JeanneCake

If it's a commercial kitchen, is there a requirement to have the kitchen under contract with a pest control service? In our state/town, it is a requirement, and we have a monthly visit from pest control. You may want to use sticky traps along the walls (our pest control guy tells us that rodents travel along the walls, but I don't know why they do that. All the "tin cat" traps are placed along the walls in our kitchen). I've seen light bulbs that act as a rodent repellent so you might want to consider leaving a light on around the entrance(s) with one of these bulbs, or as @Maison Rustique suggests, the plug-in variety of electronic ones.

Today the egg prices from distributors went through the roof, so to speak. Now that cheapest price from a distributor is $81 for 15 dz large cage free eggs. It's $95 for a 30 dz case of extra large cf eggs. I decided I'm going to buy what I can, then separate them (which is what we use the extra large ones for) and freeze the whites and yolks (with sugar) in deli containers. A friend outside of Denver says eggs are hard to find there, the markets are sold out frequently. She was able to buy a carton of 18 eggs for $11.50 over the weekend.

blackberry and passionfruit are an amazing combination, just sayin'... one scoop each, in a bowl = heaven!

When our local fishmonger closed his shop, he started a home delivery service. One of the items he has (not always) is frozen clams meant for chowder or other recipes. Maybe your local fish shop has something similar?

I want to hear the conversation in the conference room about that tag line ..... some marketing intern is in for it!

I remember an advertising jingle that was local in nature (local being New England I think) from my childhood that went: 🎵 Brown eggs are local eggs, and local eggs are fresh! 🎵 so if you're a certain age to remember that little song, maybe the subliminal message makes you reach for the brown eggs!

One of my wholesalers has 15 dz large eggs at $39.15; a 30 dz case of extra large eggs is $69.40. These are "wholesale" not consumer-retail prices and this is the lowest price I can get out of the five distributors I buy from. My NY distributor is currently charging $140 for a 30 dz extra large eggs and I haven't bought eggs from them in months. Edited to add, I'm in Boston and buy from 3 local distributors, 1 broadliner (Gordon Food Service) and one distributor out of Deer Park NY

where did the name come from? are they soft/squishy or firmer (toward caramel)? Chewy?

Food Safety News is a periodical published primarily for the food industry; and has a "bias" (if you will) toward making sure that the readers (people in the industry) are aware of potentially hazardous practices that could impact the incidence of food-borne illness. The article specifically calls out iced tea. In a great many facilities, iced tea is served from a large (gallon+ size container), especially self-serve at a buffet style restaurant. The 8 hour limit is likely referenced because you're supposed to make sure things (work prep surfaces, etc) are cleaned and sanitized AT LEAST ONCE every 8 hours. One of the health inspectors at a facility I rented from routinely checked the cleaning schedule of the ice machines because people are notorious for forgetting to clean them and that's what she was going to ding the facility for. She didn't count on the caterers being exemplary practitioners of food safety and she even commented on it! Anyway, as mentioned, as long as you're brewing the tea properly (with boiling water) and using a clean vessel to boil the water in and a clean storage vessel (to store the brewed tea in) you should be fine.

Happy Anniversary @Shelby and Ronnie! Happy New Year everyone. Looking forward to a good year ahead with all of you and some wonderful food!

Our plans didn't go in the direction I initially thought. We had lobster dip, shrimp cocktail and my husband wanted *chili* of all things so I made the Havana Moon Chili 🤷‍♀️. Right now I'm having a slice of triple chocolate mousse cake and some not-so-great Moet and making a mental note to just stick with the Veuve Clicquot from now on.

make the bars! what would you make with chocolate buttercream? Personally I'd go for all bars, they'll keep longer and you can mete them out over time to enjoy!

I can share some of my journey with you, although my road is dessert/cakes while yours is chocolate . I started 25 years ago, first exploring the possibility of a residential kitchen (not allowed back then) to sharing kitchen space (at churches or niche caterers - like a breakfast place or dinner only place). It wasn't easy, no one really wanted to share. I got lucky by picking up an order of corned beef for St Patrick's Day and went into the wrong door of a huge venue that did social events as well as having a restaurant space. As I walked through the basement of the building, following the owner, I blurted out "do you ever rent kitchen space?" and I was able to rent space there for a few years and then continued sharing various kitchens with caterers over the years until I finally got into my own space (no sharing!). Since you aren't going to do retail, I would start by looking into incubator kitchens in your area; they are much more prevalent now. All you need is a commissary space to produce your goods. There may also be businesses (caterers, country clubs, cafeterias) or churches that have space they are willing to share. You should be prepared by having your ServSafe certification (proves you know how you should behave in a kitchen LOL) and liability insurance (so the landlord doesn't get sued for something they aren't liable for). Then you'll have to get an operating permit from the Board of Health (or other agency that handles food served to the public). You could even reach out to the Health Dept and ask if they know of anyone who might be willing to share space. After you've shared space for a while (a year, two years, five years) then branch out on your own if the business has sufficiently grown to support itself. By renting/sharing space, the bulk of the expense of building/maintaining (trash collection, pest control, utilities and general maintenance) the space is not on you - which allows you to focus on your product and building a market share. Figure out what your core product(s) will be and build from there. That will help you figure out your equipment needs as well as packaging. keep it simple. Don't try to offer 100 different things. Do your homework about how much you need to sell in order to pay your bills and yourself. Take your time, don't rush into anything. Go to the eG chocolate workshop - what you learn there will be worth it's weight in gold. And, take us along for the adventure! (by posting your journey)

I hadn't thought about what to make for NYE. Our Christmas dinner was mostly a hit, but I was looking forward to roast beef and that was a bit of a disappointment - I bought a boneless rib roast but a small one (3.5 pounds) from a local butcher shop. It was cooked perfectly but when I went to cut it, it had a huge swath of silverskin and fat in the middle that was impossible to cut through. I ended up separating the "lobes" to serve. We also had a stuffed pork roast that was excellent, roasted cauliflower, brussels sprouts and mashed potatoes. So, inspired by this thread, I'm thinking an appetizer night - we can toast @Maison Rustique from afar! and have a lot of different things to graze on during the evening. Right now I'm thinking chicken wings and lobster dip (I have a recipe from long ago: 1 TBL gelatin, 1 can tomato soup, 1 # cooked lobster meat, 3/4 cup finely chopped celery, 3/4 cup finely chopped onion, 1 cup mayo, 8 oz cream cheese. Soften the gelatin in 1/4 cup cold water. Heat the soup, add the cream cheese and blend it in. Stir in the gelatin; make sure it's completely smooth. Combine the mayo, onion and celery then add the soup. Then add the lobster meat, scale it into a mold or bowl or what have you. It makes a lot and disappears quickly. I like it better when the celery is well minced so it practically disappears.) Maybe some spinach artichoke dip.... baked brie with something on it, maybe a pepper jelly?... I should go to the grocery store tomorrow...

one of the recipes is a Pear and Caramel Moffa - it's a cake, with caramelized pears for garnish. For almond and caramel whipped ganache: soy milk, invert sugar, caramel from cooking pears in it (the pear is used as garnish), white almond butter, cocoa butter, margarine, oat milk. He also has a flan mix (that I'm thinking to use to fill a vegan tart shell that I can get from AUI) and it has light brown sugar, potato starch, agar, (you mix all that together) then add oat milk, soy milk and bring it to a boil then add the, almond butter and deodorized coconut oil then blitz it to smooth out then you fill tart shells and bake for 5 minutes.