teonzo

Brace yourself for incoming doom. Teo

Finding those machines is not easy of course, but neither really difficult, at least here. There were many artisans that made those candies in the past, most of them stopped for lots of reasons, so their machines are available if someone searches (and pays, more than all). The big problem is learning that craft. You can count on less than 2 hands the artisans in Italy who have the knowledge, they are not willing to teach to anyone, neither to their own employes, it's an art destined for dying here, it's really sad. Learning to do those things is much more difficult than what it seems. It takes years of experience and tons of sensibility to master those candies. You can learn the basics in few time, but the step from making an average product to making a top class product is HUGE. Teo

"Ingredients you can see and pronounce"... new kind of selling point! Teo

Damn, making hard candies with this kind of machine is the thing I want to learn the most! Teo

After reading this, my heart would say "go buy them immediately", since it's one of the most solid reasons for buying something. My brain would say to buy one to get an idea, then decide for the rest. Just ask yourself which pots / pans you use more frequently and if a copper one would give better results. Usually you see big differences for risotto or for sauces. It depends a lot on what you cook frequently, if you cook risotto once a week then a proper copper pan would be a very nice thing. Remember it takes elbow grease to clean them. Teo

It's hard to give a generic answer, since everything depends on the single recipe and how much wheat flour you sub with almond flour. When a recipe calls for wheat flour then it means it's needed for its properties of building structure: gluten formation and starch gelatinization. Almond flour lacks both, so you can't sub all the wheat flour with almond flour, I would say that a good rule of thumb is never subbing more than 30% (70% wheat flour, 30% almond flour). That depends on the single recipe. When gluten is fundamental, then better not subbing wheat flour. When gluten helps for forming a compact dough (shortcrust, pie crusts and so on) and nothing more, then you can sub a good amount of wheat flour with almond flour, almond flour will act as a "structure breaker" (don't know the English term), this means that crusts will crumble more easily (a nice thing). When gluten is unnecessary but you need starch gelatinization to hold the final structure (muffins, cakes, genoise and so on) then you can sub part of wheat flour with almond flour (not more than 30% or structure will collapse), result will be more tender and moist because there's less gelatinized starch (but you still need it). I would suggest pairing carobs with medjool dates, it's a favourite of mine. Teo

So envious for the City Museum! Guardians would need a machine gun and a flamethrower to force me out of there when closing time comes. Teo

I don't know that specific producer, so I can't comment on the quality of their products. But beware that copper pans have lots of contraindications: - they are really expensive, so you need to be extra-sure they are really what you need; - they need tons of maintenance, copper side needs to be polished frequently otherwise you loose the shine after a couple of uses, tin side needs to be refurbished periodically; - they are HEAVY, this can be a problem for your arms in the long term and/or if you use them frequently; - you need skills to put their qualities to good use, if you don't feel confident you are able to make the most of them then you won't notice much differences with the results you get with stainless steel cookware. Teo

Aaaaaaahhhh, now I understand, thanks, I thought they were used the same way. I would have never thought about Moses after reading Bulrush, the Italian version refers to a generic kind of plant, not a specific one (I never read the Bible in English). Thanks for clarifying, I would have lost all these details which give more sense to your restaurant. For info and curiosity, the Italian word used in the Bible is "canneto", Canneto is the small village home to Al Pescatore, one of the 3 michelin star restaurants in Italy. Seems like a good sign! Teo

I hope you'll report back saying you got the ice-cream you were looking for! Teo

Little verbal curiosity for @gfron1: is there a reason why you used "cattail" instead of "bulrush" in the menu on the wall? Teo

You see monsters everywhere, you need more beer to overcome this phase. Teo

Can't wait to read this thread! Thanks for sharing your adventures! Teo

https://www.thesaltymag.com/ This is a new magazine on fine dining. They put their first 2 numbers on Issuu, so it's possible to read them there for free: https://issuu.com/saltymagazine/docs/salty_vol_01_final https://issuu.com/saltymagazine/docs/salty_vol_02 Seems to be good stuff. Teo

Valrhona's FAQs say their chocolates are GMO free. Barry Callebaut FAQs give a shady answer, I read it as "not everything we use is GMO free". Here is one of the European laws they are referring to, it takes a speleologist to navigate in all those subsections. Best thing you can do is explaining this problem to your purveyors, if they care about your money then they are required to give you these infos. Teo

I hope it's not a case where our choice in Italy is wider than the one in the USA (usually we are way behind with kitchen appliances). I'm linking some stuff on Amazon Italy. One example is FoodSaver 10X. You can use it with many different boxes, for example this box (square section) 1.8 liter capacity, or this set of 3 boxes (round section) 0.7 liter, 1.4 liter and 2.36 liter. I suppose the round boxes would be better for the purpose of this thread, it's easier to re-emulsify a ganache with a stick blender in a box with round section than in one with square / rectangular section. There are various producers that make this kind of stuff, almost all the ones that make the machines that suck air out of bags. There is also the cheap version with a manual pump, but I don't see much sense in that. Thanks for pointing out this detail. I was talking about using these boxes to store ganache in the refrigerator before using it to fill bonbons. Those boxes can be used to store finished bonbons too, but better following your suggestion before having bad surprises. For that purpose I would say square / rectangular boxes are better. Teo

You are welcome! Some considerations after all this. You listened to your employee and questioned your own working method, you should be proud about this, it's the only way to get better time after time. Most people would have reacted saying "shut up, I'm the boss here, my shop my rules". Better having an assertive employee that questions you aggressively, than a passive one that just repeats things without thinking. If I were in your shoes, I would say to this employee something along these lines: "thank you very much for pointing out this matter, I hope you appreciate I'm listening to your suggestions, but I also hope next time you will use a bit of diplomacy". She needs to understand that she is an active part of the operations and is going to be listened, but she also needs to understand that you are the boss in charge there. Teo

I've always been told that tomato leaves and vines are toxic... time to do a serious fact checking. Teo

That's something to pay attention on. Condensation is almost pure water, so its Aw is nearly 1. Aw1 + temperature in the danger zone + plenty of food (the ganache in contact with the condensation) = microbes have a huge party and multiply as mad. That condensation is going to be mixed with the ganache, so you are adding a sensible amount of undesired microbial activity. I would suggest to look into the vacuum boxes. I don't know how they are called in English, I mean plastic boxes with an airtight lid, there's a valve in the lid, you attach a vacuum pump and suck out the air, so you form a sort of vacuum inside the box (not 100% vacuum of course, depends on the vacuum pump). This way you have less troubles about storing and handling. Boxes store better in the fridge. You just need to pick the box from the fridge and let it thaw at room temperature, without worrying too much if it stays at room temperature a couple hours more. It's much easier to pick every single gram of ganache from a box than from a bag. Plus you can use that box when you re-emulsify the ganache, no need to transfer the ganache in another bowl. Those boxes are re-usable and not that expensive, so in the long term you save money (vacuum bags are costly and you don't re-use them). Those boxes come in various sizes, so look carefully for the ones that suit your quantities better. Same for the vacuum pumps, read the specifics of many of them before buying one, even if they are pretty cheap nowadays. Usually pumps and boxes have native attachments, so you need to use the ones made from the same producer, otherwise you risk they won't match. Teo

I wish Marx chose white for his "Sweet Marx" book, I really can't stand all those dark photos. Thanks for the review and the photos, as usual! Teo

I never tried so I can't be sure, but I suppose a vertical roll of puff pustry would collapse under its own weight during the first stage in the oven, ending up with a ruined product (at least about its shape). Besides that, puff pastry cooks properly when it's thin, when you cook a big piece you end up with a lot of uncooked dough in the inside. If you are lazy you can buy frozen uncooked croissants (all butter if possible), let them defrost in the fridge, roll them lightly to form a ball (the less you touch them the better), then put the balls in the muffin tins and proceed as normal. Teo

Probably she is thinking about condensation forming on the ganache surface during re-warming. If you store your ganache correctly (in a vacuum bag, or in a box with a piece of cellophan / shrink wrap / whatever_it's_called_in_English on direct contact with its surface) then there are no risks of condensation forming. If you store your ganache in open contact with air then she is right that you are risking to raise microbial activity: the dew caused by condensation is the perfect environment for microbes, especially in the danger zone (the temperature at which ganache sits while getting re-warmed). If you store it correctly, just point her out that microbial activity is much slower at 4°C (fridge temperature) than at 16°C (bonbon storage temperature). 2 days at 4°C correspond to few hours at 16°C, so it's really a tiny tiny fraction of the planned shelf life of your bonbons (with those Aw readings). Teo

From what I know cruffins are made with croissant dough, cut in rectangular shape (opposed to the traditional triangular shape for croissants), then rolled (like you do for pain au chocolat, but without the chocolate sticks of course), put in a muffin tin / mould (in vertical position), proofed in that, then cooked in the oven. You fill them after they cooled down to almost room temperature. So you just need a good croissant recipe. Croissant dough should contain really few sugar and no flavorings, just flour + butter + water + yeast + sugar + salt. There are tons of croissant recipes, the good ones have really little differences. To play it safe it's always a good idea to start with a Pierre Hermé recipe, there are plenty of blogs that posted croissant recipes by Hermé. Most probably there are many recipes in the eG archive too. Avoid the Chef Steps recipe, they add lots of sugar in the butter block, that's not real croissant dough, that's for kouign amann. Croissant dough is neutral like puff pastry, you can use it for both sweet and savory items. Teo

That's what happens here in Europe, biggest stand mixer I saw in a restaurant kitchen (and heard of) is a Kitchen Aid Heavy Duty. Some restaurants have a small spiral mixer for bread (the ones that make big batches and freeze them), that's all. Most probably it's a matter of restaurant size: here in Europe michelin star restaurants (the ones that rely heavily on sous vide) range mostly from 20 to 40 covers, few of them reach around 60, you can count on one hand the ones over 60 covers. As far as I understand there in the USA most restaurants range from 100 to 200 covers, so that's something really different. Seems like we both took for granted our different situations. Teo

Agreed 200%, that's one of the reasons why I rarely follow them nowadays. As @rotuts pointed out, there aren't many reasons for a restaurant to buy this new pro version. For the same price you buy multiple units of the home version. If you need extra power then you just have to use 2 home units in the same water vessel. Same if you need extra caution to avoid troubles if a unit breaks overnight. The 10k hours warranty is nice, but it does not imply your pro unit will absolutely never break before that time: defective units are behind the corner, human errors too. If you have only 1 pro unit and it breaks, then you are screwed for the day (or more), if you have multiple home units then you face some delay at worst. With multiple home units you can make different tasks at the same time, with 1 pro unit only 1. Can't see good reasons for a restaurant to get the pro version. Teo