JBailey

Thank you for such a complete sharing! From your photos, the presentations all look spectacular. Also, I am happy that you at least caught Johnny with a camera - how many other people in the restaurant were documnenting dinner? Who made the oven suite in your kitchen photo? Along the way ask Nathanm what equipment they have in each restaurant which he doesn't!

If I recall, Sous Vide Supreme had information or a discussion about doing this. I think they had a Richard Blais recipe that used a SVS as a water bath. Vaguely, I think they (or someone) suggested an elevated platform so water covers the minimum depth and placing ramekins on the shelf. Maybe it was putting other empty ramekins on the bottom and placing the perforated bottom plate on top of them.

Thank you for the posts of your first adventures. The European markets have so much color and variety. Your photos remind me of the Central Market Hall in Budapest. I can't imagine having access to all that on a daily basis! Were you able to avoid buying anything for snacking? I couldn't if I were there. Pay one of the staff at the hotel to knock loudly on your room door when you need to meet the others so if you nap you don't miss the next set of journeys!

Show Johnny the P&L so he understands why you are not in Spain every year! PS Is part of the dinner going to include merger discussions of eGullet into Intellectual Ventures?

Sounds like your Delta seat selection takes care of that issue!

FG If there had only been more time to plan. You could have sold sponsorships like they do at sporting events... The elBulli trip is a gift from the Nathanm generous invitation email and the following 'Camera Battery Donor' 'Officisl Cab Sponsor' 'Skycap Contributor' 'Last Minute Flight Underwriter' 'Hotel Benefactor' 'Walking Around Money Philanthropist' - I guess your mother already is this official sponsor!

What talent you certainly have for creating such great looking tulips! Thank you for sharing this.

FG With all the stuff at sirports today, especially for overseas flights, I might suggest a bit more time at the airport before the flight...just in case there are upstream delays. Better to sit in an uncomfortable chair than looking at your watch as the long line in front of you slowly snakes through some checkpoint. See you have the rest of us nervous! Be safe and get some rest on the flight! PS: For this, I would have sent you all those loose euro coins sitting in a dish at the back of my dresser...

Whelmed over and over and over. Mine came to my office yesterday and I wanted to wait until home for the full opening experience and an experience it was. First, it was so perfectly packaged-I am not certain I have seen anything that well protected. Second, after opening there was a new fragrance wafting in my kitchen from the ink and paper. Finally, the moment came to begin opening and reading. I can now attest and affirm there is no particular starting spot because wherever one begins there are so many pushes and pulls to other volumes and other topics. Thank you Nathan for such a wonderful set of books. Also, thank you to The Cooking Lab team for helping to create Modernist Cuisine. The wait and anticipation has been worth each moment.

FG You are fortunate and blessed on many levels. Nathanm is a most generous person to have included you and the others on this field trip-imagine the stories that will be spawned and retold over the years from this one event. Your family is equally gracious in encouraging you to drop all else and book plans at such a late date. Finally, your character is exemplified by the original thought of not leaving your planned move date. Please have the time of a lifetime for all of us. Travel safely.

I am another happy camper! Mine is sitting next to my desk at work via the elves of FedEx (glad their planes didn't suffer a Southwest failure!). Now all I need to figure out is how to carry a bulky 46.3 pound box out of the office, down the elevator, through the lobby, across the street, into the parking garage and up the ramps without collapsing. How have most recipients begun to leaf through the volumes? Did you start book 1, page 1 or flip through all of them randomly or begin with the Kitchen Manual or leaf the index for topics?

My personal favorite is D'Chez Eux in the 7th at 2 avenue Lowndal near Les Invalides and a short walk to the Eiffel Tower. It is country French. Some believe it to be too full of tourists, but I find the hospitality, food and atmosphere drawing me back each time I visit. Call me a softy for tradition and traditional food.

My last hoard was soda bread from a local bakery around St. Patrick's Day. Their loaves were delicious. When the soda bread was stacked high I bought a single loaf and as the actual day approached I bought several more and a couple days after I bought out the balance of four. Yes I confess to eating them - well I did give one away! I find myself doing this with other items when the season starts to end. Peaches in the summer or corn from the farmstand when I know there are only a few more pickings from the field or ripe tomatoes...OK, I guess I hoard anything when scarcity faces me!

I imagine most of the better restaurants know how to expertly host guests dining alone. Further, I would guess that is would not be the venue that would make a person dining alone uncomfortable, but rather the behavior of the other guests sitting on either side of the solo diner. My own favorites include Delmonico's and B&B in the Venetian, certainly Bouchon in one of the towers of the Venetian, Rao's at Caesar's, eating 'outside' at the Palm in the Forum Shops, the Bellagio has a whole handful of wonderful choices and CraftSteak at MGM. There are so many name places to consider.

There was an interview with Achatz and Kokonas on the Jet City Gastrophysics site. There were several great aspects to the interview. Perhaps most interesting was when the queston was raised about Modernist Cuisine and Nick Kokonas answered

Over the years, I have enjoyed watching Ina Garten's show. If I recall, the original (and maybe still) the producers were the people who had done 'Two Fat Ladies' for the BBC. Of all the shows on her network, Ina's happens to be one of the few I will sit down and focus on. When they first came out, I did not add her cookbooks to my collection. However, over the last couple years I have found her books helpful and with nice recipes that actually work.

Another thought is to visit various commercial kitchen equipment stores to learn if they have any gently used stoves. I have seen many that don't look like they were abused and ancient. Maybe an interim step like this would be a decent compromise.

I have both the DLX Electrolux Assistent and the Hobart N50. Both are terrific machines, but the Hobart (which is a workhorse) is climbing out of reasonable price range. By all means consider a DLX. They are designed for mixing and kneeding. If you are doing breads or cookies, there is none better. The DLX did not hesitate on a large batch of springerle cookie dough a couple years ago. I do not necessarily believe they are aimed at whisking, but you can always get a hand-held mixer for those tasks.

From what I understand, your regular grounded plug is a Nema 5-15. I think the Nema 5-20 is a step up on grounding and can draw 20 amps. Look at this Nema 5 explanation. I think you can plug a regular plug and a Nema 5-20 in the same socket, but what I think they want you to do is have a dedicated 20 amp service from your breaker box to the outlet. As Mike said, have an electrician look over your service and see if it is possible at your home.

On another thread, I mentioned an Electrolux Mini Combi Oven. This is a counter top machine, but does require plugging into a NEMA 5-20 outlet. This is one step down from some of the machines such as a CVAP or a Rational. As I noted, this is an expensive bit of equipment, but it does seem to do many of the things discussed here. It is not connected to a water line, but instead has a built-in tank.

Thank you Chris and Jmolinari...thrown away. That was my instinct, but I wanted to ask.

I need help and advice to avert a sous vide disaster. Last night, I pulled out some pork ribs which had come in a cryovac bulk package. The 'buy' date was about ten days to two weeks ago. When I opened the package there was a distinct 'briney' smell to the meat (it did come advertised as coming in a saline brine solution). That may be clue one that the meat may not be right. I don't know what the meat packers and resellers believe are relatively safe windows to use product subsequent to the 'buy' date. Next, I rinsed all the meat, cut the slabs into smaller sizes from the larger ribs and seasoned them. I vacuumed packed them in bags using a chamber vacuum with a high vacuum setting. the ribs were still cool and well above room temp when vacuumed. Then I put them in a sous vide bath at 140 F at about 11 PM last night. A few minutes ago when I awoke, I looked at my sous vide bath. All the bags had bloated and there was lots of air in each of them. I don't want to eat or serve something that is bad. Please share your thoughts.

There are some of us who tend toward commercial in our home appliances. From experirence, it is not merely a matter of being wired for 220. A Rational combi oven requires 3 phase electric service - read industrial or business scale and that is both difficult to install and requires the cooperation of the local electric company. Three-wire, 120/240 volt single phase power, as I have read and according to my electrician, is used in the United States and Canada. This type of wiring is sometimes incorrectly called "two-phase". Further, many appliances one finds in a restaurant store require NEMA-5 outlets. One of the plug blades is horizontal and the other is vertical, plus the ground. As a consumer, I cannot explain the difference between these and regular 120 type plugs, but it has something to do with the number of amps used by the device. I understand that dedicated 120 sockets installed as NEMA are the safest when running this type of plug.

Have your ever followed Carol Blymire's Alinea at Home blog? Recently, she was working with goose. Also and as she recommends, follow Hank Shaw's Hunter Angler Gardner Cook site for other great recommendations. He has a book coming out that is on my 'must have' list.

Many, many years ago there was a pioneering cooking show on local television in the Chicago market. This was back in the day when stations were only 'on' for part of the day and with very limited schedules. Antoinette and Francois Pope had a program called 'Creative Cookery'. According to one source it ran from 1951 through about 1964. It aired daily in Chicago and was carried nationally on Saturdays on NBC. They also wrote a number of cookbooks. In Chicago, they gained fame, as well, for a cooking school on Michigan Avenue which they ran for some 40 to 50 years. That was a remarkable show in a remarkable television era. I have dim memories of the show (Francois in chefs whites), which may have been my beginning interest in cooking. On the Epicurious site is an interesting article an in the comments section one of the Pope's sons Robert added very nice reminisces about their cookbooks, the school and the family.