ScoopKW
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Posts posted by ScoopKW
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We're card-carrying members of the "greener-than-thou" club. We use less than 10,000 kwh per year, living in the Mojave desert. Our gas bills are similarly low. All told, we spend less than $2K per year on electricity, gas, water and trash collection.
I don't own a gasoline internal combustion engine. (My wife does, but it gets 45mpg.) We grow a lot of our own food. The rest is sourced as locally as possible. I know the rancher who sells us our beef. The eggs come from backyard chickens. We shop at the local farm/orchard. (No smirking, it's a good farm.) We participate in CSAs. We compost everything. We recycle everything. Most weeks, we don't have any trash at all on collection day.
I'll bake my bacon, and fire up the oven to cook something small if I feel like it. I think I'm doing more than my fair share, so I don't mind splurging, just a little, carbon-wise.
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In answer to point 1, I guess I would think about it for a bit. Then if I disagreed I would simply ignore.
For point 2 actually I literally mean that I have not personally come across any "meat is murder", anti-fur, etc. rallys or adverts or whatever, though I have heard about them second hand. I don't watch TV, I don't read magazines, I visit quite specific places on the internet, etc. so maybe I am not exposing myself to the right sources. I also do not know anything about what America is like, so maybe things are different there.
And by the way "my side" is not trying to do anything. I am not on anyone's side. Notice that I have not grouped you with the people who have gone on and on about my eating habits.
But you can't simply ignore it if they successfully ban and criminalize the food you eat, can you?
And yes, you're on a side. You're not trying to force your ideals on anyone else. But there are a lot of vegetarians who ARE. They are actively trying to ban my food. They want to make it a criminal act to have sausage and eggs for breakfast. Your gentle "mentioning" humane animal treatment is just more polite than the hard-core vegetarians who want to outright ban and criminalize my breakfast.
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The quoting is becoming tiresome:
1) The reason for the silly hypothetical situation is this: What if a driven, single-issue group decided that something that constitutes more than 10% of your diet was immoral, unethical, and needed to be banned TODAY. What if they reminded you of that every chance they got?
2) The reason you don't come across this "particular problem" is that from their perspective, you're one of them. You're not part of the problem. My side isn't trying to ban your food. Your side is trying to ban mine. And yes, I eat foie. I eat it in California, when I go to Napa and San Francisco on vacation. So this directly affects me. Not to any great extent. But the "dark side" has just told me I can't have any pâté to go along with my wine. I don't tell them what they can eat. I don't ban the food they like.
But they do. And this is what it's all about for me.
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But let's run with the idea a bit. How would you feel if some new group sprung up, claiming "rice is murder." And trying to ban the cultivation, sale and consumption of rice -- worldwide. Sure, the whole idea is silly in the extreme. But imagine "rice is murder" on billboards worldwide. People pouring buckets of rice milk on paddy workers.
EDIT -- And then they have to get on every internet forum on planet Earth, and remind us that "rice is murder" every time we post a recipe for pilaf.
But that's the point of the omnivore. Who do these people think they are? Telling us we can't eat fish, or game, or cheese? Why do they feel the need to impress their views upon us? On a shockingly regular basis?
I don't have to trot out the tired arguments FOR eating meat. We've all heard them. Probably hundreds of times. Frankly, I don't care what other people eat. It's not my business. Why do so many people seem to feel they have the moral and ethical authority to tell me what is or is not acceptable on my plate at mealtime?
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The omnivores of the world are not trying to control what people can and cannot eat. A lot of vegetarians aren't, either. But a lot are. And it's been my experience that there is still another subset of vegetarians who don't try to control the world's diet, but they have to be sanctimonious about it to anyone around them.
So there are pushy, irritating bigots on both sides.
The difference being, the pushy, irritating bigots on one side are only trying to get individuals to eat the way they feel is proper. Gordon Ramsay, for instance. They are not trying to ban the cultivation, sale and consumption of vegetables for everyone.
(Note, I happen to think that slipping chicken broth into food and giving it to unsuspecting vegetarians is vile.)
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I'm curious: How many of you keep your first aid kits in the kitchen? I actually keep (well, kept) mine just outside the kitchen, in the hall closet, where it seemed less likely to be knocked about, or have muck spilled on it.
Mine is in my bag, which is kept close enough where I can see it -- after all, that's where the bulk of my knives are at any given time, too. At home, the kit is in the medicine cabinet in the bathroom closest to the kitchen. If I have to bleed all over everything, I'd rather do it standing in the tub, for clean-up purposes.
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Jenni, I don't know how pervasive PETA is in India or if they have a presence there at all. Here in the US, they are ubiquitous. Starlets pose in the nude on huge billboards claiming they'd go naked before they'd wear fur. Well, okay. You could say that with your clothes on, sweetheart. They have compared the slaughter of chickens to the Holocaust of the Jews and declared them morally equivelant. My point is, they are provocoteurs.
So what? It really annoys me that you can't even mention vegetarianism or any kind of mention about humane treatment of animals without people bringing up PETA and never ever letting it drop. It just becomes an excuse to be rude and belittle other people's opinions on what are sometimes very complicated issues.
I am so sad that PETA exist because it means that a large percentage of people immediately lose all respect for me if I mention I am vegetarian.
That's because one group is trying to force their ideals on an unwilling society, and the other isn't. It's very much a "line in the sand" issue for people who love food. Foie is an easy target, despite the fact the Hudson Valley farms that produce much of our foie will show people their whole operation, top to bottom, and proudly (yes, proudly) show the world, "This is what we do."
The omnivores of the world are not trying to control what people can and cannot eat. A lot of vegetarians aren't, either. But a lot are. And it's been my experience that there is still another subset of vegetarians who don't try to control the world's diet, but they have to be sanctimonious about it to anyone around them.
"Mentioning" vegetarianism or "mentioning" humane treatment of animals isn't necessary. I've considered the angles, the ethics and the opportunity-cost of farming animals instead of, say, grain. Nobody need "mention" it to me, because it's not the first time I've heard the argument. It's not the 1,000th time I've heard the argument, either.
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Well, yes and no. First they came for unpasturized milk and I said nothing, because I don't drink milk...
You said nothing??? Then WELCOME to my ignore list.
God I miss unpasteurized milk.
To those of you outside the United States. You're aware of what PETA is and what they believe? You know they want to ban housepets, right? No zoos, no aquariums, no meat of any kind on the menu, no dairy, no cheese.
I wonder if they'll let us resort to cannibalism when one third of the planet begins to starve without access to seafood.
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I'll add butterfly closure bandages to the above. . . .
What brand do you use? I've tried these, and although they did the job nicely, they came loose once much was done with the hands, even with a bandage/finger cot/glove over it. Duct tape might hold them in place, haven't tried that.
My mother in law is a nurse. I just grab supplies from her house. No idea who makes them. They just say "butterfly closures" on the wrapper.
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I'll add butterfly closure bandages to the above. And I have actually performed stitches on myself when out in the bush. Nasty scar, but I still have the finger.
My kit contains Icy Hot (I cramp up a lot), regular bandages, butterflies, NuSkin, gauze, Neosporin, tape (I'm switching to duct tape after reading this thread), temporary dental filler (I lost a filling once at work. Worst. Pain. Ever.), floss and a needle (just in case). I have access to finger cots and gloves at work. I'm planning on bringing an aloe plant to work and leaving it in the employee "smoking lounge" outside. And ibuprofen, for the dans la merde days.
That being said, most of my kit gets used on coworkers (except the needle and floss). I don't injure myself often.
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I wonder how many Californians who have never tried foie are now going to seek it out now that it's illegal? This may actually increase consumption, as most prohibitions end up doing.
And to quote Tony, "We see worse things committed against human beings on late night pay-per-view."
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I am particularly odiferous, and particularly sensitive to the smell. I still eat the stuff every chance I get. I just use the bathroom in the guest bedroom.
Babe Ruth claimed asparagus "makes my piss stink" to the hostess at a black tie event. Always the classy guy, Babe.
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I'd love to hear that everyone else routinely uses the self-cleaner, and it works brilliantly, and nothing horrific happens.
We use it every six months. It works fine. Nothing horrific happens. We use the self-clean on cool, windy days when we can open every window in the house. Because, yes, it is a bit smoky.
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I have deep fried them, made turducken, skipped the turkey entirely and made Peking Duck, or roasted goose. I've made every manner of stuffing imaginable. I've done Étouffée, oyster stuffing, andouille stuffing, and every other manner of stuffing. Homemade bread cubes. Homemade cornbread. Everything in between.
I've mashed potatoes, twice baked them, truffled them up with no regard to cost. I've made homemade cranberry sauce, year after year, even though people seem to prefer the crap out of the can. You name it, I've done it. Sides? You name it, I've made it. Pies? Everything from the ridiculous to the sublime. Homemade bread? Biscuits? Croissant? Been there, done that.
My go-to dinner is a brined, garlic-butter injected, roasted, free-range turkey, where I know the rancher who raised them. With twice-baked parmesan and herb potatoes, and an oyster dressing (I don't stuff birds anymore. Just pour the juice over the stuffing prior to serving. Same thing. No risk.) With glazed ginger carrots and green beans and the homemade cranberry sauce that nobody eats except my wife and I.
But this year I'm likely to make Yorkshire pudding and probably a goose, because no family is involved -- it's just the two of us. And I'm fresh out of rendered goose fat.
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Great stuff , Scoop! I'd love to know the pre-story. How'd you train, what were you up to before the casino?
I thought this was all common knowledge from my other posts.
Prior to being a cook, I was a brewer. Mostly in brewpubs. I was at a local brewery, but that blew up in my face. So it goes. So while I have a decade of restaurant experience, none of it was on a kitchen line, and therefore not applicable to what I do now. Hence, starting at the bottom.
My entire life, I have loved to cook. I cooked semi-professionally in college. The school didn't offer a weekend lunch. I made lo-mein noodles and sold them illegally out of my dorm in order to buy beer. And since I've basically been in restaurants for a third of my adult life, I can't really cut it in the real world. I'm used to telling people what I think. For instance, if a chef asks my opinion about a dish, and I think it's under seasoned, that's what I'm going to say. I'm not going to say what I think he or she wants to hear. If the Chef wanted a yes-man, he or she wouldn't be a chef in the first place. We may even disagree, but the chef wants (and deserves) an honest answer.
Second, kitchen co-workers are the BEST co-workers. (Well, they can be the worst, too. But those guys never last long.) My co-workers wouldn't just help me move. They'd help me move the bodies. (OK, exaggeration. But not by much. I'll cover for a co-worker who's hung over, or having a bad day, or sick out of his mind but can't take the day off because he needs the shift. And they'll do the same for me. There aren't a lot of careers where you can say that.)
That sort of thing is important to me. Also, at the end of the day, I did something I find professionally fulfilling. I didn't shuffle papers around, or move numbers on a spreadsheet. I cooked someone's food. I hardly ever see the people I'm cooking for. (Unless I'm out at an event, as "eye-candy.") But it doesn't matter. I cook as if I'm preparing food for the President, the Dalai Lama and Stephen Hawking -- every guest, every time.
As for training, we have a very good culinary school at the local community college in Las Vegas. So, I've been going there for three years now. It's inexpensive, and the education is on par with some of the best schools in the world.
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I haven't seen Michelob at a bar in a long time, and other than Bud I haven't heard of most of those. As for Dos Equis, I'll echo that it's actually a decent beer at a decent price, especially the Ambar. If that's the only beer at a bar in a sea of macro-lager, I'll happily have it, whereas otherwise I'd prob just get something hard.
As for Corona...where do I begin. Even though they're really similar to it, I vastly prefer Sol and Landshark. I have yet to finish a bottle of Corona while relatively sober, because by the time I get halfway down the bottle, the chill has worn off and I can actually taste how gross it is.
And I'd rather drink a warm Corona than Landshark. Landshark is without a doubt, the most vile concoction ever brewed. You'd think as good as alcohol has been to Jimmy Buffett, he could return the favor.
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Did your move up from helper come from the audition you wrote about on another thread? The one where the Chef was timing you with a stop watch?
No, unfortunately I didn't get that gig. It was at the "fine-dining" restaurant on-site. Naturally, I'd prefer the fine dining environment. But my concern is that if the celebrity chef dies, what happens then? Then I have to go back to the casino and start building up seniority again. That's what.
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The Prime Rib has an excellent reputation for steaks.
I keep going to the Palm because it's the only place upon whose wall I was able to finagle my characterture.
When I first read that, I read "charcuterie" for some reason, and thought you had my dream job -- making salumi and bacon and such for steakhouses.
Oh well.
Just for the record, and a completely useless post, I just wanted to mention that today is a complete day off for me, so I'm doing steak. Aged prime rib eye, with creamed spinach and twice-baked truffle and "truffle cheese" potatoes. (No clue about the provenance of the cheese. Just says "Italian Truffle Cheese." Tastes kind of like fontina with truffles. Pretty good, actually. Got it at Costco along with the beef.) The beef will be seared on a kick-ass infrared grill at 1600f. I'm going to serve the meal with a massively big Napa cab. And probably start with a few glasses of Nicky Feui, to celebrate the promotion.
If I were at one of the myriad of Las Vegas steakhouses, I'm looking at $600-800 for the meal, depending on the screwage factor for the wine. As is, I'm in for about $200 in food (and wine) cost.
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Oh, a couple random addendums.
Junior also made the mistake of talking back to Chef. Chef in question does not have the same sense of humor as the others. He's OK, but kind of a hard ass. He's the one Chef on property you do NOT want to talk back to. That probably was the final nail in the coffin.
The other day, I was driving home at 6:15 a.m., and I saw two drop-dead gorgeous Geishas walking down the street. Both of them were absolute "10s" and dressed in real Maiko outfits. An absolute joy to behold, if you're into that sort of thing. I wonder what they were doing? (I don't assume they were working girls. We have plenty of those, but these two didn't look the part.)
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OK... time for a new installment.
Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of "funny" to report. Funny usually happens when I'm working with Jimmy "I'm doing nothing chef" and Jackie "Can you hand me a broom." I worked worked with Jackie last week, but it was just the two of us on a long graveyard shift. We talked about what we did prior to moving to Las Vegas. Jackie is another cook with an advanced degree. There are a LOT of people like that working in Las Vegas kitchens. Cooks make close to $20 per hour, and where else is a guy with a doctorate in philosophy going to see that kind of money?
I started at the property quite recently. And cooks helpers generally work similar shifts based on when they joined the company. So I've got five people that I see all the time. One of the five, Johnny, is my age. He was a cook forever, but jump-shifted to a new property as a helper because it's easy money. (As I've mentioned before, there is a significant workload increase from helper to cook.) Another guy, Joey, is half my age and came to the property for a shot of making it into the fine-dining kitchen on site. The others (I'm running out of generic J names) are just trying to make a living in Las Vegas.
A little exposition:
Every casino has many kitchens. If they have open space that is accessible to the guest, the casino WILL put either a bar, a diner, a coffee shop or a baccarat table there. Every square inch of the casino is jammed full of money making venues.
Every casino has a main kitchen, which primarily takes care of the buffet. Then they have garde manger, which takes care of salads, sandwiches and slices deli meat for the other kitchens. There's the bakeshop, which does everything from wedding cakes to brioche for the French Toast. There's roughly 10 smaller kitchens for the property's various on-site restaurants. We have the banquet kitchen which serves the conventions. Of course there's the EDR. And then we have the fine-dining kitchens -- like Robuchon's restaurants over at the MGM. The fine-dining kitchens are very much connected to the property, but operate very much like Vatican City. They're their own little island in the casino. But they have to follow the casino's rules, and the union's rules. So while they're more-or-less self-governing, I still see their cooks and helpers eating in the EDR.
Let's say we have a wedding reception in the Elvis Room for 200. The bakeshop will do the cake, the petite fours and the dinner rolls. Garde manger takes care of the salad, crudité and other hors d'oeuvres. Main kitchen will do the soup course. Banquets is in charge of the entrees and sides. They'll also provide the carvers, because the entree is almost always a prime rib or steamship. The beverage department takes care of the bar. One of the largest work forces at the casino is the servers and busers, the set-up guys and the tear-down guys. They can set up a room for farm machinery salesmen, take care of them, then break it down and put a wedding reception in the same room. All in a day's work.
Each kitchen bills the event and gets paid. Every roll, cake, crudité and entree has a price. Then the event bills the guest. Everything is done by the book, because a casino faces regular audits. Also, each kitchen (except EDR) has to turn a profit. I'm always astounded how much people will pay for a Hors d'oeuvre.
As far as the kitchen totem pole is concerned, lets compare it to the military:
At the bottom you have me, the helper. We're the grunt infantry of the kitchens, doing the dog work that nobody really wants to do.
Next up are the cooks. They're like the gunnery sergeants of the kitchen.
Then the master cooks. They're the NCO's.
After that, it's black pants. The chefs aren't in the union, they're salary, and many of them work 100-hour weeks. They'll be the first to tell you, "Stay a cook. I was never happier than when I was a cook." And they have their own hierarchy. From the executive chef (General) down to Sous Chef (Lieutenant).
I promised earlier, I'd talk about strong and weak cooks. Well, I have something to report on that. I saw a weak cook get fired recently.
For the most part, the cooks and helpers move quick. They walk quickly from place to place. There's work to be done. Compare that to the stewards, who clean everything. They have one speed -- snail on quaaludes. They're getting paid by the hour. Their job sucks. And it's almost impossible to fire them. So while they do their job. There is a considerable amount of hour-stretching going on.
The chefs can't order them around. And although you can see it drives them nuts, they let the stewards languidly go about their business.
Not so the cooks. We've got deadlines. And we almost always make deadline. If a kitchen is falling behind, the chef can pick up a phone, tell an executive chef "911" and get as many bodies as necessary in a matter of moments. If time is critical, they'll pull cooks and helpers from other kitchens. Jackie (the broom guy) holds the record of being sent to five different kitchens in a day. If there's time (but realize they're not going to make deadline without help), they'll call in an army of temps who will drop everything and head to the casino for a chance to work. Most of the temps are green, but earnest. But occasionally, we get a real slack-ass temp.
And Junior was one such slack ass. First of all, we're in a busy kitchen. The chefs are stressed because it's their ass if they don't make deadline. And we've got Junior staring at the clock with his hands in his pockets. Chef asks what Junior's doing. "I'm waiting for the turkey to get sliced."
"Well don't just stand around, ask me for something to do."
"Can I go to the bathroom?"
Chef can't refuse a bathroom break. And Junior takes four of them over the course of four hours. After four hours of standing around, watching everyone else bust their butts, Chef could take it no more.
"What's your name!"
"Junior."
"Junior, get out of my kitchen. You are not coming back."
And just like that, Junior's name goes on a list of "do not hire" at the property. At the bigger places, getting fired means the slacker should basically just leave town. Or find a new career. Junior reminds me of some students I see in culinary school (I take one class a semester, mostly for fun.) I don't know where people like Junior end up. But they aren't working in Las Vegas casinos. Not for more than one shift, at least.
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This reminds me of a joke one of my cook friends in Key West used on vegetarians.
"I know a way to make tofu taste like almost exactly like bacon."
The vegetarian's eyes would usually light up, as he or she asked, "How?"
"Fry it with bacon."
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How easy is it to get a union card in Vegas? I've never worked in a union house but am intrigued by your schedule. The more I get paid the crappier the hours.
Do you get bennies too?
If you get a job at a union property, everything gets taken care of by the casino. There's a 45 minute orientation at the culinary union office where they explain the benefits. (And the benefits are pretty good.)
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Big news from the cook's helper front. But I just finished a double. (Hell, it was basically a triple.)
Let's just say, we're going to have to remove the word "helper" from the title. Woo hoo!
Congratulations! Does this come with improved access to sleep?
Sadly, no. But the chef outlined his vision for my career path. Hopefully I can trade in my check pants for black within a couple years. I'm beat to crap, but I can't sleep. Too much caffeine still in my system. I'll have another beer or two, then take a couple Tylenol PMs (are they habit forming? I hope to hell not.) And try to get some sleep.
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Is it OK to recommend that you put steakhouse equipment in your house, and do it up right at home?
GOOD infrared searing grill. TEC or similar. Yeah, they're pricey. But so are two meals at a good steakhouse. 'Round these parts, it's $300 plus wine. Six of those, and there's your TEC (or similar) right there. I can blow every steakhouse in Las Vegas except CraftSteak and Carnevino out of the water for the price of some wagyu.
My outdoor kitchen was designed and executed just for steak dinners. I'm already well ahead of the game compared to one steakhouse visit every other month over the course of the two years I've had it.
Foie Gras Ban/the Ethics of Foie Gras
in Food Traditions & Culture
Posted · Edited by ScoopKW (log)
The "don't tell me what to do, and I won't tell you" compact doesn't apply if one side isn't OK with the premise. And one side obviously isn't.
I'm quite OK with the slippery slope argument, because that's exactly what it is in this case. First foie. What next? Cuy? They're cuddly. Ban the consumption of cuy next. Keep chipping away at the menu until meat is off limits. Don't kid yourself, there is a large, well-funded, single-issue, single-mindset group of fanatics who will work tirelessly to see the day when sausages, milk and braised short ribs are ancient history.
There are plenty of things I don't eat -- Patagonian toothfish, for instance. Any billfish. Any animal raised in the horrific squalor of industrial ranching. If, at the stroke of a dictator's pen, I could ban the consumption of endangered animals, and animals raised in the most inhumane of conditions I would be tempted.
Tempted is the operative word. I do not want, nor would I accept that kind of power. I do my part quietly, by not purchasing things that I find ethically questionable. I don't like something, so I don't buy it. Why can't "the other side" simply do the same?