THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, June 4, 1995 TAG: 9506010069
SECTION: FLAVOR PAGE: F1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY RUTH FANTASIA, ASSISTANT TO THE FOOD EDITOR
LENGTH: Long : 115 lines
Any chef will tell you, having the proper tools to create a meal is essential. But sometimes, the right tools aren't kitchen utensils at all. They're bricks and blow torches. They're items found in the garage, a child's desk or even the recycling bin.
Previews of Julia Child's new television series, ``In Julia's Kitchen With Master Chefs,'' show Jimmy Sneed, chef at Richmond's The Frog and the Redneck hanging fresh linguine on a plastic coat hanger. Old-time cooks used a broom handle stretched between two chairs for drying fresh pasta.
Even Julia herself has been known to use some odd tools of the trade.
Don Fry, an independent writing coach and lover of fine food, remembers the events in Berkeley, Calif., in the late 1960s.
Julia was showing how to make bread on television and she put this brick in the oven and sprayed it with water to recreate that nice hard crust, says Fry.
``The following Monday morning, women were running to the hardware stores to buy one brick. The only problem was the hardware stores and brickyards didn't sell bricks one at a time. They sold them in lots of 500,'' Fry says.
Child admits to using a brick but says her favorite kitchen tool is a blow torch.
``The blow torch is wonderful to have in the kitchen,'' Child said in a recent interview. ``In case you want to make Baked Alaska, brown it with a blow torch. Or if you want to unmold an aspic, warm it with a blow torch. If you want to caramelize the the top of a creme brulee, use the blow torch.''
She also appreciates other chefs who use imaginative implements. Her new book and television series feature Jacques Torres, chef of Le Cirque in New York.
Torres uses bubble wrap and other shapely materials to mold chocolate into centerpieces. Simply melt the chocolate, spread it over the bubble wrap and chill. When the chocolate has hardened, peel away the bubble wrap and you have something similar to a chocolate honeycomb.
Local chefs also are known to depend on their ingenuity as much as their ingredients. Marcel Desaulniers, executive chef and co-owner of the Trellis in Williamsburg, says, ``We use those big splash balloons the kids use for water fights. Blow it up and dip it in the chocolate. Let it set and then pop the balloons to form a chocolate bowl. You can blow it up as big as you want and have a bowl the size of a basketball.''
Even the simplest desserts could be improved by a tool or two.
If you find cutting bar cookies into straight squares difficult, use a ruler or triangle. Alice Medrich writes in her book ``Chocolate and the Art of Low-fat Desserts'' that she prefers a clear, plastic ruler for the kitchen.
Another item she lists is boar-bristle paint brushes for glazing pastries and moistening cakes with liqueur. Find them in hardware or craft stores.
While you're there, pick up a small craft knife. These little gems are great for cutting intricate patterns or trimming the edges off hot gingerbread when you're building that Christmas house.
And if you're desperate for a measuring cup, remember there's usually a 1/2- to 3/4-cup measure in a box of laundry detergent.
If necessity is the mother of invention, Sidney Meers must be the father. This Norfolk restaurateur has a kitchen full of odd gadgets.
``What you have to remember is when we opened up on College Place, one of the things was, I was poor,'' Meers says.
Meers used a thin-shafted Phillips screwdriver for testing cakes. ``Go in slightly off center and at an angle and it will truly pull out anything that's not done,'' he says.
If you're trying to separate cake layers that have been cut in half, Meers suggests using a Frisbee. ``The big, large, jumbo ones are great. Take the lip off and use that for lifting the cake into different layers. The Frisbees are thin enough to slide though the cake but strong enough that they don't bend and break the layers.
If you don't have a sifter, Meers has a solution. ``I went to a nearby drugstore and bought a metal fly-swatter. We cut the handle off, put it over a coffee cup and used it as a sifter,'' he says.
Even cat food cans are put to use in the Dumbwaiter kitchen. ``Get the steel ones that have the same size top and bottom. Cut out the bottom and you can use it to make perfect individual brioche,'' Meers says.
Just slide the bread out of the can when it's finished.
And finally, a good wire cheese knife can cost $50. Meers' solution: Use a steel guitar string. ``I get them from the artists who play here. When they break a string, I save it,'' he says. One trick: The higher the chord, the better it cuts. ILLUSTRATION: BETH BERGMAN/Staff color photos
FRISBEE: Cut off the lip and use to separate cake layers. It's thin
enough to slide through and strong enough not to bend.
TRIANGLE: Use the clear, straight edge as a guide for cutting bar
cookies or trimming the edges of gingerbread.
BRICK: Placed in a hot oven and sprayed with water, the brick will
give bread a hard crust.
SCREWDRIVER: If a cake tester isn't handy, a Phillips-head works
just as well.
BALLOON: Use several to mold chocolate bowls to serve desserts or
fruit.
PROPANE TORCH: Brown meringues, unmold aspics and caramelize creme
brulee with this powerful tool.
VP/LS FILE PHOTO
The Dumbwaiter's Sidney Meers uses screwdrivers, Frisbees, even
guitar strings in the kitchen of his eclectic Norfolk eatery.
by CNB