Blumenthal: In Search of Perfection

[CalumC]

Well i'm making the chicken, so far so good i think. I have a very vague probe thermometer and an oven that has pretty crap temperature control, so its a struggle but should be ok. Only just realised that i have no gravy for it, and the chicken won't yield any gravy juices in cooking so i'm off to deal with that in a moment. Seems wrong to given in to chicken stock cubes now after all this work, but it may have to be. I wanted to use the wings to make the butter really.

I'll photo the final plating if i remember, the above post covered everything i could have. in step by step.

[BryanZ]

I watched both seasons several weeks ago and found them to be the most fascinating cooking show I've ever seen. I'm completely obsessed.

Scanned the recipes from first book into my computer--took a long time with Black Forest Gateau at 7 pages--and look forward to working through them all.

[Tri2Cook]

I loved both seasons too and the christmas dinner was completely insane. I have the BBC broadcasts on my computer, the foodtv Canada version was edited quite a bit from the BBC broadcasts. Not sure about the U.S. food network version.

I've done the Black Forest Gateau. I wouldn't classify it as hugely better (or worse) than a few others I've had in flavor but it has a lot of textures going on in addition to the flavor which earns it some bonus points in my opinion. The aerated chocolate is fun and I've been using it often for a variety of other cakes and plated desserts. One of my favorite uses of it so far has been aromatizing white chocolate with coffee beans and aerating that. I just break it into chunks and use them as part of one of my plated desserts. I have some ideas in my notebook that I plan to try with it soon that are of a completely different nature. Of course I won't be at all surprised if, as soon as I think I've done something cool, I find out 3,246 others have been doing it for the past 19 1/2 years.

[Fengyi]

i watched the first season of this when we lived in the UK and really enjoyed it, and now a very kind soul sent us the recordings of the second season to watch over here. I was really enjoying the hamburger one...and then we came to the Peking Duck one...

I was so so so disappointed! HB doesn't even seem to be clear about the difference between fragrant crispy duck, Peking duck and Cantonese duck, referring to them similarly throughout the programme, talking about the ducks hanging from the windows in Chinatown - when these are about as far from Peking duck as it's possible to get!!!

And then to even use a supermarket 'crispy' duck as an introduction...?!?!

Good, if not excellent, fragrant crispy duck 香酥鸭 is a doddle to make at home - that's the most important point of that dish! And it is a completely different dish to Peking duck!

I have the great fortune to live about 15 mins walk from Da Dong - its duck is indeed extraordinary (having regularly eaten *good* Peking duck for my whole life, I can say that hand on heart).

But what raises it into the realm of the sublime is the inclusion of its eight wonderful condiments, the thinness of the pancakes/bobing (though, I have had slightly better bobing - but not duck -at Bianyifang) and the gorgeous, lovely fragile shaobing.

Actually, its the last one for me that really really makes eating Da Dong duck a pleasure (beyond the innate goodness of the duck).

The full eight condiments (two picked veg, the giant red radish, cucumber, green onion, garlic paste, sugar, tianmianjiang甜面酱) enable you to enjoy the correct seasonings with each different cut of the duck (leg meat + garlic paste+ radish+ shao bing = Heaven). Not to mention them is doing the dish a disservice.

I thought that his final dishes were a total disappointment - if someone had served that to me as the 'perfect' Peking duck, I would have just laughed. I mean, at least the other 'perfect' dishes resembled the original! The Whampoa Club here offers a similar 'take' on Peking duck to his, but they at least indicate that it is not the 'proper' Peking duck on the menu.

And he didn't even say anything about the bobing or other parts - which is like doing the hamburger programme without mentioning bun, condiments, tomatoes, or any of that!

Why do such a great job with other foods and then totally mess up the Peking duck one?

Sorry - but I was so so so disappointed that I had to rant somewhere....

*rant over*

Sorry - regular service can resume now! and I will watch the rest of the series

[Tri2Cook]

Why do such a great job with other foods and then totally mess up the Peking duck one?

←

I guess it depends on your translation of what he's trying to accomplish. Based on watching the episodes and reading the books I don't get the idea that he's trying to accomplish the perfect version of each thing he tackles, I feel more like he's trying to accomplish the perfect-for-him version. I get the feeling that it was more of a personal journey to get the best of what he loves/remembers about each thing to the highest level he can bring it to. I think of the books as springboards of inspiration not "you have to do this or it isn't perfect" manuals.