patty

An organization called Les Dames d'Escoffier International just ended their yearly conference, which was held in Kansas City. One of our tours was named the Heartland Artisan Tour. We stopped at Christoper Elbow chocolates. The crew was in full production, so they could not stall the process to educate us as to their gameplan. I suspect this may have been intentional, as no one in a small artisan craft profession should really be parting with any secrets, especially to others in the same profession! None of us were going to be wowed by any upstart chocolate maker, but I think that we were. I bought the most beautiful collection of any hand made chocolate assortment I have seen. I was not sure I even wanted to eat them. I brought them home to my staff, all of whom have culinary educations, not sure if their taste would measure up. We all agreed that these are the finest pieces we have ever tasted. If you are ever in Kansas City, do NOT miss this spot.

Anyone have any new thoughts to add after reading more edditions of the magazine? The other branch of the family is thinking about doing some sort of publication for our 50 year anniversary. It would be helpful to us know whether you have come around to liking Penzeys One or not. Ideas of what you would like to really see in a publication or cookbook.

We feel that Alton Brown is a friend of The Spice House. He filmed a really nice segment in our shop which has aired over the past few holidays about fruitcake. His crew was so friendly and professional. When you see an Alton Brown show, you have no idea how much goes into each segment, the man is an absolute perfectionist. But even more, he is a really nice man, he and his wife and crew brought us a fruitcake that they had lugged along in a cooler, how thoughtful is that?

And it will remain so until a change is made. there are selected few "career" waiters, but it is so thankless that few venture down that path. I think the possibilty of reversing this is impossible. The industry is riddle with PT's with "short-timers diesease" and they are looking on the next best thing. my point is, this problem has riddled restaurants for the last century and its not getting any bettter. change is eminent. It is said that in this world EVERYONE is replaceable. no matter who it is. however there is a tendency towards chaos when the proper amount of energy is not being inputed. having said that losing any piece of the puzzle, FOH or BOH has the potential to cause problems. but i feel like this is the reason why it should be changed, there is no continuity, currently, even in the so called "best" restaurants in the country. ← I would dis-agree the best front of house and the best back of house move between the best restaurants for example follow Think its ledbury thread in UK all are mentioning the Lovely Helena Hell. I think she seems to be one of the best and certainly from the thread is well liked and an addition to the new venture that will make people go, because they have met her before in quality establishments. This isn't even a proffesional veiw these people seem to be writers and just good food lovers. If you go in with the attitude that every one is replaceable then you will never establish loyalty from your staff, every great chef has a strong sous who has helped them through there career, look at TRU how long has he had his pastry chef? It riddles places that pay peanuts and get monkeys with the european market close by I do believe that we may be better placed to find more proffesionals than in America. But I also believe that the best staff from both sides are still moving from good establishment to good establishment on either side of the atlantic. ← The pastry chef at Tru, Gale Gand, is an equal partner with the chef in the enterprise, so not sure this would be a good example of employee loyalty!

ChefSwartz, I agree your concept is interesting, and keeping open awareness by changing positions would keep your staff on its toes. However, by nature, human beings are reluctant to accept change, they prefer to stick to routine. Also, your end consumer, the customer, will suffer from this practice. I have a small spice company in partnership with my husband and we import bulk spices. One segment of our staff takes these bulk spices, grinds them, sifts them and then mixes them according to old family recipes into seasonings. The other portion of our staff attends to our customers on the floor, and extends extensive cooking advice. All of our staff are mostly culinary graduates or students of Kendall or CHIC. Even though they have attended the same institutions, the guys gravitate to our "back of the house" grinding, blending positions while the ladies are happier on the floor, chatting it up with the customers and serving in as ambassadors. My partner/husband feels strongly, as you seem to, that it is wise to rotate jobs, because, everyone should be able to do every position, especially in a small family business. (we have HUGE fights about this at least once a month) In theory, I understand why this is desirable. In reality, while a lofty pursuit, it simply just does not work As the CEO, you just need to appoint the Right people to the right jobs. And people like what they know they are good at, they do not want to go from a job where they excel, to a job they are afraid of. I have had numerous dinners at culinary school dining rooms where there are 40 year old guys (attending culinary school because in their mid life they wanted to change occupations) serving plates with their hands shaking so badly they could barely deliver the entree. I do entertain the notion, that in a certain select environment, this mix-it -up concept might win keep your staff fresh and avoid stagnation. My husband/partner and I both look forward to the results of your experimentation, should it go to that level. (I have a good bookie in Vegas)!

Hey Aiden, Sorry to hear about the ticket. Nicodemus? Isn't he the king of the ring-wraiths? Tom

Ronnie, we ate in an old favorite spot in Milwaukee, after the Carson's let down, and I almost wanted to not attempt it. However, it did justice to my memories. So I don't assume automatically that I am jaded! My shop in Milwaukee is one door away from Mader's, a German restaurant that has been around for maybe 40? years. It amazes us that people come from all over the country and it is their tradition to go to this place, and they love it. The food is nominal, at best, without going into detail, we do NOT want to eat there. Our conclusion is that, in a normal dining experience, your expectations determine 90% of your dining experience. If you have had one great experience in a place you visit on vacation, you expect the same next year. (at least in a place that has been around awhile) We can find no other explanation for why people would continue to go there. Or, for a new spot, if you have read so many great things about that restaurant, you expcet the same experience. So when you have a Great experience and want to show your friends this great spot, why does it so often fail? Maybe because they do not have your previous great experience to fall back on (tried and true) so they are more critical?

I am in the seasoning business and my staff and I have had a multitude of discussions about ribs and methods of cooking them and flavoring them. We know that there are many breakdowns one might debate but we ignore pork vs. beef ribs (no real Chicagoan even entertains the notion that you might be talking about beef, pork is a gimme) and start first on chewy meat that you have to do a little nawing to get off the bone vs. falling off the bone ribs. Over 8 or 9 years we have concluded that you can not win that debate, it is a personal choice. (Sorry but for us the fall off the bone is more like pulled pork, we Prefer to have a little jaw exercise) Before we lived here, our twice a year tourist trip here always involved a meal at Carsons, we loved ribs and for the price it was a great value. We brought all of our friends with us and they agreed every time. After we lived downtown in Chicago for 5 years, we realized that while we had made it a point to visit Carsons from 100 miles away, we had never once gone there from our short cab ride away distance. We went for a birthday lunch. While the ribs were still chewy, it was a whole different type of chewy, more like a very low quality pork. The au gratin was not as we remembered either, and before we remembered that we had loved that the ribs had virtually no sauce except in a jug served on the side. Now, they were slathered. So, tell me if anyone else has this dilema, are you reluctant to visit places you dined and have fond memories of in your youth because you fear disappoiontment is inevitable? We would like to think that the quality of food at Carson's has really gone downhill but perhaps we have become jaded as the world of food has opened up to us (and we can afford to go to better places?)!

Thanks for your kind words. It is true about the parking and we will never make the mistake of taking another location without parking again. We theorized that the 70,000 people living within a mile would support a store! Live and learn. You mentioned our website, and it now brings us about a third of our business. The interesting thing is that I was Vehemently against doing business on-line. I thought it was so anti-everything that our company is, a wonderful olfactory experience where you really have to come in and smell and taste the old-fashioned way. I lost the battle with my husband on that one and I must admit in hindsight that he was 100% right and I was totally wrong. (Hopefully he will never read this!) WHT, are you sure your mother-in-law does not have it in for you and is trying to do you in with the innocent msg as the murder weapon?! Just joking, you seem to get where we are coming from. You just can't be all things to all people.

WHT, we have been through so many versions of what the public wants (or perceives it wants) that it is pretty ironic. Remember 47 years in business! 70s & 80s, MSG was no big deal, it actually enhances the ability to taste and really far less than 1% of the population has any effects from it. Currently only 9 of our 300 products contain MSG and that is mostly because when we removed it from our blends that were our best sellers, the customers did not want anything other than the original blend, and complained about the lack of flavor. We informed them that we had removed the msg and they requested that we return to the original tested formula. When we opened shops in Chicago, we just eliminated the MSG in the same blends because we felt those new customers had no frame of reference, yet the number one best selling blend (in Milwaukee) is not even in the top five in Chicago. Also, even though we spent a whole lot of time trying to make versions of popular blends available with or without salt, now salt is the trendiest thing. I believe we have around 10 types of salt and have halted there because we don't want to become "The Salt House" (if anyone of you out there wants to start up that concept, I will be happy to feed you sources and clients) Too much said on my part, but evolution takes place not only on a large time scale, but also on a day to day scale, which we try to tap into. All comments are appreciated and evaluated in a company that values its customers.

My husband and I own The Spice House, it has been my family business since 1957. I just wanted to say thanks for all the nice posts, it makes us feel so good to hear all the nice comments. While we have three shops and obviously can't be in all of them, it really makes us happy to know our staff is doing a good job. As with many family owned businesses, we really care about our little shop and our customers. Most of our staff are culinary students at CHIC or Kendall and I want to thank them for taking such good care of our customers.