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If he's smart enough he should put it. It's clear to everyone that he invented them, plus he has the copyright for the name. Giving away the recipe won't do any harm, since there already are a lot of clones. Clones are a great way to promote the original and spread the word about it without spending money in advertising. Just look at the macarons and Pierre Hermé: he gave away all his recipes, now you find macarons and Ispahan clones everywhere. This did not create Hermé any harm, he's more famous than ever and still expanding. Teo

Phaidon will release a set of seven volumes with the last years of elBulli: http://www.phaidon.com/elbulli-2005-2011/ My wallet is already crying. Teo

Besides spices, you have a whole universe of pairings to try with that basic recipe. Some suggestions: Darjeeling tea + dried apricots (you can substitute some of the wheat flour with almond flour) chamomile infusion + dried apricots + pepper lavender infusion (better making a cold infusion, water + lavender in fridge for 12 hours) + dried apricots + rosemary pomegranate juice + chopped walnuts + ginger licorice + dried figs licorice + candied pineapple hibiscus flowers infusion + dried cranberries Assam tea + candied orange peel + cinnamon Keemun tea + sweetcorn grains dates + carob flour (substitute 30% of the wheat flour with carob flour, the dark one made from the pods, not the white one made from the seeds) coffee + white sesame blackberry juice + star anise rose petals infusion + ground pistachio pineapple juice + marron glacé + ginger whitethorn infusion + candied nectarines ginseng infusion + goji berries (or dried jujube) mint infusion + candied lemon peel + dried coconut rum (with water, of course) + candied pineapple + nutmeg orange juice + cocoa powder (substitute 10% of wheat flour with cocoa powder) + cinnamon (or nutmeg or mace) Sencha tea + sweet potatoes (roasted and cut in small dices) licorice + dried longan carrot juice + japaleno Teo

If you are aiming for the strawberry taste and don't care about putting aside the cream, then you can use some modernist techniques like foams (made with an ISI syphon) or a "strawberry chantilly" (strawberry juice + cocoa butter). Teo

Thanks! Which one would you suggest to a total newbie? Teo

You can substitute ricotta with a lot more of other "fillings", like pumpkin puree, broccoli puree and so on. Teo

Can you name some titles, please? Teo

I'm looking for some books on vegan pastry but haven't found anything worth. I'm a pastry chef, so I'm interested in professional books with professional recipes. I'm trying to expand my repertoire to please vegan customers and I've created some dishes on my own, but I'm curious to see what other professionals did out there. I'm looking for personal stuff: pastries or dishes created within the vegan limits but without trying to recreate non vegan classics (I can't stand stuff like vegg and similars). Can you suggest some good books please? Thanks. Teo

I bought this book just out of curiosity, without expecting that much. I've been totally surprised! This is a graphic novel that tells about the author's experience in the kitchen (and not only there) of L'Arpege. We can see Alain Passard (the vegetable master) creating new dishes, discussing his ideas, describing his way of working and how some pairings work. There are a dozen recipes too, the text is the transcription of Passard's words, plus there are Blain's drawings of the kitchen staff realizing each recipe. The best thing about this book is that Blain has been able to capture the "creative flame", that particular moment when a chef gets the inspiration and starts to realize it from his brain to the real dish. There are thousands of cookbook with recipes, but really few are able to capture that peculiar flame. Blain really succeeded in this, probably since he's an artist depicting another artist (and not a ghost writer trying to understand a chef). If you enjoy being part of these great moments (when a high class chef creates something new) then this book is really inspirational. $12.16 on Amazon: In the Kitchen with Alain Passard Teo

Sven Elverfeld is the chef of Aqua, a 3 michelin star restaurant in Wolfsburg, Germany. This is the English edition of his latest book, it's been printed in only 1000 copies and sold only by the restaurant, so if you are interested in it I suppose it's better to hurry before it goes out of print. Visually the book is simply stunning: great photos, great graphics, great printing and binding quality... every detail is on top level. It's pretty huge (30x26x5 cm, 532 pages) and full of dishes. At first sight it's one of the best cookbooks ever. There are a lot of snacks (both savoury and sweet), for which you get the photo and the description, no recipes. The recipes are written "only" for the a-la-carte dishes, they are really detailed and precise. The cooking style is modernist, strongly rooted in the style of the Spanish greats. Here comes the defect of the book: there are a lot of dishes that took huge inspiration from Spanish modern classics. While reading the book you will keep saying "this come from elBulli" (for example there is the reconstructed dandelion or the cheese sphere), "this come from Mugaritz" and so on... I can't complain with the material quality of the book (top notch), I can't complain with the included dishes (they seem all great, after all it's a 3*), I can complain about the personality (a bit many borrowed ideas). I spent 131 euro to get it (110 euro for the book, 21 euro for shipping to Italy). If you can read German then the original edition is way cheaper (75 euro instead of 110). The customer service of Aqua Restaurant has been exceptional: their answers were kind and detailed; the package was more than perfect, with a personalized hand written letter. Top class service. If only the dishes were highly personal then this would be in the top 5 cookbooks ever. Teo

I suppose it's time to start looking for what the next year will give us. February will see the release of a new book by William Curley: Patisserie: A Masterclass in Classic and Contemporary Patisserie This seems to be based on modern pastries where chocolate is not the main ingredient. I really loved "Couture Chocolate", so I hope this new one will be on par. October will see the release of a book by Dominique Ansel: Dominique Ansel: The Secret Recipes I'm curious to see what he will include. I've also heard rumours that Massimo Bottura is preparing a book for Phaidon, but it's just an unconfirmed rumour. Teo

A friend of mine is planning to visit Inverness. He asked me for some food related suggestions but I'm totally ignorant on this city. Can you suggest me some good places (restaurants, pubs, bakeries, pastry shops, breweries, distilleries, whatever) worth a visit, please? Thanks in advance! Teo

As far a I know Martellato and Pavoni produce those stencils (is this the correct name?), both of them have a US division: http://www.martellatousa.com/ http://www.pavonitalia.com/gestore.php?var0=eng&var1=news&var2=News&var3=Pavoni_born_in_the_USA! I couldn't find the direct link for the product, sorry. You can contact them and ask for info. It's the same stencil used to cut the plaquettes to decorate the sides of the entremets (like the ones on the famous Setteveli). It has a cut every 15 mm as far as I remember. Teo

I don't know how they are called in English language, but here in Italy you can buy a plastic sheet (the same size of an acetate sheet) with parallel cuts. In this way you spread your chocolate on the acetate sheet, when it's starting to set you lay the plastic sheet over the chocolate, then run a knife in each cut, turn the plastic sheet 90°, repeat the cuts and done. It's pretty quick. Teo

Received it yesterday. I must say I'm disappointed after a first quick look. As you said the print quality is low: the cardboard cover is too cheap, the pages look like they are going to fall apart in a couple of years if you don't manage this book with silk gloves. I didn't like the photos neither the graphics. Now I need to read it, hoping the contents will be on par with the restaurant. If it can be of any help this book is sold also by: Grupo Vilbo (where I bought mine) Montagud Don't know about their shipping costs outside Europe, but hopefully they will be lower than Librooks. Teo

Another couple not available on Amazon: El Celler de Can Roca This was released some weeks ago, hopefully I will receive it the next week Fluidità This is the new book by the Alajmo family (owners of Le Calandre), after their first "In.Gredienti". The particularity is that it has been put on pre-order today. The price will increase each day, starting from 90 euro to the final 150 euro at the release day. If you are interested to buy it then it's better to pre-order it as soon as possible. Teo

More books to be released in 2013: RESTAURANTS Daniel Patterson - "Coi: Stories and Recipes" Anne-Sophie Pic - "Le Livre Blanc" this is the English edition, the French one was released last year Alex Atala - "D.O.M. Rediscovering Brazilian Ingredients" Michael Anthony - "The Gramercy Tavern Cookbook" Heston Blumenthal - "Historic Heston" Carlo Mirarchi - "Roberta's Cookbook" Daniel Boulud - "Daniel: My French Cuisine" David Kinch - "Manresa: An Edible Reflection" Ivan Orkin - "Ivan Ramen" Suzanne Goin - "The A.O.C. Cookbook" Björn Frantzén, Daniel Lindeberg - "World-Class Swedish Cooking" Paul Liebrandt - "To the Bone" Phil Howard - "The Square: Sweet" PASTRY AND BAKING Jacquy Pfeiffer - "The Art of French Pastry" I'm curious to know what will be the differences with "The Fundamental Techniques of Classic Pastry Arts" Hubert Delorme - "Fine French Desserts" Wayne Gisslen - "The Professional Bakeshop" don't know if this will be totally new material Chad Robertson - "Tartine Book No. 3" Carole Bloom - "Caramel" Francois Payard - "Payard Desserts" Stéphane Leroux - "The Praliné" I'm curious to know what will be included here Emily Elsen - "The Four & Twenty Blackbirds Pie Book" Karen Mitchell - "The Model Bakery Cookbook" Joanne Chang - "Flour, Too" never heard about these shops Teo

Please send it to me too, thanks. Teo

It's in meters, I'm sure. Just look at the image above and try to count the coils: you need a really long strip to get the correct spiral. The sfogliatelle dough is really different from the strudel one, it's much tougher. The strudel dough can be stretched with bare hands (tradition says to use just the knuckles under the cloth). To stretch the sfogliatelle dough you need a pasta machine or a rolling pin and a lot of strength and patience. Just for comparison, the sfogliatelle dough is tougher than standard pasta dough. There are some shortcuts that suggest to use phyllo dough, you get a decent result but quite far from the original. The great taste of the original sfogliatelle is due to the great flakiness of the dough, with all the coils that are separated from each other but still attached together with almost no air in between. To reach this you need to use the less water possible in the dough, so you need a really tough dough. And you need to roll it extremely thin. If you try to replicate the original then the problem is to roll the dough extremely thin, if you don't get that thinness then the result is more like a rock than a paper, you totally loose the pleasant qualities of this pastry. The problem with this pastry is that there aren't middles: you get the correct (great) result or you get a disaster, there are no in-betweens. And the only way to achieve the qualities that make this a great pastry is to follow the original recipe. I'm happy you liked sfogliatelle (I love them too) and being Italian it's nice to see you want to make them on your own. But, at the risk of sounding harsh, I have to warn you that it's one of the most difficult things to do in traditional Italian pastry, it's almost impossible to get it right before at least a dozen tries. If you want to make sfogliatelle and get an appreciable result then prepare yourself to a sort of odissey. Most artisans stopped making them and started to buy the factory made dough not just to save money, but mostly because it's a total PITA to make. Teo

Can you suggest an online vendor where to buy it? Thanks! Teo

Migoya posted something similar time ago: http://www.thequenelle.com/2011/11/transfer-sheets-onto-meringue.html Teo

The results you get with shortcuts are really far from the original. Avoid at all cost puff pastry, they are two different beasts. Phyllo could give you something a bit similar, but nothing more. To get the real stuff you need to use lard, both in the dough and to brush it between each coil. Different fats from lard give you a far from optimal result. The base dough must be really tough, so you need a strong mixer machine to get it, or to use a lot of strength (and time) to get it mixing with bare hands. Then you need to roll the dough extremely thin and without breaking it, you need to obtain a strip long from 8 to 10 metres (and you need a table as long where to put it). To roll it the best thing is a solid pasta machine, using a rolling pin would be a total nightmare. After rolling it you need to brush it with a lot of lard, this is mandatory for the final result (to get a crispy result and all the layers to be separated). Rolling it back to get the spiral is another difficult passage, it can seem simple but you need a lot of care and experience to get a uniform spiral and to avoid breaking the dough. Then you have to cut the spiral and form the sfogliatelle, this is another critical passage. Sfogliatelle are one of the best things in Italian pastry, but they are also one of the most difficult to make. Such that nowadays there are really few pastry shops that still make their own sfogliatelle doughs, most shops use factory made dough. If you really want to make sfogliatelle on your own then prepare yourself for a long odissey: the pasta machine and the long table are mandatory. Plus you need a lot of attempts, no matter how much skilled you are this dough takes a lot of time before being mastered. My best suggestion would be to try to find the frozen ones and then cook them when you want. There are various factories that sell them to the professionals here in Italy, probably some of them have a distributor for France. Otherwise you can try to contact some of the best professionals from Campania. For example Salvatore De Riso: http://www.salderiso.it/ http://www.salderiso.it/en/le_mie_creazioni/la_pasticceria/monoporzioni/sfogliatella_santarosa he sells his products even outside Italy, so I suppose he can arrange to send some frozen sfogliatelle. Teo

If you are considering to buy the Astrance cookbook and live in Europe, then the French version is now on sale on Amazon IT for 37.37 euro, much cheaper than anywhere else: http://www.amazon.it/Astrance-Chihiro-Masui/dp/2812303263 Teo

If you are willing to get books in Italian language, then I strongly suggest this one: Anna Gosetti della Salda - "Le ricette regionali italiane" most people consider it to be the best book on Italian regional cuisine (it includes all regions, not only the north). Don't know if there is an e-book edition (or a translated one). Teo

I strongly suggest to read the Eggbeater Blog from start to finish, there are tons of valuable advises. Teo