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Thank you for some insight on copyright laws, it was very enlightening. There is an easy solution though, if the ideas come from your head, budy can copy your recipes but he can not steel them, they are part of you or your staff. My advice is still to be the Executive chef and work the front end, have a solid manager waiter/ sommelier; your chef is working within your coverage, you or the restaurant are front and center, the recipes are coming from the point of view as coming from the restaurant, not necessarily the big chef that has all the media attention, so when he or she bails, wipes out your computer and steals all you staff, you crash and burn. Keep the big ego chef on a short leash; he is managing your kitchen not running your dam restaurant. steve

That is why so many restaurants go down; new chef, new menu; new menu, new restaurant; new restaurant, bye bye, done like dinner. It is better to be a chef and hire a chef, you are still always front and center, the chef works for you, the menu is the restaurants, the chef has some creative room, but it is still your restaurant, so when buddy goes bananas and takes the crew with him, you still can have somewhat of a restaurant, The recipes are the restaurants and if you can save a few of the crew you are back in business, you can cook until you find another monkey. Do not feed the animals! stovetop

good advice, pay them all in food! When the tax collecter comes pay them in food. stovetop

http://www.yeastgenome.org/VL-what_are_yeast.html You know, I am not sure what you mean here...; let's see, are you talking about a sponge method of bread making, oh wait a minute here while I digress, actually not all starters are sour dough or should I say all natural yeast are sour dough’s, I really do not want to re-right a lot of the science stuff I have read, but from what I can gather they do all have very different structures, This bacteria that attaches itself to the West Coast San Francisco sour dough, which is SOUR DOUGH, is very unique, if you want bread like it you have to buy a starter from the region, from what I can gather this bacteria is isolated to the san Fran area. Bread yeast used to come from beer yeast, which I understand there is a brew pub somewhere in Oregon that uses the beer at the bottom of the tanks, sludge, if you have a better word or an actual word that will be it; any way they make the bread using this yeast, from what I can gather it is not a sour dough, there is that stupid word again. Yes!!; You are right, we are to hung up on sour dough, is this a San Francisco based word, because when the same yeast is used with out the bacteria, there is no sour taste. Sponge method of bread making will produce different kind of bread, from what I can understand, a cold or isolated method of making the sponge, letting it rest will break down the glutten without having to rise the bread and work it so much.??? I am working and reading will be back

Lets get some facts straight; San Francisco sour dough is the way it is because of science, not what a baker does or the water or the flour, it is the yeast; the yeast is a combination of natural yeast Candida milleri and an acid-generating bacteria Lactobacillus sanfrancisco, It has been reported that the ratio of wild yeast to bacteria in San Francisco sourdough cultures is about 1:100. The C. milleri strengthens the gluten and the L.Ssan Francisco ferments the maltose. San Francisco’s is an isolated situation; the bacteria exist naturally in the environment , so this results in a very special scenario for bread making, thus it is hard to reproduce this bread else where. http://www.faqs.org/faqs/food/sourdough/faq/section-21.html Now secondly the things that affect bread making are the Yeast, the flour, salt, temperature, cleanliness, and the water so if any of these things are different the bread will be different. Now something someone said that natural yeast is only sourdough, that is wrong, you can ferment a number of different things to make yeast, from there you can make a sponge, which is another way to introduce the yeast to the bread making process, from every batch of dough you leave out a piece of the old sponge, make your dough and leave it in the fridge, this is where you can make a very different baguettes, this method makes very soft type of baguettes, because the slow process can break the gluten down. Any way you read more and get the facts then come back and tell us who makes better bread. Read kitchen confidential chef talks about a baker that he had; there are many reference points he makes about feeding the bitch, not all his starters were sour dough. I have a guest, I must leave now stovetop

I have to get to the liquor store myself and begin trying some of the Island wines and begin gathering my inventory, many of the wines sell out on speck, they do not even make it to the liquor store, so the only way to taste is privately or through a restaurant. stovetop

Have fun Merlin, sorry my knowledge of Victoria is limited in the restaurant scene, check out the wineries they should be getting in season. stovetop

Fat Guy; I suppose you have been every where?..., I have seen your reviews, they are just your opinion, you do not speak for every one in regards to what is good and what is not, you traveled across Canada and you think that a one trip makes you a expert on restaurants in Canada; in my opinion; that is just my opinion, some of your reviews were good, but like I said before they are just your opinions; you have certain tastes, and if something goes along with what you like you give it a good write up and if the person, a person who has the right to express their opinion without being edited, I can not belive you edit me out for expresing my opinion, there was nothing bad said, most of it is true! Most of your wheat comes from Canada any way, so do more homework, before you edit me out!! You all talk like you are experts, most of you are just writers, I am just a cook who can bake, there are grandmothers/ mothers all over America who can bake, have you tried all of their bread, even if we all tasted all bread, it still is just our opinion, when you can bake your own bread, then maybe there is a discussion. Bread is a cultural thing; natural yeast over 50 years old, like sour dough, families passing down recipe from one generation to another, now that is good bread, bread is on a revival, so is a lot of traditional food skills, we are going back to the basics, good things take time; technology was supposed to give us more leisure, less hours a week working, but now we are working more, cooking less, no time, we in North America love fast food, in Europe they are fighting to save time, time to eat, to drink, to talk; perhaps conversation, then maybe we will have time, time is something you have to take. Sit down break bread, drink and have a conversation. Happy Easter and all Holidays to all stovetop

You are going to have a lot of arguments with Italians over this opinion. stovetop

chicken liver pate Wash livers very well Hot pan Onions, garlic, thyme, carrot, celery, s&p (small dice) Add cognac or what ever booze you like Sautee until fully cooked cool add in food processor put in a crock add gelatin on top if you want bread and dip bottle of wine

For theory American hotel motel association text book Planning and control for food and beverage operations It has some great resources 1/Know your market 2/Avoid high rent, get a good lease 3/start with enough capital 4/recognize good kitchen design and importance of menu engineering design kitchen first 5/establish control procedures from day one for cash and food 6/monitor cost daily 7/work on giving consistent service and food 8/good management 9/watch opening labor cost, keep all opening cost down as much as you can more Developed a solid concept Build a solid menu Get a good lease---location- location -location Budget Design kitchen Design front of house Developed all procedures Buy equipment for kitchen Get house wares and front of house stuff Find a good contractor Build Stick to budget Make employee hand book- know rules from day one communicate those rules Be consistent with your staff and customers Know what and who you are and never vary from that ideal, changing in mid stream is a death sentence systems-systems-systems Labor -food-liquor cost- first year will break you- do not take money from business for the whole first year- that has to be in the budget If you live high life style- lower your expectations or be a millionaire Good luck Steve

Yes; thank you for clearing that up, one thing though is you still have both a figurative meaning and literal. I live on Van Island so that is what I thought you meant. That island frame of mind!! stovetop

Linguini with scallops and prawns; roasted sweet red peppers and garlic; green onions, fresh basil and arugala (sp) with a Lobster Bisque Cream Sauce Reduce lobster stock; add whipping cream (heavy cream), reduce. set asside Hot pan! Sear prawns and scallops, remove; add roasted garlic and peppers, heat a bit, then add green onions, basil, arugala (sp); add bisque, reduce. Add back in scallops and prawns, heat. Add cooked pasta to sauce; toss with butter or olive oil. stovetop

Please explain what you mean? As for the Toronto bashing; it is Vancouver’s favorite sport, what else do Vancouverites have to do but sports and bash Toronto, there is not much else to do? This was not the first time Vancouver has done this and I do not think that New York was the first, Edmonton did something like it in 1980; I am sure they are other cities that started doing before New York?? Every City has a magazine very similar, Seattle, Edmonton and Calgary, they are all very close in style and presentation, yes it is nice to have these magazines, they add to the local food media in each city; Vancouver could use some better and different point of view in food media, it lacks a little, it seems they all approach things in the same manor, like the lazy gourmet, Vancouver could always use more media, The Edmonton Journal has always had a better food section the then they Vancouver papers; Georgia Straight needs more food stuff not just a bunch of advertising. Just a thought stovetop

John why do you even bother leaving your oasis; your studio of perfect music, for a world filled with lesser mortals, go to restaurants and help rid the world of such rumpus rooms, as you say: "aural wallpaper" , it amazes me that you think this is applauseable behavior. wow! If a fourteen year boy went to a restaurant that was playing classical music, had dinner and in the midst of eating decided what the hell is this crap that oozes out of the "aural wall paper", deciding then to rid the world of the maker of that music, oh wait a minute that person is already dead, oh well he just cuts the "aural wallpaper", the authorities would probably say that something is wrong with that boy, is it the cutting out of lesser music or the action that you justify? Two words Disc player and head phones Unknown writerLong live Rock and roll stovetop

When I dine out, it's my expectation that the establishment reaches a compromise in order to cater to people over 40 ( or noise- sensitive people regardless their age!) who do not appreciate being blasted from their seats by piped in music, or musak. The "you can always leave" thing is a pat answer that doesn't apply to me. If I want MTV or American Midol, or just to blast my own tunes at home, I know I can do that, or hear that. From sad indigestive experience, I know what places to stay the hell away from anyway. I can't take it. Don't HAVE to take it. I want to be able to hear myself eat. Yes you are right; But don't you think that some business are trying to get a certain restaurant age like 20 something, I am not saying that is right, that is not what I am trying to say, but I am just trying to think what a owner is thinking, when you are a regular to a fine establishment I think that a owner would accommodate your every desire and taste, the wine, hopefully the music will be just right, the candle light, it is a whole mood, but you know something some owners do not understand this mode, so they will do what they know, so you always have a choice where you do business, whether we like it or not owners do make decisions in regards to what customers he or she would like to have at their establishment. stovetop

Try being a restaurant owner; A customer saying: "Can you Turn it down sir" , "the music is a little loud" Another customer saying: "Sir the music is a little quiet can you turn it up" Have you ever thought that a owner is trying to cater to a certain market and the music is loud because it is the type of customer that the owner is trying to cater to. The music should be in tune with what the restaurant is,.. like Indian music-Indian restaurant, Chinese music-Chinese restaurant but in the end it is the restaurant owners right to play what they want, if you do not like it you can always leave. Cutting the speaker wires is a little deviant; I do not think that is the right behavior, it tends to be a little bit of a passive aggressive kind of behavior. If the waiter or owner does not want to turn it down, maybe they do not want you there, maybe they are just %*&%*%* and do not care, well maybe you could look for a place that has the music or lack of music and you can be happy. The owner should accomadate the customer to the best of his or her ability but you know what, the owner also decides what his or her customers are, and it is not the athority of public to dictate what music the restaurant should play, if you do not like the music but love the food, live with it, or just dont go. stovetop

Vancouver Island is a wonderful place; its size can fool you until you start traveling the island highways, after about eight hours, then you realize it is a little bigger then you thought. It has a huge diversity and has something for everyone. Vancouver Island has a huge agricultural diversity with Wineries, apples, berries and vegetables; the agri tourism industry is just starting up with a variety of things to do with the local farms and wineries, the quality is outstanding, watch and check out what is coming off the island this summer, it will receive a lot of press this year, move fast because property values are going up. stovetop http://www.agritourismbc.org/ http://www.islandwineries.ca/wineries.htm http://www.islandfarmfresh.com/ http://www.engelerfarm.com/

I lived on a farm last summer and I could not believe the stuff my room mate poured on his plants, he had buckets of organic mater rotting at different stages, old tampons from the grocery store for chicken, beef ect to egg shells to any food juices , nothing was wasted, they all had a home. stovetop

Where is this industry going Is it just Voodoo Is there any difference in traditional or sustainable wine growing. This page needs more dialogue Please there must be more people out there, with some knowledge in non chemical farming and GMO wines. stovetop

bourdain said: "Resist the urge to serve prime rib hot. A popular food crime in crap steakhouses is to reheat slices of prime rib by putting a romaine leaf over a pre-cut slice and flashing it under the salamandre--which pretty much ruins the whole thing. " The year was 1983, I used that method, I am sorry, but I had a knife put to my throat by the chef, he made me use the lettuce, It was always a curiosity why he did this; I think it was a chinese thing, he was from Hong Kong; but they where for the well dones so I guess it does not matter. stovetop

Thanks for the info. I am not tired of chipotles as of yet, i still have a lot of things to do with them, I love blending them with other peppers, I am updating on a creole sauce that I used for po-boys also I have a corn meal crusted red snapper with creole and cajun tarter that every one seemed to love on my last menu at my old restaurant the Rajun Cajun As for mole (adobe mole) I am just getting started I tried mixing it with a little chicken stock and it was a great sauce for charbroiled chicken marinated in a little lime, garlic, tequila, olive oil. yum There is some great product out there, when I go on my next trip to Vancouver I must go to que-pasa it is a great mexican store in Vancouver. stovetop

You need a vacum machine 10- 15 thousand cdn. suck the air out of the bag then pump in nitrogen. You can sous-vide any thing. dig in stovetop good for a satilite location that does not have a lot of prep space. Portioning things then freezing.

Jinmyo said: "By homefries do you mean fried mashed potatoes? With onion and such? In which case I add cabbage or kale and slivered poblanos." Home fries can mean different things to different people, a lot of restaurants (van area) deep-fry their potatoes and to me a home fry is like a re-fried potato, left over bakers, fried up with onion and such not deep fried. My good-ness its breakfast, there is enough fat already. stovetop

I'm not sure what you mean by mixed with chocolate? Do you mean something like mole poblano or mole oaxaqueno? Yes a mole poblano stovetop