nightscotsman

I tried the new Cook's Illustrated recipe last night. Very moist, with a fine, tender crumb, chocolate flavor was just OK. Good recipe, but I personally still prefer the texture and flavor of the Double Chocolate Cake.

I've found frozen coconut milk at Asian markets that was really quite good and fresh tasting. Comes in one pound plastic pouches. A decent second best is canned coconut milk, which isn't quite as fresh tasting. You can also make your own by pouring boiling water over dried, unsweetened coconut. Use equal volume coconut and water (for each cup of coconut, one cup of water). Of course you can use less water to make a thicker, stronger tasting milk. Let it sit for half an hour, then blend with a blender or burr mixer. Strain through a cheesecloth lined strainer, twisting the solids in the cheesecloth to get all the liquid out.

The menu changes freqently. I would suggest calling the reservation line and seeing if they will fax you the current menu (assuming you have access to a fax machine, of course). Most of the menu is small, tapas-style dishes, with some more substantial entre items, and a 9 course tasting menu ($105 last time I looked). Be sure to order the "L'ouef" - it's a martini glass with a parsley puree in the bottom, an egg poached in the glass with the yolk still runny, topped with sauteed wild mushrooms and a mushroom foam. Yum. They get a lot of pre-show business since the restaurant is right next to the theater. The waiters are good about making sure you make your show time. Bellagio was great, but after 2 years it was just time to move on and learn new things. My chef at Bellagio actually helped be get the Robuchon job.

Get youself a seat at the counter at L'Atelier for Sunday. You won't regret it.

Unfortunately, honey is also much sweeter than corn syrup, which is only about half as sweet at sugar, so your candy might come out tasting a bit overpowering. Honey is better as a substitute for Trimoline (a brand name for invert sugar). In fact, Trimoline is basically a man-made honey without the "impurities" that give honey it's flavor. Trimoline also has some emulsifying properties, which is why you sometimes see it in professional recipes for ganache and ice cream. Glucose is a much better sub for corn syrup if it's easier to find. The main difference is corn syrup contains more water.

If you don't need to bake with the mold you're making, you might consider a product called "Elastack" as an alternative to Silicone. Its properties are very similar to silicone though it's less expensive and can be reused many times. The reuse angle is also its one drawback since it melts at high temp - so you could use it to mold gelatine that is less than boiling hot, but not molten sugar. It does stay flexible in the freezer like silicone, and contains no water, so it shouldn't bloom chocolate like a gelatine-based mold would. Earlier thread on Elastack here: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=72770

I agree - clover is uaually the base standard for its light color and taste. Lavander honey is used traditionally for nougat in many areas that produce it.

The 40% cream at Trader Joes is great stuff. That said, at Bellagio, we purposely used ultra-pasturized cream with a lower fat content for whipped cream because it whipped better and held longer. We use the same cream at Robuchon for everything. Go figure.

Is this a rolled fondant or poured fondant? You can add color to both, but usually use different products.

If a recipe really needs pastry flour and I'm cooking at home, I usually use AP, but replace 1/3 of the weight with cake flour.

We didn't do any of the pouring hot sugar into ice cubes, but we did do the pastilage in the microwave (great technique), as well as pouring tempered chocolate into a container of ice cubes. I'm assuming the sugar technique would give similar results to the chocolate version, though. The tricky part would be the ice would begin to melt instantly and make the poured sugar sticky.

Yeah, we did 14 kilos of milk and about half a pound of vanilla beans. Every day (glad I don't have to do that anymore )

pastry cream is the traditional filling for eclairs, and since pastry cream contains starch (usually corn starch or flour), it must come to full boil to cook and thicken completely. You find a few threads on pastry cream here.

Lemon curd can withstand longer times at room temp because of the high acid and sugar content. Letting a cake sit for several hours shouldn't be a problem. Another option would be a raspberry cremeux. Sort of like a stovetop creme brulee set with gelatine. Might be some recipes around the net you could Google up.

Wow, very cool site. The step-by-step photos are excellent. Wish I could read the Japanese. The Google Japanese translation is still a bit spotty.

(Please see above for disclaimer, but...) I had a fantastic dinner at L'Atelier a couple weeks ago. One of my top five of all time. Went for the 9 course tasting at $105 and every dish was amazing. Expensive, but really worth it. Be warned that most of the seating is at a long counter that gives a great view of the action in the open kitchen. Sort of sushi bar style. There are a few regular tables as well, but I don't think they take reservations for them. ← How formal is the room? We'd be going pretty soon after arriving so I don't think people are going to want to spend too much time getting ready. That being said, we certainly won't show up in sweatpants ← I don't think I would go in jeans or a t-shirt, but it seems quite casual. Business casual - certainly jackets and ties aren't required.

Made to order crepes, both sweet and savory, are a huge hit at the JP Patisserie. They use stand-alone irons/cookers, which aren't cheap, but easy to learn to use and impressive to watch. The markup is very nice, too.

(Please see above for disclaimer, but...) I had a fantastic dinner at L'Atelier a couple weeks ago. One of my top five of all time. Went for the 9 course tasting at $105 and every dish was amazing. Expensive, but really worth it. Be warned that most of the seating is at a long counter that gives a great view of the action in the open kitchen. Sort of sushi bar style. There are a few regular tables as well, but I don't think they take reservations for them.

Thanks! After 2 years at Bellagio, I felt like I had pretty much learned what I came there for, and unless I could get a promotion to assistant (not likely for several more years), it was time to move on. I've been talking to my chefs about this for a couple months and I actually had an offer from another restaurant that I was considering, when Chef said he had called over to Robuchon and sent me over for an interview. With his recommendation, I had a short chat with pastry chef Kamel Guechida basically discussing how soon I could start. There were a few glitches along the way, but things finally worked out. I don't have my schedule yet, but chances are good I'll be working nights instead early, early morning. I can finally stay up late enough to go out to dinner .

I just wanted to mention that I will be starting as a pastry cook at Robuchon next week. So any reports you hear from me in the future may need to be adjusted for bias . Don't know my exact duties yet, but L'Atelier and Robuchon at the Mansion share pastry staff, so I will probably be working on stuff for both sides.

Sounds great! A bit of a drive for me, but might be worth the trip. I can't find any hours, though.

This looks like a very interesting technique. What is the texture like? Are they crisp, soft, light, or chewy? Are they very sweet from being cooked the sugar syrup?

Both the Pierre Herme and Frederic Bau books have good entremet stuff. In English, too. I highly recomend both.

You could also try replacing some of the cream cheese with mascarpone. The mouthfeel and richness should be similar, but less of the cream cheese "tang". Also, a bit of vanilla will help round out the flavor.

I realize that publishing costs are very high, especially for a high end book with lots of photos and nice bindery, but how about the option they took for the Emmanuel Ryon Ice Cream book? They just created a separate paperbound volume with the english translation of the text that you purchase along with the original version that contains all the photos and such. Much less cost and risk that way, and although it's a bit more work to match the text with the photo, it would be far, far more useful than no translation at all. Hell, they can just xerox the damn thing as long as it's in english!