nightscotsman

I don't add almond extract, but you are right that most, if not all comercial brands do. I usually prefer a more subtle, mellow flavor.

Here's the recipe. And now, if you'll pardon me, I have to go buy almond paste. ← On the topic of almond paste, whenever I buy it, I always think about making my own. Does anyone bother making your own paste, or is the commercially-available product better, finer textured, etc.? ← At home I make my own since it's hard to find fresh almond paste at a reasonable price in stores. With a good food processor it's very easy. Maybe not as smooth as the best commercial brands, but perfectly fine for baking. I use the recipe we did in school: 125 g blanched almonds 100 g powedered sugar 80 g simple syrup Grind almonds with powdered sugar in food processor until very fine. How finely you grind in this stage determines the smoothness of the final paste. Add simple syrup and process until a smooth paste is formed. You may not need all of the syrup, so add gradually.

Sorry, no photos. I don't think my chef would look kindly upon cameras in the kitchen given that they don't even want me to write down recipes.

This is a very interesting concept, and if you can deliver translated version of these magazines I would jump at the chance to purchace. However, I would much prefer the digital magazines be in Acrobat (PDF) rather than Flash format. Acrobat has a much, much smaller file sizes for downloads. Your sample issue is over 21 megabytes, which will take hours for me to download with my dail-up connection (the site says it should take 52 minutes, but that's not a realistic estimate). Viewing the on-line Flash version is so painfully slow as to be unusable - each page takes almost five minutes to load. I urge you to please reconsider your technology.

It's my opinion that it's OK to whip the eggs, but unnecessary and a complete waste of time. If you reach the proper temperature with the anglaise, all that air will be cooked out anyway, and it just makes it harder to tell when it's done. Of course you do need to mix the sugar into the eggs a bit so they don't "cook" and get grainy before tempering in the liquid, but a quick whisk is all you need.

I've used silicon dome molds for marshmallows and they've worked very well if sprayed with non-stick spray. However, the one you linked to seems a little silly to me. Seems like it would be easier and faster just to pipe out ropes and cut to size.

You can often get seats at L'Atelier without a reservation, especially on weekdays. And the Mansion is usually not fully booked except on some Fridays and Saturdays. Of course, if it's a holiday or there's a big convention in town, everything in town books up, so it's good to know what's going on. All that said, if you know you need a specific date and time, reservations a couple months in advance will give you peace of mind.

Cook's Illustrated rates Kitchenaid the best hand-held mixer with Braun second.

Hmm... sounds like a thermometer issue. What kind of thermometer are you using?

Wendy - I don't see a semi-freddo recipe in the Payard book. Are you maybe referring to his frozen souffle?

Very cool Amy! I haven't made it to one of your restaurants yet, but now I'll definitely have to give Memphis Championship a try.

Well, I don't think theres any suspense over the Best New Restaurant category.

For some interesting options, you should check out The Cook's Book. It includes a chapter from Feran Adria on foams using the iSi siphon. Sweet and savory recipes.

I'm mostly working on the Mansion side and only doing some production for L'Atelier. I'm sure they would be happy to give you a tour of the kitchen if you ask your server. However, I have to ask you to please not ask for me by name. I'm just a cook and quite new in the kitchen, and I don't want them to think that I'm inviting friends to drop by to chat all the time. I'm usually there until 9:00 pm Thursday-Monday. Say 'hi' if you pass through the pastry kitchen. Thanks tsquare!

I'm a little late to this party, so I hope most of these aren't repeats: lavender and - nectarine - peach - apricot - honey - dark chocolate rosemary or thyme and - pear - apple - dark chocolate - caramel - blackberries pineapple and - cilantro - maple syrup coconut and - orange - strawberry black pepper and - dark chocolate - strawberry green tea and - dark chocolate coffee and - walnuts - gianduja - caramel banana and - sesame passion fruit and - cilantro - apricot - mango - lychee blueberry and - lemon - red wine - cinnamon

We used them at Bellagio sprinkled on banana tuiles before baking. These were a garnish on a dessert featuring warm banana crepes and coconut tapioca. The black sesame flavor goes nicely with banana.

A stabilizer might help, but what you really need is an emulsifier to get the water and oil to play nice together. Try using 0.3% (or 5 g per 1000 g) of monostearate. It's a soy derivative.

Another alternative is "Le Journal du Patissier". Yes, it is expensive and yes, it is in French, but all of the feature recipes are also in English and it can be worth it just for the photos of whats going in France. Lots of chocolate and sugar show piece stuff. The Christmas issue had tons of very innovative buches de Noel. Very easy to subscribe through Amazon here: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00.../egulletcom-20/

Thanks for the article link. Nice write up, but I think he seriously undermines his opinions by saying "Las Vegas is to chefs what Broadway is to theater people: the center of the universe". New York and Paris are now the culinary "sticks"? There are some great restaurants here, but this statement is just silly. I do completely agree with his line: "Aha! So this is what it's supposed to taste like". Thast's exactly what I thought several times when I ate at L'Atelier.

Ah - this may be it. I beat the eggs for about 3 mins - the recipe says to go for about that long, until they are lemon colored - but I'll try and beat less. Would you say 30 seconds would do - just enough to come together? ← Yeah, I think 30 seconds to a minute on medium worked well for me. Or you could just whisk by hand for a minute.

How much did you whip the eggs before adding the other ingredients? I find that if you under whip them - just enough to start disolving the sugar, but nowhere near ribbon stage - the texture is firmer and less crumbly.

I was in the kitchen when the Stack people came to Bellagio for the dessert menu tastings. As far as I know, Stack has no pastry staff at all, just like Fix.

You are correct that Stack's exec chef is the same as Fix, I believe Stack actually tends to be more expensive than Fix. By the way, Chris Hanmer, pastry chef at Bellagio created the dessert menus for both restaurants, though the Mirage pastry kitchen produces the desserts for Stack. The restaurant awards in the recent issue of Vegas Life magazine gave Fix the nod for best desserts, though they miscredited executive chef Brian Massie with producing the desserts.

Thank you! I can get this fairly easily, though I've never used it. Is the texture quite different from the Boiron puree? I'm concerned about how the substitution will affect baked goods (genoise/biscuit/joconde). ← The Boiron might be a little thicker and fattier, but I think it's a small difference . The Asian stuff has no sugar, so you'll have to compensate for that.

I downloaded the Dragon Ball recipe, but most of the instructions are covered with a bunch of giberish characters. Anybody else have this problem? I'd just like to know how the thing is assembled.