TheFoodTutor

There is one inaccuracy running through this thread on the part of people who are overguesstimating the tips that servers earn, and that is where many people are assuming tips at the level of fine dining (where servers aren't necessarily getting rich, but they are much more likely to receive 20% consistently) while at the same time suggesting that servers have the ability to report their tips at their own discretion. In my experience, it's more often an either/or situation, rather than having the advantage of both. At fine dining levels, the higher the check average becomes, the more likely it is that the guest will pay by credit card, relieving the server of making a decision as to whether to declare a tip or not. Any time your average check approaches $100 for two people or more, you start to see very, very little cash. In the higher end restaurants where I've worked, it's common to go months without seeing a single cash tip, which brings us to another point: In many fine dining places, it's common not to get those credit card tips until the end of the week or 2 week pay period, when you see them on your paycheck with tipshare and taxes already withheld, tipshares running around 25-30% of actual tips at that level. At more casual places, the server has more discretion as to reporting tips, but those tips will undoubtedly be smaller as the check average is smaller and the tip percentage is smaller. While in fine dining, most patrons tip 20%, the more casual the restaurant is, the more likely you are to see people who think that 10% is a perfectly good tip for good service, and you'll even see a few who think that $2-3 is enough of a tip, regardless of the bill total. Tipshares are also lower at this level, but represent a percentage of total sales, meaning that if you get stiffed on a table, you have to reach into your own pocket to pay the tipshare.

Hair dressers and massage therapists have different types of compensation, and in some cases, this involves renting a booth from the business owner, paying either for the time the booth is rented or paying per piece for the work done plus various deals for "commissions" based on selling services and goods. It actually seems a little complicated for me, especially at this hour of the day. At any rate, hair dressers and massage therapists have been, by my observation, part of the groups of people somewhat agressively wanting to "get in" on the "tip action" by helpfully suggesting amounts to tip them (furniture movers are notoriously amazing at bringing up the subject of tipping as well). And then that brings me to the need to research exactly what the protocol is for tipping people in these professions, since there aren't many handy guides for doing so. And that's when the whole subject really starts to bug me. As a consumer, I really just want to buy services and be told what I need to pay for them, without having to remember if it's 10, 15 or 20% for servers, hair stylists, massage therapists and movers, or if I'm just supposed to give a buck to the shampoo girl, and a dollar per suitcase for the porter, a couple bucks to the guys at the car wash, a buck per coat for the coat-check, or how many dollars for the valet who parks my car? I'm with Jackal for the most part on much of this discussion, because the more confusing it becomes, the more I just plain hate tipping. And the thought that my lack of knowledge could end up costing someone their livelihood makes it a really crappy deal all around. I just don't like it, and it happens to be the way I make my living half of the time. And if it weren't for the fact that I work at 2 restaurants and run a business, I wouldn't make as much as NulloModo, if you're still wondering about the teacher vs. server question.

I've been working in restaurants for a long time, and before I was a server, I managed restaurants for most of that time. In my experience, I did see a few managers who would watch labor costs as they apply to $2.13 an hour employees, but most of these managers either don't make it in the restaurant world because they're too short-sighted, or they simply learn to get over this point of view after a few months. Managers don't care much about tips, certainly, but managers in this city care a heck of a lot about having enough people to cover shifts. Finding enough servers to cover your floor is difficult in virtually every restaurant in this town, and it's a constant struggle. I have not only been asked to pick up shifts, but I've been literally begged to do so, even when I'm already into overtime, and often managers throw in a comped meal for me as well. I don't mind picking up lunch shifts, but that's because I'm fortunate enough to work somewhere where lunch pays about the same as dinner. Again, doesn't happen in this town. If you're a good server, maybe you should think of moving here. I get a $200 bonus if I convince you to work in one of the restaurants where I work.

I just came back from lunch, terrible service and somewhat rude as well. I didn't get the side item ordered with my entree, asked for it and had it delivered somewhat later. Charged for 2 items I didn't get, given a snotty response when I asked to have charges removed, plus the overall service was slow. Now, because I am a server as well, I know exactly why she gave me such crappy service. Observing the room, I could tell that she easily had a 10-table station or larger, which is a sure-fire recipe for disaster. Why did she have a 10-table section? Surely they know that they're going to get popped at lunch, and it's very easy to predict a full restaurant shortly after noon on most weekdays. But I'm guessing that, like most places, it's hard to get servers to work lunch shifts, since lunches tend to be lower tickets, lower tickets mean lower tips and who wants to bother with that? So the manager or owner asks 2 of his servers if they'll work lunch and split the entire restaurant, and they quickly agree to do it, because with such huge sections, they're bound to make lots more money and the lunch shift won't be such a waste of time. Even if most people get really crappy service, the majority will not outright stiff the server and some, seeing how overwhelmed she was will even leave good tips. I've seen this scenario a million times, and it's an excellent example of the tipping system leading to worse service, rather than better.

Lets see. Maybe not a week, but in a year... Tuition fees (American University in Paris) are about EU20,000, say $25K. Double that for living, even at student rates, say 50K. Bit more since the earned income will be taxed, but then there is also some wages from the restaurant. That is about $150/day everyday. If that represents 15% of the bill, that means the bill must be about $1000 Say 10 covers at $100 each - looks possible. Wait staff aren't as badly paid as I thought. I know teachers, nurses and other vital professions that pay less. ← If a waiter is working in a fine dining establishment and selling $1000 worth of food and beverage, especially in LA, that means he's on a team of possibly 3 people selling that much, so that take will be split 3 ways, plus there will be other people to tip out. The math is not that simple. I left fine dining because I make more money at a lower level. I don't work on a team, but individually, and when I sell $500 I've worked a pretty good shift. If I sell $1000, I've worked a pretty long shift, and possibly a double shift, and I tip out 2% of my sales, whether I get tipped on those sales or not. And I've noticed that the closer I get to $1000 in sales on a shift, the lower my average tip is because at that volume, I'm probably working an Amateur Night like a Friday or Saturday. More amateurs means more 10% tippers, or even lower, and of course the more volume you do, the lower the standards of your service. There really is no free lunch. And if you live in a city with really high end restaurants and very good tipping habits, chances are you're paying at least $1500 a month for a small apartment.

No. If I go to a mechanic to have work done on my car, I don't have a choice as to whether I just pay for the parts and not for the labor done, so why should it be different in another industry? Now, if the mechanic was rude to me, made me wait all day when he said it would be ready in an hour, or if I have some other legitimate complaint, I can speak to a manager and voice my concerns. If they're smart, they'll give me a discount, or a voucher for free service in the future. But if I just say I didn't like the way the mechanic looked or his manner of dress, any reasonable manager should know that I'm just being difficult. It is only because we are accustomed to deciding how much we want to tip that we think of it as our right to use it as a method of commenting on the service. But in reality, the proper message never really gets through to the server. I've seen way too many people who had good service and smiled as they handed over a 10% tip to really take it seriously in my own work as a server. I can only assume that the couple who gave me $5 on $64 Monday night, since they lingered afterwards, said nothing to management and smiled and thanked me, were happy with their service and just don't know that less than 10% is an insultingly poor tip. I'd really recommend that if you want to make a statement, talk to a manager instead, or combine your reduced tip with a talk to management. Otherwise, the server will not get the message.

I just went four years without a microwave, then bought a new condo with one built into my new kitchen. I can't say I've used it much in the first month, but I did find one useful thing for it: Marie Callendar's pot pies, which take about an hour in a regular oven, only take about 5 minutes in the nuker, and the crisping sleeve gives the crust a good texture. Since both of us were sick for the entire moving week, this was really a godsend. But oddly enough, I don't even melt butter in mine most of the time. I have a tall metal cup that I use on the stove for melting, and it has a convenient handle, pour spout and markings for measuring, so it's a great excuse to go ahead and use the gas stove. My boyfriend sometimes reheats coffee in the microwave, but I always wrinkle my nose at him, because I don't even like to think about reheating coffee. I guess I'd use it to reheat plain white rice or some types of Chinese and Indian leftovers. Oh, and marshmallows are good in a microwave. Maybe I should buy a bag.

Got something cute at a Japanese market yesterday, so I had it as a little pre-dinner snack. Here's the package: And here's the soup it makes: And here's a closeup of the critters in there. And then we went out for some short ribs.

TheFoodTutor, I like your combination of sweeteners. The one suggestion I would make would be to decrease the ace K a bit and increase the splenda. Ace K has a phenomenol synergy with splenda, but at the same time, it has a pretty wicked aftertaste. Because of this, it's good to keep it to very small amounts. Next time, I'd suggest trying 7 packets of splenda and 1 packet of ace K. I think that works out to be a better ratio. Also, cheesecakes don't tend to suffer too much from the lack of sugary texture, but for other applications, I highly recommend either increasing the xylitol (or other sugar alcohols, if you're not sensitive to them) or obtaining some polydextrose. ← I like your advice, and it's very interesting to play with these chemicals. The sugary texture thing does seem to be an issue. I will probably continue to experiment on these, because I was very pleased with my first result. As far as the final cheesecake, I was sensitive to the fact that I am not currently dieting, and my only artificial sweetener intake on the average day is one packet of Splenda in my daily coffee. As I'm sure you know, if you only partake of artificial sweeteners, you tend to notice them a lot less than someone who normally just eats regular sugar. What impressed me most about my finished cheesecake was that not only did I not notice any artificial aftertaste in the cheesecake, but 3 other people who don't eat artificial sweeteners regularly didn't notice any, either. But then, cheesecake is pretty amenable to these sorts of manipulations, while more complicated, flour-like cakes, or even simulations of flourless cakes, could be more difficult. Using soy flour and artificial sweeteners to make, say, a german chocolate cake, would be a grand undertaking. Especially if you could keep it at a low carb count with a satisfying serving size. Fun experiment, though, from the point of view of making one's kitchen into a laboratory.

I made my low carb cheesecake, and it turned out better than I had imagined it would be, mostly thanks to NulloModo's advice on blending sweeteners. Here's my recipe: 3 8 oz. packages cream cheese 3 eggs 2 T. sour cream 1 T. vanilla extract juice of 1/2 lemon 4 packets Splenda 4 packets Sweet One (Acesulfame K blend) 2 T. xylitol crust: 1/2 cup mixed nuts (almond, pecan, walnut, filbert) 1 T. butter, melted 1 T. oat bran (optional) salt to taste For crust, whir dry ingredients in food processor for 20 seconds. Mix crumbs with melted butter and press in bottom of 8 inch springform. Bake at 325 for 10 minutes. Cool. Beat cream cheese in mixer until soft, then add the rest of the ingredients, adjusting sweeteners to taste. (If you don't want to taste it with raw eggs, check sweetener level before adding them. Do I have to tell you that?) Pour mixture into springform and bake for one hour at 325 in a water bath. Turn off oven and allow cake to cool for one hour before removing. Serve. I'd tell you to refrigerate the leftovers, but you won't have any, so make sure you hide any that you want to save. I added the oat bran for texture and fiber, and it keeps the nuts from making nut butter when grinding them. The top of the cake doesn't brown, because there's no sugar in it, and the texture looks less appealing than a sugar cheesecake. If you must, you can sprinkle the teensiest amount of sugar on the top and torch it, and that makes a big difference in preparation. But it will still be great without it. I served it with about a tablespoon of my low carb lemon curd and a squiggle of mango puree. Everyone who tasted it loved it, including non-low-carbers. I'd definitely do it again.

The salmon dish is actually a very simple one that my boyfriend made for me as part of a tasting menu for my birthday last year. To make the horseradish crust, just grate fresh horseradish, mix with a little egg white and salt and schmear it on top of your salmon. Season your salmon otherwise according to your tastes. The cucumber is marinated in a little creme fraiche, dill and chives, with julienned carrots, and the green beans are just sauteed. He served it with a beurre-blanc with whole grain mustard and horseradish as well, and this is what it looked like: It's very yummy, but make sure you don't overcook the horseradish, since it loses a good bit of bite if it cooks too long. If you need to, you can cook the salmon to just about the right temp and then put the horseradish crust on, searing it with a butane torch or under a broiler.

Nullo, you could even end up with fermented milk beer or milk wine, whatever you want to call it. Some cultures in the former U.S.S.R. (like Uzbekistan and such) make alcoholic beverages out of milk by tying it in a bladder and leaving this package hanging in the sun with lots of bacteria floating around in it. Skim out any curdy bits for cheese and keep the liquid part for getting drunk. And then post while you're drunk so we can see what it feels like.

Beautiful ideas, NulloModo. I had thought of adding a bit of more flavorful cheese, hard cheese or mascarpone to give more oomph to the cheesecake, but the ideas on sweetener blending are great. I haven't used acesulfame-K yet, nor erythritol, but they sound really interesting. Love the idea of cranberries, and I'm also thinking of a black cherry and red wine reduction with no sweetener of any kind added. We're starting with a nice green salad garnished with a bit of duck confit, and I'll use some crisped duck skin to give the salad texture and talk about various vinaigrettes to complement the greenery. Then, we'll have a horseradish-crusted salmon over some marinated cucumber with haricots-verts. The client said that she'd like to see a demonstration of risotto, which really doesn't fit into the meal plan or the request of a low-carb meal, but we'll show how to make a flavorful risotto with duck confit if that's what she'd like to do, just in very small portions. There isn't really a substitute for arborio rice in that, other than small diced apples, and that's still pretty high carb. And then I suggested a cheese plate for dessert, with the alternative of low carb cheesecake, and they opted for the cheesecake. So, typical of low carb classes, it will be a splurge off the diet, but an opportunity for me to show cute things I know how to make, like parmesan crisps as a replacement for crackers in an appetizer. Now I just have to hope that they don't starve themselves all day in anticipation that I'll be serving a splurge dinner, to offset the allotment of carbs that they'll eat. That's happened before, and it made me feel very bad about not having anything to whip out of my pocket for them to eat as soon as I got there. Maybe I'll bring some beef jerky or something.

Very nice blog, Jensen. I'm currently making stock as well, and it occurred to me that all the trouble that I put into the little bits of meat on bones to make stock makes that meat too good to waste. Of course, in restaurants, much of this gets wasted because it's just too much work to pick the last bits of meat out of your mirepoix and bones to have a bit of extra. At home, though, it's a cook's treat, with a cook's work making it an earned treat. Your food looks wonderful, and I applaud the fact that you cook so well and do not drive. It's always easier when you can just hop in the car and go searching for whatever you want. Learning to make a good list and get everything in one trip is a talent that not many people have. And to be dieting on top of that is an even bigger challenge, plus feeding spouse and child without them feeling deprived. Marvelous work!

OK, reviving this thread for a cooking class I'm doing this weekend. I'll be doing a low-carb themed class, and I'm looking for recipes for a low-carb cheesecake. Given that most of the ones online call for regular cream cheese, Splenda, eggs and a macadamia nut crust, I'm thinking that I'll spice things up with perhaps some different cheese, and I'll serve with light fruit compotes in small portions with a general carb count so that the client will know just how much he is splurging when having a bit of cheesecake for dessert. Does anyone have any ideas? I will probably go all Splenda for the cheesecake, but use a little sugar for accompaniments, and go for strong flavors like espresso syrup or strong fruits to cut the Splenda taste. I'll be keeping the whole meal to around 20-25 grams of carb, so that it will be a small splurge, but not diet-busting. Thanks.

Hey, great looking cassoulet and I'm loving this discussion. I'd love to take part in some of this, and I've been looking over my Les Halles to see which recipes strike me as being most worth trying out. Quenelles de Brochet looks really appealing to me. Anyhoo, I was wondering if you folks figured out what the specific advantage is to using Tarbais beans in the cassoulet? Do they have a special flavor or texture that makes them better than great northerns or flageolet or any other white beans? I was wondering if it's worth going to the trouble, although it's obviously worth it to make one's own duck confit, and possibly even sausage. Thanks.

This is what I do for cheese sauces, and it is, in essence, what makes Velveeta so fool-proof. If you make a bechamel and thoroughly incorporate the cheese into it, you lower the melting point of the cheese so that, if the sauce is melted, the cheese is melted. Voila! As easy and cheesy as Ron Jeremy.

This is an interesting topic for me, since I've never really felt strongly about cake one way or another, but in my youth I loved chocolate cakes with chocolate frosting. My favorite cake is a Mississippi Mud cake, coated with warm frosting while still hot from the oven, so that it's so melty and fudgy that you cannot remove it from the pan until served. Not pretty, but very good. My mother-in-law said, of her one pregnancy, that she was so careful not to ingest anything that one shouldn't ingest while pregnant (she didn't take aspirin, drink a single beer or go near anyone who had smoked a cigarette recently) and she said that she wasn't allowed cake for the entire term that she was carrying. Supposedly, there is too much sodium in cake for pregnant women to ingest, and so she was forbidden to even think about having a slice. As a result, she craved cake in to the point of going mad. Personally, I would have just had a piece. How bad can cake be for pregnant women? At least, to the minds of any normal human, even when thinking obsessively about diet prohibitions. I mean, even the youngest toddlers are allowed to mush cake in their mouths, right?

What was your family food culture when you were growing up? Irish/German/Slovakian in a typically Midwestern American kind of way. I'm very familiar with cabbage. Was meal time important? Not terribly, but we all ate together much of the time. Special meals for birthdays and holidays were certainly important. Was cooking important? Yes, but in my family, it was "woman's work." My father never even considered doing any sort of housework, including dishes, laundry or cooking until he became much older and, diagnosed with high cholesterol, took an interest in preparing what would go into his mouth. What were the penalties for putting elbows on the table? My mother would chant, "Mabel, Mabel, strong and able, keep your elbows off the table." Who cooked in the family? Mostly my mother, and myself, when I became old enough. After my mother was hospitalized, I did all the cooking. Were restaurant meals common, or for special occassions? Rare when I was young, and even a fast food meal was a significant splurge. Now, unfortunately, most of my family members eat take-out at least 3 or 4 times a week. Did children have a "kiddy table" when guests were over? No. But we didn't entertain often. When did you get that first sip of wine? Probably at about 5 or 6 years of age, since my parents would give me a shotglass of wine to drink with special, holiday meals, and they'd teach me to drink it with the food to enhance my enjoyment of the meal. I knocked back my first brandy alexander when I was about 1 year old, though. Was there a pre-meal prayer? Rarely. Was there a rotating menu (e.g., meatloaf every Thursday)? No, but leaner times necessitated large pots of bean soup, or other budget-minded entrees of cabbage and noodles. How much of your family culture is being replicated in your present-day family life? Very little, but since I work in restaurants, and I teach cooking classes, my eating habits are centered around what I do for a living. If I were more of a homebody, I'd eat more pierogies, chicken and dumplings and pot roast.

Yes. But sometimes they are lychee flavored and there are a number of other flavors as well. The observation, on my part, was first seeing some Asian men eat jelly out of a jar, and then later seeing dozens upon dozens of different brands of jellies in little packets available at my Asian grocery. I hadn't paid that much attention before to which Asian countries sell these, but I will go back and take pictures of them, so that you can see what I'm talking about. They come in little bubble packets, and the packets are usually in a large plastic jar, and I'm pretty sure I've seen ones with Korean writing on them. I don't think I've seen any Japanese ones, but I will have to go back and check. Of course, this would be easier if I'd just bought them at some point or another, but they don't look that appealing to me. I should be able to make a trip to the market with my camera sometime next week. Of course, I could be mistaken and they might be jello. Now you've got me doubting myself. I also remember a Vietnamese gentleman I dated who raided my refrigerator, and when he noticed the cans of grape Crush that I kept in there for a friend who regularly stopped over, he asked if he could have one, and if he could have an egg. Ummm, OK. He then cracked the raw egg into a glass of the grape Crush, stirred it up, and then drank it in short order. And then he asked if he could have another. And of course, Vietnamese people like to sweeten things with sweetened condensed milk a lot, I've noticed. That's not always a bad thing, especially if we're talking about Vietnamese coffee, which is quite delicious.

An interesting point to note: Many people in Asian cultures like to eat jelly with a spoon, as if it were a dessert, and not a condiment. I had a couple of boyfriends from China and Vietnam who would actually grab the jelly jar out of the fridge and just eat it. And if you visit Asian groceries frequently, you'll see many jelly desserts in individual serving packages, which are meant to be spooned up and eaten straight. And these aren't thick, chunky fruit preserves either. Now, I don't find anything wrong with that, though I don't eat jelly that way. I really enjoy meeting people from different cultures and noticing the differences in eating habits. But this one seems sort of interesting, as it could make a trip to IHOP very advantageous, since there's a dispenser with a bounty of free dessert packets on every table. And I'd say this is one of many examples where Asians certainly get their recommended daily allowance of sugar.

Marvelous demonstration, Culinary Bear! Certainly different from my own, but I believe the next time I do this, I'll try it your way. I don't usually use oranges, but I like a little ginger in mine, but still, those flavors are just mild hints underneath the flavor of the duck. Like Suzanne F, I also use duck fat that I've saved from cooking duck in other ways. It's just such a treat to cook duck at home that I find excuses to do it as often as possible. I don't know of any places to buy duck or goose fat in Atlanta, outside of a few very expensive boutique purveyors, so it's really not worth it to me. My question: Do you take the skins and crisp them up in a deep-fryer for cracklings? Perhaps you do, and maybe you want to keep that bit of food pornography for yourself. But there's no harm in my asking, eh? Darn! Now where is the smilie who's licking his fingers?

Um, I think Smarmotron is a machine for producing smarm, rather than an intelligent headache pill. Sorry. I couldn't resist. On topic, I actually like a hint of sweetness in a salad dressing, if the salad is composed of bitter greens, salty croutons, bacon pieces, maybe some shaved reggiano. A fruity note can help to balance it all out. But it's true that people eat way too much sugar, and they drink too much sugar, too. I've come to despise grenadine, and it makes my teeth hurt just to look at it. I can't imagine why anyone would want to put it in anything meant for consumption.

Goodness, I hope not! When bottles are returned upon tasting in a restaurant, it should be (if the guest knows what he or she is doing) because the bottle is tainted or corked. Now, drinking corked wine is pretty unpleasant, and I certainly wouldn't cook with it. On the other hand, if the guest only thinks he knows what he's doing, and he returns a perfectly good bottle simply because he chose unwisely from the wine list and picked something he didn't like, then that bottle goes back to the bar. If it's a bottle that's normally poured by the glass, it's no issue at all. If it's a bottle not normally poured by the glass, you offer a "special" on glasses from that bottle to select customers who might like to try it, but since they usually dine alone, they don't get much opportunity to order a bottle. Please don't read that last line to indicate that I'd think ill of anyone who ordered a bottle of wine to drink all by himself. For my own purposes, I do something similar to what many good restaurant kitchens do, along the lines of buying a box of Franzia for cooking. I don't usually need a whole box of wine for cooking at home, but I occasionally buy a bottle of an overly-marketed white from California, like a Beringer or Vendange. That's the sort of wine that I don't want to put out for my guests because, to me, the bottle says "I choose what wines to drink based on television commercials." The wines I actually like to drink are only 2 or 3 dollars more, usually, but I like to use a little more imagination when pairing wine with my food, and when I find a really good one, I don't like to waste it in the pan.

Yes, I'm quite familiar with a wide variety of upper end restaurants, as my SO is a chef at one of them, and I've worked there as well, on occasions when they need me to help out. And I've worked at and dined in other places similar to what you've described. And, with very few exceptions, many of the priciest restaurants allow diners to order a la carte, so having a $7 salad as an entree might seem unthinkable to you and I at such a place, there are quite a few people who make less than $20K/year who are aware that it's possible to dine in that kind of establishment without breaking their budgets. Seriously, before I started working in high end places, I assumed that most people, like myself, figured that if they didn't have around $60-100 per person to drop on food and beverage for dinner, and possibly a good deal more, or perhaps $30-60 at lunch, they shouldn't even enter a place like that. But I was wrong. I am clearly a member of the minority in my thinking. But no matter, since I've already discussed this ad nauseum in another thread. The fact is that in this city, you can have one of the nicest tasting menus available for $85 per person, and if your beverage of choice is tap water, you really don't need to spend much more than that, aside from mandatory sales tax and optional gratuity. That amount is not out of the reach of even people I know who haven't graduated high school. So, if someone owned a million dollar yacht, I'd probably be correct in assuming that they did quite a bit to get it, or else they inherited quite a bit. But if I see someone dining at Seeger's or the Ritz-Carlton, I'd probably be wrong to assume that he or she was a doctor or lawyer, rather than a garbage collector or, possibly, a waitress.