nonkeyman

That is dangerous ...and I don't mean from a safety stand point...I mean for my waist line...

I googled this...how does this one work????

Did you buy it? I am curious how it tastes...for that price...well...

That is a good argument! ...of course...I still use a remote and read paper books...

Yeah, I am not one to buy 1 use gadgets...but a designated pasta maker, is personally, way better than the kitchen aid...

How do they know what to give us for samples...it works every time...you go in for toilet paper and leave with enough food to open your own restaurant

I recently found this Ramen place called OOINK on Capitol hill. I personally found it way better than any of the ramen places in Seattle thus far. However, many of my friends swear by Kizuki(used to be Kukai). They are yet to try OOINK. I am just curious if there is anyone on this forum who has an opinion between the two? The reasons I like OOINK better is because I really found the noodles to be much better and the broth was way more flavorful. The owner was so enthusiastic as well about his product(who isn't of course)...

Any form of shredded than crisped duck confit is always great! You could also make rillette, that goes great on bread and with a little bit of mostarda, well how can you go wrong!

Thank you! I must have clicked the link button instead of the amazon link button!

A lot of their stuff is oddly addictive. I grew up on costco rotisserie chicken every Sunday! I still remember walking with my mom and basically having lunch by the end of the day....because of all the samples.

I actually wrote a post on this..especially if you have chef or home cook friends! To give you some of what I put on it. 2. A culinary blow torch! Currently only $20 on amazon vs. $55! 4. Knives...of course! not so much a gadget 6.Pasta Machine 7.Gourmia Sleek and Serve Ice Cream machine! Things not on the list, a knew Melangeur for chocolate! ,Anova Immersion Circulator and a kitchen aid stand mixer(because if they don't have one, they need one!) Let me know what you guys think! The rest were books or other sorts of things, like a knife bag feel free to read the little blurbs about each.

I agree! It always smells funky! And the flavor is always slightly adulterated...as a cook I was spoiled. The dishwashers would typically peel all our garlic and shallots...made my life super easy.

Thank you for adding in! Even if it was already there. If you are like me...you just read the first post and the newest posts and not the whole thread anyway...

If you guys want to see a longer video. The designer was on Chefsteps live a few days ago. Here is a link to the video on facebook. It goes way more in depth, it is 41 minutes long. Hope this helps!

Oh dear! That is scary.

Fair enough, but I can't vouch for it :). I just haven't used it, that's all. I am sure it is also great! What are your thoughts @JoNorvelleWalker

**I can't guarantee Amazon won't change the prices, I am not fancy enough to automate that stuff** Here is a list of my top ice cream machines. I try to go from cheapest to most expensive. All pictures are from Amazon! There are a lot of great ice cream makers on this thread. Just wanted to share! Gelato and Ice Cream are some of my favorite desserts to make! Making your own flavors. Coming up with your own ideas like toasted chocolate, cardamom, smoked bourbon (if you want ideas, I have more than a few) o.O. I really loved cooking the custard, tasting it and making sure there was plenty of salt. Yeah, salt in the ice cream. Important note! Ice cream machines vary anywhere from a 50$ Cuisine art standard freeze core to a 5,500$ Paco Jet. With such vastly varying prices, it can be a little confusing as an end-user to what the quality of the product will be after the work is said and done. Now I have used all sorts of Ice Cream machines. Classic gelato machines, frozen cores, paco jets and a few others. Each of these had their own benefits and flaws. Sometimes it just happened to be price, other times final product. Now if you have never made ice cream before, perhaps it would not be wise to buy the 5000$ dollar paco jet. Don't get me wrong, I love it. It may just be better to start out with 200$ Cuisinart first. Hey, then when you do a pop up you won't have to be like me and being forced to use dry ice instead of a good ice cream maker to make Black Sesame Gelato.(Actually, that works pretty well!) Buried Black Sesame Gelato made using Dry Ice Ice Cream Makers 1. Cuisineart ICE 50-70$ [Pic from AMAZON.COM] Let's start with one of the cheapest options. There are still cheaper, but this ice cream maker is around 50$ and does alright. It is the standard Cuisine Art ICE. I personally bought this one when I was about 18. It requires you freeze the core over night before spinning and hold about 1-1.5 quarts of ice cream. It doesn't do a very good job with gelato based products. Gelato should be made almost entirely of milk, vs. ice cream which often is half cream and half milk or some combination of the two. The lower fat content requires a lower freezing temperature for a longer period of time in order to avoid the formation of ice crystals. However, the Cuisine art freeze too fast per rotation. The cheap plastic blades of the cuisine art can't sheer the ice crystals. So if you are making a lower fat content product, it is obvious. However, if you are making peanut butter, Nutella, or olive oil gelato. It works great! I actually remember being in Culinary School and using this for my final product showing. I had to make enough for the whole school and there weren't enough Ice cream makers in the school. So I had to add in this puppy. Luckily, I had used it before, so I only used this for my Nutella and Peanut butter ice creams. Of course, the product came out amazing. 2.Cuisinart ICE-70 Electronic Ice Cream Maker, Brushed Chrome-90-120$ [Pic from AMAZON.COM] I didn't want this to feel like a Cuisine Art commercial, but they are often the cheaper options..... Similar to the previous Cuisine Ice cream maker. This one relies on a frozen core. These can be pains. So the reduced price tag comes with a lot of extra work. However, this model is better at handling lower fat products like gelato. It has a better blade and a stronger spin. Really, those are the best added features. Personally, I would buy the Gourmia GSI if I had to choose again. If you really just want to do this once, and then never plan to use this tool again. Then pick either of the cuisine arts. It touts an LCD display. I don't really know why. It really doesn't add that much to the user experience. A mechanical timer works just as well. I guess the LCD was break through technology for them. 3. Gourmia GSI-400 Sleek and Serve 200$-300$ [Pic from AMAZON.COM] I did say this was not a list of Ice Cream makers under 100$. In fact most of these ice cream makers will be more than 200$. The best ones sadly are :(. Now if you are like most people and can't afford these. Check out the previous recommendations. Most of these ice cream makers will be 200$ or more and often time, you will only find them in restaurants. This product is the first product with an actual compressor. This means it cools on its own. Unlike the Cuisine Arts that require a frozen core. It can be a little bit of a pain to clean. Any of the one piece cleaners have their difficulties because you can't really separate the pieces easily. Nevertheless, I love not having to freeze the core. Then you can easily do multiple batches. If you forget to freeze the core, no problem. This puppy just needs to spin. It can be noisy, because of the compressor. It is a small price to pay for the convenience 3.Lello Musso Pola Dessert Maker 900-1200$ [Pic from AMAZON.COM] Alright, now we are starting to play with some real power tools. This beauty can spin you a batch of Ice cream pretty quick. It doesn't have a cheap plastic blade, nope, it has a rotating metal blade that really helps shear through any of the ice crystal formation. Now, this puppy doesn't come cheap. It usually is well over 1000$ for an ice cream machine. However, it requires no frozen core and is a heavy duty champ. I used it a lot when I needed to spin a a separate batch. Typically, most of my gelato and ice cream was done in a Paco Jet, which is the next option.This could make a chocolate sorbet in about 7 minutes. It is very heavy though. So make sure you know where you want to put it. It does cause it to be difficult to clean. However, I have never seen this machine break. So if you don't mind it's heavy duty nature. This is a great ice cream machine. 4.Paco Jet [Pic from AMAZON.COM] Finally, I would say, most chef's personal favorite, as long as they don't have to pay for it. A paco jet is amazing. Instead of spinning liquid base, you freeze the base in canisters. This step does take longer. However, it offers the advantage of being able to spin what you need, when you need it. The way a Paco Jet works is it has a very solid metal blade that it spins at XXX rpm and sheers all the ice crystals. At the same time, it is aerating the gelato or ice cream. To make it even better, you can decide how far you want the blade to go. So if you only want to spin half of your tube and leave the other half for later. Well, that is an option. If you want to spin the whole thing, go for it. Trust me, fresh ice cream is just better. So if you are border line spinning to order. Your customers are going to get their ice cream at the best it could be! The downside, a 4-5K price tag. One final note, this is much easier to clean compare to any of the ones above. There are two parts to cleaning it. You need to clean the canisters, which can go through the dish washer. You also need to clean the actual machine. For that, you have a special insert. You just put in the insert with some water and cleaning solution(not soap). Spin it, dry, and done. Some of the ice cream makers above require you to tip the machine over, or put a frozen canister into the sink and try washing it. Way harder. 5. Dry Ice or Liquid Nitro For this last version. You should be careful and maybe even have an expert. The last thing you want is frost bite. If you want to learn about using these products you can email me or watch the video below! I would say use a slowly spinning kitchen aid, over a whisk. Again, Safety first. I am not responsible if you freeze off your thumb :). These were just my recommendations for good ice cream makers. I am sure some of you think differently. Please feel free to share what you prefer. Maybe your favorite ice cream to make? Now with your new ice cream maker. You will need a solid recipe. Check out the Gelato base in the Black Sesame Gelato recipe. You can use it to make any flavor you like. If you need help mixing in other flavors, feel free to ask!

I was just going to say the same thing! I haven't had to make it since culinary school. It is one of my favorites!

I love mint in salad dressings! I think it sounds like a great tradition.

That sounds great and yummy! I like doing a warmed Guanciale and sherry vinaigrette with some shallot and fresh herb. It taste great and goes great with bitter greens. The salt really cuts the bitterness. It can also go on a more sweet salad as well.

I guess there is a time and a place for everything :)!

I think this is the most rational statement towards why I dislike the idea of the "trash can nacho". It's not because Guy Fieri made it. Guy Fieri appeals to a certain audience. If people want to watch him, sadly, that is on them. However, even those people should like good nachos, and like you put it. If it sits on the pass and just gets soggy...well, what was the point?

I am sure these books have already been listed. I just wanted to list some of my favorite cook books as a cook. I really fell in love with each of these books. I have a longer list....but I trimmed it down for this post. You can read the full list if you want. However, the descriptions on these few are the exact same there are just a few more books!. I hope I gave proper credit for the pictures? All of them are from Amazon, also check out the links to the books! It helps support his awesome forum!...I didn't connect the first one because I still can't believe the price....... Grand Livre de Cuisine by Alain Ducasse This is by far my favorite recipe book. When I worked at the Herbfarm and did a lot of the pastry, I would pour through this book. The pictures are fantastic, and the recipes are great. Now that is a rare find. I do often find it is a trade off, good pictures, bad recipes or the other way around. This one is fabulous. Jut look at the picture on the front cover, this dessert is so simple, but is so delicious. Each page has pictures and recipes like that. Most of which are doable at home. Ducasse really had a way with desserts, and food in general. This book is worth every penny if I was rich... Nothing in this book really should challenge a home cook. The difference between what a chef and a home cook would make in the end is purely technique. The chefs would just have a better executed product...or we have a problem. So don't think you can't do these recipes. I believe in you. I am not sure if the price is accurate on Amazon.com!!! It was putting it close to 900-1000 USD. I find that so hard to believe. However, I never had to pay for it.. [PIC FROM AMAZON.COM] Flavor Bible by Little Brown The first book I would recommend any aspiring chef, cook even hobbyist is the flavor bible. It is not a cook book, it is more of a reference book. It helps develop any bodies understanding of how flavors work with each other. Don't worry about getting the fanciest cook books with the freshest techniques. Instead, especially as a cook starting out, your goal should be to understand food at the lowest levels. Dishes will come with time and experience. It is more important to understand what flavors pair well with thyme, paprika, lemons and so on. This book is great because it is written in such a way that any one can understand. You don't need any fancy kitchen equipment, or vacuum sealing machine. Just a few ingredients and time to read. It highlights the best flavor combinations in bold, and bold and stars for those that are classic, holy grail level combos. It even has example dishes from restaurants. Including a blurb from my old kitchen, Cafe Juanita![PIC FROM AMAZON.COM] On Food and Cooking by Harold McGee Before we start getting into the cook books, I have one more reference book I would recommend everybody who wants to be good at cooking get or read is On Food and Cooking. If you want to understand the science behind cheese, sweetness, and food in general. This book is amazing. When I first started at the Herbfarm, the current Sous Chef the time handed me this book and I couldn't get enough of it. Don't expect any pretty pictures, only basic diagrams of microbes and fauna here! Like the previous recommendation, I am a firm believer in understanding something at its lowest point first and then building from there. That way you can really make it your own. I say this a lot. However, if you want to break the rules like a master, learn the rules like a pro. Once you can wax on and wax off. No one can beat you! Not that this is a competition or anything. [PIC FROM AMAZON.COM] Manresa-The Edible Edition For the most part, I tend to dislike modern Chef recipe books. They often have impossible techniques for home cooks to try and it is not always a skill thing. Sometimes it is a equipment problem, a miscommunication in the recipe, maybe even just getting an ingredient. Cooking out of a Chef cook book is like any "Expectations vs. reality meme ever(Don't even get me started on Alinea's Cook book). Manresa was probably one of the better cook books that a home cook has some chance of scaling. If anything...the pictures are beautiful. The fossilized vegetables is a pretty cool dish. I have even followed some forums that have home cooks talking about making this specific dish. It does require pickling lime (if you don't want to pay for Manresa's Calx which is super expensive). This particular dish has you slow roast root veg that have been soaked in a pickling lime solution. In the end, it creates a petrified look and shell on the outside and a super soft inside. More than a little cool for a cook book. Again, if anything the pictures are great. [PIC FROM AMAZON.COM] Alice Waters :The Art of Simple Foods I am a little bit of a history nerd. Not necessarily do I know everything about history. However, I love knowing how concepts, movements, etc, got from point A to point B. One such movement is the slow food movement. This book was written by one of the Chefs that has played a large role in this movement. She came along much after the inception. Nevertheless, you can't here about Berkley or American slow food without Alice Waters coming into the conversation. She just has such a simple and beautiful way about food. There is no fuss or muss. She just makes good food. Alice Waters in not necessarily the first person to do it, and every country has had it's own start. In fact, I got to meet a lady very closely intertwined with the Beirut Slow Food Movement. It is however, a great bit of history to read into! [PIC FROM AMAZON.COM]

That looks beautiful! Is that slicer reliable? I am used to restaurant grade machinery and so I am curious what to buy for home use?

I have never had beans?? Were they wet? I have always had tomatoes, and peaches. I remember i would be in charge of wrapping them in garbage bags every night. The problem is the eggs were on the fruits themselves. So I would open the bag and find lots of new flies inside....