salo

Well ok apparently I had it a bit wrong. I wasn't working the sauté station like I said, just starting training on it, but this totally works for me! Mondays are really the only time I'd really have to train, right now I'm just learning the recipes and such and the various cooks are showing me various techniques to cook them. Once tonight though all the hot line cooks left to smoke (It was like 9:30 and we were slow, so no biggie) and told me to take over, and like a 4 top ticket came in. I thought it was good practice because a) it's not in a rush, and b) it's just enough to give me a very small taste of timing. Everything came out great and I thought my fish was better cooked than some of the other cooks. I can be a little arrogant at times, but gahhh I work at a place that specializes in fresh fish and so many people overcook it! ← Keep up that arrogance brother.... If only I had a line cook like you, I wouldn't have to fight my chef for Vacation time. A cook with initiative, makes it possible for a cook like myself to tie some knots, throw some flies, and catch some trout. Not to mention Paddle some canoes, start some fires, and pitch tents. don't get me wrong, I love to cook.... Yet, when there are only two people capable to run the show. Especially during the summer time it gets rough. Even with a staff of ten+. Really? i can't take a week off to go canoing because chef is elsewhere? Man, its draining. Your only young once. And I'm getting old, two more years and I'll be thirty.... It's time all you culinary grads start pushing it, take control. It should be easy!!!!!! Yet, when the rush is on, I find myself saying it shouldn't be that hard! lets do it!

I have to say an occasional F-bomb, expletive, etc.... is necessary to keep people in line at points. Not to mention having been a cook for about 15 years, I have kind of taken on a somewhat surly persona, when in the company of co-workers I'll say things I would never say to my mother. Yet that is one of the many benefits of working in a kitchen.... Also, especially speaking on the point of professionalism and the idea of being a cook/ chef/ what have you, there is a time and place for everything. I honestly would never talk to my F&B Manager, or Executive Chef the way I talk with my line cooks. You got to keep it civil.

Congrats, think of the hot line the same way you think about the cold. Push it out as fast as possible no matter what, with quality in mind , and you will never be weeded. Keep your station set, and stay on the line! There is nothing that bothers me more when working expo than an absent line cook. I'm the king of,"Where the "f" is so and so!" or "tomorrow i'm not even going to lock my bike, as soon as 5 o'clock hits I'm chaining you to your station." it sucks to be a dick, but line incompetence is the largest degradation of any restaurant. My favorite quote:"A Chef is only as strong as his weakest cook." If only everyone lived by this principle weakness would not exist. Keep your head up, get in the game, and finally baste, baste, baste. Yeah the ovens are there but they can't create the same effect that a quality basting with whole butter will do. Keep your beurre tight, knives sharp, and Aero-latte full of fresh double A's. good luck.

I am too.... Sounds like you would end up with some pretty rubbery lobster . I think what needs to be understood is that these are his notes. Obviously looking at this particular recipe or any recipe in The Epicurian it takes one whom knows how to cook to recreate. I've been cooking for quite some time and when somebody asks me for a recipe, i'm usually at a loss for words. I've been cooking by the seat of my pants for the past ten years, and i take pride in it. I had a fellow cook ask me if i've ever made wild rice soup the other day, and when I said yes, she asked if i had a good recipe. I replied, in a not so hurtful way, "I don't really cook with recipes, i take ideas and make them my own". Not that i couldn't give her a definite recipe, I just wanted to show/tell her that most cooks/chefs do as well. A little bit of this, a litlle bit of that and all of a sudden it's your own! Even as a cook there are three or Four simple ingredients i could never live without: Vinegar de Jerez(sherry vinegar), Tobasco, Worcester, and Angostura Bitters. The latter, Angostura bitters with soda on ice with a squeeze of lime is more for health. Nothing cures a distempered stomach better.....

I agree strongly that Keller deserves the utmost respect. But why should this start a battle? These recent comments in the thread compare apples with bicycles, I perceive. Ranhofer was of a different era and in a different part of his career when he wrote that book; and he'd been with the Delmonicos' restaurants for some time. (That sentence is from memory -- gladly yielded to authoritative correction.) The Delmonicos are credited in other, well-researched, historical writing with more or less founding the North American version of the modern restaurant, early 1800s, and mostly before Ranhofer. The focus and scope of the restaurant offerings documented in Ranhofer are hard to compare with Keller's. Michelin only very recently began rating establishments on US soil. If you really want to compare these two chefs directly, could you also give the basis for your conclusion? ← sorry, misuse of words.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Ranhofer a nice little history.

Don't want to start a battle, but Keller has Seven Michelin Stars. Which is far more than any American chef has ever recieved. Not to mention his books are pretty sweet. He is quite an accomplished chef, and he deserves the utmost respect.

So i recently received a first edition of The Epecurian Cookbook; A Complete Treatise of Analytical And Practical Studies On The Culinary Art. by Charles Ranhofer of Delmonico's from my parents. The condition is emaculate, with a copyright date of 1920. I'm curious as to how i should care for it, Right now it's standing upright in one of my bookshelfs. I own quite a few cookbooks, but this is the first which has any historical importance. P.s. It is not for sale. I just want to keep it as is.

You'll find that monkfish liver is discussed right here .... .. enjoy the reading! ← thanks much for the info , yet it still does not grasp my intent. Everyone i work with expects it to act like a lobe of foie gras. Honestly i thought it would too. Unfortunately it does not. Right now i'm looking towards forming a flavorful lobe using the liver, lobster stock and gelatin.

So we just got about two pounds of monkfish liver today. I've heard of, but never tried, and I was curious as to what can be done with it...... After opening the pack and tasting it, it had less flavor than that of a chicken. Boredom consued. Why on earth did we spend money towards this absence of flavor? The integrity of the liver still stands, and it is a beautiful piece of meat. I just don't see what everyone is so excited about...... Let me just say, after tasting I'm none to excited.