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Oh yeah. Mint juleps are the absinthe of the "genteel" south. I'll be posting a recipe later in the week. In the meantime, please feel free to to seek out some audio of the song "One Mint Julep". Count Basie has an early version, and Ray Charles has a more frequently-heard version. I'll be back in the morning, Eastern Standard Time. 'Night.

Very nicely played, ludja! All these will be featured in some fashion in my upcoming posts. Anyone else? Bueller?

Katie, I'll give you a hint... There's a little bit of red wax on the edge of the sole of my shoe. As for coming to Kentucky, well... there are seven bourbon distilleries within 75 miles of each other in central Kentucky. So there ya go.

Thanks, Farid! Although I would say that horses and women in the same sentence call up another image....Godiva. She of (recently) the chocolates. I'll post some more in the morning. Time for my beauty/stamina sleep. Homework: Everybody (in the appropriate time zones) - look up the Kentucky Derby and post what you think the most important Kentucky Derby foodstuffs are. This quiz will count toward your grade. See you all tomorrow.

Ahh….the Kentucky Derby. The Mardi Gras of the Mason-Dixon Line. The Kentucky Derby Festival kicks off a couple weeks before Derby Weekend every year. In Louisville, that means tons of fabricated quasi-holidays will be carved out of the two weeks leading up to Derby. Naturally, people have to be fed at all these events. This week, I’ll try to document (to the best of my ability) the events I’m going to be involved in. Here’s a little preview of what’s coming up in my Derby blog: 1) A plated dinner for 275 people 2) A tour of a small-batch bourbon distillery 3) My first attempt at an Indian dish, for a wedding tasting 4) A visit to the Derby Pie production facility 5) A fancy reception at a glassblowing factory 6) A schmancy retirement cocktail party 7) Derby weekend breakfasts at a fabulous bed & breakfast …and more. So much more! So stay tuned, gentle readers.

My full-time job is in the restaurant within the Kentucky Center. The Kentucky Center is a multi-stage concert venue where the Kentucky Opera, Louisville Ballet, Louisville Orchestra and Broadway Series perform. I guess I’m the pastry chef. If you’d call the bistro and ask for the pastry chef, you’d get me. If you asked a server to speak to the pastry chef, they’d come and get me. I feel uncomfortable with the “pastry chef” handle, since I didn’t take the extra pastry courses in school, nor did I get a baking & pastry degree. However, I’m responsible for all the desserts that get served in the bistro and at our catering events. Some I make from scratch. Some I don’t. I’m sure most of you will be able to tell the difference from the photos I’ll post. In addition to pseudo-pastry-cheffing-type duties, my other duties are: Ordering Receiving Inventory Sanitation Catering (that is, I oversee that all catering cooking is being executed. Nothing to do with catering sales). More detail will follow about all these later.

…to Louisville, KY, USA: Home to premium bourbon, beautiful horses and fast women, as they say. Every year in this city, thousands of banners like the one above begin appearing in mid-April draped over anything that’s stationary. If you work in the food industry, that’s your cue to roll up your sleeves, order tons of extra product, and break out your “F.A.B.O.D.” t-shirt to surreptitiously wear under your chef’s jacket. (In case you didn’t guess, that stands for “F*#@ A Bunch Of Derby” – lots of cooks and servers in town own similar shirts.) In typical Derby Week fashion, I’m gearing up here for several 14-to-16-hour days in a row this week. I’m also in the middle of moving house from one part of town to another. And as if that weren’t enough to keep me busy, I offered - in a bourbon-induced moment of temporary insanity, to be sure – to be eGullet’s foodblogger for Derby Week. So saddle up and ride along with me, your intrepid culinary Girl Friday, as I juggle my many hats at two different jobs (more on that later) in the race to feed the throngs of locals and tourists alike during the run-up to “The Most Exciting Two Minutes in Sports” - The Kentucky Derby!

Your Pavlova (pavlovas? what's the plural?) are beautiful, Pam. After this is all over, i'd be interested in your (basic) recipe. I have to make it for 75 people two weeks from now....and i've never made it before

Believe me...i'm no fan of Paris Hilton, but even she cooks. I saw her make lasagna for their host family on "Interns" the other week. Sometimes the remote goes missing...

I'm definitely in the "what an insult" camp. Because, at least in this region, nobody calls ahead, they ALWAYS want you to a)keep the cake in the fridge during dinner, and b) plate and garnish it. Try telling these people on the spot that they're subject to a plating fee - what happens is they get pissed off and the waitron's potential tip goes waaaay down. And, like someone said upthread, 90% of the time it's some hideous grocery store deli cake with turquoise icing. High chair? Here ya go. Make your pasta dish without garlic? Done. No truffled mash because you're on Atkins? Enjoy your side of vegetables. Barbecued salmon without the barbecue? No problem, that saves us money and prep time. Bring your own cake? Rude. I can make that cake. I can make a better cake. Matter of fact, had you not brought that birthday cake, one of us would have brought you a free dessert. That being said - the bistro i work in doesn't have any strict policy against it. There doesn't seem to be any successful way of making everybody happy. So we just suck it up. But believe me, i have hard feelings every time it happens.

Good Lord, Bill - i can't believe you accomplished all that planning and execution in less than a week. It's hard to believe that crab dish doesn't taste as good as it looks! That's a beautiful plate! My toque is off to you, sir. Heh.

One thing fennel is lovely in is crabcakes! Click here for the recipe for the fennel crabcakes we serve where i work. Another thing we use it a lot for is a finely-chopped fennel slaw (like cole slaw, but with fennel in place of cabbage) which makes a great garnish.

I thought i heard angels begin to sing as i read this. Sadly, the singing ground to a ragged halt when i refreshed the screen only to find this was not your final word.

Why do you think that is? Sounds like some odd psychological effect. ← I think i can guess. If i dine at a restaurant where i know the chef or some employee(s), an amuse bouche is fine because it's usually complimentary to every diner. But if Chef or Sous comp a dish or send free drinks or free dessert (unless they know it's a special occasion) on my first visit, i might be hesitant to return any time soon - simply because i'm afraid they might think that i expect the same treatment on subsequent visits. Whereas, if the whole meal was comped, i might feel more comfortable returning sooner because i'd hope they'd know i surely would not assume my whole meal would be comped every time i hit the door. That really is an odd psychological effect, isn't it? But that's what i came up with after i thought about it for a minute.

heh heh heh - good one. Can't wait to tell my boss; i'm sure he'll say "good to know." It's a common misconception. Some high-end, well-run restaurants make a lot of money, but the vast majority of well-run restaurants struggle just to stay afloat. It's the poorly-run restaurants that close.

I keep my knives in my kit on my desk, unless i'm using them. I will lend to certain people that i know will not abuse my tools. Understand, i have a separate pastry kitchen - but if i put my knives on the magnet strip, some fool will grab them to open boxes with or stab a jar lid to make it easier to open. NON! I believe Bourdain said it best in Kitchen Confidential: "Don't touch my dick, don't touch my knife." Also, please have your knives engraved!!

Nathan's skinny, longer-than-the-bun-on-both-ends hot dog with Beaver brand deli mustard with ground horseradish. My roommate brought this mustard home from the store the other day, so excited. Four hours later, he's asking me "did you taste the mustard yet?" I hadn't. Couldn't see what the big deal would be, i've had horseradish mustard before. Boy, was i wrong. That is the best commercial mustard i've ever had, hands down. I bought some Beaver "Maui Onion" mustard today at the store, haven't tried it yet.

I might be wrong, but somehow i feel that Lucy already knows what a tarte tatin is. Also (still might be wrong) - aren't those tarte tatins in the foreground of the picture? I think we'll have to wait for the L and L reunion (it's only an ocean away) to wind down before we have the answer edited to guess: persimmon tart?

Gorgeous! Sweet job on the garnish.

Kris and others: it's easy to create a substitute "buttermilk" by placing one tablespoon of lemon juice or distilled white vinegar in a measuring cup and adding enough whole milk to make one cup. Let it stand for 10 minutes in the fridge before using. Not tasty enough to drink, but plenty good enough for fried chicken marinade. I prefer the lemon juice version. I'm so curious...why no buttermilk in Japan?

Okay...i'm finally going to ask this question; it's been bugging me for a long time. I'm sure the answer is absurdly simple, so lay it on me: Why do most red velvet cake recipes call for vinegar? It's never enough to impart any taste, so i'm assuming it's a chemical reaction thing, but why only in red velvet cake and not other chocolate cakes? Apologies if this has been covered before. I searched and couldn't find the answer on site.

Ducky: Please don't freeze that beautiful wheel of cheese! Cut the wheel into manageable wedges and wrap them seperately, first in parchment, then in foil or plastic wrap. Don't put the plastic wrap directly next to the cheese. Put as much of it as you can into the fridge, and the rest in your cool room. Peel off the wrapping from time to time to check the quality; if it starts to get too sweaty, start thinking about giving some of it away (or trading it for something else!) Grated parm can be frozen; it won't be as good as not frozen, but still okay for sauces. And you may certainly freeze the rinds, and save for soup.

That's nothing - when i first read your post about "Ed" i initially, mistakenly thought somehow that Ed O'Neill (Al from "Married with Children") was gonna be playing Bourdain. What you said about coffee.

Wendy, i have a lot of confidence in the Godiva recipe linked above, and i've substituted all sorts of other liqueurs for the Godiva, and even skipped the liqueur entirely. Why not just replace the Godiva with a couple shots of Pernod and/or add some fennel seed? I've made hundreds of these as "bye-byes". Only problems i ever had with the recipe was failing to beat the egg mixture long enough when i was in a hurry.

I'll skip over the FN and other obvious celebrity chefs, since they've been well-covered above. I used to love those two guys on "Cucina Amore" on PBS. One of them was a Carraba (as in Carraba's), and the other one was his cousin, i think. Anybody seen this guy G. Garvin's show "Turn Up the Heat" on TV One? I've watched him a couple times and haven't made my mind up yet, but some of the food he makes looks really tasty. Some good-lookin' recipes linked off the show's page, as well.