Choc doc hibernates... but Eztemper va Gouter Amsterdam

[Alleguede]

- Hey Boss, let's do Amsterdam this year...

- Ah no can do I'm staying in Toronto for The Restaurant Show...

 

And 3 months later - 3 suitcases, 30kg for 2 of them and 10 for the baby one here I am all grown up heading for multiple reasons To beautiful AMSTERDAM.

 

Chocoa is the show - Eztemper is conquering the world one country at a time. But this time, my Kerry is sending me solo... Me... yes the young arrogant pastry chef you guys all may have heard about through our crazy adventures and have seen grow to being me. Well solo is a bit exaggerated I have a chaperon and a beautiful surprise. 

 

So I will do my best to fulfill the duties of posting and relating my story. Not just one... Because this trip has multiple intentions... You will see. Fingers crossed.

 

Bare with me and enjoy - and if you have any suggestions on what I should do especially a place for a first date...(shhhhh it's a secret)

 

 

[Alleguede]

As many may know - Goûter is finally starting to move and one of our customers is in the airport. So I had a meeting with the Chef and here is the outcome.

 

sitting at the lounge having a sit down dinner with CHAMPAGNE. 

 

I was going to do the lamb but. Classically chose THE BURGER 

 

Royalty/ famous person/ I feel posh and exclusive in the signature lounge

 

awesome... 🙀😊

 

Edited February 18, 2019 by Alleguede
... (log)

[Kerry Beal]

Have I mentioned how jealous I am? If I'd known you were going to scam the Signature Lounge - I'd have found a way to come!

[Anna N]

 You will do a fine job for @Kerry Beal, for Eztemper  and for your fans on eGullet.  Looking forward to all your postings.

Edited February 18, 2019 by Anna N (log)

[Kerry Beal]

By any chance do you make the burger buns for the Signature Lounge along with all the other breads and buns you make for them?

[rotuts]

Im also looking forward to this

 

Good Eats !

[Alleguede]

Flight delayed... my butterflies are killing me - found this in the lounge 

 

no the buns are ace bakery but we make many of their products now. Seems like we will make more soon 🤞

[Anna N]

And Thomas Haas?  You are spoiled!  

[Alleguede]

Spoiled... I would say tasteful or maybe lack of? Hum... I spend too much time on the posh chair at this point.

 

Flight delayed, computer and phone charging.

 

Can' wait for the plane food... Yum Beef wellington with the same texture as beef bourguignon.

 

 

[TicTac]

1 hour ago, Alleguede said:

Can' wait for the plane food... Yum Beef wellington with the same texture as beef bourguignon.

 

 

 

Think ahead.  Consider the menu you just perused.

 

2 words -

 

'Doggy Bag'

 

 

[Alleguede]

Flight delayed... my butterflies are killing me - found this in the lounge 

 

no the buns are ace bakery but we make many of their products now. Seems like we will make more soon 🤞

[Alleguede]

Landed - oh my god the have wind mills in the water by thousands.

 

its 8c which changes from my -15 expected

 

diner was high end plane food let’s just keep it at that.

 

got to sleep so ready to attack the city 

 

let’s reconvene in a few hours. In the mean time let me leave you with some pictures

[Anna N]

Glad to know you landed safely and with some sleep and food inside you, you should be good to go!

 

 

 

[Kerry Beal]

I'm sure @Alleguede will post some pics a little later in his day - but I've been getting pics from their travels around to check out Bhavhani's equipment in various bean to bar establishments in Holland. Bhavhani - as those from the eG Chocolate and Confections workshop will recall - is the owner of Diamond Custom Machines (melangers.com) and sells various sizes of melangers for the production of bean to bar chocolate. So they are checking out chocolate shops.

 

 

Repairs and fine tuning come before anything!  I'm sue he's telling them about his new blade that will allow them to cool the chocolate in the melanger to the point where they can temper it insitu with the EZtemper. 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

What new blade??

 

[Kerry Beal]

I think 

18 minutes ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

What new blade??

 

I think it’s for the bigger machines

[Alleguede]

Ok so day one has come to an end. It’s not like travelling with my Batman me being Robin.

 

so the hotel to start. 7 floors high ( we learned that buildings in Amsterdam can’t be too high because of water) let’s just say that my room is the biggest out of 3. Bianca and Bhavani literally have what I call a shoe box - stretch your arms out and touch the walls or even better pee, shower and brush your teeth at the same time.

so yeah aside the massive luggage to drag - I got lucky 

 

food of the day, I declined breakfast in the plane in exchange of 30 min of sleep. Unfortunately that didn’t happen so drank my sorrows in Minute Maid apple juice.

our only meal till 6 pm.

 

aftergetting to the hotel (rooms not ready) we went to visit Valentina’s (bhavani employee) workplace. The girl’s boss bought the whole setup for bean to bar in Selmi. She is learning how to use it at this point.

then we visited a customer (bhavani had to fix a part) which took a good chunk of our afternoon.machine fixed, cleaned and setup Kerry’s dear friend The chocolate life dude clay showed up. Moving on.

 

we finally got our rooms. Let it be said that all this happens in a 3 km radius of tourist town  Amsterdam. 30 min break  and back we go.

 

what do we do for dinner?

ill post all that after a short commercial program - be right back

 

 

 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

What is the white stuff?

 

[Alleguede]

It’s a rice milk to clean the wheels

 

i discovered we can do nut milks with the DCM melangers

[Alleguede]

So I was at dinner,

 

the two North American men are starving... 

did i mention Bhavani doesn’t eat meat or drink and his beautiful sidekick is a reducetarian (this “lifechoice” did start a whole can of worms - story for later)

 

so back to starvation we are starving. Sidekick 2 (Valentina) recommends a few “good eats” to choose from.

 

we decided on a dinner Surinam inspired.

so we get a taxi - us tourist got taken on a lonnnnngggg ride with a not so honest taxi. This is where I will advertise for UBER.

 

so Surinam fast food joint half luxurious half McDonald’s. By 6:20 the place was empty. No English menu so I venture in recommendations. Needless to say what I picked was decent. Pulled chicken in a curry sauce with potatoes egg and frozen Green beans. Plate was fairly big. The waitress said I would be full but she doesn’t know who she was feeding. To start Bhavani picked deep fried plantain and a potato and spice “friter” good with a burn your gut and butt hot sauce

 

Then we wondered back to the hotel for an early night.

 

we should have gone back out but too lazy. 

 

So hood night sleep later (you most are sleeping by now anyway) we are enjoying breakfast in our boutique hotel lobby. Going to change rooms and head to the show.

 

 

[Anna N]

“Robin”,

 

Looks as if you are managing well without “Batman”.   That last photo though makes me think you’re having far too much fun!  

 

 I think this is the first time I have been exposed to Surinam food.   Is it spicy?

 

And don’t forget we are all waiting to hear about the “reducetarian”.  Doesn’t sound like a life choice that will catch on quickly on eGullet.

 

[Alleguede]

Surinamese food is very close to Asian style. In the end I was quite confused.

Roti, soups, deepfried, with a lot of potatoes and carbs.

 

its not spicy but all the condiments tend to generate heat somewhere.

 

At this point all I know about reducetarian is to minimize the consumption of all “harmful foods” but I think it’s mainly a myth. Now that she is making her way into my life we will change that to “highrodneytarian” loooolllll.

We are now waiting at a barber shop because the other boss didn’t plan ahead.

 

 

[Tri2Cook]

2 hours ago, Anna N said:

And don’t forget we are all waiting to hear about the “reducetarian”.  Doesn’t sound like a life choice that will catch on quickly on eGullet.

I had to look it up, never heard of it. But there are so many different "tarian" categories now that I can't keep up. Everybody's looking for a way to be able to proclaim that they eat special without having to give up anything they don't want to so new categories keep being invented. 

[MelissaH]

9 hours ago, Alleguede said:

so the hotel to start. 7 floors high ( we learned that buildings in Amsterdam can’t be too high because of water) let’s just say that my room is the biggest out of 3. Bianca and Bhavani literally have what I call a shoe box - stretch your arms out and touch the walls or even better pee, shower and brush your teeth at the same time.

We once rented a short-stay apartment in A'dam where the bathroom had no separation of anything. The TP was on basically a vertical stick with a base, which held 3 or 4 rolls. You had to make sure you carried it out of the bathroom before you showered, so you didn't soak it all into uselessness.

[Shelby]

4 hours ago, Tri2Cook said:

I had to look it up, never heard of it. But there are so many different "tarian" categories now that I can't keep up. Everybody's looking for a way to be able to proclaim that they eat special without having to give up anything they don't want to so new categories keep being invented. 

Had to google it, too.

 

I will not be joining that tarian movement lol.