Im a Professional Chef and here is my story.

Originally posted by wolf241e
This sounds like a made up fantasy made up to impress the ATS family and mods.

No it doesn't. It sounds like quite a normal experience.

If it were fantasy, there would have been an alien instead of a drunken Admiral, and he would have seen something juicy on the screen.

Some people here will try and debunk anything...

reply to post by VforVendettea


Hey VforVendetta thanks for the questions!

When I first got my hands in the culinary field I was told " Recipes are like a painting, if you have to much colors mixed together all you get is black at the end" more ingrediants does not mean better tasting food. Unfortunately this in turn breaks food down to its science core where you really have to be familiar with the ingrediants you are working with.

Gazpacho! I have made many many many different types of gazpacho, some were from recipes that were in place at companys I worked for and some were "winged" (meaning to just throw it together) recipes.

The quality of the Gazpacho really is in the ingrediants you use, which in turn means your going to pay a handsome fee for the best ingrediants. Heirlooms are some of the best strains your can use but there are other types of tomatoes etc that can produce the taste you are looking for, like San Marzano tomatoes.

The French Laundrys cook book is missing some key ingrediants I have always thought. I once made the Foie Gras Tourchon , it came out great but I felt it was lacking in some manner. I tend to stray aways from using recipes that come from books from top Notch chefs and restaurantes.

reply to post by TheMur


It is just my personal taste but I think there is a direct link between the darkness of a tomato and the intenseness of the flavor. the lighter the color the more bland.
Apparently the pests seem to share my opinion since they seem to get to the plant before I do.

reply to post by VforVendettea


There sure is! like you said a nice dark purple tomato can indeed have a flavor that is quite unique. But its all in the genetics, I have worked with some Heirlooms that are way sub par, but have also worked with some that are mindblowing. Most people dont have the luxury of that type of quality food, even supermarkets like whole foods etc dont always get that quality. Its the large specialty produce companys that can there hands on the best, like Sid Wainer and Baldor foods, they have special produce foragers that get the best, and most times they bu them all then mark them up 500%.

On a side note The French Laundry have there own gardens, Keller might have bought the best seeds for heirloom genetics and may be using that same genetic to this day. Food gets that particular.

Tomatoes are such a wonderful fruit, there really is nothing like a fresh ripe tomato on the vine.

Really enjoyed your story. The one thing that stands out more than anything is the cost that must have went into this event. Makes me want to go out and pay some more taxes to the fed.