Tri2Cook

I don't have an obscene sandwich to share, I like my sandwiches simple, I'm just kinda impressed that PtE has lobster and tenderloin just lounging about the place waiting for a chance to appear on a spontaneous sandwich. That's a well stocked fridge.

My most popular shrimp amuse involves a shrimp set in a dollop of pineapple puree on a thin slice of green plantain cooked in butter until soft through and caramelized on the bottom. A pinch of sea salt on the plantain on one side of the shrimp and a pinch of cayenne on the other side, dust the shrimp with spray dried coconut milk and top with a strand of grated ginger, a strand of grated lime zest, a strand of mint leaf, a strand of basil leaf and a piece of cilantro root. Nothing particularly innovative but people seem to like them... never served them with champagne though. Edit: Ok, more information surfaced while I was typing. This won't really fit the menu.

For those who missed it last year that didn't find another way to see it, it's airing again this Thursday night, Dec. 18, at 10pm ET.

Nice job Rob. I'm looking at "bison, fun" and I'm thinking it's not as bad as you seem to think. It has a bit of a buried-in-the-ground thing going on but it's not "regrettable foods" material and I don't think it's due to the components or basic plating idea, I think it's more related to volume. I bet if you broke it down in individual platings and maybe used little pools of the pudding instead of icing the top with it then tossed on a bit of the pistachios and cherries from the granola and some appropriate fresh herbs for color, it would look awesome. Sounds really tasty, so do the carnitas. What was the olive/kumquat combo like? Sounds interesting.

Try googling entremet instead. This may help (or it may confuse you more but it's interesting). Nice assortment there Rob, the caramel looks really good and I'm always a sucker for shortbread. I was going to ask if you made the curd but I already know the answer to that one. Nice color.

My biggest surprise of this round was that they couldn't come up with something more interesting for "something blue". There are plenty of references to blue in the food world. Borage flowers are blue and edible. There's bluefin tuna, blueberry, blue corn, blue cheese, blue potato, blue kale, blue mussels, blue mountain coffee, blue basil, several beans and squash with blue in the name... this is starting to sound like the shrimp scene in Forest Gump so I'll stop now.

I don't do discounting. I'd rather do almost anything else with it. The reason being exactly as Rob mentioned. People learn they're half price after 4pm, they'll wait until after 4pm to buy them. Suddenly, instead of having 12 left you'll have 50 left. All of which will sell out after 4pm. So now, even though there are none left, you've effectively sold 25 of the 50 since they're half price versus selling 38 of the 50 when you had 12 left.

That can go away too. You just have to convince your rep that you really want it to. Reps can make a lot of things happen in regards to company policies and prices but you have to make them do it, they usually won't offer. I can get drops on tuesdays and fridays and I can call my rep, say "errrr... I kinda forgot to order (insert misc. item here) for tuesday" and they'll drop it on friday. Just that one item. No extra charge, no minimum order fee, nothing. We're not a large account either. Don't fall for their "we're actually doing you a favor, there's not much profit in small restaurant accounts" attitude either. They tried that with us, we said "ok, drop us then if we're an inconvenience". Five years later, we're still not dropped. I think some consideration should be given to location when discussing the evils of large suppliers like Sysco. We're in a somewhat remote location over an hour from the nearest major highway and several hours from the nearest large city in an area that's very cold for at least half the year and pretty cold for a lot of the other half so local growers, farmers, etc. don't exist and small specialty companies don't even attempt to market here even on request (not for any realistic prices anyway). We've managed to snag the meat guy who services the summer tourist camps and he delivers to us in the summer months/ships to us in the winter but he won't do that for anyone else locally and we have no promise that he won't decide it's not worth the trouble someday. Other than that, it's Sysco or a couple of Sysco-type upstarts that can't touch Sysco on variety and quality. So, while it would be nice to say "I only buy from the local marketplace and write my menu based on what I find" and I envy those who get to do that, it's not always realistic. The closest it gets to sourcing locally here is going to the one and only local grocery store... which gets most of it's stuff from Sysco. Another thing I want to touch on in this already too-long post is the convenience items. Yes, Sysco does sell them and their reps do push them but they can't make you buy them and use them. If you do, you can't blame Sysco. Blame the person that buys it from them.

This isn't what you asked for but it worked great for me when I tried it. So I use it now. I very rarely do rolls but I have a couple people who ask for buche de noel for their christmas parties every year.

I definitely notice a smoothness and reduction in the sharp bitter notes with salt. The difference is more pronounced when I've been drinking coffee with the touch of salt and then drink coffee without it. In other words, I miss it when it's not there more than I notice it when it is. Also, I don't use it across the board. Some coffees I like the way they are and don't want to soften the edges. It does seem to wake up pre-ground coffee a bit as well.

Thanks Rob. Yeah, my submission was a week late. The weekend I put it all together my camera decided it'd had a good life and went to the place where picture capturing devices are eternally blessed which was annoying because I wanted to get some pics from the Lion's district governor's dinner I catered that week as well. I borrowed one from a friend to get that posted.

You're not seeing a defense of the person, I don't know her, you're seeing a defense of her right to not like something even if the top chef judges did. I agreed that the reaction was over the top but it wasn't out of line with a few other top chef drama moments.

Well, it's -18c, snowing, the lakes are frozen over, there's already quite a bit of snow on the ground so tonight I went out on the deck and tossed some burgers on the grill. No trip to the beach though.

I don't know the answer you're looking for but l'epicerie has dextrose powder if they're anywhere near you.

Cool Rob. Looks like they're having fun.

That's a lot of strong emotion to be carrying around over someone you probably don't know a thing about outside of what you see on tv/hear from other people but, even if it's all true, that still doesn't mean she has to like something just because Tom/Padma/Gail like it. The drama is irrelevant. If she wasn't able/willing to control it herself the producers had the option to edit it out. They chose not to, and always will. They want the drama because a large segment of their viewers want it.

This was my entry in the last round of the khymos.org They Go Really Well Together series. I'm calling it Apricot Chanterelle Delice. Chanterelle infused white chocolate ganache with feuilletine and apricot mousse studded with soft candied chanterelles all wrapped in white chocolate and topped with apricot gelee and crunchy candied chanterelles. It's plated with salt and pepper caramel, candied chanterelle powder and apricot sorbet warmed with a hint of fresh habanero.

My current favorite blogs for jump-starting the food ideas thought process and bolstering my technical knowledge are chadzilla and playing with fire and water. I also frequent Rob's (gfron1) blog, it's a lot of fun and amazing to see how much he manages to fit into a day on a continuous basis. I still love ideas in food as well but they've become a little less generous with information on how they actually do the things they do since they started teaching classes. I'm not faulting them for that, they have to make a living too, but location prohibits me taking the classes so I now turn to them more for inspiration than technical information.

Yeah, what she said.

She spit it out because she is an ditz. She could've done it with a bit more subtlety, but that is not her style. ← Yeah, as mentioned above, I find it a little odd that there would be such a gulf between the three judges finding it one of the best three items prepared and it being so unpalatable to everyone else that it had to be spat out. Completely classless. ← Totally, unimaginably classless. Especially when you consider that this is may have been the highlight of an aspiring young chef's career. . . and she chooses to SPIT OUT his carefully prepared offering on national television. ← If she didn't like it, she didn't like it. Yes, she could have been more subtle and less dramatic about it but we all know by now that top chef loves the drama edit. I don't consider my palate unsophisticated or inexperienced but that doesn't mean I'll like everything the top chef judges like. The judges put the one chef in the bottom 3 because the habanero was too much for them. I love habanero in all it's fruity, face melting goodness so maybe I would have a different opinion of her dish. If one of the chefs sneaked me a bite of liver it would leave my mouth. Maybe not in the big drama manner that we got to see but I would get rid of it, aspiring chef's career highlight or not.

Why am I expecting a joke about a lonely sheep farmer with a heart condition? Rob, I suspect if there were diabetics in the group you would have been notified when you asked about food restrictions. It's relatively common here among part of the population and I'm always notified of special requirements but at least that one is pretty easy to provide options for that everybody will enjoy.

That makes sense. I missed the casual party-dinner part somehow. Sushi, Thai, French desserts... Rob puts the luck in potluck. I might be more inclined to attend them if I knew I'd find food like that on the tables.

Yep, that's how it's done. I've tried it. I failed. I promised to revisit it and give it a more serious try someday. So far, that day hasn't come. It's hard for me to get into beyond the art aspect, I don't love jello.

I really don't want to be the stick in the mud that doesn't think outside the frying pan so I'll pose this as a question in case I'm just that far behind the curve. Does continent jumping work well in the hands of the skilled? I'm not at all questioning your skills Rob, I follow your blog and know you know what you're doing. I'm just wondering about going from Thai shrimp and sushi to mole dulce to French desserts. I realize this is just an outline of the app/main/dessert so I'm assuming you're planning transitional courses that make it a smooth flight from continent to continent. I know you don't want to put all of the surprises out there too early but I'm looking forward to seeing how you tie it all together.

I apologize if this sounds disgusting but a common after work snack for me is to grill a nice sharp cheddar on a flax bagel and eat it with gooseberry jam. It was a late-night, after work, I'm hungry, "wonder how this would taste?" moment that I've been hooked on since. Ok, now everybody can return to the world of normal food.