Top 3's

Top 3...Favorites

1)Milk chocolate, black bean, plantain, soy, peanut

WD~50

Malcolm Livingston II

2)Toasted coconut cake, carob, smoked cashew, brown butter sorbet

WD~50

Alex Stupak

3) "VIP Set"

Yuzu curd, seasonal fruit, yogurt, nigella, melon

The French Laundry

Daniel Michael Ryan

Top 3...Most memorable

1) "Mat-Plate"

Chocolate, blueberry, tobacco, maple

Alinea

Grant Achatz/ Dave Beran

2) "Coffee and Doughnuts"

Cinnamon-Sugared Doughnuts, and Cappucino Semifreddo

The French Laundry/ per se

Courtney Schmidig/ Elwyn Boyles

3) Ambrosia Melon Sorbet, French Laundry Garden Strawberries
The French Laundry

Courtney Schmidig

Top 3... I wish I could have tried

1) "Creamsicle"

Rooibos, persimmon, orange blossom
Alex Stupak

2) Opera torte, orange blossom, apricot
-Jordan Kahn

3) "Shattered"
dark chocolate shards, milk chocolate cream, lavender gel, black olive, yogurt powder, silver sugar
-Jordan Kahn

Modernist Cuisine

I finally recieved my copy of the Modernist Cuisine a few weeks ago. One word...Overwhelming. What Nathan Myhrvold, Chris Young, and Maxime Bilet have put together is brilliant. The wealth of knowledge that one can gain by this volume of books is just, well overwhelming. I have not even begun to scratch the surface of the series yet. Just reading the first couple pages about the authors is inspirational. I really believe that these books are going to instill a great deal of influence on a lot of today's chefs. The amount of work that must have went into making this series is mind boggling. The countless hours of trial, error and calculations should be motivation to us all. If you haven'y already ordered yourself a copy I highly suggest you get on it. I believe they have already sold out of there first printing and will soon be printing the second batch. There is only one drawback to the series and that is the heavty pricetag. I believe amazon is advertising it for $460. I wouldn't shy away from this book just because of the price, just start saving and ask mommy and daddy for some funds. I was ecstatic when my 50 pound box of knowledge showed up on my doorstep (or should I say mailroom) Though it took me about 20 minutes to open all the boxes it was well worth it. I can't say enough good things about this book. If you are at all interested in modern cooking techniques, ingredients, equipment and fundamentals I highly suggest to GO OUT AND BUY IT NOW. Here is one of my favorite pictures from the book. There cooking lab.

Sigh....I wish I had all of those toys

World's Smallest Macaroon

New Dessert

Strawberry, yogurt, aloe

New WD~50 Dessert

Rass el honout cake, coconut cream, freeze dried corn, coriander sauce, compressed pineapple, tamarind ice cream, micro arugula

Cant wait to try it Mr. Livingston.

Endo and Exothermic Reactions

Well lets start out by first describing what each of these reactions are. An exothermic reaction is a chemical reaction in which heat is given off. An endothermic reaction would thus be the opposite, a chemical reaction in which heat is absorbed. Do not get this confused with endergonic reactions in which energy not heat is absorbed. Now that we know what each reaction is lets talk about some examples of each of these as it relates to the pastry world. Whenever you boil water you are producing an endothermic reaction. The evaporation of water moleculars provides this reaction. The melting of ice crystals also provides you with an endothermic reaction. Another great example of this would be photosynthesis. (The process in which sunlight provides energy to plants to convert carbon dioxide into organic compounds) Without this endothermic reaction we wouldn't have all that beautiful produce in which to make our delectable desserts. Lets switch gears and talk about exothermic reactions. Whenever you burn something you are essentially creating an exothermic reaction. So the next time you are toasting nuts spices etc. just think to yourself...wow what a cool exothermic reaction I am creating. Adding concentrated acid to water is also an exothermic reaction. One of my favorite examples would be the production of chocolate. To be even more specific molded chocolate bon bons. Whenever you temper chocolate and cast chocolate molds you are giving off heat (latent heat of crystallization) When chocolate is crystallizing the cocoa butter is actually changing from a liquid to a solid and in turn gives off heat. I was looking on youtube the other day and found a really interesting clip of "hot ice" using the chemical sodium acetate trihydrate. Basically this is a really dramatic exothermic reaction. Check out the link below to learn how to make "hot ice" (Not really related to pastry but still super cool) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aC-KOYQsIvU

Blakes Dessert

Cashew, banana, pretzel

Components

Cashew Sponge

Banana Chiboust

Cashew Gianduja

Cashew Powder Pebbles

Banana Gastrique

Chicory Milk Jam

Pretzel Lavash

Drageed Cashews

Malted Milk Meringue

Malted Barley Ice Cream

Blake is our 3rd member of our pastry team at Corton. This is a picture and description of the first plate up of his dessert. Well done Blake!