macarons

I found the macaron article in the April issue of Chicago magazine. Matt has it on our website, as well as all over the bakery. Needless to say, macaron sales have gone thru the roof. It is a single page story, nice picture of macarons from Vanille, a pastry shop in Chicago. It also mentions the restaurants Ria and Nomi. It mentions Sarah's Candies, as well as Vanille. But it also says, "The best we've found so far, are at Bennison's, where they dissolve upon contact with your tounge". Ours was the only address given. Puts us in some pretty tall company. Not sure who is doing the work at either restaurant. But I know Dimitri at Vanille, very talented guy. He was a member of the United States team that won the world pastry championship in 2008. He also teaches at the French pastry School, here in Chicago. It was quite a feeling when I read that. Not quite winning the Coupe, but close.


This weekend I'm off to the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York. I'm the lead judge for a Master Baker exam weekend. I think we have five candidates for CMB and two for CB. Four of our production folks here, took their written test, last week. Zach, Jennifer and Joe tested for their Certified Journey Baker and Marc tested for Certified Baker. Marc already passed the practical exam last summer at Kendall College. I'm looking forward to returning to the school. Hyde Park is where I did, my practical exam. I've been there a handful of times since then. Rich Coppidge is the lead bread instructor there. I met Rich, my first trip to the National Baking Centre in 97'. We tried out for the baking team together. He has since written a book about gluten free baking. Heck of a nice guy, great instructor.I spoke with Tom Vocarro, the dean of the pastry school, last week. He told me they have an eighteen month waiting list. More impressive is the fact they graduate every three months. Not sure of the enrollment, I'll clarify that this weekend. It's really quite a place. It's also my favorite place to do an exam because of the food. We have some amazing dinners there.

Gotta get upstairs. Got a lot of macrons to get ready for this weekend. Bat 17 also has us working nights. They have a huge party Friday. No wonder, if you've ever tasted their sandwiches.

Just got an email from my buddy Laurent le Daniel, in Rennes, France. He sent me his vanilla macoron filling recipe. The ones I had this past trip to France were better than what we have been making. I just wanna keep makin' things taste better.