Really Nice!

The best hamburgers I've ever had in my life are the ones served in Australia and are called Hamburger with the Lot. ('The lot' is the same thing as 'the works.) Starting from the bottom: toasted bun butter ketchup mustard sliced beets (beetroot) hamburger egg (cooked over easy so the yolk runs) pineapple ring tomato slice pickle slices bacon onion slice lettuce toasted bun with same butter, ketchup, mustard spread This is absolutely heavenly and about the richest thing I've eaten.

Here's a good place to start.

Thanks all for your input, I'm very impressed and thankful for your effort. Lucy, thank you very much for calling La Pyramide. I do appreciate that. Therese, thanks for the tip. I posted the question in the Japan forum as well. chefzadi, the paragraph comes from a handout in class. Robert, thanks for asking your friend about this.

So you have your treasured masterpiece in your hands and your grip somehow slips. As it gets closer to the floor, you can't move your foot quick enough to soften the crash, all you can do is yell F#(!<!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Don't ask how, don't ask why, but this happened to me today. I can't even bring myself to say what bottle it was except to say that I'll never be able to afford to purchase it again, no matter what the vintage. I'm so depressed.

Thank you very much!

Sheesh! My apologies.

Current freezer inventory is: Oils and butters 4 units of black pepper oil 15 units of carified butter 4 units of butter solids 5 units of chive oil 22 units of duck fat 3 units of fennel oil 9 units of foie gras fat 10 units of meyer lemon oil 10 units of blood orange oil 7 units of shallot butter 6 units of sage butter Purees 7 units of fennel puree 19 units of roasted garlic puree 6 units of onion puree 4 units of red pepper coulis Stocks and Sauces 14 units of veal demiglace 23 units of brown veal stock 5 units of brown chicken stock 27 units of brown duck stock 3 units of white rabbit stock There's just two of us in our place, so "units" are containers that range from 1/2 to 1 oz for oils and butters, to 2 oz for purees, to 6 oz containers for stocks and sauces.

chefzadi = I have to read the rules of play here first before answering your question. It might take me years to do this. I'm not kidding. Although I could answer your question on the spot if you asked me face to face. I don't understand. All I want to know is why did Ferdinand Point go to Japan in the '30s. We all have reasons for travel. What was his reason to go to Japan? Bux = One site says he was married in 1930. It doesn't say he went to Japan on his honeymoon, but who knows. Thanks, Bux. That might help. I only found 7 sites on Google for "Ferdinand Point" and Japan, but none that I could see explained that. phifly04 = You might try looking under Fernand Point. Using what media? I've been to the library and searched the Internet.

Hello, I am a culinary student and have a question to answer for my French Cuisine class. Ferdinand Point traveled to Japan in the 1930s. There he sees dishes with sauces that do not include butter, cream, or roux. The presentation is small and simple. Upon his return he begins to create what will become known as Nouvelle Cuisine. The sauces he creates return to regional and seasonal ingredients, and are lighter in body and thickened with pure starches or reduction. My question is: Why did Ferdinand Point go to Japan in the first place? I cannot find an answer in the library or on the Internet. Thank your for your input.

Last week I made a spaghetti (secret ingredient: oregano) and boiled the meat in crisco. Heavenly!

Yes, I've done it many times. You'll find it is brighter than anything you've tried before.

You should also consider Madelenine Kamman's The New Making of a Cook, the art, techniques, and science of good cooking. It's very worth while and will guide you along in the right direction.

It can't be sugar. What kind of wine are you using? With a dry white or red you're not going to have much more than a 0.2 percent sugar level. The average person can't begin perceiving sugar levels in a medium until it hits 1 percent. And the driest champagnes have just 6 grams of sugar per liter. I'm not sure that you'll find an answer about what happens to wine at a chemical level when it's reduced for no one even knows what happens when yeast is added to the wine when it's being made. (Or when it's being added to beer or flour, for that matter.) Wine is made up of sugars (the six-carbon fermentables glucose and fructose, and the five-carbon nonfermentables aribinose, zylose, and fhamnose). These five-carbon sugars are the ones that are left behind even in the driest of wines. The other components in wine are acids (tartaric, malic, and citric), alcohol (ethyl), phenolic compounds (pigments, tannins, and 'flavor precursors'), aldehydes (oxidized alcohols), and esters (aromatic compounds). The average wine is composed of some 500 molecular components; 200 or so contribute to its aroma and bouquet. This all said, mostly what you do when you reduce a liquid is remove the water, and in the case of wine, the alcohol. With less water you are falsely perceiving a concentration of what's left behind, when in fact what's left behind hasn't become more concentrated, there's just less water to dilute it.

Looks great Fifi! Here's some information that might help you expand your horizons. These are notes from my Escoffier French Cuisine class. There are four kinds of gratins: complete, quick, light, and glazing. Complete Gratin — The main ingredient is always raw. Synchronize the cooking process with the reduction of the sauce. The cooking process and reduction of sauce must be synchronized with the formation of the crust on the surface of the gratin. Method — Place main ingredient in skillet coated with melted butter and coated with a few tablespoons of sauce and surrounded with slices of raw mushrooms. Add some white wine, and continue to layer with additional main ingredient in this manner. Sprinkle top with bread crumbs and melted butter; place in moderately hot (400°F) oven. If too much sauce is used, the food will be cooked and gratin formed before crust is formed; additional cooking creates steam softening the crust. If too little sauce is used, the sauce will reduce too much and the food will be undercooked; additional sauce destroys the evenness of the gratin. Quick Gratin — Same as complete gratin except the main ingredient is cooked. Light Gratin — Applicable to macaroni, lasagnes, noodles, gnocchi, etc. It is formed by combining grated cheese; dry, crustless white breadcrumbs; and butter. You want an even coating, uniform color, and even melting of cheese. Moderate heat is sufficient. Also in this category are dishes where gratinizing will finish the preparation, including stuffed vegetables such as tomatoes, mushrooms, eggplant, and cucumber (I think he means zucchini). In these examples the dry breadcrumbs are combined with butter or oil. If the main item is raw, cook under fairly hot heat (400 to 450°F). If the main item is already cooked, cook under moderate heat. Glazings — There are two glazings, one from a butter sauce, one from Sauce Mornay where the item is coated with sauce; sprinkled with cheese and melted butter, and placed in a very hot (500°F) oven.

The Meat Buyers Guide by the north american meat processors association takes you through: skeletal chart primal cuts foodservice cuts for beef, lamb, veal, and pork. It is a pictoral illustration of the Institutional Meat Purchase Specifications and includes pictures of each cut. For beef, that's about 100 different items from the carcass of a cow. While it doesn't show how and where to cut, it does tell you where one piece begins and where another ends. For example, "Item 103, beef rib primal. The primal rib is that portion of the forequarter remaining after excluding the cross-cut chuck and short plate and shall contain seven ribs (6th to 12th inclusive)... ...The loin end shall follow the natural curvature of the 12th rib..." I noticed the link you provided is for amazon UK. If that's where you are located, you might want to find something local as the butchers from these two areas tend to cut meat differently from each other.

These books are the best! The recipes are so simple and they always work. I have about ten of them ranging from baking to barbecue. This is one of the reasons why I always brought an empty suitcase when I visited.

Don't know, didn't see either one. I first started doing this back in the late 70s on a ski trip in the Michigan peninsula. A buffet was part of the weekend package and a bunch of us were standing in line waiting for a person to pick through the rolls looking for god-knows-what. I was still cold and numb from skiing all day and my patience was thin, so I walked around and headed to the end. The guy loaded up my plate with ham and roast beef, and I worked my way back to the same person still picking through the rolls. I've been doing it this way ever since.

I love buffets because I know how to work 'em! The basic layout is designed to put the cheap carbs at the beginning of the line where the plates are and the expensive proteins at the end. Using this layout, the proprietor knows that by the time the customer gets to the end, there are so many cheap ingredients on the plate that there's little room for the expensive proteins. Banquets/buffets make a lot of money this way. When I get in line I grab my plate and pass everyone and go straight to the end where the roast and poultry are and work my way back. It pisses a few people off but as a customer this works for me. Oh, I also do this at Indian restaurants when I go to the buffet. Go straight to the curried lamb, butter and tandorri chicken, etc. and work my way back to the rice.

I was only there once but my "perceived value" of the dishes makes me hesitant to return. I thought most portions were small and for others the prices were out of proportion to what we got. For example, 11 asparagus stalks for $14 at a time (end of season) when asparagus is going for $1.50 a pound at the market? While it was good, there was nothing magical about the preparation or presentation. I don't recall the other dishes, maybe because I was in sticker shock with the asparagus, but I do recall doing some calculations in my head with the other dishes and concluding that the food cost was about 1/8 the sale price. That's a bit past the high end of the cost-ratio scale. We were downstairs where the wines are stored. There was a thermometer on the wine rack that read 78F. Ouch. Regarding the quality of the food, my perception is inline with tsquare, "...seemed like the main cooking techniques involve a quick cooking with lots of olive oil (both cooked and poured over the final dish), salt and pepper..." Everyone's mileage varies.

Use a refractometer to test the quality of the fruit. This is the gadget that vintners use to test the sugar level in grapes. They squeeze a little juice on the lens and look towards the sun. They see the sugar level of the fruit (measured in degrees BRIX) and they can then decide when to pick. Some chefs even use this tool to bring a fruit up to the desired sugar level if it's not quite there. (Ahem, Thomas Keller.) All fruits and vegetables can be measured in this manner for optimal sweetness (BRIX). For cherries, it'll measure between 14 and 16. Buy your stuff, squeeze some juice on to the lens and measure the BRIX. Keep a log of the date and source and report your findings next year. "You cannot buy---nor grow---good food until you can first identify good food…" The comparitive problem with this test (categorical difference between shipping) is that you don't know what the BRIX was when the item was picked. However, if cherries from Chile are consistently between 12 and 14, and cherries from Washington are consistently between 14 and 16, then some conclusions can be drawn. Also, take a look at The Psychology of Food, more than a matter of taste by Bernard Lyman, Ph.D. It offers documented test results on questions such as this.

mamster is such a jerk. I lived in Chicago until moving out here in 1991 and was surprised that they were available here. I thought they were owned/operated by Marshall Fields. BTW, they're very popular in Chicago.

Penfold's makes some great wines under $20 a bottle that have aging capability well past 10 years. Bin 28 - shiraz 1999 and 2000 are capable to go through 2015. The 2001 will go through 2025 Bin 138 - shiraz, grenache, mourvèdre 1999 and 2001 are capable to go through 2010. Bin 389 - cabernet, shiraz 1998 is capable to go through 2030. 1999 through 2020, and 2001 through 2020. Bin 389 can be had for under $18 a bottle!! I'm currently collecting three bottles of each vintage every year. I can't wait to do a vertical/horizontal tasting 10 or 15 years from now.

Wow, I like a host that serves Grange to their guests!!! How about if I cook for you and you bring the wine ← I made that menu a few years back for an Australian friend who was visiting the States and had never even been able to see a bottle of Grange close up back in Oz due to its short supply there. I think I served the 1981 vintage. He still talks about that dinner to this day.

"No more French Chefs?, Food Network Going All-American" Food Network is going to start having chefs in their programming? Cool!

A big step in saving time is to do as much of your preparation (MEP) before leaving home in the morning. Put the pots/pans that you are going to use on the stove or in the oven. Put the utensils that you're going to use in them. If you're using canned items, place them in too. Measure the dry ingredients and combine them if the recipe calls for it. Some days, doing all I can with the nonperishable items in the morning gives me a big sigh of relief when I get home in the evening.