RETREVR

I never get them to break on the grid. I did one just yesterday. I suppose I could spend the time and heat up a knife (carefull, you can screw up the temper on the knife). Or use a saw or something. You might post this over in the pastry forum.

Use a pastry tip without cleaning it myself. Today I had a very limited amout of creme fraiche to pipe onto canepes for a party. I put it into the pastry bag with a fine star tip and proceeded to pipe-out blue creme. It looked lovely with the salmon.

Never considered a recipe. Part out chicken.......ice water.........flour.....skillet.....belly. Actually I think the brookville may use condensed milk. This is an institution: http://www.brookvillehotel.com/articles.htm This is a close second: http://www.restauranteur.com/juniper/ God bless fly-over country. If you really want to get your groov on....use oleo for the fat.

I really like millet and milo. I prefer them in the form of wild pheasant. I used to have a menu item that quinoa and amaranth. Not a big seller but it was good.

I don't claim to be a culinary historian...But. I imagine that the tourne first came into use when freshness of vegitables was not what we know it as today. So what do you do with a vegetable that has been around a little too long? You tourne the muck off of it and serve it. The tourne was probably borne of conservation of marginal vegetables, as opposed to the waste of fresh vegetables. I can't say that I like or dislike them on a menu. It is all context. They can be precious with one dish on occaision, and pretentious with other dishes. As for seven sides...odd numbers seem to apear more natural for presentations. Even numbered sides would appear contrived, oddly enough the contrivance is to use seven as to not appear contrived. Leave it to the French. If their food couldn't taste better than the Italian's, then perhaps they would try to make it look better.

No, having a big chef embarrass me isn't going to make me any happier about the situation. If Brad Pitt grabs my breast he's going to get the same slap as if a co-worker did the same. ← We had not a defensive chef at Daniel, but a defensive sommelier. My father is not a wine schlump like me - he knows his stuff, has a collection of several thousand bottles, buys wine futures, etc. He orders a wine he's been dying to try at Daniel - but when we get it, the cork is soaked all the way through and the wine is brown. Even me, the wine schlump, thinks that it doesn't look right. My dad points this out to the sommelier and asks for a new bottle of the same stuff, figuring that since the cork was soaked through, the wine got bad, but that a new bottle wouldn't necessarily have the same problem. The sommelier tasted the wine, said that it was fine, and refused to bring another bottle of the same wine, and basically insinuated that my dad was some sort of Neanderthal that didn't know good wine from bad. Even if that were true, and the sommelier didn't want to waste another bottle on what he perceived as a wine schlump, couldn't he have just said "oh, that's our last bottle - can I recommend something else?" Instead, he chose to be a snotty asshole. My poor dad was so embarrassed - it ruined the rest of the meal for us. I don't care how good Daniel is, I'll never go back there. ← So, was the wine bad? What was the vintage?

I have not heard of stratification. The example seems as if it would make a nice sauce, but I wonder if the scientific theory is completely correct. Or, that it is not much different than other reductions that contain cream, stock, and acid. It just seems that in such sauces, there is always a bonding of the the three acompanied with evaporation. Does the sauce share more in common with an emulsified sauce like a buerre blanc or hollandaise? Or am I missing something?

Concerning word of mouth... Every group of friends has at least one person that will not be happy no matter what. You treat people in context. If someone comes in and has a complaint, you handle it. If that person is unreasonable, you are doing yourself and the other paying customers a disservice by allocating all your resources to someone that will not be happy no matter what you do for them. One of our friends has a wife that is a total bitch. There is no way to please her. When she tells us that a restaurant sucks, we know her opinion has no cred. She will fall in love with a restaurant if the server, busboy, manager, chef, all have no spine, even if the food and service sucks. She basically enjoys going out to be rude to the staff. These restaurants run around in circles for her. The first time a server refuses an unreasonable request......"this restaurant sucks". I once saw her ask the server which pastas they had prepared. Out of the five shapes, none of them where suitable. You see, she wanted a half order of the spaghetti and meatballs, but wanted linguini instead of spaghetti. I have an old freind that complains about the food no matter what. Litteraly, every time we go out to eat, he will complain about the food. He is not really a food snob, he will never send anything back to the kitchen, and he will genuinly enjoy his meal. He gets his meal comped 50% of the time. The comp can encourage problems, and should be used sparingly. A restaurant that has a loose policy of comping food will have a much higher rate of complaints than one that handles complaints case by case. You have to be reasonable with customers. Sometimes a customer will not be reasonable with you. Of those times, sometimes you have to bend, sometimes you don't. Of those times that you have to be strict, sometimes the customer will come around and be reasonable, sometimes they won't. Bad customers can make for a very unpleasant dining room. There are two sides to every story. Every time I tell a story, I portray myself as completely justified and in the right. I would be interested to hear the same story from the other point of view. I am not saying that Randi did something wrong or is impossible to please, but there is always another perspective that may or may not shed light on why the situation was handled the way it was.

I think one of the big problems today is the way many menus are written. Some chefs will basically list the ingredients in the dish with region of origin, or even the farm they come from. One dish may have a twenty word description including all the engredients, but leave you wondering what the dammed thing is. The description will sound like you would be getting a platter of groceries. When the plate comes , it is a dish the size of a credit card. I was looking at a menu for a Cakebread tasting at the Broadmoor coming up. Looks like a great menu but it is way too descriptive In both ingredients and presentation. There is nothing left to the imagination. The duck could simply be called "Duck Confit" , Or "wild berried duck confit". Instead the item is called "Duck confit on wild berryfrench toast of brioche with wild berries and a red wine demi-glace reduction and melange of vegitables and a sprig of rosemary on top. Nothing left to the imagination there, but nobody would order it expectiong something completely different either.

Maybe we should move you to the "defensive chefs" forum. ← I'm allready there.

Yep, another one of those "restaurants don't know what they are doing" threads. Most vegitables should have a certain amount of tooth to them. If you like yours softer, please tell your server when you order. Is it that difficult or should the chef be able to exert mental telepathy to determine that table 16 likes their veggies over cooked? There are also a plethora of all you can eat buffets that can accomodate those who like mushy veggies. In fact, I once won a twenty dollar bet for chocking down an entire monkey dish of broccoli at Furrs. If you don't like seared tuna, don't order it, or tell your server how you want it cooked. Problem solved. It is like going to a sushi bar and complaining that the fish is underdone. Or it is like going to a Porsche dealer and complaining that they don't sell mini vans. I was serving seared tuna ten years ago, and sold out of it almost every night. Someone likes it. If you like your pork well....order it that way. Are you seeing a trend here? You are the customer. Tell the server what you want. In most cases, you will be accomodated. If you have to change the preperation of every item on the menu, there is a chance that you are in the wrong restaurant to begin with. By the way, I can't believe that there would be someone with "Chef" in their name that would be shocked by raw eggs. They have been serving runny eggs in every diner in America for how long. Raw eggs are not a trend. They are tradition from the greasy spoon to the fine restaurant.

Well SWISS CHEF, Your reduction sounds like it is very ballanced and profesional, I have quite a few reductions I like to make for different things, red wine & shallot for Beef, Basimic for Calfs Liver, Casis for wild duck, Brandy & cracked black pepper for pepperd fillet steak and so on. It is my dark stock that I use for these reductions that I am proud of though. I place equal amounts of veal shin, skinned duck necks and chicken legs ( I do not roast or colour these) in a large stock pot with cold water then bring it up to the barest simmer then I skim the first impurities and foam off the top and add my raw carrot, onion, leek, garlic and four plum tomatoes that I squash a bit in my hands before putting them in. I cook this on the lowest of heats skimming from time to time for a day, Then I strain the stock add a bottle of red wine and reduce it down till I am left with a liter of the stuff. Its very nicely balanced and is much nicer than a stock made with roasted bones, even though it is a perfect dark viscus sheany brown. ← Sounds good to me. Do you ever have problems with the garlic?

I have never really used beef stocks for reductions. They can be great for soups. Here is another one I did recently at home without stock. Sear a couple of pork tenderloins and finish in the oven. Remove from pan with drippings to rest. Add shallot or minced onion. Deglaze with dark rum. Add drippings. Add a touch of grade B maple syrup. Reduce. Dollop of home made peach preserve. Swirls of butter(really doesn't need it). Plate. I have made a rub for pork loin with tequila lime and brown sugar. Roast off the loin. When it is about 20 minutes from done(I know, that can be hard to surmise) Pull it out and rub it down. Pop it back in the oven at high temp. When it comes out, you can rest the loin and make a pan sauce out of the drippings(and a little stock if need be). Very good. Durring the holidays I roasted a pork loin stuffed with cranberry , cassis, and carmelized onions. I had some granny smith apples with me for garnish. The cliet and I snacked on the apples before the guests arrived and he commented that he loves granny smith apples. I decided to improv a sauce for the pork. I sauted slices of the apples in shallots and butter, deglazed with white wine and reduced a little medium demi with it. Supurb. I really need to get my head checked...I seem to be cooking a lot of pork and fruit. One of the basic ones I used a lot was to sear tournedos. Add shitake and shallot. Deglaze with madeira. Add demi. Reduce. Swirl butter(again if needed or wanted...if not, just reduce to consistency) Really what it comes down to are good stock...usually reduced already, an aromatic (shallot and or herbs), the apropriate deglazing liquid (usually alcohol, but doesn't have to be), and an appropriate garnish (mushrooms, veggies, fruits, nuts....) Out of these basic components, an endless selection can be composed. I have used cream, but do so less and less. It is a shame to carefully reduce a stock and then muddy it with cream. There are some dishes that just have to have it, but many don't. I am strting to feel the same way about butter. Butter can richen, thicken and enhance a sauce without stepping all over it like cream is likely to do.

I would think you would steer clear of red wine vinegar for color reasons. White would probably be adequate, but perhaps cider or sherry would work. Pure speculation. You might experiment with lemon or lime instead...although citris acids can do unintended things to cream.

I can't say I have a favorite, because most of them are related and it comes down to tweeking them to fit the particular dish. One that sticks in my mind was for a wild pheasant breast that was particularly good. I seared the breast, finished it in the oven. Removed to rest. Added shallots. I forget what I deglazed with...might have just been white wine. Add a medium demi. Reduce. Add a dolop of homeade crabapple jelly. Swirl of butter, and plate. Killer good.

Really? he sounded quite confrontational to me, hmmmm ← Confrontational with those extreme customers yes. But I didn't get the impression that that's his usual style. Maybe, I'm used to all the jokes about French chefs. ← Greetings Chefs, et al I'll work like crazy to make the guest happy, and take constructive, knowledgeable criticisms seriously and thoughtfully. But when there's nothing you can do, what then? Give away the store? I lilke to think I approach these seldom occurances with a sense of humor(to me?). On the flip side, still in N.O., my girlfriend(now wife) and I were celebrating my taking over the kitchen(someone elses downfall nonethe less) at Bayona and after a great meal and alot of wine, we aparently were having too much fun. So a desert comes from the kitchen, a chocolate something, but written in chocolate across the bottom half of the rim, "GO HOME!" Tim ← "go home" That was probably a toned-down way of saying "get a room" I have seen frustrated cooks write nasty things in the creme anglais while painting plates. Just make sure it gets swirled before it leaves the kitchen.

Ok now that we are disecting this. "She apologized and said that next time her husband would make them for me and I said, that's ok, I would probably just order something else." Ok, the owner tried to solve the problem right there. You declined. The owner was probably offended that she had extended a solution and an offer for special treatment. Your reply was basically "thanks but no thanks". She then went to kitchen to see what went wrong. That is were it turned for the worse. You, in diferent words, have said that you think their intentions were honorable but they just came across wrong. If that is the case, get over it. Sometimes the more you do to try to please someone, the more imposible it becomes to please them. Can you imagine if they have read this post? How petty would all of this sound? They would be thinking, " We do our best, but maybe the cakes were different. I offer to have my husband cook for her personaly and that is not good enough. I offer her my chef to show her that we take her concerns seriously. None of this is satisfactory? I even comp'ed a peice of cheese cake. Then she has to post not once but twice in order to discuss what a bunch of baffoons we are?" They tried to extend a courtesy. You can now choose to never go back, or you can return the courtesy and go back for another meal.

Here is a story that is a little off topic but is an example of things gone bad. This happened at a restaurant I worked at long after I had left. A couple had waited for ever (there was always an hour wait...no reservations) and had been passed up on the list. They finally got a table and had terrible service. It was one of those deals where everything went wrong. They left no tip and paid by check. The waiter copied their phone number from the check. After getting hammered at the bar that night, the waiter called the customer to tell them to pound sand. The customer did not answer. That did not stop the waiter from leaving a rant on their answering machine. There was nothing annonymous about it. The customer not only played the tape for the restaurant owner but played the tape for the local radio restaurant show. Talk about stepping in it. We were dicussing this one night at a bar and it turns out I knew the customer. Another time "at band camp" The floor manager came back and told me that a table had been waiting a long time to be seated and that they were good customers and to give their table extra attention. I asked who was handling the table so I could get on the same page. After a few minutes I had not seen a ticket come back for apps so I went out and found the waiter. He told me that they were going straight to the meal to save time. I asked him when the ticket would come back and got a blank stare in response. I then asked him how long ago he took the order. He said that they were almost done with their salads. I then told him to give me the notes and to enter the ticket into the computer later. Another blank stare. "Did you write down the order?"....."No". Ok, I'm not in a panic yet. Jim....what did they order. Blank stare. Now my pulse is beggining to rise a little. I said, "Jim, you have one minute to get that order into the computer". (At this point I wanted it on paper so if their was any question, it would be documented that the kitchen prepared what was ordered). Jim finally remembered the order, we rushed it out and everything was fine. Just another night.

RETREVR, In response, the funny thing about crab cakes - is that they always sound so appealing to me, but the past few years I have always been disappointed. So when I tasted my friend's crab cakes last week and they were *amazing* I was quite excited, and looked forward to ordering them when I returned. As for what I was drinking - WATER. Yup. The place is a BYOB and we brought nothing. One factor I have wrestled with (surrre, now she tells us)...is the fact that often when I can only have a taste of something, it seems much more appealing than the plateful of whatever it is I have in front of me. However, in my own defense here - I did have a full half of my friend's crab cake last week, it truly was more than a taste. And it had a distinctive cracked-black-peppery kick to it and loads of crab. Perhaps I got a particularly crabby one (I am sure they vary quite a bit) but the ones I received this week were overly salty and lacking the delicious peppery kick. And no, my friend did not pepper them before I ate them. ← Sounds pretty simple. They used fresh cracked pepper in the first batch, and regular ground pepper in the second. Seen it before. I have also found that if one thing is "off" on a dish or a meal, it can heighten critical response in the diner. That makes things tricky. For instance, if the potatoe is cold, the diner then looks for something wrong with the steak. I am not saying this was the case, but it does happen. This is the tightrope of the food business. You are only as good as your worst component. Here is what will make you feel better. Tomorow, get some zuccini and grate it up and make some cakes.

Ok I'll flat out ask What were you drinking the first time you tried the cakes? What were you drinking the second time you tried the cakes?

All of this for crabcakes? (searching for more emoticons) EDIT: not just for crabcakes... ← Records showing quantity of each ingredient consumed..... If anyone here has never been in a kitchen, it would be a real eye opener for them to spend and evening in a busy kitchen. All the the owner had to do is smile, assure you that she would check into the matter with the chef give you a bowl of ice cream. End of story. I am still curious as to if the beverages where the same on each visit. Wine or cocktail selection can make the same dish taste like night and day.

A good way to assure yourself poor service is to use this phrase: "Can you direct me to your best, half bottle of wine" Not saying it is right. Just saying it is true.

First of all, the owner dropped the ball. It is the job of the front of the house manager to controll these matters. She could have prevented the chef from comming out. She could have presented you with an uncooked cake, showed it to you and let you take it home. She could have waited to tell the chef of the critique and simply comped a dessert. There are many ways this could have been handled. Bottom line....the owner screwed up. To be honest with you, I could go the rest of my life without seeing another crab cake. Everybody is an expert on them. Everybody has a secret or better recipe. Especially people from the east coast. From a chefs perspective, you take an engredient that is extremely expensive, sell it for less than your usual percentage and get to listen to people spout about their dead grandmas recipe form maryland. You have to use something to hold the crab together. Some use only mayo. Then it doesn't tast like crab, so people season it. Crab cakes suck. Face it, a fifty cent potato cake is as good if not better than a ten dollar crab cake. Heres my secret recipe: FORGET THE CRAB....it is over rated. Use potatoes, or zuccini, or salmon, or even cod. This is even better...use rissotto. On a serious note....What were you drinking each time?

I never make meatballs in a mixer....and I have made some pretty big batches. To mix all the ingredients properly, you will overwork the meat. It will become stringy and tough. I can take one bite of a meatball and tell if it has been in a mixer. It is the most comon mistake when making meatballs.

There is no "one" cuisine. Even within a houshold, people prepare things differently. I am sure some people do use lemon. It makes no sense to me though. Most tomato sauces need to be adjusted because they are too acidic. Adding lemon juice would likely add acidity without adding a lemon flavor. If you wanted to add lemon flavor without the acidity, you could add zest. There is no reason in my book to add juice to a big pot of marinara. Pan sauces are different. Sure I have used diced tomato in a fish sauce and added lemon. For instance: A pan seared fish with a lemon basil butter sauce that has diced tomato thrown in. I use my marinara as a mother sauce to derive many other dishes. For instance: Mussels marinara. I would use my marinara wine, garlic, butter, and herb elements. Zest would be welcome, but probably not juice, unless the marinara was frightfully flat. Bottom line is: Give the sauce what it needs. To this point, I have not needed lemon in my base marinara.