turkeybone

Honestly it sounds like youre longing for a diner... what sort of places are you looking for to have this more varied pricing? It's really been awhile since Ive seen a full service restaurant serve smaller than an 8oz patty. You could just be that table that splits an app and entree and a dessert.

That sounds pretty tasty, and an easy introductory recipe. No other ideas out there? I was just gifted 2.5 pounds of grade A foie from my chef , so I have real incentive to try these out now,

So I have a vague idea of collecting some more popular/famous foie dishes, re-doing them using pork belly, and then making a blog about it and then making millions of dollars and becoming financially independent. Haha well maybe not so much the last parts, but my chef and I were talking about a local place that got vandalized for having foie gras on the menu, and I said "well, you can pretty much replace foie with good pork belly and still have great results". Then my chef said something like "I have a friend who cooks at Ubunta at Napa, and I asked him how they come up with great vegetarian/vegan food, and he said in response 'just think of a great dish that you would put a piece of seared fish on, and leave off the fish (another thread altogether but this conversation is what sparked the following).'" I'm not any kind of activist or (major) whackjob, but I would definitely like to explore cooking some foie dishes and then tweaking them to use pork belly and investigating the results. So Im interested in what ways you all would think this would or would not work. The most obvious one I think is the torchon. I guess I would also like to ask for some favorite specific foie dishes that I might experiment with (my first route would be to scour some high-end cookbooks), but that might be worth another thread altogether too.

As someone said on the chowhound boards -- the only crab place that I have never EVER read anything bad about is Mr Bills Terrace Inn. Always heard good things. Someone mentioned Bicycle which is now (as of 2 weeks ago) closed.

One side is the wall itself and the other has a pan shelf overhanging.. but Im sure I could jury-rig something. Any chemicals you have in mind for such a task? We do powerwash every week, though generally there is service between any sort of soak time and then clean time.

Well I hope its straightforward.. the backsplashes at work are pretty burnt up from the burners and such, and we have some time to devote attention to getting them clean.. anyone have a sure-fire method? So far oven cleaner, stiff wire brushes, and persistence seem to work but if theres some better way, Im all ears.

I think most of the real "green" impact comes from the restaurateur, in designing the building, the water sources, heating and cooling and such. What is your practical restaurant experience, wax? Youre throwing around a lot of "mosts" and "manys" when youre talking about restaurants throwing away scraps. The fervor with which you talk about utiliziing 30% of a beet.. well "most" chefs I think I more worried about the bottom line. Whatever that using scraps is green or not, it saves percentages on the bottom line. A cost mindful chef is simply going to account for a 75% yield on his beets, or whatever it will be. It honestly might cost more in labor in using random buckets of scraps before they go bad, but then I guess you spend $50 an hour to plan out the proper utilization of $50 a week in waste, but then it starts getting really REALLY esoteric. Our nation's landfills are not overflowing with tarragon stems and carrot skins. But one of my favorite baltimore restaurants uses their woodfired oven to heat the majority of the dining room.. thats something I can get behind but going nose-to-tail on root vegetables, I think I will pass.

I have this kind of stuff happen now and then.. generally I make sure to leave a good impression when its presented, and then later on, after a few drinks or when the food is well digested, go back and make any commentary if theres some glaring pointer.

Yeah I was coming here to post exactly that -- head down mouth shut ears open. Not in a dictatorial kind of way, but, you really dont want to do anything besides focus on the task at hand. Id also say when youre given a task, always ask for a demo of what they want, and/or at the very least get through a few and pull someone and say "hey, does this look right?" -- so in that case you only fuck up one head of frisee, not 50.

At my restaurant we're using shmeared on grilled bread to garnish artichoke bisque.

if the owners want to be stingy maybe its you who should be looking for greener pastures -- Im sure with your abilities as youve said here, you could have your pick of restaurant.

We used to have XM in the kitchen which I thought was awesome.. but eventually what was on the radio became more important than anything.. we did put on classical during service which was fun.. though ultimately it was removed. Not so bad for me since Id only had it for like 2 months.. but some guys were hurting after having music for years.

I much prefer reading Chowhound (which is fiercely moderated) and in my case, the blog of a local reviewer. Yelp... ehh whatever.

People fight on-line? What a facinating concept. Whats even more fascinating is if you quote the very next sentence where I say "there will be debate", which is what is in fact happening. People give their opinions.. you come on here to be justified in feeling slighted, and dont get me wrong, they did mess up, but it wouldnt have hurt to speak up. That's all I will say about this, as I doubt anyone will change anyone elses mind.

We dont have a standard sheet but at the end of each night I just write all the apps and all the entrees and say "ok" for prepped or say what needs to get done. When I write it for someone else, I do the same but also give some indication as to how many proteins are out, how much of each component is out, so they can make their own decisions as to what needs to be prepped. And I never trust someone elses prep sheet -- when starting a work week I always do a visual (and nasal) check and re-write a prep sheet.

Okay well it seems pretty obvious to me youre talking about Five Lakes Grill so why not just say it -- your profile says Michigan, you went out of your way to say "Ruhlman and a teacher", I just looked at the menu and there it is. (Mods delete the name if you must). You wont ask for those 45 dollars but you will tell all your friends and family and then come on here as well, which will surely cost them more than 45 bucks. You say you dont want to fight, but whats going to happen on an online forum? Youre going to end up in some degree of debate -- and none of us talking will help you get any recompense. I just went to a pastry shop in Baltimore today (I live 20 minutes south) and got some unfilled cannoli to go. They gave the shells but forgot to give the filling, which I didnt notice until I got home. Now I could have just been "f them, I wont ever go back" but instead I just called and they took my name and address and are sending a gift certificate along with their apologies. Now again this is in Michigan, which Im sure is not faring well in these economic times, and it might be possible that they need every penny they can get and if they think "well the customer didnt say anything" that its okay. Once my mom got an erroneous late charge on her credit card, and she told me she had to talk the guy down on the phone "will you pay 25?" "no" "will you pay 20?" "no" all the way down. So maybe they have a policy that they wont do it unless specifically asked -- not a good way to do business, but still. Im sure that the last thing they want to do is take someone for a few bucks. But as someone in the biz (now here is my bias which invalidates my whole argument, right?), the worst thing a customer can do is be unhappy, never say anything, and never come back. Yes, you as the customer has the right to think "well, they should have thought of everything", but you could have still brought it up and avoided an argument or confrontation: "I noticed the entrees are still on the bill" "Yes, they are." "Ok." And that would have been the extent of confrontation.

Has anyone ever played Diner Dash? It TEACHES people that the correct thing to do is "section sweep".. you get bonus points for doing it! Honestly it depends on the front of house to teach the servers properly.. we've had the owner go upstairs on a record breaking night and catch a server with a 15top in hand, ringing in an 8 top! He said "no WAY you are going to do that, right?"

Friday 27th Cauliflower panna cotta island creek oyster glaze white sturgeon caviar -- tartare of bigeye tuna togarashi lavash, cucumber, heriloom radish meyer lemon confit, cilantro shoots, Goma vinaigrette OR pastrami of beef calotte sunny side quail egg, rye crouton, green garlic, marinated sunchokes cornichons and mustard cress -- herb roasted fillet of chatham bay cod russet hash, celery branch, salsify root & young lettuces winter truffle emulsion -- elysian fields farms 'carre d'agneau roti entier" -- chocolate-pistachio -- mignardise -- 175 -- I got lazy to write it all out -- we got our reservations a week ahead from opentable, cancelled my Ko reservations to come here === a more proper edit, we got the 9 courses each, and along with that was the salmon cornets, an off menu dish after the 1st (for her it was the classic truffled egg custard with chive chip, and I had something like an olive oil panna cotta), two off menu desserts (one was simple creme brulee for her and a yogurt ginger honey panna cotta for me -- and then we both had what was basically blood orange segments, vanilla bean ice cream, cookie crumble, all in a half sized hurricane glass topped with a 'carbonated' passionfruit foam), and then the usual assault of chcolates and other mignardises

GF and I went on Friday for lunch and it was nearly perfect, truly amazing all around. It was her birthday, so we got a (free) bottle of house champagne. I got the veg menu and she got the tasting menu (Im not a veggie but we share it all). It was all really good, very generous on truffles. A couple of off menu items as well (it was her birthday and I am in the biz).

Im in Baltimore, MD. My restaurant has an upscale and bar component, we brew our own beer and are popular for it. While our parties were down in the holiday season from last year, our restaurant week was especially booming and we were nearly breaking covers records. Also within the past 6 months we have broken and then nearly broken our previous dollar records. Theres definitely no sign of say, the bar propping up the upscale (24-27 dollar entrees). The food is seasonal (local but not overtly so) with a slight European slant. Our chef is new as of 6 months ago, and he's very well trained and been bringing food costs down very well, with very excellent food which I think always goes far. Also we are close to two venues, so when there are shows or concerts we frequently will fill up. As far as other restaurants in the area, its been tough. Lots are closing or changing hands. I know of a few that close for renovations, and then come back with a lower priced menu. The fine dining to the best of my knowledge is getting crushed -- lots of extended restaurant week menus and such.

At my restaurant now we're doing an adapted Michael Mina recipe -- potato crusted blue cod, braised red cabbage, horseradish mash and a mustard sauce. The potato chips are the most expensive part of the dish.. each dish has a foodocst of like, 2 bucks.

Yeah -- I know in Baltimore, many places have been shrinking or closing up altogether.. the purveyors call US now for their orders, haha. Luckily my kitchen is in a good location with reasonable fare and a loyal crowd... we actually had our most profitable night not a month ago. So.. better not break anything

FYI to the person who posted months ago about the Rose Inn, it was purchased last year by two CIA grads and locals who got married there, and they turned it into a decent (from what I recall a year ago) new american sort of deal with lots of stuff rasied/grown in the backyard. jjande.com

Im reading my PMs right now and I see back in March I emailed the school and the extern office and got you a list of schools in the area, etc of CIA alums, and info to call the school and their office and this and that, to find a place with a CIA chef who would take you on. What ever happened with that, eh?

Again, I think the fact that it was printed on the bill is the concern here. If the OP wanted to dispute the autograt.. now people are saying its not mandatory?? Well.. then you have to take it up with the management.. if you want to say "I dont agree with a 20% auto-grat, I want to leave less", then fine. If you're saying it was only worth 10%, then you'd have to bring it up to someone because this 20% was not a suggestion, it was a part of the bill. If you really wanted to make a statement, you wouldnt have paid any of the autograt. Now youre just being lazy. *Insert snappy one-liner to really zing the other side of the argument, it really adds to my post*.