For Natalia

Check out this blog. http://triplecreme.blogspot.com/ This girl travels all over LA to find great food. There's a couple of pastry shops I saw on her site...thought you might want to read up on them. Good luck!

that girl...

Wait... Hey you guys... Remember that girl? The one that used to get drunk all the time? What was her name again?

LOL. Oh you poor thing. Just come back up here already! Hugs.

Jed, you're gonna love this one

My attempts at finding a job have been frustrating and fruitless. I have been getting some calls and interviews at places but nothing that I am excited about. I did interview at one place in LA and loved the place and the people. I think that I could strongly say that I would fit in well there. So I wrote the standard thank-you later and a week after I interviewed, I did the follow-up phone call. Well the sous-chef who is in charge of hiring and the one who I worked with during my interview starts rattling off the job description when I get him on the phone. I stop him mid-sentence to remind him that I have already interviewed. Get ready for this one guys...his reply, "I'm sorry, I'm never like this but I can't seem to remember you." What?!? Are you kidding me? Story of my life. I assume he misplaced my resume and wasn't even considering me. Memories of being forgotten came crashing in. Chef Hodgson forgetting that I interned at Copenhagen. Mr. Stellman taking role in his class and looking around the room in search of me but didn't even see me sitting ten inches from his nose. In accounting class where I would yell "Here!" during role call and still not be heard. Is there something about me that makes me so forgettable? Ouch.

Tired...

I've had so much on my mind lately but I really haven't had anytime to post..not until today. It's my first day off, thank god! I love reading everyone's post so I'll give you one right back. Here's my latest update: I was hired to work P/T the usual 3-4 days/week, but now it looks like I'll be working 5 days a week but only 7.5 hrs/day. Isn't that just strange! So needless to say but I'll say it anyways, "This is crazy, and I'm not sure what I'm doing." It's always the case, so don't fret, cuz I'm feeling a little better today. Maybe I'm in need of therapy??? So far, I've spent 5 full days at the bakery, working the dreaded weekends. The good news is that I am becoming a pro at laminating dough. It looks like I'll be in charge of the croissant and puff dough from now on. I love the sheeter and that gadget they have to press the dough and butter into blocks. I am also getting good at mixing bread (even though the HOBART does all the work) but at least I know when to add more flour and check to see if the gluten has developed yet.

Went to a couple of restaurants this week in downtown San Mateo and enjoyed both of them. Didn't realize I had so much good stuff to chose from. Wednesday night went to Sinbad's and ordered their chicken swherma wrapped in lavash and baba ganoush. Loved the sandwich, because the chicken was grilled and it tasted so refreshing because of the assortment of veggies. They also have entertainment there: music and a scantily dressed woman shaking her hips. Sean would love it there! Second restaurant was the Japanese place next to the Japanese supermarket. Never noticed it before. Very small setting, but I liked it that way. They had everything except for sushi rolls. We tried a couple of specials: pickled fried rice (very good), curry udon (not bad), and tonkatsu ramen (santa ramen is better-plus i thought tonkatsu was the breaded fried pork...that was not the case. instead i received two thinly sliced pork.) Regardless I enjoyed the placle and will go back.

Here's what I baked this morning:


lemon chocolate tart
(chocolate is underneath)








banana nut muffins -------->







Here's an Eggplant Pasta Sauce that I made last week. Very good over pasta! Found it on someone's website! ( I should post these recipes huh?)







Anyways more ranting and ravings to come.....

Busy Food Week

So this past week has been pretty hectic. Last Tuesday, CNET rolled out a new unified code base and redesign for Chowhound and Chow. Check it out if you haven't seen it yet, I think it looks great. For some reason, the engineering team did not do much beta testing with long time chowhounders and did not give anyone advanced notice of the changes beforehand. Needless to say, the chowhound community was a little upset and everyone at Chowhound swept into disaster response mode to make fixes to the site. It was eerie reading so people's complaints, and also seeing the flipside of the engineering team frantically working to fix all the problems. This has opened my mind to a couple of ideas.

First, if there is something wrong, something you don't like or agree with, make noise and make people listen. Sometimes, it's not as easy as posting complaints about an online forum on that same forum. But if enough people communicate their demands for change, change will happen.

Secondly, if you don't get the response immediately, be patient and stay constructive. Don't compound the problem by whining, ranting, and acting like a baby.

Friday was my last day at the magazine. They were nice enough to take me to Bong Su on 3rd and Folsom. We shared some dishes including the Duck Mustard Wraps, Da Nang Beef Roll, and a calamari salad from their Dine About Town menu. I also had a pretty standard Asian beef stew and a pear crepe wrapped like a beggar's purse in coffee anglaise. Overall, the only thing I would order again was the Beef Roll. It rice noodle wrapped around some lemongrass grilled beef and some herbs. Truly delicious and reminiscent of dim sum rice noodle crepes. The coffee anglaise with the crepe was pretty good too, but i was just expecting more I guess.

On Saturday, we used a Christmas present from my cousin to go to Palomino on the Embarcadero. Before going, I read so many negative things about this place on Chowhound - poor food, bad service, bla bla. Let me tell you, don't believe everything you read. The food is definately not Gary Danko, but Cindy and I had a great meal there. We saw they had an early bird menu for seatings between 4-6pm (3 courses for $20) so we decided to get a reservation at 5:45pm. I ordered a Caesar salad, Bistro Steak w chickpea fritters and balsamic ketchup, and a mango sorbet. The Caesar was dressed properly and I am glad to report they had bits of anchovy! Steak was cooked perfectly, chickpea fritters were like pureed chickpeas formed into batons, floured, and then fried. Pure deliciousness with the textures and the light seasoning. Even better when you paired it with the super sweet balsamic ketchup. The mango sorbet was just bleh. Cindy ordered the crab cake starter (1 crab cake) with a nice roasted pepper salad. It was solid, as it should have been. She also ordered a roasted mushroom and sausage pizza that was pretty delicious. The crust was sooooooo paper thin, and we love that. Next time, we would just get the margherita (tomato and basil) instead of the other toppings. She also ordered a strawberry lemonade which made her super happy - I got a sprite which was included with my meal. All in all, Caesar, Steak, Sorbet, Crab Cake, Pizza, Strawberry Lemonade, Sprite, total cost was $49! Awesome deal!

I start my new job today, can't wait to see what happens. I am actually excited to get back in the kitchen to start cooking again. Let's see how I feel in a week or so...

If anyone has Kenji's email address, please forward it to me so I can send him the invite here. For those who care, HTML tags are active so you can link and format your posts. If you want a different picture on the side, send me the pic or a link to the pic and I will change it for ya.

Finally, Top Chef Finale! Who else is watching? I hated this season so much, but there's nothing else that excites me on TV these days. I hope Marcel wins, but it doesn't sound likely since Ilan quit his job at Casa Mono last week. For the first time all season, I actually have to watch to find out who wins. No insider to tip me on who is getting kicked off anymore =(

so i finally figured it out....

sorry it took me so long to get on here! i knew i had an account but couldn't figure out the username and then i couldn't figure out the password! after alot of trial and error i finally got it. Well i'm at school MWF jus taking some random courses while i try to figure some stuff out. rite now 2007 is a busy year for me esp in feb. I was actually considering cruise ships for possibly a 3 month contract or so because I was talking to someone who actually did one, sorry forgot the which one, but they appreciated the experience. Something that they wouldn't do for life but they said it's a good experience - something to have under your belt, i've also considered Google again. I've been there a couple fo times to have lunch but the positions they have don't really fit my fancy, nothing for pastry chef but i'll prob keep in contact just in case. I hate being at school and never seeing anyone, and it's quite sad - i jus keep to myself hoping to bump into you guys and what make it worse is that i'm on the opposite side of the campus. no more statler wing! well i hope you all are doing great and i jus wanted you guys to know that i miss you all dearly!

Bakeshop all Over again...

First day on the job. Woah, glad to be done with my shift! It almost feels like I'm back in first semester bakeshop minus all the cool folks of course. My little department is as big as the cake/tart station in Hodg's class. Very tiny..to0 tiny if you ask me. The space fits a small proof box, two ovens, one convection oven, and a big (what's that mixer that mixes all of our breads called????) - we make a whole lotta bread!

The most exciting part of my day was laminating dough. The sheeter is thee times Hodg's and it's so much easier to manuver. Also, there's this spiffy machine that takes care of the dough and butter for me so that it comes out to a perfect rectangle. It's amazing!! No more pounding butter!! Yeah!

NOt quite sure if this is what I want to do with my life yet - I'm just testing out the water and seeing if I'm any good at it. I guess that will determine where I'll end up next.

hasta luego!

Hey y'all

I hurt my back this weekend. It totally sucks. After some research on the friendly and free WebMD, (man you can sit on that site for hours) I have learned that I have sciatica and that "the vast majority of people who experience sciatica get better with time (usually a few weeks or months)." Isn't that nice? I vote for "weeks" please. Better yet, how about just "days"?

One day I was upstairs talking with my landlords, who happen to be Richard's relatives, and they showed me a tape of the show. Go Richard! Yeah, and Chef Hodgson was in it a lot. Ah, the bakeshop days... Everyone check it out! You're all in it! It's great! Even if you all are falling asleep in Latham's class.

Nothing really new with me. Waiting for my sister to get a job and thinking of moving sometime in the spring. We'll see. Thinking of taking the GMAT this summer. Wondering how much longer I can surf the internet before my brain goes numb, but also too lazy to get more clients or new job. Hmm... Yes, currently lacking something because feeling very "whatever" about life. Not so good.

Shall we have a dinner party sometime soon? Desperately need something tangible to look forward to. Peace out.

The search continues...

Okay first off ...Richard every episode of Iron Chef America is fixed. I happened to miss the one you were ranting about but I am glad I did. I mean food and technology has a place and a purpose to mix but come on! Sometimes you just gotta leave well enough alone. Similarily I find that food and art is sometimes taken too far. Has anyone seen the show Ace of Cakes? It's like Miami Ink meets American Chopper topped with frosting.
I was a little slow with getting things started here with this blog but I am a technological failure! Finally after many attemps, I got an account to blog away and also viewed Richard's television debut. Way to go Richard! Everyone should check it out. It makes me miss Chef Hodgeson. No not really :)
Anyway as most of you know I am searching still for the perfect job. I know it exists, I just have to be patient. Patience, one of my New Year's resoltions, that and to obtain better posture (I write this as I slouch in front of the computer). So far I've had 2 interviews, one position in a restaurant for Assistant pastry chef and one in a bakery. I think I'd like to stick with a bakery. Going in for an interview tomorrow at a bakery so we shall see.
Sleeping on couches has gotten the best of me but I won't give up. Got to keep on truckin'. I got that line of inspiration from a beloved country song. Yes y'all they play country on the radio down here. Oh the sweet twang of yee-haw music!

Media All Around

OK, so who saw Iron Chef on Sunday? It was Morimoto vs Homaro Cantu of Moto in Chicago. Moto is one of the three famous copycat restaurants in the US preparing "postmoderne - molecular gastronomy" type food like that of Ferran Adria at El Bulli. The other two famous restaurants in the US are Grant Achatz's Alinea in Chicago and Wylie Dufresne's WD-50 in NYC. Moto is most famous for their edible menus as featured in Gourmet magazine.

I watched battle beets, and was utterly embarassed by the equipment and the "show" that this guy put on. He had a class 4 laser, digital camera, laptop, printer, edible paper, liquid nitrogen, a high school chemistry kit, and LED name tags. His dishes had very little of the featured ingredient, beets, and the judges called him on it. Yet, he somehow beat Morimoto whom the judges favored (or so it seemed) in terms of flavor, use of ingredient, and orginality. Cantu used the class 4 laser to caramelize powdered sugar on fried wonton skins - was this really necessary? He finished cooking a surf and turf in a polymer box that acted as an oven. Yumm, polymer! He printed a picture taken during the competition on the edible paper and served it - I sure want to eat a picture of the chef! It was all so gimmicky, it just made me sick. Even worse, he won! None of his food looked remotely appetizing. wtf is wrong with Iron Chef America? Did the PR people from Moto fix the "competition?" It's hard for me to believe Morimoto lost by 1 point since the judges seemed to enjoy his food more and imo, he made better use of the ingredient.

On to other TV news, my Bay Cafe show is finally available for viewing on the BAY CAFE website. I am in episode 06-21, parts 1-4, with total running time of about 22 minutes. If you haven't seen it yet, please check it out.

Staying in the media, I am currently looking for recipes of all kinds to be submitted for the NEW CCSF Cookbook. Send me your recipes or post them here and I will put them in the cookbook. If your recipe has a story, even better - PLEASE TELL! =)

To the rest of the people listed on the side bar who have not signed up yet, DO IT! Everything is setup, all you need to do is register and post. Let us know what is going on in your lives! And help me fill in the rest of the information with bakery/restaurant/company names, current titles, anything else you want.

UPDATE!!!

Buenos dias gang!

First off, good job Richard on taking the lead and finding us a group blog. Love it! Good job with the pictures...I was very surprised. I'm gonna need to learn how to do that with my own site too...might have to ask you for help.

So as of 1/19 I officially accepted the job in Palo Alto. I think my official title is "Baker's Assistant". I had a difficult time making this decision mainly because the bakery was not Tartine...I just love the look and feel of tartine's bakery. However, I will be exposed to laminated doughs, bread making, cake and pie preparations, and much more. This job is offering me everything I've been wanting to learn. So I guess I'm making the decision to become a baker. Funny...cuz this is no where near what I imagined myself doing when I first started the program.

I am also taking a conversational spanish class, so from time to time I will be practicing my spanish on you. Going back to school feels weird without you all. And lately I've been feeling as if I'm getting older and older. Yawning at 9pm is a major sign that my social life will soon cease to exist.

At this point I'm just ranting now. My right arm/bicep/shoulder/neck is so messed up right now from playing the Wii. Two nights ago we had game night in Foster City and my sports challenged friend whoop our asses at tennis. After two straight rounds of winning, I finally took down the reining champion. And as soon as I took over, Nick knocked me right off. So next time we have game night who wants to come?

hasta luego, chau amigos, chau amigas!

First Post! Welcome

So the first post on this new Blog. What to write? First, I hope everyone was able to sign up without too many problems. Each of us should be able to post new content whenever we want through your own accounts. This space is intended for you to post rants, raves, stories, experiences, recipes, and anything else you want to share about food, dining, cooking, working, etc.

I am still working on the layout and making it look pretty and functional, but please start posting. Everyone can start with an UPDATE post. Let us know what you have been up to since our last day together.

Here is my Update:
I quit Greens as of 1/14. My last day at Chow will be 1/26. Over the holidays, Tom (my chef de cuisine from Piperade), messaged me about a job opening there and at the sister restaurant, Bocadillos. I will be working at Piperade again starting 1/29.

My episode of Bay Cafe aired in December. It was exciting and embarassing to watch myself on TV. All the feedback from the show thus far has been very positive. I just got the DVD from the producers, so let me know if you guys would like a copy. I will send it out as soon as I learn how to burn a DVD.

For Christmas, Cindy got us dinner reservations at The French Laundry in February. I am so excited and can't wait to go. As some of you know, we went down to LA over new years. We left SF around 4:30pm (after working 7-3 at Greens) and I drove like a madman to make our 10:00pm reservations at Lucque's. Food there was flavorful and yummy!!! We had the best short ribs with horseradish whipped potatoes, roast suckling pig with greens, and sweet potato beignets. We also did our usual romp through Westminster (Bolsa/Little Saigon) which was excellent as always.

Other meals over the break include Delfina, Dolores Park Cafe, BiRite Creamery, Jai Yun, Scott Howard, Yield Wine Bar, and Dynasty Seafood in Cupertino. I will post reviews of these at a later time.

I look forward to reading all of yours, and please, let me know what bugs you and what I should change about this site. Thanks