Timh

Oleana in Cambridge, Restaurant L (Newbury cross street), Craigie Street Bistro, my place in Plymouth(a enoteca/ristorante), Toro, Butchershop.......

I'm one of the "adreneline junkies". as well a someone who needs structure. I also like leading a team into the unknowns of service and emerging unscathed. I also find great respite in working with raw product and developing it into something refined and finished. It doesn't suck either that we all eat well, drink good wine, and meet loads of interesting people nightly.

I'm 40's, divorced father of two little girls(3,5) The realities of my job, and their scheduals, allows only Sat and Sun, and i have a nanny from sat afternoon till I get off. At this time its all that can be worked out, so I make the most of our time together. The summer is both their free time and my busy season, so I'll need tobe creative in making qualitytime for them.

oooh, verdi mart, I think of stuffed eggplant and port o'call, the freakin baked potatoes with the burgers. Good times there....

Wow, what did you expect. So far you have asked for everything regarding setting up your business from everyone else. Don't like the responses, do it yourself. You're welcome.

The contract is a list of obligations for both you and your employer, so think of it as that. Generally it might include; agreed pay, bonuses and /or raises based on performance goals set by parties, vacation time, insurance and benefits, scope of position, growth potential, length of contract, causes for breaking the contract, etc... What a contract wont do anything for you is if a chef just quits. And the competition clauses that I've seen , none have been enforceable.

Sounds similar to the North End here in Bean Town. Out of 200+ restaurants, maybe 5 are worth the trip, the rest are all tourist traps. And the pastries? Modern is the best? Gentrification of neighborhoods seems to be the death of the restaurants.

see above

I would offer that whatever similarities in desserts and flavors might be due to the incestuous nature of the business, in the constant moving of pastry chefs as well their sous to the next great gig. Plus, certain recipes are just standard, regardless of the restaurant(such as creme brule, ice creams, mouses, chocolate anything, etc.) Using sysco fries is far different from buying premade desserts. We, for example, make both of our breads, our pastas and all of our desserts,including the gelatos and sorbettos, biscotti, tart doughs, but I buy a puff pastry dough because we can't produce it consistently. I would not evern consider making phylo either. House made desserts are a matter of pride for kitchens and chefs and I would say that if a "chef" is buying premade desserts they are also cutting corners across the menue, at that would be glaringly obvious to all.

And give facts to back up your seemingly wild assertations(assumptions). From where do you draw your conclusions?

After the poaching, press them between two pans with a weight for a few hours to get a uniform shape. Trim as needed and then bread them( flour, eggwash, bread crumbs) or not, and then saute.

As we are a Enoteca, my current faves in the Italian section are Taleggio, Fiore Sardo, and another pecorino, a gran cru. Robiolo too, and......

Hope to see it open again. I must have liked it alot, ate there often, just don't remember much(thanks to Cooters and the Snake Snatch Lounge)

I guess I'm one of the rarities in that I, as a head chef, also have a strong background in pastry. In both of my apprenticeships(Japan, France) I spent considerable time in pastry, as did all of the other cooks. In all of the restaurants I've worked in the exec. or head chef had strong pastry skills, why wouldn't they? If they don't have pastry experience then they are only a 3/4 chef. I teach all of my cooks the pastry work in their cycling thru the stations to help them become complete cooks, and it helps me round out my staffing and schedualing. Nothing is new under the sun in pastry work and the current "avant garde" pastry is but a fad, and still it all comes back to the fundamentals of basic pastry, regardless of the most modern contraption used. To the gentleman opening the restaurant, think about a chef with strong pasry skills who can teach one of the sous to help run the department.

I agree that the chinese restaurant formula is so prevalent because Americans know nothing about chinese food. This also applies to every other ethnic cuisine, Mexican, Italian, French, Japanese, etc...

Where?, JB Prince. Period.

I also want to include Summershack (alewife) . Great take on local food.

B&G Oysters, Butchershop, Marcos', Peachfarm,

As a former private chef(8 yrs), I most definitely would. But only lunch and dinners. One of the things about having a private chef is that they are always there, so some amount of privacy is lost. Might take some getting used to having a person other than family always in the kitchen, comming and going.

We just recently had a group of six with the host being a well known restaurant owner(actually a seafood shack) in for a dinner after the Boston food show. They were all drunk, some sketched out from other things, with the host being the loudest. Laugh/shouting, rude to the waitstaff, yelling out demands across the dining room, all all in the Qeens, NY accent. All I could think of was how this person deserved my foot up his ass, and a fork in his eye. After offending a table of regulars, as well as everyone else in the place, I shut them off(they spent 600$ on wine alone). Upon leaving, the host came back to say goodbye and said it wasgreat, would return, I directly told him he was no longer welcome in here and what an ass**** he and his group were. The look on his face was priceless, yet no apology. Restaurant killers I call them.

My ex and I took our kids everywhere(she also nursed discreetly anywhere) sometimes the experience was great, sometimes not. We were always ready to get it to go at the sign of trouble, and often only one of us ate, while the other handled the baby(s). But now at 3 and 5, they are good restaurant kids. Loud and obnoxious, whether adult or child, whether in a subdued setting or a loud place is still loud and obnoxious.

I'll give anyone a shot, couldn't care less about age, in fact, I look for maturity above all else. As long as they show initiative and discipline. And I believe no one has any illusions about getting rich(monitarily speaking)But I will tell them that they will learn a ton, work in a creative environment, and as we grow , so will they. To some this is worth it. All I offer is the opportunity to improve ones cooking skills,of which you can do without and still make money in the before mentioned fast food chains, but I must be crazy 'cause I care about what I put out. (and I'm able to make a comfortable salary doing it.) so I am not ready to sell out. This is the life I chose, or that chose me.

Just to add a little 'fo shizzle" to your excursions, I just recently paid 60.00/lb for morrels that came from Bulgaria. they were nice, but really, ... I was asked if they were lycergic, and I realized they must have been for me to pay that.

What I've got are two ends of the spectrum, one an idealistic young 20 something who wants to cook clean food, loves the baking and pastry,and likes the music i play(i'm quite sure shes the 'adreneline junky" we are described) The other is a brazillian who I happen to spark something in, he discovered his love of cooking, though its not as strong as his desire to make loads of tax free money. But they both support me, and I bend over backwards to make sure they have a good environment to succeed or at least be comfortable in. A recent hire is working out well, good experience, no baggage, and buyes into my approach(likes the music too). It also helps that the public is crazy receptive to what we're doing, really the only gig in town. (And to think we're only 30 min south of Beantown).

From my perspective, there has not been enough coverage of the New Orleans food scene. The storm brought up the subject of the city, but very little of the cuisine, Mardi Gras always stokes some reaction in people, even those who have never been to the city. Personally, I am more interested in the old guard restaurants(even those of faded glory) who are struggling to return , and the possible demise of the classic cuisine of the city to the revitalization and inevitable transformation of the city.