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  • mweckler
    mweckler Posts: 623 Member
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    @leeshults I can share my recipe but it is loaded with egg yolks, heavy cream, and sugar lol, and that is why it tastes so good. Sadly I have not found a way to cut back on the calories with the creme brulee. The custard needs the yolks to set properly, the heavy cream adds body to the dishes and the sugar adds the sweetness plus you then top it with sugar and blowtorch it making a tasty caramel glass on top. The pieces work together to give you a very nice mouth feel. You get smooth, sweet, crunchy, and salty it hits across all the taste buds which is what makes a dessert or dish more pleasing. The best thing I can say is to make smaller portions and try to use self control. Which I did not do as I made 2 8x12 pans of the stuff lol.
  • mweckler
    mweckler Posts: 623 Member
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    @MadMaxV8 I do not, but I know 2 people who have worked for Stephanie Izzard who owns the Girl and the Goat and just opened her second location in Chicago.
  • mweckler
    mweckler Posts: 623 Member
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    @MadMaxV8 I have never heard that, nor have I ever seen it happen either. It all comes down to the style of the restaurant, is it a fine dining establishment known for perfect artistic plates? Or is it John Jacobs Family Feed Trough?
  • km8907
    km8907 Posts: 3,861 Member
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    mweckler wrote: »
    km8907 wrote: »
    What's your opinion on Pop Tarts?

    @km8907 They are the best tasting sugar filled choice of breakfast pasties out there. A million times better than Toaster Strudels... They do not even give enough icing for one pastry in that little pouch. If you mean health wise the are TERRIBLE.

    Thank you <3
  • chocolate_owl
    chocolate_owl Posts: 1,695 Member
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    @mweckler Thanks for the detailed response! And thanks for the points about safety. I'm not slicing and dicing away in my home kitchen the way the pros do, but I should take steps to be more careful.
    MadMaxV8 wrote: »
    I've heard that the reason most chefs are men is because women have a hard time letting food go out that isn't perfect. In the business, you can't have perfection so you have to be able to "slap it on" and let it go out.

    Agree or disagree?

    I hang around with people in the industry, so I have (poorly researched) opinions on this: like anything where men have dominated for decades, it takes women time to achieve success and top spots. They're starting to break through; in the past 5 years, a lot more women have opened restaurants where I am doing interesting, innovate things. More women are being nominated for James Beard awards. Many women are being shown on competitive cooking shows, which is a weird metric, but it's proof they exist and are good at what they do.

    Also, as with any other career, if a woman has a child, she has to make decisions about how to manage her career and care for her child. One of my friends went to culinary school and worked in restaurants for several years. She met a fellow chef, they started dating. She accidentally got pregnant. Any dreams she had of being an executive chef had to be postponed because she now had to care for a child. Since then she's done catering and worked as a private chef for super-rich people, but she hasn't jumped back into the restaurant world. The hours are too crazy when you're raising kids by yourself, and at most levels the pay is too low to afford childcare and babysitters all the time.

    I do think the element of perfection can play into it a little bit, and that's why a lot of women end up as pastry chefs. Baking is a science. It either turns out or it doesn't.
  • mweckler
    mweckler Posts: 623 Member
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    So I think I answered most all the questions asked, there is still one I am looking into for the leaf fat for the pie crust. But any other questions?
  • French_Peasant
    French_Peasant Posts: 1,639 Member
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    mweckler wrote: »
    So I think I answered most all the questions asked, there is still one I am looking into for the leaf fat for the pie crust. But any other questions?

    Aw...Don't spend too much time researching! :o It is a perplexing question though. I was also interested in your favorite cookbooks and cooking books. Oh, and maybe any magazines. I get Saveur, which I adore, and Food and Wine, which I don't find as interesting or well written, but I get them more for reading about food than for actual recipes.
  • mweckler
    mweckler Posts: 623 Member
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    @French_Peasant we used to use Sweetex High Ratio shortening for our pie crusts and what not when I was training in pastries. It make a very nice pie crust and you can use it for many other things in making pastries as well. I know you were looking for a natural product that was a more reasonable cost. But like you said if you work with the butter more it will help your confidence with it and I think that may be the best option.

    As for cookbooks, I really don't have a favorite, I look online at allrecipes.com to get inspiration then I start to tweak and create my own end result. I do not read many magazines as my children occupy all my free time when I am not at work. I used to read books like Kitchen Confidential, and Medium Raw by Anthony Bourdain but come to think of it those were a long time ago. Sorry I could not be more help with these.
  • RachelElser
    RachelElser Posts: 1,049 Member
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    What the weirdest substitution you've been asked to make?
  • French_Peasant
    French_Peasant Posts: 1,639 Member
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    mweckler wrote: »
    @French_Peasant we used to use Sweetex High Ratio shortening for our pie crusts and what not when I was training in pastries. It make a very nice pie crust and you can use it for many other things in making pastries as well. I know you were looking for a natural product that was a more reasonable cost. But like you said if you work with the butter more it will help your confidence with it and I think that may be the best option.

    As for cookbooks, I really don't have a favorite, I look online at allrecipes.com to get inspiration then I start to tweak and create my own end result. I do not read many magazines as my children occupy all my free time when I am not at work. I used to read books like Kitchen Confidential, and Medium Raw by Anthony Bourdain but come to think of it those were a long time ago. Sorry I could not be more help with these.

    I hear you on the magazines...I have a huge back-log of 20 or so that I am trying to work my way through, LOL! I pore over every page of Saveur, however. Also, interestingly enough, Southern Living, even though I am a Hoosier--I have a big stack of cake and cookie recipes ripped out that I need to get crackin' on.

    Thanks so much for taking the time to respond to me and all the other inquiries on here.
  • yayamom3
    yayamom3 Posts: 939 Member
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    Have you ever tried out for a cooking show? I'd love to see you on Beat Bobby Flay or Chopped!
  • mweckler
    mweckler Posts: 623 Member
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    @yayamom3 I thought about trying out for the Great American Food Truck Race a few years ago but my wife was not too keen on my being away from home for 3 months lol. But now that the kids are older I have considered trying out for Chopped, or the Next Food Network Star or one of those shows.
  • yayamom3
    yayamom3 Posts: 939 Member
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    mweckler wrote: »
    @yayamom3 I thought about trying out for the Great American Food Truck Race a few years ago but my wife was not too keen on my being away from home for 3 months lol. But now that the kids are older I have considered trying out for Chopped, or the Next Food Network Star or one of those shows.

    Oh I forgot about both of those! Love those shows, too! Especially NFNS!
  • Joanna2012B
    Joanna2012B Posts: 1,448 Member
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    You should audition for Master Chef!! If you won you'd get your cookbook!!!
  • Taylor076097
    Taylor076097 Posts: 265 Member
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    When giving out recipes do you leave ingredients out? Or not say how much to use? One of my best friends is in the business and she will not under any circumstance give everything away when giving a recipe to someone. Nothing drastic, but maybe she won't say she uses onion powder or something along those lines.
  • mweckler
    mweckler Posts: 623 Member
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    @Taylor076097 if I am giving a recipe to a friend or someone I know I give them all the ingredients. Sadly most Chef's leave out an ingredient or two when they submit articles in food magazines, or give a recipe. They want you to be able to make it but not as perfectly as they do. Which if you want people coming back to eat your dishes is a good thing, but a little shady in my opinion. The only time I leave an ingredient out is if I am trying to write down a recipe I have not made in a while from the top of my head and forget something.
  • mweckler
    mweckler Posts: 623 Member
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    @MadMaxV8 I hate liver with the passion of a thousand dying suns. But if I were to open a restaurant and the demand was great enough yes I would put it on my menu, because at the end of the day keeping the customers happy is how you stay in business.
  • mweckler
    mweckler Posts: 623 Member
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    @Joanna2012B I think they claim that Masterchef is for "at home" Chef's which I do not think I qualify for any longer. Plus I really feel like most of that stuff that makes it to air is staged. Especially when it comes to baking, how do these people who have never made an eclair or macaron before, magically know the exact steps to prepare them? I have made both and if I do not have the recipe glued to my face I forget steps and ingredients and have to start over. I would one day like to have my own cookbook or cooking show, or even a cooking segment on a local tv station, my mom tells me I have a good sense of humor... (cricket cricket). I have learned my sense of humor does not transition to a written thing such as a posting, but take my word I am the funniest person in my office, which currently I am the only person in my office right now. HA!!!
  • Joanna2012B
    Joanna2012B Posts: 1,448 Member
    edited January 2017
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    @mweckler you're right they are home cooks! I always thought that too about the recipes...I mean how do they know how to make some of these things if they have never made it before.

    I wish you luck with your endeavors!! Thank you for this post...I am keeping it close to ask questions when needed!!!

    BTW your sense of humour does transition in writing...LOL!!
  • MissBeeGonz
    MissBeeGonz Posts: 141 Member
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    Do you ALWAYS wash your hands?

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