MattyC

Yeah, there still is another Masterchef, a few if I remember right: A regular masterchef, a celeb version, maybe one other one.... actually someone who posts here every so often just made an appearance on the celeb masterchef a week or two ago. The Iron chef america vs the original one is a good way to look at it - Masterchef US seems to be pretty bad compared to the others, or so I hear, I haven't caught any of the others yet.

I do feel a bit sick of Ramsey, but I have the greatest love of graham for a while, so was pretty pumped to see him with a show. Sadly, the whole Ramsey and being on Fox thing just made this show a bit hard to sit through, I agree. I'll still give it a shot I suppose, only because I love graham, and tuesday is my night off - but aside from those, not sure how much I will want to keep watching.

Yeah, the initial sear is to kill off the bad stuff, but he re-sears it to redevelop that crust. Its like searing a protein THEN putting it in the bag to sous vide it - not the best idea. nextguy hit it 100% i think - sous vide would be a much better method, but since most people don't have good ways of maintaining controlled water baths at home, he suggests this method.

From what I remember of that, basically its just charring the outside of a steak, and putting it into an oven at 50c for 24 hours. Don't think there is going to be a whole lot of messing that up, I would think you would be fine barring some craziness of too high a temp.

Never said I actually liked the 'haute dog' thing, that's a pretty dumb name, I agree, along with the fact I said it was overboard - but sorry I think hotdogs are a bit on the plain side? Didn't know my opinion was wrong. I think the pretzel bun sounds good. A little fun with classics never hurt anyone, as long as people keep an open mind about things, and whoever makes it doesn't go crazy adding shit to it. And I love foie, although haven't had a foie hotdog. I ll have to give it a shot. Sounds good.

Sure, that's going a smidge overboard, but to be the first naysayer to this, I don't mind a little sprucing up the the hotdog. The hotdog by itself is pretty boring. And just to throw fuel on the fire, one of the best burgers i've had included foie and pork belly on it, along with mascerated cherries. Was worth the price, and was a million times better than some lame 80% ground beef with american "cheese".

I have a good variety of vinegars at home, and use a few different kinds at work. I always try and keep as many different kinds around as possible - I think too many people confuse acidity levels with salinity as well, at least that i've seen. A good vinegar can really make or break a dish, so I try and invest in nice ones.

It depends for me. At work, I use mine quite a lot for small stuff - garnishes, really small brunoise, etc. But for other stuff, and just all around cooking at home, I barely, if ever, do.

I think in a general sense, they can indicate if you are doing decent, or if there are areas that your place needs some help with - but anything more than that, I tend to take anything off Yelp with a grain of salt, good or bad. As mean and horrible as this sounds, most people posting on Yelp and the like really have no idea what they are talking about. From what i've noticed, whether it's about where I work or not, people on there will burn a place for the most asinine reasons, or praise it with obvious bias. Give people a monitor to hide behind, and suddenly they become an expert. I don't take those sites seriously for the most part, unless the general consensus is really leaning one way or another.

Not really with the beans - you still have to do a soak - even a quick soak and pressure cooking couldn't have been done in the 45 minutes. See, my thought on that was when they went to shop at whole foods and plan what they had to prep, they had in mind all *three* courses, and had to automatically assume they would be cooking all three. So those that planned on doing beans, would (or should) have started them right when they get back to the kitchen, since they were told to plan for all three meals. So with that in mind, I think Tom C was right.

Yeah, I have a real hard time seeing anybody on this season aside from maybe Angelo coming close to the top four from last season, really just seems like this seasons talent level is a few notches down for the most part. I still don't see why so many people hate Angelo though, in my mind he's far better than Kenny - I actually like Angelo.

Can't stand Kenny. He can't back up his 'alpha male' BS most of the time, and is too dense to understand when he ends up on the bottom, it's for a reason. Angelo is far better, and while still a bit cocky, still has a better attitude than Kenny.

Despite whoever has what input, I just want Kenny gone. If I hear 'Alpha male' one more time, i'm going to throw my knives at the tv. Plus the fact he can't seem to back up whatever puffed up BS he'll be spouting. I think a key thing that makes me so angry with him other than 'ALPHA MALE', was his statement last week, when he said he hit 'taste, temp, texture, etc on the highest level', and couldn't understand why he was on the bottom. I mean come on Kenny, get it through your thick head - if you really hit everything that high, why were you on the bottom, and not just that, why didn't you win? Hmm? Every dish has something that could have gone better. Every dish. To think he is that good, while barely ever being in the top 4, shows he's far more arrogant than Angelo.

Yeah sure. I mean, it's pretty easy, really just using a vacuum bag so you can toss it into things while still having contact all around it for even heating - plus no mess or anything like that either - pretty much a basic sous vide technique. If I remember right, the primo temp to caramalize it was around 260 degrees F, for like 40 minutes or so. Now, regular old boiling water will do fine (not quite the temp you want though, but still will work), just seal up the white chocolate and leave it it there for about 45 minutes, but for a much better result, toss it into a pressure cooker sealed up for 30 minutes or so, high pressure. You'll get a much better result with the pressure cooker, but both will work fine.

Always been big fan of the caramalized white chocolate. I've found the easiest way is just put it in a vacuum bag and put it in a water bath. Heck of a lot easier that way.

Ha yeah no kidding, that line in the grilling episode just annoyed me on so many levels. He was just so far over the top, I could barely stand to watch him. So many chefs that are annoying on this seasons, makes me sad. Funnily enough, I think the chefs that bother me the least, like Angelo, Ed, etc, seem to annoy most everyone else the most.

Yeah, he so was incredibly surprised when at the end Tom was talking about what was wrong with the two dishes, mentioned that the pasta was undercooked, and looked like he just got slapped in the face: total surprise. Kinda bothered me too, that both of them at the end blamed the other for leaving, neither seemed to admit they had a part in the demise of the dish. They just weren't a good team, and it was obvious. I knew it wasn't going to happen, but I did wish a little that Kenny had been going home - I know people rip Angelo to shreds for being a little cocky, but if I hear 'alpha male' or 'irrelevant' from kenny one more time i'm going to throw something at the tv.

Yeah I agree completely, I loved Nosh while I lived in Portland, probably one of my more favorite and fun places (im a big meat and charcuterie fan). Really great place, hope just because they were on the show, that people don't think that place isn't as high quality as it is.

Just thinking about the episode randomly again, I can't help but think there hasn't been a season like this one where so many of the chefs just annoy the ever loving shit out of me as much as the ones on this season. I couldn't stand tracey, and thank god she is gone, but especially this last one, arnold just bothered me so much. I mean, you own three restaurants, yet have no clue how a charcoal grill works? And you bitch about how you don't use grills because it 'clogs your pores'? Seriously? *shudder* I just can't wait until only the good ones or left. Ego and confidence I can deal with, that's normal in a kitchen, but a lot of these others I just can't deal with.

Especially concerning the quickfire, I think that age old 'I'm not a pastry chef' thing is getting a little tired. They always get so freaked out by dessert challenges. I mean, i'm not pastry chef by any means, but i've had enough of experience to bake and do a decent amount of pastry. Especially those that opened their own places, I would think they would have a hand in pretty much everything, like Kelly said. Although I do notice the more modern chefs seem to be ok with desserts, since they use more measurements and exact temps, that gives them a little more confidence and experience? Who knows. It just always annoys me when they get so worked up over it. And especially by season 7, you would think they would know enough to expect a time when they HAVE to do dessert/pastry.

I couldnt stand tracey for some reason. She's been bugging me since ep 1, so i'm not all too sad with the outcome. Stephen reminds me too much of my moms ex husband, so he bothers me for a whole other set of reasons, but I do agree, for what he is on paper, he's doing a pretty poor job. I don't see him lasting too long.

Even if they are ok with it man, keep it smaller, since you are just a stage. More polite that way. A lot of places these days are pretty lax and chill about different styles, where I work is one, but I would still be cautious if it's a lot of hair. Like doodad said, first impressions count a lot, and personally, stage at alinea > my hair. Also, good luck on the stage! So jealous :-p

Makes me miss maine *sniff* Nice stuff though guys, looked like a blast

Ha ha that's what I was saying the entire episode to my friends ' Holy shit he has crazy eyes!'. He reminded me of a crazy hippie I met once back up in northern Maine. I still can't believe recipe girl - did you really need your recipe right in front of you? I know people seem to think Angelo is too cocky already, but I like him, and I like his style.

Eh, I could sit here and trash Sysco for being the big bad corp, that only sells pre-marked IQF Chicken and overcharges you for dough scrapers by 3x..... but in reality, they are only as bad as you let them be. Like Edwardj said, a lot depends on your rep. In the past, I have had those reps that will show up while i'm in the middle of rolling out pasta dough, plop out some cheap ass premade sauce and frozen raviolis and wonder why i'm frowning at him, but i've also had the reps who see the pork jowls curing in my walkin for guanciale, know that I probably won't go for a lot of the sysco reheat and serve crap, and turn out to be very useful reps in finding me some really nice stuff that I actually can use. As a general rule though, they do tend to be a bit pricer than a lot of the other distributers, and in my experiences anyway, finding a decent rep isn't always easy to do, so for the most part I do stay away from Sysco, but I don't have much against them. I much prefer to do most, if not all of my business with smaller local guys - because I love supporting them, and 99% of the time their stuff is just better than other stuff I could get anyway, but i'm not opposed to Sysco if my rep is a good one.