K8memphis

Oh no! So sorry, but I've been there too. No fun at all.

The paying customer has no clue how to run a bakery and unless you want to invite them in to micromange your every move just tell this potential client that you sell fresh brownies. That if she advance orders by so many days lead time you can give her same day service for a two or three dozen minimum. But by and large she needs to get her an in home chef and that's how I would approach it. In fact, when dealing with her I would have said with knitted brow breaking into a smile, "You don't think my brownies are fresh? <pause pause> That's the only kind of product we sell here. I take great pride in my baking. If you have a problem you just let me know <we're best friends now> and I'll take care of it. You can count on us" Then say I gotta run, I've got something in the oven. Too late to use that on this one, just an idea for the next micromanager.

Have you ever tried to serve freshly baked cake and have it crumble too much? So called 'day old' cake serves better (layer cake in general). The layperson does not know what's best. They are truly clueless. I held the lofty position of being a bagel bagger at Litburg's Bagel Bakery on the far North side of Chicago a loooong time ago. Real bagels are tough crusty little buggers. The real boiled ones. Tough. Everybody wanted hot bagels. No I want hot from the back. Why did we even fill the case? Customers thought it to be a rare ethereal bagel-y seasoning to get me to walk to the back and return with a bag of bagels. There was something suspect about the ones in the case. You got any in the back? They'd complain they weren't fresh. Geez Louise go buy some challah you want soft bread don't buy the freaking bagels. Hot bagels cool bagels they are tough they are fresh. Stale you can't even eat not to worry. If you can sink a tooth in it it's fresh eat it and shut up. Touched an old nerve there didn't we? But as to your dilema, if they are placing an advance order and you can swing it, give her same day baked--but you're probably gonna wish she got the challah too because she's used to the previously frozen ones. She won't believe they're fresh. You're danged if you do and danged if you don't. I've heard story after story. This is opening a can of worms. I would hold my breath till I turned blue but I would NOT discuss my baking with a random customer. I would not divulge freezer information. There are too many preconceived conflicting notions out there. Some brownies are too fudgey to cut the day they are baked. Charge her more for same day baking if she special orders. Or at least tell her you need 2-3 days notice and a two dozen minimum. Make it worth your while. Or you only take special orders on Tuesdays during a full moon and one-eyed jacks are wild. Otherwise she can just be satisfied with nasty plain old fresh brownies and she can hire a pastry chef to bake to her whim. (Don't really say nasty or plain of course.) Just for the record, the opposite of fresh is stale not frozen. Freezers are our friends.

If space is an issue, there's an air flow consideration too. The air vent can be in the front or the back depending on how much space you have in terms of depth from the wall. So if the vent is in the back you need to set it farther away from the wall. We have a walkway in front of ours so that was an issue for us. Had to have the vent in the front so we could push the frige all the way back to the wall. I took my largest cake board with me to make sure I could fit my cakes in there. Interestingly enough, the cheapest frige had the most room, makes sense though. The fewer bells and whistles, the more actual room you have. I have both a bottom freezer on one and top freezer on the other. If you took a large deli size platter to place into most side by sides, it just doesn't work. If you get a cadillac side by side maybe, but while there are beaucoups cubic inches in there it's North & South space rather than platter friendly East West space. So it's just a personal choice of whether hanging beef is your goal, or keeping platters chilled would be more important. Also, if your frige sweats inside, (not the normal condensation) you can possibly install a heater to dry that up. It's a flat metallic thing. Umm, I've never used one but those drawer style under counter friges seem really cool. But probably are a pain to reach down into?? Just some chilling thoughts for you.

That's what I thought. Running two businesses is more than completely consuming. No worries.

Wow wow wow and it's a total smorgasbord of pastrylicious opportunities too!! What an opportunity!! What big name people!! Happy Birthday to you!!!!!

I wish I could say the same. Last year I GAINED weight eating unbridled quantities of the very good salads I make. Calories! lurking in shredded cucumber! No explanation other than I ate too much..... Milagai ← I'm just curious, was there much refined sugar in there? In the dressings or anything.

Congratulations! Dude, did you see the chocolate salad recipe???? in the second post : )

foostie pronounced FOOstee--the very last part of anything as in the last bite. Not a complete serving. There's just a foostie left. You can have the foostie. My neice called me Aunt Foostie what was that about? This one, you gotta know me I guess, complik8 speaks for itself and me

Oh, DuckDuck, great idea! Ruth, that's an idea to consider. Wow that would be too cool. But I mean they have so much stuff going on. I think I would just get the upcoming class list for the different locations see who's teaching what. Who's teaching is of course as important as what the course is. Pastry Scoop does the clinic classes for FCI in New York.

What kid of pastry, Ruth? Like baking croissants or like sugar work? Narrow that down a bit or are you just open to whatever. Umm, my first thoughts were the big culinary schools in New York and Chicago or that one in the Midwest. In any part of the country?

My nutritional dealie follows and I don't mean to sound morose, but I do love sugar. All drama side there's never been a greater love hate conflict in all my life. And for me, at this point in my life, sugar consumption directly affects my day to day life. My body is no longer processing sugar correctly. I mean the white addicting crystal powder. I am not diabetic either. So I need to avoid that to feel good. Well it's actuallymore that I have to avoid it not feel bad. Sugar is in so many more products than trans fats that it is to me a silent killer, a poison to quote Gloria Swanson*. To me it is the whale of all ages sitting in the pancreas of our world. *yes I've been reading my newly acquired replacement copy of Sugar Blues by Wiliam Duffy. Hoping to get some spizerinktom to stay on target with my eating. White flour goods seem to implant with immediacy where it is not wanted either. I don't eat much bread at all, any kind. Hmm, so my self intoned mantra is just say no to white powders even the legal ones. edited for some spelling

Steve, That's so true about the water & all our modern conveniences that we all enjoy. Also true you don't hear a lot hurrahs for the random or specific civil engineer. Hurrah! >> my first with much appreciation. Torrilin and all I got hooked on the boneless skinless chicken for a long time because it's so easy. Then found myself cooking large quantities of bone-in skin-on breasts for large quantites at work for chicken salad & other dishes. The taste was so much better than the easy tenderloins & stuff (of course). I slow cooked the chicken, baked or poached it as slow as possible with all manner of celery, carrot, onion, lemon, clove, bay, salt & pepper. De-boned it, strained and cooked down the liquid. Wow. I had forgotten how good that was. But the other stuff is so easy. We keep saying we're going to cook up a quantity and vaccuum seal it...just any minute. Because it seems that the cut up or whole chickens in the grocery stores are just no where near as good as the big packs from a Sam's or Costco type store. Mike19, good for you, Dude! Way to go. I actually think it's harder for a young person though. Older people have health issues to motivate them to eat better. You have far and away the right idea. You will therefore be right on time or greatly delay the health issues that might come up in your life because they are not exacerbated by poor diet and you can avoid the ones altogether that improper diet cause over time. Good for you.

Hmm, I did mini muffins and froze them recently. I then served them hot which was key for me. Even re-freezing until the batch was used up was not a problem for these muffins. Are you using oil or butter or what kind of fat? Butter needs to be loosened up after it is frozen because it will firm the texture too much. Butter does not relax enough at toom temp (after being frozen). But just a little heat and it will melt like buttah ha, No but it really will revive the texture. An idea is to bake them just done, freeze and then would you have time to just brown enough for that day's batch? Not to serve them hot but to just brown off? Perhaps they could be frozen in such a way as to make it easy for them to be popped in the oven. Maybe something like that.

Oh, here's my other idea and I just love this one. Umm, take a random mini-muffin, I used sweet potato mini muffin or lemon poppyseed. And slice them--the inside pieces (not the heels) look like perfect little bitty slices of bread. If you use a muffin with a nice high peak and a nice fluffy overflow y'know? Because to make finger sandwiches you trim the crusts off bread slices. So this is a play on that idea where they are so mini but totally look like a baby slice of bread. Keep the crust on though. And a dit dot of chicken salad or any filling makes a beautiful open face 'sandwich'.

Cornbread lends itself well to sausage, particularly breakfast sausage. I would look into making a sausage gravy and serving it either over the cornbread or on the side. Jalepeno Cornbread has a little bite, which adds a nice flavor under the rich gravy. ← Yes, but this is something you would serve for high tea in Alabama, not Afternoon tea. Afternoon tea is dainty sandwiches, mini quiches, scones, clotted cream, jam and delicated mini cakes and tarts. ← Yes and that's why the cornbread wasn't working for me at all. Too much starch. Shortbread cookies, scones, cornbread, finger sandwiches. Cornbread mini muffins maybe but that kind of repeats with the scones doesn't it? Cornbread is crumbly too. As a mini-muffin it would work. I'm sure there would be those among us who would suck all the air out of the room with this suggestion but like a deviled ham would be great in those. Like poke a little hole in the top or scoop out a little bit of the muffin with a sharp pointy knife and squirt in a cute little swirl to overflow onto the top of the muffin with some kind of deviled ham--that would work. And a little garnish sticking out the top, a fresh parsley sprig or a lobster antennae, just whatever you might have lying around. I said lobster antenae because they are red--I think the garnish should be red, what else is red? Paprika is kind of boring it won't stick up. I have all kinds of ideas. What about brush a stick pretzel with mayo or a shoestring potato with butter and roll in paprika! Cool! I know I know, I'm nuts, depending on the size of the muffin, I'd use one or three. I mean a little stick of red bell pepper would do it too. I would cut them zig zagged, not straight. A skinny little pink tipped radish stick! (pretzels too thick I was just brainstorming) To me the only thing the guests should need to diddle with are the scones. Diddle with the cream and jam & stuff. The rest should just about pop in the mouth. Umm, what I liked to do is take some mayo and spread it on the edge of the finger sandwich then dip that moistened edge in parsley or whatever herb to make an interesting presentation. If you wanted to get complik8ed you could just alternate the mayo so when you dipped it would be dotted along. Fun stuff. Or dip in fine choppped nuts. Or alternate those Can I come help? I would also do an upgrade on fairycakes. I think I'd pipe chocolate wings to enhance them. So they can be 3-d.

Luckily for me, my daughter and son-in-law stayed in town overnight before leaving for their honeymoon or I'd never have heard the end of it for the rest of my life. We had oodles of the wonderful catered food and some of the cake left so they came by the next day & we all pigged out. But between your rant which has been repeated my so many brides and my near brush with the wrath of my daughter just kidding kinda sorta, I decided to take the opportunity to avoid it for all the rest of my brides. She was able to enjoy the food afterall but she would have loved to have gotten to tease me for all eternity. I mean it's so ironic. When they left the reception they were hungry. We were there trying to decide what to do with piles of food and cake. As so often is the case after a wedding. Hello-o. I should add that with any wedding cake I also deliver an anniversary cake boxed and decorated to match ready to be encased in plastic and frozen. Like a 4 or 5 inch cake. It's easily accomplished with cake scraps. This way I tell the bride that she can count all the servings in her cake to be served, that always goes over well with them. And I'm now adding the extra detail of making a way for them to get a few slices 'to-go' to enjoy after the reception when things calm down. Your method of having them come back in a year is also a good marketing tool. But sometimes the top cake is an 8, too many servings to not count. This way the math is that much easier for me with custom jobs.

Thousands for the processed stuff you mean? Or did you mean for thousands of years we've eaten bread? Bread, yes a long long time. White bread no not so long. Hundreds of years might even be an exageration. Miriam, I am 55. Sugar is an addictive poison to me. I am a fellow chipaholic too! But still I eat both. I solace myslef with crunchy Triscuits when I'm being good. But I have also taken time to have spent periods of my life here lately to go on a sugar free, chip free diet. The benefits are intoxicating. And while I know better and feel better the bonds of my personal food addictions are strong. However, when I am sugar free I have no hot flashes. My skin is much prettier, some say radiates, I think it's just a gleam from the white hair. The benefits are staggering. I am in process of losing my holiday weight, the process delayed by a visit from my favorite chef. So I am back 'on' sugar free and no white flour. The weight drops off like crazy. I'm not a dieter, in the sense of constantly trying every different diet that comes out but I go by the South Beach Diet for incredible results. I had a copy of the book Sugar Blues years ago and just replaced it back into the library this week. I recommend that you get that book. It is a great motivating eye opener. My health has improved tremendously and I can still sneak in a chip or two sometimes.

Eww, that's true enough. But maybe since that's kind of common knowlege now too it might be a huge factor...but man that's an interesting facet of all this. But some places need/want those types of personalities and pair them with a second in command with opposing people skills to hopefully make a balance. Or if you already have someone with good people skills you can add in the more forceful personality. Either way. But of course some people don't use any of that mumbo jumbo to do their hiring. Not to mention, it would behove *(howdoyouspell behoof behoove beholf) anyone to take a deep dark long look inside & see if they didn't want to make a few personality adjustments after watching themselves on tv. Of cousrse they can factor in all the stuff we didn't see too. Ultimately, I don't think it would be permanently damaging. You could so tap dance around it in an interview. edited to say: ding ding ding ding we have a winner--it's behoove

I think Reefpimp should do it. His personality alone will far outshine the competition.

I'd like to see my son, Chef-boy, try it but he needs to stay put career wise right now. I would probably have a heart attack from suspense though. I can hardly make it through some of those challenge-y type shows. Too many dramatic pauses. Way too many. If my kid was on there I'd totally die a thousand deaths moment by moment.

And I've heard some good folklore from my cake buddies in the meantime. Carla said: The practice was to have a three tier cake ideally where the bottom tier was served to wedding guests. The middle tier was divied up and taken home. While the top tier was saved for baby's christening which way back when would soon follow the wedding. Somehow the baby christening thing has fallen by the wayside and now it is saved for the first anniversary. Kory said: Those were fruitcakes of course. And the wedding cake was often baked at the time of the engagement so it could cure for the whole length of time until the wedding. Shirley said: Remember the Seinfeld when Elaine ate that antique cake her boss got at an auction 'cause she was hungry and tired to replace it with an Entemann's cake??

I've tested my whippped cream filling with & without strawberries and it froze and defrosted fine. I wrap my filled uniced cakes twice and slide into those big cooking bags which are food safe. Sometimes I have to tape a coupla big bags together for huge cake. Back then when I tested I was using piping gel in the whipped cream to stabilize it. I don't use it in there anymore but I haven't specifically re-tested. I'm only realizing this as I'm thinking this through here. So it probably will be fine. I know I have frozen stuff since then without the piping gel in the whipped cream but did not sample the cake. But y'know how one teensly little thing can change it all up in baking. My suggestion to you is test it yourself for a coupla hours with some filled cake scraps before you stick the cake in there. I'm sure it will be fine though. Mine are. I use a brush to brush off any ice crystals before they can re-melt into my cake.

I haven't made bread professionally for a long time, but we used stone ground whole wheat or stone ground whatever flour at the time and made the best bread on the planet. Each slice of bread tasted the same even after several days. I was always shocked when I would get whole wheat flour at the grocery store & try to make anything. It was glorified cardboard awful. But if I got some nice stone ground stuff it was awesome. Whether I got it milled on the spot or if it was pre-milled, sitting in a bin. So my verdict at this time is it's the flour. It's possibly the milling process of what you can get that's mass produced. There could be other factors but the flour they use is painfully inferior.

Jonathan, aka Chef-boy, while visiting home last week brought his proud Mom & Dad gracious and kindly autographed copies of Patrick O'Connell's amazing cookbooks and we have been delighting in the wonderful gift. Patrick O'Connell,* the Pope of American Cuisine, one of the original inductees into the Who's Who of Food and Beverage in America, received the first perfect score in the history of Zagat's rating system; His was the first establishment in the Mobile Travel Guide's history to receive two 5-star awards, one for the restaurant one for the accomodations; From his book, "...The Inn at Little Washington became a culinary landmark, gaining Mobil's five-star ratings year after year and winning Zagat's coveted top restaurant award in 2003. O'Connell, now a James Beard Award winner... ...Selecting The Inn at Little Washington as one of the top ten restaurants in the world, Patricia Wells hails O'Connell as "a rare chef with a sense of near-perfect taste, like a musician with perfect pitch..." *Uses 1/3 cup butter plus either 1/3 cup oil or >>> 1/3 cup SHORTENING<<< in his pie dough in BOTH of his books.