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Showing posts with label chocolate. Show all posts
Showing posts with label chocolate. Show all posts
Monday, November 15, 2010
I promised you on Friday I'd return to the NY Chocolate show for Johnny Iuzzini's demo...
So here's JOHNNY!I don't think I'll ever misspell his name again.
His team of gorgeous assistants. And the guy down in front with the camera?
That's Johnny's dad, who always shows up to documents his shows for posterity. Sweet no?
Johnny's an upfront, funny kind of guy and happily shared all his tricks of the pastry trade. I'll pass on as much of his wisdom as I could scribble down and translate later. Johnny was French-trained and went to CIA.
Tools are important for his superb desserts at Restaurant Jean-Georges
But every home 'chef' can get his/her hands on an isi whipped cream dispenser. Measuring ingredients is another biggie. Grandma may have used her hands to show you how much of this or that to add to a recipe, but that won't work in a pastry kitchen.
Everything has got to be METRIC!
Johnny uses 1.1 grams = 28th of an ounce as his standard measure.
And use a thermometer - monitor your temperatures future pastry chefs out there!
Liquid nitrogen..hmm well
Johnny demonstrates dripping chocolate straight into nitrogen to create chocolate lace, but you can do it in your home kitchen using a bucket of ice cubes.
Regarding chocolate - Johnny loves Valrhona, but other chocolates work well too - Guittard, Cluizel etc. depending on the dessert.
*Buy 5 different (for example all 70%) brands of chocolates. Get to know their flavor profiles
Write down notes on file cards to refer to later.
Chocolate is a lot like wine - it has terroir too
Try & Taste & Smell EVERYTHING! Smell your food first.
And eat your food together, not separately.
That's how it was meant to be eaten.
CONTRASTS!
It's important to have different textures, different flavors, different temperatures in a dessert.
Always think about the textures.
Like think about Mac & Cheese. Then something crunchy to up the ante.
Textures are HUGE with Johnny
His desserts are: a single flavor, single tasting, single season at Jean-Georges.
Et voila - Le dessert!
'Chocolate Curd with crispy Cacao Nib Tuile, White Chocolate-Sesame Clouds'
Quite a delicious mouthful!
So that's your taste of Johnny Iuzzini.
His book, Dessert Foreplay, is written with the home cook in mind.
And I definitely tasted A LOT of chocolate putting together this post.
I hope I did you justice Johnny :)
Later on Johnny was signing books and even talking to book buyer's sons on the phone Ha!
Tell me what his flourished handwriting says, I can't figure it out...
That's Johnny's dad, who always shows up to documents his shows for posterity. Sweet no?
Johnny's an upfront, funny kind of guy and happily shared all his tricks of the pastry trade. I'll pass on as much of his wisdom as I could scribble down and translate later. Johnny was French-trained and went to CIA.
Tools are important for his superb desserts at Restaurant Jean-Georges But every home 'chef' can get his/her hands on an isi whipped cream dispenser. Measuring ingredients is another biggie. Grandma may have used her hands to show you how much of this or that to add to a recipe, but that won't work in a pastry kitchen. Everything has got to be METRIC!
Johnny uses 1.1 grams = 28th of an ounce as his standard measure.
And use a thermometer - monitor your temperatures future pastry chefs out there!
Liquid nitrogen..hmm well
Johnny demonstrates dripping chocolate straight into nitrogen to create chocolate lace, but you can do it in your home kitchen using a bucket of ice cubes.
Regarding chocolate - Johnny loves Valrhona, but other chocolates work well too - Guittard, Cluizel etc. depending on the dessert.*Buy 5 different (for example all 70%) brands of chocolates. Get to know their flavor profiles
Write down notes on file cards to refer to later.
Chocolate is a lot like wine - it has terroir too
Try & Taste & Smell EVERYTHING! Smell your food first.
And eat your food together, not separately.
That's how it was meant to be eaten.
CONTRASTS!
It's important to have different textures, different flavors, different temperatures in a dessert.
Always think about the textures.
Like think about Mac & Cheese. Then something crunchy to up the ante.
Textures are HUGE with Johnny
His desserts are: a single flavor, single tasting, single season at Jean-Georges.
He's not a reader - he likes to touch, smell, blow things up!
"Full blast! Full blast!
Done and done!
Google is my best friend - you can find any ingredient on the internet and where to buy it."
Et voila - Le dessert!'Chocolate Curd with crispy Cacao Nib Tuile, White Chocolate-Sesame Clouds'
Quite a delicious mouthful!
So that's your taste of Johnny Iuzzini.His book, Dessert Foreplay, is written with the home cook in mind.
And I definitely tasted A LOT of chocolate putting together this post.I hope I did you justice Johnny :)
Later on Johnny was signing books and even talking to book buyer's sons on the phone Ha!
Tell me what his flourished handwriting says, I can't figure it out... An watch Bravo's Just Desserts for the finale this week! 
Sunday was the last show day and the last chance for some more tastes...
Somehow or other I ended up buying a lot of pre-Xmas gifts...
My 'booty' - all GIFTS!!!
You can get that T-shirt on the website.
On the back it says, Paddled, Whipped, Beaten...and left to rest.
Sunday was the last show day and the last chance for some more tastes...
Somehow or other I ended up buying a lot of pre-Xmas gifts...
My 'booty' - all GIFTS!!!
This dog in a shop nearby was giving me dirty looks as I left...
"Where's my chocolate 'chicken drumstick' milk bone?"
BONJOUR JOHNNY IUZZINI!
Sunday, June 13, 2010
I was sitting with author/blogger, Vicki Archer of French Essence and My French Life, drinking pink tea whilst discussing our various impressions of London and Paris...
When Vicki said, "London is so much greener.
Paris has grandeur, but London is the greener of the two cities", it gave me pause.
Vickie lives half the time in Provence and half in London, so I'll take her word for it. Besides London is incredibly green. And hedges are huge here.
Both literally...
And figuratively, green hedges seem to be highly desirable.
Mini hedges for your window box if you don't own a manor house surrounded by huge hedges..?
This pub uses their hedge as a sign post:"Those who give up
smoking aren't the heros.
The real heros are the rest of us,
who have to listen to them."
There's a ton of London greenery at the new Royal Academy Summer show like this is a tree-size painting...
Painter Olha Pryymak took me along to the private view as her guest. This is the second year she's hung a painting in the show!
More to come on the exhibit later...
I met photographer/author Sue Snell by chance, foraging at a framers for my exhibit and we got chatting. Sue invited me to a book signing at Rococo Chocolates on Motcomb Street. You don't pass up that opportunity under any circumstances.
Sue's book on the Vanessa Bell/ Duncan Grant Gardens at Charleston is green, green and more luscious green.
*Note the hedge outside Rococo Chocolates...
Owner Chantal Coady started making deluxe chocolates around 1983. Here she's smiling behind a cocoa plant she grew from a pod. Chantal wanted to give me a pod to grow my own chocolate plant, but I'd rather eat her Rococo chocolate bars thanks very much. I do not have a 'green thumb' or 'green fingers' as they're called in the UK.
Miam-miamI brought a box of Rococo chocolates to Ian Sidaway's garden party today. He immediately hid them from the guests! I will have to return to London to properly taste these chockies :(
After the chocolate signing, Sue let me tag along to the 'wild garden' at the Natural History Museum where she's showing her photographs.
Every single region of England is represented in this wild garden, weeds included. Sheep are brought in at certain times of the year to trim these grasses right in the center of London! Who knew?
Did I mention Vicki was appropriately wearing the most gorgeous apple-green shoes you can imagine. She says they're supremely comfortable too. Do not ask me to order them for you. She's forgotten where she bought them, so we'll all have to be green with envy together.
Meanwhile Tom the cat, has been working overtime bringing in 'the green'. He's sold 10 (!) watercolors actually all 15 have sold! so far and is demanding a higher cut. Grrrrrrrr...I'm posting early, so I can wake up in time to catch the 5:25 am 'Chunnel' to Paris - what was I thinking?
BONJOUR LONDON GREENS!
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Dear PB readers, a huge THANK YOU Word-of-mouth rules when researching where to go & where not to go.
You deserve a presie!
So here's today's scoop.
A big part of any French Girl's beauty lurks within. Traitement is the name of the game. How come many of these French beauty treatments are in bleu packages!
True the French adore bleu...but have you noticed that French beauty stuff looks an awful lot like medicine?
The packaging is serious. No butterlies. No flowers. Like French Girl's shampoo here. It's a lovely shampoo. In fact FG bought it in NYC, but I assumed it must be French - blue bottle with serious, almost frightening packaging etc.
The point is, while we desperately try to copy French girls, making copious lists of what to wear, hairstyles, lipstick or no lipstick, which perfume, which shoes?
The French Girl is calmly having a beauty treatment and a giggle on us.
Even though you may be in Paris wolfing down as many macarons in as little time as possible...
And stuffing yourself like a bear at it's last supper...
While racing to beat the clock to do everything on your list...
You too can find serenity now!
After showering yourself with French chocolates...
Do as the French Girl does and go to a spa!
When I saw Pampered In Paris newly listed I requested a copy svp. With all my mad tearing around I usually come home and collapse in a heap. Why not collapse on a massage table IN Paris and start the recovery there?
I contacted author Kim Levesque for suggestions.
"You have to go to Wassana--even if you don't have time. Not for the facility--for the massage--Traditional Thai massage--amazing!" The picture above is from Les Bains Montorgueil in the book - heavenly non?
Doesn't this make complete and total sense PBers?
Just looking at the book is terribly restful and calm inducing...
I grabbed this shot while visiting Guerlain - their spa appointment desk. Wouldn't it be heaven on earth to be in this French girl's ballerinas or boots or whatever?
Naturally after you're all spa-d out you'll want a calm cuppa tea. Most spas offer refreshments, even meals. So isn't this a must-do in Paris?
So here's today's scoop.A big part of any French Girl's beauty lurks within. Traitement is the name of the game. How come many of these French beauty treatments are in bleu packages!
True the French adore bleu...but have you noticed that French beauty stuff looks an awful lot like medicine? The packaging is serious. No butterlies. No flowers. Like French Girl's shampoo here. It's a lovely shampoo. In fact FG bought it in NYC, but I assumed it must be French - blue bottle with serious, almost frightening packaging etc.The point is, while we desperately try to copy French girls, making copious lists of what to wear, hairstyles, lipstick or no lipstick, which perfume, which shoes?
The French Girl is calmly having a beauty treatment and a giggle on us.
Even though you may be in Paris wolfing down as many macarons in as little time as possible... And stuffing yourself like a bear at it's last supper... While racing to beat the clock to do everything on your list...
You too can find serenity now!
After showering yourself with French chocolates... Do as the French Girl does and go to a spa! When I saw Pampered In Paris newly listed I requested a copy svp. With all my mad tearing around I usually come home and collapse in a heap. Why not collapse on a massage table IN Paris and start the recovery there?
I contacted author Kim Levesque for suggestions."You have to go to Wassana--even if you don't have time. Not for the facility--for the massage--Traditional Thai massage--amazing!" The picture above is from Les Bains Montorgueil in the book - heavenly non?
Doesn't this make complete and total sense PBers?Just looking at the book is terribly restful and calm inducing...
I grabbed this shot while visiting Guerlain - their spa appointment desk. Wouldn't it be heaven on earth to be in this French girl's ballerinas or boots or whatever?Naturally after you're all spa-d out you'll want a calm cuppa tea. Most spas offer refreshments, even meals. So isn't this a must-do in Paris?
Now for the presie...
A BOOK GIVE-AWAY today (the book is a tad marked up malheureusement) chosen randomly to a commentor. And you must live in the USA.
BONJOUR PARIS SPAS!
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