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ermintrude

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Posts posted by ermintrude

  1. Well it depends on a lot of factors:-

    First the hot thing

    • How hot is it
    • How large is it
    • What's it's heat capacity
    • Where in the fridge is it

    Next the fridge

    • What is the temperature of the fridge
    • What's it's internal volume
    • What's it's cooling ability
    • What food is in the frige and where is it placed.

    So in a 2 litre fridge and placing a litre container of boiling water on the base and a 1/8 litre bowl of rice above it. Unless your fridge cooled like liquid nitrogen that bown of rice will turn into a breading ground for germs.

    Similary if you've a 100 litre fridge and place a warm (30C) cake on the top shelf, chances are nothing is going to be affected.

    So just use some common sense, transfer hot food into s suitably sized container, why cool the whole pot.

    Keep hot foods away from temperature sensitive foods and place hot foods above cold foods is possible.

    Also placing hot food into a fridge makes it work harder and use more energy, so not a good thing to do from an energy saving point of view.

  2. Many moons ago when I worked as a waitress, I refused to work at places that pooled tips. I was a fantastic waitress. Attentive, not intrusive, had a great memory for special requests and frequent customers, in short, the customer was my guest and I treated him like a guest. I made a fortune. Pooling tips encourages slackers to do the bare minimum since they'll end up making the same money as everyone else while handicapping those who end up resenting the snot out of them for stealing a portion of their wages.

    Great, ME ME ME. Lets assume they change the system from pooled so you get all the tips.

    So either those people will now be on a lower wage so they will leave for a better paid place (as they must have been good enough to earn that or management should be on there case) so all the good dishwashers, preps, sous chefs and even the chef may leave and on the same base salary will probably not be as good, so standards will drop, less customers, tips will go down etc. The alternative is they raise the salaries of the back office staff and you can keep the tips, this works great but the prices on the menus will go up, also when times are lean management still need to pay back office full wages so more risk of lay-offs.

    While a pooled system can "encourage slackers" there are things that can be done to sort this out. E.g. If one server consistently gets 10% tips and another 30% tips then that's a server problem to be investigated, addressed and penalised or rewarded. If tips drop/rise when a certain manager or chef etc are the same goes.

    I strongly prefer the pooled "Optional Service Charge" + "Living wage" . I.e all staff get a basic living wage (This may be higher than minimum e.g. London, NYC etc) to this a service charge is added automatically as a percentage to your final bill. (In the UK this is 10 to 15%) this service charge (And we're on the case in the UK of some reassuringly who take this and do not pass the full amount on to staff - ask if so pay the bill by card and the rest by cash) is then pooled and split % wise depending on your role.

    The key things are "Optional Service Charge" which means as a customer I do not have to pay this IF I did not receive the reasonable service. They can also choose to pay bill and service charge separately.

    For establishments that include service, while under UK law service charge can be withheld I've only ever done it a few times, however if service is above average most people will leave a little more. So in the UK you can walk out of a restaurant and have paid your bill no problein NYC due to perhaps customer ignorance you have a server screaming where's my tip. In addition in the UK you get customers adding 20% to a bill that includes service (My restaurant is ..... please visit)

    And the French Laundry was the first restaurant I found in the USA that included the service charge (Ok for all food, can you match the wines to food up to equivalent food value and add 20% on for yourself) - bill arrived, wine matching was 50% of food cost, zero service as it was factored in (left a few notes) but as it should be

  3. I'm sorry about you and your wife's experience, wc. I'm convinced that it's a place where one should feel honoured to be allowed in as opposed to other high quality restaurants that make you feel that *they* are honoured to serve you.

    What an odd quote, a place where I should feel honoured to be allowed in I don't know any restaurant that I would want to go like that. Even el bulli, I'd feel lucky, privileged if someone had taken me there on their invite then it would be a great honour that they thought of me. A restaurant where "I" feel honoured to be allowed in sorry I I'd rather starve. I am not letting your comment influence me going to this restaurant as it seems so way off, and while they can be intimidating if a real 3* place was like this I can't see it staying 3* for long.

  4. SV Pig cheeks are wonderful, got 1.5kg of them from Waitrose the other day, portioned up into 6's, cover with some mustard, herbs and then 48hrs at 60C. Now a pile of yummyness in my -1C drawer to eat over the next month.

    • Like 1
  5. In the UK where it is common for 10 - 15 percent of the bill to be added as service charge.

    If not then you normally add around that into your bill.

    If you wish you can also add more for exceptional service.

    However under UK law you can remove the service charge is the service was not good enough, in fact you can also challenge the price of the food and reject their price.

    With regard to service charge I have deducted it from the bill twice and the service was so bad it had to be, and I had made. One of these got to the stage of "I'll call the police" my reaction "Fine, I'll call the press, I am within my rights"

    and trust me in 30 years I have only done this twice so we are talking extremely bad service.

  6. Do not use a steel on your global knifes, global specifically tell you not to use them.

    A wet stone will get the best edge.

    For day to day you should use a ceramic or diamond rod

    You can also use a Minosharp Plus which looks very similiar to the Anolon 3 wheel ceramic sharpener you mention, if fact they are so similar the Anolon is probably a rebranded Minosharp plus or vice versa.

    More info here

    http://www.globalknives.uk.com/sharpening

    and

    http://www.globalknives.uk.com/range/knife-sharpening-accessories

  7. And as for health rather than the what they tell you, what the science says is different. While I was aware of some of the differences between what is being promoted as "Healthy" and what the scientific evidence says it was "A modernist cuisine" vol 1" that opened my eyes. To summarise fry your fries in beef or duck fat it as the sum of the evidence shows no link compared as being fried in vegetable oil (could be safer as breakdown products over the smoke point can be carcinogenic). However avoid any trans fats - they are bad for you.

    My grandmother used to say was "Eat some of everything but not to much of anything" I think that sums up a good diet.

  8. I think he has a point, while I cook sous vide and love the way way it can transform certain cuts of meat, some of the things it will let you do BUT given the choice between a perfect traditionally cooked fillet steak or a sous vide then flash fried then traditional wins as I love the crisp outside the transition of the meat from well cooked and a (in my case) raw centre. You could maybe say the same for lamb loin. However Sous Vide is just another technique it has it's pros and its cons. Sous vide for everything would be appalling but used judiciously it brings a pile of benefits to the table.

    This guy has focused on one problem and then "thrown the baby out with the bathwater"

    Also just noticed his comment on truffle oil, the majority (esp white) uses a synthetic flavouring. Even the best truffle oil out there is not going to compare to a fresh one, real truffle oils can if not produced correctly have a botulism risk and (I find) can lose their aroma/flavour very quickly once opened, the synthetics last longer if used carefully can give that hint of truffle (used badly then an abomination). Use correctly another tool for the kitchen. And as for the comment "Ever smelled the deer musk that hunters like to smear on themselves during rut? Now imagine that on your next $18 plate of pasta" well if I like the smell bring it on (and who is he to say I won't - I love durian, Epois etc etc)

    In summary this article is just someone picking top ten x out of a hat with no thought - typical tabloid/hack journalism

  9. its not a foodborne illness outbreak till 2 or more people get sick from the same menu item. Your responsibility is to report it to the restaurant. Who should then offer you a free meal, but either way if they get multiple complaints it is their responsibility to contact the proper authorities and deal with the outbreak.

    While it you should definitely report it to the restaurant I do not feel they should have to offer you a free meal,

    while this may be good for customer service as food poisoning (and other infections mistaken for such) are so difficult to pin down without biological tests or multiple complaints it puts the restaurant in a difficult position.

    Food poisoning can kick in in a couple of hours or take several days so it's not easy to pin down unless there are multiple recorded cases. Often by the time biological tests come back, the source has long become non-infectious. When you also factor in viruses such as Norwalk that can be picked up from a hard surface (door handle/stair rail) that are not always connected with food.

    It's complicated - and so is how a restaurant deals with it (So long as they know they are A1 on hygiene)

  10. SV Beef: your rankings and favorite cut?

    Beef Cheeks - Mix together dijon mustard, chopped herbs (thyme, rosemary, dill), 1/2 crushed garlic and some cream of horseradish p. Slaver over the cheeks, place cheeks in vac pac add 1 jelly stock cube and 1 ice cube (or add 2 cubes your own frozen stock). Vac pack cook 60C for 72 hours. To finish remove cheeks and place liquid in a pan, bring to boil, strain, reduce liquid and use to make a sauce.

    I make batches of 6 of these and then either keep them in the cold temp draw in my fridge so I can have a great meal v quickly or freeze which only adds an extra 30mins to the reheat.

  11. Ok you've had the truffle in with the eggs so you have two choices:-

    ONE - Go for the best eggs ever, scramble your truffled eggs, and then shave the truffle over the scrambled egg. If you have never done this then do it.

    TWO - Use the truffled eggs for the unique things they are just enjoy.

    Use the truffle for what whatever truffle dish takes your fancy - top tip use ASAP, and forget the cost.

    (Alba White Truffle shaved over warm HP Baked beans on toast - WTF)

  12. Well cracked open my Jar today and all had collapsed apart from two, when I opened the jar there was gas released which implied that some fermentation had gone on, I'd have thought it would have been too sweet to allow this but no. Tasted the collapsed fruit and yuk, dried out insides so FAIL. There were two clementines were not collapsed and looked good but on tasting while the insides were ok they were not very nice and the skin was not edible but I could see potential there.

    Why did it fail, I've no idea as this was my first attempt but have some ideas.

    The fruit was waxed - I thought boiling would have removed this but next time will scrub and scrub.

    Not enough holes, while I used a needle to make loads of holes next time will try a small knitting needle through the middle.

    Anyone have any other ideas ?

  13. Well have to say if it's cheese melt that it's relying on then it's probably not going to be healthy, and while I may eat one or two a month what is the thinking behind this, selling fat and carbs to people who the majority of the customers are obese by eating fat and carbs does not make sense. |

    How stupid is it that in most western countries it's cheaper to buy rubbish food (and look at where food/employment/education subsidy's go) than real food.

  14. Went there on Friday 20th May, was Pre Opera - ENO being just round the corner makes this place very handy. Arrived at 6pm and the four of us had three courses from the a la carte and let them know that we had to be quick. Service was quick and efficent, food was great and we even had time for coffee and were out by 7:20pm

  15. I'm interested in this as well. I purchased Texturas lecite, which is a fine powder, but as I am only a home cook I had to throw most of it away as it went rancid before I could use it all. Unlike some ingredients like Sodium Citrate lecithin can go off very quickly, since it's easy to obtain in health food shops it would be great to find out what works and what doesn't. I've got a pack of lecithin granules from holland and barret that I'm about to play with here.

  16. Alex while I understand you are angry that you had a problem with your SVS, I do not think it is fair for you to accuse them of bad customer service, u they could have done everything by email with no voice contact, sent things by post not courier, not contacted you to give you reassurance that there were backup safety systems to prevent fire and taken weeks if not months to replace your SVS.

    SVS contacted you after receiving your email, tried to reassure you of the safety of their equipment, they sent you a new machine in exchange for old and they sent it by courier so you had "half a day waiting for a replacement to arrive" I can't see what more they could do. They could have asked you to return the SVS by post for inspection, repaired it, and then returned it by post and that could have taken weeks or months.

    While I understand your anger at having a product fail, I must disagree when you say you had bad customer service from SVS from the actions you detailed I would say you received excellent customer service for a £350 appliance.

  17. I like the large size of the SVS as can get a load of things in, esp if they take 72 hours and then chill to reheat later. But thinking. SVD would be great for doing fish/veg.

    Must admit the SVS gets used more than the microwave does (just to defrost things or cook the cats fish these days)

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