inventolux

This book is beautiful with some good content however it is a little depressing to read.

Every bottle of Kistler I have sampled has always been a pleasurable experience. For the money, I think they are great values as well. Their pinot noirs are also amazingly rich and complex but very difficult to find.

For home entertaining consisting of 20 guests or more. Rent all of the stemware. Saves a lot of stress and time.

What if you placed a 2 inch thick slab of super insulating silicone in an oven and baked on top of that. Do you suppose that would provide the even heating desired for this type of heat transfer?

Use 2 metal bowls for best results. They should be about 8 inches in diameter for every head of garlic. The beauty about this trick is the enzyme that is released from the garlic (im sure everyone is familiar with the stickyness of a crushed garlic) sticks to the bowl and the skins then stick to the bowl thus peeling the garlic. You can peel this way much faster than using a cleaver or pretty much any other method that I am aware of.

Interesting point.

Placing unpeeled garlic inside 2 bowls facing each other and shaking. Viola - instant peeled garlic.

A smaller clarification yet, the link brings up only those among the most popular restaurants in the Zagat survey that can be booked through OpenTable. Most popular SF restaurants as per Zagat: 1) Boulevard 2) French Laundry 3) Gary Danko 4) Aqua 5) Chez Panisse 6) The Slanted Door 7) Chez Panisse Cafe 8) Bistro Jeanty 9) Delfina 10) Farallon Food-wise, the top two rated restaurants are Gary Danko and French Laundry (both 29 for food), followed by Sierra Mar (in Big Sur), Masa's, the Ritz-Carlton Dining Room and Chez Panisse at the 28 level. Fifth Floor, which has gotten some good reviews on this board, is only rated as a 25 for food, though in Zagat's defence, the surveying for the 2003 guide is actually done in early to mid 2002. There is no way in a billion years that boulevard or GD should ever be rated higher for food or anything for that matter than TFL. That is a tragedy of magnanimous proportions. I hate politics.

Im not sure I follow your statement.

Jonathan: I am interested in hearing more about this as I don't recall a bread service when I was there in 2000...or maybe I didn't eat any..? I was at El Bulli over this past march and they refrained from serving bread at that time. Its definitely not their style to do so. (unless its a toasted bread cotton candy)

Guillermo Tellez (CT's first chef de cuisine) will be heading up the kitchen. He incorporates a lot of mexican ingredients/techniques into his cuisine so the menu will be sort of a mexicanesque/ct style. I assume the ingredients will follow the same CT tradition; obtain all of the top ingredients from around the world reguardless of cost.

Check out this web site. Click on the dining section.

Raw by Roxanne Klein and Charlie Trotter

Waiters make more for the simple fact they usually sell items to the guest. Chefs dont sell anything. It business basics. They put on smiles in front of people they may hate, they have to deal with chefs egos, strict dress codes, being personable bot not overbearing. That deserves higher pay. Service is more important than food. Wages reflect that. Im not saying its right, thats just the way it is and will continue to be for a long time. Its much easier to staff a kitchen full of talent than it is to staff a dining room full of talent. Example...how many waitstaff training programs vs chef schools are there out there. Supply and demand. The restaurant world has focused heavily on the food end and not enough on the service end. Once again, wages reflect that.

This makes good sense. Do we know anything about the likelihood of a chef being able to attract outside capital for a start-up? In other words, what kind of experience do "restaurant angel investors", if they exist, look for in financing a chef in a new venture? What does it take to move from top salaried chef to chef-owner? The analogy with lawyers is apropros, because you can get internal financing for a new startup (where a chef-owner finances one of his star salaried chefs in a new venture, as Gordon Ramsay did with Marcus Wareing) or external financing, where a salaried chef jumps ship and starts a new place. Is there any data available on how often these moves happen, and on what terms? In a large metropolitan law firm the likelihood that an entering associate will become an equity (senior) partner is something like 1:12 or 1:15, right? Do we know what the probabilities are for a new line cook becoming a chef-owner? (I am guessing that no such data has been assembled, but it never hurts to ask). Hard work and crafty salesmanship. If a culinary leader wants to lure investors, he has to sell himself. There is no across the board criteria investors have for a restaurant team leader. However the best investors are in it for the passion and arent afraid to spend what it takes to obtain the best team possible. On the flipside, the best leaders arent looking for the top salaried positions or they would be seeking employment for a large corporation like aramark. So the two go hand in hand. I dont believe in trying to achieve a "top salaried" position. That goal would be a conflict of my goals to create a great restaurant. I believe if you love what you do, money shouldnt be a large factor of the overall picture. That goes along with being hospitable, in the most hospitable restaurants, the costs are higher, the profit is smaller, the internal reward is much greater. If a culinary leader wants to run and own his/her own restaurant then only they will know when they are ready. The only thing standing in their way is confidence. One reason why a line cook may not open his/her own restaurant is because of a lack of a "management title". But thats all it is really, a title. That title wont make any difference once they are in charge. To answer the question are cooks underpaid......absolutely, without a doubt, totally underpaid. Sometimes for good reason, although usually not.

I think this book will piss off a lot of people and make jerimiah some serious cash in the process.

When will america substitute cryovac parties for tupperware parties?

You cook. My wife and I will show you how professionals eat. Hmm... bit scared to on the basis of your pictures. Im a bit scared because youre a self proclaimed professional.

Avant garde white trash dinner entree celebrating the end of Nascar season. Government cheese gratinee of spam, wonder bread pudding with canned button mushrooms and pabst blue ribbon emulsion.

?? This makes me feel great about my profession. Lets talk Louis Pasteur, food chemist and inventor. With his lack of brains and intellect he was able to make dairy products relatively safe for human consumption. Mayonnaise was invented by a French chef working for Duke de Richelieu in 1756. An amazing accomplishment given the lack of utensils available at the time necessary to emulsify egg yolks and oil. In 1853 a Native American named George Crum invented the potato chip. It may sound like a ramedial feat, but that idea has spawned every bag of chips you see today. Lets not forget that geniuses come in physical and mental forms. In my opinion as chefs move closer to the line of "true creativity" while being required to work on their feet 12 to 16 hours a day, we will see a combination of physical and mental brilliance sprouting up all over the globe. Mental and physical stamina are the requirements of a chefs job. Conditioning will breed progress in both areas and culinary school programs are the perfect way to begin stimulation. The only thing that requires a lack of brains and intellect is close mindedness. Sorry if that is out of line.

"The muffin man obtains a fully charged icing anointment utensil and proceeds to anoint a dense yet radiant muffin of his own design" -Frank Zappa-

I think this guy is onto something.

avant garde white trash dish for the chinese new year celebration: Top Ramen crusted Gortons Fish Sticks with jiffy peanut butter emulsion, saltine cracker puree and hot dog rinds.

Schools are great opportunities to see what it wont be like when you get your first job. However its a great time to experiment and ask lots of questions. Just stray from the cooks in school who slack off. Break time? Take 5 not 30. Youre paying for it, get tho most out of it. Dont know how to make that crazy liquid center ice cube you heard about? Now is time to investigate. Dont understand the purpose of sonic waves and how they cook food? Find out. A cook should have at least a sliver of an idea what THEIR voice in food will sound like ten years down the road. Culinary schools are great for that.

"I bought a box of dehydrated water and it says to just add water" - Steven Wright