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admin — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 02:59:30 +0000

Is this not the most famous zip code in the world? I still smile when I tell people the address of Montage Beverly Hills. Beverly Hills, CA “90210″ (insert smile). I work in a place that has a zipcode that was made into an incredibly successful television show!

Tomorrow we celebrate 90210, well, actually 9/02/10. For the first, and last, time there is a September 2, 2010 and the city of Beverly Hills has centered their Food Festival, Taste of Beverly Hills around that famous date. What a great idea!

So, commencing tomorrow and running through Sunday, September 5, the area around The Beverly Hills Hilton and former Robinson’s May department store will be turned into Foodie Central. Each day over 40 restaurants will be plying their wares. Montage will be supplying desserts courtesy of yours truly and my crew. We’ll be set up in our booth from about 6:30 to 10:30 tomorrow night. VIP red carpet starts at 7 and fireworks are at 10:10.

Friday, Saturday and Sunday is the actual three day event, Taste of Beverly Hills. Our desserts will be on display on Saturday from 11am to 3pm. I’m also giving a demonstration on Chemical Garnishes on Sunday morning around noon. How’s that sound for “interesting”. I’m going to demo some of the molecular items that have found their way into the everyday lexicon of cooking. For example, caviar, Chocolate, peanut butter, and olive oil powders. How to use that iSi whipper thingie. All to garnish whatever dessert you’ve made. And I figure, even if you don’t actually use these items, they sure are a lot of fun to see being made.

On the menu at our booth is White Peach Ceviche with Raspberry Froth, Chocolate Cream and Espresso Caviar, Peanut Brownies, and Kalamanzi and Chile Soda.

Come on by.

I love it when the customer’s inspiration gets involved in the design of the cake!

Live From New York

admin — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 03:59:41 +0000

LIVE FROM NEW YORK

Nah, it wasn’t a zoo. I just liked the picture. The hotel I was staying at was close to The Central Park Zoo so I snapped a few pictures. I’ll share more.

I left Los Angeles and its incredibly beautiful weather (we have been blessed this year with perfect temps) and landed at JFK to sweltering heat and humidity. Welcome! After waiting an unbelievable amount of time for my bag the driver took me to my car and off we went. Got into the city without any trouble.

The first order of business was to check out the CBS Early Show studios, meet the food stylist and segment producer. Funny how you think you know something but because you don’t want to emberass yourself or the other person you don’t do anything? I got to the CBS studio, on the corner of 59th and Fifth Ave. and, don’t you know it, there were, like, hundreds of people just milling about. Forgot it was New York…. I didn’t know what our PR person looked like so I just kind of hung out until she recognized me. About 20 feet from me a woman with three shopping bags from Whole Foods was resting. She had a lot of stuff. I don’t know, something in my head told me she was the food stylist. And then a guy came and helped her with the bags and they disappeared. Something told me he was the segment producer.

Now come on. There were hundreds of people. Many had shopping bags, many were going here and there, some were just standing there. I don’t know, she could have been a very affluent bag lady. Of course, as it turned out, my gut was right and it was our food stylist and the man helping her was indeed our segment producer.

I stood for a few more minutes, waiting and waiting. When I turned around “the man” was standing by a door and mouthed to me, “chef?” and I said, or mouthed, rather, “Dan?” And that was that. We made our intros and in we went.

The studio was freezing.

We went over all the logistics, how the run would go (3 minutes), and what would be said. Dan was nervous, I think. And I can certainly understand why. He must have to deal with so many people every day on the Early Show and hope they will be good on camera. He asked if I was nervous, whether I thought I’d be alright. I said, No, and, Yes. And I did feel fine.

We agreed when I would show up in the morning and said our goodbyes.

It was restaurant week in NYC so I took advantage of it. Had dinner at David Burke’s Townhouse. Not far from the Hotel. for $40 I had a very good meal. Crabcake covered with mini puffed rice balls, served with yuzu curd. Braised Pork Cheeks with pasta. I don’t know why I do that to myself. I always say never ever will I get braised anything anymore. Short ribs is bad enough, but now it’s veal cheeks, and now pork cheeks. Don’t get me wrong. I love it, but, like anything that gets popular, I’m over it. But it was all good. For dessert I had warm sponge cake strawberry shortcake. Yummy.

The next day we did the segment. And, if you saw it, I hope you think it went well. I thought it did. Dan was very happy. Said he’d love to have me back (but don’t they always say that?) and it was over.

Weird, I knew 30 seconds into it we weren’t going to get done. We had spent a little too much time on the molten cookie. Erica, the host, spoke at length about them. We can of dove through the second half. But it was all good. Wished I could have mentioned the blogsite once and the Hotel a few more times. But it went so fast. And they even stretched it to 4 1/2 minutes. an epic amount of time.

After that I had breakfast with a friend and then went back to the room to sleep.

Tomorrow. My meet & greet.

Went so fast

admin — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 15:09:14 +0000

Just a short note since I’m typing on the iPhone. I had a blast on the CBS Early Show. I knew 30 seconds in that what I was scheduled to do was waaaay too much for three minutes. But it was fun. Real fun. I showed up last night and got a tour of the set. The food stylist made all the food you saw (thanks Jeanne). This morning I showed up at 6 to make the molten choco chip batter and then hung out with the other folks on the show.Orr details later. Just wanted to post.

Trying some stuff out

admin — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 19:36:03 +0000

Okay, you get to be the guinea pig readers as I try to figure out this blog app on my iPhone. This is a test. It is only a test. If it works like I want it to I can live blog.

Remember. Only a test.

Getting it together

admin — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 19:05:49 +0000

I leave tomorrow for NYC. I am hitting the Big Apple as hard as I can. Usually when I go somewhere I have all my dinner reservations and other foodie outlets all mapped out. Not so much this time. I’ll probably just wing it. I know we are going to Scarpetta, heard it’s really good. Other than that, we’ll see.

The reason for my trip is my new found “celebrity”. Due to the recent wins on TVFN I am being heavily promoted. Kinda like that, too. Who wouldn’t?

Upcoming events in New York are: Tuesday, August 17, CBS Early Show. If you’re in front of your TV around 8:45 a.m. you’ll catch me making chocolate chip cookies. A nice segment that will touch on the molten chocolate chip cookies from the competition and then tips on making really good chocolate chippers. Number one tip? They don’t call it Chocolate Chip Cookie for nothing. It’s not “brown sugar cookie with chocolate chips”. it’s CHOCOLATE CHIP. So it stands to reason that the most important thing about that cookie should be the chips. And that leads to a question many people ask: “What’s the best chocolate to use?”

I think we should all be snobs about something, right? There are wine snobs, car snobs, neighborhood snobs, you-name-it snobs. Well, I’m a bit of a chocolate snob. I have one favorite chocolate that I think is, hands down, the best chocolate. But that’s also a personal like. You may not care for it. Your favorite chocolate may be Nestle or Hershey (really??) . My answer to that question is: The best chocolate to use is the chocolate that you love to eat. For me that chocolate is Michel Cluizel. Never heard of it? I’m not surprised. Cluizel chocolate is a small family owned business out of Normandy, France. They make exquisite chocolate. It is hard to find but you can buy it online. check out their website: www.nobleingredients.com. You won’t be disappointed.

Other events, if your reading this and in NYC next week. I’ll be at the Time/Warner building on Columbus Circle this coming Wednesday. I’m demo-ing the Sayonara Trail Mix cookies from the Challenge. I start at 5 and it runs to 7 o’clock. Stop by, say hi!

I also have a meet and greet with members of the press and blogosphere Tuesday night at my culinary alma mater, The French Culinary Institute (a private event). I haven’t been back since I was named their alumnus of the year in, I think, 2000 or 2001. Wylie Dufresne and I were honored. I’ll again be demo-ing the Trail Mix cookie and Colombian Hot Chocolate. My partner turned me onto this delicious way to eat/drink hot chocolate. it involves fresh cheese, bizcochos, and creamy hot chocolate. Maybe I’ll give you the recipe one of these days. All I know is to make the bizcocho you need Yucca flour.

In the meantime, here is the recipe for the Sayonara Trail Mix Cookie

¾ cup cashews, toasted

¾ c. walnuts, toasted

2 ½ cup raisins

1 1/3 c pepitas

½ candied ginger, cut into bite size pieces

1 cup oatmeal

1 cup butter, softened

1 heaping cup brown sugar

1 cup + 2 Tbsp. granulated sugar

½ cup honey

3 eggs

½ Tbsp. vanilla extract

2 ½ cups all purpose flour

1 ¾ tsp baking powder

2 ½ tsp. baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp salt

Black sesame seeds

Stir the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt together. Set aside.

Stir the cashews, walnuts, raisins and pepitas together and set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment cream the butter and both sugars together until light. Scrape the bowl and add the honey. Mix. Scrape, add the eggs and vanilla. Mix. Add the flour and oatmeal, scrape and mix. Then add the nuts mixture. Mix to combine.

Drop onto greased cookie sheets and sprinkle with black sesame seeds. Bake at 350 F until done, about 12 minutes. Remove from the oven, cool and eat.

The Trail mix cookie is upper right (with the black sesame seeds on it).

Here’s the recipe

admin — Tue, 04 May 2010 20:02:26 +0000

The Chocolate Cream recipe that I demonstrated at the California Food & Wine festival can be found below. During the demo I got a few measurements wrong. The correct recipe is:

Chocolate Cream Pudding

2 cups heavy cream

2 cups whole milk

½ cup granulated sugar

14 egg yolks

14 oz. 64% bittersweet chocolate (the best you can buy), chopped into uniform pieces

Sweetened whipped cream for garnishing

Place the cream and the milk in a medium saucepan and bring it to a light boil. Meanwhile, whisk the egg yolks and sugar together until pale yellow. Place the chocolate in a medium sized bowl.

When the milk begins to boil pour about ¼ of it onto the beaten egg yolks, whisking continuously. Pour this mixture back into the milk. With a heatproof rubber spatula, and the heat on medium, stir the mixture until it thickens and coats the spatula. Remove from the heat and pour over the chocolate. Whisk until you have melted the chocolate and it is streak free.

Pour into bowls and refrigerate until set. Remove from the fridge about an hour before serving and spoon sweetened whipped cream on top.

For the demonstration I garnished the pudding with lemon scented whipped cream and a spiced chocolate ball. The lemon whipped cream is simple to make. Just add some lemon zest (using a micro-plane zester) to the cream before beating. the spiced chocolate balls are made by the chocolate company Valrhona. The are called Xocopili.

The name of the chocolate company that I love is Michel Cluizel. Their website is Nobleingredients.com.

later……………

California Food and Wine @ Disneyland

admin — Mon, 03 May 2010 04:51:22 +0000

I have done the Epcot Food & Wine Festival at Walt Disney World for several years. In fact I’m going back in October (the 23rd and 24th). But this is the first time I was invited to Disneyland for the California Food and Wine Festival. Right in my back yard. I did a demo (chocolate cream/pudding/cake filling) on Friday and Saturday and then presented at Sweet Sundays (Strawberry Brunch).

For those of you who came to the demos–Thank you. I just got back home and will post the recipe for the chocolate cream here on the blog. I am also doing some editing on a short video I had shot of the intro to the demo on Saturday. If you’re in it: Congratulations! you’re a star.

If you’re in the Orlando area in late October, please come to Epcot for the Food & Wine festival. I will be at the Party for the Senses on Saturday October 23 and doing another Sweet Sundays on the 24th. Get your tickets early.

I have been a fan of Disney forever it seems. I like finding the “hidden Mickeys” and knowing all the ins and outs of what Walt Disney had up his sleeve. Truly Fascinating.

I just wanted to post this quick note to say “Thanks Again” And as usual: Pass this blog on and keep reading!!

And of course, a special thank you to Jim, Robyn, Diego, Natalie, Payton, Tiffany, Kevin, and everyone else for, first, inviting me, and secondly, for all the help.

recipe and more tomorrow!

New cake

admin — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 16:28:57 +0000

New Menu Items

admin — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 16:27:14 +0000

It’s that time….almost. California is starting to kick into great produce. Strawberries are just fine. Can’t wait for the rest to follow. Here are some items off the new menu:

Napa and the CIA

admin — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 14:20:33 +0000

No, not the CIA, but the CIA, the Culinary Institute of America.

Stephen Durfee, good friend, colleague, and instructor at the school invited me to participate as a guest chef for an event the school was having commemorating various wine-makers, wine-writers, wine-what-have-yous. I could be wrong but I think the event is annual. Most of the people honored are dead but some are still kicking. Just enough to get people to turn up.

I jumped at the chance to get away from the shop. I had been feeling a little overworked. I was working on an upcoming bridal show that was planned WAY too late and…….let’s table that for now, I’m writing about Napa.

The flight took nine hours. No, not the usual hour long flight. The unusual NINE hour flight. Seems the rain was just too awful in San Francisco and the airport was not letting flights in. So I sat at LAX for three hours and then, once we got on the plane, sat on the tarmac for another hour. Once we took off the flight was fine. But it was hellzapoppin in San Francisco. Honestly, I’m not sure I have ever driven through so much rain. That shit was coming down horizontal thanks to the gale force winds. Driving was a nightmare. That, plus the fact that I’m driving a rental car and trying to figure out where the wipers, lights and panic buttons are. Why oh why do I never take that extra minute before I drive out off?

Wouldn’t you know it. The minute I crossed the Napa County Line the rain stopped and the sky started to clear. When I told Stephen about the rain, he said, “what rain?” Figures.

Stephen’s wife, Jill, is an event planner and she was readying a community center in Napa for a fundraiser for their kids’ school. I helped. A little. I put LED candles in vintage lanterns. Then I walked around Napa’s waterfront for a while. The Mustard Festival was going on and there was some good music playing

View from my room

The event wasn’t widely attended but I didn’t care. I shared good company with fellow pastry chefs Sherry Yard (Spago), Emily Luchetti (Faralon) and Stephen. All three of them are James Beard Award winners. Oooooh.

I served Rhubarb Tres Leches cake and Chocolate Cream with Espresso Caviar. The technique of spherification was a real hit with the students. That’s one of the things from the whole molecular gastronomy trend that will probably stick around. I kind of like it. Works well for garnish.

I had a nice time and was able to decompress before getting back into the thick of things with THAT DAMNED BRIDAL SHOW.

later…………