pimptenshi

Last episode was awesome! I wish TC had 2 endings: One with hung as the winner and other with him loosing to Casey, just to hear his comments in both cases ^^

I wonder how was Dale (or was it brian?) able to prepare a demi-glace in such a small amount of time. Preparing a demi-glace from scratch, even assuming the stocks are ready, takes no less than 3 hours...

Speaking of Stephen, he's returned! And now I'm officially a Dale hater. Seriously though, the guy was only 22 years old when he was to the show (although he looks to be around 30's). His food might not be as good as it looks, but damn, it looks damn good. Perhaps only Marcel and Tre come close to Stephen as far as plating is concerned. And the guy did won 2 quickfires and was the runner up in 5 elimination challenges. Among all the contestants, I think he was the only one that was never on the middle. He was either runner up or close to elimination (one was the microwave crap and in the restaurant wars). I was looking forward to see him and Harold on the finals, but they, in my biased opinion, framed him in the Gay Marriage Episode. Well, back to season 3...I was at first pissed with last week's episode because the restaurant April definitely had more flaws than the Garage, but somehow justice has been made. In my opinion it was correct to send Tre home. I do consider him a talented guy, but he did screw up in the opening and in the re-opening. Well, people tend to root for the most charismatic people. Howie, despite his risoto is a batter cook (way better than most from season 2 - Ilan included) than some guys on the blogs make him out to be. Oh and it's also becoming a cliche: Every time someone claims to be able to do something during their sleep (like bread pudding) it's bound to fail for sure. ("Hung: If I can't cook rice I don't deserve to be here" or something like that).

I wonder if sriracha is sponsoring the show. After I ate it a while ago (and hated it), I simply forgot it on the fridge...In TC3 it's been used about 3-4 times already. Oh and it seems they're stimulating the use of foam!!! Or would they naively put an ISI canister expecting that Hung would make just the classic Chantilly? Poor Marcel had to keep struggling with the immersion blender and no stabilizer! I've lost my hope for Hung and now I'm 100% sure that Stephen was the most talented guy to attend to the show. His dishes had a modern appeal as well as a coherent construction. From now on I'm rooting for Casey cause she's hot.

Based on what we saw during that episode, I'd agree. She made two mistakes -- not spotting the missing crab and some bad risotto. ← In a sense, I thought that Bonnie and Rock had an edge over Jen in their respectives "roleplays". They were already expecting some screwed up dish, while Jen, by going first had no clue that the sous-chefs would set her up. Anyway, I personally like the 2 finalists better than Jen so I'm happy.^^ ON TOPIC: This is my first time watching the show and I had never heard of GR. Is he really a great chef when it comes to innovation? In the last episode when he asked the chefs to elevate the level of a popular dish and he presented his mac and cheese with truffles and lobster it came to my mind that he's the kind of guy that associates fine dining with expensive ingredients and that's it.

My words exactly! They won't be sending the hottie home and I like it. Last week's poll was fun! =D I think Casey is kind off talented and overall better than Lia, which, IMO, only won last week because foam = auto lose (BUT, I have to agree that the foam was badly presented...why do they try to make foam without a stabilizer??) Hung is starting to disappoint me on the quickfires and he sucks with his excuses. Btw, although polenta is originally an italian dish it's indeed highly consumed in Brazil. I've been eating it for as long as I can remember, at least for more than 20 years and I must say, the way Lia has done it is kind of boring, but the deep fried version is delicious and often substitutes french fries in brazilian fast food places. Of course its popularity is due to immigration but many other latin dishes like guacamole and ceviche, as they were originally known were highly modified with ingredients from other countries as well (spanish guys have brought onions to latin america as far as I know).

I've seen methocel being used to make "clouds" - basically it looked like whipped egg whites. As for CMC, does it share some properties of methocel? I've bought some to use in ice creams and I played a little with it. It seems that the gel breaks when it heats and it doesn't incorporate air like methocel solutions

Oh I watched episodes 0, 1 and 2 yesterday. It was so cool to see Stephen back! In ep. 0 I just wonder if some stuff wasn't really staged or if it was just a happy coincidence to have Stephen x Marcel and Harold x Ilan. Ep.0 props: Stephen: I can't help, I'm his fanboy and I loved his dish. Marcel: I like the guy and I admire him for having the balls of keeping serving foam after all the bashing he's gone trough, even from the hosts/judges. IMO, foam goes well with seafood and I think it was a correct choice. Casey: She's the cutest chef from all seasons. When I had a glimpse of her sitting on the table I thought Jennifer Aniston was a guest for the show! Ep.1 props: Hung: The guy is so good and it was awesome to see him cleaning the geoduck! I think that he just didn't win because some judges weren't fans of geoduck, specially raw. Howei: He failed to deliver the whole dish but he was awesome when he quoted Bourdain. Bourdain: His comment on Clay's dish was priceless Ep.2 props: I didn't like this episode But it was cool to see Sara raising from the bottom to top. I liked her dish in ep 1 and she does seem to be the kind of people that has great potential/skill and screw up once she let the nerves get on her. Maldon salt was a clever choice for instantly turning BBQ into gourmet BBQ Ep0 Slops: Gail: She seems to be a foam hater. Padma commented that the foam was really good and the people around her table loved it too. So, what's the point of bitching? Will she bitch about people putting sauces in the dishes? Ilan: Gosh, the guy indeed wanted to wash up the diced mango? Ep1 Slops: Joey: This guy started to reveal his inner bitch. He seems to think he's better because he lives in NY. I wonder if this is a common standard in US...Please tell me it isn't! Padma: She picked on the fact that Brian fried the snake. Camille fried abalone, which is a much deeper sin, IMO, specially with Bourdain as a judge. Ep2 Slops: Joey: Again "If you do this in NY you're out" or something like that. He ate his own words. The guy doesn't know how to lose and he sucks.

Hi thanks for the link, unfortunately I'm about 4 thousand miles away from there I ended up purchasing the single bowl one from ebay. It was one of the few sellers who would ship to my country =( And in the end it will fit much better in my kitchen than the refurb duo one =) Oh I was in fact taking shipping into account and the the total came to $150, yes I did pay $110 for Express shipping - in fact my wife did, it was her valentine's day gift to me Unfortunately the good stuff are just too expensive in my country, the one you linked for instance costs about $250 with no extra bowl =( I hope I can have fun once it arrives! EDIT: @jumanggy oh I also do envy them. @mods: Sorry if I posted on the wrong section!

Well I'm totally clueless about Ice Cream makers. I'm tempted to buy either this one or this one, both from Cuisinart. I have a blender from Cuisinart for 2 years and I love it! IMO, Cuisinart is a nice brand and probably these ice cream machines are at least good and the stainless steel finish makes me want it just to decorate my kitchen, but I'd appreciate any comments from ice cream machine owners. Thanks in advance!

Do you know if there are different kinds of fondant/glucose? Once I got the books I rushed to get some fondant (which looks like a white block with pulled sugar, but softer consistency) and glucose, in my case a translucent syrup extracted from corn. Well, once the mixture reached 130° C it started to burn and it was too late =/ Anyway I have the books in CDs, if anyone is really interested I can email the recipes with photos or post/link them here, if it's legal to do so.^^

Well depending on the ice cream fat content it can be melted then mounted to a parfait-like consistency. I did it once with an "home made" ice cream and it worked, then I tried with some industrial ice cream and the result was a mess, probably due to vegetable fat and additives such as guar gum.

I think this link may provide a brief, not overly technical, explanation. I think the first time I checked that link to project alicia gave a more technical approach, but essentially is what skidude72 said, the algin solution sequester Ca2+ ions. I believe it donates something for the CaCl bath as well since the clean solution start to get dirty overtime The formula for sudium alginate is NaC6H7O6, maybe someone can figure out the reaction NaC6H7O6(aq) + CaCl2(aq) -> ?