three imaginary boys

off to paris in three days. 
very excited.  very nervous about the tasting.  i know it's going to be fun.
i have 1.5 days to myself in paris and versailles.  don't have any concrete plans.
want to visit Pierre Herme, Aoki, Hugo & Victor, Patisserie des Reves...
should i act the tourist and visit the catacombs? louvre?
any suggestions?
above are some mignardise:  Caramelia truffle, praline fudge, orange-bay leaf macaron

the specialist

we took some quality photos the other day in the kitchen for PR purposes and i was blown away by how this one turned out.

aerated cream cheese ice cream, tangerine granita, tangerine meringue, tangerine sauce, vanilla bean sauce, wood sorrel.

thanks dan duran for the photos

balloon

here are the balloons filled with chocolate pudding to make the pudding "truffles" in the previous post. it is an awesome technique and i have been wanting to try it for some time now.  learned about it through Alinea.  they were setting lemon curd in the balloons. 

i have been wanting to do a creamy chocolate pudding with a crisp chocolate shell and that technique hit me.

perfect. 

especially when you don't have a lot of hemisphere molds. 

fill the balloon with fluid chocolate pudding, submerge in ice bath to set, freeze, dip in chocolate/cocoa butter shell.

guess i could spray it at this point but i like the matte finish.

think i'll make some filled easter eggs with this technique.

(straight down to the ) bitter end

chocolate pudding truffle, peanut butter, passion fruit meringue, milk sherbet, rosemary blossoms.
last course on the current tasting menu.

paris, je taime

wow!
just got an email today telling me that i qualified for Valrhona's C3 competition.  i submitted a dish in february and now i am privileged to go to Paris and prepare the dish at Versailles for the judges. 

http://www.cercle.valrhona.com/cercle_des_chefs/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=47&Itemid=176

above is the link to their site.
i want to say congratulations to the other chef's from North America who will be going.

Sally Camacho-WP24 Los Angeles
Meg Galus-Sofitel Chicago
Sarah Kosikowski-Trump International Chicago
Bin-Mar Leto-Nobu New York
Lance Whipple-Four Seasons Phoenix

have fun everyone.