mattsea

I can definitely recommend Monterey. Their prices are quite reasonable, and they ship all over the country (I'm in Perth).

Yes, I thought this distinction was useful:

Agreed, I think there is a meaningful difference between mashed and smashed.

These have already been mentioned in the thread, but I must reiterate the sheer awfulness of "cooked to perfection", "yum/yummy/yummo" and "nom/nom nom/noms". "Cooked to perfection": If this is on a menu, it is redundant. I am paying you to cook my food. I expect that you will cook it well, not undercook or overcook it. This is to be assumed, not displayed as a point of pride. If this is in a review, it is a cliche. Avoid it. If there truly is something exemplary about the way the item has been cooked, describe its flavour, its texture. "Yum" and its variations, or "nom". Are we children? I work in an office, and some of my middle aged female colleagues unfortunately seem to regress to kindergarten age whenever cake is around.

Beverage doesn't offend me, but it is strange to non-American ears/eyes. Not a word that is often used. I don't often hear 'protein' in the American sense either (seemingly meaning 'any animal part used in a dish').

Chris, One thing that has annoyed me slightly about eGullet (as a long-time lurker, newly registered poster) is the US-centric nature of some of the discussion. It's understandable given the demographics of the board's participants, but slightly disappointing that some people would ignore manifestly magnificent cookbooks just because they're published elsewhere. I suppose I'm used to the way things are here (Australia), where domestic cookbooks fight for shelf space on equal terms with British, American and other tomes. Anyway, as I mentioned, Stephanie Alexander is the clear #1 among Australian cookbook authors, and I thoroughly recommend her Cook's Companion. I'm also a fan of Michel Roux Jr's books Sauces and Eggs, and all of the River Cafe books.

I'm trying desperately to get a reservation, but so far no luck. We're travelling to the US in late November/early December, and there is only a window of around 5 days or so in which we could make it to Yountville. I've had no success trying to secure a reservation for the first four of those days, so fingers crossed that the fifth day (Wednesday the 2nd of December) works out for us. A big problem is that 10am Californian time is the middle of the night Western Australian time, but tonight I'll stay up to call them. Fingers crossed!

Out of interest, Leslie, is Stephanie Alexander's book popular in New Zealand? It's ubiquitous here, and deservingly so.

Haha WOW, I have not ever heard/read anyone claiming that, but that is PREPOSTEROUS. Wow. I can't believe people are that stupid.

Agreed... imagine being asked "what are the greatest cookbooks published in the US?" The list would be exhaustive and exhausting, as it is in this case. If I were to recommend one Australian book it would be The Cook's Companion by Stephanie Alexander. This is by far the most influential and revered cookbook in modern Australian cooking. Stephanie Alexander is sort of the Julia Child or Delia of Australia, but she was also the chef in her hugely influential restaurant for several decades. The book is in an encyclopaedia format, an A-Z of ingredients with recipes for each, information about suggested flavour pairings, information about different cooking methods, etc. A magnificent book for anyone, not just Australians. (Incidentally, you made the choice of one book a lot easier for me by ruling out Thai Food). As far as British books go, my favourite contemporary British book is Made in Italy by Giorgio Locatelli, but I don't know if that has been republished in the US.

Matt -- doesn't sound dated and unoriginal to me! I've never heard of it, and I'm intrigued. Could you share the recipe? Hi Maggie, It's very basic, but here it is. Apologies for using millilitres rather than American measurements. The jelly recipe is adapted from Nigella Lawson: Ingredients Gin and Tonic Jelly 150ml water plus 50ml separately 150g caster sugar 250ml-300ml tonic water 125ml gin 4 sheets leaf gelatine 4 nice looking mint leaves Method 1) Pour the sugar and 150ml water into a saucepan and bring to the boil, stirring until the sugar is dissolved. Take off the heat and allow to cool. Pour the syrup into a 1L jug. 2) Add the gin to the syrup, then add the tonic water. You want the total volume to be 600ml, so top it up with tonic water or gin to taste. 3) Soak the gelatine leaves in a shallow dish of water for 5 minutes until soft. 4) Bring 50ml water to the boil (I boil half a cup or so and then pour the boiling water into a measuring cup). Squeeze out your gelatine sheets then whisk them into the boiling water. 5) Pour the gelatine and boiling water mix into your main jug with the gin and tonic and sugar syrup. 6) Pour about 120-150ml (whatever looks right) into a martini glass. Carefully place a mint leaf in each glass (I like to place them off to the side slightly, so you leave yourself room for a spoonful of sorbet). Place in the fridge to set. This will take anywhere from 4 to 8 hours. Lemon Sherbet Ingredients 200ml sugar 200ml water 100-150ml lemon juice Two tablespoons cream or mascarpone Method 1) Place a bowl in the freezer. 2)Bring the sugar and water to a boil, stirring until the sugar is dissolved. Remove from the heat and allow to cool. 3) Stir in the lemon juice, but do it a bit at a time and taste the results. I like it with a nice sour lemony kick, but you might like it a bit sweeter. 4) Stir in your cream or mascarpone. 5) Pour your mix into the pre-frozen bowl in your freezer and stir well. 6) Stir every 45 or 60 minutes for the next 4 hours or so. Serve the jelly topped with a small spoonful of sherbet.

Hi, Does anyone know where I could obtain some guanciale in Perth? I know I could cure my own, but I'm afraid that wouldn't be allowed in my house. Hanging pancetta or duck bresaola is one thing, hanging a pig's jowl is another.

That's definitely what I've found. All of my modern cookbooks use weight measures bar the North American books.

Yes, Ratio's occasional lapse into cup measurements is frustrating. Recipes here (Australia) will all use weight measurements*, even recipes that are aimed at beginner home cooks. It's not seen as a 'professional' or daunting thing at all. Perhaps, as mentioned, the metric system makes things easier. I certainly find the metric system easy, but perhaps that's because I've grown up with it. Knowing that 1 litre of water = 1 kg of water, and that 1 kg = 1000 grams is pretty straightforward. Likewise the temperature measurements: water boils at 100c, freezes at 0c. Easy. *the only exception is usually things like a tablespoon of fish sauce, or a teaspoon of vinegar.

A tempered, moderate approach! I like your style. If pectin was dangerous, wouldn't eating an apple be dangerous?

I've definitely found a significant loss in pork shoulder, I'd estimate in the 40% range (as per the post above). Other cuts like oxtail and lamb shank seem to lose less.

This is something that stunned me when I started to read American food books (I'd previously stuck to British and Australian books as I couldn't be bothered with mentally converting all the measurements while I read). I was genuinely stunned to discover that American cooks don't typically use scales. I've become a big fan of Michael Ruhlman, and he's a great advocate of scales... maybe with the popularity of his books we might start to see a bit of a change in the American kitchen!

Great to see an Australian chef getting some recognition. Thai Food is a true masterpiece. The dish that I've made that is often mentioned by friends is a gin and tonic jelly with a mint leaf suspended in it, served in a martini glass topped with lemon sorbet. It's kind of dated and unoriginal but people love it.

I've also seen the suggestion that you should freeze portions of the liquid you wish to use in your sous vide preparations (perhaps in ice blocks), so that they won't get sucked out as you seal the bag but they'll melt and become liquid when they're in the water bath.

This had me racking my brains... I know there have been worse dishes. There have been poorly conceived mismatches of flavour, train wrecks that screamed "POOR DECISION. There have been woefully cooked amateurish dishes. However, I think pasta salad is the least interesting and least imaginative though. Maybe they should get some kind of prize.

I very much enjoy the Restaurant Guys. Their podcast is available from http://www.restaurantguysradio.com/ Their podcast (and radio show) covers a wide range of food-related topics. I find almost all of their shows fascinating, and I'm on the other side of the world (Australia). Their show works better for me than some others I've tried like KCRW's Good Food or the Food Geek podcast.

Given the general Italian horror at the thought of matching seafood with cheese, I would think that seafood risotto would be safe. This is a guess though.

My apologies, I should have said "his recent visit to Victoria". I would add a piadina and an espresso at Carlton Espresso to the list of essentials.

Ed Charles at Tomatom (http://www.tomatom.com/2009/08/if-its-wednesday-its-cassoulet-night-at-libertine/) seconds the vote for Libertine

Many people are offended by strong personalities and favor Oprah/Art Linkletter-like (never thought I'd put those two in tandem!) blandness. ← Well I hated Linkletter and didn't particularly like Chiarello either. It is possible to avoid arrogance and excessive self-regard without being 'bland'. I loved the finale, it more than made up for the slightly boring early episodes, in my view. I love it when the chef contestants (in either TC or Masters) are free to cook a great meal with a minimum of constraints.