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But if it were someone non-French and someone you knew, could you imagine doing that job yourself and explaining to them why? And would we really expect them to impose all this red tape on all the teams? Like everyone has to show up with birth certificates and all? It's a joke. And like I said, people would bitch even harder the other way. It's one of those things that you can't please everyone. I think overall they do a great job. Could one of us do it better?

I'm trying to imagine walking in to my crew of 350 and telling them that we've got this great thing set up but the only one that can be involved is the one white kid on my crew because the rest of them are not "real" Americans. Once again, it's one thing to sit around and bitch online about something. Reality is something entirely difference. Do we really expext them to change the rules as to who can enter and who can't? Wouldn't that just make people bitch all the louder about them being heavy-handed? Maury spent a lot of time in class tapping the flag on the chest of his jacket and talking about this being his home now. Who's going to be the one to walk up to him and say "Yeah, you live here, and you do amazing work but you can't compete any more now that you live here. Your competition days are over because you're not a real American."????

Yes, we were given a notebook with all the recipes from the classes although there was a lot of "This is what the recipe says, but this is what I do." They handed out recipes in some of the demos done during the trade show too. They were mini versions of the classes we had during the week. Looks like I should have spent a little more time at the trade show. You caught many things I missed Fred. Very cool stuff.

Just being silly...

The more I think about it...obsessed bunch of motherfuckers... that just screams "Spank me, Mommie." I'm not sure though. It is kind of hard to hear you mumbling through that Pixie bar in your mouth. Be careful of picking on girls, M'ijo...some like to spank back!

Who you callin' obsessed Mr. Msg? Obsessed? Ya' think? Smart ass. Hopefully he'll be stoppin' in at Powell's again but I'm hopin' to come up to Seattle to dine with the Seattle eG'ers and Ruffians.

Take the #33 Fremont bus from Gateway or Downtown. From the airport, the redline max stops at gateway and there is a stop there for the #33 bus. Get off at the stop on 48th and Fremont and she's a half a block away from the Alameda Brew pub. The big iron hops flower hanging off the front of the building at the brew pub always works for me as a landmark.

I was so glad to have you there Fred! Your photos were so much better than mine! I've been meaning to get back to this and talk about the seminars and the trade show too.

Yah know, I don't. I just barely got a computer at home. I suppose that's the next step in this addiction, isn't it? I'll see what I can do though. I don't know if my picture taking can do it justice. It's really nice. I'll work on it.

And Mel mentioned that she'd really love to be in here chatting. She's just busy working 20 hours a day. She showed me the sofa in the back where she sleeps maybe two hours after closing on the weekends and before she gets up to start the next morning's pastries. She has before and after shots that her Dad took that I'm looking forward to. It was pretty nasty when she first got the place. She's worked so hard. Not only quite the baker but plummer, electrician, etc., etc. Anybody in Portland should head on over and check it out. Her stuff is great. Tuesday - Thursday 7am-7pm friday-saturday 7am-10pm sunday 7am-3pm

Keegan and Jennifer tried to keep up with explaining the desserts and who it was coming from when they could get a camera shot of it up but it was a little chaotic and if you we're out with the judges, you couldn't listen to them. I'd like to see a special issue of Pastry Arts with everything in it. I'm feeling the need for a french dictionary myself Fern. Entremet is basically cake. Entremet glace is ice cream cake and petit gateaux is small cakes. Bon bons are chocolate, petit fours are the bites size cakes and then chocolate and sugar showpiece. Are those all the categories? They aren't about flavors like the coupe de monde where it was mentioned that the cake is chocolate. At the WPTC the categories were really basic and open.

Stopped in last night. Lots to report. At work. I'll have to write more later. But my first impression when I walked in the door was "WOW!" the place looks nice! So much nicer than it was before. It's clean, beautiful, open, warm and inviting. Before I even got off the bus, I could smell the cake in the air. OMG! Was offered a sample of the chocolate truffle cake and I expexted it to be good but DAMN! The girl can bake. I melted right into my shoes. After chowin' down on potato, onion and rosemary focaccia ( which was killer) I introduced myself to Mel and got the grand tour. I am so totally blown away by all the work she's done. More later. (Workin' for a livin' just gets in the way of livin', don't it?)

I say start out with The Making of a Pastry Chef. Not to learn about making pastry but about the job and the industry. It was a good eye-opener. Glamorous, highpaying job? Not really. You do it for the love of it. The Le Cordon Bleu Dessert book is a good basic book for a little bit of money that is good for that person in your life that just wants one dessert book on the shelf but it has lots of cool little tips through it too. Professional Baking is good as well as The Professional Pastry Chef to start on the basics. I've been considering school and have been told by several people in the industry not to waste my time and money. They would rather see me start working for them and learn as I go. Many encourage you to go work for free on your weekends or evenings to get in a kitchen and get a feel for is this really what you want to do. I've read a number of interviews of people that are self taught as well. Not to discourage you from school but there are definately two different schools of thought out there. And there's always the world pastry forum that you can do in a week. Tons of information and gave me a good feeling of how deep into this I want to go. There are many levels here.

I had a fennel panna cotta recently that was to die for. Anybody seen a recipe? I've been meaning to try Claudia Fleming's panna cottas. They sound great. And as a funky side note, don't ever bother with Alton Brown's panna cotta brain recipe. It has way too much gelatin in it. Total rubber.

It never tastes like soap and even though the flavor is strong, it's not overpowering, even to someone sensitive like me. Elizabeth's chocolates rock! I didn't think I liked lavender until I tried her stuff.

Awesome photos, Neil! Thanks! Yours turned out great! And thank you for the company in Vegas! Hopefully we'll do dinner again soon! Pam

I popped in and caught it by chance. Interesting to see all the extra stuff with the US and Canadian teams practicing and the little clip they did of Rudi's show and his team practice as well. Cool stuff.

Those are the right measurements but I didn't get anything in my notes of how he mixes it up. Maybe someone else would have more in their notes. His accent was thick and the class moved quickly. I might have been fielding questions from a fellow student at that point too. I don't know why I got so many questions during class but I did. Fred said I have this confidence that I seem to exude that I've never figured out ...why does everyone think I know it all? I think I was fiedling questions at that point and saying "I dunno...ask the chef!"

Went to a wedding over the weekend that was fairly non-traditional in a lot of ways. The wedding party and a good number of the guests were dressed in renaissance style garb (think Man in the Iron Mask) and I knew they hadn't ordered a wedding cake yet when I left for the world pastry forum. I half expected to be asked when I came home but instead the bride and groom decided what they really wanted was fresh fruit. They took clear plastic punch cups and layered them with fresh raspberries and blueberries and arranged the cups in tiers to replace the cake. Beside it was two wine carafes on ice filled with sweetened cream. It was perfect. Somtimes simple is truly best.

Oh, and a quick note Wendy...if you do go next time, the whole posse agreed that we want to do it again. It was well worth it. And it was a lot more fun with the group.

Power went out at work last night and I didn't get out until 9 pm...sorry. It will be next week until I can get over there and be able to report. I really wanted that cake too. Damn.

That was the big sign for me that it was meant to be. In my 10 years here, I've only taken a full week vacation once and no matter how much I train others to do my job, it's been made clear to me that the world apparently doesn't spin properly on it's axis without me. When my boss said "yes" I looked at him and said "Yes? A week and a half?" I got a look like don't ask again and run away fast, little girl. So, back to the gelatin thing. Not 5 to 1 parts but pounds! He talked about different blooms and how US tends to be 110 bloom while the japanese tend to have 600 bloom. He prefers powder to leaves because leaves absorb too much moisture when working in a warm environment. We questioned his cubes and he said he does everything with them and has adjusted all his recipes to read X amount of cubes for his assistants. He said 5 pounds water to 1 pound gelatin, he mixes it up once a week and they keep in the fridge for one week and in the freezer for one year. He said he reuses gelatin when he has used a large amount to do a mold. That's all I have in my notes. Things moved pretty quickly in that class.

Headed there tonight before a wedding rehearsal dinner...will munch and report tomorrow.

About the theme...I have to say that I loved the theme of "the four elements" this year. From the point of view of an artist, it was a much easier theme to work with than we've seen in the past. I don't know what I would do with a theme of Vegas or Broadway shows but earth, wind, fire and water...I was dreaming up my own sugar showpiece design before I even got to the competition. Very cool. Very inspiring.

Wish you could have been there, Wendy! Maybe next time. I still have more to write about the tradeshow and the seminars but I have a wedding this weekend so... lots to do. I'll try to get back to posting more soon! It was a truly wonderful experience. For personal reasons, I am unable to leave home for long periods of time to go away to school. I was blown away at how much I could accomplish there in just a week. It was phenomenal. My head is still spinning.