Alex Parker

I would try a Ghost chile soup! Just use one, and start with the heat and the raw flavour, then build it up with sweet, and sour, for a manageable bite. Make sure you can still TASTE the chile, not just feel it, and you may be on to something! alexP

Dougal - I had sweat the stuffing off before actually stuffing the chicken. The flavour profile for the stuffing developed within a saute pan. It was simply a matter of keeping it warm in the bath, and allowing the flavours to expand into the meat it was wrapped into. Alex

It worked! I did a bit of everything. Fine brunoised some Peppers, Mushrooms, Green Onion. Sweat it in oil. Pounded out my chicken, coated the inside with some really nice British Beer Grainy Mustard, added filling, plus some White Truffle Cheese I have, and Sous Vide it for about 2 hours. Then I pulled it out of the bags, heated a fry pan, and coated the chicken with a combo of the grainy mustard and some maple syrup, then a coating of pepper, and grape powder and seared them off. Nice thick slices, and the results were fantastic! Thanks everyone! alexP

Thanks everyone! Anna thanks tons! I have a truffle cheese which I am using, it may work out well. Its a beautiful cheese. Im getting choked up just thinking about it Ggweb - I was thinking the same thing, But if I do a fine enough Brunoise on the Pepper, Shallots and Mushrooms, I should be ok. I am going to bind them together with some bread crumbs and a bit of balsamic vinegar as well as oil, so It will be fairly pasty by the time Im ready to cram it all together. Cbread - Youve given me an idea. I may just saute the whole thing off quickly just to give it a bit of colour. It may help the look of the overall product. I will get back to everyone with some pics! I just broke down the chicken, so decided to make some stock with whats left, and find a use for the chicken legs at a later date. (maybe another farce...Chicken Supreme perhaps). Thanks so much ! Alex

Hey everyone! Im doing a chicken breast Sous Vide style, however Im stuffing it with cheese, mushroom, peppers and shallots. Is it best to stuff before the sous vide process and let it all cook the same way, or Should I just cook the stuffing off separately, stuff the chicken after its cooked, and give a quick saute to brown it up. The other option of course, is sous vide the chicken, make the stuffing, and actually stuff it at the end. I would like to avoid this though, as the flavours of the stuffing, wont be able to develop within the breast. What do you think would be the best way to do this? Thanks!! Alex

You know what Chris, I think I am going to try the Activa. I am also going to go hunting for Sodium Alginate. Thanks for the tips everyone, I will report back soon with results. alexP

Just curious if there is a gelling agent that can stand up to being grilled. Im planning a course and I need to find something that will do this. Any help would be super appreciated. Alex

An interesting point that hasnt been raised is this. During the Harvard Lecture series, Grant Achtaz mentioned about if you were given an amazing fresh out of the garden tomato, and then given a nasty old Hothouse tomato, but were given something to smell while eating it (in this case freshly cut grass). Could you still notice a massive difference in taste? Its something that Im fascinated with, as we eat more with our nose than our mouth, and yet theres a very small number of chefs doing anything gastronomically on that level. Just a thought. alexP

Today for me was sushi. Took me about 20 minutes to make, and less than 10 to eat them all with friends... 5 plates done like this.... ps the Japanese lettering on the right was done with mango, daikon and cucumber and roughly translates to Eat Peacefully. alexP

Blacktree in Burlington is supposed to be amazing! Alex

Hmm... That may be neat too Oliver. Thanks mate! Im going to give it a shot as well. Its reving up to be quite a jelly weekend! Alex

Thank you everyone! A lot to think about here! Technophile, Im way interested in those wine balls. Im going to make some up and see how they fare.

Im doing a really intense cheese dish and want to pair wines to the cheese using a thermo reversable gelatine. The idea is that the cheese sits on top of the gel, and when the guest puts a bit of the cheese, and the wine gel into their mouth, it reverts back to a liquid due to the heat of the guests mouth. I need to find 2 things. 1 - what gelatine will reverse back to a liquid with a not so hot temperature. 2) is anything lost in a wine by gelling it in regards to flavour, mouth feel, etc. Would be really excited to hear from anyone about this. Alex

I have braised at 350 before but for a maximum of 2 hours. It turned out fantastic (it was also osso bucco). Braising is obviously lid off cooking (put a lid on there and its no longer braising, its steaming), so I would either lower the temp to get a 5 hour duration, or keep your 350 and pull it after 2 hours. Give it 10 minutes to reconstitute the juices, and it should be delicious! Alex

Im currently at Liaison College here in Canada, and Im loving it. Small class sizes, qualified chefs who are not just talented but very very approachable. Im done in May, and the experience Ive learned here from costing, to menu planning, to of course actual cooking, is fantastic! However thats just 1 experience. What works for me may not work for you. I agree to the comment about maybe going for a tour of the school, and maybe sit in on a lecture, or watch a practical session and see if it jives with you. Plus make sure its a place you can see yourself having fun! Good luck! Alex

Im doing something with beets tonight. Not sure what. I will let you know in about 8 hours! Alex

Thanks tons! Im going to talk to Colborne Lane in the next couple of days, and maybe take a resume down. Would be an amazing chance to get into a kitchen doing what their doing. Alex

Im looking to get into fine dining after culinary school I have a couple years in some high end non pretentious places, and have a fascination with sous vide, and molecular gastronomy, but also am VERY interested in fresh local seasonal ingredients. Is there a chef or a place in Toronto, that I should check out, whos doing modernist food with local stuff? Alex

dcarch - Love the enoki mushroom layout! For me tonight I did Lime steamed pork medallions with an asparagus and basil compote, gelatinized olive oil and sauted pepper on a thyme and potato wafer. It was more of an experiment with the olive oil, and turned into a really nice course for a tasting menu Im developing for school. Alex

Scout thank you SO MUCH for putting this up! I know what Im going to be doing until 2am!!! Alex

Glocal is an interesting ingredient, in that its mainly used as salt in high end restaurants. Its done so because it has a fairly neutral taste, and it has really good solubility with other ingredients. Its a powder and I have seen it used in everything from ice cream to syrups. It can act as a stabilizer for your sodium alginate if Im not mistaken. Just get some and mess with it ! If all you want to do is sphereification, why not just get some gelatin or agar agar, and add that to whatever you want to do. Get a syringe, and get some water boiling. All you do is drip the eye dropper into the water, and the boiling will instantly convert whats coming out of the syringe into a sphere. The size of your syringe would be the only way however, to affect the size of the spheres. Im trying to figure out a way to create spheres the size of quarters but so far havent had much luck. Alex

Do a Japonica rice pilaf with yellow bell pepper! Boil the pepper in water for about 3 minutes, then shock it in cold water to bring out the colour. Then just do a simple julienne and stir it into the rice with maybe some onion, garlic, and some herbs. Could be really nice. (try it first as I just made this up, and it may need a whole lot of tweaking!) The nice thing about this rice, is that its very glutinous, and as such loves being ring molded or shaped for plating! On white plates, it would really make an impact! Alex

Why not try something really fun, and coat the salt in some sort of glaze, then try and cook it? Just an idea, but it may be really neat if you can figure it out! I may give it a whirl this afternoon. Alex

I have a couple! The first is completely simple but turned out really nice. A maple glazed salmon with a garden salad served with a maple and chipotle vinaigrette. It plated nice as well. The second one is a bit weirder, and I made it up in about 10 minutes for an excercise at school. When It was done, I came home and made it and it turned out pretty wild. Its a Pine Braised Turkey Breast with Root Vegetable Puree and a White Truffle Veloute. It was delicious. Next time I make it, I will get pictures. Alex.

Im currently at Liaison College here in Canada. We do a cook basic program thats 6 weeks of Theory and 10 weeks of Practical. After that we do an advanced program thats the same length. Im just about to graduate basic, and move into advanced. I really like how the school is laid out. It focuses on the practical. Our theory mark is only 30% of our overall. Were taught things that help us in the realworld. Working clean, Being fast, being precise. We learn about Mise en place. Prepping for working on a line (aka doing soups a day before or day of and reheat to serve). I did a lot of research before plunking down 15k for school, and I think I made a great decision to go with Liaison. Ive already got a ton of experience (nearly 6 years), working in fine dining, so I find that experience helps a lot, and I would like to go work with Chef Keller, or Chef Blumenthal at some point. Alex