MarkIsCooking

I saw someone mention the donut factory. I don't totally get the raves about this place. I think the "donuts" at Payards are worthy of a last meal, along with anything else they bake there. If you're looking for a great breakfast that is NOT a tourist trap, I recommend Good Enough to Eat, but you better get there right when they open if you don't want to wait in line. For another non-tourist trap, I'd suggest The Mermaid Inn. If you eat early, they have a "deal" on their lobster roll, which is awesome. If you want to splurge, they have a raw bar appetizer for 2 that rocks, including a variety of fresh oysters. -Mark P.S. I was lucky enough to spend a week in the kitchen at Le Bernardin some years ago. I suggest not eating that day and then buy all the food you can afford at dinner. You won't regret it.

My suggestion is a ThermaPen This gadget reads temp almost instantly, with a great large display. Got one as a gift a month or so ago and I love it! SO MUCH BETTER than my old one that seemed to take 30-60 seconds to truly register. 2-3 seconds with this baby and you're done. Comes on lots of cool colors too! You can get the older version discounted now. The newer model which is splashproof costs about $100.

I think one of my surprise birthday presents is a Thermapen and I just read the post about the Taylor. Anybody else want to weigh in on whether I should return the Thermapen or keep it (when I'm surprised and I get it, that is)??? -Mark

I just love these small Victorinox paring knives. They make them with plane and serrated edges. They hold a very sharp edge forever. They're cheap to buy. No, they don't have the heft of more expensive knives, but for small work I'm perfectly happy with less heft. Victorninox on Amazon -Mark

I know most kids love Mac n Cheese, but I never did when I was younger. As an adult, I became a big fan. Maybe because I never ate that stuff out of the box. I've eaten more adult versions at various restaurants. I'm sure we've all had dishes that we remember forever. Maybe our memories even improve the flavor over time. Some years ago, I ate a Truffled Mac n Cheese at Mistral in Boston that was awesome. A friend of mine supposedly obtained the recipe and I'm sharing the link to the recipe in my recipe file. Truffled Mac n Cheese How about it folks. What's YOUR favorite take on this classic? PLEASE share recipes, not just descriptions (but as usual, I'll take what I can get). -Mark

I have a friend who is a pastry chef and looking for work. She is doing the "regular" things like looking in this city's major newspaper, checking craigslist and the site www.BostonChefs.com is a local site that has a section for industry jobs. Of course, she's contacting some people she knows in the industry here and there as well. I'm wondering what advice the Gulletiers have for any other things you think she should do, websites to visit, strategies to try. How did you find your last industry job?? Thanks in advance for all input! -Mark

I'm appealing to the amazing wealth of baking knowledge here. I have several recipe for 9" 3 layer cakes. I want to be able to convert these recipes to 6", 12" and 1/2 sheet pan versions. Words of wisdom? Tips? Resources? Please help!!!!

All great points. You absolutely have to understand what you non-food costs are. It's also true that in a major city, we need to be competitive from a retail price point of view. So, I thought that given all places pay somewhat similar prices for ingredients - it would be helpful to have some kind of rule of thumb for relationship between selling price and food cost. Thanks for the input. I hope others will chime in. -Mark-

Hello experienced retail bakers! I have a new cafe/bakery and I'm looking for some help to understand what kinds of markups you are using for your baked goods. It looks like I'll be doing both retail and some wholesale. Anyone who has some pricing guidance on both would be SO appreciated. In simple terms, for an item that costs you $1 to make (food cost only), what do you RETAIL that item for? What do you WHOLESALE that item for? Thanks!!! -Mark-

I keep getting disappointed by these shows. The producers are clearly more focused on the 'entertainment value' than trying to really find 'the best' Iron Chef or Top Chef or whatever. No Iron Chef is going to be asked to cook in a yard with no running water and inadequate tools. So, don't do well at such a challenge and off-you-go. What they need is someone who will perform well in the Iron Chef kitchen and someone with a little personality (ala Batali, Flay, etc.). No matter my disappointment, I will keep watching, but I do wish the producers could come up with challenges more in sync with what the 'job' they're interviewing for requires. In terms of how the judges 'grill' them, I am sure the producers had to make some concessions to get quality entrants. None of these people would want to come to something like this to be treated like a person in Hell's Kitchen. They have achieved too much to risk that and accept that. Watch on! -Mark- P.S. Is anybody wondering what the problem is with Food Network that they had to keep extending the deadline for entrants into The Next Food Network Star??? Originally, the deadline was in the spring. Then, they kept accepting applications past the deadline. Then, I just noticed a new deadline in November. Could it be possible that they couldn't fine 25 decent people to choose from with over 1000 entries?????

I'm looking for some creative and (surprise) inexpensive ideas for serving trays & presentation for some catering jobs. Any lesser known / great sources out there? Maybe New Yorkers have a few from Chinatown or elsewhere in the city???? -Mark-

Just looking at the signatures from many of you, I'm sure there is a wealth of great food quotes. I'm looking for anything from interesting to hilarious. Here are 3 to get it started. The first taste is with you eyes. More important than the food on the table are the people in the chairs. not sure everyone here agrees <g> and one I saw in someone's signature: Some see the glass as half emtpy. Some see the glass as half full. I see the glass and say, "Are you going to finish that?" -Mark-

My classmate and I just made a rabbit and chicken terrine, which also has some roasted peppers and macerated fruit. I could really use some suggestions for presentation and ANY POSSIBLE SAUCE or accompaniment that you think might help this dish improve. All suggestions GREATLY appreciated. Thanks. -Mark-

I just heard at school this week that Whole Foods sells an unsalted butter from Normandy, France. I'll check it out and let you know what I find. -mark-

FG - I love your 5 points. The no salt is a big one. I happen to like how you can create something interesting for the bread at an Italian place (i.e. start with the olive oil for dipping, add S&P, red pepper flakes and now you've got something). I get particularly excited when the place has something they've created other than 'just' butter (some sort of spread or interesting 'something' to put on the bread). I have never liked the whole idea of a guy circling the dining room doling out bread in way-to-skimpy a manner, plus the guilt of asking for more and more. Great topic. -mark-

For everyone out there who does take-out and/or catering, I'd love to hear about the most creative and/or innovative packaging you've seen. It seems like most people use the 'standard' plastic or Styrofoam; boring and horrible for the earth too. What have you seen that's awesome??? Any sources you'd recommend for suppliers???? -mark-

About 5 years ago, I spent a week in the kitchen at Le Bernardin (which I paid handsomely for by the way). Setting aside the cost, the experience was fantastic. At that time, I had never spent any time in a professional kitchen. I had heard the line, "If you saw what went on in the kitchen, you wouldn't want to eat there." Not true at all in the case of LB. Lots of very dedicated people. Clean work habits. A respect for food that was very cool. Each afternoon during the between lunch-and-dinner lull, the Chef de Cuisine asked me to pick anything off the menu and he'd show me how to make it. Very cool and everything quite delicious. In terms of the comment about their philosophy, what Eric Ripert says is, "We don't plate the fish. We plate for the fish." OK, nice sound bite, but it was what I saw in action. While the dishes tended to be 'not done up' by some plating standards, there were several sauces in use. Someone came in every morning to get the day's sauces made or otherwise ready to go. The attention to detail in the items that got plated was quite extraordinary. This included the standards for dicing, matching dice sizes and the like; and this included using only perfect whole kernels of corn (which remained whole as a visual element) for the John Dory sauce. Regarding the physical space, the picture Fat Guy posted is one of the private rooms. Under construction at the time I was there, LB converted the entire 2nd floor above the restaurant (previously used for office space) into private function space. The room is configured with 2 open/close dividers, so the space can be 1 large space, 1 bigger and 1 smaller or 3 smaller rooms. Plus, there is a kitchen upstairs, which ER felt was needed to avoid causing disruption to the restaurant kitchen when private functions were underway. No place is perfect and I haven't eaten there in maybe 4 years, but I have very fond memories of both my week there and the food I've eaten there. -mark-

Help me out eGulleteers! I just LOVE those almonds from the Nuts4Nuts rolling carts around NYC. How can I make these at home? If you know, please tell. -mark-

I really like the Voss bottle here. Anyone have tips and where/how to buy some of these cool waters at the lowest possible price??? I have a house with awesome well water, so I think getting some bottles and refilling them with my own water might be the best of both worlds. :-) -Mark-

Miso Black Cod at Nobu John Dory at le Bernardin -mark-

We're all so often disappointed when things in life are different than we want them to be. Many people who frequent eGullet would like this show (and other cooking competition shows) to be about the food, about the professionalism, about the creativity and artistry of true chefs and budding chefs. I'm with you on this. Though disappointing, for the people who invest in this show and sell it to a network, it's about getting ratings and in turn ad revenue. The producers couldn't care less if the best chefs are kicked off or never even make it past application. The show gets about 2 million viewers a week and - though it's sad to many of us here - a real hard core cooking competition (as opposed to soap opera that takes place in a kitchen) would not draw 2 million a week. For more pure programming, as has been the case for decades, there's public television. -mark-

I can't believe I caught your post. A few days ago, I was chatting with a few chef friends who told me they wanted to get a calf head, but were having no luck; however, I cracked the code. Here's the deal. If you go to EatWild.com (great site by the way with information about 100% grass fed local beef/meat), you can look in their directory to find local meat sources. I started calling places and I found someone who raises calf for slaughter and I asked if I could buy a head. We've coordinated the schedule (i.e. they know when they're slaughtering next and you need to get the head very 'fresh' from the processor). Tentatively, I'm getting the head 9/25 and I can't wait to see my chef friend's face when I show up with the head! I'd suggest you try a similar route and see how it goes. Let me know if you have any luck and I'd love to learn more about what you end up doing with it. On this end, I know he wants the head with the brain, cheeks and tongue in tact, but I don't know the details of where he's going from there. -Mark-

What's the best place to get these? JB Prince??? -Mark-

I realize that jaws will drop when I write this, but I'm a TV person. Never been a big reader except for circumstantial research. Having said this, I became addicted to and fully read 2 books in the last month; which was a first in my life experience. They are: How to Pick a Peach a fascinating walk through our food supply, including lots of information about the most popular fruits and vegetables, how to choose them, how to prepare them and why our food is engineered for look not flavor. Real Food a story of a woman raised on a farm and her evolution through vegetarianism to veganism to her last stop at believing in 'real' or 'traditional' food (no industrialized, processed and otherwise 'modern' food). She has hundreds of citations to various books and research articles which lead her to believe that the whole approach of watching saturated fat and minimizing your LDL is not the best approach. If you're into slow food, local food and generally want to be more focused on what you eat and why - pick these books up! =Mark=

As an alternate to the potato to add starch and thicken, consider giving juiced corn a try. I sometimes make a sauce with juiced corn and some seasoning and just love it. Just be careful on this, because it can get quite thick (as a standalone sauce) but I'm guessing you have enough volume in the soup not to worry too much. -mark-