SniderJW1263

The first link could possibly be a French meringue... the second picture is of an improperly made meringue. When making meringue for tarts I use equal parts egg whites and sugar and lightly whisk them together before whipping. It takes slightly longer to whip but you will get a very stable meringue this way and it has enough sugar to properly caramelize. On the other hand, you could just use an Italian meringue and you will get great results, just takes more time... The swirls, as mentioned by another poster, would be created using a spatula. It's definitely all in the wrist and just takes practice. I would think, get your meringue the way you want and the decoration is the easy part

I would think it's made with black flour... essentially burned flour. I've done this with puff dough and achieved really nice results. You don't have to add a lot of it to get a really nice dark color, and interesting flavor.

First time poster... I agree with xxchef, but here are my additions. In a large-scale production, everything must be weighed and scaled accurately to achieve consistency. When I make mousse in the shop we make it for 750+ individual pieces, so things need to be scaled precisely. When the recipe calls for 200g of gelatin, that's what it gets, but I wouldn't go crazy if I put in 208g. When working in small-scale, things are much different. I would weigh things to the T, and be cautious through the steps. Very few pastry chefs I've worked with would go through the trouble of weighing out ingredients for a fruit sauce as sugar contents vary, but the formula is in the ballpark. Bread is another topic, especially if using a starter, as the water content can vary... but that's when the experience comes in to play.