zilla369
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Posts posted by zilla369
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Hm, i'm confused. We learned BETHV. That's five. So, obviously (i think?), your instructor means that demi is the "sixth, unofficial" - yes?
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You know that is illegal; you must be paid for all the time you work. Your restaurant could be liable (fined, and forced to pay all back wages). Be very careful- plus, don't give away your labor!
I should mention that no one's asked me to do this. And i'm sure it will get old eventually. I don't plan to do it forever - but the restaurant is new and so am I.
Actually, i'm not even sure they're aware i'm doing it. I mean, obviously Chef knows i'm coming in before shift starts at 2:30. He's the first one there and the last one out. But I don't know that he realizes i'm not clocking in when i first get there.
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Lemon juice! Will that make my berry puree shiny? It tastes fabulous, but the lack of shine was puzzling me. Thanks!
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Back-tracking, are you saying you macerate your raspberries for your naploeons, then keep that juice and recycle it into your rasp. puree?
i save the whole thing - bourbon-and-sugar marinated berries that are either beginning to foam or are disintegrating too much to look attractive on the napoleon.
I cook the whole thing until reduced.
Then i puree and run through a small-hole china cap, and then the results of that i run through a chinois.
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How many hours a day?
12, 13?
you're not on salary, are you?
Just curious
11 to 13 hours a day.
You'll all yell at me, but i get there about 12 - 12:30 and don't clock in on the Squirrel until 2:30, because i know they are nervous about paying overtime. So i get paid for about an 8 hour day and one hour of overtime.
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You know its funny. You'd think if you Google-searched for "Burger King Baguette" eGullet would pop right up. Nope.
But the people at MommieTalk.com are right on the case sailing high on Google and talking about how "awesome" the sandwich is.
Tons of "Mommies" on eGullet. Why can't you guys talk about how Awesome the Baguette is?
Attention Mommietalk Moms! Have I got a book for you!
LOL!
Cucumber Rounds with Crabmeat
INGREDIENTS:
1/4 cup mayonnaise, Best Foods® or Hellmann's®
1 teaspoon prepared horseradish, Morehouse®
1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard, French's®
1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce, Lea & Perrins®
1 can (4.25-ounce) crabmeat, Geisha®
1/2 large unpeeled English hothouse cucumber, cut crosswise into 16 thin slices (about 1/4-inch-thick slices)
8 pimiento-stuffed green olives, sliced, Star®
Prep Time: 15 minutes [
How could it take 15 min. when all the ingredients are pre-prepared?] i don't have any kids, but i suspect it might take 15 minutes just to slice the cucumbers if one did.
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BTW, are you doing all this stuff solo?
No Assistant? No help?
Cause 192 on a Satuday night is a hellavu lot of covers !
Glad you're rocking it up!
All me, except on my day off, the other pantry people plate my desserts, but i try to make sure they don't have to produce anything, just plate stuff. No help to speak of (except the odd "hey, your cream is boiling!") and certainly no assistant.
Out of 190, according to records, only about 60 people would normally order desserts, but last Saturday that 190 included a wedding rehearsal dinner of 50 that all had dessert, plus about 45 others from the general diners, i think.
How do you pronounce "pistole", anyway?
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Toliver beat me to a couple remarks I was going to make.
I ditto him on soaking your raisins. Even if you only use boiling h20 they're better soaked then dry. You also can keep a small bucket of bourbon raisins ready to go.
This is a great suggestion - although i really prefer the dried cherries - but there's no reason i can't soak the cherries in bourbon, yes? Does the bourbon have to be warmed first?
You MUST insist upon getting pellets of chocolate! By the time you chop your blocks the wasted time is no savings!Definitely going to look into this. How big are these "pistoles" or pellets? I don't think i've ever seen anyone using them. If anything can keep me from chopping chocolate as much as i am, i'm all for it. I think Chef would go for it as well, if it saved me time - depending on the price difference, of course. Anyone have any idea what the general price difference might be?
One of my favorite simple tricks on pie crusts is baking them upside down. Trust me you'll be happy with your results. Assuming your using tins (glass plates won't work)....place your dough in the tin then place another tin into it, invert and bake inverted. Your crust bakes very evenly this way and the sides can't slouch down.OMG, if this works it will change my LIFE! I've been using black beans on parchment paper for blind baking, and what a time-consuming drag that is. I'm going to try it this weekend!
I think it's the red wine poached pears that's doing in your poundcake. Personally I'd use a sweeter white wine or make it a compote/salsa and add cinnamon(or any flavor) ice cream and the cake.Maybe i wasn't clear on this... the pears within the cake itself are just regular diced yellow pears. The side garnish is half a poached pear fanned out...and though these are poached in red wine, there's also plenty of sugar and cinnamon sticks in the poaching liquid. They're nicely sweet, and a gorgeous purple color on the outside, fading to a delicate yellow towards the middle of the slices. Really a pretty presentation. *Sigh*...i think folks are just afraid of pears.
Last, try buying in a raspberry puree. Some brands are very thick and it would simplify your time. I'd guess that changing this wouldn't be more expensive then what your currently doing.Well, here's the thing. The bourbon-marinated berries i use in the berry "napolean" start to break down and/or get foamy (i.e., begin to ferment) after only a few service shifts, so i need to recycle them anyway. I don't think a puree would make as complex a tasting sauce. You're right; lot of work, though.
if you do a trio of creme brulee for t-giving, why don't you do pumpkin? it's fairly easy to use your already prepared brulee/bread pudding base and add some pumpkin puree (fresh or canned) and some pumpkin type spices (change it up and make it a little more fun) bake as you would.Actually, the reason i thought of cranberry rather than pumpkin for the brulee trio is that i already plan to serve pumpkin pie and/or pumpkin cheesecake on the Thanksgiving menu. Also, i figured that sweet potato brulee and pumpkin brulee would be awfully close in color.
Thanks again, everyone for your ideas and suggestions. Especially that baking the pie crusts upside down one, Wendy!
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Again, apologizes to all
Mckay ( JASON McCARTHY )
Oh, pshaw, no apologies, please - instead, please accept mine for the knee-jerk reaction. Us budding pastry drudges can get a little cranky after a 12-hour day and only a few hours' sleep
As for the dessert menu at Limestone - man! As business ratchets up, i seem to go in earlier and earlier and still end up with less and less time to experiment or develop specials. And all three local restaurant reviewers were in last week; as soon as those reviews are published i'm pretty sure it'll only get more hectic. Last Saturday, for instance, we did 190 covers. So it's getting to be more of a job just to replace the par stock of desserts i need to keep. I'm especially paranoid that my pantry-mates will run out of something on my days off (Wednesdays). I don't know why that possibility seems worse to me than running out while i'm actually on premises, but it does. I think it's mostly that i would be able to give a warning count to the servers within a decent time interval of running out, but i don't know that anybody else would, and i'd hate for a guest to order something and then be disappointed.
The dessert i thought would be the most popular (brown sugar pear poundcake with red wine poached pears) is, in fact, almost the least popular. In a way i'm sort of relieved by that, because even though it's very good, it probably takes up the most prep time.
My bourbon sour mash bread pudding, which at first i wasn't crazy about, has improved a lot since i made the sneaky recipe modification of using the custard from my creme brulee recipe as its binder. Also have exchanged sun-dried cherries for the original raisins. Now i just keep a big old vat of brulee "batter" in the walk-in all the time, and every day i fill all the empty brulee dishes and bake them off first thing. I only need to make the bread pudding about twice a week - but i dread cutting up all that bread into cubes!
The creme brulee is a popular as ever. What's even more popular is the dessert "trio" i started running, with a mini-brulee (about two oz.), a mini-berry "napolean" (god, i just can't seem to type that without the quote marks - damn you, ACF!), and a small wedge of the chess pie...
Chocolate chess pie! That thing is blowin' up! Everybody's nuts about it. Staff is constantly bugging me to "mess one up so I can have a piece, please!" We've done several private parties, and they all choose the chocolate chess pie for their dessert. So lots of times i have to make 8 chess pies several times a week. Actually, it does taste pretty good, and looks good on a plate with chocolate sauce, but i thought it was pretty pedestrian. Apparently not - or if so, nobody cares. But i am beginning to hate the word Callebaut, heh. My hands ache when i get up in the morning from chopping chocolate every day. Doesn't that stuff come in some already-chopped form? I imagine it does, but it's probably pretty expensive, eh? Also, i've been, of course, par-baking the pie crusts and then filling and re-baking, so i have to put foil around the edges so the crust doesn't get too brown on its second go-round in the oven. That foil chore is the one i hate most. Luckily, i found some cheap pie crust shields online, and chef's promised to order me some.
The berry "napoleon" is pretty popular, too - and i like it because it's the most colorful dessert on the menu. But simply using the juice from the bourbon-marinated berries wasn't getting it for me, because it was just so thin that it made for a messy-looking plate presentation. So i've started puree-ing, double-straining, and reducing the juice after the addition of simple syrup - *sigh*, more added steps! - but it looks MUCH nicer on the plate, now.
The clafouti isn't selling well. I firmly believe this is because the servers don't know how to describe it to the guests (even though the servers have all tasted it.) What would be a good description to train them to give? I mean, my standard answer is "warm apples baked in a light fluffy batter, with ice cream on top", and really, that doesn't even sound all that enticing. Besides, servers have trouble remembering a sentence that long
As a check amenity, i was doing Godiva chocolate biscotti, but that was a lot of work (and took up a lot of oven-time. God forbid.) Last week, i coaxed some chocolate i had seized by accident with Godiva liqueur into some servicable truffles, and everyone lost their mind. I practically have to keep these under lock and key. ("Dessert amenity for one, please." "Oh, you have a one-top out there?" "uh, no..."). So i guess they're a pretty successful dessert amenity. Last night i made my first batch without Godiva and used Chambord instead. I like these better than the biscotti because they keep better, but then again that's just MORE chocolate-chopping for me. I mean, between the chess pie and the truffles and the chocolate sauce and the writing-chocolate i need for birthday plates, i'm hand-chopping about 5 pounds of chocolate a day at times. Gah!
We're going to be open on thanksgiving, so i'm going to need some kick-ass pumpkin pie recipe for starters. I'm also considering running a trio of different-flavored creme brulees...maybe classic, sweet potato and - cranberry? How would i get cranberry flavoring into a creme brulee?
Thanks for all your support, and for reading this far if you made it through the whole thing. Good grief.
MARSHA LYNCH
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Zilla,
If that is the case, then they decided to eliminate the pastry chef position then reinstate it. They had an Exec Pastry chef, since I interviewed for it several years back, plus I know that they wanted to showcase her ( the Pastry chef) since she was the only Certified Exec. pastry chef in the state of Kentucky
McKay
I'm not exactly sure what we're getting at, here... is this just more of the same "beware, the evil overlords care not for pastry, and you will be pigeonholed and used and abused and then tossed aside like a used tissue" implication? Meh. I thought we tabled that for the time being.
Also, i don't know how many years ago it could possibly have been, but if anyone at the Seelbach was the "only certified exec. pastry chef in the state of Kentucky", it must have been twenty years ago or more. The university i just graduated from this weekend has at least four CEPCs on staff, including the director of the school, who's been there since the early 80's. And Sullivan's campus is less than 7 miles from the Seelbach.
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Just a side note of sorts.
Just saw an ad for Exec. Pastry Chef at the Seelbach Hilton in Louisville, the former employer of Zilla's new employers. I wonder where their pastry chef went. Hmmm.
McKay
In the recent past they didn't have one. the Exec and CdC came up with the dessert menu, and the pantry executed them.
Apparently the Seelbach Hilton has decided to spend some money replacing them. They have already hired a new exec and are advertising for a new Chef de Cuisine and Pastry Chef.
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My parents live in Staunton, and i visit a couple times a year. Unfortunately, they're both in poor health (but still cheerful!) and don't dine out at all. But maybe i'll cruise up the road from their house to the Beverly to check out the pie.
My brother and wife live in nearby Weyer's Cave. When i stay at their house, i always wake up to the most lovely vista of rolling foothills. Sure is a pretty part of the world.
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I think the problem was adding just a "small amount" of liqueur to the chocolate. You either have to add a lot of liquid or none at all or chocolate will seize, since chocolate is 100% solids. Sugar, for comparison, is also 100% solids and if you add a little bit of liquid it will gather into a grainy mass, but if you add a lot of liquid it will melt and become smooth. I believe it has to do with overcoming the saturation point.
To save the chocolate, just chop it up, heat some cream and pour it over. It should melt and whisk together into a decent ganache.
Thanks, NSM - i took your advice and made some fantastic Godiva liqueur truffles for dessert amenities Monday from my poor seized chocolate.
I have a question about flavoring ganache for truffles - if i want raspberry-flavored chocolate truffles, can i simply add Chambord to the ganache? Can i add my intensely-flavored berry sauce, which is made from bourbon-and-sugar-marinated berries that have been pureed and passed through a chinois?
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If the polarity of the magnetized gasoline matches the polarity of the T-Bird's engine, you'll easily get over 100 miles per gallon.
BUT, if you put reverse-polarity gasoline in the T-Bird, the first time you start it, you're likely to blow a hole in the space-time continuum, and End Life As We Know It.
The decision is yours...
Yet another marketing goldmine! The Clip can be adjusted to facilitate the user's mood swings!
Aww, i'm just having a little fun. Let's give Dennis a break, until the definitive results are in. After all, he and i share the same last name. Wonder if we're related?
Is there a Bourbon Clip in production?
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Michael, thank you so much for that thoughtful and encouraging post. I'm glad to know i'm not completely off-base. A lot of your memories resonated with me, since you went into that first restaurant with the goal of being a line cook in at least the back of your mind.
I've been doing the same things (on somewhat of a smaller scale) - i.e., going in earlier than my shift starts (but not actually punching in until official start time, since i know they're worried about paying overtime), making tuilles and sauces without being told to, and picking the brains of the busy chef/owners as much as i dare. Busy as they are, they usually take my questions seriously and answer them thoughtfully, without ever seeming to think less of me for asking them.
Certainly i'm not worried about having any "title" just yet - it's far too early for that. And i think clean floors are cool, too. So is a clean workspace. And spotless plates - i'm the only person in the kitchen, as far as i can tell, that polishes the rims of a stack of plates for my station before service. No matter how good the dishwashers and dishwashing machine are, there are always pesky water spots that ruin (for me) the look of a presentation.
I believe i have one big advantage over the Michael Laiskonis of the early days. I have eGullet as a resource. Books and reading are great, but how great is it to come home at night and be able to ask a whole raft of experienced industry people what went wrong with this or that, or for help with ideas? It's a resource i plan to make the most of. So i'll keep posting whenever i have time, because it'd be a shame to let all this distilled knowledge go under-utilized. Thanks to everybody for their ideas so far.
Marsha Lynch
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After the bourbon is fermented, the left over grain mixture is dried, we buy it, and grind it into flour, which is mixed with traditional flours to make anything from our house bread (baked off-site), to blinis on which to serve Kentucky spoonfish caviar, to the biscuits i make for the bourbon-berry napolean.
That sounds neat.
Thanks for the explanation.Does the bread end up tasting much like sourdough bread?
Nah. It tastes like hearty wheat bread, with a very subtle bourbon-y note.
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Zilla, nothing personal here, but keep in mind, they are making you/having you do the floors that should tell you something.
Actually, all the cooks (3 line, 3 pantry) do the sweeping and mopping. I don't feel put upon by this requirement.
Secondly: alas, i'm not "very young"....i'm 40.
Maybe someday, perhaps even someday soon, i'll feel put-upon and used. But right now, i'm just grateful for the opportunity. The owners are two very fine chefs, one of whom has cooked at the James Beard house. But they are making a conscious effort to make this an "upscale casual" joint - entrees are almost all under $20. So i'm not surprised they decided to take on desserts themselves, rather than spend a lot on a pastry chef.
I'm not embarassed to reveal i'm making $9 an hour right now, and working about 50 hours a week. A big change from my soul-sucking $42K a year loan officer job, but...i'm a LOT happier than i was when i was a loan officer.
Everybody lighten up a little. This has turned into two threads - one about southern desserts and the development and presentation thereof, another about my being given these duties. Seems like there are some that wish me well and some that want me to be miserable because i'm being underpaid for a job i'm not qualified for.
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Zilla,
I'm curious about your recipe for creme brulee (which you described as the 'best you've ever had'). Wanna share it?
Hm...working from memory here, since i'm home, but it's pretty simple.
48 egg yolks
8 whole eggs
3 lbs granulated sugar
8 qts heavy whipping cream
3 vanilla beans, split and scraped
whisk the egg yolks and eggs and sugar together
scald the cream with the vanilla beans
temper the cream into the egg mixture
rest for several hours or overnight.
Bake in ramekins in a hot water bath at maybe 275 or 300 F (convection oven) until only the center jiggles when shaken - don't allow any browning. 45 minutes at 350 in a conventional oven, perhaps.
Cover with granulated sugar, brown sugar or bourbon sugar, and shake off the excess.
I use a torch to carmelize the sugar, but you can conceivably do it under a salamander or broiler, i guess.
Of course, this makes about 60 (5 oz) servings, so...scale it for your own use!
I think the secret to this very simple recipe is that it doesn't involve cooking the eggs except in the oven.
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I'm actually on pins and needles waiting for the eG taste-testers to report in. I firmly believe there are serious enough people in the test group that they will tell the truth no matter which way it goes. Everybody keep good notes on your testing methods!
Also, if it works, i'm gonna buy one and put it on the nozzle when i gas up the T-Bird.
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Ahem. I'm just now beginning to learn some chocolate basics - of course we used some chocolate in school, but since i didn't take the intense pastry courses it was only a few recipes.
I believe i know how to make chocolate for truffles the traditional way, but i have a question.
I make a Godiva Chocolate Liqueur Biscotti that we present as an amenity with the check. After the biscotti is made and cooled, i drizzle it with melted bittersweet chocolate as as garnish, and let that harden in stripes.
Well, the other day, having a small amount of leftover liqueur on the table, i got the bright idea that i would stir it into the melted garnish chocolate for extra flavor. The melted chocolate seized immediately, so i had to melt more for the biscotti. Now i'm left with a lump of seized chocolate in a bowl in the fridge. Can this (very nicely flavored) chocolate somehow be coaxed into a usable form of ganache to make truffles with?
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I want to know more about sour mash. (No, the "leavings after Bourbon is made" doesn't explain everything to me.) Should I be posting on a board about liquor instead of here?
Well, let me try to explain without a full-blown tutorial on bourbon-making...
Obviously, bourbon, like all whiskies, begins with the fermentation of grains; sometimes trilogy of rye, wheat, and corn, sometimes just wheat and corn. In Kentucky, many of our high-end, small-batch or "boutique" bourbons are made via the "sour mash" method - in other words, (just as with "sourdough" bread) a culture is taken from the current batch and used to start the fermentation in the next batch.
The grains used in these specialized Kentucky bourbons are carefully cultivated; a lot of it is soft winter wheat and corn that are irrigated with water from limestone springs (by the way, that's the name of the restaurant: Limestone. Limestone spring water is also supposed to be responsible in part for the skeletal strength of ancient Kentucky thoroughbred bloodlines, so the name "Limestone" is supposed to evoke images of noble horses and good bourbon to those in the know.)
After the bourbon is fermented, the left over grain mixture is dried, we buy it, and grind it into flour, which is mixed with traditional flours to make anything from our house bread (baked off-site), to blinis on which to serve Kentucky spoonfish caviar, to the biscuits i make for the bourbon-berry napolean.
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far as I am concerned mallomars are the worlds greatest packaged cookie other than that I throughly enjoy:
i'd never heard of mallomars until today, when 2 boxes showed up in my kitchen. they are apparently for relatives who are visiting from TX (apparently they're not sold in TX). i've already eaten 1/2 box.
OMG, mallowmars are the shiznit. My dad accidentally bought a case recently when he thought he was asking for a box for my grandmother. She used to stock these faithfully for our visits. Mallowmars rule!
But they're not cookies....are they?
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Hi, Paula - thanks so much for answering our questions!
In one of my advanced culinary techniques classes, we had to do a seven-course meal with a theme - my partner and i picked "mediterranean" as our focus.
Our dessert was a fig confit with rosemary, wrapped in a puff-pastry parcel. What kind of figs are prevalent in mediterranean cuisine? What fig counterparts are widely available in the U.S.? What are your favorite uses for figs in mediterranean cuisine?
Thanks again,
Marsha
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Thanks for the ideas, everyone. First of all, i should say, we're not making our own ice creams or gelatos yet, as we don't have an ice-cream maker. But that is the first thing on my wish-list.
Secondly, while i agree that pecans and bourbon are quintessentially "southern" ingredients, i'm trying to steer away from them as much as i can, since we already have bourbon in the berry "napoleon", pecans in one of the salads, and bourbon sour mash in the house bread (the same bread i use for the bread pudding). In addition, most of the desserts on the menu are chromatically (shades of) brown. Chocolate Chess Pie with Chocolate Sauce (brown), Brown Sugar Pear Poundcake (brown), Classic Creme Brulee (yellow with brown carmelized sugar on top), Bourbon Bread Pudding with Sorghum Sauce and Sorghum Creme Fraiche (brown, brown, and tan), Warm Apple Clafouti with Bourbon Ball Ice Cream (tan and white with brown - this dessert is particularly anemic-looking to me.) The only dessert with any vibrant color in it at all is the biscuit-and-bourbon-soaked-berries "napolean" - and the biscuit is fairly brownish-purple in color.
I like the "deconstructed junk food" ideas a lot, but fear that Chef would consider them too "cute"...i'll have to broach this subject with him at some point to find out for sure.
Finally, and believe me, i thought seriously about not responding to Sinclair's misgivings at all, but after reading Steve KLC's reply on her "should i take this job?" thread, i feel i must ask - what should i have done, when offered these responsibilites (that no one else was willing to take on?)? Should i have refused, given that there are certainly people in town more qualified than me for this position? We're a small kitchen - just 6 cooks, including the sous chef. We'd already been hired. Would any of you, given the same opportunity, have turned it down? And, by the way, no one's referring to me as "pastry chef" - i put that in the title of my thread to try to communicate my nervousness at the responsibilities i've been assigned. If anyone asks, i tell them i'm "doing desserts" at the new restaurant. "Marsha's doing all our desserts," i heard Chef tell one of the culinary school instructors that came to dinner tonight.
I'm also "doing" the sweeping and the mopping
Someone who works in the restaurant at the office mentioned "Lane Cake" to me - i looked it up, it looks interesting. Anyone ever tasted one?
"Southern" Desserts
in Southeast: Cooking & Baking
Posted
Brian: I would love it!
Two reviews came out today: Louisville Courier-Journal, 3.5 stars, and Robin Garr's Louisville Hot Bytes, 4 stars, 90 out of a possible 100.
Since both these reviews were published today, we were slammed, with 201 covers. I sold 89 desserts, or 45% dessert penetration. What's the norm in fine dining? Naturally, i'll shoot for higher, but i was curious what a normal average is.