of this dish. Inside the spiral handles are sprigs of fresh thyme that you smell as you eat the toro tuna, sea urchin (alive until 11:45 that day) and caviar. Magnets on each end of the little posts they are resting on keep them attached to the plate. The flavors here were very subtle and clean, but the mouth-feel is pure silken luxury. The champaigne had a strong yeasty, buttery finish - almost like drinking brioche. It beautifully enhanced and complimented the tuna and uni. Candy, Hot Gelled Hash & Slurpee with a Special Ingredient 2000 Cuilleron Marsanne, Rhone, France This dish was a study in fennel - the candy in the lower left was chewy sweet fennel with an edible wrapper, on the right is a baby green salad with fennel gellee cubes and fennel puree, and top left is a fennel soup slushy with a Slurpee® straw direct from 7-11. The strong anise and sweet and sour flavors going on here had to have been a nightmare to pair a wine with, but the Cuilleron Marsanne was simply amazing. In combination with the fennel the alcohol in the wine was completely suppressed and the herbal notes accentuated - specifically a strong dill flavor. Surprising and delicious. Sashimiesque Plate I was given an extra pour of wine with this dish, but I'm afraid I don't remember what it was. Anyway, as you can see there are three portions of fish on the plate - lightly seared tuna, raw scallop, and raw salmon, each with it's own light sauce - along with a small cup of wasabi soda. The seafood was fresh and perfect with the light glaze of sauce just enough to enhance without overpowering, and the soda was sweet, but the fish was rich enough to stand up to the sweetness. Inside Out Duck Roll 1998 Domaine Lorentz "Rotenburg" Gewurtztraminer, Alsace, France Here we have three portions of duck, each with a puree of duck skin, duck confit, and duck breast cook sous vide. On top is a crispy fried wonton tube with a sweet and mildly spicy liquid sauce inside. You are instructed to break the wonton and pour the sauce over the duck. A fun presentation and simply delicious. The flavors of the duck were deep and rich with the light, sweet sauce refreshing, and the play of textures from smooth to tender to slightly chewy was very nice. Before the next course was served, the waiter placed this translucent plastic cube on my table. He explained that the fish inside would cook slowly from the heated liquid in the bottom of the cube and would be perfect by the time I had finished the next course. Citrus & Togarashi This was a light pallet cleanser consisting of a citrus emulsion, and citrus ice with a sprinkling of praline underneath. The waiter also used a stainless steel spray bottle to mist a bit of Japanese pepper liquid over the top. Very refreshing, nice textures and a little kick of spice at the end from the spray. A charming dish. Pacific Bass Baked Tableside 2002 Cusumano, "Angimbre" Sicily, Italy Now the plate for the fish that had been cooking in the cube was brought out with a bit of what looked like soba noodles, but turned out to be seaweed with a light sweet and sour sauce and a sprinkling of powdered nori. The cube was opened and the waiter used a spatula to transfer the sea bass to the plate. OK, so I know it looks like the whole cube thing could be just a gimmick, but this fish was simply amazing. It was cooked through, but the texture was silky smooth and fragile, melting in my mouth. The bass was also expertly seasoned and perfect with the seaweed and sauce. Did I say it was amazing? Poached Pork with Curry 1999 W.H. Smith Wines "Hellenthal Vineyard" Pinot Noir, Sonoma Coast Mmmm... pork belly. On the left is a small dish of "beans and rice": wild rice and firm beans (runner beans?) in a thickly flavored cream sauce with a pyramid of bean ice cream. On the right is the meltingly tender pork belly topped with a piece of deep fried pork skin and surrounded by dots of lightly flavored curry sauce. Three words - rich, rich, rich. Deep, full bodied flavors that coat your mouth with unctuousness. In fact, this dish might have been just a little too much of a good thing as I was starting feel a bit full at this point. Triple Seared Beef & a Sapporo Head 1997 Produttori del Barbaresco, Piedmont, Italy I'm not sure exactly what cut of beef this was, but it was treated like a beef sashimi with a darkly seared crust outside and extremely rare, basically raw inside. It was served on top of a richly flavored "wonton puree" and the waiter added a scoop of Sapporo beer foam at the table. Very nice. Chocolate Rice Pudding Made Your Way 2002 Marenco Moscato d'Asti, Piedmont, Italy On the right is a dish of puffed jasmine rice with toasted house-made marshmallows and mint micro greens, and on the left is a cup of rich hot chocolate. The idea is to pour the chocolate over the rice however you wish to create a rice pudding, or you can choose to eat the two sides separately. This I think was the least successful dish of the evening. All of the components were fine and tasty, but combining them didn't really add up to more than the some of their parts. A fun idea, but not very satisfying to eat. Mignardises and Moto To Go On the left is an intensely flavored pineapple chip, in the middle is a spoonful of rich and luxurious white truffle ice cream (more, please!), and underneath is the take-away - a sealed plastic pouch containing two separate liquids that when combined are supposed to make a chocolate/honey/anise soda. The flavors of the drink were really good, but it was a bit overly sweet and didn't really have much of a soda-type fizz. It was fun to play mad scientist at home, but the results where underwhelming. Chef Homaro was kind enough to invite me downstairs to the lab - I mean kitchen to meet the crew and see the goings on. He showed me some of the stuff they are working on for future menus and talked about plans for more inventions that are really going to blow some minds. I think some of it may actually be alien technology - do Scully and Mulder know about this place? Obviously everyone is going to be comparing the direction of Moto with what's going on at Trio, since both chefs are clearly into challenging expectations, pushing the envelope, and using technology to bring new experiences to the diner. I think the biggest difference is Moto's strong Japanese influence in ingredients and flavors, but their presentations also tend to be a little simpler, which you could also see as part of the Japanese tradition. The meals I've had at both places are certainly a couple of the most memorable and exciting. I wish chef Homaro all the luck in the world on his new adventure and I look forward to seeing his cuisine develop and grow in new directions in the future.

I just checked the other Grand Finale books (Modernist and Neoclassic) and while they have other recipes from Lincoln Carson, I don't see the liquid center cake. Sorry.

I used the smallest size to make pate sucre tartlet shells. Worked great - no buttering, no sticking, and they browned nicely.

Another option is to use silicon molds. Design and Realisation in Canada sells Silicon Flex brand molds very inexpensively, and since they are silicon they never stick to anything. They have tartlet molds in 45, 50, 60 and 70 mm sizes. You can see the full range here (scroll down near the bottom of the page for tartlets).

Go for the Tour de Force menu and be prepared to be there quite a while. You won't be bored and it's worth it.

Jacquy Pfeiffer, one of my teachers at school, is a friend of Chef Maury at the Bellagio. In fact Jacquy coached Jean Phillipe's gold medal team at the last World Pastry Competition. So I believe a phone call was made. But Chef Maury did look at my site and said my work looked very nice, which is a big compliment coming from a French chef. I think just mentioning that I had graduated from the French Pastry School was enough to get me an interview, and it was a combination of the recommendation and the pictures on the web site that got me the job offer.

I don't think I'll get too much solitude with 65 people in the pastry kitchen. Of course that's split over three shifts, but still...

Thanks everyone. I'm scheduled to show up for orientation on March 15th, but I'd like to get there a few days earlier to get started looking for an apartment, buying a car, etc. So about two weeks to pack everything up again for shipping, get my kitty to the vet, and make travel arrangements. I've love to see if we can arrange a Heartland get together one last time before I go (and before I pack my baking equipment). I know it's short notice, but if anyone has any ideas, please feel free to post over in the Heartland board. And how about a Seattle eGullet group reunion in Vegas? Six words: "Best Thai Restaurant in North America".

So I just got the official job offer from the Bellagio today and I've decided to accept. Las Vegas here I come! I'll be starting at the bottom as a pastry baker, but I'm very excited about getting started. Gotta get used to the 4:00 am to noon working hours. Thanks again to everyone here for their help and encouragement!

How about this: saute/caramelize apples similar to Brians recipe above, enough for a good layer in a sheet or half sheet pan. Pour over a stove top creme brulee (maybe flavored - cinnamon? calvados? anise? orange?) with a bit of gelatine so it will set enough to slice. Cut in squares or circles, sprinkle some crunchy struesel on plate and place apple/custard on top. Brulee and serve with maybe a caramel sauce, blackberry sauce, or apple soup. Or maybe the creme brulee on top is a chiboust instead?

Neil, can you elaborate? How does one "properly" line a flan ring so that lining and weighting are unnecessary? I have a handful of flan rings and would much prefer to use them for tart production, especially if I can save time by skipping the lining! Muchos Gracias. The way I learned to do it is to ease the rolled out dough into the ring as much as possible without stretching the dough, then using your thumbs, push the dough against the side of the ring and down so that you're actually forcing a bit of dough into the seam between the ring and the parchment underneath. This can be a bit tricky to get right the fist few times and is much easier to show than to explain in words. It also helps if you lightly butter the inside of the ring so the dough both sticks to it and slides over it more smoothly. Once it's even all the way around, take a knife and slice the dough across the top edge of the ring. You will still need to dock the bottom of the shell, but it should stay flat without weighting. Also, this only works with short tart doughs like pate sucre - flaky pie doughs would still need to be weighted because they tend to puff up more when they bake.

I believe in this case Steingarten calls for them because Maury Rubin, who developed the recipe, uses them. And Maury uses them probably for esthetic reasons - his stuff tends to be very clean and modern looking without scalloped edges. There is one technical advantage I can think of: if lined with dough properly, you can blind bake a tart shell without lining with foil or parchment and filling with weights (a major savings of time and materials if you're running a commercial kitchen). The sides will stay straight and there should be minimal shrinkage.

As a sommelier, this is a very interesting statement to me. Rather than minimalize the winelist, why not focus it? It doesn't have to be loaded with big, oaky and buttery chardonnays, (ick) pinot grigios, sweet shiraz and monster cal-cabs. I would be interested to see a listing of your wine pairings. Is it listed on your website, yet? When people go out to spend a lot of money on a memorable dinner, the NEED a winelist. Focus your list on things that compliment your food. You pick the parameters. Buy wines in all the price categories. You'll be surprised. Normally I would agree that offering customers a choice in styles and prices can only be a good thing, but having just dined at Moto last night (don't worry, I'll get a review up soon), I have to say that the wine pairings were so brilliant and unexpected that it would be counterproductive to present a wine list. The food and wine worked so well together that it really was a "sum is greater than its parts" experience. Unless I was supremely well versed in a huge range of wine styles and vintages (which I'm certainly not), as well as knowing what I was going to be served based on the rather coy menu descriptions, there is no possible way I could have come close to making choices from a list that worked, let alone enhanced the cuisine.

I love royaltine! I could eat a bowlful with a spoon. We used it in several recipes in school, though my favorite was mixed with chocolate and praline paste and used as a layer in a white chocolate raspberry cake. It stays crispy a long time and makes a great textural contrast.

Unfortunately chocolate chips are formulated differently, so they probably won't work in a recipe calling for regular chocolate without some major reworking. Please tell me the chocolate "squares" you're using aren't Baker's brand? That stuff really isn't worth eating in any form, and isn't even particularly cheap. Even Hershey's Special Dark or Ghiradelli would be better and should be available at just about any supermarket.

Maybe you could do a dacquoise or macaron type batter? But then, I don't know if your boss would accept a bit of nut flour for the chewy aspect.

I've used a similar glaze recipe from Susan Purdy that worked quite well. It sets hard when chilled and will lose it's shine, but it can be partially "re-glossed" with a few waves of a warm-to-hot blow drier. Her recipe calls for: 9 oz chocolate 4.5 oz (130 g) butter 1-1/2 Tbs corn syrup She also has a recipe for a glaze using water that she claims is glossier, but I haven't tried it yet: 12 oz chocolate - melted 6 Tbs hot water - whisked in all at once In the recipe she says you can add 1 Tbs or more water if you need it thinner, and that it loses it's gloss when chilled, but becomes shiney again at room temp.

Or you could use coffee filters.

Yeah, the probes are the first thing to go. But don't buy a whole new unit - you can get replacement probes separately. Much cheaper.

I agree that a digital scale should be essential to any serious baker, but with most home-focused cookbook authors still insisting on printing everything with volume measurements only ( ), home cooks in the US can get by without it. A digital thermometer is much more accurate, durable and easy use. A model with a probe like this is very versatile and useful. Your rubber spatula must be heat resistant. This is an excellent model. A couple different sizes of whisks should be on the list. I wouldn't want to be without a couple silicone baking sheets like Silpat, but parchment will do just as well for most things and is more versatile.

I haven't made chocolate myself, but here's what I would try: Using the strawberry recipe, replace puree in first mixture with 1/4 cup of water and add 1/4 to 1/2 cup cocoa powder and some vanilla (if you use the larger amount of cocoa you might need a bit more water). I wouldn't use melted chocolate since the added fat would inhibit foaming and you'd end up with a dense, rubbery product.

I used 14 grams of loose chai for 250 grams of cream - based on the earl grey ganache we made in school, which calls for a 58% dark chocolate melted with about 1/5 milk chocolate. The flavor was on the subtle side and did not overpower the chocolate. If you wanted more pronounced spice you could bump it up to 20 grams.

You certainly can add tea and spices to the cream. Just let steep for about 10 minutes then reheat and strain into chocolate. The trick, of course, is developing a well balanced blend of spices. I used chai tea bags (cut open the bags and add loose to the cream) that I purchased at Starbucks (their Tazo brand). Everybody uses a different mix of spices, but I liked their use of black pepper and the cinnamon and ginger didn't overpower everything.

Personally, I like a barely sweetened whipped cream filling. It adds a refreshing lightness to many layer cakes. You can also include fresh berries in the whipped cream layer for more interest. If the cake is a little heavy, you might have to add some gelatine to help the cream stand up to the weight.