Garth

Shells are essential to good lobster or shrimp bisques.break lobster shells with a mallet saute for 10mins along with any aromatics you're using , then a cognac reduction, then sherry reduction, cover shells with h2o or fish stock & simmer covered for a couple hours. Off heat puree everything in blender & strain it, then strain it again using a CHINOIS & discard anything left behind. Dont use flour or cornstarch or tomato paste just reduce awhile then finish with heavey cream & reduce. besides giving the soup nearly all of it's flavor the shells make it thick. I like to get it pretty tight here at the end & finish with a bottle of cream sherry(in proportion) & a splash of cognac. Ladle over cooked meat in bowls & garnish. It's a really easy soup to make.

Grind into chubs mark it pet food.

VENEER

I would have baked disks of meringue for the layers then pipe whip cream around the edge spread strawberries in the middle then set another meringue on that & repeat then top with a meringue & pipe a stiff whipped cream on it & drizlle with chocolate garnish with strawberries (boccone dolce). Recipes are instructions for people with limited cooking exp. There is alot of psychology to dealing with people when it comes to food. I don't know how many times a server brought me back a piece of prime rib or steak to re-do that was cooked just like the customer ordered & all I ever did was flip it over & they were extremely pleased with the new one. If faced with this again tell the person you take great pride in your work & you can reproduce it for them & recommend any changes that you need to make but in the end don't sign off on something that doesn't meet up to your level of standards it reflects on you & you should take it personaly

Cook down shrimp & lobster shells for stock to use for bisque, ink sacks from squid/calamari to make pasta nero,use outer leaves of lettuce left from cleaning to sweaten stocks, keep bread heels for bread crumbs or stuffing, egg shells for clarifying, bake potatoes for homefries then peel with a knife next day & save the peelings to be deep fried & served as potato skins, left over baked potatoes are good for gnochi, fat & tallow can be saved to make soap. There are litteraly thousands of possibilities.

Mapelli Bros

Dinner: Papa Haydn on 23d El Gaucho on Broadway Jakes Grill at the Governer hotel on 11th Ringside on Burnside Breakfast: Acropolis on McLaughlin Blvd lunch: Blind Onion

. I use to prep them a day ahead for sunday brunch. poach them then place them in large plastic containers of Ice water then into the cooler overnight. To reheat I used a set up simillar to what you might use to heat cooked pasta like a china cap in a pot of heated water except not a china cap more like a basket. That vortex method is the french method for poaching an egg that I have found to be unfeasable & simply more trouble than it's worth do to the amount of attention each egg requires not to mention you can only cook 1 egg at a time in a single pan. It would be safe to say I have cooked as many as 50 batches of 20 eggs over a period of 3-6 hours give ar take a batch or an egg. If you're gonna to experiment with using something to mold the egg I would recomend cooking the eggs en cocotte ( baked in a ramekin in water bath) or shirring the eggs (baked with butter).

water temp is most important for perfect eggs & don't over crowd. Vinegar or pickles are or lemons are useful to alot of people. They make the water easier to be kept clean, they change the buoyancy this floats the scum & blow off making it easy to discard with a sloted spoon. they also keep the eggs from cooking directly to the bottom of the pan. I've never cooked more than 20 at once but I have cooked 20 at once for several hours.I like to use a 2" hotel pan with a lid on it & just set it right on a 350-375 degree grill. Kept filled with water & I just use oil, occasionaly a lemon wedgethe procedure would go like this: remove lid from pan crack eggs into the water delicately & replace lid. The less you disturb the water the nicer the eggs. Poach just until the whites are solid remove lid & take the eggs out. I use a slotted spatula. Perfect every time. Discard & replace pan & water often. You will have to get your own feel for how long it takes before the eggs are done. If using a pan on the stove at home use about 3" of water use a lid heat the water to just about smiling, that's when you can see creases starting to form on the surface, when you see this back the heat down to med, add oil or cooking spray & add to that a slice of lemon if you want to, gently crack eggs into the pan avoid splashing the water around in the pan. put lid on, you will be able to get a slotted spoon under the egg to inspect for doneness in 2 minutes. Alternatively: fill soup bowl with 2" water, heat in microwave for 1:30 secs, crack 2 eggs into bowl of water & cook for additional 30 seconds remove & serve. Be warned eggs can blow up as long as 1 minute after taking them out.