Team Foster
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After getting his start as a compositing artist for advertising and music videos in his native Germany, Thomas began to establish himself as a VFX supervisor on local films like “Run Lola Run” and “The Harmonists”.
The success of these early projects led to bigger budget European films: “The Legend of 1900”, “Enemy at the Gates” and “The Pianist”, to name a few.
During this time, Thomas had become a partner and CTO in Germany’s “Das Werk”. A rapidly expanding VFX and Post Production company with over 700 artists and studios all over Europe.
Following the merger with Roland Emmerich’s Culver City based studio “Centropolis Effects”, Thomas put down roots in Los Angeles and began his successful second career chapter in the US. Over the next 16 years, Thomas worked on a wide range of titles from the early “Blood and Chocolate” and “The Box”, to “2012”,“Harry Potter” and “Game of Thrones” in the 2010’s.
Following Montreal’s siren song in 2016, Thomas moved to Canada joining MPC and later Cinesite, to work on films like “Aquaman”, “The Mountain between us” and the Elton John Biopic “Rocketman”.
After supervising the Netflix series “Tribes of Europa”, Thomas joined Crafty Apes as their Head of Studio in Montreal in early 2021.
Thomas is a VES member and former board member of the Montreal VES chapter.
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Afternoon Delight
Bananas Foster
Bananas were not introduced to North America after the Civil War and some decades later, when widespread consumption took hold, New Orleans became a major center for banana imports from Central and South America.
In 1951, Brennan’s owner Owen Brennan (the uncle of Ralph Brennan, the 3rd generation restaurateur and now-owner of Brennan’s restaurant today) asked his chef Paul Blangé and sister Ella to come up with a new dessert using bananas to name after his friend Richard Foster, the chairman of the New Orleans Crime Commission. At the time, Owen’s younger brother John (Ralph Brennan’s father,) was running “Brennan’s Processed Potato Company,” a produce company that had a surplus of bananas. What they came up with is now the world renowned Bananas Foster.
The dramatic, flambéed result is now the most-ordered item on Brennan’s menu. Thirty-five thousand pounds of bananas are sautéed each year in South American rum (but of course!) in preparation of the signature dessert.
Ingredients
1/4 cup unsalted butter
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, ground
1/4 cup dark rum
1/4 cup banana liqueur
1 cup brown sugar
4 bananas, cut in half lengthwise, then halved
4 scoops vanilla ice cream
Directions
Combine butter, sugar, and cinnamon in a large sauté pan. Place pan over low heat and cook, stirring, until sugar dissolves. Stir in banana liqueur, then place bananas in pan. When bananas soften and begin to brown, carefully add rum. Continue to cook sauce until rum is hot, then tip pan slightly to igniter rum. When flames subside, lift bananas out of pan and place four pieces over each portion of ice cream. Generously spoon warm sauce over ice cream and serve immediately.
