IndyRob

Under the mom & pop heading, I highly recommend "The Donut Shop" at about 55th and Keystone. I've only had the donuts (the best in the region, but get there early), but it also gets good reviews for general breakfast and lunch. Be prepared for a sort of Waffle House ambiance. Another mom & pop is Greek Tony's at 116th and Rangeline Rd. Best submarine sandwiches in Indy. Order the Italian. Hockey fans will approve of the ambiance. Under quirky, but often well reviewed, is the Three Sister's Cafe in Broad Ripple. But it also is also often poorly reviewed due to service (I'm guessing it's down to which sister you get). We tried to go on Mother's Day but apparently some of the sisters were also mothers and it was closed. Better restaurants: Broad Ripple Steak House. Voted best steak house in Indy. Been there - very good. Brugge Brasserie. I've not been there, but it's clearly a good (and well reviewed) brasserie.

We gutted and re-did our entire kitchen. The appliances were mostly top of the line but we skimped elsewhere. But all-in-all we got a good result, although the master plan hasn't played out yet. In the countertop department, we had to go with laminate counter tops. But, we have one wall where the range is. On the right of the range is a 24" cabinet which I topped with a butcher block reclaimed from an old table. Since to the right of that is a space where a door opens, I had a few inches extra, but not enough to go with a 30" cabinet. So the butcher block was oversized to provide as much working space as possible. There's about a 5" overhang (with a curve cut into it to lessen the possibility of catching the corner when going out the door. The overhang also allowed us to slide in a stainless steel garbage can with the foot operated lids (we have garbage curious dogs) underneath. So this allows me to simply wipe the onions skins and other prep refuse directly into the trash. On the other side we have a 4' run of plastic laminate, but soon that will become marble or granite. That's where the pastry and pasta is done and a marble surface would help there. For the other side where the sink and service areas are, I think the plastic laminate is just fine. But if we ever run out of other things to do, I could see upgrading to Corian. So I guess what I'm saying is that you can mix and match counter materials to your needs/budget. And also if you have a plan, you can settle in some areas for now with the knowledge that you have a future goal. Sinkwise, we opted for the basic two basin stainless steel sink with separate hose on the right. Absolutely no complaints with this. The left basin is reserved for the draining rack for quick wash items and pizza pans too big for the dishwasher. Offset drains do make sense to me though. The stress of the hose on the tap seems bogus to me. Plus, if you have small children, you need to be prepared for the possibility of being menaced by a super soaker. Would your DH leave you defenseless against such an onslaught? (insert discussion of flooring materials and liquids here)

I like that idea. But it almost requires frozen fat that could be pushed out a small tube. Whereas a sort of fine julienne of meat and fat could be bundled up and compressed.

I did a couple of frankensteak experiments a few years ago with poor (but sometimes amusing) results. I love ribeyes and filets, but noticed that chuckeye steaks had all the flavor I was wanting but the tenderness was not there. Why couldn't I have a steak with the flavor of a ribeye but the tenderness of a filet? So, my first attempt would use mechanical action to tenderize the steak and then I'd cook it as per the best filet. Right, chop up the chuckeye and put it into a food processor to break down the fibers and distribute the fat. Now, pack the meat paste into a ring and chill. Then season and treat as I would my filets - season and then BIG sear then finish in the oven. The outside looked great. But the inside was meat styrofoam. Lots of air. All the interior meat just shrunk. Later I tried the same basic approach but changed the heat - going to sous vide. A much better result, but far too burger-y. I still think it's possible, but I think the correct approach would be, well, what I'd term Micro Lardon. Painstakingly cutting small threads along the fiber and then laying those out with small threads of fat, then use transglutaminase as a glue and cinching the whole thing in a sort of corset and chilling.

One good thing I thought I invented (a quick google search proved me wrong) was a pesto cream sauce. Very simply a cup of cream in a pan with a large spoonful of pesto and reduce. That's the sauce. Into that I stir some cooked linguine and cooked shrimp pieces (seasoned and sauteed quickly in a basil and garlic infused olive oil). I like it just like that, but if I were doing this for an episode of Top Chef, I'd add some lemon juice so I wouldn't be dinged for not enough acidity. My wife doesn't like shrimp, so I've considered doing the same thing but offering a choice of shrimp or poached chicken. Since it's added at the end, it doesn't really matter. Although I use pasta, I think rice could be used to equal effect. The oysters might play a part, but I don't think the sausage would play well with the others in this scenario. But that's just my opinion. Edit: No, wait. Finely mince up those sausages and oysters and add them to the finished sauce in a judicious quantity. That could be stellar.

Sans skins, I think I'd be thinking about dishes that contain chicken meat without featuring a piece of chicken - because that's the strength of what you've got. I'd probably cook the meat (poach in wine? sous vide?) first and reserve it as an ingredient. My takes.... Creamy Chicken Hash - Saute chopped onions/shallots in butter, add a little flour, cook as per a roux. Add cooked diced potatoes (the main bulk of the dish) and milk/cream and cook down to thick gravy consistency, add chopped chicken and heat through. Season to taste. Chicken a la King - Very similar to above, but add mushrooms to the saute, omit potatoes and add slices of roasted red pepper to warm with the chicken. Serve in pastry shells, or in a well made in a pile of rice. Or mix with cooked linguine in a casserole and top with a gratin and bake for a tetrazzini type affair. Add chicken stock/broth/base/bouillon to either if desired.

McDonald's (and perhaps your theater chain) must be getting incredibly sweet deals on syrup. I found a five gallon bag-in-box of Diet Coke syrup in our local food service store for $60. The box makes 30 gallons, which (if I haven't screwed up my calculations again) would come to about $0.52 per two liter bottle. The CO2 for my SodaStream is about 20 cents a liter, so the total 2 liter cost is about $0.92. I can still often find 2 liter bottles of Diet Coke for 99 cents, so it's not a huge savings. While a proper CO2 tank would reduce the CO2 cost to next to nothing, the syrup cost still seems higher than what I had heard. If McD's pays half what I would pay, it's probably close to the rule-of-thumb 25% food cost (although with a near zero labor component). Well, then there's the ice factor....

Baked potato rather than the mash could be a good option. I just stab each one deeply several times with a fork and put them directly on the oven rack for an hour at 425. Longer at lower temps, and shorter for smaller spuds. This is flexible since you can put them in nooks and crannies around whatever other pans/dishes you have in the oven. They're as good as the ones I used to make while screwing around with rock salt beds. I also take a ziplock bag and put equal parts margarine (which I find as good as butter for this purpose) and sour cream, and add some salt (you want it pretty salty) and chives. Seal the bag and mash it up to mix, and store in the reefer for a couple of hours. When it's go time, take the margarine/sour cream mixture out, and cut off a corner of the bag (after having squeezed the mixture away from that side of the bag). Insert fluted pastry tip. Take the spuds out and cut a cross in the top of each. Squeeze to open the tops, and pipe the margarine/sour cream mixture into the opening. Serve quickly, or the nicely piped topping will melt.

I once calculated my pizza dough cost based on the best buys I could find on the 'net or elsewhere. 19 cents for one pie. This was helped a lot by finding yeast at pastrychef.com at around $5/pound (though I could become a yeast farmer by keeping a levain and treat yeast as virtually free). Also, I've always been amazed by eggs. Considering all the things you can do with them they have to be best value out there. My usual breakfast of two eggs and toast probably costs me less than 25 cents when I limit myself to sale items.

This is so cool I had to spend some time googling laser cutters. I'm imagining lasing perfect grill marks onto a sous vide'd steak. Or why stop with the classic cross hatch when you sear any image into it. I wonder if it could cut a sheet of pasta.

We're alike in that regard. Hopefully, with another whole channel, we'll find another 46 minutes per week worth watching.

As a child I liked to leave my Cap'n Crunch in the milk until it softened a bit. So it's a marinade. Then when the cereal gone, I had a chaser of infused milk. Oh great. Now I'm thinking of making ice cream from Cap'n Crunch infused cream.

You could try cold fermenting the uncut roll in the fridge. Then use dental floss to slice without squishing the proofed dough too much. Tip the newly cut slices onto aluminum foil strips so that they can be slid out of the way and don't need to be handled.

Nah, it's not Top Charcutier. In fact I thought the question a little disrespectful, not only to chefs of this caliber, but also to a major sponsor ("What, you're serving me sausage from Whole Foods?").

It's interesting that the two moving on are the one who wouldn't help and the one who was helped. The 'nice guys' finished last.

IMHO, it depends a lot about where you grew up and how open a mind you have. To compare a New York pizza with a Chicago one is an exercise in insanity. They are completely different things. I might well ascribe to the notion that a Chicago pizza is more casserole than pizza, but in the end it is a form of pizza and worthy of the name. Then there are Sicilian pizza's and the Sicilian styles done in Detroit. Then the midwest thin crust square-cut round pizzas. Or the California style 'upper crust' rebellion pizzas. Or the cracker-style crusts. Or Neapolitan pizzas. And I've only addressed the U.S. In Italy and France you have all sorts of other examples. Over the years I've become a reformed pizza bigot, and feel that I am better for it.

You can also dry this salt on a sheet pan in the oven and use it to impart some smoke flavor to just about anything (store it sealed). I googled 'liquid smoke salt' and found some more elaborate methods for making smoked salt.

I have no experience with this sort of volume, but can suggest a couple of do-ahead ideas that have enough overlap that you'll be sharing a bit of effort between two dishes. A lot of details are left out because a) I'm not sure exactly what your challenges are, and b) if you're taking on something this big, you'll know how to make the necessary adjustments. Some (maybe even many) days before, make a boatload of crepes and cool and refrigerate, or even freeze. One day before, (assuming you're not up to a huge batch of bread dough from scratch), bake store bought frozen bread dough (you probably need a bunch of disposable aluminum pans, unless you have a bakery), cool and let sit, exposed to air, uncut overnight (you want fresh, homemade, but slightly dehydrated). Also, one day before, slice/chop (slicing is more for garnishment) many strawberries. Macerate in balsamic and sugar. Morning of - Slice bread, prepare french toast batter. Mix a good amount of large curd cottage cheese and strawberry mixture until just pink (and to taste). Bring out crepes to warm/thaw. Begin cooking the french toast. Spoon cottage cheese mixture onto crepes. Roll up crepes (warm and hold here if possible, unless you can do to order), drizzle with macerated strawberry juices (preferably later than sooner) and garnish with macerated slices and a drizzle of juice. Use more of the macerated strawberries over the cooked french toast, with a dusting of powdered sugar. Obviously, the finishing steps are best saved for the last minute, but it will depend on what kind of staffing you have at your disposal and what you can fit into your overall plan. But for two dishes, this leaves you only one thing to cook on the day. From there it's just about warming and timing.

After looking at it a little more, I think it's a pretty good gimmick that won't give you authentic smoked ribs, but will give you good ribs. I speculate now, but bear with me. I have a Tony Roma's clone recipe that's very simple but produces falling of the bone goodness. Just take a sheet pan and lay down a layer of aluminum foil and then your favorite BBQ sauce over half the foil. Put your rib rack on top of that half of the aluminum foil and cover it with sauce at well. Then fold the other half of the aluminum foil over the top, but leave the ends of the bone uncovered. Then roast at about 225 for two hours. At the end, if you want, you can throw the rack under a broiler or on a grill. It's great, tender and, um, basically braised. This is not what traditional rib smoking is about. It is, however, a technique similar to what Alton Brown did on Good Eats. And it is good. If you do this and think "Gosh, a little bit of authentic smokeyness would have made it perfect", Then I think this thing is for you. I can see how it will save time. I've had what Bon Appetit claimed were the best ribs in America and this isn't the style. From what I've seen, traditionalists are not looking for 'falling of the bone', but rather, meat that comes cleanly off the bone when bitten. They're also looking for a 'bark' on the outside. I can't say I agree with this - seemed like nearly burnt shoe leather to me - instead I'd prefer a crispy layer of pork fat, but that's tradition I guess. But the inside had a wonderful delicate fibrosity that was quite different from any braised cousin. I've been able to produce the texture, but not flavor, sous vide, by not brining - which tends homogenize the texture into one like bologna. Originally that's what I thought I was going for until I had the real thing. I've got some more experimentation to do on this. But if you're looking for traditional smoked ribs, I don't think this thing will do it.

I just happened to see a commercial for this thing this morning. Could be good, or a complete sham. Seems plausible at least.

In the "Scrap Iron Chef" episode of Good Eats, Alton Brown uses a high school locker and a hot plate to create a smoker for bacon. I don't see why the same thing couldn't be accomplished with a length of cylindrical duct work from a hardware store as long as you can fit a bend to route the top out of a window. But keep an eye on it, and do buy a quality fire extinguisher.

When you go back, a critical thing to check would be which walls are load bearing, and which are just dividers. This will tell you what what sort of modifications will be easy and which will involve major construction. Wish I could help more, but I'm more of a "Get outta' my kitchen!" type .

It's actually not so crazy. One Christmas we went over to my (nigh on elderly) parent's house and discovered they had neglected to take the turkey out of the freezer. We had nowhere near the amount of time it would've taken to thaw and cook the bird (it was meant to be done when we got there). There being nothing else in the house, my wife and I headed out to find something to salvage the Christmas dinner. It being Christmas day, only gas stations and pharmacies were open. So I was facing my own quickfire challenge. Very similar to this one. This was before Top Chef. I really wish I had seen it first. I did view it as an interesting challenge, but it never occurred to me to think of it as a challenge on this level. We wound up finding a canned ham and some biscuit mix, and it was just okay. I wish I had the inspiration to, say, seek out some donuts for bread pudding, or do a spicy red Cheeto mac n' cheese.

I was confused by it. Perhaps (or perhaps not) like you, I expected extreme noodle spinning or hand made Greek Fillo dough. Instead it was about basic techniques. But what a cast of instructors. I don't think this show was for 'us'. I think it might've been for non-cooking, or ill-cooking foodies on parole from the Food Network. I imagine that Tony has a much wider audience than us. Especially on the Travel Channel. Samantha Brown's viewers might well routinely ruin their steaks or chickens. And, as Tony himself has said, if that raises the general quality of cooking in America, that might not be so evil. On the one hand, I find it hard to complain about seeing how Keller roasts a chicken. On the other hand I think (in non-restaurant time) I could blow away that Les Halle steak (given the same cut). But what annoyed me the most was that there was no credit card ad .

My current favorite is Boar's Head hot dogs - with the natural casing. Nathan's with the natural casing are also good but I can no longer find these locally. Soft white bun with Gulden's mustard (important point) between the top of the bun and the dog (not on top of the dog as it sits in the bun) But I also long for proper Detroit Coney Island dogs.