The Chefs Office

Pier.....no doubt From the rocks to Rose Bay at a guess it's probably $20 in a cab? Have a great anniversary!

not i. A couple of trusted friend have been, said the food was amazing and the service was atrocious. "Sort of get em in, get em out" I believe was the comment.

http://www.quay.com.au is open on Monday nights (I think Sunday as well)

Bayswater is a favourite, a bit British but good French bases. Very friendly team, lively bar

www.raisethebar.org.au Hey there everyone, Some lovely people have been working on a project to enable Sydney to have cute little bars (like the ones in Melbourne etc). At the end of this week proposed changes to the NSW Liquor Act will be presented to parliament. These changes will attempt to make it easier for small bars (capacity under 120 ppl) to get a license. This has a huge potential to shape Sydney's drinking culture, which most of us find somewhat lacking. Check out the site www.raisethebar.org.au <http://www.raisethebar.org.au/> Created by some of the Sydney kids: Dave from Digital Eskimo, Kate from dumbofeather and a gaggle of contribs, it aims to facilitate support for the proposed changes by sending local MPs 'a drink'. Each drink then generates a letter (handy if you're not feeling incredibly articulate) to your local member. All site action (clicks, drinks/letters sent, locations etc) will be tallied and reported on daily in an attempt to rally the changes. It's a way we can easily get behind the changes without waving a sign or mooning the premier. Would really appreciate it if you could get word out about this through any avenues at your disposal. We're in the rare position of being able to change the energy of a city for the better - power to us eh?

FYI - you can't even pay people to eat roo in Australia 8+)

sadly no. www.sialchina.com and www.hofex.com http://oad.typepad.com/oa/2007/02/geoffrey_chodor.html

OK, here's a start. Any further pointers from anyone/other cities? Sydney: http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/good-living/ Toronto: http://www.thestar.com/life/food LA: http://www.latimes.com/features/food/?track=leftnav-food NYC: http://www.nytimes.com/pages/dining/index.html London: http://lifeandhealth.guardian.co.uk/food/0,,1600376,00.html and http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_...food_and_drink/ and http://www.telegraph.co.uk/wine/main.jhtml...7&targetRule=10 Dubai: http://archive.gulfnews.com/tabloid/Food/10117329.html Cape Town: http://www.capetimes.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=3195 Bangkok: http://www.bangkokpost.com/entertainment/restaurants/ Shanghai: http://www.shanghaidaily.com/article/artic...79&type=Feature Tokyo: http://www.japantimes.co.jp/life/travel_food.html#N01 Auckland: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/topic/index.cfm?c_id=304 Melbourne: http://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/epicure/ Can someone please tell me which of the London links is the best one?

not yet...but thanks, that is a great starting point. 8+)

Christopher, I can put you in touch with the right people in Dubai. Drop me an email on judd at hostec dot com dot au

**tumbleweeds**

I'm looking for a comprehensive list of web sites of newspapers that are "the" respected reviewer in their respective cities. Would greatly appreciate if you could fill in some cities for me: Sydney: http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/good-l...aurant-reviews/ London: NYC: LA: Paris: Tokyo: Hong Kong: Shanghai: Singapore: Dubai: etc etc (please feel free to add important global cuisine centres as you see fit)

Nope, just making observations. I mostly find it hard to conjure up actual opinions. I thought the train perhaps had too big a load of speculation on it, thus why I tried to give what I consider to be an un-opinionated (is that a word?) "technical" appraisal. I completely agree with your suggestion that the "one dish/restaurants are going down the tubes" approach is not a good representation. yes and no, as we agree it's not an exact science. Preferred approach is to control your variance from forecast theoretical costs to actual month end food cost. I guess it depends where you want to drive the allowances into your food costing at the business end. If the variance gap is too big for comfort at month end, you have a problem. Some schools of thought suggest allowing an "X" factor of a few percent into their costings to allow for natural variance...sort of a "cost of doing business", a bit like allowing your bartenders when cashing out to be out of balance by a set amount per shift. There are differing approaches to this. Most restaurants are just happy if their month end comes in anywhere near budget (that is..if they have a budget or even have a clue what their food cost is at all....you'd be surprised) My egullet rail pass hasn't been used much of late, business has seen me traveling loads in Europe and the Middle East. Will try to get it stamped a bit more often but with trips to Shanghai (http://www.sialchina.com/) , HK (http://www.hofex.com/) and Singapore coming up I'm sure I'll miss plenty!

OK, this train has no driver and is heading for a wreck fast. I feel the need for some "educated" comments. 1. Yes, GST should be $2.91 2. In my mind there is a question mark when it comes to the addition of GST broadly over the bread component. I have a feeling it's not supposed to be charged on bread but I think a higher power could answer that one better than me. 3. Argue of the ingredients prices all you like, for this exercise we'll assume his prices/costs are correct. 4. The cost of bread roles, olive, etc. DO have to go somewhere, they aren't free from the suppliers. Same goes for that slice of lemon in your drink, etc. It's better to work out an average cost per cover and attribute that way (food costing is a science, just not an exact one (unless everything is portioned in nice little neat packets)). 5. If his ex gst food cost on this item is %40.05 (rounded) (it is) then this would/should be one of the higher FOOD COST (%) items on his menu. If his whole menu is running at this level, soon you'll be able to pick up some cheap glassware and stoves from the mortgagee auction, no matter what a reviewer writes. 6. There are other things to think about..... *wastage *theft *shortages - your apprentice had a huge night on the Jack Daniels, when the deliveries came the next day he didn't weigh in the deliveries and you were invoiced for 500g of truffles but actually only received 200g, etc. *Skill contributes to cost - above it's mentioned that the 200g trout portion costs $6. Is this trimmed or not trimmed? Do you get consistent stock that ends up with the same trim amount? Does one guy in your kitchen have great knife skills and can cut 5 portions per fillet and another not so good and can only cut 3? *etc *etc ---all those controls need to be in place and working well to ensure there is as little as possible "variance" from the pre costed theoretical costs to the actual costs that are generated after month end and stocktake, etc. 7. All of the above is great, informative, blah blah, etc.. but THE OVER RIDING FACTOR as eluded to by Julian above is what is called menu engineering. Stay tuned now for your advanced food costing lesson. The food cost percentage of a single dish is practically irrelevant when it comes to your overall monthly food costs (unless it is the only item on your menu). You menu is constructed with some "loss leaders" or high end items that you have to have but aren't necessarily as individually profitable as some other items on the menu. That's OK, you make it back on the other more profitable items The below outlines two different scenarios. Same restaurant, same item costs, same sales prices, etc. The only thing different between the two is the "menu mix" or differing items sold based upon guests menu choices. Total number of individual items sold in both scenarios is the same (58) but you will see that the overall outcomes are wildly different. Knowing this and knowing how to use it to your advantage is why some restaurants last years and some (most) last A year. EDIT: sorry, the below looks crap when posted on this board. If maths is your thing, PM me and I'll send it more readable to you. Scenario 1 Item Cost $ell % Number sold TotCost Tot$ Toast 0.45 2.50 18 10 4.50 25 Sausage 0.80 3.00 26.6 36 28.8 108 truff lolipop 7.97 15.00 53.13 22 175.34 330 TOTALS 58 $208.64 $463 TOTAL FOOD COST %45.06 Scenario 2 Item Cost $ell % Number sold TotCost Tot$ Toast 0.45 2.50 18 36 16.20 90 Sausage 0.80 3.00 26.6 22 17.60 66 truff lolipop 7.97 15.00 53.13 10 79.70 150 TOTALS 58 $113.50 $306 TOTAL FOOD COST %37.09 In this theoretical example, that's an 8% difference to your bottom line. So...what's the point of my rambling? Simply that listing the selling price and costing of one item on your menu is a total waste of time and a major mislead. The public will most likely swallow it, just like they do the ratings....so you'll get the desired effect..... Restaurant reviews can make and break restaurants...they just break non performing and mis managed restaurants faster and easier.

www.benjaminchristie.com