teonzo

Thanks a lot for these suggestions, they all seem spot on for what I'm searching, so I ordered what I've found on Amazon. Hope someone can help about China and Japan. Teo

Agree with you 100%. For ganaches is quite nonsense using the butterfly, it would mean loosing all the advantages of the machine. For tempering chocolate, it would be better to use the method of the "seeding by unmelted chocolate" that you suggest, so the butterfly is useless even here. But when I wrote my message I was just thinking to try to suggest the easiest method (highest chances for the final result) for a person trying to temper chocolate for the first time. The seeding method is really quick, but you need some experience to start mixing the chocolate when there's the correct ratio of melted and unmelted, for the correct time (so there are more risks of failure, not too big, but there are). If you want to start working with chocolate with passion, I strongly suggest to learn to temper it manually before spending money in equipments. Tempering manually is much easier than people think, you just need a thermometer and watching some videos on youtube to see the correct technique. When you temper it manually, then there is the "problem" to keep it fluid and in temper, but it's easy even here, you just need a microwave or a hair drier (I'm talking about home use, professionals use the heating machine), and check the temperature with the thermometer. It's easier doing it than saying it. When you will have learned to temper the chocolate manually, you will be satisfied with yourself, and this will help for sure to get better products (being happy while doing pastry is the main key to success). After that, you will decide what it's better for you in relation to what you want to do with chocolate. But if you want to put passion in chocolate, then learning to temper it manually is the first thing to do. All of this in my personal opinion, of course. Teo

I don't think the chocolate can be aerated if the thermomix is used with the "butterfly" at the lower speed. The shape of the "butterfly" is vertical, a bit similar to what is used in the tempering machines. For sure it would be better to use a tempering machine, or to temper the chocolate manually, but since Quasar never tempered chocolate, I suppose he's not looking for the most perfect result, but just for a tempered chocolate. Teo

Are you sure about the temperatures you wrote? When cooling down, you need to go under 32° celsius (90° fahrenheit). I suppose the degrees you wrote are celsius, they would be too low for fahrenheit, so if you never go under 37° it's impossible for the chocolate to be tempered. What I can suggest is this. First of all, use a thermometer to check the temperature of the chocolate, it's better to not trust the thermomix when it's a matter of a couple of degrees. Put the chocolate in the thermomix, and melt it to 45° celsius mixing at speed 1 (to mix it use the "butterfly" and not the "knife"). When you reach 45° celsius, turn down the heating and keep mixing at speed 1. Check the temperature of the chocolate with the thermometer every couple of minutes. When you reach 30° celsius the chocolate is tempered and you can use it, there is no need to go down to 28° celsius and reheat the chocolate (without going above 32° celsius), since the thermomix cooled it while mixing, and it's enough to get the chocolate tempered. When you reach 30°, turn on the heating on the thermomix at 30°, and once in a while check that the temperature remains in the window 28°-32°. Teo

I would like to expand my knowledge about the history of cooking in various countries in the world outside Europe, mainly Japan, China, India, the Persian area, but I'm open for everywhere. So I'm looking for books that deal about how a cooking style developed in relation with the area; I'm not interested in recipes, but in historical and sociological issues. Just for example, I'd like to read a book that tells the story of Kaiseki style, how it was born and developed, how the Japanese culture influenced it (Shintoism, temple cooking and so on). I'm more interested on the high end cooking styles, like Kaiseki and Imperial Chinese. But I'm quite ignorant and don't have any references on these matters. Can anyone help? Thanks in advance. Teo

First thing that comes to mind is going to Carloforte (a little island on the south west) for the tuna "mattanza" (fishing and killing). Second thing to try, if you like weird stuff, is a traditional cheese called "casu marzu", it contains a lot of larvae that change the texture and taste of the cheese, so it is a unique produce because of its taste, and because you eat the larvae too. Now Italian law forbids to sell it, but with some luck it's possible to find a cheese maker that continues to produce it. I'll ask to a couple of friends and will try to answer in the next days with a list of places to visits. Teo

"Los Secretos del Helado" is in my opinion the best professional book ever written about ice-creams. Originally it was printed only in Spanish language, I searched the forum and in some past threads some users complained about this. But now it's available for free download in English and Italian language: http://www.angelocorvitto.com/ingles/libro/pdf.html This is a mandatory book for all ice-cream makers. Teo

It depends on where you live. You can contact him: http://www.paoloparisi.it/pub/chisiamo5.aspx and ask where is the nearest store to you. Teo

As the other people wrote, there are a lot of places where you can spend some great times, so it's impossible to give a unique answer. If you are looking for a region which gives you a good variety of places to visit, then I think that Veneto is the best choice: you have the sea (the beaches on the Adriatic Sea are much safer than the ones on the Tyrrhenian Sea, for example at Caorle there is a little basin where the water is always less than 1 meter deep); you have the mountains (Cortina, Sappada, Alleghe, plenty of great places); you have lakes; you have Venice and many other small cities. So if you look for the best variety within the fewer distance, then I'd say Veneto is the first choice. If you value more the hospitality and friendship, unfortunately I have to say that Veneto became quite cold welcoming in the last years, especially towards foreign people. In this case Emilia Romagna and Umbria would be safe bets. Southern Italy would be even better: it's a bit difficult at the beginning to get introduced with the locals, but after that they are the most friendly people you can find in Italy. Wherever you decide to go, avoid big cities like Turin, Milan, Rome, Naples and so on. If you are looking for finding great food, as Mjx said Emilia Romagna is hard to top about consistency. But you find the best products in Southern Italy: nothing can top the vegetables and so on of Campania, Calabria, Puglia and Sicilia, and life there is quite cheaper than in Northern Italy. The problem with Southern Italy is that the services are quite poor. Teo

Last time I went to Piemonte was about in 2005, so I don't have direct and recent experiences. I can copy some suggestions from people I know and trust. The best restaurant in that zone is: Piazza Duomo vicolo dell'Arco, 1, 12051 Alba (CN) http://www.piazzaduomoalba.it/ it has 2 michelin stars, so it's quite expensive, but it's worth the money. Other good choices: Pisterna via Scatilazzi, 15 15011 Acqui Terme (AL) http://www.pisterna.it/ San Marco via Alba, 136 14053 Canelli (AT) http://www.sanmarcoristorante.it/ La Fermata via Bolla, 2 15047 Alessandria http://www.lafermata-al.it/ Donatella viale Umberto I, 1 15026 Oviglio (AL) http://www.ristorantedonatella.it/ Guido da Costigliole località San Maurizio, 39 12058 Santo Stefano Belbo (CN) http://www.relaissanmaurizio.it/ Gener Neuv lungo Tanaro dei Pescatori, 4 14100 Asti http://www.generneuv.it/ La Ciau del Tornavento piazza Baracco, 7 12050 Treiso (CN) http://www.laciaudeltornavento.it/ Almost all of them have 1 michelin star. If you go to visit Langhe, then you have other good choices (besides Al Duomo), like Al Vignaiolo. Teo

Ok, it's the same firm I was thinking about. As I wrote, I think it's just average. There are far worse olive oils out there, but this is just an oil for the mass consumers. It just depends on your needs. If you need olive oil in quantities (you have a refectory or similars), then this is a good choice. If you are looking for quality, then this is not the product for you. It's almost impossible to buy good/high quality olive oil for less than 10 euro per liter, at least here in Italy. Teo

I'm not sure if the firm you are referring is the same that sells "olio Carli" here in Italy. And we must consider that the same firm can sell products of different qualities in different countries. What I can say is that the "olio Carli" which is sold here in Italy is simply average. Teo

I had access to a physical copy only for some minutes a couple of years ago, so I gave a quick look and probably my memory is failing. Since you can get it from the library, I'd like to ask some things. Which edition is the copy of your library? As far as I know, there are 3 or 4 different editions: the first one had about 600 pages, then after each edition they added some contents, and the last edition has about 900 pages. I just gave a look to the version on google books of the last edition, and in the index there is a section on fruits starting at page 369. At page 374 starts a subchapter titled "candied and preserved fruits", but I can't read the following pages cause I reached the visualization limit. Is this the same edition as the one of your library, so this title is fake and there are no explanations on the candying process? Thanks for your help. I kept this book on my want list for a couple of reasons, and one of this was because it was the only source I found that talked about candying (at least that was I understood). If there are no explanations about this, then I can save 200 euro, which is not a bad thing. But each time I tried to give some look on google books I reached the visualization limit after 5 pages, then I tilt and forget about the book for some time. Teo

I strongly suggest to not parboil clementines when you candy them. If you parboil them then be sure almost all of them will collapse. About technical books, the best one is this: Bernard W. Minifie - "Chocolate, Cocoa and Confectionery: Science and Technology" I'm pretty sure it gives detailed explanations also on candying fruits. I don't own it, cause it's really expensive (200 euro) and I always postpone my idea to buy it. If I remember correctly, it's on google books and you can surf on a limited amount of pages for free (at least that was happened 2 years ago when I tried). Another good book on the science of sugar is this one: William P. Edwards - "The Science of Sugar Confectionery" This has a human price, but I don't think it covers candying fruits. Teo

I don't know if this machine is sold in the USA, but in my opinion it's the best of this kind: http://www.roboqbo.com/ It is really multifunctional: it can be used as high speed cutter; you can cook under vacuum; you can fast chill. So you can cook stuff under vacuum and chill it still under vacuum, in this way you lower the bacteria formation. I'm pretty sure it exceeds your budget of 10k, but the calculations are up to you since you know your estimations about the quantities you will produce. Teo

I agree with AAQuesada. When you are an apprentice, you must remember you are learning, so there is no shame in making something wrong. But the worst thing you can make is being silent with your chef. If you are unsure about something, then ask: you are there to learn, so your chef doesn't expect you already know how to do everything. If you made a mistake, tell it immediately to your chef: chefs run the global organization of the kitchen, so if there are mistakes they must be corrected as soon as possible. If an apprentice makes a mistake, then a chef got angry at level 1. If an apprentice makes a mistake AND doesn't tell it to the chef, then a chef got angry at level 10. You are not supposed to be perfect, but you are supposed to tell to your chef whatever is going wrong: this is an importal issue for working in a team. So, instead of coming here hoping for some assurances, it was much better going to your chef and tell him/her what went wrong. If a mistake were made, then being silent will not change it. But if you keep silent, then it's impossible to correct the error in time. When you are working as an apprentice, you must remember that you will make a lot of mistakes. The important thing is trying to limit them, the best way to succeed in this is asking to your chef and telling to your chef. If you are hoping to never get bad words from your chef, then it's just an illusion. You need to get used to it, and don't fear to face an angry chef telling him you made a mistake: if you keep silent, you make an other additional mistake, and this one is worse than the first, cause it affects the global organization of the kitchen. When a chef tells an apprentice to get faster, then he/she is meaning that you need to focus on your job to try to get better and better. Apprentices are always much slower than chefs, it's normal, but they need to speed up as soon as possible. He is not asking you to be as fast as him in few days, he is asking you to make your best efforts to learn this job. About the dough, if the butter surfaced, then for sure the final result won't be perfect. It depends on how much bigger are the spots with the surfaced butter. Once the butter surfaces it will always be visible. Teo

Don't worry if a clementine collapsed, it's quite normal. If you already candied other fruits, then you should know which is the required final density of the syrup. If the amount of syrup in your pot is not enough, then just make some other syrup on another pot, add it to the pot with the clementines, and continue candying them till reaching the correct thickness of the syrup. All candied fruit are better stored in their syrup, this to prevent crystalization. Teo

Quay (http://www.quay.com.au/) is considered one of the best restaurants in Australia and in the world. This book is even better. The layout and photographs are impressive. All dishes are interesting and personal. The recipes are detailed and well written. The dessert section is on par with the rest (the "guava snow egg" is stunning). Better if I stop here with the superlatives. If you love the Alinea and the Noma books, then consider this a blind buy, it's on par with those 2 books. On amazon.co.uk it costs 20£, a total bargain. Teo

Martin Bosley is the chef of his eponymous restaurant in New Zealand: http://www.martin-bosley.com/ I've never been to New Zealand, so unfortunately I don't have first hand experience on his food, but I read great comments, so when I heard he published his new book based on restaurant recipes (he published another book a couple of years ago, but more for the homecook), I bought it. This is the press release, with some images of the pages: http://www.randomhouse.co.nz/data/media/documents/press%20releases/Nov_2010/Martin%20Bosley_Media%20Release.pdf The book is divided in 2 sections: the first one is for Brasserie Flipp (the place where he worked before the new restaurant), the second one is for the eponymous restaurant, for a total of about 300 pages. I still haven't tried any recipe, but till now I'm really satisfied. There are many interesting ideas, recipes are detailed and well written, and the photographs are high quality. Even "simple" dishes, that could sound trivial to someone, are well thought and inspiring: for example there are a ton of fish tartares, each one with creative pairings. They put a lot of efforts also about the dessert sections. And I like the attitude of chef Bosley: his photo is not polished, and he included the photos of each person of his staff. You can buy the book directly from the restaurant. It costs 90 NZ$ plus shipping (I spent 60 NZ$ for shipping to Italy). A bit expensive, but if you are interested in books of high end restaurants, this is a good add to your collection. Teo

I'd like to point out another thing about this book, especially after reading all the comments related to the NYT review. Years ago reviews were a "necessary evil", they were almost the only way to get to know about something, and the potential buyer had to rely on the comments of the reviewer. But with MC there is almost no need for a review: everyone can simply go on their official website, and there are all the infos to understand if this book is worth to be bought based to the likes, needs and budgets of the potential buyer. The MC staff made a wonderful work about this: they put the complete index, a boatload of images and a lot of excerpts from the book. With the same amount of time you spend reading a review, you surf the MC website and make a first hand idea if the MC book is something you want/need/like or not. I like to buy cookbooks online, but most of the times it's difficult to understand exactly how a certain book is made, and what its contents are. With MC it's all so easy: on their website you find all the data you need to make your own idea on how it's made and what it's worth for you. So my point is: why caring about a review or another, while we can get our own idea based on our own way of thinking just looking at the MC website? Everybody is different, and neither the best reviewer in the world can be able to write a review that can explain to each reader if a book/CD/whatever is good for him (the reader): the only safe way is exposure on first person. So, besides all the like and dislikes about cooking styles and whatever, I think we should thank Mr Myhrvold and his staff for giving us, on their website, all the necessary and sufficient data to understand if their book deserves to be bought basing on our own way of life. In the cookbook market, this a rare chance, most of the times you can understand how a book is made only when you get it on your hands. So I thank the MC team for their intellectual honesty and for giving me the total freedom to understand which is the value of their book basing only on my criteria. People can like or dislike the book, but for sure everybody have the freedom to make this personal decision just basing on all the amount of free data on the MC website. I wish it was possible for all the cookbooks, but till now this is almost a unique case. Teo

If you are looking for dessert recipes, an easy solution is to take a recipe for a coffee dessert (ice-cream, mousse, bavarian, parfait, etc.), and replace the coffee with licorice: if the recipe asks for normal coffee, then you just have to dilute the licorice powder in water; if the recipe asks for "soluble coffee" (don't know is this product is on sale in the USA), then you just have to substitute the soluble coffee powder with licorice powder. Beware that licorice has a strong flavour, so if these are the first times you use it then it's better to start with few powder and then add more until you reach your desired strongness. About pairings, the most used here in Italy are mint, lemon and anise. You can try to surf this website for other pairings: http://www.foodpairing.be/ but they are compiling it, so maybe licorice is still to be added. Licorice powder can be used even for savory dishes. For example one of the signature dishes of Le Calandre (a 3 michelin star restaurant in Padua) is a risotto with saffron and licorice. You can find the recipe on their book "In.Gredienti". Teo

I would be interested to buy some Peruvian cookbooks, like the series named Nuestros Grandes Chef published by El Comercio, or some books published by the University of San Martin de Porres. I wrote to both editors, but never received any answer. Is there any forum user living in Peru and willing to help me? Of course I would pay something for the help. Thanks in advance. Teo

53.8% (as minimum cocoa solids) indicates the total amount of the ingredients derived from the cocoa fruit, which are cocoa butter and cocoa mass (not sure if "cocoa mass" is the correct definition in English, I'm meaning the dry part). So the sum of cocoa butter + cocoa mass is the 53.8% in this brand of chocolate. The remaining 46.2% is constituted by the other ingredients (mostly sugar, then usually vanilla and lecitine). So that 53.8% does not indicate the amount of cocoa fat in that chocolate, it indicates the total amount of ingredients coming from the cocoa fruit. The cocoa fat is a fraction of this 53.8%, usually the ratio of the cocoa fat ranges from about 55% to 60% on the total amount of cocoa parts. So in this case it should be about 57% * 53.8% = 30.7%, but this is just an estimation. To be sure you must look on the label for the specification about the nutritional contents (carbos, proteins and fats): the % of fat indicates the % of cocoa butter in that chocolate. We are talking about quality chocolate, where the only fat is the cocoa butter, no other crappy veg fats. Usually every producer writes the nutritional contents on their labels, so since Callebaut is a serious producer then I'm pretty sure you will find this info on the label. Personally I'm a Valrhona fanboy, so I can't be of any help about Callebaut. In the case you can't find that data on the label, I'm sure that writing an e-mail to Callebaut will provide you a quick and precise answer. Teo

First of all, I apologize for the confusion. I'm not fluent in English (I'm Italian and I've never been in an English speaking country, unfortunately just studied English on the books), so I'm not sure if what I write is exactly what I intend to write. And I just realized that in the USA you express ratios in a different way than in Italy: here in Italy if we say that the ratio between the product A and the product B is X%, then we mean that A/B = X. This is our only way to express ratio, so I never thought there would be another method, cause this is the only one I always saw during school and work. Now I learnt that outside Italy things work differently, so I'll try to keep it in mind and try to be more clear (hoping to succeed in this, as I said I'm not good with English language). I have to state in advance that I came to know this recipe from this article: http://bressanini-lescienze.blogautore.espresso.repubblica.it/2008/06/06/le-ricette-scientifiche-il-cioccolato-chantilly/ it's written in Italian, and explains some chemistry behind the recipe. I bought the Herve This' book later, and didn't read the part about the chocolate chantilly. I base my experience only on that article of the link. Now, about the calculations. This is how I do it. Calculate the amount of cocoa butter you are using (usually it's written on the producer's label). Suppose you are using X grams. Then multiply per 3: 3X is the amount of water you need. Quick example: suppose you are using 50 grams of cocoa butter, then you need 150 grams of water. This is the recipe I use: - 300 grams of dark chocolate (Valrhona Guanaja 70%) - 350 grams of water Sorry for the mess I created, hope this time I've been able to write something clear to read. Teo

The second one, you need to add 68 grams of water for 23 grams of cocoa butter. Teo