Broken English

That looks pretty good if you ask me. How did it taste?

Marcus Wareing's Nutmeg and Custard is a great British book, probably my favourite of the British 'home' cookbooks in the past few years.

He and Jill have come back to live in Sydney. He's still doing wonderful reviews, but of our restaurants here. I much prefer Simon Thomsen to Durack. Thomsen still comes across as enthusiastic and passionate, whereas Durack seems to be quite harsh on young chefs trying new things, and comes across as too cynical. His review of Becasse is a good example of what I mean. While overall positive, contained a few snarky comments about trying too hard and basically calling it derivative of Noma and Alinea, like the restaurant was claiming to be the first to use smoke or faux soil in a dish. I think a sense of child-like wonder in a critic is a good thing. Jaded and cynical, not so much. I'm afraid I can't call Justin a young chef, he is (or should be) at the top of his game. Having eaten at Becasse in the last month, I think the review was fair. At the top end in this class of cooking, basically they are all very similar anyway. To add to Terry's comments, many chefs should acknowledge the influence of Michel Bras on their plating and the food at Becasse is no exception. I loved Justin's food, and it is visually spectacular, but in our experience the wine matching was very poor. I've passed this feedback to Becasse via one of the managers and sincerely hope it picks up because it really is worth a return visit for his food. On the other hand, I take Simon Thomsen's reviews with a hefty grain of salt. To come back on to the point of this thread, it is like listening to movie critics: I really think one should read the reviews, try out some of what they talk about yourself, compare your experience to theirs, and pick a reviewer that echoes your tastes. On this basis I'll stick with Terry. I thought some of the comments were pretty harsh, maybe it's just a writing style thing. My last meal at Becasse surpassed anything I'd previously had in Sydney, and from what I remember the wine matching was well thought out. This was in July, so I assume both the menu and wine list have changed considerably. I realise that Justin North isn't really a young chef, but his head chef, Monty Koludrovic is (he's a part of the TOYS group with Dan Hong and Darren Robertson).

I just wanted to say that my Kressi vinegar addiction is all your fault. Seriously though, The Man Who Ate The World has accompanied me on every overseas journey I've taken since I bought it a few years back. It's a great read, so thanks for killing my boredom on more than several occasions.

He and Jill have come back to live in Sydney. He's still doing wonderful reviews, but of our restaurants here. I much prefer Simon Thomsen to Durack. Thomsen still comes across as enthusiastic and passionate, whereas Durack seems to be quite harsh on young chefs trying new things, and comes across as too cynical. His review of Becasse is a good example of what I mean. While overall positive, contained a few snarky comments about trying too hard and basically calling it derivative of Noma and Alinea, like the restaurant was claiming to be the first to use smoke or faux soil in a dish. I think a sense of child-like wonder in a critic is a good thing. Jaded and cynical, not so much.

It just came to me, the brand was Ribs and Roast (their website no longer seems to work though), and they also have (had?) a line of different roasts cooked SV. The problem with these, other than the lack of seasoning, is reheating them to the right temperature without SV equipment. If you can't do that, then the point of them is lost, and you may as well have just done it conventionally. My guess is that's why few companies are doing it on a large scale. They figure if you have SV equipment, then you're already going to be doing it yourself, and there's not that much point in them spending time and money for something there may not be a huge market for.

There's a company in Sydney that does pork and beef ribs, chicken wings and breast, pork belly and lamb shanks. I can't remember the brand off hand, but the product is not too bad, except there's not a skerrick of seasoning on the meat, so it needs a bit of work to make it taste of something.

You're welcome. Cherries would be even better with the duck. Plums were just the first thing that sprang to mind. The lobsters are fairly straightforward, just put them into the freezer for an hour or so to put them into a coma before putting them straight into the boiling salted water. Depending on the size, they'll probably need about 10-11 minutes to be done.

From the course I did at culinary school, it seems to me that HACCP is just common sense with the volume turned up to 12. In large businesses it is very practical when the scale is hard to control and you're dealing with any number of unknown variables. However, in small businesses it seems to me to be far too labour intensive and costly to carry out properly, almost making it a waste of time that could be better spent. I'm not saying it is useless, I'm just saying that you should definately consider how vigilant you can afford to be, if you can't keep on top of it, then there's no point.

Maybe a good idea, depending on your inclination and preferences, would be to turn the duck confit into a spring roll of sorts (it doesn't have to be necessarily Asian, and the bonus is you can cut them in half and impale them not with a skewer, but with that thin bone you remove from the duck when picking the meat, as an added presentation point) and serve it as an accompaniment to a beautiful duck breast with a plum sauce and whatever garnishes you like. With the veal, I'd be inclined to slow roast it and serve it classically European in style with an onion puree, confit cherry tomato salsa and a balsamic glaze. With regard to the seafood starter, if you're willing to use lobster, maybe have a cold lobster salad (lobster meat, mayo, shallot, chive, salt and pepper) to go on a piece of char grilled bread, as a bruschetta. This can be one of those DIY courses that don't require plating on your part, and allows for a bit of interaction, which can buy you time for the mains. Whatever you choose, I hope it turns out well for you Good luck.

At the restaurant I work, we season the foie with nitrate salt and cook it sous vide to 48 before passing it through a tamis and making the torchon conventionally. It does render some fat, but this isn't a bad thing in my view, as it means you get a richer liver flavour, and it doesn't taste like you're eating a block of foie gras butter. As for sauteed, we just use fresh lobes, slice and season it, sear it in a hot pan to caramelise and finish in the oven. I'm pretty new to using foie myself though, so any replies to this thread I will be equally interested in reading.

I can't stand breads with a cake texture, which is one of the big reasons I find brioche overrated, as far too often, that's the texture. Great brioche, for me, is light and airy, so that it doesn't become too doughy and cloying on the palate.

Because his customers go to his shop, not his home, for meat? All he's doing is fulfilling a demand for a product which is perfectly legal, but is chosen as an easy target for animal rights terrorists. It's good to see someone standing up and being unrepentant. It's just a shame he'll probably lose his business over it. Great points nikkib, but we all know that foie gras is the most evil product on the market, and must be stopped at all costs. One could go into the whole foie gras thing again, or argue one way or the other, regarding Selfridges hypocrisy, but what this particular incident is really about is someone gambling, and losing. O' Shea's arrangement with Selfridge's was to not sell foie gras; he did that off his own bat, he took his chances. So he gambled, and lost. The only grownup way to handle this sort of thing is to be philosophical; boohooing, pouting, and going all defensive are just embarrassing and babyish. You are correct, he shouldn't have agreed to the terms. He did make a silly agreement, ignored it, and now is paying the price, that's a given. I wasn't attacking you at all, I am just lamenting how the food is slowly but surely going the way of the Dodo, especially now that I'm living in a country where we can buy fresh lobes at semi-reasonable prices, rather than the mi-cuit blocks at horrendously expensive prices, like in Australia.

Where I used to work (an island with prohibitively expensive freight costs) importing bones for stock was too expensive to be viable, so we basically braised lamb and beef in vegetable stock and then reduced that liquid to make our jus and glazes. To beef it up a little we often turned the braising liquid into a masterstock of sorts, adding orange juice and soy to give a meatier taste to the jus. It's a bit of a shortcut, but the results were damn fine.

Because his customers go to his shop, not his home, for meat? All he's doing is fulfilling a demand for a product which is perfectly legal, but is chosen as an easy target for animal rights terrorists. It's good to see someone standing up and being unrepentant. It's just a shame he'll probably lose his business over it. Great points nikkib, but we all know that foie gras is the most evil product on the market, and must be stopped at all costs.

I downloaded the season a few months back, it's enjoyable if I forget that I work in a kitchen, but it is oh so cheesy. The few lines from the book they used made me cringe (most notably the whole 'work clean' thing). The whole waiter's eating scene was highly realistic though, in my experience anyway haha.

For me, 2011 held some spectacular meals. The first four were absolutely outstanding, the others, very worthy candidates. 1. Becasse, Sydney (definately in the top two meals of my life thus far) 2. Alinea, Chicago 3. Masa, NY (Simplicity squared, perfect ingredients, perfect preparation, the experience of being practically one on one with the sushi master) 4. Gastro Park, Sydney 5. Moto, Chicago 6. Bouchon, Los Angeles 7. WD-50, NY 8. Katz's Deli, NY 9. Margaritaville, Las Vegas 10 is a tie between The Burger's Priest in Toronto, Colborne Lane in Toronto and L'Atelier, Las Vegas.

The tomalley is easy to tell from the roe, as it's a much lighter green. I've been using the shells and making a stock, then reducing it down from ten litres to about 150mls and using that to flavour the smoked paprika butter that we baste the lobster in under the salamander. It's absolutely amazing, and I'm forever scrounging bread to soak in the butter after the basting. Not healthy, but holy hell is it good.

The coral has always been dark green in every lobster I've ever processed (and it's into the thousands after the last few months), it only turns orange after cooking. We're getting our lobsters from Nova Scotia, is the colour a species thing?

Are you throwing a cup of water in the oven when you put the bread in? This creates a moist heat which prevents the crust from forming immediately, and allows the bread to 'kick' up, making a much lighter texture.

Butter has its own flavour, while cream is fairly neutral, so my guess is that the point is to have some of that in the finished product.

I assume 'berried' means carrying eggs on the underside of the body, correct?

Yup, we were always issued two. One wet for wiping down and one dry for hot stuff. I always managed to "find" some extra though. I've picked up a hot pan with a wet towel more than I care to admit. I couldn't have survived like that, I'm a hoarder. Currently I have around 40 hidden on and around my station.

I think you'll find the hydration point of Gellan is 95. I've also had some trouble with sperification, but that was more to do with the shape of them, and getting them even. I see in MC they freeze them into hemisphere molds and thaw them in a heated algin bath to set the shape.

I was going to ask that, those dishes look amazing.