I was getting weary of Chef’s Table after the last two season but just watched Season 4 - Pastry. Thoroughly enjoyed them, I dunno it just seemed like the features were more thought provoking - focusing on failures, imperfections, nostalgia.
Thoughts?
https://www.netflix.com/title/80007945
Is it wrong for me to say that I prefer the Mind of a Chef since it’s actually much more about cooking rather than the story behind the chefs? 
For the record, I did enjoy Jordi’s episode quite a bit!
Not at all, both have their respective merits as you pointed out.
I enjoyed watching David Kinch’s episode of MoaC and tried to recreate his abalone porridge. Loved there was enough cooking detail for me to follow along.
And where, pray tell, do you get abalone? Are you a diver?
Live ones can usually be found here in LA Asian supermarkets. No idea if they’re any good though…
Haha more like ghetto diver - Very inexpensive in LA. I usually buy them from the fish wholesalers in Skid Row ~$20 for 5.
I just did a quick look and it appears that they may be farmed which I’d had no idea. I can remember the last time I DIDN’T have it. In the East Bay about 35 years ago. At lunch it was $32!
Thanks for the education.
Yeah most of it is farmed these days, sourced from CA or Baja.
I used to be friends with a man who dove for them. Scary shit. That may have been the reason for calamari ‘steaks’ becoming popular.
It’s illegal to recreationally dive for wild abalone in California.
Delete.
Thanks, robert. Hopefully it’s permanent.
https://www.sfchronicle.com/food/article/Abalone-diving-prohibited-next-year-to-protect-12413652.php
Does one dive for farmed abalone?
Farmed in cages… hmmm sounds barbaric when I describe it that way 
Last time I saw wild abalone was in Paris. The guy at the next tabe said it was worth the steep price (€49 for one?).
Sounds reasonable since I didn’t have it decades ago for $32 (you can tell my shock that I still remember the price!).
Actually, looking at the chalkboard, it was only a €12 surcharge to the prix fixe, less than the €18 for my sweetbreads. But it was just one fairly small abalone.
