chefzadi

Thank you hazardnc for posting your photos and relaying your experiences. My mother served berkoukes (maghrebyaya) with either a vegetable sauce or a slow cooked lamb ragout. But your preparation has inspired to come up with a version for home and another for a restaurant.

I'd like to thank Bux for posting the links to other threads on Lyon. I read each one with delight and I looked up the websites to as many restaurants as I could find. Somethings never change! The old chefs are still there, in some of the restaurants even the FOH staff hasn't changed much, alot of menus are exactly the same ones I prepared when I was training as a young man.

Chef Corelli- I find myself eagerly anticipating your responses. Your wife's writing style is so lyrical and warm. They are like honey on my computer screen. Again your honesty and insightfullness cannot be mentioned enough. Your accounts resonate deeply inside me on a personal and professional level. I would love it if you wrote an autobiography or a collection essays. I would tell all my students to read it as a shining example of what a great Chef is, does and understands about food as well as "the business." Your expansive, detailed knowledge can only from years and years of real life experience. I agree about being behind in marketing. Even Spanish and French chefs have a long way to go before we catch up with American chefs.

Katia, I would say that Chef Corelli pretty much hit the nail on the head with everything he's said in his post. His words don't just apply only to his experiences. Alot of it applies to the business in general. It's a very insightful and honest account of what a Chef of a particular calibur goes through. I'm loving every word of it!

Sounds more like lyonaise gratin ← It is.

Chef Corelli, Thank you, merci, grazie. You're accounts are so true. Especially after hearing what you have to say I can't wait to taste your cooking. It would also be my pleasure to cook for you (the offer is a most humble one).

I have to read the rules of play here first before answering your question. It might take me years to do this. I'm not kidding. Although I could answer your question on the spot if you asked me face to face.

Welcome Chef Corelli, I don't really have any questions for you yet. I am writing to simply express my appreciation of Italian cookery and your approach to terroir based cusine (I'm sorry I don't know the Italian word for it). I'm a French Chef and a native of Lyon. Which is an area of France especially reknowned for it's terroir based cuisine. I have been to Italy, unfortunately it was before you opened your restaurant. I was very impressed with the overall quality of the food in Italy. The freshness, the care with preparations, the simplicity. Especially the simplicity. The simple thing such as fresh earthy mushroom, fruity olive oil and a little aged cheese. This is where my heart lies in cuisine. And I thank you for continuing and elevating terroir based cuisine.

I don't recall ever seeing veal shanks on the retail level here in Los Angeles. If you really want them, I suggest going to a wholesale meat seller. I don't know of any in your area though. Yellowpages.

No salt.

I think the that too many recipes call for the uneccesary use of stocks. Some recipes even suggest or imply that stock, wine or water be used interchangeably. My idea of a simple carrot soup is that it should heighten the characteristics of a carrot and not be masked by a cloying chicken stock. In a commercial kitchen I don't use white chicken stock. I make a rich chicken demi-glace to serve with roast chicken. Some chefs use brown chicken stock for their Onion soup. I make mine with a beef bouillon. The beef bouillon makes for a more delicate and elegant finished product. As a general guide, stocks should be used to heighten the flavors of other ingredients. Think of them as essences. I've even read recipes calling for the addition of stock to tomato sauce. Tomato sauce should like tomatoes not chicken or veal. For richer flavor slow roast the tomatoes first, don't add stock.

Hans is now in the semi finals. Please vote for him. He is a great chef and a man of rich character. His wife is a folk artist and together they have an artist's collective. His dad was an East German soldier who dropped his weapon one day, ran towards the Berlin Wall and made it over! Hans is eccentric, quirky, intelligent, well read, articulate, poetic, gracious, kind.... I'm not very good at promotion, am I? I certainly wouldn't try to get a job as campaign manager or a publicist. Anyway, if you have a couple of minutes visit the website and click a vote for Hans. If you have a few more minutes urge others to vote for him as well. Thank you for your time!

In France, even at the level of Haute Cuisine, I was trained to cook a steak according to the customers specifications and to accomodate special requests. Perhaps I was trained this way because there exists an underlying cultural tendency for customers to NOT dictate to the chef. And the customer understands that certain kinds of restaurants serve certain kinds of dishes. In France even at a cheap neighborhood Brasserie if you are served a cup of espresso that isn't up to par it is an unwritten rulle that they have to replace it with one that is. Needless to say we don't advertise this to tourists. It is also understood that if a customer complains about a well executed product there will be trouble...

i am looking for general principles of cutting costs and raising profit margins. edited to add: if it is not about butchery, then I think we should take it up a fresh topic elsewhere? ← You should learn the general principles in school. Without a specific type of restaurant in mind my answers would be too broad. hence redundent. As for butchery. In closing I'd like to mention Carcass pluss the cost of in house labor and storage equals the finished cost of product.

Before I answer I should ask you what type of restaurant you are interested in working in or opening. Fine dining? Casual? What type of cuisine? Also most people consider being knowledgeable and having pratical experience to be marketable.

RE: i'd also like to add that there are folks who are recovering anorexics, recovering bullemics and the like with food issues. i don't think this should preclude them from a good meal in a healthy environment, and with healthy associations (friends, etc.) _______________________________________________________________________ Absolutely and such a persons have the absolute right to choose a healthy envrionment. My French menu is clearly not for them. And thank God they have so many other places to choose from. If you want organic produce go to Whole Foods Market, not Safeway. If you're a petite woman don't shop at the Big Beautiful woman store. If you're strictly Kosher don't go to Lee's Pork bar que. If you don't like garlic and peppers don't go to a Korean restaurant.. At a certain point common sense and manners should kick in. You can't everything you want everywhere you go.

It seems that there is no consensus here on what constitutes "compromise." As professionals and consumers we all make individual choices. The seared ahi tuna is a good example. My Korean born wife grew up eating sashimi and sushi. Her parents took her on several culinary tours of South Korea. She prefers her sashimi slighltly chilled. For her seared ahi tuna is a sort of "mock" sashimi dish that ruins perfectly great fish. The warm/room temperature mostly raw fish doesn't appeal to her at all. That's not to say that ALL experienced sushi lovers feel this way. SHE does. A lot of Mediterranean preparations for tuna are in fact well done. There are also slow cooked braised versions. I prefer my tuna pretty much cooked and yes if prepared properly it can still be moist. Needless to say my wife and I don't order seared ahi tuna. I had a customer who liked his filet mignon completely charred, almost burnt on the outside but the inside totally raw. So I would jack up the flame on the grill and make it that way for him. He came to the restaurant every week like clockwork. I wouldn't eat it this way. But it's none of my business how he eats his.

Good idea - I will try that. Before I make an ass of myself at the halal, could someone help me with the pronunciation? ← You saw the long list of different names for the maghribiyaya? Even the spelling variations? Also at the Halal market they might not even speak much Arabic. Anyway, maghribyaya is actually pretty easy. You can pronounce all the vowels "short". But in different Arabic dialects this varies as well.

Let me know if you find another variety at the Halal market. I have not been able to find maghribiyya in Los Angeles. Also, I've not tried Israeli cousous, but you are probably aware I recommend steaming the finer versions of so called "instant" couscous. So why not prepare a small portion of your instant Israeli couscous according to the package directions and if the result is too dry, try steaming them.

I've used it with potatoes in a gratin. I find celery root to be a bit strong on its own. ← You can blanch the celery root to soften the flavor.

Your method makes for a very nice presentation and a consistent finished product. I prefer to make a simple rustic version at home. A cultural difference I'm noticing comes from the many posts that include cheese in gratins. I usually have a cheese course before my dessert. So I don't add cheese to my gratins. I would just get too cheesed out.

Quote from Cliffordwright on Algerian couscous and Israeli couscous. "Algerians also have different names for different couscous dishes such as bufawar or burkukis, a little semolina ball that’s actually a large couscous and which is identical to muhammas, maghribiyya, and the so-called Israeli couscous (which is not Israeli, but a marketing name made up by an Israeli firm)." Note maghribiyaya.

Most of my work experience has been in fine dining and some Haute Cuisine. In the 16 years I've worked in restaurants I really don't recall too many extreme requests. A knowledgable FOH can really be a buffer for this type of thing. If a customer is requesting so many substitutions on a dish a server can suggest and "convince" the customer to try something else. I'm sure some of the chefs in here have had servers who seem to encourage special requests (bigger tips?). Also I've found that if I really can't or don't want to accomodate a special request a little diplomacy goes a long way in keeping the customer happy, mostly along the lines of "I really want to make something special for you, how about this?" There are ways for a chef to protect his kitchen staff from getting slammed and to exert "authority" over his "creations" without alienating a customer. I can only recall one customer who wore out his welcome. Mostly he harassed the FOH, berated them. Complained about everything. When I was made aware of this I told him that I was so terribly sorry that we did not meet his standards and reccomended a few other places that might be more suitable for his tastes. He still came back, still complained but considerably less, so he became bearable for the FOH. Two of the most idiotic complaints I heard were "This gastrique isn't saucey enough." Another one from a Spanish customer I had in Korea "Your Paella was great, but the ones I've had in Valencia, Spain are much better. There was something missing. It just wasn't authentic tasting enough." The man wants authentic tasting Spanish paella in Korea? I suppose my point with all this is that there are just some folks who complain about anything they can. We're in a service industry. In most cases a little diplomacy on the part of the FOH or Chef goes a long way.

Good idea to put Potatoes Dauphinois on the menu. It's always a customer favorite. Robuchon makes his mashed potatoes a la minute for the texture. Pre mashed potatoes can get gummy. But he has a pretty good sized kitchen staff.

Are you trying to cut costs in a commercial kitchen or a home kitchen? ← ← I figured it was for a commercial kitchen, but I wanted a confirmation before I put in my tuppence. First of all, it's a good thing that you are already thinking about costs. As I mentioned butchering was not a skill that I ever used as a cook/chef but my knowledge of cuts did come in handy when I was working in South Korea. I had to explain to the local butcher how to do French cuts. I've also worked in France, The U.K and the States. You never know where your career trajectory will take you. I don't think that butchering your own meat is an efficient way of cutting costs in a commercial kitchen. It takes up too much precious kitchen and storage space. Even if you just get a portion of the carcass it's still a very labor and time intensive process. Even if you are lucky enough to have a huge commercial kitchen with ample cold storage, in all likelyhood you will have parts of the animal that sell out quickly and other parts that no one ever wants. There are also possible health code issues that need to be considered. There are other ways to lower costs and raise profit margins. Which I would be more than happy to explain in further detail if anyone is interested.