I’ve seen many a great technique in this biz, I mean I hope so after almost 20 years. Every once and awhile thought I see something that really changes the game, a true face-palm-angels-singing-on-high kind of moment. Like the technique for cleaning chop bones with butcher twine, or the Mexican Egg Separating Method (MESP.) One of the finest examples of these types of techniques was demoed to me rather non-nonchalantly by the multi-talented and often elusive Chef Eric Suniga, with whom I worked with briefly at ten-o1. He saw me and my assistant laboriously struggling to make hundreds of tiny vol au vents late one night using this basic method. Off the cuff he mentions, “I’ve got a really fast way to do that,” which is the same method I’m about to show you, Faithful Readers. I have described this method to countless cooks and Chefs by drawing something similar on a piece of parchment or paper towel, now I’ll Just send ‘em a link.
Use this techinque as I often do as a vessel for mushroom duxelles,or smoked salmon salad. Make larger versions for a super clean tart tatin. There are really a thousand-and-one uses for this versatile pastry. Just Google it. Anyway, here’s a Photoshopped diagram of the technique which took me way longer to make than it will for you to make hundreds of vol au vents. FYI the Pear Tatin pictured at the top of this post uses the same method, just with a square cutter.