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I want to incorporate a food labeling into my program. Mainly I want to point out deceptive food labeling. For instance using blue colored apple pieces in "blueberry" flavored pancake mix. Or, labels that are "new and improved" when all they do is change the shape of the package so they can sell you less product for the same price. I would love to hear of any examples you know of, of deceptive food labels.

Is dry soy lecithin oil soluable? I'll have to give it a try. It's for an oil based foam.

Would anyone know of an online source to purchase mono and diglycerides?

The rice cooker I have already. Indispensable. The Hibachi Grill we can simulate pretty easily in the kitchen. I have some Paella pans. Great utensil. Great suggestion for the raclette grill. I can't believe I didn't already think of that. Especially the big grill that will hold a whole wheel of cheese.

I have just decided to add this to my program so I will need to order items ASAP to make the Fall season. I want to do a segment on traditional cooking implements internationally. I'm looking for suggestions on what to get. For an idea of what I'm looking for: Tagine Tandoor Oven Wok Tortilla Press Hot Pot Anything and everything in the way of suggestions would be appreciated. What are those traditional cooking utensils that we don't normally come across in North America?

Having done Philadelphia, New York, Chicago and Boston all recently my conclusion is Boston for the best city. Of course New York on shear volume of restaurants is going to be a favorite but how many restaurants just are not very good? We didn't have a bad meal in Boston but had very mediocre meals in the other cities. Probably just lucky but perception is reality I guess.

The conversation was like this: Boss: We have $50 Thousand and we need to spend it by lunch time. Me: Done. I already had a wish list. That was on top of a much, much larger budget that we used to supply a new kitchen for product development. Cristianajun, the Pacojet is a great tool. We are going to replace half of our Robot Coupes with PacoJets. Considering their versatility they are not much more expensive. I do have the pdf already from cookingconcepts fooey but the recipes are not well written. I'm hoping someone out there has developed some of their own. I see a lot of potential for the anti-griddle and of course the RotoVal but I just haven't had the time lately to develop recipes. One good idea I saw for the Rotoval was to distill a good quality wine and use the resulting products, brandy and wine syrup, to serve with a cheese plate. I'm going to give that one a try soon.

My recently purchased toys. Clarimax Anti-Griddle GastroVac RotoVal PacoJet Sous-Vide Circulators All purchased on a budget spree the school gave me. I have done some great stuff with the pacojet and the circulators but I haven't had a lot of time to play with the others. Does anyone have any of these pieces of equipment and would like to share recipes and techniques?

Sorry for taking so long to update. This trip went very well. One of our better trips. Most disapointing restaurant: Bymark This was not a full student dinner. Just 5 instructors. I was very disappointed. Walking in to the place was like walking in to a subway station. The stairs were very dirty the main foyer was dirty. The big wood carving looked totally out of place in these conditions. We were seated at bench seating. I have no problem with that but the seats, at least the section I was at, had holes in the upholstery, and even worse, didn't look like they had been cleaned in quite some time. There were a lot of crumbs on the seat. Service was mediocre at best. I expect a hell of a lot less casual service when the prices are as high as they charge at Bymark. The food was good but again not the quality I was expecting. I ordered the "poutine" to start. Very disappointing. The fries were greasy and the bernaise sauce had very little flavor and was under seasoned. Also at the table we had: The characutiere platter, it was good but nothing spectacular. The lettuce wraps, awful. The cod was far from fresh. The caramelized squash & duck confit risotto, excellent. Probably the best dish of the night. The seared foie gras, no complaints other than it was under seasoned. Three of us had the 16oz. dry aged rib eye. The steaks were very good and cooked to our specifications but the side dishes were weak at best. One had the roasted artisan chicken which was well prepared and one had the daily special which I don't recall. The desserts were average. We only had a couple of glasses of wine for the table as there were a few non drinkers. Total bill was a little over $650 Price for me isn't really an issue but product and service is and Bymark failed on these counts. Another restaurant that just my wife and I went to was Fuzion. First impressions: A little odd. The host, who I assume is also the owner, in his ill fitting suit, was friendly but didn't seem entirely comfortable. Our jackets were taken and put on a long coat rack with no ticket to indicate where they were. (this would come into play later) Service was very good. Servers seemed to work well as a team and our main server was very friendly and knowledgeable. We started with the Chef's Collection appetizer. On this night that consisted of the Cherry Wood Smoked Oysters, the Caribbean Shrimp and the Duck Potstickers. The oysters were very good. Good texture and not over powering with the smoke. The shrimp was somewhat over cooked and not hot. The potstickers were also very good. I think the kitchen has an issue with heat because most of the food came out luke warm. Second course we shared the Smoked Curry and Tamarind Lamb. Very good flavor but just lacking a little. Many of the dishes we were served had the right idea but just came up a hair short. We also had the Tomato and Mozzarella salad. This was quite plain. For main course we had the Bison Short Rib which was very good and very flavorful. Only complaint with that dish was the Gratin Potatoes were undercooked. I like them firm but not crunchy. We also had the Free Range Chicken. Very good job on this one. We shared the custard trio for dessert. Not memorable. The best was the pumpkin. When we paid our bill and tried to leave there was no one to get our coats. I tried to find them myself but was wading through a sea of others. Eventually we found them. Overall I would give them a possitive rating. There were some things that were not outstanding but I would definately return. Price for two with wine was under $150 which is a bargain in a good restaurant. Best restaurant was Splendido. This was one of the main group dinners. We started with some canapes. Amuse Bouche: Grilled Tunisian Octopus, Eggplant Roulade and Chive Beurre Blance Second: Quebec Foie Gras and Ham Hock Terrine, Pork Cheek, Kozlik's Triple Crunch Mustard Kim Crawford, 2005 Gewurztraminer Third: Roasted Nova Scotia Lobster, Pressure Cooked Veal Oxtail, Preserved Lemon Salad, Parsnip Chips Fairview Cellars, 2003 Viognier Fourth: Garlic Burgundian Wild Escargots, Carnaroli Parsley Root Risotto, Niagra Pancetta Thirty Bench, 2005 Riesling Fifth: Duck Confit Stuffed Savoy Cabbage, Beef Consomme, Oxalis Leaf, Perigord Black Truffles Remoissenet Pere & Fils, 1995 Pinot Noir Sixth: Boudin Noir, Wild Boar Belly, Pressure Cooked Tuscan White Beans, Quail Egg, Brioche Grange Phillipe, 2003 Grenache/Syrah Seventh: Cuit-Sous-Vide Lamb Tenderloin, 8 Hour Roasted Lamb Shoulder, Butter Poached Gnocchi, Pearl Onions and Thyme Jus Bodega Ca N'Estella, 2001 Cabernet Sauvignon (Spain) Eighth: Grand Marnier Souffle, Chocolate Sauce Pedro Ximenez, Cream Sherry The dinner was virtually flawless except for the souffle being slightly undercooked. What made this even more impressive was that none of the three main players were there. David, Yannick and Carlo were all off for various reasons. Also we were almost an hour late for our reservation. Great job as usual. I often take students to Benihana for something a little different. This year we went to Yamato instead. It was a good choice. Our whole group had the Imperial teppanyaki, which is beef tenderloin, shrimp and chicken. The meal starts with a miso soup followed by salad with house dressing. Then out come the chefs. We had three different chefs. Two were outstanding and one was just OK. He was good while at the table but he rushed through things so fast that he was done in half the time of the other two. The food was as good if not better than Bennihana, allowing for the fact that you are never going for fine dining at a teppan restaurant, and the show was definitely as good or better. Our meal at Yamato with a half bottle of wine per person cost considerably less than the equivalent meal at Bennihana with a glass of wine. We also had a 5 course lunch with wine pairings at Peller Estates in Niagra. It was very good but nothing memorable. We followed that with a tasting at Hillebrand Estates Winery. We did a walking tour of Kensington Market where we did cheese tastings and stopped at various places in China town on our way to the St. Lawrence Market. Peameal sandwich at the market as well as some honey tasting and aged meat tasting. Our final group meal was at the Royal York. Sadly it was a disapointment. We were booked as a VVIP function but the service was somewhat less. Perhaps it's a union issue but it was awful. The room was too small for the group. There was nowhere to hang jackets when we arrived. The room was painfully hot. There were too few servers. The server pouring the wine spilled a good amount with each pour, including dragging dripping wine over guests. The food was good, a couple of courses were even very good, but overall it was just a fair experience. The time went very fast and I didn't do half of what I wanted to, but I will get to those things next time around.

Let me state this again. If the loss of an occasional table is such a problem for these people that it justifies a staff member being rude then they should not be in the business. Period. If they are not competant enough to formulate a business plan, IE Not overbook the restaurant to the point where cancellations hurt sales, then they should try something new. Any decent restaurant would leave room for walk ins. That way if there is a cancellation you know that most likely there will be someone in line to fill that table. If they book 100% then that is their problem and it is a poor business plan. I have been in this business for 25 years and NEVER have I felt it necessary to offend a client.

Gordon will be opening a restaurant at the newly renovated Confederation Court Mall. He claims it will be a new concept called "Urban Fine Dining".

Some of the stuff I am reading here is absolutely BIZARRE. Things happen and reservations get cancelled. It's part of doing business. If a restaurant can't handle the occasional cancellation then the owners should try a different profession. A restaurant employee who lectures a person who calls to cancel a reservation is unacceptable and would be fired at once from my restaurant. A person who takes the time to make a reservation at your restaurant could very potentially be a repeat future client even if they have to cancel a reservation. The ONLY acceptable thing for this employee to have done would be to say sorry you are not able to make it, perhaps we will see you sometime in the future. Whining about the loss of the table and loss of revenue is of NO concern to the client and it is completely unprofessional to even mention it.

Does anyone know of a place that sells Gofio? I have not been able to find any source for it at all.

Fai, that web link is just a holding page for selling advertisements. Is Los Arrieros a franchaise?

Generally I don't take them to the cook book store as part of an organized activity but I do have it on a list of things they can do in their free time.

Most likely it will be Splendido although I haven't ruled out Perigree or Rain. We will have 5 groups of 15 students total and one of our groups is already going to Scaramouche. I believe Oro, Canoe and Centro are the places the other groups will be going to. Not of them are 100% set yet. Downtown is preferable. We will be staying at the Hilton on Richmond and like to keep things within easy walking or subway distance but we also have a couple of buses at our disposal.

I have taken a few classes there and for many it was their highlight. Food is not great but it is definately entertaining. Thanks for your other suggestions. I approached Thuet last year and found them to be kind of cold and not entirely interested in our business so I wrote them off. There are far too many good restaurants available for me to waste my time on sub par service. This is one of the reasons I took my first class and several subsequent classes to Splendido. When I first approached them Yannick and David actually seemed excited about entertaining a group of culinary students. St. Lawrence with the peameal sandwiches and a honey tasting are always on the agenda, as well as the walking tour of China town and Kensington market. Fine dining aside, I think I am set on: 1. An oyster tasting 2. An Ethiopian restaurant 3. A korean restaurant, perhaps with table grills 4. A chinese restaurant (something like Chinese Traditional Buns) Still looking for more. Perhaps a good BBQ restaurant like Phil's Original.

Malpeques travel very well. If they are packaged properly they are good anywhere in the world and have a very good shelf life.

Quite the opposite. Because we are in PEI we have very little choice or variety. We have Malpeque oysters. A real oyster tasting is just not an option here.

Thanks Bueno. That is helpful. I definately do not want to travel a thousand kilometers with these students and not have them experience the best of the best. This is one of the reasons I always go back to Splendido. Rain is very high on my list. It was last year as well but I didn't make it there. I will have to give chef Rubino a call and see what he can arrange. It's amazing how accomodating even TO restaurants will be when they know a group of soon to be culinary graduates want to sit down and let the chef impress them with a budget of roughly $175 per person. I know a $3000 table might not be big for some TO restaurants but there are those who certainly appreciate it. I am starting to really like the idea of doing one full day of "fun" ethnic or tasting menus. I'm thinking of a 5 stop tour. I love the idea of the Ethiopian House for one of the stops and I'm looking at an oyster tasting at Starfish for a second stop. Other than that I'm thinking something like lunch at an Indian buffet and perhaps a korean table grill. So many options. We have so little time to pack in as much as possible for the students.

I've done Susur and Bymark before. Great places. I've never been to Monsoon but I like the look of the place and I like the menu. Let me put the question back at you. Is there a reason not to go to Monsoon?

On the Ethiopian theme, I am also considering doing a 5 restaurant ethnic tour at about $20 per person per restaurant. This would be an all day tour. Any recommendations for authentic ethnic cuisine restaurants in the city?

Out of curiosity, what was the problem with Rain? Good suggestions and I will research them all. My students are from all across Canada with a few International students. We are based in PEI at the Culinary Institute of Canada. Our budget for the 5 days in TO is around $800 per student + travel expenses. On past trips I have done Splendido, which still gets my top rating, North44, Centro, Suser, and Crush. This year I have so far listed: http://www.rainrestaurant.ca http://www.libertygroup.com/rosewater/dinner_menu.html http://www.lareserve.ca/home.html http://www.spezzo.com/main2.html http://www.branthouse.com/ http://www.monsoonrestaurant.ca/ as potential restaurants. We also do a winery tour in Niagra with a lunch. I like to take the students on at least to top end fine dining experiences and at least one "fun" food experience. Thanks for the suggestions.

The PATH is the underground walkway. It goes from Front as far as Dundas I believe.

I am taking a group of culinary students to Toronto in February. We have several high end meals planned. I am researching some restaurants and trying to put together the best package. Usually I go to Splendido for a great upscale meal and I like to take them to Bennihana for an entertaining meal. I have done Suser and North44 and Centro etc. Any suggestions on other places we could go for outstanding food and outstanding "entertaining" food? I also take them on various tours of city places: ie The Ontario Food Terminal, the Air Canada Center, Steam Whistle Brewery etc. Any suggestions on food and beverage related tours would be appreciated as well.