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.

latter in that recipe it says to add butter that will thicken it a bit. For scallops: Bring cider reduction to simmer. Whisk in 5 tablespoons butter, 1 tablespoon at a time. Keep warm

Interesting I thought you said it was a applecider marscapone sauce, yet in your last post i see no mention of marscapone, do you not add the reduction to the marscapone to form the sauce??

Usually when I do fondue I make really thin strips, in which case tenderness is only slightly inportant. I would shoot for the more flavorfull pieces of meat because when in thin strips like a stir fry thinckness or thinner even it will get a natural softness. This allows you to shoot for more flavor. I would say blade, but dont be shy of a roast either, stay away from areass with tendons or silverskin. Sauces would be determined by the decision of other dishes. Many great ideas could go Asian theamed or South American or tradition French. Many of the posters had great ideas for sauces.

not so much an improvement but just other options. If you prefer not to use the duxelle, try some scallop and shrimp mousse. I usually put it in the middle of 2 slabs of salmon with some good herbs that match sorta like dill. I personally also prefer to just buy the puff pastry.

Drunken fish if you like Sushi, not best but great atmosphere. Vodkabar for a leisurly time afterwards. Chase park plaze, try their bistro, tell Chef Mary Ann Matthew recoomended you. too add to the others.

I order some wines from on-line wine auctions, not sure if that is affected by any laws in Indy or if it might be considered something else...Worth looking into at least.

Hey, how are you MA, was just talking ot ming about you and Shane mentioned you gys were at the wine thingy this year, once things settle down I will drop you a line, show you some pictures of me trying to play with sodium alginate and stuff. Ronnie: I am at the Ritz in St. Louis I work in Banquets currently, prolly for another year, I will have been here 3 years come Jan. Then I am not sure what is next. As far as trying to get a stage try sending a resume and a nice cover letter, only sure way not to get one, is by not trying. Sometimes it pays to try as many times as possible.

Well, day 4 and 5 wasn't very different and nothing exciting to say altho I learned one of the Sous Chefs was leaving to head back to Texas and Alex was heading to NY. One stage left another two came. I was finding it hard to keep busy because of all of the stages, so I made an executive decision to cut my vacation time short and head back home. I made one mistake, I prolly should have told Chef Achatz goodbye but as the night was getting late I was in a hurry to attempt to call my Wife in Indy to see if she could pick me up in Chi and head back to St. Louis. I sorta figured since I was just another stage I wouldn't even be noticed. Lo and behold I was wrong. I actaully got an e-mail from Chef Acjatz inquring why I left so early and with out saying goodbye. Unfortunatly a few different personal things helped me make my decision to leave early. So this is my personal, "I am sorry for not saying goodbye." and a Thank you for your hospitality and the great experiance that I will take with me as I grow into a Chef one day. Matthew Leeper

Now the third day was interesting on a few different scales. At first two of the stages came in early because of a supposes produce truck. Cef Alex, the Pastry chef at the time, was there to unload and the idea was that it would be easier since there was of us. We also had a good nice size prep list. Well Murphies Law kicks in and the produce truck doesn't show up on time, in fact it doesn't show up till a little after everyone else arrives. The majority of the prep was plausible to finish but in my case I couldn't finish the orange segments. Since the truck did not arrive on time. The prep for the day was a slight bit higher than normal because of the larger amount of reservations and if i remember right 2 different groups of VIP's. One group was e-gullet regulars of Doc, Ronny and Jason Perlow. After getting to the meat and beans of the day and it was time for the VIP plates it was very fascinatiing to watch them come up with 4-6 new plates on the spot to add to the menu for the VIP guests. The one thing which I found interesting was Chef Achatz ability to control the kitchen and then when a guest came down be able to turn to them and it seamed like nothing was even happening in the kitchen aside from the silent hussling of every chef. It reminded me of when I ate and went to meet Chef for the first time. You have no idea of what is really going on. The truth is alot was still happening and every minor detail in the front of the house causes this small chaotic state to happen. Let me give you an example, a table up stairs is about to fire course 4 and right as course 4 finishes one of the guest decides to use the restroom. Well, now the kitchen has to decide how long that course can hold or if it can be pushed to another table fast or lost and fired a new one. For those who have eaten at Aliniea you can easily see how some of there dishes can not hold for long periods of time. Still, they do what is 100% best to give the guest the best product in the end. For those who are fortunate enough to eat at any great establishment, just rember its ok to talk to your waiter and maybe plan appropriate times to have a delay.

So I went back to my buddies place and since it was so late I made myself a junk food stop at the cities finest, the White Hen. Let me tell you that place has everything you need. I think I disturbed my friend when I braught back a couple of frozen white castle burgers. He is a huge Tofu eating health nut. So after desigrating his microwave and tossing it back with a couple of cokes I crash and burned. Well, the next morning came and I was ready for another day. This time I knew the routine, got my uniformand set up a station and was ready to rumble. I was told by Chef Curtis I would be working on a station with a sort of deep fried sweet potatoe that is placed in the spider type dish. Then something happened, one of the dishwasher failed to show. So, I was informed me and the other stage would help out, not a real big deal just more elbow grease. Now Originally the plan was for me to go back and forth between the station and the dish sink but for some reason the other stage kept jumping onto the sweet potatoe station. Myself I felt no need to rock the boat, so I found decided to help out on the pillow filling station and just doing dishes, since the other stage would barely get his hands wet. You know when you think dishpots, the thought of grimmy and oily can fill your mind. Yet, a quick glance at Alineas dishes will give you a whole new impression, they were so clean they looked almost out of the box. The pride and effort into even the pots was maticulate. Ironicly, doing the dishes gave me time to talk to the gardmanger station alot and learn a few techniques on how they did the blanket sauce and even the measurements. If I would have left that day with just that information, I learned more than I knew before I came. About an hour or so into the day another stage showed up. It was now getting Stage crowded with alomst one staring at a station. Around 10pm I am told to go ahead and go home but to come in the next day early, around 10 am. I thought to myself must be my lucky day. On my way out the first stage asked me "So do you sorta feel like a third wheel?" Of course I did, here I was out of my element and playing the Fly on the Wall role. I got the impression after talking to the other stage he wasn't learning much and in a sence it felt like he felt, he knew it all already. The truth was, he was getting a pretty cold shoulder from alot of the kitchen because of that attitude. By the second day I was starting to have good conversation with a fair amount of the kitchen staff and they were very cool to me. So moral of the story for that day, Keep an open mind and remember you are the guest in another mans castle.