French chef Palladin on phone in kitchen

Chefs You Should Know

Emily鈥檚 served as a creative incubator for the cooks who worked there. In our downtime, we swapped the latest books and magazines, mining them for techniques and flavors to infuse into the menus we

chef demonstrating their knife skills cutting celery in new york

What Chefs Really Think About Kitchen Scars

Young cooks are instantly identified by the rows of scars running up their forearms: the reminders of brief skin-singeing encounters with blazing hot oven racks and pan handles. A cook鈥檚 relative

coffee ice cream

Why I Tell Pastry Students 'Imagine Yourself as a Tiny Milk Fat Particle'

As a pastry chef, one might say that I鈥檓 already hard-wired to think a bit deeper about the composition and function of ingredients. I like to say that the primary difference between a pastry chef and

fresh french bread baked by chef michael laiskonis

Putting in Solo Time: How Chef Michael Laiskonis Refines His Craft Alone in the Kitchen

My cooking career began at a tiny bakery in the outlying suburbs of Detroit almost 25 years ago. What started as 鈥渏ust a job鈥 quickly became a compulsion: in cooking I found the satisfaction of manual

hazelnut chocolate

Making Every Move Count: Cooking With Economy

Describing the kitchen as tiny would be an understatement 鈥 there was barely enough room for three cooks. The chef and owner, Rick Halberg, became my first important mentor. While I learned a lot from

Chef Michael Laiskonis teaching at Institute of 国产福利 Education in New York

Always Forward: Pastry Chef Michael Laiskonis Sets Goals for the New Year

Five years ago this month, I completed an eight-year run as the pastry chef at Le Bernardin, satisfied (as much as one can be) that I had achieved a handful of notable accomplishments: a James Beard

milk chocolate praline in an architecture inspired pastry

Borrowing Lessons from Architecture in the Pastry Kitchen

I think a lot about architecture and design. It's a closet interest of mine, though I must admit that my passion is limited to: I don't know much about architecture, but I know what I like. One of the

chocolate showpiece

New York's 'Golden Age' of Chocolate

With the industrial revolution of the 1800s, chocolate and cocoa made an interesting transition from the beverage served at coffeehouses and pharmacies into the realm of confections. The innovation of

1801 new york register

In Search of Chocolate in Old NYC: A Quest for Clues

Among those merchant families importing beans, the first glimpse of cocoa processing can be found on the island. By the end of the American Revolution and the turn of the 19 th century, the city grew

raw cacao bean on cutting board

In Search of Chocolate in Old New York City

Considering our new digs in the oldest part of the city, it hit me that perhaps we were bringing chocolate back to the neighborhood鈥攐ld New Amsterdam. I began to ponder the chocolate history of New

sifting finished chocolate

Refining and Conching: Unlock the Bean's Potential

The final steps in processing our bean-to-bar chocolate make up the longest phase of the manufacturing process鈥攁 waiting game where the true essence of the bean, its complex flavor and its silky

Chef sharpening his knives in a professional kitchen

Evidence of a Life in the Kitchen

Young cooks are instantly identified by the rows of scars running up their forearms: the reminders of brief skin-singeing encounters with blazing hot oven racks and pan handles. A cook鈥檚 relative

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