Pastry Chef Conference, day 2, chef 2

Emily Luchetti sponsored by Perfect Puree of Napa Valley. If you don't know this woman, let me tell you. She's tough. No nonsense. Well spoken. Strong. Clear voiced. And she is someone who was baking when I started, 15 years ago. To still be a pastry chef, working in a restaurant kitchen, writing books, designing menus, training staff, and going to conferences, appears to be a rarity these days. She was my inspiration in the beginning, and she still is today.

Next: Of Pies, Crisps, Pudding Cakes, and More: Re-Imagining American Comfort Desserts, circa 2007. Emily Luchetti, Gale Gand and Leslie Mackie.

What does comfort mean to you and how have you changed comfort?

We have a glossary. Some included: Pandowdy, Crumble, Cobbler, Brown Betty, Buckle, Grunt.

"Cobblers were meant to look like a cobblestone street. The Slump/Grunt is unattractive, a pale dessert. Maybe you'll want to update this. It has to be steamed." GG

"I've always used shortening in our pie doughs. But now we're using a palm fruit fat. It bakes a little differently, but it's not hydrogenated. People tend to like the individual tarts/little pies.They like this." LM

"We serve an individual lemon meringue pie and people seem to love to have their own." GG

Leslie Mackie is showing a steamed pudding. [Remember when I wrote about those?]

Gale and Emily are talking about their grandmothers.

"The only thing my grandmother made was martinis." We laugh heartily.

"These have a great texture. A very sensual texture in fact." LM

Gale is thanking the Batterberry's and CIA. "I say to people I'm going to a pastry retreat. People ask me what that is and I say, 'You know, that's when we go and hob nob with our fellow pastry wizards.' " GG

"Look up this book. the Emperors of Chocolate." EL

We are all giddily eating. Everyone is terrifically happy. Like children, all of us. I can taste the craft, the love, the experience, the knowledge. The nod.

"The animal crackers box has a string on it because they were originally designed to be Christmas ornaments. A little known fact, Oreos are made with Black Cocoa. It's getting a bit of a revival. Does anyone use it?" GG

"Super alkalized is how its produced. Or stripped of its chocolate flavor," Micky of Guittard tells us.

There is a tiny tart that is an ode to the Snickers bar. I have to curse here, please excuse me. It is ridiculously fucking delicious. Can you say goddamn?

Now there's a little bit of n argument/discussion about how the chocolate chip cookie was created.

The chocolate steamed pudding is lovely. Delicious, texturally intriguing, soft but not like a baked custard. Think layer cake meets warm brownies meets warm chocolate cake. Strong chocolate perfume. Like when someone walks in the room and you know it before seeing them.

We're talking about the trans fats in Girl Scout cookies. Yes, it's still in there, although they say it's not. Something about how it's slightly below the legal limit so they can get away with it.

P.S. the translation for biscotti, by the way, is cookies. IT DOES NOT MEAN TWICE BAKED. They are baked twice or three times for extended shelf life.

And I'm giving props to Mallomars and Goo Goo bars. On the mike, yo.

This has been an exciting session!

Comments

[Anita]

Thanks for this liveblogging of the conference. I'm living vicariously, enviously...

King Arthur Flour's Bakers' Catalogue sells the black cocoa. I've never ordered or used it, but I always wonder about it.

I have to snicker at "biscotti... does not mean twice baked". Um, of course it does, just like "biscuit" does. But these are literal translations, and these two words commonly mean something broader in their native countries, or (in the case of American usage of the latter) entirely different. So yes, today "biscotti" may connote -all cookies- to an Italian, but to say the word doesn't *mean* what it means is more than a bit daft.

[Anita]

ps: Sorry if that comment came out sounding testy. I just re-read it and noticed that it sounded strident and humorless. I wrote it with a big smile on my face.... ugh.

[Sara]

Well, I am an Italian native speaker and biscotti does indeed mean twice cooked. Bis, from latin, means twice
and cotti is the past participle, masculin, plural of cucinare, to cook. Indeed, in everyday italian biscotti is the translation of cookies and most italian biscotti are not cooked twice. Still, the original word means twice cooked.

[shuna fish lydon]

Hmmmm well that quote came from an Italian pastry chef here who said he wanted us all to stop saying that biscotti means twice cooked. He said that oftentimes biscotti are cooked three times and they do not call them "triscotti."

I am trying to quote when possible. But I can't always type fast enough the give the background of the quotes, sorry!

and you're welcome-- it's fun for me to. And now I have something of a record.

[Sara]

I'm a different Sara. I ALWAYS thought that "twice baked" thing was wrong, ALWAYS. I always assumed that "biscotti" meant the same thing as "biscuits." And whether or not that originally meant "twice-baked," I don't think most biscuits are twice or thrice baked nowadays.

Ha. I feel vindicated, even if I'm still wrong.