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I haven’t forgotten. Honest. Sorry it took me so long to finish. Here’s the recap of the seminars at the World Pastry Forum. Sweet Pairing Process with Dominique and Cindy Duby They gave some basic info about basic varietals of dessert wines, the regions they come from and the characteristics of each. We tasted many different wines pairing them with small samples of desserts. They gave some basic pairing guidelines, for example, fortified wines are good paired with chocolate, caramel, nuts or dried fruits, sparkling wines go well with fruit mousse or soufflé, fruit salad or soup and icewine pairs well with fall or stone fruits, crème brulee or bread pudding . They pointed out the fact that the temperature of your dessert can make an intense difference in your pairing and we tried something served warm and cold to show us by taste the difference it made. It’s good to choose a wine slightly sweeter than your dessert. The proper cleaning of wine glasses was shown by passing around a glass of champagne that had been ringed at the top with lipstick to show the fact that both dishwasher soap and lipstick take the bubbles out of champagne. That was kind of cool to know. It was good to have the “tongues on” approach to class. It helps to taste what you’re learning. Media & Publicity with Wayne Brachman Very specialized area geared toward those interested in tv or books. He insisted that the best way to get press in the first place is to just simply be a great pastry chef. When approached by a journalist for info, he recommended that you “do their job for them”. Don’t just tell them a little about the subject they’re asking about. Tell them everything. Be their complete source when they have questions so they’ll return to you again and again. Don’t know it all? Learn to say, “I’m really busy right now…can I call you back?” Go do the research and call them back with the answers they need. He talked a little about how to write a book proposal and pitch it to a publisher and said to get used to the fact that everyone has their own format. He gave tips on appearing on television. Be the best buddy of the host and keep an “imbecilic smile on your face at all times”. A straight face on tv “looks like your dog died”. He mentioned Jacques Pepin as a great person to study to learn how to move for the camera and how to let your camera man know where you’re going. He spent a lot of time at the end answering everyone’s questions. Talking Taste with Patrick Coston and Clay Gordon Another very interactive seminar and it was a lot of fun. Clay taught us how to properly taste chocolate by breaking off a piece, looking for a clean snap. Chew a couple of times and press it against the roof of your mouth with the back of your tongue and take in air to pick up the aromas. We did some tasting of individual flavors each done several different ways. Patrick talked of training your palette and trying one flavor in as many incarnations as you can to figure out which way you like it best. Clay made flash cards with a single ingredient on each of a fruit, vegetable, dairy item, nut, spice or herb. He shuffled and dealt 3 cards to each place setting. With those three flavors, we were to design a dessert. Cumin-cashews-lemon became a cumin cashew praline with lemon sorbet. Cilantro-tomato-hazelnut became dessert nachos, a hazelnut tortilla/tuille with a tomato peach vanilla salsa topped with cilantro crème fraiche ice cream. Pineapple- basil-sesame seeds became a pineapple mousse with basil gelee and a sesame seed nougatine. In the hands of Johnny Iuzzini of Jean-Georges, black current-cashew-cinnamon became a black current Indian style ice cream (starts with a p?) in a cashew crust with a cinnamon anglaise. It was another situation where it’s cool to see wannabes side by side with big names and all sharing the same passion. It was a great exercise to get the creative juices flowing. In retrospect, I wish I had spent more time at the tradeshow. There are a lot of really great people there to meet and a lot of products to try firsthand. It’s good to make the contacts and get to know the stories behind some of the people. I’ll admit the first time I saw the advertisement for Amoretti perfume spray, my reaction was “whatever” but now that I’ve checked it out, it makes perfect sense. You do lose a lot of the smell when you chill desserts and we do eat with all our senses. It makes sense that if customers can smell the dessert coming to the table, sales will increase. It was great to visit the JB Prince booth and physically flip through books that I’ve considered buying online. And there were so many demonstrations that were basically mini versions of the classes we had with some of the same instructors. The tradeshow alone is reason enough to go. Next year, I will definitely spend more time there.

My aunt has a great recipe that I lost and I've been trying to get it out of her again for awhile. I'll try harder. It was always my favorite at the family potluck as a child.

There is also a recipe in Gordon Ramsey's Desserts that he claims is great. It's the only reason I bought some but I've yet to try the recipe.

Hey! There's my lunch again! Yes, there was a lot of smoke to the pork ribs. A lot of smoke for my sensitive tastes. The beef were a little more subtle but I thought the smoke was pretty strong on the pork. Now I remember how much I liked the beef ribs. I'll have to try the chicken some day.

Oh, and the owner of First Impressions is Donnie. Ellen or Denise would be good people to talk to. You can say you're a friend of Pam Wilkinson.

I would take a menu down to First Impressions, maybe a few cookies and say "Hi". I know when they do double header classes they offer a box lunch for in between the two classes if people want to order it. Usually it happens on saturdays but if they have a special artist in town teacher, they sometimes do it midweek. And they have employees that look for a quick lunch and can always head customers in your directions if they ask where to go for lunch after shopping.

I was thinking again last night about the hole it left when the original bakery closed. The bakery almost seems to anchor the neighborhood and keep the small neighborhood feel to the area even though it's becoming a trendy little area for going out to dinner with all the small restaurants and big wine lists. It's frightening to think of it being anything else, like another damn Starbuck's or something like that. I'm glad Mel had the vision. It would have changed the whole neighborhood to have anything else in that spot. I don't care how many bakeries we have in town. That neighborhood needs it's little bakery. It belongs there.

I've done it with Republic of Tea's vanilla almond "sweeten the mind" tea and it was absolutely killer. The thought came to me because as it sits on my desk each morning, it gets more flavorful as it cools. (I take it with creamer and sugar.) So, it seemed like a natural progression...if it tastes so good cool...wouldn't it be awesome frozen? And it is. Just steep in the cream and toss it in the ice cream maker.

The thanks goes to extramsg for the photos and I had the tart cherry and hazelnut brioche this weekend and it was great!

Ok...yum! I would have liked to tried the chocolate chili ice cream. Way cool.

Go, Mel...go, Mel...go, Mel!!!!

I remember seeing it at QFC. In the produce section in a cold case with the salad dressings I believe.

Thanks for doing that Nick! You rock!

We'll see if I can make this work...I've been having troubles with links to extramsg.com but we'll try it. Photos of Criollo. http://www.extramsg.com/modules.php?set_al...lbum.php&page=1

We had a dessert sampler in Vegas at Aqua at the Bellagio and they used a small scoop of root beer sorbet as well as a scoop of ice cream in a little mini root beer float and as far as I was concerned it was the best thing in the whole dessert tasting. It's been kind of haunting me and I've been thinking I'll have to give it a try making it. Tell us how it goes Tan.

That's the one I remember blowing me away when we tasted them in class and the one I keep thinking about trying now that I'm home. I'll have to give it a shot.

Thanks for the input Clay!

I just feel that the point had been made. And I'm sure it's been argued in a larger arena than eGullet by people much more influential. (not that our opinion isn't important...that's not what I'm saying here) How loud and long does it need to be shouted to realize that we just don't agree on it? Sometime it all comes across just a little bit intense. But I honestly believe that we are here with the same purpose over all to share and help the pastry industry grow.

I don't see this event as corrupt or becoming corrupt. Who thinks the event is dumb? I got lost here somehwere, Wendy. Yes, I'm giving up because it's just picking apart a really, truly great event that a lot of people work very hard on and it's being picked apart for the sake of arguing online. This had taken a spiral downward and become negative and I hate to see that. We originally came in to share the amazing things we saw and experienced. I'm going to step out to hopefully help this whole argument fizzle out. It's all opinion and like I said before...let's just agree to disagree.

I think it's all just an agree to disagree situation. The first time someone comes in with just a couple of paychecks earned in this country and wins the world competition as a US competitor, I'm sure they'll probably put in some new rule. Until then, I doubt anyone will lose much sleep over it. Over all, despite some people's issues with the details, it is a great competition and I do hope you come out and join us next time. We had a blast!

Actually, it's my understanding that it's not the truth in sporting events. Someone just told me that Greece was so hard up for athletes in certain events that they have changed the rulings for things so that in order to represent Greece you can be 2nd or 3rd generation meaning if your parents or grandparents are from Greece, you can be on their teams. It's my understanding that their soccer teams are mostly made up of Americans.

Just tellin' it like it is, Papi...just tellin' it like it is.

A man that cooks for his woman....(sigh) gotta love it. Can we clone you, Nick?

www.anthonybourdain.com but last I knew there was nothing listed yet.

Oh, and by the way... welcome to the club, Confiseur!