sixela

Have heard great things about your cooking and I'm really looking forward to your opening... Some service things I look for in a restaurant: 1. servers should be more than familiar with the menu- they should know not just what ingredients are used, but methods of preparation and what it tastes like 2. As others have stated: don't rush the patrons 3. Serve coffee before the dessert comes~ I love the both of them together, that's why I ordered coffee 4. I don't care that a server tells me his or her name ( a pet peeve of many diners), i do care that they are friendly and not aloof or snobby 5. I like nice wine glasses with dinner, even at BYO's 6. Alice's in lake Hapatong (David Drake's new place) serves carbonated tap water...really nice touch to an otherwise mediocre restaurant. Tech Issues: 1. please please please don't have a crazy too-long-to-load + music/sound website just to see the menu..such as: My link. Just a simple site that states your days/times/number and menus Food issues: -NJ's got some amazing produce/cheese/meats I hope you feature these at the restaurant Good luck and we'll see you in June

thank you all for passing on your understanding of chocolate --- i think i get it!!! (thank god)...one more question: what is happening in the tabelling process that allows un-tempered chocolate to be tempered? Thanks again for all your help!

Just so I get this right...Once I drop the chocolate from it's high of 118 to its low of 89, it's in temper and I can use it at that point? Also, i'm looking at the crystallization curve on the bag of my callebaut and it gives me a range: 113-122 80.6 87.8-89.6 94.1 I'm assuming that once it goes beyond 94.1, i'm out of temper, and below that, I'm hardened...is this correct? Thanks again!

bkieth: yes, it helps quite a bit---I'm going to assume that the callebaut couveture chips I'm using are already in temper, though I still have a couple of questions: 1. Does this asssume if i do the direct warming via the microwave or stovetop with these chips and it exceeds 88-90 degrees, it will go out of temper? 2. Does this also mean that if I do seeding technique that I will always have to add tempered chocolate as seeds? Which is to say, If I use chocolate that i screwed up on tempering, can I re-temper it without adding new tempered chocolate by bringing it up to the requisite temp and cooling it down to desired temp? thanks so much for your help!

Theoretically, I get that the whole idea of tempering however there are some things I really don't understand and Calebaut's website and chocolate TV is only confusing me more...Callebaut shows 3-4 different ways of tempering but what I'm really interested in is the seed method vs. microwave...from what i understand,with the seed method you must first bring the temp. of the chocolate to a certain high (all temps are approximate) 118ish then cool it down to a certain low 85ish then heat it up to 90ish. In the video and on other sites, when using the microwave, you merely nuke it gently at 1/2 power until it starts to melt, then it's at temper...Why don't i have to bring it up down and up again as I did with the see method??? It seems ridiculously more easy, but i still don't get how the pre-crystallization takes place without the up down up of standard tempering.... I'm trying to square my brain around this but it seems like i'm missing a piece.

Though it's only been open 2 weekends, I've been thrilled with the produce that's been available at the Tenafly farmers market. Beautiful picked-that-morning asparagus, strawberries, chinese broccoli, fava beans, homemade tofu, green garlic, and the most amazing variety of salad greens I've ever seen (sorrel, new zealand spinach, baby kale, callaloo). If you haven't dropped by yet, it's Sundays from 9-2 and across from the post office off Tenafly road. http://www.tenaflyfarmersmarket.com

Yesterday had my first genoise sucess. Flat top, no stickage, no sinking. I used Flo Braker's Classic genoise recipe (who said to butter, then flour), and, overthinking as i usually do, decided to just butter the pan. Great results (Thankthelord!!) Now I'm trying to figure out what to do with it. Originally, I had planned to make the chocolate raspberry torte from gourmet, but i'm thinking that my kids would probably OD on chocolate, so i've opted for the vanilla genoise. My question is on the soaking syrup. I can't use a liqueur (it's a school setting)but want more than just simple syrup. I have some blackberry syrup (Polish soda kind), but fear that that may make the yellow layers kinda murkey/ugly looking. Does anyone have any recommendations? Thanks again! This site is a godsend.

Thanks for the help...I'm going to try greasing, but not flouring, my cake pan today. I don't have cake rings or a springform pan, just a 9x2inch cake pan. I will also try removing from pan once it has cooled enough to handle but still warm. I have flo brakers's "the simple art of perfect baking" . Are there any genoise recipes in there that you all would recommend for a novice baker?

Total newbie baker here and I thank you all for the advice you've offered to other posters... This weekend is my first attempt at making genoise and I'm confused over my results. My first try was using gourmet's chocolate raspberry ganache cake while my second attempt used Cookllustrated's vanilla genoise. http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/14011 My question is this: Every recipe i look at has contradicting pan preparation/cake removal timing. Gourmet stated to butter the entirety of the pan while cooksillustrated said to skip the butter, as the genoise needs to climb. Which is right? One recipe also states to allow the cake to cool completely in the pan, while the other states to remove it soon after it's taken out of the oven. I found the results of allowing gourmet's chocolate genoise in the pan to be disheartening, as the middle sunk gradually as it cooled and i found the outside of my cake to be very dry and crumbly. I then tried to remove CI's from the pan while still hot. I had stickage issues again. Can anyone give me a definative answer as to 1. should i or should not I should butter the pan 2. when should i remove the cake from the pan? While hot? warm? cool? Thanks for all your help.