RyuShihan

I don't want to give numbers but I will say, that if it was a fine dining signature restaurant, the national restaurant assosiation was able to pass a law a few years back where you didn't have to pay overtime for "chef" positions in very upscale restaurants. Now the term "Chef" could be any Chef de Partie, it wasn't by managing people but by giving creative input. This means you could work 70 hours a week on $23k a year and be nothing more than a lead line cook. I know for fact alot of places that use that formula. Now this is a 2 sided beast. On one side you need moer personal to run a fine dining restaurants and alot more costs. If peope are willing to work for those wages then everyone wins. My concern is what happens in a few more years when Young culinarians decide that they are not gona deal with low pay and long hours just to say you worked with said chef. This is a very possible trend given tht younger people are wanting more for less. Will fine dining restaurants mo ve to simpler foods to deal with less employees or will wages increase. ( I have heard from a few chefs with concern of having hard time finding and keeping good employees)

Good luck and I hope you the best. I will put you in our prayers at night.

I thought frenching was for the end specifically, ie removing the skin from the end . I am pretty sure its just called a lolipop when you pull the meat down into a ball.

maggie, if it was me i would go with a very hard sear on the salmon and do either a easy butter sauce ( beurre blanc), or a little harder hollandaise. My reasoning is, thats alot of items that are mushy, and a little texture contrast can go a long way. IF your bent on soy, I would shoot for some sort of acidic sauce to help cut the fat in the salmon, adding a little pineapple or vinegerete (sp).

The most important thing is being with people who support you right before you go. ITs the small things that really start to matter. On that note, a good grilled bbq chicken or steak are always a hit. Because when he gets to basic he wont have time to taste his food for a while. See what his favorites are, he will really appreaciate it....with a letter often in the mail.

Awesome movie, well worth the time to see it. I have and have seen many Chefs sniff food, without tasting it, and then just tast the final steps of production. I can normally tell if everything is right except the final salt that way. As for the ratatouuille , using parchment is a good way to keep the top from drying out. Keeps the moisture condensing on the parchment.

Places like that still have a tough time with food quality. After working in 3 different hotels I have noticed a trend unless the holtel has a great restaurant with a a great chef they sually are still sorta turn and burns which affects quality. If your food quality in flavors is better you can easily retain your customers. The idea of smoked and aged sounds great but it does not ensure that all the products on the plate will be great.

Are you talking about boiling rice, then dehydrating it..then frying it at 400 degrease so that it looks like rice crispies? or something totaly different..

Actually when I worked on the Sushi bar, we used to use the whole scallop. We would take most of the inerds out and noil them in a sake soy and ugar mixture to make a pretty cool topping for rice, then we would leave the roe and abdutor muscle and make a mayo, tobiko, siracha brulee...man was it good.

This one so far has the most amount of potential competitors. From a culinary stand point it is gonna be very curious to see how people of higher caliber compeition work under a totally different kind of pressure than that of a normal kitchen. IT's easy to say oh well they are used to pressure but from past experince TV show pressure is totally different because the producers throw very unexpected stuff at you and you can't control what the other people who want to win are doiing. That added factor takes the control out of your hands and that alone can become a twisted tale of " o-crap".

Sometimes its the pebble in the pond that causes the ripple that really makes the wave happen. To agree or disagree are nothing more than opinions but to get the mind working and make people think, that is the true genious of innovation.

As a former saucier I agree with fiftydollars, glace de viande, great for glacing any meats for that cool shine and has a nice added flavor. Also great when you want to make a sauce that has alot of ingriedients in it like say 3-4 bottles of wine or brandy.

I love this part on that link I have been quoting savarin for years, in the end if you stikc to just tradition you will never grow forward. The need to continue to grow is in the essence of all things in mankind. If we take away the given right to be creative we stop to evolve. Bruce Lee went out of the box of tradition now look at martial arts today. I am pretty sure one day in the past someone said another style of cuisine was a fad but its not the fad that matters, its the innovation to move forward. Luckily for the few, the masses do not accept things readily because its the few who go against the stream that really make the great things in life happen. "They says a handfull of people can't make a difference, when it has been a handfull to truelly make a difference." ---Some poster

You know what the biggest difference is, a critic can ruin the lively hood of a restaurant, even if it is bad. Sorta sucks if its your restaurant and you just had a turnover of chefs or workers and it was just bad timing. Or even just an off night, yet now you have a review that could stick for a while. Same goes for good review, great chef leaves and new crappy chef comes in. Yet, gets the spoils still, unless your in a place that updates regularly.

When I was their I saw 5 stages in one week but no more than 3 at a time, you would have to ask Chef Achatz for more details. Some stages stayed for 1 day some for a week, no idea how long you are supposed to saty I would assume that would be up to you and the Chef at any place. Some stages cleaned but I know in my cse I was able to plate up in different stations, but not all of the stations, guess it depends how good you get along with each individiual and how much help they need. As for Cash I was pretty much broke and friends were doing favors for me that helped, liked watching my kind while I was gone, lending me a place to stay, and I used up my Vacation time....So if you really want something you will find a way. Ironicly it lead to another great experience I can't really talk about, but in the end everything works out. as for experince level, I saw a couple guys with alot of experience and I saw a couple still in school.