Tri2Cook

I use a percentage by weight of the total combined weight of all ingredients. I generally round it off. If I'm working with 2542 grams, I'll just call it 2500 when calculating the gelatin. I'm not usually that relaxed, I'm usually a picky b@#$ard about being precise, but those tiny amounts up or down don't really show up as a difference in the end result in this case. And yes, I'm almost ashamed to admit that I have compared using the 25 grams as opposed to the 25.42 grams. The 1% and .5% are safe numbers and good starting points for the majority of bases I've worked with but, if you have the time and resources to play around with test batches, the minimum amount needed to do the job for a given base is always best.

Gelatin at ~1% in mousses without chocolate and at ~.5% in mousses with chocolate will be plenty in most cases. It provides enough stability for unmolding or filling cakes without losing it's identity as a mousse. Yes, you can do chocolate-based mousses without gelatin but, if you're going to mold it, a little gelatin is cheap insurance. Much better than your dinner guests hearing *plop*... #&@% from the kitchen as they wait for dessert.

The existence of water sommeliers is proof that there is not a sucker born every minute... there are actually several born every minute. I use tap water for baking, cooking, drinking, bathing, etc. I use it to mix powdered gatorade for my bike rides rather than buy the premix. I don't even have a filter system, the water here is actually good. I've lived in areas where it was less good and I did put a filter in the kitchen but I still used tap water.

I caramelize corn flakes and rice krispies by melting sugar with a little water, tossing in the cereal until it's coated in crystallized sugar and tossing it over heat until the sugar coating melts and caramelizes on the cereal and then toss in a tiny amount of butter. I then dump it on a silpat and push and toss it around with my fingers until the pieces cool enough to not stick together in clumps. It keeps for a pretty long time in an airtight container and adds a nice crunch to desserts. It also holds up well without going soggy in low moisture mixtures. I use melted chocolate mixed with butter, peanut butter, almond butter, praline paste, etc. and the caramelized cereal then use it as a base layer for desserts. A combination of caramelized rice krispies and unflavored pop rocks in the base is even more fun.

I don't eat many sweets (mass produced or not) but my favorite candy bar was (I don't know if they still make it) the Payday because it had some serious salt balancing the sweet and they managed to refrain from burying it in chocolate. I don't mind Skor but I usually scrape off some of the chocolate before eating it.

Definitely Skor over Heath.

Sorry things didn't work out Chef. On the bright side (for me anyway), maybe you'll find time now to think about that book you hinted at a while back. I'm still keeping a space open on my shelf (the working shelf with the books I actually use) for it.

If you're talking about warm or cold infusing flavors into the cream by adding what you want to infuse, heating (or not), removing the infusion item and rechilling the cream (if heated), yes, it whips just fine. I can't vouch for everything but everything I've tried has worked. If you want to fold in puree and aren't opposed to a tiny amount of gelatin just whip the cream, mix the hydrated gelatin into the puree and fold it in. More of a mousse than a whipped cream but it works fine. I did a honey carrot mousse and a buttered peas mousse that way with no problems. Minus the gelatin (or some other stabilizer), it won't hold up too long with the puree folded in. As for adding the puree then whipping, I haven't tried it.

You'd have a very difficult, if not impossible, time doing that where I live but prices in this small, remote town are not on par with what things cost in most places. I could probably manage $1/course if, as Karen DW mentioned, there was going to be enough people to scale the total budget up to a decent amount. I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with.

For most of the best southern food I experienced, even in restaurants, the cook had no idea whatsoever what the recipe would be. "This is just how I make it" was a common answer to my questions. Even when I could get a recipe, it usually involved measurements like "a little..." and cooking times like "'til it's done". Once I was looking over some collard greens in a farmer's market and asking the seller a few questions when an older lady who was also looking through them leaned towards me, winked and said "once they're cooked put them in a hot iron skillet with a little bacon grease and a pinch of sugar to finish them off". I did. Best collard greens I've ever had. I think there may be more versions of cornbread in the south than there are Eskimo words for snow, most of them are tasty. My preference is dense, a little moist and not sweet on the inside, crispy on the outside. Biscuits are an artform in the south. No recipe can do more than point you in the right direction, it's entirely a touch thing. Okay, I realize this isn't all that helpful so I'll stop now.

I pretty much agree. I don't have a downward-sliding scale (the scale can slide upward in some cases though). I either tip or don't tip and the offenses that would cause me to not tip have to go well beyond minor annoyances and pet peeves. I can't see penalizing servers for not knowing that someone likes exactly two drops of condensation running down the outside of the water glass as it arrives at the table.

I think when Jose Andres did it on No Reservations he called it "tomato caviar" which is a closer approximation since it was just the seeds and surrounding jelly... but it's obviously not caviar either. If the diner enjoys eating it, who really cares what I call it? Let me have my fun. Some of the names kids get stuck with from parents trying to be "unique" or "original" are pretty ridiculous but I don't get my knickers in a twist over that either.

Yes... ish. I get what you're saying but I don't think a little creative license with culinary terms is always too over-the-top. I can see it being more fun for a group of vegetarians if a little creativity goes into the menu descriptions. It's sometimes more fun for non-vegetarians, so why assume vegetarians aren't into creativity as well? As long as the flavors back up the gimmicks, I'm fine with it. I mean, soy milk ice cream isn't ice cream but that sounds better on a menu than "frozen non-dairy soy product". Fair enough and a good argument of the other side of the issue--especially as it pertains to the naming of dishes in a vegetarian menu. At least I haven't harped on the "tomato confit" issue this year--until now. I seem to have heard one of the Cheftestant's using the term on one of this season's episodes. I'm not a big fan of tomatoes stewed in duck or goose fat, but I guess we live in times where anything can be called a "confit"--a liberal description of what is a specific form of cooking. Tomato "sashimi" or tomato "confit"--I suppose in the end what matters most is what the judges tasted. The important bit in my argument agrees 100% with you though... the flavor has to be there. Cutesy or gimmicky word play or technique does not cover the sins of bad food. Food being equal, I personally tend to give the advantage to creativity but the best food should always win no matter how simple.

Yes... ish. I get what you're saying but I don't think a little creative license with culinary terms is always too over-the-top. I can see it being more fun for a group of vegetarians if a little creativity goes into the menu descriptions. It's sometimes more fun for non-vegetarians, so why assume vegetarians aren't into creativity as well? As long as the flavors back up the gimmicks, I'm fine with it. I mean, soy milk ice cream isn't ice cream but that sounds better on a menu than "frozen non-dairy soy product".

I'd agree with the majority of that list if I was hiring servers because I know that there are a certain percentage of people who go into places looking for things to be unhappy about and cataloging every single little thing that they didn't like... even if it's something that wouldn't have bothered 50 other people. They may not be the majority but they are generally much more vocal than those who were happy so they have to be catered to. When it's me being served I'm just not that fussy. If the server is polite, gets my order right and solves any problems that may arise without attitude we'll get along fine. I don't feel that they are beneath me. I don't feel that my money buys me a license to be an ass. I don't require my server to be a breathing ATM machine that just displays the options and completes the transaction while otherwise remaining in it's place. If I ever become that full of myself, I hope some uppity server has the cojones to knock me back down a notch or two.

Yep, infuse away. It works great with zests, coffee beans, spices, dried flowers, etc. I infused some lightly smoked chocolate with charred cinnamon sticks and dried chiles then aerated it and the flavors came across great. With some things, moisture can be a factor. I infused some white chocolate with fresh lilac flowers last spring and the moisture in the flowers caused some problems with the chocolate. The flavor and aroma transfered just fine though.

I'll give Mike V. the benefit of the doubt and assume that it's not so much that he hates for someone else to win, it's more a matter of hating for himself to lose. I'm the same way to an extent. I will congratulate you for winning and keep my snarky thoughts to myself but I may think them depending on the situation. He just thought them into the camera. I can also understand where Jennifer is coming from. I'm frequently accused of being a perfectionist or, from close friends who don't feel the need to pad it for me, "a picky bastard". Since perfection is impossible (and I'm not even close to the high end of that curve), that leaves a lot of room for being less than happy with results. The attitude difference between me and Jennifer (or the Jennifer they show us on tv anyway) is that I don't usually get flustered or pouty when it doesn't go to plan, I get grumpy. Which brings us back to the brothers V. Disclaimer: No, I'm not comparing myself to any of them. They're much higher up the culinary ladder than I am (and ever will be at my age). I just understand the emotion they're showing and don't think it's all for the benefit of the camera. When you aim high, it's a long way to fall if you miss. Sometimes the landing hurts.

Well I'm going to be the oddball here and hope they don't go too heavy on the basics and bread stuff. I want to see some cool pastry work and the use of cutting edge techniques and creativity.

Probably... since all pastry chefs do is bake bread and cakes.

Sweet!

"Chocolate" is just f***ing cool for some reason. I'm not exactly sure why... it just is.

That sounds like a sweet PR opportunity for the business. I'd be on the phone with any local-paper types I happened to know if I were the owner or manager. Of course I live in a small town where things like that make people smile, I'm not familiar with the area you're referring to so maybe it wouldn't be a big deal there. Then again, no matter where you live it can't be that common for a couple to celebrate a combined 184 years by going out for wings. That's pretty cool.

Your choice, either way will work. I'm not a fan of coconut extract but it's widely used and enjoyed. The marshmallows will be more dense done with coconut milk, I'm almost positive it's because of the fat. I've witnessed the same texture in other flavors that brought fat to the mix. If you were going to use them as marshmallows, it may or may not be an issue. The texture was not off-putting to me or anyone else who tried them, especially when coated in chocolate. Since you are going to melt them with other ingredients to make rice krispie treats, the final texture of the marshmallow itself is completely irrelevant. You don't even have to let them cool or set up. Once you've beat the mix to fluff it up fully, you can just scoop it into a pan with whatever else you're using for the base and keep going with the rice krispie treats.

I didn't say he would defer... she didn't either. I said calling someone (any one) for not doing the food the way it's supposed to be done is perfectly okay with me. Male or female. Should it be done in a polite, respectful manner? Probably (the first time anyway). Is it unusual for things to be done in a less than cuddly manner in restaurants, especially during a busy service? No. Pulling the gender card is unnecessary. As I said, if she had busted his chops for the same thing, I would be fine with it. In the very first episode of this season Jennifer mentioned that she's made more than a few guys cry in her kitchen. I believe her and I don't assume it's because they were guys or because she's "bitchy". I'm willing to bet it's because they wouldn't or couldn't do what she needed them to do the way she needed it done. "You don't have to like it, you just have to do it" is the nature of the business.

Just wrote Hubert Keller right off huh? Sorry, couldn't resist. He was one of my pre-game favorites and my top pick to win (got that one wrong) because I thought it more likely the various judges would "get" and accept as legit what he does compared to what Wylie does. I think Wylie and Homaro Cantu are two of the ballsiest chefs out there right now. They have a middle-finger-to-the-critics thing going on in their creativity that I respect. They refuse to bend to any rumored backlash against what they do in the culinary world. That can get them in trouble with those who don't find it amusing though so I wasn't betting on him sticking around for the whole thing regardless of how well he performed.