Junior

Molto E. Thanks for the suggestions. I'll pass them along. My friend will be working at Arizona State for the athletic dept for the next year or so. I figure she have time to check out all these places. Isn't the chef from Sea Saw a Food and Wine Best New chef ?

I have a friend who will going to work at Arizona State in the sports program. She will be living in Chandler and the school is located in Tempe. So she asked if I could find out about any great places for her to eat at. Thanks for your help.

Appreiator, you answered your own question. I've worked in both hotels and restaurants and I found the best system for someone who is learning the trade to be in a hotel. Chateau Whistler has a great program for it's cooks where you spend six months in particular areas of the hotel from garde manger, the bakery, and Wildflower. It gives an exposure to every thing you need to have a solid foundation of knowledge. You will have the ability to tackle any kitchen situation. I too would be interested in knowing where and what my fellow classmates are doing these days. I am working with a fellow graduate but she went in 2001, 5 years after I did.

The Professional Cooking Program here is a year long with you going into the Apprenticeship program doing 1 more year then your final exam is the Red Seal. PICA's program was 6 months and then I was set free. The cooks that I worked with in Vancouver who were in the apprenticeship program are head an shoulders above the cooks that I have worked with here in Saskatoon. I have found that in Saskatoon having your Seal means a great deal but your education does not reflect the knowledge that you should bring (have) to your job. When I worked in Vancouver I worked at one hotel and one restaurant where the apprentice's were excellant and the program was something that the chefs (Ray Henry and Don Letendre) wanted you as a cook to do and I also worked at another hotel and restaurant where the chef's didn't care weather you were doing it or not. To me the difference's in education between the two cities is the culture of cuisine and food and how much those two things are respected by the community. My vote for someone new to cooking is to go to school VCC or PICA or whatever then get cooking for a bit. Find a chef who is willing to take you under his wing,(preferably one in a hotel) make you an apprentice, do the apprentichship program, get your seal and then expand your horizons

Just to answer Appreciator's question. I went to PICA in 96 or was it 97 ? I am still cooking. In reading Matt R's responce on the Red Seal thing. I know that if you have a Red Seal in some hotels (unionized) you will be better paid no matter what your position and in some hotels it doesn't really matter if you have the seal or not. My experience with Red Seal chef's here in the Prairies has been both good and bad. My good experience is with my current sous chef who is an excellant cook and likes to teach to anyone who is willing to listen. My bad expeience is with a new cook we have in the kitchen who has his Red Seal and is not properly educated with the fundamentals of cooking. My sous chef is self taught and learned through the school of hard knocks. Our new cook took an Professional Cooking program through SIAST (much like VCC). I myself do not have a Red Seal, I hope to challenge the exam in the spring or summer of next year. I have to agree with Matt's last responce getting a Seal shouldn't mean that you sit back but it's your opputrtunity to expand your cooking ability.

Ray Henry at Diva, gets my vote for best chef. I worked for him the year before he left on his Caribbean journey. The guy is an amazing teacher and cook. Best chef i've ever worked for. I would have to cast a vote for Frank Pabst as well, some of the best meals I had in Vancouver were at Pastis when he was there.

Merlin. Yes the Saskatoon Station Place still exists. I put in 4 months there, so help me God, I'll never set foot in another Greek run establishment in Saskatoon again. St. Tropez is still here and doing well. The downtown core is in a state of change as the city with all of it's wisdom is redeveloping a large portion of the south downtown core. So that should bring some new business for St Tropez in the future.

You can add canola, wheat, uranium, wild rice, and potash as some of the things we are world leaders in as well.

I was reading this thread the other day and was surprised to see Saskatchewan Chantrelle's on the menu. I was surprised because I did not think that one of Vancouver best chefs would be using a product that comes from my hometown and something that we in the restaurant industry very rarely see here in Saskatoon. This product is almost in our backyard (4hour drive north of Saskatoon) Northern Lights foods is the company that picks the mushrooms is also involved in wild rice production. You can find out more info on the the stuff they do at Northernlightsfoods.com

D'reen has opened a restaurant/catering place on Ave B. The building used to house Peter Phillip's Bison catering and FUDE restaurant. Yah, I would have to agree Mykonos has good Greek ribs probaley better than most. The chef there is now a part owner of the place.

Howdy Lemon Curd . Thanks for dining with us. With the exception of the BC apricots and the raw milk cheddar from Quebec, the majority of meal comes from farms around Saskatoon. The rabbit and tenderloin are all organic from Pineview in Osler and all the vegetables for the main course is from Tim who has a booth at the Farmer's Market. The photo you have from Grandora Gardens is also our tomato suppiler as well. The potato's are also from here as well and the all herbs we used are from our own herb garden in the back of the restaurant. The mushrooms come from the forests in the northern part of the province. I don't know if your Uncle told you but when you harvest canary seed it is itchy, very itchy enough that you have to cover yourself in baby powder to stop from itching. My best friend is a farmer, I think most people in Saskatchewan know at least one farmer. but I have harvested canaryseed with him. Not fun. It's too bad that had "bad" Greek ribs here. Nino's is one of the city's oldest Greek establishments. It's been around for 40 + years so Nino's is/was the place to get good Greek ribs. If you want authentic Greek ribs here's the recipe (of sorts) salt, pepper, dried oregano, chopped garlic and a lemon juice. Season your ribs, usually pork to your taste. Enjoy. (I spent 4 very long months in one of our city's numerous Greek places before landing at Calories.)

Let's see, we did the usual numbers tonite and I probaley went through about 10 - 15 towels. There are only two of us on line and we both like different towels. The other sous like's his towels rectangular and I like mine square. we have an inhouse washer/dryer, so our towels are cleaned every day and we can use as many as we want. Our boss buys the towels at the local supermarket. I usually have one that is wet all the time to clean the cutting board with, I have one stuffed on the back of my apron to clean my hands with. A couple laying on the counter for grabbing hot pans the like with.

A cook I know who is now in Vancouver has worked in three different kitchens in the past 2 - 3 months. Why three different kitchens ? All three places were not up to snuff and cut too many corners. For him the pay is not a concern but finding a place where he can learn new things and better himself as a cook is his main concern. So here is someone who wants to cook, doesn't mind the pay but feels the quality of cooking is lacking ?! Any responce to that ? He was telling me that he met a guy that is working for Feenie and the pay is not the greatest and he is working an average of 10 hours a day. Now my friend who moved to Vancouver so he could work for Feenie is now considering going to Montreal to work because he doesn't want to work that much and have no life. Missing hockey ? Heck, I've got basketball. Go Nucks !

I went to the Pacific Insitute 7 years ago. I was in the third class they ever had. To see the school now is impressive. You spend the first 3 months of the program in a teaching kitchen learning the basics and the last three months in a restaurant kitchen learning how to work in that environment. I came away with a classical foundation, a few line skills and a $10,000 debt. Oh well. Sue and Walter have worked very hard to make the school successful, when I was there I can remember Sue being at the school for hours on end and tirelessly promoting the school all the time through many functions and events around the city. I recommend the school to anyone who is interested in going to cooking school. I feel that they give you the basics and enough info for you to survive in your first job. Is it worth the money ? maybe. There are a few PICA grads that work here in Saskatoon and they are better cooks than what is produced here. I would be interested in knowing how many of my classemates are still cooking ? I don't know anything about the picketing the school, but I do know about a few lawsuits that were made against the school about lack of bang for the buck. The school won every one.

Hi. I can understand where Neil has his concerns. I don't think it's only just Vancouver, it's here in Saskatoon, where we only have a our version of VCC to rely on for cooks. The shortage of quality cooks is severe. You should be lucky with any cook who comes out of the the apprentice program in BC, here in Saskatoon, the cooks here are no way; close in a foundation of culinary knowledge or skill. I started in cooking about 7 years ago and I went to the Pacific Insitute in Vancouver. After I finished school, I looked around for work, about 40 phone calls and 2 days. I was able to find work at L'Hermitage. Being right out of school I was offered $10 an hour and I worked split shifts Tuesday to Saturday. Not much of a life. I lasted with them for little over a year when I got a line on a job at the Delta Vancouver Suites, which, when I started at the bottom of the pile, I was making about $12 an hour and I had benefits. After I left, 2.5 years later, I was up to $18 an hour. I transferred to Chateau Whistler where I started at $13 and worked an average of 10 hour days. Not a big deal, came back to Vancouver and went to work at the Wedgewood, $8 an hour and a 12 hour day with them only paying for 8. It sucked. Soon there after I came back to Saskatoon. With some connections through Delta, I was able to get on with the Bessbourgh here. They have the highest paying cooking jobs in the city. First cook, where I was at was $11. I now am making a salrary of $2000 a month and I work about 50 hours a week. I work at a local 65 seat restaurant with our small menu that changes every 30 days. The other sous chef at our restaurant has a university degree and every other day wonders why he is not doing something else that makes him more money. He is always seeing former classmates who are working a "real" job. Making "real" money and so forth. I think the only way for you to make any money in this business is to own your place. I realize the headaches and the longer hours that come with owning your business, but the chef who owns the restaurant I work in makes a pretty good living with his place. I hope to be able to do the same thing.

Thanks afn33282 for all the great info. I will be passing that info along. sadly we are not going to be going ahead with the venture, the lease agreement wasnot signed in time and was lost to another group of people. I still think that we will be looking for another spot to this idea in. News on the street is that Starbucks will be opening it's third shop in Saskatoon by fall.

Watching staff members who are standing around in full view of the customers doing nothing. Last night's dinner we had to wait for about 15 minutes before someone noticed us and then another 10 or so to get water. The waitress then pointed to the specials in the insert in the menu and asked what we were having for dinner. She also informed us that we had 10 minutes to order because there was a poet about to do a reading and the kitchen was closing. Being hospitality people, we are forever watching the time it takes for service and so forth. Another issue would be making mistakes with your order. You can't write that down ?!! and why not ?!!

The three that I have in my library inculde, George Orwell's Down and out in Paris and London, A Moveable Feast by Hemingway, and The Saucier's Apprentice by Raymond Sokolov. If you have Culinary Artistry, you could also have Becoming a Chef by Dornenburg and Page.

pam R: I have talked to Marco at Deluca Bros. They are the illy dist. for both Manitoba and Saskatchewan. If we decide to go with illy, we will be getting it from them. As for tables and chairs, I think here in North America, people expect to sit down for a coffee, so I am going to try and have a few tables and chairs or if that does not fly, I'll try for chairs at the bar. The bar is set up against the windows which are about 25 feet long and they curve around the front of the building. We'll see. We have one roaster in the city but I am not sure if they sell outside their own 3 shops, so I will have to see. We have to market very aggresively, as our location is on the edge of the downtown core. My mother in law works in the Federal building which is close to the largest set of office buildings, she eats out enough to be a gauge of how far people are willing to walk for coffee or sandwichs. We are on the edge, it's about 3-4 blocks. For our start we plan on being open only from 7 am to 6pm. The downtown core becomes a ghost town after 6.

I'm still working on the overall budget, I would like it (w/o espresso/grinder machines) to about $15,000 CDN. So we are going with no tables or chairs but with a large stand up bar area that is adjacent to the working space. I am looking at espresso machines now, as we only have one dealer in the city but he has several different makes. I like the Rancillio series and will probaley go with a S10 3 group, either semi automatic or a manual. I would like to lease the espresso machine and grinder, the lease rate is very good and is affortable for the anticapated budget. Since we are on the edge of the downtown core, I'm not sure how I'm going to figure out volumes. I hate to say it but with one customer at a time. I am going to market like crazy to attract people. We will also be selling take out sandwichs, pastries, fresh juices, and etc. I've spent some time in other coffee shops in the downtown core to gauge how busy they are so I have an idea of what our volumes could be. I think the city is ready for good espresso and coffee, there are many coffee shops here but most sell generic brands, we only got our first Starbucks here a year ago.

I saw, I guess the third episode with the mis en place cooking. I caught it at 2:30 am, so I can't remember much. It's entertaining and fun to watch. I noticed though that Todd English says very little and that Ming Tsai was doing all the talking ! I liked Myer's idea of using very different ingredients than the what you would find in most restuarant kitchen's. I liked some of the dishs especially the John Paul (?) guy with his dishs. Russell Moore's dish was way too busy, if he had plated on three different plates, it would of looked better. And Jennifer, how do you lose track on time in such a small place ? With 9 other people around you ? She deserved to get 86'ed.

I would love to fly to Italy to see what all the fuss is about. On their dime too. Ha Ha. I don't think I am in way over my head. I have opened two restuarants, one which failed but another that is still open. So I know what I am doing. That is why I am involved but what I do not know is anything about coffee bars and espresso. What I need to know is whether or not, illy espresso is the espresso for this venture. I have contaced Alistar at Elysain Room and I will probaley get in touch with the guys at cafe Artigiano. Thanks for the link.

I need some advice and a little help. I have been asked to help open a small coffee bar in an art gallery. The owners of the gallery would like a place like the two famous espresso bars in Rome. So the concept is to be focused on everything italian. The espresso we could be selling is illy. After a little reading here, it seems to me that I might find a better product than what illy has. What espresso should I also be looking at, that is Italian ? I have also been having some difficulty in finding out any info on espresso bars in Italy that I can look at or what they sell. Where else can I look ?

Honey Nut Cheerios of Honey Nut Corn Flakes with 1% milk in a bowl I got spefically made for things like cereal or Campbell's soup. I also like Granola with yogurt and fresh fruit

Last weekend's Globe and Mail review was of Thuet. You can still find on the page under the Style section. It's a good reveiw for Kates, If I lived in TO I'd go check it out. I don't know to link to the webpage.