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the posts that you read on here are almost always finished (in some way) projects. rarely to i post the experiments, mishaps and just strange things that were probably not the best idea in the first place. this may be one of the downfalls of being your own censor, you have a tendency to show only what you want people to see. this blog was intended to work as a window into my kitchen but only showing the successes has gotten me away from the whole point of this project.

for many years i have told my commis that “success is a poor teacher.” this is something that i truly believe in. mistakes make you better! they often land you on the shit end of the stick but nine point nine times out of ten they make you stronger. some mistakes may be embarrassing. they may portray you in a way that you do not wish to be seen. if a project does not work the way you saw it in your head, or go the way you want, never forget that “go” is the action that moves you to another level… even if it is the level you did not plan to be on.

here are some of my more recent…. “learning experiences”

laminated candy

with the slow season here (thank god) i have started working with some confection ideas/recipes that i have been sitting on for a number of years. the first one was laminated candy. can’t really remember where i first saw this but it has been sitting in the back of my brain for at least five years. last week was the time to take it off the shelf and give it a go.

600g cashews, toasted and ground coarsely

75g 10X

600g sugar

200g water

80g glucose

grind the cashew and 10X together
boil the sugar water and glucose to a light caramel

the idea with this confections is to fold the sugar and nuts together in the same way you would a laminated dough. the end result a flaky candy. i poured the light caramel out onto a silpat in the shape of a rectangle, let it cool long enough that is was flexible but not set. covered 2/3 with the ground nuts and gave it a three fold. here is where i think i made a mistake. working in and out of the the oven i did 3 folds adding about 200g of nuts each time. what a pain in the ass. i tried to roll it about 1-2cm thick and cut rectangles. it worked but the end result was not very nice and the lamination did not exist.

when you are trying something that you have not done before, and it is a classic that has been around for generations, it should be a challenge due to a lack of familiarity. here is a way that i measure how difficult a project should be. when dealing with a product that has classical french roots there are a couple things you can be sure of.

this item was made by hand decades ago
the french are “efficient” (efficient meaning they will always find the path of least resistance – some may call this the product of being lazy)

with this in mind i ask myself could one man do this in his shop, by himself, thirty years ago and stay in business/make money off it. if the answer is no then you are doing something wrong

gum balls

i new this was a losing battle from the start….

our restaurant manager and myself have been making jokes for a month now about using really expensive wines in dishes… i want to make gumballs with d’yquem in them, needless to say he will not give it to me…

last week i received a sample of gum base from chefrubber. most recipes call for gum base, sugar and a flavor essence or extract (some add glycerin and a few other things but i’m keeping it simple). note that i did not mention wine or any other water based flavoring that is not concentrated. the reason for this is that adding water dilutes the gum and yields a product that makes mush, not chewing gum. with that said guess what happened when i added enough sauternes to make it taste like sauternes. yes, i could reduce it and make it very concentrated but i want a pure uncooked flavor.

i’m not giving up on this one.