Louisa Chu

This coming week was supposed to be the last week of my stage at ADPA. But I've asked Chef - Chef Jean-Francois Piege who's leaving in February to take over at Le Crillon - if I could work on New Year's Eve dinner. He said that I could - if I could get an extension on my Convention de Stage - my working papers. After a surprising amount of red-tape I got it - just last week. So when the clock strikes midnight for 2004 I will hopefully be having a glass of champagne with all the other cooks - celebrating a good service on what could be the most expensive restaurant meal in the world - 680 Euros - for food alone.

Sorry but I have to disagree - there is a general order to eating dim sum - but soft rather than hard and fast rules. Generally you want to eat the lighter more delicate items first - the ha gow/shrimp/seafood/rice flour wrapper dumplings first - then the heavier, but still smaller, meat dumplings - sui mai, etc. - then the larger items - cherng fun, etc. - meatier items - spareribs in black bean garlic sauce, etc. - the fried items - law bok go, etc. - then towards the end the heaviest/most filling items - naw mai gai, the buns, etc. - sweet baked items next - egg custard tarts, etc. - then the fruity dishes - almond dofu with the ubiquitous canned fruit cocktail. After all the dim sum items you might then serve a stir-fried noodle dish - not soup noodles - symbolic - long life, to send your guests away as full as they can possibly be. And I'm sorry but any restaurant that's telling you to eat the sweet items with the savoury items is just trying to turn the tables fast.

Nutella - we do make a Nutella kind of spread with Valrohna chocolate at the Plaza to go with the gauffres at tea - but of course it's not the same. With Nutella you evoke nostalgic emotions - like with the peanut butter and jelly.

I'm curious what film you use and why. I've seen references to "guitar paper" but no one seemed to know exactly what it was. The film in French is called papier guitar - a heavier duty sheet of clear plastic film - I'm guessing it's the same since it's a literal translation - but plastic not paper. It's used to prevent sticking and to make cleaner cuts. It would definitely help in slicing the pate de fruit. Otherwise there are pate de fruit cutters - that look like those old ice cube trays in a way - you pour the pate de fruit hot liquid into the base - metal mold, lightly greased sulphurised paper, greased side down - cool/set - then press the cutter in - pull out for pate de fruit squares - but only good for really limited amounts - really difficult to clean.

We use a guitar slicer - with film - for our small scale marshmallow production. Better flavour - we do just a classic marshmallow and a strawberry one - both very good - both coated in just powdered sugar - but I want to try playing with the coating - using the tant pour tant - half powdered sugar/half powdered almonds - etc. - and yeah, definitely spices too - and cocoa powder, etc.

Adam! You're mom's a babe! And your family's website - explains many, many things.

It is a really great tasting cake. And a classic - invented at Dalloyau to honour the new Paris Opera house - the layers represent the linear architecture of the Opera - which by the way was considered ostentatious and vulgar at its unveiling - and to go off on another tangent is home to honeybees on the roof - you can buy the honey at Fauchon. We made it at Cordon Bleu Paris - under our chef de patisserie who was formerly chef de patisserie at Dalloyau itself. And did you get Treblit - coffee extract? Yes, that's what's typically used. And one of the true signs of patissier/patissiere artistry is how well you can decorate the top of your Opera cake - part of our Intermediate pastry exam at CBP.

Are you talking about the platter decoration? With the white gelatin and deco? And no one's supposed to eat that anyway. Or are you talking about a chaud-froid dish? We did one at APDA with Bresse chicken, coated with finely chopped black truffles - goosefat instead of aspic. It's a French thing - obviously - and good aspic's a revelation - visually, taste, texture, etc. - not something a lot of Americans always get. But it sounds like you're talking about a platter decoration. If that's it, I tend to go for more modern/minimalist designs - think Mondrian in carrots, leeks, eggplant, etc. I've also done Moroccan-inspired designs - and once one like a Persian rug. The flowers and birds are just not for me.

Le Figaro magazine this past Sunday had a whole centerspread on Gare du Nord and the neighborhood around it - might be available online? And I'm not a fan of Le Train Bleu - we had a Cordon Bleu dinner there - found the room a little shabby and the food institutional - too bad - but a great atmosphere - perfect for a drink - great leather club chairs towards the back. And beds - small hotels - twin beds - rare to find American standard double/queen beds - king size no way.

For cheap there's a really cool gallery space/cafe that's in a courtyard behind the Palais des Papes. Pricey I prefer the restaurant at La Mirande - and absolutely love the hotel - check out the menu here.

Hey, sign me up - I'm moving to sauces at ADPA next week.

Bill, if only - if only drugs were easy to come by - and if we could afford them - and if we could function on them. At ADPA our drugs of choice are just double espressos and cigarettes - the former of which I'll have three tomorrow and Friday - double shifts - lunch and dinner.

I love Costa Mesa - one of the best malls in the world. Troquet's very good - transplanted a little French resto into a soCal mall. My favourite place down there's Back Pocket - the casual annex to Gustaf Anders - Swedish, modern, but warm - with a wood-fired oven. And there's Darya has a location next door too - one of the best Persian places in town. And there's a Sam Woo BBQ - Chinese, really good rice/noodle plates - try the beef tendon and turnip for incredible flavour - if you're not afraid of fat.

If someone like Robert is asking what Albert does then maybe we should start a whole new thread. Albert makes Adria magic happen. For example, one day when Ferran and Albert were having lunch in town, Ferran had a glass of orange juice for dessert. He was just astounded at the freshness and the flavour and came up with a concept that would capture that moment - that excitement - but it was up to Albert to translate the idea into a product - and then a technique - and thus was born mandarin air. Albert - who makes it clear that he's a cook who happens to be the el Bulli pastry chef - is also a creative source - it was he who first tried the Asian tapioca ball drinks - which led to the new caviar suspensions. But having two intense siblings myself I asked Albert about conflicts - he paused, stared at me - "My brother" he said emphatically in Catalonian-accented English," He created the taller so we could work together - but separate."

Cooking? Working! BettyK, if you were to order echine de porc in France - from your butcher or in a restaurant - you'd get a small slab of spareribs - they're spareribs, but kept in a whole small slab - rather than separated into little ribs, the way you might see if you ordered them in a Chinese restaurant for dim sum. It sounds like for your recipe that you'd actually want to separate the ribs and then cut them into morsels - about 80g - a fair-sized little chunk. You want the bone - and this particular cut - for the flavour, fat, and tenderness - but if you only have boneless, sure, why not.

JP, that's too funny - my dog Karli tried to climb up on the banquettes too - she probably knew other dogs had been there - but she's a little big. Though she does sit up in places when there's room - no one ever has a problem with it. Cafe Constant plat du jour today - wild boar stew with fresh pasta. And did I mention that they use Christofle flatware?

vserna, what's the season on the llenega negra - and some classic/preferred preparations? And Simon's not a stagiaire - he's a chef de partie - garde-manger. Interesting what you say about journalists and cooks - as a cook and a journalist, I realize that no matter how much recon I've done, things are different in the trenches.

Delicabar opened this weekend at Bon Marche - brought to you by Sebastien Gaudard - former pastry chef chez Fauchon - and Helene Samuel - former consultant chez Ducasse.

Go to Versailles - by RER - and don't miss Le Potager du Roi.

I just had lunch there today. The trick to not waiting is arriving just a little earlier than the crowd - 11:45AM for us - we were the first to arrive and had our pick of tables. For dinner - unfortunately - a little early - maybe around 7PM. Sure there's some of the standard cafe fare on the regular menu - but they also have a pretty impressive - and limited - list of plats du jour - before lunch was over they were already chalking off items. We started off - all the starters and desserts are on the regular menu - which does change regularly - with oeufs en meurette and a salade of potatoes, oysters, and mayo. The little things that impressed me with the oeufs en meurette are that they were topped with brunoise-sized croutons and the sauce held tiny girolles mushrooms - both elevated the dish from just the standard eggs poached in a red wine sauce - and showed me that someone with did some meticulous mise en place - not found in your regular cafes. The salad was a bit if a surprise - a fancy potato salad with oysters - and garnished with a nice, fresh mimosa - hard-cooked egg yolk run through a tami - again, nice detail. We ordered two plats du jour - a lievre a la royale hachis parmentier and a stuffed cochon au lait cooked in brioche - they didn't serve the brioche but did the dish with a side of brussel sprouts. And here's where I really love the cafe - after our generous entrees, as good as the plats were - and they were both very good - and foie gras evident in both the lievre a la royale of course, as well as in the stuffing of the pork - that knowing we were going to order dessert, we asked for the plats to be wrapped to go. Yeah - to go - in Paris. Because one of the other great things about the cafe is that they do a brisk takeout business - a holdover from the boutique days. So back came two aluminum barquettes - just like in the States. We knew we wanted dessert - especially after seeing our table neighbors get theirs - two elegant older French women who attacked a Poire Helene covered in chocolate sauce, with vanilla ice cream, and whipped cream and a thick, high wedge of Tarte Tatin with a side of just the ice cream - yeah, I know, heresy amongst the TT purists. We got the same - and understood their gusto - both fruits very tender - but not at all overcooked, one of the things I hate - dramatic, generous, rich, satisfying. The place was packed by the time we took our coffees - with a very cool, convivial crowd - but never felt rushed, and and everyone was especially considerate in stepping around and over my dog. We had just a carafe water to drink. Total tab about 51 euros - and even though I live right around the corner, it is a place I'd go across town for.

If you're living in Paris and/or a TGV fan, then yeah sure - why not. If not - if you're just visiting Paris - then why bother? I live here and I still haven't seen/eaten all the stuff I want to in my own arrondissement.

Of course! Hey I'm thinking about some butter dipped, mandoline sliced reine de reinette apples with foie gras terrine - have you tried non-bread on the outside yet - other than the graham crackers?

Jason, then can I persuade you to persuade away? These could be too perfect - one of the regular chef/sous-chef lunch requests is in fact croque-monsieurs! Oh and it wouldn't be just the pastry guys - they all go nuts for my American gadgets. But I really don't know that they can beat the Elvis special!

OK - here's the deal. When I visited Rungis - with Cordon Bleu - their guide told me that no, the general public was not allowed - not allowed to buy anything - blah, blah, blah. And that's what I first posted above - before I checked their site and edited - give me a little slack it's 3 o'clock in the morning Paris time and I have to work tomorrow. But then I remembered - hey, I'm in France - where they'd sooner tell you something's not possible rather than explain the intricacies of their own system. So, for a guided tour - yes, you need to be part of a group - 15 mininum - regular tourists OK. If you're less than 15, you get no tour, but still can visit limited areas - at limited times - and buy limited products - no sides of beef for you. Best to email or call for specific details of day desired. Interesting factoid learned through Rungis info video - fish caught off the coasts are often sent to Rungis first - then back to the town where they were first caught for sale. Creepy factoid - during the heatwave this summer, unclaimed bodies were stored in refrigerated trucks out there.

Rungis