Bakersfield, Day Two, Part Two

First, a digression: I can't wait for the ice cream to arrive tomorrow morning. Too bad I have a 9:30am meeting, otherwise I'd wait around for it (supposed to arrive by 10:30am). May just have to head home for lunch. Six packs is so little - I can't possibly spread it around for everyone.

Ok, back to Bakersfield...

As many of you know, I had created a recipe for Coco y Cacao prior to my Bakersfield trip. Therefore, I had a firm idea of what my ice cream should taste, and feel, like. So, when I saw the ingredients I had to play with, I think the first thing out of my mouth was "NO". No, I don't like shredded coconut. No, this ice cream base doesn't taste right. No, no, no, no. OK, maybe I wasn't that whiny. But I definitely had strong opinions against the coconut base ice cream they had prepared - I had used coconut milk, which has a significantly different taste. I had used fresh, young coconut -- they gave me re-hydrated coconut (shredded and flaked). I have to admit, though, I was curious if you could rehydrate coconut. Turns out you can, though it isn't nearly as tender.

Well, after this little stumbling block, we went to work perfecting the "Aztec" Chocolate Swirl. I was given several choices of spicy fudges, but decided to make my own combination. So, I had to choose between the two varieties of cinnamon, which was easy b/c one choice was the kind you find in cinnamon chewing gum, which burns my tongue.

Working with the chefs was amazing. One taste and they immediately know what needs adjustment. Making that adjustment is the tricky part. How much coconut for the base? How much cinnamon for the chocolate? How much pepper? The pepper was trickiest. We first kept adding gradually, but weren't feeling the heat. Then I doubled it and we all agreed it was a decent amount. Then Floyd comes in and immediately says it is too much. People are going to eat more than one bite, he said, and the heat will continue to grow. Excellent comment and exactly why the experts were there. Floyd is the spice guy, after all. Another thing Floyd said later was how he instructs his cooks. He tells them not to make small, incremental, baby steps when playing with flavors. Make a big leap, and if you went too far, then you know you need to dial it back. If it still isn't enough, then you haven't wasted your time with tons of small changes. And that is pretty much what we did, unwittingly. We doubled the amount of pepper, only to bring it back to an intermediate stage. Also, Denise said that after tasting for more than 15-20 minutes, or so (can you tell I'm guessing here?), you begin to lose your sense of taste. Other interesting tidbits were that they normally have people come to the taste sensory labs around 10-11am. This is when the sense of taste is highest for most people. Ok, maybe not that exact time, but I think just before lunch is the key. You are hungry, and that heightens your sense of taste. Also, I think she said most ice cream is consumed late at night, because you are a little hungry after settling down from dinner and it tastes the best when you are a bit hungry, versus right after a meal.

By the end of the two-hour kitchen session, you could get a good sense of each chef's style. Jacques seemed to like strong flavors, while Sara more subtle, with Floyd and Nancy falling in between. We had to choose 2 variations to present to the judging panel the next day, so I decided I would go on both ends of the spectrum to sort of calibrate my scale. I would use the judges comments to see where along the spectrum I needed to be. So, I chose one batch with strong coconut flavor and lots of heat, while the other had more subtle flavor and just a hint of heat. We poured the batches into containers and off they went to the blast freezer (-40°C ?). Ahhh, that's nothing -- I work with freezers twice as cold. Oh, before I forget, I learned (or re-learned: I had seen a show on this once, but forgot) how to make a swirl in ice cream. Rather than "swirl' or mix it in, you fold in the chocolate to make swirls.

As in any industry, there are specific terms for things. Variegate equals swirl, Add-in equals, well, stuff you add in (you know, like chocolate chips), etc. I'm probably butchering this.

After lunch, we got a tour of the ice cream factory. Another "clean" experience. You will be happy to know how many precautions they take to prevent your food from getting contaminated. They don't give tours to the public, so we had to don everything the employees wear: hairnets, ear protection, safety goggles, gloves, coats, and booties. All jewelry has to be removed, and anything else that might fall into the food. Even the coats are designed not to have buttons that might fall off. We asked if our chef's coats were ok, and they were because there aren't any buttons.

Factory highlights for me were: 1) The "Dazzler". A beautiful piece of engineering designed to put that criss-cross pattern on the Häagen Dazs bars. 2) The rail that flips over cartons of ice cream for packaging. 3) Sampling all sorts of ice cream!

To top off the day, we all went out to dinner and got to spend some "quiet" time with everyone from Häagen Dazs, Gourmet, etc. I say "quiet" because this was one of the rare moments when we didn't have any cameras following us around. The toast Jacques made during dinner is what really opened my eyes to the real value of the contest. He said it was a learning process for everyone, including the chefs. And I have to agree - I learned so much that day. Before, it was all about winning. After, I was appreciative just to have had the experience. Sure, I still want to win this thing, but even if I don't "win", I will still value the experience. And winning the contest will just extend the experience.