Joisey

I'd like to start a collection of my own.

I'd like to get into collecting vintage and rare restaurant menus. Can anyone point me in the right direction on sourcing?

Has anyone worked with a large, portable ice bath and knows who makes them or where to order from? This thing is like a big stainless steel bathtub on wheels with a drain hose that you fill with ice and use to chill down stock pots, etc. I've googled until I'm blue in the face and can't find it.

I used to get bacon that had a definite urine odor and I got a similar explanation.

I read a story about a chef who converted an old, inoperative refrigerator into a smokebox. My idea that I am going to try is to get a still-running unit (one of the cheap/free ones that are always on craigslist) and use it as a cold box for smoking. My big concern is the effect that constant smoke would have on the inner workings of the fridge..anything else that I should worry about? I would think that the high-end temperature range of a fridge should be about right for cold smoke, no?

I made Venison Shnitzle with homemade ginger Spaetzle for a job audition once, it was killer.

I would infuse the bacon flavor in your cream. Cook off a bunch of smoked bacon, chop finely, then heat it in the cream. Strain off the bacon after you get the desired amount of flavor, then go from there.

I'm seeing a thing happen that maybe a lot of these (including my own) AREN'T fradulent, but more along the lines of daily survival. The much heralded "System D" if you will. That said, here are a couple more of mine: This happened 2 nights ago. Large Hotel, busy as hell, one of my cooks comes to me 2 minutes before service completely out of hummus (we buy it). Of course the storeroom is closed and banquets has neither the product I need OR chickpeas to make it from scratch. Here's what you do: Take the 6th pan of chickpeas you find in the walk-in. Add some roasted garlic from the pizza station, some mashed potatoes, some sesame oil, s&p and a few prayers and buzz the shit out of it in a buffalo chopper. Pretty passable. Another one (and this one probably IS fradulent) happened during my first days at CIA, way back when. I'd never made hollandaise before and was always really nervous about it. When it came time for our practical, the chef (Chef Bagna, wonder whatever happened to him) told us that he would be grading color and consistency, not taste. Not wanting to F it up, I simply didn't cook the yolks and made butter mayonnaise. Looked great, I got an A- for the day.

I have, in my professional career: --taken NE Clam Chowder and turned it into Linguine White Clam (I was an intern and a dummy, I wonder what the people who ordered it thought of the potato chunks in their pasta??) --Made Alfredo sauce out of skim milk and Philly cream cheese (and LOTS of parm). --Made ceviche in the steamer --Made cheddar cheese popcorn with the flavor packets from kraft Mac N Cheese. --Got a 50K a year chef job using demi glace made of Knorr Mushroom Gravy base. And the crowning one (this really works if you're in a pinch): Steamed off thousands of clams in a dishwasher with the soap cannisters removed. Add clam juice back to the opened clams and presto! Instant clambake for 250.

If I have to hear the terms "local" "organic" or "sustainable" (or any combination thereof) one more time I'm going to get a gun. At one point they might have meant something, but now they are beyond cliche.

Slice in half, coat with sugar and fire up the torch...fig brulee. Awesome with some homemade ice cream.

Your Senior Sous is just a little more than I make as one in Portland, OR. Do you not have a banquet department?

In the Casino we had a code for when any of the big bosses were around, someone would yell "Need a cheeseburger" if the Exec Sous was walking through the doors. Our exec chef who was big as a house was a Triple Whopper. I'm amazed that they never caught on why someone would be ordering a cheeseburger in a gourmet outlet.

--"Five second Rule!" -- "Man, that fucking Lobster/filet/whatever landed RIGHT ON THAT NAPKIN. Amazing!"

Food Network is too far gone to ever have any "serious" food shows. Much like MTV, you wistfully remember the old days.... As far as hearing what Bourdain thinks about Giada on network TV, just find any Food TV rant of his, plug her name into the spot of his target du jour, and you have it.

I've worked with Sysco a couple of times, and to me they are the evil empire. Sales people that don't care and more importantly DON'T GET what you're all about..if I'm running a fine dining establishment, what the fuck do I want with frozen appetizers? I told one sales guy I wasn't interested in dealing with Sysco at least half a dozen times, so the guy goes over my head to the owner of my restaurant to pitch his stuff. For bulk stuff I dealt with FSA, much better customer service and they consistently beat Sysco's pricing.

--Hot on your back, on your back- These get twisted into the most sexual thing possible. i.e. Coming hot on your back, On your back, hot and creamy...etc...-- "Hot Behind You!" "Not on the first date!" was always a popular one.

Here in Portland there is a place called 10-01 that opened to great fanfare. It got absolutely SCATHING reviews from both the regular paper and the free weekly (the headline said something like "ambiance-10 food-01"). Not long after, the chef was gone and a new guy imported from San Francisco to fix things. It happens.

For some reason, one place I worked at called a dupe with just one order a "cripple" as in "Table 5 is a cripple, let's get it out". When it's worse than being in the weeds, we'd say "in the woods" and "who's got the weedwhacker/chainsaw". We had one of those big milk dispensers and we called it the cow; when it needed a new box of milk one of the servers would shout "need milk for the cow" and we'd all respond with a hearty "MOOOOOOOOOOO".

I'll second dvs; if you're doing more than just cooking, it's a good idea to get a title that reflects it for your resume. I've been in that "well, I was a cook but did so much more" situation and to the prospective employer it sounds like so much bullshit after a while. If your boss has any respect for the job you did, he'll let you use the title and him as a reference.

Dante, I worked with more than a few ACCC grads during my time in Atlantic City, and believe me you guys more than held your own against the more "prestegious" schools, IE J&W & CIA (I'm an alum, 1991). I will always recommend at least looking at a CC program. Atlantic Cape is an excellent one, another really good one is Sullivan County Community College in the southern tier of New York State; those guys were doing fantastic work at the food show competitions that I attended. On the flip side, I work in a city with a "Cordon Bleu" accredited program and 3/4 of the cooks we hire from there don't know which end of a knife to hold. Do your research, you can save a lot of money and still get a quality education.

-Have enough money in the bank to make payroll for the first six months. -Have enough money in the bank to take a loss the first year and not lose your shirt -Have a bulletproof business plan -Do what Thomas Keller did and cook for your investors. Your food is your biggest connector to potential money -Never buy new equipment if you can get away with it. Auctions are your friend. I'm going through all of this as an employee, but seeing what the owners are encountering first hand. It's been a great education to say the least.

I've had big problems with owners giving away the place, whether it's meals for themselves or comping food/wine/booze to all their friends. It's all gotta come from somewhere, and most don't realize that it's not just the cost of the food that they're losing. In a resto, EVERYONE is accountable, right up to the person whose name is on the lease.

On one hand, you'd expect shows produced by a major cable network to have their facts checked. None of these examples are particularly egregious, but they probably should have been caught during editing. On the other hand, piling on Food TV and RR in particular seems to be the new co-ed sport du jour, so I'm not surprised that this thread has popped up. Tony says she's bad, so she must be bad. Maybe there'll be a new blog entry on Ruhlman's site about it.

The new kitchen at my place will have hardwood floors and I'm seriously thinking about giving those gel mats a shot. The guy at the company said they haven't tested them in a commercial environment but he thinks they're durable enough to stand up to the abuse. Another good thing about them is that they have an antibacterial agent built into the material, so nothing will grow on them.