chefzadi

That's right, a sort of hotel style "ptit dej" at noon instead of 8am. Do you know if brunch is common outside of Paris or is it a Parisian thing? ← I have no idea. I just never looked for it. It can probably be found in more cosmolitan or touristy areas. Probably not in the Beaujolais. It doesn't fit the way we typically consume food throughout the day. I've been known to start hitting the wine on weekends before noon, but never a huge plate of food.

Anthropologist Margaret Visser (Much Depends on Dinner and several other books on the anthropology of food) divides cultures into "Parsley Cultures" and "Cilantro Cultures." Very few use both. (I fall into the cilantro-lovers camp.) ← North Africans use both. But I think that's the only example I can think of.

"consistently as possible", being the key... ← Has anyone been asking for impossible consistency? ← I think the issue of consistency has to be looked at contextually. At the chain level, extreme consistency is achieved through homegenization and catering to the lowest common denominator. At top tier places, it is achieved by having one staff member for just a few customers. Everything in between is where consistency is much more varied. I think that Faust as a would be industry professional (if I'm not mistaken he is attending culinary school) is perhaps looking too closely at some of the expressed expectations of consistency here on egullet. Even as an experienced chef I sometimes do the same thing and sometimes I find it a bit confusing. Most of my work experience has been in fine dining, upper mid to top tier. At this level consistency is justifiably expected. I have a friend in LA who has a little mom and pop French Cafe. He's not a trained chef nor did he have a lot of kitchen line experience in French restaurants, he worked as server and maitre'd. He has no pretensions of being a master French chef. His customer's know he cuts corners and does the best he can. And that it's just him and one other guy in the kitchen. Over the years he's developed a neighborhood clientele that appreciates his home cooking so they don't get upset when the steak they had last time is a bit different this time.

Perhaps it's because I'm from New York, but my attitude is, if you don't want my opinion, don't ask for it. If someone asks "Is everything alright?", there's something not entirely satisfactory, and I think it might possibly be worth being honest, I'll tell them. (If I've determined that the place is totally hopeless, I may just give up and say "Fine.") If they then demonstrate that they were insincere in asking the question, whoops -- there goes that good tip I might have given them, if it's a waiter/waitress. If it's someone higher up in management, so long and bad luck to your business. I should add that I eat out really frequently and seldom complain, and that my most common answer to "How is everything" is "Fine." But probably 99% of the time, it's a sincere answer to what I hope was a sincere question. ← Her point which I understand firsthand is that restaurant service staff ask out of basic protocal, of course no professional is surprised when someone gives a detailed response whether it's positive or critical. The question is habitual so before the question is asked deep intense thought for asking it is unlikely. It's more like if the customer has something to say we want to hear it, but we're not thinking "I really want to know what that particular customer has to say" unless of course it's a special circumstance. I also know firsthand that for Touragsand as an industry professional "just fine" is not enough. She's the one that designed the feedback cards I mentioned earlier. It gave the customers a direct line to management. It gave customers a chance to point out increments of service, consistency and quality, nuances that they might not mention verbally to a server. It was a written account for the owners/investors to see how things were going. It was also a written account of all the things that would go wrong when I wasn't there. It was something that was useful at staff meetings. It stopped a lot of backstabbing and gossip. It was also a great way to generate a mailing list (email and snail mail) so that we could annouce special events... This was a fine dining place. I wouldn't apply to the same standards to a mid range place. Because I know what those types of places have to work with in terms. I can also tell you that touaregsand is very New York in certain ways, not only because she is commonly taken for a native New Yorker by New Yorkers, but she has no problem complaining about truly awful service or quality. She has never been confronted by a chef, but she has on three occassions (not extremely bad, but made worse by dishonest and patronizing answers on the part of the server who was speaking for the chef) request that "chef come out and lie directly." She's also New York in spirit enough to know that if she complained about increments in quality, service and consistency at certain levels of restaurants in NYC, the response whether spoken or not would be "whaddya want?" Pretty much what you would get in Paris or Seoul

I know it's been in the mode for quite some time as I mentioned. I said about a decade, could be longer. I hate brunch. Too much food at the wrong hour for me. I suppose you find what you're looking for, my wife and I don't recall it being as common in France as it is in Los Angeles for instance. (There's a thread in the California forum regarding finding a place on a Saturday or Sunday that doesn't serve brunch and here we're looking for places that do) Sounds a bit like what you might get a hotel as part of a breakfast spread in France. I don't recall all the details of exactly what is served but it's along those lines. I saw pastries, butter, confiture, ham, fruit, yoghurt, etc...

The uses of chicken stock as it applies to a French restaurant. A homey mom and pop Bistro might use chicken stock for onion soup, a mid range place might use veal stock, a high end place would use beef bouillon. As for using bones. Browned bones would be used for a chicken demi-glace to serve with roast chicken. These bones are fresh, uncooked. Leftover bones from an already roasted chicken would not be used even if they were available because alot of the flavor from the bones would have leeched out into the meat during the roasting process. The whole point of a demi-glace is concentration of flavor. A chicken demi-glace can be very refined. Chicken stock in general though won't be found in French fine dining.

Now you have given a new ingredient to cook - chayote squash. I love eating chayote squash, but I can't believe I haven't cooked it for a long time. I definitely will cook something with this squash sometime this week. Thanks ← A simple Korean saute is sliced chayote squash (sometimes called Korean zucchini around here), salted shrimp and garlic. From what I've seen in this thread it can be Vietnamese as well. Yes? Or non?

It will be interesting for me to see how many places are serving brunch in France. I don't see brunch as a French thing. Maybe it was a minor trend that started a decade or so ago. But the concept doesn't fit the way we eat. Almost nothing for breakfast, a simple lunch and a big, late dinner. After being married to a Korean-American woman for 8 years, I find myself still negotiating when dinner time will be. I want to start at 8:00- 8:30 sometimes later, she wants to start around 7:00. Anyway, I can't imagine that the places serving brunch would offer a big spread comparable to what I've seen in America. So where and what for brunch in Paris?

I'll go the multiple guess route. Cucumber, chayote squash (although it looks too green to be that), watermelon rind or green papaya (I know the last two aren't vegetables).

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.

And that's a co-worker, not a customer. A customer has every reason to take that question at face value. I'm in the middle on this issue. Personally, I don't complain unless food is uncooked or burned or clearly different from the way it was described on the menu, i.e. unless it seems like there was really some kind of mistake. If a dish I liked seemed to be different all of a sudden, I might ask, "Have you changed the way you make this?" as a matter of interest, not as a complaint. (I want to know if I should order it again.) But I don't get what seems to be the idea that because chefs are professionals and their job is challenging, they shouldn't be questioned. What professional in this world has a job where his or her work is never under scrutiny from customers? And, yes, you do know more about your field than the average customer, but the customer is paying you. You're not in the business as a favor to the customer. ← I'm teaching full time now. But up untill last year I was still a working chef. I had feedback cards that had pretty detailed questions. I would look at them once a week or so. (All perfect ratings by the way *ahem* ). A single customer isn't paying my salary, not at a restaurant anyway. So in this sense a single customer is not my boss. And in extreme cases of rude or impossibly picky customers (which I've never encountered) I don't think it's reasonable for a restaurant to say, "we don't want or need your business." One customer or even a few are not going to make or break a business. Of course I want to know if something is wrong. The customer isn't dining in my restaurant as a favor either. There are expectations of quality and consistency commensurate with the price and context which a professional should be able to meet and if those aren't met well than critical feedback comes with the territory...

"These examples were extreme in that there was nothing I could have done to please them, they wanted a whipping boy , and I'll be damned if it was gonna be me, IN MY RESTAURANT." With all due respect: lose the attitude, it will lengthen your career. For many people biting into a steak and hitting a chunk of rock salt is annoying, especially if they have dentures. You may prove your point but the customer will bitch about the event to all of their friends you will lose much more than she will in the end. ← I got the impression that Timh made it clear that his examples were extreme. I can reccomend another website for industry pros that he can vent on to a more sypmathetic crowd. From what I've read on egullet, it seems the prevailing attitude here is that the customer isn't perhaps always right, but usually more right. I'm usually surprised to read extreme accounts from both sides. In all my years working in commercial kitchens I don't recall a single one. (except for this one regular who was terribly rude to the FOH, but that's another story). By the way, Timh love your sense of humour!

I always thought a tartine was initially meant to designate a spread of butter on bread and that the term had expanded to include other "spreadable" ingredients such as nutella, jam, honey etc...(thus the word "tartiner" in french which comes to designate only the act of "spreading"???) I guess one learns everyday, ← You're correct Zeitoun. The concept just got expanded, so now it's used to refer to open faced sandwiches in general.

From the article Only old money has taste? The article doesn't really say much of anything. Typical French.

It's a good model for business and alot of factors go into achieving this. I prefer this no matter which side I'm on as a diner or industry professional. Unfortunate from the point of view of some consumers, but wine selections take time to develop. The first year or so a restaurant is more focused on perfecting the food. When you're talking about very expensive wines paired with exceptional food many of the qualities are balanced on a pin head. Oddly enough though there is an ocean of opinions as to what should be on that tiny space. Unfortunate again. They seem to be offering it as an obligatory gesture that they grudgingly make motions in actualizing. Not a good policy. And if they were rude to you, it's also their way of telling you not to do it again. Apparently you understood. Agreed. You make alot of good points. But the 3-4 markup isn't going to change. It accelerates return on investment and generates profits for investors. Over the years I've worked at a few places that on the surface seemed hugely successful, but the slow return on initial investment made it tempting for some investors to cash out. I've also met a few chefs and owners who don't add this into the equation, sort of like "even if the place were packed to capacity, with maximum turns, how long will it take to get a full return on investment? Is it preferable to just let the money earn interest in a bank?" Seems so obvious. Anyway, the markup for 2 peas on a big plate should include this.

Interesting. There's a thread about BYO and corkage fees in the Wine forum. From the viewpoint of an industry professional BYO has been a non-issue throughout my career. I've never offered BYO and I don't think I missed out on any business because of it. Nor has BYO ever been pushed on me, so it's not like I've had to slam the door shut on it either. I've had customers bring wine to share with me. My markups have always been industry standard with price points geared toward the market. 3-4 times is not just a NYC thing, it's an industry standard that leans more towards 4. We all have our budgets somewhere. But the thing is in the bigger cities it's not that hard to cultivate a clientele that isn't terribly concerned with mark ups. Some customers may want to "pick apart" a $150.00 meal, but others will casually eat a $300.00 meal. Same applies to wine. I don't mean to imply that the quality shouldn't be there, of course it should. There should be value. Therein lies the rub for some. Value for money is so relative. This is what I try to offer (but I wouldn't argue with a restaurant that doesn't offer this, because it's not my business to tell someone else how to run their business). I don't go lower than industry standards for wine prices. For my food it will match or be a little more for some dishes. I don't go lower for this. Going lower doesn't increase volume or customer base like some might think. I'm talking about the upper mid/lower high end type of restaurant. I've always preferred this level as a chef. It gives me a chance to really cook and to be "cheffy" (creative, artistic) when I want to be. I can do a basic menu that keeps the regulars coming again and again. I can offer a range of dishes that people actually eat, rather than "forcing" myself to be cutting edge and innovative all the time. I love to cook, if the simple thing is the best thing, I'm not going to complicate it to get my name in the papers. I can buy more common ingredients when there's a good deal and do more classic dishes (modernized of course). I can make good stocks and soups that permeate the restaurant with the aroma of good "home" cooked food. I can also do special menus at very special prices (by that I mean carte blanche, not cheap). I can be creative when I am truly inspired to be. I can do these menus for customers who understand my approach to cuisine gastronomique and make it just for them. They feel special, I'm happy with my efforts, the results and the respect I'm given. With this model I get to be a cook and a chef with a lot of happy customers. I said earlier that it's not my business to tell someone else how to run their business. True, but I have to add that this model has proven to be a cash cow again and again. Instead of coming up with a "concept" restaurant try serving some real food and good customer service. I'm a French Chef, you won't see me opening up a Spanish restaurant because it suddenly becomes a new trend. So why is an Italian chef with no French training and very little work experience (if any) in a French restaurant opening up a French Bistro with his big fat name allover it? I'm getting off topic. As for wines as it relates to the menu my approach is the same. A good selection of entry level wines at more democratic prices. Expensive bottles purchased for special menus. This saves on investing in too much stock and it gives "special" customers a choice.

I would have never even imagined smoked paprika would be the culprit. I mean why add it in the first place? I guess I couldn't get my mind outside of a paradigmatic version of the dish which would already have a certain smoky, nutty aromatic quality to it. Oh well...

What was your family food culture when you were growing up? Burgundy/Rhone country French and North-African. Big lower, middle class family. 7 kids, papa died when I was 7 or 8. Oldest brother, who was 12 years my senior took over as the man of the family, but he died when I was 15. Was meal time important? Very important. When maman called us to the table we all came rushing and were expected to behave. Absolutely no misbehaving at the table. Was cooking important? Yes, my maman and my older sister did most of it, I was the only boy who ever helped out. I was very attached to the kitchen, beginning a young age. We didn't have a frigo, so everything was fresh. The farmer's market came weekly. It was all local and seasonal. What were the penalties for putting elbows on the table? Where else am I suppose to put them? Who cooked in the family? Answered above. Alot of Algerian cookery is slow food par excellence. I didn't know what fast food was at all untill I went to Paris for school. Were restaurant meals common, or for special occassions? We never, ever dined out when I was a kid. To this day my maman has NEVER eaten at a restaurant. Not even one that I worked at. Did children have a "kiddy table" when guests were over? No kiddy table. When did you get that first sip of wine? Sometime when in my early teens. Was there a pre-meal prayer? Not really. Was there a rotating menu (e.g., meatloaf every Thursday)? No, but the same things surfaced all the time. How much of your family culture is being replicated in your present-day family life? Not too much in terms of family culture. I'm not a strict, rigid papa at all. My wife is equally relaxed. We let our daughter choose what she wants to eat, within certain nutritional guidelines. The type of food I grew up with is replicated considerably though.

I didn't mean to imply that offering BYO makes a restaurant any "less" in any way. If I did somehow, that was not my intent or position. Using it as a selling point is dubious.

BYO has been a non-issue for me, from the point of view of an industry professional that is, not a diner. Aside from drastic measures taken in times of catastrophe (the post 9-11 example) I find it hard to believe that it is really a good marketing scheme. If a restaurant is using BYO as a selling point, well then there is lack of confidence in the other aspects of what makes a restaurant great. For customers who really care about food, wine and dining out... I suggest that developing a relationship with a restaurant, the chef and sommelier is a way to achieve maximum enjoymet. As I mentioned BYO is okay with me under special circumstances for special customers. I have never offered it, have only said yes to it, sometimes with a corkage fee, sometimes not. And if a special, regular customer were ever to abuse it, I would have no problem telling them at the end of a meal, that our "new policy" with a "new corkage" fee will be implemented the next time. Offering it in the open is something I see as a potential hornet's nest. There are so many other things I can do to bring in repeat business. Not worth the potential headache.

I like working with my hands. And my hands do show that they've been worked. I think that this personality trait is a must for professional cooks. I like to touch, my hands get "itchy" if I don't work them enough. I like trimming vegetables, especially a potato tourne. It's very relaxing and meditative for me. In the background a simmering stock...

In Algeria it's often eaten lukewarm, a little on the cooler side as Ms Wolfert describes. My preference depends on where I am. I generally like my soups/stews served hot though.

I was feeling a little saddened by Bux's first post, but this made me warm and cozy again. Thank you! ← A simple steak is a favorite meal of French chefs, even the "high end", celebrity chef type of the species.

Mark- I know there are many customers who would abuse it if it's an open policy. Which is why I reserved it for special customers who asked. Customers who abuse the policy are basically telling the restaurant that they don't want to comeback. Restaurants are not in the business of making money off of cheap one night stands. And yes, I have many ways of subtley and diplomatically informing such customers that their behaviour is unwelcome. "Freebies" and "perks" are at the discretion of the house, not something for the customer to "take". So I think a strong argument has been made for restaurants not to openly offer BYO.

ISO? In search of? I have to ask my wife.