TheFoodTutor

I'm curious about this statement: Given that many people don't honor their reservations, and so a table will be held for them while walk-ins are turned away, even though the reserving party won't show up, how is it more hospitable to take reservations than to not take them? Sure, it's hospitable to the no show party to take their reservation, but it's the opposite of hospitable to the walk-ins who don't get a seat. So it's kind of a wash, isn't it? I work at 2 restaurants, one that takes reservations and one that does not, by the way. Both accept credit cards.

He's such a showoff. Can you imagine what it's like living with him? The cast iron pan for extra weight is a good suggestion. We have a set of cast iron and we use them at home for this purpose much of the time. Lambfries has become quite the poissonier. I'm pretty proud of him. Another thing that works well and looks great for plating is to remove the skin first, and then deep fry it. But you'll have to hold it in a rack to keep it flat, or you could use the technique for baking flat chicken skins between two sheet pans, which can be found under the EGCI, I think. In that case, you just use the crisp skin as a cracker-like garnish, set on a slant on top of the finished fish filet. It makes for a cute presentation, and you can even do a twist on a "napolean" this way, with layers of fish and other ingredients, separated by layers of skin. Great thread. Lots of helpful info.

Thank you so much for doing this blog, Pam. I have been learning so much about kashrut from this thread, and I never imagined that you could make rolls that look like yours and have them still be allowable for Passover! Everything you're making is looking fabulous! I'm getting cravings for chicken soup, matzo balls and horseradish. Speaking of which, I'm really looking forward to seeing your preparation of gefilte fish. I must admit that I've never, ever eaten it (I've been a bit scared to) but now I want to try it, and I'd like to try a "good" version, if there is such a thing. I'm hoping that you'll have tips so I can either make it myself, or get some good stuff from a respectable deli. Of course, in Atlanta, good delis are hard to come by. Thanks again!

Yeah, in this case, I'm sure. This restaurant didn't have a room fee. They did, sometimes, charge corkage, but they never charged cake cutting. The private dining director used to accept deals like that because she was mainly focussed on sending out resumes to other restaurants, trying to get a better position. Boy, am I glad I don't work there anymore.

Negative. Anything that's not on the bill, doesn't receive a tip, and charging a cake cutting fee or corkage fee only nominally helps the server, since none of that fee is paid to the server and the patron only tips, perhaps, a percentage of that fee. What's 20% of $1.50? Not a lot, but the cake cutting isn't nearly as bad a deal as corkage on bringing your own wines. In some cases, a server loses the opportunity for a $60-80 sale in exchange for $10 corkage. Same amount of work, significantly smaller tip. Of course, unlike those in the Vancouver forum, I'm speaking from the perspective of someone who earns $2.13 per hour aside from my tips, as opposed to Canadians who make a real wage, and have health care. . . ahem, not to get sidetracked. Actually, this thread made me smile because it reminded me of a party I observed at a restaurant, where a group of 13 people reserved a private room, and they not only brought in their own Kroger sheet cake with that Crisco-based frosting or whatever that muck is on top of it, but their beverage of choice, which they also provided for themselves, was not champagne but Welch's Sparkling Grape Juice. The entire party, who had never been to that restaurant before, nor did they return, only bought one course from the restaurant and were not charged either corkage or cakage. Personally, I think that when a restaurant starts accepting deals like this, it's time for the owner to wake up and realize that his vision has failed, shut the doors and redesign the restaurant entirely. Or perhaps become a shoemaker instead. But that's just my opinion.

I am very much looking forward to this blog! I have never kept kosher, so I will have many questions. Questions like: What are the foods served for the seder, and what are their significance? How does the ritual go when serving the seder? Do you have those neat plates with markings where all the food is supposed to go? How long do you have to wait to keep from having meat and milk at the same "meal?" Can you have a steak, wait two hours, and then go out for ice cream? I'll have lots more questions, but that's just a starter. Thanks.

OK, I feel a need to share my experience with Emeril, as I worked at one of his restaurants, my SO worked in the same restaurant, and a number of my friends and co-workers have shared experience working with him/his company. On the one hand, I've butted heads with some here in Atlanta who, while considering themselves to be restaurant "critics," refused flatly to even try visiting the restaurant before declaring it an absolute abomination. Having worked there, I tried most every dish on the menu, plus a variety of nightly specials and soups. I ate there as a customer as well as as an employee. In fact, I could say that I've been "privileged" to taste more of Emeril's food than most people. Some of his recipes are good, and some things are even terrific. I happen to like his homemade worcestershire sauce, his fried oysters and a number of other items. I think his signature banana cream pie is awful, but other people seem to love it, so I'm the oddball. But, the restaurants he has opened in the last few years, particularly the ones opened in the last year, suffer great execution problems in the kitchen. Inconsistency is rampant and I have heard and read a veritable plethora of complaints about the food, many of them justified, and about the service, which is generally horrible. There is speculation that his restaurant here may close, as it is not nearly as busy as had been predicted. Or maybe he'll keep it open and operate at a loss, because doing so will keep his presence here, which does in fact help him to sell more books and merchandise. And therein lies my full impression of the man who is Emeril. He was once a serious chef who cared about running restaurants and making good food. Now he is a media entity and a corporation, interested only in selling products. Sorry, I know that sounds horrible and jaded of me, but that's how I feel.

Good to know that bit about deciphering her comments. I guess I have a problem with the premise of the show, since when I travel, I set aside enough money to go ahead and splurge on a few good meals out, so I'd like to find true gems without sacrificing. If I had to follow a daily food budget, the first thing I'd do when I got to town would be to buy a few staples at a local grocer or deli, perhaps some fresh bagels, some lunch meat, cheese and fruit or veggies that I could keep in my hotel for simple noshes or small meals. In a pinch, I could pack a sandwich and go to a park for a picnic, then save the money I'd otherwise spend on a mediocre restaurant meal, plus tax and tip, for a bigger splurge at dinnertime. She does find some good places to eat here and there, but I'd just really rather not assume I was going to have to rely on restaurants for 3 meals and a snack with little or no alcohol budget every day of my trip. I love Julia Child. Since my name is also Julia, and I love to cook, the comparison comes up frequently, but it's usually a situation where someone refers to me as "Julia Childs." No, no, it's Child, damnit! Not that there's really any reason to refer to me by any name other than my own, since my first and last name actually ring together pretty well. My last name? Rachel. Ha ha ha. I suppose that would be funny if it weren't true. Her shows with Jacques were among my favorites. I also love Alton Brown for his scientific knowledge of food in chemical reactions. Other than that, most of the food shows pale in comparison to the PBS shows from years ago, like "Great Chefs" and the old Galloping Gourmet. As for Emeril and Paula Dean, Bobby Flay and several others, well, if I can't say anything nice, I guess I'll just leave it at that, eh?

I can't stand anyone who giggles at her own (unfunny) jokes, that's why. And she visits crappy chains like La Madeleine and Bahama Breeze on her $40 show. Blech.

Glad to see this includes the discussion of the Barberton Chicken. I almost ignored this thread, thinking it couldn't be about the chicken served in the area where I grew up (from restaurants Hopocan Garden and Belgrade Garden), but that's immediately what I thought of. Now, it should be noted that the backs are cut pretty wide, and they have a lot more meat than you'd think. I agree that it's the best piece out of the whole bird. Damn, now I have a craving.

When I see comments like the one from SG, talking about "enriching someone else at your expense," it makes me think that perhaps the resentment that breeds on both sides of the tipping equation is a good reason for going to a non-tipping situation. Much speculation has been made as to what sort of hourly wage a server would have to be paid in lieu of tips, or whether a service charge would be added to the bill. There are certainly benefits to doing away with tipping altogether, and you can look to countries that do not observe this practice to get an idea of how servers earn a living there, and whether service is better or worse there. From what I've heard, service is marvelous in Japan, where there is no tipping, and quite good in parts of Europe that use service charges in lieu of tips. But in the United States, I'd have to say that our tipping system has come about largely through the choices of the consumers, the employers and the servers who like it that way. For whatever reason, I don't see any likelihood that it will change. As far as overtipping someone, I don't think the intention is to contribute toward "enriching" a server, or helping them make that down payment on a new Mercedes, whilst forgoing perhaps an evening of dining out for yourself in order to do so, but rather it's just a way of saying, "I had a good time tonight - so have a beer on me!" SG, if you're that envious of the tips received by servers, as compared to what you describe as your own "paltry" salary, perhaps I could recommend some career counseling for you? Heck, my restaurant is hiring if you want to slide in and get your share of some of that "easy money."

I've only eaten there once, for brunch, and I thought it was very pleasant. The atmosphere is unusual, with the metal chairs seeming somewhat clunky, but the space is brightly colored and cheerful. I very much enjoyed the french toast with candied bacon. If you're looking for this sort of thing, it is worth marking your calendar for the Tuesday fried chicken. There aren't many places where you can get chicken fried in small batches in a cast iron pan, rather than in a deep fryer, the difference being the mahogany color on the coating. Definitely worth visiting.

Really? I wonder why that would be. I live in the southeast, and I generally get good service in restaurants. I did order an entree to share once recently, but we also had 3 appetizers. I ordered in that particular manner because I wanted to try a number of things on the menu, so small plates appeal to me for the purpose of variety. I have a good friend who's dieting right now, and we go out to eat together once every couple of weeks, but we generally don't need to split a meal. In fact, we order usually a little more than we need, and if there is extra I just take it home for a snack. All of you people who are so considerate about taking up a restaurant table when you're not ordering much are invited to come to my restaurant and sit in my section, please. Unfortunately, you'll have to wait to be seated, though, because it's currently being occupied by some insensitive clods who felt like chatting for 5 hours over one cup of coffee.

This is interesting as an observation, and I know that a lot of people believe this to be true, but I am not convinced. I have been a server for a good while now, a manager before that, and I've never seen any evidence to indicate that good servers who give good service make more money than bad servers who give bad service. I haven't even seen evidence that a good server who's having a bad day will necessarily make a lower tip percent average on that bad day. It's nice to think that the system would predictably work so well that you could easy correlate good service with good tips, but I have looked for evidence of this and found none. For instance: One of the things that really, really irks me happened today. I waited on a table of 2 at lunch time, and the gentleman and lady seated at this particular table not only enjoyed their food and service, but they were downright effusive about their pleasure with the experience. A question as to whether everything was good was met with the answer, "Good? Everything's marvelous!" At the end of the meal the check was dropped, and they gave me 2 $20 bills to pay their check of $33.75, and I picked up the cash to go make change. I stopped for the slightest instant to look back at the table to see if they were waiting for change or not (sometimes people don't say "keep the change" but they get up immediately and leave anyway, so it's a wasted effort to make the change and head back out there, only to have to bus the table, change in hand) and I noted that $6.25 is just under 20%, so very likely a reasonable tip amount. So I made the decision to break out change and returned to the table with change and receipt on a plate. I thanked them, they smiled and nodded, and then proceeded to remove $2 from the pile of change. Really, I was somewhat aghast that both of these people, who seemed friendly, educated and polite, simply did not know that $4.25 - an amount less than 15% - is not a good tip commensurate with good service. But I can only conclude that they do not know. And really, how is a server supposed to know the difference?

Agreed. A new topic should be started. But I've had a really long day, and I'm not sure that I can hold back my bitterness enough to start it tonight.

I just read through this thread, as it's come up to the top of the list several times, just to make sure I hadn't responded earlier. I like the references to Taco Cabana, since I must admit that I really enjoy eating there once in a blue moon. There is one here in Atlanta on Piedmont, and I was unaware that it was a chain because it's so, well, pink for one thing. Pink, cheap, slightly grungy, very gay-friendly and chock-full of fresh salsa and tortillas. If I'm hung over and I decided to snag a margarita there, then double good on me. I have no idea why I like it so much, other than that it's insanely cheap. I get some sort of guilty pleasure from it, like I'm getting away with something I shouldn't be allowed to do. And Waffle House is fine on many a bleary-eyed morning. Their coffee should be made illegal, however, if it's not already. edited to remove some bizarre rambling.

The Kobe beef is actually an American product from Idaho Snake River Farm. Soto said he used American "Kobe grade" beef, actually a hybrid, because he felt that Japanese Kobe beef is actually "too tender." He said that in Japan, the Kobe cattle are treated more than well, spoiled to death, even, with daily massages and people who chew the cattle's food for them. I think he might have been joking when he said that, though. Anyway, the tataki was delicious, with Ponzu sauce that had just the right amount of sweet and sour to complement the beef, and a light grating of Daikon. The Sunomono course was very good as well, with the hamachi roll being one of my favorites. The hamachi serves as the outer wrapper of the roll, and it's stuffed with all the pickled vegetables. It was a very tangy, pickle-y course, with the pickled cucumber salad and pickled seaweed, all in that very light vinegar. A couple friends who've seen my photos in the last few days have called Soto to ask if they can have the tasting menu minus the shellfish, or minus any courses that contain soy sauce. While it would be nice for everyone with every kind of allergy to be able to enjoy this sort of meal, unfortunately I do not think that Soto will do that much rearranging of his tasting menu. Please keep that in mind when deciding whether or not to make your reservations.

Once, when I was a cocktail waitress in a bar, I stopped by one of our little dishes of mixed nuts and picked up a couple of filberts, brazil nuts and almonds to toss in my mouth for a snack. A coworker of mine was sitting at the bar, getting ready to eat her dinner, and when she saw me eating a few nuts, she gasped and said, "OH! I don't know how you can eat those nuts! They're so fatty!" What was really ironic was that I looked at what she was eating for dinner: A huge plate of nothing but french fries and ketchup. We're talking about at least 500 calories worth of plain old fat and carbs with little or no nutritional value whatsoever. That sounds about as logical as eschewing braised short ribs for Trader Joe's taquitos, all right. Where do people pick up this stuff?

I've thought about this a good bit, and here's my take: When I moved to Atlanta in 1993, I rented an apartment for about $400 a month. It was quite large, well over a thousand square feet, and not in a very bad part of town. Today, that same apartment has gone up to over $1000 per month to rent, then dropped back down to about $850 per month, with the recent housing boom. At the time that I moved here, I could go to a restaurant around the corner from that apartment and buy a bowl of pho for about $5. Today, I can go to that same restaurant and buy a bowl of pho for about $5. In fact, I've been dining out in a number of widely varied restaurants for the whole time I've been here, and the average cost for a meal in a restaurant at all levels of dining probably hasn't increased as much as 20%. So it would appear that inflation is not hitting everything equally. I can think of many, many situations similar to this, but the bottom line is that the servers working in restaurants have to live somewhere, but at the same time, restaurants must keep their entree prices competitive, even if that means squeezing labor as hard as possible, or making managers work longer hours. So yes, if restaurants continue to keep their food prices competitively low while other areas of the economy see quicker inflation, then you should be able to predict that the standard percentage for tipping will change to reflect that. Of course, I could be wrong. If anyone else has a better explanation, feel free to have at it.

Actually, I work at a restaurant that autograts all parties of 5 or more, adding 18% to the bill. I can tell you with absolute certainty that we don't do it to try to cheat people into paying an extra tip because a) we actually are forced by the company to write in the 18% amount on the slip and total it out b) we mark in bright, red ink stamp that 18% is included on every copy of every bill and every credit card slip and c) while some rare people choose to change the tip to 20%, and a few people choose to scratch it out and change it to 15% (even if the difference is sometimes as little as 30 cents), I have never seen an incident where even a single person unknowingly left more as a result of the autograt. We do it, unfortunately, because the incidence of people who would otherwise leave a tip far less than 18% is simply so great at this particular restaurant that we can't take the gamble of not adding it on large parties. I wish that I could take you there and show you what I mean for just one day so that you would understand. But once you've made the decision to autograt large parties, you must do it for all of them. You cannot choose to grat English people but not Scottish people, or young people but not old people, or purple people but not blue people, because the risk of lawsuits will be strong.

Horrifying. If it turned out that this were my family, I would feign going into a fugue state, wander aimlessly for days with nothing but the clothes on my back until I reached an area several states away, where I'd start my life anew with an assumed name. Good luck.

I don't think it should be set apart from any other type of business, either. If you work in non-tipped professions, and you inevitably come in hung over one day, or it's the first day of your menstrual cycle and you have bad cramps, or you have a mild case of food poisoning, or your mother just called and grilled you for something, your job will probably suffer somewhat, and of course on other days you'll do your job perfectly well. But on that day that you suffered a little, you still make the same money you always make. If you earn $8 an hour, you still get paid that $8 an hour, even if you took somewhat fewer phone calls that day because you had a headache. Or if you earn $30K a year, you still make that $30K per year, even if, on that one day, you were a littler slower at filling out your regular paperwork. For servers who rely on tips, however, this is not so. See? They are set apart, even though you don't think they should be. I'd have to say that observing restaurant customer behavior does have a high correlation with tipping well. Just looking at the things that people write on credit card slips, while amusing, can give you a glimpse into some really nasty aspects of the human psyche. Recently, I saw (on another server's tab) a note that circled the tip amount with big arrows that said "10% for NO TO GO CUPS OF WATER. Get cups of water to go, TIP ------->20%!" Now, that's just silly. The restaurant's policy is to not carry to go cups, and the server has no decision in that matter. So reducing the tip for that complaint is just ignorant. I tip 20% pretty much all of the time, and usually overtip if I get comped for something or if I receive special service. For bad service, I tip 18%, and if I feel that it will help to point out to management the specific aspects of my service that went wrong, I do. The last time I dropped a tip for bad service was because my server forgot to ring my check in, and he chose to handle it by telling me that the cooks lost our ticket. As I was sitting with my boyfriend, who happens to be, ahem, a line cook, I didn't appreciate that.

Sushi course: Sweet shrimp, giant clam and scallop Kobe beef tatake with Ponzu. Hamachi tartare with pine nuts, wasabi tobiko, soy sauce foam. Sunomono: Tosazu vinegar sauce with Hokki clam, mackerel rolled with ginger, scallion, sesame, shiso, pickled burdock. Fresh water eel, cucumber and wakame. Broiled Chilean sea bass, Langostine with shiitake mushroom sauce. Asian pears in pear sorbet with frozen plum wine. Broiled lobster with mango and portabello mushroom, panko crumbs. Salmon ceviche with fresh lime and sea salt. Red bean and green tea ice creams. Yum.

I don't suppose you folks would mind seeing Soto's dishes from last night, right? Clockwise from top left: Sumashi soup, goma ae with lotus and hijiki, steamed abalone, fried sea eel bone, cured mullet roe, herring roe with kelp. Yellow pepper mousse with mussle broth, grape tomato, lobster claw and smelt fish roe. Tempura fried flounder with shiso leaf in agedashi broth. Fresh water eel and sea eel, fried burdock and fried scallions. Top to bottom: Octopus julienne with puree of Asian pear vinaigrette, Snow crab with Nikogori aspic and yuzu, Kobe grade beef with foie gras and sukiyaki broth. Steamed scallop, lobster and red snapper with hot scallion and ginger oil. Sashimi course: Live lobster, giant clam, squid with wasabi tobiko, salmon and sweet shrimp with 2 dipping sauces. Fried Atlantic sole with Ponzu sauce. The flesh is served first, while the skeleton is taken back to be fried again into a crisp morsel. Miso soup with shrimp and crab shinjyo and shimeji mushroom. And that's only half the meal so far.

Generally, at casual restaurants, this is probably reasonable, but there are a few things to consider: * Many times, tables of this type (with early arrivals, later arrivals, and really late arrivals) will also have people who wish to leave at various times, and many times those people will suddenly ask for their tabs, presuming the server is keeping a separate, running tab for everyone at the table. Actually, most times the server would have to know ahead of time to run separate tabs, or perhaps would have to go back and separate the check out, which will take some time. Meanwhile, new joiners want to put in orders on the existing table, and all of this multi-tasking is a lot of work. * Many restaurants have a policy of auto-grat on large tables, if the table is 6 or more people, but what if you don't know for sure how many are showing up and when? And you can't make that decision if someone wants to leave before everyone's arrived, can you? * How long are you taking up a table large enough for a large party in these restaurants? If one person walks in early enough to get a table for 8, is he or she sitting there with a cocktail for hours while other parties are waiting at the door? Are you costing the restaurant and the server money in lost opportunity for sales? One night, I was serving at a casual restaurant and I happened to have a table large enough to accommodate parties of 7 or 8. 2 men came in early enough to ask for that table, stating that another 6 people would be joining them. They waited and waited, ordered appetizers and chatted. . . Finally, they ordered entrees and after they'd finished dinner 2 women showed up to join them. Now, sometime along the way, they'd assured me that, no matter what, they would "take care" of me. I gave them very good service and kept watch for anything they might need, as well as any joiners who might arrive for their party. After the bill was paid and a tip was left as a percentage of the bill, the gentleman who made me that promise reached into his pocket and gave me $40 in cash for taking up my table for that long. That was refreshing, to be honest. I don't know if he's worked in the restaurant industry before, but he seemed to be an exceptionally good judge of how much money I would have made, if I'd been able to turn that table, given that we were on a wait most of the time they were there. Frankly, that experience stands out in my mind, because most people just don't think that way.