AaronM

This is some of my favorite kind of cooking. Michele Richard does a lot of bait and switch with his cuisine at Citronelle.

I make gran marnier sorbet with orange juice, gran marnier and a little sugar. The trick this is to add enough gran so that it won't set properly and it ends up looking like scrambled eggs. A little white chocolate shaving (parm), and a grind of black pepper. "And for dessert madame, scrambled eggs." People are horrified until they taste it.

Found this Fissler set on Amazon for $180 - it was listed as Used but the description was that it is still in the original box, and the order is fulfilled by Amazon.

Bogus. When spending that amount of money I expect them to arrive pristine.

No, trying to draw artificial distinctions between different types of foams is semantically indefensible. You say "we all know what we're talking about," but what are we talking about? Foams made in an iSi canister? Egg-white foams? Lecithin-based foams? (Which are more properly called "airs," though even I find that pretentious.) What about Versawhip foams? Methocel? They're all similar, but all have different applications, textures and flavour-release properties. This strikes me as oversemantical and a bit precious.

I use foam in 3 places on my menu. A Parmesan foam on a deconstructed Caesar. A horseradish one on a seared beef dish - in this case I use it because I don't want a sauce on the meat, I just want the flavor of the horseradish to add a whisper as the foam dissolves in tour mouth. And a (yes) saltwater foam on a deconstructed sushi roll. However, the salt is light, not overwhelming. Out of 14 dishes, it's only on those. It has a time and place in my kitchen. When I think it adds something another thing would not. Exactly like every other technique I use to cook food.

Jesus, calm down.

If you have that strong of a feeling about the idea of the asparagus standing up, then I'd advise you to not eat at Heston's restaurant. It's how he thinks your food should be served - if you don't like it then don't go.

Well, not my food, because I do not care very much about that. I do not really want my food to look cool. I want it to look like food. Mainly I care about it tasting good. Food that looks cool is trying too hard to make me like it before I eat it. This is an excellent point. What excites a chef, who looks at plates of food every day and may well be bored by it, is different that what excites a diner who isn't so overexposed. Food ought to look like something I should eat. This is a terrible point. Food at a restaurant should be an expression of the chef that designed it. If I want your asparagus served to you standing straight up, you'll get it standing straight up. If you don't care for artful presentation, that fine, but many more people do. You eat with your eyes first. So its all about the chef's art and wonderfulness and not about the customer too? Interesting business plan. Yes. But it doesn't have to be about my ego - I don't think I'm super amazing. Why else would you come to my restaurant than to experience my interpretation of food? I mean, I really do hope you have a good time and everything tastes and looks exceptional. And I'm very open to criticism, but if at the end of the day I disagree with you, I'm not going to change my plate design (just an example) if I disagree with you. Maybe my expression of food isn't for you - and that's ok. I refuse to cater to a lowest common denominator. Why I say people have a prejudice against foams right now is because of the spit argument. It's weak. Like I said, I could project all manner of horror onto food, but I don't. Calling foams spit is the easy kill and invalid. For the record, I don't serve asparagus standing up - it was just an example. But Heston Blumenthal does....

Traditional cooking is very different from restaurant cooking in my eyes. At home, I just pile everything onto a plate - it's doesn't need to be an expression of myself. Plating isn't given any thought. But at the restaurant, I'm giving you my expression of what this dish can be. Everything is analyzed until it's where I want it to be. And after all this time and effort I damn sure want it to be aesthetically pleasing!

I could project chili looking like diarrhea onto my bowl - I don't. Some people are just prejudice against the idea of foams right now.

Well, not my food, because I do not care very much about that. I do not really want my food to look cool. I want it to look like food. Mainly I care about it tasting good. Food that looks cool is trying too hard to make me like it before I eat it. This is an excellent point. What excites a chef, who looks at plates of food every day and may well be bored by it, is different that what excites a diner who isn't so overexposed. Food ought to look like something I should eat. This is a terrible point. Food at a restaurant should be an expression of the chef that designed it. If I want your asparagus served to you standing straight up, you'll get it standing straight up. If you don't care for artful presentation, that fine, but many more people do. You eat with your eyes first.

I put a lot of energy into making sure your food looks cool/interesting.

Oh this is just horrible.

Mine's in queue to ship too. Ordered Feb 10ish.

Theoretically nathan said Amazon should be shipping out a bunch tomorrow.

Yes.

Got mine today as well - Black. Had the two different jars. Works great!

Regarding the foie ice-cream, I was at Flip last weekend and had the foie shake. It was exactly what I wanted from it. A subtle unctuousness on a vanilla shake.

Fuck 'em.

I'm like a wizard up in this thread.

Today playing with dry ice I licked the spoon that was in the bowl the dry ice used to be in and had to rip it off. My cheek's bleeding, my tongue hurts, and I can't taste.

I've cut off the tip of my thumb on 2 separate occasions. Been burned up my entire right arm by 500* oil. Butterflied the fingerprint part of my index finger. Set my hair on fire when I was cleaning behind a fryer and the fan clicked on. And countless others. The first things I tell new hires at any place I'm in charge is: #1 The most important thing in the kitchen is food safety - it is more important than your health. #2 If you drop a knife, put your hands in the air and take a step back - knives are expensive, but fingers cost more.

"Cans" is a terrible way of measuring, so it's hard to feel too bad about that one. The price of goods and services goes up over time. This just how the world works. Whether they shrink the can, raise the price, or do both, is immaterial. It's just how things are.

So, instead of raising the price, they make the can smaller. What's the problem here?