Not so common tools???

[Kimmie]

LOL, I'm not a pro like you W. but I didn't find it as difficult as you might think.

Try small first just for the feel of it and view the PBS Video tapes with Julia. Find Jacques Torres on In Julia's Kitchen with Master Chefs. You will see how the master does it.

[isaac]

iza

that is a neat idea. i suppose you could do that with a mousse too.

i was talking with another pastry chef and we were talking about sugar boxes. he said when he was youger, he used to use the egg boxes and made his own sugar box. very interesting really

[oli]

Thanks Kimmie & gang:
Thanks for the suggestions. I've been to the hardware store (Home Depot) and saw registers that cover the heating and air conditioning ducts and I think thats what you were meaning by aluminum radiator protectors or aluminum lattice? If they are, don't the louvers have an angle to them to transfer air down or up or are you guys talking about something else? The reason I am asking this question stems from the baking books called the French Professional Pastry Series books. In there, the chefs have created their cakes with the stripes on the sides of the cakes but the jaconde is wide perhaps 1" or more and the cigarette paste is 2mm or so. Thats more of the look I am shooting for. I have a cake comb, $4, that I believe is the other tool mentioned, that you pull through your frosting that I can use but it won't create this 1" vs 2mm design but would create wide cigarette paste and narrow jaconde design. Thanks

[Isa]

Originally posted by isaac:
<STRONG>iza

that is a neat idea. i suppose you could do that with a mousse too.

i was talking with another pastry chef and we were talking about sugar boxes. he said when he was youger, he used to use the egg boxes and made his own sugar box. very interesting really</STRONG>

Isaac I'm not sure I'm following you on the egg thing...

[Kimmie]

No Oli, it has nothing to do with louvers; it's more like a grid with little holes. For example, on a dark chocolate base, you can use the little holes to make white chocolate polka dots.

Let me refer you to Julia's Videos

Scroll down into the Prime Video Cuts, in the chef's box, click on Jacques Torres and the series is In Julia's Kitchen with Master Chefs. A video is worth a gazillion words!