Best chocolate school

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Permalink Reply by Jeff on October 28, 2009 at 8:23pm

you go beth. Its a bitch learning the hard way and I did temper by hand for awhile and then just pulled the trigger on a REVII...ha!...I made thousands of truffles with that bad boy...then a REVX, then a Hilliard 6" coater....now its a 24' wcsmith enrober, a 1000lb national over/under melter temperer, a 250lb savage(for milk), and a old 100lb smith melter(for white)...we run 4 REVX's all day everyday for small batch and use the hilliard for molding....no one shot....all hand poured...

I used to make my own fondant too...but thats dumb....although we are coveting a 3' cream beater to make it with now as the price of finished sugar has gone up....

glad you saw the cuisineternship vids....the stuff they cut out of the promo was the best...me and gabe had a ball....but neither of us have a filter and the producers were cringing hard every two minutes...you mean you cant say "Thanks for lettin me play with your hot nuts" on TV???? who knew....

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Permalink Reply by Beth Mansfield on October 28, 2009 at 9:47pm

Well Linda, Vermont is mighty tempting. But only in the summer. And Jeff, all those toys you have must be a blast, but they would hardly fit in my tiny rental apartment. For the time being my batches are teeny tiny. At least I've gotten to the point where I don't feel I have to eat all the mistakes! I now share with the trash. But maybe once I get my act together and go public I'll buy a few toys too.......But first I have to fix this ganache.

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Permalink Reply by Linda Grishman on October 28, 2009 at 10:07pm

Hi Beth: Did you read my whole story that I posted yesterday about how I began making chocolate? Way before internet way before microwaves, way before the only chocolate Americans ate were Hershey (puke) bars.
Here's how you start....JUST DO IT.......that was coined by a woman whose name I forget. She was a marketing genius back in the early '80s...then Nike took that slogan. So, don't worry about the small stuff...just do your thing. And don't worry about the size of your batches. Do you have a chocolate thermometer? If not get one. I have a bunch of machinery,but hand tempering is an art and if machines fail, you still have your two hands. 2 Hilliard 240lb tempering machines, Savage Bros. cooker with cooling table, Doboy flow wrapper and a host of other toys that I made myself. I love tinkering.. If you need more info and support, you can email me directly to talk or call me....email choclinda@aol.com phone 802-862-5814 or in the eve my home phone is 802-862-3412. Hang in there. Linda

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Permalink Reply by Jeff on October 28, 2009 at 10:14pm

oh....man....a cooling table?? Like a water jacketed one??? drool in envy....

we went to a friend, he made us a 6' long 4' wide 3" thick polished granite slab....its a good heat sink....heavy though...

and beth? I started in my small house kitchen too. I am on my 4 th facility in 7 years........

DONT DREAM IT, BE IT!!!!

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Permalink Reply by Linda Grishman on October 28, 2009 at 10:27pm

Yes a water jacketed one....both kettle and table brand new from Savage. You can get one right now from Union....I just got an email from them with a list of stuff and the one they have looks to be in great condition. Do you know Jim and John Greenberg?
I want to taste some of your chocs....truffles and bon bons....send me some and I'll send you some of mine....although we won't begin making truffles until mid November for Thanksgiving. Lindaloo

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Permalink Reply by Jeff on October 28, 2009 at 11:59pm

I bought a brand new kettle years ago....

yes I have dealt with jim and john....nice guys....overpriced...but nice guys....

they have a habit of going to the auctions, buying shit up at ridiculously low prices and turning it around for 3 x what they paid for it without doing fuck all to the equipment to refurbish it.....

no fault of theirs...capitalism at work....but still....I aam not dumb

but I digress....

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Permalink Reply by Linda Grishman on October 29, 2009 at 12:39pm

Yes, I know. They are also lucky that their grandfather was born before them. (This was my late father's favorite expression, meaning that without their grandpa and daddy, where would they be). I bought a wrapping machine from Switzerland. The mistake I made was not to go to Switzerland to check them out. Machine cost me $30K and it never worked. "Beautiful looking" but never worked. It was a nightmare from hell. The manufacturer was a big weasel pig and joins the line of many more. Suffice it to say that I managed to find someone who said he could help. I am very mechanical, so we put my ideas into the process. Finally two years after it arrived, we had it to the point that it was ready to go. But I had to change the type of foil we were using. Then a battery that ran the computer died. No where in the specs was there mention of a battery. The program was lost. It defaulted back to another program. That was the end for me. I sent it off to Union... who said that they could get around $12K for it. Well, they got $5K and that was that. Didn't even give me a chance to refuse the amount, it had already been packed and shipped to the middle east. I was so tired of fighting at that point, that I just accepted it. It has been an uphill grind working with so many useless liars in this industry. I could write a book...but the stress of even thinking about it, makes me crazy. Did you try Jansen? Forget his first name. I will look it up for you. He's a really nice guy. Jeff why don't you call me to chat anyway. 802-862-5814. xxoo Linda

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