Edward J

The sauteuses? One was a cheap restaurant quality one--JRose, I believe, so maybe Korea or Thailand? The other was a verry old one from my time in Switzlerland--sigh...25 years and that thing still looks like new. I don't know what the "sandwich bottoms" are like, pretty sure the JRose is just a hunk of extruded aluminum glued on and a s/s skin glued onto that. I suspect the Swis one has some copper in there somewhere.

Mmmmm. I wonder if the surface texture of the materials in cookware plays a role in the sticking. I do know that there are different values or grits of polishing metals. For instance on surgical s/s impliments the metal is polished to a mirror shine, apparantly so that bacteria have a harder time to find a purchase on. I do know that cooking in a cheap s/s sauteuse and a more expensive s/s sauteuse, meats tend not to stick on the more expensive one. The only logic I can find to expalin this, is because the more expensive one was polished to a higher degree, and theoritically, has a much smoother surface. Then again, I could be completly wrong. Comments?

Some of my older Chef's swore by their carbon steel monsters, and I, as a young apprentice would have to keep the knives sparkly. I was instructed to do this with a half of a freshly cut potatato and a sprinkle of baking soda. Oh, and elbow grease.... This seemed to do the trick in terms of removing minor oxidization and water/drying marks. One cut into a tomato or lemon, and I would internally wince, as I knew I'd have to clean those things all over again.... Needless to say, I'm not a big fan of carbon steel knves....

I don't know how the "extracts" are made, but the oils are usualy destilled--which gives you a much stronger flavour. Be carefull with that stuff. I also don't know how oil vs. extracts behaves in something thin that is baked in an oven. Fom experience I do know that artificial vanilla keeps it's flavour when baked in thin cookies (exposed to heat) as opposed to real vanilla which lost most of it's flavour in the same type of cookies. Most of the flavoured oils (peppermint, orange, lemon, etc) you see in the supermarket are real--BUT have been thinned/cheapened with neutral vegetable oils and colours. Strengths vary from brand to brand I guess.

Dave, have you ever used diamond pastes? The kind that come in little syringes, that you can ssqueeze out a bit on a hunk of MDF on go at it. I know a few woodworkers who use this technique on wood working tools. Comments?

Firstly, I suggest you go to a used food equipment dealer and have a look around---not to buy anything, but to see a few things. What you see is equipment bought at 3 or 4 cents on the dollar and sold at usually a minimum of a 150% mark up. The remnents of the last guy's hopes and dreams. Very sobering effect. Business is dependant on sales, and you have the marketing experience, good. What you sell, and how much you want to sell is limited by your production capability--how good a cook you are, or how good a cook you can hire. You can learn on the job, but education is expensive...... You can learn on the job with another employer, which I strongly suggest you do before even thinking about starting up your own business. However there's a big caveat here: It is the employer's mandate to make money, what you see and learn on the job might not be correct, things might be done incorrectly for a variety of reasons: Inadequate equipment, lack of proper training, etc.. You can go to a culinary school---not a big-name fancy-pants chool, but a Community college, which I also strongly suggest you do. Again a big caveat here: It is the school's mandate to teach the curriculum, but not neccesarily to teach how to move about in the kitchen, how to organize and plan, or how to run a profitable kitchen. You can hire a Chef, but you will have to anticipate his needs, and estimate his production capabilities--very hard to do without being his/her shoes for a while first. I have worked with several employers with no previous restaurant experience. Some, I admit embarased, I took full advantage of their ignorance and ordered equipment and supplies I did not need. Others insisted I could produce $500,000 worth of food per month with just one dishwasher and limited, pathetic equipment. If you wish to enter the world of hospitality business, you need the education. Which ever format, or combination of formats you choose, it will be expensive.

Paulrapheal, What I do like to cook with is s/s with a "sandwich bottom", i.e a layer of aluminum sandwiched between the s/s pan and a s/s skin. True, s/s takes longer to heat up, and is not as good a heat conductor as aluminum, but it is far, far, far cleaner to work with, and doesn't warp. At work I cook almost exclusively bon-bon fillings and pastry fillings.. The though of whisking a pastry cream in an aluminum pot makes me shrink, as would making PDF's, nougats, or caramels in an aluminum pot. For sauteing, I like carbon steel pans. Yes, these do warp--almost as badly as aluminum, but they conduct heat just about as good as aluminum, and the handles are welded on--no loosey-goosey handles and grease/sauce splatters down my wrist and arms. I could never figure out Anodized cookware. It's quite pricey, almnost as much for a decent quality s/s pot/pan. The bottoms are almost always plain--no cast alum. bottoms or sandwich bottoms to prevent warping. So, what's the point?

I've been cooking in kitchens around the world for close to 25 years now, and I hate, loathe, detest, etc. aluminum. Since I've been running my own business for close to 12 eyars now I have very little--if any aluminum cookware in my kitchens. OH, Aluminum, why do I hate thee so? I hate thee becasue you warp so badly. A brand new saute pan will turn into a wok within two days. Not so bad if you cook on gas stove, but with electric--forget it. I hate thee becasue thine handles are riveted on. Aluminum has been welded for close to 40 years now, but mnfctrs are very reluctant to weld handles on, no they rivet them on. Problem is they use alum. rivets, which are soft. The rivets work themselves loose within months. So now for saute pans you have woks with loosey-goosey handles. If I had a dollar for every saute pan I "Fixed" by peening back the rivets with a meat hammer over a cement filled post in the parking lot of various employers I'd be a rich man by now. But wait! There's more! When the rivets are loose, liquid escapes, and it escapes all down your fore-arm, (liquids can include hot oil too...) and spilling all over the stove. With large pots you can only fill to below the rivet line or you'll have an "automatic overflow device" spilling over and extinguishing your flame. I hate thee because thou oxidizes. Everything the pot/pan touches turns black with icky oxidization: Countertops, shelves, clothes, and hands. You can never do a white sauce or soup in an aluminum pot if you want to use a whisk--you'll get a nice gey colour... I hate thee becasue thou pits. Aluminum pits badly. All cookware--including s/s and enamel will pit if undisolved salt is heated on the surface. You can stop this by only adding salt into hot liquids and stirring. Aluminum pits far, far worse. It isn't popular in Europe, becasue a lot of the kitchens there have electric ranges, and like I said, alumunimu warps badly, no-can-do on a flat electric range. Why is so popular here? Becasue it's cheap. No other reason why

Microplanes are about the only new gadget I use. I use an apple peeler/corer on a daily basis, but if I'm not mistaken, this design goes back almost 200 years. I do make a lot of my own stuff, I'm handy with tools and wood, so I make my own rolling pins, stir sticks, pastry equipment, etc. c

Thunderbirds have gained susbstantially in quality and durability in the last 10 years. Pretty sure they aren't made in Texas or even in the U.S. for that matter. Like I said, for a 20 qt this is a pretty good deal Hobart mixers haven't changed much in the last 30 years. That is to say the quality is top notch, they don't cut corners. That being said I don't care for thier version of safety cages that must be on all new machines. Almost every other mnfctr has a superior method of opening/closing the safety cage to scrape down the bowl, or to clean the cage. The industry standard on most mixers is the #10 attachment hub, with the most popular attachments being the meat grinder, then the slicer shredder, the power dicer, and vegetable mill. There are many version of the generic meat grinder available and should be interchangeable with every machine. Dough hooks can be used for other doughs, like puff pastry and the like. The hardest doughs on the mixer are pizza and bagel dough, and it is these doughs that the mnfctr wishes to void. The volume, or amount of dough produced in a 20 qt is not very much, and for even a small pizza operation, making mulitple batches of pizza dough in a 20 qt, on a daily basis for a few mnths would kill the mixer.

For light duty--that is anything OTHER than breads, virtually any mixer brand is pretty good. 20 years ago, this wasn't the case, and Hobarts ruled the roost becasue they wre they best designed and built ones on the N< American. Globe, Berkel, Blakslee are all good brands, even some of the Asian ones are pretty good these days. The main thing to look for is a factory authorized repair guy within a reasonable distance . Check each brand's website and find out who the regional rep is, and then find out who is authorized to service them. Once this is established, pick the one with the closest service depot and the cheapest price. Caveat: Virtually every eqpt. mnfctr, including Hobart, will void the warranty on new mixers if they have been used for bread doughs.

According to the packaging, it is intended for use in foods like tomato paste, honey, etc.

Hate meausring the stuff out, I have a 12 kg pail, but I don't like using it. I usually just sub corn syrup for glucose and have never had any issues--even with caramels and ganaches. Hate scaling out molasses as well, usually I just nuke the container so it doesn't take so looooong to pour out. Trimoline is another one, my ganche batches are small and I only need a bit, and I hate dragging out a 5 kg pail every time. What I did was trotted off to CDN Tire (or any store that sells camping stuff) you can buy plastic tubes, "A'la toothpaste" with an open end, which you can fill , then seal off with a plastic bar. Then it's just a matter of squeezing out the required amount. Usually you can use tthe tubes a few times over,a nd they are pretty cheap too.t

Hongda, If I may make a sugestion. Work in a restaurant--any restaurant, first. Not after you've made a commitment, but before. Work the front end, work the back end, know the animal well before you commit. The second suggestion is to have a good look at a used food equipment store. Not to buy anything, but to look and listen. Whatever you see was bought for cents on the dollar, and marked up minimum of 100%. It's a very sobering experience

You're right, you said water in oil emulsion. And I still beg to disagree. Like I said, chocolate has virtually no water in it--most literature gives this value as less than 1/2 of 1%. Most literature therefore, describes chocolate as cocoa solids and sugar suspended in fat. Which brings me to my second point: Oil, by it's very nature is liquid at room temperature, and fat solid at room temperature. The cocoa bean contains naturally around 52% cocoa fat (or butter), couverture has addtional cocoa butter added, no oil though....

I beg to disagree with the "chocolate being an oil-in water emulsion" Chocoalte contains virtually NO water, at most less than 1/2 of one percent, cocoa solids particles are suspended in cocoa butter, not emulsified. Compounds..... Schneich, I also have to beg to disagree with Sucrea/Doehler/Dreidoppel being the worst. True, they put in natural and natural-identical flavourings. In my humble opion it's Braun that makes the worst compounds. I made the mistake of ordering a "Williams Christ pear" Compound. Should have read the label before I opened it. Label stated: Von Zundquellen entfernen" Or, roughly translated in Englisch, "Keep away from open flame and spark". Nasty stuff, lots of pure alcohol in there..Not Williams, a pear eau-de-vie, but pure alcoholv, and looking at Braun's website I see they have the same alcohol in most of their flavourings. MEC3 is avialble her, but ONLY in icecream/gelatto format. These pastes are far too strong and assertive to use in general pastry work (Mousses, creams, etc.) Canadin bakin, You might try Far-met importers for ammoretti brand compounds. I remember now thumbing thorugh their catalouge and seeing Ammoretti, but be warned, it is expensive.

Felchlin is virtually un-obtainable to get in Canada--no distributers, bulk container shipments only. Quite a few purveyors carry Carma products, but no couveture. Frey (Migros chocoalte) likewise has no distributer, and would like to send me couveture--but alas only in containers. Haven't really tried their couveture anyway. So, by process of elimination, you can guess which brand "X" is..... I am familiar with all pastry and baking purveyors here in Vancouver, the only one I can actually trust is my own "Y", which happens to be the largest. Valrhona is only distributed by one purveyor (a.k.a "A") and the going rate for Troplia is around CDN $22/kg. I don't like this purveyor, prices fluctuate waaay too much, and the sales rep tried to fob off some house brand with a past exipry date on me. I asked him to examine the other side of my door. Cluizel is likewise only distributed by one purveyor (a.k.a. "C"), far too expensive to use --for me anyway. Chocoa isn't all that bad and I was using it for ganaches and the like, the 72% was good for this purpose, sugar milling in the milk and white was very grainy though, and I don't like those. I originally paid $7.90 a kg for the 72%, and within a year the purveyors (a.k.a. "B", the second largest purveyor with multiple branches in CDN and the US) jerked the price up to $11. closely following Callebauts price hike. At this point it made more sense to use "X" at a dollar a kg more for everything. So, most pastry baking places either are large enough to bring in containers of product on thier own and by-pass the purveyors, or small and pay the price. I'm somewhere in the middle........ Praire girl, there are two "bean to bar" producers here in Vancouver. One is very large and produces excrement--"baking chips" and the like. The other is very small and produces a good product. I've visited his operation, saw the beans, the mills, the conching machine, and his product is good. He just doesn't think it profitable to sell me couveture in 100 kg lots at the moment. Like I said, virtually all of his product goes to private labels in the US. Don't know about Bernard Callebaut in Calgary, legend has it that he is bean to bar, haven't visited his operation--yet. And there's some other guy in Calgary or Edmonton who's putting Omega 3 oils in chocolalte, but I'm pretty sure that's contracted out. For the record, I'm still waiting for my couveture.....

Maybe... There is actually a bean-to-bar producer here in Vancouver, gets his beans from Peru, I believe. Nice stuff, but he doesn't sell anything locally, 99% of his market is small private labeles in the U.S. I approached him a year ago, wanting a price on bulk couveture. After 9 mths he finally gave me a price. It was in ball-park range, but he's not ready to commit to actually supplying me, he says maybe next year.....

Cahoots? "Y" is the sole distributer for "X" (for bulk couveture, anyway) in this province, which includes the lower mainland, Vancouver Island, and the interior. I believe that they're in love with each other. So, my choices are 3: 1) Go with the status quo here in Vancouver, and use Callebaut. Most places use the cheap d8-11 and get away with it. "Y" doesn't carry Callebaut. I have three other pastry and baking suppliers to choose from, let's call them A, B, and C. I know of several small-ish producers who are bringing in their own Callebaut from Europe. Now, A,B, and C (the other suppliers) are giving me a "special quantity based price" with mark-ups ranging from 65% to 90% on basic Callebaut d8-11 or 60/40-- almost $1.00/kg MORE than what "Y" is charging me for "X" product. This is like comparing a Tercel to a BMW for the same purchase price. No deal, besides, I hate the stuff anyway. I like to keep track of these guys, A, B, and C, and check on their prices from time to time. the prices rise around Christmas, and fall in late summer. Slime balls... Conclusion to choice 1. It still is cheaper to use "X" from either "Y" or "X" Canada. The product is far, far superior to what A,B,C and C are using for the same price. I have operated for two years using "X" and have developed a local "following", if you will. My business has grown--moderately, but grown. "Y" has every right to charge a mark-up, which I estimate somewhere around the 30% range. They don't fluctuate their prices much, mainly because I catch them when they do. 2) Go back to "Y" and try to negotiate a new deal. I might try this, but they know I'm too small to bring in container of product a time, they won't go down on price, and I don't like bargaining if I don't have something to bargain with. Even if my quantities are slowly rising. 3) Stick with "X" Canada. Still looks like my best bet, inspite of the "Royal treatment". When my quantities do increase I have it written per contract to re-negotiate the prices. Dreaming is free, and I dream of achieving this in maybe 2 years time . Yeah they're jerking me around and I rub their noses in it. As a small player there are very few perks, catching sales reps lying or cheating is one such perks--there are no free ball-game tickets, trips to France, or arranged pastry school visits for small guys. Catching a rep in an awkward position is the only perk (other than a free calander every year...) so watching them squirm avoid phone calls and e-mails has some entertainment value to it. Also, knowing they can't cash in on their commission untill I actually pay them is another perk, and I still haven't got product, so no moolah. I can still read and write in German, so maybe a letter to Switzerland might do something for me --or not.

My whinging is centered around purchasing couveture. O.K., I'm a small player artisan chocolates and pastries, a retail shop/production facility of under 950 sq ft. When it comes to chocolate, Vancouver is a Belgian town, people consider only Belgian chocolate to be "the best". I, being Swiss, beg to differ and have gone to great lengths to obtain and use "X", a Swiss couveture. For the first year, I was getting my couveture through "Y" a large and reputable baking and pastry supplier here in B.C.. "Y" was breaking the 10 kg cases into 4, 2.5 kg pouches and selling them by the pouch. Taking full advantage of my 12 year relationship with "Y" in my previous business, I was able to obtain a $3.00/kg price reduction provided I order in multiple full cases. A year later I was ordering in 50 and 60 kg shipments but try as I might, could not get any further price reductions. In fact, I would have to listen to, and call "Y"'s bluff every time they told me that "Prices have gone up". Always called the bluff, always won, but never got further price reductions. By January of this year I called "X"in Toronto and manged to wrangle an appointment with thier Western Canada sales rep. By committing to a set quantity over a 12 mth period I would get my couveture direct from Toronto at set prices. Problem was, they gave me prices virtually identical to "Y"'s prices--less than $1.00/kg difference. (Well, whadja expect? They treat "Y" like a regional distributer, they wouldn't let a small guy like me mess up their pricing structure...) What the hey, it was a bit cheaper, but more importantly I would be building a relationship with the Canadian branch of "X". So mid January we ordered over 120 kgs of product, expected delivery time: 3 weeks. February comes, and goes, I have to order through "Y" to get product for Valentine's day. March comes, and goes, no delivery I gt ticked off, I ask where my product is. I'm told they're "still processing my information". Well, geez, it's not like I'm adopting a baby, how much time do you need? When will I get my shipment? April 12th, I'm told. Fine, I say, I missed out on Valentine's day, now I'll miss out on Easter. April 12th comes, and goes--no couveture. I raise he**, April 15th I get my order, only problem is, out of the 4 types of couvetures I ordered, they "substituted" the 54% with a 52%. No notification, no explanations no apologies. O.K, O.K. punishment of the "original sin" of being small, l know. Thing is, I haven't had such royal treatment since "Freshie week" in grade 9 when I was in high school.... By end of May our stock is running low and it's time to order again, about the same quantity. I ask for a delivery date. June 8th I'm told. June 8th comes, and June 8th goes, no couveture. On the 9th I get the invoice via Canada Post. I make inquiries with Toronto . No reply from my sales rep, no reply from the Sales director. I try the shipping dept.: "Oh, that order was shipped out, we heard from the transport company in Vancouver, they tried to deliver, but you were closed that day." Yes, Virginia, Monday's we are closed. But that little golden nugget of information was on my credit application and customer forms,. Remember, the forms d you took 31/2 months to process? So the delivery Co. tried to deliver on the 8th. It's the 11th now, and I have no idea where the couveture is, neither the delivery co nor "X" Canada has attempted to contact me. I 've got a sinking feeling my couvture is in the back of a truck--in 28 C weather, doing the milk run for 3 days. Rant off. Time to walk the dog.....

The dividers as you describe are good for pastry, but for ganche, where you want very precise squares, this tool isn't ideal--the wingnut slips and the dividers go out of whack. If the tool is a bit old and the rivets are loose, the dividers are never centered. That being said.... I have uh..."converted" two sets of dividers. On one set I drilled out the loose rivets and put a wing-nut on each intersection. This way the dividers keep their setting fairly well, once you lock in each individual wingnut. On another I drilled out the loose rivets and placed a meccano (childrens toy building set, small metal pieces) bar across the dividers and bolted each intersection fixed. This tool is rock-solid and won't move--but I can't re-set the spacing on it. The wheels are on these tools are fairly small and have a tendancy to wrap around whatever you are cutting. Larger is better in this case of cutting wheels . The rivets also have a nasty habit of working loose, so no matter how tightly you lock in the setting, the wheels still wobble and give innacurate cuts. You can overcome this problem by peening the rivets tight again with a hammer and light taps, but alas! the rivets are soft and will loosen again and again.

Yup. Master cook is what I use. Don't think you need the nutritional requirements unless you sell out of province, and definitely out of country.

I'm still trying to get that picture of the chocoalte showpiece on this site! I am hopelessly inept when it comes to anything computer. Actually Matfer has (or had) such a "rolling pin" Just a series of s/s discs on a rod with handles, thiers sold for something like $300 US in the 2002 catalouge. Mine is constructed from 6 s/s pizza wheels that I got from the dollar store. I drilled out the rivets that held the discs to the handles. Next I got a length of 3/8" redi-rod from the hardware store. This is just a mild steel rod that is threaded all the way, available at any big box home improvement center or hardware store. The spacing between the wheels is important. The Matfer one includes a zillion plastic washers, for a home made one you can use washers as well or, you can cut 15/16" pieces of 1/2" wood dowel and drill a hole through the center of it. Since the wheels are around 1/16" thick and beveled on both sides, when you use 15/16" spacing, you get 1 inch cuts. Thread the wheels and spacers/washers through the rod. Either cannibilize an old rolling pin or turn your own handles ( I did mine on a wood lathe) and thread this on and secure with nuts, preferably "acorn nuts" or nuts that cover the ends of the threaded rod. My discs are s/s and the steel redi rod is either covered by wood dowel or handles--it is more or less d/w safe. More importantly, it can withstand some heat-- around 70-80 C and hot steel discs cut through the ganache like butter. It live in my top oven, which I neve turn on but it can get warm in there when my bottom oven runs for a few hours. This is also where I keep my coloured cocoa butters, bulk honey, and various couvetures. It won't cut through caramel, but I use it to mark the caramel slabs, then cut with a knife. Works a treat on most cookie doughs too--but you have to start in the middle of the sheet and work to either end, if you start at one end, that end will wrap itself around the wheels. Don't drop it or you'll ding the wheels and ruin the cut. If this ever happens you have to take the whole thing apart, replace or straighten and sharpen the wheel, and re-assemble again.

I brush mine on with a silicone brush, let it set, and then cut--but I don't use a guitar. I have a "slicing wheel" basically a series of 6 s/s pizza wheels evenly spaced apart on a length of threaded rod. The wheel gets warmed up in an oven, and if cutting ganache, I can cut the whole thing, if cutting gianduja, I just score the slab and cut with a knife.

The question is, once you get the crud cleaned off, what do you do to keep it clean? For years I had a 4 eye-36" griddle range with a s/s low back wall and plate shelf, bought it new and kept it looking that way too. I'd hang sheets of aluminum foil on the wall. Spray the wall with water and wipe on the foil with a rag. Then crimp the foil underneath the backsplash (when the burner grates are removed) and scotch tape the overhang on the sides of the backsplash. Once a week I'd take apaart the whole stove to clean anyway, so that was the time I'd either flip the foil over to the "clean" side (either call me cheap or enviromentally concious, but I use both sides of the foil before tossing it out...) Once the backsplash is clean, it's just a matter of covering it with foil to keep it clean.l